T/N: This chapter was translated by Elysian Pit. I DO NOT own the translation and all credit goes to the original translator. I’ve picked up this novel to continue from where the previous translator left. Thank you ❤️❤️
Thanks to Qin Wanwan’s drop of blood, the Charm Insect indeed calmed down, but for some reason, Jian Xingzhi still felt another kind of panic lingering in his heart.
The soft touch on his tongue made his heart beat faster, fortunately, he knew for sure the trouble wasn’t caused by the Insect. After a few sessions of calming his heart, his mind settled down. He gathered his spiritual power and repeatedly tried to undo Cuilu’s seal.
While he was occupied with recovering his spiritual power, Qin Wanwan was inexplicably flustered.
She was set on taking revenge on him, but this way of revenge… it seemed that the direction of the revenge was getting increasingly skewed?
She had never been in love before, so how did she let this thief bite her lips?
When QIn Wanwan recalled it, her heart was stuffed with cotton. She rashly searched for ways to distract her mind and chose to contact Nan Feng to confirm his location.
After Jian Xingzhi broke through the seal, Qin Wanwan was ready to move. She consulted with Jian XIngzhi, “I have figured out where they are. Now how do we get out of here?”
“Just go straight over…” Jian Xingzhi had regained his spiritual power. He solidified the sword aura on his hand and directly sliced open the iron chain that bound him. He furrowed his brow and thought it over, “No. I can’t win in this situation. My Divine Sense is still damaged.” Jian Xingzhi put on a serious expression, “I can’t continue to waste it like this anymore.”
“I can see that.”
QIn Wanwan agreed with his words. After some consideration, she offered words of comfort to him, “Perhaps arriving here is also a chance for us, we can try to cultivate, befitting our current identity. I just scanned around, there are barriers outside, once there is a fluctuation of our Spiritual Aura, it will be detected.”
“Then it leaves only one old way.”
Jian Xingzhi looked solemnly at Qin Wanwan. Qin Wanwan soon realized his idea and blocked her hand in front of him to stop him, “Master, there is no need to dig a tunnel anymore. Let’s just use the Qianmian Mirror to change our faces and escape.”
“You are quite clever,” Jian Xingzhi coughed softly, “Master thought so too.”
Qin Wanwan did not expose him.
The two peeked through the window and swept their gazes at the patrolling guards outside. Then, they discovered a problem.
The guards of the Guicheng all wear masks.
“Do we still need to change our faces in this case?” Jian Xingzhi was puzzled.
Qin Wanwan hesitated, “No… It’s… not necessary anymore.”
They didn’t need to change their faces, so they squatted by the window and kept an eye on the guards. When the guard patrolled their window, Jian Xingzhi dragged the guards inside and Qin Wanwan slammed her elbow on the guards’ heads, smashing them to blackout. They stripped the guards of their clothes and changed into their clothes. With that done, before they hopped out of the cell, they chained the two guards to the wall and handcuffed them with iron shackles.
In the yard, they saw two large black-robed guards standing by the gate with ferocious masks. They were about to move forward when they saw two other guards walking forward, seemingly intending to go out as well.
The two men handed the gatekeeper their tokens and they heard the gatekeeper throw a sentence, “The Heavenly King covers the Earth Tiger*.”
The other party replied right away, “I am a two hundred and five*.”
[T/N: 天王盖地虎 – tiān wáng gài dì hǔ. This is actually a real expression, 天王盖地虎，宝塔镇河妖 from 林海雪原 (a TV program)
我是二百五 – wǒ shì èr bǎi wǔ. 二百五 can also mean stupid person.]
The gatekeeper nodded and allowed one person to pass. The gatekeeper signed for the next person and said, “Two golden orioles sing in the green willows*.”
The next person quickly replied, “My dad is waiting for me to have a drink*.”
[T/N: 两只黄鹂鸣翠柳 – Liǎng zhī huánglí míng cuì liǔ. From 绝句, a colletion of poem by Du Fu. ↵
我爸等我去喝酒 – wǒ bà děng wǒ qù hējiǔ.]
