Chapter 131#
An Wuxue took another step forward.
He and Xie Zhefeng were already extremely close.
Any closer, their noses would bump, their breaths intertwining, warmth mingling.
He felt the “living” breath of this person.
Xie Zhefeng’s breathing deepened slightly, and his hands seemed to move subtly.
—An Wuxue suddenly moved so close that he almost instinctively wanted to embrace him.
But An Wuxue was even faster than Xie Zhefeng.
He leaned forward, suddenly hugging Xie Zhefeng, lowering his head to rest against his Junior Brother’s neck.
He hugged him very tightly.
The man’s arms had just barely lifted, and he instantly stiffened.
His pupils trembled, his lips moved slightly, his hands wanted to move but dared not, nervous and at a loss.
“…Senior Brother?”
An Wuxue felt the cold breath of his Junior Brother enveloping him, closed his eyes, and whispered into his ear: “Mm, I’m here.”
Xie Zhefeng was slightly stunned.
Senior Brother’s words were too gentle, too warm, making him momentarily forget the past, forget those anxieties and fears.
When he came back to his senses, his arms had already fallen.
He hugged even tighter than An Wuxue.
An Wuxue didn’t push him away.
He was afraid that this moment was a sudden dream, and if he let go, Senior Brother would disappear.
An Wuxue leaned against him, the back of his fair neck exposed defenselessly before his eyes.
His eyes darkened, wishing he could lower his head and leave a mark there right now.
Just like in the Abyss of the Underworld Sea back then…
But his Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, and he did nothing.
He held back.
This was a moment Xie Zhefeng had not dared to hope for in a long time.
He simply dared not break it.
Senior Brother was alive, held in his arms, and hadn’t pushed him away.
Xie Zhefeng’s eyes instantly reddened.
He didn’t want Senior Brother to notice his embarrassment. With his back to An Wuxue, he secretly wiped away his tears with spiritual power, and asked in a steady voice: “What did Senior Brother dream of last night, to be so sad?”
An Wuxue didn’t say, but he still sensed Senior Brother’s sadness.
“I can’t remember clearly.”
An Wuxue said.
He remained buried in Xie Zhefeng’s embrace, his voice very, very soft, answering: “I just feel a little heartache that you waited for me outside the door all morning.”
Xie Zhefeng didn’t want him to see everything that happened after his death at the Luoyue mountain gate.
So he pretended not to have noticed.
“I…” Xie Zhefeng was somewhat flustered instead. “It doesn’t bother me.”
He was the one who deliberately said those words to soften Senior Brother’s heart, and he was also the one who didn’t want to see even a tiny bit of heartache from Senior Brother over such a small matter.
Another gentle breeze passed.
Kunkun, at some unknown point, had curled up on the swing, lazily basking in the Beiming afternoon sun, not making a sound.
An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng embraced in silence for a while.
Only then did he remember that he was supposed to return to Luoyue Peak today, and finally let go and stepped back.
As he retreated, Xie Zhefeng’s eyes darkened, full of reluctance.
“Senior Brother, shall we go back now? I’ve already instructed Xuanfang to stay here in Beiming to handle the aftermath.”
“Mm…”
An Wuxue suddenly swayed.
—He had been in the illusion of Xie Zhefeng’s life and death all night. That illusion was too mentally exhausting, spanning eight hundred years. His soul was weary, and as soon as he relaxed, he felt a dizzy spell.
Xie Zhefeng quickly supported him: “Senior Brother!”
An Wuxue shook his head: “It’s nothing, just lost my footing. Let’s go.”
Xie Zhefeng looked at him suspiciously.
“Are you really okay?”
“Are we going or not?”
Immortal Venerable Chuhan couldn’t bear Senior Brother’s cold face at all and quickly summoned his spiritual boat, helping An Wuxue aboard.
Kunkun “wooed,” flew up on its own, and burrowed into An Wuxue’s arms.
