Chapter 28 The Truth.
Judging from his tone, he has a deep-seated prejudice against Lingyin Mountain.
Shi Mi's smile grew even wider. "You can't say that. Our Lingyin Mountain has always had a good reputation. It's not up to outsiders to judge us."
As her shoes crunched over the withered grass, the man who had been hiding in the darkness finally slowly approached her.
He was around forty years old, dressed in the most ordinary clothes, like a fisherman. On his right cheek, near his ear, was a burn mark, leaving a palm-sized patch of reddish-flesh connective tissue. In terms of appearance, even at his age, he could still be considered handsome and refined, and he had a natural, elegant bone structure, making him stand out in a crowd.
Her words drew his sarcasm, and he chuckled and said, "Outsider? Young lady, you are indeed young. When I was cultivating in the mountains, you were probably not even born yet."
His tone was very arrogant, but she also sensed something amiss. "Are you from the same sect?"
The person opposite did not respond. Looking away, the puppets and the puppets were still locked in a fierce battle. He blew a whistle, and Fifth Hai, upon receiving the order, swiftly returned behind him. The puppets, however, moved even faster, immediately gathering in a swarm and attacking them once more.
However, before he could even get close, the man raised his hand, and countless short needles flew out from his sleeve, whistling sharply, piercing straight into the foreheads of each puppet. The puppets immediately fell to the ground, completely lifeless.
Ali Dao and Ran Dianyan arrived shortly after, but Shi Mi, sensing the danger, whistled to summon them back. Although they didn't directly clash, she recognized him; this man was indeed a disciple of Lingyin Mountain. His skills were naturally far superior to hers; with just a puppet in his hand, he had forced her to use her full strength. If he hadn't released those puppets, Ali Dao and his companions would definitely not have been a match for Fifth Sea.
She began frantically searching her memories, recalling a time when her master had mentioned a former favorite disciple, his words tinged with endless regret. When Shimi pressed for details, her master shook his head, saying only that their fate had run its course and he wished not to speak of it further. As for where that senior brother went after leaving Lingyin Mountain, no one knew his whereabouts.
Could it be him?
Shi Mi stared at the person before him with graceful movements, inserting the silver needle back behind Fifth Hai's ear. Seeing that the puppet was disheveled from fighting, he raised his hand and carefully straightened it for him.
Shimi turned around and looked at the three people behind her. Their eyes were blank and their clothes were tattered. Perhaps they were a little envious of the gentleness that others showed to the Yan people. All three pairs of eyes were looking at her expectantly, which made her feel ashamed. So she could only straighten their clothes one by one.
It's a pity that none of the ten secret guards sent by Lu Min survived; they were all dead on the ground. I don't know how to explain this when we get back.
The man probably sensed her predicament and said calmly, "My humble abode is just ahead. Since you're here, please have a seat. This place is for Fifth to clean up and bury."
It seemed inappropriate to leave someone to bury the body alone, so Shimi instructed Ali Dao and the others to help, and then went with them to his fishing hut.
Calling it a fisherman's hut is no exaggeration. It consists of two thatched huts with a straw raincoat and fish basket hanging on the wall by the entrance. You would never guess that it is the residence of a skilled craftsman.
"Please sit down." He gestured with his hand, took a copper tea caddy from the stove to refill her tea, and said in a gentle voice, "My little house has never had any outside guests. You are the first one I've ever had."
Shi Mi wasn't there to chat; she just wanted to find out his background. "Was that puppet you made?"
He said "Oh," and then said, "You mean the fifth one? If you hadn't dug so deep, I would have almost forgotten that he was a Yanren. I have no family, so having a Yanren by my side can alleviate my loneliness. Aren't you the same? You've made three to keep you company."
Shi Mi, unwilling to beat around the bush, asked him directly: "Have you ever cultivated on Lingyin Mountain? Have you ever studied under Master Wei?"
Those words seemed to take time to digest. He remained silent for a long time before a smile slowly appeared on his face. "At first glance, it sounds like something from a past life. Master Wei must have mentioned me to you before. I am the rebellious disciple who betrayed the sect, Gu Jingguan."
