Wu Youqi looked at the person before him:
With a soft, pear-like dimple at the corner of his lips and a pair of long, narrow phoenix eyes curved into crescents, reflecting Wu Youqi’s own image within them.
Wu Youqi closed his eyes once more. With his bare chest heaving slightly, he finally opened his eyes and let out a scoff.
At this moment, Xi Zhu, who had been chasing after Gu Qingyi, finally caught up.
She stood still just as she had caught her breath, and as she raised her head to offer an apology and bow, she was silenced by the flower crown perched on Wu Youqi’s head.
The Demon Realm was not like the human world with its cycles of sun, moon, stars, and seasons; here, there were only the Black Sun and the Blood Moon. The vegetation for the most part grew haphazardly, and the wild flowers were even more bizarrely shaped.
The flower crown Gu Qingyi had woven was decent in shape, but the colors chosen were all rather flamboyant bright reds, deep blues, and dark purples, all mixed together.
It was fine for coaxing a child, but worn on Wu Youqi’s head, it looked rather undignified, making the originally majestic and imposing Demon Lord look a bit like… a little girl.
Xi Zhu’s mouth twitched several times. She lowered her head, her entire face flushed red. Wanting to laugh but not daring to, she had to pinch her own thigh with all her might.
Just as she had finally adjusted her emotions, bowed, and addressed him as “My Lord,” Gu Qingyi suddenly let out a soft “Eh,” his brows furrowed, and the smile on his face faded.
He suddenly leaned forward and reached out toward Wu Youqi.
Wu Youqi raised an eyebrow without moving, but it gave Xi Zhu a fright, and she hurriedly stepped forward to stop him. “Hey, Young Master, you must not be so presumptuous…”
But Gu Qingyi did not attack Wu Youqi; he extended both hands to cup Wu Youqi’s cheeks, closing his own eyes, his voice soft:
“Not painful, not painful, brother is not in pain.”
As he spoke, he went through the motions of grabbing the air on both sides of Wu Youqi’s ears, then made a throwing gesture in mid-air: “Pain, pain, fly away—”
“…”
Xi Zhu closed her eyes and slapped her hand against her forehead. There was a high probability she would be thrown into the Sacred Fire tomorrow just because she stepped out the front door with her left foot first.
Wu Youqi couldn’t hold it in; he pushed Gu Qingyi’s hands away and snickered while sweeping his hair back. “Fool.”
Gu Qingyi pouted but didn’t walk away, sitting down right there beside the hot spring, facing Wu Youqi with a gaze that was sincere and serious.
Scorched by those two burning gazes, Wu Youqi looked up and used his arm to shield his face. “Xi Zhu, what did I tell you yesterday?”
Xi Zhu’s back tightened, and she hurriedly stepped forward to tug on Gu Qingyi’s sleeve. “Young Master.”
She didn’t use demonic energy, nor did she dare to use too much force. She truly couldn’t gauge the Demon Lord’s thoughts regarding this person; everything had to be handled gently, as it was best not to be too forceful:
“Young Master, the Lord is bathing here. This… how should I put it, it’s not very polite. Shall we go down the mountain and wait?”
“No,” Gu Qingyi twisted his body to dodge her hand. “Brother is clearly in so much pain; why are you all bullying him?”
After saying this, he even glared at Xi Zhu. “Sister is a big bad guy!”
Seeing that Xi Zhu still wanted to say something, Gu Qingyi didn’t sit anymore. After flipping himself up, he trotted to the other side of the hot spring.
With one hand, he steadied the arm Wu Youqi had draped over the pool wall, and with the other, he picked up a small twig from the ground, pointing it at Xi Zhu: “You are not allowed to come over!”
After acting fiercely toward Xi Zhu, Gu Qingyi squatted down and gently patted Wu Youqi. “Brother, don’t be afraid, I’m protecting you!”
Xi Zhu hadn’t expected him to pull such a move, standing stiffly in place for a long time, blinking as she lowered her head to look at Wu Youqi.
But Wu Youqi only lowered the arm he had been using to shield his face, looking with a somewhat complex expression at the back that was blocking him.
