Li Jingsheng waited for about a quarter of an hour before Mo Yu came out from the bathroom. The youth had picturesque eyebrows and eyes, standing near the Su embroidery bird-and-flower patterned screen like an immortal descending to earth. He said, “Senior Brother, the water is ready. You may go inside.”
Although Li Jingsheng was a bit bewildered by the current situation, he still followed the instructions and entered the bathroom. When he saw a steaming wooden tub filled to the brim with water and scattered with fresh flower petals, it finally dawned on him what was expected.
Seeing Mo Yu step forward to help undress him, he immediately clutched his clothes tightly, took a step back, and refused, “I suddenly feel a bit unwell today and don’t feel like washing. Let’s talk about it tomorrow.”
Mo Yu had evidently encountered this situation before. He withdrew his hand, picked up a nearby wooden basin, and continued, “Then I will wait on Senior Brother to wash his feet.”
Perhaps Li Jingsheng had appeared too amiable, prompting Xiaoyu to send a mental reminder: “Host, remember, you are a villain!”
Recalling the behavior of the villain in the book, Li Jingsheng immediately channeled his professional villainous demeanor. With a wave of his hand, he kicked over the wooden basin and put on a fierce expression, snapping, “Are lowlifes even worthy of waiting on me?”
With a loud crash, the wooden basin hit the floor, splashing water all over Mo Yu.
The droplets trickled down the hem of the youth’s robes, and a few splashes landed on his face.
The youth’s dark robes were soaked through by the water, deepening their hue even further. He stood there in absolute silence. Amidst the flickering candlelight, one could see the youth’s tightly clenched jaw and his hands gradually tightening into fists.
The youth raised his gaze, the ruthlessness and gloominess deep within his eyes clearly visible.
Li Jingsheng found himself locking eyes with that gaze, which was filled with utter hatred for him.
Wuu wuu wuu, glaring at me won’t help; I have to follow the plot too.
Besides, you are the protagonist! If you wash my feet, my lifespan will shorten!
Though, honestly, my lifespan didn’t have much room left to shorten anyway.
Yet that ferocious look appeared for only a split second. The next moment, the youth’s striking phoenix eyes were replaced by confusion, resembling a startled fawn that had accidentally wandered into a misty forest, clear and entirely bewildered.
Li Jingsheng felt a momentary flash of surprise. Could the protagonist have been frightened out of his wits by me?
Surely not? It was just kicking over a foot basin, not wielding swords or daggers.
Curious as he was, he had not forgotten his primary duty: to play this malicious role to the end.
In a harsh, menacing tone, he demanded, “What are you standing there dazing for? Why aren’t you getting lost immediately?”
Startled back to his senses by the reprimand, Mo Yu bowed and replied, “Understood, Senior Brother. Then Zigui will take his leave.”
Before Mo Yu reached the door, Li Jingsheng suddenly remembered something and called out to stop him, “Wait. From now on, you don’t need to come and wait on me anymore.” Feeling that wasn’t wicked enough, he added, “Clumsy-handed as you are.”
With suppressed restraint in his voice, Mo Yu answered, “Yes, Senior Brother.”
Outside, the night was as dark as ink and the moon as cool as water. Remembering the distant mountain path, Li Jingsheng added one more instruction.
“Oh, right. Tonight, you can stay in the room next door. It will be convenient for waking me up tomorrow morning.”
Mo Yu looked up at him. Under the flickering red candlelight, the youth sat cross-legged on a stool clad in vibrant red robes, his dark hair cascading down. On his fair, slender wrist was a red-and-white jade bracelet, and his peach-blossom eyes carried a trace of sleepy haze. Bathed in the candlelight, the youth possessed an unexpectedly gentle aura.
Most importantly, the space directly behind the youth was completely clean, and there was nothing there.
The once overwhelmingly dense black mist had vanished entirely, and not even a trace of red mist remained.
In the bathroom just now, Mo Yu had thought he was seeing things, but looking back now, there was still nothing at all.
The Luli Heart could peer into all things, yet at this moment, it could comprehend nothing.
Completely wrapped up in delivering his scripted lines, Li Jingsheng paid no attention to Mo Yu’s transformation and pressed on, “Right, have Chu Wen move over tomorrow as well. Having you both here will make it more convenient to wait on me.”
Watching the youth before him, Mo Yu seemed to hear another person’s voice entirely.
