thousand autumns volume 2

Thousand Autumns Volume 2 by Meng Xi Shi

Series: Thousand Autumns #2
Published on August 22, 2023 by Seven Seas
Age Range: Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Representation: M/M romance, Chinese cast

Rating:

Synopsis:

A PAWN IN GRANDER GAMES

As emperors, generals, and kings vie for dominance, martial sects mount bloody clashes to determine who will influence the nations’ leaders. Fallen and humbled, former sect leader Shen Qiao searches for direction in a tumultuous world. He finds an unlikely companion in the nefarious Yan Wushi.

The roguish and powerful demonic practitioner has helped Shen Qiao begin to rebuild his lost martial abilities. As the two travel and work together, the gentle Daoist master dares to imagine that the famed Demon Lord is warming to him. But all is not as it seems, and old treacheries draw fresh blood. As Shen Qiao confronts dangerous new enemies, the struggle for control of the Central Plains ignites!

Goodreads

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Before you venture further, just know that this post will contain all sorts of spoilers you don’t wanna know if you haven’t read the book and have intentions to do so. You’ll be spoiled from the start to the end.

Volume 1

Thousand Autumns took a huge turn with that BETRAYAL. Goodness me. Shen Qiao and Yan Wushi’s relationship/friendship/acquaintanceship has worsened. Yes, I knew that Yan Wushi is considered “bad” but how can he do that to Shen Qiao?! 🥺

Anyway, it was a bit confusing at some point because the family trees and each martial arts family tree is so freaking complicated and big. We need family tree charts.

Birthday Celebration

Madam Qin returned Hulugu’s ring to Duan Wenyang.

Hulugu died while sitting in meditation. Madam Qin and him had a relationship that surpassed master and disciple.
Duan Wenyang asked if Yuan Xiong (Su Qiao/Su Wei’s cousin’s husband) was hiding in their home because the Khagan (leader) ordered him to bring Yuan Xiong back to deal with after offending the Göktürks.

Duan Wenyang and Su Qiao got into a fight.

It was clear that Su Qiao wasn’t as skilled as Duan Wenyang.
Afterwards, Li Qingyu stepped in. Li Qingyu has managed to achieve sword intent.
He wanted to kidnap Su Wei because he knows that the family is hiding Yuan Xiong, but Shen Qiao stepped in.

Despite Shen Qiao’s current condition, he managed to chase away Duan Wenyang with his formed sword intent (sword intentions are formless by nature.)

Everyone there was shocked by Shen Qiao’s cultivation.
Li Qingyu, upon knowing that Shen Qiao is with Yan Wushi now, talked badly about him before this fight. Afterwards, though, he apologised and even offered Shen Qiao to stay at Chunyang Monastery.

In the carriage,

When Shen Qiao left, he spat out blood and he realized his carriage was hijacked by Bai Rong, who was supposed to bring him to her shizun because Shen Qiao killed Huo Xijing.

Shen Qiao managed to chase her off with Spring Waters finger technique which should only be Yan Wushi’s sect skill
Since she couldn’t fight Shen Qiao, Bai Rong escaped.

A man named Guang Lingsan came to find Shen Qiao.

He’s the sect leader of Fajing Sect. He wanted to bring Shen Qiao back because Yan Wushi took something from the sect before. The item is the Xiangchen bone that belonged to his master.
Shen Qiao’s condition seemed quite bad so Guang Lingsan wanted to check on him but Yan Wushi showed up just in time.

Yan Wushi’s place

Shen Qiao was brought back by Yan Wushi.

If Shen Qiao continues to fight while injured, his Daoist core might be forever destroyed. The best way to heal it is by gathering all five of the Zhuyang Strategy, which he has only 2.

There was a saying that grasping a woman’s heart was like finding a needle on the ocean floor, but Shen Qiao felt that grasping Yan Wushi’s heart was as impossible as finding a needle in a bottomless abyss.

🍵 ahaha yan wushi detected shen qiao’s dislike of medicine with the micro facial expressions, and offered a candy to him.

Emperor Zhou wants to meet Shen Qiao the next day. Yan Wushi also wants Shen Qiao to take this chance to listen to Yuwen Yong’s voice to see if he’s sick.

Yan Wushi passed Shanhe Tongbei (sword) back to Shen Qiao.

A battle of a lifetime: Yan Wushi vs Ruyan Kehui, will be happening soon.

Palace

Yuwen Yong wants Shen Qiao to establish a sect in Chang’an, another Xuandu’s Violet Palace.

He wants to use Shen Qiao to seed his own influence and voice among the Daoist sects.
Shen Qiao rejected.

Shen Qiao diagnosed Yuwen Yong as having not much time to live due to the prolonged inflammation in his liver.

