Chapter 35: Becoming a Fool – Xiao Jianming Followed Closely Behind Him, Like a…
The expression on Su Huan’s face showed no pain, as if he were merely sleeping peacefully, completely unresponsive to everything happening outside.
Xiao Jianming wanted to touch him, but was blocked by Su Chao:
“If Huan-er hadn’t insisted on protecting you, I would never have let you off. But you? How did you treat him? You hurt him again and again!”
“…You don’t love him at all.”
Su Chao suppressed his anger, taking a deep breath. “After we return, I will explain everything to Master and ask him to dissolve the Spirit Contract between you.”
“Fellow Daoist Xiao, please let him go.”
Xiao Jianming suddenly looked up, his pupils constricting violently as a trace of pain flashed through them.
Various emotions erupted in his heart.
What gives you the right to say I don’t love him? I looked for so long to find Buhuan gege.
I will never let go.
I have already lost my mother; must I lose Buhuan gege too?
Absolutely not.
The thoughts in Xiao Jianming’s mind tangled into a chaotic mess, causing him unbearable pain.
Gradually, desire crawled over his clarity and reason. His eye color deepened, and thick ink silently and swiftly dyed his entire eyeballs.
…No.
Xiao Jianming’s nearly crushed heart suddenly beat once, followed by a rhythm like war drums, pounding heavily in his ears—
No one can separate us!
Xiao Jianming slowly raised his head.
Su Chao shielded the youth in his arms. “What are you doing? I won’t hand him over to you again…!”
Xiao Jianming suddenly slashed out with his sword, his figure vanishing from the spot.
Ning Zhou hurriedly blocked in front, but unexpectedly, Xiao Jianming appeared abruptly in front of Su Chao, striking with a palm to snatch the person away.
Ning Zhou couldn’t protect them in time. Su Chao took the hit unprepared and fell to the ground. Sensing the changing aura on Xiao Jianming, he said in disbelief, “You dare use the Jialan Life-Burning Secret Art to forcibly raise your realm? You are cutting off your own path to ascension! Are you crazy?!”
Xiao Jianming remained indifferent and silent, slashing out another sword strike.
Ning Zhou flew up with his sword to neutralize it, but in the next second, he saw Xiao Jianming fleeing into the distance holding the person.
He couldn’t help but curse, “…Lunatic!”
When Su Huan regained consciousness, he found himself lying in the Black Lotus’s arms, clutching several stalks of spiritual grass in his hand.
The two were sleeping in a dark cave, their posture intimate.
In the pitch-black cave, the sound of dripping water echoed occasionally. It was cold, damp, and smelled of an indescribable fishy stench.
Xiao Jianming held him with eyes tight shut, his cheek pressed against Su Huan’s head, breathing steadily.
Su Huan looked down and saw that the spiritual grass in his hand was full of spiritual energy. The veins showed gold, continuously emitting a spiritual breath identical to his own, as if they came from the same source. This characteristic—it was the Spirit Nurturing Grass.
Xiao Jianming had already taken him to harvest the Spirit Nurturing Grass?
Su Huan had absolutely no memory of this.
He couldn’t help looking bewildered. What happened?
After storing the spiritual grass in his storage bag, Su Huan probed the surroundings with his divine sense, discovering that the cave walls were narrow, barely enough for two people.
At the same time, he realized that the spiritual power they hadn’t restrained was scattering in the cave. The gold and blue spiritual powers merged, filling the entire cave, quite dense.
He sucked in a breath of cold air.
Did I spiritually cultivate with the Black Lotus again?
Just as he wanted to move, the iron arm around his waist tightened. Su Huan felt pain and tried to wake the human “cushion” beneath him, calling softly, “Wake up…”
Xiao Jianming opened his eyes abruptly.
The next second, Su Huan’s movements froze.
Cultivators’ vision wasn’t limited by darkness; they could see things clearly at night.
And Su Huan saw that in the silent darkness, Xiao Jianming’s exposed eyes were completely dyed in ink, without a trace of white, staring fixedly at him.
