While pondering slowly in his heart, Lin Fuqing walked over and very naturally sat down next to Fang Zhiyuan. He asked gently, “Have you been waiting for a long time?”
“No.” Fang Zhiyuan poured two small glasses of wine, handed a cup to Lin Fuqing, and asked him, “What did the master say?”
“Master said… I can’t tell you.” Lin Fuqing took a sip of warm wine and shook the wine cup, “But I always feel that Master must have seen something. Researching forbidden techniques isn’t something that could be done overnight. Since he knows about such a thing, he can’t just turn a blind eye to the abnormality between you and me.”
There was a sudden fluttering sound from the branches, and a round, light purple baby bird flew down and landed between the two of them. It was Ziwei.
“Forget it.” Fang Zhiyuan slowly picked up a ball of snow and threw it at the bird with interest. “You’ve been worried enough in your last life. Now that everything is peaceful, you might as well take a good rest in the next two or three years.”
“Puff!” Ziwei flapped his wings to dodge, but failed. The whole bird was smashed into a snow pile, “Chijijijiji!”
Over the past month, Lin Fuqing and Fang Zhiyuan talked as usual, not shying away from Ziwei. Perhaps it was because the bird could not speak, and had no one to confide in when it became frightened. In short, Ji Na listened to almost everything they said about the past.
He also went from initially being terrified and excited, flying around Xuyun Peak all night long, to slowly becoming able to calm down and listen to the Demon Lord and Immortal Sovereign mentioning their past lives.
“Don’t blame me, we are all the same.” Lin Fuqing smiled and shook his head. He was still thinking about the piece of red paper hidden in his sleeve. He changed the subject subtly and said with a blink of his eyes, “You know, today is a good day.”
Fang Zhiyuan laughed in surprise. “What?”
Lin Fuqing said seriously, “I have made up my mind to confess something to you.”
—In fact, at this moment, the Demon Lord wanted to say directly, “Ah’Yuan, I have liked you for a long time.”
Unfortunately, he was afraid that he would be angered by his shidi’s subsequent reaction and end up with his life shortened.
So Lin Fuqing could only pretend to be serious and said in a roundabout way, “Do you remember that there was a time when you and I had tried to reconcile the Yin energy of the demon cultivators and the spiritual energy of the immortal cultivators, hoping to achieve reconciliation between the immortals and the demons.”
“Yes.” Fang Zhiyuan was slightly stunned. That was a memory from a long time ago. He took a sip of wine and said, “Didn’t you refuse to do it later?”
At that time, it hadn’t been long since they became the Immortal Sovereign and Demon Lord respectively, and the immortals and demons were still in a situation of hostility.
No one knew that, in fact, the Immortal Sovereign and the Demon Lord had racked their brains every day to find opportunities to meet in private, hiding away to study these heaven-defying things that no one had ever dared to think of before.
Lin Fuqing whispered, “Yin Qi is harder to control than spiritual energy. Our cultivation levels are similar. If it went on, you would be the one getting hurt almost every time. How could I bear this?”
Ziwei finally emerged from the snow, blinked, chirped, and hopped twice, leaving a series of small footprints.
Fang Zhiyuan picked up the pot and poured more wine. The two sat side by side under the tree, toasting each other and talking in peaceful and leisurely tones. It was a peaceful winter day.
Lin Fuqing continued, “But later on, I couldn’t let it go, so I secretly selected a lot of people to try it out. At that time, the immortals and the demons hated each other, and I was worried that if news got out, the demonic cultivators in Snowbone City would cause chaos, so I never dared to leak any news.”
Fang Zhiyuan frowned. “If you hadn’t told me today, I really wouldn’t have known… Is this what you’re confessioning?”
Lin Fuqing pursed his lips, the tips of his ears suddenly flushing red. He buried half of his face softly in the thick fur on the collar of his coat, and said carefully, “I…well, in order to prevent outsiders from noticing the clues, I wanted those people to be able to legitimately meet with me every night without arousing suspicion; and I also wanted those people to legitimately not contact the outside world without being suspected.”
“You…” Fang Zhiyuan’s fingers trembled, and a few drops of liquid fell from the wine cup. He seemed to realize something and the expression on his face changed slightly.
He had suffered a lot since childhood and had a keen animal-like intuition. He almost immediately guessed something from Lin Fuqing’s abnormal expression and language.
But he was also frightened by his own guess, thinking it was too bizarre, even absurd and unbelievable.
So Fang Zhiyuan could only pretend to be calm, as if he didn’t understand anything, “What did you… do?”
“…Fang Zhiyuan!!” Unexpectedly, Lin Fuqing was so angry that he grabbed the snow at hand and threw it at Fang Zhiyuan’s face, “You’re such a scoundrel! You have to force me to lose face and break it open and crush it open for you to understand it clearly, right?!”
