ATAVID CH23: Confused

The air seemed to freeze.

Jiang Qunyu in the tree: “…”

Beneath the tree, Wei Xun simply cast his gaze quietly toward Wen Xingyao.

In those fathomless eyes, there was not the slightest ripple, nor any anger.

It was as calm as a pool of dead water, yet it sent a deeper chill into one’s heart than direct killing intent.

His snow-white clothes were almost glaring in the pale golden morning light, carrying a coldness that screamed ‘do not disturb the living’.

Wei Xun didn’t speak for a long time.

After a long while, he finally dragged out his bizarre intonation and asked: “Why would I kill you?”

Wen Xingyao: “…”

Then he shouldn’t keep staring at him so sinisterly!

“This young master, this young master…” Wen Xingyao stammered, not knowing what to say, and could only give up on himself and drop a sentence, “Anyway, as long as you know this young master has no feelings for Jiang Qunyu, that’s enough!”

Jiang Qunyu truly couldn’t listen anymore.

He flipped and leaped down from the tree, the wind lifting the corners of his clothes.

His tone was faint: “Don’t make things difficult for him.”

Wei Xun’s already low surrounding air pressure instantly dropped a few degrees upon hearing this.

That familiar feeling swept over again, scaring Wen Xingyao so much he wished he could immediately pull his legs and run.

He suddenly began to miss that lantern-bearing female ghost.

Jiang Qunyu was right; that female ghost was much kinder and more benevolent than Wei Xun.

Just as Wen Xingyao was almost about to pass out, Wei Xun suddenly shifted his gaze away.

As if losing interest, he leaned back against the tree trunk, closed his eyes, and merely dropped a cold sentence: “Scram further away, don’t be noisy.”

Just because Jiang Qunyu had patience with Wen Xingyao didn’t mean he did too.

Wen Xingyao felt as if granted a grand amnesty.

Stumbling and crawling, he retreated more than ten paces away, leaned against another tree gasping heavily, and didn’t dare to cast another glance toward Wei Xun.

In his heart, however, he complained incessantly, thinking: Jiang Qunyu, oh Jiang Qunyu, if you were me, you’d know what I meant!

He couldn’t help but recall again the dog-blood [melodramatic] story Jiang Qunyu had blindly made up earlier.

He secretly speculated in his heart: Could it be that Jiang Qunyu told the story backward?

The actual situation was that Jiang Qunyu had an affair, found a paramour, and wanted to join hands to kill Wei Xun. In the end, he didn’t succeed, but was counter-killed by Wei Xun instead.

After Jiang Qunyu died, Wei Xun was unwilling to let him go.

Using some unknown evil, forbidden art, he forcibly detained Jiang Qunyu’s soul by his side, tormenting him day and night.

Jiang Qunyu didn’t know that Wen Xingyao had made up so much dog-blood plot in his head in just a few short minutes.

If he knew, he would definitely grab Wen Xingyao and beat him up.

Compared to Wen Xingyao, right now he was even more displeased with Wei Xun’s passive-aggressive attitude early in the morning.

“Hey,” Jiang Qunyu kicked Wei Xun’s calf, “What are you acting crazy for early in the morning?”

Who provoked him again?

Wei Xun suppressed the irritability in his heart and lifted his thick, dense long eyelashes, revealing a pair of pitch-black eyes.

He said coldly: “It was you who wanted to protect him, not me.”

Jiang Qunyu nodded frankly: “I know. And I didn’t ask you to protect him either. Isn’t that because I can’t get on your body right now?”

He and Wei Xun had tried it before. Perhaps because his soul originally came from another world, even though his identity was now Wei Xun’s inner demon, he ultimately wasn’t truly Wei Xun’s inner demon.

Within a month, he could stay on Wei Xun’s body for at most five days.

At that time, Wei Xun was still somewhat suspicious.

Later, he was brushed off by Jiang Qunyu using the excuse that his cultivation was still insufficient to thoroughly possess Wei Xun.

The five days had passed, so last night the two had swapped back.

Wei Xun’s expression was as bland as cold jade soaked in snow.

He raised his eyes to look at Jiang Qunyu, the depths of his eyes devoid of ripples. His beautiful thin lips pressed into a taut line, and he didn’t speak.

Sometimes Jiang Qunyu really didn’t want to have such a tacit understanding with Wei Xun, but as it happened, he indeed understood Wei Xun’s meaning.

His gaze paused on the injury hanging on Wei Xun’s cheek. His fingertips curled imperceptibly; that was left by his own hands last night.

Ignoring that bit of bizarre feeling, he said woodenly: “I don’t mean anything else, I just want you to help pass on a few words, that’s all.”

“I don’t want to.” Wei Xun refused without even thinking.

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

If not for the fact that Wen Xingyao hadn’t yet learned how to use spiritual power, why would he need Wei Xun to be the middleman.

