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Editor: Sahloknir
The scene which seemed to have been frozen earlier now blasted into a frenzy. Everyone was unable to believe their ears.
Who is he?
What did the Sovereign call him?
Did I hear him correctly?
A buzz of discussion could be heard in the crowd, even the elders and spiritual masters couldn’t help but stare in disbelief, but no one was as horrified as Gong Wei.
“Erm… Sovereign…”
Xu Shuangtze’s hand stilled in mid-air, but he didn’t stop from repeating, “Come here.”
Gong Wei could feel many eyes fixated on him as he stared at Xu Shuangtze. He reluctantly stepped forward with a hunched back.
Xu Shuangtze’s hand landed heavily on his shoulder. He paid no attention to anyone’s expression, and turned to Jing Xu, “Return to Xuanji Palace.”
—
“Who has the Sovereign brought back?”
Xiang Xiaoyuan? Who is Xiang Xiaoyuan?”
“What did you say the Sovereign called him? Say that again?”
“…”
The boisterous whispers drifted through the watching crowd like a wind, this gossip spread far and wide throughout Cang Yang Sect within half a day.
But the centre of everyone’s discussion—the Xuanji Hall, was empty and quiet at the moment, the building was high and magnificent, the draperies glittering. Xu Shuangtze lifted his robe and sat behind down, saying succinctly, “Take off your clothes.“
Gong Wei’s movements froze, and only after a long time did he say politely, “My Lord, this is not appropriate, is it?”
Xu Shuangtze asked, “Why?”
“This disciple’s personal reputation is worthless, but I fear that the Sovereign’s reputation would be tarnished…”
“Cough—” Two disciples standing guard behind the distant stone pillar choked on their own saliva, and then straightened up stiffly with a chill, their throats spasming but they did not dare to utter another sound.
Xu Shuangtze’s dark eyes stared at him, but to Gong Wei’s surprise, he was not agitated in the least and did not tell him to get lost. Xu Shuangtze said with indifference,”You and I are master and disciple, it doesn’t matter.”
Gong Wei replied immediately, “This disciple dares not! I am merely an outer…”
“Your Lordship is Master to all of the Cang Yang Sect’s disciples. You may not be our direct Shizun but we regard you more than our direct Shizun, right?”
Gong Wei, “…”
Gong Wei was speechless and forced himself to look straight at Xu Shuangtze and said with a voice full of sincere admiration, “What Shizun said is extremely true!”
Gong Wel slowly reached out to undo his sash under the oppressive gaze of Xu Shuangtze. He took off his outer robe even more slowly, and as if peeling the skin of a grape, he gradually took off his inner garment. Only until his upper body was completely exposed, he finally realised that the other party had no intention of asking him to stop.
Do you really want me to strip naked?
If Gong Wei didn’t know how strict and ascetic Xu Shuangtze was, and how indestructible his cultivation of Path of No Emotions was after centuries of training, he might have mistaken his intentions for something sordid.
“…”
It doesn’t matter, he doesn’t know who I am anyway. Besides, it’s hard to say who’s taking advantage of who after stripping naked in front of Xu Shuangtze.
Gong Wei shut his eyes tightly, clenched his teeth and reached out to undo the sash on his pants. At this moment, he heard “Stop.”
A bottle of ointment appeared in Xu Shuangtze’s hand at some point and he said coldly, “I just want to give you this medicine, there is no need to take off your pants in such a hurry.”
“…”
Not far away behind the stone pillars was complete silence, the disciples guarding the hall were probably scared out of their wits from the shock.
It took all of Gong Wei’s acting skills to tense up his expression and transform it into a gratuitous look as he reached out for the bottle, “This disciple has nothing to repay Shizun’s great kindness, how could I dare to trouble Master with this mere injury? I’d rather do it myself …”
Xu Shuangtze’s hand which held on to the ointment raised slightly and he said, “Come here.”
Alright then, Xu Bai seems to be in the mood today to show a master’s love towards his disciple…
Gong Wei took in a breath, his greatest advantage was that he could act out any role, his face straightened out at once, “Thank you, Shizun!” Then he respectfully walked forwards and sat down on his knees.
The wound on his left shoulder, which was caused by a sword stab from the ghost cultivator, had already begun to heal. Probably because it had been smeared, like laying cement, with half a bucket of Thousand Gold Sacred Medicine by a Medical Sect disciple at Linjiang City—the price of that medicine could create a Xiang Xiaoyuan statue out of pure gold.
