Wuwangyuan-6
The moment the words left my lips, the sounds and smells of reality burst forth like a flood, directly shattering the barrier of my consciousness.
"Cough...!" Ji Wang coughed. Before he could fully open his eyes, the nauseating smell of blood rushed into his nostrils.
He felt himself being held tightly in an embrace, but the person holding him was breathing rapidly and erratically, each breath accompanied by a heavy tremor and an overwhelming, viscous scent of blood.
What came into view was Bu Jiu's arms tightly wrapped around him, the sleeves of which were already torn and tattered, and the exposed arms were covered with wounds of all sizes, including lacerations, burns, and signs of corrosion.
Several claw marks on his shoulder and neck, the flesh torn and bleeding, were slowly seeping blood, turning his originally fair skin a deep crimson.
Ji Wang's gaze trembled as he moved upwards.
Those eyes were slightly lowered, their long eyelashes stained with blood and dust. Seeing Ji Wang looking at her, she finally spoke, "It's all taken care of. Are you still feeling unwell? Want to rest a little longer?"
If it were the old Ji Wang, seeing this scene, he would probably have been overwhelmed by heartache and self-blame, and would have become incoherent.
But at this moment, although his heart was also being clenched tightly, the pain did not overwhelm his mind. Instead, it allowed the last trace of confusion in his eyes to settle down, making him exceptionally clear-headed.
"He's badly injured," Ji Wang said, his voice hoarse.
He slowly straightened up from Bu Jiu's tight embrace, trying to avoid aggravating the other's injuries, and then knelt down in front of Bu Jiu: "Let me take a look."
Bu Jiu's body stiffened for a moment.
Ji Wang didn't rush over to cry or apologize as usual, nor did she frantically ask "What should we do?", and she wasn't even very shocked by the tragic scene around her.
The way he calmed down so quickly, the look in his eyes when he was seriously injured, and that composed tone of voice…
They look so alike.
It's just like that guy who always likes to bury all his worries and pain deep in his heart, but always looks calm and composed on the surface, only revealing a trace of concern in the smallest details.
Ji Wang seemed oblivious to Bu Jiu's reaction, or rather, his mind was entirely focused on Bu Jiu's injury.
"Don't move," Ji Wang whispered.
He extended his other hand, his fingertips gathering a wisp of spiritual energy originating from "innate spiritual light." He used this faint light to brush over the edge of a deep claw mark on Bu Jiu's arm, which was still slowly bleeding.
The movements were gentle and practiced, as if they had been done countless times. Although the spiritual energy was relatively weak, it stopped the bleeding from the wound.
Seeing that this worked, he then touched the wound on Bujiu's neck.
Bu Jiu did not speak or resist, but simply let Ji go to check.
The fox tail, which had been taut all along, slowly relaxed, its tip still damp with blood, and rested reliably on Ji Wang's knees as he knelt on the ground.
Ji Wang felt the weight on his knee and moved even more gently. As he carefully tended to the gruesome wounds, he whispered:
“Severely overdrawn, your essence is shaken, there are multiple external injuries, and your internal organs are also impacted…” With each item he mentioned, his heart sank a little more. These were all left behind by Bu Jiu’s solo battle against the demons. “We must find a relatively safe place to deal with it immediately. The energy here is too chaotic, which is not conducive to your recovery.”
"Can we go?" he asked. "I know there should be a relatively intact remnant of a shelter nearby."
He said "I know," not "I feel."
"Hmm," Bu Jiu replied, thus answering the question.
However, just as Ji leaned forward, preparing to support Bu Jiu and bear his weight, the person in front of him suddenly disappeared.
Ji Wang paused for a moment, then looked down.
A small fox was curled up at his feet. However, its fur, which should have been fluffy and soft, was now mostly soaked in dark red blood and stuck together, making it look rather disheveled and pitiful.
It tried to move and stand up, but its left forelimb was bent at an unnatural angle, clearly indicating a bone injury.
Without hesitation, Ji Wang gently supported the little fox's neck and the back of its head with one hand, while his other hand went under its abdomen and intact hind legs, avoiding the horrifying wounds.
“Okay,” Ji Wang said with a slight smile, “I’ll carry you.”
He spoke so naturally, as if it were a matter of course.
Bu Jiu struggled for a moment, perhaps feeling that being held like this was beneath its dignity, but the intense pain in its body allowed it to only make a faint whisper. In the end, it could only obediently rest its small head in the crook of Ji Wang's arm that was supporting it, and touch Ji Wang's face with its nose.
Ji Wang sat cross-legged on the ground.
Those fragments of memories from his previous lives—his two previous lives as a human, his entanglements with Bu Jiu in those two lives, and his two separations, some heroic and some helpless—finally returned to their complete place deep within his mind, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
Bu Jiu stood with his back to him on a slightly elevated stone platform at the edge of the shelter, facing the surging gray fog outside, seemingly lost in thought.
