Feng Qi Bent Down and Pulled Ji Chaoyun Tightly into His Arms
“When I was still a dragon egg, my parents died during a period of turmoil. It was Jun Yan who brought me back to the Dragon Palace and raised me with great care.”
Moonlight filtered through the swaying shadows of the trees and fell across the forest. Jun Ruzhuo leaned against a tree trunk, his expression hidden within the darkness.
“He was the first person I saw when I was born. He gave me my name, taught me to read and write, taught me martial arts and cultivation. He told me he would always be my older brother, and that he would always protect me.”
“Then why...” Feng Qi swallowed, his voice growing slightly strained. “Why did he... become like this?”
Jun Ruzhuo did not answer.
His lips curled mockingly, and a trace of ridicule entered his voice. “Jun Yan possessed extraordinary talent. From the moment he was born, he was the favored son of heaven, admired by all. Throughout the entire Immortal Realm, no one dared address him without respectfully calling him Crown Prince. Come to think of it, his status back then was not so different from that of Second Prince Feng now.”
“However when it came to appearance, character, cultivation, and accomplishments, you’re far inferior to what he was back then.”
Feng Qi ignored the mockery in his words and asked, “What exactly happened to him?”
Jun Ruzhuo said, “Three hundred years ago, he left Lingyuan Sea to travel through the Mortal Realm. He was gone for only three months, yet when he returned, he had lost his dragon pearl and nearly half his life along with it.”
Feng Qi’s pupils contracted sharply. “His dragon pearl? How could he lose his dragon pearl?”
“No one knows. He refused to say,” Jun Ruzhuo replied. “The dragon pearl is where the spiritual core resides. It cannot be removed without being cut from the body. Jun Yan’s cultivation had already reached its pinnacle back then. Who do you think could possibly have had the ability to take his dragon pearl from him?”
A chill shot up Feng Qi’s spine to the back of his head. He asked in a strained voice, “You mean... he gave his dragon pearl to someone of his own accord?”
“I can’t think of any other possibility.” Jun Ruzhuo gave a mocking laugh. “Do you know what losing a dragon pearl means to a dragon? It means his spiritual foundation is completely destroyed and all his cultivation is lost.
From that moment onward, he can never practice martial arts or cultivate again. He can never regain the power he once had. How ridiculous. The finest descendant the Dragon Clan had produced in several hundred years became a cripple. Truly ridiculous...”
“And because of that, you drove him out of Lingyuan Sea?”
Jun Ruzhuo fell strangely silent.
Only after a long while did he continue. “I don’t know much about what happened during that time. Something seemed to have happened in Lingyuan Sea, but I was too young then, so they sent me away from the Dragon Palace.
When I heard that my older brother... that Jun Yan had met with trouble, I hurried back at once. I happened to arrive just as Jun Yan injured the guards watching over him and tried to flee to the Mortal Realm.”
“I actually managed to stop him. I begged him to stay. I begged him to retrieve his dragon pearl. Do you know what he said to me?”
“...What?”.
“He said there was no longer any place for him in Lingyuan Sea.”
Jun Ruzhuo closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. “After what happened to him, Uncle was heartbroken. He refused to reveal what had become of his dragon pearl, so Uncle searched everywhere for remedies and exhausted every possible means to save him. I don’t understand why he would think that way. Perhaps... perhaps he really is simply that foolish, someone who trusts others far too easily.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because back then, he told me he was going to meet someone.”
Long ago, the young Jun Yan stood upon the shore, gazing toward the distant point where sea and sky merged into one.
His face was pale and haggard, yet there was a vividness in his expression that Jun Ruzhuo had never seen before in his life.
“Ah-Zhuo, I’m waiting for someone.”
The blue waters of Lingyuan Sea were reflected in his eyes, and his smile was gentle and serene. “Once he comes back, everything will return to the way it should be.”
“Who are you waiting for? Who did you give your dragon pearl to?”
“I can’t tell you.” Jun Yan said, “But trust me. I know what I’m doing. I will come back.”
“He had already lost all his cultivation by then. Escaping the Dragon Palace exhausted the last of his strength. I distracted the pursuers and sent him to the Mortal Realm.” Jun Ruzhuo said, “I thought he would come back. Looking back now, I was just as foolish as he was. I actually believed his story.”
“I actually believed that someone who had known him for less than three months and deceived him until his cultivation was completely destroyed would come back.”
Jun Ruzhuo’s eyes were red, his roughened voice thick with hatred. “His dragon pearl is a supreme treasure. Anyone who obtains it can immediately possess spiritual power and cultivation enough to ascend the heavens and descend into the earth. How could he have been foolish enough to believe that person would ever return it to him?”
