IS Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The Ice Lotus was cool and refreshing.

Refined into incense flakes, it also had the effect of calming the mind.

“If it were ordinary, no one would send a sword cultivator something to calm their mind.” Li Yuan placed the incense ball under Ye Zhuo’s pillow and said, “I think he did it for you.”

Ye Zhuo thought so too. He felt there was something profound in Feng Jiang’s words.

Presumably, after Feng Jiang learned about the Dragon Scent Guide, he didn’t want him to be tricked like last time, so he specially refined it and sent it to him to guard against similar incidents.

This effect was more than enough to counteract ordinary Dragon Scent. However, it was still slightly insufficient for Li Yuan’s own scent.

Li Yuan seemed to realize this too.

“It seems like it’s still a little short,” he said.

“It wasn’t made for you in the first place,” Ye Zhuo said unhappily, “If you could control your own scent, I wouldn’t have to waste spiritual medicine.”

“What does it have to do with me? You’re especially sensitive to my scent, isn’t that because of the Life-Bound Sword?” Li Yuan was even more annoyed, “If you hadn’t pulled my scale, none of this would have happened.”

“However, rest assured,” Li Yuan said, “After you’ve smelled enough of my scent, the scent of other dragons won’t affect you. They won’t be able to use the same tricks to scheme against you.”

Ye Zhuo’s expression was uncertain.

Was he supposed to thank this dragon for that?

His expression amused Li Yuan.

Following his inner thoughts, he leaned down and bit Ye Zhuo’s neck.

There were also differences in bloodlines between true dragons, and naturally, there was suppression between scents. The Hidden Abyss Black Dragon and the Snow Scale Golden Dragon were both the highest-ranking true dragon races, and his own bloodline was particularly pure among them.

So, as long as there were still remnants of his scent in Ye Zhuo’s body, the scent of any other dragon race would not affect him.

For some reason, Li Yuan felt happy thinking about this.

The scent became even richer, as if to protect Ye Zhuo, surrounding him within it.

Ye Zhuo took a breath and immediately felt the effect of the Ice Lotus incense flakes weakened again.

The scent would affect every part of his body.

Even his voice sounded strange when he spoke.

“If this continues,” he said, gasping urgently, “I’ll refine you into a pill furnace.”

What, wasn’t he even calling him “Dragon Li Yuan” this time?

Li Yuan responded vaguely, and went up to nibble on his earlobe, his fingers running through his disheveled, flowing hair.

The incense flakes were indeed effective. After being lit, his mind was no longer as disconnected and drowsy as last time.

The cultivation method flowed naturally.

But all the sensations became exceptionally clear.

With his long hair scattered, Ye Zhuo bit his shoulder, and Li Yuan could feel his muffled, chaotic breathing in his throat. At this time, he would soothe him by stroking his shoulders and back. The lines of his shoulder blades felt astonishingly beautiful under his hands, like a butterfly about to fly. Li Yuan felt that it would look even more like it from behind.

This person named Ye Zhuo seemed to have no unattractive or impure places on his body, like a meticulously carved beauty by Heaven.

Heaven’s will was truly contradictory.

It wanted to give him the sharpest, coldest sword, and carve the most magnificent patterns on it.

Was it not afraid of breaking the jade-like texture as thin as a cicada’s wing during the carving?

The affairs of the world have always been such that when water is full, it overflows, and when the moon is full, it wanes. Many times, one should not seek perfection. If he had to do such a thing, he would not bear it. For some inexplicable reason, Li Yuan had such a thought in his heart.

In fact, Li Yuan also wanted to hear Ye Zhuo’s voice at this time, wanted to know what it would be like when that clear, ice-like sound was completely scattered.

But it was fine if Ye Zhuo didn’t want to make a sound.

It was just being bitten on the shoulder, and that strength might be painful for humans, but it was nothing to a true dragon.

Sometimes the sound was swallowed in his throat, like the person was crying.

