Chapter 1: The Beauty in Red
Song Qingshi was dead.
After his death, he came to a strange space, where there was a sphere randomly flashing red light.
The sphere said that it was a book-transmigrating system from a higher dimensional world. There was a Xianxia novel called “The Exceptional Furnace”, which was about to be plagued by the readers’ resentment due to the tragic fate of the protagonist shou, resulting in problems for that world. It needed a soul who was familiar with all sorts of novel tropes, a master of amorous thoughts and feelings, someone who thoroughly understood power and knew change to repair the protagonist shou’s mind and body and fulfill the readers’ wishes. — Change the fate of the protagonist shou, dote on him, let him live the happiest of lives □□ □□□□□
The system’s information passed through intermittently, Within the □□ were all garbled and incomprehensible alien characters.
During his lifetime, Song Qingshi had suffered from Lou Gehrig's Disease and he devoted himself to studying medicine to save himself. He was a medical student who studied and experimented frantically every day and never wasted time reading novels.
In terms of feelings, he was even more clueless. Although he was very good-looking, lovable and obedient, due to his health problem even the school tyrant treated him like a son and showered him with paternal affection, not to mention girls who were overflowing with maternal love. Given everyone’s excessive loving care and sympathy for him, not only did he not even have a crush on anyone, he even suffered from a slight fear of talking to strangers.
His was a soul that totally did not conform with the system’s requirements.
Song Qingshi didn’t know how he was picked by the system. He had read all those books on Marxist philosophy for nothing. But from what he could make out of the system’s messy and garbled information, so long as he accepts the mission, the system will send him to the virtual book world and assign him a healthy body, letting him live again.
After Song Qingshi realized this, he was ecstatic. A healthy body was his wildest desire. Not to mention that the system’s mission was simply for him to take care of someone. He would have been willing to accept it even if the system had asked him to scale a mountain of swords and plunge into a sea of flames.
For this reason, he ignored his conscience, put together his words and lied for the first time in his life: “I have read tens of thousands of books and they’re all imprinted in my memory. I am knowledgeable in medicine and nursing and have taken elective courses in psychology, which will allow me to solve the protagonist shou’s physical and mental issues. Moreover…I…I am very experienced in love…I love communicating with others. I can ab-absolutely complete this mission!”
If only souls had blood running in their veins, his face would already be all flushed.
The system didn’t notice his guilty conscience and confirmed him as the one in charge of this mission. It sent a series of garbled characters mixed with all kinds of chaotic and disorderly information into Song Qingshi’s mind, causing waves of stabbing pain to his soul.
Suddenly, the system issued a sharp alarm. Data transmission was interrupted. Song Qingshi’s eyes went black and his soul drifted away to a point of white light…
…
When Song Qingshi woke up, he found himself lying in the woods, surrounded by the faint fragrance of various herbs. He squinted his eyes and looked towards the dazzling blue sky. There was a lone gorgeous golden luan bird dragging its long tail feathers, letting out a clear cry and lightly flying past. It was followed by countless other fantastical birds.
A breeze blew through the forest, shaking the dew from the trees. The dew fell on his fair fingertips, bringing a slightly cool sensation. Then, all the memories of the original body flooded in like a tide, pouring into his mind, trying to merge with his soul. This body was also called Song Qingshi, the master of the Medicine King’s Valley, the most talented medical immortal in this world of immortals and a medicine maker. His medical skills can heal the dead and bring bones to life and the spirit pills he refines are treasures that cultivators vie for.
However, the original body’s temperament was extremely eccentric. He stayed in the Medicine King’s Valley all year round and seldom went out. He was never one to make friends and had no interest in matters other than medicine and alchemy. When a patient seeks treatment, he would only consider his mood and wouldn’t ask for the person’s identity. When he was in a good mood, he would treat even a mortal beggar. When he was in a bad mood, no matter how high the person’s identity was, they would be turned into fertilizer for his herb garden. He often used living people to test medicines. His methods were cruel but because he was a Nascent Soul cultivator and had various skills with poison, the different immortal sects didn’t dare to provoke him easily, only secretly calling him an eccentric behind his back.
