ITOTIABSAM | The Immortal on Liuyun Mountain | 143
At eighteen, it was when Gu Cong grew the fastest. Standing tall now, the slender youth who had appeared tall and graceful in the eyes of the white bird, seemed a bit shorter than him. At such a close distance, it was just the perfect angle to be admired with lowered eyes.
Initially, Gu Cong felt like the other person was looking through him at someone else, their gaze wandering aimlessly. But before long, that gaze landed squarely on him, focused and intense, making him feel a bit flushed.
It was too close.
He should have taken a step back to avoid it, but he felt rooted to the spot as if under a spell.
It wasn't until the young man had seen enough and carefully released his hand that Gu Cong, instinctively looking down, noticed the crisscrossing scars on the fingertips resting on his right side.
Those wounds had scabbed over, a chaotic pattern of crimson against the youth's snow-white skin, resembling grotesque centipedes. Strangely, Gu Cong felt no fear, instead, he hurriedly reached out and cradled them.
"What's the rush?"
To make a piece of wood or a stone move, one must always pay a price. Without something similar to be applied to the tip of a knife, slowly engraving into the formation, how could wood and stone produce flesh and blood?
However, faced with the youth in front of him, who was both familiar and unfamiliar, Xie Ye couldn't bring himself to say anything heavy.
He had to quietly cast an illusion, coaxing him, "Look."
Quickly seizing the opportunity when the other was distracted by his words, Xie Ye's hand returned to normal. Apart from being a bit pale, it was almost indistinguishable from usual, as if everything Gu Cong had just seen was an illusion, a small joke.
But Gu Cong was sharp-nosed. Stubbornly, through the false illusion, he carefully felt the youth's fingers. However, he didn't encounter anything unusual, only hearing a light laugh from above: "Itchy."
In his memory, Xie Ye rarely smiled, let alone laughed out loud. It was probably indeed exhaustion, as there was a hint of hoarseness in his voice, like tiny hooks or cat claws, making it unbearable to the ears and heart.
Only belatedly realizing how abrupt his actions had been, Gu Cong suddenly released Xie Ye, almost revealing the illusion technique. Seeing Xie Ye relax his shoulders as the crisis passed, Gu Cong couldn't help but feel relieved.
He was indeed thin-skinned at such times.
With the crisis averted, Xie Ye calmly withdrew his right hand and shook his sleeve, while also teasing, "Had enough? Or do you want to continue feeling?"
He was only wearing a soft, oversized outer robe, loosely tied at the waist. Recalling who had dressed him and glimpsing something in the process, Gu Cong froze in place, standing stiff for several seconds before shaking his head abruptly.
Most importantly, the scars, height, and skin color were clearly his own, not Song He's.
In the original work, although Song He also possessed a puppet, the appearance of that puppet was exactly the same as Xie Ye's. What's going on now? Did he change the plot?
Inside the cognition sea resided an experienced senior, and Gu Cong humbly sought advice: "0028?"
0028 didn't want to speak. Because this matter completely exceeded its understanding.
Disguising as a character in a quick transmigration setting, without even being noticed by the protagonist, who was enhanced with luck, and even managing to deceive the world consciousness, how could a mere puppet reveal Gu Cong's true appearance?
What exactly is the background of this villain?
Could it be a bug? Could such a low probability error be encountered by him?
The response to the report sent to the Quick Transmigration Bureau had not been received yet. Not wanting to bring the anxiety of unknown reasons to the new host, 0028 pretended to be calm: "Just minor details."
[The results are all the same.]
As if being doused with a bucket of cold water, Gu Cong's heart suddenly chilled.
Regardless, he had successfully possessed Xie Ye's primary puppet, which meant that the villain was one step closer to death. His existence not only did not alter the main storyline but also accelerated the plot's development. Like a butterfly trapped in glass, no matter how much it fluttered and struggled, it couldn't break free from the invisible framework.
—Would he end up killing Xie Ye?
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, under the influence of the unseen hand pushing from behind.
Descriptions of the villain’s death played back line by line in his mind. When the young man attempted to hold his hand again, Gu Cong shuddered and reflexively avoided it.
"Feeling cold?" as if he hadn't noticed anything, the young man's hand naturally curved, grabbing onto his sleeve. "It's chilly in the cave. Let me take you out first and pick some clothes."
But Gu Cong didn't move.
Very sure that the other had noticed his avoidance, he boldly stared at Xie Ye, his eyes like two seals sealing away the pure amber of the celestial being. "Aren't you angry?"
"Angry? Angry about what? Angry that my puppet doesn't listen to me?" Guessing what the other was worried about, Xie Ye intentionally lifted his left hand, revealing the puppet threads entwined around his fingertips. Just like a real antagonist, he raised an eyebrow and gave a tug:
"Little white bird, let's go."
As if something had tripped him up, Gu Cong stumbled.
But he didn't feel offended; instead, he felt somewhat relieved. Following behind Xie Ye, he asked, "Do you know that I'm a white bird?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted his overly casual address. Even though the cultivation world feared the other party, they would at least respectfully address them as celestial beings. Being too modern was perilously close to revealing his true identity.
Thinking quickly, he suddenly recalled the memory of that moonlit night and remembered the way the phoenix addressed Shen Qingshu. Just as the young man turned his head with a smile that seemed like a smile, Gu Cong, acting unconsciously, opened his mouth: "Master."
Xie Ye was taken aback.
Then, unable to contain himself, he laughed again.
The ice and snow melted away, and the long phoenix eyes gained a layer of shimmering water.
