(For Chapter 1-163, go to (https://chrysanthemumgarden.com/novel-tl/awbtv/))
(Go to my Patreon, if you want early access of chapters: www.patreon.com/QuillAndScroll)
Webnovel: 2 chapters monthly
Patreon: Weekly updates
I'll be updating the novel weekly on my Patreon. Don't worry—the chapters posted there will later be released for free, so no content will be locked forever. Patreon supporters will simply get early access to upcoming chapters.
______________________________________________________________________________________
A waterlike halo of light flowed in, diluting the gloom of the prison cell. Floating dust stirred and leapt, forming faint ripples and fine, intricate shadows.
The newcomer bore a familiar face.
Long brows swept upward, eyes like autumn water; a ridge of snow-peaked mountains formed his nose, beneath which lay a pair of thin lips of striking color. Jade-white skin carried his features, while a clean, sharp bone structure set off his tall frame.
At first glance, such looks were exceptionally beautiful yet keen—like a thorned peony, like a blade edged with blood.
And yet, though handsome, his looks carried a faintly dangerous allure, his gaze was upright, his demeanor gentle; his temperament refined, his bearing proper. When he approached in white robes with a sword at his side, smiling faintly, he naturally gave off the air of a gentleman under clear moon and fresh wind—standing like jade trees and orchids, smiling like a bright moon falling into one's arms.
As he drew nearer, the bright light spilling from the stone door seemed to withdraw from him, and the damp, oppressive gloom of the cell surged in, layer upon layer, eroding all things. The snow-white robes that had shimmered with rippling light now appeared dusted over, sinking into the somber hue of the place, gradually stained with shadow.
He stopped before the cell door, his expression calm yet cold as he looked at Chu Yunsheng.
"It seems you still have not repented," he said.
Chu Yunsheng sat against the wall and did not answer.
He did not wish to let Professor Yin put on a one-man show, but he had not yet had time to accept the plot and memories. Knowing nothing of the identities of the two men or of this world, he feared saying the wrong thing and could only remain silent.
"So losing to Ning Guan wasn't unjust, but losing to me, Xie Chengyun, was?"
The smile faded from that face. He sighed coolly. "Ji Ling, you and Yan Xuanji were both at the very bottom of the White Dragon Ranking. Yan Xuanji was defeated in succession by Ning Guan and by me within three days, yet showed no despondence—he returned to the Qianshan Prefecture of Lingnan to go into seclusion for three months, broke through to the Hanshen, and in one stroke entered the Dingdan state."
"And you, believing yourself deeply shaken, doubting that your own cultivation method was crude and thus inferior, betrayed the sect and fled to the Western Regions' demonic Nine Immortals Palace—trading the head of your benefactor-teacher for the position of Holy Maiden, seeking peerless techniques."
"But now—what of it?"
"You were still defeated by me and have become a prisoner beneath the steps. With a crooked heart and countless evils to your name, in the end it is righteousness that overcomes wickedness."
Listening to those cold words edged with faint severity, Chu Yunsheng caught many key details—among them, the name Professor Yin was using in this world: Xie Chengyun.
Seeing the demoness seated against the wall with her head slightly lowered, ignoring his words, Xie Chengyun's gaze darkened. He took out a key, opened the cell door, and entered with his hand resting on his sword.
His eyes went at once to the two thick, pitch-black chains embedded in the stone wall. Seeing that they were intact, he raised a finger and lightly tapped one of them.
The heavy iron shuddered, sending out a surging wave of icy cold that trembled up from deep within the stone wall and slipped into the folds of Chu Yunsheng's gathered sleeves. The dark-red, light-as-air sleeve fluttered, revealing the shackles tightly fastened over rings of silver bangles.
There were the same shackles around Chu Yunsheng's ankles as well—exceptionally heavy, and carrying a chill that gnawed into bone and blood.
"This lock is called God-Sealing Shackles. It is used specifically against those at the Hanshen. Once bound by it, one cannot mobilize any cultivation at all—no different from an ordinary person who has never practiced martial arts."
Cloud-patterned boots stepped over the scattered dry straw as Xie Chengyun walked up to Chu Yunsheng. In his upright eyes there surfaced an inexplicable depth of shadow. "With God-Sealing Shackles intact, you should be unable to employ any body-substitution secret art. Yet upon hearing of Yan Xuanji's advancement to the Dingdan state, you showed not the slightest trace of jealousy or resentment."
"The real Ji Ling is shallow and arrogant, honey-tongued but dagger-hearted—jealous of talent, intolerant of the worthy, with no depth of mind. She is absolutely not someone capable of concealing her emotions."
"You are not Ji Ling."
When those final words fell upon his ears, Chu Yunsheng's gaze flickered slightly—but it was hardly a surprise.
As early as the moment Xie Chengyun opened the cell door and stepped inside, Chu Yunsheng had already sensed that something was off in Xie Chengyun's reactions. With a bit of thought, he could roughly guess that he must have revealed a flaw somewhere.
