Among the eight Domain Lords, Ji Yunlang was most familiar with the Eighth Domain Lord, Lousha.
Back when Lousha was not yet the Eighth Domain Lord, he had once been buried deeply into the sand by someone, leaving only a head exposed to breathe.
Who knows how long he had been buried; that face had been ground until it was coarse and dry-hard, having fully weathered the storms.
Fortunately, he encountered Ji Yunlang passing by. Ji Yunlang originally possessed no kindness, but as a result, Lousha spat a mouthful of saliva carrying sand onto his foot, forcefully awakening his kindness.
He pulled Lousha out, originally preparing to plant him upside down into the soil, but he didn’t expect Lousha to still hold a second mouthful of sand in his mouth. Mixed with saliva, wet and sticky, it came straight toward his face.
Ji Yunlang was almost disgusted to death by him. Twisting both of his arms backward, he tossed him onto the ground, lifting his sword about to pierce through him.
He hadn’t expected that the sole of his foot would suddenly sink, half of his calf disappearing into the black sand. His sword wasn’t held steadily, and Lousha turned his body around to kick his wrist, sending it flying very far away.
Beside him, Lousha’s entire person lay flat onto the sand on his back in the shape of the character (tai), laughing loudly with a haha sound, his two arms flapping and his two feet kicking wildly, bringing up countless sand and soil to fly around.
While coughing, Ji Yunlang drew out his second sword. Neither leaning to one side nor the other, he stabbed Lousha from the shape of the character “太” into the shape of the character “大” (da).
“Ah!!!”
He only remembered that the blood moon that day was exceptionally bright, and the wails beside his ears were also exceptionally beautiful to listen to. Ji Yunlang unhurriedly pulled his own foot out from the sand. Looking at the blood flowing from his crotch, he was so disgusted he almost didn’t want his own sword anymore.
His sword was still stabbed up there, the sword body embedded into the soil. Lousha had long since changed from laughing loudly into a sharp and continuous long wail. In the end, Ji Yunlang still couldn’t bear to part with his sword, standing to the side to build up enough psychological preparation. Reaching out his hand about to pull it, Lousha suddenly roared violently during an interval of his long wail: “Don’t pull!”
Ji Yunlang said: “I’ll just pull.” His hand had already grasped onto the sword hilt.
“Don’t you move!” Lousha kicked wildly with both feet from the pain. The more he kicked the more it hurt, shouting with a coarse voice, “I am the God who presides over mating in the Bafang Region! You dare cut off the God’s precious vessel, are you not afraid that the God will descend punishment upon you?”
“Oh?” Ji Yunlang grasped the sword hilt, hoisting it upward a bit, “How are you going to descend punishment upon me?”
“The God will make it so you can’t get hard! Can’t ejaculate! Before you even finish taking off your clothes, you tire first; before your companion even opens their throat, you go soft first—forever being a coward on the bed! The shame of males!!!”
Ji Yunlang let go of his hand with a grave face, “Sounds very severe.”
Lousha: “Right?”
Lousha: “Gently, support the God’s precious vessel, slowly extract your sword, and don’t let it snap. Only in this way will the God bless you.”
Ji Yunlang didn’t understand. He extracted his sword with a sudden pull, “Like this?”
“Ah!!!”
Even after being like this it didn’t snap. The God’s precious vessel survived a great disaster, and would surely have beautiful fortune in love.
Ji Yunlang stopped outside the Eighth Domain Lord’s sand cave. An ear-splitting sound of frolicking came from within the cave, a person lowering their tone: “My babies, lick slower, the God’s precious vessel isn’t prepared yet.”
Ji Yunlang halted his steps, staring with wide eyes at the sleepy-eyed youth guarding the door.
The youth finally saw him clearly, waking up with a shudder, hurriedly bowing and praying toward him, shouting out a loud “Leader!” to remind the person inside the cave.
A long wail came from inside the cave, “Oh oh oh oh oh, my babies, don’t be afraid, don’t bite, the God’s precious vessel cannot withstand it.”
Ji Yunlang silently counted ten numbers outside. Hearing that it was quiet inside, he lifted his steps to enter.
In the center of the sand cave sat a long couch covered fully with animal skins. The man possessing a head of thick brown curly hair was currently exposing his chest leaning upon it, while on the animal skin carpet not far in front of him, several human-shaped clumps rose up weirdly.
Lousha was treating him like a blind man again. Ji Yunlang furrowed his brows, sat down by the side of the stone table, and said toward those few clumps on the carpet, “All of you roll out.”
The carpet was violently flipped open. The young men with naked buttocks darted out each one faster than the last. Ji Yunlang’s gaze only caught a few clumps of white flesh flitting past his side. Unable to endure it any longer, he picked up a stone and threw it fiercely toward the God’s precious vessel, “Are you disgusting or not?”
