7 Chapter 7

Brother Gong had told Zhou and Ye that he would meet them later in the training grounds. Zhou and Ye had gone back to the infirmary where Zhou had slumped onto his bed, unusually quiet. Ye sat next to him, poking Zhou's cheek. Zhou let out a small groan that was muffled by the cotton sheets. Ye gently turned him over, Zhou's tied up hair getting tangled and covering his face in an unattractive manner.

"..." Ye stayed quiet and lied down next to Zhou, pulling him against his chest. He gently stroked Zhou's hair, allowing silence to settle over them. Zhou clung to Ye's robes with his slim fingers, taking in deep and unsteady breaths.

"You're not a monster," Ye muttered into Zhou's ear. The hair on the back of Zhou's neck rose, the soft breaths from Ye tickling his ear.

"But the emperor's official record of the war, the spiritless killed people without mercy," Zhou muttered back, his voice swaying from audible to inaudible. Zhou pressed his fingers against Ye's chest, trying to keep them warm. His eyes widened in surprise when Ye's skin was even colder than his own.

"Er gege, you're cold," Zhou said, propping himself up with his elbow. Ye pulled his robes over his chest, avoiding Zhou's gaze. Zhou grabbed Ye's hand, sitting up fully.

"You never get a cold. I don't think I've ever seen you sick either. So why are your hands so cold?" Zhou asked. He encased Ye's hands with his smaller ones, ignoring that his hands felt like ice.

"I'm fine. It's just chilly in here," Ye said, trying to pull his hand away from Zhou. He didn't want Zhou to notice that his hands were becoming even colder. Zhou frowned, getting up and grabbing more blankets from the cupboard.

"Stay there, you're freezing," Zhou said. He piled the blankets on top of Ye, tucking them underneath him.

"Liuxian, I'm fine," Ye tried to protest, attempting to wiggle his way out of the ever-increasing mountain of blankets. Zhou immediately held him down, glaring at him.

"You're freezing. You will stay here until you warm up. Look, your face is already red and blue!" Zhou fussed. Ye sighed and settled back down, accepting his fate as a roll of blankets. After Zhou had piled on the 13 or so blankets in the cupboard, he sat next to Ye, pressing his hand against Ye's cheek.

"Er gege, you're still freezing," Zhou said. Ye didn't look into Zhou's eyes, feeling his lips becoming frosty. Ye didn't comment, instead, choosing to rub his hands together underneath the blankets.

Ye's lip twitched as he kicked off the sheets, the cotton annoying his cold skin. Zhou was about to stop him until Ye grabbed him, pulling him close. Ye wrapped his arms around Zhou.

"Er gege-"

"Just, let me stay like this. Just for now," Ye muttered. Zhou settled down, carefully watching Ye's face. Ye closed his eyes, his fingers attempting to curl into Zhou. He fell unconscious, his head slouching into the pillow.

"Er gege," Zhou shook Ye's arm, his eyes flickering across Ye's face.

"Er gege," Zhou said louder, panic filling his voice. He pressed his hand against Ye's cheek, noticing that he was a couple of degrees warmer. He sighed in half-relief and narrowed his eyes at Ye. He caressed Ye's cheek, the skin becoming warmer at a notable pace. He clutched Ye's hand, noticing that his fingers were no longer freezing.

"Ye Zhong, what are you hiding from me?" Zhou said gingerly. Zhou also closed his eyes, falling asleep in Ye's embrace.

~~

Ye opened his eyes, observing the huge area that his Dantian occupied. He got up from his cross-legged state, walking over to the huge ball of spirit.

'I've gotten stronger again. Human rank early-stage 6,'

"Well, look who decided to visit again," a figure appeared out of thin air, floating slightly above the ground. Ye sighed and turned around, watching the figure carefully. The figure grinned, floating closer.

"How has life treated you, Zhong?" the figure asked.

"I don't think we are so familiar as for you to call me by my given name," Ye said, gritting his teeth. The figure grinned wider and lifted Ye's chin with his finger, admiring Ye's handsome face.

"Please, I've been locked inside of you for more than 5 years, yet you don't greet me with my name," the figure mocked. Ye smacked the figure's hand away, a vein popping up on his temple.

"What do you want, Amos?" Ye asked. Amos grinned even wider, lounging back on the air.

"Nothing much, just a little chat," Amos reassured. Ye crossed his arms, raising his eyebrow.

"I am not in the mood to amuse you in your games," Ye replied. Amos beamed, chuckling.

"What game? I just wanted to ask how your little friend is doing with your freezing body. What was his name again?" Ye paused, glaring at Amos. Amos nearly laughed at Ye's glare.

"Oh, his name was Zhou Liuxian! He is quite the pretty fellow. Looks like a girl with how small and scrawny he is," Amos mocked.

"I wonder how easy it would be to slit his pretty neck," Ye jumped at Amos, pinning him to the ground with a hand around his throat.

"You serve me, remember? You follow my every order down to the letter," Ye snarled. Amos raised his hands in surrender, a sly smile gracing his lips.

"Of course I remember. I already swore to never hurt you or anyone you consider a friend," Amos said. Ye let go of him, getting up and offering Amos a hand. Amos took it and got up, dusting off his robes.

"So, Young Master, how is your curse going?" Amos asked, summoning a marble and playing with it.

