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sid_guardian2025-04-26 04:13 pm
facethestrange) wrote in sid_guardian2025-04-26 04:13 pm
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Guardian Readalong: Vol. 2, Chapter 19
Hi, and welcome to this week's installment of the Guardian novel readalong - we have reached the end of volume two! ♡
Here are last week's chapters, and you can find all previous discussions in the schedule posts (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4), or via the !readalong tag.
This week's chapter:
- Chapter 19: (The whole chapter consists of Zhao Yunlan's memories of what he experienced in the Great Divine Tree.) Zhao Yunlan finds the Merit Brush, and sees Pangu creating the world. He remembers Kunlun's childhood, which includes raising a black cat yao and making a bell for him. Nüwa creates humans, and Kunlun points out that they are tainted with the three worms, making Nüwa regret her creation. Nüwa and Fuxi create the Great Seal. Great wars are raging. Kunlun agrees to look after the wu and the yao. Kunlun blinds a dragon, making the god Gonggong crash into the Buzhou Mountain and tear a hole in the Great Seal. The gui break free. Kunlun destroys the Pillars of Heaven, earning divine punishment and causing deadly floods. Kunlun meets the young King of the Gui. Nüwa repairs the sky and the Great Seal. Kunlun gives the young King of the Gui his soul fire and his tendon, making him into a god, and asks him to guard the Four Pillars. Kunlun dies and becomes the Soul-Guarding Lamp. Zhao Yunlan wakes up from his vision back in Dragon City.
The corresponding chapters in the Chinese version on JJWXC/the fan translation are 76-78.
Excerpts:
1) Kunlun's childhood and his little yao friend
At that point, Zhao Yunlan’s memories became jumbled. On the one hand, he knew where he’d come from. He kept a firm grip on the Merit Brush. On the other hand, he now remembered being an unruly brat who had run and frolicked all over the mountains, causing mischief wherever he went.
He had hugged the Great God Fuxi’s tail…while peeing on it. The phoenix that had once perched upon the Great Divine Tree had been forced to move because of his antics, and from then on, it only perched atop parasol trees.
Sometime later, Nüwa found a tiny newborn beast from somewhere—a mutant mutt of the White Tiger tribe, covered in black fuzz from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. He had yet to gain awareness and had been rejected by his own tribe, so he was placed in Kunlun’s care.
The poor little thing was very weak. Surrounded by the eternal ice on Kunlun Mountain, he seemed likely to die at any moment. It was the first time Kunlun-jun had seen such a troublesome little thing. Seeing no other choice, he personally melted some golden sand and crafted a bell to anchor the tiny beast’s soul and open his mind. Then he hung the bell around the beast’s neck.
2) Nüwa creates humans
Kunlun walked over carefully. He and the mud person Nüwa had just made stared at each other for some time. He watched as the human grew from a child to a youth in the blink of an eye. The youth worshipped him with reverence and awe, but before they could even rise from their bow, middle age was upon them. Next, they began to shed their head of black hair, which was now frosted white. Finally, they collapsed in abject weariness and rejoined the mud from which they’d come.
It was a life as fleeting as fire and smoke.
An unspeakable envy suddenly bloomed in Kunlun-jun’s heart. Perhaps because his own time was beyond measure, he was somewhat jealous of these brilliant lives that burned with the brightness of a meteor. He scooped up some mud in his hands. “What are they called?”
Nüwa said, “These are humans.”
Without considering his words, Kunlun replied, “How lovely they are. They carry the scent of mud with them.”
Hearing that, Nüwa’s expression transformed. For an instant, her features twisted as though she were consumed with shock and panic.
But Kunlun was still young. What did he know beyond rampaging around the Great Divine Tree with his furball cat, causing trouble? How could he have looked at her gaze and grasped that in that moment, she had perceived that innumerous trials and calamities lay ahead?
Humans were born from mud, through which the Chaotic evil beneath the ground was able to enter them and become the three worms.
3) Kunlun and the young King of the Gui's first meeting
The higher-ranked any individual gui was, the closer they seemed to human. At the top were the Kings of the Gui: ethereally lovely, like flowers blooming in blood. The more blood-tainted they were, the greater their beauty.
