Editor: Sahloknir
Gong Wei wilfully shook his head and fell back onto the bed, covered his face with the blanket and let out a sigh.
Meng Yunfei said, “Perhaps because Lord Xu was in control of things last night, no one in the city died. Young Master Yuchi has asked people to collect all the mercury mirrors in the city to prevent that ghost cultivator from using mirror art to cause trouble again…Young Master Xiang? Are you really alright?”
A muffled ‘wuu’ could be heard from the lump on the bed. Judging by the movement of the blanket, Gong Wei must have shaken his head.
Meng Yunfei paused to collect himself and thought of what to say before embarrassedly muttering with a blush, “I heard about what happened yesterday… It was my carelessness that caused me to fall for the mirror art and I nearly harmed everyone present. I am thankful that you found the trigger for the illusion in time, and Young Master Yuchi devoted himself to saving me, so I was prevented from doing something I would regret for the rest of my life…”
He was not wrong to say that. If he had gone on a rampage with his guqin, it would have resulted in the deaths of a whole street’s worth of people. Gong Wei, still buried in the quilt, listlessly responded, “Young Master Meng has misunderstood, it was Brother Fort… It was due to Young Swordsman Yuchi’s credit. It has nothing to do with me.”
Meng Yunfei looked at Gong Wei and quietly contemplated.
“Young Master Xiang was injured and lost some of his life expectancy in order to drive away the ghost cultivator. I am aware of what you have done.” Meng Yufei lowered his voice and continued, “It was my idea to invite you from Cang Yang Sect, but I failed to keep my promise to ensure your safety. Every time I think about this, I feel ashamed…”
Hearing this, Gong Wei peered out from under the quilt and looked at Meng Yufei thinking, Oh, I’ve seen this type of person before!
He was exactly like Ying Kai, a modest gentleman with a good upbringing, who would not hesitate to help others suffering from injustice when he encountered them by drawing his sword. To him, everything must be conducted with proper etiquette, morality and justice. He was both virtuous and disciplined and once he was struck with guilt, he would do his best to make up for it.
“I am deeply indebted to you and will never forget what you have done for me.” Meng Yunfei paused and looked at Gong Wei’s bright, round eyes. Suddenly he felt that the situation was a little amusing, he said “Young Master Xiang… What are you looking at? You have been sleeping until now. Are you hungry?”
Knowing that Meng Yufei could not be persuaded any further, Gong Wei lazily yawned and said, “It’s just a small matter, there’s no need for Young Master Meng to take it personally. I’m fine once I sleep a little longer.”
Meng Yunfei said, “It’s almost 3pm, you won’t be able to sleep at night. Why not let me treat you to the Linjiang fish delicacy?”
Gong Wei ‘wuu’d’ and the quilt moved as he shook his head.
“How about ‘drunken chicken’ instead?”
Gong Wei’s eyes lit up and responded quickly, “Where is it?”
Meng Yunfei smiled, “It is five miles away from here, at the city centre, I’ll take you there on my sword.”
Before he could finish his sentence, Gong Wei got up and instantly tossed his thoughts of Xu Shuangtze right out of his mind, “Let’s go, let’s go!”
Gong Wei hurriedly washed up, casually tied his hair, and walked out as he put on his outer robe. Although he was in a hurry, there was a strange rhythm in his movement, and he seemed to be doing everything very lightly, which made him more relaxed. At first glance, it was hard to notice, but on closer inspection one can sense a subtle difference between Gong Wei and regular cultivators.
Meng Yunfei followed him as he descended the stairs, somewhat dazed, when a man suddenly came in at the entrance of the inn looking weary, “Yunfei? Where are you all going?”
It was Yuchi Xiao, who had just returned from a busy day of errands. Gong Wei, with his hands behind his back, cheerfully said, “Senior Meng invited me to eat drunken chicken. Are you joining us?”
Yuchi Xiao averted his gaze unconsciously, realising his actions halfway through, although he could not figure out why. He then forced himself to stare straight at the cheerful Gong Wei. Fortunately no one noticed that his cheeks were slightly flushed. He muttered, “Eat chicken again? Are you the reincarnation of a fox?”
Hearing his response, Gong Wei sniffed and said, “Forget it if you don’t want to come. Senior Meng has the money anyway. Senior Meng will foot the bill.”
“Hsss,” Yuchi Xiao drew a breath of cold air, looking slightly agitated, he forced his way between the two young men exclaiming, “No, I have to go with you. Yunfei is an honest man! Don’t lead him astray!”
Meng Yunfei, with a hand on his forehead, sighed and did not respond. While Gong Wei looked at the agitated Yuchi Xiao with a smile, and sniggered, “Alright Young Swordsman, I know you’re not an honest man, let’s go.”
Looking slightly insulted, Yuchi Xiao snorted. “Nonsense, what do you know about me!”
They left the inn still bickering and travelled on their swords to the centre of Linjiang City, where the streets were bustling with pedestrians. The most magnificent building in the city, ‘Tai Bai Loft’, soon appeared right in front of them. The owner, seeing the cultivators, immediately guided them personally to a private seating area on the second floor, separated by beaded curtains. Suddenly, Gong Wei turned to Yuchi Xiao with a pitiful expression, he clenched his chest, looking slightly teary and cried, “Young Swordsman, how can you think of me like this? I am still your fiancé after all.”
Yuchi Xiao’s ears immediately flushed red as he retorted, “No! That’s not true! Return to me the jade pendant!”
Out of the three of them, Yuchi Xiao only followed to spy on them, while Meng Yunfei was uninterested in any food and water. Only Gong Wei, who ordered a fat and tender drunken chicken, was blissfully gnawing on it with gusto.
