Chapter 42: Does Gu Xiangsi Truly Know

“It’s you!”

“You really made me wait so long. Kill the boys and leave the girls!” The man looked at the group that appeared and shouted his orders to the thugs.

Gu Aotian and Fatty immediately stepped up, guarding Ye Wenxin and Gu Xiangsi behind them, taking out weapons in hand ready to fight back.

In an instant, a battle unfolded without any suspense. Ye Wenxin was also in first-stage Qi Refining anyway, so she took out the dagger Ling Jue had given her and planned to kill a few people for fun first.

“Big Sister, don’t leave me alone.” But Gu Xiangsi did not give her this opportunity. She feared men, and with this many men around, her androphobia had already risen to a suffocating point.

She was gasping for breath, as if she could hardly get enough air.

Ye Wenxin cursed in her heart, if it were not for the concern about any future intersections with Gu Aotian, she would have painstakingly killed all the thugs present.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere,” Ye Wenxin reassured softly, a flash of red in her eyes, but she just held Gu Xiangsi without making any move. Long Qing’er still had not moved, waiting for something unknown.

Looking over to the side, Gu Aotian was beyond ashamed, suffering numerous cuts on his arms yet he still resisted stubbornly. Fatty was even more miserable, he had been knocked to the ground, while several others were desperately punching and kicking.

“You can’t…touch my sister!”

“Don’t kill them yet, let them watch how I enjoy this…” the man cackled and approached Ye Wenxin. Despite being close to fainting from fright, Gu Xiangsi still gritted her teeth.

“Xiangsi, don’t be afraid, I will protect you.” Ye Wenxin’s voice remained calm. She no longer wanted to care about Long Qing’er’s intentions, all she wanted to do was kill this man and stop Gu Xiangsi from trembling more severely.

“No, Big Sister…I can’t…” Gu Xiangsi bit her lip so hard it bled, yet her eyes were much firmer.

To be honest, Gu Xiangsi had better talent than Gu Aotian, but unfortunately it was hindered by her fear of men. However, seeing Gu Xiangsi’s transformation before impending death, Ye Wenxin suddenly realized that this was Gu Xiangsi’s opportunity.

A true chosen one was born under despair.

“Wenxin, I’ll buy you some time.” Saying this, Gu Xiangsi pulled out a huge axe from her bag of holding, apparently ready to die.

Ye Wenxin suddenly froze. Throughout her life, she had always lived for others, but since starting anew, everyone had been fighting for her.

They all acted out of kindness, exerting all their efforts to protect her. And she wondered, should she also make some changes? Should she stop being a bystander and truly become a part of this world?

Ye Wenxin smiled. She stood up and raised her dagger.

“Big Sister Wenxin.”

Gu Xiangsi looked at Ye Wenxin in astonishment, her eyes filled with even more emotion.

“Shh, if we fail, we’ll go to the underworld together.” Ye Wenxin grinned even brighter, not intending to be so sentimental, but a girl like Gu Xiangsi deserved to hear such words.

In any case, Ye Wenxin had gained more people she wanted to protect.

“Alright.”

Gu Xiangsi agreed, already rushing up and cutting off a man’s arm with her axe. Her eyes carried fierce killing intent, and then she waved her hands, slashing towards another person.

At this moment, she overcame her fear and dominated her destiny.

And at this moment, Gu Aotian roared and shook off the people surrounding him, his body emitting a faint light, and with a punch, he knocked the others away.

“He actually had a breakthrough! Damn! Damn! Hurry up and kill this guy first, he must be weak just after breaking through!” The man started getting anxious, but Gu Aotian did not give the group a chance to speak before swiftly charging, hitting the man on the nose. The man slammed into a nearby tree and instantly lost his combat capabilities.

“How could I lose to you!” Fatty also crawled out, fiercely hitting the surroundings with the stick in his hand.

Initially the weaker side, their situation reversed due to Gu Xiangsi’s sudden desire to fight.

Perhaps Long Qing’er was aware of this too and did not appear right away.

This was an opportunity, the most marvelous thing in this world, capable of transforming people completely and even reversing the course of fate. Ye Wenxin suddenly began to thank Long Qing’er for not intervening. It was precisely because she did not intervene that their relationship became closer due to this battle.

Just as Ye Wenxin was thinking this, a man launched a surprise attack from behind. She intended to feign being struck by a sword, but an unidentified object flew up and struck the man’s head.

Immediately after, the man was split in half, startling Ye Wenxin. But then she saw Gu Xiangsi appear.

“Big Sis, are you alright?”

She had completely regarded Ye Wenxin as her sister, and she stepped forward to check Ye Wenxin’s situation with concern. Ye Wenxin did not answer, and the dagger in her hand stabbed at the man who was about to approach, “I’m fine, thank you Little Sister.”

But she knew that the unidentified object must have come from Long Qing’er.

Although Long Qing’er cared about Ye Wenxin, her grooming method seemed to be much more brutal than others. Be that as it may, this was enough, enough for Ye Wenxin to give Long Qing’er a spot in her heart.

