Chapter 44
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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At the end of the deck of the golden ship, under the vast sky and vast clouds, all the cities and villages slowly receded into the distance, appearing small against the backdrop of the landscape.
Ying Kai’s deep eyes reflected the distant horizon. He raised his palm flatly, and his deep blue robe sleeves billowed in the wind:
“Summon all the gods!”
The other Grandmasters stood on the deck near the bow. As soon as Ying Kai’s voice fell, a faint layer of golden light appeared on the distant horizon.
Then, countless dots of light rose from all corners of the Divine Land, turning into meteors large and small, streaking across the sky from all directions and shooting towards the golden ship!
Changsun Chengfeng took a step back. “Is this… Ten Thousand Gods Mountain Ocean Order?”
“When Brother Ying ascended to the position of Alliance Leader, he swore to supply all the spiritual energy lacking in the Immortal Alliance and to deal with any chaos caused by demons. Therefore, he dispersed most of his spiritual power to the four corners of the world and unified the mountains and seas with his own power alone.” Mu Duozhu raised his head, his eyes reflecting countless dazzling meteors, and sighed, “What we are seeing now is the true Ying Chenyuan.”
For a moment, the heavens and the earth were vast, and the countless souls that had returned from the Divine Land finally converged into Ying Kai’s body, enveloping him in an invisible torrent of flames, and the immense pressure surged straight into the sky.
Boom!
The entire bow of the ship sank with a thunderous roar, and the keel emitted a sound of unbearable burden. Everyone involuntarily leaned forward!
Xu Shuangce stepped back several steps, and a circular aura rose flatly from around his body.
With another thunderous roar from the keel, the tilting hull was forcibly pulled flat inch by inch. Many disciples on the deck staggered back and forth, and exclamations and shouts swept through the cabin. This behemoth sailing through the sky plummeted more than ten zhang under the pressure!
Ying Kai closed his eyes in silence, and his hair and robe sleeves fluttered in the air. The souls that returned from the Divine Land spread out a map in his consciousness, with mountains, rivers, forests, and valleys all within it, slowly rotating and vividly visible.
The plains turned into basins, the cities flooded by rivers and rivers, and the cracks in the ground buried by the World-Ending Soldier Puppet… These features corresponded one by one to the land within his spiritual protection range. After half an incense stick’s worth of time, Ying Kai opened his eyes, his pupils shining brightly, and waved his hand.
The incomparably powerful souls once again turned into meteors, magnificent as before, flying towards the vast mountains and rivers at his feet, disappearing at the end of the horizon.
Ying Kai turned to the others, and his robe sleeves fell gently at his side.
The overwhelming pressure of spiritual power that had exploded until it was impossible to open one’s eyes had dissipated. He was dressed plainly, his face calm, and the bronze Ancient Mountain Ocean Order Sword hanging from his waist was simple and unadorned. He once again became the stable, gentle, and unassuming Alliance Leader Ying.
“Found it,” he said with a smile in his eyes.
***
“Hurry up.” “No one’s here! Come on!” “This way!”
The door was pushed open, and Gong Wei and Yuchi Rui squeezed in at the same time, fearing they would be caught by a passing disciple of the Medical Sect if they were a step late. Then Yuchi Rui quickly peeked outside, confirming that there was no one in the corridor, before closing the door with a bang.
Both of them breathed a sigh of relief. Gong Wei slumped into a chair, exhausted, and said, “Anyway, that’s how it is. When I woke up, I found myself on the Golden Ship. You know the rest.”
Yuchi Rui stood by the door, his eyebrows furrowed and his expression solemn. He pointed at Gong Wei and asked, “—Xiang Xiaoyuan?”
“Yes.”
“A charm demon?”
Gong Wei corrected him, “A half-demon.”
“Xu Shuangce’s beloved disciple?”
Gong Wei suddenly stuttered, “You… what did you say?”
Yuchi Rui’s expression was expressionless. “Xu Shuangce personally extracted the soldier thread from you at Ding Xian Ling. Everyone in the Immortal Alliance knows about it.”
“He, he did that to save my life! Xiang Xiaoyuan belongs to his Cangyang Sect! That’s his duty!”
“Xu Shuangce said he wanted to save time and smashed all the corpses that ran out of Ding Xian Ling. In the past few days, there have been ten or so sects carrying spirit tablets to queue up and complain to the Tribunal.”
“Hasn’t Xu Shuangce always been so ruthless? When has he changed? Have you forgotten that he hung you up when you were a child…”
“He’s even willing to pay ten thousand taels of silver for Mu Duozhu’s medical expenses.” Yuchi Rui said calmly, “He has already signed and sealed.”
“Hung up… what?” Gong Wei finally squeezed out a voice with difficulty. “Ten thousand taels?!”
Yuchi Rui nodded gravely.
