Yan Jianlan instantly wilted.
Yu Tuishan slurped his soup while keeping his eyes wide open to watch the drama from over his bowl’s rim—so busy!
Feeling guilty toward Sheng Jiao, Yan Jianlan didn’t dare bare his teeth at him. He could only bare them at Yu Tuishan, frantically mouthing words while pointing at the still-transmitting rhino horn lamp: “Turn it off! Brother! Hurry, turn it off!”
Yu Tuishan mumbled: “What?! Turn what off? The rhino horn lamp?”
Yan Jianlan: “…”
Yan Jianlan squeezed his eyes shut in mortification.
Fortunately, Sheng Jiao never embarrassed Yan Jianlan in front of outsiders. Expressionless, he withdrew his hand and gave Yu Tuishan a cold glance.
Yu Tuishan drank his soup even faster, like a starving ghost reborn, even choking. But he suppressed his cough and finished the last mouthful before covering his throat and coughing himself half to death.
Yan Jianlan couldn’t help himself. Frowning, he walked over to pat his back, whispering in complaint: “Can you even eat a bit slower?”
Yu Tuishan coughed until tears came out: “How… how did you come?”
“I came to Medicine Sect to find Lady Wan.”
“Oh.” Yu Tuishan wiped the tears from his face, saying flatly: “I thought you’d stay in the Northern Territory a few more days.”
Yan Jianlan knew him too well. Hearing this, he knew Yu Tuishan had planned to cause trouble in Central State these days, wanting to avoid Sheng Jiao—who knew they’d run straight into each other.
Yan Jianlan glanced sideways at Sheng Jiao.
Sheng Jiao’s face was frosty, his emotions unclear. Just then, the rhino horn lamp suddenly brightened. He glanced at Yan Jianlan, indicating he’d step out briefly, then turned and left.
Yan Jianlan blinked, quite curious.
Wasn’t Sect Master Sheng constantly jealous of Yu Tuishan? How come now that they’d met face to face, he was being so magnanimous?
As soon as Sheng Jiao left, Yu Tuishan finally breathed a sigh of relief, pulling Yan Jianlan close and whispering: “Hey, did Sect Master Sheng discover something and rush back to Central State? Quick, go find out for me.”
Yan Jianlan looked at him darkly, raising his hand to extinguish Yu Tuishan’s rhino horn lamp wick, saying irritably: “I’ll be lucky if he doesn’t deal with me. What investigation? Investigate jack shit!”
Seeing he couldn’t find anything out, Yu Tuishan happily changed topics: “So when are you registering? Brother will send you a big gift.”
Yan Jianlan shook his head: “Don’t know. He’s very busy, and I plan to learn some medicine to open a clinic later. Registration is just empty ceremony—doesn’t matter if we don’t do it.”
“How can it be empty ceremony?” Yu Tuishan said unhappily. “Is Sheng Jiao too poor, with no spirit stones to hold a registration ceremony for you? Where’s my sword? Oh right, I don’t have a sword… No good, I need to find something to butcher him with.”
Yan Jianlan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, pressing his shoulder to forcibly push him back down: “Give it a rest—where’s Lady Wan?”
Yu Tuishan was unhappy: “I’m still angry.”
Yan Jianlan said perfunctorily: “I’m talking business. Can’t you wait to be angry later?”
Yu Tuishan’s bottom line retreated again and again before Yan Jianlan. He reluctantly nodded agreement: “Fine.”
As they spoke, Lady Wan came in carrying a bowl of fresh medicinal cuisine. Seeing Yan Jianlan, her eyes curved: “Ling’er came just in time—just finished making medicinal cuisine.”
Every time Yu Tuishan called “Ling’er” it was quite irritating. Yan Jianlan didn’t think there was anything wrong with this delicate name, but when Lady Wan called it so gently, it inexplicably made him shy, feeling like he hadn’t grown up yet.
“Mm, good.” Yan Jianlan said: “I-I’ll call Sheng Jiao.”
Lady Wan smiled: “Sect Master Sheng asked me to tell you—Xiezhi Sect has urgent business, so he went back to handle it first.”