About a quarter of an hour passed, and the men on the ground were either dead or wounded. Except for Ye Wenxin, the others were all tired and panting. In order to match them, Ye Wenxin also pretended to be very tired and sat on the ground. For a few of them, despite their embarrassment, their mouth corners were raised, as if they were very satisfied with this fight.

“Ah, it’s all blood, so dirty.”

“I remember there’s a pond nearby. Let’s go there and wash our faces first. Otherwise, we’d make an ugly sight going back like this.” Ye Wenxin recalled the pond they came across down the mountain, and suggested everyone to freshen up.

The others nodded in agreement, supporting each other up. Ye Wenxin suddenly remembered this group of people’s bags of holding, and subconsciously snatched them all.

“Miss Wenxin, you’re too…”

“It simply fits our team’s style!”

Unexpectedly, Ye Wenxin’s proficient looting of the bags off the corpses made everyone feel even more that she was a god. Ye Wenxin squeezed out a smile. She hated her conditioned reflexes, but fortunately, everyone did not suspect her much, and they even respected Ye Wenxin a bit more, completely regarding her as a member of this small group.

Ye Wenxin seemed able to imagine how many benefits she could gain by following behind the male protagonist, and at the same time, she began to feel that her performance in this act was not in vain at all…

Not long after they left, Long Qing’er walked out of the woods. She checked the condition of the bodies in detail and gave a few cuts to all the ones that were still alive. After confirming their deaths, she said, “Clean this up. Don’t let people see this kind of dirt on the way up the mountain.”

“Affirmative!”

Several dark figures appeared, then swiftly and cleanly took the bodies away.

Long Qing’er remained standing there, her eyes looking at the people who were still climbing up, a trace of anticipation unexpectedly rising in her eyes.

But that gentleness was only momentary, soon after, she turned to the other side and said, “Long Aotian, if you dare to have designs on my Little Sister, I will make your life worse than death!” Long Qing’er’s voice was very soft, and her veil fluttered in the gentle breeze, but all that was left on her face was cold murderous intent.

Gu Aotian should count himself lucky. It was due to meeting Ye Wenxin that Long Qing’er chose not to act here.

However, Ye Wenxin did not know the various things that happened between Long Qing’er and Gu Aotian, and having nothing better to do, was currently tidying up Gu Xiangsi’s hair strands.

Even though Gu Xiangsi was clearly so big, Ye Wenxin truly felt that she had gained another little sister.

“You were really impressive today, Xiangsi.”

“I managed to summon my courage thanks to you, Big Sister.” Gu Xiangsi was a little abashed as she recalled her own killing frenzy. Although she had not been injured, her whole body was bathed in the enemies’ blood, and she was left with no choice but to change her clothes.

“I didn’t do anything. After all, you protected me.” Ye Wenxin smiled softly, consistently feeling that despite her deadly bear hugs, Gu Xiangsi was truly a good girl.

“Really? Did I actually protect Big Sister? Gu Xiangsi was very happy to hear this. It seemed that being able to protect others was her dream.

“Yeah, Xiangsi protected me, yourself, your brother, and Fatty.” Ye Wenxin nodded her head more pertinently, and Gu Xiangsi cried as she listened.

Such a contrast left Ye Wenxin confused as to what she had said wrong to have caused such a reaction.

“Why are you crying? Did I say something wrong?”

“No, I’m just so happy. My dream has finally come true. I’ve always been weak, always protected by my brother and others, but this time, I protected everyone… I really…” Gu Xiangsi wiped away the tears that flowed down, her hands trembling, her whole body shaking.

“This isn’t your first time killing someone, is it?” A question suddenly occurred to Ye Wenxin, Gu Xiangsi’s earlier frenzy relied entirely on brute force and indeed had no skill whatsoever.

“Yes, but it didn’t scare me at all.”

“That’s good then.” Ye Wenxin recalled the disciples she had expelled by the Lake of the Great Splendor (Daming Lake)¹, none of whom were as formidable as this child, the first time they had killed someone, it was a massacre.

They were obviously more suited as demon cultivators, yet all of them ran off to join an immortal sect.

Just as Ye Wenxin was about to habitually curse Fairy Fengya for the harm she had caused, Gu Xiangsi, who stood before her, suddenly hugged her tightly.

Ye Wenxin’s body stiffened, but she felt Gu Xiangsi trembling.

“Still afraid?”

“Mm.”

Gu Xiangsi murmured this one syllable, and Ye Wenxin did not struggle, only letting Gu Xiangsi hold her for a moment until she felt Gu Xiangsi’s heartbeat settle down, before gently pushing Gu Xiangsi away.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes.”

Gu Xiangsi clung tightly to Ye Wenxin’s arm once more.

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1. Don’t know if this is a reference to the actual Daming Lake at Jinan City, Shandong, China, but I’ll put this note here anyway. Got that English translation of the name from Wikipedia. ↩︎