Bu Wei

The scene before his eyes suddenly dissipated, and Chu Jun’s divine consciousness was forcefully expelled, instantly returning to its place.

Chu Jun opened his eyes and, as expected, saw that Ning Buwei had woken up and was staring at him with hostility, arms crossed.

He suddenly remembered meeting the teenage Ning Chengfeng in the Fuluo Secret Realm years ago, when Ning Chengfeng was also holding a wolf cub and refusing to let go.

In the cultivation world, people were cold and indifferent. Additionally, he was troubled by his fate tribulation at the time, so he didn’t have much patience for a young child like Ning Chengfeng.

‘Return the cub.’

‘It insisted on following me to become my contract beast.’

‘Tailless wolves don’t accept masters, they can’t become contract beasts.’

‘Then I’ll still raise it.’

‘Its parents are still alive, why make them separate from their flesh and blood?’

It was after hearing this last sentence that Ning Chengfeng paused, then obediently returned the wolf cub.

Thinking back now, Chu Jun only felt bitterness in his mouth.

“Awake?” Chu Jun hid all his emotions in his eyes and asked calmly.

“Mm.” Ning Buwei squeezed his brow hard, in a terrible mood.

He hadn’t expected that the wine from the Shiji Winery which he used to drink like water back then could now make him drunk, and all those foolish things he did while drunk were still crystal clear in his mind.

Leaving Chu Jun alone while drunk was one thing, getting excited about fighting snow wolves and becoming aggressive was somewhat understandable, giving gifts to Chu Jun could be temporarily set aside, but he had actually taken advantage of him while drunk… Ning Buwei painfully stopped remembering.

If he drank carelessly again, he would be an idiot.

Chu Jun sat on the couch and handed him a fruit, “It’s for sobering up.”

Ning Buwei took it, lifted his eyelids to glance at him, ate the fruit in a few bites, cleared his throat, and tentatively asked, “Did I do anything inappropriate while I was drunk?”

Chu Jun’s eyebrows moved slightly, pretending not to know. “What would count as inappropriate?”

Ning Buwei narrowed his eyes and stared at him.

Chu Jun maintained his composure, completely calm.

Ning Buwei got up from the couch, only to discover he wasn’t wearing anything on his upper body, and his gaze immediately became peculiar.

Chu Jun belatedly realized he hadn’t had time to change his clothes, and was about to explain when he saw Ning Buwei pointing at his own well-defined abs and saying meaningfully. “Like stripping someone completely naked—that kind of inappropriate thing.”

Ning Buwei casually pulled out a black outer robe from his storage ring and put it on. Because he wore it carelessly, half the collar was open, very informal.

Chu Jun glanced at it, his gaze lingering for a moment, and said calmly, “That didn’t happen, you just kissed me once.”

Ning Buwei, who was about to walk out casually, almost choked on his own saliva. He tried to maintain his composure and said, “You’ve kissed me before too, so we’re even.”

This meant he wasn’t going to take responsibility.

“Ning Chengfeng,” Chu Jun’s tone became serious, “What did you change the spiritual contract to when you were drunk?”

Ning Buwei paused, “What spiritual contract?”

Just as he asked, a blurry scene flashed through his mind: his divine consciousness, drunk in his sea of consciousness, was hugging a spiritual contract, bit his finger to add a few strokes to it, those strokes…

Ning Buwei’s expression turned ugly. He swallowed and forced a dry laugh. “You didn’t try to forcefully break the contract… and add your blood too, did you?”

Chu Jun said, “Three drops, no more, no less.”

Ning Buwei: “!!!”

“Still think we’re even?” Chu Jun countered.

Ning Buwei couldn’t laugh anymore.

When he was drunk, he thought Chu Jun’s spiritual contract looked quite ugly, so he got excited and bit his finger to add two strokes and three drops of blood, turning the spiritual contract into a dao contract—typically, dao contracts were only formed between extremely intimate dao companions, and once formed, they couldn’t be broken unless one party perished.

Most crucially, dao contracts allowed sharing of both parties’ memories and emotions. Even for dao companions who loved each other deeply, this kind of contract was too intimate—generally, only fools would form one.

Ning Buwei certainly didn’t want to form one. He wanted to slap himself twice—why did he have to change it to a dao contract of all things? Even a dao companion contract would have been better, at least that could be broken.

This was beyond the question of being even.

Ning Buwei took out the messy dao contract from his sea of consciousness, and after examining it, his expression became even worse. His voice turned somewhat gloomy. “What did you see?”

The person who had finally lowered his guard around him was now bristling with wariness again. Chu Jun sighed internally but still told him honestly. “I saw some things from your childhood.”

Ning Buwei’s jaw tightened as he gripped the dao contract, his expression severe. “This matter was my mistake. I will temporarily seal this contract and find a way to completely break it later. Please forgive me, Venerable Jinghe.”

After speaking, he turned to leave.

Watching his somewhat flustered back, Chu Jun suddenly had a premonition that if he let him leave now, he would never see him again. He immediately caught up and grabbed his wrist. “Ning Chengfeng.”

Ning Buwei said in a deep voice. “If the Venerable is worried, I can seal it in front of you, guaranteeing it won’t affect—”

Before he could finish, he was pulled into an embrace. A familiar bitter fragrance instantly spread through his nostrils, causing Ning Buwei to freeze in place.

“Ning Xiu and the others hatched a small black dragon, it’s quite rowdy,” Chu Jun’s voice sounded near his ear, carrying his usual steady warmth but also an undeniable forcefulness. “I can’t look after it alone.”