These two short sentences contain a great deal of information. Shi Mi, who is very good at changing his tune, immediately started calling him Senior Brother Gu as if he were seeing a close relative.
"I am your junior sister, Jieshimi. I once heard Master mention his most talented disciple. Master said his surname was Gu, so he must be your senior brother. As for leaving the sect... Senior brother, why did you betray the sect? Was it because Master treated you badly? Or was it because life in the mountains was lonely and you couldn't stand it anymore, so you secretly slipped down the mountain?"
Her eyes shone brightly, showing great interest in uncovering secrets. Gu Jingguan then realized that what had happened to him before had never been used as a warning to others by his sect, which gave him some comfort.
He let out a sigh of relief. Thirteen years had passed, and he thought he had long since let go of the past. But seeing his fellow disciples again, he realized that he had been holding onto this feeling all along, never truly letting it go. However, he was still reluctant to face the past. Looking at the woman before him, he asked coldly and indifferently, "You married the puppet you created yourself. Does your sect know about this?"
Shimi paused for a moment, then slowly shook his head. "I didn't report to my sect; it was all my own idea."
Gu Jingguan laughed, "Don't you know that the first rule of our sect is that one must not develop feelings for a Yan?"
Shimi panicked a little and hurriedly defended himself: "I have no feelings for Yanren. I have my own reasons for doing this. Even if my sect blames me, I will not regret it."
It was the latter half of that sentence that stirred up many emotions in Gu Jingguan: "No regrets... really no regrets?"
The lineage of Lingyin Mountain specializes in mechanical arts; flying and ground-based contraptions are merely beginner-level gadgets. Master Wei hasn't taken many disciples, only four so far. Gu Jingguan had a senior disciple who ran away after two years, failing to even grasp the basics. Another disciple desperately sought to become his apprentice, but unfortunately, his aptitude was mediocre, and he couldn't learn the manipulation techniques even after five years. Finally, there's this junior sister. He was no longer at Lingyin Mountain then, but having heard that Master had taken a princess from the Yu Dynasty as his disciple, he predicted she possessed exceptional talent, and today's test proved him right.
So the woman before him was Princess Longkan of the Yu Dynasty, and coincidentally, her surname was Xie, which matched. He became the one with interest. "Your so-called principle, is it revenge and restoration of the kingdom?"
Shimi, who always wore a smile, fell silent this time, her eyes burning with intense anger. "I do want revenge, but not for the restoration of the country, but for the 200,000 soldiers who were buried alive in the end while guarding Zhongdu."
Revealing these hidden truths finally relieved the long-standing depression that had been weighing on my heart.
She only learned of the fall of the Yu Dynasty. That very day, she bid farewell to her master, picked up her mechanical box, and left Lingyin Mountain. She first returned to Baiyujing, where the city had just fallen, and all she could see were dead bodies and ruins. The royal family in Longcheng had been cleared out, their corpses thrown into the kilns outside the city. She found her parents among the dead; her father had a broken sword stuck in his chest. After burying her parents, she took the broken sword and hid in Chong'an City.
Why Chong'an City? Because it was a bit far from Baiyujing, thus avoiding the Yan army's repeated post-war mopping-up operations. She found a quiet place alone and worked day and night making puppets and automatons. She harbored a burning passion within her, and it was this passion that had kept her going until now.
She couldn't wait ten or twenty years of lying low; she needed to find a shortcut to help her take Zhongdu. Zhongdu had six guards protecting the city, all elite soldiers who had fought in sieges. With them, even if they couldn't overthrow the Yan Dynasty, they could at least give the usurping Emperor Shengyuan a scare.
Gu Jing looked at her and saw an irreversible resolve on her face. He sighed and asked, "Aren't you afraid of failure? What are your chances of winning against an entire nation all by yourself?"
Shi Mi said, "I only care about my heart, not my future. I am now an orphan, I will take it one step at a time. What does it matter if I destroy myself? In the end, my victory will be letting those Yan people know that the Yu people are not all dead."
