sid_guardian | Guardian Readalong: Vol. 3, Chapters 9 & 10

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Guardian Readalong: Vol. 3, Chapters 9 & 10

Hi, and welcome to this week's installment of the Guardian novel readalong! ♡

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 chapters:

Chapter 9: In Kunlun's memories, the young King of the Gui gives Kunlun a gift, retrieves his soul fire from the Great Seal, and gets kissed twice. Kunlun tells him to keep the soul fire, gives him the power to rule over mountains and rivers, makes him half-divine, and sets him free from the Great Seal. The King of the Gui doesn't want to let Kunlun die, but his death is inevitable. Zhao Yunlan wakes up from the memories and meets Ghost Face, who makes him doubt what he's learned about Kunlun's past. Shen Wei shows up and stops Ghost Face from talking. Zhao Yunlan mysteriously disappears.

Chapter 10: Zhao Yunlan is transported to a white void where he meets Shennong and suspects him of tampering with the memories in the Great Divine Tree. Zhao Yunlan is sent back to the Mortal Realm, but he lands in the past, in 2002. He secretly follows his father/Shennong's Mortar to Antiques Street and to the Netherworld. His "father" meets the Soul-Executing Emissary and accuses him of not honoring his promise to stay away from Zhao Yunlan. They argue about the Great Seal and what Shen Wei plans to do if it collapses. After watching them, Zhao Yunlan is left with even more questions. He finds that his copy of Record of Ancient Secrets is blank, and decides to buy another copy in 2002 to see if it ends up at the SID in eleven years.

The corresponding chapters in the Chinese version on JJWXC/the fan translation are 87 and 88.

Excerpts:

1) The young King of the Gui's gives Kunlun a gift

The young king’s infatuation with Kunlun-jun didn’t fade, but he had the innate capacity to feel embarrassment and shame. Listening to Kunlun-jun taught him that it was inappropriate to proclaim those feelings aloud, so he tucked them away in his heart. Instead, he searched every day for ways to make Kunlun-jun happy. But alas, no matter how he tried, there was a limit to his imagination. There simply wasn’t anything fun to be found in the Place of Great Disrespect, with its thousands of li of barren land that boasted not so much as a single blade of grass. The entertainment options were limited to capturing two low-level youchu and watching them fight and tear at each other, until one devoured the other.

This “entertainment” didn’t appeal to the young King of the Gui, however, so how could it have been enjoyable for Kunlun-jun?

The young king went to the great effort of collecting a front tooth from each of thirty-six youchu, which to his mind represented the thirty-six glorious mountains that began at Kunlun. He then braided strands of his own hair into a string and strung the teeth together into an extraordinary necklace, which he gave to Kunlun-jun.

Kunlun-jun’s expression when he accepted these thirty-six teeth was very strange—even stranger than the necklace itself. It was as if he had a toothache and wanted to wince from the pain but was instead forcing his features into a peculiar smile, thanking the little king through gritted teeth. From his reaction, the young king concluded that he probably didn’t like it very much. Either way, Kunlun-jun didn’t wear it a single time, and if the little king mentioned it, he invariably changed the subject.

2) The two kisses

Hooking a gentle finger under the youth’s chin, Kunlun-jun softly kissed his beautiful, clear forehead, then soared up into the tree’s branches.

The young king sat frozen in place for some time. There was no trace left of his aggressive aura. A blush spread from his cheeks to his chin and ears. Eventually, he stood up numbly, as though drunk; even his legs were like jelly. Mind empty, he toppled down from the Great Merit Tree’s massive root.

Having been born a gui—even if he had somehow grown up completely differently from the rest of his kind—all he had ever seen and heard were the bestial, lustful copulations of lower-level youchu. The concept of a kiss was wholly new to him. Now, having experienced it, he felt enveloped by a cage of warmth, drifting lightly in midair.

Not even in the waters of the Wangchuan could he float so freely.

(...)

The smile at the corners of Kunlun-jun’s lips gradually faded. Finally, he looked at the young man and asked, “And what do you want from me?”

“That…” The young king didn’t know what to say. He had no idea how to express what he ached for. Finally, he pointed timidly at his own forehead. “That… Can you do it again?”