Gu Qingyi’s figure was slender. Although he was dressed in pink and purple, his back was straight as an arrow, and the twig in his hand was being waved with a tigerish vigor.
Sensing his gaze, Gu Qingyi first checked Xi Zhu defensively, then moved two steps closer to the edge of the hot spring, moving his hand from Wu Youqi’s arm to take hold of his hand instead:
“Brother, hold onto me. Hold my hand and it won’t hurt anymore.”
Wu Youqi was stunned, his gaze slowly falling onto their joined hands. The wilderness was silent; he could even hear the wind passing through the forest in gusts.
He remained silent for a long time, his gaze distant.
Xi Zhu waited for a long while, truly not knowing how to react next, and could only brace herself to speak. “My Lord?”
“Forget it,” Wu Youqi supported himself as he sat up a bit from the hot spring water. “This has nothing to do with you; you go down first.”
Xi Zhu looked subconsciously at Gu Qingyi.
Wu Youqi, however, only turned his face toward the summit of the mountain. “Go.”
Since the Lord had said so, Xi Zhu could only accept the order. She walked toward the foot of the mountain, looking back at every step, but no matter when she looked back—
Wu Youqi had not shaken off Gu Qingyi’s hand.
Once the person was completely out of sight, Wu Youqi finally tilted his chin at Gu Qingyi, signaling for him to put down the twig and sit at the edge of the pool.
The little fellow had been sent here for so many days, and he had never had a proper conversation with him. Previously, he felt it was unnecessary; now, he was somewhat curious.
The Gu family said the one they sent was a soul-less puppet, which was to say, a living dead person. Even if he looked exactly like Qingyi, Wu Youqi had no interest in talking to a corpse.
Later, when this soul-less puppet began to move and became a fool with incomplete souls and spirits who acted entirely according to his heart, it was strange, yet somewhat interesting.
Wu Youqi did not know how other cultivators endured the long passage of time. He was twenty-two this year, yet he already felt immortality was dull.
Looking at Gu Qingyi’s bright eyes, he raised his hand to brush back his long hair and started the conversation. “You… why do you think I am in pain?”
“I saw it!” Gu Qingyi answered crisply, his eyes turning to glare at the pool water as if looking at a bitter enemy.
“You saw it?”
“Mm-hmm,” Gu Qingyi pointed at the pool water, his mouth opening and closing. “There are little knives cutting you, and little skeleton villains biting you. It’s very painful, very painful!”
As he spoke, he squeezed Wu Youqi’s hand again; his somewhat cool palms were already seeping with fine beads of sweat.
Wu Youqi’s heart jumped, slamming against his chest cavity twice. This person’s choice of words wasn’t precise, but the feeling he described was not far off:
The Demon Harmony Spring cleansing his meridians and bones was like a blade slicing slowly into his skin and meridians; and the Sacred Fire needing energy was also like a greedy maw biting and tearing at him.
Wu Youqi glanced at Gu Qingyi and then closed his eyes again. His throat felt as if someone had pinched it, his voice coming out somewhat low and hoarse:
“I don’t know… if you are truly a fool or pretending to be one.”
Gu Qingyi watched him earnestly, not knowing why his eye sockets suddenly reddened. “Brother, can we stop bathing?”
He scooted over, taking two duck-like steps on the ground, wrapping his arms around Wu Youqi’s. “Brother smells so good; no need to wash.”
Wu Youqi’s spiritual platform was not yet stable, and the clear and turbid qi had not reached a balance. Roughly calculating, he still had to soak for at least another half an hour.
There was no way to explain this to a fool, so Wu Youqi opened his eyes and hooked his lips slightly. “It’s fine, it doesn’t hurt.”
Gu Qingyi wouldn’t believe him for a second. His eyes rolled, and pitter-patter, tears began to fall. “Then, then can I sing for you, brother?”
The child said he was from Jiangnan, but he didn’t like sweet food and loved roasted meat. As soon as he opened his throat to sing in a high-pitched tone, he nearly sent Wu Youqi to the afterlife.
