T/N: This arc contains mentions of suicide and other content that might be triggering like gore etc. If you struggle with or are having thoughts of self-harm/depression please know that you are not alone. Help can be found in your country: here or here
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Arc 4: 26 chapters
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This is a supernatural romance novel with a purely fictional background in an unknown era.
Looking at the descriptions of clothing and cuisines in the book, it should be set after the 21st century.
In this world, ghosts and yaoguais* do not only belong to the folklore therefore many religious beliefs appear.
*(This is similar to the Japanese ‘yaoguai’ pronounced similarly as well, just ‘g’ instead of ‘k’. ChatGPT says: In Chinese mythology, Yaoguai (妖怪) are supernatural creatures that can be either benevolent or malevolent. They are often depicted as having animal or human-like characteristics, and are known for their ability to shape-shift or possess humans.)
Except for the Buddhist and Taoist deities and some other deities in charge of family prosperity, most of the other Chu Shici have never been heard of.
The heroine of the original text is a little Taoist nun who hates evil with all her being. She was carried up to the mountain by her master to learn Taoism when she was just a child.
Her master went down the mountain alone to eliminate the yaoguai queen, and never came back.
In order to investigate the truth of Master’s disappearance, the little Taoist girl went down the mountain to hunt down the yaoguais while looking for her Master.
Once, when the heroine was catching a red-clothed ghost, she accidentally provoked a thousand-year-old snake yao that had taken human form, that is, the domineering ice mountain that is the hero Xunzhe.
They went from being hostile to each other to falling in love. In the end, the male protagonist became a dragon after he cultivated the right path, and the female protagonist also became an earth immortal.
The two became guardians, suppressing evil and exorcizing demons, protecting the lives of dozens of people.
After confirming that the host has no other problems, the system starts to summarize the previous world.
Chu Shici accompanied Gu Yunzhe for the rest of his life, successfully raising his vitality to 100. After completing the side missions, the world is considered to have a happy ending.
[This is the basic salary and bonus. According to the rules, I will share 30% of it with you.]
The system activated a card for him, and all Chu Shici’s money was stored in it.
In fact, he doesn’t know what the money’s for. Since he can’t go to the mall to buy things, he just keeps it for fun.
After counting the money, the system happily took him into the next world.
With excitement, Chu Shici slowly opened his eyes.
In front of him was a dark brown wooden frame, and there was a table below it, which was full of lit candles.
Chu Shici looked down at his body.
The top of his head is smooth, without a single hair. He held a dust covered aged Japamala* in his short hands.
*(
Buddhist prayer beads, image source)
He was wearing a gray monk’s robe, which was very long, and the hem completely covered his feet.
The system said that there were irregular dark marks on his back, as if something was sprayed on it.
It has been too long, and the original color can no longer be distinguished.
Chu Shici is now a small wooden monk decoration.
He froze for a moment, putting his palms together in a solemn expression: ‘Amitabha.’
The system looked at him speechlessly, [I know the kind of person you are, stop pretending. The Buddha doesn’t want salty duck eggs*.]
*(I’m not very sure of this, but the closest thing I came to is that it means someone who likes to papapa. But if anyone knows, do comment below, thanks! Chinese: 你是什么人我还不了解，别装了，佛祖不要咸鸭蛋。)
‘Tsk.’
After arguing with the system for a while, Chu Shici poked his head out to look around.
He is in a cave, the surrounding light is dim, and the atmosphere is gloomy.
The cave is divided into two parts.
Entering through the wooden door at the entrance is a small room where evil spirit artifacts are placed. Someone should come to offer incense regularly, but the candle has been burned out for many days.
Passing through the room is a door with scriptures written all over it.
What is locked inside is the thousand-year-old snake yao.
The little monk ornament often listens to the Taoist monks chanting scriptures and knocking on wooden fish,as a result, he has a trace of Buddha aura around him. The little monk ornament is enshrined here to suppress evil spirits together with other magic tools.
Chu Shici was only the size of a palm, with small arms and legs, and it took him a long time to climb down from the shelf.
The system saw that he was walking too hard, so he transferred money from his card to buy a few small plug-ins.
A lotus throne, a body protected by a Buddha Light.*
*(
The palm-sized little monk sat on a palm-sized lotus flower and flew unsteadily to the gate, and peeked through the crack of the door to look inside.
It was so dark inside that he couldn’t see what was in there.
