It never rains but pours…
‘Such a cowardly spirit beast, serves you right for losing your owner.’
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Ch. 52 | The Crone
The car came to a screeching halt. Song Lin allowed himself to slide forward with the momentum then asked Styx who was in the driver’s seat, ‘What’s wrong?’
Styx turned round, holding up a map as he said, ‘Dandan’s spiritual power… has disappeared from the map. My Soul Tracking Technique can’t follow him.’
‘… How can that be…?’ Song Lin frowned and considered it for a while. ‘He may have encountered the lu-shu.’
‘Why do you say that, Second Master?’
‘If he’s frozen in time, then he’s now in an alternate space outside of the time around him, so his spiritual power will not appear on the map.’
Styx looked down. ‘Can we use the magic sending circle to convey Dandan to your side?’
‘It’s impossible if it’s too far away.’
‘Then what should we do now?’
‘Let’s drive to the beach first, he must be nearby,’ Song Lin said heavily.
Styx immediately started the engine without any objections.
On the beach, Troy looked at the frozen Dandan, then at Bai Yini and Bijou, then looked down as he gripped the pendant, gulping for air: No, there’s no going back for me, I’ve already betrayed Dandan. Even if I return the Qingling Sword to him, will he forgive me?
After a while, he slowly lowered his hand which had been clutching the pendant. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I chose the wrong path right from the start and so there’s no going back for me.
‘Bijou,’ Bai Yini called sweetly to her spirit beast. Bijou transformed into his human self and walked over.
‘The Crone said that you’re very hard to deal with. So just to be on the safe side, I’m going to bleed you just a little.’ Bai Yini stroked Dandan’s face briefly. ‘Just to make sure you’re not going to be too lively for me to handle afterwards when you can move again.’
Having heard this, Bijou handed her his long silver sword.
Bai Yini ran the sword over Dandan’s body, from his cheek to his abdomen, seeming to look for a place to start cutting, before the sword finally stopped on his left shoulder.
‘It won’t hurt too much, don’t worry.’ The woman’s dulcet voice had just died away when the sword pierced Dandan’s left shoulder, sinking in a full ten centimetres but no blood flowed because time had been suspended on him.
Troy turned his head away, not wishing to look.
She was by no means done however. Her grip tightened on the sword and she sliced down from Dandan’s left shoulder to the right side of his abdomen, cutting open his whole chest and leaving a long, gaping wound.
‘That’s just about right.’ Bai Yini pulled out the sword.
Bijou then snapped his fingers and the suspension of time stopped on Dandan. Blood instantly sprayed from his chest like a tempestuous fountain which Bai Yini sidestepped. When she noticed the flecks of blood staining her qipao, she frowned, took out a handkerchief and daintily brushed at them.
Dandan collapsed in a pool of his own blood and it was some time before he slowly regained awareness, violently coughing up a mouthful of blood. He simply had no idea what had happened to him. The period during which he had been suspended was completely wiped from his memory. It was only after waking up that he discovered that he felt icy-cold all over and his limbs felt powerless. Blood gushed in an unending stream¹ from the gaping wound in his chest. He glanced at the ground again and saw the two broken halves of Song Lin’s Blood Weapon.
F**k!
That was the only thing Dandan wanted to say there and then.
¹ 源源不断. If you’re not reading this chapter at hiding in plain sight, it has been stolen and reproduced by novelscraping sites.
Bijou crouched down and bound Dandan’s hands behind him with a chain. Dandan struggled briefly and discovered that it was the kind of chain only beast trappers would use.
‘Why do you have this?’
‘This was the very thing they used on me last time when I was sent to the Exchange,’ said Bijou as he secured the chain.
Dandan wondered bemusedly: How did the beast trappers manage to capture as powerful a beast as this lu-shu?
He wasn’t given the time to ponder this as Bijou lifted him up high. ‘Are we done here? Can I go back for my nap now?’
Bai Yini said indifferently, ‘Take him back.’
At this point though, they heard the sound of a walking stick coming from somewhere nearby.
Everyone looked round for the source of this sound only to see an old woman, like an old and ailing candle guttering in the wind², leaning on a walking stick as she walked with faltering steps towards them.
‘Why have you come?’ Bai Yini was quite taken aback.
‘You’ve all gone overboard,’ commented the Crone as she looked at the blood-soaked Dandan.
Dandan lifted his eyes and saw the new arrival.
It was actually the Crone.
Almost a hundred years…
Finally, we meet…
Once more!
Seeing her in that moment, Dandan felt something surging in his heart but it was immediately suppressed by an invisible hand.
² 风烛残年. Translation belongs to theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com.
The Crone walked leisurely over to him, then bent down. Her face was hidden by an old-fashioned grey headscarf so he couldn’t see her clearly.
