ATAVID CH52

“When did you start feeling unwell?” Jiang Qunyu was stunned, a hint of disbelief in his tone. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

It wasn’t as if they had to rush through this.

Moreover, if Wei Xun were to reveal himself in front of others right now, he would likely be hunted across the entire cultivation world with nowhere to hide.

In Jiang Qunyu’s opinion, they should have kept a low profile and waited for the heat to die down before stepping out into the light. Besides, Wei Xun was destined to go to Yunque City one day; going early or late made little difference.

Wei Xun lifted his eyelashes slightly. His lips were pale to the point of transparency, and beads of fine sweat seeped from his temples. Beneath the white silk veil covering his eyes, his lashes trembled gently, as if struggling to suppress some indescribable pain.

He remained silent for a moment, then suddenly reached up and tore off the veil, shaking his head irritably. “It’s nothing.”

“Nothing?”

Jiang Qunyu knew him too well. Wei Xun was a person who was usually sharp-tongued, but deep down, he rarely showed ripples; he was indifferent to almost everything.

But now, he was actually irritable enough to rip off the veil—which had done him no harm—so something was definitely wrong.

“You are clearly not okay in this state.” Although Jiang Qunyu had always been at odds with him, he didn’t want to watch them both die in this desert. “We don’t know how much longer we have to walk before we get out of this desert. We might as well rest for a while and wait until the sandstorm stops before using demonic energy.”

“Alright.” Wei Xun responded, lowering his eyes.

Seeing that Wei Xun didn’t want to elaborate, Jiang Qunyu stopped pressing him.

He ran through the events of the past few days in his mind and belatedly realized that Wei Xun had seemed “off” ever since they left the River of Forgetfulness and stepped into this desert.

It was just that at the time, he thought the melancholy was due to his parents’ passing—he spoke less, which was understandable.

Adhering to the principle of not rubbing salt into wounds, Jiang Qunyu had even been merciful enough not to make Wei Xun read stories to him.

Thinking back now, Jiang Qunyu’s heart was a complex mix of feelings. “You really know how to endure.”

“It’s alright,” Wei Xun pulled at the corner of his lips. “I won’t die.”

“Better not die.” Jiang Qunyu huffed. “If you die, I’ll have to dig a hole and bury you.”

Wei Xun stared at the endless desert with unfocused eyes, lazily resting his hands on his knees and propping up his head. “That would be hard work for you.”

“So, to make sure it’s not so hard for me, you’d better take some pills.” Jiang Qunyu felt he was truly the softest-hearted demon in the cultivation world.

He rummaged through his Qiankun bag for quite a while before finding a few medicine bottles, shaking out a pill, and handing it to Wei Xun. “Here.”

Seeing him offer it, Wei Xun took it as a matter of course.

Jiang Qunyu handed him one, and he ate one.

Jiang Qunyu: “…?”

As he kept handing them over, he finally couldn’t help but ask, “If you eat them like this, won’t something go wrong?”

“Ha.” Wei Xun suddenly chuckled, the exhaustion between his brows softened by the laughter. “Is it too late to ask that now?”

Jiang Qunyu retracted his hand with a blank expression. “Oh!”

He felt uncharacteristically guilty and hurriedly shoved the medicine bottles back into his bag. On second thought, hadn’t they eaten like this before? They hadn’t died yet, so it should be fine.

Besides, Wei Xun was the one chewing the pills like candy. If he actually got sick, he couldn’t blame it on him.

Wei Xun laughed to himself for a moment before saying quietly, “I’m fine. Eating them is useless anyway.”

Jiang Qunyu remained silent for a moment before gritting his teeth. “If it’s useless, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Your reaction just now was quite interesting.” Wei Xun had a splitting headache, and the demonic energy deep in his spiritual sense overflowed uncontrollably, wrapping around him in wisps.

Jiang Qunyu watched as a layer of fine sweat broke out on Wei Xun’s forehead from the pain, yet he still remembered to say that—it made Jiang Qunyu’s chest burn with fire.

But a good demon doesn’t fight with Wei Xun.

“How do you know it’s useless?” he asked.

A layer of malevolence surfaced in Wei Xun’s eyes. He said coldly, “Because it’s not an illness. I suspect we are currently trapped in a secret realm. And in this realm, there is something that can suppress me.”

