Do you want me, or him?
Pei Xuanzhi sat at the table, sketching out a formation diagram.
In the flickering candlelight, Manwu Jinwu meticulously tidied up everything that had been messed up by the black smoke, making sure everything was in order.
Once the room was almost tidied up, the golden mist crawled into his back.
Pei Xuanzhi put down his pen and burned a yellow talisman, making the candlelight brighter and illuminating the clean and tidy room.
It was already getting dark, and she still hadn't returned.
The empty room contained only him and his own shadow. He wanted to take out the jade coins and examine them one by one, but he was also worried about messing up the room again.
He used a talisman to boil some water, and after taking a bath, he boiled some more water, waiting for her to come back and use it.
He then returned to his room and continued to modify his formation diagram while referring to the book.
Black dust gradually emerged from the black bracelet on Yun's wrist, resembling a struggling, wailing skeleton.
Suddenly, a flurry of shadows appeared, and half a golden serpent emerged from behind him, swallowing the black dust whole.
Then, hissing and flicking its pink tongue, it bent down and leaned close to the table, blinking its cunning, blood-pink snake eyes at what he was carefully deducing.
With the candlelight dim, a slender boy in white robes was engrossed in writing calligraphy at his desk, a scene that should have been extremely quiet and peaceful.
But from behind him grew half a large snake with pink eyes and a golden body, its sharp fangs and cold tongue making no attempt to hide them, hissing as if telling a story.
While making his calculations, Pei Xuanzhi said, "You don't need to threaten me. What evil spirit could there be in the Tianyan Sect? She will be fine."
The golden snake hissed as if dissatisfied, revealing its sharp teeth and breathing on him.
Pei Xuanzhi changed the paper and continued writing, saying calmly, "You're going to see her? You're annoying, do you know that? She has her own things to do, why do you always want to bother her? There are more than just the two of you in this world. There are so many fellow disciples in the sect, so many people in the world. You can't just let her see you all the time, and she won't be willing to stay with you all the time. Why are your thoughts always so inexplicable?"
The golden snake seemed unable to bear the shock of the truth, and it slithered out from behind him, flicking its tail and swam around the room in a gloomy manner, attacking him with all its grievances.
Suddenly, Pei Xuanzhi stopped writing, his expression turning cold as he stared at the ink stains spreading across the paper. He said in a low voice, "What do you know? You insatiable desire, can you distinguish between a one-time encounter and eternal companionship?"
The golden snake crawled up from under the dark table, stretched out its body and stood opposite him, coldly staring at him with its pink forked tongue flicking out.
The candlelight cast Pei Xuanzhi's shadow, illuminating half of his face. The shifting light and shadow outlined the interplay of light and shadow on his face.
“Those jade coins cannot be touched now. We need a secluded place to investigate them. I cannot let you go unchecked. You were born of me. If you do not obey my will, I can naturally weaken you.”
The golden snake's blood-pink eyes, like rose quartz gems, reflected the flickering candlelight, creating a play of light and shadow, much like him.
A soft footstep sound drifted through the night wind, and suddenly it seemed to be restrained by something, stiffening and no longer able to stretch freely.
Amidst his aloof expression, it could only swim toward him with extreme reluctance and burrow into the space between his eyebrows.
Pei Xuanzhi put down his pen, stood up and looked around to make sure the room was tidy. Then he walked to the door and opened it.
As soon as the door opened, a stench of blood mixed with the heavy smell of dust rushed in.
The person outside the door had bloodstains on their snow-white cheeks, a resolute air between their brows, and a sharp look in their eyes. Their clothes were torn in several places.
She stood in the night wind, like a straight and upright sword.
Pei Xuanzhi pulled her in and circled around her.
He frowned and said, "You're injured." Several streaks of blood were seen seeping from the tear in his clothes on his left shoulder.
Yan Huanyue said, "Yes, I was a little injured. I entered the Heavenly Stele multiple times today. If I had come back unscathed, who knows what my current limit would be?"
As she spoke, she took out a food box from her treasure pouch and handed it to him, saying with a smile, "I forgot to tell you where the dining hall is. I guessed you wouldn't go looking for something to eat yourself, so I brought it back for you."
He glanced at the books and writing implements on the table and said, "Rest after you finish eating. I'm going to take a bath."
Pei Xuanzhi took the food box from her and said, "But your injuries..."
Yan Huanyue smiled and said, "It's just a superficial injury, nothing serious. Let me take a bath and change my clothes first."
Pei Xuanzhi said, "There is clean hot water, which has been warmed for quite some time."
Yan Huanyue nodded and said, "Okay, thank you."
