Shortly after Sheng Jiao left, the entire riverboat shook violently, accompanied by pale lightning outside the windows.
It seemed they’d engaged in battle.
Lezheng Jiu and Feng Yu were too lazy to return to their rooms, directly taking off their shoes and jumping onto Xi Jianlan’s bed, squeezing him into a corner and only giving him a tiny piece of the blanket.
“Excuse me,” Xi Jianlan said, his face pressed against the wall as he struggled. “I’m currently a dying patient. Could you two treat me like a human being?”
Lezheng Jiu and Feng Yu: “Soul-fixing spell!”
Xi Jianlan: “…………”
Ying Zhuo’s face was ugly, but he didn’t dare interfere with his shixiong’s affairs. He could only ignore what he couldn’t bear to see and left with a flick of his sleeves.
“Hey, this attacker has pretty high cultivation. Why hasn’t Sheng Jiao come back after fighting for so long?” Feng Yu lay sprawled out, muttering.
Lezheng Jiu said sarcastically: “Maybe Sect Master Sheng’s cultivation isn’t as good as theirs. Tsk, looks like Void Return realm, Tianyan pearls, ‘Worthy of Heaven’s Way,’ and being Xiezhi Sect Master isn’t much after all. Heh!”
…He completely disparaged Sheng Jiao.
Xi Jianlan struggled to turn over, trying hard to pull back the pillows they’d monopolized.
The two noble heads remained unmoved. Xi Jianlan pulled left and right but couldn’t reclaim them, so he gave each of them a kick: “Are you still children, fighting me for bed space?”
Feng Yu said lazily: “Didn’t we often do this at the academy? Stop being dramatic and lie down—the blanket’s letting in cold air.”
“Back then you only took up that much space, but now…”
Xi Jianlan had meant to scold them, but immediately regretted speaking, silently cursing himself.
Sure enough, these two never missed a chance to mock his height. They grinned wickedly and simultaneously patted their heads.
Feng Yu said: “Yes, yes, back then we only took up that little space. How is it that today just two people fill up the whole bed? Hey Lezheng Jiu, why do you think that is?”
Lezheng Jiu: “Naturally because you and I have grown tall and robust. Unlike some people who, despite being older than us, just won’t grow. Sigh, so pitiful—and if you get my name wrong again, I’ll kill you.”
Xi Jianlan: “……”
Xi Jianlan pounced: “I’ll kill you both!!”
The three immediately began wrestling on the narrow bed.
When Sheng Jiao returned to the riverboat expressionlessly, Xi Jianlan was sitting alone wearing only thin underclothes and Sheng Jiao’s outer robe, drinking tea.
Though it was midsummer, the ten-thousand-zhang altitude was cold as winter. The hot tea produced wisps of white mist.
Smoke curled around his picturesque features.
Sheng Jiao walked over slowly, reaching toward his teacup.
Xi Jianlan couldn’t sleep at night if he drank tea—he’d stare wide-eyed until dawn. He let Sheng Jiao’s hand brush past his fingers to take the cup, asking: “Where are they?”
“Core self-destruction.”
Xi Jianlan was shocked.
A Void Return realm core self-destruction was no small matter—if mishandled, it could level everything within a hundred li. With such a huge commotion, how had the riverboat not been pulverized, only shaking a bit?
Was Sheng Jiao’s cultivation really just Void Return realm?
“Were you injured?”
“No.”
Xi Jianlan imperceptibly sighed in relief.
Seeing Sheng Jiao turn to return to his room, Xi Jianlan got up and followed like a little tail.
Sheng Jiao looked back at him.
Xi Jianlan innocently pointed to the cabin: “My bed was broken by Feng Yu and Lezheng Jiu—I can’t sleep.”
Sheng Jiao frowned.
The bed in the cabin was completely shattered. Lezheng Jiu and Feng Yu, probably afraid Sheng Jiao would beat them when he returned, had already fled.
Sheng Jiao said nothing and continued forward.
This attitude was tacit permission.
Xi Jianlan happily followed.
The riverboat cabins were all similarly furnished. Xi Jianlan skillfully took off his shoes, climbed onto the bed, and lay in the middle hugging the blanket, completely at home.
Sheng Jiao never slept, sitting cross-legged in meditation with closed eyes.
Xi Jianlan took a few sips of tea, his drowsiness instantly gone, tilting his head to look at Sheng Jiao.
