It was cold...
So cold...
As if he was plunged into the very depths of frozen lake.
He wanted this to stop but how? He didn't know.
It was freezing and painful. He felt as if with just a little movement, he would break apart.
Amidst darkness enveloping him, the former Demon Lord felt the gentleness caressing both sides of his cheeks. So gently as if they were handling something more precious than anything in the world, afraid that it would break, as if the former Demon Lord would crumble at the slightest touch. As if... he was loved.
He could hear someone saying something to him but... his head hurt so much he couldn't hear it clearly. All he knew was that... he trusted this person. This person wouldn't hurt him. He just knew.
He instinctively knew that he should give in to this unknown power that would lessen his pain, but instead he struggled to free himself. For them, he struggled as far as he could. Even if he could feel his head splitting open, he wouldn't give up.
The mysterious person then reached out to his lips and put something inside. The former Demon Lord willingly opened his mouth and obediently chewed it. He didn't know if that was his imagination playing with him, but he could feel that the person feeding this to him, was smiling at him with eyes full of adoration, like they were staring at the most exciting treasure they could ever find.
By then, the pain subsided significantly and the former Demon Lord could open his eyes a little. He slowly tried to reach out to the shadow in front of him. However, no matter what he did, the shadow would move further from him.
That shadow being the last thing he saw, the former Demon Lord soon felt drowsy and feel into deep slumber.
He didn't know just how long he had been following Li Songbai - his shixiong. For as long as he could remember, he had deeply admired this shixiong of his and would always follow him like a chick following its mother hen, always happily saying, "Shixiong, shixiong!"
He couldn't help it, after all, the word 'shixiong' sounded so pleasant when he was referring to Li Songbai. As the future sect leader of Kunlun Sect, Li Songbai was a great martial artist, had a bright mind with enough compassion. He was a perfect successor to the sect leader of Kunlun.
And he, someone who was obviously lacking behind the other disciples and had huge age difference from Li Songbai, Li Songbai was one to take care of him most. Before he knew it, Li Songbai had become the only person he had in his heart.
Li Songbai was a gentle, kindhearted and warm person. He was fully aware of that fact.
However, one day, Li Songbai deliberately avoided him then stared at him with eyes full of indifference. He got goosebumps all over his body whenever he recalled just how... cold his shixiong's eyes are. They were lifeless, devoid of any light.
He didn't know when exactly, but Li Songbai started to treat him coldly after he was called into the sect leader's bamboo house.
This wasn't the shixiong he once knew. His shixiong wasn't like this. The change in Li Songbai was so great, he was beginning to doubt that maybe the 'Li Songbai' from before was only made up in his mind all along.
He continued to believe that Li Songbai was just going through some difficult times and had no time to entertain him. He believed that Li Songbai would see him again, would treat him like he did before.
He continued to trust and believe in Li Songbai. He waited and waited until all his feelings for that shixiong of his dissipated, just like that. In the end, he gave up.
One day, there came a great war including the Orthodox Faction, Unorthodox Faction, Blood Cult, and even the Imperial Forces. Their enmity towards each other was put to halt, all for defeating a single man. The Heavenly Demon1天魔, Tian Mo..
Kunlun Sect, as one of the sects belonging to the Orthodox Faction, took part in this war. All the sect's disciples no matter inner or outer, were ordered to go down the Kunlun Mountain and participate in the war except for the injured, elderly and children. He also had to participate in the great war. Well, supposedly.
The night before they went down the mountain, Li Songbai visited him privately. He was just barely awake at that time. Seeing his shixiong for the first time after a long time, his heart couldn't help but beat faster and faster. He first wondered just why this man, who had been ignoring him finally come to see him.
Out of nowhere, Li Songbai pulled him into an embrace. He was startled and obviously flustered, his heartbeat which had no intention of quieting down any time soon, wasn't any of help either.
Thump--
He wrapped his arms around the older man's waist and stopped his hands from trembling.
Thump---
Then right at that moment, Li Songbai who hadn't said a word since his arrival, whispered into his ears, "Shidi."
Ba-dump---!
Li Songbai's hand slowly crept up his left shin, "I'm sorry."
He realized what Li Songbai was about to do.
