Chapter 133: Leaving
“Why are you really here, Yu Rui?” Mo Cunzhi asked again.
These past few days, his junior brother had done nothing but provoke him until he was speechless, only to then feed him healing pills.
Mo Cunzhi was starting to believe Yu Le wasn’t there just to mock him or cause trouble, but simply to keep him company.
Though he couldn’t see, Mo Cunzhi turned his empty gaze roughly in Yu Le’s direction, waiting for an answer.
“I gave myself a new name. From now on, I’m no longer called Yu Rui. Call me Yu Le,” came the response from the direction of his junior brother.
“Answer me,” Mo Cunzhi said.
“Feeling better now that your wounds have healed a little? Got your energy back?” Growing impatient with the questioning, Yu Le grabbed a bamboo stick, broke it off, and swiftly jabbed it toward Mo Cunzhi’s face.
The sharp sound of the wind cut through the air. Relying on his years of experience, Mo Cunzhi instinctively deflected the bamboo stick.
But Yu Le’s sword technique was continuous and flowing. Even if he was using an ordinary bamboo branch, it still needed to be taken seriously. Compared to their last sparring match, his progress was terrifying.
Mo Cunzhi stopped speaking and engaged in a close fight with him using the hilt of the sword that he never let leave his side.
He couldn’t see. He was injured and, at first, wasn’t used to it, getting toyed with by Yu Le’s agile figure wielding the bamboo branch.
Gradually, he immersed himself in the fight, getting accustomed to the darkness before him, carefully listening for even the slightest sound to capture Yu Le’s movements.
The bamboo forest beside them rustled. Mo Cunzhi seemed to enter a peculiar state, where he suddenly could “see.”
The trajectory of the dancing bamboo branch and Yu Le’s movements became clear.
Training was tedious and hard, but only the sword was what Mo Cunzhi truly loved. No matter how difficult it was, he was willing to persist.
Sensing that the heavily injured man’s sluggish movements had suddenly become smooth and effortless, Yu Le was surprised and added a bit more force to his strikes.
Mo Cunzhi quickly kept up and gradually suppressed Yu Le’s sword momentum.
Seeing his aura rising higher and higher, Yu Le smiled.
“Not bad, now this is more like it.”
Mo Cunzhi awoke from that mysterious insight, suddenly feeling a slight tickle on his cheek.
Yu Le was gently brushing his face with the tip of a bamboo leaf.
Mo Cunzhi tilted his face to the side and heard Yu Le say, “Congratulations, Senior Brother, you’ve made another breakthrough.”
Mo Cunzhi no longer stayed in bed. Even though every wound on his body hurt, he forced himself to get up and walk into the bamboo forest outside, just as he had done every day while practicing swordsmanship on Hanya Peak.
Occasionally, Yu Le would suddenly attack him from various directions with the bamboo branch, but most of the time, he wandered around the area aimlessly out of boredom.
In the darkness, Mo Cunzhi once again adjusted to the sword in his hand and the world around him, as if rebuilding the self that had once collapsed.
When his body reached its limit, Mo Cunzhi slowly sheathed his sword, stood still for a moment, and then slowly walked back to sit in front of the small bamboo hut.
The sound of bamboo leaves rubbing together in the wind was the loudest. The sound of blood flowing through his body, along with the faint hum of spiritual energy and demonic energy entwining, was the most subtle. Somewhere in between was the sound of footsteps from another person nearby.
That person walked through the wild grass, stepping on the stems. He plucked a grass blade, fiddling with it, twisting it over and over for some unknown reason.
The footsteps drew closer to him, but Mo Cunzhi, holding his sword, didn’t react. He only felt Yu Le’s sleeve brush against his cheek and a strand of cold, long hair curl around his ear.
“Hahaha!”
Mo Cunzhi raised his hand to touch his head, feeling the messy grass leaves stuck there, and silently removed them.
In the blink of an eye, Yu Le had filled his head with grass again.
After Mo Cunzhi gave up and stopped removing them, Yu Le sat down beside him, picking up a dry bamboo leaf from the ground and crumbling it in his hand.