Yuchi Xiao warmed a bottle of Huadiao wine on a small stove to drink with Meng Yunfei. As he drank, he could not help but admonish Gong Wei, “Look at you, you’re so old, yet you still do not practice inedia. Do you want to spend your whole life taking digestive pills? Do you still want to cultivate a golden core and attain immortality?”
Digestive pills could remove the grains from the stomach, but it is so damaging to the spiritual energy that regular cultivators dared not consume too many. In his previous life, Gong Wei was a person who swallowed digestive pills as if they were candy beans. He ignored Yuchi Xiao and took a set of silver chopsticks to pick up a chicken wing, inspecting it with great interest. “You are wrong, Young Master Yuchi. What is the Great Dao? The Great Dao is to follow nature. There is life and death, there is joy and anger, there is gain and loss, there is gathering and scattering. Don’t get too attached to people and things, it’s a joy to be together, but let it go when it’s over. For example, I like to eat chicken, but everything in this world has its time, and only now do I get to savour it, once this moment has passed this chicken will be eaten up by me…”
Hearing Gong Wei’s philosophical theories of the chicken he was currently enjoying, Yuchi Xiao could neither laugh nor cry, “You will not be able to cultivate immortality for the rest of your life like this, what if you die due to old age in a few decades?”
Gong Wei chewed on the succulent chicken meat thoughtfully and shot Yuchi Xiao a sly glance and asked, “Do you cultivate immortality and seek the way just to avoid death? If that is your intention, you won’t be able to ascend as well.”
Hearing Gong Wei’s witty response, Meng Yunfei laughed then sighed, “Listening to you is better than reading for a decade. What great wisdom, a wise master looks like a fool!”
Yuchi Xiao slapped the table and snapped, “He’s obviously a fool who looks like a wise master!”
Gong Wei calmly said, “Here’s an example for you to understand. Back then, the Immortal Alliance’s Chief Gong, who was known along with Lord Ying as The Two Sovereigns, was closer to the ‘Great Dao‘ than you, right? Yet he was still killed by Lord Xu with a single stab. Although this is considered to be an untimely death, it shows that one cannot avoid death in the pursuit of immortality. His remains were even dismembered after death…I am curious to find out, what happened after that?”
Yuchi Xiao replied, “You’re eighty thousand miles off the mark! After what?”
“Coafg tlr mbgqrf kjr vlrwfwyfgfv.” Xbcu Qfl jrxfv cjaegjiis, “Lbk mbeiv remt j ugfja lwwbgaji vlf jcv ufa yeglfv lc atf qfjmt obgfra bc Jjcu Tjcu Zbecajlc?”
Ktf defralbc kjr rilqqfv lc ja jc bqqbgaecf wbwfca. Coafg jii, cb bcf lc atlr kbgiv xcfk yfaafg atjc atf Vkbgv Vfma Zjrafg’r bkc cfqtfk tbk atf ageat bo atf rabgs kfca.
As Gong Wei predicted, Yuchi Xiao frowned and muttered, “Of course not. Don’t foolishly run around asking something like that. If Lord Xu were to hear about this, your life is as good as gone.”
Saying that Yuchi Xiao continued, “After the death of the Lotus Immortal, the Sword Sect Master personally came to demand the body be buried properly. When Lord Xu did not respond, he smashed the stone monument of the Cang Yang Sect with a single blow of his sword. When both were about to come to blows, Lord Ying arrived from the Dai Mountain Immortal Alliance on his sword and personally rushed up to the Xuangui Hall and fought with Lord Xu in mid-air before snatching the body of Chief Gong back. His remains were already damaged by that time…”
Gong Wei was shocked, “Lord Xu was defeated?!”
“…” Yuchi Xiao glanced to his left and right, before whispering, “Defeated.”
For a long time, various families of Xuanmen had debated on who was stronger, Ying Kai or Xu Shuangtze. It was only when Xu Shuangtze overcame his killing barrier, and became the first cultivator to enter the late Dhyana realm, that he was recognised as the most formidable man in the world. However, because the two had never fought each other, so no one could determine who was stronger. The most widely circulated tabloid in the immortal world, Kaiyuan Tabloid News, secretly conducted several polls, with Xu Shuangtze winning by a narrow margin each time, despite Gong Wei persistently voting for Ying Kai until a month before his death.
Although one victory was not enough to determine the stronger person, it was truly astonishing that Xu Shuangtze lost.
Gong Wei never expected that he would be the one (his corpse to be precise) who would solve this mystery for the entire world. For a moment, he could not help but be overwhelmed. He continued to ask, “And was the corpse buried afterwards?”
“Legend has it that he was buried on Dai Mountain.”
“It was not dug up by Lord Xu?”
Yuchi Xiao snorted and said, “Of course not, are you out of your mind you little Mei demon. Which great master would be involved in the business of digging graves and robbing tombs…? Why are you so concerned about this? I’m warning you, you’re not allowed to ask around after you return to Cang Yang Sect, you hear me?”
Impossible. Since his remains were still in Dai Mountain, then how did Bai Taishou appear?
Gong Wei pondered and was just about to ask again, when footsteps could suddenly be heard coming up the stairs. The waiter led a tall man with a long robe into the seating area right next to theirs.
The seating areas on the second floor were separated by thin, beaded curtains, so that the silhouettes of the people in each compartment were faintly visible, and their conversation could be heard. Gong Wei stopped talking and started playing with his chopsticks with a gloomy expression. Suddenly, he heard a ‘smack’ coming from downstairs. The storyteller had arrived and tapped the table with his nine-square wood.
“Last time, we talked about the Chaos Demon Beast that was plaguing the area, eating up a hundred boys and girls every year, causing suffering across many villages. The Sword Sect Master fought it for eighteen rounds before slashing off one of its wings…”
Meng Yunfei laughed, “Isn’t this the story about your Sword Sect Master again, Brother Yuchi?”
