Chapter 70 The pre-departure indulgence, right under the nose of the Calabash Taoist, was even more...
"Junior brother."
"This mirror is the mother mirror of the Xuanyuan Mirror. Your soul injury has not yet healed. You should keep such a dangerous object with your senior brother, hmm?"
Fu Ming tried to coax Xiao Huaiyuan with the same tricks he used to tease children, his tone rising slightly at the end of his sentences. Xiao Huaiyuan reached behind him haphazardly, his hands just touching the cold edge of the bronze mirror when he suddenly pressed them against the hard chest.
He abruptly turned his head, his relaxed, smiling expression suddenly turning cold.
Xiao Huaiyuan refined and absorbed the Xuanyuan Mirror into his body.
The last wisp of pale blue fluorescence disappeared into Xiao Huaiyuan's chest, and the background light illuminated his handsome, deep features, revealing a cold, skeletal appearance.
This was the first time Xiao Huaiyuan had gone against him since leaving Luocheng.
Fu Ming was somewhat displeased, and consequently spoke less: "Why is that?"
Xiao Huaiyuan stood ramrod straight, his body not swaying at all: "The things of the Tianyan Sect should not be allowed to flow out."
These words were spoken with such righteous indignation and integrity, exactly the kind of upright and honest person Fu Ming hated most. Indeed, wasn't it Xiao Huaiyuan who stood on the Blood Coast and advised him to turn back from his misguided path?
He even had the audacity to think of Xiao Huaiyuan, who was consumed by inner demons. It's like a dog biting Lü Dongbin, not recognizing a kind heart.
Fu Ming withdrew his hand, raised one eyebrow, and said, "Now that you know I am a traitor to the Heavenly Evolution Sect, why didn't you remember this when you imprisoned me on the Sect Leader Peak?"
Xiao Huaiyuan remained unmoved by Fu Ming's aggressive attitude, simply waving his sleeve indifferently: "Go out first, senior brother."
They always use the same trick: avoiding the important issues and focusing on the trivial ones.
Considering that his junior brother had been relatively well-behaved these days, Fu Ming suppressed his anger and explained it to him again.
"The Xuanyuan Mirror is connected to cause and effect. If it comes into contact with the souls of the living too much, it is easy to get lost. I am just entrusting it to you for safekeeping. It is not that I will not return it. Why do you have to snatch it away like you are guarding your food?"
Although he always compared Xiao Huaiyuan to a clingy big dog, he couldn't actually become a dog.
Xiao Huaiyuan nodded readily, but remained unmoved: "Yes, I know, you told me that."
"You'll understand why I did this later."
You know nothing!
"How come I never noticed this guy was so stubborn before?" Fu Ming thought angrily, his lips twitching. He suddenly grabbed Xiao Huaiyuan by the gold-trimmed collar and pulled him in front of him.
After their foreheads touched, Fu Ming's divine sense easily entered Xiao Huaiyuan's sea of consciousness. His divine sense tentacles tried to pull away the bronze mirror floating in the middle, but were knocked away by the surging waves.
Xiao Huaiyuan was actually on guard against him.
“I have always allowed my senior brother to enter my sea of consciousness, but you have never opened your divine sense to me.”
As he spoke, Xiao Huaiyuan pressed his finger against Fu Ming's hesitant lips. The lips were beautifully shaped, slightly swollen, and rather soft, as if they were not befitting their owner.
"What is Senior Brother thinking?"
The usually eloquent Fu Ming fell silent. His pale, glassy eyes darted up and down, left and right, but he refused to look his junior brother in the eye. The reason was simple: he couldn't reveal the existence of the system in front of Xiao Huaiyuan, not even to his junior brother.
Xiao Huaiyuan was a meticulous man; even if he knew, he would overthink it, so it was better to keep it a secret.
"Don't interrupt... umm, let's go back first."
If reasoning fails, he'll call for reinforcements and go back to have the Calabash Taoist deal with him. That's what Fu Ming was planning, but Xiao Huaiyuan had already grabbed his tongue.
Fu Ming: !
The soft, red tongue moistened the intruder's fingertips, and a few tufts of hair sprouted from his forehead. A moment of stunned silence made Fu Ming appear completely under control, thus satisfying Xiao Huaiyuan's ever-expanding desire.
In that instant, Xiao Huaiyuan longed to forget everything in the world and kiss him.
But it was also at this moment.
Heaven and earth collapsed, and the sun and moon lost their light.
Clear snow water poured down from above their heads, and the blue ice that had remained unchanged for millennia began to melt and disintegrate, spreading scalding heat.
This is not normal.
Before Xiao Huaiyuan could react, the battle-hardened Fu Ming had already switched to a state of combat readiness, his arm muscles tensed, and he grabbed Xiao Huaiyuan's hands.
