Chapter 57

What should one feel when staring into the eyes of one’s copy that is floating in the air?

Especially when this copy has an icy expression, with his eyes full of frost, as if he deeply hates this world for some reason.

A chill runs through Cheng Qian’s spine. He can’t help taking a step backward, thinking, “What the hell is this?”

As soon as he thinks that, the floating ‘Cheng Qian’ already flies to him like a ghost and raises his hand to slap him.

Cheng Qian: “…”

Of course, even if he is startled by this thing, he won’t let himself be hit by a small shade. With just one move, Cheng Qian flies out of the room and stands on the wall outside. He looks at Yan Zhengming, who is fumbling to withdraw the ‘ghost’ back to the ring, with a weirded out expression. “What is this?”

Having no way to talk himself out of this, Yan Zhengming hides his index finger. Not long after he reaches a relaxed state, he stops wanting to live again.

Li Yun immediately cuts in to ‘explain’ for his sect leader and senior brother. He unnecessarily says, “It’s an imitation spirit.”

The so-called ‘imitation spirit’ is a contrast to ‘true spirit’. Everything in this world has a spirit. Objects that have existed for a long time like ancient jade or ancient wood can gain sentience. When one carves some simple spells on such objects, which have spiritual energy but haven’t gained sentience, such an imitation spirit can be created.

Although an imitation spirit looks like a real person, it has no awareness or intelligence, and can only do some mechanical tasks. Some imitation spirits made from sharp objects are aggressive, but they only know one move. Some others can do some trivial tasks like sending messages or serving tea. In other words, besides showing off to mortals, the imitation spirits aren’t very useful.

“I know that thing is an imitation spirit,” Cheng Qian doubtfully says, “It… that thing… why…”

Although Cheng Qian doesn’t think of his own looks as anything remarkable, he can’t help feeling that something isn’t right, as he sees that the little imitation spirit looks just like him. He asks with a frown, “...Does it look like that?”

Seeing a way out from the tight place he is in, Yan Zhengming puts his hand over Li Yun’s mouth, and finally manages to speak for himself. “Because I thought of you when I saw the coin, so I made it at a whim. Uhm, don’t think too much about it.”

Full of schadenfreude, Li Yun thinks, Heh, he keeps digging himself deeper.

“What do I think too much about?” Squatting on the wall, Cheng Qian has more and more questions. “Furthermore, didn’t you make that coin yourself?”

An imitation shade can only be created from raw material, not a man-made artifact. Cheng Qian is in his usual form, where he doesn’t know what he should know, but always knows the inconvenient things.

Yan Zhengming has no reply to that. He feels humiliated, like he were caught red-handed when cheating, and, to make the matter worse, the one that caught him had bad eyesight and just kept staring.

Cheng Qian asks, “Also, what did it raise its hand for? Did it want to have a round of sparring with me?”

Li Yun easily escapes from his most senior brother, who has gone stiff, and replies leisurely, “Ah, it wants to slap you. An imitation spirit doesn’t recognise who is who. It’ll slap whoever stands in front of it.”

Yan Zhengming: “…”

Hearing that, Cheng Qian’s face, which has been calm like a lake that has no ripple, looks troubled. Frowning, he thinks it over carefully, then asks hesitantly, “Most senior brother, did I do something to make you misunderstand? I don’t slap anyone. I don’t grab people’s hair and scratch their faces either.”

“No, it’s just…” In the beginning, Yan Zhengming helplessly tries to defend himself. Then he quickly realises that Cheng Qian is teasing him again. Feeling that he can’t keep his position as their most senior brother for much longer, he points at Cheng Qian and orders. “Get down here, now!”

Adding fuel to the fire, Li Yun, who is next to Yan Zhengming, casually adds. “It’s just that our most senior brother made a mistake when he created this imitation spirit.”

Yan Zhengming says, “So what? That small mistake doesn’t affect the final outcome in general!”

Chuckling, Li Yun continues, “He initially wanted to create someone who would talk to him at night, so that he wouldn’t lose his sleep because he felt lonely in bed.”

Cheng Qian: “…”

He suddenly feels strangely embarrassed, sensing that, after a round of teasing, he himself has become a target.

Especially the ‘lonely in bed’ part, which just doesn’t sound right to him.

