Why is the Demon Venerable Like That? - Chapter 12

Lu Yuan and the System spoke simultaneously, a synchronized “Ah!”

The System was incredulous: [So you’re a “sea king” after all!]

Lu Yuan didn’t understand what “sea king” meant, but judging by the System’s tone, it wasn’t a compliment. He thought for a moment and hesitated. “That can’t be right.”

He wasn’t exactly close to Shen Xun’an. He would be more likely to dream of shouting Zhang Chafu’s name than Shen Xun’an’s.

Ling Chuandu said, “Are you saying I lied to you?” The corners of his lips pulled downward; it was a clear sign he was on the verge of anger.

Lu Yuan hadn’t expected this ancestor to be displeased again. Was he not even allowed to question things now? He felt that Ling Chuandu had become somewhat unreasonable over the past hundred years. However, for the sake of his own innocence, Lu Yuan persisted. “Could you have misheard?”

Ling Chuandu impatiently threw his teacup back onto the table. “If the ‘Junior Brother’ you were calling out to last night wasn’t Shen Xun’an, then who could it be? It certainly couldn’t be those other pieces of trash who pushed you out, hoping you’d die in their place.”

Lu Yuan suddenly realized. “So that’s it.”

He had been wondering why he dreamed of his childhood yesterday, yet the young Junior Brother beside him had been as cold as a ghost from a storybook. It turned out it was the current, grown-up version of the man himself.

Upon receiving what seemed to be a confirmation, Ling Chuandu’s aura of displeasure rose another notch. “The ‘love’ you hypocrites of the righteous path talk about is nothing more than this.”

Where did that even come from? Lu Yuan realized that after dying once, he could no longer keep up with Ling Chuandu’s train of thought.

The System secretly reminded him of his persona: [Host, did you forget that you are supposed to be in love with Xiao Jingchun?]

Lu Yuan scratched his nose. “…That’s a misunderstanding.”

His reputation had been tragically slandered, but what was more pathetic was that no matter what he said now, it sounded like he was just making excuses.

Ling Chuandu scoffed. “Why are you explaining yourself to me?”

Isn’t that because you were the one acting like you were here to hold me accountable!

Lu Yuan felt a surge of stifled frustration. In the end, feeling aggrieved, he picked up the teacup on the table and took a sip.

Ling Chuandu retracted his hand, which had been reaching out to stop him; his expression was unfathomable. “That was my cup.”

Lu Yuan froze and silently placed the cup back in its original spot.

Ling Chuandu’s expression grew even more enigmatic. Could this person really be a fool? He had known this man ran into the Hundred Domains of the Demon Realm for a single herb and thought he was merely bold; now, it seemed he had no brain at all. However, Lin Jiangxue had purposefully arranged him into this “Partridge Dream” for a reason; he feared the man wasn’t as simple as he appeared.

Ling Chuandu hadn’t intended to kill him last night, and it was even less likely now. He wanted to see what exactly this person was here to do.

Lu Yuan, who was being mistaken by Ling Chuandu as someone carrying a significant mission—while in reality, he was just a lazy person—felt the bitterness of the tea making his face scrunch up. He casually picked up some snacks and ate them, trying to wash away the aftertaste.

Ling Chuandu stared at him for a long time and then praised him with genuine sincerity: “You have a massive heart.”

In a place where the domain was unknown and the danger was unclear, this person didn’t just sleep well and eat well; he acted as if he were here on vacation.

Lu Yuan, who had received this inexplicable praise, earnestly brushed the crumbs off his hands. “Aren’t we leaving?”

Although he was determined to completely shed his former life’s identity—where he was always so busy he couldn’t lift his feet—debts still had to be collected. It could be considered giving an account to the Lu Shouzuo of his past life.

Ling Chuandu asked, “Go where?”

Lu Yuan looked at him strangely. “Are you here for a holiday?” Naturally, he was going out to find clues. If the plague broke out, what would be the point if they both died in the secret realm together?

The air in the room dropped a degree. Ling Chuandu wore an expression that said, You are about to die.

Lu Yuan’s eyelid twitched. He quickly took a few steps forward, pressed down on Ling Chuandu’s shoulders, and offered a shoulder massage as a bonus. “Old man, sit tight. I’ll go investigate alone. You just eat well, drink well, and sleep well.”

Ling Chuandu grabbed Lu Yuan’s hand as it was causing trouble on his shoulder. “What I do is not for you to criticize.”

Lu Yuan said in a good-natured tone, “Yes, yes.”