Xiezhi Sect had been constantly busy lately, and with Yu Tuishan now in Central State plotting who knows what, it was normal for Sheng Jiao to be a bit busy.
Yan Jianlan didn’t think much of it, just “oh”ed and obediently sat down properly.
Yu Tuishan mumbled: “Lady, didn’t you say you’d only make it for me alone?”
Whenever Lady Wan made medicinal cuisine, Lezheng Jiu always wanted to pinch his nose and run far away. She’d never seen him finish even the medicinal soup. Laughing continuously, she said: “If it’s not enough, I’ll make you more.”
If it were anyone else, Yu Tuishan wouldn’t care at all—if he said it was for him alone to eat, it had to be for him alone, not even a single ant could share.
Seeing that Yan Jianlan was already obediently holding his bowl and waiting to be served, Yu Tuishan bit the bowl’s rim and nodded to show his approval.
“What were you just talking about—registration?” Lady Wan served them each a bowl, smiling: “Ling’er is going to register with Sect Master Sheng?”
Yan Jianlan wasn’t like Yu Tuishan, who ate without any table manners like a hungry tiger pouncing on prey. He leisurely drank the soup with a jade spoon, extremely refined. Hearing this, he nodded: “Mm, we just have that idea. Nothing’s been decided yet.”
Two grown men registering together—Lady Wan showed no surprise at all, smiling as she said: “You’re still young. No need to rush.”
Yan Jianlan lowered his head and took a sullen sip of soup.
Probably only Lady Wan would still consider him a child who hadn’t grown up.
Yu Tuishan kept his head down eating, eating, eating.
Ever since entering fasting, Yan Jianlan rarely ate anything. Even the finest food was bland and tasteless to him. Only osmanthus cakes and Lady Wan’s medicinal cuisine could give him some appetite, but he could only taste half a bowl before being unable to eat more.
Forcing himself to finish the entire bowl without wasting it, Yan Jianlan looked up to find Yu Tuishan already hugging the pot while eating.
Yan Jianlan: “…”
With the Xi family matter completely settled, Lady Wan finally didn’t need to hold back anymore. She suggested keeping both of them at Medicine Sect for a few days before they left.
Having eaten and drunk his fill, Yu Tuishan popped a few preserved fruits into his mouth, mumbling around the pits with difficulty: “Can’t—I have something tonight.”
Lady Wan asked puzzled: “Urgent business?”
“Very urgent.”
Yu Tuishan nodded, quick-eyed and deft-handed, snatching the preserved fruits from Yan Jianlan’s small dish and randomly stuffing them into his mouth. Seeing Yan Jianlan’s dark gaze, he even bent his eyes and smiled wickedly at him.
Yan Jianlan glanced at him without lowering himself to his level.
Lady Wan looked at Yan Jianlan again: “What about you, Ling’er?”
Normally, Yan Jianlan would definitely agree immediately, but this time he was a person with a family. After hesitating for a good while, he whispered: “I… I need to ask Sheng Jiao.”
Yu Tuishan: “Tsk.”
Yan Jianlan frowned: “Are you mocking me?”
“No.”
Yu Tuishan lied without batting an eye, spitting out several preserved fruit pits. Before Yan Jianlan could beat him up, he directly grabbed the pile of spirit fruits and spirit pills Lady Wan had given him and ran off.
Yu Tuishan managed the killing but not the burying—after digging him into a pit, he left this mess behind and ran, leaving him to clean it up himself.
Yan Jianlan glared at his retreating figure, then with a bitter face ran back to Lady Wan’s main courtyard to retrieve the “evidence”—the rhino horn lamp he’d hidden so carefully—and frowned as he sent a voice transmission to Sheng Jiao.
Lady Wan had been quietly watching him from the side the whole time.
When Yan Jianlan, after careful deliberation, sent over the words he’d prepared and looked up to meet Lady Wan’s gentle eyes, he was slightly stunned.
“Lady?”
Lady Wan said softly: “You really look like your mother.”
