With Bai Shen’s arrival, a powerful spiritual pressure emanated from the Demonic Cultivators led by him, pressing down on the group from the Immortal Realm.
Mu Nanxiao was displeased. With a casual wave of his hand, that vast spiritual pressure instantly dissipated.
He rose to his feet, also dressed in a red robe.
The wide red robe billowed without wind, and his white hair was bound at the back of his head with a red jade hairpin—the hairpin Bai Shen had given him on the day he left. When the wind lifted his sleeves, it revealed a section of fair, delicate forearm covered in a thin layer of muscle, perfectly proportioned, his fingers slender at the knuckles, the pads and joints tinged with a faint pink, adding a subtle allure to his otherwise coldly elegant bearing.
Like fine nectar hidden within ten-thousand-year ice, the ice bore a tiny crack through which a few drops of that nectar showed, releasing an intoxicating fragrance that drew Bai Shen’s gaze.
“What is the meaning of this, Demon Venerable?”
At the sight of Bai Shen, Mu Nanxiao flared up in anger, showing no mercy in his movements as his Spiritual Power transformed into a giant hand pressing down toward Bai Shen.
Bai Shen did not resist, and was pushed by Mu Nanxiao’s Spiritual Power onto the Demonic Cultivators’ viewing platform, landing precisely in the seat where the Demon Venerable was supposed to sit.
Seeing that Bai Shen had not resisted, most of Mu Nanxiao’s anger dissipated, and he withdrew his Spiritual Power.
But Bai Shen seized the opening and suddenly charged forward, his path completely unobstructed, no one blocking him.
Mu Nanxiao did not think to dodge, watching helplessly as Bai Shen drew closer and closer, a sweet osmanthus fragrance washing over him.
His robes were stirred by the Spiritual Power, tangling with his own red robe.
The two stood very close, suspended in midair at the same height. Bai Shen was half a head taller, and thus looked down slightly, his raven-feather lashes trembling gently, his red eyes regarding Mu Nanxiao with interest.
“Immortal Venerable?” Bai Shen’s vermilion lips parted slightly, his voice carrying a trace of a Cultivation Method, making it sound hazy.
Mu Nanxiao snapped back to his senses and stepped back, putting distance between them.
This Bai Shen was not right.
The last time he had spoken to him like this was thousands of years ago. A voice laced with Spiritual Power, even using a Cultivation Method—what was Bai Shen playing at?
“What are you hiding from? Is the Immortal Venerable afraid of This Venerable One?” Bai Shen chuckled softly. “Seeing is better than hearing a hundred times. The Immortal Venerable is indeed as beautiful as the rumors say, and as unapproachable.”
“You…” Mu Nanxiao’s willow-leaf brows knitted, his expression one of impatience and even greater coldness.
Bai Shen’s eyes lit up, and he hurriedly said, “Does the Immortal Venerable know something? Our Hehuan Sect has always cultivated with an emphasis on affinity of the eyes, and choosing a Cultivation Partner is a matter of the utmost caution. The moment This Venerable One first laid eyes on the Immortal Venerable, he knew that affinity had arrived. The instant our Spiritual Power touched, This Venerable One felt the compatibility between our powers.”
He paused, then continued, “Become This Venerable One’s Cultivation Partner, and within a thousand years, This Venerable One will surely ascend to the Immortal Realm hand in hand with the Immortal Venerable.”
Bai Shen did not lower his voice when making his declaration of love. Everyone who could appear at Immortal-Demon Canyon possessed a high Cultivation Base, so they all heard his words clearly and immediately began passing private messages to one another, discussing.
“What is the Demon Venerable playing at? He has been Soul-bound to the Venerable for thousands of years, and now he speaks of binding again—what is he trying to do?”
“Some time ago, this old man took a disciple from the mortal world, and from my little disciple I learned a few things. This business of the Demon Venerable courting the Venerable—in the mortal world, it’s called ‘romantic playfulness.'”
“What in the world is that?”
“In the past, the Demon Venerable was always pulling strange stunts, and it was only the Venerable who indulged him. The two Venerables have been Cultivation Partners for thousands of years, and their deep affection has much to do with such romantic whims. A hundred years ago, the Demon Venerable hollowed out a secret realm and filled it with all sorts of rare treasures, then brought the Venerable there, greatly delighting him. A perfectly good secret realm, dug empty by the Demon Venerable—my sect’s disciples lost a place to train because of it.”