This place was Golden Pheonix Mountain Manor, the most luxurious place in the immortal realm, where rare and exotic animals were kept and where there were countless handsome and beautiful concubines.
The lord of the manor, Jin Feiren, was also a great Nascent Soul cultivator. He had a loose nature, was liberal with money and had friends among both the proper cultivators and the devil cultivators. He was an illustrious figure. Recently, he got a beauty that was especially to his liking. He arranged for a banquet and invited all his friend who shared the same interests to participate. It was said that he also had prepared many newly-bought beauties to be presented as gifts resulting in guests coming in droves.
The owner of the original body has always been cold, obsessed with alchemy and was never one to touch men or women. His arrival on this particular day was merely coincidental. Manor Lord Jin wanted to give him some Ten Thousand Year Snow Ginseng in exchange for a batch of medicinal pills. The original body had recently been lacking Snow Ginseng for his medicine-making and so he agreed to the deal.
Because Snow Ginseng grew in the secret realm within the snowy mountains of the Jin Family, if you wanted to get its best medicinal properties, you needed to collect and preserve it with a special refining method. The original body was here to personally harvest it and was just in time for the feast of the lord of the manor. In order to build a friendship with the original body, Manor Lord Jin invited him using every possible way and expressed all different kinds of goodwill. Finally, he got the original body to agree to attend tonight’s feast. Manor Lord Jin was thrilled and even said that he would gift him with some high quality furnaces…
Then, Song Qingshi was sent by the system…
What’s a furnace?
Song Qingshi found all sorts of pill furnaces and treasure cauldrons within the memory of the original body. That didn’t seem right. After all, Manor Lord Jin was a sword cultivator and should not have any interest in alchemy…
Song Qingshi wanted to ask the system for more information, but the system seemed to have disappeared. The information he was sent was not only lacking the novel’s plot but the character information was so disjointed and incomplete, with garbled characters everywhere, that even the protagonist shou’s introduction was missing. Song Qingshi drove himself dizzy from going through it over and over before he found some descriptions in the copywriting introduction: best figure, peerless beauty shou X□□□□□ gong, secured by force or trickery, deep angsty love, □□, □□, □teaching. Aside from the copywriting there was also a phrase that he could half make out: Banquet of Bea□.
…
If this were someone who often read system novels, they would immediately realize that this was a problematic state of affairs.
Song Qingshi, however, didn’t feel that there was anything wrong. He believed that this was a test given by the system to assess his reasoning ability and ability to handle matters. Song Qingshi was very accustomed to being assessed. Usually whenever he and his teacher would begin a project to develop a new drug, he often wouldn’t even have a single clue at hand. They would need to experiment bit by bit and fumble their way around. They would experience countless errors and difficulties to reach the final answer and often times, this answer was not what they were hoping for.
Many pharmaceutical companies invest billions or even tens of billions to research medicines. Scholars spend decades, until their hair turn gray, only to fail clinical trials.
Therefore, every pharmaceutical researcher was a battle-hardened strong man who has suffered defeat in many a battle and kept on fighting despite continual setbacks.
This test set by Professor System was not difficult!
Scholar-Tyrnat Song showed not the slightest fear! He will definitely find the correct answer! And live up to the teacher’s expectations of him!
Song Qingshi quickly grabbed the key points from the problem set. The protagonist will appear at the Banquet of Beauties. Male, homosexual, with peerless beauty and a superb figure, a pitiful character with a miserable destiny. He needed to rescue the protagonist shou, give him the greatest care, heal his physical and mental state and then help him find happiness and joy!
During Song Qingshi’s time, respect for other’s sexual orientation was written into the law and same-sex couples could get married.
He had once picked up a novel one of his rotten female classmates had misplaced. It was called “His Evil Majesty’s Pampered Husband”. On the cover was a handsome and domineering man garbed in ancient attire holding a beautiful long-haired woman with a super flat chest. He didn’t quite understand it and when he returned the book, curious, he asked about it. His classmates then enlightened him about Danmei and told him that the beauty on the cover was actually male. The beautiful one was a ‘shou’ and the domineering one was a ‘gong’. Therefore, Song Qingshi was confident that he would be able to clearly distinguish between this novel’s gong and shou. Never was he going to be so off the mark as to rescue the protagonist gong instead.