Chu Shici looked in and muttered to himself, ‘Why doesn’t the hero’s name contain the word Zhe, where is my Zhe-ge?!’*
The system smacked his lips, [How would I know? But Zhe and Zhe have the same pronunciation*, maybe Xunzhe is your man. Remember, his name is not Gou Jiji.]
*(Normally, the chinese character for the zhe in the previous worlds have been written like this 哲, in this world, the zhe in the ML’s name is 喆. Both have the same pronunciations as well.)
‘…’
Hearing what the system said, Chu Shici breathed a sigh of relief.
After learning that the hero of this world is a snake yao, he anticipated for a long time, waiting to experience three kinds of happiness with Zhe-ge.
If the male protagonist is not Zhe-ge, then the 3×2 happiness is not worth mentioning.
The door was chained, with a huge brass lock hanging from it.
Chu Shici pushed the door hard, and when the gap in the door widened slightly, he squeezed in sideways.
Although the names don’t match, he believes that based on his understanding of Zhe-ge, as long as he sees the male lead, he will be able to recognize whether he is his man or not.
The light here is dim, and only a huge shadow can be vaguely seen in the darkness.
Chu Shici clapped his hands and used the Buddha light protection widget installed in the system.
From the back of the little monk’s head, a small glittering gold plate emerged.
The system is introducing the plug-in function to him, [The little lotus platform can only fly, it is equivalent to a mount. Remember to water and give it sunlight regularly, otherwise it will wither. In addition to the lighting, the little Buddha light only has some functions of exorcising ghosts and evil spirits. It is solar powered so remember to go out in the sun every day, otherwise it will not light up.]
There was a white wall in front of him, and Chu Shici flew against the wall, looking for the hero.
‘Why is it like this? I thought it was amazing.’
[It should be really awesome originally, but there is nothing special about the little monk decoration itself, you are still a fake monk. Without the blessing of the Buddha, the effect of the plug-in will be weakened by a lot.]
‘Is it still too late for me to convert to Buddhism?’
[What do you think, my treasure.]
Chu Shici could pour three catties of butter out of his head, and he still didn’t think the Buddha would want him.
The cave is huge, with white walls as far as the eye can see. He searched for a while, but couldn’t find where the male lead was.
At this moment, the wall suddenly moved.
There were rustling sounds from behind, and the system’s terrified screams filled his mind.
Chu Shici turned around slowly, and behind him appeared a golden snake eye the size of a lantern, staring at him coldly.
The system coughed twice, [There is a yaoguai sealed in the cave, this is the hero. Didn’t you say that when you see the male lead, you can recognize if it’s your Zhe-ge? Quickly recognize him!]
Chu Shici took a deep breath, ‘Fuck, I didn’t know he was a snake from the start!!’
While they were talking, the giant snake turned its head sideways, opened its mouth and bit at him.
Chu Shici patted the lotus platform hard, and the little lotus that was sitting flew out with a whoosh.
The body of this white snake is so huge that it almost fills up the cave.
The body of the snake kept twisting, the cave began to shake wildly, and debris kept falling from the ceiling.
Chu Shici struggled through the gap.
After finally flying out of the door, he turned his head and took a look back.
The crack in the door, which was originally dark, is now golden.
The white snake was looking at him through the crack of the door.
Chu Shici’s breathing stopped for a moment, he touched his frightened little heart, and patted his frightened little lotus.
The system stuttered for a long time and did not utter a complete sentence.
The giant snake was stopped by the door, and spit words at him with his snake tongue through the crack of the door, and said with a cold and magnetic male voice, “Are you the wooden sculpture in charge of guarding me? Little monk, how many years have you lived?”
Chu Shici had never seen such a big snake before. He was frightened, covered his chest and thought for a while, “Counting from when I was first made into a sculpture? It seems to be more than a hundred years.”
The giant snake didn’t answer, just asked him a question, then lost interest in him, turned and went back to the cave.
Chu Shici sat on the lotus platform and wiped away his cold sweat.
He looked at the background data, the male lead’s initial vitality value was only 2 points.
___
Not only did he fail to see if the male lead was Zhe-ge, but he was almost swallowed.
Chu Shici began to reflect.
It was because he was too impulsive, next time he had to be prepared before going in, at least he had to bring a gift.
Although the male protagonist has three forms, he mostly appears in human form in the original text. Occasionally, he will turn into a snake with a human body and a tail, and only when he encounters a strong enemy will he change back into a snake.
He can freely switch forms, and can also change the size of his snake form.
There is no mention of the hero being sealed in the original text. He appeared very cool, one arrow and a red-clothed ghost down, obviously a free being.
