Chapter 58: Dark Clouds Disperse The thunder roared and the downpour pounded the dilapidated eaves, like furious drumbeats. Song Qingshi was awakened by the sound of the thunder and the rain. He felt light-headed and his memory was a bit fragmented. He felt a bit of discomfort on his lips. It seemed to be a little red and swollen. There were more and more cracks on the Nascent Soul in his Dantian and sealing them up was becoming ever more difficult… He sat on the bed, thinking for a long time. Finally, he recovered part of his memory. The two of them had gone on top of the nine-storied pagoda to admire the moon and the lights. He invited Yue Wuhuan to share the wine, Intoxicated Beauty, with him. After drinking, Yue Wuhuan played a wonderful song. But he had taken advantage of his drunken state and like a beast, had forced a kiss on Yue Wuhuan! Because of his high cultivation, Yue Wuhuan had been unable to resist and he forcibly kissed him several times! What kind of brutish conduct was this? ! Song Qingshi panicked into becoming a dog. He wanted to dig a hole and bury himself under 18 layers of dirt! The sound of Yue Wuhuan’s footsteps came from outside the door. They sounded a bit heavy. Song Qingshi felt like he was listening to a death sentence. He didn’t know if kneeling and apologizing could get him two layers of dirt less. Yue Wuhuan opened the door and walked in, dripping wet and covered in mud and blood. Song Qingshi took a deep breath, ready to admit his mistake, but then, he suddenly smelled the scent of blood. He realized that something had happened to Yue Wuhuan. All the embarrassing things that happened last night were driven from his mind. He quickly lifted open the canopy screen and jumped out of bed. He rushed before Yue Wuhuan and saw that his whole body was drenched. He looked like a drowned rat. Blood had mixed with the rainwater, mixing together into a sticky liquid. A few strands of his messy hair clung to the golden mask, dripping with cold water.
Yue Wuhuan looked at his slightly red and swollen lips. All color fled from his eyes. “What’s the matter?” Song Qingshi called out to him a few times. Seeing that he remained dazed and unresponsive, he felt a little anxious. Although cultivators couldn’t catch colds, their bodies would still feel uncomfortable from being all wet. He decided to fetch a towel and wiped the water from his body for him. He took out a change of clothes from his mustard seed bag. After a moment’s hesitation, he asked carefully, “Can you undress yourself?” Yue Wuhuan finally came back to his senses. He took off his mask, untied his belt and one by one, took off his rain-drenched clothes. As he did so, he revealed the marks of countless insect bites. Every wound by itself wasn’t serious but they covered almost every inch of his body. Especially his originally slender and perfect legs, now they were covered in tiny scars. Many of the wounds carried poison that was spreading out. Swollen and bruised, they created a ghastly sight. Song Qingshi recognized An Long’s handiwork with a single glance. The expression on his face turned extremely ugly. He suppressed his fury with all his might and managed to remain calm. Yue Wuhuan had already used the Detoxification Pill to neutralize most of the poison. Song Qingshi brandished the Underworld Fire and extracted all the common poisons for him. However, An Long had done extensive research on Gu poisons, and some of the Gu’s had special poisons, similar to a fungal disease. These couldn’t be resolved by the Underworld Ghost Fire. They needed to be slowly treated with medicine. And he had helped to develop this fungal disease… Song Qingshi thought of the past and bursts of pain appeared in his chest. He quickly treated Yue Wuhuan’s wounds, smearing a thick layer of ointment and then wrapping it with layers of gauze. The thunder stopped but the sound of the rain was still as madding as ever. The atmosphere in the room was oppressively heavy. Song Qingshi finally dealt with the last injury. He raised his head and gave an earnest apology, “I’m sorry.”
Yue Wuhuan was dazed. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t made you two travel together,” Song Qingshi explained with difficulty, “I should have expected it. How can animosity be so easily eliminated? How can friends be so easily made? Incompatible people just shouldn’t be gathered together. …I’ll teach An Long a good lesson and then take you back. In the future, I will only allow him to write letters. He won’t be allowed entry to the valley and he also won’t be allowed to meet you.” Novels were a scam. In this world, there wasn’t any such good thing as a friendship coming from an exchange of blows. All of it was his naive stupidity, his own wishful thinking. Song Qingshi was so guilty that he scolded himself viciously in his heart. He only hated that the words he knew were too little, his curses not fierce enough. Yue Wuhuan lowered his phoenix eyes and whispered, “Master, I have something very important to tell you.” … We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts. Vbcu Hlcurtl rja bc j mtjlg. Lf rajgfv yijcxis ja atf ugjvejiis qjilcu rxs bearlvf atf klcvbk. Ktf vjgx mibevr kfgf ralii gbiilcu, atbeut atf obgmf bo atf gjlc tjv ifrrfcfv, qlaafg-qjaafglcu. Pa rffwfv ilxf la kbeivc’a rabq cb wjaafg ktja. Ktf tewlvlas lcnjvfv fnfgs qjga bo atf gbbw, wjxlcu qfbqif offi eckfii jii bnfg. He felt like he had woken up from a very strange dream. Yue Wuhuan had already told him the entirety of the matter and was waiting quietly for his decision.
