Chapter 149
Su Ci gazed at Zhou Yan.
The fleeting visions that had occasionally appeared before him had now materialized into reality. The hand he held was no longer the tender, childish hand of an infant but warm and firm.
Though there was still a hint of boyishness in Zhou Yan’s demeanor, it was precisely that touch of innocence that made the ardent emotion in his platinum eyes seem even more sincere.
Su Ci found himself unable to meet such a gaze directly.
He pressed his lips together slightly, then silently let go of Zhou Yan’s hand and turned away, stepping onto the hover bus.
Zhou Yan watched his hand as it was released, the smile in his eyes dimming bit by bit.
Lowering his head slightly, he looked like an abandoned puppy.
He could sense it. Ever since he had regained his memories and matured into his true form, there had been a subtle barrier between him and Su Ci.
Their relationship wasn’t as seamless as it had been before.
This left Zhou Yan feeling both dejected and confused.
Every rule in existence, no matter how complex, became clear to him with just a glance. Whether it was cooking, planting, mastering heavenly scripts, or deciphering arrays, he could quickly grasp the essentials and excel.
But emotions—those were a completely different matter, elusive and incomprehensible.
How could he make Su Ci like him as much as he liked Su Ci?
Already seated on the bus, Su Ci glanced back at him. Zhou Yan quickly forced a smile before stepping onto the hover bus himself.
As usual, Zhou Yan took the window seat, while Su Ci sat on the outside.
Propping his chin on one hand, Su Ci—who typically dozed off almost as soon as he sat down—found himself wide awake this time. His mind replayed the memories of the past tens of thousands of years, leaving him in a daze.
The hover bus started, moving slowly through the blood mist.
This bus wasn’t on a fixed route or stopping at any designated stations. Su Ci had specifically called for it to drift aimlessly through the base.
The bus was eerily quiet.
After what seemed like an eternity, Zhou Yan’s voice broke the silence. “Su Su.”
The synthesized tone of the voice lacked emotional inflection.
Even after returning to his original form, Zhou Yan’s voice hadn’t fully recovered—or perhaps, as the Spirit of Rules, speaking extensively was simply unnatural for him.
So, he continued to use the communicator to speak, though the generated voice was strikingly similar to his natural one.
Su Ci lazily turned his head, only to freeze when he saw Zhou Yan.
The tall youth, who had recently grown taller than him, had reverted to the childlike form Su Ci knew so well.
The small boy with black hair and red eyes now sported a pair of fluffy ears atop his head. When Su Ci looked at him, he responded with an adorably bright smile.
“What are you doing?” Su Ci asked, perplexed.
Zhou Yan leaned closer, gently taking Su Ci’s hand and placing it on his head. He nuzzled against Su Ci’s palm with a deep sense of affection, his synthesized voice soft and tender.
“If you like me in this form, I can stay like this forever.”
Feeling the soft, fluffy fur in his palm, Su Ci’s expression grew complicated. A well-behaved, adorable beast-eared child—who wouldn’t find that endearing? But…
“Zhou Yan, you should know that if you remain like this, I might never be able to respond to your feelings.”
Having lived for tens of millions of years, Su Ci understood clearly that his affection for younglings was entirely different from the kind of emotions Zhou Yan harbored for him.
Hearing this, Zhou Yan’s fists clenched tightly.
Of course, he understood, but…
“It doesn’t matter.” He lowered his gaze slightly. “As long as you’re happy, as long as I can stay by your side, hear your voice, and… touch you, I’ll be content.”
As he spoke, he lifted his gaze. His eyes, filled with unwavering intensity and passion, locked onto Su Ci, leaving the latter with an overwhelming urge to retreat.
Why the urge to escape?
Perhaps… it was the fear of being unable to reciprocate such intense feelings.
The separations he had experienced in the past hadn’t left him with searing pain but with a lingering sense of melancholy and sorrow—subtle yet persistent. Each time he remembered, it filled him with an overwhelming sense of meaninglessness.
That was why he resisted forming deep bonds, choosing instead to evade the eternal solitude through long periods of sleep. Yet…
Zhou Yan was different.
They were the same kind, and with Zhou Yan, what had always been his greatest obstacle ceased to be an issue.
“Su Su, whether as a lover, a friend, or family, as long as I can stay with you, it doesn’t matter to me,” Zhou Yan said with a smile.
Despite his youthful appearance, his eyes carried the warmth and sincerity of an adult.
Su Ci gazed at him and, in the end, let out a sigh.
“Change back,” he said softly.
Zhou Yan blinked, looking at him with some surprise, as if not understanding why he had suddenly made this request.
Su Ci reached out to ruffle Zhou Yan’s head before retracting his hand, leaning back against the seat, and turning his head to look elsewhere. In a slightly awkward tone, he muttered, “I’ll… give it a try.”
Zhou Yan stared at him, his lips slowly curling into a triumphant smile. Yet when Su Ci glanced back at him, his eyes only reflected pure joy.
Under Su Ci’s watchful gaze, Zhou Yan transformed back into his original form. The young man’s handsome face lit up with unadulterated happiness, a faint blush coloring his cheeks like an overjoyed puppy who had just been given a bone.
“Su Su, did you really mean what you just said about giving it a try?”
Su Ci nodded lightly, and after a moment, he couldn’t resist reaching out to pinch Zhou Yan’s cheek.
It was soft and warm, sending a tingling sensation through his fingertips.
Su Ci quickly let go, withdrawing his hand.
Zhou Yan didn’t resist from start to finish. He just grinned foolishly at Su Ci.
Perhaps because things had been spoken aloud, Su Ci felt the tension he usually experienced around Zhou Yan begin to ease. He reverted to his usual laid-back, nonchalant demeanor.
“So, when did you first gain consciousness?”