After listening, Gu Jingguan also praised the young girl's determination, "At first I was not sure of your identity. I thought you coveted Lu Min's power and used your sect's mechanical arts to prolong his life. It seems I misunderstood you."
Shimi was not a self-pitying person; despite experiencing many setbacks, her temperament remained unchanged.
She smiled, her eyes crinkling. "Haven't you heard, Senior Brother? During the Ansan Festival, there are reports of generals who died in battle during the previous dynasty. You don't know how I dug up several graves overnight to recreate their facial features and stature. Luckily, the Yan people buried the military governor and his three deputy generals separately. Otherwise, the ancient battlefield is so vast, even if I dug until my hands were worn out, I still wouldn't have been able to find them."
Her teasing tone carried a chilling truth. Gu Jingguan watched her silently, inwardly sighing at the young woman's far greater courage than he had imagined.
Shi Mi was preoccupied with something else: "That day I hosted a banquet in the east of Fuyao, during which the Grand Princess fell from a building and her body has never been found. Senior brother, was all of this your arrangement?"
Having already spoken frankly to this point, it seemed there was nothing left to hide. Gu Jingguan said, "That puppet was created by me thirteen years ago. Originally, it was meant to be used to kill someone, but unfortunately, the person I was supposed to kill died on the battlefield, so I left it there as a precaution."
As expected, it matched perfectly. It's clear that Lu Min is indeed a perceptive person, and his assumptions were entirely correct.
“I only met the Grand Princess once, and I was puzzled at the time because her appearance didn’t match her age. Today, after asking my senior brother, I am convinced that there really is a hidden story.” She stared intently at him and asked again, “So, was the incident of falling from the building meant to lure me into investigating, and to purge the sect if necessary?”
But these words only elicited a bitter smile from Gu Jingguan. “What right do I, a person who has betrayed my sect, have to clean house? I just want you to know how to restrain yourself and not let the art of puppetry become a plaything in the hands of the Yan Dynasty’s rulers and ministers. Especially Lu Min, you must be wary of him. Even if you marry him, you’d better not forget your original intentions and don’t let any feelings develop over time.”
This time, she abandoned her playful demeanor and said seriously to Gu Jingguan, "Don't worry, senior brother. I only want to use him to achieve my goal. He is a puppet that I made myself. How could I possibly develop feelings for him over time?"
However, a strange expression appeared on Gu Jingguan's face as he murmured, "You can't be sure what will happen in this world. You despise him now, or even hate him, but who knows if one day he won't make you remember him with a vengeance, causing you unbearable pain..."
She stared at him, bewildered, unable to fathom the secrets hidden within this senior brother who had betrayed his sect. His talent was so high, so exceptional, that she could only look up to him. Had he not left Lingyin Mountain back then, his achievements would surely have been no less than her master's.
"Senior brother..." she called softly when she saw him lost in thought, "I met Fifth Sea for the first time at the Ghost Market today, and I was immediately captivated by his exquisite craftsmanship. I consider myself to have studied mechanical arts for many years and have achieved some success, but in the face of Fifth Sea, I truly feel inferior. My puppets are not bad either, but their intelligence is difficult to fully develop, and their combat strength is far inferior to Fifth Sea's. Looking back now, I am simply unworthy to call myself a puppeteer."
She looked worried, and Gu Jingguan smiled when he saw this. "Don't underestimate yourself. You've only been practicing for a little over ten years, while I've been practicing for over thirty. When you reach my age, your achievements will definitely be greater than mine. Besides, I've never really tried the art of body swapping. Since leaving Lingyin Mountain, I've only made two puppets: one is the Grand Princess who fell from the building, and the other is Fifth Sea."
Shi Mi said, "These two alone surpass thousands upon thousands. But I still don't understand. You said you became a Grand Princess so that she would kill people. Did you also have enemies in the world?"
Gu Jingguan tightened his grip on the cup, lowered his head and said, "To explain the whole story, I'm afraid I'll have to reveal every detail of my past."
Shimi was ultimately a sensible person; everyone has scars they don't want to uncover. Even if she was reckless, she couldn't pry into other people's secrets.
