Chapter 4.11
The lifespan of cultivators were generally longer. For them, a year was just a time for closed-door cultivation or a time for travel, passing by in the blink of an eye.
So when it was time for the delayed joint sect competition to be held again, it seemed as though not much time had passed and Wangyou Mountain was bustling with activity once again.
After the attack by the demonic sect a year ago, Guan Lan sect and Po Yun sect no longer had the face to arrive various months ahead of time to eat and drink for free. This saved a great deal of money for Xuan Tian sect.
But no matter how busy the sect was during this period, it was almost meaningless for Fan Yuan, because he did not participate at all.
Originally, the joint sect competition was an important plot point for the male lead to make a great showing, but after the last farce, practically everyone knew that this fellow was a great power that had achieved the Dujie stage. Not to mention that those participating in the competition were newer disciples of each sect, even the Sect Masters of the three sects did not dare to fight with him.
If they had to go, they could only sit together with the bunch of old fellows and watch the battle from an elevated place at most.
Fan Yuan thought this was necessary. It was better to go than to not, and it could be considered following the plot anyway. However, Yan Rui said that he only wanted to enjoy a world of two with his own family’s beloved shizun, and didn’t want to be watched by the rest as if they were witnessing a god.
Fan Yuan felt that his words were very reasonable. On the outside, these cultivators appeared to be sages. In fact, they were horribly dirty on the inside. When Fan Yuan thought of having to deal with those smooth talking, creepy faces that desired to curry favour, he felt his head ache endlessly. Hence, they decided to stay and rest in their own Luoxia Peak.
In fact, the mission of this plane was only difficult at first glance, but in fact, it wasn’t. Although its duration was dragged to be pretty long, Fan Yuan, as a minor gay love rival, had little descriptions. More often than not, they were indirect descriptions.
With the exception of the beginning of the plot where he accepted a disciple, which focused on writing, and the part later on where he confronted the Demon Lord which was of more importance, he was the soy sauce king when it came to every other part of the plot. His task was simply to teach the Lord tirelessly and nurture him into a cultivator with both ability and morals; a bright star of tomorrow in the cultivation realm.
In short, he was the man that stood behind the male lead.
But obviously, he did not need to perform this mission any longer, because the male lead had already learned himself into a talent. He had even surpassed his own master and flung said master over 18000 meters away. When Fan Yuan thought about it, he truly felt so heartbroken that he couldn’t breathe.
＃Who can understand the sadness of a disciple leaving school in advance QAQ＃
＃In the span of one night, my stupid apprentice turned into a big pervert _(:з」∠)_＃
＃Were my teachings of the past fed to the dogs?!＃
With some regret and resentment, Fan Yuan went to his desk and picked up the brush. He dipped it in ink and began to paint.
In order to prevent the people who had little foresight from breaking into Luoxia Peak and disturbing Fan Yuan’s peace and quiet, Yan Rui had set up a border all over. It had no problem in blocking all cultivators who were below Dujie stage.
After tending to all these things, he couldn’t wait to go back to Snowless Hall. Being separated from Fan Yuan for even a moment felt extremely unbearable.
Stepping into the inner room, he saw that the man he was pining over was bent over his desk to paint. He didn’t know what the man was painting, but he looked very serious. Yan Rui was quite curious, but he didn’t make a sound. He used light steps to walk towards Fan Yuan before stopping right behind him.
Observing the contents of the paper, Yan Rui’s expression went stiff for a moment, not because it was someone else in the painting, but because it was himself.
If it was a normal painting, he would be over the moon, but Fan Yuan’s painting was of his childhood appearance, and it was also the chibi version. A big pair of exaggerated watery eyes, a pitiful, endearing face like a bun, ragged clothes with sewn patches — just looking at it makes people feel their hearts soften into confused mush, it was extremely soft and cute.
But Yan Rui didn’t feel it was cute, he just felt extremely embarrassed. He swore that he had never been so embarrassed.
When he first came to this world, especially the three days when he knelt at the gate of Xuan Tian sect’s mountain, he was full of thoughts on how to set Fan Yuan straight and make Fan Yuan regret playing with him like he did in the previous world. But when he saw him, he could not bear to do it anymore, and instead obediently went along with his plot.
As for using their master-disciple relationship to take a few little petty advantages, he already considered that to be the lowest possible interest rate.
However, from the looks of it now, it seemed that the little guy did not have half a heart of repentance. He actually dared to recreate his once humiliating appearance on paper? He really was asking for some guidance.