Yan Jianlan’s eyes trembled slightly as he smiled: “I didn’t think so as a child. I always thought I looked like Father, and that one day I’d definitely be as tall and mighty as him too.”
Lady Wan couldn’t help but laugh: “Your parents only hoped you’d grow up safely.”
They didn’t need overwhelming cultivation or a revered position—as long as he was safe, stable, smooth, and carefree, that was all they sought in life.
Yan Jianlan nodded.
Just then, Sheng Jiao finally replied with a voice transmission.
Yan Jianlan gently pinched that cluster of flame. Sheng Jiao’s cold voice came through, brief and to the point.
“Alright.”
Yan Jianlan inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief. Coming back to his senses, he was shocked to discover something was wrong.
He used to go wherever he wanted, never caring whether Sheng Jiao agreed or not. How come after having a dao companion, it felt like he was bound by something?
But even more terrifying was that this “binding” in just a few short days felt like domestication—making Yan Jianlan, who’d always detested confinement, feel not the slightest resistance.
“Damn it,” Yan Jianlan thought expressionlessly. “The Heavenly Dao lord’s beauty is misleading.”
It was already past noon. Lady Wan didn’t treat Yan Jianlan as an outsider, letting him play freely at Medicine Sect while she continued tending to the herbs in the medicine garden.
Yan Jianlan originally wanted to find Lezheng Jiu, but after asking around, he discovered that Lezheng Jiu, who hadn’t gone out in eight hundred years, had actually voluntarily gone out—apparently to Tianyan Academy to serve as a teacher for poison arts classes.
Yan Jianlan marveled at this.
Having sat on the vessel all morning, with nothing to do, Yan Jianlan went to Lezheng Jiu’s residence to lie down. The faint medicinal fragrance around him could give him the same inexplicable sense of security as the osmanthus scent on Sheng Jiao’s body.
After sleeping comfortably all afternoon, when he woke again, candlelight glowed in the room, with faint rustling sounds.
Yan Jianlan groggily propped himself up from the soft couch to look over, seeing Lezheng Jiu sitting at the desk, perusing medical texts.
Sensing he’d awakened, Lezheng Jiu didn’t even look up, saying coldly: “Awake?”
Yan Jianlan nodded vaguely: “What time is it?”
“Just past sunset.” Lezheng Jiu’s tone was indifferent, as if he didn’t want to engage with him, yet couldn’t help but speak with suppressed resentment and barbed words: “I’ve been sitting here for an entire hour, thinking of poisoning you several times. I even poked a poison needle at your eyelid and you didn’t react—I thought you were dead! How did you even break through to Void Return? Did you water it down?!”
Yan Jianlan: “…”
Indeed, it was watered down.
Yan Jianlan fully woke up, put on his shoes, got off the couch, stretched lazily, and said with a smile: “Why are you so angry? Didn’t Lady Wan tell you long ago that I was fine?”
Lezheng Jiu had been forcibly suppressing his anger, but at these words, he nearly exploded outright.
He looked up furiously, saying coldly: “Listen to yourself—are these human words?! You ‘died’ without saying a word, and now you turn around and ask me why I’m angry? Xi…”
He choked, momentarily not knowing how to scold him, so he could only throw the book in his hand hard onto the ground.
“Get lost! Just looking at you annoys me.”
Yan Jianlan wasn’t upset. He cheerfully picked up the book, laying on the desk piled high with medical texts and herbs to watch him.
“What, is brother feeling sorry for me?”
The whole scene was just like back at Tianyan Academy, the first time the two of them ever talked: one full of anger, the other smiling and fanning the flames.
Lezheng Jiu looked at him coldly: “Feel sorry for what? Sorry that not a word out of your mouth is true?”
Yan Jianlan kept up the cheeky grin: “Don’t be mad, even Sheng Jiao doesn’t lose his temper as badly as you.”
As soon as this left his lips, Lezheng Jiu practically exploded: “You! You’re comparing me to him?!”
Yan Jianlan hurried to placate him: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, calm down, brother!”
Three months ago, after Sheng Jiao was brought down by Fu Man, he arrived at Medicine Sect in just three days.
