TSMITB Chapter65

Time quickly slipped past in the darkness. In the stillness, the only sounds were the two people’s heartbeats and breathing.

Shen Que didn’t dare to think, nor did he dare to ask: did they still have a chance to get out?

But he always wanted to say something. After a long internal struggle, he randomly picked a question, “Why did they suddenly want to kill you?”

Sheng Qixiao was startled, then realized what he was asking and explained, “It wasn’t sudden. They originally intended to lure me out and kill me.”

His head rested against Shen Que’s shoulder, like a small boat that had finally found a safe harbor. He shifted slightly, found a more comfortable position, and leaned back, giving his full weight to Shen Que. “My blood can no longer sustain their lives; they need a new Spirit Master.”

Shen Que let him lean on him while playing with his braids. There was no accusation in his words, “You already knew that, yet you still came out to die. I told you to go back.”

If it were normal times, his tone would never be this gentle. Perhaps everyone nearing the end of their life becomes more peaceful.

Sheng Qixiao didn’t answer immediately, quietly enjoying this rare display of concern. “I also told you to leave quickly. Did you listen?”

“……” Shen Que was speechless, instantly losing his gentle demeanor. He retaliated by tightening his arms, hugging him even closer.

“Don’t worry.” Sheng Qixiao probably guessed his frustrated and feigned fierce expression, or perhaps he had gained enough emotional comfort from the embrace as a trace of laughter entered his voice. “They won’t succeed.”

He planted a precise kiss between Shen Que’s furrowed brows. “Don’t be afraid. We will get out.”

Such a tone of absolute certainty…

Shen Que instantly straightened his back and pushed Sheng Qixiao away from his embrace.

“What else are you hiding from me? Do you really have no strength left to resist after getting yourself into this state?”

“……” The silence was magnified infinitely in the darkness, and the answer immediately became clear.

Shen Que asked again, “This time with Shen Yi… was it your doing?”

Sheng Qixiao suddenly regretted confessing too early. He should have let Shen Que worry a bit longer. After another long silence, he ultimately didn’t deny it:l, “Yes, and also no.”

“Explain clearly.”

“Initially, I tampered with the Mother Gu, originally intending to use it as a precaution, to…”

Shen Que gave a cold snort, completing the unfinished sentence for him,b”To threaten me, right?”

“En.”

“And the result?”

“The result, however, was that you were inadvertently dragged into it.”

“Really?” Shen Que didn’t believe it at all. He raised his hand, pinched the flesh of his cheek, and mercilessly pulled it outwards while threatening, “Inadvertently? I’m giving you one more chance to tell the truth.”

Sheng Qixiao hissed lightly, then weakly collapsed back into Shen Que’s arms. “I’m so dizzy. Is it because of excessive blood loss?”

“Stop pretending.” Shen Que was unmoved.

Just moments ago, he truly believed they were both on the brink of death and had no time to think. But now, those overlooked details, those illogical points, were slowly surfacing.

“Where is Ke Di?”

“…If you had come down a little later, you should have been able to see him.” Sheng Qixiao sighed deeply. The sigh contained no panic from being exposed, only admiration for his meticulous planning and Shen Que’s intelligent mind and sharp intuition.

“I can never fool you.” He turned his hand over and grasped Shen Que’s wrist, then intertwined their fingers, showing none of the frailty that had nearly made him lose his balance earlier. “I wanted to go find you outside, but I can’t leave E’yun Mountain, so I had to think of a way.”

Shen Que didn’t pull away. He gently stroked Sheng Qixiao’s wounds with his other hand to confirm the bleeding had stopped, and only then did he truly relaxed. “I’ve never asked you, why can’t you leave E’yun Mountain, and what was the method you thought of?”

“I can’t leave because my life is bound to E’yun Mountain.” Sheng Qixiao’s gaze was cast into the depths of darkness invisible to Shen Que. “More accurately, it’s bound to the Blood Vine.”

The Blood Vine.

Shen Que’s heart trembled. He remembered that when he last fell into the karst cave, and the poisonous mist permeated his lungs, Sheng Qixiao had given him his blood, calling it the Blood Vine’s sap.

Thinking about it now, that statement really wasn’t a deception.

“What exactly happened?”

“Do you remember the Spirit of Nature I told you about before?”

