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Chapter 120: Back To That Key Moment ②

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When Shang Ke opened his eyes, he found himself in an ice cave, and once again he was in his soul state. His body, or Osari’s body, was lying inside an ice coffin below, covered in frost.

Huh? Did something go wrong? Why was he still in his soul state?

【The original owner’s body is dead and is undergoing physical repair. It is expected to take 7 days. 】

Did this mean he was going to come out of a ‘false death’ in seven days? Was this really okay?

【Resurrection in this world has several precedents. Some people have resurrection genes hidden in their bodies. As long as the body is well preserved and undecayed, there is a possibility of resurrection within a year. Although the chances are small, it is not uncommon. Such people are called ‘Familiars of God’. There have been five Familiars in the history of Turan.】

There was actually something so mythical?

Shang Ke asked, “How many years have I’ve been ‘dead’?”

【Three years.】

Shang Ke was speechless, “……”

Didn’t you say there’s a possibility of resurrection within one year? It’s been three years. If the system hadn’t given cheats to him, he would have been thoroughly dead. What was even more amazing was that somebody had kept his body intact for three years!

Shang Ke looked around and saw icicles everywhere. Although his soul couldn’t feel the cold, he could guess how low the temperature was here. No wonder his body had been preserved for so long.

Suddenly, there was a pitter-patter of footsteps outside the cave. Shang Ke looked up and saw a thin little girl coming into view.

She looked to be about eight or nine years old with reddish-brown hair tied casually behind her, and she wore a cotton-padded jacket. Her face was a little red and she held a stiff fish in her hands, so she trotted towards the ice coffin with difficulty.

It was Pupu!

Although she had grown up a bit, Shang Ke could recognize her at a glance. He floated over and looked at the little girl running to the ice coffin with a smile. Well, even though she looked taller, she seemed to be much thinner than before.

“Daddy, look!” Pupu held up the fish and joyfully said, “This is the fish Lorlor caught under a glacier. We will cook fish soup tonight. But Lorlor’s cooking isn’t delicious at all. When will Daddy wake up? Pupu wants to eat the fish made by Daddy.”

This silly girl always thought he was just asleep?

Shang Ke stretched out a translucent hand and gently touched her head.

“Pupu, bring me the fish. It’s time to put it in the pot.” A low voice suddenly came from outside the cave and the tall figure of Tylor instantly appeared. He was dressed in a black fur coat, his head and shoulders were covered in snowflakes, and his cold face was somewhat melancholic and deep. His eyes were apathetic, like a pool of stagnant water.

When Shang Ke floated over to him with Pupu and saw Tylor’s thin and lonely appearance, his heart ached.

Tylor took the fish from Pupu and brought her to the other side of the cave.

There was a bonfire there with a pot above it, and the water inside was boiling and letting off steam.

There were some stiff fish in the basin by the fire. Tylor picked one up, scraped off its scales with a knife, and threw the sliced fish into the water piece by piece, just like he was making noodles.

After he slowly sliced several fish to pieces, Tylor and Pupu sat by the fire and waited for the fish soup to cook.

Shang Ke was stunned. Is that how you cook fish?! Where were the other ingredients? What about the seasoning? Also, shouldn’t you clean it before cooking?!

After a while, the fish soup turned cloudy and milky white. It looked like it had finished cooking. However, Tylor and Pupu were still waiting stupidly like two sculptures, staring at the soup pot in silence.

When the water in the soup pot almost overflowed, Tylor finally poured the fish soup into a bowl and handed Pupu a piece of dry bread. Then, the two of them took a bite of dry bread and drank a mouthful of fish soup, curtly solving their dinner.

Shang Ke felt distressed at the sight.

Wasn’t Tylor a prince? Even if he lived in seclusion to preserve his body, the living conditions shouldn’t be so bad! Couldn’t you bring two servants with you at least?

Looking around, there were all kinds of daily necessities in the cave and two tents for sleeping. They had obviously been living here for a long time.

After dinner, Tylor simply cleaned up and took Pupu to the hot springs to wash up. There was no entertainment at night and no communication between them. They went back to their tents and laid down in warm quilts.

Tylor said, “Good night, Pupu.”

Pupu replied, “Good night, Lorlor. Good night, Daddy.”

It was unknown when it started snowing outside the cave, but the two fell asleep slowly amidst the roaring wind.

