Part 2
Hearing this voice, Shen Lanqing shuddered. When he made mistakes as a child, Yun Wuxiang would use this tone to call his name. His mind, numbed by alcohol, snapped awake. “Yes! Master, I’m here! I was wrong!”
Yun Wuxiang looked at him with dark, deep eyes. “What were you wrong about?”
“I… I shouldn’t have developed feelings knowing Prince Li was a Peach Blossom Curse. I shouldn’t have lost my sense of propriety just because Master was there to back me up. I shouldn’t have drowned my sorrows in wine after a heartbreak.”
Shen Lanqing stuttered at the start, then spoke more and more smoothly, and more and more guiltily. Finally, he fell to his knees with a thud. “I’m sorry, Master!”
There was no anger on Yun Wuxiang’s face. The corner of his mouth ticked up slightly, hooking into an arc that made Shen Lanqing’s heart palpitate. “So, you were drowning your sorrows.”
Shen Lanqing sat on pins and needles. “Master… I…”
Yun Wuxiang swept a glance at the wine jars on the floor. “I never taught you this.”
“If you like it, get it. If you don’t like it, make a clean break. What are you doing now? Clouding your mind with external substances—is that how I taught you?”
Shen Lanqing shook his head absentmindedly. “No…”
He pressed his hand over his heart and looked at Yun Wuxiang in confusion, like a lost child finally seeing a family member.
“Master, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I don’t like Prince Li that much. We’ve known each other for less than a month. He even forcibly locked me in the manor and caused me to be chased down with him. Why should I like him!”
Shen Lanqing slapped the table hard, popping up from his seat and swaying twice like a tumbler toy.
“I already repaid the favor of him blocking a blade for me with the Azure Dragon Jade Bracelet. If Master hadn’t rushed over, I would have died because of him. My Azure Dragon Jade Bracelet! The bracelet I wore since childhood! I can’t get used to not having it! Boohoohoo, my bracelet! Prince Li! Pay me back my bracelet!”
Yun Wuxiang watched his disciple crying and causing a drunken scene over a bracelet. The anger in his heart paused, leaving only helplessness. “I will make you a new bracelet in the future.”
Shen Lanqing grinned foolishly in happiness. “Master, pinky swear.”
Yun Wuxiang looked at the finger in front of him, which seemed bigger than his own arm. He summoned the teapot from the table and poured it over Shen Lanqing’s head.
“Wah! Ahhh!” Shen Lanqing jumped around from the shower.
Yun Wuxiang asked again, “Sober now?”
Shen Lanqing, hair completely soaked, wiped his face. “Sober.”
“Master, was I influenced by the Peach Blossom Curse? When Prince Li was set to inherit the throne and wanted to distance himself from me because of it, I actually felt I could be the Empress!” Shen Lanqing widened his eyes, his peach blossom eyes filled with horror.
“Why would I, a man, be an Empress! I haven’t even taken the imperial exams. I just want to go to the island to live in seclusion with you for a few years, Master. Ideally, I could persuade Master to come to the Shen Manor for retirement. But Master will probably outlive me. By then, I’ll be an old grandpa, and Master will still be this young. If we go out together, people might mistake Master for my son.”
Truth flows after wine. Shen Lanqing used the alcohol to spill everything he had suppressed in his heart. He laughed foolishly twice, and then two lines of clear tears flowed down unconsciously. “…Master, I really want to… cultivate with you.”
“If I could cultivate, you wouldn’t have left me at the Shen Manor back then… I want to go with you, Dad.”
Yun Wuxiang: “…”
This “Dad” wasn’t calling for the late Father Shen, but for him.
When Shen Lanqing was small and didn’t remember things, he stubbornly called him Dad. It took seven or eight years to correct him, but he still slipped up occasionally.
“Dad, if I survive this Peach Blossom Tribulation, will you stop coming to see me again?”
Yun Wuxiang: “No.”
Shen Lanqing pouted in disappointment. “So you won’t come…”
Yun Wuxiang: “I will come to see you.”
Shen Lanqing extended his pinky finger toward Yun Wuxiang again. “Pinky swear.”
