WPCID 39: He’s Eating Your Medicine Furnace

The little paper man ran out again, climbing onto his shoulder.

Xie Xianqing poked it curiously. 

“What’s this?”

“My sword.” Chu Xuan grabbed his wrist and moved his hand away.

A sword cultivator’s sword was not to be touched lightly by others, especially not casually in front of its master. It was highly impolite.

The little paper man nodded, leaped up, and with a “swoosh,” folded itself a few times, turning into a palm-sized paper sword.

Xie Xianqing: “…”

All this time, he had refrained from asking where the sword had gone, assuming Chu Xuan had simply put it away for a while to get it out of sight and mind.

Now, with a paper sword suddenly appearing, he finally realized something was wrong. 

“Where is your sword?”

Chu Xuan paused for a moment, then patted the little paper man, making it change back. He tucked it into his robes and said nonchalantly, “I’m going to the Myriad Bones Grotto.”

“Wait! Come back…”

Chu Xuan slipped away with incredible speed, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Xie Xianqing decided to wait for him at the Sect Master’s residence. While he was at it, he took out his medicine furnace to cook some medicinal wonton soup for Lu Buzhuo. This was different from medicinal congee; he had to be careful not to overcook them.

He had no choice. The troublesome patient on the other mountain peak refused to eat anything, only willing to take a few bites of wontons.

Before long, Chu Xuan returned.

His expression was three parts puzzled and seven parts bewildered, and in his hand, he carried a wriggling, lively something.

Xie Xianqing had just finished preparing the soup base and was pouring it into a jar. He looked up. 

“What’s that?”

“It’s… I don’t know what… trapped by my sword qi.” Chu Xuan tossed the dark bundle at his feet. 

“Take a look.”

The bundle hit Xie Xianqing’s leg and thrashed a couple of times before finally wriggling out from under the large, worn-out black cloth. It looked up, and its soft hair fell to either side, revealing a pair of large, dark, glistening eyes.

“…” Xie Xianqing was baffled. 

“A child? Where did he come from?”

“I picked him up in the Myriad Bones Grotto. When I got there, the sword qi…” Chu Xuan paused. 

“He was eating my sword qi.”

A person couldn’t eat sword qi, so for now, he could only be described as a “thing.”

Xie Xianqing squatted down to observe him. After a moment, he said gravely, “Don’t you think he looks a bit familiar? Like I’ve seen him somewhere.”

Chu Xuan: “I’m not good with children’s faces.”

“Think, help me think. I’m sure I’ve seen him somewhere… Where was it…” Xie Xianqing stood up and paced back and forth. 

“Just recently, where…”

Chu Xuan’s gaze followed him back and forth. 

“I’m not good with children’s faces. Also, he’s eating your medicine furnace.”

Xie Xianqing: “!!!”

Xie Xianqing gave up thinking and quickly snatched back the medicine furnace, which now had two bites taken out of it. He looked at the chipped edge and gasped. 

“This is a spiritual treasure passed down from my master!”

Chu Xuan glanced over with considerable sympathy, casually pressing his agitated little paper man back into his robes and tucking it away securely, lest it be eaten too.

With nothing to do, the little fellow turned in a circle, discovered the freshly made soup base in the jar, and proceeded to drink it.

Xie Xianqing hauled the child back and took his pulse to diagnose him but couldn’t find anything. He tried to send a wisp of spiritual energy inside to check, but it was blocked by some unknown force.

Fearing he might hurt the little thing, he withdrew his hand and turned to Chu Xuan. 

“What do you plan to do with him?”

“Although his origins are unknown, his aura is very pure, and he has quite a talent for array formations.” Chu Xuan stated the facts, pondering for a moment. 

“How about we take him to Senior Brother for a look?”

Xie Xianqing thought about it. 

“Alright, give him something to do. Shall I take him over for you?”

The little fellow, along with the twice-bitten medicine furnace, was delivered to Lu Buzhuo.

At that moment, Lu Buzhuo was still sitting under the eaves of the corridor, not having moved at all. His lips were so pale they were nearly colorless, like a clay statue.

The moment the little fellow was set down, he broke free from Xie Xianqing’s grasp and stumbled towards him.

Lu Buzhuo was nearly knocked over. He propped himself up with a hand and looked up at Xie Xianqing. 

“Where did this child come from?”

“I picked him up. Chu… ahem, I saw that he has quite a talent for arrays and brought him for you to see. Lesser Hermit Peak needs a successor, doesn’t it?”

Hearing the words “Lesser Hermit Peak,” Lu Buzhuo finally showed a slight reaction.

If he were to die, only Chu Xuan would be left.

Lesser Hermit Peak couldn’t be without an apprentice, and Kunlun Ruins couldn’t be without a Sect Master. Otherwise, who would guard this man-eating Myriad Bones Grotto?

He lowered his gaze to the child, a faint trace of pity in his eyes.

The little fellow happened to look up just then and smiled at him.

The moment their eyes met, Lu Buzhuo’s pupils shrank. He subconsciously glanced up at the top of the child’s head.

…No wolf ears.

Upon closer inspection, the facial features weren’t very similar either. Only those large, dark eyes bore a fifty or sixty percent resemblance.

Back on that snowy night in Biancheng, Shen Zhou had seemed to be only this big, stumbling along behind him, a small dark speck in the vast whiteness, almost buried by the snow, his eyes filled with a craving for pastries.

…

He reached out to hold the child, but the little fellow suddenly floated backward, lifted up by someone holding him under the arms.

“I can’t just give him to you for free,” Xie Xianqing said, kicking the medicine furnace on the floor. 

“He broke my furnace, you have to compensate me.”