Song Qingshi slowly closed his eyes. He checked his body over and over with his mental probe, looking for signs of injury. He spent a long time searching and finally caught a dead Gu in his brain. This Gu was very small in size, it’s color was almost no different from flesh and blood. It wasn’t painful and it didn’t itch, making it impossible to detect. This was the assailant who almost took his life. If it hadn’t been for the system promptly sending back his soul fragment from another world, once again restoring his body, he would have already died. “I don’t remember anymore,” Song Qingshi looked at the Gu in his palm, stroking his forehead. Pained, he tried to recall for a long time and finally said, “I don’t remember that he has this kind of feelings for me and I don’t remember what happened at that time… ” Yue Wuhuan urged, “Master, don’t be sad. He must have relied on his identity as your friend to attack you when you were off guard.” The Underworld Ghost Fire suddenly appeared in mid-air, turning into a beautiful black lotus. “Wuhuan, do you remember?” Song Qingshi held the black lotus in both hands and whispered softly, “My Ghost Fire will automatically attack at the appearance of any killing intent. This…An Long doesn’t know this.” If An Long had any killing intent towards him, he would definitely have noticed. The Gu in his brain could have also been destroyed by the Ghost Fire… The battle between two Nascent Soul cultivators would have been enough to level an entire mountain. And yet, he had been killed quietly.
Why? A bad premonition rose up in Yue Wuhuan’s heart. Something was getting out of hand… “I don’t remember what happened at that time but after taking out the Gu, I remembered the frame of mind I was in when I died. There was no resentment or anger.” Song Qingshi thought it was funny. He wanted to laugh but couldn’t produce any laughter. He lowered his head and said quietly, “Wuuan, I may have been killed voluntarily…” “Don’t speak nonsense! This is impossible!” Yue Wuhuan clutched his shoulders tightly and asked fearfully, “Why?” “I don’t know,” Song Qingshi just couldn’t remember the scene at the time. It was already extremely painful. “Even if he doesn’t think of me as a friend, but…I can’t lie; I can’t deceive myself; I can’t deceive his feelings. At that time, I couldn’t give him what he wants, but… I could give my life. Because it wasn’t anything important and even if I died no one would have been sad.” Every day, he refined medicine by himself, read by himself, performed research by himself. He cultivated by himself, watched the clouds by himself… It made no difference whether he was alive or dead, and no one cared. His soul, stranded in another world, was even worse off. The various serious illnesses caused by its incomplete creation, his hopeless future, brought great pain to his family. But everyone forced themselves to smile in front of him. But could one possibly adopt a philosophical attitude towards this kind of matter? So, his parents secretly shed tears behind his back. In order to take care of him, his sister gave up on her dreams and picked up a heavy burden. He caused countless troubles for everyone. He could only learn to be strong, learn to be brave, to make everyone think he didn’t care. But lying on the hospital bed, he got to understand, him dying was the only way for everyone to break free of their pain and regain their happiness. After he bid farewell to that world, he never longed for his family again. No one needed him to live.
No one…… Yue Wuhuan was extremely astonished. He never thought that Song Qingshi, who would always gently encourage him, had such thoughts in his heart. For the first time, he discovered that he actually didn’t understand this simple-minded person.
No, it’s impossible… Yue Wuhuan was a little panicked. He felt that something was getting out of control. “Don’t worry. That was before. I hadn’t met you yet,” Song Qingshi noticed that there was something wrong with him, and quickly comforted him, “After knowing you, I now had a goal in my heart. I won’t do such foolish things again. I want to always accompany you so I won’t entertain those stupid thoughts again…” Yue Wuhuan’s breathing was a little rapid. He stiffly comforted, “You are not stupid.” “No, I’m really stupid. Now that I think about it seriously, An Long’s mind has long revealed many flaws. I made up various reasons to convince myself and turned a blind eye to it.” Song Qingshi felt guiltier the more the thought about it. He kept apologizing, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I just…I’m very envious, envious of how others have friends. Friends they can pull to go shopping together, to make plans to go to festivals with, to fight and quarrel over trivial matters together. Friends with whom they could be stupid together, could laugh with together… So I, I ignored those wrong points and followed him in everything…” In this world, he was born with poisonous fire. No one dared to approach him, no one dared to talk to him, no one dared to be friends with him. In the other world, his body had been too fragile. Everyone was afraid of things going wrong, afraid of being held responsible. They were sympathetic and considerate but didn’t dare get too close.
