Chen Chang’an did not dare meet Jia Jiyou’s eyes, afraid the sorrow in his heart would be exposed.
He quickly changed the subject. “Little Ji Ji, do you remember the first time I took you to steal a chicken?”
Gazing at the brilliant stars, Chen Chang’an fell into memories of childhood. The night sky back then had been just as beautiful.
“Hah! That was when you tricked me into thinking chicken breast was delicious and drumsticks were terrible. Ever since then, whenever we ate chicken together, I never got a drumstick! It wasn’t until I tried one myself that I realized drumsticks are the best part!”
Chen Chang’an coughed awkwardly. “Let’s not talk about that. Then do you remember when you dragged me to peek at the neighbor’s pretty young lady while she was bathing?”
“You still dare to frame me now?!” Jia Jiyou shot back. “You were the one who dragged me there! And when we got caught, you actually pointed at me and claimed I was the peeping one. You were peeking too, yet you pretended to be the righteous hero who caught me in the act!”
Chen Chang’an coughed again. “Alright, forget that too. Then do you remember when you were bullied by ten people and I helped you fight them?”
“You still dare bring that up!” Jia Jiyou’s face twitched. “You were the one who didn’t like the look of them and dragged me into that fight. Sure, we won, but my father tied me to a tree and beat me half to death! And what about you? When your father saw you’d won, he slaughtered a chicken and rewarded you with a feast!”
Jia Jiyou’s lips and cheeks twitched violently.
Now that he thought about it, his entire childhood had been spent taking the blame for Chen Chang’an.
“Don’t only remember those things. Have you forgotten that I once knocked out your father and rescued you?”
“You still have the nerve to mention that?!” Jia Jiyou snapped. “My father was already about to let me go, but you knocked him unconscious instead. When he woke up, he couldn’t do anything to you, so he beat me three more times and tied me up for three days!”
Chen Chang’an laughed awkwardly, then suddenly remembered something and said seriously, “What about the time I helped you deliver that love letter? You can’t complain about that, right?”
Jia Jiyou immediately recalled his first love.
It was because of the love letter Chen Chang’an wrote that the girl he adored never looked at him again.
“For you, I am willing to dig out my heart and offer it with both hands. For you, I am willing to gouge out my eyes to prove that I will never look at another woman…”
Jia Jiyou recited the very lines that had once made him question his entire life.
Chen Chang’an looked puzzled. “Isn’t that good? Shouldn’t women go crazy over something like that? What’s wrong with it?”
Jia Jiyou covered his face. “Yes. Very good…”
As they reached this point, silence settled around them.
But only for a moment. Suddenly, Chen Chang’an burst into laughter.
As if infected by it, Jia Jiyou began laughing too.
The two of them threw their heads back and laughed loudly, laughing at the ridiculous things they had done in childhood.
The night seemed to grow lively with their laughter.
When they finally calmed down, Jia Jiyou looked at Chen Chang’an and said, “Even though you rarely did anything decent, I have to admit, without you, my childhood would have been far less interesting.”
In truth, Chen Chang’an had only chosen to recount the most absurd incidents.
There had been countless other things the two brothers had done together.
Chen Chang’an had always been good at fighting. The first time he fought was because a large bully had been picking on Jia Jiyou.
For Jia Jiyou’s sake, Chen Chang’an beat that bully so badly he could not get out of bed for three months.
From that point onward, the two of them fought more and more fiercely, growing stronger with each battle.
There was even one time when just the two of them chased down more than twenty opponents.
Those memories flashed before them like lightning.
Time truly had passed too quickly.
Chen Chang’an smiled and shook his head. Hidden beneath the cover of night, that smile carried emotions too complex to name.
Jia Jiyou chuckled. “I’ll be the bigger man and let the past go. From now on, you’d better treat me better. Got it?”
Chen Chang’an smiled and nodded, saying nothing.
But there would be no “from now on.”
Night blanketed the sky. Boundless darkness swallowed everything.
Lost in memories of the past, the two of them drifted off to sleep.
At their level of cultivation, they no longer needed sleep. Yet tonight, both had let go of everything in their hearts and allowed themselves a rare, peaceful rest.
Early the next morning, Chen Chang’an quietly descended to the ground and left the courtyard, heading somewhere unknown.
He returned not long after.
But when he came back, he saw Jia Jiyou standing there with his shoes half on and both feet still wet.
