Mo Ran didn’t answer, or perhaps he couldn’t answer. He walked forward and hugged Chu Wanning.

     “...What’s wrong with you?”

     In his arms was slightly cold robes and a warm body.

     “Why are you crying?”

     Dream? Reality?

     He wasn’t sure.

     He was no longer clear about the details, but in the Red Lotus Pavilion, there was no trace of Chu Wanning’s body lying there, cold. His Shizun was still alive and worried about whether the joints of his Holy Night Guardians were flexible enough. He was still contemplating whether to apply it with tung oil or varnish.

     This seemed to be enough.

     For a moment, he indulged in this, and didn’t want to wake up.

     He and Chu Wanning finished the Holy Night Guardian together. By the time they were finished, it was already late in the night, so he pulled Chu Wanning back to his room. Just like in his previous life, he laid down with him in his arms, their faces next to each other.

     The Chu Wanning of this dream wasn’t so docile. He always had this kind of ruthlessness, something he couldn’t let go of.

     Even when he was at the peak of pleasure in bed, when he lost himself, he would often bite his lower lip. His phoenix eyes would form tears, but he wouldn’t make a sound, only panting heavily and uncontrollably.

     The candle flame was not extinguished, and the warm light reflected on the face of the person beneath him. Mo Ran stared at his pleasured appearance, gazing at Chu Wanning’s features, at his brows and brown eyes, which were filled with the shadow of the candlelight.

     The candle flickered, like a flower petal falling into a deep pond.

     As Mo Ran moved rhythmically, the petals swayed and floated in the water, ripples spreading out. In the end, a few tears fell from Chu Wanning’s eyes and were kissed away by Mo Ran.

     He knew very well what kind of person Chu Wanning was. If he didn’t use an aphrodisiac, it would be difficult to get him to climax. His self-control was so remarkable that it was truly regrettable.

     But so what?

     He still couldn’t control his tears, his gasps, his rapid breathing. It didn’t matter even if he didn’t make a sound. Seeing him being fucked by him to the point of crying, to the point where his face flushed red and his eyes lost focus, to the point where his sturdy chest rose up and down as he gasped for breath, was also very good.

     It was an enchanting night, and it was only at three in the morning that they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

     Mo Ran embraced the person in his arms tightly. Both of them were drenched in sweat, the heat lingering on their bodies as they pressed against each other, and even their hair was stuck to the sides of their cheeks.

     He kissed his earlobe softly and tenderly, holding him tighter in his arms as if he were a lost and found treasure.

     “That’s good. Shizun, now that you’re by my side, that’s good.”

     He fell asleep.

     He opened his eyes, and was shocked to find that Chu Wanning was no longer at his side.

     “Shizun?!”

     He sat up abruptly.

     Then, he saw Chu Wanning standing by the half-open window. It was already almost dawn, and a light rain was drizzling outside.

     Mo Ran breathed a sigh of relief and stretched out his hand, “Shizun, come here…”

     But Chu Wanning didn’t move. He was dressed very neatly, his robes as white as snow, and he quietly looked at the man on the bed.

     Mo Ran stared at him, and suddenly felt a strong feeling of unease in his heart.

     Chu Wanning said to him, “Mo Ran, it’s time for me to go.”

     “Go?” He was stunned. The bed was still warm, and there were a few strands of broken hair on the pillow, a hint of obscenity in the air. But Chu Wanning stood before him, as if they were separated by a lake or sea, so distant. Mo Ran said anxiously, “Where are you going? This is the Red Lotus Pavilion, your home. We’re already home, so where else would you go?”

     Chu Wanning shook his head. He turned his face to the side and looked at the gradually brightening sky outside the window. He said, “There’s no time, it’s almost dawn.”

     “Wanning!”

     It was just a blink of an eye.

     The room was empty, leaving nothing behind.

     He rose from the bed in a panic and, without putting on his shoes, he stumbled out the door.

