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Translator: Fate
Proofreader: Silavin
With a weird expression, Yin Mei looked back and was certain that Gu Changge was indeed staring at the young boy right at the back.
In fairness, when coming to such an occasion, her entourage originally should be waiting outside the halls since they had no rights to enter this ground, but the gifts that she had brought were rather expensive, so to show her sincerity, she allowed her followers to carry them inside with her. At that time, this young servant of hers, who usually seemed clever, took the initiative to ask, saying that he wanted to follow them in and broaden his worldview.
Yin Mei didn’t feel that there was anything wrong with it and knew that Gu Changge definitely wouldn’t mind, so she agreed to his request. However, she was now confused by what was happening…
[Why is Gu Changge staring at him? Could it be that there is something strange about this young man?]
She supposedly knew him very well, so she clearly understood that he wouldn’t easily be intrigued by anything.
“Senior Brother Gu, is there a problem?” she softly murmured, as if she was questioning him.
“It’s nothing. I just can’t believe that you would bring a young servant on this kind of occasion. It seems like he is special to you. However, I’m still touched that you have travelled millions of kilometres to get here.” Gu Changge quickly regained his composure and directed his eyes away from the clean-looking young boy.
Then, he revealed a faint smile and greeted Yin Mei, but his words seemed to reveal his slight curiosity towards her relationship with the young servant while teasing her at the same time.
In the public’s eyes, this seemed to be the reason behind his strange expression just now. After all, it was not inappropriate for Yin Mei to bring in her followers and servants with her.
As for Yin Mei, she understood that Gu Changge was deliberately making fun of her, but her loyalty for him was unbreakable.
At the moment, she couldn’t help but gently roll her eyes at him and said, “Senior Brother Gu, stop messing with me. He is just a young servant who is in charge of feeding my Peagasi. If I had known that it would bother you, I would not have brought him in to broaden his worldview.” By saying so, she managed to explain the situation from her side.
Seeing this scene, many people instantly caught on what was happening while the group of big figures chatting on the side also withdrew their gaze without caring about it. Even if a sparring competition broke out at the moment among the younger generation, it would only be a tiny argument in their eyes, not worth their attention. However, the thing that surprised them a bit was Gu Changge’s attitude just now.
Hearing Yin Mei’s explanation, Gu Changge smiled unconcernedly and said, “What are you saying, Yin Mei? I’m just curious.”
“I’m surprised that you care so much about me, Senior Brother Gu. I’m really touched.” She also smiled back at him.
Even though her words sounded normal, it actually concealed a strong sense of sorrow as she only dared to say such words to him in front of everyone. Normally, when the two of them were alone together, she wouldn’t dare to speak to him with such a casual and slightly moaning tone.
As for Yue Mingkong, she was able to hear the tone from her words, which suddenly filled her phoenix-like eyes with coldness, prompting her to actively lean more towards Gu Changge’s side, as if she was declaring her rights.
At the same time, Gu Changge could also hear the gloominess in Yin Mei’s words, but he smiled faintly and didn’t pay too much attention to it. He wouldn’t say anything more about this since he understood that she had the intelligence to know when to step back and take his thoughts into consideration, not crossing the line. Not only that, he was also very satisfied with her work, so naturally, he allowed her to have some small tantrums from time to time.
“Oh? It sounds like he is a very motivated person.” Soon, Gu Changge smiled and glanced at the young servant once more before praising him.
“This young servant is a lucky boy. He actually got a praise from Young Master Changge.” Most of the young prodigies couldn’t help but be envious of the young-looking servant when hearing his praise.
It wasn’t easy to get a word of praise from Gu Changge. After all, to the young prodigies, getting praise by him was no different than being regarded as a good prospect by him, but actually, there was a difference in significance.
“Senior Brother Gu is praising you. You should quickly thank him…” Yin Mei said with a slight dissatisfaction and furrowed her brows after glancing at the young servant whose expression had been a little unnatural since the start. [He is usually smart and efficient, but why does it seem like his head hasn’t been working normally recently?]
