By his Nth reincarnation, Ye Zi’an had gone completely numb. The passion and drive he’d started with were long gone.
The system randomly assigned the time and place of each reincarnation to some plot node. He came awake groggy, listening to the system report the day’s mission progress while he sat up and looked around.
The room was far too familiar.
How could it not be?
He’d died and come back and died and come back so many times that he knew exactly how many ants and how many trees there were on this mountain. The only thing he still couldn’t figure out was Liu Huaiyuan, whose appetite for drama was bottomless.
Then a faint stir brushed his ear, and a lazy, listless voice sounded beside him.
“Senior Brother, did you sleep well last night?”
Ye Zi’an nearly jumped out of his skin. He followed the voice and saw the youth lounging at the table, head tilted slightly to look at him. Those phoenix eyes were bright and full of feeling, the corners crinkled in a smile.
He wore a white Daoist robe and a high ponytail, a black ribbon tied at the back of his head fluttering in the wind.
The whole of him brimmed with youth, like a willow bud just pushing out on the branch, tender and bursting with life, bold and unbridled.
!!!
Ye Zi’an’s brain nearly short-circuited. Where exactly had the system’s random reincarnation point dropped him this time?
He looked closer and realized he was unmistakably in Liu Huaiyuan’s room. The reincarnation point had actually randomized onto this black-hearted bastard’s bed. Was that reasonable?
“Senior Brother has only just arrived. I’m afraid your Junior Brother here can’t accept such generous hospitality.” Liu Huaiyuan watched him with a touch of mockery.
Ye Zi’an’s heart lurched.
He fought to keep his expression unchanged, rubbed his head, and acted like a man badly hungover. “Tianlan Sect’s terrain is complicated, and I haven’t been here long. Taking a wrong turn… is understandable.”
Wrong turn, my ass!
No matter how carefully he’d planned, Ye Zi’an could never have guessed the system would randomize him here.
The original host’s identity was the head disciple under the Hehuan Sect’s sect master.
He’d met Liu Huaiyuan while doing an “exchange student” stint at Tianlan Sect. He had high ambitions and high standards. One look at Liu Huaiyuan’s aptitude, plus a face prettier than any woman’s, and he got ideas. He schemed to tumble into bed with the man and boost his cultivation.
Liu Huaiyuan was outwardly friendly with him and acted warmly enough, but now it was clear that this had simply been his usual method for handling ordinary people.
The only thing was, the original host had misread him.
He’d actually believed Liu Huaiyuan returned his feelings. When he went to confess, he was naturally rejected. But he couldn’t swallow the humiliation. When soft tactics failed, he decided to play rough and force himself on the man.
He figured a tall, rich, handsome catch like himself was practically throwing himself at the man, so no one in their right mind would refuse. The outcome was predictable.
Ye Zi’an suddenly felt that Liu Huaiyuan’s urge to kill him wasn’t so unreasonable after all.
But Liu Huaiyuan didn’t respond. He just stared at him fixedly. He didn’t have to open his mouth for Ye Zi’an to read the two big words on his face: “Don’t believe you.”
They stayed locked like that for a moment. The smile in Liu Huaiyuan’s eyes deepened, and he poured a cup of tea himself, carried it to the bedside, and handed it over. “I see.”
“Tianlan Sect’s terrain really is complicated. It must have been so hard on Senior Brother.”
He said it unhurriedly, as though chatting about the weather.
How could Ye Zi’an miss the meaning underneath? He was a disciple from another sect. Liu Huaiyuan was in the east, he was in the west.
He’d have to be blind to take a wrong turn here.
Ye Zi’an felt his guilt written all over his face, but all he could do was play along.
“It’s getting late. If Senior Brother keeps sitting here, I’m afraid it’ll invite unnecessary gossip.” Liu Huaiyuan picked up the clothes strewn across the floor himself, folded them neatly, and set them gently by his hand.
“Right, exactly, Junior Brother is right. I’ll pack up and go!”
Ye Zi’an didn’t dare dawdle. Smiling along, he hurriedly gathered his clothes, and in his fluster something dropped out of the pile.
A black dagger.
Looking closer, it was identical to the dagger Liu Huaiyuan had used to kill him not long ago. Or rather, it was the very one.
A threat. This had to be Liu Huaiyuan’s threat!
…
Ye Zi’an was still turning it over in his mind when Liu Huaiyuan calmly walked over and took the dagger back from his hand.
“What’s Senior Brother standing there for? Is there a problem?”
Seeing Ye Zi’an’s stunned look, Liu Huaiyuan’s eyes darkened slightly, some nameless thought slowly spreading outward from their depths.
Five times now. This bizarre situation had gone on five times.
Every time this senior brother of his died, he himself would inexplicably reincarnate the next day.
At first he’d only noticed that the man’s shell had been taken over by a foreign soul from somewhere. He’d kindly put him out of his misery, never expecting that the next day he’d reincarnate back into the darkest period of his childhood.
Five times in a row, no exception.
And the foreign soul never appeared at a fixed time.