Yan Wushi wants to support an unpopular emperor as a rebellious act, but he also wants to unify the lands and wouldn’t it be interesting if the demonic sect does something that the “legitimate” three schools can’t?

Once Yuwen Yong dies, Yan Wushi wouldn’t support the useless crown prince, but rather push Yuwen Xian (Prince Qi) into the throne.

In a carriage somewhere

Yu Zi is travelling with her husband Court Councillor Yuwen Qing to Chen under orders to deliver a letter to its emperor.

Her maid told her about a mysterious carriage in their procession, right behind Yuwen Qing’s, which no one has left ever since the journey begun. Rumor said that it’s a beauty.
When she fell asleep, she heard someone saying that they won’t kill her. The maid told Yuwen Qing that Yu Zi was crying so he went to find his concubine.

The guards of the procession was under orders of Yan Wushi and Yuwen Yong.

In Yu Zi’s carriage, Yuwen Qing was stabbed by the maid (disguised by Bai Rong) and collapsed on top of an unconscious Yu Zi.
Turns out, that beauty’s carriage was just Yan Wushi’s because they knew that Northern Qi would try to stop the Zhou-Chen alliance from happening.
Hehuan Sect was sent–including Bai Rong and Xiao Se.

Xiao Se blew apart Shen Qiao’s carriage and engaged in a fight.

He knew he couldn’t defeat Shen Qiao and left.

KISS?!?!?! 😘

They reached their destination.

On the street

Shen Qiao went out to walk, but was separated from Yuwen Qing and his people.

He met Bai Rong who just wanted to talk.
The next person that came was Academy Master Ruyan Kehui, head of the Confucian sects. He wanted to invite Shen Qiao to switch sides to the Confucian sect.

Yan Wushi appeared.

Somehow they agreed to fight, but Shen Qiao asked them to find a bigger space away from the town.
People who heard that a fight is happening went to watch.
Bai Rong helped Shen Qiao reach the location.

The fight and the cave

Yan Wushi and Ruyan Kehui are pretty on par in terms of their powers.

The battle ended with neither party injured nor lost.

Li Yue entered the cave where Yan Wushi was at, recuperating.

He wanted to kill Yan Wushi while the latter was injured. However, he was stopped by Shen Qiao and then knocked unconscious.
Yan Wushi was suffering from qi deviation.
When Yan Wushi went into seclusion, he wanted to cultivate a Daoist core alongside his demonic core. However, that’s impossible, so while his abilities surpassed expectations, he couldn’t succeed with two cores.

Bai Rong came into the cave wanting to kill Yan Wushi but was also stopped by Shen Qiao.

While they fought, Shen Qiao inhaled something that Bai Rong threw and he turned sluggish.
Meanwhile, Yan Wushi’s eyes opened and Bai Rong ran away.

Back at the guest house

Shen Qiao speculated that Yan Wushi won by a slight margin, but not without injuries on both sides.

Yan Wushi had old injuries triggered while Ruyan Keshi’s meridians were damaged so he most likely can’t use his true qi freely for a month.
Yuwen Qing got news that Shen Qiao has left.

Journey to Yecheng

Shen Qiao travelled for about two months before arriving at the Liang Province. When he’s at a teahouse, Yan Wushi appeared.

Yuwen Yong has decided to conquer Qi. Hehuan Sect has begun to splinter from within. Yuan Xiuxiu wants to collaborate with Huanyue Sect, but Sang Jingxing refused. After their falling out, Yuan Xiuxiu asked Yan Wushi to help kill Sang Jingxing.
Shen Qiao wants to find Yu Ai who is going towards Eastern Khaganate.

🍵
shen qiao: requested a new jug of plum juice
yan wushi: why are you in a such a hurry to draw a line between us?
shen qiao: i know you value cleanliness so you wouldn’t want to share
yan wushi: takes shen qiao’s jug and poured into his bowl and drank from it.

Shen Qiao was an orphan but was fortunately saved by his shizun.

“If you want something, you must fight for it yourself instead of dreaming that someone will come and help you. A person’s life and death are a result of their own choices and have nothing to do with others.”

Shen Qiao and Yan Wushi split up once they reached the city.

The Prince of Chenyang Commandery, Mu Tipo, and Shen Qiao have a bad history.
Northern Qi esteemed Buddhism.
He arrived at a Daoist monastery.

Apparently someone sent Shen Qiao a lot of things.

The Duke of Pengcheng County sent them, but Shen Qiao isn’t sure who that is. The servant that sent the goods over mentioned that Shen Qiao once showed the Duke kindness before.
The chests were filled with donkey-meat sandwiches. But the servant poured out all the food from the chests onto the floor. This pissed off Shen Qiao and so, he asked the servant to finish the sandwiches before he left. The servants was scared stiff so they finished the food.

