Chapter 111: Qin ran, Without Gu Xiu, What Are You?
"Hypocrite? Two-faced?"
The words struck Qin ran like physical blows. They did not co from an enemy, but from the mouth of the teacher she revered above all others. She stood frozen, her mind struggling to process the venom in his voice.
"Teacher... I..."
"You just said your life belongs to Gu Xiu," Yin Wenshu interrupted, his voice trembling with a mixture of fear and disdain. "And you ntioned my 'Seek' Rune... that I am holding it... holding it in trust for his student?"
Qin ran blinked, confusion clouding her eyes. "Teacher, what are you saying?"
"Are you still pretending?" Yin Wenshu’s face twisted into a sneer of utter repulsion. "Qin ran, I once thought that while you were pedantic, you at least understood the teachings of the sages. I thought your heart was decent. But now?" He scoffed, stepping back as if her very presence soiled the air. "You truly open one's eyes. You know everything, yet you stand there feigning ignorance!"
"Teacher!" Qin ran felt tears welling up, the injustice of it stinging her pride.
Her master was Guan Xuelan, but in the art of talismans, Yin Wenshu had been her guiding light. He was a scholar who had achieved the highest civil rank among mortals before stepping onto the path of cultivation. The Old Sect Master had spent a fortune to invite him to the Azure Mystic Sect to tutor her. To Qin ran, he was the embodint of the gentlemanly ideal—learned, wise, and morally unassailable.
To be reviled by her idol was a pain sharper than any blade.
"Look at you," Yin Wenshu spat, gesturing at her trembling form. "This fragile, pitiable appearance... I fear even the vulgar enchantresses of the Joyous Union Sect would have to admit defeat before such a masterful performance of deception!"
Qin ran’s face drained of blood. The Joyous Union Sect? He was comparing her, a scholar of the sacred texts, to those shaless harlots?
"Teacher... I truly don't understand..."
"I, Yin Wenshu, may be a breaker of oaths, but at least I am not as wretchedly fake as you," the middle-aged scholar hissed. "I admit I failed Gu Xiu. I admit my sin. But why must you stand here and act the saint?"
"Failed... Gu Xiu?" Qin ran’s breath hitched. "Teacher, Gu Xiu only told that if I found you, I would learn the truth. I know nothing else!"
Yin Wenshu froze. He scrutinized her face, searching for a crack in her expression. Seeing only genuine bewildernt, the tension drained from his shoulders, replaced by a bitter, mocking realization.
"I knew it," he muttered, a manic light entering his eyes. "I knew it! Even after five hundred years, Gu Xiu wouldn't let go. He sent you here not to collect the debt, but to humiliate . He wants to see if I have the courage to confess to his proudest creation."
Qin ran remained silent, a cold dread settling in her stomach. Her teacher harbored a secret. A terrible one.
"Fine. Fine!" Yin Wenshu threw his hands up. "Since I dared to do it, why should I fear people knowing? Gu Xiu kept silent to preserve my dignity as a teacher, but that dignity... I lost it five hundred years ago."
He sighed, the sound heavy with the dust of centuries. "You know I was a mortal scholar before I beca a cultivator. When I ca to the Azure Mystic Sect, I taught both you and Gu Xiu. Do you rember how Gu Xiu always studied the final pages of the talisman texts?"
Qin ran nodded slowly. She rembered. The Heavenly Secrets Reincarnation Mirror had shown it. She had blad him for being distracted, for not taking his studies seriously.
"It was I who told him to look there," Yin Wenshu revealed.
"What?"
"Every talisman master faces the tribulation of 'Divine Invocation'—the step to summon a spirit into a rune. I was facing that hurdle while teaching you. I was desperate. I planned to force a Divine Invocation." Yin Wenshu’s eyes grew distant. "Gu Xiu, young as he was, asked a question. He asked if you—Qin ran—would one day face the sa danger."
"He asked... about ?"
"He did. And when I told him the risks, he asked if there was a way to substitute the cost. A thod of 'Li Dai Tao Jiang'—the plum tree dying for the peach tree. He wanted to know if soone else could bear the backlash of a forced invocation so that the invoker could succeed safely."
Qin ran pressed her lips together, her heart hamring against her ribs. When she had failed her own Divine Invocation years later, Gu Xiu had used a substitution thod to save her. She had never known where he learned it.