Yun Wuxiang tilted his head to dodge the finger poking straight at his head. His gaze swept over the water basin in the corner, but in the end, he didn’t pour another basin over his disciple’s head to sober him up.
Because Shen Lanqing flopped directly onto the table and fell asleep.
Yun Wuxiang looked at Shen Lanqing’s face, dead drunk and unconscious. He waved his hand to send him to the bed and tucked him in. Then he heard the person on the bed murmur in his sleep: “Dad, I want to go home.”
“Alright, then we’ll go home.”
In his dream, Shen Lanqing seemed to hear this sentence, and his furrowed brows relaxed significantly.
Yun Wuxiang looked at the person on the bed, recalling Shen Lanqing’s appearance as a child.
He had raised this child since he was less than a year old until he was ten, when the Heart Demon Tribulation fully erupted.
Actually, as someone who was single from birth before transmigrating and a refugee after transmigrating, Yun Wuxiang didn’t know how to raise a child at all.
Shen Lanqing was mostly cared for by the servants of the Shen Manor. Yet, this child loved to stick to him. As soon as he opened his eyes, he would follow behind him, calling him Dad. After being called that for so long, even Yun Wuxiang felt like he was his father.
Ten years. Even raising a dog creates affection, let alone a child who genuinely treats you as his own father.
If Shen Lanqing weren’t the protagonist, perhaps he wouldn’t have eaten that Five-Color Cloud Mushroom in his childhood, causing his meridians to mutate, and perhaps he could have cultivated arts.
If he weren’t the protagonist, he wouldn’t have inexplicably fallen for Prince Li, running here to drown his sorrows and drinking himself into a drunkard.
If he weren’t the protagonist, Yun Wuxiang wouldn’t have to constantly waver between completely destroying the plot and continuing to stall like this to accumulate energy.
If he weren’t the protagonist…
Yun Wuxiang’s consciousness returned to his main body. His action of researching how to dig the soul out of the bronze mirror paused.
[System, is it possible for the protagonist to be replaced by someone else?]
[Huh? Host, why ask this suddenly?]
Yun Wuxiang lowered his eyelids slightly, his tone natural. [The Nanlin Sect Master in the Immortal Realm suspectedly inherited the destiny of their partner, who was a protagonist, after they died.]
[It’s possible that the Nanlin Sect Master stole the Protagonist Halo.]
3339’s voice became serious. [Stealing the Protagonist Halo is equivalent to stealing a fate. This is a major violation. Once discovered, they will suffer Heavenly Punishment from the World Consciousness.]
Yun Wuxiang asked, [Did that protagonist die before or after the script was completed? Can you check, System?]
[I’d have to ask the World Consciousness about that; I don’t have the authority.]
[However, if I can get close to the target, I can scan to see if a Protagonist Halo exists on them.]
[It’s a pity we aren’t in the Immortal Realm. Otherwise, if I really scanned a violator who stole a halo, I could report them to my superiors and get a reporting bounty,] 3339 said regretfully.
Tonight was starless, and the moon did not show its face. Yun Wuxiang was shrouded in darkness. A few fireflies flew to his side. The bronze mirror gathered a faint glimmer, projecting it into Yun Wuxiang’s eyes, as if light had fallen into his pupils and slowly taken root.
[System, what would my cultivation level be in the Immortal Realm?]
[The Host’s situation is a bit special. Your body hasn’t been tempered by Immortal Qi, so you still fall under the category of mortals. But if the Host overcomes the Heart Demon Tribulation and absorbs enough Immortal Qi, you would be at the Mystic Immortal level.]
[There are seven ranks in the Immortal Realm. Mystic Immortal is the middle rank. Above it are Earth Immortal, Heaven Immortal, and Immortal Lord.]
After checking the backend data, 3339 suddenly realized something. [Host, you’re almost a Mystic Immortal? You haven’t been transmigrated for hundreds of years, have you?!]
Yun Wuxiang: [No.]
3339 dove back into the data pile again. After frantically reviewing for a while, it came back to show off its knowledge to Yun Wuxiang.
[Oh, I get it, Host. It’s like this: you are in the Mortal Realm, and the rules here are different from the Immortal Realm.]
