Chapter 44 Welcome to the Emerald Dream
Jiang Xuelan wasn't feeling well either. Not only did he have to withstand the turbulent currents of the void, he also had to distract himself from channeling his icy immortal energy, using the blood pact to suppress the filth and rampaging power within Li Jiuyou. Their bodies pressed tightly together (in an extremely awkward position), the clash of ice and fire intensified within the chaotic void. Jiang Xuelan's immortal robes were scorched by Li Jiuyou's intense heat, and Li Jiuyou shivered in the chill emanating from Jiang Xuelan.
"Ice...Ice Face...let go...let go...you're strangling me...to death..." Li Jiuyou gasped with difficulty, trying to pry Jiang Xuelan's arms loose from around his waist. This position was so damn uncomfortable! Furthermore, the cold breath from Ice Face kept drilling into his nose, making his mind even more confused!
"If you want to be torn apart by the chaotic flow of the void... keep moving..." Jiang Xuelan's voice echoed in his ears, its breath cold and filled with suppressed pain. Far from loosening his grip, he tightened his grip even more. Simultaneously, his icy blue immortal energy formed a thin shield around them, struggling to resist the turbulence. "Activate the demonic fire... protect your heart meridian... don't let that devilish thing completely consume you..."
"Do I need you to teach me..." Li Jiuyou said stubbornly, but subconsciously followed Jiang Xuelan's instructions, restraining his demonic fire and protecting his essence. The filth's erosion seemed to have slowed slightly under the suppression of the icy immortal power. He was forced to lean against Jiang Xuelan's cold chest, and he could clearly hear his steady, strong heartbeat (albeit a little fast), and the lingering cold breath, like pine needles after snow. This feeling... was so fucking weird!
Suddenly, a stronger suction force came from the depths of the vortex!
Like fish caught in a whirlpool, the two of them spun uncontrollably and plummeted! The shield trembled violently, on the verge of shattering!
"Hold on tight!" Jiang Xuelan shouted, her arm around Li Jiuyou's waist almost digging into his muscles. Her other hand tightly grasped Li Jiuyou's wrist as he tried to wave his arm around.
"Fuck! Where are you grabbing at?" Li Jiuyou felt like his wrist bones were about to be crushed! This icy-faced man's grip was ridiculously strong! He subconsciously reached back to grab Jiang Xuelan's wrist, trying to pry the iron clamp open!
In the chaos, the two men's hands were tearing and struggling.
Not an attack, nor an escape.
In another violent spin and turbulence, at the critical moment when the shield was about to break -
Li Jiuyou's hand, which was trying to pry open the clamp, accidentally grabbed Jiang Xuelan's hand that was holding his wrist!
The cold knuckles and the scorching hot fingers were clasped together tightly, crosswise, and firmly in an extremely tight, extremely awkward way that was completely beyond the psychological endurance of the two straight men!
Time seemed to freeze for a moment.
Jiang Xuelan: "..."
Li Jiuyou: “…”
A strong and strange wave, far beyond the attraction of the blood contract, originated from the soul level. Like a high-voltage electric current, it followed the two people's tightly clasped fingers and penetrated their whole bodies!
"Ugh!" / "Oh shit!"
Both of them cried out in pain at the same time!
Jiang Xuelan felt a surge of intense heat, carrying Li Jiuyou's distinct will and the remnants of the evil spirit, rushing down his arm into his sea of consciousness! The ice sheet shook violently, even cracking slightly! At the same time, a clearer fragment of Li Jiuyou's childhood memory was forced into his mind: a dark dungeon, cold chains, a young man from the Zhe tribe huddled in a corner, gnawing on moldy rations, his eyes burning with an unquenchable thirst for power...
Li Jiuyou felt a bone-chilling chill, carrying Jiang Xuelan's ultimate calmness and the weight of his burden, rush through his soul! The very essence of the scorching demonic fire seemed to freeze for a moment! A scene of howling wind and snow followed: young Jiang Xuelan kneeled alone before a frost-covered grave, her small back straight, her fingertips digging deep into the frozen soil, oozing blood, yet she stubbornly refused to shed a single tear...
With ten fingers clasped tightly together, the soul fragments collided and blended violently in the chaotic void!
Even more bizarrely, the conflicting forces of ice and fire within the two people, under this strange resonance at the soul level, actually... **briefly subsided**?!
The raging Chaos True Fire no longer burned Jiang Xuelan's meridians, but instead lay dormant, docile. The icy immortal energy no longer stung Li Jiuyou's essence, like a tamed stream. Even the evil god's foul, evil thoughts seemed to be suppressed and dispelled a little by the intertwined soul waves of ice and fire!
The two of them maintained a strange posture of holding hands, falling at high speed in the chaotic void, staring at each other, with the same expression of shock, confusion, and... **horror as if struck by lightning**!
