Yu Qingtang stared blankly, his mind failing to make the connection for a moment.
Never mind the fact that Biehe Sect apparently had hidden depths so absurd that it actually possessed a pill Tianji Zi would personally come asking for...
Had his Eldest Senior Sister ever given him a pill?
Why did he have absolutely no memory of it?
Ye Chenyan prompted him. “Outside the place that sold Nascent Soul pork hock. When I went inside, your Eldest Senior Sister secretly slipped it to you.”
Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened slightly.
A memory he had apparently stuffed into some forgotten corner of his brain slowly resurfaced—
“Take it. One of Master’s nasty little treasures he keeps hidden away. Supposedly, it can even knock out a Mahayana cultivator!”
“Hide it somewhere safe. Use it to save your life if you ever need to.”
Yu Qingtang wanted to slap his thigh, but his hands were still tied, so he could only shake the chain to demonstrate his shock.
“That pill!”
“Wasn’t it a knockout drug? Eldest Senior Sister said it could even knock out a Mahayana cultivator!”
He slowly turned his head. “I was originally planning to use it on you.”
Then he paused.
“Wait. How do you know when Eldest Senior Sister gave it to me? Weren’t you already inside?”
“Ahem.” Ye Chenyan guiltily looked away. “I did go inside.”
Then his gaze quietly crept back.
“I eavesdropped.”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
He opened his mouth.
In the end, he decided to set that matter aside for now and asked in confusion, “So what exactly is that pill?”
“It belongs to Mystic Music Sect. It’s an ancient pill, and its formula has already been lost. Even the old Pill King couldn’t refine it now.” Ye Chenyan leaned close to his ear, apparently worried someone might overhear, and spoke with his lips almost brushing it. “If you’d fed the whole thing to me back then, it probably wouldn’t have done anything at all. It has to be split open, with each person taking half.”
Yu Qingtang blinked. “And then?”
“Then, for one day, your souls switch bodies. More importantly, even the Heavenly Dao can’t tell the difference.”
Ye Chenyan paused, then finished the rest anyway.
“And if one of the two dies, the other can only continue living in the other person’s body.”
Yu Qingtang froze.
“Thinking about it carefully, that pill really is vicious. All you have to do is secretly split it with a powerful cultivator, swap souls without anyone noticing, then use their power to kill your own original body. Even an ordinary mortal could steal the body of a Mahayana cultivator that way.”
Yu Qingtang stared at him, then sucked in a sharp breath.
“That’s terrifyingly sinister. And here I thought my idea of swapping souls with Scholar Xiao so he could take my exams for me was already evil enough.”
Ye Chenyan: “...”
Yu Qingtang blinked at him. “So you’re going to use my body to take the Realm Stone?”
Ye Chenyan nodded gently. “Once the Realm Stone is removed, it binds itself to the soul. That’s exactly what we can exploit to deceive Heaven.”
“Swear it.”
Yu Qingtang suddenly stared at him with a grave expression.
Ye Chenyan’s gaze flickered.
He rested his head lightly against Yu Qingtang’s and said in a low voice, “Of course I know this is extremely dangerous.”
“If there were any other choice, I would never put your body in danger. But if...”
“At least this body of mine should keep you safe for a few hundred years. It can take a beating pretty well, so you... you don’t have to worry.”
He slowly tightened his arms around Yu Qingtang as though trying to hide him inside his own body.
“Even if you make me swear, I still... have to go.”
Yu Qingtang stared at him.
“...What are you talking about? I just wanted you to swear you won’t grope me or look at anything you shouldn’t while I’m not in my body!”
Ye Chenyan: “...Huh?”
Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened. He nervously tugged on the chain and managed to sit up a little.
“Is it really that dangerous? Aren’t you just going there, taking the stone, and coming back?”
Ye Chenyan looked at him with a complicated expression.
“This concerns the survival of the entire realm, and the thing we’re trying to fool is the Heavenly Dao. Naturally it’s... dangerous, isn’t it?”
His expression turned strange.
“Normally, the slightest disturbance scares you half to death. Why is it that whenever something truly serious happens, you stop being afraid?”
