ATAVID CH22: Recquirements met

Wen Xingyao abruptly recalled the scene when he first saw Wei Xun not long ago.

Dressed in white clothes surpassing snow, carrying a green paper lantern, his features were picturesque, yet his entire person was covered in alienation.

Those eyes that looked at him were completely devoid of temperature, as if condensing ten thousand years of frost.

There was also the cold wind that inexplicably stirred, carrying a warning intent, whenever he attempted to get close to Jiang Qunyu.

As well as that gaze that fell on him faintly, staring like a venomous snake.

The back of Wen Xingyao’s neck suddenly went cold, a chill rushing straight up to the crown of his head.

As if he had perceived some heavenly secret, he took a deep look at Jiang Qunyu, then without hesitation took a large step backward, opening up the distance between the two of them.

Jiang Qunyu: “?”

What was this sucker doing?

Wasn’t it Wei Xun he was saying wasn’t a good thing? He didn’t say he himself wasn’t.

Considering himself a 21st-century youth of good moral character—

Jiang Qunyu smiled without his eyes: “What are you moving so far away for? Don’t worry, I am a good ghost. Besides, you haven’t fulfilled your promise of spirit stones and shops yet, so I will naturally protect you.”

Wen Xingyao, however, refused to get closer no matter what.

The fake smile on Jiang Qunyu’s face instantly vanished.

He stepped forward expressionlessly, raised his hand to hook around Wen Xingyao’s shoulder, and asked with a threatening tone: “Are you still entering East Mirror Lake City or not?”

He hadn’t spoken to anyone other than Wei Xun for a long time, so naturally he wanted to pull Wen Xingyao in to chat out all the words he had previously bottled up with Wei Xun.

Wen Xingyao’s body stiffened.

Sure enough, very quickly that familiar, gloomy gaze pinned onto him again.

Wen Xingyao couldn’t break free, nor did he dare to run.

He could only pull a long face and plead in a low, airy whisper to Jiang Qunyu: “Jiang Qunyu, y-your significant other seems to be getting jealous.”

Jiang Qunyu’s face stiffened.

He lamented inwardly that, sure enough, things like killing a thousand enemies but losing eight hundred of your own should be done less.

It was truly too sickening.

He turned his head to look at Wei Xun.

He was standing not far behind them, his eyelids lowered, his long eyelashes concealing the emotions in his eyes, not showing the slightest bit of abnormality.

Jiang Qunyu laughed dryly and casually brushed it off: “You’re overthinking it.”

At the same time, he also cast a sympathetic glance at Wen Xingyao.

Tsk, quite lacking in perceptiveness.

With the kind of “you die or I live” atmosphere between him and Wei Xun, only someone blind would think they had that kind of relationship.

No wonder Wen Xingyao had such a miserable time in the Profound Sword Sect in the original novel.

Jiang Qunyu hadn’t understood it before, but now he completely understood.

With his emotional intelligence and observational skills, he probably wouldn’t even realize the entanglement between Shen Peiqiu and Lan Yuanzhou by the story’s grand finale.

And every day he’d still happily act as a third wheel (lightbulb) right in front of the main characters.

Seeing Jiang Qunyu still hadn’t let go, Wen Xingyao almost couldn’t catch his breath.

That gloomy, cold gaze condensed on his shoulder again, and he said urgently: “It’s true.”

Wen Xingyao wished he could let Jiang Qunyu experience for himself what the surrounding gloomy chill felt like.

He said: “As soon as I get close to you, the look in his eyes when he looks at me makes it seem like he wishes he could kill me!”

“Oh.” Only then did Jiang Qunyu nod in understanding. “So that’s how it is. He has germaphobia, so he probably just doesn’t want you to touch him.”

After saying that, Jiang Qunyu let go of Wen Xingyao’s shoulder, crossed his arms, and said: “However, you really don’t need to worry. With me around, he won’t do anything to you.”

Wen Xingyao looked at him in silence. Gazing into Jiang Qunyu’s extremely certain eyes, he kept feeling that things were fundamentally not as he said.

Fortunately, after being on tenterhooks for a while, he saw that he was still standing intact beside Jiang Qunyu.

Only then did he relax a little.

Over the next few days, Jiang Qunyu and Wen Xingyao felt simply like old friends meeting for the first time, chatting passionately.

