After the Pretend Aloof Master Overturned His Cart - Chapter 8

At the time of the full moon, Xin Shi’s figure appeared punctually at the Senro Beast-Bone Palace.

Heavy iron chains hung upon his body, his head was lowered, and his robust torso trembled as he walked forward step by step.

Hearing the abnormal movement, the bone dragon swung down slowly. Its terrifying skeletal dragon head pushed straight against his face, releasing heavy exhalations.

Ji Yunlang was currently leaning against his throne, eyes closed as he rested, listening to Husheng read “The spring river tide rises level with the sea.” Fine hours and beautiful scenery, poetic feelings and picturesque intent—these were things only visible in the Immortal Continent; the people of the Bafang Region couldn’t even imagine them.

They didn’t understand love, didn’t understand beauty, had no sorrow at parting, and wouldn’t yearn.

Husheng didn’t understand either, holding the book and reading it over and over. He merely felt it was beautiful, yet his brain couldn’t condense the scenery. Outside was boundless black sand; lifting his head to gaze at the sky, he only saw the blood moon.

Since Ji Yunlang didn’t open his eyes, Xin Shi didn’t dare make a sound, prostrating with his upper body to the ground, kneeling at his feet. Catching sight of a section of the bone dragon’s hanging tail tip out of the corner of his eye, he couldn’t help but feel chilled to the bone.

Husheng finished reading the book, leaning back to indulge in those impoverished scenes in his brain for a moment. Turning his body around to look, he found that a person had surprisingly long since added to the main hall.

He went over to wake Ji Yunlang up, saying, “Looking for you.”

Ji Yunlang woke up. Seemingly finding it an eyesore, he didn’t look down, pulling Husheng over and rubbing a handful of his head-hair, saying, “I’ve thought it through.”

“What have you thought of again? Going to find your wife back?”

Husheng rescued his own head from his hand, rolling up his book to pat his hand, “Can you have a bit of backbone? She doesn’t want you, then you don’t want her either. Wouldn’t it be fine to change to another person to love?”

Ji Yunlang asked him, “Do you want to go to the Immortal Continent?”

Hearing this, Husheng was so terrified he couldn’t even hold his book steadily, abruptly springing down to the base, kneeling beside Xin Shi, and saying loudly, “Don’t want to! I merely read a bit of the Immortal Continent’s poetry, strictly not daring to think of anything else. I… I won’t read it in the future…”

As he spoke, he picked up the book that had dropped onto the ground and ripped it into a complete shred, lowering his head to look at his hands full of shredded paper scraps, about to be terrified into crying.

No matter how presumptuous he was with Ji Yunlang, he didn’t dare propose that he wanted to go to the Immortal Continent. Five years ago, Ji Yunlang had personally opened up that path, but aside from the first time, he no longer allowed anyone to go out.

Husheng was still small at that time and didn’t understand affairs, always feeling that he himself was different from them—Ji Yunlang was good to him, and if he punished anyone, he wouldn’t punish him.

Taking advantage of Ji Yunlang’s absence and when the bone dragon wasn’t paying attention either, he secretly slipped out. Just as he ran to the edge of the Wuchang Bridge, he was lifted up by his back collar.

Ji Yunlang appeared suddenly, staring at him, seemingly wondering why he didn’t want to live at such a young age, and then delivered a kick to send him onto the Wuchang Bridge.

If one wanted to go out, one must pass through the Wuchang Bridge. The bridge was fraught with hidden dangers, and there were always people of the Bafang Region possessing a strong desire to kill hiding on it to shoot concealed arrows.

Husheng had grown up in the Bafang Region since childhood, practicing the skill of fleeing for his life not a little. People were fighting on the bridge; relying on his small build, he surprisingly slipped past without sustaining many injuries.

The moment he got off the bridge, he ran like crazy. Ever since he finished recognizing characters and thoroughly understood the books Ji Yunlang brought back, he wanted to go to the Immortal Continent more than any person of the Bafang Region.