Now that he has determined his problem-solving reasoning and the direction he was supposed to go, he only needed to wait for the Banquet of Beauties to start the exam.
Song Qingshi’s spiritual sea gradually cleared. The soul and body merged fully and turned nimble. He cautiously used his hands to prop himself to sit up. And then, he took off his shoes, raised his feet, and tried to move toes that had been stiff for many years. Each of white and round toes curled happily. Song Qingshi shakily stood up. Using both hands and feet, he took a few steps forward. Finally remembering how normal people walked, his movements gradually changed from jerky to agile…
Beneath his feet was soft green grass and moist earth.
Beyond the trees was a small, calm river. Song Qingshi stepped into the water and took a handful of cold river water to wash his face, confirming that he was not in a dream.
Tears gushed out from extreme joy and the big fat drops fell one after the other onto the palms of his hands. He couldn’t stop no matter how much he wanted to. The surface of the river calmed down from the slight disturbance, reflecting the youth’s figure.
Song Qingshi was surprised to find that the body given by the system was very similar to his own during high school. He wasn’t very tall, his build was comparatively thinner. He wore the attire of a Daoist immortal, layer upon layer of snow-colored cloud patterned brocade wrapped tightly around his body. A quick glance gave the illusion of a person too frail to bear the weight of one’s clothes.
His fine hair was simply tied up, with some strands left hanging outside. Probably related to immortal cultivation, his appearance was a bit more refined than his original one, with cold white complexion and clear eyes. Because his mind often wandered off to thoughts of research, he gave off the impression of being endearingly silly and easy to push around leading to many unlucky ghosts who believed the original body to be harmless to become plant fertilizer or poison test subjects.
…
After Song Qingshi vented his emotions, he saw his reflection with eyes rimmed red from crying. He was a little embarrassed and he hurriedly lowered his head to fetch water and to wash away the tears on his face. Suddenly, from behind him came the sound of tinkling bells and mockery.
“It’s useless to attempt suicide. It will only cause you pain for nothing. If you feel unreconciled, you can try and sink down slowly to see if you can succeed.”
Song Qingshi gave a little frightened jump. He turned around and saw the most beautiful scenery he had ever seen.
Beneath trees full of peach blossoms, there was a beautiful young man dressed in red, watching Song Qingshi crying stupidly for who knows how long. The young man’s appearance was at its prime, like a picture scroll of dense vibrant colors and dark black ink, depicting the world’s most amorous beauty. He had skin like warm jade and the most beautiful of all were those dark golden phoenix eyes under the crow-feather-like eyelashes. He should have appeared like a noble and dignified phoenix in the heavens were it not for the utterly gorgeous red teardrop mole below the corner of his left eye that desecrated his nobleness; crushing his dignified air, causing the phoenix to sink among humans. Dyed with the color of desire, it turned into a feature that enchanted and seduced, creating an unbearable temptation into people’s hearts.
His long hair was untied, hanging casually to his waist, the ends were slightly curled. His feet were bare and he was only wearing a red garment made of shark silk. The shark silk was as smooth and glossy as water, clinging to his body and covering it all. With just a pull of that golden ribbon around his waist, it would all drop down, revealing the favorite scenery in every man’s dream.
Song Qingshi did not have any impure thoughts but because he was found sniveling and crying, his social anxiety reared its head. After a long time of trying to rouse his courage, he stumblingly said, “I, I was just…”
His hesitation turned to tacit approval in the eyes of the beauty in red.
Everywhere in the immortal realm were dangerous birds and beasts. All cultivators were imbued with spiritual aura and keen senses. They could easily detect the grass stirring in the wind around them. Even minor cultivator in the Foundation Building stage wouldn’t miss the sound of mortal footsteps tied with these bells, let alone a Nascent Soul cultivator. If Nascent Soul cultivators let out a mental probe, even the movements of the smallest insects on top of the mountain wouldn’t escape his notice. Except for Song Qingshi, this newly-transmigrated strange little marvel who was a stranger to both spiritual powers and worldly matters…
The beauty in red completely misunderstood and thought that Song Qingshi was also a mortal. And in Golden Pheonix Manor there was only one use for such a beautiful mortal. He asked to confirm, “A new slave?”
