Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Chapter 21 – It’s Always Difficult To Keep Control Under The Moon

Translator: THISBRO

Editor: Mimishijie

Proofreader: Bubbles

As it was the Three Great Sect’s territory they visited, it was naturally He Huan, with his higher cultivation, that took care of everything. Usually, He Huan would just fly leisurely on a cloud, but today He Ku finally experienced this person’s power. Within a puff of smoke, they became formless and melded into the night quietly. The pitch-black demonic energy concealed them extremely well, so much so, that even if they passed by someone on the street, nobody would have been able to notice that a living person just walked by. But how come He Huan was flying higher and higher?

Sensing that He Huan’s state was a little unstable, He Ku couldn’t help but worry after remembering the Technique of Bliss’ flaw. Yet, He Huan continued to leap, each step exceeding the one before. Just when He Ku wondered if they were going to break through the atmosphere, they finally stopped. He Huan signed a technique with his hands and a cloud floated over. He slowly laid down and looked at his Yuan Ying who had been so worried that he came out of his body. It was only then that he revealed his usual smile. “I wanted to enjoy the moon. It’s quieter up here.”

Once a cultivator reaches the Foundation Building stage, they would be able to fly on a sword. After forming the Nascent Soul they would be able to command the winds and use clouds as transportation. However, even like this their bodies were still made of flesh, so to be able to breathe uninhibited at such a high altitude just to enjoy the moon, probably only He Huan, as a Calamity Crossing stage cultivator, would do this. Looking at it now, they really had flown extremely high. Underneath them was a sea of clouds, not a single building in sight. Directly above them was the round and full moon, as if you’d be able to touch it just by reaching out. He Ku had never seen the moon from such a close distance, the uninhibited glow spilled onto the tranquil clouds indeed felt beautiful, but it was very lonely to stay in such a soundless space.

He was just preoccupied with watching the sea of clouds when He Huan’s calm voice gently sounded, “He Ku, come here.”

Knowing that He Huan’s mood wasn’t great, in a rare show of obedience He Ku drifted over and even sat beside him. He was about to assume the attitude of a roommate’s night talk when his body suddenly tilted and he found himself lying on that person’s chest. Naturally, he didn’t lay down on his own accord, but rather the Great Palace Master He had been too well-behaved and couldn’t stand the loneliness anymore, so he had directly pulled him down. But what did he hope to gain from holding his literal mirror image?

Absolutely lost on what was happening, He Ku used his current intangible state and sank through He Huan. He reemerged on the other side of the cloud like he was swimming before asking, “Why did you suddenly hug me?”

“It’s slightly cold tonight, so I wanted to hold something warm.”

Although his face was calm as he answered, He Huan also felt a little strange. In the past, he had only needed to meditate until he was calm inside to enjoy the moon. So how come he suddenly wanted to hold something today? Now that he thought about it, after his tribulation, he hadn’t called on anyone to serve him in bed, instead spending all of his time staying with He Ku. Could it be that his body couldn’t hold it back anymore? Or did Lin FaCai’s sentence about only holding a sword affect him more than he thought? Ridiculous. What kind of beauty had He Huan not held that he was even jealous of a brutish wife and an idiot son?

After all, He Huan had already lived a hundred years. He knew that for this thought to come to him it meant that he really was affected. These kinds of feelings couldn’t be kept, and he immediately shook his head at He Ku. “No matter. Later, you go ahead and sleep first; I’m going to find Xiu Niang.”

As soon as this was said, how could He Ku not know that this was because He Huan was about to do something unsuitable for children and was asking him to leave? Although they were both consenting and it didn’t affect him or violate any laws, he was still unhappy. Unable to understand why he’d suddenly become so prudish, He Ku took it as his unwillingness to let a good conversational partner like Xiu Niang be pestered by He Huan. He gracelessly dropped down beside He Huan and said, “What do you intend to do by running into some lady’s room? I’ve come, just take it as your own right hand and put up with it.”

He Huan really didn’t expect him to come over. After all, it didn’t matter if it was Bu QingYun or He Ku, they both had a thin face in this regard. However, even though he was open enough, he wasn’t at the point where he could even develop those intentions towards his own Yuan Ying. Now that they were lying side by side, he only felt novelty. He leaned on his side and looked at the person beside him carefully, before pretending to be puzzled. “So it turns out that I was fine with men even when I was a youth?”

