Guardian Translation

Translator’s note: Hi it’s @ineffablebfs and @fandoestrans on twitter. We will tl Guardian until the end!
Please let us know if you see anything that needs correcting. Notes are in brackets (like this).

You can find previous Guardian chapters here. Epub download for 1-82 and the other chs you can find in
the link right before. Happy reading!

Guardian Chapter 86: The young Ghost King was as untarnished and clueless as a piece of blank paper,
he was frank and plaintive with his own desires, and straightforwardly said: “Good looking, want to
hug you.”
(TW: mention of the word ‘suicide’, but it didn’t actually happen.)

Chu Shuzhi never would’ve thought that the first person he would bump into upon returning to Dragon
City would be Guo Changcheng.
He had only just undone the shackles and took back his things that were forcefully confiscated by the
underworld all those years ago, and was thus in a good mood. Therefore, he took the opportunity of the
Lunar New Year holidays, found a wild grave that was an unattended-to burial mound, and secluded
himself well for a couple of days. Only when he directly received the email from Wang Zheng noting that
Zhu Hong planned on resigning did he hurriedly order a ticket to catch a train and rush back to Dragon
City.
The horde of people that crowded the train station bustled with life. Chu Shuzhi walked forward a bit,
and was just looking this way and that to search for a taxi when he saw Guo Changcheng’s familiar
figure—that young man shouldered a massive woven bag, his body looking like it was about it curve into
a comma, and was slowly crawling with great difficulty.
One look at this Guo Changcheng and it was clear that he had not done much physical labor; his marks in
sports when he was at school were probably limited too. Bearing such a large bag on his shoulders, he
looked just like a snail carrying a heavy shell. Everyone who passed by him couldn’t resist turning their
heads around to look at this young adult.
Chu Shuzhi was initially afraid of being mistaken, so he took two more looks. He watched as a little tear
appeared in the nylon bag that should have been quite durable right in front of his eyes. An auntie
selling boiled corn by the side of the road spoke up to kindly alert him: “Hey, young man, that bag of
yours is about to leak!”
Guo Changcheng made a sound in response and turned his head around. However, perhaps because the
things were too bulky and heavy, when he turned he did not take notice of what was beneath his feet
and just happened to trip on the little wheels of a girl’s luggage as she passed by. Guo Changcheng
flailed his hands and feet, and didn’t even get the chance to apologize when he was aggressively shoved
by the young man beside the girl: “Watch it, where are you stepping?”
Guo Changcheng wasn’t standing steadily to begin with. With a staggering of his feet, the ‘wall’ behind
him collapsed with a boom, and the bottom of the nylon weaved bag split open and fell apart. A bunch
of unfathomable things fell out with a series of crashes, including pots, pans, bowls, dishes, food, and
clothing that were held within other little plastic bags. The most eccentric was that there was even a big
wooden chopping board with a 60cm diameter and 8cm width—it was like he basically carried a mini
Walmart on his body.
The young man who shoved him had probably just fought a path through the train station with people
pushing and shoving against each other, and was irritated at that moment. He furrowed his eyebrows in
disgust and hissed. He saw how Guo Changcheng was dressed from head to toe in grey and drab old
clothes, and mistook him for a migrant worker returning to the city. In that moment, within the disgust
there was somehow also an indescribable kind of superiority. He pulled the girl to walk with one hand,
while also bitingly complaining at the same time: “You bring so many things knowing there are lots of
people. What’s wrong with you? Can you afford the compensation if you damage someone else’s
luggage?”
A constant stream of apologies flowed from Guo Changcheng’s mouth. He saw how he had dropped
things all over the ground, and almost didn’t know what to do with himself. He hurriedly squatted down
to pick them up, but then looked at the nylon weaved bag with openings on both ends. He helplessly
scratched his hair at a complete loss, fretting.
Just at this moment, a hand that was somewhat gaunt and thin reached over, effortlessly twisting the
two ends of the nylon bag into dead knots, making it into the shape of a pocket of cloth. Then, it looped
the miscellaneous items in the bag into the center of it and gave a downward toss. As though only lifting
up a sponge, with just one hand, the random scattered and dead-weight heavy things were bundled up.
Guo Changcheng: “Chu-ge!”
If he had a tail, it would have wagged hard enough to become an electric fan, even forgetting that it was
an undead corpse king that stood in front of him—the way Guo Changcheng saw it, Chu Shuzhi was
entirely a great saving star that fell from the sky.
Chu Shuzhi ignored him. He carried the big nylon bag in one hand, and, at the same time, turned toward
the young man that had not walked far. With a not-so-good expression, he said: “That guy up ahead.
You better immediately get back here and apologize.”
Usually, when Chu Shuzhi was normal, there wouldn’t be much to him. However, the moment he
darkened his face, he was particularly terrifying—almost like he naturally carried the ferocious, heavy,
and dark air of a follower of death. The fiery young man from just then looked at him, somewhat with a
hint of being outwardly strong while inwardly cowardly: “What more do you want?”
Chu Shuzhi was just about to walk over towards him, when he was grabbed by Guo Changcheng: “Chu-
ge, Chu-ge let’s hurry up and leave. It was me who didn’t see just then. I’m sorry to them.”
He embarrassedly raised his eyes and smiled at the other person, holding onto Chu Shuzhi’s ice-cold
hand: “My fault, my fault.”
The two people ahead left while swearing and cursing, with completely no idea that they just dodged a
crisis.
Chu Shuzhi turned his head around and rolled his eyes at Guo Changcheng, thinking that he was not only
so saintly to the point that there must be something wrong with him, but his brain must be completely
abnormal too. No temper and no guts to this extreme. He was not like the fearless young man just then;
in fact he was not even like a person.
With a bad attitude, Chu Shuzhi broke away from his hand and pointed at the bag of miscellaneous
goods in his own hand: “Is your family going bankrupt, making you resell second hand things in the
middle of the New Year?”
“No, I’m delivering it to someone. I didn’t think the bag would suddenly break.” Guo Changcheng
shuffled after him, but also felt quite uneasy and embarrassed, “I—I—let me carry it, it’s not that far
now.”
Chu Shuzhi impatiently averted his hands, brows scrunching together: “Lead the way.”
Immediately, Guo Changcheng did not dare to make another sound and ran ahead with little pattering
footsteps to show him the way.
They passed by the street in front of the station, and entered a small alleyway after making a number of
twists and turns, reaching the region of shadows within the prosperous city. Rows of ragged little single-
storey houses lined the alley. Walking inwards, a female student with a ponytail was by the door,
holding a broomstick and sweeping the ground. When she saw Guo Changcheng, she greeted him
delightedly, revealing a particular high school’s holiday volunteer badge that hung around her neck.
Guo Changcheng was a little embarrassed to see the girl, subconsciously lowering his head and
humming like a mosquito: “Hello.”
The young girl had a keen eye; she saw the big bag in Chu Shuzhi’s hand and immediately threw down
her broomstick. She helped him push the door open, asking Guo Changcheng as she walked: “Have you
signed in before? Have you printed it out? You need to do it online—so the circle of people can thank
everyone.”
Guo Changcheng, this kid, was very slow at doing everything and not very bright, frustrating their Chief
Zhao into losing his temper and immediately yelling every single time at the office. However, in the end
after he finished his tasks, they were always very detailed and very seriously done. No matter how long
the reports he wrote were, no matter how insignificant, how much paper he wasted, there would not be
a single incorrect character. Slowly, even their leader, who would part the fur to find flaws (TN: nitpick),
had nothing to say.
Guo Changcheng hurriedly nodded, and pulled out a stack of printed paper from his pocket with at least
7 or 8 pages in total. Which items were donated by which people were recorded in detail on the papers,
including the address, phone number, website name, email, and related information of the donors. The
donated items range from RMB paper bills of varying amounts to a single Chinese cabbage, with
hundreds and thousands of oddities of every description, too many to possibly count.
It turned out that this was actually the lead of the couple of high schools in Dragon City; they had taken
the opportunity of winter break to contact some social service organizations and had started a
volunteering program called “Of the Old and the Young”. On this side with Guo Changcheng, they
specifically targeted the elderly in the city who lost their ability to live normally due to various reasons.
Every little community group was responsible for looking after a few fixed elderly people long-term.
Guo Changcheng wasn’t very good at communicating with people, and thus could not undertake the
tasks of entertaining the elderly or appeal for donations from society. Luckily, there were more girls in
the team of volunteers, so he could do a bit of physical labor to the best of his ability, and use the
holidays to work as a porter.
Chu Shuzhi helped them set the things down and, as it was convenient, drove Guo Changcheng’s car,
bringing him along to Number 4 Bright Avenue together. The palm of Guo Changcheng’s hand was
grazed by the nylon bag, and he sat on the passenger’s seat, silently wiping at it with a wet tissue.
It was rare that Chu Shuzhi was in the mood to say a few extra words to him: “You really try to tend to
any and every person. What, are you trying to free all living creatures from suffering*?”
(*TN: A Buddhist saying ‘to deliver all living creatures from suffering’)
Guo Changcheng gave him an astonished look with a pair of widened clueless eyes.
Chu Shuzhi changed the question: “Does your family know that you’re doing these things?”
Guo Changcheng silently shook his head.
Chu Shuzhi laughed, not quite understanding, and then said: “Then did you burn incense on the first day
of the New Year? Someone like you, wishes are more likely to come true*.”
(*TN: Chinese traditions associated with the New Year is to go to a Lama or Buddhist temple on the first
day of the new year and pray/bow to the Buddhas while burning incense, so that you may be granted a
good year ahead, and also to make wishes to the appropriate Gods/Buddhas when you bow before
them to pay your respects so that they may grant your wishes in the new year.)
Guo Changcheng shook his head again. He could not be happier with his own life right now, and
genuinely did not have anything to ask for except for the safety and health of all his family and friends—
and his family and friends indeed all seemed to be safe and healthy at the moment. He thought if
nothing was wrong then he’d better not bother the Buddhas.
Chu Shuzhi took the chance of stopping at a traffic light and turned his head to glance at him. Guo
Changcheng wasn’t tall, nor strong, and not handsome either. His facial features couldn’t really be
described as attractive, and he was normally extremely low-key. He didn’t even own anything from well-
known clothing brands that were popular amongst normal young adults. He was basically the type of
person who would disappear if thrown into a crowd of people. Additionally, because he always lacked
self confidence, he definitely couldn’t be said to have class.
However, when he sat down and was still and not making any sound, his peaceful expression actually
revealed a kind of inexplicable, natural, inner zen.
Even if Guo Changcheng’s generation of mortals filled their guts with wine and meat every day, not even
knowing what cultivation is, and not even able to read all the characters in the Buddhist scriptures, all
the Buddha Rohan* in the world knew a bit through the highly praised and popular television drama
‘Journey to the West’: A Guanyin and a Rulai. However, because of problems with actors, there was still
quite some confusion regarding their genders even to this day.
(*TN: Rohan refers to Arhat in Buddhism. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arhat)
Despite this, Chu Shuzhi was able to feel that he was quietly studying something as though there was no
one beside him.
It was neither the happiness of this life, nor the merit of the next life either.
Based on the abilities of Chu Shuzhi’s observations and self-cultivation, he could only vaguely have that
feeling, but could not clarify any further as to what it was exactly.
Even if Chu Shuzhi did not understand what Guo Changcheng’s thought process was in doing these
things, that did not stop the sudden feeling of discomfort in his heart as if he was somewhat perturbed,
but also as if he was unsettled.
Without mentioning anything else, shouldn’t this kid deserve to be happy and safe for his entire life just
based off of the three-chi thick merit surrounding his body? How could he then be born with the
appearance of someone with a short life? Even though everyone knew that discussions of merits and
faults in the Book of Life and Death* were all nonsense, did the underworld have to do this so blatantly
and brazenly?
(*TN: The Book of Life and Death is a part of Buddhist and Taoist beliefs, where it’s a record of the lives
of humans and other life by ghosts and gods. It includes every single person’s lifetime, and the length of
their lifespan within it.)
He did not say anything more. His brainless fanboy Guo Changcheng did not have the courage to pick up
a topic of conversation either. The two of them arrived at Number 4 Bright Avenue without speaking a
word the entire way. Night had already fallen upon them, and the humans and ghosts alike had all
arrived.
As soon as Chu Shuzhi entered the criminal investigations division, the first thing that came into his field
of view was a group of demons and ghosts with blank eyes, as though the entire group of them were
struck by lightning.
Before he had the chance to open his mouth and ask what happened, he saw Wang Zheng turn her head
over, trembling and stutteringly asking: “Chu-ge, did you know about Teacher Shen… Shen Wei, actually
being the Ghost Slayer?”
Chu Shuzhi paused for a moment. After a bit, he calmly said: “Oh, Zhao Yunlan that moron. What
wouldn’t he dare to do? So where is he? Had his fun and then ran off?”
Da Qing mewed and said from the side: “He jumped into the water of the Wang Chuan.*”
(*TN: Stream of Forgettance: one of the rivers in lore that you cross to reach the next life)
Chu Shuzhi: “…Heart break? Suicide?”
Da Qing and Zhu Hong had already gone through the initial panic, and had basically already calmed
down and composed themselves.
Zhu Hong knew that Zhao Yunlan carried the Water Dragon Pearl with him, so any place with water
would be unable to harm him. She had just hung the Water Dragon Pearl around Zhao Yunlan’s neck,
when something like this happened. Zhu Hong felt that if she thought a bit more into this, she would
have believed that Snake Fourth Uncle actually knew something beforehand.
Zhu Hong said: “I’m guessing he probably went to find the Ghost Slayer.”
Chu Shuzhi’s eyes swept over them, noting that the class of Number 4 Bright Avenue had pretty much all
arrived, except for Lin Jing who was still out of town and had promised to take the midnight bus to
return. He stuck both his hands in his pockets and leaned back onto the door of the office: “Let’s do this:
we’ll talk through all the things that everyone knew independently. It’s been too chaotic recently and so
we should rally our information, investigate exactly what the problem is and what we should do—”
At this point, Chu Shuzhi’s voice suddenly stopped. His expression did not look good all of a sudden,
which made everyone else all considerably nervous: “What did you think of, Chu-ge?”
“Wait, Shen Wei is the Ghost Slayer?” Green in the face, Chu Shuzhi only managed to mutter out this
one sentence after a long while, “Fuck, I’ve played myself. I took so many liberties with him before!”
…So it turned out that sometimes he was the King of Composure only because his reaction time was
relatively long.
Zhao Yunlan had long lost his perception of time and space. He was similarly locked in a small dark room,
but being in the Da Shenmu and being in the water of Wang Chuan were two completely different
experiences.
The inarticulable pressure within the darkness made it feel as though the temples on both sides of his
face were squished together. Gradually, a kind of nausea and fatigue similar to having low blood glucose
flooded his chest, the further downwards he went the more obviously he felt it. He did not even dare to
move his head, as if he would faint straight away even if he shifted it in the slightest. It felt as though his
heart was jumping out of his chest, the sound of his artery thumping by his ear starting to become so
intense and rapid that it was becoming unbearable.
Just at this moment, Zhao Yunlan saw a bit of light.
That light was even weaker than that of a firefly, but it was actually a kind of torture for eyes that had
already accustomed to pitch black darkness. He reached out with his hand to shield his eyes, drawn
against his own will toward that ray of slight light.
It was a gigantic ancient tree, impossible to see the ends of its branches with one glance. Its diameter
seemed to be a hundred meters across. However, it was a dead tree, without even a single leaf on it.
There were only withered and knotted branches, and it had a kind of rough and difficult-to-describe
variability when touched by one’s hand.
Zhao Yunlan’s mind gave a jolt: could this be the Ancient Tree of Merits?
He went further down nearly a thousand meters and finally saw the roots of the ancient tree. Zhao
Yunlan’s feet found the ground after a long period of floating. He walked in a large circle around the
Ancient Tree of Merits first, then he discovered a plain stone tablet on one side. Using the slight light of
the ancient tree, Zhao Yunlan managed to clearly see what was carved onto it.
A character that he had never seen before, but one that he could clearly recognize— “Huang Tian
Houtu*, City of malicious spirits and ghosts**, the Great Profane Land.”
(*TN: Directly translated to be ‘Royal Skies and Later Earth’, with Houtu being the same as the name of
the Great Seal
**TN: the spirits and ghosts refers to demon-like creatures in ancient legends that apparently hide in
deep mountains and secret woods that would bring harm upon humans)
“Nuwa……” Zhao Yunlan did not know why, but suddenly called out this name.
His voice floated out like ripples on water, trembling like a sigh. It aroused the restless heavy movement
of evil energy deep within the darkness, which Zhao Yunlan ignored. However, the Ghost God* caused
him to reach out a hand, the tips of his fingers touching the edge of the stone tablet. White light
completely surged through his brain. There was a gust of a roar and he could not clearly see anything for
a moment. However, his gaze seemingly travelled straight through the entirety of time and space, and
fell upon a woman with the body of a human but the tail of a snake.
(*TN: Superstitious people believed that strange coincidental happenings were due to the ‘Ghost God’
secretly arranging for it to happen. Later on, the phrase ‘Ghost God causing change’ was used to
describe things that occur very unexpectedly, or when someone unknowingly does something that they
initially didn’t think of doing.)
Her long hair dragged along the ground, figure and appearance elegant and beautiful, making him
develop a sense of familiarity for no reason from the origins of life itself. Like a mother but also like an
older sister.
An unknown but also familiar woman’s voice sounded beside his ear. She said: “Kunlun, what if it’s
Shennong who was wrong? What if we were actually all wrong?”
Shennong was wrong? What was Shennong wrong about?
That voice said again: “But we can no longer go back.”
Wait!
There seemed to be tears within Nuwa’s eyes. She looked at him with endless longing, and opened her
arms wide towards him. Zhao Yunlan reached out with a hand, and did not even get the chance to touch
her before Nuwa shattered into a million pieces right in front of him like light reflections fragmenting in
a void.
“No…” Zhao Yunlan subconsciously opened his mouth, but was not about to make a sound.
The next moment, light and dark flowed into each other and shifted. In a trance, Zhao Yunlan returned
to an unknown time in the past. In a split second, he could not distinguish whether he himself was
exactly Kunlun Jun or the mortal 5000 years later, immersed within the disorder of time and space.
He felt like he was guarding the pitch black entrance of the Great Seal every day, sitting with his back
rested against the great stone plaque. When he was tired of the monotony, he would stare at the
Ancient Tree of Merits and daydream for an entire day.
Later on, he didn’t know when, but the handsome yet peculiar young man followed beside him all day,
like a little tail, through the ins and outs.
Kunlun Jun at first did not bother with him, but later eventually could not resist asking: “We’ve already
arrived on your territory, what are you still following me for?”
The youngster said straightforwardly with a blank stare in his eyes and his brows straight: “I like you.”
Kunlun Jun was always called preposterous and ill-mannered all day by other people, and finally there
was the chance to say that to someone else. So he grabbed this opportunity, and “scolded” without an
ounce of anger: “How ill-mannered.”
The young Ghost King looked at him completely baffled, unknowing of how he was being ill-mannered.
Kunlun Jun had been guarding the seal for an unknown amount of years, and was bored to an extreme,
so he asked again: “What do you like about me?”
The young Ghost King was as untarnished and clueless as a piece of blank paper. He was frank and
plaintive with his own desires, and straightforwardly said: “Good looking, want to hug you.”
Kunlun Jun couldn’t resist taking a look at this fearless little Ghost King. He did not feel like he was
offended, but in fact thought this was all quite interesting, so teased him and said: “You don’t even have
any standards either. I despise you.”
Even though the young Ghost King did not entirely understand why he was despised, he thought that
everything Kunlun Jun said made sense. So he lowered his head, looking considerably ashamed of his
own filthy appearance.
Kunlun Jun beckoned with his hand: “Come here, I’ll teach you some morals, you little uncultured thing.”
Guardian Chapter 87 completed by https://twitter.com/yilngIaozu
Here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19f8E7n4fz9mClxdgRPPkNxkLwSBJmC1E

Guardian Chapter 88: Zhao Yunlan was almost stunned as he listened…Shen Wei and Shennong…how
did they become irreconcilable?

At that time, Zhao Yunlan felt as if someone covered his head with a sack. As soon as he took it off, he
found that he had teleported.
The scene in front of his eyes first turned black and then white. When he opened his eyes, he found
himself in a place he did not recognize…at least it wasn’t below Wang Chuan (lit: stream of forgettance
basically one of the rivers in lore that you cross to reach the next life). He agitatedly fidgeted with his
whip and looked around. Suddenly, in the vast whiteness that almost rendered him blind, he saw the
back of a lonely figure walking in the far distance in front of him.
Zhao Yunlan was tall with long legs and was able to catch up quickly. He clearly saw that the silhouette
was a small old man.
Even if the old man stood up straight, he would only probably come up to Zhao Yunlan’s chest. His back
was bent like a cooked shrimp and he carried a large basket that was commonly used by the people in
the Yunnan Guizhou province for moving. When Zhao Yunlan looked into the basket, he found that it
was empty. Although there was nothing inside, the old man seemed as though he was carrying
something that weighed several hundreds of kilograms, weighing him down to a point where he couldn’t
even lift his head. He could only face the ground with his back to the sky and struggle to walk forwards.
Zhao Yunlan reached out, lifted the big basket, and muttered: “Is it that heavy?”
The old man finally stopped walking and wiped off a forehead of trailing sweat. When he lifted his head,
he revealed a weathered and tanned face, looking like the old man carrying water in the famous oil
painting “Father”. He looked at Zhao Yunlan and smiled tiredly: “Come. Come with me.”
“Wait. Where is this? Who are you?” Zhao Yunlan furrowed his eyebrows and asked.
The old man didn’t reply, just lowered his head again and kept walking forward like an old ox pulling a
plow. His shoulders sunk down from the weight of the empty basket and a pair of shriveled and
protruding collarbones were revealed at his neckline.
“It’s you who brought me here? Ai, what is all this? I finally cornered my wife and didn’t even get a
chance to say a word before you cruelly interrupted.”
The old man listened to his complaints with a faint smile, neither explaining nor answering.
Zhao Yunlan continued to ask: “Where are you bringing me? What are you carrying?”
The old man suddenly hummed a phrase following the pace of his footsteps: “Suppress the souls of the
living, calm the hearts of the dead, atone the sins of the survivors, reincarnate those who are
unfinished—”
He dragged out his voice. Using a melodic, longing tone, he uttered the words one by one. No matter
how many times he spoke, he only said this phrase. The sound was deep and rolling, along with these
bizarre words it was reminiscent of funerals in the past where flag-bearing people would scatter paper
money while they walk, repeating the same “this family grants 120 yuan” sentence as they followed the
coffin.
Zhao Yunlan saw that he couldn’t get an answer from this man and so stopped asking. The whip in his
hand turned into the black paper with red letters that was the Guardian Order and he rolled it into the
shape of a cigarette and stuck it in his mouth to stave off his craving. He listened to the old man’s voice
as he silently calculated his next steps.
He suddenly had a sort of feeling as if he was walking on a road towards the heavens.
Wait…road to the heavens...wasn’t that road on Buzhou Mountain? Didn’t Buzhou Mountain already
collapse?
As he thought of this, Zhao Yunlan’s footsteps abruptly stopped. A sound of a sigh came out of some
unknown location in the air. As if he was suddenly reminded of something, he stared at the old man’s
figure closely and blurted out: “Could you be Shennong?”
The old man’s footsteps stopped yet again, he turned his head slowly and wordlessly looked at him.
The muscles on Zhao Yunlan’s body immediately became tense.
Ever since he determined that the so-called “memories” in Da Shenmu (the name of the tree “big godly
wood”) was fake, there had been a kind of suspicion in his heart—Mount Kunlun wasn’t a place where
just anyone could climb up, not to mention the people who could alter the Da Shenmu could be counted
on one hand. Later, Zhao Yunlan reflected on that memory countless times, the section about the soul
fire on his left shoulder was very vague and the section about Buzhou Mountain was rigid and abnormal.
Who was it that was lying to him?
In this way, Shennong seemed to be the most suspicious. In that memory, Shennong always appeared
with a type of proper and indifferent attitude. At first glance, Shennong seemed to be very righteous,
but after careful thought, it didn’t seem right.
The memory was a complete story. If any one of the people who appeared in the memory was removed,
there would be a different ending. In other words, their every word and movement were connected to
various causes and consequences, with the exception of Shennong—even if the story didn’t have
Shennong, the beginning and ending of the story would be the same, nothing would be affected.
Later, he met Shennong Bowl who was attached to his father, heard Gui Mian (lit: ghost face/mask aka
yezun in the drama) seemingly accidentally say the sentence “Shennong borrowed your soul fire”, all of
which seemed to confirm his suspicions.
Additionally, in the stone at the Big Seal, Nuwa’s seemingly right but evidently false statement:
“Shennong is wrong” again stimulated Zhao Yunlan’s nerves.
Zhao Yunlan clenched his fist: “So the one who messed with the Da Shenmu, is it you or not?”
The old man didn’t respond, his face revealed a sense of worry. In that moment, Zhao Yunlan felt that he
heard the wind of Buzhou.
As his voice fell, the snow-white world suddenly came apart and a strong piercing light appeared. Zhao
Yunlan hurriedly covered his eyes, only lowering them tentatively and slowly a long while later. Through
his eyes that were flowing with tears from the stimulation, he saw that he had returned to the ordinary
world.
Zhao Yunlan looked at his surroundings and was stunned for a moment. An incredibly weird feeling of
familiarity and strangeness sud,denly rose in his heart.
He didn’t realize why for a long time until he saw the ice cream store on the street corner.
Zhao Yunlan’s eyes opened wide—this place was near his home, only that the ice cream store across the
street had long gone bankrupt. Five or six years before, it had already become a hot pot restaurant.
For a while, he was a little confused and paused in place until finally he walked over in big strides. He
used what little change he had and bought a bowl of shaved ice. Like a fool (sha bi), he stood within a
group of young girls, leaned against a window, stared at the big “Year 2002” displayed on the calendar
hanging on the wall of a shop, and expressionlessly used a sort of very bitter method of eating to chew
the shaved ice with a “ka zhi” sound.
It looked like he was there to collect fees and smash the shop.
Zhao Yunlan felt that he was either dreaming or watching a bad movie where the scenes kept switching,
in one moment it’s on the sky and the next it’s on the ground. He was finally able to go back to the
ordinary world only to find himself landed 11 years earlier.
At the moment when he’d eaten half of the shaved ice, he suddenly glimpsed a person. He immediately
sat up straight, and, like a fox, extended his neck to look out from the ice cream shop window. Because
the image of a “fierce handsome man eating shaved ice” was so eye-catching, several girls couldn’t stop
looking at him and thus, uncontrollably followed his gaze, extended their necks, and looked outside.
This resulted in forming a basketball team of meerkats.
Zhao Yunlan saw a familiar car drive out of the little neighborhood that his house was in—the old car
that had carried countless memories of his childhood that was ultimately mercilessly replaced by his dad!
Zhao Yunlan immediately threw away the food that he didn’t finish and rushed out with a speed as if he
was trying to catch a cheater in the act. He flagged down a taxi along the road, pulled out a tattered
work permit, and flashed the police badge in front of the taxi driver: “Please tail that car in front for me!”
The taxi driver didn’t expect that he would be able to pull a 007 in this lifetime and immediately became
excited. He stepped down on the gas and the car kicked back and then shot out, turning the taxi into an
F1. The acceleration flattened Zhao Yunlan against the front passenger seat.
Zhao Yunlan’s dad drove all the way to the antiquated street. If he went in any more he would reach the
little alley full of shops which no motor vehicles were allowed to enter. From about 100 meters away,
Zhao Yunlan saw his dad park the car against the roadside, walking in sporting big paparazzi repealing
sunglasses that celebrities wear.
“Shifu (master), stop here, stop here!” Zhao Yunlan’s eyes were glued to his dad’s back. He hurriedly
grabbed his wallet but just as he was about to pay, the taxi driver sternly refused.
Zhao Yunlan: “Hurry up and take it, don’t waste time…I’m going to lose track of the person.”
The taxi driver gave a heroic salute and then gave Zhao Yunlan a strong handshake. With force, he said:
“Comrade, go. I won’t take your money…I want to serve the people!”
Zhao Yunlan: “…”
After a second of speechlessness, he decided not to be polite anymore, jumped off the car, and ran
away.
The antiquated street from 11 years ago wasn’t as standardized as it was now. In the narrow road, stalls
were everywhere: from jewelry and jade to antiques and paintings, the alley contained all sorts of things.
As long as it looked lively, it didn’t matter if the items were real or fake. Thus, the road seemed to
become narrower and was incredibly not conducive to trailing a person.
Zhao Yunlan dry swallowed a concealed piece of yellow talisman drawn by Chu Shuzhi. Chu Shuzhi was
so poor that all he had left was self-confidence, and he thought of himself as incredibly cool. He claimed
that this talisman would be more than effective even if it was to be used to investigate the romantic
relationships of the great ancient gods.
Even though Zhao Yunlan thought he was full of bullshit, he couldn’t help but put his hopes on the
talisman. However, he didn’t dare follow too closely.
As such, he lost his dad as soon as he turned the corner.
Zhao Yunlan carefully poked his head out at the door of each store but still didn’t see him. His gaze
landed on the big pagoda tree that connected with the netherworld. He knew that the person he was
following was not his pompous father but a scum who dared to use the body of a living person to go
down to Huang Quan (t/n basically where souls cross over, lit: yellow spring).
Zhao Yunlan took a deep breath. This would be his second time going down Huang Quan today. In his
heart he wished he could beat up that broken bowl.
There was sense in Shen Wei’s recommendation that he leave as quickly as possible. It definitely wasn’t
a great experience for a living person to walk the Huang Quan road. Even for someone like Zhao Yunlan
who dared to walk downstairs barefoot in the cold winter months, the bone penetrating chill could still
be clearly felt on this road.
“Father Zhao” waited on Huang Quan road for a bit. He consistently rubbed his hands and his brows
continually became more furrowed. It seemed as though he was waiting for someone.
Huang Quan road was thin and narrow and the people and ghosts on it could be seen clearly. Zhao
Yunlan didn’t dare to reveal himself, so he could only suffer through crouching in the big pagoda tree,
feeling as though he was trapped between the two worlds of yin and yang.
Just as he thought he would become paralyzed from crouching, a familiar person suddenly walked over
from the other side of Hang Quan road. That person was very eye catching; everywhere he went he
seemed to leave behind a sense of disaster (idiom: 寸鬼不留 changed from 寸草不留…basically a sense
of no ghost is spared), even the ghosts who calmly gambled their lives couldn’t help but to lower their
heads and back away, giving an effect of Moses parting the sea.
At a glance, Zhao Yunlan’s mood immediately became conflicted. Anyone who found out that their own
“wife” already met their father-in-law eleven years ago would probably be unable to restrain themselves
from having this feeling.
Shen Wei wore the long cloak of the Ghost Slayer and didn’t show his face. He walked up to five paces
away from Zhao Yunlan’s dad and stopped without uttering a word. The chill emanating from his body
was even more unbearable than the desolate Huang Quan.
Zhao Yunlan’s dad also stopped walking and rubbing his hands. The two stood there silently in a
suppressed and heavy atmosphere.
After a while, Zhao Yunlan’s dad opened his mouth and said: “The evening paper that Yunlan brought
home has Your Honor’s scent.”
Shen Wei didn’t explain, only emitted a quiet, cold laugh.
Zhao Yunlan had never heard this kind of cold laugh from Shen Wei before. In that instant, he suspected
that the person within the black cloak wasn’t Shen Wei at all but the enigmatic Gui Mian.
Although a powerful soul had taken over father Zhao’s body, the body was still made of flesh. Not long
after he was on Huang Quan road, the cold made his lips turn pale and purple. On closer inspection, they
were even gently trembling. However, his voice did not falter at all: “Don’t forget what you promised
when you insisted on sending Kunlun’s soul into the reincarnation cycle all those years ago.”
“Huh?” Shen Wei finally slowly opened his mouth. “I only looked at him from very far away. When he
approached I hid. Even if this immortal can’t believe my character and worry that I will not follow my
word, do you also not trust the valuable contract with Shennong?”
His tone sounded as warm and polite as ever, but Zhao Yunlan was used to listening to his words and his
tone. He sensitively picked up on a sense of belittlement and an indescribable sarcasm from this short
sentence.
Zhao Yunlan’s dad furrowed his eyebrows: “But what is going on with The Great Seal? Why would the
Houtu Great Seal become loose?”
This time, Shen Wei was silent for a while and then his voice became slightly lower: “If this Immortal still
remembers, the Fuxi Great Seal was only a few hundred years old when it was broken by the sky pillar.
You can say it was destroyed and then erected again. Since Nuwa’s fall, the newly established Houtu
Great Seal already lasted for who knows how many thousands of years. Water droplets can erode
stone…the Great Seal loosening under our eyes is something no one can prevent. Even I am helpless.”
“The Houtu Great Seal is created by Nuwa’s sacrifice and it is also from Kunlun’s painstaking effort. Of
course I’m not implying you did something you shouldn’t to it, but if the Great Seal completely collapses,
what do you plan to do?”
“Yes,” Shen Wei paused and then lightly continued, “what do I plan to do? I am very slow-witted and
only now I am finally understanding what the immortals meant by ‘no death, no extinction, no godhood.’
In fact, I wasn’t originally meant to be born from the sky and raised by the earth, or be a God respected
by the people.”
“Don’t think that Shennong’s agreement can’t restrain you on the day the Great Seal breaks. If my son…”
Father Zhao’s voice got to this point and then suddenly came to an unnatural stop, as though it was a
movie that had its speakers break down halfway. He opened his mouth but no sound came out.
Shen Wei’s face was hidden behind a black fog but Zhao Yunlan could sense that he was smiling.
He heard him slowly say: “Son? Immortal you must be too immersed in the play. If ‘Ling Lang’ (t/n
honorific for son of the other party aka ZYL) knew that you are giving up your role of an Immortal to
attach yourself to not just any mortal but his dad’s body, do you think he would acknowledge you or
not?”
Father Zhao’s throat emitted a cackling sound. He used both hands to clasp his throat and his eyes were
full of anger but he couldn’t say a single word.
Shen Wei looked at him calmly for a bit. Finally, he laughed lightly and waved his hand. As though
someone punched him, Zhao Yunlan’s dad backed up many steps before steadying himself: “You…”
Shen Wei folded his hands into his long sleeves and nodded his head slightly: “So Immortal please be
careful about what you say. Some things everyone know but are better left unsaid. What do you think?
The sage Shennong is a noble character of high prestige, of course I also highly respect him. But respect
is respect, if he was still alive, I would still be unable to reconcile with him. I still don’t think much of the
three ancients of the past. This Immortal is born as Shennong’s treasured bowl…I’m afraid that you
haven’t cultivated the same level of power as him yet?”
Father Zhao’s whole body was shaking but Shen Wei only continued indifferently: “I don’t want to do
anything disgraceful either. I’m willing to peacefully talk sense with you. Hopefully Immortal you can
also conduct yourself well, don’t stretch your reach too far, manage too wide—if there is nothing else, I
won’t see you off.”
When he finished speaking, he didn’t even spare a glance at Zhao Yunlan’s dad. He turned and walked
down Wang Chuan (lit again: stream of forgettance), further into the depth of Huang Quan.
Zhao Yunlan was almost stunned as he listened…Shen Wei and Shennong…how did they become
irreconcilable?
No wonder that day Shennong Bowl ran away before he could clearly say what he wanted to say. Shen
Wei was there so he didn’t dare say it!
How did his gentle, graceful, easy to bully lover become a commanding terrorist in front of his cheap
dad?
What was going on with Shennong’s valuable contract?
Right…if Shennong was the one who borrowed the soul fire in his left shoulder, if the things that
happened in the Boulder of the Great Seal were true, then how did the ghost tribe get ahold of the soul
fire after?
What happened in the middle?
If the memory within the Da Shenmu (lit again: Great Godly Tree) was manipulated by Shennong, what
was he trying to hide?
Seeing that Father Zhao had almost come up, Zhao Yunlan hurriedly climbed up the pagoda tree and hid
amongst its leafy branches. He only stuck out his head once Father Zhao was far away.
He went back down to Huang Quan and stared at the direction where Shen Wei disappeared off to. He
pondered for a long time and still felt that things weren’t true. He was becoming used to being lied to to
the point where he was almost developing a persecutory delusion, suspecting that nothing was real.
At this time, Zhao Yunlan suddenly got a flash of inspiration and thought of the “Secret Ancient Records”
rolled up in his arms. He hurriedly took it out to look at it only to see that the book had already become
blank. The pages within and the cover were all empty; the words disappeared without a trace and left
nothing behind.
Zhao Yunlan’s gaze became heavy—eleven years ago, which was to say 2002, was also the fabled
“Renwu” year (t/n 60 year cycle…so 1942, 2002, 2062).
If the scenes he saw today were true, then if he were to go to the store at the end of the Ghost City and
buy the “Secret Ancient Records” would that be the book that appeared at No. 4 Bright Ave?
Guardian Chapter 89: Shen Wei only now realized that he’d been fooled. “So…you’re ok?”

