Chapter 662 Too Lonely
Fang Moye’s body suddenly stiffened. For a moment, her expression flickered, and a blush spread across her cheeks.
“This…”
Fang Moye hesitated several times, wanting to speak but stopping herself. Jiang Huai remained silent. He was too lazy to struggle anymore. When he was powerless to resist, he would try to use his Great Escape Method, using avoidance to set his mentality right.
Fang Moye hesitated for a long time. Her eyelashes fluttered, and after quite a while, she leaned close to Jiang Huai’s ear and slowly spoke, “I… with my hands… for you… for you…”
As she spoke, even Fang Moye’s voice began to stammer. But at this moment, she was acutely aware that the more embarrassed and annoyed she appeared, the more uneasy Jiang Huai would become in front of her. Therefore, she summoned her courage and, with a resolute tone, said softly, “You don’t need to feel burdened, and you don’t need to overthink things… Close your eyes, and I will… release your desires for you…”
***
“Why… why is it… not listening anymore…?”
Fang Moye’s voice trembled slightly. Jiang Huai had not opened his eyes the entire time. He hesitated and then slowly replied, “Perhaps it’s tired of it.”
“Then, then what do you want me to do?”
“Nothing.”
“But, but we’ve only obtained three shards…”
Fang Moye hesitated for a long time before slowly speaking, “Do you think… using… using my feet would work…?”
As soon as she finished speaking, Jiang Huai was about to refuse. However, Little Huai, who had previously not wanted to be obedient, now became obedient.
Fang Moye looked at the scene before her, which felt somewhat novel. After hesitating for a while, she fetched a chair and sat opposite Jiang Huai. She then raised her delicate and warm jade feet, but flinched away as her soles were scalded.
At this moment, she seemed to be testing the water temperature, cautiously touching it first. As she gradually got used to it, she slowly closed her soft and slender jade feet together. However, after a short while, she flinched away again in a fluster.
***
“What, not listening again…”
“…” Jiang Huai didn’t know how to answer for a moment.
“Ancestral Master, I think… you should let me rest. What do you think?” Jiang Huai still hadn’t opened his eyes, merely replying in a voice that sounded utterly helpless. At this moment, Fang Moye slowly recalled the knowledge she had learned with her Junior Sister Yuzhu from the spring palace paintings and hurriedly replied, “Yes, yes, that’s right, I, I forgot…”
“Actually, there’s no time limit for this mission… We can do it anytime…”
“I, I want to finish it all at once, so, so you won’t have to suffer so much…” Fang Moye replied softly, her voice filled with guilt. Gradually, Jiang Huai’s annoyance and frustration disappeared.
All pain stemmed from having an improper mentality.
If Jiang Huai were indifferent now, simply treating it as playing along with his Ancestral Master for amusement, and then spending the next two months collecting enough Divine Emperor Pearl Shards, he could leave once she broke through. This was a matter only known to the two of them. As long as they understood each other implicitly, they could pretend nothing had happened. It seemed that if he maintained this mindset, this wouldn’t be a torment, but rather quite enjoyable.
But unfortunately, Jiang Huai couldn’t set his mentality straight. However, listening to Fang Moye’s slightly guilty voice, he no longer felt so helpless. He had a sense of release, as if he had given up.
However, because of the dream he had last night, he felt that perhaps he should take some time to have a good talk with Fang Moye.
“It’s fine. We’ve done it anyway, and it’s a habit now, so it doesn’t matter… Let’s save the remaining three times for next time. Let me rest. And if I have to bubble on Senior Sister’s soles again, I’ll soon be spitting white foam and falling to the ground.”
Jiang Huai told a stale and cold joke, which made Fang Moye suddenly chuckle. It was as if the ambiguous atmosphere had instantly dispersed. She floated up slightly and said softly, “Then shall I go bathe first?”
“Go ahead.”
Only then did Jiang Huai slowly open his eyes. His tender and slender jade feet were now sticky. Her body was alluring, and her white, tender little feet were delicate and bony. In this posture, she looked like a sacred pure lotus that had fallen into the mud. Jiang Huai quickly turned his face away. After waiting for Fang Moye to return from the bathhouse, he also hurried to the bathhouse. After washing his body clean, he put on his clothes again and returned to the courtyard.
The two of them sat down in the pavilion. At this moment, Fang Moye’s white and tender jade feet were bare, resting on the ground without a speck of dust on them. The moment Jiang Huai accidentally glanced at them, evil thoughts instantly arose in his mind.
It’s over.
In the past, Chu Xianning had also had her white and tender little feet bare in the courtyard, but Jiang Huai had never done anything to them. When he secretly peeked at Chu Xianning’s delicate jade feet, he simply found them beautiful and sacred, making it difficult to think otherwise. But ever since he had touched Chu Xianning’s white and tender little feet and even kissed them, every time he saw Chu Xianning’s delicate jade feet, evil thoughts would arise in his mind.
It seemed to be the same principle now.
He suddenly suspected that the bottom line in his heart was being broken step by step. But gradually, he realized that he didn’t really have many bottom lines to begin with. It was just that after his mentality collapsed, he completely changed his mentality and gave up.
When he completely gave up, it seemed to mean that the evil Little Huai was not far from being released to breathe some air.
Jiang Huai looked up inadvertently and suddenly realized that Fang Moye, sitting opposite him, looked particularly reserved at this moment. Even her sacred and beautiful face was full of blushes, and her eyes darted around as if she dared not look at him.
When she had released his desires for him earlier, Jiang Huai had kept his eyes closed the entire time, not opening them at all.
