"So cold... Does anyone have a heat patch, a hot-water bottle, an electric blanket, or even a space heater? Any classmates here? Please turn on the air conditioning too, thanks..." Even inside his sea of consciousness, Gu Yi's consciousness shivered with cold.
Lin Yuan: "..."
What was he muttering about?
Why couldn't he understand any of it? Was there something wrong with his head?
"Gu Yi?" Lin Yuan hesitated for a while before reaching out to touch Gu Yi's consciousness.
Gu Yi immediately felt a warm current flow into him through Lin Yuan's consciousness.
"So warm..." His consciousness lifted his head, his eyes unfocused. He was already delirious.
Before Lin Yuan could react, Gu Yi's consciousness pulled his consciousness into his arms.
"Mmph..."
The instant their consciousnesses collided, their souls seemed like thousands of drifting petals, beautiful and ethereal.
Lin Yuan did not know what that feeling was. It was as though the rhythms of their souls had intertwined, like a murmuring stream flowing through every corner of his heart.
The delicate aura of Gu Yi's soul was like leisurely white clouds drifting slowly across a boundless sky.
It was unfamiliar, yet he did not find it unpleasant.
Gu Yi seemed to hear someone calling, "Gu Yi... Don't die..."
This was Lin Yuan's inner voice. He was saving him...
"All right... I promise..."
Gu Yi opened his eyes and found Lin Yuan lying against his chest.
Perhaps because he had complained of the cold earlier, Lin Yuan had draped the fox-fur cloak over him too.
Everything that had happened in his sea of consciousness came flooding back. Gu Yi froze for a moment, then wrapped his arms around Lin Yuan, his expression gentle.
Their bodies pressed close together. Feeling the warmth of the young man's body, Gu Yi felt his heart warm as well.
Even though he had passed out, Lin Yuan was still pouring spiritual energy into Gu Yi in an unbroken stream, helping heal his ravaged meridians.
Gu Yi raised a hand and tapped his head, an unnatural flush rising in his face. Had he been the one to pull Lin Yuan's consciousness into his arms?
He had actually engaged in "soul cultivation" with him just like that.
But he hadn't pulled away either, so he must have been willing... right?
He gently wiped the light sheen of sweat from Lin Yuan's face and the tears that had spilled from the corners of his eyes. What a little fool, saying one thing and meaning another.
He had told Gu Yi to go die somewhere far away, yet in his heart, he had been wishing he would not die.
Although this soul cultivation had been an accident, Gu Yi still felt he had been something of a bastard.
How could a dying man like him have gone and defiled a nineteen-year-old virgin boy...?
Once he woke up, he would give him a proper apology. He would give him everything in his storage ring too. That would count as some compensation.
It was not that Gu Yi did not want to take responsibility, but he had little time left. If Lin Yuan had not inadvertently entered his sea of consciousness yesterday and engaged in soul cultivation with him, he would probably have already been reincarnated by now.
Gu Yi pondered how best to apologize later:
"I'm sorry, Lin Yuan. I didn't mean to engage in soul cultivation with you last night..."
But Lin Yuan seemed to have entered his sea of consciousness of his own accord...
Actually, when it came down to it, it seemed he had forced himself on him...
Then why did he feel so guilty?
Was it because Lin Yuan was young?
Right. He had been twenty when he transmigrated here, so his actual age should now be twenty-three.
But Lin Yuan was only nineteen. Thinking of it that way, he was rather like an old cow grazing on tender grass.
But wasn't this a cultivation world? There were plenty of people hundreds or thousands of years old. He was only in his early twenties. That wasn't very old!
"Lin Yuan, if you feel wronged, you can kill me..."
That wouldn't do either! He had only ended up like this yesterday because he was saving me. Asking him to kill me now would mean all that soul cultivation had been for nothing.
Besides, even without Lin Yuan killing him, he would not live more than a few days.
Oh, Gu Yi, Gu Yi, you really were...
As Gu Yi agonized over how to explain things when Lin Yuan woke up, he felt the previously steady breathing of Lin Yuan, who lay on top of him, grow a little uneven.
He was awake...
At that thought, Gu Yi's heartbeat quickened too.
And so, one felt the other's uneven breathing while the other listened to his anxious heartbeat. Neither spoke first.
In the end, Gu Yi could not hold back and spoke first. "Lin Yuan, are you... awake?"
"Mm." Lin Yuan climbed out of his arms, then felt around and covered him with the fox-fur cloak again.
"You..."
"I..."
They spoke at the same time, then both fell silent.
Thank goodness Lin Yuan was blind, Gu Yi thought. Otherwise, if he saw that Gu Yi's face was as red as a monkey's backside, Gu Yi would truly be too ashamed to face anyone.
Although he tried hard to restrain himself, calm down, and reassure himself that it was a normal morning reaction.
But a rosy-lipped, white-toothed young man had been lying on top of him, one he had just engaged in soul cultivation with yesterday.
Gu Yi suddenly felt like a pervert...
"I only did it because you were about to die yesterday..."
Lin Yuan sat beside Gu Yi. Although his voice was a little hoarse, his face was expressionless.
"Mm..." Gu Yi made a sound low in his throat, then began to apologize. "I'm sorry, Lin Yuan! I didn't mean to yesterday. I didn't expect things to turn out like this either..."
"What is there to apologize for? I only gave you some spiritual energy because I didn't want you dying next to me!" Lin Yuan tilted his head. "It'd be disgusting once you started rotting!"
Gu Yi: "???"
"Just? You were just transferring spiritual energy?" Gu Yi's voice trembled, its pitch wavering several times.
"What else? It's not as if I have some miraculous elixir to give you." Lin Yuan felt his way as he shifted, sitting a little farther away from Gu Yi.
Gu Yi took a deep breath. "Oh. Then thank you, young immortal."
He didn't know!
He actually didn't know!
He actually didn't know that was soul cultivation!
Gu Yi watched Lin Yuan sit cross-legged, ready to begin cultivating. He had spent the entire night transferring spiritual energy to him. Was he cultivating to recover now?
It looked like he really didn't know...
That made sense...
Lin Yuan was only nineteen. When he had fallen into this cave three years ago, he had been just sixteen, still a child. How would he know anything about soul cultivation?
He was the filthy one, doing that to such an innocent boy...
But since Lin Yuan didn't know that was soul cultivation, there seemed to be no need to apologize.
It was actually better that he didn't know. That way, he wouldn't overthink it.
Even if he died, it wouldn't affect Lin Yuan.
A few years later, when he left this place, he would still be the young immortal of the Qingling Sword Sect.
He himself would be nothing more than a passing visitor in Lin Yuan's life, someone he would sooner or later forget.
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