After Crossdressing and Provoking Long AoTian

A rainstorm arrived without warning. The two of them had no choice but to find a cave to shelter from the rain. Judging by the downpour, they would probably have to make do in this cave for the night.

Ye Chenyan wrung the water out of his outer robe and looked up at the rain almost hanging like a curtain over the cave entrance. “This rain really started the moment it felt like starting. As expected of Yunzhou.”

Yunzhou’s climate was special. Natural phenomena like wind and rain could not be blocked by a cultivator’s spiritual power barrier. It seemed only high-level cultivators who had harmonized with heaven and earth could transcend those constraints. As Golden Core cultivators, people like them could only obediently accept being baked by the sun and drenched by the rain.

While Yu Qingtang stretched his hands toward the fire, he stole a glance at Ye Chenyan’s back.

At seventeen or eighteen, his figure was between youth and adulthood, covered with a thin layer of muscle. Beneath his lean waist, there was a hidden sense of strength.

He looked extremely up to the task.

Yu Qingtang numbly withdrew his gaze and turned to look at the rain.

As everyone knew, rain deliberately designed like this always served a purpose.

At times like this, it was there to let the male and female leads, who had just gone through hardship together, share a wilderness cave, giving their rapidly soaring feelings a reasonable outlet.

It could not be written openly, but it could be hinted.

Right now, as Yu Qingtang watched the water pouring down, his head was full of phrases like “violent wind and driving rain” and “not stopping all night.”

Pure phrases had acquired impure meanings.

Yu Qingtang covered his eyes with one hand. After he started cultivating, this damned eidetic memory of his truly felt especially unnecessary at moments like this.

A trace of lifeless despair showed in his eyes as he poked the fire with a branch.

Ye Chenyan turned back and saw several strands of wet hair hanging over Yu Qingtang’s forehead. Drops of water slid down his cheeks and vanished into his collar. The warm firelight reflected on his face, making even that cool, detached expression carry a few ambiguous shades.

Ye Chenyan leaned against the cave entrance, his gaze not especially restrained as it slowly swept over him. Only when Yu Qingtang looked up did he pull his eyes back and reveal his usual smile. “I’ll go out and check the surroundings. Change into dry clothes first. Don’t catch cold.”

“All right.”

With such heavy rain outside, there was no real need to inspect anything. This was to leave space for him to change.

Tenderness from Long Aotian. This was treatment only a female lead received.

Since he was already here, he might as well take things as they came. At least most of the time, Ye Chenyan was quite reliable.

Yu Qingtang turned around with his back to the cave entrance and took out a clean set of clothes. His outer robe had only been pulled down to his shoulders when Ye Chenyan suddenly returned. “Right, Qingtang... Sorry!”

Yu Qingtang expressionlessly pulled his clothes tight.

Retracted. He had forgotten that he was currently carrying Miaoyin Xian’s role. In this kind of suggestive, borderline romantic, feelings-heating plot, there would naturally be no shortage of moments like this.

Yu Qingtang slowly clenched his fists. He wished he could drag out the author of this book and punch him twice.

If you’re writing a leveling story, then write the leveling story properly. Why are you brushing the edge! Why are you brushing the edge!

Do you know how much harm these garbage plotlines you wrote can inflict on a young man forced to participate in this farce?

Ye Chenyan abruptly turned around, his ears bright red. “Sorry!”

Yu Qingtang slowly pulled his clothes back up, his molars practically grinding to pieces. “It’s! Fine!”

“I’ll come back later!” Ye Chenyan’s back was still turned toward him, his tone urgent, and he plunged back into the rain.

After walking a short distance, he slowly reduced his pace. The innocent embarrassment from a moment ago was nowhere to be seen, and he looked quite at ease instead.

Ye Chenyan raised a hand and tried to support a spiritual energy barrier. When he found that it really could not stop Yunzhou’s heavy rain, he casually gave up and did not care about the rain falling on him.

He turned back and looked toward the faintly visible cave entrance, a flash of amusement crossing his eyes. “Being a liar isn’t easy.”

...

Because of that little interlude, Yu Qingtang was very cautious this time.

