“You really took painstaking effort just to become my cultivation partner, huh?”
Yan Qing: “.......”
What did that have to do with him? When he woke, the original host had already taken this step!
In his last lifetime, when Yan Qing had just started interacting with Xie Shiyi, he was either sarcastic or insinuative. Whenever he met with a problem, he wouldn’t give way, because his pride was higher than the sky. He hadn’t expected that when he was reborn one day, he would lose all his face. He chuckled.
Bai Xiaoxiao’s fingers clawed into the gravel on the ground, his body trembling. He didn’t know what he was expecting. He looked up cautiously, meeting Xie Shiyi’s distant gaze.
In an instant, the hope in his heart scattered like smoke.
His mind went blank and his breathing stilled. He quivered and cut his finger on a sharp stone.
That sharp, burning pain couldn’t overcome the roaring in his mind.
Bai Xiaoxiao’s face was bloodless. He felt as if he had been suddenly placed in a vast hall with no one around him, helpless and in despair. He bowed deeply to the ground, only his face touching the slick, cold steps.
Powerful cultivators of Great Ascension level and above would bring a natural pressure with them. He had never been to the Southluster continent, nor had he met anyone of that kind, let alone…Xie Ying.
Holding Trouble, Yan Qing took a step back, choosing to pretend to be blind. He gave Bai Xiaoxiao the stage of Lissome Palace, but he hadn’t expected that an audience of so many people wasn’t enough for him to dance, and he actually danced in front of Xie Shiyi. He didn’t know whether he should praise him for his courage.
Xie Shiyi said softly, “Why?”
He was still speaking to Yan Qing.
Tugging Trouble’s wings, Yan Qing almost choked on his saliva. He looked back at him. “What do you mean, ‘why’?”
Before, when Xie Shiyi was watching Tianshu, Chengying and Hengbai’s quarrel, it was like he was watching a farce that wasn’t particularly amusing. He hadn’t paid it much note. But even so, now that he had calmed down, he could easily deduce the full story.
“The token.” Xie Shiyi said, “Once you had Desireless Sect’s token, the request you made was to marry me?”
Yan Qing’s hair stood up. He kept his smile, but his peach-blossom eyes held a warning. With a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, he said, “That’s right, Venerable Duwei has a reputation that stirs the realm, so isn’t it normal for me to admire you?” Shut up, shut up, shut up!
Xie Shiyi saw the warning in his eyes. The peach flower in his fingers drifted away with the wind, and he curved his lips into a smile.
With this smile, everyone at the scene was struck dumb.
Tianshu’s eyes almost popped out. Was this really his shizhi?!
A delicate peach petal brushed against Bai Xiaoxiao’s face. He was still in a daze when he felt a fine pain. The cold intent immersing the peach petal sunk into his marrow, tearing apart his skin and splashing blood on the ground.
“Ah!” He screamed with fright, kneeling lower on the ground, not daring to raise his head.
Xie Shiyi abruptly said, “Give your hand to me.”
Yan Qing was in a terrible mood, so he wasn’t friendly. “For what?”
Xie Shiyi quietly repeated, “Your hand.”
Yan Qing was silent for a moment, then reached out a hand.
The red thread around his wrist was tangled, and his palm was pure white as jade.
Xie Shiyi wanted to touch him, but his fingertips paused in the air. He looked down, and a blood-jade bead flew out of his snow-white sleeve, falling into Yan Qing’s hand.
When Yan Qing saw that bead, he blinked in confusion. In his last life, he had been of Soul Formation cultivation as well, and as the young city master of Tenside City, rare treasures of the heavens and earth were commonplace for him. He had seen all kinds of divine artifacts and immortal artifacts. But when it came to this bead, with a single glance, Yan Qing knew it was no ordinary bead.
“What is this?”
Xie Shiyi said, “It’s the token of the Cultivation Alliance. Seeing it is as good as seeing me.”
Yan Qing: “......”
He suddenly felt that blood-jade bead wasn’t emanating coldness, but heat. It burned him so much his hand almost trembled and threw it away.
The token of the Cultivation Alliance?! Xie Shiyi, do you know what you’re saying?
