Chapter 19: Elder Brother in the Mask

Qin Kaiyi opened his eyes and found himself lying on the soft bed in his own bedroom. The bed had a familiar smell. He got up and went to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water.

What was he doing just now? It seemed like he forgot something important? Rubbing his messy hair, Qin Kaiyi guzzled the water, then sat on the computer chair in his living room and began to get lost in thought.

The empty feeling in his heart made Qin Kaiyi feel anxious. He lit a cigarette and looked around at his surroundings. He was now at home, but what should he do at home? Qin Kaiyi licked his dry lips, and suddenly noticed the computer in front of him. A lightbulb went on in his head–he wrote novels at home!

That’s right, he just wrote novels. It seemed he had grasped something important. Qin Kaiyi tremblingly pressed the power button, and after a few minutes he heard the familiar power-on music. He clicked on some novel-writing software with practiced ease, then scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page.

“Qin Shi, who was locked in the large array again, gave a painful □. A dark cloud hovered over his head, and from time to time golden lightning flashed through that black cloud. Qin Shi raised his head…” Reading these words, Qin Kaiyi felt as if his head had been hit by something. He looked around at the scenery which should be familiar with a shocked expression, but found that his surroundings seemed somehow indistinct. What he could see was blurred, as if covered with steam, and his head again felt that violent pain. Qin Kaiyi grabbed at his own hair and let out a pained □… fake, this was all fake!!! (T/N: not sure what the empty boxes are. That’s what the author wrote in, instead of a word). 

Along with the severe pain, Qin Kaiyi clearly saw the scene in front of him twist, like a mirage destroyed by sunlight. The entire space fragmented.

“Who are you?” Qin Kaiyi frowned as he looked at the person-shaped flame in front of him. Even if he were using his toes to think instead of his brain, he would understand that what he had just experienced was related to the strange thing in front of him. 

“I am Yan Gu.” Seeing that Qin Kaiyi’s consciousness did not disappear after he had invaded, Yan Gu’s mood was obviously not very good. The body made of flame glowed a dazzling red light in Qin Kaiyi’s sea of ​​knowledge. Yan Gu’s tone was a little unpleasant: “You actually didn’t disappear?”

“Why should I disappear?” Qin Kaiyi expressed extreme bemusement towards this entire situation: “Why do you appear in my sea of ​​knowledge, what kind of thing are you?”

“You are a thing,” the self-proclaimed Yan Gu sneered. “I didn’t expect that you, a foundation-building cultivator, had this kind of willpower. The illusion didn’t whittle away all your will…”

Hearing this, Qin Kaiyi finally understood his situation. Items in the secret realm really were not to be trifled with. Even a mask picked up by the roadside could lead someone astray. If not for the fact that he was not of this world, he would long have been trapped in the illusion. But those of this world would never be able to understand what Qin Kaiyi really wanted. 

“Let me make a deal with you.” Noticing Qin Kaiyi’s uncertainty, Yan Gu’s expression changed: “I can give you countless rare treasures, but you have to agree to help me do one thing.”

“I don’t want to.” Qin Kaiyi directly refused.

“Don’t want to?” Hearing Qin Kaiyi’s merciless rejection, Yan was stunned for a moment, and then angrily said: “I didn’t even tell you what I want you to do and you refused?”

“What can you give me?” Qin Kaiyi looked at this strange man in front of him with a smile.

“Top-level elixirs, the most precious rare books, talismans… I can give you anything you can think of,” Yan Gu said.

“Oh, that good?” Qin Kaiyi seemed tempted, his eyes flashing.

“Of course.” Yan Gu thought he had moved Qin Kaiyi: “How about it, do you agree?”

“I don’t agree.” There was no room for discussion in Qin Kaiyi’s tone; he smiled and said: “Something that a powerful person like you can’t do, how could I do it? No matter how good the magic weapon is or how numerous the elixirs, without my life that all would go to waste, don’t you agree?” 

“You!!!” Not expecting Qin Kaiyi to be so resistant to persuasion, Yan Gu felt annoyed. He was sealed in the mask for tens of thousands of years. His skill was almost worn away such that he only had the remaining scraps of the power he had at his peak. Now even a little Taoist at the foundation-building period dared to tease him. Thinking this, Yan Gu’s eyes revealed a strong killing intent.

“Hey, please don’t be rash.” Sensing Yan Gu’s anger, Qin Kaiyi hurriedly said: “People enter this secret realm only once in a couple hundred years. If you kill me, who knows when you’ll encounter someone again.” Qin Kaiyi knew that he was not the opponent of the person in front of him, so he had to reason with him: “Although I can’t agree to your deal, even if a trade doesn’t succeed we can still maintain civility. We can also discuss other things… “

“Other things?” Hearing this, Yan Gu didn’t know what he thought of, and took a slight pause before saying: “What’s your name?”

