To the rescue…
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Ch. 13 | The Gu tribe
Never had he imagined that a hitherto devil-may-care and unconstrained¹ life would end up with him randomly making a pact with someone while lying in a dirty riverbed.
‘Eh? You’ve agreed to it?’ Yu Huan’s eyes opened fully, revealing their genial depths. He patted Dandan’s head. ‘Done, from today onwards, I’m your owner. Be good.’
Even until today, Dandan felt an indescribable heartache whenever he recalled this incident. He would never be able to hear that green-eyed man saying ‘Be good’ to him any more.
¹ 放蕩不羈 fàngdàng-bùjī. If you’re not reading this chapter at hiding in plain sight, it has been stolen and reproduced by novelscraping sites.
He lay on the windowsill until it was dusk but there was still no sign of Song Lin, so Dandan intercepted Styx in the toilet.
‘Hey, Ol’ Fish Eyes.’
His voice sounded so suddenly from behind that Styx almost strangled his own little brother… He turned round, livid.
‘What are you, a Peeping Tom?’
‘Relax, I didn’t see anything. To be more precise, it’s too small to be seen,’ Dandan replied calmly.
‘…’ Styx took a deep breath. Stay cool, stay cool, if I kill him now, it’ll be hard to explain away when Second Master comes back.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘As we agreed, if Song Lin isn’t back by dark, you have to let me go out and look for him.’
Styx gave him a frosty look. ‘Do you know where he is? Are you very sure that you won’t get lost in the Fascinating Forest?’
‘… I’m… not sure…’
‘Follow me.’
Styx led him down to a cellar where there was a thick heavy door secured with layers and layers of blue-green chains entwined together. Styx incanted silently and the chains unwound by themselves. When he pushed open the door, Dandan was astounded for there were several hundred valuable magic weapons inside.
He swallowed. ‘No wonder Song Lin left you behind to guard the place.’
‘What we have here is just a fraction compared to the collection at the Priest’s Manor.’
Dandan scratched his chin. Very true, that fellow Feng Chulian does have a mania for collecting all manner of rubbish² under the sun.
Styx took a silver coin from one of the shelves and tossed it up into the air. The coin glowed brightly and became a downwards-facing round door from which hung a chain ladder.
Dandan gaped. ‘This wouldn’t be the Anywhere Ladder, would it?’
‘It is.’
‘Wow, wow, wow, that thing costs a fortune. You Songs are really rich.’
Back then, Yu Huan had really wanted one so that at the start of summer, he could have snuck into Feng Chulian’s peach garden to steal fresh peaches…
‘Second Master bought this at an auction when he was travelling in the Western Regions. It can transport you to anywhere that you wish to go but it can stay open only for twelve double-hours.’
‘Twelve double-hours? In other words, I only have a day?’
‘That’s right.’
Dandan began climbing up the ladder. ‘Got it. I’ll definitely bring Song Lin back.’
Styx gazed after Dandan’s back as it disappeared into the light and said to himself: Then I’m… counting on you.
² 有的沒的 yǒudeméide. Translation belongs to theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com.
Dandan felt as though he were walking on cotton wool and he couldn’t make out anything in front of him, but soon he felt his toes touching firm mud. With a mighty leap, he bounded out of the other doorway and found himself in the Fascinating Forest, as expected. It was already evening and everything around him lay in darkness, a gloomy chill in the air. Song Lin’s blood flowed in his veins so he could sense in which direction the former was.
Dammit, Song Lin, you had better be safe! It hasn’t been easy at all… but I’ve finally found you.
He followed the scent and ran and ran but the forest was just too big, so big that it had him questioning the meaning of life. From dusk till dawn and then from dawn till dusk, he had used up almost an entire day but still could not find them.
At this rate, the Anywhere Ladder was going to disappear soon.
It was already the first day of the fifth lunar month and who knew what would happen to Song Lin?
Dandan skidded to a halt, panting. A thought struck him and he suddenly bit his finger hard and using his blood, drew a circle of magic symbols on the ground.
A spirit beast could convey itself to its pact owner’s side by using a special array of magic symbols. This particular array had been designed by Yu Huan and himself; in other words, it linked Yu Huan and him together. Now that the former was dead, the magic sending circle should have been useless but after Dandan finished incanting the spell, the circle suddenly began burning, after which he was pulled into the circle by a flare of red light. He was dragged along and then flung out by a force almost instantaneously, landing right on to a tree trunk.
‘… Owwwww —’ Dandan got to his feet, clutching his stomach and discovered that the ground was full of blood splatters and traces of a battle. When he raised his head, he saw Song Lin nearby, sitting under a tree, covered in blood and seemingly badly injured.
Dandan sucked in his breath sharply. The sending circle which had belonged to him and Yu Huan only had sent him to Song Lin’s side and he thought his heart would burst with that discovery.
I’ve found you… at last… Yu Huan.