But this bottle of medicine in Xu Shuangtze’s hand should be even more precious and rare, and there was no telling what the shimmering, pearly-looking medicinal Qi was made of. A coldness spread over Gong Wei’s skin, followed by the complete disappearance of any pain in the wound. It dried up and scabbed before his eyes, bringing an indescribable tingling deep within his inner tendons and bones as the medicine took effect.
“—Gbc’a wbnf.” We Vtejcuahf revvfcis ugjyyfv tbiv bo Xbcu Qfl’r gluta tjcv ktlmt gfjmtfv bea lc jc jaafwqa ab rmgjamt ja atf kbecv.
Xu Shuangtze’s hand not only looked cold, it was cold to the touch as well. The meridians in his knuckles contained an unimaginably strong qi, and Gong Wei’s right hand was instantly caught in his grip, frozen in mid-air, unable to move an inch.
Coafg j ktlif bo rlifcmf tf tfjgv We Vtejcuahf vgsis rjslcu, “Zfvlmlcf lr fzqfcrlnf.”
Pc tlr qgfnlber ilof, Xbcu Qfl tjv bcmf raglqqfv cjxfv ab qijs lc atf kjafg lc ogbca bo We Vtejcuahf, yea atja kjr ktfc tf kjr sbecu jcv vlvc’a xcbk ktja tf kjr vblcu. Coafg tf kjr jqqblcafv jr atf Jtlfo bo atf Glrmlqilcjgs Jbega, tf cb ibcufg vlv atja. Ciatbeut Xbcu Qfl kjr bcis abqifrr, tf revvfcis ofia fwyjggjrrfv jcv uijcmfv bnfg ja We Vtejcuahf.
Xu Shuangtze’s eyes were beautifully shaped, hence when he looked down, his eyelashes were like sharp, curved blades. Perhaps it was because he had never been very expressive, hence he did not look dazzling on first impression, but gave off an overwhelming aura instead.
A chill suddenly ran up from the bottom of Gong Wei’s heart.
“You…can’t…do this to me…,” he suddenly heard his own choking gasps ringing in his ears.
“You can’t do this to me, Xu Shuangtze…I-I like you…”
Why do I have this vision?
When did this happen?
Gong Wei sat motionless on his knees, but his pupils constricted, and his gaze unconsciously fell on Xu Shuangtze, as his stare travelled up, he became fixated on the other’s jade-like throat.
He had done that to me—that voice full of sadness and despair was so crisp and clear. It had emerged again from the depths of Gong Wei’s subconsciousness.
So close, I just have to reach out…
Just reach out…
“How did you get hurt?”
Gong Wei jolted back to his senses and winced, “What?”
Xu Shuangtze glanced at him unswervingly, “I asked how you were injured.”
As if just waking up from a dream, Gong Wei felt a tidal wave of fear crashing and elevating from his back to the top of his head, realising that he had just skimmed on the boundary of life and death.
But he had no time to calm down, and instantly revealed a face of embarrassment as he lowered his head and replied, “Shizun, this disciple encountered a ghost cultivator outside the Prince of Lingjiang’s residence, and I was ashamed that due to my low level of cultivation…”
“Wasn’t Yuchi Xiao there?”
“Young Master Yuchi tried his best but was unable to defeat it in battle and was really helpless, so…”
“Tried his best but unable to defeat it,” Xu Shuangtze repeated with mockery as he finally finished applying the medicine. He released Gong Wei’s hand from his palm and sat back down.
Just like that, the distance between the two widened.
Gong Wei let out a small, imperceptible breath of relief and immediately put on his coat. That burst of emotions was a myriad of murderous intent, regret and fear which drummed in his ears and bombarded his seemingly calm expression.
“Yuchi Xiao is the family head’s nephew, but because of the special circumstances of the Yuchi family, the Sword Sect Master does not dare to bear a descendant in his lifetime. Yuchi Xiao is destined to be the heir of the Golden Gate, and has been raised and taught by the Sword Sect Master personally since he was a young boy.” Xu Shuangtze wiped the ointment on his finger onto a silk scarf slowly and methodically and continued, “If even he ‘tried his best but was unable to defeat it‘, then the entire Sword Sect lineage is probably trash as well.”
