Transmigrating as the Heart Demon of the Ruthless Sword Venerable – Chapter 38
by Little PandaXunyang Ghost Market (Part 5)
Unexpected Turn
Unlike most people in the ghost market, who covered themselves up and wished even their own mothers couldn’t recognize them, the woman dragging Tang Wenchun along wore jingling ornaments that rang with every stride. She turned her head — a vivid crimson huadian1 glowed radiantly on her brow under the lamplight, strikingly beautiful. Even the pipa strapped to her back was rimmed with gold.
A pipa? She was a Sound Sect disciple!
Weren’t they supposed to hold themselves above such things and never set foot in the ghost market? That crooked merchant Zhan Lun and his intel were completely unreliable after all!
Tang Wenchun cursed inwardly, glancing down at her hand, which the woman gripped in a death lock. She couldn’t help saying, “Sister, dragging me along like this is so uncomfortable, isn’t it? Neither of us can run fast this way. Why don’t we go our separate ways and be free?”
To her surprise, the Sound Sect disciple turned back and threw Tang Wenchun a flirtatious wink. “Since we’re all sisters here, why don’t you, Sister, help out your dear little sister and break this siege for me?”
Even as she spoke, Tang Wenchun watched in disbelief as the woman flexed biceps the size of small hills — utterly at odds with her delicate appearance — and then, with a violent heave, flung Tang Wenchun bodily backward, shouting at the top of her lungs, “Sister!! I’m counting on you!!”
Tang Wenchun executed a midair sparrow-hawk flip2 and landed facing the oncoming pursuers, staring them down eye to eye. Feeling the collective weight of their gazes converge on her, Tang Wenchun sucked in a sharp breath.
Tang Wenchun: I should’ve smashed my own loose lips! Why’d you have to run your mouth and call out ‘Sister’!
“So… if I said I don’t know her, would you believe me?” Tang Wenchun asked weakly.
“Quit your nonsense! We saw you two were together!”
“Pay up!!”
The answer came as a thunderous roar.
Tang Wenchun choked, her fingers turning the hilt of Luoze, then let out a long sigh, turned, and bolted. The crowd behind her grew even more furious, roaring as they gave chase, voices shaking the air, dust billowing in their wake.
From a distant rooftop, Yu Zhaoming stood on the eaves, one hand holding Zhan Lun by the collar, watching the farce sweep through the ghost market from afar. She looked down. “Are you done marking them?”
“Almost, almost.”
Zhan Lun hung in midair, head lowered, legs crossed, body swaying. With each of his movements, his whole form swung back and forth — yet Yu Zhaoming’s arm was so steady that it didn’t budge in the slightest.
Dangled like a chick by the scruff, Zhan Lun didn’t seem to mind at all, exuding a kind of numb leisure. He wrote the last few characters on his book board. “Done!”
Yu Zhaoming gave an affirmative hum and drifted off toward the distance, still carrying Zhan Lun.
“Your good shimei is being chased into such a state — aren’t you going to help her? You should know…” Zhan Lun paused, a sly smile spreading across his face. “There are quite a few evil cultivators and great cultivators in the ghost market. They won’t be as tender toward a beauty as you are, Eldest Senior Sister… hey, hey, don’t let go, don’t let go—”
Yu Zhaoming released her grip. Zhan Lun plummeted. He was about to use aerial flight when he discovered that aerial flight was prohibited within Xunyang City. Watching the ground rush up at him, he blurted out in panic, “I was wrong, I talked too much.”
Yu Zhaoming gave a soft scoff, extended her arm, and caught him again with effortless ease. She gave her hand a firm shake, and Zhan Lun bounced up and down with it — but this time, he didn’t dare say another word.
“Your intelligence was wrong. Sound Sect disciples are already in the ghost market — they may have discovered something.” Yu Zhaoming said, looking at Zhan Lun’s darkening expression without the slightest intention of letting him off the hook. “Just because you’re useless doesn’t mean everyone else is. My shimei will find her own way out.”
Zhan Lun’s face grew uglier still. He watched Yu Zhaoming carry him off with ease, heading in the exact opposite direction from Tang Wenchun, and bit down on his thumb.
He had thought Yu Zhaoming had the personality of a block of wood — who knew she could be this sharp-tongued.