At that time, Lezheng Jiu thought he was there to settle scores, just about to reveal everything about Fu Man for his own self-preservation, but unexpectedly Sheng Jiao said:
“I want to see Lady Wan.”
Lezheng Jiu protested: “My mother isn’t someone you can see just because you want to, Sect Master Sheng. With that attitude, I thought you were here to arrest people!”
Sheng Jiao’s gaze was hollow and dry as if depleted, not caring at all for Lezheng Jiu’s cold sarcasm.
Lezheng Jiu was about to keep sniping, when he noticed something off about Sheng Jiao’s mood and stopped, frowning: “Didn’t Rang Chen say Jue’er wasn’t hurt, so why do you look like Yan Jianlan’s already buried?”
Sheng Jiao remained ice-cold, uninterested in anything he said.
After a tense moment, Lezheng Jiu uncharacteristically opened the door, grumbling, “Come in.”
With his Winter Snow Sword still cold at his waist, Sheng Jiao visibly reacted, hurrying into Medicine Sect.
Lady Wan was tending spirit herbs in the medicine garden and, noting an unfamiliar surge of spiritual force, lifted her head.
Sheng Jiao strode in with such a dark expression he even forgot basic courtesy.
“Tell me the truth.”
Lezheng Jiu’s frown deepened—he almost threw this discourteous man right out.
But anyone familiar with Sheng Jiao knew that this attitude was almost pleading, that every word was wrenched out under immense turmoil, making politeness impossible.
Lady Wan was quiet a while, then said, “Jiu’er, wait outside.”
“Mother!”
She said nothing more and eventually, after some hesitation, Lezheng Jiu left with a sullen face.
But, unable to figure out what secret his mother and Sheng Jiao needed to keep from him, he snuck back and used the rhino horn lamp to set up a simple eavesdropping array, hiding in the shrubs to overhear their conversation.
…He never expected to learn of the truly heartbreaking details of Yan Ling’s past.
Seeing Yan Jianlan still acting so carefree, Lezheng Jiu snapped, more furious than ever: “You never told me any of this—after all these years as classmates, do you and everyone in Zhuxing Zhai really not trust me?”
Scolded, Yan Jianlan drooped, now lacking even the nerve to keep up his usual shameless grin. Quietly, he explained, “It’s complicated. The Rang family, Heng family, Feng family were all involved. If I’d said anything…”
“Medicine Sect isn’t mixed up with those great clans! And don’t forget about Sword Sect!” Lezheng Jiu cut him off. “At least if you’d told me, I could have…”
Right there, Lezheng Jiu faltered.
Just like Sheng Jiao earlier, he realized—if he tried to recall exactly what he could’ve done if he’d known then, he simply couldn’t come up with an answer.
The Xi family was at its peak, all the other families were watching like tigers, even the Central State Lord Wen Gubai coveted Yan Jianlan. What could a mere Medicine Sect really do in such a vast region?
Lezheng Jiu stood there dumbfounded for a long time, eventually murmuring, “…So there was nothing I could do, was there?”
Lady Wan loved Yan Jianlan dearly, but even she couldn’t save him from the Xi family’s hell, let alone Lezheng Jiu who hadn’t even come of age.
He couldn’t steal Yan Jianlan away from the Xi family, couldn’t use any amount of medical skill to bring the dead back to life, couldn’t shoulder those secret pains Yan Jianlan bore day and night.
Even knowing the truth—there was nothing he could do.
Yan Jianlan smiled at him gently where he lay on the desk. “You’ve already helped me a lot.”
Back then, Lezheng Jiu had saved Sheng Jiao and even refined spirit pills to help him break through to Void Return, allowing Sheng Jiao to enter Xiezhi Sect and use the Tianyan Pearl to save Yan Jianlan from Qu Xiangren.
If not for that, Yan Ling really might have had the thirteen xiangwen forcibly extracted, even having an indelible brand seared onto his face for life.
Lezheng Jiu’s eyes turned faintly red, staring blankly at Yan Jianlan for a long time, unable to vent a rising tide of sadness and sympathy.
