Jun Yanye sat upright on the jade bed. He took a sip of the fine spiritual flower nectar, his gaze commanding respect without anger. “Speak. Why did you seize someone else’s body through possession and masquerade as a sword spirit?”
Xuanhuang felt deep regret, only wishing it had not provoked Shi Li and forced him to expose its past. At this moment, it could only speak the truth.
“I was originally a native of Cangshui in the Demon Realm, named Xu Lun. I was properly cultivating until the Core Formation stage. If I had not been pushed to an absolute dead end, I would never have possessed someone else!” Xuanhuang vowed solemnly.
Possession was one of the acts that attracted the most hatred, and even the Demon Realm felt deep disdain toward it.
Xuanhuang took a deep breath. “In truth, I was being hunted by myself.”
Hearing this sentence, both Shi Li and Jun Yanye were momentarily stunned.
“How is that possible?” Jun Yanye’s eyes revealed doubt.
“It is true! I do not know whom I offended, but that person kept hunting me down. When I saw his true face, I discovered that he actually looked exactly like me. Our cultivation, martial arts techniques, and birth charts were all completely identical…” Speaking to this point, Xuanhuang shuddered a couple of times, and its voice even began to tremble.
Hearing this, Shi Li and Jun Yanye immediately thought of a single person—Shi Chen.
Shi Chen had also constantly wanted to eliminate Shi Li, and his appearance, cultivation, and abilities were not different from Shi Li’s in the slightest.
Xuanhuang continued, “On the day of our duel, I was nearly killed by him. At the final critical juncture, I staked everything on a single throw and wanted to possess him. Since our appearances and bodies were identical, no one would notice if I possessed him.”
Regrettably, the possession failed, and it accidentally possessed the Xuanhuang sword spirit instead. Taking its place, it could only continue to live on as a sword spirit.
In other words, before Jun Yanye obtained this Xuanhuang sword, Xu Lun had already possessed the sword spirit, replacing it to control the will of the sword.
“Demon Venerable Your Majesty, every single sentence I spoke just now is the absolute truth, without any falsehood or concealment. I did not mean to possess Your Majesty’s sword spirit, but under the urgency of the situation, I truly had no choice. To save my life, I could only take a risky step! I beg Your Majesty for forgiveness.”
“That is to say, the other Xu Lun is still in this world,” Jun Yanye said.
“Yes.” Xuanhuang said hesitantly, “It is just that I do not know if he is still looking for me. But it no longer matters. I do not even have a physical body anymore. He surely would not go as far as wanting my soul to scatter and dissolve, would he?”
“I am afraid he would,” Shi Li said.
“What?” Xuanhuang’s heart instantly jumped into its throat again.
“I also encountered a matter similar to yours. A person who looks very much like me is hunting me down,” Shi Li said.
“Last night, my primordial soul was trapped in a dreamscape by Shi Chen, and he also wanted to destroy my consciousness to make my primordial soul dissipate,” Shi Li added to Jun Yanye.
The moment Jun Yanye thought about the possibility of Shi Li completely disappearing from between heaven and earth, a surge of fear welled up in his heart for no apparent reason.
Shi Li was linked together with his memories, and no matter what, he did not want this matter to happen.
“We will just wait,” Shi Li said to Xuanhuang. “We will wait for the other you to find us. When that time comes, we will be able to find out more from him, and perhaps we can decipher this bizarre event.”
Xuanhuang’s tone also became increasingly solemn and respectful. “Alright, I will listen to you. By the way, since you can calculate and divine, could you help me divine one more matter? I want to know, if I will survive.”
A thought flashed through Shi Li’s mind, but when he opened his mouth, he spoke six words: “The heavenly secrets must not be revealed.”
“Why do all of you fortune-tellers like to be this way.” Xuanhuang had a breakdown. “Is saying these few words very handsome?!”
“Hahaha” Shi Li put down his wine cup. “Yes.”
“Ugh, ahhh” Xuanhuang was driven mad, shaking randomly on the ground.
Regarding divination, the moment the diviner measured the outcome, variables could arise in the matter. If this outcome was told to the person seeking the divination, then even more variables might be produced.
To measure or not to measure, to speak or not to speak, all tested the innate ability of the diviner immensely.
As for the phrase “the heavenly secrets must not be revealed,” Shi Li had always used it to handle situations where it was inappropriate to speak the outcome.
The night grew deep, and Jun Yanye watched as Shi Li drank cup after cup.