Jiang Qunyu’s heart tightened. He could no longer be angry and asked curiously, “A secret realm? What kind of secret realm? Didn’t we just leave the River of Forgetfulness? How could we suddenly stumble into a secret realm?”

Wei Xun closed his eyes, forcing down the tumultuous discomfort in his body, his voice cold and heavy. “The boundary between the River of Forgetfulness and the Great Desert has always hidden countless ancient secret realms and spatial turbulences. It is not strange to be swept into one.”

In the original plot, this event was never even mentioned.

Jiang Qunyu only knew that later on, Wei Xun ended up in Yunque City.

At this moment, he had no plan. He looked up at the endless yellow sand, his tone tinged with anxiety. “It’s not strange, but we can’t really die here, can we?”

Wei Xun laughed. He lay back on the yellow sand, the white veil covering his eyes already discarded, his hollow gaze fixed on the grey-blue sky.

His consciousness was fading, his breathing shallow, yet his tone carried a hint of pleasure. “Mn, we can’t die here.”

He lifted his eyelids, tilted his head to “look” in Jiang Qunyu’s direction, and curled his lips into a smile. “So, whether we live or die this time really depends on you.”

Jiang Qunyu was expressionless. “Oh, then let’s die together.”

That way, he would at least have rid the cultivation world of a demon lord.

Wei Xun responded lightly, “Alright.”

“Alright your grandfather’s.” Jiang Qunyu said coldly, looking down at him. “Let me possess you first.”

Wei Xun closed his eyes, his fringe dampened by cold sweat. His voice dropped, half-truth and half-joke. “Can’t switch.”

“Why?” Jiang Qunyu frowned. “Don’t tell me I have to drag you along as a soul-body? Don’t you find it creepy? If someone sees us, they’ll think they’ve run into a ghost.”

Wei Xun said, “It likely has to do with this secret realm. The rules of this realm lock the physical body and the soul. So, even if you wanted to seize my body while I’m unconscious, you probably wouldn’t be able to.”

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

He twitched his mouth, his tone resentful. “You’re so sick now, what use is seizing your body to me?”

Wei Xun coughed, his eyelids growing heavier. Before losing consciousness completely, he didn’t forget to comfort Jiang Qunyu: “Creepy is creepy. At worst, after we get out, I’ll demolish this secret realm to vent your anger.”

Jiang Qunyu’s lips twitched.

It’s no wonder the original story wrote Wei Xun as a villain.

“Forget it. If we really run into people, they’ll just see you floating through the desert. The one losing face is you, not me.”

After Jiang Qunyu finished speaking, Wei Xun didn’t reply.

He was startled and instinctively looked at Wei Xun.

The young man’s complexion was frighteningly pale, his forehead covered in cold sweat, his thin eyelids tightly shut, his lips pale to the point of transparency. If it weren’t for the faint rise and fall of his chest, Jiang Qunyu would have truly thought he was dead.

But the current situation was no better than death.

“Hey,” Jiang Qunyu squatted beside Wei Xun and poked his face. “Wei Xun.”

Wei Xun didn’t answer.

Jiang Qunyu immediately pursed his lips and retracted his hand with a listless expression. Fine, Wei Xun was really unconscious.

Before, Jiang Qunyu had complained that Wei Xun spoke too little.

But now that Wei Xun had really stopped speaking, Jiang Qunyu felt as if the world had suddenly gone silent.

The violent wind had stopped at some point; the grey-blue sky pressed lower, the yellow sand was still, and he couldn’t even hear a whisper of wind.

Jiang Qunyu sighed, thinking he must have owed Wei Xun in his previous life.

After a long while, he gritted his teeth, stood up, and bent down to lift Wei Xun up. He hooked his arms under the youth’s knees and back, hoisting him steadily onto his back.

Step by step, he trod into the soft yellow sand.

The person behind him had scalding breath, leaning heavily against his shoulder, completely unconscious. The blistering body heat transmitted through his clothing like an unquenchable fire.

“Damn you, Wei Xun.” Jiang Qunyu cursed as he walked, his feet never stopping. “When you wake up, if you don’t serve as my beast of burden, it really won’t be justified.”

He cursed as he walked, panting between every insult, then cursing again.

The wilderness was vast, the yellow sand endless; there were no birds, no plants, no living creatures, and time itself seemed to have frozen.

A deathly silence shrouded the entire desert; only the sound of his heavy footsteps echoed lonely in the empty, desolate world—one step, then another, only to vanish into the sands.

