Try what?
Although Xi Chuan was a young lad, having been born and raised in the countryside, how could he not understand the matters of men and women?
His earlobes turned red instantly.
Because of his painful injuries, his upper body had originally been propped up at a slight angle. But now, hearing Fu Jinyue’s words, he suddenly sat up straight.
Those beautiful, puppy-like eyes grew serious, and his brows pressed down, carrying a certain air of authority.
He probably wanted to shout a scolding, but looking at the serene expression on her face, his words suddenly softened into a stiff, blunt rejection: “No.”
“I have never heard of such a method. Besides, you and I do not know each other. How can we do, do…”
Xi Chuan’s expression was incredibly earnest, yet he simply could not spit out those two words, choosing in the end to purse his lips tightly.
Seeing that even his earlobes were completely flushed, Fu Jinyue felt a deeper itch in her heart.
“I won’t force you.” She knew in her heart that these were coaxing words, but her face maintained a casual mask. “It’s just that it’s getting dark and the mountain path is treacherous; I can’t very well navigate it in the pitch black. It should be fine for me to lodge in this cave for one night, right?”
The youth did not speak, merely nodding sullenly.
His skin had been thoroughly baked by the sun, and the flush creeping across his face felt entirely different from that of her fair-skinned past partners, offering a unique flavor of its own.
Fu Jinyue was still thinking about those red earlobes, rubbing her fingertips together, wondering if his ears would feel just as soft to the touch if she pinched them.
There was a time when she was particularly fond of younger men.
Perhaps because she made it too obvious, younger boys would frequently camp out to catch her attention. Most of them would disguise themselves with a youthful, sunny demeanor, calling her “big sister, big sister” while casting glances that feigned innocence.
If their acting was good enough, Fu Jinyue wouldn’t mind playing along, joining the performance, spending some money, and enjoying the passionate vigor of youth.
Unfortunately, genuine innocence cannot be faked; the moment they grew greedy for wealth, their true colors would be exposed.
I can give it to you, but you cannot be so consumed with demanding it.
Fu Jinyue had lost her appetite for it and hadn’t touched that type for a long time.
She looked at the youth’s tightly knit brows and his rigid, unrelaxing muscles. After a brief thought, she realized he truly had a massive reaction to the dual cultivation of the Hehuan Sect.
“Didn’t you say I am the last orthodox descendant of the Hehuan Sect?” Fu Jinyue asked the system in her mind. “Why does it look like he has already heard of the Hehuan Sect?”
“This world indeed contains a Hehuan Sect.” The system’s tone was deeply dissatisfied. “But they do not follow the righteous path. They rely on forced plundering to raise their cultivation, stealing the spiritual energy of others. They are completely tolerated by the cultivation world.”
“Are they very famous?” Fu Jinyue asked.
The system hesitated: “…Known by everyone.”
“So out there, my title is basically that of an evil cultivator?”
She finally understood where the crux of the problem lay. Fu Jinyue felt a bit displeased.
It turned out that in the eyes of others, she was just an evil cultivator. And yet, she had brazenly claimed that dual cultivating with her was for his own good. With a reputation like that, she probably couldn’t even fool a three-year-old.
The interior of the mountain cave was exceptionally quiet, save for the occasional crackle of the firewood pile.
Fu Jinyue had tripped up due to an information gap. She was currently muttering back and forth with the system in her mind, frantically catching up on the world’s lore, when a pile of sweet potatoes suddenly appeared beside her.
Xi Chuan’s hand, with its distinct knuckles, offered the sweet potatoes, though his head remained turned away, not daring to look at her.
“Are you asking me to help make dinner?” Fu Jinyue understood the good intention but deliberately phrased it as a question.
The youth opened his mouth, then shook his head.
He saw that the sky was growing dark, yet Fu Jinyue had not prepared any food. Remembering that she was empty-handed, he knew in his heart that it wasn’t because she didn’t want to eat, but because she had nothing.
