After The Aloof Long Aotian Became Jealous Of Me - Chapter 10

After an unbearably difficult night, Bai Yi still had not awakened by the following morning.

It was not until the sun stood high in the sky that he finally rolled over and opened his eyes, only to be jolted fully awake by a strange smell.

What was that?

It smelled unpleasant, yet somehow also a little appetizing.

Bai Yi sniffed the air and followed the scent toward the side of the stone platform.

The first thing he saw was Long Aotian sitting cross-legged.

Yet at some point, an alchemy furnace had appeared before him, and a pot of meat soup was simmering over a low flame inside it.

Ignoring the slightly strange smell, the sight of an immortal sitting calmly while preparing soup resembled a peaceful scene from an immortal paradise.

Bai Yi blinked.

He wondered whether he had slept himself senseless and was still dreaming.

Long Aotian was cooking?

How could that possibly happen?

His soft body fell backward as he prepared to sleep again.

Rong Zhenlü looked toward him.

His golden lashes were long and straight without the slightest curl, though the corners of his eyes tilted faintly upward. When his eyes lifted, the intersecting lines made his emotions impossible to decipher.

He clearly possessed the noble detachment of someone untouched by mortal concerns.

Yet the hands he had always used solely for cultivation now served Bai Yi a bowl of soup.

“Yiyi, eat something before we set out.”

“Immortal Lord, th-this is truly… Thank you so much.”

Bai Yi thanked him with complete sincerity and gratitude.

Long Aotian had personally cooked for him.

As his underling, Bai Yi was genuinely overwhelmed by the favor.

He suddenly realized that Long Aotian could actually be quite reasonable.

After all, Bai Yi had come to this dreadful place only because he was accompanying him.

When he thought carefully about it, Rong Zhenlü had been remarkably tolerant and considerate ever since they entered the Immortal-Prohibited Land. Even though Bai Yi had somewhat offended him during the incident with Bai Wuhen, he had not held it against him.

Now, he had even personally made Bai Yi soup.

Long Aotian’s sense of taste had weakened long ago, and he could barely perceive most flavors. He could have solved the problem by tossing Bai Yi a disgusting fasting pill, yet instead he had chosen to cook.

As expected, Long Aotian was only truly Long Aotian when advancing the plot and pursuing his goals.

At last, he displayed some of the magnanimous bearing he had possessed in the original novel and stopped tormenting his underling.

Bai Yi praised him extensively in his heart.

Having lived as a mortal throughout his life, his eating habits had long since become fixed. He felt that waking in the morning, eating something warm, and then entering the cave sounded wonderful.

He eagerly accepted the bowl and examined it closely.

The broth had been simmered until golden. The meat had been cut into small pieces and stewed until tender, while the vegetables had clearly been fried beforehand and looked crisp, fragrant, and thoroughly seasoned.

The longer Bai Yi looked, the more astonished he became.

They had remained only a single meter apart. How had Rong Zhenlü silently obtained so many ingredients and cooked them like this?

Apart from the mediocre smell, the presentation was perfect.

The small bowl was packed with meat and resembled one of the dishes from Bai Wuhen’s immortal cuisine yesterday, though this version looked even more appetizing and clearly involved a more complicated cooking process.

This time, Bai Yi was genuinely moved.

Without spiritual energy, his eyes had returned to their translucent tea-brown color. He looked toward Rong Zhenlü through a faint mist and thanked him once more.

“Thank you. Truly.”

Rong Zhenlü’s cold features softened slightly.

For once, he did not avoid Bai Yi’s gaze. His excessively handsome face even carried the faint impression of an older brother caring for someone younger.

“It’s nothing. Taste it.”

Bai Yi nodded emotionally.

He scooped up a spoonful of broth and brought it expectantly toward his moist red lips.

A moment later, his relaxed expression remained unchanged.

Only the hand holding the spoon tightened slightly.

Huh?

Something about the taste seemed wrong.

Bai Yi knew Long Aotian’s sense of taste was weak, so he had already prepared himself for the possibility that the soup might be slightly too salty or contain too much seasoning.

Those things would have been acceptable.

But why did this broth possess such an indescribably strange flavor?

Unwilling to give up, he tasted a piece of meat.

He nearly spat it out immediately.

At last, he discovered where the smell came from.

Boar taint!

The meat was unbelievably gamey and foul!

It felt as though the flesh had come alive inside his mouth, its overpowering meaty stench beating against his tongue.

No matter how much Bai Yi tried to endure, his snow-white face still flushed bright red.

Ahhh!

It tasted horrible!

Amid his suffering, realization suddenly dawned upon Bai Yi.

No wonder Long Aotian had tolerated him so much.

No wonder his temper had suddenly improved.

So this was what he had been waiting for.

What a narrow-minded man!