"You... you fucking let me go!" Li Jiuyou was the first to recover from the soul shock, his scarlet eyes filled with fear and shame (?), and he tried to pull his hand away. This was even more terrifying than being bitten by the Soul-Sinking Mist!
"I can't...let go!" Jiang Xuelan's icy blue pupils trembled, his voice trembling with a rare, barely perceptible tremor. He was horrified to discover that their hands seemed glued together with top-grade immortal glue! Not only were their fingers locked tightly, but even the blood-covenant vine marks on their wrists were glowing crazily, locking their clasped hands in place! An even stronger suction force emanated from the depths of the vortex!
"What the hell is this contract--!!!" Li Jiuyou's roar resounded through the void.
The next second, the dazzling white light engulfed all the senses!
Plop! Plop! Plop! Plop!
There were several muffled sounds in succession.
The feeling of weightlessness suddenly disappeared, replaced by a cool touch and a huge impact!
"Ahem...Pah, pah, pah!" Xuanjia was the first to emerge from the water, his eyes rolled back as he spat out water. "Damn it, did our ancestor...fall...into the sea?"
Man Gu's massive body also surfaced, spraying water from its ox-nosed trunk, and holding A Che, who was choking and rolling his eyes, tightly under his armpits. "King! Immortal Lord! Where are you?"
The water surface not far away suddenly exploded!
Two figures suddenly jumped up like fish that were blown out of the water!
It was Jiang Xuelan and Li Jiuyou!
Both men were drenched and in a state of disarray. Jiang Xuelan's icy blue robe clung to her body, outlining her slender waistline. Her wet black hair clung to her pale cheeks, making her look even colder. Li Jiuyou's red-gold hair had also lost its luster, hanging wetly, and his tattered fur coat tightly wrapped around his muscular chest.
However, what is more eye-catching than the drowned chicken shape is——
Their hands!
Still tightly clasped together, fingers interlocked, in an extremely conspicuous and impossible to ignore way!
The moment they came out of the water, they both lowered their heads almost at the same time, looking at their hands that seemed to be welded together, and then suddenly looked up and their eyes met.
The air froze.
In Li Jiuyou's scarlet-gold eyes, there was rage, shame, and disbelief like a volcano erupting.
Jiang Xuelan's ice-blue eyes were as cold and stiff as a collapsing glacier, and contained a rare hint of collapse.
"Three, two..." Li Jiuyou squeezed out words from between his teeth.
"One!" The two men exerted force at the same time, as if they were stung by a scorpion, and swung it hard with all their might!
It was like the sound of super glue being torn apart.
Finally! We're separated!
As if struck by lightning, the two men each took three quick steps backward, breathing heavily from a distance of ten feet. They each shook their wrists frantically, as if they were stained with the most disgusting substance in the world.
Li Jiuyou rubbed his hands vigorously on his equally soaked pants, and the red-gold demonic fire burst out and burned a few times. He gritted his teeth and growled: "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
Jiang Xuelan's face was colder than his Frost Sword. He silently took out a snow-white silk handkerchief from his storage ring (the Immortal King's baggage cannot be lost), and wiped every "contaminated" finger with great force and expressionless face, especially the places where Li Jiuyou had just held them tightly, until his knuckles turned red.
"Puff..." The black-armored green turtle floating on the water in the distance widened its eyes, covered its mouth with its claws, and shook its shoulders wildly.
Man Gu looked bewildered. Che choked on the water, his face blank.
At this moment, a ethereal, pleasant, and curious female voice came from above everyone's heads like a clear spring:
"Oh, look! It's a drowned rat that fell from outside! Or two drowned rats arguing with each other!"
Everyone looked up suddenly.
They found themselves in the center of a vast, shimmering lake, like liquid emerald. Surrounding the lake lay a strange, rolling forest resembling vast emerald corals. And above the forest, suspended were countless… aerial treehouses, constructed from glowing vines and enormous leaves. Vines interwoven into bridges and paths, connecting these treehouses.
At this moment, on the lake nearest to them, a pretty young girl was standing on a huge emerald branch.
The girl, about sixteen or seventeen, had a healthy tan. She wore a short skirt and tube top woven from some kind of flexible leaves and luminescent tendrils, revealing her slender arms and legs. Her feet were bare, but her ankles were adorned with two small anklets woven from colored crystals and bird feathers. Her long, dark green hair, cascading down like a waterfall, was dotted with a few exotic, shimmering flowers. Her large, bright eyes, a clear amber color, curved into crescents as she curiously surveyed the beleaguered crowd in the water, especially the two drenched individuals who had just "violently" separated, their bodies radiating a "stay away from me" aura.
She tilted her head, her smile as bright as the sunlight shining through the forest, her voice clear and crisp:
"Welcome to the Emerald Dream, lost travelers."
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