Chapter 47 I feel a little angry, so how should I coax you? ...
After meditating by the stream at the foot of the mountain for four days to recover, it became clear that the depleted spiritual energy in the three of them had finally been replenished.
After a long and arduous journey, flying on their swords for two consecutive days, they finally returned to Jianming Immortal Mountain.
They then realized that time flowed differently in the secret realm than in the outside world; a whole year had passed in the outside world.
Since there had been no news of them for a year, the elders of each peak were extremely worried and almost believed that the disciples had been wiped out and lost in the secret realm.
Fortunately, Shi Lian and Lou Jing's group returned to the sect before them. With their advance report, Ming Jian and his two companions were able to escape the interrogation by the elders of each peak.
Of the more than one hundred disciples of Sword Bright Immortal Mountain who entered the secret realm, only ninety returned alive. The vast majority of those who perished were outer disciples; only five inner disciples were lost. The elders wore expressions of grief, but inwardly they all breathed a sigh of relief.
For a sect, the effort and resources required to cultivate an inner disciple are far greater than those required to cultivate an outer disciple. And every time an outer disciple is recruited, countless people are eager to get in, so it is not really a great loss.
Gu Zhi and Song Heyu were both inner disciples of Guiyi Peak. As soon as they returned, their master took them away for reprimand and questioning. Mingjian, on the other hand, had no such worries. After saying goodbye to the two, he returned to his own courtyard.
As soon as the door was pushed open, a male cultivator practicing swordsmanship in the outer sect courtyard looked up at the sound, his eyes widening instantly. His sword clattered to the ground, and he exclaimed in shock, "Junior...Junior Brother?!"
The sound was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake. The other disciples in the courtyard all looked in the direction of the sound. When they saw that it was indeed Mingjian standing alive at the door, they were first stunned, and then they all excitedly surrounded him.
"Junior brother! You...you're not dead?!" An impatient senior brother grabbed Mingjian's hand, shook it vigorously up and down, and circled him twice, as if to confirm that the person in front of him was real and not an illusion. His tone was full of shock and disbelief.
Mingjian: "..."
He was dizzy from being shaken, feeling both annoyed and amused. After a long while, he managed to squeeze out a few words through gritted teeth, "Not dead, still alive and well."
Another disciple squeezed forward, adding with lingering fear, "Yes, junior brother! You don't know, these past few days we've heard from many of the returning inner sect senior brothers and sisters that the secret realm isn't an ordinary one at all; it's a Yin-Yang secret realm, with an actual difficulty level as high as four stars. We heard that none of the outer sect disciples who went in came out alive! We all thought you..." He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear.
"And yesterday," a slightly younger disciple said, his eyes reddening and his voice lowering, "we ran into Senior Brother Lou Jing and mustered up the courage to ask him how Senior Brother Song Yao was doing..." He choked up for a moment before continuing with difficulty, "Senior Brother Lou Jing said... said that Senior Brother Song Yao had been bewitched by a demon and had already... had already perished in the secret realm."
"This year's sect competition has also ended, and Senior Brother Song Yao failed to become an inner disciple in the end."
Mingjian remembered that Song Yao had taught this disciple swordsmanship before, so he sighed and patted his shoulder to comfort him, saying, "Don't be too sad. If Senior Brother Song is watching from heaven, he wouldn't want to see everyone so heartbroken over him."
"That's right!" A quick-witted disciple, seeing this, immediately broke the silence and curiously approached Mingjian, "Junior Brother, stop talking about these sad things! Tell us what the secret realm is like! It's a four-star difficulty mission, we've never even seen one before!"
The atmosphere finally became lively again.
Seeing this, Mingjian breathed a sigh of relief, chatted with them for a while longer, and then went back to his room and lay down.
He felt like he was going to die from exhaustion.
The faint sounds of the disciples' chatter could still be heard outside the window. Mingjian lay there with his eyes closed for a while, but he couldn't fall asleep. He wondered if it was because he was used to sleeping on the soft and comfortable bed in the princess's mansion, but suddenly returning to this simple, hard bed made him feel uncomfortable all over.
He sat up irritably, thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, took out ten high-grade spirit stones from the huge sum of money given to him by the system, and decisively rented a secluded cultivation cave.
The cave contained a simple isolation array; the moment you stepped inside, the world became instantly quiet.
With peace and quiet finally restored, he was completely relaxed and fell asleep almost immediately. He slept soundly for a full day and night before waking up.
Over the next few days, Mingjian's life finally returned to its usual peace, and he could even be described as having nothing to do.
The only thing to be happy about is that his cultivation at the eighth level of Qi Refining has been completely stabilized, and has even improved.
Feeling the power within him more than twice as abundant as before, Mingjian was almost moved to tears by his rapid progress.
God knows how long it took him to climb from the sixth level of Qi Refining to the eighth level!
The system had been quiet for several days, but probably seeing that Xiao Bumian hadn't appeared, it started acting up in his mind again, whimpering in a fake crying electronic voice: "[Waaaaah, Xiao Bumian must think you deliberately abandoned him and ran away! He's probably hiding in a corner secretly wiping away tears, thinking you're a heartless scumbag who played with his feelings!]"
