When I Mistook My Arch-Rival for My Dao Companion - Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Asking such a thing was somewhat impolite; Fu Guzhou felt a bit apprehensive, only to hear Wenren Qian give a cold laugh. “I can’t restrain it. Right now, This Seat wishes for nothing more than to eat you immediately.”

“!” Fu Guzhou’s face was the picture of terror.

Fortunately, his Dao companion still loved him; despite saying he would eat him immediately, he didn’t make any actual move.

So, the man was simply teasing him.

Fu Guzhou saw a hint of cuteness in the other man. “Wenren Qian, I think I like you even more now.”

A retort of “I want to eat you more and more, too” nearly burst from Wenren Qian’s lips, but he managed to hold it back. He was a dignified Demon Sovereign; what point was there in bickering with a fellow whose brain had gone wrong?

He let out a slow breath and said steadily, “The Immortal Venerable is certainly full of ‘likes’ right now. Once you recover your memories in the future, don’t forget the ‘affection’ between the two of us.”

Wenren Qian deliberately emphasized the word “affection.” It was a statement dripping with sarcasm, yet in Fu Guzhou’s ears, it sounded like his Dao companion hoped that even after recovering his memories, he would continue to like him as always. He subconsciously frowned. What kind of misunderstanding could have existed between his pre-amnesia self and his Dao companion to cause things to reach such a state?

Fu Guzhou patted Wenren Qian’s head. “Don’t worry. Even if I recover my memories, I will still like you very much.”

“…… Take your claws off me.”

“Oh, oh, oh.” Fu Guzhou hurriedly withdrew his hand from the top of Wenren Qian’s head.

“Since the Immortal Venerable likes me so much, why did you seal This Seat away? If it weren’t for the Xuanyin Demon Emperor wanting to thoroughly eradicate This Seat, perhaps This Seat would still be in Wuying Mountain, ‘appreciating’ the Immortal Venerable’s love.”

Fu Guzhou was speechless. He could only pull a bit of distance away from Wenren Qian in shame.

“I don’t know. Perhaps my pre-amnesia self misunderstood you. Don’t worry yet; I will likely disappear soon. When he returns, he should be able to explain it to you.”

“Immortal Venerable, why bother separating your two selves so distinctly? However, compared to the Qingchen Immortal Venerable, This Seat actually prefers you. Compared to the future you, the current you is at least honest enough.” And easy to fool.

The careless words carried a hint of seductive charm, making Fu Guzhou’s face turn red. He felt quite embarrassed. His mind was filled with the phrase “This Seat actually prefers you,” and for a moment, he felt his head grow hot.

Fu Guzhou opened his mouth, wanting to ask the other to be a bit more subtle, but he truly couldn’t refuse such blatant affection. After hesitating for a long time, he only managed to squeeze out: “I like you too.”

Wenren Qian: “?”

At what step had he failed to keep up with the other’s logic?

Forget it. Wenren Qian gave up trying to figure out what Fu Guzhou was thinking and drew his bone sword. “Since you said you learned a very powerful move, why not let This Seat see it?”

As he spoke, he had already arrived before Fu Guzhou with his sword raised. The sword momentum came far too quickly. One breath ago, Fu Guzhou was still pouring his heart out to his Dao companion; the next, the other’s sword was practically against his neck. Fu Guzhou did not use the Dingxie Sword, but instead drew his Dao companion’s sword and initiated his stance.

If one were to describe Wenren Qian’s sword style in Fu Guzhou’s eyes, it was inevitably “fast.” Every time Wenren Qian struck, it felt like a falling star or a flash of lightning. Fortunately, Fu Guzhou’s sword was not lacking; the moment a fast sword allows its trajectory to be captured, it loses its initial advantage.

The sword arrived before Fu Guzhou’s eyes, the tip about to press against his neck. Under such surging demonic energy and overwhelming sword intent, Fu Guzhou’s movements would normally have slowed by half, yet that strike did not ultimately touch his neck. It wasn’t because Wenren Qian had gone soft-hearted, but because another sword had steadily blocked his path.

The elegant and cool Immortal Venerable, looking exceptionally dignified even with a stray lock of hair blown across his face by the wind, slightly curved his brows and smiled. “Is this strike powerful?”