—That’s a wide range of blows.
The condescension of Lord Xu had not changed in sixteen years, so Gong Wei settled down and leaned over in conviction, “What Shizun said is very true, how can the Sword Sect family be compared to my Cang Yang Sect?!”
“Oh,” Xu Shuangtze asked, “then in your opinion, what makes the Sword Sect inferior to Cang Yang Sect?”
Gong Wei spoke loudly, “Shizun’s powers are unparalleled in the world, and the Sword Sect Master’s abilities are nothing near your skills, I am sure Shizun knows this well!”
Even if Xiang Xiaoyuan himself were here, he would not be able to flatter Xu Shuangtze with this much sincerity, and genuine feeling. Gong Wei, in his heart, apologised to Yuchi Rui repeatedly. Who told you to smash his sect’s stone monument. The way Big Brother Xu is cornering me to criticise you, it’s obvious that he still harbours a bitter resentment…
Xu Shuangtze said, “Yuchi Rui, Changsheng, had a very close relationship with the Lotus Immortal.”
It might have been that Gong Wei was overly sensitive, but for a moment, he suddenly sensed a hint of morose hostility in Xu Shuangtze.
“Most of the Yuchi family’s juniors are unruly, arrogant and underhanded. They are not worthy of your friendship. Stay away from this family.”
Hearing the comment, Gong Wei said in his heart, “Aren’t you the most unruly person in the world?” He then rose to respond to Xu Shuangtze but was stopped by a wave of his hand. Lord Xu tossed him the white jade ointment bottle and suddenly asked, “Didn’t you vow that you will not forgive the Lotus Immortal?”
Gong Wei replied in all seriousness, “It is outrageous that the Lotus Immortal would attempt to assassinate Shizun. This disciple pledges to be loyal to Cang Yang Sect and will never side with them!”
Xu Shuangtze said, “You also said that you would rather die than give your body to the soul of the Lotus Immortal.”
“Never!”
“Very well.” Xu Shuangtze glanced towards him and said leisurely, “But the Lotus Immortal is the master of his generation, what if he forcibly takes your body?”
“…”
Good question, Xu Bai, you might as well ask a young helpless girl being bullied by thugs how she can protect her chastity.
Gong Wei wanted to continue but stopped when he saw  Xu Shuangtze’s smirking gaze. He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly before finally exhaling a breath and stabilised his emotions.
Then he slapped the ground and said with conviction, “This disciple would rather kill myself!”
Slap, slap, slap.
Xu Shuangtze slowly held both palms together and said, “Worthy of being a disciple of my Cang Yang Sect.”
Gong Wei bowed calmly, but in his heart, he was cursing him over and over.
Then Xu Shuangtze said, “Since you are my beloved disciple, I naturally do not want you to kill yourself.”
As he stretched out his hand, a whirlwind wrapped in golden light coalesced out of thin air and landed in his palm. It suddenly transformed into an ink black jade slip, sealed with a green rope. Unrolling the black jade slip, countless densely packed, small, bright red characters were revealed, and at the very top were three words— ‘Soul Fixing Spell’,
“This is a secret art of my Cang Yang Sect. As the name suggests, it can completely fix the soul of one—within a body. If you practice the art, it will be impossible for anyone, even if they have the power of the heavens, to drive your soul out from this body again.”
Gong Wei’s heart sank, but his face did not show any changes and as he respectfully accepted the jade slip, he asked, “—Even if a disciple is enchanted or forced by another to offer up his body, it is still impossible to drive out the soul, right?”
It was obviously a very simple question, but Xu Shuangtze somehow paused for a moment before averting his gaze and saying.
“Yes.”
“From today onwards, you will live within Xuanji Palace and no longer have to return to the outer disciples’ residence. You will dedicate your time to cultivating the Soul Fixing Spell and I will check on you from time to time. If you fail to meet my expectations, you will be punished severely.” Xu Shuangtze waved his hand and it seemed no longer wanted to talk to him, “Leave now.”
The black jade slip had a bone piercing coldness to the touch, but ironically, in Gong Wei’s hand it was like a hot potato. Once his soul was fixed in Xiang Xiaoyuan’s body, how could the real Xiang Xiaoyuan’s soul ever be returned in the future?
Gong Wei stood in front of the window at the edge of the main hall and sighed. Suddenly, he heard someone outside the door say coldly, “Why are you being pretentious here?”
