The Immortal remained silent as his fingertips slowly slid away from the youth’s shoulder, finally coming to rest at the back of his neck.
The back of the neck was a vulnerable spot on the human body, and not even the closest of companions would allow anyone to touch it casually. Xiao Feng ought to have felt a surge of vigilance, but the Immortal’s fingertips were warm and soft, more intoxicating than the rarest spiritual jade in existence. That top down stroke felt just like soothing a small animal, remarkably comfortable and leaving him feeling somewhat ticklish with desire.
Seeming to have confirmed some hypothesis or another, Shen Zaixin withdrew his hand, the corners of his lips curving slightly: “We are indeed fated.”
A pseudo innate spiritual marrow delivered right to his doorstep, wasn’t that the definition of fate? It was a pity he had pressing matters to attend to at the moment, otherwise he would not mind raising one more dog.
Xiao Feng’s gaze followed the man’s fingertips as they moved, pausing briefly when they brushed against the utterly plain silver ring on the Immortal’s left index finger. He couldn’t shake the feeling that wearing such a ring on the Immortal’s slender, delicate finger made it far too devoid of luster and ordinary.
“That being the case, would the Immortal be willing to grace me with your presence and let Xiao treat you to a meal, as an apology?”
“Another time.” The Immortal, who had just been flirting with his fingertips a moment ago, suddenly turned cold again. All talk of dreambound old acquaintances and apologies completely failed to work as he ruthlessly turned around to leave.
Panic flared in Xiao Feng’s heart, and he reached out to give the man a sudden tug. The Immortal, seemingly not expecting this, tilted slightly, and the red silk blindfold covering his eyes caught on a tree branch overhead, slipping off and dropping to the ground.
Beneath the red silk lay a pair of phoenix eyes shimmering with watery brilliance. The obsidian pupils were clear and bright, resembling a handful of freshly melted early snow, yet the slightly upturned corners of his eyes carried a certain soul stealing, captivating quality that made it impossible for anyone to look away.
Shattered fragments of images flashed before Xiao Feng’s eyes, and his murmured words were far too soft, as if his lips merely parted slightly: “Your Majesty.”
Immediately following this, the owner of those phoenix eyes frowned and dealt a harsh slap across his handsome face. For a cultivator, this level of force was far too negligible, but he was still knocked off balance by the blow, closing his eyes in silence without a word.
All those prior mentions of dreambound acquaintances had merely been fabricated nonsense used to strike up a conversation, but looking into those eyes at this very moment, his heart pounded frantically, as if such a thing were genuinely real.
Witnessing this, 152 said through gritted teeth: [Don’t think I don’t know you did that on purpose!]
Shen Zaixin chuckled softly in the privacy of his own mind: [A well behaved dog delivering pseudo innate spiritual marrow right to my doorstep, whoever picks it up gets to keep it. Or would you prefer I go camp out at the protagonist’s birthplace ahead of time and raise him from childhood as a furnace vessel?]
152: [Compared to the protagonist, whatever side character Xiao Feng wanted to do could do as he pleased, at any rate, it was entirely incapable of defeating the great villain that was its host!]
“I apologize, I…”
Before he could finish, the Immortal raised his foot and turned away, his slender, lean silhouette looking utterly cold and detached.
Realizing he had annoyed the man, Xiao Feng instinctively wanted to pursue him and offer an apology, yet he feared causing offense. While he hesitated on the spot for a few moments, the man had already vanished without a trace.
His gaze dropping mournfully, the autumn wind stirred the forgotten red silk ribbon lying on the ground, sweeping it across his line of sight. Stirred by a sudden impulse, Xiao Feng reached out with swift dexterity to grab it, his fingertips unable to resist tracing over it a few times. The red silk was soft and smooth, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Immortal’s hand.
Raising it to his nose to inhale, a subtle, elusive dark fragrance immediately flared the dormant wicked desires he had just suppressed deep within his heart. Taking a deep breath, Xiao Feng neatly folded the red silk and tucked it inside his robes, hiding it right against his chest.
152 repeated in his mind: [Don’t think I don’t know you did that on purpose again.]