Lu Buzhuo: “…”

Lu Buzhuo: “Go find Chu Xuan. If he’s really taking an apprentice, this would count as his.”

“Sect Master Chu is in seclusion, and I need this furnace urgently.” Xie Xianqing spouted nonsense, trying to coax him into talking more. 

“You compensate me. Otherwise, I’ll send him back where he came from.”

“…” Lu Buzhuo finally seemed a bit more alive. He tugged at his translucent white sleeve. 

“Doctor Xie, as you can see, my sleeves are empty.”

“Then tell me a few truths, and we’ll call it even.” Xie Xianqing put down the little thing who was kicking wildly in his arms and sat down beside him. 

“What’s the deal with that evil soul? Why did you disappear back then?”

Lu Buzhuo looked at him, his gaze gradually turning vacant. His soul began to drift away again.

Suddenly, his robe was tugged. He looked down and saw the little fellow trying to climb into his lap. However, the corridor was a bit too high off the ground. After a couple of failed attempts, he could only lie against Lu Buzhuo’s knees, looking up at him with those large, dark, craving eyes.

Lu Buzhuo: “.”

Xie Xianqing immediately seized the opportunity. 

“If you don’t want him, fine, I’ll send him to the outer sect to be raised…”

“I want him.” With a swift and nimble movement, Lu Buzhuo bent down and scooped the child into his arms. He took a breath, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks, instantly improving his complexion. A bright, translucent sheen appeared in his eyes. 

“Who said I didn’t?”

“Then talk.” Xie Xianqing drew his fan. 

“You can’t beat me right now anyway. If you don’t talk, I’ll just take him by force.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the little thing shrank fearfully into the embrace, revealing only one eye to peek at him.

Lu Buzhuo: “…”

Lu Buzhuo: “Fine.”

He paused, seeming to choose his words, before continuing after a moment, “Back then… I planned to add another thirty-six arrays on top of the original forty-nine interlocking arrays in the Myriad Bones Grotto, which would ensure a thousand years of peace.”

He said it so casually, as if he were discussing adding another dish to dinner.

Xie Xianqing: “…Holy hell.”

Lu Buzhuo: “Don’t interrupt me. It wasn’t accomplished. Firstly, frequently entering and exiting the Myriad Bones Grotto, the demonic energy was more troublesome than I had imagined, and my body couldn’t hold up. Secondly… I couldn’t find a medium to connect the old and new grand interlocking arrays. That thing had to possess a certain level of spiritual intelligence, be able to absorb demonic energy to nourish itself, and then continuously provide power to connect the two grand arrays.”

“There’s no such thing,” Xie Xianqing said. 

“You might as well just tie up a demonic cultivator and lock them inside, and replace them when they die.”

“That’s a person, not a donkey.” Lu Buzhuo glanced at him. 

“If he refuses to turn the millstone, what can you do?”

Xie Xianqing: “…”

He noticed that Lu Buzhuo was coming back to life. His tongue had grown sharp again, showing a glimpse of his former self.

“I couldn’t find such a thing, but the demonic energy had already reached a critical point, eroding my soul,” Lu Buzhuo continued. 

“So, like the Sect Masters of previous generations, I left behind the Sect Master’s token and entered the Myriad Bones Grotto alone to meet my death. But when it came to that moment, I was unwilling to accept it.”

“Years ago, I had wondered, why is there no cure once demonic energy erodes the soul? If a patient’s leg rots, the decay will gradually spread to the whole body. Why not just amputate the leg? At least a life can be saved. So I pondered it and came up with a soul-splitting array.”

“The soul-splitting array was a success, but I didn’t anticipate that as that one ethereal soul and one corporal spirit were separated, a part of my consciousness was also split off. I was very weak at the time and couldn’t do anything, so it seized control of my body. Both the evil soul and I are the original owners of this body. I can’t kill it unless it willingly leaves this body. A soul itself is fragile; without the protection of a body, a single strike of sword qi would gravely injure it. Naturally, neither of us was willing to leave.”

Xie Xianqing nodded. 

“No wonder you disappeared and then ended up half-dead. But it’s strange. If the evil soul had stayed in your body that day to fight you for control, it would have had a chance of survival. Why did it flee so decisively?”

Lu Buzhuo fell silent. He lowered his eyes and gently stroked the soft black hair of the little thing in his arms. After a long while, he said softly, “I don’t know.”

In truth, he did know. But he didn’t mention it.

The evil soul had peeked into his memories and learned that Shen Zhou’s pendant could contain a soul.

Unfortunately, the protective aura on the sword was faster.

He also didn’t mention that Shen Zhou’s Golden Core could serve as the connection between the two grand arrays, and that it had already succeeded once in the previous life.

Ever since returning to Kunlun Ruins, he had remained silent about everything concerning Shen Zhou, allowing the complex and intertwined feelings of guilt and self-blame to tear him apart until he was barely breathing, just waiting for Chu Xuan to come out of seclusion and clean house according to the sect’s rules, putting an end to it all.

But Chu Xuan delayed his return from seclusion, and now he had sent over this little fellow.

This little thing clearly looked seven or eight years old, yet he couldn’t speak. He would giggle whenever his hair was stroked, looking utterly innocent and silly.

Xie Xianqing said he had a talent for array cultivation, but Lu Buzhuo couldn’t see from where.

Lu Buzhuo stroked his hair again. A moment later, he said, “From now on… your name will be Lu Ye.”

Meanwhile, deep within the Myriad Bones Grotto.

Shen Zhou awoke after refining the demonic energy, only to find that one of the puppets he had painstakingly created was missing. He had lost contact with it, and it seemed it was no longer in the Myriad Bones Grotto.

Shen Zhou: “?”