Chapter 4.4
Luoxia Peak was a barren mountain located northwest of Xuan Tian sect. A thousand years ago, the one who resided there was Immortal Lin.
This Immortal Lin had once received Immortal Xuantian’s great grace, but he had left such a great favour unrequited. Instead, he devoted himself to the demonic sect, cementing himself as the most disloyal man of the generation. This was a shocking and horrific scandal for Xuan Tian sect. So, for the sake of upholding the sect’s reputation, all matters concerning Immortal Lin were wiped from history completely, and even Luoxia Peak had become a forbidden place. For hundreds of years, no one had set foot in it.
Time flew by, and such an event of the past was gradually forgotten by the world. This lasted up until a hundred years ago, when a man called Immortal Luoxia appeared. He pointed his finger northwest and said to the Sect Master, “That is the rumored Luoxia Peak ba. My Taoist name is also ‘Luoxia’—this peak has an affinity with me, so I will set up my residence there.”
A barren and abandoned mountain—how could the Sect Master have a good reason not to allow it, so he immediately gave the mountain to Immortal Luoxia.
No one knew that a thousand years ago, before Immortal Lin went to the demonic sect, a precious treasure had been sealed there. It was a treasure that Immortal Xuantian had left behind—the top-grade immortal jade flute.
If a person wanted to gain a top position in terms of their cultivation, it was naturally inevitable to want to get their hands on a prop that suited their heart’s desires—these props were called magical treasures. The magical treasures were also divided into different grades. The most inferior magical treasure was called a magical tool, followed by magical artifacts and spirit artifacts. Advanced cultivators had immortal tools, followed by G.o.d tools.
G.o.d tools only existed in legends. It was said that G.o.d tools could gain sentience and transform. It was also said that G.o.d tools could cut the Sun and Moon, and devour mountains and rivers. According to legend, cultivators who had yet to achieve the Great Ascension stage were unable to withstand the expelling aura of a G.o.d tool. However, Great Ascension-stage cultivators had long vanished from the Minglan continent. Hence, G.o.d tools only existed in legends.
The most powerful magical treasures in the Minglan continent were top-grade immortal tools, and among them, Immortal Xuantian’s jade flute and the Demon Lord Sa Ye’s silent blazing saber were the most well-known. However, these two earth-shaking magical tools had disappeared thousands of years ago. Cultivators had scoured the entire continent, turning it upside down and inside out in search of the two treasures, but even then, they came up empty-handed.
However at this moment, the jade flute that was coveted by everyone in the Minglan continent was currently lying in Fan Yuan’s hands. Due to the fact that a seal had been imposed upon it, the jade flute had already lost its ever-circulating sparkling glow and its aura and power that made all other magical treasures pale in comparison. Cracked lines spanned across the flute’s body, making it appear gray and worn-out. Its appearance didn’t resemble that of a top-grade immortal tool in the slightest.
Fan Yuan’s fingertips gently glided over the textured surface of the jade, and his eyes were full of nostalgia and longing.
Bi Yi watched on by the side with much distress, as she whispered: “Since Master can’t bear to let it go, why are you still forcing yourself? You could give that little Xu fellow anything else, but you insist on giving him the treasure that the Immortal left behind. What’s more, that jade flute is too precious. Even if you give it to that stinky little lad, the boy may not be able to protect it by his side, and he may even attract fatal disasters. It might actually end up being a huge inconvenience.”
Fan Yuan didn’t answer, gathering his spiritual power at his fingertips before releasing a white light that completely enveloped the jade flute. When the white light dissipated, the previously worn-out jade flute had become a brand-new bamboo flute.
“I’ve applied a second layer of seals. Now, it’s just a thin and ordinary bamboo flute, who would be concerned over this?”
“Master has gone to great lengths for Xu Moran’s sake, I don’t even know if the boy can shoulder such great care. I’m afraid that he will casually throw away this useless-looking bamboo flute, and when that time comes, may Master not regret your decision.”
Fan Yuan shook his head gently and the corners of his lips carried a faint smile, “No, Moran is a good child.”