That person was saying, “Can that house at the foot of the mountain even be lived in? It’s cold and damp. Staying there for a few years, you’re bound to end up with rheumatism in your old age.”
Rheumatism? What is rheumatism?
He listened to the two overlapping voices.
On one hand, the voice spoke viciously, demanding that they serve him well; on the other hand, it said with deep heartache, poor kid, what a bitter life.
For a moment, Mo Yu felt a sense of temporal disorientation. He gazed in bewilderment at the exquisitely handsome youth under the red candles, and sudden realization dawned on him.
Those were the other person’s innermost thoughts.
Was it because of the Luli Heart?
Having finished speaking, Li Jingsheng saw Mo Yu still standing there in a daze and thought to himself: Did this kid get scared silly tonight? Why is he always spacing out?
He urged him aloud, “Why aren’t you leaving yet? Do you need me to personally invite you out?”
Recovering his wits, Mo Yu bowed to him once more and said, “Yes, Senior Brother.”
Sending the protagonist away, Li Jingsheng let out a long sigh of relief.
Finally, the King of Hell has been sent off!
At that moment, Xiaoyu popped out, spinning around him gleefully. “Host, you were amazing! The villain you played just now looked so convincing! It almost made me want to hit you!”
Li Jingsheng thought: Do you even hear yourself right now?
Knowing that Xiaoyu possessed a rather simple train of thought, he didn’t bother arguing. Instead, he threw himself straight onto the bed and muttered, “I’m exhausted. Don’t disturb me, I’m going to sleep.”
Seeing that he had fallen asleep, Xiaoyu transformed back into a bracelet and settled around Li Jingsheng’s wrist.
Outside the window, a breeze swept past, and the flickering candlelight cast shifting shadows across the youth’s sleeping face.
Meanwhile, in the neighboring room, Mo Yu found himself plunged into deep confusion.
Earlier, he had clearly heard another person’s voice, one that sounded remarkably similar to Senior Brother’s.
Furthermore, the dense black mist that had originally lingered behind Li Jingsheng had completely vanished without a trace.
If the Luli Heart was not mistaken, the person before him held no hatred toward him whatsoever, nor even any malice, and he was completely transparent.
This was the first time Mo Yu had ever encountered such a situation, and the first time he had ever heard someone else’s inner voice.
The image of the youth in red surfaced in his mind, and the eyes that had once been blinded by hatred now developed fractures.
That person might not be the monster he had previously believed him to be.
Thinking of the heavy cloud of inky black mist that always lingered behind Chu Wen, Mo Yu sank into deep contemplation.
High in the sky hung the full moon, casting its light over a human heart that remained impossible to read.
The next day, Chu Wen hurried up the mountain early in the morning. Since Mo Yu hadn’t returned all night, Chu Wen assumed he had been forced by Senior Brother to kneel outside through the night yet again.
After all, such things had happened before, and given Mo Yu’s current physical condition, kneeling through the entire night would surely push him past his limits.
To his surprise, upon arrival, he found Mo Yu completely uninjured, practicing his morning routines beneath the phoenix trees. Chu Wen rushed over immediately to check if the other had sustained any internal injuries.
Seeing the worry written all over Chu Wen’s face, Mo Yu offered reassurance. “I’m fine. Last night, Senior Brother arranged for me to stay in the side hall, which is why I didn’t return. He even said you should move up here today as well.”
Seeming almost unable to believe his ears, Chu Wen asked, “Did Senior Brother give you a hard time? Did he do anything outrageous again?”
Mo Yu shook his head. Last night’s events were too bizarre, and he wasn’t ready to discuss them just yet. “No, Senior Brother didn’t do anything.”
Realizing the time was approaching, Mo Yu went to wake Li Jingsheng.
He knocked on Li Jingsheng’s door and called out, “Senior Brother, time to wake up. It’s the hour of Mao.”
In the season of Jingzhe, dawn arrived rather late. Li Jingsheng sleepily opened his eyes, glanced at the dim, half-lit sky outside, and muttered, “It’s not even fully bright yet. Let me sleep a bit longer.”
Normally, Senior Brother never required them to wake him. Hearing this response, Mo Yu felt the conviction in his heart grow even stronger.
Senior Brother has changed.
With that realization, he added, “Today is the day Elder Li Yuqing comes to teach spells, and he dislikes tardiness.”
It took Li Jingsheng a full minute to remember where he was, another minute to recall who was knocking on his door outside, and finally three full minutes to remember just who on earth Li Yuqing was.
