“Brother, are you all right?” Xu Zirong withdrew the protection of his blood vines and helped his elder brother to his feet.
The attack had come too suddenly for him to activate any other spell. He had only been able to use his blood vines to protect them both.
“I’m fine. Cough, cough. The air here is awful.” The first thing Xu Ziyan noticed was the scorching heat. Passing through space had felt exactly like entering the Azure Spirit Secret Realm, so it was easy to conclude that they had entered a separate spatial realm.
What delighted him most was that he had felt another stream of energy enter his body during the transition. Without hesitation, he summoned Mr. Square before his eyes.
Ever since Mr. Square had grown larger in the Azure Spirit Secret Realm, it had acquired the ability to move. Although it still could not go more than a meter away from him, at least it no longer had to sit directly in front of his face.
When it had been smaller, that was not so bad. But Mr. Square was now a full meter on each side. Transparent or not, having something that large obstruct his view was uncomfortable.
He brought Mr. Square down from above his head, where it had been resting, but before he could examine it, he heard a familiar crunching sound.
Crunch, crunch.
Crunch, crunch.
Xu Ziyan turned his head, an eye twitching. Sure enough, the rabbit that had appeared briefly at Liuyun Pavilion and then vanished again had returned.
Crunch, crunch. Pinkfur lay on Xu Zirong’s shoulder, calmly chewing a carrot. But when it looked toward Xu Ziyan, its eyes suddenly paused in surprise.
Hmm?
Xu Ziyan blinked. Was the rabbit looking at… Mr. Square?
To test it, he moved Mr. Square to his left. Pinkfur’s eyes followed the movement. The rabbit looked puzzled, as though it sensed something but could not quite identify it.
Xu Ziyan turned away with a perfectly calm expression. This outrageous rabbit, which kept appearing and disappearing whenever it pleased, was not someone he could afford to offend. He might be ignorant, but even he would never mistake Pinkfur for the sort of useless pet kept to charm female cultivators.
The sensible thing was to return to studying Mr. Square!
“What… what place is this?” Jiang Ying stared at their surroundings, slack-jawed. No matter how hard he tried, he could not convince himself that they were anywhere near Wuti City.
His arrival had been much rougher than the Xu brothers’. They had at least had a moment to prepare. He had been given no time to react at all before Xu Zirong’s retainer contract yanked him into this place.
“Mm…” A hoarse groan made Jiang Ying stiffen. He lowered his head abruptly and discovered that the soft ground beneath him was actually another person’s body.
“Tianrui!” Jiang Ying stared in shock as he helped the unconscious Fang Tianrui up. He could never have imagined finding Fang Tianrui here.
Xu Zirong glanced at Jiang Ying with a slight lift of his eyebrow. That fellow certainly worked quickly. He had already formed a paired-cultivation blood pact with Fang Tianrui. Such a pact drew the other party over to help whenever one of them fell into danger.
That explained why the unfortunate Fang Tianrui had been dragged into this space without warning.
“He’s running a fever.” Xu Ziyan noticed Fang Tianrui’s unnaturally flushed face and checked his temperature. Then he asked in confusion, “Can cultivators get sick too?”
Xu Zirong’s lips curved. “Cultivators rarely fall ill, but leaving an injury untreated can still have consequences. He’s not yet reached Foundation Establishment, so he hasn’t fully transcended the limitations of a mortal body.”
Xu Ziyan wanted to ask why Fang Tianrui would leave an injury untreated. But the half-smiling look on Xu Zirong’s face made him swallow his question.
→。→ Something tells me I’d regret hearing the answer. Better leave it alone…
Seeing his brother evade his deliberate hint again, Xu Zirong was in no hurry. His eighteenth birthday was still two months away, and his brother had once said certain things must wait until adulthood. There was no need to rush.
Xu Ziyan might not know why Fang Tianrui was ill, but Jiang Ying certainly did. He knew Fang Tianrui would never think to seek treatment for that injury.
The marks left on the bed that night remained vivid in Jiang Ying’s memory. Given Fang Tianrui’s rigid, earnest nature, even if he knew he was hurt, he would never bring himself to ask for treatment.
Both the refined and the wicked Jiang Ying were filled with guilt, not only for their carelessness that night but also for dragging Fang Tianrui into such a dangerous place.
Jiang Ying placed a gentle kiss on Fang Tianrui’s cheek and swore inwardly that even if he perished here, he would ensure Fang Tianrui escaped safely.
Xu Zirong witnessed their closeness and raised his head to study his brother with amusement. Just as he expected, Xu Ziyan stood frozen, his expression completely shattered.
Seeing two men kiss so intimately in person was enough to leave Xu Ziyan utterly disoriented.
He rubbed his forehead. As expected of a danmei novel, were same-sex couples everywhere in this world? Were there no ordinary men and women together at all?
Was this world trying to drive a straight man to his grave?!