The two looked at each other, and after a moment of deathly silence, Yuchi Rui summed up, “If you dare to impersonate his disciple, he will definitely kill you.”
Gong Wei tried to speak several times but couldn’t get any words out. His mind was in chaos. Finally, he trembled and said, “Give me some melon seeds.”
Yuchi Rui rummaged through his pockets, finding only peanuts with shells. Gong Wei didn’t mind and grabbed a handful. The two sat opposite each other at the round table, each peeling their own. The cracking sound filled the air. After a while, Gong Wei finally calmed down and said, “Even if I don’t impersonate his disciple… If he finds out I’m still alive, I probably won’t have an easy time.” Yuchi Rui made a sound of agreement, “Impersonating a beloved disciple is an even greater crime.”
Gong Wei asked, “Could you stop mentioning beloved… could you stop mentioning that word? The most urgent thing now is to figure out who impersonated me in Linjiang City, played tricks, and manipulated the soldier thread in my body, and what they intended to do?”
Yuchi Rui rubbed two peanuts together, and the shells fell off smoothly. Then he peeled off the red skins with ease, obviously very experienced. “It’s either Du Kaixun or Changsun Chengfeng.”
“Let’s not talk about Changsun Chengfeng for now. Du Kaixun is possible. But why would he kill those twenty-eight people with heavy Yin energy in Linjiang City? There’s no reason.” Yuchi Rui responded with clear, stable, and calm eyes, indicating that he also didn’t know.
Not knowing wasn’t surprising. Even if it were Ying Kai or Xu Shuangce who came over, they wouldn’t be able to figure it out. Gong Wei sighed deeply and temporarily let go of this matter. “There’s one more thing. Can you talk to Senior Brother and figure out a way to help me retrieve Xiang Xiaoyuan’s soul? I’ve kept his body in good condition… well, not very good, but at least it’s usable. Maybe there’s a chance to put Xiang Xiaoyuan back?”
Yuchi Rui was puzzled. “Then what about you?”
Gong Wei thought to himself that of course he would do what he needed to do and go wherever he needed to go. However, he didn’t say this out loud, only saying, “I’m already dead, so I can’t occupy someone else’s body. If it’s not possible, you can ask Ying Kai for a vessel that can be possessed. Then you can put me in it in the future.”
Yuchi Rui paused with the peanut at his lips, his mind conjuring the scene of himself carrying Gong Wei’s soul in a small jar around his neck, feeling extremely conflicted. After a while, he said, “But now we can’t enter the Guiyuan.”
“What?” Gong Wei exclaimed.
“Xu Shuangce told Ying Kai about the anomaly in the Guiyuan, and Ying Kai went down once, but the bronze door was tightly shut with no signs of ghosts. After returning from Linjiang City, they went down together again, but unfortunately, they couldn’t open the gates of the underworld.”
Forcibly breaking through the Guiyuan was defying fate. Even for the current great powers like the Three Sects and Four Saints, succeeding one or two times out of ten would be considered lucky. The only ones on record to break through the gates of the underworld and return unscathed were Xu Shuangce and Ying Kai. If even they were barred from the realm of life and death, then it truly meant that others had no way to intervene.
“Ying Kai suspects that there might be a problem with the Book of Life and Death. The Guiyuan might be blocking people to cover it up. After settling matters in Ding Xian Ling, he plans to go down with Xu Shuangce again to investigate further,” Yuchi Rui shook his head. “The soul returns to the underworld on the seventh day, and then every seven days thereafter. It’s been so long already; he’s probably already reincarnated.”
Gong Wei was stunned for a moment, recalling the instigator of the current situation. Anger surged through him immediately. “It’s all because of your eldest nephew! He…”
At that moment, the door was lightly knocked twice, and Yuchi Xiao’s voice came through, “Uncle, are you there?”
The title “uncle” was like a sacred mantra to the Sword Sect, hitting Yuchi Rui’s most sensitive nerve.
Yuchi Rui instantly jumped up from his chair, swiftly cleared the table full of peanut shells, took out the “Collection of Sword Washing” from his pocket, spread it out on the table, snatched the peanut that Gong Wei had just peeled and was about to eat, pulled him up, and hurriedly pushed him behind the screen. “Yes!”
“Alliance Leader is looking for you everywhere, saying there’s an urgent matter to discuss!”
“Wait a moment!”
Yuchi Rui turned to go, but Gong Wei grabbed him back and whispered with a voice only they could hear, “Your nephew and I are engaged.”
“What?”
“His mother arranged a marriage agreement with the Cangyang Sect, the horoscopes were matched, and the tokens of love were exchanged. But he despised Xiang Xiaoyuan as a little charm demon, didn’t give any face, and broke off the engagement on the spot, angering the person to the point of going berserk. Look at this,” Gong Wei pointed to the wound on his neck, where the Gouchen Sword had cut, still covered with a plaster. “This was done by him. If I hadn’t escaped quickly, I’d probably be dead again!”
