CH 15

Yi Ning pulled aside the curtain. Where the 17 women had been staying, there was, as expected, nobody left. Even the bedspreads and pillows had all disappeared without a trace.

“Venerable Lord, there’s no trace of Fang Shilan’s demonic energy left, did they run away?” Gan’er flattened herself against the ground and sniffed around for Fang Shilan’s scent but came up empty. 

Hearing her say this, Yan Xuan also couldn’t be bothered to search for them. “Gan’er is of the dog race, if she can’t find them, then it means they’re not here.”

The dog race’s sense of smell is many times more sensitive than a human’s. Gan’er could differentiate between different demonic energies within a several hundred kilometre range.

Yi Ning nodded but looked out the window. Through the window, he could see the entire city.

If he were Fang Shilan, where would he go to escape Yan Xuan? 

To bring along 17 pregnant women while on the run from a Demon Venerable, especially one with a helper like Gan’er, it didn’t take much thinking to realise that it was an impossible feat.

“They’re definitely still here.” Yi Ning muttered to himself, lifting his head to look at Yan Xuan, “Gan’er is from the dog race, so her sense of smell is incredibly strong. You are from the snake race, so your demonic fog possesses potent venom. Fang Shilan is from the rat race, so what can she do?”

Yan Xuan’s pupils trembled, as if understanding something, and replied slowly, “Underground Movement skill.”

The so-called Underground Movement skill was in actuality only the rat race’s natural-born ability to conceal themselves underground and construct underground tunnels.

All demons and demonic cultivators, at their very root, originated from animals who had cultivated into a human form. Their techniques were also derived from their ancestors’ innate abilities.

As the saying goes, “A rat’s son will know how to dig a hole.” The logic here was the same.

Yi Ning had heard of the Underground Movement skill before, but he had never expected that he would encounter it one day. After contemplating for a moment, “The issue now is, where would Fang Shilan feel safest to construct an underground burrow…”

Gan’er suddenly popped her head out and said, “I also know how to dig holes, Immortal Master, I’m quite impressive. All the precious treasures that the Venerable Lord gave me in the past, I’ve hidden in my burrow. I’m sure Fang Shilan is the same.” 

“Would she be as foolish as you, to construct her burrow under the Demon Palace?” Yan Xuan said coldly. Thinking about how it caused several sections of the palace to collapse,  he still felt that he gave her too light of a beating back then.

When those words fell, Yan Xuan and Yi Ning’s gazes suddenly collided and they instantly understood what each other were thinking about.

At the side, Gan’er was still stutteringly explaining herself to Yan Xuan. She still felt immense heartache over her precious big bone that was confiscated by Yan Xuan.

In that time, Yi Ning and Yan Xuan had already understood the gist of the situation. 

“Could it be, they’re underground?”

“En, probably.”

The two of them rushed towards the lowest floor of the tower.

“And so I say, what if it gets stolen when I hide it somewhere else? It’d be better for me to just hide it under our Demon Palace… eh? Venerable Lord! Wait for me!” 

Seeing that they had already left, Gan’er pumped her short legs and ran to catch up.

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Now that they were on the topic of one of Gan’er’s strong suits, she pridefully patted her chest and said, “No problem!” 

After a while, she tacked on, “Immortal Master, my skill is called the Burrowing skill, not the Underground Movement skill.”

Yan Xuan: “…” Can’t you tell which one sounds nicer?

Gan’er pasted her head to the floor and sniffed, then said seriously, “This is a good spot for a hole. Give me some time, it’ll be done soon.”

After speaking, she found two small sticks and aimed them carefully at the ground. Circulating energy in her palms, she very quickly opened a large hole in the ground. 

“There’s light coming from below!” Gan’er cried, then was swiftly shut up by Yi Ning’s hand over her mouth.

He wanted to say something when Yan Xuan hooked an arm around his waist and brought them into the hole.

