Chapter 42: I Got Kissed

Yi Jinxiang closed her fan and finally stood up.

“Wenren Sheng, have you understood everything I said?”

Wenren Sheng quietly took a deep breath before he barely managed to keep his voice from trembling. “Yeah, I understand, Master.”

Yi Jinxiang said in a threatening tone, “If you don’t listen to me and run into danger, don’t blame me for not warning you.”

Wenren Sheng pulled the blanket up higher to cover half his face and said cautiously, “Thanks, Master. I want to sleep first.”

Yi Jinxiang saw that his pupils were somewhat unfocused, giving him a truly dazed and sleepy look, so she had no intention of lingering.

She left behind the words “Sleep then” and turned to push open the door before leaving the side room.

Click.

The lock clicked back into place.

Wenren Sheng’s taut nerves finally exploded at that sound.

He threw off the covers, his eyes shimmering with watery light as he glared at He Mu with red eyes.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

He Mu appeared very calm, not feeling like he’d done anything wrong.

“You kept squirming just now. I was afraid you’d give us away.” His fingertip lightly pressed into the small of Wenren Sheng’s back. “You’re so skinny, and you entered the golden core realm so early. How are you going to wield a sword from now on?”

Wenren Sheng’s muscles and bones went numb from the press, and his waist involuntarily arched upward.

“Y-You, you, don’t touch me!”

He Mu saw Wenren Sheng resisting so fiercely that he couldn’t help but snort coldly. He thought to himself, this kid he raised himself—what was there that couldn’t be touched? He’d touch anyway.

He propped himself up on the bed surface, and instead of pulling his other hand away, he slid it upward along Wenren Sheng’s waistline.

Wenren Sheng was nearly scared unconscious by this sudden move. He pressed his hand against He Mu’s chest, trying to push him away.

“What are you doing? Don’t get the wrong idea. I-I’m not cut-sleeve! Even though I’m a demon, I only like humans, not you!”

“Then have you ever thought that I might be cut-sleeve?”

He Mu’s fingertip pressed down slightly, leaving a faint indentation on Wenren Sheng’s skin.

“You suddenly pressed me under the covers and stuck so close to me. Isn’t it normal for me to react like this?”

“This…”

Wenren Sheng’s mind turned to chaos from the touching, and he was easily led into the trap.

“Sorry, Brother.”

His ears immediately drooped as he admitted his wrong in a soft voice.

“But I still don’t like being touched like this randomly. Don’t do it anymore, okay…”

Normally, they’d stop playing around at this point and let him off, but for some reason, He Mu didn’t feel like letting go today. He wanted to see more of Wenren Sheng’s reactions to being touched.

“How do you know you don’t like it?” He Mu narrowed his eyes and looked at Wenren Sheng beneath him. “Has anyone touched you like this before?”

Wenren Sheng clutched He Mu’s collar, breathing in short gasps. The temperature of his palm was so much like the Mountain God’s that even though Wenren Sheng’s mind resisted fiercely, his body had already softened first. He trembled all over from the touching.

“Uh…” Wenren Sheng couldn’t help but close his eyes. “No, it’s just… I dreamed…”

Dreamed?

At that word, He Mu’s gaze shifted.

“What did you dream of?”

Wenren Sheng answered vaguely, “Dreamed of… being touched like this… My body was totally out of control. I didn’t like it…”

“Oh…” He Mu lowered his gaze, his voice low. “An erotic dream?”

It was a dream about himself—an erotic one.

He Mu was quite curious about the contents of those dreams now.

Wenren Sheng was like a small animal cornered and exposing its belly to beg for mercy. He no longer dared to tell He Mu to let go and could only obediently answer the questions.

“Yeah… just a normal one, you know, a heat period dream. You’re a demon too—you must’ve had dreams like that, right?”

He Mu didn’t respond.

Before, when he was with Wenren Sheng, he really hadn’t had dreams like that.

But ever since he erased his name from the Emotionless Stele, He Mu often dreamed of Wenren Sheng.

Sometimes erotic dreams, sometimes nightmares. Or one moment they’d be tangled in passion under the flowers and moon, the next in white mourning clothes parted by life and death. All kinds of dreams, and the person in every one was without exception Wenren Sheng.

Seeing He Mu silent, Wenren Sheng asked cautiously again, “…Brother?”

He Mu finally snapped back to attention, his gaze returning to the Wenren Sheng in front of him.

His cheeks were flushed, his collar disheveled, and his skin heated to a pale pink from tension.

“Brother…” Wenren Sheng swallowed and said, “I really don’t like you. I have someone in my heart. I truly feel nothing for you…”

He Mu very much wanted to say that this didn’t look like having no feelings at all.

But he dissolved into a smile instead and asked lightly, “Not even considering me?”

Wenren Sheng nodded obediently. “You’re a really good person, Brother, but I really don’t want to right now.”

He Mu chuckled softly, straightened up, and pulled Wenren Sheng off the bed.

“Alright then, what a shame.”

Seeing that He Mu was finally willing to let him go, Wenren Sheng’s suspended heart finally settled. He let out a long breath and smoothed down his messy hair.

He Mu sat on the other side of the bed and curved his eyes as he watched him comb his hair. “You’re the first person I’ve ever felt such an instant connection with.”

Wenren Sheng let his hair down and glanced at him, his cheeks still rosy.

“We’ve only known each other a few days. What is there to like about me?”

He Mu didn’t answer and just smiled at him.

As Wenren Sheng gathered his hair, he lectured He Mu. “You’re a demon too. You can’t treat feelings so lightly. You should be devoted to one person for life.”

He Mu asked, “You only want to be with the one in your heart?”

