Deep underground, the flames conjured by the spirit talismans did not easily go out.
In their flickering light, a handsome young man leaned weakly against the wall with his head turned to one side. A flush colored his face, and his eyes were half-open beneath his black hair, making him look especially alluring.
His knees were slightly bent, and he still clung stubbornly to a pitch-black wooden sword. His fingers trembled, but he gripped it so tightly that his knuckles had gone white, as though he remained on guard even while his strength was failing him. His clothing had been torn in places, revealing glimpses of fair skin and making him appear all the more vulnerable.
His lips parted as he breathed lightly. A haze of heat seemed to envelop his body, and fine, sticky sweat beaded on his brow. He looked as though he was struggling desperately to endure something, resolute yet somehow fragile at the same time. It was a strangely contradictory sight.
Two people knelt on the ground before him. Two long vines wound out from around the young man’s arms and connected to their bodies. Bright blood flowed swiftly through the vines, brilliant and lustrous. Before long, the vines drained the last of their blood, shook themselves sharply, and flung the two corpses aside before curling back around the youth.
The blood vines, the bodies, and the handsome young man flushed with heat made an eerily beautiful and disturbing tableau.
Moving like the wind, Yun Lie swept through countless branching underground passages and finally arrived.
Yet the instant he reached the scene and saw what lay before him, he stopped in his tracks.
Xu Ziqing himself did not understand what was happening.
He had plainly been fighting those two fellow disciples when a succession of strange sensations suddenly arose within him. It felt as though he had been dropped into boiling oil, tormented from every side.
This was quite different from the disturbances he had experienced in the past because of inner demons. His body was now burning hot, with a current of heat gathering three inches beneath his navel. A numb, tingling sensation rose from the base of his spine, sending shivers across his scalp and clouding his thoughts.
He had never felt anything like it. His whole body burned so fiercely that he nearly wanted to strip off his clothes at once.
Fortunately, Xu Ziqing retained a little reason. He drew his knees up before him and shifted them lightly, pressing his body more tightly against the cold stone wall behind him. Only then did he feel somewhat better.
Danger still surrounded him. He was drenched in hot sweat, and merely remaining upright taxed him to the limit. How could he possibly defend himself? He could only keep forcing himself to hold on.
But Xu Ziqing could never have imagined that just after he slumped onto the ground, he would sense that exceedingly familiar aura.
His senior brother had come to find him!
If he had still been clearheaded, he would naturally have been overjoyed. But in his present condition, if his senior brother were to see him like this… The thought left Xu Ziqing so embarrassed and mortified that, had his will not been relatively firm, he might have burst into tears.
Without thinking, he cried, “S-Senior Brother Yun…”
He believed he had shouted loudly, unaware that his voice was scarcely louder than a mosquito’s hum.
With Yun Lie’s abilities, however, he naturally heard him.
He saw his usually gentle, elegant junior brother raise his head. Moisture shimmered in his eyes, his face was flushed, and a dozen or more tears had appeared in his clothing, exposing reddened patches of fair skin. He looked particularly vulnerable.
At this sight, Yun Lie understood what Xu Ziqing had suffered. His gaze darkened slightly, and he took two steps forward.
Xu Ziqing already wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground. Seeing his senior brother actually approaching, he was startled and hurriedly said, “Senior Brother, d-don’t come over!”
The moment he spoke, his face burned even redder.
In that brief interval, the heat within him had surged more fiercely. A strange sensation gathered in his lower body, leaving him swollen and hot as he gradually became erect.
Xu Ziqing panicked. He had been sickly in his previous life and never experienced a reaction like this. In this life, he had devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivation and lived with an even more restrained mind and body. Now that his body was awakening in this way, he had no idea what to do.
Worse still, the reaction was so humiliating. His senior brother was right there in front of him. What would happen if Yun Lie saw?
Overwhelmed by shame and indignation, Xu Ziqing pressed his legs together and turned slightly aside, doing his utmost to conceal himself.
Angry and mortified, he felt he had lost every shred of dignity before his senior brother and unconsciously curled in on himself.
Then, his voice trembling, he insisted, “Senior Brother, please don’t come closer…”
Having been called to stop, Yun Lie naturally halted.
His gaze followed Xu Ziqing’s movements downward, and he noticed a slight bulge beneath his lower garments. He understood at once.
Because Yun Lie cultivated the Merciless Slaughter Sword Dao, his seven emotions and six desires had all been frozen beneath endless killing intent. He was even freer of desire than Xu Ziqing. Nevertheless, he was widely experienced and familiar with many methods employed by heterodox and demonic cultivators.
