When the Cannon Fodder Male Supporting Role Picks Up the Script - Chapter 96

Yun Zhuoran is, of course, aware of how kind Gu Shenshu was to him. 

He first met Gu Shenshu back when Yun Peiran, still a young man, was imprisoned in the Tianqing Sect’s pagoda. At that time, Buddhist disciples were in hot pursuit. Yun Peiran knew he had to make the trip, but worried about taking his younger brother to the Tianqing Sect. So, he entrusted him to Gu Shenshu, whom he hit it off with at first sight.

When Yun Zhuoran was brought to the Tiandao Sect, he was only seven years old. He struggled with life without Yun Peiran. Even though Gu Shenshu treated him gently and with care, and even asked his youngest apprentice, Shen Yu, to play with him and cheer him up, little Yun Zhuoran still resisted anyone other than Yun Peiran getting close.

As a child, Yun Zhuoran was frail and sickly, thin and small for his age. At seven, he looked more like a five-year-old.

Clad in Tiandao Sect’s snow-white disciple robes, the little figure often hid away in his room, ignoring anyone who tried to talk to him. When he saw people, his eyes filled only with wariness and unease.

Yun Zhuoran still remembered that morning when the gentle, jade-like sect leader squatted in front of him, brought his eyes level with his own, and stretched out a hand, saying he would take him to the Tianqing Sect to see his brother.

At the time, Yun Zhuoran didn’t trust him at all. Gu Shenshu only smiled and said, “It’s not that far anyway.”

Tiandao Sect and Tianqing Sect are thousands of miles apart, but for Gu Shenshu, it’s only a few steps away.

After returning from the Tianqing Sect, Yun Zhuoran slowly and unconsciously began to trust a second person besides Yun Peiran. From then on, Gu Shenshu taught him calligraphy, taught him how to live, and never let anyone else take care of him. He didn’t teach him cultivation techniques, but he taught him how to be a decent person—and how to see the secular world for what it truly is.

Yun Zhuoran never admitted it aloud, but in his heart, he already regards him as a master.

What Gu Shenshu says in the Floating Life Mirror—that he comes to find Yun Peiran for his apprentice’s sake—is true.

Before the Demon Sealing Well incident, Yun Zhuoran had long felt restless. Perhaps it was a kind of telepathy between brothers, but he always had a premonition that something had happened to Yun Peiran, who had been missing for so long. So when the Gu and Shen families, stationed at the Demon Sealing Well, sent an urgent plea for help, and Yun Peiran’s name came up, Yun Zhuoran was the first to insist on going there. But Gu Shenshu did not allow it—Yun Zhuoran was too weak at the time.

In the end, the only one who went to the Demon Sealing Well that year was Gu Shenshu. He never returned from that trip.

From that moment on, Yun Peiran becomes a public enemy of the righteous path, and Yun Zhuoran enters a twenty-year retreat of bitter cultivation.

Yun Zhuoran knows very well that Gu Shenshu didn’t go there just for him. He went to uphold justice, to suppress evil, and to respond to the call for help from the Gu and Shen families. But still, when he hears Gu Shenshu say it with a laugh in the Floating Life Mirror, his heart is deeply shaken.

At this moment, in the great hall of the City Lord’s Mansion, the black-robed demonic cultivator with blood-red eyes watches the changing expressions of those before the hall as they see the dreams in the Floating Life Mirror. His malicious smile deepens.

The events of the Demon Sealing Well continue to replay in the Floating Life Mirror.

Gu Shenshu’s mocking voice echoes in the hall: “When chaos breaks out at the Demon Sealing Well, the Shen and Gu families ask Gu Shenshu for help right away. They tell him that Yun Peiran is also there, having joined forces with the five demons attacking the Demon Sealing Formation. Only Gu Shenshu can stand against them, so he comes. But—this is all a trap.”

“Ah, I almost forgot. The entire floating city is under my control. Whether you believe me or not doesn’t really matter.”

Gu Shenshu suddenly lets out a soft laugh and lowers his eyes to his fingertips, wrapped in demonic energy, his fingers clenched tightly.

