IWOL Chapter 257: Compulsory Command

When Dong Zheng woke up from the chaos, he felt the soft wind blowing across his cheeks, carrying with it the moist breath of distant grass and rain.

He slowly opened his eyes and saw the sky overcast with clouds. A bit of sunlight strenuously penetrated through, so as to prevent the whole world from completely darkening. He sat up, and the blades of grass slid across his fingers, the thin edges easily cutting his skin and leaving negligible wounds.

It was going to rain.

The last thing Dong Zhen remembered was that he and Ren Heming had walked silently through the dark passageway. He couldn’t remember how long they had walked, but after a bright burst of light, he suddenly heard Cui Zuojing said to him in surprise, “You’re quicker than I thought.”

What happened?

There seemed to be a small sound coming from nearby. Dong Zheng swept his gaze across the messy weeds that grew arbitrarily, climbing up the stone bricks. A young man sat cross-legged across from him, playing with the arabidopsis swaying in the wind. His dark eyelashes were swept down, covering his eyes. His black coat was crooked and hung loosely over one shoulder, giving him the air of a lazy traveler who’d just sat down to rest away his fatigue.

Dong Zheng crossed over to him. Hearing the rustle of grass and pebbles, Cui Zuojing lifted up his gaze and smiled at him.

Dong Zheng sat down next to Cui Zuojing. With one leg bent, he touched Cui Zuojing’s hand and helped brush away the pieces of grass on his pants.

In the depths of the clouds, data continuously streamed across the sky, gradually disappearing. Further away, at the edge of this world that Dong Zheng had created, the same thing was happening. The entire world he’s built was irrevocably collapsing.

But it didn’t matter. Dong Zheng only created it to leave the cycle of reincarnation.

“Why are you in here?” Dong Zheng asked. If he remembered correctly, he’d passed out from information overload.

Cui Zuojing raised his hand and touched Dong Zheng’s face with the back of his hand. He smiled and said, “I came in through the little guy.”

He was referring to the Arabidopsis thaliana that thrived in Dong Zheng’s kernel, carefully protected from the wind and rain.

“After you fainted, Karls found a place for you to rest, but I thought that since the blood contract might be soon be lifted, I wouldn’t be able to enter anymore, so I came in.”

Dong Zheng took his hand and held it up to his lips. He simply held it there, breathing in the warm water vapor on the back of his hand. Then Dong Zheng adjusted his sitting posture so that he and Cui Zuojing were facing each other, their legs overlapping. Cui Zuojing lightly nudged Dong Zheng’s waist with one foot, while the thin grass silently stood nearby.

He looked at Dong Zheng’s eyes and knew that the other party had something to tell him. So he made no sound, waiting for Dong Zheng.

“I’m a little bit reluctant.” Dong Zheng was silent for a moment, before he finally began talking in a low voice. “I’m used to feeling that no matter where you are, I could sense you at all times. Once the blood contract is gone, I’ll need some time to stick to you and slowly adjust.”

He smiled as he talked, and Cui Zuojing was also happy. He lightly punched Dong Zheng in the chest and said, “I think you just couldn’t bear the fact that I won’t be your tool anymore. And that’s why you’ll have a hard time getting used to it…It’s okay. Then, at that time, you can just cling to my legs. You’ll be in charge of making the command, and I’ll be responsible for flying.”

Then Cui Zuojing paused and said, “…If you really can’t bear it, then let’s not get rid of it?”

To Dong Zheng, his words were like a flirtation. To this day, he would never tire of the other person’s teasing and stimulating words.

Dong Zheng vetoed this suggestion. “No, if I see that you’re hurt because of me for no reason, I think I’ll die of heartache. I still remember very clearly all those times you had to share my injuries.”

Whenever faced with this kind of Dong Zheng, who was usually serious and reliable, who often didn’t seem to know how to act charming, saying such love words, Cui Zuojing’s heartbeat would uncontrollably speed up.

With a calm expression, Cui Zuojing fiddled with the leaves of the Arabidopsis plant and said, “While the blood contract is still here, do you have any wish you want me to fulfill? You won’t have another chance again.”

“A wish…” Dong Zheng pondered. “When we first met, didn’t you say that the blood contract allowed the master to make three compulsory commands?”

Cui Zuojing immediately narrowed his eyes and said suspiciously, “You’re not going to make me do weird things, are you? Let me tell you, compulsory orders will come at a cost. The more outrageous your orders, the more expensive the cost.”

“I know, I remember every word you said,” Dong Zheng said. “Once the blood contract is lifted, I won’t be able to have any other prisoners. I have a right to make an order. If I don’t use it once, wouldn’t it be a shame?”

Cui Zuojing sighed to himself and said, “There’s no helping it.” Then he thought that Dong Zheng wouldn’t make too much of a large request anyway. Without any worries, he added, “Okay, what do you want me to do? Call you dad or what? Let’s negotiate first. If you make me embarrassed, I’ll be angry!”

“What are you thinking about?” Dong Zheng laughed. After a while, his wide smile straightened, and his face became serious. Looking at Cui Zuojing’s inquisitive and slightly nervous eyes, he whispered, “I command that you, for the rest of your life, will always put me in the position of your lover and never leave me.”