Bai Yi remembered Bai Wuhen saying yesterday that if one wanted to win someone’s heart, one must first conquer their stomach.

Bai Yi had agreed with her at the time.

Now, however, it appeared that if Long Aotian wanted to disgust someone, he would first disgust their stomach.

He had done it deliberately!

Unfortunately, there was little Bai Yi could do about Long Aotian’s childish revenge.

Spitting it out was impossible.

He still needed to pretend he had noticed nothing, swallow it, and praise the food so Long Aotian could thoroughly vent his resentment.

Otherwise, Bai Yi could forget about living comfortably in the future.

Alas, the Immortal Thread Robe stopped producing spirit stones inside the Immortal-Prohibited Land.

Otherwise, Bai Yi would already have accumulated several by now and could have hurried away without hesitation.

This life was becoming impossible.

For now, he could only be grateful that Long Aotian had not been completely merciless.

At least the meat had been stewed until extremely soft, allowing Bai Yi to swallow it without chewing.

Gulp.

Bai Yi forced it down and revealed a sweet smile.

He suddenly missed the strawberry dumplings on Zhaoye Peak.

“Is it delicious?” Rong Zhenlü asked, his eyes flickering.

“It’s extremely delicious,” Bai Yi replied through clenched teeth, his smile growing even more brilliant. “Wouldn’t the Immortal Lord like a bowl as well?”

Rong Zhenlü truly lowered his eyes and took a sip.

He appeared genuinely detached from mundane worldly concerns.

After drinking calmly, he continued watching Bai Yi without blinking, his features possessing a cool purity like thin moonlight.

For one brief moment, Bai Yi genuinely wondered whether his sense of taste had weakened so severely that he could no longer detect the foulness.

But no.

In the past, Bai Yi had found it difficult to read his emotions. At this moment, however, he could clearly sense the pleasure within Rong Zhenlü’s eyes.

Worse, that pleasure contained unmistakable malice.

What a waste of an immortal’s face.

He continued staring without blinking, clearly indicating that Bai Yi eating only one piece was not enough.

Thus, Bai Yi had no choice but to swallow the entire bowl without properly chewing.

His tongue gradually became numb.

Toward the end, he could no longer taste the gamey flavor and even began to think it was somewhat delicious.

This was terrible.

If this continued, his sense of taste would become completely distorted.

Bai Yi finished one bowl and stopped before it was too late.

“I’m already very full.”

His face flushed as he put down the bowl, lowered his eyes, and silently cursed Rong Zhenlü in his heart.

Dim mist filled the space behind him.

The young man lowered his head, his black hair, red lips, and snow-white skin forming a breathtaking image. His shy, flushed face surpassed every beautiful sight in existence.

The Immortal Lord opposite him stared in a daze.

After breakfast, the two entered the cave together.

Long Aotian seemed to have temporarily vented his anger. He walked beside Bai Yi through the narrow passage and occasionally took action to protect him.

Since these matters concerned his life, some of Bai Yi’s anger also faded.

As expected, the Long Aotian who focused on serious matters and the one he dealt with ordinarily were practically two different people.

The moment Rong Zhenlü concentrated wholeheartedly on advancing the plot and no longer had attention to spare for trivial matters, he immediately became much more normal.

The cave extended deep underground.

It was clearly an ancient ruin that had already been thoroughly searched.

At first glance, nothing remained inside and no clues could be found. Even the patterns on the walls had been pried loose and carried away.

Anyone else who entered would undoubtedly have left empty-handed.

But who was Long Aotian?

A favored child of heaven would always make new discoveries wherever he went.

Exactly as described in the original novel, Long Aotian keenly discovered a hidden chamber beneath the center of the ruins.

This was the true heart of the ancient site.

It also contained the thing Bai Yi wanted most—the most important reason he had endured countless difficulties to come here.

The two descended the stairs side by side.

Bai Yi could not control his increasingly rapid breathing, and his eyes practically began to glow.

The moment the door opened, they truly lit up.

So many glittering spirit stones.

He had practically fallen into a mountain of them.

Seeing the sight personally was even more overwhelming than the original novel’s description.

It resembled a dragon’s treasure cavern, with enormous quantities of high-grade and mid-grade spirit stones piled together in complete disorder.

This was the accumulated wealth of the ruin’s former master.

In stark contrast to Bai Yi’s excitement, Rong Zhenlü frowned at the useless objects.

Using his sword, he swept a large number toward the stairwell, clearing a path.

As the Immortal Venerable’s foremost disciple, he had never lacked spirit stones.

Furthermore, the novel’s plot had already progressed beyond its midpoint. At present, Rong Zhenlü stood at the summit of the cultivation world in both status and strength.

Any treasure casually taken from his possession would be priceless.

He had long since become so wealthy that he could not comprehend ordinary people’s hardship.