"The curse is still very reactive. Any negative emotion that Liuxian has or I get too far away from him, I start to freeze as the ice pick presses against my heart," Ye said. Amos nodded flicking the marble into Ye's Dantian. Ye scowled and willed his spirit to retrieve the marble, tossing it back to Amos.

"Don't just throw junk into my Dantian if you still want to feed on the impurities," Ye threatened. Amos frowned, summoning more marbles.

"You barely have any impurities anyway. Your damn body is immune to impurities," Amos muttered.

"If you're gonna complain, then attach yourself to another host. Oh, wait! You don't have enough energy for that," Ye said snarkily. Amos's frown deepened.

"It's just my luck that I met you," Amos grumbled.

"Your title isn't Constellation Amos of Hated Injustice for no reason," Ye shot back.

"Your feeling of injustice was so strong that I thought for sure I had got a jackpot," Amos complained. Ye rolled his eyes and disappeared, bringing his consciousness to his heart.

"I do wonder, will the curse kill you or will you be able to destroy it?" Amos pondered out loud before disappearing, going back into slumber.

Ye looked at the ice pick that was pointed at his heart, transparent and chilly. It was a couple of inches away from his heart, slowly retreating as he felt his fingers regain the ability to move.

Drip.

Ye looked at the tip of the ice pick, noticing that a small droplet had melted off the ice pick. He felt a warm rush of Qi enter his meridians, the curse weakening ever so slightly.

'How long until I can completely break you? All you do is melt ever so slowly and give me more power, but you still point at my heart,' Ye thought, touching the ice pick. The ice pick shuddered under his touch, ice climbing onto his fingertips. Ye pulled his fingers back the ice melting off his fingertips.

Amos appeared again, looking at the ice pick.

"I am still so baffled as to why you have such a high-scale curse placed on you," Amos said. Ye glanced over at Amos who was popping candies into his mouth.

"Humor me. Why or who put this curse on you? You're what, 13 or 14? Who did you anger to have this curse put on you?" Amos asked, sucking on the candy.

"I didn't anger anyone," Ye retorted, his finger twitching. Amos caught that twitch, his eyebrow raising in doubt.

"I feel injustice. How dare you lie to me, your companion of 5 years?" Amos scolded.

"Nuisance for 5 years is more like it," Ye muttered. He took a candy from Amos and tossed it into his mouth, chewing and crushing it. Amos looked mournfully at Ye, sad at the loss of his candy.

"You love sphere-shaped things too much," Ye said, taking another candy. Amos hid the candy at his side, popping another one in his mouth.

"Spheres are the most amazing shape. It can either have infinite corners or zero corners; infinite sides or zero sides. So smooth and perfect as well. " Amos ranted. Ye rolled his eyes, flashing back into his Dantian. Amos followed suit, whistling as Ye glared at him when he appeared.

"What is that?" Ye asked, pointing next to him. Amos floated around the object that Ye was pointing at, observing it intently.

"That seems to be a pile of sphere-shaped candies and marbles," Amos said slowly. Ye pinched in between his brows in annoyance.

"I have no problem with you storing items next to my Dantian as long as it doesn't go into my Dantian, but why did you mix the candy and marbles?" Ye asked, exasperated.

"Inconveniencing myself is the only thing I'm good at," Amos said in a matter-of-fact tone, grabbing a random sphere and popping it into his mouth. He cringed as he spat out the broken and cracked marble, rubbing his jaw.

"Ow," Amos whined.

"I don't even know how you didn't see this happening in foresight when you set this up," Ye said, sitting down cross-legged, away from the monstrosity of the marbles and candies.

"I did see this in foresight, but I am triple S being. I thought my luck would be better and I would grab a candy," Amos said, grabbing another sphere and popping it in his mouth, smiling as it was a sweet candy and not a hard marble.

"If triple S means self-sabotaging, self-destructive, and stupid, then yes, you are a triple S being," Ye teased, closing his eyes and willing the huge ball of spirit to turn the droplet of water from the ice pick into Qi, moving it through his meridians and settling it into his Dantian.

After a couple of hours, Ye opened his eyes, greeted with the sight of Amos drifting through the air while reading a book.

"Hello, Young Master. You've been cultivating for about 4 hours, a new personal record," Amos said airily, his eyes still trained intently onto his book. Ye stretched and stood up, hearing the satisfying crack of his stiff joints.

"You know, I've never seen someone with this big of a Dantian. I tried to measure it, and it's even bigger than the largest ocean in this world," Amos said, breaking his eyes away from his book.

"I am a genius, aren't I?" Ye said back, walking over to the edge of his Dantian. The Qi in his Dantian had raised about 3 inches.

"That small droplet of water is quite powerful. If I could eat that, I'd grow more powerful by leaps and bounds. But I am not a being that can't eat Qi like that, only impurities," Amos scowled, glaring at the genius.

"Would you still want it if it meant you were walking on a tightrope of death?" Ye asked, touching his Qi. Small waves flowed from the disturbance on the surface. Amos shut his book and placed his chin on his fist, contemplating.

"I guess I would since I don't care if I live or die, only that I could get more powerful in a short time. Life and death aren't kind to beings like me," Amos said, opening up his book. Ye drew his hand back, watching the soft waves roll over the surface.

"But then again, I'm not you. I don't have someone that I care about to the point I would give my own life up for them,"