It was just at the break of dawn, with faint sounds of ocean waves coming from outside the window, lulling one into sweet dreams.
Li Fei was indeed having a sweet dream. She dreamt of the time when she and Lei Xiuyuan first fell in love. Unlike publicly acknowledged couples like Ye Yechang and Yue, Lei Xiuyuan rarely displayed intimate gestures with her in front of others, occasionally just putting an arm around her shoulders. However, in private, he was surprisingly bold and uninhibited.
His first kiss with her was right here in the East Sea. People often say that young girls are in the spring of love. As a normal person, when she secretly admired Lei Xiuyuan, she would also secretly fantasize about some bold things, wanting to be truly embraced by him, to be kissed by him wholeheartedly.
However, that first kiss scared her. She thought it would be a warm and sweet act, but it was accompanied by uncontrollable passion. His lips were hot and soft, carrying a dizzying sweet scent. Their tongues intertwined, conquering and exploring as if trying to dig out her deepest secrets.
Now these dream lips fell on her face again, kissing her tenderly. His arms embraced her, holding her tightly, as if wanting to crush her. One hand wandered over her bare body, gradually moving down from her chest, slowly heading towards a place that made her very uneasy.
Li Fei suddenly woke up from her erotic dream. The faint morning light fell on a pair of jet-black eyes; Lei Xiuyuan was leaning over her, gently tracing her eyebrows and eyelashes with his fingertips. Waking up on such a morning was not unfamiliar to her. For a moment, she hadn’t fully come to her senses and just murmured his name: “Xiuyuan.”
Half asleep and half awake, she mumbled, wanting to turn over and continue her sweet dream. But as she moved her body, she suddenly felt something was amiss. The blanket was gone, and her thin, soft inner robe was almost completely open, her skin touching his.
Li Fei was stunned for a moment, then suddenly had a jolt of realization. All the blood in her body seemed to rush to her head, her face instantly turning red. It took her a while to find her voice: “You… what are you…”
Lei Xiuyuan twirled a lock of her hair, slowly brushing it across her face, and chuckled softly: “Caught a little mountain spirit who sneaked into my bed naked.”
Li Fei instinctively wanted to close her clothes, but as soon as she raised her hand, he gently pressed it down onto the bedding. She wanted to speak, but her lips were sealed by his.
It was a kiss full of passion, conquering and exploring, turning over and over, making her feel that almost suffocating pain again. Amidst the pain, countless desires arose. She missed his embraces and kisses, and her body missed them even more.
Lei Xiuyuan asked her softly against her lips: “Is it okay?”
Is it okay? She wanted to ask herself that too. Li Fei tried to make one last struggle: “Didn’t you say we’d talk properly when we woke up?”
He lightly touched his forehead to hers: “We’re talking now. Quickly, say it’s okay.”
“Are you threatening me?” His hand was on her bare waist, and Li Fei couldn’t help but laugh, trying to dodge repeatedly while urgently saying, “What if I say it’s not okay?”
Lei Xiuyuan bit her lip: “Then I can only apologize in advance.”
He deliberately pinched her waist, making her laugh, twist, and dodge, but his hand quickly fell on her chest again, and the next moment, his lips sealed hers once more.
The long-missed passion, laughter, caresses, and intimacy made Li Fei feel like she was being pulled into a deep whirlpool. They seemed to be probing each other, hesitating. Perhaps the only hesitant one was her, with all those messy feminine thoughts and reservations. She didn’t want to be a mountain spirit throwing herself at him because he still hadn’t remembered everything. Would he think it was too easy to get her…
He was pressuring her, and she was pressuring herself to make a quick decision.
Lei Xiuyuan’s hand had already touched the most vulnerable part of her body. Li Fei suddenly trembled, her whole body tensing up, tightly grasping his arm. She was so anxious she didn’t know what to do, looking at him helplessly, tears welling up in her eyes. His hand stopped, and he let out a soft breath, his voice hoarse: “Do you want me to stop?”
Li Fei felt like she was about to cry. She quickly turned her head away, shaking it wildly, then nodding, and finally, she spoke, her voice trembling slightly: “Won’t you think…”
She couldn’t finish her sentence. It wasn’t something she could say out loud, and it was too late to ask now anyway.
Lei Xiuyuan chuckled a couple of times, cupping her face and kneading it like dough: “Silly child, just look at me now.”
He kissed down her cheek slowly, his voice gradually becoming muffled and faint: “Li Fei, look at me. I have horns. I was originally a Yaksha from overseas. Before we met, I was like this… I love you just like Lei Xiuyuan does. I love you.”
The two small black horns on the side of his head had already emerged, golden light flickering in his eyes. He held her hand as if inviting her to touch and caress them. Li Fei gently touched the two thin horns with her fingertips, and the next moment, she was tightly embraced by his burning, iron-like arms.
No one called for a stop anymore. In the gentle morning of the East Sea, they entangled insatiably, as if they had returned to that small cabin at the foot of Xingzheng Hall, tasting passion for the first time, unable to distinguish who was clinging to whom, who was taking from whom.
