The heavenly spiritual root was the one chosen by the Heavenly Dao for ascension. Wenren Sheng indeed did not need to go through any life-or-death tribulations. As long as he quietly secluded himself for a period of time, he could reach the realm of ascension.
But He Mu did not immediately answer Wenren Sheng’s words. He silently broke open a sweet potato, peeled off the wrinkled skin, and blew on it near his lips.
“Brother,” Wenren Sheng shook his arm, “say something.”
He Mu handed the slightly charred flesh to Wenren Sheng and smiled. “Eat this first. Your stomach has been growling nonstop. Don’t pass out from hunger.”
Wenren Sheng pursed his lips. He thought to himself that he had run all over the mountain today and hadn’t eaten anything until this point, so it was normal for his stomach to be hungry.
He grumbled as he took the sweet potato and nibbled a small bite at the edge of his mouth.
“Then tell me quickly, Brother,” Wenren Sheng said with cheeks puffed out, mumbling, “what are your thoughts?”
“My thoughts are,” He Mu draped an arm around his shoulder and said unhurriedly, “you secluded yourself at Fragrant Ze Mountain for five years and suddenly grew five years older. When I saw your grown-up appearance back then, I wasn’t quite used to it.”
Wenren Sheng shifted his body to adjust his position, then buried his head and took another bite of the sweet potato.
The taste was sweet and silky, just like the ones the clan leader had roasted for him in his memories.
“I won’t grow anymore now,” Wenren Sheng said as he ate. “After I come out of seclusion, even if Brother sees me again, I’ll still look like this.”
He Mu hummed in acknowledgment, his fingertip twirling Wenren Sheng’s braid.
It was not until Wenren Sheng had almost finished half the sweet potato that He Mu finally spoke and asked, “Then, are you afraid?”
Wenren Sheng took out a handkerchief from his collar, carefully wiped the corner of his mouth clean, and said seriously, “What’s there to be afraid of? Didn’t Brother say he would ascend with me? With you here, I’m not afraid of anything.”
With that, he got up and sat on one of He Mu’s legs, intimately wrapping his arms around He Mu’s neck.
“We’ll ascend together, return to the Heavenly Court together, take down Siming, and free all the demons in the lower realms,” he said. “Then we’ll come back to Fragrant Ze Mountain and happily be two carefree immortals. Okay, Brother?”
His words were light, as if he were talking about something utterly ordinary. He Mu’s brows and eyes carried a smile as he leaned forward and kissed the tear mole at the corner of Wenren Sheng’s eye.
“Okay,” He Mu murmured against him. “I love you so much, Shengsheng.”
This confession came suddenly, and Wenren Sheng’s heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly lowered his gaze.
What was this… suddenly being so clingy.
Sh-should he respond with “I love you too”?
Wenren Sheng really wanted to say it deep down, but he felt like such dialogue appeared in those vulgar romance novels, and he was too embarrassed to say it out loud.
After pondering for a long time, he finally quietly changed the subject.
“…Then this time, will Brother’s dao heart change again? Will you get qi deviation again?”
He Mu answered quickly. “It definitely won’t.”
“Oh—” Wenren Sheng dragged out the sound. “Talking big again.”
He Mu pinched his cheek with a mix of laughter and exasperation. “This time it’s not big talk; it’s the truth. Don’t you believe me?”
Wenren Sheng wrinkled his nose at him and huffed lightly. “I don’t even know what your dao heart is, so of course I can’t just believe you. Before, Brother kept saying he was emotionless, but in the end, didn’t he fall for me and get together with me?”
He Mu neither confirmed nor denied it. He simply smiled brightly and pressed his forehead against Wenren Sheng’s.
“On the day you ascend,” he said with a sigh, “I’ll tell you what my dao heart is.”
He Mu always spoke like this, close to Wenren Sheng’s ear, making his heart itch like a feather was tickling back and forth in front of him, tempting him to paw at it.
Wenren Sheng half-narrowed his eyes and couldn’t help but plant a few kisses on He Mu’s face with smacking sounds. Finally, he mumbled, “I love Brother the most,” and buried his flushed face into He Mu’s neck like a shy little kitten.
What exactly was He Mu’s dao heart?
Wenren Sheng had thought about it many times but could never guess the answer.
The perfection of the dao heart was the final threshold for ascension. All cultivators in the world, whether for the greater good of the masses or selfish desires, could reach the state of great completion as long as they adhered to their dao heart to the extreme.
He Mu was confident that he could definitely ascend, so he must have found a resolution even firmer than the Emotionless Dao. But what exactly was it?
