IS Chapter 119

Ye Zhuo looked into Li Yuan’s eyes through a hazy blur.

He felt like he had fallen into a stormy sea, not sinking, but being carried up and down by the waves.

Ye Zhuo wanted to bite something again, but the dragon wouldn’t let him.

He had already given up trying to communicate his demands to this dragon, as it wouldn’t listen anyway.

It was difficult to think of anything else. His limbs and body had also given up trying to control anything, letting the dragon arrange him as it pleased. The only thing he could still maintain was his right hand gripping Dragon Li Yuan’s fingers, like holding onto the only anchor, only in this way could he not lose his direction in the stormy waves of the abyss.

He felt that Dragon Li Yuan was being excessive. He wanted to open his mouth and tell Dragon Li Yuan not to do this, but if he spoke, the dragon would take advantage of the opportunity to do even more outrageous things. This had already happened several times.

Ye Zhuo frowned. Li Yuan saw it and leaned down to kiss him, murmuring some words, like “It will be over soon,” or things of that nature. Ye Zhuo didn’t want to listen, anyway, the person saying those things was just saying them.

He turned his head away, and Li Yuan coaxed him again.

–What’s the use? The actions are still the same.

It seemed like a vast expanse of blank whiteness in his sea of consciousness. Ye Zhuo felt unfamiliar with the sensations in his body. In the past, he attributed it all to the effects of the Dragon Scent Guide, but what about now?

He thought he would feel better without the Dragon Scent Guide.

Now he was indeed awake, but he couldn’t remember anything while awake.

…It seemed like he was having trouble breathing again.

As if understanding his needs, Dragon Li Yuan paused, as if waiting for him to catch his breath. But Ye Zhuo felt that this long worm just wanted it to last longer, its intentions were punishable.

Looking up, Ye Zhuo took a few breaths, barely regaining control of his body. He could still only look at Li Yuan, a pair of unfathomable, inky dragon eyes.

“Ye Zhuo,” Li Yuan called his name again.

Ye Zhuo only paid him a little attention, and the dragon became even more presumptuous.

After catching his breath, Ye Zhuo felt like he had sighed again.

He felt that Li Yuan’s eyes were very different from those of humans.

It was like this dragon was learning to be human, gentle and warm, while on the other hand, he was showing his fierce side, treating him like this. He had only learned five parts of the resemblance. Ye Zhuo really wanted to see how long he could keep up the act.

“What’s in my eyes?” Li Yuan quickly noticed that he had been looking at his eyes.

“…You’re not like a human.”

Li Yuan laughed.

Focusing his gaze a little, Ye Zhuo looked at other parts of Li Yuan’s face. Dragons naturally looked flamboyant, with a hint of non-human features. In fact, when he wasn’t smiling, he should have an indifferent and noble face, but Ye Zhuo had never seen him with a cold face. That little smile was like the moon shining on the North Sea, the sea water was unfathomable, but the surface was still shimmering.

“Do you want a hug?” Li Yuan helped him up and held him in his arms. Ye Zhuo leaned on his shoulder and slowly returned the embrace, his fingers feeling some distinct muscle lines on his back and shoulders. He remembered that he had once traced the hard scales on the black dragon’s back with his fingers.

Li Yuan sensed that elusive touch. In fact, this person was still a little distant.

He held the person tightly against him, and then his shoulder was bitten.

Li Yuan had his own plans. He would be gentle and wouldn’t take too long, otherwise this person would get annoyed.

In fact, he wasn’t a lotus demon, but a lotus immortal.

Those excessively strong feelings, excessively strong joys and sorrows, he always watched from the sidelines. But at least today, this person might want to step into that river.

Li Yuan wouldn’t stir up trouble to capsize him, he would just use the rising and falling undercurrents to guide him. Of the four methods of wind, thunder, water, and electricity, the Abyss Sea Black Dragon was born with the power of water.

Li Yuan felt he could do it.

And he was seriously trying to do it.

…Although in the end, he didn’t know if he had succeeded. Anyway, Ye Zhuo wasn’t angry with him.

Ye Zhuo quietly let him hug him. Sure enough, this person liked it when others went along with him.

But he also liked going along with Ye Zhuo.

He propped himself up to look at Ye Zhuo. The person’s eyelashes were half-closed, with a hint of lazy weariness. He went to brush the person’s eyelashes, and the person looked up at him.

Li Yuan used the lamplight to look at this person’s exquisite face. Perhaps few people had carefully looked at the details of this face. Looking at such a cold and sharp person required extraordinary will. Most people only had a momentary impression of soul-stirring beauty, and then were shocked by the danger within, and didn’t dare to pay too much attention.

