My Disciple Wants to Tease Me Every Day - Chapter 86

The corridor was very long, but using spiritual energy, they could cross it in the blink of an eye. Di Jiufeng and Ning Guang soon arrived at the end, only to discover that the white light was not the sun, but the cold and apathetic light of a night pearl.

 

Di Jiufeng walked inside, finding a stone cave furnished with a plain set of tables, chairs, and a stone bed. There was a carved jewelry box on the dressing table against one of the walls, half-closed, a beaded hairpin partially visible inside. There used to be signs of life in this place, but with the passage of time, all of these signs had been covered by a thick layer of dust.

 

Di Jiufeng walked a circle around the room, but was unable to find anything unusual.

 

Then, she walked to Ning Guang’s side, raised an eyebrow, and said, “It seems like this is a dead end. Right, Ning Guang, since this is the witch race’s tomb, why not take out the map and look? Though the depiction is a bit abstract, perhaps it will be useful.”

 

Ning Guang nodded and pulled out the cut out map of the witch race’s tomb.

 

Because they had melded together, this map was much thicker than before. Di Jiufeng used a spell to clean the dust from the stone bed, then spread the map flat on its surface.

 

The night pearl was very bright, its light shining on the map on the bed. Di Jiufeng looked down at it, and saw a red dot of light faintly flickering at the end of a thin line on the map. “Ning Guang, look!” Di Jiufeng pulled Ning Guang over, pointed at the red dot, and said, “Look at this, is this our current position?”

 

“It’s possible.” Ning Guang did not refute her. She picked up the map and started outside the room, only to see that as she moved, the little flickering red dot moved outside with her. Ning Guang understood, and nodded in confirmation. “It truly is pointing to our current location. But, looking at this map, the path clearly continues, while there’s nowhere to go from here.”

 

She put down the map and walked a circle around the stone room.

 

Ning Guang examined the walls, but all four were solid; there were no concealed doors.

 

Seeing her come up empty, Di Jiufeng looked down to investigate the stone bed under her hands. When she had read The Return of the Condor Heroes, the secret mechanism was located inside the stone bed. She pressed her ear against the bed and found a large stone to tap against the surface, only to hear two resounding plonks from underneath the bed, sounding with a bit of echo.

[T/N: 神雕侠侣, The Return of the Condor Heroes, is a classic of the wuxia genre, written by Jin Yong.]

 

This bed was hollow. Was there a secret passage underneath?

 

Di Jiufeng met eyes with Ning Guang, and they split up to feel along the edges of the bed. Soon, Di Jiufeng found an indentation which could fit four fingers inside.

 

“Ning Guang, Ning Guang, come look.” She beckoned Ning Guang over. When she was standing by her side, Di Jiufeng sunk her fingers into the indentation. There was a loose piece at the top of this indentation, and with the slightest press, the piece of stone sank into a groove.

 

With a dull rumble, the top of the bed turned a half circle, shifting to reveal a gap in the northwest corner.

 

Di Jiufeng leaned over to look, seeing that there was a staircase wide enough for one person to walk down at a time revealed in this gap. They met eyes, nodded, and walked down the stairs.

 

The staircase was not deep, and they reached the end after descending three or four meters down.

 

It was another corridor, but much rougher than the previous one. Standing at the entrance, they could smell the unmistakable scent of fresh rot. Di Jiufeng staggered back a few steps, furrowed her brow, and covered her mouth and nose. “Something is strange about this path, why would the scent of rot be so strong? And, it’s very fresh.”

 

She looked at the stone walls to their sides, only to find that a dull red pattern covered the whole wall.

 

Di Jiufeng moved closer to look, and drew in a cold breath!

 

––––The pattern covering the wall was not a mural depicting historical events, but bloody handprints, one after another. There were large ones and small ones, dragging off into long tails, like countless blood-covered people had walked onwards step by step, holding themselves up on this wall. Di Jiufeng looked at it, and felt that her spine was growing cold. She stepped back and leaned against Ning Guang’s side.

 

“The blood is very fresh, it looks like it dried not long ago. Ning Guang, are we going to take this path? Or look for another one?”

 

Ning Guang did not answer, but asked her a question in return. “Do you want to take another path?”