Suddenly, she connected it with Gu Changge’s behaviour just now, causing her to frown and her expression to change instantly. She wasn’t stupid to not notice the abnormalities of the young boy at this point, but given that there were many powerful expert in the hall, she didn’t say much about it.
Listening to her, the young boy named Chu Fan was stunned as he hurriedly kneeled on the ground with his legs weakened and said, “I’m really startled hearing such praise from Young Master Changge.”
At the same time, his back was instantly covered in cold sweat, almost dampening his clothes. His heart was trembling and filled with dissatisfaction since he was Sky Emperor Ying’s son.
Before this, he was high above all and looking over billions of people while holding a terrifying power that earned the fear and respect of the Ancient Immortal Clans. Even after such a predicament, he didn’t have much respect for Yin Mei since he felt that as long as he had just one chance, he could take back his original identity and regain his previous status!
That was why he requested Yin Mei to take him in the hall by using the excuse of broadening his worldview so that he could find a powerful cultivator of the Ancient Immortal Clans whom he could trust.
However, before he could see a cultivator of such a level the moment he entered the hall, he was immediately noticed by Gu Changge the next second. As soon as it happened, he felt his entire body and soul trembling, as if his mind was being read through by someone.
Even though he didn’t appear in the outside world long enough to know about Gu Changge, he still managed to hear some rumours about him. Therefore, he knew that he was a powerful enemy that must not be underestimated since many of his methods were enough to send shivers down his spine, leading to the feeling that Gu Changge might be the most powerful enemy he would face in his life.
In fact, Chu Fan expected to meet him today when coming to the Immortal Gu Family, However, the moment he saw him, he couldn’t help but feel the same frightening and intimidating aura he felt when facing his father back then.
[This is such a familiar feeling! It feels as though I’m facing a young invincible god even though he is only glancing at me. His casual and natural eyes are actually filled with a creepy sense of dominance and coldness. This man… is much, much frightening than the rumours suggest!]
At this moment, Chu Fan immediately raised the vigilance inside his heart to its maximum, and fortunately, he was able to control his emotions accurately, revealing a frightened expression that was natural and real. In the eyes of the public, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with his expression. To many young prodigies, it wasn’t easy to not embarrass themselves when receiving praise straight from Gu Changge, which meant that the young servant’s performance was already quite good.
“That was quite a scare!”
“I didn’t expect that to happen…”
The group of powerful cultivators from the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan also put on a puzzled face. At first, they thought that Yin Mei’s previous actions had offended Gu Changge, causing them to sweat profusely, but seeing him display such a casual attitude, they realised that they were over-thinking things. After all, Gu Changge’s current power was enough to make them palpitate and be filled with fear. Not only was Yin Mei saved by him, he was also her senior brother in terms of status, so if she got closer to him, it would be a great thing for the whole Nine-Tailed Fox Clan as everyone hoped to see such an outcome!
Although Yue Mingkong was Gu Changge’s fiancee, who had the backing of the Unrivalled Celestial Dynasty, they couldn’t care less since every opportunity also came with risk. Besides, they wouldn’t be any big trouble if Yue Mingkong was offended since she would be insignificant once they managed to get on Gu Changge’s good side.
After all, most of the men in this world had multiple wives. Even though Yin Mei was once the fiancee of the Young Master of the White Tiger Clan, it still wouldn’t make any difference since change in someone’s engagements was a common occurrence in this world, not to mention that the engagement was cancelled by the White Tiger Clan on their own accord.
Gu Changge’s strength and power already predestined him to easily have the things that many people couldn’t even obtain throughout their lifetime. This was the truth that would remain unchanged through the ages.
“This young servant should know his place. We shouldn’t have let him in from the start. Yin Mei should change her soft-hearted personality.”
“Now is a good opportunity for her to get closer to Young Master Changge, so she must not make any mistakes.”