The world was a muddy grey-yellow, with no end in sight and no direction to be found.

The wind and sand were still; the scorching sun hid behind heavy clouds, emitting a stifling heat.

He didn’t know how long he had walked—was it an hour, or a day?

He only knew that the breathing of the person on his back was growing weaker.

Jiang Qunyu was getting anxious.

If he couldn’t find a way out, he and Wei Xun might really end up dying in this hellhole.

The sandstorm picked up again, the grey-yellow grains stinging his face. He looked around and found a sand dune sheltered from the wind, planning to rest for a while.

But as he carried Wei Xun toward it, he discovered two people already sitting behind the dune.

They were two men dressed as demons, wearing coarse tunics and carrying curved blades at their waists, looking like rogue cultivators who lived on the edge of a blade. Hearing footsteps, they both looked up.

Jiang Qunyu froze.

He cursed Wei Xun another eight hundred times in his heart.

If it weren’t for this madman refusing to let him possess his body before passing out, he wouldn’t have to face the strange looks of these two, not even knowing how to start a conversation.

After all, in the eyes of these two, it likely looked like an unconscious youth floating in mid-air, drifting slowly toward them.

It looked bizarre no matter how you sliced it.

Jiang Qunyu could only comfort himself; the cultivation world was full of strange people and techniques, so this wasn’t too rare.

He turned around expressionlessly, intending to leave.

“Hey, kid.”

A rough, hoarse voice rang out from behind him.

Jiang Qunyu’s steps paused.

“Yeah, I’m talking to you.” The voice continued. “Come back and sit. We aren’t going to eat you.”

Jiang Qunyu was stunned for a moment, then slowly turned his head.

The speaker was the taller of the two, with thick brows, large eyes, and a full beard. He looked fierce, but his eyes were unexpectedly gentle.

Jiang Qunyu stared at him for a long time, then asked, “You can see me?”

The two looked at each other and then burst into a burst of boisterous laughter.

“Hahahaha!” The tall man slapped his thigh. “Not only can we see you! You little brat, carrying a comatose person across the desert—we’ve watched you walk for half the day!”

Jiang Qunyu was stunned.

He finally realized what was wrong.

He lowered his head and looked at his hands.

Five fingers, clear knuckles, sunlight falling on the back of his hand, casting a small shadow.

He looked down at his feet. On the yellow sand, a shallow footprint was clearly imprinted.

His icy soul-body seemed to have gained substance, stepping on the gravel and feeling the real, slight sinking sensation.

He blinked, a little startled in his heart.

…Why did he have a physical body?

Jiang Qunyu pressed his lips together, suppressing the sudden surge of shock and doubt in his heart, his face remaining as carefree as ever.

This secret realm was strange in every respect; walking blindly was definitely not the solution. Besides, Wei Xun’s condition was deteriorating, and he really needed to stop and rest.

Moreover, he also happened to ask these two what was going on in this secret realm.

Having made up his mind, Jiang Qunyu gently placed Wei Xun on the sand and found a clean spot to sit.

The tall man leaned over, scrutinized Wei Xun for a moment, then looked up at Jiang Qunyu and suddenly said, “You two are brothers, right? You look so much alike.”

Jiang Qunyu’s eyes flickered.

He had just been wondering if his face was his own or Wei Xun’s. Hearing this, he knew.

It was Wei Xun’s face.

He nodded and casually took advantage of the situation: “Yeah, I’m his older brother.”

“I see.” The tall man didn’t suspect a thing and introduced himself cheerfully, “My name is Liang Yun.” He then patted the man beside him. “He is called Mo Wudu.”

Jiang Qunyu followed his movement and looked over. The man called Mo Wudu was taciturn and had a cold face; seeing him look over, he nodded in acknowledgement.

“Brother Liang, Brother Mo.” Jiang Qunyu followed suit.

The two laughed boisterously again.

Jiang Qunyu only gave his name and didn’t mention Wei Xun. Liang Yun and Mo Wudu didn’t press him, instead warmly inviting him to sit by the campfire.

“How did you get into this secret realm?” Liang Yun asked.

Jiang Qunyu wanted to gather more information, so he said half-truthfully: “I don’t know. We were originally coming from the River of Forgetfulness. While passing through this area, suddenly we couldn’t use demonic energy or fly on swords. My brother also inexplicably fell into a coma.”

And, he had been a soul-body, but now he had a physical body.