Fang Zhiyuan was completely unprepared and was hit directly.
Embarrassed and angry, Lin Fuqing threw two handfuls of snow at Fang Zhiyuan again. But he was still unsatisfied. He simply pushed Fang Zhiyuan into the snow and said, “I have never had a Taoist partner!”
As the two of them quarreled, all the wine vessels were knocked over, and the wine spilled out, An intoxicating aroma began to spread out. The purple bird was startled and flew back to perch on a branch. Meanwhile, the red clay wine pot rolled in the white snow, like a plum blossom in the corner of the wall.
“No concubines, no companions, no cauldrons!”
Lin Fuqing gritted his teeth and threw a ball of snow at Fang Zhiyuan. He was so embarrassed that his eyes were filled with mist. “I don’t have a harem, I have never practiced dual cultivation with others…!”
“No.” Fang Zhiyuan’s eyes were dazed, with snowflakes glistening in his black hair. He didn’t get up, but fell on his back in the snow, grabbing Lin Fuqing’s wrist. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying to you. It was all done to hide my tracks. Really.”
Lin Fuqing lowered his eyes and smiled bitterly. After a while, he raised his hands to cover his eyes again, and sighed in entanglement. “I… I’m sorry that I waited until now to explain it to you clearly. I really…”
There were really too many things holding him back.
In fact, in his previous life, Lin Fuqing believed that he had become an evil demon, so he dared not ask for love, let alone defile his little calamity star. He thought that he had no chance to be with Fang Zhiyuan in that life, so he thought it was okay that the Immortal Sovereign had misunderstood him.
But no one would have expected that Fang Zhiyuan had never married anyone in nearly a hundred years.
Even though a fairy as beautiful and infatuated as Mu Qingxue was always by his side, he was never moved at all—let alone moved, he probably didn’t even notice Fairy Mu’s love.
By this calculation, he had ultimately wasted half of someone’s life.
“No, you…” Fang Zhiyuan stared at him absentmindedly. He didn’t know what had happened at some point. He suddenly jumped up and pressed Lin Fuqing to the snow. He said angrily in a trembling voice, “You’re clearly lying to me!!”
The two of them were like ordinary children, playing and fighting in the snow under the tree without any care for their images. Lin Fuqing fell into the snow on his back and shivered with cold, furious. “Hiss…what are you crazy about again?!”
Fang Zhiyuan was so angry that his eyes turned red. “Back then, you told me in person that your wedding night was very happy, but you lied to me?!”
“That’s…!”
Lin Fuqing’s face burned. Even though he knew that he couldn’t avoid this, he couldn’t help but close his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth. “Fang Zhiyuan…Immortal Sovereign Fang… I owe you something for decades, do you know that?”
Fang Zhiyuan sneered. “What, you want to apologize and admit your mistakes?”
“…Fang Zhiyuan!!” Lin Fuqing suddenly opened his eyes, with endless sorrow and anger in his eyes, and threw another handful of snow at him, “You—you’re such a bastard!!”
=========
If possible, Demon Lord would never want to recall that time when he first took a concubine.
The “beauty” he’d chosen was a young demonic cultivator whose life he had saved twice. She was grateful to the Demon Lord for his kindness, and her childhood sweetheart was also in the immortal sect. The couple suffered from the separation between immortals and demons and could not be happy. Thus, the girl was quite courageous and willing to be the experimental vessel for the Lord to blend the yin and yang qi.
At that time, Lin Fuqing was still very cautious, thinking that he had to play the whole show and grant the girl a title and a palace, which really looked like the real deal.
There were many gossipers among the demonic cultivators. When they heard about this marriage, they all rushed to help their master prepare all the necessary items for the wedding. When Lin Fuqing saw the big red double happiness characters and the beautifully decorated bridal chamber, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry but had to go with the flow.
Of course, it was impossible for him to marry the girl. But fortunately, he was the Demon Lord and he was only taking a beautiful concubine, so no one would mind if he didn’t want to go through with the formalities.
As for the bridal chamber, he’ll just put on a fake show and at most chat with the girl until dawn.
What no one expected was that in the evening, someone attacked Snowbone City.
The funny thing was that there was only one attacker.
Fang Zhiyuan.
Ordinary demonic cultivators did not know the relationship between their sovereign and the leader of the immortal way, but Lin Fuqing’s true confidants all knew.
The right guard Lu Kuifu received news from outside the city that Fang Zhiyuan was trying to break into the city alone, but he did not dare to order people to go up and stop him with real swords and power, so he sent an urgent report to the lord first.