Many of the powerful cultivators and Elders from the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan looked at Yin Mei while their lively minds were coming up with all sorts of ideas. As for that clean-looking young servant, they had already decided to kill him once they left the Immortal Gu Family. Otherwise… there would be a grudge between their Young Mistress and Gu Changge, which would badly affect the entire clan.
No matter how small the possibility was, the problem must be taken care of from the start.
“You can get up. I don’t like people talking to me while they are kneeling. It will seem as though I’m abusing my powers.” Gu Changge then opened his mouth again with a faint smile on his face, ignoring the thoughts of others in the hall.
He looked so gentle and elegant that it would be difficult for anyone to find any flaws.
“Young Mistress Zijin, what’s with that young servant?” Xiu Er asked curiously. [He is just a young servant. Why is he getting such praise from Gu Changge?]
Wang Zijin was also confused. [He is just a normal young servant. Why would Gu Changge say such things?]
She just couldn’t figure it out or see anything either.
“I don’t know. I don’t think there’s any problem.” She shook her head. Even though she was a transmigrator, it didn’t mean that she should know about everything since she could only connect the current events with information she knew in the previous life and make a vague guess. “However… this Gifted Lady of the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan seems to be interested in Gu Changge.”
There was a weird expression in her eyes, but after she connected it with the fact that Gu Changge rescued Yin Mei from the hands of the Successor of Demonic Arts, she suddenly felt that it wasn’t a surprise. Since ancient times, the sequence of a hero saving a damsel in distress had won the hearts of many people, and even though it was a cliche sequence, its effectiveness was absolute.
In fact, most of the cultivators had the same thoughts as her.
“Thank you, Young Master Changge.” Listening to Gu Changge’s words, Chu Fan got up while his voice trembled slightly. He tried his best to conceal his emotions, not daring to expose anything, as he felt that he didn’t have any secrets to tell in front of Gu Changge.
[How could there be such a terrifying young man in this world…] His heart was shivering. Even if he regained his original identity, he also wouldn’t dare to easily offend Gu Changge.
Soon, this little incident went by, and many young prodigies started to chat again, ignoring what just happened. They sincerely asked Gu Changge for advice on cultivation, and he answered all of them with a faint smile on his face, looking like a righteous young leader.
Meanwhile, Yin Mei graciously sat down next to him, completely ignoring Yue Mingkong’s murderous expression, as if she was challenging her position as his first wife.
Regarding the two women’s explicit and discreet rivalry, Gu Changge couldn’t care less since he knew that two of them wouldn’t cross the line and do anything that would anger him.
Yue Mingkong was prideful and arrogant, so she couldn’t allow herself to share anything, especially with any other women who appeared next to Gu Changge other than herself, even though she knew that Yin Mei would never win his heart.
As for Yin Mei, she clearly understood that she was still very valuable to Gu Changge, so if Yue Mingkong actually dared to attack her, he would definitely do something to stop her. By then, he might even start to dislike Yue Mingkong, so if she herself was clever, she wouldn’t dare to do anything to Yin Mei. Naturally, if she were to strike at her, she would fall right into Yin Mei’s trap because Yin Mei’s chances would increase once Yue Mingkong began to lose Gu Changge’s favour.
This was a cold war that many young prodigies had noticed, which filled their hearts with envy and jealousy. Whether it was Yue Mingkong or Yin Mei, they were all top tier beauties of the Beyond and had countless admirers. Yue Mingkong was even dubbed as the top beauty of the Unrivalled Celestial Dynasty.
[Tsk, what an unlucky guy.] Meanwhile, Gu Changge raised his wine glass made out of white jade to his mouth. With a playful expression, he glanced at the corner and saw the clean-looking young servant who always had his head down.