Kunlun-jun studied him for a long while. Under his intense gaze, the boy didn’t seem to know what to do with his limbs. Then, suddenly, Kunlun-jun reached out and tilted his chin up. But this time it was the young king’s lips that he kissed, ever so gently; he then took the boy’s hand with a light squeeze, guiding the young king’s long fingers closed around that ever-gleaming ball of soul fire.

“I hold all the world’s famous mountains and rivers in my hand, but what of it? They’re nothing but a bunch of rocks and wild waters. Of all that I am, the only part worth anything may be my heart. If you want it, it’s yours.”

3) Ghost Face airs his grievances and reveals too much

Ghost Face approached slowly. Mimicking Zhao Yunlan, he put a hand on the stone tablet. “Tens of thousands of years ago, he and I were twin Kings of the Gui. There was no difference between us. And yet somehow, he managed to gain Kunlun-jun’s—your—favor. Now, millennia later, one of us is within and one of us is without. One of us rots in jail and one holds the keys.”

The upturned corners of the smile fell. Ghost Face lowered his voice, pausing after each word. “But the Great Seal is about to fall apart. That’s why I can come and go as I please. In the end, everything must die, and you are no exception. Kunlun, if my idiot brother hadn’t ambushed you all those years ago and confined your primordial spirit—if he hadn’t forced you into the Reincarnation Cycle to become a lowly mortal, relegated to living one life after another—you would have dissipated into nothing, just like the rest of the primordial gods. In this world, nothing can last forever. The only constants are death and Chaos.”

As he spoke, he touched Zhao Yunlan’s face with one ice-cold finger. The sigh that escaped him was almost a groan. “But ‘death’ itself was set ablaze by your soul fire, bringing us into existence…things that are neither living nor dead. Isn’t that such a fascinating coincidence?”

Zhao Yunlan’s brow furrowed. He tilted his head slightly, avoiding Ghost Face. By this point he’d heard too many versions of how he’d lost his soul fire to know which account was true. “Didn’t Shennong borrow my soul fire? How did it appear later in the Place of Great Disrespect? And what do you mean, it set death itself ablaze?”

This line of questioning seemed to throw Ghost Face for a loop. His mask went blank for an instant, as though he didn’t understand what Zhao Yunlan was asking. Then realization dawned. He flung his head back in wild laughter. “Ha ha ha ha ha ha! So that’s how it was! And here I thought he was so pure and innocent! What a virtuous facade he put up, when really—”

He was cut off by the Soul-Executing Blade slashing down at him, wielded with enough hostility to split him in half. Ghost Face took flight and dodged, but the blade’s momentum drove even Zhao Yunlan back a few steps.

“Shen Wei?” he exclaimed.

4) Zhao Yunlan ends up in the past

Without warning, the snowy white world shattered, admitting a piercing bright light. Zhao Yunlan quickly shielded his eyes. Then, vision blurred by tears, he realized that he had somehow arrived in the Mortal Realm.

He assessed his surroundings, which immediately felt both familiar and…not. It took him a few minutes to recognize where he was.

It was the ice cream shop on the corner that tipped him off. Zhao Yunlan’s eyes went wide. He was near his childhood home! That old ice cream shop had closed ages ago, and the spot had been a small hot-pot restaurant for five or six years now.

At first, he was completely at a loss. He bought a bowl of shaved ice with the meager change he had on him and ate it, staring at the prominent “2002” on the calendar on the shop wall. He stuck out like a sore thumb among a group of middle school girls, the shaved ice crunching between his teeth. He looked exactly like someone the mafia had sent to collect protection fees in exchange for not smashing the store.

Somehow he had returned to the year 2002!

The whole thing was like being in a dream, or like watching some shoddy movie that abruptly changed scenes: one minute the protagonist was up in the sky, the next they were underground, and then finally they managed to get back to the Mortal Realm, only to be transported eleven years into the past.

5) Shen Wei's ominous plans

“Then what’s happening with the Great Seal?” Zhao Yunlan’s “father” demanded. “Why would the Great Houtu Seal come loose?”