Unfortunately, at that time, Demon Lord Lin was leisurely enjoying his wedding wine alone, wearing a gorgeous red wedding dress, and playing the game of drinking with himself. But when he heard the news, he was so frightened that his hand slipped and the wine glass fell and shattered. He didn’t even bother to clean it up. He hurriedly asked the guards on the city wall to withdraw, and at the same time, he rushed over in a panic to meet that person.
Fang Zhiyuan was drunk. He was not very good at drinking alcohol to begin with, and it was unclear how much he’d drunk this time. He was totally confused.
Golden Osmanthus Palace was 108,000 miles away from Snowbone City. The Immortal Sovereign flew over here like a drunkard, without stopping at all. His handsome face was now gray and pale, showing signs of spiritual exhaustion.
But he was still very good at fighting. Holding a heavy and long black gold sword in his hand, he fought all the way to the foot of Snowbone City.
After the Demon Lord ordered the withdrawal of the demon guards on the city walls, he walked up to the city gate openly and kicked it, cursing and demanding that Lin Fuqing come out to see him.
When the Demon Lord finally arrived, he was really frightened by Immortal Sovereign Fang’s terrible condition. Of course, it didn’t matter if his little troublemaker scolded him when he was drunk, but if the excessive depletion of spiritual energy left some abnormality in the future, that would be no joke.
Lin Fuqing hurried over and coaxed and deceived him. Fortunately, Fang Zhiyuan was really not fully conscious at that time, so it was easy to fool him. When he saw his senior brother wearing a red wedding dress, he immediately stopped causing trouble.
The Demon Lord first took the Huangyang Sword from his hand, then coaxed him with a few words. It wasn’t long before he held the man in his arms.
…The right guard Lu Kuifu, the left guard Chai E, and little demon boy Shentu Linchun who had not yet defected, all watched the whole process from the side.
Something happened suddenly, and the leader of the immortal way suddenly ran to Snowbone City. Lin Fuqing had no other place for him to stay, so he could only use the pre-arranged bridal chamber… After all, if there was any place that could ensure no disturbances throughout the night, there was no safer place than this.
Lin Fuqing was so concerned and anxious that he simply picked Fang Zhiyuan up and carried him horizontally.
The Demon Lord would never forget the scorching gazes that followed him when he carried that person into the bridal chamber.
When he placed Fang Zhiyuan on the big red wedding bed embroidered with mandarin ducks and hibiscus patterns, the latter’s backlash from excessive consumption of spiritual power reappeared. He lay listlessly on the side of the bed, choking on two mouthfuls of blood foam, his eyes half-closed in a daze. With a hum in his throat, he pulled Lin Fuqing back, refusing to let him leave.
Lin Fuqing felt only distressed.
He comforted the man with kind words and fed him two emergency pills. Then he hurried out to get other pills and sobering things.
When Lin Fuqing came back, Fang Zhiyuan seemed to be a little more sober, but only a little.
He was sitting on the bed, expressionlessly tearing the red curtains into strips. He also pulled out the cottons inside the wedding quilt embroidered with mandarin ducks, and wedding wine and fruits were scattered on the floor.
Lin Fuqing: “……”
Ah, the snacks he hadn’t finished eating, the wine he hadn’t finished drinking…
Fang Zhiyuan slowly raised his eyes and called out, “Shige.”
He asked absentmindedly, “Are you going to get married?”
Lin Fuqing’s heart skipped a beat and he stared at Fang Zhiyuan in a daze.
He murmured, “You…”
At this moment he suddenly came to his senses. The Immortal Sovereign got so drunk on his wedding night and risked his life to come to Snowbone City to see him. Now he asked such a question… What kind of ambiguous feelings did this imply?
Lin Fuqing was extremely confused and couldn’t tell how he felt.
It was as if a secret and panicky joy first crept into his heart, before it was overwhelmed by an even greater sense of guilt.
How could he feel happy?
How could he deserve it?
Lin Fuqing’s eyes suddenly darkened. He sat down beside the bed, poured the pill into his palm, and tried to feed it to him. “Open your mouth.”
Fang Zhiyuan asked stubbornly, “Are you getting married?”
Lin Fuqing was helpless. “I’m not getting married. Now be good and take the medicine first.”
Fang Zhiyuan refused to take medicine.
He frowned and stretched out his hand. With a tug, he tore Lin Fuqing’s red wedding gown in half.
Then he asked again, “Are you in the bridal chamber?”
Lin Fuqing’s mouth twitched, and he silently told himself that he couldn’t try to reason with a drunkard, so he patiently moved closer and said, “Stop making trouble, I’m not going to have a wedding night either…take the medicine.”
Fang Zhiyuan still refused to take the medicine. He suddenly raised his long legs and kicked over the wedding candle at the bedside. The flames touched the wine on the ground and roared into life.
The author has something to say:
The bride tore her red dress with her bare hands… Bah, sorry, I went to the wrong set.