Chapter 6 – Fair and Reasonable

Feng Ye shut up for the time being and mentally raised Hao Chen’s difficulty level again. He had originally meant to drive the other party away by flustering him, but never expected that it would turn out this way.

Laying next to someone whose identity he didn’t know, he felt uncomfortable from head to foot.

Feng Ye’s thinking was unconstrained. Although the other party had a pure human aura, who knew what was hidden beneath that handsome human skin?

Feng Ye had encountered many creatures capable of disguising themselves as humans, with disgusting and monstrous original forms. Unable to figure out Hao Chen’s identity for the time being, he couldn’t help but imagine a lot of them.

And the more he imagined, the more uneasy he felt.

Just when Feng Ye was about to get up due to all of the slimy, grotesque monsters filling his head, Hao Chen’s movements brought him to a halt.

Hao Chen moved his shoulder slightly away from where it was pressed against Feng Ye’s, and half-hung off the single bamboo bed in an extremely uncomfortable and awkward posture.

Unlike Feng Ye, whose mind was full of monsters, Hao Chen didn’t doubt that the body next to him was human, but he was also aware that this human body was dead.

He was lying with a corpse that contained the spirit of some unknown thing. At the thought of this, Hao Chen couldn’t help but shrink farther and farther away.

Feng Ye discovered this point. Upon realizing that Hao Chen was uncomfortable, his own discomfort magically disappeared. He even took the initiative to move slightly toward Hao Chen.

Their shoulders touched again, and Feng Ye felt Hao Chen’s body reflexively tremble. Increasingly confident, he said with casual provocation: “Why is Fellow Daoist Hao Chen moving farther off the bed? Are you treating me as an outsider?”

Hao Chen stopped shrinking back. Tilting his head slightly, he took a steady look at Feng Ye beside him and suddenly smiled: “Fellow Daoist Feng Ye, how could I treat you as an outsider? I’m just afraid of crowding you. But since Fellow Daoist Feng Ye doesn’t mind, I won’t be polite.”

Feng Ye: “……” Oops. He seemed to have dropped a stone on his own foot again.

“Wait…..” Feng Ye had a bad premonition. He had only said the one word when Hao Chen moved his body and pressed half his shoulder directly onto Feng Ye. The bamboo bed, which had originally been crowded with two people on it, suddenly had some empty space.

In the end, Hao Chen said with a sigh: “That feels much better.”

Feng Ye: “…….” He had still underestimated Hao Chen’s lower limit.

But he couldn’t bring himself to tell Hao Chen to move away, because once he spoke up, this cold war would be lost.

Feng Ye never liked to admit defeat. Not in any aspect. Although he felt that he was slightly inferior to Hao Chen in terms of shamelessness, he couldn’t keep losing over and over.

So he just stubbornly lay there in bed, pretending to be relaxed as he said: “That’s right, good brothers should sleep close like this. The closer they are, the deeper their feelings.”

Hao Chen replied in the same relaxed tone: “Fellow Daoist Feng Ye is right. Lying here together with you, I feel that our relationship has made a breakthrough.”

“Hahaha…..” Feng Ye didn’t want to delve into where the relationship Hao Chen mentioned had made a breakthrough, nor what kind of feelings there were between them after meeting for the first time today. He just responded with a dry laugh.

His laughter gradually died down. The two of them stopped talking for the time being and closed their eyes silently, as if they had really fallen asleep.

But how stiff they were as they rested, and how tormented they were inside, only they knew.

Both of them were holding back with all their strength. Neither of them wanted to be the first one to show weakness, so they lay there inexplicably for the entire afternoon.

In the evening, Fang Yang returned with sweat all over his body and worry in his heart for his Useless Shixiong and his strange friend, and came to pay a special visit with some wild fruits picked on the back mountain in tow.

When he pushed open the door, he saw the two people lying together.

Fang Yang: “……”

His young mind received a blow from this scene.

The wooden door hit the wall and bounced back after Fang Yang opened it, making a creaking sound.

Feng Ye jumped up when the door creaked open. He’d been on pins and needles all afternoon and was entirely unable to sleep. Every minute and every second he lay with Hao Chen seemed like a year.

