Xiao Wuchen’s injuries looked pretty serious, with a lot of blood loss. But his body had been through a lot, and he was strong, so he wasn’t going to die just yet.

Duan Ze squatted down and used his spiritual power to stop the bleeding from Xiao Wuchen’s wounds. Then, he used his divine sense to forcibly wake the unconscious guy up. The elixirs he had were only suitable for cultivators, and using them on Xiao Wuchen might just send him off to the afterlife.

“Cough, cough!” Xiao Wuchen turned his head and coughed out a mouthful of clotted blood, wincing in pain. In his daze, he saw Duan Ze covered in blood, and his expression was filled with worry. “A Ze, are you hurt?”

“I’m fine, but you’re about to die,” Duan Ze said, feeling uncomfortable with his rival’s sudden change in behavior. He took out the storage ring from Xiao Wuchen’s hand and waved it in front of him. “Take out all the healing elixirs from your storage ring, and I’ll treat you.”

Xiao Wuchen obediently nodded. Once Duan Ze placed the storage ring in his hand, the next moment, a pile of medicine bottles taller than Duan Ze appeared beside him.

After summoning the elixirs, Xiao Wuchen turned his head and hugged Duan Ze’s waist. “A Ze, it hurts.”

‘Oh, oh, you!’ Duan Ze resisted the urge to kick the guy away. Was he under a spell or had his intelligence been lowered? Why was he acting like a seven or eight-year-old child?

He rummaged through the mountain of medicine bottles and found a few that should help treat Xiao Wuchen’s body. He crushed the ones for external use and sprinkled them on the wounds, then wrapped them with clean cloth strips. For the internal ones, he pried open Xiao Wuchen’s mouth, pushed them in, and helped him swallow. The whole process was done in one smooth motion.

The rest was up to Xiao Wuchen himself. Duan Ze tugged at his clothes. “Use your demon qi to heal yourself.”

Xiao Wuchen, with his face resting on Duan Ze’s waist, barely opened his eyes and slowly nodded.

Previously, he had used almost all his demon qi to fight off the parasite. But he found that as long as he held onto A Ze, the parasite would calm down a lot, and he would feel a bit better. Just like before, when his whole body was in pain, holding A Ze made it better.

With Duan Ze’s comfort, Xiao Wuchen finally had the chance to channel some of his demon qi to quickly heal the wound on his abdomen.

During this time, whenever Duan Ze tried to get up, Xiao Wuchen’s hands held onto him tightly, never letting go.

Duan Ze struggled a few times, fearing he might cause more harm and get struck by lightning again. He had to endure and wait for Xiao Wuchen’s wounds to heal.

His legs were numb from squatting, so he changed his position and sat down. Xiao Wuchen, like a large dog, nestled beside him with his movements.

Xiao Wuchen’s brow remained furrowed, cold sweat breaking out repeatedly on his body. His lips were pale and cracked from dehydration due to excessive sweating. He was still affected by the parasite, occasionally twitching in pain.

Still, the question lingered: with Xiao Wuchen’s cultivation level, how could he be parasitized?

Unless it happened before he had fully grown.

Back when the old Demon Lord passed away, and Xiao Wuchen faced the chaotic demon realm alone.

At that time, Xiao Wuchen was only a little over a hundred years old, equivalent to a thirteen or fourteen-year-old human teenager.

“A Ze…” Xiao Wuchen, eyes tightly shut, snuggled closer to Duan Ze’s waist.

His clothes loosened a bit from the movement, revealing his neck. His skin, rarely exposed to the sun, was a cold white, and on that pale neck, hidden by hair, was a deep knife scar.

Duan Ze frowned and reached out to pull the collar back a bit. Xiao Wuchen had never turned his back on him, even when they fought and he had circled behind him. He had never lifted his hair to see the back of his neck.

The knife scar cut across most of Xiao Wuchen’s neck. A little more, and his head might have been chopped off.

Judging by the scar’s healing, it was an old wound. No one could injure him like this now, and even if he got hurt, he’d heal quickly.

This scar was likely something Xiao Wuchen deliberately kept as a reminder to himself.

Duan Ze looked down at the quietly lying Xiao Wuchen. If he just stayed like this, he was quite pleasing to the eye.

As long as he didn’t try to kill him out of nowhere, didn’t cause trouble when they swapped bodies, didn’t open his mouth just to mock him, and didn’t always try to step on him when something happened…

Forget it, Duan Ze thought. He still really disliked this guy.

Duan Ze pinched the bridge of his nose. Why was he starting to feel sympathetic just because he saw a few scars on him? Like with Xie Qingyu, he had felt sorry for him when he saw him suffering and treated him well. But in the end, how did the male lead treat him?

The guy didn’t care about his kindness at all, only wanting him dead.

No matter how pitiful Xiao Wuchen was, it was centuries ago. The things he went through to get to where he was now were unimaginable and irreparable for Duan Ze. Xiao Wuchen didn’t need his sympathy now.

He should focus on figuring out how to handle the current situation. Xiao Wuchen’s consciousness hadn’t fully recovered yet. If he did, given their current position, even though Duan Ze was in a relatively advantageous position, there was still a chance he could be overpowered.

He had to be ready for a surprise attack at any moment.

Dawn was breaking.

Those with average talent near the Sky-reaching Iron Tree should be waking up from their meditation soon. Who knows what they’ll think when they see the merman corpses near the tree and the mysteriously vanished Duan Ze Immortal.

“Sigh…” Duan Ze sighed. And with all this blood on him, Xiao Wuchen holding onto him made it impossible to clean up. Luckily, he had set up a barrier earlier, so no one would find them.

“A Ze, don’t sigh.” Xiao Wuchen, who had been sleeping, struggled to open his eyes and raised his arm to pat Duan Ze’s back.

Duan Ze covered his face and pushed him back down. “Just sleep, will you? Hurry up and get back to your usual self.”

Xiao Wuchen’s every move gave him the feeling that they had known each other for a long time, but he had no memory of such a thing.

Either his memory was faulty, or he was overthinking it.

As the sun fully rose, people emerged from their meditation and walked onto the beach, ready to leave.

Duan Ze glanced at Xiao Wuchen, whose facial markings had almost disappeared. He reached out to lift his clothes and looked at the wound on his abdomen. Xiao Wuchen’s recovery was astonishing. In just one night, the bleeding had stopped, and it had mostly healed.

It made sense. If the cut on his neck could heal, this was nothing.

Just in case, Duan Ze used his divine sense to check inside Xiao Wuchen’s body. There was no accumulated blood, and it looked the same inside as it did outside—mostly healed.

Just as he was about to cover him back up, he sensed a strange gaze.

He looked down and saw Xiao Wuchen, who had been lying in his lap, previously in pain, now with sharp eyes, squinting slightly, looking at him coldly. “What are you doing?”

Author’s Note:

Duan Ze: “Next time you say something like that, remember to let go of my hand.”

Xiao Wuchen (not only didn’t let go but hugged tighter): “No.”