*CW; noncon
Opulence was not something that escaped the interior of Qi Du Tower.
From floor to ceiling there were black banners with golden threads weaving the image of a large centipede. There were vases made from expensive material that could only be found in Devil’s Desert. The charcoal black floors were lined with a velvety purple carpet, stretching on and on until they arrived at the double doors made from scorched black wood.
The cult member from beside Gui Yin knocked on the door.
“My liege, I have brought the new offering!”
New offering? Just like that? Gui Yin shifted uncomfortably in the cult member’s clammy grip.
The large double doors opened slowly with an agonizing creak. From there, another stretch of carpet trailed through the throne room until it reached a set of stairs. The stairs elevated the throne up high and a set of gauzy curtains, embroidered with gold threads, obscured the face of Qi Du Cult’s so-called god.
The cult member shoved Gui Yin in and closed the doors behind him.
Gui Yin remained awkwardly at the doors until a low voice rang out, seemingly just beside his ear, “Why don’t you come closer so this Venerable One can get a better look at you?”
Gui Yin shivered and did as he was told. Each step caused the bells in his hair to jingle. This became the only sound that filled the large space until he finally reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Look up.”
Gui Yin did as he was told. A strong force pulled him forward. He flew up the stairs and slammed onto the edge of the throne. He was dropped down like a ragdoll and was forced to look up by a pale hand.
Gui Yin’s first impression of this so-called god was that he was handsome. Of course, most spirit cultivators’ human forms tended to be so, especially when they chose to cultivate the demonic path. His skin was ghostly pale and his lips were an odd shade of black. The corners of his eyes seemed to be rimmed red and, when narrowed, carried a seductive quality. The centipede demon’s pupils were red with a slit like a snake’s. However, when Gui Yin met his gaze, his pupils dilated and a light smile graced his face.
He pulled Gui Yin up onto his lap, his eyes looking him over ravenously.
“You’re human?”
“…Yes.”
It wasn’t a lie.
“Really?” Yalun, if Gui Yin recalled his name correctly, narrowed his eyes. He tilted his head and leaned closer. “Then, if you’re human, why do you smell so sweet?”
A hand brushed past the entrance of Gui Yin’s robes.
Gui Yin tensed up and tried to school his expression. But this split second was caught by Yalun’s probing gaze.
“They told me you were meek and docile,” Yalun murmured, pulling Gui Yin even closer. “It seems like they were wrong.”
Gui Yin gripped Yalun’s wrist. “I-I don’t know what you mean, My…Liege.”
Gui Yin’s shy appearance made Yalun chuckle darkly. “You might be able to deceive those idiot humans, but you can’t deceive me. Why are you here?”
“I…I was sold by my adopted father,” Gui Yin said. He began to squirm uncomfortably. “I-I don’t know why I’m here either. My Liege, please, I’m not lying.”
Wanting to hurl was probably an understatement. Gui Yin was disgusted by the sound of his own voice. Who was that? When had he ever had to act so coquettish? He glanced at Yalun’s sharp gaze and forced himself to whimper in fear.
At this sound, Yalun’s grip on Gui Yin tightened. He flipped both of them and towered over Gui Yin. “Are you really not lying?”
“I-I’m really—My Liege, please,” Gui Yin weakly held onto Yalun’s hand. Tears began to form at the edges of his eyes, as if he had just realized the desperation of his situation.
Yalun watched Gui Yin until the first few tears trailed down his cheek. He let out a pitying sigh and brushed those tears away with a light caress of his hand. “You poor, poor thing. Are you scared of me?”
You touch someone without their consent, forcefully pin them down, then you ask if they’re scared of you? Gui Yin wanted to spit on this centipede demon’s face. How the hell did he continue to live with that rotting brain of his?
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Yalun murmured. He lowered himself until his nose was nudging against Gui Yin’s neck. “I just wanted to tease you a little.”
Gui Yin rolled his eyes.
“In fact, I find you quite attractive,” Yalun said. Gui Yin felt him press a soft kiss to his jaw. “How about you stay with me, hm?”
Did he have a choice? That was what Gui Yin wanted to ask. He wanted nothing more than to pull out Fenghua and slice this demon spirit into several pieces. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut, allowing several fat tears to roll down his cheeks.
Yalun became even more excited. “Stay with me. I’ll treat you better than those disgusting humans would.”
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.
Xel Tlc’r fsfr oifk bqfc. “Q-ktja vb sbe wfjc ys atja?”
Tjiec ibbxfv aglewqtjca. Lf rja eq jcv agjlifv j tjcv vbkc Xel Tlc’r mtfra, pera yjgfis klattbivlcu tlr gjnfcber lcafca. “Tbe vlvc’a xcbk? Po P rfcv sbe yjmx bea atfgf, sbe’ii yf ajxfc ab atf wfwyfgr bo atf rfma lcrafjv. Ktfs wluta yf meialnjabgr, yea atfs’gf rb ecajifcafv. Ktfs’gf vlrueralcu, kglcxis, jcv biv. Ktfs vbc’a xcbk jcsatlcu jybea tbk ab agfja rbwfbcf jr yfjealoei jr sbe.”
