Villainous Junior Chapter 67 (Part 1)
Translated by Sylver (ko-fi)
Chapter 67: You're Here (Part 1)
A person who had gone mad to this extent was completely beyond reason.
Meng Chen suppressed the surging emotions in his heart and asked calmly, "So, you're preparing to kill me again?"
"Ah Chen, don't say such hurtful words. How could I bear to kill you?" As Pei Yuze spoke, his eyes showed remorse. "In the previous life, I caused you to lose your cultivation because I was too consumed by heart demons and couldn't control myself, which led to a grave mistake... I'm sorry."
"But I'm also very angry," Pei Yuze said. "You don't know how much it hurt me, how much I hated it, every time I saw you prefer death over being with me."
"So this time, I won't let such things happen again," Pei Yuze smiled lightly. "All the people who were in the way are dead, only Xue Lang remains. By my calculation, he should be returning soon."
Meng Chen felt a chill in his heart, his fingers trembled slightly, but he couldn't break free from the invisible restraints around his body. "What do you want to do?"
Pei Yuze didn't answer, only smiled and took out a white jade flute. "Speaking of which, I remember Ah Chen used to love listening to me play music when he was young. Shall I play you another tune?"
—-
The moment Xue Lang stepped into Xiuluo Palace, he knew something was wrong.
The entire Xiuluo Palace was deathly silent, permeated with an unfamiliar aura that inexplicably made one's heart uneasy.
His heart sank, and he immediately rushed toward that aura into the back garden, only slightly relieving his anxiety when he saw Meng Chen.
However, he then saw another man.
Pei Yuze looked at Xue Lang's cold expression and raised his eyebrows slightly. "You don't seem surprised?"
"What should I be surprised about?" Xue Lang sneered, "What, you finally decided to come out of hiding? That letter of instigation from back then was sent by you, wasn't it?"
Pei Yuze: "You're a bit smarter than I imagined."
Xue Lang let out a scornful laugh and stopped looking at him, striding towards Meng Chen with a worried expression. "Are you alright? Did he do anything to you?"
He reached out to pull Meng Chen, but unexpectedly, Meng Chen stepped back to avoid him.
Xue Lang's outstretched hand froze in mid-air, as if unable to process what had happened. "...Meng Chen?"
Meng Chen ignored him, drew his sword, and steadily pointed its cold, gleaming tip at Xue Lang's heart. He slightly raised his eyes, his pupils black and hollow, like a deep endless ocean that no light could penetrate.
Xue Lang's heart turned cold as he suddenly realized something. He abruptly turned to look at Pei Yuze, his eyes nearly shooting sparks. "What did you do to him!?"
Pei Yuze let out a pleasant light laugh. "I merely made him return to being that obedient Ah Chen." He looked at Meng Chen with gentle eyes, but his words were full of ice, "Ah Chen, kill him."
As soon as the words fell, Meng Chen's sword moved, immediately thrusting toward Xue Lang!
Xue Lang was startled and immediately retreated to dodge, while anxiously shouting as he avoided the bright blade. "Meng Chen, it's me!"
But it was useless. Pei Yuze was already skilled in mind control techniques, and now with his primordial spirit restored, he possessed unprecedented immortal power that even Mahayana masters would be bewitched by, let alone Meng Chen.
Xue Lang was extremely anxious but couldn't think of a way to restore Meng Chen's consciousness, so he could only keep dodging. Theoretically, with his Tribulation Crossing Realm cultivation, it would be easy to defeat and subdue Meng Chen, but Meng Chen was already under Pei Yuze's control, and he absolutely dared not put any additional pressure on Meng Chen.
He was unwilling to harm Meng Chen even the slightest bit.
Meng Chen's swordsmanship was already formidable, and since Xue Lang didn't dare use his power, he quickly fell into a disadvantage. His clothes were slashed in several places, and even his left cheek was cut by the sword's energy, drawing a thin line of bright red blood.
Pei Yuze watched this scene with great satisfaction. Seeming to have changed his mind about ending the game so quickly, he called out. "Ah Chen."
Meng Chen heard his voice, paused his sword stance, and turned to look at him.
Pei Yuze: "Come here."
Meng Chen sheathed his sword, coldly avoided Xue Lang's hurried attempt to grab his hand, and walked toward Pei Yuze.
Pei Yuze watched with a smile as the young man walked toward him step by step, feeling immense satisfaction and pleasure rising in his heart.
Three thousand years ago, he couldn't understand why Meng Chen would choose Xue Lang.
He was the one who had always stayed by Meng Chen's side, he was the one who loved Meng Chen so wholeheartedly, so why did Meng Chen leave him after just meeting Xue Lang a few times?
Not just the first time, but in every life, every time after that, it was always the same result.
He couldn't understand it, and even more so, couldn't accept it.
What right did Xue Lang have?
Just what right did he have!?
In his heart was a bottomless abyss filled with grief, hatred, and jealousy accumulated over many lifetimes. Simply killing Xue Lang wasn't enough to dispel all that dark resentment.
While his heart held thick black poison, his expression became even gentler as he extended his right hand to Meng Chen. "Ah Chen, come to Senior Brother."
Meng Chen continued forward, his profile fair and calm like an obedient marionette, following Pei Yuze's gestured suggestion to wrap his arms around the other's waist, quietly resting his cheek against his chest.
A crisp sound of joints cracking slowly rang out as Xue Lang's tightly clenched fingers turned completely white.
