The bat was shocked. “What? You’re actually a cut-sleeve?!”
Yan Qing: “Yeah, don’t discriminate against me.”
The bat was puzzled. “That’s not right, don’t you monks all let go of desire and cut off love?”
Yan Qing raised a brow. “Since when was I a monk?”
The bat was shocked again. “What?! You’re not a monk? Then what’s the matter with your hair?”
“......” Yan Qing smiled warmly and praised him. “You really have a way with words.”
“?!” At the next moment, this high-EQ bat let out a piteous screech in his owner’s hand. Cartoon stars flew from his eyes, white foam flowed from his mouth and his claws pointed to the sky.
When Yan Qing returned to Lissome Palace, the guards had not yet awoken.
He let down his high-bound hair, and looked at the face in the mirror that was similar to his own. He suddenly felt a little awkward. A man’s personality was revealed in the subtle traces, and with the addition of this lookalike face, what would he do if Xie Shiyi recognized him?
“Hurry and help me think of a way to destroy my features?”
Once the bat’s silencing curse was lifted, the first thing he did was let out his agitation. “Under this sky, only one of us can live!!!”
Yan Qing: “I’ve found that you not only have a terrible way with words, but you also have a big temper. With such a bad temperament, life must be difficult for you.”
The bat choked. “What the hell?”
Yan Qing said, “I know what name to give you.”
He reached out and patted the bat’s head, smiled and said, “Doesn’t your clan like to have names that are seven or eight words long? Since you love bickering so much, I’ll call you ‘letting out a lifetime of trouble.’”
The bat: “?”
Yan Qing: “Alright, Trouble, hurry up and think of a reasonable way to destroy my features.”
Trouble fell into trouble because of his lack of culture. He really felt like the longer his name was, the better. His red eyes turned in their sockets, and he didn’t resist, accepting this name with satisfaction. His anger eased. “Why do you want to destroy your features?”
Yan Qing pointed at his face. “How do you think I look?”
Trouble took a glance, and felt superior. “You’re alright, even though your skin isn’t black, your eyes aren’t red and you’re the ugliest man on earth. But it’s fine, you don’t have to feel too bad about yourself.”
Yan Qing sneered. “If I really did have black skin and red eyes, what would I need to destroy my features for? Nobody would recognize me.”
Trouble: “……” He suppressed the urge to swear.
He flew out on bony wings in a huff, not wanting to heed this ugly man who had a problem with his aesthetics and didn’t know his own ugliness.
Yan Qing leaned before his table, looking absent-mindedly at himself in the mirror. He swept up the brush on the table, took some cinnabar, added some ink and began to paint his face in the mirror. The man in the mirror soon developed a large pit on his forehead, with blood leaking from it all over his face.
Yan Qing scrutinized himself for a while, and found a little powder, turning his face ash-white. When everything was done, the guard outside had already begun knocking on the door.
“Young Master, the sect master wants me to take you to the main hall.”
When the guard opened the door and took a look, he almost lost his soul from fright. Who was this ghost demanding his life?
Yan Qing said, “Let’s go.”
The guard was foolish from fright. He had the heart to warn him, “Young Master, there’s no need to seek death. Elder Huaixu will plead your case.”
Yan Qing kept his current character setting in mind, smiled at him and said with a chill, “When I’m about to die, my father will plead for me. But when my heart is about to die, who will come to save me?”
The guard: “???”
He took Yan Qing toward the Springturn Sect main hall.
The path from Lissome Palace to the main hall crossed a rope bridge hanging in the air.
The mountain flowers blew past the ravine, drifting into the thick mist.
“Young Master!” Congming had been waiting on the other side of the rope bridge for some time.
The Serene Prison formation was broken, which was a serious affair. Everyone from last night had been called here.
Yan Qing came with this ghostly appearance, scaring A-Hua and A-Hu. “Benefactor, what’s wrong with your face?”
Yan Qing felt the blood on his face and explained, “I’m fine, I just had a fall.”
But in the eyes of the crowd, the more he hid it, the more guilty he seemed.
Yan Jianshui laughed coldly, mocking him. “Yan Qing, are you that thirsty for a man? If you can’t have him, you seek death?” Bai Xiaoxiao pursed his lips, his eyes carrying a little puzzlement and pity.
Yin Wuwang’s gaze only stopped on Yan Qing’s face for a moment, and then quickly left it. Many people in this world admired him, and Yan Qing was only the most unnoticeable in that number. The only difference was that his methods were more despicable.
