After the Breakup, My Cold and Aloof Junior Disciple Went Mad - Chapter 2

Gu Shenzhi hastily lowered his head, though he did not know why he felt an inexplicable heart palpitation. Perhaps it was simply because those eyes felt somewhat familiar.

In his entire life, he had only seen two people with such direct, sharp, and beast-like eyes—eyes that seemed as if they would swallow a person whole. One was the Divine Lord before him, and the other was someone for whom he had felt a sudden, impulsive heartbeat when he was young and naive.

More than a thousand years ago, before the Peacock Clan of the Great Holy King had declined, Gu Shenzhi was still a dazzling, carefree young prince. His father, Kong Zhao, hoping he would one day serve in the Heavenly Realm, entrusted the Master of Fate to arrange a task for him at the Jiyang Palace.

That was the first time Gu Shenzhi had left the royal palace to gain experience in the Divine Province. He was young, innocent, and possessed a clear, pure sense of confidence. Under the instructions of the Heavenly Mandate White Slip, he disguised himself as a blind cultivator under his real name, Kong Can, to accompany the reincarnation of the Cloud Firmament Goddess and assist her in successfully passing her tribulation and ascending.

Gu Shenzhi was full of passion; after all, it was the first time he was relying on his own efforts to complete a task and earn merit. He swore to achieve something significant. Seeing him too excited—to the point where he almost tripped and hurt his leg while trying to play a blind man—the Master of Fate sealed a portion of his cultivation and suppressed him to the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

Although he was supposedly there to help the goddess ascend, Gu Shenzhi spent his days traveling, cultivating, and playing with the goddess and their two companions in the mortal realm. Life was much more fun and interesting than it had been under his father’s watchful eyes.

It wasn’t until the day of the Xuan Tian Sect’s sect-wide competition that the Heavenly Mandate White Slip clearly indicated that he needed to assist the Goddess in completing the promotion match and successfully getting selected into the inner sect. The competition involved entering a “Transformation Realm” created by the Sect Leader to hunt demons. Points were awarded based on the grade and quantity of the demons hunted, and those with the highest points would be promoted. It was quite difficult; among the hundreds of outer sect disciples, only ten percent would be selected.

The Goddess’s group had a bad start. They chose the wrong location and spent five days in the illusion hunting, failing to encounter even a few demon beasts. If they didn’t hurry to catch demons, the mission would likely fail.

Without anyone noticing, Gu Shenzhi secretly removed the restrictions on his eyes. Although his eyes were covered by a white silk band, his vision was no longer obstructed. He took a “Demon-Pointing Needle” from his universe bag and discovered a group of Guhuo bird demons not far away. If they could hunt them all, their promotion would be guaranteed. He led everyone to the location. When the group saw more than a dozen bird demons standing on the treetops, they thought their luck had finally turned and nodded excitedly.

Capturing one Guhuo bird was easy, but catching all dozen at once was not. It wasn’t because his cultivation was insufficient; the Guhuo birds were extremely agile and timid. If even one was captured, the others would panic and flee at lightning speed, vanishing in an instant. To take them all, the four of them had to work together, find the right moment, and surround them simultaneously—a second’s delay would not work.

Gu Shenzhi secretly buried a “Demon-Binding Net” treasure. Even if one or two were startled, he could find an opportunity to pull the net and capture the rest together. Just as everything was ready and everyone was holding their breath, eyes like torches, about to strike…

A sharp whistle suddenly sounded behind them, piercing the sky and scaring the flock of birds into scattering. Gu Shenzhi was stunned for only a moment before he hurried to pull the net, but it was a step too late; the Guhuo birds had already flown away in fright. Seeing the bird demons he was about to capture disappear, Gu Shenzhi stomped his feet in anger, secretly cursing, “Who is so sick in the head?”

Suddenly, a figure brushed past Gu Shenzhi’s sleeve, bringing a gust of wind. The figure was as agile as a falcon breaking through the sky, “whoosh”—stepping on a slender tree branch and leaping up.

Hovering, pulling the bow, drawing four arrows—four arrows were fired at once!

In a few seconds, twelve birds were hunted down completely. The person neatly stowed the bow on his back, jumped down from the treetop, and the spirit stones in his hand flashed violently a few times, collecting the birds inside.

The Goddess rushed up, but there was nothing she could do. Besides Gu Shenzhi, there were two other young men—one named Yan Sui and one named Wu Yin. Wu Yin was a prince of the Ba Snake clan of Ten Thousand Spirits Island, and like Gu Shenzhi, he had transformed into a cultivator to gain experience in the mortal world. His temper was always fiery and direct. He immediately rushed over and pointed at the person, shouting, “Didn’t you see we were hunting? By what right do you snatch our demon beasts?!”

