ATAVID CH69

“Jiang Qunyu,” Wei Xun asked him, keeping his eyes downcast as his voice dropped to a faint whisper, “did you forget?”

Jiang Qunyu was slightly dazed. The memories in his mind regarding the Pillow of Yellow Springs were few and far between. He only remembered that he had died there in the end to save Wei Xun.

Aside from that, there was nothing else.

“I didn’t forget, right?” Under Wei Xun’s gaze, Jiang Qunyu grew a little uncertain himself. He frowned, “Is it something very important?”

Wei Xun did not speak.

He just sat there quietly, resembling a handful of fresh snow about to melt, or a piece of withered wood.

Jiang Qunyu even found himself distracted by a stray thought: Has Wei Xun not been eating properly lately? How did he lose so much weight?

After a long silence, Wei Xun’s knuckles curled slightly at his side. He lifted his eyes, a bitter ache seeming to seep through his limbs and bones. Staring at Jiang Qunyu, he said word by word, “Yes, it is very important. Jiang Qunyu, how can I make you remember?”

Jiang Qunyu was temporarily at a loss for words, freezing in place.

He truly did not know.

In his memory, everything was neither too much nor too little—it was just right. Nothing extra had appeared, and nothing had gone missing.

“…Could it be that it was originally just a dream you had?” he asked hesitantly.

“A dream…” Wei Xun slowly turned his head, gazing out at the gray, overcast sky beyond the Jade Capital Tower. He stopped speaking, leaving only a suffocating, heavy silence behind.

Jiang Qunyu closed his mouth as well, remaining silent.

At first, a thorn remained wedged deep within Wei Xun’s heart, leaving him restless day and night.

He worried whether Jiang Qunyu, aside from forgetting the Pillow of Yellow Springs, would eventually forget other things—and forget him entirely—as more time passed.

But later, he gradually discovered that Jiang Qunyu remembered everything else perfectly. The only thing completely erased was that ethereal two-year period that belonged solely to Wei Xun.

Unwilling to accept this, Wei Xun tried again and again to make him remember.

The first time, Wei Xun looked at him, his tone darkening as he spoke earnestly, “When we were in the secret realm, we once shared a kiss.”

Jiang Qunyu merely assumed he was joking. He instantly collapsed onto the bed laughing, “Hahaha, Wei Xun, you really will say absolutely anything just to disgust me.”

Wei Xun’s expression instantly sank, and the surrounding temperature plummeted. He tugged at the corner of his lips, his gaze carrying a hint of stubborn obsession, “You don’t believe me?”

Jiang Qunyu could not imagine such a scene at all. He just thought Wei Xun was losing his mind again, and he was already planning to leave the Jade Capital Tower tomorrow to listen to newly released stories at the tavern down the street, completely disregarding the words.

Yet in the next instant, Wei Xun suddenly leaned down. His slightly cool lips lightly brushed against Jiang Qunyu’s, parting swiftly after a shallow touch.

With a soft snap, the string inside Jiang Qunyu’s brain snapped entirely. His whole body froze on the spot, his pupils constricting violently. His eyes filled with utter disbelief as he stared blankly at Wei Xun, unable to recover his senses for a long time.

“Do you believe it now?” Wei Xun asked expressionlessly.

Jiang Qunyu felt his worldview shatter into pieces. The thought that surfaced in his mind, however, was: Doesn’t Wei Xun usually hate my face the most? Why did he actually kiss me?

Unable to accept it all at once, his body swayed as he transformed into a ball of black mist. Floating up to the roof beam, he flattened himself softly like a thin pancake and began to question his entire existence.

Yet despite this, by the second day, Jiang Qunyu had forgotten everything cleanly once again. He still stubbornly believed that the person Wei Xun fancied was Shen Peiqiu, cheerfully sharing recent tidbits about what Shen Peiqiu had been up to.

Wei Xun was so angry that he didn’t speak to him for an entire night, only willing to hold him tightly in his arms.

The second time, Wei Xun began to grow arbitrarily jealous of his seventeen-year-old self. He spoke in an ill-tempered tone, “Jiang Qunyu, did you forget because you didn’t like him?”

Jiang Qunyu was so drowsy that his eyelids were fighting to stay open. He mumbled responsively, “Who?”

