NEBM Chapter 59: The Past

In the darkness, there was a powerful force attempting to separate their tightly-closed hands.

Shen Zhixian exhausted all his strengths to hold on to Yan Jin’s hand. He felt that Yan Jin was also doing the same, but they couldn’t resist this mysterious power and were involuntarily forced apart.

In the darkness, he could sense that Yan Jin was gradually leaving him, falling away like sands between his fingers.

“A’jin!” he cried out, but his voice was shredded into innumerable pieces by the wind. Like this, his voice could not be heard, nor could he hear Yan Jin’s voice.

All he heard was the vague and strange howls that sounded like thousands of demons and hundreds of ghosts.

When the last bit of warmth left his fingertips. Shen Zhixian gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and, from the bottom of his heart, summoned Frost Return’s sword spirit.

Frost Return’s sword spirit had recently been showing vague signs of awakening, but it only came in brief spurts. Occasionally, it would move like a child lazing in bed, hesitant to wake up. But now, Shen Zhixian couldn’t wait any longer. This place was too strange. He could hardly move and could only forcibly awaken Frost Return’s sword spirit as a last resort.

Frost Return Sword appeared in his hand out of nowhere. Shen Zhixian tightly clenched the hilt, resisting the powerful force that wanted to wrest his sword away. He forced his spiritual force to converge on the sword, bit his tongue, and let out a drop of blood. “Frost Return, wake up!”

One drop of blood beaded on the sword body. In response, the body began to tremble. Frost Return’s sword spirit finally woke up from it’s deep slumber. The sword spirit hissed cold and raw in his ear and, for a moment, the surrounding noises stilled.

Now that the long dormant Frost Return’s sword spirit had finally regained consciousness, it excitedly manipulated the sword blade. Shen Zhixian loosened his grip and the sword jumped around happily, its bitingly cold sword qi quelling the wind.

The thousands of demons and hundreds of ghosts and fiends that lurked in the darkness seemed to be afraid of the sword spirit. Shen Zhixian could feel the gloomy and foreboding atmosphere lessening, and even the howling voices had grown quieter.

After the sword spirit had enough of jumping around, it slammed back into Shen Zhixian’s arms, forcing him to take a few steps backward. These few backward steps took him into another world. Suddenly, in front of him stretched out a long street.

“Sui Xian Gege…” came a vaguely childish voice beside him. Shen Zhixian faintly lowered his head and a familiar young and immature face appeared before his eyes.

Shrunk….a shrunken Yan Jin?

Shen Zhixian stared blankly, then subconsciously blurted out, “A’jin?”

The boy carefully grabbed Shen Zhixian’s sleeve, his face upturned, his eyes bright and clear. “… I thought you left.”

The little guy tried his best to hide the fear and confusion in his eyes. But, after all, he was still young, and Shen Zhixian could see the uneasy emotions behind those dark and bright eyes.

Looking at the face that looked exactly like Yan Jin, if albeit much younger, Shen Zhixian felt himself softening. He opened his mouth to ask him who he was. But, to his surprise, what came out was something else altogether.

“I haven’t left. I brought you candied hawthorn and sugar painting to play with.” The voice that sounded in his ears was very familiar. It was his own voice, though obviously more youthful.

This was…?

Shen Zhixian felt his gaze shifted without his control. He saw his hands holding out a stick of  skewered candied hawthorns and a sugar painting the shape of a cute little wolf cub.

Then, he felt his hands handing the two sticks of candy to the little boy.

The little boy took it carefully and didn’t dare move it too much, as if he was holding precious treasures. His eyes glittered. “Sui Xian Gege…”

Shen Zhixian felt that he was going to be beggared by these words.

A hazy thought flashed through his mind and realization dawned. Was it possible? This was a scene from the original owner’s lost memory?

Can he retrace the original owner’s memories inside this illusion?

Unfortunately, he was now just a consciousness and was attached to…probably the original body. He was unable to control anything and could only watch inside of this body. The sword that was in his hand a moment ago was now gone. Shen Zhixian silently tried to summon Frost Return but it did not respond.

Shen Zhixian steadied himself. Since he couldn’t leave, he would simply settle down and become a bystander.

He also wanted to see what had happened to the original owner.

.…

Half a month ago, Sui Xian passed by a small town and picked up a poor little child who was being bullied.