Even the other underlings on Zhaoye Peak could not be bothered to use spirit stones like these.

Bai Yi, however, needed them.

He did not intend to remain on Zhaoye Peak forever.

Those expensive magical treasures were illusory benefits. He could not guarantee that they would genuinely belong to him in the end.

Spirit stones already in his possession were far safer.

Watching Rong Zhenlü casually throw them aside, Bai Yi did not consider him wasteful at all.

Instead, his face filled with admiration.

He treasured this kind of spirit.

Storage rings could not be used inside the Immortal-Prohibited Land.

Soon, Long Aotian would discover a bell inside the hidden chamber. It carried another fragment of the pattern from the jade pendant, and one of its abilities was to provide spatial storage within the Immortal-Prohibited Land.

To awaken the bell, Long Aotian would fill it with most of the high-grade spirit stones.

He would consider the remaining mid-grade stones too troublesome to carry and abandon them here.

Once he discarded them, wouldn’t Bai Yi be free to collect the scraps?

Bai Yi did not possess a storage ring, but he had two hands.

He could hide some stones inside each sleeve and stuff another handful into the front of his robes.

That much money would be enough for him to spend extravagantly throughout the latter half of his life.

Thinking of this, Bai Yi suppressed the corners of his mouth as they threatened to rise.

He stared at the stones with intense longing.

Had an outsider been present, they probably could never have imagined that a young man dressed in such an expensive and luxurious manner was desperately short of money.

Yet no matter how excited Bai Yi felt, he continued following Long Aotian with lowered eyes and an obedient expression.

At the same time, he released a breath of relief.

They had arrived an entire day later than in the original novel, but fortunately, nothing had gone wrong.

As expected, opportunities intended for Long Aotian could never be taken by others.

After throwing aside the spirit stones, Rong Zhenlü soon made a discovery.

The incomplete pattern on the wall was identical to the one on Zhong Tong’s shoulder.

He thought briefly, then stepped forward and completed the missing pattern.

For the first time, one side of the jade pendant inside his body appeared within the cultivation world.

A faint blue remnant soul immediately materialized inside the hidden chamber, its expression filled with excitement.

“It’s actually the complete Ancient Immortal Diagram!”

“Hahahaha! This is the Immortal Diagram I spent my entire life pursuing!”

Watching the scene unfold exactly as it had in the original novel, Bai Yi’s heart tightened.

He knew the appearance of the ancient remnant soul would release a decayed, primordial aura.

Since Bai Yi’s physical body was not much stronger than an ordinary mortal’s, he would inevitably suffer some injury.

Unfortunately, this was the price of knowing the original story.

Even though Bai Yi knew he would be hurt, he could only stand quietly.

He could not dodge ahead of time.

He could not give Long Aotian any reason to become suspicious.

Bai Yi had lived in the modern world for eighteen years and had scarcely ever suffered a serious injury.

He had little experience with pain.

Now that he truly had to confront it, his entire body became unbearably tense, and he instinctively squeezed his eyes shut in fear.

One second.

Two seconds.

The violent impact that should have torn through his body according to the original novel never arrived.

Bai Yi’s fingertips trembled slightly as he opened his eyes in alarm.

A figure stood directly before him.

Its sharply defined frame and broad shoulders formed a wall through the air, completely shielding Bai Yi and blocking every trace of the aura.

Bai Yi raised his head in a daze.

He thought Rong Zhenlü looked incredibly impressive.

Every time Long Aotian protected him as one of his underlings, Bai Yi recovered a little of the admiration he had once felt for the protagonist while reading the novel.

Before he could express his gratitude, he noticed Rong Zhenlü’s jaw tightening.

Veins stood out across the back of his pale hand as he raised his sword to destroy the remnant soul.

He was actually angry.

In the original novel, Long Aotian had clearly not become angry here.

Once that unimaginably powerful body unleashed its strength, the deeply buried hidden chamber shook violently with a deafening crash and seemed ready to collapse.

His fury overwhelmed his reason.

Rong Zhenlü, who was always rational, swung his sword without caring about the consequences.

The remnant soul was so frightened that it nearly dispersed on the spot.

Bai Yi knew the soul still needed to reveal several crucial pieces of information.

It could not be destroyed now.

Panicking, he instinctively raised a hand to stop Long Aotian.

He quickly remembered who he was and immediately regretted the action, attempting to withdraw his hand.

But it was already too late.

His fingertips rested against Rong Zhenlü’s sword-wielding forearm.

Bai Yi’s heart nearly stopped.

Beneath the slender, resilient muscles of the arm lay sharp, defined bones. The skin was so cold that it made him shiver.

Yet the instant Bai Yi’s soft fingertips touched him, every movement abruptly ceased.

Clang.

The sword fell from Rong Zhenlü’s hand.