Wei Xun pursed his lips, looking somewhat reluctant, “The seventeen-year-old Wei Xun.”

“Oh.” Jiang Qunyu’s sleepiness surged. Swept up by exhaustion, he didn’t care to investigate deeply. Turning over, he instinctively shrunk toward the inside of the bed, wanting to stay a bit further away from Wei Xun beside him. He hadn’t even figured out why, given that the Jade Capital Tower had long been fully repaired with plenty of rooms available, he still ended up squeezing into the same bed with Wei Xun.

He had argued his case firmly at the beginning, but Wei Xun was entirely unyielding and wouldn’t budge an inch, so he eventually stopped wasting his energy.

In any case, they were both men; sharing a bed wouldn’t cost him a piece of flesh. Besides, Wei Xun’s body was warm in the winter and cool in the summer, making it exceptionally comfortable to hug while sleeping. As time went on, he simply let him have his way.

He let out a lazy yawn, “Is this another one of those dreams you mentioned?”

Wei Xun reached out to pull him back, cradling him in his arms. A gloom cast over his brows as he pinched Jiang Qunyu’s cheek, somewhat displeased, “It wasn’t a dream.”

Jiang Qunyu: “Oh!”

Wei Xun held him, speaking sourly, “Back then, he even kissed you.”

That was a whole, complete Jiang Qunyu who could be genuinely touched and felt.

Hearing this, a wave of revulsion washed over Jiang Qunyu, dispelling a bit of his drowsiness. He even kindly comforted him, “Hard choices for you, to actually have such a terrifying nightmare.”

Wei Xun cast a sinister glance at the half-asleep Jiang Qunyu. His pitch-black pupils carried a trace of danger in the darkness, but in the end, he merely held Jiang Qunyu even tighter, suppressing the urge to kiss him.

It’s very late. If I scare Jiang Qunyu, he will run away.

I want to hold Jiang Qunyu to sleep.

Therefore, Wei Xun could only hold the sleeping Jiang Qunyu, endlessly whispering in his ear over and over again, trying to brainwash him: “He kissed you, he kissed you, he kissed you…”

After chanting for an unknown amount of time, a sudden wave of irritability rose in his heart. For a rare moment, he unified his front with his seventeen-year-old self. Softening his voice with an alluring tone, he repeated over and over, “I kissed you… It was me who kissed you.”

But no matter how many times Wei Xun chanted throughout the night, when Jiang Qunyu woke up the next morning, he had forgotten the night’s events entirely.

It was as if the moment the words Pillow of Yellow Springs were touched upon, he would instinctively lock away his memories, completely isolating all related bits and pieces outside his mind.

After an unknown number of times where mentioning the Pillow of Yellow Springs to Jiang Qunyu yielded nothing but blank confusion and post-amnesia oblivion, Wei Xun suddenly fell silent, never bringing it up again.

He had gone to ask Mo Wudu and Liang Yun. Mo Wudu didn’t understand why he was bringing up that ancient secret realm again, merely assuming that Wei Xun had likely fallen into a state of mental derangement, which caused him to conceive the illusion that Jiang Qunyu wasn’t dead.

He wasn’t even surprised by Wei Xun becoming the Demon Venerable. Ultimately feeling a bit of pity for him, Mo Wudu followed along with his words, saying: “Perhaps that illusionary realm was originally manifested from your own obsession, not his. As time passes, it’s only natural that you are the only one left who still remembers it.”

Wei Xun thought that it must be exactly like that.

It was because of that illusionary realm. That illusionary realm belonged to him, not to Jiang Qunyu—that was why he forgot it.

As long as it wasn’t Jiang Qunyu himself who wanted to forget, then it’s fine.

It’s not his fault.

Wei Xun became increasingly unable to leave Jiang Qunyu’s side.

Only by looking at him and staring at him every day, and holding him tightly in his arms to sleep at night, could the restless anxiety and insecurity surging endlessly in his heart be slightly pacified.

Jiang Qunyu had been pestered by him until he lost his temper, though it wasn’t that he was unaccustomed to it. After all, during those long past years, they had also kept each other company day and night like this, inseparable from one another.

Wei Xun was no different from before; he was still very busy. The only difference was that wherever Wei Xun walked, Jiang Qunyu had to follow him there.