Sheng Jiao was always upright, his broad and tall figure like an immovable snow mountain.
His face was stern, and the Tianyan pearls hung obediently on his bony wrist. For some reason, they had changed from their usual blue lightning pattern; all 106 pearls were dim and lifeless.
Xi Jianlan keenly sensed something and kicked Sheng Jiao’s knee.
“Sheng Jiao?”
Sheng Jiao did not respond, not even a flicker of his brow.
Xi Jianlan tried his trump card: “Sheng Wuzhuo?”
No matter how much Xi Jianlan acted recklessly before, as long as he called “Sheng Wuzhuo,” Sheng Jiao would respond even if he was angry.
But now, Sheng Jiao’s lips were pale and unresponsive, as if he had entered meditation.
Xi Jianlan frowned slightly and climbed beside him, reaching out to touch Sheng Jiao’s face.
Frost crystals formed on Sheng Jiao’s brow, like rime, even on his black hair. But his face was as hot as boiling lava, burning Xi Jianlan’s hand, making him pull back.
Sheng Jiao closed his eyes and fully entered meditation. The “Worthy of Heaven’s Way” spiritual power slowly circulated in his meridians. If he opened his eyes, golden Tianyan energy would surely flow through his dark pupils.
Xi Jianlan’s eyes were heavy.
It seemed that the core self-destruction of a Void Return realm cultivator did not leave Sheng Jiao unscathed.
Xi Jianlan sat opposite Sheng Jiao, staring intently at that cold face.
Suddenly, a familiar golden pattern flashed in those beautiful eyes.
After a brief flash, Xi Jianlan suddenly said with disgust, “Shut up!”
Silence fell.
No one spoke.
Xi Jianlan reached out to Sheng Jiao, his fingertip lightly tracing Sheng Jiao’s features, saying softly, “Why would he want to kill me?”
He seemed to be persuading someone, or perhaps deceiving himself.
His pale fingertip lightly touched Sheng Jiao’s thin lips and paused.
Xi Jianlan stared for a long time, then suddenly stepped forward, pressing two fingers like a blade hard against Sheng Jiao’s life gate on his neck.
At that moment, Xi Jianlan’s expression was cold and merciless. Some unknown spiritual power made the fingertips sharp like wind blades, instantly slashing a fierce blood mark on Sheng Jiao’s neck.
—Only half a centimeter away from injecting poisonous blood into Sheng Jiao’s life gate meridians, killing the Xiezhi Sect sect master in this small bed chamber.
Sheng Jiao remained motionless, his divine sense sinking into his inner core, defenselessly meditating and calming his mind.
Perhaps because Xi Jianlan had been so obedient these days, neither fiercely fighting and killing him nor acting wildly, this docility seemed like a false illusion of youth, making Sheng Jiao knowingly enter meditation to adjust his breath but still let Xi Jianlan follow.
Xi Jianlan’s hand slowly sank, his cold and merciless eyes staring at the blood flowing down Sheng Jiao’s neck.
“He wants to kill me,” Xi Jianlan thought expressionlessly. “I don’t want to die, so I must kill him first.”
Human nature is selfish; everyone would try to survive when facing danger.
Sheng Jiao was unguarded in meditation. This was the best opportunity.
Sheng Jiao’s eyes half-closed. After six years, his features were even more handsome and solemn than in his youth, cold as frost, like a biting winter wind that could strip flesh with a light blow.
For some reason, Xi Jianlan’s steady hand suddenly trembled, as if touched by lightning, quickly pulling back.
Blood seeped from Sheng Jiao’s neck into his black clothes, filling the small bed chamber with a faint metallic scent.
Xi Jianlan stared blankly for a long time, then suddenly bent down, resting his forehead between Sheng Jiao’s knees, trembling all over, finally letting out a choked sob.
Sheng Jiao’s Tianyan spiritual power silently healed the wound on his neck, leaving no scar.
Xi Jianlan’s eyes reddened slightly, curling up beside Sheng Jiao, resting his head on his leg, staring blankly into space.
The riverboat had been sailing for a day and night, completely leaving Central State and silently entering the Southern Territory.
It was summer, and the Southern Territory was rainy. Ice crystals formed by the cold high altitude pelted the top of the riverboat.
