My Disciple Wants to Tease Me Every Day - Chapter 53

: Where is This Place?
There was only one reincarnation pill.

Di Jiufeng knew that with Ning Guang’s temper, she would try to steal it by force. And she, for her own life, would not try to be polite and decline. She wanted the reincarnation pill. Even if she had to carry the weight of a life, plagued by nightmares day after day, she wanted to live on.

This was not anything she was unable to admit, she truly was this selfish and pragmatic.

Di Jiufeng looked at Ning Guang, blinked, then walked forwards, her sentiments unclear. She looked at Lu Yi. When she put away the furnace, she reached out her hand towards her. “Miss, you know the medical arts. Can you help me see if I am suffering from any major ailments? I have been short of energy recently, but none of several doctors I visited found any problems.”

Lu Yi did not refuse, and placed her fingertip on her wrist.

––Di Jiufeng’s pulse was tenuous and weak, like it could stop at any time. But the strange thing was, underneath this pulse hid a boundless life force. Though it was hidden and inert, it was still present.

This was an extremely contradictory pulse the likes of which Lu Yi had never seen before. She furrowed her brow and thought for a long while. After half a cup of tea’s time, her eyes flew open and she looked at Di Jiufeng in disbelief. “I’ve got it, I’ve got it! I’ve seen it before in Shifu’s notes, you…” At this point, her voice ground to a halt.

All the firelight in the stone room instantly went dark. The pill refinement furnace and the two people before them all disappeared into thin air.

The stone room became quiet and empty, the choking scent of dust in the air signifying that no one had entered this room for a long time.

Seeing everything before them disappear, Ning Guang furrowed her brow, but she did not panic. Taking Di Jiufeng’s arm, she squatted down to touch the oil grooves. They were dry and ice-cold, without a hint of warmth, some damp spots were even grown over with moss. Looking again at the stone tablet, though it was still whole, it had gained an air of disuse like an object which had long been away from human presence.

No one had come to this place for a very long time. Was what they had seen an illusion?

Ning Guang thought for a while, her gaze sweeping carefully over the floor. Suddenly, she saw a pearly-white object fallen at the foot of the stone tablet.

––It was a pill. Ning Guang sensed that this was the reincarnation pill. She tried to pick it up, but this pill was immovable, like it had grown into the floor.

“Hmph! Petty tricks!”

Ning Guang humphed and shot over a wisp of grey smoke. With a whoosh, the immovable pill fell into Ning Guang’s hands. Holding tight to the pill, Ning Guang whirled away, pulling her Shifu behind her in one smooth movement and circling around to the back side of the stone tablet.

Because they had been standing too far away, they had not noticed that there was a corpse lying behind the tablet.

The room was dry and cold, so the body was very well-preserved. Even the green linen robes she was wearing were whole. It was Lu Yi, but a Lu Yi who had been dead for many years. She held a pill-refining furnace in her arms, her brows knit into a stubborn frown.

Ning Guang looked down at her for a while. Her brows creased, but she soon recovered her calm.

Like she had understood something, she said coldly, “Her lingering desire has already scattered, you should stop. Where are those notes, give them to me!”

Hearing her words, Di Jiufeng understood as well. No wonder the System said this place did not exist in the cultivation world, no wonder everything had disappeared so suddenly. So it was a lingering desire, Lu Yi’s lingering desire after she had failed to refine the reincarnation pill and save Chu Yi.

As Ning Guang spoke, a black fuzzy ball slowly burrowed out from beneath Lu Yi’s body. It fumbled under its thick fur with two short little arms and drew out a yellowed stack of notes.

Raising up the book which was so much larger than itself, the black fuzzy ball hopped over to Ning Guang’s feet.

Di Jifueng looked at it in curious surprise, unsure how a palm-sized ball of fuzz managed to hide an entire book.

“It is Chu Yi, the array spirit. Even if she did not have the reincarnation pill, she would not die, she would only need to return to the array to heal. Whether or not she could remember Lu Yi after she came back out would depend on her luck. Looking at it now, it seems like her desire was strong enough.” She took the book from the little fuzzy ball’s hands.