With a clang, Yuchi Xiao nearly knocked over the table, and with a surprisingly horrified face cried out, “No! Tell him to shut up!”
In previous times, the culture of seeking immortality and monasticism was strong, and people looked up to the famous masters of the Immortal Sect, and often sang about their deeds of slaying demons. All kinds of plays and novels were inspired by these individuals.
Even when Gong Wei was a child, and he went down the mountain to play, he heard the story, ‘Demon Slaying Immortals’ the tale of Xu Shuangtze and Ying Kai who, in their youth, killed all the demons in a Demon Cave.
He also came across ‘Heroic Deeds of the Sword Sect Master’, about the Sword Sect’s Yuchi Rui who calmed a flood and saved the people, and the well-known legend from the Daoist scripture, ‘The Ghost Prince and His Bride‘.
Yuchi Rui never found these tales interesting. He always felt that his unparalleled swordsmanship had been fraudulently undermined in the story, and every time he heard it he would angrily flip the table, “Why do I have to fight for eighteen rounds? Just me alone and one round is enough! Tsk! Foolish people!!” Then, with a humiliated face, he would flick his sleeves and walk away.
Meng Yunfei said, “Calm down Brother Yuchi, the fact that this novel is widely circulated shows that Sword Sect Master is popular among the people. So what is there to be angry about? The more you try to ban these writers, the more they love to write. It is better to go with the flow…”
Yuchi Xiao snapped, “What do you know? I’ve heard of this particular story before! It is called ‘The Tyrannical Sword Immortal and His Spring Peach!”
Meng Yunfei: “!!!”
Meng Yunfei had instantly sensed a change in the atmosphere.
Gong Wei still didn’t understand what ‘Spring Peach’ alluded to, when he heard the storyteller say with a frown,”After returning to the cave, he was already drawing his last few breaths. The Lotus Immortal came up to him, so distressed and anxious that he shed tears. A pair of delicate bare hands touched the Sword Sect Master’s scarred chest and called out, ‘Langjun!…”
Gong Wei spat out his tea in amusement, “Pfft—”
Bare hands? Langjun? My husband??
“Lies! Nonsense!” Yuchi Xiao stuffed his head out from the first floor and roared, “If you say that again, I’ll smash your booth, change it!”
Gong Wei covered his mouth and choked on a cough, only to hear the guests downstairs retaliating back, “The story was originally fictional, what has it got to do with fabricating rumours?”
“The people are happy to hear it, who are you to stop us?”
“If you’re so serious about not hearing this, just plug your ears and don’t listen!”
“That’s right!”
The old storyteller was quite good-tempered, “You are a disciple of the Sword Sect’s Yuchi family aren’t you? I’m sorry if I offended you, let me share another story then.
Last month, the Kaiyuan Tabloid News published a new story called ‘Lakeside Lover’, it is about the Xuanmen’s Guqin Immortal, Liu Xuzhi. His face has the elegance of a dawn’s moon. His gentleness and elegance was admired by all the great sects. One day, he travelled on the Dongting Lake, and saw a tall and handsome cultivator on the banks. The cultivator glanced up to see Liu Xuzhi looking at him, then with a twinkling smile, he picked a lotus flower and threw it on the boat which Liu Xuzhi was on…”
With a loud crack, Meng Yunfei suddenly crushed the celadon cup in his hand.
“The Guqin Immortal was delighted, his cheeks blushing, he called out to the cultivator, ‘What is your name? And where do you stay?’ The cultivator laughed and said, ‘I come from the Immortal Alliance, people know me as the Lotus Immortal…'”
Gong Wei choked a second time. “Pfft—!”
Gong Wei coughed furiously with his hands around his throat, his mind filled with the words ‘tall and handsome’. Suddenly, Meng Yunfei lifted the beaded curtains with a swish and yelled, “Shut up! I am a disciple of the Guqin Immortal! Let my master off!!!”
The crowd on the ground level was interrupted twice in a row, seethed with discontent, “What’s wrong with you cultivators!”
“Are you two finished?”
“How have commoners listening to storytelling offended you people? Just calm down!”
Meng Yunfei was agitated and grabbed the railing, he was about to rush down, before he was pulled back by Yuchi Xiao, “It’s better to go with the flow, Brother Yunfei!”
The old storyteller got up hurriedly and apologised, “Don’t be angry, Immortal Masters, don’t be angry. It is I who have not been considerate. I’ll change the story now!”
Gong Wei, after much effort, had just expelled a chicken bone out of his windpipe after choking. He picked up his cup of tea with trembling hands and had barely calmed his breathe before the storyteller stroked his beard and continued, “I was on my way to the capital that day and had the pleasure of listening to a new play called ’The Underworld: A Story of Undying Love’, which has nothing to do with the masters of those two young immortals. The story is about Lord Xu of the Cang Yang Sect who heard that ghosts were creating chaos, so he went all the way to the Underworld. As he was at the stone monument under the Naihe Bridge, he saw the familiar figure of a young man with black hair and white robes which had caused him to grieve…”
Gong Wei felt a surge of uneasiness and with it an ominous premonition.
The next moment he heard the old man say in a graphic voice,”…The young man did not respond to him but had tears in his eyes as he turned around and left. Lord Xu stepped forward, held onto him tightly and refused to let go, asking, ‘What have I done to you, why did you want to kill me?’ He also added, ‘No matter what, I will bring you back to Cang Yang Sect today, and from now on, there will only be you and me in the world. There will be no more Cang Yang Sect Master and Lotus Immortal!…”‘
Boom!
It felt like a real bolt of thunder had struck Gong Wei’s head, his eyes turned dim, and his mind went blank. As if a part of his soul left his body, charging straight towards the Underworld.
Why is it me again?
