The soul searching ended quickly. Just as Ning Xiu finished drinking a bowl of porridge, he heard his father’s voice from outside, arguing with Chu Jun about going out.
Ning Buwei stuffed Yan Liuguang’s soul into the Suzaku knife handle. When he turned around, he saw Jiang Yizheng crouching on the ground with her head buried in her arms. Though silent, her posture suggested she was crying.
Back when he met Jiang Yizheng in Linjiang City, he hadn’t noticed any resemblance between her and Jiang Ling.
Jiang Yizheng neither liked butterflies nor flowery dresses and makeup. She always wore dusty gray clothes and bounced around with Feng Zizhang and others. Besides randomly calling out “father” and being interested in food, she showed little else.
She was noisy and carefree, terribly timid, neither particularly clever nor stupid – just an ordinary cultivator who didn’t try very hard. She was completely different from Jiang Ling, that daring yet quiet and obedient little fool of a mortal.
Until he saw the birthmark on her shoulder.
It turned out she had worked very hard to transform from a little fool into a normal person, from a mortal into a cultivator with spiritual roots. Who knew how many reincarnations it took before she finally arrived at Linjiang City’s gate at eighteen years old, meeting Ning Buwei again.
“Past life’s obsession,” Ning Buwei patted her head. “Just forget it after you’ve seen it.”
Jiang Yizheng finally broke into loud sobs, lunging forward to hug Ning Buwei, tightly wrapping her arms around his neck. “Father—”
Ning Buwei was caught off guard and stumbled, his lower back hitting the railing, causing his face to twist in pain.
Jiang Yizheng cried and wailed, “I was wondering why I was like a fool when I was young, calling everyone father, when I’m actually so smart wuwuwu Father!!”
Ning Buwei didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He patted her back to comfort her, “…………”
“Xiao Jiang, sister, you’re making Father’s face turn blue!” Feng Zizhang whispered from the side.
Only then did Jiang Yizheng embarrassedly release Ning Buwei, but she still couldn’t help sniffling, looking at Ning Buwei with red eyes, grinning while tears continued to stream down.
Feng Zizhang nervously handed her a handkerchief, while Ning Buwei very calmly stood with his hands behind his back, secretly rubbing his waist.
Hiss, good daughter.
Seeing Jiang Yizheng crying like this, Feng Zizhang couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Xiao Jiang, what did you see?”
“Wuwuwu I was actually a fool!” Jiang Yizheng grieved. “I couldn’t even eat roasted sweet potatoes, and the chicken legs were always cold I was so pitiful Brother!”
Feng Zizhang’s eyes immediately reddened, “So pitiful, let’s eat roasted chicken for lunch.”
Jiang Yizheng nodded vigorously, “Put lots of seasonings, I want two chicken legs.”
Feng Zizhang hugged her, “I’ll roast a big sweet potato for you, can you eat it?”
“I suppose I could share half with you,” Jiang Yizheng said with a crying voice. “The sweet potato Father bought me in his memory was so big wuwuwu……”
Ning Buwei: “??”
So the sad point was not being able to eat food—truly… not surprising at all.
“Ah da?” Ning Xiu, being held by Chu Jun, reached out toward Jiang Yizheng.
Seeing this, Jiang Yizheng wiped her tears and took him over, cleaning the rice porridge residue from the corners of his mouth.
Ning Xiu touched her red eyes with his little hands, “Da? Da!”
Who bullied big sister? I’ll go beat them up!
“I’m fine, the wind outside was too strong.” Jiang Yizheng kissed his soft little cheeks, “Xiao Shan giving sister a kiss makes everything better!”
Ning Xiu laughed happily, lying in her arms while rummaging through his little bells, finally giving her a small piece of cloth with a little yellow duck on it, “Ah~”
Don’t be sad~
Jiang Yizheng happily accepted it, expressing how much she liked it.
Ning Buwei leaned against the doorframe, looking down at Ning Xiu and Jiang Yizheng, lost in thought.
Chu Jun walked to his side, “Waist hurting?”
Ning Buwei casually removed his hand from his waist, snorting lightly, “Heh, my waist is fine.”
Chu Jun placed his palm on his lower back. Ning Buwei immediately tried to dodge, but Chu Jun predicted his movement and easily caught him, making it seem as if he was throwing himself into Chu Jun’s arms.
“Last night—” Chu Jun had barely started when Ning Buwei roughly interrupted.
“Last night I didn’t…you know what…because I was worried you were too tired.” Ning Buwei said seriously. “My waist is perfectly fine.”
Chu Jun covered his waist with warm spiritual energy, gently massaging while saying quietly with an unchanged expression, “Merging divine consciousness indeed benefits cultivation. I was indulgent last night; next time we can cultivate in my sea of consciousness.”
The usually cold beauty spoke of Shenjiao so righteously, even cordially inviting him to his sea of consciousness… Ning Buwei’s Adam’s apple moved slightly.
He wasn’t some ascetic Buddhist cultivator, how could he resist this?
As countless indescribable scenarios flashed through Ning Buwei’s mind, he cleared his throat and said seriously, “In that case, I… I shall not decline such kindness.”
“Your waist is fine,” Chu Jun responded, pausing strangely for a moment before looking at Ning Buwei and asking, “The thing you didn’t do last night…… wasn’t cultivation?”
“Huh?” Facing Chu Jun’s clear eyes, Ning Buwei’s brain couldn’t quite keep up, “Ah.”
Chu Jun’s ear tips turned slightly red, “If you want to try a different—”
“No!” Ning Buwei righteously turned the tables, “Don’t get any wrong ideas.”
Chu Jun’s gaze swept over his reddened ear tips and neck, smiling slightly, “Oh.”
