I Failed to Fake My Death After Scumming the Demon Lord [Transmigration] - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

For Qin Rulian to ask him to guide Ji Yun in breaking through his realm could be described as a golden, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a good relationship with the protagonist.

Calculating the time, it was indeed very close to when Ji Yun would break through to the Emerging Aperture stage in the original story.

After sleeping in his bedroom for several days and waiting for his body to recover somewhat, Qin Gu immediately pulled up the original plot to study it in detail.

The original story did not elaborate on this passage of content, taking up less than a chapter in total, so it was quickly finished.

Qin Gu read it over and over again three times.

The more he read, the more his lips twitched uncontrollably.

The good news was that, according to the original plot, he was the catalyst for Ji Yun breaking through to the Emerging Aperture stage.

The bad news was that Ji Yun encountered this opportunity when he went down the mountain alone to clear his mind after being insulted by the original body.

But since Qin Gu had transmigrated and was committed to maintaining the “amnesia” persona, it was absolutely impossible for him to bully Ji Yun like the original body did, not even to push the plot forward. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Fortunately, the original body’s abuse was just one of the catalysts. Ji Yun had also encountered a merchant caravan besieged by mountain bandits at the foot of the mountain; after saving them and returning to the Drink Maple Pavilion, he had already stepped into the Emerging Aperture stage.

As for the reason given in the original story, it was that Ji Yun had felt a long-lost sense of human warmth from the strangers in the caravan, which solidified his Dao heart to protect the common people.

Perhaps because he had become a person inside the book, Qin Gu only felt a sense of bitterness as he read it.

At this stage, even when Ji Yun was in the dark, he would still strive to move forward for a little bit of light.

He was practically a different person compared to the Demon Lord Ji Yun in the [Immersive Reading] feature.

Setting aside the system’s habit of frequently glitching, Qin Gu genuinely and wholeheartedly agreed:

Ji Yun should not become that Demon Lord whom everyone feared and cursed; he was the most outstanding cultivator the cultivation world had seen in a thousand years, and his wings should not be stained by a single speck of filth.

Qin Gu propped himself up against the table and pondered for a moment, then picked up the Hengqiu sword and walked out slowly.

He knew where Ji Yun liked to practice swordplay, and he also knew that, aside from necessary eating and resting, the other party spent most of his time practicing his sword.

This was the advantage of holding the script.

The Drink Maple Pavilion was endowed with beautiful scenery, with maple trees forming forests. The disciples practiced within these maple forests. As Qin Gu walked, maple leaves would occasionally fly toward him in a disorganized manner, caused by disciples using the wrong sword moves.

Qin Gu dodged them one by one, responding to their greetings. The deeper he walked into the forest, the rarer people became.

Passing through a stone cave formed by giant boulders, the view suddenly opened up, and the figure of a youth appeared faintly.

The youth held a silver sword, his steps as light as a swimming dragon. With every swing of the sword, he stirred up the fallen leaves on the ground to dance alongside him;

His sleeves fluttered. Just as the maple leaves were about to touch him, he swept his sword out again, causing the leaves to scatter from him as the center—a sight of peerless beauty.

Qin Gu did not interrupt. He squinted and watched for a moment. Seeing his sword momentum gradually waning, he suddenly leaped up into the air, drawing Hengqiu from its scabbard. With the sword tip tapping a maple leaf, he struck straight down.

Clang!

Metal clashed. Ji Yun turned sideways to block, the murderous intent in his eyes vanishing the moment he saw who it was, and he exclaimed in astonishment: “Senior Brother?”

Qin Gu said in a deep voice: “Focus your mind.”

He retreated swiftly, flipped his wrist, and struck with another sword blow!

Ji Yun asked no more questions. He gripped the sword hilt with both hands and spun in a circle. The sword intent kicked up a small-scale airwave, blowing Hengqiu slightly off course, before he quickly raised his hand and slashed horizontally toward Qin Gu’s neck.

Two streams of spiritual power collided at the moment the blades met, the bursting spiritual power transforming into a gale that made the maple leaves rustle.

In just a short moment, the two had exchanged over a hundred moves, both panting slightly;

Qin Gu seized the moment, thrusting his sword out. It grazed past Ji Yun’s sword tip and stopped a few centimeters from his throat.

They maintained this posture for a moment, then, as if by telepathy, simultaneously withdrew their swords. Ji Yun bowed, holding his sword: “Thank you for the guidance, Senior Brother.”

Qin Gu laughed. Ji Yun’s swordplay was already beyond reproach; every single move was so precise that it could serve as a teaching template. But his sword only moved according to the sword manual, lacking a piece of “self.”

Among the famous cultivators of heaven and earth, some swung their swords for love, some for hatred, some to protect the common people… the reasons were endless. But only because their swords contained a “self” could they reach the peak.

Just like Demon Lord Ji Yun in the original story—every sword strike he made in the later stages was for revenge;

If Qin Gu wanted to change the ending, he had to find another reason for Ji Yun to swing his sword.