Song Qingshi looked up in surprise, wondering what he meant. He had opened his mouth to ask but his eyes unintentionally fell on the body of the beauty in red. He seemed to have some strange injuries. He couldn’t help but curiously cast surreptitious glances, pondering what it could be.
The beauty in red noticed his curious look and grew unhappy. Malicious intent grew within him but a very gentle smile appeared on his face. He said, in a voice as though bestowing sincere blessing, “Don’t bother to look. Soon, you too will have it.”
Song Qingshi was very sheltered before his transmigration. He had never encountered malice and did not know how to discern sarcasm. Although he thought this blessing was a bit strange, he still answered politely: “Thank you.”
The beauty in red was choked by this answer. He was momentarily dumbfounded. He looked Song Qingshi up and down, looking at him like he was an idiot. He found that the person in front of him was clean and his eyes were pure, never having experienced hellish devastation.
This discovery made him made him feel a thread of pity in his heart tempered by suffering. He put away his sharp malice and whispered, “After tonight, you will understand that death is a luxury.” He turned slightly sideways, looking at the cool flowing water. He warned, “When I first came here, I tried to commit suicide many times, but it was useless. We are slaves who are branded with the Acacia Seal. Our mind and soul belong to the master. As long as the master refuses to allow it, even our deaths are not our own…”
The beauty in red was silent for a long time. He slowly stretched out his hand and rubbed Song Qingshi’s hair, as soft as the down of a small animal.
Song Qingshi saw that there were several red marks from being tied up on his pale wrists. He realized that this must be a pain that the other wouldn’t be willing to be questioned about. And so he pushed down on his queries.
The beauty in red’s fingertips slid from Song Qingshi’s hair to his delicate face, watching his naïve expression. He paused slightly and then, as though he couldn’t bear it, released him. He didn’t want to say any more. It was useless to say anything before he personally experiences that endless, limitless nightmare. Now, being able to keep one more moment of innocence was one more moment of happiness. Finally, he sighed, “You have very good looks but unfortunately the better you look as you grow, the later you will be freed…”
Song Qingshi was puzzled: “What do you mean by ‘freed’?”
“You’ll know soon,” the beauty in red’s expression suddenly relaxed. He glanced around carefully, then stretched out his index finger and lightly tapped his lips. In a voice so soft, it could hardly be heard, he said ambiguously, “Tonight I will be freed…”
The red-dressed beauty turned around with a smile and with a the sharp and crisp ring of the bell, turned around to leave. His steps were a little unstable and each step was strenuous, like a mermaid painfully walking on the tip of a knife.
A pair of exquisite gold shackles were exposed around his beautiful ankles underneath the red clothes. An exquisite bell hung on each of the shackles which were connected by a slender golden chain. As he walked, the bells shook, making a clear and sweet sound. He was like a tethered bird.
The golden chain dragged across the grass and a few drops of blood dropped onto the green leaves.
Song Qingshi plucked up the courage, fighting down his social anxiety and shouted to the beauty who was about to leave, “Are you…injured? I, I have some medical skills…Do you need me to treat you?”
The beauty in red looked back. He looked at him for a few seconds and couldn’t help but smile. This time the smile finally reached his eyes; like a ray of golden sunlight breaking through the clouds, dazzlingly beautiful. He shook his head towards Song Qingshi and gave him a sincere blessing, “I wish you better luck tonight.”
He turned his head, and the sunlight in his eyes disappeared in a flash, as if it had never existed. Only black clouds that wouldn’t retreat remained.
Having sunk into a nightmare for so many years, he has long learned not to recall fondly the kindness of others and not to depend on the momentary benevolence given in charity.
He walked alone, step by step alone without stopping, with these chains of pain.
