Chapter 51: Falling In Love
Chapter 51
Liyu found himself standing rooted in one place, his expression strange as he tried to understand what the hell was wrong with him. "What the hell is wrong with me?" he couldn’t help but whisper.
Why was his heart beating so fast? Why did he feel so excited just by seeing her face? Back when he was a loner on Earth, he had read countless articles online about what it felt like to fall in love; he never truly understood those articles because, throughout his seventeen long years of loneliness, he had never felt anything toward anyone.
All he had ever felt was boredom and loneliness. Yet he had searched through countless forums, articles, stories, and discussions describing the symptoms of developing feelings for the opposite sex, and every single sign matched what he was feeling right now. Liyu’s body trembled slightly.
How could this be happening? As Rayden, he had only truly met Yuexin today... well, technically he had inherited all of Liyu’s memories, but as Rayden himself, this was his first real interaction with her, and now he was feeling this way. It was baffling, troubling, and honestly, a little terrifying.
Unable to hold himself back any longer, he left the cave and traveled far away from where the group was sleeping, or at least that was what Liyu thought.
In truth, there was one other person who wasn’t asleep: Li Feng. He had seen Liyu leave the cave; Li Feng merely stared blankly at the spot where Liyu had been standing moments ago, his expression completely neutral.
The anger he previously felt toward Liyu for "stealing his girl" was no longer at the forefront of his mind; instead, his focus had shifted elsewhere.
He needed to become stronger, much stronger. If possible, he wanted to break into the Qi Refining Realm before the upcoming tournament. If he could accomplish that, his chances of winning would increase dramatically, and once he won, he would secure his place in the Gold Valley Sect.
By the time he and Yuexin returned from the sect years later, Liyu would have absolutely no hope of catching up to them; he wouldn’t be able to take anything else from him.. not his father’s attention, not Yuexin, not anything.
It was only a matter of time before he reclaimed everything he believed Liyu had stolen from him. With those thoughts in mind, Li Feng finally closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Meanwhile, far away from the cave, a lone young man sat at the edge of a large mountain. Moonlight bathed the landscape in silver, illuminating the disturbed expression on his face.
That figure was naturally none other than Liyu; the expression currently on his face was one he hadn’t made since transmigrating into this world.
And trust him, he had made plenty of expressions: manic grins, psychopathic laughter, expressions filled with killing intent, run-for-your-life expressions, confident expressions, and terrified expressions.
He had worn all kinds of expressions since arriving in this world, yet none of them resembled the one he was making right now. He looked confused, uneasy, and strangely frightened. How could he fall in love so quickly? It made absolutely no sense.
Never in Rayden’s life had he expected himself to have a love interest... not in his previous life, and certainly not in this new one. His plans had always been simple: cultivate, grow stronger, cultivate for hundreds of years, perhaps even a thousand years, then emerge into the world as an invincible cultivation monster.
A supreme existence that no sect, clan, kingdom, empire, or nation could oppose, he would travel the world freely and embark on endless adventures. Although, if he was being honest, his adventures wouldn’t exactly be peaceful; after all, he himself wasn’t a peaceful person.
His adventures would practically become the personification of chaos. He would offend countless people... young masters, sect elders, clan leaders, kings, emperors, ancient monsters, and hidden experts... but what could they possibly do to him?
By that point, he would be so powerful that he could simply laugh in their faces. Perhaps he would become a king, or an emperor, or some ridiculously overpowered title that he would personally invent for himself.
Whatever the case, he would stand at the peak of the world, have countless followers, countless adventures, and perhaps even a large harem. He would live life exactly as he wanted: fear no one, fear no monster, fear no enemy, and eventually... fear not even death itself.
That was the ultimate life he had envisioned for himself... the perfect future, the future he had spent so much time planning. And now he was supposed to accept that all those carefully constructed plans might be thrown into chaos because of something as ridiculous as love? No, absolutely not.
There was no way he was going to allow that; he refused to believe that he would be chained down by something as feeble as love. Never. Absolutely never.
The voice of the system rang in his ears at that moment, and the damn bastard still sounded as amused as it had been before:
"Hey host, don’t fight it and don’t be ashamed of it. You are a perfectly healthy young man after all. It is normal that you would fall in love with a beauty like Li Yuexin at first sight. It is totally normal and not ridiculous by any means, so don’t blame yourself or feel ashamed that she managed to steal your heart in just a few minutes or so."
The system seemed more and more amused as it spoke, to the extent that Liyu was more than certain that the damn system was deliberately toying with him. The system, after all, always tried to pick a fight with him whenever it got the chance.
Right now, however, Liyu wasn’t in the mood to throw banter back and forth with the annoying thing. Liyu simply continued staring silently at the moon that illuminated his face.
His dark eyes shone faintly as he remained lost in thought for several more minutes. Then, suddenly, he smiled slightly as he lowered his head and looked at the stream flowing beneath the cliff.
"Hey host... are you okay?" The system couldn’t help but ask after noticing that Liyu hadn’t responded at all. For once, the usually irritable host seemed completely different from his normal self; he was even smiling like a normal human being and wasn’t grinning like a madman as he usually did.
