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sid_guardian2025-07-12 04:48 pm
china_shop) wrote in sid_guardian2025-07-12 04:48 pm
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Guardian Readalong: Vol. 3, Chapters 19 & 20
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 19: At the Great Seal, Lin Jing discusses their predicament with Shen Wei and meditates effectively. At the police station in the mountains, Daqing and Chu Shuzhi meet up with Guo Changcheng. Daqing shifts into human form and tells Changcheng that the souls of the dead are still at the resort; Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi decide to go to find them.
Chapter 20: Zhao Yunlan goes to the court of the Ten Yanluo Kings with Zhu Hong and sasses the Kings. A reaper reports that the Great Seal has broken, and an earthquake shakes the court. Zhao Yunlan demands to see the Reincarnation Cycle. The Qin'guang King shows him the Soul-Guarding Lamp. At the Seal, Shen Wei comes out to Lin Jing as the Emissary, and Lin Jing pulls out the icicle. Shen Wei heals and reveals that he's been manipulating Ghost Face. Meanwhile, Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng search the resort for souls. (Guo Changcheng records a dead courier's last message.) They're joined by a rogue cultivator who tries to make conversation but has a disturbing shadow. A huge youchu bursts out of the ground.
The corresponding chapters in the Chinese version on JJWXC and the fan translation are chapters 100, 101 and a little less than half of 102 (up to "Meanwhile, in the county less than fifty kilometers away, people were still completely clueless.").
Excerpts:
1) Lin Jing and Shen Wei strategise
“Don’t worry.” Shen Wei chuckled. “That Chaos King of the Gui has enough to deal with right now. As long as I have Kunlun’s divine tendon, he won’t dare do anything to me. We’re safe for the moment.”
“No, no, let’s figure out a way to save ourselves,” Lin Jing quickly said. “No magical tendon can staunch your wound. If Director Zhao ever found out I just sat back and let you bleed like this, he’d make me the main course of this year’s Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner.”
Shen Wei’s gaze softened at the mention of Zhao Yunlan. After some thought, he said, “If you must try something, please continue reciting your scriptures. The Great Seal originated from Nüwa’s merciful heart. If you’re sincere, it might help you.”
2) Chu Shuzhi explains that the Ghost Face problem is above their paygrade
Chu Shuzhi laughed helplessly. “Guo Changcheng, do you know who the Soul-Executing Emissary is?”
Guo Changcheng thought the Emissary was scary, but he had no real idea about his background. He shook his head.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Chu Shuzhi said. “My thousands of years of cultivation allow me to walk under the sun. All corpses and skeletons bow to my will, so those in the know flatter me with the title ‘Corpse King.’ The next level up for me would be a ba, or a ‘Corpse Immortal.’ But even if I attain that level, if it weren’t for Director Zhao, I’d still never dare approach someone like the Soul-Executing Emissary. At the bare minimum, I’d keep a good two kilometers away from him. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Chu Shuzhi paused, then continued, “We’re dealing with someone who can catch the Soul-Executing Emissary off guard. Even if he only managed that by being sneaky, it means his power is at least on par with the Emissary’s. Whoever this is, he’s too powerful. This isn’t something we can handle.”
3) Daqing finds his human body hideous and explains some gui lore
Daqing kept speaking. “I don’t know who sealed away my memories. I still can’t remember much from all those years ago. But when I went up Kunlun Mountain with Zhao Yunlan, the Great Divine Tree awoke something in me. Now I can take human form again. Even though transforming makes me hairless, and thus, hideous, I at least seem to be able to remember some things now.”
Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi, who were both hairless and, apparently, uglier than “hideous,” wore the same peculiar expression.
“The Netherworld officially calls the things we ran into today ‘youchu,’ but more accurately, they’re gui,” Daqing said. “I’m not exactly sure where the gui are from, but I know they’re linked to the demise of Fuxi and Nüwa. You heard Shen Wei. When the gui came into the world, not a single blade of grass survived in the Great Wild. But as far as I know, the gui don’t have souls, so even though they drink blood and gnaw on bones, they don’t eat mortals’ souls because there’s no benefit to it for them. I think what happened here must’ve been too sudden. All those people died before their time, so even though their bodies disappeared, their souls are still souls of the living. Since the Netherworld couldn’t reach them in time, those frightened spirits probably ran off somewhere.”