After saying that, she went to take a bath. In fact, she had been fighting in the Heavenly Stele for a long time and was now exhausted. She desperately needed to relax and didn't want to do anything. She didn't even have the energy to perform a cleansing spell.
After leaving the Heavenly Stele, he had no energy to expend on his spiritual power to fly on his sword, so he simply wandered back like a lost soul.
Upon entering the west wing room, he removed his somewhat tattered clothes, poured some medicinal herbs to promote wound healing into the bathtub, and plunged directly into the hot water, feeling his entire body completely sore and weak.
The spiritual energy within her spiritual sea continuously accumulated, cleansing her spiritual veins. She was like a drop of water, wandering amidst a raging fire.
Suddenly, a fresh vine sprouted from the soil, enveloping the fire and water, and entwining itself around the chilling horizontal blade.
She gradually sank into the bathtub, submerging herself in the water, which sometimes boiled and bubbled, and sometimes emitted cold steam.
With proper breathing and energy regulation, the color of the blood on her wounds changed from light to dark, and then back to light again. Before long, several gruesome wounds had begun to heal.
She soaked for a while longer, regained some energy, and after a thorough wash, changed into a clean nightgown and went out. While tying her long hair up, she pushed open the door and saw Pei Xuanzhi sitting at the table, slowly drinking a bowl of porridge.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the vegetables had suffered only minor injuries.
She secured the hairpin, walked past him toward the bed, and sighed with a smile, "Always such a small appetite, how did you grow up to be so big?"
Pei Xuanzhi stirred the porridge in his bowl, secretly inhaling the refreshing fragrance she left behind, and silently swallowed three full spoonfuls of porridge with this sweet aroma.
His appetite has never been small, but his soul had just swallowed a complete soul body, so he didn't need to eat for a long time.
But he still felt a kind of hunger, an indescribable hunger that he didn't know how to satisfy.
Yan Huanyue sat cross-legged on the bed, laid out several bottles of medicinal herbs, glanced at his back, and said, "Can you help me apply the medicine?"
Pei Xuanzhi responded with an "Okay," then got up to wash his hands before returning to the bedside. He bent down, opened several medicine bottles, and sniffed them, roughly figuring out what the medicines were. Yan Huanyue's slender fingers tapped on each bottle one by one, and she whispered, "First use this blue bottle to wash the wound twice, then use this white bottle, and finally this blue bottle. Remember?"
Pei Xuanzhi nodded and said, "Yes."
Yan Huanyue swept her long hair to her front, raised her hand to untie her belt, pulled her clothes down to her armpits to reveal the wounds on her back, and leaned over to lie on the soft pillow.
Seeing that he hadn't moved for a long time, Yan Huanyue urged him softly, "Xuanzhi, hurry up, I'm very sleepy, I need to rest early tonight."
He mumbled a reply, and soon after, the cool medicine was poured onto the wound, causing a faint stinging sensation.
He was wiping the wound with gauze, sometimes lightly and sometimes heavily, but it still hurt a bit.
As he carefully tended to his wounds, he asked casually, "Where did you go for your trial, sister? Was it the Heavenly Stele?"
Yan Huanyue replied, "Hmm, I suppose you weren't completely ignorant of the Tianyan Sect when you came back before."
Pei Xuanzhi accepted the blood-stained gauze, replaced it with a clean one, and said calmly:
"My health is not good, so I spend most of my time reading. I have some knowledge of the major clans, families, and even the Sky Patrol Bureau, but it's all from books, and some of it may not be entirely accurate."
His eyes were like moonlit streams, clear, bright, and clean, and the crisscrossing wounds on her shoulders also drew hideous scars in his eyes.
“Your injuries are not minor. If you continue to fight so recklessly, you will likely deplete a lot of your energy. This will not do you any good in the long run.”
Yan Huanyue buried her face in the soft pillow and said in a muffled voice, "I know that excessive consumption will only lead to less results, but this time it is only because I have not entered the Heavenly Stele for too long. I need to try my best to test the fundamentals. It is not a common occurrence."
Pei Xuanzhi poured the medicine from the white porcelain bottle onto her wound, and she hissed softly.
Pei Xuanzhi asked, "Does it hurt a lot?"
Yan Huanyue gritted her teeth and said, "The pain will only last for a while, keep falling."
Pei Xuanzhi remained silent, carefully applying all the medicine to the wound before falling asleep on the bed.
He took her hands, treated the old wounds on her palms that had faded, covered them with a blanket, and sat on the edge of the bed in silence for a long time.
The night wind rustled the leaves all over the mountain, and he reached out carefully to touch her black hair, which was casually spread on the bed.
In the end, however, he still picked up the medicine bottles and put them neatly on the small table outside the bedside.
He slowly withdrew his gaze, got up to tidy up the food on the table, and then sat down at the table to continue deducing the formation diagram.
