The Immortal Lord Always Pretends To Be Affectionate Towards Me - Chapter 5

As Yu Zaixi finished speaking, a heavy silence descended. Miao Pei did not even dare to breathe, turning his head back toward Jiang Yan with trepidation. Jiang Yan, however, showed little reaction. The flickering firelight caught the faint, self-deprecating curve of his lips, though Qin Nai was too focused on Yu Zaixi to notice.

Yu Zaixi waited for a few seconds without looking back. Only when the faint cyan glow surrounding him had dimmed did he continue forward. Qin Nai narrowed his eyes, noticing that Yu Zaixi’s fingers were tightly clutching his sleeves; he was clearly in significant pain, yet he stubbornly demanded Jiang Yan withdraw his spiritual energy. Qin Nai did not understand why the two were so awkward, but he had no desire to see a rift form between them, much less have them part ways forever as Yu Zaixi had suggested.

Qin Nai looked back at Jiang Yan, unable to discern what the man was thinking. In fact, the look Jiang Yan cast toward him was so piercing that Qin Nai felt as though his entire train of thought had been laid bare. He twitched the corner of his mouth, turned back, and walked on, trying to keep his composure.

Jiang Yan was a strange man. With his level of power, he far outstripped the elders at the Tianji Pavilion. He had been approached countless times by his master to take over the position of Sect Leader, yet Jiang Yan always refused with infuriating brevity: “Never thought about it. Do not want to.”

“You have never cared about my feelings. You just use ‘I never thought about it’ to brush everything aside. This time you can call it luck that you survived, but what about next time?” Yuan Qi roared, slamming the door shut to ignore him.

Jiang Yan stood outside the door, thoughtful. After a long while, he ventured, “My death would have no impact. I strive to cultivate only to protect those troubled by demons. You will perhaps understand this in the future.”

A loud crash followed as Yuan Qi threw something against the door. That was his answer: he did not understand, nor did he want to.

Yuan Qi had never supported Jiang Yan’s choice to risk his own life to save others. Jiang Yan often said Yuan Qi was not grown up, always like a child who valued those around him too highly, forgetting that no one escaped the cycle of reincarnation. He urged him to let go. Every time, the response was a thrown object.

Later, when the master asked Jiang Yan if he intended to become the Sect Leader, Jiang Yan rejected it without a thought. He refused to be an elder as well, choosing to remain merely the leader’s disciple. Yuan Qi knew Jiang Yan had thought about it; it was precisely because he had considered it that he refused so quickly. He feared being trapped, for that would prevent him from descending the mountain to save others.

When the master later asked Yuan Qi, Yuan Qi replied, “I am the same as Senior Brother. I do not want to do it.”

By the time Yu Zaixi realized he had entered an illusion, there was no turning back.

He had awoken in Yuan Qi’s perspective, sitting on a tree branch and dangling his legs while watching Jiang Yan play the zither. The Wushang Peak had a grove of plum blossoms; when the season was right, the red blossoms resembled a sea, painting the entire mountaintop in vibrant red. Clad in white robes, the two moved through the trees, bathed in the auspicious colors of the blossoms.

Though conscious, Yu Zaixi had no control over the body. He followed Jiang Yan, sensing the tension that had pushed them to the brink of a standoff. Even though they were constantly together, they rarely spoke more than ten sentences throughout the entire illusion. The final exchange was Yuan Qi asking, “Have you truly decided to descend the mountain?”

Jiang Yan did not answer; he simply picked up his sword and left.

This must have been just before their fateful journey down the mountain. Jiang Yan returned alone, while Yuan Qi reappeared several years later with Miao Pei in tow. It was only then that people realized he had shattered his own path to cultivate the Way of Heartlessness. Yu Zaixi was quite curious about those events, so once he realized he was no longer in pain, he simply followed the flow of the illusion.

Yuan Qi packed his belongings to descend the mountain, muttering with a cold face: “I hate Jiang Yan most in this life.”