     The beautiful haitang flowers he’d seen last night had already mostly been knocked to the ground, their branches broken. Scattered flowers covered the steps and table, and there was even a completed Holy Night Guardian on the stone table. The metal gloves and file were left beside it, as if Chu Wanning had just left, as if Chu Wanning would return at any moment.

     “Wanning? Wanning!”

     He ran around the Red Lotus Pavilion like a madman, searching. But he always avoided the lotus pond. Subconsciously, he didn’t dare to go to the lotus pond. He was afraid to go…

     But in the end, he still walked over in a daze.

     Barefooted, he stepped onto the ice-cold bluestone path.

     He stopped quite a distance away from the lotus pond, and looked up from his pale toes until he could see a pale face.

     His eyes widened as looked at the man lying in the lotus pond in the distance. It was the same man he would see almost every day in the last two years before his death in his previous life.

      Lying in the depths of the lotus pond, his body hadn’t decayed and his robes were clean. What was the difference from when he was alive?

     …What was the difference?!

     He walked over step by step.

     Closer.

     Closer.

     As long as he continued forward, he would reach the edge of the pond. He would be able to clearly see every eyelash, his sword-like brows that were slightly furrowed even after death, and his phoenix eyes that would no longer open.

     But he fell to his knees in fear.

     His knees hit the stone floor, and he curled up in a ball, trembling for a long time. Suddenly, he thought of the immortal pill Liu-gong had given him, the one that would bring the dead back to life.

     He was reassured, his fingers trembling fiercely as he rummaged through his qiankun pouch and took out the items inside one by one.

     “Immortal pill… immortal pill… I want the immortal pill that can bring the dead back to life… Where’s the immortal pill?! Where is the immortal pill?!”

     He took out everything and turned the entire qiankun pouch upside down, refusing to let go of even the gaps in the stitches as he felt his way through inch by inch.

     But there was nothing.

     The immortal pill was gone. It wasn’t inside.

     Or maybe just now, when he bumped into Liu-gong and obtained the immortal pill, that was also a dream?

     No, it was all a dream; one dream after another…

     He collapsed, his mind in chaos. He raised his hands to rub his cheeks and eyelids in despair as he muttered, “No, there is… I clearly put it in here…. Immortal pill… There is an immortal pill… There is… there is…”

     Once again, he searched frantically, kneeling in front of Chu Wanning’s corpse. His eyes flashed with a terrifying light, but his voice became more and more choked, more and more desperate. Finally, he leaned over and cried loudly.

     “I put it here! I put it in here!”

     He fiercely swept away the clutter in front of him with his palm. Countless porcelain vases tumbled, and some even shattered. He crawled forward on his knees in the midst of the broken pieces, the shards digging into the flesh of his knees. But he didn’t care. He crawled towards the person lying in the lotus pond.

     In the end, he carried him out of the pond and held his cold body tightly in his arms.

     —This was something he had always wanted to do in his previous life, but never did.

     He hugged Chu Wanning’s body. The drizzle of rain still lingered endlessly as the sky lit up in layers, but it had nothing to do with them. He held Chu Wanning’s body and cried. He pressed his cheek against him, kissed the bridge of his nose, his eyes, his lips.

     “Shizun… I beg you… Please… listen to me… Please…”

     In that instant, his figure overlapped with that of the orphan who had once broken down and wailed in the mass grave while clutching his mother’s rotting body, begging the passersby to bury him with his mother.

     That year, he was only five years old. The five year old swore that he would never again see his loved ones rotting in front of him, their flesh and bones turning to mud.

     In the blink of an eye, so many years had passed. The thirty-two year old Emperor Taxian-Jun held his Shizun’s corpse in his arms. Sometimes, he would laugh maniacally, and at other times he would cry bitterly.

     It was a body that looked exactly the same as it had in life. He did it. He could make the dead look as if they were alive. The body even seemed to have a faint color of blood under the skin, as if he was peacefully asleep.

     This time, he didn’t beg anyone to bury him deep in the ground along with Chu Wanning.

     After Chu Wanning died, he drank a whole jar of Pear Blossom White, and every day after that, he would fall asleep in a tomb of the living dead called the Red Lotus Pavilion. From that day on, he had buried himself.

