Chapter 87: The Golden Cage Traps the White Phoenix (10)
Bai Chunsheng truly never expected that Shen Yuying’s fiancée, the one who had fled overnight, was actually him.
At this moment, he felt a mix of shame and fury, almost to the point of wanting to die. He waited for what seemed like an eternity, long enough that he assumed Bo Yan had left and that there were no sounds outside. Only then did Bai Chunsheng dare to peek his head out from under his wings.
—Bo Yan was still there.
And he had even moved a chair, sitting beside him and watching him.
Bo Yan asked, “Enough with the shyness? Are you still embarrassed?”
Bai Chunsheng exclaimed, “Why are you still here?”
“This is the Yaoyue Pavilion. If I’m not here, where else could I be?” Bo Yan responded in a calm tone, turning Bai Chunsheng speechless.
Bo Yan continued, “I’ll ask you one last time. Do you have anything to say to me?”
Anything to say?
He had already asked this once before.
Bai Chunsheng was still confused. He didn’t really know Bo Yan. A cultivator at the great success stage like Bo Yan was someone only his grandmother could casually converse with. He himself was merely a young White Phoenix, less than five hundred years old, at the Dao stage.
What could he possibly have to say to Bo Yan?
Even if he begged Bo Yan to let him go, he probably wouldn’t agree.
“Good.” Seeing Bai Chunsheng remain silent, Bo Yan ground his teeth in frustration and muttered “good” several times in his mind.
“Since you have nothing to say to me, I’ll be straightforward. You only have two choices. First, you continue your marriage with Shen Yuying. She is still unmarried; if you flee, it will harm her reputation,” Bo Yan explained.
Bai Chunsheng instinctively protested, “I’m not fleeing! I didn’t even know I had an engagement with her!”
“Moreover, moreover…” Bai Chunsheng didn’t know what else to say. “I never agreed to marry her. I don’t like her. I don’t want to. I refuse to marry her.”
Bo Yan said, “You never agreed, but your grandmother Bai Jianghan did.”
His voice was like the autumn wind soaked in frost, carrying a cold, mocking edge. “Parents’ orders, matchmaker’s words, long proclaimed to the world. Do you dare defy them?”
Bai Chunsheng froze, and only after a long moment did he realize Bo Yan had mentioned two options.
“What other path do I have? Will I be sent to the Cold Carven?” Bai Chunsheng asked in a hoarse voice.
Bo Yan answered lightly, “No.”
“If you choose the second option, I will find another match for Shen Yuying. Anywhere in the world, if someone catches her eye—male or female, willing or not—I can arrange it. If she wants, seven or eight hundred suitors aren’t a problem. No one among my dragon descendants would dare intervene. You won’t have to marry her.”
Bai Chunsheng hesitated for a moment. “You really won’t send me to the Cold Carven?”
“No,” Bo Yan said calmly.
Bai Chunsheng was overjoyed. Did he even need to choose? “The second one! I choose the second one!”
“Oh?” Bo Yan reminded him, “Don’t you want to know what the second option actually entails?”
Bai Chunsheng said, “No need.”
Of course he knew—nothing in the world could be worse than being sent to the Cold Carven or being forced to marry that wicked dragon, Shen Yuying.
Bo Yan smiled. “Fine. You said it yourself.”
He reached out a hand toward Bai Chunsheng, lightly grasping at him. Although there was nothing physically there, Bai Chunsheng suddenly felt a lightness in his body.
He clearly heard Bo Yan’s laughter: “You… after suffering this time, next time you won’t be so easily fooled.”
Today, Bo Yan had called Bai Chunsheng out for only two reasons.
The first was that Bai Jianghan had long secretly placed a curse on Shen Yuying.
It was no wonder Bai Jianghan entrusted Bai Chunsheng to Shen Yuying and then left in peace.
