“Young Master Xue. This is indeed unfair to you and Young Immortal Lord Yun, but we have to consider the sentient beings of the six realms. You don’t want the catastrophe of twenty years ago to happen again, right?”
Xue Huai roared in a low voice: “Then bring back your so-called retired Fuli Palace’s master! He could do it twenty years ago, and he can also do it twenty years later!”
“We want to, too, Young Master Xue. But my father is traveling outside the six realms, and we can’t contact him.” Bai Yi seemed to have expected such a reaction and acted very calmly: “I am suppressing the star disk myself, and I can’t move an inch. I can’t leave heaven for the time being. My lover, Rong Yi, is leading the troops to guard the border of the Immortal Realm. If the demons attack, he will bear the brunt. Your father also meant the same thing. Now is not the time to act on emotion. Everyone is ready to sacrifice themselves at any time. We can only do everything we can.”
Xue Huai paused, said nothing, and left.
It was a dreamless night.
Fuli Palace is located in the middle of the snowy mountains, and outside is white snow. Xue Huai was half asleep and half awake, always feeling that he was in Dongzhou, sleeping on the small couch in his bedroom. As he was floating around, he always thought that the clouds were right beside him, but when he reached out to touch them, they were gone.
He left in a hurry and didn’t bring the gluttonous ghost with him. Thinking of what happened recently, he felt cold in his heart and couldn’t sleep.
He put on his clothes, stood up, and walked out of the bedroom.
As soon as he went out, there seemed to be a star official on duty in the corridor, who turned around and looked at him. “Young Master Xue, is there anything wrong?”
Xue Huai had a vague impression of the other party, knowing that he was the Tan Lang Star Lord of the three stars of Sha Po Lang and had had some interactions with their family before. So he went over to say hello and exchanged a few simple pleasantries.
Tan Lang heard about this incident and sighed, “Their whole family has this temper. The Crown Prince was just like our emperor in his early years. Young Master Xue, I apologize to you on behalf of our Crown Prince.”
Xue Huai shook his head. “No need.”
After all, he had used similar methods a lot in his previous life, when he was the left protector. The superiors had their own considerations, only seeking results without considering the process, sacrificing a few people for the benefit of the majority. Now that it had fallen on his head, he couldn’t afford to be so fussy about it.
Moreover, the Xue family had a hand in every one of these things. The will of Xue Zong was the will of the Xue family. He had been kept in the dark about the ruthlessness and determination of the older generation, and he had no right to blame others.
Xue Huai put on his clothes and stood in the corridor, looking at the snow for a while.
Tan Lang suddenly asked him, “Young Master Xue, is Young Master Yun going to ascend the throne as the Immortal Lord? The news from the green bird has not come yet, but it should soon. You guys are engaged, so you will have to assist him in ruling.”
Xue Huai didn’t know what to say. After thinking for a while, he said, “Maybe.”
“Then you don’t have time to come and be a star official. Ai, the position of Qi Sha star has been vacant for so long, I thought you would come.” Tan Lang said, as if he were really sorry, but he took out a box from his sleeve and handed it to him. “When we saw you, you were still a kid, and in the blink of an eye, you got married. This is the wedding gift that Po Jun Star and I prepared for you. We originally wanted to use it as a gift from our three stars after you took office, but it doesn’t hurt to give it away now.”
Xue Huai took it and saw that it was a jade plate with a dragon on it.
Tan Lang grinned at him: “Happy wedding, Young Master Xue.”
Xue Huai thanked him, looked down at the mahogany box, and murmured, “…I wonder if the Sansheng Stone has been repaired.”
Tan Lang didn’t hear clearly: “What?”
Xue Huai shook his head and whispered, “Nothing.”
Early the next morning, Xue Huai participated in the deployment meeting with everyone present and roughly heard the whole story.
Bai Yi and the others had been prepared for his non-cooperation and non-participation, but they were surprised to see that the 17-year-old boy not only restrained his rejection attitude from yesterday but instead calmly and seriously joined their discussion and even put forward several suggestions.
Currently, the Heaven and the Immortal Realms are on high alert. In addition to defending, the current opinion is to take the initiative to attack in order to gain the initiative.
The heavenly soldiers have been deployed in an orderly manner. The remaining steps are to unite the forces of the Nine Continents of the Immortal Realm, so it depends on Yun Yan’s opinion.
