Futile Devices Scans

Chen Yixin closed his eyes and soon fell asleep. Wenren Li sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed, watching Chen Yixin’s back for a while before closing his own eyes, not to sleep, but to begin his daily meditation and regulate his spiritual energy.

Treating Chen Yixin was far from easy, even for Wenren Li.

The ancient healing method required both Wenren Li and Chen Yixin to accept a certain degree of risk. Even whenever Chen Yixin ate food cooked from spiritual ingredients, Wenren Li had to carefully use his spiritual power to help him refine and absorb it.

Chen Yixin’s body had been injured far too severely. The slightest mistake could cost him his life.

Fortunately, they had already survived the most difficult stage.

Chen Yixin’s period of excessive sleepiness had passed. When the sky had only just begun to brighten, he opened his eyes. As on many previous mornings, he had migrated from the head of the bed to the foot during the night, with one leg imperiously draped across Wenren Li, who was meditating.

He had left Wenren Li only the foot of the bed on which to meditate, yet had still taken back enough space for one of his legs. Chen Yixin felt the faintest trace of guilt.

Although Chen Yixin realized what he had done, he did not withdraw his foot. His eyes opened fully, and his gaze settled upon Wenren Li’s profile. Having lost his spiritual sense, he could no longer observe every detail with perfect clarity, yet the impression received through his own eyes struck the heart more directly than spiritual sense ever could.

Many of Wenren Li’s reactions made Chen Yixin feel that they must have known each other before, yet there was no reason he would have forgotten someone like him.

While Chen Yixin stared in fascination, Wenren Li slowly opened his eyes. He had never been asleep in the first place, so naturally he knew Chen Yixin was watching him. Chen Yixin looked at him like this several times every day; by all reason, Wenren Li should have become accustomed to it long ago.

Yet when he opened his eyes and met Chen Yixin’s focused gaze, the blush quietly spreading across his cheeks had nowhere to hide.

In the past, Chen Yixin would have pretended not to notice Wenren Li’s embarrassment, preserving the dignity of a Soul Transformation cultivator before calmly rising from the bed. This time, however, Chen Yixin tilted his body slightly, raised a hand, and lightly touched his pink-tipped finger to the place where a dimple would form on Wenren Li’s cheek.

“Wenren Li, smile for me.”

At those words, the spiritual energy within Wenren Li’s body trembled lightly, allowing him to suppress his irregular heartbeat. He pressed his lips together and considered how he ought to smile in a way that would satisfy Chen Yixin. He knew perfectly well that however he smiled, it would never possess Chen Yixin’s ability to captivate all who saw him.

When Chen Yixin saw that Wenren Li had fallen silent, he slowly withdrew his leg from Wenren Li’s lap and sat upright.

He leaned a little closer, then broke into a brilliant smile. Every line of his eyes and brows was dazzlingly beautiful. He gently tilted his face from side to side, doing his utmost to let Wenren Li clearly see what a smile was supposed to look like.

Wenren Li’s face, however, merely grew redder, while the rest of his expression became even more rigid.

Chen Yixin felt somewhat defeated. There was no infatuation in Wenren Li’s eyes, no covetous desire, nor any trace of the emotions Chen Yixin had vaguely suspected ought to be there. His entire reaction resembled that of a wooden statue.

What troubled Chen Yixin even more was that he did not feel relieved. Instead, what flowed through his heart at that moment was an emotion called disappointment.

Within Chen Yixin’s lowered gaze, a pair of long-fingered hands slowly rose and gently cupped his face.

“Your smile is beautiful. Truly beautiful.” There was no need for him to feel disappointed. Wenren Li’s inability to display a reaction did not mean that he felt nothing.

Wenren Li’s hands rested against Chen Yixin’s face without daring to exert the slightest pressure, as though he feared that even the smallest carelessness might hurt him. Both his tone and his gaze revealed how seriously and solemnly he meant every word.

