The first disciple of Desireless Sect, Xie Shiyi, lured away the enemy and entered the depths of the demonic realm, destroying the Red Lotus Pavilion. Tenside City burned, exterminating the great demon Huai Mingzi and astonishing the world.
In the same year, Xie Shiyi went into closed cultivation on Southmount Peak, and let a hundred years pass. No one knew the reason.
***
Yan Qing felt dizzy, as if someone had taken an awl and stirred it around in his brain, causing unbearable pain.
There was someone talking to him nearby, their tone full of fury and disappointment.
“How can you be so cheap! Did you really believe that if you gave him everything, he’d fall in love with you? Who gave you the guts to trespass into the Spirit Garden to steal the siftrain flower? The sect spent a hundred years carefully watering that flower, but you just stole it and gave it to some outsider in order to regulate his meridians?! Y-y-you—” This man was so furious he had no words. In the end, he roared, “Idiot! There’s no saving you!”
The siftrain flower? What was that? Hadn’t he died at Tenside City?
Yan Qing struggled to open his eyes, only to see quite a few people standing inside his room. At the front was a red-eyed woman in intricate clothing, who kept wiping away tears with her sleeves. Two maids stood beside her, carefully supporting her. The lighting was dim, so it should be night.
Yan Qing looked away, and found a Buddhist shrine across from him. There were countless memorial tablets sitting on the red table.
The lady wept incessantly, speaking through sobs. “Master, Xiao-Qing knows he’s wrong, so forgive him this time.”
Nothing could sway the man in his fury. “Forgive him? If I forgive him, who’ll forgive me! The siftrain flower is the sacred treasure the sect leader was planning to give to Desireless Sect at the next Bluecloud Conference! Now that the siftrain flower is gone, how am I supposed to explain things to the sect leader?!”
The lady was so miserable she almost stopped breathing. “Master…”
The man glared at her. “Shut up, it’s you who educated this wonderful son. Tonight, we’ll have this ungrateful brat kneel in the ancestral hall, and tomorrow, he’ll come with me to apologize to the sect leader!”
The madam’s face was ash-white. “Kneel all night? How can that be, Master, Xiao-Qing is in frail health, how can he bear something like that?”
The man turned away with a sweep of his sleeves. “Come, take the madam away!”
A clamor came from behind him. The maids were exhorting her to go along with them, while the madam was crying. It was as chaotic as a hundred ducks calling. Once they left, Yan Qing finally had some peace and quiet. He slowly let out a breath, and moved his numb fingers.
The siftrain flower?
Why did he feel like it was familiar?
In a flash, Yan Qing came to a realization. “Springturn Sect, the siftrain flower, the Bluecloud Conference…”
Suffering from sudden stimulation to his brain, Yan Qing’s face paled, and he kneeled on the ground, supporting himself with his hands.
It was as if the floodgates had been opened on his memory. Blurry scenes came thick and fast, and the memories of the real world, which he had completely forgotten before, now came back to him.
Summer vacation, Ardent Phantasm, the airplane…
Yan Qing’s eyes suddenly widened.
…Wonderful. After living a few hundred years, it was only after dying and being reborn that he realized that he’d been living in a book this whole time, and he hadn’t just transmigrated, but transmigrated into a novel?!
***
The cause of this story was Yan Qing’s cousin, whose grades had fallen a thousand meters one summer vacation.
As the only student at a top college in the entire family, Yan Qing was pressed into the mission of saving a “fallen young girl.” As it happened, he had nothing to do, and thinking that it was best to know thyself and thy enemy, he browsed through all of his cousin’s Wechat Moments, and happened upon a novel called Ardent Phantasm.
Ardent Phantasm's summary was: A wonderful new offering from a famous xuanhuan BL author who’s been writing for ten years—a tear-jerker overflowing with romance.
His cousin had fallen head over heels in love with a side character called Xie Shiyi, and had posted countless Moments about him, even forgetting to block Yan Qing.
Original quotes from his cousin’s Moments:
“Xie Shiyi really has eight generations of bad luck, meeting someone like Bai Xiaoxiao. Compassionate Master Bai, whose heart holds only the common people, can you please rely on yourself to save the world? When I saw the Cumbrance City chapter, where Bai Xiaoxiao cried and kneeled down to beg Xie Shiyi to use his own blood to save the people of the city, I was so pissed off I cried.”
“This is fucking Cumbrance City, the same city that imprisoned Xie Shiyi and almost skinned him to the bone earlier in the novel. They’re nothing but a crowd of beasts who committed evil and received evil in return. The key point is that Xie Shiyi actually agreed! Aaahhhh just great, you’ve pissed me off so much I’m wide awake in the middle of the night!”
“Author, don’t you feel like this is collapsing your character settings? Were all of the brilliant facets you gave Xie Shiyi in the first part of the novel only for the sake of showing how much everyone loved that naive, sweet, dumbass main character shou?”
“Is this the kind of stupid book where the main character grasps the love interest by the waist and says, red-eyed, ‘I’ll give my life to you?’ Hah.”
“I’m angrier at myself for investing real feelings in this scumbag shou and cheap gong story 😭.”
