Chapter 8: Heartache to the Point of Breathlessness

Thinking of the decades of solitude with no tasks to do, a very bad premonition rose from the depths of Yu Sheng's heart.

“Just speaking of the area near the cliff... it’s your first time, right?”

It has to be, it has to be. Tell me you only intercepted this one protagonist!

Wen Jiu thought for a moment and didn’t answer directly. Instead, he extended his left hand and began to count on his fingers, counting through his left hand and then his right.

Yu Sheng's mind was in a daze as he followed Wen Jiu’s counting, starting to tally in his heart: one protagonist, a million task points; two million, three million… seven million already. No need to count anymore…

Wen Jiu lowered his hand, his eyes filled with mirth. “Not many, it’s the third time.”

Yu Sheng: …?!

Why did you count so many then? Were you trying to scare me on purpose?

Yu Sheng put on a wooden expression and praised, “Three times, huh… Wen Shengzhu is truly a kind-hearted person, hmm…”

Wen Jiu continued, “There have been many times when it wasn’t me who saved them, but rather Zhan Gongzhu and Yin Gui Wang working together.”

Yu Sheng: “...Working together? Aren’t they…?”

He glanced at Zhan Xiao Tian, who was standing aside with a smirk, confirming that he wasn’t bothered before continuing, “Aren’t they always at odds, fighting whenever they meet? Why would they collaborate for someone unrelated?”

Despite his leg being broken, Zhan Xiao Tian stood coolly with his arms crossed, refusing to lean on any tree trunk. Seeing both of them looking over, he explained, “Naturally, it’s to prevent unrelated dead souls from disturbing our master’s peace.”

"What use is this peace!"

"And," he continued, "we're only rescuing a few people together. This place is at the intersection of the three realms. He is responsible for the Ghost Realm, I watch over the Human Realm, and as for Lord Wen, he is in charge of the Spirit Realm. Working together doesn’t affect our fight after we finish our business."

"Fight after finishing business?"

Yu Sheng felt a sense of oddity. "So how many people did you save from almost falling off the cliff?"

Zhan Xiaotian chuckled softly, "Why are you so curious about that, senior? Are you planning to visit each of those poor souls after they fall off the cliff?"

"I won’t fall off the cliff." Yu Sheng reflexively retorted. "It’s just curiosity."

Now that he had clarified this, when he thought of that million above... oh no, the new protagonist, he would know whether he was No. 3, No. 7, or another protagonist altogether.

The opportunity had already slipped away... By the time he woke from a midnight dream, reminiscing about the billions he had missed, he could only call out to that indistinct silhouette, “Old Seven,” and at least greet him in the dream, hoping he wouldn’t pick up the other protagonists next time.

That would be better than mistakenly calling out the wrong number in the dream, shouting “Old Three,” only to receive an indifferent reply, “You’ve got the wrong person.”

Zhan Xiaotian said, "Not too few, exactly seven."

Very well, goodbye, Old Seven, goodbye to the seventh million points. We have a connection but no fate; I owe you an apology.

Yu Sheng squatted down dejectedly, stroking the big white dumpling at his feet, and recalled the treats he had just hidden away, suddenly feeling them tasteless.

He won the treats and the white dumpling but lost a full seven million points. If he had those points...

Wait, it felt like he had forgotten something important.

Yu Sheng looked up, holding the dumpling again, “Every time you guys meet, it’s after finishing business and then fighting?”

Zhan Xiaotian nodded.

“So... every year on the day of the memorial, the thunder and lightning above the cliff is actually you guys fighting?!”

So, his three disciples had already communicated with each other? Then his faking death thing... no, if they didn’t believe it, they wouldn’t specifically come here to pay their respects; they should have gone straight to dig up his grave to confirm the truth.

Hmm, though he didn’t know what was going on, he was sure it hadn’t been exposed yet; he needed to be confident and optimistic.

Wen Jiu looked at him and suddenly said, "Actually, I came here to pay respects to the master."