Was it the great dao, or selfish motives? So hard to guess.
But He Mu was the immortal he had admired since childhood. Since he promised to ascend with him, return to the Heavenly Court, and tie up all loose ends, Wenren Sheng believed him without hesitation.
He closed his eyes and lay defenseless in He Mu’s arms, feeling the gentle night breeze of Fragrant Ze Mountain.
If everything went as smoothly as he hoped, then years from now, he would still be at Fragrant Ze Mountain, in He Mu’s arms, admiring this moon together.
For this future within reach, he had to cultivate even harder, hold his sword steadier, make his steps cleaner, and perfect his moves.
Only by becoming stronger could he stand in front of everyone, become a hero who could stand on his own, and have the courage not to retreat.
Once he accomplished what he wanted, he could retire into the mountains like the lone heroes in the stories, unobtrusively guarding his own happiness.
Three days later.
He Mu collected the dried herbs into the qiankun pouch. Then, he drew the last earth-shrinking talisman from his sleeve and handed it to Wenren Sheng.
“Let’s go, Shengsheng.”
Wenren Sheng took the talisman, nodded, bit it between his teeth just like last time, and proactively held He Mu’s hand, interlocking their fingers tightly.
He closed his eyes, formed a seal with one hand, gathered spiritual power, and pointed toward the direction they had come from.
The talisman ignited with a trail of fire. Moments later, a heavenly wind rose around them both. Then, the grass and trees of Fragrant Ze Mountain shattered like thin paper, replaced bit by bit by Mountain Moon Hall in Central Province.
In no time, the yellow talisman burned out.
He Mu opened his eyes a step ahead of Wenren Sheng. He frowned and scanned the surroundings, vaguely sensing that the atmosphere was off.
When they had first come to Mountain Moon Hall, the ambiance here had been serene and relaxed, with crisp birdsong in the air. It had not been this tense.
Now, Mountain Moon Hall seemed shrouded in a layer of deathly silence, and the air faintly carried a bloody scent.
“Brother,” Wenren Sheng gripped He Mu’s hand tightly and pointed toward the medicine hall. “There are so many claw marks on that door over there.”
He Mu looked over and indeed saw mottled claw marks on the door, positioned low with deep gouges sunk a full three inches in—likely made by some beast.
He Mu thought for a moment and reassured him. “Don’t worry. If something happened, Ye Lan would have sent a letter in the past few days to tell us.”
No sooner had he spoken than a sudden gust of wind swept in from Wenren Sheng’s side. A black shadow flashed quickly through his peripheral vision.
“Young Master, watch out!” Ye Lan’s urgent shout rang in his ears.
Wenren Sheng’s expression changed in shock. He agilely dodged to the side. With a crashing sound, the black shadow slammed straight into the medicine hall’s door with considerable force. The door cracked open instantly, and the ground shook from the sudden impact.
Wenren Sheng focused his gaze and saw that it was a dingy gray rat—likely Duoxiren, who had not shapeshifted.
Before he could react, Ye Lan’s figure pounced over, covering Duoxiren entirely as he desperately threaded a bundle of rope underneath him.
“Sorry, Young Hero, Lord Cangyu,” Ye Lan explained breathlessly while binding the struggling Duoxiren. “Xu the Knight… woke up suddenly at midnight yesterday and went mad. He bit and injured Mountain Moon Physician. I’ve been fighting him in the courtyard until today!”
He wrapped a loop of hemp rope around Duoxiren and was about to tighten it when Duoxiren’s tail whipped wildly, sending Ye Lan tumbling away.
Ye Lan rolled twice across the ground before stopping. The snake scales on his face had flared out.
“Sorry, it was this subordinate’s incompetence,” he retracted his scales and apologized to the two. “Xu the Knight is as strong as an ox. Even in my true form, I couldn’t beat him. This subordinate truly doesn’t know what to do.”
He Mu frowned. “He woke up suddenly? Has he been like this the whole time since the onset?”
Ye Lan nodded. “That’s right.”
Wenren Sheng looked nervously toward Duoxiren. Shan Yue should have already left the medicine hall by now, but she was timid by nature. Such a huge commotion would inevitably startle her.
He hurriedly pulled He Mu and reminded him. “Brother, that treasure that can cure heart palpitations—you brought it from Fragrant Ze Mountain, right?”
He Mu nodded, tossed out the qiankun pouch, and hooked his finger into it. A pendant drilled out from the opening and landed in Ye Lan’s palm.
