Chapter 14

Last night’s matter really was a dishonor to their DaLao demeanor. Without prior consultation the two people decided to change the topic.

Shen QingXian: “Come over and eat.”

Su Yu also didn’t worry about the matter anymore. His heart concerned itself with the matter of cultivation. Only when one has eaten and drunken their fill, could they then quickly move onto the proper business at hand.

Gu JianShen had already prepared breakfast and as before, it was gorgeous, sumptuous, and delicious.

Su Yu accepted this wholeheartedly and ate while praising it. Only hating his own culture was average so the phrases he knew were not much…….

On the other hand, Shen QingXian was more calm. He didn’t even give Gu JianShen a straight look in the eye.

Why? Becoming tired after one whole night yet having accomplished nothing, His Highness the Esteemed Lord was not happy.

However, he (SQX) was always like this so Su Yu didn’t detect anything different. As for Gu JianShen, he was very much so in character with his role in the play and willingly coaxed his family’s “young master” for fun.

After breakfast, Su Yu anxiously looked at Gu JianShen.

So Shen QingXian said: “Since it’s agreed upon, you teach Su Yu.”

Gu JianShen replied: “Yes.”

Seeing his fake respectful appearance, the corner of Shen QingXian’s mouth slightly hooked up and he added a sentence: “Practicing martial skills is a very arduous matter, SuYu, you must not slack off.”

Su Yu immediately said: “I’m not afraid of hardships! I will definitely properly learn!

Shen QingXian then said: “Qing Shen has excellent physical strength, so you do not need to be courteous.”

It was his first time calling the name “Qing Shen” so Gu JianShen couldn’t resist glancing at him.

An indifferent little face with an aloof and remote appearance, yet the outer corner of his (SQX) eyes were a little bit crafty, like a little arctic fox.

Gu JianShen lowered his head, the corners of his mouth had risen a bit higher: The people* of Heart Domain all love to say the Esteemed Lord LianHua is an unrivaled white lotus flower**

*raw says people but i think it’s more accurate to say demons

**the white lotus here doesn’t mean like the two faced green tea b*tch*s you often see in other novels, the white lotus here is referring to the actual flower (basically the appearance of the white lotus flower as the embodiment of elegance and beauty and coldness and indifference and yada yada yada, you get the idea). So when they previously referred to SQX as White Lotus Shen, from this context, it seems they are not saying that he is a two faced b*tch but using the white lotus to represent his appearance. IDK this is all assumptions made on my part but here it is definitely talking about white lotus as a flower since there is a morpheme in front of white lotus. So from now on white lotus will mean two faced b*tch and white lotus flower, there’s the word “flower” added at the end, to mean the actual flower

How could Su Yu have thought that last night Gu JianShen was tired the entire night? He just thought of it as Shen QingXian reminding him. He promptly said: “Don’t worry, I also have very good physical strength!”

I definitely need to persevere, thought the little peach blossom. Older brother Qing Shen won’t become tired and he also won’t become tired. He needed to grab onto this once in a blue moon opportunity.

After he finished digging the pit, with satisfaction, Shen QingXian sat to the side to drink tea.

As of now, Gu JianShen’s spiritual power was overdrafted by more than a half, there was basically almost none left.

Afterall, both of them suppressed their cultivation so whether it was the upper limit of spiritual power that could be stored or the absorption rate, they were all given a huge discount. They were no different from the usual “masters” that could enter Moonset Secret Realm.

Last night, the two battled for an entire night. Shen QingXian was so tired that he only wanted to sit while drinking tea and presumably, Gu JianShen also wanted to do the same.

The pitiful young master could drink tea yet the servant had to be a training partner.

Especially this small peach blossom, it was better to call it a “little monster”.

After all, it was a spiritual creature of WanXiu Mountain. Its aptitude was high, constitution was superb, and adding on to the stimulation it suffered last night and a few words from Shen QingXian today, Su Yu had hyped his vigor up to 120%. That enthusiasm really could be called ‘filled to the brim’.

Shen QingXian held the tea cup and unconcernedly said: “Qing Shen, Su Yu is my close friend, you must diligently teach him.”

Gu JianShen lowered his eyes. His eyes were full of encroachment yet his voice was unusually deferential: “This subordinate understands.”

Shen QingXian lightly laughed and took a sip of the ZhongLing tea* in the cup, feeling that its distinctive flavor was exceptionally good

*中灵茶 – ZhongLing tea. 中 – middle, center. 灵 – spirit, intelligent. there is no such tea in real life and idk, it might be saying the tea is a middle tiered spiritual tea, i will keep it in pinyin until there are any clarifications on this in future chapters, it could just be a random tea name.

For the entire day, Su Yu upheld the foundational principle of studying diligently and sought knowledge as if his life depended on it.

Even he, a small peach blossom, didn’t say he was tired so would His Excellency the Esteemed Emperor of Heart Domain say he was tired? That would make him unable to get a wife.

