The Cannon Fodder Also Has a Will to Survive [Rebirth] - Chapter 17

An Jiu was led by the hand, following Lin Jingyuan obediently back to a new palace.

Once inside, he carelessly lifted his bridal veil. Meeting Lin Jingyuan’s gaze, he gave an apologetic smile. “You don’t have to mind me. We were forced into this, after all. I understand.”

Lin Jingyuan suddenly pulled him closer. Under An Jiu’s look of utter disbelief, he leaned in and pressed a light kiss to the boy’s lips.

Though he had lived for a thousand years, this was the first time Lin Jingyuan had engaged in such intimacy. To ensure the boy wouldn’t discover his lack of experience, he kept the contact brief and shallow.

“Do you understand now?” Lin Jingyuan’s expression remained calm.

An Jiu covered his mouth and took a step back. When Lin Jingyuan questioned him, he first nodded, then shook his head, his eyes spinning in a daze of confusion.

Lin Jingyuan reached out and held An Jiu’s head steady, preventing him from shaking it further. “Shall we continue, then?”

With his head held in place, An Jiu could only pout his lips in a show of silent protest. A flash of amusement crossed Lin Jingyuan’s eyes, and he finally released him to go make the bed.

An Jiu spent a long time lost in thought, pacing in circles around Lin Jingyuan.

“If you have something to say, say it.”

“Um, we aren’t real partners, so can we sleep in separate rooms? This palace looks plenty big” Seeing that there was only one quilt on the bed, An Jiu as simple-minded as he was sensed that things were taking an ominous turn.

Lin Jingyuan’s answer was decisive: “No.”

Just as An Jiu was about to argue, a knock sounded at the door. “Someone is causing trouble and trying to snatch the bride at Delan Hall,” a voice reported from the entrance.

“Let them snatch. It’s nothing but” nothing but two puppets.

Lin Jingyuan didn’t say the last part aloud in front of An Jiu. He looked at the boy, wondering how to explain the “bride-snatching,” only to see the little idiot blinking back at him.

“Someone’s causing trouble? Your comrades have come looking for you aren’t you going to report for duty?”

“…” He really thinks we’re just colleagues chatting. Lin Jingyuan sighed. “In a moment.”

Despite his words, Lin Jingyuan shifted his Divine Sense to the puppet he had left behind to observe the situation. Delan Hall was currently a scene of utter chaos. The banquet guests were mostly low-level demon cultivators, and since demons were naturally bellicose, they had already joined the fray against a mysterious group of intruders.

“He” remained seated on the high platform, while a squad of demon cultivators separated “him” from the melee. Nearby, several cultivators dressed in demon robes had “kidnapped” the two puppet-newlyweds. Their movements were rough, suggesting they weren’t just after the “bride,” but were securing two hostages.

I can’t find the mastermind behind this, Lin Jingyuan noted. He withdrew his Divine Sense and pondered. The commotion was likely a distraction to draw him out, as the intruders had probably realized the Emperor on the throne was a fake.

He turned back to look at An Jiu, who was sitting on the edge of the bed eating dried red dates. Fearing he would stain the bedding or the carpet, the boy was carefully avoiding the messy peanuts and longans, focusing entirely on picking dates from his bag.

Lin Jingyuan knew his actions would force Han Zhong’s hand. In his heart, he didn’t want to become an enemy of An Yunge. Hating that sanctimonious hypocrite Si Xuanye was one thing, but his impression of An Yunge was actually quite good. If not for the Heart Demon Realm, he could have easily made a choice between An Jiu and An Yunge.

But things were different now. Lin Jingyuan considered An Jiu his possession, and he would not permit anyone else to covet him. By letting Han Zhong strike first, Lin Jingyuan secured the moral high ground. No matter how unreasonable the Cultivation World was, no one could legally kidnap another person’s Daoist Companion not even their former sect. He was in the right; given An Yunge’s sensible nature, they might still maintain their friendship.

An Jiu had no idea that his “nominal partner” was currently trying to “have his cake and eat it too.” Even if he did know, he probably wouldn’t care. He had no romantic feelings for the man before him; moreover, if he knew the man was actually Lin Jingyuan, he would be even more resigned this was the “Male Lead’s Harem,” and they were destined for each other. It made sense that Lin Jingyuan wouldn’t let him go easily.

This assumption that the men would always choose An Yunge as per the original plot would later allow An Jiu to evade his senior brothers, his uncles, and even his Master.

But for now, An Jiu only cared about his snacks. He still felt hungry quite often; a mortal’s three meals a day could not satisfy him. However, having been a sword cultivator, he was naturally gifted at enduring hardship.