Yu Sheng suddenly felt that something was off.

Whether it was Zhan Xiaotian or Yin Wangzhi, he had indeed faked his death in front of them. If the plot had gone wrong, it wouldn’t be an issue for them to come back and pay respects, but Wen Jiu... he distinctly remembered that he had been soft-hearted and hadn’t faked his death in front of Wen Jiu. Furthermore, Wen Jiu was the last disciple he accepted; why did he also firmly believe that he was dead?

"Pay respects?" He muttered in confusion, "Did you all come together?"

Could it be that his three disciples had communicated and discussed some strange result regarding his faking death, unanimously concluding that he was really dead? And that both times he had tried to resurrect himself had failed?

Hey, what if they thought he was a zombie? Are there zombies in this world???

Wen Jiu shook his head, then nodded, and walked to the grave, lowering his gaze at the tombstone, saying, "Master had many things he never told me, including the fact that he had two other disciples... He always liked to keep everything bottled up, even when he was about to ascend, he didn’t want me to know, specially sending me away so I wouldn’t be sad."

The filter of the third disciple is so thick...

Yu Sheng touched his face, comparing the thickness, and felt the difference.

Wen Jiu said, "If I hadn’t sent a clone back a few days later to sneak a look, I might still be in the dark, thinking my master was still alive, and would have missed the chance to pay my respects... If I had known that my master sent me away for this reason, I would never have left him for even half a step."

Yu Sheng suddenly understood, so that was it.

It seemed that those white dumplings disappearing suddenly should have been when he used the soon-to-expire faking death tool and accidentally got discovered by Wen Jiu, who then took them away.

"You... you don’t need to be too sad." He felt a deep sense of guilt, squeezing the white dumpling in his arms. "So this spirit pet was also specially left behind by you?"

Zhan Xiaotian suddenly let out a cold laugh, "No wonder it’s so cunning; things follow their masters."

Wen Jiu didn’t acknowledge him and nodded, "Exactly. I want it to guard Master’s remains and prevent them from being damaged by wild animals or unrelated people. I didn’t expect that by the time I returned, he already had this grave."

Yu Sheng truly didn’t understand much about this matter; he could even say he didn’t know much about the Spirit Realm at all. A little worried that Wen Jiu and Zhan Xiaotian would start reminiscing and end up fighting, he changed the subject. "Will this spirit pet that’s been left at the cliff bottom not starve?"

Wen Jiu shifted his gaze from the tombstone to Yu Sheng. "It won’t. Senior can feed it anything; it eats anything."

"Eats anything? But it clearly vomited what it ate."

Curiously, Yu Sheng held the white dumpling in one hand while rummaging through his pocket with the other. He accidentally pulled out a stalk of sugarcane instead.

Wen Jiu smiled, pretending not to see as he turned back to contemplate the tombstone.

The sugarcane was longer than his arm, and it took several tugs to pull it out completely. After a moment of hesitation, Yu Sheng regretted taking it out; feeding the dumpling sugarcane seemed a bit foolish. So, he stuffed the sugarcane back and instead took out two bananas.

Before he could even feed the dumpling, Yu Sheng turned his head and noticed Zhan Xiaotian had somehow moved closer, staring at the open flap of his clothes with surprise, confusion, and curiosity, as if trying to figure out how much he was hiding inside.

... Thankfully, those snacks he had secretly hidden weren’t actually in his clothing but were cleverly concealed in a spatial pocket. Otherwise, being discovered like this would be utterly embarrassing.

Thinking about those snacks made Yu Sheng’s face feel a bit warm. With one hand holding the banana and the other hugging the dumpling, he pretended casually to move a couple of steps toward the grave. Seeing that the dumpling didn’t intend to eat the banana, he planned to put it back.

After all, the spatial pocket was effectively in his hand.

However, the banana was thicker in diameter than the sugarcane, and he failed to open the flap of his clothes the first time, instead pressing the collar against his chest. Just then, a hand reached in from the side, "thoughtfully" using a finger to hook the thin fabric's edge and open it.