“I remember.” Shen Que recalled seriously. “You said that after the Spirit of Nature died, the spiritual energy of E’yun Mountain dispersed, and good Gu couldn’t be cultivated anymore. Then they discovered your blood…”

“En.” Sheng Qixiao responded, and then slowly disclosed the rest of the cruel truth. “So, they bound my life source to the Blood Vine, which was once the source of the Spirit of Nature’s spiritual energy.”

“So you can’t leave Eyun Mountain, because your ‘roots’ are here.”

Binding a person together with a plant, making them take root.

Shen Que felt a chill creep up from the soles of his feet.

Sheng Qixiao patted his back reassuringly and continued, “Later, when I developed my own will, they feared my abilities and secretly planted the Co-life Gu on me. If I try to harm them, I will suffer a backlash myself.”

“No wonder you could tolerate them for so long.”

“I was planning to break free from my shackles, while they were also planning a new life. Longevity could no longer satisfy their delusion. They coveted young bodies, attempting to use them to cast off their decaying shells.”

Shen Que recalled the elders’ unusually uncoordinated movements. “But did they really succeed?”

Sheng Qixiao shook his head, then realized after a moment that Shen Que wouldn’t be able to see it.

“It can only be considered half a success. However, that is enough. Today is the day I’ve been waiting for.” A certain chill unconsciously entered his voice. “The way they are today is largely thanks to Ke Di and me. Only when they leave their original bodies, causing the bodies to die and the Gu to disappear, can they truly be eradicated down to the roots.”

Shen Que listened quietly. Everything about Sheng Qixiao and E’yun Mountain’s past was finally laid out completely before him.

The stockade was divided into the Inner and Outer sections many years ago, back when the regulations were not yet so strict.

It was only later that some of the Outer Stockade people directed the Gu arts towards evil, using it to seize power and profit. Even though the power of the Gu insects was no longer what it used to be, the number of innocent people ruined by their hands only increased.

Naturally, ambitious people from the outside world followed their trail and came here, attempting to disturb this last pure land.

So, Sheng Qixiao, who had gained authority, established a rule that almost completely severed contact between the Inner and Outer Stockades, allowing only a brief meeting during the Moon Glazing Festival.

Once the balance of power shifted, the people on the other side were naturally filled with resentment. Instigated by the elders, they remained hidden and waited for an opportunity to completely overturn the existing order.

That opportunity was this year’s Moon Glazing Festival.

Sheng Qixiao found an excuse and gave all the Outer Stockade people a chance to enter the mountain.

All the plans, at that moment, finally got perfectly on track.

The elders seized the opportunity to push forward their plan for body switching.

“The person who guided Old Qiu and the others to steal the Mother Gu was arranged by me. You guessed this before,” Sheng Qixiao said. “I couldn’t touch them then, but if I let them off directly, they would become suspicious. Having the Gu theft made everything logical.”

He didn’t pursue the elders for secretly contacting the Outer Stockade people on a large scale, and the elders didn’t pursue Old Qiu and the others for stealing the Mother Gu either.

“You really are meticulous in your scheming,” Shen Que genuinely sighed.

Sheng Qixiao didn’t bother to analyze whether the remark was praise or mockery. He accepted it completely, responding with a very sincere attitude, “I learned it from you.”

“Hehe.” Shen Que forced two laughs out of his nose. “Then you really think highly of me.”

“I’m just surpassing my master.”

Shen Que pinched his opening and closing lips. “So, were you so weak just now because you managed to break free from the binding with the Blood Vine?”

Sheng Qixiao took the opportunity to kiss his fingertips, not answering the question.

He instead brought up something else, his words carrying a distinct tone of chastising Shen Que for being disobedient and deliberately walking into danger.

Shen Que couldn’t stand hearing him say such things, and the two started bickering again.

“You knew their plan… why didn’t you have someone deliver a message to me earlier?”

“Would you have believed it?” Sheng Qixiao countered.

The answer was obvious; he likely wouldn’t have believed a single word.

The entire space fell silent again. Shen Que quietly processed everything Sheng Qixiao had revealed.

An endless wave of fatigue gradually washed over him. He leaned against Sheng Qixiao with his eyelids growing heavy. Just before falling into sleep, a beam of light seemed to appear before his eyes, pulling him back into that memory which had been forcibly erased.

Four years ago.

The nineteen-year-old Shen Que had paid a high price for an opportunity to enter E’yun Mountain with an expedition team.