A sharp cracking sound rings out, and the dream shown in the Floating Life Mirror shatters.

Gu Shenshu waves his hand, demonic energy dispersing as a brilliant red light surges into the central formation. He smiles faintly.

“I’m tired of watching this dream. Now that everyone’s here, let’s hear what they have to say.”

The central formation’s restraints dissolve without a sound. Several people collapse to the ground. The red light fades from their pupils, and they slowly awake from the dream.

Seeing Shen Fu holding his forehead dazedly, Shen Xi outside the formation calls out in alarm, “Dad!”

At the sound of the familiar voice, Shen Fu quickly turns around. The others also begin to wake.

They first see the people standing in front of the hall, but when they catch sight of Gu Shenshu in his black robes, all relief drains from their pale faces.

Gu Shenshu, however, looks quite pleased. “You don’t want to kill me anymore? Weren’t you so happy to kill me back then? If you don’t feel like killing me now, that’s fine—let’s talk first.”

The five black pillars in the formation slowly fade, transforming into an ancient copper mirror. Gu Shenshu raises his hand, and the mirror floats up, suspended in midair. A soft golden-red light flickers from its surface.

“Tell me—what exactly did you do all those years ago?”

The blood formation still blocks Shen Xi and the others from approaching the central group.

The people inside the formation slowly come to their senses. Cui Shen suddenly tries to flee, but a blood-red barrier instantly rises, bouncing him back violently. He crashes to the ground and coughs up blood.

The other four look at each other, startled.

The five who emerge from the dream are all extremely pale, clearly injured. Cui Shen quickly climbs to his feet again, and only then does everyone notice that his right pupil has turned blood-red.

“Gu Shenshu! So what if I killed you? You destroyed my Yin Puppet Sect and threw my master and me into the Demon-Sealing Well. Was it wrong for me to try and kill you to escape?”

The body is still Cui Shen’s, but the voice and presence are entirely different.

Yun Zhuoran recognizes it immediately—it is the Blood Demon Ancestor who appears earlier in the Floating Life Mirror. No wonder there are five people in the formation but six in the dream—he has been hiding in Cui Shen’s body all along.

Thinking of this, Yun Zhuoran turns to the heart demon beside him.

“That jar they used to rescue Cui Shen from the Shen residence!” The heart demon suddenly understands. “So they colluded twenty years ago! No wonder a so-called immortal like Shen Fu hides a demonic cultivator in the ancestral hall—and feeds a jar full of rotting flesh!”

When Yun Zhuoran fights Cui Shen at the Shen residence that day, it is the jar that blocks Cui Shen’s spiritual sword, and the rotten meat that splatters on the ground must come from the Blood Demon Ancestor. That sight leaves a deep impression on the Heart Demon.

Tongye and the others turn to look over.

At this point, Yun Zhuoran no longer conceals the truth. “Weiran gets lost at the Shen residence and accidentally discovers demonic energy in the Shen ancestral hall. The head of the Shen family is present that day. Not long after that, at the Ten Thousand Immortals Conference, Cui Shen appears and attacks Weiran but fails. Then, during the Shen family banquet, he lures Weiran to the backyard and tries to attack again.”

The Heart Demon adds indignantly, “It is that Cui Shen. I don’t even see him in the ancestral hall, yet he keeps chasing me… And that inexplicable banquet held by the Shen family head—I’m sure it is meant to give Cui Shen another chance to kill me!”

“You’re talking nonsense!” Shen Xi instinctively retorts. “Our Shen family would never do such a thing!”

The Heart Demon sneers. “Don’t pretend your Shen family is clean. It’s true that Shen Fu colluded with demonic cultivators, had your sister steal my brother’s cultivation techniques—that’s a fact. And it’s also true that he gets caught by Gu Shenshu himself!”

Shen Xi stands there stunned, unable to refute him. Shen Man has confessed, and she knows full well that their father is capable of making her do something like that. Now that Shen Fu is caught by Gu Shenshu… Shen Xi looks up at Gu Shenshu at the top of the hall, but his blood-red eyes make her flinch.

