Chapter 6 – When a Fanfic Protagonist Transmigrated into the Original Novel

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Chapter 6 – When a Fanfic Protagonist Transmigrated into the Original Novel

Yi Xichen and Lu Ziyao were helpless. If it was only his body that had been poisoned, the Awaken Mind pill should be enough to deal with it but Zhangsun Zijun didn’t show any signs of improvement.

“Go to Elder Yao,” Lu Ziyao suggested. “He is Medicine Hall’s elder and your master. Maybe he will know how to fix this.”

It’s not that Yi Xichen hadn’t thought about that. It’s just that Zhangsun Zijun’s condition was too weird. He thought that he and Yi Xichen … had children. This was too embarrassing so Yi Xichen wanted to solve this problem on his own in order to not let more people know about it. Unfortunately, now all they could do was go to Yao Budu.

Zhangsun Zijun expressed his willingness to meet Yao Budu. Now it was obvious that the person who had a problem was him Yao Budu was the elder that he trusted the most. He hoped to quickly find out the crux of the matter.

Just after they left Zhangsun Zijun’s room, Lu Ziyao’s command token shook, indicating that the Sword Refining Hall elder was summoning him. Thus he could no longer accompany Zhangsun Zijun and Yi Xichen. The two did not mind and after he left they went to the Medicine Forest.

Along the way Yi Xichen instructed Zhangsun Zijun: “When we see Master, tell him what ails you, including all the strange things that you feel. Master is very knowledgeable. Maybe we can find out what happened to you.”

Zhangsun Zijun kept silent.

“-But you are absolutely not allowed to talk about any children!” Yi Xichen threatened him, his gaze like that of an angry tiger. “If you dare to talk nonsense, I will… I’ll let the Golden Toad pee on your pillow!”

Zhangsun Zijun couldn’t help but say: “Are you really not pregnant?” In his memory, in the year Bingchen, Yi Xichen got pregnant with their first child.

The expression on Yi Xichen’s face was thunderous: “Pregnant my ***! Remember! You absolutely can’t mention it!”

As soon as they walked into the garden full of exotic flowers and plants, a stone pestle flew straight towards Yi Xichen’s forehead and an energetic voice shouted, “Yi Xichen! Did you steal my medicinal plants again?!”

Yi Xichen immediately dodged but someone was faster than him. The stone pestle was stopped in midair.

Zhangsun Zijun caught the hidden weapon and bowed respectfully to the middle-aged man standing in the courtyard: “Master.”

This person was Elder Yao Budu of the Medicine Hall, Zhangsun Zijun and Yi Xichen’s master. He was also the person that Zhangsun Zijun respected the most.

Yi Xichen peered out from behind Zhangsun Zijun. He smiled and said in a conciliatory way: “Master, don’t be upset. Please listen to me…”

Yao Budu was angry and glared at him. “Zijun, get out of my way. Today I must teach this little rabbit a lesson.”

Zhangsun Zijun did not move. Even if the other person was his master, he wouldn’t allow anyone except him to harm a hair on Yi Xichen’s head.

“Master, Zijun has a strange disease. I stole some herbs to give him medicine but I couldn’t cure him. I can only ask Master for help!” Yi Xichen said in a single breath.

Yao Budu was stunned and immediately calmed down: “Is Zijun sick?”

Yi Xichen quickly pushed Zhangsun Zijun forward.

Yao Budu swiftly walked in front of Zhangsun Zijun. He looked at his face then grabbed his hand to check his pulse. However, his face looked fine and his pulse was smooth. There seemed to be no problem.

“Last night I took Zijun with me to the miasma forest…” Yi Xichen quietly took a step back and moved away from the range of Yao Budu’s attack. “Zijun may have inhaled some miasma, so he suffers from …. Ahem, hallucinations.”

“Miasma forest?” Yao Budu stretched out a hand and wanted to give the other person a whack on the head but he hid himself away too fast. “So my Breath Cleansing Pills were also stolen by you, you little brat?!”

Zhangsun Zijun stepped in front of him to block his way. Yao Budu really wanted to grab that uppity disciple of his, who didn’t know the immensity of heaven and earth,¹ and give him a sound thrashing. However, it was more important to find out what Zhangsun Zijun’s condition was.

“You inhaled it?” Yao Budu asked. “Do you still remember who I am?”

“My master.”

“Who is that kid?”

“…” Since Yi Xichen was glaring at him with a look fit to kill, Zhangsun Zijun silently swallowed the words “the mother of my child” and said: “Yi Xichen.”

