BB | Chapter 11

Your Love Rival Has Arrived

The auction house interior was equally extravagant.

In all his life, Shen Canglan had never seen decor so lavish and resplendent. But he knew full well that wealth was something outside the body, so he kept his gaze on his nose and his nose on his heart, striving not to be moved.

After waiting a while, more people began to fill the inner hall, and he even spotted an acquaintance.

It was the middle-aged cultivator who had kindly introduced them to the auction house that day.

He had not expected him to have been selected as well.

Coincidentally, the middle-aged cultivator also looked over in Shen Canglan and Li Yaochen’s direction.

From afar, Shen Canglan nodded at him as a greeting. But the middle-aged cultivator wore a look of great surprise and lifted his leg to walk toward them.

At that moment, another person happened to pass in front of him from the side, striding in haste, and slammed hard into the middle-aged cultivator.

The middle-aged cultivator hissed in pain.

The one who collided with him was a young man with a cool, frosty face. He clicked his tongue and looked at the middle-aged cultivator. “You–”

At that very instant, the middle-aged cultivator seemed to change.

His face seemed to shrink by a circle, his build suddenly turned slender, his skin became as tender as cooked egg white, and even the stray strands of hair that had not been tied up at the back of his head seemed to take on a different kind of charm.

Between him and the young man, there seemed to be some pinkish atmosphere slowly flowing.

[Ah, this is the moment love descends.] The System sighed.

Li Yaochen’s brows twitched. With a calm expression, he praised, “Is that so? Then that’s truly impressive, worthy of admiration.”

Seeing that the middle-aged cultivator had no time to pay them any further attention, and that there was still some time before the auction began, Shen Canglan dragged Li Yaochen to accompany him for a round of paper sparring.

This was a new game the two of them had invented, suitable for exchanging moves on paper when space was limited, like the go and chess other people played.

The two each took out a human-shaped paper doll, used spiritual power to stick them to its limbs, and controlled them to fight. The round base used for the paper figures to stand on was tiny, but the battle was truly exciting.

Li Yaochen had abundant real combat experience. Out of ten matches, Shen Canglan could lose nine.

Today, however, he had a great chance of winning. But just as he was about to defeat Li Yaochen, one arm of his little paper figure suddenly snapped in two. Li Yaochen seized the opportunity and immediately turned defeat into victory.

Shen Canglan pressed his paper figure down hard. “Stop, stop. This one doesn’t count.”

Li Yaochen smiled. “On the battlefield, where is there a medicine for regret? If you’re hurt, you’re hurt.”

Shen Canglan tried to persuade him, dragging out his words. “I haven’t won for three or four days. Chen-ge, good brother, just let me have this one.”

Li Yaochen froze, then said, “All right.”

Just as Shen Canglan rolled up his sleeves, ready to show his might, someone suddenly patted his shoulder.

Shen Canglan turned around.

The one who had patted him was dressed in garish colors like a peacock, with a pair of narrow eyes. It was Shen Guanqi.

His gaze lingered on Shen Canglan’s face for a while, then on Li Yaochen’s face for a while. Not long after, it returned to Shen Canglan’s face, cycling back and forth like that.

He asked suspiciously, “You two… what is this?”

Shen Canglan gave the two of them a simple introduction.

He pointed at Li Yaochen and said to Shen Guanqi, “This is my brother from a different father and a different mother.”

Then he pointed at Shen Guanqi and said to Li Yaochen, “This is my brother from a different father and a different mother.”

Shen Guanqi said, “I only have one question. Were you two selected separately, or did you come in as dao companions?”

Shen Canglan said, “Dao companions.”

A look of half-smile, half-not-smile, with a hint of something ambiguous, appeared on Shen Guanqi’s face.

But after Shen Canglan told Shen Guanqi the whole sequence of events, Shen Guanqi’s expression returned to a pool of dead water.

“I knew it would be like this…” He pinched the bridge of his nose in pain.

Since childhood, he had felt that something in Shen Canglan’s brain was connected wrong, but after all, it did not affect daily life, so he had left it alone. Unexpectedly, after Shen Canglan went down the mountain for a trip, he even let him meet another patient with the same symptoms.

He should be grateful that this crooked-brain illness was not contagious, otherwise the two of them would be infecting each other back and forth, and who knew when it would ever get better.

–

Shen Canglan did not exchange many pleasantries with Shen Guanqi, because the auction soon began.

The things Shen Canglan needed were all brought up first as a warm-up, and the prices were very cheap with no competitors.

The people around him all looked at him with pitying eyes, as if to say, “He looks decent, a pity his brain is broken, otherwise why would he buy a pile of junk?”

If one cared too much about other people’s gazes, one would become their underpants. Shen Canglan deeply understood this principle, and strolled off arrogantly with Li Yaochen to pay and collect the items at the back.

A few protective items and some small odds and ends together cost less than three spirit stones. If paid in copper coins, it would be less than three hundred copper coins, very cheap.

Shen Canglan was about to pay when Li Yaochen stopped him. “I’ll do it.”

These things were all for him to use. How could Shen Canglan have the face to let Li Yaochen pay?

He reached out to block Li Yaochen’s hand while quickly feeling for his own purse with the other.

Li Yaochen curved his hand and blocked Shen Canglan’s hand in the opposite direction, and the other hand also went to feel for his own purse.

Shen Canglan had no choice but to withdraw the other hand, using both hands to block Li Yaochen.

Li Yaochen turned sideways, his arm blocking both of Shen Canglan’s hands, while his right hand took out the money.

