‘Having chosen to lie, he would simply have to maintain it, whatever the cost.’
I’ll be away all of next week so here’s an earlier update. Enjoy!
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Ch. 29 | Qingling Sword
Dandan stood dazedly in Song Lin’s embrace for a few seconds before saying, ‘Are you k-kidding? It should be me protecting you. There’s no such thing as you protecting me.’ He tried to struggle free after that.
To his surprise, Song Lin’s arms tightened around him, holding him even more firmly.
‘… Hey… what gives?’ Dandan wriggled awkwardly.
‘Little one, your heart is pounding a little too loudly,’ Song Lin remarked.
‘… You heard wrongly,’ lied Dandan with a straight face. ‘It’s obviously your heart that’s pounding.’
‘All right, I heard wrongly then,’ Song Lin did not embarrass him any further and replied readily.
For some reason, his deep, well-modulated voice teased at Dandan’s ears, causing a ticklish feeling. Feeling that he couldn’t continue to be this passive any more, he suggested, ‘Let’s try this instead: let go of me first and I’ll tell you the truth.’
Song Lin thus released him and said, ‘I’m listening.’
Dandan marshalled his train of thought and then cleared his throat slightly. ‘It’s true that I’m a jade rabbit and my calibre is Supreme. But… and this may rather disappoint you, I’m not that legendary jade rabbit which belonged to Arch-Guardian Yu Huan. My spiritual power isn’t that immense — I believe you’ve sensed that too. I’ve been concealing my classification and calibre because I was afraid that people would mistake me for Yu Huan’s spirit beast and bring upon me a lifetime of unnecessary trouble.’
Song Lin merely gazed at Dandan silently for a very long time with those pale blue eyes until the latter began to feel apprehensive.
But… having chosen to lie, he would simply have to maintain it, whatever the cost.
Dandan screwed up his courage and continued, ‘It’s true that every spirit beast has two abilities, both of which are bestowed by its owner. Unfortunately, my former owner was an itinerant Guardian whose spiritual calibre was very low. He only bestowed an auxiliary ability: the Bind curse, but he didn’t have enough power to bestow an attacking ability so I don’t have one.’
Song Lin seemed to believe this for he did not ask any other questions and instead changed the subject, saying, ‘That being the case, I’ll bestow an attacking ability on you.’
‘Eh?’ Dandan was floored. He watched as Song Lin took out a piece of jade which transformed into a sword in his hand.
‘This is the Qingling Sword which I forged using one third of my spiritual power. I now bestow it on you.’ After he said this, the sword became a jade stone again and he reached around Dandan to the back of his neck and pressed it into the spot where his seal was. The jade stone glowed gently before disappearing into Dandan’s flesh.
A wide-eyed Dandan belatedly felt the nape of his neck as he asked, ‘You had me kill my way up here to get this jade stone, not to test me but to bestow this Qingling Sword on me instead? You already had all this prepared; everything at the hunting ground today was for this purpose?’
Song Lin nodded. ‘Some members of the League are already eyeing¹ you. I can’t be with you all the time so I might as well gift you the Qingling Sword. Since you have one third of my spiritual power inside you, summoning it won’t be a problem. There may be a fierce battle coming up at the Guardians’ Tournament so we have to be very careful.’
‘… Why are you doing all this…’ asked Dandan.
Song Lin shrugged and answered, ‘Like I said, I’ll protect you.’
‘…’ Dandan clutched at his heart. Darn it, he was suddenly feeling touched…
¹ 虎視眈眈 hǔshì-dāndān. If you’re not reading this chapter at hiding in plain sight, it has been stolen and reproduced by novelscraping sites.
At night, Dandan tossed and turned but was unable to sleep. He waited until Song Lin was sound asleep before getting up, tiptoeing to the window and sneaking out from there to go to Crescent Moon Ridge.
The mountain sprite on sentry duty at the Priest’s Manor was most displeased at seeing this bunny-eared youth. ‘What are you doing here again?’
‘Hey hey, this is already my second visit here. Can’t you let me in since I’m cute?’
The mountain sprite shot him a look brimming with scorn and was about to shut the door but Dandan hurriedly blocked it and said, ‘Never mind, never mind, I’ll go in by the back door again. I’m looking for Bi An!’
Mountain sprite: ‘…’
As a result, Bi An came out a few minutes later, grumbling bitterly². ‘Dratted rabbit, what’s the matter with you? Always coming back after midnight. You just don’t want me to get any sleep?’
Dandan grinned widely. ‘The moon’s beautiful tonight. How about a drink?’
Unable to refuse, they both headed into the city to a small tavern which stayed open late, sat down by its entrance and began chatting.
‘Something bothering you?’ Bi An asked as he filled their cups to the brim.
Dandan asked, ‘Did Feng Chulian punish you after I left that day?’
‘Teacher was quite angry but he didn’t punish me harshly.’
‘Y’see, what did I say? How can Feng Chulian bear to punish you when he cherishes you so much?’
‘What an awful way of putting it, sounds so weird.’ Bi An sipped his wine and asked, ‘When are you going to return those pages that you tore out from the Ancient Book of Spells?’
‘Why, did Feng Chulian tell you to ask for them back?’ Dandan slitted a glance at him.
Bi An shook his head. ‘No, he didn’t actually. It’s rather strange now that you mention it, but Teacher didn’t seem to mind at all.’
‘Ha, that old fox probably hopes that I can find Yu Huan too.’ Being a poor drinker, Dandan’s cheeks were already flushed after a few swigs.