Every small sound—the rustle of the sleeves, the movements of Yu Le’s fingers—Mo Cunzhi’s sharp ears picked up clearly.
He could even imagine what posture Yu Le was sitting in right now and what kind of expression he wore.
“Senior Brother, you’ve been blind for so many days, why haven’t you asked me for the antidote?” Yu Le asked.
Feeding Mo Cunzhi the pill was just a spur-of-the-moment amusement, a way to see his panicked and helpless expression when he woke up.
When someone can’t see, they should be a bit clumsy, making awkward mistakes, right?
But none of the amusing scenes Yu Le had expected happened, leaving him disappointed.
“If I ask, will you give it to me?”
“If you ask, I definitely won’t give it to you,” Yu Le clicked his tongue. “You’ve seen right through me, Senior Brother. It’s no fun like this.”
Mo Cunzhi wasn’t sure what had ever been “fun” about him before, but it was indeed somewhat laughable.
Perhaps it still was now.
…
That night, he lay on the uncomfortable bamboo bed, with another person resting beside him.
By this point, he no longer knew what kind of feelings he had toward the person next to him.
He had once been a simple, pure person, and his emotions were equally uncomplicated and shallow.
The sect was the home that needed protection;
The master was a respected but distant elder;
The junior sister was his closest companion, the childhood friend who stirred faint feelings in him.
He was like a painting rendered in only black and white.
But this Junior Brother was like an unruly, mischievous child, barging into his world and turning his carefully maintained order upside down, shattering it.
Repeatedly, he pulled out emotions and desires that Mo Cunzhi himself had never realized existed.
During that time on Hanya Peak, they were the closest people in the world.
Though it was a ridiculous lie, it was the first time in Mo Cunzhi’s life that he had felt the warmth of another person.
It was as if he were an animal frozen to death in the wind and snow, slowly coming back to life in someone’s hands—only to be ruthlessly thrown down and killed again.
Betrayal, deceit, lies, and even the ugliest truths were all cruelly revealed by Yu Le, one by one.
From then on, almost all of the most intense emotions he had ever felt were brought about by Yu Le, witnessed by him.
When his heart had died, it was this very same person who had suddenly appeared and saved him from the brink of death.
“What do you really want?”
He kept asking, though it was less a question for Yu Le and more a question for himself: “What should I do?”
His sword-calloused hand touched the face resting on his shoulder, grazing Yu Le’s neck.
“Hmm?” Yu Le woke up, surprised by his touch. “What does Senior Brother want to do?”
Mo Cunzhi’s tone was calm. “Didn’t you say you came for the demonic energy in my body? I’ll give it all to you.”
In such matters, he had always been restrained, even rigid. If Yu Le didn’t ask, he would never take the initiative. This time, however, he showed a rare sign of initiative.
Though Yu Le wasn’t particularly interested, he lazily did not refuse either.
“Alright, go ahead,” he said, sounding half-asleep and entirely indifferent, as if waiting to see how this would play out.
Mo Cunzhi’s hand stroked Yu Le’s skin, and as if he had touched a sensitive spot, Yu Le couldn’t help but burst into laughter, dodging twice. Mo Cunzhi paused, then continued downward.
Although they had done many intimate things, acts of gentle affection like this were rare, so Mo Cunzhi was particularly unfamiliar with it.
As Yu Le felt his movements, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Mo Cunzhi was trying to carefully examine him, as if he wanted to dissect him to figure out exactly what he was.
This made him laugh out loud again.
“Why are you laughing?”
Yu Le pressed down on Mo Cunzhi’s neck, forcefully making him lower his head, and bit his face, saying, “Senior Brother, are you losing your touch because you can’t see?”
Mo Cunzhi: “…”
This was the first time Mo Cunzhi had taken the initiative, and also the first time he was fully in control. Even when Yu Le said enough, Mo Cunzhi didn’t stop.
When Yu Le became angry, Mo Cunzhi, wearing that same indifferent expression, wrestled with him on the bed before grabbing him again to continue.
At that point, Yu Le finally realized he had made a miscalculation.
In this forbidden land, they couldn’t use their cultivation, and he couldn’t simply break through the barrier to unleash his demonic energy fully.