He saw the blood on Yan Qing’s face, and finally understood his actions in the Serene Prison last night. This lunatic was at the end of his rope, so he was trying to loosen the reins in order to grasp them better? Did Yan Qing think that this way, he would be surprised and have interest in him?
A-Hu advanced. “Benefactor, don’t search for death, there’s nothing in this world that can’t be overcome! Look at me, back then, I thought my fiancée was having it on with someone else, and I didn’t want to live. But in the end, wasn’t I fine?”
A-Hua said, “You devil, if you dared to search for death, I’d chase you into hell to yell at you.”
Yan Qing: “......” Why did he have to listen to this so early in the morning?
Seeing Yan Qing suffer, Trouble cackled wildly.
Yan Qing thanked them for their words of comfort, patted the bat on his shoulder and pointed at them. “Come, call them ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy.’”
Trouble’s laughter stopped. “......”
A-Hua had complicated feelings for the bat who had stayed in her belly for nine months. Her eyes reddened.
Yan Qing couldn’t wait for this family of three to stay together and stop bothering him. He reached out, took hold of Trouble by the wings and handed him to A-Hua. He smiled and said considerately, “Come, A-Hua, look at your son. Isn’t he like you? These eyes and nose, they’re all on top of his mouth.”
“They really are, Young Master.” A-Hua was so moved her eyes brimmed with tears. She turned and tugged on A-Hu’s hand, filled with pleasant surprise. “A-Hu-ge, look, this is our son.”
A-Hu was happy to be a father, so happy he cried. “I see him, I see him. He looks like me, his eyes are eyes and his nose is a nose.”
Yan Jianshui, Bai Xiaoxiao, Yin Wuwang: “......”
They hugged Trouble so tightly he almost couldn’t breathe. His eyes rolled upwards, his breath reduced to a wisp: “Goddamn brat…fucking cut-sleeve…don’t let me fucking catch you…”
A-Hu couldn’t hear him clearly, and said foolishly, “Benefactor, what is our child saying?”
Yan Qing: “He’s letting out a lifetime of trouble. No need to pay attention to him.”
Yan Qing escaped from this family of three, his whole body feeling lighter. He crossed the hanging bridge through the flowers flying like snow, his sleeves fluttering.
Yin Wuwang stepped forward and followed him.
Bai Xiaoxiao remembered what had happened in the Serene Prison. He bit his lip and took the initiative to start a conversation with Yin Wuwang. “Wuwang-gege…”
Yin Wuwang looked down at the boy, gazing at his pale face and clear eyes. The desire that had once been concealed within him had disappeared with the collapse of the cave.
He wasn’t so low as to steal someone else’s fiancé.
Yin Wuwang pursed his lips and chose to ignore Bai Xiaoxiao. He followed Yan Qing.
The pale pear flowers floated past the gold diamond on his forehead. Yin Wuwang was a little dazed, and he remembered the feeling of being pulled.
Bai Xiaoxiao stood helplessly in place.
Yan Jianshui walked up to him and said dismissively, “Xiaoxiao, I told you Yin Wuwang was an ungrateful bastard.”
***
In the main hall, the elders of Springturn Sect looked at the conflict on the hanging bridge in a water mirror, completely silent.
The sect leader looked at his shidi. “This is your so-called—Yan Qing has reflected on his wrongs and turned over a new leaf?”
Elder Huaixu felt that Yan Qing had thrown away a lifetime’s worth of his face, but he mulishly refused to retract his words, saying stiffly, “Yes, that outsider bewitched my son, but now Yan Qing has repented.”
The sect leader laughed coldly. “Alright, I’ll have to see exactly how he bewitched him.”
***
As soon as Yan Qing entered the door, a token flew down from far in the sky, crashing into the ground before him.
“Yan Qing, do you realize what you did wrong?!” An imposing and grave voice sounded throughout the palace.
“You stole the sect’s highest treasure, the siftrain flower, trespassed into the sect’s forbidden grounds, and destroyed the Serene Prison! These are three crimes, and each one is punishable by death! Do you acknowledge your crimes?”
Yan Qing lifted his head and looked at the elders gathered in the center of the hall. Springturn Sect was a small, unpopular sect, and it contained only two Nascent Soul cultivators, Huaixu and the sect leader. Today, the crowd of people in the main hall were all Golden Core or Foundation Building cultivators. Even in ordinary times, they hated him to their bones as a good-for-nothing rich boy. Now they watched him with joy in his destruction.
