Want to Ascend? Then Fall in Love

Chapter 12 – Are You Cold? I’m A Little Cold.

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Shen Qingxian fell into a trance.

Looking into these eyes from such a close distance, it felt as if he was standing under ten thousand mountains, where the red sunset tinged the horizon red, just as red as the fire-red maple leaves that were illuminated on the surface of a lake, a scene wherein you could see all the beauty and magnificence of the red sky.

After a pause, Shen Qingxian asked him, “Has anyone praised your eyes before?”

Gu Jianshen’s eyebrows lifted slightly, his thin lips immediately quirked up, and he jokingly asked, “Would anyone look directly into my eyes like this?”

Indeed… Just like how, in the whole of the heavenly dao, no one dared to look directly at Shen Qingxian, perhaps no one in the entire Heart Domain, or even in the whole heavenly dao, would dare to glance at Gu Jianshen. 

He was notorious, and even if he looked resplendent and beautiful, he had accumulated power by shedding fresh blood. 

Red eyes were unheard of in the heavenly dao, so Gu Jianshen had changed their color when coming to the Secret Land of the Setting Moon.

Shen Qingxian stretched out his hand, touched the corner of his eye, and whispered, “They’re very pretty.”

Gu Jianshen froze.

Shen Qingxian gently touched his cool skin, stared into his eyes, and said, “These are the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.”

He spoke very slowly. Instead of the usual coldness and distance in his childish voice, right now, a soft sweetness rang in his ears, shaking his heart.

Gu Jianshen’s eyes suddenly deepened, just like surging clouds of fire, gathered together layer by layer, creating a stunning world of flame. 

Shen Qingxian’s lips curved, and his voice grew softer and softer. “I really want…” Those eyes.

Before he could finish talking, a youth’s frightened voice came from behind him. “How… How could this happen?!”

Shen Qingxian and Gu Jianshen returned to their senses at the same time.

Gu Jianshen changed his eye color back to blue, and Shen Qingxian discarded his intimate loveliness in an instant.

Even Emperor Jiuyuan was deeply stunned by the great contrast caused by the rapid change in attitude.

However, he was in a very good mood right now. Looking at Shen Qingxian’s cold face, his mind was filled with what he had looked like just moments before— shining eyes, reddish cheeks, and trembling lips.

Thinking that this man was the heavenly dao’s only Lord Lianhua, his Shishu, a proud son of heaven who he had only heard of but had never met before….

Gu Jianshen felt a wave of heat rise up in his chest.

He started enjoying what he was doing even more.

Shen Qingxian approached Su Yu, only to come across a scene that was entirely within his expectations.

In front of them was a warm nesting den. Although it was clumsily made, it was full of a mother’s love for her children. It had been meticulously carved and carefully protected to raise the hungry cubs.

But now this nesting den had turned into a demonic hell.

In the nest were five young beasts, about two chi long each, with soft fluffy fur, tender claws, and eyes that were not quite open yet. Although their mother was a fierce beast, the little beasts were extremely cute. They were covered in pure white fur, and looked soft and harmless.

What was terrible was that at the moment, all these little beasts had been disemboweled and slaughtered through the cruelest of methods. 

A bloody nesting den, and brutally murdered cubs— forget about the rage and heartache their mother would suffer upon seeing this scene, even people possessing just a little bit of kindness in their hearts wouldn’t be able to bear to look at this sight. 

Su Yu was stunned at this sight, but the woman covered with blood laughed loudly and rushed over, then started groping around inside one of the dead little beasts’ bodies.

At this, Su Yu suddenly came back to his senses. “What are you doing?!”

The woman said feverishly, her words spilling out somewhat incoherently, “Beast cores, beast cores that go for five silver coins! They’re mine, they’re all mine!”

In her eyes, those little beasts seemed to not be made of flesh and blood, but were rather like a pile of worthless garbage. She searched through them without any pity, and upon finding a silver gray bead, burst out laughing.

Su Yu looked at the scene and slowly, oh so slowly, understood what was going on.

Those five people had cruelly killed these poor cubs for these beast pills, but were discovered by the cubs’ mother at the last minute. No mother, upon seeing her children dead in such a miserable manner, could bear it. The fierce beast went on a rampage and madly pursued these murderous executioners.

Naturally, these five people were not, in any way, the opponents of a third-order fierce beast. Chased, they fled in all directions, eventually running into Shen Qingxian and the others.

Su Yu had then taken action, killing the fierce beast in order to save them….

But, in truth, he had saved a murderer while killing a grieving mother who had lost her young children. 

The impact was too great for Su Yu to bear. He stood where he was, his eyes completely blank.

Shen Qingxian didn’t need to do anything. That woman had already exhausted herself, burning up the last fires of her life by running over here.

She had been greedy for those beast pills, but in fact, she didn’t even have the strength left to possess them.

As soon as she gripped the beast pill, her body went completely limp. With a harsh gasp, she collapsed on her back, falling into the bloody hell she had created herself.

Even in the last moment of her death, she held onto that beast pill tightly.

Su Yu remained in a daze for a long time before he finally said, “She’s dead…”

Shen Qingxian looked at him in silence.

The little peach blossom had been born on Wanxiu Mountain. He had no worldly experience, but walking around the Secret Land of the Setting Moon was more than enough to allow him a peek into all the different corners of the world. 

