ATAVID CH24: He overreacted

Seeing Wen Xingyao suddenly stop, Jiang Qunyu felt somewhat puzzled in his heart, but he also stepped forward.

The scenery that entered his eyes was so beautiful it was soul-stirring.

This place was completely different from outside the city.

Outside the city, the sky was gray and misty, but inside the city, the blue sky was as washed, bright and clean as a mirror.

Looking out, a vast azure lake spread out before them.

Ripples occasionally wavered on the lake’s surface, shimmering with a warm and moist luster under the pale golden skylight, resembling a pile of gathered jade, clear and gleaming white.

A wooden bridge spanned the center of the lake, its body meandering.

At the end of the wooden bridge, the silhouette of a small city could vaguely be seen, like an ink wash painting where the ink had yet to dry, hazily bleeding into the thin mist.

“This young master isn’t dreaming, is he?”

Wen Xingyao muttered in a somewhat dizzy daze, “The shopkeeper of Buye Fang only said this place was like Penglai Immortal Island, a fairyland on earth; there wasn’t a single word of falsehood.”

Jiang Qunyu blinked lightly, his expression focused: “It is indeed beautiful.”

Wei Xun, however, still maintained that listless appearance, seemingly unable to muster any interest in everything around him.

His face was cold, the silk ribbon binding his hair fluttering slightly in the wind. The corners of his mouth tugged into an arc that was a smile yet not a smile: “Still not leaving?”

Before his voice fell, he had already stepped onto the wooden bridge on his own, as if wanting to use this to suppress the inexplicable irritability that had been weighing on his heart for the past few days.

Only then did Wen Xingyao suddenly return to his senses, hurriedly catching up.

Jiang Qunyu, however, couldn’t be bothered to accommodate Wei Xun’s temper.

The more he told him to do something, the less he wanted to do it.

He merely walked slowly behind.

Previously, the bridge was covered in mist, and the full view of the lake couldn’t be seen clearly.

Walking to the middle of the bridge at this moment, looking into the distance, the black tiles of the small city stretched continuously, rising and falling like the distant mountain-like eyebrows of a frowning beauty.

A wisp of a seemingly non-existent sweet fragrance drifted in the wind, tranquil and secluded like the cold incense treasured in a young girl’s makeup case.

On the lake’s surface, oars creaked, and two black-awning boats slowly glided across the emerald-like green water.

Inside the boats, there were young noblemen holding fans, tasting tea, and enjoying the scenery to please their hearts, as well as people playing the bamboo flute toward the lake, the sobbing melody hovering and echoing low.

From the restaurants and inns built overlooking the lake, occasionally a window would be pushed open lightly, revealing a young girl’s plain and clean face. Her eyes would dart over the bridge, then quickly hide away again.

Seeing this, a young nobleman laughed loudly. Just as he was about to recite a poem, he caught a glimpse of a group of figures approaching on the wooden bridge.

He then used his folding fan to tap the boatman rowing beside him, signaling him to go over.

The boatman rowed the boat toward the bridge.

Jiang Qunyu was stunned for a moment, then reacted.

East Mirror Lake City had disappeared from the mortal realm over twenty years ago. Presumably, in these decades, very few people had entered the city.

Now, seeing outsiders, the people in the city were unavoidably cautious.

It was just that this boatman didn’t park the boat toward the shore, but rather rowed toward the center of the lake…

Jiang Qunyu pursed his lips lightly, just feeling surprised.

When he saw that young nobleman suddenly tap his toes, his posture as light as a swallow, and in an instant, he had landed securely in front of Wei Xun.

He actually carried a trace of extremely faint spiritual power fluctuation.

Jiang Qunyu was surprised in his heart.

But observing this young nobleman, his root bones were exceptionally poor, not at all looking like someone capable of cultivating.

Yet he hadn’t expected him to actually possess spiritual power.

“Everyone was actually able to walk out from the array formation set up by the City Lord. Since that is the case, then follow me into the city,” the young nobleman said with a hearty voice.

He turned around, took out an ingot of silver from his waist, and threw it to the boatman still waiting in the center of the lake. Then, as if remembering something, he turned his head and said: “Oh right, my name is Chen Lin, you can call me whatever you like.”

Wen Xingyao opened his mouth blankly: “Array formation? Was that lantern ghost a mechanical array formation?”

“Haha—” Hearing this, Chen Lin laughed heartily, the corners of his eyes crinkling with a bit of moisture from laughing.

He walked at the very front, saying as he walked: “Naturally it wasn’t a ghost. How could there be ghosts causing trouble in East Mirror Lake City? That was merely a little trick of our City Lord’s.”