Chapter 1: The Beauty in Red
Song Qingshi was dead.
After his death, he came to a strange space, where there was a sphere randomly flashing red light.
The sphere said that it was a book-transmigrating system from a higher dimensional world. There was a Xianxia novel called “The Exceptional Furnace”, which was about to be plagued by the readers’ resentment due to the tragic fate of the protagonist shou, resulting in problems for that world. It needed a soul who was familiar with all sorts of novel tropes, a master of amorous thoughts and feelings, someone who thoroughly understood power and knew change to repair the protagonist shou’s mind and body and fulfill the readers’ wishes. — Change the fate of the protagonist shou, dote on him, let him live the happiest of lives □□ □□□□□
The system’s information passed through intermittently, Within the □□ were all garbled and incomprehensible alien characters.
During his lifetime, Song Qingshi had suffered from Lou Gehrig's Disease and he devoted himself to studying medicine to save himself. He was a medical student who studied and experimented frantically every day and never wasted time reading novels.
In terms of feelings, he was even more clueless. Although he was very good-looking, lovable and obedient, due to his health problem even the school tyrant treated him like a son and showered him with paternal affection, not to mention girls who were overflowing with maternal love. Given everyone’s excessive loving care and sympathy for him, not only did he not even have a crush on anyone, he even suffered from a slight fear of talking to strangers.
His was a soul that totally did not conform with the system’s requirements.
Song Qingshi didn’t know how he was picked by the system. He had read all those books on Marxist philosophy for nothing. But from what he could make out of the system’s messy and garbled information, so long as he accepts the mission, the system will send him to the virtual book world and assign him a healthy body, letting him live again.
After Song Qingshi realized this, he was ecstatic. A healthy body was his wildest desire. Not to mention that the system’s mission was simply for him to take care of someone. He would have been willing to accept it even if the system had asked him to scale a mountain of swords and plunge into a sea of flames.
For this reason, he ignored his conscience, put together his words and lied for the first time in his life: “I have read tens of thousands of books and they’re all imprinted in my memory. I am knowledgeable in medicine and nursing and have taken elective courses in psychology, which will allow me to solve the protagonist shou’s physical and mental issues. Moreover…I…I am very experienced in love…I love communicating with others. I can ab-absolutely complete this mission!”
If only souls had blood running in their veins, his face would already be all flushed.
The system didn’t notice his guilty conscience and confirmed him as the one in charge of this mission. It sent a series of garbled characters mixed with all kinds of chaotic and disorderly information into Song Qingshi’s mind, causing waves of stabbing pain to his soul.
Suddenly, the system issued a sharp alarm. Data transmission was interrupted. Song Qingshi’s eyes went black and his soul drifted away to a point of white light…
…
When Song Qingshi woke up, he found himself lying in the woods, surrounded by the faint fragrance of various herbs. He squinted his eyes and looked towards the dazzling blue sky. There was a lone gorgeous golden luan bird dragging its long tail feathers, letting out a clear cry and lightly flying past. It was followed by countless other fantastical birds.
A breeze blew through the forest, shaking the dew from the trees. The dew fell on his fair fingertips, bringing a slightly cool sensation. Then, all the memories of the original body flooded in like a tide, pouring into his mind, trying to merge with his soul. This body was also called Song Qingshi, the master of the Medicine King’s Valley, the most talented medical immortal in this world of immortals and a medicine maker. His medical skills can heal the dead and bring bones to life and the spirit pills he refines are treasures that cultivators vie for.
However, the original body’s temperament was extremely eccentric. He stayed in the Medicine King’s Valley all year round and seldom went out. He was never one to make friends and had no interest in matters other than medicine and alchemy. When a patient seeks treatment, he would only consider his mood and wouldn’t ask for the person’s identity. When he was in a good mood, he would treat even a mortal beggar. When he was in a bad mood, no matter how high the person’s identity was, they would be turned into fertilizer for his herb garden. He often used living people to test medicines. His methods were cruel but because he was a Nascent Soul cultivator and had various skills with poison, the different immortal sects didn’t dare to provoke him easily, only secretly calling him an eccentric behind his back.