There were two or three times when Li Yuan really felt that this person’s voice was like subtle whimpers, as if he had been bullied into crying. When he turned his face to look, it was not like that. His eyes were just hazy and unfocused, and his body trembled unnaturally.

It seemed that he wasn’t being too excessive. Li Yuan continued with peace of mind.

This time, Ye Zhuo’s consciousness persisted until the latter half before turning into nothingness.

The so-called cultivation method naturally dissipated like clouds.

But after it was finally over, he looked even more disheveled than the last time.

His body, like thin porcelain, was still twitching slightly in his arms after a long time, and his eyes seemed unable to reflect his shadow, his limbs surrounding him blankly.

“How pitiful,” Li Yuan suddenly thought in his heart, and kissed his cheeks and long hair, wet with thin sweat, over and over again.

Finally, he felt the person’s fingers move, the strength as if to push him away.

Li Yuan already knew very well that whenever this kind of disavowal appeared, it meant that this person was awake.

“…”

When Ye Zhuo woke up, he felt that he didn’t even have the strength to glare at this dragon.

“Are you okay?” Li Yuan held his wrist, his spiritual power already probing his meridians, “Look, you’ve recovered.”

Ye Zhuo turned his head and didn’t want to look at him at all.

After a while, he realized that he should examine his own meridians.

Looking internally with his spiritual sense, he couldn’t yet make a definitive judgment on the state of his meridians and bones, but his spiritual power cultivation had indeed recovered to nearly forty percent.

The spiritual energy in Green Mountains was abundant, and his and Li Yuan’s spiritual power seemed to be especially compatible – those spiritual power that Li Yuan gave him a few days ago while fighting Tai Zi and Tai Hao, although different from his own, could be used as smoothly as his own.

The two effects combined, the speed of cultivation recovery was much faster than if he had secluded himself alone, gentle and natural, without any hidden dangers of forced growth.

In the past, he had accumulated minor meridian injuries, which were repaired a little after this dragon put him in a clamshell, and now they had healed even more.

Although the cultivation method had not been completely completed, it could be considered fruitful after all.

Looking at Li Yuan again, he felt much more pleasing to the eye.

Upon closer inspection, this dragon called Li Yuan seemed to be thinking of helping him put on his clothes again.

——What was this strange persistence?

In fact, Li Yuan felt that those scattered clothes were almost torn and could no longer be worn.

But this person’s current appearance was really a bit indecent.

Putting down the fabric in his hand, he asked Ye Zhuo, “Do you want to clean up?”

Ye Zhuo didn’t have much intention to speak, and nodded.

Then Li Yuan picked him up.

Ye Zhuo: “?”

What was he going to do?

He had just nodded, thinking that Li Yuan would probably throw a cleansing spell over. This dragon knew how to do simple spells. He vaguely remembered that after killing someone last time, he had a lot of blood splattered on his body. He didn’t know how Li Yuan got him to the cave, and when he woke up, he had been cleaned up by a cleansing spell.

But Ye Zhuo was too lazy to ask.

Whatever this dragon wanted to do, he didn’t want to understand.

——Then he was taken to the backyard of Green Peak.

In the backyard, there was a ten-foot-square cold pool, made of white jade, with cold pool water flowing into it by magic. Feng Jiang had placed several white jade water lilies on the surface of the water.

Ye Zhuo vaguely remembered that this pool was established when the Micro-Snow Palace was built. Wei Sheng Xian used his half-baked Feng Shui divination skills, pretending to turn a compass a few times to determine its location.

He liked being near the water when he cultivated, and had no objection. So he built this cold pool.

But he didn’t often come here.

Why was this dragon so familiar with his Green Peak?

Li Yuan stood by the cold pool, but frowned slightly.

“The water here seems a bit cold.”

Ye Zhuo: “.”

He said, “It’s fine.”

“Really?” Li Yuan said, “Why don’t I heat it up a little with spiritual power?”

Ye Zhuo said concisely, “Dislike.”

Li Yuan understood, “I see.”