Gu Shenshu slowly replies to himself, “What the Blood Demon Ancestor says makes sense. You had a long-standing enmity with Gu Shenshu, so you killed him. But what about the others? Master Shen, your daughter is speaking for you.”

Shen Fu looks at his two children, who stand anxiously outside the formation. His face is ashen, and he remains silent. He has fallen into Gu Shenshu’s hands and knows there is no escape. But he doesn’t expect the things he orders Shen Man to do would also be exposed.

Gu Shenshu tilts his head and suddenly says, “Don’t bother lying. Everyone in the floating city has seen your true face through the Floating Life Mirror. And by everyone, I don’t mean just those in this hall. I mean everyone still breaking through outside. I forgot to mention earlier: since you entered this hall, all those breaking through or guarding the city gates have been watching everything happening here.”

This not only shatters any hope Shen Fu and the others have inside the formation—it also sends a shock through everyone outside.

Yun Zhuoran takes a deep breath.

So when Gu Shenshu asks him to make a choice earlier, all the cultivators in the city under his control are watching.

The Heart Demon says bitterly, “So it really is a trap.”

Gu Shenshu smiles lazily. “It’s a test I prepare for your brother.”

Yun Zhuoran lowers his eyes slightly and says nothing.

Gu Shenshu sighs in mock disappointment and turns his gaze toward the four others inside the formation besides Cui Shen and the Blood Demon Ancestor, focusing especially on Shen Fu. “Master Shen, your apprentice is Gu Shenshu’s only true disciple. Since taking Shen Yu in, Gu Shenshu grants your Shen family many privileges. So tell me—why do you want to kill him?”

Everyone sees what happens in the Floating Life Mirror, yet Gu Shenshu insists on making them confess. Shen Fu has no words left, but the current Gu family head can’t wait to cry out, “Brother! They’re the ones who kill you! It has nothing to do with me! You remember, the head of the Gu family at the time is my older brother, Gu Jianren. He’s been dead for over ten years. He and Shen Fu are the ones threatened by the Blood Demon Ancestor and Ji Yan. I’m just tricked into coming along with Baili Gao and Master Jue Fei!”

At the mention of the former Lord of the Demon Palace, Ji Wuwang, who watches the drama unfold with interest, suddenly darkens his expression.

But Gu Jiannan keeps explaining with a smile, “Gu Jianren and Shen Fu let Ji Yan escape when guarding the Demon Sealing Well, then fear news will leak. I and a few others are nearby, and they drag us into it. We fall right into Ji Yan and the Blood Demon Ancestor trap! Cousin, you must believe me—I am innocent. I am powerless back then, and with the Blood Demon Ancestor watching me, there is nothing I can do to save you!”

Calling him “cousin” so eagerly—anyone who doesn’t know better would think the current Gu family head is very close to Gu Shenshu.

Gu Shenshu raises an eyebrow. “Your brother died early, but it was well-deserved—he stabbed Gu Shenshu in the back and died not long after from injuries I gave him. But little cousin, are you sure you do nothing at all?”

Gu Jiannan nods frantically. “Big cousin, you’re wise! My brother deserves everything he gets for what he does—being seriously injured by you is karma. But I truly do nothing! It is Gu Jianren who stabs you at the Demon Sealing Well, and it is Ji Yan and the Blood Demon Ancestor who kill you!”

Gu Shenshu simply repeats, “You really don’t do anything?”

Gu Jinping, standing outside the formation, breathes a sigh of relief and calls out, “Father! If you don’t do anything, then you’re innocent! Ask Uncle to let you go!”

In truth, both Gu Jiannan and his late brother are only distant relatives of Gu Shenshu from a collateral branch.

Gu Jiannan looks at Gu Shenshu’s icy expression, hesitates, and finally clenches his teeth and nods. “Cousin, I swear—I really don’t do anything!”

Gu Shenshu turns his blood-red gaze toward the people in front of the hall. “Gu Qiuming, come here.”

Gu Qiuming, suddenly called out, stands frozen in place. The people around him are equally stunned.

Why does Gu Shenshu single him out?

“Yes, you. Come here. Ask the Gu family head—has he ever wronged you?”

Gu Shenshu’s next words are even more puzzling.

