ATAVID CH102

Wei Xun continued, not noticing Jiang Qunyu’s silence: “After the 87th year of Xiping, because Shen Peiqiu and I had once had a transaction, and also…”

He paused. “You once said when you were drunk that if we ever parted ways, you would want to find a sect in the cultivation world and live peacefully as an ordinary disciple. So, as long as the people in the cultivation world didn’t seek trouble, I had no intention of making things difficult for them.”

“But during those years, there were always ghost cultivators in the Nine Nethers secretly colluding with the militant demonic cultivators of the Demon Realm, racking their brains to incite war between the cultivation world and the Demon Realm.”

“In the 98th year of Changning, during the fire at the Yuqing Building… I accidentally discovered that I could no longer die. I recalled carefully: every time you left, I would inadvertently break through to a new realm. Calculating it, you left six times, but my ‘Soul-Devouring’ sword intent actually broke through seven times.”

Wei Xun lowered his eyes, his voice deepening. “I guessed that it must have been during the incident at Lingxiao Sect, the time I lured you to possess a body; your soul must have dissipated once then as well. It’s just that there was no time interval for that one, so I didn’t notice.”

“Heh,” a cold laugh spilled from his throat. “When I fell from the Yuqing Building, I remembered what Wei Lan had once said, and I finally understood. That so-called ‘God’ chose me from among thousands of cultivators, and you, as my inner demon, were destined to accompany me. You died seven times, and I transformed into a Heavenly Demon—from then on, neither living nor dying, neither created nor destroyed.”

“So,” Jiang Qunyu bit his pale lips, his chest feeling stifled. He looked up and asked dully, “Was that why you were so determined to find the Godly Bone, wanting to ascend and kill the gods?”

“Yes.” Wei Xun answered decisively. His long arm held Jiang Qunyu’s knees firmly. Because it had been a while, Wei Xun worried his legs might go numb, so he asked, “Are you uncomfortable? Do you want me to carry you higher?”

“I’m not uncomfortable.” Jiang Qunyu felt a heavy weight in his chest. After a moment, he pursued: “When the Place of God’s Fall opened that day, a demon cultivator told me that the secret realm had rarely appeared for tens of thousands of years and its location was unfixed. How were you so sure it was in the Nine Nethers?”

And Xuan Jin and Qin Shiyue—how did they know?

Wei Xun lowered his gaze, his eyes falling on the ground beneath their feet. In the interplay of light and shadow, his and Jiang Qunyu’s silhouettes overlapped, inseparable.

“My cultivation is at the sixth level of the Harmony (He-Ti) stage, only three levels away from ascension. Perhaps the closer I get to the time of ascension, the more I can sense the location of the Godly Bone’s aura.”

“It’s just that I didn’t expect the ruins to be in the Nine Nethers. And I happened to run into Qin Shiyue there. The moment he saw me, his expression was one of extreme surprise. The way he looked at me always carried a hint of ‘hatred that I wouldn’t live up to his expectations,’ as if he had known me for many years—yet before that, I didn’t know him.”

“His cultivation is only at the Refining Void stage, yet he knew the specific location of the Place of God’s Fall. I suspect that behind him, there must be another person—someone whose cultivation is also approaching ascension, or…”

Wei Xun paused for a long while before saying, “Already ascended.”

Jiang Qunyu’s grip on Wei Xun’s neck tightened slightly. Listening to Wei Xun’s words, his own suspicions slowly solidified. He heard his own voice: “What makes you say that?”

Wei Xun’s tone was flat, devoid of ripples: “When he was talking to me, he kept harping on the old grudges between the Demon Realm and the cultivation world, trying to lure me back to the Demon Realm to slaughter everyone in the cultivation world.”

He paused, his lashes lowering, his voice still cold: “But he didn’t even realize his own slip of the tongue. He actually said, ‘Those people in the cultivation world killed your beloved, so why do you need to pretend to be polite to them?'”

“But your existence is known to only a few. How did he know? I’ve thought it over, and there are only two possibilities. First, Wen Xingyao betrayed you and told Qin Shiyue about you. Second, the person behind him is that so-called ‘God.’ That person chose me, so naturally, they know of your existence. All of this, from beginning to end, is under that person’s control.”

“Of course, these are just my guesses. It’s just that he isn’t exactly good at restraint. I only probed a little, pretending to ask for the token to open the Place of God’s Fall, and he immediately panicked, declaring he would never hand it over—flaws everywhere.”

“If it were me, I would never say such things. How would a mere Refining Void cultivator know the location of the Place of God’s Fall? How would he be so certain that a token was needed to open it? Therefore, I lean toward the second possibility. I locked him in the Lock-Ghost Hall, wanting to see if the person behind him would come to save him.”