Ning Buwei felt that smile seemed somewhat mischievous, but looking closer, he appeared gentle and easy to bully.
So he couldn’t help but lightly hook Chu Jun’s chin, and before Chu Jun could react, he strode into the cabin.
****
Having spent most of the day dealing with Yan Liuguang’s matter, it was now broad daylight. Ning Buwei had originally worried that Jiang Yizheng would overthink things, but half an hour later, he saw her most enthusiastically gnawing on chicken legs among everyone.
“…………” Ning Buwei reached out to scoop Ning Xiu off the table.
Ning Xiu might have had great resentment about not being able to eat meat, as he twisted and turned in his arms, drooling all over his neck.
Ning Buwei simply carried him to the stern to watch clouds.
Ning Xiu’s attention was indeed quickly diverted, looking at the shapeless clouds with great interest.
After watching for a while, Ning Xiu pointed them out to Ning Buwei. “Aya~”
Father, a big snow beast~ Look~
But Ning Buwei didn’t respond. When he turned to look, he saw that Ning Buwei had fallen asleep with his eyes closed.
Ning Xiu wanted to wake his father up to watch the snow beast together, but was taken into Chu Jun’s arms, “Liang~ ah?”
Mother~ where were you doing?
“Your father is very tired, don’t disturb him.” Chu Jun pinched his little face, “Go play with brother.”
Feng Zizhang, who had come with him, understood and took Ning Xiu, then quietly entered the cabin, even thoughtfully closing the door.
Moreover, soul searching caused great damage to the divine consciousness. Even if one had a clear grasp with soul searching, it wasn’t easy. Although Ning Buwei seemed to happily joke around with him after waking up, Chu Jun could tell he wasn’t very happy.
Ning Buwei kept many things hidden in his heart. Even with him, he wouldn’t easily reveal them. If he occasionally let slip a bit, he would brush it off with jokes and banter.
Chu Jun sat beside him, his crimson spiritual energy lightly attaching to his body, slowly seeping into all his meridians and acupoints.
Ning Buwei frowned but didn’t move, allowing the spiritual energy to flow through his meridians.
Chu Jun patiently repaired the various wounds on his divine consciousness, but his gaze grew increasingly puzzled.
These wounds didn’t look like they were from just one soul search; some seemed more like old ailments.
“When I first started practicing evil methods, I couldn’t control the power well, always on the edge of Qi deviation,” Ning Buwei suddenly spoke, but didn’t open his eyes.
Chu Jun’s healing spiritual energy faltered slightly, then continued.
“When I found Xiao Jiang in Li City, she was only seven. I bought her a sweet potato, and she remembered me…” Ning Buwei said slowly. “At that time, I was in a hurry to cultivate and thought I was very powerful, that I couldn’t possibly have Qi deviation… but that day I killed until I couldn’t see people clearly, I just wanted to kill everything that was still alive.”
Chu Jun stopped his spiritual energy and squeezed his shoulder, “Chengfeng, stop talking.”
Ning Buwei’s voice trembled, but he suppressed it firmly, “I… can’t remember clearly if anyone actually swung a blade at me.”
“I don’t know if Xiao Jiang blocked someone else’s blade for me, or,” Ning Buwei opened his eyes, crimson flashing in his narrow eyes, his voice particularly low and clear, “or… if I swung it myself.”
Even with soul searching, he couldn’t be sure whether his memories from when he experienced Qi deviation were accurate.
Perhaps there really was a cultivator who happened to swing a blade at him, or perhaps he was the one holding the blade, but he would never be able to confirm.
Chu Jun now knew how those countless wounds on his divine consciousness came to be, yet knowing made him unusually unable to control his emotions.
“Ning Chengfeng, what do you think you are?”
Ning Buwei glanced at him, then lowered his eyes and said, “I haven’t done many soul searches, and after I became more sensible, I never did it again… I’ve let it go now.”
Some things had no answers, and in the end, it was just fighting with oneself, which was foolish and frustrating, and unnecessary.
Chu Jun stared at him expressionlessly. Ning Buwei was actually somewhat afraid of him like this; it always made him involuntarily recall the scenes of being lectured with his ear pulled when he was young. Although not a proper master with formal ceremonies, his intimidation factor wasn’t any less.
Ning Buwei raised his thumb to lightly press his brow, smiling and saying, “Beauty doesn’t look good with furrowed brows, and it’s easy to get wrinkles. Give me a smile?”
Chu Jun’s brows relaxed as he caught his mischievous hand, “Don’t smile if you don’t want to.”
The smile Ning Buwei had forced slowly fell, and he guiltily rubbed his nose, “Oh.”
Chu Jun was probably somewhat angry, but his anger was as subtle as his person. The great demon was never good at coaxing people; with Chu Jun, he had already wracked his brains using all his life’s learning, and now being told this, he felt somewhat at a loss.
There was also some awkwardness after personally exposing his own scars.
The air on the deck had somehow become thin, making it hard for him to stay.
Ning Buwei put his hand on the deck trying to stand up, “I’ll go in first—”
He couldn’t get up because Chu Jun had pulled him entirely into his embrace.
Chu Jun was always very warm, unlike him who was chronically cold, and carried a bitter fragrance he really liked, though he had never dared to ask what fragrance it was… Ning Buwei thought intermittently. Chu Jun had such a slim waist but quite strong arms. What luck he had today, being hugged first by one person then another, like some precious treasure.
Chu Jun held him and sighed softly, his voice carrying barely perceptible regret. “If only I had come out of seclusion earlier… that would have been better.”
Ning Buwei had originally felt it wasn’t a big deal, but hearing Chu Jun’s words, his nose suddenly stung.
He allowed himself to relax and lean against Chu Jun, lazily snorting with laughter, “What nonsense are you talking about.”