His breath hitched. “Xiao… Xiao Shidi?”
No response.
Su Huan felt a creeping horror.
Is the person in front of me… really the Black Lotus?
At this moment, the other party made a sound:
“Buhuan gege…”
The completely pitch-black pupils stared at him—eerie, but undoubtedly the Black Lotus.
Su Huan’s heart leaped into his throat, then slowly settled back down.
“…I’m here.”
As soon as the voice fell, the strength at his waist hugged him even tighter.
Su Huan inhaled sharply, gritting his teeth against the pain as he negotiated, “How about you let go first?”
The arm on his waist paused. After a long while, it obediently and slowly let go.
Su Huan immediately flashed to the side, breathing a sigh of relief.
He asked, “What exactly happened? Where did my brother and the others go?”
Xiao Jianming seemed unable to understand. He tilted his head and tried to approach him again. “Buhuan gege…”
Su Huan: “…”
No matter how he asked, the guy would only say those two words (four characters), like a fool.
After repeated verification, Su Huan had to admit that the Black Lotus had really turned into a fool.
He had to give up on getting answers from his mouth and started examining the cave they were in.
Although they could hear dripping water, they were lying on a high platform. Beneath them was dry grass—dry and clean. It was a decent temporary resting place in the wild.
However, Su Huan unexpectedly found a tuft of beast fur in a corner of the stone wall.
Combined with the strange fishy stench in the air, he looked at Xiao Jianming with an indescribable expression.
This guy didn’t forcibly occupy a monster beast’s lair, did he?
Su Huan didn’t dare think too deeply.
“Buhuan gege…”
Xiao Jianming had approached him at some point, opening his palm toward him.
Looking down, as if verifying his guess, a monster core lay quietly in the rough palm.
Su Huan was speechless.
Seeing he didn’t take it, Xiao Jianming pushed it forward again, refusing to put it down unless he took it.
Su Huan had no choice but to accept it.
When they left the cave, Xiao Jianming followed closely behind him, like a little tail.
Unknown how long he had slept, he didn’t feel it at first, but upon reaching the cave entrance, Su Huan felt his stomach ache with hunger, his limbs weak.
Gu—
His stomach let out a loud noise.
Before Su Huan could react, Xiao Jianming’s figure flashed. When he reappeared, he was holding a pile of red fruits, presenting them before his eyes.
Su Huan identified them carefully—red skin with white spots, highly poisonous. So he shook his head. “Can’t eat this.”
But Xiao Jianming was now a fool. Seeing him not eat, he actually grabbed a handful and stuffed them into his own mouth, then offered them again, signaling for him to eat.
“Hey, hey, hey! These fruits are poisonous, you can’t eat them!” Su Huan busily made him spit out the fruits in his mouth, sweating anxiously.
Only after confirming he hadn’t swallowed any did he relax.
Xiao Jianming looked at him with black pupils. His expression clearly hadn’t changed, yet Su Huan seemed to sense aggrievement.
“…”
Afraid he would go eat those red fruits again, Su Huan half-persuaded, half-coaxed the person to find a small river, planning to catch fish to eat.
He pointed to the shimmering river surface and said, “Do you remember how to use spiritual power? Condense ice spikes and stab them in, then do this and that…”
Xiao Jianming blinked his black pupils at him, not understanding.
Su Huan was discouraged and had to try getting into the water himself.
Just as his foot touched the water, Xiao Jianming suddenly moved.
Crack—
The entire river was frozen solid.
Xiao Jianming turned to look at him, black pupils shining, as if asking for praise.
Su Huan: “…Great job.”
After struggling to smash open the river surface, Su Huan managed to get two fish, only to realize they weren’t the pearly white spirit fish from the secret realm, but two ordinary grass carp.
Only then did Su Huan realize they were no longer in the Moon Ash Secret Realm. He felt somewhat melancholy.
Xiao Jianming looked at the fish in his hand, tilted his head, scooped him up, and placed him on the bank.
Su Huan was dumbfounded.