Shang Ke drifted by the tent and gazed at it for a long time…

For the next few days, Shang Ke followed them all the time, watched them repeat their boring life every day, and gradually understood why they lived alone. When they sealed the Devil’s Tree that time, they were eroded by a large amount of devil qi because of his death and became half-devils who gained strength from devil qi. To avoid panic and disaster, they chose to stay away from society and live in seclusion in this cold and bitter place.

Apart from occasionally going out to buy things for daily use, Tylor and Pupu rarely left the snowy mountain.

Shang Ke couldn’t imagine how they could live in such an environment. For the first time in his life, he desperately wanted to resurrect, all so that he wouldn’t watch them suffer day after day!

The long-awaited seventh day finally arrived. Shang Ke stood in front of his coffin at the break of dawn and impatiently waited to be resurrected.

He didn’t know how long he’d been waiting. Suddenly, there was a loud noise outside, accompanied by the sound of chaotic fighting. When Shang Ke wanted to go out to have a look, the voice of the system rang out at this time: 【The body has been repaired. May Host gracefully come to life.】

Before Shang Ke could hold up his middle finger, his surroundings grew dark and he lost consciousness instantly.

At this time, Tylor was mobbed by a group of vicious mercenaries. They regarded Tylor as a devil apostle and started attacking him mercilessly.

Tylor defended himself carelessly as if he were completely unaware of the others’ murderous intentions. He let them leave wounds on him one by one.

“Big bro, there’s an ice coffin in this cave!” A mercenary suddenly shouted from the side.

Motherfucker, what’s the fuss about an ice coffin?!

The mercenary leader scolded as he attacked, and was completely unaware that their target’s initial expression of indifference was gone, replaced instead by a terrible chill.

In the blink of an eye, Tylor’s figure disappeared from the mercenaries’ line of sight.

Inside the ice cave, a mercenary walked to the ice coffin and saw the person inside. His eyes flashed with surprise. However, he wasn’t into necrophilia. After a moment of astonishment, he reached out, picked up the person in the ice coffin and casually threw him aside.

This ice coffin was made of cold jade, which could earn him a great deal of money. It was worth their entire thirty years of hard work.

When the mercenary first saw the ice coffin, he knew they were going to hit it big this time. Excited, he didn’t realize that the person he’d just thrown on the ground was soft and had breath and temperature.

While the mercenary was imagining his future, his neck was suddenly grabbed from behind.

The mercenary turned his head with difficulty and looked up at the extremely cold face behind him. It was the last thing he’d ever see. There was a snap and the mercenary’s neck broke.

Devil qi surged in Tylor’s eyes and his fingers dug deeply into the skin of the mercenary’s neck.

“Big bro, Old Fay was killed!” There was a cry from the entrance of the cave.

Tylor slowly turned his head and looked at the mercenaries who were coming towards him. He coldly spat out a sentence, “All of you, die!”

Throwing the corpse away, he drew a long sword from his waist and rushed at the group of mercenaries like a ghost. He started a one-sided massacre. Blood splashed all over the place, and the white and cold cave walls around him were stained crimson.

After a while, over twenty mutilated corpses lay across on the ground. Tylor stood in the middle with his long sword dripping blood. His eyes were red and devil qi wrapped his entire body like clouds of burning black flame.

The massacre aroused Tylor’s bloodthirsty desire, and the devil qi in his body wildly corrupted his consciousness, like an intruder finding its way into a closed house.

Tylor trembled, trying to control his mind that was on the verge of collapse. Even if he became a half-devil, even if he was far away from the world, even if he was lonely and miserable, he didn’t want to lose his precious memories and completely become a slave to darkness.

His yearning for Shang Ke was the only strength fueling his desire to live until now. So, no matter what, he couldn’t let the devil qi engulf him.

Shang Ke, Shang Ke…… 

“Tylor.” A familiar voice suddenly came from behind.

Shang Ke… Tylor, who was resisting the devil qi, couldn’t distinguish reality from dreams.

“Tylor.” The voice sounded again as if it were right by his ear.

Tylor turned his head rigidly and saw a vague figure slowly emerging from the end of the cave. His long black hair fluttered gently with every move, the white frost gradually falling from his body little by little like a blooming flower once again revealing its lush petals.

Tylor’s heart almost stopped. His trembling pupils were filled with his figure.

“Shang Ke…” He reached out his trembling hands and touched Shang Ke’s face carefully.

The warm touch was so real.

“Tylor.” Shang Ke hugged him, letting him feel his rich vitality. “I’m back.”

