Chapter 22 A dog might bite, so of course I can't bite a dog. ...
Shen Zhou was surprised that she would suddenly pounce on him.
But with his reflexes during the fusion phase, he was still able to dodge the moment she pounced. However, he didn't dodge; at worst, he would get bitten again, since it would be Hua Deng who felt the pain.
Unexpectedly, she did bite, but the location of the bite caught him completely off guard, even causing him to look surprised.
Just as he was taken aback, Hua Deng seemed not to be satisfied and actually extended the tip of her tongue, gently probing, as if a butterfly had sucked on a flower stamen, light and moist.
Shen Zhou's pupils suddenly contracted, and he abruptly increased the pressure on her waist. After a few deep breaths, he pulled her away with one hand.
The streetlights swayed slightly, and before her lips could close, she revealed snow-white teeth and a hint of tender red tongue.
Shen Zhou closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, a dark undercurrent was surging within them, brewing a cold rage.
"Hua, Deng".
He called out her full name, word by word, clearly and distinctly.
As if stunned by the chill in his words, Hua Deng gradually came to her senses, let out a helpless "Ah," and her eyes drooped.
Shen Zhou approached her, leaning in and pressing his thumb against her throat, his expression full of threat.
Do you want to die?
His words carried far more force than a hand gesture, as if a single wrong answer would cost her her life.
Hua Deng innocently poked the back of his hand, feigning ignorance: "What's wrong?"
Shen Zhou held the back of her neck, forcing her to look up, and said with a cold laugh, "Is that so? You've forgotten again."
"I didn't do it on purpose, and I didn't hurt you..." Hua Deng felt a little guilty, but also a little self-righteous, raising her chin to accuse him, "Why are you being so fierce again?"
She said, feeling wronged, "You promised me, you're not allowed to forget."
As his fingers, which were holding hers, twitched slightly, Shen Zhou recalled the scene from that day.
“You’ve taken me for a good person who keeps his promises,” he said, unmoved. “Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of awareness.”
“Well… it’s not too late for you to realize this now.” Hua Deng swallowed hard and slowly put her hand on his arm. “I’ll teach you. Just like this, put your hand down and move away from me, and that’s it.”
Shen Zhou almost burst out laughing, a laugh born of anger.
But he didn't laugh in the end. He just stared at the streetlights with his dark eyes, which revealed no emotion, until she obediently put her hand down, opened her eyes wide, and secretly pouted.
The girl's dark, grape-like eyes darted about unintentionally, like a cunning fox. His old dog used to do the same.
Whenever she chewed up his sword sheath or ate all the snacks he had secretly hidden, she would tilt her head back and give him that look. It was as if she knew he wouldn't dare to do anything, and that she knew he would continue to indulge her.
Thinking of this, his expression grew even colder and more somber. He stroked Hua Deng's neck with his hand, as if he were considering where to start.
The hands, slender and powerful from years of sword practice, are broad with distinct knuckles. The thick calluses on the skin, glistening under the streetlights, are particularly noticeable.
"Hmm..." Hua Deng flinched sensitively, her eyes momentarily unfocused. "Don't move, it hurts."
"You're already feeling unwell?"
Chen Zhou stopped moving, but still didn't let go.
Anyone in this world who dared to approach him or challenge him would have been killed by him countless times. Only this person repeatedly and wantonly trampled on his bottom line.
And he actually condoned it, which is incomprehensible.
"What gave you the illusion that you dare to be so fearless?"
"—You make me very unhappy."
His eyes were lowered, dark and sinister, casting shadows that completely enveloped the streetlights, creating an extremely oppressive posture.
"Then you..." Hua Deng unconsciously bit her lip, her dark eyes looking at him timidly, and asked, "You'll bite back?"
Shen Zhou's murderous aura faltered, as if he hadn't understood what he had heard.
Hua Deng demonstrated for him, pulling at his collar to reveal his entire neck, pointing his fingertips at his barely defined throat, closing his eyes, and striking a pose of heroic sacrifice.
"So, you're going to bite back like that?" She stood on tiptoe, bringing her neck closer.
Shen Zhou reflexively took a half step back, but her image was inevitably reflected in his eyes.
Her wet, black hair clung to her neck, and a drop of water quietly slid down where her finger was pointing, rolling down her slender neck and past the small mole below her collarbone.
It turned out she had a mole here too. Because of her fair skin, it stood out conspicuously, almost like an invitation to take a bite. What's more, she had her eyes closed innocently, as if he could do anything for her.
Shen Zhou stopped retreating and traced his fingers down her throat, abruptly withdrawing them just before they touched the mole.
