Chapter 58 – Predetermined
Yin Hanjiang’s words were a shock to Wenren È. The way he remembered it, Yin Hanjiang had always been oblivious to love. Back when Hè Wenzhao was lying to Baili Qingmiao about Shu Yanyan, Wenren È had asked Yin Hanjiang, “Protector Yin, would you believe something like this? Can love really make people so brainless?”
Yin Hanjiang had answered, “This subordinate believes anything the Venerable says, and hears not a word of anything anyone else says.”
Wenren È had always believed that Yin Hanjiang was ignorant like him. Yet he had said he liked Wenren È.
Was it the doings of inner demons, or Yin Hanjiang’s own thought?
When Wenren È didn’t respond for a long time, Yin Hanjiang looked displeased.
He pushed Wenren È over with one hand, looking down at him with a fierce glare. “A mere inner demon dares to defy me?”
Wenren È had never seen Yin Hanjiang be so unreasonable before. “Sect Leader Yin, I…”
Before he could finish speaking, Yin Hanjiang dipped his head and trapped Wenren È’s lips with his own.
Yin Hanjiang’s cold lips pressed against Wenren È’s, carrying the lingering taste of wine. Wenren È had never experienced something like this before in his life. He felt a tingling sensation spread throughout his body. His body was already formed from primordial chaos, but he couldn’t summon his spiritual energy to push Yin Hanjiang away.
Wenren È lost all sense of time, knowing only the cool softness against his lips.
As he wondered why Yin Hanjiang’s body was still so cold, the red-robed man had already let go of him, sitting up shakily.
Yin Hanjiang rubbed his temples, then splashed a handful of spring water on his face. “What am I fighting with an inner demon for?” he muttered to himself.
He glanced sideways at Wenren È. His eyes were frosty, a cold smile at the corner of his lips, as if he was scoffing at himself.
He stood up and, while Wenren È was still in a daze, yanked the robe off him. Holding it lovingly in his arms, he walked away without a backward glance, leaving Wenren È alone.
The red stone fell from his hand, causing Wenren È’s body to return to energy. He touched his lips with his fingers, feeling like the tingling had spread to his soul.
No one would come to the back mountains. Wenren È sat there stunned for a long time, until he finally remembered something. He picked up the stone and brought out Abusive Romance. Flipping it open, he saw the scene where, when Baili Qingmiao and Hè Wenzhao first met, Baili Qingmiao bumped her shixiong’s finger. She had felt a tingling sensation travel from her fingertip all the way to her heart, as her heart began to race wildly.
Wenren È had thought this was the lingering effects of the lightning that had struck her.
Only now did he realize there really could be a tingling sensation when people touched.
Wenren È plunged his hand into the spiritual spring. The spring water was far warmer than Yin Hanjiang’s hands.
In Baili Qingmiao’s conversation with Zhongli Qian and Yin Hanjiang, she had nearly been killed by Yin Hanjiang. Only with Zhongli Qian’s advice did Yin Hanjiang suppress his murderous intent and, as he was leaving, he shot Baili Qingmiao a vicious glare. Baili Qingmiao was so terrified that she collapsed with a high fever.
Zhongli Qian shooed Altar Master Shi away, so he wouldn’t make her illness worse. He ordered Su Huai to feed her medicine, and after seeing her condition stabilize, he said to Su Huai, “Come with me to the spirit gathering array in the Main Hall. We still have to help your marital ancestor. There’s never any rest with these two.”
He told Baili Qingmiao to rest, and that Su Huai would be back to take care of her tomorrow.
Baili Qingmiao sank into a doze again, until in the middle of the night, she suddenly felt a chill. Her eyes flew open, and in the dim light, she saw a figure watching silently at her bedside.
The last time she had been suddenly awoken, it was to see Yin Hanjiang wave a triangular spike in her face. This time, Baili Qingmiao couldn’t see the figure’s face. Wrapping herself in her blanket, she said tremulously, “Who are you? What do you want?”
“It’s me.” Wenren È lit the lamps within the room with a wave of his hand, revealing his face.
“Senior Wenren!” Baili Qingmiao exclaimed. “Are you alive, or am I dreaming?”
“This Venerable is alive,” Wenren È said.
“I’m so glad. It’s my fault you fell into the Blood Hell. I swore at that moment that if you were to survive, I’d be willing to serve you for the rest of my life, and do anything you asked of me.” Baili Qingmiao began to sob in relief. She stumbled shakily out of bed, about to kowtow to Wenren È.
“No need.” Wenren È stepped aside. He couldn’t let Baili Qingmiao lower her head to him. “This Venerable came here to ask something.”
“Whatever you ask, I’ll say everything I know.”
“What does love that takes you unawares, and before you know it, you’re deep in its clutches, mean? I understand the literal meaning. That’s not what I’m asking for.”
He had spent a long time in thought in the mountains, but his thoughts were in a tangle. He didn’t know if Yin Hanjiang’s feelings were a delusion, and he didn’t know how he should respond.
He decided he probably didn’t understand romantic matters well enough, having never figured out that third line. That must also be the reason that, after he got Baili Qingmiao and Zhongli Qian together for thirty years, they still only treated each other like siblings. He had never understood why Baili Qingmiao was so obsessed with Hè Wenzhao, and he didn’t know how to answer Yin Hanjiang.
This… what could Baili Qingmiao say, besides the literal meaning? At this moment, she really wished she had Zhongli Qian’s wisdom.
