Chapter 118 : Explanation and Choice

“What’s with the look?”

Gu Feidi turned back just in time to catch Su Yang’s decidedly disdainful look. He said helplessly: “……That was Shizun. You should treat her with some respect. At any rate, you shouldn’t address her by name.”

Su Yang opened his mouth but it wasn’t good to dispute, so he was obliged to nod: “Alright, I’ll respect her in the future, Parent Gu.”

Gu Feidi couldn’t help laughing when he heard this: “I wasn’t managing you, I was just worried that you would’ve incensed Shizun and she’ll teach you a lesson.”

Su Yang smiled and shook his head.

Now that he knows of this Shizun’s background and associated the original author’s age in the real world, he had no fears that she would make a mountain out of a molehill and demand for ‘honour-the-teacher-and-revere-his/her-teachings’ whatnot.

Besides, having read this kind of melodramatic, outlandish and illogical original novel, Su Yang really couldn’t bring himself to respect this missy…… Fortunately, he was tolerant enough. If not, he would’ve straightaway admonished her to her face.

In the original storyline, once the Devil Sect’s Young Saint encountered the severely injured Gu Feidi at Meizhu Mountain, not only did he not rescue him, he actually brought him into a nearby cave just like Mei Shisan had suggested and did some unspeakable things. After that, he fed Gu Feidi the Lianxiang Rejuvenating Pill truly for the sake of tracking his whereabouts at all times.

Naturally, Gu Feidi subsequently nursed a bitter hatred for the Devil Sect’s Young Saint. But since he suffered from the fragrance of medicine, he had no choice but to enter Lesser Jade House to avoid him in the meantime.

When he’d read up to this point in his dream, Su Yang hazily recalled that back then, Mei Shisan indeed seemed to have referred to a cave on Meizhu Mountain……He didn’t dwell on it at that time. Surprisingly, this cave that he hadn’t even had a glimpse of, turned out to be the most significant trigger point of the original storyline and he’d missed it from the very beginning.

……Of course, even if he’d known about it, he doubts he would have gone to trigger that story arc within the weird storyline. Following that story arc, it was the head-on fights and conflicts between the Devil Sect’s Young Saint and Gu Feidi during the assessment and after that, the original Devil Sect’s Young Saint wasn’t able to enter Lesser Jade House.

The storyline here was in accordance with the adapted script. The Devil Sect’s Young Saint was obstructed by the Stone Forest Bewilderment Array because of his bad disposition and violent temper. Consequently, it was Gu Feidi who obtained the Cold Pond Ice Spirit in Lesser Jade House’s Jade Mirror Pond. Precisely per the script, the one who’d mistakenly wandered into the Veiled Pearl Pavilion with him was his close brotherly friend, Xu Yunzhan.

After missing out on the classmates’ experience, the next time Gu Feidi and Devil Sect’s Young Saint met again was in the Wasteland. At that time, they truly came to blows with each other in order to seek the Sword Sage’s Legacy.

The Devil Sect’s Young Saint there had obtained the Nine Cold Surging Shoots technique from the Forbidden Area of the Devil Sect, but he was unable to achieve a breakthrough.

When he was in the Wasteland, he inadvertently discovered that Gu Feidi’s body harboured the Cold Pond Ice Spirit. Since it was beneficial for cold techniques, his evil intentions were aroused and he attempted to obtain the Ice Spirit through dual cultivation in order to breakthrough the Nine Cold Surging Shoots technique.

Later, the Devil Sect’s Young Saint schemed to severely injure Gu Feidi and both of them tumbled off the cliff together. They “secretly cultivated” in the cave at the bottom of the cliff and he achieved a breakthrough of the Nine Cold Surging Shoots at last.

During the time the original Devil Sect’s Young Saint had been forcibly dual cultivating with Gu Feidi over and over again, he’d unconsciously developed feelings for him.

Having read up to this point, the strange scenarios Su Yang had dreamed of on the Snow Mountain came to mind and he only felt that his brain was filled with dark clouds.

The following storyline caught him off guard and it thoroughly scrambled his opinion of this missy author.

——At the story arc where everyone reached the Devil Sect, Gu Feidi’s body had been infected with the blood Gu and the Devil Sect’s Young Saint couldn’t bear for him to die, so he captured him back to the Devil Sect headquarters.

The storyline here was in tandem with Su Yang’s first-hand experience. However, up until this point, the original Gu Feidi still only bore hatred towards the Devil Sect’s Young Saint. And if he wanted to achieve a breakthrough of the Half Withered Red technique in merely a month’s time, the assistance of the Cold Pond Ice Spirit was still required.

Yet this time, the Devil Sect’s Young Saint didn’t continue to forcibly dual cultivate with Gu Feidi. Instead, he employed a mysterious Devil Sect technique to coercively seize Gu Feidi’s Cold Pond Ice Spirit into his own body. Of course, this action only increased Gu Feidi’s antagonism towards him even further. 