You're overthinking it.
He lowered his brows and said coldly.
“Puppies bite people, so of course I can’t bite dogs.”
Hua Deng opened her eyes, seemingly pondering the truth of his words. Seeing that his expression wasn't so terrible after all, she breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "Then don't be angry anymore."
Shen Zhou said coldly, "I'm not angry."
"Of course there is." Hua Deng sighed, as if to say, "Don't try to fool me. Look at you, your ears are all red with anger."
Shen Zhou suddenly turned his head, his calm eyes breaking: "Shut up!"
The streetlights were quiet for a moment, then suddenly there was a loud "whoosh".
Upon discovering that she could make sounds, she patted her chest and smiled, "You scared me to death! I thought you were using puppetry."
Shen Zhou chuckled and said slowly, "You're right."
"Forget it." He grabbed Hua Deng's shoulder, his teeth clenched. "Forget everything that just happened."
Seeing that Hua Deng's pupils were unfocused and he was fast asleep in his arms, he scooped him up by the waist and placed him on the low couch by the pond.
As he turned around, he saw his reflection clearly through the rippling water of the pool.
The familiar, hateful face was clearly filled with hostility, yet the roots of his ears were already bright red, and he couldn't shake it off no matter what.
"An eyesore," he uttered.
A flash of sword light streaked across the water, creating waves several meters high in the pool, splashing water everywhere and soaking the entire secret room.
The barrier enveloped the bright lights, and she slept peacefully, while Chen Zhou was completely soaked by the ice water. After standing still for a moment, he lifted his foot and walked towards the door.
He kicked open the iron gate, drying his clothes as he walked, his long hair hanging down his back, a striking contrast of black and white.
As he walked to the outside of the main hall, he kicked Jinze, who was picking flowers in the corner, and said condescendingly, "Bring all the physicians and alchemists in the palace here."
Jinze was caught off guard and jumped up angrily upon hearing this: "Fine, I'll find them!"
He ran away quickly.
Shen Zhou remained where he was, standing there calmly for a while, silently reciting the sword incantation.
A sword of the heart condensed from his body and floated in his raised palm. Just as he was about to grasp it, it shattered without warning.
Shen Zhou's hand grasped at empty air.
As expected, he put his hand down, but a sense of unease rose within him.
...He shouldn't have done that.
His sword technique is called "Eternity," which transcends time and space, allowing him to tread upon the Heavenly Dao and disregard the sun and moon. His sword heart is called Bodhi, which is born from the infinitesimal and is grand in its vastness, looking down upon the insignificant from its grandeur.
His sword is unbreakable, and his heart is as clear as crystal.
so--
Shen Zhou thought expressionlessly.
Which step of the cultivation process went wrong?
...
Jinze summoned both the physician and the alchemist.
A dozen or so people stood in front of Shen Zhou, all feeling the same trepidation.
According to their rank, they shouldn't be qualified to see this lord, but today the young master suddenly summoned them. Could it be that they're about to have to write their wills?
Just as they were in a state of panic, Shen Zhou cut to the chase and said, "I need a pill that can suppress my true energy."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Refining pills was easy enough, as long as they weren't used to refine pills.
One of them stroked his beard and carefully stated, "Your true energy is extremely domineering. If you want to suppress it, ordinary pills will probably be ineffective, unless..."
"Speak," Shen Zhou said, looking at him.
“Unless, with your own lifeblood,” the man said, mustering his courage.
Shen Zhou didn't even blink: "Then use it."
Everyone fell silent, and no one dared to answer.
Shen Zhou said impatiently, "Use only what you need. Just prescribe whatever you need, and don't worry about the rest. Can you do that?"
The group exchanged glances, then nodded hesitantly.
"Then do it. I need the first batch of pills by tomorrow morning." Shen Zhou waved his hand. "You may leave."
After the crowd dispersed, he looked at Jinze, the only one who hadn't left.
"What's up?"
Jinze finally couldn't help but ask, "When did you start playing the romance game?"
Shen Zhou said, "You need to get your head checked out. You're asking for a beating, aren't you?"
Ignoring everything else, Jinze continued, "I just don't understand, who exactly is that woman? Why won't she let me see her—"
Before he could finish speaking, his neck was grabbed from a distance, forcing him to lift up with his feet off the ground, his face swollen and red.
“It doesn’t matter who it is,” Shen Zhou said, “but if you dare to disturb her, you’ll die.”
His tone was ordinary, but the chilling aura emanating from him made it almost impossible for him to lift his head.
"……knew!"
