Langxia easily caught the fan that was thrown his way. He gave an easy smile as he turned the fan and leaned back leisurely.
“Qinle, there’s no need to be so embarrassed,” Langxia said, a small pout on his lips. He snapped the fan shut and turned it back to Gui Yin. “How many people in this world long to find their soulmate? It’s a rare thing that should be cherished, not shunned.”
Gui Yin snatched the fan from Langxia’s hand. He turned it and snapped it open with a soft scoff. “Who said you’re my soulmate?”
“But we’re at least kindred spirits, are we not?” Langxia asked.
“I don’t know,” Gui Yin said. He turned and left the rotting hut without taking a second glance back.
Langxia smiled to himself. He got ready at a leisurely pace. When he exited the house, Gui Yin was silently waiting across the street from him. He strolled over and tilted his head towards the forest.
“Shall we go?”
Gui Yin took the lead, but his pace slowed once they were in the forest. “Did you do something to me last night?”
“Last night?” Langxia echoed. “I did. You didn’t seem to be sleeping very well and the events at that cave were clearly still bothering you, so I gave you some medicine to calm your nerves.”
“How did you give it to me?”
Langxia met Gui Yin gaze and slowly smiled. “I kissed you.”
Gui Yin held his gaze for several seconds before he slowly dragged it away. “Absolutely shameless.”
“It was out of necessity. You wouldn’t even wake up,” Langxia said. “Besides, you kissed me back. If we’re filing complaints, I think I—”
“Thank you for the medicine,” Gui Yin loudly said.
Langxia grinned, his voice soft as he said, “You’re welcome.”
Gui Yin gritted his teeth and stomped off. His cheeks were burning in embarrassment and he couldn’t bring himself to look at Langxia again. He diverted his attention to searching solely for that damned cave again. Otherwise, he wouldn’t know what to do about that smirk Langxia was so obviously trying to keep off his stupid face.
His attention was immediately grabbed by a faint, rotting smell. He immediately stilled and grabbed Langxia’s wrist. Fenghua transformed in his hand and he looked around vigilantly. The eerie wind rustled the leaves. A flicker of movement caught Gui Yin’s attention. He immediately flew back with Langxia behind him as a series of shadowy bullets flew towards them.
Gui Yin deflected all of them with the flat of his sword. They managed to land on the treebranch as a demon hopped out from the bushes. It was a formless creature, similar to the one that Gui Yin had encountered in Xinggang City. Made only of shadow, it disappeared halfway in the darkness and moved quickly when it encountered light.
Gui Yin moved to charge towards it, but was promptly stopped.
“You’re still healing.”
“What are you talking about?” Gui Yin asked. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not,” Langxia said. He held out his hand as two swords appeared in his palm in a wisp of golden dust. The two swords were tossed into the air and were promptly transformed into one staff again. He lightly touched Gui Yin’s head. “Be good; stay here.”
“I—”
Gui Yin watched helplessly as Langxia flew down towards the shapeless monster. He let out a soft huff and sat down. Boredom took over him as he watched Langxia, but he had to admit that the man was quite handsome when he fought.
He had an arrogance about him that no one else could compete with. His each hit fell heavily, yet when he executed them, there was an unexplainable languidness behind it. Maybe it was because he didn’t want to use his false arm, but he fought with his right arm behind his back while his left move deftly to block the monster’s moves. When the monster exposed an opening, Langxia would hit it swiftly.
He finally extended his foot and kicked the monster to the ground. The staff was driven through the monster’s core, which Langxia had managed to find at some point. Once it was crushed, he flew back up to meet Gui Yin.
“Done?”
“Done,” Langxia held out his right hand and tugged Gui Yin up. “See? It was simple. You didn’t need to dirty your hands at all.”
Gui Yin scoffed. He parted his lips to speak, but his expression changed in a flash.
He pulled Langxia behind him and twirled his fan as another monster lunged out towards them. The wind blasted the creature away. Gui Yin quickly left Langxia on the branch and chased after it.
Langxia sighed and swiftly chased after Gui Yin.
There was little tension behind such a fight, but since Gui Yin couldn’t use Shui Meng, he had to settle fighting hand to…tendril with the shadow monster. His each strike was more vicious than the last. His brows were furrowed in concentration, but as he finally managed to pin the monster down, he suddenly felt that something was wrong.
Gui Yin followed the monster to the ground and drove his sword through part of its body. He fell to one knee as a strange heat began to build up in his chest.
Langxia landed beside him, dealt with the creature, and immediately crouched down.
He hit two acupoints and caught Gui Yin before he could fall. “Are you okay?”
“…You knew?”
“It’ll be fine,” Langxia said as he sent a steady stream of spiritual energy to Gui Yin again.
