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

Hiiii! I'm nowhere near caught up on the comments on the last post myself, but now that I made this post - soon, very soon. :D :D

"He's the victim of Evil Worldbuilding™ too, so yes, absolutely!"

Hah, the main villain of this story, the Evil Worldbuilding. *nodnod* :D

"I can't tell yet; I'll need to see how it ends."

100% valid, and fwiw, this is basically where it ends - it turns out that it is where the book came from and that's it? I may be forgetting something minor, but the whole time travel thing is this tiny and brief. :)

"Excellent choice, yes! Especially since the shop doesn't exist any more in the present; take that opportunity while you have it!:D"

Hahah, true! :D I got a bit confused when he just left the ice cream behind when he left but I guess it was in a glass or something, not in a takeout container. xD

"Since we've been talking about realms - descended from where? I'd normally assume from the Heavenly Realm, but all the gods seem to be running around in the Mortal Realm anyway ..."

I think the gods used to leave in the Heavenly Realm, and they all ended up living in the Mortal Realm eventually after they descended to it.

"NOOOOO!!!!! Kunlun is so bad for baby!SW. :(

(I'm so glad the drama changed that completely, and had ZYL actually be good for YOHE!SW.)"

He's just regurgitating what he was told - if his emotions were too much for everyone, then he can teach SW that having emotions is just too much? Doesn't make it any better for SW whatsoever, but Kunlun doesn't actually know what he's doing.

(ITA on that though! ♡♡♡ None of this can compare to YOHE ever. ♡♡♡)

"Come on, Kunlun! Take it in the spirit it's given!"

He doesn't know the spirit, though? It's all SW's thoughts, all Kunlun can see is the necklace itself. (I mean, I guess getting a gift could give him a hint of what the spirit is, but later with the flowers he's still not even sure if it's not just an attempt to get out of the Seal.)

I don't like the part where they never talk about it again (they should, and this is where the intention should be revealed), but the first reaction, with a thank-you and a genuine attempt to smile and no criticism at all is already pretty impressively nice to me, considering no one has ever been nice to Kunlun about the things he did. He parrots all the criticism that used to be directed at him, and here he doesn't even do that. :) (Though he may be parroting someone else's fake smile at a gift that he made for them. But at least he knows to choose the kindest of the reactions he knows?)

"But honestly, I find Kunlun so inconsistent in his behaviour towards Xiao-Wei, he's veering wildly from judgmental and patronising to teasing to earnest and generous. It's giving me whiplash, it's a wonder Xiao-Wei isn't even more confused by everything!"

Hah, ITA, he's a mess. The way I see it, it's all him flip-flopping between his upbringing and knee-jerk reactions and how he actually, genuinely feels. (Again, it doesn't make it better for SW, and it must be super confusing indeed.)

"(And we're entirely back in "Kunlun is an adult, Xiao-Wei is a teen" territory, which I find unpleasant because it's so unbalanced ...)"

To me this is SUCH a case of telling and not showing! There's nothing that Kunlun does (or even thinks privately) that makes him even remotely more mature than SW, and there are definitely several things that make him a lot less mature (for example throwing around words he doesn't understand, when SW thinks about them quietly and wonders why they're being used). The way the narrative seems to say that he actually is more mature is just very confusing to me because there's just zero proof.

"Time to link this meta by foxghost! Spoiler warning for the ending."

Oh, neat, thank you!! ♡

"Alas, this is exactly my problem with the novel: I don't know what's true, and so anything and everything is suspect, which makes it harder to engage with anything."

I kinda love this lampshading, like, this is the reading experience and this is Zhao Yunlan's actual life. :D

"Because the image of a "fierce handsome man eating shaved ice" was so eye-catching, several girls couldn't stop looking at him and thus, uncontrollably followed his gaze, extended their necks, and looked outside.

This resulted in forming a basketball team of meerkats."

This is hilarious and adorable. :D :D :D

"He claimed that this talisman would be more than effective even if it was to be used to investigate the romantic relationships of the great ancient gods."

Omg I LOVE this, because this just happens to be exactly what Zhao Yunlan is doing. xD :D :D

(Thank you for the comparisons as always! ♡♡♡)

Hah, the main villain of this story, the Evil Worldbuilding. *nodnod* :D

You know, I really think it is! :D

I think the gods used to leave in the Heavenly Realm, and they all ended up living in the Mortal Realm eventually after they descended to it.