He could have just given Wen Xingyao a sound transmission jade pendant, and the two could communicate via text, directly saving a lot of trouble.

“Fine,” Jiang Qunyu smiled in anger, his tone provocative, “If he dies, and the spirit stones he promised to give me can’t be cashed in, I’ll use your spirit stones to make up for it.”

Wei Xun was also somewhat angry. His eyes sank slightly as he sneered: “You can, go kill him, and I’ll give all the spirit stones to you.”

Jiang Qunyu choked: “Where exactly did Wen Xingyao offend you?”

It couldn’t possibly be that he still held a grudge over Wen Xingyao touching his paw earlier, right?

No matter how much of a germaphobe he was, he had used the dust-cleansing spell countless times over the past few days; he should have been clean long ago.

The coldness surrounding Wei Xun suddenly converged a bit. A trace of bewilderment flashed through the depths of his eyes, fleeting and gone.

After a moment, he slowly opened his mouth, his tone so calm it was somewhat bizarre: “He is very suspicious.”

Yes, suspicious.

He lowered his eyes and quickly found an excuse, convincing himself.

A person who suddenly appeared halfway on the road to East Mirror Lake City.

Moreover, he still carried the characteristic that would easily evoke one’s protective desire: lacking spiritual power, fragile, as if one only needed to lift a hand to make him die.

Such an appearance was the easiest to make people drop their guard.

Including Jiang Qunyu.

Wei Xun lowered his eyes, his fingertips stroking the dark patterns on the corner of his sleeve, thinking expressionlessly.

Jiang Qunyu could die, but he could only die by his hands.

Rather than perishing by someone else’s hand.

Therefore, he loathed Wen Xingyao to the extreme.

Jiang Qunyu frowned: “Where is he suspicious?”

Wei Xun raised his eyes, his gaze pointing straight ahead: “He is not as simple as you think.”

“You can rest assured,” Jiang Qunyu was silent for a long time before saying slowly, “He’s nothing more than a mortal. I guarantee he won’t do anything to you.”

Wei Xun let out a light sneer, his tone carrying sarcasm: “You truly trust him.”

“At least between the two of you, he is more trustworthy,” Jiang Qunyu said mercilessly.

Besides, he couldn’t exactly tell Wei Xun that he had read the novel, and in the original plot, Wen Xingyao was purely a tool character meant to push the romance forward, plus a sucker with more money than brains.

Hearing this, Wei Xun’s eyes looked gloomily at Jiang Qunyu.

Jiang Qunyu met his gaze without the slightest guilty conscience.

After a long time, Wei Xun stood up, the frost and coldness surrounding his body still un-dissipated.

He took a step toward Wen Xingyao. His drooping eyelashes concealed the emotions in his eyes, and his voice was flat and devoid of ripples: “He has words to say to you.”

After Wen Xingyao finished listening, a look of pleasant surprise instantly burst forth on his face.

Even his fear toward Wei Xun dissipated quite a bit as he asked eagerly.

“Jiang Qunyu sure enough didn’t abandon me, why did he suddenly disappear again? Did something happen?”

On the other side, Jiang Qunyu was momentarily stunned.

He thought he would have to argue with Wei Xun for a period of time.

He hadn’t expected it to go unexpectedly smoothly this time.

He stared at Wei Xun for a while before saying hesitantly.

“Don’t be afraid, it’s a normal phenomenon. He and I share the same body, there always has to be a shift handover process. Wait a few days and I’ll be back. For these few days, you follow Wei Xun first, he probably won’t kill you.”

Wei Xun stood to the side, repeating it expressionlessly.

Even Jiang Qunyu felt a lack of confidence when saying the last sentence himself, but to comfort Wen Xingyao, he added it anyway.

And Wei Xun, whether intentionally or unintentionally, relayed it word for word, not even omitting his own name.

Only when he reached the sentence “he won’t kill you,” a very faint, mocking laugh spilled from his throat.

Jiang Qunyu ground his teeth in anger, wishing he could fight him another round.

Wen Xingyao listened with fear and trepidation, hastily nodding: “This young master understands.”

Deeply afraid that if he agreed too slowly, Wei Xun would regret it the next instant and toss him all alone in this desolate forest.

A few days ago, to avoid this kind of situation from happening, although Jiang Qunyu himself was a half-baked amateur, he still taught Wen Xingyao how to draw Qi into the body.

Once he learned it with some success, he would give him a sound transmission jade pendant, and the two wouldn’t have to look at Wei Xun’s face anymore.

Although Wen Xingyao was a tool character meant to push the emotional push-and-pull between Shen Peiqiu and Lan Yuanzhou, since he could be brought back to the Profound Sword Sect by Shen Peiqiu and accepted as a disciple, his root bones for cultivation couldn’t be that bad no matter what.

