It’s Time for Someone Else to be the Next Alliance Leader…

In a side chamber near the Baiwu Tower, Su Huaizhu leaned over Gu Ruohai’s shoulder and sighed softly.

“You shouldn’t have come for me.” He murmured. “I also...should have kept my composure.”

Gu Ruohai played with their entangled hair. For a moment, his voice still contained a slight hoarseness as he said, “If I didn’t come, wouldn’t you find someone else to suppress the Emotion Gu again?”

Su Huaizhu stated, “As long as I have Half-Withered Crimson, as long as I don’t continue to use my internal energy, even if that’s out of the question, I can still endure it for a while...But you would always make me...unable to restrain my emotions…”

Gu Ruohai chuckled. “You don’t regard this old man with disdain?”

Su Huaizhu disagreed, “We are the same age, how could we compare who is younger and more handsome?”

After they casually chatted about something else less embarrassing, they got up and tidied up their clothes.

Su Huaizhu gathered Gu Ruohai’s hair with his fingers, tied it in a bun and then secured the jade crown.

“Su Yang…” Gu Ruohai suddenly brought him up. “He is about to turn twenty?”

Su Huaizhu's fingers imperceptibly paused for a moment. “Yes,” He replied. “Soon.”

After a short silence, Gu Ruohai asked again, “He...is he really yours and Luo Jin’s child?”

Su Huaizhu arranged the loose hairs around the hair crown and chuckled. “Without a doubt, are you still holding some other expectation? You don’t feel like I’m that kind of evil person?”

Gu Ruohai shook his head. “Luo Yu informed me about the Blood Curse on him, which could have been cast by Luo Jin herself, is that true?”

Su Huaizhu frowned slightly and muttered resentfully, “He even told you this…”

“Do you assume that everyone is like you and conceal everything from me?”

Gu Ruohai got up, pulled Su Huaizhu’s hand to sit down at the edge of the bed and helped the other man comb his long hair while saying, “If Su Yang and...my son are going to be together for the rest of their lifetimes, shouldn’t I need to know about this?”

Su Huaizhu didn’t reply.

After some time, Gu Ruohai spoke up again, “Why did you allow Luo Jin to give birth to your child? And why didn’t you protect that child?”

After a long silence, Su Huaizhu sighed again.

“You shouldn’t always sigh,” Gu Ruohai interrupted. “You’ll become more like an old man.”

Su Huaizhu didn’t react to the other man’s jest. His voice turned slightly deeper as he recalled the event of that year.

“When I captured Luo Jin back to the wasteland and imprisoned her, I was very tight with her at first.” He lowered his gaze while speaking. “Later, she became more and more perceptive and was willing to cooperate with me to suppress the Emotion Gu. I foolishly removed her iron chain and allowed her more freedom to live comfortably in the courtyard.”

“Later, when I mastered the Half-Withered Crimson and could finally break away from her...I learned of her pregnancy. At that time, I didn’t want the unintended child to be born, so I ordered a servant to add medicine in her meals...When she found out about this, she cried and begged me to keep the child. In a moment of compassion, I agreed.”

“Unbeknownst to me, after less than two days, she colluded with a petal retainer and escaped out of the Phantom City…”

Gu Ruohai was surprised. “Escaped?”

Su Huaizhu nodded and confirmed, “She escaped with the petal retainer.”

He paused afterward, then continued, “It happened the same time my father fell seriously ill. I needed to gradually take over the duty as Yantan Divine Sect’s next Sect Leader, so I could only order others to search for her instead of doing it myself. The search lasted more than half a year…”

He sighed for the third time. “She returned to Phantom City with the infant. She had this crazy look in her eyes when she used that flower hairpin to engrave the curse on Su Yang’s back. Then, she sacrificed her life to activate the curse, and died.”

Gu Ruohai thought about this and asked, “Didn’t you suspect that she might have had an affair with that petal retainer?”

Hearing this question, Su Huaizhu sneered, “What of it? How could she engage in a sexual relationship with the petal retainer? You’ve seen Su Yang. How could he not be my child? It was precisely because he was my child, not the petal retainer’s child, that she acted in that crazy manner and cursed Su Yang. She went so far as presenting the child before me as a way to stab me in the heart. Only then did I truly know how deep her hatred for me ran.”

