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Chapter 53: I'll Take the Lesser Role

The night wind was faintly cool, the spring water gurgling softly, and the young cultivator's voice fell clear and cold.

The tipsiness brought on by the strong liquor was swept away entirely by the night wind, his spiritual sense clear once more. Cang Shun's pupils steadied slightly, reflecting those dark eyes tinged with moonlight.

Amid the hazy mist over the water, Chen Moqing's black hair was damp, and beneath his raven-black lashes, the light in his gaze still cut through the cold, sunken night.

The Demon Emperor, who had never once shown fear even before the Demon Abyss's Heavenly Punishment, in this moment instinctively avoided the gaze cast from those dark eyes.

【I'm fine】

A low male voice, its emotion as steady as ever, sounded by Chen Moqing's ear.

【No need to worry】

Having said that, the dripping-wet snow-white little beast went back to nuzzling his fingers as usual, one small rub after another, burying its head into his palm.

Chen Moqing said nothing.

Because of me, he was struck by heaven's punishment.

A voice echoed quietly in the depths of his heart, and the seething tangle of thoughts quickly cooled, condensing down into a single thread.

The thing that could affect him through me, the thing binding us together—

"Perhaps severing the contract would resolve it."

A stone dropped into the water, ripples surging up in alarm.

The snow-white demon beast didn't move for a moment. Then the sound of water shattered into disorder, a hand with clearly defined knuckles tore through the surging mist, and the handsome black-haired man's brows and eyes turned cold and sunken—even the warm mist of the pool couldn't melt away the frost at the corners of his eyes.

"I knew you'd say that."

Deep within Cang Shun's eyes burned a dim red glow, like the fading light of dusk slowly sinking into the earth.

"I won't sever the contract."

Once the contract was undone, he would no longer be able to dissolve the Demon Abyss's corrosion for this person, no longer able to bear the karmic consequences alongside him.

The shackles of before had, for him now, become the warm thread connecting the two of them. Even if heaven's malice were once again heaped upon this person, he could still shelter him beneath his wings, twist the contract, and carry all the disaster onto himself, bearing everything in his place.

Amid the roiling voice of his own heart, Cang Shun heard a deeper, clearer voice still—one from the depths of his very bones and blood, present since the moment of the Demon Emperor's birth: the innate desire to control everything.

——He simply wanted this person to stay by his side forever and ever, never allowed to leave him, not even a single step.

The familiar searing pain surged back, as if a dull blade were carving open his chest, digging the heart out bit by bit—this time the pain was fiercer than ever before. Cang Shun's expression didn't change in the slightest; not even the corner of his brow or eye so much as twitched.

Even if it were honey laced with shards of iron and blade, blood pouring with every mouthful, slicing a path from throat down through lungs and organs, he would still take it gladly, as if it were sweet.

Across the Nine Thousand Prefectures, to the furthest heights of the sky and depths of the underworld, all he wanted was this one person.

Fireflies hidden in the night hummed faintly, and now and then a bird cried once or twice, vanishing beneath the moonless starry sky. Though the Demon Emperor before him said nothing, only gazing deeply at him through the darkness, Chen Moqing still heard, from within those eyes, the voice of his heart.

His own voice, seemingly ever calm and clear, unmoved by outside things, drifted out through the swirling mist:

"How does Your Majesty the Demon Emperor know that a true heart will surely be answered in kind?"

Cang Shun lowered his eyes, the starlight within them gradually dimming: "Can it not be?"

He stepped forward without the slightest hesitation, one smoothly muscled arm curving around Chen Moqing's lower back, his burning palm pressed against his spine, drawing him into his chest. He lowered his head, his face pressing against that faintly damp black hair.

Water splashed in every direction, startling the birds by the pool into flight, wings beating away into the long night. Cang Shun's voice fell clear against Chen Moqing's ear: "Even if it can't, I still won't let go of you."

"It doesn't matter if you're unhappy about it, either way, you're already tangled up with me now."