“Wait until you meet the City Lord later, then you’ll know there are plenty of similar mechanical array formations in his residence.”

He added: “The lantern ghost you saw was just the City Lord injecting a trace of spiritual power into a puppet.”

“Spiritual power?” Recalling the scene of Chen Lin flying from the center of the lake onto the bridge just now, a yearning couldn’t help but rise in Wen Xingyao’s heart, “Does East Mirror Lake City truly have methods to let mortals cultivate?”

Chen Lin answered decisively: “Naturally. In the past, there was an immortal sect great master who underwent his heavenly tribulation at Mirror Lake. Before ascending, he left an opportunity for good fortune here.”

“Brother Chen, then if I also want to cultivate, can I?” Wen Xingyao asked eagerly.

“Hmm,” Chen Lin pondered slightly, “That depends on the City Lord’s intention. If he is willing to teach you, then you can cultivate.”

As soon as these words came out, Wen Xingyao instantly tossed all the various encounters of the past few days to the back of his mind [beyond the highest heavens], his entire brain filled only with the word “cultivation.”

He walked shoulder to shoulder with Chen Lin in front.

The two of them had matching temperaments and actually chatted quite congenially.

Chen Lin also learned of their experiences on this journey from Wen Xingyao’s mouth.

“Ever since the news that East Mirror Lake City could allow mortals to cultivate spread out, more and more people came.”

Chen Lin explained, “Treasuring a jade ring becomes a crime [innocence gets one into trouble because of wealth]. The City Lord was afraid this would attract unnecessary disasters, which is why he took us into seclusion.”

“Because the City Lord loves mechanisms deeply, and once received pointers on the arts of mechanical array formations from an immortal, he set up many mechanisms outside the city, only hoping that those who came would know the difficulties and retreat.”

“The forest you were in, where you kept walking without being able to get out, and your attendants disappeared—that was caused by the first layer of the array formation. Because your attendants had no spiritual power fluctuations on them and were not suited to step onto the immortal path at all, they were blocked outside. As for those who could enter, they still needed to crack the second layer, which is why…”

Wen Xingyao suddenly saw the light.

Wei Xun didn’t speak the entire time, merely carrying his sword and walking silently behind the two of them.

In his heart, Jiang Qunyu still felt it was bizarre.

He walked up to Wei Xun’s side and asked in a low voice: “Wei Xun, you have high cultivation. Do you think this place is truly as the mortal rumors say, a blessed land of good fortune?”

Wei Xun was expressionless, using his divine sense to reply to him: “How do you view his root bones?”

The two of them rarely conversed using divine sense transmission, so when Jiang Qunyu heard the voice, he was even startled for a moment.

He subconsciously raised his eyes and saw that neither Wen Xingyao nor that young nobleman showed any abnormalities.

Only then did he belatedly realize that Wei Xun was speaking to him using divine sense.

“Not that great, very poor.”

Jiang Qunyu evaluated mercilessly, not forgetting to take a jab at him: “Next time you use sound transmission, can you give a heads-up first? A voice suddenly popping up in my head is quite creepy.”

“Then look at that boatman from just now again?” Wei Xun asked again.

He turned his head, his gaze, as deep as a cold pool, falling on Jiang Qunyu’s face. The corners of his lips tugged into an arc that was a smile yet not a smile.

“Jiang Qunyu, you asked me first. I can only reply to you using divine sense. If I opened my mouth like usual, in other people’s eyes it would be me talking to empty air; I’m afraid they would think I’ve gone mad.”

He seemed to remember something again, his tone gaining a bit of cold mockery.

“Or is it that you think that Chen Lin, just like that idiot Wen Xingyao, is a good person, and then right in front of his face, you’d possess my body again to prove to him that you and I share the same body? Do you think you aren’t dying fast enough?”

After saying that, Wei Xun waited for a long while, but didn’t see Jiang Qunyu respond.

That bit of patience in his heart gradually wore out, and an inexplicable irritability surged up.

He simply pulled a long face and walked quickly forward, wanting to open up some distance from Jiang Qunyu.

Yet he heard the person behind him suddenly speak with a surprised tone: “Wei Xun, you said so many words in one breath just now.”

Wei Xun’s footsteps paused almost imperceptibly.

He turned around, staring darkly at Jiang Qunyu.

Mimicking his appearance, Jiang Qunyu drooped his eyelids and spat out two words: “So ugly.”

Then he reached out and grabbed Wei Xun’s arm, turned him back around, walked behind him, and pushed him forward: “What are you looking at, walk! Turning your head to look at me, are you deeply afraid others won’t know you have a demon following behind you?”

On the bridge, besides Wen Xingyao and Wei Xun, there was only Chen Lin.