Sometimes, Wei Xun would prop up his head with one hand while listening to Xie Chuan’s reports, while Jiang Qunyu sprawled out off to the side reading his storybooks.

Xie Chuan didn’t know why Wei Xun was inquiring about the Demon Meteor Bead, but he simply spilled everything he knew in one go.

“Master, that Demon Meteor Bead was originally the sacred artifact of Cloud Palace City two thousand years ago. Later, the demon race in the city was annihilated, and the two great sacred artifacts of the city vanished without a trace. The Nine-Heaven Immortal Lotus was forcibly seized by the Buxu Sect, while the Demon Meteor Bead vanished into thin air.”

Listening to this, Jiang Qunyu felt a sense of clarity dawn in his heart.

Cloud Palace City was originally the former capital city of the Demon Realm. At that time, the demon race and the cultivation world minded their own business, with both factions evenly matched. However, Cloud Palace City was later jointly besieged by several great sects of the cultivation world, ultimately failing to escape the calamity of destruction.

Since then, the demon race split into fragments, falling into prolonged turmoil, trial, and tribulation, until Wei Xun ascended to the position of Demon Venerable and unified the Demon Realm, causing the situation to gradually improve.

These were all things he had heard from storytellers in Cloud Palace City. As for how many parts were true and how many were false, he had no way to verify them.

Hearing that the Demon Meteor Bead had been lost for many years, Jiang Qunyu suddenly found it strange. Putting down his storybook, he lifted his head and asked, “Then how did Wei Miao get his hands on this bead?”

Wei Xun dismissed Xie Chuan with a wave of his hand. Tugging at the corner of his lips, his tone was flat, “A restriction was placed upon his person. Regarding matters of the Demon Meteor Bead, he cannot utter a single word.”

“Ah?” Jiang Qunyu let out a sigh, “It’s a pity Yin Zhu died, otherwise maybe he would know.”

Wei Xun merely smiled faintly, remaining silent.

That night, after Jiang Qunyu had fallen completely fast asleep, Wei Xun stood up lightly. With a listless expression, he walked out of the Jade Capital Tower, all warmth fading from around him, leaving behind only a desolate coldness.

Xie Chuan, who was guarding outside the tower, immediately leaped down from the tree branch upon seeing him emerge. Bowing his head respectfully, he said, “Master.”

Wei Xun’s tone was flat: “Let’s go.”

The two traversed through the night scene, arriving deep within the dungeon before long and stepping into a barrier covered in restrictions.

Within the barrier, Yin Zhu‘s soul was firmly imprisoned. It was incredibly weak, yet unable to dissipate.

Upon seeing Wei Xun, Yin Zhu didn’t exhibit the slightest fear. On the contrary, he split his mouth into a grin and laughed, “Hahaha—Wei Guanlan! You truly care extremely about that vicious ghost. Otherwise, since I have already entered Wangchuan, why would you trouble yourself to drag my living soul back and lock me up in this dark, sunless place?!”

Wei Xun’s eyes were as deep as a frozen pool, surging with un-dissolvable hostility and gloom. He slowly tugged at the corner of his lips and even let out a soft sigh, though his tone was piercingly cold.

“I have heard that the Nine Netherworld possesses a type of torture called the Soul-Bone Nails. It can peel away the three immortal souls and seven mortal forms of a living soul bit by bit. Every time the torture is endured, the agony suffered is a hundred times worse than at the time of physical death. You ought to have a proper taste of it.”

The frantic laughter on Yin Zhu’s face instantly froze. His expression changed drastically, all color draining completely.

He suddenly recalled the moment he plunged from the top of the Jade Capital Tower before his death—the piercing pain of his internal organs shattering and his soul body fracturing. Fear instantly seized him, and he instinctively fled toward the depths of the barrier, wanting nothing more than to stay far away from Wei Xun.

But in the next second, countless freezing frost flowers suddenly drifted down, carrying a fierce demonic energy that rigidly pinned his soul body to the spot, rendering him entirely unable to move.

Yin Zhu struggled desperately. The scene of his elder brother’s tragic death, with dilated pupils and eyes full of terror, resurfaced in his mind.

This was the first time in his life that he had developed an absolute terror toward Wei Xun beyond mere hatred. His voice shook beyond recognition: “Unfasten me… let me go!”