With his reluctant compromise, Shen Zhou flicked his finger, and he fell heavily to the ground.
Without even glancing at him, Shen Zhou turned and stepped into Fuxian Palace, the door slamming shut behind him.
Jinze muttered under his breath, "You stupid idiot, don't even think about me burning paper money for you when you're dead!"
call out!
A fallen leaf suddenly pierced the ground in front of him, cracking the bluestone slab inch by inch. He covered his head and quickly fled the scene.
Shen Zhou's figure left the window and continued forward. When he reached the secret room, he paused and kicked the door open with a displeased expression.
The streetlights were still there, and a hand rested on its head as it slept peacefully, looking very serene.
She knew nothing about what had just happened. He did it himself.
This realization inexplicably intensified Shen Zhou's resentment. He sat down with a very bad expression and continued to channel his true energy into Hua Deng, sustaining it throughout the night.
*
Having finally slept through the night, Hua Deng awoke from his dream, almost losing all sense of time.
Unlike the previous two times, this time she not only didn't have backaches or leg pains, but was also full of energy and high spirits, wishing she could rush into the pool and swim a couple of laps.
The only problem is that she can hardly remember what happened after she entered the secret room.
"System, why is my memory of last night so blurry?" Hua Deng rubbed his forehead. "I don't think I did anything out of line, did I?"
The system paused for a moment for some reason: "Host, would you like to view the recording?"
Hua Deng thought to herself, "Forget it. With Shen Zhou's temper, if I did anything, I would have been drowned by him long ago."
"...Let's take a look, host." The system stammered.
"No need, don't I know my character?" Hua Deng said firmly.
The system fell silent, but Chen Zhou's cool voice came from behind: "What, have you forgotten again?"
He only erased part of her memory; she shouldn't have forgotten the parts from before.
Hua Deng turned around and said, "I also think it's strange, but forgetting shouldn't be a big deal, right?"
Shen Zhou gave an ambiguous twitch at the corner of his mouth.
"But you should remember, last night you—"
He didn't continue, but just looked at her with an inscrutable expression, unsure whether he wanted her to remember or hoped she wouldn't.
Hua Deng adopted a listening posture: "What did I do last night?"
"It's nothing." He frowned, his face expressionless. "You fainted very quickly last night; I thought you were going to die."
You're the one who should die! Your whole family should die!
Hua Deng was inwardly resentful, but said aloud, "Oh, well, you've really had a hard time."
Shen Zhou scoffed coldly. She magnanimously ignored him, stood up and stretched, and quickly realized something was wrong.
"Has my cultivation improved a little?" she asked uncertainly.
Shen Zhou said, "Is it strange that you have my true energy assisting you?"
"You have this function too?" Hua Deng asked in surprise as she probed the spiritual acupoint. "I feel like I'm close to reaching the Golden Core stage. Is it just my imagination?"
Shen Zhou said calmly, "Your feeling is right, the Golden Core is indeed within your grasp."
Looking at the brightly lit eyes, he thought casually, "She's only at the Golden Core stage. What's there to be happy about? If it weren't for the pills mixed with his blood essence suppressing her, she could have reached the Nascent Soul stage today."
"So, can I break through soon?" The joy of almost completing the mission made Hua Deng's tone a little lighter.
Shen Zhou said, "The Xiashan Secret Realm will be open for a month. You can try to break through to the Golden Core stage there. There's no need to rush."
He paused, then emphasized, "Remember, I must protect you when you attempt to break through to the Golden Core stage; otherwise, my true energy will backfire on your spiritual palace."
Hua Deng gave an "oh" and asked curiously, "What will happen if there's a backlash?"
Shen Zhou said in a deep voice, "His five senses are impaired, making him practically a cripple."
Hua Deng immediately felt relieved: "Thank goodness, I thought I was going to die." She could accept this side effect.
It seems that this true energy is not as terrifying as Shen Zhou described.
Shen Zhou frowned, his tone slightly raised: "Are you alright?"
"It's alright, isn't it?" But Hua Deng didn't want to argue about it, and instead asked him, "And what about you? Have you ever experienced a backlash?"
Shen Zhou lowered his eyes and said, "It happened before, but not anymore."
Lying, Hua Deng thought.
You have clearly lost most of your sense of taste.
She didn't pursue the matter further, and the two tacitly fell silent, returning to the Qingyang Sect.
Shen Zhou said he had something to do, and after delivering Hua Deng to Su Yiqing's residence, he left alone.
Su Yiqing deliberately kicked her boyfriend out, ordering him not to return before midnight tonight, and prepared a bunch of snacks and drinks to entertain Hua Deng.