So “others” naturally referred to Chen Lin.

After hearing this, the irritability in Wei Xun’s heart dissipated quite a bit.

As Jiang Qunyu pushed him forward, he couldn’t help but mutter: “I only retorted you with one sentence, why is your reaction so huge today? Throwing a temper tantrum again, did I provoke or offend you?”

“And it’s not like I want to save everyone I see, I’m not stupid.”

If he hadn’t read the original plot, plus the fact that normally no one except Wei Xun spoke to him.

He could only rely on the sound transmission jade pendant to chat a few sentences with those unfamiliar disciples in the sect; it was truly stifling, otherwise he wouldn’t easily possess Wei Xun’s body.

Jiang Qunyu simply brought up old scores: “Besides, last time wasn’t it you who threatened me, saying if I wanted to save Wen Xingyao, I had to get on your body myself? When I actually did, why were you unhappy again?”

“I said I was a good demon, I can’t do things like seeing someone dying and not saving them.”

Wei Xun had also calmed down.

He pursed his lips.

His plain white clothes were soaked in patches by the thin mist permeating the bridge.

He stayed quiet for quite a while before saying in a low voice: “Sorry.”

His reaction today was indeed too huge.

Jiang Qunyu originally had a completely different temperament from him; he merely wanted to relieve his boredom.

Besides, what did it matter if others knew or not? Anyway, he was still guarding by Jiang Qunyu’s side. If someone truly wanted to touch him, he would also…

Wei Xun’s footsteps abruptly stopped.

That bizarre feeling flooded up again.

He would also what?

Wei Xun’s face sank slightly.

He suddenly turned his head to look at Jiang Qunyu.

That face of his own, which he once loathed incomparably, looking at it now, he actually felt… it wasn’t a big deal anymore.

Caught off guard, Jiang Qunyu met Wei Xun’s pitch-black eyes and was startled.

“I heard you. What, you want to say it again?”

It wasn’t impossible.

It was rare for Wei Xun to lower his head; saying a few more sentences felt quite comfortable.

Wei Xun stared quietly at Jiang Qunyu for a while, lowered his eyes, his expression as faint as water mist: “You are just my inner demon.”

He suddenly came out with a baffling sentence.

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

Fuck, chatting with a psychopath is truly difficult.

Never on the same frequency.

Expressionless, Jiang Qunyu casually replied: “I know, I know.”

He repeated it to Wei Xun again: “I am your inner demon, alright? Did you need to remind me of that?”

No emotion could be seen on Wei Xun’s face, his brows and eyes covered in frost as he turned around and continued walking forward.

Jiang Qunyu cursed a couple of sentences in his heart, but still pulled the topic back to East Mirror Lake City.

“That boatman just now looked similar to Chen Lin, with mediocre root bones; logically speaking, it should be completely impossible for them to cultivate.”

He paused and added a sentence, “This time let’s finish talking about East Mirror Lake before we argue, okay?”

Wei Xun didn’t say okay or not okay. As if he had finally calmed down, his tone was faint: “But both of them can use spiritual power.”

Just as his words fell, the wooden bridge had already come to an end.

The scene before their eyes suddenly opened up, a scene of bustling prosperity.

On both sides of the long street, shops were closely packed like scales or teeth of a comb, shop flags swaying gently in the breeze.

Silk shops shone with radiant colors, rouge and powder shops permeated with fragrant breezes, and a cold, clear scent of ink seeped out from the bookstores.

The liveliest place was the teahouse, where the storyteller was right at a critical point, and the entire hall was silent. From somewhere unknown, a wisp of sobbing bamboo flute melody drifted over, adding a bit of desolate chill out of thin air.

Pedestrians on the street shuttled back and forth like weaving.

Wei Xun’s voice was as cold as ice, his gaze sweeping over the people coming and going on the street: “Of course, those walking on this street today can also do it.”

That bizarre feeling in Jiang Qunyu’s heart floated up again.

He said: “This doesn’t conform to common sense, right? Mortals cultivating immortality stress the word ‘opportunity’, and if one’s root bones are extremely poor, it’s fundamentally impossible. Even those with talent have lifespans of no more than a hundred years, and those who can truly step onto the immortal path are very few.”

The corners of Wei Xun’s lips hooked up, and he said slowly: “Indeed.”

Walking in front, Chen Lin turned his head at this time, looked at Wei Xun and said: “This young master, I seem to have never heard you open your mouth. Like Young Master Wen, do you also want to cultivate?”

“Naturally.” Wei Xun let out a light chuckle, saying幽幽地: “I am merely curious, besides us, has anyone else entered the city these past few days?”

