12.7 – He was really getting more and more shameless…
editors: alamerysl & BlueBug
There was no conclusion to their struggle. Xi compromised, but Xue Ling did not intend to meet him halfway. He was a separate individual, and signing any contract, even if it was an equal one… who would be willing to sign a contract as a demonic beast when they were a person?
Although he was a demon, and his original body was that of a fox demon, one had to have their own dignity. He would never compromise so easily.
So this matter fell into a deadlock. Not forcibly tying Xue Ling to his side was already Xi’s last backward step. If Xue Ling was unwilling to accept it, he would not give way anymore, either. The atmosphere stiffened for a moment, then Xue Ling dove back into his little nest with tears in his eyes.
He refused to believe that he couldn’t pull off a proper cold war against the man.
But the pattern of the cold war changed slightly. In order to stop a certain person from forcibly feeding him custard, Xue Ling began to eat, but his attitude toward Xi was always indifferent. Days passed like this for over half a month, right up until Xue Ling’s body had basically transformed and he was ready to leave. Then, they broke out into a second argument.
System: “… Host, you’re throwing people away after you use them, how heartless…”
“Speak with more culture. What do you mean, heartless? I’m only tossing him to the back of my mind for the sake of revenge. There’s still irreconcilable hatred to deal with, how can I date and fall in love?!”
“… Didn’t your man say that he could help you kill off the protagonist?
Xue Ling touched his chin and said, “Why should I have him help me? I want to personally make the Holy Saint experience how having his family killed, and his race exterminated feels.”
“… Don’t speak with such a righteous expression. The protagonist shou is an orphan and hasn’t had parents for a long time. If you want to kill his race, won’t you be killing all of mankind? Then the will of the world will go against you.” The system had long become accustomed to its own host’s habit of speaking nonsense and shameless words with a straight face. Its host had always been the kind that did whatever came to mind. No matter how extreme and frenzied his suggestions were now, there was always a chance he would forget it as soon as he left the room.
Xue Ling ignored the system. He was trying to take advantage of the fact that Xi was not in the room to find clothing for himself to wear. He had maintained his animal form these days because he had to cultivate during the day, and other than taking on human form when he went into the pool at night, he had not transformed outside at all.
Um… Failure to find clothes was also a key factor in this decision.
Xi’s room had nothing else in it except for a bed that he occasionally used. He seemed to only need a place to lie down on since he had lived for too long and his life had been too boring, and besides sleeping, there was nothing else he could do. Other than the bed, Xue Ling couldn’t find anywhere clothes would be placed… He thought about it after, and realized – Xi was a god, and what he was wearing must be a god’s robe… it must’ve been made out of his divine power, which was why he couldn’t find a wardrobe or closet in his room.
After giving up the search for Xi’s clothes, everything became easier. Xue Ling directly pulled down a curtain with his claws and draped it neatly over his body. Although it was a bit shameful to wrap something like that around his naked body, it was still better than walking outside without wearing anything.
During this period, Xi had not relaxed his watch over Xue Ling at all. Even if he left for just a short time, the room was always still covered in wards.
Xue Ling had given up leaving through the door, because he did not know the way out of the palace. He would probably get caught even before he left the front doors, so he could only choose to leave through the window.
In this short half month period, he had stepped half way into the demigod realm due to cultivating day and night. Because of the limitations in his own bloodline, he could not continue to ascend unless he was willing to completely replace the blood flowing in his body with water from the Sacred Pool.
But Xue Ling adamantly refused. He was not interested in becoming a god. He needed strength, but it was on the basis of not harming the original owner of this body. The original was most probably the last remaining Ink Flame Wolf, and if he thoroughly changed his blood, there would be no more of his kind.
The Sacred Pool water had its own awareness. It could push Xue Ling around the pool, which was why Xue Ling refused to let it replace its blood. The Sacred Pool had a master, and its master was Xi. If becoming a god simply required one to replace the blood in their bodies with water from the Sacred Pool, then as soon as Xi wanted a ‘god’ to fall, he only needed to order the Sacred Pool to do so. Those ‘gods’ would lose their ‘blood’, lose their strength, and then explode after losing everything.