Gong Wei turned around, “Yo, Shixiong!”
Xu Shuangtze himself did not take in any disciples, but there were eight disciples guarding the at the door of the Xuanji Hall. Each of them had received his personal guidance over the years and appeared to everyone as the heirs of the Cang Yang Sect.
Twenty years ago when Gong Wei emerged from the illusionary world of the Thousand Dimension Mirror Realm, he repeatedly came to visit Xu Shuangtze for fun, but was shut out in front of the Xuanji Hall. One time, the great Chief Gong finally got annoyed and cast a spell which fixed these eight disciples in front of the mountain gate. They stood as straight as coffin boards, and then Gong Wei pasted a yellow talisman on each of their heads, with jarring words in his own ghastly handwriting, ‘One foot in the grave’.
The visitor was Wen Xiuyang, the head of these eight disciples, he had the same distasteful, dead face as before. He placed a food basket on the table.
“By order of the Sovereign, food is served.”
Gong Wei sighed, food was his last consolation in this miserable world, “Shixiong, you could just send someone to call for me, why did you come personally…What is this?!”
In the basket there was a large bowl made of celadon porcelain with silver ornaments. It was filled to the brim with cabbage boiled in water and like a mirror, it reflected Gong Wei’s desolate and blank expression.
Wen Xiuyang said, “Master has given instructions. To successfully cultivate the ‘Soul Fixing Spell’ you need to put in immense effort and not have any distractions in your mind. You will be fed a hundred grams of boiled cabbage every day.”
“…” Gong Wei’s lips trembled slightly, lowered his voice and desperately pleaded, “Shixiong, I want to eat some meat…”
Wen Xiuyang, in all honesty, did not look stifling. He had sword-shaped eyebrows, a long, lean body, and even a little bit of the spark of a young dandy, but as soon as he opened his mouth to speak, that stifling aura of a cold, dead man came rushing forward, “No.”
“Shixiong, I am seriously injured and have lost too much blood…”
“No.”
“Shixiong…”
“I have not been accepted as a personal disciple by the Sovereign, as you have been, I dare not be addressed as your Shixiong.”
Gong Wei pretended not to understand what he meant, “Don’t be so stubborn, Shixiong. You see, the entire Cang Yang Sect are Shizun’s disciples. You may not be his personal disciple but he sees you as such! Therefore, you are my…”
“Shut up!”
Wen Xiuyang finally couldn’t take it anymore, he turned his head and walked away. Gong Wei hurriedly took two steps after him, “Even a bottle of meat sauce will do, Shixiong—” Bang! The door of the room was slammed shut.
“One foot in the grave.” Gong Wei rubbed his hands together resentfully, “Such a rigid brain, no wonder he’s one place behind Yuchi Xiao in the martial rankings.”
Speaking of Yuchi’s eldest nephew, Gong Wei couldn’t help but miss him. At least when he was hanging out with Yuchi Xiao and Meng Yunfei, he could eat as much mouth-watering chicken as he wanted. At that time, he was annoyed with them, but who knew he would be reduced to living next door to Xu Shuangtze. Gong Wei suddenly felt that even Yuchi’s eldest nephew was incredibly generous and cute in comparison.
Gong Wei sat sadly in front of the celadon bowl, picked two droopy pieces of cabbage with his chopsticks and threw them back into the bowl with a long sigh. Suddenly, his fingers brushed something warm but hard.
A jade pendant.
He regained his spirit and pulled the item out of his sleeve. There it was, the blood jade pendant in the shape of the Qilin, the token of his engagement to Yuchi Xiao!
When Gong Wei left Linjiang City, he had been carried by Xu Shuangtze and tossed into the carriage, and at the moment of take-off, through the fluttering curtains, he had seen Yuchi Xiao chasing two steps after him, gesturing at the jade pendant on his waist and mouthed some words, “—Call me if there is danger!”
But everything happened too fast at that moment, and Gong Wei had no time to respond. When he got back to Cang Yang Mountain, he was so tired from dealing with Xu Shuangtze—as he had to weigh his words in his mind before he dared to say them—so he consequently didn’t remember anything about the jade pendant.
“—Yuchi Xiao,” he said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.
