Chapter 3: CH 3

Translator: transcendent.wings

Thank you to the editors who tried out: Aini, Lucia, Pierce, and teaff 

Xu Xingzhi: “. . .”

Just realizing that the person who was previously sprawled on his back was Meng Chongguang sent a chill down Xu Xingzhi’s spine.

The most important thing was that he had no idea how to respond to Meng Chongguang’s words.

First of all, these people obviously knew who Xu Xingzhi was, but he had no idea how the real Xu Xingzhi interacted with them and what their impression of him was. 

Second, Xu Xingzhi wasn’t clear about the grievances that developed between Meng Chongguang and Xu Xingzhi that year.

Meng Chonguang killed their teacher and indirectly caused Xu Xingzhi to be exiled from the sect, so logically, Xu Xingzhi himself should’ve thoroughly hated Meng Chongguang to the bone ba.

What rescued Xu Xingzhi from his crisis in the awkward silence was a 2.61 meter tasseled-spear.

As he was hesitating on how to answer, a cold and sharp arc of light suddenly swept over horizontally and the tip of a spear pointed directly at Xu Xingzhi’s chest.

Xu Xingzhi subconsciously put his hands up and took a step backwards, blurting out: “. . . Oho.”

He regretted his response as soon as the words left his lips.

As Xu Ping, he always had some ignoble speaking habits. If the original Xu Xingzhi wasn’t an annoying chatterbox like him, then he might’ve already exposed himself.

In the time it took for a few thoughts to flash through his mind, Xu Xingzhi suddenly heard a crisp clanking sound. 

—That ghost spear was directly snapped in half right before Xu Xingzhi’s eyes.

The tip of the tasseled-spear was bent upwards pointing at the sky, while the shaft was cracked with white splinters exposed at the fracture point.

Meng Chongguang’s left hand clutched the fractured part of the spear shaft and his eyes were unblinkingly fixed on the young man who had stabbed forth with the spear, his tone absent of any special emotions: “. . . Zhou Beinan, back off.”

The young man whose name was Zhou Beinan stubbornly gripped the broken spear without retreating even a single inch. 

Since the warning was useless, Meng Chongguang was no longer merciful. He snapped the tip of the spear off in one smooth motion then flipped it around and launched it at Zhou Beinan.

Zhou Beinan dodged immediately, but the side of his neck was still nicked and blood trickled down without further preamble.

. . . Ghost servants manipulated by ghostly cultivation couldn’t be injured by ordinary spiritual artifacts at all. Only the weapons wielded by ghostly soldiers could injure the ghost servant’s bodily shell.

The spearhead pierced into the giant rock behind him and the rock unexpectedly shattered into pieces like it was made of tofu. 

Meng Chongguang’s voice was heavy: “. . . Don’t point this thing at Shixiong.”

Zhou Beinan wasn’t afraid at all and with a flip of his wrist, he spun the shaft of the fragmented ghost spear around, lifted Xu Xingzhi’s chin, and then asked Meng Chongguang: “Is this really Xu Xingzhi? Do you really believe that?”

He turned around again to ask everyone: “. . . Do you all believe that?”

Xu Xingzhi saw that no one responded, and the situation became slightly stiff so he brazenly raised his own hand and replied: “I believe it.” 

Zhou Beinan taunted coldly: “You? You’re probably one of the awakened corpses under Jiu Zhideng ba?”

In the real world, Xu Xingzhi had read countless miscellaneous books and had once seen a record about “awakened corpses” in a collection about mysterious and supernatural beings.

“Awakened corpses” were monsters that were transformed from the bodies of the deceased whose outer appearances, speech patterns, behavior, and others were the same as ordinary people. They could even think, live, and eat like a living person. However, the emotions they had while they were still alive were all lost without exception, black and white were flipped, light and dark were difficult to distinguish, cold and hot were reversed, and they would only act in accordance with their owner’s commands and control.