Mingjian swiftly and decisively chopped down the two obstructing bamboo stalks. He merely twitched his lips at the system's wailing in his mind, pretending not to hear it.
This broken system, I don't know which line is connected wrong, it just keeps saying "Xiao Bumian, Xiao Bumian" all day long.
[You and Xiao Bumian have been apart for one, two, three, four, five, six... seven! Seven days! The redemption value hasn't changed at all, it's still 23%! If this continues, I don't know how long it will take to complete the redemption mission.] The system continued its relentless nagging.
To be honest, in the first two days after Xiao Bumian disappeared, Mingjian did feel a bit uneasy, as if there was an emptiness around him.
But he quickly shook off that inexplicable melancholy and decisively attributed it to the damned love potion.
The thought of the Love-Sickness Gu made Mingjian frown, and he paused in his bamboo-cutting movements. He asked himself irritably, "What harm does this damn Gu worm do to me? It can't just make me think of Xiao Bumian every now and then, can it?"
Having finally been acknowledged, the system immediately and honestly replied: "Based on the current data, it shouldn't be the case. Only the mother Gu can control the child Gu within the Lovesickness Gu. In other words, as long as Xiao Bumian doesn't actively and deliberately use the mother Gu to control the host's emotions, you yourself will not be subject to any forced influence."
Mingjian: !!!
He knows!
That bastard Xiao Bumian! He already had ulterior motives towards me. As long as he harbors even the slightest thought of "making Mingjian fall in love with him," this damn Gu worm will work its magic!
No wonder Mingjian sometimes thinks of Xiao Bumian for no reason; it turns out it's all Xiao Bumian's fault.
Once he understood this, Mingjian's anger flared, and he suddenly increased the force with which he chopped the bamboo, as if the bamboo were Xiao Bumian himself, making loud thuds as he chopped.
The system immediately fell silent, not daring to provoke him any further.
—
In the stillness of the night, a bright, full moon hangs high in the sky, its cool light pouring down like mercury, illuminating the small courtyard.
Mingjian was half asleep when a cool, refreshing scent of crabapple blossoms suddenly filled his nostrils. Immediately afterward, a familiar feeling of suffocation washed over him, as if he were being tightly bound by a cold, giant python, making even breathing difficult.
He opened his eyes, which were still sleepy.
In the dim moonlight, a handsome face, almost otherworldly, was close at hand. Xiao Bumian had appeared beside his bed at some point, propping his chin up with his hand and looking at him with a smile.
Those peach blossom eyes were slightly upturned at the corners, and her eyebrows were tinged with a joyful curve. Her tone was gentle, "Junior Brother, you're awake?"
Mingjian's consciousness was still hazy, and he thought he was still in the merman ruins, just like when he was in the princess's mansion. He mumbled an "uh-huh" and subconsciously wanted to turn over and continue sleeping.
Xiao Bumian bit her shoulder lightly.
Mingjian: ? ? ?
He wasn't fully awake yet when he felt a weight on his neck as Xiao Bumian's furry head buried itself in his skin, his warm breath spraying onto his sensitive skin, sending shivers down his spine.
The tooth that had bitten him didn't leave; instead, it rubbed against the wound in an ambiguous way, carrying a hint of punishment and an indescribable intimacy.
The sash of her inner garment had been untied at some point, slipping down her shoulders and revealing a large expanse of fair skin underneath.
The flickering red candle cast the intertwined shadows of the two figures on the wall, resembling mandarin ducks entwined, tender and affectionate.
The cold air touched his bare skin, causing Mingjian to shiver slightly. He could clearly feel a warm tongue replacing his teeth, licking the bitten spot repeatedly, with a wet, itchy sensation and occasional light bites.
Mingjian's Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.
Xiao Bumian's soft chuckle immediately reached his ears, like a feather brushing against his heart.
Mingjian regained some clarity and struggled to focus his vision as he looked around. He discovered that the furnishings and layout of the room, even the faint incense in the air, were exactly the same as those in the room in the north courtyard of the princess's residence.
"Crackling—"
The candle flame suddenly burst open, creating a dazzling display.
The surrounding air seemed to be getting thick and hot.
Xiao Bumian would occasionally let out a very low groan from his throat. The sound was light and airy, like a soft cloud floating in Mingjian's ear, or like the pattering spring rain, falling very lightly, yet landing precisely on the tip of his heart.
Mingjian felt that his originally calm heart began to ripple uncontrollably.
At this moment, Mingjian realized with absolute clarity that he was having an utterly absurd erotic dream.
He blinked gently, gave up struggling, and let himself sink into despair.
Xiao Bumian's kisses began to move upwards, like a dragonfly skimming the water, landing on Mingjian's Adam's apple, his chin, and finally covering his slightly parted lips, lingering and caressing them with utmost tenderness. Finally, those soft lips rested on Mingjian's eyes.
Mingjian instinctively closed his eyes.