‘Long time no see.’ She reached out a hand and stroked Dandan’s face, seemingly unfazed by the still fresh bloodstains. ‘Do you remember me?’
‘…’ Dandan gnashed his teeth. ‘Hideous people don’t leave any impression on me. You are?’
‘Ha, very cute.’ The Crone didn’t appear at all insulted by his deliberate jibe. Her incongruously soft white fingers slid down his face towards the gaping, bleeding wound in his chest. ‘Such a big wound? Yini, you really went overboard.’
Behind her, Bai Yini took exception to this.
‘But it’s a good thing as well since it’ll be easier to retrieve it,’ the Crone said and suddenly shoved her finger into the wound.
What are you doing, bloody old hag!! Dandan almost screamed in pain but he didn’t have the strength to after losing all that blood.
The Crone’s finger scrabbled around inside his heart receptacle, seemingly searching for something. She stopped for a moment: one wasn’t enough so she inserted another finger, mercilessly digging through the flesh inside.
Dandan was in such agony that he cried. It wasn’t out of sadness, purely a physiological reaction because it was just too painful.
Deuce!
‘Ah, here it is.’ The Crone unhurriedly withdrew her fingers which were sticky with blood and holding a purplish-red ball between them. Well, it wasn’t so much a ball as an orbicular, undulating glob. ‘Relying on this all these years to drag out an ignoble existence, don’t you find it pathetic?’ While speaking, the Crone suddenly squeezed her fingers hard and burst the purplish-red ball of fluid.
At the same time, the invisible hand which had been inside Dandan’s heart, always suppressing his emotions, also exploded.
She caught hold of his shoulders. ‘Look at me, haven’t you missed me? I’ve certainly missed you, and that fire on Dragon Ridge, and most of all I’ve missed seeing what a dead Yu Huan looked like.’
‘SHUT UP!!’ Dandan somehow found the strength to roar furiously.
Bijou, who had been holding him up all this time, suddenly felt his arm tingle from a sudden jolt of spiritual power and hastily dropped him to the ground.
‘This punk?’ He clutched his arm, looking incredulously at Dandan lying on the ground. ‘Why’s he suddenly so different from just now?’
Bai Yini asked, ‘What was that you took out of him?’
The Crone did not look at them but merely squatted down, gazing intently at Dandan. ‘What I took out was just what he’s been using to deceive himself for the last hundred years, the thing that’s allowed him to drag out an ignoble existence.’
She reached out and began gently brushing away the blood bit by bit from Dandan’s face. When she touched his eyes, she paused for a moment. ‘Now why are you crying? Tsk, you haven’t changed at all, you’re just as pathetic as you always were. You weren’t able to save Yu Huan from dying and you’re not able to avenge his death. He died on Dragon Ridge, before your very eyes. Such a cowardly spirit beast, serves you right for losing your owner.’
Every word coming out of the Crone was like a drill boring into Dandan’s heart. After those fingers wiped away the blood near his eyes, the monstrous conflagration of a hundred years ago suddenly appeared in his mind’s eye: the flames threatening to burn everything down, to reduce Dragon Ridge which had once been full of life to nothing; Yu Huan’s figure standing still for a long time in the fire, a sword through his chest.
His Yu Huan.
The owner whom he had pledged his life to.
To him, the strongest Guardian without equal.
In that instant, in that fire, so weak that he seemed on the verge of being dispersed by a breeze.
Just like a beautiful dream being trampled on and crushed.
The one behind it all was now standing in front of him, wearing that headscarf as of old which revealed only her lined chin, those wrinkled and sallow lips of hers kept opening and closing, forcing him to remember every single memory which could kill him. Her voice was like a creaky old saw, oppressing him until he gasped for breath.
Dandan’s heart felt like it was going to explode. Countless seeds of hatred sprouted, bloomed and swelled, almost drowning his sense of reason.
‘Enough, you bloody old hag.’ His voice was shaking so much that the words sounded less like words and more like a string stretched taut to its limit. ‘If you don’t shut up, I’ll rip your mouth apart.’
‘Are you even capable of that now?’
‘Try me.’
The Crone laughed, leaning on her walking stick as she stood up and turned her back, saying, ‘Don’t you want to know how I killed Yu Huan that year? Just how did I use that sword, which you’re oh so familiar with, to stab him through the heart?’
‘Shut up!’ Dandan sprang to his feet, throwing himself at the Crone, the chain around his hands breaking apart under his sudden burst of explosive force. His hands fastened around her neck, his eyes so red they seemed on the verge of bleeding, his claws a hair’s breadth away from piercing her neck. The next second though, Bijou effortlessly picked him up by the scruff of his neck and flung him to one side.
The Crone rolled her neck slightly and said deliberately, ‘It’s been so many years but you’re still as rude as ever. Didn’t Yu Huan ever teach you not to treat an old person like this?’