Ba-dump---! Ba-dump---! Ba-dump---! Ba-dump---! Ba-dump---! Ba-dump---!
By then...
'No...'
It was already too late.
'NO!'
CRACK--!
"NOOOO!!!!"
Xuan Cheng's eyes opened wide as he woke up, drenched in cold sweat. His inner robe was thoroughly soaked and wet from the amount of sweat he produced. His long bangs were stuck to his forehead and cheeks, creating an image that he was being chased by a ghost.
Xuan Cheng clutched the place where his beating heart resided and panted heavily.
"Huff- Huff-" He frowned and clenched his fists, 'A dream?'
Xuan Cheng then found something strange about this. About all this. He... He, the former Demon Lord was supposed to be dead by suicide. He should've died then in that place.
Looking around the room, he noticed that the leaking ceiling, wooden wall and floor were all familiar. This room was familiar to the room he used to live in on his disciple's days. No, it couldn't be called similar anymore. This was the exact carbon copy of his room when he was still a disciple.
Without any warning, Xuan Cheng suddenly got a splitting headache as if his brain was directly ripped off from his skull. "Ugh--!" Then, he coughed out a considerable amount blood onto the white sheets, staining it red.
'Not good!'
Xuan Cheng was currently about to have a qi deviation2 ...is a condition when one experiences a shock from the outside and has the inability to control the circulation that causes imbalance, improper or blocked flow of qi in the body, 'My meridians are all messed up! What the hell happened?'
He immediately got onto lotus position and began to sort out his meridians to the way it used to be. While doing so, he couldn't help but notice just how little his qi was. His qi as the Demon Lord was a thousand times more than this. Sweat continuously poured out flowed down his pale, unblemished skin. Soon, he calmed down and slumped his shoulders. 'Fucking hell, this happened just as soon as I wake up?'
From the looks of it alone, it looked like he had gone back to the past, precisely a bit more than 70 years ago. Xuan Cheng didnt know what was happening. It could be that he was already dead, but the heavens were punishing him for all the sins he committed and he got the worst torture there was for him. Memories.
And there was a possibility that he really went back to the past, though... It was mostly unlikely. After living for so long, he had never heard of someone going back to the past. It was natural to be doubtful.
After sorting out his raging qi, his gaze landed on the small table beside his bed which had a small basin of cool water and wet towel. He realized then that there was someone here aside from himself. However, Xuan Cheng used almost all his strength in stabilizing his qi and had no energy to walk out from bed.
Even so, he was stubborn and tried to get up. He fell hard a few times, but eventually reached outside his room. Supporting himself by holding onto the wooden wall, he walked to the place where he wanted to go the most. The place which was quite far from his room and had a strong smell of medicine wafting from, the kitchen.
Once he arrived, he was greeted by an unbelievable scene of a man grounding processed medicine into paste. Beside that man, there was a huge pot containing... uh, some black matter. It was safe to say that his kitchen was now destroyed to the point of being unrecognizable.
Xuan Cheng feigned a cough to have the man's attention. The man flinched, hard, as if caught in doing something to be guilty of. Well, 'Thanks to him, my kitchen is now...'
Once the other man turned over, Xuan Cheng - the former Demon Lord could see his face clearly. Xuan Cheng's eyes were blown wide as he stared dumbly at the person in front of him. "Shidi? You're awake already. You shouldn't move around much yet."
This man's features were the same as decades ago, when he was still a disciple of the sect. Hair pulled into a bun, kind slanted eyes, tall nose, sharp neat eyebrows and thin lips, looking like a righteous yet sly warrior... It was all the same as how he remembered them to be.
"Come, let's get you back to bed."
Noticing the strangeness in Xuan Cheng, the man gently place the back of his hand against Xuan Cheng's forehead, "Hey, what's wrong? Do you still have the fever? Strange... Your fever is gone so what's the problem?"
The moment Xuan Cheng felt warmth from the man's palm, his eyes began to blur. Xuan Cheng could also hear his shixiong's heartbeats clearly. It was surreal.
"...Shixiong?"
"Yes?"
"Shixiong..."
"Yes, what is it?"
Xuan Chen dived directly into his shixiong's arms and sobbed.