Gu Ruohai was silent. 

Su Huaizhu sighed for the nth time. “I didn’t want this child to be born, but...how could I be that cruel when such a new life who is connected with my blood appeared in front of me. You as a father should understand my feelings. The near twenty years of upbringing, watching him grow up. It’s naturally impossible to say there is no father and son relationship formed with him...Luo Jin won her gamble.”

Then he chuckled and mentioned, “The petal retainer who escaped with her had already died under the hand of my initial trackers. During my time investigating the traitorous elders in my Sect, I learned that the petal retainer was the most talented of the Chrysanthemum Hall Elder’s nephew...If I think about it, the turmoil within the Phantom City was also Luo Jin’s doing.”

“Su Yang...is a very pitiful child.” Gu Ruohai said.

Su Huaizhu was silent for a moment and suddenly laughed. “I’m actually not sure whether he would be affected by the curse or not.”

“Huh?” Gu Ruohai didn’t understand. “What do you mean by this?”

Su Huaizhu explained, “Su Yang’s temperament was originally more like Luo Jin, I would even say he is the spitting image of her. Because of the existence of this curse, he knew of his short life and would act only according to his personal preferences. He would ignore good and evil, act without compassion, take pleasure in violence, and indulge in his enjoyment of torturing others…”

Gu Ruohai frowned and said, “But he isn’t such a bloodthirsty person from my experience.”

Su Huaizhu nodded. “Fortunately, he was strongly attached to martial arts, and that managed to keep his last trace of humanity. About three years ago when he was about to make a breakthrough in the Six Night Flower Burial, he entered seclusion alone. However, on the day he successfully mastered the mental skill and came out of seclusion, he was a completely different person...Not only was his character far from the original him, but also lacking his entire past memory.”

Hearing this, Gu Ruohai's expression changed slightly. “It is possible that...there is really such a thing as another force seizing the host? If that’s true, isn’t your real son already…”

“With the Blood Curse on him, I have long been prepared for his departure and also already indifferent towards it.” Su Huaizhu stated. “But now I can’t speculate whether this soul will be affected by the curse.”

Gu Ruohai embraced Su Huaizhu from behind without saying a word.

Feeling the other trying to soothe his mood, Su Huaizhu smiled. “Don’t worry, for someone as cold as me, this won’t hurt my mentality.”

Gu Ruohai still continued to hold Su Huaizhu for a long time.

Then he asked, “What do you plan to do next?”

Su Huaizhu held Gu Ruohia’s hand, entwined their fingers together and answered, “I plan to overhaul the Yantan Divine Sect into a merchant business, and then pass it to Mei Shisan and Lian JiuTeo: Fun fact, I almost thought it was Lian Jiuyi (Lotus ‘Ninety-One’) instead of Lian Jiu (Lotus ‘nine’) because of the ‘one’ in ‘together’ (一同). to handle together.”

Gu Ruohai asked, “And then?”

Su Huaizhu smiled. “I plan to stop using my internal energy, go deep into mountains and forests, cultivate one’s moral character and behave ethically.”

Gu Ruohai pondered for a moment and suggested, “There are many courtyards and villas in Tengyun Pavilion. You can always find a peaceful place from there…”

* * *

All these scattered trivial matters were handled over and over again the whole day until the sky turned dark again. The people who united with Luo Yin and Luo Yu to seize power over E’Luo Gui Faction finally got together. 

Luo Yin ordered meals to be prepared and managed to hold this as a celebration banquet. 

At the banquet, Luo Yu told Su Huaizhu and Gu Ruohai that the White Flame Gu with blood of the Faction Royal Court could eliminate the Emotion Gu. Both of them turned to their sons who were sitting side by side in surprise.

After determining the relationship between their elders, Su Yang and Gu Feidi were feeling slightly uncomfortable when they faced their fathers again. Su Yang less so because he didn’t have as deep a relationship with Su Huaizhu as father and son, but Gu Feidi couldn’t look directly at his strict father who had raised him for all of his life.

“So, do you two plan to search for the fat and the skinny rouges and seek after the technique next?” Gu Ruohai asked. 