This time, since Gui Yin was already aware, he didn’t bother trying to put him to sleep again. Gui Yin weakly leaned against Langxia as his lashes fluttered.
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.
“Ktlr qijmf…lr nfgs vjcufgber,” Xel Tlc wewyifv.
Ojcuzlj tewwfv.
Pa kjr cba bcis j vlwfcrlbc atja kjr rjcvklmtfv yfakffc atf Zbgaji Efjiw jcv Xtbra Efjiw, la kjr j qijmf atja tjv yelia eq fcbeut gfrfcawfca ab mjerf wjvcfrr. Ycmf j meialnjabg kjr vglnfc lcab wjvcfrr, la kjr atf rjwf jr lo atfs tjv Hl Gfnljafv. Ktflg tfjga vfwbcr kbeiv ajxf bnfg jcv atf bcis atlcu vglnlcu atfw kbeiv yf atflg lcralcma ab xlii. Ycmf atfs tjv obgubaafc atflg lcafca ab qgbafma, atfs kbeiv yfmbwf wlcvifrr xliilcu wjmtlcfr. Ktlr kbeiv kbgx lc atf afgglabgs’r ojnbg jcv offv atf mjnf atja tjv mbcrewfv wjcs qfbqif lc atf qjra. Pc xliilcu wbgf qfbqif jcv wbgf mgfjaegfr, gfrfcawfca kbeiv yeliv oegatfg jcv lar qbkfg ab mjerf wjvcfrr kbeiv bcis ragfcuatfc.
Gui Yin’s eyes completely closed as he felt Langxia’s warm spiritual energy. “Why are you okay?”
“I’m half immortal, half spirit,” Langxia said. “I have a higher resistance to this kind of thing. Besides, I wasn’t the one who almost got swallowed by a wall of corpses a few days ago.”
Gui Yin choked out a laugh. “That’s true.”
After Gui Yin had warmed up again, Langxia carefully helped him stand.
“No more fighting,” Langxia said. “It’ll be difficult to control the madness anymore if you succumb to your bloodthirstiness.”
Gui Yin showed a reluctant pout, but still nodded. Langxia smiled and lightly touched the top of his head.
“Come on. Let’s see if we can find that cave of yours.”
Gui Yin’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “I don’t want that cave.”
Langxia chuckled. “Once we leave this place, I’ll take you back to Lord Xun. It will take a while to completely get rid of the madness, so you have to be careful when cultivating.”
“I understand,” Gui Yin mumbled.
Langxia glanced at him and knew that Gui Yin was blaming himself again. He was silent for a long time as they walked.
“In fact, isn’t it nice to not do anything?” Langxia suddenly asked.
“What are you talking about?” Gui Yin asked, glancing at Langxia.
“I mean, when you’re sick, you don’t have to do any work,” Langxia said. He smiled. “And others will take care of you. Isn’t that nice?”
Gui Yin stared at him. “Where did you hear this from?”
“From…” Langxia’s voice trailed off. He shrugged. “A kid that I babysat a long time ago.”
Gui Yin scoffed. “Then, have you ever gotten to not work when you were ill?”
“Who would take care of me?” Langxia asked incredulously.
Although this was exactly what Gui Yin was thinking, the words slid back down his throat upon hearing Langxia’s straightforward denial. He felt a bit of pity for him and straightened slightly.
“There are plenty of people who would take care of you now,” Gui Yin said.
Langxia smiled. “We both know that’s different.”
“…I guess.”
“But I’m willing to take care of you now,” Langxia said. “So, don’t think too hard about your current situation.”
Gui Yin glanced at Langxia and hummed.
Langxia smiled. He noticed that Gui Yin’s irritability had been soothed significantly. It was better this way. Any amount of negative emotion would work to feed the madness.
“I would take care of you too.”
Langxia glanced at Gui Yin.
“I mean, if you were sick or anything,” Gui Yin said. “I’d take care of you.”
Langxia smiled. “I know. That’s what you’re best at doing.”
Gui Yin hummed noncommittally.
The two men ran into a few more mutated animals and monsters along the way, but Gui Yin eventually found a familiar path. He nudged Langxia towards the crooked trail and slowly hiked down the slope behind him. His eyes lit up excitedly before he patted Langxia’s arm.
“Isn’t it over there?” Gui Yin asked.
“It could be.”
“Let’s go,” Gui Yin said. He looked at Langxia eagerly.
Against his expectations, Langxia suddenly bent down and scooped him up horizontally. Gui Yin stared at Langxia as his hands unconsciously flew up to hook around Langxia’s neck. He looked around, as if he truly thought someone would be able to see, and whispered, “What are you doing?”
“It’s a slope. You’re still a little dizzy, aren’t you? It would be troublesome if you fell here,” Langxia said with a wrinkle of his nose.