Zhou Beinan didn’t waste any more words. He withdrew the shaft of the spear, converged a bundle of ghost fire in his left palm, and aimed straight at Xu Xingzhi’s face. 

The flame suddenly stopped when it was only three inches away from Xu Xingzhi’s eyes.

The frigid air of the ghost fire was awe-inspiring. It wasn’t biting, but it was the type of cold that deeply invaded the joints and caused a layer of frost to form directly on Xu Xingzhi’ face.

For the sake of maintaining what little image remained of the original owner that he pretty much ruined already, Xu Xingzhi forced himself not to close his eyes and watched unblinkingly as a layer of frost coated his eyelashes.

As the ghost fire burned, the previously firm expression on Zhou Beinan’s face wavered. 

Normally, real awakened corpses would mistake this kind of cold flames as scorching hot flames and thus instinctively shrink back in fear.

He stared at Xu Xingzhi incredulously: “How can that be? . . . You aren’t an awakened corpse?”

Xu Xingzhi was speechless.

He clasped his hands behind his back and with a guilty conscience, used an unfathomable gaze to regard Zhou Beinan. 

With a wave of his hand, Zhou Beinan dispersed the ghost fire into tens of thousands of blue fireflies as it faded away completely.

However, he still carried a doubtful look as he suggested to Meng Chongguang: “. . . Take out his spiritual artifact. Once I fight him, we’ll know for sure whether he is real or not.”

Xu Xingzhi couldn’t help but remind him: “I have a mortal body now.”

Itbe Dflcjc cjaegjiis vlvc’a yfilfnf la: “Tbe wfjc sbeg mfifralji gbbar kfgf gfwbnfv?” 

We Wlcuhtl cflatfg mbcolgwfv cbg vfclfv la.

Itbe Dflcjc rcffgfv mbivis: “Pwqbrrlyif, jr ojg jr P xcbk, cb meialnjabg ktbrf gbbar kfgf raglqqfv regnlnfv.”

We Wlcuhtl gfqilfv: “Ktja’r jr ojg jr sbe xcbk.”

Itbe Dflcjc cb ibcufg ajixfv cbcrfcrf klat tlw jcv wjvf j ufraegf ab ugjy tlr jgw. 

Before Zhou Beinan was able to touch him, Meng Chongguang seized Xu Xingzhi’s right wrist first and encircled it.

The force used to yank Xu Xingzhi over was so great that he nearly stumbled.

He shielded Xu Xingzhi behind him, his voice emanating with a terrible glacial air: “If he really was an awakened corpse that dared to fraudulently use Shixiong’s face, I would’ve strangled him to death as soon as I saw him.”

Xu Xingzhi: “. . .” 

He rubbed his cold swept neck, thinking, who in the world educated this child, really so rude.

He kindly carried him home but he actually considered strangling him to death.

Though, thinking of the purpose of his trip, Xu Xingzhi could only shut up.

. . . Since he wasn’t any better than him anyway, why should a crow ridicule a pig for being black. 

Meng Chongguang paused a bit then continued: “Shixiong really did lose all of his spiritual power. I probed it on the way here. The spiritual veins in his body have been stagnant for a long time and there is no longer any spiritual power circulating.”

After saying so, he turned around, his voice instantly becoming soft: “. . . Shixiong, isn’t that right?”

If he didn’t have to act like the da-shixiong that was pitted by him, if he didn’t know that the person before his eyes was the natural catastrophe who slaughtered people akin to killing ants, and if he wasn’t here to kill him, Xu Xingzhi would’ve thought that this kid actually looked quite adorable.

Xu Xingzhi resisted the urge to pat his head and turned his face away. 

Meng Chongguang also detected his resistance. His eyes dimmed and he became dejected like a puppy who failed to be pampered as a reward.

Zhou Beinan seemed to believe it a little more but his doubts still persisted: “You’re absolutely sure he isn’t a fraud?”