The hand Shi Li used to pour the wine was even trembling, causing the wine liquid to spill outside the wine cup. Jun Yanye took hold of the wine pot and steadily poured a cup for him.
“Thank you.” Shi Li drank until his pronunciation became slurred, and his face was also flushed red. His already beautiful appearance gathered even more glamorous color, looking like crimson peonies hanging with dew, resembling the morning glow resting on clouds.
“Will the heavenly secrets be revealed due to being drunk?” Jun Yanye asked.
Shi Li stared at him blankly. “You are waiting for me to speak the truth after drinking?”
“Mm.”
During that previous dual cultivation, the wine Shi Li drank was a soul-dissolving spring wine, and he had drunk it too quickly, so Jun Yanye had been unable to properly appreciate his intoxicated state.
This time, Shi Li drank cup after cup, becoming more deeply drunk than that time. Jun Yanye also wanted to have a proper drink with him, so he also picked up a wine cup.
Shi Li leaned against Jun Yanye’s shoulder, held up an empty wine cup, and shouted, “Brother Ye, I love you so much. I want to be together with you for a lifetime!”
“Cough, cough.” Jun Yanye was choked by the wine, a sensation of spiciness filling his throat.
Shi Li’s outburst was far too sudden.
That form of address, “Brother Ye,” was also astonishing.
Jun Yanye did not expect that what came next would be even more astonishing.
“I want to give birth to nine children for you. Just like dragons, giving birth to nine different children. The oldest, we will call him Jun Qian. The second, we will call him Jun Kun. And so on, arranging the entire Eight Trigrams once.” Shi Li counted on his fingers in a drunken daze, a fragrance of wine still lingering between his fingers.
Jun Yanye found it difficult to understand what Shi Li was talking about, but it felt quite extraordinary.
This was the first time a man wanted to give birth to children for him, and nine at that.
It was a bit of a pity that he did not have a sound-recording pearl on his person, or else he could have recorded this grand and bold speech of Shi Li’s.
“Brother Ye-” Shi Li hugged his entire body against Jun Yanye, his dark hair disheveled. His slightly warm face rubbed against his shoulder, and his red lips were stained with wine liquid, appearing bright and shiny. “Mm, I really want, really want.”
Looking at this situation, did he want to engage in dual cultivation?
Jun Yanye tried to steady his mind, his voice softening. “Really want what?”
“Really want to go relieve myself.” Shi Li grabbed Jun Yanye’s sleeve. “But I cannot move anymore.”
“Uh.” Jun Yanye was once again left speechless by Shi Li.
Forget it. Cultivators at the Qi Condensation stage had shallow cultivation, so they still had mortal needs such as eating, drinking, and relieving themselves. Having drunk so much wine, he ought to relieve himself.
The grand supreme being of the Demon Realm served Shi Li for an entire night. This living ancestor wanted to relieve himself at one moment, wanted to drink water at another, and had a headache or fever at another.
Fortunately, many matters could be solved by magic. Jun Yanye formed a hand sign and chanted an incantation to get things done.
Shi Li slept until the following evening. When he woke up, his entire body felt comfortable, without any of the headache or sluggish feeling that follows a hangover. Instead, he felt very refreshed, so refreshed that he even forgot he had been drinking last night.
After holding his pillow and reclining on the bed for a quarter of an hour, he perceived an intense, unignorable gaze.
Shi Li truly could not lie down any longer. He lazily opened one eye, and his line of sight met Jun Yanye’s gaze.
Jun Yanye was regulating his breath on the neighboring bed, and the expression in his eyes when looking at him was clearly not quite right.
“It seems I got up a bit late.” Shi Li rubbed his eyes, placing the back of his hand on his forehead. “The sky is almost dark.”
“Answer a question for me.” Jun Yanye’s tone was as usual.
“Mm?”
“Do you still remember how much you drank yesterday?”
“Yesterday I drank wine?”
“Uh…” Just as Shi Li finished speaking, his gaze swept across the table. Arranged there were all sorts of wine cups and wine pots agate cups, parrot chalices, silver pouring pots, and amber ewers leaving a complete mess.
Shi Li smiled. “Ah, it seems I did drink a bit.”
“Mm, rest well.” Jun Yanye stood up and left the cave dwelling expressionlessly.
Shi Li felt that Jun Yanye was somewhat angry.
He tried hard to recall the situation of drinking wine last night, but he could not remember anything at all. The only thing he could remember was that the wine here was exceptionally excellent.