Why did these words sound familiar? Gui Yin gagged.
In Yalun’s eyes, Gui Yin was trembling again like a frightened rabbit. His fingers gently caressed Gui Yin’s wrists. “I’ll be gentle. I’ll treat you well.”
Gui Yin didn’t want to know what Yalun’s definition of “gentle” was. He shied away from the centipede demon’s touch and choked back a broken sob. He looked up at Yalun tearfully. “Can’t…can’t you just let me go?”
Yalun’s gaze darkened. “How are you going to get out of Devil’s Desert? Besides, even if you do manage to survive, where will you go? Didn’t you say your father sold you? If you wander out there with a face like this, you’re just going to be captured and sold again.”
Gui Yin’s eyes widened in horror. He bit down on his lower lip and lowered his gaze.
Yalun smiled gently again. “That’s why I’m saying you should stay by my side. If you’re by my side, I won’t let anyone hurt you. I’ll treat you really well.”
Gui Yin glanced at Yalun skeptically.
“I won’t even touch you until you let me,” Yalun said, his gaze concentrated heatedly on Gui Yin’s crotch. He leaned down again, letting his lips trail against Gui Yin’s neck as he moved down. “What do you say? You’ll be mine, won’t you?”
Gui Yin shuddered. He shifted away, but after a few minutes of silence, he still nodded.
“Good,” Yalun grinned. “You made the right choice.”
Tears fell from Gui Yin’s eyes even faster, but he remained silent. Yalun sat up and pulled Gui Yin onto his lap. He lightly kissed the tears away. With each kiss, Gui Yin could feel the hairs on his arms rise.
Creep. What an absolute creep.
The first person Gui Yin was going to kill when he left this place was this man!
As for why Yalun suddenly decided to be the nice guy, Gui Yin had a few guesses.
Perhaps it was because he was really entranced by Gui Yin’s beauty, or perhaps he didn’t like the idea of giving away something his subordinates wanted so easily. Even if he didn’t do anything to Gui Yin, he could still hold this piece of fresh meat in front of everyone and gloat over the fact that they could never have him because Gui Yin was his. It was a type of powerplay.
Another possibility was that Yalun was miraculously tired of forcing someone and, after seeing Gui Yin’s tears, decided he would try to be gentle this time. After being gentle and after winning his trust, he would crush Gui Yin’s spirit from there.
This was the typical style of trashy playboys—some of which Gui Yin had had the displeasure of interacting with.
But Gui Yin could only count his blessings that Yalun chose today of all days to switch up his palette.
As the days followed, Gui Yin quickly realized that he had been in a much more precarious situation than he thought. Night after night and day after day, the throne room would be bathed in blood from sacrifices or Yalun’s so-called “priests”. All the while, Gui Yin was forced to watch.
Miraculously, Gui Yin was not as horrified as he thought he would be. It was as if he had seen scenes like this before—where bodies piled on top of each other and blood flooded the ground from their open wounds. Despite this, Gui Yin still had to act terrified. He would cry silent tears, tremble horribly, and eventually bury himself into Yalun’s arms. Yalun was delighted over this.
This unpleasant charade dragged on for three weeks. When there were only two days left before Li Fangyin was supposed to bring backup, Gui Yin decided it was time to go.
His eyes opened in the middle of the night and he sat up. A hand immediately reached out to hold Gui Yin in place. In the darkness, a pair of dots appeared, staring straight into Gui Yin’s soul. A hot hand caressed Gui Yin’s waist.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Gui Yin smiled. “Thank you for your cooperation during this time, My Liege, but I really do think it’s time for me to go.”
Yalun’s expression darkened. “Go where?”
“As if you don’t know,” Gui Yin pulled Yalun’s grip away from him easily. “If it weren’t for you giving me so much information, would I be able to leave so soon?”
Yalun propped himself up. He pulled himself closer and hugged Gui Yin about the waist. He nuzzled into Gui Yin’s neck. “It’s because I gave you so much information that you should stay awhile longer, don’t you think? As a reward.”
“My apologies, but centipedes disgust me,” Gui Yin said. The grip around his waist tightened. “But since you helped me so much, I’ll let you live just this once.”
“Don’t be like this, Lord Immortal,” Yalun whispered. “You can’t say you’re even the slightest bit attracted to me.”