Beautiful scenery and delicious food—that place was the mortal world.

Ji Yunlang also followed him down the bridge, not blocking him, just standing at the bridge head watching him run outward.

And then Husheng was captured at the exit by the Eighth Domain Lord—who was specifically responsible for patrolling and catching people—and cast into the sand prison.

He was Ji Yunlang’s person, so nobody dared punish him, but he was locked inside a cage watching other people receive torture for a very long time—so long that he felt he himself was about to turn into an old man and die. Ji Yunlang finally came to fetch him, saying only seven days had passed.

In that kind of place, seven days felt like passing through a lifetime. Thinking back to the despair at that time, Husheng grasped the shreds of the book, finally crying out, saying, “I don’t want to go to the Immortal Continent, and I don’t want to go to the sand prison. I will just stay here and go nowhere!”

Ji Yunlang rose, cast a glance at the book ripped to shreds by him, walked past him toward the outside, and said, “Then you stay here; don’t get up until the next full moon.”

Ji Yunlang went out the door. The bone dragon remained in the hall to monitor them. He didn’t manage Xin Shi, so Xin Shi had to keep kneeling without being able to rise.

Husheng let out a sigh of relief, beginning to regret ripping the book on his own accord, kneeling on the ground to piece it together bit by bit.

The bone dragon swung down from the roof beams, biting his book box to deliver it in front of him, waiting for him to finish piecing it together to put it inside.

Ji Yunlang walked outside utterly bored. It was a vast sheet of blackness, and he didn’t know where he was going either.

He had managed with great difficulty to think through some affairs, yet Husheng wasn’t even willing to listen to him finish speaking, only knowing to be afraid first.

In truth, knowing fear was a good thing—obedient, making a person save peace of mind.

Unlike Jiang Zhou—greedy for life and afraid of death, shameless and skinless. When could Jiang Zhou be this obedient? Ji Yunlang thought about it, and felt it was impossible for a lifetime.

Five years ago when he led the people of the Bafang Region to charge into the Immortal Continent for the first time, he carried anger in his heart, only wanting to let them burn, kill, plunder, and stir up winds and waves.

But before that, he had to get Jiang Zhou into his hands first.

He bypassed the closest Luxi City, treating the Qingxiao Sect as the first stop for burning, killing, and plundering. The people of the Bafang Region smashed to their hearts’ content, and on the mountain, he also pressed Jiang Zhou to do it to his heart’s content.

He stripped Jiang Zhou bare, forcefully pinching Jiang Zhou’s thighs and biting Jiang Zhou’s neck, allowing him to be bruised green and purple all over his body by the stones in the flower field.

He said every single day he spent in the Bafang Region was hard to endure, and the first thing he wanted to do upon coming out was to find Jiang Zhou and finish him off.

He thought Jiang Zhou would be afraid, or angry, but this person Jiang Zhou was cunning and loose, surprisingly preferring to sell his body to please him rather than be finished off.

Jiang Zhou proactively came to kiss him. Ji Yunlang viciously pinched his mouth, pressing him onto the ground.

He didn’t let Jiang Zhou hold him, and didn’t allow those legs to proactively wind around his own waist, asking, “Master, while I was away, did anyone else touch you?”

Jiang Zhou didn’t answer, so he kept asking, his heart sinking a fraction with each question.

Jiang Zhou must have taken advantage of his absence to find someone else to sleep with; to think he still dared come to disgust him even after being like this.

He lost the inclination to continue doing it, roughly dragging Jiang Zhou up. Just as he was pondering whether to strangle him to death or drown him to death, Jiang Zhou finally opened his mouth, saying, “No.”

Ji Yunlang said, “I don’t believe it. What evidence do you have?”

Jiang Zhou had no evidence. Thinking about it, he asked him back, “Do you have evidence?”

The two stared at each other for half a day. Ji Yunlang viciously pressed him onto the ground, “Take it as if I didn’t ask.”