Sooner or later, once he killed the other, the next day he’d reincarnate without fail, as if trapped in some strange loop.
Liu Huaiyuan had waited days, sparing Ye Zi’an’s life precisely to wait for this foreign soul to appear. He hadn’t expected it to show up so early this time.
It was even on guard against him, eyes full of wariness.
As though it had already seen through the hideous truth behind his gentle mask.
But if this time it died while fully aware, would the outcome be different?
“Then, I, I won’t disturb you any longer, Junior Brother. Get some rest. I’ll be going!” Ye Zi’an threw on his clothes and made to slip away.
He was so mortified he wanted the floor to swallow him whole. Once he got out, he was definitely going to have words with the system.
Liu Huaiyuan only smiled without a word, quietly watching Ye Zi’an’s fleeing back.
The moment he pushed the door open, a crowd that had been waiting outside for a long while swarmed him and pushed him back into the room. The whole group surrounded him and the mild-looking Liu Huaiyuan.
“…Senior Brother Ye and Senior Brother Liu really are a match made in heaven, a pair of immortal lovers!”
“…Such a perfect match, truly the envy of everyone. You two senior brothers are in such harmony…”
…
Ye Zi’an wanted to ram his head into a wall and die on the spot.
He’d actually forgotten something so important!
Not only had the original host forced himself on Liu Huaiyuan, he’d also stationed several disciples at Liu Huaiyuan’s door. The whole point was mutual ruin: he meant to destroy Liu Huaiyuan’s reputation and make the man give in.
Liu Huaiyuan watched him now with a faint smile, saying nothing.
A few tactless busybodies kept shoving Ye Zi’an toward Liu Huaiyuan, ignoring his pointed looks.
The room was packed with people, while Liu Huaiyuan sat calmly at the table, turned slightly sideways, utterly undisturbed.
Ye Zi’an was shoved this way and that, and before he noticed, he tripped over a foot and toppled backward, landing squarely in Liu Huaiyuan’s lap.
His back pressed against Liu Huaiyuan’s lean chest. The youth’s breath fell by his neck, carrying a faint medicinal scent that slipped straight into Ye Zi’an’s nose.
“…Junior Brother, if I said this was all a misunderstanding, would you believe me?”
“It’s all right, I believe Senior Brother.” Liu Huaiyuan’s tone was gentle, his voice low. Nothing in his words suggested the slightest doubt, and he even helped him up.
But his words brought Ye Zi’an no comfort at all.
Still shaken, still remembering the agony of that fatal wound in his chest, the young man hurriedly got up and edged back, putting distance between them.
At that, Liu Huaiyuan’s gaze sharpened a fraction. He’d seen the avoidance and the wariness, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly into a faint, unreadable smile.
The man was handsome to begin with, and his smile was even more radiant, yet it sent a chill down his spine.
“Still, I think what Junior Brother and the others said isn’t without sense. Senior Brother says he has no such feelings for me, but as for me and Senior Brother, I…”
!
The moment the words left Liu Huaiyuan’s mouth, the room went dead silent.
The hired disciples around them kept shooting questioning looks at Ye Zi’an. This wasn’t what they’d agreed on.
Ever since Liu Huaiyuan had publicly rejected Ye Zi’an last time, he still treated people as before, but anyone with eyes could see the faint, drifting sense of distance about him.
Even up until last night, Ye Zi’an had been pestering him relentlessly, and Liu Huaiyuan looked at him like he was a demon and couldn’t get away fast enough.
And yet one night of tumbling in bed had produced such a miraculous effect!
Could this be the secret of the Hehuan Sect? Ye Zi’an was forced to endure the shocked and admiring looks around him, and in alarm hurried to cut Liu Huaiyuan off.
“Enough! You can’t believe every rumor on this mountain!”
This time around, perhaps because Liu Huaiyuan’s true face had already been exposed, his favorability had gone from being checkable only after Ye Zi’an’s death to being visible in real time.
So Ye Zi’an heard the system notify him:
『Liu Huaiyuan’s favorability has dropped another 5 points. Current value: -15.』
He forced himself to hold it in and not tear into Liu Huaiyuan on the spot.
Ye Zi’an shot a glance at Liu Huaiyuan, who was clearly enjoying the show, and nearly ground his back teeth to powder. “If you all have time to waste standing around here, you’d be better off spending it on cultivation.”
He used that as an excuse to flee, and on his way out he didn’t forget to shove the whole group out of Liu Huaiyuan’s room one by one.
He’d barely made it out into the corridor and hadn’t even had time to breathe when the person beside him, not yet steady on his feet, rushed to say, “Senior Brother, when are you going to pay the 3,000 spirit stones you promised us…”
“You told us to be your witnesses in front of Senior Brother Liu. We’d say we’ve done that, haven’t we?”
…
Just then Liu Huaiyuan happened to walk out to see him off. Hearing this, his smile didn’t fade. Catching Ye Zi’an’s frozen expression, he kindly came to the rescue. “Senior Brother has only just arrived. If money is tight, I can cover it for you.”
Ye Zi’an: “…”
You really have to make this awkward, huh?