The two started chatting about all sorts of gossip as soon as they got together. The most exciting one was that Su Yiqing deliberately waited until the drinks were mixed before swirling her glass and excitedly saying, "Hey, did you know that just last night, Tang Yifeng, a disciple of our Qingyang Sect, got into a fight with a half-demon who had infiltrated the sect!"
Hua Deng feigned surprise: "What happened? Is it serious?"
"That's really serious!" Su Yiqing exclaimed with a look of awe. "I heard that the two of them originally went to the back mountain for a secret rendezvous, but when they got there, they even took their pants off and started arguing about who should be on top, and ended up fighting!"
Hua Deng: "..." This is truly an unexpected development.
Su Yiqing continued, "I heard from the people at Huichuntang that Senior Brother Tang was beaten so badly that his teeth fell out and he was lying on the ground crying for his parents. The other half-demon was in even worse shape; his... well, you were all twisted into a pretzel!"
Hua Deng felt a chill run down his spine and exclaimed in a flat tone, "Wow, this is really terrible."
"Oh, by the way." Su Yiqing, oblivious to her strangeness, stroked her chin thoughtfully, "I heard there are actually two half-demon boys, is that true?"
Hua Deng remained unfazed: "Who knows?"
With gossip to accompany their drinks, the two chatted amiably, from the Seventh Elder's illegitimate son to the Sect Leader's four cuckoldings, the topic veering off course so far that it was impossible to steer it back on track.
As night fell, they didn't notice that several figures were quietly approaching from outside the courtyard.
A young man dressed in the robes of a Qingyang Sect disciple lay crouching behind a tree, furtively waving behind him: "Hurry up, Junior Sister Hua is just ahead!"
"Really? You're looking forward to it?"
"What kind of talk is that? Aren't you looking forward to it?"
Only after he finished speaking did he realize that the voice behind him was wrong; it was an unusually deep and unfamiliar male voice.
His alarm bells went off instantly; he drew his sword and turned around—
Bang!
Even though the person opposite him didn't lift a finger, he felt as if he had been struck by a heavy blow, his eyes rolled back and he fainted.
The young man was unconscious. Shen Zhou bent down and kicked him, then tied him up tightly with a rope and secured him to another, thicker, and longer rope.
Beside him lay several other men, also unconscious.
One, two, three... eight, nine.
Shen Zhou flipped through the communication disc in his hand, which he had taken from Tang Yifeng yesterday. It contained a group chat, all about Hua Deng.
Three more are needed.
Just as Hua Deng had said, she was "very popular".
Shen Zhou slowly teleported away, holding the rope.
...
"Huh?"
Su Yi, who was lurking in the group chat, handed the message disc to Hua Deng.
"The competition hasn't even started yet, why are so many people withdrawing tonight?"
Hua Deng leaned over for a look and was also a little surprised: "They're not even going into the secret realm anymore? I thought everyone came for the magic treasures."
“Who says otherwise?” Su Yiqing didn’t dwell on the issue and put down the communication disc. “Maybe people nowadays just see money as dirt.”
Hua Deng shook his head and said sadly, "The world is going to the dogs!"
Su Yiqing: "...The world is going to the dogs!"
*
Back in her room, Hua Deng was surprised to find that Shen Zhou hadn't returned yet, so she leaned against the bed and flipped through a storybook while waiting.
Perhaps because the effects of the Hehuan constitution were gone tonight, she felt completely comfortable and showed no abnormalities.
Compared to the previous two days, when she couldn't quite adapt to Chen Zhou's true energy and often felt a burning sensation, today it has completely subsided.
"System, will I not have another relapse this month?"
“Yes, host,” the system said.
"So I won't be affected by Shen Zhou's true energy anymore?"
"The system cannot determine this," it said. "You are not experiencing any rejection reaction because this morning, Shen Zhou fed you a pill, which preliminary tests indicate is a Tianyuan Pill."
Hua Deng was taken aback: "When did this happen? How come I didn't know?"
The system asked, "Would the host like to view the recording?"
Without thinking much, Hua Deng casually said, "We'll see."
As if they had rehearsed countless times beforehand, the system pulled up the recording with lightning speed and clicked play, giving Hua Deng no room to stop it.
Moreover, it precisely dragged the progress bar to the fifteenth minute, which was exactly when Hua Deng was delirious and struggling to resist.
A bad feeling crept into his heart. Hua Deng held his breath and stared intently. Sure enough, he saw himself in the picture staring straight in a certain direction, and then—pounced on it.
Hua Deng: "…………"
Opening, curtain, thunder, strike.
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