It seems that he escaped before meeting the heroine.
Chu Shici watched him through the crack of the door.
Xunzhe’s body had become the size of an ordinary python, he was curled up in a dark corner of the cave, motionless.
From his angle, only a vague outline and a little white tail tip could be seen.
Chu Shici sighed, he didn’t want to see the snake, he wanted to see the man.
There is no sun or moon light in the cave, and Xunzhe has been sealed for more than five hundred years. There is no way to cultivate here, so he can only pass the time by sleeping.
Today, a small golden dot flew in from the door, and the disturbing Buddha aura on his body woke him up again.
Xunzhe looked down and saw that the young monk was sitting on the lotus platform, holding a wild fruit in his arms.
The moment their eyes met, the little monk held up the wild fruit: “I picked it today, this is for you!”
The fruit was not as big as Xunzhe’s scales. He took one look, then turned his head and prepared to go back to sleep.
The little monk sat on a small lotus platform and circled around him, “My name is Chu Shici, you can call me Ah Ci. What is your name, why are you sealed here?”
Xunzhe ignored him, and hence he kept wandering around him.
After floating around him for more than half an hour, Xunzhe finally got annoyed.
He opened his mouth at the little monk again, and the little thing flew out of the cave in fright.
The wild fruit rolled to the ground, and the cave became quiet again.
The white snake curled up in the corner looked up at the wild fruit quietly.
After a long time, he stretched out his tail and pulled it to his side.
___
Chu Shici sent wild fruits and flowers for several days in a row, but the hero didn’t respond. Going to the cave every day and seeing a snake who is living like a dead snake.
He still hasn’t figured out whether Xunzhe is his Zhe-ge.
After delivering today’s wild fruit, Chu Shici looked at the white snake who was ignoring him, “Aren’t you bored staying here? How about I tell you a joke.”
“Little Miss Grape is going out to meet her lover, but she suddenly gets hungry halfway, so she starts to eat grape seeds. When she arrives at the agreed place, her lover doesn’t recognize her, why?”
The white snake, who was taking a nap, hissed out his words.
“Because it ate up all the grapes, it changed from Miss Grape to Miss Cane!”*
*(sigh. Idk.
Maybe If anyone understands this joke, leave a comment.
“葡萄小姐要出去会情郎，走到半路忽然饿了，于是它开始吃葡萄粒。等到了约定的地点，情郎却不认它，这是为什么?”
“因为它把葡萄吃光，从葡萄小姐变成藤条子小姐了！”
Image source)
The cave fell into a deathly silence, and the system sighed, [Your level of telling jokes is really stable, as embarrassing as ever. If I were the hero, I would eat you up right now.]
Xunzhe’s reaction was similar to what the system said, and Chu Shici was directly kicked out of the cave.
The little lotus platform rushed around every day that it was nearly exhausted. Chu Shici ran to the temple up ahead to steal water.
He stood behind a tree in the yard, meditating while watering the lotus platform.
The world is still the same as before.
The main task is to increase the male protagonist’s vitality to 100, and the side mission is to investigate the reason for the decline in the male protagonist’s vitality.
Chu Shici opened the mission panel and tried to fill in the side missions.
[Because of being sealed for a long time, the male protagonist has psychological problems, and his vitality value has plummeted.]
The system quickly gave a reply to the above answer, and the submission of the side task failed.
Chu Shici changed several submissions, but the problem didn’t seem to be the length of the time he was sealing in for.
He has been in this world for a week, and he is somewhat familiar with the environment.
There is a cave in the back mountain, which is used to seal the thousand-year-old snake yao.
In front is a temple with a long history built over five hundred years ago.
The name is very unique, it is called Dayangtian Ming Temple, and there are more than 30 monks living in it.
Chu Shici always thought it was pronounced as “Dayang, Tianming Temple”.
After listening to the chatters of pilgrims, he realized that the sentence is “Dayangtian, Ming Temple”
The incense is strong here, and there is an endless stream of pilgrims. When he went out for a stroll during the day, he heard that Dayangtian Ming Temple was particularly effective if you are praying for a newborn.
Basically, if you ask for a boy, you will get a boy, and if you ask for a girl, you will get a girl. In fact, people who have been diagnosed with infertility can conceive here, it is simply a medical miracle.
It’s just that the one enshrined in the temple is not the Guanyin* of fertility, but Lady Dayangtian.
*(Guanyin (traditional Chinese: 觀音; simplified Chinese: 观音; pinyin: Guānyīn) is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. Read more )
Chu Shici didn’t know much about religion, and this was a fictional background. The culture is very different from the world he lived in.