He remembered that he had first detoxified this person in the cold pool. The cold pool water was chilling to the bone, which he liked very much, and this person seemed to adapt well to it.

So he put Ye Zhuo into the water. Ye Zhuo leaned against the jade pool wall, his long hair spreading out in the water like silk, and Li Yuan helped him comb it.

Ye Zhuo let him do as he pleased, neither cooperating nor resisting.

…Like a porcelain ornament, being played with in the clear waves of the cold pool.

Not even getting angry, it seemed he really didn’t have the strength. Li Yuan cleaned everything that he thought needed to be cleaned, and began to gently wipe Ye Zhuo’s cheeks with clear cold water.

His fingertips brushed across his cheeks, moving back and forth, and Ye Zhuo found it annoying.

He simply laid back and quietly submerged his whole body in the water.

Saving many steps.

When Li Yuan pulled him up, he suddenly felt that this person was really interesting.

“Person Ye Zhuo,” he said, “You’re really interesting.”

“Is it done?” Ye Zhuo said, “I want to go back to cultivation.”

Whether there had been any changes in his meridians and bones could only be seen after running his spiritual power a few more times.

“Wait a moment.” Li Yuan was observing the large patches of red marks on his waist, and felt that if he didn’t treat them, they would turn into bruises.

…Did he use that much force at the time?

Li Yuan chose to dissolve a portion of a pill with spiritual power and rubbed it on the marks, which quickly faded a little.

Then he discovered that there were many similar marks.

“…”

He chose to directly feed Ye Zhuo a pill.

High-quality pills would melt into liquid as soon as they entered the mouth. Ye Zhuo swallowed quietly. A warm medicinal effect spread through his body, and he felt that he could finally breathe.

“Are you better? Where do you want to cultivate, I’ll take you there,” Li Yuan asked him.

Ye Zhuo nodded, slowly thinking about a cultivation location.

He thought for a while, and then suddenly felt that Li Yuan was a bit too quiet.

“Dragon Li Yuan?”

“I was thinking…” Li Yuan said hesitantly.

It wasn’t anything. He just looked at this person’s crystal clear shoulders and back exposed above the water, and suddenly wanted to know what it would feel like to hold him in his arms from behind.

Thinking this, he did just that.

The jade-like body was weightless in the water, as if it were all contained in his arms.

Like a dragon in the deep sea, holding a beautiful pearl.

…Sure enough, it was better for this person to be fully clothed, otherwise, it would easily lead to trouble.

Li Yuan buried himself in Ye Zhuo’s neck from behind, and naturally, tasted the cold skin between his shoulders and neck.

Ye Zhuo always had an indescribable, clear aura that made him feel comfortable.

Ye Zhuo: “.”

No need to say anymore.

The intermittent Dragon Scent began to entangle his limbs and bones again.

Li Yuan silently handed him a round pill with an unusual fragrance to his lips.

Was he still concerned about his life and death?

The pill melted in his mouth, and with a breath, Ye Zhuo leaned weakly on Li Yuan’s shoulder.

He felt that he had sighed for the first time in his life.

“Dragon Li Yuan,” he said, “You’re really a bastard.”

“Is that so?” Li Yuan said softly, “Speaking of bastards, I seem to be far inferior to you.”

There was a faint thought in his mind, reminding him that he seemed to have forgotten something.

But he didn’t care to think about it. His consciousness now seemed to want to think more about Ye Zhuo’s touch.

Dragons sometimes really had difficulty controlling their minds.

In the water, his waist was slowly tightened.

Before falling into the water, Ye Zhuo had only one last request: “Circulate your energy.”

Controlling the mind was indeed something that humans were better at. Ye Zhuo did this very well.

Ye Zhuo heard Li Yuan laugh softly in his neck: “Okay.”

…Okay what?

It couldn’t be any good at all!

Ye Zhuo didn’t even know what time it was now.

He didn’t even know how many days had passed.

He only remembered the sun rising and falling in his fragmented consciousness, the moon hanging and disappearing. His body returned from the cold pool to the inner room, and inexplicably appeared in the cold pool from the inner room again.

