The mountain Gu Daosheng had lived on for eighteen years had a name, though it was a rather perfunctory one: Tianshi Mountain.
A Heavenly Master should live on Tianshi Mountain.
The mountain had exerted its influence and nurtured two Heavenly Masters.
One, the Great Celestial Master, was often in secluded cultivation. The other, the Little Celestial Master, ran wild all over the mountain.
Gu Daosheng had been wild since childhood, daring to go anywhere. When he reached the foot of the mountain, his untamed nature remained unchecked. Thinking he was still at home, he had run over without a care in the world, not even catching his breath.
Seeing his nominal “husband” and nominal “stepson” together, both waiting for him to provide an explanation, Gu Daosheng finally tasted the bitterness of the situation, this was going to be hard to explain.
If he messed this up, someone might die.
Nan Ying’s words, which had just slipped out, now cut in again, making the atmosphere even more suffocating. Gu Daosheng’s mind was in a whirl. What do you mean, just go to bed with him?
The child dared to say it, but even the adults didn’t dare listen.
He couldn’t see where Lou Mingzhang was.
Gu Daosheng answered no one, feigning deafness. He opened his mouth to speak: “Lou Ming…”
“Why did you run out here without even putting on shoes?” Lou Guangrui’s falcon-like eyes swept over Gu Daosheng from head to toe. He didn’t hear Gu Daosheng’s question, which was still recovering from exhaustion, and cut him off. After a moment of silence, he added, “Panting like that… how unseemly.”
Gu Daosheng was speechless: “?”
“That’s right,” Lou Hongchen said, his smile not reaching his eyes. He felt a prickle of annoyance that something had gone uncorrected. He lowered his voice and asked, “Why are you… not wearing shoes again?”
Gu Daosheng: “…”
This fucking psychopath is never going to let this go.
Lou Guangrui’s gaze sharpened. “Again?”
Lou Hongchen hummed in affirmation. The faint smile at the corners of his eyes began to creep inward, turning provocative. His thin lips parted slightly as he said, “Again.”
A sudden, sword-drawn intensity erupted in Lou Guangrui’s eyes, but Lou Hongchen met his gaze without flinching.
They held the stare for two seconds, a mere instant, before Lou Guangrui burst into excited laughter. The ashen pallor of his face, as if drained by a ghost, gradually flushed with a healthy glow.
He looked like a red balloon being inflated.
“That’s right, Hongchen, I just remembered. You and Daosheng were classmates, in the same class, right? Last year, your school organized a camping trip for the class. Did you see Daosheng without his shoes then?” Lou Guangrui licked his lips. Whatever had just triggered his nerves, he no longer cared to maintain his facade before his newly acquired “Young Master Twelve.” Where was that steady composure from before, the one that had hoped he hadn’t scared him?
“Well, we’re classmates, so it’s only natural,” Lou Guangrui said. “But I recall you two weren’t very close. When I asked who Daosheng was, you said you didn’t know him. Yet Daosheng came to me on his own, saying he wanted to marry me. And you, just like you treated your other stepmothers, didn’t offer me a single word of blessing. You’re so stubborn, just like your mother. I thought you resented Daosheng, which is why I specifically introduced you two. Now it seems you’re getting along quite well.”
“In that case…” The flush on Lou Guangrui’s face seemed ready to burst through his skin and bleed. He completely disregarded Gu Daosheng’s humanity, his voice turning eager and strange. “Your mother has been gone for three years now. You’ve finished your mourning period. It’s time you found someone to warm your bed, isn’t it?”
“The Lou family children are all so pure. Your mother kept you away from all this, so you never learned from me. What a pity. Not like Mingzhang, he already knows how to treat his future wife when he grows up. You have to beat them, to train them, until they crawl to your feet, kissing your toes, then wagging their tails like begging dogs, weeping and pleading for you to let them into your ‘door.’ How wonderful that would be.”
The old pervert carried on, completely oblivious to his surroundings, getting more worked up as he spoke. Gu Daosheng, a man of unwavering righteousness, hadn’t understood at first. But after a moment’s thought, his Daoist heart wavered, and he nearly vomited.
