12.9 – To him, everything about Xue Ling was good
translator: xiin
editors: alamerysl, BlueBug & Macabre
Nighttime in the Demonic Beast Forest was long and terrible. Ivan walked along the forest path at night, not daring to look around, let alone looking back. Although he was told that he would walk out of the forest alive, he was still in a state of extreme terror.
His spirit was tormented to the brink of collapse. Given his extreme "Holy Saint" personality, he was forced to watch on coldly from the side as his fellow students died in front of him, killed by his other cla.s.smates" dirty tricks. In Ivan"s eyes, this forest, this examination, had already changed into something completely different. He fell into a daze and wondered how he had come to this stage.
Then, that person"s smile would flash before his eyes. It made his hair stand on end in terror, and he would toss and turn, sleepless, pushing forward day and night in order to leave this terrible cage as early as possible.
As long as he stepped out of this place that represented the darkness, light would return to him. His Kent would be there, waiting to see him upon his return.
Ivan staggered along the road leading out of the forest. Beside him were ferocious demonic plants that used vines like weapons, hunting human beings or demonic beasts that crossed into their territory at night. But each and every single one of them avoided the stumbling, tottering Ivan that couldn"t even travel in a fixed line.
Ivan’s way forward was completely safe. When he discovered that no demonic beasts would approach him regardless of whether he was travelling during the day or night, Ivan was kind enough to bring along a healer who had been separated from his companions.
Unfortunately, his benevolence was foolish. The demonic beasts only had orders to avoid him, and it did not mean that they would do the same for the people around him. So the healer who followed Ivan ended up dragged deep into the forest. Ivan chased after him for a long time, but nothing could be done about it, and he could only watch as the man died in front of him.
After that, Ivan stopped trying to bring others out of the forest…
His heart gradually became numb; those feelings he originally had of helping the world slowly disappeared as he fell into sorrow and grief.
He couldn"t even save himself, let alone others.
When Ivan thought of this, he saw Oliver"s face in his mind again and recalled what it had felt like to see Oliver three days ago. He understood for the first time how betrayal felt, and needed someone to comfort him, but Oliver had cruelly told him that what he was about to experience was far more than just that.
Ivan did not know how Oliver had reached this point. The lovely, cute wolf from his memories had disappeared, and the Oliver he recalled now was as terrible as this forest.
This was clearly a plot Oliver had directed himself. He must have known early on that those people wanted to poison him, but didn"t warn him, and simply watched as he became isolated and forsaken by his fellow teammates step by step…
Right, he had cursed Oliver so that he could not hurt Kent, and could only take out his revenge on himself. He had originally thought that Oliver would be able to realize that there was more than hate in this world - apart from hate, there was also love. But Oliver had no room for love in his gaze, and all he ever wanted was revenge.
His people had already died, and couldn"t be resurrected. Why did they have to hurt each other like this? Killing his enemies wouldn"t bring his relatives back to life, right? Why couldn"t he put down his hatred and start over again properly…
Xue Ling was unlikely to be able to understand Ivan"s peculiar way of thinking in this life. He did not intend to follow Ivan out of the Demonic Beast Forest. He just told Xi that this man couldn"t die now, and then prepared to make trouble for Kent.
Kent was exempted from the graduation examination by his mother as early as the second day after Ivan entered the forest on the grounds of state affairs and embarked on his way back to the Capital. Even if Ivan came out of the Demonic Beast Forest, he would not be able to immediately meet up with Kent.
Xue Ling gave Ivan an interesting curse. As long as he used his healing skills to help others, the light power in his body would be lost, and would not be recovered through cultivation. For every bit of light power that he lost, his body would similarly become more corroded by "Fallen Heaven".
Originally, Xue Ling wanted to let the Fallen Heaven erode him step by step. Later, he decided that doing it this way would be more interesting; with Ivan"s Holy Saint temperament, he would definitely be willing to use his ability to save others, but saving others meant hurting himself. At that time, it would all depend on the choices he made.