What delicate bare hands, handsome and sturdy build, ethereal beauty. I’m just a mere brick in your literature, for you to move wherever you need it to, right?
As he sat in a daze, Gong Wei heard the panicked voices of Meng Yunfei and Yuchi Xiao, “Young Master Xiang! What’s wrong with you, Young Master Xiang?”
“Calm down little Mei demon! The novel is all fiction!”
“Calm down, calm down!…”
“No, no, this story is too exaggerated!” At this point, some guests downstairs were also raising their voices in protest. A few veiled women who had come out for tea, perhaps ladies from wealthy families or cultivators from local sects, were discontented and interrupted, “It’s well known that Lord Xu had a deep affection for his late wife, and the portrait of her still hangs in Cang Yang Sect. How can you fabricate lies and defame people like this? This is so disrespectful to the deceased!”
The guests who had been listening on with great interest were also stunned, and after a short while they said, “That’s true.”
“That makes sense!”
“This…” the old storyteller was interrupted for the third time that day, and his mouth dropped wide open, “Yes, I was rash. Then, according to the opinion of these ladies, what story should I talk about today?”
After some chatter and discussion among the guests, someone suggested, “Let’s hear ‘Goodbye My Lover’ about Lord Xu and his late wife
‘Goodbye My Lover’ was a popular novel, which came about more than ten years ago, and had been passed along as a timeless favourite.
As long as it was not told in the presence of Lord Xu or in Cang Yang Sect, no one would violently object to this selection. The old storyteller sighed with relief, thinking that he should finally be safe, so with a smack, he slapped down the nine square wood and began, “This story, Goodbye My Lover, which has been sung in the north and south of the country, tells of the year when Lord Xu was gravely injured while slaying demons and was fortunately saved by a lady. This lady was beautiful, intelligent and kind but it was a pity that she was a mortal peasant.”
Someone in the crowd laughed and exclaimed, “There are so many immortal ladies in the Xuanmen, why would the Cang Yang Sect Master marry a peasant’s daughter?”
The old man said with a straight face, “You can’t say that. There are some people in this world who are very beautiful but hide a cold and shallow heart, so they will not be a good match after all. There are others who are without the gift of beauty but bear a pure heart, so they will be a harmonious match. So how can we generalise in this manner? Besides, the truth cannot be traced by you and I, and what we are talking about is just a story.”
The audience chimed in agreement, but only Meng Yunfei wondered, “What’s wrong with you, Brother Yuchi?”
“…”
He saw Yuchi Xiao fidgeting with uneasiness, he had a strange look on his face and was gulping down mouthful after mouthful of saliva.
“This Goodbye My Lover is…after the death of the Chief Gong, my uncle bore a deep hatred for the Cang Yang Sect Master, so…”
Meng Yunfei blinked, “So?”
“So… he paid someone to write…”
Gong Wei’s wisp of soul had just struggled back into his body. Hearing this, his soul was once again ejected forcibly by a Nine Heavenly Divine Thunder.
“Although the woman was merely a peasant’s daughter, she was attentive and pleasant company. She meticulously took care of Lord Xu, and after spending time with each other, they fell in love. The night before Lord Xu left for Cang Yang Sect, he gave her a golden bracelet and said, ‘Although I am going far away, I will return in eighty-one days and ask for your hand in marriage.’ The woman smiled and accepted the golden bracelet—and guess what?”
The storyteller deliberately paused to keep the audience in suspense, and some of the guests said, “It must be a yes!”
Someone else laughed at this and said, “Who wouldn’t say yes? I’m afraid there’s no one in the world who wouldn’t!”
The storyteller proudly stroked his beard and said in a graphic manner to the room full of an audience with their necks stretched out in anticipation, “The lady put on the golden bracelet, called out ‘Lord Xu’, and said gently… “
Click.
It was a subtle ‘click’. Whoever made it had placed a wine cup back on a table neither gently nor forcefully.
But at that instant, as if an invisible hand had paused time, all the guests stopped moving, the storyteller’s mouth was still comically open, the shopkeeper’s half-poured wine was frozen in mid-air, and the errand boy maintained his posture of serving food without moving.
“…”
Gong Wei’s eyes fluttered, his consciousness slowly snapped back from his trance, and he was instantly horrified, glancing over at the source of the sound—
The man in the neighbouring seating area, separated by the beaded curtain, was drinking alone. He was now moving his gaze away from the peach blossoms outside the window and with a long, strong hand, he was still holding on to the cup of wine in front of him.
Gong Wei’s pupils widened without a sound.
He watched as the man picked up the cup again and drank it with a single gulp, then he stood up. A disguise spell could be seen slowly fading from his face to reveal his solemn expression.
It was Xu Shuangtze.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Chansie and Sahl’s extensive Notes: So, we changed the story names in this chapter (and the next) for a couple of reasons – because they don’t translate well into English and also to help make them more relevant for our lovely readers. Here are the original names, with a brief synopsis and why we changed them. We had fun.
Direct translation: Kaiyuan Miscellaneous News
Our Version: Kaiyuan Tabloid News
Direct translation: Clearing a Path to Qi Mountain
Our Version: Demon Slaying Immortals
Synopsis: A story about Ying Kai and Xu Shuangtze killing demons. The book was given to Gong Wei as a child.
Direct translation: River Water Immortal
Our Version: Heroic Deeds of the Sword Sect Master
Synopsis: A story about Yuchi Rui calming a flood.
Direct translation: Tyrannical Sword Immortal and His February Peach
Our Version: Tyrannical Sword Immortal and His Spring Peach
Synopsis: An erotic story featuring Gong Wei and Yuchi Rui.
Direct translation: Dongting Song
Our Version: Lakeside Lover
Synopsis: An erotic story featuring Gong Wei and Lui Xuzhi.