First, because he possessed none of the original memories; and second, because it was his own fault for not realizing that a so-called demoness—reviled by the righteous path as the Holy Maiden of a demonic sect—was expected to be unable to keep her emotions from showing, or perhaps unwilling to do so. And Xie Chengyun just happened to be a meticulous, suspicious man with profound depths of scheming; from his very first words upon entering through the stone door, he had likely been probing, ready to seize on the slightest inconsistency.
Even so, Chu Yunsheng did not believe that Xie Chengyun had truly seen through all of his irregularities.
He suspected that the one imprisoned here had never been the real Ji Ling.
Lowering his gaze, Xie Chengyun looked quietly at Chu Yunsheng's face and murmured absently, "To pull off a cicada-shedding or a substitute swap within the Xie clan of the capital—that is a method of the Youxian. Whoever stands behind her was willing to take such a risk to rescue her; it would not be the Nine Immortals Palace."
"There truly is an enormous secret hidden about her."
From the sound of it, Xie Chengyun's capture of this 'Ji Ling' seemed to have ulterior motives as well.
Chu Yunsheng thought this to himself as he subtly lifted his eyes, watching Xie Chengyun's expression.
Although since first laying eyes on him Xie Chengyun had appeared, in both words and stance, to be every inch the upright gentleman, Chu Yunsheng could still glimpse from the smallest movements of eye and expression that he was by no means as righteous as he seemed.
For him to speak such secrecy-adjacent matters to a stand-in who was not Ji Ling and seemingly of no importance —clearly, Xie Chengyun had already formed the intent to silence him.
Sure enough.
After pondering for a moment, Xie Chengyun cast Chu Yunsheng another glance and said, "Since you're merely a scapegoat, there's no point in keeping you."
Before the words had even fallen, his right hand rose, two fingers joined as a sword, drifting lightly toward Chu Yunsheng's brow—no killing intent visible, yet lethal all the same.
However, that finger never came down.
The wrist poised to strike suddenly trembled. Xie Chengyun let out a muffled grunt; his knees went weak, and he abruptly collapsed to his knees before Chu Yunsheng.
He reached back as if to draw his sword, but his fingers would not lift. His body pitched forward, white robes trailing across the ground.
A sudden weight settled on Chu Yunsheng's knees. He lifted a hand and happened to catch Xie Chengyun by the waist and back.
In an instant, their faces drew close.
Xie Chengyun's breathing was rapid; the faintly cool tip of his nose brushed, almost imperceptibly, against Chu Yunsheng's chin. "You… where did this poison come from?"
That isn't something you should be asking me—it's something you should be asking yourself.
Thinking this, Chu Yunsheng let out a soft sigh and said in a low voice, "Young Master Xie, what do you think?"
He made no effort to disguise his voice, letting his natural tone emerge—deep and cold.
Xie Chengyun froze at the sound. In his gradually clouding gaze, a streak of light suddenly flashed, clarity surfacing for a brief instant.
He stared at Chu Yunsheng, tilting his face up slightly His gentle voice carried the faintest, barely perceptible tremor, as though a damp, hidden fragrance were stirring. "…You are a man?"
That was obvious.
Chu Yunsheng did not respond. With one arm, he supported Xie Chengyun—now utterly devoid of strength—and laid him down on the softness of the dry straw. He then straightened, intending to find another place to rest.
Though this situation had been part of the other man's long-laid plans in this world, if Xie Chengyun were unwilling, Chu Yunsheng would not take advantage of him while he was clearly conscious.
But Xie Chengyun did not think the same way.
Chu Yunsheng had only taken two steps when a voice came from behind, calling him to a halt.
"This is an aphrodisiac poison. It can only be dispelled through coupling. If you don't touch me, you won't be able to kill me with this poison either—but if I recover even for a short while, you will certainly die. To still remain calm and composed in such a situation, you can't be someone truly foolish."
Biting down on the tip of his tongue to suppress the strange, fine gasps rising in his throat, Xie Chengyun forced himself to speak with deliberate indifference, word by word. "Come over and remove the poison. I promise to spare your life."
"Not afraid I'll poison you again?" Chu Yunsheng said.
Xie Chengyun slowly exhaled, then suddenly smiled. "You're not the one who administered the poison."
The statement was plainly self-contradictory, yet the way he said it was casual and unforced.
Chu Yunsheng turned his head to look back. His gaze passed over Xie Chengyun's faintly furrowed brows, slid down the moist, reddened corners of his eyes and the lightly pressed thin lips, finally settling on the Adam's apple that trembled and rolled subtly—beautiful and cold, like pearl and jade.
He bent down. One hand slowly supported the bend of Xie Chengyun's knees; with the other, he raised his hand, removed a jade hairpin from his own hair, and brought it to Xie Chengyun's vividly red lips.
"Bite down," he said.
Xie Chengyun's forceful bite on his lips and tongue paused, and he looked up at him.
After several breaths, he closed his eyes and opened his mouth.
His glossy lips wrapped around the body of the hairpin, the tip of his tongue pressing against the jade surface, a trace of blood-red seeping out from between the gaps.