Yuchi Rui was shocked. “How could this be?”
“Yes, how can the future heir of the Yejinmen look down on a little charm demon like that?” Gong Wei angrily continued, “And he even called me ‘non-human’—do you remember who said that last time?”
Yuchi Rui didn’t hesitate. “Xu Shuangce!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he was stunned.
The esteemed heir of the Yejinmen Gate, learning bad habits from the Cangyang Sect’s Xu family, how could this be acceptable?
A flame of solidarity and indignation named “united against a common enemy” finally ignited in the heart of the Sword Sect Master.
The two exchanged a glance, Yuchi Rui nodded solemnly, straightened his robes, then cleared his throat and strode forward to open the door.
Yuchi Xiao was indeed standing outside the door, bowing his head and saluting, “Lord Sword Sect Master…”
“I was just looking for you.”
Yuchi Xiao paused, “What’s the matter?”
Although the future heir of the Yejinmen was already quite tall, when the Sword Sect Master stood upright, he was still slightly taller—perhaps due to the stretching during his youth when he was hung up. His eye sockets were deeper than his brow bones, so when he had a stern face, he looked even more severe, even carrying a hint of imposing aura.
He said, “I heard you want to call off the engagement with the Cangyang Sect.”
Yuchi Xiao froze in place.
“The heavens and earth treat all beings as equals; every person, tree, flower, and grass experiences joy and sorrow, life and death, flourishing and withering. The heavens treat nature as the law, and charm demons are no different from sentient beings. So what distinguishes you and me?”
Yuchi Rui’s entire body seemed to freeze, and after a long while, he forcefully swallowed the bitter regret, “…it was my mistake before…”
Yuchi Rui sternly said, “You arrogantly broke off the engagement on the spot, causing the charm demon to go berserk. Such behavior is truly despicable!”
Gong Wei applauded behind the screen, thinking, “Well said!”
“Now that a great mistake has been made, you still show no signs of repentance. You even call innocent charm demons ‘non-human,’ which is a disgrace to the reputation of the Yejinmen accumulated over hundreds of years. You simply—”
Before Yuchi Rui could finish his sentence, he suddenly saw his eldest nephew bow deeply and hoarsely interrupt, “The arrogance shown before is now difficult to express in remorse. Uncle, your admonishment is just.”
The Sword Sect Master had always believed in acting rather than speaking, but now that he had spoken up, he unexpectedly gained such credibility. Yuchi Rui nodded approvingly. “You realize your mistake?”
“I realize it.”
“How will you rectify it?”
Yuchi Xiao maintained his bowed posture and said to the ground, word by word, “The previous withdrawal from the engagement was only spoken and was not officially announced to the Immortal Alliance. Nephew is willing to fulfill the marriage contract with Xiang Xiaoyuan and seek the great Dao together. From now on, I will not utter harsh words or look down on any non-human beings due to his status. Every word I’ve spoken today comes from the heart and is witnessed by the heavens and earth!”
Yuchi Rui felt a surge of relief and turned to Gong Wei with a triumphant eyebrow raise, saying, “It’s good that you realize your mistake. In that case, choose an auspicious day…”
But he stopped abruptly.
Gong Wei: “…”
Yuchi Rui: “…”
The two stared at each other through the crack in the screen, both wearing expressions as if they had been struck by lightning.
“No!” Yuchi Rui exclaimed angrily. “You cannot go through with the marriage to Xiang Xiaoyuan!”
Yuchi Xiao thought he had misheard. “Why?”
“Towards Xiang Xiaoyuan, he… he…” Sword Sect Master suddenly choked up.
Yuchi Xiao earnestly said, “Lord Sword Sect Master, you need not worry about the difference in status. Although Xiang Xiaoyuan is only an outer disciple of the Cangyang Sect, he is both handsome and kind-hearted, with exceptional wisdom. And there is something I have not yet reported to the Sword Sect: if it weren’t for him sacrificing himself to push me away in time, I would be the one with the soldier’s thread in my body right now. Every time nephew thinks about this, he feels a mixture of emotions and deep regret.”
Taking a deep breath, Yuchi Xiao seemed to have a thousand words to say but didn’t know how to begin. With determination, he said through gritted teeth, “In any case, please rest assured, Lord Sword Sect Master. Nephew has realized his mistake and will never again look down upon a charm demon. Please grant your approval!”
“…,” Yuchi Rui struggled to say, “Absolutely not.”
Yuchi Xiao looked up in astonishment. “Why?!”
Facing each other, uncle and nephew, the poor Sword Sect Master’s mind went blank. He opened and closed his mouth several times, finally stuttering out a few words:
“Because he is… he is a charm demon.”
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They’re too alike. （⌒▽⌒）