A sudden sharp pain pierced Feng Qi’s chest.
The dense ache almost made it difficult for him to breathe.
Jun Ruzhuo did not notice anything unusual about him and gave a cold laugh. “I forgot to ask him earlier. After waiting in vain for three hundred years, I wonder if he ever regretted his own foolishness.”
No. He did not regret it.
Feng Qi closed his eyes.
The image of Ji Chaoyun recovering the golden phoenix feather suddenly appeared in his mind.
That expression of immense relief and indescribable tenderness toward the treasure was not the expression of someone who had ever regretted what he had done.
He had waited in vain for three hundred years. Yet even now, he still believed the person who had taken his dragon pearl would return.
What had allowed him to keep believing that all this time?
Jun Ruzhuo buried his face in his palms, seemingly using the gesture to hide some emotion.
After a long while, he finally calmed himself and continued slowly.
“After Jun Yan fled, the Dragon King ordered him expelled from the Dragon Clan, forbidden from ever returning to Lingyuan Sea.”
“Over the years, I went to the Mortal Realm to look for him, but no matter how I searched, I could never find him. Later, rumors gradually began to spread that Jun Yan had fled to the Mortal Realm and become a yao. Others said he was already dead.”
Jun Ruzhuo suddenly gave a faint laugh, his voice heavy with sorrow. “...I would rather he had died than see him clinging to life like this.”
But he had not.
That young man, covered in wounds and having lost all his cultivation, wandered the Mortal Realm for more than three hundred years. He changed his name, shed his immortal bones, fell from immortality and became a yao, then ascended once more to stand again upon this Immortal Realm.
☁
By the time Feng Qi returned to Wenqu Peak, curfew had long since passed.
He stepped into the familiar courtyard and stopped beside the stone bridge, looking across the water toward the tightly closed door of Ji Chaoyun’s bedroom and the flickering candlelight behind the window.
Before Jun Ruzhuo told him the truth, Feng Qi had already harbored some vague suspicions.
Ji Chaoyun’s natural bearing, his aversion and resistance toward the Immortal Realm, and Jun Ruzhuo’s unusually intense attitude toward him were all things that should not have belonged to a yao dragon newly ascended from the mortal world.
Yet the truth still went far beyond anything Feng Qi had imagined.
He did not dare imagine how Ji Chaoyun had endured those three hundred years after leaving the Dragon Clan, his spiritual foundation destroyed, waiting endlessly in the mortal realm.
What had kept him going until now?
Who exactly was he waiting for?
A strange, piercing pain suddenly spread outward from Feng Qi’s chest.
His brows drew together, and he pressed a hand tightly over his heart. Even breathing became somewhat difficult.
Ever since he became conscious of the world around him, he had never experienced emotions so completely beyond his control.
They felt unfamiliar.
Yet at the same time, they somehow felt as though they had always belonged there.
A faint sound came from behind the residence, pulling Feng Qi out of his tangled thoughts.
He followed the noise around the building and saw a slender figure standing within the spirit field behind the house, bending down to water the spiritual herbs.
Ji Chaoyun wore only a thin, short outer robe, the sleeves rolled up to reveal a narrow stretch of pale wrist.
His half-loosened hair had been tied behind his head with a ribbon, leaving only a few strands hanging over his forehead. Compared to usual, he looked somewhat neater and more capable.
His plain white hem and hands were stained with dirt, leaving him looking rather disheveled.
Feng Qi watched him from afar, his eyes suddenly dry and aching, unable to say a single word.
“What are you looking at?” Ji Chaoyun straightened and asked in confusion.
Feng Qi looked away as though to conceal his reaction, his voice slightly strained. “What are you doing now?”
“Watering your precious spiritual herbs. Can’t you tell?” Ji Chaoyun bent down and resumed what he had been doing. “You haven’t tended this spiritual field for several days. These spiritual herbs are delicate enough as it is. How could you possibly keep them alive like this?”
“Why are you worrying so much? Even if they die, I won’t make you compensate me.” Feng Qi asked, “Why aren’t you cultivating tonight?”
“I couldn’t settle my mind, so I might as well find something to do.” Ji Chaoyun answered vaguely, then added, “In any case, I came here to work as your laborer and repay my debt. You said it yourself. Tending the spiritual field once is worth three spirit stones. Don’t go back on your word.”
Feng Qi muttered quietly, “I never really intended to make you repay it.”
“What?”