The skeletal girl couldn’t stand it anymore: “Zhou-dage . . .”

Zhou Beinan pondered for a moment and raised an eyebrow as if he just thought of a foolproof verification method. 

Xu Xingzhi noticed the change in his expression and immediately pulled himself together and gathered all of his attention in order to deal with his next obstacle.

Zhou Beinan questioned: “. . . Ever since childhood, you’ve given me dozens of nicknames. As long as you can name three, I’ll believe that you are Xu Xingzhi.”

Xu Xingzhi: “. . .”

. . . Assigned nicknames, and even f*cking assigned dozens of them. 

Xu Xingzhi felt that the original owner probably wasn’t any sort of decent shixiong either.

But, through authentication against Xu Xingzhi’s memory fragments, the original owner really had done such a boring thing.

There were four blessed celestial mountains in the righteous path. Xu Xingzhi and Meng Chongguang were both disciples of Fengling Mountain and Zhou Beinan was the son of the master of Yingtianchuan Island, while the other two blessed celestial mountains were Danyang Peak and Qingliang Valley.

The memories of the original owner were extremely fragmented. Xu Xingzhi could only tell from some messy pieces that the original owner and Zhou Beinan only needed to bump into each other and they would immediately squabble and beat each other up. Their relationship was extremely lousy and because of that Xu Xingzhi had bestowed upon him dozens of nicknames to clearly emphasize the special status Zhou Beinan had in his heart. 

Xu Xingzhi paused for a heartbeat and smoothly extracted a nickname from the memory shards: “Beibei.”

Zhou Beinan: “. . .”

Xu Xingzhi: “Pumpkin.”

Zhou Beinan: “. . .” 

Xu Xingzhi: “Ah, there’s also Fatty Zhou.”

Zhou Beinan couldn’t bear it any longer: “. . . Shut up!”

The girl with the pair of sabres burst into laughter.

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Zhou Beinan lost his cool and turned around to reprimand: “What are you laughing at? What’s so funny?” 

The girl wasn’t the least bit afraid: “Uncle, the first two I understand, but ‘Fatty Zhou’. . .”

Xu Xingzhi popped his head out from behind Meng Chongguang to explain kindly: “Because when he was 11, he was more than 75 kg.”

Zhou Beinan blushed all the way to his ears and smashed the leftover half of the spear in his hand against the ground: “Xu Xingzhi, are you trying to pick a fight with me?”

Xu Xingzhi very shamelessly hid behind Meng Chongguang’s back and played dead. 

During their conversation, a dark silhouette sprinted over to them from a distance.

. . . It was that phantom-masked youth who was on the cliff just now.

Before Xu Xingzhi could react, the youth directly threw himself into his arms, his voice tinged with a sobbing undertone: “Xu-shixiong!”

The youth was indeed very short, only reaching Xu Xingzhi’s chin. The lower half of his face that wasn’t covered by the frightening iron mask was delicate and fair and gave a childish impression at first glance. 

Xu Xingzhi was dazed by his hug and acted in accordance with the principle of not being able to call out the name but still pretending to be familiar. He raised a hand to stroke his hair: “. . . En, it’s me.”

The youth looked up, the irises behind the mask were pale blue and round, looking very similar to a fox cub: “Xu-shixiong, I haven’t seen you in 13 years, where have you been?”

Xu Xingzhi smiled bitterly.

. . . Hold on a sec, let me make that up for you. 

However, before he could fabricate anything, the youth was yanked out of his embrace by Zhou Beinan.

Xu Xingzhi didn’t know if it was his imagination, but Zhou Beinan’s expression seemed to have become even uglier than before. He pointed at the spear that had just been broken by Meng Chongguang and indifferently demanded of the youth: “. . . Fix it.”

The phantom-masked youth struggled and exclaimed: “Shixiong is still here, let me ask Shixiong some things first. . .”

