Ning Chengfeng sat up suddenly in bed in the middle of the night, motionless for a while.
Chu Jun, who was meditating on the couch, opened his eyes and saw Ning Chengfeng looking dazed with vacant eyes. He got up and went over to him.
Chu Jun thought it was the influence of the heart demon and reached out to check his pulse, but Ning Chengfeng avoided his touch.
After a long time, Chu Jun finally heard him say hoarsely, “Head Teacher Chu, do you have any water?”
Chu Jun then poured him a cup of warm water.
After drinking the water, Ning Chengfeng lowered his eyes and said softly, “I saw my parents. They were still alive… But then I suddenly realized I was dreaming.”
He had never mentioned his parents before, and he practiced the Ruthless Way. Now, probably influenced by the heart demon, he unusually showed a hint of sadness.
Chu Jun didn’t know how to comfort him. Suddenly remembering scenes of adults comforting children in the mortal realm, he reached out and awkwardly patted Ning Chengfeng’s head.
Rarely, Ning Chengfeng didn’t bristle. He hung his head tiredly, silently lay down, wrapped himself in the blanket with his back to Chu Jun, and went back to sleep.
Chu Jun sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at his own hand.
Since that day, Ning Chengfeng’s attitude towards him had changed subtly—
The frequency of causing trouble increased, but not too excessively, leaving one at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
Sometimes when he was teaching, small flowers would suddenly grow on the short table, nodding their heads. The junior disciples below suppressed their laughter while Ning Chengfeng lazily rested his chin on his hand and raised an eyebrow at him.
When he taught sword riding, Ning Chengfeng would control his sword to fly chaotically around the area until he reached out to grab him, only then willing to behave and quietly learn for half a class.
When he assigned homework, Ning Chengfeng would come to submit it early, lingering in his room unwilling to leave, brazenly taking a nap while hugging his homework.
When he came to find him on rest days, he also refused to sleep directly. At first, he insisted on watching him finish the snacks. Later, he wanted to play chess with him. After that, he wanted to test out new formations he had researched. And the once empty and monotonous room gradually filled with things that didn’t belong to Chu Jun – the pillow Ning Chengfeng brought, the boots Ning Chengfeng left behind, the vase Ning Chengfeng found pretty, the teacup Ning Chengfeng liked, the spirit stones Ning Chengfeng dropped, Ning Chengfeng…
By the time he habitually looked forward to rest days and kept postponing dealing with the heart demon, he finally realized that the development of things was somewhat out of his control.
On this day, Ning Chengfeng again snuck in familiarly, carrying a big box in his arms, which he shoved into Chu Jun’s embrace as soon as he entered.
“What is this?” Chu Jun was weighed down by the box.
“Stones that I picked up at the seaside with Cui Ci and Wen Zai Ye,” Ning Chengfeng said, kneeling on the ground and looking under his bed. “It’s perfect to hide them under your bed. Give it to me.”
Chu Jun handed the box to him. He struggled to push the box of stones under the bed, then got up and dusted off his hands.
“Why hide them here?” Chu Jun asked, puzzled.
“Dean Hao doesn’t allow disciples to keep miscellaneous items in the dormitories,” Ning Chengfeng said with his hands on his hips. “The elders confiscate them every time they inspect the dorms. Your place is perfect for hiding them.”
Chu Jun was silent for a moment. “…I’m also an elder.”
Ning Chengfeng flashed him a bright smile and nudged him with his elbow. “Brother Chu, we’re close, aren’t we!”
Chu Jun: “…So disrespectful.”
He was over 500 years older than this little troublemaker. Such a way of addressing him was really improper.
Ning Chengfeng didn’t care. He pulled out a drawing from his sleeve. “I recently got something good. Take a look…”
Seeing him so enthusiastic, Chu Jun didn’t dampen his spirits. He went over to look at the drawing with him. Soon, he was nodding off drowsily.
“If you’re tired, go to sleep,” Chu Jun said, putting away the drawing.
Ning Chengfeng lay on the table, struggling to keep his eyes open. “Head Teacher Chu, have you found the Fuluo Flower?”