Su Ci recalled Zhou Yan mentioning that he had watched him for a long time. This meant that Zhou Yan must have awakened long before he fully became sentient.
As for being watched by Zhou Yan…
Rules exist everywhere; there was no avoiding it, so Su Ci wasn’t upset.
“I can’t really remember,” Zhou Yan replied with a small shake of his head. Before he fully became sentient, he was already conscious, but his state was still largely one of chaos.
However, one thing remained vivid in his memory—the first scene he ever “saw”:
It was a snowy night, with large flakes cascading down. A young man sat alone in a withered peach orchard, playing a sorrowful and lonely melody on his flute.
Before the man stood a snow-covered gravestone…
In his hazy awareness, Zhou Yan had watched that scene intently, his focus unwavering. He stared at the figure until a thought emerged within him—a desire to bring joy to that person and to ease his sorrow.
That was the very first notion to ever arise in Zhou Yan’s consciousness.
But Zhou Yan didn’t want to tell Su Ci about this memory. He didn’t want Su Ci to revisit such painful emotions.
Life at the Nursery Facility now was good enough.
Su Ci didn’t press further. He looked out at the red mist beyond the bus window and asked, “What were the rules you set before?”
As a Rule Spirit, Zhou Yan possessed a unique ability: Rule Pronouncement.
Whatever he declared could become a rule, provided he paid an equivalent price—just like when he rewrote the rule that prevented the Earth Spirit from leaving the land.
After Su Ci left the planet, Zhou Yan had fallen into slumber. Because all life and civilizations on the planet perished, his power recovered very slowly.
Then, interstellar humans rediscovered the planet and established their bases there.
The resurgence of life and the creation of new rules accelerated his recovery. Gradually, he awoke from his long sleep. However, the arrival of interstellar humans brought with it new problems.
For instance, they turned the planet into a prison, using it to house the most heinous criminals.
The malice and resentment produced by these prisoners became the perfect nourishment for the Spirit of Resentment, causing it to grow rapidly. Eventually, the seals left behind by Su Ci began to loosen.
And the Spirit of Resentment became aware of Zhou Yan’s existence.
It used the red mist and the creatures born within it to pursue and encircle Zhou Yan. Meanwhile, humanity’s presence contributed significantly to the Spirit’s growth.
Though resentful spirits could generate negativity, the amount they produced was limited—they were, after all, already dead and had lost the capacity for complex thought.
Humans, however, were different. With their emotions and desires, the negative emotions they produced under the influence of the red mist posed a much greater danger.
Even Zhou Yan himself couldn’t completely avoid the corruption.
Over time, as he risked being fully tainted, the planet’s rules would also fall under the control of malicious intent.
To protect the land and himself, Zhou Yan once again sacrificed all his Rule Power, driving the blood mist out of the human bases.
Additionally, he wrote into the rules: He is the Number One of the Nursery Facility. No being would ever question this fact.
Thus, even though the Spirit of Resentment knew Zhou Yan was inside the human bases, it could never locate him.
As for his loss of memory and transformation into a child…
Since the rule stated, “No being would ever question,” it naturally included himself. Thus, when he woke up again, he genuinely became Number One at the Nursery Facility.
It wasn’t until he grew increasingly weak, his Rule Power began to crumble, and the Spirit of Resentment distorted the rules that extreme weather allowed blood mist to invade human bases once again. However, it still couldn’t directly attack human buildings.
Later, Su Ci’s arrival not only saved him from the brink of fading away but also gradually awakened his memories, revealing the final catalyst—the base’s AI, Xiao Zhi.
“So, does this mean Xiao Zhi now counts as a living being?” Su Ci rubbed his chin.
“In terms of the rules, yes,” Zhou Yan nodded.
Su Ci then summoned the base’s AI, asking a few questions, but didn’t notice much difference compared to before—aside from it being slightly more emotional.
He shrugged, no longer teasing it, and continued patrolling the base.
The blood mist shrouded the entire base. Fortunately, aside from the Nursery Facility, none of the other buildings had been attacked by monsters. Nearly everyone in the base was equipped with a bottle of garlic-scented spray, which offered some degree of protection.
Zhou Yan glanced out the window at the spirits of resentment invisible to humans, his expression growing solemn.
Though he wasn’t truly one of the younglings and didn’t belong here, he had spent ten years living in this base. Since Su Ci’s arrival, it had become one of his most cherished memories.
Zhou Yan didn’t want to see this base destroyed.
“I’ll heal quickly and establish new rules to restore the base’s peace,” he said resolutely.
Then, he felt a hand press firmly onto the top of his head. Turning, he met Su Ci’s disapproving gaze.
“I’ve told you many times—don’t push yourself,” Su Ci said, frowning.
“But—”
“No buts.” Su Ci glanced toward the cultivation area. “Don’t underestimate humans. They’re far more resourceful than you think.”
At least in Base 24, order would likely be restored soon enough.
Zhou Yan gazed at Su Ci intently. After a moment, he smiled and said, “Su Su, thank you for caring about me so much. I’ll grow stronger as soon as I can.”
“…”
Su Ci looked at Zhou Yan’s smile, wanting to retort, but… Fine. He was concerned about Zhou Yan.
And Zhou Yan and Zhou Yan’s younger self were, after all, the same person.
“As long as you understand,” Su Ci muttered, trying to pull his hand away, only for the young man to grab his wrist.
Zhou Yan gazed at Su Ci with a soft, glowing smile, pressing Su Ci’s palm against his fluffy ears. His voice was gentle as he said, “Leave it there for a little longer. I like it when you pet me.”
Even though Su Ci was the one petting Zhou Yan’s ears, for some reason, he felt his own ears growing warm as well.
Thanks for the update. Chapter148 is missing.