Deng Yenuo awoke to his head resting against another person’s bicep. He lifted his head slightly and had to strangle himself to keep from inhaling too loudly. The face above his was the picture of a perfect immortal. Even the dilapidated scenery around them couldn’t change that face. He shifted, wanting to leave so he could begin making breakfast, but he was suddenly caged down by a pair of strong arms.
“Shizun,” Deng Yenuo breathed out. “You’re awake?”
“You were staring at me so intently, how could I not wake?” Lin Cangyuan murmured. He wiggled closer, his chin resting against the top of Deng Yenuo’s head. “Why are you moving already?”
“…To get you breakfast. Then, we should probably…”
“Let’s sleep a bit longer,” Lin Cangyuan whined.
Despite his normally put-together appearance, Lin Cangyuan had always had trouble getting up in the mornings. This was a fact that Deng Yenuo had not learned until he was well into adulthood. When he first saw the way his shizun rolled around in bed for another hour after he was supposed to get up, he felt the first pang of endearment for this person who had always been an authority figure in his life. Now, he was being clung onto by the same person.
“Shizun can stay and sleep more. I—”
“If you get up, I’ll have to get up,” Lin Cangyuan murmured unhappily.
“…Why?”
“It’s so comfy right now. How am I supposed to continue sleeping if you get up?” Lin Cangyuan whined.
Deng Yenuo couldn’t help but lower his voice. “But we’re…Shizun, this isn’t the time or place.”
Lin Cangyuan slowly opened his eyes, looking up at Deng Yenuo. The small pout on his face made Deng Yenuo’s heart fly to his stomach and all the way back up to his throat. He wanted to caress the man in front of him, but his own anxiety prevented him from doing so. What if this was an illusion? If he touched it, it would certainly break, right?
Soft lips just barely grazed his own. He remained lying still as Lin Cangyuan sat up and fixed his robes. He glanced down and brushed a hand through Deng Yenuo’s hair.
“What’s wrong? You’re the one who said you wanted to get up.”
“I…”
“What’s with that silly look on your face?” Lin Cangyuan squatted back down and rubbed Deng Yenuo’s hair into a bird’s nest. He raised a brow. “Have you not slept enough? That’s why I said we should keep sleeping.”
“…No. I…”
Lin Cangyuan’s brows furrowed. It wasn’t like Yenuo to not finish his sentences. He had always been the straightforward type, no matter how gentle his image was. Lin Cangyuan leaned in a little closer.
“Are you okay?”
Deng Yenuo slowly averted his gaze. “It feels a bit unreal. I just need a moment.”
Lin Cangyuan slowly smiled. He leaned closer, until Deng Yenuo was forced to look up at him. He watched the younger man’s lashes flutter. The silence was held until Lin Cangyuan couldn’t help but laugh. His arms fell naturally against Deng Yenuo’s shoulders as he leaned his head down against his own arm.
“Why does it feel like I’m the one who came onto you instead?” Lin Cangyuan asked. “After flirting with me for so many years, you’re suddenly shy?”
Deng Yenuo coughed slightly. Before he could answer, he felt Lin Cangyuan grip his wrist and place his hand against the small of Lin Cangyuan’s back. Deng Yenuo felt his brain go fuzzy.
“Yenuo, you should do things like this,” Lin Cangyuan said. “Don’t you want to touch me more?”
Deng Yenuo turned to face Lin Cangyuan. “Have you done this with others?”
“Do you want me to be honest?”
Deng Yenuo’s expression darkened. “Sure.”
“I went to a pleasure house here or there,” Lin Cangyuan said. He shifted slightly as Deng Yenuo’s grip on his waist tightened. “But I’ve never been in a long-term relationship. So, you’re still my first.”
The words made Deng Yenuo’s face flush, but he still couldn’t keep the irritation out of his heart. But he knew Lin Cangyuan. Once he settled on one thing, hell or high water wouldn’t even make him change his mind.
“Jealous?”
Deng Yenuo shook his head. “Why would I be jealous?”
“That’s right,” Lin Cangyuan smirked. He sat up and patted Deng Yenuo’s chest. “I’m all yours. There’s nothing for you to b—”
Lin Cangyuan’s words were interrupted by a harsh kiss to his lips. Unlike last night’s careful kiss, this one was rougher, showing the inexperience of the other party. Lin Cangyuan chuckled and guided him carefully. When the two pulled away, Lin Cangyuan licked his lips.
“You still learn as fast as ever.”
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.
