NEBM Chapter 68.2: Searching

Everyone in the cultivation realm found that the terrifying devil had suddenly disappeared.

No one knew where he went, and no one knew whether he was alive or dead. As they rebuilt their ancestral gates, they looked at each other—was the big devil dead?

No, he wasn’t.

It’s just that the person who can suppress the big devil finally “lived.”

The present Sui Xian couldn’t be considered to have been resurrected. Under the effect of Soul Tracing Grass, he’d just barely managed to consolidate some of his scattered soul.

His bones could not be found for the longest time. When Yan Jin briefly left after killing Shen Zixian, Song Ming quietly returned and set the whole room ablaze.

Yan Jin spent endless hours turning over the ruins of Qingyun Sect and found only a piece of bone the size of a finger.

His hands shook as he pulled the broken bone like a treasure to his heart, feeling the familiar breath that was so faint it was barely distinguishable. His heart brimmed with agony.

Later, Yan Jin spent countless thoughts and efforts and immeasurable hours, before exhausting his spiritual power to shape a body for Sui Xian.

Yan Jin wrapped the broken bone with the best spiritual jade, tied it with a red string, and hung it around Sui Xian’s neck. It could be regarded as helping the spirit claim the body.

Because Sui Xian’s soul was incomplete, when he woke up, he was completely ignorant with no memories of his past life. He was like a newborn baby, his eyes clear and bright and full of wonder.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Yan Jin. Yan Jin’s gaze was very warm and held no malice at all. Sui Xian merely looked at him and blinked.

Then, he watched as the man’s eyes suddenly became red-rimmed and hot tears slipped down his cheeks, dripping on to the back of his hand. Sui Xian shrank slightly, out of instinct, and let out a small sound.

The sound seemed to have awakened Yan Jin. He held up Sui Xian’s weak hand and placed a hot kiss on the back of that fair hand. He called, “Sui Xian.”

“I finally found you.”

Due to Sui Xian’s physical limitations, Yan Jin didn’t take him back to the wasteland. The environment there was too bad and was therefore unsuitable for Sui Xian to live in. Instead, he found a place with beautiful mountains and rivers, built a house by himself, and lived with Sui Xian.

For a long time after waking up, Sui Xian was very weak and was often lethargic. The fatigue made him unable to stay awake for long periods of time.

Yan Jin found in various places spiritual medicinal herbs that were beneficial to the soul. He turned them into pellets or ground them into spiritual elixirs and fed them to Sui Xian every day. He also religiously wiped Sui Xian’s body with medicine. His efforts helped Sui Xian’s soul become more solid bit by bit.

He wanted to use Soul Tracing Grass, but Soul Tracing Grass was still immature and its effect would be minimal. Yan Jin could only continue to support it.

Soul Tracing Grass was a god grass left over from ancient times. These god grasses were incredibly difficult to raise. When Si Fei handed the grass over to Yan Jin, he explained that Soul Tracing Grass needed to be nourished with the heart’s blood. Therefore, whoever wanted to use it must nourish it with his or her own heart’s blood. If another person’s blood was used, the amount must be double.

However, Sui Xian was just a fractured soul. Where would Yan Jin get his heart’s blood? Even if it was possible, Yan Jin wasn’t willing to let Sui Xian suffer. So, he quietly raised the grass himself.

It took a long time for Sui Xian to become better. Gradually, he began to wake for longer periods of time. At the beginning, he couldn’t move by himself and was carried around by Yan Jin. Later, he became strong enough to walk with Yan Jin’s support.

Maybe it was because the first person he saw when he woke up was Yan Jin. Or maybe, it was a subconscious knot left in the soul.

But, it evoked in Sui Xian a dependence that made him want to stick to Yan Jin all the time. Sometimes, he would sit in a daze for a long time. Then, he would suddenly lift his head to look at Yan Jin and, seeing that he was still there, his lips would curve into a contented smile. He would nestle in Yan Jin’s arms and continue his daze.

Yan Jin embraced him like he was holding the rarest treasure.

There were still demons and fiends in the wasteland. It wasn’t that they stayed there voluntarily, but rather, the reason was that they were afraid of Yan Jin. These demons and fiends had been suppressed in the wasteland for thousands of years and longed to leave. Yan Jin not only conquered them violently, but his strengths made them willingly bow down to him, willing to accept him as their Supreme Lord.

A few little demons who didn’t look fierce nor malevolent were chosen to stay near Yan Jin’s residence for him to command.

The little demons would diligently plant flowers and dig ponds to raise fishes, eager to make the surrounding environment more interesting so that Sui Xian would smile.

Here, Sui Xian’s smiles were a good thing!

Although they didn’t know what was going on between the Supreme Lord and the white-clad man called Sui Xian, they could see that the Supreme Lord greatly respected Sui Xian and cherished him more than his own life. He would hold him in his hand as afraid of him falling and hold him in his mouth as if afraid of him melting.

As long as Sui Xian smiled, the Supreme Lord’s mood would become very good, which was a great thing for the little demons. God knows, they shiver everyday living under Yan Jin’s might.

They were anxious to make Sui Xian smile everyday. It’s best to smile so that the Supreme Lord would forget to trouble them. What did those human words say in the book?

“After suffering through a spring night that was all too short, the Emperor did not attend the morning court.”

They didn’t understand what morning court was, but the first sentence was understandable enough After all, they may look small, but they were also a-thousand-year-old demons. They ought to understand these matters. They didn’t expect the Supreme Lord to hold an early morning court; they merely hoped that he wouldn’t look for them nor find trouble with them.

So, a few fluffy demons jumped up and down everyday, just to make Sui Xian smile and laugh and make this peaceful day a little more fun.