“What nonsense are you spouting? I’m just accompanying you to watch the moon.”

He was anxious when he said this. He turned his head and saw that He Huan had taken off his veil at some point. His long black hair draped along his ears and fell onto the clouds, while his already excellent facial features became more apparent under the moonlight. Those deep water-like eyes stared at him intensely, even the raised eyebrow from his intrigue was filled with temptation. In this situation, if it was not him but someone else, both man or woman would not have been able to resist falling into his arms. Unfortunately, he saw this face in the mirror every day, so his immediate reaction was to scoff. “What are you? In heat? You can’t even resist your right hand?”

Seeing his expression, He Huan’s mood finally became a little better and he laughed. “I’m just teasing you. I just feel a little unpleasant after seeing those two.”

It was only then that he realised this guy was pretending again to scare him. Internally, He Ku cursed some people’s lack of integrity, but still stayed beside him and replied, “So now you know that being single is terrible, huh? You get abused just by looking at married couples.”

His description was very fitting. He Huan smiled and only said, “It’s been a while since I’ve seen them, I’m not used to it anymore.”

“Aren’t I here to keep you company? If your mood is bad, just talk more. What’s the use in drowning in wine?”

The one thing that He Ku couldn’t bear to see was this insincere smile of his. The moment he finished advising, he immediately jabbed his elbow in He Huan’s direction, only to helplessly watch as it completely passed through him. He couldn’t help but feel depressed. “You can touch me, but I can’t touch you. This isn’t fair at all.”

Seeing him like this, He Huan smiled again and comforted, “Once you get to the Nascent Soul Stage, you’d be able to touch spirit bodies. At that time, I’ll let you touch me as much as you want to.”

“Bah! Why would I want to touch you?”

He Ku swore that he didn’t have a hobby of touching himself, but before he could say anything, He Huan put his hand on his shoulder. At first he just rubbed a few times, then it slowly went into his collar. He was clearly a spirit body, but he actually felt the temperature of human fingertips. He Ku unconsciously shivered, while cursing in his heart. Was He Huan a werewolf? After being under the moon, did he turn into a wolf? We only just spoke a few words and he was horny again?

He naturally wouldn’t let this situation continue to develop and immediately reminded him, “Hey, where are you touching?”

He Huan paused after he mentioned this, his hand still pressed on the other’s shoulder and actually said something sensible, “I just noticed that I wasn’t born with especially sturdy-looking shoulders. They seem unable to carry the weight of the world.”

He Ku really thought that he had misunderstood He Huan’s intentions, but this guy added another line of nonsense right after, “However, this collarbone developed very well. It makes people want to touch it the moment they see it.”

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When this was spoken, He Ku’s face instantly darkened, once again reminding him, “Hey, snap out of it, this collarbone is from your body.”

Unexpectedly, this guy was not ashamed but instead proud, as he immediately nodded in agreement. “Naturally, what I have is the best in the world. Remember to take a closer look next time you take a shower.”

Such thick skin even had He Ku, someone who claimed to not need face, admitting defeat. He could only sigh in admiration. “I have to admit, between the two of us, you are the most shameless one.”

Even though he said it as a joke, He Huan also felt that he was a little strange today, like why he constantly felt the need to touch He Ku to confirm his existence. Even though he knew that He Ku was just a segment of his soul that he split off and that he couldn’t be considered a ‘real’ person, that if anything happened to himself, he would have to reabsorb him to supplement his cultivation. But there were times when he felt he couldn’t bear to turn him back into the silent Nascent Soul in his body that stored his cultivation. Perhaps it was because their temperaments were so different, to the extent He Ku felt increasingly like a real person. Probably, it had been too long since he felt companionship.

He Huan sighed, finally cooperating. Languidly looking at the moon, old memories flitted past and he unconsciously said out loud, “Back then, whenever I watched Lin FaCai and Yue FangZhou quarreling, I was actually very envious. At that time, I thought how great it would be if there was such a person who could quarrel with me. There was one time when I watched them and my heart itched, so when I returned to my sect, I purposely argued with Bu YaoLian. He was so scared that his face went deathly pale, even thinking that I had been possessed.”

He Ku didn’t expect him to be so calm when bringing up Xuanmen events. He hesitated and then asked, “Bu YaoLian is Lin Xuan’s shifu?”