It had been a long time since she had indulged like this, and Li Fei was still a bit unaccustomed. Later on, she couldn’t even keep her eyes open and collapsed onto the bed, falling into a deep sleep. A string in her heart remained taut, wondering what expression she would see when she opened her eyes again. Would it be the same gentle gaze? Or a coldness as the heat gradually receded?
In her daze, she felt the person beside her was about to leave. She instinctively gripped his clothes, murmuring: “Don’t go…”
He lay back down beside her, pulling her into his arms, gently patting and comforting her. His soft lips fell tirelessly on her face and hair again and again. She seemed to be at ease and fell into a deep sleep.
When she woke up again, it was already bright outside. Li Fei was curled up in the blanket, wrapped into a ball. The sunlight coming through the window made her uncomfortable, and she quickly covered her face with the blanket. This slight movement alerted Lei Xiuyuan, who was sitting at the table writing. He came over and gently patted the blanket ball, saying softly: “Awake? Are you hungry? What do you want to eat?”
Li Fei poked her head out from the blanket, looking at him in confusion, shaking her head, and then quickly reaching out a hand to grab his sleeve: “What are you doing?”
“You’re so drowsy.” He smiled, simply picking up the blanket ball and holding it in his arms as he sat back at the table. He continued writing, kissing her face after each character, or blowing air to tease her.
Li Fei gradually came to her senses and saw that he had written many dense characters in a blank book. They were all names and characteristics of the tribes whose corpses were collected in the Small Thousand World. She didn’t expect that, like his master, he also enjoyed recording and compiling these things.
She looked for a while, then suddenly pointed at a place he had written and said: “If you could draw, wouldn’t it be better to have a picture to go with it? Also, you have the tribe names, but not their origins. Where they’re from, what the customs are like there, all of that could be written down. It would be great to compile it into a book later.”
“You’re quite ambitious.” Lei Xiuyuan put down his pen, rubbed his wrist, and smoothed out her hair from the blanket with his fingers. “Even if it’s written, it would be dozens of volumes, and I’m afraid all this effort might be in vain.”
She wanted to leave these experiences for the Central Plains immortals, but just like the Spirit Stele, it would most likely be sealed away again.
Li Fei said: “It might be sealed away now, but it doesn’t mean it will still be sealed after another four hundred years. I have another idea. You compile various things from overseas, and I’ll write about the Central Plains for overseas people to see. Wouldn’t that be more interesting?”
Lei Xiuyuan shook his head: “The only thing coveted in the Central Plains is spiritual energy. Apart from that, there’s nothing particularly special. The demons and fierce beasts here can almost all be found overseas.”
“Who says so?” Li Fei glared at him. “Didn’t Sun Yan say that beasts like the Shen don’t exist overseas? Oh right, this is the East Sea. Shen only appears here. Should we go catch one to see? I’ve never seen what a Shen looks like.”
Lei Xiuyuan pondered for a moment: “Shen are fierce beasts that can create illusions, unlike others. If you can’t distinguish between reality and illusion, even the strongest person could perish. It’s too dangerous, we’d better not go.”
Li Fei hooked her arms around his neck, smiling with relief: “This time I have absolute confidence. No illusion will deceive me.”
Lei Xiuyuan kissed the tip of her nose and chuckled: “Aren’t you worried about me? I’m very fragile, you know.”
“I’ll protect you.” Li Fei bumped her forehead against his.
It had been many years since Ji Tongzhou had come to the East Sea, and it had become very unfamiliar, with not a trace of what it once was. Ji Tongzhou silently gazed at this unfamiliar landscape, not knowing whether he felt disappointed or relieved.
Over the past four hundred years, he had been to many places – the wastelands of the northwest, the barbaric mountains of the south – but he had never looked back at the East Sea even once.
Many things had happened here. Whether he was willing to admit it or not, they were still deeply etched in his memory. The unfamiliar scenery prevented his memories from being too overwhelming, which might be a good thing.
Ji Jingwu was visiting the East Sea for the first time. This bright young boy forgot all his previous gloom as soon as he saw the sea, constantly asking: “Master! Master! Is that the ocean?”
Ji Tongzhou said calmly: “It’s the sea. You’ll have enough time to look at it until you’re sick of it. No need to make a fuss.”
He looked around, his brow slightly furrowed. It was now well past the hour of Si (9-11 AM). At this time, the elders of the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect should mostly be in the sect guiding disciples in cultivation. However, the number of immortals wandering in this city was unusually high, and they seemed to be secretly searching for something. Along the way, countless eyes had vigilantly scrutinized him.
It seemed that something had happened in the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect.
Ji Tongzhou saw that Ji Jingwu was still jumping around like a monkey. He disliked this behavior the most and immediately said coldly: “If you love jumping so much, I’ll let you jump for a whole day when we get back.”
Ji Jingwu immediately held his breath and followed behind him, not daring to move his hands carelessly.
Ji Tongzhou slowly flew forward on his sword. As he approached the seaside, he suddenly felt familiar. That’s right, the Spirit Stele created by Jiang Lifei should be here.
He instinctively looked towards the direction of the Spirit Stele but was surprised to find it empty. Only a group of travelers from afar surrounded the enclosed space, pointing and discussing amongst themselves.