Chapter Sixteen Promise

Dongfang Bubai’s tone was as cold as ice, not a trace of emotion could be discerned, it held a chill that made his heart faintly fall into panic. He said, “Do you know what you’re doing?”

Frigid indignation.

Yet, listening carefully, Yang Lianting could faintly hear the irony and hopelessness in his tone. Heart melting beyond words, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and determinedly reached out his arms to embrace Dongfang.

Embracing, indescribable sadness surged within his heart.

Dongfang was thin, so thin he could feel his ribs through the layers of cloth. He was nervous too, so nervous he could feel his muscles stretched taunt and his fists clenched tightly. Dongfang was desperately trying to restrain his nervousness.

This sensitivity, this empty show of strength.

“Of course, I know.”

The light of the candles’ flames tinted the entire chamber in a warm and cozy color. Yang Lianting gently hugged Dongfang, stroked his soft and neat hair, and quietly spoke.

“I always know what I’m doing.”

Listening to Yang Lianting reassuring him Dongfang Bubai’s body stiffened even more and the look in his eyes was filled with confusion. However, his confusion quickly faded once he took a deep breath and coldly sneered.

“Yang Lianting, how dare you, aren’t you afraid this Seat will kill you?”

“Hurry and let go!”

He sternly scolded him, yet Yang Lianting could not hear the slightest killing intent in his voice.

“Afraid?” Yang Lianting’s nose felt slightly sour, he wanted to hug this person in his arms even closer. “Sure, I’m afraid.” He lowered his head and sniffed the faint scent of pinewood on his body. Slowly closing his eyes, the hollow fear that had lingered in his heart since being reborn was filled in this moment.

“Cult Master, you said you’re my reliance.”

Yang Lianting lightly loosened his hold of him then lowered his head and deeply gazed into Dongfang’s eyes, his pitch-black eyes able to steal one’s soul, his pleasant voice low and hoarse. To let him feel at ease, to let him rest assured, he repeatedly said, “I know what I’m doing.”

For a moment, Dongfang looked absentminded. Drawn in by Yang Lianting’s pair of eyes, his mind forgot the shameful secret and his heart swayed slightly.

In the next instant, Dongfang closed his dim eyes and turned his head away. Although he let Yang Lianting hug him, his facial expression remained emotionless and his body stiff. In a dull and muted voice he instructed, “Leave at once, this Seat shall assume nothing happened today.”

Nothing happened?

Hearing him speak, Yang Lianting initially felt like laughing. But once he took a deep breath and controlled his quivering lips that curved upwards, the heartache and sorrow surged from deep within. He could guess the feelings and thoughts in Dongfang’s heart and mind, without thinking.

Thus, he simply tilted his head downward, tightened his arms around the one he embraced and ruthlessly kissed him on his lips once more. Compared to before this kiss promised Dongfang his possessiveness. Powerful and overbearing, not giving Dongfang even a trace of space to evade. He expressed all, all his yearning for him since being reborn.

For a long time, they kissed deeply and intimately.

Eventually they parted, ending the kiss. Yang Lianting didn’t want to separate yet Dongfang Bubai nearly flew into a rage out of embarrassment.

He was the exalted master of a cult and the world’s first, who dared to be so rude and impudent towards him? Despite his anger and shame, he had already pardoned Yang Lianting twice yet he never thought this man dared to kiss him a third time! Dongfang Bubai, with reddened earlobes, raised his palm to strike.

Before he could raise his hand to hit him, Yang Lianting took hold of his arm and sighed in his heart. He could clearly see that Dongfang Bubai did not look enraged, did not harbor the faintest killing intent toward him.

If each of the Invincible East’s palm strikes were this weak

and without internal energy, wouldn’t that be the biggest joke in the world?

“Dongfang, look at me.”

“Look at me.”