It was like drinking a cup of overly strong wine, not even able to distinguish the taste as it went down, only remembering the feeling of the burning flames at that moment.

That feeling would not be forgotten. Everyone who had seen Ye Zhuo would always remember him. From then on, every time they thought of him, that cold flame would rise again, engulfing them.

Unlike him.

He poured it into his own cup, sipping the taste bit by bit.

Ye Zhuo was quiet, gradually calming his breathing. The radiance of the unsheathed sword seemed to turn into the clarity of cold water. It should be held in a glass of colored glaze.

With the thought of a glass of colored glaze in his head, Li Yuan felt the person in his arms move, wanting to get up.

What? Just after catching your breath, you want to start cultivating? Li Yuan had to hold him down, expressing his dissatisfaction.

“Do you like dragon tails?” he asked Ye Zhuo.

If he liked dragon horns, he might also like tails. The tail tip seemed even less suitable for people to touch than dragon horns, but he could also transform it for this person to play with.

“?” Ye Zhuo’s intuition told him that he should reject this suggestion.

–Even the tail is transformed, there’s no need to maintain the human form anymore.

Ye Zhuo: “What do you want to do?”

Li Yuan: “Wrap you up?”

“…No need.” Ye Zhuo relaxed a little, as if remembering something, he looked at Li Yuan.

“Then shrink, how about that.”

“…Hmm?”

Ye Zhuo made a gesture about the length of chopsticks.

“This long, what do you think?”

A slender little snake shape. Dragon Li Yuan’s scales were cool, with a bit of weight, it should feel good to hold in your hand.

He could also let Dragon Li Yuan bite his own tail and turn into a circle. He could use it as prayer beads to turn.

“…?” Li Yuan looked at Ye Zhuo. It took him a long time to understand Ye Zhuo’s thoughts. What strange things was this person Ye Zhuo thinking?

Turning into a small, long worm smaller than a newly hatched dragon? If he really turned into that, he might as well just wrap around twice and be used as a bracelet for this person! The entire dragon race would laugh at him, and then other races would laugh at their dragon race.

He would rather die in the ghost realm than turn into that, unless this person begged him properly.

“…I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Li Yuan thought uncertainly, and then saw this person smile gently, his eyebrows and eyes slightly curved, like flowing light.

What kind of attitude was this person Ye Zhuo showing!

Li Yuan had already seen clearly that this person didn’t really want him to turn into a bracelet, he just wanted to see his expression of suppressed anger.

He fiercely pressed Ye Zhuo down, not letting him get up.

Ye Zhuo pushed him without success and said, “I want to cultivate.”

“No cultivate.” Li Yuan said, “You’re teasing me.”

“You endured in silence tonight, it’s fun to watch.”

“You!” Li Yuan really wanted to scold him, but halfway through the brewing, he somehow turned into hugging this person and rolling half a circle, changing to him lying down and putting this person on top of himself.

“You’re really a scoundrel.” Li Yuan said, “I’ve never been like this to anyone.”

No matter which realm he was in, he always did what he wanted, never going along with anyone, never paying special attention to anyone.

If someone drew a sword against him, he would fight back. If elders wanted to reprimand him, he would stand silently. He would only admit his mistakes when he really thought he was wrong, but he never thought he was wrong.

He would collect beautiful things and compete with dangerous things.

He didn’t know that one day he would show weakness to a beautiful and dangerous person, and would hug him, wanting to ask for something. Although it wasn’t enough to roll over, he offered his dragon horns, and even wanted to offer his tail.

Li Yuan looked at him.

Ye Zhuo propped himself up, using two fingers to pinch Li Yuan’s chin.

“A heart of vigilance is indispensable.” He said, “Little Crown Prince, how could you forget again.”

–This person really didn’t seem tired.

“How does Palace Master Ye know that I was enduring in silence?” Li Yuan raised his eyebrows and easily pinned this person down again.

Ye Zhuo’s expression was uncertain, as if he was annoyed that he had been so easily subdued. Li Yuan rubbed lightly against his neck, but didn’t use much force. He was clearly such a dangerous alien beast, but he made such a docile pose. Did this dragon even remember that he would be the ruler of a realm in the future?

“You could tell that I was enduring in silence.” Li Yuan said, “Then give me another chance, okay?”

“…?” Ye Zhuo widened his eyes slightly, looking at this dragon. The tactic of retreating in order to advance had reached such a level of perfection.

After this time, Ye Zhuo was really a bit tired.

With great difficulty, he struggled out of the dragon’s arms. The candle flame in the room had long since dimmed. Ye Zhuo didn’t really want to get up and look around. He searched for his Life-Bound Sword, groping among the cloud-like messy pillows and bedding, relying on a vague sense.

