There are some alive who have already died; there are some alive who should have long since died.
Jiang Xunyi felt this phrase fit himself very well, since he had clearly already diedââdied guilty of evil crimes, died at the perfect moment. Yet he had not been dead for even an hour when he opened his eyes once again.
This definitely wasnât the promised âreturning homeâ!
Upon opening his eyes, his surroundings were pitch-black to the point where he couldnât even see his hand in front of him. He could only hear weeping and sobbing noises echoing from his side, coming from both men and women. Furthermore, he seemed to be in a relatively enclosed space.
Jiang Xunyiâs lips moved slightly, silently chanting a few incantations. Upon touching his brow bones with his fingers, his line of sight finally became clear.
Around a dozen young men and women were here in this narrow mountain cave, each one wailing and weeping so grievously as if their dear mothers had died. At the mouth of the cave, two masked men dressed in black robes with red embroidery grasped long lances and stood utterly still.
These people obviously did not know why they had been locked up here. It was also obvious that although Jiang Xunyi no longer held the leading role âequally famous as the main character, one of the Dual Jades1 of the Spirit Stageâ⊠he had definitely transmigrated yet again.
Jiang Xunyi wrinkled his nose, sensing that some disguise object had been applied to his face, though he had no intention to remove it at the moment.
He didnât know if he had transmigrated into a book again this time. Will I have to play a villain boss? The feeling of being screamed at, accused, chased, and beaten isnât pleasant, I donât want to go through that again! âŠFuck, could this girl right beside me not use my sleeves to wipe her tears?
Jiang Xunyi roared complaints in his heart, but his face maintained a smile. He patiently waited until the girl took a temporary intermission from wiping her mucus and tears, and then suppressed his irritable nature to speak slowly and softly: âI just woke up and my brain is a little unclear. Girl, where is this place?â
Unexpectedly hearing someone speaking into her ear, that woman trembled from shock. Then upon immediately discerning it was Jiang Xunyi talking, she straight-up shook her sleeves and spat out: âYou damned second idiot2, have you forgotten my name again? And has your pig brain ever been clear once? Weâre about to die and you still want to stick to my side, pah, Iâm truly unlucky.â
Jiang Xunyiâs patience had all been used up. He had originally been confident that he could return to the modern world after completing that task, but then ended up in this annoying situation. He had continually restrained the anger in his heart, yet was now inexplicably being berated by this person out of nowhere. His facial expression immediately changed and he had just raised his hand, when he heard another voice quietly urging from the side: âBig Sister Fang, donât scold Du Heng any more. After all, he was deceived into taking the fall for the young lord. Heâs quite pitiful tooâŠâ
Jiang Xunyi slowly put his hand down and did not speak any more.
This Big Sister Fang spoke through her tears: âPitiful? Yeah right! All he can do alive is be disdained and looked down upon by everyone. He might as well die off nicely and cleanly. But why did we get roped in the same situation?! Demon Sovereign Xuan Liâs resurrection back into this world is said to require eighteen male and female sacrifices born on the Ghost Festival. I already knew I would have trouble escaping this calamityâŠâŠâ
Jiang Xunyi had already stopped listening to her endless complaining after that. The four words âDemon Sovereign Xuan Liâ had completely drawn his attention and put him on high alert3. That name quickly raced through his mind over and over.
Dammit, heâs actually still inside this accursed ăRising Clouds, Billowing Skies4ă.
It wasnât that he was super sensitive to this name, but Demon Sovereign Xuan Liâs presence was extraordinarily strong. Inside thisăRising Clouds, Billowing Skiesăbook, he counted as a very important villain boss character. Before Jiang Xunyiâs betrayal, he and the protagonist Yun Xie strategized together how to take this Demon Sovereign downâŠâŠWait a second. Fuck.
Demon Lord Xuan Li resurrected back into this world?!
This isnât right!
Back in the day I5 spent so much goddamn effort and almost fucking died to kill him, how come he gets to be revived at the drop of a hat?!
Now Jiang Xunyi somewhat realized why he still couldnât go back home.
In addition, this shocking realization also shocked out some memories and impressions of Du Hengââthat is, his current body.
Speaking of Du Heng, what Big Sister Fang said about him being a âdamned second lunaticâ wasnât technically wrong. Du Heng really was a congenital, incurable idiot.
Of the top sects in the cultivation world, the seventh place belonged to the Heze6 Du Sect. The Du family head had both a wife and a concubine. The wife was named Yin Ling, the concubine called Cheng Dan. This wife and concubine both gave birth to a son on the same day. The concubineâs son was born earlier, and named Du Li. This Du Li was very famous with a virtuous and wise reputation; Jiang Xunyi had heard of him before, though never seen him in-person. On the other hand, Madam Du suffered a difficult birth. Only after an entire day and night in labor did she deliver the Du Sectâs first legitimate child, who took the name Du Heng. Unfortunately, though Du Heng was the son of the first wife, his head had been injured at birth so he became dull-witted and slow.
Making matters even worse7, his mother also passed away from illness when he was still an infant. As the classic wicked stepmother, Cheng Dan wouldnât live up to this title if she didnât screw him over. The only reason Du Heng had been able to smoothly live up until now was because no one wanted to deal with this intellectually disabled idiot. Then when Demon Sovereign Xuan Liâs re-emergence selected eighteen men and women as sacrifices, Cheng Dan certainly couldnât bear to send her own dear son to die. In the midst of her fretting, she thought of Du Heng.
