When Gui Yin woke up, his entire body was wrapped in a familiar warmth. His head was supported on another person’s bicep and he could feel the person’s warm breath brush against the crown of his head. He pursed his lips and slowly dragged his gaze upwards until he saw Langxia. He propped himself up and glanced down at his leg.
Miraculously, he could move it freely again.
He glanced back at Langxia and shifted away. As he was about to get ready for the day, he felt a bump against his waist. He looked down again and found that Langxia had folded himself over and had his forehead pressed to Gui Yin’s side.
“I’m still sleepy,” Langxia muttered.
Gui Yin pursed his lips. He reached down and flicked Langxia’s ear. “We’re in a life or death situation. Can you really afford to keep sleeping?”
“Just a few more minutes,” Langxia said. His arm languidly slung around Gui Yin’s waist as he pulled himself closer.
Gui Yin turned away. He shifted slightly as his cheeks unconsciously warmed. “It’s difficult to get sunlight in this place. If you want to stay, then stay, but I’m going to go look around again.”
Langxia slowly pulled his head back and eventually propped himself up. He leaned his cheek against Gui Yin’s shoulder. His eyes slowly drooped again. “I’m coming.”
Gui Yin rolled his eyes. He shrugged Langxia off and stood.
Langxia yawned and stretched out. His robes slipped off his shoulder as he grunted and squeezed his shoulder. He stood slowly and lazily. He walked in a daze even as he changed his clothes and properly pinned his hair up. By the time he was ready, Gui Yin had already been watching him by the doorway for several minutes.
Langxia smiled charmingly and sauntered over. “Are you feeling better?”
“Shouldn’t I ask you that?” Gui Yin scoffed. He glanced at Langxia’s hand and absentmindedly flipped them palms up. After seeing that there were no scars, he let them go again. “Are you actually fine? You said you snuck out, didn’t you?”
“Of course, I’m fine. As I said, they were just over reacting,” Langxia said. “Now, do you have enough energy to tell me exactly what happened?”
Gui Yin let out a long sigh. He began to grumble out what had happened to him from the beginning up until Langxia had caught him in that embarrassing situation towards the end. Just thinking about it made him cringe. He shook his head to dispel the residual echoes of the voices from last night and glanced at Langxia.
“Right, how did you get in?”
“It took a long time,” Langxia said. “At first, I walked through the front, but I couldn’t sense your presence. It took a few days to figure out what was wrong. I realized after a while that I should be trying on a specific time of night. It was a whole hassle—”
“Wait, wait. Days?” Gui Yin echoed.
“Mn. Days.”
Gui Yin’s eyes widened. His leisurely demeanor completely crumbled. “W-wait, what’s today’s date?”
Langxia thought about it. “When I entered, it was sixth.”
“…Are you serious?”
“Why would I lie to you?”
Gui Yin grabbed Langxia’s arm. “We have to hurry.”
Langxia allowed himself to be dragged along without any question of where they were going or why they were even rushing. He looked around as they walked and hummed in admiration.
“This place is interesting. To think that there’s enough resentful energy to manifest an area like this.”
“That’s exactly why we have to hurry,” Gui Yin said. He glared at Langxia, who was strolling at a leisurely pace. “Would it kill you to walk properly?”
Langxia pouted and dragged his feet further. “Qinle, I spent the past two months missing you. Is this how you treat me?”
Gui Yin had to practically carry Langxia. The weight of an extra man slowed them to a stop. He smacked Langxia’s back with an irritated click of his tongue. “Did you not listen to me? The resentful energy in this place has piled up enough to create a phenomenon like this. When the fifteenth comes, I have no doubt that this will be enough to push the Ghost Realm directly into the Mortal Realm. You don’t think that’s scary?”
“Scary. Very scary,” Langxia said coaxingly. He brushed a hand against Gui Yin’s head. “But have more faith in yourself, my dearest. Your barrier has been unmoving despite the resentment for the past five years. And from the way I see it, it still works even though we’re a foot into the Ghost Realm. So, really, the thing you should be afraid of isn’t the fact that the Ghost Realm will overtake the Mortal Realm. It’s that this pocket dimension is going to merge with the Ghost Realm.”