“What year and month is it today?”

Zhangsun Zijun licked his lips and whispered, “I know because I saw it at Shennong Temple. It is Bingchen.”

“But he originally thought that this year was Jiazi,” Yi Xichen added.

Yao Budu bowed his head and thought for a moment. He said: “Jiazi eight years or sixty-eight years from now?”²

“Eight years.”

“What did you become after eight years?”

“The number one sword cultivator in the world.”³.

Yao Budu was happy: “You are indeed worthy to be my disciple! How ambitious! To think of becoming the foremost sword expert in the world in eight years! Excellent!”

“But Master, that’s not the point.” Yi Xichen’s head full of black lines.⁴

Yao Budu was enjoying this: “What about me?”

Zhangsun Zijun was surprised. He didn’t know when it happened but in his worldview, Yao Budu was a somewhat indistinct, vague presence. When Zhangsun Zijun needed him, he would appear. When Zhangsun Zijun didn’t need him, he seemed to disappear. Zhangsun Zijun could only say: “You are my master.”

Yao Budu thought that the answer would be that he was the number one alchemist in the world. In his heart, he was very happy with this answer but he said as though he was dissatisfied: “You thoughtless little scamp! In eight years you want to become the world’s best swordsman but you think of me as just the master of the world’s best swordsman? Forget it. Come inside the house.”

Three people entered the house. Yao Budu asked Zhangsun Zijun to sit in meditation with him and allow him to peer into his sea of knowledge⁵ to find out what was wrong with him.

For cultivators, their sea of knowledge was their most guarded place. If one can’t protect his sea of knowledge, evil spirits can easily enter it, resulting in a violent death. Therefore cultivators will only open their sea of knowledge to those that they trust the most.

Zhangsun Zijun was a little hesitant. It’s not that he doesn’t believe in Yao Budu. Even if all the people in the world wanted to harm him, he believed that the person who would never turn his back on him the most would be Yi Xichen. The second person was their master. Without Yao Budu he would now be just a dried-up skeleton beneath the mountain. It’s just… apart from doing this and that with Yi Xichen, there wasn’t much else in his memory. It’s not just Yi Xichen, even he feels ashamed of himself.

“What?” Yao Budu felt dissatisfied when saw that Zhangsun Zijun hadn’t settled down. “Is there something that you don’t want your master to see?”

Zhangsun Zijun thought that Yi Xichen’s miscarriages were always treated by Yao Budu. The current problem is not something he should hide from his master. Therefore, he started meditating and let down all of his defenses to open up his sea of knowledge to Yao Budu.

Yao Budu put a finger on Zhangsun Zijun’s forehead. A wisp of his consciousness entered the sea of knowledge.

When another mind entered his, Zhangsun Zijun couldn’t help but recall his past.

To Zhangsun Zijun and Yi Xichen, Yao Budu was their teacher and also a father figure. Zhangsun Zijun was deceived by Xiao Kui and others and mistakenly entered the forbidden area at the back of the mountain. That place was said to be Heavenly Sword Sect’s special sanctuary where the elite secluded themselves. It was guarded by many ferocious beasts who attacked anyone who enters. At that time, Zhangsun Zijun was still a child. Even with his outstanding talent, he hadn’t had much time to train. How could he fight those beasts? He did his best and managed to escape from the forbidden area with his last breath. It was a miracle that he survived. Naturally, his entire body was covered in wounds.

He was in a coma for seven days and seven nights. The first thing the other person said to him when he woke up was that he had violated the rules and was going to be expelled from the Heavenly Sword Sect. From then on, whatever he did, even if he became a demon or a ghost, it would have nothing to do with the Heavenly Sword Sect.

During the time he was locked up in the dungeon for seven days only Medicine Hall’s Elder Yao Budu came to see him. Yao Budu spoke a few words to him and changed his fate.

Yao Budu said: “Child, on the day that you entered the Heavenly Sword Sect, I looked into your eyes and knew that you aren’t a bad kid. This is a strange thing. I only ask you two questions. First, do you want to go back to the forbidden area behind the mountain?”

Zhangsun Zijun said: “No.”

Yao Budu asked him another question: “Do you still want to cultivate the sword in the Heavenly Sword Sect even if you can’t stay in the Sword Refining Hall?”

Zhangsun Zijun said: “I want to.”

Yao Budu patted him on the head and gave him a few pills that would heal his body.

