The spiritual power within his body was something an ordinary person could hardly withstand.
The guilt in Xi Yu’s eyes deepened. After Jiang Yunzheng steadied himself, he took a moment to recover. Seeing Xi Yu’s expression, he hurriedly said, “I’m fine. I just stood up too quickly. I can go back now. Take me home, okay?”
“Tonight, you…” Xi Yu hesitated for a moment before finally saying, “Stay the night.”
Jiang Yunzheng froze. The next instant, his pale face flushed bright red.
When he met Xi Yu’s gaze and saw nothing there but guilt, he understood that Xi Yu was asking him to stay solely out of concern for his physical condition.
Jiang Yunzheng genuinely wanted to stay, and he could also feel that he was very unwell, so he didn’t refuse. He nodded a little sheepishly. “Then… where will I sleep?”
Xi Yu thought for a moment and conjured a jade bed. “Sleep here.”
This bed had been made from qilin bone and could nourish a person’s soul.
It had been sitting unused in the storeroom of the Lanxing Hall for a long time.
Looking at the bed that had appeared out of thin air, Jiang Yunzheng no longer found it strange. Over the past few days, he had become more certain than ever that Xi Yu really was a god.
Absolutely!
Xi Yu’s appearance had completely overturned Jiang Yunzheng’s atheistic beliefs. He wasn’t the fussy sort, either. He knew that anything Xi Yu gave him would undoubtedly be good for him.
“All right. Then give me…” Jiang Yunzheng snapped his fingers, then pointed at his clothes. “Do this, too.”
Xi Yu nodded. With a snap of his fingers, Jiang Yunzheng was already dressed in pajamas, and the sticky, clammy feeling on his skin from the cold sweat he’d broken while having his blood drawn had vanished, leaving him feeling fresh and comfortable.
It was the same spell Xi Yu had used on the first day Jiang Yunzheng came over, when he’d told him not to bathe.
Xi Yu had explained that Jiang Yunzheng had lost too much blood and might faint while bathing.
Jiang Yunzheng chuckled, but he didn’t go to the bed. Instead, he said, “I didn’t bring my phone, so I still need to go back and tell Grandpa. Otherwise, he’ll worry.”
“I’ll go. You shouldn’t be moving around.”
Jiang Yunzheng thought that made sense and said, “Then I’ll trouble you.”
Xi Yu shook his head. Since he couldn’t use magic to teleport directly there, he went downstairs and headed toward the Jiang residence.
Old Master Jiang hadn’t gone to bed yet. Xi Yu informed him that Jiang Yunzheng would be staying at his place for the night.
Old Master Jiang looked at Xi Yu gratefully. “Thank you so much, Mr. Xi! That brat told me you were helping him recover his health. I wanted to come and thank you, but he wouldn’t let me. He has no manners at all. Even if he wasn’t coming home, he shouldn’t have made you come all the way here in person.”
Xi Yu froze for a moment. He hadn’t expected Jiang Yunzheng to have genuinely explained what had been happening over the past few days.
Meanwhile, Jiang Xuewei was screaming excitedly inside her head.
Staying the night! Her brother was staying the night!!!
After explaining why he’d come, Xi Yu didn’t leave immediately. Instead, he took out two talismans and handed one to Old Master Jiang and the other to Jiang Xuewei.
“This one extends your lifespan, and this one preserves your beauty.”
Xi Yu didn’t explain their functions, but with names like those, who wouldn’t know what they were for?
Old Master Jiang had no idea that Jiang Yunzheng had been lending Xi Yu his blood. He felt particularly embarrassed. Not only was Xi Yu taking care of his grandson, but he was also giving such precious gifts to him and his granddaughter.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yunzheng waited for a while. When Xi Yu still hadn’t returned, he began to feel a little tightness in his chest. He took a piece of candied fruit and chewed on it, then opened the floor-to-ceiling window and stepped onto the balcony to see whether Xi Yu had come back.
The moment he stepped outside, his eyes met those of the drunken Lu Zhixing.