Liyu remained silent for a while before raising his head and looking at the moon once more. The smile remained on his face, but now it carried only a single emotion: understanding. "I see now..." Liyu muttered quietly. "I understand why I feel this way."
The system immediately perked up. "What do you mean?" Liyu smiled faintly. "It wasn’t me who fell in love with Li Yuexin." The system paused. "What?" Liyu continued calmly. "Li Yu did." His eyes reflected the moonlight as he spoke.
"He had very deep feelings for her. Much deeper than I initially realized. Now that I have inherited his body, his memories, and his emotions, it seems I inherited those feelings as well." Liyu looked down at his own hands.
"My body reacts the same way the original Li Yu would have reacted. My heart races when I see her. I feel comfortable around her. I care about her without even realizing it." He let out a quiet breath. "I see now. So that is why I feel this strongly."
The system remained silent for a few moments before speaking again. "Hey host, are you sure you’re not making up that explanation to save yourself the embarrassment of appearing on the list of people who fell in love at first sight?"
Liyu’s eyes twitched slightly. For a brief moment, he almost cursed the system out. Still, he managed to keep himself calm. "No. That isn’t the case." He shook his head. "I possess all of Li Yu’s memories and emotions.
Without a doubt, I can feel just how much he loved her while he was alive. Those emotions didn’t disappear after his death. They were passed on to me when I inherited this body." The system fell silent again. After a short pause, it asked another question.
"Alright. Let’s assume everything you said is true." Liyu nodded. "Then that still changes nothing." "What do you mean?" The system sounded curious.
"Whether those feelings originally belonged to Li Yu or not, they belong to you now. You are the one experiencing them. You are already in love with her, and there is nothing you can do about it."
The system’s voice sounded calm and composed, though Liyu could practically hear the amusement hidden beneath it.
Rayden merely smiled slightly. "The part about loving her... I suppose that is true." The system sounded victorious. "See?" "But the part about me being unable to do anything about it..."
Liyu continued. "That part is completely wrong." The smile vanished from his face; a cold determination appeared in his eyes. "I will kill this feeling." The system froze. Liyu slowly stood up from where he sat. "I will starve it." His voice became colder. "I will destroy it."
The moonlight reflected within his eyes.
"There is no way I will allow myself to be bound by it." His plans for the future were simply too grand, too vast, and too ambitious; there was no place within those plans for something as troublesome as love. Hearing the determination in his voice and seeing the look within his eyes, the system involuntarily stopped trying to tease him.
Rayden was not joking. If there was one thing the system respected about Rayden despite all of his irritating, insane, and occasionally unbearable characteristics, it was the fact that he always followed through with what he said.
When Rayden made a decision, he would see it through to the end. The system genuinely believed that he would eventually get rid of those feelings one way or another. Liyu smiled faintly when the system fell silent.
There was simply no way he would allow himself to be trapped by love. He was going to build a damn harem someday... a harem filled with yanderes and villainesses; every single one of them would be trouble. Literally speaking.
Before Liyu’s thoughts could wander even further, the system’s voice rang out once again. "Let’s set aside the matter of you falling in love at first sight." Liyu’s eyes twitched; the damn system was still taking shots at him.
"What about the more important issue?" Liyu raised an eyebrow. "The fact that your brilliant plan is about to go straight down the drain." His expression immediately became more serious. "It seems you have no choice but to return to the Li Clan with them."
Liyu’s expression turned solemn. The system was right. He had already laid out a broad and completely achievable plan for himself. His goal was simple: become the strongest cultivator this world had ever seen.
After that? He would do whatever he wanted. Unfortunately, the sudden appearance of several troublesome individuals had forced him into a situation where he had no choice but to return to the Li Clan.
Liyu thought about it for a moment, then... he smiled. This time, however, it wasn’t a normal smile. It wasn’t even the mischievous smile he often wore. No, it was his signature grin. The grin of a complete lunatic.
The grin that always appeared whenever he was about to do something incredibly stupid, or incredibly dangerous, or both. "Don’t worry, Sys." The grin widened. "My plan can never go down the drain."
The system suddenly felt uneasy. "Host..." It already had a bad feeling about this. "Let me guess." The system’s voice became cautious. "This new plan of yours... it’s something completely crazy, isn’t it?" Liyu grinned even wider.
The system really did know him well. "Indeed." He nodded proudly. "It is crazy." The system groaned internally. "But nevertheless..." Liyu’s grin stretched from ear to ear. "It is an excellent plan." "Host..." The system sounded tired already. "Come on. Tell me what this plan of yours is."
Liyu smiled slightly. "Do you really want to know, Sys?" The system immediately replied, "Yes." It was obvious that it was curious; it wanted to know exactly what kind of disaster its host was planning this time.
If the plan endangered the host’s life, then it would immediately try to stop him, but if danger wasn’t involved and it was merely insane instead... then the host could do whatever crazy thing he wanted
. The system hated admitting it... truly hated admitting it.. but after spending so much time with Liyu, it seemed to have been influenced by him.
Now, even the system occasionally found itself craving a little chaos and carnage from time to time.
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