Then he grasped a cool sword body. A vague sense seemed to come from his soul, but the touch under his hand was a little different.

His fingers stroked the three-character sword inscription. It turned out that this was Li Yuan’s Life-Bound Sword.

“You even recognized the wrong sword.” A tolerant smile came from behind. Li Yuan wrapped his arms around him again, “Yours is next to you.”

Ye Zhuo saw his own sword with his peripheral vision, and stopped searching.

He extended his spiritual sense and summoned the dragon bone sword that was cold and white all over.

Do Not Long For Sword had no reaction at first, but after a few breaths, it actually moved slowly.

Li Yuan: “…”

“Why are you so domineering?” He said to Ye Zhuo.

Ye Zhuo didn’t have the strength to speak, so Li Yuan tidied his long hair bit by bit. Did he need to restrain himself a little more, this person couldn’t even distinguish whose sword it was.

Thinking of this, he picked up a pill and fed it to him.

The candle burned to its final moment, and the flame that leapt up in an instant suddenly lit up, then extinguished with a “chi” sound in the scalding candle tears.

The room was silent, as if twilight had fallen. Li Yuan looked into his arms and saw Ye Zhuo’s quiet, closed eyelashes, like dark butterflies resting there.

“Ye Zhuo?”

After a long time, Ye Zhuo’s fingers moved, taking Li Yuan’s hand and bringing it somewhere. Li Yuan was a little surprised, but let Ye Zhuo hold his hand, finally pressing it on the prayer beads on his left wrist.

Li Yuan could remember how this string of blood beads looked on Ye Zhuo’s wrist, like his Life-Bound Sword, they were both things that Ye Zhuo never left his body.

He also remembered that there were seventeen beads in this string, each engraved with two sides of mysterious Buddhist patterns. One side was the array inscription for sealing ten thousand blood demons, and the other side was a pattern that even he couldn’t decipher.

At this time, Ye Zhuo was holding his hand, placing it on one of the patterns. This person seemed to want to tell him something.

“What is this?” Li Yuan asked him.

“This is what my teacher taught me, seventeen kinds of fearlessness in Buddhism.” Ye Zhuo’s voice was a little hoarse, and also soft.

“Which seventeen kinds?”

Ye Zhuo slowly took his fingers, counting these beads one by one in the darkness.

“People have six senses: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, which are transformed into form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma. These six beads are the fearlessness of the six senses.”

Slowly again, he counted seven beads one by one.

“People have seven emotions: joy, anger, sorrow, hate, love, dislike, and desire. Living in the world, the seven emotions should also be fearless.”

Six senses and seven emotions, that was thirteen beads.

Ye Zhuo took him with his cool fingertips, counting two more beads.

“Fearlessness of birth, fearlessness of death.”

Li Yuan looked at his quiet outline in a daze.

“What about the last two beads?”

“People have life and death, cause and effect have birth and destruction, arising from emptiness, returning to emptiness. All kinds of encounters in the world are like this, which is what Buddhism calls ‘dependent origination and emptiness of nature’.”

“Li Yuan.” The person’s voice was soft, leading him to count the last two prayer beads.

“These are the last two beads, fearlessness of gathering, fearlessness of scattering.”

“How many have you achieved?” Li Yuan asked him.

Ye Zhuo thought for a while.

“…I’ve achieved them all.”

Li Yuan leaned over, holding him even tighter, and gently blew a breath on his ear.

Ye Zhuo was about to retreat.

“You’re not very fearless.” Li Yuan said.

Ye Zhuo frowned, pushing him away with a look of disgust. Li Yuan grabbed his wrist instead.

And gathered that string of prayer beads.

“Give it to me.” He said, “Okay?”

Ye Zhuo: “Then what will you exchange for it?”

This person.

Has the debt been settled? And now you want to exchange.

“Admit you’re wrong, Ye Zhuo.” He said, “If you don’t think you’re wrong, then just defend yourself. Just one sentence.”

Someone suddenly launched an attack, and someone lost a move in the sword fight. In fact, Li Yuan already didn’t know if Ye Zhuo was right or wrong.

Because in order to forge his Life-Bound Sword, he encountered a dragon and plucked a scale from its heart.

But no one taught Yun Xiangzhuo what was right and what was wrong.

Walking out of such a snowstorm, it seemed like there was no right or wrong at all. Everything had turned into the inexhaustible karmic fire burning on the other side of the river.

What else could Ye Zhuo do? Li Yuan thought.

If he were placed in that situation, what would he do? Could he keep walking forward without looking back?

