Editor: SleepyMango123
This house spirit was described as terrifying, insane, and almost murderous… But Yun Zhen felt that there was something in his misery that resonated with him weakly, and he couldn’t bear to let it vanish.
He purified the evil spirit of the house and made it get rid of its delusion and restore clarity. But the purification was temporary, and the pain of not being able to give what asked for it was still there. It was probably only a matter of time before the house spirit fell into evil again. Therefore, Yun Zhen had to seal it in the wall of Lin Ying’s bedroom. With his spiritual strength, this seal would last seventy or eighty years. When the house spirit woke from the chaos, Lin Ying would probably be no longer living.
During the process of being sealed, the house spirit had been holding Lin Ying’s photo tightly, and its body was forced by the magic circle to gradually sink into the wall. Finally, with the sound of the clang, the photo frame knocked lightly on the wall and fell to the ground.
The glass of the photo frame was shattered, and there were concave fingerprints on the left and right. Yun Zhen took out the photo, hesitated for a moment, and then pulled out a magic-suppressing talisman, and pasted it on the photo for comparison.
The talisman paper was a circle larger than the photo and it could cover it.
……
“You’ve gotten rid of it?” Yun Qing’s eyes probed into the room and swept to the magic-suppressing talisman on the wall. He understood, “Oh, it’s sealed in the wall.”
Yun Zhen said solemnly, “Tell him not to touch the talisman.”
Yun Qing first hummed in response. Seeing Yun Zhen’s surprisingly serious expression, he added, “Don’t worry. With his courage, he wouldn’t dare to touch it. I don’t think he would even dare to step into this house again.”
Yun Zhen’s lips pursed slightly. “…That’s also good.”
That night, Yun Zhen offered to sleep on the first floor and let Yun Qing sleep in Lin Ying’s bedroom on the second floor. The next day, as soon as the sky was bright, the two of them got up and looked back. They didn’t see each other throughout the night. Yun Zhen treated him a little colder than usual. It was like he was surrounded by an ice wall. The expressions and words that were already pitifully rare became even less.
At first, Yun Qing thought that he had made him angry, so he chased after Yun Zhen, shouting, coaxing and persuading him with a cheeky smile, trying his best to appease him. However, despite his hot face sticking to the other’s cold ass all the way, Yun Zhen still ignored him. Yun Qing was too lazy to make fun of himself—Usually if he were to do something wrong to make Yun Zhen angry, Yun Zhen would speak bluntly and never get angry. Thus, he just regarded it as his Senior’s uncle had come, so he was in a bad mood and had shut himself in.
As a result, Yun Zhen’s view had a big closure.
A week after the matter was resolved, Yun Qing excitedly went to share the labour fee for this exorcism with his brother with an envelope stuffed with large bills. When he arrived at the disciple’s room where Yun Zhen lived, he found that there was no one there. Not only was there no one, the table, which was always full of odds and ends with tools and materials, was also cleaned up.
Yun Qing was stunned, turned his head and caught sight of Yun Jing who stayed next door to Yun Zhen, “Where’s Senior Brother Yun Zhen?”
Yun Jing lazily replied, “Went into seclusion ah. He went to the back mountain the day before yesterday.” After speaking, he blinked, as if to confirm who was in front of him. “He didn’t tell you? Doesn’t he get along the best with you?”
Yun Qing didn’t care as seclusion wasn’t a rare thing. Any disciple in the temple could go to the cave in the back of the mountain to isolate themselves when they felt that they had encountered a bottleneck in their cultivation or thought that they needed to devote themselves to practising certain techniques. The retreat into seclusion for their cultivation training didn’t need much effort, and generally it wouldn’t last long. It was as short as seven or eight days and could stretch to as long as a month.
“Guess he forgot to mention it,” Yun Qing smiled, “How long will he go into solitude for?”
Yun Jing’s expression was even more fascinating. “… He said for a year.”
Yun Qing, “…”
After returning from the old house, Yun Zhen stayed in his room and didn’t see anyone. Yun Qing went to look for him twice and didn’t see him. As Yun Zhen would usually tinker and make things by himself in the room, Yun Qing was afraid that his Senior Brother was thinking about what new things to do, so he didn’t want to bother him. How could he know that he would go into seclusion after not seeing him for a few days? Thinking about Yun Zhen’s alienation and indifference recently, plus not letting him know that he would go into seclusion for a year, it was obvious that he was angry with himself.
Yun Qing wiped his face in frustration, turned his head and ran to the back mountain.
He had no parents. Apart from teaching Taoism, his Master was rarely seen year round. The other brothers and sisters were also unreliable. Only Yun Zhen, who was the oldest, had a calm and generous temperament. Although he wasn’t good at expressing his feelings and always had a straight face, he had been caring for him since he was a child, just like an elder brother. Yun Qing relied on Yun Zhen’s partial favouritism to himself and often broke the rules, and was used to teasing him. The only person who could be in his heart was actually Yun Zhen.
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand this reasoning. He consciously treated his Senior Brother well, and he was the first person he thought of when there was anything good. When his Senior Brother didn’t like to laugh, he would always rack his brains to make him happy. As his Senior Brother didn’t celebrate his birthday, he would celebrate for him every year, and the ideas weren’t too extravagant… Although he would take advantage of his mood to ask for some leniency, wasn’t being kind to people with a little selfishness better than not being nice to others at all? If it weren’t for the old-fashioned temperament of his Senior brother and his love of teaching others, he felt that he could be closer to him.
It was just that this time he didn’t know how he had made his brother so angry.
