Chapter 14: The Chore of Bathing.
“Yan Qi.”
When Liao Chen called out to him, Yan Jingyu was curled up and asleep in the small boat.
The air outside was cold. He had buried his face in the black robe, leaving only a section of long hair exposed. The hair was dark but not shiny, and a single silver strand was clearly visible.
He was sleeping soundly.
“Hiss—!”
A sharp pain on his scalp. Yan Jingyu’s eyes shot open. He instinctively clutched his head and stared at the other man.
The small boat had landed. Liao Chen was squatting beside it, holding a silver strand between his fingers, showing it to him. “Your body is already decaying.”
Of course, Yan Jingyu knew this. He said angrily, “You pulled it out?!”
“Mm.”
“…”
No, that wasn’t what he wanted to ask. He wanted to ask Liao Chen on what grounds he had pulled his hair, and more importantly, if Liao Chen had some kind of special problem, pulling his hair for no reason while he was asleep. But there were too many things he wanted to ask, and in the end, the jumble of thoughts only produced that one question.
His eyes were dry, his mind was dull, and only anger filled his chest, leaving him speechless for a moment.
Liao Chen’s expression was calm. He reached out, pinched his chin open, and stuffed a Mind-Clearing Pill inside. “You even have morning grumpiness.”
“Bed?” Yan Jingyu sneered. “Since we met, have you seen me sleep in a bed even once?”
Liao Chen seemed to smile, clearly pleased by his anger. He pointed to the side. “Tonight, we sleep at an inn.”
Only then did Yan Jingyu realize that they had landed in a city. His expression was suspicious. As he got out of the small boat, he struggled a little to pull the black robe from behind him. Although the robe was warm, it was too heavy. He had just woken up and had no strength. He frowned and kicked upwards with his foot to pull the robe out from inside.
Liao Chen put away the small boat, and the two of them entered the inn together, asking for a top-quality guest room.
A stove was promptly added to the guest room. Once the doors and windows were closed, the space quickly warmed up. Yan Jingyu placed the robe on a chair, walked around the large guest room once, and came back to see Liao Chen already sitting cross-legged on the couch, meditating again.
Showing off his diligence again.
Yan Jingyu snorted coldly, stretched his bones, and said, “Give me a Dust-Cleansing Pearl.”
He had always been a person who could adapt well to his environment. He could sleep in the open when traveling by horse, and he could sleep on the ground when life was difficult. But now that he had come to an inn, of course, he had to clean himself up properly before getting into bed, otherwise, he would ruin this clean bed.
“I have already ordered hot water to be prepared.”
“What’s the point of hot water? It’s too much trouble. Just give me a Dust-Cleansing Pearl.”
A Dust-Cleansing Pearl, as its name suggested, could instantly clean away the dirt from one’s body, saving the trouble of mortal washing. This item was also very popular among the mortal nobility. After all, no one wanted to waste their precious rest time on washing, especially in this cold winter. For a person with weak constitution like Yan Jingyu, bathing was an extremely energy-consuming task. Each time was like going through a tribulation.
“There are no Dust-Cleansing Pearls, but I believe you can definitely break through to the Zither-Heart stage within ten days and learn the Dust-Cleansing Art.”
“…” This was also one of Liao Chen’s ways of forcing him to cultivate. Having figured this out, Yan Jingyu was a little speechless again.
It was well-known that cultivation was divided into seven realms: Phoenix-Beginning, Zither-Heart, Cloud-Soaring, Huiyang, Qianyun, Formless, and Taiqing. Even for a talented person, it would take three years of steady cultivation to break through the Phoenix-Beginning stage, ten years for the Zither-Heart stage, and for most cultivators, thirty years to enter the Cloud-Soaring Realm. The Cloud-Soaring Realm was a watershed for most cultivators. To break through again, one needed the right time, place, and people.
The Yan Jingyu of the past had never cared about breaking through realms. His talent was simply too strong. He was born with the Heavenly Mandate Eyes, which even prompted the old ancestor of Hutian to personally come out of seclusion to give him a name. The name Jingyu was taken from the meaning of “stone-shattering.” Cultivation was as simple as eating and drinking for him. There were many talented people in this world, and no shortage of exceptionally talented ones. There were also top-tier geniuses. But someone like Yan Jingyu, a peerless talent, was truly unprecedented.
He was like someone riding a cloud ladder, soaring upwards, leaving all the struggling climbers behind in the blink of an eye. Before he was twenty, he didn’t know that there were many people in the world who took a hundred years to break through the Cloud-Soaring Realm, and a thousand years to break through the Huiyang Realm. Even more people died on the path of seeking immortality.