He had regained his human form. Although his clothes were still torn and stained with blood that was difficult to wash off, they were at least much cleaner. On his exposed skin, most of the gruesome wounds had healed, leaving only pale red new flesh and shallow scars. The healing speed was astonishing, clearly due to his own powerful demonic energy and physique.
From the moment Ji Wang found this shelter, to when he treated Bu Jiu's terrible external injuries, and then to when he meditated and regulated his breathing... Bu Jiu never uttered a single word.
Ji Wang knew the reason. So he stood up and walked step by step behind Bu Jiu: "I'm sorry... for making you wait so long."
Bu Jiu remained silent, but his shoulders began to tremble slightly.
The trembling became more and more obvious, and even his straight back seemed unable to bear some kind of weight, and it hunched over slightly.
He still didn't turn around, nor did he make a sound. But Ji Wang saw a crystal-clear liquid slide down Bu Jiu's lowered face without warning, gather at his chin, and fall straight down, hitting the back of his own clenched fist.
Then came the second drop, the third drop…
Silent tears, like beads from a broken string, flowed more and more rapidly. Bu Jiu finally raised his hand and tried to wipe them away with the back of his hand in a disheveled manner, but the tears just wouldn't stop.
Those long, lonely years, countless disappointments of searching in vain, and the deep longing he suppressed when facing Ji Wangshi... all the deep-seated vulnerability and grievances almost overwhelmed him.
Ji Wang's heart ached unbearably. He reached out and gently pulled Bu Jiu into his arms from behind.
Bu Jiu stopped trying to wipe away her tears, and instead buried her face in her palms, finally letting out a broken sob: "Ji Wang... I really miss you."
It wasn't any of the identities from her past life memories; it was simply "Ji Wang".
It was Ji Wang, the one who would act shamelessly towards him, act coquettishly towards him, love him unconditionally, and whom he loved unconditionally in return.
Ji Wang lowered his head slightly, his lips almost touching Bu Jiu's earlobe, and whispered in response, "I knew it, the moment I saw you, I felt I had to be good to you, I could never get enough of looking at you, so it turns out..." He deliberately dragged out the syllable, "...you were always me—"
"Don't say it!" Bu Jiu quickly interrupted him, his voice still choked with sobs. He turned his head and glared at Ji Wang, his eyes and the tip of his nose still red.
This demeanor suggests less anger and more extreme embarrassment, an attempt to use bluster to mask inner turmoil and deeper emotions.
Ji Wang felt that the "Don't say it" was not very threatening. Instead of shutting up, he moved even closer, his eyes sparkling with innocence: "Why not? Did I say something wrong?"
"Ji, Wang!" Bu Jiu called him by his full name, raising his voice, but the last syllable trembled slightly, whether from anger or embarrassment, it was hard to tell.
He reached out to cover Ji Wang's mouth, but his movements were weak due to his previous exhaustion. His fingertips touched Ji Wang's lower lip, but he pulled back as if he had been burned.
Now, Bu Jiu's cheeks and neck flushed even more noticeably.
He seemed unable to bear the overly intimate yet unsettling atmosphere any longer, or perhaps he couldn't face his overly exposed emotions. He broke free from Ji Wang's embrace and turned to walk quickly toward a darker corner deeper into the shelter.
Ji Wang was freed from his grasp, and suddenly found his arms empty.
He watched Bu Jiu's retreating figure, which seemed to be fleeing in disarray. His steps were unsteady and disordered, and his tail was pressed tightly against his back, as if to say, "Keep away, strangers."
"Sigh..." Ji Wang sighed, but there was no regret in his voice.
"Oh no." He muttered to himself, as if talking to thin air, or perhaps teasing the sulking figure behind him, "He's angered Bu Jiu again... and he's ignoring me again."
Despite saying that, Ji Wang didn't seem anxious at all.
He stretched his stiff shoulders and began to walk around the shelter.
He first checked the runes that maintained the formation and injected a trace of spiritual power to ensure its stability.
Then he took out the few remaining dry rations and water from his bag, carefully divided them into two portions, one large and one small, wrapped the larger portion in a clean cloth, and sat down at a place not too far from Bu Jiu.
Ji Wang didn't immediately try to strike up a conversation. He simply placed the food and water in a conspicuous spot beside him, then closed his eyes and began to silently regulate his breathing, trying to calm the still somewhat disordered spiritual energy within his body.
But the way he occasionally peeked through his eyes at the figure in that corner betrayed that he wasn't indifferent.
He knew that Bu Jiu needed some time to process these emotions, to process the changes brought about by the resurgence of his memories, and perhaps to face the shame brought about by the intimate relationship that had been exposed to him face to face, a relationship that had spanned a long period of time.
And he was willing to give.
Anyway, the person is right here; they can't run away. He has plenty of time and patience in this lifetime to coax them slowly and wait patiently.
The shelter fell silent again, with only the faint, rhythmic sounds of the array resonating within.
Bu Jiu's back remained stiff, but his pointed ears twitched slightly, as if trying to catch every subtle movement behind him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com