 

Di Jiufeng looked up at her. Her bright eyes were like twin lakes reflecting the sky full of stars and luminous moon, becoming the only light in this dark space. “The more dangerous the place, the easier it is to find a breakthrough. Let’s take this path, okay?”

 

Ning Guang curled her lip into a smile. “I have no objections. But you, don’t start shaking in fright.”

 

“Tsk, why would I start shaking? I’m very brave.” Di Jiufeng was lying through her teeth, but Ning Guang did not refute her, only took the lead and stood in front of her.

 

Di Jiufeng obediently grabbed the back of her robes, focusing on the ground beneath her feet, firmly refusing to look to either side.

 

The corridor was very long, and they walked for nearly a thousand steps before finally reaching a fork. There were bloody handprints on the walls on both sides, and the scent of rot was as strong on both. There was no good way to determine which fork to take, so they tried taking out the map to look.

 

The corridor was very dark and very quiet, a chilling kind of deathly stillness.

 

And in the distance, there was water, or something else, going drip drip drip––––

 

Tirelessly echoing on and on.

 

The atmosphere was exceedingly oppressive. Di Jiufeng’s fingers began to go cold and her thoughts started to spiral out of control, accidentally touching on something that made her heart clench and shiver.

 

Her body shivered, and she reflexively raised her head. But right then, she suddenly met eyes with a pair of dark pupils!

 

In the endless dark, there was only that pair of eyes letting off a cold and gloomy light, obsessively staring at Di Jiufeng, making her lose control of her body for a moment.

 

She held her breath, freezing in place on reflex.

 

Like pouring magma had suddenly been frozen solid, after a moment of stiffness, her heart clenched at top speed.

 

Her heart pounded on overdrive, making her chest hurt, and her head went dizzy and blank. She wanted to call out for Ning Guang, but in this extreme of fear, her words stuck dead in her throat and she couldn’t make the slightest sound.

 

Di Jiufeng nearly lost all power to move. She could only stare unblinking at that pair of eyes.

 

She was about to cry. Cold sweat swept away all the heat in her body, driving into her every pore.

 

Di Jiufeng suddenly froze, and her body began to tremble at an abnormal rate. Ning Guang realized something was strange and grabbed her hand, following the direction of her gaze.

 

But she was a step too late. That maybe-human, maybe-ghost split its mouth open at Di Jiufeng in an eerie smile, then melted into the dark, disappearing without a trace.

 

“Shit.” Di Jiufeng shook, and squeezed out a hoarse curse through her teeth.

 

She clenched the map in her fists and stuffed it into Ning Guang’s hands, then put her arms over her head and sank to the floor. She panted hard, wanting to close her eyes but afraid to do so, sank into a terror she was unable to dispel, sinking into every pore like shadow after the shape.

 

“Fuck, what the hell was that?!” Di Jiufeng’s voice was seriously hoarse, her limbs were weak, and her head felt dizzy and swollen.

 

Ning Guang crouched at her side, pressing a warm hand to her forehead before pulling her to a seat on the ground. “Be good, relax, even if there is a ghost, it can’t get past me. I’m here, don’t be afraid.”

 

“How is that the same? Though it can’t hurt me, in so dark a place, just a pair of eyes staring at you…” Thinking of that scene, Di Jiufeng shivered uncontrollably. She didn’t want to think about it. She collapsed into Ning Guang’s arms, clenching her sleeves between her fingers. “Fuck, my soul was about to leave my body in fright.”

 

Di Jiufeng irritably tugged on Ning Guang’s clothes.

 

Ning Guang let her tug for a while, then moved to rub her face. “Alright, don’t be afraid, that thing was probably Gu Yunlu. We will catch her soon and you can get your revenge.”

 

Di Jiufeng let out a muffled “en”.

 

They took the strange thing as a sign they should take the path on the right. Though they knew there might be a trap, there was no way to catch tiger cubs without walking into the tiger den, so they still walked in.

 

This fork was much shorter than the previous corridors, and they came to the end before long.

 

They looked in from the entrance to see a bare and empty stone room. There was a sacrificial altar placed in the center, complete with offerings and an incense burner. But behind the altar was a coffin, one end raised high, allowing them to see the person inside.

 

––––It was the ancient witch, Ning Guang’s true body. In her hand was a key.

