Ch.2 This Venerable One Lives

(P.S: disturbing things throughout novel. Not in every chapter but maybe in about half of novel. These things will include things such as: suicide, tragedy, sexual harassment/r@pe etc...

Swear words will also be used.

If you do not feel comfortable with reading these parts please do feel free to skip.)

>>warning: 15 year old Mo Ran fucks a prostitute

“My heart had already stilled and my thoughts turned to ash, yet

unexpectedly the light of spring shines through the cold night. Could

it be that the heavens pity the blade of grass in the secluded valley?

Yet I fear only that the world is unpredictable and full of hardships.”

A woman’s crisp voice passed by his ear, poetic verses rolling like

pearls and jade, but all they did was make Mo Ran’s head throb, the

vein by his brow twitching madly.

“What’s with all the noise! Where’d this wailing banshee even come

from! Servants, kick this bitch off the mountain!”

Only after bellowing so did Mo Ran realize with a start that

something wasn’t right.

...Hadn’t he died?

Hatred and coldness, pain and loneliness stabbed at his chest. Mo

Ran’s eyes flew open.

Everything that had happened right before his death scattered like

snow in the wind. He found himself lying on a bed; not the bed at

Sisheng Peak, but a bed carved with a dragon and phoenix, the

wood smelling heavily of powder. The old quilt was colored pink and

purple, embroidered with mandarin ducks——the kind of bed one

would only find in a whorehouse.

“...”

Mo Ran froze.

He knew where this was.

This was the entertainment district near Sisheng Peak.

So-called entertainment district just meant brothel, easy come easy

go.

Mo Ran had had a period of debauchery in his youth, and had spent

the greater portion of half a month at this establishment. But this

place had been sold and converted into a wine shop when he was

twenty-something. How did he end up here of all places after death?

Had he transgressed too much in life, wronged too many people,

and so the king of the underworld was punishing him to reincarnate

into a whorehouse and take customers?

Mo Ran turned over as his imagination ran wild.

And unexpectedly came face to face with a slumbering person.

“...”

What the hell!!! Why was there a person next to him??

A man, totally naked!

He was lovely and pleasing to the eye, and quite androgynous.

Mo Ran showed no expression, but his heart was full of turmoil. He

stared at that pretty boy's face for a while and suddenly

remembered.

Wasn’t this the boy toy he’d doted on when he was young, named...

Rong San?

Or was it Rong Jiu?

It didn’t matter if it was San or Jiu, what mattered was, this prostitute

got an STD and died years ago, even his bones should’ve rotted

away by now. Yet, here he was, delicately curled by his side, neck

and shoulders dotted with blue and purple, full of love bites.

Mo Ran pulled a long face, lifted the quilt, and peeked downwards.

“...“

This Rong someone, don’t know if he’s Jiu or San, let’s just call him

Rong Jiu. Rong Jiu’s pretty little body was covered in rope burns,

and his pale, tender thighs were still tied intricately with red rope.

Mo Ran stroked his chin: how interesting.

Look at this exquisite rope art, the skilled technique, the familiar

scene.

Didn’t he fucking do this himself??!!

As a cultivator, he had read about the concept of rebirth. He began

to suspect that he had somehow gone back in time.

To confirm his suspicions, Mo Ran found a copper mirror. The mirror

was worn, but good enough to vaguely make out his appearance.

Mo Ran had been thirty-two when he died, but the face in the mirror

was quite young; it was a charming face exuding a youthful

arrogance, looking no more than fifteen or sixteen.

There was no one else in the room. Thus, the once cruel ruler of the

cultivation world, Evil Tyrant of Bashu, Emperor of the Mortal Realm,

Lord of Sisheng Peak, Taxian-Jun Mo Ran himself, after much

consideration, expressed his thoughts honestly.

“ Fuck..... .”

The sleeping Rong Jiu got “fuck”-ed awake.

The pretty thing sat up languidly, the thin quilt sliding off of his

shoulder to reveal an expanse of pale skin. He gathered his long,

soft hair and, lifting his peach blossom eyes smudged with red ink,

he yawned.

“Oh...Mo-gongzi, you’re up early today.”

Mo Ran did not respond. Back then, he had indeed liked Rong Jiu’s

type: delicate and androgynous. But now, the thirty two year old

Taxian-Jun couldn’t figure out what the hell he had been thinking to

find this kind of man attractive.

