A Vicious Cycle (1)

The room was dimly lit.

Hazy, semi-dim light shrouded the small space. The air seemed to have come to a standstill, silently frozen there.

Half of the young man’s small face was buried between the soft pillows, and scattered hair covered his cheeks, appearing excessively white in the semi-dark room.

His eyes were half open and his lips were moist.

Trembling tiny breaths sprayed in the man’s palm.

Mu Heng felt a dry, parched fire burning deep in his throat, and his heart beat extremely loud.

It was as if there was an unsatisfied, bloodthirsty beast stirring inside.

Even so, Mu Heng knew something was wrong with Shi An.

He heard himself ask in the steadiest voice he could, “How long have you been like this?”

The man’s fingers were pale and strong, gently and irresistibly holding up the young man’s cheek.

Mu Heng lowered his eyes, examining Shi An with an unfathomable gaze.

“Did you eat something?”

Shi An opened his eyes blankly. The dark pupils under his eyelashes seemed to have been washed with water, clear and unfocused.

He shook his head and nodded again.

“Mm…”

Not even half of Mu Heng’s words entered his ears.

Mu Heng bent down, lifted the young man’s slender back with his palm, and picked him up from between the messy bed sheets.

“Let’s go. I’ll take you–”

Before the words were finished, there was a sudden heavy pain in his neck.

Mu Heng’s eyebrows furrowed.

Shi An opened his mouth and fiercely bit on his collarbone. His teeth were fine, white, and sharp, but he lost his strength after the first blow, and instead of venting, it was more like flirting.

Mu Heng’s breathing was stifled.

The palm of his hand pressing Shi An’s spine subconsciously tightened for a moment.

The back of his slender and robust hand rippled with veins, like a dark river of blue winding under the pale skin as if he was using all of his will power to contain some impulse.

Shi An was oblivious to this.

He used his teeth to hold the thin piece of flesh, softly nibbling as if this would give vent to this strange and uncontrollable feeling.

Mu Heng took a deep breath.

He lifted his hand, covered Shi An’s mouth, and pushed him away from his neck.

“… Don’t fool around.”

The man’s voice was low and had become hoarse.

The next second, a wet, soft touch swept through his palm, and the tongue tip was ice-cold as it brushed between the lines of his palm.

Mu Heng’s muscles all over his body stiffened and tensed.

He slowly lowered his eyes and looked at the young man he was holding in his arms. The other person’s eyes were half-open and confused, completely unaware that he had just licked someone’s palm.

“Very uncomfortable?”

The man’s voice became calm and soft.

Shi An nodded.

The palm covering the mouth was withdrawn and replaced by warm, burning fingers.

The other party’s fingers forcefully pressed on the flesh of his lips and twisted, probing into the mouth little by little, groping and exploring with great patience.

Mu Heng’s eyes were lowered and his deep blue eyes were suppressed into an eternal night-like ink color.

“Do you need my help?”

Shi An blinked his eyes.

He wasn’t quite sure what was going on right now.

He wanted someone to help him, but an instinctive sense of danger rose in his heart, making him hesitate a little.

Mu Heng leaned down and kissed the young man’s hot and delicate ear, his voice low and muffled with a bit of coaxing.

“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything.”

Shi An was surrounded by warm body heat and the scent lingering at the end of his nose was familiar and smelled good.

He nodded his head in a daze.

Mu Heng pressed one hand on Shi An’s spine, feeling the tiny trembling of the other’s body, opened his mouth to bite the glove on his other hand, and slowly and methodically freed the other hand from the confinement of the fabric.

Flames silently flickered in his dark blue eyes like the fire that burned darkness.

Mu Heng’s voice was soft and gentle.

“Let me help you.”

“Relax.”

***

Shi Rui paced the room with difficulty, anxiously gnawing at his fingernails. After a long time, he finally seemed to have made up his mind, gathered all his courage, and pulled out the communicator from under the pillow with trembling fingers.

After the last separation, the other party deliberately instructed him never to initiate contact.

However, it had been too long and Shi Rui had been unable to get any reliable news, which made him very uneasy.

He tried to dial the opposite side.

Black screen.

No one answered.

Shi Rui clenched his teeth and the bottom of his eyes was slightly moist.

He vaguely had a feeling.

He seemed to have become a castaway.

The other side.

The black-robed man lowered his eyes and scanned the communicator in his hand, indifferently turning it off and tucking it inside his robe.

Immediately after, he slowly walked toward the dark cave not far away.

The cave was dark and dim and the narrow cave road was very dark, with an old stone fire platform at every short distance. Although there was light, the flame was small and could only vaguely dispel some darkness, barely illuminating the road in front of him.

The road in front of him had been walked a thousand times, but the black-robed man still walked very slowly.

Not because of the light.

He seemed injured, half dragging a leg and brushing it on the ground with a rustling sound.

After an unknown time, the black-robed man finally reached the cave’s depths.

In the center was a bright red totem, but beyond that, it was shrouded in darkness, impossible to see clearly.

“You’re alive.” A gloomy voice came out of the darkness.

The black-robed man knelt on one knee with difficulty. “Yes.”

“But you have failed.”

“Yes,” the black-robed man replied in a hoarse voice.

If he hadn’t been carrying a prop from the dragon, he might not have been able to save his life, but even so, the terrifying extent of the dragon flame was something a human like him couldn’t afford.