Hi, and welcome to this week's installment of the Guardian novel readalong! ♡

Here are last week's chapters, and you can find all previous discussions on the schedule post (vol. 1 part 1, vol. 1 part 2, vol. 2), or via the !readalong tag.

This week's chapters:

• Chapter 15: Zhao Yunlan takes Shen Wei to their still-unfinished new place, and gives him the key. Shen Wei receives bad news from the Netherworld - black clouds have formed in the thirty-third heaven, which hasn't happened for 800 years. Zhao Yunlan suspects that it was caused by Ghost Face, but Shen Wei doesn't explain and leaves for the Netherworld. Zhao Yunlan asks Daqing about Kunlun-jun, but Daqing doesn't remember much. He tells Daqing that Shen Wei is the Soul-Executing Emissary.
  



• Chapter 16: Zhao Yunlan asks Daqing about the Emissary's origin, and Daqing thinks he couldn't have been born from the Netherworld because he's older than the Netherworld. Back at the SID, Zhao Yunlan talks to Sangzan and does research. Information about Kunlun seems to be deliberately erased, so he reads other closely related ancient stories. He thinks that Ghost Face wants to collect the Four Hallowed Artifacts to destroy the Four Pillars that hold up the sky. Chu Shuzhi doesn't regret his crimes and has a fight with Zhao Yunlan about it, until Zhao Yunlan magically binds him to a chair. The Magistrate visits, and asks Zhao Yunlan to go to Kunlun Mountain to stop Ghost Face from acquiring the Merit Brush. He's not fully truthful, and Zhao Yunlan sees right through it. He uses this opportunity to get Chu Shuzhi's merit shackles removed, and agrees to go to Kunlun Mountain, despite a letter from Shen Wei telling him not to agree to anything.
  

The corresponding chapters in the Chinese version on JJWXC and the fan translation are:
Chapter 15: From about 1/5 into chapter 68 up to the end of that chapter.
Chapter 16: From the start of chapter 69 until about 2/3 into chapter 71.


Excerpts:

1) Zhao Yunlan gives Shen Wei the key to their new place

Rather than driving home, Zhao Yunlan decided to drop by the place he’d just bought near Dragon City University before it got dark.

It was only one street away from the university campus. The neighborhood was made up of a group of gardened Western-style buildings with a very distinctive architectural style.

Zhao Yunlan pulled out a ring of keys, removed one, and placed it in Shen Wei’s hand. “I know you don’t actually need a key to get in, so it’s mostly symbolic, but it’s the spirit of the thing.”

It was almost as if the metal of the key burned Shen Wei’s fingers. He curled them slightly. “For me…?”

“Of course! The key to our house.” Zhao Yunlan led the way as he spoke. “The plumbing, wiring, and interior walls are basically done now. They were working on the floors before the New Year, so it’s a little messy inside, but everything should be done in about a month. At that point, you can move your stuff in first, and just keep the stuff you normally use at my place. We can move in properly in the spring, after we air the place out for a while. Come on, the elevator’s this way.”

Shen Wei felt as though his heart had been submerged in water. It was tender, soft, and swelling in his chest.



2) Daqing's reaction to Shen Wei being the Soul-Executing Emissary

Surrounded by the noise of howling wind and cawing crows, Zhao Yunlan abruptly said, “I want to tell you something. Can you keep your mouth shut?”

Daqing faced him and solemnly said, “What you say will enter and never leave. Go ahead.”

“Shen Wei is the Soul-Executing Emissary,” said Zhao Yunlan. “I’m a little worried about him right now.”

Daqing slipped, losing his footing as if he were having a stroke, and fell straight off the ledge.

“He's what?! Zhao Yunlan, have you no fear at all?!”

Zhao Yunlan, not really listening, made a vague affirmative noise.

Daqing had seen everything the world had to offer, all there was to see—or so he’d believed. Now, for the first time, he truly understood what it meant for someone to be “so deep in lust’s grip that they felt brave enough to challenge the sky.”



3) Sangzan's insight helps Zhao Yunlan figure things out

“Buzhou Mountain is a sacred mountain. Legend says it’s the road to the Heavens.” Zhao Yunlan gestured as he explained carefully to Sangzan. “Historical records show that Gonggong and Zhuanxu battled for power. In the end, Gonggong lost, and in a rage, he rode the divine dragon and knocked Buzhou Mountain down.”

Sangzan still had trouble parsing what people said to him. He reacted slowly, then nodded half a beat later.

“But I don’t believe it,” Zhao Yunlan said softly. “The two Emperors, Flame and Yellow, battled Chiyou for more years than anyone could count. They fought until the skies divided and the earth was split, sending sand and rock flying everywhere. But even with that, Buzhou Mountain was fine. Even when Pangu separated the sky and earth with his axe, Buzhou Mountain remained unharmed. How could a ride knock it over?”

