"Where are you looking, brat? I meant a junior brother."
"Oh, a junior brother... Of course I wouldn't want one. Besides, I don't even have a sect. Where would I get a junior brother?"
He was not a disciple of the Tai Xu Sword Sect, merely a disciple's family member.
"I knew you wouldn't want one." Lin Zhaoyu wore an expression that said she had expected as much and said with a smile,
"A few days ago, when we were slaying demons in a village, Master found a foolish child with decent talent and wanted to take him back as a disciple. I stopped her."
"..."
Ye Chang'an fell silent.
He thought of Old Six, the Old Six who had activated his system.
"What was that foolish child called?" he asked.
"Hmm... What was it again? I think his name was Ma Yanqing. He had golden hair and some Rakshasa blood. You haven't seen Rakshasa people before, have you? I'll take you out to see them someday. They're quite pretty."
"But they still can't compare to my Chang'an. Chang'an is the prettiest."
"..."
This time, he was genuinely speechless.
No wonder he had changed Old Six's fate without ever meeting him. Lin Zhaoyu had practically erased Old Six from the picture.
The source of it all still lay with him.
His feelings were somewhat complicated. He gently hugged Lin Zhaoyu and thanked her.
"Lin Zhaoyu, thank you."
It was a heartfelt expression of gratitude, and rightfully so.
Lin Zhaoyu had helped him activate the system, ensuring that his life was no longer lost in confusion.
"What's there to thank me for?" Lin Zhaoyu shook her head with a laugh and stroked Ye Chang'an's hair, recalling the vow she had once made in secret.
—Let this child find happiness.
Eight years ago, when she was eighteen, she had slain Ye Chang'an's birth parents after they had turned into demons.
It had been unavoidable. After following Chi Yuan for many years, she had already come to understand that truth.
She had imitated Chi Yuan and adopted Ye Chang'an, but she had not imitated Chi Yuan's way of teaching.
Even though Ye Chang'an possessed no talent whatsoever, she still wanted to make sure he could live out his life happily.
That was why, when faced with the rather talented Ma Yanqing, she had stopped Chi Yuan from taking him as a disciple. She simply did not want Ye Chang'an to feel miserable on the mountain.
Even if the possibility was minuscule, she did not want such a situation to arise.
That was Lin Zhaoyu's gentleness.
"Lin Zhaoyu, help me with something later," Ye Chang'an said seriously after pulling away from the embrace. His resolve to change the fates of Lin Zhaoyu and the others grew even firmer.
It was not for more simulation attempts. He simply wanted to change the fates of these disciples and Chi Yuan.
He had once given his all even in a false world. How could he shrink back in the real one?
Though he had yet to find a suitable method.
Methods were thought up, and roads were walked.
He was no longer the same as before, able only to joke around and muddle through.
"No problem." Lin Zhaoyu nodded, agreeing without even asking what he needed.
As long as it could make Ye Chang'an happy, she was willing to do anything.
"Thank you." Ye Chang'an smiled and turned his gaze into the distance.
His eyes were filled with light.
Tai Xu Chapter · Section One: 7. Chi Yuan, Don't These Erosion Markings Look Good on Me?
When they returned to Tai Xu Mountain, it was still afternoon. Traveling by flying sword truly was fast.
Chi Yuan confined Su Mei and the others for punishment, citing their unauthorized descent from the mountain and their lack of focus on martial training.
Ye Chang'an was not confined because he was not a disciple of the Tai Xu Sword Sect.
He was quite satisfied with this arrangement. After offering a few comforting words to the confined girls, he went to find Chi Yuan.
Naturally, he did not forget to bring Lin Zhaoyu along.
"What is it?" Chi Yuan asked calmly as she sat cross-legged upon a meditation cushion. Her attitude toward him differed little from how she treated Su Mei and the others.
It was not because she acknowledged Ye Chang'an as a disciple, but because everyone looked the same in her eyes.
All beings were equal. She was not swayed by status or identity; the only difference was whether one had fallen to demonic corruption.
Four thousand five hundred years had turned her into this way.
"Immortal Chi Yuan, I would like to show you something," Ye Chang'an said respectfully. Then, before Chi Yuan's eyes, he began to remove his clothes.
???
Chi Yuan was bewildered, and Lin Zhaoyu also looked completely confused.
Just as Lin Zhaoyu was about to stop him, Ye Chang'an had already taken off his clothes.
Wearing only rough trousers and bare from the waist up, he revealed the clearly visible Erosion Markings.
At that moment, the air seemed to stop flowing as an invisible pressure spread from Chi Yuan.
Lin Zhaoyu snapped out of it and hurried before Ye Chang'an, dropping to her knees as she pleaded urgently to Chi Yuan.
"Master, please don't do this. Chang'an is only a child!"
To the people of Tai Xu, Erosion Markings were a sign of falling to demonic corruption.
To members of Tai Xu who upheld the rule that all who fell to corruption must be killed, Ye Chang'an was practically dead.
And he had revealed them before Chi Yuan herself. He was simply courting death.
Lin Zhaoyu's pleas might not have helped, but Ye Chang'an knew Chi Yuan would not blow open his skull with an inch punch.
Because Chi Yuan would not kill someone who had not yet turned into a demon. Jiang Wanru, the spark that led to the seven disciples killing their master, was proof enough.