So Jiang Qunyu exhorted again: “Don’t forget to cultivate these days either, draw Qi into your body as soon as possible.”

But Wei Xun was unwilling to relay the message again.

Seeing that Wei Xun had no follow-up after saying that sentence, Wen Xingyao carefully asked: “Brother Wei, did Jiang Qunyu say anything else?”

Wei Xun’s tone was flat: “No.”

Saying that, he carried the lantern and walked forward again.

Jiang Qunyu: “…?”

He hurriedly followed, repeating that exhortation once more.

But Wei Xun acted as if he hadn’t heard, his footsteps not pausing.

Jiang Qunyu was so angry his vision went dark, and in a fit of pique, he turned back into the black mist ball.

With a “smack,” he hung onto the sword tassel of the Soul-Devouring sword, curling into a ball to sulk.

Wen Xingyao silently followed behind Wei Xun.

Without Jiang Qunyu, there was no one to talk to him.

For a moment, the forest was bizarrely quiet.

Wen Xingyao felt a little scared.

Gathering his courage, he tried to make conversation out of nothing: “B-Brother Wei, why is the sword tassel on your saber swaying?”

Wei Xun hooked the corners of his lips, his tone carrying a bit of malice: “A thing as round as a tangyuan [glutinous rice ball], hanging on it.”

Wen Xingyao didn’t think of Jiang Qunyu, merely assuming some evil entity was causing trouble again.

Instantly scared into silence, he didn’t dare say another word.

Jiang Qunyu, however, was extremely angry. He slid down from the hilt of the Soul-Devouring sword, turned around, and bit Wei Xun fiercely on the side of his waist.

They walked like this for another few days.

Finally, Wen Xingyao looked up at the large characters “East Mirror Lake City” above the city gate.

Recalling that along the way, either his attendants suddenly disappeared or they were chased by ghosts and burned by fire, his eyes turned red, and he almost cried.

“This young master, this young master is finally about to step onto the grand avenue of cultivating immortality…”

Jiang Qunyu lay prone on Wei Xun’s shoulder, frowned, and said: “This place feels a bit strange.”

Deathly silent. Completely unlike that dense forest, the wind passed but the trees did not move.

It was too bizarrely quiet.

More like a painting that couldn’t move.

Wei Xun pulled at the corners of his lips: “There are quite a few dirty things in this city.”

He, on the other hand, was unafraid, lifting his foot to continue forward.

Without waiting for anyone to knock, that city gate actually slowly opened on its own.

Wen Xingyao was startled, his timidity arising again as he clung tightly to the door frame of the city gate, refusing to enter: “Can we enter this gate?”

Wei Xun couldn’t be bothered to answer him, the disgust on his face hard to conceal. He reached out, grabbed his collar, and threw the person straight inside.

Wen Xingyao was thrown dizzy. He rubbed his aching butt, abruptly jumped up, and that bit of dandy nature in his bones popped out again.

Perhaps because Wei Xun truly hadn’t hurt him these past few days, making him lower his guard slightly, he raised his voice and shouted: “You dare throw this young master!”

But as soon as the words fell, meeting Wei Xun’s deep, dark eyes, he instantly went mute and said cowardly: “…Wait until Jiang Qunyu comes out, I will definitely make him give you a good look (teach you a lesson).”

After dropping this unconfident threat, he turned and walked forward without looking back.

Jiang Qunyu laughed out loud.

Wei Xun stood in place, listening to the laughter by his ear.

Expressionlessly, he reached out, pulled down the black mist ball that was laughing so hard it was tumbling about on his shoulder, and rubbed it vigorously in his palm.

Jiang Qunyu’s laughter stopped abruptly, and he said furiously: “Wei Xun! Are you using me to wipe your hands again?!”

Wei Xun didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty: “Mm.”

As it happened, Jiang Qunyu couldn’t do anything about it. He glared at him twice, transformed into the handsome appearance of a youth, and also walked into the city.

Wei Xun fell behind, lowering his eyelashes.

His gaze fell on the fingertips that had just rubbed the black mist ball, and separated by his clothing, he faintly touched the side of his waist.

The injury Jiang Qunyu bit into his waist the last time he was angry was almost healed.

How strange.

This time he was clearly angered too, yet he didn’t bite him.

After that fleeting bit of bewilderment passed, it was a trace of emptiness that even he himself had not noticed.

When he raised his eyes again, this trace of abnormality was covered by his usual coldness. Even the anticipation that had faintly popped up in the bottom of his heart a moment ago generated a bit of disgust.

Wei Xun retracted his hand, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing against the corner of his sleeve.

It was merely to wipe off the bad luck stained on him when he grabbed Wen Xingyao’s collar just now.

He told himself this, his expression returning to cold stillness, as he raised his steps and walked toward the inside of the city.

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