It was indeed powerful.

It appeared that Fu Guzhou had merely raised his sword to block, but the ever-changing speed of that strike was no slower than his own. If he had wished, the time just now would have been enough for Fu Guzhou to strike several times, yet the other had chosen the gentlest way to view the sword.

Wenren Qian sheathed his sword and gave an evaluation: “Acceptable. You haven’t yet learned the essence of it.”

“I was in a hurry to get out then, so I didn’t learn more. But it’s a good thing I came out early, as I happened to run into you.”

“How many times did you study it?”

“Twice. But my talent is a bit poor; right now, I’ve only barely grasped a bit of its spirit and form.”

“…… Speaking like that makes it very easy for people to want to hit you,” Wenren Qian said sincerely.

“Eh?”

Fu Guzhou was an extremely honest person. Well, one couldn’t quite say that; rather, towards those he was close to, Fu Guzhou was extremely honest. He not only showed Wenren Qian the sword technique he had just learned but also shared everything he and the white-browed child had discussed, including the fact that this place was Wujian (The Avici/Uninterrupted Hell).

“I didn’t believe this was Wujian at first, but looking closely, only a place like Wujian could be like this. After all, we’ve been here so long and haven’t seen a single ghost cultivator.”

“Wujian has long been known as a prison. The Demon Realm has no records of a way to leave.”

“The Immortal Sects are the same. However, if there are records of this place, then someone must have entered and then come back out. Otherwise, where would the records come from? But if records of Wujian exist, why is there no method for leaving? It’s illogical. Wujian isn’t a killing formation like the Nine-Turn Yin Fiend Formation; it shouldn’t be without a way to break it.”

At this point, Fu Guzhou stopped. But what if the person who discovered this place simply didn’t intend for those who followed to ever leave? Recalling the “Wujian Prison” Wenren Qian had just mentioned, Fu Guzhou fell silent.

“So this place is essentially a cage without even a key.”

Seeing that Fu Guzhou had finally realized the situation, Wenren Qian smiled. “Correct. This is the Wujian cage once used to imprison the most heinous of criminals. However, this place was only used for about a thousand years. Later, the connection between this place and the cultivation world was severed. I didn’t expect us to stumble into it.”

“Since you knew this was Wujian, why did you lie to me earlier and say it was a ghost cultivator’s secret realm?”

“Naturally, it was to see if your amnesia was real or fake.”

Fu Guzhou found himself completely unable to refute this and even felt that there was nothing wrong with the other doing so.

Putting himself in the other’s shoes, he might not even be able to face the Dao companion who had once sealed him as calmly as Wenren Qian did.

“Then, does the Great Demon Sovereign have a way out of Wujian?”

Wenren Qian glanced at him. “Immortal Venerable, you must know that there is an old grudge between us. If This Seat knew a way to leave, I would have left long ago. Why would I still be here waiting with you?”

These excessively realistic and sincere words truly dealt a blow to Fu Guzhou.

Seeing that Fu Guzhou fully understood the meaning behind his words, Wenren Qian felt satisfied.

“Be that as it may, I feel…”

“What do you feel?”

“I feel that between us, it must be…” Meeting Wenren Qian’s gaze, Fu Guzhou ultimately didn’t say what he “felt.” He simply held his sword in silence.

Wenren Qian, who had just felt comfortable, now felt a bit uncomfortable again.

“What? Are you feeling wronged now?”

“No, I just feel that my pre-amnesia self seems to have been a very bad person.” What kind of misunderstanding could lead his past self to not even spare his own Dao companion? This wasn’t something that could be smoothed over with a casual “misunderstanding.” The person he was before his memory loss wasn’t at all like the person he had expected himself to be.

He used to think that his future self would surely be the most unfettered sword cultivator, roaming freely through the nine heavens, but the version of himself in other people’s mouths didn’t seem good at all.

“If you truly were a very bad person, what would you do?”

Fu Guzhou didn’t expect Wenren Qian to actually follow his train of thought and ask. “I suppose I’d be very disappointed. But he is me, and I am him. No matter how much I change, we cannot become two different people. So while being disappointed, I would also choose to accept all my good and bad points and then work hard to make certain changes. If that really doesn’t work, then it’s better if I never recover my memories. After all, my pre-amnesia self was practically not a human.”

