Heavenly Dao's Scheme

From Ye Hangzhi’s unilateral perspective, the conversation ended very successfully. Therefore, he naturally returned to the inner chamber to refine pills, but before leaving, he "thoughtfully" reminded Huo Ze to take the nearly half-full teacup back to drink slowly.

Huo Ze carried the exquisite glass cup, silently walking toward the backyard, unable to stop himself from thinking about the possibility of breaking it.

...Forget it.

The night in the Hidden Valley was incredibly silent. The poultry that had been noisy during the day had all fallen asleep. There wasn't a single breeze, nor the sound of rustling leaves. Thinking about it, it was indeed quiet to a terrifying degree. He looked up at the sky. There was no light pollution here; the clouds were as light as cotton, and the dense stars in the sky were confined within an orderly patch of night. Huo Ze momentarily revealed a complex expression.

Why on earth did he have to build a house in the style of a courtyard house? This architectural style was completely incompatible with the mountain and water scenery of the Hidden Valley... When Huo Ze couldn't help but call Ye Hangzhi strange earlier, it truly came from the heart. He even felt that Ye Hangzhi didn't belong to this world; the man's aura was unlike anyone who had experienced the apocalypse. Yet Ye Hangzhi had the nerve to call him strange.

He rubbed his full abdomen, his steps feeling a bit heavy. Huo Ze had intended to go wash up, but as he walked toward the backyard, he suddenly felt an indescribable sense of freshness and clarity that instantly spread throughout his body. He gripped the cup in his hand and continued walking until he closed his door tight. Sitting stiffly on the edge of the bed, he silently checked the soles of his shoes and his pant legs.

In the morning, when he went to the garden to pick vegetables, he had gotten some mud on himself, but now... If someone said these shoes were brand new and just taken from a warehouse, people might actually believe it. They were so white they practically glowed! Huo Ze’s face darkened. He could roughly rule out the possibility of Ye Hangzhi being a reborn person, and he gradually began to suspect that this person was actually a Daoist who had attained immortality from some secluded clan in China.

His heart was filled with strange, inexplicable emotions, particularly a trace of unclear indignation. It felt as if he were being toyed with. Huo Ze took a deep breath, his tense body gradually relaxing, leaving only an unutterable confusion.

The Golden spirit hound didn't return to its kennel; it had been following Huo Ze with its eyes closed and finally successfully crawled onto his bed. It insisted on sharing the bed with Huo Ze, and any protest was futile. Huo Ze pulled up the blanket, stroking the head of the spirit hound that was nuzzling into his chest, and couldn't help but whisper, "Both you and your master are bullying me."

Ye Hangzhi, who was refining Spirit Recovery Pills, suddenly paused. When did he bully Huo Ze? Humans in this world were truly complex, especially this male lead who didn't follow the plot. Ye Hangzhi was truly helpless.

In truth, he had no ill will toward Huo Ze, but the results of his divination made him uneasy, so he wanted to keep Huo Ze around for further observation. A doctor cannot heal himself, and the same applied to divination. Ye Hangzhi had accepted the fact that his skills were lacking, but at the same time, he seriously suspected the Heavenly Dao’s impure motives and was always on guard against any abnormal situations.

In his view, the fact that Huo Ze had inexplicably appeared in his lair was very likely a deliberate setup by the Heavenly Dao—malicious intent and a grand scheme! Recalling the pitiful sight of Huo Ze floating on the dark stream, Ye Hangzhi thought that perhaps this lad had also gone through many hardships. Just like him, they were both victims of the Heavenly Dao.

That’s right, Ye Hangzhi instinctively blamed external factors for Huo Ze’s abnormal behavior. Because Huo Ze was supposed to be a male lead who matured gradually. His character setting was that of an ordinary university student from a somewhat wealthy family. He went on a trip with a few close friends, then the apocalypse hit, internet signals vanished, transportation became chaotic, and they were trapped on a mountain peak with a film crew. High fevers and mutated zombies followed...

Because Huo Ze possessed dual-attribute abilities, his fever lasted longer than other ability users. When his friends began to recover and test their powers, Huo Ze was still a frail patient. But in the original work, Huo Ze’s friends took very good care of him and never gave up on him. The group of them hid on the mountain to recover, worked together to attack zombies, and absorbed crystal core energy to quietly become stronger, laying a solid foundation for their future actions.

The plot was very realistic and filled with passionate brotherhood. But the Huo Ze before Ye Hangzhi today didn't have the state of an ordinary student at all. He killed poachers but didn't show the slightest worry or fear after the act; instead, he was overly calm. When interacting with him, the boy was always careful with his words, trying to show his best side as if unconsciously protecting his life.

Most importantly, in the original work, the brothers who went through life and death with him, as well as his family, should be in mortal danger right now. But Huo Ze hadn't mentioned these people at all, as if he completely didn't care about their life or death. Even his desire to escape the Hidden Valley... was actually not that intense.

Therefore, Ye Hangzhi suspected that the descriptions and records of this world in the book might not be entirely true. Huo Ze was very likely in the same boat as him, deeply victimized by the Heavenly Dao. Furthermore, that cunning Heavenly Dao had even intentionally delivered this lad to him to be his wife! If Ye Hangzhi were a person of evil character who practiced demonic arts... by now, Huo Ze would have already been toyed with in all sorts of ways.

Thinking of this, Ye Hangzhi recalled Huo Ze’s exquisite cooking skills and shook his head slightly. Although he had some schemes, Huo Ze could be considered a sensible and pitiful child. Ye Hangzhi, who was over a thousand years older than Huo Ze, considered himself to have very high morals and was absolutely a true righteous cultivator. How could he bully a child?

It was all the Heavenly Dao’s fault.

***

Early the next morning.

Marshal Ji proudly flew onto the gate fence, raised its bright red comb high, and crowed majestically. The poultry woke up one after another at the sound of the rooster's crow, some barking, some crowing; the quiet Hidden Valley instantly became noisy and bustling. It wasn't until the rooster was knocked to the ground by a strand of Ye Hangzhi’s spiritual power that the outer courtyard became quiet again.

Huo Ze also woke up. The first thing he did after waking was touch his forehead to measure his body temperature. The high fever that had lasted for days was gradually receding, and his weakened body seemed to have recovered some strength. Huo Ze’s eyes lit up as he got out of bed to get dressed.

He was still that active, polite, and kind young man, not changing his attitude because of last night's conversation. He proactively cleaned, washed his face, and made breakfast, never asking another question. For example, why his body recovered so quickly. Or what that black medicinal pill actually was.

Because Huo Ze instinctively didn't want to anger Ye Hangzhi, always feeling that if he caused trouble here and broke the peaceful life Ye Hangzhi desired... something terrifying would happen. Although Huo Ze’s guess was very accurate, he was too cautious, which also brought him his own confusion.

Huo Ze steamed the mantou and cooked a pot of porridge, intending to call Ye Hangzhi to eat together, but Ye Hangzhi wasn't in the tea room. He didn't dare to enter other rooms randomly. Looking at the Golden spirit hound that was always clinging to him, he hesitated for a moment, then leaned down and said to it, "Go call your master to come eat breakfast."

The Golden spirit hound’s eyes lit up, and it happily turned to find its master.