Chapter 0: 58. The Doll (Bonus Chapter)
In the darkness, Gu Feiyan felt a splitting headache and soon lost consciousness completely.
When she opened her eyes again, she was surprised to find herself in a dilapidated small wooden hut, lying on a simple straw mat. As a female, Gu Feiyan’s first concern was her clothes… she was fully dressed and had not been violated.
But where was this place? Hadn’t she just received punishment from Senior Forget Self for saving Qin Gou?
Stepping out of the wooden hut, she saw a lush green small wood. The sky was azure, and birds sang amidst fragrant flowers, making one feel refreshed and happy. This seemed to be a hunter’s cabin far from human habitation.
“Xiao Qin? Qin Gou!” Gu Feiyan tried calling out, but found her voice didn’t carry far. Logically, her voice, amplified by spiritual power, should have been able to spread throughout this entire forest with ease.
Footsteps sounded, and Gu Feiyan instinctively looked over. It was Qin Gou, walking towards her with a dead wild rabbit in his hand, a smile on his face.
“You’re awake?” Qin Gou wiped sweat from his forehead. For some reason, he was covered in mud and looked a bit disheveled. “I just caught a wild rabbit nearby. You’re in for a treat.”
Gu Feiyan looked him up and down, then asked with confusion, “Just to catch a wild rabbit, why did you get yourself so dirty?”
Qin Gou chuckled, speechless. “Silly Xiao Yan, don’t you realize even now that in this cursed place, our strength is restricted to almost the same as mortals?”
“What did you say?” Gu Feiyan was greatly shocked and quickly looked inward.
Qin Gou waved his hand. “I tried for a long time, and despite all my efforts, I can only use a thread of spiritual power. At most, I can open the Nas, but I can hardly summon my Natal Spirit Tool.”
Hearing this, Gu Feiyan repeatedly tried to activate her Scrutinizing Eyes in vain and asked dejectedly, “Where is this place? How did we end up here?”
Qin Gou gave a wry smile. “I wanted to ask you that too. I was clearly battling my inner demon in the illusion, and when I opened my eyes again, I was lying in a broken wooden hut just like you.”
“I understand,” Gu Feiyan said somewhat gloomily. “We must still be in the Forget Self Secret Realm… Recently, probably because you took too long fighting your inner demon, you angered Senior Forget Self. Without a word, he wanted to cast you into a deep hole. In a moment of desperation, I grabbed you with my whip and pleaded with him. I didn’t expect Senior Forget Self to be so decisive and bring both of us here.”
“So that’s what happened.”
Qin Gou felt a warmth in his heart and clenched his fist slightly. “To make you suffer punishment with me, won’t the position of Young Sect Master of the Sacred Cult…”
Gu Feiyan stopped Qin Gou with a glance, covered her mouth to yawn, and gracefully stretched. She laughed unrestrainedly, “Since you were willing to risk your life to save me, how could I, this young lady, just watch you fall into the abyss without lifting a finger? Don’t say any cheesy, sappy things. I don’t want to hug and cry with you in this deserted wilderness.”
Qin Gou touched his nose. “Well, actually, I meant to say, since I can’t be the Young Sect Master anymore, why don’t you learn to cook from me? Bunnies are so cute; they should naturally be made into the finest spicy rabbit heads.”
Gu Feiyan rolled her eyes at Qin Gou and said angrily, “Is there a river nearby? Compared to rabbits, I prefer turtle soup.”
“Alright, we’ll go look for one later. Turtles are so cute that it reminds me of the legendary spicy turtle… no, that dish doesn’t exist; I remembered it wrong.”
Under Gu Feiyan’s inexplicably surprised gaze, Qin Gou suddenly fell silent.
…
Outside the hunter’s cabin, the two sat by the campfire, having eaten some rabbit meat. To Gu Feiyan’s astonished gaze, Qin Gou severed his jade-like prosthetic arm with a single stroke of his saber.
Then, he took out his original arm from the Nas, fitted it seamlessly against the wound, and poured a small pot of fragrant spiritual liquid all over it. He then asked Gu Feiyan to carefully bandage it for him.
“In about two or three days, my arm should recover completely.”
Gu Feiyan asked in surprise, “If that’s the case, this spiritual liquid must be an extremely precious item. By the way, I’ve never asked about your background. Are you perhaps a descendant of some ancient family?”
Qin Gou said half-jokingly, “If I told you that I’m actually an old monster who’s been holed up somewhere for thousands of years, and that’s why I carry so many rare and strange treasures, would you be very scared?”
“No,” Gu Feiyan blurted out.
Qin Gou chuckled. “So decisive?”
Gu Feiyan pursed her lips and smiled, saying as a matter of course, “Because my father is exactly the kind of old monster you’re talking about.”
“I’ve always felt that Xiao Qin’s way of doing things, or his occasional mischievous and amusing demeanor, strongly resembles the demeanor of my father when he was young, as described by Elder Yuan Zhen. If you are also an old monster like my father, who likes to stay in one place for a long time, and who has lived even longer than him, then wouldn’t you be… my grandfather?”
Qin Gou: …
Mu Man’er, that wench, was right. Gu Feiyan really liked to complain about her father behind his back. In order to arrange embarrassing stories about him, she wouldn’t hesitate to lower her own generation’s status.
Afterward, Gu Feiyan ordered Qin Gou not to follow her and to stay in the wooden hut to recuperate. She intended to go explore some distance away on her own.
Qin Gou sat cross-legged in a daze. After an unknown amount of time, he heard Gu Feiyan’s clear and pleasant voice ring out from outside the hut.
“Xiao Qin, come quickly, look what I found!”
Qin Gou pushed open the wooden door and saw Gu Feiyan slowly dragging a humanoid heavy object towards him.
With a high topknot, a green shirt, and a staff sword… coupled with a face exactly like Qin Gou’s and that signature empty gaze.
Qin Gou was shocked and blurted out, “Him? The Stone Spirit!”
“Yes. I was startled at first too. But it seems he no longer attacks us crazily.”
Gu Feiyan held the Stone Spirit under its armpits and lifted it with force, then shook it like a rag doll a few times.
There was no doubt that it was the Stone Spirit that Qin Gou had completely destroyed earlier.
But for some reason, it now reappeared before Qin Gou, completely unharmed. Although its eyes were slightly open, it was like a deflated doll, limp all over, and Gu Feiyan could handle it casually without any reaction.
Gu Feiyan looked at Qin Gou’s foolishly astonished expression with great interest and couldn’t help but tease, “Xiao Qin, since we’re imprisoned here with nothing to do, why don’t you take it inside and strip off its clothes to see if it’s really identical to you all over?”