Wenren Qian couldn’t help but laugh. “Immortal Venerable, it is hard to imagine that your teenage self would be so interesting.”

Fu Guzhou didn’t understand. Where was the interest? He was clearly being very serious.

“Can you be a little more serious?”

“Fine, I’m being serious.” Even as he said this, Wenren Qian took a certain type of stone out of his storage space.

“Wenren Qian, what are you doing with a Record Stone!” Fu Guzhou said in shock.

“Ignore me. Continue speaking. I’ll record it for you. Next time the two of us have a great battle, I’ll play it on loop to see if I can make you reach a point where you want to die in a certain sense.”

Die of embarrassment, right?

Fu Guzhou’s young heart was wounded. “Wenren Qian, quick, put the Record Stone down, or I’m really going to get angry.”

“Oh? Then This Seat is actually looking forward to it. Show me your anger. In all these years, This Seat truly hasn’t seen what the Immortal Venerable looks like when he’s angry.”

Fu Guzhou, in a fit of powerless rage, moved directly to snatch the stone from the other’s hand. How could the man be like this? He was speaking so seriously, and the other was laughing at him—and if laughing wasn’t enough, he wanted to record it with a Record Stone.

Wenren Qian held Fu Guzhou down with one hand while holding the Record Stone further away with the other.

“Immortal Venerable, it’s already recording. If the sound is removed, this action of yours looks like you’re throwing yourself into my arms.”

Fine. Fu Guzhou became even more determined to snatch the item back.

Unable to snatch it by force, Fu Guzhou simply resorted to using spells. Unfortunately, both of them were cultivators. When Fu Guzhou used spells, Wenren Qian naturally used them too. The Record Stone was tossed back and forth between them, yet it managed to return to Wenren Qian’s hand every single time.

Despite the fact that Fu Guzhou was practically pouncing on Wenren Qian’s body, he couldn’t even grab a single stone.

Fu Guzhou used a clever maneuver and was just about to grab the stone when he suddenly lost his balance and fell completely onto Wenren Qian.

Feeling the other’s powerful heartbeat, the scorching temperature, and the faint scent that could only be detected up close, Fu Guzhou’s mind went numb. For a moment, he didn’t even dare to breathe too heavily.

Is this scent agarwood? It also seemed a bit like cedar. It smelled surprisingly good.

“So the Immortal Venerable likes it this way. You should have said so earlier. Do you need This Seat to hold you like this indefinitely?”

Fu Guzhou blinked, wrapped his arms around Wenren Qian’s neck, and nuzzled him intimately. Following the other’s lead, he said: “Okay!”

Wenren Qian instantly regretted his words.

“…… This Seat was joking. Get off.”

“No.” Fu Guzhou held the man. That feeling of his heart racing hadn’t disappeared; he only felt exceptionally happy and even wanted to do something more intimate, to the point of forgetting what his original goal was.

The hand Wenren Qian had been using to support the man immediately began trying to pull him away. “Let go quickly, or I’ll use fire on you.”

“You wouldn’t be able to bear it.”

“Oh, I’d be perfectly able to bear it.”

Wenren Qian’s fire was about to flare up, but the eyes of the man who had been so casual just now suddenly widened. He even forgot the fire he had intended to release, all because Fu Guzhou—who had originally just been leaning against him and resting his full weight on him—suddenly lowered his head and kissed him on his Adam’s apple.

The soft and somewhat warm touch directly extinguished the flames that were about to ignite in Wenren Qian.

Wenren Qian fell silent for a long time, looking at Fu Guzhou, whose cheeks were already stained red from performing such an act.

Fu Guzhou felt quite embarrassed now. He felt like a lecher, but since he had already kissed him, he couldn’t very well not take responsibility.

It was truly because they were too close. He suddenly saw such a beautiful and sexy Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as the man spoke, and he wanted to kiss it—so he did.

It was his fault.

Fu Guzhou didn’t quite dare to look at Wenren Qian, and then he heard Wenren Qian’s voice ring out, sounding exceptionally dangerous: “Fu Guzhou, how about This Seat just kills you after all?”

Fu Guzhou: “Eh?”