He’d always kept a respectful distance from children but, for some reason, when he saw this little guy who was wronged but refused to cry and would, instead, just clench his teeth in forbearance, he felt compassion. He guarded the little guy and drove away the wicked people. Afterward, he’d said, “Would you like to leave with me?”

The freshly baked morning food still lingered warmly in the winter chill. The child looked at him through the warm mist. Then, he hesitantly and carefully nodded.

So a big one and a little one left together.

When Sui Xian asked what the child’s name was, the child froze and said, “Jing…”

The child’s parents had died early, and the villagers hated him. No one would say a good word to him, much less name him. He didn’t even know his own parents’ last name.

All the objects inside the house had long been emptied. There were only four mottled ancient walls left and a lone well in the yard. Over time, he’d named himself “Jing.” (1)

His voice was too small so Sui Xian only vaguely heard a single pronunciation. He said, “Ah? Like the brilliant luster of gems, without any blemish, Jin? It’s unexpectedly very good…What’s your surname?”

The little guy didn’t understand Sui Xian’s first phrase. Regarding the question, he could only blink his eyes and shook his head. “No surname…”

He also didn’t know his surname.

Sui Xian knew that this boy had been alone and poor his entire childhood. He mumbled to himself for a while.

On that day, there was no cloud in the clear sky, making the sky seem like a wide expanse of jade. After thinking for a while, he said, “Only a name isn’t enough. A proper surname is still needed. You already don’t have a surname so it seems like it can’t be avoided. I’ll pick one for you today. Today the sky is clear…It would be better for your surname to be Yan.”

Yan, meaning clear, quiet, and tranquil, just like this little child.

The cute little guy looked at him and agreed at once without hesitation.

So, the little guy’s new name was settled. Sui Xian dipped his finger into a little bit of tea and wrote on the small wooden table the characters for Yan Jin, followed by his own name, Sui Xian.

The little guy looked at it very seriously, completely forgetting to eat the buns in his hand. He engraved the two names in his mind over and over again, until the traces of tea disappeared, and he reluctantly retracted his gaze.

Little Yan Jin was really a very good child, completely overturning the definition of “little child” in Sui Xian’s heart. Previously, Sui Xian’s definition of a child was someone naughty, bratty, and constantly crying. But, hearing Little Yan Jin calling him gege even made him want to pluck off all the stars in the sky and string them together into candied hawthorn for him.

It was just that Little Yan Jin had been helpless throughout his childhood; he was used to bearing everything himself. Seeing him so small and weak, other people couldn’t resist bullying him. He could only run away silently and endure his suffering in silence. He was very worried that Sui Xian would be angry so he dared not say that he was aggrieved.

Sui Xian originally didn’t expect this. At first, he was glad that the little guy he’d picked up didn’t cry, wasn’t noisy, and was very obedient and very good. But, later, when he saw other children throwing tantrums and selling meng (1) in order to get what they want, and then when he looked at Little Yan Jin, who was always very good, he felt very uncomfortable.

Little Yan Jin probably had a physique that easily attracted bad people. Sui Xian went shopping and only turned his eyes away for one moment, but it was enough for Little Yan Jan to get bullied by other brats.

Covering himself with thin arms and legs, Little Yan Jin suffered the heavy blows and then run away with difficulty. He hid and waited for the brats to leave before running out to find Sui Xian.

When he ran over, he also carefully pulled down his sleeves, covering the arms that were conspicuously bruised and red from being beaten.

Sui Xian sighed, set aside the purchased items, squatted down, and hugged the child who was forcibly holding back tears and grievances. “If you want to cry, cry. Only then can I know that you’ve been wronged.”

He rubbed Little Yan Jin’s head, turning his hair into a mess, then said, “Come, let me hug you. Afterward, we can go bully them back.”

“Don’t be afraid. I’ve got your back.”

Sui Xian used his fingers to gently and neatly smooth out the boy’s messy hair.

Little Yan Jin looked at him with tears in his eyes and did not speak.

Sui Xian wanted to correct Little Yan Jin’s habit of holding everything back so he really took him to bully his tormentors that night.

Those that bullied Yan Jin were only several common children, two of whom were twins. Sui Xian was a cultivator so he was able to quietly take Little Yan Jin and slip into the twin’s room.

The twins slept soundly stretched out on the bed with the covers partially kicked off.

