Mō Qīn looked back at Chóng Fēi, his gaze observant.
"Wait." He blinked like he had caught something. "Did the opposite side of the tool stab in?"
Lìngxiāo blinked back, still eyes wide like this was the first thing he wasn't understanding. He looked afar where he had thrown the tool out of panic—for sure.
Chóng Fēi faintly looked at the same area through his lashes to be sure, still keeping up that act. He quickly spotted the part which had stabbed into him.
And yes—it wasn't the part which should have been used. It was mainly the handle part. And no wonder he was screaming at Lìngxiāo that he wasn't holding it right. Both sides were sharp but with no structure of any traditional sword. And perhaps Lìngxiāo was actually distracted by something to even notice it.
He, as he guessed—Lìngxiāo really didn't have a little idea about sword or sword-type weapon handling.
When realization took shape in his expression after realization, he didn't even spell it out. His lips just pressed into a thin line, eyes still fixed over that tool like his sharp gaze was cursing it.
It took him some moments to get back his composure. And then he looked down at Chóng Fēi like he had understood everything. His eyes wide with disbelief.
And then without any word, he gently yet sharply pushed him aside from his lap, face flushed red at the cheekbones.
Chóng Fēi hissed softly at the sudden shift of position. The wound was still there and it made sure to remind him, clinging to his stomach, gritting teeth—almost dramatically. "Ah, fuck. Careful! You can't treat me like that right after stabbing!"
"S-stop acting, Gōngzǐ. I know you were doing it..for some reason." Lìngxiāo said, barely meeting his gaze and suddenly interested in recounting the snake-like skin of his female curse—Serpent.
Chóng Fēi also didn't meet his gaze. His head spinning not only from the injury but with a lot of emotions and thoughts working all together.
'You asked for it. Sometimes you need to be slapped by reality as I am all the time.' He rolled his eyes.
He paused his own thoughts when his own realization hit, thoughts shifting elsewhere as fast as he realized it. He thought about the tool. He had heard about it before—from the mummy exorcist. He never thought that thrown-away memory would be any helpful. Not after being nothing but a nightmare.
'What I have been hiding—'
'Wait, wait, wait..the fuck. It does look like his one. If the front part was meant for fear and killing..'
His gaze slowly moved over Lìngxiāo's face. The realization was making his own cheeks feel warm.
'The other side is for the..truth and desire. But it works on human bodies with life.'
The past was so painfully embarrassing as well. He hadn't paid much attention to that silver stick tool back then—silver bless and curse in simple meaning, which carries both a dangerous and also ridiculous one..and the used part is the dangerous one.
The stab actually just felt like it got inside out and then felt like it had just made the thoughts more visible. The deeper the tool got in from that other side, the more thoughts got exposed by the activities or words.
So technically, the wound wasn't even big—at all. But it could have been if it had gone deeper, into the heart or stomach.
But with that dangerous memory where he had discovered the deepest sides of his emotions—he never wanted to talk about it. Even this side of this stick was dangerous and he wouldn't deny it.
'Oh..shit. I really did want to do ridiculous things but out of maturity I did not. So..I acted on it..because it was that SAME damn tool!'
'My focus was entirely on the child at that time.'
'That curse who seemed more enjoying my hard time of breathing more than killing.'
He really couldn't get out the thought of how strange this high-ranked curse was. As if it had been just playing and then left without harming anything like others.
And the knowing look she had with Lìngxiāo..it was more questioning. The way Lìngxiāo just pulled her around himself—that he was supposed to be at the battlefield because he 'catches mōs'—didn't quite make total sense according to Chóng Fēi's sense.
The curses could attack anyone on their way. Normal humans, cultivators. Everyone. But that was also true that they hated exorcists more.
But he couldn't focus on it more than his own strange behavior right now.
'I thought he knew what he was doing! And now I would have lost my dignity because of him—and then my life!'
'I should have also checked the way he was handling the tool, or I wouldn't have acted this reckless like a drunk guy!'
The curses, on the other hand, were trying not to laugh. The female one casually snapped a finger and that light wound Chóng Fēi had gotten healed too. They were enjoying that 'slipped' act Chóng Fēi had just done without any boundaries.
"You found nothing else to hand me? This is not what I had thought would ever happen!" Lìngxiāo aimed the words at his one curse—Mō Qīn.
He tried to hide the sharp disbelief and disappointment in his voice, probably from his mistake which had landed on him like an insult to himself. His voice was like calm before the storm—a funny one for Chóng Fēi, who was almost about to chuckle again from that effect of the tool.
"That's why we weren't wanting to use the complex healing ritual, Gōngzǐ." The eight-eyed one said, cleaned back the tool, and handed it to Lìngxiāo.
"We also didn't have an idea that you did not get what was wrong with him, darling. You shouldn't have given us full access to your telepathic connection—with or without reasons." Serpent blinked slow and innocent.
Lìngxiāo exhaled and mumbled something under his breath which Chóng Fēi heard as: Sometimes you all are so dense that my head aches. And even myself.
***