Having used both of his disciple brothers for his entertainment, Li Yun feels very satisfied. It doesn’t bother him that his sect leader and senior brother uses his sword as a stick to chase after him.

Yan Zhengming yells, “Today I have to teach you a lesson!”

Li Yun replies, “Ow, sect leader and senior brother, it isn’t a good look to lash out like that, just because you’re embarrassed.”

Yan Zhengming chases Li Yun from the inner quarter to the outer quarter. As the young servants, who are sweeping the yard, stare at him in surprise, he has to stop and puts on a serious face. After discreetly adjusting his robe, he dignifiedly walks by.

With a conciliatory smile, Li Yun follows him and says, “I just wanted to make Xiao-Qian laugh a bit.”

Hearing that, Yan Zhengming loses his temper. “You wanted to make him laugh, so you used me as fodder for your jokes? You’re really something, Li Yun.”

“My sect leader and senior brother is a generous person, who won’t hold a grudge over such tiny things,” Having said that not very sincere flattery, Li Yun pauses a little, then he says in a more serious tone. “Have you seen it? Xiao-Qian hasn’t changed, but I feel that, after returning, he doesn’t seem to be really human.”

Yan Zhengming stops in his track.

Li Yun continues. “You know, back then that boy regularly pissed people off, like he couldn’t get along with anyone, but he was lively in his own way. Unlike now, if you don’t look at him directly, it feels like he doesn’t exist at all. A flower growing on a rock is more alive than him.”

“Oh,” Yan Zhengming immediately recounts to Li Yun what Cheng Qian told him.

Li Yun’s expression becomes even graver.

Yan Zhengming asks, “What’s wrong?”

“Creating a body from an artifact. I’ve never heard about something like that,” Li Yun mused. “Who is this Tang Zhen guy?”

Yan Zhengming says, “I heard it from Xiao-Qian that…”

Li Yun waves his hand dismissively. “You shouldn’t just hear from him alone. Don’t you understand your own junior brother? He can go through fire for a person who has helped him. It’s likely he doesn’t think too much about it. Even if he does think about it, he doesn’t necessarily hold on to his thoughts.”

Yan Zhengming teases. “Well, aren’t you the only smart guy around?”

Li Yun glares at him. “The Soul-Consuming Lamp is an artifact of great evil. Even someone like our Master lost his mind for a while back then, to the point that he tore his own portrait. This Senior Tang was stuck in the Lamp for more than one hundred years. What would his mind be like? Well, I’m a coward, so whether he meant well or ill, that detail makes me worry a little. Also, I’m sure Xiao-Qian wasn’t completely honest to you. How could a divine artifact like the Spirit Collection Jade be transformed by human hands so easily? Such a serious defiance of the heavenly order must have been subjected to a major heavenly tribulation, and likely not just one round. Hey, where are you going? Did your tail get burnt or something?”

Yan Zhengming says, “I have to kill him!”

As Cheng Qian sits alone on the wall around Yan Zhengming’s quarter, he sees the weeds on the wall, and is suddenly reminded of the “Dried wood meets spring” move.

The wild flowers in the cracks sway slightly. After a moment of stillness, they suddenly become full of life, as if waking up. Just as Cheng Qian’s wish, long stems grow and the tiny white flowers bloom brilliantly.

An unusual thought comes to Cheng Qian. “Alive again.”

Although Yan Zhengming has declared that he has to kill Cheng Qian, this scene greets him as soon as he enters his quarters, and extinguishes his anger in a blink of an eye. Hearing him, Cheng Qian looks up and smiles. “Should I scram too?”

Yan Zhengming quietly looks at the white flowers on the wall for a while. The anger refuses to come to him, but he doesn’t want to let it slide, so he picks a fight. “White flowers on grey wall. Is this a shrine? Change to another colour!”

Cheng Qian says with a smile. “Negotiate with it yourself.”

Then he casually jumps down from the wall and is gone in just a second.

Standing on the spot, Yan Zhengming recalls Li Yun’s opinion that “Xiao-Qian doesn’t feel alive”. He feels a little doubtful and wonders if Li Yun has been thinking too much again. Then he walks to the wall, and using the energy on fingertip as a knife, he cuts the flowers and puts them in a vase in his quarter.

When night falls, Yan Zhengming is worried again, so he goes to the bamboo grove.