Shen Yuying’s cultivation level was too low to perceive it, but Bo Yan used the soul’s light of the Soul Abyss to see it on her. The curse, like thin chains, coiled around Shen Yuying’s neck, sharp and smooth like knives, suspended over her head.
If Bai Chunsheng did not willingly break the engagement, Shen Yuying would bear the backlash of the curse alone. Earlier, she had been unharmed simply because Bai Chunsheng’s body was not severely injured; only the bloodline had been affected, which had been caused by himself.
Truly, she was a great demon who had survived two demonic wars. How could Bai Jianghan possibly trust a mere verbal agreement? Holding the initiative in her own hands had always been her style.
Unfortunately, Bai Chunsheng had slipped out of the Ten Thousand Demon Sect before Bai Jianghan had a chance to explain all these matters to him one by one.
And the Dragon Clan’s treasured artifact, the Life Lamp, was originally an immortal tool meant to erase disturbances in the order of cause and effect.
The second matter had long been considered by Bo Yan.
He wanted to use Bai Chunsheng’s own words to forge a binding decree that would make Bai Chunsheng unable to leave him ever again.
Last night, he had stayed awake the entire night.
Bo Yan thought about how to properly discipline Bai Chunsheng, and how to make Bai Chunsheng love him instead of Yan Jingqiu.
In the end, he finally realized one thing.
He didn’t care whether Bai Chunsheng loved him or not. Loving Bai Chunsheng was enough—he simply wanted to have him.
Bai Chunsheng, seeing Bo Yan so pleased, suddenly felt that something was off.
Bo Yan merely waved his hand, and several beautiful female attendants filed in. Leading them was a dragon maiden whose head bore a pair of antler-like dragon horns, bright eyes, and delicate features—the perfect dragon maiden appearance. She walked over, bowed to Bo Yan, and then carried Bai Chunsheng away.
“Wash him thoroughly, then bring him back,” Bo Yan instructed.
Bai Chunsheng struggled to climb higher, resting his small head on the attendant’s shoulder, staring at Bo Yan in shock. Not being sent to the Cold Carven, not being forced to marry Shen Yuying—where in the world did such luck exist?
It suddenly dawned on him that Bo Yan’s plan was to clean him thoroughly… and then cook him into a soup!
Damn it, he had forgotten about this earlier.
Bai Chunsheng hurriedly tried to salvage the situation, asking, “What exactly is this second option? You want to capture me to eat?! No, no, let me see Shen Yuying instead.” A true man could bend when needed; he wasn’t afraid of losing face.
Bo Yan felt speechless for a moment, then said with a smile, “No.”
Before Bai Chunsheng could rejoice, Bo Yan calmly added, “Too late. You’re about to be thrown into the cauldron.”
Bai Chunsheng immediately let out a scream, genuinely believing he had less than two hours to live. His brief life as a demon seemed to replay in front of his eyes, and tears streamed down his face.
He flailed in the dragon maiden’s arms, shouting, “Can you let me see Yan Yi?”
In despair, Bai Chunsheng thought: if he were to die here, miserable and reduced to a dish on Bo Yan’s table, Yan Yi must know. Even if he died, maybe Yan Yi could survive. Then Yan Yi could take revenge for him and kill Bo Yan, that beastly, treacherous creature.
If he didn’t mention it, Bo Yan might forget entirely.
The attendant, unable to help herself, paused, holding the wailing Bai Chunsheng and kneeling toward Bo Yan. Bo Yan strolled to Bai Chunsheng, asking him, “Yan Yi… who is he?”
“Why do you want to see him?” Bo Yan asked.
Bai Chunsheng knew that since his Yuan Ying could return to his body, Yan Yi had definitely been captured in the Water Abyss Realm. Yan Yi’s strength was considerable; his innate Dao body was genuine, and most Dao-stage cultivators were no match for him. This meant Bo Yan likely had personally captured Yan Yi. Thus, Bo Yan’s question was meant to understand Yan Yi’s identity.