“The original Great Fuxi Seal lasted only a few hundred years before the Pillars of the Sky fell and broke it, after which it was repaired. Ever since Nüwa descended, the Great Houtu Seal has remained for thousands of years. Truthfully, it’s held up longer than expected,” Shen Wei said icily. “Even dripping water can wear through rock eventually. The Great Seal is weakening because its time has come to an end. Preventing that is beyond anyone’s power, including mine.”

“The Great Houtu Seal was created with Nüwa’s life and is filled with Kunlun-jun’s care and hard work. Of course I wasn’t implying you’d do something to it that you shouldn’t, but what if it were to truly collapse? What will you do then?”

“Yes,” Shen Wei replied lightly. “What do I plan on doing? I’m an utter fool, but I finally understand what the ancient sages used to say: ‘If one doesn’t die, doesn’t perish, then one cannot become a god.’ But when I stop and think about it, I was never a god respected and worshipped by all.”

“Don’t you even entertain the notion that on the day the Great Seal collapses, you’ll no longer be bound by Shennong’s contract. If my son—”

The sentence broke off unnaturally, like speakers malfunctioning halfway through a movie. Zhao Yunlan’s “father” opened and closed his mouth, but there was no sound.

Even with Shen Wei’s face hidden by black mist, Zhao Yunlan could feel that he was smiling.

Questions:

What is your favorite soft (or angsty, or soft and angsty) Weilan moment in the primordial past? Do you sympathize with Ghost Face? How do you feel about the time travel storyline, and how does it compare to the drama version? Would you also immediately buy ice cream if you suddenly ended up in the past? Are you as confused as Zhao Yunlan about what is true and what isn't?

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 new schedule, and that's where you can sign up to host a post!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ahhhh, I know this storyline is not fully finished in this chapter yet, but first of all I just need to say how much I LOVE that the drama took the idea of Zhao Yunlan being randomly yeeted into the past (and a time loop with no actual beginning) and put it together with the Kunlun and Weilan storyline and made it into the absolute MASTERPIECE of a story!! ♡♡♡ A++++ choices were made! :D ♡♡♡

"Kunlun-jun had joined the crowd a handful of times and listened, and now he regurgitated what he’d heard back to the young King of the Gui. His retellings made sense only half of the time, as he was mostly doing it to dispel the boredom. But the young king was utterly ignorant and hung on every word that came out of Kunlun-jun’s mouth. To him, Kunlun’s bullshit was the truth of the world."

This is so funny to me. :D Like, it's kinda mean to SW, learning all this bullshit, but this really feels like they're both just kids - this is exactly how kids learn from each other. :D :D

"Listening to Kunlun-jun taught him that it was inappropriate to proclaim those feelings aloud, so he tucked them away in his heart."

Um yeah, this is made a whole lot worse later, with the whole 'he will die when you get too close' thing, but this is not a good start for SW already. D:

"The young king went to the great effort of collecting a front tooth from each of thirty-six youchu, which to his mind represented the thirty-six glorious mountains that began at Kunlun."

OH SWEET BABY OMG. He's so thoughtful, and he really wants to do art, and I'm so happy he eventually gets to paint Kunlun. ♡♡♡

"It was as if he had a toothache and wanted to wince from the pain but was instead forcing his features into a peculiar smile, thanking the little king through gritted teeth. From his reaction, the young king concluded that he probably didn’t like it very much."

How is this the most precious damn thing, omg BOTH OF THEM BABIES, they are TRYING. ♡♡♡

"The simple, candid youth’s face lit up with yearning. “They’re so pretty. If I braided a chain of them, you’d like it, wouldn’t you?”"

He's tryinggggg. ♡ Gods, I love them.

"He felt that if he gave voice to the admiration he felt, the words would only come out coarse and unrefined. And even then, he might not be able to convey even a fraction of what was in his heart.

He became frantic. Unconsciously, his nails extended into claws. Frustration turned his expression both glum and aggressive.

As people have said, once one was born into the world, most of the pain one endured—other than the hardships fate had in store—came from thinking too much and reading too little."