Direct translation: Undying Love of the Yellow Springs
Our Version: The Underworld: A Story of Undying Love
Synopsis: An erotic story featuring Gong Wei and Xu Shuangtze.
Direct translation: Missing the Lady’s Charm
Our Version: Goodbye, My Lover
Synopsis: A love story featuring Xu Shuangtze and Gong Wei his wife.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Editor: Sahloknir
Gong Wei wilfully shook his head and fell back onto the bed, covered his face with the blanket and let out a sigh.
Meng Yunfei said, “Perhaps because Lord Xu was in control of things last night, no one in the city died. Young Master Yuchi has asked people to collect all the mercury mirrors in the city to prevent that ghost cultivator from using mirror art to cause trouble again…Young Master Xiang? Are you really alright?”
A muffled ‘wuu’ could be heard from the lump on the bed. Judging by the movement of the blanket, Gong Wei must have shaken his head.
Meng Yunfei paused to collect himself and thought of what to say before embarrassedly muttering with a blush, “I heard about what happened yesterday… It was my carelessness that caused me to fall for the mirror art and I nearly harmed everyone present. I am thankful that you found the trigger for the illusion in time, and Young Master Yuchi devoted himself to saving me, so I was prevented from doing something I would regret for the rest of my life…”
He was not wrong to say that. If he had gone on a rampage with his guqin, it would have resulted in the deaths of a whole street’s worth of people. Gong Wei, still buried in the quilt, listlessly responded, “Young Master Meng has misunderstood, it was Brother Fort… It was due to Young Swordsman Yuchi’s credit. It has nothing to do with me.”
Meng Yunfei looked at Gong Wei and quietly contemplated.
“Young Master Xiang was injured and lost some of his life expectancy in order to drive away the ghost cultivator. I am aware of what you have done.” Meng Yufei lowered his voice and continued, “It was my idea to invite you from Cang Yang Sect, but I failed to keep my promise to ensure your safety. Every time I think about this, I feel ashamed…”
Hearing this, Gong Wei peered out from under the quilt and looked at Meng Yufei thinking, Oh, I’ve seen this type of person before!
He was exactly like Ying Kai, a modest gentleman with a good upbringing, who would not hesitate to help others suffering from injustice when he encountered them by drawing his sword. To him, everything must be conducted with proper etiquette, morality and justice. He was both virtuous and disciplined and once he was struck with guilt, he would do his best to make up for it.
“I am deeply indebted to you and will never forget what you have done for me.” Meng Yunfei paused and looked at Gong Wei’s bright, round eyes. Suddenly he felt that the situation was a little amusing, he said “Young Master Xiang… What are you looking at? You have been sleeping until now. Are you hungry?”
Knowing that Meng Yufei could not be persuaded any further, Gong Wei lazily yawned and said, “It’s just a small matter, there’s no need for Young Master Meng to take it personally. I’m fine once I sleep a little longer.”
Meng Yunfei said, “It’s almost 3pm, you won’t be able to sleep at night. Why not let me treat you to the Linjiang fish delicacy?”
Gong Wei ‘wuu’d’ and the quilt moved as he shook his head.
“How about ‘drunken chicken’ instead?”
Gong Wei’s eyes lit up and responded quickly, “Where is it?”
Meng Yunfei smiled, “It is five miles away from here, at the city centre, I’ll take you there on my sword.”
Before he could finish his sentence, Gong Wei got up and instantly tossed his thoughts of Xu Shuangtze right out of his mind, “Let’s go, let’s go!”
Gong Wei hurriedly washed up, casually tied his hair, and walked out as he put on his outer robe. Although he was in a hurry, there was a strange rhythm in his movement, and he seemed to be doing everything very lightly, which made him more relaxed. At first glance, it was hard to notice, but on closer inspection one can sense a subtle difference between Gong Wei and regular cultivators.
Meng Yunfei followed him as he descended the stairs, somewhat dazed, when a man suddenly came in at the entrance of the inn looking weary, “Yunfei? Where are you all going?”
It was Yuchi Xiao, who had just returned from a busy day of errands. Gong Wei, with his hands behind his back, cheerfully said, “Senior Meng invited me to eat drunken chicken. Are you joining us?”
Yuchi Xiao averted his gaze unconsciously, realising his actions halfway through, although he could not figure out why. He then forced himself to stare straight at the cheerful Gong Wei. Fortunately no one noticed that his cheeks were slightly flushed. He muttered, “Eat chicken again? Are you the reincarnation of a fox?”
Hearing his response, Gong Wei sniffed and said, “Forget it if you don’t want to come. Senior Meng has the money anyway. Senior Meng will foot the bill.”
“Hsss,” Yuchi Xiao drew a breath of cold air, looking slightly agitated, he forced his way between the two young men exclaiming, “No, I have to go with you. Yunfei is an honest man! Don’t lead him astray!”
Meng Yunfei, with a hand on his forehead, sighed and did not respond. While Gong Wei looked at the agitated Yuchi Xiao with a smile, and sniggered, “Alright Young Swordsman, I know you’re not an honest man, let’s go.”
Looking slightly insulted, Yuchi Xiao snorted. “Nonsense, what do you know about me!”
They left the inn still bickering and travelled on their swords to the centre of Linjiang City, where the streets were bustling with pedestrians. The most magnificent building in the city, ‘Tai Bai Loft’, soon appeared right in front of them. The owner, seeing the cultivators, immediately guided them personally to a private seating area on the second floor, separated by beaded curtains. Suddenly, Gong Wei turned to Yuchi Xiao with a pitiful expression, he clenched his chest, looking slightly teary and cried, “Young Swordsman, how can you think of me like this? I am still your fiancé after all.”
Yuchi Xiao’s ears immediately flushed red as he retorted, “No! That’s not true! Return to me the jade pendant!”