 

Di Jiufeng was about to step in when Ning Guang stopped her. “Don’t move, there’s an array inside.”

 

After she spoke, the entire stone room suddenly lit up, a deathly pale light falling from above to cast the slowly opening floor into a light as bright as day.

 

Underneath this floor was a blood pool. There were countless skinned people soaking within, and the inescapable stench of blood made their eyes begin to blur. As the floor slowly opened up, Gu Yunlu rose up on a small path crossing the blood pool. She was standing behind the altar, a hand on the ancient witch’s coffin.

 

“Give Yunyou to me. If you return her to me, I will tell you the truth about everything, I can even help you change the future. I swear an oath to the ancient witch.”

 

Ning Guang ignored her, and Di Jiufeng did not say anything either. They both only looked at the person at the end of the little path from far away.

 

Seeing them refuse to speak, Gu Yunlu’s expression grew a bit urgent. “I am also a member of the witch race, I have no reason to lie in front of the ancient witch. Trust me, I just want Yunyou back.”

 

Di Jiufeng could not determine whether Gu Yunlu was a member of the witch tribe, but Ning Guang could. She turned to look at Ning Guang, and saw her nod.

 

“Why would you be so kind? Even if you are a member of the witch tribe, as long as you hide, we would not be able to find you. You could watch us run into a dead end, but you appeared and even said you would help us, why?”

 

“Why? Because this is the last chance.” Gu Yunlu gave an exhausted smile.

 

“What do you mean?” Di Jiufeng asked again.

 

Gu Yunlu did not say anything for a long time in response to Di Jiufeng’s question. She stood in silence, showing some exhaustion completely unlike what they had seen the past few days.

 

She was thinking about something, her eyes falling slack on the floating corpses in the blood pool. Bubbles of blood burbled up, collecting on the surface one by one, then bursting open one after another.

 

Gu Yunlu stared until the last bubble burst, then finally returned to her senses, turned to face Di Jiufeng, and slowly opened her mouth.

 

“Did you know that you are a lingering desire turned resentful ghost?”

 

“Me?” Di Jiufeng pointed at her own nose.

 

Gu Yunlu nodded. “Yes, you. And, you are about to scatter.”

 

Di Jiufeng couldn’t resist a laugh. Looking at Gu Yunlu’s serious and tired face, she raised an eyebrow and said, “This is too preposterous, how do you expect me to believe it?”

 

Gu Yunlu laughed as well, and asked in reply, “If I really wanted to trick you, do you think I would make up something so unreasonable?”

 

“That’s true.” Di Jiufeng felt that she had been convinced. “Okay, then as you say, I am a resentful ghost formed from a lingering desire, do you have any proof?”

 

“En, of course I do. The resentful ghost you have been raising, that is to say, your System.” Gu Yunlu’s eyes were very dark. When she looked at Di Jiufeng, her gaze was so deep, as if it could look into her soul.

 

This sudden mention of the System made Di Jiufeng’s scattered thoughts shoot into focus.

 

Her gaze flickered, before she finally gave her a serious look. “You know? How did you know?”

 

“Naturally, it’s because I did all of this.” Gu Yunlu paused, and carefully thought over her words. Di Jiufeng did not press her, only nervously squeezed Ning Guang’s hand. After a long time, Gu Yunlu finally straightened out her thoughts and said to Di Jiufeng, “Ten thousand years ago, the witch tribe was at the peak of its power, and the ancient witch towered above all as the most powerful person in the cultivation world. Of the myriads of cultivators, no one dared get on her nerves.

 

Days like this were actually quite lonely, but the ancient witch did not like to talk, and no one dared hold a casual conversation with her.

 

Until one day, she left the tribe’s territory, and when she came back again, she brought a demonic cultivator and an orphan with her. The demonic cultivator was you, and the orphan was Lin Yunyou and also… me.”

 

All these years, Gu Yunlu had always wondered, if the ancient witch had not left that day, would everything have been different? Perhaps the witch tribe would not have been exterminated, and they would not have had to live such miserable existences. But, there weren’t so many ‘if onlys’ in the real world. The ancient witch’s departure was inevitable, and bringing back Di Jiufeng was the result of her loneliness. Only taking in that orphan was not a certainty.