Following that, the Devil Sect’s Young Saint kissed Gu Feidi against his will to extradite the blood Gu in his body. It was only then that Gu Feidi understood the Devil Sect’s Young Saint’s intention for kidnapping him to Devil City.

Once the Gu poison had been drawn out, the Devil Sect’s Young Saint knew that his days were numbered, so he wanted to retain Gu Feidi for a period of time. He planned to write him a letter and release him when he was on the verge of death. Unexpectedly, the Devil Sect Leader exited seclusion at that moment. Then the conspiracy within the Devil Sect rose from all directions just as Eluo’s conspiracy was revealed.

The original Gu Feidi was filled with hatred for the Devil Sect’s Young Saint and naturally wouldn’t deliver a letter from the Devil Sect inviting Gu Ruohai to meet. As a result, the Devil Sect Leader intentionally leaked out the news stating that Gu Feidi would be married to the Devil Sect’s Young Saint.

When that rumour spread to the Central Plains martial world circles, Gu Ruohai amassed the elite troops without delay to charge into the Devil Sect on a rescue mission.

After that, the storyline skipped over the Snow Mountain bit and directly carried on to the part where Tengyun Pavilion led the crowd to annihilate the Devil Sect and where the Martial Alliance Leader “killed” the Devil Sect Leader. And the part where Gu Feidi stabbed the Devil Sect’s Young Saint to death with a sword——was exactly the same as what Su Yang had been dreaming about for a long time.

It was during this battle that Gu Feidi became cognisant that he didn’t actually wish for the Devil Sect’s Young Saint to die. He couldn’t ascertain his feelings for the Devil Sect’s Young Saint, but he realised that he wasn’t willing for the Devil Sect’s Young Saint to truly vanish from his life.

Obviously, the current Gu Feidi wasn’t aware that these miserable deaths were actually fake deaths planned and executed by the Devil Sect Leader. The Devil Sect’s Young Saint hadn’t truly died yet. Instead, he seized the chance to slip into the Icefield.

Soon afterwards, Luo Yu who’d been living in seclusion on the Snow Mountain, received news that Luo Yin had exited seclusion from Lesser Jade House and contacted the Central Plains martial world circles to coordinate in an attempt to seize power from Eluo Ghost Tent.

Incidentally, even in the absence of Gu Ruohai and Su Huaizhu’s discussion, both sides still arranged to charge into Eluo Ghost Tent’s royal court simultaneously in line with the powerful storyline. This then set into motion an extremely chaotic, large-scale, three-way war.

Ultimately, the one who delivered the killing strike to Eluojue was also Gu Feidi. For this reason, the White Firework Gu also pervaded into Gu Feidi’s body, causing him to suffer agonising pain up to the point of death.

Upon seeing this, the Devil Sect’s Young Saint assisted Gu Feidi to tame the Fire Gu, but he nearly perished because of the threefold impact from the Cold Pond Ice Spirit, Half Withered Red and the blood Gu.

It was here that Gu Feidi found out at last that the Devil Sect’s Young Saint had gambled his life to help him draw out the blood Gu.

He was incapable of accepting this truth, so kneeled and begged Luo Yu to assist and eliminate the blood Gu for the Devil Sect’s Young Saint.

But during the course of eliminating the Gu, the curse on the Devil Sect’s Young Saint’s body could no longer be concealed and the elders’ grievances from past years were abruptly showcased like this right in front of everyone……

Su Yang initially believed that everything he’d undergone would be considered as a typically melodramatic matter in the martial arts world. He’d never expected in a million years that the original storyline was even more outrageous.

Su Yang only realised at this moment that he might have tremendously misjudged the current missy author.

Yet, when he mentioned the author……

If one were to say that the author was the God of Creation of the world in the novel, then perhaps the so-called “add a new setting” that appeared in his dream could be fulfilled without conditions?

Su Yang looked down and contemplated for a moment. He deemed it was necessary for him to enquire meticulously with regards to the details and requirements of adding settings in order to maximize the profits of his wish.

“Shixiong? Xiao Xiao? What’s going on with you?”

Seeing that Su Yang wasn’t speaking for some time, Gu Feidi became deeply concerned: “Is it related to the nightmare just now?”

“It’s nothing.” Su Yang smiled and shook his head, then changed the subject. “I’m starving……I smelled the aroma of red braised pork. You’ve brought back a food box?”

Gu Feidi was silent for a moment, then smiled: “Ng, I know you like it. Go downstairs and eat.”

Both of them ate lunch in Zhichun Garden, then they sorted out their luggage in the afternoon before organising the house to fit their lifestyle. Before they knew it, they’d been fully occupied until the sky had turned dark.

