“Cough, cough…” Xiao Wuchen endured the pull from the teleportation array. As soon as he arrived, he stumbled to the side, supporting himself with one hand on a nearby withered tree. Blood surged from his throat to his mouth and slid down his chin.

He had been tightly gripping the other person’s arm, but now his hand was empty, holding only the other person’s outer garment, while the person themselves had vanished.

Xiao Wuchen wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. He didn’t believe Duan Ze would suddenly have a change of heart and spare him; the other must have encountered something more important than killing him.

He coughed a few more times, and the demon qi within him quickly circulated to repair his body.

Duan Ze had used a teleportation talisman to transport them near an abandoned temple, with a town further away. At the town entrance stood a stone stele inscribed with “Su Mi Town.”

His divine sense scanned the abandoned temple, finding no signs of life inside.

He glanced at the clothes in his hand, and with a flick of his fingers, a black flame rose, consuming the garment entirely. The flame then transformed into a half-human-sized, slender black dog. It sniffed the air, barked at Xiao Wuchen, and then quickly ran toward Su Mi Town.

Xiao Wuchen moved to follow the black dog’s pace. On his second step, a black mist rose from his body, and in the next instant, the mist vanished. The man had concealed all his demon qi and the horns on the sides of his forehead, changing his attire to a black robe.

Once his figure disappeared into the town, a rustling sound emerged from within the withered tree that had supported Xiao Wuchen as he spat blood. Shortly after, a child with a head full of fluffy, straw-covered hair crawled out.

“Achoo!” Duan Ze sneezed loudly, irritated by the dust inside. He rubbed his nose, glanced at the distant town, then at the bloodstains already soaked into the ground beside him. With a casual wave, he cleared the bloodstains and wrapped his oversized clothes around himself, heading toward the nearby abandoned temple.

The teleportation talisman he used was meant for a single person. If not for Xiao Wuchen’s high cultivation and physical endurance, he might have been torn to pieces during the teleportation.

What a madman.

In his smaller form, Duan Ze’s emotions were easily swayed by minor things, sometimes completely losing control. That’s why he never ventured out during his weak periods, but this time he had no choice.

From the tree to the temple, a short distance, the child clenched his fists, his face flushed red, and his eyes filled with aggrieved tears.

Why did the late-stage symptoms have to act up now? Just a little more, and he would have been free, no longer worrying about threats.

Damn it!

Duan Ze stomped the ground in anger, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

The abandoned temple was drafty on all sides, cobwebs accumulated everywhere, and the clay statue of a deity had its eyes half-open, a look of compassion for all beings.

He exchanged a few glances with the statue, then turned to find a relatively hidden corner for himself. From his storage ring, he took out a smaller set of clothes he had prepared and changed into them.

To avoid being recognized, he deliberately chose a dull, earthy yellow outfit he would never usually wear.

After changing, he took out a handkerchief from his storage ring and carefully wiped away the tears that had stubbornly fallen.

The original owner of this body had only found one way to counteract the side effects: using the male lead as a medicinal person. But for various reasons, he couldn’t use Xie Qingyu as a medicinal person. Perhaps these side effects would accompany him for life until his lifespan ran out.

The premise was that he could always keep his condition hidden.

Thinking of this, Duan Ze shed two more large tears for his bleak future.

He performed a cleansing technique to tidy up his surroundings, then took out a cushion and a plate of spiritual fruits from his storage ring. For safety reasons, he decided not to leave and stay in the temple for three days until the side effects passed, before making further plans.

He had seen everything Xiao Wuchen did earlier. The demon dog he summoned had an extremely keen sense of smell and was cloaked with an invisibility spell, invisible to ordinary people and cultivators with lower cultivation than Xiao Wuchen. The plan was to track him down using the scent on his clothes.

Simple, crude, and effective, but this time Xiao Wuchen miscalculated. The place he went to wasn’t just any small town.

Su Mi Town was the largest town nearby and was where Duan Ze intended to go after leaving the ruins, even if he didn’t return to the demon realm. Although he didn’t make it there due to Xie Qingyu and Chi Xiuzhu’s antics.

The place had a beautiful environment, convenient transportation, and thriving commerce. Many ordinary people settled there, creating various storybooks in their leisure time, forming a relatively famous and comprehensive book building in the area. Duan Ze also wrote occasionally, but he read more.

It was the place he frequented most besides the Cangyu Sect. Xiao Wuchen wanted to use a demon dog to find him in a place full of his traces; it was a massive undertaking.

Duan Ze happily took a bite of a fruit, just waiting for three days to pass so he could rise again.

However, things didn’t go as planned.

After the child finished the spiritual fruit, the sky outside had already darkened, and the stars were shining brightly. He made a small nest with the nearby straw, lay on it, and tried to keep his mood stable.

Before long, the child fell into a deep sleep with a calm mind.

In the middle of the night, he suddenly realized that in the drafty place he was in, there was a spot where the wind had stopped.

Duan Ze, immersed in his dream, suddenly woke up. His breathing instinctively slowed, and his eyes slowly opened.

What he saw was a pair of eyes filled with murderous suspicion and gloom. The child burst into tears, unable to control the flow.

Squatting beside him, silently watching, Xiao Wuchen was startled by the sudden crying. He reached out and covered most of Duan Ze’s face, “Shut up! If you cry again, Benzun will kill you!”

This threat and intimidation only made the child cry harder.

Duan Ze didn’t want to cry, but his emotions were completely out of control during his weak period. By the end, he was hiccuping, feeling like he might cry himself unconscious.

