A hand quickly grabbed Zhou Xuanlan, and the splashing water sound subsided.
Zhou Xuanlan stared at the screen, hearing dripping sounds from the warm pool behind him. The person in the pool seemed to be removing his clothes. After a while, a different hand grabbed his arm.
After Shen Liuxiang had roughly bathed, with swaying vision, he picked up the clothes laid out on the shore. After fumbling for a long time, he put them on one by one as Zhou Xuanlan had instructed, tugged at his sleeve, and said, “Done.”
Zhou Xuanlan lifted him out of the bath pool, seeing he was still wet, put his hand on Shen Liuxiang’s hair, and used spiritual energy to dry it.
“Just now, why were you afraid to look at me?” Shen Liuxiang was unsteady, and had to rest his forehead against Zhou Xuanlan’s shoulder.
Zhou Xuanlan’s face was cold: “It’s not fear, it’s lack of interest in you.”
“Then who are you interested in?”
“…No one.”
Zhou Xuanlan led him out of the bathroom, fed him the sobering soup. After drinking it, Shen Liuxiang went to the bed curtains, crouched down, pointing at the large bed, and asked, “If I sleep here, will I be thrown out?”
Zhou Xuanlan: “This is your room.”
So Shen Liuxiang slowly collapsed onto the bed. Tired from the exertion in the bath pool, he didn’t cause a fuss, quietly closing his eyes.
The room was silent for a while. Standing by the bed, Zhou Xuanlan bent down, his fingers lifting Shen Liuxiang’s chin, his gaze wandering over the fair face, looking repeatedly.
He hadn’t noticed before that this person had such a good appearance, quite the talent for enchanting people.
Zhou Xuanlan snorted coldly and released his hand, turning to return to his sleeping palace.
The next day, before dawn, Shen Liuxiang sobered up, holding his forehead as he rushed to the sleeping palace to talk about last night’s matters.
Zhou Xuanlan sat up from the bed: “I won’t give the reverse scale to the Imperial Palace. You’ve found the wrong person.”
Shen Liuxiang frowned slightly. Zhou Xuanlan glanced at him, “I need to go to Yanming City today.”
Shen Liuxiang’s eyebrow moved slightly. Going outside, there might be a chance to contact the Imperial Palace, so he said: “I’ll go too.”
Zhou Xuanlan got up: “You have the reverse scale, naturally you have to follow.”
***
The streets of Yanming City were bustling with people, lively and vibrant.
Zhou Xuanlan withdrew his pressure: “I need to leave for a moment. You stay in the city on your own.”
Gu Tie was here, and he was going to look for him.
Shen Liuxiang pinched his empty purse. The spirit stones he had earned in the Devil Realm were used up, and now he was completely penniless, unable to even drink a mouthful of water in the city.
He said: “Give me some spirit stones.”
Zhou Xuanlan said: “Why should I give you any?”
“Back during the sect’s grand competition, you deliberately lost the match, causing me to lose ten thousand spirit stones!”
Shen Liuxiang covered his heart, saying that even after many years, thinking about it still cut him like a knife. “I consider myself your creditor, don’t try to deny it.”
Zhou Xuanlan saw his heartbroken appearance, raised an eyebrow slightly, guessing there might really be such a matter, but said: “It’s just your word, I don’t remember this. Besides, why should something your disciple did be counted against me, making me pay for it?”
Shen Liuxiang widened his eyes, thinking this was standard shamelessness!
He cursed inwardly, extending his open right hand toward Zhou Xuanlan.
“Not giving.”
Shen Liuxiang extended his open left hand.
“Not giving.”
Shen Liuxiang extended both open hands together, and Zhou Xuanlan said with a half-smile: “I said no…”
Before he could finish speaking, a small white-robed, gold-crowned figure appeared.
The Nascent Soul stood on Shen Liuxiang’s hand, imitating the begging gesture, raising two soft white little hands, looking up and saying in a tender voice: “This lord’s brother, please give some spirit stones.”
Zhou Xuanlan had never seen such a way of asking for spirit stones. Looking at the large and small figures, he was silent for a while, but his thin lips couldn’t help but curve slightly as he placed the storage pouch in Shen Liuxiang’s palm: “Enough for you to buy the entire city.”
Shen Liuxiang happily accepted.
After the person left, he walked on the street, tossing the storage pouch with one hand, looking around.