In fact, at times like these, if it were another woman, he would have certainly not missed it. Even when Senior Sister served him not long ago, and Senior Sister blushed and begged him to close his eyes, he would tease Senior Sister and never close them, wanting to see Ning Yuzhu’s blushing face. What scenery could compare to a woman’s face when she was shy?
Every time Chu Xianning had generously rewarded him with her white and tender little feet, he would open his eyes and never close them. Seeing the blush appear on Chu Xianning’s cold and aloof little face, making a show of dislike, was simply too cute. It was only when facing Fang Moye that Jiang Huai truly had no intention of opening his eyes at all.
He even had to imagine other things in his mind to deceive himself, such as substituting the gentle and lovely Junior Sister Ning for Fang Moye. He didn’t know if Fang Moye would be angry if she knew… Anyway, Jiang Huai wouldn’t say it, and she would never know.
Thinking this, Jiang Huai looked at Fang Moye with her blushing cheeks and was truly slightly stunned. He took a sip of the tea on the table and couldn’t help but softly say, “I thought Ancestral Master wouldn’t be shy.”
His words were worse; as soon as he said them, Fang Moye yelped like a cat with its tail stepped on. Her white and tender little feet under the table instinctively kicked his calf. After a moment, she slowly lowered her eyelashes and softly replied, “How could I not be… such embarrassing things… You were good, you closed your eyes, and I had to bear it all alone…”
“I was afraid that if I opened my eyes and looked at Ancestral Master, you would be even more embarrassed.”
“That’s still better than me bearing it alone…”
“Then I’ll open my eyes next time.” Jiang Huai just chuckled lightly, then said softly, “Let’s not talk about this, let’s talk about something else.”
Fang Moye immediately felt relieved and blurted out, “What should we talk about?”
“Ancestral Master, please tell me the cultivation history of the Divine Emperor. I’m a little curious.”
Fang Moye let out a long sigh of relief. Once the topic was changed, her shame and annoyance dissipated considerably, and she began to tell Jiang Huai about the Divine Emperor’s path of cultivation over the years. These were all recorded in history. She also knew many secrets that the Divine Emperor had told her personally, which others didn’t know. They could chat like this for a long, long time.
***
Evening, and the sunset glow filled the sky.
Jiang Huai suddenly wanted to go for a walk. Fang Moye hesitated for a moment before asking if he wanted her to accompany him. Jiang Huai naturally did not refuse, so Fang Moye took Jiang Huai and toured Baiye Mountain.
There were many red flowers on Baiye Mountain. Some of the flowers were particularly strange, with colors so vibrant they made one feel dizzy. They emitted not a vital life force, but an indescribable corrupting power.
“This is corruption,” Fang Moye said softly.
“What exactly is it?”
“It’s a power that roams the outside world, perhaps a higher existence than the Three Realms or other planes. We can’t say for sure even now. Many years ago, the Corrupted Evil God descended upon the world, intending to turn the entire world into its breeding ground for evolution, but it was eventually killed by the combined efforts of the Star God and Moon God.”
“The power of destruction seems to be no weaker than corruption. Fortunately, it hasn’t descended yet,” Fang Moye explained softly to Jiang Huai.
For years, she had been living in the Corrupted Domain, becoming its domain lord. She had improved the cultivation techniques of the cultivators in the Corrupted Domain, saving them from much suffering during their cultivation. She also used her cultivation realm to suppress the masterless consciousnesses within the Corrupted Domain, preventing many natural disasters that would have been fatal to ordinary people. Even so, the Corrupted Domain remained the weakest domain in the Three Realms, still often in ruins. All she could do was try her best to mend it.
“Ancestral Master truly has a compassionate heart,” Jiang Huai said softly, his voice filled with admiration. But suddenly, Fang Moye felt a sense of distance from him.
She turned her head to look at Jiang Huai and, relying on her intuition as a woman, asked, “Do you think I shouldn’t be doing this?”
“Of course not,” Jiang Huai shook his head. “I was just thinking, Ancestral Master, you’ve been working diligently all these years, dedicating everything to the Corrupted Domain. What about yourself?”
Fang Moye raised her eyes, seeming to understand his meaning.
On Baiye Mountain, she had always been alone. Now, she was almost two thousand years old. The memories of two thousand years were stored in her mind. Many facts about the past had become blurred. She could only remember what she wanted to remember. Initially, she ascended from the lower realms because she had already been to all the places in the lower realms, so she wanted to come to a bigger world to see it.
After arriving in the upper realms, she was coveted by various factions and struggled to survive. Eventually, she became a disciple of the Divine Emperor, and then the lord of the Corrupted Domain, dedicating herself to the Corrupted Domain for hundreds of years. It was as if the rise and fall of the Corrupted Domain had become completely integrated with her.
But ultimately, the Corrupted Domain was the Corrupted Domain, and she was herself. The two could not be confused.
Fortunately, she did have an answer to give Jiang Huai.
“The longer a cultivator cultivates, the more lost they become. In their long lives, countless voices in their minds will tell them that everything they do is futile, mere illusions. And the ability to save the common people and eliminate injustice before their eyes is the Dao I have always pursued.”
This was also the Dao Fang Moye had taught Chu Xianning.
This was also the Dao Chu Xianning had taught Jiang Huai.
Jiang Huai did not refute, nor did he praise her further. He gazed at the slowly descending sun in the distance, watching a pair of wild mandarin ducks swimming on the lake surface. After a long period of contemplation, he let out a helpless sigh.
This sigh was not directed at Fang Moye, but was merely Jiang Huai’s own emotion.
“It’s too lonely.”