Lou Guangrui said, “I’m going to Daosheng’s place today. I won’t ask Mingzhang to come and study. How about you stay next door and listen?”
“You fucking pervert, !” Gu Daosheng roared, his leg flashing out in a flying kick.
A figure flew faster than him. The instant his furious voice fell, Nan Ying’s white hair stood on end, his eyes rolled up and down in a grotesque manner, and he lunged onto Lou Guangrui’s head.
“Awoo!” He bit down hard.
The satisfaction was intense. But no matter how foul-mouthed someone was, they didn’t deserve to die. The surge of pleasure that rushed to Gu Daosheng’s chest clashed with the sense of justice a Heavenly Master felt when witnessing the “evil act of a ghost killing a human.”
That moment of hesitation only gave him enough time to feign a startled “Eh?” without actually intervening.
Then the Ghost Infant was sent flying.
“Ah, My little tooth!” Nan Ying hadn’t been able to bite into Lou Guangrui’s head; a ghostly force far more powerful than his own had blasted him away.
Nan Ying skidded backward, his head scraping the ground with a shhh-shhh sound as he braked, before his legs finally flopped down after twitching in the air for a moment.
Nan Ying sat up blankly. He reached out, lowered his head to look at his palm, and opened his mouth, waiting for a tooth to fall out.
Of course, none fell out.
Ghosts were no longer subject to the “physical damage” of the real world.
But being beaten was still being beaten.
Two completely different things.
Lou Hongchen let out a low chuckle. Amidst Nan Ying’s pitiful wailing, whether from pain or sheer embarrassment, he said slowly, “My mother is protecting him. The First Madam suffered too many grievances in life; her resentment is immense. You can’t beat her.”
He took a few steps forward, stopping beside Gu Daosheng. His dangling hand almost touched him.
His fingers, longer than most men’s, could easily encircle Gu Daosheng’s delicate, slender wrist.
A chill, sharp as needles, radiated from the back of his hand. The moment Lou Hongchen drew near, Gu Daosheng froze completely. His shoulders and back tensed tight, and his arms instinctively lifted and hooked, curling inward to shield his chest.
Fearing Lou Hongchen might do something wildly inappropriate like touch him, Gu Daosheng calmly shifted away.
Lou Hongchen didn’t follow. His eyes remained fixed on Gu Daosheng’s feet as he moved away… moved away.
Why was he moving away?
Why… why? Why?!
Why the hell was he moving away?!
He had grown so accustomed to pretending to be obedient before his father; otherwise, he would never have grown up healthy under Lou Junlian’s protection, especially compared to Lou Mingzhang.
This act was something he had to learn from birth, the only way to avoid witnessing Lou Guangrui’s disgusting and filthy behavior. Was obedience enough? Of course not. It was only because Lou Hongchen had a good mother. Lou Mingzhang was also obedient, but he never received such treatment.
After nineteen years of this ordeal, the habit of keeping his head down and feigning submission had become a vicious curse etched into his very bones. When he was in a good mood, he could remember that he no longer needed to care about Lou Guangrui. But when his mind was in turmoil, he would forget.
He stared for a moment at Gu Daosheng’s snow-white foot, which was pulling away from him, a foot that should have been bound in chains. He forced himself to tear his gaze away, then chuckled softly, his eyes returning to the ridiculous Nan Ying. “You look hideous when you cry. My mother always hated ugly children.”
The First Madam had nearly knocked Nan Ying’s teeth out without even showing her face. What would happen if she actually appeared? Nan Ying clung to Gu Daosheng’s leg, continuing to wail heedlessly, “Mommy, my tooth hurts.”
Lou Guangrui considered himself to have pointed Lou Hongchen toward a “bright” path: the father enjoys himself first, the son learns from the father’s happiness, stimulating the father’s excitement and desire further, and then the son might eventually find happiness too. He had stolen his son’s lover, knowing that Lou Hongchen desired Gu Daosheng.