Over all these years, he had recognized only this one junior brother. Now that his junior brother had been reduced to such a wretched state, even a man whose heart was as unyielding as stone could not help feeling a trace of distress.
If he continued lecturing his junior brother in this condition, it seemed inappropriate. Yet if he tried to comfort him, he did not know what words to use. Consequently, he simply watched in silence.
Poor Xu Ziqing was already filled with shame and anger. Although the senior brother he admired had stopped approaching, Yun Lie’s gaze remained fixed on him, making him feel thoroughly ill at ease.
One stood, and the other leaned against the wall. The standing man watched the one against the wall, while the one against the wall kept his eyes tightly closed, utterly unwilling to look back.
The atmosphere was exceedingly strange. Unfortunately, the man standing there did not seem to perceive anything amiss, while the one leaning against the wall had nowhere to retreat.
Xu Ziqing could feel Yun Lie’s eyes still upon him and had no idea what to do.
As the moments passed, the heat in his body only grew stronger. The swelling below became increasingly unbearable, and a tingling itch crept upward from his lower spine, making him want to rub against something. Yet he did not dare move an inch.
After considering the matter for a long time, Yun Lie finally said, “Your reaction is the result of someone’s plot against you. It is not your fault.”
Hearing this, Xu Ziqing seized the chance to distract himself from the unbearable desire. “S-Senior Brother, can you explain it to me? I…” He drew slow breaths, trying to make his words come more smoothly. “I don’t know how I was… how I was harmed. Could it have been that beast meat?”
He forced himself to think. Although his mind was hazy, he could at least remember what had happened.
The more he considered it, the more suspicious the beast leg Ji Rui had handed him seemed. Yet he could not be certain, and he believed his senior brother would know.
At his words, Yun Lie walked to one side, taking his gaze away from Xu Ziqing.
Xu Ziqing immediately let out a breath of relief.
His senior brother’s gaze carried no emotion, but under these circumstances, even that was more than Xu Ziqing could bear.
Yun Lie lowered his head, glanced at the discarded beast leg on the ground, and understood. “This is the leg of a Yang-Gathering Red Ox. It contains extremely powerful yang qi. Women who eat it suffer no ill effects, but in men it stirs desire.”
Xu Ziqing drew himself in even tighter and asked in a trembling voice, “But I felt nothing at first. It was only when I was fighting them that… that this happened…”
Yun Lie said, “You once consumed innate Yi-Wood essence. Jia-Wood is yang, while Yi-Wood is yin. The Yi-Wood essence has lain dormant within your blood, causing your constitution to incline toward yin. Because of that restraint, you experienced nothing when you first ate the meat.”
Xu Ziqing asked again, “Then why did it happen later…?”
“Since you began cultivating, you have never released your primordial yang. Although you do not possess a constitution of pure yang, your body remains one of unspent yang. The little primordial yang within you has long been suppressed by the Yi-Wood essence, lying dormant and allowing you to restrain desire.” When the discussion turned to cultivation, Yun Lie lost his earlier hesitation and explained the matter steadily. “However, the Yang-Gathering Red Ox filled your body with extremely yang-rich qi, provoking that primordial yang. The Yi-Wood essence could not suppress it forever. Once it was aroused, the resulting reaction became still more violent.”
For all these reasons, Xu Ziqing was suffering an even more severe reaction than an ordinary man who ate the beast’s flesh. That he could still speak was already remarkable.
By this point, Xu Ziqing had a dreadful premonition.
Sure enough, Yun Lie continued, “To stop it, you must release your primordial yang. Otherwise, your meridians may be burned through.”
Xu Ziqing went rigid. “I-it truly cannot be endured?”
Yun Lie assumed Xu Ziqing did not understand what was required. After a moment’s consideration, he said, “There is no need to fear. You may stroke your member with your hand until you ejaculate.”
Xu Ziqing’s head buzzed. How could his senior brother speak of such a thing so casually? This, this… He was utterly at a loss for words. In all his years, his state of mind had never been thrown into such turmoil.
It was not that he did not know what to do. Yet he had hesitated for only an instant, and his senior brother had given him such direct instructions. A hundred thoughts swept through his mind at once, leaving him caught between laughter and tears.
Seeing that Xu Ziqing still had not moved, Yun Lie’s expression grew slightly stern. “There is no time to waste. Junior Brother, if you cannot manage it yourself, do you wish me to—”
Xu Ziqing jolted and cried, “That won’t be necessary! Thank you for your kindness, Senior Brother!” For the first time, he interrupted Yun Lie and added hurriedly, “But I wouldn’t dare do such a thing before your eyes. Please, Senior Brother, turn your back.”
Seeing that he had accepted the instruction, Yun Lie nodded slightly and turned away.