Halfway through taking off his clothes, he whipped his head back, confirmed that there was no one at the entrance, and only then changed swiftly in one burst.

Having changed clothes without any real danger, Yu Qingtang crouched by the fire and took out the Dragon-Crane Zither again to inspect it carefully.

This zither was not right.

He narrowed his eyes and tentatively touched the strings. It felt exceptionally smooth and responsive, completely unlike its previous state.

The Dragon-Crane Zither was now his lifebound magical artifact. By rights, their minds should be connected. Yu Qingtang lowered his eyes to look at it. No matter how he looked, he felt it was giving off a faint air of... fawning.

Yu Qingtang: “...”

Unable to hold back his disgust, he put it on the ground.

The Dragon-Crane Zither rose into the air and floated behind him as usual.

But he did not know if it was an illusion. In the past, the zither had always maintained a proper distance from him. Right now, it looked like it wished it could plaster itself against his back.

Master had given this zither to him several years ago. Before this, the two of them had always muddled along like that. His cultivation clearly had not made any great progress. The greatest change was only...

Yu Qingtang lowered his head and looked at the dress on his body, thoughtful.

He did not want to maliciously speculate about a zither like this, but reality made it very difficult not to overthink.

“Qingtang, are you done changing?”

Ye Chenyan’s voice came from the entrance.

Yu Qingtang involuntarily thought of the “accident” just now. Expressionless, he crumpled that memory into a ball and threw it into the corner of his mind. Then he cleared his throat and answered, “I’m done.”

Only then did Ye Chenyan come in.

Who knew where he had picked up two fruits. His entire person looked as if he had been fished out of the water, and he still did not dare look at Yu Qingtang.

“Ahem.” He lowered his head and handed over a red fruit. “It’s sweet. Not sour at all.”

Yu Qingtang currently could not hear the word “sour.” The corner of his mouth twitched, but he still took the fruit.

Only after seeing him accept it did Ye Chenyan let out a breath of relief and smile. “I looked around nearby. There are no traces of any large wild beasts. It should be safe. I’ll keep watch tonight.”

As he spoke, he raised his hand and took off his own clothes, revealing a young body.

Yu Qingtang: “!”

He had already seen it once just now. Why was it happening again!

He quietly shifted his backside a little, sensing the faintest trace of danger. There was no female lead here. This brat’s nowhere-to-put hormones were a little dangerous.

After Ye Chenyan changed and turned back, Yu Qingtang was sitting upright and had pulled quite a distance away from him.

Ye Chenyan raised his brows slightly, then closed the distance without a sound. He sat beside him to warm himself by the fire and asked, “Why did you take out the zither?”

Speaking of the zither, Yu Qingtang did want to verify his own guess.

He suddenly handed the zither to Ye Chenyan. “Play it.”

“Me?” Ye Chenyan was somewhat surprised. “I’m not a qin cultivator. I don’t know how to play.”

Yu Qingtang only wanted to test something. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t know how. Just play it. As long as it makes a sound.”

Ye Chenyan did not know what he was planning. He raised his eyebrows slightly, but still reached out and pressed the strings, tentatively plucking out a sound.

The strings trembled. The zither’s voice unexpectedly carried a clangorous note of preferring death to submission.

Ye Chenyan’s expression changed. He immediately withdrew his hand. “Hiss!”

The Dragon-Crane Zither shot from Ye Chenyan’s lap straight onto Yu Qingtang’s back.

Yu Qingtang leaned over to look at him. “What happened?”

Ye Chenyan’s brows were tightly furrowed. He shook his hand, his expression a little strange. “They all say first-rank spiritual artifacts have tempers of their own. It really is odd. This zither... seemed to bite a mouthful of my spiritual power.”

Yu Qingtang narrowed his eyes.

As expected.

Expressionless, he pried the Dragon-Crane Zither off where it was tightly stuck to his back.

He basically had a good idea now.

Generally speaking, he would not want to use “lecherous” to describe a zither. But this Dragon-Crane Zither, just like his entire unreliable sect, was utterly absurd.

