EHRPS CH177

Third floor of the inn, in a certain room.

Tu Tianba tossed the deflated crimson brocade pouch onto the table. He sat askew, and although his upper body was lowered with his chin resting on the table, he still looked down at the object in his palm—

A three-inch-tall little person.

Small enough to be cupped in his palm.

Small enough to be swallowed in one bite.

The little person was wrapped in white clothes, his long hair reaching his waist. Earlier, Tu Tianba couldn’t keep his hands to himself; he braided several small plaits in the little man’s hair and stuck many tiny flowers into them, dotting the back of his head like little stars.

Exquisite from head to toe.

This person was exactly A-Hui, who had been caught off guard on the flying boat, hit with a shrinking spell by the person beside him, and secretly smuggled into Yongge City.

“Hehe.”

With one finger, Tu Tianba poked the sitting little person over, mischievously rocking him back and forth a few times, and let out a few smug, arrogant laughs.

Then, his eyes lowered. Staring at the little person who, in a flurry, could only cling to his thumb, he couldn’t help but sigh in admiration.

“Being small is quite cute too.”

The current scene seemed to turn the phrase “no matter how you run, you can’t escape the palm of my hand” into reality. Tu Tianba ignored the faint sounds the little person made, relentlessly poking, touching, rubbing, pinching, shaking, lifting and shaking, tickling—

In less than half an hour, A-Hui’s temper had been completely worn out.

His hair was a mess, and his clothes were wrinkled beyond recognition. Currently, he sat panting with his back to the youth in the palm of his hand, completely ignoring the strange noises behind him.

“I poke!”

“Poke again!”

Poked over, A-Hui just lay there on the spot.

He had given up on the pathetic cycle of ‘getting up, persuading the other to change him back, and getting poked over again.’

Because even if he said it, the youth would just pretend not to hear, raising a hand to his ear, looking left and right like a thief with a guilty conscience, and muttering,

“Huh? Is someone talking?”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

…What an infuriating little rascal.

I might as well just lie down and rest for a bit, A-Hui thought to himself.

Then, he recalled the events that had just transpired.

The two of them clearly could have entered the city openly, yet the moment the city-guarding cultivators appeared, the youth cast a spell to hide him…

Regarding this point, A-Hui had a vague guess. If his guess was true, shouldn’t it have been the youth who hid, and let A-Hui carry him into the city?

Despite his confusion, A-Hui had cooperated by curling up and lying silently inside the brocade pouch, listening to all the sounds from the outside world.

For some inexplicable reason, a trace of worry quietly bloomed in his heart.

Never in a million years did he expect…

Once they entered the inn and were alone in a private room, the youth didn’t discuss any serious matters with him at all. Instead, he enthusiastically tormented him, like a powerful predator catching prey that had no means to fight back—not rushing to bite and devour it, but simply playing with it using the tips of its claws.

—Until it lost interest.

Tu Tianba watched the tiny figure who wouldn’t budge no matter how much he poked. His interest waning, he sighed, “Ah, why aren’t you moving anymore? Move a little.”

“…”

Earlier, when the little person earnestly tried to persuade him, Tu Tianba turned a deaf ear. Now that the other responded with silence, he grew displeased.

As he spoke, he used his fingertip to tug at the little person’s sash and sleeve. “If you ignore me, I’m going to strip you naked.”

“Wow, how fun. I wonder what your bare little butt and little chest feel like? I couldn’t feel anything through the clothes earlier…”

As soon as he finished speaking.

Tu Tianba saw the little person’s side-lying figure instantly curl up into an even smaller ball, leaving him no place to start, with only the soft strands of hair still tangled around his knuckles.

“…Don’t.”

The little person finally spoke, his volume pitifully soft.

Tu Tianba snickered silently. Then, as if he had played enough, he sat up straight with a satiated expression. With a thought, he dispelled the shrinking spell.

The next instant, the little person coiled in his hand reverted to his original tall and slender form.

The man sat curled up, resting sideways on his lap.

Unlike the exquisite cuteness when under the shrinking spell, the restored man looked somewhat disheveled.

His face was completely flushed, his breathing uneven—whether from anger or exhaustion, it was hard to tell. But regardless of the reason, the main culprit didn’t feel the least bit guilty.

