Yan Chaosheng had finally made up his mind, but when it came to taking action, he found himself quite helpless.

At his age, a young man just coming of age, experiencing his first love—one that had grown silently, passionate yet pure—was accustomed to keeping things to himself. To suddenly express his feelings was something Yan Chaosheng simply couldn’t do.

He had no experience, so he could only observe how other senior brothers and sisters managed such matters.

The subject he chose to observe was a senior brother who had entered the sect at the same time as him. This senior brother was close to a senior sister but hadn’t expressed his feelings either. Being rather shy, he was perfectly suited for Yan Chaosheng, who couldn’t easily express himself.

After secretly following the senior brother for several days, Yan Chaosheng discovered that he was quite dull, only daring to secretly watch that senior sister. When she spoke to him, he would blush furiously, unable to respond for quite some time.

Yan Chaosheng frowned in disdain.

Just as he was about to find another subject to observe, that very evening, this pair of immortal lovers took action. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the senior brother who made the first move, but the senior sister.

The senior sister boldly cornered the senior brother on his way back to his courtyard.

“Let’s be clear today. You always take detours when you see me, never looking at me. When I speak to you, you barely respond. What exactly does that mean?”

The senior brother’s face instantly turned red.

“Do you dislike me?”

The senior brother anxiously shook his head, desperately wanting to express that he didn’t dislike her at all, that he was just shy. But the more anxious he became, the less able he was to speak.

Seeing the senior sister leave dejectedly, Yan Chaosheng’s eyes flashed with contempt. Even in this situation, the senior brother lacked the courage to express his feelings.

Unexpectedly, after walking a few steps with teary eyes, the senior sister turned and rushed back impulsively, cupping the senior brother’s face and forcibly planting a kiss on him. The senior brother was completely stunned.

“Whether you like me or not, I like you. If you don’t object, I’ll inform our master tomorrow. If you’re angry, you can punish me.”

How could the senior brother object? His face bloomed with joy, a sight that made Yan Chaosheng’s expression darken.

They naturally became a couple. Yan Chaosheng turned away, not wanting to watch their tenderness. He had originally wanted to find someone like himself for reference and learning, but the senior brother proved even more useless than him. And the senior sister—nowadays, cultivators were so bold. Before the senior brother could take initiative, the senior sister had already declared her feelings.

Yan Chaosheng refused to admit the envy in his heart.

At the same time, he understood a deadly reality: timid emotions that were difficult to express were unlikely to change under any circumstances.

In his heart, he looked down on the senior brother for not daring to express his feelings, but when it came to himself, wasn’t he also afraid to take even a small step forward?

The day he mocked others, he should have realized that his situation was much more difficult than the senior brother’s.

Because the one he loved was a young girl who had not yet awakened to such matters. In the past, Yan Chaosheng had been like the senior brother, always avoiding Liu Shuang. His gaze followed her, but he didn’t want her to see him, and he often didn’t know how to respond to her.

Yet whenever something concerned her, he cared more than she did herself.

This time, however, the young man had made considerable progress. He no longer hid in the shadows but decided to approach her.

Each person had a sect mission every three months. Most of the time, these weren’t for earning spirit stones but to ensure the peaceful lives of ordinary people, checking whether there were harmful spirit beasts below the mountain, and capturing them.

Shao You raised Liu Shuang as a disciple, so she was no exception.

Sect missions were usually assigned. This time, Liu Shuang was originally supposed to go down the mountain with a junior sister, but unexpectedly, when she arrived at the mountain gate, the person waiting was Yan Chaosheng.

She looked at him in surprise: “Where is Junior Sister Lingyun?”

He couldn’t express himself and only looked at her with clean, pitch-black eyes. Liu Shuang guessed: “Did she exchange sect missions with you because she had something to do?”

Yan Chaosheng paused, then nodded.

Of course, he wouldn’t tell her that he had used many spirit talismans to exchange for the chance to accompany her.

Liu Shuang sighed in relief. The two walked side by side. Yan Chaosheng took the bag she was carrying. During cultivation, the sect didn’t allow disciples to be delicate. She hadn’t brought a storage pouch and carried a small bag herself, which was now entirely in Yan Chaosheng’s hands.

Looking at the young man’s handsome face and his tall figure, she inexplicably felt somewhat awkward. This awkwardness made her face warm—a feeling she hadn’t experienced when going down the mountain with other senior brothers and sisters.

If she had gone with Lingyun, the two girls would certainly have been chattering and laughing all the way. But with Yan Chaosheng, who couldn’t speak and rarely smiled, the atmosphere was inevitably silent.