As early as when he heard Fang Yang’s footsteps running closer, Feng Ye was eager to move and jump up immediately, feeling that he had finally found his savior.

But his reasoning made him remain in bed. After all, he was only a junior disciple at the third level of Qi Refining, and it was absolutely impossible for him to have such good hearing.

Thus, he waited until Fang Yang opened the door before leaping up in relief.

Fang Yang watched as his Useless Shixiong rushed over to him with an unprecedented level of enthusiasm, not even disdaining the smell of his sweat from training.

After all, the odor of sweat……no, no, the scent of youth was nothing compared to Hao Chen.

“You picked fruit? For me?” Feng Ye asked disingenuously. Without even waiting for Fang Yang to answer, he picked one out and proceeded to chomp on it.

Crunch. Perhaps due to the loud noises he was making, Hao Chen, who was lying silently on the bamboo bed with his eyes closed, woke up and turned over. He even blinked sleepily with extreme dedication, pretending to have just awoken.

But after lying with him all afternoon, Feng Ye knew that, like himself, Hao Chen hadn’t slept at all.

This was nonsense. They didn’t know one another’s backgrounds, so how could they really feel comfortable sleeping in the same bed as some fellow who might not be human?

Fang Yang saw Useless Shixiong’s friend sit up in bed, and only then did he belatedly return to his senses. Looking back and forth between them, he said hesitantly: “You guys…..”

He didn’t finish his words, but his eyes moved around before finally landing on the bamboo couch – which had originally belonged to Feng Ye – under Hao Chen’s buttocks.

Crunch. Feng Ye took another bite of fruit. Following Fang Yang’s line of sight, he thought of something and said hastily: “We were just sleeping.”

It doesn’t seem to be as simple as sleeping, especially since you have a sleeping companion.

The hesitation on Fang Yang’s face was not dispelled by Feng Ye’s words.

Feng Ye wanted to explain further, but he unfortunately still had food in his mouth and choked in his haste. He rapidly patted his chest, coughing as he tried to force himself to swallow the fruit.

Seeing that Feng Ye had temporarily lost his ability to fight, Hao Chen tacitly took over the responsibility of explaining. He took from his sleeve the fan he always kept with him when he slept, and said with a smile while fanning himself: “Fellow Daoist Feng Ye and I have very sincere feelings of friendship. We got so excited while talking that we just lay down together…..”

“Lying together…..to sleep?” Fang Yang repeated. He still felt that this explanation was strange.

Hao Chen chuckled and shook his head in deadly earnest: “No, no, no, we were cultivating to prepare for the assessment in a few days.”

Two people…..lying in bed…..cultivating? Feng Ye coughed harder and harder, wanting to cover Hao Chen’s mouth. He had discovered that any words coming from Hao Chen’s mouth would sound increasingly strange.

Although he was the first one to describe sleeping as a form of cultivation, it was still strange for Hao Chen to say it like that!

However, Fang Yang looked as if he had suddenly become enlightened. Feng Ye’s heart trembled at the sight. What had he realized?

At last, he swallowed the fruit stuck in his throat, and the first thing he did was stop Fang Yang from leaving in order to try to save his innocence: “It’s not what you think!”

“Ah?” Fang Yang asked strangely: “Are the two of you not close friends?”

Feng Ye: “……” So this was what Fang Yang was thinking.

Feng Ye turned to look at Hao Chen, who was sitting on the bed fanning himself. Hao Chen also looked nonchalant, which made Feng Ye the only one who had such thoughts.

It’s me who’s too perverted, Feng Ye reflected inwardly.

This being the case, Feng Ye released the hand holding Fang Yang back and asked casually: “Where are you going?”

Fang Yang was very considerate: “Shixiong’s friend will probably stay the night, so I’m going to ask the steward to loan him a room.”

There were many rooms for junior disciples to live in at the foot of Lingxiao Sword Sect’s mountain, and they were not all occupied.

Moreover, it was only junior disciples at the foot of the mountain. All of the confidential buildings, such as the library containing cultivation techniques, were on the mountain proper, so personnel management at the foot of the mountain was very loose. One could invite friends to stay overnight at will, as long as the steward who managed the rooms was informed.

