Chapter 862: When the Dao Descends, All Must Rest (Patreon)

The sound of fists hitting the table and old men raising their voices over jars of mud had been the norm of these council meetings for as long as anyone remembered, so, it was a strange sight when the only sound ringing throughout the hall was snoring.

A thin line of drool was slithering down Duan Hui’s mouth as he lay slumped across the table with his cheek pressed flat against the wood. On the floor, curled up beside a chair was Elder Hou snoring loudly enough to make the paper screens tremble. Gong Ru's old friends sat with their chins on their chests, one of them still holding a teacup that had tipped over and was slowly soaking his robes.

As for Gong Ru himself, even though the old man was somehow still upright, his knuckles had turned white from clamping on the edge of the table. The only thing protecting him from falling into a deep slumber was a thin grey film of aura that flickered around him, but even that looked like it was going to go out any second.

Those who were still conscious, were staring at Lin Youran with shock. Ma Gang’s mouth was frozen whilst being half open, Qiao Feiyan's painted fingernail was still resting on a bead of her abacus, but from the slight tremble of her hands and her widened eyes, it was clear that this wasn’t an outcome she had predicted before. Across the table, with both hands pressed over his mouth was Pan Shu. And in the chair beside the cloud, the new elder stared at Lin Youran with raised eyebrows as though asking why the laziest man in the sect had made a move on his behalf by putting half the council to sleep.

Honestly, Lin Youran was wondering the same thing. What was going on? And what in the nine heavens did he think he was doing that was so out of character for himself?

Without a doubt, the antics of these elders had been grating on his nerves for the past two centuries, and why wouldn’t it? It was only a matter of time before someone broke from listening to bargaining that pretended to be concern for disciples, watching the nephews and great-granddaughters slip into comfortable positions, and seeing the same old men decide everything while pretending the council had voted.

Worst of all was the old elders pushing around the young ones. That was something Lin Youran himself had encountered when he had first become an outer elder. He had been handed the most tedious missions by Gong Ru’s group, but when he slept through every single summon and threat, they gave up and found someone else.

However, most young elders couldn't ignore summons from a nine-hundred-year-old elder and expect to maintain the proper relations required to be able to advance their cultivation and their position in the sect.

Lin Youran had been an exception because he never needed anything from them, but more importantly, he had never cared about face, and he wasn’t going to start caring now.

This was the first time he made a real move against them. All these years, he had let the slights against him slide since they never bothered him. The only other time he had tried to interfere was ten years ago when Pan Shu had been promoted. Lin Youran had offered him advice and told the nervous young man that he didn't have to accept every mission the old men pushed onto him.

Pan Shu had thanked him with three deep bows, but that had been the last the two had spoken. It turned out that a few quiet words from Gong Ru about how keeping company with the laziest man in the sect would ruin a young elder's reputation had been enough for him to start taking the seat on the far side of the table.

Lin Youran hadn’t followed up on it, he’d simply minded his own business, and the chairs around his cloud had stayed empty until today.

So, it came as a surprise to even him that he would do something this dramatic because he honestly couldn't remember the last time he had been angry. Why would he ever let himself be angry when it made the heart race, the face burn, and the qi churn in the meridians. A tremendous amount of energy was required, and energy was the one thing Lin Youran had made a point of never having to spare. But he didn’t know why, but seeing everything play out in front of him made him want to act. It had only felt right that he did something. He didn’t exactly know the reason, but he decided to stop overthinking it since thinking was effort too.

In fact, the faster he finished this, the faster he could return to his nap, and maybe there, inspiration would come to him on how to save his inner world now that the Primordial Silt belonged to Gong Ru.

"I hope we can all agree," Lin Youran said, sweeping his gaze over the elders, "that there is no such rule, and that junior brother Ke Yin is welcome to stay and take part in the exchange?"

“Of course, Elder Lin.” Qiao Feiyan answered first, sliding the frozen bead back into place with a crisp click. "I said as much myself. I believe that our esteemed elder is suffering from the plights of old age. Elder Ke is more than welcome here.”