Relying on some side details he knew from the original book and half-true, half-false common knowledge of cultivation, Jiang Qunyu bluffed Wen Xingyao into a daze.

He told Wen Xingyao categorically that he possessed excellent root bones for cultivating immortality, and given time, he would definitely be able to step into the Nine Heavens Immortal Sect.

Wen Xingyao was praised so highly by this extravagant flattery that he practically wanted to float, feeling dizzy and so happy he couldn’t find north.

In a moment of joy, he promised how many shops he would give Jiang Qunyu.

Jiang Qunyu’s praise even gained a bit more true emotion.

Spirit stones, oh, spirit stones.

Looking at Wen Xingyao, he felt as if he were radiating a kind of monetary brilliance.

So bright it made him unable to open his eyes.

Wei Xun routinely finished his day’s cultivation, raised his eyes to look at him, and mocked coldly: “Worthless.”

Wen Xingyao had already fallen asleep under the tree.

Jiang Qunyu, on the other hand, lay lazily in the tree, resting his hands behind the back of his head, with one leg curled and the other stretched out straight, closing his eyes to feign sleep.

His tied-up long hair was slightly messy, falling down and swaying gently in the night wind.

A gloomy blue spirit butterfly flew over from somewhere and landed on his eye, feeling a bit ticklish.

Yet Jiang Qunyu didn’t raise his hand to shoo it away, merely saying faintly: “You don’t understand.”

Wei Xun didn’t want to understand.

Jiang Qunyu also didn’t want to pay attention to him. He had finally managed to feel a bit sleepy when he heard Wei Xun suddenly say: “Jiang Qunyu, I have very many spirit stones.”

Jiang Qunyu: “Oh.”

He felt sour in his heart.

Wei Xun was showing off!

Wei Xun remained expressionless, as if saying that there were many in his cave abode at the Lingxiao Sect.

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

He couldn’t sleep anymore.

He abruptly sat up.

He rubbed his eyes, looked at Wei Xun, and asked in disbelief: “Then why didn’t you bring them along when we left?”

What a prodigal!

Wei Xun also didn’t know what was wrong with him. A faint, indescribable sense of abnormality flashed through his heart.

It was because over these past few days, Jiang Qunyu hadn’t focused his attention on Wen Xingyao, but was instead looking at him.

A bizarre sense of satisfaction spread from his heart.

Accompanying it simultaneously was an even stronger killing intent toward Wen Xingyao.

He lowered his eyelids, concealing the emotions in his eyes.

His tone was faint: “I didn’t want them anymore.”

Jiang Qunyu: “?”

Sitting cross-legged, he got angrier the more he thought about it. Staring with wide eyes, he said: “Why didn’t you say so earlier? It’s been seven or eight years now, they’ve definitely been taken by someone.”

Wei Xun’s dark eyes were deep, the corners of his mouth hooking into a faint smile he himself didn’t even notice.

“They shouldn’t be. The spirit stones are at the bottom of the cold pool in the inner chamber. I set up a restriction; only I can enter.”

Jiang Qunyu asked: “Then I can’t enter either?”

Hearing this, Wei Xun shot him a look like he was looking at an idiot. Lifting his thin lips, he said coldly: “You are my inner demon, and you drank so much of my blood, naturally you can too.”

If he could, that was great!

Jiang Qunyu’s eyes shone brightly, and he started making calculations in his heart.

Then later, after he and Wei Xun parted ways, he’d just go back to the Lingxiao Sect to fetch them.

It wouldn’t be in vain that he acted as Wei Xun’s inner demon for so many years.

He had to get some wages at least.

Besides, Wei Xun himself had said that what was his was his.

However, to prevent Wei Xun from seeing his plans, Jiang Qunyu still feigned nonchalance: “That’s good then. We’ll just go get them together later.”

After saying that, he rested his hands on his knees, propping up his chin.

Waiting for Wei Xun to mock him coldly; he could even imagine his words.

For instance: Jiang Qunyu, you’re overthinking it; then maliciously smiling, continuing to add that by that time he would definitely have killed him, and so on.

Jiang Qunyu pondered in his heart how he would retort later.

But for a long time, Wei Xun didn’t speak.

The atmosphere in the air became subtle.

The night infinitely magnified this point.