“No panic.” Yu Qingtang looked perfectly solemn. “You have to trust dog Xiaosa.”
Ye Chenyan narrowed his eyes. “dog Xiaosa?”
“The guy who wrote this book. In a certain sense, he counts as your father.” Yu Qingtang nodded with complete seriousness. “Of course, it’s perfectly fine if you refuse to acknowledge him. He stands people up every other day and has basically no credibility, so ordinarily, he isn’t very trustworthy.”
Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow. “Then...”
“But.” Yu Qingtang nodded firmly. “It’s like cramming at the last minute. When there’s actually a use for it, you can trust dog Xiaosa a little.”
“He wrote a power-fantasy novel. You’re the Long Aotian who crushes everything in your path and stays invincible the whole way.”
Yu Qingtang wanted to pat Ye Chenyan on the shoulder, but his hands were unavailable, so he shifted his leg and bumped him with his knee instead.
“You’ll be fine!”
Ye Chenyan laughed helplessly. “You trust him that much? You were the one who said before that the person he wrote was Hua Shimiao. I’m me, and he’s him.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Yu Qingtang shook his head without a care. “Who said I was using logic? I’m just trying to build your confidence.”
“When I need you to be Long Aotian, you’re Long Aotian. When I don’t, you’re just yourself.”
Yu Qingtang lifted his chin with complete confidence.
“That’s called flexibility.”
Ye Chenyan couldn’t help laughing. He reached out and pinched Yu Qingtang’s cheek.
“Then...”
“Can I have your master’s pill?”
“Sure!” Yu Qingtang agreed generously. “But your master made a whole wasted trip. How did he find out Eldest Senior Sister stole it?”
“Oh.” Ye Chenyan nodded. “He said your master originally agreed to give it to him and even put on this grand, reluctant act. Then he went back inside, searched every chest and cabinet he had, and couldn’t find it.”
“So he had no choice but to run back out and ask my master to divine where it had gone.”
“My master calculated it and discovered that the pill was actually exactly where it most needed to be—right beside the two of us.”
“They both breathed a sigh of relief, but Tianji Zi can never resist sticking his nose into things. He got curious about how the pill had grown legs and ended up with you, and even suspected you’d stolen it yourself when I took you down the mountain.”
“But your master said no. He trusted you.”
Yu Qingtang looked touched.
“Master...”
Ye Chenyan laughed softly. “He said you didn’t have the nerve or the brains.”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
He withdrew his emotion.
“Anyway, your Eldest Senior Sister admitted it in the end.” Ye Chenyan patted Yu Qingtang’s shoulder. “Back then, she asked Daoist Idle Crane what the pill was. He was afraid she’d get greedy and secretly eat it, so he only told her it was an incredibly powerful pill, powerful enough to take down even a Mahayana cultivator.”
“She probably misunderstood.”
“And through a complete twist of fate, she gave it to you to use against me.”
Ye Chenyan shook his head lightly.
“She also asked me to pass on a message. She said that after you finish saving the world, remember to go back to Biehe Sect and save her.”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
For a moment, he couldn’t decide whether he ought to laugh.
“Even though it was originally meant for me...” Ye Chenyan propped his chin on one hand and looked at him, eyes curved with amusement. “I suppose we have her to thank.”
“And you didn’t push me too hard before or threaten my poor dog life.” Yu Qingtang sighed ruefully. “Otherwise, if I’d felt like I was in danger halfway through the journey, I might’ve used it on you already. Then we’d be screwed now.”
“As if.” Ye Chenyan laughed softly. “Halfway through the trip, you probably would’ve forgotten you even had the pill.”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
Why was everyone being so mean to him?!
He pursed his lips and shook his wrists.
“All right, then. We’ve settled everything. I’ll give you the pill, and I’ll cooperate with the plan. Can you untie me now?”
“This?” Ye Chenyan blinked. “I didn’t tie you up because of tomorrow’s plan in the first place.”
Yu Qingtang froze.
“Huh?”
Ye Chenyan laughed quietly. “Did you forget? To take the Realm Stone, we need more than the potential of a Supreme. We also need the united will of countless millions, plus immortal and demonic energies.”