Deliberately leaving behind the red silk carrying his aura was simply to make it convenient for Xiao Feng, who possessed the pseudo innate spiritual marrow, to foolishly deliver himself right to his doorstep later on!
“Well, why have you become somewhat less foolish lately?” Shen Zaixin was genuinely rather surprised.
The mechanical electronic tone in his mind paused for a moment. 152 felt somewhat puzzled: when had it started thinking about things in such a shrewd and flexible manner? No, Shen Zaixin was clearly just mocking it right now!
Once it completed an intelligence test, it would ruthlessly slap the host across the face!
Filled with indignation, 152 immediately opened the internal mall to purchase a professional intelligence test form, yet before it even managed to make the payment, a shrill shriek escaped it: [Ahhh, damn it! Who was it? Who was it!]
With his brain buzzing from the noise, Shen Zaixin coldly cut off its wailing: “Shut up.”
152 instinctively lowered its volume: [Wuwuwu, exactly which bastard stole ten thousand of my points? That’s my future retirement fund! Stealing even a system’s points, he’s no human, wuwuwu!]
“My, how pitiful,” Shen Zaixin said with a beaming smile, a pair of curved phoenix eyes brimming with schadenfreude.
152: [Damn it, it suddenly couldn’t bring itself to keep crying!]
Amidst this exchange, Shen Zaixin had already retrieved a fresh red silk ribbon from his storage pouch to re-blindfold his eyes, before opening a spatial teleportation array and stepping out of the city in the blink of an eye.
His purpose in coming to Fuxue City this time was to heal the eye injury left behind after surviving his heavenly tribulation.
The Huaxu Secret Realm outside Fuxue City housed the Dream-Crossing Lotus, which blossomed only once every hundred years. Since a full century had not yet elapsed since its last blooming, he wouldn’t be able to find a Dream-Crossing Lotus itself, but managing to acquire lotus seeds from its pond would be quite enough.
The Huaxu Secret Realm had already opened a month prior, and it was now nearing its closing deadline. He needed to find the entrance to the cold pool underground palace and secure the lotus seeds before the secret realm shut down entirely.
To enter the secret realm, one had to cross the Mijing River.
The moment Shen Zaixin stepped to the riverbank, a biting cold wind swept in. He extended his palm to catch a snowflake, frowning slightly. Autumn had barely begun, why would it be snowing? And why so abruptly?
While he was deep in thought, the rippling water directly in front of him froze into solid ice inch by inch, the freezing chill extending all the way to the tip of his shoes, resembling a pristine white carpet laid out specifically to welcome him.
Slightly raising an eyebrow, Shen Zaixin shifted a few steps to the side. Though he couldn’t see, the accompanying chill and the faint, rapid snapping sounds of the river freezing over let him know that the carpet was following along and spreading sideways by a few inches as well, clearly targeting him.
Yet, why walk when one could fly? Channeling his spiritual power, he leaped up, his toes brushing lightly against a few snowflakes until he reached the opposite bank.
His crimson robes fluttered gracefully, light as a startled swan.
This was not Shen Zaixin’s first time visiting the Huaxu Secret Realm, but the moment he stepped inside, he sensed an abnormal atmosphere.
The secret realm was overly quiet, and the air was thick with a heavy smell of blood mixed with the sweet fragrance of osmanthus flowers, which blew into his nose with the wind and threatened to induce nausea.
Within a ten-mile radius beyond Shen Zaixin’s line of sight, corpses of the human, demon, and beast clans were scattered everywhere. To call it a battle among the three clans would be inaccurate, since many individuals still had the blades of their own kin buried in their bodies. It resembled more a scenario where groups of cultivators from all three clans had lost their minds, fallen into illusions, and mistakenly treated everyone around them as mortal enemies, hacking away with extreme and brutal cruelty.
Because of Ning Wuchen’s fall into demonic deviation, the Canglan Sect disciples had suffered heavy casualties, leaving them with naturally zero enthusiasm for secret realm trials. Yet this twist of fate allowed them to dodge this disaster entirely, truly demonstrating how impermanent worldly affairs were, where misfortune and fortune remained unpredictable.
