My Junior Chapter 20: Venting on the System

Translated by Rikko of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis, WagahaiFujoshi

All the while, Zhong Yan had been treading his every step with caution, afraid Gu XuanYan would take a sudden turn to the path of evil. However, never would he have imagined such a scenario would play out even if he tried speculating thousands of times.

He propped himself up the bed, a barrage of bolded sans serif comments flying across his mind.

How to deal with a villain that suddenly turned into an utterly love struck gay? Urgent! Staying online for an answer!

Only after some time had passed did Zhong Yan force himself back to reality, his voice hoarse, “When did you…”

He didn’t even dare to lift his line of sight towards Gu XuanYan when asking. 

Gu XuanYan’s low chuckle entered his ears, “When? I had no idea either. Perhaps a long time ago.”

Chaos whirled in the momentarily muted Zhong Yan’s mind. 

Seemingly not minding if Zhong Yan replied, Gu XuanYan straightened Zhong Yan’s dishevelled clothes before reaching his hand out to caress his face. “Senior Brother, I have something on. Rest. When the medicine’s effect subsides, Senior Brother will be able to move freely. But I still can’t release Senior Brother’s cultivation base for now.”

Gu XuanYan made an incantation gesture right after. Caught off guard, Zhong Yan felt a wave of sleepiness hitting him, not even able to open his heavy eyelids. With his head tilted, he fell onto Gu XuanYan’s side

When the person beside him was sound asleep, Gu XuanYan set him carefully onto the bed and tucked him in. With everything done, he exited the courtyard. The guiding demonic cultivators were still waiting by the door. Gu XuanYan swept a glance at them, “I want to meet Cang Luan.”

Despite him calling out Cang Luan’s name directly, the group of demonic cultivators didn’t dare to dissent. Instead, all of them lowered their heads, “My Lord has been waiting for you.”

Cang Luan had seemingly gotten even more emaciated as compared to the last time they met, his complexion practically empty of color. He leaned lazily on the jade throne in the palace. When he saw Gu XuanYan, he merely lifted his gaze, “Here you are.”

Gu XuanYan cut to the chase, “I want to practice demonic cultivation.”

Cang Luan straightened up a little, “I certainly can assist you if you wish to practice it. After all, I assisted Chun Qin and Li YunJi previously. But they were able to get golden cores for me; what can you do for me? Besides, how can I trust you to do my bidding sincerely?”

“I have destroyed three Daoist cultivators’ cultivation bases on my way here while crushing a golden core from one of them.” Gu XuanYan’s tone was indifferent, “Since even those two could get golden cores for you, there’s no doubt I can do so as well.”

Gu XuanYan raised his eyes towards Cang Luan. “Besides, even though I can kill you right now, I chose not to.”

Despite the lack of emotions, Gu XuanYan’s reply sounded undisputable. With a piercingly icy expression, Cang Luan flashed a glare at Gu XuanYan, who stared back with indifference instead of averting his eyes.

Quite sometime later, Cang Luan chose to retract his glare first, replacing it with a smile, “I can provide you with the cultivation methods, but I do not need you to murder and get cores for me. You do remember Amoghavajra Buddhist Hall, don’t you?” Cang Luan explained, “A total of nine eminent monks had managed to ascend and head west to welcome their ista-devatas(favourite deities) ever since Amoghavajra Buddhist Hall was founded. All of their relics were stored in the Merciful Pagoda of the Buddhist Hall.”

Cang Luan shifted his gaze towards Gu XuanYan, slowing down his speech, “I want you to bring their relics to me at Northern Wilderness after you succeed in practising demonic cultivation.”

There wasn’t much of an expression on Gu XuanYan’s face, “No wonder Chun Qin attended Sage Shi Yin’s congratulatory ceremony.”

Cang Luan sighed, seemingly finding it unfortunate, “That’s right. It’s a pity he got killed by you before he could get me them. So, I can only have you to finish his mission.”

Gu XuanYan gave a nod, “Fine. But I can only give you up to two months to complete it.”

“Fine.” With a chuckle, Gu XuanYan repeated before heading out of the palace’s gates.

When Gu XuanYan’s figure vanished into the distance, a black-robed demonic cultivator materialised in the hall. After a respectful bow at Cang Luan, he straightened up, “My Lord, can he be trusted?”

“No.” Cang Luan lazed back onto his throne, “But if he wants that Qin MingXi to survive, he has no choice but to take my orders.”

A moment of hesitation later, the elder spoke up, “But apart from taking Milord’s blood, there is another solution…”

Cang Luan tilted his head at the elder, his voice light, “So you think Gu XuanYan can advance into a stronger demonic cultivator than me?”