The gatekeeper gave the token back to the person and glanced at Jian Xingzhi and Qin Wanwan, “Going out?”
Jian Xingzhi and Qin Wanwan shook their heads at the same time. They mechanically turned around, as if just passing by.
They walked to a deserted spot and commenced another discussion.
Jian Xingzhi furrowed his brows and complained, “They are actually talking in a secret code! How can we get out now?”
Qin Wanwan was silent.
She took out the token she had snatched from her body, and saw, “Standing up in fear of dying from illness*”. She then discovered that while everyone in the Guicheng wore masks, to prevent some people like them from sneaking into the City Lord’s mansion, they set up this secret code.
[T/N: 病中垂死惊坐起 – bìng zhōng chuí sǐ jīng zuò qǐ. From 元稹’s Poem 闻乐天授江州司马.]
The gatekeeper had a great memory.
Qin Wanwan lamented at it. She sighed to Jian Xingzhi. “Master, you are right.”
Jian Xingzhi was at a loss, until he saw Qin Wanwan take out the familiar shovel from her Qiankun pouch: “Go, dig.”
Jian Xingzhi nodded his head. This seemed to be their only way out at the moment.
First time raw, second time ripe*. Jian Xingzhi dug very proficiently, and this time Qin Wanwan lent a helping hand, and they progressed rapidly.
[T/N: 一回生两回熟 – yī huí shēng，èr huí shú, Unfamiliar at first, but well accustomed soon enough (idiom)]
Qin Wanwan had roughly counted their distance to Xie Gutang’s location, but she was always cautious in action, so she reminded Jian Xingzhi while digging, “Don’t just dig, pay attention to what you’ve dug.”
“Don’t worry,” Jian Xingzhi soothed her worry. “I’m experienced. Didn’t I dig so many tunnels in the Wen Xin Sect all by myself?”
“We can’t let the ground collapse this time!” Qin Wanwan was afraid of repeating the same accident, “Let’s just dig slowly.”
“Talk less.”
Jian Xingzhi felt that she worried too much. The shovel went down and smashed on a hard stone, “I have a sense of proportion.”
The next second, a warm sensation seeped from under their feet. Qin Wanwan lowered her gaze. She stilled at the sudden emergence of water on the ground. “What is this?”
Jian Xingzhi was also in the dark. He touched the thing he had just dug up, saying, “It seems to be a brick?”
A loud ‘boom!’ exploded in front of them. The two instinctively backed away. They found that a hole had been washed out by the flowing water.
The warm source of water poured down in a steady stream.
Qin Wanwan and Jian Xingzhi exchanged glances. Qin Wanwan hesitated, “This is.. hot spring water?”
“I’ll take a look.”
Jian Xingzhi furrowed. They couldn’t retreat at this point, so Qin Wanwan acquiesced.
The two squeezed in from the entrance of the hole and headed upstream together.
The water was warm and comfortable. Qin Wanwan was pondering about the source. Meanwhile, Jian Xingzhi had leaped out of the water. He flicked his hair out of his face and when his sight was clear, he froze.
In front of him, a group of girls wrapped in bath towels stared blankly at him. Jian Xingzhi shut his eyes right away and stuttered, explaining, “That… Sorry…”
It coincided with the time Qin Wanwan swam up. As soon as she popped her head up, the other women turned to stare at her. Qin Wanwan was petrified. Luckily, her reaction was much faster than Jian Xingzhi’s. She moved her hand underwater and tore off her outer robe.
She let out a scream and covered her chest. Slapping the water’s surface, she produced huge waves, and yelled at Jian Xingzhi, “Pervert! Catch him!”
The crowd woke up from their stupor and a series of things like a water ladle was flung at Jian XIngzhi. One group of girls screamed and ran towards the outside of the bath, while another group of girls who were dressed rushed inside.