The water instantly submerged the hole dug by the gourd-wielding Taoist. Fu Ming kicked off the water and pulled Xiao Huaiyuan to the surface rapidly. The golden hair ornament tied with the rope broke and rolled into the water, while the black hair floated like seaweed.
Having learned his lesson from several swimming mistakes, Fu Ming resolved to overcome his weakness and is no longer the landlubber he once was. He diligently studied at Quanzhuang and Xuehai, and now he's a veritable little white dragon in the waves.
"call."
The ice cave was deeper than he had expected.
Fu Ming, who had just revealed the top half of his face, took a deep breath.
Even after they reached the shore, his junior brother was still clinging to his waist. What was wrong with him? Was he afraid of the water? He could teach him a lesson later.
He looked around, trying to find the small figure of an old man: "Master, I have something to say to you—"
The last word stuck in his throat.
There was no one else within a hundred miles. The thick smell of sulfur filled Fu Ming's nostrils. He initially thought it was because it was getting dark, but upon closer inspection, he saw thick orange-yellow smoke billowing in from afar, as if it were a wildfire.
Why would there be a wildfire on the sacred Kunlun Mountain?
This is not scientific.
In the darkness, the phantom of the divine palace he was so used to drew closer, almost growing on the rolling mountains. The stone lions on either side of the tightly closed doors had piercing eyes, as if they had already come to life.
Xiao Huaiyuan held the fallen golden feather hair ornament in his hand, and personally gathered up Fu Ming's wet hair that was hanging down his back. He said calmly, "The Imperial Palace is about to descend. Master is going to protect the entire sect."
“You don’t seem surprised.” Fu Ming closed his eyes, and after only a few seconds of eye contact with the Suanni, his soul was struck by a needle-like impact.
Xiao Huaiyuan skipped over this dangerous question and tied his black hair into a neat bun: "It's all tied up now. Senior brother, don't lose your hair ornament this time."
Fu Ming simply sighed, "Where is Master?"
Tianyan Sect, Headmaster Peak.
Fu Ming, whose face was shrouded in confusion magic, was led back to this place by Xiao Huaiyuan.
The peach and bamboo trees are lush and green, the stream babbles, every blade of grass and every tree is a familiar sight, after all, it hasn't been long since I left. Only a wisp of pure energy soars into the sky, following the contours of the mountains and rivers, forming a vast array that covers thousands of miles.
The Calabash Taoist sat cross-legged on the sword-testing platform, opening half an eye to look at his two disciples: "How is it outside?"
Xiao Huaiyuan reported truthfully: "When we arrived, three of the twelve snow mountains of Kunlun were erupting and two were experiencing avalanches. All the disciples have retreated to the main peak. Further out, the Central Plains and Eastern Continents are experiencing continuous earthquakes. Many mortals are gathered outside Kunlun, and there are also unusual movements in the Demon Realm."
He and Fu Ming exchanged a glance, intending to simultaneously inject spiritual power into the mountain-protecting formation, but were stopped by the Calabash Daoist.
"Why waste your energy helping this old codger? Save your energy for later." Even while controlling the great formation, the Calabash Taoist was not in a proper manner, twisting his arms and stretching his limbs. "Sigh! Staying on this Sect Leader Peak is really awkward."
Fu Ming ignored what the gourd Taoist was saying and continued to pour his true essence into his back: "Master, how much lifespan do you have left?"
The gourd-shaped Taoist priest twitched his white eyebrows and beard, and he laughed and scolded, "You brat, why do you keep asking this? Are you so worried about your master dying?"
Then, his once-powerful voice weakened.
"It is a blessing from heaven that I have lived to be a thousand years old. Otherwise, I would have died long ago, and I would not have been able to become the sect leader."
As people get older, they tend to reminisce about the past.
The Heavenly Evolution Sect wasn't always in such a dilapidated state. Back then, the Immortal Realm wasn't in such chaos, and demonic cultivators, Buddhist cultivators, and rogue cultivators were all insignificant. Not to mention Nascent Soul stage cultivators, there were even several Mahayana stage cultivators.
But after the calamity of the demon realm, the world changed.
Suddenly, the Calabash Taoist asked, "Fu Ming, do you know where the Immortal Realm's hatred for demonic cultivators originated?"
Fu Ming squatted down beside him and said, "Don't you hate demonic cultivators for burning, killing, and looting? Master, please tell me."
The dark sky, like a gray-black velvet blanket, enveloped them, making it impossible to distinguish any person or thing.
Having cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage in just a hundred years, Fu Ming and Xiao Huaiyuan's natural talents and destiny for immortality were even more outstanding than he had expected. The Calabash Daoist looked at his two grown-up disciples and slowly continued speaking.