“No,” Chu Jun’s tone faltered.
Every time he had a day off, Ning Chengfeng filled it with activities. During leisure time, he would meditate while watching Ning Chengfeng sleep, and time passed unknowingly.
He had lived for over five hundred years, but it was the first time he experienced how noisy and interesting life could be.
“Oh.” Ning Chengfeng yawned, looking like he wanted to say something more, but fell asleep immediately, unknowingly grabbing his sleeve.
Desire arose, but was forcibly suppressed.
This couldn’t go on.
The karmic connection between him and Ning Chengfeng was too deep. It was already not easy to resolve, let alone if Ning Chengfeng was unwilling to cooperate.
This kid probably thought he was hiding it well. He slept at his place for a day and a night, then swaggered out through the window.
One midnight, Chu Jun found him on the beach by the sea.
Ning Chengfeng was pretending to fish with a rod, resting his chin on his hand and staring at the pitch-black water surface, yawning constantly.
Chu Jun concealed his presence and stood behind him watching him fish. He released some spiritual energy to completely envelop Ning Chengfeng. Before long, Ning Chengfeng fell fast asleep holding the fishing rod.
Overcoming a heart demon wasn’t an easy task, especially for people without any blood relation and practicing completely different heart methods. It was even more difficult.
But shortly after Ning Chengfeng was born, it was Chu Jun who had expanded his meridians and shaped his bones. A layer of his own refined soul energy still firmly protected Ning Chengfeng’s meridians and dantian.
He took out the red string from long ago and effortlessly transferred Ning Chengfeng’s heart demon onto himself.
This heart demon was fierce and vicious. Chu Jun used some techniques to barely suppress it, and then sealed away most of Ning Chengfeng’s memories related to him.
An extremely subtle small red mole condensed on Ning Chengfeng’s collarbone.
When Hao Zheng learned of this, he was very confused, “Why did you seal his memories?”
“To make it easier to resolve our karmic connection,” Chu Jun said.
Hao Zheng was still confused, “Then why didn’t you seal all of them and left some?”
Chu Jun fell silent.
He wore that red string on his wrist, hidden in his sleeve, just like that bit of private sentiment he couldn’t speak of.
Without the heart demon, Ning Chengfeng also lost the habit of frequently coming to sleep in his room, and reverted to the initial distance and wariness towards him.
And, he started to cause trouble energetically again.
On this day, Ning Chengfeng made another mistake. As usual, he took him to the Self-Reflection Pavilion to copy sword manuals as punishment.
Previously, he would always find something to talk about, constantly fidgeting, never behaving for a moment. Now that he was quiet, it was Chu Jun who felt somewhat unaccustomed.
“Ning Chengfeng,” he called him.
Ning Chengfeng looked up, his gaze wary. “What?”
“Have you felt any physical discomfort lately?” The heart demon was gone, but he was still a bit worried.
Ning Chengfeng looked at him suspiciously. “No.”
“Your hand,” he said again.
A crumpled talisman paper was placed in his palm. “…What is this?”
“A talisman, of course,” Ning Chengfeng looked very guilty.
Chu Jun was both amused and exasperated inside, but didn’t show it on his face. He checked Ning Chengfeng’s pulse and finally felt relieved.
Ning Chengfeng asked him again about the Fuluo Flower, but he dismissed it by assigning more copying as punishment.
He no longer planned to obtain the Fuluo Flower. Now that he had helped Ning Chengfeng overcome the heart demon and forcibly resolved most of their karmic connection, it wasn’t a good time to reshape his Dao heart.
Half a month later, after confirming there were no issues with Ning Chengfeng, he prepared to leave Wanxuan Academy.
The room was filled with traces Ning Chengfeng had left behind, like a small animal marking its territory. With a gesture of his hand, everything returned to its original owner.
The vivacious youth, the absurd thoughts, from now on would have nothing to do with him.
But when he opened the door, he saw a deep red Fuluo Flower swaying in the wind.
Ning Chengfeng smiled at him happily, “For you.”
