Chapter 128: Undeniably Adorable
Xie Xun had heard that his elder brother had discovered Qi Ling’s identity and knew that things were not looking good, so he hurried all the way to this place.
He thought he would either see the corpse of the woman he loved or both she and his brother gravely injured in a fight.
Unexpectedly, when he arrived at the desolate forest, Qi Ling was nowhere to be found. Instead, a powerful demonic cultivator was fighting his brother.
It was clear that his elder brother, Xie Ji, had fallen into a disadvantage and was severely injured.
Su Yugou, who was adept in the art of puppetry, had filled the desolate forest with invisible threads. These threads were as fine as spider silk, sharp as blades, and moved like living parasites, able to burrow into a person’s body.
Xie Ji was drenched in blood, and his spiritual veins were half-blocked by those threads. He felt a heavy weight in his heart, knowing that he had fallen into a trap and that his fate this time seemed grim.
At that moment, seeing his frail younger brother also arriving at the scene, Xie Ji was furious and scolded, “What are you doing here!”
The steward who had escorted Xie Xun was a cultivator at the Spirit Refining stage. He stepped forward to help, giving Xie Ji a brief moment to catch his breath.
Seeing his useless younger brother still looking around, as if searching for something, Xie Ji gritted his teeth and shouted angrily, “Are you still worried about that demonic cultivator? It was she who lured me here, intending to kill me!”
“That’s impossible! Qi Ling is not an ordinary demonic cultivator, and she would never conspire with demonic cultivators to harm you!” Xie Xun defended her.
“Fine! You are hopelessly stubborn. If I die here today, it will be because you trusted a demonic cultivator!” Xie Ji said hatefully. “Have you already forgotten that Xie Que, who practiced demonic cultivation, killed our parents? Now you’re shielding a demonic cultivator, putting your own brother in danger. How are you any different from him!”
“I didn’t…” Xie Xun coughed violently, his voice full of pain. “Brother, stop talking, just escape…”
“Escape? I’m afraid neither of you will escape.” As Su Yugou spoke, he used his threads to toss the steward aside.
Xie Ji, too, could not break free. He let out a miserable scream as both his severed hand and long sword fell to the ground with a clang.
Only Xie Xun remained outside of those threads, unharmed.
However, seeing his brother in danger, even though his own cultivation was lacking, he still rushed forward.
Just as countless threads were about to pierce through the brothers’ bodies, Qi Ling, who had been waiting in the shadows for a long time, could no longer bear it. She revealed herself and stood in front of Xie Xun, blocking the deadly thread blades.
“Qi Ling!” Xie Xun cried out in surprise.
Xie Ji, clutching his still-bleeding hand, sneered, “Now do you see clearly? Demonic cultivators are deceitful and vicious. You’ve been fooled.”
He hated Qi Ling even more than Su Yugou, and despite his injuries, he picked up his sword with his left hand, intending to kill her while she was blocking Su Yugou’s threads.
Xie Xun, not knowing how things had come to this, instinctively shielded Qi Ling behind him. “Brother, calm down. There may be more to this. Let’s clear up the misunderstanding first…”
Xie Ji looked at him coldly, feeling that Xie Xun was beyond saving. With a fierce look in his eyes, he thrust his sword forward.
“Thud!”
With one strike, he pierced through both of them. Xie Xun stared in disbelief at the sword lodged in his chest as his elder brother, eyes bloodshot, said coldly, “I no longer have a brother like you.”
Unable to hold back, Xie Xun coughed up blood, splattering it onto the sword.
Xie Ji’s face twitched as he pulled the sword out.
“Axun!” Qi Ling, with a bloody hole in her chest, ignored her own injuries and turned to support Xie Xun, glaring at Xie Ji with hatred.
Xie Xun tightly gripped her hand, his gaze complicated and full of pain, yet he no longer questioned her. He weakly said, “Quick… run.”
From a distant tree branch, Yu Le watched the scene unfold. He thought to himself that the plot truly did have some inertia—these two still seemed destined to die together, just like in the original story.
As for Xie Ji, with his heartless, stubborn, and intense nature, he was truly suited for demonic cultivation.
However, he was going to die here today.
“Lord, more people are coming,” Xiao Niang suddenly appeared beside him, speaking with some difficulty.
“What people?” Yu Le asked. He didn’t need Xiao Niang to respond—he had already noticed who was coming.
A piercing sword flew through the air, its force like a storm of wind and thunder, slicing through the countless threads Su Yugou had woven throughout the desolate forest.