After he was twenty, he fell from the highest point, rolling from the clouds into the mud. He lost his parents, his clan, and everything he was proud of… Only then did he finally understand that there were many people in this world who could never draw spiritual energy into their bodies in their entire lives. The glory he had once enjoyed was like a flash in the pan, decaying in an instant.
Crushed to pieces.
Ten days to reach the Zither-Heart stage… Back then, when his eyes were gouged out and his body was rotting, when he was saved by someone, he had also thought so. It was just a matter of walking a familiar path again. He had used twenty years to reach the Great Perfection of the Taiqing Realm. Now, at worst, he would use another ten years. Ten years later, he thought, at worst, another twenty years. Twenty years later, he thought, at worst, another thirty years. Thirty years later, he thought, sixty years should be enough, right? Wasn’t sixty years enough to walk the path he had already walked once?
A hundred years passed in a flash.
More than thirty thousand days and nights…
Someone told him: “Your soul-lamp…”
He looked around blankly and heard the person’s hoarse voice: “…is about to be extinguished.”
The soul-lamp was about to be extinguished. In this life, he would never have a chance at the Great Dao again.
Continuing to struggle with cultivation would only speed up the burning of the soul-lamp.
He had once thought… he still had a lot of time to struggle and be disappointed. Only at that moment did he realize that even the time for pain and torment was about to be annihilated.
“What do you want to do next?”
That day, Yan Jingyu thought for a long time. He gazed at the small courtyard transitioning from summer to autumn, at the withered leaves falling from the sky, some green, some yellow. He reached out to catch them, but one brushed past his fingertips and fell to the ground, landing at the base of the tree.
Fallen leaves return to their roots.
He said, “I miss home.”
Liao Chen was right. “Fallen leaves return to their roots” was just an excuse for being powerless to turn the tide.
There was a sound at the door. The inn’s waiter brought hot water. Yan Jingyu pulled his thoughts back and asked him to help place it behind the screen. Troublesome, so be it. I’m not in such a hurry to sleep right now anyway.
After the person left, Yan Jingyu took his change of clothes and went behind the screen, beginning to undress.
Liao Chen, sitting cross-legged outside: “…”
The flow of spiritual energy in his body suddenly stagnated. He forcefully withdrew his divine sense from behind the screen, and the spiritual light around his body completely disappeared.
The circulation of the heavenly cycle was not smooth. He got up from the couch. “I’m going out for a walk.”
On the other side, Yan Jingyu, who had just sat down in the water, grabbed the edge of the bathtub with a splash, his eyes wide. “You’re going out?!”
The screen was not fully enclosed. The door was on the side, and one could clearly see the bathtub behind it. Liao Chen did not turn around, but his divine sense was too powerful, and the Demon Realm was full of tigers and wolves. Even when he was not aware, everything around him was under his control. He had to use all his strength to withdraw it.
Yan Jingyu was too close. Even if only a wisp of it was released, it instantly captured the other’s posture in the water.
His voice was calm. “Going out for some fresh air.”
He directly pulled open the door and walked out, then closed it forcefully. He heard an angry curse from inside: “You bastard! Going out to enjoy yourself and leaving me here to suffer!”
Liao Chen clasped his hands behind his back, his expression majestic and inviolable, but the black boots under his robe walked down the stairs in a hurry.
When he reached downstairs, he could still hear Yan Jingyu’s curses: “Liao Qi Mei, you selfish dog demon lord!”
Accompanied by a rumbling sound from his stomach.
It was only when he realized Liao Chen was going out to the night market that Yan Jingyu realized he should have had dinner. But now he was in the water, in a difficult position, and could only scrub his body resentfully.
I’ll have the waiter bring up some food later.
It would be best if he never came back… Hmm? If he doesn’t come back, doesn’t that mean I’m free?
The thought of escaping only surfaced for a moment before it was rejected by Yan Jingyu. If Liao Chen didn’t want to bother with him, he wouldn’t bother with him no matter where he was. But if Liao Chen wanted to find him, with his current leg strength, he definitely couldn’t run away.
Yan Jingyu painstakingly washed himself clean, then washed his hair with great effort, wiped the water droplets with a towel, and climbed out of the tub, panting. He pulled a cushion over to the stove, picked up a small hand stove, and slowly dried his hair. His arms soon became sore. He changed positions several times, his face wrinkled in annoyance. The door was finally knocked on gently. Liao Chen came in, carrying a food box.
Yan Jingyu’s face was stern as he watched him place the food on the low table. He then turned his head to look at him. “Come over.”