Bi Yi bit her lip in annoyance and looked away, muttering to herself in a low voice, “How is he a good child? Compared to me, this fox, he’s even more shrewd ne! From what I see, towards Master, he clearly………” has ill intentions!
Fan Yuan heard her voice get softer and softer, and by the end of her sentence he couldn’t hear anything. However, he could guess that she was complaining, and said placatingly, “Moran is still a child, you are over a thousand years older than him, so don’t fuss about him too much.”
Bi Yi let out a low ‘en’, transforming into her original form and jumping into Fan Yuan’s arms. Fan Yuan fluidly caught the small little creature and took it back to Snowless Hall.
The little fox breathed in the familiar smell of her master and felt more and more wronged. It was obviously itself who had stayed with this person for a thousand years, yet a random, no-good son-of-a-b*tch had mysteriously appeared and wanted to s.n.a.t.c.h Master from it. On top of that, Master was too dense, it had to watch over him more closely!
In fact, it knew clearly in its heart that regardless of whether it was itself or Xu Moran, they couldn’t compare to that person.
However, that person has been dead for thousands of years. The only one who could watch over this place and wait for Master had always been itself.
Fan Yuan didn’t know that his spiritual pet was currently thinking about how to occupy its master’s heart, as he had a heart full of plans on how to deal with the next part of the plot. Today was Xu Moran’s 18th birthday, and it was also the day the male and female lead met.
Liu Wenya, the female lead, was the daughter of Liu Ran, the Master of the Liuyin Monastery in Guan Lan sect. Liu Wenya was known as the top beauty in the cultivation realm. It was rumored that she was kind and pure, and as bright as the moon, being a female cultivator that was most similar to a fairy.
Due to the fact that the joint compet.i.tion of the three sects was approaching, she had followed her father to Xuan Tian clan and met the male lead by a lucky coincidence.
Later on in the compet.i.tion, the male lead’s strength had overwhelmed all his opponents, allowing him to rise up in brilliance amongst the younger generation. He became famous in one night and succeeded in capturing the maiden hearts of many female cultivators. The female lead was also no exception, as she had fallen in love with Xu Moran upon seeing him the second time. With the help of her father, she remained in Xuan Tian sect and named it “learning through exchanges with others”, but in fact it was just for chasing the fine man.
As the female lead, she naturally had some good qualities that other cultivators didn’t have. For example, no matter how much she was attacked, she was unwilling to give up. No matter how much the male lead gave her a cold-shoulder, she wouldn’t stop following him and persisted in trying to melt the male lead’s stone-cold heart with her warm enthusiasm. Such a persevering spirit could practically make both Heaven and Earth feel touched, so the male lead who had always been focused on cultivation and reaching the highest state of dao was finally shaken.
After experiencing many twists and turns together, the two people became cultivation partners and began their life as good husband and wife while cultivating. The main thing in their daily life was that the female lead would often ask for trouble, and the male lead would display his ‘boyfriend power’. It was extremely harmonious and sweet, causing the entire cultivation realm to keep eating dog food. = =
Fan Yuan thought of his own disciple that he had raised—soon he would get a wife and forget about his shizun, it really made Fan Yuan feel a little sad for a period of time. As they say, “Once a child grows up, it is improper to keep them around. If one makes them stay around, hatred will develop.” He finally experienced the feeling of being a father, the feeling was a little bit sharp and sour.
Fan Yuan entered Snowless Hall and raised his hand to draw a water sphere from the lotus pond, suspending it in midair. He recited an incantation and injected his spiritual force into it. The transparent water sphere began to show a clear picture. It could be seen from the background that it was Verdant Mountain, located next to the Luoxia Peak. The most handsome and tall boy in the middle was of course Xu Moran who had gone over to cultivate there under his shizun’s orders.
As soon as it opened its eyes, Bi Yi saw the annoying stinky little lad and felt extremely dissatisfied. In Fan Yuan’s arms, it made a ruckus by jumping up and down continuously, and Fan Yuan divide his attention to appease it. When the little fox stopped a little, he returned his attention to watching the water sphere. It was not known when Liu Wenya had already appeared and was currently talking to Xu Moran.