Yan Huanyue slept until dawn. Sleeping face down all night had left her with a stiff neck, numb hands, and discomfort in her waist and legs. Before she even opened her eyes, a tingling sensation made her heart race, and she couldn't help but groan.
She circulated her spiritual energy for a while before she was able to get up. As soon as she turned her head, she saw Pei Xuanzhi getting up from the table and walking towards her, looking sleepy and drowsy as if he had just woken up.
Throughout the journey, it seemed he was determined not to sleep in the bed, yet he refused to sleep elsewhere, always staying in the same room with her, while also keeping a distance as if he was constantly on guard against her pulling him into bed.
He had just woken up, his voice a little hoarse. He glanced at the injury on her back, then went to the small table opposite the bed to get the medicine, and said:
"You're recovering well, much better now. The medication you've used shouldn't leave a scar. I'll change some more dressings for you."
Yan Huanyue lay back down on the bed and casually instructed, "The wound still needs to be cleaned."
"good."
Perhaps because the wound had gradually healed, it didn't hurt much this time. Yan Huanyue lay on the soft pillow and gradually fell asleep again.
When she woke up again, the sun was high in the sky. She felt much better and got up to move her arms and legs. The pain from the wound on her shoulder was no longer very noticeable.
Pei Xuanzhi had already brought the food back and was setting out the chopsticks.
As she washed up in the west wing, she asked through the gauze curtain, "Have you been to Changqing Palace?"
Pei Xuanzhi replied casually, "I went there. He told me to go into seclusion starting tomorrow."
Yan Huanyue had long anticipated this. Every time he returned from his descent from the mountain, the sect leader would order him to go into seclusion to recuperate. Not to mention that he had fallen ill several times this time, he needed to rest and recuperate even more.
As Yan Huanyue sat down, Pei Xuanzhi handed her chopsticks and asked casually, "Do you want me to go into seclusion?"
"This is good for you, so I naturally agree."
When Pei Xuanzhi heard that he was in seclusion, his heart stirred slightly. This gave him the opportunity to search for the remaining six jade coins at any time and to descend into the mystic realm several times.
However, I won't see her for a long time.
Yan Huanyue placed a piece of food in his bowl, looked at his aloof profile, hesitated for a moment, and said:
"But should you tell the sect leader about your experience with love? It would be good to consider things carefully. Everyone thinks you're not in good health, so..."
Pei Xuanzhi suddenly looked at her, feeling an urge to shove those words back into her mouth.
He gripped the chopsticks tightly with his long, slender, fair fingers for a long time, the veins on the back of his hand bulging. After a while, he lowered his head and ate the food she had put in his bowl, saying unhurriedly, "There's no need for this. I can handle it myself."
Yan Huanyue recalled what he had done to her from behind in the leaky house in Xiling. Although she felt a little ashamed, she still asked, "Was it okay for you to do that?"
Seeing her suppressing her shame and looking incredulous, Pei Xuanzhi couldn't help but ask, "What did I do? Why do you look like that, sister?"
"you......"
Yan Huanyue's face suddenly flushed, and she immediately added a few more bites of food to his bowl. Without looking at his face, she simply whispered:
"Although it's a bit embarrassing to say, I hope you understand that doing that kind of thing by yourself is definitely not considered dual cultivation. You won't be able to overcome the tide of passion. When you go into seclusion, you'll probably suffer even more. If someone hears the noise and comes looking for you, the scene will definitely not be pleasant."
Pei Xuanzhi couldn't understand what she was talking about, but he was doing that kind of thing all by himself...
Seeing her unusually evasive expression, he vaguely seemed to understand something; in any case, it was definitely not something glamorous that he had done in front of her.
This conjecture made him instantly want to die right there, preferably so that she could witness his gruesome death and forget all those shameful things.
He had no memory of getting to know her step by step, and his feelings for her were still hazy and innocent.
Like a jasmine flower touched by sunlight, there is a hint of sweetness hidden in its immaturity, and I worry whether I am acceptable in her eyes in every aspect.
She had many experiences with him in the past, but that was the past him, not the present him.
He couldn't help but feel a profound emptiness and shame, as if his very being had been emptied out. He began to hate his former self for hiding his memories, leaving him feeling completely exposed as he stood beside her.
He must have anticipated this when he made the decision, but he didn't care about his own feelings, or perhaps he never thought it was something worth thinking about, as long as he could achieve his goal.
Pei Xuanzhi suppressed the urge to leave and said calmly, "I don't know what you mean, sister. I'm talking about suppression talismans. Using talisman paper alone has limited use, but if it's drawn on the body, it should be able to suppress a lot of the effects."