This path was littered with corpses of dead animals and stunk with the scent of rotting flesh. There were even hints of resentful energy that floated from the trees. Just walking through this path made the hair on Langxia’s arms stand up. They didn’t know when they could leave this place, so Gui Yin wouldn’t even be able to have a proper bath. It would be too horrible if he fell in a place like this.
Gui Yin naturally didn’t know that Langxia had so many considerations that he wouldn’t have even cared about. He just sat against Langxia’s chest and listened to the man’s steady heartbeat as he tried to keep his own beating at a regular rate. He took a deep breath and shook himself.
Langxia glanced down at Gui Yin. “It’s okay, you don’t have to be anxious. I think it is just up ahead.”
“I—uh, yeah. That’s good,” Gui Yin stuttered.
Langxia glanced down at him questioningly, but said nothing when he found that Gui Yin’s attention was directed forward.
He must be eager to leave this place.
Langxia quickened his pace.
When the two of them arrived at the mouth of the cave, Langxia carefully set Gui Yin down and let go only when he was sure Gui Yin could stand properly.
Gui Yin looked around at the cave and his expression slowly turned grave.
The collapsed wall had gone completely back to normal.
“Step back,” Langxia said.
Gui Yin did as he was told and watched as Langxia produced his staff again. He expected the man to do some flourishing moves but, instead, he jammed the staff into the wall and stepped back. He gave himself some more room and then charged forward. With a clean, decisive kick, he smashed his staff into the wall.
The wall cracked a little, but after the fifth kick, it completely shattered. Corpses piled on the ground and spilled towards them. Langxia clicked his tongue in disgust and plucked his staff out from the rubble. He turned to Gui Yin with a smile.
“It’s open.”
Gui Yin stared at the wall in shock as dust rolled at his feet. He looked to Langxia, who simply spun his staff. The noble staff that had just been used as a wall pick disappeared in a flurry of golden dust. Langxia stepped over the corpses and held out a hand to Gui Yin.
“Careful not to trip.”
Gui Yin took Langxia’s hand and glanced at his shoes. “I’ll get you new shoes when we return.”
“I would very much appreciate that,” Langxia chuckled.
The two men stepped past the wall of corpses and looked into the next room.
The next room was reminiscent of the scene they had seen when they found Half Moon Cult’s abandoned hideout. On the ground was a large array with similar symbols. The circular room didn’t lead anywhere else, but the disgusting stench in the air made Langxia wrinkle his nose. He glared at the ground in distaste as his gaze shifted towards the opposite end of the room.
“Over there.”
“Is there another room?” Gui Yin asked curiously.
“Yes. There’s a rotting stench coming from it. I think it’s most likely another cauldron,” Langxia said.
Gui Yin’s eyes widened. He tugged at Langxia’s sleeve. “Xiao Kui mentioned that there were five of those cauldrons, right? Do you think this is one of them?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. This place is clearly still active.”
“We got lucky for once!” Gui Yin exclaimed. He frowned and crossed his arms. “But how do we get across? If this place is active, what if we accidentally step on a trap?”
“The entire dimension has been transformed into this array,” Langxia said. “As long as resentment can get in, it will be purified and sent away.”
“But that doesn’t mean the array won’t suddenly work when we step on it,” Gui Yin pointed out. He looked at the array closely and then glanced around. “Besides, you said that wall is the way to another door, but there isn’t any—”
Something flew past Gui Yin’s face and lodged into the next wall. He slowly turned to Langxia, who had his right arm tucked behind his back as his left hand slowly turned, as if he were turning a doorknob. The staff was screwed in tighter and tighter until Langxia pushed—
The wall opposite of them exploded. Debris flew out in every direction. Gui Yin flicked Fenghua and redirected the direction of the debris to fall onto the ground below. Gui Yin and Langxia looked over at the array that had been covered and then looked up at the new room that had been revealed.
Gui Yin gagged. He pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it to Langxia’s face. “Eugh—take it.”
Langxia held the handkerchief to his nose and cringed at the disgusting smell that spilled out from the opposite room.
A cauldron sat in the middle of a complicated array, identical to the one Langxia had found in the previous hideout. Once the wall was smashed, the sounds of discontent souls spilled out, reaching Gui Yin and Langxia’s ears as if they were being blasted through the speakers. Gui Yin’s eyes narrowed slightly and he patted Langxia’s arm.
“We have to salvage as many souls as we can,” Gui Yin said.
Langxia turned to him with a small frown.
“Don’t look at me like that! If we just smash the cauldron and release it like that, then they’ll become wandering ghosts for the rest of eternity. Would you want to be a wandering ghost?”
Langxia sighed. He produced his staff again and pressed the handkerchief tightly to his nose. “Stay here.”
“Yes, sir,” Gui Yin beamed.