The qiankun pouch then opened wider and spat out several baskets full of medicinal ingredients.
“Thanks, Brother,” Wenren Sheng said to Ye Lan. “Night Dharma Protector, quickly take these to the divine healer’s room and ask her to make the antidote as fast as possible. If her injuries are serious, come get me. I’ll channel spiritual power to her.”
With that, he drew Heavenly Heart from his waist with a whoosh and held it horizontally in front of him. He swiped two fingers along the blade.
A thin layer of frost quickly formed on the ground, spreading from Wenren Sheng’s feet all the way to Duoxiren.
“Leave this to us.”
After saying that, he leaped up, spun, and unleashed a wave of sword qi that sliced straight past Duoxiren, cleanly severing the medicine hall’s front door.
As the sword qi landed, Wenren Sheng stomped down on Duoxiren’s belly, kicking him—rat and soul together—into the medicine hall.
“This subordinate obeys, Young Master.”
Ye Lan saluted Wenren Sheng’s back once more.
Moments later, he straightened up and deliberately glanced at Wenren Sheng.
Confirming that Wenren Sheng did not turn back, Ye Lan took an unopened letter from his collar and handed it to He Mu instead.
“Lord Cangyu,” he said in a lowered voice, “this is a letter delivered by the city lord’s homing pigeon. It’s sealed with a spell—only you can open it.”
He Mu raised a brow and took the letter.
He undid the spell with one hand, and the letter paper unfurled on its own. The black characters inside gradually emerged like ripples spreading out.
He Mu skimmed it quickly, and his expression suddenly turned grave.
“…………”
Not far away, Wenren Sheng clapped his hands together, moved his lips slightly, and recited a single-character incantation. Several ice pillars abruptly fell over the medicine hall’s front door, forming a cage that locked Duoxiren inside.
“Let me out!!” Duoxiren clawed at the ice pillars, squeezing his face through the middle and roaring at him. “Let me out! I want to kill you! I’ll kill you all!!”
Wenren Sheng crossed his arms and said helplessly, “You can’t beat me, Xu the Knight.”
“Let me out! Let me out!!”
The maddened Duoxiren refused to yield. He bashed his head against the ice pillars repeatedly. Soon, he had battered himself bloody, the blood sticking to the pillars and quickly freezing into chunks.
“Sorry, Xu the Knight.”
Wenren Sheng couldn’t bear to watch. He sighed and cast a spell at Duoxiren’s brow.
“I’ll cure you. Rest for now.”
Duoxiren took the hit and instantly stiffened. With a thud, he toppled straight backward.
Seeing Duoxiren no longer struggling, Wenren Sheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“This should be fine now.”
He clapped his hands and turned to look at He Mu. Only then did he notice that He Mu had somehow acquired a sheet of paper in his hand and was staring at its contents with a tense expression.
“Brother,” he glanced at the letter in He Mu’s hand and asked, “what’s that you’re holding?”
Hearing Wenren Sheng’s voice, He Mu unusually crumpled the letter in his palm.
“Nothing,” he said as he scattered the fragments. “It’s a letter from your master. Just some unimportant matters.”
Wenren Sheng frowned at the sight.
Something was wrong.
He was definitely lying.
Wenren Sheng’s face darkened instantly. He walked straight up to He Mu and held out his palm.
“Give it to me, Brother.”
He Mu scratched his cheek guiltily. “I accidentally tore it up just now, Shengsheng. It’s just a letter—nothing…”
“Give it to me.” Wenren Sheng cut him off coldly.
For someone of He Mu’s profound cultivation, restoring a torn letter was trivial.
Wenren Sheng was very serious about such matters. He didn’t like He Mu’s evasive attitude or this kind of deception between them.
“We agreed before that we’d discuss things together,” Wenren Sheng said word by word. “Right, Brother?”
He Mu looked at Wenren Sheng’s stern little face and couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat inwardly.
If he kept being stubborn, he’d be punished to sleep on the floor tonight and forbidden from touching Wenren Sheng all night long.
The most crucial thing was that Wenren Sheng would definitely sulk. He would mull over the matter repeatedly for several days, convinced that he had acted arbitrarily without upholding their agreement.
And he had clearly promised Wenren Sheng that he would correct this bad habit.
After pondering for a moment, He Mu let out a soft sigh and placed his hand over Wenren Sheng’s palm. The letter paper slowly reformed between their palms.
“Sorry, Shengsheng,” He Mu took the initiative to admit his mistake. “It was my problem.”
Wenren Sheng kept a cold face and ignored He Mu.