Lousha hurriedly dodged, kicking the stone down, and patting his own robust chest, saying: “You almost injured the God’s precious vessel. Those are all the God’s babies; where are they disgusting?”
As he spoke, his palm squeezed onto his own chest, saying with wonder: “The God’s chest muscles have become increasingly massive! Do you want to come feel them?”
Ji Yunlang turned his head away with dislike, “Dress well, get down from the bed, don’t let me say it a second time.”
In the next instant, Lousha wrapped himself tightly in a set of animal skin clothes, sat down opposite the stone table, and said with grievance: “Spring is the season for mating…”
“There are no four seasons inside the Bafang Region.” Ji Yunlang picked up an orange from the table and began peeling it, “What’s more, the Immortal Continent is currently winter.”
“Winter…” Lousha muttered, staring at Ji Yunlang, grinning out a smile. He had a pair of pitch-black, narrow, and long eyes, his lips very thin; when smiling, he would reveal two rows of white teeth, “The season for hibernation—death, living apart, companions drifting apart… have you experienced them all? But it doesn’t matter, you are the king here; no matter if a companion dies or drifts apart, you can look for many more…”
Ji Yunlang placed the peeled orange segment by segment onto the table, and again began to tear the orange peel into piece after piece, saying: “Not everyone is the same as you.”
“Speaking like this will make the God sad,” Lousha covered his own chest, devouring the orange he had peeled mouthful by mouthful completely, and again stuffing the orange peel he had torn piece by piece into his mouth, saying with distress, “The God’s precious vessel can conquer anyone, yet uniquely has no method against him. You tell me, what else can the God do?”
Ji Yunlang picked up the second orange to continue peeling.
Back when Lousha was not yet the Eighth Domain Lord, he had once loved his own Domain Lord—crazily and grandly.
The people of the Eighth Domain mocked him and humiliated him, burying him deeply into the black sand leaving only a head year after year, because the Domain Lord said he wanted him to bathe a bit in the essence of the blood moon, washing clean those disgusting things inside his brain before returning.
Later Lousha became the Eighth Domain Lord, and that Domain Lord who preferred death over accepting him met with bad luck. Being forced to swallow the most intense aphrodisiac, he was locked into the bottomless sand prison, day after day enduring the torture of his body being in heat.
Ji Yunlang and Lousha could count as friends who didn’t know each other until they fought, but for so many years he was completely unable to empathetically share Lousha’s feelings.
Lousha was more pitiful than he was, and even more hateful than he was; failing to get what he wanted, he could only break his wings and then willingly degrade himself, locking the person he loved most in the deepest underground, his own body and spirit living day after day in indulgence.
Every time Ji Yunlang felt he himself was miserable, he would come look for Lousha, curse him a few sentences, and completely consume all the things that could be consumed inside Lousha’s cave, seeking some strange sense of superiority from Lousha’s person.
For example, similarly being hurt by the person who was loved, Lousha was forced to become crazier and crazier, yet Ji Yunlang was let by Jiang Zhou to be coaxed until he became stupider and stupider.
If Jiang Zhou were to suddenly appear in front of him right now, explaining to him with a soft and tender voice, saying a few pleasant words—cheating him would be fine, anything would be fine—Ji Yunlang wouldn’t even need to think; his first reaction absolutely would be to feel happy, and immediately following that, his heart would soften into a pool of water, and whatever Jiang Zhou said he would have to believe.
Ji Yunlang began to peel the third orange.
Holding Jiang Zhou to sleep for five years, he had actually always wanted to hear Jiang Zhou say something.
For example, sending him to the Bafang Region was actually because Master felt the soil here was fertile and the residents were warm and hospitable, making it a good place suitable for living, not expecting he would sustain so much suffering after coming.
For another example, the embrace and kiss at the age of seventeen all counted; Master didn’t cheat him, and even less utilized him, Master precisely liked him so would sleep with him.
Explaining like this was a bit forced, and also a bit absurd; Ji Yunlang himself didn’t believe it, but if it were spoken out from Jiang Zhou’s mouth, he certainly would believe it.
Peeling the oranges, his brain again started to fill with Jiang Zhou. Hating him so much, missing him so much; where on earth had Jiang Zhou gone, Jiang Zhou truly was a scoundrel.
By the time he snapped back to reality, he had already peeled a table full of oranges. Lousha couldn’t eat anymore, dragging out a box to continue supplying goods to him, “You peel, no need to stop. In a bit let the God’s babies come in to eat, their little mouths love to eat…”
Ji Yunlang smashed the unpeeled orange onto the table, saying once more: “I’ve thought it through.”
Lousha: “What have you thought through?”
Ji Yunlang asked him: “Do you want to go to the Immortal Continent?”