“Stop crying!”

“If you cry again, Benzun will break your limbs and make sure you never see your family again.”

“Hold it in!”

Xiao Wuchen’s expression was extremely grim. He stared at the crying mess of a child, finding it hard to see any trace of Duan Ze in him. He lifted the child’s collar and handed him to the demon dog beside him to sniff, confirming his suspicion that this wasn’t Duan Ze.

“Not him, after all.” Xiao Wuchen’s expression darkened further. He released Duan Ze’s mouth, looking at his saliva and tear-stained hand with disdain, then wiped it on Duan Ze’s clothes.

Duan Ze: “…Wah—”

Xiao Wuchen, you dog! Just wait until I recover, you’re done for!

Annoyed by the child’s crying, Xiao Wuchen put Duan Ze down, pointed at him, “Stay put, don’t go anywhere.”

With that, he turned and left the temple, lifting the invisibility spell on the demon dog, leaving it to guard Duan Ze while he returned to Su Mi Town.

Earlier, he had searched the town with the demon dog until late at night. The dog had practically covered the entire town, finding traces of Duan Ze everywhere but no sign of him.

By the time he realized he might have been tricked, it was already dark. Returning to the original spot, he saw the blood he had spat had been wiped away with spiritual power, indicating Duan Ze had been nearby.

Just as he realized this, he heard low sobbing from the nearby temple. Approaching, he found a child in yellow clothes, with a jade-like appearance, lying on the straw, face streaked with tears.

Like the one-horned yellow bear he had as a child, small and shivering in the corner.

However, the child managed to hide in such a concealed spot without a speck of dust on him, and he didn’t look like someone from the nearby town, which was odd.

Perhaps he was a young master from a wealthy family, having a spat with his family and running away.

The place was so clean, maybe his family had prepared it for him in advance.

Xiao Wuchen left the temple, extending his spiritual sense but surprisingly not finding anyone who should be guarding the child. Could he have guessed wrong?

Once Duan Ze sensed the person had left, he wiped his tears and crawled up from the straw, only to face the demon dog directly.

He realized that standing up, he was just face-to-face with the demon dog.

This demon dog didn’t have a fierce appearance. On the contrary, its black fur was shiny, its body lines graceful, limbs long and slender, with a noble demeanor, somewhat resembling a Doberman in his impression, but much larger.

The dog snorted at Duan Ze, its ears perked up alertly, signaling him to stay put.

Duan Ze frowned, pushing the dog, “Move!”

The demon dog was surprised that such a small human dared to push it, momentarily stunned, then took a step back.

Just as Duan Ze was about to leave, the demon dog, having recovered, nudged him back with its head. The child, caught off guard, sat down with a pout, about to cry, but covered his mouth himself.

If he kept crying, he wouldn’t be able to leave, so he had to hold it in.

Duan Ze gritted his teeth, grabbing nearby straw and throwing it at the demon dog, then sprinted outside.

When Xiao Wuchen and he had swapped bodies, although he knew he would shrink, he didn’t know exactly what he would look like, so this time when they met, the other didn’t recognize him as Duan Ze.

Now that Xiao Wuchen had left, it was the best time for him to escape. Unfortunately, he couldn’t use spiritual power or harm the demon dog. If the dog died, it would immediately alert Xiao Wuchen, and with only half his cultivation left, he couldn’t match Xiao Wuchen at full strength.

Using spiritual power to escape would mean revealing his identity to the demon dog, which would alert Xiao Wuchen that he was Duan Ze, leading to capture and—death.

But he overestimated his stamina. The child hadn’t even run a hundred meters before the demon dog caught up, grabbing his collar like a cub and carrying him back to the nest.

“Damn it! Let me go!” Duan Ze struggled with all his might, but without spiritual power, he couldn’t even beat the demon dog. What frustrated him more was that the dog wasn’t human, so no matter how much he broke character, he couldn’t summon lightning to help.

Duan Ze struggled all the way, eventually resigned to being pinned back into the straw nest. This time, the dog coiled around him, ready to bite his clothes if he moved, preventing him from leaving.

Furious, Duan Ze yanked a tuft of the demon dog’s fur, then, under its angry gaze, pressed the fur back.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Duan Ze crossed his arms, frustrated by his helplessness, his eyes red and teary.

Half a day had already passed. In two and a half days, he could return to his High Immortal Duan Ze mode and give this man and dog a good beating!

Just as Duan Ze was secretly wiping his tears in anger, Xiao Wuchen returned from outside, still with a gloomy face, like a fugitive on the run.

Duan Ze choked, his eyes red from crying, his hair a mess from struggling, covered in dry straw, looking both pitiful and defiant.

Xiao Wuchen frowned slightly, suddenly pulling out a string of candied hawthorns and handing it to Duan Ze, “Eat this.”

Duan Ze’s tears surged again. Was this… a last meal?

Xiao Wuchen: “Cry again, and I’ll kill you.”

Author’s Note: Duan Ze: “This is child abuse!”

——

Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or watered me with nutrient solution between 2020-09-18 22:22:08 and 2020-09-19 20:40:11~

Thanks to the little angel who threw a landmine: Big Sister on the 18th floor 1;

Thanks to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Hang An＿, Every Grain is Hard Work 10 bottles; A Pickled Fish 5 bottles; Nan Nan Good Night’ 2 bottles; Chinese Garden Cat, Time is Fragile 1 bottle;

Thank you all for your support, I will continue to work hard!