My Husband’s Ascension C79
Chapter 79 Extra 7
Outside, the gongfen plum blossoms trembled as they bloomed, their shadows cast across the mat by the evening glow quivering in the breeze like a sudden spasm.
Zhao Zhao couldn’t comprehend how things had come to this.
Her snow-white gauze dress lay loosely across the floor, entwined with his pale-azure sash. Whether from sweat or something else, it had dampened the woven rush mat beneath them. She looked for a moment, then turned her eyes away.
“Zhao Zhao, look at me. I want you to look at me.”
His lips were pale from blood loss, his voice as light as a feather. For a moment, Zhao Zhao genuinely feared that his wound might burst, blood gushing uncontrollably.
—But in the end, it was she who became lost in the haze, leaving several more red marks across his body.
The lingering, wet kiss pressed over her again, scrambling her recently steadied breaths. He absorbed the sounds escaping her lips, coaxing out even more with gentle insistence.
In this act of kissing her, he seemed never to grow weary.
Zhao Zhao pushed him back slightly, her clear eyes locking with his strikingly vibrant gaze.
“Who…are you, really?”
The intimate air between them seemed to hang suspended for a moment.
The youth lowered his gaze, looking straight into the slight furrow between her brows.
He liked the way her brows furrowed in those moments of discomfort, but more often, he simply wished for her to carry no worries at all.
“I am Xie Zhu,” he replied, tracing her brow lightly with his fingertip.
“Liar,” Zhao Zhao said calmly, meeting his gaze, “you’re not Xie Zhu. He isn’t… like you—”
“Like me… how?” He asked with amused interest, as if eager to hear her judgment.
Zhao Zhao closed her mouth.
One could feign words and actions, but preferences revealed in close intimacy could not be faked. Xie Lanshu could deceive the entire world, yet here, he could not hide himself.
“…When exactly did you come to yourself?”
Xie Lanshu rose, dampening a cloth in the copper basin by the bed, and replied, “My soul was restored during the spiritual communion, and my memory returned last night. I didn’t conceal it intentionally; there simply wasn’t an appropriate moment to tell you.”
The warm cloth brushed over the marks on her skin, and Zhao Zhao turned her gaze away, letting him tend to her.
“…So what do you plan to do next?”
Xie Lanshu paused, then lifted his eyes to ask, “Do you intend to send me away?”
In that instant, his normally gentle and mild gaze shifted, giving Zhao Zhao the shiver-inducing impression that if she nodded, he would bind her without hesitation, truly and completely.
“No, I just wanted to ask whether you intended to inform the people of Kunwu.”
“Why tell them?” The alert ended, and Xie Lanshu withdrew the dangerous edge from his gaze. Ripples spread across the copper basin, and he looked at his reflection in the water. “Don’t you want me to stay by your side? Like back in Yunmeng Pier, without all those tedious responsibilities, I could be a husband belonging only to you.”
It was an irresistibly tempting thought.
But Zhao Zhao merely smiled lightly and shook her head.
“Why?”
She took his hand in hers; his hand was so large that she needed both of hers to hold it. “People in this world must bear certain responsibilities, especially someone like you.”
A trace of mockery crept into the corner of Xie Lanshu’s smile. “Someone like me? I’m no different from Kunwu’s gates or its stone steps. I’m only present because they need me. When I was little, I once rescued a rabbit from the sect, and the next day, Lord Tianxuan snapped its neck and threw it away. Sword practitioners don’t need spiritual pets, and the Sect Master cannot show favoritism. My thoughts don’t matter; all they needed was the sword in my hand.”
The room fell into a quiet stillness for a long moment.
“Sorry for bringing up such dispiriting matters,” Xie Lanshu murmured, stroking her hair. “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”
Zhao Zhao shook her head and grasped his hand as he moved to rise and head toward the dining hall.
“But Kunwu isn’t just made up of those people.”
His steps faltered.
“Sure, it has those annoying elders and the rules that frustrate you. But it also has Lord Yaoguang, your disciples, and the three thousand students who rely on your protection. They are what truly make up Kunwu—the very reason you pick up your sword despite all the unsolvable pain, isn’t that right?”
Seeing a flicker of emotion cross him, Zhao Zhao smiled and added, “Besides, even if you return to Kunwu, we aren’t ordinary mortals. From Kunwu to Cloudculm Abode, it’s only four hours by flight. Even for mortal couples, they have to work all day and return home at night. They can’t spend every moment together.”
Finally, Zhao Zhao played her ace card. “I don’t just like you for the Xie Lanshu who treats me well. I also like the Dao Lord Tianshu who fulfills his duty to safeguard the Cultivation Realm. If you stayed at Cloudculm Abode all day clinging to me, half of my affection for you would vanish. Don’t you think that would be a pity?”
Back in Yunmeng Pier, Xie Lanshu’s possessiveness over her had already been somewhat intense.
A century apart, Zhao Zhao could hardly imagine just how clingy he would be if they were together every day.
He would return to Kunwu, she would remain at Cloudculm Abode, each fulfilling their duties, yet still free to meet in their spare moments—this was the arrangement Zhao Zhao found most comfortable.
