CH 84

Chapter 84

Then Xiao Yuan met Shen Fugui’s sister, Shen Qianyan, the Master of Xuanle Sect.

Shen Qianyan was the youngest among the masters of the three major sects and she belonged to the same generation as Xiao Yuan and Gu Louyin. Master Shen always kept a low profile and rarely left Xuanle Sect. This was the first time Xiao Yuan had seen her in person.

Shen Qianyan’s appearance could only be called above average, but her temperament was literary and poetic. Both she and Shen Fugui wore Xuanle Sect’s iconic bright yellow brocade clothes. Shen Fugui looked like a pampered noble son, while she looked elegant and pure, like a cup of tea before the rain.

Xiao Yuan gave her a respectful salute and politely called her “Master Shen”. Gu Louyin also bowed, holding the sword.

There was a se on the table in front of Shen Qianyan. Before she could say anything, Shen Fugui leaned over to her and whispered, “Jiejie, this man is Xiao Yuan. Now you know why Louyin became demonized because of him.”

Shen Qianyan glanced at Shen Fugui, and Shen Fugui immediately closed his mouth.

Shen Qianyan said, “Xuanle Sect is very grateful that the two of you returned the remnant souls of Fugui and Miss Xun. If possible, I would also hope that you could stay in Xuanle Sect for a while. It’s a pity that the current situation is turbulent, and Xuanle Sect is not a safe place for you.”

Xiao Yuan smiled blankly: “Master Shen is a frank, straightforward person. The moment she opens her mouth, she says goodbye. That’s good, I don’t like to beat about the bush either.”

Shen Fugui was surprised and anxious: “Jiejie, have you forgotten what I told you? It was Yunjian Pavilion who stole the souls of me and my shimei! It’s not just us, the souls of everyone who have lost their souls were stolen by them. Yunjian Pavilion is ill-intentioned and does not regard other sects as allies at all…”

Shen Qianyan interrupted him: “You said that Yunjian Pavilion is the culprit of the raging soul loss disease, but is there any evidence?”

“Louyin and the others saw it with their own eyes!”

“What about you?” Shen Qianyan asked, “Did you see it?”

Shen Fugui was startled.

Xiao Yuan smiled and said, “It turns out that Master Shen is suspecting that we are the thieves crying to catch the thieves.”

Shen Qianyan stood up and said, “To tell you the truth, Yunjian Pavilion has spoken recently, saying that the epidemic of soul loss was caused by Xingtian Sect.”

Xiao Yuan was not surprised at all. A man as shrewd as Gu Hang would definitely pour dirty water on Xingtian Sect. In fact, he didn’t even need to say that he suspected the epidemic was related to Xingtian Sect. In their opinion, Xingtian was a demonic sect. Once something nasty happened, no need to think about it, it must have been Xingtian.

Gu Louyin said calmly: “If Master Shen believed Yunjian Pavilion, she wouldn’t come to meet us.”

Gu Louyin said what Xiao Yuan wanted to say. Shen Qianyan came to see them in the middle of the night, disguising herself, not just to say thank you. She did not obey Yunjian Pavilion’s kill order and met him and Gu Louyin directly; she didn’t believe their words either. Nine out of ten, she came to find out the truth.

“Let’s talk about evidence.” Shen Qianyan’s tone was neither cold, nor warm, “You keep saying that Yunjian Pavilion is behind the scenes, but do you have any proof?”

Gu Louyin said, “Yes.”

Xiao Yuan looked at Gu Louyin and asked him with his eyes: do we have it?

Gu Louyin said simply: “What we have seen is evidence.”

Shen Fugui suddenly realized: “No wonder my jiejie wanted to bring Tianxiang.”

Xiao Yuan was puzzled: “Tianxiang?”

Gu Louyin said, “The name of the se in front of her is Tianxiang.”

Xiao Yuan looked at the se and thought of his experience with Gu Louyin in the secret passage of Yunjian Pavilion that day. Xuanle Sect’s guqin array could reproduce the most painful memories of the people caught in the array. He had also heard Xiao Du mention before that Xuanle Sect had a unique secret method to retrieve his lost memories. From this point of view, what Xuanle Sect was good at was not to fight people, but to spy on people’s hearts.

Shen Qianyan said, “I don’t know if I have the honor to go into the memories of Master Gu and Master Xiao to have a look.”

“That…” Letting others enter one’s memory was like opening one’s mind to them. If it weren’t their last resort, who would want to do it?

Xiao Yuan hesitated and said, “That is not good.”

“Master Xiao, don’t worry, I will only look at your memories in Pangu Mountain.”

If they wanted to convince Shen Qianyan, they could only come up with hard evidence, and Xiao Yuan couldn’t think of a better way. “Okay, if you want to see it, you can see it.”

Gu Louyin said, “I’ll do it.”

Shen Qianyan nodded: “Fugui, go outside and guard.”

Shen Fugui yelled in protest: “I want to see it too!”

Shen Qianyan ignored him: “Get out.”

Shen Fugui dared not argue and left unwillingly. Xiao Yuan turned his head, blocked his lips with the fan and said in a voice that only he and Gu Louyin could hear: “This jiejie is so fierce.”

Shen Qianyan said, “Master Gu, are you ready?”

Gu Louyin said, “En.”

Shen Qianyan lowered her head to touch the se, and the sound of se echoed in the room, creating a sense of ethereal nothingness. The scene in front of Xiao Yuan gradually blurred, as if getting foggy. The fog was getting thicker and thicker, and soon Xiao Yuan could only see a vast expanse of white. When the fog dissipated, the three of them had already reached Pangu Mountain.