Lousha had no need to think, saying: “Don’t want to.”
Ji Yunlang said: “Then you stay here. Husheng likes the Immortal Continent; I will bring him away.”
Lousha asked: “Are you still returning?”
“Of course not.”
Lousha gathered the oranges he peeled segment by segment, “The God feels this decision of yours is foolish. If you leave, there will be no soil and seeds of the Immortal Continent, and nobody will teach the God how to plant oranges anymore; what will the God and the God’s babies eat in the future?”
“What does it have to do with me? The entire Bafang Region has no relation to me. How you all lived before, you shall live in the future.”
Lousha pursed his lips, staring at him seriously, “Inside the sand prison are locked many people who want to go out; will you bring them together to the Immortal Continent?”
Ji Yunlang asked back: “What do you think?”
Bringing a single Husheng he already found it too much. Once he returned to the Immortal Continent, he would devote his entire body and mind to looking for Jiang Zhou, and then guard him, going nowhere.
Completely casting off the Bafang Region, he would have a vast amount of time to live out days with Jiang Zhou, wouldn’t frequently get injured, and wouldn’t let Jiang Zhou have an opportunity to leave him again either.
Lousha packed the still intact oranges on the table back, not letting him touch even a single one, “You pat your buttocks and just leave. In case anyone wants to go to the Immortal Continent again, the God can only stop them alone… or is it that you already have a method to close the passage out?”
“No.” Ji Yunlang stared at the oranges on the table, “But I don’t want to stay here anymore; how you all are has nothing to do with me.”
“Truly heartless…” Lousha already couldn’t eat anymore, yet he couldn’t bear to waste these oranges, continuing to stuff them into his own mouth, looking toward those double dark purple eyes of his.
“Leader, from the very first glance I cast at you I knew, you were born belonging here. A place like the Immortal Continent cannot accommodate such beautiful beast pupils.”
“Is that so?” Ji Yunlang gave a light smile, “No wonder when I was small the people at home treated me as a monster.”
Lousha was very unfamiliar with the concept of “people at home”. Thinking for a bit, he asked: “Is it that person you keep thinking about?”
“No, another home, another crowd of people.”
Ji Yunlang cast down his eyes, looking at the silver chain on his wrist, “The person I keep thinking about, he won’t treat me as a monster.”
A monster didn’t need a swing, didn’t need toys; nobody would coax a monster like a small child.
A monster also didn’t need an embrace, didn’t need a kiss; nobody would act as a lover with a monster.
Ji Yunlang came close to starting to think about him again. Tapping the table, he said to Lousha: “Stop eating, I have business looking for you. A new Third Domain Lord has been changed, do you know?”
Lousha swallowed the final mouthful of orange, nodding, “That day you weren’t here, the God and the babies saw with their own eyes that person achieve victory in the arena. The previous Third Domain Lord was torn into shreds by him… I remember the new Third Domain Lord is called Xin Shi?”
“Precisely him, a person of the Second Domain.” Ji Yunlang muttered, “Saguman made a trip to the Immortal Continent back then, and after he returned his brain became not a little fluid. While I still took you all to be fools, he was already playing mind games with me.”
Lousha repeatedly chewed the few words “you all are fools”, lowering his eyes sadly, and squeezing his own chest muscles.
Ji Yunlang said: “I came to ask whether you have someone in your hand who can take over the position of the Second Domain Lord it would be best if they are strong enough, and their brain is a bit fluid. A person like Saguman cannot be kept. Since he could secretly help Xin Shi kill the Third Domain Lord, I can help your person kill him. In this way, even if I leave, you all won’t be too passive.”
Lousha fell silent.
A phrase spoken lightly, yet doing it wasn’t that easy.
Once the Leader was away, a competition for the new Leader would quickly begin. Every person wanted to move into the Senro Beast-Bone Palace, the Second Domain Lord Saguman especially.
It was merely that over these years he had always harbored dread toward Ji Yunlang’s bone dragon, not daring to challenge easily. After all, Ji Yunlang didn’t even need to draw his sword; relying solely on the ferocious beast he could kill them all completely.
Therefore Saguman played mind games, learning some appropriately timed cleverness of the Immortal Continent’s people, through swallowing up territories, to step by step press toward the Senro Beast-Bone Palace.
But the Bafang Region had only eight Domain Lords; no house could easily produce a ninth person capable of being a Domain Lord.
Even if Saguman let Xin Shi replace the Third Domain Lord, it was also pulling a tall one out from the short ones.
“That Xin Shi has no need for special attention. Once the Second Domain Lord dies, he won’t hold out for long; our primary target is still Saguman.”
Ji Yunlang looked toward Lousha.
“The opportunity is placed right in front of your face, Eighth Domain Lord. So, a person possessing the ability to challenge the Second Domain Lord—can you produce them?”