But when people are lonely for too long, they all have the desire to confide in someone. As she lowered her head to drink her tea, she heard him suddenly write, "That enemy of yours is now related to you in some way. He is your father-in-law, Marquis Lu Xuanzhou."
After a moment of confusion, he realized that the "father-in-law" he was referring to was Lu Min's father.
When she was making Lu Kongshan earlier, she had considered making a rubbing of Lu Xuanzhou, but she had to give up because she didn't know what he really looked like. She never expected that Lu Xuanzhou, who had passed away many years ago, would have a grudge against her senior brother Gu. She didn't want to find out what the grudge was, so she just looked at him with curiosity and waited for him to tell her on his own.
Gu Jingguan raised his eyes. "Want to know?"
Shimi nodded. "Yes."
Years had passed, and the initial indignation was gone. He spoke slowly, "This feud began after I left my sect. I entered Lingyin Mountain at the age of four, learning mechanical arts from my master. At thirteen, I made my first puppet, naming her Miaoruo. Perhaps because it was the first attempt, I put the most effort into it, and this puppet was more intelligent than the ones I made later. As my skills improved, I repaired her every now and then, and Miaoruo's intelligence grew more and more, gradually developing human emotions. However, she was timid and always by my side. I didn't see anything wrong with that, but my sect seemed to have violated their rules and ordered me to destroy Miaoruo. I don't understand. Is it because she is attached to me that I can't tolerate her? She has been by my side for ten years; to me, she is already a living person. I have nourished her with my blood for ten years; how can I not have feelings for her? Destroying her is no different from murder!"
From his calm narration, Shi Mi could vaguely glimpse the mystery behind his deep-seated resentment towards the sect's rules.
He was lost in reminiscing about the past, his face filled with endless sorrow. After a brief pause, he continued, "Back then, the elders in charge of enforcement were pressing me hard. I was tormented every day. I considered obeying my master's orders, but when I saw Miaoruo's eyes, I couldn't bring myself to do it. Later, I made a decision to take her away from Lingyin Mountain. But I grew up in the mountains and knew nothing but how to make mechanisms. We endured a lot of hardship, and Miaoruo's companionship couldn't offset those setbacks. I started to become irritable and even resentful towards her. It was all her fault that I ended up like this. But Miaoruo always accepted it passively, taking all the blame upon herself. But the more she did that, the angrier I became." Then one day, a group of people suddenly appeared outside the cave, led by Lu Xuanzhou. He initially tried to coax me into working for him, making automatons for him, but when I refused, he revealed his true colors and attempted to capture me alive. We retreated into the cave, where a trap had been set at the entrance. Unable to break through, he set it on fire. The fire raged, and when there was nowhere to retreat, we discovered an exit in the cave ceiling. I wanted to send Miaoruo out first, but she refused, saying that without supplies, the automatons would also perish, insisting that I go first. So I climbed out of the cave by stepping on her shoulders, but by the time I turned back to save her, it was too late… I just watched helplessly as she perished in the flames.”
After he finished speaking, he finally let out a long breath, blinked slowly, and said slowly, "When she was here, I resented her, blaming her for ruining my life. After losing her, I realized I had gotten used to her being around, and the thought of not having her anymore is like having my heart ripped out. Later, I made many puppets like her, but it was all useless, I failed. I vowed to avenge myself on Lu Xuanzhou, to make him suffer the torment of losing his beloved. I spent five months making the Grand Princess, and just as I was ambitiously preparing to kill him, news came that he had died in battle." At this point, he smiled bitterly again, "In my whole life, it seems like I'm always a step too late in everything I do. I only understood my feelings for Miaoruo after losing her, and the weapon to kill him was only made after Lu Xuanzhou died on the battlefield... It's all fate, I guess, I have to accept it."
Shi Mi finally figured out the ins and outs of his departure from his sect, but a new question arose: "When Lu Xuanzhou died, Lu Min had already entered the court, and the Grand Princess had long been married and had children. How could these two have this connection? Were they childhood sweethearts?"
Gu Jingguan was somewhat embarrassed. "It's hard to explain things between men and women. Even after marriage, it's possible to fall in love at first sight."