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“This humble one is called Qin Shi.” Qin Kaiyi introduced himself.

“Which sect are you from?” From the hair to the eyes to his outer clothes, the completely red-colored Yan Gu appeared extremely dazzling in the dark sea of ​​knowledge. He sized up Qin Kaiyi as if he were a butcher determining which part of his prey was worth the most money. His gaze was frank and bloodthirsty.

Shivering from Yan Gu’s stare, Qin Kaiyi coughed: “I am the head disciple of the Lingshan Sect.”

“Lingshan Sect?” Yan Gu’s expression distorted for a moment when he heard the name, but he quickly corrected it: “I didn’t expect you to be from the Lingshan Sect. Is your shizu (T/N: shifu’s shifu or further down the line of shifus) Xue Xian good lately?”

Xue Xian…? Qin Kaiyi knew this person. In his novel, Xue Xian is the author of “Mountain Cloud Notes.” However, he did not have a detailed description of this person. After all, he had been dead for tens of thousands of years; even if he left behind bones they would have become ashes by now…

“Shizu… has already been in heaven for many years.” After thinking for a while, Qin Kaiyi decided to reply honestly.

“He’s dead??” At the moment when he heard this, a few feet of flames suddenly exploded out from Yan Gu’s body. Flames that were supposed to produce heat somehow held a penetrating chill: “Haha… That’s right, I’m afraid there are not many who could survive after the ancient war.”

Another… old monster. When Qin Kaiyi heard Yan Gu’s words, he knew that he was going to be out of luck again. F*ck your sister, he just got rid of that fraudulent thing Zi Yangpei and now there was something else called Yan Gu. This one was even harder to handle than the last.

“You go, I want to calm down.” Not knowing if the news of Xue Xian’s death had hit Yan Gu too hard, he coldly looked at Qin Kaiyi and waved a hand.

“Yes.” Qin Kaiyi obediently and mellowly left his sea of knowledge. When he came out, he resentfully realized something. Why did this bastard ask him to leave, that was his very own sea of knowledge, OK?!!

Qin Kaiyi’s mood was already very bad, and became even worse when he returned to reality, because he discovered that… the mask on his face could not be taken off!!!

Even though the mask was pure gold, and even though it looked trendy, if you asked him to wear it for a lifetime Qin Kaiyi wouldn’t agree even if he had to die. As an otaku who did not even give away his first kiss, he firmly believed that this mask would affect his future love life. *Crying noises*… which sister would marry a man whose face she couldn’t even see?? 

Sadly drawing circles on the ground, Qin Kaiyi’s mind flashed with a sudden thought–he could accept his situation and move on. He would return to his original body anyway. If Qin Shi had to forever wear a mask on his face, what the hell did that have to do with him?

Thinking this way, he felt a lot better. At this moment Qin Kaiyi suspiciously seemed to completely ignore the problem of how he would explain himself when others saw him…

Qin Kaiyi wasn’t the only one gloomy; there was also the very depressed Shen Feixiao.

Since witnessing the scene of Qin Kaiyi jumping into the river to commit suicide, Shen Feixiao wasn’t feeling too well. He originally thought that someone like Qin Kaiyi must be very afraid of death, so he didn’t expect Qin Kaiyi to fearlessly jump into the river and kill himself. Shen Feixiao had lied about the poison, and he hadn’t thought to murder Qin Kaiyi in such a way. Even so, under unexpected circumstances, Qin Kaiyi actually jumped into the river and committed suicide.

Actually, Shen Feixiao still had not lost the innate kindness of a child. However, after looking in the river for Qin Kaiyi’s body to no avail, this kindness was nearly completely wiped out. Shen Feixiao had no choice but to suspect that Qin Kaiyi had not died. Furthermore, he wondered if the act of jumping into the river was all calculated to cheat himself. 

What to do if Qin Kaiyi didn’t die? Shen Feixiao petted the soft fur of the sable in his arms and felt a chill in his heart at this possibility. According to the nature of this vile and arrogant person who had come into a position of power, since he already knew that Shen Feixiao wanted to kill him, he would certainly not let him go. In this secret realm perhaps he had a chance, but if he left this secret realm… Shen Feixiao felt an uncontrollable murderous intent in his heart. He could not let Qin Kaiyi leave this secret realm alive!! If Qin Kaiyi did so, Shen Feixiao only had two choices. The first one was to leave the Lingshan Sect to avoid disaster. The other was that Qin Kaiyi would report this incident, whereupon Shen Feixiao would be wiped out by the sect head. Shen Feixiao wanted to walk on neither one of these two paths. So without any hesitation, Shen Feixiao chose a third path–kill Qin Kaiyi!! 

 

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Notes

If anyone has the original (possibly uncensored??) version for me to translate, that would be amazing. I’m getting the raws online as I go, but a lot is missing.

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