It was late at night when Xie Lu and Su Yuning returned to the City Lord's Mansion. After waiting for a whole day, they finally waited for the masked man to appear. When they caught her, she had not had time to change her face and only did some simple disguise.

They temporarily captured the evil cultivator with the Evil Binding Bottle. Because the evil cultivator was Tang Yuncai's daughter, they did not eliminate her, but only detained her temporarily.

"That was a close call just now. That evil cultivator actually dared to use his magic on me. Luckily, you intervened in time to stop her," Su Yunning said with a faint smile. She recalled the moment Xie Lu and she had fought side by side, and her heart felt like a fluttering deer. "Now I owe you another favor."

Xie Lu did not comment, but stood in front of the City Lord's Mansion, frowning slightly.

He sensed a faint demonic aura.

A bad premonition lingered in his heart, and he quickened his pace, passing through the courtyards and corridors, and found the room where Shen Yimian and the others were.

The night wind is cold, candlelight shines through the window, and everything seems safe and sound.

When Xie Lu opened the door, he saw many people standing in the room. Shen Yimian stood up from the table, his eyes red, and tears fell instantly as if he saw a life-saving straw.

"Xie Lu..."

Shen Yimian could no longer control her tears, and she burst into tears. "Look at Zuo Yan! He was badly injured trying to save me."

Xie Lu's expression froze, and he walked past him into the inner room. Sure enough, he saw Zuo Yan lying on the couch, wrapped in bandages, dying, surrounded by demonic energy and unconscious.

How is it possible?

His formation could never be destroyed unless it was done from the inside out, unless someone in the City Lord's Mansion opened his formation and let the monster in, but who has that ability?

Tang Yuncai sighed and said, "The doctor in my mansion has already examined him. His injuries are too severe. Whether he can wake up depends on his luck."

Hearing this, Shen Yimian felt even more guilty. She held back her tears and sobbed, "He did this just to save me. Xie Lu, do you have any way to save him?"

Xie Lu stood beside the couch, staring silently at Zuo Yan, who was covered in wounds.

The collar is gone.

After a while, he turned around and his eyes fell on the Xiuyu necklace on Shen Yimian's neck. Xie Lu suddenly grabbed Shen Yimian's wrist and said in a deep voice, "Come out with me."

Shen Yimian had never seen him look so solemn and cold. Her heart trembled, and she let him grab her and walk out of the room.

Only when they reached the end of the corridor did Xie Lu let go of his hand and asked coldly, "Why is the collar on you? Tell me the whole story."

Speaking of this, Shen Yimian felt even more guilty, and spoke hoarsely, "We were waiting for you and Yun Ning at the City Lord's Mansion, but unexpectedly a faceless filthy thing suddenly appeared and wanted to attack Zuo Yan. At that time, I wanted to take Zuo Yan away, but he was afraid that I would get hurt, so he gave me the collar and closed the door tightly to buy time for me to escape smoothly..."

"nonsense."

Shen Yimian was stunned for a moment, and said in disbelief, "Do you think I stole his collar?"

"No," Xie Lu said indifferently, having obviously seen through Zuo Yan's tricks, "He gave the collar to you on purpose."

Shen Yimian was stunned for a moment, then listened to Xie Lu say, "My formation has no signs of being broken into. Unless the evil creature was already in the City Lord's Mansion before I set up the formation, someone must have hidden the monster long ago."

"What does this have to do with Zuo Yan?" Shen Yimian subconsciously defended Zuo Yan, "You don't mean to say that he deliberately hid the monster and let the monster hurt him, do you?"

Xie Lu pursed his lips, he felt that this was the truth of the matter.

"He gave you the collar, so he was able to get hurt." Xie Lu whispered, "And he locked you outside the door, so you don't know what happened inside. Maybe he wasn't hurt at all and was just pretending. If there really was a monster, he wouldn't have survived."

Shen Yimian took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Do you dislike him?"

Xie Lu lowered his eyelashes and said softly, "No."

"Then tell me, what is his purpose in doing this?" Shen Yimian stared at him, trying to calm down, "Why does he pretend?"

"Because he wants you to..." Xie Lu just finished speaking when he suddenly realized that he couldn't continue.

This is a secret between him and Zuo Yan.

Let Shen Yimian fall in love with Zuo Yan, follow the original plot, snatch away his fiancée, get magic weapons and opportunities from him, and become a real villain.

He had planned all of this from the moment he came into this world.

Shen Yimian is a time traveler and also knows part of the plot, so he will definitely not accept the death in the plot obediently.

Now, Zuo Yan has made Shen Yimian feel guilty about him, and then he will use this favor to make Shen Yimian fall in love with him, which is the same as the development in the plot.

Xie Lu was stunned for a moment, as if he had lost all his energy in an instant, and he couldn't say anything.

What is he doing?

Why did he expose Zuo Yan's plan?