Sangzan had learned to ignore all the adjectives and nouns he didn’t understand. After a while, in his unusual accent, he said, “Iv…this is something that’s imbossible…but it still habbened—happened, thin someone mod…mad…made…it happen.”

“Cutting off the road to the Heavens.” Zhao Yunlan tapped a finger against the ancient tome. “Who could have done it? Why?”
Sangzan watched as Zhao Yunlan’s gaze slowly deepened.

“After Buzhou Mountain fell, Nüwa used huge rocks to plug up the sky. She herself turned into Houtu and her spirit scattered in the Netherworld,” Zhao Yunlan continued. “It was like Nüwa held up the sky and earth with her bare hands. Earth… Earth… Mud…” His voice got quieter and quieter until he was nearly talking to himself. Then he suddenly said, “Wait—give me the part about Nüwa creating humans again.”

Sangzan had just passed him the book when Daqing came in and addressed Zhao Yunlan. “Lao-Chu is here.”

Zhao Yunlan immediately tucked the book away and descended the tall ladder. He was about to leave when Sangzan suddenly spoke up behind him. “At thet time, there was…no order, right? Averyone wanted more puw…power. Mountain… The road to Heaven you mentioned, if it bru…broke, parhaps someone wanted to end…”

Unable to find the correct words, he gestured, and Zhao Yunlan immediately understood: unending battle.



4) Guo Changcheng continues to follow Chu Shuzhi

Chu Shuzhi had arrived, but not alone. He had a tail: Guo Changcheng, dressed like a cotton ball. Guo Changcheng had two scarves wrapped around his neck, covering half his face. He had packaged himself into a ninja turtle.

After Chu Shuzhi had vanished into thin air, Guo Changcheng had no choice but to head home. But before he even got into a taxi, he changed his mind. He felt bad for letting Daqing down on the first day of the Lunar New Year. So he’d returned to that little alleyway to search for Chu Shuzhi, gritting his teeth and asking for information from everyone he encountered.

After he’d searched in the biting cold for over half an hour, a kindhearted auntie from the neighborhood committee had noticed him and his bright red nose and had brought him right to Chu Shuzhi’s door. But once she left him there, Guo Changcheng didn’t dare knock or leave. It wasn’t until Chu Shuzhi received the Soul-Guarding Order’s call and stepped out to go to 4 Bright Avenue that he found this popsicle of a coworker outside his door. What could Chu Shuzhi do but bring him along?



5) Zhao Yunlan gets Chu Shuzhi's merit shackles removed

Zhao Yunlan casually leaned back in his own chair. “It’s the Lunar New Year. I’m just a powerless mortal. What if something happens to me after I get sucked into something so dangerous?”

“We guarantee the Guardian’s safety, of course—”

Zhao Yunlan snorted. “You guys can’t even get into a mountain. What are you guaranteeing my safety with?”

“Well…”

“I want to bring my own people,” Zhao Yunlan said.

Not having expected Zhao Yunlan’s cooperation, the Magistrate froze. But the look that crossed Zhao Yunlan’s face next made his teeth ache.

“The thing is though,” Zhao Yunlan continued, “I don’t have enough people. Honestly, most of my staff are low-level minions. They’re not up for more than running errands. The only really useful personnel are a little snake yao who can’t even transform properly, a tiny cat that’s barely a foot long, a clueless intern, and a terminally online selfie addict.”

The Magistrate had an inkling of where this was headed.

“I finally managed to get a Corpse King with some useful skills, but…” Zhao Yunlan sighed.

It was an olive branch, and the Magistrate immediately took it. “No need to worry on that front. The Corpse King’s merit shackles are due to be removed as soon as our side gets through the necessary paperwork. Since the Guardian brought it up, I’ll authorize it and have his shackles taken off. Our side will deal with the red tape later.”

“So that’s why!” Zhao Yunlan exclaimed, only half-genuine. “Here I thought he’d failed to work off his sins and had gone behind my back to misbehave again. Look, he’s right in the next room—I locked him up there to reflect on things!”

“It’s all a misunderstanding…” the Magistrate began.

“Of course it’s a misunderstanding,” said Zhao Yunlan. “You guys should really streamline your processes. You’re so inefficient sometimes that anyone who didn’t know better would assume you were deliberately delaying things.”

The Magistrate simply had nothing to say.



Questions:

What do you like the most about Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei's new place, and would you like to live there? What do you think Chu Shuzhi's neighbors think about him? Is the primordial past/mythology storyline easy for you to follow? Would you hate or enjoy being in a battle of wits with Zhao Yunlan? What's your favorite Chuguo moment and/or your favorite Weilan moment?

You can answer as many or as few questions as you like, or just comment without answering any of them at all! And if you see this post and you're not actually reading the novel: As always, I would love to know what you think about any of this with limited context. :D

And here is the new schedule, and that's where you can sign up to host a post!