Gu Jinping instinctively sneers, “Uncle! That little bastard is born to a concubine’s illegitimate son—how is someone of such lowly status worthy of speaking with you?”

Gu Qiuming’s face goes pale, and he grips the hilt of his sword tightly.

Listening to Gu Jinping’s smug tone, one would think she truly believes she is family with Gu Shenshu.

Gu Shenshu shoots her a cold look. Seeing her shrink back in fear, he turns back to Gu Qiuming. Though his expression remains dark, his tone softens, “Do you know why I ask you to come forward?”

Gu Qiuming shakes his head blankly.

Gu Shenshu stares at him with a strange look in his eyes and says with a smile, “Do you know that your bloodline is the closest to Gu Shenshu’s in the entire Gu family? You are not some concubine’s child either—you’re the son of Gu Shenshu’s only sister. But twenty years ago, your mother was imprisoned by Gu Jianren and Gu Jiannan. They wanted her heart’s blood to form a blood array and kill Gu Shenshu. After Gu Shenshu died, she managed to escape once, and that’s when she had you. But by then, the Gu family no longer tolerated her. After giving birth to you, she was forced to hang herself by Gu Jiannan. If it weren’t for your great fortune, you would’ve died at his hands as well.”

Gu Qiuming’s face fills with disbelief.

Gu Jiannan begins to panic. “B-Big cousin! You’ve misunderstood. I don’t—” But when he meets Gu Shenshu’s eyes, filled with cold menace, he realizes Gu Shenshu is waiting, watching to see how he tries to wriggle free. Gu Jiannan falters, then sits down heavily and murmurs, “It is my brother… He forces me… I don’t want to do it, and her too…”

Gu Shenshu smiles and says, “Gu Shenshu may have died many years ago, but Heaven sees all.”

Gu Jiannan understands the meaning behind the words. His face turns pale, and he can’t utter a single excuse.

Gu Jinping looks around at the shocked and disgusted expressions on everyone’s faces, her own full of confusion. “My father was forced to do it. Even if he really drove our cousin to her death, didn’t he still raise this little bastard… Gu Qiuming?”

Gu Qiuming is stunned and confused, but his eyes gradually turn cold.

Everyone gives Gu Jinping strange looks. Even now, this Miss Gu still dares speak like this in front of Gu Shenshu?

Gu Jinping, however, looks up at Gu Shenshu righteously and says, “Uncle, my father was forced. Considering he raised Gu Qiuming, can’t you let him off?”

“Let him off?” A cold, mocking laugh suddenly echoes through the hall. Everyone looks over and sees that it comes from Gu Qiuming, who is usually mild-mannered. His face now wears an uncharacteristically cold smile. “He raised me? All these years in the Gu family, I never had enough to eat or warm clothes to wear. Even the servants mocked my mother as shameless. If not for Granny’s kindness, I might not have survived… So my mother isn’t that kind of person. And all of this—was given to me by the Gu family head.”

Gu Jinping frowns. “But you grow up in the Gu family, don’t you? There are so many children in the family—who could look after you all? My father does his best to give you food!”

Li Jianming clenches his teeth, ready to curse her, but Jiang Zhibai and his senior brother quickly stop him.

Everyone’s expressions toward Gu Jinping grow colder and colder.

Gu Shenshu simply says, “It’s alright. I will avenge both Gu Shenshu and you.”

Gu Qiuming stares at him blankly. “You… You’re my mother’s brother?”

Gu Shenshu replies calmly, “Gu Shenshu is your uncle.”

Yun Zhuoran looks thoughtfully at Gu Shenshu.

“Alright. Now that the Gu family head finishes, it’s time for the next one.” Gu Shenshu smiles and looks between Jue Fei and Baili Gao. “Which of you will go first? In the beginning, the ones blackmailed and manipulated by Ji Yan and the Blood Demon Ancestor are Shen Fu and Gu Jianren. The two Gu brothers take Gu Shenshu’s sister’s heart’s blood to lay the blood array. But that isn’t enough. To kill Gu Shenshu, something more is needed. What is it?”