It was quite amusing. His love for the man was practically carved onto his forehead, yet he stubbornly refused to admit it. Most amusing of all was Jiang Yan; despite Yuan Qi’s blatant behavior, he remained completely oblivious to Yuan Qi’s affection. He was the one who truly had the makings of a master of the Way of Heartlessness.

The perspective shifted rapidly. Sometimes it was Yu Zaixi leaning against a street corner secretly watching Jiang Yan; sometimes it was Yu Zaixi slashing through demons causing trouble for Jiang Yan; other times, he was lying alone on a rooftop, staring at the pitch-black sky. Yu Zaixi was merely a camera, unable to grasp Yuan Qi’s inner feelings, so he found this habit of stargazing incomprehensible. The stories in the books had never mentioned this quirk.

Whatever, he thought. Let us keep watching.

Time soon reached the day of the incident. It involved a cultivator possessed by a high-intelligence demon. Having reached the early Nascent Soul stage and descended into demonic madness, the entity essentially possessed the power of a Deity Transformation stage cultivator. The gap between cultivation stages was an abyss; it was obvious that Jiang Yan, who was only at the Nascent Soul stage at the time, was no match for it. Yet, he had not hesitated in the slightest when he struck.

Yu Zaixi, watching Jiang Yan leap into mid-air, could not help but shout, “Holy crap!” Unfortunately, Yuan Qi’s body could not produce his own voice.

Contrary to his shock, Yuan Qi remained calm, looking nothing like the obsessed stalker who trailed after Jiang Yan. He sneered, muttered “as expected,” and lowered his head to draw a formation on the ground. Yu Zaixi had seen him draw this formation several times in the illusion without ever activating it. This time, however, he was not using cinnabar, but blood from his own fingertip. It seemed he intended to activate it.

Once finished, Yuan Qi looked up at the sky and pulled a vengeful, mocking smile. “From now on… you will only be able to find me by looking at the sky.”

“Unfortunately, there is neither moon nor stars today.”

“You will never find me again.”

The formation was activated by his slow, deliberate sword dance. He had only drawn it to the size of a palm, but as he danced, he sliced a shallow gash into his left wrist. The formation drank his blood and expanded until it was large enough to encompass an entire city.

The entire city that Jiang Yan sought to protect now rested upon Yuan Qi’s formation. This was a sacrifice. He was using himself as an offering to trade for the safety of the city.

And it was more than just one city!

The last image Yu Zaixi saw was the blood-red incantations surging toward Jiang Yan like a mad wave. Born of blood, the incantations resembled chains crawling from the depths of the earth. They were also weapons carrying Yuan Qi’s resentment and retaliation, rising to Jiang Yan’s height and circling him, eyeing the demonic cultivator with hostility.

He did not see what happened next. When Yu Zaixi opened his eyes, Jiang Yan was staring at him, motionless. This was the Jiang Yan of several hundred years later, devoid of the concern he once showed Yuan Qi, his cold eyes filled only with bone-chilling frost and suspicion.

Yu Zaixi squinted and glared back. “What are you looking at? Do you want me to recount what I saw?”

He was just being snide, frustrated by Jiang Yan’s expression, but to his surprise, Jiang Yan grabbed him and asked, “What did you see?”

His grip was firm, and Yu Zaixi could feel a slight tremor in his hand.

Is he afraid?

Yu Zaixi felt a sudden sense of relief and laughed mockingly. “Nothing more than your past with Yuan Qi. Seeing you being ungrateful, fickle-minded, and crazed with conflicted love. Oh, and I also saw you being left out in the cold and berated, looking absolutely pathetic.”

Once he finished, Jiang Yan’s expression improved slightly. He quickly released his hand and walked ahead, as if Yu Zaixi had somehow tarnished him.

Yu Zaixi had not actually seen that much; he was mostly repeating what he had read in those gossip books. He had not been able to analyze much from his own vision. Once Jiang Yan moved on, he started to look around.

