Chapter 390: He Was Being Too Loud
Following Zhu Qingyue"s instructions, if reluctantly, Mo Cheng settled down into the lotus position, legs crossed and hands cupped before him in a meditative posture. His breathing slowed and settled into an even rhythm as he fell into a trancelike state.
Zhu Qingyue knelt behind Mo Cheng, his palms resting on the man"s shoulder blades as a burst of spiritual energy transferred through his hands into Mo Cheng.
"I don"t think I can hold on much longer," Mo Cheng gasped after a short while, coughing out spurts of blood as he shuddered through the energy transfusion.
Whatever sort of spiritual essence flowed through the white-haired devil"s veins was just too much for his mortal body to handle.
The corners of Zhu Qingyue"s mouth stretched wider in apparent disdain.
"Be silent," he ordered with a sneer.
Mo Jing and Li Meirong, both spectating from the sidelines, looked at each other worriedly.
"My poor brother does not appear to be handling this too well…" Mo Jing murmured. His shoulders shook slightly as he spied the growing pool of red forming at Mo Cheng"s feet due to his b.l.o.o.d.y coughs.
"He may be suffering now, but at least we have found a way to treat him," Li Meirong said softly, patting Mo Jing"s shoulder rea.s.suringly. She lowered her eyes, unable to watch.
Mo Cheng screamed, the sound full of agony, and drew their attention back to him. He had been trying to stay silent, it appeared, but now he seemed unable to hold it back.
"For that, I am deeply grateful to both Sister Meirong and Senior Zhu for your service," Mo Jing answered. His voice was slightly faint and his eyes widened as he stared at his older brother, who was spasming beneath Zhu Qingyue"s not so tender care. "I am certain Senior Zhu is doing his utmost best to lessen my brother"s affliction."
Mo Cheng"s cries echoed through the garden again.
Li Meirong felt sweat drip slowly down her forehead. She stole a quick glance at Zhu Qingyue and found that, despite his stoic expression, his eyes were glittering with some kind of untold mischief.
"He"s actually enjoying this…" she thought, unnerved by what she saw. She steeled herself and hoped her emotions wouldn"t show on her face, and sucked in a sharp but silent breath at the realization before turning back to face Mo Jing.
She couldn"t let the worried younger brother know the truth, or he would surely make a fuss about it and ruin Zhu Qingyue"s concentration. "Some things are better left unsaid," she concluded in silence.
It was Mo Cheng, however, who spoke his opinion aloud. He could no longer bear the injustice or pain.
"If you are trying to kill me, why go through the trouble of making it seem like you"re here to help?" Mo Cheng demanded, even as blood gushed freely from his mouth. "Do it and be done with it!"
Zhu Qingyue quietly rolled his eyes. To an outside observer, he had a look about him which clearly showed how little he thought of Mo Cheng, whom he deemed unfit to be graced with a verbal response.
When the sound of bones cracking reached Li Meirong"s ears, she could no longer hold herself back and gasped aloud, "Zhu Qingyue… Darling."
Her unspoken words were clear: "Please, don"t kill him."
"This is the solution to the problem this boy is having," Zhu Qingyue pointed out, while his attention was still focused on Mo Cheng"s back. He did not spare anyone else a glance, not even Li Meirong. "This will lock his soul inside his body so he will not, one day, find himself accidentally separated from his physical sh.e.l.l and unable to reconnect with it. Unless you would like to find him dead in a ditch one day…" His words trailed off, as there was no need to state the rest of the sentence explicitly.
Seeing how seriously Zhu Qingyue was taking the situation, Li Meirong let out a deep, shaky breath that she hadn"t even realized she was holding. Even though he was being cruel to Mo Cheng, he was also staying true to his word and was helping to unify Mo Cheng"s body and soul.
"Alright, I trust you," she whispered to both Zhu Qingyue and herself.
Zhu Qingyue did not reply, nor even show any sign that he heard her, but the rate at which he was transferring energy to Mo Cheng did seem to slow down a touch, allowing Mo Cheng more time to breathe in between the sharp spasms of pain which were inevitable with such a transfer.
However, when Mo Cheng cried out again, Zhu Qingyue suddenly raised a hand and knocked him over the back of the head in a single sharp strike.
Mo Cheng instantly dropped to the ground, limp, as though dead.
"Brother Mo!"
"Big brother!"
Both Li Meirong and Mo Jing rose to their feet at Mo Cheng"s collapse, their faces pale.
Zhu Qingyue simply gave a careless shrug. "He was being too loud," he said.
Li Meirong scowled at him. "You said you"d help him!"
"And so I did." Zhu Qingyue sounded almost offended at the unvoiced accusation.
"..." Li Meirong had no words to respond to that. Poor Mo Cheng had been practically coughing out his lungs, and Zhu Qingyue had knocked him into oblivion for being too loud! He was supposed to be helping him!
"He is alive," Zhu Qingyue said indignantly. He lifted Mo Cheng by the arm, dangling him in the air as if he were naught but a broken doll. Then he gave Mo Cheng"s pale cheek a hard slap.
Mo Cheng let out a low grunt but did not return to consciousness.
"See?" Zhu Qingyue pointed at Mo Cheng"s face. "Even completely unconscious, this insufferable boy still complains. Besides, it is much easier to focus on sealing his soul to this body if he stops bothering me with his foolishness."
"..." Li Meirong could guess that Zhu Qingyue abusing Mo Cheng in the process of helping him was still the better alternative, but that didn"t mean she had to like it. It was not like she could help on her own, as she did not know how to seal a soul into a body and would not have been able to come to Mo Cheng"s aid alone.