Since Jiang Zhou said no, then he would tentatively believe it.

He dressed Jiang Zhou well, holding him and thinking: Where should we smash next? Why don’t we go to Penglai Island; in any case it’s boring, let’s go burn the Yun family down.

He asked Jiang Zhou how this idea was. Jiang Zhou said, “No.”

Ji Yunlang immediately had a rational reason to be angry with him, pinching his face and asking, “Why no?”

He thought at that time: If Jiang Zhou dares mention Yun Yan’s name, I will press his head into the water jar beside the flower field to drown him for half an hour.

Being pinched by him, Jiang Zhou had to tilt his head up, his hand fumbling in his embrace, dragging out a poking silver chain, asking him what this was and who he prepared to give it to.

This turn reminded Ji Yunlang. The hand pinching Jiang Zhou’s face slid onto his neck, taking the chain to put it onto him, saying, “Giving it to you.” He again took the opportunity to grab his hand, going into his own embrace to fish out a slightly shorter one to put onto his wrist.

By the time Jiang Zhou discovered something was wrong it was already late. Ji Yunlang locked away all his spiritual energy, playing with his waist and legs from head to toe for a round, gathering him into his embrace to satisfy himself by kissing him over and over, saying, “So weak and pliable; Master, if you go outside right now, they could pinch you to death with a single hand.”

He wanted Jiang Zhou to be obedient and not resist, learning to lower himself, act small, act spoiled, and beg for mercy with him—it would be best if he could say two more pleasant, soft words, then he certainly would hold Jiang Zhou in the palm of his hand.

In truth, for so many years Jiang Zhou had always been very good to him—afraid he would die when hungry, afraid he would die when cold, afraid he would die when injured, and also afraid he would die when sick.

Every time he came close to dying Jiang Zhou was flustered. Thinking of it, Ji Yunlang felt warm in his heart.

When Ji Yunlang was small his brain suffered an illness, always feeling that at the age of ten he had already seen through the ugliness of this world. In the future, whatever affair he encountered he would treat it with a cold eye; he would never smile again.

Later he was led home by Jiang Zhou. Jiang Zhou would hold his hand when walking, and would lean his body down or squat down when speaking to him, and sometimes would also stroke his head.

When that face approached, Ji Yunlang’s heart always went peng-peng, and his cheeks also secretly grew hot. He had no way to treat it with a cold eye anymore, suddenly feeling that everything wasn’t that ugly either.

Now Jiang Zhou wore the spirit-locking chain, obediently nestling in his embrace. Ji Yunlang’s heart was satisfied, unable to resist recalling those past warmth. The voice with which he spoke to him became much softer, looking into his eyes and saying, “Then we won’t go to Penglai Island. I want to bring you away; where do you want to go?”

Jiang Zhou said, “The Immortal Continent.” Anywhere was fine, as long as it was in the Immortal Continent.

Ji Yunlang furrowed his brows, “I live in the Bafang Region. You know what kind of place that is, so you are unwilling to go with me?”

How did Jiang Zhou respond to him at that time? Both arms encircled his neck, kissing him over and over in his embrace, saying, “Not going, right in the Immortal Continent.”

Cunning and loose, Ji Yunlang was blinded by him, discarding those base, filthy thoughts inside the Bafang Region, playing the trick of hiding a beauty in a golden house within the Immortal Continent.

Those savage people of the Bafang Region caused trouble not a few days after coming to the Immortal Continent, going to harass the villages and towns near the Qingxiao Sect, smashing the vegetable stall where Ji Yunlang prepared to buy vegetables, stamping the fresh melons, fruits, and vegetables into a complete shatter.

Failing to eat lunch punctually with Jiang Zhou, Ji Yunlang was so irritable he wanted to kill people, driving them all back to the Bafang Region, commanding them strictly not to tread foot upon the Immortal Continent even a single step.