He had thought the bond between these two Sword Sect shijie and shimei was exceptionally close, that Tang Wenchun might be Yu Zhaoming’s weak point, something to exploit in the future. Now it seemed that wasn’t the whole picture…
His Shizun was right. Working behind closed doors and over-relying on secondhand intelligence was a problem.
Tang Wenchun sprinted forward. In the unseen, that invisible tether linking her to Yu Zhaoming grew thinner and fainter. She stopped abruptly, pivoted on her heel, and faced the oncoming crowd. Beneath her perception-blocking cloak, her lovely face revealed a faint smile.
“Bye-bye.”
Knowing full well that no one in this world would understand the words, Tang Wenchun still felt the glee of a prank successfully pulled. Then her figure scattered into light particles, vanishing without a trace.
The crowd exchanged bewildered glances, their expressions grave. Under the layers of barriers enveloping Xunyang City, someone had vanished right before their eyes — and not even the slightest fluctuation of spiritual energy had been detected. What kind of formidable enemy could do such a thing?
On a distant rooftop, Yunzhongjun watched the scene from beneath her black umbrella, suddenly laughing. “How fascinating. Between heart demon and host… could this be considered a kind of tacit understanding?”
As she spoke, she flipped her wrist, and a bottle of wine appeared in her palm. She drank at a leisurely pace, tilting her head back to gaze at the full moon on the horizon, narrowing her eyes. “Yunzhongjun, if you had followed your heart back then, perhaps we too could have reached an accord and fulfilled our wishes together. What a pity… the Great Dao could never compare to your shijie — that was your failure to appreciate your own fortune.”
She laughed aloud, released her grip, and the wine bottle fell to the ground with a crisp shatter, leaving only the fragrance of liquor pooling across the ground. “The show is over. Nothing else worth seeing or playing tonight.”
As she spoke, her silhouette drifted away, leaving only a faint tune rising in the still night: “…Since parting, the heart cannot let go — when will this longing ever end3…”
Tang Wenchun opened her eyes. The sky was the same deathly pale as always, carrying a faint sense of unreality. Here, besides the pond, the green pines, and the strange rocks, there was now also a small house. In the distance, a green mountain was shrouded in the white mist, yet appeared clearer than before.
Yu Zhaoming stood before the small house, looking quietly at Tang Wenchun.
This was Yu Zhaoming’s Sea of Consciousness. There was no chattering Shizun of Taoli Peak, no noisy fellow disciples — it was like returning to the very beginning. When Tang Wenchun opened her eyes, the world she saw was quiet and lonely.
But Tang Wenchun was no longer accustomed to such silence. Her world had gained many people, and so, upon realizing once again that the world contained only her and Yu Zhaoming, Tang Wenchun felt an inexplicable wave of awkwardness. She clasped her hands behind her back, scuffed her heel lightly against the ground, and only then walked forward under Yu Zhaoming’s gaze.
“Ah… this place has changed a lot.”
“Mm,” Yu Zhaoming replied. She looked Tang Wenchun up and down. The heart demon’s face showed some discomfort, but her steps were light and her body bore no injuries — the escape had been thoroughly successful, without so much as a scratch. She turned her head slightly, her gaze pausing on the small house ahead. “Want to go in and sit?”
Tang Wenchun followed behind Yu Zhaoming with some hesitation. When they reached the small house, Tang Wenchun turned to look at the green mountain not far away and suddenly asked, “After you reach Nascent Soul, will that green mountain fully reveal itself?”
Yu Zhaoming’s gaze also fell on that mountain peak. She gave a noncommittal response. “Perhaps.”
“Where is that place?” Tang Wenchun asked.
Yu Zhaoming regarded the mountain in silence for a moment. The world within the Sea of Consciousness was composed of a cultivator’s subconscious. She withdrew her gaze and lowered her eyes. “I don’t know. Perhaps somewhere I once saw.”
Tang Wenchun gave an “oh,” dry and flat. Yu Zhaoming turned around. “You don’t want to come inside with me? Why?”
“What… what do you mean why…” Tang Wenchun rubbed the tip of her nose. “We’re in the Sea of Consciousness, aren’t we? It’s not like we can brew a cup of tea or anything in there. Just sitting there doing nothing would be so, so awkward!”