“Cangyuan,” Deng Yenuo’s brows furrowed. His fingers dug into Lin Cangyuan’s side for a moment, before he gently pushed him to the side and stood up.
“Tbe’gf gfjiis ifjnlcu?”
“If I don’t, I might want to do something else,” Deng Yenuo said as he straightened his robes and pulled out a comb to do his hair. He glanced at Lin Cangyuan. “This disciple will be back with water for Shizun.”
Olc Jjcusejc milmxfv tlr abcuef. Lf oibqqfv yjmx vbkc bc atf wjxfrtloa yfv jcv uijgfv ja atf gfagfjalcu yjmx. “Lf’r tbivlcu yjmx abb wemt.”
Vtbgais joafg j rwjii ygfjxojra, Olc Jjcusejc jcv Gfcu Tfceb mbcalcefv atflg pbegcfs.
Deng Yenuo glanced at Lin Cangyuan. “Shizun, what are you thinking about?”
“This fog,” Lin Cangyuan murmured. He glanced around. “It’s as Gui-shidi predicted. The fog seems to be getting stronger the closer we get to the border.”
Gfcu Tfceb ibkfgfv tlr ujhf. “Gb sbe gfjiis atlcx atf wbcxr tjnf vbcf rbwfatlcu?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a mole,” Lin Cangyuan said. “Now, it’s just a matter of how to confront them without offending them.”
“Surely, they would have noticed something was amiss,” Deng Yenuo said.
Lin Cangyuan let out a short sigh. “We’ll see when we arrive, I suppose.”
Miraculously, the closer they got to Beihua Town, the lighter the fog became. Lin Cangyuan and Deng Yenuo shared a glance as they passed through the premises of the town.
The town had long been emptied of regular civilians, leaving behind only cultivators and monks of various practices. At the moment, since it was still early in the day, everyone seemed to be getting ready for lunch.
The two newcomers attracted a bout of attention. It wasn’t until a disciple from Yunjing Pavilion saw Lin Cangyuan and Deng Yenuo, did everyone realize who these people were.
“Sect Master! Da-shixiong!” the disciples of Yunjing Pavilion poured over.
“It’s been so long since we’ve seen you!”
“Are you two doing well? You two seem so much skinnier now!”
“Sect Master, we’ve missed you!”
“Are you here to see Peak Lord Ye? We’ll go find him for you!”
Lin Cangyuan smiled softly as the disciples frantically greeted them. “We are here to find him, but you don’t have to take us there.”
The disciples’ expressions fell.
“But…”
“Don’t you all have your own things to do?” Lin Cangyuan asked gently. Seeing the children’s faces pucker, he felt a bit bad.
“Where is Ye-shishu?” Deng Yenuo asked.
“He should be in the clinic,” one disciple offered. “It’s down that way to the left.”
“Alright. We can all eat together tonight,” Lin Cangyuan reassured them.
The disciples were comforted, but were still reluctant as they parted with Lin Cangyuan and Deng Yenuo.
“I hope everything returns back to normal soon,” Lin Cangyuan murmured after the disciples had departed.
Deng Yenuo looked over his shoulder and hummed. “I hope so too.”
Lin Cangyuan was stopped several times as they made their way to the clinic. He gave perfunctory answers to most of the questions asked. With the help of Deng Yenuo, Lin Cangyuan was able to dodge a majority of the interactions.
He huffed. “Even if they don’t have a mole here, they’re extremely annoying.”
Deng Yenuo smiled to himself, not saying a word to refute him.
The clinic’s doors were wide open. There were fewer patients than when the war had first started. Many had already gotten used to fighting the ghosts and, with the help of new inventions of certain arrays, even the lower level cultivators could handle the ghosts with greater ease.
Lin Cangyuan poked his head in.
“You won’t lose your leg,” Ye Liuxing said, sighing as the young man bawled his eyes out. “If anything, you should be worried about whether or not your shizun is going to break your legs. You’re fine. Go, go, go.”
Lin Cangyuan and Deng Yenuo shifted to the side, watching as the young man tearfully fled the clinic. The two men shared a glance.
“Next!” Ye Liuxing shouted. When he heard the footsteps of two people, he sighed. “What is it thi—Sect Master-shixiong!”
The jaded man from a few seconds before vanished. Ye Liuxing hopped from his table and sped over. He happily wrapped his arms around both Lin Cangyuan and Deng Yenuo, bringing them down to his height as he hopped in place.
“You didn’t forget about me!” Ye Liuxing cheered.
“Why would we forget about you? We still send you correspondence every week,” Lin Cangyuan said, patting his shidi gently.