“That means we’ll be stuck in the Ghost Realm.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Ktja’r mbggfma.”
“Ktja wfjcr kf’ii vlf,” Xel Tlc rjlv.
Ojcuzlj cbvvfv. Lf rwlifv. “Dea kf’ii vlf abufatfg.”
Vfflcu Xel Tlc’r lcoegljafv fzqgfrrlbc, Ojcuzlj rtbkfv jc fjrs rwlif. Lf ragjlutafcfv jcv ygertfv tlr tjcv jujlcra Xel Tlc’r. “Pa’ii yf olcf. P kbeiv cfnfg ifa sbe vlf.”
Gui Yin felt his heart flutter at such careless words. He averted his gaze and turned his back to Langxia. He took a steadying breath to calm himself. He pulled his hand away from Langxia’s infuriatingly light touch and started walking again.
“Where are we going?” Langxia asked.
“To find that cave again,” Gui Yin grumbled.
“Don’t walk so fast.”
“Don’t walk so slow,” Gui Yin snapped back.
Langxia smiled. His pace quickened until he was beside Gui Yin again. He glanced at the other man and shifted closer.
“Stop walking so close to me.”
“I’m cold.”
Gui Yin glanced at Langxia and knew the man had to be lying. His entire body was like a furnace next to Gui Yin at this very moment. If he was cold, then not even the sun would be able to warm him up. Gui Yin turned his head away and coughed a few times. He took longer, slower breaths as he tried to keep his pesky asthma from acting up.
Langxia shifted even closer until the side of his body was practically plastered against Gui Yin.
“Can you not fool around?” Gui Yin hissed.
Langxia tilted his head innocently. “But I really am cold.”
Gui Yin took his hands from under his cloak and placed them against Langxia’s cheeks. “This is cold, alright? You’re not cold at all. You’re like a walking brazier. Stop fooling around and let’s…”
Gui Yin’s voice trailed off as Langxia cupped his hands over his cheeks.
“How come you’re this cold?” Langxia frowned.
Gui Yin’s fingers twitched against Langxia’s cheeks. He tried to pull his hands back but found that he couldn’t do so without putting in more strength. He glared at him, but the look had weakened greatly as he felt his fingers warm under Langxia’s touch. He averted his gaze and waited until Langxia had removed his hands, but before he could pull them back, they were caught again. Langxia gently rubbed them and glanced up at Gui Yin.
“Do you feel warmer?”
Gui Yin hummed quietly.
Langxia lifted his head. His action of warming Gui Yin’s hands hadn’t stopped. “Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere else?”
“I’m fine,” Gui Yin mumbled.
He could feel his heart hammering against his chest and thought that, for sure, Langxia could feel the absurd fluttering that seemed to fill his rib cage. He couldn’t bring himself to look up at Langxia anymore. He awkwardly pried his hands away and quickly headed towards the woods, his cloak fluttering slightly behind him. Langxia clasped his hands around the residual coolness and swiftly followed after.
As they traversed further into the forest, Langxia kept a close eye on Gui Yin.
Yesterday, the madness and resentment of the cave had nearly driven Gui Yin into Qi Deviation.
Although he was a cultivator who had relatively few heart demons, it was never difficult for demons to draw out the heart’s deepest resentment. From what Langxia had seen when he had pulled Gui Yin from the wall, he was clearly not in the best state. He had tried to keep up a front, but the front had crumbled relatively easily. In the middle of the night, Gui Yin had curled against him, shivering nonstop despite his best efforts in trying to comfort him.
Remembering the fragile state Gui Yin was in, Langxia’s eyes cooled. The deep brown turned into an icy gold. He lowered his gaze to keep Gui Yin from noticing but something in his blood boiled when he wondered just what sort of words were whispered into Gui Yin’s ears for him to react like that.
Gui Yin frowned slightly. He turned around. “Is it this way?”
Langxia looked up. “I don’t know. I just followed you last night.”
