Only after Xie Jiuzhang saw him swallow the pill did he press his drawn sword back into its sheath.
"Our Xuanji Mountain does not keep idle people. Since you've taken the pill and willingly become his furnace cauldron, I'll make the decision for him and accept you as his disciple. The apprenticeship ceremony can be discussed once he wakes."
With that, Xie Jiuzhang rose to his feet, gripping his sword hilt. "This medicine may save the time needed for bond-forming, but it cannot spare you the inner fire that comes with becoming a furnace cauldron. Stay here with him for now—when he wakes, he will relieve your heat."
After speaking, Xie Jiuzhang shot Jiang Lin a look. Jiang Lin understood and silently followed his master out of the room.
The two did not leave after stepping outside. Instead, they tacitly concealed their auras and quietly crouched by the wall.
"Master, if you're worried, why let them be alone together?" Jiang Lin stared at the tightly shut door, uneasy.
Xie Jiuzhang tucked his hands into his sleeves, putting on an air of profundity. "Kids shouldn't ask about such things. Just stay put and behave."
Their conversation drifted through the flimsy wooden door, which did little to block sound. Ji Yanzhi's eyes flickered with a hint of darkness as he listened.
Shen Fu was still unconscious, lying defenselessly across Ji Yanzhi's lap. His long black hair was bound up with a silver crown, lending him a youthful air. Beneath his thick lashes sat a straight nose and full, well-shaped lips.
His gaze traveled downward, slipping along the slender neck into the collar, where flawless white skin gave way to collarbones faintly tinged with pink.
As if struck by a thought, Ji Yanzhi tilted his head, his gaze jumping straight to Shen Fu's arm hanging at his side.
He reached out and took Shen Fu's hand. The wide, light moon-white robe slid down his arm, revealing the ghastly Blood Trace on Shen Fu's skin.
Ji Yanzhi looked at it for a few moments, seemingly unaware of what it was—and not particularly curious about it either.
He held Shen Fu's hand, examining it carefully for a while, then pinched Shen Fu's index finger, brought it to his lips, and bit down.
The moment his teeth pierced the skin, a wave of sweet, metallic flavor flooded his mouth. Ji Yanzhi curled his tongue around Shen Fu's finger, thoroughly lapping up the seeping blood.
As the blood flowed into his body, the pill he had swallowed seemed to sense something and began to grow hot.
Ji Yanzhi silently formed a hand seal, accelerating the pill's absorption.
Soon, the scorching heat began to dissipate, and a striking red mark gradually appeared on the back of Ji Yanzhi's hand.
An intricate pattern, like some ancient totem, was branded bit by bit into Ji Yanzhi's skin. The mark shifted from red to gold, then gradually turned translucent.
Only when the mark had completely vanished did Ji Yanzhi turn his gaze back to Shen Fu in his arms.
"Mine is on the back of my hand. Where should yours go?" Ji Yanzhi gently rubbed Shen Fu's chin with his hand, then began searching his body for a suitable place to set the furnace cauldron brand.
His hand traced from the chin down to the collarbone, then along the thin undergarment to Shen Fu's slender, supple waist.
Ji Yanzhi raised an eyebrow, and his fingers abruptly changed direction.
As his fingertip brushed across the lower abdomen, the mark on the back of his hand seemed to sense something, faintly glowing.
Ji Yanzhi stared at that spot for a long while, then a smile slowly curved at the corner of his lips. "Here… seems quite fitting." With that, he pressed down gently with his hand.
A flash of golden light burst forth, and a brand nearly identical to the one on Ji Yanzhi's hand was perfectly replicated onto Shen Fu's pale skin.
Shen Fu seemed to sense something even in his sleep, his brow furrowing in discomfort.
"Shh, it'll only hurt for a moment." Ji Yanzhi softened his voice, stroking Shen Fu's cheek with his thumb as he spoke.
Soon, the golden light dimmed until it disappeared entirely, and only then did Shen Fu's furrowed brow relax.
Meanwhile, outside the door.
Xie Jiuzhang had been crouching by the wall for quite some time when he finally sensed the spiritual fluctuation from the spiritual pill dispersing. Knowing the bond-forming was complete, he rose to his feet with satisfaction.
"Let's go. It's done in there."
"?" Jiang Lin shot the tightly shut door a very worried look. "Done—done with what? Master, what if you leave them together and—"
"Oh, there's no 'what if.' Rest assured, once the bond is formed, unless your Shen-shishu actively abandons him, the moment that Ji kid harbors even a hint of disloyalty, he'll be instantly killed by the contract's backlash."
"Really? But what if he knows some way to break the contract—"
"Really, really. When has your master ever lied to you?" Xie Jiuzhang added by way of explanation: "That pill was the work of an old acquaintance of mine. His cultivation base reached the Soul Transformation stage years ago. Unless someone's cultivation exceeds his, there's no reversing the pill's properties. Don't worry."
Xie Jiuzhang strode ahead with long, brisk steps, while Jiang Lin followed closely, feeling that something was off but unable to put his finger on it.
He kept looking back with every step, walking painfully slowly, until Xie Jiuzhang noticed and doubled back, scooping him up, setting him on his sword, and carrying him away. Only then did the two leave Shen Fu's bedchamber.
When Shen Fu woke, dawn had not yet broken.
The room was pitch black with no candles lit. Shen Fu blinked a few times, taking a long while before he came back to his senses.
Had he fainted?
Why did his whole body ache so much? Especially…
Shen Fu raised his hand and touched his lower abdomen—that area felt as if it had been branded with a red-hot iron, burning and painful at once.