By Song Lin’s feet lay Troy in his beast form. Spirit beasts could take two forms, one human and the other beast. Generally, when in beast form, a spirit beast’s bulk would swell rapidly and its spiritual power would also increase exponentially compared to its original state. Even though he was in beast form at this point, Troy was a mass of bruises³ and on the verge of death.
Dandan rushed over. ‘Song Lin, are you all right?’
Song Lin looked up weakly at him. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I…’
I came to look for you — Dandan was suddenly unable to bring himself to say this and when he saw Song Lin hugging Troy tightly, there was a slight change in his expression.
‘Styx sent me,’ was all he finally said in a soft voice.
‘Okay,’ was Song Lin’s tepid response. ‘I’m all right. Go see how Troy is.’
Dandan squatted down to examine Troy’s wounds and discovered that not only was his fur covered in blood, it was missing patches throughout which revealed his flesh and bone in gory detail.
Troy gasped for a while before saying to Dandan, ‘It’s my fault for being useless. I couldn’t protect Second Master.’
Dandan saw him curled up close to Song Lin and hesitated for a moment before looking away and saying, ‘You’ve done very well already.’
At this point came the sound of footsteps.
‘Again, they just keep coming,’ Troy swore quietly and was about to get up when Dandan stopped him, saying, ‘I’ll deal with it.’
‘You?’ Troy was wholly taken aback. ‘The Gu Tribe is extremely savage, you won’t be able to handle them.’
³ 遍體鱗傷 biàntǐ-línshāng. Please consider reading from theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com rather than from novelscraping sites.
A scorpion appeared the next moment, a cloud of purplish-black smoke swirling around it. It had three rows of sinister eyes on its forehead which blinked in alternate fashion and two pincers dripping with venom.
Dandan looked round in all four directions but seeing that there was only one scorpion, relaxed slightly and told Song Lin, ‘You leave first with Troy and find the Anywhere Ladder. Its other doorway leads to the Song Manor. There isn’t much time left so you have to hurry.’
Song Lin looked at him. ‘What about you?’
‘Me?’ Dandan chuckled. ‘I’ll catch up with you really quickly. Don’t forget, I’m pretty strong.’
Song Lin did not waste time on all that brotherly concern rot and immediately helped Troy to his feet. Having exhausted all his spiritual power, the latter could no longer maintain his beast form and reverted to his original state in a flash, going from an enormous, savage hound to a small, white dog about two palm sizes big. While cradling him, Song Lin tossed a golden long sabre to Dandan. ‘Catch.’
Dandan caught it, looked closely and saw that it was a brand-new magic weapon, its handle carved liberally with images of imperious dragons while the blade emitted a spiritual energy strong enough to form a golden halo around itself, so bright it was blinding.
‘I don’t have enough spiritual power to summon the Blood Weapon for you so I’m lending you this sabre instead.’
‘So generous, Second Master? Letting me use a magic weapon which you’ve just acquired?’
‘Just lending it. Remember to return it.’
The next instant, the giant scorpion lunged towards them without any warning, its two pincers going for Dandan who immediately thrust the golden sabre into the ground and used the momentum to spring upwards, dodging the attack. The scorpion brushed past him and immediately went for Song Lin who was just up ahead. The speed at which it was sprinting was too fast for the badly injured Song Lin to evade and seeing this while in mid-air, Dandan bounded off a tree trunk, taking the chance to yank the long sabre out and slashing it in the direction of the trees up ahead. The blade magically emitted golden blades of wind, neatly scything a row of thick tree trunks followed rapidly by three loud bangs as the falling trees pinned the scorpion to the ground. Trees in the Fascinating Forest were thousands of years old, each one extremely heavy and sturdy and being pinned by three at once left the scorpion immobilised. Nor did Dandan give it a chance to so much as gasp as he brought the long sabre down, severing its pincers, then split open its head and hard shell with a clang, splattering himself with green slime from its brain.
All his actions were done so fluidly in one go that Troy was left stunned.
It was a while before he finally reacted, saying, ‘We had better get going before the rest of its companions show up.’
Seeing Dandan take two steps and then look back at the disembowelled scorpion with a frown, Song Lin asked, ‘What’s the matter?’
‘…Such fresh meat. Quite tasty when you rub it with some spiced salt and roast it. What a shame…’, Dandan said longingly.
Song Lin: …
(Approx. 1732 words)
12’s notes:
24/9/2019: Substituted the word ‘magic’ for ‘rare’.
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Translated and edited by 12
hiding in plain sight 
Oh, the start of the chapter made me sad again. This Anywhere Ladder sounds pretty cool. I’m still not totally convinced Song Lin is Yu Huan, something about it seems too obvious. Dandan says Styx sent him, but that excuse just doesn’t make sense. It’s nice that he’s acknowledging his rival’s done well after all. RIP giant scorpion that never had a chance against this violent rabbit. Thanks for the translation!
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