“I know, but I’ve been so alone over here,” Ye Liuxing sniffled as he pulled back. He rubbed at his eyes, looking truly pitiful. “Jiu-shijie also left, but no one would let me come up.”
Lin Cangyuan felt a pang of guilt. He rubbed Ye Liuxing’s head. “Sorry. There’s just too many injured on the front lines.”
“I know. I understand that,” Ye Liuxing mumbled. He sat back down at his table and poured two cups of tea. With a bright grin, he turned to the other two. “So, what brings you here?”
“Figured we’d come visit. And…Gui-shidi sent us here to look at some things,” Lin Cangyuan said, sitting down across from Ye Liuxing.
“Yenuo, you sit too. Why are you standing?” Ye Liuxing clicked his tongue. He turned back to Lin Cangyuan. “Gui-shixiong joined you?”
“Mn.”
“If he wanted you to come here, then…” Ye Liuxing glanced at the open door.
Deng Yenuo smartly stood and closed the door. For added measure, he also placed a sound proofing spell over the small clinic. Once he sat back down, Ye Liuxing turned back to Lin Cangyuan.
“Did he notice something was off?”
Lin Cangyuan nodded. “He suspected that there’s a mole here.”
“A mole?!” Ye Liuxing exclaimed. He glanced at the door and lowered his voice. “How? Why? Hasn’t he been in the upper realms? He just came down and now he says there’s a mole? How is he so magical? Who told him?”
“He just observed his surroundings. Honestly, if we weren’t so tired, we would have also noticed something was amiss,” Lin Cangyuan said, pinching his brows. “But maybe that’s what they had wanted.”
“Wait, wait, wait. Slow down. Can you explain from the beginning?” Ye Liuxing asked, looking between the two men.
“How far in the beginning?” Lin Cangyuan asked with a small smile.
Ye Liuxing thought about it before leaning on the table, his eyes bright. “Just start from the beginning of the war.”
“That’s eight years.”
“Mn! I’ve been lacking human interaction recently,” Ye Liuxing said, nodding excitedly. “Ah!”
Lin Cangyuan pulled Ye Liuxing forward by his pinched nose. “You little brat—do you think we have the time of day for that?”
“Ah! Sect Master-shixiong, don’t do this in front of my martial nephew,” Ye Liuxing whined.
Lin Cangyuan released Ye Liuxing’s nose with a click of his tongue and sat back.
“As you know, we started our attack around Yinfeng Valley, but were pushed back over the course of eight years,” Lin Cangyuan said.
They were lacking in troops and were hanging on by a thread the entire time. It was a miracle that they lasted eight years and it didn’t take three. The person most deserving of credit and praise would have to be Lin Cangyuan, the only Nascent Soul realm lord immortal who volunteered to fight in the lower realm. If it weren’t for him, forget three years—even two months would have been difficult.
Despite their losing streak, Lin Cangyuan couldn’t fault anyone but themselves and those of the Beidou Alliance, who wanted to cover their own ass more than anything. Being pushed back over the course of eight years was a given. But it started becoming odd when they arrived at the border.
Battles became longer, stretching from three days to two weeks. Their troops were exhausted, but still had to continue fighting. Even when backup arrived, they would soon join the others. Not to mention, the heavy pollution inhibited their own powers while strengthening the ghost cultivators.
Ye Liuxing frowned as he listened to Lin Cangyuan. “So it’s like boiling a frog in warm water.”
Lin Cangyuan nodded. “At first, there was pollution, but by the time Gui Yin came, it was already insufferable.”
Ye Liuxing glanced out his window. “But the area surrounding this place is fine.”
“Which makes it more suspicious,” Lin Cangyuan said. “Have you stepped outside of the confines of this town recently?”
“I haven’t had the reason to,” Ye Liuxing said.
“Then you must not have seen the clear border,” Lin Cangyuan said. “About three kilometers before we enter the city, all the pollution stops.”
“…All of it?”
“It’s as if there’s a barrier, keeping anything from leaking in,” Lin Cangyuan said. “Not even a wisp can travel through. However, up until that point, the pollution had grown so thick that I couldn’t even see my hand in front of me.”
Ye Liuxing’s expression grew heavier. He shook his head. “Why does Gui-shixiong always have to be right about these things?”
Lin Cangyuan chuckled. “Isn’t it better to have someone like him on our side so we can discover things like this faster?”
“I suppose,” Ye Liuxing mumbled. He met Lin Cangyuan’s gaze. “So, what should we do? Just the border isn’t evidence enough to point fingers.”
