Ch30 - Last minute lifesaver

Mild noncon touching, assisted suicide.

(I’ll be putting all future chapter warnings under a spoiler tag in case some readers want to go in blind) 🙂

Though the snowfields were cold, the blade reflected in Ming Kong’s irises was even icier.

“Senior Brother Shen!” he exclaimed in shock.

Shen You matched his description in the novel: cold yet kind, aloof but upright. Ming Kong should know this after all his efforts to stay by the man’s side during these years. Thus, it was no surprise when Shen You took action against a would-be “murderer.”

But Ming Kong idealized the man, so he naturally had fantasies and expectations about him.

“I treated you so well,” Ming Kong muttered, “and yet you…”

“You do treat me well,” Shen You’s expression didn’t change and he even thrust his blade closer. “But that has nothing to do with whether or not you kill people.”

Xie Zhiwei grew puzzled at this point. If Shen You was determined to kill Ming Kong, then he has no choice but to die. How did Shen You and Nie Ting end up being screwed over instead?

Ming Kong’s mouth twitched slightly. “So Senior Brother Shen is resigned to killing me?”

“No,” Shen You shook his head. Before Ming Kong’s eyes could light up in joy, he mercilessly doused his hopes. “I won’t deal with this affair privately. I’ll hand this over to senior brother and the other elders so they can sentence you after a public trial.”

His tone was indifferent, as if he was talking about an object. Although this was the standard method of dealing with sinful disciples in all major sects, Ming Kong couldn’t accept it.

He backed away and cried, “Impossible! I can’t be put on a public trial!” Then he leaped on his sword and fled from the mountains.

Xie Zhiwei wasn’t surprised. Anything could happen in a trial and all sorts of details would be exposed to the public. Once Ah-Er’s identity was revealed, Ming Kong’s lies would come to light. That was probably worse for him than outright death.

Shen You’s eyes narrowed at Ming Kong’s actions. “Presumptuous,” he murmured and gave chase.

Ming Kong’s cultivation base couldn’t compare to Shen You’s, so he didn’t outrun him. When he saw the other catching up, he gritted his teeth and dove to hide in the southern forests. Shen You kept tailing him, but the dense trees made it hard for him to speed up. The gray and white silhouettes circled various rockery as they flitted away, causing Xie Zhiwei to yawn again.

At last, Shen You lost patience and struck out with his palm. His attack was quick and brutal, sending an aura of light whistling around Ming Kong, who ducked as his gaze turned ruthless. Shen You wrinkled his brow after the miss and tried two to three times more. The force of his strikes send powerful blasts of wind that even uprooted a few thinner trees. Ming Kong was completely surrounded by the gusts and bits of loose rock and had no place to escape. He howled in despair like a broken-winged bird before falling straight down with his sword.

Below him was a ten-thousand foot abyss.

Left behind, Shen You stopped by a copse of broken trees overlooking the cliff. Because Ming Kong dove too quickly, Xie Zhiwei’s perspective could only follow the man without being able to catch Shen You’s reaction. But he was probably expressionless anyways.

A typical story had its usual share of plot twists, so when the image finally stabilized again, Xie Zhiwei was too tired to nitpick. Ming Kong was ridiculously lucky, because he got caught in some tree branches instead of plummeting to his death. In the end he fell into a river and subconsciously hugged a piece of driftwood to float for a long time, finally stopping in front of a cave. After inspecting his injuries, he stumbled inside and eventually discovered a pile of animal and human bones scattered haphazardly around a stone framed by strangely drawn spells.

Ming Kong stared at the items for a bit before he began to dig with his sword. The spell formation seemed to be used to seal something off. Since Ashen Cloud Sword Sect originally originated from the demonic sect, it wasn’t strange for them to have such wicked things. Xie Zhiwei took the chance to look around but found no human traces in the cave.

Looks like even Ashen Cloud Sword Sect doesn’t realize this place exists.

Very soon, Ming Kong dug out two items with an expression of amazement. At a glance, Xie Zhiwei cursed. Sh*t, this goes beyond luck! It’s like he installed a cheat mod!

One of the items was a piece of iron densely engraved with tiny seal script characters on its back. Xie Zhiwei couldn’t read it, but Ming Kong saw the words on the front and slowly recited, “Heart Sway Arts…”

Xie Zhiwei had never heard of that before; he was more interested in the other thing.

Below the iron piece was buried a teeny tiny black lotus. Ming Kong creased his brows and turned the flower in his hands a few times before tossing it in a corner.

Your mother, that’s Black Lotus! One of the five great treasures! He threw it away like some packaging? How can you be more careless than the original Xie Zhiwei?!

Ming Kong buried his head to study the Heart Sway Arts carved into the metal piece before quickly revealing a grin. He slowly returned to the cave entrance and stared at the skies from where he fell, looking as he already owned the world.

Mu He sped up the scene again. Soon enough, Ming Kong was back at Ashen Cloud Mountain. A disciple was practicing with his sword in the forest when Ming Kong’s sudden appearance gave him a scare. The man’s robes were torn as if he’d gone back to being a beggar.

After blanking out for a bit, the other disciple finally recognized him and cried, “Senior Brother Ming Kong? Where did you go? Why are you dressed like this?”

Logically speaking, after Ming Kong murdered someone and resisted capture, people should be yelling and hitting him on sight.

Stunned, Ming Kong asked, “Senior Brother Shen…didn’t say anything?”

The other was bewildered. “Senior Brother Shen? What happened to Senior Brother Shen?”

It seemed that after he “died,” Shen You didn’t pursue the matter and dropped it like a true gentleman.