Gui Yin pressed his lips together. He looked around for any signs from last night, but all he remembered was that he had walked closer to the boundary again and had quickly run off as it began to rain. He couldn’t even remember which direction he had run off to.
“This is…” Gui Yin was at a loss for words.
He had stupidly stumbled across the place that was most likely the source of the piling resentment, but he had completely lost track of it come the next day.
He turned to Langxia for any ideas.
Langxia smiled. “Just relax. Maybe you’ll remember some kind of landmark?”
“It’s a forest for miles. All these trees basically look the same. Should I look for which way the branches are leaning?” Gui Yin irritably snapped. After saying his piece, he looked a bit sheepish. “…Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s okay,” Langxia said. He took Gui Yin’s hand by the fingertips and began to subtly transfer spiritual energy over. “Take your time to think about it. Like I said, even if we do end up staying here until the Ghost Festival, the chance of the Ghost Realm invading the Mortal Realm is very low. We only need to worry about ourselves.”
Gui Yin pursed his lips. “Is this a guarantee?”
Langxia chuckled. “I guarantee it.”
Gui Yin felt a bit more relaxed after hearing Langxia’s words. He unconsciously grasped Langxia’s hand and looked away slowly.
His hands had warmed a great deal after they were grabbed by Langxia. Now, the iciness had left his body, but he felt a bit more afraid of the cold now. He shifted on his foot and picked a direction to walk.
The urgency from before had faded with just a few words from Langxia. He looked more carefully at his surroundings, but found that he really couldn’t see anything different. Without any leads, he reluctantly headed back to the Ghost Barrier.
Langxia glanced down at the hand that held him and then back up at Gui Yin. He settled into a leisurely stroll and didn’t pull his hand away.
“It has to be around here,” Gui Yin muttered.
He walked circles for what felt like several hours. Eventually, he glanced up at the sky again and huffed.
“That’s another day,” Gui Yin muttered. He turned to Langxia “If two days is six outside, then is one day three?”
“Time here might not necessarily reflect reality at all,” Langxia said. “A day here might even be a minute outside. We don’t know.”
“Then, what should we do?”
“Just pay attention to time within this realm,” Langxia said. “If you think it’s the third day, then it’s the third day. If you think too much, your heart will be stirred. It will be much easier for the resentment to corrupt you.”
Gui Yin nodded. He gave Langxia’s hand a squeeze. “You’re right. Let’s head back for tonight then. Before any wolves come to attack us.”
Unfortunately for Gui Yin, wolves were the least of his worries tonight.
In the dead of night, when everything should have been silenced, Gui Yin was awakened by the sound of garbling, just outside their temporary residence. He sat up, his hand already resting on his fan. He heard a soft hushing beside him and felt a hand press against his shoulder.
“Stay here,” Langxia whispered.
“But—”
“Be good.”
Gui Yin settled and reluctantly watched Langxia leave.
He remained in the house, but his finger nervously wrapped the tassel. His heart hammered against his chest, not from worry but adrenaline. He twitched to go outside and fight whatever fierce corpses had wandered into his city. The urge to help transformed to something else without Gui Yin realizing it.
When he shot to his foot, the door opened and closed again. Langxia strolled over with an easy smile. He pressed a hand to Gui Yin’s back as he slowly guided him back down.
“What’s wrong? Was it too loud for you to go back to sleep?”
Gui Yin’s fidgety nerves calmed back down. “Are they gone?”
“Of course,” Langxia said. He kicked his shoes off again and laid down with Gui Yin. “For the next while that we’re here, leave the fighting to me, alright?”
Gui Yin raised a brow. His eyelids were growing heavier again and his words came out slurred. “Why?”
“You’re still injured,” Langxia whispered, his low voice drawing forth Gui Yin’s drowsiness. Spiritual energy further coalesced around Langxia’s fingers, but he was careful when he passed it to Gui Yin, so as not to catch his attention. “You shouldn’t strain yourself.”
“But you…” Gui Yin struggled to keep his eyes opened. His head eventually leaned back into Langxia’s arms. His expression pinched a little as he struggled to remain awake.”