That old man Tianshu had just taught Yan Qing a bunch of things about the Cultivation Alliance, and Yan Qing had just sighed over the place it held at the summit of power in the cultivation realm. He hadn’t thought that in the blink of an eye, the token of the Cultivation Alliance would fall into his hands. He was a disciple at the third stage of the Qi Refining level, and now he was suddenly placed above the nine sects and three families, controlling the power of life and death?
Yan Qing didn’t want it.
He said, “What are you giving me this for?!”
Xie Shiyi said mildly, “If you want to make any request of me, you don’t have to go through Desireless Sect.”
Yan Qing: “......”
The crowd: “......”
Xie Shiyi calmly explained, “For most of the year, I’m not in the sect. What’s more, there’s no one in Desireless Sect who can directly contact me.”
The corner of Yan Qing’s mouth twitched, but in the end, he still put the blood-red jade bead away.
He carelessly picked a red thread from his wrist, threaded it through the bead and tied it around his wrist.
Tianshu and Hengbai looked at each other, seeing shock in each other’s eyes. Tianshu felt that he really was getting on in years. He couldn’t even stand steadily, and almost fainted.
The people of Springturn Sect didn’t know the position the Cultivation Alliance held in the Southluster continent, but no one knew better than them what that blood-jade bead represented!
Yan Qing couldn’t bear these people’s gazes. He waved his hand and said, “I’ve been tossing around all night. I’m going back to sleep.”
Only then did Xie Shiyi think of something. He looked up. “You’re going to sleep?”
Yan Qing: “Yeah.”
Xie Shiyi said carelessly, “You haven’t built your foundation yet, right?”
Yan Qing was humiliated. “Yes.”
As the topmost name on the Bluecloud Ranking, he may not have come into contact with a person of his cultivation in a few hundred years. He just had to say these unnecessary words.
Xie Shiyi: “Hmm.”
Bai Xiaoxiao’s hands and face were covered in blood. At this moment, he couldn’t say a word. He was trembling as hard as a sieve.
The thread of tension in his mind shattered with a snap. His feelings of grievance, dissatisfaction and fury hit him like a slap in the face, leaving his skull ringing.
His tears dried. Only now did he discover that the matter he had always brooded over was only a joke to these people.
The token. The token.
“No one in Desireless Sect can directly contact me.”
It was as if Bai Xiaoxiao had been struck by lightning. His fingers curled, little by little, and he wished he were the dust beneath him.
Yan Qing wanted to slip away. The air of polite mutual respect between him and Xie Shiyi was a little terrifying. Perhaps Xie Shiyi didn’t know how to interact with him right now.
Just when Yan Qing wanted to flee with Trouble, he happened to turn and run into Chengying and his group, who had rushed over because of the Void Comprehension secret realm’s collapse.
Chengying’s face was dark. He suppressed his anger and said severely, “Xie Ying, you’ve actually emerged from Zixiao’s secret realm already. Have you finished your investigation? If you’ve finished, then open this formation and let us return home.”
Yin Wuwang and a few other Lightstream Sect disciples followed him in.
Xie Shiyi looked up beneath the moonlight and gazed at him. With his snowy robes and inky hair, he was unparalleled in beauty. His expression was calm as he said lightly, “Elder Chengying, before you leave, answer one question for me.”
As soon as Chengying heard his voice, a chill went down his back. “What do you want to ask?”
Xie Shiyi said, “Why did you come here? Let Yin Wuwang answer.” His voice was indifferent, but it was like the winter wind, blocking any routes of escape.
When Yin Wuwang heard this, his face instantly paled behind Chengying, and his breathing quickened.
He and Xie Ying were of the same generation, but there was the distance between heaven and earth between them.
Xie Ying’s status, cultivation and power meant that they were destined to have little to do with each other. He was even a little afraid of interacting with Xie Ying.
Cheng Ying stepped forward and hid Yin Wuwang behind him, his face twisting. “Why should you have our young sect master answer?! Xie Ying, don’t push us too far—” and then he coughed.