“Did you not sleep well last night? Nightmare?”

This Venerable One fucking died, how about that for a nightmare.

Rong Jiu thought his continued silence was because he was in a bad

mood, so he slipped off the bed to stand before the carved window,

wrapping his arms around Mo Ran from behind.

“Mo-gongzi, pay attention to me~ what are you spacing out for?”

Mo Ran’s face turned blue at this embrace. He wanted nothing more

than to rip this hussy off of himself and grant that fragile-looking face

some seventeen, eighteen slaps, but managed to suppress the urge.

He still felt a bit dizzy and uncertain of the situation.

After all, if he really had been reborn, then he couldn’t just beat Rong

Jiu up out of the blue after spending the previous day all lovey-dovey

with him. It would make it seem like he’d lost his marbles. Definitely

couldn’t have that.

Mo Ran arranged his expression, putting on a pretense of

forgetfulness: “What day is it?”

Rong Jiu stared for a second, then smiled: “Fourth of May.”

“Thirty third year?”

“That was last year. It’s the thirty fourth year now. They do say that

great men tend to be forgetful.”

The thirty fourth year...

The gears in Mo Ran’s head turned rapidly.

That year, he’d turned sixteen, and had just been identified as the

Sisheng Peak Leader’s long-lost nephew, transforming from a

pathetic, bullied dog to a phoenix on the branch overnight.

So then, he really had been reborn?

Or, was it just a hollow dream in death...

Rong Jiu smiled: “Mo-gongzi is so hungry he doesn’t even remember

the date anymore. Wait here a minute, I’ll go fetch some food. How

does fried pancake sound?”

Mo Ran had just been reborn, and wasn’t sure how to deal with all of

this yet. But, it should be fine if he just followed the same approach

as before. So he thought back to his charismatic style back then and,

suppressing his disgust, playfully pinched Rong Jiu’s thigh.

“Sounds delicious! I want congee too, and I want you to feed me.”

Rong Jiu pulled on some clothes and left, soon returning with a tray

carrying a bowl of pumpkin congee, two youxuan pastries, and a

plate of side dish.

Mo Ran happened to be a bit hungry and was about to dig into the

pastries when Rong Jiu brushed his hand away: “Allow me to serve

Gongzi.”

“......”

Rong Jiu picked up a pancake and sat on Mo Ran’s lap. He wore

nothing but a thin robe, legs spread wide open and flush against Mo

Ran, even rubbing against him now and again without subtlety.

Mo Ran stared at his face.

Rong Jiu thought he was getting horny again: “What’re you staring at

me for? The food’s going to get cold.”

Mo Ran was silent for a moment. Remembering the “good deed”

Rong Jiu had done behind his back in his previous lifetime, the

corners of his lips curved into a sweet smile.

He, the great Taxian-Jun, was no stranger to disgusting acts. As long

as he felt like it, there was nothing too disgusting for him to do. This

right now was merely putting on a show; mere child’s play.

Mo Ran casually leaned back against the chair, smiling: “Sit.”

“I...I’m already sitting.”

“You know where I’m telling you to sit.”

Rong Jiu blushed: “Why the rush, how about Gongzi finishes eating

fir-...ah!”

Before he could even finish, Mo Ran pulled him forward and pressed

him back down. Rong Jiu’s hand shook and knocked over the bowl

of congee. He managed between gasps: “Mo-gongzi, the bowl...”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“B-but you should still eat first...... nn...... ah......”

“Aren’t I eating right now?” Mo Ran held onto his waist, the sight of

Rong Jiu’s extended neck and lovely visage reflected in his pitch

black pupils.

In his previous lifetime, he’d liked to kiss those captivating red lips

during intimacy. After all, Rong Jiu was pretty and knew just the right

words to say. It would be a lie to say that Mo Ran had never felt

anything for him.

But now that Mo Ran knew what these lips had done behind his

back, he found them unbearably foul, and definitely had no interest

in kissing them.

The thirty two year old Mo Ran was different from the sixteen year

old Mo Ran in many aspects.

For example, the sixteen year old him still knew gentleness in love

and intimacy. However, the thirty two year old him had only violence

left.

Afterwards, looking at Rong Jiu who had passed out from getting

fucked to within an inch of his life, his tumultuous eyes curved faintly,

even carrying a hint of a sweet smile. He was very good-looking

when he smiled, eyes a deep, rich black with a sheen of arrogant

purple from certain angles. Right now, he dragged Rong Jiu onto the

bed by his hair, and casually picked up a shard of the broken bowl

from the ground, holding it by Rong Jiu’s face.