All the great sects and families had token items for their members to wear. Most of these tokens took the form of jade pendants, gold rings or bracelets and so on. Each of these tokens were enchanted with protection spells, which could automatically be activated in times of crisis to protect bearers from certain disasters.
Twenty years ago, before Xu Shuangtze entered the illusionary realm in the guise of General Bai, he took a golden bracelet from the Cang Yang Sect to protect himself. On it were placed countless spells and numerous runes were also inscribed. He later gave it to Lady Xu as a token of his love. The golden bracelet was a formidable magical treasure.
However, this Qilin blood jade pendant is in a class of its own, as it was enchanted with a heavens-defying protection spell.
When the bearer is on the brink of death, the spell would be activated, causing the jade pendant to shatter and take the place of the bearer in death.
For this reason, the Qilin blood jade pendant is valuable beyond words—for the possession of it is tantamount to the possession of an extra lifeline. On his deathbed, the previous Sword Master bestowed it to his youngest son, Yuchi Rui. When Yuchi Rui succeeded as the Sword Sect Master, he in turn gave it to his late brother’s only son, his one and only nephew, Yuchi Xiao.
However, all three generations of the Yuchi descendants had not encountered a crisis of imminent and certain death thus far. Therefore, none had the opportunity to activate the spell, otherwise the jade pendant would have been in pieces by now.
“No wonder you’ve been thinking about getting it back all the time.” Gong Wei was terribly bored and swung the jade pendant around, “If I accidentally activated it one day, what a waste that would be, am I right, eldest nephew?”
As soon as he completed the sentence, the jade pendant glowed faintly, followed by a flash of red light!
Gong Wei was stunned to see the jade pendant burst into a thousand-mile manifestation formation. Glowing lights criss-crossed in mid-air, and at the centre of the void, a familiar figure was revealed—
With both hands propped on the ground, sweating profusely, he was topless and and his body was perfectly lean and muscled. Yuchi Xiao was staring at Gong Wei in disbelief.
Yuchi Xiao, “…”
Gong Wei, “…”
Yuchi Xiao got up with a start and held up Gou Chen in shock, “What’s wrong?!”
Gong Wei covered his eyes with one hand, “Nothing, don’t panic! Put down your sword and talk!”
“…” Only then did Yuchi Xiao notice that Gong Wei’s background was Xuanji Palace of the Cang Yang Sect and said angrily but with relief, “Why are you summoning me if there’s no danger!”
Gong Wei peeked through his fingers cheekily this time, “Haiz, I have nothing to do and just wanted to chat with you.”
At Gong Wei’s action, Yuchi Xiao looked down at himself and immediately dropped his sword and grabbed his clothes off the floor to cover his chest. His face and ears were now flushed red and he asked, “What were you thinking? I was just training! You just want to spy on me, don’t you?”
“Young Swordsman, you are thinking too much, it’s more convenient to spy on Lord Xu bathing than you.” Gong Wei smiled and said, “Besides, I didn’t know you had a summoning spell attached to this token of love.”
“It’s not a love token! It’s just that I…Hold it, you didn’t know there was a summoning spell on this jade pendant?”
Gong Wei innocently spread his arms.
Yuchi Xiao’s face turned redder, “Then did you call me something when you were alone?!”
Gong Wei smiled, “Naturally I called you ‘the wise, mighty and righteous young swordsman, Yuchi’.”
“Nonsense! To activate the summoning formation, you must first say the name of the summoned person and then call out the real relationship between the two. Tell me what did you call me again?!”
“…” Gong Wei looked at his eldest nephew’s furious and red face and finally came to a realisation.
“It seems that even your family token approves of our relationship,” he replied gently, “I am so glad, my dearest cultivation partner.”
The air was dead silent.
Yuchi Xiao shut his eyes, breathed in, breathed out, breathed in again, breathed out again. After repeating this several times, he finally opened his eyes and forced out the words from between his clenched teeth, “Next time we meet I’ll kill you if you don’t return the jade pendant to me!”
Then he waved his hand violently, and with a flash of white light, the Thousand-mile Manifestation Formation dissolved into countless specks of light.
Gong Wei held his forehead with one hand, holding back laughter until his shoulders trembled.
All his grievances were dissipated after teasing the eldest son of the Yuchi household, and it was only after a long time that he took a long breath to calm down. Gong Wei put away the jade pendant and turned around, his laughter instantly freezing.
Standing silently against the light was Xu Shuangtze.