Ch59 - Brilliant Scenery at Dawn

Translator: transcendentwings

CW: slight NSFW, just a lot of teasing

When Xu Xingzhi woke up from the dream, there was a lingering hint of a sour metallic taste in his mouth. On the other hand, Meng Chongguang, who was beside him, was much calmer now, sleeping soundly as he hugged Xu Xingzhi’s arm, the faint scarlet scab on his lips already faded.

In the cave, the resting places for the men and women were separated by more than ten meters and a soundproof wall of spiritual power clearly divided the two sides. Yuan Ruzhou and Zhou Wang, who slept in a position further in, were huddled in each other’s arms slumbering peacefully by the fire, while the others who were resting in the cave had disappeared without a trace.

Xu Xingzhi transformed “Xianbi” into a wine jar and positioned the dome-shaped sprout accordingly, pouring it down his throat. After washing away the sour feeling in his mouth, he sat up with a xixisusu, intending to take a look at where the others had gone.

Sensing that the person next to him was about to leave, Meng Chongguang mumbled in his sleep and clung to right arm greedily, his eyes were half-lidded as he peered at Xu Xingzhi in a half-dreaming, half-awake state: “. . . Shixiong. . .”

Xu Xingzhi patted the side of his face: “I’m going out for a stroll, not going too far away.”

Meng Chongguang hesitated for a moment, then arched his fuzzy head over.

Xu Xingzhi picked up on his intentions and his fingers groped its way to the back of his neck, gently supported it, then kneaded it a few times until all the muscles in the back of his neck were relaxed before bringing his hand back to the front to rub the other’s face. The rubbing created bright red patches on his cheeks like they had been licked by flames which were followed closely by his lips. He teased the side of the other’s ear for a while, then the tip of his tongue suddenly hooked the top edge of his ear, making Meng Chongguang hum comfortably and stick to Xu Xingzhi more and more, refusing to let go.

After teasing this clingy little kitten for a long time, Xu Xingzhi finally attempted to shake the other off his arm again.

Meng Chongguang felt extremely pleased and continued to pester him, unwilling to allow the other extricate himself.

Xu Xingzhi tapped on his nose: “Enough coaxing, don’t be petulant ah.”

“Don’t leave. . . Shixiong.” Meng Chongguang’s words were still muddled and vague, probably because he still hadn’t fully awakened from his dream, “Stay in a place where I can touch.”

Xu Xingzhi’s heart softened when he heard his muttering and decided that he might as well just stay by his side.

However, the unknown whereabouts of the others really made him feel restless. After a few seconds, he suddenly had an idea.

Turning “Xianbi” into a roll of soft, crimson thread, Xu Xingzhi pulled out a decent length of it, severed the end with his teeth, then finally wrapped the end of the string around both of their wrists.

“I won’t go far, I’ll just head out to have a look.” Xu Xingzhi tugged on the line looped around his right wrist,” If you miss me, just yank on it. I will be on the other end, I won’t leave.”

After successfully untangling himself from Meng Chongguang, Xu Xingzhi finally walked over to the mouth of the cave, only to find that the sky was still very dim. According to his experience these past few days, it should be night time at the moment.

Zhou Beinan, Lu Yujiu, Qu Chi, and Tao Xian were all chatting casually without purpose outside the cave.

Hearing the sound of footsteps echoing from inside the cave, Zhou Beinan swiveled around to take a look and commented in a suggestive manner: “. . . You’ve come out ah.”

Xu Xingzhi didn’t get what he was hinting at and used one elbow to lean against the stone wall of the cave entrance: “Why aren’t you guys sleeping?”

“Sleep?” Zhou Beinan glared at him, “How can we sleep when the both of you could make such a ruckus in your dreams?”

Xu Xingzhi: “. . .”

Fortunately he was thick-skinned enough and only coughed then swiped the side of his nose with his thumb: “How about, you give it a try as well?”

Zhou Beinan: “. . .”

Xu Xingzhi spread his hands: “You can overwhelm ours with your sounds ah.”

Zhou Beinan didn’t bother to respond to him anymore and simply turned to Lu Yujiu to demand: “. . . Pay up.”

