FIMA Ch62: The Follower [Arc 4]

Gu Siyuan felt like he had slept for a very, very long time, until a familiar needle-like pain invaded his mind.

He slowly opened his eyes. Various messy colored lights flickered erratically, and the sound of a wild, demonic racket rang in his ears. This was probably some kind of bar or dance club.

He propped himself up on the sofa beneath him and stood up. After waving over a waiter to ask where the main entrance was, he walked straight towards the exit.

However, just as he reached the corner to head out the door, he heard several sudden bursts of mocking laughter and curses. A group of people was crowding around a thin figure, arguing nearby.

Gu Siyuan acted as if he heard nothing and continued walking forward.

Right at that moment, the thin figure surrounded in the middle pushed through the crowd and stumbled out.

However, those people seemed to have a deep conflict with him. Unwilling to let it go, they continued to chase after him.

Someone shoved him, and that thin figure crashed straight toward Gu Siyuan, colliding squarely into him.

Gu Siyuan furrowed his brows. He looked down impatiently, preparing to just push the person away.

But the moment he met the person’s beautiful face, an inexplicably familiar feeling surged into his heart. In the next second, as if out of habit, his fingers curled slightly, and he couldn’t help but hold the person up.

A cold, mechanical voice sounded in his groggy mind: “This is the mission target of this world—Xie Xuanxing.”

Gu Siyuan gave a scoffing laugh. To think it’s actually the mission target.

The young people who chased after him saw Gu Siyuan’s face and couldn’t help but let out a cry of alarm: “Fuck, it’s the Second Young Master Gu! This… tras—… why is this guy here?”

At this time, someone let out a laugh.
“I heard this guy has never been picky about men or women. Looking closely, Xie Xuanxing actually looks pretty good…”
“You mean…”
“Hahaha… Now there’s a good show to watch.”

In his haze, Xie Xuanxing saw a person holding him tightly, their expression cold and terrifying.
He couldn’t help but struggle vigorously.

Gu Siyuan lowered his head and cast a cold glance at the person in his arms. He picked him up horizontally, turned, and walked outside.

Just as he walked out the door, a burly man in a suit came up to him and said respectfully: “Second Young Master.”

Gu Siyuan said faintly: “We’re going back.”

The burly man nodded and first opened the rear door for him.

When Gu Siyuan set the person down, the driver caught a glimpse of Xie Xuanxing’s translucent, fairy-like face under the faint moonlight. He couldn’t help but suck in a breath. The Second Young Master truly has good fortune.

Gu Siyuan ignored his driver-cum-bodyguard’s peculiar reaction. He sat down expressionlessly and casually closed the rear car door.

This was a world of modern metaphysics.
All professions were lowly; only cultivation was high.

In the Hua Country where the original owner resided, everyone knew about metaphysics. From the state down to the common people, there was absolutely no taboo about it. TV stations would even broadcast metaphysical programs. Those with profound metaphysical arts were even more popular than the hottest celebrities.

Of course, practicing metaphysics required a bloodline talent. Among their country’s population of over a billion, those who could cultivate were almost one in a hundred thousand.

However, if both parents were metaphysical cultivators, the probability of their child having cultivation talent increased greatly.

Therefore, this led to the formation of various metaphysical families, large and small. Those with the top-tier power among them were called Aristocratic Families.

The protagonist shou of this world was named Xie Yuchen. He hailed from the Xie family, an ordinary metaphysical family in S City. His father, Xie Hao, was the head of the Xie family.

The Xie family members had a special talent in the art of talisman-making, and the family made their living from it.

However, because his mother suffered a severe injury during pregnancy, Xie Yuchen’s bloodline was damaged upon birth, making him completely unable to cultivate, and naturally lacking any talisman-making talent.

But Xie Hao doted on this son extremely. Not only did he give all his own cultivation resources to his son, but he also abused his authority as the family head to misappropriate family assets on a massive scale, seeking medicine everywhere to heal his son’s bloodline.

The Xie family was just an ordinary metaphysical family with very limited cultivation resources. Over time, Xie Hao’s actions caused massive dissatisfaction among the family’s upper echelons.

The leader among them was the Third Elder, Xie Cang. Xie Cang himself was the family’s second-best talisman master, second only to Xie Hao. And his only grandson, Xie Xuanxing, was undeniably the number one talisman-making genius among the Xie family’s younger generation. Even when placed among all his peers nationwide, his talisman-making talent ranked extremely high.

If it weren’t for Xie Hao taking a massive amount of family resources to treat Xie Yuchen’s illness, leaving Xie Xuanxing without enough resources to practice, given his talent, he should have gone much further long ago.

Thus, two months before the S City Youth Talisman-Making Competition, Xie Cang initiated a proposal: If Xie Yuchen was still unable to represent the Xie family in the competition this year, he would no longer be qualified to enjoy the family’s provisions, and Xie Hao would also have to step down and yield his position to someone more capable.

