Love from the Male Protagonist’s Harem

Deep at night, in the hidden expanses of a forest, the sound of wind rustling the innumerable leaves mixed with the faint chirping of cicadas.

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A young man dressed in coarse hemp was walking along the rugged mountain path, struggling to carry a cask filled with water.  The moon was shining bright, and the young man, feeling out of breath, put the cask down to take a rest.

Right at that moment, from the dimness came an unexpected small rustling sound, like the prowling of a wild animal.

The young man in hemp glanced around doubtfully, before suddenly spotting a dark form racing through the thick trees.  Heart pounding, the young man crouched low in the underbrush, watching intently.

All around, the shadows of the trees’ leaves swirled and danced.

The dark form floated by, its pace hurried.  Observing the direction it took, the young man’s heart skipped a beat…it was going to the back of the mountain?

The dark figure did seem a bit familiar.  Glancing at the cask put to one side, then back at the direction the form was going, the young man clenched his teeth and left the cask behind, following the dark form.

The teenager’s steps were light, movements slow.  Perhaps the mysterious figure was more afraid of being found out, for its footsteps rushed.  Neither one detecting anyone behind them, the two people snaked their way across the mountainside until they came to the back of it.

“This person really is going to the restricted area, the back mountain…”

Completely flustered, the young man was trying to decide whether or not to turn back around when, not paying attention, there came the soft ‘pop’ of a twig snapping underneath his foot.

The dark figure lost their cool.  Upon hearing the sound, they fumbled about in alarm, losing most of the black scarf across their face to the branches of a tree.  The moon shone down on the exposed face, giving the young man hiding behind a tree a good clear look.

“…Xia Wuyin?!”

The young man’s heart pounded in his chest.  Xia Wuyin…that person…what business would they have going to the back of the mountain?

On Lingxi mountain, everyone knew the prohibition about the back of the mountain.  Disciples were forbidden to go in and come out.  Even if Xia Wuyin was an outer disciple, they were still a junior of Danfeng.  How could Xia Wuyin not know this rule?

Thoughts churning, the hemp-dressed young man’s expression grew complicated.  Hands clenched tight against the tree trunk, he gave up the idea of going and tattling on the dark figure.

If it had been anyone else, perhaps the young man would have spoken up, but if it was Xia Wuyin…

Gritting his teeth, the young man decided to keep following Xia Wuyin.

Yet before the young man could take even a small step, he heard a cold laugh.

“Well, well, look at this.  Tell me, what’s one of Danfeng’s little losers doing wandering around here?”

The young man’s heart went cold.  Done for!

Still, trying to maintain his composure with great effort, the young man turned to look at the source of the sound.  It was a male youth dressed in blue, long sword in hand, with a cordon made of soft fur.
His face seemed carved out of jade, with thin lips and a disquieting air of harshness.

“I lost my identifying jade pendant.  It fell somewhere around here.”  The young man in hemp lowered his eyes.  “While I was looking for it, I accidently made my way here.  But I’ll leave at once.”

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“Ha!  You think you can just come and go from this place as you please?”

The disciple in blue sneered, long sword suddenly unsheathed, the blade exposed.  Beneath the moonlight, a freezing air permeated as the young man spoke: “If we fail to provide you proper guidance, I fear that, at least when it comes to this mountain, you won’t know how to write the words ‘forbidden area.’  Am I not right?”

The young man in hemp trembled, his heart suffering unspeakably, yet on his face was plastered a smile: “I just came here to find my jade pendant…”

The sword people of the mountain did truly love to ceaselessly nag over trifles.  And today was not the good day that would change that.  But Xia Wuyin, that kid, was still wandering around where prohibited in the middle of the night!

“I…”

“Ze.”

Out of nowhere, a young lady’s voice, soft and slow: “I don’t understand how you went from carrying a cask of water down the mountain to being here?”

The young man looked up for a split second, before bowing his head again silently.  Finally he stammered: “Big…Senior Sister.”

Pupils slightly contracting, the blue-clad young man smiled sarcastically: “You outer Danfeng people, gathering around the back mountain tonight.  I guess you don’t fear punishment by the Sect leader?!”