The winds grabbed his words and carried them far, far away. Cui Zuojing’s eyes trembled faintly, and for a moment, he couldn’t restrain his emotions. This kind of emotion was hard to describe–In fact, he didn’t want to think at all.

After a long moment, Cui Zuojing burst out into laughter, his cheeks flushed with an imperceptible redness. He raised his eyebrows joyfully and said, “This kind of command is very overbearing. Aren’t you afraid that you might have to pay a great price? Let’s say…what if a certain key part wenting missing?”

“I already paid the price.” Dong Zheng grabbed his hand and pressed it to his chest, where his heartbeat spread underneath Cui Zuojing’s palm. “I gave it to you.”

At this moment, Cui Zuojing admitted that he was utterly defeated.

As long as Dong Zheng wanted to, he would have thousands of ways to make him helpless. Cui Zuojing didn’t know how he should respond to this.

He lifted his face toward the clouds, looking at the collapse of the world that Dong Zheng had copied. Soon, this place would probably completely disintegrate. Cui Zuojing’s hand on Dong Zheng’s chest tightened imperceptibly. Grabbing the front of Dong Zheng’s clothes, he leaned forward and rested his head on his shoulder. The tip of his nose brushed against his collarbone and his voice was muffled as he said, “I want it.”

“Here?” Dong Zheng looked around at the meadow and ruins with his eyebrows raised.

“In your kernel, no matter what we do, we wouldn’t be seen by anyone.” Cui Zuojing lifted his head up, and the tip of his tongue brushed out to lick the corner of his mouth like a glutton. His expression was eager. “I kind of want to see what it’ll feel like to do it with a spiritual body.”

From top to bottom, Cui Zuojing’s request was downright lethal. Dong Zheng only persisted for half a second before he was defeated. He was also very curious. How would it feel? He and Cui Zuojing’s consciousness only merged once through Arabidopsis, and he still remembered the wonderful feeling of their souls combining without reservation.

“I’ll do whatever you want.” Dong Zheng lowered his face and kissed Cui Zuojing’s lips, whispering, “Anyway, whatever you say, I won’t refuse you.”

Under the sky, they feasted, indulging in this extremely novel experience. With their clothes off, the pebbles and grass pressed into their skin, bringing just enough pain to stimulate all their senses. The collapse of this world was beyond Dong Zheng’s control, and by the time Cui Zuojing’s jacket was back over his shoulders, his whole body back to being pure and clean, there was already nothing left around them except for the little plant.

It was very convenient. Dong Zheng only needed to think about what he wanted and it would be accomplished right away. As Cui Zuojing got up, he staggered a little, and Dong Zheng stretched out his arm to stabilize him.

The information superhighway spread out in the distance, and so Dong Zheng took Cui Zuojing’s hand and asked, “Would you like to look around?”

“Of course, next time I want to come in, it won’t be so easy.”

Right now, the reason he was able to easily enter Dong Zheng’s kernel was due to the blood contract and Karls’ help. It was also because Arabidopsis existed here, tightly locking their two souls. This allay a layer of mental defenses, so that their subconsciousness wouldn’t reject each other.

Once the blood contract was lifted, their subconsciousness would strengthen to protect themselves and they might no longer be fully open to each other.

It wasn’t that they don’t love each other enough; it was just that everyone had a protective instinct engraved deep in their souls.

A crawler took them away from the pure white area at the center of the kernel. Cui Zuojing looked around at the kernel where physics and the rules of time and space were completely distorted. The firewall and the shielding field outlined the edges of the world, and he saw that in a distant place, there was a helix rising up. Dong Zheng explained, “Murphy left that behind. When she left, she said she left it to me as a gift.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know yet. I dare not touch it. Right now, my spiritual power isn’t strong enough. In case she’s scheming something, I wouldn’t suffer any damages.”

“That’s good.” Cui Zuojing retracted his gaze and found that they were already standing in front of the majestic temple.

“Can I enter too?” Cui Zuojing stroked the ferocious-looking fallen angel statue at the door. He’d seen an exact replica on Dusk Island. Who would have thought that the collapse of the northern temple would harald such an important change in Dong Zheng’s kernel?

“Yes.” Dong Zheng opened the door and led Cui Zuojing in, hand in hand..

Cui Zuojing followed, his fingers brushing across the temple door that was more than ten meters high. As he entered, the golden light developed his skin and he felt as if he was wrapped in flowing water.

Stardust circled around the suspended models condensed by various algorithms. Cui Zuojing looked curiously around, while Dong Zheng stood next to him, watching for unexpected dangers.

“What’s on the second floor?” Cui Zuojing stood under the stairs and looked at the dark upstairs.

“That side hasn’t been opened yet,” Dong Zheng said and watched as Cui Zuojing walked up the steps. The invisible barrier that had blocked him before seemed to be nonexistent, allowing Cui Zuojing to pass completely.

Dong Zheng:….????

“What?” Cui Zuojing stood at the top of the stairs. He leaned on the railing and looked down at Dong Zheng. “It’s so dark up here. Can’t you come?”

Dong Zheng immediately ran up the stairs two to three steps at a time, astounded that the invisible barrier that had blocked him every time was really gone!

He stretched out his hand and touched the place where the barrier had once been, but he really couldn’t find any trace of the barrier.

When did it break? Was it when he constructed that immersive world?

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