Legend told that two such kings had existed beneath the Great Seal, peerless and unique. Considered in a certain light, the pair of them were even more precious than the Three Sovereigns in the Mortal Realm. What a coincidence, then, that when Kunlun-jun passed through the forest where Kuafu was buried, he encountered one.
This was a boy with black hair and impossibly dark eyes. He sat with appalling posture atop a huge rock, with his unbound hair flowing freely around him. He was the picture of impropriety, barefoot and clad in a coarse hemp garment that someone had given him.
Kunlun-jun’s unexpected appearance in the woods evidently gave him a terrible shock. He slipped and tumbled down from the rock, landing in the little creek below. There he sat, sopping wet.
Even as Kunlun-jun stood there trying not to laugh, a youchu climbed up from beneath the earth and clamped its jaws on the boy’s slender, delicate neck. The young king’s hand came flying up out of the water at a strange angle, closing over the youchu’s mouth and shoving its head under the water. He pressed down on it with such force that half of the youchu’s head shattered, spraying blood across the king’s clean face like red plum blossoms unfurling in the snow.
The young king peeked at Kunlun-jun, then looked at the blood all over himself. Somewhat embarrassed, he carefully squatted down and rinsed his face and hands in the creek. That done, he pulled the youchu’s body closer and opened his mouth, revealing his sharp fangs. He started to gnaw at the most delicate part, the neck.
The beautiful boy sat in the bloody water, daintily feeding on the youchu’s corpse. Noticing that Kunlun-jun was still watching, he couldn’t help eating more slowly, carefully chewing with his mouth closed and not letting blood dribble out. Then he licked his lips lightly, as though hoping to lick away every trace of blood and appear a bit more refined.
4) Kunlun's death
Very quietly, the young King of the Gui asked, “Are you going to put me back behind the Great Seal?”
“No. Everything else is out of my hands, but at least…at least I can keep you safe.” Kunlun-jun laughed quietly. A brief, vicious spasm racked his body, and an imperceptible tremor entered his voice. “Since you don’t want to be a gui, I’ll give you what you want.”
Shocked, the boy grabbed for Kunlun-jun’s shoulder, but Kunlun’s body was already translucent, his face as pale as snow.
The Mountain God raised a hand. His vast sleeves stirred a fresh breeze, and a flame as resplendent as stardust gathered in his palm. “Take it.”
The boy accepted it with both hands.
“This is the soul fire from my left shoulder.” Sweat beaded Kunlun-jun’s forehead, but still he smiled. “And I… I’ll give you something else.”
As he spoke, his body began to shake violently. He pulled a long, silver tendon from his body; in doing so, he endured a pain more excruciating than any in the world. He seemed not to see the boy’s red-rimmed eyes.
“Take my divine tendon,” he said. “From this day forward…you can be free of…the Place of Great Disrespect, and rank among the gods… Guard…guard over the Four Pillars for me. With Nüwa’s Reincarnation Dial, Fuxi’s Mountain-River Awl…the brush from the Ancient Merit Tree…and I’ll give you one last…”
“Kunlun!”
Kunlun-jun touched a thumb to the young boy’s face, lifting it. Softly, he said, “Stone that is aged but not yet old; water that is frozen but not yet cold; body that is dead but not yet born; soul that is melted but not yet burned… Since Shennong was willing to set aside his divine status to become a mortal, I’ll add one more thing to his pile of good deeds…and let him sympathize with humans until the end…”
With those words, he coughed up his heart’s blood into his hand, where it became a dark red wick. The Mountain God of the Great Wild became increasingly transparent, weaker by the second. Finally, he disappeared completely, leaving behind a snow-white oil lamp. There were two words engraved in the corner: Soul Guardian.
Soul that is melted but not yet burned: the Soul-Guarding Lamp.
Questions:
Did any of the epic/sweeping scenes or images stay with you, or did you like the more personal moments better? Just how adorable are the young versions of Kunlun, Da Qing and Wei? How do you feel about this creation myth and what it says about humans? What do you think upset Zhao Yunlan the most about these memories? Any thoughts on volume two as a whole, or on the entire story so far?
You can answer as many or as few questions as you like, or just comment without answering any of them at all! And if you see this post and you're not actually reading the novel: As always, I would love to know what you think about any of this with limited context. :D
And here is the schedule, and that's where you can sign up to host a post.