Zhou Beinan swept his gaze over Meng Chongguang from the corner of his eyes and forcibly dragged the phantom-masked youth away: “It isn’t your turn to talk to him yet.” 

The phantom-masked youth seemed to have realized something and shut his mouth obediently.

Meng Chongguang didn’t bother acknowledging the others, he only clasped Xu Xingzhi’s right wrist and headed straight for the tower.

Xu Xingzhi attempted to break away, but unfortunately didn’t have enough strength to resist and could only be dragged inside by him like a dog.

Frantically, Xu Xingzhi glanced back and found that the skeletal girl who had just treated Meng Chongguang’s burns was staring unwaveringly at him. 

However when Xu Xingzhi returned her gaze, she immediately lowered her head, flustered, and turned to walk away.

The ends of the waist-length pale green jade-colored ribbon she used to coil her hair with, fluttered in the air like shimmering waves in conjunction with her retreating footsteps.

Only when the two of them entered the high tower did the girl with the two sabres approach the phantom-masked youth to inquire curiously: “Lu-dage, is that the Xu-shixiong that you guys often mention?”

The phantom-masked youth fiddled with the broken ghost spear, overjoyed: “Yes, ah.” 

The double-sabre girl tugged at her haphazardly trimmed short hair: “Why do I think he seemed very frivolous?”

The phantom-masked youth replied: “Though Xu-shixiong is a little impulsive, he’s the best person in the world.”

Hearing this, Zhou Beinan rolled his eyes: “Heh.”

The phantom-masked youth whipped around and complained: “What’re you laughing at? Stop laughing! Do you know how much spiritual energy it takes to repair ghostly weapons? Can’t you use it more frugally?” 

Zhou Beinan: “. . . Yes, yes, I will.”

Afterwards, Zhou Beinan turned to the double-sabre girl, questioning: “A-Wang, where are Qu Chi and Tao Xian?”

Zhou Wang answered: “There’s a rumor that some spirit stones were found at the southside of the mountain so Godfather and Godmother went to look for it. They’ll probably be back around midnight.”

Zhou Beinan pondered carefully for a moment, then pulled Zhou Wang over, earnestly requesting: “Can you do Uncle a favor?” 

Zhou Wang leaned in closer and Zhou Beinan explained it to her in detail.

The phantom-masked youth suddenly raised his head: “Zhou Beinan, you still suspect Xu-shixiong?”

Zhou Beinan: “. . . I was talking to A-Wang, what are you eavesdropping for?”

The phantom-masked youth fired back angrily: “You’re my ghost servant, your eyes are my eyes, your ears are my ears. Do you think I wanted to listen?” 

Zhou Beinan had no choice but to explain honestly: “It’s been 13 years since we last saw him and then he, Xu Xingzhi, suddenly just appeared out of nowhere. I don’t believe that he doesn’t have a hidden agenda. Don’t forget, Jiu Zhideng has always wanted to kill us all!”

As he spoke, he looked towards the bronze-iron gates of the giant tower and coldly stated: “. . . Especially Meng Chongguang, he’s lived in this wasteland for 13 years without dying, I’m afraid that he’s already become his heart demon!”

Inside the high tower.

Completely different from the bleak and desolate land outside, the inside of the tower was renovated to be elegant and exquisite. There was even a live murmuring stream of water snaking through the tower. There were flowstones, wall paintings, the still reflection of the moon on water, and a cloudy, dewy mist. 

Xu Xingzhi felt like he suddenly stumbled into the Peach Blossom Spring, and he was that reckless and crude fisherman.

Meng Chongguang gently waved his hand and a bamboo door that faced the entrance opened in response.

He led Xu Xingzhi inside where tables, chairs, a bed, and a sofa were all present. There were even magnificent gem and silk adorned decorations.

Meng Chongguang whispered softly: “Shixiong, this is your room. I prepared it for you long ago. I arranged every item as it was before, but there were a few that truly couldn’t be found in the wasteland. Don’t be angry, I will retrieve each and every one of them for Shixiong in the future somehow.” 