Chengying’s pupils shrank, and he spat out a mouthful of blood, falling to his knees. He held his chest, looking up at Xie Ying in disbelief. But all the words in his mouth fell to silence when he met Xie Ying’s deep black eyes.
A flash of cold, distant, violet light seemed to pass through the depths of Xie Shiyi’s eyes. He said, “When I say something, I don’t like to repeat myself.”
Chengying ground his teeth together, his eyes bulging and filled with red.
When he came to Springturn Sect, he had thought that running across Tianshu and Hengbai from Desireless Sect was unfortunate enough, but he hadn’t known that the true nightmare would come afterwards.
It was a nightmare that shrouded all of the upper realm!
“Elder, let me speak.”
Yin Wuwang tightened his fists and stood up from behind Chengying, speaking with a hoarse voice. He was covered in wounds, his face was white and his lips were dry and cracked. The red diamond between his brows was the mark of the Yin family. It was now the only trace of blood in his face.
Yin Wuwang took a deep breath. “I…I came here to take advantage of an opportunity.”
Xie Shiyi said nothing.
Yin Wuwang knew that he couldn’t deceive Xie Ying. It was just then that Yin Wuwang belatedly understood why his mother wasn’t willing to tell him anything other than that his destination was Springturn Sect, and didn’t let him bring anyone with him. Perhaps she was afraid of this exact scene.
This was the complicated pattern of the center of power in the upper realm. He couldn’t even enter the chessboard of these people’s games of truth and falsehood.
He said with a rough voice, “My mother told me a secret realm would appear here, so I came from the Southluster continent to search for it. I knew nothing about everything else that would happen. I truly knew nothing. My mother told me nothing.”
Chengying had a recalcitrant temper, and he protected the people he was close to even when he knew they were wrong. When he gazed at Yin Wuwang’s back, he felt like coughing up blood. His eyes filled with violence, he looked around, reached out and threw out a trembling Lightstream Sect disciple.
“Speak!” Chengying’s voice was harsh. He gritted his teeth and said, “Go on and speak! Tell the Cultivation Alliance leader the plain truth behind why we came here!”
Thrown out by Chengying, the disciple kneeled in front of Xie Ying, blood surging through his lungs. Frightened as a cicada in winter, he knelt with his tears falling. “Venerable Immortal, Venerable Immortal, spare me, spare me.”
Xie Shiyi looked down at him, his expression calm. He said softly, “Yes, go on.”
There wasn’t a trace of sympathy, nor of hesitation.
Chengying’s ruthlessness was on his surface, while Xie Shiyi’s ruthlessness was in his bones.
The Lightstream Sect disciple was almost scared out his wits. Crying, he said, “Venerable Immortal, we came here specifically to pick up the young sect master. The young sect master was injured by Springturn Sect, so we followed Elder Chengying here to take him home. That’s the way things were.”
The Lightstream Sect disciple knocked his head hard against the ground. “Venerable Immortal! I haven’t hidden anything from you! If I kept the slightest thing from you, let lightning strike me and bring me a terrible death! Venerable Immortal, spare me! Venerable Immortal, spare me!”
The whole scene was silent. Everyone felt their throat seized by vicarious terror, not daring to breathe.
In fact, to be honest, compared to the day he had stood in the valley of peach blossoms, today Xie Shiyi’s aura was much gentler. It was like fine rain in the spring breeze, but even so, it still gave them a chill.
Chengying’s eyes were scarlet. “Xie Ying! Can you let us go now?!”
Xie Shiyi gave a low laugh, ending with a palpable note of scorn. “No, I’m not satisfied.”
His words stirred a thousand waves.
Chengying finally broke. “Xie Ying! What exactly do you want?!” He was like a trapped beast. “What will it take for you to let us go?!”
Xie Shiyi ignored him. The peach blossom in his fingers gathered a cold light, turning into a fine thread that whistled straight towards them, burying itself in the red diamond between Yin Wuwang’s brows.
That was the soul-commanding thread of the Lightstream Sect Yin family head’s bloodline—
The peach blossom entered his gate of life!
At this moment, a gust of violent wind must have swept through the forbidden area of the Lightstream Sect ancestral hall, carrying peach blossoms with it.