The two people did not even rest for a minute, making His Excellency the Esteemed Lord’s (SQX’s) state of mind cheerful.

They were already so tired yet Shen QingXian didn’t forget to instruct Gu JianShen. No matter how competent the small peach blossom was, they still needed a mid-interval break. During this break, Gu JianShen went to “wait upon” the little young master.

Serving drinks and preparing lunch…….

After being busy the entire day, Shen QingXian pulled on Gu JianShen’s sleeve.

From the start to finish, Gu JianShen’s complexion did not change and still had a calm and elegant appearance: “What further instructions does the young master have?”

Shen QingXian lowered his voice to say: “His Majesty is this good at waiting upon people, how about in the future you follow me back to WanXiu Mountain.”

Gu JianShen suddenly leaned close to him and said by his ear: “The entire WeiXin Palace was built using golden red jade*, does the Esteemed Lord not want to look at it?”

*this is a real thing and there are jewelries made of golden red jade but from the pics it just looks like a red jade framed by gold. Lol, so is like the palace basically made of red jade and like the edges are lined/framed with gold or smth

Shen QingXian’s eyes lit up…….golden red jade.

Gu JianShen also said: “If you come to WeiXin Palace, I can guarantee that the Esteemed Lord will be waited upon comfortably.”

This sentence was said coquettishly and ambiguously. Shen QingXian recalled Heart Domain’s “to follow one’s heart’s ‘desires’” and immediately lost interest. He (SQX) pushed him (GJS) away: “I will not be able to enjoy it*.”

*this sentence has a nuance of like…how do i phrase it. Take for example ‘cannot afford to buy something’, this “can’t afford” can be due to not having enough money or it can be b/c of a emotional (so to say) “can’t afford” (idk like b/c i’m not worthy (although doesn’t really mean ‘not worthy’ just remember that Chinese people like to be modest) and that’s the same sort of nuance of this phrase. Hope this makes sense.

After cultivating for an entire day, when night came, Su Yu slept early and before long, he sunk into dreamland.

This little fellow’s brain was full of the newly learned sword technique and he was even reciting mnemonic chants in his dream…….one sentence after another. It almost made Shen QingXian, who was going to get down to business, believe that he (SY) had not fallen asleep yet.

After repeatedly confirming that the small peach blossom had actually fallen asleep, Shen QingXian began to “do hard physical labor” again.

Was there a new task?

Nay…….the sleep-together task had not been completed yet.

Last night, he and Gu JianShen had only laid next to one another and it was a pity neither of them slept. The two dripped with sweat from going at one another so how could they fall asleep?

The pitiful task was very pure. It was just sleeping together, the kind where they just close their eyes and empty their minds to properly relax. It didn’t say for them to go at one another for an entire night.

Shen QingXian continuously dug pits for Gu JianShen in the morning for the great cause of tonight’s hard physical labor.

Torment this guy to exhaustion and then when he (GJS) goes into the blanket, wouldn’t he (GJS) then just close his (GJS) eyes to sleep?

If he (GJS) sleeps, then he (SQX) can also sleep and the task would be completed.

On a certain level, the people of Heart Domain’s evaluation of Shen QingXian was very apropos. The Esteemed Lord LianHua very much so can shoulder the adjective “black-hearted lotus”.

Especially when he’s handling his “enemies”, he could be said to be quite sinister.

Shen QingXian pulled open the blanket: “Let’s sleep.”

A beauty inviting you looked very marvelous but in reality, not only was the beauty not grown up, the beauty was also full of barbs. This was really hard to explain in a few words.

Gu JianShen didn’t utter a word and just looked at him.

“What?” Shen QingXian once again used the goading method: “Is His Majesty afraid?”

Gu JianShen reached out a hand to embrace him. He (GJS) lowered his head to look at him (SQX): “What is there to be afraid of?”

Shen QingXian became slightly uncomfortable from his hug and Gu JianShen deliberately moved closer to him to ask: “Afraid that ShiShu is too bewitching?”

Shen QingXian: “……”

Gu JianShen’s eyes were full of laughter. At this moment, the already bewitching red eyes were like rubies full of sunshine. It was attractive to the point of astonishing people.

Because of this pair of eyes, Shen QingXian overlooked the provocation behind his words and became unusually “obedient.”

“Sleep.” Shen QingXian contracted himself into his (GJS’s) embrace.

Gu JianShen embraced him and allowed him to move into a comfortable position.

Shen QingXian closed his eyes and his breathing evened out as if he had really fallen asleep.

But in reality…….

Gu JianShen asked him: “ShiShu, why did you come to Moonset Secret Realm?”

With his eyes closed, Shen QingXian answered the question with a question: “Why did you also come here?”

Both of them were people who were detached from the world. This tiny Moonset Realm was similar to an ant and there honestly wasn’t a single thing about it that was worthy of their attention.

But right now, not only had they come here, they had even purposely suppressed their cultivation, as if afraid of destroying this place.

Was it that there was something strange about Moonset Secret Realm?

They were both clear: There was none.

So, why?