Lu Junheng remained silent for a long time.
Long enough that Shen Xuan thought he was about to do what he always did and joke his way out of the conversation. But eventually, Lu Junheng spoke softly.
“You know about this? I thought…”
Shen Xuan smoothly finished his sentence for him.
“You thought I would simply consider it your own fault, watch you leave, forget about you and your endless troubles, and continue living my own life. Maybe I’d even feel relieved whenever I remembered that I no longer had to clean up your messes.”
Lu Junheng gave a dry laugh.
“Could you stop making me sound like some oversized piece of trash? I’m your deputy, after all. I’m still useful, okay?”
Shen Xuan didn’t laugh. He continued to stare at him.
“Yes, you didn’t leave behind any evidence of what happened. At first, I really didn’t realize that the reason you left was because of me. But… since you took some of the consequences for me, I was bound to sense it eventually.”
When Shen Xuan was young, people had exaggeratedly praised him as “the cultivator most likely to become the first person to ascend to godhood in the New Era.”
Naturally, that never came true.
Even though he eventually became the First Divine Temple’s publicly acknowledged strongest cultivator—the strongest point a cultivator could reach, the person closest to godhood—he still failed to achieve the legendary ascension before his death.
But no one knew that, for a period of time, he had truly touched the threshold of godhood.
It was shortly before Lu Junheng betrayed the Divine Temple, when Shen Xuan’s cultivation was at its peak. At the same time, the curse of the divine weapon had already spread throughout his body to the point of no return.
Very few Masters of the Divine Temples managed to live out their lives in perfect health. By the time their own master had stepped down, he had already been plagued by illness and was no longer capable of wielding a sword.
Shen Xuan had long been prepared for such a fate and had already begun considering who would succeed him.
It was under those circumstances that he touched the threshold of a higher realm.
No cultivator could truly resist the temptation of reaching a higher realm.
The feeling was intoxicating. It seemed to be the only possibility that might allow him to escape the curse and survive.
But after Lu Junheng left, that feeling disappeared completely.
It was only much later that Shen Xuan slowly realized that Lu Junheng’s departure had probably shielded him from something.
Lu Junheng was silent for a moment before asking softly,
“Then… shouldn’t you have suspected that I was the one who interfered and ruined your path to godhood?”
Shen Xuan answered frankly.
“You wouldn’t do anything to hurt me. You believed there was something wrong with becoming a god, and I trusted your judgment. What happened to you afterward proved that you were right. I didn’t trust the wrong person.”
Lu Junheng’s fingers trembled slightly.
Then, slowly but firmly, he turned his hand around and clasped Shen Xuan’s hand.
He had given in.
They were supposed to be part of each other’s plans in the first place.
The tension between them gradually eased.
Shen Xuan tugged lightly on Lu Junheng’s hand.
“Lu Junheng, actually, during those hundred years you were gone, I often missed you.”
Lu Junheng’s ears twitched.
Shen Xuan’s tone remained calm.
“Although you’re a terrible person with awful manners and countless flaws, and you cause me trouble all the time, it was only after you left that I realized how important you actually are to me.”
Lu Junheng reluctantly ignored the insults in the first half of his sentence. His expression gradually became more serious.
The two of them rarely spoke gently to each other, much less talked so openly about their feelings.
But now…
What was going on? Was Shen Xuan actually opening his heart to him? Was this kind of conversation really supposed to happen between them?
Lu Junheng had absolutely no experience comforting his supposedly fragile partner.
His nonexistent conscience began to ache faintly as he tried to say something to break the strange atmosphere.
“I…”
Shen Xuan looked directly into his eyes. His eyes were slightly red, and he gave him a quiet, sweet smile.
“Even if it’s only once, I’d like to be like an ordinary couple… and properly sit by your grave and talk to you.”
Lu Junheng felt that something about this statement was seriously wrong.
“…What?”
Shen Xuan lowered his voice, sounding somewhat nostalgic.