[In the Immortal Realm, one must reach the standard in both magic power and state of mind to trigger the Heart Demon Tribulation. But the Mortal Realm has no Immortal Qi and no such standard restriction. So, once the Host’s state of mind reached the level, the Heart Demon Tribulation was triggered directly.]
[Host, you aren’t asking this because you want to go to the Immortal Realm to earn that reporting bounty, are you?] 3339 asked suspiciously.
Yun Wuxiang: [Just asking.]
[Bai Lingdang sent my image back to the sect before she died. If I go up, I’m afraid I’ll be besieged.]
[That’s right, Host. We can just do our tasks properly in the Mortal Realm. If the script really collapses too much in the end and we can’t gather enough energy, then we can go to the Immortal Realm.]
[Mhm.] Yun Wuxiang agreed with the system, but his mind was on something else.
It would take ten years to finish the plot. That was too long. Only a month had passed—just the beginning—and that child was already crying to go home.
So finding a method from Zhao Sihai’s brain would be more convenient and faster. Since he dared to come down to trouble the protagonist, he must know the method of transferring destiny.
As for the method to isolate the restriction, he seemed to have seen it in the Library Pavilion.
It was about time he found a moment to return to the island.
As his thoughts extended, another firefly flew past Yun Wuxiang. The light drew his gaze for a moment.
Were there too many fireflies here?
Fire… flies?
Yun Wuxiang looked down at the bronze mirror, tapped the surface, and asked, “Did you attract these fireflies?”
[It’s too dark. Without some light, I can’t even see the Guanzhu’s face.]
“You’ve become a wisp of a dead soul, yet these insects still listen to you.” Yun Wuxiang had always thought Gu was a very wicked thing, and he still thought so now.
[I am a Gu. Gu can understand the speech of all insects. In the cognition of insects, a Gu is a King born from slaughtering the strong. Of course, they will listen to me.]
[Does the Guanzhu want to experience this feeling?] Song Yilou seized every opportunity to tempt Yun Wuxiang into becoming a Gu.
“No.” With a wave of his hand, Yun Wuxiang raised a clear breeze, blowing all the fireflies away.
[Oh my… Guanzhu, don’t blow them all away. I can’t see your face clearly… Guanzhu! I suddenly have a very serious matter to tell you.]
[Another one of my soul fragments discovered an interesting place containing a black mist that still holds powerful strength. He is absorbing that black mist to become strong quickly. If the Guanzhu doesn’t go kill him, there will be trouble later.]
Yun Wuxiang: “…” What a ‘very serious matter.’
“You are asking me to kill your soul fragment?”
What kind of self-backstabbing behavior was this?
And exactly how many pieces did this guy shatter into?
[Yes! Must kill! Be quick!] Song Yilou in the bronze mirror showed no mercy to his other self.
[That isn’t my soul fragment; that is my love rival! Rival! Once he gains power and becomes strong, he will definitely come looking for the Guanzhu and then eat the weak and pitiful me.]
[Only I am the purest Song Yilou. Those fragments wandering outside, surviving on who knows what crooked ways, have definitely eaten dirty things. They will be detrimental to the Guanzhu.]
Yun Wuxiang’s expression was unreadable. The purest Song Yilou—is that supposed to be a good thing?
“Where is that fragment?” If Song Yilou were talking about something else, Yun Wuxiang likely wouldn’t believe it. But Song Yilou informing on him due to hatred for his own soul fragment…
This sounded bizarre and outrageous, but it was indeed something Song Yilou would do.
[On the Guanzhu’s island.]
Yun Wuxiang looked at the mirror in his hand with an unkind gaze. “I recall I cleared the insects on the island before I left. I missed one?”
[No, you missed one. The fish I rode when I went to the island had a Gu inside its body. When I reached the shore, it swam back into the sea.]
Redness rose in Yun Wuxiang’s eyes. “So it was a fish that slipped through the net. I’ll go back and slaughter him now.”
Go early, return early. He still had to pick up Lanqing to go home tomorrow morning.
[Kill, kill, kill! Kill them clean!] Song Yilou in the mirror raised his arms and shouted.
What soul fragments? Since they split, they were all love rivals!
In the same batch of Gu, only one could survive to the end and become the Gu King.
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