◎Boundaries◎
"..."
Because he already had memories of entering twice.
There is a fundamental difference between a person's real experience and a few lines of text.
Yingshi, who had read the book, couldn't distinguish this domain whose opening time did not match the original book, so how could he not be able to distinguish it.
But after several interactions, Shuangjian had already clearly understood Yingshi's nature. Her question was merely out of curiosity, a desire for knowledge like "teach me", rather than a probe he should guard against and fear.
So he naturally spoke: "After we parted last night, I pondered the method to loosen the seal alone, repeatedly considering the several nodes of loosening the seal you told me about. Among them, the domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring is completely harmless, which left a deep impression on me. Now that we have arrived here and heard the sound of water, I felt it completely matched the description."
"...So amazing!" Yingshi was amazed, and she couldn't help praising, "People like you who are calm in the face of danger, bold and careful, generally can achieve great things... No wonder you could transmigrate into the male protagonist."
While speaking, she also tried to stand up, but the pain in her left ankle became more obvious. It was a very down-to-earth and familiar pain, without any supernatural power of the cultivation world. She simply sprained her ankle when she fell!
Yingshi had learned her lesson. From now on, she must develop the good habit of carrying a storage bag with her and filling it with necessary items.
Weapons for self-defense, food to satisfy hunger, medicine for bruises... none of them should be left behind!
She hopped with a "hiss" and was supported by Shuangjian.
In the darkness, the only reference coordinate was the person beside her. Yingshi didn't stand on ceremony, leaning a third of her center of gravity towards him, and asked: "I sprained my ankle, I have to trouble you to support me to find the Marrow-Cleansing Spring..."
Listening to the location of the water sound, that pool of spring water that would change their destiny was still far away.
Yingshi was ready to hop on one foot, but Shuangjian didn't act immediately.
He was caught in a subtle hesitation, which was whether to help Yingshi solve the problem.
The ankle she sprained did not hurt her bones and muscles. He could relieve her pain through simple massage.
But would that be... a bit out of line?
There had been enough unavoidable physical contact, almost all the time, including now, as he supported her arm.
The immediate threat was temporarily resolved by entering the domain, and Shuangjian's perception of the boundaries of contact suddenly multiplied.
The forced embrace just now, the grabbing back and forth, and the current support out of reason...
Through the sleeve, he could clearly feel Yingshi's body temperature - higher than his, like a heat source.
If he took the initiative to propose rubbing her foot... what would that be?
Her anklet was still tied to his hand... of course, that wasn't the point...
The point was, Han Shuangjian, why do you have to go this far?
The questioning voices in his mind grew louder and louder, and Shuangjian's face became somewhat gloomy.
He didn't say a word, supporting Yingshi towards the direction of the spring water, only maintaining necessary contact, and the contacted parts were as stiff as stone sculptures.
Along the way, Yingshi talked excitedly in his ear:
"After experiencing the Marrow-Cleansing Spring, you should be able to become stronger even faster than the progress in the original text."
"I don't know how powerful the marrow cleansing is. Will I be able to beat Xu Mingcheng after I go out?"
"Could the demonic cultivators setting up their stronghold in this place be related to the domain of the Marrow-Cleansing Spring? After all, this spiritual spring is also effective for demonic cultivators..."
"We must have alarmed Mi Ruotian when we broke the chains, right? But when he comes back to kill us, he will find no one up there, and he will definitely be angry and confused."
"...Shuangjian, why aren't you speaking?"
She finally noticed that the person beside her was unusually quiet.
Yingshi's heart skipped a beat, and she stopped silently.
She suddenly realized that quite a bit of time had passed from the moment they were rescued from the prison to now heading towards the Marrow-Cleansing Spring - it was probably no longer daytime, and today's sunset had a special significance: it also represented the arrival of the onset period of Shuangjian's demon core!
"Has the demon core already acted up?" Her heart almost jumped out when she asked.
Because of this setting of the demon core... uh.
For example, if a normal person has a high fever of forty-two degrees that does not subside for a long time, it would burn out their brain or even cause direct death. Then Shuangjian during the onset period of his demon core is in a continuous high fever of forty-five degrees.
Since birth, it acts up once every three months. In his childhood, Shuangjian would be tortured by this onset period to the point of unbearable pain, wishing he were dead. And after he grew up, this onset period took on another layer of meaning... Yingshi found it hard to say.
The readers in the comment section straightforwardly called it - the estrus period.
Although Jing Fengliu didn't write it explicitly, what he was hinting at and guiding between the lines was quite obvious.
Even if it wasn't obvious enough, discerning readers in the comment section would point it out and discuss it extensively.
Just like Yingshi's red string anklet, this dog author liked to add some ambiguous settings in his articles, but never resolved them.
Anyone doing content creation knows the theory of Chekhov's gun. If a gun appears in a story, it must be fired later.
But in Jing Fengliu's stories, no matter if you fire it or not, all characters must be equipped with guns, but they are not allowed to fire! Or when they are on the verge of firing, they must misfire!
This was his way of creation.
The first explicitly described onset period of Shuangjian's demon core in the original text was on the day of his awakening in the thatched cottage, but this time the focus was mainly on the pain during the onset, which was relatively innocent.
But the second onset period three months later was purely to advance the emotional development, only it advanced in a way that left people hanging.
In short, at that time, Shuangjian experienced it together with another aloof senior sister type female supporting character... That's a story for another time.
So speaking of it, this current onset is still very pure, and the male protagonist still has three months of growth!