Qin Wanwan watched from the side as Jian Xingzhi was chased around. She secretly took advantage of the chaos and transmitted her voice, “Master, I will take my leave first, let’s meet at Daoist Monarch Xie’s room.”
Once Jian Xingzhi heard that Qin Wanwan sold him out again, he blurted out, “Rebellious disciple!”
Qin Wanwan could care less about being a rebellious disciple. Jian Xingzhi had the Qianmian Mirror in his hand. As long as he blended with the crowd before Cuilu arrived, he would be fine.
Succeeding in pitting Jian Xingzhi once again, even in a small matter, gave her great solace.
She crawled out of the spring with her hands and feet, clad herself in a towel from the side, and hustled out with the panicked girls, “Help! There is a pervert in the women’s bath!”
All the guards around were alarmed and marched towards the bath. Qin Wanwan integrated with the crowd into the courtyard and then sneaked into the backyard.
Xie Gutang was placed in the backyard, where it seemed to be a place for male pets. There were some maids in the backyard, and Qin Wanwan easily blended with them. The guards wanted to stop them, but when they saw that the girls were only wrapped in bath towels, they were too scared to open their eyes.
Thus, Qin Wanwan smoothly sneaked into the backyards with the others. When everyone went to their respective masters. Qin Wanwan entered Xie Gutang’s small courtyard and contacted Nan Feng, “Nan Feng, which room are you in?
“The one on the east side.”
East?
Qin Wanwan was confused, she couldn’t distinguish between North and South. She could only distinguish up, down, left, and right.
She shortly asked again, “Up, down, left, right, which is it?”
“Uh… left?”
Nan Feng was a little uncertain, but Qin Wanwan already rushed to the left corridor. She was afraid of making a mistake and didn’t dare to barge directly. She circled around to the back window and flipped the window, trying to leap in.
When she opened the window, she stopped in track. A man in white was sitting inside with a scroll in his hands, quietly watching her.
He was born enchanting, with eyes like a vast ocean. But what caught her eyes the most was that his appearance reminded her of Jian Xingzhi in the Immortal Realm.
Only, the person in front of her had a softer edge and gentler temperament than Jian Xingzhi. Nevertheless, Jian Xingzhi’s appearance was earth-shattering enough in the Immortal Realm, let alone in this Mortal Realm?
Qin Wanwan was bewitched by the beauty and forgot she was only covered with a towel and carrying a water ladle in her hand, clearly unfit to be seen by an outsider.
The other part seemed to not care about her appearance, and smiled softly, “Miss, would you like a cup of tea?”
Qin Wanwan immediately reacted and blushed. She stammered, “Ex… Excuse me!”
She sealed the window at lightning speed and sprinted towards the other side.
She got into the wrong room, so the only possible reason was Nan Feng’s wrong coordinates, Qin Wanwan bolted in the opposite direction. This time, she didn’t act rashly and poked a hole in the window with her hand. When she saw Xie Gutang frowning with a lowered head at the table, she firmly opened the window and entered, calling out in a whispered voice, “Daoist Monarch Xie!”
Xie Gutang turned back in surprise. When his sight fell on Qin Wanwan, his face lit up with a phantom sensation. He swiftly closed his eyes and averted his gaze, “Miss Qin.”
“Master!”
Nan Feng excitedly ran out of the inner room, “Master, have you arrived? Eh, why are you dressed like this?”
Nan Feng’s words reminded Qin Wanwan of her not-so-decent appearance. In a split second, she grabbed clothes from her Qiankun pouch and placed a screen between them. Not long after, she walked out from behind the screen and looked at Xie Gutang, “Daoist Monarch Xie, how are you now? Don’t worry, I will take you out of this place.”
“How?”
Xie Gutang frowned, “Hua Rong is strong, we can’t escape the hard way. How about you escape first and seek help from Tian Jian Sect, and wait for my sect…”
“Underground.”
Qin Wanwan answered confidently, “There is no barrier below. My Master and I can dig tunnels very quickly.”