Maybe the monks here believe in the Lady but not in Buddhism?
After the lotus platform was full of water, Chu Shici sat on it and flew back.
While floating through a grove, he saw a monk was burying something under a tree.
Every night this week, monks will come here to work.
At first, Chu Shici looked over curiously, but after he found that they were just burying old clothes and waste paper, he lost interest in it.
The monk took out the small clay pot from his arms, poured the ash inside the pit, and buried it together with other things.
The process was the same as before, Chu Shici glanced at it and was about to leave.
At this moment, an old monk walked into the woods, grabbed the previous monk and whispered something to him.
Chu Shici eavesdropped with his ears pricked up.
“Miss Li is about to give birth. When the time comes, you will do the ritual. Remember not to make any mistakes.”
“But… will another ghost baby be born?”
“It doesn’t matter if they are born, these ghosts are not that difficult to deal with. The thousand-year-old snake yao can be suppressed by the lady, so what about a mere ghost?”
“Then do you want to keep an eye on the police?”
“What are you afraid of? We didn’t break the law. This is doing a good deed. The people are grateful, so why would they call the police?”
After talking about the business, the two monks chatted for a while, and began to walk to the temple together.
A gust of night wind blew by, and Chu Shici vaguely heard the inaudible cry of a woman coming from the temple.
The temple here, where did the woman come from?
He stood still and listened again, Dayangtian Ming Temple at night was very quiet, as if everything that happened just now was just his illusion.
___
Today Chu Shici carefully selected another small wild flower and sent it to Xunzhe.
As usual, the hero simply ignored him.
Chu Shici touched his scales secretly, thinking that going on like this was not an option.
Xunzhe didn’t move anywhere for a week, and he didn’t say a word to him.
Just relying on giving wild fruits and flowers will not make any progress in the relationship with the hero, and it is difficult to find out whether he is his Zhe-ge.
Chu Shici decided to be reckless.
He poked the sleeping white snake, “Do you want to leave the cave? I’ll let you out, okay?”
The white snake, which had been motionless for a week, finally responded.
He turned his snake head and hissed out viciously, “You are the magic tool in charge of guarding me, a monster. You can just please me every day, but now you still want to let me out?”
Looking at the ignorant little monk, Xunzhe chuckled mockingly, “Do you know why I was imprisoned here?”
Chu Shici shook his head.
Xunzhe’s upper body slowly transformed into a human form.
From the time when the upper body of the white snake turned into a human body, Chu Shici immediately felt a sense of intimacy when he looked at the emotionless face.
His face is pulled so long* and with that facial paralysis of his, it’s definitely his Zhe-ge.
*(an unhappy or disappointed expression.)
After confirming that it was his husband, Chu Shici completely relaxed and began to admire the male lead’s beauty.
Xunzhe’s appearance is extremely handsome, and his facial features have the unique femininity of snake yaos. Clearly the eyes are cold and do not contain any emotion, but there is a charming allure of a demon on his body.
His skin was pale and bloodless, his long silver hair hung loose behind him, and tiny scales remained faintly on his shoulders and at the end of his eyes.
Looking down, along the firm abdominal muscles, there is a snake tail with a silvery white luster. It doesn’t look like that of a yao, but it has a tinge of holy aura.
Xunzhe caught the lotus seat in mid-air with one hand, pinched the little monk’s mala beads with his fingertips, and mocked.
“I ate up more than 800 people in a village. Lady Dayangtian thought that I had done a lot of evil, so she locked me in here. Little monk, do you still want to let me out now?”
Chu Shici was first stunned by his beauty, and then his eyes suddenly moved downwards.
He was very curious about how many snake yaos have down there*, but he couldn’t see it now.
Resisting the urge to pull the scales aside, Chu Shici closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time, “Why did you kill them?”
Xunzhe still ignored him, pursed his lips and reached out to fiddle with the Buddha Light behind his head, as if he was very interested in the little halo.
Chu Shici knows Zhe-ge very well.
This person is only appearance-wise aloof but hot-headed, he is not prone to do evil at all.
And the original text mentioned the requirements of this world to change from a snake to a dragon.
The snake yao needs to cultivate for more than a thousand years, and has never done any treachery or evil. Has accumulated countless merits and virtues before he can cross the boundary to transform into a dragon.
In the book, the male protagonist becomes a dragon in the later stage, which means that he is a good snake yao who cultivates the right way.
Chu Shici rationalized the context.