‘Don’t you dare say his name!’ Dandan was still dizzy from having been thrown aside, but the fury in his heart was still not being vented and roiled around, snapping the last few threads of rationality he had. ‘I’m going to kill you!’
‘… Looks as though he didn’t.’ The Crone shook her head in disappointment. ‘Our noble Arch-Guardian really should have studied up a little on how to educate his spirit beasts on respecting the old and cherishing the young³.’
³ 尊老爱幼. Please consider reading from theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com rather than from novelscraping sites.
Dandan’s breathing was laboured as he watched the Crone talking about Yu Huan in that casual way and was only conscious of a desire to tear open the hag’s neck. The visceral hatred which had no way of being vented and the pain in his heart which felt ready to burst: it was like that day on Dragon Ridge when he had cradled Yu Huan’s body, that feeling of wanting the whole world to die together with him.
‘Look at you, just dying to take your revenge. If Yu Huan’s soul could see you now, he would be most gratified, I’m sure. What a pity though that you can’t kill me since two thirds of your spiritual power is with me. Oh yes, I forgot to mention, it was with your spiritual power that I was able to kill your owner.’
She reached behind her, her fingers brushing against the nape of her neck. Blue wispy strands began floating out from her body; she gave a sudden tug and drew out a big ball of shimmering blue light. ‘Recognise this spiritual energy? Every bit of it was drawn out from your body.’
The Crone made a slight flourish with her fingers and the blue light began dancing on her fingertips like flowing water, beautiful to behold. ‘Yu Huan was certainly blessed with a beautiful face because he still looked so lovely in his final moments.’
Twang. This remark succeeded in snapping the last string in Dandan’s mind.
‘Do you want your power back?’ The Crone pointed a finger at Dandan and the shimmering blue light began flying towards him. ‘I’ll give it back to you.’
The shimmering blue spiritual power penetrated Dandan’s chest wound, squeezing into his heart receptacle which was completely filled within seconds. The Crone did not stop however and sent more spiritual power pouring in. Dandan only felt like his heart was about to burst and did his utmost to resist the unending wave of spiritual energy.
‘Don’t fight it. With it, you’ll be able to kill me and avenge Yu Huan.’
The Crone’s words stunned Dandan.
Just as he was momentarily distracted, the remaining spiritual power seized the chance to pour in frenziedly. Dandan felt his heart receptacle swelling exponentially, nearly suffocating him.
‘Accept all this spiritual power, it was always yours. You need to become stronger, I know you long for power.’
Dandan felt like he couldn’t take it any longer.
Crack… a tiny fissure somewhere inside broke open softly.
It hurt so much…
It felt like he was dying.
Dandan clutched at his heart, mentally crying out for him over and over again: It hurts so much… Song Lin!
Just then —
‘Dandan!’
A big hand pulled him over into an embrace. The barrage of spiritual power was suddenly cut off and that suffocating feeling also vanished abruptly. He was enveloped by a familiar and comforting feeling.
Song Lin’s gentle breathing drifted down lightly from above him.
‘Don’t be scared, I’m here.’
(Approx. 2374 words)
12’s notes:
Edited on 29th April 2020.
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Translated and edited by 12
hiding in plain sight 
Urghhhhh, Troyyyyyyy. ;O; This is classic, good guy gets in over his head, but continues to persist with it because he feels like he would never be forgiven. Like a DUMBASS TROY. Even if Dandan and the rest never forgives you, at least you don’t do shit like this where Dandan is trapped and hurt and HRNGGGGGGGG. WHY COULDN’T YOU BE A GOOD DOG.
Omfg, poor Dandan!!!!! ;O;!!!!!! Jesusssssss, the blood just spraying out, I can’t. My poor baby.
SCREW YOU CRONE.
THE HELL DID SHE JUST DO. And of course she needs to dig in the metaphorical knife and twist it. Physical and mental pain. ;; Poor, poor Dandan. I really hope she gets what’s coming to her. While I’m happy to learn more about how Yu Huan died (because that always seemed super suspicious), this is not how I wanted to find out. And the fact that he died by the Crone using Dandan’s power is just especially heartbreaking.
FINALLY SONG LIN. Though how the guy muscled through all of them without any of them reacting to hug Dandan is a bit… side eye… BUT YOU KNOW WHAT. FOR THE AESTHETIC I’LL GIVE IT A PASS. KICK THEIR ASSES SONG LIN.
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OMG, yes, I so wanted to interject and say ‘let’s cut you open then’ to Bai Yini when she was all ‘this won’t hurt too much’ and the Crone, ugh, so vicious and enjoying it 😠 She really knows what buttons to push, damn her.
😆 Yeah, best not to look too closely at some parts of this story. It just about hangs together generally.
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