“Er, yes.” Su Yang nodded. “Then we will return to the House of Jade to practice the technique...See if we can help the Sect Leader on dispeling the Poisonous Gu.”

Hearing the other’s plan, Su Huaizhu said with a smile, “Why do you want to help me?”

Su Yang blinked at that question, hesitated for a moment and replied, “It’s just...I felt like I should help you.”

—Since the all-powerful Mr. Plot placed the method of eliminating Gu Bug before him, it was undoubtedly a sign for him to intercept and help the Evil Sect’s Leader to reclaim his happiness!

Luo Yu and the others didn’t know about the speculation about Su Yang’s new soul. After listening to these questions and answers, they were completely lost.

Su Huaizhu didn’t explain either. With a light smile, he picked up his cup and sipped his tea, saying, “If that’s the case, we can discuss this after your coming of age.”

The implication was that if Su Yang couldn't live past twenty, anything else that came out of his mouth was meaningless.

Gu Feidi glanced at his father and said, “The two martial artists we are looking for seem to not belong to any Wulin forces. I’m afraid it will take some time and effort to find their traces.”

“I’ll send out resources to check.” Gu Ruohai said. “It won’t be difficult to find two people with the combined strength of Tengyun Pavilion and the Village of Mount Qianfeng.” With this related to saving Su Huaizhu, he naturally wouldn’t stand and do nothing.

Although this raid ended in the short period of a single day, Luo Yin and Luo Yu successfully controlled the E’Luo Gui Faction Royal Court, but because of the vast territory for the E’Luo Gui Faction, some of the Huiyu Army’s generals sent to the southern front were not convinced and lead a rebellion. Therefore, the subsequent affairs to be handled were still complicated and troublesome. 

In the end, Luo Yu and Qin Jianyue decided to stay to help Luo Yin settle in his position as the new E’Luo King, while Chi Tong needed to return to the Central Plains with the alliance agreement and report on completion of the mission to the Imperial Court.

They stayed in the Faction’s royal palace for a night and went their separate ways the next morning. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll request my father to grant me the marriage certificate and agree on my marriage with E’Luo. When that time arrives, you must come to the Central Plains to personally pick me up.”

Before leaving, Chi Tong looked at Luo Yin and chirped in with a smirk, “You haven’t seen me in a princess’s outfit. Once you do, you better not be scared off your horse from the sight.”

Luo Yin was silent for a moment before saying, “Since you and I woke up drunk, I doubt anything can scare me anymore.”

Chi Tong: “...”

It was Chi Tong’s turn to remain silent while putting his hand against his forehead. “Could you please not mention this kind of thing in such a serious tone and with such a straight face? I can’t deal with you right now真是敗給你了 direct translated as ‘really lose to you’, or ‘alright, I lost (okay, you won)’. It’s a saying for when you’re subdued by the other’s decision/ words. This is a meme for shaking my head btw or I can’t with you.…”

Su Yang and Gu Feidi walked out the palace gate hand in hand, just in time for Luo Yu to pull up with horse.

“This war has a high demand for horses, there aren't many available ones. You two should be fine riding one together.” Luo Yu said while handing the reins to Gu Feidi. “Be careful on the road.”

Gu Feidi accepted the reins, thanked the senior, and got on the horse with Su Yang.

Su Yang leaned into Gu Feidi’s arms and suddenly remembered something. “Oh right, where is that horse of yours, Fei Lian?”

Gu Feidi shook the reins, urged the horse forward and replied with a smile, “Didn’t you leave it in the Evil Sect? What’s wrong? Did you remember it just now?”

Su Yang said, “Ah! With the Evil Sect in turmoil with all the fighting, killing, not to mention the fire. I don’t know if it's alive...Why don’t we return to the Sanctuary to pick it up and return it to the Tengyun Pavilion?”

“No need,” Gu Ruohai, who was riding beside them, interrupted. “I’ll go to the Phantom City with Huaizhu to deal with the Divine Sect’s affairs. Just leave the horse to me. You two go directly to the Central Plains to find the two rogues.”

Gu Feidi was startled. “Father is going to the Evil Sect? If the Central Plains Wulin learned of this…”

“No matter.” Gu Ruohai stated. “The Wulin Conference is next year. It’s about time for someone else to take this Alliance Leader position.”