He just didn’t expect the person who finally arrived to be Wen Xingyao.

Jiang Qunyu lowered his eyes and whispered, “So, that was why you had Xie Chuan guard Wen Xingyao outside the West Hall?”

“Yes.” Wei Xun replied calmly, though a trace of imperceptible tenderness hid in his tone. “It was just a guess, so I didn’t make things difficult for him. On the other hand, I wanted to follow this clue to find out his true purpose, so I only had Xie Chuan keep watch in secret. Besides, you have a few strands of my divine sense on you in addition to our partner mark; no matter what happens, that is enough to keep you safe.”

Jiang Qunyu didn’t know what to say.

He leaned on Wei Xun’s back and couldn’t help but laugh: “Wei Xun, you really are a ‘love-brain’ (hopelessly devoted).”

Wei Xun thought for a moment—Jiang Qunyu had previously explained the meaning of that term to him—and replied, “I truly do only want to be in love with you.”

Jiang Qunyu laughed even harder. He tilted his head, pressing his warm lips lightly against Wei Xun’s cool side-face, and said, “That’s not a compliment, you know.”

“To me, it is,” Wei Xun said.

Jiang Qunyu remained silent for a good while before whispering: “Wei Xun, I don’t think I’ve ever told you—when I first arrived in this world, there was a voice in my ear. It told me that as long as I died seven times as your inner demon, helping you reach the pinnacle of the sword path, I could be reborn.”

Wei Xun stopped abruptly. The hand supporting Jiang Qunyu’s knees tightened.

The sky of the Demon Realm was always grey and hazy. It was probably about to be winter again, and the wind already carried a faint scent of winter.

It was unknown how much time had passed before Jiang Qunyu heard Wei Xun’s voice: “Jiang Qunyu, that voice lied to you.”

Jiang Qunyu pulled at the corners of his lips: “Yes, it lied to me. My body was recast by you over sixty-four years, and my soul was reunited by you kneeling for a hundred years at the Hall of Longevity.”

He buried his face deeper, his voice muffled and trembling with lingering fear: “I was just thinking, every time I died, I would disappear for a period of time, and the intervals grew longer and longer. If it had been the seventh time… would I have completely dissipated?”

He said, “Then I would have almost never seen you again.”

Wei Xun said: “No. Even if I had to kill the gods, I would have found you.”

Jiang Qunyu smiled, blowing gently against Wei Xun’s earlobe: “Don’t you hate me? I left you behind, time and time again.”

“I did hate you,” Wei Xun said flatly. “But I would rather believe you had returned to your own world than that your soul had truly dissipated. So I hated that you left me behind. But as time passed, I just missed you.”

Jiang Qunyu responded softly: “I missed you, too.”

Thank goodness, we have reunited.

Before Wei Xun could respond, Jiang Qunyu continued on his own, pouring out the secret he had hidden for so long: “Actually, in my original world, this place was just a storybook. In the book, Shen Peiqiu and Lan Yuanzhou were the protagonists, and you were the obsessive villain who was in love with Shen Peiqiu.”

“In the book, you were bloodthirsty, cold, and possessed by inner demons. But in the end, your sword path only reached the fifth level, and in that great war in the 87th year of Xiping, you died under Lan Yuanzhou’s sword.”

“So I didn’t know that after the seventh time, it would turn you into a Heavenly Demon.”

Wei Xun continued to carry Jiang Qunyu, walking at a steady, unhurried pace. He confirmed: “So that was why you always thought I was in love with Shen Peiqiu.”

“Yes.” Jiang Qunyu felt angry just thinking about it. “That broken book really caused so much trouble! It made me always think you had some kind of feelings for Shen Peiqiu.”

“I would never be in love with him.” Wei Xun was very firm.

“Why?” Jiang Qunyu was shocked by his confidence. He scoffed, “You never know.”

“In any case, it is absolutely impossible.” Wei Xun’s tone instantly filled with displeasure. His brows knit together in pure disgust. “You cared about him everywhere at that time, more than you did about me. I despised him too much—where would there be room for ‘being in love’?”

Jiang Qunyu was instantly rendered speechless, caught between anger and laughter: “Why are you jealous of everyone? Wasn’t I just influenced by that broken book, thinking you were in love with him? I was even thinking of trying to get you two some time alone.”

Wei Xun stopped walking. He crouched down slightly and released Jiang Qunyu from his back, his movements swift and decisive.

Jiang Qunyu: “?”

