96

The person, the one he always had to rely on an incomplete painting to imagine his appearance, had finally appeared. He was warm and alive; within his reach. To Xie Lan, this tremendously long period of wait not only made his heart thump uncontrollably, it also carried a sense of surrealism.

He was extremely cautious with those paintings themselves, so there wasn't any need to mention his attitude towards the actual person. Apart from his loss of control in the beginning, the Ghost King was so incredibly restrained in front of the dark-haired youth that Gu Yan didn't feel the least bit of discomfort. However, Xie Lan's attitude was such that Gu Yan wouldn't be able to escape from his side.

Although the faces on those paintings were left unpainted, Gu Yan could easily recognise himself through the pair of eyebrows and the clothes he wore. What was more surprising was the fact that in those paintings, there were some which detailed the different worlds he'd been through before.

That is to say, the Qiuqiu of this world not only retained his innate instincts, but from what Gu Yan could tell, he also held some fragmented memories leftover from their other worlds.

…His heart was getting softer, what should he do?

"Should we put all these paintings away?" It was strange to see an entire room filled with portraits of himself. The soft-hearted Gu Yan raised an arm to pet his lover's head which was resting against his neck, "I'll definitely stay where you'll be able to see me."

He no longer needed to face these paintings which could never respond to him. Now that he was here, his lover could look at him as much as he liked, for as long as he wanted.

"I'll keep them after I complete painting them." The latter half of the youth's words were extremely alluring. Although the change in his expression was barely detectable, the Ghost King's cold and beautiful face had relaxed. Thinking for barely a second, he thus replied.

He would store every one of the paintings once he completed them. Although there were too many, Xie Lan simply didn't wish to see the empty face of the person in his paintings.

The study room was very spacious, with a folding screen which divided the room into two halves. This room was known to its citizens as the most sacred area in the entire Ghost City. But now, there was a living human standing inside and furthermore, this person was personally brought inside by the master of this study.

After promising, Gu Yan was released and turned his interest towards the other side of the room behind the folding screen. Having obtained the permission of the study room's master with just a gaze, he took a few steps forward.

He didn't know what his family's Qiuqiu had painted, but through the gaps of the folding screen, Gu Yan could make out a wall covered in paintings.

"Cough!" Walking over and taking a clear look, Gu Yan immediately retracted his gaze and coughed.

Compared to the relatively normal portraits he had seen on the other side, the paintings behind the folding screen all depicted the various positions they had engaged in till date. Moreover, due to his superb memory retaining ability, Gu Yan was clearly able to distinguish and correspond every single image with the ones in his memories.

He was completely unaware that he had revealed such an expression and his eyes had reddened at that point of time. Also, the tears that had fallen from the corners of his eyes were simply too…

"Beautiful." Observing the youth's changing expression, Xie Lan squinted and spoke this word softly.

His robe's dark colour contrasted greatly against his pale white skin, giving an illusion of surreal beauty. The Ghost King looked extremely cold and detached. However, when he looked into the dark-haired youth's black irises, it was as if a certain deep desire was lying dormant within. Like a flame continuously being suppressed, the slightest opening would cause it to ignite and burn everything to ashes.

Even so, Gu Yan could tell that the other person was doing his best to restrain this desire, enduring the urge to touch him.

Could it be that he'd waited too long and had become disabled from holding it in…?

This thought abruptly appeared out of nowhere even though Gu Yan understood it was improbable. He leaned towards the ghost who'd been standing motionlessly at the side and slowly planted a kiss on his cold face.

Ghosts with a sufficient level of power could possess a body but they couldn't maintain a normal body temperature. The delicate skin pressed against his lips felt like a cold piece of jade but Gu Yan didn't pay attention to this matter of body warmth and went for his lips after kissing his lover's face.

Xie Lan stopped breathing and the darkness in his eyes grew deeper and more profound. When the soft and warm feeling on his cheek shifted to his lips, he could not bear it any longer and reached out to press the youth's head to deepen their kiss.

A ghost's hearing ability was above that of a human's and he could hear the sound of the youth's breaths quickening and growing heavy. Xie Lan lowered his head to suck on the youth's pale and slender neck until the pale cyan colour of his blood vessels under his skin could faintly be seen. Feeling the pulse of a living human, he stuck out his tongue and slowly licked that area.

But after this, he went no further.

It wasn't that he didn't want to, but he couldn't…

"If we conduct an exchange, Ah Yan's body will get hurt. So, we can't." Much more than his desire to satisfy his urge, and the lust wrecking him, Xie Lan cared about the youth's health. He would rather endure and explain in order to clear any misunderstandings.