 

––––Her one act of kindness had sent the next thousands of years into turmoil.

 

Gu Yunlu rubbed her forehead, looked down, and sat crossed-legged on the floor. Cast in the scarlet light of the blood pool, she looked defeated, like all she wanted was death. “You both know that people will always feel jealousy and greed, and that person was an orphan. She was an orphan of the witch tribe who had wandered about destitute for a long time. After she was taken in by the ancient witch, she looked up to her like a god and held on tight, afraid to let go.

 

She worshipped the ancient witch and adored her, all she wanted was to follow in the ancient witch’s footsteps. From this excessively passionate sentiment, she even started to gain some unspeakable feelings for her. But, the ancient witch did not like her, she only felt responsibility towards a fellow member of the witch tribe.

 

The one the ancient witch loved was you. You two always got along well, and even though Yunyou tried every way to thwart you, it never affected your connection.

 

Perhaps it was precisely because of this once-in-a-lifetime love that she went almost crazy and did something which caused the destruction of the witch race. She spread a rumor, saying that you and the ancient witch had found a way to ascend to immortality.”

 

When she got there, Gu Yunlu paused.

 

She looked deeply at Di Jiufeng, hesitated for a while, then continued, “Her rumor was very successful, nearly everyone believed it. Your cultivation was very high, but compared to the ancient witch, you were still far off. They couldn’t touch the ancient witch, so they changed their target to you, wanting to capture you to threaten the ancient witch.

 

Though you were heavily outnumbered, you should not have died, because they wanted to capture you alive. But, Yunyou secretly played a trick.

 

You died and your soul scattered, but because your desire was so strong, you managed to preserve your sentience and become a walking corpse. You had only a single goal–to stop the ancient witch and let her survive. But in the end, you did not succeed. The ancient witch massacred all under the heavens, and in the end, died under the combined forces of a siege and a heavenly calamity.”

 

Gu Yunlu’s story could be ranked as the most preposterous truth of the year, without second.

 

Di Jiufeng’s eyes and mouth were open wide in shock, but she couldn’t find any gaps to call into question. She futilely moved her lips, but could only ask, “And then?”

 

“And then…” Gu Yunlu sighed. “And then, your lingering desire searched ceaselessly for the ancient witch’s reincarnation, wanting her to live a peaceful and healthy life. But, because of the resentment the ancient witch had felt before her death, she walked onto the path to destruction again and again. In these years, Yunyou thought of way after way to stay at the ancient witch’s side, but unfortunately, she never succeeded. The ancient witch refused to pay her a single glance.

 

Even later, Yunyou went insane.

 

The pain of a wish unfulfilled made her carve apart her own soul, one half the beautiful dream believing her own lies, the other half the reality she could not accept.”

 

Di Jiufeng nodded and said, “No wonder Ning Guang said you and Lin Yunyou were souls of the same origin, and her soul was less solid than that of an ordinary person. It was split in half.”

 

“En.” Gu Yunlu agreed. “But, this is not important. What I wanted to talk about was you. You are a lingering desire, and you are about to scatter.”

 

Di Jiufeng would not have believed her before, but now, she was already convinced. She thought that everything Gu Yunlu said was true, so then there was nothing to be puzzled by about her own disappearance. “I am a lingering desire, and the only thing I wanted to do was to have Ning Guang give up on world destruction. She has promised me she wouldn’t, so I will retreat after the success of my mission and disappear from this world, right?”

 

Gu Yunlu nodded and said, “Yes, you can look at your System, it was a part of you all along. I just drew it out and put some false memories in its place.”

 

Things had happened one after the other, and Di Jiufeng had forgotten about the System for a while. Thinking about it now, it truly had been a long time since it had appeared.

 

She called to it, but after a long time, there was still no response. Di Jiufeng looked inside at the space where the System resided. It was true, the System used to be so lively, but at some point, the chip had been covered by a thick layer of rust. Poking it with the power of her soul, the rust flaked off and fluttered away, and before long, half the chip had broken into pieces.

 

Di Jiufeng startled, and whipped around to look at Gu Yunlu.

 

Seeing her gaze, Gu Yunlu furrowed her brow, unwilling to accept the truth. “This is your ending. Starting now, in half a month at most, you will disappear entirely, not a trace left behind.”

