The matter was tentatively set as Shen Guhan and Ye Jinyun forming a bond, and the elders all turned into streaks of white light and left, each to attend to their own affairs.
Before leaving, the Sword Sect sect master even offered Ye Jinyun a few words of encouragement before disappearing.
The enormous discussion hall was left with only Shen Guhan and Ye Jinyun.
Looking at Ye Jinyun, who had wariness hidden in his eyes, Shen Guhan found him like a little beast just born into the world, wild and alluring.
“Not leaving?” Shen Guhan turned and walked two steps. Seeing that Ye Jinyun still had not moved, he asked.
Ye Jinyun nodded, then shook his head.
“What, are you afraid I’ll eat you?” Shen Guhan raised a brow, his gaze falling on Ye Jinyun’s slightly red lips.
Being scrutinized so nakedly by Shen Guhan’s gaze, Ye Jinyun first clenched both fists, then loosened them, and smiled at Shen Guhan with relief. “How could that be?”
He could not figure out what Shen Guhan really wanted to do. But with his current ability, he could not resist Shen Guhan, and the vigilance in his heart made him face Shen Guhan’s words and actions with even greater caution.
“Heh…” Shen Guhan let out a light laugh. Like a spring breeze brushing over the face, in that instant, all the light dimmed before him.
“Aside from your body wrapped in three layers of snow, who in the world is fit to wear white?” Ye Jinyun, however, felt that the Shen Guhan in black clothes at this moment was even more impressive.
“Give me your hand.” Shen Guhan held out his hand toward Ye Jinyun and said.
“What for?” Ye Jinyun asked.
“The Sword Sect is so big, are you planning to rely on walking?” Seeing Ye Jinyun’s face full of suspicion, Shen Guhan smiled at him.
But in Ye Jinyun’s eyes, that smile carried an inexplicable trace of wickedness.
“Where are we going?” Ye Jinyun hesitated as he moved closer to Shen Guhan, but still kept a step’s distance.
“Trial is about to begin, and you still aren’t forming a bond?” Shen Guhan looked as if he did not understand, then suddenly said in realization, “Could it be you want to do it here?”
“Of course not…”
Ye Jinyun was at a loss for words. Although Shen Guhan was forming a bond with him to help him communicate with spiritual energy, and had no indecent thoughts, he somehow heard a tone of desire in Shen Guhan’s voice.
Seeing Ye Jinyun, whom he had teased until there was nowhere to hide, Shen Guhan suddenly found it dull and withdrew the smile from his face. Turning around, he walked toward the steps and said, “Let’s go.”
Faced with Shen Guhan’s sudden change in expression, Ye Jinyun suddenly felt a little panicked. He suppressed that uncomfortable feeling and silently followed behind Shen Guhan.
After walking for about a few hours, the sun had tilted westward.
Shen Guhan half-narrowed his phoenix eyes and looked back at Ye Jinyun, who had fallen dozens of zhang behind him, then stopped.
At this point, Ye Jinyun looked as though he had just been pulled from the water, sweat covering his entire body.
Shen Guhan stood still, his gaze cold. In his view, Ye Jinyun’s body, with its damaged bones and meridians, was far too weak, so weak that there was no need for him to do anything at all for Ye Jinyun to die on the path to becoming an immortal.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting.” Ye Jinyun struggled over to Shen Guhan’s front, panting heavily, and did not offer any explanation for his slow pace.
The afterglow fell on Ye Jinyun’s body, so gorgeous that it made Shen Guhan’s heart beat fiercely.
Again like this, Shen Guhan once more could not control himself. As if bewitched by something, he carefully studied Ye Jinyun’s brows and eyes, staring until Ye Jinyun grew uneasy.
“What are you looking at?” Ye Jinyun uneasily twisted his shoulders and stepped back.
“Nothing…” Shen Guhan came back to his senses. “Are you tired from walking?”
Shen Guhan’s attitude changed very quickly, sometimes good, sometimes bad. Ye Jinyun could not make sense of him, so he did not want to say more, and only replied, “It’s fine.”
Shen Guhan narrowed his eyes and smiled faintly, then wrapped his arm around Ye Jinyun’s waist.
In an instant, Ye Jinyun felt the world spin, and in the blink of an eye, he had arrived at a blessed land.
Shen Guhan withdrew his hand. This was his cave dwelling in the Sword Sect, and it was best to form a bond with Ye Jinyun here.
“Do you want to bathe first?” Shen Guhan pointed at the spiritual pool to one side, which was giving off mist. “This will be good for your body.”
Ye Jinyun shook his head.
Shen Guhan frowned. “You sweated a lot just now.”
Ye Jinyun widened his eyes and blinked rapidly several times before he understood that Shen Guhan was looking down on him.
Ye Jinyun’s unease was naturally seen clearly by Shen Guhan. He looked at Ye Jinyun’s hand pressed against his belt, seeming to hesitate over whether to remove it or not, and sneered, “You and I are both men, why be so shy.”