Yan Wushi came to the monastery.

When Shen Qiao was immersed in meditation, Yan Wushi sneaked an attack and made sure Shen Qiao couldn’t move.
Yan Wushi is bringing him to see someone. In the meantime, the story
- Fenglin Scripture is unlike the other martial arts cultivation. The more powerful one becomes martially, the more restrictions it places on their body. The body might just rupture and die when it can’t contain the martial arts anymore. While all martial arts have such issue, the Fenglin Scriptures will cause the body to worsen even when one stops practicing.
- Yan Wushi thought that Zhuyang Strategy could merge martial arts from different disciplines, but it failed. Instead, he planted the peril of qi deviation inside himself.

Sang Jingxing has a terrifying presence
- A couple of years ago with Xian Province’s “Mad Blade the Matchless”, Ren Yin. His youngest daughter drew Sang Jingxing’s attention and wanted her to be his parasitic pair. Ren Yin agreed and handed over his daughter. It was rumoured that Sang Jingxing got bored of her and gave her to Huo Xijing who skinned her face to put on one of his wooden dolls.
In exchange for his sword, Taihua, back, Yan Wushi will give Sang Jingxing Shen Qiao, who killed his disciple Huo Xijing. It’s with Sang Jingxing cause it was taken by Cue Youwang.
Yan Wushi told Sang Jingxing Yuan Xiuxiu’s plan to kill him. She’s also dallying with Göktürks in secret. Yan Wushi and Yuan Xiuxiu are going to meet on June 6 at Yichixue Temple.
Yan Wushi left after passing Shen Qiao his sword.
Shen Qiao tried to fight Sang Jingxing.
Turns out, Yan Wushi planted a demonic core within Shen Qiao.

🍵 bruh. how can you? HE TOOK YOU AS FRIENDS AND YOU JUST GIVE HIM AWAY LIKE THAT?! AND YOU PLANTED THE DEMONIC CORE WITHIN HIM?! omg.

Shen Qiao destroyed his Daoist core and foundations.

Bailong Monastery

One of the young priests found Shen Qiao in a cave two days ago.

Shen Qiao destroyed his martial arts. He hid in the nearby Bailong Mountain, but Shiwu had found him.
Shiwu was the young boy that Shen Qiao gave a flatbread in the Xiang Province capital.
The Joyful Reunion poison was flushed out as well.
It seems like Zhuyang Strategy had been helping Shen Qiao recover his shattered Dantian at an incredible. He might even be able to fully recover.

When the other young priest, Chuyi, came back from the fair, Xiao Se stopped him, asking for Shen Qiao’s whereabouts.

Knowing Xiao Se’s murderous intents, the abbot left Shen Qiao and Shiwu in the cellar where they had been hiding.
If anything happens, Shen Qiao is to bring Shiwu to Bixia Sect on Mount Tai and that Zhu Lengquan accepted his own disciple while out in the world.
Two other Hehuan Sect people arrived: Bai Rong and Yan Shou (”the Buddha with the Blood-Soaked Hand)
Yan Shou killed Chuyi while Xiao Se sliced off the abbot’s ear. Despite Bai Rong and Xiao Se searches of the monastery, they couldn’t find Shen Qiao. When the time is up, Yan Shou killed the abbot.
Shen Qiao and Shiwu are escaping to Bixia Sect.

Shen Qiao decided to teach Shiwu martial arts despite the child being promised to join Bixia Sect.

Bixia Sect

History

Founded during Han Dynasty, but reputation have declined over the years.
Current leader: Zhao Chiying (in secluded cultivation for the past few years)
Proxy leader: Yue Kunchi

On the climb up the mountain, Shen Qiao and Shiwu met Fan Yuanbai, who he met at Su residences.

Fan Yuanbai just reached home after being away for a while.
They encountered dead bodies and disciples of Bixia Sect fighting each other.
Apparently, the real sect leader returned but Elder Yue refused to step down and ordered his disciples to fight those supporting Zhao Chiying.
Ruan Hailou is now a member of Dongzhou Sect. He brought Dongzhou Sect disciples to kill Bixia Sect’s disciples. Yue Kunchi’s shifu exiled Ruan Hailou to Goguryeo and was taken into by Dongzhou Sect.
When Ruan Hailou wanted to kill Yue Kunchi, Shen Qiao stepped him (his sword intent is close to a sword heart.)
Pu Anmi is Kunye’s first disciple and his weapon is a saber.
Since Zhou is about to invade Qi, Sect Leader Ruan and Elder Lu have already pledged their loyalty to the Göktürk. The current Xuandu Mountain Sect Leader Yu was given the title “Yuyang’s Bishop of Great Peace and Perfected Master” by Ishbara Khagan.