Liu Shuang tried to bring up a couple of topics to ease the atmosphere, but seeing him look at her with such a tense expression, as if facing a formidable enemy, she felt quite frustrated.

She had tried to get closer to this junior brother before, but last year, when a task had been assigned to her and Yan Chaosheng, he hadn’t accompanied her. She had guessed that he didn’t enjoy being with her.

He appeared to be a loner with a rather solitary temperament. Was her chattiness bothering him?

So for the rest of the time, she tried to speak as little as possible, while Yan Chaosheng silently pressed his lips together.

The two awkwardly made their way to a village.

Recently, there had been fierce beasts appearing in the village at night. Their task was simple: eliminate the evil creatures.

They went out together at night, with fireflies dancing throughout the forest.

Such a time of private intimacy would inevitably stir the emotions of someone with intentions, leading to wild thoughts.

Yan Chaosheng’s mind wasn’t on the fierce beasts. He was indescribably nervous, and the more nervous he became, the colder and more arrogant his young, handsome face appeared.

The young girl beside him silently moved further away.

He clenched his fist, feeling somewhat dejected, realizing he was even worse than the senior brother. It would have been better if he hadn’t followed her but watched from afar—his performance might have been somewhat better.

Liu Shuang stopped: “Let’s wait here for the beast to come.”

The young girl found a hidden spot to watch the beautiful fireflies dancing in the forest. Yan Chaosheng looked at her features, sometimes visible, sometimes hidden in the moonlight. His heart raced as he casually grabbed several fireflies and handed them to her.

He was so nervous that his palms were sweaty. This was the first time he had openly given her such a gift to please her.

Liu Shuang saw him come over and squat down. The young man’s figure was much taller than hers, completely casting a shadow over her body.

He maintained a stiff expression as he opened his hand and held it out to her.

She also became inexplicably nervous. Looking down, she saw that Yan Chaosheng had crushed about a dozen fireflies to death.

“…”

The two faced each other in silence.

She was somewhat horrified, looking at him uneasily, not understanding what he wanted to do. Frighten her? Weren’t they past that age? Besides, Yan Chaosheng hadn’t been so malicious years ago. He had always been nice to her. She hadn’t heard that Yan Chaosheng had any grievances against her, had she?

Yan Chaosheng stiffly withdrew his hand and turned his back.

Amid fireflies dancing everywhere, she looked at the young man’s regretful back and the fireflies that landed on his shoulders, which he didn’t even bother to brush away. A bold guess formed in her mind.

Liu Shuang’s ears reddened slightly, though thankfully no one could see in the darkness.

Such a guess shouldn’t be entertained. Once it appeared, the two being together felt even more strange. She curiously looked at Yan Chaosheng while very much wanting to verify if her conjecture was correct.

This guess didn’t trouble Liu Shuang. She hugged her knees, burying her small face, and smiled secretly.

When a young man and a young woman experiencing their first love stayed together, even the smallest movements could be magnified many times.

They sat very close. In the bright moonlit night, they were close enough for Yan Chaosheng to smell Liu Shuang’s fragrance. He also feared she might hear his intense heartbeat.

Of course, Liu Shuang couldn’t hear his heartbeat. She only saw the young man’s Adam’s apple move slightly, rolling up and down. That image made her inexplicably… well, nervous.

Yan Chaosheng noticed her occasional glances and became so rigid he dared not move. Fortunately, just as he was about to break, the fierce beast appeared, saving him.

Like an arrow released from its string, he instantly disappeared from Liu Shuang’s side.

By the time Liu Shuang caught up, he had already killed the fierce beast. He was crouching beside it, head lowered, breathing heavily.

The fierce beast had been hacked to pieces. Liu Shuang blinked when she saw it.

So fierce.

And why was Yan Chaosheng panting so heavily after one-sidedly dominating the fierce beast? She was somewhat concerned and patted him on the shoulder: “Are you all right?”

His body trembled violently as he raised his pitch-black eyes to look at her. His gaze slowly moved to her hand. Liu Shuang felt that tremor and released her grip, belatedly remembering that he didn’t like being touched.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

He pressed his lips tightly together, his fingers curling slightly. That feeling came again. He desperately wanted to hold that hand, to prevent her from leaving his body. But that would frighten her. Regrettably, he didn’t move.

“Are you okay?”

He stared at her lips. Not really, he thought, but Yan Chaosheng still nodded.

Liu Shuang hadn’t exerted any effort, so she simply helped Yan Chaosheng extract the beast’s core.