Langxia lifted his hand from Gui Yin’s back and pressed it briefly against the back of his head. The spiritual energy at the tips of his fingers touched Gui Yin, allowing the last bits of struggle to pass. He smiled and lightly kissed Gui Yin’s forehead.
“Sleep. Aren’t you tired?”
“…Mn…I’m…” Gui Yin closed his eyes and shifted closer to Langxia.
The traces of madness that had built up around Gui Yin quickly dispersed. Langxia’s eyes narrowed and his lips thinned. After a moment of deliberation, he carefully shifted and pulled out another pill bottle. He held the bottle with the hand that Gui Yin was resting his head on and used his other hand to open it. He managed to shake a pill out and carefully pressed the pill to Gui Yin’s lips.
Gui Yin’s brows furrowed and he tilted his head away. Langxia frowned.
He stroked Gui Yin’s hair and leaned a little closer. “Qinle, be good. Open your mouth.”
Gui Yin stirred slightly. In the drowsiness that had been induced by Langxia’s spiritual energy, Gui Yin couldn’t quite differentiate between reality and dream. His mouth opened unconsciously and he felt a bitter pill slide down his tongue. He was about to spit it back out when he felt a pair of warm lips against his own.
Spiritual breath passed between his teeth, not only whisking away the bitter scent, but making Gui Yin fall into an even deeper sleep.
Langxia shifted and hugged Gui Yin closer to him. He brushed a hand up and down Gui Yin’s back as he coaxed the man to sleep. Several theories raced through his head as the night dragged on. He had to piece together a proper explanation for his suspicions before Gui Yin realized what Langxia was doing to him.
Gui Yin felt much more refreshed when he woke up.
There was a lightness in his chest that he hadn’t felt since he had entered this overly congested place. His limbs felt more limber and there was no longer a cold stiffness at his fingertips. This pleasant surprise distracted him from his current predicament, but when he tried to move he realized that there was something pressing against his head and back. He glanced down and also found an arm wound tightly around his waist.
His lashes fluttered and he risked a glance back.
Langxia was practically using his head as a pillow.
The only part of their limbs that were tangled together were their hands. Even their legs were resting against each other.
Gui Yin hadn’t experienced such an intimate position in a very long time. Even his ex-boyfriend from the twenty-first century had kept him at an arm’s length. For a moment, he didn’t know what to do. He stared ahead stiffly and slowly tried to pull away. He frowned slightly and glared at Langxia.
When did he start becoming such a lousy sleeper? Hadn’t they always been great at sleeping on their own halves of the bed?!
Gui Yin shifted away a little more, but was abruptly yanked backwards. His head hit Langxia’s chin and a sharp hiss of pain escaped his lips. His anger flared abruptly as he sat up and glared at Langxia, who was looking up at him innocently.
“You—”
“Hm?”
“Fix your sleeping habit!”
Langxia slowly sat up and rubbed his chin. “I didn’t do anything. It was someone else who rolled into my arms in the middle of the night. You seemed cold, so I was just trying to warm you up.”
Gui Yin fell speechless. He lowered his gaze and eventually scoffed. He snatched Fenghua from the side of the bed and shoved his feet into his shoes. “I don’t believe you. I’ve always slept properly, since I was a child. How could I roll around so frivolously?”
Langxia sat up as well and watched as Gui Yin looked for his hair crown. “Maybe something changed.”
Gui Yin held his hair up over his head and twisted it into a bun. “What changed?”
Langxia looked at him sincerely. “Fate.”
eeeeeeeeeeee Langxia: “All is fine 😌” Gui Yin: “All is not fine!” Langxia knocking him out: “No worries~”
okay but i think Langxia is onto smth with the totally-not-a-kiss and cuddles-for-warming-reasons. i wonder if Gui Yin is panicking himself deeper into the ghost realm, esp since he was so extremely cold….
🙁 even if it has nothing to do with it, it’s always nice to be warm and cuddled– THANKS FOR READING
Eeeeee! I need more!!!!
Thank you for the update.
thanks for reading!!!!!!!
LangXia must be figuring out his feelings now!! But he must keep our baby immortal GY safe from his heart demons 😭😭