Cheng Qian is meditating. Without disturbing, Yan Zhengming walks around the room.

It is obvious that the mattress hasn’t been touched at all. In the study, the brush is still leaning on the inkwell. The tea on the shelf hasn’t been used any. There is only a cup of cold water on the table.

Frowning, Yan Zhengming quietly observes Cheng Qian for a while. He thinks, “What is the ice lake of Mingming Valley like?”

After fifty years in a place where water freezes. It does feel a bit unfair to wish him to be lively and expressive right way.

As soon as he thinks that, Yan Zhengming doesn’t have the heart to be angry.

In the cool breeze of the bamboo grove, the awareness in the sect leader seal on Yan Zhengming’s chest can be felt more clearly. The day before, he made good progress in there, so he quietly meditates right there and uses his primordial spirit to enter the sect leader seal.

Once again, he faces the ‘heaven’ layer and lets the awareness in the sect leader seal lead him deeper. When his awareness connects with the one in the seal, the memory fragments once again appear in front of his eyes.

However, this time, Yan Zhengming feels that he is no longer an audience. All of the emotions in the memories feel so real, that he unconsciously loses himself in them. Gradually, there is no separation between his self and what is inside anymore.

Once again, he sees Lord Gu in many scenes. There is nothing strange about this. Unlike Cheng Qian, he has never seen the real selves of their Master and disciple grandfather. Among the people who had close relations with the previous generation of Fuyao Mountain, he knows only Gu Yanxue.

In here, Lord Gu seems to be much more healthy than when Yan Zhengming met him. He is facing a middle-aged man. The other man has grey hair on his temples, his eyes are deep. Between those two is a large stone with a water-like surface.

It is none other than the stone in Cheng Qian’s quarter - Qing An Abode on Fuyao Mountain.

Gu Yanxue is saying something very fast, as he puts one thin hand on the stone. He shakes his head at the other person, looking full of worry. The stranger only listens without replying anything.

A strong reaction suddenly rises in Yan Zhengming’s heart. He feels that there is a strong relationship between him and this stranger, so he can’t resist pushing his awareness deeper. In a split second, his eyes are full of stars as his perspective changes. As Yan Zhengming recovers from the vertigo, he realises Lord Gu is somehow right in front of him.

Yan Zhengming immediately understands that he is taking the place of the stranger, as if he is haunting him. Terrified, he wants to get out, but right at that moment, a great sorrow invades his heart and, without any warning, pins him where he is like a sharp blade.

In the beginning, Yan Zhengming is still very aware that this intense emotion isn’t his own, and tries to struggle to escape.

However, this kind of desperate sorrow and deep hatred that can’t be contained by anything, Yan Zhengming has experienced himself not long ago. As the emotions from the outside resonate with what is in his heart, he can no longer resist, and gets pulled into the memory.

What can make a person more lonely and resentful than unfulfilled wishes that are deeply suppressed, and the pain of every trigger he has is pressed.

At this moment, a gust of icy energy suddenly floods in and fills Yan Zhengming with a coldness that cuts to his heart. He suddenly wakes up, then as everything swirls in front of his eyes, he is expulsed from the sect leader seal. As he pants desperately, the sound of thunder is somewhere around him.

Cheng Qian was startled by the thunder. Although it was a good thing that Yan Zhengming’s cultivation got through a bottleneck, apparently something was forcing his cultivation to increase abnormally before he reinforced it. Besides the fact that he nearly got subjected to a minor heavenly tribulation, a red light flashed around his eyebrows, indicating that he had been going too fast, and provoked the demon of his heart.

He didn’t wake up, no matter how much Cheng Qian called for him. Having no other choice, Cheng Qian had to send a wave of spiritual energy into his back, to wake him up from his meditative trance.

Seeing as he is still not completely conscious, Cheng Qian wants to tap his face. However, as soon as Cheng Qian raises his hand, Yan Zhengming instinctively leans backward.

Cheng Qian awkwardly waves his head in front of Yan Zhengming. “Senior brother, look carefully. I’m not that thing. I won’t hit you. Have you woken up yet?”

Yan Zhengming’s ears are filled with a buzzing sound, so he doesn’t hear Cheng Qian at all. Although his primordial spirit is out of the seal, he is still oblivious to the outside, as the sorrow still haunts in his heart.