It didn’t take long for the trip to Pangu Mountain to pass. Xiao Yuan clearly remembered the situation at that time, but this time he watched it from Gu Louyin’s perspective and saw some things he didn’t know. For example, how Gu Louyin found Lu Yueyao after he separated from him; for example, how, after Meng Chi extinguished the soul-attracting lamps, Gu Louyin went to the bridal chamber to find him. Before he could see anyone, he heard a certain ambiguous sound.

After realizing what they were about to see, Xiao Yuan’s face became hot, and he hurriedly said, “Wait – the things after, it doesn’t matter even if we don’t watch those ones.”

Gu Louyin said, “Master Shen.”

What they had seen and heard so far was enough to prove that Xiao Yuan and Gu Louyin told the truth. Once the sound of se stopped abruptly, the three of them emerged from the memories and returned to the real world.

Xiao Yuan breathed out a sigh of relief and said, “Is Master Shen satisfied with this evidence?”

Shen Qianyan looked grave and asked, “What do you want Xuanle Sect to do?”

Xiao Yuan said, “Sect Master Shen knows it, so why bother to ask?”

Shen Qianyan said solemnly: “Yunjian Pavilion is the number one sword sect in the world after all. If Xuanle Sect rashly makes an enemy of them, I fear it’ll be hitting a stone with an egg.”

“What Yunjian Pavilion took was not just the souls of the people of Xuanle Sect.” Xiao Yuan said, “Will so many sects turn a blind eye to this matter?”

“You want me to go to these sects to lobby?”

“No, I just want Master Shen to tell them the truth. What they want to do is their business and we can’t control it.”

Shen Qianyan fell into contemplation.

Xiao Yuan smiled and said, “We are not in a hurry, Master Shen can think about it slowly. By the way, when I came here, I also prepared a little gift for Sect Master Shen.” After that, he took out the dagger he had prepared before leaving, “I hope Sect Master Shen won’t dislike it.”

As soon as Shen Qianyan touched the dagger, she knew that it was no ordinary product. When she tried to check it with her spiritual power, her face changed, “This is… Qingyan?”

Xiao Yuan and Gu Louyin temporarily lived in the backyard of the flower house. Shen Fugui often came to them, sometimes with Cai Xunnian.

“When we came, we saw a few disciples of Yunjian Pavilion in the street again.” Shen Fugui complained, “What on earth do they want to do?”

Cai Xunnian said: “Shixiong and Master Gu are good friends. They must have thought that Master Gu would come to Xuanle Sect to find Shixiong, so they came to wait in advance.”

Xiao Yuan said carelessly: “Then they really guessed it right. Do you know who they are?”

“You mean those people from Yunjian Pavilion?” Shen Fugui said while recalling, “There were a few familiar ones, but I can’t remember them by name.”

Gu Louyin asked, “What’s the matter?”

Xiao Yuan said, “I’m thinking of someone.”

“Who?”

“The person who taught me the face-changing technique.” Xiao Yuan said, “I always wanted to know who he was. I asked him many times and he evaded me with the word ‘elder’. He may be lying but his memory will not lie.”

Gu Louyin said, “You want to lure him out and spy on his memory.”

Xiao Yuan asked Shen Fugui: “Hey, can you do your jiejie’s trick?”

Shen Fugui hesitated and said, “Ah, well…”

Cai Xunnian mercilessly exposed her shixiong’s shortcomings: “You are talking about the ‘Nanhuai Transcript’ that can look into other people’s memories. Unfortunately, my shixiong only learned the beginnings after three years of study.”

Shen Fugui said helplessly: “Shimei–”

“So, your jiejie is the only one in Xuanle Sect who can do ‘Nanhuai Transcript’?”

Shen Fugui scratched his head with his flute, “In our generation, only my sister can. In addition to her, there are two or three older elders. ‘Nanhuai Transcript’ is very, very difficult, and most people can’t learn it.”

Cai Xunnian teased: “Shixiong is saying this to try to regain his dignity.”

Shen Fugui was about to cry, “Can you save me some face in front of my friends, my good shimei.”

“But what I said is true.”

Shen Fugui: “…”

Looking at the two flirting, Xiao Yuan asked Gu Louyin, “Do I have to save you some face in the future?”

Gu Louyin said, “Whatever you want.”

Xiao Yuan couldn’t help laughing. “I have a way, maybe I can lead that fake Luo Lan out.”

Gu Louyin waited for Xiao Yuan to go on.

“You call me ‘Good Ah Yu’, and I will tell you.”

Gu Louyin: “…”

Xiao Yuan was ashamed of what he said, but seeing that Gu Louyin was so bullied by him that he couldn’t speak, he felt it was worth it. He chuckled lightly and said, “Fake Luo Lan has a weakness…”

“…Ah Yu.”

Gu Louyin deliberately softened his voice and his tone was not as calm and indifferent. There was a trace of indulgence, which stunned Xiao Yuan.

Xiao Yuan was used to hearing Xiao Du call him by this nickname. But never before had he forgotten what he was going to say next as he did now.

Gu Louyin poured a cup of hot tea, cooled it with spiritual power and drank it all.

After Shen Fugui and Cai Xunnian had finished bantering, they looked back, saw that Xiao Yuan and Gu Louyin’s expressions were not normal and asked, “What’s the matter with you two?”

“It’s too hot in the room.” Xiao Yuan said calmly, “What did I just talk about?”

Gu Louyin reminded him: “Weakness.”

“Oh, that’s right. Fake Luo Lan’s weakness is you.” Fake Luo Lan attached great importance to Gu Louyin. Once Gu Louyin was in danger, he would definitely show up to help. “Maybe we can use this to lure the snake out of the hole.”

Finally Xiao Yuan had to admit that he did have an unusual obsession with Gu Louyin’s origin. He told himself that this was the last time. If it turned out that Gu Louyin was indeed Gu Hang’s son, then he and Gu Louyin… could only stop here.