So what would happen if he didn’t buy that damn book then? What if he just threw this roll of white
paper directly into the water of Wang Chuan?
Zhao Yunlan thought of this and so he did it. With a lift of his hand he threw the white roll of paper into
Wang Chuan with a “gu dong” sound. After a splash it slowly sank down. He waited for a while and yet
nobody came to give him a fee for littering.
Zhao Yunlan turned his head and walked towards the pagoda tree.
He decided to first go buy a pack of cigarettes to wash out his lungs and then book a room at a hotel, eat
a good meal, and sleep. After that he will once again go stalk Shen Wei and have him come up with an
idea to send him back…Zhao Yunlan’s footsteps suddenly stopped.
Can he affirm that the Shen Wei he just saw was actually Shen Wei?
Maybe that’s why “intelligence” and “wisdom” were two completely different concepts. At the time
Zhao Yunlan threw the book, he actually chose the right response—some things aren’t supposed to be
investigated, when you’re supposed to be confused you should stay confused.
However, in that moment when he turned around, he couldn’t control his own thoughts. When he
catches tiny strands of information, he couldn’t help but to want to string them together. This had
almost become an instinct and he did it without thinking.
Zhao Yunlan’s pace slowed down subconsciously. He thought, if he really just left things behind here and
went back to eleven years later…
If it were all fake then there would be no issues. He would need to ponder on who created such an
environment and made him hear such words that he couldn’t make heads or tails of.
But if we were to assume that the things that happened here were all real, then if he didn’t buy that
book home, eleven years later the SID would not have “Secret Ancient Records” and he would also be
unable to find those secret stories that allowed him to infer that Nuwa created people and then became
Houtu Great Seal etcetera. Not to mention in order to stay safe, he might have never even gone up to
Kunlun Mountain. He wouldn’t have known where the Brush of Merits landed, wouldn’t go to look at
what’s inside the Dashen Mu (Godly Tree), and the following would never have happened.
In that way, he might never even have gone down Huang Quan. Even if he came back here by chance, he
would not have known that his dad’s body was taken over by Shennong Bowl. He may have gone home
to look at his mother, not caring at all what his dad was doing. Of course he wouldn’t have secretly
flagged a taxi to follow him and wouldn’t have squatted on Huang Quan road pondering the stupid
question of whether he should buy a book—because that book didn’t exist.
According to the famous Grandfather Paradox mentioned by garlic nosed Einstein, none of this would
have happened unless he entered a parallel universe, in other words a completely different world.
Unless…
Zhao Yunlan stopped. He closed his eyes. In his ears all that was left was the murmuring sound of the
water of Wang Chuan, the netherworld becoming as quiet as though it was an empty abyss. Zhao Yunlan
suddenly thought of what he heard in Houtu Dafeng (Houtu Great Seal)—the words that seemed to
come out of his own mouth: “Fate is but one moment…you can go to heaven or go down to the earth
but you will only ever leave one path for yourself…”
His breathing gradually slowed down.
Zhao Yunlan obviously knew the thoughts in his own heart. Like crazy, he wanted to know whether Shen
Wei and the medicine bowl that was inhabiting his dad’s body really did go behind his back to meet and
say those words eleven years ago; he wanted to know if Shen Wei really had a contract with Shennong
that he didn’t know about, if he had a side of him that’s completely different from the gentlemanly
appearance that he puts on.
Additionally…did Shen Wei really not know that the underworld had always been using him? If he knew,
how could he completely not care? Or…could he have a plan already?
Half a minute later, Zhao Yunlan finally turned back around without saying a word. With a piece of
essence-concealing leaf in his mouth, he took long strides towards the Ghost City.
The little owner of the general store had the appearance of a 7 or 8 year old girl. She didn’t seem
surprised to see him. When Zhao Yunlan asked for the “Secret Ancient Records”, she merely lightly
quoted him the price in the form of bank notes for the dead. Then she brought over a huge book used
for bookkeeping and had him write his name down.
In a flash of white light, “Guardian Order Chief” and the year appeared behind the words “Zhao Yunlan”.
This time, no one in Ghost City discovered that he was a living creature. Zhao Yunlan successfully walked
away with the “Secret Ancient Records” in hand. He headed straight towards his own home, concealed
his breath, flipped over the wall, and climbed into his bedroom through the double windows.
Neither Zhao Yunlan nor the Da Qing of eleven years ago were there. On the table there was only one
computer and a pile of messy college English final exam review materials. Next to it was the word
“bullshit” written in a wild scribble that was full of unique character.
Zhao Yunlan couldn’t help but to gently touch that indecent word and laugh. He felt as though he was
looking into a mirror reflection of his younger cocky and full-of-it self.
Then he turned and gently lifted the board on his bed—that was where he used to hide all his
unorthodox books, cinnabar, yellow talisman paper, and tools.
Zhao Yunlan easily found the section meant for hiding books. For the sake of preventing the book from
being too conspicuous, he used the same method that he used of hiding the other books. From his
drawer he pulled out an expired calendar, pulled out a page from the middle, and agilely wrapped it
around the cover of the “Secret Ancient Records”. On the snow white cover he wrote the small words:
“Nuwa created people, mended the sky…”
He originally meant to write “Nuwa created people, mended the sky, and then transformed her body
into Houtu, Fuxi created the big seal using the eight trigrams, Shennong sacrificed himself to taste
hundreds of herbs, Gong Gong the mystical dragon struck Buzhou in anger” and the other information
that were useful to his future self on the book. Who would have thought he only managed to write a
few words before a person’s voice drifted in from the hallway corridor.
Zhao Yunlan hurriedly threw aside the book and closed the board, narrowly missing getting caught.
The ears of the person outside, however, were atypically sharp. A knock sounded on the door and he
heard the voice of his mom from eleven years ago: “Little scoundrel, where are you in the house? Why
are you making all that nonstop racket?”
Zhao Yunlan’s throat moved but he didn’t dare reply. The knocking from the person outside increased:
“Zhao Yunlan?”
Zhao Yunlan had no choice but to pitch his voice thinly and say: “meow—”
“It’s a cat?” The woman outside muttered, “I thought it doesn’t come home until night time. Maybe it’s
pregnant? I’ve been saying that we should have brought it in for neutering.”
Zhao Yunlan: “……”
He couldn’t imagine how Mister Da Qing would react if he heard this.
Fortunately, he was able to fool his mom. Just as Zhao Yunlan was about to be relieved and fill in the
rest of the sentence on the book, he heard the sound of a car outside. He opened his window, carefully
looked out, and discovered that his split-personality family-ruiner dad had come home.
This idea was too rigid. Zhao Yunlan promptly made a decision, immediately jumped agilely out the
window again, and landed soundlessly on the grass. He circled from the opposite direction that the car
came from and successfully became a thief in his own home for the first time.
He went through the little housing community and emerged into the big street, unsure of what he
should do next. Suddenly, Zhao Yunlan felt the ground shake violently. At first he thought it was an
earthquake, but when he looked closely, he saw that all the people were still walking calmly. The houses
on the sides were also standing still. Not even a speck of dust fell.
Zhao Yunlan recovered his senses and realized that his world was the only one that was spinning.
Everything around him suddenly collapsed and the ground underneath his foot disappeared. When he
lifted his head again, he found that he was back on that white road and the person in front of his eyes
was once again the person who he suspected as Shennong.
Zhao Yunlan walked over in big strides and grabbed the old man’s collar: “Tell me clearly, this is…”
The old man finally opened his mouth. Using a very strange tone he interrupted his question: “Do you
know what ‘death’ is?”
Zhao Yunlan’s brows furrowed deeply. They stared at each other for two seconds. When he judged from
the old man’s eyes that he would not be able to get any information through coercion or deception, he
slowly released his hand, thought for a while, and then tentatively gave the other a straight and narrow
answer: “Death is when the body’s vital signs stop?”
The old man’s voice was hoarse: “Then what is soul? What are the six cycles of reincarnation?”
Zhao Yunlan quickly chose another explanation: “Then death is the end of one life and the beginning of
another.”
The old man laughed widely and asked: “Then what is the ghost tribe? What is The Profane Land?”
Zhao Yunlan: “….”
After a while, Zhao Yunlan asked: “Then what do you think it is?”
Both of the old man’s eyes suddenly burst with a bright light. For a second, he seemed to even be a bit
terrifying. He grabbed Zhao Yunlan’s arms, his grip so tight that he could almost go through the skin and
flesh: “Did you forget? Kunlun, death actually is…”
As he was saying this, he seemed like an almost dying extra from TV shows—sniffling for a long time
without being able to say the name of the killer, as soon as they spit out a hint they die—only that this
old man was split open in front of his eyes.
He was split from the head all the way down to the feet. With overwhelming force, that blade cleanly
cut the man into two even halves as if it was cutting a watermelon. The blade struck the ground,
carrying a cold current with it, and left a deep ditch almost one meter thick. Even if there were people
standing to the side they would be able to feel the ground trembling from the fierce blow.
Until now, the man who was split was still standing upright, the expression on his face fixed with an
indescribable feverishness.
Zhao Yunlan was dazed for a second. After a while, he instinctively took a step back to the side. The
scene in front of his eyes was really “blood splattering for three chi” (血溅三尺 where 3 chi = 1 meter)
He only slowly lifted his head after a long while to see Shen Wei standing in front of him. His throat
moved slightly with great difficulty but he wasn’t able to say anything.
“Are you ok? Hurry, come with me.” Shen Wei reached out his hand but he quickly noticed that Zhao
Yunlan’s pupils contracted violently in that moment. Shen Wei lowered his head and saw that his hands
were covered in blood, almost like someone from a pig slaughterhouse. Immediately, he uneasily
withdrew his hand and wiped it on his body with force. Despite this, his felt that no matter how much he
wiped, they wouldn’t be clean. In his heart he felt an indescribable sense of nausea and disgust, and
thus no longer wanted to touch him. As if he couldn’t evade quickly enough, Shen Wei brought both
hands back into his sleeves. Using a repressed and restrained voice, he said: “Earlier when you suddenly
disappeared from my sight, I…”
At this moment, Zhao Yunlan finally regained his senses, strode over, and grabbed Shen Wei’s hand.
Shen Wei shrank violently and instinctively flinched, only to be grabbed more tightly by Zhao Yunlan.
Insensitively, he said: “So you are the one from eleven years later? Then do you remember how many
times we had messy sex after drinking?”
Shen Wei: “……”
After a moment of silence, Shen Wei finally decided to ignore that part of his sentence and no longer
talk nonsense with him. He lifted his hand and snatched the water dragon pearl from Zhao Yunlan’s neck.
When the water dragon pearl touched his palm, it was as if the bottom of a burnt pot was splashed in
cold water. With a “si la” sound, heavy black smoke rose from it before it transformed into a piece of
scale. Zhao Yunlan opened his eyes wide. Just as he wanted to look more closely, Shen Wei turned his
hand over and the scale disappeared.
“Wait, what was that?” Zhao Yunlan asked, “It doesn’t look like fish scales. It’s a type of crawling
creature…is it snake?”
“You don’t know what it is yet you hang it around your neck.” Shen Wei said in a nasty mood, “And
it…and it comes from someone else’s body. Do you not think it’s dirty?”
Zhao Yunlan looked at him innocently.
They stared at each other for a moment. Then, at the end of his tolerance, Shen Wei turned his head.
Behind him suddenly appeared a big hole that was seemingly ripped open. He pushed Zhao Yunlan’s
head down and roughly threw him inside.
In front of him lights and shadows flowed. Zhao Yunlan felt as though he was surrounded by a large
body of water. He was caught off guard and forgot that he no longer had the ability to breathe
underwater. He didn’t hold his breath in time and lowly called out “crap!”. Just as he was preparing to
come in contact with the water and choke on a mouthful, his body was lifted by someone. The other
person used a soft tongue to pry open his lips and passed breath into him.
Shen Wei then rapidly swam up with him in tow. Every time he was out of breath, Shen Wei would pass
another breath over. Not even 4 or 5 times of this later, they had already arrived above water.
Zhao Yunlan thought back on his dive down where he had nearly fallen asleep in the middle. This time,
he firmly experienced what could be called traveling at light speed.
Shen Wei lifted him up to a ferry boat without sparing a glance at the ferryman who was trembling and
huddled to the side. He lifted a hand to grab Zhao Yunlan’s chin: “Wang Chuan water cannot be drunk
by human beings. Did you choke? How are you feeling?”
Zhao Yunlan wiped off the water on his face, carefully thought back on the seemingly short trip, and
concluded: “…I feel like I came up on a torpedo.”
Shen Wei let him go. Perhaps because Zhao Yunlan just came out of the water, his legs were a bit shaky.
He fell heavily onto the ferry, nearly knocking it over. Within the next moment, a “putong” sound could
be heard. The senseless ferryman finally couldn’t bear it anymore and jumped overboard into the river.
Shen Wei was startled and quickly bent over to grab his arm: “What’s wrong?”
Zhao Yunlan didn’t utilize Shen Wei’s strength to stand up. The hand that had been soaking in the
waters of Wang Chuan was white and weak so much so that it almost slipped out of Shen Wei’s grasp.
Zhao Yunlan had already been under Huang Quan for too long. His lips were almost bloodless. He leaned
against the edge of the boat and closed his eyes heavily, groaning in a low voice: “I feel dizzy.”
“I’ll immediately send you up.” As Shen Wei spoke, he tried to help Zhao Yunlan stand up. But for some
reason, whether it’s that Zhao Yunlan was purposefully not going along with it or that he’s really out of
strength, he kept sliding down. Shen Wei could only reach out with the intent to carry him. However,
Zhao Yunlan wasn’t some feeble bodied little girl. Even if Shen Wei didn’t mind how heavy he was, Zhao
Yunlan’s height made carrying him very awkward. When Zhao Yunlan was passed out, it was still ok…but
maybe because Zhao Yunlan felt a little uncomfortable, he kept moving around. Whenever he moved
around, Shen Wei’s grip would slip. In the end, Shen Wei had no choice but to change their position and
carry Zhao Yunlan on his back.
Zhao Yunlan vaguely spoke against Shen Wei’s ear: “There’s still clothes.”
Shen Wei: “What clothes?”
As he was speaking, a little ferry ghost emerged from the water and approached a ferry boat. He put the
folded coat neatly on top, leaving not even a corner messy. Shen Wei paused for a bit and had no choice
but to take the coat along with them.
Shen Wei carried Zhao Yunlan on his back all the way back to his home and put him gently down on his
bed. He turned to go to the kitchen to pour some hot water. Who knew that the moment he moved, the
“dying” Zhao Yunlan suddenly leaped up from the bed and jumped onto Shen Wei like a tiger, pinning
him to the bed. His eyes, originally closed, now shone with a devilish light. He lowered his head and
touched Shen Wei’s nose with his. “What are you going to do?”
Shen Wei only now realized that he’d been fooled. “So…you’re ok?”
Zhao Yunlan’s eyes curved and he laughed soundlessly, “I have a problem…it’s a big one…my wife ran
away from home. Ay…baby…you should stop running…You’re so easy to fool. What if you get abducted
and sold?”
Shen Wei was so angry he almost couldn’t speak. He lifted his hand and pushed Zhao Yunlan away. Shen
Wei was unable to express his feelings until finally the words “you’re bullshitting” exploded out of his
mouth. (lit: you are farting…which has the same connotation as bullshitting)
Zhao Yunlan grabbed Shen Wei’s coat with a grin and held it like a pillow in his arms. He kept grinning
and rolling around on the bed, burying his face into the coat and inhaling deeply right in front of Shen
Wei.
“Aiya! You’re scolding me! On this world another baby panda must have been born! It sounds good!
Scold me more!”
Shen Wei felt that his actions were almost like one of a sex maniac so he reached out a hand to wrestle
that coat away from Zhao Yunlan: “Give it to me!”
Zhao Yunlan kept rolling around on the bed and holding the coat like he was crazed. He opened his
mouth and said perversely: “I won’t give it to you. If I give it to you what will I use to masturbate with?”
Shen Wei couldn’t reply. His eyebrows furrowed and his face turned completely red with some unknown
thought.
Zhao Yunlan lifted his head and said solemnly: “You look like you really want to murder your husband.”
Shen Wei didn’t reply. He kneeled on the bed and pounced over to wrestle for the coat. Zhao Yunlan
kept rolling. Shen Wei grabbed a corner of the coat and pulled but Zhao Yunlan continued to roll. Then,
without warning, he rolled onto the floor with a “bang” sound.
The two stared at each other. After a while they couldn’t hold it in and both started laughing.
Zhao Yunlan sat up from the ground, his upper body leaning on the bed, and looked at Shen Wei with
eyes curved from smiling. He suddenly spoke: “Hey, baby, let me ask you something.”
Shen Wei lowered his gaze to look at him.
Zhao Yunlan used a tone as if he was only casually chatting: “Is the Houtu seal about to break? What do
you intend to do?”
Shen Wei was stunned.
Zhao Yunlan continued: “do you wish that I could be with you forever? Die together with you?”
The hand that Shen Wei had rested on the blanket clenched suddenly. Zhao Yunlan quickly reached over
and held it. His smile was genuine and clear, without a hint of falsity or haziness.
“In fact, the ‘death’ that Shennong mentioned…is chaos isn’t it?” Zhao Yunlan’s gentle voice seemed like
thunder in Shen Wei’s ears. “You didn’t let Shennong finish…but I could guess it.”
As he spoke, he stood up from the ground, bent over, and held Shen Wei’s tense body in his arms:
“You’ve never asked me for anything…so even when I wanted to curry your favor, I couldn’t. Truthfully,
if there is anything you want, you can directly tell me…as long as I have it…why would you lie to me?”
Guardian Chapter 90 completed by https://twitter.com/yilngIaozu
Here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19f8E7n4fz9mClxdgRPPkNxkLwSBJmC1E

Guardian Chapter 91: Ghost tribe, birth within the cracks between light and darkness.

Guo Changcheng’s phone had been continuously vibrating, the screen showing a very strange,
unfamiliar number that didn’t seem like a phone number, but not a proper landline number either, with
many 4’s in the front. Guo Changcheng glanced over it, feeling that it was a little similar to the TV
shopping number and guessed that it was to market something. Everyone else were all discussing
important matters and even though he couldn’t completely understand, he still sensibly put on a look of
trying his best to understand, and despite the continuous vibrating of his phone, he ignored it.
Everyone had been discussing for a good while and their discussion still hadn’t yet reached a conclusion,
but Chu Shuzhi had nagged about the Water Dragon Pearl given by Snake Fourth Uncle for a while. Chu
Shuzhi lived extensively in the graves and was headed down the autopsy route, so his thoughts really
weren’t very bright and were occasionally a little dark. He was a genuine, proper analyst of conspiracies
and schemes.
“Your Fourth Uncle definitely knows something,” Chu Shuzhi insisted, “Otherwise why would he
suddenly want to take you away at this time, and just so happen to ask you to give Chief Zhao the Water
Dragon Pearl at this time?”
Zhu Hong had her arms folded in front of her chest, eyebrows creased as she let out a sigh.
The humans and ghosts alike in the office all fell silent. At this time, Old Li who was on duty at reception
during the day and who liked playing with bone carvings suddenly spoke up, saying “Actually I…. I have a
source of information.”
Everyone looked towards him simultaneously. Old Li seemed somewhat trapped and smiled a little in
embarrassment. “I’m an old loner, with nothing much to do after getting off work. I normally like to go
to antique streets to play Xiangqi (Chinese chess) with a couple of old friends. The last two days, I heard
an old brother who I play with mentioning this issue. He says that the few house guarding snakes that
his family kept have all left in the past two days, not even eating their offerings. The same for other
households. It seems like the snake tribe is going to completely move out of Dragon City.”
Zhu Hong was stunned momentarily. “This… My Fourth Uncle didn’t actually tell me this.”
“Not just the snake tribe. Look, spring is right in front of us but is there even half a crow in the city? That
bunch of crow tribe idiots, if there’s so much as some wind and stirring of grass, they’d run away faster
than rats.” When Da Qing spoke of the word ‘rats’, he made a show of wrinkling his nose, to express
considerable disdain— for a cat, just about everything in the world that was worthy of being despised
could be described with the word ‘rat’.
“My Fourth Uncle he…” Zhu Hong paused, the crease lines between her brows deepened further. She
was brought up since she was young by Snake Fourth Uncle, basically in her heart there was nothing
Snake Fourth Uncle wasn’t capable of. She has never seen Snake Fourth Uncle troubled by anything, and
it seemed like as long as the snake tribe had him, the sky would never fall.
Zhu Hong knew that he could very possibly not have told her anything because he was afraid her
feelings ran too deep for Zhao Yunlan. If nothing happened he knew that she might lose hope and
silently leave, but as soon as she knew Zhao Yunlan was in danger, how could she easily leave at a time
like this?
But how big did the problem have to be for Snake Fourth Uncle to straight up move away the entire
snake tribe without even going through the process of thinking through solutions?
Out of everyone, only Da Qing actually somewhat knew— regardless of whether it’s the abnormal
activity of the youming (ghosts), or whether it’s that strange book from 11 years ago, it all seemed to
somehow point toward the old events from over 5000 years ago. That was a time of collapsing skies and
sinking earth, where a number of gods fell from the heavens. There was definitely no small occurrence.
And yet, he could also clearly see Zhao Yunlan’s attitude.
Since he was little, Zhao Yunlan had always been the type of person to squeeze the light and fear the
heavy (t/n bully the weak and fear the strong), very skilled at getting people together and establishing
groups. But as soon as specific tasks for work were involved, he wilted, lazily pushing them onto those
lower than him but just as lazy, ordering whoever he could order around. Sometimes when others had
gone out and finished investigating, coming back to write up a report for him, he’d still be too lazy to
read it. He’d sit on the chair like a big-tailed wolf (t/n someone who acts all high and mighty even
though they might not necessarily be), pretentiously making people turn it into a powerpoint
presentation and read out all the contents to him.
But now, what he was faced with at the moment, or… what the Guardian Order was faced with, other
than occasionally asking them to help research some small and insignificant things, Zhao Yunlan covered
everything up tightly, not letting even the slightest waft of information out. Mostly it was because he
knew that even if these people were to be involved in this, they’d end up being the ash left behind from
a gunshot (t/n people that were sacrificed), and so wanted to shoulder everything by himself.
The black cat shifted his pupils around, gaze landing on Guo Changcheng, and found a random excuse to
interrupt the haphazard, unrelated blind guesses of the others. “Xiao Guo, your phone is almost
vibrating hard enough to turn into a sieve, isn’t your hand numb? Go take the call-- from what I can see,
we can’t really get anywhere just from us discussing like this. Those who had day shifts can all go home
to rest, Sang Zan and Wang Zheng who are taking the night shifts go together in a while, go to his house
and check if he’s come back or not. If Chief Zhao isn’t back before day break tomorrow, then we can go
into the underworld to look for him. If worse comes to worst…. Occasionally asking Hell for assistance
wouldn’t really be that embarrassing.”
As the black cat finished talking, he jumped onto the table, with a look of someone taking over because
the greatest leader wasn’t there, very purposefully and properly instructed, “Right, Zhu Hong, after a
while you give Lin Jing a phone call, ask him whether he’s on the train yet and exactly when he will get
back.”
Zhu Hong gave an “Oh”, reached out to pat the cat’s fur, then casually scratched his chin while she’s at it.
Da Qing turned from a King of overwhelming superiority to a kitty that loved to eat and hated to work in
one second flat. Her scratching was so satisfying that he placed a front paw on the table in a big stretch,
so pleased that he let out a long, thin “meow” sound.
Immediately, a couple sounds of suppressed laughter erupted from the office.
Da Qing violently gave his head a shake, using his paw to push away Zhu Hong’s hand at the speed of
light, seriously and matter-of-factly saying: “What are you doing? Men and women should keep their
distance, you better show me some more respect!”
Old Li stood off to the side and stroked the white bone ring on his hand while simultaneously politely
asking, with a slight air of attempting to get on Da Qing’s good side, “Da Qing, you’ve been busy all day,
do you want some dried fish? Yesterday I also fried some from home…”
Despite Da Qing attempting to act out a look of superiority, he was betrayed utterly and completely by
his pricked ears. Only after a good while did Da Qing reach out a paw, with a posture of an aloof royalty
like “hold His Majesty”, he let Old Li carry him away.
Guo Changcheng finally took that nagging call that had been irritating him all this time, the rip-off
domestic made phone was particularly loud, the sound of someone on the other end talking could be
heard even two steps away. With a heavy foreign accent, the speed of that speech was fast enough to
leave the atmosphere and fly up to the moon. Chu Shuzhi heard how Guo Changcheng politely listened
from the start to end of the large paragraph the other person was saying, before weakly replying: “My
apologies, I couldn’t hear very clearly… could you say-say it again a bit slower?”
The other end of the line went silent for two seconds, then suddenly there came the sound of low sobs.
It was unknown whether Guo Changcheng’s phone was seriously that awful, but those sobbing sounds
were exceptional, flowing out through the speakers and spreading across the entire office room like
waves of water. Chu Shuzhi, who was originally packing up his things to leave, halted in his steps,
suddenly turned around and raised his hand to snatch Guo Changcheng’s phone, pressing the handsfree
button then placing it on the table.
Guo Changcheng was stunned. Chu Shuzhi raised an index finger, holding it up by his lips. He carefully
listened, then pulled out a pen from the penholder on the table, writing on the note paper: ‘it’s a ghost
crying.’
Goosebumps popped up all over Guo Changcheng’s body.
Chu Shuzhi rapidly wrote again: ‘Tell her to stop crying, ask her if there’s a problem.’
Guo Changcheng did as he was told. After quite a while, the crying sounds from the other end calmed
down and quieted slightly. The person said while hiccuping and sniffling, trying very hard with imprecise
mandarin: “Teacher Guo, do you remember me? Three years ago you came to my house for a home visit
when you were teaching, my daughter is called Cui Xiuyun, I’ve given you a bowl of vegetable tofu
before.”
Guo Changcheng paused: “Ah! I remember, I remember you!”
The other end hiccupped and choked again: “Xiuyun is missing.”
A girl that he got to know three years ago. After calculating she should be around 15 or 16 years old now,
Guo Changcheng asked: “A grown girl, how could she be missing? Is it possible that she’s run into the
mountains by herself to play?”
Chu Shuzhi watched him with great interest. He realized that Guo Changcheng’s speaking voice had
gotten somewhat louder, and quite a lot steadier.
The sobbing of the other person seeped into their voice whenever they got desperate, and when they
cried, the words that left their mouth came out in a dialect, and communication between both ends was
considerably difficult. It took a good while for them to understand that the young girl’s father was
working out of town and earning some money. He bought her a mobile phone, it was considered quite
high level locally, and after she learned how to use the internet, she very quickly made a couple of
internet friends with unknown occupations. One of her internet friends even came all the way to see her,
saying how they could take her to Dragon City to find a part-time job, and whisked the silly girl away
with only a couple of words and a few sentences.
When her family found out, all they saw was a little slip of paper.
Guo Changcheng raised his eyes in a glance, seeing Chu Shuzhi writing: ‘Ask her if she can leave the
region, come to Dragon City.’
Guo Changcheng asked, and the other person suddenly replied with stuttering, hesitant words: “I… I
can’t leave the village, I… I am a bit sick…”
Chu Shuzhi nodded. This was an Earthbound spirit (ghost bound to a particular location).
Guo Changcheng asked again: “Is there anyone else in the family?”
“There’s only an old grandma… You’re the only person I know in Dragon City. Teacher Guo, help me out,
help me find her, my daughter’s still so young, she doesn’t know anything….”
Dragon City was bustling and populated, the flow of cars like running water. Looking for one person was
honestly like fishing for a needle in the ocean. Particularly as even if Guo Changcheng knew the girl, he
hadn’t seen her for 3 years, who knew how her looks have changed— Chu Shuzhi shrugged, writing on
the paper: ‘Don’t easily agree to the ghost’s words, we’re finding trouble for ourselves.’
Who would’ve known that when the words ‘easily (agree)’ had just been written, Guo Changcheng had
already agreed: “Alright, don’t worry yourself auntie, I promise I’ll find and bring back your child!”
The tip of Chu Shuzhi’s pen bent, leaving a long mark down the paper. He was just about to raise his
head to give Guo Changcheng a scolding, in his hate that iron has not turned into steel manner (t/n
unsatisfied at his progress, wanting him to be better), but then he saw the white light on Guo
Changcheng’s body that represented merit flash for a second. Miraculously, it seemed to have changed
color. In that moment, in the flash that passed, it seemed to have been a flame-like orange.
Shocked, he grasped tight onto Guo Changcheng’s shoulder. Guo Changcheng had just hung up the call,
looking at Chu Shuzhi in bewilderment.
“No-nothing, I probably saw wrong.” Chu Shuzhi muttered, thinking for a moment, then put his own bag
back. “How do you plan on looking for the person? I’ll help you.”
At this moment, the two ghosts Wang Zheng and Sang Zan who were sent to Zhao Yunlan’s house had
already arrived, politely knocking on the door. There were no sound from inside, so Wang Zheng took
Sang Zan and straight up went right through the door to slip in. They saw no lights on indoors, but the
coffee table had shifted to a new spot, the chair and the table both looked like they were sat on by
someone, the fire to boil water was still on, the water pretty much boiled dry, and yet there’s no sight of
anyone.
Sang Zan bent down at the waist, fiddled around with the tea tray that was left behind. He understood
without being told to turn the fire off, interpreting and saying: “Came back, left again, two people, left
before it got dark.”
Setting out tea was a gesture indicating a long conversation; what did they talk about?
During dusk on this day, after that sentence was spoken by Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei looked at him blankly
for a while, seemingly as though already wallowing in Zhao Yunlan’s eyes, and only after a good while
did he lowly agree: “Alright.”
And then he fell silent for an even longer time period, gaze travelling over the white steam curling
upwards from the tea pot, appearing somewhat lost in a daze.
Upon tracing back millions of years of memories, he suddenly became just like an old person.
It’s unknown how much time passed before he gently released a breath, glancing at Zhao Yunlan with a
pained smile: “I… I don’t know where to begin.”
As Shen Wei spoke, he put down his tea cup, sitting with his back straight on the bed, reaching out a
hand towards Zhao Yunlan: “Why don’t you come see for yourself?”
Zhao Yunlan felt like he should reasonably have some resentment towards Shen Wei, but before his
mind could react, his hand was already given over.
Shen Wei grabbed onto his hand, suddenly tugging him towards his chest with a burst of strength. Zhao
Yunlan felt like he was about to crash into his body, subconsciously reaching out with a hand to brace
himself against the edge of the bed. His fingers, however, seemed to have travelled through an empty
space, going right through the center, and then it was like he fell into something. His feet staggered for a
moment, then he was gently steadied by a pair of hands again.
Zhao Yunlan opened his eyes wide, and yet couldn't see a single thing. He could only tightly clutch onto
the hand that was holding him: "Shen Wei?"
Shen Wei softly gave a sound in response.
Even though it was black in front of his eyes, his surroundings weren't just an expanse of complete
silence. There seemed to be the wailing sound of wind, but Zhao Yunlan couldn't feel even the slightest
movement of air. He quieted down, carefully listening, thinking that it sounded like crying, also sounding
a bit like roaring, but it rose and fell, sounding close at some times and far at others.
Zhao Yunlan couldn’t help but ask: "What is that?"
Shen Wei subconsciously grasped his hand tight, and only after a long while did he say: "Wait a
moment."
Before his words fell from his lips, suddenly, the entire surrounding world lit up, a distant dragon cry
carried over from far away, seemingly immensely pained. The earth was also shuddering, then a great
ball of fire fell from mid-air, just like the sun dropping out of the sky, scorching hot.
From extreme darkness to extreme brightness, in the blink of an eye Zhao Yunlan's tears were squeezed
out, but he stubbornly endured the pain and couldn't bear to let his eyes slip shut.
He felt like he was seemingly witnessing a scene of the creation of the world.
He only saw the great fire fall, shattering into infinite broken shards, the light reflections like fragments
of gold made one feel as though they were stepping on a galaxy. That kind of beautiful scene as if the
blinding light was flowing, and colors uncontainably bright, could easily steal one's breath away. Zhao
Yunlan quickly wiped away the tears that have been pricked out of his eyes from the visual stimulation,
not bearing to even blink.
Then, countless hands reached up from below the scattered tongues of fire, as though they were
growing out from the mud, bit by bit adjusting their own shapes, until eventually they grew to be
around the height of a person, crawling out from the mud.
No one “created” them, they achieved life themselves from the mud and silt.
No one taught them how to survive, how to reproduce; they clumsily and blunderingly taught
themselves how to walk and run on the earth that was covered in shards of light, then continued to act
out of instinct and taught themselves how to kill each other and devour each other.
The Ghost tribe, born in the slight cracks between light and darkness.
There is a gigantic mound of fire where the ball of fire landed. As it continued to burn, the mud beneath
it continued to swell up, slowly inflating into a large flower bud.
The large flower bud grew bigger and bigger, but the fire above it became smaller and smaller, until
eventually the fire was completely sucked into the “flower bud” that was made of mud. All of the Ghost
tribe that were running, feeding, killing, halted in their own movements without making a conscious
decision to. They simultaneously turned their heads toward that place. A line suddenly split through the
flower bud made of mud, and that rift subsequently became larger and larger, until with a “crack”, like
pottery burned until damaged in the kiln, the “flower bud” made of mud shattered into a couple of
petals.
Within it, two inky-black human shapes were conceived, the closest of the Ghost tribe was sucked
towards them uncontrollably, and was very quickly devoured without even having time to struggle at all.
With more of the Ghost tribe swallowed, those pitch black shadows became clearer. They slowly
developed a head, neck, torso, four limbs, facial features and even hair.
Just like the droplets of mud that Nuwa casually flicked out, it was as if all the beings born from the mud
were pushed forward by a force in the darkness, growing toward a certain direction—almost the exact
same as gods and saints.
Perhaps… the gods and saints that lived long and well might have once been born in this way too.
“The thing that fell just then, was that my soul fire? That is… you and Gui Mian (t/n ghost face)?” Zhao
Yunlan only asked after a long while.
“That is us— at the time you were asked a favour from Chiyou, to protect the Witch and Demon tribe,”
Shen Wei’s voice was deep and calm, lowly explaining beside his ear, “Never would've thought that
without even a few decades passing since the first great battle of the Gods and demons, the Water God
and his people started a second war of the Gods and Demons with the Zhuanxu Emperor. The Water
God was close to the Dragon tribe, they formed an alliance with the Demon tribe, and then Hou Yi (a
legendary archer in Chinese mythology) from the East found a Fuxi Bow, brought together old Chiyou
troops, and battled with the Witch tribe. Witch, Demon, Human, the three tribes fought until it was
difficult to pull them apart.”
“At that time, the flood controls were not in place. Not long after Nuwa created man, she could only
watch as they reproduced in masses, died in masses. She didn’t even get the chance to become soil. So,
at the time, Youming (ghosts) did not exist, and of course there also wasn’t the so-called ‘cycle of
reincarnation’. For those various tribes that died during that time, death was simply death. As Shennong
said, ‘death’ is to turn into chaos, and return to the profane land that is empty without a single living
being, cut off from hope, cut off from the senses, cut off from everything, and just have absolutely
nothing. There wasn’t anyone that did not fear ‘death’, especially those who died whilst holding onto
hate. They did not wish to die with lingering burdens, and as a result they were stuck in between life and
death, and their souls remained in the living realm.”
“In the two great battles of Gods and Demons, there was the flowing and running of blood. The souls of
those that hesitated to move on floated through the air all day, desolately wailing nonstop, with no hint
of disappearing. Suffering under the scorching sun during the day times, there were some that were
melted alive from the sunlight, returning to chaos. There were others that survived through that,
recovering somewhat in the nights, but suffering the same torture the very next day.”
Shen Wei paused, gazing in the direction of himself, he only continued to talk after a while: “Nuwa only
now knew that what she created herself wasn’t virtue, but creatures of evil. She provided humans with
short individual lifetimes that were brilliant but short, lives as delicate and vulnerable as flowers in
spring. Afterwards, she then made them suffer through all of the hardships known to man, suffering
through the pain of burning under the blazing sun, suffering through the pain of souls that had nowhere
to settle, suffering through the pain of being chased down their entire lives by death.”
Shen Wei turned his head to give Zhao Yunlan a look: “Some people say that the reason why newborn
children burst out crying is because they are one step closer to the death that they were destined within
their lifetime— so at the time when Shennong lost his God status and out of helplessness asked to
borrow soul fire from you, that was to use the soul of the Mountain Saint to pacify all the vengeful
spirits in the world that died from war, to lessen their suffering and to be at peace earlier. This was also
the reason why the Da Shen Mu (Great Godly wood tree) that you later left behind was branded with
the name of ‘Guardian Order’.”
At this moment, the crack above their heads grew larger and larger, until eventually it revealed a slit of
the sky, weak moonlight sprinkling in. This was Buzhou Mountain on the brink of completely collapsing.
Shen Wei continued to say: “Shennong carried your blossom of a soul fire, when he passed Buzhou
Mountain, and just so happened to come across others that were riding the heavenly dragon. With an
air of advancing forwards without looking back, it crashed into a stone pillar of Buzhou mountain. The
Great dragon’s tail perfectly swept Shennong’s shoulder, your soul fire fell from Shennong’s hands, and
by a twist of fate, it landed on the great profane land at the foot of Buzhou mountain.”
Shen Wei’s voice halted, and then followed with a sound of cold laughter: “These are the things that you
told me, I don’t know if they’re true or false. Maybe it really did fall from pure fate and coincidence,
maybe Sir Shennong did so deliberately, who knows?”
Just at this moment, Zhao Yunlan saw two people landing on the great profane land that had been
revealed in the human realm, they were precisely Kunlun Jun and Sir Shennong.
Kunlun Jun seemed to be somewhat at a loss as he looked upon the demons and monsters all over the
land. He asked: “What are all of these?”
Shennong said: “They are born from nature.”
Guardian Chapter 92: If “death” is chaos, then “life” is a never-ending struggle
(2 excerpts from @dtriad included with permission. Please visit their page to read t/n)

This answer made both the Kunlun Jun from that side of the memory and the Zhao Yunlan on this end
fall silent.
Suddenly, it was no longer important whether that ball of fire was purposefully thrown down by
Shennong.
Shennong clutched Kunlun’s wrist. He stared at the ignorant and ferocious ghost tribe with his murky old
eyes and took two steps forward. He was already elderly and Kunlun had no choice but to bend down
slightly to carefully support him. When he looked down at Shennong, Kunlun’s expression contained an
imperceptible shadow – he’s old, this meant that he would die soon.
Kunlun Jun had never experienced “old age” or “death” before, but he had already smelled that terrible
decay from Shennong’s body.
“The things I said to Nuwa last time, you heard it all?” Shennong asked.
Kunlun Jun furrowed his eyebrows: “Who’s in the mood to listen to you guys’ endless mysterious
ramblings? Just talk about what we should do now. You even mentioned Nuwa to me. If she knew that
you old folk trembled and burned through the Fuxi seal, I’d be surprised if she didn’t turn against
you…And you even used my soul fire. You really know how to bring disaster my way.”
Shennong glanced at him: “She won’t.”
Kunlun Jun hmm-ed twice sarcastically: “I beg to differ.”
Shennong coughed for a while in an old and feeble way: “Life and death are very important. If you live
without fear you are akin to dead. You can’t take them as jokes. However, if you can jump out of the
circle of life and death, you will no longer need to fear.”
“I am going to stand here obediently. I’m not going to jump anywhere and I have no need to be afraid.”
Kunlun Jun replied coolly, “Seems like the one who should be afraid is you—Oh right, Da Shenmu’s fruits
are ripe. These 100 years, there have only ever been two ripe ones. I gave one to my cat bro, the other
one I saved for you. It can extend your life 100 years.”
“Thank you very much.” Shennong smiled, “Actually I’m not afraid of death either. Little Kunlun, you
don’t understand. No death, no extinction, no godhood. Maybe when we all die, you will understand.”
Kunlun Jun rolled his eyes and looked around. It seemed as though he really wanted to find something
to stuff into Shennong’s bizarre mouth.
“There will be hope.” At last, as they were leaving, Shennong looked at the land filled with the ghost
tribe and said, “If there can even be life in the most desolate places, is there anything that is impossible?”
Kunlun Jun assisted him through the uneven terrain. When he heard this sentence, he turned his head
around to look at the two members of the ghost tribe who were closest to them. One of them had the
other’s head in its grasp and was gnawing on it. The great sage of the barren mountains furrowed his
eyebrows and said pointedly: “Enough, old fart, does this shitty life even count? Seems to me like you’re
becoming confused with your old age. If you have the time, you better first think about how you’re
going to tell Nuwa about this.”
As Kunlun Jun and Shennong left the profane land, the silently observing Shen Wei grabbed Zhao
Yunlan’s hand: “Let’s go.”
They also followed along. Only then did Shen Wei say: “With your intelligence, it’s not necessarily that
you didn’t figure out what Shennong was thinking. It’s only that you thought his ideas were too fanciful
and so you didn’t go along with them.”
Zhao Yunlan paused, then said: “So… Shennong wanted to form the wheel of reincarnation. As long as
souls aren’t extinguished, they can reincarnate in the Six Realms, so life turns to death and death turns
to life—this is what he meant by his words ‘stand outside of life and death,’ isn’t it?”
Shen Wei laughed lightly: “Shennong wanted to use the underworld, and at the verge of true ‘death’
separate yin and yang to set up the wheel of reincarnation.”
“But later he didn’t succeed, or else Nuwa wouldn’t sacrifice herself to die for the Great Seal,” Zhao
Yunlan said.
“Do you know why?” Shen Wei stopped, a strange smile showing on his face. Without waiting for Zhao
Yunlan to reply, he answered himself. “Because the ghost tribe doesn’t have souls.”
The most murderous, soulless ones…
“We’re merely chaos, sinister currents—no matter how high or low the rank, from birth to death we
only have the instinct to swallow, to plunder, to crave the freshest flesh.” For the first time, Shen Wei
discovered that when he said these words, unexpected delight was in his heart—like the kind of delight
from willfully pressing down on his body’s wounds, or from using a knife to slice his own flesh, cut by cut.
“As for me—because you raised me up to godhood, I became a freak who’s neither human nor god,
neither demon nor ghost, but a chimera matchless in this world.”
Zhao Yunlan was speechless.
Shen Wei laughed lightly again. From the beginning, when Zhao Yunlan indicated he knew Shen Wei was
deceiving him, Shen Wei’s heart had settled down like a lump of ice, neatly stoppered there in
suspended motion and chilling his whole body—unbearably pent up until he finished saying these words.
To his surprise, he felt almost miraculously carefree.
“There’s really no one who can clearly say what the ghost race is, when all’s said and done; perhaps
we’re just a mutation of chaos, merely chaos that can run and move and nothing more. What Gui Mian
(t/n Yezun in drama) said is also right, in fact: ‘death’ itself flared up and boiled over from a flame and
spawned us, we ‘living things’ who aren’t truly born and can’t truly die. Actually, we’re quite a freak
accident.” Shen Wei’s smile weakened. He turned his face to look at Zhao Yunlan, his voice intimate and
gentle: “But you insisted on acting recklessly by provoking me. Don’t you know what kind of thing you’re
provoking? Don’t you know it’s dangerous?”
Zhao Yunlan embraced him from behind: “Hey, tell me the main points. I don’t want to hear this shit.”
The warmth of that body flowed out from his hug—like the kind felt by a person with their chest frozen
numb, who had swallowed their first mouthful of hot congee and almost shivered at the warmth.
Shen Wei remained silent for a while, then clasped the hands in front of his chest with his own and
continued: “Mount Buzhou collapsed, the heaven and the earth crumbled and unexpectedly interrupted
the battle between humans, demons, and witches. Continuous rain fell from the sky—that rain washed
away the resentment in the air and caused it to land on the ground, creating barren lands. Underground
were hundreds of millions of the ghost tribe climbing up from the abyss…you should have seen all this
when you were in the Da Shenmu. The first time I saw you should actually be at the place where I was
born. However, you were standing too far away and refused to get closer to me by even a step as if I was
something filthy. My eyes weren’t fully opened and I was only able to vaguely make out the shadows of
green clothes.”
Shen Wei closed his eyes. He nuzzled his chin gently against Zhao Yunlan’s hands and he said in a slightly
lowered voice: “But from the moment when I was born I was more ferocious than my brother,
devouring more of my race. At that time I already had the ability to hear and could roughly understand
what you and Shennong were talking about. That’s why I am different from him. From the time I was
born, I knew what I was. I searched for you all over the world, enduring the temptations of the flesh and
blood of humans along the way. I only ate the things that climbed out from under the ground…I believed
that they were ghosts as disgusting as I am.”
“I always wanted to ask you…what counts as life?” Shen Wei felt the hands that Zhao Yunlan had
wrapped around him tighten. “Later, at Denglin (Deng Forest), I finally met you as you were preparing to
go up to Penglai…Who would have thought that in the end when I saw you I wasn’t able to get any of
the questions hovering on the edge of my lips out.”
“Why was I going to Penglai?” Zhao Yunlan asked in a hoarse voice.
“Of the three great ancient godly mountains, Buzhou already fell and Kunlun is a forbidden area for the
gods that ordinary people couldn’t reach. Only Penglai could protect the creatures on the ground.
However, there were too many creatures. Within the three tribes, at most only two could go up. The
rest could only wait for Nuwa to perfect the technique of mending the skies with the five colorful stones
and leave their fate to the heavens.” As Shen Wei said this, he suddenly paused, “I hate the phrase
‘leave your fate up to the heavens’.”
“Then wouldn’t they be beaten even more to a stupid state?” (lit: their people brain be beaten into dog
brain)
Shen Wei said: “Shennong thought that because you were born as a mountain god, you would favor the
witches and the demons and abandon the humans. He originally planned on personally bringing
Zhuanxu (t/n: an important mythological emperor) to come up the mountain to see you. He didn’t
imagine that you’d only set up an array at the foot of Mount Penglai. At the bottom of Mount Penglai,
you arranged a simple altar containing Chiyou’s head and placed it right in the middle of the mountain
road. The demon tribe had always regarded Chiyou as its ancestor. They were the first to kneel down to
pay their respects. Additionally, after the time of Huangdi Xuanyuan (t/n: a legendary emperor), human
tribes also respected Chiyou as the God of War and so Emperor Zhuanxu stopped them and made them
stand behind the demon clan to bow their heads in respect. Only the witch tribe did not give heed. They
clamored to claim a position on the mountain and did not bow or show their respects. They were
indifferent to Chiyou’s head and walked directly past it. Right as the witch clan passed it, Chiyou’s head
disappeared and became a road leading up to the mountains. The witch clan that had already walked
past became trapped by the camouflaging magic in the chasm at the bottom of the mountain.”
This was why the demon tribe to this day eulogized Buzhou Mountain. This was the time when the
demons officially replaced the witch tribe, claiming a foothold during the great flood and gaining
equality with the human race…even though this equality didn’t last too many years.
“You took me and brought me through this flooded land swarming with disaster,” Shen Wei said, “From
Kunlun to Denglin, and then from Denglin to Penglai. We walked bit by bit through the human world.
We saved people, killed the man-eating demon clan, and were even roped into the battles between the
different tribes. Us demon tribe had always regarded each other as devourable. We never had the
concept of ‘same clan’. At the time I didn’t understand anything, only sometimes thought that you were
wasteful when you only killed and didn’t eat, but you became more and more silent.”
“Let’s go up the mountain.” Shen Wei turned and held Zhao Yunlan’s waist. Zhao Yunlan only felt the
scene before him shift and the two of them had already rapidly arrived at the foot of the godly
mountain. Then Shen Wei leaped forward and, in an instant, brought Zhao Yunlan directly to the top of
Mount Penglai.
He didn’t see any flash of thunderous lightning, only a sky so heavy with gloom that it seemed close to
collapse. Rain stirred up layers of cloud and mist, the water vapor carrying some kind of indescribable
stench.
On the mountain summit, Zhao Yunlan caught sight of Nuwa. She was alone, dragging her long serpent
tail within the sea of clouds, while Kunlun had with him the young Ghost King as they stood beyond the
cloudy waves, watching her from afar.
The Kunlun of then and there had changed greatly since the time Zhao Yunlan had first seen him in the
Profane Land. He was leaner, his naturally deep-set features revealing a trace of ineffable weariness; yet
his gaze was clear and steadfast, above his whittled thin cheekbones all the more evident.
Nuwa suddenly turned her head, her beautiful face still worn with worry, and said: “Kunlun, what if
Shennong was wrong? What if we were all wrong?”
Kunlun tucked his hands in his sleeves, the roaring wind blowing his long sleeves and raiment up and
down, to and fro, as he calmly said: “It’s all right—then this is our atonement by death, dying for a just
cause. Afterwards, in these chaotic lands, when those more mighty and powerful as Pangu emerge to
meet fate once again, they’ll see our wrong path as a warning, and finish what we could not.”
Nuwa sighed, her brow smoothing out softly: “What you say is right. Shennong was already wrong once,
I hope he isn’t wrong again, but… Even if he’s wrong, we can’t turn back. You’ve truly grown up a lot; it
makes me feel that even if I die, I can leave this world in your hands.”
The words of the primeval sage were as weighted as gold and jade. As her voice descended, Kunlun
could already feel an immense pressure slamming down on his unguarded shoulders, but he didn’t
move or shake. Even the Ghost King behind him didn’t sense his strange state.
And so Kunlun breathed in deeply, stretched out a level palm to catch the fine rain falling from the
heavens, and grasped from that delicate experience… the ever-present burden pressing down upon his
body.
“Actually, over these past days I’ve suddenly realized something—humans are so small and weak, they
can’t rid themselves of lifelong greed, anger, and stupidity; and with their unclean six senses, they’re
foolish and short-sighted, cruel and fond of strife—so why would you gain merit from creating this sort
of useless thing? Why would Heaven choose the human race again and again?” Kunlun narrowed his
eyes; he gazed at the clouds churning in the distance, and within them the faintly visible five-colored
stones. “Now I understand. The human race is really something no different from heaven and earth, no
different from us.”
The corners of Nuwa’s mouth carried the traces of a smile: “How are they no different?”
“Humans know from birth that they’ll die. Each day forth is a step closer to death, whether hero or
coward; decades pass like smoke before their eyes, and scatter with a snap of the fingers—for different
paths all lead to the same end, as if they were born to die.”
Kunlun smiled lightly. “But you see, they strive and struggle each day they’re alive: for food and warmth,
for power and property, for sentiment and the ability to live one more day—for anything you can think
of. And after countless escapes from mortal danger, in their last struggle they exhaust themselves to
death.”
“What you said, I don’t understand.” At that moment, the young Ghost King at Kunlun’s side and Shen
Wei at Zhao Yunlan’s side suddenly spoke in unison. It sounded to Zhao Yunlan as if the bright and clear
voice of the youth and the deep and low words of the man had mingled to become a strange duet; it
made him feel all at once as if he were there in person himself, indistinguishable from the illusion of
Kunlun.
Unexpectedly, ineffably, words rose up in Zhao Yunlan’s mind, and he couldn’t help but let them fall to
coincide with the voice of Kunlun thousands of years ago: “Sealing the ghost race is indeed unfair; but
the sin of genocide already came upon me when I trapped the witches and let them all drown in the
great flood. I have no qualms in my heart, and bear this sin without fear. If the wheel of reincarnation
and eternal life that Shennong spoke of isn’t successfully completed—if we fail, if we’re wrong, if we
bring about greater calamity… then it’s only our mistaken attempt and struggle. If we all die, new gods
will come into this world. They’ll be like us, and strive in the next attempt for the sake of eternal life,
though we all know deep down inside that absolute permanence doesn’t exist, and—like humans—in
the end we’ll die.”
Kunlun suddenly turned his head and looked at the young Ghost King behind him; then his gaze slipped
away once more, and seemed to fall upon Zhao Yunlan many thousands of years later. Even though he
knew Kunlun couldn’t see anything, Zhao Yunlan still held a kind of… illusion that he was confronting
himself at an abyss splitting space and time.
“If ‘death’ is chaos, then ‘life’ is a never-ending struggle.” Kunlun spoke thus, and lightly smoothed out
the corners of his mouth to reveal a hollow smile. Faint dimples appeared on his cheeks. His smile was
like that of a child, his eyes like those of an elder.
“Nuwa,” he said, “you go first. I’m here, so you don’t need to worry about things once you’re gone.”
At last Zhao Yunlan had heard the complete dialogue—and at last he understood how Shen Wei had
picked out several words from this conversation that lamented the state of the universe and pitied the
suffering of mankind, and changed them to mean something completely different.
Nuwa looked deeply at Kunlun. In a dazzling flash, an arc of stones overflowing with light and color
soared like a rainbow above the horizon—they boomed and rumbled, crashing into thick layers of clouds
that burst open with a world-shaking roar of thunder and lightning. Halfway up the mountain, humans
and demons couldn’t help but prostrate themselves in worship. After an unknown time passed, the
resounding thunder came to a stop; after several months, the stratus clouds parted and auspicious ones
appeared. The sun shone once again in the sky, its rays falling upon the wild, scorched, overgrown earth.
The body of Nuwa, silent within the sea of clouds over Mount Penglai, suddenly collapsed and fell to
pieces. Her threefold hun-soul completed the Great Seal once more, her body transforming into Houtu;
her sevenfold po-soul fell among the mountains and rivers, where soft shoots of delicate grass exposed
their newborn green from cracks in stone.
At some point, the doddering Shennong had climbed up to the summit. He said to Kunlun: “I’m going
too.”
As he finished speaking, his body fell to the ground, stiff and rigid in death. Once suppressed by a human
body, the divine soul cried out as he plunged from the sacred mountain to the underground and
transformed into the wheel of reincarnation. Souls that were wavering in space, that couldn’t distinguish
between day and night, were as if drawn in: and all followed him down. The Awl of Mountains and
Rivers bore into the softly trembling earth to subdue it; the Sundial of Reincarnation began to revolve
upon the Three-Life Stone; and, hanging high on the Ancient Tree of Merit, the Merit Brush followed the
endless waters of Wang Chuan up and surfaced with every soul’s merits and demerits recorded.
“There’s one last thing missing,” Kunlun said lightly. In that moment the sky above him was suddenly
shrouded in dark clouds drawn from afar; lightning flashed and thunder rolled within, as if divine
thunder from the highest of heavens was on the verge of falling. “My soulfire lit up the Profane Land,
and boiled the ghost race out of the mud. Abandoning them without care and selfishly deciding the
ghost race’s destiny, it’s indeed a serious crime—but there’s something I still haven’t finished.”
Zhao Yunlan watched him draw out his heart’s blood to be transformed into the lamp wick, and take his
body to be transformed into the lamp base. All of a sudden, he felt that he knew all these things, not
only from what he’d seen within the God Tree and the rock of the Great Seal, but rather… they had truly
happened, and he’d simply not thought of them for a while, nothing more.
And thus the wheel of reincarnation was completed in the end, life and death became a circle and
henceforth there was no life or death.
The primordial essence of Kunlun bled away, and the devastating mountain wind swept along with it the
young Ghost King who had wept himself hoarse. Together they descended beneath the Huang Quan, to
keep watch at the Great Seal.