Yi Ning was unprepared for this action and let out a surprised sound, subconsciously gripping onto Yan Xuan’s lapel and tugging a large section of his clothes apart.

“… Let go.” Was he trying to strangle him? 

Borrowing the light from within the tunnel, Yi Ning saw Yan Xuan’s strong and firm chest muscles, as well as his expression of enduring something.

H-he’s grown up.

He was so skinny in the past.

Yi Ning awkwardly coughed twice, taking advantage of Gan’er’s inattention to avert his gaze and pull Yan Xuan’s collar back into place. 

As expected, Fang Shilan did have a burrow down here, with tunnels extended in all directions. If they explored each tunnel one by one, perhaps by the time they reached Fang Shilan, the children would have already been born.

“That won’t do.” Yan Xuan’s tone was unpleasant and he caught hold of Yi Ning’s wrist to pull him back to his side.

Now that Yi Ning no longer had his cultivation, he would be in trouble if he ran into Fang Shilan.

Furthermore, Yi Ning just pulled open his clothes, he couldn’t let him off so easily. 

Yan Xuan casually picked up Gan’er and placed her in front of him, saying, “Gan’er will split up from us. She’s from the dog race, so Fang Shilan won’t dare to touch her.”

This way was also fine. In any case, compared to the cultivation-less Yi Ning, even Gan’er was more capable in a fight.

It looks like I’ll have to look for the Sect Leader to help restore my cultivation after all, Yi Ning thought.

After Gan’er hopped and skipped and hummed a tune as she left, Yan Xuan shifted his gaze to Yi Ning and said slowly, “Immortal Master, what did you do to me just now?” 

Seeing him bring it up, Yi Ning also couldn’t continue feigning ignorance and said, lowly, “In a moment of inattention, I pulled apart your clothes.”

He didn’t do it on purpose, how was he supposed to know that Yan Xuan would suddenly drag him down there. If he had warned him ahead of time, Yi Ning wouldn’t have even touched his clothes.

“What are you thinking about?” Yan Xuan knew that as long as Yi Ning was silent, he had to be letting his thoughts run wild. Thus, he paused, then revealed a smile full of hidden meanings and said, “Immortal Master, do you still remember the day you removed my seal and I accidentally pulled out your lapel pin, so you slapped me?”

When Yi Ning heard his words, his eyes widened, then said through gritted teeth, “Was it really an accident?” It was obviously on purpose! 

Jade pendant, bracelet, lapel pin and his sword tassel… they were all ripped apart on purpose by Yan Xuan. Yi Ning had always been frugal and was reluctant to buy new ones, so until now he still hadn’t put on a new one.

But Yan Xuan didn’t intend to quibble over whether he did it on purpose or not, he just wanted to bully Yi Ning.

“Since you pulled apart my clothes today, then logically speaking, shouldn’t you repay me in some way?” Yan Xuan seemed to be somewhat excited as he started to debate with him over this.

Yi Ning shot a glare at him, then took out the sword tassel that Yan Xuan ruined from his storage ring, holding it out in front of his face with his palm splayed out. “Then, first pay me back for my sword tassel.” 

Yan Xuan didn’t expect Yi Ning to ask him for repayment for a sword tassel. He unhurriedly took the tassel from Yi Ning’s hand and asked, “How many spirit stones?”

Everybody thought that whenever Yi Ning exterminated evil, he would receive a lot of money in payment, and that added together, it would be enough to fill up the entirety of Mount Yunqing. In actuality, Yi Ning had always subsisted on the spirit stones given out by the sect and never asked for payment for exterminating evil.

This sword tassel was only worth two lower-grade spirit stones and wasn’t anything valuable. Yi Ning also never bought any expensive accessories and only put on the sword tassel for the sake of etiquette.

After a beat, Yi Ning said quietly, “Two lower-grade spirit stones.” 