This place was Golden Pheonix Mountain Manor, the most luxurious place in the immortal realm, where rare and exotic animals were kept and where there were countless handsome and beautiful concubines.
The lord of the manor, Jin Feiren, was also a great Nascent Soul cultivator. He had a loose nature, was liberal with money and had friends among both the proper cultivators and the devil cultivators. He was an illustrious figure. Recently, he got a beauty that was especially to his liking. He arranged for a banquet and invited all his friend who shared the same interests to participate. It was said that he also had prepared many newly-bought beauties to be presented as gifts resulting in guests coming in droves.
The owner of the original body has always been cold, obsessed with alchemy and was never one to touch men or women. His arrival on this particular day was merely coincidental. Manor Lord Jin wanted to give him some Ten Thousand Year Snow Ginseng in exchange for a batch of medicinal pills. The original body had recently been lacking Snow Ginseng for his medicine-making and so he agreed to the deal.
Because Snow Ginseng grew in the secret realm within the snowy mountains of the Jin Family, if you wanted to get its best medicinal properties, you needed to collect and preserve it with a special refining method. The original body was here to personally harvest it and was just in time for the feast of the lord of the manor. In order to build a friendship with the original body, Manor Lord Jin invited him using every possible way and expressed all different kinds of goodwill. Finally, he got the original body to agree to attend tonight’s feast. Manor Lord Jin was thrilled and even said that he would gift him with some high quality furnaces…
Then, Song Qingshi was sent by the system…
What’s a furnace?
Song Qingshi found all sorts of pill furnaces and treasure cauldrons within the memory of the original body. That didn’t seem right. After all, Manor Lord Jin was a sword cultivator and should not have any interest in alchemy…
Song Qingshi wanted to ask the system for more information, but the system seemed to have disappeared. The information he was sent was not only lacking the novel’s plot but the character information was so disjointed and incomplete, with garbled characters everywhere, that even the protagonist shou’s introduction was missing. Song Qingshi drove himself dizzy from going through it over and over before he found some descriptions in the copywriting introduction: best figure, peerless beauty shou X□□□□□ gong, secured by force or trickery, deep angsty love, □□, □□, □teaching. Aside from the copywriting there was also a phrase that he could half make out: Banquet of Bea□.
…
If this were someone who often read system novels, they would immediately realize that this was a problematic state of affairs.
Song Qingshi, however, didn’t feel that there was anything wrong. He believed that this was a test given by the system to assess his reasoning ability and ability to handle matters. Song Qingshi was very accustomed to being assessed. Usually whenever he and his teacher would begin a project to develop a new drug, he often wouldn’t even have a single clue at hand. They would need to experiment bit by bit and fumble their way around. They would experience countless errors and difficulties to reach the final answer and often times, this answer was not what they were hoping for.
Many pharmaceutical companies invest billions or even tens of billions to research medicines. Scholars spend decades, until their hair turn gray, only to fail clinical trials.
Therefore, every pharmaceutical researcher was a battle-hardened strong man who has suffered defeat in many a battle and kept on fighting despite continual setbacks.
This test set by Professor System was not difficult!
Scholar-Tyrnat Song showed not the slightest fear! He will definitely find the correct answer! And live up to the teacher’s expectations of him!
Song Qingshi quickly grabbed the key points from the problem set. The protagonist will appear at the Banquet of Beauties. Male, homosexual, with peerless beauty and a superb figure, a pitiful character with a miserable destiny. He needed to rescue the protagonist shou, give him the greatest care, heal his physical and mental state and then help him find happiness and joy!
During Song Qingshi’s time, respect for other’s sexual orientation was written into the law and same-sex couples could get married.
He had once picked up a novel one of his rotten female classmates had misplaced. It was called “His Evil Majesty’s Pampered Husband”. On the cover was a handsome and domineering man garbed in ancient attire holding a beautiful long-haired woman with a super flat chest. He didn’t quite understand it and when he returned the book, curious, he asked about it. His classmates then enlightened him about Danmei and told him that the beauty on the cover was actually male. The beautiful one was a ‘shou’ and the domineering one was a ‘gong’. Therefore, Song Qingshi was confident that he would be able to clearly distinguish between this novel’s gong and shou. Never was he going to be so off the mark as to rescue the protagonist gong instead.