Bai Chunsheng answered, “He’s the late-stage Nascent Soul sword cultivator who appeared with me on the Windvoice Tree and tried to enter the Wutong Tree Sea.”
Bo Yan said, “I know.”
“I’m asking what your relationship is.”
Bo Yan looked down at Bai Chunsheng, and the wind floating around him circled like a predatory eagle, eyeing its prey. Amid these swirling currents, Bai Chunsheng felt himself once again uncontrollably transform into human form. He was lifted by the wind from the attendant’s arms and then dropped to the ground.
Bai Chunsheng’s hair flowed like a waterfall, his nose bridge straight, eyes sharp and vivid. As soon as he spotted Bo Yan a short distance away, his gaze recoiled as if electrocuted. Forced into human form, he sank weakly to the ground until Bo Yan grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up.
Bo Yan pressed a hand lightly to Bai Chunsheng’s neck. Taller than Bai Chunsheng, he looked down as Bai Chunsheng raised his head. Bo Yan asked, “Why aren’t you speaking?”
Bai Chunsheng didn’t know how to respond. Friend? No. Enemy? No. Family? Definitely not.
Bo Yan’s tone grew heavier: “Why aren’t you speaking?”
He mocked silently in his heart, completing the thought: Bai Chunsheng couldn’t possibly say who Yan Yi was to him, could he?
—Because Bai Chunsheng didn’t recognize that Yan Yi was Bo Yan himself, he only thought Yan Yi was a talented little wandering cultivator who looked very much like Yan Jingqiu.
Having never considered it important, why would he suddenly worry now?
Instinctively, Bo Yan wanted to remove his mask and make Bai Chunsheng shocked and dumbfounded.
But Bai Chunsheng pondered briefly. He initially thought he could call Yan Yi a friend who could live and die together, but then he realized: if Bo Yan wanted Yan Yi to die with him, what then? So, without thinking further, he blurted, “He is my Dao companion.”
“Oh?” Bo Yan restrained his hand from removing his mask at this answer.
He arched an eyebrow: “Really?”
Bai Chunsheng nodded, heart pounding loudly. That was fine. After all, previously Yan Yi had dreamt on Changliu Mountain, insisting Bai Chunsheng was his Dao companion. Now even if Bo Yan went to ask Yan Yi separately, their stories would match, leaving no room to accuse him of lying.
Moreover, in a life-and-death situation, Bai Chunsheng wanting to see his Dao companion before dying was entirely normal.
Bo Yan couldn’t help but ask again: “Really?”
This time Bai Chunsheng nodded faster and more firmly.
Bo Yan asked once more, “You are his Dao companion. You truly want to see him?”
Hearing the first part and connecting it with the second, Bai Chunsheng hesitated slightly. He suddenly realized something: if Bo Yan could capture Yan Yi so effortlessly, it meant he was far stronger than Bai Chunsheng or even Yan Yi had imagined.
If he told Yan Yi he was about to die, Yan Yi still couldn’t do anything to Bo Yan. Bai Chunsheng would end up in the cauldron as Bo Yan’s dish.
Meanwhile, he imagined being flayed and bled on one side of the wall while Yan Yi watched on the other.
No matter how Yan Jingqiu might view him, Yan Yi ultimately loved him.
Watching a loved one die helplessly in front of you was akin to a living torture.
It would be unbearably cruel for Yan Yi.
After thinking it over, Bai Chunsheng said, “Forget it. I won’t see him. Just tell him… I ran away.”
Author’s note: Bo Yan had believed that before losing his memory, he was Bai Chunsheng’s substitute lover, which explained why he was so angry that Bai Chunsheng had spent time with Yan Yi and didn’t recognize that Yan Yi was actually Bo Yan.
In reality, Bai Chunsheng had only met the Yan Jingqiu alias “Bo Yan” for less than two hours in total.
Huge shoutout to @_nyanmaru_ on Discord for commissioning this! The chapter will be posted regularly, show your support for Ciacia at Kofi.