Huaixu was unbearably agitated. He tried to guide the sect leader. “Yan Qing, tell the truth. Everyone here is your elder; they won’t accuse you for no reason. Your cultivation hasn’t even reached Foundation Building, so how could you be strong enough to steal the siftrain flower, let alone blow up the Serene Prison? Speak, tell me who is framing you. Tell me their name, and we’ll uphold justice for you.”
Every word of his threw dirty water onto Yin Wuwang. After all, Yin Wuwang was only a rogue cultivator without a sect or school, so it was easy for them to put him to death. No one was better suited for taking the blame.
When Yin Wuwang walked into the main hall and heard Huaixu’s words, he smiled mockingly, his fingers clenching into fists.
He had long since expected this to be Springturn Sect’s treatment of him.
The cultivation world had always bullied the weak and feared the strong. If he really were a rogue cultivator without any background, he was afraid he would only have a dead end before him now.
It was a good thing he had already notified Lightstream Sect. Once his people arrived, he would repay the humiliation Springturn Sect had given him a hundred times over. His gaze landed on Yan Qing. Especially to him!
When Yan Qing finished listening to his cheap father’s speech, he almost laughed out loud.
Dad, can you not read the script for a cannon fodder so smoothly?
In fact, he had only looked for Yin Wuwang for the sake of asking for his sagecloud mirror. As for the siftrain flower, that was a matter of karma for Yan Qing.
In the novel, it said that Yan Qing’s actions were a matter of stealing merit, but the most important reason why Bai Xiaoxiao was willing to suffer this grievance was that Yan Qing was the one who had stolen the siftrain flower.
Since he had resolved to follow the plot, then he had to suffer this karma.
Huaixu was anxious. “Yan Qing! Hurry and say something!”
The main hall of Springturn Sect was full of people. Everyone’s gaze landed on the young man in the center of the hall. They saw his black hair that flowed down like a waterfall, his pale skin and the blood that dripped down his face. His figure was as thin as a piece of paper. But when he stood between heaven and earth, he carried an indescribable charm, like an upright blade of grass in a sweeping gale.
They couldn’t help but be taken aback.
Seeing him standing in silence, Huaixu stood up. “Yan Qing—”
The sect leader barred his way. “Huaixu! Sit down!”
Huaixu had to give his shixiong face, so he gritted his teeth and sat down with an unpleasant expression.
The sect leader’s gaze was like a knife when it landed on Yan Qing. He said heavily, “Yan Qing, do you admit to your crimes?”
Yan Qing’s features seemed like a painting. He smiled. “I admit to them.”
The hall immediately filled with noise.
Huaixu’s eyes almost leapt from their sockets. “Yan Qing!”
Immediately afterwards, the sect leader hurled a storm of questions at Yan Qing.
“Were you the one who stole the siftrain flower?!”
“Yes.”
“Were you the one who trespassed on the sect’s forbidden grounds?!”
“Yes.”
“Were you the one who destroyed the Serene Prison?!”
“Yes.”
The sect leader was shocked by his honesty. He looked at Yan Qing in disbelief, and finally asked with difficulty, “Yan Qing, do you regret these actions?”
The light of the sky reflected from the mirror high in the hall. Yan Qing smiled slightly, his gaze clear as the frost on a blade. “I don’t regret them.”
***
“No, Sect Leader, the collapse of the Serene Prison has nothing to do with the young master!”
A-Hua and A-Hu had heard everything clearly from outside. Now they were foolish with surprise, and ran in as if they were on fire.
They couldn’t let their benefactor suffer this injustice.
“Sect Master, the young master is falsely accused!”
Yan Qing had already ticked the sect master off so much he had a headache. When he saw these two people charge in, he immediately rebuked them. “Who are you? How dare you trespass into the main hall? Get the hell out.”
Huaixu, who was in despair, saw a chance to turn things around. His eyes immediately sparked with light. “No, Sect Leader, they were in the Serene Prison last night. Let them finish speaking!”
A-Hu knelt on the ground with a thump, kowtowed three times and then spoke. “Sect Leader, I was the guard stationed outside the cave. I can witness that last night, Yan Qing wasn’t the only one in the cave. Yan-da-shixiong and Bai-xiao-shidi were there as well.”
The sect leader felt this was outrageous. “As the cave guard, you let in three people at once?”