The Partridge Dream operated on its own logic. Ling Chuandu could have originally used his divine sense to search the entire manor for information, but in this secret realm, his divine sense seemed blocked, as if hitting a wall. His cultivation had been significantly suppressed within this illusion.

Ling Chuandu asked casually, “How do you intend to investigate?”

Lu Yuan was silent for a moment. Only recently had the memories of this body awakened in his mind. The original owner had mobility issues; going out at night might go unnoticed, but if he were to go out frequently during the day, he would inevitably be suspected. However, he had to gather clues. The good news was that in places with many servants, there were plenty of rumors. Having listened to gossip at the Fengchi Sect for so long, Lu Yuan had become quite adept at this.

Lu Yuan smiled faintly. “Eavesdropping.”

Ling Chuandu fixed his gaze on Lu Yuan’s face, doubting he had heard correctly. “What did you say?”

Lu Yuan answered clearly: “Eavesdropping.”

In the blink of an eye, Ling Chuandu’s expression shifted from confusion to an outburst. He roared, “You…” How dare you ask me to eavesdrop!

Lu Yuan was quick to cover his mouth. He glanced at the projection of the maid outside the paper window and made a shushing gesture. His lazy attitude vanished, replaced by a gaze toward Ling Chuandu that was vigilant and carried a hint of displeasure.

Ling Chuandu felt as if he were being hunted by a lone wolf. He was pressed firmly against the back of his chair, unable to move. Lu Yuan’s pitch-black pupils looked like the ashes of calcined metal, burning his skin bit by bit. Ling Chuandu held onto Lu Yuan’s wrist, his long lashes lowered as he looked at the other’s slender knuckles. He could feel that Lu Yuan’s hands were dry and warm, and the light calluses on his fingertips brought a faint, ticklish sensation with the rise and fall of his breathing.

Ling Chuandu even felt, with a strange sense of irony, that Lu Yuan was less afraid of him than he was worried about the maid outside hearing them.

“If they discover we aren’t the original ‘owners,’ the secret realm will collapse.” Lu Yuan paused for a few seconds. After confirming there was no abnormality outside, he withdrew his hand with an innocent expression, protecting his own wrist bone before Ling Chuandu could crush it.

His imposing attitude dissipated like a drop of water into the sea, becoming quiet and undetectable. He reverted to his previous demeanor—appearing to fawn over Ling Chuandu, waiting for his instructions with a subservient look.

Ling Chuandu realized that this man was trying to act obedient and sycophantic. It was just that he wore a mask that could be described as crude, and he felt it was merely a fresh, new way of acting that the man hadn’t used before. Beneath the mask, he was just performing perfunctorily.

His acting was clumsy, his tone was servile, yet his eyes were nonchalantly hidden behind a veil of indifference.

Taking advantage of the moment before Ling Chuandu could make another move, Lu Yuan opened the door first. The maid at the door was tending to the flowers and plants under the window and was startled by Lu Yuan, who had emerged silently.

Why is the Princess Consort acting like a thief in her own home?

The maid only dared to mutter in her heart. She bowed and continued to diligently do her work.

Outside, the sunlight was perfect. The garden’s trees and plants were neatly trimmed, the corridors wound in nine twists and eighteen turns, and the gold-inlaid plaques all spoke to the wealth and power of the manor’s owner.

Lu Yuan subconsciously shielded his eyes from the harsh sunlight. They had woken up quite late; the sun was already high in the sky. Ling Chuandu, shrouded in Lu Yuan’s shadow, was slow to move. He looked at the other’s straight back; the shadow blurred his expression.

He remembered a long time ago, he had also frequently followed behind someone like this.

Someone had once asked him, “Living your whole life in the shadow of others, covered by Lu Yuan’s glory, like a ghost who cannot see the light. Others only know of your senior brother and not you; do you have resentment?”

Those people might have been trying to provoke him, or perhaps they wanted to stir up conflict between the senior and junior brothers. Ling Chuandu, naturally, would not answer such a pointed question. When those people saw his cold, frost-like expression, they would mistakenly think they had received the answer they wanted and would leave satisfied.

His temper had been too good back then. If it were now…

Ling Chuandu’s expression was sinister; he laughed in a low voice. He subconsciously applied pressure with his fingertips, the stinging pain transferred to him without fail.

In fact, those people didn’t understand. He was willing to follow Lu Yuan for a lifetime, not because he was the Shouzuo of Haotian, nor because he was the young lord of Jiucang. It was simply because that person was Lu Yuan.