All their shixiongs and shijies held a simple welcome banquet for the two at You peril in the dining hall. For the first time, Su Yang and Gu Feidi got to meet Zhu shixiong, Wen shixiong and Yang shijie, all of whom had been elusive that year and chatted with them for a long while. They’d also agreed to meet up in the future to assess each other’s skills and discuss martial arts.

After the banquet ended, everyone was slightly drunk and returned to their respective abodes to rest.

Su Yang and Gu Feidi held hands and leaned against each other all the way back to Zhichun Garden. After horsing around and washing up, they lay down on the bed together.

Gu Feidi was silent for a long time before resolving to ask: “You and Shizun, is there something that……you’re hiding from me?”

There was no reaction from Su Yang for a while: “Ng? What?”

“I invariably get the feeling that you and Shizun seem to have……a mutual understanding.” Gu Feidi said, “And no matter how close I am with you, I’m incapable of getting involved. It’s really rather frustrating……”

Upon hearing this Su Yang smiled and let out a sigh. He turned to face Gu Feidi and placed his hand on his cheek.

After deliberating silently for a moment, Su Yang said: “You already know that I’m not the original Su Yang and that my soul came from another world.”

Gu Feidi nodded, “Ng, I know.”

Su Yang considered and decided not reveal the matter of the novel, but immediately substituted a concept instead.

“Legend says that the entire universe is composed of many worlds. There are a myriad of medium worlds within the great world and a myriad of lesser worlds within the medium world.”

He could only vaguely recall regarding the Buddhist teachings of the ‘something’ great chiliocosm worlds and the small chiliocosm worlds*, so he’d simply used his own words to explain.

(*TN : Buddhism terms for a collection of many worlds)

“Shizun and I both come from the same, ng, the same great world. And the world we are now in is a lesser world created by Shizun after she attained enlightenment. This lesser world belongs to Shizun and Shizun here is equivalent to the God of Creation……Although there may be regulations limiting her, she should be able to achieve most of the things she wants to do.”

“When I was sleeping earlier, someone told me in my dream that Shizun can grant me a wish. Shizun should also be aware; that’s why she said those words to me.”

Gu Feidi listened quietly to the explanation and didn’t say anything for a while.

Su Yang let out a mocking laugh and asked: “What? You don’t believe it?”

Gu Feidi said in a low voice: “That’s why the phoenix agate from before had that sort of efficacy. That’s why Shizun is eternally youthful and is capable of being that sort of omniscient know-it-all……But she is limited, unable to appear personally and assist us……is that the idea?”

Su Yang said: “More or less.” 

After a moment’s hesitation, Gu Feidi asked again: “You and Shizun come from the same great world, but why don’t you possess that type of extraordinary power?”

Su Yang said, “Because I didn’t create this world. Also…… I’m not any sort of enlightened master in that great world. I transmigrated here by accident……”

Gu Feidi paused and asked, “So, your curse ought to be solvable, right?”

Su Yang nodded: “Definitely solvable. Tomorrow, I’ll go find Shizun and make a wish to undo the curse on my body. This way, we’ll have nothing to fear anymore. “

Gu Feidi let out an obvious sigh of relief.

Inside the dim room, his eyes were reflected in the moonlight streaming in from outside the window and they seemed to be twinkling like stars.

“Tell me about the great world.” He said, “I want to know the kind of world that the former ‘you’ used to live in.”

Su Yang had a headache: “Ak, where do I begin aaa……As a matter of fact, that world isn’t that different from here, except that life is somewhat more convenient. Ng, the place where I lived is safer compared to this world. The law forbids a lot of weapons and everyone doesn’t know martial arts. Usually, we’re as busy as ants, moving bricks to make money……”

Gu Feidi listened intently to Su Yang.

Su Yang didn’t follow any proper order and talked about whatever came to mind, odds and ends and haphazard fragments. At the end, he was somewhat muddled.

“Sounds as if life in the great world is very peaceful and happy.” Gu Feidi whispered, “Do you……desire to go back?”

“It’s true that it’s more peaceful and happy there. There’s air-conditioning during summer and heating during winter,” Su Yang gave a light cough, he deliberately said, “And there are many entertaining things to play with.”

Gu Feidi was silent, his eyes closed slightly, obstructing the expression in his eyes.

Seeing this look of his, Su Yang couldn’t help laughing and he hastily added: “……But you’re here. What am I going to do if I go back? There are so many wonderful things over there, but you’re not there.”

After speaking, he shifted closer to Gu Feidi’s direction and curled his arms around him.

“I’ve already chosen to remain. I’m not going back” Su Yang whispered into Gu Feidi’s ear, “Don’t worry, I’ll always be with you.”

Gu Feidi turned and pulled Su Yang into his arms, hugging him tightly. His lips fell onto the center of his cool brows.

“……In this life, I definitely won’t let you down.”