Guardian Chapter 93: Are you willing to die with me?

Shen Wei didn’t reply at first. He looked in the direction where the unbearably sad little Ghost King
disappeared and a strange smile appeared on his face—as if he were a bit nostalgic, and also as if he felt
a bit embarrassed. It was a little while before he gently said: “I actually really respect Shennong. More
than you and Nuwa, he seemed like a real God.”
“Wait wait wait wait.” Zhao Yunlan raised his hand to stop Shen Wei’s sentence, furrowed his brows and
carefully thought for a while, “If you ask me, all this is your fault. When there are issues you don’t
explain them to me clearly. You lied to me in all sorts of ways with no clear overall plan; you make my
brain feel all big.”
Shen Wei shut his mouth. He felt as though he was waiting for Zhao Yunlan’s determination of “I don’t
want to see you anymore”, just that no matter how much he waited, it didn’t come. It was like he was
hanging on to the edge of a cliff by a blade of grass, not able to beg for life or death.
Zhao Yunlan glanced at him and suddenly said: “Shen Wei, do you know what the most difficult thing in
life actually is?”
Shen Wei turned to look at him.
“It’s that I married an awkward and a scoundrel of a wife with too many thoughts in his head without
being able to bring even one thought to light…ke, in other words, sooner or later you will be
overwhelmed by your endless ideas.”
Shen Wei: “……”
Zhao Yunlan: “That’s right I’m talking about you. Right now I’m very confused.”
Shen Wei seemed to hear a hint in these words although he didn’t dare to confirm it. He fiercely looked
towards Zhao Yunlan’s eyes, his gaze immediately becoming so bright it was piercing: “And so?”
Zhao Yunlan had long been trained by Shen Wei into a conditioned reflex. As long as Shen Wei was even
a little bit sad, he would exhaust all efforts to coax him; however, if Shen Wei displayed a slight bit of
maladaptive pressure and aggression, Zhao Yunlan would feel awful and would be unable to stop
himself from trying to tease him, idly poke fun of him for a little.
So Zhao Yunlan reached out and rubbed his own chin, displaying a serious expression as if he was a wolf
with a big tail (t/n: a phrase used to satirize authoritative figures): “So? What happens between us will
be based on the foundations of you receiving leniency for confessing. Comrade Shen Wei, all who want
to play tricks on the masses will eventually be submerged by the waves from the masses revolting, do
you understand?”
Shen Wei’s lips moved a little, but in the end he wasn’t able to say anything—he probably already lost
the ability he had when he was young to be able to straightforwardly express how he was feeling.
Zhao Yunlan continued: “First let me work out the sequence, the things before that let’s stop arguing
about. Starting from when the big beauty Nuwa created people in the leek spinning song*. Kunlun—who
seems to be me—appeared to have just taken off the crotchless pants at that time**. Being the little
dumb, immature, and lacking common sense type of person I was, while watching from the sidelines I
said that there were things contained within the mud that was being used to make people. Because I
said that, Nuwa found three corpses within the mud: greed, hatred, and obsession. From then, Nuwa
foresaw those three characteristics in humankind, which eventually led to an irreparable war between
gods and demons? Oh, this means…”
Zhao Yunlan paused: “Then that pretty lady had a case of persecution paranoia?”
Shen Wei was not used to his casual manner. He was silent for a while but then felt that he wasn’t
wrong. He nodded with difficulty: “Yes.”
“Later, Nuwa called Fuxi over and the two built the Fuxi Great Seal together to suppress the fire of the
land, thus forming The Profane Land.” Zhao Yunlan said. He then switched a topic and asked Shen Wei,
“Oh, right, I actually also wanted to ask, is it true like in the legends that those two were together?”
Shen Wei: “….It’s true.”
“Heck, even gossip can be true. After a few years of peace, the first war between gods and demons
happened…or in a more popular saying, it’s Huangdi fighting with Chiyou. As they fought, Chiyou found
that his opponent was more powerful and he could not hold out any longer. His spirit left his body and
went to Kunlun Mountain to find Kunlun Jun, begging the mountain saint, which is me, to take care of
his followers, the witch and demon clans. Kunlun Jun is an extremely lazy person, and of course didn’t
want to care about these matters. But he could not stand his constant begging as if he was begging the
heavens and the earth, kowtowing all the way to the top. Plus, he raised a very gluttonous stupid cat
who accidentally licked Chiyou’s blood. Kunlun Jun had to come out to return the favor and agreed to
help. By the way that cat was Daqing right? Fuck, I knew that fat fuck would fuck up dad’s life.”
Shen Wei turned his head around, he didn’t want to look at this “dad” whose life was fucked up by the
cat.
“Kunlun Jun protected the witch and the demon tribes in the first big war between gods and demons. In
addition, he gave them a place to live and practice and cared for them for generations. However, the
peace didn’t last too many years. The second big war between gods and demons began. This time it was
a civil war between Yandi and Huangdi. The water god Gonggong and the descendent of Huandi,
Emperor Zhuanxu, worked together. The Emperor of the East, Houyi also tried to utilize this chaotic
environment to gain profit. The wild war of three worlds entangled the witch and the demon tribes
again. Within this war, humans, witches, and demons were stronger than before and so the amount of
deaths was even higher. This created more samples for Shennong, who came to the conclusion that
‘death is chaos’ and ‘souls who are uneasy with chaos suffer more agony’. To sum it up, Nuwa created a
human race that ‘lives without happiness and dies with many hardships’. And so Shennong and Nuwa
came together and discussed how to forever get rid of death. It was at that time that he came up with
the idea of reincarnation.”
Shen Wei smiled sharply: “Maybe it was because he had become a mortal and had to face the reality of
a mortal lifespan that’s akin to cicadas that are born in the spring and die in the autumn. Maybe it was
he who was afraid of death.”
“En, we can put this thought on hold, right now that’s not important.” Zhao Yunlan continued,
“Shennong later used the ‘zhenhun’ name to take my left shoulder soul fire. When he arrived at Mount
Buzhou, he unfortunately collided with comrade Gonggong, the first creator of suicide bombing, and
thus dropped the fire.”
“I feel that he did it on purpose,” Shen Wei laughed coldly, “He was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to
persuade Nuwa and so found an excuse. His original plan was exactly to establish the wheel of
reincarnation in the nether world.”
“Enough, stop holding a grudge. He already met his retribution; didn’t he not succeed?” Zhao Yunlan felt
for a cigarette and squatted down on the ground to light it. Like a big monkey he hung his arms on his
knees, wantonly destroying the air at the top of the saintly mountain. “As a result, he accidentally
discovered the ghost tribe. But you guys were inherently born missing parts: you guys had no soul. Not
only were you guys unable to enter the reincarnation cycle, the moment the seal cracked, you guys
came onto the surface to make trouble.”
“It was a great catastrophe. And so, together, the gods brought the creatures up the saintly Mount
Penglai, the witch clan were abandoned for their ingratitude, humans and demon clans were saved,
Nuwa mended the lands and the skies, Shennong died of old age and his spirit entered the reincarnation
cycle, Kunlun sealed the four pillars and lastly went to guard the Houtu Great Seal.” As Zhao Yunlan
reached this part, he paused slightly, “Oh, then I think I kind of get it.”
Zhao Yunlan, being constantly busy throughout the year, haven’t had the time to cut his hair. It was now
a little bit long, almost covering his ear. When the mountain winds blew, the hair in front of his forehead
swept the bridge of his nose. Shen Wei bent down and smoothed away the messy hair in front of his
forehead. Quietly, he asked: “What did you understand?”
“At that time you were so young. As I was guarding the Great Seal, of course I wouldn’t let you escape.
Why did I give you Kunlun’s divine tendon?” Zhao Yunlan grabbed Shen Wei’s wrist and lifted his head,
“It was because Shennong was going to kill you, wasn’t it? I wanted to protect you and so could only do
that in the hope that if I wasn’t around one day, I could pass on the power of a hundred thousand
mountains to you.”
“This time you’re wrong. He didn’t want to kill me; he wanted to exterminate all of the ghost tribe.
Shennong could not believe that there were things in this world without a soul. If they didn’t have a soul,
how could they be considered living? It was him who started the birth of the ghost tribe and of course
he wanted to take responsibility for it and ‘make up for’ his mistake.” As Shen Wei said this, he suddenly
started shaking, “If you didn’t give it to me, if you didn’t…you wouldn’t have left me so early.”
Zhao Yunlan laughed gently: “Not that early but still sooner rather than later”
“If I had a little time, maybe….”
“The little beauty is now grown into a big beauty. Do you have any ideas?”
Shen Wei was unable to respond.
“And then?”
“…And then I attacked you and confined your spirit. I went down to the wheel of reincarnation to beg
my enemy Shennong.” Shen Wei said, “The only time I begged in my life—was to beg him.”
“At that time, the cycle of reincarnation was already established, the governing body of Difu had been
formed and a complete set of laws had been created. I begged him to allow you to enter the
reincarnation cycle like a mortal. That way, even if you don’t remember me in your every life time, you
will at least still be there.” Shen Wei said, “But he didn’t agree. Ancient gods cannot enter reincarnation
because reincarnation began with the support of Shennong’s own spirit. Although it could accept the
spirits of different humans, demons, and ghosts, it could not withstand a real mountain saint. The only
exception was…if he personally suppressed all your godly powers and washed your soul to become one
of a mortal’s. In that way Shennong would scatter and die…it would be equivalent to a life for a life, him
using his life in exchange for yours.”
“What did you promise him for this?”
“I must forever protect the Great Seal. If the Great Seal exists, I exist. If the Great Seal is broken, then I
must die along with all of the ghost tribe.” Shen Wei’s fingers were icy cold, “And…I can never see you. If
I couldn’t bear it, then your essence would be drained by me and you would die with your soul
scattered.”
Shen Wei suddenly broke away from Zhao Yunlan’s hand. He stroked Zhao Yunlan’s face with his palm
and then grabbed his chin, forcing him to look up. He spoke carefully: “I already kept this promise for
thousands of years. Now the Great Seal is breaking; I have arrived at my ending. Originally I wanted to
come quietly and leave quietly, but through serendipity I met you and was not successful. From that
night you really belonged to me...no, from that day you told me for the second time that you will give
your sincere heart to me, I could no longer let you go.”
“I deliberately left false memories in the Da Shenmu to mislead you, and then I deliberately let you see
me take out the blood from my heart for you. I also purposefully left you so that you would come down
Huang Quan to find me and purposefully showed you the edited memories within the Houtu Great
Seal…all this was so that you would feel guilty, make you unable to leave me, and make you decide in
the end to willingly accompany me to death.” Shen Wei’s hand turned more and more cold. The more
agitated he became the tighter his grip became, until Zhao Yunlan’s chin started hurting.
“Even now, after you’ve seen through everything, I am still trying to force you.” Shen Wei’s voice was
very low, so much so that the sound was almost broken, “Will you choose to die with me, forever
belonging to the chaos, or will you choose to let me take out the memories of your life, leaving it so that
you don’t recognize me—you won’t remember me and you and I no longer have anything to do with
each other?”
Because he refused to be deceived, these two roads were finally clearly displayed in front of him.
While Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan were at the foot of Mount Penglai in Shen Wei’s memories, Wang
Zheng and Sang Zan came up empty handed and called No. 4 Bright Avenue. Wang Zheng probably
subconsciously felt that it wasn’t a big deal for the Ghost Slayer and their leader to be together and so in
a light tone reassured everyone.
Despite that, Guo Changcheng put down the phone and held his face anxiously: “But how do we find
her?”
He lowered his head and looked through his cellphone. After a while, he found a big group photo that
was so blurry the faces almost couldn’t be seen. Then, Guo Changcheng used 5 minutes and came up
with a very simple and crude idea: “What if I enlarge her photo a bit and then post it to the internet and
the newspaper under missing persons?”
Chu Shuzhi said: “That would be enough time for the swindler to sell the girl once around the human
trafficking market already. Why don’t you go to Carrefour to look for her, it’d be quicker. (t/n a retail
store)”
Guo Changcheng looked at him perplexedly.
“Enough, tell us roughly where her house is. How did they come to Dragon City?”
Guo Changcheng reported the name of the province and the administrative region: “Of course their
home is not in the city. They’re in a remote village called Cuijia. From the countryside, you can take a big
bus for eight hours to get out of the mountains, and then once you get to the city center you can switch
to the train.”
“The train is impossible,” Chu Shuzhi interrupted, “You need to have an ID with your real name to take
the train. It’s uncertain if the swindler would do that, not to mention it’s unclear if that little girl even
has an ID. It’s impossible for her to steal the household registration book and run.”
Guo Changcheng was stumped.
Chu Shuzhi opened his computer and went online to check the long-distance bus schedules from the
prefecture-level city to Dragon City like Guo Changcheng said. He thought for a moment and then also
looked up the route: “The cars coming from that side mostly all go through National Highway 220 to get
into the city. The trip is about 30 hours. If that child left home yesterday, she should probably almost be
in Dragon City by now.”
Guo Changcheng’s eyes brightened: “That’s right! Chu ge you’re so smart! We can go to the highway exit
to wait for her, maybe we can meet her.”
Chu Shuzhi lifted his wrist and found that it was almost 11 o’clock. How long would they have to wait for?
He thought that Guo Changcheng had problems, then looked at his elated expression and couldn’t help
but to pour ice water over him: “Human trafficking isn’t even part of our obligations, can’t we just go
home and sleep? It’s your fault you ran your mouth so quickly and even dare to casually agree to a
ghost.”
Guo Changcheng immediately sensed the complaint within his words and was stunned for a bit. Uneasily,
he rubbed his sleeves: “Chu ge, why don’t…why don’t you first go home and rest, it’s enough if I drive
over by myself. Thank you for today. If it wasn’t for you I definitely would not have thought to look at
the car route.”
Chu Shuzhi furrowed his brows.
Guo Changcheng instinctively thought that he did something wrong and immediately bowed and
apologized: “I even troubled you to bring things for me today. I’m really very very sorry. Why don’t…why
don’t I treat you to a meal when you have time?”
Chu Shuzhi “hmph”ed, grabbed his outerwear, and walked out.
Guo Changcheng fidgeted in the back and didn’t make any sound. Chu Shuzhi was already almost at the
door. When he saw that Guo Changcheng didn’t follow, he turned his head and said impatiently: “What
are you dawdling for? Wasn’t it you who wanted to find her? Get over here!”
Guo Changcheng immediately changed from a frosted eggplant to a newly watered sunflower, and
scuttled after him.
They drove Guo Changcheng’s car to the exit at the highway and waited. Whenever they saw a car
bearing the license plate from the province where the missing girl came from, they stopped the car to
search.
They waited an entire night.
Although the year had passed, Dragon City’s temperature still hadn’t entered spring yet. In the morning
and night, it was no different from winter. If a person stood outside for a little bit, it’s easy for them to
become frozen.
Sitting in the car with the heater on, Guo Changcheng would become sleepy after a little while. Chu
Shuzhi watched as his head sometimes lowered to his chest, and then he would suddenly startle awake,
hurriedly wipe his face, and then get out of the car to look from side to side, only relaxing after
confirming that no long-distance buses had passed. He walked around with his coat tightly wrapped
around him in hopes of making himself wake up a bit. Only after he was frozen solid would he come
back to the heated car to warm up slightly.
He came and left repeatedly. Chu Shuzhi didn’t say anything and merely looked at Guo Changcheng
thoughtfully.
The corpse king rarely directed his attention at Guo Changcheng. At this time, he suddenly felt that it
was weird—Guo Changcheng was not that old this year yet the merits on his body were so thick you
couldn’t see past it, like PM2.5 (t/n air quality number). Old monks who have given up worldly matters
all their lives may not even be able to accumulate merit this thick. Unless it’s like Da Qing said, he did
everything in secret and didn’t let others find out. Due to him not seeking rewards, the merits
doubled…but even if it was like this, Guo Changcheng would have had to have helped old ladies cross
the road every morning, noon, and evening.
At this time another long-distance bus came. When it got closer and Guo Changcheng saw the license
plate, he leapt up excitedly from the car, readied his license, and stood in the middle of the road,
jumping and waving to stop the bus.
“Tch, stupid.” Chu Shuzhi muttered and then looked at Guo Changcheng’s back again before calling Da
Qing, “Hey, night owl, you haven’t slept yet right? If you haven’t slept, I have a question for you.”
Da Qing was in the middle of a dream. In the dream, he was floating on the ocean gnawing on a big
whale in his grasp. In his heart he thought that this was enough food to eat for a year and a half.
However, he only ate two bites before the big whale flopped and splashed his face with icy cold water.
Da Qing woke up abruptly. He looked up and saw Sang Zan who held an icy phone receiver against his
face. Beaming, Sang Zan said: “Cat Stutterer. T-telephone.”
Sang Zan obviously already knew that “stutterer” wasn’t anything good and had long since stopped
using this phrase—now it had become Da Qing’s exclusive nickname which he pronounced like “dick”
(t/n the slang for dick sounds vaguely similar to stutterer and SZ is pronouncing it wrong).
“Cat dick” raised his head in a bad mood, put his ear against the receiver, and heard Chu Shuzhi’s voice.
Nastily, he said: “Get lost, old man. You wanna die?”
Chu Shuzhi didn’t care for his nasty habit of saying rude things the moment he opens his mouth: “You
sleep right after you eat, be careful you might get up to a new level of tonnage by the end of the year. At
that time forget little female cats, even dogs won’t look at you. Old man are you not afraid of high blood
pressure?”
Sang Zan calmly watched as Cat Stutterer used his sharp claws to scratch a line through the table and
then left, holding his book.
“If you have something to say, say it now, otherwise leave—stop saying fucking nonsense. Chu Shuzhi
what do you want so late at night?”
Chu Shuzhi asked: “I wanted to ask, have you seen orange colored merit before?”
“I have,” Da Qing said nastily, “I’ve seen it in all colors of the rainbow. If you collect all seven you can
summon the godly dragon to perform bow-tying air acrobatics for you.”
“I’m not joking with you,” Chu Shuzhi lowered his voice and peeked over at the bus parked outside the
window, “It’s not always orange. Normally it’s white, just that occasionally it’s like it’s on fire and it
would flash like a flame.”
Da Qing was silent for a moment: “Where did you see this?”
“On Guo Changcheng’s body.”
“That’s impossible,” Da Qing firmly stated, “I know the type you’re talking about. That’s not small merit,
that’s great merit. Do you know what great merit is?”
Chu Shuzhi raised his eyebrows: “Hm?”
“I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but I heard that at the time when the saint Nuwa created people,
she was surrounded by fire which represented the great merits of heaven. Now the merits and faults of
creatures are all written in the book of life and death. If we’re talking more advanced, at best it’s what’s
left over from the Brush of Merits from the Ancient Tree of Merits and cannot possibly reach that level.
You’re bullshitting meow. It’s impossible.”
Chu Shuzhi was stunned. At this time, Guo Changcheng had already come out of the bus. From far away,
he could already be seen sighing; he most likely wasn’t able to find her.
Chu Shuzhi lowered his voice and quickly said to Da Qing: “Xiao Guo is really human?”
“En, he’s human,” Da Qing said, “Wang Zheng even has his identification registered.”
“I need to check his birth certificate. The kind from the hospital that says ‘male baby born on x year x
month x day’.” Chu Shuzhi said.
Da Qing: “Ah? Fuck, humans have too many distinct things they like to do. They even have this!”
“I’m not going to waste words with you anymore, I’m busy over here. Gonna hang up first. Remember to
look into it for me.” After Chu Shuzhi said this, he hung up before Guo Changcheng got back into the car.

*When Nuwa made people from mud she apparently grabbed grass and dipped it in dirt and flung it
around…zyl is making a reference to Hatsune Miku’s leek spinning song as that is the imagery that
comes to mind
**babies wear these in china…basically onsies with either a hole at the butt or a flap that can open. He’s
just saying he was super young.

Guardian Chapter 94: Despite being covered in sheep’s skin—even if the sheep’s skin was capable of
blushing—it still couldn’t change the fact that he was intrinsically a wolf.
Guo Changcheng was a bit dispirited. He looked like the unfortunate homeless who lived overnight in
the waiting hall of the train stations. When he climbed into the driver’s cabin, in Chu Shuzhi’s mind,
there was only the word “a mess” to describe him.
“You didn’t find her?” Chu Shuzhi asked despite the obvious.
Guo Changcheng solemnly nodded.
Chu Shuzhi fell silent for a moment, then tentatively asked: “But there’s also the possibility that I
thought wrongly. They might have taken the train, or stayed in the district for a while. How about we go
back first?”
Guo Changcheng quietened for a while. Staying up through the night made his already not-so-bright
mind seem a bit slow, and then he roughly rubbed his face and quietly said: “I’m sorry Chu ge, how
about… how about you drive back first. I’ll wait until I find them, then I’ll get a cab back by myself.”
“Get a cab? You squatting here overnight, are you planning to freeze to death outside?” Chu Shuzhi
thought about it, then said, “You don’t have to worry. Despite agreeing to the words of the ghost it
doesn’t matter. It’s just an Earthbound spirit with hardly any abilities. I can still straighten them up.”
Guo Chancheng still stubbornly shook his head. He had just planned on pushing open the car door and
getting out. Right in the moment when he had his back turned toward Chu Shuzhi, the hand that Chu
Shuzhi had kept tucked in his pocket all this time suddenly shot out, and with a “smack”, stuck a sheet of
a seal on the collar at the back of Guo Changcheng’s neck.
“What are you? Why are you attached to a person’s body?” Chu Shuzhi coldly asked.
In that moment, Guo Changcheng felt that his own four limbs seemed to be suddenly weighed down
with lead. He wanted to turn his head to ask Chu Shuzhi what was going on, but his neck became rigidly
straight, and couldn’t twist no matter what.
His conscious soul seemed to float out of his body. From a third perspective, he looked at his own
laughable body and Chu Shuzhi, with a hostile expression, behind him. Chu Shuzhi’s brows were
furrowed, his head raised to look at Guo Changcheng’s spirit floating in mid-air-- that was definitely a
mortal’s soul, and it was 100% compatible with the body, without a single fault.
Or you could say that the spirit that he smacked out with a seal was truly Guo Changcheng himself.
“So, you are indeed Guo Changcheng?”
Guo Changcheng floated in the air and wanted to say: “Chu ge what are you doing.”
But he opened his mouth, and seemed like the mute button was pressed on him……no, it was literally
like he entered an air-tight realm where sound could not travel. He made a noise, but could only hear his
own voice through his body; it left his mouth but couldn't spread out at all.
At that moment, Chu Shuzhi reached out with a hand and removed the seal on Guo Changcheng’s body.
Guo Changcheng felt a huge rush of pressure, and an emaciated hand directly pushed down on his soul.
That kind of feeling was very strange. Guo Changcheng couldn’t help but shudder, and then in an instant,
that kind of floating feeling from before was gone and his body was weighted down so much that he was
a bit unused to it. Guo Changcheng shakily turned his head around, and straightaway was met with Chu
Shuzhi’s analytical gaze.
Guo Changcheng just had a bit of a slower reaction time. Right now, he also understood that just then
his soul had left his body, and in his understanding, “soul leaving the body” and “death” didn’t have
much of a difference—In other words, Chu Shuzhi nearly smacked him to death with that single sheet of
a seal.
Guo Changcheng cowered into himself, with his back tightly pressed against the other side of the car
door in somewhat terror. With his heartbeat at the top of his throat, he weakly asked: “Chu-Chu ge, this-
what does this mean…”
“Are you human?” Chu Shuzhi asked.
Guo Changcheng looked at him, staring without knowing what to say. He didn’t know what kind of
question that was, feeling as though he did something so horrible, so unreasonable and unacceptable by
the world to the point where someone would yell at him and say he’s “not human”. But after mentally
recounting in detail for a moment, he realized that did not occur at all. Surely, he couldn’t have
committed crimes in his dreams?
“Let me say it like this, do you have any recollection of your parents?”
Guo Changcheng nodded.
“Sorry, I know what went on in your family, you are grieving too,” Chu Shuzhi apologized without an
ounce of sincerity. “But I must get this problem clear, are your parents your biological parents? How can
you prove those are your biological parents?”
Chu Shuzhi was a person without a particularly high emotional intelligence, specifically shown in how he
didn’t actually know how to properly talk in a civilized manner. Sometimes, he considered himself very
high-and-mighty, and was too lazy to speak.
If this question was given to Zhao Yunlan instead, if one dared to give him attitude on the spot, it
wouldn’t even be strange for him to have given them a hard smack. But Guo Changcheng was only a
softie, after hearing this sentence, he only felt a bit unsettled in his heart, but didn’t have even the
slightest expression of losing his temper. He even thought about it in detail, replying in all seriousness:
“My uncle, my grandfather when he was young, and I looked especially similar. My paternal grandfather
had slightly high blood pressure, which he passed down to my dad. Right now, I have some slight early
signs of high blood pressure… I feel like they should be my birth parents.”
“Then have you had any ancestors that practiced monasticism?”
“Ancestors?” Guo Changcheng paused, stunned. “I don’t know what my ancestors did, I can only think
back to 3 generations ago, at the most go up to the time of the Second Sino-Japanese War. No one
knows the events that preceded that.”
Chu Shuzhi did not linger on this issue—even if Guo Changcheng’s ancestry really did have some kind of
special blood, the last three generations had all been mortal humans, so the extent that the blood had
thinned to was obvious, and was not the defining factor… Then the last possibility was that he was some
person’s reincarnation.
But that was just a normal mortal’s soul, even with the eyesight of the Corpse King, he still was not able
to see anything that was different or unusual.
Right at this moment, the lights of a bus swept over from the opposite side of the road. Guo Changcheng
grabbed right onto Chu Shuzhi’s arm: “Chu ge, bus! Bus!”
Chu Shuzhi hesitated, and let go of his suspicions for the moment: “Alright, off you go.”
Guo Changcheng, as though suddenly relieved from immense pressure, clumsily half-fell, half-rolled out
and ran off. Who knew why there would be such a coincidence, a bus that came from the province the
girl was from just passed by, and this bus was the same again. Guo Changcheng waved his hand to stop
it. He hopped on the bus and showed off his ID to the driver, and then used a voice identical to that of a
news reporter to regurgitate the lines that he memorized to request to check the passengers within the
bus.
Sometimes during the annual New Year’s there would also be the occasional random checks. The driver
was especially calm and turned his head around to yell at the fully packed bus full of passengers:
“Everyone wake up! Wake up! Could everyone cooperate for a moment, they’re checking IDs!”
Chu Shuzhi originally sat a long way away in the car, but at this moment for some unknown reason there
was a twinge in his heart. Many people who practice monasticism would have these kinds of feelings. He
got out of the car and walked over, just in time to see a small and thin young girl about 15 or 16 years of
age as she followed behind Guo Changcheng and exited the bus. She wore athletic sportswear clothes,
with her head almost lowered down to her chest.
Chu Shuzhi: “She’s the one?”
Guo Changcheng nodded, and even added a sentence: “The person who took her away is still on the bu-.”
His words hadn’t settled in the air when they heard a single “bang” sound. A person jumped off the bus
and ran off. Actually, there were hardly any evidence if you were to say he kidnapped and sold off young
girls. After all, the girl was sitting nicely on the bus, and followed the person out of her own free will. But
it was most likely that that person did something to be ashamed of. As soon as he heard those words he
panicked, not even stopping to carefully choose his path.
Who would’ve known that he didn’t even run two steps before he suddenly tripped over something
underfoot, and he randomly fell over spectacularly. That person picked himself up and attempted to
continue running, after two more steps he randomly fell over spectacularly again. He fell thrice and only
then did Chu Shuzhi, the unprofessional ‘civilian’ who was slowly wandering over, haul him up by the
collar, seizing him and clasping an ice cold object onto his wrists.
...Of course, because of the extraordinary nature of the job, the Corpse King never used handcuffs, and
because he wasn’t familiar with this handcuffing business, he almost didn’t clasp it on properly.
As Chu Shuzhi turned his head around, he just happened to see Guo Changcheng standing to the side as
he spoke softly to the girl, saying that she should not have ran away from home on her own accord. At
the same time, he had forgotten the girl’s mother had already turned into a ghost. He dialed back the
phone number from earlier: “Hello Auntie, don’t worry, your child has been found. Tomorrow I’ll find
someone to help send her back.”
He finished talking, naturally handing the phone to the young girl: “Because of you, your mother lost her
mind in desperation, calling me in the middle of the night to beg me to find you. Say something to her.”
The young girl was right in the middle of the rebellious stage. To her, even though she recognized him,
Guo Changcheng was only a little teacher playmate who came to assist with teaching in the summer
holidays during middle school. Her attitude wasn’t particularly good either way, with a very ‘couldn’t
care less’ and not submitting to discipline look. Guo Changcheng nagged on and on and said a long string
of things that likely went right out her other ear, until she heard that sentence and her entire being
froze.
The girl abruptly lifted her head and looked at Guo Changcheng, as though she wanted to yell an
accusation of “you’re a liar” towards him, but the sentence reached her mouth without a single word
leaving it, and as though guided by a ghost or spirit, she unconsciously took the phone with her two
trembling hands: “...Hello?”
The person on the other end of the line fell silent for a while, the familiar accent of the countryside once
again reaching the ears of a loved one through radio waves, across the two dichotomies of light and dark.
She really did hear her late mother’s familiar tone in the phone: “Cui-er.”
The daughter’s tears suddenly came down with a ‘whoosh’: “Mom!”
In the phone, her mother said: “Don’t cry, Cui-er, don’t cry. Listen to Teacher Guo’s words. Come back
tomorrow, ok. You went so far, Mom can’t keep up with you. I panic within my heart when I can’t see
you…”
The young girl who wore an old school uniform finally stood at the entrance of the main road that led
into Dragon City. Pained wailing that could not be described in words resounded within the entrancing
scenery of the nighttime.
Chu Shuzhi was not good at dealing with that kind of situation. He originally wanted to grab the person
and leave first, and subconsciously glanced towards Guo Changcheng once more, but he saw the shining
“fire light” within the heaviness of that merit once again.
The “fire light” seemed to be even brighter. There was a split second where Chu Shuzhi thought
something on Guo Changcheng’s body was lit aflame. He firmly rubbed his eyes and when he looked
again, it had already gone and disappeared.
Fire light….
In spite of Da Qing having mentioned before that that was the great merit from heaven when Nuwa
created man, Chu Shuzhi couldn’t help having some negative thoughts. He finally couldn’t hold back any
longer and pulled out his phone, dialing Zhao Yunlan’s phone number again-- Chu Shuzhi already called
it a few times when he was waiting in the car for Guo Changcheng. Those few times were all “in an out
of service area”, but only this time, that turned into “phone has been turned off”.
Did this mean Zhao Yunlan had already returned?
Chu Shuzhi couldn’t resist lighting a cigarette, and felt as though he had become softer. As soon as he
thought of this, he suddenly had a bit of an idea.
On this night, they guarded the entrance of the highway until 4:30AM, virtually pulling an all-nighter. In
Shen Wei’s memories, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan also wandered the whole night.
At the top of Mount Penglai, after Shen Wei finished asking, he didn’t wait for Zhao Yunlan to reply, but
immediately said: “I won’t allow you to think about it, you must answer me now.”
Zhao Yunlan paused, raising his head to look into Shen Wei’s eyes. After a long while, he reached out a
hand to grasp onto Shen Wei’s wrist: “How much longer can the Great Seal last for? Are the remaining
days enough for me, this tiny mortal, to live through half my life, nurse my aging parents, and send them
off?”
In that moment, Shen Wei almost didn’t understand what he meant. Shen Wei’s face was snow-white,
and his lips were also the same. The only tiniest bit of color all seemed to gather in the blood vessels of
his eyes. His mind was completely empty with nothing in it. There were only the two answers that he
himself had spoken, continuously looping back and forth in his mind.
As for one of the two sentences that Zhao Yunlan didn’t voice out straightaway, it completely surpassed
Shen Wei’s comprehension ability. He didn’t realize what Zhao Yunlan had said for a moment.
Who knew how much time had passed before Shen Wei clutched onto Zhao Yunlan’s shoulder and half
crouched down, as if just awakening from a dream: “What… you-you say it clearer, what do you mean?”
Zhao Yunlan touched his hair, reached out with a hand to stroke the top of it for a bit: “Your heart is so
heavy. Your schemes are also so heavy…. Ah, you’re really hard to raise. Let’s go, we’re going home.”
Shen Wei’s eyes widened and stared intensely at him for a second. Suddenly, he lunged forward, and
swept him up into his arms in one movement. Then, in a rush of spinning skies and rolling earth, Zhao
Yunlan felt a familiar touch underfoot. A crisp, sharp sound travelled to his ear; it seemed like one of
them landed incorrectly and accidentally knocked off the little tea cup that sat on the bedside table, and
leftover water at the bottom of the cup spilled all over the floor.
But no one paid any mind to it.
Shen Wei roughly pinned Zhao Yunlan on the bed, almost brutally ripping open his clothes.
“Hey, wait!” In one grab, Zhao Yunlan clasped onto Shen Wei’s hand, “I’m not drinking your blood.”
“To me, it’s like receiving a mosquito bite.”
“What are you saying, that’s certainly not it for me.” Zhao Yunlan reached out with a hand and gave him
a shove, then went to feel for the bedside lamp, but his two arms were rapidly caged down.
Shen Wei licked his Adam’s apple. Zhao Yunlan let out a low sigh in somewhat impatience: “Enough,
stop messing around.”
“Even if I dug out my entire heart, I still wouldn’t die straight away. At least I would live longer than the
Great Seal,” Shen Wei said lowly, his heated breaths brushing against Zhao Yunlan’s collarbones again
and again, “Actually, at that time I thought about it. If I ripped out my heart and gave it to you, would
the effect be a little better? I was just afraid it would really frighten you, so I only showed you the
process of extracting blood.”
Zhao Yunlan fell silent for a while, then dryly said: “Much gratitude to you, for still remembering that I’m
easily scared.”
Shen Wei nestled in closer and delicately kissed the corner of his mouth, the straight tip of his nose
rubbing this way and that on Zhao Yunlan’s face. His fingers were tangled with Zhao Yunlan’s, so that
their half-naked bodies were tightly pressed together: “All of that was nothing… Yunlan, there’s only
these few decades left. Let’s be like mortals and spend our lifetime together, ok?”
In the darkness before dawn, the gazes of the two met. Subsequently, it was like Shen Wei was
enchanted by it, and a kiss lightly landed on the other’s lips—landed and became an extremely gentle
lingering kiss.
But Zhao Yunlan was not the slightest bit cooperative. After he came back to his senses, he sharply
pulled away in the blink of an eye, a hand slipping inside Shen Wei’s clothes as he encircled his waist in
both hands: “Spending a lifetime is very good, but I need to reclaim my position as the man of the
household.”
As he finished speaking, he clamped down around Shen Wei’s waist and lifted him towards the side,
having planned to use the momentum to flip them over and push him down, then… nothing happened.
That person completely seemed as though he weighed thousands of kilograms. Zhao Yunlan
remembered that he had clearly lifted Shen Wei up before; he definitely had the weight of a normal
human, one where he was able to lift with two hands!
Didn’t you fucking say to be like a mortal? Was it really necessary to pick on a mortal like this!
The moral of this story informed us that despite being covered in sheep’s skin—even if the sheep’s skin
was capable of blushing—it still couldn’t change the fact that he was intrinsically a wolf.

Guardian Chapter 95: The cashier projected his voice: “Aiyou! Everybody quickly come look!
Incredible, cats can even buy things now!”

