Purple Dawn Peak, Ten Thousand Swords Sect.
A deafening boom! resounded across the entire peak.
Xiao Jixue, who had been playing chess with a friend beneath a peach blossom tree, sprang to his feet and darted toward the kitchen.
Behind him.
Huo Zeyu froze with a chess piece poised in midair, staring in astonishment at his hastily retreating figure.
Si Yu and Lin Yichen, who had been watching beside the chess table, were equally baffled.
??? What was going on?!
Xiao Jixue was always unhurried, the sort who would remain unruffled even if a mountain collapsed before him.
Why did a kitchen exploding suddenly have him acting as though he faced a formidable enemy?
While they were puzzling over this, Xiao Jixue returned, looking slightly displeased. A man followed behind him, his head drooping and his handsome face smeared with patches of white and black.
The man was strikingly handsome in his red robes, though the fabric was stained with black soot.
Huo Zeyu and the other two instantly widened their eyes.
Huh? Since when had Jixue been hiding a man on Purple Dawn Peak?!
Tang Yan lifted his eyes to glance at the man before him, whose entire being radiated a faint chill.
He reached out and gently tugged at Xiao Jixue's black sleeve, speaking softly.
"I didn't mean to blow up your kitchen. It's your birthday today, so I wanted to make you a bowl of longevity noodles."
Tang Yan had learned from the system that Xiao Jixue had left his adoptive parents at a very young age to study alone at the Ten Thousand Swords Sect.
His master, Fu Shouci, oversaw the entire sect and had more work than he could possibly handle.
How would celebrating his disciple's birthday ever occur to him?
Back in the modern world, Xiao Jixue's mother had died giving birth to him.
Having lost the woman he loved, Xiao Jixue's father believed his son had brought doom upon his mother and took all his resentment out on Xiao Jixue.
His childhood had been hard. He would have been better off with no home at all.
So every year, Tang Yan had brought him a bowl of longevity noodles on his birthday, though he had always bought them from a private dining restaurant.
He had kept doing so until Xiao Jixue went abroad to study and the two gradually drifted apart.
Two days ago, Tang Yan had suddenly remembered that today was Xiao Jixue's birthday.
He thought of how Xiao Jixue had rescued him from villains after he transmigrated here, brewed medicine for him, refined pills for him, and even prepared a room for him.
Since he had arrived in this other world, all the warmth he had received had come from Xiao Jixue.
Tang Yan knew how to be grateful. Besides, he still had to win Xiao Jixue over, so he ought to make some kind of gesture.
He had nothing to his name right now and little to give him, so he had thought he could make a bowl of longevity noodles and celebrate a simple birthday with him.
Who would have known...
Disappointment clouded Tang Yan's beautiful, peach-blossom eyes.
[This is so embarrassing. So embarrassing! I blew up the kitchen on my very first attempt at cooking. Am I just naturally hopeless at it?]
Shock flashed in Huo Zeyu's, Si Yu's, and Lin Yichen's eyes.
They could hear the red-robed man's thoughts?
Meanwhile, Tang Yan's embarrassed thoughts instantly brought Xiao Jixue's wandering mind back to earth.
The thought that Tang Yan actually knew today was his birthday made the young man's lips curve involuntarily.
[Ding—Xiao Jixue's affection +5. Total affection: 20.]
Then he thought of how Tang Yan had been busy in the kitchen since early morning just to make longevity noodles for him.
Xiao Jixue's heart felt as though it were immersed in a hot spring, warm through and through.
[Ding—Xiao Jixue's affection +5. Total affection: 25.]
Tang Yan blinked, then smiled as he caught the faint hint of happiness at the corners of Xiao Jixue's mouth.
[Xiao Jixue is so easy to please. Even a failed bowl of longevity noodles can make him this happy.]
"Ahem..."
Xiao Jixue suppressed his smile, his deep, cold voice softening.
"I wasn't upset about the kitchen being blown up. The explosion was so loud that I was afraid you'd hurt yourself."
"Be good and stop trying to make them. I don't have to eat longevity noodles."
This man was so terribly delicate. He was afraid one careless mistake would leave him battered and miserable again.
When they first met, there had not been an uninjured patch of flesh on him.
Heaven knew his heart had nearly skipped a beat the instant the kitchen exploded.
As he thought about it, Xiao Jixue knitted his brows.
He had to find a way to let Tang Yan cultivate again as soon as possible.
The Cultivation World was far too dangerous. The moment he took his eyes off him, this man could blow up a kitchen and nearly injure himself.
Outside the Ten Thousand Swords Sect, it would be even more dangerous. He could not always keep watch.
Tang Yan also felt he was not cut out for cooking, so he nodded in agreement.
"All right, then. I'll make it up to you with a birthday present later."
Xiao Jixue's expression softened. "All right."
A short distance away, Huo Zeyu and the other two exchanged peculiar looks.
Huo Zeyu's burning gaze was fixed squarely on Tang Yan and Xiao Jixue.
He rubbed his chin, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
Never mind the fact that he could actually hear that red-robed man's thoughts.
What was going on with these two?
Why did it look like there was something between them?!
Just look at Xiao Jixue! A smile on his face was unprecedented enough!
But what was with that faint tenderness and affection in his eyes?
Could it be?! Was his friend actually into men?
Huo Zeyu sucked in a breath, his jaw practically hitting the ground.
No way! Ji Xue looked so deceptively respec— ahem, so pure and noble, aloof and beautiful.
The female cultivators pursuing him could circle the entire Immortal Spirit Continent three times.
Who would have thought he could be this gentle with a man?! Hehehe! Why was he feeling just a teensy billion times excited?
When Xiao Jixue and Tang Yan walked over and sat beside the table, Huo Zeyu and the others hastily concealed the intense thirst for gossip in their eyes.
"This is Huo Zeyu, this is Si Yu, and this is Lin Yichen. All three are my friends."
Then Xiao Jixue told the other three, "This is Tang Yan."
At that, Si Yu gave a meaningful smile.
Tang Yan? Ji Xue's new friend must be the Tang Family's false young master who had vanished not long ago, his whereabouts unknown.
To think he had come to the Southern Region.
But how had he become an ordinary person without any cultivation?
Huo Zeyu immediately spoke with a grin.
"Any friend of Jixue's is a friend of mine. If you need anything, just give me a shout. Call me Zeyu, haha."
Tang Yan nodded with a smile. "Brother Zeyu."
"Brother Tang Yan." Si Yu and Lin Yichen greeted him politely as well.
Tang Yan nodded to them both. "Brother Si Yu, Brother Lin."
Once the three had finished exchanging greetings, Xiao Jixue and Huo Zeyu resumed their chess game.
Tang Yan sat to one side with Si Yu and the others to watch.
His expression remained calm as he watched the two play, but inwardly, he was growing excited over the juicy gossip the system had revealed.
[Huo Zeyu, huh? We've only just met, and you've already given me some seriously juicy gossip!]
Huo Zeyu: ?! What the hell?
Si Yu and Lin Yichen perked up. Juicy gossip? What juicy gossip?
Their gazes involuntarily left the chessboard and settled on Huo Zeyu.
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