A-Hu looked foolish. Only now did he realize he neglected his duty. His face streamed with tears and he knocked his head against the ground three more times on the spot. “It’s all my fault. Punish me, Sect Leader, but let the young master go.”
A-Hua was unbearably anxious. She spoke up for him. “Sect Leader, it was only because I clung to A-Hu and distracted him last night that he made this kind of error. Sect Leader, please punish me.”
The sect leader rebuked them. “Shut up! Is the main hall somewhere you can run wild?”
With a strike of his palm, the two people fell to the ground, gravely injured.
A-Hu spat out blood, but he still struggled to raise his head, speaking the truth. “Sect Leader, I was outside the cave last night. But I know that two strikes of sword qi caused the collapse of the cave. It was Yan-da-shixiong’s Jadeblood sword!”
Huaixu was shocked. He wanted the filthy water to be thrown on Yin Wuwang, not on Yan Jianshui. Each son was a part of his heart!
Huaixu threatened him. “Think it over carefully. Exactly who was it who destroyed the Serene Prison?”
A-Hu stuck to his statement. “It was Yan Jianshui.”
When Yan Jianshui heard A-Hu’s indictment, he said with disdain, “All I did was set off the cave formation. The destruction of the Serene Pool was clearly because Yan Qing set off the demon in the cage.”
The sect leader frowned, sensing the wrongness of the situation. “The demon in the cage? What kind of demon was it? Hasn’t the Serene Prison been empty for a few hundred years?”
All Huaixu wanted to do was pin the blame on Yin Wuwang. Again, he guided the sect leader. “Jianshui, why were you in the cave last night?”
Yan Jianshui said mockingly, “Wasn’t it because of Yin Wuwang?”
“Yiin Wuwang, sure enough, it was Yin Wuwang?!” Huaixu finally got the answer he wanted. He was so excited he stood up. “Sect Leader, didn’t I say so? This rogue cultivator is a disaster! First he seduced my son Yan Qing into stealing the siftrain flower for him, and then he was the culprit for the destruction of the Serene Prison! I think we have to execute him for this sect to have any peace!”
The logic in this passage of words seemed like it was chewed by a dog.
But as the only other Nascent Soul elder in the sect, everyone would give face to him.
The sect leader’s mind was now on the demon in the Serene Prison.
Huaixu took this opportunity, wanting to come to a quick resolution on today’s matter. His eyes revealed rancor as he said decisively, “Come, take down Yin Wuwang!”
Yin Wuwang stood there, black hair falling against his black robes, expressionless. He stood alone against the entirety of the sect.
“Wuwang-gege…” Bai Xiaoxiao’s eyes showed sorrow and pity. He stood softly behind him.
But Yin Wuwang’s gaze fell on Yan Qing alone.
In the hall full of clamor, nothing had made him more surprised than Yan Qing’s indifferent sentence, “I don’t regret them.” But he was only surprised for a moment. What did it matter to him if Yan Qing was infatuated with him? In the end, he would repay the humiliation of being imprisoned and disrespected.
Yin Wuwang moved his gaze aside, looking coldly over the crowd of people. There was the foolish and easily-angered sect leader, the vicious and protective Huaixu, and Yan Jianshui, who looked at everyone as if they were lower than him. He said hoarsely, “Springturn Sect’s mission is to save the world and help people. You really disgrace your name.”
Huaixu flew into a rage. “Take him down!”
“Let me see who dares!”
Just when the main hall was falling into chaos, a chain flew from the sky like a golden snake, tightly binding Huaixu. It pulled him down from the high platform so that he rolled on the ground.
Huaixu shouted, his eyes full of surprise and fear.
A man in purple robes and an ornate crown rode in on a sword, four cultivators following behind him. They were all Nascent Soul level.
The entire hall was shocked.
“Who are they?”
“Nascent Soul level!!”
The man in purple had an intimidating presence, imposing and grave. He reproved them. “You’re nothing more than ants. You actually dare to raise a hand against the young sect master of our Lightstream Sect?!”
Lightstream Sect? These two words fell like lightning, startling everyone there so much their souls went numb. Their faces paled, and they couldn’t speak.
Yan Qing let out a dark sigh. He stood in the center of the hall, his inky hair falling against his blue robes, red thread tangled between his fingers. He had expected this, but when this kind of dragon-prince-returning-to-his-rightful-place face-slapping script landed on his head, he really didn’t feel like laughing.