     “Shizun, please pay attention to me…”

     “Mo Ran!”

     “You… pay attention to me…”

     He could vaguely hear someone calling him, a familiar voice. It was dark around him again, and he clung onto that piece of driftwood like a man on the verge of drowning. Someone reached out to him, and he choked and held tightly onto that person, “Don’t go, I won’t do bad things anymore. I won’t make you angry again…”

     He held onto the man’s fingers and intertwined them with his. He could smell the faint scent of flowers, the fragrance of haitangs.

     “I have the immortal pill of rebirth, but I… I don’t know why, but I can’t find it… I can’t find it, but can you please stay? Please…” He ignored everything else. He followed the warmth of that body and embraced it, “Please, I’d rather…”

     “I’d rather the person who died be me.”

     “Mo Ran! Wake up!”

     But he couldn’t wake up. The pain was deeper than the sea. He was drowning. He couldn’t wake up.

     His throat was choked with sobs. He clung to the one who called out to him, and his eyelashes were wet, “I’d rather it be me who died, Shizun…”

     “You dog! What are you trying to do?! Hey!”

     Suddenly, a person rushed over and grabbed him. Then, everything around him was a mass of chaos. Someone poured a flood of ice-cold water between his lips and teeth.

     Mo Ran suddenly felt cold all over. The water was as cold as thousand year old ice, almost freezing his lungs.

     He suddenly opened his eyes!

     “...”

     The first thing that caught his eye was Jiang Xi’s gloomy face. He was holding a green bottle in his hand. Obviously, the contents of the bottle had just been given to him now.

     “I…”

     As soon as he opened his mouth, he found that his throat was hoarse. He couldn’t say any more for a while.

     Then, he looked around and discovered that he was back in the Ancestral Hall’s Heavenly Palace. His clothes were soaked in a cold sweat, and the surrounding people were all looking at him with strange expressions, especially Xue Meng; his face was green and white, very unpleasant.

     He was lying on Chu Wanning’s lap, his arms wrapped tightly around his waist. Chu Wanning’s robes, which were originally tidy and respectful, had been pulled and torn by him during the dream. The edge of his outer robe had even slipped to his shoulders.

     Mo Ran: “...”

     He didn’t… He didn’t say anything that he shouldn’t have, did he?

     Chu Wanning didn’t look good either, but he was still calm. He said, “Why did you run ahead so fast by yourself?”

     “Shizun, I… Just now, I…”

     “You were trapped in a nightmare.” Jiang Xi put away the jade bottle and stood up again. He lowered his eyes and said, “Rest for a while. I fed you the Dream-Breaking Cold Water. You’ll feel very cold. You’ll be fine after a cup of tea’s time.”

     Mo Ran still hadn’t recovered from the terrifying layers of dreams. His eyes were still a little confused, and after a long time, he muttered, “Trapped by a nightmare? …But I’ve been careful. I didn’t… I didn’t perceive any traces of a spell…”

     Jiang Xi revealed his sharp fangs and claws, “Spell? What’s that stupid thing?”

     Everyone present: “...”

     “You think the most ruthless and brutal thing in the world is a spell?” The leader of the medicinal sect narrowed his eyes and waved his sleeves in disdain, “You’re ridiculously wrong. The most powerful thing in the world is medicine. In this Heavenly Palace, there is a type of incense called Nineteen Hells. This incense is colorless and tasteless, but it can make people hallucinate and fall into the greatest fear of their life.”

     Jiang Xi paused for a moment before looking at Mo Ran, “The greater the fear, the deeper one falls. I’ve saved a few people from the Nineteen Hells before. After giving them four to five drops of Dream-Breaking Cold Water, they woke up. But do you know how much you drank?”

     “...How much?”

     Jiang Xi seemed a little displeased. He said, “Most of the bottle. I had to give you enough to save more than a hundred people before your consciousness was called back… I’m a little curious Mo-zongshi, you’re so young; why do you have such a deep fear at this age? What exactly are you afraid of?”