Now that he has determined his problem-solving reasoning and the direction he was supposed to go, he only needed to wait for the Banquet of Beauties to start the exam.
Song Qingshi’s spiritual sea gradually cleared. The soul and body merged fully and turned nimble. He cautiously used his hands to prop himself to sit up. And then, he took off his shoes, raised his feet, and tried to move toes that had been stiff for many years. Each of white and round toes curled happily. Song Qingshi shakily stood up. Using both hands and feet, he took a few steps forward. Finally remembering how normal people walked, his movements gradually changed from jerky to agile…
Beneath his feet was soft green grass and moist earth.
Beyond the trees was a small, calm river. Song Qingshi stepped into the water and took a handful of cold river water to wash his face, confirming that he was not in a dream.
Tears gushed out from extreme joy and the big fat drops fell one after the other onto the palms of his hands. He couldn’t stop no matter how much he wanted to. The surface of the river calmed down from the slight disturbance, reflecting the youth’s figure.
Song Qingshi was surprised to find that the body given by the system was very similar to his own during high school. He wasn’t very tall, his build was comparatively thinner. He wore the attire of a Daoist immortal, layer upon layer of snow-colored cloud patterned brocade wrapped tightly around his body. A quick glance gave the illusion of a person too frail to bear the weight of one’s clothes.
His fine hair was simply tied up, with some strands left hanging outside. Probably related to immortal cultivation, his appearance was a bit more refined than his original one, with cold white complexion and clear eyes. Because his mind often wandered off to thoughts of research, he gave off the impression of being endearingly silly and easy to push around leading to many unlucky ghosts who believed the original body to be harmless to become plant fertilizer or poison test subjects.
…
After Song Qingshi vented his emotions, he saw his reflection with eyes rimmed red from crying. He was a little embarrassed and he hurriedly lowered his head to fetch water and to wash away the tears on his face. Suddenly, from behind him came the sound of tinkling bells and mockery.
“It’s useless to attempt suicide. It will only cause you pain for nothing. If you feel unreconciled, you can try and sink down slowly to see if you can succeed.”
Song Qingshi gave a little frightened jump. He turned around and saw the most beautiful scenery he had ever seen.
Beneath trees full of peach blossoms, there was a beautiful young man dressed in red, watching Song Qingshi crying stupidly for who knows how long. The young man’s appearance was at its prime, like a picture scroll of dense vibrant colors and dark black ink, depicting the world’s most amorous beauty. He had skin like warm jade and the most beautiful of all were those dark golden phoenix eyes under the crow-feather-like eyelashes. He should have appeared like a noble and dignified phoenix in the heavens were it not for the utterly gorgeous red teardrop mole below the corner of his left eye that desecrated his nobleness; crushing his dignified air, causing the phoenix to sink among humans. Dyed with the color of desire, it turned into a feature that enchanted and seduced, creating an unbearable temptation into people’s hearts.
His long hair was untied, hanging casually to his waist, the ends were slightly curled. His feet were bare and he was only wearing a red garment made of shark silk. The shark silk was as smooth and glossy as water, clinging to his body and covering it all. With just a pull of that golden ribbon around his waist, it would all drop down, revealing the favorite scenery in every man’s dream.
Song Qingshi did not have any impure thoughts but because he was found sniveling and crying, his social anxiety reared its head. After a long time of trying to rouse his courage, he stumblingly said, “I, I was just…”
His hesitation turned to tacit approval in the eyes of the beauty in red.
Everywhere in the immortal realm were dangerous birds and beasts. All cultivators were imbued with spiritual aura and keen senses. They could easily detect the grass stirring in the wind around them. Even minor cultivator in the Foundation Building stage wouldn’t miss the sound of mortal footsteps tied with these bells, let alone a Nascent Soul cultivator. If Nascent Soul cultivators let out a mental probe, even the movements of the smallest insects on top of the mountain wouldn’t escape his notice. Except for Song Qingshi, this newly-transmigrated strange little marvel who was a stranger to both spiritual powers and worldly matters…
The beauty in red completely misunderstood and thought that Song Qingshi was also a mortal. And in Golden Pheonix Manor there was only one use for such a beautiful mortal. He asked to confirm, “A new slave?”