Lu Zhixing’s unfocused gaze fell on the half-eaten piece of candied fruit in Jiang Yunzheng’s hand. Gradually, his expression grew darker and more sinister.
………………………
Jiang Yunzheng truly hadn’t expected to run into Lu Zhixing. To be honest, Lu Zhixing made him a little uneasy. He always felt that Lu Zhixing disliked him intensely.
But since they’d already run into each other, Jiang Yunzheng quickly recovered and greeted him. “Mr. Lu.”
Lu Zhixing’s body, which had been draped over the railing as though he had no bones, slowly straightened. His pitch-black pupils stared intently at the moon-white bag patterned with flowing clouds in Jiang Yunzheng’s hand, as well as the half-eaten piece of candied fruit in his other hand.
The sugar coating had crystallized into a thick layer over the fruit. Just looking at it was enough to imagine how sweet it tasted.
Seeing Lu Zhixing staring at the things in his hands, Jiang Yunzheng assumed he wanted some. Although he was a little reluctant to share, he still asked, “D-do you want some?”
Jiang Yunzheng held up the palm-sized cloth bag in his palm. It was as though if Lu Zhixing said he wanted some, Jiang Yunzheng would toss it across the gap between their two villas the very next second.
While waiting for Lu Zhixing to answer, Jiang Yunzheng finished eating the remaining half of the candied fruit.
But that action seemed to flip some kind of switch.
Lu Zhixing, who had been frozen in place like a beast waiting for its prey, suddenly erupted into action. His pitch-black pupils gradually turned bloodred, and his entire demeanor became vicious and unruly.
Staggering, Lu Zhixing charged straight at Jiang Yunzheng, roaring, “GIVE IT BACK TO ME!!!”
How dare he? How dare he eat Lu Zhixing’s things?!
The candied fruit had been made from the spiritual fruit growing in the courtyard of Lanxing Hall. It was something his Master had used to coax him, something that belonged exclusively to him—something no one else had!
Lu Zhixing’s brain, numbed by alcohol, was no longer capable of thinking clearly. He only wanted to take back what belonged to him and then make this fool who didn’t know his place pay the price.
It was his. That was his possession…
All of Lu Zhixing’s attention was fixed on the candied fruit in Jiang Yunzheng’s hand. As a result, he failed to notice the pajamas Jiang Yunzheng was wearing—the ones that carried Xi Yu’s presence.
Jiang Yunzheng watched as Lu Zhixing passed through the railing and attacked him. Lu Zhixing’s outburst had come too suddenly, so suddenly that Jiang Yunzheng had no time to dodge. His entire body froze in place, his eyes wide with terror.
He didn’t even have time to wonder about Lu Zhixing’s strange eyes or the meaning behind his words. All he could sense was the murderous intent radiating from him.
Lu Zhixing’s hand was just about to touch the bag of candied fruit when, in the next instant, golden light flashed from the barrier and sent him flying backward. His waist slammed into the railing before his entire body crashed heavily to the ground.
Yet Lu Zhixing seemed completely incapable of feeling pain. After landing, he immediately launched himself into the air again and slammed into the barrier, punching it over and over.
As his movements grew faster and faster, the black veins on his arms began to emerge, and the red in his pupils deepened.
Jiang Yunzheng was so terrified that he stood frozen in place, his face deathly pale. Only when he saw Lu Zhixing repeatedly pounding the barrier and a crack finally appeared in it did he snap out of his daze and hurriedly run toward the room.
But the next second, after Lu Zhixing’s successive attacks, the barrier shattered completely.
Jiang Yunzheng hadn’t even reached the doorway when he felt an immense force seize his body, leaving him unable to move. Immediately afterward, his hand suddenly felt empty.
He watched helplessly as the bag of candied fruit landed in Lu Zhixing’s hand. Danger and fear spread through his heart, and Jiang Yunzheng hurriedly begged for mercy.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Lu! I didn’t know this belonged to you. Please don’t be angry!”