However, an immortal official soon came to report: “The situation on the nine continents is still unclear. Immortal Lord Yun Yan is not in good health, and there is a stalemate over who to pass the throne to. It may not be a good time to ask about it now. I am afraid that Young Immortal Lord Yun is going to fight with his own uncle.”
Bai Yi sighed and said, “This is why I have always advised against the separation of the Heavenly and the Immortal Realms. There are too many trivial matters. What time is it now, and they are still fighting for a position?”
Xue Huai pursed his lips and said calmly, “I’ll go check out the situation.”
Bai Yi glanced at him but said nothing. He lowered his head and took out the tiger and the life talismans. “It’s also good, please, Young Master Xue. In addition, in order to stabilize the situation as soon as possible, Fuli Palace will allocate a group of soldiers to strongly support Yun Cuo’s ascension to the throne.”
The army was getting ready, and Xue Huai, as the military supervisor, was ready to go. When he stood in the clouds holding the Nine-Colored Deer, he still felt as if he was in another world.
But it was indeed a whole lifetime apart, spanning life and death and finally forming a circle, walking on a similar path.
After crossing the Northern Heavenly Gate, there is the Immortal Realm’s spring pool, where the God of the East washes his chariots and horses, where there used to be nine suns. The armies met here.
Yun Cuo himself did not come—Yun Yan could get into trouble at any time, so he could not leave Zhongzhou at this time. Instead, a strange man came, tall and handsome, and said in a clear voice, “Young Immortal Lord ordered me to come here to hand over military affairs. The person opposite is Xue Huai, the military supervisor of Fuli Palace, right?”
Xue Huai showed Bai Yi’s seal and tiger talisman and asked the other party to identify himself. Then he heard the man say his name: “I am Shao Yin, the Young Immortal Lord’s Left Protector.”
Left protector.
Xue Huai was stunned for a moment. He didn’t know why, but just these three words made his heart churn like boiling soup, and he was depressed and couldn’t let it out for a while.
He forced a smile and said, “Nice to meet you.”
He had never been to Zhongzhou. The only time he came here was when Yun Cuo brought him here to recuperate, and they stayed in a quiet mountain medical center there.
Unlike the winter island with heavy snow all year round, the climate here is dry and the land is dark. The east wind blows through the tall and majestic ancient city walls, often making a humming sound like a flute. Everything here is huge and cold. The entire royal city is like a tightly fitting mortise and tenon, which makes people feel breathless.
Xue Huai and Shao Yin had a meal together with other people, and they chatted briefly about recent developments.
During the dinner, Shao Yin lowered his voice and told him, “The Immortal Lord actually intends to pass the position to the Young Immortal Lord. The Young Immortal Lord also has this intention, but others always have objections and question the Young Immortal Lord’s origin and character. Now the two sides are deadlocked. When the Immortal Lord passes away, whoever is by his bedside will get the will first. No matter what the situation is, we have made preparations for both situations.”
Xue Huai nodded, not knowing what to say for a moment, and finally said, “In this case, what do I need to do?”
He knew clearly that Yun Cuo didn’t lack the troops of Fuli Palace. They came here with great fanfare for one reason: as the Heavenly Court, they were just expressing their stance on the succession of Xianzhou. This would put pressure on Yun Cuo’s uncle and build momentum for Yun Cuo’s ascension.
Sure enough, he heard the left protector say, “Nothing, please have a good rest. The heavenly soldiers and our soldiers are inevitably not in harmony in terms of deployment, and it will take some time to get used to each other. The task will be completed tonight. You spent this night peacefully, and tomorrow morning we will invite you to witness the great cause. It will not be too late for us to discuss the affairs of the demon world later.”
Xue Huai understood what the other party meant.
Yun Cuo doesn’t need him.
The place was still familiar, but now Xue Huai couldn’t even enter Yun Cuo’s aides and staff place. They arranged a guest room for him, and after lunch, they all took a nap. Xue Huai couldn’t sleep, so he walked along the familiar place, climbed up the drum tower, walked around the colorful garden, climbed up the city wall, and leaned on the railing to look into the martial arts field.
He couldn’t tell which side the people in the martial arts arena belonged to or whether they were from neither side, they were just the guards following Yun Yan’s lingering breath. It was strange that he had never seen this place from the perspective of a spectator. The soldiers were training, the slogans were like thunder, and they sweated profusely.
Then he saw Yun Cuo.
He came from the other side of the martial arts arena, riding a fairy horse, surrounded by people, looking tall and silent. His arrogant, intimidating, and oppressive side in front of people appeared again, and he was wearing a crimson cloak, looking heroic.
