Cheng Yuan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and shook his head. “I’ve thought of you for so many years, yet it never once occurred to me that the person I had set my heart on was such an eminent figure.”
Ye Huaiyao said, “You don’t seem frightened.”
Cheng Yuan smiled faintly, his gaze seeming to hold an endless tenderness and affection. “No matter who you are, we have been fellow disciples for so many years. I dare say I have some understanding of your present circumstances. The Leopard King’s blood cannot possibly take effect so quickly, and the cultivation you have recovered is nowhere near a tenth of what the Illustrious Sage possessed back then. Besides…”
He said lightly, “If I already knew you would be on your guard against poisoned wine, would I not have taken precautions elsewhere?”
Ye Huaiyao closed his eyes for a moment. He felt that his dantian* was utterly empty, unable to summon the slightest trace of true energy, while his hands and feet had also begun to weaken. He asked, “What did you do?”
(*TN: energy reservoir)
Cheng Yuan said, “The incense on Huang Xia’s clothes and the sachet I wear produce the same effect as Muscle-Softening Powder when their scents are mixed together.”
Ye Huaiyao’s usually smiling eyes had turned cold. “What exactly do you want?”
This attitude only made Cheng Yuan admire him all the more. He had seen far too many people who panicked and grew furious at the slightest trouble, or who were weak enough to cower and submit.
Ye Huaiyao was indeed Ye Huaiyao. No matter what circumstances he fell into, and regardless of whether he possessed those outward titles and honours, he could still maintain this composure and lofty bearing.
It remained to be seen whether he could be quite so composed once they were in bed.
As the saying went, a beauty was best viewed beneath a lamp. It was deep into the night, and the single lamp burned like a tiny bean of light. At such close quarters, not the slightest flaw could be found in Ye Huaiyao’s exquisite features. If anything, the light only gave his beauty an even more breathtaking quality.
Unable to resist, Cheng Yuan reached out, intending to lift Ye Huaiyao’s chin, but Ye Huaiyao avoided him.
Cheng Yuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed, yet instead of becoming angry, he laughed. “Ye-shidi, regardless of what your identity used to be, at the very least, at this moment, you are in the palm of my hand. If you are willing to stay by my side, then given the friendship we have shared all these years, I will treat you well in future. But if you are unwilling…”
He smiled faintly. “Huang Xia’s corpse is right here. You made such a dazzling display today that he grew jealous and came to confront you. When an argument broke out, you accidentally killed your own shixiong and fled for fear of punishment. That would not be a particularly good reputation to have.”
So it turned out that from the moment Cheng Yuan had sent Huang Xia to find Ye Huaiyao, he had already calculated every step that would follow. The person he intended to get his hands on was no ordinary individual, so naturally he had to be especially cautious.
Ye Huaiyao said nothing more. At this point, it seemed he had nothing left to say.
It seemed that this sort of obsessive, twisted, perverse plot involving imprisonment, humiliation and forced love was still rather popular in novels, but for someone experiencing it personally, the feeling was far from pleasant.
Cheng Yuan’s gaze slid down the perfectly curved line of Ye Huaiyao’s jaw, following his neck until it reached his two deeply defined collarbones. He wanted to look further down, but his view was blocked by the snow-white collar of his robe.
This man would belong to him eventually. Heaven had granted him such a perfect opportunity, so what was there to wait for?
Cheng Yuan therefore reached out towards Ye Huaiyao.
Ye Huaiyao deflected his hand with a crossed palm, but when their hands met, his movement was soft and powerless, without the slightest strength behind it. Cheng Yuan gave a derisive laugh, then took advantage of the momentum to seize Ye Huaiyao’s wrist and pull him towards his arms.
He had come tonight with the intention of spending a night of passion. The two had already argued for quite some time, from their verbal exchange to their physical struggle, and Cheng Yuan was growing impatient. Having gained the upper hand with a single move, he seized Ye Huaiyao by the chin and lowered his head, intending to force a kiss upon him. The two were extremely close at that moment. Seeing Cheng Yuan lean towards him, Ye Huaiyao suddenly smiled.