Half of Yang Lianting’s face was hidden in the dark shadows, but because of this, the man’s strong and angular features looked more handsome and profound. The red candlelight was reflected in that pair of pitch-black eyes which deeply gazed at Dongfang Bubai as if they were able to see into the depths of his heart.

For an instant, their eyes met.

Not knowing why, yet Dongfang Bubai felt like being thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil. From a neglected part of his heart, suppressed bittersweet delight surged upward like bright flames. Dongfang Bubai’s throat had turned hoarse without him noticing but before he could turn his head away from him, he was stopped by Yang Lianting.

“I started out as a handyman and these two hands did a lot of rough work. Later on, I worked as an ordinary yellow guard until you promoted me to your personal guard and let me serve at your side. You can tell, and I can too, that I was born with poor roots and bones, born unfit for martial arts. In this life, I’ll never be an expert of the Wulin. I never went to school either, I cannot recite poetry nor quote the sages like a scholar.”

Yang Lianting’s hands trembled faintly as he quietly lowered his head downward. He deeply gazed at Dongfang Bubai as if he were gazing at his most cherished treasure in this lifetime.

He smiled gently.

His tone serious and poignantly devoted.

“Dongfang, I know what I’m doing.”

“Are you willing to believe in me, even though I’m not good enough, even though I–” I am willing to use my lifetime to atone for my crimes, to make amends.

“But I’ll treat you well, very well, and I’ll use my lifetime to prove to you–” I am willing to use my lifetime to wholeheartedly love you again and anew.

“Dongfang, are you willing or not?”

Dongfang Bubai did not speak. Lost in thought, he leaned on the bed without looking at Yang Lianting, as if he had not heard him at all.

The air felt stagnant.

Time flowed like water, the room silent for so long that Yang Lianting guessed he wouldn’t hear any response. He didn’t have any other thoughts, he merely wondered if he had been too hasty, too reckless. Faintly sighing, he took the soft blanket placed next to the bed, unfolded it, and carefully covered Dongfang Bubai’s body. He then stood up and put the warm stove closer to the bed. Intending to leave, he walked straight to the doors.

“Yang Lianting.”

Dongfang Bubai finally spoke.

“You know, a man and a man in love with each other, if word gets out–”

“I don’t care about being pointed at by one thousand fingers, I’m willing to bear the world’s insults for you.” Dongfang Bubai had yet to finish speaking, when Yang Lianting interrupted him and, word for word, promised him his sincerity with a soft smile.

In an instant, Dongfang Bubai’s pair of eyes reddened, yet he endured and concealed it. Flying, he stood before Yang Lianting. He still looked like the proud and lofty Cult Master, yet his voice faintly trembled. He clenched his hands into fists, raised his head high, and pretended to look evil and cruel.

“Yang Lianting remember the promise you made to me today if one day you renege–”

“If I renege, I’ll succumb to the Three Corpse Brain Pill, the three corpse bugs eating my brain and dying without a whole–”

Before he could finish his vow, Dongfang deeply creased his brows and covered Yang Lianting’s mouth. Not waiting for him to reply, Yang Lianting stretched out both his hands and closely embraced him.

He held Dongfang in his arms.Wanting to atone for all these years of hollowness.

The joy of regaining the treasure he had lost, nearly made the ruthless and hard-hearted man fail to keep the rims of his pair of eyes from reddening.

“I won’t.”

I can finally hold you again, how can I possibly renege?

He might as well be directly pointed at by a thousand fingers and be denounced by ten thousand people. If he truly went down in history for his infamy,[11] if future generations truly accused him of not knowing shame, what was so horrible about that?

“Dongfang, in this life, I’ll never let go of you again.”

A long and quiet embrace.

Yang Lianting smelled the faint fragrance of pinewood from Dongfang Bubai’s body, his nose felt sore and he fell into a daze. It seemed as if all the hollowness of his past and present lifetimes were filled in this moment. Only after he felt the body in his arms becoming stiff and sensitive, not daring to move, did he silently sigh in his heart, release him, and speak in a hoarse voice.