Out of the three of them, Yuchi Xiao only followed to spy on them, while Meng Yunfei was uninterested in any food and water. Only Gong Wei, who ordered a fat and tender drunken chicken, was blissfully gnawing on it with gusto.
Yuchi Xiao warmed a bottle of Huadiao wine on a small stove to drink with Meng Yunfei. As he drank, he could not help but admonish Gong Wei, “Look at you, you’re so old, yet you still do not practice inedia. Do you want to spend your whole life taking digestive pills? Do you still want to cultivate a golden core and attain immortality?”
Digestive pills could remove the grains from the stomach, but it is so damaging to the spiritual energy that regular cultivators dared not consume too many. In his previous life, Gong Wei was a person who swallowed digestive pills as if they were candy beans. He ignored Yuchi Xiao and took a set of silver chopsticks to pick up a chicken wing, inspecting it with great interest. “You are wrong, Young Master Yuchi. What is the Great Dao? The Great Dao is to follow nature. There is life and death, there is joy and anger, there is gain and loss, there is gathering and scattering. Don’t get too attached to people and things, it’s a joy to be together, but let it go when it’s over. For example, I like to eat chicken, but everything in this world has its time, and only now do I get to savour it, once this moment has passed this chicken will be eaten up by me…”
Hearing Gong Wei’s philosophical theories of the chicken he was currently enjoying, Yuchi Xiao could neither laugh nor cry, “You will not be able to cultivate immortality for the rest of your life like this, what if you die due to old age in a few decades?”
Gong Wei chewed on the succulent chicken meat thoughtfully and shot Yuchi Xiao a sly glance and asked, “Do you cultivate immortality and seek the way just to avoid death? If that is your intention, you won’t be able to ascend as well.”
Hearing Gong Wei’s witty response, Meng Yunfei laughed then sighed, “Listening to you is better than reading for a decade. What great wisdom, a wise master looks like a fool!”
Yuchi Xiao slapped the table and snapped, “He’s obviously a fool who looks like a wise master!”
Gong Wei calmly said, “Here’s an example for you to understand. Back then, the Immortal Alliance’s Chief Gong, who was known along with Lord Ying as The Two Sovereigns, was closer to the ‘Great Dao‘ than you, right? Yet he was still killed by Lord Xu with a single stab. Although this is considered to be an untimely death, it shows that one cannot avoid death in the pursuit of immortality. His remains were even dismembered after death…I am curious to find out, what happened after that?”
Yuchi Xiao replied, “You’re eighty thousand miles off the mark! After what?”
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As Gong Wei predicted, Yuchi Xiao frowned and muttered, “Of course not. Don’t foolishly run around asking something like that. If Lord Xu were to hear about this, your life is as good as gone.”
Saying that Yuchi Xiao continued, “After the death of the Lotus Immortal, the Sword Sect Master personally came to demand the body be buried properly. When Lord Xu did not respond, he smashed the stone monument of the Cang Yang Sect with a single blow of his sword. When both were about to come to blows, Lord Ying arrived from the Dai Mountain Immortal Alliance on his sword and personally rushed up to the Xuangui Hall and fought with Lord Xu in mid-air before snatching the body of Chief Gong back. His remains were already damaged by that time…”
Gong Wei was shocked, “Lord Xu was defeated?!”
“…” Yuchi Xiao glanced to his left and right, before whispering, “Defeated.”
For a long time, various families of Xuanmen had debated on who was stronger, Ying Kai or Xu Shuangtze. It was only when Xu Shuangtze overcame his killing barrier, and became the first cultivator to enter the late Dhyana realm, that he was recognised as the most formidable man in the world. However, because the two had never fought each other, so no one could determine who was stronger. The most widely circulated tabloid in the immortal world, Kaiyuan Tabloid News, secretly conducted several polls, with Xu Shuangtze winning by a narrow margin each time, despite Gong Wei persistently voting for Ying Kai until a month before his death.
Although one victory was not enough to determine the stronger person, it was truly astonishing that Xu Shuangtze lost.
Gong Wei never expected that he would be the one (his corpse to be precise) who would solve this mystery for the entire world. For a moment, he could not help but be overwhelmed. He continued to ask, “And was the corpse buried afterwards?”
“Legend has it that he was buried on Dai Mountain.”
“It was not dug up by Lord Xu?”
Yuchi Xiao snorted and said, “Of course not, are you out of your mind you little Mei demon. Which great master would be involved in the business of digging graves and robbing tombs…? Why are you so concerned about this? I’m warning you, you’re not allowed to ask around after you return to Cang Yang Sect, you hear me?”
Impossible. Since his remains were still in Dai Mountain, then how did Bai Taishou appear?
Gong Wei pondered and was just about to ask again, when footsteps could suddenly be heard coming up the stairs. The waiter led a tall man with a long robe into the seating area right next to theirs.
The seating areas on the second floor were separated by thin, beaded curtains, so that the silhouettes of the people in each compartment were faintly visible, and their conversation could be heard. Gong Wei stopped talking and started playing with his chopsticks with a gloomy expression. Suddenly, he heard a ‘smack’ coming from downstairs. The storyteller had arrived and tapped the table with his nine-square wood.
“Last time, we talked about the Chaos Demon Beast that was plaguing the area, eating up a hundred boys and girls every year, causing suffering across many villages. The Sword Sect Master fought it for eighteen rounds before slashing off one of its wings…”
Meng Yunfei laughed, “Isn’t this the story about your Sword Sect Master again, Brother Yuchi?”
With a clang, Yuchi Xiao nearly knocked over the table, and with a surprisingly horrified face cried out, “No! Tell him to shut up!”
In previous times, the culture of seeking immortality and monasticism was strong, and people looked up to the famous masters of the Immortal Sect, and often sang about their deeds of slaying demons. All kinds of plays and novels were inspired by these individuals.
