Once Chen Yixin had laughed enough, Wenren Li helped him settle back into a half-reclining position against the Weaving Cloud.
“The injury to your dantian has already been examined yesterday. Now I need to look at the injuries within your divine soul.”
And that required Chen Yixin’s cooperation. If anything went wrong, Wenren Li, as a Soul Transformation cultivator, naturally would not be harmed—but Chen Yixin could very well die.
Chen Yixin did not immediately agree. His gaze rested on Wenren Li, thoughtful once more. There was no such thing in this world as kindness without reason, whether toward oneself or toward others. So then, what was the reason for Wenren Li treating him well?
A trace of helplessness appeared in Wenren Li’s expression. He lifted his hand and directly covered Chen Yixin’s eyes.
He had just told him not to overthink things, yet Chen Yixin clearly had not listened at all. This was a habit forged from years spent walking the cultivation world.
And for now, Wenren Li still could not become the exception to that habit.
With his eyes covered, Chen Yixin could not help rolling them again. This Demon Lord truly was strange beyond compare. Unable to argue his way through, he had started laying hands on people instead.
“Fine, go ahead and look.”
Chen Yixin agreed, raising a hand to pull the one covering his eyes away elsewhere.
Wenren Li’s gaze drifted briefly toward the hand gripping his before he nodded. He slowly leaned closer, stopping when only half an arm’s distance remained between them. A faint gray light flickered between his brows before directly sinking into Chen Yixin’s forehead.
Chen Yixin’s eyelashes trembled lightly before his eyes closed as well.
Though he currently possessed no cultivation at all, he had once stood only half a step away from becoming a Nascent Soul True Lord. His body and soul both possessed qualities ordinary mortals could never have. His body was like flawless glazed jade, immaculate and untouched by dust; his soul resembled a golden lamp, radiant and translucent.
But now, his Golden Core was shattered, his dantian destroyed, and the foundation of cultivation he had built over more than a century had completely vanished.
And within that bright, translucent soul, over half had already been soaked through by black mist like spilled ink. Once it fully corrupted Chen Yixin’s soul, it would also be the moment he truly died.
With Chen Yixin’s cultivation as a half-step Nascent Soul destroyed, his sea of consciousness had likewise become utterly ruined.
Compared to the empty void that made up an ordinary mortal’s sea of consciousness, Chen Yixin’s was extremely dangerous. To souls, it was essentially another real world. Originally, it had been entirely under Chen Yixin’s control, but now his primary soul was trapped by black mist, making even finding him difficult for Wenren Li.
After searching for a long while, Wenren Li finally found Chen Yixin’s soul imprisoned upon a fractured reef of black mist.
He lay atop the reef, his limbs bound by chains condensed from black mist. Even more bizarrely, strange dark patterns spread across his skin, some faint and some dense, steadily eroding his soul.
Only after Wenren Li arrived did Chen Yixin open his eyes. Turning his head toward him, he asked, “Can it be cured?”
Wenren Li did not answer. Taking one step forward, the black mist seemed to recoil in fear, trembling lightly before surging viciously again. With a sweep of Wenren Li’s hand, the chains instantly shattered, though the dark patterns covering Chen Yixin’s soul-body did not disappear.
The fact that Wenren Li could intimidate those black mist chains was already enough to pleasantly surprise Chen Yixin. Ever since the mist invaded his soul, he had been fighting against it every moment without pause. His understanding of it was already no less than that of an ordinary medical cultivator.
And precisely because he understood it, he had grown more and more despairing.
The possibility of freeing himself from it was vanishingly slim. If handled poorly, even the one trying to heal him could become implicated. Had Wenren Li not been a Soul Transformation cultivator who also seemed somewhat knowledgeable about it, Chen Yixin would not even have wanted him to risk himself.
This curse technique possessed one distinct characteristic: the higher one’s cultivation, the greater its destructive power.
Otherwise, even if he had failed his Nascent Soul breakthrough, he should not have lost all cultivation within such a short span of time.
Part of it had been damaged by the curse itself, while another part Chen Yixin had personally dispersed. Only by doing so had he managed to gain another ten years to live.
Wenren Li crouched down, intending to help Chen Yixin sit up. But the moment his hand touched Chen Yixin’s shoulder, sizzling sounds rang out.