Xu Xingzhi pretended to be indifferent: “En.”

Meng Chongguang tugged Xu Xingzhi over to sit down by the bed, his eyes flashing with a strange radiance: “Shixiong just petted Lu Yujiu, now stroke my head too, okay?”

Very good, the phantom-masked youth was called Lu Yujiu. The next time they met he wouldn’t need to be troubled over not being able to address him by his name anymore.

As Xu Xingzhi mulled over this, he avoided Meng Chongguang’s gaze and didn’t answer his question either, he only looked around curiously. 

This brief inspection allowed Xu Xingzhi to notice an exquisite folded bamboo fan that was placed upright by the head of the bed. It seemed quite mysterious.

Xu Xingzhi picked it up with his left hand and slowly unfolded it.

On the surface of the fan there were eight characters written in wild cursive font: “Today under the heavens, who, but myself, is able?”

Signed, “Number one on the Heavenly Ranking, Fengling Xu Xingzhi.” 

Meng Chongguang who was ignored just now, cutely shuffled over: “Shixiong, I’ve always kept your spiritual artifact, are you happy?”

Xu Xingzhi: “. . .”

He felt that the original owner’s tastes were simply a mystery.

Xu Xingzhi wanted to return the fan back to its original position but just when his hand came in contact with the bed sheet, a vine unexpectedly sprang out from the foot of the bed like a flash of lightning and tightly coiled around Xu Xingzhi’s left wrist. 

Xu Xingzhi was shocked: “What is this?”

Meng Chongguang responded delightfully: “Shixiong, you’re finally willing to talk to me.”

Xu Xingzhi: “. . . Fine, I’ll talk to you, you make this thing let go.”

Yet the vine as thick as an arm didn’t budge even the tiniest bit. 

Meng Chongguang asked hopefully: “When Shixiong carried me back, didn’t you say that the reason why you came to the wasteland was to look for me? I’m right here, Shixiong, don’t go anywhere else, alright?”

Xu Xingzhi: “. . .”

Seeing that Xu Xingzhi was still keeping mum, Meng Chongguang could hardly hide his disappointment as he stood up and stated: “If Shixiong really doesn’t want to talk to me, then I’ll just wait a little longer ba.”

Seeing that he really was going to leave, Xu Xingzhi couldn’t help but exclaim anxiously: “Let go of me!” 

Meng Chongguang was already by the door when he was startled by Xu Xingzhi’s hasty shout. As he turned his head around, his eyes were unexpectedly brimming with tears: “Shixiong just bear with me for the time being. Everything I’m doing now is for Shixiong’s sake. These chaotic times really are too dangerous, Shixiong only needs to stay by Chongguang’s side to be safe and sound. I’m begging you, Shixiong, just agree to Chongguang and stay ba.”

Xu Xingzhi: “. . .”

If it weren’t for the fact that he was currently shackled and unable to move, just by looking at Meng Chongguang’s extremely aggrieved little expression, 10 out of 10 people would believe that the person who was tightly ensnared by the vine was actually Meng Chongguang.

Xu Xingzhi still held on to a trace of hope: “Let go of me, I won’t go anywhere.” 

Meng Chongguang contemplated that for a bit and questioned: “Does Shixiong not like the vines?”

Xu Xingzhi nodded: “. . . En.”

. . . Vines were prone to breeding insects and Xu Xingzhi himself was deathly afraid of insects.

Meng Chongguang reluctantly answered: “. . . Well, okay ba.” 

Very quickly, Meng Chongguang closed the door and left again.

Xu Xingzhi leaned against the head of the bed as if he had nothing left to live for. The vine that had originally entangled his left hand transformed into an extremely sturdy gold shackle that seemed luxuriant and resplendent.

He used his wooden right hand to touch the dagger at his waist and was extremely mournful.

. . . This is probably the so-called dying before the completion of one’s quest.

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