He was a dying man anyway; whether he ate or not didn’t matter.
No matter how sorrowful or reluctant Xi Chuan felt, he could only accept his fate. He knew this was the consequence of his own choices. The path of seeking immortality was just like this—everyone had their own destiny.
But Fu Jinyue was different. Although she walked an evil path, she was kind-hearted, deliberately staying behind to lodge and care for a dying man.
Knowing her good intentions, it was hard for Xi Chuan not to care.
He pushed the small sweet potatoes he had dug up along the way a bit further forward, explaining: “The sky is already dark. Young lady, please eat some to fill your stomach.”
Fu Jinyue smiled.
The sweet potatoes still carried dirt, varying in size—some plump, some withered.
She selected the plump ones and used a long branch to poke out a few logs, letting the sweet potatoes roast in the heat of the embers.
Outside, the darkness had truly settled in, making it impossible to see anything at a glance. The mountain wind howled past like a phantom ghost, striking fear into the heart.
Once the sweet potatoes were roasted and cooled, Fu Jinyue took a large piece for herself and handed the remaining selected ones to Xi Chuan.
Xi Chuan was drenched in cold sweat, his brows tightly knit, his breathing somewhat hurried.
Fu Jinyue could see that he was in terrible pain, so she peeled the skin off a sweet potato and fed it right to his lips.
The youth avoided it a few times, but truly unable to evade her kindness, he finally took it himself, offered his thanks, and began to eat slowly.
“That’s more like it,” Fu Jinyue said. “Eat hard, live hard. You traveled such a long distance to seek immortality, enduring so much hardship; are you willing to just collapse before the threshold like this?”
“Death is death. In the end, a mound of yellow clay offers no joy. It’s better to strive to stay alive. Only by living can you have all kinds of opportunities.”
The system muttered in a small voice: “Host, your words sound a bit too much like someone from an evil sect.” It was exactly like those villains who drag people down with them.
Fu Jinyue’s expression remained unchanged. “Don’t interrupt my performance.”
Perhaps because they now shared the camaraderie of eating a meal together, under Fu Jinyue’s prompting, Xi Chuan suddenly spoke again.
He asked, “Is that how the young lady was forced onto the e—the wrong path?”
He absolutely wanted to say the evil path.
Fu Jinyue replied, “It’s not a wrong path, and no one forced me. I did it willingly.”
Xi Chuan’s expression was written all over with disbelief.
Fu Jinyue curled her lips into a half-smile, looking at him: “And why are you so determined to climb the immortal path?”
In truth, she had absolutely no interest in the reason. She was merely tailoring her medicine to the patient. With serious and stern people like him, attempting to flirt flippantly before their defenses were lowered would produce the opposite effect. Only a heartfelt exchange could make them shed their guard bit by bit. Since he had actively opened his mouth now, Fu Jinyue could hardly be blamed for seizing the opportunity.
Xi Chuan fell silent.
Fu Jinyue rested her chin in her hand and looked at him, not rushing him, merely stating airily: “It doesn’t matter if you don’t say it. I only fear that when you are mentioned in the future, besides your name, I will only be able to remember a face.”
Unsure which point had struck a chord within him, the youth’s expression shifted slightly upon hearing this. After hesitating for a moment, he finally made up his mind and spoke once more:
“I was born in a small village to the south of Huahe Mountain Prefecture. My father was the village hunter, and my mother was a young lady from a wealthy family who fled from the outside.”
Hearing this, Fu Jinyue thought to herself that things were looking grim.
This story introduction sounded like it was going to be a massive epic saga.
Why not just start from the birth of Heaven and Earth?
Just as she was about to beat a retreat, she heard the youth continue.
“The wealthy young lady fled to escape a marriage alliance at home. She was saved by the hunter and offered herself in marriage. They became a family and gave birth to a son and a daughter. But it wasn’t until I grew up that I learned my mother wasn’t saved; rather, on her flight from the marriage, she was abducted by the hunter, who secretly acted as a bandit at night.”
