THIS WAS NO PLACE to talk. Taxian-jun dragged Chu Wanning through the rain and back to Wushan Palace in the blink of an eye. Xue Meng was no longer on the roof, but that was no surprise. The Mei brothers were too clever not to understand when to make a calculated retreat.
He strode over the threshold, passing from the tempestuous rain into the dry warmth of the hall. The lamp he'd lit for Chu Wanning had gone out, but Taxian-jun didn't mind. If the moth wouldn't come to his flame, he would deign to be the spider—eight legs scuttling as he whisked his prey back to its lair.
He shoved Chu Wanning onto the bed and stared icily down at the man, pale and silent beneath him. There was much Taxian-jun wanted to say, but when his lips moved, what came out was painfully petty. "So?" he hissed. "This venerable one has to act like him for you to even look at me?"
He grabbed Chu Wanning by the jaw, forcing those pitch-black eyes to meet his own. The skin beneath his fingers was chilled and clammy.
"Chu Wanning, you'd better get something straight." The words were squeezed through a clenched jaw. "Mo-zongshi is dead. It doesn't matter how badly you want him back; he won't return."
The words stabbed at Chu Wanning. Something seemed to shudder behind his unfeeling mask, but this reaction only fanned the flames of Taxian-jun's jealousy. Anger rose in him as he bent to crush his mouth against Chu Wanning's freezing lips.
Progressing from kissing him to undressing him was a familiar process. This man was as unyielding as any bone, but he'd gnawed on him for so many years—he knew better than anyone where to set his teeth to swallow him whole.
Chu Wanning fought back just as he had in the past life. Taxian-jun countered him easily as breathing, then grabbed the pill he'd prepared beside the bed and brought it to Chu Wanning's lips. "It's been a long time, after all. This venerable one doesn't want to see you unwilling. Go on, swallow."
As Chu Wanning knit his brows and thrashed, Taxian-jun's eyes went chillier still. He shoved the pill in with brutal force, making Chu Wanning's mouth bleed before he succeeded. Then he bent down and caught those thin lips with his own. His tongue dove in, shoving against the pill that would render him pliant and pushing it roughly into Chu Wanning's throat.
"Mngh…"
A thick bloodiness spread between their mouths. That soft tongue pushed the pill to the back of his throat; unable to escape, Chu Wanning finally swallowed.
The instant Mo Ran released him, he doubled over and gagged, his chest working violently as he dry-heaved.
"Just a little pill and you're choking? Why didn't you spit anything out when you had your mouth on him?"
Chu Wanning went ashen. He turned, eyes wide as if he'd seen a ghost, and stared into Taxian-jun's pale and mocking countenance.
"What? You thought no one would ever find out what you did with him?" Glee and hatred melded in Taxian-jun's expression. "No one knows that dirty business better than this venerable one."
He peeled off his rain-soaked robes and climbed onto the bed. The rich furs sank beneath his weight; his broad and muscular back curved as he bent over the man under him, caging him within his arms. Taxian-jun's damp hair fell around them, splashing a drop of rain onto Chu Wanning's cheek. He drank in the sight. Eyes darkening, he lowered his head and licked up that crystalline bead.
Feeling Chu Wanning tense, he smiled. "How are you still so sensitive?"
There was no response. The Chu Wanning of the past might have flown into a rage and told him to get the hell out, but this man, hollowed by grief, only bit his lip. He refused to speak, much less curse him out. Yet his whole being was shivering, from the tips of his fingers to the very marrow of his bones. He despised the way this body betrayed him.
His discomfort conversely made Taxian-jun calmer. He watched Chu Wanning flush from panic and the effects of the drug and murmured, "You know, he never actually managed to get it in you, did he?" His hands groped their way lower. "Tell me," he whispered into Chu Wanning's ear. "Are you still as tight back there as you used to be?"
His was an impeccably handsome face, yet the words were pure filth. His voice was velveted with desire, while his hands roved unfettered over Chu Wanning. His caresses seemed to heighten the effect of the drug; Taxian-jun gazed into that face he'd yearned for so desperately and swallowed, his voice husky with lust. "If you don't answer me, I'll test it for myself… Let's see if you've missed me there."
The drug was potent, and worked quickly. Chu Wanning's skin prickled; he couldn't summon the slightest resistance as Taxian-jun slotted himself between his thighs and propped Chu Wanning's legs on his shoulders.
Chu Wanning squeezed his eyes shut, his lashes quivering.
It was nothing like his previous trysts with Mo Ran. Taxian-jun had never bothered with foreplay and was tender with him only in the rarest moments. Chu Wanning could hear him undressing, then feel the heat of him pressed up against his skin—fervent, urgent, awaiting release.
Someone suddenly knocked on the door. "Your Majesty, the senior sage asks that you—"
"Fuck off !"
His roar was accompanied by the sound of shattering porcelain. He'd hurled a teacup in the direction of that ill-timed servant before they could take a step inside.
The door was instantly drawn shut. No one would dare interrupt anymore.
Taxian-jun ran a calloused thumb over Chu Wanning's lips. "See? It's just us, no one else. Never anyone else."
The storm raged outside, thunder and lightning howling a dissonant duet.
The emperor's bed in Wushan Palace, empty for so many years, finally welcomed Chu Wanning back. Taxian-jun studied his every reaction beneath him, watched his skin flush red from the aphrodisiac's effects. He felt like the fire that'd died in his heart years ago had come back to life this night. His Consort Chu, his Wanning, his rekindled humanity. Within the drapes of this warm and fragrant bed, they'd all come back into his arms.
"No one will disturb us again. Shizun… This venerable one's Consort Chu." Emperor Taxian-jun bent low to whisper in Chu Wanning's ear. "They say a reunion after long separation is sweeter than the wedding night. You and this venerable one have been parted so long—you can't say this venerable one isn't a dutiful husband."
He reached for Chu Wanning's hand. Slowly, he unbent Chu Wanning's curled and shaking fingers and brought them to his lips. He kissed them over and over, then pulled Chu Wanning's hand down and wrapped his fingers around where Taxian-jun was already hard, aching to be touched.
"Mngh…" Taxian-jun moaned, intentionally loud and rough, bent on making Chu Wanning feel the humiliation of serving a man, bent on making it clear that the one on top of him was the fearless Taxian-jun and not the gutless coward Mo-zongshi.
Mo-zongshi… The thought of the adoration his other self had received from Chu Wanning inflamed him with jealousy, a blaze that licked up to redden his eyes.
Keeping his own hand tight around Chu Wanning's, Taxian-jun bucked upward into their combined grip. "Concubine darling, do you feel that?" he murmured, heated. "This venerable one owes you so many years of imperial favor—you miss it very much, don't you?" The jut of his throat bobbed, his low and raspy voice burrowing into Chu Wanning's bones. "Don't worry. Morning is far away…we can go as long as you'd like. This venerable one will see that you get your fill."
Such words were beyond ridiculous. He was the one who wanted it so bad he was flustered, so bad the rims of his eyes had gone red—so bad he could think of nothing but devouring this man, sinew and bone. Yet he couldn't resist slandering him, insisting it was Chu Wanning who was desperate, putting on this show of selflessly offering to satisfy his consort's desires.
Only Taxian-jun and Taxian-jun alone could provoke the last wisp of human emotion this hollowed-out Chu Wanning possessed. His red and teary phoenix eyes flew open, glaring back in dull rage.
Taxian-jun sighed in satisfaction. "It's been so long since you've looked at this venerable one like that. I would recognize that gaze anywhere."
He bent and sucked Chu Wanning's soft earlobe into his mouth. It was one of Chu Wanning's most sensitive spots; there was no way he could control himself now that he'd been drugged. Pleasure raced up his spine like a bolt of lightning. Chu Wanning was shaking, but his reaction earned him even wilder ministrations from Taxian-jun. He mouthed at Chu Wanning, his tongue delving into the contours of his ear in an unmistakable rhythm, wet and scalding.
Drifting amidst that blinding stimulation, Chu Wanning heard him mumble, "You should have an earring here…"
It was the voice of a tyrant suppressing his boundless rage, yet also the ceaseless sorrow buried in the heart of an abandoned dog.
Taxian-jun dropped a few more kisses on the spot where he'd pierced Chu Wanning's ear in the past life, as if to prove to himself that this man had returned to his possession. Then he sprang into action, rough with need.
"Take it." He angled Chu Wanning's hand to press the straining tip of himself against that entrance he'd spent years longing for. "Put it in yourself."
Chu Wanning gritted his teeth and tried to shake off his hold, but Taxian-jun was terribly strong—and he was bringing all that strength to bear now, veins standing out on his arms.
"Put it in," insisted Taxian-jun. He pushed against that entrance as if his only wish was to desecrate him. His cockhead shoved against that tight furl, slick precome easing the way. He remained there, neither pushing in nor pulling away, simply pressed up against him. Their breathing grew frantic; Taxian-jun wanted nothing more than to thrust himself inside, to make this man he'd missed so much swallow him to the hilt.
As for Chu Wanning, he'd already bitten his lips bloody. He panted, wide-eyed yet silent, refusing to obey. He stared sorrowfully at the man above him, and after a long beat, choked out, "Mo Ran…"
Mo Ran, this isn't who you are… This isn't you. It was this master…in the past life and this one…who failed to—failed to protect you. I've watched you go mad in two lifetimes, I've watched you die in two lifetimes. It's my fault; I did so much, but it was all for nothing. I couldn't save you.
"Why are you…" Taxian-jun blinked. "Why are you crying?"
Was he? Chu Wanning couldn't tell. The heat in him burned too fiercely; Taxian-jun must've been determined to reduce him to mud, feeding him such a strong aphrodisiac. Only after Taxian-jun spoke did Chu Wanning sense something hot and wet sliding from the corners of his eyes to soak into his hair.
Taxian-jun's expression went strange. That look resembled anger, or maybe jealousy, confusion, or… Chu Wanning closed his eyes. He must be insane, to delude himself that he saw heartache in those purple-black eyes.
It was pure delusion.
Yet in that small lapse of silence, Taxian-jun gathered him up and crushed him to his chest as if afraid he'd shatter. He said nothing, forced him to do nothing else for the moment. He settled Chu Wanning in his lap, then bent his handsome face and kissed him deeply.
"Wanning… Wanning…"
The kiss was sloppy and rushed, pained and maddened. Taxian-jun wrapped his broad palms around Chu Wanning's waist, then pawed in frustration within the depths of the bedding until he retrieved a bottle of ointment. One that'd been well-prepared long ago—perhaps excessively too long.
Chu Wanning's ears rang. His scalp went numb at the sight.
Eternal Passion aphrodisiac.
It was the ointment Taxian-jun had used on him once before. Even buried as he was in his grief, Chu Wanning felt a terror that hummed in his bones—he'd experienced the power of this aphrodisiac in the past, and he'd already been force-fed one pill. Would this madman Taxian-jun really go so far as to…?
Chu Wanning pushed him away, frantic, but he had no strength left in him. "No… M-Mo Ran…don't…"
"Shh." Taxian-jun's eyes flashed. "This venerable one is different from that man. A little of this, and you'll understand this venerable one is the only one who can make you feel so good you start dripping. That goody-two-shoes, what does he know?"
He dug his fingers into the ointment. Ignoring Chu Wanning's protests, he pushed it into his opening.
Chu Wanning whimpered, the lines of his fiercely muscled back and waist tensing. Taxian-jun merely took it as encouragement to shove more ointment inside him, spreading it as far as he could reach.
"You've bloodied your lips," he said, working him open. "If anyone sees, they'll assume this venerable one's been bullying you." He stared fixedly at him, eyes dark. "What will they think then? Or do you want everyone to know the kind of slut you are—that the noble Beidou Immortal who looks so haughty and aloof gets on his knees for this venerable one? That this venerable one has been in him too many times to count?"
Chu Wanning's breath came in feverish pants. His limbs were locked tight, yet he couldn't stop himself from shaking.
"Ah, Consort Chu. This venerable one often wondered over the years: Would things have turned out better for us if you had been a woman? I favored you and you alone for so many nights… Who knows how many children you would've borne this venerable one?" Taxian-jun's fingers squelched obscenely inside him, while his other hand ran along Chu Wanning's weakening waist. He touched every inch of him, from the curve of his hips to the lean lines of his abdomen.
"That way, whether you or this venerable one—" Taxian-jun rasped as he dragged his fingers over him, "wouldn't we have come to care for each other, at least for the sake of our children? Instead of ending up like this."
His eyes slid over Chu Wanning's sweat-sheened forehead and tightly knit brows, down to his high-bridged nose and those lips pressed stubbornly shut. His eyes darkened. "What a pity. It's no more than a daydream, after all."
He removed his fingers, sticky with viscous ointment. Under the combined assault of both the pill and the cream, not even the purest saint could hold out for long. He knew precisely where Chu Wanning's limits lay, and merrily trampled them underfoot.
Chu Wanning could feel something leaking where he'd been fingered open.
Taxian-jun moved with a dogged single-mindedness. No one could've guessed that, at this moment, the emperor who'd had his fill of all the world's sundry pleasures felt like a virgin sinking his teeth into his first taste of forbidden fruit. He wanted to glut himself on the man in his lap, and irrationally feared that if he delayed for even a second, the warmth in his arms would vanish.
He was terrified.
He was terrified of Chu Wanning disappearing. So he spared no thought for anything else. He took himself in hand, painfully hard, and lined himself up with that dripping entrance. The massive head of him breached that tight heat slowly, but once past the initial resistance, he drove himself in with one powerful thrust.
Chu Wanning had held himself tense against the intrusion, but the instant that hot, hard length was fully seated in him, he went limp with a ragged moan. Little huffs left him as he sagged against Taxian-jun's chest, his sweat-damp back gleaming in the low light.
Taxian-jun closed his eyes in rapture. The intoxicating pleasure of burying himself in this man swept over him like a tide. In that moment, he'd never endured death or loneliness; all the suffering he'd undergone was written off in a single stroke. His shizun, his Consort Chu, his Wanning—all belonged to him again. He was fucking him; he was taking him; he was inside him, owning him, humiliating him, cherishing him. He could feel Chu Wanning tight around his cock, sucking him in. Chu Wanning's body loved him. Craved him.
"Shizun, you're still so tight."
Chu Wanning squeezed his eyes shut, but he couldn't help the fine shivers that wracked him. His body had been set alight, his skin flushed red like he was drunk. He was humiliated and grieving, but the drug had pushed all these emotions far away, while the thrill of Mo Ran filling him was spreading like ink on paper, trickling into his limbs.
Taxian-jun fisted a hand in Chu Wanning's hair and wrenched back, baring his neck to bite his earlobe. He wrapped his arms more tightly around him. The shift drove him deeper inside Chu Wanning, who drew his brows together, pain spasming across his face as he gasped for air.
"Does it hurt?" Taxian-jun was attentive to every reaction. "Bear with it for now," he rasped. "It'll be better once I've fucked you loose. Shizun, I'll make you remember how good you feel when you're with me."
Maybe the drug had rendered him delirious, or maybe it was because Taxian-jun had slipped and used a simple me instead of this venerable one—regardless, a ripple went through Chu Wanning's glassy gaze. Those eyes that'd stayed sharp and cold nearly half his life were somehow, in this moment, gentle. The sight struck the emperor—already far beyond hunger—somewhere deep inside. Holding him in his arms, Taxian-jun began to thrust roughly up into him as he sat on that great bed haphazardly strewn with animal pelts.
At first, Chu Wanning bit his lip and refused to yield. But as Taxian-jun moved faster and harder, as he heard the sound of Taxian-jun's ragged breathing, his control began to fray. Small, broken whimpers escaped his lips. They were soft and hoarse, but to Taxian-jun, they were as potent as the most seductive moans. He ground himself deeper inside Chu Wanning. "Louder—don't hold back. It's not as if you never moaned for me in the last life. Beg me to fuck you—beg me to mount you…wrap your legs around my waist, that's it. I'll come inside you, I'll give you everything…"
Chu Wanning's cheeks were red as blood as Taxian-jun poured an endless stream of filth into his ear, calling up those past events as if showing off heirloom treasures. His hips kept up a steady rhythm as he babbled.
Taxian-jun rutted into him with the brutality of obsession. After a few more frantic strokes, he lay back on the bed and dragged Chu Wanning down, settling him over his chest before catching Chu Wanning's lips in a fervent kiss. He canted his hips, sinking his cock to its full depth.
"Ah…" The new angle caught at that nerve deep inside Chu Wanning. Taxian-jun felt the man in his arms go slack as a stickier wetness dripped from his hole.
Taxian-jun chuckled. "Feel good?" he said, self-satisfied. "Isn't your lord husband the best?" He didn't expect Chu Wanning to answer; in fact, he knew Chu Wanning wouldn't be able to. The emperor was pathetically smug. "This venerable one knows just where you like it," he breathed. "You get wet like nothing else when I take you in this position. Shameless, aren't you?"
As if to punctuate his words, he thrust harder against the place that made Chu Wanning shake. Reluctant to leave that clinging warmth, he buried himself inside and stayed, rolling his hips in short, aborted jerks.
This was where Chu Wanning was the most sensitive; inflamed by the drug and handled so roughly, all he was conscious of was that thick cockhead hammering the spot that made his skin prickle all over. Chu Wanning couldn't think, his eyes wide and empty as the cries were torn from his throat: "Ah… Ah…"
Taking those moans for the highest form of acknowledgment, Taxian-jun wrapped his hands around Chu Wanning's sturdy waist and thrust up into him, fierce and fast, sharp and thorough. "Louder, Shizun…"
Chu Wanning refused, clamping his lips shut, but Taxian-jun was hitting him right where he was most vulnerable, where he was slippery-slick from the ointment and more. Chu Wanning could only endure so much; his lips fell open like a dying beast's, crying out in deepest despair. "Mngh…ahhh…"
"How is it? Is this disciple fucking you well? You're so tight, Shizun… Is this how you take your disciple's cock?"
Chu Wanning was overwhelmed and overstimulated, more so than he'd ever been in the past life; he couldn't hear what Taxian-jun was saying. His red-rimmed eyes were unfocused as he sprawled helplessly over Taxian-jun's sturdy chest, held down and fucked into delirium.
