WARNING ! WARNING ! WARNING !
18+ CONTENT AHEAD...
After Qingfeng ran out, Zhao Tie let out a long breath.
He got up from the bed at once and straightened his robes. His face was still hot. He closed his eyes and thought about his blade — the weight of it, the cold edge, the forms he had practiced ten thousand times. Over and over until his breathing slowed and his body calmed down. It took a few minutes before he felt normal again.
He sat on the edge of the bed and took the silver ring out of his pocket. He rolled it slowly between his fingers. The metal was cool.
Without realizing it, a small, gentle smile formed on his face. It was a real smile. He hadn't smiled like that in many, many years.
***
Inside Huai's inner world, it was already night.
Huai and Wuhe were spending their time in a small inn that Huai had created there.
For a cultivator at his level, this was easy. An inner world is not an illusion. It is a real place that lives inside the cultivator's body, like a second universe folded into his dantian.
When Huai and Wuhe entered it, their physical bodies in the outside world disappeared completely. They were not projecting their minds. Their real flesh and soul were inside.
In here, Huai is like a god. If he thinks of a mountain, a mountain rises. If he wants night, the sky turns dark and stars appear...even the creatures here are real, and they all know huai as their creator.
Huai sat on a wooden chair, looking up at the hanging moon above the courtyard. Wuhe poured tea into the cup in front of him with quiet care. Huai looked down at the steam, then took a slow sip.
"What are you thinking?" Wuhe asked. His voice was genuine. He was worried. He didn't know why, but he could feel Huai was tense about something.
Huai shook his head. "I don't know. I feel like I'm forgetting something. Something so important that I need to remember it. But whenever I try to think about it..."
He paused.
"A dark mist covers my head."
Wuhe looked at Huai with full concentration. "Then don't remember it," he said softly. "If it is really important, you'll remember it in time. I think it's not the right time yet. That's why you forget."
Huai nodded. He sighed and looked at Wuhe. "What do you think of those people? You were really from the Divine Realm... you should know the Immortal Realm is under that turmoil, right?"
Wuhe shook his head. "No. When I was a Divine Emperor in the Divine Realm, there was no turmoil in the Immortal Realm. Our Divine Realm controls many Immortal Realms, but none of them were taken by the nether races at all. It's as if... as if they came suddenly."
Huai frowned. He took another sip from his cup.
"No matter what," he said, "we need to clear these lower planes first. Or else these people, these creatures, will face a devastating end."
Wuhe also looked up because Huai had already stood up from his seat and was now standing right in front of him, his shadow falling over the tea table...
***
Inside a dark hall in an unknown plane, a single throne stood on a high platform. It was so beautiful it looked like it held the whole world.
A dark figure suddenly appeared before it. His form was blurry, his face impossible to see. His cultivation was only at the planetary stage, yet when he opened his mouth, his voice shook the hall, the palace, the entire plane.
"No! It is not possible..." he roared. "How could I? How could I do that to him!"
His voice cracked with a regret he had never known before.
Below the platform, countless terrifying figures knelt in the dark. Their bodies were covered in black robes, their heads pressed to the cold floor. Their cultivation was so high it could not be sensed at all. Yet they were all kowtowing to him.
When he shouted, a fear rose in them that did not come from power. It came from their blood, from their souls.
The figure began to murmur to himself, pacing before the throne. No one could see his face, only hear the broken words. He was mourning. He was crying. He struck his own chest and face with his hands, as if punishing himself for something terrible he had done.
The kneeling figures wanted to stop him, but none dared to even lift their heads.
Finally, one gathered his courage. "My lord! Please stop hurting yourself. What wrong could you possibly do...?"
The dark figure turned. Just a glance.
The man choked. His hands flew to his throat as he collapsed, writhing on the ground like a fish pulled from water.
"You question my decision now?" the figure sneered, his voice like ice. "How dare you. Have I been gone so long that you forget how to respect my judgment?"
The entire hall trembled. No one moved. After a long moment, he released the man.
The man gasped and slammed his forehead to the floor. "My lord! It was my fault! Forgive me! How could I dare to advise you!"
The dark figure looked away from him, back toward the empty throne.
"Find him," he ordered, his voice suddenly clear and absolute. "Search every corner of every plane."
Then his shoulders dropped. The authority vanished. His body shook, and tears ran down the face no one could see.
"I... I did something bad to him," he whispered, his voice breaking. "Something really bad..."
The countless figures rose as one from their kowtow, their dark robes rustling like a storm.
"As you command, Progenitor!"
He was the Progenitor. The one who created every nether race with his own hands.
He had been awakened by a ritual.