Xue Ling wanted to know what point Ivan would reach. Would his body be completely corrupted by Fallen Heaven by the time he saw Kent again, or would he be alright, with the light power in the body still keeping him stable?
A genuine Holy Saint would sacrifice himself to save the world, while those who only acted thus on the surface would hurt others in order to save the world. He didn"t know which way Ivan would ultimately choose to go.
After arranging Ivan’s matters, Xue Ling decided to go to the Capital. He wanted to fulfill the original owner of this body"s wish to take back all the clothing made from Ink Flame Wolf fur.
The Capital was not far away from Leedshire, where the Elder G.o.d Academy was located. The Capital was named Buspoka City, and it was the center of the country and the focal point around which all other human cities were located. They lived on this continent where two thirds of the land was dominated by the Demonic Beast Forest, so all the plains seemed to be surrounded by mountains.
There were two counties between Leedshire and Buspoka City, but because the entire country was not very large, although they were called counties, these places were in fact not very large. If they went by horse, it would only be about a month"s journey; if they travelled using demonic beasts, it would take less than two weeks.
Xue Ling and Xi made this journey on foot.
Xi was a G.o.d. As long as he wanted to, he could appear in any corner of the world. Xue Ling"s speed was also very quick - he was a demonic beast himself - and his speed would not be reduced even in human form. So the two of them made stops as they went along, robbing n.o.ble families as they pa.s.sed by. In addition to taking the clothing made from Ink Flame Wolf fur, Xue Ling also emptied these n.o.bles" treasure houses, taking away gold and silver treasures, silk, and satin. He took away anything he saw.
They travelled quickly, and entered Buspoka just after Kent stepped into the city.
In the past fortnight, news about the thefts from n.o.ble families had already spread throughout the kingdom. And since they had been stealing while making their way to the capital, almost everyone could guess where the thieves" next stop would be.
The scariest part was, these n.o.bles were caught unaware. They had been living comfortably and leisurely for a very long time now, and had set up no precautions. Now that they knew they were being targeted, they spent a lot of money to bring in many experts, but still failed to escape their fate of being robbed. For the past two weeks, the n.o.bles had all been in a state of panic.
If these thieves were able to silently take away their treasures, it meant that they could also silently take away their lives. n.o.bles were more concerned about their lives and the continuation of their names than money; if these thieves wanted to, they could take their lives at any time - this was the thing that disturbed the n.o.bles the most.
So all kinds of reports were issued to the Capital and made their way onto the Queen"s desk. The Queen began to notice this matter and ordered people to investigate.
This country had not seen such blatant robbery in a very long time. They did not hide their whereabouts at all, and would sometimes even casually send letters to the n.o.ble families indicating that they were going to visit their houses that night.
Such actions seriously damaged the interests of the n.o.bles in the country, and the Queen immediately ordered people to investigate this matter seriously. If people like this were not caught and arrested, the n.o.bles" dignity would be damaged; the common people would have more topics with which to discuss the n.o.bility, which would have an extremely negative impact on the royal family"s rule.
As soon as she gave out the order, someone else came over to report that His Highness had returned.
The Queen lowered her gaze, and issued a few more orders before having people invite His Highness inside.
While the Queen and the Prince were having a fierce argument, Xue Ling and Xi were looking for a place to settle down in the Capital.
Xue Ling wanted to stay here for a period of time, but the quality of the hotel rooms here were too low, so he intended to buy a private house in the Capital. The two of them had only just arrived at the Capital, but they wasted no time on finding a hotel and immediately started looking to buy a house.
This world was based off western fantasy worlds, and because the development of civilization was not very high, most of the common folk lived in mud brick houses, while the n.o.bility lived in small villa type homes.
Xue Ling wanted to live like that, but he did not have a n.o.ble status and had no way to purchase a villa. Instead, he could only find a black market intermediary and rent a villa, taking up the ident.i.ty of a distant relative of a n.o.ble that was down on his luck.
