Chapter 5: Cohabitation

November 12th, 2022

After a while, Fang Li lowered his eyes to examine his masterpiece. The beauty’s eyes were tightly closed, his robes disheveled, and the exposed skin on his neck and wrists littered with green and purple marks…… Anyone who saw it would think that this was the look of someone who’d been fooled around with.

Who would believe nothing had actually happened?

He nodded with satisfaction, then turned and left.

The chamber door was softly closed shut.

At the same time, the person on the bed slowly opened his eyes.

The fog from the incense burner still densely permeated the room, but Xie Huai’s eyes were bright and fathomless. He had clearly been awake from start to finish.

The sedative incense truly was out of the ordinary…… but when Fang Li was lighting the incense, Xie Huai had already noticed that something was off. Everyone knew that he had an innate Dao physique that doubled the rewards of his cultivation practice, but no one knew that ordinary poisons were ineffective against him, so he hadn’t actually fallen under the trance of the incense.

But he had still pretended to fall asleep, waiting for Fang Li to become careless, so he could kill this devil in one move.

Although his cultivation had been temporarily sealed by the Soul-Sealing Pins, of the possibilities that Xie Huai had predicted, this wasn’t the worst. The worst circumstance would be having his foundation destroyed and the bones of his Dao physique broken…… but Fang Li hadn’t done so.

Soul-Sealing Pins were commonly used by demonic cultivators on their prisoners. Xue Huai had studied them closely before, and although it was true that the average person would find it hard to break through the seal, his veins were different from others’ from the start. Even under the Soul-Sealing Pins, he could preserve a tenth of his cultivation.

Merely a tenth of his cultivation wasn’t enough to face off against Fang Li, but just by preserving this one tenth, Xie Huai could burst through the seal in a split second and detonate his entirety of his strength.

But that was a last resort.

Breaking through the seal by force would rupture all of his veins. Even if he could put all of his strength into one blow and kill Fang Li, he would also be left with one foot in death’s door. There would only be one chance, and unless he found an absolute surefire opportunity, he couldn’t act rashly, or he would only be giving up his life for nothing.

His purpose in coming to Hollow Ridge was to kill that devil. As soon as that devil died, Hollow Ridge would be without a master, its teeth pulled out and its forces scattering to the winds, and the righteous sects would be able to suppress the demonic horde. Before he arrived, he had already prepared himself for the possibility of being brutally tortured, disgraced, and abused…… But, to think that that devil hadn’t touched him.

A trace of doubt appeared in Xie Huai’s eyes.

Earlier, he hadn’t missed a single one of Fang Li’s movements. He could tell that this person didn’t have any interest in him. Those eyes couldn’t fool anyone—they didn’t hold the least bit of craving or desire. Yet he’d still had himself sent over here and had even forged these traces of having done the deed.

What for?

Xie Huai’s brows furrowed, his eyes darkening slightly. Whatever the reason, since Fang Li had no intentions of touching him for the time being, that just happened to give him time to slowly break through the seal and avoid having to choose mutual destruction. As for precisely what schemes the other party had……

Time would tell.

…………………………

Upon returning to his residential palace, Fang Li was already a bit drowsy, but he still had to deal with the System, or else it was really too noisy to sleep.

【 The System said anxiously: Host, host, host, did you hear what I said or not? If you just leave it like this, how is the rest of the plot supposed to happen! 】The focus of this whole book is Yan Sui and Xie Huai’s that! How can you ignore the core of the script?

Fang Li said lazily, “Other than you, me, and Xie Huai, won’t everyone believe that something happened between us?”

【 The System sank into silence for a long time: True, but even so…… 】

Fang Li spoke again. “If I don’t do that with Xie Huai, would he change his mind and decide not to kill me?”

【 The System mulled it over for a while: ……That shouldn’t be the case. 】It couldn’t go against its conscience and lie.

Fang Li  clapped his hands together and smiled, raising his eyebrows. “As of now, in everyone’s eyes, Xie Huai is my plaything, being tortured and humiliated by me in a hundred different ways. And in Xie Huai’s case, even if I don’t do anything in reality, he would only think I have some other schemes. With our differences in position and the blood feud between us, he wouldn’t give up killing me, so the direction of the plot hasn’t changed…… Both the substance and the appearance are there, so do you still think there are any problems?”