During that bout of one-sided playtime, the man’s clothes had been thoroughly messed up. His collar was wide open, unable to hide those straight collarbones, even exposing half a shoulder. And he was currently clutching his loosened sash, paying no mind to anything else.

Thus, Tu Tianba craned his neck to peek down his collar and stated with absolute certainty,

“I knew it; I still prefer the big one!”

Sensing where his gaze had landed, the anger A-Hui had accumulated over the past half-hour could no longer be suppressed. He immediately tightened his sash, raised a hand to push away the youth’s leaning head, and said in exasperation:

“Can you please be serious?”

Tu Tianba’s head didn’t move; the flesh of his cheek was pushed out of shape by the hand, making his features look comical. He asked genuinely, “How am I not serious?”

For the sake of dual cultivation, he had truly been working very hard.

A-Hui: “…”

Half of his palm was pressed against the youth’s lips. Therefore, when the youth spoke, his hot breath continuously sprayed against the edge of his palm…

It was very hot.

A-Hui withdrew his hand, unable to stop his inner annoyance. He didn’t want to deal with this person anymore, but since the other had come all this way for his sake, he had to swallow his anger and ask him to take out the participant jade tag.

Tu Tianba complied, pulling out two steaming hot buns along the way, and asked him,

“Do you want one? I bought one specifically for you.”

The other twenty were all his.

For some reason, after he asked the question, the man squeezed the participant jade tag without saying a word, yet Tu Tianba felt as if the other party had become even angrier?

Munching on the bun, he was somewhat baffled.

The participant jade tag was engraved with the Wondrous Immortal Sect’s lotus crest. Every participating cultivator had one, which integrated functions like message transmission, communication, and location tracking.

On the top left corner of the jade tag in A-Hui’s hand was a name—that incredibly fake name.

He really didn’t want to turn around, so he just poked the person’s stomach with his elbow. The guy actually understood what he meant and raised a hand to inject a stream of ‘spiritual breath’ into the jade tag.

Tu Tianba was a demonic cultivator, a Mahayana stage demonic cultivator at that. His entire body was shrouded in a terrifyingly sinister demonic qi; when he circulated his cultivation, all spiritual energy would be converted into demonic qi.

Fortunately, the inner demon had disguised him, so he now truly possessed spiritual energy corresponding to the ninth level of Foundation Establishment within his body.

Not much, just a little bit.

Compared to his demonic breath, the difference was like a vast ocean to a trickling spring—you could stuff an entire Black Sea between the two.

The jade tag glowed faintly, displaying several lines of text.

It was detailed information regarding the Immortal Sect Grand Competition.

The competitions for the various sects wouldn’t begin until ten days later, but Tu Tianba had been placed in the medical cultivator competition, and the time shown on the jade tag was three days later.

Not only did he not have to get on a dueling stage, but the initial task had even been announced early—

When the time came, the Wondrous Immortal Sect would open the back mountain’s dense forest. The participating medical disciples would enter the forest individually to find ingredients, each refining a type of poison and its corresponding antidote. Once refined, the elders of the Wondrous Immortal Sect’s Poison-Tasting Hall would naturally pass judgment.

Tu Tianba merely gave it a glance before continuing to gnaw on his bun.

The man read it carefully twice. He turned around, about to discuss the competition details with the youth, only to see the guy looking completely slacker-like. He couldn’t help but elbow him again.

“…You still haven’t told me what you plan to do.”

He paused, quickly adding,

“During the competition, several elders of the Wondrous Immortal Sect will be present. Their cultivation will definitely be very high. When that happens, you…”

Unfortunately, before he could finish his sentence, he heard the youth behind him let out a very exaggerated yelp. The youth then glared at him unhappily, rubbing his stomach and complaining:

“Why are you so jumpy!”

A-Hui: “…”

Who exactly is the jumpy one?

He couldn’t help but let out a long sigh. In this short day and a half, he had already repeatedly lamented why he had lost his memory.

But before he could finish his sigh, a hand suddenly reached over and snatched away the jade tag. The youth’s lazy voice also rang out:

“Are you afraid of dying? I have nothing I want to discuss with you, and there is no ‘what to do’. Anyway, you just need to remember one sentence…”

“—I definitely won’t let you die.”

The words were spoken with resounding certainty.