In contrast to his feeble tone, a horrifying pressure weighed down the moment he spoke. The elder’s knees plunged onto the floor instantly, unable to remain upright due to the pressure. His voice was hoarse, “My Lord, that was not what I meant.”

After a moment, Cang Luan finally retracted his pressure, relieving the elder from its massive weight. Only then did the elder notice the back of his clothes was drenched in cold sweat.

Cang Luan let out two coughs. His tone was as soft as ever, as though the pressure descended just then was just a figment of imagination. “Don’t you worry. I gave him a deadline of two months and will keep him until he gets me the relics. When I have them, I’ll become an invincible immortal. Then, I will…”

The rest of Cang Luan’s words were as faint as could be, receding into the palace.

 

An influx of giddiness still plagued Zhong Yan by the time he woke up. Only after staring at the cotton drapes and bright pearls above him for a long time did he remember his current location.

Under the veil of the translucent bed curtains, Zhong Yan held his breath for a short while, confirming that no one except for him was in the room. God knew where Gu XuanYan had gone off to.

Zhong Yan’s head began throbbing faintly once Gu XuanYan entered his mind.

Despite his outburst of rage, he was indeed touched when Gu XuanYan revealed he had gone to the Northern Wilderness with him just to break his blood oath. His thoughts even drifted away to how well Gu XuanYan treated his friends in spite of his apathy to others.

However, Gu XuanYan’s subsequent reply and actions shook him to the core, shutting down his mind. His hand reached out subconsciously to touch his neck; the bite from yesterday had left a trace mark that was still there.

Once he was aware of his action, he dropped his hands in a hurry. Somehow, a handful of unease and fury began flooding his veins. Although Gu XuanYan appeared to be brimming with sincerity then, his constant trickery still riled Zhong Yan up. Moreover, being forcefully kissed wasn’t quite a pleasant experience for a guy.

Since the culprit of his insatiable wrath was absent, Zhong Yan got ready to unleash his rage on a certain someone. He questioned the system, a detached look plastered on his face. [You knew about this quite some time ago, right?]

He garnered no response from the empty room.

Zhong Yan bellowed, [Don’t play dead and come out right now! You are so going to get a beating!]

Knowing that avoiding was not an option, the system finally whispered after remaining speechless for a while, [Calm down.]

[How can I?! I’ve transmigrated over here just to prevent him from doing anything bad. And now, not only is he doing just that, he plans on doing me too!]

[Come on… I’m just a kid.]

[Oh, piss off…] Zhong Yan wasn’t swayed at all. [Did you know about this long ago?]

The system proclaimed its innocence in a hurry. [I did give you some subtle hints. Besides, Gu XuanYan has been acting weird since a long time ago; you just overlooked it.]

Zhong Yan pressed onto his head as he recalled again. Is it when Gu XuanYan piggybacked me during the three thousand plus steps of stairs? Or did it start during the drunken moon-viewing? Or was it even further ahead? When we narrowly escape death at the icy plains? Or was it during the time we encountered the white ape, when Gu XuanYan planned on killing me but ended up going back on it all of a sudden?

…now that I think of it, things had taken a strange turn ever since the beginning!

Bathed in despair, Zhong Yan muttered to himself, “I’m so, so dumb. The only thing I had in mind was to prevent him from turning evil and swing him back to the right path. But in the end, I got him to swing the other way. The butterfly effect sure is scary! I shouldn’t have blindly replaced Tong Ling’s spot in the story!”

Of course, Zhong Yan knew the only spot he took was the part when he got kidnapped in the icy plains.

Ultimately, things probably developed into the way they were because Zhong Yan practically glued himself onto Gu XuanYan every single day to nip off any chances of him murdering.

It might even be due to the few words he said off the cuff to appease Gu XuanYan.

Such as, ‘I won’t abandon you here.’

Or, ‘I’ll be by your side all the time, I swear.’

Why didn’t I notice the gust of gayness blowing by then…?

Detecting Zhong Yan was at a loss, the system couldn’t help comforting. [Think positive; at least Gu XuanYan likes you now, so he will listen to you.]

Zhong Yan’s tone was aloof. [If he seriously listens to me, he wouldn’t have tricked me into entering Northern Wilderness.]

As Zhong Yan wiggled his arms and legs, he realised quite a bit of strength had returned to him. 

Temporarily chucking all of that nonsense to the back of his mind, Zhong Yan got down the bed and strolled towards the door, attempting to push it open. It was to no avail. Two more attempts still yielded the same result; Gu XuanYan probably cast a spell on the door to prevent Zhong Yan from fleeing.

The unsurprised Zhong Yan withdrew his hand. [Heh… Confessing with this attitude? Will he just lock me up whenever we fight in the future?]

After a moment of silence, the system couldn’t help murmuring. [You sure are farsighted, huh?]

Zhong Yan was stumped for words.