The fuzzy ball rubbed itself against Ning Guang’s foot, then hopped back to Lu Yi’s side.

It stared longingly at the reincarnation pill in Ning Guang’s hand. Its small body first puffed up, then deflated into a pancake.

Ning Guang wanted to ignore it, but seeing Di Jiufeng’s gaze attracted by it, she furrowed her brow. Her Shifu liked soft fuzzy things, and though this black ball was fat and ugly and stupid, it had a full coat of fur! Having fur was a great thing. The corners of Ning Guang’s lips turned down.

She spread out the ghostly energy around her body, enveloping the entire stone room. With a twirl of her fingers, the ghostly energy brought a wisp of green light into Ning Guang’s palm.

With a stiff face, Ning Guang said, “Her lingering desire has not yet dispersed completely. I will put her into the array. If you care for her well, you will be able to see her again sooner or later, go on.”

This was not an act of kindness, she just did not want to look at this ugly thing anymore.

After it left with a whoosh, chasing the lingering desire, Ning Guang tranquilly flipped open the book of notes.

But, though this book of notes was complete, what she saw was not human characters, but twisted diagrams one after another.

“Ning Guang, this might be yao writing. Remember, Lu Yi said that her Shifu was a ginseng spirit.” Ning Guang nodded and tapped on Shen City, releasing the long-trapped Qing Yu for some air. “Look, what does it say here.” She pressed the book right on top of the honeysuckle flower’s head.

If he had not been a yao, his petals probably would have already snapped.

But even so, he was still uncomfortable. Ning Guang had purposefully wrapped the book in ghostly energy, smashing it onto his head, nearly about to break his old petals and roots.

Qing Yu shuddered. He’d probably have even less of a chance of survival in human form, so he scrambled his way out from under the book in flower form.

In fact, Qing Yu was very clear why Ning Guang would try to take revenge. It was all because of that time Di Jiufeng had fainted. Come to speak of it, he truly had been wronged. He was speaking purely from a medical perspective when he told her that Di Jiufeng was weakening because of corrosion by ghostly energy. Afraid Ning Guang would not believe him, he had even unfurled his grey-spotted petals for her to see.

And then, and then nothing! He had practically become a punching bag, two of his beautiful petals had been torn off, and he had been shut behind bars in Shen City.

Qing Yu felt he had suffered quite a lot. He had nearly fainted from crying so hard, not even his natural calm as a plant yao could have prevented him from losing control of his emotions.

“Stop dawdling, hurry up and read!” Before Qing Yu could finish his fit of self-pity, Ning Guang coldly yelled at him.

Qing Yu’s petals trembled, his whole body curled into a ball. He rolled back under the book, and with the protection of its pages, began to flip through it at a rapid speed.

“This…” After some time, Qing Yu stuck out a trembling root. “This book, this book… is written in both yao and demonic writing, interspersed with each other. I recognize the writing of the yao tribe, but I, I can’t understand demonic writing…” Qing Yu finished, then trembled, still holding on to the book.

He thought Ning Guang would stomp on him, but she did not. Di Jiufeng was there, so Ning Guang would be as well-behaved as needed. She even moved to pick up the book and said mildly, “It is normal if you cannot read demonic writing, no need to blame yourself.”

Seeing them get along, Di Jiufeng curled her lips in a smile. Still smiling, she said, “Ning Guang, that resentful ghost has lived a long time, perhaps it might know. I will have it take a look.”

Saying this, she called out the System.

When the stick figure heard it was demonic writing, it was also stumped for a while. “I can try, but I am not sure I can. My memory storage does not have demonic writing.” The System ran towards the book on its short little legs.

When it was just about to scan the words, it saw the honeysuckle flower sprawled out on the spine of the book.

The System was entranced. Its beady eyes grew from sesame seeds to peanuts and its stick legs began to shake. It couldn’t stay standing any longer, and fell to its knees with a clatter.