Chengying could no longer speak. His fingers were trembling.
He knew Xie Ying was a madman.
He knew Xie Ying was heartless and his methods were ice-cold, but this was the first time he had truly met with the young master of Azurejade Palace.
He had given an unsatisfying answer. Xie Ying really wouldn’t ask him a second time, instead passing everyone by, the blade of his sword pointing at Lightstream Sect.
Xie Shiyi turned and left, his black hair and white clothes seeming to emit a clear radiance under the moonlight. He was clean and flawless, and the command he left was cold, disallowing any disagreement. “Within three days, have Yin Lie come to Azurejade Palace to see me, and give me an answer that satisfies me.”
Yin Lie. That was the name of the current sect master of Lightstream Sect.
Yin Wuwang covered his forehead, sitting down in shock. He was in disbelief. “Elder, what was that, what was that just now?” He seemed to be drowning in the open sea, helpless and in despair. In a panic, he seized Chengying’s hand. “Elder, what was that just now?! What did Xie Ying put into my forehead?!”
Chengying’s eyes betrayed a trace of fear. “The sword intent of Regretless.”
His voice trembled. “Young Sect Master, hurry and return and tell the sect leader about this. Otherwise, in the next three days, your soul will scatter to the wind.”
When he heard that his soul would scatter, Yin Wuwang was completely paralyzed. He gripped the dirt, his fingernails turning white and green.
Holding Trouble, Yan Qing watched all of this from the side. He could feel Trouble stiffening little by little. Feeling the cage was too suffocating, he had gnawed at it all day long and ground a small hole through the bars, forcing his way through with some difficulty.
But before he had the chance to feel smug about this, he wanted to return there again.
Damn…the world outside is scary.
Trouble thought about this for a while and asked, “Did he put the same thing into my stomach a while ago?”
Yan Qing laughed. “Not bad, Trouble. You’ve made progress and become a little smarter.”
Trouble: “......”
Trouble butted his head into Yan Qing, so angry his words fell into a mess. “I told you to stay away from him! Stay away from him! Stay away from him!”
Yan Qing pressed down his head and roasted him. “Why are you such a scaredy-cat? Don’t worry, you won’t die.”
Just then, Xie Shiyi walked over. Seeing that Yan Qing was still in the same place, he sheathed his sword and asked calmly, “Did you not find a place to sleep?”
Yan Qing was too embarrassed to say he had lost himself in watching the show. He nodded. “That’s right.”
Xie Shiyi was silent for a moment, then said, “Follow me.”
Yan Qing: “Okay.”
Before the Void Comprehension secret realm, a crowd of people knelt in a daze.
They looked at that Qi Refining piece of trash holding an ugly bird, who followed Xie Ying with ease.
Yan Qing looked back at the crowd of bloodless faces, and his fingers lightly flicked his red thread, his expression unclear…
Xie Ying commanded the power to kill, without the restrictions of law.
This kind of status was like a god’s, yet more like a devil’s.
Xie Shiyi was a Soul Formation cultivator, so it was easy for him to conjure a room to rest in.
Yan Qing felt that if he hadn’t spoken of sleeping, Xie Ying would’ve simply opened the birdcage formation and left this rotten place tonight.
A little curious, Yan Qing asked, “Xie Shiyi, what does Azurejade Palace look like?” He didn’t know why, but even though he hadn’t seen it, he could already imagine how luxurious and cold that place was.
Xie Shiyi looked at him and asked, “Do you want to see it?”
Afraid that he would conjure a palace out of thin air, Yan Qing tactfully refused. “I’ll visit it when I have a chance, but I don’t want to sleep there now.”
Xie Shiyi looked away.
Afterwards, the clouds of mist fell away, and a familiar place appeared before Yan Qing.
It wasn’t in disrepair, but nor was it luxurious.
Yan Qing’s eyes showed a sudden realization, and he laughed. “Oh, it’s this.”
It was a house with green tiles and white walls, with several hardy banana trees planted by its windows. Silver bells were tied to the eaves with red strings. When the wind blew, they softly chimed.
They had lived in many places together, good and bad, old and new.