The water sphere could only monitor scenes occurring from a limited range and no sounds could be heard, so one could only judge what was being said according to expression and mouth shape. Fan Yuan didn’t know what Xu Moran had said, but Liu Wenya had suddenly covered her mouth and burst into laughter. From the looks of it, the two seemed to be engaged in an animated conversation.
Fan Yuan waved his sleeves, and the water sphere transformed into a stream of water that flowed back into the pond, causing the lotus pond splatter in a series of splashes. Fan Yuan silently watched the splashing water with an imposing expression. Even Bi Yi was scared by his actions and didn’t dare to cause anymore trouble, obediently shrinking into a ball in his arms.
“That female cultivator—from her robes, it seems that she’s not from Xuan Tian sect.”
Bi Yi jumped out of Fan Yuan’s arms and transformed into its human form. She bit her lower lip and only said after a moment of hesitation, “She should be someone from Guan Lan sect. The joint compet.i.tion among the three clans is approaching, so Guan Lan and Po Yun sect must have sent their disciples with the greatest potential to partic.i.p.ate. But………that female cultivator is really beautiful, it’s no wonder that Xu Moran, who usually doesn’t even bat an eyelid when facing other women, would also feel his heart move.”
Fan Yuan furrowed his brow and said, “How do you know that his heart has moved, he merely said a few words.”
A faint glint flashed across Bi Yi’s eyes, “Bi Yi is just making a guess. That maiden laughed so happily, it’s inevitable for one to feel suspicious. Anyway, the boy is also eighteen now. If he was an ordinary boy, he would have long been married and had children, so it’s not surprising that his heart would move for a young lady.”
A touch of sorrow glazed across Fan Yuan’s eyes as murmured softly, “For those that don’t want to stay, one cannot make them stay in the end.”
He handed the bamboo flute to Bi Yi, “Give it to him on my behalf and wish him a happy birthday. I need to enter closed-door cultivation for some time, don’t come and bother me.”
With that, Fan Yuan disappeared into Snowless Hall, leaving only the Bi Yi and the bamboo flute.
Bi Yi held the bamboo flute with some guilt. She also didn’t want to lie, but it was just that the stinky little boy was really very annoying ah. It was best to let Master hate him forever and never see him again!
*************************
Of course, Fan Yuan knew that the little fox had said such nonsense because it was jealous. Now, apart from cultivation and revenge, what other thoughts did the male lead have? It would be weird if his heart moved for the female lead upon first sight.
However, it was enough that Fan Yuan knew. The plot still had to go on in the end.
The next part of the plot was the true challenge for him, because he would personally experience a thing called “inner demons”.
Cultivators were most afraid of two things—one was a bottleneck, and the second was inner demons. The former would cause one’s cultivation to stagnate, resulting in the cultivator having to stay in their current realm for decades, or even hundreds of years. The other one was inner demons—if a cultivator was slightly careless, the demons would counterattack. It was a trivial matter if one’s cultivation was completely lost, but there was a possibility that the cultivator’s soul would directly receive damage and cause them to lose their life.
It was frightening to even think about it.
Although the script said that Fan Yuan would only receive serious injuries and entered a coma, it was hard to say when it came to these kinds of xuanhuan stories. If something went wrong, it was a small matter if he had to collect his boxed lunch, but if there was damage to his soul, things would be really bad.
“Xiao Wu, is there any way to guarantee that I’ll be safe, such as pretending to have inner demons? I can perform it very realistically, really!”
“Ding, that is not allowed. May Master please make sure to follow the script, otherwise it will affect your score and reward.”
Fan Yuan’s wanted to run away with tears in his eyes as he indignantly criticised it, “Both call me ‘Master’, but you look at my little fox, it knows how to act coquettish and sell meng, allowing me to touch it casually. It even knows how to fight for my favour and be jealous, what about YOU! Other than pouring cold water on me, you only know how to rush me to complete the task!”