Fu Jinyue’s ears perked up.
“One day, after learning about this by chance, I hauled the hunter into the yamen. I didn’t expect the yamen to be in league with the bandits; he was released after a mere half day. On his way home, the hunter got drunk and beat my mother. In a moment of desperation, I killed the hunter. I used an axe.” Xi Chuan spoke succinctly, masking the gruesome details beneath his words. He lowered his head, his fingers slowly opening and closing, as if caught in a memory.
The blood that had soaked between his fingers felt exceptionally sticky.
He had processed game for the hunter so many times—chickens, rabbits, birds, even wild boars—but that was his first time processing a human.
His mother’s head had been slammed against the table by that man, blood blurring her eyes.
Xi Chuan didn’t know if she had seen it.
He did not want the act of patricide to be witnessed by the mother who had taught him ritual, righteousness, integrity, and filial piety since childhood. But… he also hoped she could see it, wanting her to know that the enemy was dead and the great vengeance had been exacted.
“That night, my mother took us out of the village. Our travel expenses weren’t much, but we still made it to a very distant town, setting up a stall to do some business. Later, my mother began to teach, my younger sister embroidered clothes to supplement the household income, and I went out to do manual labor. Life started getting better. Only, only…”
—Only, this illness is quite rare. I fear there is no medicine in the mortal realm that can cure it.
Young man, if you wish to treat this illness, you can only…
The elderly physician had pointed to the sky, his meaning entirely obvious.
“Are you saying that only the immortals in the sky can cure their illness?” he had pressed, filled both with the anticipation of seeing hope and the helplessness of falling off a cliff.
The elderly man had gazed deeply at him, slowly nodding his head.
This illness was bizarre. The symptoms of its onset were extremely mild, not affecting regular livelihoods, yet it carried a fatal time limit.
When the time arrived, the person would die.
Thus, he began to search everywhere for immortals. Immortal masters were hard to find, and spirit pills were exorbitant. In the end, his search turned into a journey to seek immortality.
His family was poor, and he couldn’t become a medical cultivator. Therefore, he would become a sword cultivator. As long as he entered the path and earned spirit stones, he would eventually be able to find the pills to extend his family’s lives.
But on the path of seeking immortality, everyone has their own destiny.
Since he collapsed here, he could only remain collapsed here forever.
“Miss Fu,” Xi Chuan said calmly, “if I die, can you find them and pass a word to my family?”
Fu Jinyue observed him. “Speak.”
“Just tell them that I have successfully acknowledged a master. However, there is a divide between immortals and mortals. Since Xi Chuan has already cultivated immortality, he no longer has any ties to the mortal world.”
Fu Jinyue found it amusing. “You told me so much just to have me inform your family that you, Xi Chuan, have become a heartless, ungrateful wretch?”
She could tell that the youth was not someone accustomed to sharing his inner thoughts with others.
When he spoke of his past just now, Fu Jinyue had grown suspicious. Such frankness surely harbored an ulterior motive. In the end, the dagger was truly revealed at the end of the map—he had a request for her.
The youth clearly possessed an introverted personality, yet he exposed his past now, hoping to elicit her sympathy so she would agree to pass the message.
Fu Jinyue leaned in closer to look at him, tilting her head slightly, a faint smile gracing her face. “Aren’t you afraid I will go back on my word?”
“Although the young lady cultivates an evil path, you are willing to stay and care for me, someone met by chance. Xi Chuan… trusts the young lady’s character.”
“You are mistaken.”
Fu Jinyue leaned in a bit closer.
Their breaths were very close now. Fu Jinyue could see the youth’s eyes widen suddenly, as if completely caught off guard.
The girl’s eyes were starkly black and white; when she wasn’t smiling, they were cold and clear, like a lake without ripples. Now, slightly crinkling with a smile, they took on a curve, adding a few hints of an ambiguous charm that made one’s face flush.