Feng Qi said, “It cost five thousand spirit stones to redeem your sachet. Jiang Cheng paid three thousand, and I got another two thousand from Xu Zixing. He originally sold your sachet for one thousand. The other thousand was his punishment. We’re even now. You don’t owe me anything.”
Ji Chaoyun actually knew about this.
Second Highness Feng never allowed himself to suffer a loss. From the beginning, he had never intended to pay the entire amount himself.
However according to his previous explanation, extorting compensation from Jiang Cheng and Xu Zixing was one matter, while Ji Chaoyun’s debt to him was another. The two could not be counted together.
Ji Chaoyun was still wondering why Feng Qi had suddenly changed his attitude when a thought occurred to him. A faint sense of alarm arose in his heart, and he cautiously asked, “Are you planning to drive me out?”
“...No.” Feng Qi frowned. “What nonsense are you thinking about all day? Do I seem like that kind of person?”
“Hard to say.” Ji Chaoyun continued working, though his voice was noticeably lighter. “Don’t you know the entire academy agrees that you’re the hardest person to understand? Who knows what you’re thinking?”
Feng Qi laughed softly. “Then do you want to know what I’m thinking right now?”
“What?”
“Come here and I’ll tell you.”
Ji Chaoyun looked at him suspiciously.
Something about Feng Qi seemed strange tonight. Yet there was nothing unusual to be seen in his expression.
After considering for a moment, Ji Chaoyun put down what he was holding and carefully made his way across the uneven rows of the spirit field toward Feng Qi.
“Go on, what are you—”
Before he could finish, he was suddenly pulled into an embrace.
Feng Qi bent down and pulled him tightly into his arms, as though trying to press Ji Chaoyun completely into his chest.
He did not actually know why he was doing it, but it felt as though only this could ease the pain still lingering within his heart, sharp and relentless like a slow execution.
Ji Chaoyun froze in place. Yet somehow, he did not push Feng Qi away.
Meeting someone from his past had affected him far more deeply than he had shown. So many years had passed that everything from back then had long since become distant history.
He could force himself not to think about the freedom of soaring through the clouds and sea.
He could stop longing for the privileged life of the Dragon Palace deep beneath the water.
He could keep himself from mourning the extraordinary talent he would never recover.
However... old wounds that had never healed did not stop hurting merely because one had grown accustomed to them.
Once a corner was suddenly torn open again, the pain still cut to the bone.
And when one was hurting, there was nothing better than having someone hold them for a while.
Ji Chaoyun allowed himself to remain buried in Feng Qi’s embrace.
He drew a deep breath.
The heaviness that had followed him throughout the night finally disappeared, but Feng Qi continued holding him without the slightest intention of letting go.
Ji Chaoyun frowned in confusion.
He spoke quietly, his voice muffled by the difficulty of breathing. “Feng Qi.”
“Mm?”
Ji Chaoyun thought it over. There could only be one reason for Feng Qi’s unusual behavior. He pulled himself free from Feng Qi’s arms and looked up at him. “Has Immortal Lord Tianshu finally made up his mind to drive you out of the academy?”
Feng Qi: “...”
He released him, the tips of his ears turning faintly red. “No. What are you thinking?”
“I’d like to know what you’re thinking as well.” Ji Chaoyun stepped half a pace back, looking equally flustered. “Why did you suddenly start putting your hands on me for no reason?”
“...” Feng Qi coughed lightly and answered vaguely, “Nothing. I saw you working so diligently in the middle of the night, so that was your reward.”
Ji Chaoyun gave him an indescribable look.
The two remained awkwardly facing each other for a moment.
Finally, Ji Chaoyun sighed helplessly. “Forget it. I’ll never understand what you’re thinking. I’m going back to my room.”
“Wait.” Feng Qi said, “Come with me first.”
Feng Qi brought Ji Chaoyun to the door of his own bedroom.
He went inside, grabbed a thin booklet from the desk, came back out, and handed it over.
Ji Chaoyun asked, “What is this?”
“The solution to the secret-realm trial.”
Ji Chaoyun’s hand stopped just as he was about to open it.
“The secret-realm trial is taken by the Profound- and Yellow-rank disciples together.” Feng Qi said, “When you enter the secret realm, you’ll be sent into the first stage according to the teams assigned beforehand. That stage is formation-breaking.”
“The Stone Figure Formation normally requires five to six people to break. There are only three of you. Even if your coordination is already flawless, both the time required and the spiritual power you consume will still be roughly twice that of an ordinary team.”
Feng Qi pointed toward the booklet in Ji Chaoyun’s hands.
“Unless you use my method.”