“Ding, Xiao Wu has reminded Master before—tasks of upper planes are very dangerous, and Master said at that time………”
“Okay, okay, stop, stop! I was just pretending to be B, how would I have known that I’ll encounter this kind of broken plot! The plot spans over so many years, and I have to put myself through so much pain while running the risk of damaging my soul, I really can’t do the task properly!”
“Ding, may Master please keep holding on. If this mission can be completed successfully, Master’s level will increase exponentially, and you can even enter the higher plane to perform missions.”
Fan Yuan recalled for a moment—indeed, the mission reward of the middle plane could not be compared to that of the lower plane. It definitely was a great leap in quality and quant.i.ty, and many props of the system’s marketplace would also be unlocked, making it much easier to do complete missions later on.
He weighed the pros and cons and felt that he shouldn’t be so unlucky………right? Let him try it for now.
#Discuss how big the risk of failure is for “pretending to be B”#
#A man who used his life to complete a mission#
#At this moment, I miss the lower plane’s silly white and sweet dog blood#
The thoughts in his mind were extremely tangled, but his movements were instead very crisp and straightforward. Without hesitation, he sat on the moonstone to to concentrate his mind. He slowly gathered the surrounding spiritual energy around himself and began to cultivate to seek enlightenment.
The original host had remained in the Body Fusion stage for nearly 50 years already. Fan Yuan had only come here for ten years, and during his time here, he had tried to cultivate, but he was stopped by Xiao Wu. This was because the original host was supposed to remain in this realm for a very long time according to the script, so if Fan Yuan accidentally broke out of the Body Fusion stage and caused him to ascend, it would be a tragedy.
In fact, Fan Yuan felt that Xiao Wu was overthinking it too much—how could it be so easy to break out of a cultivation stage. He wasn’t even the male lead, where grasping dao and cultivating were just like playing a game. Even if Fan Yuan was given a few decades, he might not even able to have a break through yet. He merely wanted to get a taste of what it was like to cultivate.
Fan Yuan emptied his thoughts and silently recited an incantation fluently based on his memory.
“As the incense burns away during meditation, the mind experiences tranquility. Given time, the heart blossoms with purity and expands its capable and virtuous outlook across the entire universe. As common knowledge trans.m.u.tes into higher wisdom, the path will become clear.”
Fan Yuan felt spiritual energy begin to enter and circulate within his body, and his five senses gradually became clear. Everything became extremely clear and gave form in his brain—the fragrance of flowers, the singing of birds, the flow of air, and the circulation of spiritual energy his body. His ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and limbs felt as if they fused with Heaven and Earth, becoming one with all creation on Earth.
This was precisely the road to enlightenment.
Who knew how long had pa.s.sed, after the Sun had risen and set for dozens of cycles, Fan Yuan suddenly felt that a certain blocked spiritual channel slowly begin to ease up; the black vortex was gradually devoured by a white light. Fan Yuan was slightly surprised and wanted to take a look at it more clearly, yet he was stopped by Xiao Wu.
“Ding, Master has accidentally broken through the bottleneck that the original host had always been unable to break through! Master, please stop immediately!”
Fan Yuan was stupefied, “Stop………How to stop………”
“Ding, think about something bad, something perplexing, or something that makes Master feel upset. It’s best to get caught up in such feelings to the point where you find that it’s hard to extricate yourself from it.”
“Bad things………”
Fan Yuan’s mind was in a state of pure chaos. He completely couldn’t think of any bad things. He had always been an optimist, and even if he really encountered any troubles, he would force himself to forget it or bury it deeply in his heart. He had always faced life with a bright and energetic mentality.
Xiao Wu saw that Fan Yuan was about to break through the bottleneck and advance, so it quickly said, “Ding, Yan Rui hasn’t appeared all this time, isn’t Master worried?”
Yan Rui………What did he need to worry about? That fellow was so powerful, he would only make others feel pain, who could hurt him?
“Ding, indeed, there is nothing to worry about when it comes to Yan Rui. The one you should be concerned about is yourself, Master. Could it be that Master has forgotten the events of the previous world?”