Gui Yin watched as Langxia easily traversed the air and landed on the other side. His smile broadened and he got on his tiptoes to be able to see a little better.
Langxia landed safely on the other side. He let out a short sigh before he stood awkwardly and slowly turned around.
“Qinle.”
The voice sounded in Gui Yin’s ear, making him flinch. He looked away guiltily, as if he had been doing something wrong.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t have anything to get the souls,” Langxia’s voice said.
Gui Yin stared at him incredulously. Langxia shrugged and flew back to the other side. His foot touched the edge of the stairs and he leaned forward. Gui Yin quickly stepped back several steps to give Langxia some room, but still ended up a few centimeters from him. He reached into his sleeve and threw a Soul Retrieving Pouch into Langxia’s chest.
“Take it.”
“Thank you, Lord Immortal,” Langxia said.
Gui Yin didn’t look back until Langxia had flown off again. He breathed a sigh of relief and pressed a hand against his chest. If only there was a way to stop his heart from beating—no. If only there was a way to stop Langxia from hearing his heartbeat!
Langxia landed nimbly. He looked at the Soul Retrieving Pouch and tossed it in the air. As it was about to fall, he murmured a quick spell, allowing it to float and spin in midair. Once it was ready to catch the souls that flew out, Langxia threw a decisive strike into the bottom of the cauldron.
Hundreds of thousands of howling souls spilled out all at once. Gui Yin tightly covered his ears, flinching to the point that even his eyes closed. He slowly peeled them open again and watched Langxia propel the Soul Retrieving Pouch forward.
His left hand held his staff behind his back while he held his right two fingers near his mouth. His hair flowed behind him, like a gentle breeze was playing with it, while his lips soundlessly murmured the spell. The pouch began to expand and shrink again. More and more resentful souls were sucked into the pouch. A few more wayward ones tried to leave, but with one piercing look from Langxia, they scurried back in a terrifying manner.
Gui Yin couldn’t help but express his awe. Maybe it was because Langxia was half immortal and half spirit, but the spiritual energy in his body was rather abundant. For these little ghosts who had never even seen the world, he was their natural predator.
About half an hour later, Langxia had finished the task. He breathed a long sigh of relief and flew back over to Gui Yin’s side once he had also destroyed the matrix on the ground.
He held the pouch out to Gui Yin with a charming smile, before tossing it slightly in the air.
“Good job!” Gui Yin praised.
“Where’s my reward?” Langxia asked.
Gui Yin stared at him. “Reward? What reward?”
“You said I did well, so don’t I get a reward?” Langxia asked.
Seeing Gui Yin’s blank stare, Langxia pouted.
“You always gave your disciples rewards when they did well. You even gave that kid surnamed Li a reward. You say that we’re friends and soulmates, but I don’t even get anything for doing well?”
Gui Yin opened his mouth to correct Langxia. He had never claimed that they were soulmates. But after thinking about it, he closed his mouth.
“You want a reward?”
“Mn.”
“Alright,” Gui Yin nodded.
Langxia chuckled softly. He turned back to Gui Yin with the words “I’m joking” on the tip of his tongue. His hand was already holding the Soul Receiving Pouch towards Gui Yin. Then, his smile froze.
Someone seemed to have pressed pause.
Gui Yin slowly took a step back. He touched half of his lips once and gave them a harsh rub. He loudly cleared his throat and pointed an accusatory finger at Langxia.
“This—you—it was you who turned, alright? I was going to kiss your cheek,” Gui Yin said.
Langxia lifted a hand and silently touched the half of his lips that had been kissed by Gui Yin.
Gui Yin observed him for a second. When he saw that Langxia wasn’t about to lift his staff and beat him to a pulp, he snatched the Soul Retrieving Pouch from Langxia’s hand and shoved it into his sleeve.
“Thanks. It’s getting dark. Let’s go back.”
Langxia hummed. He looked up at Gui Yin’s frantically retrieving back.
He followed slowly as he listened to the frantic pounding in his chest. It wasn’t anxiety. Was it embarrassment? Langxia’s gaze flickered up to Gui Yin.
He didn’t know why, but a faint smile curved against his lips.
Langxia is so cool and cute (๑˃ᴗ˂) just a look and he can control the spirits, woaw. and tHAT LITTLE END THERE WITH THE REWARD EHEHEHEH OOP
[softly sets aside my shipping heart] [puts on my conspiracy cap] upper realm negligence indeed hmmmmm there is a cauldron right near where they are sending folks all the time >.> and if Gui Yin or someone similar in power fell to it, that would be like, bad. they rather attend their banquets than properly handle their duties, im gonna go fight em
Thank you for the chapter! Exciting as always!
THEY KISSED (≧▽≦)!!!! (they already did) but now they’re both conscious!!!