A group of nearly fifty people moved in a grand procession. At the front was a young lady riding a prized blood-sweat horse, wearing riding attire. With bright eyes and a lively demeanor, she turned her head to look at the exquisite, luxurious carriage. From the carriage, a fair-skinned, handsome young man peeked out. Dressed in sumptuous wide-sleeved robes, he leaned out from the carriage and complained, “Princess, this desolate wilderness cannot possibly have living people—only ghosts. This minister suggests Your Highness take a different route.”
Shen Yueli pointed her whip at him arrogantly, “Xiao Yutang, don’t disregard propriety just because this Princess favors you.”
Xiao Yutang’s face was buffeted by the wind, so he put on his veil hat, replying irritably, “I respect you as Princess, but Princess, you’re clearly being unreason—huh?”
He narrowed his eyes, lifting his wind-blocking veil. “Is someone there?”
These two little ancestors were both impossible to provoke; when they argued, it was always others who suffered. The surrounding attendants and guards wouldn’t dare make a sound even if they saw someone. They all kept their mouths firmly shut.
“This Princess knew she wasn’t mistaken! Hiya!” Shen Yueli charged forward, with attendants following closely behind.
Xiao Yutang glared irritably at the attendant driving the carriage. “Slower! This young master is about to be jolted sick!”
Soon Shen Yueli arrived at the deep pond and saw a young man about her age, supporting himself with a sword while half-kneeling on the ground. His robes were somewhat disheveled, as if deliberately torn or ripped by tree branches. His hand was pressed firmly against his abdomen. His slender waist appeared frail, and when he raised his head at the sound, he revealed an exceptionally handsome face. The deep bloody scratches on his face made him look somewhat vulnerable and easy to bully, but after meeting his piercing eyes, Shen Yueli immediately dismissed this impression.
Like the injured but still fierce wolf cub they had hunted two years ago.
But now that wolf cub had been tamed, wearing a collar, willing to lie docilely on her lap.
She wanted this one.
Shen Yueli’s face immediately broke into a bright smile. “Are you alright?”
Liang Ye stood up, supporting himself with his sword. The vengeful ghost had vanished. He cautiously looked around before examining Shen Yueli and her numerous guards. Although there was a risk of exposing his identity, compared to the extremely difficult-to-deal-with ghostly thing, he preferred breathing humans.
“I was hunting… and got injured,” the young man covered his abdomen, showing a helpless expression. “Might I trouble the lady for some medicine?”
“Of course.” Shen Yueli smiled. “Where’s the traveling physician? Quickly tend to this young master!”
When Xiao Yutang arrived, he frowned as he stared at Liang Ye. “This person’s background is unknown. How can we assist him so casually?”
“He’s good-looking,” Shen Yueli ignored him, smiling. “What’s the matter? Are you jealous?”
“Absurd!” Xiao Yutang angrily dropped the curtain.
Liang Ye casually invented a false identity for himself, making up a story about his family going back three generations, all quite convincingly. Shen Yueli even knew that his grandfather’s third concubine was a venomous, beautiful woman, which made her feel even more connection with him.
Being among so many living people, Liang Ye felt somewhat relieved.
He needed to find his master urgently. Although this was the first time in his life encountering such an evil spirit, his martial uncle had told him many strange tales, so it wasn’t completely unfamiliar. Reportedly, his master was always ruthless when dealing with such entities.
“This medicine was just prepared. Drink it while it’s hot.” In the spacious carriage, Shen Yueli rested her chin on her hand, smiling, boldly attempting to touch the wound on his face.
Liang Ye instinctively dodged, but Shen Yueli wasn’t bothered. She placed her hand on his knee. “Your right shoulder is broken. It’s bandaged and shouldn’t be moved carelessly.”
“Thank you.” Liang Ye lowered his eyes and moved aside, evading her hand.
“Don’t be shy.” Shen Yueli sat down beside him, even closer, and said enthusiastically, “We happen to be going the same way, so you should come with us. With more people, we can look after each other.”