Sometimes he even felt that he shouldn’t have secluded himself so many times in the past. That way, when he hadn’t appeared for too long, at least someone would notice something was wrong, come to Green Peak to check the situation, and then rescue him from here.

He dismissed this idea when he was slightly awake.

Because he recalled one thing: that insiduous dragon had set up a watertight barrier at Green Peak from the very beginning, so even if someone felt something was wrong, they couldn’t get in.

The only good thing was that although the dual cultivation method often failed to work two out of three times, there were always one or two times when it was effective. Accumulated, the spiritual power cultivation in his body had completely recovered, and even increased much more than his previous peak state.

As for the meridians and bones, although he didn’t have time to explore them in detail, he could already feel the difference. The flow of spiritual power was exceptionally smooth and much purer.

He still needed a chance to break through to the Tribulation Transcendence realm, but in terms of spiritual power accumulation, he had long exceeded the limit that the Integration stage could reach.

His aptitude for bones and endowments even seemed to have room to grow.

When he understood the origins and details and there was no room for improvement in his bones, he would definitely find a way to get rid of this dragon and eliminate future troubles forever.

Ye Zhuo thought so.

“…How long has it been?” he heard himself ask.

Li Yuan wasn’t very sure about this question either.

However, looking at the person’s eyes, he knew that his killing intent had risen again.

There was indeed killing intent, but actions were another matter, in due time.

He felt the same way about Ye Zhuo.

“Not long,” Li Yuan gently combed the person’s hair and said.

At least, it wouldn’t exceed ten days.

At this time, Ye Zhuo was only wearing his black cloak, and was being held in his arms, drowsy.

But this person never slept.

Every time Li Yuan looked down at him, he could see his shimmering eyes half-closed, but never completely closed.

It was hard to say whether he was silently running his mental cultivation method, comprehending some Buddhist and Taoist methods, or planning how to kill him.

Li Yuan finally couldn’t help but speak.

“Do you want to rest for a while?”

Ye Zhuo blinked his eyes, seemingly blankly, the ends of his eyelashes lightly brushing against Li Yuan’s chest.

Li Yuan: “Close your eyes, don’t think about anything.”

Ye Zhuo slowly closed his eyes.

Then, there was no movement.

He fell asleep.

Li Yuan picked him up and laid him flat on the bed. This person’s sleeping face was very peaceful.

Li Yuan was checking his meridians.

Everything was normal, and he was in a state where he could kill three or two more cultivators undergoing tribulation.

In fact, during the last attack, if not for the spirit-sealing array, it wouldn’t have been too difficult for Ye Zhuo to kill Tai Hao and Tai Zi.

Looking at his sleeping appearance, he didn’t seem like someone who could do such a thing at all.

Li Yuan tucked in the corners of the quilt for him, and then got up.

This person was finally asleep, and he finally had time to do something else.

Like picking up the Reverse Scale Sword and putting it in a convenient place.

Although he despised this scale quite a bit, it was, after all, his own scale, and it wouldn’t be good for it to lie on the ground for too long.

Or, for example…

Li Yuan suddenly remembered what he had forgotten.

He slowly looked at the sleeping Ye Zhuo.

“…”

When Ye Zhuo woke up, he felt as if he had lost consciousness for a long time.

However, his body had recovered very well.

It was as if he could kill two or three more cultivators undergoing tribulation.

He opened his eyes and met Li Yuan’s face.

So he closed his eyes again.

“Ye Zhuo, I have something to tell you.”

Ye Zhuo: “What.”

It better not be some strange request again.

“There’s someone from the Sword Sect who wants to come to Green Mountains to challenge you and me to a sword fight. His name is Su Yizhen, and his sword is not bad,” Li Yuan said, “He told me about it during the Mid-Autumn Festival. I think he might have already arrived by now.”

Or rather, he had already arrived some time ago.

Ye Zhuo opened his eyes and looked at Li Yuan quietly.

Sometimes he really wanted to kill this dragon.