Chen Lin’s face stiffened, a ripple flashing through the depths of his eyes, which was quickly suppressed: “There are, they arrived yesterday.”

“Oh,” Wei Xun nodded, curving his eyes, his tone calm as he said: “Then where are they staying?”

Chen Lin cast a wary glance at him: “Why does the young master ask this?”

“We came together, so naturally we should stay in the same place. I must trouble you to take us there as well,” Wei Xun said.

Chen Lin’s face completely darkened, and he stared at Wei Xun for a long while.

With a playful tone, Wei Xun asked: “Or is it not possible? Does Young Master Chen have some difficulty?”

“…Naturally not,” Chen Lin said.

He turned around, this time having no leisurely mood to laugh and talk with Wen Xingyao anymore, merely leading the way forward in a muffled voice.

Jiang Qunyu’s mood was very complex.

He asked: “Do you know someone in the Profound Sword Sect?”

“No.” Wei Xun’s tone was faint, “Just pulling in a few scapegoats, that’s all.”

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

He knew it.

How could Wei Xun be anything good?

But he hadn’t expected that the place where Wei Xun and Shen Peiqiu first met was actually here.

He hadn’t read this part of the plot before, so he had always thought that Wei Xun abducted Shen Peiqiu from the Profound Sword Sect and imprisoned him in Yunque City because Shen Peiqiu possessed the Spiritual Deer bloodline and dual cultivation could boost one’s cultivation level.

Sigh, had he known he would transmigrate into the book, he really should have taken a few more looks back then.

Chen Lin no longer conversed with Wen Xingyao.

Wen Xingyao then walked back resentfully and said to Wei Xun: “Brother Wei, Chen Lin just said that the fewer people cultivating in each place, the faster the progress. Shouldn’t we also avoid crowding together with other people…”

“Heh,” Wei Xun let out a light sneer, “If you think you aren’t dying fast enough, I don’t mind sending you on your way.”

Wen Xingyao: “…”

Jiang Qunyu: “…………”

If Wei Xun licked his own lips, wouldn’t he really poison himself to death?

This time Wen Xingyao was honest, drooping his head and saying: “This young master trusts Jiang Qunyu. Since he told me to follow you, naturally I will follow you.”

Jiang Qunyu nodded in gratification.

Wei Xun, on the other hand, coldly tugged at the corners of his mouth.

For the latter half of the journey, the few of them didn’t speak again.

The further Jiang Qunyu walked, the clearer that strange feeling in his heart became.

He didn’t know if it was his illusion, but he kept feeling that the people around them seemed to be secretly sizing them up.

But whenever he turned his head to look back, everything was as usual again—

Everyone went about their own business, as if the gazes just now were merely him overthinking.

About an hour [two hours in modern time] later, Chen Lin finally stopped in front of a mansion and said: “This place is the City Lord’s Mansion. I will first take everyone in to see the City Lord.”

Saying that, he stepped forward.

He took out a jade pendant from his waist and handed it to the two guards standing before the main gate of the City Lord’s Mansion.

Those two guards checked it and found no errors, nodding to let them in.

Stepping into the mansion, Jiang Qunyu raised his eyes to size it up.

The layout within the mansion was elegant and refined. Although it was the residence of a City Lord, it lacked any air of extravagance. A faint, clear scent of wood faintly floated in the air.

By chance, they encountered a few servants pulling an ox cart past, the cart loaded with several pieces of top-quality golden-silk wood with a warm and moist luster.

Chen Lin casually explained: “The City Lord usually loves to make puppets and dolls, which is why wood is sent into the mansion every day.”

The group walked along the winding corridor.

Reaching a corner, a little boy suddenly came jogging over and bumped into Chen Lin. With an “Ouch,” he fell sitting on the ground, clutching his head and bursting into loud tears.

A few maidservants hurriedly chased after from behind, coaxing continuously: “Young Master, did you hurt yourself anywhere?”

The little boy’s crying gradually subsided. Still clutching his forehead, with tears brimming in his eyes, his voice was soft and glutinous: “I’m fine…”

Chen Lin first put on a cold face and scolded those maidservants for not looking after their master properly.

Hearing this, the maidservants hastily knelt down to beg for forgiveness.

Only then did Chen Lin squat down, wipe away his tears for him, and say gently: “It was my carelessness, please do not blame me, Young Master.”

Another round of comforting ensued.

Because of this minor interlude, the group had to stop here.

Having nothing to do, Jiang Qunyu crossed his arms and paced back and forth idly.

Yet he suddenly realized that the little boy’s line of sight was moving along with him.

Jiang Qunyu: “…?”

Was it his illusion? Why did he feel like that child could see him?

Support me on Ko-fi