The moon emerged from among the clouds, the stars all hidden, the night wind sweeping across the desert, curling around the oasis's clear pool, the far-off sound of wind settling quietly beside them—none of it as clear as the Demon Emperor's presence.

Chen Moqing suddenly reached out, pressing his palm against Cang Shun's chest, silver light blooming beneath his fingers.

Cang Shun didn't move, didn't loosen the arm circling his waist, only lowered his head, quietly watching as those eyes turned into a flawless expanse of silver-white, tracing a formation array over his own heart.

As the array's lines first took shape, Chen Moqing's expression didn't change. He held his open palm out to the Demon Emperor so close beside him: "A drop of essence blood."

Cang Shun blinked, and two drops of blood flew out from between his brows.

Chen Moqing glanced at him a moment longer, then with a flick of his fingertip, gathered the blood, faintly tinged with gold, into his palm, and also drew out a tuft of fur—shed from His Majesty the Demon Emperor's noble coat.

The Demon Emperor's blood, the Demon Emperor's fur—nothing in the world, no rare treasure or heavenly material, could compare, for only the demon realm's Emperor, chosen by heaven's mandate, possessed such unmatched authority of the Dao.

The essence blood and fur refined instantly between Chen Moqing's fingers, and drawing on that surging power of the Dao, he traced out ancient, unadorned talismans in one smooth, flowing motion, the talismans spinning through the air, settling one by one along each line of the array, spreading out an intricate, obscure pattern that wound through the small space and linked together as one.

Half an hour later, an elaborate, layered talisman array had been etched into Cang Shun's chest, silver light flickering, brilliant as a miniature silver moon.

Chen Moqing lowered his fingertip and touched it to Cang Shun's heart. That radiant, shimmering silver moon melted into the Demon Emperor's chest along with the touch, vanishing from sight.

Cang Shun closed his eyes as spiritual power not his own filled his heart, searing and scalding, like countless soft feathers settling over the fields of his heart, covering over the cold thorns.

——The tearing pain in his heart vanished without a trace in that instant, as though it had never been there at all.

His eyes slowly opened, and he heard a gentle, soft voice: "Feeling a little better?"

Cang Shun stared unblinking at Chen Moqing, watching as the silver light in those eyes gradually faded, returning to raven black, a faint smile touching his brows: "I know a little something about soul techniques. I've added an array to your soul, borrowing your own power to shield you from the workings of heaven's will."

"This array is one I devised myself, still imperfect. It'll lose effect after a while, and will need to be redrawn."

The words had barely left his mouth when Chen Moqing heard Cang Shun laugh, a low, pleased chuckle sending a faint tremor through his chest, and because the two of them were pressed so close together, it carried through to his own chest as well.

"Then I can't do without you anymore."

Cang Shun lowered his head, gently stroking Chen Moqing's cheek, damp with mist, and said with perfect self-righteous conviction.

"You have to take responsibility for me. For life."

Chen Moqing: "……"

He said, flat and unbothered: "How can Your Majesty the Demon Emperor repay kindness with such ingratitude."

Cang Shun: "?"

Cang Shun tightened his arms, palm sliding through cloud-soft black hair, cradling the back of Chen Moqing's head, pressing it into the crook of his own shoulder: "I don't care. I'm going to cling to you, cling to you for life."

"A lifetime isn't even enough. Life after life, you'll only ever be tangled up with me."

Chen Moqing was pulled into his chest, catching the damp mist against his skin, along with a clear radiance like frost-touched moonlight.

The moon was an unusually clingy moon.

"Still hurting?"

Hearing his soft voice, the corners of Cang Shun's mouth lifted, and he shook his head, smiling.

"Soul techniques really are useful."

That array was etched right into his heart, shielding him from heaven's punishment.

In this world, only one person had mastered soul techniques to such a degree—fusing the Dao into a talisman array to guard his soul.

"So you'd been suffering this whole time," Chen Moqing's voice was cool, "and never told me."

Cang Shun: "……"

The Demon Emperor, clearly in the wrong, obediently lowered his head, obediently buried it into the young cultivator's shoulder, obediently nuzzled against him.