Although he said that, Shen Guhan’s gaze was still fixed on Ye Jinyun’s hand, not moving even a bit.
Perhaps because the spiritual energy inside the cave was too abundant, a flush of red surged onto Ye Jinyun’s face, though it might also have been from anger.
However, this had nothing to do with Shen Guhan. He appreciated beauty, after all, a matter of human nature.
In the end, Ye Jinyun simply jumped into the spiritual pool fully clothed and soaked there.
The spiritual energy of the pool spread throughout the entire pool. Ye Jinyun was faintly visible within it, like a banished immortal, but in Shen Guhan’s eyes he looked more like top-grade lotus root, and even from afar one could smell wave after wave of mouthwatering fragrance, making one’s appetite surge.
The expression on Shen Guhan’s face did not change, but in his heart he instead felt that it was rather interesting.
He stepped forward, placed a hand on Ye Jinyun’s shoulder, and breathed, “Don’t move.”
……
After Ye Jinyun finished bathing and changed into a loose black dao robe, he kept glancing at Shen Guhan’s hand again and again, his gaze complicated and strange, the confusion in his eyes impossible to voice.
Shen Guhan was very satisfied with this, took Ye Jinyun’s hand, and walked into the quiet chamber.
Ye Jinyun’s hand was the kind unique to a young man, with distinct knuckles and a thin layer of callus on the fingertips, resilient and strong. Shen Guhan lightly held it, as if holding a piece of unpolished jade, though the feel was somewhat different from that thing’s hand.
So he rubbed it with malicious amusement, and saw Ye Jinyun’s good-looking peach blossom eyes blink rapidly twice, the light-colored pupils seeming somewhat flustered.
“What are you doing?” As someone who had remained a straight man through two lifetimes, Ye Jinyun’s heart was already surging like waves after what had just happened, and at this moment he was somewhat dazed.
Seeing that Ye Jinyun was still not back to himself, like a puppet on strings, Shen Guhan kept the smile at the corner of his lips and continued gently stroking Ye Jinyun’s hand, his fingers hooking little by little.
“Is it done yet?” Ye Jinyun stiffened his body and let Shen Guhan do as he pleased. By the end, he was a little impatient. Although he had never formed a bond, he had never eaten pork but had seen pigs run, and had also seen others form bonds. How could it be this slow.
He felt that Shen Guhan was toying with him, just, just like earlier…
Shen Guhan was still unhurried, his fingers moving little by little, his phoenix eyes half-lidded, his gaze always falling on Ye Jinyun’s hand, and he said, “Your spirit root has been destroyed. I am searching for your meridians, don’t rush.”
“Then have you found them?” Ye Jinyun really felt unbearably itchy, and his fingers trembled slightly.
After a while, Shen Guhan finally raised his head and looked over Ye Jinyun’s face. Light slanted down onto the youth’s exquisite side profile, forming a halo, the fine down on his skin shimmering, his sharp sword-like brows relaxing, the tip of his nose covered in a fine layer of sweat, as if he were enduring with great restraint. Shen Guhan’s lips curved, and only then did he leisurely say, “Steady your mind.”
Ye Jinyun froze, inwardly cursing that he had been played by Shen Guhan again.
“Listen to me, close your eyes.” At this point, Shen Guhan instead looked like a proper gentleman, speaking solemnly to Ye Jinyun.
Why should he close his eyes for a bond, Ye Jinyun was suspicious, but seeing Shen Guhan’s serious expression, he still did as Shen Guhan said.
Seeing Ye Jinyun obediently comply, Shen Guhan drew a talisman in the air, and then also closed his eyes.
At the same time, his left hand tightly held Ye Jinyun’s right hand, and his divine sense slowly entered Ye Jinyun’s sea of consciousness.
Ye Jinyun’s sea of consciousness was a field of gold. Shen Guhan’s divine sense, taking human form, floated above Ye Jinyun’s sea of consciousness, and with a light wave of his hand, said, “Come out.”
A miniature Ye Jinyun then appeared from within it. “What’s happening to me?”
“Don’t speak.” Shen Guhan approached Ye Jinyun. “Give me your hand.”
Before Ye Jinyun could extend his hand, Shen Guhan quickly gripped Ye Jinyun’s hand.
With their hands joined, in an instant Shen Guhan felt his whole body relax, indescribably comfortable. Just as he wanted to savor it a little longer, Ye Jinyun’s little spirit, lacking sufficient divine sense, returned to the sea of consciousness once more.
Coming out of Ye Jinyun’s sea of consciousness, Shen Guhan only felt his whole body burning hot. Suppressing the discomfort in his body, he said, “The dao bond has been formed.”
At the same time, the awakened Ye Jinyun was not nearly as composed as Shen Guhan. One could see a thin layer of sweat covering his forehead and the tip of his nose, sparkling in the sunlight, making his features even more handsome.
“From today on, I, Shen Guhan, form a bond with you, Ye Jinyun. Your fate is now linked with mine, do you understand?” Shen Guhan said after calming his discomfort.
Ye Jinyun nodded blankly.