The sky had just brightened and the little ghosts at No. 4 Bright Avenue had just gotten off work. Da
Qing wobbled his fat body and ran anxiously over to Zhao Yunlan’s house. He first jumped onto the
windowsill in the corridor and then, with a fierce lunge like a cat capturing food, flew through the air
and accurately shot towards Zhao Yunlan’s front door, his paw pressing the doorbell.
Then he became a flat cat pancake and slid down from the doorbell.
The doorbell rang.
At times when Zhao Yunlan was cooped up at home, he would play his video games with his earphones
in. In order for him to not miss the doorbell when someone rang, his doorbell was piercingly loud. Like
awakening the dead, the sound of the bell could be heard even from outside the door. When it’s
pressed, an entirety of a national anthem could play.
However, it sang for awhile yet no one answered.
Da Qing wasn’t like Chu Shuzhi, nonstop calling Zhao Yunlan’s phone. He thought that Zhao Yunlan
wasn’t at home.
The black cat walked anxiously back and forth in front of the door. Subconsciously he started chasing his
own tail and very quickly became a whirl of black wind.
He didn’t give up and decided to try again. Just as he jumped in place and landed on the corridor
windowsill with two paws, his back leg struggling in the air towards the door, the door opened with a
quiet “click” sound from inside. The black cat was startled and his two paws loosened, messily landing
with his butt onto the ground.
He rolled on the ground and looked over with his wide round eyes. The paws that had just found a
foothold slipped on the slippery corridor and his thick chin shook three times.
Then, Da Qing retracted his claws with extreme reserve, sat up seriously, and quietly meowed: “Your
Honor” as he stuck out his chest and sucked in his stomach.
Shen Wei flicked a finger and Zhao Yunlan’s endlessly noisy doorbell immediately fell silent. Da Qing
instinctively stiffened his neck and made a difficult swallowing motion. At the same time, his vision
unconsciously landed on the clothes that Shen Wei was wearing—he could ascertain that that shirt
belonged to Zhao Yunlan! Zhao Yunlan, the freak, liked to roll up his sleeves. Every time, he would
ridiculously ask the dry cleaners to iron his shirts with the sleeves rolled up so that they were folded
neatly.
A series of images impulsively appeared in Da Qing’s head. For example, they took off their own clothes
and then…and then…
Da Qing lowered his round head and felt that he needed to adjust his mental state.
“What’s wrong?” Shen Wei asked.
“Oh…I just came to see if Chief Zhao came back or not. That day he suddenly jumped into Huang Quan,
we were all pretty worried.”
“He’s back but he’s resting right now. If you need anything you can leave a message. When he wakes up
I will pass it on to him.” Shen Wei said quietly.
Da Qing immediately saw the overall picture and made the right decision to back away quickly with his
short stubby legs: “Ah…ah then I won’t bother you anymore. It’s nothing important, just reminding our
leader to not forget to write new work arrangements for the new year’s in these next two days and
prepare a new year’s speech for our department. It’s nothing, it’s nothing. You’re busy, I’ll leave first.”
“Ah, wait a moment,” Shen Wei smiled in embarrassment and politely said: “There’s something that I
might have to trouble you for…”
Da Qing immediately sensibly scuttled back. Lifting his head, he said: “Please speak.”
Ten minutes later, the unreasonably fat cat pushed open the door to the breakfast shop downstairs with
his head. His cat face was so round that his eyes were almost squeezed out by his fat; it gave him a
virtually malicious look. However, dumb humans didn’t know that what was displayed was the black
cat’s actual mood.
The waitress almost accidentally tripped over him and immediately called out: “Ai! How did a cat get in
here? Get it out, get it out quickly!”
The big black cat raised his head and glanced at her with contempt. Then, he jumped onto the service
desk and knocked the table with his front paw. Under the cashier’s stupefied gaze, he spat out the paper
he had in his mouth.
The cashier opened the piece of paper with trembling hands only to see neatly written: “One jin of
soymilk (t/n 500 grams), one tray of buns, three sticks of youtiao. Please put them in a sturdier bag. The
money is around the cat’s neck, please take it yourself. If there’s change, please put it back in there.
Thank you.”
The cashier raised his head and tried to pinpoint where the cat’s neck was. The black cat rolled his eyes
and raised his head, revealing a collar under his double chin. Within the thick black fur, the cashier
found 30 yuan folded into it.
The cashier projected his voice: “Aiyou! Everybody quickly come look! Incredible, cats can even buy
things now!”
Da Qing, who was surrounded by a crowd of onlookers, was ashamed and resentful to death—you
bunch of stupid humans!
Zhao Yunlan was startled by the sound of the door opening and closing. He opened his eyes briefly:
“Who is it?”
“Your cat.” Shen Wei shut the door, “He came to see you. I entrusted him with buying breakfast. Sleep a
bit more.”
As he said this, he gently pressed Zhao Yunlan back into the blankets, stuffed his hand back underneath,
and then bent down to land a kiss on his forehead. A finger reached out to smooth away Zhao Yunlan’s
furrowed brows as a result of being abruptly awakened.
After he waited for Zhao Yunlan’s breathing to even out again, Shen Wei walked to the window and
looked down at the plant on the windowsill. It had withered from neglect. He reached out and cupped
the flower pot, a milky white light radiating from his palm. Like a good rain after a long drought, the
withered plant quickly became radiant again and straightened out its stalk. It wasn’t long before it was
standing upright.
Shen Wei quietly cleaned the spray bottle and then carefully sprinkled the water onto the leaves.
At this time, most people had started their workday and the roads were already teeming with cars. Shen
Wei glanced outside through the cracks in the curtains. At the busy end of the world, far away on the
horizon, a trace of black gas rose from underground and flew towards the sky.
However, Shen Wei only glanced at it fleetingly. Then, as if turning a blind eye, he lowered his gaze back
to the task at hand. There was a strange sense of peace and tranquility in his heart and laziness
enveloped his whole being. He almost felt as if it would be of no consequence even if he died in this
moment.
It was almost noon by the time Zhao Yunlan was aroused by the delicious smell of the hot cup of soymilk
Shen Wei had set at the bedside table near the head of the bed.
He stared at the milky white soymilk for a long time, and then suddenly turned over and sat up: “What
did you say this morning? What did you have Da Qing do?”
Shen Wei was wearing glasses and reading a handwritten lesson plan. He calmly said: “Buy breakfast.”
Zhao Yunlan sat for a moment, lost in thought and wearing an indescribable expression. Who knew if he
was making up a scene of “The Saga of the Fat Vagabond Cat” in his mind. He then shook his head hard,
propped his elbow on his knee, pressed his forehead, and laughed abruptly.
Shen Wei: “What’s wrong?”
“I was just thinking I was a Cassanova for half of my life but was at last pressed down by you. Comrade
Shen Wei, you are too skilled.”
Zhao Yunlan’s tone in actuality contained sarcasm. It was unclear who he was trying to ridicule. Either
way, Shen Wei pretended that he didn’t hear it and only smiled at him with a face full of virtue and
chastity.
“Aiyou baby, I beg you, let’s stop pretending. Even if you pretend, don’t pretend to be this way. I have a
hard time bearing it in my heart.” Looking at his virtuous and chaste expression gave Zhao Yunlan a
toothache. Pressing his waist like an old ox pulling a cart, he went to the bathroom to wash up,
slamming the door behind him.
Just as Zhao Yunlan decided to eat his gloom away, he received a phone call from Zhu Hong.
“Hello, Chief Zhao? Da Qing said you came back. You alright?”
“En,” Zhao Yunlan had half a youtiao in his mouth and asked, “What’s going on?”
“I need to talk to you about something. The train ticket Lin Jing bought was to return to Dragon City
yesterday night. I wanted to call him in the early morning to confirm but he didn’t have service. I had
originally thought that it was because there were many mountain caves on his route and he lost signal
after passing through them, but he still hasn’t returned even now. I gave him a call just now and it still
came up as ‘out of network’.”
Zhao Yunlan’s chewing slowed down: “Has Lin Jing reached out to the office?”
“No.”
“Hmm…” Zhao Yunlan furrowed his eyebrows.
The SID had a stipulation that no matter if it’s identifying the type of cases or actually starting to handle
them, there could be no less than two people on duty at a time. Of course, Da Qing could also be
counted.
If, on occasional special circumstances, a case required a person to act alone, they were still required to
call No. 4 Bright Avenue at least twice a day to inform others of their location, progress, and to report on
if there were dangers in their surroundings.
Lin Jing wasn’t reliable in following small matters but he seldom neglected the big ones. He wouldn’t
ignore this rule and go missing without a cause.
Zhao Yunlan hung up with Zhu Hong and tried to dial Lin Jing’s number. Sure enough, it came up as not
in a service area. He took out a Guardian Order from his pocket, dipped his chopsticks in soymilk, and
wrote Lin Jing’s name on it.
The Guardian Order was like a compass. First it shook to the left and right, then it gently turned a
direction. A fine red line rose from Lin Jing’s name, slowly stretching out. However, the more it stretched
the darker the color became. By the time it extended to underneath the table, the string was almost
gray.
Then it broke.

Guardian Chapter 96: Currently, it should still be ok. There are no traces of death or scent of blood. He
should still be alive.

Shen Wei, who was immersed in the lesson plan, lifted his head and met Zhao Yunlan’s gaze. He then
bent down and picked up the broken line. With a gentle touch of his fingers, it disintegrated into powder
and fell like burnt ashes.
Shen Wei withdrew his hand and sniffed his fingertips carefully. He said: “Currently, it should still be ok.
There are no traces of death or scent of blood. He should still be alive, just that we can’t contact him.
Don’t worry, rest assured for now.”
Zhao Yunlan didn’t make a sound. He stuffed the last bun into his mouth but had already lost his
appetite. He took out a stack of notepads from underneath the table. Surprisingly, this man who lived
his life incredibly sloppily was actually very precise in his time management. There were three bookmark
labels stuck to the top of his notepad. The one on the very top was labeled “urgent”, the next one was
“important”, and lastly was “completed”.
The last column was empty. Lately, he had been through a lot of hardships and there pretty much hadn’t
been anything that wasn’t important.
Through the incredibly messy handwriting, as if he were a surgeon writing on a shaky rocket ship, Shen
Wei read with difficulty that in the column labeled “urgent” there was only his name and the sentence
“think of a way to get rid of the broken bowl on Dad’s body.” In the “important” column was a long list
of items related to his work.
Zhao Yunlan lifted his pen and wrote a check mark after Shen Wei’s name. He then filled in a third item
under “urgent”: “Quickly find Lin Jing.”
Zhao Yunlan spoke as he wrote: “Lin Jing was actually born into a pure line of Dharma. To tell you the
truth, there is no one else under me who has such pure lineage. In addition, he doesn’t look very
attractive. Even his selfies can be used as talismen to wear off evil spirits. Also, this scum is very good at
pretending to be weak and would never purposefully stir up trouble. Not to mention I only asked him to
investigate a common lifeforce-stealing case that reoccurs the seventh day of every moon cycle. If we’re
talking about this, actually the person who I’m normally least worried about is him…”
He drummed the tables once with his fingers: “I have to bring someone to go check it out, are you
coming?”
Just earlier, Shen Wei was brooding and did not have the mindset to care about what the bunch of
people in the Guardian Order were busying themselves with. When he heard this, he directed his
extremely gentle, almost watery, gaze up from where he was staring in the notepad: the check mark
next to his name. The corners of his lips contained a smile—it seemed like he didn’t care that Zhao
Yunlan wrote his name as abstractly as if it were dogs writing with their paws, “Hm, stealing life force?”
Zhao Yunlan pulled out the message Wang Zheng had forwarded to him: “This one. The great saint is
asking us to take a look at it.”
Shen Wei, the old-fashioned man, had never used a smartphone before. He received the phone from
Zhao Yunlan and then wanted to look at the picture more clearly. However, the touch screen was
difficult to handle and he wasn’t able to enlarge the photo even after fiddling with it for a long time.
He then turned to Zhao Yunlan, who was currently gulping down the soymilk, and said: “Lower your
head for a moment, don’t look.”
In the next moment, Shen Wei hovered his hand over the top of the smartphone screen. As if he was
grabbing something from the air, the picture of the dead victim floated into the air like a 3D projection.
The visual effect was extremely shocking. Like this, it was almost as if the dead body, with a face bloated
like an eggplant, was lying flat on the dining table.
Out of curiosity, Zhao Yunlan lowered and then quickly raised his head. Expectedly, he reaped what he
sowed, the mouthful of soymilk caught in his throat and he almost spewed it all over the “corpse’s” face.
…This was really a paragon of old-fashioned superstitions defeating modern technology
Shen Wei carefully examined the corpse’s complexion, and then used his fingers to “pinch” the corpse’s
eyes. It was like he turned the air into a 3D touch screen, even including the ability to magnify and shrink!
“This man may not have died from taking someone else’s life force,” Shen Wei said as he pointed to the
eye of the corpse that was enlarged to the size of a palm, “Take a look at his eyes.”
“I just finished eating dinner…” Zhao Yunlan covered his stomach in agony. He followed Shen Wei’s
finger to look over at the extremely enlarged eye, only to find that the pupil had already been dilated.
However, if he looked carefully, he could almost make out a human shape reflected in the middle.
Zhao Yunlan was stupefied and held down Shen Wei’s hand: “Can you enlarge it a bit more?”
Shen Wei shook his head: “It’s only a picture. If I enlarge it any more it won’t be clear anymore.”
“Nn nn, it doesn’t matter.” Zhao Yunlan pulled out a piece of napkin from underneath the table, wiped
his mouth quickly, and then ripped out a piece of paper from the back of the notepad and sketched out
the general shape of the shadow, “It’s already much better than our shoddy part-time technician.”
Shen Wei casually asked: “Who is the part-time technician?”
Zhao Yunlan: “Zhu Hong.”
The foot of the table made a tooth-grinding “crunch” sound as it grated against the floor.
Zhao Yunlan only felt a chilly gaze land on his bare nape. He pretended he didn’t know anything and
sprawled on the table, carefully using a ballpoint pen to draw out the thing inside the corpse’s eye. With
his back turned to Shen Wei, he secretly smiled in delight.
“In the past, there was a rumor in Jianghu that the eyes of the dead must be wrecked, otherwise they
will leave the shadow of the last person he saw, which could be checked by the police.” Zhao Yunlan said
as he drew, “But even Xi Yang Yang (t/n a cartoon sheep character) knows that that’s impossible,
otherwise the entire criminal police department would have nothing to do all day long; all they’d have
to do is study ophthalmology. But there’s no smoke without fire…there’s always gotta be a bit of
shadow in the origins of folklore, right? What’s the shadow in the eyes of this corpse?”
Shen Wei was utterly silent.
Zhao Yunlan looked at him with his eyes curved into a smile: “Hm?”
Shen Wei’s gloomy expression made it clear that he was very dissatisfied with the topic of Zhu Hong.
Shen Wei was silent for a few seconds, and then with a little bit of chilliness, said: “It’s capturing the soul.
The eyes of the dead whose souls were taken by the reapers would be clean, but if their time was cut
short by other creatures of the underworld, or if the soul was taken by other things, the dead’s eyes
would leave a ghostly reflection.”
”Hm…then what do you think this is?” Zhao Yunlan asked.
Shen Wei lowered his eyes. With a repressed voice, he quietly said: “How do I know?”
“Ah, what is it? Are you unhappy? Jealous?” Zhao Yunlan said wantonly, “I like it when other people are
jealous. Quick, why don’t you be jealous again for This Lord?”
Shen Wei: “…”
“Before, you used to keep it in all day, like an otherworldly male god (t/n male god means someone who
is really handsome). I’m tired of seeing you pretending. Even looking at you makes me feel exhausted for
you.” Zhao Yunlan casually stuck the note paper behind a lesson plan draft that Shen Wei had used and
said, “Come, this male god, there is a scanner beside the computer. Help me scan it into a picture and
send it to the office so that they can find out as much as they can before I go over there.”
Shen Wei took it and walked in a stupor to stand in front of the computer. After he turned it on, he
started a staring contest with the assembly of electronics in front of him—the male god actually only
knew how to turn machines on and off and how to play PowerPoints that others had already made for
him. Everything else his teaching assistant basically did for him; he couldn’t even distinguish between a
printer and a scanner.
At this time, Zhao Yunlan suddenly came behind him, reached both arms around from behind, and took
Shen Wei’s hand to guide the piece of paper into the scanner. Step by step, he operated it. Finally,
within the noise of the machine, he purposefully blew a gust of air next to Shen Wei’s ear: “Hm, you
don’t know how to do it? If you don’t know how to do it why don’t you ask your husband to teach you?”
Shen Wei: “…”
With a bad smile, Zhao Yunlan quickly touched Shen Wei’s butt. Before Shen Wei, with his face and ears
flushed red from shame, could reprimand him, he had already dodged far away to pick up a calendar
from the table. He knocked on the email account and password written on it: “You at least know how to
do this, right? Go into the contacts and find the one that says ‘colleagues’. Then, send the scanned
picture to them.”
With that, the smile on his face seemed to fade away at an incomparably rapid pace as he dialed No. 4
Bright Avenue’s number: “Wang Zheng? You’re still awake? You’ve worked hard. Close the curtains a bit
tighter—yes, I know something happened to Lin Jing. I sent a picture to you, let everyone in the office
pass it around to take a look at it. If you can figure out what it is, that’d be best. Let Old Li assist in
preparing two cars. In half an hour we’ll set out to the scene of the crime.”
At this moment, the hanging lamp in the room shook slightly. Dragon City experienced a vague tremor.
After this small, imperceptible earthquake passed, the sound of a notification for a new email could be
heard from both within and outside of the phone at the same time.
From within the phone, Wang Zheng said: “Wait, Chief Zhao. There’s an email from Lin Jing.”
From outside the phone, Shen Wei turned around: “The person you are looking for seemed to have sent
an email.”
Zhao Yunlan squinted and said to Wang Zheng: “Don’t hang up just yet.”
What Lin Jing had sent over was a video of himself that he had taken using his cellphone.
This selfie emperor, who was always preening and taking selfies, had superb camera skills. Usually, no
hand shaking could be detected and the pictures were always very stable. However, the current video
was continually shaking and Lin Jing’s breaths were coming out in pants. The screen shook up and down
forcefully; he was either walking quickly or running.
He was a little out of breath, but the sound of his gasping was pressed very low. Lin Jing’s hand shook
badly. The screen was directly aimed at his face yet when he opened and closed his mouth, no sound
came out. With furrowed eyebrows, Zhao Yunlan read his lips with difficulty: “I…lost my
voice…are…ear…I’m starting to lose hearing in my ear…budget…no…it’s my fingers are stiffening and I
have a foreboding feeling.”
(art by me, ineffablebfs)
Immediately following, Lin Jing’s hand shook and the camera moved away from his face to aim directly
at an extremely high-end resort—it was the rehabilitation resort where the life force stealing case
occurred.
On the surface, all the houses looked beautiful. However, Zhao Yunlan felt a sense of discordance at first
glance.
At this time, the sound of Lin Jing’s fingers tapping on the back cover of the mobile phone emitted from
the video. The sound was very loud and slightly grating to the ear. It were these sounds that highlighted
the deadly silence of the entire resort.
Lin Jing raised a finger and wrote out “empty, there’s nobody here” in front of the cell phone camera.
Zhao Yunlan noticed that the second joint on his finger was stiff, almost like a rock, and could not bend
at all. A strange gray color emitted from it.
Then, Lin Jing’s fingers paused. He aimed the camera at his face, pointed to his ears, and, with a solemn
expression, shook his head. Subconsciously, he took out a string of Buddha beads and closed his eyes.
His lips opened and closely slightly. Although he didn’t make any sound, it seemed as though he was
forcefully remaining calm by reciting sutras.
A moment later when he opened his eyes again, he seemed to be momentarily stunned before suddenly
squinting strenuously. Following, the camera shook violently for a while and the video cut off.
“At the end it may be that he realized he couldn’t see clearly anymore and so quickly sent the video.”
Zhao Yunlan determined: “Maybe it was because of his vision that he clicked the wrong thing and sent a
timed email, that’s why we only saw it now, or…”
“Or because, due to whatever reason, the email couldn’t be sent.” Shen Wei continued.
Zhao Yunlan turned his head and their gaze connected. A moment later, they both quietly said at the
same time: “The earthquake just now.”
Right as their voice fell, the faint tremors came again just like an ordinary aftershock. The sound of
footsteps and voices came from the corridor. Zhao Yunlan lived higher up. Perhaps because the shaking
was stronger on higher floors, people began to run out in a panic.
Zhao Yunlan was not someone who’d never experienced an earthquake before. He stood where he was,
unmoving: “Don’t you feel that this ‘earthquake’ is a bit strange? When the Earth’s crust is moving, it
seems to be more of a swaying motion…this seems to be shaking.”
Shen Wei lowered his eyes and carefully felt it for a moment: “It feels as though it’s the movement of
the underworld.”
“The underworld?”
Shen Wei’s expression was slightly grave. Zhao Yunlan thought for a bit, squatted down, and stuffed the
gun full of special bullets. He inserted a dagger engraved with incantations underneath his pants legs.
Then, he took all the money out from his wallet, crammed them into his pocket carelessly, and, in the
empty wallet, stuffed a thick pile of talismans.
Lastly, he took out a piece of wood from his drawer. That was the real “Guardian Order”, the real bark
that was cut from the trunk of the Da Shenmu. When the words “Guardian Order” touched Zhao
Yunlan’s fingers, they burst into a series of dazzling sparks.
“Let’s go.” He stuffed the Guardian Order into his pocket and said decisively.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at No. 4 Bright Ave. After a while, two off-road vehicles drove out
from the yard at the same time, directly towards the location where Lin Jing had the accident.
The distance between Dragon City and the scene of the crime was less than 300 kilometers. With the
highway, it took about four hours. The location had no local industry, but there were mountains and hot
springs; it was a typical little tourist town for recuperation. The natural villages in the surrounding area
had moved away for the sake of the beautiful environment. Only purchasers and service personnel
come and go from here every day.
The town was too quiet, virtually like a ghost town. There was a big caravan used for towing goods
parked improperly on the side of the road at the entrance, within which was a full load of fresh
vegetables. Not a single thing was missing, but the driver’s door was open and there was no one inside.
“There must be a lot of service people coming here from the surrounding small towns and villages every
day.” Zhao Yunlan said, “Xiao Guo, get off and go drive the other car to the town to find the local police
station. Ask them if they had received any family reports about missing people in these recent days.”
Guo Changcheng paused in a daze. He keenly felt the strangeness of this town. Even just standing here,
he legs were nonstop shaking. Zhao Yunlan had clearly asked him to leave, obviously wanting to protect
him. At first this let Guo Changcheng let out a breath of relief, but then for some unknown reason he felt
his heart go higher up in his throat.
“Let Zhu Hong go with you.” Zhao Yunlan said.
Zhu Hong wasn’t like Xiao Guo, who could be beaten at will. She immediately protested: “I won’t go! I’m
not going anywhere!”
Zhao Yunlan pulled out a cigarette and held it in his mouth. He didn’t spare her a glance: “What, you
didn’t officially resign yet and my words are already useless?”
Zhu Hong: “I…”
Zhao Yunlan was a man of his word. Allowing no explanation, he sat back onto the car and closed the
door: “Lao Chu, come sit over here.”
Zhu Hong stood rigidly in place, glaring angrily at Zhao Yunlan.
Before getting onto the car, Chu Shuzhi gently pushed her shoulder: “Hurry up and go, Chief Zhao’s
orders makes sense. Even if you’re here you wouldn’t be able to help much. Xiao Guo over there might
not be able to communicate properly, go help him a little.”
Zhu Hong didn’t even have time to reply before Zhao Yunlan, this bastard, had already stepped down on
the accelerator and driven away.
Guardian Chapter 97: The little hot spring resort town in front of them, in Zhao Yunlan’s eyes, was
actually more like an ambush trap
“Bastard!” Zhu Hong bent over to pick up a rock from the ground. The female snake demon was
certainly no soft lady; her arm strength was a spectacle. Additionally, she definitely had a way with
smashing things: very steady, accurate, and ruthless. With a “clank”, it crashed onto the rear boot of
their business car, and a piece of outer coating very clearly and obviously fell from it.
Zhao Yunlan didn’t even care, let alone stop the car.
Just at this moment, the phone in Zhu Hong’s pocket sounded and she took it out to have a look. It was
a text from Chu Shuzhi that said: “Chief Zhao told me to let you know that the money for damaging
official property will be taken out of your monthly reward. You can damage a few more spots too. When
he’s taken away all of your reward money then it’ll be taken out of your salary. Hold back a little, don’t
make it so that you don’t have a single cent to take away when you resign.”
Zhu Hong squeezed the edge of her phone flat, and then gave a loud roar: “Zhao Yunlan, you dickhead!”
Guo Changcheng’s face was like the color of dirt as he watched this act of unacceptable rebellion. That a
coworker would dare to clash with a superior above them, his fragile, vulnerable, little heart suffered
from considerable fright.
Zhu Hong turned her head, glaring at him with reddened eyes: “What are you looking at! Hurry up and
get going!”
Guo Changcheng scuttled after her.
Zhu Hong raged again: “Are you a man at all? If you’re a man, go drive! Have you ever seen a man who
makes a woman drive?!”
Guo Changcheng blinked at her, and recognized that she was completely venting her anger out on him—
Driving a beat-up car wasn’t like going to a public bathroom with male and female divisions. Besides, in
his heart Zhu Hong wasn’t a human. Guo Changcheng wasn’t particularly fearful, so he honestly said:
“Zhu jie, actually you also aren’t a wom—”
Zhu Hong’s expression was heavy with disdain, as though she was a King Cobra about to give a deadly
strike, almost spitting out a forked tongue. Guo Changcheng instinctively felt the danger, and dove into
the car without daring to even let out a fart.
However, she herself didn’t get on the car. She slammed the door of the passenger side and waved a
hand towards Guo Changcheng: “Fuck off by yourself, I’m going to find Zhao Yunlan.”
Guo Changcheng, from the beginning to the end, didn’t even have time to formulate an opinion that he
could express before Zhu Hong had already speedily left.
Da Qing and Chu Shuzhi who sat in Zhao Yunlan’s car were also suffering considerably—A great God who
looks vastly different from his past appearance sat in the front passenger’s seat. After knowing he was
the Ghost Slayer, whether if it was the King of Corpses or the old cat, they all found it hard to once again
find the innocent heart from the past where they acted shamelessly to any random person.
Their atmosphere was apprehensive, and like that they drove the whole way in silence without a sound
until they reached the front entrance of the little healing resort town.
The imposing couple of big words “Spring Bay Holiday Resort” sculpted into marble stood within a bunch
of flowers that have a strong sense of design, and it was unknown whether it was due to the material or
the weather, but the words carved into the stone had a kind of unspoken dimness.
At the door, there were two security booths and two entrances. The roads for cars on both sides were
blocked off, not allowing passage. On the side, there was an automatic door card machine for the
business owner, but it wasn’t lit up, and it seemed like the electricity was already cut off.
Zhao Yunlan parked the car at the entrance, then took out his phone to have a look. Only the last bit of
the signal remained, so little that it might as well not be there. He waved it around slightly, and that bit
was completely gone too.
The window of the security booth was somehow open, with a tiny little delivery package on the
windowsill. A notebook was placed next to it, with an uncapped pen on top.
No matter if it was the windowsill, or these objects, they all had a strange layer of dust on them.
Zhao Yunlan put on his gloves and took down the notebook for a closer look. He realized that it was a
record for deliveries with substitute recipients: the guard at the door received the delivery package in
someone’s stead, signed in, and then handed it to the business owner, and the owner also had to sign at
the back.
In the last entry, the date recorded just happened to be that of the previous day, and “10A owner Mr. Li,
bag—” was written on the back.
The word “bag” was only half-written, the hook at the end of the character wasn’t even hooked in time,
before it was suddenly stopped in its tracks.
Zhao Yunlan closed his eyes and could almost even imagine that scene: the delivery man who brought
the delivery passed the packaged in through the window, then took the sign in sheet, wrote the
information about the package stroke by stroke, the “bag” character only half-written before being
interrupted due to some reason.
Interrupted by what?
Right now, the item was still at the original location. Where did the person go?
At this time, Shen Wei, who got off the car at some unknown time, also walked over. He reached out
with a hand to wipe a handful of that fine, somewhat strangely colored, dust from the windowsill.
Shen Wei rubbed his fingers together, carefully observing for a moment, then casually said to Zhao
Yunlan in a light tone: “It hasn’t been a long time since it’s settled.”
Zhao Yunlan was virtually about to kneel for this professional who was an expert at looking at traces
with the naked eye: “Dust settling? You can even figure that out? How did you do it?”
Shen Wei patted his hands clean: “I can’t tell with other kinds of dust, but these are ashes (*’bone dust’
in Chinese) that haven’t settled for very long and still very fresh. I personally believe it wouldn’t have
been longer than 2 or 3 days.”
Zhao Yunlan: “…”
Shen Wei’s tone was as though he was saying “the milk was just squeezed out, still very fresh”.
Zhao Yunlan dazedly lifted up the notebook and fished out an evidence bag to tightly pack it in. He was
unbelievably thankful that he sent Guo Changcheng away, otherwise the result of that person peeing
himself in fright would be to be indiscriminately attacked by the electric stick for vengeful ghosts.
“But what did you say? These are ashes from bone? Why do I feel they don’t look like that.” Zhao Yunlan
subconsciously thought of the ashes packed into the little boxes after cremation, and was skeptical for a
moment.
Shen Wei patiently explained: “It’s not the kind of ash that have been burnt. You know ‘grinding bones
down after death’ right? At the time that person could have been standing right here, and then their
body of flesh would have been disintegrated apart in a moment, bone shredded into fine powder, then
landing on the windowsill.”
Chu Shuzhi, who had also followed over at an unknown time, asked incredulously: “What about that
person’s blood and flesh?”
“Melted.” Shen Wei pushed up his glasses, “Blood and flesh don’t have the same resilient ability that
bones do. It’s very difficult for those to leave any traces.”
Chu Shuzhi carefully formulated a sentence: “Hearing that, it seems that Your Honor knows how the
people here disappeared, right?”
Shen Wei politely nodded, modest and well-mannered, saying: “I don’t know that much, but I do indeed
happen to know a bit about this.”
And then, in sight of two people and a cat, he used a kind of tone as though he was giving a run-down
on common knowledge of ancient texts, and said at a nice even pace: “During the times of great chaos,
after Gonggong knocked down Buzhou Mountain, the skies shattered and the earth cracked. When the
underground Ghost tribe came to the world for the first time, the people, creatures, and beasts within a
10 li (t/n 1 li=500 meters) radius were just like this, melted into powder in the blink of an eye. Within a
100 li radius, not a single blade of grass grew.”
He raised a hand to point below the door plaque of the resort, at the flower bed that still flourished
despite being in the middle of winter: “So the flowers over there should all be fake.”
“But there isn’t 10 li of this small resort town,” Zhao Yunlan pointed out, “The main door over there
have two big pine trees, and are definitely not outside of 100 li….”
“Because of that.”
They gazed in the direction that Shen Wei’s finger pointed, only to see the little flower garden at the
entrance of the small town. A venue surrounded the flower garden on all sides. The venue was not one
level, but split into many small buildings of various heights that delicately circled around the little flower
garden, like a wall, providing a sense of privacy for the business owner inside.
“The pond in the middle is in the shape of a flower petal. The water flows in all four directions, perfectly
connecting up the couple of little buildings.” Chu Shuzhi was usually exceptionally arrogant, but at this
moment his level of arrogance was lowered to an extreme and he humbly asked, “May I ask, Your
Honor…That is the five plum blossom petals strategy (a formation used in Chinese chess to completely
trap one’s opponent), right?”
“Yes, Mr. Chu is vastly knowledgeable—the plum blossom strategy is used in protecting the home and
exorcising evil to bring about peace,” Shen Wei said, “Therefore, the dark energy had been cut off inside
here and cannot leave for a while. At most, it could only affect this short stretch of road at the entrance.
However, if it could be controlled by this roughly curated and clumsily made plum blossom strategy, I
think the Houtu Great Seal should probably be alright. It just happened to have a gap here. Once it’s
patched up, it should be fine.”
Chu Shuzhi and Da Qing didn’t know what the Houtu Great Seal was exactly. After they heard Shen Wei
talk, they felt as though it was as if a button fell off and all that needed to do was sew it back on.
Zhao Yunlan couldn’t help but glance at him. At a glance, Shen Wei this person seemed as though he
kept everything within a limited boundary, not stepping out of line at all, but in reality, there wasn’t a
single place where he didn’t step out of line.
At this time, Zhao Yunlan already approximately clearly understood—Shen Wei already got what he
wanted. It’s probable that his mood was very relaxed. He might not even care about the Houtu Great
Seal to begin with. Zhao Yunlan suspected that he didn’t even care about his own life or death.
“No wonder the underworld worked up such a big racket. They’ve already upturned the entire place by
now right?” Shen Wei subconsciously smiled for a moment, but then in the next second, he seemed to
feel that he over-expressed the delightful emotions in his own heart. He felt that it was a bit impolite
and so immediately retracted his smile and lightly coughed, “It’s not a bother. Everyone stay close to
me.”
Chu Shuzhi and Da Qing immediately abandoned their leader, and decided to tightly hug the leg of this
influential “Leader’s Wife” like their life depended on it.
Zhao Yunlan didn’t actually say anything, only silently followed. He had a sort of ominous premonition in
his heart. To borrow a life…when he passed the problem to Lin Jing, he was dizzy and out of it at the
time and didn’t have time to consider it in detail. Now that he thought of it, didn’t this perfectly match
up to the Sundial of Reincarnation case from before?
But the problem was, the Sundial of Reincarnation… It was in Gui Mian’s hands.
The power of the Great Seal was minute; it could control the majority of the Ghost Tribe, but already it
could not contain a Ghost King of hundreds and thousands of years. Three of the four Holy Tools have
already appeared. Other than the Sundial of Reincarnation, all the others were actually in the possession
of their own people. However, the four pillars were like four feet—the four feet didn’t necessarily have
to all be together. As long as two feet are removed, that was sufficient to overturn the entire Great Seal.
Who knew what that Dragon God’s mysterious, elusive Guardian Lamp really was?
They walked in from the pedestrian access road next to the main door. A gust of indescribably
uncomfortable heavy, thick air of death blew right at them. Despite following Shen Wei, Da Qing still
couldn’t help how his fur bristled. The Guardian Whip secretly crawled down Zhao Yunlan’s arm, with a
little tip of it sticking out at his wrist, and his other hand touched the little dagger that was hidden in his
sleeve.
The little hot spring resort town in front of them, in Zhao Yunlan’s eyes, was actually more like an
ambush trap. Lin Jing’s video did not, in fact, film him going inside. Based on Lin Jing’s carefulness and
cautiousness, under such unpleasant conditions, he would never have gone in by himself without
contacting the headquarters.
There was something that misled him or…forced him, which already made him lose his five senses and
his sixth sense before he even had time to step into this area of the town.
Even if Lin Jing was the right-hand-man of Dharma (Bodhidharma, a notable historical Buddhist monk),
he still wouldn’t be able to fend off that air of suffering that came from thousands of feet below the
underworld when the Great Seal cracked open. Would it not have been easier to directly kill him?
Keeping him alive… was it to attract someone here?
The Guardian Order or Shen Wei?
The little man-made pathway was very ambient and empty; every house was all strangely-shaped and
empty, without even a single shadow of a ghost. It was unknown when the black cloak on Shen Wei’s
body materialized. He probably also felt something, his hand clasping the Soul Severing Blade.
The footsteps of the three people and one cat on the ground were particularly obvious. Echoes rang out
a long distance—there was a kind of darkness and fear that could not be expressed.
Originally, there was a slightly sinking evening sun in mid-air, but from some unknown moment onwards,
that evening sun already turned from a warm orange-red color to an unexplainable deathly blood red
color…just like what was pasted onto the faces of the paper people (t/n paper cut-out of human figures
that are made to be burnt as part of a ritual during funerals) in mourning shops (t/n ‘longevity clothes
shop’—shop that sells items that are used to mourn the dead). That kind of red cheek created from a
heaped ball of cinnabar was creepy as hell.
It dragged out the shadows of people on the ground, and left behind shockingly long black shadows. Just
at that moment, Zhao Yunlan suddenly reached out with a foot to kick aside the black cat that followed
by his feet. At the same time, he took a huge step forward. He didn’t have time to turn his body around
before he’d already brought the dagger in his hand up against his back behind his heart. A sound of
teeth-aching collision rang out. The youchu lost a couple of big front teeth and the iron blade cracked
from the impact.
Immediately, Zhao Yunlan used one foot as a pivoting point, and was just thinking about turning around
in a circle to give this youchu another additional slash when an extremely horrified expression suddenly
appeared on the youchu’s face. Its entire hideous body was just like an ugly balloon with its air let out,
and it was sucked into the center of Shen Wei’s palm.
Countless sounds of bells from afar simultaneously started ringing and a layer of black fog two feet high
rose up from the spotlessly clean pavement of the little town. The black cat let out a high-pitched
scream and dashed up Zhao Yunlan’s shoulder: hands covered in pus-filled warts were reaching out from
the ground!
The youchu who climbed onto the roof at some unknown time was like those zombies that suddenly
appear behind someone in movies. It jumped down from the ceiling in a whoosh. A giant claw grabbed
hold of Chu Shuzhi’s head in one go and it opened its mouth to bite down. Chu Shuzhi’s thin hand
became as stiff as a rock in the blink of an eye, and then viciously shoved it into the youchu’s throat. The
youchu retreated backwards two to three steps, fell on the ground, and didn’t even have time to take its
last breath when countless even more strangely shaped and ghastly formed Ghost tribe members
pounced over and ate the youchu’s bones and flesh altogether in no time at all.
Infinite Ghost tribe creatures crawled out from the ground, hundreds of hideous appearances on show.
The corner of Shen Wei’s eye jumped for a moment. He initially came from the Ghost tribe himself, and
had an unshakable hate down to his core for these kinds of fellow tribe members. Particularly…they
even dared to appear in front of Zhao Yunlan.
With a ‘clatter’ sound he pulled out the Soul Severing Blade. Zhao Yunlan caught sight of it from the
corner of his eye: “Shen Wei, slow down, isn’t this—”
But it was already too late. The Soul Severing Blade reached out for meters long, sweeping over
countless Ghost tribe who turned into flying dust and disappeared like smoke under the knife in the
blink of an eye, destroyed like crumbles. Shen Wei’s gaze was cold like ice, subsequently flicking his wrist
downwards. The blade of his knife carried tremendous strength and crushed down, fierce and
unstoppable. That one slash of his knife forced aside the black fog that was multiple chi underground.
With a whoosh, it was all scattered away and dispersed cleanly. Then, the blade of the knife fell onto the
ground and left a long and narrow tear approximately 10 meters deep into the earth. An inhuman
scream rang out to the ends of the earth, and the man stared down the crack in the ground with a
hostile gaze: “Get out here.”
His movements were awfully fast with shocking destructiveness. Up until now, Zhao Yunlan who was
initially only 5 steps distance away from him finally grabbed hold of his arm, finishing his own sentence
from earlier: “This isn’t a break in the Great Seal. I suspect it is only an altered Shadow Blitz (t/n from ch
54/55). Don’t act rashly!”
Shrill sharp laughter suddenly sounded out, circling over from all directions: “Yes, it’s a shame that the
Guardian Order Chief’s brain and mouth are not as fast as the Lord Soul Slayer’s blade.”
The entire surface of the ground that was split open by Shen Wei was torn apart into two sides. Shen
Wei dragged Zhao Yunlan into his arms, while Chu Shuzhi and the black cat Da Qing landed on the other
side. The crack grew larger and larger, as though the great land itself was turned over. In the blink of an
eye, the people on the two different sides could no longer see each other.
Shen Wei suddenly let out a groan under his breath, tightly grabbing onto Zhao Yunlan’s hand as though
he was being forcefully pulled away by something. Like a sticky spiderweb, a swirl of black energy
entangled his arm.
Guardian Chapter 98: “Cut off my arm before it’s too late!”