"You have a good junior brother," Yin Wenshu said coldly. "To save you from future risk, he made a pact with . He was just a boy, yet he offered to learn the substitution art. He offered to bear the backlash of my forced Divine Invocation."
"And in exchange?" Qin ran’s voice shook.
"In exchange, I promised that if I ever achieved a second Divine Invocation, I would gift that opportunity to you."
Qin ran felt her knees weaken. To gift a Divine Invocation was to sever one's own path. It ant the donor could never write a talisman again, rejected by the Heavenly Dao Rhy forever. No sane cultivator would make such a trade.
"Your 'Seek' Rune..." she whispered, horror dawning on her.
"Yes. My 'Seek' Rune was born from that forced invocation. Gu Xiu bore the karma and the backlash for it."
"How could you?" Qin ran cried out. "He was a child!"
"I believed in the saying: 'If one hears the Dao in the morning, one can die content at sunset!'" Yin Wenshu roared, his scholarly deanor cracking to reveal the fanatic beneath. "I wanted to see the realm of the seventh rank! Even for a day, even for an hour! You are a talisman master, surely you understand that obsession?"
Qin ran felt as though she had fallen into an ice cavern. Gu Xiu had prepared for her safety decades before she even needed it.
"Why... why didn't he tell ?"
"Because he didn't want to destroy your image of ," Yin Wenshu sneered. "He protected your fantasy."
"But the backlash..." Qin ran gasped, realizing the implications. "You let a boy endure that?"
"It is a double-edged sword," Yin Wenshu argued defensively, his eyes darting away. "The backlash of the 'Seek' Rune continuously grinds down the soul. It makes one susceptible to Dao Injuries. But... if one can find an immortal herb like the Earth Cloud Sprout to repair the damage, the soul grows back stronger. It is one of the few ways to enhance a soul's innate potential!"
"And if he didn't find the herb?" Qin ran demanded.
"Then his soul would wither. He would beco weak. Even a simple Soul Search could scatter his spirit. He would be fragile."
Tears stread down Qin ran’s face.
She rembered. Her master, Guan Xuelan, had often lanted that Gu Xiu had an "innately weak soul," making him unfit for high-level spiritual arts. She rembered. After returning from the Forbidden Realm, Gu Xiu’s Dao Injury caused him such agony that he chained himself in his room to keep from screaming.
It wasn't innate weakness. It was damage. Damage he took for her.
The "trash" she had looked down upon had been carrying a mountain on his shoulders so she could walk unburdened.
"Yin Wenshu!" Qin ran gritted her teeth, her sorrow turning into a blinding rage. "I worshipped you! I thought you were a sage! But you... you are nothing but a petty, selfish coward!"
"?" Yin Wenshu’s expression darkened instantly. "Who are you to judge ?"
"You used a child—"
"I admitted my fault to Gu Xiu! But you? What are you?" Yin Wenshu took a step forward, his aura flaring. "Gu Xiu sacrificed himself for you. You enjoyed the protection he bought with his pain, and now you have the face to stand here and condemn ? You, who knew nothing, saw nothing, and gave nothing?"
"I..." Qin ran stumbled back.
"Don't put on this self-righteous act," Yin Wenshu spat. "You are just a beneficiary pretending to be a victim. Without Gu Xiu, Qin ran, do you really think you amount to anything at all?"
The question struck her harder than any spell. Her mind reeled, plunged into chaos by the undeniable truth of his words.
Taking advantage of her distraction, a cold light flashed in Yin Wenshu’s eyes.
He didn't hesitate. He reached into his robes, pulling out a stack of talismans and throwing them into the air. In the sa motion, he lunged forward, slamming his palm into her chest.
BANG!
Qin ran was sent flying backward, smashing into the defensive array of the Listening-to-Rain Pavilion. She hit the ground hard, coughing up a mouthful of blood. Before she could channel her Qi, the talismans Yin Wenshu had thrown descended, sealing her ridians instantly.
She lay paralyzed, staring up at the man she had once called Teacher.
Yin Wenshu’s eyes flickered with killing intent, but he paused. He sensed a ripple in the air—a powerful presence approaching rapidly. He gritted his teeth, abandoned the idea of silencing her, and turned to flee into the shadows of the alley.
Just as Yin Wenshu vanished, a burly figure erged from the darkness at the other end of the lane.
It was Cao Tieniu of the Four Seas Gang.
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