He desired him very, very much.
All that was needed was a little psychological preparation. Once that was in place, the path would be completely clear; it was no difficult task.
Lou Guangrui waited to see Lou Hongchen glare at him with hatred, just as he had when he first heard his father say he would take Gu Daosheng as his wife. His dear son wanted to kill him, yet he couldn’t.
The powerful, those who held authority, loved this kind of posture from the weak. Lou Hongchen was still Lou Junlian’s child. By trampling Lou Junlian’s son underfoot, making him suffer a living hell, Lou Guangrui felt a thrill of satisfaction.
But Lou Hongchen suddenly started laughing.
And he was talking to thin air.
This was not within Lou Guangrui’s expectations.
“Who are you talking to? Is your mother here?!” Lou Guangrui’s eye twitched slightly as he whipped his head around. He saw no trace of Lou Junlian’s ghost, but his tension did not ease.
He watched as Gu Daosheng went completely mad, first telling Lou Hongchen, “That’s enough. Stop scaring him.”
Then, in the direction Lou Hongchen was addressing, Gu Daosheng swiftly bent down and half-squatted, seemingly “hoisting” a child up, then “carrying” him to the side, patting him while saying, “Who told you to rush in so fast? You didn’t even scout the enemy’s position.”
Nan Ying hadn’t expected him to shirk all responsibility, and cried even harder: “But you didn’t stop me!”
“I clearly said ‘Hey’, which means don’t go.”
“Then you go get revenge for me!!”
“I’m not going,” Gu Daosheng said, not only refusing to take responsibility but also speaking with a flexibility that could be interpreted as either straight or crooked. “Who knows what this First Madam wants to do.”
He had never seen her, nor could he gauge her strength.
So far, he hadn’t felt the yin wind of an attack.
The best strategy was to hold his ground.
Lou Guangrui’s entire face began to twitch, twisting into a much uglier expression than when Gu Daosheng had called him a dead pervert earlier.
Whatever his “wife” cursed him with during the day would turn into a request he had to fulfill at night.
He couldn’t afford to argue over this moment.
“Daosheng, what are you doing?” he asked, forcing a gentle smile.
“Your First Madam made my child cry. What are you going to do about it?” Gu Daosheng lifted Nan Ying. Knowing full well that Lou Guangrui couldn’t see him, he still thrust Nan Ying forward aggressively. “Comfort him!” he demanded.
Lou Guangrui watched as Gu Daosheng held out his arms, lifting a bunch of empty air for him to comfort with an utterly earnest expression. His mind was filled with doubt. When those hands, now clawed, reached out as if to seize his throat and strangle him to death, he stumbled back in alarm, his expression one of bewilderment.
Had Twelve only been with the Lou family for three days, yet already encountered those female ghosts?
They could only appear once a month.
Right, today was the fourth.
Last month they appeared on the third; this month it was the fourth.
Lou Junlian…
“Stop looking.”
Lou Guangrui spun around again.
Lou Hongchen had appeared behind him at some unknown moment. “My mother isn’t here. She has always refrained from participating in, scheming and intrigue, and she never, shows her face. Have you forgotten?”
“Didn’t you stop being able to see ghosts after you were three? How can you now?”
Nan Ying, still not comforted, grew annoyed just hearing Lou Guangrui speak. He called upon the heavens with his tears to back him up: “Strike him dead!”
CRACK,!
Before the words had even fully left his lips, a blinding flash of light tore through the clear blue sky, its radiance so intense it threatened to sear the eyes of every human, ghost, and spirit present.
The thunderclap that followed lived up to its reputation, booming with a force that shook the very earth.
The little ghost who had just prayed for the lightning strike shrank back, his black pupils slipping and rolling back into place within his sockets. His wide eyes, now clearer than transparent glass, blinked in utter bewilderment. Gu Daosheng, who was holding Nan Ying, gave a violent start, nearly tossing the child into the air as a sacrifice.
The designated target of the strike, Lou Guangrui, felt his legs go weak. It was as if the lightning had surged from the ground itself, striking him square in the backside. With a startled “Ah!”, he found himself glued to the spot, unable to get up.
