Zither Emperor

Chapter 14 – The Promised Battle (IV)

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Luo Lan and the awakened Wind division competitors left sadly. At this moment, Luo Lan didn’t even dare to look at Ye Yin Zhu’s clear eyes.

Standing there, Ye Yin Zhu’s gaze found a stunned Xiang Luan in the middle of the cheering squad. The corner of his mouth revealed a trace of a smile. It appears that for her, I won. The Divine Music division won.

“Yin Zhu.” Xue Ling scampered up to him first, with Lan Xi, Kong Que, and Hai Yang following behind her. Hai Yang’s black hair was once again hanging down, concealing the withered half of her face. Her complexion was very unsightly, deathly pale without even a trace of color.

Ye Yin Zhu looked at the four ladies. “We won. I did say that I would protect you all from attacks—and I did. Wa——” Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Ye Yin Zhu’s body began falling down in Hai Yang’s direction.

Hai Yang, alarmed, subconsciously embraced Ye Yin Zhu’s body. The faint scent of blood and masculinity assailed her senses. Her originally pale face immediately flushed red. For a moment, she was bewildered, not knowing what she should do.

✶

Dazed, Ye Yin Zhu appeared to be seeing everything that was within his body — his meridians, his blood, his five viscera, his six bowels — he could see it all.

‘Yi, why can I see all of this?’ Yin Zhu’s heart brimmed with suspicions. At this moment, changes occurred within his blood. The originally bright red blood unknowingly turned violet, a light shade of violet. Very quickly, before his very eyes, the violet blood rendered everything the same color.

A prickly, itching sensation spread throughout his body, permeating to the very bone. He wanted to scratch, but as it turns out he couldn’t. That prickly, itching sensation became more and more intense as a wisp of heat raged unceasingly within his body. His itch ached more and more, torturing him to the point where he couldn’t endure it at all. His whole body itched. This kind of intense suffering made him desperately struggle with all of his might. Unfortunately, this pain was not something he could control.

Unaware of how much time had passed, Ye Yin Zhu felt like he was falling apart. The heat changed into a powerful current, swallowing all of the prickly, itching sensation. A surge of heat caused him to feel as if he boiling in lava. At this moment, however, the scorching heat felt several times more pleasant than the prior itch.

At last, the heat gradually stopped circulating. Ye Yin Zhu’s consciousness also became fuzzy. His whole body relaxed, and he fell deep into the darkness.

✶

His face was caressed by something cool and moist, making him feel indescribably comfortable. Moaning lowly, Ye Yin Zhu slowly opened his eyes.

“Praise Blue Dias! Yin Zhu, you’re finally awake.” Sura’s voice echoed with excitement. The deep concern warmed Ye Yin Zhu’s heart.

His blurry vision gradually became clearer, his six senses returning one by one. Ye Yin Zhu discovered that he was actually resting on a pair of thighs. The faint, delicate maidenly fragrance, somewhat cold and refreshing, appealed to him. Comfy, extremely comfy. This was the best pillow he’d ever had in his entire life. At the same time, he also discovered that he was embracing something soft and flexible.

“Hai Yang, how are you? You, why are you here?” Coming to his senses, Ye Yin Zhu was stunned as he processed everything in front of his eyes. He realized that he was currently in an extremely questionable situation: his head resting on Hai Yang’s thigh, his arms tightly wrapped around her waist, and his face snug against Hai Yang’s stomach. That touching, coldly refreshing and delicate fragrance came from Hai Yang’s body.

Almost immediately, he pulled his hands away. Ye Yin Zhu abruptly sat up to find that both his arms and body were somewhat stiff. Clearly he had been in that position for a long time. His heartbeat sped up in a flash, even faster than when he saw Xiang Luan.

Black hair concealed half her face, and her head was lowered. Ye Yin Zhu couldn’t completely see Hai Yang’s expression, but the attractive side of her face was already very red.

Sura stood to the side with a towel in his hand. The cool and refreshing sensation earlier was clearly from this towel. He looked at Ye Yin Zhu with a fake smile on his face and said, “You’re actually asking us this? As far as I know, you passed out on the training field, right onto Hai Yang of all people. Not only that, but you even took advantage of the opportunity and embraced her, refusing to let go no matter what we did. There was no other choice. Hai Yang could only come back with you. Originally we thought that everything would be fine once we put you on your bed, but who could have imagined that you would actually hold her even tighter. Only this time, you grabbed her somewhere else…. You actually used someone as your pillow. This Hai Yang is, indeed, kindhearted. If it was me, humph humph…”

“This, this…” Ye Yin Zhu already didn’t know what he should say. His face was even redder than Hai Yang’s. Lowering his head, he didn’t dare to look at this half-beautiful, half-ugly, ice-cold girl at his side.

The blush on Hai Yang’s face gradually faded away, recovering its ice-cold appearance. That pale, charming face seemed truly distressed. “Are you alright?”

Ye Yin Zhu recalled that it was because of his battle with the Green Dragon Fei Fei that he sustained such severe damage. The Green Dragon’s Wind Blade Breath was not easy to block; Ye Yin Zhu relied on his dou qi and his special weapon to repel the wind blades, but he also suffered a tremendous impact. Afterwards, he, again, was slammed against the top of the boundary in his struggle with Fei Fei. He was afflicted with serious damage twice, causing him to later spew blood and lose consciousness.

As he moved his body, he was amazed to discover that there wasn’t even the slightest twinge of pain within his body. Even his magic and dou qi seemed to have recovered by as much as 70-80%. Furthermore, his whole body now seemed to be brimming with power—as if it could barely contain itself. His body was feeling sticky, which was somewhat unbearable, as it seemed that he had produced a lot of sweat.

“I’m alright. How did I recover so quickly? After I lost consciousness, did you help me recover?”

Sura said, “No. After we carried you back, your whole body began to go cold then hot, trembling continuously. I tried to inject dou qi into your body to help heal you, but it was bounced back by a reverse force. Later, you kept sweating constantly, your body seemed to be emitting a trembling, violet smoke. You tossed and turned for an hour before calming down, embracing Hai Yang as you fell asleep. It’s now evening. At that time, we saw that you were heavily injured. Are you truly alright now?”

Not waiting for Ye Yin Zhu to speak, Hai Yang already stood up to leave. A wide expanse of her long, pure white skirt was soaked with sweat, which was clearly left behind by Ye Yin Zhu. “Since you are alright, I’ll leave. If you haven’t recovered, don’t compete in the match tomorrow.” Once she finished speaking, she turned and walked away. In that split second, Ye Yin Zhu clearly saw the ugly half of her face hidden under her black hair.

“Hai Yang,” Ye Yin Zhu called out.

Hai Yang’s steps stopped.

“Thank you.”

Lightly shaking her head, she didn’t say anything. She drifted away. Looking at Hai Yang’s retreating figure, Ye Yin Zhu mind already had a plan. He concluded that the biggest cause of Hai Yang’s icy aura was her face. That clearly was the result of something unnatural.

“Stop looking, all the others have already left. Yin Zhu, quickly tell me what kind of weapon you used today at the end of your match! I had never seen anything like it before.” Sura’s curious face stared at him.

“Oh, that one! That was…” Ye Yin Zhu lifted his right hand…