He Huan also didn’t intend to recall those things, but he knew that here at this Demon Extermination Campaign, he was destined to meet many old acquaintances, so he told He Ku the truth, “He and I were both brought back to the Xuanmen Righteous Sect by our shizun and have lived together since childhood. He was often broody and not talkative; he didn’t even dare to tell our shizun when he was bullied. As for me, I was like you before the age of eighteen. I liked novel things and bustle. I couldn’t be shut inside. When I was a kid, it would always be me talking and him listening, but later on when I started to talk less, there was nothing to say.”

As for the time after he had officially become the Xuanmen Righteous Sect’s Da Shixiong, he had slowly become the ‘studious’ Bu QingYun, and later, under the trial of time, he became the current He Huan who sat alone beyond the clouds to watch the moon.

No matter how calm He Huan was, in the end, it still wasn’t a good memory. When he stopped speaking, He Ku didn’t pester him, only sighing. “You even said that I was misfortune, but weren’t you also thinking about Xuanmen all these years?”

“At the very least, in the years that I have been on the demonic path, Xuanmen has never opposed me.” At his base, He Huan was an optimist. Although he mentioned his past, he didn’t become depressed, gliding over it with a smile. He quietly said, “Let’s not talk about such dispiriting matters. I am a demonic cultivator, so Xuanmen is correct to not associate with me.”

He Ku thought just the other day that he was depressed because of the Xuanmen Righteous Sect, but now he’d already moved past it. With He Huan’s mood-regulating ability, it was no wonder that he could practice the Technique of Bliss to the Calamity Crossing Stage. He didn’t know how much he had to have gone through before he could regard the matters of the world with such triviality.

Perhaps it was the connection from being two people of the same mind, but he got the inkling that He Huan didn’t want the silence to linger. After thinking about it, He Ku continued to lay side by side with him and exclaimed, “Isn’t it strange? According to logic, there shouldn’t be any feeling when we touch each other, like using your left hand to hold your right hand. But I can’t help thinking that it’s much better than watching the moon alone. When you were gone these past three days, I felt a little unused to it.”

This was also the first time He Huan had talked with someone while moon watching. Looking towards the moon hanging in the sky, he became uncharacteristically serious. “I’d always come up here whenever I felt unhappy. I’d tell myself that some people wouldn’t even be able to see the sight in front of me in their entire lifetime. What happened has already happened, there’s no way for me to change it. Besides, I’m living well right now. Although I’m no longer Bu QingYun, the goal of world peace that he did everything for, I still accomplished it. Even if I’m a little regretful that the character I play in this story isn’t very glamorous.”

“There’s always a good guy and a bad guy in things like stories. Since the good guy that Xuanmen is playing is already performed well enough, then we can make the bad guys seem a little less bad, right?”

This was the first time He Huan had admitted to someone else that everything he had done on the demonic side really had a purpose, but He Ku seemed to have guessed it a long time ago. Although he replied in a joking tone, his expression was extremely serious. He used his shoulder to nudge He Huan, and continued, “Actually, it doesn’t matter if life is a bit regretful. Isn’t the moon beautiful? But when you really go up, you will find that there’s only a bunch of rocks up there, no laurel tree or Chang’e. It’s not beautiful in the slightest.”

Everything that He Ku knew came from his body, so how could He Huan not know what space looked like? But all he did was tap on the air in front of them and the faint shadow of a laurel tree appeared on the moon. He smiled. “How would you know that what’s in front of you isn’t an illusion? Who knows, maybe after we ascend, we’d find out that there really is a Moon Palace up there.”

Fully aware that what he was seeing before him was the actual illusion, He Ku also became excited, agreeing, “You’re right, if there really is a celestial up there, I’ll just eat mooncakes while you go flirt with Chang’e; if it really is nothing but stone, I’ll use it and smack you. No matter what, we’ll always be together, no one has to be alone, forced to hold a rabbit and miss your man.”

Perhaps it was because he was happy, or perhaps it was because he hadn’t heard the word ‘together’ in a long time, but something changed in He Huan’s eyes. He leaned over to kiss He Ku’s forehead without thinking. Looking at their shared face make such a startled expression, he didn’t find anything wrong as he promised, “Ok, then I will bring you to leave this realm.”