"Yes," Ma Gang said, slapping his palm against the table. "Elder Ke can do whatever he pleases."

Beside him, the other elders of the Southern Flame Peak nodded.

"I… I agree too," Pan Shu whispered, his voice was difficult to hear through his hands that were covering his mouth.

Lin Youran turned his eyes back to the head of the table to see what the old man himself had decided upon. Noticing that Gong Ru wasn’t going to answer, Lin Youran let the smallest thread of his dao press a little harder, sinking lantern flames above the old man even lower.

"Elder Gong?” He called out. “You have something you want to say?”

"…He…" Gong Ru forced out through his teeth. "He may stay."

"Good."

With that dealt with, Lin Youran drew his dao back into himself, allowing the steam above the teacups to rise again and the lantern flames to return to their full height.

No longer being pressed, Gong Ru sagged against the back of his chair, gasping for breath. The sleeping elders slowly began to stir, they wouldn’t know what took place while they were unconscious but Lin Youran was sure they’d get the idea when they realised their leader has done a complete one eighty.

As he pulled his pillow back under his head, and rolled onto his side, ready to close his eyes, a voice spoke up quietly beside him.

"Thank you, Elder Lin, you didn’t have to do that. I'll make sure to pay you back for this. You have my word.”

Pay him back? That almost made Lin Youran laugh. When had everything in this sect turned into a transaction? Could one person no longer help another without wanting something back? He didn’t even get a chance to tell the young man that there was nothing to pay back because a jolt ran through his soul, which meant there was something wrong in his inner world.

Throughout his entire life, Lin Youran hadn't moved this fast, his consciousness plunged into the Eternal Leisure Paradise like a falling star, and what he saw made him freeze. Sure, there were still the nine stars burning in the sky, but where the moons should be circling them in their slow, perfect orbits, one was missing.

It was the smallest one, it hung motionless above the tallest mountain, wrapped from top to bottom in a thick white cloud blanket with its edges tucked neatly underneath, but what caused a sliver of fear to run through Lin Youran’s heart was how it was slowly sinking toward the floating peaks below.

"Mianmian!"

"…Master," the little cloud said happily, puffing up with pride from where it was curled up on top of the blanket of the sinking sun.

"What did you do to the moon?"

"…Moon sleep."

"Moons do not sleep," Lin Youran said, already reaching out with both hands. "Moons orbit."

“…Master sleep…” Mianmian's dimples looked down at the moon, then back up at him. "Everyone sleep."

It was then that Lin Youran understood that when he had released his dao in the hall, it had rolled through his inner world as well, since this was where his dao was rooted, and Mianmian had felt it and decided that everything should rest, not realising that the moon would crush half his mountains, which were decades of cultivation progress, if not more.

Holding back a sigh, he wrapped threads of his dao around the moon and began to push.

The excess qi made the moon far heavier than it had any right being, so by the time it slid back into its orbit, a bead of sweat was rolling down Lin Youran's temple in the real world.

“Bad blanket…” Mianmian drifted down from the sky with its edges drooping.

"Yes," Lin Youran sighed, sitting down on the mountaintop. “Very bad blanket.”

"…Mianmian bad?"

"No, you’re not bad," he said, patting the little cloud gently on the head. "But one day, I'll make you clever. I…I promise."

"…Clever," Mianmian repeated slowly as its dimples lit up. "…Clever. Sleep more?"

It was only then that Lin Youran realised the flaw in his ten-thousand-year plan, that if Mianmian ever became clever enough to run his world while he slept, it would be clever enough to want exactly what he wanted.

But lying on the mountaintop with the little cloud purring on his chest, he decided that that was a problem for two major realms from now, what he needed right now was some sleep. The deep kind preferably.

A/N

I wanted to get to the list of techniques today but I need the weekend to think it over since this will determine Ke Yin's battles going forward. Feel free to keep the ideas coming :)

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