In the novel, Springturn Sect was nothing more than a beginner village, unworthy of mention. It was a sect on the down-and-out, located in a remote area, far away from the center of the realm. The immortal families and sacred lands of the Southluster continent were nothing more than legends to this sect. The disciples had low cultivation, and they were only lucky enough to see people from the nine great sects once every hundred years, during the Bluecloud Conference. It was easy to see how great the shock of the two words “Lightstream Sect” was to them.
The man in purple was clearly Great Ascension level, his imposing presence filling the heavens and earth.
The sect leader of Springturn Sect immediately stood, sweat beading on his forehead as he said in fear and trepidation, “Senior…”
The man in purple didn’t bother to look at him. He jumped down from his sword, walked over to Yin Wuwang and said respectfully, “Young Sect Master.”
Yin Wuwang said calmly, “Yes.”
The sect leader’s pupils shrank, and he almost fell to the ground. “Y-Young Sect Master?”
Yin Wuwang saw the crowd in the main hall revealing expressions of shock, regret and terror. All of this was what he had expected.
Sure enough, they were people who bullied the weak, feared the strong and loved to curry favor. Once they knew his status, they were scared stiff, putting on this affected manner.
“Wuwang-gege…” Bai Xiaoxiao spoke, trembling slightly. He was scared by what was happening as well.
Yin Wuwang looked at the young man’s flawless, clear eyes, and thought of the way he had stood behind him just now. His heart softened for a moment. Perhaps there was only one kind person in all of Springturn Sect—Bai Xiaoxiao.
Huaixu fell to the ground, scared silly. All he wanted was to find a scapegoat for his son. How did he manage to offend Lightstream Sect?
The elder in purple had a cruel expression. His voice was low and disdainful. “What did you say just now? Our young sect master seduced who? Him?”
His knife-like gaze landed on Yan Qing, full of poisonous scorn. He smiled darkly.
“Someone like him? Is he worthy?”
“Who knows how many people there are in the Southluster continent who want to crawl onto the bed of our young sect master? What do you Springturn Sect people count as? Who knows who was seducing whom!”
“Wasted spiritual roots, low cultivation, vile thoughts and a greed for glory, and you dare to get ideas about our young sect master? You’re nothing more than a clown who doesn’t know what’s good for him!”
Just as his words landed, his eyes ice-cold, the golden chain in his hands swept toward Yan Qing.
“Young Master!” A-Hua and A-Hu shouted.
The golden chain had a thunderous momentum. With Yan Qing’s current Qi Refining cultivation, there was nothing ahead of him but death.
In a flash, a clear and sharp sword intent suddenly came from the sky. It passed through the clouds and the sunlight with the speed of lightning, mixing with the light and changing the color of the clouds.
A dark green sword pinned the purple-clothed man’s chain to the ground.
Afterwards, a low, aged voice sounded coldly. “Who are you to attack one of Desireless Sect’s people?”
***
The author has something to say:
The man who came isn’t Xie Ying.
But Xie Ying is sure to make his appearance in the next chapter, and this time, it’ll be the real man.
I won’t lie to you, qwq, really. Before, when I said he was going to appear two chapters later, that was referring to the flashback scene in the fifth chapter. Didn’t I do it? 😊
***
cela’s notes:
Trouble’s name was real fun to translate. The full name is 似诉平生不得志, a line from “The Song of the Pipa” (琵琶行) by the Tang poet Bai Juyi (白居易). Taken with the line before it, it reads, “Each tug on the string hid a note of melancholy, as if she were telling us of a life of unfulfilled dreams.” Trouble’s name is actually Bùdézhì (不得志), which means “failure to accomplish an ambition.” But hey, you know I had to make that into something catchy. How ugly is Budezhi?
Also, the novel never actually specifies Trouble’s gender (at least so far as the sixteenth chapter, which is as far as I’ve translated), since it only uses the animal pronoun 它 for him. But about a chapter and a half into translating Trouble as an “it,” I knew it wasn’t going to work. Thinking back on it now, I could’ve made Trouble a girl. He would have been a very remarkable girl. I could've made him genderfluid. But it’s a bit late now 🤷
2 hours and 37 minutes for 3,967 words, or 4 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease in rate by 0.2 minutes!
A total of 17 hours and 8 minutes for 21,534 words, or 4.8 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease in rate by 0.2 minutes!
If you would like access to the next six chapters, please consider encouraging me on Ko-fi! 💛
Comments
Post a Comment