However, his appetite had been spoiled by Zhili for tens of thousands of years, so ordinary food could hardly whet his appetite.
But during those few days in the Lost Forest, aside from the first day when he had eaten reasonably well, the instant meals and compressed biscuits he had been eating afterward had left his mouth so bland he could barely stand it.
After Xi Yu ate his fill, he went upstairs and took a hot shower. He walked out onto the balcony and stretched lazily, only to come face-to-face with Lu Zhixing, who was leaning against the railing next door with a bright smile.
Xi Yu: ????
“Good afternoon, neighbor.”
Xi Yu blinked. “You live here too?”
The key he had just received was still in his pocket, yet Lu Zhixing showed not the slightest trace of guilt. “Yeah. I didn’t expect you to move here too. What a coincidence.”
It really was quite a coincidence.
Xi Yu leaned against the railing. He was wearing pajamas, his hair hanging down slightly damp, his skin as white as snow and his lips red. Without any adornment, he was still breathtakingly beautiful. His dark, lustrous eyes lazily regarded Lu Zhixing, carrying an almost lingering affection.
He had originally planned to get some proper rest, but now…
The corners of Xi Yu’s lips curved slightly. He said to Lu Zhixing, “Come here.”
Lu Zhixing looked somewhat troubled. “Isn’t that inappropriate? It’s not nighttime yet, I—”
Xi Yu’s eyes darkened. Before he could finish, Xi Yu snapped his fingers.
The person who had just been standing next door instantly appeared right in front of him.
Lu Zhixing clearly hadn’t expected Xi Yu to pull something like this. The brief sensation of weightlessness after being teleported made him lose his footing and stumble toward Xi Yu.
Xi Yu didn’t move. He didn’t even reach out to catch him. Instead, he leaned back against the railing, his expression carrying a hint of teasing, like a wicked owner holding a cat toy.
Lu Zhixing was about to crash into Xi Yu. If that happened, their bodies would inevitably come into contact, and they might even end up kissing.
He hadn’t expected Xi Yu to simply stand by and watch. At the last moment, he hurriedly grabbed the railing, barely managing to steady himself. Half bent over, he had Xi Yu trapped beneath him. Looking down, he found those vivid red lips only inches away.
From beginning to end, Xi Yu hadn’t moved. He neither dodged nor welcomed him. He simply watched every movement Lu Zhixing made.
Xi Yu was somewhat shorter than Lu Zhixing, and with Lu Zhixing trapping him beneath him, he should have been in the weaker position.
But he wasn’t.
Xi Yu was simply too calm. Even his blinking was unhurried, as though he were someone in a position of absolute power, holding the lives and deaths of others in his hands.
For an instant, panic swept over Lu Zhixing.
Lu Zhixing had a strong feeling that Xi Yu had seen through something. His entire body stiffened, and he even forgot to straighten up.
After a long while, Xi Yu finally spoke slowly. “That was pretty careless, Brother Lu.”
The teasing in his voice was unmistakable, and even his eyes and brows carried a smile.
It was almost as though the brief flash of scrutiny just now had merely been Lu Zhixing’s imagination.
As Xi Yu spoke, his warm breath brushed across Lu Zhixing’s face, snapping him back to his senses. He released the railing, straightened up, and was about to retreat to a distance that wouldn’t offend Xi Yu.
But the moment he moved his feet, Xi Yu, who had remained still all this time, reached out and grabbed his tie, then gave it a hard tug.
This time, Lu Zhixing genuinely lost his balance. He stumbled toward Xi Yu and collided with him.
Xi Yu naturally raised his arms and caught Lu Zhixing against him.
Lu Zhixing’s pupils contracted. “Xi Yu—”
Xi Yu rested his head against Lu Zhixing’s shoulder, his palm gently patting his back in a slow, absent-minded rhythm—the way one would soothe a child.
Xi Yu closed his eyes. “Shh. Don’t talk. Let me feel you for a moment.”
As he spoke, Xi Yu rubbed lightly against the side of Lu Zhixing’s neck.
Something was wrong. Very wrong.
There was something off about the aura surrounding Lu Zhixing.
The two kinds of power within Lu Zhixing were far too calm.
Xi Yu should have noticed something when they came out of the illusion, but there had been too many people at the time.
And when Lu Zhixing had said that his chest hurt, Xi Yu hadn’t sensed the clash between the two forces either. He had simply assumed that Lu Zhixing had been affected by what he experienced in the illusion and hadn’t thought much of it.
But just now, Lu Zhixing had been leaning against the railing, his expression gentle.
This wasn’t how someone who had just emerged from an illusion should have looked.
Lu Zhixing’s aura hadn’t merely calmed down.
It was more as if he had never been affected in the first place.
Xi Yu pushed Lu Zhixing away and placed his hand over his heart. “Lu Zhixing, what did you see in the illusion?”
The heartbeat beneath his palm was steady, transmitting through flesh and the thin fabric of his clothes.
Xi Yu warned him, “Don’t lie to me.”
Lu Zhixing looked at Xi Yu, his narrow eyes revealing emotions that were impossible to read.
On the balcony, the sunlight was blazing, as though it intended to drive every trace of darkness into hiding.
After a long while, under Xi Yu’s gaze, Lu Zhixing slowly bit his lip. “I don’t know what illusion you’re talking about.”
Xi Yu felt the heartbeat beneath his palm growing faster and faster, and his heart gradually sank.
His expression cooled. “Liar.”
Lu Zhixing’s face turned pale, and his lips trembled.