He had once been a pitiful child living in a rain-wet rear court of the Xie manor, and then he had become a proud son of heaven that everyone in Cumbrant City knew. His identity had been revealed, he had fallen into the mire and then he had emerged anew.
When Yan Qing remembered their last life, he mostly remembered fighting with Xie Shiyi. But in the course of those constant arguments, they had survived countless rises and falls in their life.
Yan Qing looked around and sneered. “It turns out to be a wing of Divinification Pavilion. This must be from when we were seven or eight, right? If you have such fondness for the past, why not go back a little further in time, and conjure the little shack we lived in when we were five?”
Xie Shiyi said mildly, “If I conjured it, would you sleep on the roof?”
Yan Qing ignored his poking fun and rebutted, “You say that as if you didn’t sleep on the roof at the time.”
The roof of the little hut in the rear court of the Xie mansion was overgrown with vines and filled with insects. But below, there were only snakes, rats and more insects. There was no way for them to sleep there. So in summer, they preferred to stay on the roof.
Still, Yan Qing’s gaze landed on Xie Shiyi’s robes, lingering on the spiritual gauze. Every stitch was laden with clear radiance.
The corner of his mouth pulled downward.
Even before, Xie Shiyi was fastidious, but for the sake of survival, he couldn’t be too unreasonable. But now, his obsession with cleanliness seemed to have intensified.
Setting aside sleeping on the roof, even coming to Springturn Sect, this broken-down place with thin spiritual energy, may have felt like dirtying his sight.
Inside this wing of Divinification Pavilion, there was only a long table with two chairs.
The table and chairs were all homemade. Yan Qing’s fingers moved along a few scratches on the corner of the table, where the number “11” was written in childish strokes, as if it were a claim of territory.
Yan Qing had written this.
Xie Shiyi never acknowledged the number eleven, “shiyi,” as his name. He could even ignore Yan Qing when he called him “Yaoyao” (Wun-Wun) for the sake of provoking him. When he could no longer bear it, he would find something to stuff into his ears.
When they came again to this old place, the two men had unreadable expressions.
There were hundreds of poverty-stricken years between them and this place. Neither of them were the naive boys who only wanted to live on from back then.
Trouble tossed about before them. He had been terribly sleepy for a while now, and as soon as they entered, he started snoring in Yan Qing’s arms.
Yan Qing felt like he was in the way, so he simply dumped him on the ground.
Xie Shiyi suddenly said, “Why did you want to come to the Southluster continent?” After Yan Qing came clean to him, this was the first question Xie Shiyi asked that had to do with his reincarnation.
Yan Qing stood still for a moment.
Xie Shiyi wasn’t asking him how he had come back to life? Nor how long he had been reincarnated for? Instead, he asked why he came to the Southluster continent?
What was going on inside his brain?
Xie Shiyi sat before the table, not rushing him, but patiently waiting for him to answer. His ink-dark hair spilled onto the table. Under the light of the candle between them, the coldness in his features seemed to soften. His thin lips were pursed.
Yan Qing thought it over for a moment and said, “Why are you asking me this?”
Xie Shiyi smiled lightly, but his eyes held no trace of a smile. He stared at him. “What, could it be that you really came to the Southluster continent for the sake of marrying me?”
Yan Qing: “......”
Don’t say that. He really did.
But how could Yan Qing admit this? He looked away, playing with the red thread in his fingers, and said casually, “I wanted to look around the nine great sects.”
Xie Shiyi: “Hmm.”
Once Yan Qing had a point to begin with, he could spin a great deal of nonsense from it. He said, “Before, I never left the demonic realm. Now that I have this chance, I have to take in the scenery of the upper realm.”
Xie Shiyi: “Oh.” Once he finished speaking, he tapped the table, his eyelashes gilded with candlelight. He calmly said, “Of the nine great sects of Southluster, Desireless Sect may have the best scenery.”
Yan Qing: “Oh?”
Xie Shiyi said, “You can follow me there.”
Only then did Yan Qing realize that Xie Shiyi was planning out his future. It was true, Desireless Sect’s token had been the beginning of a great mess, but to Xie Shiyi, it might not even count as a joke.