He suddenly seizes Cheng Qian’s hand and aggressively squeezes it, as a voice screams mournfully in his heart. “He’s mine. I won’t let you take him away!”

His strange gaze startles Cheng Qian. He looks like a starving wolf.

In a second, the sound of thunder rises again. Cheng Qian dares not hesitate any longer. He forms tiny grains of frost in his hand and shoots them at Yan Zhengming’s forehead, causing the latter’s hair there to be filled with frost. “Most senior brother!”

Yan Zhengming startles. His gaze softens, his grip loosens, and he looks up rather confusedly. “Xiao-Qian, what’s wrong?”

Cheng Qian doesn’t reply. He carefully listens to the outside. Only when the sound of thunder has faded that he relaxes. With a frown, he says, “It’s me who should ask you that. Why do you try to raise your level out of nowhere? You nearly got into a minor heavenly tribulation. Did you encounter a demon of the heart?”

These words immediately remind Yan Zhenming of the emotional upheavals he just went through. Feeling uncomfortable, he avoids Cheng Qian’s eyes and finds an excuse. “Oh, when I was in the sect leader seal, I ran into a memory fragment. It seemed I got affected by it.”

Cheng Qian listens carefully to his descriptions, and replies with certainty. “The person you saw must be Lord Beiming, our disciple grandfather. Can it be that the ‘old friend’ Lord Gu mentioned is him?”

Yan Zhengming isn’t surprised by this answer. When he was in the sect leader seal, he could guess that stranger must have been either his disciple grandfather or the true form of his Master. He doesn’t pay much attention to the matter, as his heart is still full of that strange emotion from a while ago.

Seeing that his face isn’t good, Cheng Qian cuts off the conversation. “I think you should take a rest?”

Yan Zhengming himself doesn’t feel well, so he listens to the advice and stands up. “Yeah, I’ll go back to my place and sleep.”

Cheng Qian annoyedly says, “Didn’t you come here to avoid the heat? You can just sleep here. I’m not fighting you for the bed.”

“No… uh, no need,” Yan Zhengming’s throat immediately goes dry. He picks a random excuse. “The- the pillow in your place is too tough. I’m not used to it. I’m going.”

Then, not even looking at Cheng Qian, he runs off.

Cheng Qian summons the pillow to him and squeezes it. All he can see is that his sect leader and most senior brother keeps getting more and more unreasonable. What does Yan Zhengming want to sleep on? A pile of fluffs?

At this moment, a bird the size of a fist charges in like a cannonball and gets into Cheng Qian’s lap. A girlish voice comes out of the bird. “Oh, most… Huh? Third Brother, did our most senior brother gift this place to you?”

It turns out to be Puddle.

Before Cheng Qian can reply, the bird already fluffs up her feathers and angrily jumps around on his arm. She cries. “I’m so mad! I’m so mad! I can’t turn back!”

Cheng Qian hasn’t had much contact with women, so he doesn’t feel comfortable when facing a grown up version of his little disciple sister. As she is currently in her bird form, he feels much more relaxed. He asks, “What’s wrong?”

“I ran into an asshole on my way. He wanted me because of my looks, so he trapped me. I had to chew the net all night to damage it enough to escape. I don’t know what kind of evil spell is on that net, but I can’t transform back!” Puddle stomps around, as if to let out her anger. “I have to burn him to death!”

Cheng Qian reaches out and touches the downy feathers on Puddle’s head, asking, “Who is that?”

Puddle sullenly rubs his hand. “I don’t know.”

“Let me take you to Second Brother. Maybe he’ll have a solution,” Cheng Qian says as he rises, “I heard that there has been endless fighting outside. You shouldn’t go out alone next time.”

Puddle is upset. She hangs her head. “When will I grow up to be a powerful yao?”

These words are very familiar. Cheng Qian recalls how he used to be unable to sleep at night, wondering when he would be a powerful cultivator who could control the elements.

He can’t help the smile on his lips. As he is about to console his little disciple sister, Puddle already interrupts his line of thinking with her complaint. “Why am I always harassed in bird form, but no one would pay attention to me when I’m in human form? Are they all blind? I’m so mad!”

Cheng Qian: “…”

He senses that maybe he misunderstood why his little sister is angry.