Ning Chengfeng’s attention was diverted by this. He frowned. “Black dragon?”

Chu Jun said, “Yuanbai found it in his Purple Mansion. The little ones hatched it together. The baby dragon still needs to be hand-fed.”

Ning Buwei muttered. “Oh.”

“If you don’t like it, we can temporarily seal the dao contract together,” Chu Jun’s voice was calm and rational. “We’ll find a way later.”

The person in his embrace remained silent for a while before his rigid, tense body gradually relaxed.

“I didn’t intend to look,” Chu Jun said unhurriedly. “If it bothers you, I can seal these memories away too.”

Ning Buwei gave a light snort. “It’s just some past events I can barely remember anyway. I’m not that petty.”

Before Chu Jun could fully relax, he heard Ning Buwei chuckle softly next to his ear. “Chu Jun, why are your ears red?”

Chu Jun released him and calmly stared at Ning Buwei, but his ears turned even redder at these words.

Ning Buwei was already emotionally confused, and this sudden embrace left him somewhat at a loss. But seeing this usually unflappable person’s ears turn red just from a hug made his heart feel like a kitten was gently scratching it.

He straightened up, originally planning to tease Chu Jun more, but unexpectedly met Chu Jun’s deep, tranquil gaze. His heart suddenly thumped heavily twice, and all his words got stuck in his throat.

The aftereffects of this Immortal Wine were indeed quite strong.

The two maintained expressionless eye contact for a while before simultaneously looking away.

After the time it takes to burn an incense stick, they jointly sealed the dao contract deep in their seas of consciousness, yet they could still feel each other’s subtle emotional changes.

Right now, for instance, although Chu Jun appeared calm, Ning Buwei could sense that his mood wasn’t good, and even carried traces of killing intent.

Ning Buwei: ??

“Ning Fan took the bait,” perhaps sensing his confusion, Chu Jun spoke first. “He just entered the Floating Sky Realm.”

Of Chu Jun’s two physical shells, one was on the flying ship, where it took turns caring for the children, while the other had transformed into Ning Buwei’s appearance and entered the Floating Sky Realm.

Ning Buwei wasn’t very skilled at controlling his divided divine consciousness, usually only able to focus on one side at a time, and when drunk he had completely fallen asleep, though his aura remained. Combined with Chu Jun’s transformation technique, it was enough to create a convincing deception.

“Perfect timing,” Ning Buwei gave a cold laugh.

Chu Jun slightly furrowed his brows, his expression somewhat strange.

“What’s wrong?” Ning Buwei asked.

“There’s a problem on the flying ship.”

****

Half an incense stick earlier, on the flying ship.

“Little Black, don’t run around! It’s too dangerous over there!” Feng Zizhang hung from the cabin roof, trying to pull back the little long creature coiled up there.

The small black dragon flicked its tail and called out to Yuanbai who was floating in mid-air. Yuanbai’s true fire blazed in his hands, “If you come down, I won’t use fire.”

Ning Xiu swayed as he stood up against the deck railing, trying to reach the passing white clouds. “Ah~”

Yummy~

Big Yellow bit his little clothes and tried desperately to pull him back, but the golden core cultivator’s small hands gripped the railing too tightly—even using all its strength, it couldn’t move the little child an inch.

Jiang Yizheng opened the door and saw this scene, her heart nearly jumping out in fright, “Xiao Shan ahhhh—”

She flew forward in one leap to grab Ning Xiu, then turned to see Feng Zizhang holding the black dragon’s tail, feet hooked on the cabin roof’s mast. Little Black was smoking all over, Feng Zizhang’s face had turned purple from strain, and Yuanbai had transformed into the Purple Flame Knife, eagerly waiting to strike the dragon’s head.

“Huanhuan, don’t!” Feng Zizhang gritted his teeth and yanked Little Black up, but the small black dragon performed a swimming dragon tail sweep, caught the Purple Flame Knife, and the knife, dragon, and person all tumbled towards Jiang Yizheng and Big Yellow.

“Father!” At the critical moment, Jiang Yizheng sank her qi to her dantian and roared.

Chu Jun, who had been fully focused on sealing the dao contract with Ning Buwei, suddenly opened his eyes and teleported out from the cabin. However, before he could act, a huge formation suddenly appeared in the sky, sweeping up all four children along with Big Yellow and Little Black.

With no time to modify the formation, Chu Jun controlled his shell to follow them in.

When he opened his eyes again, Chu Jun once more saw the gaudy gates of the Floating Sky Realm, but neither the dragon, dog, nor any of the children were beside him.

Everything had happened in an instant.

—

“That formation appears to have been released by the little black dragon when it was startled,” Chu Jun said, “Ning Xiu and the others…should have also been sent into the Floating Sky Realm.”

Even when Ning Buwei and Chu Jun entered the Floating Sky Realm together, they needed to use a spiritual contract to avoid getting separated. The children being suddenly sent in would certainly not end up in the same place.

Feng Zizhang was naive and kind-hearted, always meddling in others’ business—he’d fall for any trick. Jiang Yizheng had just learned sword flight at the Foundation Building stage and was terribly timid. Yuanbai only thought about candied hawthorns and fighting, sometimes losing control and turning into a knife. As for Ning Xiu… this Golden Core cultivator had just learned to stand and couldn’t even speak clearly—

Ning Buwei and Chu Jun exchanged a glance, then suddenly transformed into two streaks of light and flew out.