This proposal received widespread support from other members of the family.

However, in the end, Xie Cang naturally did not succeed.

Because on the very night Xie Cang made the proposal, Xie Yuchen smashed his head against an ancestor’s statue in the ancestral hall. As a result, he obtained the inheritance left by the ancestor. Not only did it cleanse his marrow and completely repair his bloodline, but he also obtained an extremely superb talisman-making notebook, the Nine Profound Talisman Methods.

The talisman-making method their Xie family currently used was simplified from just the first chapter of this notebook.

Because of this talisman-making notebook, Xie Yuchen’s talisman-making skills improved tremendously in just two short months. In the subsequent S City Talisman Competition, he overcame all obstacles and reached the finals to face off against Xie Xuanxing.

In the end, relying on the special techniques and skills from the Nine Profound Talisman Methods, he refined an extremely obscure talisman, winning by a surprise move and defeating the highly favored Xie Xuanxing by a very narrow margin.

From then on, Xie Yuchen became the Xie family’s number one genius.

Meanwhile, Xie Xuanxing became the object of others’ ridicule. With over ten years of talisman-making experience, he couldn’t even match up to Xie Yuchen’s two months; what face did he have to be called a genius?

Because of his excellent performance at the Talisman Master Competition, Xie Yuchen also attracted the favorable impression of the protagonist gong, Han Mingye, who had come to S City on a mission.

The Han family, to which Han Mingye belonged, was one of the Four Great Metaphysical Aristocratic Families in Hua Country, incomparably more powerful than the Xie family.

Han Mingye proposed to take Xie Yuchen to the capital. There were more abundant resources there, as well as brilliant talisman-making grandmasters, which would be beneficial for his future development.

Xie Yuchen naturally agreed happily.

And on the very day Xie Yuchen was leaving S City, Xie Xuanxing came to his door, demanding to compete with him again.

Unsurprisingly, Xie Xuanxing lost to Xie Yuchen once more and left in dejection.

But this result alarmed Xie Yuchen.

Because Xie Xuanxing still only lost to him by a subtle margin.

It must be known that he possessed the Nine Profound Talisman Methods, which far exceeded contemporary talisman arts. Moreover, during these past days, Han Mingye had provided him with numerous cultivation resources. Logically speaking, he should have left Xie Xuanxing far behind long ago.

But he didn’t expect that Xie Xuanxing was also continuously updating his own talisman-refining arts. His techniques and skills were several times more advanced than during the previous talisman competition. With such talent and perseverance, if he didn’t have the Nine Profound Talisman Methods, he probably really would have…

When he met with Han Mingye later, Han Mingye saw at a glance that Xie Yuchen was unsettled and asked him what was troubling him, saying he could help him solve his problem before they left.

This would save him from constantly worrying about home after going to the capital, which would keep him from cultivating wholeheartedly.

After hesitating for a moment, Xie Yuchen tactfully mentioned the conflict between his family and the grandfather-grandson pair, Xie Cang and Xie Xuanxing. He merely expressed his fear that after he left, his father Xie Hao would be unable to support the situation alone and deal with the trouble those two might cause.

Han Mingye sneered, stating that this was just a minor problem and telling him to rest assured.

A minor talisman master in a small city—even if he had a bit of talent, he had seen plenty of talented people. In his eyes, crushing him was no different from crushing an ant.

Han Mingye found a local evil cultivator faction, revealed his identity as the eldest young master of the Han family, and had them create an ‘accident’ to deal with Xie Xuanxing.

As it happened, that night, because he lost to Xie Yuchen once again, Xie Xuanxing was in a bad mood and went to a bar to get drunk.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the evil cultivator faction made their move on Xie Xuanxing, destroying his cultivation talent.

On the night Xie Xuanxing was crippled, his grandfather Xie Cang was also kicked out of the Xie family for the baffling reason of ‘disrespecting the family head’.

The grandfather and grandson could only set up a small stall under an overpass, relying on fortune-telling, selling some talismans, and occasionally taking commissions to exorcise evil spirits to make a living.

They originally thought their days would continue peacefully like this.

However, half a year later, when the protagonist gong and shou returned to S City to search for a certain treasure, they accidentally triggered evil entities to cause chaos. Xie Xuanxing and his grandfather were unlucky and got dragged into it, dying as collateral damage.

“Current Mission: Change the character Xie Xuanxing’s ending and allow him to obtain happiness.
Success Reward: One lottery draw opportunity.
Failure Penalty: Unable to obtain the reward.”

Gu Siyuan cast an indifferent glance at the guy who, due to an improper sleeping posture, had repeatedly fallen onto his lap.

Looking at it this way, he had actually accidentally and directly saved his mission target.