Ji Chaoyun lowered his eyes. “Did Senior Brother Song tell you?”
Feng Qi did not answer and continued, “When I broke the formation alone, I took even less time than an ordinary team. However, that method requires sufficiently powerful spiritual energy.”
“As for the three of you...”
His voice abruptly stopped.
He could not bring himself to say the words your spiritual strength is insufficient.
Feng Qi looked away. “If the three of you coordinate using this method and make no mistakes, you should be able to shorten your formation-breaking time to roughly the same as an ordinary team. After you defeat the Stone Figure Formation, each of you will be transported somewhere different for the second stage, exterminating evil.”
Feng Qi continued, “Countless demonic creatures are scattered throughout the secret realm. Every one you kill earns one point.”
“In addition, there are five hidden regions within the secret realm. If you kill the guardian ferocious beast inside, either alone or together with others, each participant earns ten points.”
“Once all five guardian beasts have been slain, the secret-realm examination ends, and rankings are determined according to the final score.”
“...Besides the method for breaking the Stone Figure Formation, this booklet also contains a map of the secret realm.”
“It marks every illusion formation, trap, and demonic creature, along with the possible locations of the five hidden regions and methods for dealing with them.”
Ji Chaoyun was silent for a moment.
Then he asked, “When did you prepare this?”
Feng Qi had not expected that question.
Without thinking, he said, “I wrote it a long time ago. I wrote it for myself. Is that not allowed?”
With Feng Qi’s cultivation and talent, there was naturally no reason for him to write something like this for himself.
The lie was clumsy enough to be almost laughable.
Feng Qi quickly realized it as well and said vaguely, “Anyway, take it back and memorize the important points. Even if your final ranking isn’t especially high, at least you won’t fall into the bottom grade.”
However, Ji Chaoyun shook his head and handed the booklet back.
“I can’t take it.”
“You—”
Feng Qi immediately understood what he was thinking and tried to persuade him. “I know what you’re worried about, but the secret-realm examination tests teamwork, cultivation, and techniques. Many disciples ask higher-ranked disciples about conditions inside the secret realm before the examination. That isn’t against the rules.”
“Then is the solution to the Stone Figure Formation also something that can be freely revealed?” Ji Chaoyun asked.
Feng Qi was taken back.
Ji Chaoyun said, “I understand your good intentions, but I can’t keep relying on others forever.”
From leaving Lingyuan Sea, to wandering through the Mortal Realm for three hundred years, to falling and becoming a yao, surviving his tribulation, and ascending again, there had not been a single hardship Ji Chaoyun had not endured on his own.
Feng Qi looked at him with the frustration of someone watching iron refuse to become steel. “Don’t forget, if you fail the seasonal examination, you’ll have to leave the academy.”
“Haven’t you always wanted to stay here?”
“I simply believe I can remain here through my own strength.”
Ji Chaoyun touched the warm sachet through his clothes.
A faint curve appeared at his lips.
He raised his head and looked beyond the rooftops.
The sky was filled with stars, and the moonlight was pure and bright.
He knew that above this night sky, separated from him by ninety-nine layers of heaven, lay the Divine Realm.
“Feng Qi, I don’t merely want to stay.” The starlight filling the sky was reflected in Ji Chaoyun’s eyes as he said softly, “I once thought that as long as I remained where I was and waited, I would surely obtain what I wanted and see the person I longed to see. Only later did I understand that waiting was not my only choice. I could go and search for them myself.”
“I want to go farther than this. If I can’t even overcome what’s in front of me, how can I ever obtain what I truly want?”
“Even if it means taking a longer road, you won’t regret it?”
Ji Chaoyun shook his head. “There is only one thing I have ever regretted in this life.”
“What?”
Ji Chaoyun said, “That I didn’t come here three hundred years ago.”
Feng Qi stared at him for a long while.
At last, the first genuine smile of the entire evening appeared on his face.
“All right.”
“Then I wish you success in getting what you desire.”
Five days later, the seasonal examination officially began.
☁︎₊˚⊹ The Author’s Jade-Slip Aside ⊹˚₊☁︎
Things from the previous life will be revealed little by little, and the characters’ actions will be explained in time. If you really can’t stand it, feel free to drop the novel, but please don’t start cursing people out before you even know the truth. Thank you _(:з」∠)_
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Thank you all so much for your support. I’ll keep working hard!
IsitRo: I’ll be sticking with Second Highness Feng moving forward. I had been switching between Second Highness Feng and Second Prince Feng, and just only realized how inconsistent I was being lol Em more than likely going to cringe at myself when I reread this later oops
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