Looking at the man standing so close before him, who had just spoken words of courtship, Mu Nanxiao replied, “Bai Shen—”
His words were cut off by Bai Shen before he could finish.
Hearing his own name from Mu Nanxiao’s lips, Bai Shen’s eyes lit up, and he quickly said, “Since the Immortal Venerable knows This Venerable One’s name and addresses This Venerable One so directly, may This Venerable One take it that the Immortal Venerable also holds affection for This Venerable One?”
Bai Shen’s words sounded utterly sincere, without a trace of flaw.
The Righteous Cultivators and Demonic Cultivators, who had long since fallen into an uproar, hesitated—especially the Demonic Cultivators who had followed Bai Shen here.
They knew the Demon Venerable and the Immortal Venerable shared a deep bond, and that the Demon Venerable would often prepare little surprises or stir up small commotions to catch the Immortal Venerable’s attention.
Was this another such occasion? But this was the Immortal-Demon Canyon—would the Demon Venerable really do such a thing here?
The moment this doubt arose, the Demonic Cultivators immediately reached an answer.
Yes, he would. This was the Demon Venerable, the Demon Venerable who was capable of anything. If they failed to play along at a time like this, disaster would surely befall them after the Immortal-Demon Assembly.
After a brief discussion, several Demonic Cultivators sent forward an elder of the Hehuan Sect.
“Reporting to the Venerable, the Immortal Venerable already has a Cultivation Partner—”
Before the elder could finish, an enraged Bai Shen flung out a surge of Spiritual Power that sent him flying beyond the canyon. With his Cultivation Base sealed, he landed in the peril-ridden mountains.
At this display, the Demonic Cultivators were thrown into panic.
Could it be that the Demon Venerable’s intent was not to show off his deep bond with the Immortal Venerable? Then what exactly did the Demon Venerable intend, courting the Immortal Venerable before everyone’s eyes?
Having casually punished the talkative elder, Bai Shen turned his full fury upon Mu Nanxiao, the red in his eyes growing even darker.
His rage left him unable to control his Spiritual Power, which radiated outward and condensed into blades, slicing through everything around him. Yet when the violent Spiritual Power touched Mu Nanxiao, it turned gentle as a spring breeze, brushing softly across his cheeks and lifting his white hair. In the sunlight, that white hair looked fragile and translucent, lending Mu Nanxiao an even greater air of immortality.
No other expression appeared on Mu Nanxiao’s face as he calmly regarded the clearly abnormal Bai Shen.
Bai Shen’s failure to respond to his messages over the past month was connected to this abnormality—most likely, something had gone wrong in his cultivation.
In the past, the two of them had held no defenses against each other, so their Spiritual Power could merge with perfect ease.
Mu Nanxiao had tried the moment Bai Shen appeared before him; Bai Shen’s Spiritual Power had erected a barrier around him, and his own Spiritual Power could not merge in to probe his condition.
“The Immortal Venerable actually has a Cultivation Partner?” Bai Shen asked, unable to suppress his fury.
Mu Nanxiao nodded composedly. “This Venerable One has long had a Cultivation Partner.”
At these words, Bai Shen’s rage burned even hotter. “Already having a Cultivation Partner, yet the Immortal Venerable seduces This Venerable One at every turn—what is your intent?”
From Bai Shen’s behavior, Mu Nanxiao could guess a thing or two. Bai Shen had most likely gone wrong in his cultivation—suffered cultivation deviation and addled his mind—which was how such a farce had come about.
He explained, “This Venerable One has been soul-bound to you for over two thousand years.”
Besides, he hadn’t seduced Bai Shen at all—he had merely been standing there. What exactly had he done?
The air around Bai Shen went still. He suddenly laughed, and his red eyes, stripped of their gentle expression, were now coated in frost, deeply unsettling.
“So the Immortal Venerable truly fancies This Venerable One, to the point of telling such a lie to beguile me. If This Venerable One didn’t know this was the first time we’ve met, I might truly have been fooled by you. Just how many people have you deceived with this trick, Immortal Venerable?”
“This Venerable One did not lie,” Mu Nanxiao said.