“We’ll stay and observe for a spell,” Lin Cangyuan said. “Fate has always been on Ninglan’s side. He always notices things just before something terrible happens.”
“Should we call him lucky or unlucky?” Ye Liuxing asked. “How has he been?”
“Normal,” Lin Cangyuan said. “I wasn’t able to speak to him, but I’m assuming the effects of the Fire Weed have long worn off.”
Ye Liuxing straightened. “Then, does that mean he remembers what happened to his shizun?”
Lin Cangyuan shook his head. “I’m sure if he did, he wouldn’t be as lively as he is now. The Gui Qinle at the moment is similar to how he was before the incident. Lively and carefree.”
Ye Liuxing relaxed. He patted his chest. “That’s good. If he were to remember that incident during a time like this, I don’t know if we even have a chance of winning.”
Deng Yenuo had been quiet up till now, but he couldn’t help but glance at Lin Cangyuan.
“Curious?”
Deng Yenuo nodded.
Gui Yin’s shizun had passed away far before Deng Yenuo was even conceived. In the historical records, it was clearly written that Kui Wanming and the twenty-nine members of Shuangye Peak had sacrificed themselves in order to seal up Qiao Ceng, the insidious scorpion demon god that had threatened to tear the fabric of their reality and bring down the universe as they knew it.
As for even a hint as to why Gui Yin had been spared from this ritual was unknown.
“It’s complicated,” Ye Liuxing sighed. “Back then, we were all still young—probably in our thirties or even twenties. Your Gui-shishu was much more naïve back then. He wasn’t nearly as calculative. He ended up falling for the devil’s trap. When all was said and done, not only did he no longer have his lover—the entirety of Shuangye Peak was also gone.”
“Lover…? Who was his,” Deng Yenuo’s question stopped short. He looked between Lin Cangyuan and Ye Liuxing. “Was the great demon god Qiao Ceng…?”
“Don’t bring it up in front of your Gui-shishu. If he’s forgotten, then all the better. If he remembers but acts like he’s fine, then we don’t want to break through his little act,” Lin Cangyuan said.
Deng Yenuo’s mind reeled. He was still unable to grasp this earth shattering information. “Wait, how did Gui-shishu even meet Qiao Ceng? Qiao Ceng—”
“None of us know. This information is just between your Gui-shishu and that horrible thing,” Ye Liuxing said, scrunching up his nose in disgust.
“Then, how are we sure they were actually lovers?”
“…The late Lord Immortal Ao’zhe (傲着) purposely tied your Gui-shishu up. Everyone heard him at the time, telling him to remain where he was and not to interfere,” Lin Cangyuan said.
“Wretched fate,” Ye Liuxing said. “Of all the things Gui-shixiong could see coming in his life, I’m sure he never guessed his own lover would become a great demon god.”
Deng Yenuo fell silent. It was no wonder that Gui Yin had spent most of his time after that listless and drowning in wines until he accepted his disciples. He most likely felt responsible for everything that happened, despite not even really having any involvement.
“But that’s the past now,” Ye Liuxing said. “Gui-shixiong gave us more pressing matters to worry about.”
Lin Cangyuan nodded in agreement. “We’ll lay low for now. Say that we’re here for medicine and you’ll pretend that you’re making some for us. While we’re here, we’ll carry out some inspections as well.”
He turned to Deng Yenuo. “You remain in the town. I’ll go closer to the ghost barrier.”
Deng Yenuo frowned. “No. This disciple will accompany Shizun.”
“No. You will stay here,” Lin Cangyuan insisted. “If you’re worried, I’ll bring your Ye-shishu along.”
Ye Liuxing glanced between the two of them. He laughed. “What? So, you won’t bring your beloved disciple to die, but you’ll bring me.”
“Obviously. Yenuo.”
Ye Liuxing jumped up as Lin Cangyuan and Deng Yenuo began to leave his clinic. “Hey! That’s not what you should say! You should say that it’s because I’m more reliable! You—I don’t even know why I missed you!”
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
thanks for READ
MORE INFO ON THE BIG EVENT! …oof
also when we saw Ye Liuxing i thought “gotta give this man headpats” and cheered when he got a headpat ajxbaxjsb
ye liuxing always needs headpats. that’s part of his character setting– THANKS FOR READ
ye liuxing is a very hoppy man and i like it
I am getting the feeling that Yalun, Qiao Ceng and potentially that small child that Gui Yin half remembers that was mentioned a few chapters back whose name I blanked on, are connected somehow.
Not Gui Yin always ending up romantically involved with venomous creatures 😭