At the moment, Gu Changge had already figured out the whole situation. As soon as the young servant entered the hall, he immediately noticed the Fortuity on his body. To be fair, it wasn’t easy to become Yin Mei’s horse-feeder since the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan was still an Ancient Immortal Clan, but for some reason, the Fortuity of this young servant was clearly much lower than the other followers near him, almost reaching single digits.
[Just how unlucky is he?] Gu Changge could only think of one possibility. [This young servant must have accidentally offended a Fortuitous One. Based on the notification of the System, ‘taking over an expert’s body’, it obviously points at the seamless swapping of souls that even those powerful experts won’t notice, which means there exists another party who had his soul swapped.]
According to Gu Changge’s familiar knowledge of the soul-swapping cliche, it meant that a powerful person would suddenly have their body replaced by the soul of a weakling. Then, the weakling would use the stolen body and identity to keep on showing himself off. However, there was an obvious loophole with such a story, which was that the host would lose their predecessor’s memories after their souls were swapped, and the most cliche outcome of said plotline was the stealing of a big figure’s body.
Back then, Gu Changge couldn’t care less where the soul of said big figure went. Whether the person had his soul disintegrated or devoured, it wasn’t actually that important, but looking at the young boy, he was certain that the big figure’s soul had naturally gone into his target’s body.
[Does this mean this young servant’s body now contains the soul of the person who had his body snatched? This is interesting. It means that the young servant has stolen his identity…] Gu Changge quickly figured out everything. It turned out that the newly appeared Fortuitous One wasn’t actually the young servant, but the young servant’s enemy. [Maybe… he himself is also confused as to why someone has suddenly replaced his identity and reduced him to a horse-feeder.]
Of course, Gu Changge didn’t have any sympathy for him at all, and instead, he wanted to gain more information from this young boy.
Soon, the birthday banquet today finally ended.
However, the guests didn’t say their goodbyes and leave since most of the factions chose to stay in the Immortal Gu Family temporarily for a few days. After all, they came a long and difficult journey here to the Immortal Gu Family, so naturally, they took this opportunity to properly visit the place and witness the family’s true strength.
In the meantime, Gu Changge also left the hall, but he secretly ordered Yin Mei to keep an eye on the whereabouts of her young servant named Chu Fan.
“I understand, Master.” She nodded her head without asking any questions since she could also saw that something was wrong with Chu Fan.
After all, no matter how hard he tried to conceal it, there were still cracks to be seen, especially under Yin Mei’s careful observation, it became even more apparent.
At the moment, Chu Fan was following the Nine-Tailed Fox Clan to the residence that the Immortal Gu Family had prepared for them, but he completely didn’t notice that Yin Mei was now secretly keeping an eye on him. After finally leaving Gu Changge’s sight, he breathed a sigh of relief, as if he just escaped with his own life.
No one could understand what was going on inside his mind at that moment. A young man like Gu Changge was a complete monster, and his every word or action was enough to send shivers down his spine, especially when he felt that Gu Changge seemed to have noticed him…
[I hope that’s just my imagination.] Now, he only hoped that time would pass quickly so that he could leave the Immortal Gu Family soon. Then, he could think of a way to break away from the identity as Yin Mei’s horse-feeder and come up with a plan.
Today, he had indeed seen many powerful experts from the Ancient Immortal Clans. If he had faced all of them with his previous identity, they would have shown him immense respect, but now, he wasn’t worthy of coming into contact with them, let alone open his mouth and explain everything to them.
[However, even if I got the chance to explain, who would believe such nonsense? How did someone have his identity stolen all of a sudden? I’m afraid they would just treat me like a lunatic.]
“If only my little sister, Ying Yu, was here, she would definitely recognise me,” Chu Fan mumbled to himself. He was certain because he knew that the thief who stole his identity had absolutely no memories that he now possessed. [Many things about that era are only known to me and my sister. It is impossible for that thief to know. That will be my best chance to prove my identity!]
