ATAVID CH54

Jiang Qunyu held his breath, still trying to figure out how to address Wei Xun.

The next moment, the youth slowly turned around.

The white silk veil obscured those glass-clear eyes. His side profile was cold and sharp, his lips paler than snow, and his entire being radiated a chilling sense of aloofness that forbade anyone from coming near.

He tilted his head slightly toward the direction of the sound, his voice cold and sinister: “Who are you?”

Jiang Qunyu was stunned, and then a flash of nameless rage surged in his chest.

He had spent the last several days carrying this guy across the desert, bathing him, changing his clothes, and waiting on him hand and foot. And this guy had the nerve to turn around and forget him entirely!

What a heartless, wretched man!

“Ha.” Jiang Qunyu swaggered over and sat down right in front of Wei Xun, ignoring the unfriendly aura radiating from him, and crossed his legs. “I’m your daddy.”

Upon hearing this, the aura around Wei Xun turned even colder.

Before him was an endless, bottomless darkness.

Aside from the fine snow occasionally drifting in from the window, landing on his clothes and shoulders, only to melt into a trace of cold dampness, he could feel nothing else.

The world was terrifyingly silent; even his own heartbeat felt like it was muffled by thick layers of cotton—vague and distant.

His spiritual sense was so quiet it was practically dead. His Golden Core was shattered, and his cultivation was completely gone.

Yet, only half a year ago, he had been standing on the high platform of the Sect Competition, stunning everyone with a single stroke of his sword, reaching the pinnacle in high spirits.

If not for Wei Miao’s scheme to poison him, he wouldn’t be blind, nor would his meridians have been destroyed in the secret realm, leaving him a cripple.

Therefore, when Wei Xun felt the presence of a second person in the room, he instinctively assumed that Jiang Qunyu was someone sent by Wei Miao.

After all, that “good” younger brother of his loved nothing more than kicking a man when he was down.

He didn’t know what the fool was thinking; clearly, he could have killed him while he was injured in the secret realm, but to clear his own name, he had actually dragged him out alive.

Of course, it was also possible that Wei Miao wanted to watch his downfall—to see him fall from the clouds into the mud, wishing for death every day.

—“Brother, Father is in seclusion.”

—“Brother, there are so many high-level spirit beasts in this secret realm. If we encounter a beast tide, will we die?”

—“Brother, here is a Qi-Recovery Pill. The other senior brothers have all taken one. You just killed a Yuan-Infant stage beast, you’ve consumed so much spiritual energy, take one quickly.”

—“Hahaha, Wei Xun, does it feel good to be blind?”

Wei Xun didn’t like Wei Miao.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t sense the subtle malice Wei Miao held toward him, though Wei Miao acted his part very well.

Wei Xun had never taken it to heart; all Wei Miao wanted was Wei Lan’s affection, and Wei Xun had no intention of competing for it.

But Wei Miao didn’t see it that way.

He hated Wei Xun to the core. “It’s all because of you and your mother! Because of you, even though I am a man, I have to learn your mother’s mannerisms!”

“Why is it that we are both Father’s sons, yet your cultivation talent is higher than mine? I’m still at the Foundation Establishment stage, while you were already at the Yuan-Infant stage! Do you know what people say about me? They actually say I’m not Father’s son!”

“It’s all your fault! If it weren’t for you, the one Father kept by his side to teach would be me, not you! If Father taught me himself, I would surely do better than you.”

“Don’t the people in the cultivation world all call you a genius? Well, you aren’t one anymore. Guess how they’ll treat you now?”

“Wei Xun, people in this world love nothing more than watching a genius be pulled off their pedestal.”

…

Wei Xun recalled the things Wei Miao had said and felt disgusted.

He frowned, his gaze “looking” at Jiang Qunyu cold as an ice blade, his tone masking no loathing: “What kind of trick does Wei Miao want to pull this time?”

He paused, a chilling, indifferent arc appearing on his lips: “Get out, or die.”

Jiang Qunyu was dumbfounded.

He blinked, and instead of backing off, he leaned right into Wei Xun’s face and waved a hand in front of his eyes.

No reaction.

He waved again.

Still no reaction.

Jiang Qunyu pulled back his hand and propped his chin on his palm, studying him.