He and Jiang Zhou lived in the Immortal Continent; this crowd of people deserved to stay in the dark, sunless wilderness.

At the very beginning, it was because Ji Yunlang wasn’t satisfied with being trapped in this place that he opened up the path to go out.

But once the passage was opened it couldn’t be closed, and there were always people of the Bafang Region eager to try going out.

This crowd of people would destroy the Immortal Continent. Once the Immortal Continent was gone, how could he and Jiang Zhou still live?

Ji Yunlang found a tree with bald branches, jumping up to look at the blood-red full moon at the edge of the sky, thinking in his heart: Jiang Zhou truly is a scoundrel.

Over these years, he frequently had to keep an eye on the Bafang Region, and also had to travel back and forth to the Immortal Continent to look for Jiang Zhou.

He was so tired, yet Jiang Zhou nestled at home only knowing to eat food and sleep large sleeps, and then making him angry coaxing after making him angry, and making him angry again after coaxing.

Scoundrel to think he still served as a wife for someone like this, unable to say even a single pleasant word, his mouth not even as sweet as a small child like Husheng.

But the scoundrel Jiang Zhou had left, and the sweet-mouthed Husheng had also precisely just been terrified into crying by him.

Ji Yunlang sat onto the tree with bald branches. Spiritual light flashed at his fingertips, unfolding a letter in mid-air.

The signature was the five major sects of the Immortal Continent.

Jiang Zhou had just left, and not a few days after Ji Yunlang burned that residence, their letter arrived as if all places through the Immortal Continent possessed their eyes.

The letter said they were willing to lift the strength of the five major sects to search all through the Immortal Continent to deliver Jiang Zhou back to his side.

As long as he continued to guard this passage from the Bafang Region to the Immortal Continent, and didn’t release even a single person of the Bafang Region out.

The five major sects seemed to treat Jiang Zhou as a bargaining chip to restrict him—as if as long as Jiang Zhou was in the Immortal Continent, Ji Yunlang would keep guarding the Bafang Region, not letting the people inside have an opportunity to tread out a single step.

On what grounds?

Did they take his Jiang Zhou to be some kind of person who sacrificed his life for righteousness and possessed boundless grand love?

Jiang Zhou would go with him because he used intimidation and threats; Jiang Zhou had no choice in order to preserve his life.

Therefore he told Jiang Zhou: If you don’t go with me, I will finish you off.

Rather than “finish them off”.

Jiang Zhou was greedy for life and afraid of death, shameless and skinless. Saving himself was difficult enough, so he wouldn’t care about other people’s survival or death.

If placed in the past, whenever Ji Yunlang received a letter from the five major sects he would burn it directly.

His guarding of the Bafang Region truly was for Jiang Zhou, but that was of his own accord—he wanted to live well together with Jiang Zhou in the Immortal Continent.

What did the five major sects always keep rushing forward to squeeze in for?

Jiang Zhou would never come to beg him because he “feared he would destroy the Immortal Continent.” Jiang Zhou begging him would only be because he was hungry, cold, or hurting.

Therefore, if Ji Yunlang wanted to keep him, he could only start from his person himself—locking away his spiritual power, softening his body, making him become weak, pliable, and obedient, occasionally giving some benefits, being sweet with him, and letting him be comfortable.

Now he hadn’t kept the person, the spirit-locking chain was broken, Jiang Zhou had left, and Ji Yunlang was at a complete loss for methods.

He had nothing else that could threaten Jiang Zhou.

He was going to hate Jiang Zhou to death.

He put away the letter from the five major sects; for the first time, he didn’t burn it.

It didn’t matter who went to look for him. He had to find Jiang Zhou, to ask him why he wanted to leave, exactly where he was dissatisfied, and whether he could not leave in the future.

At worst, he wouldn’t tie him up in the future, wouldn’t bite him, wouldn’t make him lean against the window, wouldn’t force him to move on his own accord, and wouldn’t do it outside either.

What else could Jiang Zhou have to be dissatisfied with?