 

After Gu Yunlu finished, the entire cave fell into silence. Di Jiufeng looked at her for a while, then suddenly let out a scoff. “You were very convincing, I almost believed you. Unfortunately, you made a mistake. If you are the same soul as Lin Yunyou and she wants to take my life, how could you be willing to leave me a chance of survival?”

 

“Because I’m jealous.”

 

Gu Yunlu didn’t mind her suspicion. She only tugged up the corner of her lip into a smile. “I inherited all of her darkness, of which jealousy was the most important part. I am her shadow, so she is the only one I care about. I want the best for her, but I am jealous that she likes the ancient witch.”

 

When she got there, Gu Yunlu suddenly began to laugh, not hiding any of her hatred. She said darkly, a pause after every word, “You did not guess wrong, I truly don’t have any good intentions. I drew you here, first, because I wanted to recover Yunyou’s soul, and second, because I wanted to play a game. See the ancient witch’s true body? I went to such efforts to retrieve it, let’s see if she wants it back!”

 

She squeezed the last few words out from between her teeth, the hatred filling her gaze stabbing into Ning Guang’s body like countless knives.

 

But Ning Guang did not hesitate a moment before throwing off Di Jiufeng’s hand and walking onto the path across the blood lake. “Of course I do. If I don’t, would you tell me the way to save A-Feng? Actually, I should have realized already. This blood array was prepared for me, to seal all my power, right?”

 

“Ah, you’re still so smart.”

 

Gu Yunlu caught the second body Ning Guang tossed to her. Feeling that familiar soul wave, her entire body went soft. She stroked Lin Yunyou’s head, then carefully stored her in her lapel, cupping her in her hands like a precious treasure.

 

Gu Yunlu giggled madly, and after a long time, turned to look at Ning Guang. “If you knew this day would come, would you have been better to her back then?”

 

“I would not.”

 

Ning Guang said steadily, “If I was better to her, it would be unfair to A-Feng. It’s enough to be able to like one person, I can’t divide my attention.”

 

“You really won’t cry until you see the coffin, will you?” Gu Yunlu sneered at her, but as soon as she turned away, her face collapsed and she staggered, a wave of exhaustion nearly knocking her over. “Then come merge with your original body. As for your beloved, I will make sure she will live.”

 

Her hand carelessly swept across the ancient witch’s true body’s mouth and nose, then she walked slowly, step by step, to the Di Jiufeng trapped outside the array.

 

––––Her rather nice features were twisted in urgency, and she was slamming her hands on the barrier over and over. Seeing Ning Guang lay her hands on the ancient witch’s true body, she raised her voice and screamed out Ning Guang’s name, her throat tearing, voice cracking up and down, each sound coming with the taste of blood.

 

And Ning Guang?

 

Gu Yunlu looked back at her. She saw that Ning Guang had not turned around, and was decisively pouring her soul into the ancient witch’s true body. It was like she didn’t care about Di Jiufeng at all, except her knuckles were going white with strain, unable to hide their trembling.

 

Di Jiufeng fell to her knees and toppled miserably before the barrier, powerless, like her soul itself had been drawn away.

 

She looked like she wanted to cry, but not a single tear could fall though the rims of her eyes were red all the way through. She must have dried up; Ning Guang had left, so she also lost all her life force.

 

And Ning Guang was probably afraid to turn around, fearing that if she looked back, she would never again find the resolve.

 

Gu Yunlu stood in the middle, looking one way, then the other. Suddenly, something shocked through her heart, like a thin wall over the mouth of a volcano had broken and burning magma surged to wreak havoc with desperate valiance, burning her weak and powerless courage into charcoal.

 

Gu Yunlu seemed to have come to a decision, and her footsteps suddenly turned light and quick.

 

She strode to Di Jiufeng’s side, leaned down, and spoke a few words into her ear. Whether a life-saving prescription or words of anger, they made the woman on the verge of death suddenly straighten her spine.

 

Di Jiufeng’s hand clenched on her hem, and her mouth opened, before she spoke in a trembling and cautious tone. “Is it true?”

 

Gu Yunlu raised a hand. “Yes, I swear!”

 

“Okay, then send me away.”

Notes: