3 A shitty plot device!

Warning: casual mentions of suicide.

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The silver head lifted and revealed the bleary-faced demon king, expression tired and muddled with sleep. His silver hair was a bit messy but still fell around his face in a way that perfectly framed his features. Those sharp gray-blue eyes now appeared confused and dazed and if Zhang Wang was a woman, he was pretty sure now would be a good time to scream 'I'm pregnant!'.

Alas, he was a man and did not appreciate the way that the demon king's robes were loose and falling off his shoulders, revealing a sculpted white jade chest and haphazard bandages that seemed to only add to the allure.

Zhang Wang snarled and tried to pull away, but the hand on his wrist did not let go, and in an instant, he was flipped onto his back, "What the- Hey! Get off me!"

All he earned in response was a growl and the demon king pulled him into his arms and-- Zhang Wang didn't mind being the little spoon...with a woman! Not a guy like this! What in the world was even going on? Had he been living in a danmei all this time without realizing it?

Panic began to harass his mind but the demon king only pulled him closer until his back was pressed flush to that wide chest. He could feel a hot feverish breath on his nape that made him shiver in the most unpleasant of ways.

Zhang Wang tried to wiggle his way out. But he noticed that the person behind him was extremely hot to the touch and sticky even against his clothes. The poor cultivator whined in disgust.

But he also noticed that the demon king was trembling lightly and was nuzzling his face into Zhang Wang's shoulder.

The flesh corroding poison would have easily killed a lesser being, but with cultivation as high as King Yanlin's it was not outright fatal to him. But that didn't make it any less painful. The demon was probably delirious from pain and all the blood-loss from their earlier battle while his body was struggling to recover.

Zhang Wang felt a little sorry, so he stopped wiggling in protest and accepted his fate as a body pillow.

That long, soft tail came up to smack him in the face. Annoyed, he caught the tail in his hands and vented his frustrations on it by giving the thing a good shake.

…It was incredibly silky to the touch! Zhang Wang decided to play with the tail as a reward for his grievances.

His stomach grumbled at him in protest.

Zhang Wang sighed as an uncontrollable urge came about him. He shook the flickering tail a few more times. And then bit it like a savage.

...

The next day, Zhang Wang didn't really know what to make of his situation. For one, he thought he was going delirious with hunger and did nothing but watch King Yanlin butcher the goat in front of him.

The rain had stopped and left behind a thin mist and water dripping from the cavern mouth. It was still cloudy and when Yu Yanlin returned from his morning hunt, his hair and clothes damp with rainwater.

Yu Yanlin finished removing the organs and Zhang Wang was already drooling, and a bit too eager to admit that he had salt and spices on him especially for situations as such.

Yu Yanlin shouldn't have been impressed with him but he was.

Zhang Wang couldn't help but think there was something wrong with the character design of this supposed main villain.

"Do you truly not understand what happened?"

Should Zhang Wang be embarrassed to admit no? Maybe. But his face was thick enough, "Nope. No idea, I really did intend to kill you."

"Hm, I figured." Yu Yanlin used a dagger to dismember the goat. He seemed to be exerting a lot of force for someone who had a demon's strength… Zhang Wang wondered if he was suffering from the effects of the poison. "Though I'm shocked you were able to pull off such a feat without intention."

"Save me from the suspense and tell me what happened already," Zhang Wang grumbled with complaint, "Just please don't tell me it's something as stupid as entering a contract or whatever…"

Yu Yanlin perked up, "Ah, yes. It's precisely that!"

Zhang Wang's shoulder sagged. He figured as much but didn't want to have the truth confirmed to him like this. Wasn't this just like some sort of inconvenient plot gimmick of some shitty danmei novel? He really couldn't have been roped into something as silly right? He had to put an end to this sooner than later. "Okay, then let's just break it and call it a day."

"...It's not that simple," Yu Yanlin sighed.

"What, why not? People undo and reforge contracts with their spiritual beasts all the time. This can't be any different."

"It's different."

Zhang Wang shifted in his spot, his face pulled into a grimace, "How's it different?" He never contracted a spiritual beast before so there was no way for him to compare what was currently going on to the norm.

Yu Yanlin lifted his head and Zhang Wang saw that the demon king had finished butchering the goat. The Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms decided to make himself useful and turned to the fireplace. Luckily there was still some firewood left. He began with a spell that sucked out any moisture from the branches before blowing a few sparks that would catch on the birch bark. It didn't take long for a fire to crackle. "Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms, how do I appear to you right now?"

It was… a bit of a strange question and made Zhang Wang scrunch up his nose. "Please don't call me that. Just Zhang Wang is fine." He then turned his gaze to the demon king and scrutinized his appearance.

Well, there wasn't much that was different at a glance. He wasn't wearing his gaudy outer robes anymore and the inner one was a bit simpler with black patterns against black fabric. There was only a thin outline of gold along the hanfu's sleeves and collar.

King Yanlin's eyes were like clear blue crystals, sharp and intense. Zhang Wang found them to be the most captivating. And from the white jade skin to piercing eyes and deadly elegance, this man seriously hit all the check-marks for a handsome villain character that had an S-tier skill for dropping panties.

He was tall as well, taller even than Zhang Wang himself who was now proudly 180 cm and was built like one of those classical sculptures that Zhang Wang once studied back in his days as a starving art student in Beijing.

Turned out, even here, the gods were extremely unfair when it came to a person's appearance stat. Zhang Wang himself only had the looks that he did thanks to his shitty system after all.

The only thing really different from the time Zhang Wang first met the guy in that gaudy villain-like throne room were the two tiger ears and that long striped tail. What was with that anyway?

'You look like the classical handsome villain stud. Cool and brooding or whatever.' But Zhang Wang couldn't really say that, now could he? So he said instead, "You don't look that different to me."

Yu Yanlin tilted his head and came over after skewering goat parts on sticks. "I wasn't talking about my looks, my appearance is not special. What do you think of my aura?"

Whose appearance wasn't special? But Zhang Wang wasn't in the mood to argue so he stared at the demon king once more.

"Ah!" He exclaimed in shock as realization came upon him but then composed himself, "Aren't you just suppressing your spiritual energy?"

But the demon king shook his head. He held out a hand that Zhang Wang tentatively reached out to touch. He closed his eyes and focused on this person's meridians to find his spiritual core only…there was nothing! Nothing but a sliver of connection circling back to…himself?

Zhang Wang's eyes flew open, as he looked upon the demon king in shock.

"As you can see, I am no better than an ordinary person without any cultivation. I do not even have the ability to change my appearance."

So was that the reason why the fluffy ears and tail won't go away? That made a bit more sense. "So you're saying that the contract has suppressed…all of your power? That seems kind of…" Overpowered.

Yu Yanlin shrugged as if he didn't even care, "It seems that all the authority over my spiritual energy has been handed over to you. Perhaps I should be calling you Master now."

Zhang Wang instantly cringed, "Please don't."

"I've considered committing suicide to make things easier but luckily I didn't. I found something else curious about this specific contract of ours."

Zhang Wang almost spat. Just what kind of character casually commits suicide like that? No, he could no longer believe this guy was the true villain or some bullshit. Surely there was some sort of long bullshit backstory as to why a guy like Yu Yanlin was sitting on the throne of evil demons.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he wasn't prepared for the bombshell Yu Yanlin was about to drop.

"I'm afraid that our souls are entwined."

"..." Did Zhang Wang hear that right? "What?"

"If I die, your soul would be damaged as well. And vice versa."

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