"Heaven is empty, and all the gods are here?" Hee! I guess that would make sense!

(Though it does make you wonder if some stubborn curmudgeonly god stayed behind, and ended up running the place by default, LOL.)

He's just regurgitating what he was told - if his emotions were too much for everyone, then he can teach SW that having emotions is just too much? Doesn't make it any better for SW whatsoever, but Kunlun doesn't actually know what he's doing.

I don't even blame him much, I just think it's so sad that they're both so bad for each other. Kunlun is bad for Wei because of this, and Wei is bad for Kunlun's reincarnations because of being a gui, and I don't like that in my ships. I want them to be good for each other! On every level! *grumbles*

but later with the flowers he's still not even sure if it's not just an attempt to get out of the Seal.

On the one hand, good point, but on the other, that suspicion itself says a lot about how little he knows and understands Xiao-Wei at this point, which sucks. Poor SW!

I don't like the part where they never talk about it again (they should, and this is where the intention should be revealed)

Yeah, then it would be relationship development! But we don't get that at all.

Honestly, I just find these PP dynamics so lacking as a basis for a ship, but also I don't know if it's real or not, so ... idek.

The way I see it, it's all him flip-flopping between his upbringing and knee-jerk reactions and how he actually, genuinely feels.

Yeah, my issue is that I can't tell how he actually feels - whether the judgmental stuff he's spouting is how he genuinely feels, whether the sweet things are, whether both things are. (Or if that scene even happened at all, LOL.) But as you say, either way, not great for SW.

To me this is SUCH a case of telling and not showing!

Yeah, that's a good point! Kunlun doesn't seem to act more mature at all, but the narrative treats him as if he is, and we're apparently supposed to buy it. And the fandom clearly did buy it, going by everything I've seen. Makes me wonder if I'm missing something there.

and there are definitely several things that make him a lot less mature (for example throwing around words he doesn't understand, when SW thinks about them quietly and wonders why they're being used)

Yes! Though that may be more of an extrovert/introvert contrast? Idk.

I kinda love this lampshading, like, this is the reading experience and this is Zhao Yunlan's actual life. :D

Haha, glad it's working for you! But I'm just struggling with not entirely disengaging from the reading experience here, because I can't meaningfully engage with what any of this means for the characters, the plot or the themes while I have no idea whether it's true or not.

Omg I LOVE this, because this just happens to be exactly what Zhao Yunlan is doing. xD :D :D

LOLOLOL, I hadn't looked at it that way, but OMG! :D

(Though it does make you wonder if some stubborn curmudgeonly god stayed behind, and ended up running the place by default, LOL.)

Maybe that’s Shennong trudging through the desert or whatever with his enormous burden?

but on the other, that suspicion itself says a lot about how little he knows and understands Xiao-Wei at this point, which sucks. Poor SW!

And it’s so at odds with their earlier accord on the mountain. :-(((

"Heaven is empty, and all the gods are here?"

Lol! :D Why does it sounds as threatening as the original. xD

"Though it does make you wonder if some stubborn curmudgeonly god stayed behind, and ended up running the place by default, LOL."

Hah, I wish Kunlun could have done that, just ignore all this bullshit and chill in the Heavenly Realm. :D But I think he was born in the Mortal Realm to begin with and never had to descend?

"I don't even blame him much, I just think it's so sad that they're both so bad for each other. Kunlun is bad for Wei because of this, and Wei is bad for Kunlun's reincarnations because of being a gui, and I don't like that in my ships. I want them to be good for each other! On every level! *grumbles*"

Aw, yes, unfortunately this is all extremely true, and I can totally see that! ♡ (For the record, I would NEVER want any of this in the dramaverse. In the novelverse it's very ~shrug~ to me personally - not something I actively like, but not something that actively bothers me either.)

"that suspicion itself says a lot about how little he knows and understands Xiao-Wei at this point, which sucks. Poor SW!"

Yeah, very true. They really don't get to communicate - the narrative shows all of SW's feelings, but Kunlun doesn't know about any of them. (Other than the obvious attraction, which he finds amusing.)

"Yeah, my issue is that I can't tell how he actually feels - whether the judgmental stuff he's spouting is how he genuinely feels, whether the sweet things are, whether both things are."

He only says the judgmental and patronizing stuff because others said it to him first, so I think at least this much is explicitly stated - this is not how he really feels deep down. :) I think the genuine feelings are mostly fondness and maybe a bit of confusion. (And here they also don't get to communicate, so Kunlun's feelings are not out in the open either.)