At such a moment, his smile was almost lethally seductive. Cheng Yuan’s mind wavered, and suddenly a sharp pain struck his lower abdomen. Ye Huaiyao had driven his knee into him, and immediately afterwards, a mouthful of blood was sprayed across Cheng Yuan’s face.
Having launched the attack first, Ye Huaiyao knew that before Cheng Yuan could make a move to counter it, he would instinctively draw a breath.
Unexpectedly, that very breath caused him to swallow the blood Ye Huaiyao had spat out.
In the blink of an eye, everything changed!
Cheng Yuan’s vision was obscured by blood. He felt a slight sting in his eyes, while the taste of blood filled his mouth. Instinctively, he released Ye Huaiyao and raised a hand to rub his eyes.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ye Huaiyao snatched Huang Xia’s sword and thrust it straight at Cheng Yuan’s chest.
His reactions were astonishingly swift, and his resourcefulness seemed endless. In an instant, he had seized the initiative once again. Unfortunately, he had no strength in his hands, and the sword thrust was weak and feeble.
At that very moment, Cheng Yuan wiped away the blood and opened his eyes. Seeing that Ye Huaiyao was still attempting to resist, he could not help but grow angry. He said coldly,
“I told you, I originally intended to treat you well. But if you refuse to recognise what is good for you, then I will have no choice but to sever the tendons in your hands and feet and keep you at my side. You brought this upon yourself!”
He strode forward and knocked the sword from Ye Huaiyao’s hand with a sweep of his arm. Just as he was about to seize him, he suddenly staggered.
Cheng Yuan froze for a moment, then realised that his own body had instantly become weak and powerless, as though his cultivation had been dissolved as well. He was immediately overcome with shock.
His reaction was extremely swift. After that brief moment of bewilderment, he instantly realised what had happened. “Damn it, there’s poison in the blood!”
Cheng Yuan had poisoned Ye Huaiyao by mixing the scents of two substances, and naturally he had taken precautions beforehand and swallowed the antidote himself.
But the mouthful of blood Ye Huaiyao had spat out had been expelled directly after forcing the poison from his body, and Cheng Yuan had then swallowed it. Its effect was far more potent than merely breathing in the scent.
Even though Cheng Yuan had made preparations, he had never imagined that his opponent would devise such a vicious trick while at a completely disadvantageous position. With no warning at all, he had fallen into the trap.
Now both of them had completely lost their cultivation, leaving them evenly matched. However, Cheng Yuan still had plenty of subordinates. Knowing that the situation was bad, he was just about to call for help when he saw that Ye Huaiyao had not taken advantage of the situation to pursue him. Instead, he remained standing where he was and snapped his fingers.
The corpse of Huang Xia behind them suddenly stood bolt upright. One hand shot out and punched straight through Cheng Yuan’s body from behind.
Cheng Yuan’s eyes widened abruptly, a cracking sound escaping from his throat. Huang Xia withdrew his hand and collapsed to the ground once more. With nothing left to support him, Cheng Yuan slowly crumpled down as well.
Lying face down on the ground, he saw a pair of soft boots treading through the blood towards him. The hem of the white robe hung all the way down to the boots, drifting like moonlight.
“Cheng-shixiong, look.”
Ye Huaiyao spoke slowly. “Sometimes human life is simply this fragile. In the final moments before Huang Xia died, he could never have imagined that you would kill him, just as you cannot believe what has happened to you now.”
He sounded almost as though he were sighing with emotion, yet without the slightest hesitation, he drew his sword across Cheng Yuan’s neck. “So, no one is anything special.”
In the silent air, the smell of blood slowly spread. After a while, Huaijiang asked, “You… really just killed him like that?”
Ye Huaiyao replied cautiously, “In any case, it should not be him who killed me.”
Huaijiang: “…Nonsense!”