“I see my own face in the mirror every day—why would I care for you?” Gui Yin asked coldly. “Besides, the demonic and righteous paths have opposed each other since the dawn of time. You and I are not meant for each other, so you should—”
Gui Yin flew to the other side of the room just as the vase beside him shattered to a million pieces. Yalun slowly left the bed, his eyes a fiery red. “After getting along with you for two weeks, I don’t believe your words at all.”
“It was only two weeks, yet you act like I’ve already known you for a lifetime,” Gui Yin smirked. He flicked his wrist. The scanty garments on his body were replaced by his sect’s robes. An elegant fan appeared in his hand and his hair, which had been trailing down his back, was pulled up halfway by his usual crown.
A comfortable sigh left his lips. He could finally wear some real clothes again.
“If you didn’t want this to happen, you should have exposed me at the beginning,” Gui Yin said. He raised a brow. “Unless you really did fall for my looks.”
An enraged scream punctuated Yalun’s attack. Gui Yin smoothly jumped out of the way. He flourished Fenghua, smashing Yalun into a nearby pillar. The pillar cracked and showed signs of crumbling. The sound attracted the attention of the guards outside. Footsteps hurried in the direction of Yalun’s room.
Gui Yin turned to Yalun. “I’ll give you two options—let me leave peacefully and I won’t kill you or try to make me stay and I slit your throat.”
Yalun clenched his side as he glared at Gui Yin. There was a reluctance to let go in his gaze. “Fine. I won’t fight you. But you have to tell me one thing.”
“Are you really in the position to negotiate?” Gui Yin asked.
“What’s your relationship with the serpent?”
“…The what?”
“The serpent,” Yalun said through gritted teeth. “It’s because of him that you’re not willing to consider me, right?”
“I…have no idea what you’re talking about,” Gui Yin blankly said.
Yalun’s red-rimmed eyes scanned Gui Yin’s expression. He didn’t seem to be lying, but he already knew Gui Yin was a good liar.
“Set down your obsession and forget about me,” Gui Yin said. He tossed his hair over his shoulder as he headed for the door. “Though, I don’t know why you’d be obsessed with me after just two weeks.”
“Wait, I’m not done wit—”
Gui Yin caught the hand that tried to grab his shoulder. He twisted it until a crack was heard. Yalun fell to the floor, his jaw clenched tightly as he glared at Gui Yin.
“This is your final warning,” Gui Yin said darkly. “It’s already considered magnanimous that I’m letting the likes of you live. If it were anyone else, they would have killed you already. If you want to live for another few hundred years, I suggest you leave this place and find a ditch to hide in. Otherwise, I will come back and plow you and this so-called Qi Du Tower to the ground.”
With a flourish of his sleeve, the ebony doors flew open, immediately slamming a few of the cult members to the ground. The sounds of chaos spilled out of the tower in the dead of night.
At some unknown point, the tower began to rise from the sand, exposing itself to the night sky.
Gui Yin left the surface of the tower and traveled down to the dungeons. He paused beside the cells above the tenth floor. With a wave of his hand, the Ghost Fires were set out. He pulled out a fire talisman and lit the area. He walked towards the cells and let out a soft sigh. He averted his gaze and unlocked the cells with another flick of his wrist. Floor by floor, he repeated the same gesture, but he knew that those who had been afflicted by the Ghost Fires would never be the same again.
Once he went past the tenth floor, he left a simple instruction to the people he freed. “Take as many people as you can from the first ten floors and escape with them.”
When he reached the last floor, he was met again with the familiar faces of his cell mates. They looked at him in shock, but he didn’t bother giving them a second glance.
“Take as many people as you can from the first ten floors and escape with them,” Gui Yin repeated robotically. “There will be people who will help guide you out of Devil’s Desert.”
Without waiting for them to respond, Gui Yin teleported back up to the top floor. More members of the cult had been alerted. If Gui Yin wanted the captives to escape safely, he would have to slaughter an opening out.
The sorrowful sound of the qin accompanied the screams of the slain, creating a mournful symphony. The captives who were escaping behind Gui Yin watched in horror.
The man before them was like a deity of carnage. With each movement, more bodies fell to the floor, but his expression remained unchanging. It seemed like no matter what came at him, he would remain unmoved.
This was the power of a lord immortal.
The sand just outside the entrance of the tower was stained with blood, but more and more people spilled from its doors.
Li Fangyin’s eyes widened at the sight. He hurriedly ordered his subordinates to round up the people and begin to guide them to safety. He looked at some of the newly released, who were dazed and obviously on the verge of death. His stomach rolled, but he pushed the sensation back down. He turned back to the entrance of the tower.
The sound of the qin reached its peak. The walls of the tower cracked and a dark mass emerged.
The mass floated over the tower for a split second, almost as if it were hesitating, before it escaped into the night.
“Young Palace Lord, should we chase after it?” one of Li Fangyin’s subordinates asked.
“W—”
“Leave it be.”