To avoid causing a disturbance, Shen Liuxiang used a disguise technique, searching in the city for a way to send a message to the Imperial Palace. Inadvertently, he heard noise coming from a building.
Shen Liuxiang approached and saw the large characters “Po Qiong Chamber” on the door plaque.
This was a commercial chamber that appeared ten years ago, involved in many fields. One could buy and sell information inside, accept and send tasks, and it was also a place for auctions, already quite famous across the continent.
Shen Liuxiang entered, just in time to hear the muffled sound of a transaction: “Five hundred thousand spirit stones, third call, sold.”
Shen Liuxiang was surprised, thinking that such a large amount of spirit stones wasn’t something an ordinary cultivator could afford. While pondering, he saw a familiar-looking black stone being carried past him by five Foundation Establishment cultivators, heading toward the elegant rooms upstairs.
“Young Master Xu is indeed wealthy and generous, not even blinking at five hundred thousand spirit stones!”
“This is the Xu family, the continent’s number one artifact-forging family’s young master. Such extravagance isn’t surprising.”
“Don’t be shocked by what you’re not used to seeing. This is the Three Lives Stone from the Demon Capital back then. There are only three in the world, with the other two in the Imperial Palace and Qinglin Sect. For such a treasure, five hundred thousand is nothing! Believe it or not, people would buy it for five million spirit stones!”
“What?! Then why did Young Master Xu Ziyue call out five hundred thousand earlier, and no one raised the price?”
“Stupid! He’s the Emperor’s own cousin, who would dare to compete! Who doesn’t know nowadays that the Xu family is backed by the Emperor? In recent years, they’ve completely changed their former style, acting high-profile from top to bottom. It seems they want to become the continent’s number one family.”
“Then hasn’t our Po Qiong Chamber lost out!”
“Nothing can be done, we can only accept our bad luck. Who told Xu Ziyue to be favored by the Emperor? Before he came to the demon realm, the Emperor gave him a jade pendant, rumored to have a soul imprint!”
“Sigh, say no more. Because of this soul imprint, Xu Ziyue has been showing off everywhere in the demon realm, arrogant and presumptuous to the extreme, yet no one can do anything about him.”
“Shh! He’s here!”
One person at the front knocked on the door: “Young Master, we few humble ones have brought the Three Lives Stone.”
No one answered from inside. Just as this person was about to knock again, a group of attendants walked out of the elegant room, surrounding the Three Lives Stone and the few Foundation Establishment cultivators.
The atmosphere froze. A young man dressed in luxurious clothes, wearing a purple jade crown, appeared. His gaze didn’t fall on the Three Lives Stone but on the few Foundation Establishment cultivators carrying it, with a half-smiling expression.
“Break their mouths, pull out their tongues, and see if they can still wag them.”
Shen Liuxiang, who had mixed in among them: “…”
The cultivators carrying the Three Lives Stone beside him were scared pale, hurriedly trying to escape, but they were already surrounded by several Golden Core attendants, making it impossible to flee. Everyone quickly knelt down, begging for mercy, trembling.
“Hurry and act, don’t splash blood on the stone,”
Xu Ziyue snorted coldly. Having finished his instructions, he was just turning his sleeve to return to the room when he saw a young man standing beside the Three Lives Stone. Though ordinary in appearance, he neither knelt nor panicked, particularly eye-catching against the backdrop of those around him.
“Who are you? Why don’t you kneel!”
Shen Liuxiang smiled: “I’m afraid that after I kneel, you’ll lose both your legs.”
Xu Ziyue was stunned, then burst into laughter, giving a look to the attendants near Shen Liuxiang. The attendants understood and immediately moved with another person to capture Shen Liuxiang.
Shen Liuxiang supported himself on the black stone, flipped over to the other side, barely avoiding them.
Two Golden Core cultivators attacked, and it was already not easy for him to dodge one strike. With attendants eyeing him like tigers around him, he couldn’t match their strength. Shen Liuxiang frowned, looked at Xu Ziyue, and said directly: “I’ve come to find Xu Xingchen.”
“Insolent! You dare call the Emperor’s name!” Xu Ziyue was furious, ordering the attendants to attack him together.
At this moment, the young man standing beside the Three Lives Stone said: “I am Shen Liuxiang. Just tell him this news.”
The attacking cultivators showed shocked expressions, hesitantly stopping. Xu Ziyue’s face changed. When the young man undid his disguise technique, revealing a handsome, fair face, his spirit was greatly shaken, the light in his eyes instantly changing.
