Indifference to good and evil, uncaring of right and wrong: the root of ignorance. Moreover, this person was known as the "Ignorant Artificer". According to the rumours, he held no friends or family within his regard, spending the entire year crafting weapons in seclusion. To make godlike weapons, he was willing to try anything and sacrifice everything.
The aura he gave off was entirely too detached from the earthly world—whether it was disposition, looks, or fluttering attire, everything gave off the most distinct feeling of separation. In all of Chonghua's imperial capital, there was essentially no one who would speak with him, although of course he was unwilling to waste words on others. The only one who would unflaggingly cling to him was—
"Fourth Uncle!!"
Yue Chenqing was delighted, hurriedly running towards and trying to hug him.
The Ignorant Immortal Murong Chuyi emotionlessly retreated a step back, avoiding the collision from his little nephew. With one sweep from his horsetail whisk, wind sprung up in all four directions, and Li Qingqian was encircled by white smoke, easily being trapped within.
"Fourth Uncle Fourth Uncle! You finally came! Turns out you were in the capital! Awesome!"
Mo Xi and Murong Lian thought Yue Chenqing was really too pitiful, acting like a silly little dog and broadcasting all his excitement and dependence on Murong Chuyi. But Murong Chuyi acted as if he couldn't hear or see anything, turning towards the sword spirit.
Those liuli colored eyes lightly swept across Li Qingqian. "A good blade."
As if Li Qingqian didn't even exist under his eye, only Hong Shao the sword.
"Wasted."
With a wave of his whisk, the talisman Yue Chenqing had just spent herculean effort to draw out floated underneath Li Qingqian's feet.
Apathetic, Murong Chuyi spoke clearly, "Thy blood drips into the urn, thy bones forged into the blade. Three chi of water in the case, once a dreamer. Thy soul entombed in steel, I yearn to be the spirit lamp."
Yue Chenqing had long grown used to his Fourth Uncle's apathy and scooted over. "I chanted just like this, it was useless—"
Murong Chuyi's eyelashes hadn't even twitched, continuing to recite. "Demon blade travels short, why not return to the earthly world…"
"!" Yue Chenqing was shocked. "Not holy sabre?" But Li Qingqian was already showing signs of unbearable suffering. The Hong Shao Sword in his arms was permeated by black mist; as it congealed, the blade abruptly shattered! Broken into thousands of remnants.
Yue Chenqing's thirty repetitions couldn't even match Murong Chuyi's one....
Yue Chenqing only now could react. "Ah....this...this hilt is from the Liao Kingdom, not a holy weapon but a demonic weapon.....That's why, that's why the final line should be....."
Murong Chuyi's light brown eyes looked slightly askance, watching Li Qingqian's sword spirit remnants. After a while, he suddenly wrinkled those sword-like brows.
So strange.
After weapons were destroyed, sword spirits ought to immediately dissipate, but Li Qingqian's sword spirit hadn't scattered at all. It merely became a mirage, and then....He hadn't finished the thought before a cloud of black mist shot towards the sky, unexpectedly sweeping past the group and out of the cave!
Yue Chenqing was shocked. "Fourth Uncle! He escaped!"
"I'm not blind, I noticed."
"Why aren't you chasing?"
Murong Chuyi slanted a look at the long-gone cloud. "Can't catch up."
Yue Chenqing was astonished at this coarse and honest answer from his Fourth Uncle.
Murong Chuyi then lifted the hand he used to cast the talisman, letting the shattered Hong Shao's hilt float. With a twist of his fingers, he brought it to his eyes to examine.
Yue Chenqing was chattering at his side. "What happened? Why is there still a leftover hilt? Shouldn't the entire thing disappear? Why didn't the sword spirit immediately dissipate?"
Murong Chuyi was still scrutinizing the remaining piece. "His obsession was too deep and became a sword demon. If not resolved, it would not dissipate."
"Oh no!" Yue Chenqing yelped. "Fourth Uncle! He said he wanted to go kill people! So if he never kills the person he wants, he'd never disappear?"
"Could there be other methods?" Mo Xi asked.
"Yes." Murong Chuyi tossed the piece of Hong Shao sword into his own white satin qiankun pouch. "Convince him out of this obsession."