There were several hot dishes on the table, both meat and vegetables. One could clearly smell the fragrance of hot oil and ingredients colliding. Yan Jingyu frowned, but in the end, he got up and walked over to sit at the table.
His hair was not yet completely dry. His skin was saturated with water, a hint of jade-like powder in its whiteness. Compared to his youth, this face had less childishness, but more grace. The color of his lips was much paler, adding a touch of frail sickliness.
Yan Jingyu’s appearance was as stunning as his talent. His face was not large, but his nose was very straight. His bone structure was three-dimensional, and every feature seemed to have been meticulously carved by a master craftsman, exquisite and graceful. The corners of his eyes were slightly upturned, the inner corners sharp, and the shape of his eyes was smooth. When he smiled, it was like snow covering a distant mountain. When he wielded a sword, he was like a pine or cypress, righteous and awe-inspiring.
Yu Qiuye often said that Yan Jingyu was captivating, but this captivation was not the kind of seduction that made one drool, but the kind of captivation from afar, the kind where you didn’t need him to do anything, just looking at him was satisfying enough.
Liao Chen was different from him. According to Yu Qiuye, one of them was an immortal on paper, a beautiful jade; the other was a god of slaughter on stone, a majestic ice rock.
Liao Chen was not ruggedly handsome, and could even be called demonically beautiful, unparalleled in his handsomeness. Otherwise, he would not have been teased by Chi Yuan and given the name Qi Mei. But his brow was sharp, his nose bridge was straight, and the peak of his lips was also clearly visible. If Yan Jingyu was meticulously carved, he was chiseled by a knife and axe. The two of them were like the bright moon and the scorching sun. If they were in the same sky, one must die.
Yan Jingyu suddenly looked over at him. He was biting on a piece of lettuce, as translucent as jade. His teeth were white, and his lips were tinged with crimson from the heat. The three colors contrasted, as beautiful as if they had been carefully matched.
Liao Chen lowered his eyes, took a sip of water, and used the opportunity to swallow.
Yan Jingyu said, “Is something wrong?”
“Is the food to your liking?”
He’s even concerned about this now… Yan Jingyu swallowed the lettuce. “It’s alright. Just missing a mouthful of Nine Heavens Immortal.”
Liao Chen had brought back three dishes and a soup. He couldn’t possibly eat that much by himself. On the way from Cangmu Mountain to Hutian, his food had actually been worse than this. But of course, he had to find some fault with the things Liao Chen sent, otherwise, the other would really think he had become a quail.
“Since the news of your death spread, Qin Zhongyou has bought two jars of Nine Heavens Immortal every year on your birthday and personally buried them in the backyard. I will send you over in the next two days.”
Some things, you’re not afraid of them coming, but of them being suddenly mentioned. Yan Jingyu shoveled a mouthful of rice into his mouth. “It’s not like he’s the only one who has Nine Heavens Immortal…”
Liao Chen scrutinized him. “He is going to give your Du Fang Sword to Ruan Qixi. You can go over and take the sword back.”
“If he wants to give it away, then let him.” Yan Jingyu was very nonchalant. “I don’t even know where I lost it back then. He must have gone through a lot of trouble to find it…”
The air became oppressive. Yan Jingyu looked up and saw Liao Chen’s face was sullen, a faint smile on his lips. “It seems your relationship is indeed deep. He’s taking on a disciple for you, and he can even dispose of your bonded sword.”
Yan Jingyu tutted. “If I’m not close to him, should I be chugging wine with you?”
Liao Chen was silent for a while, then spoke again. “If you can draw in spiritual energy within ten days, I will promise not to send you to see him.”
“Forget it.” How could Yan Jingyu let him have his way? He said very decisively, “You’ve restored my original appearance now. They will know I’m still alive sooner or later. It’s better to meet sooner and have more reunions.”
Although he still felt some trepidation about returning, being with Qin Zhongyou was much safer than being with Liao Chen. Even if he couldn’t escape separation in the end… Yan Jingyu also missed the days of the four-person team slaying demons and monsters.
Moreover, that day, Liao Chen had deliberately tried to shatter Qin Zhongyou’s Dao heart. He also had a faint worry in his heart. If he could let Qin Zhongyou know that he was still alive, he could also eliminate some hidden dangers in time, and perhaps help him ascend to immortality sooner.
He looked at Liao Chen again, raising an eyebrow. “What, has the Demon Lord Liao changed his mind and is reluctant to let me go?”
Liao Chen’s eyelid twitched, and his face darkened again. “I’m just wondering if you really want to go back or if you’re just pretending.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you really want to go back, I won’t let you go back. If you’re pretending to want to go back, I will deliberately let you go back.”
“…” Old dog demon.