Lu Yujiu’s face was flushed from Xu Xingzhi’s words. He fished five spiritual stones out and quickly handed them over, placing them onto Zhou Beinan’s outstretched palm with his face angled away as he didn’t dare to meet Xu Xingzhi’s gaze.

Xu Xingzhi’s eyes lit up: “Yo, gambling ne.”

“That’s right ah.” Zhou Beinan stored the five spiritual stones away, rolled his eyes and disclosed, “. . . Bet whether or not you’d be ashamed after being exposed.”

“Embarrassed for what? It is also my honor to pave the way to your victory ah.” Xu Xingzhi strode forward and sat cross-legged beside Zhou Beinan, “. . . Meet halfway, split fifty-fifty?”

“Scram, do you have to be so unabashed?”

Qu Chi came over nervously to smooth things over: “Don’t argue, don’t fight.”

Xu Xingzhi laughed out loud.

Seeing these people sitting together peacefully, Xu Xingzhi felt extremely at ease, as if they should naturally be like this, getting along with each other without much effort.

He didn’t want to deliberate whether or not he was Xu Xingzhi. If he truly wanted to get to the bottom of this matter, he’d have to seek out Jiu Zhideng after getting out in order to grasp the truth.

. . . At least for now, he thought he actually was.

It was really interesting to quibble with Zhou Beinan, but the night was long and after seeing the faces of these people, he wouldn’t be able to continue sleeping anyways, yet it was also boring to just sit around, so Xu Xingzhi suggested without preamble: “Pai gow, playing or not.”

Zhou Beinan gave his answer swiftly: “Playing.”

Lu Yujiu muttered, his heart aching slightly: . . . I sort of know how to play, but I can’t gamble with spiritual stones anymore, I didn’t have a great many in the first place.”

Xu Xingzhi suggested gleefully: “Whoever loses can bark like a dog. Qu Chi, you in?”

Qu Chi waved his hand honestly: “I don’t know how.”

“I’ll teach you later.” Xu Xingzhi added another chip in passing, “Whoever loses barks like a dog and sticks on a strip of paper.”

Zhou Beinan lifted his foot to give him a kick: “Xu Xingzhi, you’re just bullying others aren’t you.”

Naturally, he missed and could only roll his eyes at this person who was in sight, but beyond reach.

Xu Xingzhi didn’t mind and transformed “Xianbi” into ink and a brush. Holding it horizontally in his mouth, he asked in a muffled voice: “Who has paper?”

Tao Xian answered virtuously, “Would wooden slips work, I’ll grind them right away.”

“Don’t trouble yourself.” Lu Yujiu procured a book from his lapel, tore out a page from the end and offered it to Xu Xingzhi respectfully, “Xu-shixiong, use this.”

After Xu Xingzhi accepted it, he cut the singular page from the book into strips. With the brush in his left hand, free-flowing script that possessed a frame and distinct shape fell upon the paper smoothly.

He casually inquired: “What book is this? That you’d carry it on your person.”

“A Qingliang Valley roster.” Lu Yujiu’s voice contained indescribable tenderness, “. . . I penned it down after entering the wasteland. All the shixiong whose names I remember are written down in it.”

Xu Xingzhi felt that this action of his was somewhat peculiar, however Lu Yujiu always had a deep affection for Qingliang Valley so it wasn’t difficult to fathom his nostalgia for the past, thus he didn’t bother pondering it any further.

Zhou Beinan secretly held Lu Yujiu’s hand, coughed lightly, then stuck his head over, in an attempt to change the topic: “What are you writing ne, let me have a look.”

As a result, the four flamboyant characters like flying dragons and dancing phoenixes entered his field of view, making his face darken instantly.

—“Zhou Beinan will lose”.

When Xu Xingzhi was being chased all over the place by Zhou Beinan, who had his spear raised, he still didn’t forget to defend himself: “Just writing something casually, to start off auspiciously.”

After finally appeasing Zhou Beinan’s anger, the four of them sat around and prepared to draw their tiles by the illumination of the fire by the cave’s entrance.

Qu Chi held the bone domino tile he had just drawn and yanked Tao Xian over to his side: “Tao Xian, you join too ya.”

Tao Xian waved his hand in refusal: “This is for four players. . . I’ll just, just not join. I’ll watch Qu-shixiong play. If you lose, I’ll accept the punishment in Qu-shixiong’s place.”