He jolted upright. Li Yuqing?
That hot-tempered, short-fused King of Hell, Li Yuqing?!
He sprang out of bed, hurriedly smoothing down his hair. Attempting to tie it with a hairpin, he realized he had no idea how to use one, so he simply grabbed a length of red silk to bind it instead.
Having helped his younger sister tie her hair back when he was at the orphanage, using a strip of silk was something he could manage.
When he stepped outside, Chu Wen and Mo Yu were already waiting by the door.
He suddenly felt the familiar, shameful awkwardness of arriving late to a school field trip while the entire class stood waiting for him.
However, villains had no need for face, and neither did he.
With an air of unbothered composure, he walked down.
For mountain peaks where sword-flight had not yet been mastered, the academy provided a crane for transportation.
Although Li Jingsheng had already learned the basics of sword-flight, the original owner’s skills were subpar, and coupled with the fact that he had just transmigrated and hadn’t tried it yet, he wisely chose the crane to avoid any fatal aviation accidents like plunging off a cliff.
It was a white crane, pure and snow-white, adorned with a single patch of crimson on its crest that reminded Li Jingsheng of the lethal poison Crane’s Crest Red from period dramas.
He was thoroughly impressed by his own associative imagination.
Mounting the white crane first, Mo Yu and Chu Wen followed right behind him.
The crane flew at an astonishing speed; Li Jingsheng figured Sun Wukong’s somersault cloud probably moved no faster than this.
Suffering from mild vertigo, he kept his eyes squeezed shut the entire time while gripping the crane’s feathers with both hands. To avoid letting the other two notice, he deliberately maintained an upright, rigid posture.
The morning wind whistled past violently, sending his robes fluttering wildly. Viewed from a distance, he looked precisely like a blooming red lotus atop the lotus pond on Mount Qize.
Behind him, Mo Yu watched as the youth in red sat with rigid propriety, radiating an air of transcendent immortal grace, while his inner thoughts screamed wildly: Save me! Why is it so high? Wuu wuu wuu, Big Brother Crane, can you fly a bit slower? And lower down!
The corners of Mo Yu’s lips curled upward involuntarily.
At that moment, the morning sun broke over the horizon, scattering warm rays of light across them and adding a trace of warmth to the air. The frost within his heart seemed to melt away just a fraction.
Upon reaching Fulu Peak, Li Jingsheng felt as though someone who never got carsick was on the verge of throwing up from the turbulence.
Since they were in different grades, naturally they wouldn’t be attending classes in the same hall.
Dragging his battered body, he followed Xiaoyu’s directions to his own classroom.
As soon as he stepped through the doors, three figures who screamed campus delinquents swarmed toward him. Having just been violently jostled by the crane ride, Li Jingsheng was still feeling disoriented, and seeing the three of them left him completely blank. Before he could speak, the chubby ringleader piped up first. “Jingsheng, as expected of you! I heard you beat up that trash?”
A sharp-featured, monkey-faced follower chimed in right beside him. “I heard it was because of a peach pastry. Did that trash really steal your pastry to eat?”
Another short, blockish, dull-witted youth asked with curiosity. “I heard you used the rattan whip for sixty lashes. Is that true or false?”
Hearing them chatter on, Li Jingsheng finally pieced together who these individuals were.
In short, just like him, they were cannon fodder.
They bullied the protagonist male lead year-round, hurling insults at him over his trash-tier spiritual root at every turn.
The chubby ringleader standing at the front wore cyan robes, adorned with lion motifs embroidered in golden thread around his cuffs and wrists. Unsurprisingly, he was likely Wang Yong, the young master of Lion Hall.
The sharp-featured, monkey-faced individual should be Wang Yong’s primary lackey, He Yi, a sycophant adept at flattery and petty cunning who wrapped the brainless Wang Yong around his little finger.
Meanwhile, the blockish, dull-witted youth ought to be Wang Yong’s secondary lackey, Ge Daqing, characterized by simple-mindedness and absolute loyalty, obeying Wang Yong’s every command without question. That was why Wang Yong kept him around. Though a bit slow, he was obedient, and finding someone genuinely dedicated to helping you commit evil deeds wasn’t easy.
If he remembered correctly, the eventual fate of this little group wasn’t much better either. They were ultimately purged by the cultivation world for colluding with demons, meeting their end by having their bones ground to ash.