Bai Shen refused to believe him, refused to believe they were Cultivation Partners. Under these circumstances, even if he produced the gifts Bai Shen had given him, the evidence of their relationship, Bai Shen would only claim that he had fallen for him and had privately hoarded his belongings.
The Immortal-Demon Assembly was about to begin, and many cultivators had arrived at the Immortal-Demon Canyon. Watching this famous pair of lovebirds known across both realms, none dared to casually intervene and interrupt them.
Mu Nanxiao didn’t know how to explain, and anxiety burned within him, though his face betrayed nothing.
“If the Immortal Venerable has been soul-bound to This Venerable One for over two thousand years, why does This Venerable One know nothing of it?” Bai Shen snorted, retreating a few steps with a flick of his sleeve, though his gaze remained entangled on Mu Nanxiao.
Mu Nanxiao had no words. How was he supposed to know why Bai Shen didn’t know? Just a month ago, the two of them had been tangled together in bed, and now Bai Shen had forgotten him.
In the distance, another surge of powerful Spiritual Power broke through the sky, rushing straight toward the Immortal-Demon Canyon.
Mu Nanxiao sensed it briefly and, surprisingly, breathed a sigh of relief.
The one coming was Bai Shen’s direct disciple, who attended to Bai Shen’s daily needs in the Demon Abyss. He should know the current situation. If he told Bai Shen that he and Mu Nanxiao were Cultivation Partners, it would carry some credibility.
At this thought, Mu Nanxiao felt a twinge of jealousy.
He was Bai Shen’s Cultivation Partner, yet Bai Shen didn’t believe him, and now he had to rely on someone else to win Bai Shen’s trust. How laughable.
Mu Nanxiao’s hand instinctively moved to his waist, instinctively shielding the spiritual fetus in his belly.
He still carried their child within him, yet such a situation had arisen. No matter how one looked at it, Bai Shen bore a striking resemblance to the heartless men in storybooks.
“Master!” The moment Bai Shen’s disciple arrived, he charged straight into the pressure field created by Bai Shen’s Spiritual Power. Enduring Bai Shen’s pressure, he cupped his fists in salute, then turned to Mu Nanxiao and said respectfully, “Immortal Venerable.”
Hearing this, Bai Shen seized on the flaw and immediately demanded of Mu Nanxiao, “If the Immortal Venerable wishes to deceive This Venerable One, at least play the act through to the end. Setting aside the fact that This Venerable One has no memory of becoming your Cultivation Partner, why does my disciple not address you as Master’s Consort, but instead address the Immortal Venerable with such deference?”
Yu Yi would not be participating in this Immortal-Demon Assembly. After his master’s departure, he had discovered numerous anomalies in his master’s palace. Pondering them together with his master’s recent changes, he had hurried over in haste.
He had no idea that his arrival would create such a situation.
He glanced at his master, who was in the midst of his anger, and the Immortal Venerable, whose expression was calm and unreadable, then sent a message to the Immortal Venerable: “Immortal Venerable, this disciple detected your Spiritual Power outside my master’s sleeping quarters, along with a message that had long been scattered by a Formation, leaving only fragments. That is how I learned something had happened to my master.”
“Last time when Master returned, he was in a wonderful mood. But within just two days, Master stopped mentioning the Immortal Venerable entirely. This disciple initially thought you two had a falling out, but after careful investigation, I discovered that Master suffered a cultivation deviation and lost a portion of his memories.”
As for which portion of memories, it went without saying—it was the memories concerning Mu Nanxiao.
Bai Shen no longer remembered that more than two thousand years ago, he had held the Soul-binding Covenant ceremony with Mu Nanxiao, and that the two had long since become Cultivation Partners.
He no longer remembered the days when they had been deeply in love.
Even more, he no longer remembered that a month ago, he had implanted a spiritual fetus in Mu Nanxiao’s womb, conceiving a child of their own.
Mu Nanxiao, having lived this long, had witnessed plenty of strange things. Rage burned in his heart, but his reason remained intact.
He flung Bai Shen away with a wave of his hand, pushing the man toward where the Demonic Cultivators stood, and instead kept his disciple by his side.
Seeing this, Bai Shen grew even angrier, even suspecting that Mu Nanxiao’s mysterious Cultivation Partner was his own disciple. Otherwise, why would the Immortal Venerable keep only his disciple close while pushing him aside?