Xue Huai looked at him for a while, and just before he was about to leave, he saw Yun Cuo looking up at him as if he had sensed something. The moment their eyes met, Xue Huai was slightly startled, then looked away and turned to go downstairs.
Xue Huai had nothing on him, so he went to Shao Yin to ask for some money and wanted to go out for a walk.
The royal city was as prosperous as before, and Xue Huai wandered aimlessly with a bag of golden melon seeds in his arms. He first looked for a good snack shop based on his memory but found that it was not open yet, so he went to a shop they often went to and ordered a few small dishes.
After dinner, he strolled along the street, watched a play in the theater, went to a teahouse and tavern to listen to some gossip, and then turned to the weapon catalog. After choosing for a long time, he picked a silver decorative knife that was just right for his spiritual fire gun.
Then he had nothing to do, so he wandered around, encountering roads he knew or roads he didn’t know, turning around and around with no clear destination, just killing time. The sunlight moved from the top of his head to the diagonal front and finally fell.
He felt a little tired, so he found a place to sit. Not many people were there, on a small stone bridge behind a remote, narrow alley. He sat there, with a dry riverbed below, covered with glowing fairy grass, emitting a pale green glow in the approaching night.
He remembered that he once went to Fengzhou to see Yun Cuo.
It was their first time going there. Yun Cuo led the others there first, and he came later. When they arrived, Yun Cuo had just finished his work all night and gone to bed, so he didn’t have time to welcome him. He left a note for him, saying that he was going out for a walk.
But before he had turned many circles, Yun Cuo ran out and found him. He asked him, “You don’t even know the way. Where are you going alone?”
He was a little surprised: “It’s not like I’ll get lost.”
Yun Cuo didn’t say anything.
Xue Huai sat by the small stone bridge for a while. He felt that he had rested enough. After thinking about it, he didn’t know where to go, so he slowly got up and prepared to return the same way.
However, when he reached the alley entrance, he was suddenly pulled over by a hand—it was getting dark, and the only light source here was the warm yellow lights in the houses in the distance. Only a vague light and shadow could be seen, but it made people’s eyes look particularly bright.
He didn’t have time to speak or resist before he was pressed against the wall and kissed passionately.
Their lips and tongues intertwined harder than ever before, almost leaving him breathless.
“Yun… Cuo.” He could only call out this name intermittently, but he was invaded more violently. For the first time, he felt that kissing was a painful thing—the handsome young man in front of him bit his lips and tongue impatiently, poked and poked his mouth, and then became gentle and soft as if a young animal licked its wound.
Just like the way he acts coquettishly towards him every time. It was so cute and well-behaved that it makes people feel distressed.
“Xue Huai ge.” Yun Cuo called him softly.
Xue Huai took a breath and looked up at him with a sneer. “No need to pretend now, my Lord.”
In his previous life, he had always called him by his full name. Yun Cuo had no courtesy name, so he kept calling him that. Later on, he couldn’t do that anymore—there was a difference between the monarch and his subjects, and as the left protector, he couldn’t call the monarch by his full name, no matter how close their relationship was, so he just called him my Lord, like everyone else.
Yun Cuo’s eyes darkened, he looked at him deeply and said in a hoarse voice, “Yes.”
In a flash, the man in front of him returned to the cold and domineering appearance he saw during the day. He grabbed Xue Huai’s neck and suddenly carried him on his shoulders. After a few steps, the scene around him changed, and he didn’t know where he was.
Xue Huai felt dizzy after being treated like this by him, and his stomach was pressing against Yun Cuo’s shoulder, making him extremely uncomfortable.
Yun Cuo seemed to have noticed this and changed the strength of his hands from carrying to hugging. Xue Huai was spinning, his eyes went dark, and he couldn’t see anything in the darkness. After a while, he just wanted to ask a question: “Where is this?”
Yun Cuo just barged in so casually, so this should not be an ordinary residence.
Yun Cuo said, “This is the place prepared for you.”
The cold, immortal chain was tied around his wrist. Before Xue Huai could ask any questions, Yun Cuo had already pressed on him and kissed his lips. His whole body was firmly pinned down, leaving no room for even a tiny bit of space.
It was as if a hidden fire had bloomed before his eyes. Yun Cuo’s eyes shone with a faint fire, deep red, and could be said to be completely undisguised. He was cold and greedy, with an obsessive possessiveness that was almost paranoid. That was the look of a wolf staring at its prey.