There's no new post next weekend - enjoy the catch-up week! The readalong comes back with volume three on the weekend of May 9. :)
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"All these things that lay beneath the earth—whether sincere, brutal, insolent, unrestrained, or wild—were connected to the true bloodline of Kunlun."
This line is both really cool and beautiful, and also really unspecific, and I remember finding it confusing on my first read, but now I feel like it's maybe there specifically for foreshadowing. :D
"Kunlun Mountain was born from the heavens and nurtured by the earth. Over the course of a billion and three thousand years, it developed a soul and was given the title of Kunlun-jun, the Mountain God of the Great Wild."
I find this concept really lovely! ♡
"On the other hand, he now remembered being an unruly brat who had run and frolicked all over the mountains, causing mischief wherever he went.
He had hugged the Great God Fuxi’s tail…while peeing on it. The phoenix that had once perched upon the Great Divine Tree had been forced to move because of his antics, and from then on, it only perched atop parasol trees."
I loveloveLOVE tiny chaos gremlin Kunlun. :D :D :D
"Seeing no other choice, he personally melted some golden sand and crafted a bell to anchor the tiny beast’s soul and open his mind. Then he hung the bell around the beast’s neck."
Aw, this story of Daqing's bell is really sweet. ♡
"All in all, it took an unbelievable amount of effort to be sure the little thing would survive, never mind thrive. As a result, Kunlun no longer had time to cause trouble for anyone else."
It's all just so sweet and heartwarming, and also lol, everyone must have been so relieved. xD
"It wasn’t until the puny beast reached the size of a dumpling and was able to run and jump that Kunlun went down the mountain, bringing the beast along."
How big of a dumpling are we talking about here, and just how tiny was Daqing if this counts as growing bigger? xD
"Kunlun walked over carefully. He and the mud person Nüwa had just made stared at each other for some time. He watched as the human grew from a child to a youth in the blink of an eye. The youth worshipped him with reverence and awe, but before they could even rise from their bow, middle age was upon them. Next, they began to shed their head of black hair, which was now frosted white. Finally, they collapsed in abject weariness and rejoined the mud from which they’d come."
This is SO cinematic, wow. It's basically an animation that you can play in your head.
"What did he know beyond rampaging around the Great Divine Tree with his furball cat, causing trouble?"
I love that Daqing is immediately causing trouble with him as soon as he's healthy enough to do that. :D
"When the Great Seal was first established, Kunlun felt a pang of emptiness in his heart. The brutality and evil of the now-sealed Chaos were like a tiny flame, scorching and dangerous. Given the slightest chance, it would bring about calamitous disaster. But it also burned hot and free, and Kunlun found himself yearning for it, ever so slightly. The young Kunlun couldn’t say exactly what he was feeling, but he shed a string of inexplicable tears from which the Yangtze River later sprang."
Awww, they haven't even met yet and he already misses Shen Wei, sort of. :D
"Humans contained qualities of both gods and demons, which enabled them—more than any other kind of living being—to form emotions of all kinds: jealousy, animosity, obsession, restraint…and unparalleled love and hatred."
I was going to call bullshit and say that Shen Wei is pretty damn good at these too, lol, and then I realized that he's also part god and part demon! Hmmmm.
"Kunlun-jun ruled ten thousand great mountains in the Mortal Realm, and in accordance with his vow to Chiyou he had cared for the wu and yao who lived off the mountains for many years. He had watched as they grew up, cultivated, and entered the world. And now they were dying in batches, like worthless weeds tossed into an open fire."
Damn, this is heartbreaking.
"The gui, like the god born atop the mountain peak, were wholly without fear."
I love that this is the similarity! (Or one of the similarities.)
"Everything that exists will be shaped according to its own will. I…don’t want anyone to control my fate anymore. Let there be no one who can judge my merits and sins. I wish to turn the withered divine tree at the Place of Great Disrespect into a brush, with which every living being can inscribe their own merits and sins, their rights and wrongs. I want a clean slate."
I love this speech so much. (But then there are so many spoilers that I don't even remember enough that probably undermine it, lol.)