“Brother…” Xu Zirong’s warm voice sounded close to his ear.
Xu Ziyan flinched and asked warily, “What?”
He was not stupid, merely rather poor at recognizing feelings. Having seen these two men together, and recalling his younger brother’s earlier conduct, he could no longer pretend not to understand what Xu Zirong was thinking.
Only…
Sure, my actual younger brother liking men is one thing, but why does Zirong have to be the same?!
Worst of all, the person Zirong liked was his own elder brother. Kid, do you even understand how taboo that is? My soul may not be your biological brother’s, but this body is!
(Wait, shouldn’t the important point be that you don’t like men?)
Xu Ziyan sank into despair. Surely something had gone terribly wrong with his life.
Damn it! Why is it always like this? Ziyu might have been born that way, but Zirong wasn’t interested in men in his previous life, was he?
So… is all of this my fault?
_(：з」∠)_ There has to be something wrong here!
“Brother?” Xu Zirong watched his brother lapse into a stunned, petrified state yet again and could not help worrying. He had no way to predict Xu Ziyan’s reaction to seeing two men together. His brother’s tolerance of him did not necessarily extend to other people.
Some cultivators maintained that two men becoming paired-cultivation partners was an outrageous violation of proper conduct. Xu Zirong hoped his brother was not among them.
“I’m fine.” Xu Ziyan pressed a hand to his forehead weakly. In truth, seeing Jiang Ying and Fang Tianrui together was not such a great shock. He had even watched gay videos while trying to understand Ziyu’s thinking. What unsettled him most was Zirong’s behavior.
He believed he had always acted as a good elder brother should, showing Zirong nothing but familial affection. So where on earth had Zirong’s feelings for him come from?
As he searched his memory, Xu Ziyan suddenly realized that Zirong had been extremely possessive of him for a long time. He had never been particularly pleasant to Le Hu or Wei Qing.
Yet that possessiveness seemed to have erupted into something much stronger only recently. Could Xu Ziyan’s five full years in seclusion have completely undermined Zirong’s sense of security?
Xu Ziyan wanted a wall to lean against. If that reasoning was correct, didn’t it mean Zirong’s feelings were his fault after all?
I surrender to the cruelty of this world!
“Brother, are you all right?” Xu Zirong called twice without receiving an answer. His heart sank.
He cautiously reached out to support Xu Ziyan, only for the other man to recoil. Both froze in an awkward, wordless standoff.
Xu Ziyan could not begin to describe his conflicted thoughts. Anyone discovering that his own younger brother had feelings for him would be badly shaken. His withdrawal had been almost reflexive. He truly did not mean to show disgust; it was just… well, rather embarrassing.
Xu Zirong’s face darkened like the bottom of a cooking pot. His brother would not even let him touch him now. A hint of red spread through his black eyes, and the blood in his body began to stir.
“Ahem. Well, Zirong, actually… actually…” Xu Ziyan knew his reaction had hurt Zirong, so he hurriedly patted his shoulder. Unfortunately, he could not think of a suitable way to comfort him.
Scold him? Zirong had inherited Xu Ziyan’s own habit of repenting sincerely and never changing. Scolding would accomplish nothing!
Beat him? Developing feelings for someone was not itself a crime. Even if the object of those feelings was rather unsuitable, he could hardly beat Zirong for it.
That left gentle persuasion. But given Xu Zirong’s stubbornness, Xu Ziyan had little confidence he could persuade him of anything.
After much consideration, Xu Ziyan chose to ignore the matter for now.
He convinced himself that Zirong’s feelings were merely the projection of loneliness and insecurity. Perhaps Xu Ziyan had doted on this younger brother so much over the years that Zirong had misunderstood his affection.
In the previous life, Xu Zirong had not fallen for Bai Hua, which suggested he was not particularly interested in men. If he found Zirong a gentle, virtuous woman in this life, surely Zirong would turn his attention elsewhere… right?
Xu Ziyan himself was not entirely certain. Still, Zirong was only seventeen and could hardly understand love. At most, he had confused familial affection for romantic feelings, and the misunderstanding would soon disappear.
Xu Ziyan trailed off without finishing his explanation, but the light pat on Xu Zirong’s shoulder had, strangely enough, extinguished the anger in the younger man’s heart.
Xu Zirong had always been patient when it came to winning his brother over. His brother’s performance today was at least passable. He knew Xu Ziyan still hoped this was a momentary confusion from which Zirong would eventually recover.
But Xu Zirong had made his preparations long ago. Two months remained until his eighteenth birthday, and he was confident that he could make his brother recognize the depth of his feelings before then.
“Brother, let’s go. We should find somewhere to settle down. This looks like a Demonic Realm; danger could appear at any moment.” Quietly concealing his darker intentions, Xu Zirong resumed the appearance of a gentle, harmless younger brother.