"Wrong. My hatred for demonic cultivators began with my hatred for the demonic realm. The demonic realm's territory was originally a large part of the fallen Western Continent. At that time, ghosts and monsters roamed freely, and demons were everywhere. Fellow disciples with greater talent than me never returned, which is why I am here. So many unparalleled geniuses perished in the demonic realm. Has the demonic realm changed even a little bit now?"
"If Heaven decrees it so, how can human effort change it?"
"My cultivation can no longer advance. The only way forward is for you two to become immortals."
Only by becoming an immortal can one reshape the mountains and rivers and reverse the course of fate; otherwise, no matter how long one guards, it will all be in vain.
Xiao Huaiyuan listened quietly.
Knowing these things, he naturally didn't want to disturb the master and disciple's reminiscing.
Fu Ming remained silent like a quail. Normally, he would have definitely teased the old man, patting his chest and saying something strange like, "You old man, you can live for another thousand years." But as a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, he could more or less sense that the old man's lifespan was coming to an end, otherwise he wouldn't have asked so many times.
While injuries to the soul and body can be healed with elixirs and cultivation techniques, there is no cure for the depletion of lifespan. It seems that the Calabash Taoist does not want to go into seclusion for a few more years, and he has no good way to prolong his life.
He sniffed, seemingly casually changing the subject: "By the way, Master, can the Xuanyuan Mirror be taken out after it's been refined? I'm afraid someone used the Xuanyuan Mirror too much and their soul shattered into pieces that can't be glued back together even with paste."
Fu Ming told a lame joke.
Unfortunately, nobody cared.
"The Xuanyuan Mirror will choose its own master. Unless you do something outrageous, it shouldn't cause any major harm to your soul. However, Xiao Huaiyuan, what's wrong with your soul?"
The Calabash Taoist was quite surprised. His second disciple was always proper and steady, never causing him any trouble, yet he could still injure the soul.
Fu Ming sensed something was wrong and hurriedly covered Xiao Huaiyuan's mouth.
The Calabash Taoist became even more curious: "Fu Ming, release your junior brother. Is there anything I can't hear?"
"Haha, if you want to hear me talk, why bother your junior brother?" Fu Ming wouldn't let go no matter what.
Before long, birds on the branches were startled and took flight, the spiritual energy of the communication array vibrated, and the face of the Calabash Taoist turned as green as a real gourd.
"It's too late."
"Xiao Huaiyuan has already told me everything."
Telepathic communication ruined me!!!
That night, Fu Ming and Xiao Huaiyuan were punished by kneeling in the side hall of the sect leader's peak for the entire night, which can be described as each being equally punished.
The original words were: Fu Ming, you were wrong to seduce your junior brother and should be punished; Xiao Huaiyuan, you coveted your senior brother and your methods were vicious, so you should also be punished.
Fu Ming, whose resentment had materialized, said softly, "Why do you have to tell Master all this? What if you anger the old man to death?"
Xiao Huaiyuan was quite frank: "Since the matter is already settled, I don't want to hide it from my master."
"So if I want to know your secret, will you tell me?"
"Yes, but now is not the time."
Now is the time to do that.
The long night was filled with melancholy, and my mind was swirling with countless thoughts, so I had to find another way to relieve my boredom.
The two kneeling on the prayer mats drew closer and closer, and eventually, without thinking, they overlapped them, enjoying a brief moment of pleasure together.
Being under the watchful eye of the Calabash Taoist, even with the barrier in place, they subconsciously restrained themselves from making any noise, focusing solely on their work, which added to the sense of taboo.
Fu Ming wasn't always so unrestrained. What he couldn't let go of was his arrogance as a straight man and his brotherly morality of raising his junior brother to adulthood.
Now that Xiao Huaiyuan has repeatedly and forcefully shattered that shell, even removing the last veil of pretense, there's naturally nothing left to hold back.
After swallowing his groan, he cupped his junior brother's face and kissed him deeply, silent but with an extremely uninhibited attitude. Xiao Huaiyuan also reciprocated without reservation, as if they wanted to crush each other into their very bones and blood, never to be separated again for all eternity.
it's over.
But the sun did not rise as usual, and the Three Realms were no longer the world of yesterday.
Fu Ming lay on the couch, letting Xiao Huaiyuan change his clothes and clean him up. He was so tired that he didn't even want to lift his little finger. His black hair flowed down the snow-covered hill, unable to hide the many bruises.
His voice wasn't as dry as before; it was clear with a slight huskiness: "Master means that once the Imperial Palace opens, he will let the two of us go in and seize the opportunity."
“But until then, I must stay in the Demon Realm. Once the palace gates open, you can send me a letter.”
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Author's Note: The mouse is struggling to survive under mountainous deadlines, it's exhausting...
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