Playing around

"..." How could Chi Yu possibly need that? He was a grown man. Would he fall for his trick? "Uh, I don't need that, thank you, Senior Brother Xuanji."

Xiaoqiu popped up like a ghost. "Your Highness, I do."

Xie Xiyi said, "Get lost."

Xiaoqiu said, "...Oh."

Author's note:

He'll be dumbfounded when Little Puppy Fish throws himself into his arms later.

Xiaoqiu: I'm just completely unnecessary.

Chapter 33: Playing around

Chi Yu was somewhat bothered by what Xie Xiyi had said and couldn't help asking, "Senior Brother Xuanji, what did you mean when you said I was afraid? I'm not afraid."

Xie Xiyi's smile faded, and the chill returned to his voice. "You're only pretending not to be afraid. You're even fooling yourself."

Chi Yu said, "...Uh, am I?"

Xie Xiyi looked at him with deep eyes and said casually, "You always put your pursuit of joy into practice, but you're still only flesh and blood. Just like the sun you mentioned, wherever there's sunlight, there will always be shadows and darkness.

"You always treat everyone equally with that face of yours, but what about yourself? You're afraid, and you're afraid of many things. You simply won't let anyone notice, and you've deceived yourself."

Chi Yu opened his mouth and said stiffly, "That's alarmist nonsense. I'm not."

Xie Xiyi replied perfunctorily, "Yes, you're not."

Chi Yu said, "..."

He stopped talking, feeling that the Crown Prince was a little frightening.

What was even more frightening was that he actually thought he was right.

There were many things he simply didn't think about, sparing himself the pressure, but that didn't mean they didn't exist.

No matter how philosophical he was, he was only human. A human had a human heart, with all its emotions and desires. How could he possibly achieve pure joy?

Xie Xiyi said, "Since you don't need an embrace, you don't need to touch that demon tomorrow."

Chi Yu snapped out of it and said, "No, no, we can do it together. We're comrades in arms, after all."

Xie Xiyi said, "Comrades in arms?"

Chi Yu explained, "Friends who can fight together and trust each other to watch their backs."

The corners of Xie Xiyi's lips lifted in a faint smile. "My back? I wouldn't dare entrust it to you."

Chi Yu said, "..."

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He actually looked down on him!

Chi Yu clenched his fists. "I swear I'll increase my daily sword practice to five hours!"

Xie Xiyi said perfunctorily, "How wonderful."

Chi Yu said, "..."

He demanded angrily, "Senior Brother Xuanji, are you deliberately trying to make me mad?"

He grabbed Xie Xiyi's hand and squeezed hard. "I'll show you what two hundred kilograms of grip strength means! Aah!!!"

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Xie Xiyi said, "..."

He turned his hand over and pinched Chi Yu's fingers. With just one squeeze, Chi Yu yelped, "Ow, ow, ow! Be gentle, Senior Brother Xuanji!"

Xie Xiyi said, "I'm in the Golden Core Realm. You're at the Foundation Establishment Stage, and you've done no body tempering whatsoever."

Holding Chi Yu's hand, he squeezed his way upward, inch by inch, his tone turning incredulous again. "You actually haven't practiced Body Tempering."

Chi Yu said, "..."

Xie Xiyi fixed his sharp golden eyes on him. "Your cultivation looks as though it was obtained from someone else through a Forbidden Technique called Seizure."

His divine sense, knowledge, and body were all pathetically weak. He had nothing but Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation.

Chi Yu said, "..."

Holy shit!?

Chi Yu hesitated, then actually confessed after a moment. "Senior Brother Xuanji, I'm not really a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator. I used to be at the Qi Refining Third Layer."

He seemed to make up his mind. "Senior Brother Xuanji, I really did reach the Foundation Establishment Stage through a Forbidden Technique that infused me with cultivation. Do you know anything about Forbidden Techniques?"

"Forbidden Technique!?" Xiaoqiu suddenly cried out. Xie Xiyi gave him a casual glance, and he immediately fell silent.

Xie Xiyi asked, "Who used a Forbidden Technique on you?"

Chi Yu said vaguely, "A villain. He put a whole bunch of Forbidden Techniques on me."

Xie Xiyi said, "A whole bunch?"

Chi Yu nodded emphatically. In truth, he didn't think the Crown Prince would know much about these things either. Although Forbidden Techniques had appeared in Divine Path, they were treasured secrets of other sects. There had been no forbidden curse practitioner like Xie Xiyi at all. Was that precisely why Xie Xiyi had been able to catch those cultivators off guard? This simply wasn't a field normal cultivators could touch.

Xie Xiyi asked, "Where?"

Chi Yu hesitated, but immediately cast those concerns aside. He pointed a finger at his mouth and said, "He put a curse seal on the root of my tongue. He said it contained over a dozen incantations."

Xie Xiyi's golden eyes flickered. "Over a dozen incantations nested inside a single forbidden curse?"

Noticing that he didn't seem surprised, Chi Yu's confidence soared. He asked happily, "Senior Brother Xuanji, you really know about this?"

Xie Xiyi said casually, "I know a little."

Chi Yu rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Senior Brother Xuanji! I have forbidden curses on me. Learn them, then teach me, and we'll both have a trump card! This is a fortuitous opportunity!"