This problem… With this reminder, Gu Yan finally remembered the difference between their identities.

A ghost and a human… the adage was that humans and spirits were different and this difference spanned across all aspects. In reality, it only concerned the matter mentioned earlier. During an exchange between a human and a ghost, the human's yang energy would be sucked away and if this were to happen too many times, the human would naturally die. This was inevitable.

"We won't do it till the end?" As the author of this spiritual divination novel, Gu Yan knew of a loophole in this setting. It wasn't impossible for them to do it, but they couldn't do it there…

Xie Lan also knew of this point but he shook his head, depressed. It took him a while to reply, "I won't be able to stop."

His tone carried a hint of hoarseness due to his lust. His self-control was superb but this did not hold true when it came to the youth in front of him.

His voice became lower and his brows, even lower. Despite his cold and stoic expression, Gu Yan could tell he was evidently unhappy, and couldn't help but cough to hide the corners of his lips that had curved upwards.

His lover was about to become disabled from abstaining for so long… Like a large cat-like beast with flattened ears, this sort of appearance was too adorable. Gu Yan stroked his head, "Then, wait until I cultivate to a certain level."

Apart from that loophole, there was another legitimate solution.

The body he had taken over belonged to a normal human's but the primordial energy of chaos and luck that it brought along made it a potential seedling to become a divination master.

As for a cultivation method, Gu Yan naturally knew it as the author. However, the period of time he'd spent before this trying to live as an honest and upright citizen meant he hadn't thought of becoming a divination master.

If he didn't cultivate, his lover truly would have to abstain for the rest of his life. Although his frustrated and stuffy face was rather cute, Gu Yan couldn't bear it.

The gates of Ghost City only opened once a month and since the timing for this month's opening was already up, the gates between the two realms would only open after a month.

The residents of Ghost City were extremely intrigued by the dark-haired youth who had stayed behind. For so many years, this was the only living human who was surviving within their Ghost City for an entire month and also, the only living human in Ghost City.

How could they not be intrigued by such a miracle?

But even if they were interested, none of these ghosts dared to enter the perimeters around the youth because this person's body carried the Ghost King's aura. What did this mean? After their initial surprise, these ghosts didn't do anything like seeking death.

However, even if they didn't do anything, it didn't mean rumours wouldn't spread. Every ghost in the city already knew about the white moonlight1 in their Ghost King's heart; the reason why his study was off-limits.

Now that this human had appeared, rumours had it that he closely resembled the Ghost King's white moonlight. The ghosts all came to a strange conclusion. That was, this dark-haired youth was the substitute for Lord Xie Lan's white moonlight.

"Hasn't the 18th level of hell been too empty, recently?" The pale man asked his subordinate coldly, though his tone wasn't one of enquiry.

Immense pressure flooded the room and Xu Qiu was extremely miserable. He didn't know whether or not he should answer this question.

"We should stuff some ghosts in." When he said these words, the lips of the person sitting at the top curled.

"Understood. Your subordinate will carry it out immediately." Seeing the curved lips, Xu Qiu felt his scalp grow numb and immediately answered. His heart hadn't beaten so furiously for hundreds of years.

The expression on his boss was too terrifying. The last time he saw it, Xu Qiu had just become his subordinate. At that time, a certain being wanted to establish a sect in Ghost City and massacred every ghost in the city.

Who the hell was blind enough to spread rumours? If they wished to die, don't drag him in!

Rumours flew quickly and even Gu Yan, whose range in Ghost City wasn't wide, heard about it.

The hole in the brains of the ghosts living in Ghost City was even bigger than the divination masters from the spiritual organisation. When he heard the 'substitute' rumours, Gu Yan, who was still plotting to bring his lover back to the Human Realm, chuckled.

"Ah Yan is Ah Yan." Xie Lan narrowed his eyes, resting his chin on the youth's shoulders in an extremely unguarded manner. Even if another person who looked exactly like him appeared, that pair of eyes could only ever belong to one person.

"Qiuqiu has always been waiting patiently, never touching others." The ghost who'd spread these rumours had already been thrown into the 18th level of hell. Xie Lan didn't plan on releasing him for the next few hundred years.

Watching his lover solemnly explain, as if afraid he would misunderstand, Gu Yan pet the head of this person who was clearly a human but resembled a large cat, "When the gates open next month, do you want to go to the Human Realm?"

"Okay." He didn't even think before replying, his voice low. It was only afterwards did Xie Lan begin to think of how to arrange Ghost City's matters.

Ah, he'd throw everything to his subordinate.