The ointment had churned into white foam, oozing out in a puddle of slick wetness, forced out where their bodies joined. The juncture of Chu Wanning's thighs was soaking wet, but it wasn't enough for Taxian-jun. His eyes so black they gleamed purple were misted over by desire, filled to the brim with lust. His gaze was pinned on his shizun's flushed face, hot with agony and pleasure, as his hips snapped upward with all the strength he possessed.
He took hold of Chu Wanning's hand and brought it to his abdomen, pounding into him in sharp jolts. "Look how deep I am," he panted. "Feel that, Shizun? I'm all the way in."
His huge cock split Chu Wanning open with every thrust, breaching him relentlessly with no sign of softening. Chu Wanning was nearing a breakdown. Amidst those humiliating sounds of flesh striking flesh, he gasped. "Ah…ah… M-Mo Ran…"
Mo Ran…
Mo Ran.
Years swept past his eyes, scenes of the boy growing into the man across two different lifetimes. Chu Wanning's mind had unraveled; the consuming ecstasy, the intensity of sensation, confused him—he didn't know which world was real, which lifetime had passed. In the clash of bitter pain and sweetest pleasure, everything broke apart. His world shattered and fell like a flurry of snow, each flake a reflection of Mo Ran: laughing, crying, kind, crazed.
He saw Taxian-jun and Mo-zongshi's silhouettes merge into one, holding an oilpaper umbrella, waiting quietly for him at the edge of the blizzard. Those purple-black eyes might've been good or evil; the snow fell harder, obscuring both the emperor and the zongshi—leaving only the slight figure of Mo Ran at the very beginning, in his youth, standing in the swirling storm.
Beneath the umbrella, the boy looked up at him, and his smile was filled with sorrow. "Xianjun, I'm about to leave… Pay attention to me, won't you?"
For the very last time. Pay attention to me, won't you?
After this battle, perhaps neither version of me will ever see you again.
Pay attention to me, please. When we first became teacher and disciple, I begged you for ages, but you ignored me. Now that we're at the end of everything, now that I only have this broken body to entwine with yours, will you overlook my insanity and ignorance?
Pay attention to me. Won't you?
"Mo Ran…" Caught in the vision, Chu Wanning's heart wrung tight. By the time he'd returned to his senses, he'd wrapped his arms around Taxian-jun. "Mo Ran…" he sobbed.
Taxian-jun started—of course he started. Chu Wanning had never, even in those few instances where they'd been almost loving, held him of his own volition. He sat momentarily dazed, then swore and flipped them over, shoving Chu Wanning down on the bed as he lifted his legs and slotted himself between them to fuck him from above.
Chu Wanning's swordlike brows drew together. The flickering reflections in his eyes could've been the drapes around the bed at Wushan Palace, or the shadows in the inn at Wuchang Town. The inn had been the first time he'd ever slept with his own world's Mo Ran; it hadn't been very long ago at all, but now it seemed a century away. His head was thrown back; he gasped for air, as if indulging in this moment of stolen pleasure. "Ah…"
The sound was heart-rending. It was soft as a sigh, but it brought Taxian-jun's blood to a boil—his hips moved faster, his eyes filled with Chu Wanning's reflection. "Wanning…Wanning…"
Sweat ran down their bodies as if to glue their flesh together. They wrapped seamlessly around each other on the bed they'd shared countless times in the past life. Taxian-jun arranged them into all sorts of positions, as if making up for every night he'd missed in these years alone. He laid Chu Wanning on his stomach and drove into him from behind, then set Chu Wanning in his lap while he thrust upward into that welcoming heat; at one point, he scooped him off the bed and fucked him mercilessly against the wall.
This was his Consort Chu. He could have him however he liked, take him wherever he wanted. He would caress him, cherish him, torment him, and possess him in every way. He would make Chu Wanning his in every lifetime—no one could take him or steal him away. Not even himself.
As the night wore on, he pushed Chu Wanning down on the bed and wedged a cushion beneath his sore hips. He was driven by primal instinct—he wanted to breed his mate like any hot-
blooded male, even if he knew it was impossible. He raised Chu Wanning's hips and held him there, kissing him hungrily as he rocked into him.
"Baby, it feels so good inside you…" Taxian-jun groaned, his pleasure building. His thrusts came faster and faster, his breathing more and more erratic.
He lifted Chu Wanning's hips higher. Chu Wanning was at his limit, his calloused hands fisted tight in the sheets. Those slender wrists were trembling. "Ah…ah—s-slow down…"
Taxian-jun was thrusting so wildly his cock slipped out. The sudden emptiness made Chu Wanning's unfocused eyes widen; he sucked in a ragged gasp, but it was barely a moment before Taxian-jun lined up his thick cock, slapping that round cockhead wetly against his pert ass before slamming himself back in with even more force than before.
"Ah!"
"I'm close." Taxian-jun grabbed Chu Wanning's limp waist, pounding into him with quick snaps. He dropped a kiss on Chu Wanning's sweat-damp brow, the jut of his throat rolling as he gasped. "Baby, lift your hips a little higher, let me come inside you… Ahh…" Taxian-jun's brows knit in pleasure as Chu Wanning clenched around him, punching the breath from his lungs. He pushed them both deep into the bed and redoubled his efforts, while Chu Wanning's legs dangled around his waist, toes curled and trembling.
"I'm coming, I'm coming… Wanning…" Taxian-jun stared down at Chu Wanning, taking in his flushed cheeks through crazed and infatuated eyes.
With his last few dozen thrusts, each of them loud and messy, Taxian-jun pressed himself hard against that bundle of nerves in Chu Wanning and came inside him with a moan, releasing himself right where Chu Wanning was most sensitive. The two of them, wrapped around each other, cried out at the same time: "Ah—!"
They'd come at the same moment, but Chu Wanning didn't have Taxian-jun's unnatural stamina and had already been pushed to climax twice. He had little left to spill, while Taxian-jun's come was thick and copious. He lifted Chu Wanning's long legs to make him take in all his spend, and Chu Wanning's low and raspy voice changed pitch at the sensation.
A long moment elapsed before Taxian-jun let Chu Wanning's legs fall and collapsed on top of him. He could feel Chu Wanning trying to move, wanting to shift the cushion out from beneath him. He reached out and grabbed Chu Wanning's wrist to stop him. Taxian-jun stared into Chu Wanning's face, slack with the aftermath of his climax, a strange light flashing in his purplish-black eyes.
The enemy he could never defeat, the shizun he could never desecrate—the immortal everyone considered pristine, the man he yearned for but could never have…had been used so well his legs splayed open; he was pumped full of his come, his leanly muscled thighs unable to close around him. The feeling of conquering the powerful was impossibly sweet; Taxian-jun could feel himself hardening again, primed and ready to continue.
Chu Wanning was his addiction. The moment those stubborn, glimmering eyes, teary yet forever unyielding, so much as flicked him a glance, a wildfire would blaze to life in his mind and burn all the way down to his belly.
He grabbed Chu Wanning's hand and dropped a kiss on his knuckles. "Don't move," he said softly. "Stay just like this."
Taxian-jun hadn't pulled out. He shifted inside Chu Wanning, feeling the slick heat of him, thick fluid leaking from where their bodies interlocked. Taxian-jun swallowed in satisfaction, claiming Chu Wanning's mouth again. He kissed him, insatiable, as he mumbled, "Feel that? It's all plugged up inside. You better not lose a single drop. In a minute…this venerable one will keep going."
Taxian-jun hadn't lied. That night, he took Chu Wanning again and again. By the end, half the furs on the bed had slipped off, and the pungent mess of their spend joined the musk coming from the pelts.
In the early hours of the morning, Taxian-jun spilled inside Chu Wanning for the very last time. He caressed Chu Wanning's sticky abdomen and kissed his slackened face.
His shizun, his Consort Chu; the most honorable immortal in the eyes of the world, had been fucked until he was shattered. His bare skin, pink with arousal, glistened as if soaked in the finest pear-blossom white. Those sharp phoenix eyes were wide and glassy, his breath coming in shallow pants; the flush had reached the corners of his eyes, while his soft lips were slightly parted, quivering with each inhale.
Taxian-jun stared at that slick and trembling mouth and was suddenly reminded of how these lips, which had never shown him the slightest weakness, had willingly wrapped themselves around Mo-zongshi's cock…
Flames scorched his heart. Despite how many rounds he'd gone, he furiously shoved himself back into Chu Wanning's spasming body. Chu Wanning had been brought to climax too many times; he was barely conscious. He frowned and gasped purely out of instinct. "Ah…"
"Enough of that—you're still so tight inside." Taxian-jun chuckled. "This venerable one really is the best, right?"
The question went unanswered, but it didn't matter. Chu Wanning's body was honest, if nothing else. He'd fucked Chu Wanning senseless; he'd drawn every bit of sensitivity out of that formidable body, and now the afterglow of orgasm turned that sensitivity into a lash that humiliated Chu Wanning further. Every jerk of Taxian-jun's hips made Chu Wanning's brows knit against his will, made him tremble and shake.
Deep in thought, Taxian-jun reached out to touch Chu Wanning's face. Chu Wanning shrank back reflexively, but Taxian-jun grabbed his jaw and caressed his cheek. That elegant face was hot to the touch, the soft skin damp and salty with tears. Witnessing the aftermath of such intense pleasure seemed to confirm something for Taxian-jun. He sighed and murmured, "Wanning. You've finally returned. You'll never leave me again."