I've had so many feelings about this, ever since I first read it, re: Shen Wei studying/teaching literature! ♡ Like, not just the fact that he wanted to express what he was feeling, but especially the fact that NOT expressing it makes him aggressive, and that's the last thing he would ever allow to happen. AHHH. ♡

"The young king sat frozen in place for some time. There was no trace left of his aggressive aura. A blush spread from his cheeks to his chin and ears. Eventually, he stood up numbly, as though drunk; even his legs were like jelly. Mind empty, he toppled down from the Great Merit Tree’s massive root."

He's SO PRECIOUS. And has a tendency to fall off of things when flustered. :D

"The concept of a kiss was wholly new to him. Now, having experienced it, he felt enveloped by a cage of warmth, drifting lightly in midair.

Not even in the waters of the Wangchuan could he float so freely."

SO SWEET. ♡

"Holding it with tremendous care, the young king rubbed his face against it, not wanting to be parted from it."

THE SOFTNESS!! ♡ They're LIKE THIS and I can't just not quote everything. :D

"“And what do you want from me?”

“That…” The young king didn’t know what to say. He had no idea how to express what he ached for. Finally, he pointed timidly at his own forehead. “That… Can you do it again?”

He worked FIFTY YEARS for this, aw!!

"The gui were not living beings, but in that instant, he could almost hear his own nonexistent heartbeat."

"The youth’s heart started beating wildly, driven by the suspicion that something more was about to happen."

!!! These quotes are about a page apart, it can't possibly be an oversight, so did SW actually make his heart beat just by wishing that it would? ♡♡♡ Or did it start beating because of Kunlun making him half-god (which is the only thing that happens in between)? And, like, it does beat in the present, otherwise it wouldn't have the fresh clean blood he gives to Zhao Yunlan, would it? (Several posts ago I said that there would be a memorable line about Shen Wei's heart later - this is what I was talking about. :))

"“I can slaughter every living thing. I can strip every trace of green from the mountains and block even the smallest stream from flowing. I can litter the ground with corpses until there’s no sign of life for thousands of li.”

Kunlun-jun lifted a brow as he teased, “Wow, that powerful?”"

This reaction, lol AW!

"But then Kunlun-jun smiled again, warm as the first gurgling waters of a brook once winter’s ice thawed, reflecting the green of life budding along its banks."

This is such a lovely description. ♡

"The truth of his own powerlessness finally sank in for the young king. All his gifts were for slaughter, destruction, and devouring. All the Realms had shaken when he came into existence; ghosts and gods alike feared him. And what use was any of it?"

He is so biased against himself about things that are not even relevant - if he had any other powers, he still wouldn't be able to prevent Kunlun's death.

"As Kunlun-jun watched, the youth’s expression of murderous intent crumbled. The young king hadn’t yet learned how to contain and suppress the emotions in his heart. Once his sheer shock began to fade, tears took its place; the little king broke down in wretched sobs."

So he hasn't even learned to contain and suppress his emotions, and yet he didn't end up killing anyone. Because his emotions wanted him to cry and not to kill anyone. Maybe he simply doesn't need to suppress them, then. (Just facts for older Shen Wei to consider. :P)

“Tens of thousands of years ago, he and I were twin Kings of the Gui. There was no difference between us. And yet somehow, he managed to gain Kunlun-jun’s—your—favor. Now, millennia later, one of us is within and one of us is without. One of us rots in jail and one holds the keys.”

I honestly, genuinely feel bad for him. They made Ye Zun even more sympathetic than that in the drama, but this is already sympathetic enough for me.

"Kunlun, if my idiot brother hadn’t ambushed you all those years ago and confined your primordial spirit—if he hadn’t forced you into the Reincarnation Cycle to become a lowly mortal, relegated to living one life after another—you would have dissipated into nothing, just like the rest of the primordial gods."

Is this supposed to turn Zhao Yunlan against Shen Wei? xD

"As he spoke, he touched Zhao Yunlan’s face with one ice-cold finger."

Gui Mian lowkey flirting with Zhao Yunlan is always my jam, ngl. :P

"By this point he’d heard too many versions of how he’d lost his soul fire to know which account was true."

Lol, INDEED.