【 System: …… 】

The host’s crooked lines of reasoning came one after another. The System kept feeling like something was off, but it didn’t have any way to retort, since it seemed like things really were as the host described……

Fang Li added, “Most importantly, I truly don’t have any interest in men. If you really are unsatisfied, why not……”

【 System: I’m not! 】

QAQ It didn’t want to hear any more of the host’s talk of finding someone more capable! If it could, it would have done that long ago! Forget it, forget it, this was fine. Anyways, it seemed like it was more or less the same. As long as the mission was completed, it probably wasn’t important if the middle had a few differences…… It felt like its bottom line was getting pulled down bit by bit.

This definitely wasn’t its fault.

.…………………………

Satisfied, Fang Li rested for a night. When he woke up the next morning and walked out the doors, he saw the demonic servant attending respectfully outside ask, “Would Your Excellency like to take breakfast?”

Fang Li was about to nod, but after a bit of thought, he said, “Bring the meal to Yuyi-jun’s courtyard. This lord intends to dine with a beauty.”

It was just letting everyone know that Xie Huai monopolized his favor; that was simply too easy. By having breakfast together, not only could he show off his pampering of Xie Huai, he could also display last night’s masterpiece to everyone.

By the time Fang Li arrived at Xie Huai’s courtyard, Xie Huai was already up. He was still wearing last night’s white robes, sitting calmly and serenely by the table. Seeing Fang Li arrive, he raised his eyes to look at him, his dark eyes fathomless as the dead of night.

As if trying to look straight through him.

Fang Li ignored Xie Huai’s probing gaze and swept his eyes around the area. Although Xie Huai was wearing wide robes with long sleeves, the marks that Fang Li had left last night were still vaguely visible on his neck. Fang Li immediately let out a pleased smile and turned to order the demonic servant, “This lord will have breakfast here.”

The style of a demon lord was naturally ostentatious enough. In just a short while, the courtyard’s wide table was packed with fine delicacies. At the head of the table, a chair lined with soft, luxurious brocade was placed, wide enough to seat two.

There was only one chair.

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After all, when the demon lord had breakfast, everyone else could only stand by to wait on him, including the Xie Huai who’d just “received favor.”

There were more than ten demonic servants in the courtyard, including ones who were pouring wine, ones who were bearing plates, ones who were fanning him……

Fang Li enthusiastically accepted his responsibilities and sat down. Turning his head, he saw that Xie Huai was still coolly standing there without the least bit of intention of approaching. He smiled slightly, then directly yanked him over to sit down.

The chair was wide enough when it was one person sitting, but two was a bit of a squeeze. Xie Huai was tightly pressed against him, and the scorching warmth seeped over like the magma beneath a glacier.

Fang Li saw Xie Huai’s suddenly frigid expression, but his face remained heedless. Fearlessly, he raised a piece of crystalline green bamboo shoot to Xie Huai’s mouth, curving his eyes and laughing, “Eat a little more. Don’t be like last night, passing out so easily.”

His posture was brazen and suggestive, and his words invited wild delusions.

The demonic servants around them all lowered their heads, not daring to look directly, waves crashing in their hearts. To think that His Excellency would pull Xie Huai over to sit together and even personally fed him…… and the meaning in those words—it looked like last night was intense.

This was their first time seeing His Excellency treating a pet lover so differently. Before, those pet lovers couldn’t even leave the rear court; who would have the honor of sitting side by side with His Excellency?

Xie Huai pointed his sharp gaze at Fang Li. He wasn’t afraid Fang Li would kill him; if he had wanted to, he’d had countless more suitable opportunities. There was absolutely no need to publicly proclaim like this to the whole world “what had happened.“

This devil’s “special efforts” must have a purpose.

Fang Li’s posture was easy-going yet reckless. His arm was wrapped around Xie Huai’s waist, head tilted slightly in his direction, and he whispered in his ear with the tone of someone who’d had his fill, “As expected of the world-famous Yuyi-jun, the taste is really something special.”

It seemed like the whispering between lovers, but it was just loud enough for others to hear.

It was clearly on purpose.

As soon as these words got outside, they would only drag his name through the mud. This devil obviously had the intent of disgracing him. How exceedingly vile. But Xie Huai looked at Fang Li’s eyes……

They were close as could be, to the point that Xie Huai could clearly see that in this person’s clear, pitch-back eyes, there wasn’t a trace of malice or provocation. There was only an unintentional hint of a smile, to the point that the previously gloomy and ruthless pale face was tinged by that trace of a smile, making it look gentle, warm, and languid, making it impossible to arouse feelings of disgust.

Xie Huai’s throat let out a minute exhale. What an impressive ability to lie through his teeth.

If he hadn’t been immune to the sedative incense last night, after waking up and seeing his appearance and then listening to Fang Li’s words, even he might doubt what had really happened.