There was a cliff in the back mountain of Luo Xia Temple, and the cliff face was broken smoothly and flat. According to legend, it was flattened by the sword of an immortal. There were several artificially excavated caves in the cliff. Usually, when the disciples went into seclusion, they would report to the Master or Senior Brother, climb the iron rope to find a hole and drill it. Every day, the disciple who was responsible for their meals would come over. It was very convenient and quick to use by hanging a basket to send food and drinks.
Yun Qing ran all the way to the edge of the cliff, fell down panting, stretched out a flushed face, and shouted at the cold and winding mountain stream below, “Senior Brother—”
No one responded.
Yun Qing, “I know you heard me—Are you mad at me—”
The valley was silent and a big tit landed on a branch that was drilled out of the slanting thorns of the cliff. With its legs crossed arrogantly, and its small head tilted, the bird looked at Yun Qing, mocking him.
“Damn you!” Yun Qing bared his teeth at it, “Senior brother—If you don’t speak, it means you’re angry with me—”
No one spoke.
Yun Qing thought back carefully, and felt that the crux of the matter could only be in the matter of exorcising evil spirits. That night, he cradled Yun Zhen’s leg, and Yun Zhen also fanned him. The atmosphere was quite harmonious. He remembered that he had mentioned the reward on the way back to the temple. At that time, Yun Zhen didn’t say a word. He must have been mad at him for being obsessed with money. After all, at that time, he used the reason that the bitter victim might be in danger so as to persuade Yun Zhen to exorcise the spirit with him.
Yun Qing tugged at his neck and shouted, “I’ll return the money—Senior brother, I’m wrong–”
Yun Zhen still remained silent, Yun Qing continued, “Do you think I am insincere—”
Suddenly, the grey-blue one-hundred-yuan bills were scattered like rain, and a few of them got into the cave.
Yun Zhen, who was in the cave, gritted his teeth. He just intended to move, but then sat down with a frown. He had made up his mind to ignore Yun Qing. His handsome face seemed to be covered with a layer of clear frost, and it was hauntingly cold.
Since he couldn’t get what he wanted, it was just sad to have one more glance.
In the future, if he were to become delusional because of love again, it was impossible to guarantee that he wouldn’t do something irreversible to his Junior Brother like that house spirit, and give birth to such an ugly appearance in his heart. Rather than making it so ugly, it was better to take precautions before it happens. As long as he didn’t have any unreasonable thoughts about his Junior Brother, everything could go back to the right track.
Yun Zhen, who had never tasted love before, decided not to listen, not to watch, not to think, and not to touch, and froze his brain that was so confused by love, thinking that after a year of being so cold, he would probably stop liking him.
He had given up thinking that Yun Qing would not take his seclusion seriously, but he did not expect that Yun Qing would actually come to coax him. While his heart was beating for nothing, he desperately tried to treat the voice of his Junior Brother as a bird chirping.
As a result, Yun Qing reluctantly climbed the iron rope and slipped down.
Yun Zhen, “…”
Yun Qing got into the cliff cave and squatted in front of Yun Zhen, his eyes were like an abandoned milk dog. “Senior Brother, you didn’t tell me that you’rel going into seclusion for a year. Are you angry with me?”
How can he bear it? Yun Zhen thought about it, but his expression was indifferent. “No, I forgot to mention it.”
Yun Qing, “You’re really not angry? I remember you don’t sulk.”
Yun Zhen shook his head. “No.”
Yun Qing, “Then I threw away the money in vain.”
Yun Zhen, “…”
Yun Zhen was choked with anger, and he was frantically on the verge of madness.
Yun Qing had a scrutinising expression. “I’m just teasing you. In the past, you would still angrily smile, but now you don’t seem to laugh at all.”
In fact, if it were to be someone else, Yun Qing may expand his thinking in the direction of love, and think about whether it was for these reasons, but Yun Zhen was too dull and serious in matters of love, so in Yun Qing’s subconscious, Yun Zhen and these things didn’t belong in the same world at all. He would rather believe that the male and female stones under his window gave birth to a nest of small stones than believe that Yun Zhen would secretly like him, and that his heart would be empty.
Yun Qing tugged at the loose cuffs of Yun Zhen’s Taoist robe. “Senior brother doesn’t want me anymore.”
It’s you who doesn’t want Senior Brother anymore. Yun Zhen sighed in his heart, but his tone became even deeper, “I’m going into seclusion. You… be obedient.”
As soon as the words fell, the two of them had a movement in their minds, their eyes flowed, and they looked at each other for a moment, and Yun Zhen hurriedly lowered his eyes to the ground.
When Yun Qing was young, he was very clingy towards Yun Zhen. When having meals, he would ask his Senior Brother to accompany him to eat. When sleeping, he would ask his Senior Brother to stay by his side to sleep. When reading scriptures, he would ask his Senior Brother to recite a sentence first, and then he would recite the next… So when Yun Zhen went into seclusion to practice, the young Yun Qing burst into tears and snot, like a flipped tortoise with its legs wiggling towards the sky, and kept crying, “Senior Brother don’t want me anymore”. Yun Zhen couldn’t bear to ignore him, he could only pick up this little rascal and coax him. In the end, he didn’t go at all.
The two just looked at each other, but they both remembered that period of time.
The corners of Yun Qing’s lips slanted. “I’m going to make trouble.”
He looked even better when he grinned like this. His face seemed to be illuminated by a light from nowhere, and his eyes were extraordinarily vivid and clear.
Yun Zhen gave him a deep look, not only wanting to remember the Junior Brother’s appearance more clearly, but also wishing to forget everything in the next second.
“You go back.” Yun Zhen was expressionless and didn’t answer the question, “Don’t delay my cultivation.”
I’m sorry guys!
I took a break last week just to rest because I’ve been pushing to complete my assignments.
Hope it isn’t too late. Enjoy!
Jeanie