"His spine was curved like a cooked shrimp, and he had a basket on his back—the kind often used by people from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Taking a peek inside, Zhao Yunlan saw that it was empty. And yet the old man moved as if carrying hundreds of kilograms, too weighed down to even lift his head. He walked onward with his face toward the ground and his back facing the sky."

The description of Shennong is SO similar to the description of GCC carrying all the stuff at the train station ("What he found instead was Guo Changcheng, bent practically double under a huge woven bag. Guo Changcheng was hunched so far forward by the weight that his body almost formed a circle as he slowly inched along."), and idk if that's intentional or not.

"Zhao Yunlan reached out and put a hand under the basket to help support it."

Aw, Zhao Yunlan paints himself as an asshole and yet he's someone who helps even imaginary Shennong, completely unprompted.

"“Are you the one who brought me here?” Zhao Yunlan sighed. “Why? I finally managed to catch my wife, and you interrupted and ruined it before I got a single word out.”

With a small smile, the old man listened to his griping but didn’t explain or respond.

Zhao Yunlan wasn’t discouraged. “What are you carrying in the basket?”"

I love Zhao Yunlan being LIKE THIS even when he has absolutely no idea where he is or what is happening. :D

"The whip in his hand transformed into the Soul-Guarding Order, red words on black paper. He rolled it up like a cigarette and put it in his mouth, holding it there as he patiently followed the old man."

This entire aesthetic, YES, very good. :D

"Ever since he’d confirmed that the “memories” he’d seen within the Great Divine Tree were fake"

Did he literally confirm it, or was it always just very strong suspicions? (I know he confirmed it in the original version, and it felt like too much too early. And now I don't remember if later he confirmed it in this version too. :P)

"The parts that had to do with his left soul fire were particularly unclear, and the parts that related to the fall of Buzhou Mountain were especially clunky and forced."

Lol, that's my personal conclusion too, I'm glad to know I'm on the right track. xD

"He looked exactly like someone the mafia had sent to collect protection fees in exchange for not smashing the store."

Lolol, did he look very different when he was a teenager then? :D (Also I hope this is not the same ice cream shop that his father had his power trip about. D:)

"The whole thing was like being in a dream, or like watching some shoddy movie that abruptly changed scenes: one minute the protagonist was up in the sky, the next they were underground, and then finally they managed to get back to the Mortal Realm, only to be transported eleven years into the past."

I'm loving the lampshading. :D :D

"Through the shop window, he saw a familiar car driving out of the neighborhood: the old car that had held countless childhood memories—the car that his father had heartlessly replaced!"

He replaced the car, but not the phone. :P

"He flagged down a taxi, digging out his tattered work ID and brandishing the police badge in front of the driver’s eyes. “I need you to follow that car! Stay close!”"

This is obviously extremely on-brand for Zhao Yunlan, but lol, he's not a police officer in this timeline yet - if someone checked, he would suddenly have an extra problem to solve. xD

"The driver had never imagined he’d have the chance to chauffeur a 007. Thrilled by this once-in-a-lifetime chance, he stomped on the gas. The car shot forward like a racehorse, nearly sending Zhao Yunlan sprawling in the passenger seat."

I absolutely love the taxi driver. :D :D

"Hiding his tracks, Zhao Yunlan dry-swallowed a yellow paper talisman."

How. HOW. Good for him I guess, but HOW. xD

"It was one of the ones he’d drawn back when he was blind; he’d sold all the good ones, so the only ones he still had on him were defective."

How about you at least only take good talismans with you if the possibility of DRY SWALLOWING them exists, what the hell. xD

"Having no other choice, Zhao Yunlan took a deep breath and headed down the Huangquan Road for the second time that day, itching to kick that stupid bowl spirit a new asshole."

I love his exasperation, it's hilarious and 100% valid. :D

"His only option was to curl in on himself and hide within the pagoda tree, which left him feeling stuck between the yin and yang realms."

This doesn't sound pleasant!

And here's the 'Zhao Yunlan watches Shen Wei having a private meeting with his father' scene from the drama! :D (I've talked about it somewhere before, how they combined the teashop scene from the novel with this one. :D)

"The chill clinging to him was even more piercing than the desolate Huangquan."

