Chapter 240: “Big Brother’s word is as good as gold”
Yu Guang suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze clear and sharp. With a swift motion, he grabbed Yu Yin, who was beside him, and flung him away.
“Bang!”
Yu Yin, a step too slow to react, was thrown hard and crashed into the crisscrossing layers of spider silk.
“Crackle!”
Wu Jin also woke up. Hearing the commotion in the room, he rushed in without a second thought, shouting, “Big Brother! Are you guys okay?”
The moment he entered the room, he was nearly scared off by the mass of black spider silk hanging everywhere. Taking a closer look, he realized Big Brother was fighting his younger brother.
The younger brother didn’t hold back either. The two brawled from the bed to the floor. While neither seemed visibly injured, the room wasn’t as lucky; the furniture left behind by the previous overseer was all smashed to pieces.
This scene felt oddly familiar, like it had happened before.
Wu Jin let out a cry of surprise, stepped back out of the room, and stood by the door, trying to mediate. “What’s going on? Why are you two fighting each other?”
Neither of them answered. They kept exchanging blows, their tempers flaring. Yu Guang landed a solid punch on Yu Yin’s stomach.
Yu Yin turned his head and coughed, spitting out some blood.
Wu Jin was shocked. With his big brother’s strength, he could even kill that thick-skinned humanoid snake. He feared Yu Yin might end up seriously injured.
Just as Wu Jin was about to rush in and stop the fight, Yu Guang abruptly withdrew his fist and caught Yu Yin before he could fall.
“Why are you coughing up blood?” Yu Guang pressed his hand against Yu Yin’s abdomen, checking to ensure the punch hadn’t harmed his internal organs.
Although irritated, Yu Guang hadn’t truly used his full strength.
Since it wasn’t his punch that caused the bleeding, Yu Guang quickly deduced the real reason: the injury came from the collapse of the dreamscape Yu Yin had created.
“It’s because of the illusory dream?” Yu Guang released Yu Yin and scolded him. “Look at you, creating a fake dream to trick people for no reason, and now you’ve ended up hurt for nothing!”
Wu Jin clung to the doorframe and finally pieced it together. “What? That earlier thing was something Yu Yin cooked up?”
“Wow, so it was just a prank? You should’ve said so sooner! Look at me, sweating buckets from worry.”
Since it turned out to be something their own people had caused, not the work of some demon, there was no real danger.
Recalling the dream’s content, Wu Jin thought he understood the situation. Clearly, Big Brother wasn’t keen on getting married, and the younger brother wanted to use the dream to test the waters.
Wait, had he just ruined Yu Yin’s plan?
As the thought struck him, Wu Jin noticed Yu Yin’s dark, brooding expression and immediately regretted it. He wished he could slap himself.
Why wasn’t he usually this perceptive? Of all times to have a sudden flash of insight, it had to be now—when he figured out something odd and blurted it out loud, even before Big Brother realized it himself…
“Right! Big Brother, this time you weren’t the first one to wake up!”
Wu Jin pointed out this fact, his tone filled with astonishment.
It wasn’t the first time they’d encountered something that could cloud the mind, but Big Brother was rarely affected.
Even when he was, he was always the first to snap out of it.
But this time, Wu Jin had beaten him to it.
Wu Jin grinned and teased, “Big Brother, you were actually caught up in your little brother’s trick this time and didn’t realize it was a dream!”
The moment those words were said, Yu Yin, who had been lost in his own gloomy thoughts, snapped out of it.
That’s right. If Wu Jin hadn’t unexpectedly awakened first, Big Brother might have remained trapped in the illusory dream for who knows how long.
The ever-alert and cautious Big Brother had genuinely been ensnared by him.
Even when Big Brother had said multiple times in the dream that it wasn’t real, he still hadn’t truly woken up.
What did this mean?
It meant that Big Brother didn’t find the dream’s scenario entirely implausible. It meant that he believed their marriage was something that could happen—and that he wasn’t as averse to being with him as he had imagined.
Yu Yin’s chest still burned with pain, but his mind suddenly felt clear, and he couldn’t help but smile with delight.
He even felt a secret sense of pride: Well, Big Brother, you must like me a little, right? Otherwise, even in a dream, you wouldn’t have agreed to marry me.
Wu Jin’s blunt words had lifted the veil from the situation. Now that Yu Yin had figured it out, he was eager to see Big Brother’s reaction.
Would he be willing to admit his hidden feelings?
But what Yu Yin saw was this: Yu Guang was sitting on the one remaining three-legged stool in the room, fingers pressed to his forehead, his expression thoughtful.
The confusion and doubt on his face seemed genuine as he muttered to himself, “Could it be that I was just too tired this time and didn’t notice anything strange?”