Directly after his rebirth, the shadow of death had driven his craving for food to a near-obsession. Now that his emotions had stabilized, he knew that constant eating would harm his mortal body, he might even choke or bloat to death. He truly did not want to die; if he had to go, he wanted to grow old peacefully and die in his sleep!

With this newfound self-control, An Jiu felt that staying in the Demonic Palace wasn’t so bad. As long as An Yunge left, his life wouldn’t be in danger, and he wouldn’t starve.

But then he looked up at “Lin,” and he remembered the cruelly murdered Ah Hua and his escape plan. Caught in this web of indecision, An Jiu wasn’t paying attention while eating. A date pit suddenly lodged in his throat, and he erupted into a violent fit of coughing.

Lin Jingyuan, who was about to leave to confront Han Zhong, immediately rushed back. “How can you choke just by eating?”

He patted An Jiu’s back to help him catch his breath. Once the coughing grew less frantic, he turned to pour some water. “I should just confiscate all your snacks.”

“Cough… no… cough…” An Jiu protested through his fit. “That’s… cough… taking my life…”

Lin Jingyuan felt truly helpless. Just as he was about to say more, An Jiu let out another violent cough and spat out a large mouthful of blood.

Standing directly in front of him, Lin Jingyuan’s robes were immediately stained with red. He looked down at his chest, then looked back up, a trace of bewilderment in his eyes.

An Jiu gasped out, “It’s fine… just… cough… waste blood…”

He remembered the last time he spat blood; Si Xuanye had told him it was just “waste blood” from his body.

Lin Jingyuan had been startled by the sudden spray of blood, but seeing An Jiu’s nonchalant attitude, a faint anger rose in his heart. He grabbed the boy’s wrist and funneled a stream of his own spiritual energy into him. When he had first kidnapped An Jiu, he had only briefly inspected his body to confirm the seal on his spiritual veins, but he hadn’t looked at the finer details.

As his energy flowed through An Jiu’s meridians, Lin Jingyuan’s brow furrowed tighter.

“There is a surging power within you.” The power was gentle and didn’t intend to harm him, but it was undoubtedly the cause of the blood-spitting.

Lin Jingyuan withdrew his hand and thought for a long time before speaking again. “I must break the seal.”

“Huh?” An Jiu, finally done coughing, looked up in confusion. “What seal?”

“The seal Si Xuanye placed on your spiritual energy. It is irreversibly draining your cultivation. If it continues, you will eventually be turned into a mortal with no cultivation at all.” Lin Jingyuan explained sternly. What worried him more was the conflict between that surging inner power and the seal. An Jiu’s current body could not withstand the two forces clashing within him.

The easiest way to save him was to break Si Xuanye’s seal and allow that internal power to merge with his meridians.

An Jiu’s face went pale. “Irreversibly?”

It turned out his Master had truly never viewed him as a disciple. The moment Si Xuanye found a better student, he had decided to take everything back. An Jiu had accepted the idea of being a mortal, but being systematically stripped of his cultivation by his own Master was different.

He really is this cruel to me…

“What happens if we don’t break the seal?” An Jiu asked, still clinging to a shred of hope.

“You will die,” Lin Jingyuan told him truthfully. It wasn’t an exaggeration. The mysterious spiritual power in An Jiu’s body was sentient-less; it would continue to lash out against the seal, destroying his meridians in the process. Before he even became a mortal, his meridians would wither, and he would suffer the Five Declines of the Celestial Being.

An Jiu’s mind went blank. The weight in his chest grew so heavy that he spat out another mouthful of blood. He stared at the red puddle on the floor. When he spat blood last time, Si Xuanye had told him it was just “waste blood.” Was that just to keep him quiet and compliant?

Had his Master already decided that he should be turned into a mortal, pay back everything he “stole” from An Yunge, and then die quietly in a corner? Was this the judgment his Master had arranged for him?

In his past life, he had starved to death without realizing Si Xuanye’s “good intentions.” Was that quick death actually a mercy from the heavens?

As An Jiu spiraled into despair, the man before him suddenly cupped his face and wiped away his tears.

“Stop crying. I am here; you will not die.” Lin Jingyuan wasn’t good at comfort; his expression and voice were both stiff.

He didn’t know why, but seeing An Jiu cry now felt different than when he had lied about the dog. This was true, hollow despair.

An Jiu grabbed Lin Jingyuan’s hand. In this moment, he felt a genuine, profound gratitude toward the man he had only just met.