Beep
A doctor wearing surgical scrubs sighed, “Resuscitation was unsuccessful. There are really more and more young people overworking themselves at such a tender age.
Alas!”
“The time of death is 3:44 in the morning. Notify the family members outside.”
“The one who came along in the ambulance is his colleague, saying he has no family members, and also saying that if the patient isn’t in critical condition, they’ll head back first to work overtime.”
The doctor paused, “Then, what about his lover?”
“None either.”
The doctor looked at the lifeless body on the hospital bed and once again shook his head with regret.
Ruan Yaibai had a dream. In the dream, he returned to his childhood and personally forged his very first sword.
This sword was extremely ordinary. It was neither a divine artifact nor an immortal item, but simply an iron sword as ordinary as could be. Even judging purely by its appearance, it could not be defined as a real sword; it was uneven, chipped, and couldn’t even hold an edge. Perhaps if thrown outside, no one would even be willing to bend down to pick it up, yet he couldn’t help his love for this sword!
Because that was little Ah-Ruan, standing beside a smelting furnace with thousands of degrees of high heat, relying completely on his own strength to forge a small iron sword through a thousand refinement processes, blow by blow.
Even with wounds covering his hands and body, and even though the blisters on the back of his hand repeatedly scalded by burns were still throbbing with pain, the moment little Ah-Ruan lifted the iron sword, it all transformed into boundless joy.
That was his sword, unique in all the world, a sword that belonged solely to him!
Ruan Yaibai woke up, opening his eyes while a throbbing pain still pulsed through his head.
Then, he heard a burst of loud, wailing crying, the kind that hits right at the temples, making his already throbbing head hurt even more.
[System: Ao-ao, Host!! Wuwuwu, you’re finally awake, you scared me to death!!! Wuwuwu]
Ruan Yaibai pressed his temples, “Stop crying inside my head. You’re crying so hard it feels like my brain is filling with water.”
[System: Wuwuwu, Host, it’s my fault, it’s my fault! I forgot to remind you earlier! Once the spiritual power progress bar is unsealed and activated, and then drops to 0 after being used up, if you don’t engage in relations with someone within 72 hours, resulting in no progress on the progress bar, you will drop dead.]
Drop, dead?
Ruan Yaibai was dazed, taking quite a while to digest what the system was saying.
“So my near-death experience earlier was because the 72 hours were up?” His head was still throbbing in waves, and his vision was somewhat unfocused. “Suddenly seeing a bunch of resuscitation equipment, I thought I had transmigrated back!”
[System: Yes, exactly! You almost really croaked! Because there is a time difference between the two worlds, right before near-death you would see the scene of them still trying to resuscitate you in that world. Wuwuwu, Host, it was too dangerous, it was just a hair’s breadth away!]
Ruan Yaibai frowned, “Then supposing I really died, would I return to the real world?”
If, would I immediately return to that scene where resuscitation was underway?
[System: Host, you want to go back?]
Ruan Yaibai: “I don’t want to go back.”
[System: Though, but, why? Wanting to return to the real world isn’t it every transmigrator’s basic rule?]
Ruan Yaibai looked entirely calm, “Didn’t you say at the very beginning that these twenty-five years were just to let me understand a bit more about technology and modern harsh realities? I was originally a person of this world; to me, the real world feels more like a pre-arranged transmigration.”
His real world consisted of parents divorcing when he was one year old, each starting a new family, and both feeling that a child would become a burden, so neither wanted him.
He was raised by his grandmother since he was small. His grandmother’s pension wasn’t high, and she would usually set up a small stall at the school gate to sell one-yuan white magnolia flower pendants and three-yuan jasmine flower bracelets.
In the morning, his grandmother would send him to school, and in the evening, they would walk home together. His biological parents never came to see him even once, and he had no idea what his biological parents looked like, nor any interest in knowing.
His wish since childhood was to dutifully honor the grandmother who had raised him all along, but just as he stepped into society to work, his grandmother, who had always depended on him, grew old and frail, and passed away of old age.
The child wishes to support, but the parents are no longer around.
He suddenly lost his closest family member and all his attachments.