If it weren’t for Zhan Xiaotian peeking inside while helping him, Yu Sheng wouldn’t have minded saying thank you.

Forget it, forget it. He steeled his heart and put the two bananas inside without thinking. He figured Zhan Xiaotian meant no harm; he was just curious about the secret of the pocket. It was completely natural for a protagonist to be interested in such a magical item. He needed to stay calm and composed.

Zhan Xiaotian’s small action was impeccable, and Yu Sheng’s movements were quick. However, there was someone even quicker. As soon as the bananas were put back in the pocket, Zhan Xiaotian's gaze flicked aside, and before he could see anything clearly, a fluffy white object blocked his view entirely.

It was the white dumpling, which had quickly followed the bananas into Yu Sheng's clothing pocket. It snuggled up against Yu Sheng’s chest, fluffy and soft, puffed up in his arms, revealing a pair of innocent and harmless little eyes as it locked gazes with Zhan Xiaotian, who had been caught peeking.

However, that innocent expression and movement didn’t come across as such in Zhan Xiaotian’s eyes; it only appeared to be provocatively challenging, as if to say: What are you looking at? Look at me, you fool.

In an instant, the tension flared like fireworks, but it vanished the moment Yu Sheng looked up.

Zhan Xiaotian silently withdrew his hand, making a subtle grinding noise with his teeth, took a deep breath, and said, "Senior actually indulges it like this! You even let it crawl into your clothes?!"

Yu Sheng was utterly charmed by the rabbit and, with bright eyes, was completely immune to Zhan Xiaotian's angry pressure. He smiled and said, "Oh, it’s just a rabbit; don’t take it too seriously."

"A rabbit?!"

"Uh, a spirit pet." Yu Sheng glanced at the white creature in his arms that had no ears and corrected himself. Then he remembered that Zhan Xiaotian had been bitten by it and had fallen into a hole it dug... He suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. "Don’t be angry..."

Zhan Xiaotian was nearly furious. "Do you really think it’s just an ordinary spirit pet? It’s clearly Wen J—"

"Zhan Shixiong!" Wen Jiu, standing straight in front of the tombstone, suddenly interrupted him sharply, saying sternly, "How can you speak to a senior like that? Senior Yu is a close friend of Master and also our elder; how can you be so disrespectful?"

Then he relaxed his expression and smiled gently at Yu Sheng, "Senior, Zhan Shixiong is straightforward and a bit hot-tempered; please don’t hold it against him. I apologize on his behalf."

At that moment, Yu Sheng didn’t feel offended at all; he waved his hand helplessly, thinking that these two disciples took these rules too seriously. "It’s fine, it’s fine."

He was even a bit curious about what Zhan Xiaotian's second half of the sentence was, but unfortunately, with that interruption, asking again would make it hard for Wen Jiu to save face. Ah, he could probably guess what it was: that this dumpling wasn’t an ordinary spirit pet, that it was well-trained, and that it had bitten people on Wen Jiu’s orders.

Continuous blows had made Zhan Xiaotian increasingly displeased. Since being tough wasn’t working, he decided to take a softer approach. The next moment, his face turned pale, and he wavered, saying, "Senior, I’m sorry. My tone was inappropriate; I shouldn’t have lost my temper just because I felt uncomfortable. Forget it; I’ll come back tomorrow to pay my respects..."

Seeing him about to fall, Yu Sheng hurriedly stepped forward. "I’ll help you back to rest."

"Thank you, senior..."

"You don’t need to trouble the senior," Wen Jiu interjected, stepping in between them, extending his hand toward Zhan Xiaotian without holding any grudges. "Such a small matter, I can help Zhan Shixiong back. Please, Zhan Shixiong."

Zhan Xiaotian stood tall, his expression cold as frost, gritting his teeth, "It’s fine. I suddenly don’t feel any pain anymore."

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