“Thank you.” Liang Ye nodded, a flash of murderous intent crossing his eyes as he moved further away, maintaining distance from her.
Shen Yueli curiously stared at his neck, asking puzzledly: “What bit on your neck? Those teeth marks look so… terrifying.”
“A beast bit me.” Liang Ye turned his head to avoid her hand. “Miss, I’d like to rest now.”
“Alright, rest well then. I won’t disturb you.” Shen Yueli knew when to stop. After all, they would be traveling together for quite some time; there would be plenty of opportunities to get to know each other.
As she lifted the curtain to exit, Liang Ye cautiously listened to the surrounding sounds for a moment before gradually relaxing. He leaned against the carriage wall and closed his eyes to recover.
That evil thing was definitely afraid of crowds… he should have stabbed it one more time…
Bone-chilling cold suddenly appeared. Intangible fingers deliberately traced the wounds on his face, immediately causing a stinging pain. Liang Ye abruptly opened his eyes, but the carriage was empty with no figure in sight.
Moreover, everything around seemed too quiet—he couldn’t even hear the sound of wheels or feel the bumping of the carriage.
“Ah.” Someone sighed softly next to his ear.
Liang Ye’s scalp instantly tightened, and he quickly gripped the soft sword at his waist.
However, what he touched were fingers as cold as ice blocks, forcefully interlocking with his, and a familiar begonia fragrance mixed with the smell of blood and a strange putrid odor entered his nostrils, making his wounds ache subtly.
A pale hand covered his knee, and an icy voice resonated in the empty carriage. “Liang Ye… give me a small copper coin…”
As Liang Ye was about to speak, his mouth was covered. The wound on his neck suddenly caused intense pain, making him instantly tense his back. His neck was forced to tilt back, forming a sharp arc in the air.
The bluish-white fingertip pressed against the protruding veins on his neck. Wang Dian’s voice carried a hint of amusement. “I don’t much like others touching what’s mine… Why did you let her touch you? Do you want her to be your empress?”
Liang Ye breathed rapidly. His eyes darkened as he mustered his internal energy despite the wounds on his waist and shoulder. He violently broke free from the other’s restraint, drew his soft sword, and was about to slash at him.
“Rongming, are you alright?” The curtain was suddenly lifted, revealing Shen Yueli’s slightly worried face. Seeing the soft sword in his hand, she was visibly startled.
“…I’m fine.” Liang Ye raised his hand to cover the vividly red, ferocious bite mark on his neck and sheathed his soft sword. However, that eerie coldness didn’t disperse with Shen Yueli’s appearance. Instead, it clung to him more insistently. He could even feel the other licking his fingers that covered the wound, sending an instant chill through him.
“Your complexion looks unwell.” Shen Yueli finally found a legitimate reason and decisively sat opposite him. “Let me keep you company and chat.”
His wrist suddenly hurt, but Liang Ye maintained his composure. “Alright.”
Wang Dian leaned on his shoulder and chuckled softly, “It seems you like her very much.”
Liang Ye gave Shen Yueli a gentle smile. “Miss, are there any Taoist temples nearby?”
“About that…” Shen Yueli seemed caught off guard by his question. “I’m not very familiar with the area either, but it doesn’t matter. I’ll have someone inquire about it later…”
Wang Dian’s face instantly turned ferocious. The moving carriage suddenly halted, jolting everyone inside. Shen Yueli nearly hit the door frame, but Liang Ye was thrown solidly into Wang Dian’s embrace. Wang Dian violently slammed him against the carriage wall, grabbing his neck and saying darkly, “Do you think finding Yue Jingming will save you?”
Liang Ye immediately frowned.
“The current Yue Jingming can’t deal with me yet.” Wang Dian grinned, and suddenly fierce wind and rain erupted outside the carriage, causing the horses to neigh in distress.
“Princess!” Someone called from outside.
“What’s happening!?” Shen Yueli looked at Liang Ye with his difficult expression. “Stay in the carriage and don’t move. I’ll go see what’s happening.”
With that, she left the carriage.
Liang Ye looked extremely unwell. Wang Dian’s terrifying hand reached for his chest. An excruciating pain struck him, causing him to lose consciousness completely.