Most importantly, Tang Wenchun was a little worried that Yu Zhaoming might suddenly produce a stack of brush and paper and make her do practice problems. That had actually happened on Taoli Peak!!
Yu Zhaoming gave an affirmative hum. She lowered her head. “That Sound Sect disciple…”
At the mention of that Sound Sect disciple, Tang Wenchun’s face twisted with fury. “She actually hurled me at them! That’s so messed up!”
Yu Zhaoming’s expression didn’t change, but recalling the scene she had witnessed earlier, a softness crept into her eyes. Tang Wenchun snapped her head up. “Are you trying to laugh?”
“…I’m not,” Yu Zhaoming denied.
Tang Wenchun narrowed her eyes. “No! You are! The corner of your mouth twitched up by one li!”
Yu Zhaoming paused in surprise and reached up to touch the corner of her mouth. Tang Wenchun said triumphantly, “I’ve been practicing swordwork with Shizun for a few years too. I can spot a difference that small by now.”
Yu Zhaoming lowered her hand and said nothing. And so the atmosphere sank back into silence.
Tang Wenchun gently squeezed her own hand. “Then I’m heading out.”
“Wait.” Yu Zhaoming caught Tang Wenchun’s hand. “Zhan Lun is still with me. Don’t go out yet.”
Tang Wenchun gave an “oh.” “What’s Zhan Lun doing over on your end?”
Yu Zhaoming gave her a look but didn’t speak. It was Tang Wenchun who caught on, letting out a few dry heh-heh laughs and waving her hand. The white mist shifted, revealing the scene from the outside world. “I forgot, okay? It’s been a really long time since I came back.”
Yes — a full five years.
Yu Zhaoming thought this, her figure swaying slightly as she vanished from the Sea of Consciousness. Her spiritual consciousness returned, and she gently touched her chest. There, something felt full and complete — the sensation of something important returning to its place.
She raised her eyes and saw Zhan Lun watching her with an inquisitive gaze.
“Are your matters all settled?” Yu Zhaoming asked.
“Ah, all done. I marked— hey, which one of us is your employer!” Zhan Lun pulled the ledger he had been handing over back to himself, his face looking less than pleased.
“Sound Sect disciples have arrived. I think we also need to confirm whether Medicine Valley disciples have come as well. They have methods that we don’t.” Yu Zhaoming paid no mind to Zhan Lun’s dissatisfaction. She delivered this in a leisurely tone, then watched as Zhan Lun’s spirits deflated.
“Yes, I know… During the commotion just now, the people from those few stalls all packed up and ran first. It seems their goods are either suspicious or they have guilty consciences.” Zhan Lun spoke up, “But we’ve already alerted them. I’m afraid that for the time being…”
As he spoke, a piercing sound suddenly rang out from outside the door.
Tang Wenchun stared blankly from within the Sea of Consciousness and asked, “What’s that sound?”
Yu Zhaoming stood up, her expression darkening slightly. “The alarm of the Great Formation activating.”
Zhan Lun looked at her in confusion, not understanding why she would state something so obvious. They waited in silence for a moment, and then an elderly voice echoed across the entire city: “Demon cultivators have infiltrated the city. Full lockdown. No one may enter or leave. Violators will be killed.”
The author has something to say:
I’ve noticed that ever since entering August, my health hasn’t been great. My stomach hurts right now…
‘Since parting, the heart cannot let go — when will this longing ever end’ is from Guan Hanqing’s 《【南吕】四块玉》, expressing longing and parting. Since it’s the Sound Sect, the cultured Yunzhongjun mostly quotes from Yuan dynasty qu poetry.
Yunzhongjun: So basically I’m just a songstress, is that it?
Author: No no no, nothing of the sort!
It’s really just about creating a contrast, hehe.
Footnotes
- 花钿 | huadian | Decorative forehead ornament worn by women in ancient China, typically made of gold leaf, paper, or shell, pasted between the eyebrows.
- 鹞子翻身 | yaozi fanshen | A classical martial arts acrobatic technique named after the sparrow hawk's turning motion, denoting a swift midair rotation or flip.
- 自送别心难舍一点相思几时绝 | zi song bie xin nan she yi dian xiang si ji shi jue | Lines from Guan Hanqing's Yuan dynasty sanqu, expressing the pain of longing after parting from a loved one.
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