And what could he do now?

“Ye Zhuo, I only want one sentence.” He said, “If you say it, our grievances are settled. My scale is yours, I don’t want it.”

Ye Zhuo raised his head and looked at him. This person frowned slightly, as if thinking about something, or just looking at him. As if finding it hard to decide, this beautiful person seemed to want to bite his lip. Li Yuan’s fingertip pressed against his lower lip, not wanting him to do that.

After a long time, he saw Ye Zhuo shake his head slightly.

A feeling came from his chest, it was Ye Zhuo’s fingers gently pressing on his heart.

The surroundings were dark, but they both knew that there was a scar that would not heal.

“Does it hurt?” After a long time, Ye Zhuo said.

Li Yuan also thought for a long time.

Back then, it was very painful.

But when this person asked this question, it didn’t seem so painful anymore, as if he had forgotten how this person had fought with him for three days, each move deadly, and also forgotten those icy eyes back then.

But it seemed like his heart had been cut out again.

He remembered when he had just left the Heart Devil Illusion, he asked Ye Zhuo, “Do you hate me?” Ye Zhuo just said, “I don’t know.”

So it was the same, there was no answer, and it was useless to answer. The sea of suffering was boundless, and there was no shore to turn back to.

Even after understanding all the causes, he still didn’t know the final result.

Even though all dharmas are empty, karma is not empty. However, with the rise and fall of the sword, perhaps one day that dependent origination and destruction would be cut off together.

What else could he do?

“Li Yuan.” He heard this person call his name again.

“You are very good to me.” Ye Zhuo said. He didn’t even know why he wanted to say this to Li Yuan. After a pause, he said slowly: “…I will remember.”

“Just remember?” Li Yuan looked at him and asked softly.

So Ye Zhuo thought again.

“If I decide when to go to the Immortal Realm.” He said, “I will tell you.”

Still quite pleasing to the ear. Li Yuan said, “What else?”

Ye Zhuo said: “I’m sleepy.”

Li Yuan chuckled and held this person, wanting him to lean on his chest.

“Sleep.” He said, “I will stay awake.”

Ye Zhuo vaguely said “Mmm.”

Li Yuan quietly guarded him, waiting for him to really fall asleep slowly. He knew what kind of movements wouldn’t wake this person. He gathered his arms, letting Ye Zhuo lean closer to his chest.

This person actually liked listening to his heartbeat, Li Yuan knew. Only in a place where he could hear it would Ye Zhuo slowly fall asleep.

Moreover, he had to stay awake. In this way, when there was danger outside, someone would notice it in advance. And that person had to be him. Only then could Ye Zhuo let down his guard.

–How could there be such a person.

Li Yuan quietly listened to this person’s shallow breathing. He went to kiss the top of his head.

Li Yuan suddenly thought of other dragons.

Before adulthood, many things would not be passed into his Abyss Sea Palace, especially since he was always thinking about the person who had plucked his scales, focusing on cultivating. After adulthood, it was pretty much the same. But he vaguely knew that the dragon race was not a very loyal race.

He knew that several clan leaders had beauties like clouds in their palaces. Most other adult dragons also had some. For example, the eldest sister of the Red Dragon clan especially liked Daoist immortal rulers in cyan robes and sandalwood crowns. He used to think they were all the same person, but later a dragon told him that each time they met, it was a new one.

Maybe so.

Maybe this was also a choice. Maybe some dragons could divide their hearts into many pieces and give them to different people, or maybe they didn’t divide them at all, and didn’t give them out. They called that kind of thing “grace,” as if it could be given very easily and taken back very easily.

Maybe in order to get a dragon cub, some dragons could welcome one beautiful race after another into their palace. Was it important? Without the Black Dragon, the dragon realm could also have other bloodlines to rule. If they felt that the bloodline of other dragons was not strong enough, they could also let the Golden Dragon hold both positions.

Did they not care so much about a real heart? But in that case, they would never feel the pain like the changing of the seas that fell in his heart when he saw that drop of Ye Zhuo’s tears. From then on, all sounds were silent, and the three thousand worlds of the ancient wilderness came to an end in that moment. He only wanted him to get what he wanted. If he couldn’t, then he would shatter like jade with him.

And he wouldn’t feel that when he lowered his eyes, he could see this person’s peaceful sleeping face, knowing that the karma was deep and the enmity was like the sea, knowing that birth, death, existence, and emptiness were all empty, but he still felt very peaceful, very precious, and still wanted to kiss the heart on his forehead.

Maybe some dragons just liked being cut to the heart again and again by one person.

Li Yuan had never felt so clearly that he might be finished.