EHRPS CH193

Tu Tianba was still in a state of extreme exhilaration. By his rough estimate, although the duration of their dual cultivation had been brief, spanning only a day and a night, the tally of rounds was considerable.

Not even ten fingers could count them all.

If he included his toes, it might barely suffice.

Beaming with joy, he unconsciously tightened his arms, holding the person in his embrace even closer, only to hear an uneasy whimper slip from the man’s lips…

Tu Tianba hurriedly eased his grip, raising a hand to stroke the top of the man’s head in comfort.

He was already quite practiced at this, keeping the pressure beneath his palm very gentle, as though patting a cloud. A very damp cloud.

Tu Tianba waited a moment. Seeing that the man hadn’t been awakened, he craned his neck to look at the face half-buried in the crook of his arm, catching sight of the red marks that trailed from behind his ear and along his jaw, reaching all the way to the corner of his lips. T

he marks beneath his shoulders and neck looked even more vivid and heavy. All of them had been gnawed out by him.

Tu Tianba’s gaze shifted further down, suddenly discovering that the man’s abdomen, which had returned to being flat, was bulging once again. It was even more pronounced than when he carried the Pill Fetus earlier. He couldn’t resist reaching out to touch it.

The sleeping man shuddered in response, the base of his thighs trembling as his breathing grew unsteady.

Tu Tianba had every intention to coax him, but when he opened his mouth, he only squeezed out a raspy, hoarse breath.

Tu Tianba: “…?”

Dammit, how had this Venerable’s throat gone hoarse?!

Wasn’t it just that he talked a bit too much during dual cultivation? Even if all the words he spoke over this day and night added up to more than the preceding three hundred years combined, it shouldn’t have ruined his voice completely!

Tu Tianba knitted his brows and closed his mouth. To him, such a minor ailment was practically nothing, easily healed with a single thought. Yet Tu Tianba didn’t do so. He merely supported the man’s head with gentle movements and planted a kiss upon those swollen, reddened lips. Then, he noticed that the tip of the man’s tongue had been sucked raw with a small cut, looking bright red and utterly pitiful.

Tu Tianba paused. The inhumanly bright glint in his eyes dimmed slightly, and the frantic aura in his brows receded into his heart. With his rationality returning, he finally realized that the small cut on the tip of the tongue was actually the most insignificant injury. Front and back, the man was an absolute mess, looking like white jade that had bled and cracked, exuding a fragmented, delicate fragility.

Tu Tianba: “…”

It seemed he hadn’t been very considerate.

His expression gradually shifted to one of chagrin. He sat up slowly, pulled out a brand-new box of medicinal ointment, and carefully smeared it over the man’s skin piece by piece.

After applying it for quite a while, Tu Tianba stared at the man’s rounded belly, completely stumped. Whenever he reached out to touch it, the man couldn’t rest peacefully, leaving him able to treat the external swelling with ointment while remaining completely helpless regarding what was inside.

Tu Tianba pondered for a moment and decided to gently insert an index finger to refine it with blood mist. However, the moment he opened his Heavenly Eye, he detected an anomaly.

There was more than just his own essence inside the man’s belly.

Tu Tianba’s expression turned stern. He steadily resolved the matter within the man’s abdomen, then drew out that peculiar speck. To his surprise, it was a lingering wisp of spiritual awareness left behind after refining the Pill Fetus!

Tu Tianba felt even more chagrined, worried that the man might discover he hadn’t refined the thing completely and question his medical expertise. Looking left and right, he spotted the forgotten spirit beast egg, quickly stuffed the wisp of awareness inside it, and tossed it into the river valley.

Outside, the daylight was bright and clear.

Standing by the riverbank in disheveled robes, Tu Tianba watched the fist-sized white egg drift downstream, finally exhaling a sigh of relief. He had successfully destroyed the evidence of a mistake!

Right at that moment, he heard the clever inner demon’s distinctive voice ring in his ear, sounding completely taken aback:

“Wait, hold on… Host, I was blocked for an entire day and night, yet it turns out you haven’t even dual cultivated yet?”

Inside the system space, the white orb was half sighing and half relieved. It sighed because the mission progress bar was still at zero, yet felt relieved for the exact same reason. It couldn’t be certain whether the host, upon seeing the final chapter of the ex-husband plot (specifically the scenes where the protagonist wrathfully chops off the scumbag’s member and pierces his heart with an arrow), might end up chopping the protagonist instead. The probability was by no means small.

Reminded by the inner demon, Tu Tianba finally remembered that he had been far too excited during the coupling to even think about running the dual cultivation mental method.

…How had he messed up yet another thing?!

As the saying goes, one may err once or twice, but never thrice. Tu Tianba was in no rush to return to the cave to wait for the man to wake up. Squatting by the riverbank, he racked his brain in anxious search of a countermeasure.

He even asked the inner demon in a flurry of panic:

“What should I do? He won’t despise me for being slow in the head, talking too much, and completely botching the dual cultivation, will he?!”

The white orb: “?”

So the host actually had a clear assessment of himself.

Speechless for a long while, it replied offhandedly: “Didn’t the Host say the protagonist loves you to death?”

Tu Tianba stammered and hemmed for ages before explaining: “No matter what I say, he listens with such patience, and even smiles at me from time to time. If that isn’t liking me, what else could it be?!”

As he spoke, Tu Tianba’s tone grew increasingly resolute:

“If he doesn’t like me, why would he treat me this well? The issue is, I want him to always treat me this well and talk to me with patience…!”