The year disaster struck, he was only ten.
Ordinary kids should still be safe in their parents’ arms at that age—he instead suffered his parents’ deaths and cruel torment from the Xi family.
Every time Lezheng Jiu thought of this over the last three months, he grew glum enough to sulk like a willowy poet, tearing up more than once.
Just recently, when Heng Yudu called for him to teach at Tianyan Academy, even his customary dread of “going out” lessened. After hesitating a moment, he agreed on the spot, scaring Heng Yudu so badly he almost carried his wheelchair over just to check if he’d been possessed.
As Yan Jianlan kept smiling obediently, Lezheng Jiu suddenly reached across the table, yanking Yan Jianlan into his arms and pressing him into his neck with a strong hand.
Startled, Yan Jianlan had to stand on tiptoe to return the hug, softly murmuring, “Brother.”
Lezheng Jiu said nothing.
Yan Jianlan spoke even softer: “Brother, are you crying?”
Lezheng Jiu: “…”
Through gritted teeth: “Shut up or I’ll beat you until you cry.”
Yan Jianlan: “…”
After their session of crying in each other’s arms, Lezheng Jiu insisted Yan Jianlan stay the night in the name of “strengthening their bond,” which was really just an excuse for cross-examination—putting Yan Jianlan under pressure to spill everything he’d been hiding, and so he recounted nearly everything from back then all through the night.
Along the way, Lezheng Jiu got so angry eighteen times that he couldn’t stand listening anymore, and stormed off, ready to draw his sword and scatter the ashes of the Xi family. Yan Jianlan hurried to calm him down, and it took a long time of persuasion before he finally relented.
Yan Jianlan’s throat was dry from talking, feeling as if the hour of midnight had long passed, yet Lezheng Jiu was still full of energy—fueled by anger—and insisted that Yan Jianlan tell him more.
“Alright,” Yan Jianlan pulled out his ultimate trick. “Actually, there’s one last very important thing I’ve been hiding from you.”
Seeing Yan Jianlan’s tone so serious, Lezheng Jiu’s hand quietly reached for a knife by the bed, ready to rush to the Xi family ruins and level the place to the ground to ease his hatred.
Yan Jianlan turned over, looking at Lezheng Jiu innocently. “Brother, I’m going to register with Sheng Jiao.”
Lezheng Jiu: “…”
Lezheng Jiu froze.
“Brother? Brother?!” Yan Jianlan said. “Brother, wake up! What’s wrong with you?! Help!”
Lezheng Jiu finally jumped up after Yan Jianlan pinched his philtrum several times, roaring, “You’re not telling me you’re serious about him?! Pretending was already enough of a favor to that bastard—how can you even register with him?!”
“What do you mean pretending?” Yan Jianlan said with deep emotion. “My heart isn’t cold stone. I truly admire Sheng Wuzhuo.”
At first, he’d felt too ashamed to say this, but after saying it so many times, he could now say it without blushing.
Lezheng Jiu: “Pah!”
Seeing Lezheng Jiu’s face turn pale from his words, Yan Jianlan struggled to keep a straight face and continued with a serious expression: “Really, brother, believe me. I want to face storms together with him, to share joys and sorrows. No one can ever separate us.”
Lezheng Jiu was so disgusted by his syrupy words that he wanted to kick him off the bed.
Just then, the rhino horn lamp on the small table by Yan Jianlan’s bed suddenly lit up.
Lezheng Jiu glanced at it, saying quietly, “Yan Lingshi, your dao companion is looking for you.”
Yan Jianlan, confused, pinched the flame. Sheng Jiao’s voice transmission came through, as always brief and to the point—just three words.
“Come to Qu family.”
Yan Jianlan was puzzled.
Qu family?
Lezheng Jiu, idly watching the rhino horn lamp, suddenly jumped up from the bed, horrified. “Jianlan, the Qu family has been…”
Yan Jianlan looked up blankly.
Lezheng Jiu said in shock: “…exterminated.”
Yan Jianlan’s pupils constricted.
***
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152