He now understood that the youth was embarrassed and unwilling to expose so private an act before another person. Realizing this, he naturally would not compel him, and he complied.
Because of what Yun Lie had just offered, Xu Ziqing had broken out in a cold sweat despite the fierce desire still raging within him.
If he had not reacted in time and his senior brother had truly done that for him, done that… Xu Ziqing’s face burned. He would have died of humiliation!
Once Yun Lie had turned around, Xu Ziqing relaxed a little. He was still mortified, but he steeled himself, reached down, and slowly grasped his erection.
The sensation beneath his fingers was slick and strange. Although this was his own body, it felt altogether different now. Xu Ziqing’s heart pounded like a drum. He squeezed his eyes shut and moved his hand up and down. A tingling wave of sensation rose through him, sending shivers across his scalp. He could not tell whether it was pleasure or torment and almost let out a moan. He breathed raggedly and bit his lower lip, barely managing to suppress the sound.
Remembering that his senior brother stood fewer than five paces away, Xu Ziqing moved faster, wanting only to end the ordeal quickly and escape the embarrassment. Fortunately, it was his first time, and he could not last long. Before much time had passed, the sensations intensified and finally reached their peak, and he ejaculated.
Unable to stop himself, Xu Ziqing let out a muffled groan. Semen coated his hand.
As for Yun Lie, although his back was turned, he could hear everything happening behind him.
When he heard Xu Ziqing’s stifled groan, he knew the matter was finished and turned around.
Xu Ziqing still had whitish fluid on one hand. Seeing Yun Lie look his way, he hurriedly wiped it against the hem of his robe. The heat in his body had subsided, but his face grew redder than ever.
He immediately said, “Thank you, Senior Brother.”
Yun Lie replied, “You have recovered. Very good.”
Xu Ziqing mumbled, “Yes.”
His embarrassment had not yet faded, and hearing his senior brother say that only made it worse.
Yun Lie’s gaze then traveled over Xu Ziqing from head to foot.
After so many battles, followed by the disorder of his recent ordeal, Xu Ziqing’s green robes were not merely torn but badly crumpled as well.
Xu Ziqing noticed his disheveled state and said quietly, “Please excuse my appearance, Senior Brother. I have used up all the magical robes in my storage ring, which is why I look so improper…”
Yun Lie nodded slightly without rebuking him. Then he spread his arms, removed his black outer robe, and tossed it over. “You cannot go about in such a state. Put this on.”
Xu Ziqing caught it hastily. Seeing that Yun Lie still wore plain white clothes underneath, he did not dare say more. He quickly shed his ruined outer garment and slipped into the black robe. Yun Lie was considerably taller and broader than he was, so the garment hung loosely, but at least it covered him properly.
A trace of icy killing intent still lingered in the black robe. Once Xu Ziqing put it on, his wood qi surged against that aura, making it much gentler.
Only then did Xu Ziqing remember that he had been sitting on the ground the entire time. Feeling rather rude, he hurriedly braced himself against the floor to stand.
But the moment he tried to straighten his legs, his body went weak and he fell backward.
An arm suddenly reached across him. Startled, Xu Ziqing felt his forehead collide with someone’s chest while an arm caught him securely around the waist.
He knew his senior brother had helped him once again, preventing a painful fall. Grateful, he held on to Yun Lie’s arm and stood, saying, “Thank you, Senior Brother.”
Yun Lie said, “This is your first release of primordial yang. Although it benefits your meridians, it has also greatly depleted your vital essence and qi. You will inevitably be weak. Do not force yourself.”
Xu Ziqing nodded. “Thank you for the warning, Senior Brother. I was rash.”
He had stood too quickly and nearly collapsed. Now that he examined his condition, he could feel that his true essence was insufficient and his vital blood depleted. He feared he could neither fight nor even walk very far.
Yun Lie saw him swaying in the oversized black robe and frowned slightly. Then he turned his back and bent down a little.
Xu Ziqing blinked. “Senior Brother?”
Yun Lie said, “Get on. Regulate your breathing and recover your energy.”
Xu Ziqing was at a loss. “I can regulate my breathing here. I wouldn’t dare trouble you, Senior Brother.”
Yun Lie simply said, “You are weak now, and Heavenly Demons will regard you as prey. If I carry you, my sword intent can conceal your presence. There is no need to hesitate.”
Though his senior brother’s voice remained cold, Xu Ziqing could hear the concern in it.
He let go of his many tangled thoughts and climbed onto Yun Lie’s back.
Xu Ziqing smiled faintly.
His senior brother’s sword intent was chilling and his manner aloof, yet his back was remarkably warm. The warmth reached Xu Ziqing’s heart as well.