A spark fell into the dead ashes he had just suppressed, devouring his previous determination with the force of a wildfire.
He reached out and took the flower.
Ning Chengfeng said something else, but he was no longer able to listen. He just smiled behind his mask, then uncontrollably reached out and patted Ning Chengfeng’s head.
The heart demon he had forcibly taken finally found a loophole.
He abruptly closed the door, walked into the teleportation array, and went to a desolate swamp, intending to thoroughly resolve the heart demon and, incidentally, kill those demons disturbing the formation for Hao Zheng.
After his Dao heart was completely destroyed, he broke through his fate tribulation, forcibly overcame the heart demon, and naturally entered qi deviation, his life hanging in the balance.
It truly fulfilled what he had calculated — his fate tribulation indeed fell on Ning Chengfeng.
However, his luck was still not bad. He only entered qi deviation and lost his memory for a period of time.
He regained his memory on a small hill at the edge of the swamp wilderness, cut away most of the heart demon, and even reshaped his Dao heart using the Fuluo Flower.
He had originally planned to cultivate the Ruthless Way, but a familiar voice echoed in his mind.
[I’m cultivating the Ruthless Way…We can’t both cultivate the Ruthless Way, can we?]
So, with a thought, he chose the Way of Tranquility instead.
[I’ll be back in half a month at the fastest, don’t wander around.]
For the first few days, he still remembered he was waiting for someone, seemingly for a very long time. But after he fully recovered, he forgot this promise.
Because his newly reshaped Dao heart of the Way of Tranquility was unstable, he returned to Wushi Sect to begin closed-door cultivation. His past with Ning Chengfeng, that bit of sentiment he had snuffed out before it could be expressed, also faded completely with the passage of time.
But now he had completely recalled that missing segment of memory.
He seemed to become that Wan Li on the small hill again, sitting there, watching the sun rise and the moon set, waiting for his Chengfeng to return.
As if mad, he told himself over and over not to forget.
That was when his Dao heart was most unstable, with the remnants of the Way of Bloodshed constantly struggling against the newborn Way of Tranquility. His thoughts were chaotic, his spiritual energy in disarray. The slightest mistake would have turned him to ash, wavering between recovering his memory and falling into qi deviation.
Now he was in the Changsheng Dao Field, surrounded by a miasma of blood. The faces of mature Ning Chengfeng and young Ning Chengfeng alternated before his eyes. He seemed to be torn into two people — Chu Jun and Wan Li. One urged him to completely cut off the heart demon, kill Ning Chengfeng, and gain enlightenment. The other urged him to completely merge with the heart demon and keep Ning Chengfeng by his side forever.
“Kill Ning Chengfeng, break through the tribulation and gain enlightenment.”
“Why not change back to the Way of Bloodshed?”
“Your spirit is unclear and your heart is impure. After cultivating the Way of Tranquility till now, what have you achieved?”
“The Ruthless Way can lead to ascension.”
“You were born without emotions or desires, why seek trouble?”
“Do you want to see Ning Chengfeng living happily with someone else?”
“You’ve cultivated to this level, why not do as you please?”
“Why did you keep this heart demon within you in the first place?”
“Don’t you like Ning Chengfeng?”
It was as if countless people were whispering in his ears, their voices sometimes distant, sometimes near, sometimes stern, sometimes gentle, weaving a fine net that enclosed him, disturbing and tempting him.
He felt a long-forgotten violent killing intent.
“Kill Ning Chengfeng.”
“Kill Ning Chengfeng.”
“Kill Ning Chengfeng.”
Suddenly, a bright color flashed by. Chu Jun abruptly opened his eyes, and a palm strike carrying the force of a thousand jun came down, hitting the opponent’s chest.
In an instant, a green light flared brilliantly. The opponent was forced to reveal his form and laughed, “To think that Venerable Jinghe would condescend to use himself as bait to lure me out. I’m impressed!”
“Sneaking coward,” Chu Jun struck down with another palm. The surrounding spiritual energy churned. It seemed like a light and casual pat, yet it was as if countless dharma bodies emerged from his palm, filled with killing intent.