Of course he didn’t forget. It was because he was worried about someone taking revenge on him that he hadn’t been able to sleep peacefully for a long time. However, after coming to this world for more than a decade, that man didn’t even reveal so much as his face. Maybe he was tired of this kind of game, and returned to the place where he should have went.
This was also good. Of course, this was good.
No one would interfere with the plot and everything would go smoothly. He wouldn’t feel out of sorts, he wouldn’t hesitate, he wouldn’t be sad. He could be as heartless as before and enjoy the plot to his heart’s content, instead of being frustrated over that guy who had screwed up several of his tasks.
Everything was good.
But………why did his heart feel so uncomfortable? It was so painful.
—What right do you have? When you say start, everything starts. When you say stop, everything stops. What exactly do you take me for? Yan Rui, what exactly am I to you in your heart?
Fan Yuan’s steady breath suddenly began to become disordered, and the surrounding air suddenly began to cause a riot. The spiritual power within his body refused to heed his control and started to flow wildly. The light that had previously appeared gradually became smaller and disappeared without a trace.
Xiao Wu let out a sigh of relief and tried to encourage Fan Yuan, “Ding, Master has done very well. From here on out, there is a high possibility of developing inner demons. Be sure to maintain a clear consciousness, don’t get lost in an illusion and lose your mind.”
However, at this moment, Fan Yuan couldn’t hear its words. He felt that he was walking in a ma.s.s of fog, unable to see any direction. He didn’t know how long he had walked for, and only knew how to raise his feet and move forward like clockwork.
He was pulled by the arm, and a solid chest plastered itself against his back. Someone whispered in his ear, “Xiao Yuan, don’t leave, stay with me okay? I will always be good to you.”
Fan Yuan wanted to push him away, but he couldn’t muster any strength no matter how hard he tried. This voice was familiar yet foreign. Fan Yuan asked with disbelief, “Gao Yu?”
Suddenly the voice of the person changed, and a low-pitched laughter that carried a devious kind of amus.e.m.e.nt sounded softly, “Xiao Yuan, you said that you like me, you can’t regret it okay.”
It wasn’t Gao Yu, it was actually Fang Xu………
Fan Yuan used all his strength to push him away, but immediately upon seeing that person’s face, Fan Yuan’s eyes widened.
In front of him was Pei Qi dressed in an entire body of bright yellow. Pei Qi lowered his head and gazed at Fan Yuan seriously, asking, “You want to go to Jizhou. If you go, will you still come back?”
Fan Yuan replied uneasily, “Yes, I will come back.”
Yet, that person laughed. He shook his head slightly and seemed helpless as he said, “I don’t believe it.”
Fan Yuan heard his own angry and exasperated voice, “Then what do you want me to do to make you believe me?”
This was…this was that day in the royal study…their conversation………
As he returned to his senses, he was already being pressed against the large dragon throne. His top was nimbly undone and that man gently kissed his lips, then his lower jaw, and finally lingered along the curve of his neck. His skin felt slightly sore after that man’s sucking, and he heard that person speak with a low and hoa.r.s.e voice, full of love and desire, “Xiao Yuan, don’t lie to me, please don’t ever lie to me, otherwise I don’t know what things I’ll do.”
Fan Yuan wanted to push him away in rejection yet he didn’t move an inch. His heart was overwhelmed by huge fears to the point where he felt breathless, while simultaneously feeling infinitely wronged.
“b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you lied to me for so long. I only lied to you once, and now you want to………” give up on me?
—Where should I go to find you?
The Author has Something to Say:
Ah, ah, ah! This chapter has over 5000 words!
Honestly Fan Yuan’s indecisiveness over what he feels towards Yan Rui does frustrate me quite a bit, especially when he wonders what he is in Yan Rui’s heart like bruh he’s confessed to you before what do ya think but anyway things will pick up soon, in a good way, so don’t worry
edit: What I said was quite harsh on Fan Yuan, I think his indecisiveness is definitely valid considering how YR has been towards him-