After this sound escaped, Xie Lian suddenly covered his mouth.
The young soldier turned abruptly and asked, "...Your Highness?"
Xie Lian supported himself on the ground with one hand, tightly covering his mouth with the other. His breathing was erratic, and his shoulders were twitching. Just by listening to the sound and looking at his back, most people would have thought he was sobbing.
In his entire life, whether before or after his ascension, Xie Lian had never experienced such an agonizing moment. It was far more difficult than even the most rigorous training at the Imperial Temple. His hands gave out, and his entire body fell to the side. Lying on the ground, he dazedly noticed the young man trying to come in. Xie Lian shouted, "Don't come over! I told you not to come over, no matter what you hear!"
The young man stopped. Xie Lian finally managed to turn over, lying on his back. His breathing was barely steady, but the heat coursing through his body was rising in waves. The female demons outside the cave listened to him tossing and turning, their anger flaring. They clapped their hands and laughed, "Good prince, why are you doing this? Today, you're afraid of losing your followers, so you don't come to enjoy this happiness; tomorrow, you're afraid of losing your followers, so you don't dare to do anything else. You're not a priest, you're just a tortured prisoner, bound by your followers! It doesn't matter if you don't become a god like this; you're going to be cast down anyway, so why not just enjoy yourself? Come and go, why bother with him?"
A few faint veins popped up on Xie Lian’s forehead, and his emotions lost control. He shouted angrily, “Shut up!!!”
The female demons were naturally not afraid of him at this time, and they teased the soldier again: "Little brother, do you think what we said makes sense? Hahahaha..."
"Hehehe... Do you feel uncomfortable standing here?"
Cold sweat had already drenched his entire body. Extremely irritated, Xie Lian reached out and violently tore open his shirt, seeking a glimmer of coolness. He heard a sizzling sound, and suddenly realized: Why did this sudden surge of strength surge into his hand? Although the strength was fleeting and quickly disappeared, he felt it carefully and found that, as expected, the numbness had passed and strength was gradually rising. However, Xie Lian's heart sank.
Trapped in this gentle embrace, he felt numb first, then furious. The numbness had passed for now, but in a moment, the fury would overtake him. Although he had specially erected two barriers before the cave, the inner one was meant to prevent him from losing his mind and rushing out, once he lost his temper, he didn't know if it could be stopped. This moment of clarity was hard-earned, and Xie Lian seized it, his mind racing, rapidly thinking of a countermeasure.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him: the onset of the "Tender Land" was very rapid, as soon as the blood and energy rushed to the brain, one could say that they lost control. So why had he managed to hold on until now? Was there no other reason besides his good concentration?
Thinking of this, Xie Lian took a deep breath, tilted his head slightly, and said to the silhouette of the young man who was trying to enter the cave, "You... come in."
Hearing this, the young soldier seemed to want to run to him immediately. After a few steps, he seemed to remember Xie Lian's angry shout, "No matter what you hear, don't come in," and he was unsure whether he should go in. Xie Lian changed his tone, helpless, and said, "Come in first and we'll talk."
The young man rushed in without hesitation.
The cave was long and narrow, warm and damp inside, and pitch black, so dark that one couldn't see one's hand in front of one's face. Using Xie Lian's subdued breathing, the young man groped his way to him. Xie Lian said, "Put your sword down... Put it on the ground. Stay close to me, don't be too far away."
The young soldier said, "Yes!" and handed over his only weapon for self-defense, placing it beside Xie Lian, where he could reach it. Xie Lian said, "Please help me up."
The young man half-knelt beside him and stretched out his hands to help Xie Lian. But as soon as he touched, his fingertips touched not fabric, but warm skin.
The hands immediately retracted. Xie Lian was also unexpectedly burned by the hot hands of the young man. Only then did he remember that he had torn off his shirt while struggling on the ground in frustration. Originally, there was nothing wrong with the man being shirtless, but, in this situation, it was a bit embarrassing. But this embarrassment did not need to be pointed out, just do what you need to do and it will be over. The young man probably understood, and before Xie Lian could speak, he reached out again, grabbed his bare shoulders and quickly helped him up, then withdrew his hands. Xie Lian leaned against the wall of the cave, his vest pressed against the slightly cool rock, and he felt a little relieved. Noticing that the other party had taken two steps back, he hurriedly said: "Wait, don't go out!"
The young soldier immediately obeyed his orders, freezing in place. Xie Lian said, "Cut off a small lock of my hair. It'll be useful to me."
The young man reached out in response. However, the darkness made it difficult to see clearly, and Xie Lian's long hair was neatly tied back. He couldn't reach Xie Lian's hair, but instead accidentally touched a patch of skin on Xie Lian's chest. It was smooth and flexible, with a thin layer of sweat, making it slippery at the slightest touch. Xie Lian was already feeling the pain, and the young man's touch was a completely inappropriate one. It felt like an electric current was running through his chest, and a tingling sensation spread throughout his body. He let out a low groan.
In an instant, both people in the cave froze.