Xue Ling vaguely understood why Xi was the last god in this world now. It was because he controlled the Sacred Pool, and then killed the other ‘gods’.
Xue Ling did not want to delve deeply into matters related to gods and Xi for the time being. He still needed to deal with a Holy Saint. Making use of the extra strength accumulated over the past few weeks, Xue Ling broke the room’s window, stuck his head out, looked around, and decisively jumped down.
But as soon as his feet jumped out, the curtain wrapped around his body was caught and pulled back by someone. It made his feet unstable, and he was immediately about to fall.
Xue Ling did not forget to keep his hold on the curtain despite his panic. He had simply wrapped the curtain around himself – if the angle was wrong, he’d flash everyone!
But now there was no way for him to leverage his body’s strength at all. His entire body was held in place in a strange position by the window, his hands torn and beginning to bleed.
Xue Ling was disgruntled as he raised his head to glare at Xi, who refused to let go of his end of the curtain. His gaze was fierce. If he weren’t stuck right now, he might really have jumped up to bite him.
This gaze made Xi a little distracted. He knew that the little wolf cub could take on human form, and had seen his appearance from a distance, but it had not given him any kind of special feeling at the time. He thought he preferred his furry, small appearance. Now that he was closer, and getting stared at by those fierce, narrowed and glittering eyes, he inexplicably felt something stirring in his chest as his entire body felt a little strange.
Looking down, the young man wrapped in the curtain was slender and fair-skinned. The curtain left him half-exposed and half-covered. It was even more eye-catching, and Xi could feel his cheeks starting to burn. But even so, he had no intention of letting go of the person before him, and used force to try and pull Xue Ling back into the room. But in the blink of an eye, the youth disappeared from in front of him, and a wolf pup flew out of the curtain and landed directly on the ground. Blinking again, he had turned into a Ink Flame Wolf as tall as a human and rushed out, wanting to run outside.
Xi frowned, and his eyes followed the running wolf. He raised his hand, and the water from the Sacred Pool flew out and rushed towards the wolf.
The magical flames around the Ink Flame Wolf were suddenly extinguished by the water from the Sacred Pool. The water then turned into chains, which transformed into a round cage that captured the wolf inside.
His hand slowly lifted, and the cage slowly lifted up and suspended itself in the air.
The Ink Flame Wolf in the cage did not seem to have given up the intention to run. He was wet all over as it transformed back into a pup, but unexpectedly those chains shifted with him; as he shrank, the chains forming the cage also followed suit as it slowly drifted back towards the room.
Xue Ling felt angry and stifled as he sat inside the cage. He had tried everything he could try. Since he couldn’t run away, he could only kick up a fuss with the man.
He had originally thought that the man would hit his butt a few more times, but instead he only looked at him indifferently, then used his divine powers to repair the window and restore the wards before moving to stand in front of him and unlocking the cage.
Xue Ling was wet all over. He angrily turned his head away and refused to look at the man, turning so that his butt was facing him, his tail not wagging at all. The person who had tried to run was him, the one throwing a fit was also him; the system quietly kept the words it had wanted to say in its stomach. It had inexplicably formed a terrible habit of irritating its host, and had offended its host for too many times in this world. It was best to shut up for now.
The man reached out and touched his wet head, then rather helplessly used his divine powers to make him a set of clothes. “Put on some clothes, and we’ll talk?”
Xue Ling didn’t answer him, but the man got up and headed out. “Even if you run to the ends of the earth, I can still bring you back in the next second, so don’t try to run away secretly. I’ve indulged you enough, and you’ve turned haughty and arrogant.”
Xue Ling answered him with a sneer.