A skin-crawling squelching “gulu” sounded out as the woman’s body stiffened, and the tightly held beast pill slipped out of her hand to fall into a pile of mutilated scarlet meat. 

On hearing this sound, Su Yu’s nerves completely shattered. He covered his head, and his eyes were full of despair. “It’s my fault, it’s all my fault!”

He was the one who had rushed out indiscriminately, he was the one who had insisted on saving these heinous people, he was the one… who had killed the poor mother who had only wanted to protect her young children!

Clean white paper, when stained with blood, caused people to feel regretful, while also carrying a different kind of beauty to it. After all, existence couldn’t consist of just one single color. 

Shen Qingxian approached him and held his hand. “It’s called a silver coin beast.” His voice was very light, as if it was coming from the distant sky, just like a light wind, soft, but without any emotional fluctuations.

“Silver coin beasts are a third-order ferocious beast and like to eat human flesh. The reason why they are called this name is because, when they eat people, they do so by swallowing the person whole, not letting go of even a single silver coin on their bodies. Because they consume too many gold and silver treasures, their beast cores immerse in these and become extremely precious. It was a treasure that cultivators all scramble for.

“I’ve heard that a silver coin beast, during its breeding period, eats at least one person a day, and its pregnancy lasts for ten months. Since it could give birth to these children, it has already consumed at least 300 people.”

On listening to Shen Qingxian’s words, Su Yu didn’t show any signs of recovering, instead growing increasingly flustered.

Gu Jianshen said, “Let’s leave this place first ba.”

Shen Qingxian replied, “En.”

Hearing this exchange, Su Yu returned to his senses. His face was still very pale, but his previously out-of-focus eyes slowly grew sharper.

“Wait… Wait a little bit for me,” Su Yu said hoarsely.

Shen Qingxian nodded and agreed, “Alright.”

In the bag of holding, Su Yu found a long knife with a wide handle, which he then used to clumsily dig at the ground.

He buried these little beasts along with those rare beast pills.

After doing that, he then buried the woman and the other cultivators.

Gu Jianshen whispered to Shen Qingxian, “You’re not going to remind him?”

Shen Qingxian remained silent.

Gu Jianshen chuckled.

Shen Qingxian glanced at him from the side. “Isn’t the Heart Domain’s cultivation centered on following one’s desires?”

Su Yu’s actions had also come about because of his own desires. Although there would be great future troubles because of it, this action was still his choice. Why should Gu Jianshen interfere?

Gu Jianshen said carelessly, “Following one’s desires, just means following my own desires.”

If he wanted to tell Su Yu, he would tell him; it had nothing to do with Su Yu’s emotions at all. The so-called following one’s desires meant following his own desires; if he had to listen to other people’s desires, how would that be following his own heart?

Shen Qingxian let out a light laugh. “Sure enough, the Heart Domain’s philosophy is really unique.”

This adjective was filled with irony, but Gu Jianshen wasn’t angry. On the contrary, he found all this very interesting. 

After settling this matter, even though Su Yu was physically exhausted, his mental state had improved and was much better now.

“Let’s go ba,” he said. 

No one spoke while walking, they just kept walking straight until darkness fell. 

After dinner, Shen Qingxian took some time to check the jade scroll, and he noticed that the task of praising the eyes had already dimmed, meaning it was completed.

Shen Qingxian felt puzzled. Hadn’t it said no less than three sentences of praise?

He had been interrupted by Su Yu, and so had thought the task would not be considered completed. But it turned out that the half sentence—”I really want…”— also counted as a compliment?

Sure enough, it was a stupid jade scroll.

(The jade scroll was trembling…)

Speaking of that… It seemed that Gu Jianshen had been about to say something to him when his eyes had changed color. 

What did he say?

Shen Qingxian had just been focusing on his eyes and hadn’t paid attention, but upon thinking about it, it really wouldn’t have been anything proper, so it was fine if he hadn’t heard it. 

The jade scroll was now a terrified item. It would get scared as soon as it lit up, and words would appear as soon as it got scared. No matter what Shen Qingxian was thinking about, whenever it noticed him staring at itself, it automatically popped out a line of words, just like it did now—

“Ninth, it’s cold, and the ground is hard. Please sleep together with Gu Jianshen!”

Shen Qingxian was silent.

The jade scroll immediately went “dead” in the next second

His Honorable Lordship looked at the heavenly ladder and decided to bear it by continuing to move bricks.

Sleep together?

Shen Qingxian turned to Gu Jianshen. “Are you asleep?”

Gu Jianshen, who was leaning against a tree, was already looking in his direction when he had turned his head. 

Shen Qingxian was nestled in his sleeping bag, revealing only his big eyes. “Are you cold?”

Gu Jianshen didn’t understand the meaning of this question.

Shen Qingxian said softly, “I’m a little cold.”

Gu Jianshen: “……”

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The author has something to say:

Yes, His Lordship is just such an open and frank Lord!

By the way, a sister said she couldn’t distinguish between His Majesty and His Lordship. In fact, it’s very easy to distinguish them. Gu Jianshen is called the emperor in the Heart Domain, so he is called His Majesty; Shen Qingxian isn’t worldly, so Lord is his honorary title. 

His Majesty is Gu Jianshen.

His Lordship is Shen Qingxian.

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Juurensha: GJS must be so excited now!

Noks: Poor jade scroll, it pisses out words whenever SQX so much as glances at it now