Shen Canglan: “…”

Were they dancing?

After the dance ended, Shen Canglan was ultimately at a disadvantage.

Li Yaochen counted out the copper coins and placed them on the counter.

The little girl in charge of collecting payment asked with regret, “You really can’t be a little more courteous?”

Li Yaochen: “…”

He grabbed the items from the table, took out the wrist guards and waist sash and handed them to Shen Canglan, then put the rest into his storage pouch first.

Shen Canglan happily put them on. “How is it?”

“Need you ask?” Li Yaochen lifted his chin, his expression full of pride. “My brother is naturally valiant and extraordinary.”

Shen Canglan lifted his head and chest and curved his lips.

Actually, by this point, the two of them could already have left the auction house.

But Shen Canglan had wanted to greet Shen Guanqi before leaving, and besides, this was his first time attending an auction, so he still wanted to stay for the whole thing.

It was a pity that the second half of the auction became very boring, all things that Shen Canglan had no use for.

Shen Canglan yawned, and out of the corner of his eye he saw his waist token flashing with a faint light.

He picked it up and saw that Qin Chun had left him a message —

[Qin Chun]: Canglan, Senior Brother Shen said he ran into you and Daoist Li at the auction in Yunjian City. Did you and Daoist Li go to the auction too?

[Qin Chun]: Did you really pretend to be a pair?

[Qin Chun]: Can you reveal a little of the details?

Details?

Shen Canglan actually did not want too many people to know about this matter.

After all, this was falsifying things. He himself did not mind, and if it spread, then so be it. He was upright and unafraid of slanted shadows. But what if it caused some damage to Li Yaochen’s reputation?

He flipped through the “Ailü Plaza” for a while.

The topmost message was clearly from Daoist friend “There is True Feeling in the Human World,” the second installment of that previous story booklet.

This time, the content was about the two brother protagonists going to take part in an underground gathering. Because only dao companions could enter this gathering, the brothers had a flash of inspiration and disguised themselves as dao companions.

The protagonist kept calling him good brother, and from time to time reached out to hook the other person’s arm. Shen Canglan was utterly stunned, and admiration rose in his heart.

Compared with these two, the acting between him and Li Yaochen was indeed far from enough.

Fortunately, nothing went wrong.

Below, there were already two or three comments —

Delicious

Could Daoist friend write a bit more?

When exactly will they do that?

Shen Canglan also left a comment:

[Ailü 8814]: Daoist friend, keep it up! It’s just that they clearly already left the gathering, so why are they still holding hands? Are they afraid of being discovered?

Unexpectedly, “There is True Feeling in the Human World” replied to him: Huh?

Shen Canglan frowned at this “Huh?”

What did it mean?

It should be expressing approval of him, right? After all, he had read so carefully and even pointed out a factual mistake. “There is True Feeling in the Human World” should also agree with his point of view.

Li Yaochen asked him, “What are you looking at?”

Shen Canglan said, “There is actually someone in our sect who can write story booklets, and they write them very well.”

[Tsk tsk.]

He said, “And the things this person writes are different from the story booklets I read before. The story booklets I read before always had the protagonists kissing right away, which was very bizarre. But what this person writes is brotherly affection. They are amazing.”

[Tsk, tsk tsk.]

Li Yaochen: “?”

He asked the System, “What are you tsking about?”

[Tsk tsk tsk.] The System said, [Your love rival has arrived.]

Li Yaochen: “…What does that mean?”

The System: [Taste it yourself.]

Li Yaochen: “…”

Taste what, taste it!

The System still did not understand. Shen Canglan was different from everyone else in this world.

He did not like love affairs, and would not let romance tie up his feet. He liked cultivation, had very high comprehension, and wanted to ascend together with him.

He had no doubt about this, but he could also empathize with Shen Canglan’s loneliness, so his heart held a little more tenderness toward Shen Canglan.

After all, in other people’s eyes, Shen Canglan was an oddity. If Shen Canglan had not met him, then in this world, who would understand him?

But there was no need for Li Yaochen to tell the System these things. Looking at Shen Canglan’s dark, bright eyes, he thought for a moment, then took out a few story booklets he had brought from his own world from his storage pouch and handed them to Shen Canglan.

These story booklets had flimsy premises, and the protagonists’ path to advancement was too smooth, with opportunities that were far too heaven-defying, but there were also no shortage of exciting secret realms and formidable spirits and monsters in them. If Shen Canglan read them, perhaps they could further stir his fighting spirit.

Shen Canglan blinked, took them, and turned open a page.

What the hell is this thing, why is that ghost walking backward, so scary!!!

Shen Canglan clutched his chest and could not speak for a long time. Li Yaochen said, “Brother, as long as you like it.”

Shen Canglan panted and nodded.

After the auction ended, Shen Canglan found Shen Guanqi. Before he could say anything, a servant dressed like a household retainer emerged behind him and said to Shen Canglan, “Young Daoist Master, the family head requests that you come over for a moment.”

Family head?

The master of this already so prosperous garden that it inspired jealousy?

Shen Canglan asked, “Looking for me? For what?”

The servant said, “There is something that requires Young Daoist Master’s help…”

Shen Canglan had originally remained cautious.

But hearing the servant say this, a surge of responsibility mixed with pride, mixed with arrogance, mixed with worry, all rushed into Shen Canglan’s heart in one go.

With that mixture in him, Shen Canglan raised a hand and said with boundless spirit, “Your family head has something he needs my help with? Heh heh heh, truly excellent taste. Just lead the way!!”