“I am the greatest beauty in Taixuan. Of course I look beautiful.” Chen Yixin was not entirely accustomed to having his face held while someone spoke to him, but when he met Wenren Li’s gaze, he suppressed the urge to struggle free.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to smile. I’ll teach you in the future.”

As he spoke, Chen Yixin raised a hand and stroked Wenren Li’s hair as well. He lowered his hand, and Wenren Li slowly withdrew his own, only to draw Chen Yixin into his arms with a gentle embrace immediately afterward.

“All right.” Wenren Li answered, the corners of his lips curving slightly. It could not truly be considered a smile, but compared with his usually rigid expression, it was already exceptionally rare. Unfortunately, Chen Yixin had been pulled fully into his arms and did not see it.

Resting against Wenren Li’s shoulder, Chen Yixin blinked lightly. The smile at the corners of his lips grew faint, yet his expression remained utterly peaceful. He gently caught Wenren Li’s hand and held it like that. For a fleeting instant, his gaze became distant, but it quickly turned resolute once more. He knew it was time to let go of certain matters and certain people.

One evening three months later, shortly before they were due to depart, Wenren Li flew with Chen Yixin to a mountain peak near the Demon Palace. They strolled there to aid their digestion. The sunset in the Southern Territory was redder and hotter than in the Northern Territory, the glowing sky magnificent and the landscape as beautiful as a painting.

Chen Yixin had been the one to suggest that Wenren Li bring him there that day. The two walked side by side, and Chen Yixin occasionally glanced toward the scenery on the horizon, while Wenren Li’s gaze remained entirely fixed upon him.

Wenren Li did not conceal, did not understand how to conceal, and had no need to conceal the unusual attention and special regard he held for Chen Yixin.

“Why did you originally go to the Zhenhai Chen clan to propose marriage?”

Chen Yixin stopped walking and turned toward Wenren Li as he asked the question.

Wenren Li did not stop. He caught Chen Yixin by the wrist and led him another few steps until they reached a place sheltered from the wind. With a wave of his hand, he took a long, broad wooden bench from his storage space, large enough for one person to lie upon, then pulled Chen Yixin down to sit beside him.

Chen Yixin had been at the Demon Palace for eight months. Throughout those two hundred-odd days, Wenren Li had cared for him with meticulous devotion, attending to him in every possible way and giving him his whole heart. Even a heart made of stone ought to have been warmed by now.

“My body has already recovered.” Chen Yixin had no choice but to remind Wenren Li once again. Compared with the state in which he had first arrived at the Demon Palace, when his life might have ended at any moment, he could now defeat one or two strong mortal men without much difficulty.

“I know.”

Wenren Li answered while finally shifting his gaze away from Chen Yixin and toward the brilliant red clouds along the horizon.

“You already knew me before…” Chen Yixin had no intention of allowing Wenren Li to brush the matter aside so easily. He took Wenren Li’s hand and shook it lightly.

Wenren Li pressed his lips together before softly answering, “Mm.”

Seeing Wenren Li’s expression grow rigid once more, Chen Yixin shook his head helplessly. He then pulled Wenren Li’s hand aside, tilted his body, and rested his head upon Wenren Li’s thigh. “Fine. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

Perhaps Wenren Li had encountered him by chance at some point, fallen in love at first sight, thought about him for a very long time, and then seized the opportunity to bring him back to the Demon Palace.

Chen Yixin would once have felt deeply repulsed by such a thought, but now that Wenren Li occupied that role, he unexpectedly felt somewhat pleased and even wanted to laugh. He pressed his lips together, ensuring that his smile remained appropriately restrained.

Chen Yixin turned onto his side and looked toward the horizon, where only half the setting sun remained visible. Wenren Li followed his gaze. Only after the red sun had completely disappeared did Wenren Li look away, at which point he discovered that Chen Yixin had stopped watching the scenery at some unknown moment and was once again staring intently at him.

A trace of confusion appeared in Wenren Li’s eyes. Before he could raise his index finger, Chen Yixin pressed it down.

“I’m not thirsty, hungry, or sleepy.”