Ji Yun was thoughtful. After a long while, he asked: “Senior Brother, what about you? What are you doing it for?”

Qin Gu looked at the glowing Hengqiu sword in his hand, smiled, and remained silent.

He answered in his heart: In order to stay alive.

Every day thereafter, Qin Gu would punctually spar with Ji Yun in the maple forest. While guiding Ji Yun, he also felt that his own Maple and Reed Sword Technique was ever-changing and unpredictable, and his swordplay had unknowingly improved.

Ji Yun was, after all, a genius in sword cultivation. In just a few days, he had digested all of Qin Gu’s guidance and was using it freely. His sword moves began to transform from purely defensive to offensive, and as Qin Gu won by narrow margins more and more often, he felt the strain.

Finally, on this day, after a fierce exchange, a cold sword light arrived in an instant. Qin Gu tilted his head; his sword tip rested on Ji Yun’s chest, while Ji Yun’s sword happened to brush past his neck.

A draw.

Ji Yun was the first to withdraw his sword. He didn’t say anything, but there was a light flickering in his eyes.

Qin Gu saw it and couldn’t help but laugh inwardly, praising him: “You will surpass me very soon.”

Seeing Ji Yun clearly stunned, his expression somewhat bewildered, Qin Gu could only add: “I truly mean it… By the way, Ji Yun, do you want to go down the mountain?”

He glanced at the sky. A storm was brewing, and black clouds were pressing down. Matching it with the original story, the merchant caravan was about to encounter danger precisely tonight. The timing was calculated perfectly, down to the second.

Ji Yun was puzzled by his suddenly jumping topic: “Hmm?”

Qin Gu was anxious for him to encounter the merchant caravan, so he grabbed his wrist and led him along: “Down the mountain!”

Ji Yun thought: I haven’t said anything yet. He followed along, looking inexplicable but helpless.

Going down the mountain so suddenly was strange enough, but Qin Gu insisted they couldn’t fly on their swords. They hurried through the mountains; the trees retreated rapidly, but it was nowhere near as fast as flying.

And Qin Gu kept stopping, as if searching for something, looking around constantly, muttering: “Damn, did we go the wrong way?”

Ji Yun blinked his eyes slowly: “Senior Brother…”

What are you doing?

A scream rang out abruptly. Whether because of the depths of the forest or not, it sounded somewhat distant.

Qin Gu cursed inwardly: We really did go the wrong way!

Fortunately, leaping through the trees was as easy as walking on flat ground for them. It took only the blink of an eye to reach the source of the scream;

Qin Gu landed on a tree, not even causing a single leaf to sway. He looked down through the branches of the ancient tree.

He saw flickering firelight in the woods. The horse pulling the cart lay on its back, its limbs twitching; the cargo on the cart had overturned to the ground. Blades flashed continuously, and the sound of flesh being torn could be heard repeatedly.

Seeing masked men holding sharp blades moving continuously toward a mother and daughter, Qin Gu plucked a leaf. Infusing it with spiritual power, the edge of the leaf became hard as steel in an instant. He raised his hand and flicked it gently; the leaf flew out at an extremely high speed, striking the masked man right in the neck!

Blood splattered. The masked man didn’t even make a sound before falling straight down.

This strike caused the other mountain bandits, who were in the middle of committing crimes, to stop and gather together vigilantly;

Someone shouted: “Who! Who is the rat sneaking around!”

Qin Gu hadn’t decided whether or not to act directly yet, but on the tree beside him, another leaf shot out, severing the throat of the man who had shouted.

He looked over in surprise to see Ji Yun with a gloomy expression between his brows, looking very displeased.

Qin Gu couldn’t describe how he felt in his heart; he only felt that the little wild cat he had picked up, which used to hiss at him, had started to roll over and show its belly to him. He couldn’t help but sigh that those few lashes had really not been suffered in vain.

This gang of mountain bandits had committed numerous acts of evil; they were not the kind of good souls forced by desperation. Qin Gu didn’t want to show them any mercy.

Taking advantage of the bandits’ panic and uncertainty, he and Ji Yun leaped down into the air, one from the left and one from the right. The mountain bandits were no match for cultivators at all. As soon as the sword light shone, the matter was settled swiftly.

Slashing the last person down, Qin Gu put away his sword and walked toward the merchant caravan.

“Sorry to have startled you all,” he said apologetically. “For something like this to happen within the boundaries of the Drink Maple Pavilion is our dereliction of duty.”

Upon hearing this, the merchant caravan leader immediately bowed to them: “What are you saying, Immortal Lord! If the two of you hadn’t arrived in time, my whole family might have met with disaster!”

Qin Gu smiled and told him not to mind it, then turned his gaze toward Ji Yun—in the original story, Ji Yun had his arm grazed by a stray arrow, and the little girl from the caravan had applied medicine for him, warming his heart which had been broken by the original body.

His gaze landed on Ji Yun’s arm, but he saw Ji Yun take a step back, actually hiding his arm behind his back.

Qin Gu: …

Is the movement of you stepping back for real?

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