He indeed looked extremely happy, with even a faint blush appearing on his pale cheeks. Gu Cong's ears burned with embarrassment, his heart racing, yet he didn't feel ashamed. He allowed the other to bend slightly, resting their forehead against his shoulder.
"Truly adorable."
The black strands cascaded, slipping into his loosely hanging collar. Gu Cong, with a large patch of red on the back of his neck, stiffened his body, not daring to move, his nose filled with the elegant scent of cedarwood.
However, what 0028 sensed was a faint sense of danger.
In the original work, Xie Ye had never been this close to Shen Qingshu.
But if one were to consider things from Xie Ye's perspective, getting close to his "primary artifact" didn't seem like much. It was akin to how sword cultivators treated their swords, performing basic tasks like cleaning, maintenance, and chatting. Some even meditated together while holding their swords.
The only difference was that Gu Cong, this "artifact," was a bit special—he was a puppet with a humanoid form.
—Perhaps in Xie Ye's eyes, the person he was currently leaning on was just a piece of wood or stone.
Being certain that Xie Ye, this beautiful but tragically villainous character, had no possibility of falling in love or developing affection for a male supporting character, the more 0028 pondered, the more it felt that its speculation was plausible.
So, it slowly let go of its lingering concern and sank back into the depths of its consciousness.
The cave where the spiritual veins converged was a distance away from the small courtyard where Xie Ye resided. Perhaps because he was essentially a puppet, Gu Cong didn't wear shoes, yet he felt no pain at all. Holding the limp and listless white sparrow in his hands, Gu Cong's eyes sparkled with unmistakable joy, impossible to conceal in the corners of his eyes and the edges of his brows.
With the main consciousness lost from the white bird’s body, the spiritual power remaining inside should have once again become chaotic and tumultuous, threatening to burst the sparrow. However, at this moment, it was evident that someone had helped the sparrow clear its meridians, expelling all excess spiritual power, allowing it to revert back to being an ordinary but long-lived little bird.
Only Xie Ye could achieve such meticulous control over power with such proficiency on Mountain Liuyun.
However, contrary to before, Xie Ye no longer showed the same fondness as before. Not only did he stop holding the sparrow in the palm of his hand, he didn't even hug the drowsy bundle of feathers again, simply handing it over to Gu Cong.
At the opportune moment, 0028 chimed in: "See? The villain has grown tired of the old and now favors the new."
However, deep down, there was a voice in Gu Cong's heart saying that from beginning to end, the white bird recognized and acknowledged by the celestial Xie Ye was him, and only him.
Although thinking this way might seem a bit self-indulgent, at the moment, Gu Cong preferred to follow his intuition and successfully try to save a life destined to die in the original story, Gu Cong's steps became lighter: "Do we want to keep it?"
The night on Mount Liuyun was far from being a safe place.
"It's up to you," Xie Ye said, giving the white bird a gentle glance before pushing open the door. "Anyway, it's dumb enough."
Without awakened intelligence, relying solely on instinct, it wouldn't be able to comprehend, let alone go crazy.
Mount Liuyun was a famous forbidden land in the cultivation world, remote and secluded.
However, as the saying goes, fortune favors the bold. Every few years, there were always some cultivators forced to their limits who came here seeking refuge from pursuit, or aiming for a breakthrough... and so on. They came one after another, only to end up either insane or dead, thus adding to the fearsome reputation of "The Strange Immortal".
As a result, in Mount Liuyun, one could always find scattered storage bags. Xie Ye couldn't be bothered to search for them, and the robust vines in the area seemed quite interested in them.
Every time, they would pick out the cleanest ones for him, while entangling and suffocating the rest like prey, absorbing the dispersed spiritual energy as nutrients.
With each passing day, Xie Ye's proficiency in spatial manipulation within his sleeves grew increasingly refined.
With a casual sweep on the table, intricately patterned robes appeared out of thin air, neatly stacked. However, neither of the two people in the room cared about the invaluable value of these fabrics:
Xie Ye didn't care, while Gu Cong was busy putting the white bird into its nest.
Knowing exactly how to handle Gu Cong in order to strike the right balance and let him relax his guard, Xie Ye considerately retreated to the outside of the room, leaning against the door frame. When he heard the faint rustling noise from inside, he suddenly asked, "Did you have a birthmark on your chest before?"
A birthmark?
What birthmark?
Was it Song He's?
After carefully searching through the memories of the original host, Gu Cong replied truthfully, "No."
Neither he nor Song He had one.
"None?" The young man's voice sounded somewhat muffled through the door, but his description was clear, "Just below the collarbone, near the heart."
Subconsciously, Gu Cong, halfway through putting on his clothes, raised his hand to touch his chest.
He recalled the way Xie Ye had looked at him in the cave at first.
Was Xie Ye looking for someone?
"Really, there isn't." After a few seconds, the young man's answer came from inside the room, his tone no longer as clear as the first time.
So, the birthmark that had accompanied Gu Cong for several lifetimes was not natural.
"In that case," Xie Ye, sensing the awkwardness, spoke slowly, smiling, "Maybe I was seeing things."
Seeing things?
With deliberate elongation in his tone, Xie Ye inadvertently created an ambiguous and intimate atmosphere. Gu Cong thought of how every inch of his body had been sculpted by Xie Ye, and suddenly felt a heat rising beneath his skin, making him feel unbearably hot.
Knock, knock.
Knock, knock.
Perhaps after waiting for a while without hearing any movement from Gu Cong, the young man outside the door tapped his fingers against the door, one after the other, leisurely.
"Can't get dressed?"
"Do you need help?"
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