He paused before continuing, “I thought you righteous cultivators, who are always going on about benevolence and morality, would have to say a few words about ‘turning back before it is too late’ even when faced with the most vicious of villains. I never expected you, boy, to be so ruthless and decisive. But… how did you learn the art of controlling corpses?”
“This?” Ye Huaiyao said lightly. “I learned a few tricks from Rong Wang back then.”
He said the name directly, and it took Huaijiang a moment to realise that the Rong Wang Ye Huaiyao referred to was the Beicang Demon Lord who, according to the rumours, had perished alongside him all those years ago.
Who could say what sort of relationship there had been between the Illustrious Sage and the Demon Lord? They seemed at times like enemies and at others like friends. There were countless rumours in the world, but in the end, perhaps only the two of them knew the truth.
Huaijiang did not ask any further questions. He glanced once more at Cheng Yuan’s corpse and sighed. “This man certainly deserved to die. However, I noticed earlier that he had a red mole in his Zichen Palace, which suggested that he still had some sort of opportunity or fortune awaiting him. I never expected that it would come to such an easy end here, at your hands.”
Ye Huaiyao smiled faintly.
The Universal Illuminating Mirror had a heart as clear as a mirror and could perceive all things. According to the original plot, Cheng Yuan might well have become one of the protagonist Ji Lanying’s supporters later on, and even an important character in the book. Instead, he had met his end here.
But what did it matter? Regardless of how the author had written him in the book, this was his life now.
At the very moment Cheng Yuan died, Xuantian Tower also received the jade token that Ye Huaiyao had entrusted to Yan Lin to bring back, late at night.
As it happened, Yan Lin was a direct descendant and junior relative of the Law Sage, Yan Chen, following in his forebear’s footsteps onto the path of cultivation. However, because he was still inexperienced, and because Yan Chen had always refused to show favouritism, Yan Lin had continued to train at an external branch according to the rules. Even so, Yan Lin still visited Xieyu Mountain, where Xuantian Tower was headquartered, three or five times a year.
After ascending the mountain, he found the scenery unchanged. Flowers and trees bloomed in a riot of colour, the sunlight was bright and warm, and now and then a gentle breeze swept past, sending fallen blossoms drifting down like rain. It was truly a splendid scene of earthly beauty.
He had come for two reasons. First, he was there to report on his experiences in the Ghost Wind Forest. Second, he had been entrusted by Ye Huaiyao to bring his token for Yan Chen to examine. When he reached the summit, a disciple responsible for announcing visitors was already waiting to greet him. The disciple bowed and said, “Yan-shixiong has arrived. Did the mission go smoothly this time?”
Yan Lin smiled. “More or less. I was rather dishevelled, but fortunately I was not injured. The demonic creatures in Ghost Wind Forest have also been almost completely cleared out.”
The disciple said, “That is good. Yan-shixiong, you have worked hard. The Law Sage already knows that you have come up the mountain. He asks that you go directly to Beginning with Spring Breeze to see him.”
Yan Lin was taken aback. “Beginning with Spring Breeze?”
As far as he knew, that had been the former residence of the Illustrious Sage. Ever since the Illustrious Sage had departed all those years ago, no outsiders had set foot there for a long time, apart from those who went there on routine patrols.
The disciple nodded at him. “Yes. It is not only the Law Sage. The Command Envoy and all the Peak Masters are inside as well.”
Yan Lin was even more astonished. He could not imagine what had happened. Still, the disciple had already given him a rare hint by telling him this much. He probably did not know anything more, or perhaps even if he did, it was not something he could speak of.
After thanking him, Yan Lin was accompanied by another person to Beginning with Spring Breeze.
The moment he stepped into that small courtyard, the spring light abruptly turned into the cold snow of deep winter. The chill seeped into his very lungs. Something in his arms seemed to be trembling faintly. Yan Lin reached out and touched it, only to discover that it was the jade token Ye Huaiyao had given him.