“Nothing,” Ming Kong said after reasoning this out. He smiled slightly and said, “Aren’t I dressed like this because of this thing?” He suddenly flashed the iron piece in his hand. When the disciple looked down at his palm, the metal emitted a blinding light.

Ming Kong waved a hand in front of the disciple’s face. “Hey.”

The other remained wooden without reaction, as if he was an empty shell. Even his eyes lost all life. Ming Kong’s grin deepened before his voice turned condescending. “Take off your outer robes and give them to me.”

The other complied mechanically and handed over his robe with both hands. Ming Kong took it and turned to leave, but reconsidered and looked back with one last order. “Okay. You can die now.”

Xie Zhiwei was dumbfounded. He stared as the disciple, reduced to being a mere puppet, lifted his sword and slashed his own neck, spraying blood everywhere.

If what Ming Kong did before was comparable to a beast, he was now simply the devil. Even Xie Zhiwei, who knew the book and had confidence in controlling its outcome, felt fear in hindsight. Thankfully he was on the hero’s side. Who knew what’d happen if he fell into the hands of this indiscriminately murdering psychopath?

The fates of Lu Zhanyun, Du Sheng, and the rest seemed more dire than hopeful now.

When Ming Kong found Shen You again, the latter was quietly reading alone in the gazebo of Peihua Manor. It was early morning and the mountains were quiet. Sunlight shone on the orchids and illuminated its frost-rimmed edges like sparkling crystals. On a shelf next to Shen You laid the jade flute from Nie Ting, its air holes a bit moist as if it had just been used.

Xie Zhiwei sighed. He was once a perfectly fine young man. No wonder he and the original Xie Zhiwei were called the “Two Immortals.”

Alerted by the intruder, Shen You stood up and saw Ming Kong openly walking out from behind the ornamental rockery. His gentle face immediately turned cold.

“You didn’t die.”

Ming Kong had already changed into the other disciple’s robes. Although it was a little small on him, he looked less bedraggled than before. He stared at Shen You and asked, word for word, “Is Senior Brother Shen very disappointed?”

Shen You set his book aside and asked, “How did you get in?”

Ming Kong smiled and kept advancing towards the gazebo. Despite all these years in Ashen Cloud Sword Sect, he had never dared to be so bold. “I just walked in like this, ah,” he drawled.

The disciples who patrolled the mountain were all hypnotized by his iron piece. Ming Kong restrained himself from killing them all to avoid arousing suspicion, but he did erase their memories. Then he sauntered into Peihua Manor as if he owned the place.

Xie Zhiwei pooh-poohed at him. A petty man gaining power.

“Ashen Cloud Sword Sect doesn’t keep scum,” Shen You unsheathed his sword with a warning. “It’s not worth my time to act against you twice. Leave quickly and I’ll pretend you already died.”

Ming Kong’s gaze chilled. “You even scorn the thought of killing me?”

“Leave!” Shen You emphasized, not wanting to waste any words.

“Fine…” Ming Kong grit his teeth. His eyes happened to see the jade flute in the corner, covered by a corner of Shen You’s robes. “I’ll never compare to Nie Ting in your eyes, right?”

Baffled, Shen You could only rebuke him. “Unbridled, how could you call the sect leader by name? And what does this have to do with him?”

Before he finished, Ming Kong was already laughing. The ripples in his eyes faded as he murmured, “I understand now…”

He took out an object from his robes and met Shen You’s frigid eyes. “I want to give Senior Brother Shen one last gift.”

It was the tree branch flute that he’d carved for Shen You a few days ago. Without waiting for Shen You to refuse, he lifted it to his lips and began to play. The wound on his hand had just scabbed over, but he ignored it as his fingers flew across the flute. Shen You creased his brows and wanted to speak, but the stream of clamorous notes hit his ears and smoothed out his brow.

With a clang, his sword fell to the ground. Arms hanging at his sides, Shen You stood blankly—the perfect replica of the sect leader Xie Zhiwei had seen in person. From this moment, everything became inevitable. Xie Zhiwei almost wanted to stop watching.

Ming Kong put away his flute and cleared the expression on his face, eyes shining with madness in its wake. He stared fixedly at Shen You and quickly stepped into the orchid gazebo.

“Senior Brother Shen?” he tried.

Shen You didn’t react.

Ming Kong’s throat twitched before he tried, “Lan…Lanxiu?”

Shen You still didn’t react.

As if injected with chicken blood, Ming Kong began to repeat the name over and over again, as if he wanted to say a lifetime’s worth of “Lanxius” in one day. Shen You was more or less the second-in-command at Ashen Cloud Sword Sect. His courtesy name was restricted to use by the sect elders and Nie Ting only. Who knew why Ming Kong was so attached to it?

After that, Ming Kong slowly walked closer to the man, muttering to himself. “Within three steps, within two steps, within…one step and then less…at last…”

It took Xie Zhiwei a while to realize that this beast had always stayed at least three steps away from Shen You in the past. Now he was counting the distance between them. Ming Kong stopped right next to Shen You, extremely stirred. He heaved a few deep breaths before he could calm down. His hands weren’t idle either, tugging at Shen You’s hands or stroking his face and even cupping his chin.

It was ugly to see.

Shen You allowed him to touch as he pleased, utterly motionless before Ming Kong’s increasingly hot gaze.

Xie Zhiwei couldn’t stand this anymore. Your mother, hero, why aren’t you fast forwarding? This is just the mental journey of a straight man turning bent!

It was a long time before Ming Kong finally satisfied his curiosity. “Lanxiu,” he murmured, “Forget what happened in the past. From now on, you have to believe anything I say unconditionally.”

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Translator’s Note: MING KONNNNGGGGGGGGG!!!