The person was wearing a neat, black, tight-fitting outfit, adjusting the arm-guard on his right arm without distraction. Only after all four of them had arrived did he slowly turn around, revealing a face covered by a mysterious iron mask. The plain, uninteresting mask covered his entire face, but it couldn’t hide the sharpness of his gaze. He swept a cold, emotionless gaze over the group like a machine, paused for a moment at Gu Shenzhi, and opened his mouth: “Want them? Come and take them.”

“You!” Wu Yin’s eyes bulged. He rolled up his sleeves and was about to go up, but was stopped by the Goddess and Yan Sui after only two steps. That person could hunt twelve Guhuo birds with just arrowheads; his cultivation was definitely above everyone else’s. They had no chance of winning in a direct confrontation. Seeing that no one answered, the masked man confirmed, “Not taking them?”

The atmosphere was tense. The Goddess stepped forward to mediate: “You hunted these with your own ability, so naturally, we have no reason to snatch them.”

The man didn’t reply and turned to leave. Wu Yin kicked an elm tree twice. His anger didn’t dissipate, and instead, he winced in pain. Yan Sui sighed and turned to look for Gu Shenzhi. He saw him standing blankly in place. Although his eyes were covered by the white silk band, he was staring straight in the direction the man had left, his mouth slightly agape, looking like a fool.

Yan Sui walked over and patted him, “What are you daydreaming about?”

Gu Shenzhi was startled and subconsciously looked toward Yan Sui, but suddenly remembered he was supposed to be blind and quickly turned his face away. He lowered his head, not knowing what was wrong with him. Perhaps it was because that person’s eyes were green, and his gaze was full of wildness; he had never seen such eyes before. His eyes were brighter than peacock stone, colder than emerald, as somber as wild beasts in the mountains, and as piercingly cold as clear, frozen water.

Gu Shenzhi giggled, feeling he was quite talented—after only a glance, so many descriptions popped into his head. His face felt a little hot, and he asked feigning indifference: “Yan Sui, who was that cool guy just now?”

Yan Sui looked unbearable: “Cool guy?” Perhaps having spent so much time with Gu Shenzhi, he quickly got used to his straightforward descriptions. He looked at the direction the masked man left and said with a bit of disdain: “Not some guy. By rights, he should be considered our junior brother. He wasn’t brought up the mountain by Elder Cui until he was thirteen. He is known among the newcomers as a cold and selfish person. I heard that during the mountain entry trial, he even crippled a fellow disciple who had helped him a lot just to get promoted. This kind of person has a very deep heart; it’s best to stay away from him.”

Wu Yin also recovered from the pain, rubbing his leg and cursing regardless of anything: “With such a sinister and vicious person, we should have all gone up together just now. Letting him enter the inner sect—isn’t that dirtying the reputation of our Xuan Tian Sect?”

Gu Shenzhi poked the ground with his toe and said nothing. The trial was not yet finished, so they couldn’t afford to delay. The Goddess waved her hand forward, interrupting: “Alright, stop complaining. There was no rule in the trial field saying who the birds belonged to. Since he hunted them, let’s go find the next demon beast. We don’t have much time.”

Yan Sui reached out his hand to Gu Shenzhi: “Let’s go, I’ll lead you.”

Gu Shenzhi dodged his hand, grabbed the Goddess’s sleeve, followed behind her, and asked: “Sister Wan’er, what is that cool junior brother’s name?”

The Goddess smiled lightly: “It seems to be called Lu… something, Feng? I didn’t remember.”

Gu Shenzhi added: “He only started practicing at thirteen and is still so powerful; he must have suffered a lot.”

Wu Yin roared in his ear: “Who doesn’t suffer during cultivation? Do you know what you’re talking about?!”

Gu Shenzhi’s ears hurt from his shouting. He covered his ears and stuck his tongue out at him: “Then how long have you been practicing? Why didn’t you hunt any birds?”

“What kind of cold talk is that? Did you hunt any?!” Wu Yin jumped in anger and reached out to hit Gu Shenzhi, but was stopped by the Goddess, who scolded him for his unstable emotions and told him to take care of the blind person. Wu Yin knew Gu Shenzhi was pretending to be blind, and he couldn’t expose him, so he had to swallow his anger.

Yan Sui walked beside Gu Shenzhi with his hands behind his back and said flatly: “He is indeed powerful, it’s just a pity that his face was disfigured early on, so he wears a mask all year round.”

Wu Yin loudly remarked: “Right, I heard he’s an ugly ghost!”

Gu Shenzhi said “Oh.”

The group continued walking, and Gu Shenzhi asked: “Can it be cured?”

Yan Sui said: “If it could be cured, why would he wait until now?”

Gu Shenzhi remembered that his current identity was that of a spirit cultivator, specializing in healing the sick and saving people. A flash of inspiration hit him: “Maybe I can help him heal.”