The young lady wore pure white, the cuffs of her wide sleeves and the hem of her long dress exquisitely embroidered with red maple, while a red belt wrapped around her soft, slender waist.  Long hair showered down like a waterfall, only to be carelessly tied back with a red ribbon.  The curve of her eyebrows over eyes with slightly hooked corners was picturesque, yet a gleam of chilliness lurked in the depths of her gaze.

“When the juniors of Danfeng make a mistake, it is only right that I, their Danfeng senior, punish them.”

The mountain night air whistled through the trees, blowing at the troublesome lady’s wide sleeves.  Her expression might’ve appeared indifferent, but her eyes were murderous: “Returning from the back of the mountain is banned.  How was I to guess that the younger generation had turned it into their garden?  And would be so shameless about it too?”

“”

Her voice fell, her sleeve flicked, and imposing force surged from her as the qi she was expending doubled.
  Pressured by the young lady’s power, the blue-clad youth stepped back.  He’d retreated three steps before he suddenly widened his eyes: “You’re Danfeng’s great disciple, Gu Peijiu!”

The young lady’s tone was ice-cold: “Indeed, it is my humble self.”

“Humph, what’s so amazing about that?”  The youth in blue muttered under his breath.

Yet the youth in blue unwillingly withdrew while the great disciple snorted and crossed her arms over her chest.  She was the senior disciple of the First Peak, not a person he could afford to tangle with.

Gu Peijiu watched the disciple in blue stride off, then turned back to eye the hemp-clothed young man: “Ye Ze, do you know your mistake?”

Immediately kneeling down, the young man spoke in a panicked hurry: “This disciple knows he was wrong.
I shouldn’t have been wandering around this part of the mountain in the middle of the night.
I beg Senior Sister to punish me!”

“You’ll go back and copy the Danxun three hundred times.”

The young lady also added in an aloof tone, “The jade pendant you lost is not here, but at Liandan Pavilion.”

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Ye Ze’s face flushed red: “Thank you…thank you Senior Sister for your instruction.”

“This is not a good place.
Follow me, we will return.” Gu Peijiu spun about, her red embroidered sleeves waving a crisp arc in the moonlight.

Slavishly obedient, Ye Ze kept pace with Gu Peijiu’s steps.
Nervous, though starting to relax a little, as they walked, Ye Ze still couldn’t stop himself from stealthily looking behind—

Xia Wuyin, what the hell are you doing on the back mountain?

“What are you looking for?”

The young lady’s voice rang out.
Ye Ze, alarmed again, quickly turned his head forward: “Nothing, it’s nothing, I…”

Unexpectedly the young lady’s brows slightly knit, as if she’d just detected something: “Hear that…”

The demonic qi from the back mountain was growing heavier.

Gu Peijiu’s pupils abruptly shrank: “You, go back now! The mountain is changing!”

Ye Ze’s heart sank in his chest: “Senior Sister!”

“Three hundred copies of the Danxun.
Hand it to me in three days!” Finished speaking, the young lady’s silhouette flashed away, disappearing without a trace.

“Senior Sister!”

The youth almost shrieked his words, startling the jackdaws in the trees.

 

 

 

Naturally, Xia Wuyin had heard the bustling going on behind her back.
Although frightened, the scarf went back over the face and further into the depths of the back mountain she went.

[System Primary Task: Seeking Liuli Tree]

[Task Progress: Advancing]

Xia Wuyin, or perhaps call her Xia Ge, was having complicated thoughts.

This kind of sneaking around and lawlessness wasn’t truly what she wanted to be doing.
But once you got used to it, you really couldn’t fucking stop.

Poisonous.

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Guided by her system, Xia Wuyin combed through clumps of disordered grass.
Sure enough, there emerged an oddly shaped little plant.
The size of a palm, it shone with a glassy radiance that sparkled crystal clear in the moonlight.
At its roots were two clusters of leaves that propped up the irregular translucent plant.

Delighted at the sight, Xia Wuyin quietly crouched down, taking from out of her sleeve a small sickle made specially for harvesting herbal specimens.
Cautiously and carefully, she cut the Liuli tree from its roots.

[Ding! Primary Task Item Obtained: Liuli Tree]

[Task Completed]

She’d gotten hold of the Liuli tree without a hitch, but Xia Wuyin still held back her sigh of relief.
And when she turned her head, she immediately got so scared out of her mind that she about passed out.