Having been stared at by Fu Jinyue for so long, Xi Chuan’s earlobes flushed red once more. His reason, however, caused his lips to purse tightly, and his face tensed up along with it, as if the atmosphere between the two of them right now were incredibly solemn.
Fu Jinyue saw clearly that the youth’s eyelashes were trembling. Immediately after, his gaze abruptly darted away, avoiding her direct, unblinking stare.
Presumably to cover it up, the youth used a somewhat stumbling voice to pull the topic back: “How am I mistaken?”
He likely didn’t realize that this phrase shouldn’t be used in this kind of atmosphere.
Fu Jinyue’s mind was full of unrefined thoughts, but her lips said: “I told you, what I cultivate is neither a wrong path nor an evil path.”
“I know nothing of other Hehuan Sects, but mine is not about plundering and pillaging. It is the path of ‘The intersection of Heaven and Earth brings prosperity, and all things are transformed into life.'”
In any case, trotting out the system’s script was bound to be correct.
“In today’s world, people covet shortcuts. Even the cultivators practicing this path do not know that the core method was altered by wicked people long ago, disrupting its source. So it’s no wonder you all brand the Hehuan Sect, which should have been classified among the orthodox and righteous sects, as an evil path.”
Xi Chuan caught a bit of an inkling.
Although he was a mortal who had only opened his apertures and cultivated a bit of immortality by a stroke of luck, his experience of traveling around to ask about immortals had also filled his head with common knowledge of cultivation. Fu Jinyue’s words sounded more and more rebellious the more he listened.
However, the girl’s tone was far too firm. Xi Chuan felt a bit bewildered, so he pursed his lips and kept silent.
Fu Jinyue gave him no buffer. Her body suddenly leaned forward, forehead pressing against forehead, their breaths intertwining.
“Since you are unwilling in your heart, why not go see your relatives yourself? Why must you have someone else convey that you are an ungrateful, white-eyed wolf?”
Fu Jinyue gazed into his eyes. Where their skin touched, she could feel the youth’s scorching body temperature.
So hot.
“You want to live too, don’t you?”
“Let me save you, alright?”
Such a long wound must be incredibly painful. He clearly possessed grand ambitions, yet now he could only lie inside the cave waiting for death. Amidst the high fever and pain, had he ever felt even a single shred of regret over his choice?
Fu Jinyue didn’t believe a person could accept death so calmly.
The youth’s breathing turned erratic.
The hard-fought composure and seriousness in those dark, bright eyes were forcefully shattered, ultimately revealing vulnerability.
The drooping corners of his eyes were flushed red from the fever—pitiful, obedient, innocent.
Fu Jinyue actually felt a bit excited.
From his panicked eyes, she could tell he had likely never been in such close proximity to a female other than his relatives.
He wanted to push her away, but the moment his hand brushed against the soft body of the opposite sex, it recoiled as if burned.
A youth who was originally strong and robust was now behaving with such utter helplessness, considering even touching her an offense.
His ears were completely red.
This sense of rawness undoubtedly made Fu Jinyue find it even more novel.
They were so close they were about to press completely together.
The intertwining of their breaths was far too ambiguous.
Fu Jinyue carefully avoided his wound, merely letting her upper body lean forward. Her forehead pressed against his forehead, nose to nose, their lips only a fraction away from completely touching.
When the softness of her upper body pressed close, Fu Jinyue distinctly felt his body turn rigid.
He was incredibly nervous.
Xi Chuan’s hand suddenly clamped onto her wrist, no longer allowing her to press closer. Not even daring to look at her, he turned his head aside and said at lightning speed: “N-No!”
Even his voice was trembling.
After being rejected time and again, Fu Jinyue also felt a bit displeased. She couldn’t help but lower her head and take a sharp bite out of the youth’s shoulder.
Author’s Note:
The protagonist’s reaction after hearing a tragic, grief-stricken tale:
Fu Jinyue: A bit moved, but not by much.