Chapter Twelve

Creak—

The dark brown door panel was slowly drawn open from within. The young man behind it had smooth, ink-dark long hair falling in a cascade around his entire body. His white gauze robe was flowing and light, its hem layered in tiers, like a fully bloomed nightshade flower, gathered at the waist with a silk cord of the same color, conforming to the curve of his body and tracing out a straight, slender figure.

Yun Zhi's breath abruptly seized, and the words that had been on his lips suddenly refused to come out.

Chu Rong didn't notice anything off about Yun Zhi. Seeing Yun Zhi standing there without moving for a long stretch, his gaze swept once over Yun Zhi from head to toe, and the well-shaped brow beneath the mask arched slightly: "Did it get resolved?"

His tone carried not a trace of surprise, as though he had fully anticipated it.

Chu Gongzi truly could see through all things. He always seemed to know everything.

Yun Zhi scratched his head with a red face, and broke into a grin, recounting what had happened in the outer gate: "From now on I'll be doing the cleaning and tidying here in Misty Pine Residence, serving Gongzi and Cen Shixiong."

Serving him was unnecessary.

Chu Rong didn't like having people too close to him.

"Congratulations." Chu Rong's tone was even. Having read the entire novel, he knew that Cen Yan was the only truly good person in the Qingyang Heavenly Sect, who treated those around him well. It was no wonder that so many people within the sect liked him. With Yun Zhi following Cen Yan, he had finally escaped his sea of suffering.

"All of this is thanks to Gongzi." Yun Zhi thudded down onto his knees in front of Chu Rong, knocked his head three times on the ground, his face suffused with gratitude: "If not for Gongzi showing me the way, I would never have had such an opportunity. From now on I am Gongzi's man — whatever Gongzi asks of me, just say the word, and I will go through fire and water without a second thought!"

Chu Rong was slightly startled. He had only said a word to nudge the plot along a little earlier, and had done nothing at all. He couldn't accept such a weighty bow as this.

As a person of the modern world, Chu Rong wasn't accustomed to being worshipped like this either.

"You needn't. Your thanks should go to Cen Yan." Chu Rong bent slightly at the waist and reached a hand toward Yun Zhi. His dark hair flowed like a waterfall and swept across his whole body: "Get up quickly."

Yun Zhi stared blankly at those long, slender, jade-pale fingers, feeling that even touching them would be a defilement.

So close, he could smell the rich, faint orchid fragrance drifting from Chu Rong.

Yun Zhi's chest gave a heavy thud, and in an instant his whole body's skin was burning. He ducked his head, not daring to look directly at Chu Rong, stumbling over his own words: "Gongzi's kindness to me is as great as a second birth — please let me do something for you, Gongzi. If Gongzi doesn't agree, I won't get up."

This?

Chu Rong felt somewhat of a headache coming on. Seeing the look of someone who would stop at nothing short of his goal, he asked helplessly: "Aren't you afraid of me?"

What the original owner had done was known by everyone in the sect — three lives, no less. Though he had reversed the outcome and made it come out as false, everyone still avoided him like the plague. Why was Yun Zhi of all people pressing closer?

By all logic, Yun Zhi should be afraid of him.

"Not afraid!" Yun Zhi blurted out without thinking.

After Chu Rong entered the sect, Cen Yan had placed him in the inner gate. The inner and outer gates were far apart, and Yun Zhi had previously had no contact with Chu Rong at all.

When Chu Rong's business caused such a commotion a couple of days ago, he had indeed been afraid at first. But after his interaction with Chu Rong, he discovered that Chu Rong was completely unlike the rumors made him out to be.

"Gongzi is a good person." Yun Zhi said with absolute certainty. Not only had he given him medicine, he had also shown him the way forward. He was the first person who had been kind to him since he entered the sect.

Chu Rong found the situation somewhat laughable. If the original owner heard these words, he would probably kick Yun Zhi out on the spot. And strictly speaking, he himself wasn't exactly a good person either.

Chu Rong lowered his gaze, thought of something, and suddenly gave a soft laugh: "You really want to repay me?"

With the mask as cover, his voice was hoarse and not pleasant to listen to, yet even so, that laugh at the tail of his words was like a hook, catching at something in one's chest and pulling tight.

Yun Zhi's face grew even hotter. Blood pounded in his veins with dull thumping sounds, as though about to break through his skin. He kept his head low, not daring to look at Chu Rong directly, and said in a stumbling, broken voice: "Yes... yes, I'm willing to do anything for Gongzi."

The corners of Chu Rong's lips curved up slightly. He spoke one word at a time, half in jest: "Then why don't you teach me the method for drawing qi into the body? How about that?"

Chu Rong knew that in the original text the original owner had no cultivation talent whatsoever, remaining an ordinary mortal from beginning to end.

But since he was already here.

Chu Rong wanted to try and see if he could cultivate. After all, it was his soul inhabiting the original owner's body, not the original owner's own soul, so they weren't the same person. What if he could cultivate?

More importantly, the original owner had harmed far more people than just those within the Qingyang Heavenly Sect. After the Guardian Formation opened half a year from now and he left the sect, if the hundred immortal sects came seeking revenge against him, trying to escape unscathed as a mere mortal would be nothing short of a fantasy.