In his final moment of awareness, he met a pair of maniacally excited eyes that felt strangely familiar.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw a crackling burning campfire.
“You’re finally awake?” Shen Yueli crouched beside him with obvious relief. “You scared me to death. During the day, the wind suddenly started blowing mysteriously. Everyone searched for a long time before finding the way, and then when I entered the carriage, I found you unconscious.”
“Hmph.” Xiao Yutang sneered from the other side of the fire. “I think he fainted from fear.”
“That’s still better than your screaming and wailing,” Shen Yueli retorted.
“You have the nerve to talk about me? You clearly turned pale with fright too!” Xiao Yutang refused to back down.
The two began arguing as if no one else were present. Liang Ye found it extremely annoying. He touched the sword hilt at his waist, sat up, and vigilantly scanned the surroundings, but saw nothing strange and felt no coldness.
Before he had fainted, the other seemed to have reached for his chest.
He frowned and touched his chest, indeed feeling the three copper coins his master had given him. His master had only admonished him not to remove them before coming of age but had never explained why… Liang Ye’s expression suddenly froze.
He raised his hand and saw dirty, blackened, old blood between his fingers.
Not his own.
It seemed that evil creature had failed. Liang Ye’s lips curled into a smile, his brows and eyes instantly showing pride. Perhaps it had been completely destroyed—
“Heh.” A soft laugh sounded next to his ear.
The smile on Liang Ye’s face instantly froze. His black pupils moved, scanning over the arguing Shen Yueli and Xiao Yutang, past the dozens of guards and attendants setting up camp not far away, and several luxurious carriages. The noisy clamor, the rustling of the wind through the treetops, and the chirping of insects in the grass all faded into the background. Facing the crackling fire, he felt a cold, broad chest press against his back.
A blue-black arm passed through his armpit and embraced his chest. The wide, tattered dragon robe sleeve was gathered at the elbow, and pale fingertips covered his slightly warm chest. The entire palm had been burned, leaving only sparse skeleton fragments.
Looking at the shattered, stitched-together flesh and bones of the forearm and the somewhat slender wrist, he closed his eyes tightly, suspecting he was hallucinating.
Wang Dian lazily rested his chin on Liang Ye’s shoulder, his cold cheek pressing against the warm neck. His other arm wrapped around Liang Ye’s waist, effortlessly reaching through his clothes to touch the wound on Liang Ye’s abdomen. He laughed sinisterly. “Little beast has some ability, letting you stab me once yet I still can’t consume you… Time’s running out. Unfortunately, I have to leave.”
Liang Ye watched Shen Yueli and Xiao Yutang arguing until their faces turned red, his jaw tightly clenched. He endured as the other maliciously tore at the wound on his abdomen, making no sound.
Wang Dian grinned, lowering his head to bite Liang Ye’s neck, gulping a large mouthful of fresh blood. He tightened his arms around him, watching with manic gaze as the heat at Liang Ye’s chest grew more intense. “I won’t let you go… Before I leave, will you give me something?”
Liang Ye slightly frowned, the firelight casting the young man’s profile in an increasingly cold light.
The hint of begonia fragrance around the other’s neck was an irresistible temptation to him.
“This place isn’t convenient. Let’s go to the forest over there and say a proper goodbye.” Wang Dian licked the still-bleeding wound, smiling slightly. “I can see you want to kill me too.”
Liang Ye abruptly stood up.
“Rongming, what’s wrong?” Shen Yueli was startled by the expression on his face.
Beside her, Xiao Yutang glanced at Liang Ye with disdain. “Why do you care about him? He might be planning to repay kindness with enmity.”
“Excuse me.” Liang Ye walked toward the forest with a composed expression, no longer caring about Shen Yueli’s suddenly flushed face or Xiao Yutang’s sarcastic remarks.
After walking into the forest for a short while, a gust of eerie wind swept past, and he was pinned to the ground by a terrifying force. A somewhat sharp voice laughed near his ear. “You’re really not afraid of death, are you?”