“You don’t know?” Wenren È looked at Baili Qingmiao. “Doesn’t that exactly describe you and Hè Wenzhao? Not only are you deep in love’s clutches, but infatuated and unwilling to let go. Even after Hè Wenzhao took a wife, you still pined after him. After he let you be imprisoned in the back mountains and strung up over the Blood Hell, you still want to die for him. This Venerable wants to know just what kind of a feeling this is? That can cause someone to…”
He paused, thinking back to how Yin Hanjiang sat by the spiritual spring, with his lips pressed to a wine cup and a robe in his lap, and an odd pang shot through his heart. “Can cause someone to lose their soul and cease to be themselves.”
Wenren È had thought Baili Qingmiao would have an answer for him, but she grabbed her hair and said, “I… I don’t understand either! All I know is that I love my shixiong, and even after he’s married, I still love him, but why? Before he was married, I loved him for being warm and considerate, always secretly taking care of me, but now, he’s married yet still longs after me, disrespecting both me and Liu-shijie, so why do I love him? It’s my most despicable habit. Why do I love him?”
She slapped herself across the cheek, saying in disappointment, “I even wanted to die for him. What was I thinking?”
Wenren È: …
Baili Qingmiao seemed to be at her breaking point. She couldn’t answer anything for him.
The more Baili Qingmiao thought about it, the more she felt it wasn’t right. Her fingers tangling her hair into a mess, she paced back and forth across the room, saying, “It’s odd… I feel like I’ve split into two, one half knowing rationally that I should let him go, while the other still pines for him, even hoping Liu-shijie will die soon, so that we can be together. What’s wrong with me? Senior, I…”
Walking up to Wenren È, she tried to grab his hand. Wenren È avoided her in time, but his sleeve brushed against her fingertips and passed through her hand.
Baili Qingmiao: …
“Forget it,” Wenren È said. “Seeing as you’re in a bad state yourself, this Venerable asked the wrong person.” Stepping away from Baili Qingmiao, Wenren È took out a red stone. “I must borrow this for a few days, but by the time you need it, I will certainly return it to you.”
“What is that?” Baili Qingmiao swallowed hard as she looked at the stone. She wanted it, she had never before felt such desire for an object—it was as if it should be hers in the first place!
“This is the divine blood,” Wenren È said. “It can help this Venerable stabilize chaos energy and cultivate a divine body sooner. Without it, this Venerable is only a phantasm, who can be seen but not touched.”
This was the second safeguard the primordial goddess had left behind for herself besides her divine nature. She had hidden it within the chaos energy of the Blood Hell, so that when Baili Qingmiao became an immortal and was on the threshold of godhood, she would feel the calling of the divine blood. With the help of the blood which contained the essence of the primordial goddess, she would be able to successfully merge with the divine nature.
The instant the book’s Wenren È had fallen into the Blood Hell, due to his fated connection with Baili Qingmiao, he had come into contact with the divine blood, and realized everything the moment he touched it. Before his death, he tossed it to Baili Qingmiao. When she caught it, Wenren È’s debt to Baili Qingmiao was fully paid, and from then on he had no more ties to her.
In this life, just like in the book, Wenren È had found the divine blood the instant the sea of blood engulfed him. When he touched it, he finally understood how his fate was connected to Baili Qingmiao.
Three hundred years ago, the primordial goddess helped Wenren È enter the Path of Slaughter; thus, three hundred years later, the now Lord of Demons needed to retrieve the divine blood for Baili Qingmiao.
Everything one gets in life is predetermined.
That deep love was only the machination of fate, in order to ensure Wenren È wouldn’t be tempted to take the divine blood’s power for himself.
Wenren È had originally planned to give the divine blood to Baili Qingmiao upon seeing her, and cut off his connection to the female lead there. However, right now, he needed the divine blood, in order to get Yin Hanjiang to believe, through the inner demons that plagued him, that Wenren È was alive.
“How can I decide what happens to something so important?” Baili Qingmiao said, crushing down her desire toward it. “Senior can use it however he wants.”
“Thank you.” Wenren È nodded to her. “This Venerable will do all in his power to help you obtain everything that belongs to you.”
In a blur, he vanished, extinguishing the lamps behind him.
Baili Qingmiao was still feverish. She sat on her bed, tugging at her messy hair a few times. “Did that really happen, or was it a dream?”
After a short while, she laid down and passed out again.
With the divine blood in hand, Wenren È returned to his room. He saw Yin Hanjiang had arranged his robe on one side of the bed, while he slept stiffly on the other, not touching the opposite half of the bed at all.
Cultivators usually rested in meditation and rarely needed to sleep. Yin Hanjiang seemed to be drunk, though, his face slightly flushed. He slept cautiously on one side of Wenren È’s bed, not willing to even move, like a completely different person from the one who had boldly pushed down an “inner demon” earlier.
Wenren È lightly leapt onto the bed. Laying on his side, he watched Yin Hanjiang’s face as he slept.
“Sect Leader— Yin Hanjiang,” Wenren È said quietly. “You have the right to love me. It’s not my place to permit you. But as for me… how do I answer you?”
Neither refusal nor acceptance could be resolved with just a few light words.
He had to treasure Yin Hanjiang’s feelings and answer from his heart.
Yin Hanjiang slept until the late morning. Upon waking, he rubbed the space between his eyebrows, and, with a glance at Wenren È, snatched back the robe. “Is this yours to touch?” he said coldly.
Wenren È: …