Chapter 17
The items in the system store were useless to Wen Linyu. He recalled the system’s initial complaints about his incompetence.
Now, he was starting to feel the same way.
He needed something to restrain Gu Chi. What was all this… stuff?
Wen Linyu felt slightly disheartened. He was glad Little Tong had come, but its inability to solve his current predicament was disappointing.
And the comment about cultivating for centuries… was he supposed to just give up?
He refused to give up. He hadn’t even tried. How could he be reconciled to failure? He would stick to his plan.
He went to the nearby mountains, far from the city’s hustle and bustle. Although the spiritual energy here was also thin, it was much better than in the city. Gu Chi clearly knew his intentions. Wen Linyu had expected mockery or an attempt to prevent him from cultivating, but the outcome was once again unexpected.
Gu Chi seemed almost indifferent. He didn’t harass him during his cultivation, even acting as a protector, although his expression was one of utter boredom.
This was strange, so strange that Wen Linyu couldn’t ignore it.
Perhaps Gu Chi simply disdained his meager cultivation, like Little Tong, believing that even centuries of training wouldn’t make him a threat. However, considering Gu Chi’s recent behavior, his lack of interference didn’t make sense.
Gu Chi was driven by his whims, always prioritizing his own desires. Why would he be considerate of him?
Wen Linyu couldn’t understand Gu Chi’s motives, but they had coexisted peacefully in the mountains for several days.
There was little cell service in the mountains, and Wen Linyu hadn’t been paying attention to his phone. He hadn’t noticed the missed calls, nor the one million transfer from the student he had rescued from the ditch.
Meanwhile, the Wen and Wu families were in turmoil.
—They couldn’t find Wen Linyu. He had vanished.
Wen Hongbo and Lin Wanshow had filed a missing person report, citing their familial relationship. The last known location of Wen Linyu was that small town, that mountain, but the police search had yielded nothing.
This worried them greatly. Their aging had accelerated, another four or five years overnight. Everyone commented on their deteriorating health, asking if something was wrong.
Adding to their woes, the minor injury Wen Hongbo had sustained in the car accident was becoming increasingly painful, yet all medical tests were negative. Lin Wanshow’s face was changing, becoming less and less like her own, as if another person was slowly replacing her, or as if she was losing control of her own body.
This feeling was terrifying.
They consulted the master again, who confirmed Wen Linyu’s location—still in the mountains. But they had already searched the mountain thoroughly, finding nothing.
They returned to the master for a solution.
As for the Wu family, following Wu Shuhao’s violent outbursts, a greater disaster struck.
His health rapidly declined, as if he had aged decades overnight. Already frail and missing a soul fragment, he became an empty vessel.
Every day, a different entity would inhabit his body. One day a six-year-old child, the next a suicidal girl, then a creepy middle-aged man. His parents were on the verge of a breakdown.
For the first time, they felt regret. Not for scolding Wen Linyu in front of their son, nor for condoning his bullying, but for not calling their son home earlier that night.
Wen Linyu, isolated for half a month, had made some progress in his cultivation, but it was a small step, nowhere near Gu Chi’s level.
He was unaware of the outside world, but he knew Gu Chi had set up a barrier in the mountains, impatiently warding off any stray hikers.
From what he knew of Gu Chi, anyone who annoyed him risked being eliminated, depending on his mood. But setting up a barrier and using mist to gently deter people wasn’t Gu Chi’s style.
It was something… he would do.
The strange feeling intensified.
“I’ve accompanied you for half a month. Shouldn’t you accompany me now?” Gu Chi asked.
Wen Linyu looked up at him, and after a moment of silence, asked in a flat tone: “What do you want me to do?”
“What do I want?” Gu Chi chuckled, his smile suggesting something significant.
Wen Linyu tried not to overthink it. He would endure, like being bitten by a dog.
Gu Chi grabbed his wrist, and with a blink, they were outside the mountains. He pointed to another mountain: “Accompany me to the top. There’s a Three Lives Stone there, and a cliff where we can hang love locks.”
“What?” Wen Linyu was confused, staring at the scenic mountain several kilometers away.
Climbing a mountain, hanging locks? Wasn’t that something couples did?
“Ptooey!” 998, who had been listening intently, expecting something… more, was disgusted. Seriously?
What childish nonsense! Is he trying to turn this into a romance?
Yes, that’s exactly what Gu Chi wanted. While protecting Wen Linyu, he had been bored, and had glimpsed a soap opera playing on a television in a nearby farmhouse.
Such things existed in his world too, but he had always scoffed at them, dismissing romance as utter nonsense.
Now, however, he found the drama somewhat… inspiring.
Holding hands, kissing, exchanging tokens of love. The scenes made him feel a strange yearning.
He had touched Wen Linyu’s hand, kissed his ear, shoulder, and foot, but they hadn’t held hands properly, hadn’t kissed on the lips, let alone exchanged tokens of love.
Others did it. Why couldn’t he?
He would arrange it all!