Yan Qing felt this was strange. “Don’t you rarely live at Desireless Sect?”
The only place where you could really see Xie Shiyi was probably Azurejade Palace.
Pausing for a moment, Xie Shiyi said insipidly, “I just came out of closed cultivation, so I’ll return to the sect to stay for a while.”
Yan Qing said, “Oh.” He thought of Jing Ruyu’s words and was rather curious. “In the century that you’ve been in closed cultivation, were you trying to break through the peak stage of Soul Formation?”
When he heard this, Xie Shiyi seemed to have thought of something, and smiled. “Maybe.”
Yan Qing had rarely seen him so willing to respond to questions. He couldn’t endure the silence for long before he asked another question. “Then, Xie Shiyi…with what status will I be returning to Desireless Sect with you?”
Xie Shiyi looked up, throwing this question lightly back at him. “What status do you want to have?”
Yan Qing smiled faintly and replied without much honesty. “Of course I want to become a proper disciple of the sect. But Venerable Duwei, I hear the disciples of your sect go through an exacting selection process. If they haven’t reached Nascent Soul for a century and they don’t have a heavenly spiritual root, your sect won’t accept them. Venerable Immortal, with my qualifications, it seems I can’t get in?”
Xie Shiyi readily agreed. “That’s true, you can’t get in.”
Yan Qing: “......”
Was I asking for you to comment on my qualifications?!! I wanted you to open the back door for me!!!
Xie Shiyi spoke again, softly. “Yan Qing.”
Yan Qing: “What?”
Xie Shiyi watched him quietly with dark eyes, his expression set in the aloof lines that Yan Qing was familiar with, but his words were distant. Perhaps he rarely spoke about these matters. His voice was cold, and his pace was slow. Even if every word seemed like a matter of thunderous importance in the eyes of others, spoken in his voice, the words were as pale as the moon.
“In the power struggle of the nine great sects of Southluster, the Qin family of Plummount, the Xiao family of Soulstream and the Weisheng family of Azuresea are united in their objection to the business of eliminating phantasms. They founded many temples to resist the Cultivation Alliance. You haven’t recovered your cultivation yet, and now that you’re connected to me, they’re sure to fix their gaze on you.”
Yan Qing didn’t care at all. “So?”
Xie Shiyi said, “If you go to Southluster, stay by my side.”
Yan Qing: “Oh.”
Yan Qing took on a peculiar tone. “Isn’t the crux of the matter that I can’t enter Desireless Sect?”
When he heard his question, Xie Shiyi said, “No, you have a perfectly official status right now.”
Yan Qing: “......”
They went round and round in a circle just to return to the beginning in the end?
He really was troubling Xie Shiyi. In fact, there was no need to make things this complicated.
But Yan Qing couldn’t say that his original idea was to follow along with this marriage in order to stay there. That would be too embarrassing.
Mute for a moment, Yan Qing then feigned ignorance and asked, “You’re talking about this marriage?”
Xie Shiyi casually said, “Yes.”
Yan Qing pretended that he didn’t care either. “...That’s fine.”
Xie Shiyi pulled back the hand that he had placed on the table. He spoke again. “Your cultivation…”
Yan Qing seemed to have seen something. Startled, he hastily said, “Wait, Xie Shiyi, don’t move.” After he spoke, he rushed over, his fingers touching Xie Shiyi’s eyelashes. At that moment, the tassel of the red thread around his wrist brushed past Xie Shiyi’s cheek. It brought with it the cool fragrance that Yan Qing had taken on after spending all day surrounded by peach blossoms.
Xie Shiyi: “......”
Xie Shiyi’s previous calmness cracked, and his voice was cold as shattered jade when he said, “Let go.”
Yan Qing only said, “Your eyes.”
That phantasm within the jade-green blood was the curse of the demon god. It surpassed all external things, alive or dead. Even though it only appeared in Zixiao’s memories, it may still have had an effect.
Yan Qing laid a hand on Xie Shiyi’s shoulder, while the other hand landed on his eyes. He leaned down, staring seriously at his pupils.