Though the task was incredibly simple, and Yan Chaosheng had completed many dangerous missions before, he found tonight’s experience heart-pounding.

Besides crushing a bunch of fireflies and savagely killing the fierce beast in front of her, he hadn’t done anything else.

Yan Chaosheng was extremely frustrated. He thought it would have been better to just watch over her from afar. This was worse than doing nothing at all. What would Liu Shuang think of him?

A violent, savage brute? Would she already dislike him?

He thought about it with extreme dejection.

Liu Shuang pressed her lips together, her heart also beating rapidly as she struggled to maintain her composure.

She didn’t find Yan Chaosheng frightening at all. She remembered when she first met him years ago, how he had secured a Spirit Fruit alone and presented it to her.

Though the young girl was naive, all girls are generally sensitive. Even if he hadn’t been too obvious, she still sensed a different atmosphere in Yan Chaosheng’s attitude.

What she vaguely sensed made her tense her small face.

What should she do? She didn’t feel repulsed; she only wanted to curve her eyes and smile at him. She restrained this thought and coughed lightly.

Yan Chaosheng, beside her, immediately looked over.

She desperately told herself that it would be terrible if she were being presumptuous.

After returning to the sect, an incident occurred a few days later that made Liu Shuang even more uncertain. Yan Chaosheng began to distance himself from her again. Recently, he had grown close to a senior sister, listening attentively and seriously when she spoke, spending most of his time with her.

Liu Shuang felt uncomfortable watching this, her cheeks puffing slightly.

In the afternoon, she heard that he had given the senior sister many magical artifacts. She almost pulled off the leaves of the spiritual plant by the window. So it had been her imagination after all.

She carefully looked at the flower by the window. This was a spiritual plant she had cultivated herself. If one ate a seed, a small, tender sprout would grow in the ear. The sprout could transmit external sounds. If she gave it to Yan Chaosheng, perhaps he could hear again.

She felt stifled inside. Seeing that the spiritual plant was about to bear seeds, Liu Shuang felt even more aggrieved.

He liked the senior sister, so why did he give her Spirit Fruit, attend her meditation classes, and give her Eastern Pearls?

Coincidentally, at this moment, the Second Prince, who was always trying to please her, came again. She originally didn’t want to pay attention to this disciple with wicked intentions, but when her eyes caught sight of Yan Chaosheng, that girlish resentment and grievance immediately changed her mind.

He was already close to someone else!

Liu Shuang didn’t even hear clearly what the Second Prince said. She smiled at him, deliberately not looking at Yan Chaosheng, who was coming around the corner.

Ever since the last time Yan Chaosheng had switched tasks to accompany Liu Shuang down the mountain and messed everything up, he had been quite troubled for a while. That’s why he had specifically sought advice from the senior sister and given her gifts as thanks.

Just as Yan Chaosheng had finished learning from the senior sister about how to please girls, he came upon this scene: Liu Shuang chatting and laughing with the Second Prince.

He watched expressionlessly, his palms bleeding from his grip. Yan Chaosheng looked darkly at the Second Prince, his lips pressed tightly together.

He was standing far away but could vaguely discern from lip movements what sweet words the Second Prince was saying. He was leaning closer and closer, just like the scene when he had seen the senior sister kiss the senior brother. The young girl nodded absentmindedly without avoiding him, which in Yan Chaosheng’s eyes became something else entirely.

Yan Chaosheng gritted his teeth and turned to leave.

Before he could step out of her courtyard, he suddenly turned back, formed a fist with his five fingers, concentrated all his immortal energy in it, pulled the Second Prince away, and in front of her, pinned him down and beat him.

Liu Shuang stared in astonishment at Yan Chaosheng. He raised his reddened eyes and glared coldly at her.

Though it was fury, she somehow detected a hint of grievance.

He released the Second Prince and walked toward her. One hand gripped Liu Shuang’s chin, while the other wiped her lips. He wiped so hard it hurt, her lips distorted under Yan Chaosheng’s rubbing.

Liu Shuang realized what Yan Chaosheng had misunderstood, and her heart bloomed with laughter. That resentment completely dissipated, replaced by shyness and joy silently spreading in her heart. She stared at him blankly, allowing him to “roughly” wipe her lips, finding this version of him infinitely more adorable than his previous cautious timidity.

Seeing Yan Chaosheng about to explode with anger, no longer showing the careful caution he had always displayed in front of her, and her lips almost dying from pain, she finally gently told him: “He didn’t kiss me.”

Yan Chaosheng’s hand, along with his cold, angry expression, froze simultaneously.