Shi Mi clicked his tongue, "That Lu Min is very suspicious. Like father, like son. If he suddenly falls in love one day, things will be difficult."
Gu Jingguan glanced at her. "Didn't you say you wouldn't fall in love with Yan?"
Shi Mi said, "Yes, I won't fall in love with him, nor can I let him fall in love with other women. After all, I still need him to do things. If he is held back by women, wouldn't I have to spend my time dealing with those women?" But then again, "Lu Xuanzhou is dead, but his son is still alive. The reason why my senior brother arranged for the Grand Princess to fall from the building at our banquet to thank our guests was probably not only to remind me, but also to trip up Lu Min, right? But Lu Min is not so easy to deal with. Emperor Shengyuan still relies on him. The death of a mere princess will not have any impact on his career."
Gu Jingguan nodded. "I know that too. It wasn't really to intimidate him. It's just that the time has come for that Yanren to retire. Keeping him around would only cause trouble. I've been hiding in the countryside for many years. My former ambition has long been worn away. Now I'm just fishing and wasting my time."
Shi Mi had a good idea and said cautiously, "Senior Brother's skills are far superior to mine. The Grand Princess was not exposed by her children for thirteen years. The Yanren has become fully intelligent. If he wants to replace someone, wouldn't it be as easy as turning his hand? Senior Brother, please help me take Chong'an City and go straight to Baiyujing."
Gu Jingguan smiled and said, "In the end, you still want to restore your country."
Shimi paused for a moment and then said, “The Xie clan is not completely wiped out. The remaining clansmen are imprisoned in Shangdu City. The Yan ruler is keeping them like livestock, waiting for them to engage in promiscuous sex and go mad. If we can restore the country, who in the world can’t be emperor! If not, at least we can rescue them and give my late father an explanation.”
Gu Jingguan pondered for a moment, still intending to decline, "Fifth Hai and I have been here for many years and have become accustomed to a carefree life. We don't want to get involved in any more trouble."
Shi Mi said, “I understand your thoughts, Senior Brother, but have you considered that since I’ve been drawn here, it’s difficult to remain unscathed? Those ten assassins left no survivors, but that doesn’t guarantee we can keep this a secret. There are scouts in Jiuzhang Prefecture, and the news may have already reached Lu Min’s ears. Instead of hiding here and there, Senior Brother, why don’t you come back to Liren Lane with me? Lu Min won’t be making any moves there for now, and I happen to need someone to replace the puppeteer…” She finished speaking and gave an awkward laugh, “I’ve always claimed to be a half-puppet, without revealing my true identity. If he becomes suspicious of me and imprisons me, my blood will be enough to keep him alive until he’s seventy or eighty.”
Gu Jingguan couldn't help but sigh, "You are really reckless. As soon as he makes up his mind to take the risk, your lie will be exposed immediately."
She grinned obsequiously, "That's why I desperately need your help, senior brother. The fake puppeteer won't be able to handle him sooner or later. I need a real person to play the role of the puppeteer. No one is more suitable than you, senior brother."
Perhaps it was because he was too lonely, there was no one in this world he could talk to, and the appearance of his fellow disciples was a salvation for him. Shimi begged him repeatedly, and in the end he did not refuse. After pondering for a moment, he nodded, "I am also bored with my life, so I will help you this time."
Inside the room, important matters were discussed, while the four people who had been eavesdropping outside the door looked at each other in bewilderment.
Ali Dao said, "So Ami is a puppeteer. No wonder she never dies."
Ran Dian crossed her arms and shook her head, "I can't believe she kept it from me for so long."
Yan Dian asked, "Should we continue to pretend we don't know? Won't Ami worry that we might accidentally let it slip?"
However, before they could finish figuring it out, Fifth Sea struck like the wind and knocked them unconscious.
The three men burst through the door and fell straight into the room. Shi Mi, who was sitting in front of the stove, turned around in surprise and saw Fifth Hai say expressionlessly, "They know the inside story. To avoid any complications, I've let them take a short nap. Whether or not you want to retain the memories is up to you, young lady."
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