“But really, this Xie Shiyi, when I read this novel, I felt…really sad for him.”
Yan Qing thought it over for a long time, but he couldn’t figure out what caused her feelings to surge so passionately. In order to be sure of the reason, he found a copy of Ardent Phantasm and began to read.
After he finished reading, Yan Qing thought: “That’s it?”
For someone like him, who couldn’t engross himself in the plot at all, he felt like this was the story of someone who wanted to abuse and someone who was willing to be abused. What was there to be angry over? Weren’t the deeply-in-love second male leads in the domestic TV shows all this selfless and giving? She was only so excited out of ignorance.
In the end, the advice he gave his cousin consisted of only seven words: “Read fewer novels and focus on studying.”
He included a screenshot of her Moments.
“Cheer up and study. If you lose progress again in your first-term exam, I’ll forward these screenshots to the family group chat 🙂.”
His cousin: “......”
He didn’t know what kind of waves had gone on in the heart of his cousin, who died on the spot of public embarrassment. Anyways, his aunt had brought a fruit basket to his door afterwards, praising him with a smile for being a wonderful academic overseer. She said that lately, her daughter had been studying as if a fire was under her bottom.
Yan Qing gave a slight smile, hiding the depth of his accomplishments.
But he didn't expect that when summer vacation ended and his second year of university began, he would get into a plane accident on the flight back to his school.
After losing all his memories pertaining to the modern world, he transmigrated into this novel.
And the body he transmigrated into wasn’t just anyone, but the one his cousin had loved to pieces, Xie Shiyi.
And even more amazingly, this wolf cub Xie Shiyi was incredibly tenacious. His body was possessed by a stray soul from another world, but he was still able to come back to life and fight over his body with him. They spent many years arguing within a single body, and afterwards, when he found the opportunity, Yan Qing found another body and parted ways with Xie Shiyi.
Once he left, the two avoided each other like the plague, as what was out of sight could not vex the mind.
Xie Shiyi went to Desireless Sect in the upper realm, while he descended to Tenside City in the demonic realm.
In his last life, Yan Qing died when Tenside City became an inferno.
His last memory was when the palace crumbled, the sky fell and the earth caved in. The demonic god who had lived within him ever since he entered the demonic realm in his last life laughed eerily in his ear, and said softly to him, “Yan Qing, you can’t escape me.”
“Everyone has a demon living in their heart, like a shadow that never leaves the body.” The demonic god had a body that was both male and female, and their androgynous voice was like the deepest curse. They said, “We’ll see each other again.”
Beneath the heavy mist, the scarlet fire of the red lotus filled the sky until there was no night.
Red candles dripped onto the table with a heavy sound.
A gust of wind swept through the ancestral hall, blowing past the candles so that they flickered and swayed.
Yan Qing returned from his memories of the past.
He looked down at his hands, spending a long time in a daze.
Once he knew that this was a novel, and saw everything from an omniscient point of view, it explained many things from his past life that he couldn’t understand before.
It turned out that Xie Shiyi was deeply in unrequited love with Bai Xiaoxiao.
No wonder.
No wonder when Xie Shiyi killed the five great families of Cumbrance City with his own hands, he spared the Bai family alone.
No wonder the realm of the fallen god refused to let him look at his heart demon.
No wonder he took up his sword, killed thousands of spirits and demons, and entered Tenside City alone in the end.
He had thought he understood Xie Shiyi, from the time when they hated each other to the time that they lived and died together.
He’d seen Xie Shiyi in his childhood, when he was so wronged he cried, and he’d seen him in his adulthood, when his sword could split the rivers and mountains.
But he hadn’t expected that all of this was only what he believed.
He had never truly understood Xie Shiyi.
He was a man who would fall deeply in love over a bowl of congee.
He was a man who would lay down his life to satisfy the main character without any resentment.
The irony was that after being reborn, his host was the witness for how Xie Shiyi would fall passionately in love with Bai Xiaoxiao.
When he heard about the siftrain flower, Yan Qing realized his identity.
He had transmigrated into Xie Ying’s future wife, a fickle, malicious character in the novel who went by the name of Yan Qing.
If Xie Shiyi was a side character who had earned the tears of countless readers, then Yan Qing was a vile cannon fodder who had earned the spit of countless readers.
As the young son of one of Springturn Sect’s Nascent Soul elders, Yan Qing had been spoiled since he was small, turning into an unbridled, romance-obsessed boy, who fell in love with one person after another.
First, he happened to save the young master of Lightstream Sect, Yin Wuwang, during an unfortunate incident. He developed a crush on him and secretly hid him at the back of the mountain, and went so far as to pick the sect’s treasured siftrain flower in order to heal his wounds. In the end, Yin Wuwang only felt disgusted with his savior, and fell in unswerving love with Yan Qing’s little shidi, the main character shou, Bai Xiaoxiao. After receiving the siftrain flower from Yan Qing, he turned and re-gifted it to Bai Xiaoxiao, who was hurriedly looking for medicine at the time.
This was the main conflict of the story.