Song Qingshi looked up in surprise, wondering what he meant. He had opened his mouth to ask but his eyes unintentionally fell on the body of the beauty in red. He seemed to have some strange injuries. He couldn’t help but curiously cast surreptitious glances, pondering what it could be.
The beauty in red noticed his curious look and grew unhappy. Malicious intent grew within him but a very gentle smile appeared on his face. He said, in a voice as though bestowing sincere blessing, “Don’t bother to look. Soon, you too will have it.”
Song Qingshi was very sheltered before his transmigration. He had never encountered malice and did not know how to discern sarcasm. Although he thought this blessing was a bit strange, he still answered politely: “Thank you.”
The beauty in red was choked by this answer. He was momentarily dumbfounded. He looked Song Qingshi up and down, looking at him like he was an idiot. He found that the person in front of him was clean and his eyes were pure, never having experienced hellish devastation.
This discovery made him made him feel a thread of pity in his heart tempered by suffering. He put away his sharp malice and whispered, “After tonight, you will understand that death is a luxury.” He turned slightly sideways, looking at the cool flowing water. He warned, “When I first came here, I tried to commit suicide many times, but it was useless. We are slaves who are branded with the Acacia Seal. Our mind and soul belong to the master. As long as the master refuses to allow it, even our deaths are not our own…”
The beauty in red was silent for a long time. He slowly stretched out his hand and rubbed Song Qingshi’s hair, as soft as the down of a small animal.
Song Qingshi saw that there were several red marks from being tied up on his pale wrists. He realized that this must be a pain that the other wouldn’t be willing to be questioned about. And so he pushed down on his queries.
The beauty in red’s fingertips slid from Song Qingshi’s hair to his delicate face, watching his naïve expression. He paused slightly and then, as though he couldn’t bear it, released him. He didn’t want to say any more. It was useless to say anything before he personally experiences that endless, limitless nightmare. Now, being able to keep one more moment of innocence was one more moment of happiness. Finally, he sighed, “You have very good looks but unfortunately the better you look as you grow, the later you will be freed…”
Song Qingshi was puzzled: “What do you mean by ‘freed’?”
“You’ll know soon,” the beauty in red’s expression suddenly relaxed. He glanced around carefully, then stretched out his index finger and lightly tapped his lips. In a voice so soft, it could hardly be heard, he said ambiguously, “Tonight I will be freed…”
The red-dressed beauty turned around with a smile and with a the sharp and crisp ring of the bell, turned around to leave. His steps were a little unstable and each step was strenuous, like a mermaid painfully walking on the tip of a knife.
A pair of exquisite gold shackles were exposed around his beautiful ankles underneath the red clothes. An exquisite bell hung on each of the shackles which were connected by a slender golden chain. As he walked, the bells shook, making a clear and sweet sound. He was like a tethered bird.
The golden chain dragged across the grass and a few drops of blood dropped onto the green leaves.
Song Qingshi plucked up the courage, fighting down his social anxiety and shouted to the beauty who was about to leave, “Are you…injured? I, I have some medical skills…Do you need me to treat you?”
The beauty in red looked back. He looked at him for a few seconds and couldn’t help but smile. This time the smile finally reached his eyes; like a ray of golden sunlight breaking through the clouds, dazzlingly beautiful. He shook his head towards Song Qingshi and gave him a sincere blessing, “I wish you better luck tonight.”
He turned his head, and the sunlight in his eyes disappeared in a flash, as if it had never existed. Only black clouds that wouldn’t retreat remained.
Having sunk into a nightmare for so many years, he has long learned not to recall fondly the kindness of others and not to depend on the momentary benevolence given in charity.
He walked alone, step by step alone without stopping, with these chains of pain.