In the dim candlelight, his other senses were amplified. He heard his own heart pounding like a drum, deafening and completely out of his control.
“Junior Brother,” Xiao Bumian stepped back slightly, tilted her head to look at him, her eyes were wet, her hand was pressed against her heart, and she said with a smile, “You always lie to me, even though you like it very much.”
Mingjian kept his eyes open but didn't say anything.
He watched quietly.
It seemed as if Xiao Bumian let out a very low sigh.
"You promised to sleep with me, but you didn't." His voice was always soft and gentle, sounding harmless and mild, but Mingjian knew it wasn't; he was probably angry.
Yes, Xiao Bumian is always so easily angered.
Just like now, his eyes curved into beautiful crescents, but there was no hint of a smile deep within them.
Xiao Bumian retaliated by biting Mingjian on the wound on his shoulder, even though it was his own bite.
A very slight stinging sensation.
"I think I might be a little angry."
Xiao Bumian's voice came through in a muffled tone, carrying a strange, almost blunt statement, as if he were describing a fact that had nothing to do with him.
Mingjian had never met such a strange person before. Xiao Bumian was really strange. His perception of emotions seemed to be different from ordinary people, or rather, he could only vaguely feel them, but did not know what they were.
He lowered his eyes and after a long while asked, "Then how should I coax you?"
Mingjian still remembered that he had promised Xiao Bumian that he would stay with him, but left after he fell asleep. He also remembered that when Xiao Bumian followed him, he was surrounded by a sad emotion.
Although Mingjian was certain that he didn't understand.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Bumian paused, raised his eyes, released Mingjian, and even sat up slightly, lazily propping his head up with one hand. A genuine smile appeared in his eyes, as if he had discovered something extremely interesting, and he made the suggestion in a very relaxed tone.
"Hmm, you can play with me."
Mingjian: "..."
If it weren't for the fact that the furnishings in this room were so different from his own simple disciple's room, he would have doubted whether this was an absurd dream.
Where did Xiao Bumian learn such vulgar language?
Provoked by these words, he sat up, steeled his resolve, and with a hint of desperation, leaned forward and pressed his lips to Xiao Bumian's.
He awkwardly imitated Xiao Bumian's previous movements, tentatively using the tip of his tongue to pry open Xiao's teeth and delve into that warm mouth. Their lips and tongues intertwined clumsily yet with unusual earnestness, and their breathing gradually became rapid and hot.
A fine layer of sweat appeared on both of their foreheads and the tips of their noses. Mingjian's expression was focused and serious, his eyes clearly reflecting Xiao Bumian's slightly dazed peach blossom eyes, which were being kissed.
Mingjian didn't know how long they kissed, but he remembered that in the end, his breath and senses were filled with the cool and alluring fragrance of crabapple blossoms emanating from Xiao Bumian.
The next morning.
Mingjian opened his eyes and stared blankly at the unfamiliar bed canopy above his head for a long time.
His muddled mind gradually cleared, and he suddenly realized something. He turned around and looked around. The room was luxurious and elegant, and it was definitely not the disciple's courtyard in Jianming Immortal Mountain.
He... really isn't in his room?!
He instinctively reached for the covers to get out of bed, but a slight stinging pain shot through his shoulder. Pulling open his shirt collar, he looked down and saw a clear teeth mark imprinted on his shoulder. A bracelet made of tiny white bones now adorned his wrist.
Mingjian stared at the teeth marks and bone chain for several breaths before suddenly leaning back and falling heavily back into the soft pillow, looking utterly hopeless.
So last night wasn't a dream at all?!
He even kissed Xiao Bumian on his own initiative!
The system's cheerful electronic voice rang out at the opportune moment: [Redemption value reached 26%! Keep up the good work, host!]
[Besides, the host has kissed Xiao Bumian before, so there's no need to worry about it so much, hehe]
Mingjian: "Hehe."
He began to doubt the Gu in his consciousness again.
Could this really be the thing causing all this? Otherwise, why would he be so stupid as to think it was a dream and be so proactive?!
And where is Xiao Bumian? And where is this place?
He still wanted to get that damned Gu worm out of him!
Mingjian got up irritably, threw on some clothes haphazardly, and went around the screen to the outer room. There he saw a letter on the table, and next to it was an open jade box containing several bright red herbs.
He walked over and picked up the letter. There were only a few words on the paper, the handwriting flowing yet carrying an undeniable force:
"Return in seven days, Blood Spirit Grass."
Mingjian didn't react at first. He casually put the letter back on the table, yawned, and planned to go out and find out where he was. He had just taken a step when he suddenly stopped, realized something, picked up the few herbs and stared at them for a long time, finally confirming that they were the Blood Spirit Herbs he had been looking for.
Mingjian: "...!!!"
He is guilty!
He misunderstood Xiao Bumian!
Mingjian's heart wavered shamefully for a moment.
Well, he could have kissed her a few more times.
-----------------------
Author's Note: I spent last night writing the outline. Since the first instance is finished, and the outline for the later parts of the story wasn't detailed enough, I went to fill in some details. [glasses]
Goodnight! [hugs]
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