Wow, that's dramatic! Considering that Shen Wei doesn't even have to be cold at all (which means he chooses to), here he's even colder than something that is already colder than having bare feet in winter. :P

“The evening newspaper that Yunlan brought home had my lord’s scent on it.”

Ah, so it is confirmed that he was stalking Zhao Yunlan in this lifetime too. What does touching a newspaper even do for him tho?? :D (He just wants them both to touch the same thing, I guess?)

"I never took the Three Sovereigns themselves seriously, much less Shennong’s treasured mortar."

Hah, Shen Wei doesn't respect gods either. :D

"How could Zhao Yunlan’s delicate, scholarly, easily bullied lover also turn out to be a terrorist who’d put a gag order on Zhao Yunlan’s fake dad?"

I understand the confusion and all, but like, have you met the Emissary before. :P :P

"Somehow, he still doubted that this was real. He was starting to get used to being lied to; at the rate things were going, he was going to become paranoid and suspect that everything was a lie."

So very valid!

I just need to say how much I LOVE that the drama took the idea of Zhao Yunlan being randomly yeeted into the past (and a time loop with no actual beginning) and put it together with the Kunlun and Weilan storyline and made it into the absolute MASTERPIECE of a story!! ♡♡♡ A++++ choices were made! :D ♡♡♡

I really didn't remember any of this at all, and I'm so fascinated to discover where the basic idea for the drama's time loop must have come from!

Like, it's kinda mean to SW, learning all this bullshit, but this really feels like they're both just kids - this is exactly how kids learn from each other. :D :D

Yeah, I wouldn't mind it if I could believe that they're just two kids, but then SW gets treated as much younger and less mature, and I'm just, NOPE. :(

OH SWEET BABY OMG. He's so thoughtful, and he really wants to do art, and I'm so happy he eventually gets to paint Kunlun. ♡♡♡

Kunlun should properly appreciate Xiao-Wei's art! *grumbles*

"The gui were not living beings, but in that instant, he could almost hear his own nonexistent heartbeat."

"The youth’s heart started beating wildly, driven by the suspicion that something more was about to happen."

!!! These quotes are about a page apart, it can't possibly be an oversight, so did SW actually make his heart beat just by wishing that it would? ♡♡♡ Or did it start beating because of Kunlun making him half-god (which is the only thing that happens in between)?

Yeah, I assume he has a heartbeat afterwards because Kunlun changed his state of being.

So he hasn't even learned to contain and suppress his emotions, and yet he didn't end up killing anyone. Because his emotions wanted him to cry and not to kill anyone. Maybe he simply doesn't need to suppress them, then. (Just facts for older Shen Wei to consider. :P)

RIGHT????????

Is this supposed to turn Zhao Yunlan against Shen Wei? xD

Idk, I honestly have no idea what Gui Mian is trying to accomplish with this!

The description of Shennong is SO similar to the description of GCC carrying all the stuff at the train station ("What he found instead was Guo Changcheng, bent practically double under a huge woven bag. Guo Changcheng was hunched so far forward by the weight that his body almost formed a circle as he slowly inched along."), and idk if that's intentional or not.

Ooh, great catch, now that you say it I see it too!

"The whip in his hand transformed into the Soul-Guarding Order, red words on black paper. He rolled it up like a cigarette and put it in his mouth, holding it there as he patiently followed the old man."

This entire aesthetic, YES, very good. :D

Did he literally confirm it, or was it always just very strong suspicions? (I know he confirmed it in the original version, and it felt like too much too early. And now I don't remember if later he confirmed it in this version too. :P)

I don't remember if he actually confirmed it in either version - he's come to that conclusion, but does he have definite proof or just a strong conviction?

And here's the 'Zhao Yunlan watches Shen Wei having a private meeting with his father' scene from the drama! :D (I've talked about it somewhere before, how they combined the teashop scene from the novel with this one. :D)

Yes! So fascinating, I'm always delighted to discover how the drama picked up bits and pieces an wove them into a new narrative. :D

Ah, so it is confirmed that he was stalking Zhao Yunlan in this lifetime too.

Glad to have the confirmation!