There must be something hidden behind Xunzhe’s supposed annihilation, and it must be something that he himself doesn’t know.
He was still thinking about whether to let Zhe-ge go out, and how to let him out.
Xunzhe suddenly slithered towards the gate.
He raised his head and stood tall, looking extremely elegant and arrogant. The long snake tail slithered on the ground, like a dancing white ribbon.
With the movement of the snake tail, his waist began to sway slightly. The pale and powerful abdominal muscles instantly became extremely alluring.
He pinched Chu Shici’s head and carried him outside in mid-air.
He looked up and down Xunzhe’s body, and covered his chest excitedly, ‘This waist, these muscles, ahhh! Zhe-ge!’
The system yelled louder than him, and took pictures while screaming, [Snake Beauty, I can!!!]
‘? Brother, wake up, that’s my boyfriend.’
[Ah, ah, ah, I’m just admiring the beauty. I’m a system and I just like other spheres. I’m also looking for a partner, a sphere with abs.]
Chu Shici thought about it for a long time, but he cannot picture how a ball with abdominal muscles should look like.
Xunzhe slithered all the way to the door and threw the little monk and his lotus platform out together.
He pulled the door and closed it completely.
Chu Shici was caught by the little lotus, touched the top of his head, and found that his fake Buddha light had been taken away by the male lead.
The beauty of the human body and snake tail was too dreamy, after he managed to recover from the beauty, he landed in front of the door and opened a crack to look inside.
The area illuminated by the Buddha Light that was hung on the stone wall of the cave illuminated the cave and is so bright that it looks like a small sun from a distance.
The wild fruits that Chu Shici had sent before were piled up into a hill beside them.
Xunzhe fiddled with the withered wildflowers with his head down, and inserted them into the crude small bottles made of soil.
He wiped his hands, picked up a wild fruit that was about to rot, put it on the tip of his nose and smelled it carefully, as if he was reluctant to eat it.
Chu Shici didn’t make a sound, just watched him quietly smelling the wild fruits for a long time before eating a rotten fruit.
Every time he took a few bites, he looked up at the little Buddha light on the stone wall, as if he was nostalgic for the free life he once had.
Early the next morning, Xunzhe was awakened by a loud noise.
He frowned tightly, climbed to the door that sealed him, and looked out through the crack of the door.
The big wooden door at the entrance was opened today, and the warm sun of the first day reflected on the cold ground, dispelling the lingering coldness of the cave.
Through the crack of the door, one can vaguely see the blue sky and lush forest outside.
The palm-sized little monk laid motionless in the sun, with a small lotus flower parked beside him.
A sparrow flew in and tilted its head to look at him curiously.
Panting heavily, the little monk got up and made a face at the sparrow. The sparrow didn’t fly away, but ran after him bouncing around.
It should have rained this morning, and the air still carried the faint scent of earthy soil and grass after the rain.
Xunzhe pursed his lips. He opened the door to the widest gap and tried to reach out.
The moment his finger touched the edge of the door, the scriptures on the door emitted a golden light, the copper lock began to shake violently, and the iron chain that tied the door suddenly locked.
The door that had been opened a crack slammed shut, knocking Xunzhe back.
He lowered his eyes and caressed the cold door, which seemed to still have the temperature of the sun.
For the little monk, this wooden door is indeed too big and heavy.
Every day he pushed open the crack of the door to get out, but today he had to open it all.
Both he and the Little Lotus platform were exhausted.
Chu Shici wiped off his sweat and turned his head to look back. The door full of scriptures opened a small crack, and Xunzhe was lying on the floor looking out through the crack.
He still maintains a snake-tailed body, with pale fingers grabbing the edge of the door and trying to peek out.
As the sun rises, a bit of dappled sunlight shines on Xunzhe’s snake tail.
Chu Shici saw the corners of his mouth curled up, revealing a very faint smile.
At the same time, a system notification sounded in the background.
[Add 2 points to the vitality value, and the current vitality value is 4.]
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T/N: Hi~ in this arc, I’d like to say that demons are the evil forms of yaoguais, not used interchangeably.
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Update: in 5 mins~
- After becoming enemies with the lord god
- Blog
- Completed
- Don't talk to me!
- Dropped
- Ghost Marriage
- Hunger Academy
- I opened a safe house in the Infinite Stream
- Notices
- Ongoing
- The Dragon Lord is Weak and Helpless but Has a Big Appetite [Interstellar]
- Want to ascend? Then fall in love.
- What can I do, I'm not human.
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