Reflected in his purple-black eyes was a face in which strength and vulnerability mingled. Taxian-jun stared for a long while, then bent to press a kiss to Chu Wanning's temple. He let out a breath of complete satisfaction. "Sleep."
Taxian-jun tugged at the mess of blankets until they were both covered.
The night quieted around them. Taxian-jun sank into sleep holding Chu Wanning, a mirror of those final hours on Nanping Mountain, Mo-zongshi's last snowy night. He, too, had clutched Chu Wanning in his arms until the candles went out and dawn broke.
The two of them were the same.
In the wake of that tide of desire, Chu Wanning lay like a splayed doll, every inch of him sticky with sweat and their commingled fluids. He couldn't speak or move. He drifted, unmoored from his body, for a very long time, until his senses came filtering back. He heard the pouring rain outside the window and felt Taxian-jun's slow breathing, and the weight of his embrace.
Chu Wanning glanced over with effort, then turned his head and gazed into Taxian-jun's sleeping face.
For a flash, terror gripped Chu Wanning. He didn't know when he was; the man beside him was so cold he feared he, too, would slowly stop breathing just like that young man in that snowy night on Nanping Mountain—that his heartbeat would slow and fade.
He realized he was shaking—but why? Taxian-jun was a shell, he was a walking corpse. But then why was he just like Chu Wanning remembered? Why did he feel and act in precisely the same way?
Taxian-jun would give him no answer. Perhaps even he himself didn't know.
His panic slowly retreated, and his eyes gained focus. Chu Wanning fought for composure, and in the depths of his pain and despair, managed to calm his surging heart. The air in Wushan Palace was thick with the smell of sex. That was right—this was Wushan Palace. Not Nanping Mountain. And the man holding him wasn't Mo-zongshi but Taxian-jun. The lover, disciple, and husband who'd died long ago… A walking puppet of dead flesh.
Chu Wanning swallowed the bitterness in the back of his throat and shoved down, excised, and suffocated all he felt. Facing the annihilation of two worlds, in this most final endgame, the two lay in each other's arms. The room gradually stilled; everything returned to peace.
Their last entanglement was given over to the night.
The hours passed. A gap in the heavy drapes around the bed revealed a mess of blankets within, cast in flickering light by the flames beyond the window. The storm never stopped; it only raged harder.
Chu Wanning opened his eyes in the dark. The man beside him was still asleep. Perhaps it'd become habit after years of companionship, or perhaps Taxian-jun simply felt secure after force-feeding him that drug—regardless, he slept deeply and without wariness. His strong and well-sculpted body was still half on top of Chu Wanning, so heavy he could hardly breathe.
He turned to look at Taxian-jun's face. They had met when the Space-Time Gate had first been torn open at Mount Jiao, and he remembered the cold stillness of his chest then. Yet now, he heard a steady rhythm from within the man beside him. The spiritual core gouged out of Mo-zongshi's chest had reformed in Taxian-jun's as something like a heart.
He aborted that line of thought. Mo Ran was dead. In this world and the other one, he was dead and gone. Accompanied by the slow thudding of that heart, he told himself: Mo Ran is dead. This is just a corpse without its souls. You know what to do.
He hardened his heart. Light gathered in his palms—but it sputtered, unsteady, and finally winked out.
Chu Wanning stared silently at the man next to him. In the gloom, with Taxian-jun's eyes closed, the lines between lifetimes blurred once again. It suddenly felt so much like that rainy night when they'd shared a bed at Wuchang Town. That night, Chu Wanning had woken in the dark and leaned over to kiss Mo Ran's sleeping face.
No. No. Mo Ran was dead. Even if this man had a heartbeat, he was a corpse. Even if he could speak, he'd lost his souls. He was dead.
But then—how could he remember things that had happened after his rebirth? Why would the emotions in his eyes be so full and earnest, why would…
Chu Wanning shuddered, refusing to complete the thought.
He gritted his teeth; light again flashed as Huaisha answered his summons. It appeared in his hands as a golden shortsword, dazzlingly bright. Without another moment of hesitation, he whirled, eyes shut tight as he brought the blade down on Taxian-jun's chest with all his strength.
There was a ripping sound as it sank hilt-deep.
Chu Wanning's eyes flew open. He was alone in the bed. Huaisha was buried in the mattress; that breathlessly sharp holy weapon had not found a home in the revenant emperor.
Rain poured down in torrents. One of the eastern windows had been allowed to fall into disrepair; the wind slammed it open, and the downpour howled into the room with a gust of frigid air. A bolt of white lightning tore through the darkness of the room, its icy light illuminating a terrifying face by the bed.