Shen Liuxiang revealed his identity, firstly because it would be best if Xu Ziyue was willing to pass on the message, and secondly, if he was unwilling, making a bigger scene of this matter, given the Xu family’s influence, would also allow the news to reach the Imperial Palace.
Xu Ziyue’s face showed shock as he stared at the young man with black hair and handsome features, muttering: “So he really is alive.”
He had come to Yanming City because he had heard that the former Young Lord Shen had been resurrected and had rushed to check the situation. Now that he had truly appeared, killing intent showed in Xu Ziyue’s eyes. He had heard from his father that back then, the Emperor’s choice wasn’t his cousin, but this person. Fortunately, he had died!
Now that Shen Liuxiang had come back to life, although only at the Foundation Establishment stage, he might still be a threat to his cousin. It would be better to kill him silently.
Having made up his mind, Xu Ziyue ordered: “Kill!”
But several attendants showed hesitation, making Xu Ziyue’s face turn ashen with anger. “Kill the others, leave no survivors. I’ll handle this person myself.”
He had already entered the initial stage of the Soul Formation realm. Killing someone at the Foundation Establishment stage was as simple as stepping on an ant. His figure swayed, appearing in front of Shen Liuxiang, striking with a palm.
Xu Ziyue didn’t hold back; if the attack hit, death would be certain.
“Bang—!”
The entire Po Qiong Chamber shook, tables and chairs falling over, and tiles upturned.
People in the chamber, hearing the commotion, hurried over. Upon seeing the black-robed figure, they all knelt down in shock.
“Your Majesty!”
“Demon Emperor Your Majesty!”
Xu Ziyue got up amid these exclamations, coughing up blood.
He looked at Zhou Xuanlan who had saved Shen Liuxiang, his face showing three parts fear and seven parts disdain: “I wondered who it was. So it’s the Demon Emperor.”
Xu Ziyue touched the jade pendant at his waist. His cousin didn’t get along with the Demon Emperor, so he couldn’t show fear now. Besides, what was a mere Demon Emperor? His cousin was the Emperor of Shenqi Mountain!
“Demon Emperor, you’re quite bold to strike at me. Aren’t you afraid of triggering the Emperor’s soul imprint?”
Zhou Xuanlan turned his face: “You came here to send a message.”
Shen Liuxiang gave a dry laugh, pointing at Xu Ziyue: “You deal with him first, I’ll watch from the side.”
As Shen Liuxiang spoke, he used his spiritual power to move to the side, but carelessly bumped into the large black stone.
A light flashed on it, revealing a line of text.
Shen Liuxiang didn’t know if Zhou Xuanlan saw it, but felt a chill on his back and moved away faster.
He found a safe place, looked up, and felt a powerful soul imprint from Xu Ziyue suddenly bursting forth. Zhou Xuanlan raised his eyebrows slightly and set up a barrier for Shen Liuxiang.
In the next moment, with a rumbling sound inside the Po Qiong Chamber, the entire area was swept clean.
Dust filled the air, and Shen Liuxiang waved his sleeve. Zhou Xuanlan removed the barrier around him and said, “Let’s go.”
Shen Liuxiang looked behind him: “What about Xu Ziyue?”
Zhou Xuanlan: “Alive.”
Shen Liuxiang was surprised: “You held back.”
Zhou Xuanlan glanced at him: “He still has a soul imprint from Emperor Xingchen on him. If forcibly broken, this city wouldn’t survive.”
Emperor Xingchen was also very different from his memory; to say nothing else, his cultivation was not originally this profound.
Shen Liuxiang paused, then said: “After all, he’s his cousin, inevitably some concern.”
“Just his dog,” Zhou Xuanlan sneered, “because he’s good at barking, relying on his master’s power, deliberately sent to the demon realm.”
Shen Liuxiang frowned: “What do you mean?”
“The most inferior provocation,”
Zhou Xuanlan reached out, wiping a smudge of dust from Shen Liuxiang’s cheek. After wiping it off, he met the phoenix eyes that bloomed with pleasant surprise.
He paused, lowered his gaze to look at his unconscious hand, his face suddenly darkening.
Shen Liuxiang smiled happily, touched his face, and was about to press his advantage, asking Zhou Xuanlan to explain his taking liberties. The other lowered his hand, his face showing mixed emotions, and in the blink of an eye disappeared from the spot.
Shen Liuxiang reached out, grabbing at empty air, pressing his lips together wordlessly as more gazes were cast his way.