Wei Xun’s expression was indifferent. Demonic energy abruptly condensed in his palm. In a mere breath, Soul-Bone Nails flashing with a faint, dark, cold light emerged out of thin air, piercing savagely into Yin Zhu‘s soul body one after another.

“Ah—!”

An exceptionally miserable shriek instantly pierced through the barrier. The agony of a living soul undergoing torture was several times more intense than physical flesh wounds.

That pain resembled boiling venom, gnawing away at his soul body bit by bit, precisely like the searing agony of the corrosive fluids burning his skin when he ripped open the boiling abdomen of a fierce beast years ago—every bit of it etched into his marrow.

In the countless cold, damp days and nights ahead, that pain would spread through his soul meridians to his limbs and bones, recurring repeatedly without end. It hurts, it really hurts so much!

As nail after nail fell, the agony doubled. Yin Zhu felt as though his soul body was about to shatter, on the verge of turning into scattered ashes.

He was merely a member of the demon race, and his living soul was fragile to begin with. The instinct for survival completely crushed his arrogance and wild insolence. He was clearly crying, tears and snot flowing freely, his soul body trembling uncontrollably as he begged Wei Xun humbly: “Send me to rebirth… or kill me, give me a swift end!”

Watching his wretched state, Wei Xun smiled faintly, surrounded by an un-erasable coldness. His words pierced right to the core: “On what grounds? Do you think that just because you want to die, everything can be written off? From the moment you touched him, you lost the qualification to die.”

Yin Zhu‘s soul body grew increasingly weak, becoming so transparent it almost dissolved into the shadows of the dark cell. The severe pain of his soul being forcefully torn apart swept through his entire body, every inch of him trembling and wailing.

He finally broke down completely. In his scattered consciousness, he babbled incoherently, crying and shouting in defense: “I only pushed him down! I wasn’t the one who killed him! It was he himself who refused to come up, it was he who didn’t want to live!”

Wei Xun suddenly froze on the spot, his entire being stunned as if struck by a bolt of lightning. All the hostility around him vanished without a trace in an instant.

He blinked his eyes. His chest felt as though it was being squeezed ruthlessly by an invisible hand, making even his breathing somewhat astringent and leaving him unable to catch his breath.

The possibility he had deliberately buried deep and didn’t dare to touch broke through all self-deception at this moment, smashing into his heart with absolute clarity, laid out bloodily before his eyes.

Yes, he thought. Jiang Qunyu was a soul body. How could he possibly be unable to float back up when he plunged down?

He simply… didn’t want him anymore.

He wanted to die.

Therefore, he discarded those two years without bearing any burden.

Wei Xun stood in the freezing, dark cell, somewhat blank. He didn’t know what he should do anymore.

Deep in the night at the Jade Capital Tower, Jiang Qunyu was sleeping soundly. In his grogginess, he was suddenly scooped up by Wei Xun and pulled into his arms. The force was so immense it almost sought to embed him into his bones and blood—very, very tightly, constricting him until it hurt slightly.

Wei Xun seemed to be afraid. Over and over again, pressed against his ear, he murmured his name in a low voice, his voice hoarse and choking, carrying a plea humbled into the dust: “Jiang Qunyu, Jiang Qunyu, Jiang Qunyu…”

“It doesn’t matter if you forgot. Those memories, it doesn’t matter if you forgot them. Just don’t leave me behind, alright?”

They would have more memories in the future. They would have another first kiss. He would love Jiang Qunyu, keep him company, and make Jiang Qunyu love him.

Just don’t cast me aside.

He was the one who promised he would accompany him as he grew up.

Wei Xun closed his eyes, his thick eyelashes trembling slightly. Holding a soul body that no one else besides him could see, he prayed in his heart to his deity over and over again, devoutly and obsessively.

Jiang Qunyu, he doesn’t just want him to accompany him as he grows up anymore. He wants him.

Jiang Qunyu felt uncomfortable from being held so tightly, yet he had already grown much more accustomed to Wei Xun’s inexplicable behavior. He patted Wei Xun’s back to comfort him, even silently thinking to himself in his heart: That dream truly had a massive impact on Wei Xun.

So massive that he seems to genuinely, mistakenly believe he fancies me.

But we are merely in the relationship of a host and an inner demon, Jiang Qunyu thought.