"And this venerable one was so sure you wouldn't strike."
Chu Wanning slowly turned.
Taxian-jun stood, leaning against the bedpost. A faint scratch crossed his bare chest where he'd slipped out from under the blade. He paid it no heed, eyes fixed coolly on Chu Wanning. "To think you would still try to kill me."
He swooped down with an awful swiftness and caught Chu Wanning's wrist. There was a crisp crack as he dislocated Chu Wanning's arm.
"Are you surprised? I'm much stronger than I used to be." Taxian-jun searched Chu Wanning's face, pale with pain yet refusing to speak. "You haven't seen me use these skills before, have you?" he asked mildly, then paused. "To be honest, there's nothing surprising about it. If you were the one who lived here alone," he said, hollow-voiced. "If you didn't trust anyone, and could never drop your guard, the only thing of interest left to you would be training, too. After eight years of this, you too would improve immeasurably."
The glow of Huaisha disappeared, its shattered shadow returning to Chu Wanning. Taxian-jun smiled, very faintly. "Shizun, once I learned all my attacks from you. Not anymore."
Chu Wanning said nothing.
"The years he spent reborn, I've spent slaving away. And now I've acquired his spiritual core." He ran a calloused fingertip between Chu Wanning's brows. "Someone of Shizun's caliber couldn't hope to kill me." At this point, he seemed to remember something. "Shizun doesn't know what I've been doing all these years, in this ruin of a world, do you?"
He spoke sweetly, never once referring to himself as this venerable one. "I'll show you now."
It wasn't far, the back mountain of Sisheng Peak—where the barrier to the ghost realm was at its thinnest.
Taxian-jun's clothes had been entirely soaked in their earlier battle, and he'd later torn Chu Wanning's robes to unwearable rags. But Taxian-jun didn't mind. With a flourish of his long fingers, he sent off a spirit butterfly; Liu-gong came in with freshly laundered robes moments later. Through the drapes, Chu Wanning glimpsed the face of that old servant he hadn't seen in many years and didn't know how to feel.
"Your Majesty, the clothes you asked for."
"You're the only one who'd know where these old robes were stored. You brought them so quickly." Taxian-jun's voice was almost devoid of inflection. "Leave them there. You may go."
Knowing Chu Wanning was behind the drapes, the old man's hands trembled slightly. He badly wanted to steal a glimpse of the man he'd once served, but etiquette forbade it. He kept his head low and kowtowed before staggering off.
The clothes fit him perfectly. Of course they did: They'd belonged to Chu Wanning in the past life.
Mo Ran sat nearby, his long legs crossed as he watched Chu Wanning dress silently through the drapes. There was a haziness to his gaze; no one could have guessed what he was thinking—just as no one understood why Emperor Taxian-jun, who hated Chu-zongshi so very, very much, had refused to burn his clothes even years after his death. What use was there for clothes no one would ever wear again?
The tempest screamed overhead, black clouds rolling across the horizon. All manner of ominous signs had appeared, but Taxian-jun merely called up a rain barrier and enclosed himself and Chu Wanning. The dark and terrible storm accompanied their passage through the courtyards and pavilions, reducing the scenery and faces of the servants to an indiscernible blur.
"Your Majesty. Zongshi."
"Greetings to Your Majesty, Zongshi."
Once past Three-Lives Hall and on Naihe Bridge, the sinister red glow from the back mountain became visible. Taxian-jun had taken the lead, and now he turned back to glance at Chu Wanning, something like mirth tugging at his lips. "Sisheng Peak stands where yin and yang overlap; the barrier is more vulnerable here than anywhere else. You used to come here often to repair it. I wonder if you ever sensed anything other than ghost energy?"
Chu Wanning said nothing, but his hands had tightened into fists within his sleeves. He had more or less guessed what he would see. Shi Mingjing had torn open the Space-Time Gate of Life and Death, wielded the Zhenlong Chess Formation, and conquered two worlds. His ultimate goal was certainly nothing simple.
Even so, he remained silent.
"When you came to this world, you must have passed by many cities and villages." Taxian-jun slowed his pace to walk beside him, his tone so casual he might've been talking about the weather. "Didn't you notice the towns and cities were awfully quiet?"
The pair strode along the narrow paths of the mountain, brushing aside the overgrown veils of flowering vines.
Around the next turn lay the back mountain cliffs. Taxian-jun suddenly pulled to a halt. The stone wall behind him seemed to blaze with a furious flame, dyeing the mountainside red. He turned to face Chu Wanning, the ghoulish crimson glow lighting his eyes as he bared his teeth in a brilliant, bloody grin.
"All these years of this venerable one's hard work have culminated in this. Shizun, please take a look."