Gui Yin’s voice was like a clear spring compared to the auditory horrors just a few seconds before. Li Fangyin’s eyes widened. He happily ran over, nearly tripping over himself because of the sand.
“Gui-qianbei, are you okay? You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?” Li Fangyin asked. He looked Gui Yin up and down worriedly before meeting his eyes again. “If you are, we can go back to Yin Hua Palace to get you treated. You—”
“I’m fine. Focus on the captives,” Gui Yin said. He glanced over his shoulder. “There’s a lot I have to write in my report.”
Gui Yin groaned and stretched his waist this way and that. “Goodness, I really did it this time. Why didn’t I think of all the paperwork I would have to do ahead of time?”
Li Fangyin stared at Gui Yin in shock. After a while, he finally laughed. “Is that all you have to say?”
“What else is there to say?” Gui Yin raised a brow. “Should I tell you how a centipede demon spent those four weeks feeling me up? Or that I saw people die every day? Is there anything fun about that?”
Li Fangyin’s face paled. “A-A centipede—he did what?!”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t lose anything to him,” Gui Yin waved his hand. He rubbed his arms and shuddered. “I need to take a long purifying bath when I get home though.”
Li Fangyin nodded emphatically. “You do! Of course, you do! I’m sorry, Gui-qianbei, I shouldn’t have pulled you into this.”
“If you hadn’t pulled me into this, would you have gone yourself? If you did, I guarantee you wouldn’t have come out in one piece,” Gui Yin said, clicking his tongue. “Forget it. I’ve experienced worse things than this, so it’s better that I went anyway.”
Li Fangyin looked at Gui Yin sympathetically. He straightened and patted his chest. “Gui-qianbei, in the future, if you need anything, you just need to say the word and I’ll be there!”
Gui Yin raised a brow. He chuckled and ruffled Li Fangyin’s hair. “I don’t need a promise like that from a kid like you, but…”
“But?”
“If you could look after my disciples in the future, that would be good,” Gui Yin smiled.
Li Fangyin nodded repeatedly, like a chicken pecking the ground. “Yes! Yes, of course! Your disciples are my—no, that’s not right. I’ll treat your disciples as if they’re my siblings. I’ll take care of them if I ever meet them again in the future. Gui-qianbei has my word!”
With the little palace lord taking his casual words so seriously, Gui Yin could only nod along and force himself to not burst out laughing.
As the pair prepared to leave Devil’s Desert, Gui Yin suddenly turned to Li Fangyin.
“Oh, right, there was something I wanted to ask you.”
“What is it, Gui-qianbei?” Li Fangyin tilted his head.
“When you came to break those people out, you sent four subordinates ahead, right? Who was the one with golden eyes?”
“The…one with golden eyes?” Li Fangyin echoed.
Gui Yin began to feel an eerie feeling crawl up his back. He lightly pushed Li Fangyin with his fan. “Hey, didn’t you just say you were grateful to me or whatever? Why are you messing with me now?”
“I-I’m not! Golden eyes…none of my subordinates have golden eyes,” Li Fangyin said. “And when I followed your instructions to save those people, we never even reached the campsite.”
“…What?”
Li Fangyin nodded. “We found them running towards us, saying that a lord immortal told them we would help them out of Devil’s Desert. I only sent one subordinate to double back to make sure they truly were from that same carriage.”
“So…you never sent people out ahead?”
Li Fangyin shook his head.
“And you’re sure there’s no one with golden eyes under you?”
Li Fangyin nodded.
Gui Yin’s hand clenched Fenghua.
Yalun’s words echoed in Gui Yin’s mind: “What’s your relationship with the serpent?”
The serpent…couldn’t be that serpent, right? And the man couldn’t have been…there was no way. There was just no way! The man had gold eyes; the serpent had ruby red eyes so…so…
So who the hell was the golden-eyed man?!
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thank you Gui Yin for reminding me the serpent’s eyes were red (while mystranger’s is gold) cause i was about to go digging and reviewing akxbakdbsk
i’ve decided to just connect the impossible! they are connected to the cool desert sect that disappeared! they are connected to Gui Yin for… some reason! idk how! could be romo, centipede sure thinks so akxksdh (speaking of, Gui Yin is more benevolent than me. i would’ve slashed Yalun a few times)
+1 i would have dismembered our beloathed little centipede
thanks for reading!!
The fact that both put on a play for 4 weeks is kinda funny tho, centipede dude is really blood hungry tho going off the sect (cult) he put together
I laughed. I’m sorry.
Do you think the centipede man is Gui Yin’s past life ex-lover?
Thanks for the chapter ^﹏^
I hope I didn’t miss anything after skipping more than half of this chapter 😪
Why did he let centipede dude go again? Is it just because they act for 4 weeks together? 😲🤔
Dragon, maybe?Also, I want the little wolf pup ML, not an immortal dragon.