The rain cloud was so vast that the riverboat took two or three hours to finally leave at dawn. The mechanical wooden wings were pocked with frozen rain, but barely able to continue flying.
The first ray of morning sun shone through the carved window onto the bed.
Xi Jianlan woke groggily, sitting cross-legged, dozing on and off for a long time before his feet felt light and he got out of bed, opening the half-open window.
The rising sun, the boundless sea of clouds.
Looking out, the cloud piles looked like snow heaps, with pavilions and terraces faintly visible, like a mortal’s fairyland.
—That was the “Nine Heavens” of the Southern Territory.
It should have taken two days from Central State to the Southern Territory, but Ying Zhuo’s riverboat was much faster than the usual ones carrying hundreds or thousands of people, arriving in a day and a night.
Xi Jianlan was still dazed from waking, weakly looking at the sea of clouds.
When he became more clear-headed, he suddenly realized what he had done last night.
He seemed to have almost killed Sheng Jiao.
Xi Jianlan: “……”
Xi Jianlan suddenly became fully awake, quickly running back and pulling aside the bed curtain.
Sheng Jiao was still sitting on the bed in meditation, the wound on his neck completely healed, without a single scratch. But his black clothes were obviously darker in one spot—that was the blood Sheng Jiao had shed last night.
Xi Jianlan’s face turned green.
Estimating it would be another hour before they truly entered Nine Heavens City, Xi Jianlan cautiously tried: “Wuzhuo? Sheng Wuzhuo?”
Sheng Wuzhuo still had no response.
Xi Jianlan breathed a sigh of relief and quickly tiptoed forward, sneakingly untying Sheng Jiao’s waist sash.
He had to destroy Sheng Jiao’s clothes to prevent him from punishing him later.
Fortunately, Sheng Jiao’s clothes were simple, not as fancy as Xi Jianlan’s many layers, so they were easy to remove.
Holding his breath, Xi Jianlan carefully untied Sheng Jiao’s waist sash, then went to undo his robe’s ties, hoping Sheng Jiao would delay his return to consciousness.
Just as Xi Jianlan was stealthily removing the outer robe and about to undo the inner clothes, the door suddenly slammed heavily.
“Xi Jue, get up quickly, we’ve reached Nine Heavens City!”
Xi Jianlan’s hand trembled, nearly scaring his soul out of his body.
He silently ground his teeth. Seeing that Sheng Jiao hadn’t awakened yet, he said irritably: “I know.”
Feng Yu had no sense of timing and continued chattering outside the door: “We really came at the perfect time. I just saw on the rhino horn lamp that today happens to be the annual courtesan selection day at Hongchen Shijun Tower. There’ll be quite a show to watch.”
Xi Jianlan was already guilty from his sneaky actions, and fearing Feng Yu would wake Sheng Jiao, he said through gritted teeth: “Can’t you just shut up?”
“Oh.” Feng Yu shut up, but after a moment lowered his voice and asked slyly: “Early in the morning like this, are you two doing something improper?”
Xi Jianlan: “……”
Xi Jianlan: “Get lost—”
Feng Yu laughed heartily and cheerfully rolled away.
Xi Jianlan was furious and continued stealthily untying Sheng Jiao’s inner robe ties, trembling as he pulled down the bloodstained clothing.
Just as he was hesitating whether to lift Sheng Jiao’s arm to remove the sleeve, he suddenly felt a gaze silently falling from above.
Xi Jianlan’s breathing stopped.
Then, Sheng Jiao’s rock-steady aura quietly changed. His divine sense, which had been sunk into his inner core for meditation, gradually returned. The frost between his brows melted, turning to water droplets that slid down his chiseled features.
“Drip,” it fell onto Xi Jianlan’s hand.
Xi Jianlan trembled violently all over, miserably raising his head bit by bit.
From the chin, to the thin lips, the nose tip…
No matter how slowly Xi Jianlan moved, he finally met Sheng Jiao’s opened pitch-black eyes.
At this moment, Sheng Jiao’s clothes were half-undone, his upper body nearly naked. Xi Jianlan, like a thief trying to remove his sleeves, was practically half-pressed against his chest.
One snow-white jade-like hand with slightly curved joints still rested on Sheng Jiao’s shoulder, creating an inexplicably ambiguous and sensual scene.
Xi Jianlan: “……”
Sheng Jiao: “……”
##
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