…
Meanwhile, after returning to the palace, Gu Changge began to refine the puppet disguised as the Successor of Demonic Arts. These puppets in the Sacred Lord Realm were taken from the Portable Supreme Cave left by the Ancient Reincarnation Supreme Being. On the surface, it didn’t look much different from any other normal human cultivators, and even the material was similar to the skin and bones of cultivators, but inside, there were many tiny black and white lines.
Once the puppet was refined, it became no different from a true living being since it involved the more profound use of the Principle of Reincarnation.
Without caring much, Gu Changge focused his eyes on the core of the puppet. A hazy glow shone on its surface while strips of Divine Chains of Order were hanging down like a waterfall, which was astonishing. As he closed his eyes, a strange unnameable god instantly appeared in his mind with an indescribable appearance. It was surrounded by a thick grey mist, making it look incredibly mysterious. Its shape would exhaust the imagination of a living being, sending their minds down an endless pit with just a glance and even driving them into an eternal madness.
This was the Art of Visualisation in the Demonic Arts, and the visualised god was being created through Gu Changge’s inexhuastable imagination. Different people who practised this Art of Visualisation would naturally imagine different god-like beings. Fortunately, Gu Changge was a transmigrator, so he understood that one’s imagination was endless, which meant that there was an unknown factor.
“In this wuxia world, if something cannot be described, it just means it is profound…” Suddenly, the two colours, black and white appeared in his gloomy eyes.
At this moment, Demonization began to faintly occur behind his back while his cultivation kept on rising to the Sacred Realm. The void was starting to collapse as weak cracks appeared, and it felt as though he could reach out to shatter the stars and explore the cosmos.
*Puff!* The next moment, the two colours, black and white, suddenly transformed into a clanging immortal sword that penetrated through the puppet’s core.
With a poof, a crack immediately appeared on the carapace of the Sacred Lord Realm. Then, the formations intertwined, as if they were just awakened, and began to extract the essence of the universe, which caused a surging fluctuation in the whole palace just like a raging tidal wave. Luckily, the vicinity was very quiet, and it was Gu Changge’s place of cultivation, so he concealed it with a Deception Array Seal, blocking any energy from leaking out.
*Hum!* In the void, a frightening energy intertwined, and a series of Grand Flask-like runes quickly landed on the cracks of the puppet. In the end, the many black runes faded away inside. The initially pure spell was suddenly like a light mixed with a rich black colour, exuding a terrifying demonic energy.
“Now is a good opportunity since the various factions are all gathered here. All is ready except for one thing.” Gu Changge squinted his eyes.
Then, he nodded and glanced at the puppet in front of him, revealing an expression of satisfaction. The puppet of the Sacred Lord Realm in front of him was already infected by his Nommening energy. By then, as long as a cultivator could sense the origin of its aura, they would not be able to differentiate it from the Successor of Demonic Arts.
However, Gu Changge didn’t plan to rely on this puppet to deceive everyone as he only wanted to use it to temporarily shift the world’s attention to his target. After that, he could do the same thing by infecting another puppet with his Demonic Arts and keep it just in case.
“But who should I start with?” In his mind, a series of figures flashed across his brain. As he came up with a plan, he realised that the Successor of Demonic Arts who appeared this time could be more than just one person. Just like Ye Ling who appeared before, he was just a pawn that could be discarded at any time.
Soon, Gu Changge fixed the target on his fellow transmigrator, Wang Zijin.
To the outside world, Wang Zijin was extremely mysterious, and her strength was powerful enough to counteract the Successor of Demonic Arts in the Sacred Lord Realm until Gu Changge arrived to ‘rescue’ her.
[Also, Wang Zijin is secretly the Successor of Mortal Palace, so it’s even more reasonable for the Successor of Demonic Arts to attack her. As for how I can make her identity become known to everyone, it doesn’t actually matter. All I need to do now is to cover my tracks.]
He already had a seamless plan in mind.
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Poor girl xD
She doesn’t quite deserve such a scheme dumped onto her, but let’s see how she handles it
Many thanks
Many thanks
Many thanks