“Oh…” Wenren Li nodded lightly and continued meeting Chen Yixin’s gaze.

Wenren Li was not surprised that Chen Yixin had understood the reason for his confusion. Chen Yixin possessed an exceptionally delicate mind and was one of the rarest geniuses in the world, unlike Wenren Li, who had required hundreds or even thousands of years to reach Soul Transformation.

“Wenren Li, do you like me?”

Chen Yixin raised his gaze, his expression becoming more serious as he carefully studied every reaction Wenren Li displayed in response to the sudden question.

The surprise in Wenren Li’s eyes deepened. After a moment of hesitation, he shook his head, then opened his mouth as though to explain, but before he could say anything, Chen Yixin abruptly sat upright.

Gritting his teeth, Chen Yixin demanded, “You don’t like me?”

Could Chen Yixin have misunderstood everything all this time? Yet if Wenren Li did not like him and still cared for him in this way, treating him with complete and wholehearted devotion, then he was no Demon Lord—he was a saint.

This time, Wenren Li did not hesitate. He shook his head with absolute certainty.

“Hmph…” Chen Yixin stared at him and gave a cold snort. Reaching out, he seized Wenren Li by the collar and pulled him closer. “What exactly do you mean, shaking your head both times? Explain yourself clearly.”

Whether Wenren Li liked him or not, they would settle the matter today. Chen Yixin himself had never expected Wenren Li to send his emotions surging so violently, but that was not the most important issue at present. Wenren Li had to explain himself properly.

“I wanted to wait until your cultivation had completely recovered before telling you that I like you…”

Wenren Li steadied Chen Yixin by the shoulders, feeling somewhat defeated. He had wanted to continue treating Chen Yixin well for another ten or a hundred years, waiting until he had become important in Chen Yixin’s heart before confessing. At that point, even if Chen Yixin could not give him the answer he desired, he would not push Wenren Li away completely.

“A-Rong, I like you,” Wenren Li said firmly as he looked at Chen Yixin.

Chen Yixin’s Daoist title was Heartslayer, but more than a century earlier, he had also chosen the courtesy name Rongzhi for himself—the idea being that beauty had reached its absolute limit in him and could go no further. It was an astonishingly vain name, and Chen Yixin’s fellow disciples had teased him over it for some time. Once the excitement passed, however, almost no one actually addressed him by it.

Yet Wenren Li’s “A-Rong” sounded exceedingly familiar and intimate. Of course, throughout all the time they had spent together, Wenren Li had never once directly called him by name. Within Wenren Li’s heart, Chen Yixin had apparently always been affectionately known as A-Rong.

Heat rose across Chen Yixin’s face. Even he had not expected Wenren Li’s stiffly delivered confession to have such a powerful effect upon someone who merely looked easily embarrassed but was, in truth, exceptionally thick-skinned.

“A-Rong, can I keep liking you?” When Chen Yixin did not speak, Wenren Li’s heart sank further. His brows knitted together, and he began to regret having truly said the words aloud.

Chen Yixin continued studying Wenren Li’s somewhat nervous expression for another moment before lifting his chin and quietly answering, “Mm.”

“A-Rong, thank you.”

As Wenren Li spoke, his gaze swept across Chen Yixin’s excessively beautiful face. He reached out, intending to draw him into his arms.

Chen Yixin could not help rolling his eyes faintly. On many occasions, he had clearly felt that Wenren Li wanted to kiss him, yet every time Wenren Li had somehow managed to restrain himself.

Now that Chen Yixin knew with certainty that Wenren Li liked him, he would no longer dismiss those moments as his own imagination.

He leaned forward of his own accord, tilted his head, and quickly kissed Wenren Li on the cheek. He then turned his head and rested against Wenren Li’s shoulder. Feeling Wenren Li’s entire body stiffen with astonishing speed, Chen Yixin’s expression became openly gleeful.

“Try freezing up on me again. You’re the one who fell for me, and I’m a man—what did you expect?”