It was purely lecherous and liked beauties! In the original novel, the reason it had not bonded with Yu Qingtang and had instead thrown itself into Miaoyin Xian’s arms was not because it saw through the plot or was drawn by the destiny of Long Aotian, the son of fortune. It was because it was purely lecherous and liked beauties!

Yu Qingtang pressed his fingers to his brow, took a deep breath, and, with great disgust, stuffed the zither back into his storage ring.

Ye Chenyan propped his chin on one hand and looked at him with a thoughtful expression. Who knew what he had imagined now. “This zither... seems to have quite the background.”

Yu Qingtang: “!”

“No. It’s just a sect inheritance.”

He tried to move the other party with sincere eyes. “Although we are now a fallen sect, our ancestors were once wealthy.”

He was one step away from saying it outright: I really am just a lazy Golden Core who fishes for three days and dries the nets for two. There is nothing special about me. Please stop overthinking.

If he had to name anything special, it was probably his situation.

“Oh—” Ye Chenyan drew out the syllable. It was unknown whether he believed him or not, but in any case, he cooperatively changed the subject and pointed outside the cave. “I’m afraid we won’t be able to leave today. Rest early.”

“However, Qingtang has always stayed in the sect. You probably don’t have experience sleeping outdoors. If you can’t get used to it...”

Yu Qingtang shook his head, then suddenly reacted. “What did you call me?”

At first, he had called him “Fairy.” Later it was “Miss Yu,” then “Miss Qingtang.” Now he was directly calling him “Qingtang.” This brat had quite the skill at climbing up the pole after a snake.

Ye Chenyan’s gaze shifted slightly. “Just... your name.”

He looked away and lowered his head to poke at the fire. “If you don’t like it, then I’ll step back and keep calling you Fairy.”

Yu Qingtang: “...”

As a proper man, he clearly had no hobby of making people call him Fairy.

Yu Qingtang rubbed his nose. “There’s no need to step that far back. You can call me Miss Yu.”

It would be even better if he could call him Young Master Yu.

Ye Chenyan turned his head to look at him, attempting to bargain. “Miss Qingtang.”

Yu Qingtang silently stared at him for a while, then sighed and looked away. “...Fine.”

It barely counted as each side taking a step back.

Yu Qingtang yawned. “Ah, let’s sleep.”

Today had been enough to exhaust his heart.

“You sleep.” Ye Chenyan had already crossed his legs. “I usually don’t sleep. I cultivate instead. I can keep watch while I’m at it.”

Yu Qingtang’s motion of lying down stiffened. There did seem to be such a setting. Long Aotian never slept. At night, he always meditated and cultivated.

Damn it. He had been rolled into competition.

Yu Qingtang suddenly sat upright again. “Then I’ll cultivate too.”

Ye Chenyan raised his eyebrows slightly. “Is Miss Qingtang not tired?”

“It’s fine! I can practice the mental cultivation method Miaoyin Xian gave me.” Yu Qingtang’s fighting spirit was instantly aroused. He tried to keep up with Long Aotian’s pace and also sat cross-legged to begin cultivating.

Ye Chenyan narrowed his eyes and watched him warily.

Cultivators were easiest to tamper with while they were cultivating. Could it be...

While maintaining his guard, he also entered a meditative state to cultivate.

One hour later, a nearly inaudible sound reached Ye Chenyan’s ears. He raised his brows slightly, certainty settling in his heart.

Sure enough, Yu Qingtang was up to something.

He silently opened his eyes and looked over without moving.

Yu Qingtang had toppled sideways onto the ground and was grimacing as he pounded his own leg.

Their eyes met. Yu Qingtang rolled on the spot and changed into a miserable but relatively elegant posture. With a dry laugh, he hugged his own leg. “...My leg fell asleep.”

Ye Chenyan was silent for a moment. “...It’s only been one hour.”

One hour! Isn’t it normal for legs to go numb? Do you cultivators not compress your blood vessels!

Ye Chenyan even asked, “Do you usually... not cultivate for this long?”

Yu Qingtang fell silent.

He turned over, putting his back to Ye Chenyan. “Sleeping. Good night.”

He had been a fool to compete with Long Aotian!

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!