His eyebrows slightly raised, he remembered the grave on Zhongling Mountain outside the city, bought a shovel by the roadside, and ran off in a flash.
The storage pouch was still inside; he needed to dig it out.
Ao Yue wasn’t lying; Zhongling Mountain had beautiful scenery, abundant spiritual energy, and a mountain of orange trees.
Shen Liuxiang climbed the mountain, picking and eating oranges along the way, finally finding a grave at the summit with his name carved on the tombstone.
Though the place was nice, the grave stood lonely at the mountain top, looking quite desolate. Shen Liuxiang found it painfully tragic, opened one eye and closed the other, picked up the shovel, found a suitable spot, and began to dig.
But with one shovel stroke, he suddenly triggered an invisible barrier surrounding the grave.
The counterattack force, like thousands of cold swords passing through, directly blasted the person attacking the grave away. The red-clothed figure crashed into a sturdy tree trunk, and the massive tree fell with a sound.
Shen Liuxiang spat blood with a “puff,” his internal organs aching severely, one leg heavily pinned by the tree, lying on the ground unable to move.
After a good while, Shen Liuxiang caught his breath, silently looking toward the grave not far away.
This was a barrier set by someone to protect his grave from disturbance. With his weak cultivation, he couldn’t detect the barrier’s existence. Using the shovel to dig triggered the barrier, falling within its attack range.
“Ah… it hurts,”
Shen Liuxiang groaned in pain, unable to pull his leg out from under the tree, his whole body aching.
Like water flooding the Dragon King’s temple, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Shen Liuxiang raised his hand, wiping a handful of dust on his clothes, about to gather spiritual power to summon the reverse scale and have Zhou Xuanlan come to rescue him, when suddenly a pair of white boots appeared before his eyes.
Shen Liuxiang looked up, meeting eyes as clear as ice crystals.
Ye Bingran’s pupils contracted sharply, and with one sword, he broke apart the massive tree. Shen Liuxiang crawled out from underneath, sat up, and wiped the blood from his lips: “Thanks.”
Ye Bingran, dressed all in white, crouched on the ground, his lips trembling slightly: “You…”
Shen Liuxiang noticed that Ye Bingran’s appearance hadn’t changed, but his temperament had changed quite a bit, no longer having that ice-cold distance of keeping people thousands of miles away. Now he seemed to have a bit more humanity, probably his mental state had improved significantly over these years.
Looking at Ye Bingran’s shocked expression, he curled his lips in a smile: “I’m still alive. Thank you for sweeping my grave for thirteen years.”
Ye Bingran clenched his fingertips. Three years ago, when his divine consciousness probed underground, he found the corpse missing and traces of magic. He vaguely guessed that Shen Liuxiang might still be alive, just concealed by powerful magic, but didn’t expect it to be true.
Shen Liuxiang rubbed his right leg, which had been injured to the bone, squinting one eye in pain, and asked: “Have you been well these years?”
“…Passable.”
Ye Bingran looked at Shen Liuxiang’s disheveled appearance, then glanced at the shovel broken in half next to the grave, “Did the barrier I set hurt you?”
“Hmm?” Shen Liuxiang blinked, laughed, “No, I came to visit my own grave, and was unlucky enough to be knocked down by a large tree… can’t help it at the Soul Formation stage, quite embarrassing.”
Ye Bingran was silent for a moment, then reached out to tentatively squeeze his calf.
Shen Liuxiang immediately howled in pain: “Gentle, be gentle.”
Ye Bingran said: “The medicinal pills and spiritual herbs I have, you’re still at the Foundation Establishment stage, you can’t use them.”
“I know, it’s all right,”
Shen Liuxiang supported himself on the ground, using it to stand up. “Someone will later…?!”
Before he could finish speaking, a sense of being suspended in the air came over him.
“Excuse me,”
Ye Bingran reached out, picking up the young man on the ground in his arms. “I’ll take you down the mountain first.”
Shen Liuxiang was stunned for a moment, looked up at the jawline close at hand, as if waking from a dream. His leg hurt too much to struggle, so he patted Ye Bingran’s shoulder with his hand. “No need, put me down.”
Ye Bingran’s footsteps paused slightly: “Your leg is injured.”
Shen Liuxiang: “It’s fine, please put me down.”
Ye Bingran looked at him for a moment, was about to nod, but discovered that Shen Liuxiang’s body had stiffened slightly. “What’s wrong?”