Spiritual power stirred up a long wind, sweeping down plum blossoms throughout the courtyard.
The cold fragrance drifted far, plum blossoms scattered, and the spiritual boat rode the wind, leaving Beiming First City, a place deeply connected to An Wuxue, in just a moment.
The sound of the Underworld Sea waves behind the city gradually faded, leaving only the rustling of the wind.
An Wuxue originally wanted to talk to Xie Zhefeng.
But he was truly tired, and Kunkun even noticed his fatigue, comforting his soul beside him.
Clouds rolled and unrolled in all directions, and the sky was clear for thousands of miles.
An Wuxue fell asleep without realizing it.
As soon as he fell asleep, Xie Zhefeng walked in from outside the spiritual boat.
“Woo…” Kunkun called softly.
Xie Zhefeng carefully approached An Wuxue’s side. His dark eyes, which were always sharp when looking at others, held only gentleness when looking at An Wuxue.
“Senior Brother?”
He tentatively called out.
The sleeping person didn’t respond.
Xie Zhefeng called again: “Senior Brother? Are you asleep?”
“…”
It seemed he was truly exhausted.
Even a night of nightmares couldn’t make a peak Tribulation Stage immortal cultivator this tired.
The embrace just now was a long-desired beauty for Xie Zhefeng.
But after the beauty, Xie Zhefeng calmed down and noticed something was amiss.
He silently untied the spiritual pouch from An Wuxue’s waist.
The spiritual pouch had An Wuxue’s restrictions, but such casually placed restrictions were as good as none to him.
He had never before used his cultivation to suppress Senior Brother, but this time he secretly did.
An Wuxue had been eager to open the door for Xie Zhefeng after waking from the illusion, and had been too hasty in putting it away, so the spiritual pouch was tied unusually loosely.
Xie Zhefeng effortlessly pulled out the illusion light cluster from the spiritual pouch.
The light cluster was much smaller than before, with only a faint layer of golden light remaining.
It was clear that someone had already seen it.
Xie Zhefeng sighed silently.
—As expected, Senior Brother had seen it.
He glanced at Kunkun.
“…Why didn’t you stop him?”
“Woo…”
Kunkun quickly covered its eyes with its ears, shrinking into a ball guiltily.
Xie Zhefeng, however, no longer cared about it.
The spiritual boat, imbued with spells, was rapidly passing through the clouds, heading towards Luoyue.
Clouds parted on both sides, birds and beasts avoided it, and the scenery retreated thousands of feet in the blink of an eye. Yet the barrier separated the inside and outside of the spiritual boat, making the interior stable and serene.
It seemed there was no sound at all.
But Xie Zhefeng stared at the much-dimmed light cluster, his face stiff, his sea of consciousness filled with a thousand words, a tumultuous storm.
The snow lotus sword mark appeared, shrouded in blackness.
“He pities you.”
“Don’t you know Senior Brother’s personality? He’s always soft-hearted and kind to those around him. Since he’s recognized you as his Junior Brother, he’ll naturally be soft on you too.”
“Have you forgotten his attitude towards you when he said he was Suxue? He wished he could stay far away from you, wished he would never see you again!”
Xie Zhefeng’s breathing deepened.
“Senior Brother saw ‘our’ thousand years after death, that’s why he’s like this towards you.”
“This isn’t love.”
“This is just pity.”
“He’s compromising himself, pitying you.”
Is that so?
“So what if I was the one who did it? Without you, there would be no me, and you still killed him.”
“Love and trust, given with true heart?”
“Wishful thinking!”
The sea of consciousness swayed, and turbid energy surged and spread.
The spell on the spiritual boat was cast by Xie Zhefeng. His mind was unstable, and the spell instantly lost control. The spiritual boat suddenly lurched!
The sleeping person frowned slightly.
Xie Zhefeng instantly came back to his senses and stabilized the spiritual boat.
An Wuxue only frowned for a moment. After the spiritual boat had been stable for a while, he relaxed his brows.