Guo Changcheng’s cellphone contained the last text message that Chu Shuzhi had sent to him, telling
him not to come to the small resort town no matter what. Even more, he must stop others from going.
By the time Guo Changcheng thought of turning to ask him how to achieve this simply described goal of
“stopping others from going”, and also to report that Zhu Hong had ran away while he was at it, he
found that the other was no longer within service area.
Guo Changcheng suddenly had a feeling that all the people in the world had disappeared, leaving him
alone and helpless. He didn’t know how long he parked the car on the side of the road for before he
summoned up his courage and followed the GPS to the nearby county, heading straight to the local
police bureau.
From far away, he could already see a large crowd of people in front of the police station entrance,
blocking the road so much so that not even water could pass through. Guo Changcheng honked his horn,
but nobody paid any attention to him. Just as he was about to open the car door, he saw an old, white-
hared woman exiting the entrance, supported by people. It seemed as though her lower limbs had lost
dexterity; two people braced her up on her left and her right, and there was also a girl in a public
security uniform behind her who often reached out a hand to help. Despite this, she still was tripped by
some unknown object and stumbled to fall onto the hood of Guo Changcheng’s car.
Guo Changcheng scrambled out of the car. The old woman’s relatives and friends, the passerbys, and
the police that followed her out all pulled her back up in a flurry.
The old woman suddenly burst into loud sobs as if there was nobody else nearby.
All the people around joined in on the commotion. Guo Changcheng heard someone whisper angrily: “I
don’t know what the police are doing nowadays. They don’t care about this thing or that thing, they
can’t solve anything. Why is our country feeding them?”
Another person also whispered back: “Right, look at how pitiful this old woman is. She only had this one
son. They depended on each other for survival as an orphan and a widow. If something happened, I
think she probably won’t live either.”
The old woman’s sore spot was poked and she started crying even more hysterically.
The young policewoman who was following behind her the whole time looked to be about the same age
as Guo Changcheng— a child who had just graduated not too long ago. When she saw that everyone
was looking at her, she felt momentarily awkward and didn’t know what to do. With a red face, she
mumbled: “We have regulations here, we have to wait 48 hours before we can…”
Her voice quickly became overshadowed by more voices.
“What 48 hours? Rules are dead but people are alive! Right now, the person is alive but what if he isn’t
in a few days? If something really happened, by that time even the daylily dish would have turned cold
(t/n idiom meaning it would be too late)! The skeleton is already frozen and you guys still don’t care? Ai,
miss, tell me yourself what the difference is between you guys and murderers who kill for gain?”
The young policewoman heard this and thought that what they said was sensible. However, the police
force was limited and rules were rules. No matter how reasonable she thought the people were, she
couldn’t not ignore the regulations. Anxiously, the rim of her eyes turned red and tears rolled around in
them, almost spilling out.
Another family member who came to report a case was a middle-aged man. He waved his hand:
“Enough, even if she wanted to, she wouldn’t be able to do it. Everybody stop pressuring her. Miss, let
me tell you, my younger sister also should have gotten off from work yesterday but she never came
home. She is about the same age as you; put yourself in her shoes. Think about it yourself, this young
lady is usually very obedient, and then suddenly, for no reason, doesn’t return home at night. We can’t
even get in contact with her. Don’t you think of course we as family would be worried? If this happened
to you, what would your parents and family think? I know that you also have difficulties. How about you
help us go talk to your chief, ok? Help us communicate a bit…”
When Guo Changcheng saw this scene, he immediately felt a headache coming on. On one hand, he
gathered the courage for speaking in front of a big crowd, on the other he listened attentively to the
people talking beside him. There were all sorts of things these people were saying, and their
descriptions were a mess. Some others only knew how to indiscriminately blather on about “my xx
didn’t come home yesterday”—for those not in the know they would have thought that these people
were purposefully gathered here to make trouble.
At this time, the old woman who was sprawled on top of Guo Changcheng’s hood and crying suddenly
rolled her eyes back and fainted on the spot. In the space of a moment, Guo Changcheng found his
courage and pushed away the people in front of him: “Let me through, sorry, everyone let me through.”
He pulled out his work permit and his keys from his pocket. Under tension, he directly threw it towards
the friend who was supporting the old woman: “Drive my car. First, send her to the hospital!”
The friend held the small book: “Ah?”
Guo Changcheng looked over: “Aiyou, sorry I grabbed the wrong one. It’s this one.”
He hurriedly replaced the keys and work permit and handed it to the policewoman on the side:
“Comrade, can you bring me to see your chief? I have some urgent matters.”
The policewoman gave him a confused look, and then her eyes widened: “You…are you the chief from
Dragon City?”
“No, no, I’m not the chief—we sent someone to investigate a homicide two days ago. The relevant
procedures have already been completed and reported to you. But yesterday that colleague
disappeared. Right now, our chief is already on the scene of the crime. He sent me over to give you guys
a heads-up first.” After Guo Changcheng said this, he raised his hand to wipe away a forehead of sweat
in the dead of winter. Better than expected, he said, “Is everyone here to report a crime? Are they all
disappearance cases?”
Many people nodded.
Guo Changcheng: “Oh…oh…then how did the people disappear?”
This sentence was like poking the hornet’s nest. All of a sudden, everyone began clamoring at once,
almost sounding like 5000 ducks all yelling together. Guo Changcheng almost developed hypoglycemia
because of the noise. He steadied his nerves and felt his pants pocket, lest his social phobia would make
the small electric rod in his pocket emit 100,000 volts and hurt the innocent people by mistake.
However, to Guo Changcheng’s surprise, he wasn’t as afraid as he imagined he would be.
Whenever he asked others for help or asked questions, he always felt that he was a big annoyance who
didn’t understand anything. Naturally, he feared other people, feared having to make any eye contact or
communications. However, when he realized that the people in front of him required his help, Guo
Changcheng’s words were always surprisingly smooth.
It seemed as though he was born to do this.
Guo Changcheng experienced a flash of inspiration and suddenly waved his hand to interrupt the
people’s racket. He asked: “I can’t hear what you guys are saying. I’ll ask a question and everyone raise
your hands to respond, ok? For all of your lost friends and relatives, did they all work at the small Quan
Shui Wan resort town? If that’s the case, raise your hand.”
With a whoosh, everyone raised their hand. The policewoman next to Guo Changcheng widened her
eyes—earlier, everybody’s arguing filled her ears with a buzzing sound and she was only concerned
about how long it was before a case could be filed after an adult’s disappearance. She didn’t realize that
it could be a serious incident involving a wide range of people.
Guo Changcheng’s thoughts became clearer. He continued to ask: “Then the people who can confirm
that their friends and relatives went missing in the resort town keep their hands raised. Those who can’t
confirm it, lower your hand for the moment, ok?”
A few hands wavered and then lowered. After a moment, they were raised again hesitantly.
The middle-aged man from before said: “Chief, can I say something?”
Guo Changcheng: “I’m not the chief….Ai, forget it, please speak.”
“My little sister is a waitress in the restaurant of the town assembly hall. She didn’t come home
yesterday. Since that’s not something that’s ever happened before, everyone in the family is extremely
anxious. In the middle of the night, my dad, my eldest younger brother, and my sister’s partner went out
together and looked for her along the road to her work. But later those three also disappeared and I
couldn’t get in contact with them over the phone. That’s why I got up bright and early this morning to
report the case.” The man’s eyes were still bloodshot. He forcefully kept his voice steady, wanting to be
as calm as possible. “Chief, think about it. If it’s just a small girl it’s one thing, but what could possibly
happen to three big old men together? I think something big must have happened.”
His judgement was very accurate, practically dead-on. Although Guo Changcheng was still in a fog, he
knew that nothing of what he said was wrong.
When others heard this, they were even more anxious. Everyone who had lost a loved one were
apprehensive like ants smoking away on a hot stove. They tried to squeeze in front of Guo Changcheng
to say a few extra words about the situation with their family members. All the people wanted to ask for
a statement from this young man who looked like he was ‘an unreliable youth without facial hair’.
If they only wanted to make a clamor, it would have been ok. However, there were people who were
also shoving others. One woman who was carrying a child fell as a result, the two or three year old child
breaking out into loud wailing. Some people were shouting “Don’t push, we’re all anxious here!”, and
others were screaming “Watch the child! Don’t step on the child.”
It was incredibly chaotic.
Guo Changcheng saw stars. If only sister Zhu Hong came…if only Chief Zhao came.
He squeezed his cellphone and thought of the task Chu Shuzhi had entrusted him with. He could not go
back. Even more, he could not allow these people to go back rashly. However, they lost their loved ones;
how could they calm down?
Guo Changcheng’s mind was momentarily blank.
What should he do? They trusted him so much, allowed him to take care of this task. This was also his
first time undertaking a duty alone for more than half a year since induction. How could he dare to
betray their trust and screw things up?
If it was Chief Zhao, what would he do? If it was Chu ge?
They couldn’t be allowed to go over there; it was too dangerous—Guo Changcheng suddenly hurriedly
stepped forward two steps and stood on the curb: “Everyone! Everyone!”
The crowd quieted down.
Guo Changcheng held up his work license: “I’m here from Dragon City’s Special Investigations
Department. We specifically handle major cases. Earlier, our chief had already brought all the elite staff
members to the scene of the crime and sent me over to explain the situation clearly to everyone—
Although we haven’t found news of your loved ones, we also haven’t received worse news. Our people
are already expending all our efforts on the search. The greatest help you can give us now is to help the
comrades in the local police station to coordinate well, report relevant information, and definitely not
get close to the scene of the crime. If you guys got close, it would bring trouble to the search and rescue
team, and would not be conducive to us finding people.”
He had never spoken so many words in one breath before. In that moment, Guo Changcheng had a
feeling that he was not fighting alone.
His heart was burning, like a fire had been lit. He brought his hands together and, with a palm-fist salute,
bowed to everyone in a circle: “I thank everyone, and promise everyone that we will absolutely do
everything in our power. Right now, can I ask everyone to line up and go inside with me to register?”
The crowd stood there and looked at each other in consternation for a while. Then, they actually lined
up in silence. After two or three minutes, they once again went inside the door in an orderly fashion
under the guidance of the young policewoman.
On the contrary, it was Guo Changcheng who stood there in a brief daze. For a moment, he didn’t dare
believe what he had just accomplished.
The tasks of the others were not as easy as Guo Changcheng’s. Shen Wei, who had been entangled by
the black shadow, had once again developed an illness of stubbornness and refused to let go of Zhao
Yunlan no matter what. He used his teeth to hold the back of the Soul-severing Blade, the icy cold
reflection of the blade causing the corners of his already bloodless lips to be even whiter. Turning his
head, he aimed the blade at the black shadow trapping him.
Zhao Yunlan snatched the blade from his mouth: “Give it to me.”
He held this one-of-a-kind blade and fiercely slashed at the black gas wrapped around Shen Wei’s arms.
Nonetheless, the black gas underneath the blade was like a sticky swamp and the fierce blade could only
force it apart slightly. It was sticky and could not be cut at all.
Shen Wei held Zhao Yunlan tighter, glanced over, and swiftly said: “I understand now. That thing is The
Profane Land itself. The only thing that the Soul-severing Blade cannot cut is that thing. You can’t do it
like this. Cut my arm, quickly!”
Being a mortal, Zhao Yunlan could not understand this great God who could cut off his arms, legs, and
head with ease, and so ignored him. He thrust the Soul-severing Blade back into the scabbard, then
retrieved a Guardian Order. With a snap of his fingers, a small flame spurted out. The Guardian Order,
carrying the flame along, directly dove into the black shadow…
Not even a single residue was left behind.
Shen Wei had always spoken to him in a soft tone in the past. This time, he unconventionally raised his
voice: “While there’s still time, cut off my arm before it’s too late!”
Zhao Yunlan turned a deaf ear to him. He immediately took out the real Guardian Order from his pocket,
the real deal carved from the Dashen Mu that he purposefully brought. Shen Wei was shocked: “Isn’t
that…”
But Zhao Yunlan also let him understood for once what it meant for the “hands to be faster than the
mouth”. Before Shen Wei had finished speaking, the Guardian Order from the Dashen Mu had already
instantly started burning. The flames rose to one chi (t/n 32 cm) high, the colors abnormally red. The
black fog entangled around Shen Wei’s arms finally withdrew a little in fear.
Shen Wei took back his arm. The first thing he did was to recklessly reach out and take back the half-
burned Guardian Order. With Zhao Yunlan in his arms, he dodged away from the swamp-like black fog.
Then, from who knows when, he condensed a pool of clear water in his palm, dousing the fire on the
Guardian Order.
The word “Guardian” was already half burned, leaving only “real ghost” behind. (t/n from 镇魂 to 真鬼)
On the back, the line “suppress the souls of the living, calm the hearts of the dead” had long since gone.
The two of them quickly left the scene. Within the leaping up and down evacuation route, Shen Wei
could actually even maintain his tightly furrowed brows, carefully wiping away the ashes on the
Guardian Order. He directed a solemn expression toward Zhao Yunlan: “Do you know that you were
originally not allowed to enter the wheel of reincarnation? That the identity of the Chief of the Guardian
Order is equivalent to your protective talisman? This was carved from the Dashen Mu. At critical times,
it wouldn’t even have a problem protecting your life. You…”
It turns out that even if his upright gentlemen façade was mostly pretend, this bit of trait was real:
whenever Shen Wei scolded someone he really was bad with his words. Ultimately, he had to settle with
choosing the closest equivalent, and blurted: “You, you really are a good-for-nothing!”
Behind them, the black shadow followed relentlessly, thick as undissolvable ink. This time it wasn’t
summoned by the Shadow Blitz (t/n refer to ch 54/55), but the real deal. The black shadow left nothing
behind in the places it touched, absolutely nothing…like it could even swallow up the void; this was the
real chaos. The two people who had always had a smooth life never imagined that they would ever have
a day as difficult as today, running at the speed of life and death.
Within this life or death scenario, in the rush of running for his life, Zhao Yunlan was able to even take
the time to roll his eyes widely at Shen Wei: “Go away. At every opportunity you just cut your arms and
dig out your heart. Do you think you’re a gecko? Looks to me like you’re the good-for-nothing.”
Shen Wei suddenly realized with a start that he was influenced by his environment. Even at a time like
this he could still be in the mood to bicker with Zhao Yunlan, virtually stupid as if he wasn’t really himself.
He immediately closed his mouth. With both hands, he held him, the huge black cloak of the Ghost
Slayer spreading out like a black cloud rising in the sky. His feet left the ground at the same time and,
with Zhao Yunlan in his arms, he stayed near the ground and flew some tens of meters in a flash. The
tips of his feet gently touched the ground and then he plummeted downwards, directly into the rift in
the earth, dodging a variety of bursting rocks created by the fissure. His figure was swift like a pitch-
black swallow.
At this time, the surface of the ground began to shake slightly yet again.
In a flash, a large group of ghost messengers who were always late at the critical moment burst out from
deeper underground. Tragically, before the ghosts could grasp the situation, the indestructible black
shadow already swallowed half of them right as they surfaced.
The magistrate (t/n Panguan aka mythological underworld judge) shrieked and turned himself into a big
ball, wanting to go back into the ground without a word. However, like pulling out radishes, he was
yanked back out: “Your Honor, it’s useless. The underground is not a place to hide.”
Then, a group of strange looking messengers from the underworld also joined this team in running away
wildly, as if the sole purpose of them appearing was for playing an insignificant role in this messy
business.
At this time, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan finally put a decent amount of distance between them and the
black shadow. Abruptly, Shen Wei leaped out of the fissure and, using strength, pushed Zhao Yunlan
forward. Zhao Yunlan instantaneously understood, and, following his strength, leaped forward around
ten meters, nimbly supported himself up against the ground with both hands, and stood firmly.
Shen Wei was already in midair, his both hands forming a gesture, his mouth silently reciting an
incantation from a distant time and space. The black shadow was currently approaching him bit by bit.
Just as the black shadow was about to touch the corner of the cloak that had drifted to his front, a burst
of piercing white light emerged from the hand gesture that Shen Wei had made.
The timing was practically to a hair’s breadth.
The black shadow stopped stiffly right in front of Shen Wei. Then, with an abrupt shake, it gradually
started being absorbed by that white light.
Everyone held their breath.
After about four or five minutes, the overwhelming black shadow was finally absorbed into the
progressively more blazing white light. The cold sweat on Shen Wei’s face only now dripped down along
the curve of his cheek. The magistrate sat down roughly. Zhao Yunlan let out a breath and slowly relaxed
his tight fist that had left imprints on his palm.
The glaring white light began to contract in Shen Wei’s hands, and everything seemed to have settled.
Suddenly at this moment, an abrupt change occurred.
Like it was ripping apart the air, a silhouette appeared behind Shen Wei without warning. Then, Gui
Mian, who had been lying in ambush for who knows how long, stabbed the three chi long icicle in his
hand directly into Shen Wei’s heart from behind.
(t/n again chi is about 32 cm)

Guardian Chapter 99: He found it difficult to understand that kind of sentiment of gambling with life
and death, difficult to imagine that kind of insistence like moths flying into flame despite hundreds
and thousands of people preventing it. So it was even harder for him to reach their level of sky-
opening and ground-cracking fearlessness towards the wilderness in the past.

The magistrate and his company had not even come back to their senses after that sudden outburst
when they saw a long whip like a venomous snake curl towards Gui Mian. The Guardian Whip tangled
around Gui Mian’s neck with unrivalled accuracy.
With a “whoosh”, the one slash of the whip triggered a sharp wind that made the skin on people’s faces
sting. The ghost messengers on the side actually felt like they were collectively mightily slapped across
the face. It burned and stung where they were exposed to the air, and they all unanimously turned their
faces and retreated without discussion.
The bitterness within the magistrate’s heart was almost shaken up enough for him to vomit it out—it
was more and more impossible to ignore the disturbance to the Great Seal, but from the looks of it, all
those with authority have silently agreed on choosing to turn away.
Everyone that had reached the level of being able to know these ancient secrets of the Great Seal were
at the moment either already demons that were hundreds and thousands of years old and long been the
elders of their tribe, or they already experienced countless challenges, cultivated themselves, and
became immortal.
Five hundred years ago when the Great Seal first expressed signs of loosening, led by the Underworld,
the various branches of authority were once brought together and discussed this issue. At the time
hundreds of voices responded to every call, the various senior gods were affectionate and enthusiastic,
each and every one of them prioritizing justice. All their words were about the commoners and mortals
under the skies, continuously stating that they would willingly serve those in power, and wouldn’t give
up even if they were to die a ten thousand times.
But ever since that battle on the Kunlun Mountain Peak, it was almost as though these people planned it
together and they collectively went missing.
They were all people in the midst of cultivation, they all knew that it wasn’t something particularly
impressive or promising for the future. Cultivation is an incredibly long process, where one must
experience dangers that others could not even imagine and loneliness that bystanders could not
understand. The natural-born traits of the person must be good, they must already be rare and unique,
with a persistent mind, and they must walk alone on that path. They must not be impatient to achieve
small successes or be prone to giving up halfway, and must be one in a million. This wasn’t even
counting that, regardless of how good their natural qualities are, regardless of how hard they strive, if
they were missing that little bit of luck, it would still be an almost-success-turned-failure—who wouldn’t
show off their feathers as a result of this cultivation as though they’ve been through a lifetime of
hardship?
If it wasn’t the Great Seal that was damaged and the Underworld needing to step forward as the result
of being the first that would have been impacted, then the magistrate silently examined his own
conscience and concluded—he felt like he would have hidden away as far as he possibly could. Even if it
was Ten Halls of Yanluo Kings and not a mere magistrate, they dared to make who knew how many little
tricks as they could see that the Ghost Slayer would not bother them over it due to self-restraining his
identity. But in the instance that they really go too far, which one of them would have the guts to step
forward and face the Ghost King straight on?
There was even less need to mention that two-faced, strange Gui Mian, with his unusual delights and
sorrows.
The magistrate’s expression was complicated and his expression fell onto Zhao Yunlan—pretty much
only those true natural-born gods and demons, before the flood broke, had that kind of large skill, that
kind of mindset where they did not care even if they died.
…Even if he was just a mortal now, he still dared to reach out with his long whip and strangle the Ghost
King’s neck without a second thought.
The magistrate felt somewhat uneasy in his heart. He found it difficult to understand that kind of
sentiment of gambling with life and death, difficult to imagine that kind of insistence like moths flying
into flame despite hundreds and thousands of people preventing it. So it was even harder for him to
reach their level of sky-opening and ground-cracking fearlessness towards the Great Wilderness in the
past.
Without mentioning Kunlun Jun, who had already silently disappeared into the cycle of reincarnation,
this man in front of him was clearly just a slick-tongued mortal. What right did he have to dare to not be
fearful and terrified? Could a soul be unafraid despite already losing the authority and power of the
Primordial Mountain God only based on the fact that it was polished countless times by reincarnations?
At the last second, Shen Wei bunched up his 10 fingers and the white light in his hands suddenly died
out. The chaos just then was completely engulfed, and then his body suddenly violently convulsed. Black
lines like a spider’s web suddenly emerged from the icicle that was pierced into his chest and tangled
together. In the blink of an eye, as though it was a gigantic cocoon, it wrapped up the entire person
within it.
Gui Mian clutched onto a corner of the icicle in one hand, and he was able to stick his other hand in
between before the Guardian Whip wrapped around his neck.
Then, in the air, he distantly met eyes with the mortals below. Within the eyes of that man, there felt
like the glow of a fire that scorched people even more than the soul fire that ignited the entire Profane
Land.
“If the Guardian Order wasn’t damaged,” Gui Mian’s voice seemed raspy and close to shattering
underneath the long whip that Zhao Yunlan tried to strangle him alive with, “Perhaps my neck would
have already had a layer of skin ripped off by you by this point. Tch, what a shame…”
Zhao Yunlan seemingly gritted out a sentence through his teeth: “Let. Him. Go.”
Gui Mian expressionlessly looked at him: “He and I are both Ghost Kings, despite certain circumstances
that caused us to have clashing temperaments, I still do not wish to hurt him. It’s he who forced me into
a dead-end step by step. You want him, that’s fine too, as long as you give me the Guardian Lamp in
exchange.”
Zhao Yunlan did not care to listen to this kind of “swapping hostages” condition. Suddenly, some kind of
extremely silent dismay appeared on the handsome space between his brows: “Then let me advise you.
If you’re smart enough, it’s best to give me an icicle too, or else I’ll make it so that you never attain
reincarnation for eternity.”
Gui Mian listened, fell silent for a moment, then burst out into loud laughter: “If it was Kunlun Jun, I
would certainly not let you come out alive by yourself even if I lose my life today. As for…”
His body gave a violent shudder, and in the blink of an eye the Guardian Whip that lost its protection
from the immortal tree (t/n aka Dashen Mu the tree the Guardian Order was made from) shattered into
countless segments. The impact slashed open a bloody mark that almost reached the bone on the palm
of Zhao Yunlan’s hand as it flew out: “My Ling Zhu* you…sigh… I’m grateful for you letting me borrow
your fire (t/n: a metaphor describing when one person smokes, another person uses the lit cigarette to
light their own cigarette), but I’ve also been influenced by him. I can’t help it… I do actually like you a
little bit, it wouldn’t hurt to keep you around.”
Gui Mian finished talking and a black fog rose up along with the sound of his shrill laughter. Suddenly, he
and Shen Wei, who was wrapped up in the black cocoon, simultaneously disappeared.
It was unknown how long Zhao Yunlan stood in the same place for. His palm was already fully covered
with fresh blood. The magistrate finally couldn’t hold it in and cleared his throat: “Ling Zhu, you…”
Zhao Yunlan was suddenly startled back to reality by his voice and extremely slowly raised his head to
give him a look. The corner of his eyes slanted upwards, with a hint of dark red that looked inexplicably
different somehow. His inky black pupils were frighteningly deep and he raised his own hand to gently
lick the wound on his palm. His upper eyelid seemed immensely deep, thick and dense eyelashes casting
bottomless shadows over his eyes.
The magistrate instinctively shuddered.
“I need to trouble you with something, magistrate.” Zhao Yunlan spoke with a kind of suspiciously calm
tone, “Please take me to see the real Wheel of Reincarnation amongst the Youming (T/N: ghost).”
For a moment, the magistrate felt like he was a bit unfamiliar. He spoke in a mismatched way only after
a long while passed: “I—I thought Ling Zhu wanted to ask about the Guardian Lamp…”
“Guardian Lamp?” Zhao Yunlan’s left brow slightly jumped upwards in a shudder-like movement. His
finger on his left hand subconsciously pressed onto the wound on his right hand, but it wasn’t long until
an expanse of bright red covered his fingertip. There was a moment where the magistrate was terrified
with the thought that Zhao Yunlan was going to say certain horrific words, but Zhao Yunlan only
continued his unnatural peacefulness. His eyelid drooped ever so slightly, eventually not revealing even
a little slit. He only simply said, “Please walk ahead to show me the way.”
“Chief Zhao!” a woman’s voice suddenly sounded out from behind them. Zhao Yunlan didn’t need to
turn his head around to know that it was Zhu Hong.
“Mm,” Zhao Yunlan didn’t even lose his temper, and didn’t have a particularly big reaction either. He
only more or less casually gave a hum as a response, as though he had forgotten that he already sent
Zhu Hong away himself and that she disobeyed his command to come back on her own accord. Then,
Zhao Yunlan’s footsteps paused, “If you bump into Chu Shuzhi and Da Qing, tell them to continue to look
for Lin Jing. I have something to attend to, I’ll be leaving for a bit first.”
Zhu Hong: “I’ll go with you!”
Zhao Yunlan gave her an expressionless look: “No need. It’s inconvenient to bring you along. Cultivate a
couple more years, little snake.”
Zhu Hong was practically emitting smoke from her ears and nostrils: “Little snake? I’m a little snake?
Then what are you? Those that are your age in our tribe would still be gnawing on their own eggshells!
You mortal.”
Zhao Yunlan didn’t even turn his head, only the corners of his mouth silently revealed a cold smile. He
replied, so quietly his words were hardly audible: “There’s no rush, soon I won’t be.”
Lin Jing, who everyone was searching for, was currently meditating with difficulty. He didn’t know where
he was. When his own five senses recovered, he realised that he was already tied up by someone here.
An abnormally shaped large rock was behind him, while a tree so tall he couldn’t see the top of when he
raised his head stood beside the rock. It seemed like he was surrounded by water, but his body seemed
to be within a large transparent encasement, and was not affected by the water.
In front of him, on either side of him, were all strangely shaped youchu… some were typical youchu,
some looked more human, and some were basically a pile of mud. This group of “youchu” densely
surrounded him, almost immediately triggering a certain fragile-minded man’s trypophobia.
Lin Jing instinctively closed his eyes and started to recite scriptures.
Unfortunately, Lin Jing had just started, only chanted two lines, when he realized that Buddhist
scriptures seemed to anger these “neighbours” around him that were already intensely eyeing him up.
The youchus began to become unsettled, the large and small all began to resound in roars and growls.
Lin Jing gulped with difficulty and squeezed out an unattractive smile: “That…That um, I didn’t know we
had a rule against reciting scriptures here. I’m not a person with particularly high education, I’ll correct
myself immediately, I’ll correct myself.”
The greedy gaze of the youchu closest to Lin Jing darkened and it couldn’t help but shuffle forward a
step. It pricked up its nose, carefully sniffing the smell of fresh blood and meat on the man.
With an expression of anguish, Lin Jing cried: “I haven’t showered for three days by now. This comrade
here do not be uncivil and touch me. Watch your manners!”
That youchu suddenly opened its mouth wide at him, taking a big bite in his direction. Right at this
moment, a different youchu that looked more human-like suddenly reached out with a hand. It grabbed
the one before it that dared to eat on its own by the back of its neck. Its fingers, with their wrinkled skin,
gave a hard squeeze. Then, that other youchu that was relatively lower ranked became like a head-
shaped wind chime in its hands, jingling and jangling as it hung there, dead.
The one that suddenly reached out with a hand to kill its tribemate let out a shrill sound and ripped off
an entire ear from the corpse. Without even needing any soy sauce or vinegar, it put it straight into its
mouth, and ate it.
Then, it very generously raised its hand and threw the body. As though hearing the bells of New Years,
countless youchu pounced on it with overflowing passion. Hardly half a minute passed when the youchu
from before had hardly any remains left, not even its skin and bones.
Lin Jing watched with wide eyes speechlessness: “Ami—Amitabha, my Buddha have mercy. Please, Good
Samaritans, watch your table manners.”
They all growled at him together, probably wanting to use him to practice exerting greater table
manners.
“Alright, alright, alright, if you don’t want to watch it then don’t, do as you all please!”
Right at this moment, a high-pitched whistle suddenly sounded from far away, all the youchu—all the
ghost tribe entirely fell quiet. Then, as though a great fog blown away by wind, they were all abruptly
removed spotlessly.
Lin Jing only thought that gust of wind swept by him, and then a person was thrown down from mid-air
with a clatter, and was pinned onto that great big weird tree off to the side.
Four lines of inky black shackles grew out of the trunk of the great tree, securely clamping down. That
person had a single three-foot long or so icicle stuck in his chest where his heart lay—he was really
“pinned” onto the tree, and there was a moment where Lin Jing held his breath, thinking that the
person was dead.
But just at that moment, the person pinned onto the tree suddenly opened his eyes.
Although even his breathing was trembling, he didn’t show an ounce of it on his face. It was at this
moment that Lin Jing called out in shock: “Teacher Shen!”
Shen Wei lowered his head and scanned over him, not letting out a sound. However, Lin Jing could see
the cold sweat that covered his head and his lips which were so pale they were like paper. Looking
closely, his body seemed to be ceaselessly trembling, but aside from that, his face did not reveal a single
hint of pain.
Gui Mian, who immediately followed, landed and stood opposite Shen Wei. He gazed at him while
grinning, and, after a while, Gui Mian slowly raised his hand and took off the mask on his face.
Lin Jing sucked in a breath of cold air: “My Buddha um have mercy, quickly grant your disciple a pair of
glasses! These incompetent eyes…How come, how come it looks like two Teacher Shens?”
However, upon closer inspection, the “Teacher Shen” that wore the mask had skin that was even more
ghostly pale—not the usual pale but pale to the point of looking blue. It was basically as though he had
just climbed out of formalin, and, because of that, he carried a kind of indescribable air about him.
There seemed to be an unexplainable air of resentment and darkness. Even with Shen Wei’s facial
features that were as handsome as though he walked right out of an artwork, it became more like a
painted face that hung on a skull. The better looking, the more terrifying.
Lin Jing’s eyes were widened to the point of nearly popping out of its sockets, and he decided in the
blink of an eye that the person who came later was truly shameless. He must have done cosmetic
surgery to look like their “leader’s wife”. Clearly, he’s an uglier faker!
He only heard the faker sluggishly start talking: “I’m a pretty nostalgic person, but you push me to
desperation with every step. I really can’t do anything but get rid of you, my brother.”
When Gui Mian said this, his eyes glinted with a strange light, seemingly both regretful and eager at the
same time—He and Shen Wei were both Ghost Kings. It needn’t be mentioned that Shen Wei later
received Kunlun Jun’s shield and gained the right to Godhood….
“If I swallowed you, do you think the entire Great Seal would be broken open by me?”
Shen Wei was pinned onto the Ancient Tree of Merits by him, pained to the point of weakly sweating all
over his body. However, when he opened his mouth the first thing that came out was a cynical laugh:
“What, you can’t take the road of the Four Holy Tools? Did something happen to the Reincarnation Dial?
Did it turn into a normal rock?”
“It’s you!”
Gui Mian’s eyelid violently gave a few shudders, then he reached up with a hand to land a slap on Shen
Wei’s face. Shen Wei was hit so hard that his head snapped to one side. Just then he clenched his teeth
too tightly, so all of a sudden it broke the skin of his mouth. However, he didn’t feel it. Casually spitting
out the blood in his mouth and laughing aloud: “The Reincarnation Dial was born out of the Stone of
Three Lives**, but the Stone of Three Lives and the Ancient Tree of Merits each sealed one spirit out of
the three souls and seven spirits. They are connected to each other through ten thousand souls, but only
the Mountain-River Awl was born from both lightness and darkness, and became an entity on its own
that could trap anything in the world—I didn’t use the Mountain-River Awl in vain to lure you here, to
land the Soul-Chasing Lure on your body. However, you indeed did not let everyone down and took out
the big cauldron***. In front of everyone, you burned the Merit Brush. You think I don’t know that the
most needed hearthstone in the Soul Refining Furnace is the Stone of Three Lives? Where are you going
to find a shard of the Stone of Three Lives…actually even if you don’t say it, I’d still know. When the
Merit Brush was born, that was when I found the Reincarnation Dial, the moment when I pressed it into
the Mountain-River Awl—Otherwise how do you think the great cauldron fell into your hands so easily?
Do you really think it’s because you have particularly good fortune, and that someone would bring you a
pillow whenever you fall asleep?” (T/N: basically saying ‘you don’t need to do anything yourself’)
“The Mountain-River Awl…The Mountain-River Awl was in your hands from the very beginning?”
“Can’t you read? Mountain-River, Mountain-River, Kunlun was where the 36 Mountains and Rivers
originated. I inherited the Mountain Saint. There were already a hundred thousand great mountains
joined together to begin with, why would I have to come all the way to fight with you over… something
that was always just under my nose?”
Shen Wei’s cold sweat dripped into his mouth, and he carelessly smudged it away with a purse of his lips,
“Right now, I think perhaps there is still one more thing that you also want to know—What you used to
lure me in just then, what you released in order to contain me… that one thread of chaos that you took
out from your own body, where did I put it now?”
The blueish and reddish tones on Gui Mian’s face alternated for a long while, expression so twisted that
it became almost hideous. Suddenly his hand reached out to grasp onto the icicle that was stuck into
Shen Wei’s chest. Blood had already soaked right through Shen Wei’s long robes, skin and flesh tightly
stuck together with the lapels of his clothes. The man looked extraordinarily wretched.
With a heave of strength, Gui Mian gave a hard twist to the icicle in Shen Wei’s chest. Shen Wei didn’t
let out the sounds of agony that he wanted to hear, but he couldn’t say anything anymore.
“I don’t want to know even a single bit,” Gui Mian’s breathing was harsh, and he leaned in close to Shen
Wei’s face to say lowly, “I could know nothing, I could just let out all the blood in your heart just like this,
so that you cannot maintain this human body. I could extract the Kunlun tendon on your primordial
spirit, and then swallow you down one mouthful by one mouthful. From then on, the world will only
have one Ghost King. I am truly the one. Unparalleled. In. the. World.”
Shen Wei couldn’t say a single word in his pain, but the corner of his mouth still held that cynical smile,
as if he was saying to Gui Mian—you could try it, then.
Guo Mian lifted a hand to pull out half of the icicle in his chest, and then ruthlessly pierced it back in
again. Shen Wei’s body jerked severely. He finally fainted and his head dangled down, unmoving.
Gui Mian didn’t even spare a glance towards Lin Jing, who was both in shock and horror, and walked
away in long strides. In the blink of an eye, he was gone into the bottomless darkness.

Author’s notes (from Priest): Don’t worry about Teacher Shen, he is a naturally dark-hearted monstrous
being who just happens to have the function to blush.

*Ineffablebf’s added note: So previously when they called him 镇魂令主 I’ve just been tl-ing it as
“Guardian Order Chief”…I think it’s been tled like that before me as well. It’s because 镇魂令 has been
tled as “Guardian Order”. However, in this instance they are calling him just 令主…leaving it as “Chief”
does not hold enough weight for the word, especially for the situation. When you look it up, it means 贤
德的君主, basically a virtuous sovereign. However, as Ling Zhu is a title, I’ve decided to just leave it as
that.
** T/N: please use this link to learn more about the Stone of Three Lives:
http://chineseaesop.blogspot.com/2009/06/legend-of-three-life-stone.html?m=1
*** google images it’s this thing

Guardian Chapter 100: “There won’t be a problem, right?” There was no one nearby. Lin Jing had no
one else to talk to, but…

“There won’t be a problem, right?” Looking around, there was no one nearby. Lin Jing had no one else
to talk to and could only resort to talking to himself.
From beginning to end, Gui Mian didn’t spare him a single glance, probably because he didn’t think
much of his insignificant bit of skills. Lin Jing started to console himself by muttering: “There won’t be a
problem, Amitabha, definitely there won’t be a problem.”
He was on pins and needles. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was tied into a zongzi (t/n it’s a wrapped
Chinese food), he probably would have already jumped up as if he were sitting on nails.
Lin Jing extended his neck towards Shen Wei’s direction, but he still couldn’t see clearly. He suddenly
thought it would be better if he was a turtle: he would be able to swim and stretch and contract.
He carefully looked around and tentatively called: “Ai, Teacher Shen! Teacher Shen?”
Shen Wei didn’t respond.
“Shen…”
At this point, a youchu suddenly arose and bared its scraggly uneven teeth towards Lin Jing.
Lin Jing quickly closed his mouth in fear that the other would hate and envy him for his neat row of little
white teeth and use his white meat to have a large, delicious meal.
The youchu licked its lips. He probably was sent to guard him. After some thought, it didn’t dare to steal
what was entrusted to its care. With a constipated expression, it circled Lin Jing a few times and then
backed up a bit to glare at him as if it was a predator eyeing its prey.
Lin Jing took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He tried to sooth his miserable mood by silently reciting
scriptures. However, when he closed his eyes, he tragically found that it wasn’t the up and down lilt of
the “Prajna Paramite” sutra in his consciousness but the anxiety provoking scratching of an imaginary
phantom limb—If that forgetful brute Zhao Yunlan knew that he was indifferently reciting scripture
while actually watching his baby suffer, he would definitely turn him into Da Qing’s cat food.
Lin Jing thought about this and then opened his eyes to lock gazes with the youchu in front of him.
Then, he suddenly opened his mouth and said: “Ai, can you speak human language?”
High-leveled members of the ghost tribe naturally could speak the human language. After guardedly
looking at Lin Jing for a bit, the youchu used a strange and hoarse voice to say: “Shut up.”
Lin Jing sighed: “Ai, look, they all ran away. Only the two of us are left in this place. If I shut up, wouldn’t
you be lonely? Do your balls not hurt, do you not feel afraid when you look at His Excellency, the Ghost
Slayer, nailed high on the tree? You have balls don’t you, benefactor…Ahhhhhh don’t be like this. Please
be a bit more civilized!”
The youchu threatened him with a jaw full of teeth like a great white shark.
Lin Jing: “I’ll shut up, I’ll shut up, I’ll immediately shut up really, believe me! Monks don’t lie!”
The youchu retracted its claws and teeth and slowly retreated to one side.
Lin Jing once again lifted his head to look at the unconscious Shen Wei.
However, this little bit of concern was quickly interrupted. As he was worriedly looking at the beautiful
man whose whole body was drenched in blood, a big wart-covered face of a youchu suddenly appeared
in his field of vision. Lin Jing immediately felt that he changed from being in a pure little sentimental
artistic film into being in an excessively heavy horror film like Resident Evil. At that moment, his breath
almost became choked in his chest.
He silently withdrew his gaze. In his heart, he said: “So what if I wash my eyes, bastard.” (t/n meaning
sw is pretty so he’s using sw to “wash” his eyes)
At last, Lin Jing finally recognized the reality—even if he was chopped up by Zhao Yunlan, there was
nothing he could do to counter the present situation. With this in mind, Lin Jing really did calm his mind
and started to silently recite “The Great Compassion Mantra” in his heart.
Seeing that he closed his eyes, the youchu from the ghost tribe thought that he was finally behaving,
and so stopped caring about him. Silently, it lifted its head to look at Shen Wei, who was nailed to the
ancient tree, then hid a bit further away in slight fear. A thousand feet under Huang Quan, tranquility
was finally restored.
At this moment, the youchu suddenly felt something. With a terrified start, it abruptly lifted its head—
He saw Lin Jing was still sitting there with his eyes closed, almost as if he had become a statue of Buddha.
However, the big stone seal behind him seemed as though it was responding to something, lighting up
with a soft white glow.
The youchu abruptly leaped up, originally intending to reach past the big stone seal to grab Lin Jing’s
shoulder. However, the moment its hand breached the boundaries of the white light, it was as if it was
put on the fire to roast, unexpectedly turning into a lump of coal.
The youchu broke out in piercingly loud shrieks, finally interrupting the sutra in Lin Jing’s heart.
The fake monk was an intelligent person. When he opened his eyes and saw the situation, he
immediately realized what was going on. As such, he took a deep breath, opened his throat, and started
to recite the sutra loudly. The white light on the big stone seal behind him became more and more
scorching. The youchu guarding him jumped about but was unable to get close.
The halo of white light gradually expanded, and some even spread to Shen Wei’s body. The man who
had appeared to have already lost vitality seemed to feel something, and his eyebrows furrowed
uneasily.
The youchu obviously didn’t understand why this was happening. It became more and more restless,
and then finally decided to risk everything to stop Lin Jing from creating trouble. With a howl, it rushed
over, deciding that even if he burned into coal, he had to tear apart the mouth of this fucking monk who
said he would shut up but who was actually playing with his life to recite mantras.
The sizzling sound of the roasted skin and flesh resounded. The youchu comrade was broken in body but
firm in spirit, and still opened its mouth, which was burnt so that only the razor-sharp teeth were left.
With it, it rushed forward to bite at Lin Jing’s neck.
Lin Jing’s reciting of mantras was finally interrupted. Closing his eyes, he howled: “Buddha, this disciple
is about to sacrifice himself for sanctification. Where is my elder Shixiong! Help! Teacher Shen! Elder
Shixiong!” (t/n shixiong aka senior martial brother)
He called out all sorts of messy things but no movement came from the other party. After a long time,
Lin Jing finally opened his eyes a small crack from where he had hunched his neck. He saw the youchu,
who had just recently wanted to sacrifice itself, startle greatly and run away dejectedly.
Lin Jing was shocked by this. A moment later, he seemed to sense something and raised his head slowly,
incidentally meeting Shen Wei’s cold pools of eyes—he’d woken up at some point.
Lin Jing tentatively called out: “Teacher Shen?”
Shen Wei’s gaze moved slightly and landed on his body. Then, he nodded at him in a courteous and
gentle manner.
Lin Jing: “You, you, you, you, you’re ok?”
Shen Wei struggled lightly. The shackles clasped on his four limbs knocked against each other a few
times, creating noise. This little motion practically made blue veins appear at the corners of his forehead.
It was only after a while, a couple of low gasps later, that he was finally able to hoarsely say: “Not too
good.”
He lost so much blood that his pale white lips were trembling.
Lin Jing: “Why are you here? How did you end up in, end up in that...that, uh, the hands of that guy who
looks very much like you?”
Shen Wei closed his eyes. He leaned his head back against the Ancient Tree of Merits as if he lost his
strength and quietly said: “He surprise attacked from the back. I originally could have dodged him but I
wasn’t able to fully succeed at the time and was pierced by him. For the time being, it’s not a big deal
and it’s nothing serious.”
Lin Jing was stunned into silence for a while. Uncertainly, he asked: “Really…?”
Shen Wei seemed to be getting weaker. As if he was trying to conserve his strength, he lowered his
voice and slowed his speech: “But because he stabbed an icicle formed from the waters from Huan
Quang into my heart, I can’t move.”
Listening to this, Lin Jing thought that it didn’t seem like it was “nothing serious” and swallowed his
saliva with difficulty: “Then what should I do? Do you have any way of letting me down from this broken
rock so that I could free you?”
Shen Wei was silent for a bit: “The ‘broken rock’ behind you is actually the mark of the Houtu Great Seal
that Nuwa set up herself.”
Lin Jing was again stunned into silence and then dryly said: “I, I’m scared into peeing myself.”
Shen Wei smiled gently: “Don’t worry. The Gui Mian from earlier has a lot of troubles to deal with right
now. Kunlun’s godly tendons are on my body and so he temporarily do not dare to do anything to me.
He probably doesn’t have time to worry about this place either. For the time being, it’s safe.”
Lin Jing quickly said: “Don’t, don’t. I should still think of a method to save us. If Chief Zhao knew that I
saw you bleed this much and still didn’t do anything, he would definitely turn me into this year’s New
Year’s Eve dinner.”
Shen Wei laughed soundlessly, his gaze clearly softening for a moment. After a while, he thought and
said: “Actually, if you really want to try, you can recite some sutras. The Great Seal originated from
Nuwa’s compassion. If you have a heavy heart, maybe it can help you.”
In actuality, Shen Wei didn’t expect Lin Jing to really accomplish anything. Although he was in a difficult
position, he had a plan in his heart. He only wanted to find something for Lin Jing to do, and so he spoke
offhandedly.
Who knew that when Lin Jing heard this, he actually sat up in seriousness. Like a news anchor reporting
the news, he evened his breathing and, articulating clearly in a mellow and full tone, started
broadcasting the evening Buddhist study program. When Shen Wei first heard him, he thought it was a
bit funny. However, as time passed, he actually slowly started listening as well. His eyes and brows that
appeared a bit ruthless as a result of being dyed in blood gradually became gentler. He lowered his
eyelids and looked at the icicle on his chest, momentarily entering some unfathomable thought.
The white light on the Great Seal Rock gradually became more piercing to the eye. Lin Jing proved
himself worthy of the school of Dharma and unexpectedly really made up his mind.
After an unknown length of time passed, the ropes on Lin Jing’s body actually melted within the field of
white light. However, he didn’t realize it himself. Although a little shocked, Shen Wei did not open his
mouth to interrupt.
He abruptly sensed in his heart that, like birds of a feather, the people around Zhao Yunlan were more
or less somewhat similar to him—for example, they were all very persistent about something, the kind
of persistence where they could forget about everything else.
For example this one, and for example that little boy who becomes nervous the moment he speaks.
Shen Wei squinted a little. In fact, he already had some speculations about the Guardian Lamp in his
heart. However, looking at it now, it seemed as if it would be better at this moment for it to not show up.
“Little boy” student Guo Changcheng successfully kept all the families with missing people from leaving
the town. However, no good news came.
It was nearly midnight when Chu Shuzhi came back, travel-worn and weary, with Da Qing. It wasn’t very
realistic to collect other things so they only gathered some IDs, personal keys, cellphones, and such. It
was as if the only things that were swallowed were living things. These broken goods were all safe and
sound.
The small Public Security Bureau in the town was ablaze with lights. From some unknown location, a
sharp crying sound suddenly rang out. The conference room that was vacated specifically for them
became a mess. Chu Shuzhi held Da Qing in one hand and pinched his eyebrows wearily. He waved at
Guo Changcheng and brought him over to the adjacent little office, shutting the door.
Guo Changcheng’s intuition wasn’t very good. He looked at Chu Shuzhi and then at Da Qing: “Chu ge,
where is Chief Zhao and the rest? Did you find big brother Lin? Did you see Zhu jie? Are there still no
news from the missing people?” (t/n ge= big brother, jie =big sister. With Ling Jing he used “da ge”
which is also big brother)
Chu Shuzhi took out an evidence bag from his pocket and handed it to him. Inside contained a small
amount of ashes.
Guo Changchang was stunned momentarily. He suddenly had a sort of unspeakable premonition in his
heart: “This is…”
“Bone ashes.”
The evidence bag fell onto the floor with a patter.
“Yes, these are ashes made from human bones.” Chu Shuzhi briefly explained what happened in the
small town, and then said to Guo Changcheng: “Call the headquarters immediately and tell Wang Zheng
that she and Sang Zan should deal with this matter. These people should be temporarily treated as
missing. However, dead is dead and we can’t hide it for too long. Let her take in the circumstances and
communicate as she sees fit; see how she wants to best break the news on a surface level.”
Guo Changcheng said incredulously: “Break it…on a surface level?”
In actuality it was asking for Wang Zheng to think of a way to cover up the reality of this event.
Chu Shuzhi glanced at him. It’s clearly the SID’s unwritten rule on how to handle events but, for some
unknown reason, he didn’t want to tell Guo Changcheng this. Thus, the Corpse King was silent for a
moment, and replied in a roundabout way: “You need to know that, in most situations, DNA can only be
detected when there are human remains left. It’s impossible to determine from bone ashes that have
been burnt through high temperatures, let alone when it’s been destroyed like this. There’s not much
we can do in this situation. Even if you collected all the dust in this entire little town, we wouldn’t be
able to tell the family who it used to belong to.”
“But there should at least be a murderer…”
Chu Shuzhi sneered helplessly: “Guo Changcheng, someone who could secretly plot against His Honor,
the Ghost Slayer, even if he used dirty tactics he should at least be equal to the Ghost Slayer in
cultivation. Is it that your time with us is too short and you’re still not clear what kind of person the
Ghost Slayer is?”
Guo Changcheng looked at him dazedly.
“I’m not afraid to tell you the truth. I cultivated for a thousand years and can already walk underneath
the hot sun. Now I’m considered Corpse King, able to command all the skeletal zombies. The next step
would be Ba (t/n legendary drought demon), otherwise known as an immortal corpse. However, if it
wasn’t for Chief Zhao’s relationships, for example people like the Ghost Slayer, I would have had to
withdraw. Do you understand?”
Guo Changcheng seemed like he momentarily couldn’t really accept this conclusion, but he never
argued with others. Even more, he wasn’t some hot-blooded teen who would go beyond their depth.
For a while, he felt as though something was blocked in his heart but he absolutely didn’t know what he
should say, suppressing it so much that his face turned white.
After an unknown length of time, Guo Changcheng finally asked: “But what about the soul? Even though
the body is gone, the soul should still remain, right? How could someone be born and then just
disappear like that without any reason?”
Chu Shuzhi was taken aback but Da Qing jumped out from his arms to sit on the table. Suddenly, he
opened his mouth and said: “That has happened before.”
The two people immediately turned toward the black cat.
However, Da Qing seemed to be lost in thought and didn’t say anything else. After a while, Chu Shuzhi
had no choice but to speak up to prompt him: “Da Qing?”
Before his words fell, Da Qing’s body suddenly started experiencing weird changes—the black cat’s body
slowly stretched out and the black fur gradually disappeared. Under Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuizhi’s
bewildered gazes, he became a youth with hair down to his ankles!
The youth wore clothes from who knew what era, appearing as if he had casually pulled a piece of cloth
to wrap around his body. His feet were bare…This wasn’t important. The important thing was, he didn’t
appear black or fat!
Chu Shuzhi: “Da, Da Qing?!”
A cat’s unique languid expression appeared on the face of the youth. Raising his eyes that were slightly
bigger and rounder than everyone else’s, he glanced at him: “En.”
As he spoke, he jumped off the table to land soundlessly on the floor. His actions were also like a cat’s—
even his walk was in a cat’s straight line. Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng moved out of the way to
create a path for him in wordless mutual agreement. They heard Da Qing say: “I don’t know who sealed
my memories. From a long time ago, I already couldn’t recall the things from the far past. Last time, I
was only able to transform at the top of Mount Kunlun because I was stimulated by the Da Shenmu.
After transforming, even though I’m really ugly without fur, some blurry memories become a bit clearer.”
Similarly without fur, Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng who were “even uglier” than “ugly”,
simultaneously revealed a complex expression.
“The things we met today, the officials of the underworld call them youchu, but actually, in the earliest
times they were called the ghost tribe.” Da Qing, with his unique aesthetic standards, did not pay
attention to the reactions of the two in front of him and continued: “I don’t know the theory of where
the ghost tribe came from. Either way, I know that they are related to the death of the two great Gods—
Fuxi and Nuwa.”
“You heard Shen Wei’s words at the gate of the small town. When the ghost tribe was born, the entire
land was barren.” The black cat swept the transformed gaze of the youth around him. Looking carefully,
one could see his eyes change color with the different brightness of the light. “But as far as I know, the
ghost tribe gnaws on the bones and blood of living humans, sucks the souls of cultivated people, but do
not actually eat the souls of ordinary mortals because, even if they did, it would be of no use. I think
maybe it’s because of the sudden situation. Those people weren’t supposed to die. Their bodies
suddenly disappeared, and the souls are in fact souls of the living. The underworld cannot take them
away and so those souls that experienced a massive fright ran away to unknown places.”
Guo Changcheng’s brain was a bit slower than others’. He only fully digested what Da Qing’s words
meant a while later. Suddenly, he said: “Then I want to go find them.”
Da Qing and Chu Shuzhi, who were already lowly discussing the possible whereabouts of Zhao Yunlan
and Zhu Hong, lifted their heads at the same time. Da Qing asked in confusion: “Why would you find
them? It’s the underworld’s problem that they lost the living souls even though right now they probably
aren’t in the mood to care.”
Guo Changcheng was silent for a moment: “But…But I promised them, those family members out there
who have missing loved ones, I promised that I would give them an explanation…”
“You can’t give that.” Da Qing said, “Plus, they wouldn’t believe you anyways.”
“That’s why I will look for the souls of the dead. How could a person who should naturally exist
disappear so suddenly?” Guo Changcheng was particularly stubborn in untangling this question.
“That…that shouldn’t be.”
Chu Shuizhi laughed coldly: “There’s plenty of things that shouldn’t be. How do you plan on looking?”
Guo Changcheng was stuck with just this one question. His heart palpitated for a moment and then he
lowered his head in embarrassment.
Who would have suspected that Chu Shuzhi remained silent for a moment, then suddenly took out a
bottle of eye drops to toss to him: “Cow tears. It’s used to open the Divine Eye, allowing you to see living
souls.”
Guo Changcheng raised his head in disbelief and looked at him in excitement.
“Take care of proper business first. Call Wang Zheng and let her attend to the external affairs, and then
send for reinforcements.” Chu Shuizhi avoided his overly enthusiastic gaze a bit awkwardly, “I’m going
to go find Lin Jing anyways so it’s on the way. Don’t go looking for trouble for me.”
“You guys go together. I’m going to go find Zhao Yunlan.” Da Qing said, “I’m worried about him being by
himself.”
Da Qing took a few awkward steps in his human form. When he walked to the window he turned his
head around and warned: “If the kid doesn’t know the gravity of the situation, Corpse King you should
take more responsibility. Absolutely be careful. We just got our new office…we haven’t even had time to
renovate it yet.”
After he said this, Da Qing jumped out of the window. In the dim light of the night, he flashed twice
before disappearing without a trace.
Zhao Yunlan was silent for the whole trip. The ghost messengers who still had lingering fears didn’t dare
approach him for conversation. Only Zhu Hong followed him in the wake of his every footstep, no
matter what he said.
After passing the gates of hell and arriving at Yanluo temple, the magistrate was just about to lead Zhao
Yunlan inside when a little ghost suddenly appeared to block their road.
The magistrate furrowed his eyebrows.
The little ghost smiled gloomily: “Your Honor. The Ten Halls of Yanluo* requests the pleasure of your
presence.”
Before Zhao Yunlan could speak, the magistrate could already no longer bear it and said: “What is the
meaning of this? The Ghost Slayer was secretly plotted against by Gui Mian, chaos is about to break
open, the Great Seal is about to completely fracture…Can you take responsibility if you delay official
business? Move!”
The little ghost held down his head very low: “Yes, Lord Magistrate, but this small one is merely acting
under orders.”
Magistrate: “You guys…”
Zhao Yunlan suddenly interrupted him: “Bring me over. I’ve lived for this long and still haven’t met the
Yan King.”