Outside, cicadas cried below the banana leaves, and the bells below the eaves incessantly chimed.
Xie Shiyi rarely looked up. Sitting in Azurejade Palace, only the constantly desolate wind and snow could come near to him.
But at this moment, due to Yan Qing’s position, he had no choice but to look up. His inky hair tumbled down behind him, and the thin ice in his dark violet eyes fractured, surging with emotions that no one had understood before. In the old dwelling of their youth, he looked up at the young man from his past.
After his first time acting crazy, Yan Qing had cleaned his face of its filth. His black hair scattered around him, revealing his pale, fragile neck. He didn’t care about how ambiguous the current atmosphere was. As soon as the phantasm appeared, he was only in a grave mood.
The black and white in Xie Shiyi’s eyes were clearly separated, radiant and pure.
At this moment, a trace of green blood slowly spread from the center of his pupils.
“Hold on for a moment.”
Once he spoke, Yan Qing wound a red thread around his fingers, and its shadow entered Xie Shiyi’s eyes.
Xie Shiyi didn’t move an inch.
Once the soul thread met the blood of the demonseed, the blood began to scatter in panic, but had no way to escape. The blood followed the soul thread out, the phantasm within screeching, until it entered the air and fell onto the ground, meeting complete destruction under the sword intent permeating the air.
Yan Qing muttered, “Huai Mingzi’s dark spell really is hard to defend against.”
After taking care of the phantasm, he asked Xie Shiyi, “How are you?”
After he spoke, he froze. Only when he finished working did he realize there was something wrong with his position. He was too close to Xie Shiyi, and it felt like he was next to an icicle.
Startled, Yan Qing retracted the hand pressing down on Xie Shiyi’s shoulder and stepped back. He hid the uneasiness in his heart as best he could, smiled casually and said, “Don’t get mad, wasn’t I helping you?”
Just as his other hand was about to leave Xie Shiyi’s face, the other man grasped it in the moment it moved away.
The red soul thread around his wrist intertwined in their fingers. Every summer, the cry of the cicadas outside this wing of Divinification Pavilion was louder than the summer before. This house a Soul Formation cultivator had conjured perfectly replicated every fine detail of their memories, including the flowers outside the window and the bells below the eaves.
Yan Qing looked at Xie Shiyi in a daze.
He heard Xie Shiyi say in a calm tone, “Yan Qing, I can’t see anything.”
Yan Qing was shocked. “What?!”
Yan Qing’s face turned pale, and he looked at Xie Shiyi’s eyes again. He found that though he had extracted that tiny thread of phantasm, as the soul thread was an artifact of the demon god, it had worsened the injury Xie Shiyi’s eyes had received in his childhood.
Now a layer of mist seemed to cover those clear, cold eyes.
Once he took a careful look, Yan Qing let out a breath and said with chagrin, “It’s alright, it’s not a big problem. This seems like it’s an aftereffect. You might be blind for…a few days.”
Xie Shiyi continued to hold his hand. When he heard this, he smiled with an unknown meaning.
“You’re such a good doctor.”
That familiar mocking tone made Yan Qing angry for more than one reason. He rolled his eyes. “That’s the attitude you have for your savior?”
Xie Shiyi said mildly, “I have to see Yin Lie in three days.”
Yan Qing: “Y-You should be fine by then.”
Xie Shiyi obstinately asked, “What about before then?”
Yan Qing simply said, “It’s not like you haven’t been blind before! What are you scared of?!”
Once he said this, both of them stilled for a moment.
Xie Shiyi looked up, his eyes holding a dim light. He lost the coldness that seeped into people’s heart and took on a slight tranquility.
Yan Qing suddenly thought of the little boy who had silently practiced with his sword on that rooftop, a black cloth binding his eyes.
The Xie Shiyi of the present would never be that clumsy.
On the contrary, he was the number one swordsman in the realm.
But playfulness arose in Yan Qing’s heart, and he scooted closer, saying, “No problem.”
His eyes were filled with a teasing smile as he said, “Venerable Immortal, I can see, so let me guide you.”
***
cela's notes: 3:28 hours
Comments
Post a Comment