A-Hui was slightly stunned and abruptly turned his head.

The youth’s profile was extremely vivid. The messy bangs on his forehead curled up mischievously, swaying left and right a few times, refusing to fall back down.

He didn’t look at A-Hui, instead casually staring at the floral ornament by the window. He was still holding the half-eaten bun. His tone when he spoke was very light, yet incredibly firm.

It sounded like a child’s casual joke.

Yet it also felt like a gentleman’s solemn promise, inexplicably convincing.

And A-Hui believed it.

He fell silent for a moment, his expression inexplicably complex. Then, he asked probing, “Because you haven’t dual cultivated with me yet, so you absolutely won’t let me perish right now, is that it…?”

Inside the system space.

The white orb did a tactical backward lean, its tone full of admiration:

“Oh ho, the protagonist actually learned how to anticipate the answers.”

On the light screen.

Tu Tianba wasn’t guilty, nor was he lacking confidence. His face plainly read “You understand me so well,” and he even nodded heavily, his expression serious.

A-Hui: “…”

With the worry and anger fading, the man remained speechless for a long time. Suddenly realizing that he was still sitting sideways on the youth’s lap, his face uncontrollably heated up, and he instinctively tried to get up.

In truth, it wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed at all. It was just that the preceding half-hour of torment was truly infuriating, combined with the fact that the youth’s words and actions never had any sense of boundaries…

He had been muddled.

Tu Tianba didn’t care if he was muddled or not. The moment he sensed the man trying to get up, he immediately wrapped his arm around that lean, supple waist, firmly locking the man onto his lap.

Soft and hot.

Holding him was much more comfortable than holding the bear skin.

Although Tu Tianba held the man tightly against his legs, he suddenly remembered something. His face changed, and his upper body immediately leaned back to create distance from the man, warning with a face full of vigilance:

“Don’t even think about sneak-attacking me this time!!”

A-Hui almost choked on his breath. Unable to stop himself, he covered his face and coughed twice, his face burning even hotter.

It was truly…

The arm around his waist was slender but powerful; he couldn’t budge it an inch. He had no choice but to try his hardest to ignore their current point of contact and steer the topic back on track.

“Three days from now, when you participate in the competition, should I stay in the inn and wait for you, or… follow by your side like when we entered the city gate?”

Tu Tianba shrinking him wasn’t for anything else, it was because the inner demon said there were too many prying eyes in the Wondrous Immortal Sect, and he wanted to prevent the man’s identity from being exposed and losing his wife. Under these circumstances, how could he possibly leave the man in the inn? What if he ran away? What if he got stolen?

Tu Tianba said with absolute certainty, “Naturally, you will be with me. Don’t even think about escaping the palm of my hand!”

After saying that, he even glared at the man as a warning.

A-Hui didn’t know why the youth had started puffing his cheeks and glaring again, but he was already used to this demeanor. Smoothly going with the flow, he stated his need.

—He needed a magical artifact that would allow him to communicate telepathically with the youth while outside.

As he said this, he lowered his eyes, turning to gaze at the puffed-up youth, and added pointedly,

“This way, you won’t be unable to hear what I’m saying clearly.”

Hearing this, Tu Tianba averted his eyes, refusing to look at him.

Watching his instantly shifting expressions, the anger in A-Hui’s heart gradually transformed into helplessness, and then into a sense of amusement. He couldn’t help but raise a hand to push against the youth’s chest, urging in a low voice:

“…Let go of me, let me get up.”

The youth shuddered violently, warning him while brandishing his claws.

“Don’t touch my chest!”

A-Hui: “…”

He remained silent for a very, very long time, so long that the scent of the buns in the room had completely dissipated. Finally, with a slightly unnatural expression, he spoke up: “If you don’t let me go, not only will I kiss you, I’ll hug you, touch you…”

“If you’re scared, then let me go.”

Tu Tianba stared at the man with a cold face, his entire expression screaming—

You are so vicious!

Clarify this, who is scared!!

However, the next second.

Tu Tianba released his hand, shot up like a rocket, and directly dumped the man out of his embrace, complaining viciously with disgust:

“Are you a reincarnated pig demon? How did you grow to be so heavy? My legs have gone numb from you sitting on them!”

A-Hui: “…………”