*Yanluo Halls http://en.daoinfo.org/wiki/The_Yamas_of_the_Ten_Halls

Guardian Chapter 101: “I won’t hide it from Ling Zhu. This is the last item of the four holy tools: The
Guardian Lamp.”
(Beginning excerpt from @dtriad, with minor edits for consistency. Please visit their page for further
terminology clarifications and t/n)
Hall of the Yan Kings.
Ten courts hung high.
The hall was like an azure sky, unbounded above and below. The eternal haze of the vast Milky Way was
overhead and the tongue-ripping, deep-frying eighteen levels of Diyu* were underfoot, surrounded by
stagnant waters.
Those who had walked in were surely treading on real ground, but it looked like they were literally
stepping on a pane of transparent glass. Underneath, those who had their skin flayed and their tendons
pulled, who were thrown upon mountains of knives and into cauldrons of oil—all could be seen with
utter clarity, as if one might also drop down under at any moment.
The gloom-haunted sentences pronounced by the ghost messengers below and the hysterical, miserable
screaming of ghosts came together in splendid contrast to form a uniquely scenic sight.
The magistrate stared. He knew this was the opened “earth-piercing eye”; and with some uneasiness, he
cast a glance at Zhao Yunlan and quietly had all the ghost messengers present withdraw and stand to
one side. Normally, the earth-piercing eye wasn’t open and people in the hall of the Yan Kings wouldn’t
be able to see matters below in the eighteen levels of Diyu. It was only when souls guilty of the most
heinous crimes refused to submit that this sight was revealed to serve as a warning.
Really… this wasn’t the way to treat guests.
Zhu Hong grabbed Zhao Yunlan’s arm. If it weren’t for his thick clothes, her ten sharp fingers would have
practically pierced into Zhao Yunlan’s flesh. The Yan Kings of the Ten Halls each looked down ferociously
from their respective ten courts hanging high above on the wall. For no reason, it made people feel as if
they had greenish blue masks with fierce fangs (t/n like this).
Under their feet, Zhu Hong saw a rickety man tied to a poll, two little ghosts on either side pressing him
down. Another one pried open the man’s mouth, reaching its dry green hand into it. The little ghost’s
shrill laughter and the unbearable howls of pain exploded out together. Zhu Hong quivered, her palms
ice cold.
Zhu Hong: “Don’t, don’t go over there.”
Zhao Yunlan lowered his head to look at her hand grabbed onto his clothes. Patiently, he pried off her
fingers one by one: “Wait for me outside.”
Then, he strode in expressionlessly. Under Zhu Hong’s extreme trepidation, his every step seemed to
land on the heads of the countless little ghosts below. At last, he stood still in the middle of the audience
hall, on top of the frying pan that was the inferno of hell. Zhu Hong had the illusion that the scalding oil
splashing around below was about to land on his body.
She gritted her teeth, originally wanting to follow him in, but her eyes uncontrollably floated downwards
to see a long and soft tongue being pulled out of the man’s mouth. The blood seemed like it was about
to fly towards her face.
Zhu Hong’s stomach roiled. Finally, she was unable to bear it any longer and turned her head away.
Zhao Yunlan completely ignored the female ghost who was still climbing up despite her face already
being cooked into big boils: crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. He raised his cold gaze to sweep
around the bodies of the ten Yanluo halls, then turned to look at the magistrate pretending to be a quail
on the side (t/n quail, the bird, is used to describe people who are cowardly/timid) and gently lifted his
brows. Arrogantly, he dragged out his speech: “You guys are planning on letting me stand while I talk?”
His voice was low and cold, every word piercing through the wails emerging from the eighteen layers of
hell, showing not even the slightest degree of change on his countenance.
The magistrate gave a meaningful glance with his eyes and two ghost messengers rapidly ran out, one
carrying a chair, and the other serving tea. Zhao Yunlan was not polite; he plopped down on the chair,
lifted his legs up, and then raised a hand to block the tea tray that was passed over. He glanced at the
ghost messenger whose face was like paper in front of him, and revealed an expression that was
halfway between a smile and a sneer.
“I don’t need the tea. I’m afraid that if I eat the things from the underground, it’ll be bad for my
stomach.” Zhao Yunlan didn’t even lift his head up and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, you have already
put on airs and displayed your power, and you have already laid out the table—I see that everyone is
busy so let’s not waste time. If you have things to say, say it, if you have farts to give, give it.”
The ten voices within the Ten Halls superimposed together to form a unique harmony, indignantly
denouncing him: “This Small One is impolite.”
Ever since Shen Wei was taken away by Gui Mian right in front of him, Zhao Yunlan felt there was a
block of ice weighing down his heart, particularly freezing over all his internal organs. The things other
people said or did all seemed to reach his ears only through a layer of film, appearing both fake and
meaningless.
Only until just recently was he impacted by the extreme visual images presented. Although his
expression didn’t change, his heart became inexplicably clearer, and his rage rose belatedly.
Zhao Yunlan’s arms were folded in front of him, covering his chest which was violently undulating due to
his deep breaths. His rusty mind turned a few circles in difficulty—If the Ten Halls still had their brains,
they would know that the Ghost Slayer was brought away by Gui Mian. Whether it was that Gui Mian
injured him, or that the Ghost Slayer fell to Gui Mian, for Difu it was all extremely unfavorable. What’s
more, the situation at the Great Seal was not clear at present. Through the mixture of truths and
falsehoods created by Gui Mian, it was obvious that it looked like it was going to break.
At this time, the Ten Halls made such an unfriendly opening, not even caring about their appearance.
According to Zhao Yunlan’s 30 years of experience collaborating with Difu, these idiots were obviously
seeking something yet they still weren’t willing to set their ego aside and lose face. Either that or they
did not think much of him as a mortal being and planned on coercing and intimidating him.
Then he also…didn’t need to be polite.
Without the least bit of hesitation, he lifted his head. On his handsome face was extreme looseness and
carelessness. An indescribable arrogant expression seemed ready to burst out at any moment. Zhao
Yunlan laughed coldly: “Oh, then you must all pardon me. My mom and dad didn’t raise me right…I’m
just trash without a good upbringing. What do you all plan to do?”
For a moment all the ghost messengers held their breaths. Some were unsure of the situation and
thought that it was evident this man only came to find fault and to throw down the gauntlet. The Yanluo
Ten Halls was the place to judge the sins before and after death. No matter if you were the Monkey King
or if you were a general, everyone came in vertically and came out horizontally. They’ve seen plenty of
people crying and calling for their parents but…but they’ve never seen somebody like this.
As if he didn’t have to reincarnate in the future!
The Ten Halls roared with the same ten voice ensemble: “Zhao Yunlan!”
Zhao Yunlan had thick skin and, extremely obstinately, added: “That’s Guardian Order Chief to you.”
He slapped his own face without hesitation (t/n figuratively, not literal). The hand in his coat pocket
gently rubbed the butt of his gun. Similarly, a fire burned in his heart. He had a mind to be like a fighting
House Sparrow, taking out these ten assholes who were pretending to be cool one shot at a time.
However, at this juncture, he still couldn’t afford to completely break off relations with these pig-like
comrade-in-arms and so could only fucking bear it.
At this moment, the ground suddenly began to shake. At first, it was sporadic and small, and then it
became more and more severe. The sands and rocks in Yanluo Hall were nearly flying.
Zhao Yunlan looked down. He saw that every one of the oil pot underworlds had practically become
“shake before drinking”; big pots of hot oil were shaken enough to spill out. The previous awe-inspiring
large and small ghosts all scattered in many directions, fleeing the scene. A crack appeared in the pillar
of hell and the steel knives buried in the Daoshan Hell** undulated up and down, like in Whac-A-Mole,
endlessly…
Suddenly, a ghost messenger pushed open the grand door of the Ten Hall of Yanluo and fell onto his
knees with a “putong” sound: “Oh no! The Great…The Great Seal is broken!”
As he spoke, the door of the audience hall opened wide. All the people present looked over at the same
time to see the waters of Wang Chuan boiling. Every ferryman abandoned their boat to stand on the
teetering Naihe bridge***, and the narrow Huang Quan road was already submerged underneath the
boiling waters. A massive black shadow visible to the naked eye slowly rose up from underground until it
was level with the water, then stopped suddenly.
Faint lights like fireflies shone on the two sides of the submerged Huang Quan road, and the bean sized
lights formed a line—Zhao Yunlan remembered that those were the little oil lamps on the sides of the
road, which were also seemingly called “Guardian Lamp.”
The faint lights and the massive black shadow stood off against each other, maintaining a fragile balance.
However, what the end result would be, as long as a person was in their right mind, they would know
clearly. Before the ghosts of varying sizes at the scene could react, another ghost messenger scrambled
over: “The Ghost City! The door of the Ghost City cracked open! It’s all in shambles! They’re going to
revolt!”
The Ten Halls of Yanluo who originally spoke in unison finally started to each speak their own minds
from above. Like ten big ducks, they messily fought into a ball.
Zhao Yunlan sat on the chair unmoving. He reached out and rubbed his chin, lowly saying to himself:
“Aiyou, now they’re all dumbasses.”
After saying thus, he stood up and grabbed the fat magistrate’s collar, deciding to no longer be polite to
these grasshoppers at the end of autumn (t/n people who are nearing their end). From his coat pocket,
he retrieved his hand gun. Utilizing the chaos created by the ghost messengers, he took the opportunity
for his own gain and shoved the barrel of the gun into the magistrate’s mouth: “I’m not in the mood to
waste words with you lot. Bring me to the Wheel of Reincarnation immediately, otherwise I’ll blow off
your head!”
Zhu Hong couldn’t dare to believe that he would be this bold, shrieking: “Chief Zhao!”
Simultaneously, a Yan King suddenly called: “Guardian Order Chief, what are you doing!”
Without the harmony of the ten voices, the sound was a lot thinner and lacking strength.
“What am I doing? Doing you! (t/n aka killing you)” Zhao Yunlan laughed coldly, “I’ve endured enough of
you sons of bitches.”
As he said this, he roughly pushed the magistrate: “Go!”
“Ling Zhu, wait!” This time, the ten voices finally came together again.
Zhao Yunlan heard a loud noise behind him. He turned his head to look and discovered that the tunnel
opening under his feet had already closed at some unknown time. The dark audience hall from before
flooded with lights and the figures of the Ten Halls were all exposed to their eyes. Like this, every one of
them, with the exception of their slightly weird attires, actually looked relatively normal.
Then, the mechanism on the wall of the main hall turned. The noise of a mechanical spring peeled out
and a stone door opened on the wall. Within it, there was yet another door.
One by one, the Yanluo of the Ten Halls came down from their high hanging court. Each one took out a
key and, in a row, opened ten doors. Behind the ten doors there stood a vast pool emitting an immortal
mist. For a moment, it did not look like Difu, but the Jade Pool****.
Zhao Yunlan fixed his gaze upon the pool, only to see a massive lamp, at least some tens of meters high.
It looked the same as the little oil lamps carved with the words “Guardian Lamp” lining the sides of
Huang Quan.
The last to open the door, King Qinguang, turned around and sighed. To Zhao Yunlan, he said: “I won’t
hide it from Ling Zhu. This is the last of the four holy artifacts, the Guardian Lamp.”
When Wang Chuan was shaking, it looked extremely terrible from the outside. However, a thousand
zhang (t/n 3.2 meters) beneath Huang Quan, the area of the Great Seal was incredibly calm with only
the occasional faint sounds like thunder traveling over. When Shen Wei heard this, he suddenly smiled.
Lin Jing looked up and paid it no mind. He circled around Shen Wei for quite a few times, and then
climbed onto the Ancient Tree of Merits: “Wait for me to find it. I should have a wire that I could use to
pick locks somewhere on my body.”
Shen Wei calmly said: “There’s no need. You only have to pull out the icicle in my heart.”
Lin Jing shivered for a moment: “I can really pull it out? Nothing will happen to you?”
Shen Wei: “En, nothing will happen. Thank you.”
The tone he used was as if he was talking casually to the take-out waitress at a canteen.
Lin Jing was not as calm as he was; his palms were slightly sweaty: “If you say so, Teacher Shen. It’s a
shame I can’t get you to sign a letter of guarantee.”
After speaking, he wrapped both hands around the icicle in Shen Wei’s chest. With the principle that
short-term pain is better than long, he yanked out the cone abruptly with a loud shout. Lin Jing heard
the sound of ripping flesh. Shen Wei’s body followed the momentum of the ice cone upwards but was
ultimately firmly held down by the locks around his four limbs.
Lin Jing broke out in cold sweat for his pain, but Shen Wei didn’t make a single sound.
The five chi long cone of ice was pulled out of his chest and blood gushed out for a distance.
With a face covered in blood, Lin Jing hurriedly examined Shen Wei’s situation.
At the moment when the ice cone came out of his body, Shen Wei seemed to have reached the apex of
his endurance. The hair on his forehead was wet with cold sweat, and his eyes clearly lost focus for a
while.
Lin Jing was afraid that he would faint again and so reached out to pat his face. However, when he
remembered that this person was the Ghost Slayer, he was too scared to land his claw down and so
could only gently tug on Shen Wei’s clothes: “Teacher Shen? Can you hear me talk? Endure it, just
endure it a bit more. I’m going to let you down as quickly as possible.”
Because of the blood loss, Shen Wei’s lips were dry and cracked. In his extreme blurry state, he gently
moved his lips and hazily called out in spite of himself: “Kunlun…”
Lin Jing: “Huh? Kunlun? What about Kunlun?”
With this abrupt interruption, he was finally able to pull Shen Wei’s consciousness back from the edge.
Shen Wei’s gaze became slightly clearer and he swept it over Lin Jing wordlessly. Following, Lin Jing saw
the ferocious wound on his chest healing little by little. If it weren’t for the bloody hole left behind on his
clothes, the wound would seem like it had never been there. Shen Wei said quietly: “Please give that
icicle to me.”
Lin Jing hurriedly held up the large icicle with both hands. Shen Wei had mentioned that the thing was
created from the waters of Wang Chuan. Perhaps it was because of this that the coldness of the ice was
more biting than normal.
The icicle in his hand suddenly dissolved into a ball of dark black mist, carrying with it the colors of blood.
In an instant, it was sucked into Shen Wei’s mouth. In this short amount of time, the cracks in his lips
seemed to heal a great deal and his eyes regained some of their luster.
A couple soft sounds resounded. The shackles tied around Shen Wei’s four limbs fell off, leaving only a
few small wounds as if they were cut open by a sharp tool. Shen Wei’s feet landed on the ground
soundlessly.
Lin Jing hastened to climb down after him: “You’re ok now? Then what should we do now? Where are
those youchu and that guy wearing the mask from before?”
Shen Wei laughed lightly: “Him? He went after the bit of chaos that I caught…I imagine the Ten Halls of
Yanluo will give him a surprise.”
Lin Jing thought for a moment and then truthfully said: “Amitabha, Benefactor, I didn’t understand.”
Shen Wei glanced at him with a faint smile, turned, and disappeared under Lin Jing’s eyes.
Lin Jing was stunned and blurted out: “Fuck! I lost the Chief’s family member! I can say goodbye to this
year’s year-end bonus!”
An invisible hand rested on Lin Jing’s shoulder. He heard Shen Wei’s voice next to him say: “The waters
of Wang Chuan are above us. You must think of a way to swim up. When you’ve reached Difu, Yunlan is
around there somewhere. I will follow you in looking for him together, just don’t expose my
movements.”
Lin Jing: “Ah, why?”
Shen Wei seemed to laugh lowly: “If I came out, how else would I enact this drama of misdirecting the
blame?”
Lin Jing shuddered for a second, silently reciting the Buddha’s name in his heart. He felt as if his leader
was about to make a fatal error resulting in thousands of regrets.
At this time, it was already deep into the night in the human world. Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng
were currently carefully holding flashlights, searching the small resort town yet again. A whistle hung
around Chu Shuzhi’s neck and, with their every movement, the little whistle would emit tones of varying
pitches on its own—that was for attracting the souls of the deceased.
Chu Shuzhi thought that in bringing Guo Changcheng along, he’d practically become a pacifist. It didn’t
matter to him who was fighting with who; concealing himself in the day and coming out at night, he was
completely following Lei Feng’s***** footsteps—whether it was blocking the girl who ran away from
home at the highway exit or searching for missing souls in the depth of the night.
All of a sudden, the the whistle around his neck increased in pitch, creating a sound similar to the
birdcall of a thrush. Chu Shuzhi lifted his hand to halt Guo Changcheng’s footsteps. The two stood in the
middle of the small rusted path listening to the sound of the whistle becoming louder and louder—high
and low, with a long trailing ending sound, like a siren leading the way.
Guo Changcheng’s eyes that dripped cow tears opened wide. At the end of the small path he saw a
young man wearing the work uniform of an express delivery man walking towards them with a hazy
expression, following the sound of the whistle.
Guo Changcheng gently tugged Chu Shuzhi. Quietly, he said: “Is that a person or…”
Chu Shuzhi: “A ghost.”
Guo Changcheng gave a start. However, in the next moment, he saw the young man’s vacant expression
and, for some reason, suddenly became unafraid. Instead, he felt a bit sad.
The young man was attracted by the sound of the whistle all the way until he stood in front of the two.
He looked at them strangely and scratched at his hair: “Why are you two gentlemen still outside this late?
It’s so cold…you should hurry up and get home.”
Chu Shuzhi replied: “What about you? You should be going home soon too, right.”
The young man laughed slightly: “That’s right. The doorkeeper had already signed for the package and I
don’t have to do any pickups today. I can get off work early and go home.”
From his pocket, Chu Shuzhi took out a small bottle. He opened it and brought it in front of the young
man: “Then come in here. I’ll bring you home.”
The young man was stupefied for a moment, and the smile on his face gradually faded. In that moment,
he seemed to have understood something.
Guo Changcheng suddenly opened his mouth to ask: “What’s your name?”
The young man slowly raised his head, stared at him for a while, and then said bewilderedly: “It seems
like…I can’t remember anymore.”
“I remember.” Guo Changcheng said quietly, “I looked at your ID card. Your name is Feng Dawei. You
were born in 1989 and even have an older brother at home, right?”
“I remember it all.” As he spoke, Guo Changcheng took out a notebook from his carry-on bag and
opened it to show him. On it were detailed recordings of many types of information about each missing
person. “Your big brother said, if you weren’t here he will take care of your mom and dad. Right now,
they’re very sad, but they will be ok eventually.”
Within the young fellow’s, Feng Dawei’s, eyes, tears suddenly burst out.
Chu Shuzhi didn’t say anything, waiting for Guo Changcheng to continue.
“Come inside and we will see you off. If you keep wandering, it will be daylight.” Guo Changcheng said,
“The sunlight is not good for you guys.”
Feng Dawei lowered his head and wiped at his tears: “Then I’m dead, right?”
Guo Changcheng hesitated for a moment, and then nodded.
Feng Dawei: “How did I die? Did someone kill me? If you catch the culprit, could you avenge us?”
Guo Changcheng didn’t know how to reply. Chu Shuzhi lowly spoke up: “The net of heaven is vast but
the guilty can never escape its justice. Rest assured.”
With his head lowered, Feng Dawei stared at the opening of the little bottle for a long time. He wiped
another handful of tears: “But how could I just die like that? I haven’t lived enough yet…”
“Come inside. In your next life we’ll let you have a good life.” Chu Shuzhi started to become annoyed.
Feng Dawei laughed bitterly: “Next life…let’s wait and see in the next life…Could you pass a message to
my parents and my older brother for me?”
Chu Shuzhi furrowed his brows. Right as he wanted to say something, Guo Changcheng hurriedly took
out his notebook and wrote down the word “message” carefully in his childish handwriting, underneath
the page titled Feng Dawei. “Go ahead.”
Feng Dawei sniffled and prattled on about a bunch of trivialities. Without missing a single word, Guo
Changcheng recorded it all. At last, he turned it for Feng Dawei to see. Holding his hand, the young
fellow read the page word for word and then finally smiled with difficulty: “Ok. I can rest assured now—
even if I can’t be rest assured I have no choice. Brother, you’re a good person. I thank you.”
With that, he took a deep breath and plunged into Chu Shuzhi’s bottle.

*From dtriad, and I will also keep it as Diyu: “I kept 地狱 as Diyu rather than translating to
“hell/underworld/netherworld” because I’ve been using those as general concept reference terms,
whereas here I’m using Diyu for the specific 18-levels-overseen-by-10-kings framework.”
Here’s foxghost’s post about all the different things that happen in the underworld…there’s a lot.
**Here’s an article on the ten courts of hell https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Horrific-Chinese-
Ten-Courts-of-Hell
*** https://chinesemythologypodcast.com/tag/afterlife/
**** https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-asia/reserved-gods-only-two-humans-have-
tasted-chinese-peaches-immortality-009596
*****https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lei_Feng
Guardian Chapter 102: “Shen Wei, you better get your ass out here right now!”