I understand the confusion and all, but like, have you met the Emissary before. :P :P

ZYL thinks the Emissary is nice and reasonable! Because he's always been nice and reasonable to him. LOL.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind it if I could believe that they're just two kids, but then SW gets treated as much younger and less mature, and I'm just, NOPE. :("

Treated by the narrative or by Kunlun? (By the narrative - see my reply to your comment. :) It is a wild discrepancy to me.) By Kunlun - I totally see it as just another part of how incredibly immature Kunlun himself is? It's like a 5-year-old talking to a 3-year-old, going 'don't you worry, I'll explain everything to you, and I even know the mysteries of the world that you can't possibly understand until you're older', and the 3-year-old goes 'it doesn't sound like it makes all that much sense, but you clearly know what you're doing because you're so grown up *heart eyes*'.

"Kunlun should properly appreciate Xiao-Wei's art! *grumbles*"

As much as I think he already did as well as he could back then (but that's in my other comment :)), I do hope that he fully and completely appreciates it now, not just the painting but the necklace too. :)

"Yeah, I assume he has a heartbeat afterwards because Kunlun changed his state of being."

I got stumped again a bit later when I remembered what Daqing said about the blood: "As a King of the Gui, he was born to stand among the sages. He most likely doesn’t have an inner core as the yao do, so…the only option left is blood from the very tip of his heart, right?" He doesn't know that SW was made half-divine, does he? Which would mean that at least the Kings of the Gui (if not all of the gui) do have blood in their heart. But I guess they still don't have a heartbeat regardless.

"I don't remember if he actually confirmed it in either version - he's come to that conclusion, but does he have definite proof or just a strong conviction?"

I mean, idk what counts as hard proof vs. Shennong's Bowl spouting bullshit, lol, but there was this thing in chapter 2 where in the original he says "How did Lord Kunlun find out that the memories inside the holy tree aren't your true memories?" and in the official translation he just says "Oh?"

"ZYL thinks the Emissary is nice and reasonable! Because he's always been nice and reasonable to him. LOL."

Lol AW! I think he has seen him be stern and scary, but maybe not often enough? At least on the roof executing the youchu, near the beginning of the novel, but I guess that was more understandable to ZYL than SW's current actions. (Oh, and he's also seen him be unapologetic about killing everyone. Nah, I think ZYL is just in denial at this point. ;D)

Treated by the narrative or by Kunlun?

Yeah, I meant by the narrative. And in other places the narrative has absolutely undercut ZYL's self-importance and mocked him, so it not doing that at all here with Kunlun makes me more convinced it wants me to genuinely buy into this.

He doesn't know that SW was made half-divine, does he? Which would mean that at least the Kings of the Gui (if not all of the gui) do have blood in their heart. But I guess they still don't have a heartbeat regardless.

I honestly don't know what Daqing knows - the Underworld knows the Emissary is a demigod (the Magistrate talks about it), but how much about his state of being is known beyond that I have no clue.

there was this thing in chapter 2 where in the original he says "How did Lord Kunlun find out that the memories inside the holy tree aren't your true memories?" and in the official translation he just says "Oh?"

Oh right! Thanks for the reminder!

Nah, I think ZYL is just in denial at this point. ;D

LOL! You're not wrong. He's been like that about him from the start, though - everyone was afraid of him, and he was all, why???? he's so nice!!!! *g*

Yeah, I meant by the narrative. And in other places the narrative has absolutely undercut ZYL's self-importance and mocked him, so it not doing that at all here with Kunlun makes me more convinced it wants me to genuinely buy into this.

How's this, though? If this is all Shen Wei's lies, then a) it can somewhat reflect his younger self's perspective, rather than any objective fact (hence no mocking), and b) can also be an implicit criticism of Kunlun's behaviour. \o?

LOL! You're not wrong. He's been like that about him from the start, though - everyone was afraid of him, and he was all, why???? he's so nice!!!! *g*

Cutting down a city full of ghosts and sassing the Magistrate -- ALL PART OF HIS CHARM! :D

I can't bring myself to speculate about interpretations that rely on things being lies when I don't know what's real. I can only either take it at face value, or shrug and set it aside, waiting to learn more. Sorry!

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