Yan Rui snatched the unfinished painting with a cold face, holding it in his hand to scrutinise it carefully. Fan Yuan looked back at him with a sly glint flashing across his eyes, but his tone was very amiable, “Moran, shizun remembered your young and tender appearance when he saw you for the first time and missed it very much, so he drew it down. Take a look at it and see if it is lifelike?”
Yan Rui was silent for a moment, and suddenly chuckled, “Shizun‘s paintings are naturally lifelike. This disciple has no way of repaying you, how about I give you a painting as well.”
Fan Yuan’s eyebrows raised. He didn’t know what Yan Rui was planning, but he didn’t refuse. He simply handed him the brush.
Yan Rui took over the brush and gave Fan Yuan a deep look. The deep and complicated meaning conveyed through his gaze caused Fan Yuan to inadvertently shiver. This feeling was very familiar. Yes, it was a very bad premonition.
He merely saw Yan Rui take over the brush, spread out a new piece of xuan paper again, dip the brush in ink carefully, and begin painting on the paper’s surface.
His movements were free and fluid, and his expression was leisurely and calm. It was as if he was not painting, but boating on a lake.
However, though Fan Yuan carefully observed his painting for a long time, he could not tell what it was that Yan Rui was trying to draw. The lines were smooth, the outline was purposeful, but he could not distinguish the shape. He took it that the man was doodling out of spite, so he went to continue his unfinished creation.
When he had finished painting his own silly disciple’s childhood portrait, Yan Rui had also just put down his brush.
Fan Yuan moved over to take a closer look at it, and he felt a bit odd.
Yan Rui curved the corners of his lips slightly while looking towards him and slowly rotated the painting by 180 degrees.
Fan Yuan hummed, this fellow was actually painting upside down, psh, showing off his talent.
When he looked at the picture, at that immediate moment, he was ashamed and furious. The two people involved in the painting were precisely himself and the shameless, impetuous thing in front of him!
In the painting, his eyes were dazed, and the wet hair resting on his temples dripped with beads of sweat. His body was scattered all over with both deep and shallow kiss marks, and he was sitting on Yan Rui with his legs wide open. His hands were grasping at Yan Rui’s shoulders as if the man was his life-saving straw, and his lips were slightly parted like he was shouting something. Everything looked inexplicably obscene, flirtatious, and enchanting..........
Fan Yuan’s cheeks burst a brilliant red. Witnessing Yan Rui proceed to put the painting into his own storage ring, he hurried to snatch it. He didn’t forget to scold, “Evil disciple, quickly hand it over, this teacher wants to DESTROY IT!”
Yan Rui turned around and tightly confined his two arms, trapping him in his embrace. His thin lips swept lightly over Fan Yuan’s earlobes and he whispered in a low and ambiguous tone, “This is all thanks to you, shizun. You provided such a good idea ah.”
Fan Yuan was so angry that he raised his foot and kicked him, yelling, “Didn’t you say it was for this teacher, offer it up quickly!”
Yan Rui laughed lowly, “Tu’er regrets it now. How about Tu’er make another one for the master some other day?”
Fan Yuan struggled while protesting, “No! The painting I want is precisely this one! You are also prohibited from drawing another one! ”
Yan Rui looked like he was in a rather headache as he sighed, “Shizun is really asking for a bit of the impossible. Was Tu’er’s painting not lifelike enough? That’s also true, shizun’s posture and appearance at that time, based on Tu’er’s meagre brush skills, even one thousandth of such is truly difficult to depict.”
Fan Yuan did not care about anything else and directly used the system to communicate, “Yan Rui! Who let you paint this! Do you still want any face!”
Yan Rui laughed with a low tone, as he said dismissively, “Why would I want to save face? My soul has been captured by you, you tempter. If I wanted to save face, I would have to go vegetarian for an entire lifetime.”
Fan Yuan did not know what to do with him, so he was left with no choice but to suppress his anger. He tried to negotiate in a friendly manner, “How about this, I’ll give you back the painting of you as a child, and you will also give that.........back to me, this should be okay right? ”
Yan Rui naturally was unwilling. He said with a smile, “It’s not that I can’t give it to you, but.........you have to at least show a little sincerity. ”
Fan Yuan gritted his teeth and asked, “What do you want?”
Yan Rui gently nibbled on his earlobe and coaxed, “We haven’t used these bodies to do it yet.”