Then he saw Xiao Jianming’s fingertips suddenly emit a scorching flame that landed on the ice. In an instant, it swept across the entire small river.
One of the characteristics of a Heavenly Spirit Root was the ability to easily use spiritual power of all attributes, with talent no weaker than a single spirit root cultivator.
Xiao Jianming usually favored water attribute spells because he had lived under the sea in his childhood, making him particularly close to water spiritual power.
This was the first time Su Huan saw him use a spell other than water, and its power was indeed no weaker than a single spirit root talent.
In just a breath, the ice in the river turned to water, boiling visibly.
Then Su Huan was nearly buried by a mountain of thoroughly cooked fish, shrimp, crabs, and clams.
Veins popped on his forehead.
“Xiao! Jian! Ming!”
Xiao Jianming shrank his neck, slowly tugged at his sleeve, and stammered, “Buhuan gege…”
Su Huan deflated instantly.
Forget it, why bicker with a fool.
After eating and drinking his fill, Xiao Jianming dragged Su Huan back to the cave and set up eighteen layers of barriers at the entrance, hiding the two of them strictly.
Xiao Jianming dragged him back to the deepest part of the cave as if hiding a treasure. Once completely submerged in darkness, Su Huan suddenly sensed a relaxed, peaceful emotion from the spirit contract deep in his soul—an emotion that didn’t belong to him.
The unfamiliar emotion popping up suddenly startled Su Huan, making his pre-sleep idea of dissolving the contract even firmer.
Turning to look at the currently silly Black Lotus, a bright idea suddenly popped into his mind.
So, rolling his eyes, he suddenly sighed aloud. Sure enough, Xiao Jianming’s attention was attracted.
Su Huan sighed again. Xiao Jianming tugged at his sleeve, at a loss. “Buhuan gege…”
Su Huan coughed lightly and said sorrowfully, “Sigh, suddenly there’s an extra Spirit Contract in my soul. It makes my head hurt so much, my body hurts too, everywhere hurts…”
Su Huan took his hand, looking at him eagerly. “Good Shidi, you know how to solve it, right?”
Unexpectedly, Xiao Jianming seemed to understand his meaning this time. His whole body went stiff as a rock, and tears even burst from his eyes. He shook his head desperately: “No separate… no separate…”
Immediately after, as if suffering severe head pain, he clutched his head and squatted down.
Su Huan was startled and hurriedly fed him various healing pills, but to no avail.
Xiao Jianming’s black pupils were filled with tears. He slammed into his arms, burying his head and weeping in a low voice: “Don’t separate…”
Su Huan was at a loss for a moment, so he had to let him hug him.
Hesitating a moment, he tried gently patting his back. “It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt…”
After finally coaxing the person to calm down, Su Huan wiped away his sweat.
Alright then, I still have to rely on myself.
I have a Golden Finger. Even without the Black Lotus, I should be able to solve it… right?
Thinking this, Su Huan mobilized the spiritual power in his body, enduring the tearing pain in his dantian, and gathered the spiritual power in his eyes.
Then he probed his divine sense toward the Spirit Contract deep in his soul.
At first glance, this Spirit Contract looked like a golden light surrounding the soul. looking closely, one could see it was formed by individual characters, all ancient script, obscure and unfamiliar.
With the assistance of the Golden Finger, Su Huan saw a dazzling line of large characters on the Spirit Contract—
[Highest Level Dao Companion Contract. Unbreakable.]
Su Huan: “?!”
Although the Black Lotus told the truth, why was it different from what he imagined?
Reading it over and over three times, Su Huan completely confirmed that this was not the “Forbidden Plaything Contract” he imagined, but a genuine, highest-level Dao Companion Contract in the cultivation world.
So, the Black Lotus didn’t take him as a plaything, but as a proper Dao Companion?
Just then, the Black Lotus, who had been hiding in his arms, looked up. A pair of teary black pupils looked at him, whimpering softly in pain: “Buhuan gege…”
Su Huan suddenly felt condemned by ten thousand points of conscience.
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