The nether immortals in the lower planes had performed it, not knowing what they were truly calling back...they thought it was a ritual to bring back their Progenitor from Death but It was to call back his memories. He had already reincarnated before the ritual, living a new life with no memory of who he was...
Before his death in that past life, he himself had created the ritual. It was a seal meant to hide his own memories, to bury them so deep that not even the heavens could find them.
Now, with the ritual performed so close to his new body, the seal broke.
All of his memories returned in an instant.
The flood was too much. A lifetime as a mortal,a cultivator and then an eternity as a god, crashing together in one second. His internal organs shattered from the pressure. A clear trail of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
But he did not cry from the pain.
He only mourned for the person he was now desperate to find.
He clutched his chest, his blurry form shaking on the steps of the throne, and through his tears he kept repeating the same name over and over...
***
On the other side of all this,
At the Eternal Sect, in Xiao Yun's own courtyard, Mu Chen and Xiao Yun were on the bed.
Mu Chen was hugging Xiao Yun from behind, refusing to let go, his breath warm against his neck. He kept teasing him, nibbling lightly at his ear.
Xiao Yun didn't even look back. He just reached up and slapped Mu Chen's face away.
Mu Chen chuckled and leaned in closer. "Yun... aren't you a little too rough with your husband?"
Yun snorted and tried to squirm out of his arms, but Mu Chen was used to this game. He tightened his hold until Xiao Yun couldn't move at all.
"What husband!" Yun huffed. "I only agreed to be your boyfriend. When did I say I'd marry you?"
"Okay, okay," Mu Chen laughed, his eyes soft. "Boyfriend it is, then."
He gently turned Xiao Yun over so they were face to face, and hugged him from the front. "Then give your boyfriend a kiss."
He leaned in, and Xiao Yun immediately put a hand on his chest to stop him. "Stop! How much do you even like me that you want to kiss me all the time?"
Mu Chen didn't answer with words. He just took Xiao Yun's hand and placed it over his own heart.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Xiao Yun could feel it . Mu Chen's heart was beating like a war drum, fast and loud and completely out of control.
Yun's face went hot. His own heart started beating just as loudly. He had always liked Mu Chen, but he never thought Mu Chen liked him back this much. Even after their confession, Mu Chen had never left his side for a single day. He always stayed with him. For Yun it was all like a dream...
Mu Chen still said nothing. He just looked at him, then leaned in slowly, giving him time to pull away.
Xiao Yun didn't stopped him this time.
In one simple, quiet moment, Mu Chen closed the distance and locked his lips with Xiao Yun's.
The quiet moment didn't stay quiet for long.
What started as a tentative press of lips ignited the second Mu Chen felt Xiao Yun's hand relax against his chest. The kiss deepened, shifting from a soft kiss to something more demanding. Mu Chen's hand slid from Xiao Yun's waist, trailing upward until his fingers tangled firmly in the hair at the nape of Xiao Yun's neck, tilting his head back to claim a better angle.
Xiao Yun let out a soft, sharp gasp. A sound that was half-protest, half-surrender which Mu Chen immediately swallowed...
Mu Chen didn't just want a kiss; he wanted to consume the space between them. He shifted his weight, hovering over Xiao Yun, his heavy robes rustling against the bedsheets. The air in the courtyard was cool, but the space between their bodies was hot as fire...
"Still want to push me away, Yun?" Mu Chen whispered against his lips, his voice dropping into a low, growling voice that made Xiao Yun's toes curl.
"I... I might," Xiao Yun managed to huff, though his hands had already migrated from Mu Chen's chest to his shoulders, gripping the fabric of his inner robes. "You're too heavy...I..."
Before he continued , Mu Chen looked into his eyes , " then....do you wanna come above me ? "
Xiao Yun shivered by the thought...
" If I need to be above you , I won't show any mercy !" Mu Chen chuckled, though there was nothing funny about the way he began to trail kisses down Xiao Yun's jawline to the sensitive dip beneath his ear...
But Xiao Yun froze at this moment. He can't deny that he himself needs Mu Chen. Even if he denied it clearly just now but Mu Chen also knows how much Xiao Yun loved him...so he take full advantage of it to seduce him now.
Xiao Yun's breath hitched. That "war drum" heartbeat he'd felt earlier? It was his own now, hammering against his ribs. Every time Mu Chen's teeth grazed his skin, a jolt of electricity shot straight to his core.
"Mu Chen..." Xiao Yun's voice was breathy, losing its usual sharp edge. "You're... you're doing this on purpose."
Mu Chen just looked at his teary eyes, it was due to the ticklish skin. He said while chuckling , " what ? You want more ? "
Xiao Yun shivered, " You! "