“You like so many different kinds of flowers. When I visit your grave, I won’t know which ones you’d want me to bring. How about the ones we planted beneath the windowsill? And what about offerings? Do you have any particular preferences? And wine… If you can’t drink it, I can drink it for you.”
Lu Junheng immediately protested.
“Wait! That’s not right! I only defected! I’m not dead! I’m not dead! Why are you talking about my grave?! And don’t drink at my grave! Don’t you know how terrible you are when you’re drunk?”
This wasn’t Lu Junheng slandering the image of the Master of the First Divine Temple out of personal spite.
It was an objective fact.
As long as Shen Xuan didn’t use spiritual energy to forcibly disperse the effects of alcohol, there was no telling what he might do.
Lu Junheng could still remember in his nightmares the time Shen Xuan had dragged him out of bed in the middle of the night, forced him onto his sword, and flown with him for two hours into some desolate wilderness.
Then Shen Xuan had grabbed him by the neck and insisted that he jump off a cliff with him.
The wind had been freezing that night, and Lu Junheng had spent an enormous amount of effort coaxing Shen Xuan back home.
But if Shen Xuan got drunk at his grave, there would be no one to take him home.
…
Wait.
He wasn’t dead.
He could still take Shen Xuan home.
Lu Junheng’s thoughts went completely off track.
By the time he had finished sorting through that mess in his head, Shen Xuan finally came back to reality from his fantasy. He looked at him regretfully.
“Oh. So you’re still alive.”
Lu Junheng: “…”
What exactly are you disappointed about? If I really died, you wouldn’t be happy either.
And besides, the atmosphere had been so serious just moments ago.
Why did you suddenly start imagining my funeral?!
Shen Xuan couldn’t hold it in any longer. He turned his head and laughed until tears appeared in his eyes.
Lu Junheng stared at him expressionlessly.
After a while, however, his gaze softened despite himself, and the corners of his lips curved upward.
He reached out and roughly ruffled Shen Xuan’s hair, casually smoothing down a strand that had stuck up.
Shen Xuan immediately slapped his hand away, wearing an unusually agreeable expression.
“Keep touching me like that and I’ll break both your hands and feet.”
Lu Junheng didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty about getting revenge. He innocently withdrew his hand.
“What do you mean, touching you? It’s not my fault you’re short. I just happened to touch your head when I raised my hand.”
Shen Xuan wasn’t actually short compared with most people.
However, ever since they were young, he had always been half a head shorter than Lu Junheng. Even after they became adults and their heights stopped changing, Shen Xuan had never managed to catch up.
Lu Junheng had always had restless hands. His favorite thing was messing up Shen Xuan’s hair.
Shen Xuan raised his head and glanced at Lu Junheng, mentally adding another offense to his list.
Sure enough, it would be better if this bastard died sooner rather than later.
Lu Junheng grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward the foot of the mountain.
“Let’s go. This isn’t exactly a good place to talk.”
Fifteen minutes later, the two of them found a flat rock and sat down with their backs against each other.
“So,” Shen Xuan summarized what Lu Junheng had told him, “your current problem is that whenever the concentration of a certain type of spiritual energy in your body reaches a certain level, you’ll be detected, and the corresponding ‘Divine Temple cultivators’ will come after you. When the spiritual energy in your body drops below that level, they lose track of you and gradually disappear. Is that right?”
Lu Junheng casually plucked a withered blade of grass beside him and twisted it into a ring.
“That’s right.”
Shen Xuan said nothing and began rummaging through his storage bag.
After a while, he made a curious sound.
“Like this?”
Lu Junheng turned his head and saw Shen Xuan holding a large handful of colorful, top-grade spirit stones.
When Shen Xuan noticed him looking, he flashed him a bright smile.
“I wonder if top-grade spirit stones have a high enough concentration of spiritual energy. Which Divine Temple would you like to fight? Pick one.”
Lu Junheng immediately sensed danger and stood up.