As for friends, he did have quite a few close buddies in university, but after graduation everyone went their separate ways. At first, they bantered and chatted wildly across the country in the group chat, but later everyone got jobs, girlfriends, and their own lives, so they chatted less. The group chat went from three days without anyone speaking, to a week, then a month.
However, friendship between men doesn’t care much about constant contact; it’s just that when truly needed, they will rush over at the first moment, even across mountains and oceans.
When his grandmother passed away back then, all his brothers came over overnight without a single word to help him handle his grandmother’s funeral arrangements.
That night at the funeral parlor, looking at his grandmother’s portrait and then at the group of brothers keeping vigil with him, he suddenly realized that everyone had grown up and was already capable of bearing the responsibility of their respective futures.
As for him, he always felt out of place in this world, always feeling as though some important matter was waiting for him.
After that, he numbly threw himself into work.
Only, he never expected being a corporate slave could be so difficult that it could directly cause him to die of overwork!
He was only 25 years old!!
So now would social media headlines all be news about him dying from overwork?
996, 007, really, none of these are blessings!
[System: Then in the real world, didn’t you have someone you liked? With your looks, your appearance, your figure, it’s impossible nobody chased after you.]
Ruan Yaibai expressionlessly replied, “Wise men do not fall into the river of love.”
[System: …]
Then Ruan Yaibai suddenly remembered another matter of vital importance, and as he thought about sitting up, a wave of discomfort came from his tailbone.
This feeling was a bit familiar.
“Wait, then why am I fine right now? Didn’t the 72 hours already pass and the progress bar drop to 0?!”
As he finished speaking, he raised his head to look at the progress bar above, only to discover that it was not 0, but a golden 0.48%?!
He felt thoroughly refreshed, but for some reason, a layer of goosebumps rose on his skin. “Wh-what happened?”
[System (nervously): The situation was a bit chaotic at the time, to be honest I was quite surprised myself, but after Heavenly Lord Yaoguang carried you back, he… he dual-cultivated with you.]
Ruan Yaibai let out a deep breath, feeling a sense of relief.
“You scared me, he was at 1.88% last time, and 0.48% this time. With such a big difference, I thought someone else was swapped in.”
[System: Ah?]
“Ah what ah?”
[System: No, I thought you were unwilling… Or rather, as long as it’s the Heavenly Lord, it’s fine?]
Ruan Yaibai lazily gave a yawn, “In a matter of life and death, what is there to refuse? Besides, it’s not the first time for either of us. What, did you think I would cry and wail and seek my own death over something like this?”
The system silently complained internally: Just now when you thought it wasn’t the Heavenly Lord, you weren’t looking nearly this calm, okay!
Ruan Yaibai smacked his lips and continued, “Still, Ye Tang’s performance is too unstable. Is he really not doing so well? If he’s not good, he shouldn’t bite off more than he can chew. Next time, let me mount him instead!”
[System: Host, your moral integrity has completely fallen to the ground, hasn’t it?!]
“How do you have the nerve to say that to me? Such an important matter and you actually didn’t remind me, almost making me croak! I originally planned to wait until they let down their guard against me so Bai Ruogu could take me away from Lanquque Heaven. Now with just this tiny bit of progress bar, I’m too panicked to even use it as a cushion, let alone run away!”
[System (twisting fingers): Sorry about that… Then Host, what are your plans now?]
“With just this little score, leaving is out of the question.” Ruan Yaibai pulled back the quilt, sat up, and hooked his lips into a smile, “Since that fellow Ye Tang forced me to form a pact, naturally he has to fulfill some of the responsibilities and obligations a daoist companion should, right?”
[System: Uh… I mean, looking at your expression, you don’t look forced at all.]
“Heh, once I accumulate enough points to ensure I won’t kick the bucket so easily, I’ll immediately go find my dear wives!” Ruan Yaibai curled his feet, the tips of his toes bouncing up and down, his expression truly radiant with delight, “At that time, when I return to the Wufan Nine Domains and expand my harem, will I still need to worry about the progress bar not reaching 100%?”
[System: Ah? This.]
“This what this? You surely don’t think that because I slept a few times with the one surnamed Ye, I am bound to him and him alone, do you?”