Hearing this, N001 perked up, reshaping itself from a flat puddle of light into its normal sphere.

Oho.

It smelled the scent of points.

It hurriedly offered plans and suggestions, materializing a book with great ceremony, presenting it before Tu Tianba just like the revised original novel.

One Hundred and Eight Tricks to Woo Boys: A Daily Love Tip to Keep Singlehood Away

Tu Tianba took the book. “Who is ‘Pao Zai’ [Boy-Wooer]? Why isn’t his portrait on the cover?”

·

Nie Wuhui had not slept very deeply.

Although his body was utterly exhausted, his soul remained resilient and steady. After sleeping soundly for only half a day, he had recovered most of his energy. Perhaps because he was still concerned before drifting off that the dual cultivation remained incomplete, and feared the youth might be further corrupted by the ancient demonic qi, Nie Wuhui’s subconscious nudged him awake from his slumber.

He was the only one left in the cave.

The campfire had long burned out, leaving the interior dim and murky.

The lingering rays of the setting sun, like molten gold, gilded the vines hanging at the cave entrance in the same hue. The leftover light spilled across the cold, dim stone ground in scattered, fragmented shapes.

Nie Wuhui stirred, finding himself wrapped snugly in the bearskin. A refreshing cool sensation lingered in his mouth as well as across his body. The soreness and swelling were entirely gone, leaving behind only a faint, lingering sensation deep within his soul: numbness, aching, and… ringing in his ears.

Aside from the intervals when they kissed, the youth’s mouth had never stopped. In the most intense moments, he had spoken to him with an obsessive expression, nonstop for even a breath. His movements had been equally relentless, growing ever more ferocious. Tossed about violently, Nie Wuhui could barely make out his expressions, yet he could never ignore the mountain-deep, sea-vast loneliness radiating from the youth.

All he could do was hold him tight.

“…”

Nie Wuhui sat up. Catching himself thinking about yesterday’s wild abandon, he swiftly checked his thoughts. Spotting his neatly folded clothes resting right by his hand, he couldn’t help but smile.

He immediately moved to rise and dress, intending to find that person who was sometimes silly and sometimes clever.

Yet in the next instant, the patch of light at the cave entrance vanished, as if swallowed whole by some colossal beast. Nie Wuhui looked up, only to vaguely glimpse a figure approaching…

The shadow paused and made a slight movement.

The cave suddenly brightened.

Tu Tianba held an illumination crystal in one hand, while the other clutched a bouquet of flowers: red, yellow, and blue. It was such a massive bundle that his fingers could barely hold them all. Finding that the man was awake, he wore a guilty expression, scuffing his toes against the ground before continuing to shuffle closer.

Seeing him squat down in front of him, Nie Wuhui was in no hurry to dress, asking softly: “…Where did you go?”

As soon as he spoke, the youth leaned in, thrusting the bundle of flowers before him. His eyes darted about for a good while before he finally closed them, gritted his teeth, and asked:

“You’re not mad at me, right?”

Nie Wuhui was puzzled and asked back: “Why would I be angry?”

Tu Tianba looked crestfallen and stammered:

“…Well, I reflected on it. During yesterday’s dual cultivation, I might not have performed very well. I made you cry so many times and even chewed you raw. Are you going to be angry?”

Nie Wuhui: “…No, I won’t.”

Tu Tianba’s eyes lit up. Just as the corners of his mouth began to curve, the man continued: “However, I kept reminding you to circulate the dual cultivation mental method. Why wouldn’t you listen?”

Tu Tianba hurriedly explained:

“I didn’t hear you clearly. Well… it was a bit noisy. Not that you were noisy, but the voices inside my head and I were making too much noise.”

He pondered a moment, recalling the word ‘sincerity’ mentioned by Mr. Pao Zai in the book, and confessed with immense guilt:

“Actually, I’m not really a grandmaster of dual cultivation… though I’ve seen plenty of dual cultivation scenes, so calling me a grandmaster isn’t an exaggeration either! It’s just that last night was my first time dual cultivating with someone, so making a few mistakes is only normal, right?”

Nie Wuhui watched him clutch the flowers in nervous agitation, his forearms gesturing as he spoke, sending the sweet fragrance of the blossoms wafting into his nose while a few delicate petals drifted down.

Nie Wuhui smiled imperceptibly, reaching out to take the bouquet into his hands and burying his face in a deep breath. In the corner of his vision, the youth was striving desperately to mask his tension.

He couldn’t resist asking softly:

“…Are you very afraid that I will be angry with you?”

Tu Tianba neither nodded nor shook his head. He hemmed and hawed for a moment, then reached out to pluck a small white blossom and tuck it beside the man’s temple, murmuring in a barely audible voice:

“N-No…!”

“I wasn’t worried that you’d despise me or ignore me!”

Nie Wuhui’s heart softened completely. He raised a hand to pat the youth’s head, casually plucking a withered yellow leaf from his hair, and said in a gentle yet unwavering tone:

“I will never leave you, nor will I ever ignore you. In the days ahead, I will accompany you through hardship and danger. So…”

Nie Wuhui paused, noticing the youth staring fixedly at him in a daze, before continuing:

“So, you no longer need to worry about returning to those lonely days of the past, nor do you need to rush to say everything all at once.”

“I am willing to listen to you, always.”

As the man’s words fell, Tu Tianba suddenly heard a resounding, thunderous beat, thump-thump, thump-thump.

Tears spilled from his eyes, splashing upon the flowers in the man’s hands.

The sound was so clear.

…His A-Hui pulled him into an embrace, so very warm.