“Then I’m going to go find them!” Guo Changcheng said.
4) Zhao Yunlan is unimpressed with the Ten Kings' Hell Expo and has no more fucks to give
From the moment Ghost Face had stolen Shen Wei away right before his eyes, Zhao Yunlan had felt like a chunk of ice was weighing down on his heart. He’d felt completely detached from everything anyone said or did; none of it seemed real or consequential. Only now, after having been confronted with such an extreme sight, did his mind begin to clear. Belatedly, he felt his anger float to the surface, although no trace of it showed on his face.
Zhao Yunlan crossed his arms in front of his chest. Ghost Face had taken the Soul-Executing Emissary. Whether Ghost Face harmed the Emissary or the Emissary had gone to Ghost Face’s side, it was bad news for the Netherworld. What was more, while there might not be a clear prognosis for the Great Seal, it clearly wasn’t going to hold out for much longer. And yet even under these circumstances, the Ten Courts were still putting on such an unfriendly welcome, appearances be damned.
Years of experience working with the Netherworld told Zhao Yunlan that the dumbasses were obviously planning to ask something of him, but they were unwilling to swallow their pride to do so. Either that, or they saw no need to take a mortal like him seriously and had chosen the route of coercion and bribery.
5) Shen Wei is blasé about his chest icicle
By this point, Lin Jing had escaped his bonds. He recited a water-repelling spell and circled around Shen Wei many times before climbing the Ancient Merit Tree. “Hold on, let me take a look. I must have a wire or something on me that I can use to pick the lock.”
“No need,” Shen Wei said calmly. “All you need to do is pull the icicle from my chest.”
Lin Jing shuddered. “P-pull it out? Won’t you…”
“I’ll be fine, but thank you.”
Lin Jing’s palms were a little sweaty. “You said it, Shen-laoshi, not me. If I fuck you up when pulling it out, I… I… Can you sign a waiver for me first?”
6) Chu Shuzhi is softening towards Guo Changcheng, despite himself
The Corpse King had an extreme personality and was cold by nature; necromancy was a deviation from the norm to begin with, not accepted by the world. Chu Shuzhi was lonesome and arrogant, wholly unconcerned about his merits, so he never paid it any mind. He’d always thought “morality” was a facade, nothing but an excuse to hide behind. The purer and more beautiful something seemed, the darker it might be beneath.
Despite this cynical outlook on the world, he somehow managed to put up with Guo Changcheng. Maybe by now it was just habit.
Either way, looking at the soul bottles in his bag stirred an inexplicable feeling in his heart. It made him grumble that Guo Changcheng was being too kind for no reason, even as Chu Shuzhi followed him around to collect lost souls.
Questions:
How many points does Lin Jing get for a) attempting to communicate with a youchu, b) keeping calm and meditating on, and c) not falling out of the tree when Shen Wei revealed his Emissary identity? Where did the youchu learn human speech? How wounded would Shen Wei have to be to admit that he wasn't fine? Does the SID really only employ people who can hyperfocus, or is hyperfocus a side-effect of the Soul-Guarding Order? What do you think of the descriptions of the different hells? How adorable are Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng? How well are you following what's going on with the Seal and Shen Wei's machinations? And do you have any thoughts about how moments in these chapters affected or were remixed in the drama adaptation?
(As usual, these are all just conversation starters - feel free to answer all, some, or none, and to say as much or as little as you like! You don't have to be keeping up with the readalong!)
Our schedule for this round -- please sign up to host a post if you can!
no subject
The titles of the excerpts are A+++, lol 'Hell Expo'. :D :D :D
*takes a bow* :D :D :D
Many, many points for Lin Jing! For not falling out of the tree especially. ;D
He's doing so much better than everyone else. :D
Ghost Face could be teaching them or something, but even he was under the Seal until recently. But maybe he does regardless?
Oh, I just thought, maybe Ghost Face just tells them to shut up a lot, and that's the main thing this youchu can say? Oh, except it explicitly says, High-level youchu were intelligent and capable of conversing with humans. So yeah, idk. Magic?