After a long pause, Xie Lanshu let out a deep sigh. “Zhao Zhao, you really are…”
He took her slender fingers in his, half-squatted before her, and pressed a gentle kiss to her fingertips: “Sometimes, I truly feel like biting through your finger bones and swallowing them.”
Startled, Zhao Zhao yanked her hand back, unable to fathom his sudden madness. “You lunatic! You heartless rogue!”
Xie Lanshu merely chuckled softly.
He didn’t actually intend to hurt her; he simply adored her too much.
He had thought he already loved her enough, yet she always had a way of making that nearly overflowing affection grow, leaving it no place to settle.
To love someone, he realized, was a force so tumultuous, so uncontrollable.
…
Not long after, Lord Yaoguang at Immortal Realm of Kunwu received Zhao Zhao’s message:
——The spirit lamp has reignited. Come and bring your Dao Lord home.
Upon receiving it, Lord Yaoguang nearly cried on the spot.
It wasn’t that he was especially sentimental about this friend, rather, over the past century, having temporarily assumed the role of Sect Master, he had been thoroughly worn down, nearly unrecognizable, and desperately needed someone to rescue him from this torment.
But since he hadn’t confirmed things with his own eyes, only he brought two disciples, Mu Ling and Zong Fei, along.
The three of them made their way to Cloudculm Abode with tears in their eyes, feeling as if after a long storm, the sun had finally broken through the clouds.
No one, however, had anticipated that upon arriving, they would witness their Dao Lord being struck down from the practicing platform by Yao Ling in a single sword strike.
“Did you keep count? Did you?!” Excited, Yao Ling asked Rong Yu beside her, “How many wins, how many losses?”
Rong Yu smiled. “Seven wins, five losses.”
Yao Ling’s expression was pure exhilaration; if not for the crowd around, she would have leapt a meter into the air. But she was no longer a child, so she only gave a faint, composed hum. “The famed Single Intent Sword… is nothing more than this.”
Xie Lanshu lightly curved his lips as he tapped the sword on the ground.
“…Ma–Master?”
Mu Ling and Zong Fei stared in astonishment at their master, who had been defeated by Yao Ling. Were it not for the fact that he still held the Single Intent Sword in his hand, they could hardly believe that the one so easily bested by Yao Ling was truly their Dao Lord.
Granted, Yao Ling was a rising star among her peers, but she had only cultivated for a little over a hundred years.
Their master, however, was Dao Lord Tianshu—the very master of the Single Intent Sword, the one who had once swept across the Cultivation Realm with a single strike, who had taken on the seven major sect leaders in solo combat without ever tasting defeat.
How could such a young upstart so easily overcome him?
Xie Lanshu sheathed his sword and looked at them. “Long time no see, Mu Ling, Zong Fei. During my absence, have you been diligent in your cultivation?”
Though the two disciples had long since become pillars of strength within Immortal Realm of Kunwu, hearing their master’s words brought tears to their eyes instantly.
Lord Yaoguang finally spoke after a long pause. “It really is you, but how–how did you become so weak?”
Xie Lanshu smiled faintly: “After I died, my seven po souls attached themselves to a child who had just passed. His constitution is ordinary, unlike the Zhongli lineage, so naturally he lacks the strength of the past. You’ve gone to the trouble of coming to fetch me, though I’m afraid you may be disappointed.”
His words were half-truths.
The child he had possessed did indeed have an ordinary constitution, but reaching his level of cultivation meant the body was merely a vessel for the soul. A sufficiently powerful soul could restore even a mundane body to its former heights.
“—Who’s talking about that!” Lord Yaoguang stepped closer, eyes falling on the red mark at his neck. “Tianshu, I truly didn’t expect you to be such a casual man.”
Xie Lanshu: “…”
“She didn’t even give you a proper title, yet you couldn’t wait to just give yourself away?” Lord Yaoguang shook his head solemnly. “Don’t think that because you were once married to her, you’re exceptional. Things have changed; she is now a sect master. Look at her yao familiars, after all these years serving her, they still don’t have a title either.”
Xie Lanshu could not have imagined that the first topic Lord Yaoguang would bring up upon meeting him would be something like this.
“Mind your tongue. She’s not that kind of person.”
“I know the truth hurts,” Lord Yaoguang said earnestly, patting his shoulder. “You can lie to me, but don’t lie to yourself. You know the customs of Jimo Sea, they don’t adhere to our realm’s monogamous one-husband-one-wife dao companion principle.”
“…”
There was no denying the reason in those words.
That naturally dim-witted dog yao was one thing, but the fox yao of the Tushan Clan was entirely different.
Clinging to her constantly, calling her “Master” at every turn, there was no telling when it might seize the opportunity to encroach.
Back in Yunmeng Pier, when he, as Xie Zhu, chased after their carriage, that fox yao had seen it clearly, yet turned a blind eye, all the while keeping Zhao Zhao’s attention with laughter and chatter.
He had to secure his place by her side rightfully, without question.
“If you still consider me a friend, listen to my advice.” Drawing a Dao Seal, Lord Yaoguang laid his true intentions bare. “Return to your post as Dao Lord, and you still stand a chance, really.”
“…Scram.”