How could there be such an otherworldly honeysuckle flower!

The System’s heart trembled, its eyes glued to Qing Yu like it had lost its soul. The room was pitch-dark, but a beam of light fell right on Qing Yu’s body. Qing Yu was facing away from the light, sprawled on the other side, his face hidden in shadow, all his edges outlined in gold. What a surreal beauty, just like a fairy maiden from a dream!

“My heavens! I finally found my Quiet, my happy ending!” Hands over its heart, the System looked up to the heavens, face full of infatuation, like it was afraid the world wouldn’t know it had fallen in love.

[T/N: Pretty sure ‘Quiet’ means the Metal Gear character.]

Qing Yu looked at it and thought to himself, “Is this some sort of maniac? Hard to say, it’s already so ugly, wouldn’t be strange if it was insane as well.”

The System wallowed a bit in starry-eyed infatuation, but it did not forget the task at hand. Before Ning Guang could break its stick legs, it scanned the book. It compared the text to the program storage, but in the end, still shook its head and said, “No, I can’t read it. There might not even be anyone in the demon realm who can understand this ancient demonic writing. Honorable Host, I…” It squirmed a bit at Di Jiufeng apologetically.

Di Jiufeng did not blame it, and waved it away.

Having been dismissed, the System changed itself into a fresh golden honeysuckle flower and scooted up to Qing Yu, waving its ‘hips’ three times with every step. “H-h-h-h-hello, c-can we be friends?”

Qing Yu shook off a layer of pollen in fright, changed himself into a girl, and forcefully refused. “I’m sorry, people of different genders can’t be friends.”

The System squirmed, switched to a tender woman’s voice, drooped its bright petals, and said, “Little sister, I am a woman too, we are the same gender. Not only can we be friends, we can even fall in love.”

Qing Yu used to think Ning Guang was frightening, but right now, Ning Guang might as well have been the gentle spring wind and soft rain.

No need to say any more, she would not make friends with this ugly thing! Her pride as a plant yao would! Not! Allow! It!

“Jiufeng, Ning Guang, I think I sense the aura of the Bone-Casting Branch. I will go look for it, wait here for me.”

Qing Yu disappeared, petals and roots gone in a wisp of smoke. She ran so fast that she left a layer of pollen all over the ground. The System rubbed its nose and gathered all the pollen, infatuated, then with a loud call of “Little sister!”, ran off in the same direction as Qing Yu.

To ward off the System, Qing Yu even threw up a few barrier spells in fear.

The System did not notice and crashed into one with a bang, stars swirling around its head. It couldn’t get out of the barrier and rolled all over the ground in a panic. But just then, Ning Guang gave it a look, and with a somewhat sinister smirk, opened up a window for it with a flick of her finger.

“T-T-T-thank you, honorable ancient witch! This humble one will repay you well!” It yelled as it dashed off into the distance.

Having dealt with those two annoyances, Ning Guang embraced Di Jiufeng, satisfied.

As a pushover of a Shifu, Di Jiufeng had never really refused her disciple anything. She took Ning Guang’s hand and said, “Let’s go take a look. You said the ancient witch’s body is here, we might as well retrieve it. As long as we have the Bone-Casting Branch, skeletal age will be no problem.”

Ning Guang nodded and walked over to the stone tablet.

The stone tablet was the key of the array, and Chu Yi was its spirit. With those two things present, retrieving the body would be no problem. Ning Guang collected a ball of grey smoke in her hand, pressing it down onto the stone tablet.

And then, the clicking of gears slowly sounded from below the ground.

Author’s Notes:

Emmmm~ No need to split the Reincarnation Pill, and no one needs to die, let them stay together and live in the array. Or else, they can’t be together if one is a human and one is an array spirit.

As for why the array spirit would turn into a black fuzzy ball, there’s nothing to be done, I’m addicted to fluff! My slogan is to rub bald every little fuzzy creature, of course, fuzzy balls can’t escape either.

Notes:

This chapter was translated by Lily.
Yeah…. I don’t know either, I really don’t know.