The way Wei Xun was now looked exactly like he did when Jiang Qunyu first encountered him after transmigrating into the book. Cold, distant, covered in thorns, treating everyone as if they were there to harm him.

On second thought, it seemed pretty normal.

In this illusion, Wei Xun didn’t know him yet.

Jiang Qunyu wasn’t as angry anymore. He sat cross-legged, his tone calm: “Wei Miao? I have nothing to do with him.”

“Heh,” Wei Xun replied coldly, “and who are you related to?”

Jiang Qunyu blinked.

It had been so long since he heard Wei Xun talk to him in this tone; Jiang Qunyu felt a moment of vertigo, thinking to himself that Wei Xun had been quite annoying back then!

Still, it was quite interesting. Once Wei Xun woke up, he would tell him everything that happened in the illusion, piece by piece, and mock him just to see his expression.

“I’m related to you,” Jiang Qunyu stated righteously.

Wei Xun had been waiting to hear what other nonsense the boy would make up. He suppressed his urge to kill, even calculating in his mind what methods he would use to deal with him if he were truly an agent of Hua Zhen or the Jiang family.

But no matter who sent him, it wouldn’t change his desire to kill the boy before him.

He hadn’t expected to hear such a line.

The malevolence surging within him suddenly stalled. He was stunned, as if he hadn’t heard clearly, or as if he had heard clearly but refused to believe it.

A long time later, he bit his lip and coldly spat out four words: “Nonsensical.”

“I really am related to you.” Jiang Qunyu was a bit displeased. He leaned forward until he was almost touching Wei Xun’s face, resting his hands on the table. “I am your inner demon.”

Wei Xun froze for a moment.

Then, he chuckled. The laughter was filled with undisguised mockery, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world: “My inner demon?”

He raised his head slightly, “looking” in Jiang Qunyu’s direction, and said coldly: “I’ve never seen an inner demon shorter than me.”

Jiang Qunyu: “?”

He was stunned for a moment, and then realized something. He suddenly jumped off the bed and strode toward the inner room.

Behind him, Wei Xun heard the hurried footsteps, and a strange feeling surfaced in his heart. Why was he so familiar with the layout of the inner room?

In the inner room, Jiang Qunyu stood by the cold pond and looked down.

The water was still, clearly reflecting his appearance.

His peach-blossom eyes were naturally alluring, but the irises seemed covered by a light mist, looking both soft and seductive. His skin was fairer than snow, his lips a natural pale red, his brows like soft fog over distant mountains, his nose delicate, his thin lips slightly pursed. His small, oval face was flawless; his features were so exquisite that not a single flaw could be found.

He wore a simple white robe with a ring of vibrant red on the cuffs—white as crystal, red as burning fire. Standing by the pond, he looked like a sprite manifested from the cold mist, pure and naive.

Jiang Qunyu blinked. He hadn’t expected that in Wei Xun’s illusion, he would be using his own face and body.

He stared at his reflection, feeling both familiar and strange.

…That’s weird.

Fortunately, Wei Xun was blind now and couldn’t see, and it seemed he couldn’t use his spiritual sense either. Jiang Qunyu didn’t have to worry about whether Wei Xun would recognize his face instantly if they were reincarnated in the future.

Though it shouldn’t matter if he were recognized—Wei Xun might have forgotten him by then anyway.

Jiang Qunyu was happy again.

He spent a while appreciating his own face in the reflection of the cold pond before walking back out with satisfaction, taking his seat opposite Wei Xun again.

“That’s because I’m in the form you had when you were twelve or thirteen,” he lied through his teeth without a hint of shame.

He paused and added defensively: “Besides, I’m not that much shorter than you, am I? Don’t look down on people!”

Wei Xun couldn’t really see his face; he could only vaguely perceive his silhouette.

Hearing this, he let out a faint, mocking laugh.

Jiang Qunyu: “…”

He was insulted!

“You don’t believe me, do you?” He asked, feeling stifled.

Wei Xun’s tone was indifferent: “Otherwise? How can an inner demon have a physical body? Do you take me for a fool?”

Jiang Qunyu muttered: “I’m weirder than you, aren’t I?”

When he was outside, he was still in Wei Xun’s body. Now, in the illusion, he had switched back to his own.

Could it be that his own subconscious obsession was influencing Wei Xun’s illusion?