"Do you see?" Pei Yuze smiled with extreme pleasure, gently stroking Meng Chen's black hair while looking at Xue Lang's pale face from afar, telling him each word clearly, "He's mine now."
This gave Pei Yuze an excellent idea.
Pull out all of Xue Lang's tendons, cut off his limbs, cut out his tongue, and stuff him in a vase to display in Xiuluo Palace. Leave only his eyes, letting him watch day after day as he and Ah Chen became an inseparable loving couple - that wouldn't be bad at all.
He let out a low laugh at this scene, just about to make it reality when he suddenly felt a pain in his right ribs.
The pain wasn't sharp - if he had to describe it, it was more like midwinter snow water silently seeping into his bones, then gradually crawling throughout his body along the joints.
Pei Yuze's expression changed as he suddenly pushed away the person in his arms!
Meng Chen raised his eyes, his pupils clear and bright, showing a cold mockery - where was that previous dazed and manipulated appearance?
He had been pretending!!
While Pei Yuze was still stunned in disbelief, Meng Chen had already flown back to Xue Lang's side with a light step. Xue Lang immediately grabbed him tightly, anxiously looking him up and down. "Are you alright!?"
"I'm fine." Meng Chen felt heartache seeing how pale he looked. "Didn't we plan this earlier? Why are you still so scared?"
"You acted too convincingly!" Xue Lang's hands were still trembling with anxiety. "I was so afraid you really—"
His throat went dry, unable to speak the following words.
Meng Chen gripped his cold hand, wordlessly hugging him and giving his nape two comforting squeezes.
—-
Meng Chen had guessed earlier that Pei Yuze would likely come looking for him.
"Why?" Xue Lang was puzzled when he heard this, asking in confusion, "Even if he's entered demonic cultivation and his power has greatly increased, he still couldn't surpass me, right? Wouldn't showing himself be walking right into a trap?"
Just like when he secretly sent that letter before - if Pei Yuze had the ability, wouldn't he have come directly instead of playing these underhanded tricks in the background?
"Based on my understanding of him, he's not someone who gives up easily, or rather... he's someone who won't rest until he achieves his goal," Meng Chen said slowly. "I don't believe he'd be content to just watch from the shadows without doing anything."
"Also, there's something you mentioned before that concerns me," Meng Chen looked at Xue Lang. "You said that three thousand years ago, someone 'surnamed Pei' challenged you to a duel, and you crippled his limbs, right?"
Xue Lang was stunned - this was indeed a fragment he had recalled. Just as he was about to ask what connection this had, something suddenly occurred to him, and his eyes widened in disbelief. "...No way? You're not saying that Pei Yuze is that 'person surnamed Pei'?"
Meng Chen: "Yes."
"That's impossible!" Xue Lang found it inconceivable. "How could there be such a coincidence in this world!"
Meng Chen reminded him: "Before recovering your memories, you didn't believe you could be Xue Lang either."
Xue Lang: "..."
That was true.
"But..." he stared blankly, still finding the matter bizarre.
"It's just my speculation, partly based on intuition," Meng Chen said. "Since both our souls came from three thousand years ago, it wouldn't be strange if there was a third person. Moreover, they share the surname Pei."
This surname wasn't very common, and Meng Chen found it hard to believe this was merely coincidence.
After digesting this possibility, Xue Lang thought for a moment and said, "If this assumption is true, then his real cultivation level is likely not below mine."
After all, someone who could challenge Xue Lang and wound him three thousand years ago must have been at the Tribulation Crossing Realm level.
Moreover, Pei Yuze's most frightening aspect was never his cultivation.
Mei Xiaohan and Li Feng listened attentively from the side, with the former unable to resist asking, "Why do you say that?"
Meng Chen: "My Senior Brother, since childhood, was most skilled not in swordsmanship, but in detailed matters like talismans and formations."
And these all required the most meticulous and profound mindset.
"Even if he recovered his Tribulation Crossing Realm cultivation, he wouldn't come directly," Meng Chen said flatly. "I guess he would first find a way to send Xue Lang away, then use some control technique on me, make me kill Xue Lang with my own hands, then present the truth to me, smiling while praising how well I did it."
Mei Xiaohan: "..."
He opened his mouth in shock. "Is your Senior Brother a psychopath!?"
Meng Chen recalled something, his tone flat. "He is a psychopath."
He raised his eyes. "In any case, even though it's just a possibility, I don't want to be careless and end up in a passive situation later."
He had endured for so long, suffered for so long, finally achieved what he had today, finally living a peaceful life with Xue Lang.
He never wanted to experience that pain and separation again.
"So, Xiaohan, I want to ask for your help."
Mei Xiaohan immediately sat up straight. "What help? Just say it!"
"Help me prepare two medicines," Meng Chen said. "One that keeps one's mind clear, and another that's poison."
The more poisonous, the better.
—-
Although they had prepared in advance and even guessed that Pei Yuze might be someone from three thousand years ago, even Meng Chen hadn't expected the truth to be like this.
Especially that Pei Yuze had reached the realm of "Immortal," which was far beyond their expectations.
The poison Mei Xiaohan prepared was called "Instant Withered Bones" - if ordinary cultivators touched even a bit, their flesh would instantly dissolve, leaving only bones. For those above Refining Void Realm, the poison would enter their bones, gradually stiffening their movements, and without quickly expelling the poison, death would be inevitable.
But when used on an "Immortal," how much effect would remain?