This was no longer an illusion. By the light of the Divine Bone Candle, he could see they were in a cave. It was not particularly large, and the stones had clearly been polished; it was man-made. Before he could look further, Miao Pei held the candle high to light the way for Jiang Yan.

A Mahayana-stage cultivator using a candle?

Yu Zaixi shot a look of exaggerated disdain at Miao Pei. He could not understand if the boy was truly as dim-witted as Yuan Qi had thought when he first picked him up.

Qin Nai walked to Yu Zaixi’s side and whispered, “Little Yu, did you not see the past of this cave?”

The past of this cave?

Yu Zaixi turned to smile at Qin Nai, his mood dampening. “Actually, I saw what happened when I came to the Western Mountain last night. I went through it again, but I still could not see clearly if that grafted creature was really on the mountain.”

Qin Nai was stunned but did not doubt him. “What you saw was outside the mountain?”

Yu Zaixi subconsciously looked up at the cave ceiling. “Are we inside the mountain?”

Qin Nai nodded. “You were the last to wake up; we hoped you might have seen something more.”

So that was not a clue. Yu Zaixi frowned slightly; no wonder he could not see the end of the vision. Jiang Yan must have sensed something was wrong and pulled him out. But what happened afterward had nothing to do with him; it was just the history between Jiang Yan and Yuan Qi. It made no difference whether he knew it or not.

“Let’s go. Follow them out.” Yu Zaixi raised his head, crossed his arms, and walked forward.

Qin Nai followed, smiling bitterly. “Actually, we cannot leave. Even Brother Jiang is trapped here. While you were in the illusion, your body kept pacing back and forth in this cave. We thought following you would lead us out, but after following you for a long time, we realized you were just walking in circles.”

He was not just walking in circles; something was wrong. Yu Zaixi turned his head. “Did all three of you see what happened in this cave before?”

“Yes, we saw an old man carving out this cave.”

That was strange. Why was he the only one who did not? Yu Zaixi tilted his head, unable to figure it out. “What did that old man look like?”

Qin Nai recalled and described him, but descriptions were abstract. They had different perceptions of the details, and their mental images of the face differed significantly. After listening to the description, Yu Zaixi thought for a long time and was certain he had never seen the man before, not even in his visions.

Yu Zaixi chuckled. “That is truly strange. If there is no exit, how did he get in, and why did we all fall into the illusion?”

His state was relatively relaxed, which made Qin Nai feel a bit more at ease. None of the people present could figure it out, but the most perplexed was Jiang Yan. With his cultivation, a burst of spiritual energy should have yielded results, yet he could not find a single exit, nor even a blocked one. He did not want to rashly damage the cave, as he still needed to investigate the wolf-tiger beast. He had to find another way.

Yu Zaixi watched as the master and disciple searched the cave once more, only to come up empty-handed.

Suddenly, he turned to Qin Nai. “Why is Miao Pei holding the Divine Bone Candle the whole time? Which one of them is blind?”

He said this intentionally, wanting to provoke them because he had no interest in being polite to Jiang Yan. Jiang Yan ignored him, so Miao Pei stepped forward to answer. “I am just worried that there are too many demonic creatures here that might disturb us.”

“Then why not catch one to find the way out? If the demons can pass through the walls to get in, they can lead us through the walls to get out.”

Miao Pei was stunned by the question. After a moment of realization, he extinguished the candle.

Yu Zaixi cursed him for a fool and drew his sword the instant the candle went out. Sure enough, countless demons were lurking in the darkness, waiting for the light to disappear. Miao Pei was startled but did not hesitate; he slashed through a majority of them, only for countless more to rush in.

It was endless.

In the end, it was Jiang Yan who relit the Divine Bone Candle.

As the light returned, Yu Zaixi saw a trace of helplessness and a hint of a smile in Jiang Yan’s eyes. His scalp tingled, and he hurriedly changed the subject. “How did we end up in this cave? Who among you was awake when you came in? Do we need to go back through the illusion to get out?”

The words Jiang Yan spoke next sent a chill down his spine.

“You were the one who walked in here while awake.”