“Shi-shi-shi…Senior Sister?!”

The next second, Xia Wuyin realized just how bad the situation was for her.
She was wearing all black clothes, dressed up like a little thief.
It’d be a miracle if she wasn’t thrashed for being a spy on Lingxi mountain!

Yet Gu Peijiu just fixed her with a measuring stare, not uttering a single word.

Her calling out ‘Senior Sister’ already past her lips, Xia Wuyin next wanted to slap herself silly across the mouth a couple hundred times.
Fucking idiot, you’re wearing a black scarf across your face! Hadn’t she just confessed to Senior Sister without even being tortured?! She was a disgrace to thieves everywhere.
Such shame!

“What’s that they say…the mountains are high, the rivers are long? Well, perhaps fate will bring us together again some other time!”

Holding onto the precious Liuli plant, Xia Wuyin made a decisive vertical leap up into a tree by inwardly activating her system’s preinstalled lightness skill.

“Gone like a ghost!”

But the system could play more than one trick with its lightness skill.
[Ghost And Shadow]

In a second, Xia Wuyin felt her body lighten even more.
She glanced back at her senior sister, only to see that Gu Peijiu was still in the same spot, unmoving, like someone caught in a demonic spell.
While secretly rejoicing, Xia Wuyin couldn’t help also having misgivings.
What was the matter with Senior Sister?

In the light of Senior Sister’s inflexibly bad temperament, when coming upon Xia Wuyin dressed like a scoundrel and swiping plants off the back mountain, shouldn’t Senior Sister capture her, beat her to a pulp, or make her copy some book hundreds of times? Even the heavy consequence was being labeled a spy or a traitor and driven out of the sect was a possibility.
So why should she care that Senior Sister was being a motionless blockhead?

Under the effects of her system’s [Ghost And Shadow], Xia Wuyin’s figure replicated three or four times, the dark shapes moving extremely fast, disappearing in almost the blink of an eye.

No matter what, of the thirty-six possible stratagems and schemes, ‘if all else fails, retreat’ was the first!

 

 

 

 

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In the dim light of the night, the scene lay deep and serene.

Gu Peijiu, who’d been rooted to her position, finally seemed to recover her spirit.
Raising her eyes, she gently flicked her sleeves.
A line of red silk suddenly flew out of one of her cuffs.
With perfect skill it passed through the branches of dense trees illumined by white moonlight.
Delicate, yet ruthlessly accurate, it hit its target, wrapping around a thigh of one of the multiple shadowy figures.

Whispering to herself, Gu Peijiu’s black pupils were a bit devilish: “Caught…you.”

If Ye Ze had been there, he would have discerned that his Senior Sister’s expression was a little abnormal.

His stuffy and arrogant great Senior Sister would never have had such a dreadful, dark expression in her eyes!

The Xia Wuyin who thought she’d made good her escape was surprised to feel a pain around her right leg, like something had abruptly tightened around it.
Stumbling, her left foot slipped off a branch.
Cutting a sorry figure, she flipped over.
Only managing to grab a thick branch with one hand, she found herself half-hanging from the tree.
Bowing her head, she was stunned to see the red silk closely tied about her leg.
Then she was even more shocked to red silk extending through the endless woods to…Senior Sister’s hand!

“Oh shit…”

Not being a complete idiot, Xia Wuyin immediately took out a knife, desperately trying to cut the red silk.
However, the silk that appeared so soft was particularly tough.
Water and fire could not have budged its consistent steeliness.

Trying to cut it off for a long moment, Xia Wuyin then felt the red silk constrict yet again! She’d given all her attention to trying to sever the red silk, consequently letting her guard down.
Now the hand that had grasped the branch lost its hold and Xia Wuyin precipitously fell from the high tree!

At that moment, Xia Wuyin’s first reaction was to cover her face with her hands.

Her head could be broken, her blood flow, but this face must not be lost!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Danxun-
Dan-*in this context* (try to) make pills of immortality (as a Taoist practice)
Xun-teachings, precepts, instructions, etc.

Liandan—make pills of immortality/or-alchemy

The Thirty-Six Stratagems, a Chinese essay used to illustrate a series of stratagems used in politics, war, and in civil interaction //The Book of Changes, The Thirty-six Stratagems and the Strategy in the Era of Knowledge Economy