Chu Shuzhi closed the lid on the bottle, stuffed it back in his pocket, and turned to call Guo Changcheng:
“Let’s go find the next one.”
Guo Changcheng scuttled after him. A few steps later, Chu Shuzhi suddenly said without turning around:
“You did well.”
Guo Changcheng was already originally a fool who would become resplendent with a little bit of sunlight.
Caught off guard by the praise, he was almost so much like a radiant spring day that he couldn’t function.
For a time, his speech was rambling and incoherent, barely able to even say a “thank you.”
At this moment, a few howls resounded from not far away. Some low-level ghosts who had stayed in the
mortal world saw that there was fresh meat available and immediately opened their jaws wide and
rushed over.
Chu Shuzhi grabbed Guo Changcheng and pulled him behind himself, lifting his foot and sweeping it out
as he did. With a muffled sound, the youchu from the ghost tribe was struck in the chest and staggered
backwards, falling onto his butt.
Three or four ghosts initially retreated a few steps, and then they rushed forward at the same time, side
by side.
Chu Shuizhi shoved Guo Changcheng’s chest: “Stay farther away.”
Then he took out his gun and talismans.
However, before the Corpse King, who had been studying Lei Feng for many days, could even show off
his power to loosen up his muscles, a person’s shadow had already landed in front of him. It was a man
who looked to be in his youth. With a sharp stick in his hand like the type used for tanghulu (t/n candied
fruits on a stick), he accurately skewered them with each move. In the time it took to blink, he had
already stuck the couple of low-level ghosts into a disgusting meat skewer.
The youth’s looks were homely, but when he smiled he appeared extremely sincere. He retrieved the
sharp stick and wiped it on the side before walking to stand in front of Chu Shuzhi: “Ai, friend, are you
ok?”
Chu Shuzhi was an advanced stage sufferer of the “eight-grader syndrome” (t/n slang derived from
Japanese term chuunibyou): he always maintained an extremely serious state of vigilance against
strangers. When he saw the person walking closer, his brows immediately started to furrow.
Fortunately, the other party was proficient at reading expressions. When he saw that his expression
wasn’t good, he didn’t continue to walk forward but stood in place and smiled in a friendly manner: “I’m
an independent cultivator. I felt that there was something weird going on over here and so I came to
investigate. Brother, please don’t misunderstand.”
Chu Shuzhi nodded slightly, his attitude extremely haughty and cold. He turned to the side and called to
Guo Changcheng: “Xiao Guo, let’s go.”
Guo Changcheng hastily ran after him. Unexpectedly, the youth also followed without an invitation.
Probably because he saw that Chu Shuzhi was extremely wary and grave and did not like to
acknowledge others, he switched at top speed to aim his artillery of words towards Guo Changcheng:
“What were those creatures from earlier? Why is there nobody here? What happened?”
Guo Changcheng was not used to others asking him a long string of questions—he would very easily
forget the order that the questions were asked and become messed up in his head, unable to think. He
could only innocently look at the other: “I’m not very sure either.”
The youth continued to ask: “Ai, brother, then what do you guys do?”
Guo Changcheng said quietly: “We’re police.”
“Ah! Is that right?” The youth sighed with emotion and naturally began to chitchat with Guo
Changcheng.
Chu Shuzhi listened to their conversation and didn’t interfere. However, he continually kept part of his
attention behind him. He found that the youth was actually quite good at making conversation. Within a
few words, he had already discovered that Guo Changcheng had a malady of ineloquence and
immediately changed his communication style to no longer nag at him with questions. Instead, he
started easily chatting about the small town, occasionally trying to pick at their origins through
roundabout means.
As they walked, they collected six or seven more souls into their bottle. The two small bottles quickly
became full. In the dark of the night they exuded a brilliant range of lights and colors. Chu Shuzhi lined
them up side by side in the satchel at his waist and then took out another empty bottle.
The Corpse King had an extremely cold and indifferent temperament, and the road of cultivation for a
corpse was originally already an unconventional gambit, not tolerated within common customs. Chu
Shuzhi was haughty and proud and never paid attention to his merits, and probably didn’t even care
about it.
He always thought that the so-called “morality” was always passable on the surface but had an
undercurrent surge of hypocrisy: the purer and better it seemed to the naked eye, the darker it could be
underneath.
However, despite holding these malicious conjectures about others, he actually endured Guo
Changcheng.
Chu Shuzhi himself wouldn’t be able to say why this was so. Maybe it was because he was used to him
and it had already become natural.
Either way, he looked at the bottles hanging in his satchel and an indescribable feeling emerged in his
heart. Therefore, although he said that he disliked Guo Changcheng as a “person who is bloated from
being full” (t/n meaning having nothing better to do), he still silently followed him in the middle of the
night gathering the scattered souls.
There were many members of the ghost tribe wandering the small town. The unfamiliar youth
continually helped them with clearing up the ones blocking their way, leaving Chu Shuzhi without time
to make a move himself at times.
The strange youth moved quickly and ruthlessly; Chu Shuzhi instinctively became more defensive
towards him. As such, when he asked about the Guardian Order, the Corpse King was unable to refrain
from coldly reminding him: “Mister, there are some things that, if you shouldn’t ask about them, you
shouldn’t keep talking. Why would you make people become sick of you for no reason?”
Guo Changcheng, however, laughed in extreme embarrassment: “Sorry, my Chu ge is a very good person.
He actually didn’t mean it that way, it’s just that we have rules…”
The youth was stunned for a moment, and then immediately nodded very amiably: “Ah, haha, it’s ok. It’s
me who over spoke. Excuse me, brother, I don’t have a lot of consideration. I’m just straightforward and
quick to say what I’m thinking. Sometimes it could be annoying…you’re not annoyed with me are you,
little brother?”
Guo Changcheng immediately said: “How could I be? Big brother helped us a lot. When we get back to
the county town we’ll treat you to a meal. You’re a good person.”
The youth instantly nodded in agreement, but right at this time, they passed by a small shop. The young
man’s side was facing the window, smiling resplendently and talking to Guo Changcheng. However, Guo
Changcheng inadvertently swept his gaze over at the reflective shop window…
He was horrified to see that the reflection of the kind and enthusiastic big brother in the shop window
was a creature that he’d never seen before: its entire body was jet-black, from time to time surging to
form the appearance of a head. In the shop window, it ferociously aimed its wide opened jaws towards
him, its mouthful of tusks like ancient torture devices.
Before Guo Changcheng could yell out, the electric rod in his pocket had already reacted. A string of
sparks rushed towards the pure appearing youth. Chu Shuzhi whipped his head around in shock and saw
that Guo Changcheng was standing there at a loss, whereas the youth had leaped back more than ten
meters in the space of a moment. As if it didn’t take any effort, he landed on the roof of a small cottage.
Chu Shuzhi knew that the electric rod was not under Guo Changcheng’s control; it was an inevitable
reaction resulting from him feeling frightened. He put the glass bottle in his hand back into his satchel
and squinted up at the person standing high up on the roof: “What’s going on?”
The youth on the roof was no longer smiling. He looked down at Guo Changcheng coldly from his
vantage point: “Yes, friend. What’s going on?”
Guo Changcheng: “He…he, he…shadow…”
Chu Shuzhi turned on his flashlight. The young man’s lonely shadow had nowhere to hide under the light.
However, despite looking at it for a while, nothing strange could be seen. The youth squatted on the
roof, allowing him to shine the light on him however he wanted. In an easy-going manner, he asked:
“What’s wrong with my shadow?”
Chu Shuzhi looked at Guo Changchang with a puzzled expression. Guo Changcheng was at a loss for
words.
The youth shook his head and sighed: “I’m really doing a thankless task. I helped you guys this whole
way. If you guys don’t thank me, that’s fine, but just now if I didn’t dodge quickly, would I have died in
the hands of this small brother who looks honest and kind?”
Chu Shuzhi stuck both his hands into his pockets and furrowed his eyebrows. At this time, the whistle
hanging around his neck suddenly stopped making noise. A rustle of footsteps could be heard in the
distance, a sound causing one’s hair to stand up on end in the darkness. Goosebumps erupted along
Guo Changcheng’s neck. Following, was heavy breathing sounds. After a moment of silence, a massive
head of a youchu suddenly emerged from underground, directly in between Chu Shuzhi and Guo
Changcheng, and stared right at Guo Changcheng.
It seemed as if the Great Seal’s strength was decreasing more and more. The ghost tribe wandering
amongst the human world followed the smell of fresh flesh and blood, drawing ever closer. Within the
county town, not even 50 kilometers away, the people were still unconscious of this fact, their lights
ablaze.
King Qinguang lifted his hand and erased the image reflected on the yin yang mirror*. With a heavy
expression, he spoke to Zhao Yunlan, the bandit who had abducted the magistrate with a gun: “Ling Zhu,
have you not yet realized? The Great Seal is already broken. These years, the Great Seal had always
been guarded by the Ghost Slayer. At present, he is nowhere to be found, and it’s unknown whether
he’s even alive or not. The little oil lights on Huang Quan road are only slight buffers. The first to suffer
disaster will be Difu, and after that will be the mortal world. Please calm down first. If it wasn’t for these
extraordinary circumstances, we most definitely would not have sounded you out like this. At this
moment, we should be uniting together to survive this great calamity.”
Sure enough, Zhao Yunlan thought, this was them first hitting and then giving a sweet date, first fighting
and then being polite. (t/n basically good cop bad cop)
He lowered his gaze and released the magistrate without changing his composure, but he did not let go
of his gun. He then looked at the Guardian Lamp that was emitting an immortal air once again.
“Then what is the meaning of King Qinguang?”
Outside was in complete disorder. Even now that it’s right at their doorsteps, this King Qinguang still
stood still like a mountain. If a “heavy butt” could go into the Guinness World Record, he would
probably be the only one in the three worlds. (t/n someone who sits and does nothing)
Asked like this by Zhao Yunlan, King Qinguang immediately heaved a great sigh. Using a tone like an old
gentleman in Chinese operas, he spoke: “The Guardian Lamp was transformed from the body of the
Primordial Mountain God, Kunlun Jun. It calms the spirits and drives out the evil ones, and is the last of
the four pillars as well as the greatest source of protection. However…Ai, Ling Zhu take a look.”
As he spoke, he wanted to lead Zhao Yunlan to the side of the pool where the Guardian Lamp was
stored. However, Zhao Yunlan didn’t move a single step, gazing at him coldly. King Qinguang felt a bit
awkward and so made a hand gesture. The Guardian Lamp slowly emerged from the water surface,
turned to them, and tilted slightly so that the people below could see clearly—the Guardian Lamp did
not have a lamp wick.
“Now that we’ve reached this point, let us speak frankly. This small God was very disrespectful to Kunlun
Jun, yet still invite the Mountain God to be a bit more tolerant for the sake of devoting to the safety of
the three worlds, as this small God is too low in ranking.”
Zhu Hong was shocked and turned her head to look at Zhao Yunlan. However, the man’s expression
didn’t change even a little, maintaining an appearance like he already clearly knew all these things.
Zhao Yunlan looked at King Qinguang silently: “My IQ is a bit low and I didn’t understand. What do you
want to probe out from me?”
King Qinguang’s words were choked in that moment.
Zhao Yunlan suddenly laughed. His laugh was very strange, a little mocking, and even more seeming to
result from being in an awkward situation where he couldn’t help but laugh uncomfortably: “Why did
you stop the magistrate from bringing me to see the Wheel of Reincarnation? King Qinguang knows so
many secrets, but you didn’t know that my memories and my powers were sealed by Shennong?
Shennong’s body transformed into the Wheel of Reincarnation. I wanted to find a way to recover my
powers so that I could maybe help you take care of the aggressive Ghost King outside once again. Why
would you stop me? Additionally…small, small Yan King, what gave you the confidence to treat me the
way you did just earlier?”
King Qinguang didn’t think that from just one wrong statement, he would attract so much trouble, and
quickly said: “This small God used improper wording…”
“Seems to me like it’s not a problem of using the wrong words,” Zhao Yunlan interrupted him, “Actually
you knew that that year when Shennong sealed me, for whatever reason my memory and powers could
never be recovered, right?”
King Qinguang’s eyes moved rapidly: “This…This is true. At this juncture, we didn’t want the Mountain
God to waste his time…”
“You haven’t said what you wanted to find out from me yet.” Zhao Yunlan once again interrupted his
sentence.
Zhu Hong seemed to sense something from his attitude, and stood behind Zhao Yunlan in silence,
glaring at King Qinguang opposite them.
Not waiting for the other to reply, Zhao Yunlan donned a fake, malicious smile: “Since you’re not able to
say it, let me say it for you. You wanted to find out if ‘Kunlun Jun can never recover his powers’ is true or
not, right? ‘Disrespect’ is much less than the offense you wanted to commit, isn’t it?”
King Qinguang: “How could Ling Zhu think that…”
“I was also originally very perplexed, up until I saw the Guardian Lamp that you guys always kept hidden
here.” Zhao Yunlan lightly raised his eyebrows, “In particular…King Qinguang keeps trying to remind me
that the Guardian Lamp was created from ‘my’ flesh. Did you also want to remind me that the wick of
the Guardian Lamp was Kunlun Jun’s heart blood?”
With his words laid out until this stage, it was equivalent to him directly stopping all pretenses. King
Qinguang was finally silent.
“You brought me here because you wanted to draw a tube of blood from my heart?” Zhao Yunlan
squinted and gave King Qinguang a once-over, “My whole life I’ve behaved like a hoodlum towards
others. I thought that I have already cultivated into an invincible old hooligan. I never would have
thought that there were actually people who would play me instead.”
The Yanluo Ten Halls all came down, each one of their colorful clothes fluttering airily, like a bunch of
descending parrots. They continued to use the method of combining their voices: “Ling Zhu is exemplary
in conduct and noble in character, we hope You will always focus on the overall situation.”
Zhao Yunlan looked at them with a shadow of a smile, but Zhu Hong exploded first. The bottom half of
her body transformed to a gigantic snake tail, encircling Zhao Yunlan within. The corners of her elegant
eyes were drawn out long, exposing the vertical pupils of the cold-blooded animal within: “Do you guys
realize that he is only a mortal?”
Zhao Yunlan calmly replied for them in this pressured environment: “They aren’t blind, of course they
know.”
The scales on Zhu Hong’s body were bright red like blood. She spat out her scarlet forked snake tongue
in fury: “Why don’t you guys just say you want his life?!”
Zhao Yunlan quietly let out a sneering laugh: “Wouldn’t that sound so bad if they said it out loud?”
The Yanlou Ten Halls opened their mouths together in a chorus: “Mortals will all be born, age, fall ill, and
die. This is common in reincarnation.”
Zhao Yunlan burst out in laughter.
Another violent tremor came from underground. When the people looked out, they could see the little
ghosts in Ghost City running around chaotically with virtually no order. The shadow beneath Wang
Chuan shook more and more violently and the little lamps next to Huang Quan swung to and fro. Some
panicked little ghosts even tried to rush into Yanluo Hall without rhyme or reason.
The ox-headed and horse-faced demons** guarded the doors tightly, one on each side. Horse-face
turned its head around: “My Lord, we can’t guard it for much longer!”
“The Ghost Slayer and Shennong Shi agreed to guard over the Great Seal, replacing Kunlun. They
wouldn’t kill for no reason. Is it that you guys were certain he could bear it and so were similarly
emboldened in front of him?” Zhao Yunlan sighed and quietly said: “Sirs, I really want to speak out of
turn and offer a piece of advice. ‘Conduct yourself modestly and you will have room to beg favors in the
future.’”
Zhu Hong’s entire body transformed into a python. Her scales were bright red in anger and she abruptly
snapped at King Qinguang who was standing in the very front. A few ghost messengers hurriedly rushed
forward, lifting their steel forks and huge blades to block in front of the Yan King.
King Qinguang raised his hand and pointed at Zhao Yunlan: “Take him!”
A voice abruptly cut in, coldly inquiring: “Take who?”
In front of their eyes, the yao (t/n previously tl-ed as “demons” but it isn’t necessarily the same so we
are switching to yao. It refers to the tribe of shape shifters aka crow tribe etc.) tribe burst in, each one of
them leaders or elders of their clan. Amongst them, Snake Fourth Uncle’s eyes scanned Zhu Hong’s body
for a moment. Snake Fourth Uncle, who had originally wanted to withdraw completely and force Zhu
Hong to go along, surprisingly did not scold her. The Snake Fourth Uncle of this tribe, currently in his
zodiac year, stepped out of the crowd, first solemnly saluting Zhao Yunlan: “Mountain God, this small
yao has eyes but did not recognize Mount Tai.” (t/n did not recognize a great figure)
Even the crow tribe knew whose reincarnation he was. It was hard to say whether the leader of the
snake tribe really “didn’t know Mount Tai” or was only pretending. Zhao Yunlan didn’t expose him on
the spot, only nodded with a smile like he was watching a good show.
Snake Fourth Uncle said in a serious and reasonable manner: “Difu controls the Wheel of Reincarnation
and were always insolent and rude to the Taoist brethren. I won’t argue about common sense with you
lot for the rest, but Kunlun Jun has the great favor of harboring the yao tribe for thousands of years. No
matter how useless the yao tribe is, we cannot allow your rude treatment of the ancient sage to go
unchecked!”
King Qinguang took the lead and opened his mouth: “What is the meaning of this, yao tribe?”
It was unknown why the crow tribe elder, who had clearly separated from the yao tribe, had returned to
follow them at the very end, but he hoarsely said: “If we were to blame someone, the blame should fall
on the Yan Kings’ treachery…Too insincere and rude.”
Snake Fourth Uncle’s eyebrows abruptly furrowed. He originally didn’t want to be this straightforward,
but it was directly pushed out by the other, causing him to feel like he was a little bit unable to back
down with good grace.
Who knew that at this time another person started to talk: “Old man Yan King, we allowed you to do
whatever you wanted with the important matter of going up Kunlun to suppress the Ghost King, but you
stab us in the back? What is the meaning of that?”
This time it was the Sanqing Daozong***.
“Difu is exceedingly impudent. So there was a reason we were called together last time to jointly
confront the ghost tribe up on Kunlun. You secretly put a tag on our bodies, guided the chaos in the
Profane Land to leak everywhere—But as long as Difu has a little bit of conscience, wouldn’t you say this
thing should be tightly constrained underground?”
Soon, the Luohan from the Western skies****, the immortals from all kinds of scattered places, and all
others of involved parties had all arrived.
King Qinguang angrily rebuked: “The collapse of the Great Seal is a calamity spanning the three worlds.
How could Difu take all the responsibility for it?”
This sentence poked the hornet’s nest. In the Yan King Hall, the big Gods from all walks argued into a
ball and nobody was left to pay attention to Zhao Yunlan. He turned to Zhu Hong, who had obediently
transformed to stand at the side after seeing Snake Fourth Uncle, and lowly said: “Why didn’t I bring
popcorn and Coke into here?”
At this moment, the black shadow in Wang Chuan abruptly flared tens of meters, extinguishing all the
little oil lamps at the same time. Some unknown source called out sharply: “Ghost tribe!”
Sure enough, a small crowd of ghost tribe first emerged from the source of chaos. The number was not
large, but it jabbed into everyone’s tightly wound nerves.
Who knew how it happened so coincidentally, at this time Gui Mian appeared impartially in Wang Chuan.
Although the Great Seal was tottering and crumbling, it didn’t actually break—at present only the two
people, Shen Wei and Gui Mian, knew the situation clearly. In order to set a trap to entangle Shen Wei,
Gui Mian had created the fake appearance of the Great Seal breaking by extracting chaos from within
the cracks of the Great Seal for many years. Who would have known that the little ball of chaos would
be sealed by Shen Wei, put in some unknown location.
Gui Mian was paranoid and neurotic. At first, he didn’t think much of it, but when he was sitting
underneath the Ancient Tree of Merits and heard Shen Wei say such a paradoxical statement, he
immediately felt ill at ease.
He didn’t expect such a small ball of chaos would create such huge ripples in Difu. Gui Mian, who had
followed the trail to here, just surfaced out of the water. As a result, he saw the battle on the shore and
immediately realized that he had been duped. By the time he wanted to retreat, it was already too late.
In the chaos, someone screamed out: “Ghost King!”
King Qinguang immediately found a favorable step-down: “The Ghost King already came out. No matter
what, must you Taoist brethren fight over who is right and who is wrong at this juncture?”
The Ten Hall chorus quickly joined to harmonize with him: “Everyone should know what the ‘overall
situation’ is. At present, please first let go of the prejudices each small sect family holds and let us join
hands against the ghost tribe together!”
In an instant, the Ghost King was surrounded on all sides. Inwardly, Gui Mian resented Shen Wei for
calculating against him. However, no matter what, he thought that the things between him and Shen
Wei should stay between them from beginning to end, and didn’t have anything to say to this
insignificant and disorderly ant-like crowd.
He swiftly rose a few zhang from the water. With a single whistle, countless ghost tribe emerged from
the waters of Wang Chuan, the chaos that could engulf all creatures forming an enormous barrier
behind them.
The entire inside and outside of the Yan King Hall became a battlefield.
Zhu Hong was slightly worried for her Fourth Uncle and itching to join the yao tribe, but she was held
back by Zhao Yunlan: “Look carefully at the ranks of the people inside. Don’t go making trouble, little
girl.”
At this time, a higher-ranking ghost tribe was driven wild by bloodlust and somehow rushed in front of
Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan lifted his hand and shot, but the other party dodged it. Just as he was about to
shoot again, a familiar bell sound suddenly rang from behind him. Lin Jing, who had been missing for
several days, emerged and threw out multiple 卍 characters from his hand (t/n pronounced “wan”, a
Buddhist symbol used since ancient times).
The ghost tribe directly melted into a wisp of black smoke.
Lin Jing dragged Zhao Yunlan over to hide in the secret room storing the Guardian Lamp: “Still not hiding
away…why are you two trying to join the excitement?”
Zhao Yunlan sized Lin Jing up with an unpredictable expression: “Earlier, the two screams were from
you?”
“…” Lin Jing, “I was already yelling quietly.”
“Quietly? I could even hear your voice breaking when you yelled.” Zhao Yunlan’s face was dark like an
oncoming rain storm, “Shen Wei, you better get your ass out here right now!”
*https://www.fengshui-import.com/catalog/BaGua-36-1.html
**from google images
***https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Pure_Ones
****Arhats (Luohan) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighteen_Arhats
Guardian Chapter 103: Shen Wei: “I’ll go chase him.”
Behind the huge stone door of the secret room, Shen Wei finally slowly showed himself. He certainly did
not have this conflicted expression on his face when he instructed Lin Jing to perform those disorderly
acts.
Zhao Yunlan’s gaze fell upon the blood stains on his chest, and stopped there. His fists held at his sides
tightened, and prominent blue tendons were revealed on the back of his hand. It looked as though he
was just about to jump into action and give Shen Wei a beating.
However, in the end, Zhao Yunlan didn’t even lift a single finger and only continued to remain silent. His
tongue pressed up against his upper gums, forcing himself to keep his mouth shut. Then, he silently
started counting, losing his place twice. This person who always mocked himself as having “low IQ”
finally jinxed it just as he foretold—he fully used up nearly 2 minutes of time, before eventually
stutteringly counting to 30.
Lin Jing was quick to see his opportunity. In the moment of Shen Wei revealing himself, he covered Zhu
Hong’s mouth and dragged the girl, who donned a face full of uncertainty, off to the side.
The longer that Zhao Yunlan was silent, the more restless with anxiety Shen Wei became, which dragged
out until Zhao Yunlan finally opened his mouth: “Shen Wei.”
In that moment, his tone reminded Shen Wei of the aftermath of when Zhao Yunlan saw through the act
of deception regarding the Da Shenmu, that one sentence with a hint of exhaustion: “If you keep acting
like this, then I will really turn on you”.
Shen Wei suddenly panicked, stepping forward and wanting to walk toward him without a second
thought. However, he had just lifted a foot, when Zhao Yunlan unexpectedly raised a hand to stop him.
“Don’t come closer.” Zhao Yunlan lowered his head, while he simultaneously lowered his voice, “Don’t
come over for now, it’s not the time for you to show yourself at the moment.”
Shen Wei could only stiffly stop where he stood.
Zhu Hong did not understand the reality of the situation, and asked Lin Jing with her eyes wide: “What
does that mean? What does he mean by it’s not the time for him to show himself? Why can’t he show
himself?”
Lin Jing calmly said: “Amitabha, don’t you interfere.”
Zhu Hong: “……”
Zhao Yunlan looked at the ripped clothes and dappling of blood stains over Shen Wei’s chest, and only
asked after a long while passed: “Does it hurt?”
At first Shen Wei instinctively nodded, but then his lowered chin stuck there, and he then rapidly shook
his head.
Lin Jing couldn’t do anything properly, but he was exceptionally good at saying useless things like a
salesman promoting products and was thus well-liked by a range of middle-aged housewives. As soon as
he saw this situation, he was immediately like a dog licking at the door, revealing his sharp tongue as he
said: “How could it not hurt, he fainted from the pain twice.”
Zhao Yunlan took in a breath, expression livid. He didn’t even spare Lin Jing a glance, only coldly flooding
fire in his direction: “Lin Jing, occasionally shutting your mouth once wouldn’t kill you.”
Lin Jing pretended to have overflowing interest and turned his body around, grabbed Zhu Hong beside
him, and pointed in the direction of the battle: “Hey, female shi zhu*, quick, look, they’re going to start
fighting.” (*TN: benefactor)
Zhu Hong seemed to suddenly exhibit great interest in her own shoes that have already been coated in a
layer of dust and fixatedly started studying it, while also silently distancing herself from Lin Jing.
Zhao Yunlan slightly turned his head, gazing towards the battle outside. He relaxed his body, leaned
against the rock wall on his other side. Only after a long while does he say: “So you somehow, through
some sort of method, made it so Gui Mian was pushed to desperation*…”
(*TN: 狗急跳墙 = A dog so desperate that it jumped the fence)
Shen Wei hurried to honestly admit: “I lured him to use the Stone of Three Lives as the hearthstone at
Kunlun Mountain Peak. Through the Soul Refining Furnace and the Merit Brush connecting with the
Reincarnation Dial, the Mountain-River Awl was used to lock in the Reincarnation Dial.”
Zhao Yunlan did not look at him. His speech was very slow, almost as though he was using this chunk of
time to think while he spoke: “Kunlun Mountain Peak… I wouldn’t have remembered if you didn’t
mention it. It was during that time that you left a track on every person that was there right? Thinking
back and forth, it can only be you. The underworld wouldn’t have gotten the way it is now if they
managed to secretly get to this point without anyone knowing.”
Shen Wei unfurled his hand, revealing a single long strand of hair in his palm. Then, he closed up his
hand and the strand of hair disappeared in the blink of an eye. After a moment, it landed in front of
Zhao Yunlan, the inky black long hair that the man once loved so much that he couldn’t let go was
suspended in mid-air in front of him. A hint of an extremely obscure black energy slowly diffused from
it…that was the same as the black energy that was let out from Gui Mian collecting the chaos.
Shen Wei reached out with a hand and with a pinch, he retrieved back the strand of hair. The hair
shattered into a few segments after landing back into his hand. He was extremely cooperative in his
attitude of admitting to his crimes: “The mark was this.”
Zhao Yunlan nodded: “Oh, actually at the little village, when you split the ground open I should have
already thought of it. You are actually the guardian of the Great Seal. If even I could tell that it was a
Shadow Blitz, then how could you have no idea.”
Shen Wei: “Gui Mian isn’t at his grandest time*. A part of his power was sealed in the Houtu Great Seal,
so he doesn’t know that my senses are somewhat keener than his. I felt it at the time, that the broken
pieces of the chaos were just under our feet.”
(*TN: as in, he’s not at his best, or this isn’t the time when he flourishes the most)
Zhao Yunlan: “And yet you still let him give you a smack, what is wrong with you?”
Shen Wei: “……”
“Don’t play dead with me, say something!”
“At the time I…” Shen Wei’s voice gave out for a moment, he rapidly cleared his throat, “This was indeed
not my initial plan. I wasn’t initially that impatient, even though the string was already buried,
but…there was still time after all. I didn’t plan on acting this quickly. It was Gui Mian who was pushed to
the edge of desperation*, he used the broken shards of the chaos to set up an ambush to lure me in. I
actually also was suddenly inspired to want to use the opportunity and push all the consequences onto
him. Afterwards, when I was collecting the shards of chaos, I didn’t want to get to the end with no
achievements, so…”
(*TN: 狗急跳墙 = A dog so desperate that it jumped the fence)
Zhao Yunlan leaned his head against the rock wall, and smiled sourly: “Right, how intellectual you are,
you heard me say two sentences on Kunlun Mountain so you made up a half-real flooded world—so you
used ‘cut off my arm’ to test me out, realizing that indeed you couldn’t afford to mess with me…so you
resolutely included me into your lies too?”
Shen Wei’s voice lowered: “You wouldn’t have agreed…”
There was a slight tremor of his lips. Lin Jing watched neutrally from the side, and, in that moment, he
actually couldn’t differentiate between whether he was pretending or if he was genuine—regardless, Lin
Jing felt that Shen Wei’s expression was as though he knew that he was caught committing a grave
mistake, as uneasy as though he was a criminal standing in court waiting for the judge’s sentencing.
Zhao Yunlan went quiet once again.
Shen Wei suddenly disappeared on the spot. Zhao Yunlan acutely felt a person sidle up close, carefully
using their two hands to prop up on the rock wall on either side of his body. Then, his fist was held by an
ice-cold hand.
Shen Wei softly said by his ear: “If you’re upset, just hit me, I won’t dodge.”
Zhao Yunlan withdrew his hand, pulling it away.
With one move, Shen Wei embraced him, pressed him tightly against the rock wall.
Zhao Yunlan’s brows furrowed: “Let go, don’t stroke the fire, I’m warning you.”
Shen Wei didn’t let out a single sound.
Zhao Yunlan raised his hand and it came into contact with Shen Wei. He turned sideways and shoved
him away off to one side. However, Shen Wei lowly let out a hum in pain. Zhao Yunlan felt him slightly
tremble for a moment and immediately stopped applying pressure. He slowly felt around to Shen Wei’s
chest, touching the dried-up blood stains on his clothes.
After a while, Zhao Yunlan retracted his hand, saying with a neutral, even tone: “What do you plan on
doing next?”
Shen Wei fell silent for a while, opened his mouth and said somewhat desolately: “Nothing, just sit on
the mountain and watch the tigers fight*--I… I guess I have been this despicable since I was born. I don’t
want to indulge these people, shamelessly acting like a pitiful dog every day, hiding away waiting for
someone to protect me.”
(*TN: a proverb describing someone who watches in the safety of the sidelines while two opposing sides
fight, then reap the rewards in the aftermath)
Shen Wei felt Zhao Yunlan’s rejection, so he eventually still let go of him, backing away a few steps to
the side: “Even though Gui Mian always saw me as his enemy, my enemy is not him. I only promised
Shennong to guard the Great Seal.”
Shen Wei’s words were veiled, but it wasn’t difficult to pick up on the unspoken meaning—he didn’t
even care at all for Gui Mian who always chased behind him.
The two of them suddenly both quieted down. Zhao Yunlan turned his head around and took a look at
the Guardian Lamp floating with an air of death on the surface of the water. He dug into the pockets of
his pants, took out a cigarette and lit it, his brows still furrowed tight. He said to Lin Jing and Zhu Hong:
“It’s none of our business now. Let’s go, return to work overtime on a report.”
Lin Jing touched his nose. Being forced to listen to his leader and his family cold-shouldering each other,
he felt awkward in that moment, but could only do his best to joke: “We just started work and now we
have to stay over time, the dragon is almost raising its head in front of our eyes*, shouldn’t something
be given out to us?”
(*TN: it’s like ‘we’re almost getting to the most critical point’)
“Sure.” Zhao Yunlan said without even raising his eyelids. “10 kilograms of monk flesh per person.”
Lin Jing: “…”
Then, Lin Jing raised a hand to give himself a smack on his own face, and placed his two hands together
palm to palm: “Amitabha, that’s what you get for being big-mouthed.”
Zhu Hong, however, suddenly spoke out: “Chief Zhao, I need to stay for a while.”
Zhao Yunlan turned his head back to give her a glance.
“My Fourth Uncle is still here. If I go with you, it’s still not very suitable……” Zhu Hong said.
“Mmm,” Zhao Yunlan thought about it. Indeed that was the right logic, so he gave a nod of his head,
“Alright, keep your distance. You take care.”
After he finished speaking, he took Lin Jing and skirted the edges as he walked out. There was the
occasional Ghost tribe, blinded by stupidity, that pounced over, but they were all settled by the two of
them without a single sound.
Zhu Hong kept watching from behind as they left, witnessing the two partner up in their old ways,
keeping a low profile as though they didn’t exist as they walked on the sides. Only now did she relax a
little, and experimentally said: “Lord Ghost Slayer?”
In the void, the man responded: “What is it?”
Zhu Hong: “…”
And then she jumped up: “Fuck, how come you’re still here?”
Shen Wei was silent for a moment, and lowly asked: “Where should I go?”
Zhu Hong incredulously said: “Why don’t you go with them?”
This time, Shen Wei was silent for a longer period of time.
Zhu Hong: “Ghost Slayer? Teacher Shen? Hello, hello, hello, can you hear? Are you still there?”
“He probably… doesn’t want me to go with them right?” Shen Wei’s voice travelled over from beneath
the Guardian Lamp, and Zhu Hong couldn’t help but follow him and walk inwards by two steps as well.
She heard him say, “He said before, if I lie to him again, he would lose his temper with me.”
Zhu Hong was wide eyed and speechless.
“You lied to him before?” She asked, and without waiting for Shen Wei’s response, Zhu Hong still said,
“No, that’s not the point—the point is you believe what he says?”
Shen Wei hid behind the Guardian Lamp, unafraid of being seen by others, so he revealed a hint of a
weak outline of his silhouette. He looked at Zhu Hong, somewhat at a loss.
Zhu Hong propped one hand up on the rock wall, completely discourteous, and heavily released a sigh:
“In Chief Zhao’s words, my IQ is pretty low to begin with, and don’t understand what you are all bustling
about doing. Either way those conspiracies and schemes all seem to be very impressive—but you’re the
kind of person who treats a hammer like a needle. Are you sure you can deceive him like this? Then
what he has for you is really true love.”
Shen Wei: “……”
“Zhao Yunlan said the words about making Da Qing into a big pot of stew about 99 times, if not 100
times. That dumb cat still is living extremely comfortably isn’t he, getting fatter and fatter?” Zhu Hong
would have never dared to imagine that there would be a day where she could boldly teach the Ghost
Slayer like this, and this Ghost Slayer was even a love rival that she just couldn’t win against. As soon as
she thought about this, she was both sour and exhilarated, the feelings in her heart could not be
summarized using human language at all.
“When I got there, I was just in time to see you wrapped up and taken away by Gui Mian. His
appearance at the time was really like he wished to slice Gui Mian up into ten thousand pieces with
thousands of knives—I’ve been following him for all these years, I can tell in one glance whether he is
truly angry or just putting on an act of annoyance. Do you think it feels good for me deep down?” Zhu
Hong didn’t know what she was thinking either, but she straightforwardly pushed out the conflicts in her
heart just like that. “Why would he be angry with you, just because you lied to him? Shen Wei I really
want to…never mind, I don’t want to anymore, I don’t dare to anyway—For example, if you run away
from home and your mother goes crazy in panic, after she finds you she gives you two smacks, and you
still feel wronged by that?”
Shen Wei used a kind of inexplicable gaze to peer at her.
He and Zhu Hong silently stared down each other for a moment, before she suddenly turned her face
over, blankly saying: “Sorry I forgot you don’t have a mother.”
Shen Wei: “……It’s alright.”
Zhu Hong did not know how to follow this sentence, and the two of them paused out of awkwardness.
Only after quite a long while, Shen Wei suddenly opened his mouth and asked: “You…really like him,
don’t you?”
This sentence spoken out clogged up Zhu Hong’s heart. Stiflingly, she said: “Yeah.”
Shen Wei thought about it: “Then why would you say these things to me?”
Zhu Hong rolled her eyes at him: “I only want you to upset him less.”
A slight hint of confusion fleetingly flashed across Shen Wei’s face, he seemed to be somewhat lost in
thought, his brows gently pinched together. The shining of the rippling pool of water below the
Guardian Lamp were reflected in the bottom of his eyes. It was unknown how much time passed, Zhu
Hong almost thought that his soul floated away, before Shen Wei abruptly pulled his gaze away, and
nodded his head towards her.
“What you said was right.” He said genuinely, “Many thanks.”
After he spoke, Shen Wei stood up, concealing the outline of his body. Zhu Hong heard his footsteps
walk to stand beside her: “Miss Zhu please extend your hand for a moment to receive this.”
Zhu Hong did not understand, yet stretched her hand out. Shen Wei placed a little tree branch that was
hardly longer than her palm in the middle of her hand, with two extremely small new green shoots on it.
Its weight was not significant of course, but this little tree branch that did not appear particularly
shocking felt abnormally heavy to Zhu Hong for no reason.
“This is……”
“This is a branch from the Da Shenmu on Kunlun Mountain,” Shen Wei said, “Ever since the sky opened
and ground split, only Nuwa’s ever chopped off a branch from the Da Shenmu, planting it in the
thousand feet of Huang Quan*, to become the current Ancient Tree of Merits. This is the second branch,
keep it well.”
(*TN: where souls cross over, literally: yellow spring)
With a stagger, Zhu Hong nearly didn’t manage to hold onto it, and flailed to cup it in both of her hands.
With fear and trepidation, she lifted it before her eyes, looking a lot as though she wanted to set up a
shrine for it.
“The branches of the Da Shenmu became a dead tree as soon as it reached the entrance of The Profane
Land…most likely it’s naturally against our tribe. These years I took over for Kunlun, spent a lot of effort,
but still could not take care of it. It’s been a couple thousand years, and yet it could only grow these two
new shoots. I always felt somewhat guilty.” Shen Wei said, “Your Fourth Uncle may not be able to
attend to you. You stay here and hide well away from them. In case you run into danger, the two new
shoots can save your life twice……”
Shen Wei said that, then paused: “If you don’t use it up, wait until everything wraps up and settles. Then,
please go to the trouble of helping me find a place with spirited mountains and picturesque bodies of
water, and plant it there.”
For some reason, Zhu Hong felt like his words were almost as though he was handing over something,
and couldn’t help but ask: “Where are you going?”
Shen Wei: “I’m going to chase him.”
“Does he need to be chased?” Zhu Hong put aside her own uncertainty within her heart for a moment,
pursed her lips, and sourly said, “Don’t pay attention to how quickly that bitch walked away. Now that
the fire’s gone down, who knows how regretful he is in his heart. He’s definitely waiting for you, don’t
worry.”
The invisible Shen Wei did not respond again, and it was unknown if he had left already.
Zhu Hong did not say a single wrong word. Indeed, Zhao Yunlan did not go too far. He found a hidden
spot just at the entrance of Huang Quan road and paced back and forth. Cigarette butts subsequently
covered the ground.
These obvious menopause symptoms made Lin Jing stay well away from him, knowing well to reap
benefits and avoid danger. He silently squatted off to the side, and used a telescope that he got from
who knows where as he crouched and watched the battle as it reached its climax.
When Zhao Yunlan lit the twelfth cigarette of the day, suddenly a hand reached out from nowhere,
forcefully extinguished it with a pinch, and snatched it right out of his mouth.
Zhao Yunlan paused, and inclined his head to the side to see Shen Wei hesitantly standing there, with a
look like he wanted to say something but did not know how to start talking.
After a while, Shen Wei avoided his gaze and slowly lowered his head. He was covered head to toe in
blood stains, looking battered to an extreme, and his glasses had fallen off who-knows-where ages ago.
The hair in front of his forehead was slightly long, and hung over his nose bridge and nearly covered his
eyes, indescribably wronged and pitiful.
Zhao Yunlan was silent for quite a while, then eventually tiredly let out a sigh, reaching out a hand
towards him: “Come here.”
In one move, Shen Wei roped him into his arms.
“I’ve been blinded.*” Lin Jing, who was treated as though he didn’t exist, silently thought in his heart.
(*TN: ‘blinded dog eyes’ is internet slang for when you see something that shocks you or grosses you out
or something similar, it’s a self-mocking term where you refer to yourself as the dog. Often used when
people see PDA etc.)
He gazed over from a distance, and only saw that the tribes seem to have already finished discussing.
The various ghost messengers of the underworld have basically become gunpowder; everyone came to
a silent agreement and squished them all in a place that restricted the line of sight of Gui Mian and
other associated ghost tribes. At the moment, it almost seemed as though over half of them had died.
Lin Jing watched impartially, and felt especially that the opera-like costumes of the Yanluo Ten Hall Kings,
all the flowery and greens, were key to effectively making them hated and despised.
The chaos was extremely powerful even if it were in shattered pieces. Regardless if god or ghost,
everyone avoided its edge. From time to time, there were ones that could not avoid it, and were
swallowed into it without a sound, not even leaving behind a single strand of hair. The chaos seemed to
be able to make anything seem as though it never existed in the first place.
Lin Jing only watched as King Qinguang was forced to an extreme by the shattered pieces of the chaos,
and with a “plunk” he fell into the water of the Wang Chuan* in front of his very eyes. The gigantic
sleeves of his robes forcibly caused him to be afloat, looking just like a rainbow candy that was soaked
until it expanded.
(*TN: stream of forgettance)
At this time, a huge net floated up out of the Wang Chuan, like a great big fish net, and dragged King
Qinguang in his entirety right out of the water. He was drenched head to toe and frantically crawled in a
flail of limbs onto the shore. The elites of the various tribes went and stood in the positions of the Fuxi
Eight Trigrams*. They took the chance when people from the underworld were distracted, and had put
down this large net at some undetermined time.
(*TN: 8 Trigrams: 8 patterns/diagrams of divination origin, the 8 being symbolic for 8 kinds of natural
imagery (e.g. sky, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain). The Trigrams are comprised of symbols
for ‘yin’ (shadow “⚋”) and ‘yang’ (light “⚊”). The sky and earth are meant to represent ‘parents’ while
the others are ‘the six children’ and in total it’s meant to the origin of the world.)
Lin Jing: “Amitabha, what is that?”
Shen Wei’s voice suddenly sounded from behind him: “It’s the Fuxi Eight Trigrams Net.”
Lin Jing was given a fright by him suddenly speaking. His hand shook, and his telescope nearly fell. He
turned his head around and gave a dry laugh: “So um, you’re not busy anymore?”
Zhao Yunlan “unintentionally” stepped onto his foot.
Shen Wei did not actually care about his teasing, and continued saying: “It should have been brought
here by the yao tribe. Rumors say that Fuxi originated from the Eastern soil, and Chiyou only came after
the Holy Seal. After Chiyou, the two tribes of witches and yao were born. After Emperor Taihao (t/n
another name for Fuxi) died, he left behind the Fuxi Bow and Eight Trigrams. After that, the Fuxi Bow
was taken away by Houyi and came into the possession of humans. Looking at it like this, the Eight
Trigrams Net is basically the secret of the yao tribe that cannot be passed down. No wonder, each tribe
indeed has their own hidden treasures.”
Just as he was talking, they watched as the fragments of the chaos seemingly shrunk following the Eight
Trigrams Net floating up. For the first time, it began to retreat back. Gui Mian was suspended high in
mid-air, the expression drawn onto his mask distorted.
Suddenly, a burst of golden light exploded from the entire Eight Trigrams Net. Lin Jing was startled and
said with a small voice: “That’s the Buddhist Golden Mark I enshrined in the West… According to legend,
it’s the last magical treasure that could repress evil demons during the Mo Fa* time period.”
(*TN: In Buddhist terms, Mo Fa refers to the time period where Buddhism slowly began to decline)
The golden light flowed in all four directions, flooding the entire underworld. The little lamps that had
been extinguished at some unknown time on the Huang Quan road were lit once again. This time the
light of the flames were considerably brighter, like a fire dragon that swished its tail along the Huang
Quan road, immediately encircling the surroundings.
The fragments of the chaos in its entirety, along with countless ghost tribe members, were sucked in by
the gigantic net in the blink of an eye. However, it couldn’t seem to cope with the Ghost King, who
arrived at the Yan King Hall at an unknown point in time.
He was indeed powerful, yet he was so powerful he ended up making himself a solitary leader.
Shen Wei gently let out a breath: “Everything has settled. Let’s go.”
This fight would not be able to continue.
Lin Jing had originally followed them. However, he constantly felt a kind of weird, uneasy feeling in his
heart, as if something would go wrong. He subconsciously lifted the telescope, turned his head to glance
over, and saw an expression revealed on Gui Mian’s face, as if he wanted to cry but was smiling instead.
Suddenly, that mask was split open from the middle, dropping off as two halves. It exposed that face
that was so similar to Shen Wei, but far more dismal. The robes on his body fluttered up without wind,
ruffled like a flag.
“Very good,” Lin Jing heard him rasp, “You won, I can’t fight against you. You wouldn’t even stoop to
fight me—very good.”
Shen Wei halted his footsteps.
“You and I have always been identical since birth. I don’t understand where I am worse than you. You
are the solidary, honorable, high and mighty Ghost Slayer. I am the Ghost King who ten thousand people
yell about killing—this is nothing.” Gui Mian let out a low laugh. “Of course this is nothing. I am the
Ghost King of the heart of the Great Land, I can kill all humans and gods across the heaven and earth! I
only hate how your nature is so despicable that even without the courage to battle with me, you get
these ants to humiliate me.”
“You will regret this.” He suddenly started to laugh lowly, “You think you can win without a single drop
of blood on your weapon? You will regret this, my good brother.”
Abruptly, his body grew around ten meters, like a tall mountain. Then thousands of miles away below
ground came a hidden and muffled scream, travelling to ground-level with a rumble, like a clap of
thunder.
Shen Wei’s expression suddenly changed.
Gui Mian let out a loud laugh. His body suddenly shattered into thousands upon thousands of pieces,
and the land started to severely shake and tremble. The Fuxi Eight Trigrams Net that had rounded up the
fragments of chaos broke.

(TN: Please use this link to read more about Fuxi, the 8 Trigrams and Emperor Tai Hao which were
mentioned in this chapter: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/personsfuxi.html )

Guardian Chapter 104: Is the Great Seal completely broken?

Guo Changcheng tightly grasped the small electronic rod Zhao Yunlan gave him. He still hadn’t collected
his wits from within the fright that made his hands and feet ice cold. Earlier, he electrocuted a youchu,
who had narrowly missed coming face-to-face with him, into a burnt laobing (t/n Chinese flatbread).
The youth who had just been talking to them cheerfully changed into a monster—its mouth could open
180 degrees, its entire head precariously connecting in only one spot as if it was split in two. From within,
a blood red tongue and a mouthful of tusks could be seen.
Already, collecting souls of the deceased in a deserted small town sounded terrifying. Who would have
thought that that was just the appetizer and the real heavy meal was still here waiting for them?
Chu Shuzhi dodged the accidental friendly fire of a string of electric sparks from Guo Changcheng, then
reached out and stuffed the satchel from his waist to him: “We put so much effort into collecting these.
Hold it, don’t drop and break them.”
Guo Changcheng’s hands shook like he had Parkinson’s and he finally had no choice but to hold the
entire bag in his arms.
Chu Shuzhi asked seriously: “Are you afraid?”
Guo Changcheng nodded honestly.
Chu Shuzhi: “Are you scared to death?”
Guo Changcheng nodded again with an expression like he was almost going to cry.
“That’s great,” Chu Shuzhi said, “Keep it up.”
Guo Changcheng: “…”
Distracted like this, the undifferentiated assault from the electric rod decreased. Chu Shuzhi glimpsed
something at the corner of his eyes, and then suddenly patted Guo Changcheng’s shoulders heavily.
With a gloomy voice, he pointed behind him and said: “Look quickly. What is that?”
‘That’ was a few youchu that were still a good distance away from them. Guo Changcheng was already
originally extremely fearful. Scared by Chu Shuzhi like this and caught off guard, he whipped his head
around, practically scared out of his wits, and let out a shrill, inhuman scream: “Ahhhhhhhhhh—”
At the same time, the electricity cruelly killed several members of the ghost tribe who were originally
rushing towards them, attempting to eat a good meal.
His fear turned into power. It could be said that although their leader was an asshole, he still had some
skill. Anyways, he was completely able to make the best use out of everything.
Chu Shuzhi gave Guo Changcheng a thumbs up. With a speed invisible to the naked eye, he directly
jumped onto the roof of the row of little townhouses, taking off the winter coat from his body and
throwing it down. The arm revealed underneath the t-shirt turned a weird blue.
Chu Shuzhi moved his fingers and his stiff joints made a few cracking noises. Following, he pulled out a
short flute carved from bone. An indescribable ghastly smile lighted on the corner of his now blue and
purple lips. A strange string of notes streamed from the tips of his fingers and the originally calm ground
surged up. Then, the layer of “dust” on the ground of the small town gradually rose and gathered
together at lightning speed, forming into complete sets of bones in the air. A part of them landed next
to Guo Changcheng, the other part pounced towards the youth who came from an unclear origin.
At this time, the “youth’s” eyes had completely turned red. He narrowed his eyes into slits and looked at
Chu Shuzhi: “Corpse King.”
Chu Shuzhi didn’t pay attention to him. The flute sound suddenly turned sharp; several human skeletons
responded and began to attack. A skeleton’s sharp finger bones abruptly stabbed towards the youth’s
chest. The youth was born a force of evil and instantly disappeared from where he stood, the skeleton’s
fingers directly stabbing out five small holes on the ground.
Following, the youth who was surprise attacked came back with a heavy blow. The skeleton was unable
to react in time and was smashed into pieces by him, its white bones scattering everywhere.
With the sound of the flute, however, the scattered white bones reconnected by themselves and once
again gathered together to entangle the youth.
The youth’s hands and feet were hard like boulders, with every punch and kick he broke apart a skeleton
on the spot. However, the skeletons summoned by Chu Shuzhi were originally congealed from the bone
ashes in the town and could come back together even after being dispersed. Although their attack
power was not high, they were superb in entangling him. As long as there was even a little bit of
carelessness, the sharp finger bones could penetrate through him.
The youth suddenly laughed coldly: “Forget about others, but you are a Corpse King, a felon surrounded
by the air of death. For you to join the Guardian Order…don’t you think that’s funny? When you’re
committing innumerable murders, letting out blood, and cannibalizing, why aren’t you pretending to be
fake respectable like you are now?”
“My sins have been redeemed,” Even at a time like this, Chu Shuzhi still unconsciously glanced at Guo
Changcheng. He found that the young man was busy dealing with the endless stream of youchu and
didn’t hear this statement. He let out an unexplainable sigh of relief, “What are you?”
The youth lifted a corner of his lips, broke off a skeleton’s head and put the entire skull in his mouth,
biting it into pieces with a crunching sound: “Me? My clan was born naturally.”
“Suppress the souls of the living, calm the hearts of the dead, atone the sins of the survivors, reincarnate
those who are unfinished." The youth suddenly read out the words on the back of the Guardian Order
word for word. He forcefully grabbed the four limbs of a skeleton and, like plucking corn, he tore the
four limbs off, crushing them in his hand. He laughed coldly, “The person who left this phrase behind
must be a big fool!”
Due to Guo Changcheng’s “special” human identity, he only signed a labor contract when joining the
company and was not controlled by the Guardian Order. Therefore, he only vaguely knew that this
Guardian Order thing existed and have not actually seen it in much detail. The first time he heard this
phrase, it was actually from a monster with an unknown name. However, Guo Changcheng’s head was
stuffed full of this phrase and, for the moment, was actually struck dumb.
Dazed like this, the electric rod in his hand naturally calmed down.
At this time, a youchu who had been hiding in the corner rushed out like a predator eyeing its prey,
fiercely lunging towards Guo Changcheng who hadn’t yet recovered his senses.
Simultaneously, a skeleton that Chu Shuzhi left behind made a move similar to a real person—it abruptly
stepped sideways, opened both of its hands, and, using its body with only two ribs left, blocked in front
of Guo Changcheng.
The youchu swiftly smashed the skeleton into pieces. Guo Changcheng hurriedly backed up a few steps,
tripped over a big crack on the ground, and fell onto his butt. He closed his eyes and raised the electric
rod over his head. Just as the youchu’s massive claws were about to meet his head, the electric rod went
off.
…The youchu was cooked medium well.
Guo Changcheng sat on the ground, gasping for breath. The skeleton who had just been scattered by the
youchu unstably pieced itself back together and slowly walked in front of him.
Although Guo Changcheng knew that they were all created from Chu Shuzhi, when he saw the skeleton
slowly extend its white bone hand towards him, he still couldn’t help but to flinch slightly. Who knew
that in the next moment, the skeleton only put its boney hands on top of his head. As if it was soothing
him, it gently petted his hair.
If there was a forensic scientist or an expert in identification around, they might have been able to tell
Guo Changcheng that this skeleton belonged to a male, incredibly young, probably only in his early
twenties.
The souls of the living and the hearts of the deceased. Maybe there remained a fragment of memory
within each skeleton who were about to turn into.
Although Guo Changcheng didn’t understand why, his eyes welled up for no apparent reason.
Then, the skeleton turned around, carefully guarding him.
At this time, a rumble like thunder suddenly sounded. At first, it couldn’t be heard clearly, but it became
louder and louder. Guo Changcheng reflexively looked up at the sky. He saw the stars and the moon
from before had all disappeared, almost like it was suddenly overcast. However, no lightning could be
seen. He only now realized that the “thunder” emerged from the ground.
Every skeleton, including the couple who were non-stop clinging to that strange youth, suddenly all
calmed down. Their teeth clattered together with a “gege” sound, creating a strange harmony as if they
also knew to be afraid and were shivering.
Even the youchu on the ground stopped moving, lying prone on the ground in various shapes with their
ears plastered to the surface listening to who knew what.
Chu Shuzhi was completely clueless on what had happened, but he instinctively felt uneasy. He was
decisive in battle and also quick to run away without wasting any time—he flew down from the wall and
grabbed Guo Changcheng’s collar. The scene in front of Guo Changcheng’s eyes blurred and, before he
could figure out what happened, he found himself dragged by Chu Shuzhi, “flying” against the ground.
Suddenly, Chu Shuzhi, who had been rapidly moving close to the ground, suddenly leaped up. In two or
three moves, he landed on a roof, his speed bringing about a piercingly cold night wind. Guo
Changcheng couldn’t resist looking down and immediately understood why Chu Shuzhi had jumped up
to the roof—the entire ground surface seemed as if it had changed into a massive pool of methane gas,
so black that the bottom could not be discerned. Within the cracked open ground, thick black gas
swarmed.
The youth suddenly peeled off his human skin. From within, a huge monster burst out. With him as the
leader, all the youchu began to howl at the sky together.
Chu Shuzhi didn’t even look back. Without taking a breath, he rushed towards the gate of the small
town with Guo Changcheng in tow. Locating the place where they parked the car, he pulled open the car
door and practically threw Guo Changcheng inside, wanting to step on the gas without even closing the
door properly. With the type of acceleration that gave a kick back, he abruptly sped out.
Guo Changcheng: “Earlier…What was that earlier?”
Chu Shuzhi said lowly: “I don’t know.”
Guo Changcheng was still very confused: “Then why are we running?”
Chu Shuzhi was one hundred percent speeding, driving the car almost like he was flying an airplane. Guo
Changcheng had a feeling like the four wheels had already left the ground. He heard his Chu ge say
coldly: “If we don’t run you wouldn’t see the sun tomorrow, idiot.”
Guo Changcheng widened his eyes: “Then what about Chief Zhao and them?”
Chu Shuzhi furrowed his eyebrows: “Give them a call.”
Guo Changcheng fumbled out a phone from his satchel and looked at it: “There’s no signal.”
Chu Shuzhi’s brows furrowed even tighter.
“But where are we running to? What place are we going?”
Chu Shuzhi yanked the steering wheel and took a great turn. The wheels of the car screeched against the
ground, making an ear-piercing noise: “Up the mountain. The higher the better.”
The resort town was originally built with reliance on the mountain scenery and the hot springs between
the mountains. At the foot of the mountain, behind them is a mountain around a thousand meters high.
Fortunately, it was already a well-developed vacation spot and there were roads specifically made for
cars that went up the mountains. It was just that, for fear of danger at night, people weren’t allowed to
pass.
Chu Shuzhi stepped on the accelerator and directly crashed into the safety barrier blocking the road,
sending it flying. Flinging caution to the wind, he drove the car up the mountain—fleeing for his life to
high elevations seemed to be his born ability. After calming down for a bit, Chu Shuzhi only then
remembered: that year when Mount Buzhou collapsed, it seemed as though all the tribes also went up
some godly mountain to seek shelter.
The few isolated sentences in his memories from the ancient myths seemed to be guiding him in the
dark.
Guo Changcheng looked down from the car window. Not a single light was on in the small resort town at
the bottom of the mountain, like it was a gaping mouth ready to swallow everything. His vision suddenly
blurred for a moment—it’s raining.
Within the pitter-patter of the rain, he didn’t know if it was because his own nerves were oversensitive
but Guo Changcheng heard a type of indescribable angry roar, ruthless and chilling to the bone. He gave
a violent, uncontrollable shudder.
Chu Shuzhi only used around thirty minutes to drive to the mountain top. At the precipice, cars could
not go across; it was a man-made small stone road. Behind it was a small suspension bridge that looked
extremely treacherous. Although there were guardrails, it still looked pretty dangerous in the rainy
weather. Above it was a stalactite cave and, in normal times, tourists came and went in a constant
stream.
At night, there was already nobody on duty at the mountaintop. Chu Shuzhi said: “Bring your electric rod.
In the trunk there’s also water and food…bring however much you can. In the car there should also be a
spare lighter…find it and quickly bring it with us and then we’re leaving!”
The two of them took off their coats and used them to cover their heads. Using the quickest speed, they
brought their things and followed the small stone road, rushing towards the stalactite cave opening.
Only now did Guo Changcheng have time to breathe. He looked down and discovered that beyond the
frail guardrails was a cliff extending a thousand meters. Thinking of earlier how they ran through the
swaying little suspension bridge with a speed like they were in a 100-meter race, his legs turned mushy
and he nearly collapsed with his hands, knees, and head all touching the ground.
Chu Shuzhi took out his cellphone and realized that he also didn’t have signal. The entire world’s contact
seemed to have been completely cut off by something. He took off his soaking wet shirt and sat to the
side with his upper body bare, waving away the food and water that Guo Changcheng passed over. With
an extremely bad expression, he looked outside: “It seems like something big happened.”
The two took turns keeping watch over the night. Guo Changchang crawled up the latter half of the
night and adamantly wanted to switch with Chu Shuzhi. Chu Shuzhi was fine with it either way, glanced
at the little electric rod that never left Guo Changcheng’s hand, and silently leaned against the icy cold
stone wall of the cave with his eyes closed.
Guo Changcheng strengthened his spirit and sat in a serious manner, guarding the cave opening. He
grasped the little electric rod with both hands.
After an unknown length of time, he thought that dawn should be breaking soon. However, the sky
showed no signs of brightening. At this time, the small whistle around Chu Shuzhi’s neck, which had
been mute for a long time, suddenly rang several times, not quietly nor loudly. Guo Changcheng rubbed
his eyes hard, opened his flashlight with another cow tear dripping down, and looked out—Within the
drifting rain and winds, he saw a figure, seemingly a young girl, who was currently suspended on the
tottering guardrails of the small suspension bridge!
Chu Shuzhi was awakened by the first sounds of the whistle. He looked out from the cave: “Oh, a little
ghost girl.”
Guo Changcheng walked forward two steps and squinted his eyes hard towards that direction: “I know
that girl. I saw her picture and her ID that her family brought. They claimed that she didn’t come home
at night after getting off work.”
Chu Shuzhi: “Give me a bottle. You wait here for me.”
After he spoke, he grabbed an empty soul-bottle and walked out. However, maybe it’s because the
Corpse King was naturally born with an evil spirit and looked to be fierce and cruel, the girl suddenly
began screaming as if she experienced a huge fright before he even came close to her: “Don’t come! You!
Don’t come!”
Under her swaying, the guardrail made a “rattle” sound in the wind and rain. She looked like she would
fall off very soon.
Chu Shuzhi had no choice but to stop walking—He didn’t know what the girl saw before she died, but it
definitely wasn’t any type of wonderful memory. As a ghost, she already maintained a look like a bird
startled by the mere sight of a bow.
Chu Shuzhi turned his head around and gave Guo Changcheng a meaningful eye. Guo Changcheng
carefully walked over along the suspension bridge. The suspension bridge, made exceptionally slippery
by the scouring rain, originally could only fit single-file. Although neither were fat, Chu Shuzhi felt the
suspension bridge nonstop trembling and shaking under Guo Changcheng’s footsteps.
Guo Changcheng squeezed with difficulty past Chu Shuzhi, who already had a large half of his body
outside the bridge. He took over the small bottle in his hand and cautiously approached the girl who was
dangling in midair. Wiping off a face full of water, he said as gently as possible: “Girl, don’t be afraid.
We’re cops. Come down and come to me. We’ll send you back, ok?”
In the wind and rain, Guo Changcheng used a soft, gentle voice and negotiated with the frightened girl
for a long while. From his head to his toes, he was completely soaked through. The girl finally let down
her guard a little and, after difficulty, accepted the fact that she was already dead. She looked at the
bottle in Guo Changcheng’s hand and carefully climbed down a little.
At this time, a roar suddenly came from the other side of the bridge. The girl immediately cried out
sharply and held on tightly to the cold iron guardrail. The hair rose on Guo Changcheng’s body. From far
away, Chu Shuzhi made a gesture at him to calm down and, in a short time, formed the shape of pulling
a bow. In the middle of the air, a small bow made from condensed water appeared. Slowly, Chu Shuzhi
squeezed out a yellow talisman used for exorcising evil with thunder from between his fingers, rolled it
into the shape of an arrow, docked it on the bowstring, and aimed.
However, with his arrow still fitted on the string, before it was shot out, the bridge surface suddenly
shook unnaturally. Chu Shuzhi’s movements paused. Then, he saw Guo Changcheng looking behind him
with a panic-stricken expression. An indescribable rancid stench originating from beneath Huang Quan
drifted towards him with the wind.
The Corpse King’s cold sweat finally dripped down.
Meanwhile, within Difu, Gui Mian suddenly self-destructed. Shen Wei’s expression at that moment was
one of absolute unadulterated shock. He then lifted his hand and wrapped Zhao Yunlan into his arms. At
the same time, he shouted: “Get down!”
Zhao Yunlan felt a severe pain in his heart, as if it was stabbed hard with a needle. For a moment, his
hands and feet became numb.
Then, a deafening sound came and the waters of Wang Chuan burst out for hundreds of meters, forming
a towering wall. It stopped for a little and then crashed down like a tsunami, creating a gigantic
whirlpool. The things that reacted quickly all flew up onto the high hanging Yan King Hall. The rest were
completely sucked into the inky black Wang Chuan waters. Roars resounded one after another.
Not too long later, the entire Huang Quan road, Naihe bridge, and even the Yan King Hall all split apart
and disintegrated.
The three people, including Shen Wei, rapidly retreated away. Only Zhao Yunlan paused, covering his
chest. With some hesitation, he said: “Zhu Hong…”
Shen Wei pushed him towards the outside: “Don’t worry, she won’t die. I gave her a branch from the
Dashen Mu.”
The three people retreated all the way to beyond the Ghost City and touched the big pagoda tree that
connected yin and yang on the antiquated street of Longcheng. With a “meow” sound, a black shadow
rushed head-first into Zhao Yunlan’s arms.
Zhao Yunlan: “Fat fuq, why are you here?” (t/n literally it’s “dead fatty” but I will keep fat fuq consistent
with previous tl)
Da Qing: “I searched for you all over the world! You heartless rascal! I almost turned over the entire Difu.
What actually happened earlier…did some gas tank explode? Meowing a mi, it scared cat to death!” (t/n
喵了个咪的 an expression of astonishment)
Before Zhao Yunlan could answer, Shen Wei lifted his hand and picked up both the man and the cat,
tossing them towards the big pagoda tree: “Now is not the time to talk about the past. Hurry up there!”
The last few words were shouted at Lin Jing who quickly followed them up.
Shen Wei brought up the rear. His two hands formed an ancient and complicated seal, and he threw out
three seals in a row. The black shadow that had followed them out seemed to have been blocked by an
invisible wall; it stopped and was unable to move a step. Like he was out of strength, Shen Wei backed
up a few steps and leaned heavily against the big pagoda tree. He gasped for breath, his temples soaked
with cold sweat.
Someone from above called him: “Shen Wei!”
Only then did Shen Wei turn around with great difficulty and climb up.
The blocked black shadow on the ground was like turbulent river water obstructed by silt—it
continuously scoured the invisible seal, every time bringing with it a loud, earth shattering noise.
Just as Shen Wei’s head emerged, Zhao Yunlan had already grabbed his hand and practically lifted him
up.
Shen Wei collapsed and leaned on him for a moment. Only after a long while did he catch his breath. He
opened his eyes and saw that the situation beneath the big pagoda tree was actually quite lively. Other
than Da Qing, Wang Zheng, Sang Zan, and a big group of night workers had all arrived, including the
night shift receptionist Lao Wu and the day shift receptionist Lao Li.
Lao Li even had a big drumstick bone in his hand, probably using it as a weapon.
Even the old man guarding the big pagoda tree walked out of his small store in the distance, straddling
the door threshold and watching them.
Suddenly, an ear-piercing screech of a brake sounded. Zhao Yunlan’s father drove his car straight into
the pedestrian street, parked the car at the side of the narrow road, and walked out from inside—No,
this person wasn’t his mortal biological father…maybe he should be called Shennong’s medicinal bowl.
The first sentence Shennong bowl said after he appeared caused a great uproar. He asked: “Is the Great
Seal completely broken?”