"Why don't you say anything?" Shen Yimian suppressed his anger and patiently wanted to listen to his explanation. "Tell me the reason why he did this, otherwise I can only think that you don't like him. You tell me, I listen."

Xie Lu came back to his senses and looked at Shen Yimian in front of him.

Naive and gullible human beings.

Those eyes stared straight at him. If she didn't trust him, she wouldn't want to listen to his analysis. Even though Zuo Yan had just saved Shen Yimian's life, Shen Yimian still trusted him more.

After a while, Xie Lu forced himself to look away and said calmly, "I was prejudiced against him. I misunderstood him."

Shen Yimian looked like he knew it, and sighed helplessly, "Can you help him now? He's seriously injured."

Xie Lu still didn't look at him, and only responded coldly, "Well, I'll find a way."

"That's good, thank you." Shen Yimian felt relieved and rubbed his eyes again.

Xie Lu saw his movements and took out a handkerchief from his lapel and handed it to him, "Don't be sad, this matter has nothing to do with you."

Of course Shen Yimian knew that it had nothing to do with him, but the scene of Zuo Yan pushing him away was too shocking. It was the first time that he faced the fear of losing a friend so directly, and he inevitably felt guilty towards Zuo Yan.

"If Zuo Yan wakes up, I will definitely treat him well in the future." Shen Yimian took the handkerchief and wiped away her tears, saying softly.

Hearing this, Xie Lu became even more upset, and even he himself couldn't explain why he had this strange reaction.

Shen Yimian let out a long breath, then forced himself to pat his shoulder and asked, "How are you today?"

"The mission is completed. You can go back tomorrow."

Seeing that he cared about him, Xie Lu's expression eased slightly. After a pause, he suddenly rolled up his sleeves, revealing the scars on his arms. "It's just a minor injury."

At that time, the evil cultivator was about to attack Su Yunning, but the incident happened suddenly, so he could only block the knife for Su Yunning.

Shen Yimian lowered his eyes and looked at it, then suddenly opened his eyes wide, "This is called a minor injury."

The fair arm seemed to have been cut open by a sharp blade, the skin and flesh were turned inside out, and the blood had not yet dried, leaving a shocking bloodstain.

He quickly searched for the ointment he had with him and pressed Xie Lu onto a bench by the corridor. "Sit down, I'll apply some medicine on you."

Xie Lu looked at Shen Yimian without changing his expression. He was inexplicably disgusted with the fact that his wound was too small and too light. He whispered, "It's okay. I won't feel any pain."

"Just because it doesn't hurt doesn't mean you won't get hurt." Shen Yimian twisted the ointment and carefully applied it to his wound bit by bit. "You shouldn't be so reckless in the future, and you shouldn't act recklessly just because you don't feel any pain. Really, you're all so worrying."

Xie Lu didn't say anything, just watched him apply medicine on himself.

There is no pain, but there is a sense of touch.

The soft and cold fingertips slid across the arm, applying the ointment to the wound like a dragonfly touching the water.

Shen Yimian quickly withdrew his hand and said softly, "Okay, don't let the wound get wet."

Xie Lu nodded and stood up beside him, "You go and rest. I will use my luck to heal Zuo Yan's injuries tonight, and we can return to the sect tomorrow."

Hearing this, Shen Yimian felt much more at ease and patted his shoulder, "I'm not tired, I'll help you take care of Zuo Yan."

Xie Lu knew that he felt bad, so he had to agree and took Shen Yimian back to the room.

Su Yunning waited for them for a long time. When she saw them come back, she comforted them casually with a few words and left.

Only Shen Yimian and Xie Lu were left in the room, as well as Zuo Yan who was unconscious on the couch.

The two men helped Zuo Yan up, Shen Yimian was responsible for straightening Zuo Yan's body, and Xie Lu was responsible for giving Zuo Yan luck.

Half an hour passed, Shen Yimian's eyelids were twitching, and he couldn't help yawning. His head moved up and down, almost touching Zuo Yan.

Xie Lu looked at him calmly, reached out and held his face, "Go to sleep."

"I'm fine."

Shen Yimian rubbed his face and listened to Xie Lu's calm words, "You have to sleep anyway, so instead of sleeping on him, you might as well sleep on the bed."

Shen Yimian: "...What kind of words are you talking about? I'm going to take a nap."

Just as he was about to stand up, he glanced inadvertently and saw that the wound on Zuo Yan's body was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Shen Yimian was stunned and rubbed his eyes hard. When he looked again, there was no scar left, not even a scar.

Could it be that he was too sleepy and saw it wrongly? There was no wound here originally.

He raised his eyes to look at Xie Lu, and thought that it might be the effect of Xie Lu's luck.

Somehow, Shen Yimian's mind kept popping up what Xie Lu said about Zuo Yan being fake.

He never assumes the worst of others, but if someone really lies to him... he will never trust this person again.

I hope he guessed wrong.