Yan Xuan thought his ears were deceiving him, it took a while before he processed the amount he said. After a period of silence where he digested the fact that Immortal Master Yi Ning would actually purchase a sword tassel worth two lower-grade spirit stones, he took out a treasure cup from his storage ring. This treasure cup was equivalent to about a thousand upper-grade spirit stones.

“Is that enough?” If it wasn’t enough, he had more.

Yan Xuan didn’t care about his response and shoved it in his hand. In the past, every demonic race would offer up tributes to him, and although he had never taken a close look at any of the tributes, treasure cups like this were so numerous he was too lazy to count them all.

Yi Ning caught the treasure cup, then threw it back at him. “I want my sword tassel.” 

What sword tassel, Yan Xuan’s mind was filled with thoughts of how to bully Yi Ning. He lazily leaned against the wall of the tunnel. “Immortal Master, what is the meaning of this? If I do something wrong, I need to endure a slap, but when you do something wrong, you just need to shrug off the responsibility?”

“I never said…” Yi Ning didn’t know how to be sly, ordinarily he would only argue using those same few lines, and once he got sufficiently annoyed, he would just tell the other person to scram.

After a pause, Yi Ning seemed to have come to some sort of resolution. He looked at Yan Xuan and said, “Then you can also slap me once. We’ll call it even after that.”

He was waiting for this exact phrase, Yan Xuan almost couldn’t resist laughing aloud. He grabbed Yi Ning’s wrist and tugged him to his side, then said, “How could I hit people as I wished like the Immortal Master? However, since you did something wrong, you still need to make it up to me. 

After he spoke, he assessed Yi Ning, then swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said, with his gaze falling on Yi Ning’s lapel, “Let me pull apart your lapel too, then we’ll call it even.”

Hearing his words, Yi Ning’s eyes widened slightly, tinged with disbelief, and unconsciously gripped onto his lapel. “No!”

There wasn’t any room for discussion! Yan Xuan just wanted to see him embarrassed. Yi Ning would rather be slapped by him than let him pull open his clothes.

“Oh, then forget it.” 

Yan Xuan turned his head and walked ahead, as if he really wanted to forget it.

Yi Ning was still tightly clutching his lapel and was prepared to activate the Thirst Hex if Yan Xuan rushed forward to tear open his clothes. Yet, he didn’t expect that Yan Xuan would actually just walk away.

The skinny youth who was shorter than him back then, as he walked in front of him, was already much taller than Yi Ning.

Although he was as unreasonable as before. 

Yi Ning followed behind him silently, thinking about that one slap he hit Yan Xuan with.

Actually, Yan Xuan didn’t pull his clothes apart on purpose, he only wanted to rip off the lapel pin Gong Xiuxian gave him, but he still gave him a slap. Thinking about it, it didn’t really seem appropriate.

He opened his mouth, then pursed his lips again.

That slap back then was because Yi Ning also had inclinations toward the same sex, so he felt that Yan Xuan was acting inappropriately towards him. But, perhaps to Yan Xuan, he was just an ordinary man, and pulling apart clothing was just something friends did to each other as a joke. 

He was too detached from human relationships.

After all, Yan Xuan wouldn’t be like him, preferring men.

Thinking to this point, Yi Ning’s footsteps stuttered, his heart filled with inexplicable frustration. That’s right, the weird one was him, not Yan Xuan.

After a long while, he inhaled deeply and called out to Yan Xuan in a small voice, “Yan Xuan.” 

“What?” Yan Xuan turned his gaze back, meeting Yi Ning’s trembling lashes, reddened eartips and slightly glum gaze.

He heard Yi Ning say, with his head lowered, “As an apology, you can pull… pull…”

The words that followed, he couldn’t say them out loud.

In an instant, Yan Xuan stopped in his tracks and understood everything. 

The blood in his body boiled, and he didn’t know what to do, almost being driven crazy by Yi Ning’s appearance right now.

–A lamb that sent itself up to the wolf’s door.