The man went out helplessly. As soon as the door closed, Xue Ling changed back into human form and began to put on the clothes he had worked so hard to get. The man always knew what he liked – it was as though it was carved into his soul after going through so many worlds. The things he prepared for him were always comfortable and well suited for him. This set of clothing was also like that. It was black and red, the same color as his fur, and it was unknown what template this set of clothes followed, but the waist was very narrow, with the pair of boots ending at the curve of his calf, and a suit-like outer coat with some small decorations. When Xue Ling put it on, it perfectly outlined his figure. Especially from the waist down, it made his legs look particularly slender and beautiful.
His once short hair had grown to waist-length. Because he had been wet before, his hair was still soaked. Xue Ling tossed his head to move his hair behind him, then discontentedly went to open the door.
Xi was standing by the door. His gaze lingered over his body when he saw him come out, wanting to pat his head in satisfaction, and frowned. He reached out to tug on Xue Ling’s hand, pulling him back into the room and seating him on the bed to help him dry his long hair.
Xue Ling pulled his hair out of his hands and spoke in a cold voice, “What do you actually want?”
“I want you to be unable to leave me.” Xi didn’t seem to mind his attitude either. Xue Ling’s long black hair had traces of demonic red, and was spread over his back in a disorderly fashion. He used his divine power to create a ribbon, and ignored Xue Ling’s stubbornness to tie up his hair and give it a twist. “As I said before, I will never allow you to leave me.”
Xue Ling was dissatisfied, “I don’t understand. I’m just an ordinary Ink Flame Wolf. Could it be that scarce things are precious? If you like Ink Flame Wolves so much, why didn’t you protect this race? You’re a god. If you want, Ink Flame Wolves would be running and jumping all around the yard! Why did you catch me!”
“What I like is not the Ink Flame Wolves.” Xi’s hand stroked across his long hair. “It’s you. Only you.”
Xue Ling snorted, “You just want a pet. Why are you so affected? Without me, you can just pick another one. I’ve said before, there are things that I still need to do, and I can’t sign a contract with you. You also know that I’ve terminated a contract before. There’s nothing there for me to fear.”
“Are you not afraid of death?”
“Oh, I’m afraid, how could I not be? I’m afraid of death the most. If I’m dead, there will be no way to get revenge.” Xue Ling lowered his gaze, and from Xi’s perspective, his long eyelashes trembled, making him appear very fragile.
Xi brought his entire person into his embrace. Although this body no longer looked so weak and frail after taking on human form, Xi could still embrace him within his arms when he wished. He pressed against Xue Ling’s head, then stroked his hand down his neck, saying, “I don’t intend for you to die. If you’re unwilling, I won’t force you to sign a contract… But I just feel uneasy, and I don’t want you to leave me, which is why I’ll scheme and plot and do everything I can to keep you by my side.”
“Didn’t you say just now?” Xue Ling found a flaw in his words. “You said before that even if I run to the ends of the world, you can still catch and bring me back. In that case, what are you afraid of?”
“That’s different.” Xi smiled briefly, and said, “Catching you and bringing you back, then forcing you to stay, is not the same as you being willing to stay with me.”
Xue Ling pouted. He asked internally, ‘You’ve already forced me to stay here. What’s the difference?’
“Then…”
“What if you let me go and then bring me back after my revenge is over? I can stay behind then…”
This was probably Xue Ling’s first compromise, so it made Xi rather surprised. He had thought that he would need to have a long talk with this little fellow in order to achieve his goal. He hadn’t expected that he would make things so easy. “I’ll go with you.”
Xue Ling: “…” Was he stuck to him?
“You’re not allowed to leave my sight.” The other party had compromised, so Xi took a mile when he was given an inch. “This is a big compromise for me.” After making such a demand, Xi drew the line, making it clear that he had already taken a step back, and Xue Ling could take it or leave it.
Xue Ling: “…” He was really getting more and more shameless…
But did he have a choice? No…
Xue Ling nodded helplessly and agreed to these humiliating and powerless conditions.
Check out this amazzzzing fanart of Xue Ling and the system by !