Du Heng and Du Li were originally brothers of the same age and status. Their appearances even looked half-similar, so Cheng Dan slightly modified Du Hengâs face and dressed him up as his older brother. Together with the other seventeen men and women, he was sent into Demon Sovereign Xuan Liâs Breaking Heaven Demon Cave8. âŠIt was still unclear how he got replaced with Jiang Xunyi.
Jiang Xunyi secretly controlled his breath9, and discovered this body actually had an abundance of spiritual energy. It was still slightly below that of his original body, but Du Heng had somehow cultivated to quite a level. This comforting revelation raised his mood enough to start caring about the outside world.
The woman who had just been called Big Sister Fang actually had the surname of Cheng. She was also a young lady from a great cultivation family, and was in fact Cheng Danâs niece. This was why she could recognize Du Heng was not Du Li. At the moment, she was still crying while talking. Her words through her tears were honestly quite expressive and meticulously detailed. After just listening for a while from the side, Jiang Xunyi already understood the basics of the situation before him.
These eighteen peopleââincluding himââwere currently lambs awaiting the slaughter. The previously set hour for them to be sacrificed to the Demon Sovereign had already arrived, but for some unknown reason, Xuan Liâs arrival had been delayed. This indefinite wait actually filled everyoneâs hearts with tension, anxiety, and extreme uneasiness.
Jiang Xunyi held a blade of grass in his mouth as he leaned against the corner of the wall, concentrating on appearing as a quiet beautiful man. On the inside, his heart was unstable from this flood of new information. After being killed once, this world had changed too muchââhe had a bit of trouble keeping up. After pondering his situation over for a moment, he decided to stay here to wait and see what was going to happen.
Just at this moment, his sleeve was pulled by someone. Jiang Xunyi looked back to see that someone sitting down by his side. It was the girl who had recently stopped Cheng Fang from abusing him.
This woman was named Cheng Wei, and was the younger twin sister of Cheng Fang. Though these sisters were born together from the same mother, their temperaments and appearances were as different as could be. Cheng Wei looked around to see no one was paying attention to her. Only then did she reach into her sleeve, quietly take out some small snacks wrapped in a handkerchief, and whisper: âLittle Brother Heng, youâre probably hungry, right? Here, come eat a few snacks.â
This body had not reached the level of being able to fast10, so Jiang Xunyi really was somewhat hungry. After just casting a spell, he could see in the dark and glanced over to see that the handkerchief wrapping the snacks was clean. He was very satisfied and unceremoniously took the snacks over. He gulped them down one at a time, without even saying a word of thanks.
Hey, it wasnât that he didnât have manners, but because he was supposed to be an idiot.
Cheng Wei seemed to be used to it and didnât mind his attitude. Instead, she softly tidied up Jiang Xunyiâs somewhat messy hair and quietly sighed: ââŠI donât know how this Demon Sovereign Xuan Li became so powerful. Back in the day, the Yun and Jiang disciple-brothers fought a life-and-death battle to defeat him, and had to set nine seals before he was suppressed. No one could have expected him to manifest again so quickly. Itâs a pity that after Jiang-shixiongâs11 death, Yun-shixiong was seriously ill and didnât even speak for many months. He probably received an extremely heavy blow, and I donât know if heâll be able to come rescue us in timeâŠâ
Jiang Xunyi ate the snacks, his mouth secretly twitching. Complete and utter nonsense, where did she hear these Jianghu12rumors? I5 really was killed by himââyeah fucking right he âreceived a heavy blowâ. In the future when he finds out Iâm5 alive again, thatâll be when heâll truly receive a heavy blowâŠâŠ
Still, it was rare for someone to actually bring him up in a situation like this, and even be willing to call him âJiang-Shixiongâ. Although Jiang Xingyi usually handled matters quite viciously and did not have any tender feelings for the fairer sex, he would not dispute these meaningless things with a girl who was treating him kindly. As a result, he only listened silently and then carefully showed a silly smile to this gentle beauty.
Cheng Wei was mostly just talking to herself, and didnât really expect him to understand what she was saying. Seeing this, she pat his head. She originally wanted to give him some encouragement since that would be better than nothing, but before she could open her mouth to speak, a huge clanging noise came from outside the door.
The chaotic din inside the cave immediately stopped, and everyone looked at the door. Two arrays of masked men in black-red robes entered, all carrying spears. The leading man knocked on the ground with his spear and harshly ordered: âAll of you, go out!â
Footnotes:
1. ćç§(shuÄng bĂŹ): ç§=jade annulus (ring-shaped artifact), traditionally used as symbol of rank. The entire phrase of ćç§ often refers to a pair of matchless thingsâin this case, Jiang Xunyi and Yun Xie as the premier talented duo of their generation.
4. This book title has some relationship to Yun Xieâs name: Yun means Cloud, and is the exact Cloud in this title.
5. Jiang Xunyi here refers to himself as èćïŒlÇo zÇ ïŒïŒan arrogant and very informal way for young men to refer to themselves. (One of its alternate meanings is âdaddyâ lol.) In the future, I will leave this as âIâ, but the associated sentence will have an appropriately informal tone with lots of swearing đ
9. è°æŻ = Pranayama, a meditative technique of controlling the breath to draw out oneâs life force (or something like that).
10. èŸè°· (pĂŹ gÇ) = originally a Taoist practice of abstaining from grain. In cultivation novels, this instead refers to how once you reach a high enough level of cultivation, you donât need to eat or drink.
11. ćžć (shÄ« xiĆng) lit. âdisciple elder brotherâ = senior fellow male apprentice. I donât want to keep spamming âdisciple elder brotherâ over and over, so I decided to keep this as âShixiongâ.
12. æ±æč (jiÄng hĂșïŒ lit. ârivers and lakesâ = the martial arts world of ancient China