Chen Chang’an glanced toward the pond.
This guy had gotten addicted.
“Where did you go?” Jia Jiyou asked.
“I prepared a gift for you.”
“A gift? You’d be that generous?” Jia Jiyou’s face was full of disbelief.
“It’s your birthday at the end of the year. I’m giving it to you early.”
“There are still eight or nine months left. You can give it then,” Jia Jiyou replied.
Chen Chang’an smiled. “What if I want to give it now? Is that not allowed?”
If nothing unexpected happened, by then he would have already been dead for some time.
“Fine, you’re the boss. Whatever you say. What is it? Don’t tell me you dug up two sweet potatoes again. Last year, you nearly angered me to death!”
Just thinking about the two sweet potatoes Chen Chang’an had gifted him last year left him speechless.
Chen Chang’an reached into his storage pouch and took out a golden long saber.
The moment the saber appeared, the air itself hummed and trembled.
A terrifying, sharp aura spread outward, causing every living thing in the courtyard to shudder.
The saber was entirely golden, about 3 meters long, with glowing golden patterns flowing along its blade.
“Good heavens! A tenth-grade treasure saber?!”
Across the entire continent, there were fewer than one hundred tenth-grade weapons.
And he had never seen this saber before.
“For you.”
Chen Chang’an tossed the saber toward Jia Jiyou.
Jia Jiyou fought using a saber, his style wide and forceful. This weapon suited him perfectly.
Jia Jiyou fell silent for a long time.
His gaze locked onto Chen Chang’an, as if trying to find a hidden scheme on his face.
“You’re really giving this to me as a birthday gift? Be honest. Did you steal it from someone and are afraid they’ll come looking for trouble, so you’re dumping it on me?”
“Do you want it or not? If not, give it back.”
Chen Chang’an reached out to take it.
“I want it! Of course I want it!”
Jia Jiyou hurriedly stepped back.
He lovingly stroked the blade, as though caressing his beloved wife.
“What a blade! I’ve never used anything this good!”
Chen Chang’an sneered. “You’re this excited over a weapon without a weapon spirit? If I gave you a tenth-grade weapon that had already nurtured a spirit, would you kneel and call it father?”
“Hehe, I’ll nurture it myself! No need for you to give me another. With a blade this good, I’ll directly nourish it with 500 years of my lifespan essence. That way, it will quickly give birth to a weapon spirit!”
He still had 4,000 years of lifespan left. Using 500 years was nothing to him.
Most importantly, this would allow the saber to develop a spirit extremely quickly.
Upon hearing this, Chen Chang’an suddenly smiled. “Give me the saber.”
Jia Jiyou froze. “You’re not joking with me and taking it back, are you?”
His expression turned pitiful.
“I don’t even know what I saw in you to treat you as a brother. If I could go back in time, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten to know you.”
Jia Jiyou chuckled lightly. He knew Chen Chang’an always had a sharp tongue and did not truly intend to take it back.
Even if Chen Chang’an did take it back, though he appeared to love the blade deeply, he still felt it was too valuable to accept.
They were brothers, but even so, it did not feel quite right.
And if Chen Chang’an had truly developed strange preferences and used this to demand something in return, what then?
Chen Chang’an took the saber and lightly sliced his thumb with his index finger.
Blood immediately welled up.
He pressed his thumb onto the blade and activated his lifespan essence within his body, channeling it into the saber.
When Jia Jiyou saw this, his heart nearly stopped in terror. He rushed forward to stop him. “What are you doing? Have you gone mad?!”
But the moment he tried to approach, a powerful force blocked him completely.
He could not move forward at all.
He stared blankly at the scene.
When Chen Chang’an finally stopped, the saber let out a long cry. It had directly birthed a weapon spirit.
“For you.”
Chen Chang’an once again tossed the saber to Jia Jiyou.
Jia Jiyou’s face darkened. He stared at Chen Chang’an with reddened eyes. “What are you doing? Have you lost your mind? That was 1,000 years of lifespan!”
He began shouting furiously, his entire body trembling.
His eyes were red with anger.
“I have 5,000 years of lifespan. What’s giving you 1,000 years?”
Chen Chang’an spoke lightly, as though it were nothing, and walked toward the pond.
He knew Jia Jiyou’s anger came from concern.
But only he himself knew that those 5,000 years of lifespan meant nothing now.
The time he could truly live was less than a single year.