The sun rose and fell, rose and fell. Spring turned into Summer, Summer to Autumn, Autumn to Winter, and so on. Just like that, a long time passed.

In recent years, Yan Jin had been carefully taking care of Sui Xian. Everyday, Sui Xian would be fed a spirit elixir and was becoming better.

Yan Jin was energized. Sometimes, he went out to find more elixirs, but he didn’t dare leave for too long.  Generally, he left by sunrise and returned by sunset. Seeing that Sui Xian felt insecure at night, he didn’t leave one step at all the moment night fell.

Early in the morning, Yan Jin woke Sui Xian, helped him up, and said, “Today, a spiritual fruit would ripen. I’ll go pick it later and bring it back. There should be several companion beasts that needed to be dealt with so I might come back a little later.”

Every high-grade spirit fruit would have a companion beast next to it. The higher the quality, the more powerful the companion beast. Sometimes, there would be even more than one companion beasts.

When Sui Xian heard the words ‘companion beast,’ he frowned and hugged Yan Jin unhappily. He whispered, “I’m fine. Can’t I pick it?”

Strong as Yan Jin was, sometimes when faced with a large horde of companion beasts, he would inevitably become slightly injured. Although the injuries weren’t serious, Sui Xian would feel distressed whenever he saw it.

Maybe, it was an instinct from deep within his soul.

Yan Jin stood up and helped him dress. He gently wiped away the little bit of tears that were squeezed out of Sui Xian’s eyes when he yawned and softly said, “I’ll be back soon. I won’t be injured. I’ll see you in a while, okay?”

Sui Xian sent him away unhappily, lazily kicked off his shoes, and walked around the room barefoot. Finally, he settled in the soft couch by the window and leaned back against the frame.

The window was only half open, allowing the breeze to slowly drift in. Sui Xian yawned lazily. With Yan Jin gone, he felt so lazy that he couldn’t even muster up the energy to push the window open wider. He looked out through the narrow gap and saw a few birds on the branches outside.

After looking for a while, Sui Xian became drowsy again. His eyes drifted shut and he was prepared to take a nap when he heard a quiet murmur outside the window.

It was Yan Jin’s two little demons, a lop-eared rabbit and a big-tailed squirrel.

Yan Jin’s identity and external affairs were known to Sui Xian. Yan Jin didn’t hide anything from him, but he didn’t care much either. For him, Yan Jin treated him very well and that was enough.

These two little demons are the most lonely and liked to talk a lot. They thought that Sui Xian was sleeping in the room, and they didn’t think too much. They got together in the cool shade and gossiped under the eaves.

The rabbit said, “Sister Peacock said that the number of times he has returned to the wasteland is getting less and less. She just sent a message saying that a lot of things have accumulated in the wasteland.”

Squirrel said, “Oh, there is no other way. Right now, Supreme Lord is obsessed with a beautiful person. It is normal to ignore the wasteland.”

Rabbit said, “Also, Supreme Lord was single for many years, and he’s been like this for a long time. Well, let’s not talk about it anymore. Is the latest book about the fox demon out yet?”

The squirrel hugged his big tail, dug through the fluff, and pulled out a picture book. “It’s out. I just bought it from another demon!”

This was said to be a story adapted from a fox demon and was based on personal experience. However, because the fox demon couldn’t write, it could only draw the story.

The rabbit turned the pages with two long ears and happily said, “Where did we last stop? Oh, it was when the fox demon met the emperor in the human world, and that emperor was immediately seduced by it…”

The two demons gathered together. While looking at the pictures, they whispered to each other, engaging in quite a lively discussion. There were even a few jokes, such as “The Supreme Lord is like this emperor,” and “Sui Xian is like the fox demon.”

This was a story about how a beautiful fox demon seduced an emperor into losing his throne. After listening for a while, Sui Xian thought it was quite interesting. He felt a rare interest, opened the window wider, and called to the two fluffies, “What are you looking at? I want to see too.”

So, when Yan Jin returned in the evening, he saw the rabbit and squirrel standing uneasily by the door. The moment they saw him, they stopped whispering.

He furrowed his brows, emitting a heavy sense of oppressive power. “What’s going on?”

The squirrel held its big tail and forced itself to be courageous. “Young, young, young, young master wanted to take a look, look, look at the illustrations…”

They didn’t dare address Sui Xian by name. Since they didn’t know what to call him, they modeled after the humans and called him young master.

Yan Jin saw that the squirrel had almost plucked his tail bald and didn’t say anymore. He pushed inside.

Sui Xian was relaxing on the soft couch. His clothes were slightly messy, and his slender fingers just happened to turn over a page. He was so fascinated with what he was looking at that he didn’t even notice Yan Jin’s return.

Demons were always more open and bold. This picture book told such a story and so the images were unavoidably…very stimulating.

He didn’t understand these things very well. But, it was probably natural instinct because, as he looked at it, he felt that the room was a little hot. He loosened his collar to cool down and continued to look with interest at the pictures.

“Sui Xian?” Yan Jin laid the jade box that contained the spirit fruit on the table and walked over doubtfully.

When Sui Xian heard his voice, he regained his senses. He took Yan Jin’s hand and gently pulled Yan Jin to sit on the soft couch. Then, he nestled himself in Yan Jin’s arms and shoved the opened picture book into his hands. He pointed to the image, saying “What are they doing?”

Yan Jin subconsciously glanced down, then sucked in a breath.

It was a charming fox demon with clothing all eschewed, lewdly exhausting itself on an emperor.

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Xixi: I’m so productive. I also have an extra post today. Hehe. *Pats self on back