Finished, he turned to leave the cave. After walking a few steps, he halted. "To stop him, could everyone please follow me first to Yue Manor to talk."
Yue Chenqing hurriedly followed. "Fourth Uncle, you don't need to say please to me, I'll go home together with you."
Murong Chuyi's white clothes were floating, the silk ribbon on his hair crown swaying. It was the picture of an immortal's graceful stride, his silk boots not even touching the dust. But, as though he were selectively deaf, he didn't even glance at Yue Chenqing.
"....." Looking at the situation in front of him, Mo Xi sighed in his heart—worldly emotions were indeed the most unreasonable things.
Jiang Yexue took such good care of this little half brother; he was warm and lenient, considerate in every possible way, but Yue Chenqing didn't even regard him well, let alone like him.
But the way Murong Chuyi treated Yue Chenqing was so poor—to others he could be described as "coldly negligent", but towards Yue Chenqing he could be considered "cruel". And yet Yue Chenqing always adored him, loved to revolve around him, and chased after him to talk.
Even after so many years, this had not changed.
He couldn't stop himself from thinking of his hundreds of grievances towards Gu Mang, so many that he had given up speaking them. But, he himself didn't even know whether he still hid affection in his inner heart.
The Yue Manor was Chonghua's most mysterious manor, and in this secretive place, the most hidden places were all Murong Chuyi's territory. If you were to rank them by difficulty to enter, it would approximately look like this:
Murong Chuyi's courtyard.
Murong Chuyi's study.
Murong Chuyi's bedroom.
Murong Chuyi's artificer workshop.
That last one was more or less an invulnerable fortress, impenetrable to anyone but the Ignorant Immortal himself. No one else had ever crossed but half a step in. There was once a popular saying, roughly paraphrased as, "Within Chonghua's borders, there are two places that not even the current emperor could easily access. First was Medicine Master Jiang's medicine refinery, and second was Murong Chuyi's artificer workshop."
The medicine refinery had poison.
And the artificer workshop had mechanisms that couldn't be solved even if you gave His Majesty a few hundred years.
Murong Chuyi's artificer capabilities were extremely high—not even Yue Juntian himself could test the depths of his true skill.
Yue Juntian did want to try, but Murong Chuyi fed him closed door soup every time. Gradually, Yue Juntian's ego couldn't handle it, and so he always told outsiders, "Chuyi is young, after all, it's understandable that he's afraid of swapping pointers with this first-level zongshi, ahaha."
Murong Chuyi didn't care about what he said.
In any case, he didn't care what others saw or thought—this moniker of "Ignorant Immortal" didn't come out of nowhere. Murong Chuyi loved only his armour blueprints, loved them to the point of madness. As for reputation, friends, or relatives, if they wanted to leave, he was happy to show them out.
As they entered the manor, Yue Chenqing's uncle was just leaving. His eyesight wasn't good, so from afar the first thing he noticed was Yue Chenqing, and he couldn't help but raise his voice to rebuke him. "Little brat! So disobedient! Where'd you run off to? This old man was just getting ready to go hunt you down!"
"Uncle," Yue Chenqing spoke quickly, "I accepted His Majesty's appointment....."
"Little rascal, your hair hasn't even grown in straight, accept what—" He hadn't finished his sentence when he saw Murong Chuyi approaching under the frosty moonlight and, without meaning to, bugged out his eyes.
"You?"
There was no wonder why he was so shocked. Although Murong Chuyi lived in the Yue Manor, he more or less didn't appear in front of others, and if he didn't have matters to take care of, they could perhaps go months without seeing his shadow. And now, not only did he appear, but he was followed by Yue Chenqing and even a few others—this was really too unthinkable.
That's why Uncle Yue was dazed for a long while. "You, you went outside?" he said, shocked.
Murong Chuyi, at the very least, replied to him, though not with any courtesy, only coldly retorting with,
"Had I been locked up?"
"..." Uncle Yue was a fiery and forthright person and immediately felt insulted. "What's with that tone? You're only an outside relative, I give you an inch and you're really taking a mile, aren't you?"
"Uncle, don't be angry," Yue Chenqing hurriedly said. "Today was all owed to Fourth Uncle's timely rescue. Otherwise that rapist might have killed me."