Xi Yu waited for him to speak, but for a long time, Lu Zhixing said nothing.
The heartbeat beneath Xi Yu’s palm grew faster and faster. “What? Haven’t figured out how to lie to me yet?”
“No!” Lu Zhixing grabbed Xi Yu’s wrist and pushed it down, guilt surfacing on his face. “I wasn’t trying to lie to you. I just…”
“You just don’t know how to explain it.”
Xi Yu mused, “You don’t know how to explain it, or you don’t dare to say it? Lu Zhixing, people’s ability to empathize is extremely strong inside the illusion. Pain, pleasure, regret—every darkest moment of your life is there. Yet your aura didn’t fluctuate in the slightest. If I’m not mistaken, that pain in your chest was a lie too, wasn’t it?”
Xi Yu pressed against Lu Zhixing’s chest and leaned closer, staring into his eyes. “Or, put another way, Lu Zhixing—you can control the power inside your body, can’t you?”
……………….
The atmosphere on the balcony became subtle and heavy.
Xi Yu pulled his hand away and looked at Lu Zhixing with a terrifyingly cold expression.
When he received no answer, he impatiently turned around.
Lu Zhixing’s Adam’s apple bobbed. Xi Yu’s words were like a cold wind sweeping into his chest, tearing open a pitch-black hole. Panicked, he grabbed Xi Yu. “No. I didn’t enter the illu—No, I did enter the illusion, but I came out very quickly. I don’t know why.”
“So… so that’s why I wasn’t affected.”
Lu Zhixing’s explanation came out in fragments, looking exactly like a thief caught red-handed making his final attempt at a desperate defense.
Xi Yu glanced sideways, his sharply defined features radiating coldness. “If you’re not going to tell me the truth, you don’t have to say anything.”
Xi Yu shook Lu Zhixing off and raised his hand, intending to send him back.
Seeing this, Lu Zhixing closed his eyes and, as though he had decided to throw caution to the wind, quickly blurted out, “I saw your true form in the illusion.”
Xi Yu blinked. “What do you mean?”
The tips of Lu Zhixing’s ears turned bright red, and his eyes darted away. “I… when I was pulled into the illusion, I saw you… It should have been you, because the person inside the ring—you said he was your disciple. He called that very handsome immortal cultivator his Master.”
As though afraid Xi Yu would accuse him of prying into his privacy, Lu Zhixing hurriedly explained, “I tried to call out to you, but you couldn’t hear me. So that should have just been a scene from the illusion. I don’t know why I saw it either.”
Xi Yu stared at Lu Zhixing, his pair of pitch-black eyes deep and unfathomable.
“Is that so? Then what did you see?”
Lu Zhixing bit his lip, the color fading into a faint blush across his face. He seemed extremely embarrassed to say it. “I saw that person say… say that he… had two of them. He even showed the immortal cultivator, and then got angry, and also…”
“That’s enough!”
Xi Yu’s expression changed instantly. He covered Lu Zhixing’s mouth, his movements swift as he lowered his voice. “Don’t say it. Don’t say another word.”
That was his illusion.
It was fake.
That never happened in the Divine Realm!
“Forget that part. What about the rest?”
Lu Zhixing pointed at Xi Yu’s hand covering his mouth, indicating that he couldn’t answer.
Xi Yu lowered his hand and rested it beneath Lu Zhixing’s chin, ready to stop him at any moment in case he said anything shocking again.
Lu Zhixing didn’t mind. He said, “That’s all. When I became conscious, that was the scene I saw. I wanted to stop them, but no one paid any attention to me. So I covered my eyes, and when I woke up again, I was lying on the ground.”
Xi Yu looked at Lu Zhixing, seemingly considering whether his words were true. After a while, he asked, “What about your chest hurting? Were you lying to me?”
“…No.” Lu Zhixing sighed. “It really hurt. When I was running around with my eyes covered in the illusion, I crashed my chest into a pillar.”
…
“Then why didn’t you just say it was a physical injury?”
“How could I possibly say that?”
Xi Yu tilted his head and looked at the ring on Lu Zhixing’s hand, then abruptly pulled it off.
A layer of spiritual power clung to the surface of the ring, as though it had been used but hadn’t yet been withdrawn.
“You used the ring?”
“I don’t know how to use it. Right before I was dragged into the illusion, it lit up. It was so bright.”
Xi Yu glanced at the ring and smiled. “He was probably protecting you.”
Lu Zhixing asked, “Who?”
Xi Yu shook the ring without answering and slipped it onto his own finger.
The flowing clouds that had been coiled around his arm instantly disappeared, stored inside the ring.
“You should go back. I want to rest.”
Get a good night’s sleep, then investigate where Zhuohua was.
Lu Zhixing asked quietly, “You’re kicking me out after scolding me?”
Xi Yu looked puzzled. “When did I scold you?”
Lu Zhixing pursed his lips, a faint hint of reproach in his eyes. “Just now. You were so fierce. You called me a liar, and your expression was fierce too.”
“Was I?”
“You were! Yet you even hugged me on the variety show. The hidden camera caught it all.”
“When did I ever hug—” Xi Yu stopped halfway as he suddenly remembered throwing himself at Lu Zhixing when they encountered that secluded spot. He explained, “I wasn’t hugging you. I was trying to confirm something.”
Lu Zhixing asked, “What?”
Xi Yu thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Forgot.”
Maybe he still shouldn’t say it.
Should he tell him that the demonic aura inside his body had been resisting him, making his heart flutter with unease?