This familiar smell, familiar temperature, familiar voice… The devil qi in Tylor seemed to feel the power of faith gushing into his body violently and unwillingly retreated.

Tylor’s eyes filled with tears, and he used all his strength to hold the man in his arms.

Three years had passed. He had almost given up hope, but a miracle unexpectedly happened when he was in despair.

“Shang Ke, Shang Ke…” Tylor kept calling his name full of joy and spirit.

Suddenly, Shang Ke felt his waist tighten and he glanced down. He found Pupu was holding his waist, looking up at him without blinking.

“Daddy.” Her voice was as tender as a kitten’s.

Shang Ke pushed Tylor away to bend down and pick Pupu up. His newly resurrected body was still weak, but Shang Ke held her firmly regardless.

Looking at the thin Tylor and Pupu, Shang Ke secretly swore, I will make sure you guys are nice and fat in the future!

Tylor took hold of Shang Ke’s hand and quickly led him inside the tent. He wrapped him in a ball and then sat next to him, staring fixedly at Shang Ke. Until now, he still couldn’t believe that Shang Ke had really come back to life.

On that day, Tylor barely closed his eyes and simply stared at Shang Ke. Lunch and dinner were all settled inside the tent – fruit wine with dry bread. Shang Ke’s body needed some time to recover, so he didn’t stop Tylor from taking a closer look at him.

In the evening, three people were huddled together, lying inside a warm quilt with satisfaction and joy filling their hearts. It was only after a long time that Tylor and Pupu fell asleep in Shang Ke’s arms.

The next day, Tylor suddenly woke up from his dream and turned around, only to find that the person next to him was gone. His face suddenly changed. He rushed out of the tent but saw Shang Ke cooking fish soup by the fire. A strong scent tickled his nose and the warm smell instantly dispelled the fear and coldness in his heart.

He had dreamed of this scene many times before, but not once did he think it could happen in reality.

“Good morning.” Shang Ke got up to meet him and gave him a soft hug.

“Good morning.” Tylor felt like he was on cloud nine. Compared to yesterday’s cold and gloom, he was like a completely different person.

“Good morning.” Pupu poked her head out of the tent and looked at the boiling soup pot. She couldn’t help but sniff and her eyes were wet with a starving look.

“Go and wash, the food is about done.” Shang Ke pushed Tylor and gestured to him to hurry and wash.

Tylor carried Pupu with one arm and he grabbed Shang Ke’s waist with the other, ready to take them to the hot springs together.

“Just go! I’m still cooking the soup.”

“It won’t take long.” Tylor wouldn’t let him out of his sight anyway.

The three came to the hot springs and Shang Ke helped Pupu brush her teeth and wash her face. Tylor squatted beside him, cleaned himself and watched them wash their faces.

After bathing, Shang Ke nimbly braided two beautiful braids for Pupu. Pupu spent a long time looking at herself in the hot spring, a joyous smile plastered onto her face.

Daddy’s braids were much better than Lorlor’s! In the future, Pupu’s hair will belong only to Daddy, and she would never let Lorlor touch it!

Pupu followed him back to the cave while holding onto Shang Ke’s sleeve.

Shang Ke filled the bowls with fish soup, then with the ground powder from the special Ganoderma lucidum leaves that could be found in the snowy mountain, made some soft sesame seed cakes. 

Due to their limited materials, Shang Ke couldn’t make more food. However, for Tylor and Pupu who were used to eating dark cooking, these were delicious. Seeing how satisfied they were, Shang Ke felt both happy and sad.

What kind of life did they live in these past few years?

In the following period, Tylor and Pupu practically became Shang Ke’s hanging accessories and were inseparable from him. Shang Ke didn’t mind either. The first thing he did was to go down the mountain and buy necessities and groceries from the town.

Although Tylor looked destitute, he had a lot of money in hand. Some of them were from other bandits, some from selling rare products, and some were ‘picked up’ along the way. It’s just that there weren’t a lot of things to buy in such a remote area. There weren’t many things they could buy, but they could still satisfy their daily needs.

Since Tylor was a Prince and was treated as such since childhood, calling him a life-idiot would not be an exaggeration. As for Pupu, her mind wasn’t all there, so besides acting cute, she knew nothing else. (Pupu refuted vehemently, ‘Nonsense! I can even dress myself!’)

It was a miracle that the two of them lived healthily to this day.

It didn’t matter. Since Shang Ke had returned, he wouldn’t let them keep on living such a life of self-denial like the ascetic monks!

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