Wenren Sheng nodded. “Even though I’ve let him go, I won’t like anyone else in the future. Being alone is fine.”

That said, why did his body react so intensely just from being touched a couple times by this Murong He?

He clearly didn’t like him, but his body was out of control. No matter how he tried to restrain it, there was still a response. It all felt like the body’s natural instinct.

Was it because his heat period was coming up?

Wenren Sheng counted the days and thought so.

He had to be careful then. Demons in heat period had the least reason. If he unconsciously did something that betrayed his true heart, he’d die of shame and anger.

He Mu quickly pulled himself out of that earlier mood. He picked up the Yin-Yang Token and banknotes from the table, borrowed fire from the Everbright Lamp, and lit them with a whoosh in his hand.

“Time’s almost up,” he said.

Wenren Sheng’s brows furrowed slightly as he looked at He Mu with worry.

“You’re not lying to me, are you?”

“Don’t worry.”

The flickering firelight reflected in He Mu’s pupils.

“I’ll let you see your family.”

At midnight.

Wenren Sheng sat on the bed, suppressing his nervous mood as he gripped He Mu’s hand tightly.

“I’m your guide. Next, you have to get to the Underworld on your own first. I’ll come a bit later.”

He Mu half-squatted in front of Wenren Sheng and carefully instructed him.

“Hold the Everbright Lamp tight. Go wherever it points. If you go the wrong way, you won’t be able to come back. Got it?”

Wenren Sheng nodded solemnly and gripped the lamp handle tightly.

“Where do I go to find you?”

“Just keep going forward,” He Mu said softly. “I’ll find you. Don’t worry.”

Those words made Wenren Sheng freeze for a moment.

In a daze, he couldn’t help but mistake the Murong He in front of him for his long-lost old friend.

Their appearances weren’t similar, nor were their voices, but the warmth covering the back of his hand and the tone of speech felt just like that person’s.

Was it really just a coincidence?

Was it excessive longing, or his identity…

Halfway through the thought, a sudden wave of sleepiness hit Wenren Sheng, and his body grew lighter and lighter, as if his whole soul was leaving his body.

The Soul Separation Technique was taking effect.

Wenren Sheng closed his eyes and quickly cast aside those stray thoughts, focusing all his intent on a certain place in his sea of consciousness.

Slowly, his intent seemed to detach from his body, and his whole being rose into boundless darkness.

…

“New ghosts annoy, old ghosts cry…”

He didn’t know how much time passed before a faint singing voice rose, mournful like a dirge, the voice lingering ethereally in his ears.

“Ha…”

Wenren Sheng took a deep breath and abruptly opened his eyes.

The scenery around him had changed.

Wenren Sheng looked around and found himself in some barren wilderness, with clumps of eerie green ghostfire floating everywhere. Resentful night cries filled his ears, interspersed with the blood-curdling shrieks of night owls.

“Gulp—”

A chill ran down Wenren Sheng’s spine, and he couldn’t help but rub his arms.

A soul weighed less than a single tail feather. His body felt frighteningly light, as if a casual jump would send him floating away.

He held the Everbright Lamp in his hand—this was his only guide right now. He had to follow the direction it pointed to find the entrance to the Underworld.

The wick pierced through the thin paper, turning into a tiny point of light that rose into the air and began drifting forward.

Wenren Sheng followed it, stepping carefully over the muddy ground, his eyes darting around from time to time. He always felt like some mad dog might suddenly pounce from nearby.

After walking an unknown distance, the mist ahead finally thinned, and an ancient temple gradually came into view.

Looking up, a worm-eaten and mottled plaque hung on the temple, crookedly inscribed with the words “Earth Temple.”

In front of the temple was a still, waveless creek, its water so clear he could see the pebbles and mud at the bottom.

It wasn’t far—a single step could cross it.

“It must want me to wait for him here,” Wenren Sheng muttered to himself. “The Everbright Lamp isn’t reacting anymore.”

He hesitated for a moment, then walked to the bank, preparing to step across the river.

But as soon as he lifted his foot, the previously still river surface suddenly swirled into a vortex, and the clear water abruptly changed color.

A powerful suction emanated from the center of the vortex, pulling in all the pebbles and mud from the bottom.

Wenren Sheng’s expression changed, and he hurriedly tried to retreat, but the river water didn’t let him go. A hand actually reached out from the surface and grabbed his ankle hard.

“Hey!”

Wenren Sheng’s foot slipped. He only managed to clutch the Everbright Lamp before his whole body was dragged into the river.

In mere seconds, the river in front of the Earth Temple returned to calm, and the raging vortex vanished without a trace.

Wenren Sheng was pulled to the river bottom. He hurriedly covered his mouth and held his breath to avoid drowning.

This inexplicable current had tumbled him upside down several times, churning his heart, liver, spleen, stomach, and kidneys into a mess.

“Mm…”

He couldn’t hold on much longer!

Wenren Sheng squeezed his eyes shut and used every ounce of strength to hold his breath, but the vortex seemed endless, still spinning him without stop.

In the end, Wenren Sheng couldn’t hold it anymore. He choked on a mouthful of water, and his body spun faster with the vortex as he fell into a drowning state.

He flailed in the water in panic, trying to grab onto something to survive.

But there was nothing—nothing to see. His soul had been swept to the bottom of who-knew-where in the River of Forgetfulness, surrounded only by ceaseless churning water.

It was over. He’d only just entered the Underworld, and now he was about to drown!

In his moment of despair, his back suddenly pressed against a chest, and his outstretched wrist was gripped tightly.

Then, Wenren Sheng felt this person forcibly turn his face, and soon a sensation pressed against his lips.

A warm spiritual flow slowly passed over through the touch.