Xie Gutang was puzzled, but a moment later, he recalled a rumor that Wen Xin Sect had been dug up and exploded two months ago.
He didn’t dare to ask any questions, so he continued the topic with Qin Wanwan, “Miss Qin came to Guicheng for the White Dragon Jade, right? If we left the city now, how will both of you enter the city again?”
These words stumped Qin Wanwan. She pursed her lips, “Let’s talk about it later. This matter has nothing to do with Daoist Monarch Xie. Master and I cannot implicate Daoist Monarch Xie.”
Xie Gutang shook his head, “Miss is being too polite. The matter of the Gate of Immortality is related to the entire cultivation realm. We Tian Jian Sect have a duty we can’t shrink from. Moreover, I vowed to my elders that I will take good care of Miss. I have broken my promise once, how can I let you give up your long-planned plan for me? I have inquired around. Hua Rong collects good-looking men here, but he never enters the backyard. If you want to win his favor, you need to find another way. I am safe for now, so Miss, do what you should do, don’t worry about me.”
His speech took Qin Wanwa’s breath. She stared at Xie Gutang’s sincere appearance and was momentarily moved. She suddenly remembered the novels she had read when she was young, the heroes who spent their whole lives fulfilling their promises. Her tone softened a lot when she spoke again.
“Daoist Monarch Xie. I understand your intentions, but after all, this is a matter between me and my Master. My Master is very strong. He prefers to fight alone and doesn’t want help from others.”
“Nonsense!”
Jian XIngzhi kicked open the window and barged in.
He was dressed in women’s clothing and had a woman-like face, but his figure was too burly for women and looked particularly creepy.
Xie Gutang and Qin Wanwan looked back in surprise at the same time. They saw Jian Xingzhi wipe his face and restore his usual appearance. He strode to the screen and changed his clothes, cursing while changing, “Who told you I don’t need help? Your Master is just a Golden Core cultivator now, very weak! I really need help and protection! Gu Beicheng, I tell you,” Jian XIngzhi tied his clothes from behind the screen and rushed out, “Next time you sell me out again like this, I’ll expel you from the sect.”
Oh, that would be amazing. Thank you.
Qin Wanwan gave him a stoic face as a response.
Nan Feng stood on the table and waved his hand, “Everyone… Stop arguing, are we leaving now or not?”
“Let’s go.” Jian Xingzhi spoke up, “Are you coming or not?”
Yet, as soon as he said that, a commotion came from outside. Cuilu’s voice was particularly prominent outside, “Search! Search every corner!”
The people in the room went on alert and Xie Gutang quickly reacted, “Go, hide.”
Jian Xingzhi and Qin Wanwan swiftly leaped to the inner room, one crawled under the bed and the other hid in the wardrobe. They soon faced the problem that the wardrobe was too small and the bed was too low to crawl in.
The two of them drilled under the table, but they both entered at the same time and discovered that there was not enough room for two people. Half of their bodies were exposed outside the tablecloth. They both clenched their teeth, “You go hide in another place!”
Jian Xingzhi was apprehensive, “Where can I hide my big stature?!”
During their banter, a knock sounded outside. The two went silent and sent a glance at each other. They instinctively withdrew from the table and jumped towards the bed in a tacit agreement. Jian Xingzhi released the bed curtain, and together, they crammed into the corner, covering themselves with a quilt.
The two of them concealed their spiritual power and enveloped themselves in their Divine Sense to prevent others from prying. They stared wide-eyed at each other under the covers.
Cuilu knocked on the door and spoke to Xie Gutang.
She spoke respectfully and seemed to attach great importance to Xie Gutang: “Gentleman Xie. Just now, some thieves have dug up the woman’s bath. Cuilu has been ordered to arrest them. I hope that Gentleman Xie will cooperate.”
“I haven’t seen any thieves here.”
Xie Gutang’s voice was steady as he blocked the door. Cuilu stood outside and smiled, “Gentleman Xie, these two thieves seem to be your friends. They escaped from prison and fled to the women’s bath.”