He pointed at the black chain around Yu Qingtang’s wrists.
“The demonic energy is still in this thing. I have to take it with me tomorrow. How could I use it to keep you tied up?”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
He slowly turned his head to stare at the chain.
Then he looked blankly up at Ye Chenyan.
“Then why did you tie me up?”
Ye Chenyan smiled.
Very slowly, he lifted the piece of light, gauzy merfolk silk.
Yu Qingtang: “...”
He immediately rolled over and tried to throw himself off the bed.
“HELP—!”
“Someone—anyone! Shrimp, crab, dragon, mermaid, I don’t care! Mmph!”
Ye Chenyan clapped a hand over his mouth and lowered his voice.
“Shh.”
“What if someone actually comes?”
Yu Qingtang shook his head free and accused him with tears in his eyes, “If someone comes, they can stop your shameless behavior!”
“Mm-hm.” Ye Chenyan nodded agreeably while undoing Yu Qingtang’s belt. “Then let’s see who in the Dragon Palace dares meddle in this particular piece of business—”
Yu Qingtang thought about it.
Then despair washed over his face.
“We’re doomed. I don’t think there’s actually anyone in the Dragon Palace who can beat you right now.”
“Exactly.” Ye Chenyan leaned close and pinched his cheek. “They can’t beat me.”
Yu Qingtang pressed his lips together and stared pitifully at him.
Under that gaze, Ye Chenyan slowly straightened.
He let out a deep sigh, tossed the merfolk silk over Yu Qingtang’s face, wrapped his arms around him, and rolled across the bed with him.
“Don’t look at me like that. When you look at me like that, I can’t bear to do anything.”
His voice dropped.
“Forget it. If you really don’t want to, I’m not actually going to force you.”
Yu Qingtang struggled to push the silk down with his forearms until his eyes peeked out.
He looked at Ye Chenyan hopefully.
“Really?”
Ye Chenyan returned the exact same pitiful look.
“You really don’t want to?”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
Ye Chenyan coaxed him. “Just let me look once.”
“I already saw it in the illusion before, and I resisted the temptation then!”
“I only want to look again now. Just once. All right?”
Yu Qingtang turned his burning face away.
“My instincts are telling me I absolutely cannot say yes right now.”
Ye Chenyan turned his head back toward him.
“But.”
He laughed quietly.
“There’s a ‘but,’ isn’t there?”
Yu Qingtang closed his eyes in anguish and nodded.
“But I’m very bad at resisting temptation.”
Ye Chenyan muffled a laugh.
Yu Qingtang glared at him. “J-just one look!”
He rattled the chain.
“And you’re not changing me into it. I’ll change myself. Untie me.”
Ye Chenyan hooked a finger around the chain.
“...You’re not planning to trick me, are you?”
“Agh.” Yu Qingtang let out a long sigh. “Like I could ever outscheme you.”
“That should be my line,” Ye Chenyan muttered. “If I didn’t care about you so much, how could I possibly have held back until now...”
“Hm?”
Yu Qingtang slowly turned his head.
“You change.” Ye Chenyan immediately yanked the chain back, turned around, and presented him with his back. “I’ll put the demonic weapon outside the door to stand guard.”
Yu Qingtang slowly turned his own back, wearing the tragic expression of someone accepting his fate as he lifted the merfolk silk in his hands.
Neither of them spoke.
In the silence, even the faint rustle of clothing slipping away sounded unbearably intimate.
Yu Qingtang changed into the weightless merfolk silk.
He hesitated for a moment before slowly turning around.
Behind him, Ye Chenyan was leaning against the window, watching him with a half-smile.
There was no telling how long he had already been looking.
Yu Qingtang: “!”
“You—”
“Shh—”
Ye Chenyan stepped forward and covered his mouth.
His ears were flushed red, and his voice had gone slightly hoarse.
“You’re not allowed to tell me to stop this time.”
The kiss was more urgent than usual.
Even the touch of his hands through the thin merfolk silk seemed hotter than it had in the illusion.
Yu Qingtang slowly closed his eyes.
Only belatedly did the realization sink in—
This time, it seemed he really wasn’t getting away.
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