Only then did Uncle Yue's cow nose let out a snort, glancing at the snow white figure of Murong Chuyi and placating his mouth with a few grumbles.
Another short while had passed, and with a squint of his murky eyes, he strove to peer at the figures behind them.
"These sirs are...."
Murong Lian sneered. "Second Old Yue, peddle your little broken mechanisms less. If you can't even see the faces of people a few metres away, you're not far from going blind."
Hearing this voice, Uncle Yue was dumbfounded.
"Wangshu-jun?!"
Murong Lian smiled again, filled with malicious intent. "Mn, as well as Xihe-jun."
"!!!"
Although Uncle Yue was another high-ranked noble, in comparison to Wangshu and Xihe who were at their peaks, he still fell short. He hurriedly walked down to greet them. "Aiyo, so embarrassing, look at my eyes, really not far from blind, please excuse this elder for not coming out to greet!"
Only upon getting closer did he realize that the stalwart bamboo warrior who stood at the back had a sleeping Gu Mang tied to it.
With the nation's criminal appearing in front of him in such a bewildering position, Uncle Yue couldn't help being astonished. He opened his mouth wide and leaned back to look at the unconscious "Beast of the Altar".
Murong Lian hooked Uncle Yue's neck with his pipe, waking him from his daze. Grinning, he said, "Second Old Yue, don't forget to go see Medicine Master Jiang. If you have an illness, it's best to cure it early."
"Yes yes yes! I'll go see Physician Jiang for a liuli eyepiece!"
Murong Lian let him off, laughing. "Good boy. Oh right, my cravings are strong, could you run back to my manor for me, fetch a fresh pipe, and also pick up some Ephemera?"
Second Old Yue had just nodded twice in haste, only to hear Murong Chuyi lightly say, "My courtyard prohibits open flame."
Murong Lian was perplexed. "Why?"
"Would explode."
"....."
Murong Lian, in the end, couldn't hold out against his curiosity, thinking that he could go hard on Ephemera when he went home since the living quarters of this Ignorant Immortal were barred even to His Majesty. Repressing the annoying heat in his chest, he followed Murong Chuyi past long, winding corridors, walking to the deepest recesses of the Yue Manor's northern corner.
They stopped at a tightly closed, arched, red sandalwood door. Murong Chuyi used his whisk to flick four times at the Big Dipper constellation embedded within the door—at Yuheng, Tianshu, Yaoguang, and Tianquan, respectively. The four spiritual stones clicked and slowly sank down, replaced with four little wooden men.
They opened their little mouths and asked in unison,
"Who comes forth?"
Murong Chuyi simply said, "It's me."
Engraved keys appeared in the hands of each little man, asking,
"Which to be chosen?"
Murong Chuyi carelessly grabbed one, and all the wooden men disappeared.
Yue Chenqing stared with eyes as wide as copper bells, mouth full of quiet murmurs, like he was trying to memorize something. Murong Lian absentmindedly spun the pipe in his hand, groaning. "Memorizing it is useless. It might not even be this procedure next time. Ignorant Immortal, you'd agree, right?"
Murong Chuyi did not respond, instead inserting the key into the keyhole. With countless gurgling noises, the sandalwood door came rumbling open—
"Enter," he spoke lightly.
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The author has something to say:
Little Theatre: [Big Dog's ID card]
Mo Xi
Age: 30
Title: Xihe-jun
Position: Daddy love me again, Stepdad can have spring
To speak plainly: Ah, he is the Northern Frontier Army's "Step-dad", Imperial General
Weapons: Shuairan, Tuntian
Most likes: Gu Mang before his betrayal, Papa
Most hates: being thrown off by a beauty (broken up with)
To speak plainly, ah, he hates being betrayed.
Dish he most likes to eat: Roast goose
Favourite color: Black
Favourite types of women: Doesn't like women
Favourite types of men: Older than him
(Meatbun: ??? No other requirements? In this book there are many people older than you!! Princess Xixi: No. determined.jpg)
Hobbies: Watching Gu Mang-gege cry under him
One person he wouldn't be with if everyone on earth was dead: Murong Lian
Big Dog & Gu Mangmang: [thanking jjwxc readers]