Unfortunately, he got separated from the group midway and lost contact with the main team.

The silver lining in his misfortune was that he encountered an extremely beautiful Miao minority youth by a small stream.

The youth was standing barefoot in the cold stream, seemingly trying to catch fish. He focused intently on the water surface, apparently completely unaware of Shen Que, who had suddenly trespassed into his territory.

Shen Que carried an inherent sense of superiority. Seeing the youth’s clumsy attempts, he concluded he was a child from some Miao village outside the mountains who had come out to see the world. So, he spoke with a hint of condescension, “Hey, if you try to catch them like that, you won’t get any until dark. Move aside.”

In no time, he quickly put together a simple trap and, sure enough, managed to spear a plump fish.

The Miao youth seemed to be mute. He didn’t say a word the entire time, and even after being given the fish, Shen Que didn’t receive a single word of thanks either.

Shen Que lifted his chin and tossed the fish near his feet. “I caught the fish for you. As thanks, take me out of here. I’ve lost contact with my companions and can’t find the way out. Oh right, and have you seen anyone else?”

The youth finally looked up, staring at him with a pair of light brown eyes for a long time. It was so long that Shen Que was on the verge of impatience when he suddenly mimicked his look, curved his lips into a smile, and said, “Your companions, are dead.”

He had secretly spied on the outside world before and could barely understand some of the outside language.

Shen Que’s heart skipped a beat. He immediately glared at him, assuming the youth was holding a grudge for being called mute and was deliberately making up lies to deceive him. “Didn’t your elders teach you that it’s rude to say someone is dead?”

“Lord¹大人 or daren could be referred to as an adult or elder or the family, or a form of address for sth like “My Lord” based on the context. People refer to him as 大人, so he thought SQ meant lord.?” The youth seemed to be processing the meaning of the word. “I am the lord.”

Shen Que laughed.

The youth seriously stressed, “They all call me that. Why are you laughing?”

“Alright, I won’t laugh at you.” Shen Que glanced at the sky. The main group had many people. Since he was fine, they probably weren’t in any danger either. “It seems this E’yun Mountain is just famous for nothing.”

“What did you say?”

Shen Que shook his head. “I said I’m lost. It’s getting late, and you should be going home too. Can I follow you? Take me out, and I’ll repay you.”

The youth didn’t agree immediately, seeming a bit hesitant.

“Don’t worry, I’m not a bad person.”

“Are you sure, you want to come with me?” A faint flush quietly crept up the tips of the youth’s ears. “You want to come with me, to my, home?”

“If possible, I’ll pay you much more than the market rate for accommodation.”

The youth led him to a valley. In the valley was a deep, secluded pool. A large, lush tree stood quietly by the pool, surrounded by luminous butterflies and fireflies.

“This place is really beautiful.” Shen Que praised sincerely. “But what are we doing here?”

The youth was silent for a long time, seemingly sensing the dissatisfaction in his words. Then, without anyone teaching him, he told the first lie of his life, “It’s too late, there’s mist in the forest, it’s dangerous.”

“Alright.” Shen Que, who was away from home, was much more agreeable than usual. Besides, no matter what, having company was safer than traveling alone.

Sleeping in a cave would have…

There were signs that someone had lived in the cave long-term, but Shen Que didn’t ask further; he was truly exhausted.

In the middle of the night, Shen Que was woken up by a rustling sound. He found that he had been moved out into the grass outside the cave at some point, tightly wrapped in cloth, and covered with a layer of flowers, grasses, and branches for concealment.

Peeking through the gaps, he saw several white-robed elders standing under the big tree, surrounded by a circle of people holding torches, all wearing dark Miao clothing, seemingly waiting for something.

Soon, the youth walked out from inside.

He walked step by step toward the edge of the pool, not sparing a glance in Shen Que’s direction at all.

He stopped in front of that group, extended his wrist, and allowed them to cut his flesh with a knife. The scent of blood was carried by the wind to Shen Que’s nostrils.

Those people were mumbling something that Shen Que couldn’t understand. He only knew that several containers were swapped out to collect the youth’s blood.

The author has something to say:

Shen: It’s just catching fish, it’s a piece of cake.

Sheng: Actually, it’s fishing~

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  大人 or daren could be referred to as an adult or elder or the family, or a form of address for sth like “My Lord” based on the context. People refer to him as 大人, so he thought SQ meant lord.