Only Lou Hongchen remained perfectly calm, undisturbed by the wind, rain, or thunder. He watched impassively as a thick willow tree in his courtyard was struck, its branches beginning to smolder.
“Impressive,” he said.
“You can Summon Thunder to Assist?!” Gu Daosheng exclaimed, his voice trailing off in awe.
Nan Ying replied with a deadpan, “I can’t.”
If I could actually do that, he thought, I would have already conquered the world. Who would I have to fear?
What kind of bullshit Heavenly Master is that? The moment I found out someone was desecrating my grave, I’d have struck Tianshi Mountain itself with lightning.
At the very least, when Gu Daosheng came down the mountain and chased him like a mad dog, he should have “summoned the Thunder God” to blast this Little Celestial Master to a crisp.
Now that they were on friendly terms, it would be awkward to blast him.
“Then what does this mean?” Gu Daosheng asked, refusing to believe it. He pointed at the wretched tree.
“My jinxed mouth is acting up again,” Nan Ying said with self-awareness. “Otherwise, why do you think someone as cute as me has no friends? I have a jinxed mouth; anyone I curse dies. For example, you won’t live past the fourth of next month.”
Gu Daosheng: “…”
The earlier explanation had sounded like something a human would say, but when dealing with a prankster, you still had to test it out in person.
If he could really curse anyone to death, why wasn’t he already chanting the Curse Sutra around Lou Guangrui? He could wish for him to choke on water but survive his food, to live through the morning but die at night, to survive today but perish tomorrow.
But Lou Guangrui was incredibly lucky. Even the “Summon Thunder to Assist” technique hadn’t killed him.
He seemed to finally realize his loss of composure and sat there, as steady as a mountain, to preserve his last shred of dignity.
He listened in silence as the maddened Gu Daosheng finished speaking to the “air.” Pushing himself off the ground with his palms, he straightened up unsteadily, yet his posture betrayed no hint of defeat. It was unclear whether he had been stunned into submission by Lou Junlian or if his love for his wife was so profound that he had accepted her return from the Underworld, welcoming the First Madam back to the Living World.
A faint, sinister aura seeped from his clothes, suggesting his skin must be “leaking oil.”
Lou Guangrui was no longer himself.
“Fine, stop speaking ill of me,” Gu Daosheng said, releasing Nan Ying and letting him scramble behind him for cover. Though he had never faced such a crisis and was terrified inside, he didn’t budge an inch.
To his surprise, Lou Guangrui merely glanced at him, seemingly forgetting his earlier proposal to Lou Hongchen. He calmly dusted off his clothes and turned to leave.
Before departing, he said to Lou Hongchen, “The sun is too bright; I’m heading back first. Send Mingzhang to my place later, don’t let him disturb you.”
Only then did Gu Daosheng remember his main objective.
Caught up in the father and son’s exchange, he had completely forgotten about Lou Mingzhang.
As soon as Lou Guangrui left, Gu Daosheng held out his hand to Lou Hongchen. “Where’s Lou Mingzhang?”
He asked as if he were demanding an object he could simply tuck into his palm and take home. “Give him back to me.”
His words and actions were downright arrogant. He wasn’t cautious or resentful as he had been with Lou Guangrui; instead, he was simply taking advantage of Lou Hongchen’s affection for “Gu Daosheng” to act with complete impunity.
“On what grounds?” Lou Hongchen showed no intention of handing the other over. He still couldn’t properly control his vocal cords, speaking slowly and enunciating each word with force. “You were the one who… gave him to me.”
“I don’t want to give him back anymore.”
“Then what’s in it for me?” Lou Hongchen asked. He pointed lightly at Nan Ying, who was peeking from behind Gu Daosheng to scout the situation before quickly ducking back. A sinister smile played on his lips. “I heard this jinx say… that you’re going to sleep with, someone. Is it me?”
He tilted his head slightly. “Sheng Sheng, it’s not… someone else… is it?”