Seeing how Cui Shen, the Blood Demon Ancestor, and Gu Jiannan either admit or deny everything only to be exposed by Gu Shenshu anyway, Baili Gao—the long-sick head of the Baili family—sighs bitterly.

“I admit it. I am dragged into this by the Gu brothers. I help take Miss Gu’s blood and set up the array… In the end, I am just afraid to die. I want to leave the Demon Sealing Well, to go back and see my wife and children. So I compromise. I play my part in trapping Master Gu. The injuries I carry since then are punishment for my deeds. Maybe it’s fate. I can’t guard the Demon Sealing Well, so I ask Master Gu for help—and am killed there in the end.”

“You’re honest,” Gu Shenshu says with satisfaction. “You were coerced and were seriously injured by my counterattack. Even if you survive all these years, it can’t have been easy.”

“No pain compares to the daily torment on one’s Dao heart,” Baili Gao says, looking toward his son. “Son, your father makes a grave mistake. I’ve long expected this day would come. Don’t seek revenge for me. From now on, the Baili family is yours. Remember your father’s teachings…” As he speaks, blood slowly drips from his pale lips.

The young master of the Baili family grows alarmed and cries out, “Father!”

Baili Gao shakily raises his hand to wipe away the blood, finally seeming at peace. “Twenty years ago, I choose wrong, just to see your mother one last time. Perhaps the heavens decide I shouldn’t make it in time. But now you grow up. I can finally atone for my sins…”

He gives his son a final smile, closes his eyes, and falls to the ground.

Gu Jiannan crawls over, checks for a pulse, and sits there in a daze. “He… he’s gone…”

Everyone falls silent. No one speaks mockingly. Baili Gao has been sick for many years. His body is extremely weak. He wouldn’t have come to the Floating City or endured so long in the Mirror of Fleeting Life if not for his son. He has been hanging on by a thread just to see him one last time.

The young Baili master’s eyes turn red. He kneels and kowtows three times in silence.

A person’s death is like the extinguishing of a lamp. The sins of the Baili patriarch are now written off.

Jue Fei folds his hands, recites a Buddhist chant, and rises.

Seeing him rise so calmly, Gu Shenshu’s gaze brightens with interest. “Xiao Zhuoran, your enemy is next.”

Everyone turns to Yun Zhuoran.

Yun Zhuoran already guesses the truth. “The one who framed Yun Peiran—was him.”

The Shura Dao fragment that Yun Peiran practices comes from Tianqing Sect. He is imprisoned for a long time in the dark, lightless Buddha Pagoda there. He knows the sect’s Golden Light Mantra. Conversely, as Tianqing Sect’s chief disciple, Jue Fei must know a thing or two about Yun Peiran—his methods, his habits.

Back then, the figure seen at the Demon-Sealing Well, the traces left behind—it is unmistakably Jue Fei’s work. It can no longer be called coercion; it is the final act. The outcome is already decided. If Jue Fei doesn’t want to do it, who could force him?

There is always a touch of compassion in Jue Fei’s gaze. In the Ten Thousand Beasts Forest, he risks his life to save young cultivators, both familiar and unfamiliar. Yun Zhuoran once deeply admires him for it.

But such a person… frames Yun Peiran and helps kill Gu Shenshu.

Yun Zhuoran sneers coldly. “Master Jue Fei. How unexpected.”

Jue Fei smiles calmly. “Young Island Master, you flatter me.”

Even now, he looks serene and full of compassion, as if he hasn’t done anything wrong.

Yun Zhuoran’s smile vanishes. His pale face turns icy.

The heart demon grips his hand tightly, trying to warm him. “Brother, don’t waste your breath on this hypocrite. The more upset you get, the happier he’ll be.”

Among all those in the floating city, Tongye knows Jue Fei best. Jue Fei is his senior brother. And the fact that Jue Fei doesn’t deny anything—means he silently admits everything Gu Shenshu and Yun Zhuoran say.

Tongye’s eyes are lost in confusion. After a long moment, he finally finds his voice, hoarse. “Senior Brother, why… why would you do this?”

Jue Fei’s gaze remains gentle, and he replies with a smile, “Because I want you to give up on Yun Peiran.”