Wang Dian narrowed his eyes, trying to find some fear or apprehension in his gaze, but discovered a barely perceptible excitement instead. Before he could ponder this, the young man suddenly wrapped his arm around his waist, pressing him into his embrace, and frowned. “Why do you have to leave?”
Wang Dian doubted his ears, even his sinister smile pausing momentarily. “…What?”
“Don’t you want the small copper coin?” Liang Ye, perhaps feeling that one arm couldn’t restrain him, pressed his other arm firmly against his spine, saying in a deep voice, “Let Zhen smell your neck, and Zhen will give you a small copper coin.”
Wang Dian’s crimson eyes stared at him for a while, then he grabbed the warm hand that was moving up his spine and grinned. “Even if you remove that flower, I won’t disappear. Give up that idea.”
“Then stay by Zhen’s side.” The young man’s gaze swept over his mutilated neck, falling on his faintly visible eyebrows and eyes. He raised his hand to tentatively touch his eyebrow, and seeing no rejection, ventured further down, saying softly, “Zhen… can feed you blood to sustain you. Be Zhen’s favored pet. Zhen will give you as many small copper coins as you want, alright?”
Wang Dian, whose heart had been extremely malicious just moments ago, suddenly became interested. He looked at his younger self with curiosity and mockingly said, “I almost killed you, yet you don’t want me to leave?”
“Vengeful ghosts are far more interesting than people.” Liang Ye’s fingertips hovered over his blood-soaked neck. “How could a vengeful ghost like you, who died so horribly from being drawn and quartered, survive on your own? Wouldn’t other ghosts laugh at you?”
“…” Wang Dian rarely became enraged twice by the same person, especially when that person was himself. He forcefully grabbed Liang Ye’s wrist, his ghostly energy swirling as he said, “I’m far more powerful than a vengeful ghost.”
“Never seen it, don’t believe it,” Liang Ye grinned. “You clearly couldn’t even kill me.”
Having passed out in the carriage and seeing this evil creature’s burned hand, he understood perfectly—this thing couldn’t harm him at all.
Wang Dian smiled without mirth. “But I can torture you until you wish for death.”
“Your methods… aren’t even half as bad as my headaches,” Liang Ye held him tightly, refusing to let go, seemingly negotiating terms cleverly. “Let Zhen keep you. Help Zhen suppress the headaches, and Zhen will let you bite Zhen’s neck and give you small copper coins.”
Wang Dian was literally laughed by anger, leaning in to touch his bloody nose against Liang Ye’s. His neck twisted at a bizarre angle, and the begonia flower blooming at his neck lightly brushed against the young man’s lips. He sneered, “You’re calculating quite cleverly, so smug.”
Liang Ye lowered his eyes, boldly reaching out to touch the begonia petals on his neck. “These past few days with you by Zhen’s side… Zhen has been very comfortable.”
He had even stabbed himself to confirm he wasn’t crazy.
Wang Dian stared at him with complex emotions before eventually scoffing, “Little madman.”
Liang Ye suddenly embraced his neck and bit down hard. Wang Dian was startled, but then found himself grabbed by the begonia at his neck—clearly Liang Ye intended to break the flower stem. Wang Dian sneered and promptly broke the other’s wrist.
Despite the pain, Liang Ye wouldn’t let go, like an unreasonable child. “Zhen forbids you to leave. Zhen will give you the jade pendant first.”
Frowning, he stuffed his jade pendant into Wang Dian’s tattered dragon robe, but the pendant passed right through the robe and fell to the ground.
He truly was a child who understood nothing.
Wang Dian coldly pried open his broken wrist, staring at the young man with a manic expression. He licked the corner of his mouth before lowering his head to greedily bite Liang Ye’s chest, only tasting a bit of blood before being burned by the copper coins.
Liang Ye instinctively struggled a few times, nearly pulling out the begonia from his neck.
Wang Dian decisively broke his other unruly wrist and threw him into a pile of grass like discarded trash.
With his crimson lips, he gave Liang Ye a meaningful smile.
“I will come back for you.”