So, he had no choice but to endure this seemingly unhinged senior brother, who showed no signs of madness but was acting out in a maddening way.
Even after cursing and fighting, Mo Cunzhi didn’t change. Yu Le softened his tone and began to act coquettish.
Mo Cunzhi did pause for a moment, but soon covered Yu Le’s mouth, refusing to listen to any more sweet words or feigned pitifulness.
Yu Le: “…”
In the end, Yu Le simply decided to enjoy it. He pulled Mo Cunzhi’s hand away, tilted his head back, and bit his lip fiercely, swallowing his suppressed breath.
Kisses between them had also been rare, almost nonexistent.
This time, it made up for many missed moments in the past.
An unprecedented level of intimacy, intertwined in complete abandon.
Outside, the bamboo grove bowed under the wild wind, the waves of bamboo leaves churned, and the branches and leaves intertwined, scattering fallen leaves all over the ground.
The wild grass also swayed, the long blades tangling like unruly strands of hair.
When it finally ended, Mo Cunzhi’s hair and clothes were disheveled, his lips colored with a bruised, ruined hue. Calmly, he said to Yu Le, “I’ve given you all my demonic energy. Now leave.”
Yu Le gritted his teeth, feeling like he had somehow lost this time.
He stood up, tidied himself, and gave Mo Cunzhi a kick.
Yet the senior brother who could always counter his sudden attacks didn’t move this time, allowing the kick to land on him.
This time, Yu Le truly left.
Mo Cunzhi sat on the edge of the bed, feeling the cool wind blow in through the open door.
Yu Le left the forbidden ground, using the one-time token he had obtained from the disciples forced to act as “spies.”
The moment he stepped out of the restricted area, the token burned away into ashes.
It was only after leaving that he realized he had forgotten to give the antidote for the pill.
Yu Le snorted.
Standing just beyond the center of the forbidden ground, still within the back mountain’s restricted area where no one else was around, Yu Le suddenly noticed a pale green figure darting through the grass.
It was a blue fox spirit beast.
Suddenly, he remembered that he still owed his senior sister a spirit beast.
Without much effort, Yu Le caught up to the small, palm-sized blue fox with his current level of cultivation.
Holding the tiny creature in front of him, Yu Le thought it looked familiar.
Could this be the very same blue fox that the original owner had tried and failed to catch when he first arrived in this world?
Ignoring its pitiful cries, Yu Le stuffed it into his sleeve, deciding to visit his senior sister before leaving.
It was by chance that, before leaving the forbidden area of the back mountain, Yu Le saw his senior sister.
Bai Feishuang walked into the forbidden area with a frown, full of heavy thoughts. She had begged their master for a long time to release their senior brother, but he hadn’t relented. In the end, she waited for him to enter seclusion and then sought help from Uncle Qin of Nanyue Peak, obtaining a token to visit Mo Cunzhi.
The thought of their once-respectful senior brother suddenly falling out with their master weighed heavily on her heart, much like how her once-adorable junior brother had turned into a demonic cultivator.
“Senior Sister Shuang.”
Hearing the familiar voice, Bai Feishuang was startled and looked up to see a smiling junior brother standing in front of her.
“Yu Rui?! How did you…” Bai Feishuang took a step forward, then hesitated, wary of something.
Yu Le, in contrast, didn’t share her complicated emotions, nor did he seem to notice her caution. He casually pulled out the spirit beast he had just caught from his sleeve and handed it to her.
“I promised to catch a blue fox spirit beast for you a while ago. It got delayed, but I happened to find one today, so I can finally keep my word.”
Bai Feishuang looked at the blue fox and remembered the past. Her wary expression softened.
In the end, she reached out to take the little blue fox, though her expression held a trace of sadness.
“Yu Rui, I heard from Uncle Qin about the reason you became a demonic cultivator.”
Yu Le: “?”
Did she? He himself didn’t even know there was some unavoidable reason.
“No matter what, you still call me Senior Sister. If you promise me that you won’t become one of those demonic cultivators who kills the innocent at will, I will always remain your Senior Sister.”