Following Shen Liuxiang’s line of sight, he saw a dark-robed figure standing not far away. Not knowing how long he had been there, Ye Bingran’s hand, which was about to loosen, tightened again.
Zhou Xuanlan’s brows were lowered, his face seemed frozen with a layer of ice, as he walked step by step towards the two people. The chilling aura emanating from his entire body made one shiver.
“Come here,” he approached, extending his hand.
Shen Liuxiang met those gloomy black eyes, his heart skipped a beat, feeling as if sitting on pins and needles.
“My leg is injured,” he hastily explained, elbowing Ye Bingran’s chest. “Someone has come to pick me up, quickly put me down.”
Ye Bingran stared at Zhou Xuanlan as if facing a great enemy, only responding to Shen Liuxiang: “Don’t move around, I’ll get distracted. His current state is abnormal, I can’t hand you over to him.”
Ye Bingran knew Zhou Xuanlan’s temperament had greatly changed, but hadn’t encountered him in over a decade. Now, seeing Zhou Xuanlan’s cold, fierce gaze, he felt it was extremely dangerous.
Shen Liuxiang, now at the Foundation Establishment stage, rashly handed over to Zhou Xuanlan, would have no power to resist in his hands.
How could Ye Bingran hand him over?
“He’s fine, don’t worry about these things,” Shen Liuxiang urged. “Put me down!”
Ye Bingran immediately frowned, showing a hesitant expression.
On the other side, Zhou Xuanlan had exhausted all patience. His gloomy gaze fell on Ye Bingran, with bloodthirsty killing intent in his eyes. “In that case, this lord can only have you die.”
As the words fell, dark clouds covered the sky above Zhongling Mountain, cold winds howled at the summit, a thick layer of sand was swept up from the ground, and the colors of heaven and earth changed.
Zhou Xuanlan moved extremely quickly, each move carrying undisguised killing intent.
With the reverse scale on Shen Liuxiang, he had no worry about hurting him, but Ye Bingran didn’t know this, using spiritual power to protect Shen Liuxiang while fighting the enemy.
Seeing this, the killing intent in Zhou Xuanlan’s eyes intensified.
Now, each move from both of them had the power to overturn mountains and seas. Caught in the middle, Shen Liuxiang felt dizzy and could barely open his eyes just from the pressure they released.
As the world spun around him, he smelled a strong scent of blood, and the next moment his back hit a chest, his waist tightly encircled.
Three figures landed on the ground.
Ye Bingran spat blood, his brows furrowed, looking worriedly at Shen Liuxiang: “…Sorry.”
Zhou Xuanlan’s eyes were dark and deep, his voice ice-cold: “Save those words for yourself on the road to the underworld.”
Under his dark sleeve, Zhou Xuanlan’s well-defined fingers curled, gathering powerful spiritual energy. Just as he was about to attack Ye Bingran, his hand was forcefully gripped by a pair of hands.
“Stop! Don’t hurt anyone!”
Zhou Xuanlan turned his face, staring at Shen Liuxiang for a long moment, the corner of his lips curving into a cold smile: “What if I insist?”
Shen Liuxiang frowned, gritting his teeth and said: “Reverse scale.”
The spiritual energy in Zhou Xuanlan’s palm dissipated. He looked at him incredulously, his heart feeling as if it had been cut by thousands of knives, an unprecedented pain, almost suffocating him. “You would use the reverse scale against me for this person?”
“No, I would never use it against you.”
Shen Liuxiang shook his head, took out the reverse scale. “Don’t you want the reverse scale? I’ll give it to you, just don’t hurt anyone.”
The reverse scale emitted a dark, lustrous light, reflecting in Zhou Xuanlan’s eyes.
Hearing Shen Liuxiang say he wouldn’t use the reverse scale against him, his rationality on the brink of collapse pulled back a bit.
Black eyes stared at the reverse scale, then looked at Shen Liuxiang.
“Fine, I’ll spare him.”
Zhou Xuanlan compromised, slowly reaching out his hand toward the reverse scale, but at the moment just before touching it, his slender hand suddenly turned.
He grabbed the slender, fair wrist, pulled Shen Liuxiang into his embrace, his voice deep: “But I don’t want the reverse scale, I want you.”
##
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
What’s going on? Did he woke up?! OAO
Thank You for the new chapter ʚ♡⃛ɞ(ू•ᴗ•ू❁)