But then the youchu would speak ancient human language
It would be amazing if the youchu did speak an ancient language, and Lin Jing recognised it from all his scripture study. :D
Hah, drama Zhao Yunlan calls him out on that in YOHE. ♡
Exactly! :D
Conversations under the previous post were very illuminating re: how the dome and water thing could work, but tbh I still have no idea how it actually does work. xD
Right? When he's climbing the tree, there's no mention of swimming...
I keep waiting for this to be the equivalent of the light/dark energy thing that drama SW planned. Idk if it will though.
You mean that Shen Wei has planted an energy bomb for Ghost Face? Ooh! *waits to see*
I love this earnest smol bean so much. ♡♡♡
Yessss! <3
Lol. :D I'm amused that they're both aware that human Daqing is better looking than them. xD
I feel like that's an extremely high bar, though: they're only hideous in DQ's eyes.
> > “If the kid’s too naive and doesn’t understand, please try to be understanding, Corpse King. Be very careful. We only just got our new office. We haven’t even had a chance to renovate yet.”
>
> Does this refer to GCC's family being rich/powerful/funding the SID?
That's how I interpreted it. That GCC's family is influential, and if Changcheng is hurt, that could come back to bite the SID.
Until this line I didn't realize that they could hear them too, not only see them. D:
I totally missed that! It must make conversation so awkward, lol! /o\ I wonder if they can dial it up and down, like those fancy frosted glass offices.
Is this the 'drinking with Ye Zun' scene?
Oh, maybe! It's not half so effective without Ghost Face there, though.
2) Kunlun didn't quite understand what 'impudent' even meant, this is not gonna work on Zhao Yunlan. xD
LOL!
:D He has zero fucks left to give! (Not that he has ever had any, lol.)
*high fives you* :D
Thanks so much for looking up the copper pillars. Yikes!! (And agree about the shrewlike jumping blades -- it sounds so cute, lol.)
It's the funniest thing to me that all of this is so grand and dramatic, and the drama Lantern was in a box full of assorted trash. xD xD
LOLOLOLOL!! Great point, that is amazing!!! *sends another gift basket to the drama writers* :D :D :D
> > "As Lin Jing handed it over to Shen Wei, the ice melted all at once into a wisp of smoke with a bloodred tinge. In the next moment, Shen Wei swallowed it. The deep cracks in his lips closed over one by one; light returned to his eyes."
>
> This is so unexpected, and also very cool!
I didn't get this. Do you think he just needed to drink from the Wangchuan, or it had to be the melted icicle specifically? Was he just thirsty? ;-p
How is this something that people are able to tell without really having any information? xD
Right? Especially when Shen Wei is so good at keeping his manipulative side hidden!
Um, so how is Lin Jing going to breathe if Zhao Yunlan couldn't, and why do I picture Shen Wei kissing Lin Jing. xD xD xD Is the water-repelling spell going to help with this? (Also if Shen Wei is not carrying him, it's going to take a long-ass time!)
All very good points! Maybe Lin Jing has to meditate the whole way??
Omggg, CSZ. ♡♡♡ He just said that Ghost Face can't possibly be defeated, but he's not going to crush Feng Dawei's hopes and tell him that too. AW.
Right?! *hearts*
They're so precious, both of them! ♡
Yes! I really love this dynamic of Changcheng heedlessly determined to do good, and cynical disaffected Chu Shuzhi being impressed and admiring about it, despite himself.
This description is so funny to me
I loved that too. :D (I wonder if it's a saying.)
GCC got it wrong because he was stumbling over his words, right? (It was a reflection and not a shadow.) That's why CSZ doesn't see anything wrong with the shadow? And only GCC can see supernatural stuff in reflective surfaces?
Omg, thank you! I'd completely forgotten about Changcheng's ability. *facepalm*
no subject
Lol, maybe 'shut up' is the only modern phrase Ghost Face brought to them after he escaped the Seal. ;D But yeah, in the end it's probably magic. :D
"It would be amazing if the youchu did speak an ancient language, and Lin Jing recognised it from all his scripture study. :D"
Ooooh, true, ancient languages must be very familiar to a monk! Now I'm wondering if the youchu would be speaking the language that was on Shen Wei's Kunlun painting, but that was probably a god language, not a human one.