The Goddess raised her left hand, revealing several unhealed wounds: “It hasn’t been cured for three and a half days. Doctor Kong, you should keep your powers to yourself.”

Thinking of this, Gu Shenzhi couldn’t help but chuckle. The sound was not loud, but it was just enough to make all the immortals in front of the Jiyang Palace look at him. The field instantly went silent. Years of experience in his post made Gu Shenzhi immediately lower his head, lowering his presence. Then he pondered, confused: Why is everyone looking at him?

The Master of Fate walked up to the stage and stood beside the Divine Lord at some point. He held the appointment document in both hands, tilted his head, used his bean-sized eyes to glare at Gu Shenzhi past the dozen or so people on the field, cleared his throat, and continued to announce the Divine Lord’s appointment.

Du Jing also lowered his head, covered his mouth, and asked him: “What are you laughing at?”

Gu Shenzhi followed suit: “I thought of something funny… no, why am I not allowed to laugh?”

Du Jing rolled his eyes; he looked at everyone else whose attention was already on the appointment at the front of the stage, and then whispered: “Just now, I don’t know where the rumor came from, saying that when the Divine Lord was going through his tribulation in the mortal world, he was looked down upon for having a low status and was abandoned by someone. Now that the Divine Lord is in a high position, that person is going to be in trouble. Everyone below is discussing who that blind person with no vision is?”

“The Divine Lord seems to have heard it too, so he asked loudly, ‘Who is talking?’ When it was dead silent, you were the one who burst out laughing.”

“…” Although it was funny, Gu Shenzhi swore he definitely wasn’t laughing for that reason.

Du Jing sighed and shook his head, as if Gu Shenzhi was already unforgivable, and announced his “crimes” on the spot: “First, you delayed business and forgot to pick up the Divine Lord. Then you were suspected of spreading rumors about the Divine Lord’s love history, and you even openly laughed out loud…”

Gu Shenzhi kicked him, furious: “I am more wronged than Dou E right now.”

Du Jing let out a low cry in pain, not daring to rub his leg, but continued to tease him: “Then let’s see if the Divine Lord is the Dou Tianzhang of the Heavenly Realm, and if he can clear your name as the Dou E of this case?”

Gu Shenzhi closed his eyes. Based on the current rumors, the Divine Lord’s personality was probably more like the cruel official Lai Junchen.

The appointment letter was not short. After the Master of Fate muttered like he was reciting scripture for half a quarter of an hour, he finally finished and took the initiative to invite the Divine Lord to visit the Jiyang Palace.

The immortals had come from afar, all carrying gifts and invitation cards, waiting to hand them over in their spare time. Furthermore, many beauties had been waiting here for a long time, hoping to find an opportunity to flirt with the Divine Lord after the document was read. Seeing the Emperor leave, they became flustered.

Fortunately, the Emperor’s attendant came out. He was a white-faced fox lord. He greeted the immortals with great courtesy: “The Divine Lord has just entered the Jiyang Palace, and there are many matters to consult with the Master of Fate, so he will not be able to thank each immortal individually. If you have any name cards, you can hand them to me first; there is no need to send gifts.”

Although the immortals were dissatisfied, who dared to make a scene? They had to line up and hand over their name cards, seeking opportunities to visit the Divine Lord later. Even though it was said that gifts were not allowed to be sent, the fox lord accepted those that were handed over.

Gu Shenzhi and Du Jing were in no hurry. The two stood at the end of the line. Du Jing handed in his name card and gift, and after being registered, he stood aside and waited for him.

When it was Gu Shenzhi’s turn, he was about to cozy up to the fox lord when he was stopped: “Are you the Wuling Immortal Lord?”

Gu Shenzhi smiled, his appearance dazzling and stunning: “That is indeed me. May I ask what advice you have?”

With such a face, even a cold expression had three parts of charm, let alone when he smiled so brightly. Even though Du Jing had watched him for many years, he was occasionally blinded by him, cursing Gu Shenzhi in his heart for being despicable, while also playfully watching how the fox lord would deal with it.

Unexpectedly, the fox lord acted like a blind man. His expression did not change in the slightest, and he said coldly: “The Divine Lord has said: he will not accept your things.”

Du Jing burst into laughter and slapped Gu Shenzhi’s shoulder hard: “Finally someone who doesn’t buy your act!”

Gu Shenzhi coughed after being slapped. He covered his mouth with his sleeve, thinking that today was definitely not a good opportunity to see the Divine Lord again, so he took the chance to step down: “What a pity. Then I will not disturb the Divine Lord’s official business today. I will definitely come to visit another day.”

The fox lord stopped him again: “No need for another day. The Divine Lord said, please enter the mansion for a detailed conversation later, Immortal Lord.”