An Wuxue didn’t wake up.
Xie Zhefeng watched An Wuxue for a while longer.
After a long moment.
He then put the light cluster back into the spiritual pouch and hung it back on An Wuxue’s waist as it was.
An Wuxue slept until the next day.
When Xie Zhefeng woke him up, the spiritual boat had already stopped before the Frost Sea gate.
Kunkun was perched on his shoulder. As he stepped off the spiritual boat, still drowsy, he saw Yun Wan and the female disciple who had once guided him, along with a group of Luoyue disciples, bowing with swords in hand, respectfully welcoming Xie Zhefeng.
As he walked out of the spiritual boat, many people secretly glanced at him, their gazes casual.
—These people had seen him before, when he was Suxue.
Someone was asking: “I heard that the Immortal Venerable brought back the Head Disciple from Beiming. Do we need to clear out a new cave dwelling for the Head Disciple…?”
“No need,” Xie Zhefeng’s voice was low. “Senior Brother will live with me in the Frost Sea.”
This person had his back to him; An Wuxue could only see the tall figure of Immortal Venerable Chuhan.
An Wuxue had no objection to living together, but he sensed something was off.
His Junior Brother was perfectly fine before boarding the spiritual boat, so why did he seem unhappy all over now?
His eyes narrowed, and he was about to step forward.
Someone stopped him: “The Immortal Venerable is discussing matters with the various Senior Brothers and Elders. You are not on the Luoyue disciple roster, please—”
Immortal Venerable Chuhan had already turned his head, his cold expression towards the crowd softening slightly: “Senior Brother is awake? How was your rest?”
Everyone’s faces changed dramatically.
The female disciple who had guided An Wuxue was so shocked that she forgot to lower her head, staring at An Wuxue with wide eyes.
Yun Wan’s sword in his hand trembled in his daze, almost falling to the ground.
The disciple who had stopped An Wuxue turned pale and was about to kneel.
However, a spiritual power at the peak of Tribulation Stage easily supported him.
An Wuxue chuckled: “You stopping an ‘outsider’ from participating in important matters is in line with the rules and not a big deal. But judging people by their status is not good; if you go out for training in the future, you might suffer for it.”
The disciple repeatedly agreed.
An Wuxue then walked towards Xie Zhefeng: “How can I still be tired after sleeping for so long?”
Xie Zhefeng’s expression softened slightly.
But An Wuxue still felt that his Junior Brother had something on his mind.
However, there were many people here, so he couldn’t ask. He first said: “I have something I want to instruct the Luoyue disciples to do. I wonder if Junior Brother would allow me?”
Xie Zhefeng quickly said: “Senior Brother is the Head Disciple of Luoyue; you don’t need my permission for anything you do.”
An Wuxue: “…”
He asked this because he thought that if he gave instructions directly, others might speculate that he wasn’t giving the Immortal Venerable face. But with Xie Zhefeng’s answer, he might as well not have asked.
He smiled helplessly and said to the disciples: “The Immortal Venerable’s trip to Beiming has left his immortal body unwell, and my own condition is not good. However, the situation in the two worlds is unstable, so the Immortal Venerable and I will seclude ourselves in the Frost Sea to recover as quickly as possible. All of you, please guard the Frost Sea, activate the mountain protection array, and seal Luoyue.”
Everyone was shocked.
Even Xie Zhefeng was stunned for a moment—the word “Immortal Venerable” was now the pillar of stability in the hearts of all beings in the two worlds. He had concealed the matter of his inner demon for a long time precisely because its spread could lead to great chaos.
He hadn’t expected An Wuxue to directly reveal that he was currently restricted.
But he didn’t say anything.
Since it was An Wuxue’s decision, there must be a plan behind it.
The others, seeing that Xie Zhefeng did not deny it, were even more shocked and quickly agreed to carry out the orders.