The jade pendant and long sword crushed through the stalks of dry grass and clattered to the ground.
White robes, like scattered snow, fell layer upon layer, piling down. Heavy, pitch-black chains coiled around him; half of a clean, slender wrist rested atop them, swaying weakly and restlessly—like duckweed drifting with the waves, or reeds striking water, never settling.
The jade crown that had neatly bound his hair loosened and slipped askew, dragging through sweat-damp black strands as it slowly fell.
Above the cell, icy droplets of water dripped down, pattering.
Ripples spread across the puddles, churning dark red and snow white together, twisting into something fierce and clammy.
Curled toes touched the water's surface. A line of droplets splashed down—bitingly cold—causing the arch of the foot to tense abruptly, like a piece of pale, chilled jade fat suddenly frozen in place.
No one knew how much time passed.
Xie Chengyun's jaw hooked tightly around the thick, jet-black chain. The icy dark iron ground over the fragile Adam's apple and along his neck. He squeezed his eyes shut as watery sheen instantly flooded his cheeks.
His lips and tongue loosened, and the jade hairpin fell to the ground with a clear, crisp sound.
"Does it hurt?"
Chu Yunsheng lifted a finger and brushed lightly over the corner of Xie Chengyun's eye, asking softly.
Xie Chengyun opened his eyes. He did not shy away from Chu Yunsheng's hand; instead, he shifted slightly, pressing his back against Chu Yunsheng's chest, while an arm that had regained a bit of strength reached out and grasped the sword.
A flash of inscrutable, sinister darkness flickered through his eyes and vanished. He tilted his head slightly, his voice hoarse as he said, "Dress me."
"From today on, you are my sword attendant. I will not kill you."
That Xie Chengyun's first reaction after the poison was dispelled was not to cut off his head with a single stroke did not surprise Chu Yunsheng. But to take him in as a sword attendant without even asking a question—that did catch him a little off guard.
A sword attendant was, by definition, someone who stayed close at hand. It was far too hasty a decision.
Rather than explanations like having acquired a taste for it or keeping one's word, Chu Yunsheng believed more that Xie Chengyun had other plans in making this choice.
This was not distrust, nor was it belittling the one he held dear; it was simply that they knew each other too well. A single extra glance was enough for him to pierce that gentle, upright exterior of Xie Chengyun's and see clearly the core of hypocrisy beneath.
Even so, Chu Yunsheng felt that Xie Chengyun's temperament was truly difficult to fathom—likely the most troublesome kind he had encountered across all these worlds.
With that thought, Chu Yunsheng spread his arms to gather up the scattered garments. Holding Xie Chengyun close with one arm, he used the other to help him dress properly again.
The clothing covered the marks all over his body. The outer robe spread across the pile of dry straw was smoothed flat with true qi from Chu Yunsheng's palm; in the blink of an eye, Xie Chengyun once again became that bright, refined, and aloof figure of pure elegance.
Xie Chengyun swept a glance over Chu Yunsheng's hand, yet did not ask why, under the effects of God-Sealing Shackles, he could still employ true qi. He merely stood up and raised his hands, re-hanging the jade pendant and long sword at his waist.
He tucked the fallen jade crown into his sleeve and casually gathered his long hair with a cloth tie. The air of a refined young lord lost a touch of strict propriety, gaining instead an easy, unrestrained grace.
"In a quarter of an hour, someone will come to take you out," Xie Chengyun said. "Remember—you are still a woman, still Ji Ling, the Holy Maiden of the Nine Immortals Palace."
With that, he said no more and walked straight toward the exit of the cell.
Chu Yunsheng watched him reach the cell door before finally speaking. "Young Master Xie doesn't want to ask who I am, or what my relationship is with that Ji Ling?"
Xie Chengyun's steps halted. He turned back, his gaze dark.
"My name is Chu Yunsheng," Chu Yunsheng said. "When you return, remember to bathe. Don't leave it in your body—it won't be good for you."
Xie Chengyun's eyes flickered. Standing beyond the iron bars, he looked at Chu Yunsheng; his long brows lifted at a slant, suddenly tearing open a fissure in that gentle, upright exterior.
From between his teeth slipped an amused smile. "You've got nerve. Not afraid I'll go back on my word and kill you?"
Chu Yunsheng admired the view revealed through that fissure and said nothing.
"Enough, then."
Xie Chengyun reined in his smile in an instant. From a hidden mechanism in his sword scabbard, he took out a key and tossed it to Chu Yunsheng. "Since you were kind enough to remind me, then this matter should rightly be handled by you. Open the lock and come out."
Chu Yunsheng caught the key, thinking that Xie Chengyun's temperament was even more changeable than flame flickering in the wind.
With the God-Sealing Shackles locks opened, Chu Yunsheng rose to his feet and followed behind Xie Chengyun, leaving the cell, stepping past the stone gate, and entering an exceedingly long stone passage ablaze with light.
Taking advantage of the time spent walking through the corridor, Chu Yunsheng finally received—rapidly and all at once—the plot of this world and the memories of the original body.