Chen Moqing stepped back, pressing against the pool's wall, refusing to let him nuzzle.

Cang Shun paused, slowly lifting his head, a pair of ruby-red eyes gazing at him, damp and glistening amid the hazy mist.

Chen Moqing held the gaze of this now-human, still-fluffy creature for a moment.

Then wordlessly opened his palm.

Cang Shun's eyes immediately curved into a smile, and he placed his hand into that palm, pressing in close beside him, and using his height and long arms to his advantage, lifted his arm to enclose the young cultivator in his embrace, holding him snugly, without a gap.

"Doesn't hurt anymore now," he murmured, jaw resting against Chen Moqing's hair, "let me hold you a bit."

"No."

Cang Shun let out a slow "Oh," hooking a finger around Chen Moqing's slender one, giving it a small shake. "What I said earlier… did you hear it?"

Chen Moqing was quiet for a moment, turning his head slightly, gaze falling on the dappled moonlight filtering through the forest trees, his tone light: "There's no status to it."

"I'm a person without name or standing right now. I can't give you any proper status."

Cang Shun laughed softly.

"You're good to me. Even without status, I'm willing." He lowered his head, nuzzling Chen Moqing's face over and over, fingers threading through his knuckles, pressing palm to palm with him. "I'll take the lesser role, you take the greater one."

Chen Moqing: "…Mimi, no more reading random storybooks from now on."

Seeing the Demon Emperor before him still smiling, smiling until his eyes curved like the crescent moon above, a trace of smile crept into his own eyes as well.

The clear pool's mist hung hazy, and beneath the moon, the two of them shared a drink of moonlight together.

The night wind brushed past the trees by the pool's edge, fireflies drifting and glimmering. Chen Moqing lightly tapped Cang Shun's chest: "Managing it with the array isn't a lasting solution in the end. I'll find you a way to resolve it completely."

Cang Shun gently closed his hand around his finger, pressing it to his own chest, as if savoring a piece of sweet candy: "Alright."

He lowered his head again, looking at the hand beneath his palm—the five fingers trimmed neat and clean, the joints slender and even, and further down, a pale wrist, the thin sleeve at the cuff soaked through with water, setting off that stretch of wrist like a white lotus in a clear pool, outshining frost and snow.

Wait. They were in the pool.

The Demon Emperor finally, belatedly, realized this.

The pool water was infused with spiritual energy, tinged with a jade-green hue, its depths unseen, but the young cultivator's upper body was mostly above the waterline, draped only in a thin robe, black hair scattered loosely across the thin fabric.

Those damp locks of black hair trailed and drifted, spreading out with the pool's water like unfurling duckweed. Between the black strands, beneath the thin robe, was something even more lustrous than white jade—

Cang Shun's gaze suddenly grew evasive, darting left and right for a good while, before slowly, slowly stealing a glance at the person beside him.

Then another glance.

Chen Moqing rose to his feet, the water instantly falling away, and in the blink of an eye he was dressed in fresh robes: "Let's go. Back to cultivate."

"……"

Soaking in the warm spring, nourished by spiritual energy, had swept away all the accumulated dust and fatigue.

Chen Moqing let his black hair hang loose, a white robe billowing in the night air, while a hand with clearly defined knuckles rested gently on his shoulder, straightening the collar of his outer robe for him.

Chen Moqing looked at Cang Shun's handsome face so close at hand, letting him smooth out his collar and fold his sleeves, then, remembering something, curled a finger and rapped it lightly against his head: "You should have told me sooner, there won't be a next time."

Cang Shun obediently lowered his head: "I didn't want to distract you from your cultivation."

Back then it had been right before his human companion's seclusion, and the Self-Slaying Technique mattered too much—he hadn't wanted him to be distracted.

Chen Moqing stopped walking.

The night insects kept up their chirping without pause. A full two breaths passed before Chen Moqing spoke again: "Cang Shun."

His Majesty the Demon Emperor immediately straightened up.

Chen Moqing held his gaze for a moment, said nothing, and walked forward without looking back.

Cang Shun: "……"

It's over!

He's made him angry!!

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