As he spoke, he remembered the two Top-Grade Spirit Stones infused with forbidden curses that he had also gotten from Xie Xiyi. He had kept them safely in his Sumeru Ring, and he hurriedly took them out. "Senior Brother Xuanji, these are unused forbidden curses. Take a look. Can you recognize what kind they are?"

He handed Xie Xiyi the cloth-wrapped Top-Grade Spirit Stones.

Xie Xiyi gave him a deep look and accepted the two Top-Grade Spirit Stones. With just a sweep of his divine sense, he said, "These forbidden curses are offensive Forbidden Techniques. Their exact effects are unclear, but killing a Golden Core cultivator should be no problem."

Chi Yu poured out his grievances. "Never mind Golden Core cultivators! Senior Brother Xuanji, you have no idea. When that villain struck, seven or eight Nascent Soul cultivators all died! He could kill seven or eight Nascent Soul cultivators as a Golden Core cultivator! And later, he could kill a whole crowd of Nascent Soul cultivators on his own!"

Xie Xiyi frowned slightly. "Forbidden curses are called forbidden curses because they are taboos, transgressions. Those who possess such taboos will be rejected by the Heavenly Dao, ultimately devoured by the taboos and plunged into a hell of nothingness."

He asked with interest, "Who is this villain you mentioned? Kill him, and we can head home early from this Hongbao Trial."

Chi Yu was at a loss for words. After a moment, he earnestly urged, "Senior Brother Xuanji, you can't beat him. Forget it, forget it."

Xie Xiyi glanced at him. "The Chan Sect has an advantage when killing cultivators like that. I might be able to kill him."

Chi Yu said, "..."

Even if you could kill him, you couldn't. There's five hundred years between you.

He changed the subject. "By the way, Senior Brother Xuanji, why don't you look at the forbidden curses on me?"

As he spoke, he opened his mouth toward Xie Xiyi and said indistinctly, "Senior Brother Xuanji, at the root of my tongue. I can't see it myself. Can you?"

Xie Xiyi extended his fingers into Chi Yu's mouth and felt along his soft, slippery tongue, finally reaching its root. Chi Yu gagged. "Urgh-"

Xie Xiyi said coldly, "Bear with it."

Watching from the side, Xiaoqiu found the scene a little strange, but he didn't dare make a sound.

Xie Xiyi, however, thought nothing of it. Finding Chi Yu's mouth wasn't open wide enough, he pinched his cheeks with his other hand to open it wider. The pads of his long, strong fingers pressed and searched at the root of his tongue, soon finding the forbidden curse hidden beneath it.

Strangely, at his touch, the forbidden curse surfaced from the soft, red root of the tongue. The black runes were eerie and mysterious, emitting an extremely ominous, icy aura.

Xie Xiyi examined it with his divine sense. "This forbidden curse doesn't have over a dozen sets of incantations nested inside it. Four sets at most."

He continued thoughtfully, "This forbidden curse is very powerful, but it will eventually disappear. Judging by the traces, it should last about another year."

Chi Yu said, "Mmph, mmph, aah-"

Xie Xiyi said, "I know."

He carefully felt over the curse seal again. "Four sets of incantations, and no offensive forbidden curse-Long Aotian, is someone treating you like a puppy?"

Chi Yu said, "Huh?? Aah, aah, mmph?"

Xie Xiyi said, "Stop making noises. There's more and more saliva."

Chi Yu said, "..."

Xie Xiyi withdrew his fingers. Both were soaked in Chi Yu's saliva, and when he spread them slightly, several sticky silver threads stretched between them.

Saliva had also dribbled from the corner of Chi Yu's mouth, leaving him looking somewhat disheveled.

Chi Yu was entirely oblivious, however. He wiped his mouth, deftly took a handkerchief from his Sumeru Ring, and handed it to the Crown Prince, saying attentively, "Senior Brother Xuanji, hurry and wipe your hands."

Xie Xiyi accepted the handkerchief and meticulously wiped his sticky fingers, which were soaked in Chi Yu's saliva.

Beside him, Chi Yu cautiously asked, "Senior Brother Xuanji, can you learn it?"

Xie Xiyi kept his head lowered as he continued wiping his fingers. "Didn't you hear what I said? Those who touch taboos will ultimately be devoured by them. This isn't something you should touch."

Chi Yu argued with conviction, "But that villain used them, and they're very powerful. It should be fine if we only use them a tiny bit, right? They'd be trump cards to save our lives!"

Xie Xiyi glanced at him. "You can't learn these things. To learn them, you must sacrifice something of your own just to cross the threshold. Even if you truly make that sacrifice, forbidden curses won't become your weapons. Instead, those who use them will slowly become puppets. Otherwise, if they're so useful, why do you think nobody uses them? The price is simply too steep. Nobody is willing to pay it."

Chi Yu said, "...Oh."

A look of regret appeared on his face. "So that's how it is."

Then he remembered something else and asked Xie Xiyi, "Senior Brother Xuanji, what did you mean just now when you said someone was treating me like a puppy?"

Xie Xiyi said expressionlessly, "That set of forbidden curses on your tongue combines protection, location, tracking, and control. The cultivation infusion you mentioned comes from the protective forbidden curse. Whoever attacks you will give you their cultivation."