The group of flower demons outside the cave were eager to listen, how could they miss anything? They all laughed and said, "Oh, what are they doing in there?"
"It's so embarrassing."
"I don't dare to listen."
When they laughed at his endurance, Xie Lian gritted his teeth and said, "You guys...!"
Hearing his anger, the young soldier quickly withdrew his hand, not daring to touch him again. Xie Lian certainly wasn't grumbling at him; in his eyes, the young soldier was just a child. Perhaps he was afraid of offending him, so Xie Lian softened his tone and said, "Don't panic. Just continue. Ignore them."
The other man muttered, "Yes." However, he seemed to be panicking, and for a long time he didn't touch the right place. When he realized he had made a mistake, he would withdraw his hand. In the end, he could only randomly touch up along Xie Lian's chest, which made Xie Lian feel so painful that he wanted to bang his head against the cave wall and faint. Finally, the young man felt Xie Lian's trembling Adam's apple, reached back, and caught a strand of his hair. He only grasped a very thin strand, carefully picked up the sword and cut it, and immediately said, "Your Highness, it's done!"
At this moment, Xie Lian regained some strength and was able to lift his hand. He said, "Give me your hand."
The young man raised his hand. Xie Lian took the thin strand of hair from his hand and haphazardly tied it into a knot around one of his fingers. The young man was stunned for a moment, then trembled in his voice, "Your Highness, what is this?"
Xie Lian sighed, "The flower demon's fragrance is about to enter the second level. I need to borrow your sword. If anything tries to hurt you later, just raise this hand to protect yourself and save your life. Now, get out of here."
After a while, the young soldier left the cave. The group of flower demons started to jeer, "Come out?"
"Finally out."
"You kept us out, but you went in yourself. Little boy, this is really not a very nice thing you did!"
At the same time, Xie Lian felt more strength surge into his limbs. He took a deep breath, grasped the broken sword left by the young soldier in his right hand, and calmed his mind. He raised the sword and slashed it across his left arm.
In an instant, it was as if the fog in front of me was cleared away, and my five senses became slightly clearer.
It’s true!
Blood gushed out of Xie Lian's left arm, but he felt as if he had grasped a glimmer of hope in the midst of chaos.
The scent of a gentle land stirs the heart, awakening dormant desires. The more severely one has suppressed these desires, the more intense the rebound will be after inhaling the scent. And what Xie Lian had suppressed in the past, besides lust, was murderous desire.
This "desire to kill" couldn't be about demons and monsters. He had killed plenty of them before, so it wasn't like he'd ever suppressed it. The target of his "killing" had to be a human or a god; only then would he feel like he was "breaking a forbidden path." Before entering the cave, Xie Lian had slashed himself with his sword to set up the formation, and the sight of blood had a soothing effect on his desire for gentleness, because killing himself was also killing.
Ultimately, lust and murder are both highly aggressive desires. Even Xie Lian had heard of them, and some believed they were essentially the same. Based on this, he could find an alternative way to overcome the current difficulties.
Confirming this, Xie Lian unhesitatingly slashed his left arm with his sword again. With each stroke, he felt his mind clear a little. He was overjoyed, but perhaps it was the demonic energy from the gentle land that was causing trouble within him. At the moment his "killing desire" was satisfied, Xie Lian suddenly felt a surge of pleasure.
This wave of numbing pleasure swept over every inch of his body from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, easily breaking down the barrier he had painstakingly built up. By the time Xie Lian realized it, he had already let out a soft moan.
If he hadn't been the only one in the cave, Xie Lian wouldn't have believed that the sound came from him. He shuddered with fear, his eyes wide open, and he thought to himself, "This method is obviously feasible, how could this happen?"
Looking at the sword again, he suddenly remembered how the young soldier had used it to chop the roots of flowers and slay a demon transformed into human form. The blade was already stained with the juices of the land of tenderness. He was using this sword to soothe his wounds. The first thrust used half the force, and the second would require a third to achieve the same soothing effect. Wasn't that just drinking poison to quench thirst?
He must have been so agitated that he lost his mind, otherwise he would have noticed this long ago. Xie Lian cursed himself silently. Now that things had come to this, he could only tear off his left sleeve and frantically wipe the sword. Then he tore off his right sleeve and stuffed it into his mouth, biting it tightly, trying his best to control himself.
He bit his lips and teeth, forcing the soft moan to become intermittent. However, the cave had its own echo, and every subtle sound was amplified and transmitted. Moreover, the young soldier had followed his instructions and had been blindfolded, so he could only listen to the sounds and make out things. His ears were even more sensitive, so how could he not notice anything unusual? He could no longer hold back and trembled, "Your Highness?"
This embarrassing situation was the greatest humiliation of his life. Xie Lian couldn't imagine what would happen if someone else saw him. Even though the cave was pitch black, he couldn't bear it and shouted, "Don't come in!!!"
However, he still had the cloth plug tightly in his mouth, and all he sounded was a whimper, which was extremely pitiful. The young soldier became even more anxious after hearing this.
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