Jiang Yunzheng regretted immensely that he’d gone out onto the balcony for no reason. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have run into Lu Zhixing.
And when Lu Zhixing had shouted for him to give it back, how could he have known the fruit belonged to Lu Zhixing?
Unable to move under Lu Zhixing’s control, Jiang Yunzheng decided to beg for mercy first and calm him down while waiting for Xi Yu to return.
Lu Zhixing was clearly no ordinary mortal, but he didn’t seem like a god, either.
Why was everyone turning out to be something other than an ordinary person?!
How terrifying!
Jiang Yunzheng swallowed nervously and spoke with utmost caution. “Mr. Lu, please calm down. Maybe we can talk this through. I’m sure there’s some kind of misunderstanding here.”
Jiang Yunzheng spoke with absolute sincerity, but Lu Zhixing could no longer hear him.
From the moment he’d entered the room, his gaze had remained fixed on the bed inside the bedroom, the one made from qilin bone.
A scene from tens of millions of years ago suddenly surfaced in his mind.
When he’d first entered Lanxing Hall, there had been only one couch in the entire hall.
That couch, which belonged to the God Lord Lanxing, had been forged from ten-thousand-year-old ice. Lu Zhixing had been a cold-blooded spirit beast to begin with, and he was injured at the time. There was no way he could withstand the bitter cold of that couch.
Afraid of being thrown out, he’d endured it in silence or secretly gone downstairs to sleep. Eventually, he’d become so frozen that his body had stiffened. His Master had taken him to the Medicine King, and when he’d woken up again, he’d found himself lying on this very couch, made from qilin bone.
The Medicine King had said that qilin bone was the most suitable material for a bed meant to nourish spirit beasts.
But qilin bone was rare. His Master had personally gone to Cangcheng Mountain to find it and had it fashioned into a couch for him.
He’d slept on that couch for a long time. Later, when his cultivation deepened and he became capable of withstanding the cold of his Master’s couch, he stopped sleeping on it.
But every gift his Master had given him, even those he no longer needed, was locked away in the storeroom. He would often take them out and look at them.
Because they were gifts from his Master…
And now, this bed that had been sealed away for so long had appeared here.
Only then did Lu Zhixing notice what Jiang Yunzheng was wearing: silk pajamas, devoid of any decoration.
They belonged to Xi Yu.
The person and the objects before him were all telling Lu Zhixing the same thing: Jiang Yunzheng hadn’t merely eaten his candied fruit.
He was also wearing Xi Yu’s pajamas.
Perhaps tonight, he would even sleep on the bed his Master had personally sought out for him.
Lu Zhixing’s gaze changed. It became a kind of sick, frenzied madness that Jiang Yunzheng had never seen before.
Jiang Yunzheng’s heart sank.
Lu Zhixing had already reached out. With a curl of his palm, Jiang Yunzheng was instantly pulled into his grasp, like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
Lu Zhixing tilted his head, gripped Jiang Yunzheng by the throat, and stared into his eyes. His voice was chillingly cold.
“I’d already decided to spare your life. Why do you insist on courting death?”
He’d been trying so hard to restrain himself. He’d refrained from dwelling on the admiration in Jiang Yunzheng’s eyes whenever he looked at his Master. He’d refrained from dwelling on the fact that Jiang Yunzheng could spend every day with his Master. He’d even refrained from resenting the way his Master treated Jiang Yunzheng so warmly.
But this was unforgivable. Of all the things Jiang Yunzheng could have done, the one thing he absolutely should not have done was eat his things and sleep in his bed!
These were among the only memories he had left, the only things that had once belonged to him alone. They were the little pieces of sweetness he used to numb himself to reality.
How could Jiang Yunzheng so casually claim everything that belonged to him?
He deserved to die!!!
With Lu Zhixing’s hand clamped around his throat, Jiang Yunzheng kicked frantically, but his toes couldn’t reach the ground. His face turned purplish red as blood rushed to his head, and he could no longer make a sound. He could only keep pounding at Lu Zhixing and struggle to pry his fingers loose.