Having settled their housing, Xue Ling turned around and pulled Xi with him to buy decorations and furniture. Xi was puzzled by his enthusiastic behaviour, and after asking him what style he wanted, he directly used divine power to change the renovation and décor of the entire house.
Xue Ling was surprised that magic could be used this way. Suddenly, the door to a new world was opened and he discovered a wonderful use for Xi.
Although the two of them had arrived at the Capital, they did not intend to begin their thievery throughout the city immediately. Xue Ling had the system monitor the protagonist shou and notify him when Ivan was almost here so that they could make a move and go to the palace to deal with everything in one fell swoop.
“Why do you still have no intention of giving up after following me for so long?" Xue Ling was lying down on a thick rug. Everything that Xi had created was particularly suited to his tastes; the rug was made out of demonic beast fur, and felt very good under his hands. Xue Ling liked to run on it barefoot, and roll around on it when he had nothing better to do.
Usually, Xi would sit close by when he did this, so Xue Ling simply had to stretch out a hand to tug on a corner of his clothes.
Unlike the tight, form-fitting clothing he prepared for Xue Ling, Xi usually wore a white robe and allowed his hair to fan out, unbound. His robes were very exquisite, embroidered with colourful runes from various elements. They were very complex, and each design was a powerful ward. Xi had many such robes, and after Xue Ling complained once that he was wearing the same robe all the time, he began to wear different robes every day. Sometimes, he would tie his hair up according to Xue Ling"s instructions, and when Xue Ling was idle, he liked to sit beside him and braid his hair. It was an interesting way to kill time, and Xue Ling found it very amusing.
Xi always let him fool around as he pleased; even if he messed up his hair, it would only take the blink of an eye for him to use divine power and straighten it out, so he didn"t care about what Xue Ling did to his hair at all. The corner of Xue Ling"s lips would carry the hint of a smile when he was playing, and his figure would give Xi a special feeling of familiarity and beauty. This was also why he always indulged him.
“I still don’t understand why you are so persistent in making me into a pet. I’m obviously not cute at all.” Xue Ling of course understood exactly how the man felt about him, but the man himself didn"t realize! As a seemingly ruthless G.o.d, although Xi understood that he cared deeply for Xue Ling, he had not been enlightened at all.
At first, Xue Ling had intentionally chosen not to remind him, but later on, he realized that this was actually a pretty good decision. This way, the warmth of being an old couple would come out from time to time. Xue Ling also didn’t want to be taken to bed for the time being, so he didn"t really try to point things out to Xi and clear up their relationship.
“You’re very cute.” Xi"s thought processes were not on the same track as Xue Ling"s. Like now, when they were talking, they seemed to be discussing completely different topics. He really felt that Xue Ling was very cute. Regardless of what he was doing, whether it was threatening Ivan and making his life difficult, or taking away the n.o.bility"s property, all of his actions seemed to be cute and lovely in Xi"s eyes.
It was probably because beauty was in the eye of the beholder. But in any case, to him, everything about Xue Ling was good.
Only, he"d gradually begun to realize that his love for Xue Ling did not seem to be the type of care that an owner had for its pet. But if he wasn"t a pet, then what was he?
Xue Ling laid on the ground and stared at the man thoughtfully for a good while. He saw that Xi seemed to be frozen in place, and slowly moved his gaze away, muttering quietly, "It"s really strange, regardless of whether you"ve been enlightened or not, this silly appearance is rather cute no matter how I look at it…" He rolled away from his position by Xi"s legs before he could respond.
Since he hadn’t figured it out yet, he could tease him for a few more days. In any case, even if Xi figured out how he really felt about Xue Ling, he still planned to hang him out to dry for a period of time as revenge for the way the man had treated him when they first met in this world.
Regarding XL and his demonic beast fur rug…
BB: Ah, so it was merely Flame Ink Wolves that the author is against
Macabre: The author is biased!
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