Moreover, Fang Li’s absolute lack of restraint here was because he was certain that even if Xie Huai refuted him, no one would believe it.

Xie Huai had always thought that he was the most proficient at reading people’s intentions. No matter what kind of demon or monster, they had never been able to escape his sight…… but at this moment, looking at Fang Li’s eyes, he couldn’t quite see through them.

This person’s hands were clearly full of murder and sin, cold-blooded and merciless, his crimes piled higher than the heavens. When he had besieged Cloudbank Keep, Xie Huai had seen the viciousness in his opponent’s eyes, the madness that sought to incinerate everything. This was a lunatic without a single care, bound to bring bloody carnage to the world……

So he had agreed to his demand, not only for Cloudbank Keep, but for the sake of the whole world, to eliminate this scourge.

But right now, there wasn’t a trace of malice in that pair of eyes. Even while doing these sorts of things, saying these sorts of words, he seemed like an bystander standing outside of everything. Perhaps he still had that willfulness that lacked a single care, that recklessness that saw everything as nothing…… but it was missing aggression. His recklessness no longer came from his hatred toward the world, but from the indifference of being detached from the world.

He didn’t want to destroy everything; he simply didn’t care about anything.

But if that was the case, then why go through all of this extra effort? Xie Huai furrowed his brow.

No…… there was still another possibility.

Perhaps Fang Li purposefully made others misunderstand to borrow this chance to humiliate the righteous sects, but he didn’t have any interest in Xie Huai himself, so he pretended that something had happened.

If there were no other reasons, then only this explanation was left.

Yet still, Xie Huai somehow unconsciously felt that Fang Li didn’t hold any malice.

Xie Huai’s eyes suddenly became cold, looking away and pursing his lips. It turns out that he had underestimated this devil, and even he had almost been taken in.

Fang Li approached Xie Huai just like this. Xie Huai’s body wasn’t cold like his appearance, but rather a comfortable warmth. But not wanting him to feel uncomfortable, right after throwing out that sentence, Fang Li released his hand.

Xie Huai’s eyes darkened. Fang Li’s slightly cool fingertips had quickly moved away, like snowflakes softly brushing past. Then he’d turned around and continued eating. Although they were still sitting together, he was considerately maintaining a suitable distance, as if worried about Xie Huai’s feelings.

Xie Huai carelessly looked to his side. The gentle early morning light scattered all over the courtyard, and the pale, ashen face of the man beside him seemed to have a touch more liveliness. When eating something delicious, he would reveal just a trace of a quietly satisfied look…… Not like a devil who wanted to destroy the world, but an ordinary person who had no quarrels with the world.

Because his lips were overly pale, even the smallest tinge of color seemed overly vibrant, and the pair of eyes beneath his lashes held a smile that was tender and warm……

Xie Huai fiercely closed his eyes, but underneath his sleeves, his hands that were clenched tight unconsciously relaxed.

Now was not a suitable time to act. There were too many demonic cultivators around. He was only doing this to put on an act, to make the righteous sects lose face. When he had had enough of acting, he would release himself, and as for himself, he would have time to break through the seal and look for an opportunity to kill this devil.

Xie Huai was clear about what kind of person this was, so he wouldn’t be misled by trifling appearances. Even if he had wavered for a split second…… that was only because this devil was too good at bewitching the human heart.

Fang Li certainly didn’t care what Xie Huai was thinking about. He thought this demon palace’s delicacies were quite decent, and under the attendance of a crowd of demonic servants, enjoyed the treatment of an emperor. Then he wiped his mouth and turned to look at the person beside him, whom he’d nearly forgotten.

Xie Huai still had that cold appearance, calmly looking at him.

Fang Li sized Xie Huai up a bit. Honestly speaking, he really did want to send Xie Huai away. Having a danger like that beside him was simply asking for trouble, but this part of the script wasn’t easy to freely adjust. He was afraid he could only cause himself a bit of suffering.

Xie Huai could see Fang Li’s unwillingness. He clearly wasn’t eager to interact with himself, confirming his earlier speculations. Sure enough, Fang Li would release him after having acted his fill.

The corner of Xie Huai’s lips pulled, and a derisive expression surfaced at the bottom of his eyes……

Then he heard Fang Li say, “Have someone arrange a room for Yuyi-jun to live in the side palace.”

Then he turned to lean towards Xie Huai and fixed his gaze on him, his eyes curving as he laughed, “A beauty like this, how could this lord stand to let you leave? Naturally, we should accompany each other day and night, dawn and dusk.”

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