“What are you planning to do?”
Seeing that he wasn’t going to choose, Shen Xuan regretfully turned away, randomly picked one of the spirit stones, and crushed it in his hand.
Pure earth-element spiritual energy exploded between them.
Lu Junheng’s brow twitched. He was about to dodge when Shen Xuan firmly held him in place.
“Don’t run yet.”
Shen Xuan calmly explained what he needed.
“I need to see exactly what these things are.”
Lu Junheng tried to object.
“Can’t you use a gentler method?”
Shen Xuan looked at him with a gentle, concerned expression.
“Can’t you handle it?”
Lu Junheng: “…”
He nodded.
“I can.”
Shen Xuan really is my natural nemesis.
When Shen Xuan sensed movement beneath their feet, he leapt onto his spiritual sword and rose into the air, leaving Lu Junheng on the ground.
He casually offered him a word of encouragement.
“Try to last a little longer. Don’t die too quickly.”
Several humanoid figures burst out of the cracked earth.
They quickly locked onto their target and began pursuing Lu Junheng.
Lu Junheng had no time to argue with Shen Xuan. He immediately fled for his life.
Shen Xuan allowed Lu Junheng to serve as bait while he took out a recording stone, recording the scene as he carefully observed the attackers.
After all, he had been a Divine Temple Master for several centuries. He understood things originating from the Divine Temples more thoroughly than most people.
Although Lu Junheng had said these “people” were not actually cultivators from the Divine Temple, they certainly looked convincing enough to fool anyone.
Their faces, cultivation techniques, weapons, uniforms, and accessories…
Shen Xuan examined each detail carefully and gradually noticed something strange.
More precisely, there was a sense of inconsistency.
For example, the uniform worn by the female cultivator on the far right was roughly the style that had been popular between New Era Year 5000 and 5200.
Yet the identification badge hanging from her waist wasn’t the version Shen Xuan knew to have been used with that uniform.
Then there was the male cultivator in the middle. At first glance, his uniform looked like something the Fifth Divine Temple would have used.
But Shen Xuan searched through his memories and couldn’t recall ever seeing that particular style in any of the Fifth Divine Temple’s publicly available records.
The strangest thing of all was…
Shen Xuan glanced down at Lu Junheng.
One sample isn’t enough.
And this troublesome bastard still seems to have plenty of energy.
Then let’s do a few more rounds.
Once the effects of the top-grade spirit stone finally disappeared, Lu Junheng breathed a sigh of relief.
Then Shen Xuan jumped down from his spiritual sword and crushed another spirit stone right in front of him.
This time, it was fire-element.
Before Lu Junheng could even catch his breath, flames suddenly burst up and singed him. He was once again forced into a frantic escape.
Shen Xuan was definitely getting revenge on him.
…
After three rounds, Shen Xuan finally stopped—for the moment.
“Lu Junheng.”
Shen Xuan tossed him a bottle of pills and called his name in a sweet, drawn-out voice, as though making a friendly suggestion.
“I still want to see what kind of people from the First Divine Temple will come.”
Lu Junheng shoved a healing pill into his mouth and shot him a sideways glance. He was too exhausted to even speak.
Silence meant no objection.
Shen Xuan walked over to him.
There was no need to waste a top-grade spirit stone for the metal element.
He could provide the spiritual energy himself.
When Shen Xuan placed his hand over Lu Junheng’s, he suddenly hesitated.
Before he could figure out why, he felt his fingers being moved.
Lu Junheng slipped his fingers one by one between Shen Xuan’s, interlocking their hands.
With an expression of complete resignation, he said,
“Fine. Just do it.”
Shen Xuan narrowed his eyes.
Memories of all the strange things he had noticed about Lu Junheng since their reunion slowly resurfaced in his mind.
Physical contact did make the transfer of spiritual energy more convenient.
But there was absolutely no need to get this close.
Was this really the kind of personal distance someone cultivating the Heartless Dao was supposed to have?