Qu Chi seriously rejected this proposal: “No need. I’ll take it.”

Perhaps Xu Xingzhi’s attempt at an auspicious start achieved a decent effect after all because throughout the night, Zhou Beinan really never won a single round. He mimicked a dog barking eight times and Lu Yujiu personally stuck one white strip on his face.

Zhou Beinan was itching to kill Xu Xingzhi, but his face just had to look utterly ridiculous in the current get-up such that that scoundrel couldn’t help but burst into peals of laughter every time he looked over, even leaning against on Qu Chi’s shoulder convulsing so hard while in hysterics that he couldn’t even straighten up.

. . . Laozi will just take it as amusement for his son.

Zhou Beinan thought, fuming.

After some time passed, everyone suddenly heard Tao Xian let out a surprised cry.

They looked up one after another, only to capture a thin streak of light flickering faintly in the sky, similar to the mirage of billowing clouds just before sunrise in the mortal world.

Xu Xingzhi, who had lived in the present world for thirteen years, didn’t have such tumultuous emotional fluctuations when seeing this, but the others, who had been focused on the tiles, shot to their feet one after another.

Zhou Beinan was scrambling to tug on Lu Yujiu: “Go, go, quick, tell A’Wang to wake up. Tell her that the imitation sun is coming!”

Lu Yujiu affirmed in a hurry, whipped around and dashed straight into the cave.

“. . . Imitation sun?”

Hearing this, Tao Xian kindly explained to Xu Xingzhi “Xu-shixiong, there is no sun nor day in the wasteland, nor black or white. The thing that illuminates the sky similar to a sun and moon, we call it the “imitation sun”. Occasionally. . . at night, it will disappear and that night would become extraordinarily dark; When it emerges again, it will be similar to a sunrise in the mortal realm. This is a rare celestial phenomenon in the wasteland. Over the course of thirteen years, we have only seen it two or three times.”

Noticing everyone’s uncontrollable excitement, Xu Xingzhi only felt pity in his heart.

. . . They have not witnessed a real sunrise for thirteen years.

Just when Xu Xingzhi felt his heart sink, a warm arm that was tied with red thread wrapped around his waist from behind. Then that person leaned over close to his ear and whispered gently: “I’ve caught Shixiong.”

Xu Xingzhi pulled his right arm away seamlessly, causing Meng Chongguang to snort as he laid his entire body against his shoulder: “. . . You’re still harboring a grudge?”

“Don’t dare to bear one.” Meng Chongguang opened his mouth, teasing the edge of his collarbone which was exposed by his half-open neckline with his canines, scraping against it leisurely, “Shixiong even came into my dreams personally to apologize in person, how could I dare to blame Shixiong.”

Xu Xingzhi gave him a shallow smile: “Do you like it?”

“I like it so much.” Meng Chongguang murmured to him, “I like this sentence that Shixiong vowed the most, ‘I should have done this to you upon the first day I entered the wasteland’. I am extremely satisfied just to hear this sentence from Shixiong. Even if I had to do it all over, I am also willing.”

Xu Xingzhi was slightly startled.

What did that mean?

Before he could mull it over clearly. Zhou Wang and Yuan Ruzhou had rushed out of the cave with their clothes draped over themselves and everyone stood together neatly, admiring this rare phenomena in the wasteland.

A breath of neon lights, Venus is seen clearly, the sky and the earth was dyed from slightly dark to a faint white.

When the round wheel-like illuminated object, which could be identified as the sun or the moon and which Xu Xingzhi was already tired of seeing, appeared in the air, Xu Xingzhi also unconsciously smiled.

Zhou Beinan tore off all the funny paper notes stuck all over his head, looked up at the current sky and enunciated each word like pieces of gold or a smattering of jade: “Sooner or later, I will see the real sun.”

None of the people present spoke a word in response, but there was the same burning brilliance in their gazes and in their hearts.

Only Tao Xian didn’t look at the sun, but at Qu Chi.

Qu Chi also felt his gaze and turned to peer at him, revealing a pure and innocent smile then lifted his hand to hold the other’s palm, bowing his head to whisper: “. . . When I take you out, I will treat you to candied haws.”