Before he could react, Wei Xun had already turned around, his expression displeased. He reached out to hook the back of Jiang Qunyu’s neck, his thumb pressing against his chin, forcing him to look up.

He leaned down and engulfed Jiang Qunyu’s lips.

Jiang Qunyu was startled, not understanding why Wei Xun was kissing him again in the middle of their conversation. But he didn’t resist. Since there was no one around, he parted his lips, allowing Wei Xun’s tongue to tangle with his.

He had always liked to spar with Wei Xun. At first, the kiss was gentle and lingering, but as their breaths blended, the kiss deepened. The wet, heated, and ambiguous sound of their lips was exceptionally clear in the quiet air, making Jiang Qunyu’s ear-tips turn red and his cheeks burn.

It wasn’t until Jiang Qunyu was out of breath, his body going soft and almost unable to stand, that Wei Xun finally released him with reluctance.

He kept his eyelids half-lowered, quietly watching Jiang Qunyu’s rapid breathing. Every time they finished kissing, a shallow mist would rise in Jiang Qunyu’s eyes, and the corners of his eyes would be stained with a crimson flush. Water glistened on his lips, which remained slightly parted, revealing a softness Jiang Qunyu himself wasn’t even aware of.

Wei Xun finally couldn’t help himself; he leaned down again and pecked lightly at his burning-hot corner of his lips.

Only then did he straighten up, cradling Jiang Qunyu’s face in his hands and rubbing his thumbs against his skin: “I’m not in love with him. I only love you.”

Jiang Qunyu’s gaze drifted away before he replied slowly: “Oh—”

“Do you still want me to carry you?” Wei Xun asked softly, a faint smile brimming in his eyes as he looked at Jiang Qunyu’s awkward expression.

“No.”

Wei Xun hooked his fingers into Jiang Qunyu’s, interlocking them tightly before continuing: “The storybook you mentioned before was written wrong.”

“What part was wrong?” Jiang Qunyu asked, puzzled.

The two had already reached the Yuqing Building.

After the fire, Wei Xun had ordered it to be repaired, and because it was protected by barriers he had set himself, no one had set foot there for over twenty years. The scenery inside was exactly as it had been; it looked no different from the past.

Wei Xun led him inside, explaining calmly as they walked: “That Lan Yuanzhou only had the cultivation of the Spirit Transformation stage. Even if my Soul-Devouring sword intent had only reached the fifth level, he had absolutely no ability to kill me.”

In fact, Jiang Qunyu had thought as much long ago. Moreover, the plot had deviated so far from the original story that he couldn’t figure out the reason anyway, so he gave up for the time being.

“That voice I mentioned…” He paused, “It must have been Xuan Jin’s.”

Wei Xun wasn’t surprised. He curled his lips and sneered: “He certainly did lay out a fine trap.”

After hearing all of Wei Xun’s past experiences and combining them with his own deductions, Jiang Qunyu remained silent for a moment before his tone became a bit more certain: “Xuan Jin has already ascended and become a god. He chose you, inducing you step by step to transform into a Heavenly Demon, likely just to borrow the power of a Heavenly Demon to gather vengeful spirits.”

“It’s just that, I fear they didn’t expect that Wei Xun wouldn’t act as they planned. For over a hundred years, he only thought about reuniting my soul. Later, he competed with them for the Godly Bone. Not only did he fail to help them gather the vengeful spirits, he was an eyesore at every turn.”

The more Jiang Qunyu thought about it, the funnier it felt. He lamented that Wei Xun being a “love-brain” wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Fearing Wei Xun didn’t understand, he continued to explain: “Those vengeful spirits are what were recorded in the book of strange tales in your room back when we were at the Lingxiao Sect. It said that if one could collect a sufficiently large number of vengeful spirits, one could set up an array to borrow their power and forcibly bring the dead back to life.”

“At the Place of God’s Fall, I saw someone we had met back at Mirror Lake City.” Jiang Qunyu didn’t know how to explain Su Fuyao’s “system” to Wei Xun, so he changed his wording: “He mentioned unintentionally that he went into that secret realm to search for the Godly Bone to resurrect Lan Yuanzhou. Isn’t that too much of a coincidence?”

The vengeful spirits were for resurrecting the dead, the Godly Bone was also for resurrecting the dead…

“Jiang Qunyu,” Wei Xun suddenly spoke, interrupting his deduction.

“Huh?” Jiang Qunyu turned slightly, looking up at the man beside him. “What is it?”

Wei Xun held his hand, pulled him into his arms, and then lowered his head, burying it against Jiang Qunyu’s neck. He sighed softly: “We haven’t seen each other for forty days. Give me some of your time; stop thinking about those irrelevant people.”