[System: Hiss, Host, we are in a pure romance novel here, okay? Saying such rebellious things is a surefire way to get flamed!]
“I just thought of a brilliant plan!”
[System: You’re giving me a bad omen.]
“How could it be a bad omen? It’s simply extremely wonderful! Right now I can’t beat Ye Tang, so I can only rely on him first to accumulate spiritual power. As you saw, his stamina down there is getting worse each time. Once I accumulate enough spiritual power, I’ll turn the tables and become the 1, squeezing out the last bit of value from his body to help me recover my spiritual power!”
“Once I squeeze him dry, I’ll kick him aside with one foot.”
Ruan Yaibai was full of triumph, his tail practically twitching up to the sky.
Just thinking about how Ye Tang would suffer a setback because of this, this trick was simply exhilarating to contemplate!
“What did Ah-Ruan just say about kicking whom aside with one foot?”
The moment this voice appeared, it startled both the system and Ruan Yaibai. Then they saw the door slowly pushed open, and Ye Tang, dressed in silver-white snow garments, walked in carrying a food tray. The exceptionally sleek and well-defined curves of his calves as he stepped across the threshold made Ruan Yaibai involuntarily swallow hard.
“If you’re awake, come over and eat something.”
Ye Tang seemed unwilling to probe further into whatever the person had just said. He simply arranged the food neatly on the table, and with obsessive-compulsive precision, insisted on adjusting the chopsticks to a comfortable angle.
Seeing that Ruan Yaibai didn’t move after finishing arrangement, he added at a leisurely pace, “What, does Ah-Ruan want me to feed you personally?”
[System: The Heavenly Lord shouldn’t have heard what you just said, right? If he heard, it’d be over.]
Ruan Yaibai: Heard it so what? Today I’ll show you step one of the brilliant plan: how to seduce a decent, upstanding man purely on skill.
[System: …]
After that, Ruan Yaibai draped a loose bathrobe over himself and walked over barefooted. Sitting down unceremoniously, he fixed a pair of seductive, charming eyes on Ye Tang. His eyelashes were long and slender, resilient and graceful like reeds, blinking in a way that seemed as though the entire brilliant starry sky were about to fall.
“Alright, then the Immortal Lord can feed me.”
Ye Tang was originally helping him dish out soup, but his hand paused upon hearing this.
Seeing this, the smile in Ruan Yaibai’s eyes deepened. Being deliberately mischievous, he leaned forward to taste the soup from the spoon in Ye Tang’s hand. After taking a careful sip, he even licked his lips, making his already scarlet lips look even fresher and more tender than if stained with rouge.
“The taste is a bit special.” Ruan Yaibai gazed at Ye Tang, a hint of intrigue in his tone, “Could it be that the Immortal Lord cooked this yourself?”
Ye Tang instinctively withdrew his hand, refusing to look at him.
Ruan Yaibai’s eyes shifted. Oh ho, he managed to guess it right on the first try?
“Your spiritual power is meager, and a long-term penance of abstaining from grain is bad for your body. Lanquque Heaven doesn’t have a dedicated chef, so.”
So the untainted Yaoguang Heavenly Lord personally cooked?
As soon as Ye Tang finished speaking and turned to leave, Ruan Yaibai grabbed his arm, pulling the unsuspecting Ye Tang down into a chair. Then, propping both hands on Ye Tang’s thighs, he leaned close to him and slightly tilted his head. “Husband, aren’t you going to feed me?”
The bathrobe was already loose to begin with, and this movement caused the collar of a certain someone to gape open completely, revealing an endless expanse of spring scenery, fully exposed.
[System (biting a handkerchief): Host, you—you you you you. you’re too seductive!!!]
Ye Tang’s expression remained calm, “Ah-Ruan doesn’t seem very hungry yet.”
“Who says so? The Immortal Lord didn’t fill me up last night.” Ruan Yaibai said as he deliberately stumbled and tumbled right into Ye Tang’s embrace, his fingers slowly sliding past the exquisite contour of someone’s earlobe. “As soon as I see my husband, I get so hungry I go dizzy, I can’t even stand, steady anymore.”