Fang Yang’s suggestion came at the perfect time. Sleeping in the same bed for one afternoon was hell on earth for Feng Ye. After finally gaining his freedom, he swore he would never sleep with Hao Chen again.

Feng Ye was about to praise his shidi for his cleverness, when Fang Yang seemed to recall something and added: “Oh, you two are so close that you probably want to sleep together. I won’t go borrow one.”

“No!” Feng Ye shouted almost anxiously, once again grabbing Fang Yang to keep him from leaving. Only afterward did he realize he’d been a little too urgent. He’d been holding on for an entire afternoon and absolutely couldn’t show any weakness now, lest that entire afternoon of effort be in vain.

As if to remedy this, he turned and asked Hao Chen: “It doesn’t matter to me. It depends on what Fellow Daoist Hao Chen thinks.”

Waving his fan, Hao Chen covered half his face with it and said with regret: “Although I’m very happy to cultivate with Fellow Daoist Feng Ye……he’s about to take the assessment and I don’t want to disturb him……so let’s sleep in separate rooms.”

Feng Ye breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed Hao Chen wasn’t stubborn enough to fight him to the death.

The two reached a consensus, and Fang Yang trotted off.

He ran all the way to the steward and gave him a brief account of his shixiong’s visiting friend.

The steward looked like a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties, but his age was far beyond that. The lifespans of immortal cultivators continued to grow as their cultivation increased.

Therefore, the appearances of cultivators changed very slowly. The steward looked to be middle-aged, but he was actually over one hundred years old.

Increased age led to the loss of many things, such as the drive and passion that were unique to young people. But there were also things that were like aged wine, which fermented and became more fragrant with time.

For example, the love of gossip.

This steward was extremely gossipy. When he heard that a disciple of Tiangong Pavilion was visiting a friend, he couldn’t help but chat with Fang Yang: “Is that friend male or female? What is the relationship between them and your shixiong?”

“Male.” Fang Yang thought for a second, then replied earnestly: “Very good friends.”

Useless-shixiong liked to sleep, and birds of a feather flocked together. It was reasonable and fair that Useless-shixong’s friend also liked to sleep.

It was also reasonable and fair that they fell asleep chatting.

And the so-called “cultivating” was just an excuse that Useless Shixiong always used. Fang Yang could tell from Feng Ye’s motionless cultivation level that his Useless Shixiong never cultivated. 

Labeling sleeping as cultivation was just so that Useless Shixiong could save face, and Fang Yang was considerate enough not to expose him.

The steward lost interest when he heard the word “male.” What kind of gossip could there be between two grown men? He picked out a key to one of the many empty rooms and gave it to Fang Yang. It was the one closest to Feng Ye’s room.

Seeing as Fang Yang’s expression wasn’t too serious when he answered just now, the steward couldn’t help but question him in the tone of an experienced person: “How close are they?”

The world of cultivation wasn’t as simple as people might think, that one should be free of desires and seek the dao with one’s whole heart. When friends as close as brothers could kill each other over a martial arts book, this so-called friendship was even more unreliable.

Only young people like Fang Yang, who hadn’t witnessed the evil inherent in human nature, believed in friendship.

Fang Yang heard the steward’s doubts and took the key, but didn’t leave. Instead, he resolutely gave the steward an example: “They have such a close relationship that they sleep together…..to cultivate.” In order to save face for Useless Shixiong, he decided to use the cultivation description for sleeping.

The steward: “…….”

He asked in disbelief: “Your shixiong is male? And your shixiong’s friend is also male?”

Fang Yang gave a bewildered nod. Wasn’t this nonsense? If his shixiong wasn’t male, wouldn’t he call him shijie?

The expression on the steward’s face was fascinating, shifting between shocked and appalled. Fang Yang said goodbye to him, but he didn’t respond.

It was only that, the next day……

There was a special note on a Lingxiao Sword Sect junior disciple: Male, accompanied by a certain male disciple of Tiangong Pavilion.

And one more special note: They practice dual cultivation.

This rumor spread across the foot of the mountain overnight.

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Chapter 5 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 7