He still remembered the taste of those pills. They were bitter and so astringent that it made his intestines tie themselves up in a knot.

A few days later, he was taken in by Yao Budu. He heard that Yao Budu had taken all the blame and claimed that he had ordered Zhangsun Zijun to go to the mountain to help him gather herbs. He said that Zhangsun Zijun wasn’t familiar with the place and had accidentally entered the forbidden area. Since he didn’t knowingly violate the rules, Zhangsun Zijun wasn’t punished, but a hundred years of Yao Budu’s cultivation was drained. Zhangsun Zijun then became a disciple of Medicine Hall.

The wisp of consciousness exited his sea of knowledge. Zhangsun Zijun woke up from his trance and opened his eyes, confused: “Hmm?”

Yao Budu, who was sitting across from him, had a strange expression on his face: “This is the first time I have seen this type of situation.”

Yi Xichen hurriedly said: “Master, what happened to Zijun?”

Yao Budu stroked his goatee: “I went into his sea of knowledge to check what was going on. There was no problem that I could see except for some places that were blurry and unclear. I tried to enter those areas but I entered a bizarre realm. It was as if … as if …”

“What was it like?”

“It was as if it was not within the 9000 realms but a different place entirely.”

This answer made Zhangsun Zijun and Yi Xichen look at each other, at a loss. The 9000 realms is a boundless place containing the heavens, earth, man, gods, demons, and spirits. Can there really be a world beyond the 9000 realms?

“It’s not an effect of the miasma,” said Yao Budu. “The hallucinations that have been produced may have come from a mystical power outside our realm of knowledge, a place that no one has ever seen or heard of.”

Yao Budu asked Zhangsun Zijun some questions to test his cognitive powers. Yi Xichen stayed beside them staring daggers at Zhangsun Zijun who was thus unable to mention anything about their relationship. This thing was something private between the two of them. Anyway, because of the revelation about his condition, it seemed like a little thing that wasn’t worth mentioning.

So when Yao Budu finished questioning Zhangsun Zijun he stroked his goatee and said: “You have suffered from some hallucinations but you still remember who you are and who everyone else is. It looks like the problem is not too serious. Every day I will give you some pills to clear your mind and you should gradually get better.”

The corners of Zhangsun Zijun’s mouth twitched when he heard that he had to take medicine.

– When it comes to refining medicines, Yao Budu has a strange skill. The medicines he makes are top quality and very effective. As for the taste, it’s… the taste of bitter gourd, Chinese goldthread, fried snake gall …smelling like it had been filtered through dirty socks and the navel of a person who hadn’t bathed for ten years.

Zhangsun Zijun will never forget that the horror that he suffered while he was in the dungeon was caused, not by the imprisonment, but by Yao Budu’s medicine.

Yao Budu pushed two pills in front of Zhangsun Zijun: “Swallow this quickly.”

Zhangsun Zijun said: “I’ll go back to my room and eat it…”

Yao Budu blinked and said, “Eat it quickly! If this is effective then you can take this for now. If it’s not then I will give you other pills.”

Zhangsun Zijun couldn’t disobey his master’s command so he had to pinch his nose closed then swallowed two pills. The pills felt greasy as they went down his throat. He was immediately overwhelmed by the strong taste that seemed to make every pore his body open up.

Yi Xichen bent closer to him and quietly asked, “What is the taste of today’s medicine?”

Zhangsun Zijun said with a straight face: “Menstruation.”

Yi Xichen burst out laughing: “How would you know how that tastes?”

 

*******

Translator’s Notes:

• The image above is the “black lines” over the head that this chapter mentioned.
• Posted an early access chapter on my patreon – https://www.patreon.com/bcnovels. If you prefer to donate at ko-fi – https://ko-fi.com/bcnovels – I also put it in the usual place.
• LOL @ all of the crazy descriptions of the taste of the pills! I’m traumatized. Thanks for reading and hugs for all those who will be leaving comments!

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1. 不知天高地厚 – literally “not to know the immensity of heaven and earth.” An idiom meaning “having exaggerated opinion of one’s own abilities.” In other words, uppity or someone who doesn’t know his place.
2. The ancient calendar was in a 60-year cycle so Jiazi is either 8, 68, 128, etc. years later.
3. 天下第一 “first under heaven”
4. Just like in an anime or cartoon when black lines are drawn over a character’s head to indicate dark emotions. Image below this chapter.
5. 识海 – sea of knowledge. I think this is like a person’s spirit consciousness.