Life Going Wild With Plug-ins

Chapter 24 - The small loyal dog has become closed in on himself.


For the next few days of our journey, I made a conscious effort to listen to all the information I could get my hands on, writing all of it down into ten densely-packed journals.

According to what I understand, nowadays in the Jianghu there are three major streams of influence. One of these powers is located in the Central plains, headed by Zhongli Court, with Changluo Hall and Jinguan Court acting as their left and right arms; another power spans across the East and the West, headed by the extremist Qilian Stronghold and Taihangjian, with Tianshan Valley and Yanguan also being active, in addition to the more stable Helan Terrace, Wuyi Hill, and Suyang’s Qiu Manor1 , which is called the Henglian2 Alliance; the third power connects the North and the South, headed by Qingcheng and Taibailou, with the Wushui Sect which is feared by people because of it’s ruthlessness and treachery, the Confucian Renzhong Temple, Nanlin, and Qinling are also here, combining to form the Zongmeng3 Union.

Qinling has had feuds with every group, with Taihangjian being the most serious, followed by the Wushui Sect, Taibailou, Suyang’s Qiu Manor, and so on and so forth.....


.......How.

The fuck.

Can I.

Possibly.

Remember.

This.


“Master?” Ye Tan saw my expression was wrong, so he asked, deeply concerned.

“I want to unify these groups.”

Ye Tan gave a frightened jump: “What are you saying?!”

“There’s too many, I can’t remember them all.”

“.....Just, just because of this??”


Why did I, the Creator God, set up such a complicated world?

I want to beat myself to death.


After travelling for these past few days, Ye Tan has somewhat come around to the situation and has recently become more settled. Soon we had gotten closer and closer to Qinling, until one evening the carriage entered a poplar tree forest and finally stopped it’s march.

Qin Chenyuan’s injuries had already recovered, so he was the first to jump down from the car, he gestured towards the surrounding river where a pavilion was located a distance away, and stopped under a poplar tree. Yun Jiangli tied the horses to one side, then from the back of the carriage he pulled out a few square shovels and handed one to him. Qin Chenyuan took a deep breath, silently muttered something, and tightly grasped the handle of the shovel.

Ye Tan helped me get down from the car and inspected out surroundings, his eyes fell, and his expression gradually became somewhat hard to understand.

Surprisingly, this really was the place.

“Young Master Qin, how did you find out about this place?” I asked.

Qin Chenyuan briefly answered with this word: “Zhoufang.”

Seeing the questions on my brow, Yun Jiangli kindly explained: “Zhoufang are crouching tigers and hidden dragons, they have numerous capable members, who are, for the most part, very elusive bounty hunters with an unpredictable temper, their prices are also unpredictable, sometimes high and sometimes low. You can count that Zhoufang’s information will very rarely be wrong.”

Qin Chenyuan also said: “Actually, three years ago I sent a letter to Zhoufang requesting help, but I didn’t get a response. I think it was because there were too few clues, and so far we have only barely been able to find out what happened.”

I thought to myself, I see, then went to grab one of the shovels to go help out, but Ye Tan reached out to stop me and shook his head lightly.

“This subordinate will do it.” He said.

He didn’t hesitate, moving swiftly with a pale expression.

I knew that whatever was underneath, it was all part of the secrets that he’d given up his life to protect, so he would inevitably feel a little hurt.

I suddenly wondered whether digging out this dusty, years-old matter and getting to the bottom of it was good or bad, whether it would help him or harm him, and for a moment I was very shaken.


I nervously crouched and watched, and my palms were sweaty from clenching my fists. The three of them dug deeper and deeper, and soon the sound of hitting something hard rang out, it seemed like they had hit their shovels against some kind of metal object. Qin Chenyuan cried out: “A broken sword?”

He picked it up and wiped the soil off with his sleeve. The old, broken sword had not seen daylight for three years, yet it had no traces of rust, the edge of it’s blade was still sharp and seemed as though it was cool with frost. Qin Chenyuan looked at it clearly, and emotionally replied: “This is it! I recognise this! It’s the sword Qi-ge gave to Yaksha, Spring and Autumn Passing4 !”