Guardian Chapter 105: Second to last chapter

Excerpts taken from @dtriad! Please visit their page.

The hand that Zhao Yunlan had originally used to support Shen Wei abruptly tightened.
Under everyone’s doubtful, nervous, or ambiguous gazes, Shen Wei finally nodded his head.
“The Ghost King used himself as a medium to leak the chaos. I used three old engravings from the Houtu
Great Seal to blockade it underground.” Shen Wei continued, “Additionally, the small resort villa was
slashed by the Soul-severing Blade, splitting open a wide gap. Right now, it’s probably leaking a little but
it shouldn’t be too serious.”
“Nuwa had already dissipated for some thousands of years. The strength of the old engravings on the
Houtu Great Seal is limited. How long can you block it?”
Shen Wei: “It won’t be longer than half a day.”
The surrounding people fell into a deathly silence. Wang Zheng asked quietly: “What exactly is the
Houtu Great Seal?”
Sang Zan gently tugged her and raised a finger next to his lips, indicating that she shouldn’t say more.
Although Sang Zan only understood around 70 to 80 percent of their conversation, he had helped Zhao
Yunlan in looking for the Secret Ancient Records. Through that, he heard some fragments of the whole
story and, by this time, had already guessed a good portion.
Shennong Bowl stared at Shen Wei tightly, continuing to force him with questions: “Then what does
Shangxian actually plan to do*?”
Shen Wei calmly met his gaze, turned his hand to grasp Zhao Yunlan’s, and in a tranquil voice, said: “I
will do as I promised that year.”
His peaceful and calm attitude stunned Shennong Bowl on the spot. Only after a while did his gaze land
on their clasped hands. His expression changed a few times, but ultimately did not reveal anything and
he looked away stiffly. With a slightly unnatural voice, he said: “What can I do for you?”
Shen Wei’s gaze swept across every person and ghost at the scene. In an even manner, he said: “That
year Kunlun Jun used the four holy artifacts to seal the four pillars. When the Great Seal was loosening,
the four holy artifacts were forcefully taken out and reappeared in the human world. Right now, they’re
already all in my hands. I need to reseal the four pillars that hold up the heavens and earth…I hope
everyone can help me hold down the front line.”
As Shen Wei was saying this, a huge bagua grid** appeared on the upper side of the antiquated street—
it was square, the four corners existing side by side with shaoyin, taiyan, shaoyang, and taiyin***,
pointing to east, south, west, and north respectively.
Then, the thin and long Mountain-River Awl took the lead in jumping out from Shen Wei’s palms. It
turned tall and long, vaguely like a precipice in a great snowy mountain, and fell on the Black Tortoise
position**** (t/n north). A deafening noise erupted from the Mountain-River Awl and a big sundial
plate broke out from within, rumbling to turn to the White Tiger position (t/n west). The Ink Brush of
Virtue cut from the Dashen Mu pointed its tip towards the sky, landing on the Azure Dragon position
(t/n east). Lastly was the wickless Guardian Lantern. Although it was still dark without any light, it
followed Shen Wei’s guidance to land on the Vermillion Bird position (t/n south).
Zhao Yunlan: “Ai, wait, wait. Isn’t the Guardian Lantern in the Yan King Hall?”
Shen Wei: “Earlier, I delayed for a moment and brought it along in passing. The one in Yan King Hall is
only a deception.”
After he said this, he seemed a bit abashed in his behavior of conveniently leading the sheep away (t/n
going off with/stealing something) and lowered his head slightly: “It’s a time of emergency…The method
is inappropriate. I am ashamed.”
Zhao Yunlan: “…”
Shen Wei lifted up one of Zhao Yunlan’s hands, and softly said: “It’ll hurts a little.”
After, Zhao Yunlan felt as though something pricked his fingertip and a perfectly round bead of blood
emerged. The drop of blood immediately flew directly into the Guardian Lantern, pulling into a very thin
line.
Then, Shen Wei took off the little pendant from around his neck, the one that he refused to remove no
matter what. He opened the bottle and gently poured a little. An extremely tiny spark flew out from his
fingertips, landing on the tall and slender lantern wick created from the thread of blood. From within
the Guardian Lantern, a faint light like a firefly’s rose up leisurely.
Shen Wei lowered his head, putting Zhao Yunlan’s injured finger into his mouth.
“Wait, that’s it?“ Zhao Yunlan, “Didn’t that Yan King say he wanted to take out a tube of blood from my
heart?”
“The ten fingers are linked to the heart.” Shen Wei said, “The wick of the Guardian Lantern had already
been lost for some thousands of years. Difu wanted to seek a magic weapon that could guarantee peace,
allowing the Guardian Lantern to burn for many years to come. I only have half a day’s time to re-seal
the four pillars. One thread is enough.”
As he spoke to here, Shen Wei lifted his head and addressed everyone: “Kunlun Jun, as the saint of the
mountains, further sealed the four pillars. Although I inherited the 36 mountains and rivers, I was born
filthy and have no way of actually establishing any connection with the four holy artifacts.”
He displayed his original appearance: his long hair hanging down, his inborn demonic aura and his jade-
like upright gentlemanly aura mixing together in a strange and contradictory manner. There was an
unparalleled sense of elegance that could not be put into words.
Nobody could refuse him.
Wang Zheng and Sang Zan looked at each other, and then walked side by side until they were
underneath the Mountain-River Awl. Da Qing took the golden bell on his neck into his mouth and turned
to walk towards the Brush of Virtue. Lao Li, who was carrying the big bone stick looked this way and that
and finally hung a fish that was fried yellow underneath the bone. Without a word, he followed after Da
Qing. Lin Jing took out a 108-bead necklace and stood still underneath the Sundial of Reincarnation.
Just as Shennong Bowl was about to go over, Zhao Yunlan suddenly opened his mouth and halted him:
“Ai, um you.”
Occupying Zhao Yunlan’s dad’s body, Shennong Bowl turned his head around: “You?”
“…” Zhao Yunlan, “Don’t take advantage. You really think you’re someone’s dad—lend me a step, I have
something to discuss with you.”
Shennong Bowl smiled a bit helplessly and followed Zhao Yunlan to walk to a side: “Please talk, Kunlun
Jun.”
Zhao Yunlan leaned against the big pagoda tree and lowered his head to gaze down. It seemed
extremely calm beneath the tree, not at all like there was something crazy suppressed…and only for half
a day. His box of cigarettes was already empty. Lifting his hand, he stuck it into Father Zhao’s pocket,
bringing out another box. Without bothering to be polite, he took it for himself and lit up.
Zhao Yunlan only spoke lowly after a moment of silence: “Actually there is something I wanted to beg of
you.”
Shennong Bowl lowly replied: “I don’t dare.”
“Really,” Zhao Yunlan said, “My parents only have me as their one son. I should have originally
supported them until their old age and given them a proper burial, but I didn’t think that I would be out
of time. Even if I’m out of time, I don’t want white-haired people to see off black-haired people. Think of
a method for me.” (t/n don’t want the old to see the young die)
Shennong Bowl was silent for a while: “I…don’t really understand Kunlun Jun’s meaning.”
Zhao Yunlan: “Don’t pretend like you’re confused. It looks to me like you understand very well.”
Shennong Bowl gave him a deep look: “So, in the end, the Ghost Slayer would only honor his agreement
without a second word because you agreed to die with him?”
“Bullshit,” Zhao Yunlan glanced at him lightly and carelessly breathed out a smoke ring, “These two
things are unrelated. Do you think this master would sell his body?”
Shennong Bowl knew that he slipped up with his remark, lowered his head and was silent for some time:
“I understand.”
Zhao Yunlan stared at his eyes and heard Shennong Bowl say, word for word: “If Kunlun Jun is no longer
alive, I will leave your Father’s body and live under the guise of ‘Zhao Yunlan’ for you. Mountain Saint
please don’t worry.”
“Live well. Live like ‘Zhao Yunlan’,” Like committing “treason”, Zhao Yunlan patted his dad’s shoulders
with force, “The things you should enjoy, enjoy them well. The things you should take care of, also do
them well. I thank you.”
After he spoke, he breathed in deeply twice and extinguished the cigarette that, in his haste, still hadn’t
burned to the end, and passed by Shennong Bowl.
The Medicinal Bowl walked over towards the Sundial of Reincarnation and Lin Jing. Zhao Yunlan stood
solitarily beneath the Guardian Lantern.
Zhao Yunlan softly stroked the Guardian Lamp. Its inscription, unevenly carved into the lamp body, was
exactly the same as the one on the back of the Guardian Order. He felt a peculiar sensation: this lamp
really did seem to be as closely linked with him as flesh with bone, and the pulsating lamp light
miraculously matched the beat of his heart, as if there stood two people—he of the millennia past and
he of the millennia after, without distinction.
For a moment, an unspeakable sigh welled up in Zhao Yunlan’s heart. So the world was as fickle as the
white raiment of clouds turning to gray hounds, as mulberry fields turning to azure seas, and it had long
since turned full circle—yet he himself was like a tortoise aged a thousand, ten thousand years, and in
spite of everything hadn’t changed in the slightest. This really was more than enough faithfulness unto
death.
Shen Wei turned his head toward the shopkeeper who kept watch over the dividing boundary of yin and
yang. That old man led along all those present of the night shift personnel from No. 4 Bright Avenue,
and had them surround the large array. Bountifully wrinkled, he raised his head, humbly brought his fists
together as would the ancients, and saluted Shen Wei: “This old thing has no other use than to protect
the dharma for Shangxian.”
Shen Wei nodded. Then he lifted his finger, and stroke by stroke he wrote in the air ancient characters
from the age of gods and demons. They in themselves seemed to possess power, billowing like waves in
the sky; every stroke carried with it sounds of the celestial vault from a distant time. After that, Shen
Wei joined his fingers together to form an open palm, and brought it down with a heavy clap against the
whole set of characters. All the strokes fell to pieces and flew toward the positions of the sixiang*****
in each corner, falling upon every person’s brow.
In a flash, everyone could hear that spell which had been passed down from the dawn of primeval time.
Inimitably profound, it stirred in them an irrepressible urge to prostrate themselves in worship which
sprang up spontaneously in their hearts.
Finally, Shen Wei glanced to the south, just in time for his gaze to meet Zhao Yunlan’s in midair. He
suddenly gave him an extraordinarily light smile, like flowers instantly blooming in spring.
In the pitch blackness of the Yan King Hall, Zhu Hong couldn’t see anything and wandered about in a
daze. The only light source came faintly from the Dashen Mu branch in her hand that Shen Wei gave her,
creating an invisible protective barrier around her body that firmly separated her from the terrible ghost
tribe and the all-consuming chaos outside. Conversely, the small bud that appeared extremely delicate
became increasingly green.
All of a sudden, Zhu Hong heard someone call her name anxiously. She turned around and saw Snake
Fourth Uncle difficultly leaning against a crevice in the Yan King hall, carefully hiding beneath a huge
scale—Zhu Hong recognized that as the Fuxi scale, one of the sacred objects of the snake tribe.
He seemed as though he was heavily injured and was unable to even preserve his human shape, his
lower body revealing a dark green snake tail.
When Snake Fourth Uncle saw her, he was initially alarmed. Then, he donned a fierce appearance and
spoke harshly: “Why are you here? Why didn’t you leave with Ling Zhu earlier? You don’t want your
little life anymore?!”
He glanced at the situation outside and quickly came out from within the stone crevices. His long tail
curled around Zhu Hong, pulling her into the crevice. With a bloodstain at the corner of his mouth, he
turned to Zhu Hong, his whole face turning white in anger: “There isn’t another child in the entire tribe
who is as absent-minded as you. Don’t you know how dangerous it is, stupid girl? Don’t you know to
run?”
Zhu Hong: “I’m worried about Fourth Uncle…”
Snake Fourth Uncle coldly cut her off: “It’s not the turn for a little imp who can’t even fully transform
like you to worry about me.”
As he said this, he scanned Zhu Hong up and down. Finding that she was flawless and intact, without
even a bit of broken skin, he was finally able to relax and coldly hummed out: “Your luck is good.”
Zhu Hong lifted the branch from the Dashen Mu: “His Honor, the Ghost Slayer gave this to me.”
Snake Fourth Uncle squinted: “Dashen Mu? How could he just casually give that away? What did he say
to you?”
“He said that if these two buds can survive, then I should find a good place to plant them.”
Hearing this, Snake Fourth Uncle’s thoughts took a sharp turn and he suddenly slumped heavily against
the stone wall of the Yan King Hall, his brows furrowing tightly: “So it really is that the Great Seal will
break and he is now taking care of what’s to come afterwards…Could the Great Seal be broken already?”
Zhu Hong’s mind was full of confusion but she didn’t dare interrupt his thoughts. She had no choice but
to stand there silently without questioning him. Only after a while did Snake Fourth Uncle lowly say to
her: “Little girl, dumb luck comes to dumb people—hurry up and take care of it well.”
Zhu Hong immediately nodded to show agreement. At this time, she suddenly exclaimed “yi” and
brought the Dashen Mu branch in front of Snake Fourth Uncle: “Hurry, look.”
They saw a light turquoise color had pushed through the withered and coarse branch at some unknown
time, revealing a delicate head—the branch that originally only had two buds grew out a third one!
Zhu Hong said in astonishment: “What’s going on? Shen Wei said that, in many thousands of years, that
branch had only ever grown these two buds.”
“’Shen Wei’ is someone for you to call?” Snake Fourth Uncle gave her a look, and then said after a
momentary pause, “Kunlun’s divine tree exists together with the heavens and the earth (t/n it lasts
forever); it is the beginning of all life. That year, Nuwa wanted to borrow the branch of the divine tree to
erect at the entrance of the Profane Land. She harbored murderous intentions and, as a result, grew a
tree that was never alive and already dead…Now this branch is sprouting for no reason…perhaps it’s
because someone’s intentions have changed.”
Those two were relatively safe in the most dangerous of places. However, Guo Changcheng and Chu
Shuzhi, who were hanging on the suspension bridge, were practically hanging on to life by a thread.
Chu Shuzhi made a prompt decision, and, not caring about the movements behind him, directly released
the hand pulling the bow. The incantation that spun out incurred a sudden clap of thunderbolt, crashing
down as if it was going to split the sky and piercing through the ghost tribe on Guo Changcheng’s side.
He then rapidly turned his head. Within that movement, he used his arm, which had again turned a
grayish blue, to stir up a large curtain of rain. The rain water solidified into a massive skeleton and dived
down in the air.
He only realized after he turned around that the thing behind him was actually not a youchu but that
red-eyed monstrosity of a youth in human skin.
The red-eyed monster was a high-ranking member of the ghost tribe. After it inhaled the chaos of the
Profane Land leaking from the cracks in the ground, the whole person…no, the whole ghost seemed to
turn the situation around for its own benefit—like switching a bird-hunting gun into a canon. Two inborn
Ghost Kings: one had already died, and the other was bound into a partly real God through the immortal
tendon. All the high-ranking ghost tribes were fanatically eyeing the position, wanting to take over and
become the Ghost King of a new generation.
The ghost tribe who would have originally been at a complete loss in the face of Chu Shuzhi’s skeleton
only lifted an arm and was able to blockade the big skeleton created from water. With a pinch of its
fingers, the skeleton once again scattered into water droplets, splashing everywhere.
Following, Chu Shuzhi felt as though a strong force hit his chest, sending his thin body flying straight out
from the suspension bridge. Underneath him was a cliff over a kilometer high.
Guo Changcheng didn’t think. In that instant, he didn’t know where his bravery came from, nor did he
have any what he was thinking, only that he suddenly flipped over from the safety rails. As if it was an
act of suicide, he jumped from the bridge and leaped towards Chu Shuzhi. The waist satchel that he was
originally holding in his arms fell onto the bridge surface, the soul-bottles scattering across the ground.
Another dull sound, like thunder, rumbled from underground.
The four holy artifacts were linked together by the incomprehensible ancient inscriptions. With Shen
Wei as the center, they gradually and smoothly started circulating. Every person who acted as an anchor
for the array could feel the connection between the inscriptions Shen Wei pressed into their heart and
the four holy artifacts nearby—they were seized with an irresistible impulse to silently recite those
words that they could neither read nor understand.
Lao Li, who was carrying the big bone, seemed to have been agitated by the ancient inscriptions.
Lowering his head, he looked at the laughable yet indescribably serious fat cat and listened to the
ringing stemming from the gently shaking cat bell. Suddenly, he spoke in a low voice: “Three hundred
years ago, there was a person with an incurable disease on his bones. When it was activated, the pain
was such that you couldn’t beg to live…and death wouldn’t come even if you begged for it. If you think
about it in the present time, it was probably bone cancer. My family members burned incense to invite
the gods without consulting me…”
Da Qing was abruptly shocked and raised his head in disbelief.
Lao Li already had a head full of white hair and he reached out a shaking hand, wanting to once more
pet the cat head that he’s petted innumerable times before. However, this time, the black cat dodged
him. This old man, who seemed to have a strange obsession with bones and who was always little
known at No. 4 Bright Ave, seemed to have aged 10 years in the space of a moment. His lips quivered for
a moment: “Later, we didn’t manage to invite a god but we invited in a black cat who loved to eat fried
fish. That person’s disease had already been regarded as hopeless and he was unable to go out all day
long. Every day, he was utterly bored…so when he saw a living, breathing creature, he was thrilled. He
treated this black cat as a godsend little friend. Not being able to leave the court gate, he felt that he
might as well stick together with the cat through the difficulties.”
The edges of Lao Li’s eyes were slightly wet, as if he was about to cry. However, his eyes were already
murky and no tears could escape: “But that person later found out that the black cat wasn’t actually an
ordinary cat, but a godly cat. It could communicate with Yin and Yang, and could travel between heaven
and hell. One day, the black cat broke into the wine cellar, fell into a jar of wine, got drunk, and shared
the secrets of the golden bell around his neck. It said that the bell was bestowed by its former master,
containing half of his primordial spirit inside. It could bring the dead back to life and reverse
reincarnation…death was at that person’s door and that person was so scared of death that he was
almost crazy.”
Da Qing said coldly: “And so he cheated the bell from me. Thank you for your blessing, giving me such a
good lesson. The stupid cat only realized at that time what it meant to guard itself against others. I
heard that in the end you died a natural death on your bed. How was it to live those few more decades?
Did it feel good?”
Lao Li quietly said: “It was like a fishbone stuck in my throat, like maggots stuck to the bone.” (t/n first
one indicating that there were words he could not say and he felt awful about it, and the second means
that there were bad feelings that he could not get rid of)
Da Qing twisted his head around: “That’s a pity—what are you doing mixing into the Special
Investigations Department? You even went undercover for several decades. That year, the well-
respected scholar felt wronged in watching over the gates and doing chores for us—I only found my bell
recently…at that year when you came in, I already didn’t have anything on my body that you could
scheme for, right?”
Lao Li suddenly bent his knees and dropped into a kneel—Three hundred years later, he began a new
cycle of reincarnation, yet carried with him the poison buried within the crevices of his bones from that
life. Guarding the doorway of No. 4 Bright Ave as an inconspicuous doorman, he hoped that every day at
the end of work he could feed a few of the little crispy fried fishes to the black cat who was becoming
more and more portly. He thought that this lifetime would be lived out like this and the next lifetime
would be the same, but the Ancient Brush of Merits was overhang high above his head and every bit and
piece of his past was lined up…ultimately all boiling over like an explosion within his heart.
Lao Li’s murky tears finally fell. As if the still and silent Ancient Brush of Merits had heard something, it
abruptly moved—little by little, it turned in a half-circle, exposing its red and black brush tip.
Then the sixiang answered as one—
Wood bears fire: the Guardian Lamp suddenly shone bright and clear.
Fire bears metal: the Sundial of Reincarnation was in a sunless state, yet the shadow on top slowly
moved on its own.
Metal bears water: the vein lines on the Mountain River Awl started to wander like living things.
The earth was trembling violently, until the trilinear seals on the Houtu Great Seal finally ruptured.
Vicious currents from fathoms deep below the Seal broke through the earth and emerged, as if ready to
engulf the whole world. The bright lamps and fires of all the cities and villages were utterly extinguished;
the light of the living world was like a frail mirage. With a sweep of the north wind there’d be no traces
left.
At last, a calm and unhurried voice recited the words of sealing: “With the stone of three lifetimes, seal
the white mountains of the west.”
Stone, not yet old but eroded.
Lin Jing and Shennong Bowl simultaneously felt as if the pits of their stomachs had emptied. Just then,
an inscription carrying the distinctive gold seal of the true dharma and the breath of the descendants of
Shennong’s followers plunged into the Sundial of Reincarnation. The Sundial revolved thrice at lightning
speed, and faded away in midair.
From the west there came a loud sound, as if a great nail had pushed down through the ground to a
place millions of miles deep. The black air shrouding the earth forcibly pushed open a clear and distinct
crack; and then the dark turbulence was sent scattering, unexpectedly dissipating to a miraculous
degree.
“With the essence of mountains and rivers, seal the black waters of the north.”
Water, not yet cold but frozen.
“With the root of good and evil, seal the jade expanse of the east.”
Body, not yet live but dead.
One by one, the three Hallows faded away within the sixiang bagua grid, till only the Guardian Lamp
was left in the end.
“With the soul of the god, seal the great fire of the south.”
Everything suddenly transformed upon the sixiang bagua grid: the Four Pillars all rose, as the Guardian
Lamp moved to the center. Zhao Yunlan was too late to react as he felt the inscription flowing out in a
torrent—but the connection between himself and the Guardian Lamp had been severed.
A pair of hands embraced him from behind. Zhao Yunlan suddenly turned his head back. At some point,
Shen Wei had appeared behind him unawares, and in the instant he turned his head Shen Wei kissed
him deeply.
It was an intensely tender and lingering kiss, until Zhao Yunlan felt something flowing swiftly from his
own heart. He suddenly, violently began to struggle—but the hand that Shen Wei had clasped around
the back of his head was like iron, unable to be thrown off no matter what. Zhao Yunlan’s heart turned
ice-cold; from his first acquaintance to later familiarity with Shen Wei…even all the trifling bits up until
the present flashed before his eyes like flickering lights and passing shadows, and let him sense with
utter clarity a hand that was ruthlessly erasing them, little by little.
Shen Wei’s whole body caught on fire. Only until his long hair and robes were swept up together into
the fire did he let go of Zhao Yunlan, who was already unconscious, pushing him away and sending him
off through the air to land far away in the arms of an astonished Shennong Bowl.
Finally, he gazed deeply at Zhao Yunlan—after which he was consumed at last by the great fire, never to
be seen again.
So it turned out that the person he’d wanted to obtain, by any means necessary, was pushed away by
his own hands in the end.
So it turned out that the promise to live and die together, which he had schemed so hard to gain, was a
promise first broken by himself in the end.
“No death, no extinguishment, no godhood”—he really was naturally stupid. For only at the end of the
road, in the instant when life and death flashed before him amidst flint sparks and lightning, did he
suddenly understand it all.
Shen Wei didn’t know why, but his heart was unexpectedly at ease; all of a sudden, he had the feeling
that he “could now be worthy of him,” but…
It was a pity he’d never see him again.

*the t/n from dtriad about this: The shopkeeper addresses SW using 上仙 shàngxiān (basically
“immortal”) as a pseudo-title, a more formal/respectful way of saying “you”; outside of this excerpt, SW
& Shennong-bo also occasionally address each other as Shangxian, and Shennong bowl addresses KL as
山圣 shānshèng (“sacred mountain/mountain sage”). I kept this as a name/title formality marker rather
than change to generic “you” throughout.
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagua
*** same link as above refer to the “relation to other principles” section
**** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Symbols The four gods correspond to four directions
***** Four Animal Spirits http://www.landandspirit.net/html/sixiang-4-animal-spirits.html
Please go to dtriad’s page for more footnotes!

Guardian Chapter 106: The End

(Once again with excerpts from @dtriad! Also thank you to everyone who stayed with Guardian until the
end! Love you guys! Make sure to read the bottom for where to find the extras...there are 5!)
Strong tremors rocked the surface; the underneath of Huang Quan was even more stormy.
Snake Fourth Uncle firmly protected Zhu Hong, as if she was still that spoiled young snake wrapped
around his wrist.
Partially visible scales, as hard as iron, loomed underneath his skin, protecting her from the rocks and
sand falling from all directions.
The underground calmed only after an indeterminate amount of time; the thick, black gas that obscured
one’s knowledge of where they were miraculously began to gradually dissipate. Those who survived
wearily stuck their heads out from various corners and carefully examined their surroundings.
Zhu Hong asked in a low voice: “Fourth Uncle, what is it?”
Snake Fourth Uncle shushed her, released his divine senses, and cautiously scanned the situation nearby.
Right at this moment, Zhu Hong suddenly made a small exclamation. Snake Fourth Uncle turned his
head and saw that the branch of the Da Shenmu, which had grown a third bud for an unknown reason,
had gradually began to float out from her hands. Zhu Hong wanted to immediately chase after it but was
grabbed by Snake Fourth Uncle: “Wait, what are you going to do?”
Zhu Hong was a bit anxious: “Shen Wei saved my life. I also agreed with him that I would find a place to
plant it. How could I lose the branch of the Da Shenmu?”
After she said this, she broke away from Snake Fourth Uncle’s hand and ran out as if she was a newborn
calf who wasn’t afraid of tigers (t/n fearlessly).
Zhu Hong had only been born for not even several hundreds of years and completely did not know of
various complexities. She had never heard of “Houtu Great Seal” and didn’t know to be afraid, and so
rushed out brazenly and fearlessly.
Snake Fourth Uncle hesitated for a moment, but ultimately could not be at ease. He reluctantly
transformed back into two legs and chased after her.
The Shenmu tree branch flew straight to the waters of Wang Chuan. On top of the water, the black gas
had already completely dissipated, revealing the deep, serene, and icy cold Wang Chuan water
underneath. For a moment, the Dashen Mu hovered in the air. Then, it directly dove down.
Zhu Hong was instinctively a bit afraid of the Wang Chuan waters, but she thought of her promise. After
a momentary pause, she steeled her resolves, shifted into the original shape of a python, and with a
“putong” sound, also dove down. Snake Fourth Uncle immediately followed after her.
To the eyes of others, these two snakes were practically throwing away their lives. Although for some
unknown reason, it was currently quiet, who knew what the actual situation was at the Great Seal? A
new round of eruptions could potentially be brewing. To jump down at this time…wasn’t that looking for
death?
Zhu Hong and Snake Fourth Uncle followed the Dashen Mu and sank all the way down. Snake Fourth
Uncle’s eyes suddenly flashed; he had a wide range of experience and knowledge and, at this moment,
already had an idea in his heart—the direction that the Dashen Mu was sinking was exactly the direction
of the legendary Ancient Tree of Merits.
Sure enough, not long after, they saw the lofty and withered Ancient Tree of Merits. The Ancient Tree of
Merits, which had been motionless for thousands of years, suddenly stretched out its dried branches
and slowly undulated up and down in the waters of Wang Chuan, shaking gently. The branches brought
about light ripples, as if it was welcoming something.
The branch from the Da Shenmu landed next to the Ancient Tree of Merits, burying itself into the
deepest part of the soil.
With a speed visible to the naked eye, it then rapidly took root and sprouted, growing branches and
leaves. Before long, it was already standing straight and covered in rich canopy, contrasting with the
Ancient Tree of Merits next to it.
Following, it reached out a lithe, thin, and long strand like a silk ribbon and tenderly entangled around
the Ancient Tree of Merits that had been withered and dead for thousands of years. Suddenly, Zhu Hong
covered her mouth in astonishment—small tender buds started growing on the dead tree!
The two giant trees continued to grow thick and tall until they were thousands of zhang long, and
persisted until they emerged from the turbulent waters of Wang Chuan. The green shade covered the
entirety of the Yan King Hall, which had already been reduced to desolate, broken walls. Even then, they
continued to flourish. Looking from afar, the crown of the tree seemed furious in its rolling density, and
it was nearly impossible to see the top.
The wounds on Snake Fourth Uncle’s body miraculously healed underneath the tree. His gaze finally
landed behind the Ancient Tree of Merits—the Houtu Great Seal rock that had existed before was
already nowhere to be seen.
The Houtu Great Seal disintegrated, and the land that was pervaded with black gas and the sound of
ghosts suddenly broke out in raging fires. The four pillars returned to their original spots—maybe a new
Great Seal would be finished soon, or maybe…
Above ground, Wang Zheng suddenly muttered, “What… is that sound?”
“It’s mountains.” Shennong bowl listened for a moment. “The sound of ten thousand mountains crying
together.”
Wang Zheng opened her eyes wide. “Mountains can cry too?”
Shennong bowl was briefly silent. “They can. Legend says that the mountains cried together only when
Pangu fell. Not even when Kunlun Jun’s body became the Guardian Lamp was there a sound like this,
probably because at that time it wasn’t truly the complete extinguishment of body and soul.”
Wang Zheng stood blankly for quite a while before she reacted to the meaning behind his words.
Whether it was Shen Wei or the Ghost Slayer, she hadn’t had much interaction with either, but by the
time she’d realized it her face was already streaming with tears, to her own surprise—she knew in her
heart that ghosts could not easily shed tears, but she couldn’t suppress them no matter what.
Sang Zan sighed, and reached out to take her into his arms.
At that moment, a familiar voice suddenly, softly said, “Foolish girl, what’s with the crying?”
Stupefied, Wang Zheng looked down. Zhao Yunlan had opened his eyes at some point, and slowly got to
his feet.
Wang Zheng met his eyes, but suddenly felt there was something ineffably strange; that person was
definitely Chief Zhao who she interacted with daily, and yet it seemed… there was some unspeakable
difference.
Her heart seized up wildly—could it be that Shen Wei had really taken away all of his memories?
However, Shennong bowl looked him up and down with bewilderment for a moment, then suddenly
retreated three steps back, slowly knelt down, and with the utmost deference performed a greeting:
“This one pays respects to the Mountain Saint.”
Zhao Yunlan… Kunlun Jun put his hands behind his back, and waved him up as he pleased.
Wang Zheng felt as if the scene before her eyes was blurring, for just then the scrunched and wrinkled
windbreaker on the man’s body had flashed into long-sleeved and girded green robes, like the flickering
vision of that person who had emerged thousands of years ago in the chaotic times.
Shennong bowl quietly said, “Master forced down and suppressed the Mountain Saint’s primordial
essence; and when he sent you off into the wheel of reincarnation, he entered into a contract with the
Ghost Slayer, which decreed that for generation after generation he would live or die with the Great
Seal. Now, great calamity has come upon the mortal world, and the Houtu Great Seal had broken down;
the Ghost Slayer sacrificed himself for the Great Seal, so all karma has already been settled.”
The blazing inferno had turned the color of warm orange, its fire reflecting in Kunlun Jun’s eyes. He was
silent for a long time before he said, softly, “I know.”
Shennong bowl continued, “The Ghost Slayer was a Ghost King who ascended to sagehood, seeking
goodness to attain goodness, and in the end eliminated your…”
“Alright, don’t say any more.” Kunlun Jun didn’t turn his head back, his handsome face gathering an
unspeakably deep melancholy. “I know this all.”
Shennong bowl responded by lowering his head with deferential respect. Only after a while did he go on,
“When Master departed this world, he ordered me to oversee the contract between him and the Ghost
Slayer. This humble one can now retire with merit gained.”
Kunlun Jun didn’t take notice of him at all, but spread open both hands. In them lay the scale Nuwa had
left behind, which had once sustained a small eleven-year reincarnation wheel. Kunlun Jun said lowly to
himself, “Shennong, just what exactly did you want to tell me?”
At that moment, a tremor passed delicately through the earth; everyone startled at once, like birds
frightened by the twang of a bow, but only saw the land beneath themselves moving loosely. Then, the
top of a great tree suddenly broke through the earth—luxuriant in branch and leaf, jade-green and
glistening, as if the leaves bore the dew from another world that dripped upon the ground. The wrinkles
of the earth, originally caused by the shattered Great Seal, gradually joined together.
What was permanence?
Why must there be good and evil, right and wrong?
What was life? And what was death?
Kunlun Jun’s faintly furrowed brow finally relaxed a little. He stretched out a hand, just in time to catch a
fallen leaf.
He suddenly asked, “You were the one who transferred Guo Changcheng to the SID?”
Shennong bowl said respectfully, “Yes. When Master was alive, he ordered me to look for a person
without the divine eye, who yet could see through to truth: a nobody, who yet bears great merit from
Heaven.”
“So that’s how it is.” Kunlun Jun heaved a sigh and softly said, “I understand, many thanks.”
In an instant, Nuwa’s snake scale crumbled to dust in his palm.
Da Qing finally couldn’t help but ask, “Just what is going on?”
Kunlun Jun sat down with legs crossed underneath the Guardian Lamp, and softly stroked the black cat’s
head. “Don’t worry, the Guardian Lamp is still lit.”
With that, he sat as if in meditation and closed his eyes, like the image of a god silent from ancient times
to the present. Behind him was a tiny flame that crowned the great lamp.
The little electric rod on Guo Changcheng’s body did not have any reaction—he had no time for being
horrified or scared, and his mind was blank. In his eyes, there was only the falling Chu Shuzhi.
He desperately reached out and, with both hands, grabbed Chu Shuzhi’s arm. With his eyes squeezed
shut tightly, he listened to the howling mountain winds roaring past his ears.
Right at this time, Guo Changcheng suddenly felt that his body stopped in its descent.
Guo Changcheng opened his eyes in amazement, only to see that when he fell down, he had accidentally
broken open the satchel that Chu Shuzhi gave him. The soul-bottles all rolled out, their lids crashing onto
the guardrails on either side and shattering. From within, the souls that he had collected all rushed out.
They did not carry human shapes; just like in the bottle, they were luminous and colorful light clusters.
Together with the girl on the bridge, the spirits of seven or eight people connected with each other,
forming a large net that spread down from the suspension bridge, precariously catching the two people
in the center.
Chu Shuzhi was thoroughly startled. However, he knew that now was not the time for him to dawdle on
his thoughts. With a low voice, he said thank you and then picked up Guo Changcheng, lightly leveraged
himself against the soul net, and leapt up. Following, his toes alighted briefly on the guardrails and he
quickly landed on one end of the suspension bridge. Turning his hand, he threw Guo Changcheng into
the cave entrance behind him and then tossed out twelve talismans in succession. With a vicious assault,
he aimed directly towards the red-eyed ghost tribe that surrounded them. The thunder and lightning of
nine days descended, sound first, and transformed the suspension bridge into a high voltage electric
fence.
Behind the battle, the souls that formed a net changed into a string of light spots, circling around Guo
Changcheng.
The body of the unattractive youth suddenly flashed a light orange halo, like the warm light of a fire. The
souls around him seemed as though they felt something and involuntarily approached him.
Guo Changcheng seemed to have a voice in his heart, and he was unable to restrain himself from
blurting out at that moment: “Su…suppress the souls of the living, calm the hearts of the dead…”
A ray of light came from far away. In the stretching pitch darkness of the human world, that ray of light
was first exceedingly faint, but began to burn a wider and wider boundary. At last, it spread to edges of
places beyond where the eyes could detect, covering the entirety of the vast land.
The red-eyed ghost tribe, who had gained the upper hand and almost forced Chu Shuzhi back onto the
suspension bridge, abruptly screeched. He covered his eyes and backed up multiple times in succession,
dropping down to sit onto his butt on the swaying suspension bridge. Then, he twisted and shriveled up,
ultimately melting alive from the burning ray of light.
Chu Shuzhi was shocked, and twisted his head to look towards Guo Changcheng. In that moment, he
had the illusion that Guo Changcheng’s entire person had become a cluster of flames, the frequency of
its flickering coinciding miraculously with the flames spanning the entire great earth.
The Corpse King was a bit worried and strode over in large steps. Exploringly, he put his hand into the
flickering flames on Guo Changcheng’s body, only to feel that there was a strange type of temperature
within in, not at all burning.
Guo Changcheng couldn’t see the flames on his body and continued to dumbly read out the last half,
following the voice in his heart: “…atone the sins of the survivors, reincarnate those who are unfinished.”
His voice seemed to coincide with something from within the vast land, giving rise to a boundless
resonance and reverberation. Chu Shuzhi felt something and lifted his head. He saw the souls that died
in the resort town, the ones that they had looked for all night but couldn’t completely gather, drift up
from the foot of the mountain one by one to float up to Guo Changcheng.
The book that Guo Changcheng carried on him recorded in detail every description the families offered
of the missing persons. It additionally had every small town owner’s respective names, ages, physical
features, etcetera.
The souls lined up and each found their own page. Some of them lifted a pen and wrote “give so-and-so
this message” on the side; some saw their lopsided names written by what looks like a children’s
handwriting, and seemed to let go of their worries.
At last, they disappeared into the air one by one, forming into countless dots of light and flying towards
the sky.
A sound like thunder in spring time resonated from the horizon and the sky peeked through the
coverage of dark clouds. Then, from the south, two massive trees broke through the ground at an
indeterminate time, surpassing houses, surpassing high-rise buildings…and even surpassing the grand
mountains.
The souls gathered next to Guo Changcheng had almost all left, with the exception of one. It landed on
the ground and revealed the appearance of the express deliveryman, Feng Dawei.
“Older brothers,” He called out to Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng excitedly, “Thank you both. There is
a next life…I believe it. When I am born again, I will once again be the son of my parents and the sibling
of my brother…I will spend my time well, live well, and do more good things to make up for this life.”
As Feng Dawei spoke, his soul became more and more transparent, until it also scattered into broken
light points and finally floated into the endless cycle of reincarnation.
The light on Guo Changcheng’s body reached peak brightness before it swiftly broke away from his body.
Like a shooting star, it flew towards the distance.
Sitting at the foot of the Guardian Lamp, the sage of the great wilderness and mountains suddenly
opened his eyes. A ball of fire, as brilliant as the morning sun, landed inside the Guardian Lamp; and the
flames, once pea-sized, leapt up a hundred meters.
Kunlun Jun stood up. His hands, pressed to the Guardian Lamp, shone orange from the flames. He kept
his back to the others, and as he gazed at the Guardian Lamp there was finally a flash of indescribable
apprehension and anticipation.
The shadow of a human figure gradually took shape within the flames and broke away from the blaze to
fly out, landing directly in Kunlun Jun’s embrace. That person wasn’t heavy at all, but Kunlun Jun looked
as if he’d used all his strength to catch him and uncontrollably staggered a step—holding that person in
his arms, they fell together to the ground.
Lin Jing whispered in surprise, “Professor Shen!”
The tranquil expression that Kunlun Jun had tried so hard to maintain cracked at last. The knuckles of his
fingers were pale from his grasp on Shen Wei.
Shen Wei suddenly seemed to choke on something and let out several soft coughs. Unconsciously, he
turned his head crookedly to one side and leaned against Kunlun Jun’s body, his slight breath sweeping
across Kunlun Jun’s neck.
The fragment of a flame flashed lightly on Shen Wei’s brow and shoulders and then sank into his body,
no longer visible.
“Is that… soulfire?” Shennong bowl said blankly. “Murderous, soulless ones, have they spawned real
souls? The ghost race also has souls? Then the Great Seal… how does the Great Seal still exist.”
“The Great Seal is gone, can’t you feel it?” Kunlun Jun gently pressed a kiss to Shen Wei’s brow. “The
Ghost King’s ascended to sagehood and has a soul. Shennong’s fulfilled his long-cherished wish at last;
millennia after his death, he’s established the true wheel of reincarnation that was ever in his mind.”
“But that’s impossible!” Shennong bowl said in disbelief. “Humans’ Three Corpses originated from the
Profane Land—what of the vicious currents deep underground? If we let them come into the world,
wouldn’t the troubles of the war of gods and demons just repeat themselves…”*
One of Shen Wei’s hands was still tightly closed, and seemed to hold something in his palm. Kunlun Jun
softly took hold of his right hand; and, as if he’d felt a familiar breath, Shen Wei slowly loosened his
hand’s grip. A golden spirit-calming talisman flew out from his palm and leapt before Kunlun Jun’s eyes.
All of a sudden, Kunlun Jun laughed—this was the exact talisman that he had personally drawn on the
back of Shen Wei’s hand, when they’d seen each other for the first time.
The spirit-calming talisman flew straight into the Guardian Lamp, which suddenly began a slow ascent
from the ground until it plunged into the earth to the south.
Thus, the new Four Pillars were completed, yet they existed no longer for the sake of suppressing
anything.
“You were the one who kept using Shennong’s words to warn me; you were the one who found and
retrieved the Guardian Lamp’s true wick.” Kunlun Jun carefully carried Shen Wei as he got up. “Why
don’t you understand now?
“Suppress the souls of the living, calm the hearts of the dead—so long as the Guardian Lamp continues
to burn, chaos will never rebel though it exists.”
As his voice fell, the treetop that towered over the mountains suddenly transformed into countless
drops of dew, and scattered to every nook and cranny. The earth, so utterly devastated by the broken
Great Seal, recovered to its original state, sprouting the tender green shoots of early spring so easily
overlooked by people. The mortals on earth would not remember that there once had passed this
sunless calamity.
Just then, the first ray of daylight pierced the black clouds—for dawn had come.

*Lit. tl is "Three Corpses," but it means something more like the three death bringers.

Guardian has four extras and also the Shen San extra
All four extras can be found linked to the bottom of @dtriad’s page. Shen San extra is translated by
@oubings and is ONLY spread via DMs. You can feel free to message me on twitter @ineffablebfs or
tumblr @ineffableboyfriends