“My friends won’t dig the women’s bath.”
Qin Wanwan: “…”
Jian XIngzhi: “…”
Somehow, they felt a guilty conscience.
“Gentleman Xie, if you don’t step aside, I won’t be polite.”
Cuilu threatened coldly, and Xie Gutang still refused.
Cuilu wasted no time to strike, and Xie Gutang stopped Cuilu with his hand.
Xie Gutang’s spiritual power was sealed, however, Cuilu dared not hurt him. They confronted each other at the door.
Qin Wanwan and Jian Xingzhi were listening to the movement. Jian Xingzhi signaled with his eyes, “Do you want to fight or not?”
Qin Wanwan hesitated. She grabbed Jian Xingzhi’s hand and quickly wrote the word ‘task’ in his palm.
She scratched her finger on his palm, sending a crispy and numb feeling all over his body. The two of them were wrapped in the quilt, close in distance, and the temperature was hot. Coupled with the physical contact, Jian Xingzhi felt that the Insect seemed to be acting up again.
He instinctively retreated and distanced himself. He pulled over Qin Wanwan’s palm and wrote, “Fengya Pavilion, Queen of Flower, Enter the Mansion. Beloved Male Pet.”
Qin Wanwan wrote again on his palm: Progress
Jian Xingzhi felt a bit out of breath, but he pretended to be calm: 80.
Qin Wanwan paused.
Jian Xingzhi failed to become the Queen of Flower, but still achieved 80% progress, which showed that the core of this task was entering the mansion.
The last 20% required him to be Hua Rong’s favorite.
According to the last Sword Mound task, Jian Xingzhi’s task was the operational steps of her task. The fact that Jian Xingzhi entered the mansion and became Hua Rong’s favorite man should be related to her second task, “Old Tale of Guicheng: Obtain the White Dragon Jade”.
So, in the end, as long as they ensured a chance to obtain the White Dragon Jade, Jian Xingzhi’s task should be considered complete.
Qin Wanwan checked her dashboard and saw that her task progress had also reached 30%. She was almost certain of this idea and after listening to the sound of fighting outside, she thought of the men she had just met. He shared the same style as Xie Gutang.
She went to size up Jian Xingzhi, who was blushing and sweating for some reason.
She had a bold idea.
“Change back to your face in the Immortal World.”
Qin Wanwan wrote on his palm which made Jian Xingzhi freeze in place. Then, the next second, he felt Qin Wanwan tugging on his clothes.
Jian Xingzhi clenched his waistband and exclaimed in shock, “What are you doing!”
Cuilu heard the sound and glared at Xie Gutang: “Sure enough, there is someone inside!”
She no longer showed mercy, and hurled her spiritual power at Xie Gutang. Xie Gutang was knocked away, and the nearby guards placed a knife on Xie Gutang’s neck.
Cuilu fiercely strode to the inner room.
Meanwhile, Qin Wanwan pressed on Jian Xingzhi, domineeringly peeling off his clothes, revealing his snow-white chest. She kicked him out of the quilt with one foot and ordered him, “Be brave like usual and recommend yourself as a bed warmer!”
Cuilu violently yanked open the curtain by that time.
Qin Wanwan curled up under the blanket and made a hand sign, nervously listening to the noise outside. If a fight was inevitable, at least it would be more promising to make the first move.
However, after waiting for a long time, there was no movement outside.
Cuilu drew the curtain and stared blankly at the person on the bed.
Jian Xingzhi propped up his head with one hand. His clothes were wide open, and his face reddened from being smothered under the quilt. His appearance was impressive, a cold God untainted by red dust.
The real scene of an immortal mixed with worldly desire was more impactful than the picture album Cuilu saw in the Fengya Pavilion.
Cuilu was unable to say a word.
Jian Xingzhi stared indifferently at Cuilu, “I recommend myself as a bed warmer, can I pass?”
Author’s Note
It is unknown what you will find each dig and you will never know what treasure you will uncover!