Qin Chenyuan threw away the broken blade and immediately began fumbling about for other traces in the ruins, finding the tattered remains of clothes, accessories, and Qin Qi’s own sword, until finally encountering a dense forest of white bones.

“Qi-ge.” Qin Chenyuan said in a soft voice, “I’m bringing you back home.”


In just three years.....

A bright human life, turned into a cluster of white bones..... it was such a short-lived thing.


Qin Chenyuan and Yun Jiangli carefully and solemnly moved the skeleton and the remains, one by one, into a thin coffin they had brought with them. Ye Tan stood motionless to the side, staring blankly, his expression overwhelmed with shock.

“How can....this be?” He muttered to himself.

He knelt on the ground and began rummaging around, looking for something in confusion. From time to time he would grab a handful of earth and carefully bring it up to his nose, and then turn to the side to stare at those white bones in the coffin, his eyes becoming increasingly more dazed.

He mumbled: “It was.... a fatal sword wound.”

“Right, otherwise?” Qin Chenyuan was puzzled.

Yun Jiangli saw there was something unusual about his expression, so he also inspected the bones: “Only the ribs near the heart have been evenly sliced, it was indeed caused by a fatal sword wound, if you look at the bones in the body there are no other mortal wounds. The vertebrae are intact, so he couldn’t have died by hanging. The colour of the bones is healthy, and the vegetation in the vicinity is also in good condition, so there are no signs of poisoning..... Although I can’t say for sure, is there a chance he drowned?”

Ye Tan closed his eyes and said nothing, I called out to him several times, but he didn’t snap out of it.

Qin Chenyuan had been searching for several years, and was finally able to fulfil his hopes. His brows were heavy with hardship as he knelt motionlessly in front of the coffin.

The only one that remained of sound body and mind was Yun Jiangli. He picked up the three of us, who did not have any energy left in our bodies, and placed us back on the car one by one, then ordered the driver to hurry back towards Qinling.


It wasn’t until nighttime that we checked into an inn. Yun Jiangli had talked and joked all throughout the journey, and Qin Chenyuan’s spirits had improved a bit, he was even barely able to smile a few times.

Ye Tan was still as if in a trance, sluggishly moving about. I couldn’t speak as well as Yun Jaingli, so I could only nervously crouch next to him and quietly watch him.

I suddenly hated myself for being such a poor speaker, and being unable to make others happy.


After spreading out the bedclothes and setting me down, Ye Tan unexpectedly pushed the door open as if intending to go out.

“A-Tan, where are you going?” I rushed to ask.

“This Subordinate is a Shadow Guard, it’s only natural that I should go back to the shadows.” He said.

He said these words with an expression that seemed to have the words “this is the end” written all over his face, and it scared me so much my soul flew away and scattered: “Hold on! Don’t go!! Just stay inside the room, okay?!” Still worried, I added, “In a place where I can see you!!”

“Yes.” He obediently agreed and knelt upright in front of the bed.

I was so frightened by him that I didn’t dare go to sleep. In my mind I was tossing and turning over his words “it was a fatal sword wound?”, he sounded so confused, but he himself had stabbed Qin Qi through the heart, if not a sword wound, what else should it have been?

I tightly clutched the corner of the quilt, crouching at the corner of the bed and staring at him, afraid that he would fly away in the blink of an eye. He didn’t say a word as he knelt in darkness, moonlight climbed up his shoulders through the squared window, only faintly illuminating the curve of his jaw. Those familiar shoulders trembled incessantly.


A-Tan.

Are you crying?


I didn’t have the courage to ask him.

I could just watch him,


Then, suddenly.

I went into the Modifier Tool Interface.


......Oh, wait.

Are you saying, I still ended up falling asleep....?

 

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1 Updated Ch 19’s Qiu Zhuang to Qiu Manor for better place name clarity.Top.

2 橫聯 lit. horizontal alliance.Top.

3 縱盟 lit. vertical (north-south) union.Top.

4 春秋代序 idiom that refers to the changing of the seasons. The name of the sword comes from a poem by Qu Yuan: “Without delay the sun and moon sped fast, / In swift succession spring and autumn passed” Full translated poem here.Top.