Jiang Qunyu uncharacteristically felt his face flush. He frantically recalled in his mind whether the sentence he had just said had offended this psychopath somewhere again.

Thinking back and forth, he only felt extremely awkward.

Had he known, he wouldn’t have said “we”.

Making it seem like their relationship was so good.

Jiang Qunyu was still thinking about what to use to wash away this bizarre atmosphere.

Yet he heard a voice, cold as thin ice and crushed jade, transmit into his ears through the dark night: “Okay.”

With a “smack,” Jiang Qunyu’s hand propping up his chin slipped from his face.

Feeling that his mood was truly indescribable, he cast a complex glance at Wei Xun.

Wei Xun had gone crazy.

He thought.

Fortunately, the next instant, Wei Xun seemed to also feel something was wrong. With a cold face, he tugged the corners of his lips: “If you can live until then.”

Jiang Qunyu was overjoyed at the unexpected turn of events.

Great, Wei Xun had recovered without treatment.

He said beamingly: “You can rest assured.”

When the time came, the spirit stones would all be his.

Wei Xun gave a faint response.

Jiang Qunyu then lay back down again.

But this time he had no sleepiness at all. He kept his eyes open, looking at the dense, densely packed leaves in front of him.

Occasionally, through the tiny gaps, he could see the night sky, dyed misty by the moonlight.

Facts proved that even though Wei Xun had later added that sentence, that bizarre feeling from just now was still there.

Jiang Qunyu was even wondering if this dumbass had finally developed a conscience.

After staring at the sky for quite a while, Jiang Qunyu still let out a light sneer.

He couldn’t resist cursing himself in his heart: Jiang Qunyu, don’t you forget, the last time you thought he wasn’t too bad, he tricked you and gave you a sword strike.

Don’t go foolishly making up so many things in your head just because of one word from him.

Who knows, he might be holding in something bad again.

Thinking this way, Jiang Qunyu proceeded to curse Wei Xun bloody in his heart.

Gathering all the profanities he could say in his life, he cursed thoroughly, and only then did the slight stuffiness in his chest dissipate a bit.

Since he couldn’t sleep, he simply didn’t want Wei Xun to sleep well either.

He sat up and lowered his eyes to look at the youth leaning against the tree.

Reaching out, he plucked all the nearby leaves and threw them at Wei Xun’s face.

Wei Xun hadn’t been asleep to begin with.

His perception of emotions had always been indifferent, and many novel experiences came from Jiang Qunyu.

For that inexplicable feeling just now, he searched through his past memories and couldn’t find a trace of it.

He felt somewhat bewildered.

Therefore, almost the moment those leaves came rustling down onto his face, he opened his eyes.

Those eyes were deep, icy, and dark.

Like a whirlpool.

Jiang Qunyu raised his eyebrows in provocation: “Your uncle’s.”

Wei Xun’s face instantly darkened: “Jiang Qunyu!”

Jiang Qunyu’s mood instantly improved quite a bit. He tilted his head and asked him: “Want to fight or not?”

Wei Xun didn’t refuse.

He urgently wanted to drive that bizarre feeling away.

Standing up with a cold and dark expression, he raised his eyes to look at Jiang Qunyu: “Come down.”

Jiang Qunyu nimbly jumped down from the tree. He set up a barrier for the deeply sleeping Wen Xingyao under the tree, and the two walked away into the distance with a tacit understanding.

They only returned a long time later.

Both of them were covered in large and small injuries.

Ignoring each other, they closed their eyes and slept.

The next day, Jiang Qunyu was woken up by a commotion under the tree.

Wen Xingyao had originally wanted to wake Jiang Qunyu up as usual.

But as soon as he approached, the youth leaning by the tree suddenly lifted his long eyelashes, his gaze deep.

His beautiful thin lips parted and closed, his tone as if steeped in ice, still suppressing un-dissipated irritability: “Shut up.”

Wen Xingyao’s body stiffened.

He subconsciously looked toward the side of the youth’s right wrist and discovered that the very, very small black mole had disappeared.

The person before him still had that face, but he was Wei Xun, not Jiang Qunyu.

Wen Xingyao’s Adam’s apple rolled, his mind going completely blank. Almost following his instinct, he subconsciously said: “I-I have no feelings for Jiang Qunyu, don’t kill me!”