Fan Yuan’s body immediately softened from his ministrations. He was so angry that he wanted to give him a bite. He scolded, “Shameless! Keep the picture for yourself, I don’t want it, let me go.”
How could Yan Rui be willing to let him go? He coaxed and pestered, “Baby, I’ve been a monk for so long, you should at least give me some meat.”
Fan Yuan went silent for a while, and suddenly directed a smile at him. Yan Rui was dazzled by the brilliant smile, when he simply heard him slowly utter two words, “Vegetarian, healthy.”
After that, taking advantage of the fact that Yan Rui had yet come to his senses, Fan Yuan broke away from his hold, took his own painting, and left.
When Yan Rui saw that he was really gone, he took the painting out. He savoured it carefully, and proceeded to take up his brush and make some modifications. At last, he spread out another piece of paper and began to illustrate another set of actions in the form of a picture scroll.
He thought in his heart, if these ascetic kind of days went on, he could probably paint an entire book of the spring palace.
*******************
The joint sect competition lasted for an entire month. Due to the absence of Xu Moran the male lead, Bai Haotian, the second male lead, naturally attained first prize and won the heart of the female lead.
Bai Haotian was originally the most outstanding disciple of Xuan Tian sect. He was not only highly regarded by the Sect Master, but was also very popular among the sect brothers. He seemed to be the perfect senior brother in the legends.
Although he was sought after by many female cultivators in the sect, he started minding his own business to avoid any trouble, and his heart became that of stone. The reason behind this was that there was only that one white moonlight, that one Zhusha Zhi in his heart. That’s right, it was the female lead Liu Wenya.
The story of how the two met was also filled with dog blood. It was Bai Haotian’s first time going down the mountain. He was buying magical treasures in the magic shop and had picked out the items, but as he was about to pay for them, he realised that a thief had stolen his spirit stones. At that time, the scene was very embarrassing. During this moment, the female lead coincidentally passed by the shop and generously came to his rescue.
Ever since then, as a matter of course, the female lead’s kindness and beauty were deeply imprinted in Bai Haotian’s heart, never to be forgotten.
The female lead had already gotten accustomed to doing good deeds. Naturally, she would not remember helping Bai Haotian, but she was deeply attracted by his outstanding performance in the competition. She secretly decided to stay in Xuan Tian sect to get close to Bai Haotian, and let him fall for her.
Therefore, the main plot had changed from a flower in the cultivation realm bitterly and persistently chasing the male god to a beautiful story of a two-way secret love.
According to the original plot, Liu Wenya was supposed to be the male lead’s Daoist partner. But now, she was in a hot, passionate entanglement with his love rival. It really caused people to lament that the Heavens were toying with mankind.
Fan Yuan could not help but shake his head when he thought of the culprit. It was typically said that one would rather tear down ten temples than tear down a marriage. To ruin the relationship between the original male and female lead so thoroughly, this scoundrel Yan Rui had really committed too many sins!
However, after doing so many scumbag-y things, there was still one good thing, that was that Yan Rui had successfully caused Bi Yi to give up her affections for Fan Yuan.
In this world’s plot, outside of the original host of his body, Fan Yuan felt the worst for this little fox. It was infatuated with a person who would never turn around and look back. It waited thousands of years only for it to end up in nothing.
It could be considered a form of release for it when the original host had died in the end. However, Bi Yi continued waiting in Luoxia Peak forever.
Fan Yuan looked at the scene reflected in the water sphere. A snow wolf was following a spirit fox closely. Then after, the little fox impatiently turned back and flung its paw at the snow wolf. The snow wolf innocently stared back with its black and bright bead-like eyes, but still refused to leave. Step by step, it continued to follow the little fox.
Upon witnessing this scene, Fan Yuan could not help but reveal a gentle smile. This time, it would naturally not be lonely anymore, so he could also leave in peace.
Yan Rui looked at him from the side. When he saw him to reveal a smile, the corners of his mouth also subconsciously perked up.
Although the snow wolf was merely a male lead in the lower plane, he still had the aura of a protagonist. One would think that he would naturally take very good care of the fox.
The Author has Something to Say:
I’m afraid that some little angels won’t understand the last sentence, so I’m here to explain. The male leads in the previous worlds are seen as just a bunch of data to Yan Rui. It’s very easy to clear their memories and throw them to other planes. As for in which plane the snow wolf was originally the male lead, well~ whatever la, you guys can just casually throw it out of your minds haha (～￣▽￣)～
Aaaand that’s a wrap for Arc 4! How did you guys find it?