Lu Zhixing’s words had become increasingly cutting, and Xi Yu turned to look at him.
The demonic markings on Lu Zhixing’s body had completely disappeared. He was wearing dark green pajamas, his glossy black eyes as dark as ink.
Xi Yu lowered his head and said nothing.
Lu Zhixing seemed unconcerned. He walked slowly toward the bone bed and waved his hand. The original large leather bed vanished, replaced by the bone bed.
Xi Yu’s room was spacious enough to accommodate two beds with plenty of room to spare, but Lu Zhixing had deliberately made the original bed disappear. A bedsheet and mattress had been laid over the bone bed, concealing its original whiteness.
Xi Yu raised his head and saw that everything in the room except the bone bed was changing.
Before his eyes, the modern room transformed into an ancient, elegant bedchamber.
There were jade pillows, brocade quilts, and pearl curtains. A massive luminous pearl hung overhead, casting a soft, gentle light.
Apart from the bed, everything here was identical to his Lanxing Hall.
No, there were two other differences.
The souls inhabiting these bodies were now Lanxing and Zhuli, but their faces belonged to Xi Yu and Lu Zhixing.
Xi Yu stared at Lu Zhixing’s face.
“Do you think this is fun?”
Lu Zhixing sprawled carelessly across one side of the bed, a warm, springlike smile on his face.
“Shizun, get some rest.”
Xi Yu took a deep breath, grabbed the candlestick beside him, and hurled it at Lu Zhixing.
“You’re absolutely insane!”
Lu Zhixing caught the candlestick and carefully used his spiritual energy to return it to its place.
Even though everything here was an imitation, he still could not bear to see anything inside “Lanxing Hall” damaged.
Propping his head up with one hand, Lu Zhixing patted the empty space beside him.
“Why aren’t you resting yet? Do you want me to go have a little chat with Jiang Yunzheng?”
Xi Yu sat up from the sofa.
“If you want so badly to return to how things were, why don’t you use Zhuli’s face? That way, you can remind me of exactly what kind of thing my good disciple has become.”
Xi Yu placed particular emphasis on the words good disciple.
Lu Zhixing’s eyelashes trembled.
How could he use his own face? He would never use his own face to do what he was doing now.
He had been driven into a desperate corner and wanted nothing more than to steal a few days of happiness. The only face he could use was Lu Zhixing’s.
“If you keep trying to win arguments with me and provoke me until I lose my temper, then our deal can end right here.” Lu Zhixing shook the Prophetic Feather wrapped around his wrist. “If I can’t have what I want, then I’ll kill the person you want to protect.”
Lu Zhixing’s tone was flat. Hearing him speak so casually about killing someone made Xi Yu feel as though something was fundamentally wrong.
It made him feel that the Lu Zhixing standing before him really was a different person from his Zhuli.
Xi Yu gave Lu Zhixing a cold look, turned around, and walked toward the bathroom.
When he came out, the room had grown even dimmer. Without saying a word, Xi Yu climbed into bed. He did not get under the covers. As he lay on his side, his moon-white pajamas clung to his skin, outlining the curve of his waist.
Lu Zhixing looked at the back of Xi Yu’s neck and reached out to hook an arm around his waist.
Xi Yu’s eyes flew open. He violently flung Lu Zhixing’s hand away.
The next second, Lu Zhixing wrapped his arms around him again. This time, his grip was tighter. Not only did he hold Xi Yu firmly, he also turned him over, pulled him into his embrace, and buried his face against Xi Yu’s neck.
Xi Yu snapped, “Zhuli!”
“Don’t move.” Lu Zhixing breathed in the pear-blossom fragrance lingering around Xi Yu’s neck, his voice trembling slightly. “Hold me, Shizun. Please, just hold me.”
His arms tightened around Xi Yu despite the faint, pleading quality of his voice. His lips rested against the side of Xi Yu’s neck, and each word brought a faint, ticklish warmth against his skin.
Xi Yu grabbed Lu Zhixing by the hair and viciously threw him off.
Sitting up in bed, he gritted his teeth.
“You were so formidable when you threatened me just now. Why are you pretending to be wronged now? Your entire body reeks of demonic energy. It disgusts me beyond words.”
Lu Zhixing stared at Xi Yu with a pale face. The infatuation in his eyes was completely undisguised, yet his voice was numb and icy.
“Even if I disgust you, you’ll have to endure it.”
Xi Yu’s chest heaved. His hair had become somewhat disheveled during their struggle. After a moment, he looked at Lu Zhixing and spoke.
“I can’t share a bed with a demon. Don’t force me.”
Xi Yu was neither particularly agitated when he said this nor deliberately trying to provoke Lu Zhixing. He stated it very calmly.
Yet those few quiet words finally cracked the composed expression Lu Zhixing had maintained since entering the room.
He suddenly grabbed Xi Yu by the shoulders and roared, “WHO EXACTLY IS FORCING WHOM HERE?!”
“Xi Yu, who exactly is forcing whom here?!”
Lu Zhixing’s voice trembled violently. He was like a ferocious beast trapped in a desperate situation, anguish and pain mingling in his eyes.
He could not even bring himself to call Xi Yu Shizun or Lanxing. All he could do was call him Xi Yu.
As though, by doing so, the person before him would no longer be his Shizun, and the person treating him like garbage would no longer be the Shizun who had always treasured him above everything else.
He had thought too highly of himself and underestimated Xi Yu’s ruthlessness.
He had thought he could accept it. Whatever the outcome, he could accept it.
But it hurt too much. It felt as though a red-hot blade were continuously scraping against his heart. The pain was so unbearable that he truly could not take it anymore.