"Kunlun doesn't seem to act more mature at all, but the narrative treats him as if he is, and we're apparently supposed to buy it. And the fandom clearly did buy it, going by everything I've seen. Makes me wonder if I'm missing something there."

Honestly, fandom-wise? People who like age gaps and power imbalances will play them up on purpose. :) (And I guess people who actively dislike them will also play them up. It's a polarizing topic.)

"Though that may be more of an extrovert/introvert contrast? Idk."

I think SW as an extrovert would openly ask why these words are being thrown around, in addition to having quiet doubts about them, which would still make him the more mature one. :D

"Haha, glad it's working for you! But I'm just struggling with not entirely disengaging from the reading experience here, because I can't meaningfully engage with what any of this means for the characters, the plot or the themes while I have no idea whether it's true or not."

I can totally see that! I think to me it's not just cool to get a share of the 'this is how Zhao Yunlan actually feels' experience as a reader, but it's also cool to learn what exactly the lies are and why. (Which, to be fair, is really hard to follow and 80% of it goes right over my head because of mythological reasons and the gods not being fleshed out as characters. But there are still reasons why the fake story is constructed this specific way, and they're fun to discover whenever I can actually understand the story itself. :D)

Hah, I wish Kunlun could have done that, just ignore all this bullshit and chill in the Heavenly Realm. :D But I think he was born in the Mortal Realm to begin with and never had to descend?

Yeah, he's a mountain god and came to being in the mortal world. I don't think mountain gods are on the same level as true heavenly beings, usually.

They really don't get to communicate

Which is so different from the earlier scene where they found they understood each other on a basic philosophy-of-life level! But that one was part of the faked tree vision, so now I don't know if that understanding even ever existed. I liked it so much! :(

Honestly, fandom-wise? People who like age gaps and power imbalances will play them up on purpose. :) (And I guess people who actively dislike them will also play them up. It's a polarizing topic.)

Yeah, that's a good point, in both directions! I think a lot of people did like it that way.

I think SW as an extrovert would openly ask why these words are being thrown around, in addition to having quiet doubts about them, which would still make him the more mature one. :D

Fair! :D

(That reminds me of something

china_shop and I talked about some years ago discussions - I don't see it in novel!SW, but I do think drama!SW is more extroverted than people tend to believe, and drama!ZYL is more introverted as well.)

"Which is so different from the earlier scene where they found they understood each other on a basic philosophy-of-life level! But that one was part of the faked tree vision, so now I don't know if that understanding even ever existed. I liked it so much! :("

Ooof, yes, good point! I wish there was some callback to that here.

"That reminds me of something china_shop and I talked about some years ago discussions - I don't see it in novel!SW, but I do think drama!SW is more extroverted than people tend to believe, and drama!ZYL is more introverted as well."

Hah, I never got the hang of what 'introverted vs 'extroverted' even means irl (it seems to range from 'shy vs outgoing' to 'exhausted vs invigorated by other people' to 'small groups vs crowds' to 'thoughtful vs impulsive' and probably a million other concepts), so any alignment and any argument for it is automatically correct in my book. :D

'exhausted vs invigorated by other people'

This is closest to my understanding - "gets energy from being with people" vs. "gets energy from being alone". ZYL is obviously a very social person, but apart from the people closest to him (which pre-canon is just Da Qing) so much of it is performative and involves projecting an image, and I think he needs to recharge from that. Whereas SW is less social overall, but he does go out and keep in touch with people, to the point where someone calling him in the middle of the night about a breakthrough in their unrelated field isn't weird, and I do get the feeling that he gets energised from his connections. YMMV, obviously. :)

AW, yes, I can definitely see all of that! ♡ As I said, I would most likely agree with any assessment about this topic, but I love this analysis all on its own merit. :D

"to the point where someone calling him in the middle of the night about a breakthrough in their unrelated field isn't weird"

What scene is this again? I absolutely adore this concept and I want to rewatch and I have no memory of it, lol. :D

Unfortunately it's Zheng Zhongyuan, Zheng Yi's abusive dad - in episode 11 they discover his last phone call was to SW, and SW talks about it in episode 12 during the tense scene in his office, saying he called him at 11pm to talk about his breakthrough.

(SW clearly didn't know him that well since he didn't know he was abusive, but just people feeling free to randomly call him at 11pm without SW finding that particularly remarkable says something to me.)

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