Pu Anmi fought Shen Qiao.

He totally underestimated Shen Qiao
When Ruan Hailou was going to kill Yue Kunchi (due to skill differences), Shiwu tried to step in but that didn’t change anything. Hearing this, Shen Qiao dispersed Ruan Hailou’s palm blast with his sword qi. It became 2 vs 1.
When Pu Anmi wanted to stab Shen Qiao from the back, Zhao Chiying appeared. Lu Heng, who wanted to become the sect leader after they killed Yue Kunchi and Zhao Chiying, was defeated by Zhao Chiying. Meanwhile, Shen Qiao defeated Ruan Hailou.

True story

Hui Leshan and Ruan Hailou were their master’s top two choices in the next sect leader race. One of the challenge is to reach Chang’an first. However, when Hui Leshan fell sick in Yi Province, Ruan Hailou stopped to take care of him. Neither of them reached first, but another disciple did.
Hui Leshan tricked Ruan Hailou into thinking that he won’t be participating in the challenge anymore so they got drunk. When Ruan Hailou woke up the next day, he was lying beside their master’s youngest daughter (who likes him). In his anger, he fought their master and left the sect. Subsequently, Zhu Lengquan left.

Zhu Chiying decided that she would be paying for what was owed to Ruan Hailou by Hui Leshan.

However, Ruan Hailou was found standing at the edge of the cliff holding Hui Leshan’s plaque.
He then jumped while holding it.

Zhu Chiying asked Shen Qiao to officially be Shiwu’s shifu.

They made it official.
Since Kunye is coming to Bixia Sect, there would definitely be a huge battle. Shen Qiao decided to stay to help.
Zhao Chiying broke her meditation at the critical juncture. She’s suffering internal injuries right now. So Shen Qiao’s proposal to duel Kunye himself was to help her out of a predicament of losing.

“There are some who never understand each other in their lifetime, and there are some who become old friends with a single meeting.”

Shiwu was beaming and didn’t offer a retort. You might be the least dignified master, he thought to himself, but you are the world’s best master.
Just the thought that he was Shen Qiao’s disciple was enough to fill him with satisfaction.

Kunye has arrived.

“You can kill people, but you cannot kill their hearts.”

Shen Qiao and Kunye’s fight will begin.
- Shen Qiao attained sword heart. Scared, Kunye admitted defeat.

SWORD INTENT TO SWORD HEART!

Kunye told Shen Qiao about the Coiled Dragon Assembly which is held in Tuyuhun, Fuqi, on September 9.
- Merchants will gather there to sell rare treasures. One of this year’s items belonged to Yan Wushi’s late mother.
- It’s rumoured that Yan Wushi’s original family name was Xie, the Chen Commandery’s Xie clan.
- The Xie family rose to power during the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Xie An is the most famous person in the family. However, their glory slowly waned.
- During the assembly, five of the world’s most powerful experts will kill him. Namely, Yu Ai, Fajing Sect Leader Guang Lingsan, Buddhist Master Xueting, Dou Yanshan, and Duan Wenyang.
- Out of all nations, Zhou has the best chance of unifying the land. Yuwen Yong allied with Chen to invade Qi and Zhou’s next target would be either Khaganate or Chen Dynasty. Huanyue Sect is supporting Yuwen Yong and to kill him, they must kill Yan Wushi first. Liuhe Guild helped Khangante to investigate Yan Wushi’s background after Yan Wushi ruined things for Dou Yanshan by destroying Zhuyang Strategy the night at Chuyun Temple.
- Ruyan Kehui dueled Yan Wushi specifically to draw out the flaw in his martial arts. Guang Lingsan, a demonic practitioner, will know how to kill Yan Wushi.
Then, Kunye swung his saber towards Shen Qiao. Shen Qiao took three steps back, Kunye’s attack missed, and Shen Qiao killed Kunye.
Afterwards, Shen Qiao went unconscious as he overtaxed himself.

“In this world there are many, many situations where giving someone something doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll receive anything in return. When you choose to give, you must remember this, or else the only one hurt will be you.”

Shen Qiao woke up and wouldn’t be bringing Shiwu with me. He entrusted Shiwu to Zhao Chiying so that he can go save Yan Wushi.

For the ideals I pursue within my heart, I’d not regret a thousand deaths to die.

With that ending, Shen Qiao is still going to help Yan Wushi. I wonder if, at this point, Shen Qiao has some romantic feelings for the leader of the demonic sect or it’s just purely because of his morals that he’s going to warn the latter. Regardless, I’m here to stay.

thousand autumns volume 2 – meng xi shi