"You mean that Shen Wei has planted an energy bomb for Ghost Face? Ooh! *waits to see*"
Yeah, because Ghost Face freaked out when Shen Wei said "That wisp of Chaos you took from your own body? Where do you suppose it is now, after I sucked it away?" (And now I went to check the next chapter and I'm not exactly right, lol, but no spoilers. :D)
"I feel like that's an extremely high bar, though: they're only hideous in DQ's eyes."
Hah, indeed. :D (They're both supposed to be average-looking in the novel, aren't they? With CSZ being additionally creepy-looking, lol.) But the 'worse than hideous' realization is funny to me, like, if human Daqing is hideous, where are they on this spectrum? xD xD
"It must make conversation so awkward, lol! /o\ I wonder if they can dial it up and down, like those fancy frosted glass offices."
Lolol, considering it's all for show and they can shut down the visuals anytime they want to, I'm sure it applies to the sound too. :P
"I didn't get this. Do you think he just needed to drink from the Wangchuan, or it had to be the melted icicle specifically? Was he just thirsty? ;-p"
I don't think I really got it either - I assumed water from the Wangchuan is healing to him in some way (when it's not being forcefully shoved into his heart :P), but it could also be the specific icicle - he undid what it did? Or he was dehydrated and would drink anything, and this was an opportunity to be dramatic. ;D Who knows, it was a good show tho. xD
"Maybe Lin Jing has to meditate the whole way??"
Oooh, it helped with the chains, maybe it can help with the water too! Lin Jing is so unprepared for all of this (very good point that he presumably doesn't have Leaves of Illusion on him either), I hope Shen Wei knows what he's doing. :P
"I really love this dynamic of Changcheng heedlessly determined to do good, and cynical disaffected Chu Shuzhi being impressed and admiring about it, despite himself."
Yesss! ♡ He just goes along with everything, grumbling the whole time at his own warm and fuzzy feelings. :D
no subject
Lol, maybe 'shut up' is the only modern phrase Ghost Face brought to them after he escaped the Seal. ;D
Doesn't Shen Wei say it to Ghost Face in vol 1? LOL!
Now I'm wondering if the youchu would be speaking the language that was on Shen Wei's Kunlun painting, but that was probably a god language, not a human one.
Maybe they usually speak youchuhua, and everyone else interprets it as random growling?
But the 'worse than hideous' realization is funny to me, like, if human Daqing is hideous, where are they on this spectrum? xD xD
Or maybe DQ (like most people) has a different scale for himself vs everyone else? /continuing the tradition of taking jokes way too seriously ;-D
I assumed water from the Wangchuan is healing to him in some way (when it's not being forcefully shoved into his heart :P)
LOLOL!
but it could also be the specific icicle - he undid what it did? Or he was dehydrated and would drink anything, and this was an opportunity to be dramatic. ;D Who knows, it was a good show tho. xD
It was. (Actually, I could totally buy that he just needed a drink, but he pettily wanted to turn Ghost Face's attack into something restorative and refreshing. ;D)
Yesss! ♡ He just goes along with everything, grumbling the whole time at his own warm and fuzzy feelings. :D
So adorable! <3 <3 <3
no subject
Lol, he does!! :D (I went to find it and it's vol 2, chapter 17. :D)
"Maybe they usually speak youchuhua, and everyone else interprets it as random growling?"
Oh, I'm 100% sure that in addition to being able to speak to humans, they also speak to each other in their own language.
"Actually, I could totally buy that he just needed a drink, but he pettily wanted to turn Ghost Face's attack into something restorative and refreshing. ;D"
That's probably what's happening, ngl - Shen Wei being petty and dramatic, what else is new. :D :D
no subject
(I went to find it and it's vol 2, chapter 17. :D)
Ha, I am completely unreliable about what happened when. All of volume 1 is apparently a total blur. ;-p
Oh, I'm 100% sure that in addition to being able to speak to humans, they also speak to each other in their own language.
Somehow that makes the endemic cannibalism worse to me. *covers face* ;-p ;D
Shen Wei being petty and dramatic, what else is new. :D :D
*boggles again at the difference between novel!SW and drama!SW* :D
no subject
IKR, I'm grateful that it's easy for me to just roll with them being two entirely different people. :D