A man dressed in black, radiating killing intent, descended as if from the heavens.
“Not the best timing,” Yu Le sighed, folding his arms.
Su Yugou was at the Xuandan realm, and although their cultivation levels were similar, Mo Cunzhi had, since his youth, been able to overpower cultivators of the same stage and even kill those of higher levels. Su Yugou was no match for him.
Xiao Niang asked, “Shall I go and help?”
Yu Le, unhurried, replied, “That’s my senior brother. You think I’d let you go kill him?”
Xiao Niang smiled apologetically. “I was too hasty. He’s the Lord’s person, of course, he can’t be harmed. So, should we abandon Su Yugou?”
“Of course not,” Yu Le said, standing up slowly, sounding regretful. “It seems Xie Ji won’t be dying today after all.”
As soon as Mo Cunzhi arrived, the situation in the field reversed. Su Yugou lost his previous composure. Xie Ji, overjoyed, clutched his severed hand and shouted, “Brother Mo!”
“Brother Mo, you came just in time! Please, help me kill these two demonic cultivators!”
Su Yugou was forced to retreat under Mo Cunzhi’s sword, while Xie Xun, barely hanging on to life, still urged Qi Ling to escape.
At that moment, two more people appeared.
Xiao Niang grabbed a beautiful young boy by the neck and shouted, “Senior Brother of the Wuyue Immortal Sect, your sword is quite sharp, but take a look at who I’ve got here!”
The overwhelming sword momentum halted, and Su Yugou seized the opportunity to retreat to Xiao Niang’s side.
His gaze swept briefly over the pale and weak young boy, not daring to linger, though inwardly he clicked his tongue in admiration.
“Senior Brother,” Yu Le said softly.
Mo Cunzhi didn’t ask him why he was here. He simply said, “Let him go.”
“Alright,” Xiao Niang giggled, then struck Yu Le hard in the chest, pushing him forward while taking the opportunity to flee with Su Yugou.
Seeing the two about to leave, Xie Xun, somehow finding the strength, pushed Qi Ling toward them. Xiao Niang effortlessly grabbed her and vanished along with the others.
Watching them escape, Xie Ji wanted to stop them but found himself powerless. He shot a fierce glare at his treacherous brother and then turned to his friend, only to see him supporting his junior brother, his face more solemn than ever.
Yu Le spat out a mouthful of blood, which splattered all over Mo Cunzhi’s hand. The sudden warmth of the blood unsettled Mo Cunzhi’s heart.
“Senior Brother, I… It hurts…” Yu Le leaned into his arms, his face deathly pale, his voice weak like never before.
At that moment, Mo Cunzhi couldn’t care about anything else. He carefully held his junior brother and examined his body.
As soon as he checked, Mo Cunzhi’s brow furrowed. The fetus that had been growing steadily in Yu Le’s abdomen seemed to be withering and shrinking.
Mo Cunzhi’s grip on Yu Le’s shoulder tightened as a wave of emotions surged inside him. But he dared not reveal any of his distress in front of his junior brother and instead reassured him in a calm tone, “Don’t worry, I’ll take you to find a doctor.”
He added, “Everything will be fine.”
It wasn’t clear whether he was comforting his junior brother or trying to convince himself.
Xie Ji, with a grim expression, carried his barely-conscious brother back to the Xie residence, while Mo Cunzhi scooped Yu Le into his arms and hurried back.
As they neared the Xie residence, Yu Le tugged on Mo Cunzhi’s sleeve, his face pale as he said, “Let’s find a doctor somewhere else.”
Mo Cunzhi replied, “The Xie family has an excellent doctor.”
It was exactly because the doctor was so skilled that Yu Le refused. Moreover, the Xie residence was full of demon-trapping arrays, and Yu Le didn’t want to risk suffering even more.
“No, I don’t want anyone I know to find out.” He was adamant, his face twisted in pain, his expression filled with fear and anxiety, even trying to struggle out of Mo Cunzhi’s arms.
Mo Cunzhi couldn’t bear to see him like this. After a brief hesitation, he bid farewell to Xie Ji and took Yu Le elsewhere to find a doctor.
Those who could treat cultivators were specialized in medical cultivation. These doctors usually did not have high levels of cultivation themselves, but their spiritual energy was pure, and they were often of the wood or water constitution.
Most of the skilled doctors around Shangshan were employed by the Xie family, kept by Xie Ji for years to tend to his younger brother, Xie Xun.
The doctor Mo Cunzhi had hastily found was not particularly powerful but was somewhat knowledgeable.