Even when Gong Wei was a child, and he went down the mountain to play, he heard the story, ‘Demon Slaying Immortals’ the tale of Xu Shuangtze and Ying Kai who, in their youth, killed all the demons in a Demon Cave.
He also came across ‘Heroic Deeds of the Sword Sect Master’, about the Sword Sect’s Yuchi Rui who calmed a flood and saved the people, and the well-known legend from the Daoist scripture, ‘The Ghost Prince and His Bride‘.
Yuchi Rui never found these tales interesting. He always felt that his unparalleled swordsmanship had been fraudulently undermined in the story, and every time he heard it he would angrily flip the table, “Why do I have to fight for eighteen rounds? Just me alone and one round is enough! Tsk! Foolish people!!” Then, with a humiliated face, he would flick his sleeves and walk away.
Meng Yunfei said, “Calm down Brother Yuchi, the fact that this novel is widely circulated shows that Sword Sect Master is popular among the people. So what is there to be angry about? The more you try to ban these writers, the more they love to write. It is better to go with the flow…”
Yuchi Xiao snapped, “What do you know? I’ve heard of this particular story before! It is called ‘The Tyrannical Sword Immortal and His Spring Peach!”
Meng Yunfei: “!!!”
Meng Yunfei had instantly sensed a change in the atmosphere.
Gong Wei still didn’t understand what ‘Spring Peach’ alluded to, when he heard the storyteller say with a frown,”After returning to the cave, he was already drawing his last few breaths. The Lotus Immortal came up to him, so distressed and anxious that he shed tears. A pair of delicate bare hands touched the Sword Sect Master’s scarred chest and called out, ‘Langjun!…”
Gong Wei spat out his tea in amusement, “Pfft—”
Bare hands? Langjun? My husband??
“Lies! Nonsense!” Yuchi Xiao stuffed his head out from the first floor and roared, “If you say that again, I’ll smash your booth, change it!”
Gong Wei covered his mouth and choked on a cough, only to hear the guests downstairs retaliating back, “The story was originally fictional, what has it got to do with fabricating rumours?”
“The people are happy to hear it, who are you to stop us?”
“If you’re so serious about not hearing this, just plug your ears and don’t listen!”
“That’s right!”
The old storyteller was quite good-tempered, “You are a disciple of the Sword Sect’s Yuchi family aren’t you? I’m sorry if I offended you, let me share another story then.
Last month, the Kaiyuan Tabloid News published a new story called ‘Lakeside Lover’, it is about the Xuanmen’s Guqin Immortal, Liu Xuzhi. His face has the elegance of a dawn’s moon. His gentleness and elegance was admired by all the great sects. One day, he travelled on the Dongting Lake, and saw a tall and handsome cultivator on the banks. The cultivator glanced up to see Liu Xuzhi looking at him, then with a twinkling smile, he picked a lotus flower and threw it on the boat which Liu Xuzhi was on…”
With a loud crack, Meng Yunfei suddenly crushed the celadon cup in his hand.
“The Guqin Immortal was delighted, his cheeks blushing, he called out to the cultivator, ‘What is your name? And where do you stay?’ The cultivator laughed and said, ‘I come from the Immortal Alliance, people know me as the Lotus Immortal…'”
Gong Wei choked a second time. “Pfft—!”
Gong Wei coughed furiously with his hands around his throat, his mind filled with the words ‘tall and handsome’. Suddenly, Meng Yunfei lifted the beaded curtains with a swish and yelled, “Shut up! I am a disciple of the Guqin Immortal! Let my master off!!!”
The crowd on the ground level was interrupted twice in a row, seethed with discontent, “What’s wrong with you cultivators!”
“Are you two finished?”
“How have commoners listening to storytelling offended you people? Just calm down!”
Meng Yunfei was agitated and grabbed the railing, he was about to rush down, before he was pulled back by Yuchi Xiao, “It’s better to go with the flow, Brother Yunfei!”
The old storyteller got up hurriedly and apologised, “Don’t be angry, Immortal Masters, don’t be angry. It is I who have not been considerate. I’ll change the story now!”
Gong Wei, after much effort, had just expelled a chicken bone out of his windpipe after choking. He picked up his cup of tea with trembling hands and had barely calmed his breathe before the storyteller stroked his beard and continued, “I was on my way to the capital that day and had the pleasure of listening to a new play called ’The Underworld: A Story of Undying Love’, which has nothing to do with the masters of those two young immortals. The story is about Lord Xu of the Cang Yang Sect who heard that ghosts were creating chaos, so he went all the way to the Underworld. As he was at the stone monument under the Naihe Bridge, he saw the familiar figure of a young man with black hair and white robes which had caused him to grieve…”
Gong Wei felt a surge of uneasiness and with it an ominous premonition.
The next moment he heard the old man say in a graphic voice,”…The young man did not respond to him but had tears in his eyes as he turned around and left. Lord Xu stepped forward, held onto him tightly and refused to let go, asking, ‘What have I done to you, why did you want to kill me?’ He also added, ‘No matter what, I will bring you back to Cang Yang Sect today, and from now on, there will only be you and me in the world. There will be no more Cang Yang Sect Master and Lotus Immortal!…”‘
Boom!
It felt like a real bolt of thunder had struck Gong Wei’s head, his eyes turned dim, and his mind went blank. As if a part of his soul left his body, charging straight towards the Underworld.
Why is it me again?
What delicate bare hands, handsome and sturdy build, ethereal beauty. I’m just a mere brick in your literature, for you to move wherever you need it to, right?
As he sat in a daze, Gong Wei heard the panicked voices of Meng Yunfei and Yuchi Xiao, “Young Master Xiang! What’s wrong with you, Young Master Xiang?”
“Calm down little Mei demon! The novel is all fiction!”