Moreover, since Shuangjian is not currently in the near-death state described in the plot, the demon core has not been absorbed by him, so there certainly won't be a change like "demonic nature running wild"...
So speaking of it, perhaps the judgment of whether the onset period is pure or not is not based on age, but based on whether the demon core has been absorbed as the dividing line?
Tsk... It really is the nature of demons to be lustful!
Yingshi's thoughts wandered far away, and when she came back, she still inexplicably felt a bit nervous.
Of course, the more important thing was that she didn't know how to take care of Shuangjian in a state of pain.
So far in all their contacts, Shuangjian had acted as calm as usual, almost showing no signs of injury.
If he cried loudly from the pain, or rolled all over the floor... although it was a bit hard to imagine, this possibility couldn't be ruled out!
After all, they were both modern people, how could they endure the heaven-defying torture in a fantasy world?
Yingshi judged others by herself and felt that the sky was about to fall again.
But this time Shuangjian spoke.
"Not yet." he replied.
Then, he immediately continued in a slightly husky voice, "I just remembered a massage technique my family taught me when I was young. It can heal your foot injury, if you don't mind..."
"Ah? Of course I don't mind. I can't thank you enough," Yingshi replied hastily.
Her heart was full of gratitude, and she became even more determined that when Shuangjian's demon core flared up, she would take care of him as meticulously as a heroic mother caring for a baby in swaddling clothes!
"You need to take off your shoes and socks."
"Mhm!" Yingshi sat down near the edge, glad that the dark environment hid her blushing face.
Although she agreed readily, she still felt a bit shy.
But in such a serious and proper situation of mutual assistance, or rather, a one-sided rescue, how could she let her imagination run wild with trivial thoughts!
She briskly took off her shoes and socks, sensing Shuangjian crouching down in front of her. His slightly cool hands touched her ankle.
"..."
Yingshi fell into a rare silence.
"..."
Shuangjian was also silent, his fingers trembling imperceptibly.
In that instant, he deeply regretted his impulsive decision.
He shouldn't have done this.
But if he waited until his demon core flared up, it would be too late to deal with Yingshi's foot injury.
At that time, neither of them would be guaranteed to walk freely, and if they encountered another accident, they would inevitably be bogged down by trouble.
It must have been out of this consideration that he brought up a plan his heart had already rejected...
That must be it.
Shuangjian closed his eyes to suppress his distracting thoughts. He held his breath and positioned his fingers, but his fingertips brushed against another knotted string on the young woman's ankle—to avoid breaking character and being noticed, she had found herself an identical replacement.
Suddenly, he felt as if the red string on his own wrist and this new red string on Yingshi's foot were resonating with each other. Resting against his skin, it felt hot, almost burning.
His movements paused for a split second because of this, but he said nothing, continuing to quietly massage away the blocked meridians for Yingshi.
"Wait... it hurts, it hurts so much!" Yingshi gasped as she tried to push Shuangjian's shoulders away, her face twisting in pain. "Maybe, maybe let's stop the massage for now!"
Massages hurt so much!
"I'll be gentler," Shuangjian's tone was calm, yet the force of his hands didn't decrease in the slightest.
He turned a deaf ear to Yingshi's wails, focusing entirely and even rigidly on fixing the sprain.
This continued for three to five minutes. A thin layer of sweat had already formed on Yingshi's forehead by the time the pain finally began to dissipate, and she could gently rotate her ankle.
"It seems better..." Yingshi bit her lip and said softly.
But Shuangjian did not reply.
He didn't withdraw his hands, nor did he continue the massage; he merely held her foot, completely motionless.
Was the massage over or not?
Yingshi felt faintly embarrassed. She tried to pull her foot back, but when she moved, it didn't budge!
In fact, Shuangjian tightened his grip on her.
The air between them suddenly froze. Yingshi then realized that the breathing of the person in front of her seemed to have grown heavy, and the temperature transmitting from his hands was skyrocketing, rising beyond the limits of a normal human body.
...Oh no!
Alarm bells immediately rang in Yingshi's head. She stuttered out of nervousness, "It's the demon... the demon core!"
The demon core was flaring up!
The moment her words fell, the hands on her ankle finally loosened. Yingshi's foot regained its freedom, but Shuangjian collapsed backward.
By the time she reached out to catch him, she already heard a heavy thud. Shuangjian fell to the ground, his body curling up from the intense pain.
"Shuangjian!" Yingshi scrambled over, groping in the dark to support Shuangjian's shoulders. At this very moment, her mind couldn't recall any teasing thoughts about a mating season; she was only worried that the wonderful Shuangjian was going to be burned by raging fire!
"How do you feel right now? Are you still conscious enough to communicate?" she asked anxiously. "If I carry you directly into the Marrow-Cleansing Spring, would it make you feel much better?"
Shuangjian's consciousness was plunged into a chaotic state of immense suffering, yet he knew Yingshi was talking to him and could clearly hear the content of her words.
However, thinking had become an exceptionally difficult task.
He couldn't enter the Marrow-Cleansing Spring in this condition; instead, he might explode and die due to the collision of several forces. He had to endure through this period.
"...No..."
"What should I do to help you?" The young woman's voice carried a familiar tearful tone.
...She really seemed to love crying.
When she cried, the rims and corners of her eyes would turn red, and droplets of water would hang on her eyelashes. When she sobbed, the tears would slide down her cheeks, as if they would never run dry.
Even though he was clearly burning up to the point of delirium, he was still making such nonsensical observations.