In the blink of an eye, a barrier enveloped the Frost Sea, and the mountain protection array was activated over Luoyue.
Only An Wuxue and Xie Zhefeng remained standing on the Frost Sea, which had been sealed in an instant.
“Senior Brother, why do you want to seal Luoyue? Activating the mountain protection array creates a huge commotion; the news will surely spread.”
Xie Zhefeng walked ahead.
“I want it to spread,” An Wuxue said. “I just deterred those who wanted to speculate about my resurrection method in Beiming. That person’s plan has failed again, and they will surely be planning their next move. The enemy is hidden while we are exposed; giving them too much time will be disadvantageous to us.”
Xie Zhefeng nodded: “So you deliberately released the news that our conditions are not good, making that person think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, forcing them to act quickly.”
“Exactly.”
As they spoke, they happened to pass the long pine tree that An Wuxue had planted here a thousand years ago.
The last time he walked through here, he was still listening to the guiding disciple recount his “evil deeds” from before his death.
Now, less than a year later, it was a different scene.
An Wuxue stopped.
He looked at his Junior Brother’s back, always feeling that his Junior Brother had something on his mind.
He had only flown on the spiritual boat for a day and slept, so why did things feel off?
Just as he was about to ask, Xie Zhefeng turned his head, his eyes flickering. He hesitated for a moment, then asked first: “I just arbitrarily decided that Senior Brother would live with me. If you… are unwilling, or unhappy, I can go find a cave dwelling for you now, or unseal the place Senior Brother used to live…”
“I didn’t say anything then, and I’m not saying anything now, so why would you think I’m unwilling?”
Xie Zhefeng’s gaze darted away.
“Senior Brother is always easy to talk to. I’m just worried that you might be dissatisfied but not tell me…”
An Wuxue frowned.
He walked up to the man.
Xie Zhefeng didn’t look at him.
He simply placed his hands on Xie Zhefeng’s shoulders, almost bumping his face against the other’s.
He looked up slightly at him, catching his gaze.
Xie Zhefeng’s breathing hitched.
An Wuxue whispered into his Junior Brother’s ear: “If I were dissatisfied, I wouldn’t have hugged you yesterday, nor would I be talking to you like this now. Don’t you understand?”
The man’s eyes darkened.
An Wuxue heard his breathing quicken for an instant, and suddenly—
The man seemed to lose control, pushing him back with great force!
An Wuxue slammed into the trunk of the long pine behind him, making the pine tree shake down rustling frost flowers that covered both their shoulders and hair.
Someone used spiritual power to protect his back. Frost and snow covered the ground, but he felt nothing.
“You—”
He suddenly met Xie Zhefeng’s dark gaze.
His Junior Brother spoke in a suppressed voice, as if trying hard to restrain himself: “I… I am greedy, but I know I dare not ask for it. Now, being able to still call you Senior Brother, to stay by your side, and to have a little space in your heart, I am already content. Don’t coax me like this. If… if it’s like this every day, I will truly become insatiably greedy, taking an inch when given a mile.”
He didn’t want Senior Brother to compromise because he had seen those past thousand years, pitying him and feeling heartache for him.
An Wuxue slowly blinked.
“…Coaxing you? Insatiably greedy, taking an inch when given a mile?” He said strangely, “So what?”
“So what…?” Xie Zhefeng took a deep breath, his eyes actually a little red. “Senior Brother, I am not some upright gentleman. If you are unwilling in your heart but still let me take an inch, then one day when you can’t bear it anymore and want to leave, I…”
He gritted his teeth.
“I might not be able to resist forcing you to stay.”
An Wuxue was being pressed against the long pine by Xie Zhefeng.
The faint fragrance of the pine forest and the man’s cold breath enveloped him, like a net from which there was no escape.
But the one who seemed to have no escape was more like the man who was speaking harsh words in front of him.
His heart tingled, his eyebrows twitched slightly, and he added fuel to the fire, saying: “Then why should you resist?”