Sui Xian hid Little Yan Jin and himself in the shadows and called out a few soft little white clouds. He shoved the cloud to Little Yan Jin and whispered, “Shape it into a little mouse and put it on the bed.”

This was the first time Little Yan Jin did such a novel thing so he was naturally very nervous. He shaped the small, white cloud using his imagination and created a chubby little mouse.

He’d shaped the mouse slowly, but when he finished shaping the head, he realized that he’d kneaded up two mice instead.

Sui Xian’s was completely different from Yan Jin. He’d kneaded a little old rat who was stupid but very impressive. Little Yan Jin shyly wanted to hide his little mice. But, Sui Xian had already raised his hands and released his mouse. “A’jin, quickly let go of your little mice.”

Little Yan Jin pursed his lips and put the chubby mice down.

Afterward, they hid in a corner and watched as the rats crawled into the twin’s bed.

The two bratty children were awakened from their sleep. As soon as they opened their eyes, they saw three little rats crawling on them. They burt into tears and screamed loudly, “Daddy! Mom! Mom! There…There are big rats! Bohoohoo!”

Their parents were in the next room, asleep. When they heard the screams, they didn’t even have time to put on their clothes and just hurriedly ran. Sui Xian hooked his finger and the little mice disappeared into light smoke.

When the adults rushed over, Sui Xixan quietly left, holding Little Yan Jin. They could still hear the adults’ scolding voices coming from the room. “Always so noisy! Noisy during the day, noisy at night! Where are the rats? Really troublesome…”

It was cold at night. Sui Xian carried Little Yan Jin in his arms and felt the little guy tightened his hold around his neck. Then, he buried his face in Sui Xian’s neck.

There was a faint wet sensation.

Sui Xian didn’t slow down, but his eyes were softly smiling.

……

After traveling with each other for a while, Little Yan Jin’s original anxiety and restraint gradually loosened, and he gradually became more dependent on Sui Xian.

It was a cold winter and the wind was chilly. Sui Xian was a cultivator so it didn’t bother him but Little Yan Jin was too cold to sleep at night. He laid in bed, shivering under a thick comforter.

Sui Xian saw that he was freezing. After thinking it over, he opened his quilt and said, “Come here.”

Little Yan Jin looked at him blankly, not understanding.

Sui Xian caught him and pulled him under his warm comforter.

The comforter was very warm and Little Yan Jin’s chill quickly dissipated.

The room didn’t have any candles, but there was a faint, dim light coming through the thin paper window.

Sui Xian’s eyes were as bright as the full moonlight. “If you’re still cold, I can hug you.”

Little Yan Jin’s face turned red all of a sudden. He shrunk into the bed and froze. Finally, he said something unheard of, “Sui Xian Gege, I’m still cold.”

Hearing this, Sui Xian hugged him and then, noticing that he was unable to sleep, he even hummed a minor tune to coax him to sleep.

Little Yan Jin gradually fell asleep. Sui Xian stopped and, since he wasn’t sleepy, his thoughts drifted.

When he left the sect, Sui Xian had been stagnating for a long time at the ninth level. Since he had difficulty reaching the threshold of the tenth level, his plan was to leave the sect to practice and gain experience. Sometimes, practicing can be beneficial.

But now with a little Yan Jin around, he changed his mind.

With Little Yan Jin’s permission, Sui Xian had seen his spirit root. He was very surprised. Sui Xian was already considered a natural talent in Qingyun Sect. However, Little Yan Jin’s spirit root was not inferior to him at all.

If he practiced well, his future achievements would never be low.

Sui Xian wanted to take Little Yan Jin back to Qingyun Sect.

When he mentioned this to Little Yan Jin, LittleYan Jin thought for a while. His eyes gradually brightened.

Then, he nodded solemnly.

All right. Take him back to Qingyun Sect. Although Sui Xian’s master no longer accepted disciples, it didn’t matter. He could still accept one. He’d long ago thought that Little Yan Jin would make a good pupil.

After they return…they would be in the same sect.

Sui Xian closed his eyes and fell asleep with satisfaction.

His idea was very good. But, in the end, fate had its own plans. As he was planning to return to Qingyun Sect as soon as possible, some accidents happened.

These series of accidents destroyed all his good plans.

Translation Notes:
(1) Jing = water well. So Yan Jin initially named himself after a well, but Shen Zhixian misunderstood and thought he’d said “Jin”
(2) Meng = cute. “Selling meng” basically means trying to act cute.

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