Yan Huanyue, who was picking up food with her head down, suddenly paused. How come she had never heard him mention such a thing before? There were no traces of talismans on him that first night, and he had never tried any so-called suppression talismans.
She looked up at him, as if looking through him at the person who had previously appeared powerless and in pain.
She hadn't figured out his ways before; back then, as long as he looked pitiful, she would willingly choose to help him.
Yan Huanyue suddenly smiled slightly and pushed the bowl full of food to Pei Xuanzhi's side.
She gently patted his shoulder with one hand, and scooped a spoonful of rice to his lips with the other, smiling and whispering:
"Xuanzhi, if you can't finish this bowl of rice within half an hour, I'll force you to swallow it."
Pei Xuanzhi lowered his eyes to look at the food that was about to be eaten, and suddenly realized that he had overlooked a very important issue in order to go into seclusion to check if there were any memories of him in the jade coin.
Since he had a restraint charm, why did he need her help to overcome his emotional turmoil before? He always felt that as husband and wife, it was only natural.
Judging from her reaction, he no longer needed to think about it; the answer was already quite obvious.
He opened his lips, put the spoonful of rice into his mouth, picked up the bamboo chopsticks on the table, and silently buried his head in his food.
Yan Huanyue had never seen him enjoy the food so much. Seeing that he was eating with difficulty, she put his bowl down and handed him a small bowl of soup, saying, "Never mind, if you can't eat, don't eat anymore. Have some soup instead."
Pei Xuanzhi coughed a few times, took a sip of soup, and asked in a low voice, "Did I force you?"
"no."
Yan Huanyue shook her head. "You set up a formation in the back mountain of Mingde Sect. I was the one who went to find you. Perhaps the formation was really useful at the time. I was the one who disturbed you. But after that, you never mentioned the suppression talisman again."
Pei Xuanzhi secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but asked with some doubt, "But weren't we already married? Could it be... that you actually didn't want to, and didn't like, me?"
Yan Huanyue looked at his cold gaze and said with a smile, "No, no, let's eat. I have to go to the Heavenly Stele later. Pack your things. I'm going to the Zhijing Hall for a lecture tomorrow. I'll take you to the Changqing Palace while I'm there."
Pei Xuanzhi keenly sensed the perfunctory attitude. He put down his bowl, smiled, and said, "I don't know if you said it before, but now I want you to tell me yourself."
Looking at him, Yan Huanyue saw that he always seemed to want to confirm something. She smiled helplessly and said softly, "Why don't you ever believe me? Of course I like you."
"What about before?"
Yan Huanyue asked, "What before?"
Pei Xuanzhi asked softly, "What about me before? What about when you first met me? What about when you married me?"
Yan Huanyue hadn't expected him to ask about something so far back. "I... but we had only just met back then..."
Pei Xuanzhi said softly, "But I am the same as I was before. You don't like me. Do you want me or him?"
Yan Huanyue smiled silently, looking at him with smiling eyes, "Is this what you're telling me? I don't care what era you are now, you are Pei Xuanzhi now, you are my husband."
Her smile deepened. "If you ever say something like that again, you'd better go into seclusion and never come out. I don't need to choose the current you or the old you. I can just choose someone else, which will also resolve your inner dilemma."
Seeing his face darken instantly, Yan Huanyue continued, "You don't need to thank me too much for helping you out of this predicament. When it's time to break the bond, just be quick to repay me."
Pei Xuanzhi felt a dark cloud gathering over him and trembled slightly. He slammed his chopsticks on the table and shouted angrily, "Enough!"
Yan Huanyue sneered, "If you want to continue living like this, then stop banging on the table and smashing bowls. Pick up your chopsticks and eat."
Pei Xuanzhi sat upright beside her, radiating a cold aura. He picked up his chopsticks and put some food in her bowl, while lowering his eyes and calmly picking at the food in his own bowl.
Yan Huanyue looked at him and saw that although his face was cold, his eyes instantly turned red, and stubborn tears silently streamed down his cheeks, down his thin chin, and dripped silently onto the hem of his clothes.
Seeing him cry again, Yan Huanyue's heart softened. She took out a plain handkerchief, wiped away his tears, and gently coaxed him:
"Alright, just stop saying those nonsensical things. I can't separate you from yourself, and you don't need to separate yourself either. Look, you still cry easily, it's just a year or so of memories. I'll help you remember them slowly later, okay?"
Pei Xuanzhi pressed his thin lips together, tears streaming down his face, but he leaned on her shoulder as she wiped away his tears.
He slowly closed his eyes, secretly inhaling her scent, his expression utterly calm, and said in a hoarse voice, "My lady, tonight, please help me draw a suppression talisman on my body, okay?"
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