According to the original storyline, Xie Yuchen was leaving S City today. And earlier, after Xie Xuanxing left the bar, he would have encountered the evil cultivator faction and been crippled.

But now, because he bumped into him and was carried out by him, he avoided this disaster.

Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes, recalling that when he got into the car earlier, he indeed felt a few prying gazes. It seemed those were the evil cultivators.

And the reason the evil cultivators were wary and didn’t dare make a move on him was because the original owner had a highly formidable older brother.

Nowadays, although metaphysical cultivators mainly gathered in sects and aristocratic families as their power bases…

The state naturally wouldn’t let them grow too large unchecked, so they established a specialized Special Control Bureau. The Special Control Bureau was mainly divided into two divisions. Division 1 absorbed rogue cultivators for their own use to maintain social stability. Division 2 utilized technological means to research special spiritual energy and phenomena.

The original owner’s older brother was named Gu Beilin, nicknamed the ‘Northern Heavenly Wolf’. He was a renowned demon hunter belonging to Division 1 of the Special Control Bureau. Not a single evil cultivator or bizarre entity targeted by him ever survived.

Actually, the original owner also had cultivation talent. It was just that the first time he went to exorcise evil spirits with his older brother, he was so frightened by the scene that he almost wailed out loud.

In the end, he resolutely decided to become a parasite, returning to his hometown S City to be a useless piece of trash living a life of drunken stupor.

Gu Siyuan frowned. In such a metaphysical and supernatural world, if he wanted to change Xie Xuanxing’s fate, he still had to pick up the craft of cultivation again. Moreover, he needed to forge a brand new path combining cultivation and technology.

Just as he was thinking this, the person on his lap suddenly moved, rubbing his fair face against Gu Siyuan’s waist and abdomen a few times.

Gu Siyuan looked down at him, his expression indifferent.

But the person in his arms quickly realized something was wrong, and sat up with a whoosh as if chased by a ghost.

Xie Xuanxing looked warily at the tall man beside him, his beautiful eyebrows knitting together: “…Who are you?”

Gu Siyuan loosened his tie and said carelessly: “The person who saved your life.”

“…” Xie Xuanxing frowned.
What is this person talking about?

Gu Siyuan hated trouble and explained clearly in a few words: “After you came out of the bar, you were targeted by evil cultivators. I saved you, understand?”

Xie Xuanxing’s expression turned stern: “Evil cultivators?”

How could he have provoked evil cultivators?
However, when he was in the bar, he did indeed feel a faint, lingering malice. That was why he forced his way out despite those people trying to stop him.

For this person to be able to deter evil cultivators, he must be someone of consequence.

Xie Xuanxing looked at the person in front of him again and asked politely: “May I ask… who you are?”

Gu Siyuan said faintly: “Gu Siyuan.”

Xie Xuanxing blinked. He didn’t seem to have heard of him.

Gu Siyuan scoffed and continued explaining: “My older brother is Gu Beilin.”

“…” Xie Xuanxing raised an eyebrow.

Gu Beilin was famous in S City and even the entire North. His younger brother was also quite well-known, but it was a rotten reputation—mud that couldn’t support a wall, a piece of trash mooching off his brother.

But this person’s aura and appearance were completely different from what he imagined.

“Do you believe me this time?” Gu Siyuan leaned against the back of the seat, saying lazily.

Xie Xuanxing narrowed his eyes.
Although it was only their first time meeting, he seemed to harbor an inexplicable trust toward this person from the bottom of his heart.

Not because he was Gu Beilin’s younger brother, but simply because of the person in front of him.

“Thank you.”

“En,” Gu Siyuan replied in a low voice.

This voice was exceptionally hoarse and magnetic. In the dim environment of the car’s interior lights, it seemed inexplicably melancholic and lonely, Xie Xuanxing thought randomly in his mind.

However, in the next moment, this feeling was completely destroyed.

“So, are you ready to accept my condition?” Gu Siyuan suddenly reached out, pinched his beautiful, delicate chin, and forced the person to turn his head, looking straight into his eyes.

It was so intense; the dark, deep gaze seemed as if it could suck a person straight in.

“Mr… Mr. Gu?” Xie Xuanxing murmured. His cold, watery eyes appeared somewhat vivid and bright due to slight astonishment.

“En, I’m here.”
Gu Siyuan responded faintly.

Xie Xuanxing felt his heart beating somewhat fast, as if being seduced.
He licked his lips and said softly: “You… Please speak first. If possible, I will try my best to do it.”

Gu Siyuan lazily lifted his eyelids, gave a scoffing laugh, and released the soft, smooth skin in his hand. His tone was extremely calm and clear: “Be my lackey. For two years.”

“Ah? Oh…”

Xie Xuanxing softly agreed.
The tone lingered unfinished.

Why… did he seem a little disappointed?

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