Bai Xiaoxiao was looking for medicine to save an old man on the verge of death who he had happened to meet. That old man was the supreme elder of Desireless Sect, who had failed to overcome his tribulation.
The siftrain flower didn’t save the old man, but in order to thank him, the old man passed his lifetime of cultivation to Bai Xiaoxiao before he passed away. At the same time, he gave him a token that could command the Desireless Sect to fulfill any order.
As a vile side character, once Yan Qing knew of this matter, he erupted with anger. He stole away the token, robbing Bai Xiaoxiao of his achievements.
Seeing that Yin Wuwang looked down on him, Yan Qing made the immature, bitter decision to slap him in the face.
So he took the token and gave Desireless Sect a request. He wanted the current first disciple of the sect, who had come in first place in the last Bluecloud Conference, Xie Ying, to marry him.
“......” So ruthless.
In the end, Yan Qing married Xie Ying as he desired, shocking the entire cultivation realm.
But a melon forcefully twisted off the vine was never sweet.
He was Xie Ying’s wife, but all he could do was look on as day after day, his husband infatuatedly gave his all to another man without the slightest resentment.
Tempting him was of no use, and nor was threatening suicide. Finally, Yan Qing began to show his slutty true nature, and gave Xie Ying a green hat to wear. At the same time, he sent assassins after Bai Xiaoxiao. After courting disaster several times, he finally ruined his reputation, suffered from potent poison, and died in torment as if he were being sliced by a thousand knives, as expected.
“......” What the hell was this.
Once he figured out everything was the content of a novel, Yan Qing didn’t feel like expressing his opinion on this book and its stupid love triangle.
All he thought about was why he had been reborn. And why had he been reborn into Yan Qing?
“Y-young Master…” An earnest voice suddenly came from behind him.
Yan Qing came back to himself and turned around, only to see a guard standing at the door with a lunch box.
Yan Qing was surprised. “You’ve come to give me a meal?”
The guard nodded, and said carefully: “That’s right, the madam saw you had gone all day without eating anything, and was afraid you were hungry, so she asked me to send you some food.”
Yan Qing was even more surprised. “I haven’t begun inedia?”
The guard said cautiously, “Yes, you’re at the third stage of Qi Refining right now, and you haven’t built your foundation yet. But I’m sure that with your talent, if you put your heart into cultivation, you’ll be able to reach Foundation Building in a matter of days.”
Yan Qing: “....Sure.”
Yan Qing took the lunch box. “Thank you.”
The guard hesitated for a while, then said, “Young master, don’t be angry at me, but the elder was forced to do this to you. If you kneel in the ancestral hall now, you’ll suffer fewer hardships when you go to see the sect master.”
About to open his lunch box, Yan Qing’s hand froze.
That’s right, he had been too absorbed in sorting out the plot just now. He’d almost forgotten what he was about to undergo. According to the plot, right now, the leader of Springturn Sect had just discovered that Yan Qing was the one who had stolen the siftrain flower. Tomorrow, his father would take him to the main hall to receive his sentence.
And right now, Yan Qing had already stolen someone else’s achievements and used the token to request that Desireless Sect let him marry Xie Ying.
If he hadn’t remembered things wrong, in the following plot, just when the sect master was about to throw him into the sect’s forbidden prison to reflect on himself for ten years, a delegation from Desireless Sect came to announce the wedding.
“......” He had never been so speechless in his life.
***
The author has something to say:
It’s been a long time, my darlings!
I’ve begun the plot at the time after Yan Qing is reborn.
As for the events of the previous life, they’ll be shown via flashbacks. The gong is Xie Ying, also known as Xie Shiyi.
I’ll give you a simple summary: In the last life, Yan Qing didn’t know he had transmigrated into a novel, and he and Xie Shiyi passed several years as two souls in one body. Afterwards, Yan Qing found a new body, and the two men parted ways. Yan Qing went to Tenside City, while Xie Shiyi went to Desireless Sect. After many years, Xie Shiyi burned Tenside City in order to eradicate demons, and Yan Qing died and was reborn.
Thank you everyone for waiting for me for so long, I’ll faithfully type this out for you!
Updates will be at eight o’clock every morning.
I’ll send out red packets to people who leave comments today. Please send some, as comments are very important to me right now. It’s best if they’re over five words long. Love you.
(Below is the list of people who left gifts. Thank you everyone for your nutrient fluid, but there’s so much nutrient fluid it’s not easy to sort out, so I won’t write it down, haha.)
Thank you to:
[long list of gift-givers follows]
***
cela’s notes
Well, a new novel! If all goes well, I’ll stick with this one. I combed through quite a few novels on jjwxc to find this one.
Yán Qīng's name, 言卿, is made up of the character for "speech" and the character for a high ranking official.
2 hours and 40 minutes for 2,755 words, or 5.8 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease in rate by 2.9 minutes.
A total of 3 hours and 49 minutes for 3,544 words, or 6.5 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease in rate by 2.2 minutes.
If you want to read ahead, please consider encouraging me on Ko-fi! 💛
Looks really good and your translations i s great! Hope you'll continue translating this
ReplyDeleteThank you! I will 😊
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