But through his clothes, Shen Fu couldn't tell what was going on.
"What the hell, who snuck up on me while I was asleep?" Shen Fu propped himself up to sit, the pain growing more pronounced with every movement.
He waved a hand casually, lighting the lamps in the room, then braced himself to sit up.
Candlelight gradually illuminated the room. The dim yellow glow wasn't harsh on the eyes, but as Shen Fu sat up, he felt the blanket was oddly heavy, as if something was weighing it down.
He gave it a hard tug and heard a dull thud.
Still not fully processing, Shen Fu briefly thought he'd been sleeping with some treasure in bed and had accidentally knocked it off.
Just as he groggily turned over to reach for it, his fingertips brushed against something soft and warm.
Shen Fu froze. He was about to lean in for a look when a figure timidly emerged from beside the bed.
"Master…" Ji Yanzhi called out weakly in a hoarse voice.
Shen Fu only glanced at him once, then calmly lay back down under the covers.
"I must not be awake yet. I'll just sleep a bit more, hahaha. I'm even dreaming about Ji Yanzhi calling me master. It must be a dream, definitely…"
Shen Fu brainwashed himself while pulling the blanket over his head.
Just sleep it off, it'll be fine when I wake up. This is all an illusion. Yeah, that's right.
"Is Master unwilling to see me? Have I made you dislike me?" Ji Yanzhi's voice drifted out faintly.
Hearing this, Shen Fu, who had just successfully brainwashed himself under the covers, suddenly snapped his eyes wide open.
He threw off the blanket with a whoosh and stared in disbelief at the person kneeling by his bedside.
"What did you call me?"
Shen Fu lost control of his volume for a moment, nearly cracking his voice.
Startled by his shout, Ji Yanzhi actually shrank back timidly, as docile as a lamb without a temper.
"I-it's as Master says. Headmaster Xie told me to call you that."
"What?!"
It all came back—Shen Fu remembered everything now. Before he'd passed out, it was his senior brother, the headmaster, who had brought Ji Yanzhi back.
But someone please tell him what exactly had happened in between. Why was the dragon-proud-heaven male lead now kneeling before him calling him master?
Damn it, this wasn't the plot he was supposed to follow! Going against the plot would bring backlash!
How had things even come to this? Shen Fu couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought, so he could only look at Ji Yanzhi with a headache. "You just called him that because Xie Jiuzhang told you to?"
No wait, according to the original plot, Ji Yanzhi at this stage—while not yet the arrogant, domineering, kill-anyone-who-crosses-him powerhouse he'd become later—still carried himself with pride and defiance. How could he possibly have been coerced by Xie Jiuzhang into accepting him as master?
And more importantly, shouldn't Ji Yanzhi still be on the run from pursuers right now? How had Xie Jiuzhang captured him?
Seeing Shen Fu's brows knit tightly in distress, Ji Yanzhi finally spoke up to explain in a calm tone: "Headmaster Xie made me take a Bond-Forming Pill. I am now Master's furnace cauldron. Other than agreeing to become Master's disciple, I have no other choice."
Before Shen Fu could even digest that thunderbolt of a revelation, Ji Yanzhi dropped another piece of news that hit like a nuclear bomb.
Shen Fu's first reaction was—impossible, absolutely impossible!
What a joke. If Ji Yanzhi had acknowledged him as master out of momentary consideration under Xie Jiuzhang's pressure, he could still wrap his head around that. But becoming his furnace cauldron? Absolutely not.
Because in the original novel, the reason Ji Yanzhi was framed by Cheng Ping for stealing the sect's secret manual and then hunted down was that Cheng Ping had discovered Ji Yanzhi possessed a rare treasure and an extremely precious spiritual root. Greed took hold, and he attempted to refine Ji Yanzhi into his own furnace cauldron. Ji Yanzhi caught on in time and barely escaped from Dongxu Sect.
And precisely because Cheng Ping had nearly succeeded, Ji Yanzhi held a lifelong grudge. The very first thing he did after reaching mastery was to go settle the score with Cheng Ping.
In the book, Cheng Ping's ending was simple—Ji Yanzhi ripped out his living soul and bound his body in front of Dongxu Sect, where passing cultivators could use his spiritual body to cleanse their turbid qi.
With other villains, Ji Yanzhi would just obliterate them outright without a word of hesitation. But he'd gone through all that trouble to deal with Cheng Ping, which showed just how massive the psychological scar that man had left on Ji Yanzhi—all because he'd nearly turned him into a furnace cauldron.
And now, Ji Yanzhi was saying he'd become Shen Fu's furnace cauldron.
Shen Fu suddenly felt a chill run down the back of his neck.
"H-ha, haha, stop messing with me," Shen Fu swallowed involuntarily, clinging to his last shred of hope. "A cauldron contract requires my personal consent. Without that, it can't possibly be established. I just…"
Before Shen Fu could finish his sentence, Ji Yanzhi raised his hand, and a faint golden light carved out an intricately patterned mark.
"After Sect Master gave me that medicine, this appeared. Master, do you know what this is?" Ji Yanzhi blinked his big, innocent eyes, as if he truly didn't understand what it was, asking with utmost sincerity.
With a single glance, Shen Fu recognized it as the furnace cauldron mark.
As for the other half of the mark, Shen Fu didn't even need to think to know where it was.
Shen Fu's hand, hidden beneath the blanket, gently touched his lower abdomen, and he suddenly felt that the pain there seemed even more intense.