He had always avenged every grievance; right now was no different.

Thinking about how much he had taken care of Rong Jiu and his

business in the last lifetime, how he’d even thought about buying his

freedom, and how Rong Jiu had paid him back by scheming against

him with others, his eyes couldn’t help but curve into a smile as he

pressed the shard against Rong Jiu’s cheek.

This person’s body was his business; without this face, he would

have nothing.

He would be forced to wander the streets like a dog, to crawl on the

ground, get kicked, and suffer all kinds of spurn and abuse...he was

so delighted by the mere thought that even the disgust he felt from

fucking this person just now vanished like smoke.

Mo Ran’s smile became even more lovely.

Just a tad of pressure, and a thread of blood, captivatingly red,

seeped out.

The unconscious person seemed to have felt the pain and groaned

softly in a hoarse voice, looking quite pitiful, with tears still clinging to

his eyelashes.

Mo Ran’s hand suddenly stopped.

He remembered a dear friend.

“............”

Then, he suddenly realized what he was in the middle of doing. It

took a few seconds of him being in a daze before he finally, slowly,

lowered his hand.

He had done so much evil that it had become habitual. He even

forgot that he had been reborn.

Right now, everything had yet to happen, the irrevocable mistakes

had not yet been committed, and that person...still lived. There was

no need to walk the same cruel path; he could do it over.

He sat down and propped his foot on the bed, absentmindedly toying

with the piece of broken porcelain in his hand. Suddenly noticing the

oily pancake that still sat on the table, he grabbed it, peeled off the

wax paper, and tore into it with his teeth, eating until crumbs flew

everywhere and his lips got shiny with grease.

The pancake was this brothel’s specialty. It was nothing special,

especially compared to the delicacies he tasted later on. But ever

since this place had gone bankrupt, Mo Ran never got to eat it again.

Now, the familiar taste of the pancake, through the turbulent events

of the past, once again returned to the tip of his tongue.

The unreal feeling of rebirth lessened with every swallow.

By the time he finished the pancake, he finally woke up from the

stupor he had been in this whole time.

He really had been reborn.

Everything hateful in his life, everything that he couldn’t take back, all

of it had not yet come to pass.

He had not yet killed his uncle and aunt, not yet razed seventy two

cities to the ground, not yet betrayed his teacher and ancestors, not

yet gotten married, not yet...

No one had died yet.

He savored the taste in his mouth, licking along his teeth and feeling

the thread of joy in his chest ballooning rapidly into a kind of feverish

excitement. He’d rebuked Heaven and Earth in his last life, dipping

into all three of the forbidden techniques of the human realm. He had

mastered each of the other two; only the last one, “rebirth”, had

eluded him regardless of his talent.

Unexpectedly, that which he had failed to obtain in life fell effortlessly

into his lap in death.

All the distaste, the repugnance, the desolation, the loneliness, all of

his complicated feelings from his previous life were locked in his

chest. The sight of the army marching on Sisheng Peak, fire lit for

ten thousand fathoms, still remained in his mind.

That time, he really had not wanted to live anymore. The people all

said that his very existence cursed all who came close to him, that

he was fated to die alone. Everyone had turned their backs on him.

Toward the end, even he himself had felt like the walking dead:

senseless, lonesome.

He didn’t know what had gone wrong and where, for an irredeemably

wicked person like himself to get the chance to redo everything after

ending his own life.

Why destroy Rong Jiu’s face over such a measly grudge from so

long ago?

Rong Jiu loved money. He would just not pay this time, and take

some silver on top, to teach him a lesson. As for his life, he didn’t

want that burden just yet.

“I’m letting you off easy, Rong Jiu.”

Mo Ran said with a smile, tossing the porcelain shard out the

window.

Then he emptied out Rong Jiu’s jewels and valuables, tucking all of it

into his pouch. He took his time dressing and arranging himself

before leisurely strolling out of the place.

Uncle, aunt, cousin Xue Meng, Shizun, and...

Mo Ran’s eyes softened at the thought of that person.

Shige, I’m coming.

Author’s Notes: This story’s ship is: Mo Ran x Shizun

There is a white lotus Shige, do not board the wrong ship.

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