He could die, as long as his death could keep Xi Yu alive. But he genuinely could not bear to watch Xi Yu give what belonged to him to someone else.
Lu Zhixing’s voice was filled with pain and despair.
“Do you think I want to use Jiang Yunzheng to threaten you? What does he even amount to?! I would rather you hit me, scold me, torture me—anything would be better than you actually giving in to my threats!”
………………….
“Why are you so cruel?”
Like a child, Lu Zhixing looked at Xi Yu with tears shimmering in his eyes, utterly aggrieved.
“Why did you let someone else replace me so quickly? Xi Yu, I love you so much, and I hate you so much…”
“Sometimes, I wonder whether you’re really my Shizun at all.” Lu Zhixing choked on his sobs. “If you are, how can you bear to treat me like this… Shizun… I hurt so much. I hurt so much…”
Lu Zhixing’s tears fell helplessly.
He could not control the strength of his grip. His fingers dug deeply into Xi Yu’s arm, while Xi Yu’s beautiful, dark eyes had become like an abyss. Lu Zhixing had fallen into them, and it seemed that no matter how desperately he cried and begged, he would never find the slightest redemption.
Xi Yu’s heart ached terribly. The pleading in Lu Zhixing’s voice fell against his ears like countless tiny needles, pricking at his eardrums until even his head began to throb dizzily.
Xi Yu traced Lu Zhixing’s features with his gaze, studying his eyes, brows, and contours. After a moment, his lips moved.
“Do you think I don’t hate you too?”
Zhuli hated him for his current coldness, but Xi Yu hated Zhuli for loving him so obsessively, even now.
At present, Zhuohua could no longer kill Zhuli. There was no one left in the Three Realms capable of suppressing him. Xi Yu could leave whenever he wanted.
Yet just as Zhuli had once drawn out his divine bone to fashion a demonic body for Xi Yu out of love, Zhuli was now prepared to activate the Annihilation Formation with the resolve to die, simply for the slightest chance of being accepted by Xi Yu again.
Zhuli’s love was too heavy. It had become a burden beyond what Xi Yu could bear.
Ever since birth, Xi Yu had been cold-hearted and indifferent to emotion. If Zhuli had not been injured by demons that day, in a region overrun by the demon race, Xi Yu would at most have saved him. He would never have taken him home.
The reason he had brought Zhuli back in the first place was his hatred of demons. He would not allow another living being to fall victim to the demon race before his eyes.
Later, someone besides himself had come to breathe life into Lanxing Hall. Xi Yu could not deny the happiness Zhuli had brought him.
Zhuli was passionate and full of life. He had stirred Xi Yu’s existence, once as still as a dead pool of water, into a bubbling, turbulent current.
Tens of thousands of years of memories in Lanxing Hall played through Xi Yu’s mind like a revolving lantern. The beautiful memories that had once meant so much to him had now become a bloody mess beneath the shadow of Zhuli’s identity as a demon.
Xi Yu repeated, “Zhuli, do you think I don’t hate you too?”
His body stiffened. Looking at Lu Zhixing, whose back had bent under the weight of unbearable pain, Xi Yu suddenly erupted. He shoved Lu Zhixing against the headboard, straddled his waist, and pressed his forearm across Lu Zhixing’s neck.
“You just want me to live, don’t you? You said you wanted nothing and asked for nothing except for me to live, didn’t you? Well, I’m alive! I’m living exactly as you wanted me to! So why are you crying? Huh? Tell me, why are you crying?!”
“You can’t take it anymore now, can you? You think I’m looking at someone else, don’t you? You’re in pain, aren’t you?”
Xi Yu leaned over him. Their faces were so close that Xi Yu could see his own distorted reflection in Lu Zhixing’s eyes.
“Then remember this pain! I want you to die with your eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace! Let me tell you something: if you die today, I can take on another disciple tomorrow. I can find someone far more obedient than you! Who do you think you are?!”
Xi Yu had always been composed and proper in his words and actions. He rarely lost control, not even during the great war between gods and demons had he ever been this furious and flustered.
Yet ever since learning that Lu Zhixing had fallen into demonic corruption for his sake, Xi Yu had repeatedly lost control. He loathed himself for becoming like this.
But it was not enough. It truly was not enough to vent his anger.
He hated Lu Zhixing for not cherishing his own life. He hated him for trading his life for Xi Yu’s.
He truly hated him so much.
And yet he loved him too.
Just as Lu Zhixing had said moments ago: I hate you so much, and I love you so much.
No one could understand those words more deeply than Xi Yu did at that moment.
Xi Yu wanted to curse Lu Zhixing with the cruelest words imaginable, look at him with the most disgusted expression, and use the most vicious methods to tear his heart out.
But when he saw that tear trembling at the corner of Lu Zhixing’s eye before finally falling, the fury on Xi Yu’s face suddenly froze.
Xi Yu pressed down on Lu Zhixing’s neck. Lu Zhixing could not die, but he could still feel pain. Along with the pain came boundless fear. His face flushed red from the pressure, and the Prophetic Feather began to tremble as it sensed its master’s emotions.
Lu Zhixing kept asking himself how things had come to this. How had they reached the point where they were torturing each other like this?
At the beginning, he had only wanted to resurrect his Shizun. He had wanted nothing else.
He had already prepared for the worst from the very start, and everything happening now had been within his expectations.
So why couldn’t he bear it?
Why?
Lu Zhixing kept asking himself why. He stared at Xi Yu’s face, feeling the warmth of Xi Yu’s forearm pressing against his neck.
And then, at last, he understood.