"The sound of Kunlun-jun’s sudden laugh was so broken that it might not have been a voice at all. He pointed skyward. “Let them send thunder down upon me if they can. Let them blast Kunlun Mountain open; let them strike me down and kill me. Nothing else will make me accept their will.”"
This toooooo. ♡
"The next day, there was no sign of Kunlun-jun’s raiment, and every part of him was charred black, but he sat naked in the same spot. After a while, he got to his feet. His blackened flesh sloughed off like a molting snake, leaving only new skin behind."
Okay, this is BADASS.
"He reached out, and a leaf from the Great Divine Tree fell into his hand. He curled it upon himself, and it became fresh green robes. Kunlun-jun gathered his loose hair back and straightened his spine. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, then looked up at Nüwa with an arrogant smile, lips still stained with the blood he didn’t bother wiping away. “See? What can they do to me?”
That smile, at least, was the same as always. It held a kind of careless innocence."
I love him so much, and his entire aesthetic, and his leaf outfit. :D
"He sat with appalling posture atop a huge rock, with his unbound hair flowing freely around him. He was the picture of impropriety, barefoot and clad in a coarse hemp garment that someone had given him.
Kunlun-jun’s unexpected appearance in the woods evidently gave him a terrible shock. He slipped and tumbled down from the rock, landing in the little creek below. There he sat, sopping wet."
:D :D :D The contrast of THIS (btw I love messy, improper Wei so much, AW!) with the painting!! He's just 100% focused on how beautiful Kunlun looked (beautiful enough to make him fall off the rock :D) and ignores everything else. ♡♡♡ Also, I wonder who gave him the garment.
"The beautiful boy sat in the bloody water, daintily feeding on the youchu’s corpse."
!!! What a fantastic sentence this is. :D :D
"Noticing that Kunlun-jun was still watching, he couldn’t help eating more slowly, carefully chewing with his mouth closed and not letting blood dribble out. Then he licked his lips lightly, as though hoping to lick away every trace of blood and appear a bit more refined."
Ahhhhh, I ADORE HIM.
"Darkness flooded the boy’s gaze, but when he looked up at Kunlun-jun, he successfully restrained his innate brutality. It seemed like something he did often."
He ALREADY did it often, ahhhh.
“I don’t want to live like that,” he said. “If I must, then I might as well not live at all. I would rather die than live in a way not of my own choosing.”
I love him so, so, so much, DAMN. ♡♡♡
"Kunlun-jun impulsively reached out and patted the young king’s head and found that his hair was as soft as it looked. The boy held his neck stiffly, but he didn’t move, docilely allowing Kunlun-jun to pet him. It was almost impossible to imagine that he had only just been gnawing on a youchu’s neck, even with traces of gore still around his mouth."
Also they're ADORABLE.
And I love the beautiful descriptions of Kunlun Mountain too. ♡
“I do understand. I used to be trapped under the Great Seal with no idea what was outside. If I’d known how beautiful it is out here, I would have poked a hole through the seal myself years ago.”
Kunlun-jun shook his head, laughing quietly. “‘I would rather die than live in a way not of my own choosing,’ hmm? Imagine that—you do understand me.”
♡♡♡!!! My favorite quote from this chapter, possibly.
"It wasn’t until the humans had dispersed that Kunlun finally appeared before Shennong. The white-haired old man slapped him cleanly across the face, and Kunlun allowed it.
The young King of the Gui at Kunlun-jun’s side was another story. He bared his beastly claws and roared, but before he could pounce at Shennong, the Mountain God reached out and stopped him."
Omg, sweet feral bb.
"You can’t let go of eternity, you’re unable to see through right and wrong, you can’t differentiate between good and evil, and you don’t understand life and death!"
I am trying very hard to avoid revealing too many spoilers, lol, but I just need to point out the obvious thing that this is what Zhao Yunlan's father just said. Without any comment re: why. xD
"The responsibility for the Four Pillars that held up the sky had, by chance, fallen to the young King of the Gui, who had divinity forced upon him. All that weight lay on his shoulders. It was Kunlun-jun’s last taunt to the Heavens.
Once he took up that burden, he faced millions of years with no end in sight."