Upon discovering that Yu Le, a man, displayed signs of pregnancy typically seen in women, the doctor was not overly surprised but instead confirmed it several times.
The pregnancy appeared unusual. The fetus seemed to have entered from the outside rather than being conceived within. However, this was the doctor’s first time seeing a man with a pregnancy, and he guessed that some special method had been used. The two people before him had intertwined auras, resembling a pair of Dao companions.
“How is the fetus? Will it be alright?” The young man, still with traces of blood at the corner of his mouth, looked at him with hopeful eyes.
The elderly doctor, unable to bear seeing the disappointment and despair in those hopeful eyes, carefully replied, “If you wish to save the fetus, you must rest quietly and avoid any further mishaps. Additionally, I will prescribe a remedy that requires hundreds of spiritual herbs…”
Mo Cunzhi had remained by Yu Le’s side the entire time. Only after seeing him take the medicine did he relax his stiff fingers and sit down at his bedside.
He didn’t know what to say, so he asked, “Weren’t you supposed to return to the mountain with your junior sister? How did you end up here?”
“I… as soon as you left, I regretted it. So I secretly followed you. I was wandering near the Xie residence when that demonic cultivator captured me.”
As Yu Le spoke, he blinked, and two large, bright tears rolled down from his wide eyes.
That fragile and heartbroken look made Mo Cunzhi’s heart tighten, and he couldn’t bring himself to ask anything further.
His little junior brother always liked to joke and play around with others, but his pitiful act was always just a facade. Never before had he shed real tears.
He stiffly reached out and gently embraced his frightened and injured junior brother. His voice was a little hoarse as he said, “With me here, nothing will happen. I won’t let you be alone again.”
“The child will be fine too. No matter what, I will find a way to save it… don’t be sad.”
Buried in his embrace, Yu Le thought to himself that his senior brother’s ability to comfort others had indeed improved.
He wrapped his arms around Mo Cunzhi’s waist, making sure not to let him see his expression, and spoke weakly, “Senior Brother, aren’t you going to scold me this time?”
Mo Cunzhi placed his hand gently on the back of Yu Le’s head and softly said, “It’s my fault. I didn’t notice you following behind, and that’s why you suffered all this.”
Yes, of course, it was his fault—arriving so quickly, saving Xie Ji’s life.
If in the future things turned out like the original plot, with him suffering at Xie Ji’s hands, Yu Le wouldn’t care.
As these thoughts crossed his mind, Yu Le recalled how Mo Cunzhi had disrupted his plans, and in frustration, he opened his mouth and bit hard on Mo Cunzhi’s chest.
Mo Cunzhi grunted but said nothing about this sudden act of anger. He was already used to his junior brother’s unpredictable moods, and the hand holding the back of Yu Le’s head didn’t move in the slightest.
“I’m still worried. Once we return, let Junior Brother Meng check on you, alright? I’ll ask him to keep it a secret, and no one else will know about this.”
Yu Le remained silent.
Even if none of this had happened today, the blood-born fetus inside him would have withered soon anyway.
The demon core wrapped within had nearly been completely refined, nourished by the blood essence of the fetus, transforming into Yu Le’s own demon core.
Once he successfully merged with the demon core, the blood-born fetus would naturally wither like the outer skin of a fruit.
After fusing with the demon core, his cultivation level would reach the Nine Desires realm. It would then be time for him to leave Wuyue Immortal Sect and head towards the demonic path.
He truly felt a bit reluctant. After all, once he left, he wouldn’t have such an easily fooled and entertaining dual cultivation partner like his senior brother anymore.
Mo Cunzhi waited for his answer, sensing that his junior brother finally lifted his head, brushing against his chin.
The soft strands of hair tickled his throat and collarbone.
“The physician’s skills aren’t bad. I’ll take the medicine he prescribed for half a month, and if I’m still not better by then, I’ll tell Senior Brother Meng and ask him to help me,” the junior brother mumbled, nuzzling against his chest like a mischievous child.
Mo Cunzhi held him close and said, “As you wish.”
In the past, he rarely thought about the child in his junior brother’s belly, deliberately avoiding the topic. But now, in a moment of distraction, he suddenly imagined what it would be like if the child turned out to be like his junior brother.
Lively and cheerful, mischievous and quick-witted, a little petty and bad-tempered, yet undeniably adorable.
He would protect them.
Just as this tender thought surfaced, Mo Cunzhi couldn’t help but wonder:
Does his junior brother still have feelings for his junior sister?