‘That’s probably true. That Arch-Guardian of yours cheated my teacher out of so many treasures while he was alive that Teacher must also wish he would show up again so they can have a proper reckoning of all those old debts.’
‘Let’s be fair here: Yu Huan and Feng Chulian are both two-faced and after scheming against each other, who knows who really cheated whom?’
‘So have you figured out what’s in those few pages which you tore out?’
² 苦大仇深 kǔdà-chóushēn. Translation belongs to theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com.
‘The Ancient Book of Spells said that Guardians who use the Transmigration Spell will seal their soul into a Soul Crystal after their deaths. This energy can then attach itself to a newborn’s body. On the death anniversary, the original soul can depart the physical body for twelve double-hours. I’ve been wondering: when Song Lin loses all his spiritual power on the first day of the fifth month every year, could it be because of Yu Huan’s soul leaving his body?’
‘… So you’re staying by Song Lin’s side just to wait for the first day of the fifth month to see Yu Huan’s soul? Isn’t that a bit too far-fetched? What if you’re wrong?’
‘Well, I still have to try.’ Dandan stared into the wine cup he was holding, seeing his own determined eyes reflected in the sloshing wine. ‘Even if it’s just the tiniest of chances, I don’t want to miss out on it.’
‘… I honestly have no idea what Yu Huan did to earn your undying³ devotion.’
‘… That’s because I have a one-track mind,’ Dandan mumbled.
³ 死心塌地 sǐxīn-tādì. Please consider reading from theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com rather than from novelscraping sites.
Bi An scratched his head. ‘Oh, I heard that you were taken to the League to be appraised.’
‘Ah… don’t remind me, it was a nightmare.’ Dandan’s ears wilted to his shoulders. ‘That Mr Jing from the League is just too powerful; nothing escapes him.’
‘I heard as well that you put the Surveying Spring and Surveying Clock out of order. You sure are something.’
‘I never expected the fountain to actually burst through the ceiling. Logically speaking, the Surveying Spring shouldn’t have had such a violent reaction considering that two thirds of my spiritual power has already been stolen.’
‘Could it be that after making a pact with Song Lin, you have his spiritual power inside you so it boosted yours?’
‘Wouldn’t that mean Song Lin is incredibly strong? He could practically hold his own against Yu Huan then…’
‘Of course. The House of Song is the leading family among Ridge City’s Five Great Houses so how could he not be powerful?’
‘Tell you something: Song Lin bestowed an attacking ability on me today.’
‘Huh?’ Bi An was taken aback. ‘You already have an attacking ability bestowed by Yu Huan inside you, except that you don’t have enough spiritual power to summon it. How did you acquire Song Lin’s as well? A spirit beast bearing the attacking abilities of two Guardians — you’ll probably join the flying apsaras soon.’
‘Up yours! I wasn’t expecting Song Lin to suddenly bestow a sword on me either… plus, he forged it using one third of his spiritual power so that it’ll be easy for me to summon… and I had just lied to him moments earlier so now I’m feeling a bit guilty…’
Bi An hiccuped drunkenly. ‘Tsk tsk tsk, Song Lin treats you really well.’
‘He does? But I feel he just hopes that I’ll help him win at the Guardians’ Tournament. He wants to be the Arch-Guardian.’
Bi An pointed at Dandan’s face and remarked, ‘You’re all red. Drunk, aren’t you?’
‘You’re just as red, you’re the one who’s drunk!’
They both pointed woozily at each other and lapsed into silence at the same time.
After an interval…
Dandan: ‘I came out in a hurry and didn’t bring any money.’
Bi An: ‘I came out in a coat and my pyjamas so I don’t have money either.’
‘So why don’t you stay here as insurance and I’ll go back to the Song Manor to get some money?’
‘Wait a minute, why don’t you stay behind instead?’
‘I’m not valuable.’
‘If the magnificent Supreme Jade Rabbit of Dragon Ridge isn’t valuable, who is?’
They descended into silence again.
In the end, both of them were forced by the tavern boss to telephone their respective manors and sheepishly ask for money to be sent over.
When Song Lin and Feng Chulian, both looking grim, arrived at the tavern’s entrance, they were treated to the sight of those two drunkenly abusing the tavern boss.
Dandan: ‘You ever heard of the great Song Manor, huh? You ever heard of the great Song Lin, huh? I said I’ll pay tomorrow means I’ll pay tomorrow; you think I won’t keep my word?’
Bi An: ‘You ever heard of the famous High Priest, huh? I swear on his honour, I’ll definitely pay you tomorrow. Lemme go now, lemme go!’
Song Lin and the High Priest couldn’t stand it any longer and paid up, facepalming the whole time. Then they seized one each and marched them out of the tavern.
Feng Chulian gave a low cough. ‘My disciple lacks discipline and has made a fool out of himself in front of you, Second Master Song.’
Song Lin also coughed uncomfortably and replied, ‘Not at all. It’s my spirit beast who’s too stubborn and stupid and led your disciple astray, causing trouble for Your Excellency.’
They then bid farewell to each other glibly before taking their respective charges home.
(Approx. 1865 words)
12’s notes:
★ First tweeted post.
Edited after post was published.
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Translated and edited by 12
hiding in plain sight 
HRNG. Dandan! SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR.
Also, that last bit had my laughing so hard. I just. Really love Dandan and Bi An being trouble making friends. I super love Song Lin and Feng Chulian being long suffering, herding their charges home, perfectly understanding each other in this instance. BEST.
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LOL! Not that he’s fooling Second Master Song one bit…
Haha yes, can just imagine Song Lin’s and Feng Chulian’s expressions at being dragged out of bed for this 😂
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