His behavior was just like that of a violent wolf king. Yun Cuo gently pinched his neck with one hand, guarding against possible resistance from Xue Huai at any time, but his prey did not do so.
Xue Huai didn’t resist at all and didn’t even say a word.
He narrowed his beautiful eyes and looked up at him, his eyes gentle and calm, like some kind of acquiescence.
Only when Yun Cuo entered him did he groan. It was a little painful, but he endured it.
Yun Cuo pinched his fair waist hard, leaving kisses and fingerprints on it. He apologized hoarsely, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t learn it, Xue Huai. I’ve tried to learn very hard, but I don’t know how to grow up. I’m sorry. I’ve been thinking about this, and I can’t do it.”
“But you said you didn’t want to care about me anymore… Xue Huai, tell me what I should do.” Yun Cuo demanded it from him fiercely, and Xue Huai frowned and groaned.
He was clearly the one being oppressed and imprisoned, but Yun Cuo sounded very aggrieved: “I will be the Immortal Lord, I will go to war, and I will not let anyone get hurt again, but I just want to understand one thing: I did something wrong in my previous life.”
Xue Huai wanted to ask him what was going on, but in the end, a gasp of surprise was suppressed in his throat and turned into a lingering gasp: “You be—be gentle, Yun Cuo.”
He was about to cry, so he stretched out his hand to scratch his shoulder. “Be gentle…”
Unlike before, begging for mercy this time did not bring him gentler treatment. Yun Cuo still stubbornly conquered and demanded from him. The young man with silver hair and red eyes lowered his head and bit his neck, rubbing the thin skin with the tip of his teeth in an ambiguous and sticky way. His voice was unclear. “In my previous life, I shouldn’t have let you be my left protector. I should have directly made you the empress, locked you up, and allowed you to see only me forever. I am this kind of person, Xue Huai, I can’t change. Without you, I don’t want to do anything. I’m afraid that one day you will stop liking me and leave. What will I do then??”
He murmured repeatedly, “What do you want me to do?”
Xue Huai remained silent.
After a moment, he said softly, “Silly.”
He reached out and stroked the hair of the person in front of him. “It doesn’t matter if you can’t grow up. I still have a lifetime to accompany you. I thought about it yesterday. In fact, for a Daoist couple, only one person needs to grow up.”
Yun Cuo looked at him in a daze.
As he was talking, he suddenly felt his eyes sore. Xue Huai turned his head and covered his eyes with the back of his hand. “But they are all lying to me. I can’t tell the difference between real and fake. They just want me to trick you into fighting. They are using you.”
He also didn’t know where this feeling of grievance came from, he just felt that Yun Cuo was grieving.
The little immortal boy whom he had loved for two lifetimes and who had given up his pride and prejudice for him was a “useless child” in the eyes of others. He had never been favored by others since childhood, and now he was being used by others.
In the face of major events, he could not afford to be weak or to protect his shortcomings. So he endured it this time, came all the way from Xianzhou, and did everything he should do before telling him the words.
“It’s fine ah, Xue Huai ge.” Yun Cuo was stunned for a moment when he saw him crying, then he leaned over and kissed him hurriedly, “It’s fine, even if you lied to me. I want to fight because you are in the Immortal Realm, so I will fight for the Immortal Realm. If nothing else, you are the only reason for me to go to war.”
He still looked unchalant.
Xue Huai felt that he couldn’t hold back his tears. He choked and didn’t know what he was saying: “Then you must fight well and don’t get hurt. I can’t be with you this time. I have to go back to Dongzhou to protect our immortal families. Let’s get through this well, alright?”
“I will.” Yun Cuo looked at him and suddenly laughed. “You are feeling sorry for me, Xue Huai, I am so happy.”
At some point, Yun Cuo slowed down his movements, and Xue Huai’s moans became sweet and hoarse, making people feel thirsty just by listening to them.
They did it non-stop, as if they had relived the confusion and bewilderment of the first time. This was the only thing left to do in the whole world, as if their bodies were entangled and traveled directly through time and death.
It is a dream as brilliant and sweet as the dusk.
Xue Huai hugged Yun Cuo’s back and could faintly hear the sound of bells outside. It was distant and heavy, and it shook his heart.
He pushed Yun Cuo and asked reluctantly, “What’s that noise? What’s going on over there? Aren’t you going back?”
Yun Cuo chuckled, leaned over, and pushed him back down again, “It’s alright, it’s the death knell ah.”