Yu Yin: “…”
Admit what? This rock-headed fool can’t even figure it out.
The pain in his chest flared up again, and Yu Yin was so frustrated he wanted to punch Yu Guang in the head.
“What now?” Yu Guang tilted his head, easily dodging Yu Yin’s swing. Grabbing his wrist, he said sternly, “You’re already injured, so stop acting out.”
Yu Yin, enraged, coughed up another mouthful of blood, shook off Yu Guang’s hand, and stormed out of the room.
If he didn’t leave now, seeing that clueless expression would only make him want to fight him again.
After Yu Yin left, Yu Guang picked up a broken stool leg from the floor and fixed it to the three-legged stool he was sitting on with a crisp “crack.”
He seemed unhurried, but Wu Jin, watching from the side, was nearly frantic. Unable to hold back, he said, “Big Brother, I think Yu Yin just wants you to admit you treat him differently. Say something nice to him for once! You’re way too dense!”
Yu Guang put down the stool and suddenly let out a faint chuckle. “Let him stew for a bit. That brat is too reckless anyway.”
Wu Jin: “…”
Big Brother, do you get it or not?!
Yu Guang didn’t bring up the matter again. According to their previous plan, Ming Yu and Mu Yi were sent to Du Village and the Divine Academy in Chazhou, respectively, to gather people for discussions about Chazhou’s future.
As for Yu Guang, he went with Wu Jin, Yu Yin, and the Locust God, Xiao Shi, to wait in Chazhou City.
However, before Ming Yu and Mu Yi arrived, they first encountered someone seeking revenge.
A ten-year-old young master of the Fang family had returned, bringing along his uncle to settle the score.
The four of them—Yu Guang, Wu Jin, Yu Yin, and Xiao Shi—were seated in the Zhen family’s spacious hall, a suitable place for discussions.
Yu Yin sat in a shadowy corner, his face dark and brooding. Yu Guang ignored him, creating a tense and awkward atmosphere. Wu Jin and Xiao Shi, sensing the mood, didn’t dare to speak.
The arrival of the Fang family’s young master and his uncle, bursting into the hall with aggression, broke the silence.
Wu Jin and Xiao Shi immediately relaxed, even feeling a hint of gratitude for the interruption.
The Fang family, once the most prominent family in Chazhou, was allied through marriage with the Wan family of neighboring Maozhou.
The Wan family was also a powerful clan, and when Wan Cui, the uncle, heard about the Fang family’s misfortune, he had come rushing with reinforcements.
Since his young nephew claimed it was likely the work of some demon or ghost, Wan Cui had also brought several cultivators from Maozhou along.
“Yan’er, don’t worry. Uncle will make sure justice is served for your family!” Wan Cui declared, thumping his chest in assurance.
When he glanced at the people seated in the hall, he instantly underestimated them.
There was a small, scrawny girl who hardly seemed worth mentioning, a young man exuding righteousness, and a rough-looking, burly youth. From Wan Cui’s perspective, his entourage would easily handle these two or three individuals.
“Yan’er, is it them who harmed your father and the others?” Wan Cui asked.
Fang Yan stepped forward from behind his uncle, pointing toward the shadowed corner of the hall.
His voice trembled as he spoke, “It’s him, Uncle. It was him—he’s a monster! He killed Father and Grandfather!”
Wan Cui fixed his gaze and realized, to his shock, that he had previously overlooked someone sitting in the shadows of the hall.
When he looked toward the dim corner, he was nearly startled out of his skin.
The cultivators who had accompanied him, all skilled retainers of the Wan family, sensed the oppressive aura emanating from Yu Yin and immediately spoke up:
“What a dense demonic aura!”
“This demon has been harming people. Leave him to us—we’ll deal with him!”
Yu Yin, fiddling with a mask in his hand, let out a cold chuckle.
From the empty and silent Zhen family courtyard came the sound of shuffling footsteps.
Controlled puppets, previously under Yu Yin’s spell, emerged one by one, armed with swords and blades as they approached menacingly.
Yu Guang rose from his seat, clapping his hands as he addressed the intruders who had barged in and started talking nonsense. “Gentlemen, if you’re so eager to fight, go ahead and make your move.”
Yu Yin’s hand, still holding the mask, paused briefly, and the sound of footsteps also ceased.
The leader of the cultivators, a middle-aged man, scrutinized Yu Guang and said, “Young man, you appear to be a cultivator yourself, brimming with vitality. Why consort with such monsters? If you retreat now, we won’t make trouble for you.”
Wan Cui, however, barked in annoyance, “Who gave you the right to decide? Since they’re all in league, none of them can be spared—capture them all!”