“In any case, I am your inner demon.” Jiang Qunyu crossed his arms, and suddenly, a malicious smile spread across his lips: “You don’t believe me, do you?”

“Hmm,” he looked around at the room’s furnishings, saying slowly, “you never keep bronze mirrors in your room; all your spirit stones were thrown under the cold pond, and you placed restrictions on them so no one else could find them; you also have a blue paper lantern—a lantern you made for your mother. And…”

He paused, then said with glee: “You have a red mole on the inside of your thigh.”

Wei Xun’s face darkened instantly as he looked in Jiang Qunyu’s direction: “Who exactly are you?”

“Even though I’m an inner demon, I gave myself a nice name: Jiang Qunyu. Of course, it wouldn’t be bad if you called me Daddy.” Jiang Qunyu’s eyes lit up, eager to try: “Or you could call me Brother.”

“Dream on,” Wei Xun said expressionlessly.

Jiang Qunyu was a bit disappointed. A pity—he couldn’t trick Wei Xun into calling him brother. Otherwise, he could have mocked him about it for months after they got out.

“Hmph, I told you I was your inner demon, and you didn’t believe me. Do you really need me to say more?” Jiang Qunyu wasn’t satisfied. “When you bathe, you wash your—”

“Mm—” Before Jiang Qunyu could finish, a hand clamped onto the back of his neck and pushed him forward. At the same time, another hand firmly covered his mouth, preventing him from speaking.

“Shut up.” The sixteen-year-old Wei Xun still couldn’t mask his annoyance well; the tips of his ears were slightly flushed, like a drop of blood quietly blooming in the snow.

Jiang Qunyu blinked.

A long time later, Wei Xun let him go, his thin lips pressed into a straight line: “So, what are you trying to do?”

He didn’t say whether he believed him or not.

Jiang Qunyu took it as belief: “I’m here to wake you up.”

He recounted their current situation word for word, ending with a bitter remark: “If you hadn’t fallen into a nightmare, I wouldn’t have come in here to find you.”

Wei Xun’s face remained placid after hearing the story. He curled his lips into a smile: “You’re saying this is an illusion?”

“That’s right,” Jiang Qunyu said. “Brother Liang said that only by resolving your obsession can you escape the illusion.”

Wei Xun was silent for a while, his tone languid as he raised his eyelids to ask: “Oh? Then what do you think my obsession is?”

He had no interest in the matter.

Although he didn’t know how this boy knew his private secrets, he would tentatively believe his claims for now—be it an inner demon or something else, it made no difference to him.

But to say this was an illusion?

Wei Xun found it laughable. What obsession could he possibly have that would be worth falling into a nightmare over?

Hmm, I should probably just kill this babbling creature.

If Jiang Qunyu knew what Wei Xun was thinking, he would absolutely grab him, pin him to the ground, and beat him up.

“You told me before that because of Wei Miao, you were blind for two years. I assume this is that time,” Jiang Qunyu began to analyze logically.

“It gets worse for you later. You’ll be locked in a water dungeon at seventeen, and you’ll die at eighteen, but you didn’t die completely; you became half-demon and half-ghost. So, I’m guessing that’s why you developed an inner demon—you want revenge, you want to kill them.”

“My obsession is to kill them?” Wei Xun asked.

Jiang Qunyu nodded: “Yes, don’t you hate them?”

A hint of cold mockery flashed in Wei Xun’s eyes. He believed Jiang Qunyu’s rhetoric even less now.

It was truly funny. Even if he had an obsession, it wouldn’t be because of those fools.

However, he did find Jiang Qunyu somewhat interesting, so he asked with a smirk: “Then how do you intend to help me resolve this obsession? My cultivation is shattered; how am I supposed to kill them?”

Since the boy had said so, there was no harm in using him to get rid of those people.

Jiang Qunyu finally reacted.

Right. Wei Xun has no cultivation now; how can he resolve anything?

And I don’t know how to repair meridians either.

He hesitated, and under Wei Xun’s gaze, he braced himself and said: “Then… then I’ll protect you? If they bully you, I’ll help you beat them back.”

As he finished speaking, Wei Xun laughed out loud, as if he had just heard a joke.

Jiang Qunyu looked wooden: “…”

A long time later, Wei Xun straightened up, his voice very light: “Alright then.”