Ji Yunlang had always looked at excitement not fearing the matter being large. He knew Lousha had someone in his hand strong enough, ready-made, capable of replacing the Second Domain Lord.
Serving as the God who presided over mating in the Bafang Region, Lousha was pressed by his few sentences until he was anxious and uneasy, walking back and forth inside the sand cave, roaring loudly to call a few babies inside to vent his fire.
Ji Yunlang rose. Before going out the door he said to him: “The opportunity happens only once. Kill Saguman, and when I leave, your odds of competing for the Leader will be much larger. Consider it, and look for me when you’ve thought it through.”
“Don’t you speak to the God! You leave!” Lousha didn’t want to look at him, and didn’t want to listen to his voice either, covering his own head and shouting loudly, “Where are the God’s babies?! Come in! All come in! Ah ah ah ah!”
One went crazy, putting Ji Yunlang in a much better mood, slowly wandering back to the Senro Beast-Bone Palace.
After entering the palace, passing by Husheng who was kneeling and asleep, he smoothly rubbed a handful on his head.
Husheng startled awake, subconsciously tilting his head up to look at the sky, “Full moon?”
“Not yet,” Ji Yunlang sat down on the chair, “Still early, continue sleeping.”
Husheng furrowed his brows rubbing his own thigh, “My legs are completely numb…”
Ji Yunlang delivered a kick to the drowsy Xin Shi, and then said to Husheng: “Serves you right, who let you rip the book? Continue kneeling.”
“I wasn’t kneeling because I ripped the book… I…” Husheng was so anxious his speech stammered, opening the book box beside his hand to extract the pieced-together book to show him, “I’ve glued it all well, don’t be angry anymore. I truly won’t run around blindly, what’s more, I cannot beat the bone dragon, and cannot leave the house door.”
Hearing this, the bone dragon proudly held its head high, using its tail tip to sweep Husheng’s head.
Husheng was swept until it itched, going to catch the bone dragon’s tail, yet because he was kneeling, his range of action was limited, unable to catch it no matter how.
Ji Yunlang watched the person and the dragon make a fuss, his mood getting much better again.
The Senro Beast-Bone Palace was just a cage; both Husheng and the bone dragon were locked here by him—obedient, well-behaved, going nowhere.
How good like this, unlike certain people…
The Xin Shi beside him was kicked awake by him, his head lifting to crash heavily onto the ground.
Ji Yunlang originally was about to think of Jiang Zhou again, but was brought back to reality by this sky-shaking sound of kowtowing, stepping a foot onto his face, “Did I let you make a sound?”
Kneeling silently for too long, Xin Shi was ground until he was close to going mad, saying with a coarse voice: “Requesting the Leader to mete out punishment.”
Ji Yunlang withdrew his foot, resting one hand onto the bone dragon’s head. Thinking about it, he looked at Xin Shi and said: “You are the Third Domain Lord; punishing you too heavily also won’t look good. Kneeling for a bit is enough, you may leave.”
Xin Shi furrowed his brows with puzzlement, not daring to move.
Husheng finally caught the bone dragon’s tail tip, letting out a loud laugh. While playing with the dragon tail, he said softly and rapidly toward Xin Shi: “Leave quickly, Third Domain Lord! I truly envy you that the Leader is in a good mood right now to let you leave; in a bit he will change his mind!”
Hearing this, Xin Shi raised his head to look upward. Ji Yunlang was currently cradling the bone dragon’s head to tease the dragon head, not sharing even a single glance with him.
He swallowed his saliva, turned his body around without a single sound, grasped the iron chains upon his body, slowly crawled to the palace door opening, abruptly straightened his body to dart outward, and vanished without a trace in a single instant.
Xin Shi left. Husheng rubbed his thigh again, sighing: “So tired…” Ji Yunlang ignored him, so he continued to soften his voice, “Sister-in-law, I beg you, let me get up. It’s all my fault, it’s all me being no good…”
Ji Yunlang let the bone dragon tail swat his palm, “You call that again?”
Husheng lowered his head, “Don’t care, you are just my sister-in-law. You just wait; my big brother will track down sooner or later to marry you.”
“Husheng,” Ji Yunlang pushed away the bone dragon, saying solemnly, “Don’t mention your big brother in the future, especially when you meet the person. If you dare mention a single word of your big brother in front of him, I will take steel needles and iron thread to sew up your mouth.”
“Meet whom? Your wife?” Husheng didn’t fear him either now, raising his head furiously, “You want to bring her over? I don’t care, I won’t recognize her; you can only belong to my big brother! My big brother was so good to you…”
Without listening to him finish speaking, Ji Yunlang rose and entered the inner palace.
Where was there any big brother; the only one who would be good to him was Jiang Zhou.