Yeah, so I have apparently just continue to have few comments on things but a lot of FEELS. Here too. ♡♡♡
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♥ ♥ ♥
You have a lot more comments than I did! Which is great, because now I can reply to yours. :D
but now I feel like it's maybe there specifically for foreshadowing. :D
Yeah, it does sound that way!
"It wasn’t until the puny beast reached the size of a dumpling and was able to run and jump that Kunlun went down the mountain, bringing the beast along."
How big of a dumpling are we talking about here, and just how tiny was Daqing if this counts as growing bigger? xD
I checked the Chinese, and it says 团子. The pics on the Baidu page show palm-sized dumplings - which, OMG, how tiny was Daqing at first?!
Awww, they haven't even met yet and he already misses Shen Wei, sort of. :D
♥ ♥ ♥
I was going to call bullshit and say that Shen Wei is pretty damn good at these too, lol, and then I realized that he's also part god and part demon! Hmmmm.
Oh, huh, I hadn't put that together, but that is fascinating!
Also, I wonder who gave him the garment.
Yeah, I was wondering about that too! Who has he been interacting with, pre-Kunlun?
He ALREADY did it often, ahhhh.
YES! SO IMPORTANT!!!!! :D
I am trying very hard to avoid revealing too many spoilers, lol, but I just need to point out the obvious thing that this is what Zhao Yunlan's father just said. Without any comment re: why. xD
Yep, not subtle! Laying the seeds, and possibly leading the reader down a wrong path. *g*
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Maybe he took it off something he ate? ;-p
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That's a great point. Yeah. (And thanks for the quote. <3)
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And the narrative does give us the tantalising mention that someone gave it to him, but absolutely nothing more than that. Which, evil! I want Xiao-Wei's pre-Kunlun encounters with people!
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Damn, that's TINY, and super adorable, and not at all how kittens work irl, but I guess the yao are just different? :D Oh, but it kinda gets even weirder because he's "a mutant mutt of the White Tiger tribe" - I wonder if his color is only a part of why he got rejected by his tribe, and the other reason is because he's a tiger the size of a baby mouse? BUT AWW THO. ♡
"Yeah, I was wondering about that too! Who has he been interacting with, pre-Kunlun?"
Ikr, I want some missing scenes from this time! I love the idea of a human seeing this naked feral child and giving him some clothes, and damn, Wei must have loved it so much - he was more proper and civilized now. ♡
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I love the idea of a human seeing this naked feral child and giving him some clothes, and damn, Wei must have loved it so much - he was more proper and civilized now. ♡
AWWWWWW! I would have loved to actually see that.
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Awwww, I forgot all about the shrinking! (It's such a cute scene, how did I forget it?? :D Thanks for the reminder! :D) I wonder if shrinking himself to this size reminds Daqing of his childhood. ♡ Which he doesn't remember very well, but the vague vibes seem to be all happy memories. :)
"AWWWWWW! I would have loved to actually see that."
Ikr, me too, and I really want a missing scene fic now! ♡ About the clothes, and also others about Wei pre-Kunlun in general, it's such a fascinating part of the story to me!
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AWWWW that is such a lovely thought!
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Yes, I love that he made it himself. I wonder if he'd had any bell-making practice, or if it was his first try and he was naturally talented on account of being a god. ;-p
This is SO cinematic, wow. It's basically an animation that you can play in your head.
Right? So cool!
> > "The gui, like the god born atop the mountain peak, were wholly without fear."
>
> I love that this is the similarity! (Or one of the similarities.)
Oh, yes, great catch! <3
:D :D :D The contrast of THIS (btw I love messy, improper Wei so much, AW!) with the painting!! He's just 100% focused on how beautiful Kunlun looked (beautiful enough to make him fall off the rock :D) and ignores everything else. ♡♡♡
LOLOL! You're so right. :D :D :D
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Okay, but this is actually a really good question because my first thought was just 'eh, he just created it just like all the gods create things (and people) all the time, nbd', but the quote is "he personally melted some golden sand and crafted a bell", so it sounds like it took time and skill? Or maybe he still created it the way the other gods create things, but he was an inexperienced baby god, so the process had more steps. :D
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I personally would have loved it if he'd had to make, like a hundred practice bells before he got it right, lol. But I guess gods are just naturally good at stuff. ;-p
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