“Calm down, calm down!…”
“No, no, this story is too exaggerated!” At this point, some guests downstairs were also raising their voices in protest. A few veiled women who had come out for tea, perhaps ladies from wealthy families or cultivators from local sects, were discontented and interrupted, “It’s well known that Lord Xu had a deep affection for his late wife, and the portrait of her still hangs in Cang Yang Sect. How can you fabricate lies and defame people like this? This is so disrespectful to the deceased!”
The guests who had been listening on with great interest were also stunned, and after a short while they said, “That’s true.”
“That makes sense!”
“This…” the old storyteller was interrupted for the third time that day, and his mouth dropped wide open, “Yes, I was rash. Then, according to the opinion of these ladies, what story should I talk about today?”
After some chatter and discussion among the guests, someone suggested, “Let’s hear ‘Goodbye My Lover’ about Lord Xu and his late wife
‘Goodbye My Lover’ was a popular novel, which came about more than ten years ago, and had been passed along as a timeless favourite.
As long as it was not told in the presence of Lord Xu or in Cang Yang Sect, no one would violently object to this selection. The old storyteller sighed with relief, thinking that he should finally be safe, so with a smack, he slapped down the nine square wood and began, “This story, Goodbye My Lover, which has been sung in the north and south of the country, tells of the year when Lord Xu was gravely injured while slaying demons and was fortunately saved by a lady. This lady was beautiful, intelligent and kind but it was a pity that she was a mortal peasant.”
Someone in the crowd laughed and exclaimed, “There are so many immortal ladies in the Xuanmen, why would the Cang Yang Sect Master marry a peasant’s daughter?”
The old man said with a straight face, “You can’t say that. There are some people in this world who are very beautiful but hide a cold and shallow heart, so they will not be a good match after all. There are others who are without the gift of beauty but bear a pure heart, so they will be a harmonious match. So how can we generalise in this manner? Besides, the truth cannot be traced by you and I, and what we are talking about is just a story.”
The audience chimed in agreement, but only Meng Yunfei wondered, “What’s wrong with you, Brother Yuchi?”
“…”
He saw Yuchi Xiao fidgeting with uneasiness, he had a strange look on his face and was gulping down mouthful after mouthful of saliva.
“This Goodbye My Lover is…after the death of the Chief Gong, my uncle bore a deep hatred for the Cang Yang Sect Master, so…”
Meng Yunfei blinked, “So?”
“So… he paid someone to write…”
Gong Wei’s wisp of soul had just struggled back into his body. Hearing this, his soul was once again ejected forcibly by a Nine Heavenly Divine Thunder.
“Although the woman was merely a peasant’s daughter, she was attentive and pleasant company. She meticulously took care of Lord Xu, and after spending time with each other, they fell in love. The night before Lord Xu left for Cang Yang Sect, he gave her a golden bracelet and said, ‘Although I am going far away, I will return in eighty-one days and ask for your hand in marriage.’ The woman smiled and accepted the golden bracelet—and guess what?”
The storyteller deliberately paused to keep the audience in suspense, and some of the guests said, “It must be a yes!”
Someone else laughed at this and said, “Who wouldn’t say yes? I’m afraid there’s no one in the world who wouldn’t!”
The storyteller proudly stroked his beard and said in a graphic manner to the room full of an audience with their necks stretched out in anticipation, “The lady put on the golden bracelet, called out ‘Lord Xu’, and said gently… “
Click.
It was a subtle ‘click’. Whoever made it had placed a wine cup back on a table neither gently nor forcefully.
But at that instant, as if an invisible hand had paused time, all the guests stopped moving, the storyteller’s mouth was still comically open, the shopkeeper’s half-poured wine was frozen in mid-air, and the errand boy maintained his posture of serving food without moving.
“…”
Gong Wei’s eyes fluttered, his consciousness slowly snapped back from his trance, and he was instantly horrified, glancing over at the source of the sound—
The man in the neighbouring seating area, separated by the beaded curtain, was drinking alone. He was now moving his gaze away from the peach blossoms outside the window and with a long, strong hand, he was still holding on to the cup of wine in front of him.
Gong Wei’s pupils widened without a sound.
He watched as the man picked up the cup again and drank it with a single gulp, then he stood up. A disguise spell could be seen slowly fading from his face to reveal his solemn expression.
It was Xu Shuangtze.
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Chansie and Sahl’s extensive Notes: So, we changed the story names in this chapter (and the next) for a couple of reasons – because they don’t translate well into English and also to help make them more relevant for our lovely readers. Here are the original names, with a brief synopsis and why we changed them. We had fun.
Direct translation: Kaiyuan Miscellaneous News
Our Version: Kaiyuan Tabloid News
Direct translation: Clearing a Path to Qi Mountain
Our Version: Demon Slaying Immortals
Synopsis: A story about Ying Kai and Xu Shuangtze killing demons. The book was given to Gong Wei as a child.
Direct translation: River Water Immortal
Our Version: Heroic Deeds of the Sword Sect Master
Synopsis: A story about Yuchi Rui calming a flood.
Direct translation: Tyrannical Sword Immortal and His February Peach
Our Version: Tyrannical Sword Immortal and His Spring Peach
Synopsis: An erotic story featuring Gong Wei and Yuchi Rui.
Direct translation: Dongting Song
Our Version: Lakeside Lover
Synopsis: An erotic story featuring Gong Wei and Lui Xuzhi.
Direct translation: Undying Love of the Yellow Springs
Our Version: The Underworld: A Story of Undying Love
Synopsis: An erotic story featuring Gong Wei and Xu Shuangtze.
Direct translation: Missing the Lady’s Charm
Our Version: Goodbye, My Lover
Synopsis: A love story featuring Xu Shuangtze and Gong Wei his wife.
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