Wu Youqi: “…”
Gu Qingyi touched his nose, sticking out half of his little tongue. “I… how about I tell you a story instead?”
This child was a fool, but his heart was genuine.
Wu Youqi glanced at him sideways, thinking that life was truly going backward. A dignified Demon Lord, reduced to being coaxed by a fool.
“Enough,” he flicked him on the forehead. “Stay quiet for a while.”
Gu Qingyi had been squatting unsteadily to begin with. Being hit like that on the forehead, he simply sat down on the ground.
Once he was seated, the arm that had required him to stretch out his hands to reach now perfectly rested in his embrace.
Gu Qingyi squirmed in place, scooting over to crowd his butt to the edge of the pool. He pulled Wu Youqi’s entire arm into his embrace, only then leaning his face in—
The person was quiet now, but his cool cheek was pressed tightly against his upper arm, occasionally rubbing against it, his throat making unclear humming noises.
Wu Youqi didn’t struggle, only looking at this little fool, looking at the Sacred Fire suspended high in mid-air, and also looking at the Blood Flame Flowing Cloud Palace in the distance:
In the past, he was still the First Disciple of Qingshao Peak.
One time, he was presiding over an outside mission, needing to lead a class of young disciples to the middle of the continent to train inside a spirit vein.
That spirit vein was originally a low-tier fire-element spirit vein, but after it was opened, something went wrong, and a fifth-tier demon beast appeared inside.
At that time, he had just formed his Golden Core a top-grade Nine-Turn Golden Core. Naturally, he picked up the Duqing sword to repel the enemy, exerting all his strength to shield the young disciples behind him.
The young disciples were unscathed, but he had taken several claw strikes from the demon beast for nothing. His internal organs were shifted, and he still had to act as if he were carefree on the outside.
After experiencing perils, he finally completed the trial safely and even excised a fifth-tier demon core to bring back to the sect.
The Sect Leader praised him for being steady in his affairs, and the group of disciples who followed him also respected him as a hero; everyone praised him for being worthy of being the First Disciple of Qingshao Peak.
Wu Youqi smiled. After bidding farewell to the Sect Leader, he organized the contents of this trial into a dossier and sent it to the storehouse along with the demon core.
When he returned to Qingshao Peak after finishing these tasks, it was already dusk.
Unlike usual, his master was not meditating in “White Stone Boils Rain,” but instead standing on the wide lawn to the east.
“Master.” He called out.
Qingyi turned his head and looked at him coldly.
Wu Youqi swallowed, kneeling down almost instantly. He did not dare to boast or claim credit before his master, simply reporting briefly:
“Disciple did not disgrace Master.”
But at the same time as his voice, there was a cold question from his master: “Why are you injured?”
That fifth-tier demon beast was a brute-force creature; those few claw strikes didn’t leave marks, but they were solid internal injuries.
Wu Youqi was stunned, subconsciously asking back, “How did Master know?”
His response was a cold sneer from his master, a bottle of medicine tossed into his arms, and a healing spiritual shield that descended slowly.
At that time, everyone on the entire Qingshao Mountain only saw that he had not disgraced his mission and successfully brought the young disciples back, whole and intact.
Only his master, standing at the summit of Qingshao Peak, did not care about the failure or success of the mission, nor did he care about face or reputation, only asking him why he was hurt.
At this thought, Wu Youqi suddenly reached out to cover his left chest, laughing hysterically, his body trembling uncontrollably, giving Gu Qingyi a fright:
“Brother?”
“How could you ever see it?” Wu Youqi’s suppressed voice was twisted, hoarse and啞 (hoarse). “And where do you even have a heart?”
The one who once couldn’t bear for him to be hurt even once, in later years, had to strike that ruthless palm forcing him off the cliff.
“You don’t use your eyes to see people,” Gu Qingyi suddenly spoke, his voice small, yet very firm. “You use your heart.”
He looked at Wu Youqi’s blood-stained pupils, suddenly knelt to the edge of the hot spring, closed his eyes, and leaned over to kiss Wu Youqi’s chest:
“I can see it.”
“And I know, brother, out of your whole body, this is where it hurts the most.”