No one had ever asked him to go to the movies, to go shopping, to go to Internet cafes, to go to parties, to go to karaoke, to play ball… Occasionally, he would encounter someone who didn’t know his situation, wanting to approach but his low EQ quickly drove them away. Slowly, he grew not to expect… Yue Wuhuan could feel his glib tongue getting all tied up. He could only dryly repeat the words of comfort he had just said, “You are not stupid.” “Don’t worry, I won’t speak of these sad matters anymore,” Song Qingshi found that Yue Wuhuan seemed unhappy and he quickly revealed a smile. He thought about it, and said embarrassedly, “Actually, I should have known it a long time ago. How could anyone be willing to be friends with someone like me?” His eyes strived hard to smile. They were curved in a smile but in them, drop after drop of tears gushed forth, unable to be stopped. “Huh?” Song Qingshi found that he was crying and was somewhat baffled. He continued to laugh while wiping his tears. “It’s okay, I’m not sad. I’m not at all sad, don’t worry…” Suddenly, his voice stopped. He, who was ever so obtuse, finally understood the feeling in his heart. However, this feeling was illogical. There was no way he could want it.
He was strong. He wasn’t afraid of pain. He would not cause trouble to others. He could resolve everything on his own… Song Qingshi lowered his head. He didn’t dare let anyone see such cowardice. “I’m sorry.” Yue Wuhuan finally panicked. He stretched out his arms and held the crying person tightly into his arms. The low, muffled sobs stabbed painfully into his soul. Countless tears fell on his newly changed robe. The dampness was a little uncomfortable. He lowered his head and kept gently stroking his trembling back, trying to apologize, “I shouldn’t have made you sad.” Song Qingshi whispered, “You didn’t do anything wrong. The truth won’t disappear just because I pretend not to see it.” He will continue to be strong but for now, he was rather unable to control his emotions. “Wuhuan, let me cry for a while, okay?” “En, I’ll stay with you. I’ll always stay with you.” “Wuhuan, am I ridiculous?” “No, you could never be ridiculous.” “…”
The dark clouds gradually dissipated and the rain slowly stopped. The sun revealed its face once again. If you fail, do a self-inspection. If you fail, start over again… If you sink into the sadness of failure, you will forever miss the most beautiful scenery. Song Qingshi spent a lot of time before he finally stopped his tears. He stabilized his emotions and stood up again. Yue Wuhuan looked at him worriedly. “I’m fine now,” Song Qingshi was a little sad, but his voice was firm, “Since it was a mistake, I have to correct it. I don’t have that kind of affection for An Long. I can’t give him what he wants and I can’t forgive him for what he’s done, so… …I won’t have any dealings with him again.” Yue Wuhuan became silent. The evil wolf’s true face was uncovered and he was banished forever. Master will be far from danger. He will return to the Medicine King’s Valley and live a peaceful life. He should be very happy, but why can’t he smile?
He even wanted to revise the plan, wanted to personally tear apart that spider web he had worked so hard to weave… Without knowing it, Yue Wuhuan opened his mouth, “I will treat you even better in the future. I won’t ever make you sad again.” Song Qingshi raised his head in surprise. “I’ll accompany you to festivals, go shopping with you, and accompany you on adventures. I’ll do all kinds of fun things with you.” Yue Wuhuan had no idea what he was saying. All these things were not in his plans. It was all wrong, but he couldn’t control his heart, he couldn’t control his mouth, and made promises one after another, “I will accompany you to do everything you like; watching clouds, reading, experimenting, traveling, playing music… you won’t be lonely.” Song Qingshi looked at him, stunned. Suddenly his eyes were once again covered by watery mist and he couldn’t see clearly. His Nascent Soul was in terrible pain, but he didn’t care. Yue Wuhuan raised his head and gently wiped away his tears, “Don’t be sad, you deserve the best.” He wanted to give him the most flawless gems, the most gorgeous flowers, the most perfect man. He wanted him to be happy, far away from any worries, without any more pain… Song Qingshi couldn’t help laughing. He touched his still somewhat swollen lips, and finally remembered the confused and crazy kiss last night. Fearing that he might misunderstand again, he cautiously asked, “You once said that you and An Long felt the same way for me. If An Long isn’t a friend, then what about you…”
Yue Wuhuan was stunned… He finally remembered his insane and terrifying desires; remembered those dirty thoughts that mustn’t be seen by people. Song Qingshi asked seriously, “Wuhuan, are you a friend?” Yue Wuhuan went stiff from head to toe. Such simple words, each one puncturing the line of defense around his heart. It was as though he had seen his grave and heard the sound of the death knell.