His words had barely finished echoing in the hall when Yu Guang sent him flying out into the courtyard with a single kick.
The dozen or so cultivators were stunned. The leader shouted, “Form a defensive array!” But some hadn’t even managed to draw their swords before being sent flying one after another.
The only one left standing was the young master of the Fang family, who watched in terror as his uncle and the supposedly formidable cultivators were all knocked out in the blink of an eye. Tears streamed down his face as he burst into sobs.
Wu Jin, already prepared with a bundle of ropes, clicked his tongue twice and casually walked over to start tying them up.
Not daring to get too close to Yu Guang and even less to Yu Yin, Xiao Shi stayed safely behind Wu Jin and quickly helped hand over ropes to tie up the groaning figures sprawled across the hall.
Together, they secured all those wailing individuals who had been tossed about earlier.
“Uncle! Uncle! Waaaah!”
Amid Fang Yan’s cries, Yu Yin stood up and walked toward Wan Cui, whose face was now pale and filled with regret.
Yu Yin’s bewitchingly beautiful yet sinister face was fully exposed under the sunlight, no longer hidden behind his mask. Wan Cui stared at him, his gaze turning dazed and unfocused.
Gripping Wan Cui’s head, Yu Yin sent several spider silk threads slithering into his skull.
“Stop crying for your dear uncle,” Yu Yin said coldly. “He didn’t come here to avenge your family. He came because your household is now left with only the old, the weak, and women—he planned to seize the Fang family’s fortune for himself.”
Wan Cui’s mouth opened and closed mechanically, but it was his voice that conveyed these damning words.
Fang Yan’s sobbing abruptly stopped.
Yu Yin then turned Wan Cui’s face toward Yu Guang, still speaking through him. “This kid didn’t do anything wrong, so we let him go last time. And now look—he’s brought even more trouble. If only we had dealt with him back then, it would’ve been much simpler.”
Yu Guang, still holding down the struggling cultivators, looked up and remarked curiously, “Weren’t you sulking and ignoring me earlier? Why are you talking to me now?”
Yu Yin: “…”
Irritated, he kicked the dazed and lovestruck Wan Cui, then clutched his chest and returned to his shadowy corner in silence.
Wu Jin, diligently tying up the captives, paused and thought: Now I’m sure—Big Brother is definitely doing this on purpose.
Yu Guang turned to the bewildered young Fang master and said, “There will be a resolution for your family’s matters. Go home now.”
Then, squatting down in front of the group of cultivators, he asked, “You’re from Maozhou? Tell me, what’s the situation there?”
When Mu Yi and Ming Yu arrived at Chazhou with the group from Du Village and several officials from Chazhou’s Exorcism Bureau, they found the cultivators from Maozhou looking utterly exhausted and dispirited.
No one went out of their way to torment the captured cultivators; they were simply tied up and left to bake in the courtyard under the sun.
Watching this, Wu Jin shook his head in disbelief. “They can’t even handle this? Back when Big Brother trained us, it was way harsher than this.”
A middle-aged man and three younger individuals from the Chazhou Divine Academy arrived shortly after. They appeared unremarkable, their cultivation levels even weaker than those of the captured Maozhou cultivators.
“So, you’re suggesting that we take over the management of Chazhou?” they asked hesitantly.
“Not to hide anything from you,” the older man admitted, “but Chazhou Divine Academy has been in decline for years. We have fewer than thirty members left, and we haven’t recruited any new disciples in ages. We’ve essentially shut our gates and focused on surviving.”
Seeing their reluctance to accept responsibility, Yu Guang didn’t press further. Instead, after a moment’s thought, he made a decision. “Chazhou, Maozhou, and Zhuzhou are neighboring regions. If that’s the case, let’s dismantle the borders and unify the territories under one administration.”
Zhuzhou’s current stability made it an opportune time to consider expansion.
While the others were left stunned at his casual redrawing of state boundaries, Yu Guang turned his attention to Yu Yin, who was lurking in the corner. “Youngest, Big Brother has a task for you.”
Yu Yin coughed lightly, acting indifferent, and continued to clutch his chest.
“Go to Maozhou, resolve the issues there, and once you return to Zhuzhou, we’ll get married,” Yu Guang stated calmly.
Yu Yin immediately dropped the hand clutching his chest, his eyes glowing brightly from within the shadows as he stared fixedly at Yu Guang.
Seeing this, a faint smile appeared in Yu Guang’s eyes. “Big Brother’s word is as good as gold. But,” he added, “you must not break the rules I’ve set for you.”
**TN
Only 4 chapters left. Oww… ༼ ༎ຶ ᆺ ༎ຶ༽
o(╥﹏╥)o