Tao Xian lowered his head, his ears glowing crimson like the dawn.

At the same time, there were a group of people in the wasteland who had no intention of appreciating this spectacle of the sunrise.

The giant tower where Meng Chongguang and the others lived were shaken by the footsteps of the giants bounding over in the distance. The disciples who were originally outside the tower had already withdrawn within the tower under Wen Xuechen’s leadership.

Yesterday, a smaller-sized giant had passed by here alone, finding the tower interesting, it had approached to check it out. If it weren’t for Wen Xuechen’s killing array and the stardust set up by Meng Chongguang, perhaps the tower would have been destroyed and the people there would have all lost their lives.

The disciples obeyed Wen Xuechen’s instructions, each of them held their breaths and didn’t dare to make any moves rashly. They could only huddle in a room and chat around the glowing red soot-covered stove to pass the time.

A disciple was fed up by the continuous groans of the beast skin man in the adjacent room and tossed the poker into the stove: “Can we make him shut up?!”

Another disciple replied: “Wen-shixiong also tried, but Meng Chongguang cast the Tongming curse on that person, so no matter how we try to kill him, he just won’t die.”

“F*ck.” The disciple who spoke first shuddered, his voice dropping, “Meng Chongguang and this person must have had a deep blood feud, after all, if there was any enmity present, it could be settled once and for all with one slash, there was no need to. . .”

When Meng Chongguang was mentioned, the disciples finally found a topic they could discuss and immediately started to express their respective views.

“The sprite surnamed Meng is so cruel and tyrannical, how could a well-known gentleman like Qu Chi be willing to stay with him?”

“It isn’t just him ne. Based on the rooms and various supplies, there is a minimum of seven people residing in this tower all year round.”

“If they aren’t the same kind of people, they wouldn’t enter the same house bei. None of them are anything good.”

A disciple remarked mysteriously: “You guys didn’t know ba, there is a mortal among these seven people ne.”

“Mortal?”

“. . . How is that possible?”

That disciple had the capital to attract their attention and felt very proud of himself as he continued eloquently with embellishments: “. . . ‘How is that possible’? I have a fellow cultivator friend who is now in Fengling Mountain. He follows the leader of the mountain closely, is the holder of the Lingzhao mirror and is responsible for its maintenance for the master of the mountain’s sake. He would occasionally enter the wasteland and spy on every move of the criminals in here. He disclosed to me that among the seven people here, there was one that possessed absolutely no spiritual power. What was his name again. . . Surnamed Tao?”

This person was orating this matter with great fervor when the door of the small chamber was shoved open from the outside with a bang.

When Wen Xuechen’s icy face appeared outside the door, all the disciples had already knelt down smoothly with a hualala, and the disciple who had just been talking rivetingly with his spittle flying everywhere, was so frightened that he didn’t even dare to lift his head: “Wen-shixiong. . .”

“‘Tao’? That person’s name, is it ‘Tao Xian’?”

The disciple answered with a tremor: “Yes. . . it is. I heard that he was called Tao Xian. . .”

Wen Xuechen, who had always been prudent, thumped the armrest of the wheelchair and grinded his teeth as he muttered to himself: “. . . How is he still alive?!”

All the disciples present thought they had misheard him, but under Wen Xuechen’s coercion, none of them even dared to exchange a glance with each other.

Wen Xuechen interrogated the disciple again: “Regarding the life or death of this person, did the cultivator you know report it to Jiu Zhideng?”

The disciple’s clothes were soaked with sweat and his face was as pale as golden paper: “He hasn’t. . . has not. . . because the master of the mountain only always inquires if Meng Chongguang is dead. . .”

Wen Xuechen took a few deep breaths and ordered: “Disciples, heed my command, when they return to the tower, Xu Xingzhi you can ignore for the time being, but Tao Xian, you must do your best to kill him.”

A more daring disciple couldn’t suppress his doubts and raised his head to ask: “Wen-shixiong, why?”

“Him?” The chill in Wen Xuechen’s voice was as sharp as a blade, “. . . He is the uncontested most troublesome scourge.”

Author’s Chapter Summary:

Red thread, pai gao, the greatest menace

The translator has something to say: I wonder why WXC has such enmity against TX, after all the other is but a mere mortal