If merely developing Erosion Markings meant death, Jiang Wanru would have died long ago.
Thus, Ye Chang'an was not panicked in the slightest. He waited for Lin Zhaoyu to step forward and break the tension before continuing.
"Immortal Chi Yuan, that is not what I wanted to show you. I only needed to reveal it so that you could better see what I truly wished to show you."
His composed tone made Chi Yuan frown slightly as she withdrew the pressure she had unconsciously released.
Lin Zhaoyu turned back in surprise and stared at the utterly calm Ye Chang'an. The panic and anxiety on her face gradually gave way to confusion and incomprehension.
At that moment, Ye Chang'an became completely unfamiliar in Lin Zhaoyu's eyes.
He did not resemble an eight-year-old child at all, but rather a young man even steadier than she was.
"Zhaoyu, move aside. Let Immortal Chi Yuan see more clearly." Ye Chang'an sat cross-legged on the ground, took out the Yaoqin Lyre, and gently plucked its strings.
Lin Zhaoyu stepped away, but her eyes remained fixed on Ye Chang'an's face.
That childish face bore a calmness unfamiliar to her, along with a gentle smile she had never seen before.
Chi Yuan remained silent, traces of reminiscence surfacing in her eyes.
—This child smiled a great deal like Eden.
It was the gentle smile of someone wholly absorbed in music.
The silence was broken by the sound of the lyre. Ye Chang'an stroked the strings and began his attempt to change the fate of the Tai Xu lineage.
His boldest attempt.
After confirming that Chang'an Melody could work in this world, noticing the Erosion Markings appearing on his body, and understanding the result of Ma Yanqing's altered fate, he had chosen this path.
Old Six's fate had changed because he had no connection to Tai Xu Mountain. Perhaps the fate of the Tai Xu lineage was closely tied to the seven disciples killing their master.
And the spark that led to the seven disciples killing their master was Jiang Wanru—or rather, Chi Yuan's rule that those who fell to corruption must be killed.
If he showed Chi Yuan the effects of Chang'an Melody and let her know that those who had fallen to corruption did not necessarily need to be killed, would the fate of the Tai Xu lineage change because of it?
So he did it.
Like Blanca, he became a guinea pig and made the effects of Chang'an Melody unmistakably clear.
Last time, it had been Mobius. This time, it was Chi Yuan.
"..." The melodious music robbed everyone of the ability to speak.
Chi Yuan stared blankly at the child before her, who resembled Eden, and watched as the Erosion Markings on his chest faded away.
Lin Zhaoyu stared blankly at the child she had raised for eight years. His utterly unfamiliar aura overturned all her past memories.
—Was he really Chang'an?
Lin Zhaoyu fell into deep doubt, to the point where she no longer had the mind to care about Ye Chang'an's demonic corruption.
When the piece ended, every Erosion Marking vanished as though they had never existed.
Master and disciple were speechless. Ye Chang'an rose with a smile, turned in a circle before Chi Yuan so she could clearly see his upper body, and beamed.
"Immortal Chi Yuan, did you see what I wanted to show you?"
"...I did." Chi Yuan returned to her senses and nodded. Her normally impassive face revealed rare complexity as she parted her lips and asked, "What was that piece called?"
"Chang'an Melody. It was a melody composed for me by the person most important to me. It can help listeners resist demonic corruption."
Ye Chang'an answered while putting his clothes back on. His smile remained, but his heart felt somewhat heavy.
The number of simulation attempts had not increased. The fate of the Tai Xu lineage still had not changed.
—It seems this alone isn't enough.
He sighed inwardly, yet did not lose heart.
He could continue trying.
"...Who was that person?" Chi Yuan asked again, though a figure had already surfaced in her mind.
Eden!
Ye Chang'an as he played the lyre just now had truly resembled Eden too much.
Though their appearance and even gender were entirely different, their temperament was exactly the same—the temperament of someone so deeply in love with music that it had seeped into their very bones.
Chi Yuan could not forget the golden superstar who had represented an era, nor could she possibly mistake her for someone else.
"Her name was..." Ye Chang'an hesitated for a moment before finally speaking.
"Eden."
"..." Lin Zhaoyu returned to her senses, speechless, her mind full of questions.
—Who was Eden? Was there someone named Eden in Shenzhou? That name did not sound like a Shenzhou name at all.
—And how could this Eden have composed music for my Chang'an? When had she ever come to Tai Xu Mountain?
—Could they have met during this trip down the mountain? No, that couldn't be right. Chang'an had only been down the mountain for a few days. Even if he had met her, he couldn't possibly have learned to play the lyre this well so quickly.
Lin Zhaoyu felt her head buzzing as an inexplicable sourness grew in her heart.
After all, Ye Chang'an had just personally said that she was the person most important to him.
It was not Lin Zhaoyu, not Su Mei, and not anyone from Tai Xu Mountain, but Eden.
It felt like the child she had raised had been lured away by someone else.
She was furious.
Her little cabbage, painstakingly raised~
"Did you meet her in a dream?" Chi Yuan had no idea what her eldest disciple was thinking. She asked Ye Chang'an in a complicated tone.
She did not suspect he was lying, because what Ye Chang'an had displayed just now was not something one could accomplish merely by lying.
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