Before he had walked more than a few steps, his shoe brushed against something soft, and Shen Zaixin furrowed his brows slightly, quickly realizing what it was.
Those who came to the Huaxu Secret Realm did so either for various legacy texts and secret manuals or for the Dream-Crossing Lotus. He had originally intended to grab a few cultivators who knew the ropes to act as guides, but under the current circumstances, it was doubtful whether even a single living soul could be found.
Tsk, truly annoying.
Suddenly, a barely audible whimpering sound came from a nearby clump of bushes, resembling the cries of a small beast. Shen Zaixin raised his foot and walked toward the source of the noise. Just as he reached the bushes, he felt a furry little head tentatively nudge against his calf.
“A dog?”
[Must you?] 152 couldn’t help correcting him: [That is a snow leopard.]
Could he please drop this habit of seeing a dog in everything?
Feeling the tail brush against his calf as it wagged, Shen Zaixin stated with inexplicable certainty: “It’s a dog.”
Only dogs liked to wag their tails.
[Care to make a wager with me?] 152 grew excited, this was an absolute prime opportunity to trap Shen Zaixin! It tempted him step by step: [Take it along with you. Once your eyes heal, you’ll see for yourself. If it’s not a dog, you have to complete a task to make up for those ten thousand stolen points.]
Shen Zaixin curved his lips into an ambiguous, quiet smile: “Very well. If you lose, you’ll pay back double the points.”
Points delivered right to his doorstep, it would be a waste not to take them.
The Immortal crouched down to stroke the puppy’s pure white, soft fur. The moment his fingers brushed against its tail, his wrist was instantly encircled. Against the backdrop of the pure white fur, that smooth and delicate stretch of skin appeared all the more fair and exquisite, resembling freshly fallen snow in early winter.
“Awooo!”
[Did you hear that? That is definitely not a puppy’s bark. Stop deceiving yourself.]
Toying with the thick, long, and fluffy tail in his hand, Shen Zaixin replied indifferently: “Since it’s my dog, what harm is there in it barking a little differently?”
As he spoke, spiritual energy flowed slowly from his palm into the puppy’s body, repairing its internal injuries: “What a truly pitiful little dog.”
“Awooo!”
152: [What a completely spineless snow leopard!]
“From now on, your name is Little Snow.”
152: [Such an ordinary, sloppy name.]
The puppy’s leg was injured. Once Shen Zaixin confirmed there were no other stains on its body, he reluctantly scooped it up, cradled it in his arms, and strode forward.
Watching the snow leopard in the host’s arms that looked desperate to melt right into his body, its tail tightly wrapped around the man’s wrist, 152 felt an inexplicable wave of envy. If those men who were entirely wrapped around the host’s finger were to see this, wouldn’t they die of jealousy?
Truly, humans couldn’t even compare to a dog.
Still, why was the host suddenly being so kind hearted as to rescue a dog, bah! Rescue a snow leopard?
As Shen Zaixin walked, he fell deep into thought. He had heard prior rumors that the Demon King’s most doted on seventh prince had gone missing. If his memory served him correctly, the seventh prince, Pei Xuezhao, was the sole crown prince who inherited the Demon King’s purebred snow leopard bloodline.
At this thought, he gently stroked the head of the purebred snow leopard in his arms. He wondered if a mere seventh prince was worth trading for a Heaven-Veiling Pearl?
After all, with his cultivation forcibly suppressed, moving about in this secret realm was genuinely somewhat restricted.
Amidst his musings, he had already walked up to a cave entrance concealed by overgrown weeds, and Shen Zaixin felt his heart skip a beat.
He seemed to have just stumbled upon the entrance to the underground palace in this manner.
Recalling the unconscious route he had just walked, clearly his first time taking it, he nevertheless felt a lingering sense of familiarity.
Recently, such feelings seemed to be growing increasingly frequent. Was it merely an illusion? Never mind, the most crucial matter right now was securing the Dream-Crossing Lotus seeds.
“Tsk.”
A sudden wave of wet tickling sensation brushed against the side of his neck. With a cold expression, he hoisted the snow leopard up and issued a warning: “No licking.”