That was all. If possible, he was willing to be a ghost in Lu Yuan’s shadow for the rest of his life.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Yuan waited for a long time and, finding no movement behind him, turned around to ask.

The person in front of him overlapped eerily with the person in his memories. Ling Chuandu looked as if he had been scalded by the light; he stepped back, turned his head away, and said hoarsely, “It’s none of your business.”

Lu Yuan frowned. If others saw Ling Chuandu’s gloomy and irritable appearance, they would surely treat him like an evil ghost and keep their distance, but Lu Yuan only assumed he was stubbornly enduring some kind of problem.

He was already used to Ling Chuandu’s habit of not speaking his mind. He was like this before he died, and even after dying and being reborn in this life, Ling Chuandu was still the same. Not a shred of growth.

Lu Yuan noticed Ling Chuandu’s unnaturally clenched hand. He strode over and forcefully pried open Ling Chuandu’s tightly gripped hand, his voice cold as ice: “What are you doing?”

There were some blurred, mottled bloodstains on Ling Chuandu’s palm; it was obvious he had pinched himself with no regard for the damage.

Lu Yuan took out a handkerchief to wipe away the bloodstains carefully. When he touched the wound, he was clearly emotional, and his movements were not restrained.

Ling Chuandu didn’t make a sound, allowing Lu Yuan to hold his hand, staring contemplatively at Lu Yuan’s sullen face.

“You…” Just as Lu Yuan was about to say something, a maid dressed in goose-yellow appeared. She seemed to have run all the way over, and she hadn’t caught her breath yet. She wanted to say something to Ling Chuandu, but seeing Lu Yuan present, she stammered and couldn’t complete a full sentence.

Lu Yuan recognized this person as Xue Wei, Lu Yuan’s dowry maid. A woman struggling in her husband’s family, whose husband was estranged from her, and whose own dowry maids had their own agendas, treating her as if she were an outsider. Based on Xue Wei’s attitude, if he were here, she probably wouldn’t say a word.

Thinking of this, a meaningful smile appeared on Lu Yuan’s face, though his eyes still held the previous coldness. He feigned anger: “It seems I am the one who is redundant.”

He lifted his eyelids, gave Xue Wei a look of obscure meaning, and turned to leave. His sleeve brushed against Xue Wei’s arm as he passed. Xue Wei’s shoulder shuddered; her complexion looked as ugly as if she had been lashed by a whip.

Xue Wei was almost forced to her knees by the momentum of that one glance from Lu Yuan. She had never seen this weak and easily bullied eldest young miss reveal such a majestic gaze. That look, which treated her like nothing more than dust, caused the blood to rush to her head, and her face turned bright red.

Ling Chuandu lowered his eyes to look at Xue Wei, who had become as rigid as a stake. In the end, becoming impatient, he tapped lightly on the doorframe. The dull knocking sound pulled Xue Wei back from her dazed state.

Xue Wei composed herself, as if having made a decision. She quickly changed her expression and gritted her teeth: “Young Master, the Second Miss Lu… is not doing well.”

Second Miss Lu, Lu Mingzhu, was the childhood sweetheart of the young master, Lin Chuan, and was the “culprit” behind the strained marriage between Lin Chuan and Lu Yuan.

Ling Chuandu stared thoughtfully at the top of Xue Wei’s head, ignoring why Lu Yuan’s dowry maid would speak for Lu Mingzhu. He stood in the shadows of the room, his brows cast in gloom.

Xue Wei couldn’t help but look up at Ling Chuandu, then quickly lowered her head again, nervously staring at the floor. She couldn’t grasp his intentions because she had just seen Lu Yuan and the Young Master holding hands in intimacy.

Could it be that the Young Master has had a change of heart? Xue Wei was anxious and uneasy.

Ling Chuandu laughed. Upon hearing the laughter, Xue Wei felt as if she had received a pardon, but when she looked up, she saw a smile on Ling Chuandu’s face that could only be described as wicked.

“What happened to Lu Mingzhu?” Ling Chuandu asked slowly, appearing as if he were truly concerned about his childhood sweetheart.

Xue Wei was shocked, but bit the bullet and replied: “The Second Miss Lu has contracted… the plague! I beg you to have pity on my mistress and go see her.”

Contracted the plague, yet not afraid of infecting her lover.

Ling Chuandu scoffed: “Understood.”

He finally deigned to step out of the room, but he gave no clear answer to the other. Xue Wei felt her breath catch in her throat, and she was left frozen in place. She watched as the Young Master strode away, but it seemed he was heading in the exact direction Lu Yuan had just left.