Exactly as Chen Yixin expected, this black mist could even corrode the soul of a Soul Transformation cultivator like Wenren Li.
Yet Wenren Li’s movements did not pause in the slightest, as though he could not feel it at all. He continued helping Chen Yixin up before directly lifting him into his arms.
Closing and reopening his eyes, Wenren Li caused the black mist around them to churn violently, clearing out a somewhat more comfortable space centered around himself and Chen Yixin.
Chen Yixin obediently allowed himself to be carried.
Beside his ears sounded the constant sizzling of black mist eroding Wenren Li’s soul.
Within Wenren Li’s soul-form embrace, there was no concept of hard or soft. Chen Yixin’s mind had been entirely focused on resisting the erosion of the dark patterns, leaving him unable to feel much else.
Yet at this moment, he felt warmth.
A strangely familiar warmth.
Wenren Li lowered his gaze toward him. Chen Yixin’s expression briefly faltered before he voluntarily looked away. His lips moved lightly as he said softly:
“Sorry.”
Wenren Li was Wenren Li, yet he had searched for another person’s shadow within him. That truly was going too far.
“Between you and me, there is no need for apologies.”
As Wenren Li’s words fell, the gray-black sky above them suddenly split apart, warm sunlight pouring down.
The agony that had tormented Chen Yixin’s soul for months suddenly eased somewhat.
Chen Yixin looked around.
Though the space remained rather small, it had completely changed. Black mist waves were blocked outside, revealing dark brown earth beneath. Under his gaze, green grass rapidly sprouted from the soil, vibrant and lovely.
Still carrying Chen Yixin, Wenren Li sat directly upon the newly grown grass before scattering several seeds into the ground.
This time, what grew was not grass, but an extremely common vine from the mortal world.
Chen Yixin looked at the winding vines, then at Wenren Li’s perpetually expressionless face. Without speaking, he simply watched to see what Wenren Li intended to do.
Wenren Li turned out to be even more deft-handed than Chen Yixin had expected. Using the mature vines, he directly wove a vine bed for him.
Chen Yixin curiously touched it several times, his expression clearly delighted.
“For now, you’ll have to make do with this. To remove this curse technique, I still need some time.”
“I’m not merely making do. It’s very nice.”
Chen Yixin smiled softly, reaching out to touch it a few more times.
Wenren Li placed Chen Yixin onto the vine bed before lowering his gaze to him once more. Then his figure gradually faded away.
As an outsider, he could not remain within Chen Yixin’s sea of consciousness for long. Otherwise, just like the curse itself, he would bring irreparable harm to Chen Yixin’s soul and sea of consciousness.
The gray shadow flew out from Chen Yixin’s forehead before returning to Wenren Li’s own.
Once his soul returned to his body, Wenren Li raised a hand, rapidly condensing a mass of black mist within his palm.
This was what had seized the opportunity to invade and follow him out when he touched Chen Yixin’s soul.
While Wenren Li refined away the black mist, Chen Yixin opened his eyes as well. Compared to before, he seemed slightly more spirited.
Looking at Wenren Li, he lightly pressed his lips together.
Why was it that he kept unconsciously linking Wenren Li with another person entirely unrelated?
Wenren Li was not him.
Jing Zhihua of Jade Cauldron Sect was not him either.
Though Wenren Li was refining the black mist, it did not prevent his divine sense from sensing every one of Chen Yixin’s emotions. The fleeting sorrow in Chen Yixin’s eyes was naturally caught by him as well.
Yet what Wenren Li guessed was clearly very different from what Chen Yixin was actually thinking.
“This is an ancient curse technique. It is not unsolvable. I can heal you.”
Wenren Li did not know how to comfort the sudden sadness within Chen Yixin. He could only use what he believed were appropriate words to soothe him.
The emotions in Chen Yixin’s eyes instantly dispersed. Smiling softly, he replied:
“Alright. I believe you.”
Even if that trust turned out to be misplaced, it did not matter much. Ten years was enough for him to accomplish many things.
Hearing this, Wenren Li frowned once more.
In this world, the only person he could not understand was Chen Yixin. Even now, he still could not grasp the thoughts within his heart.
“I will not deceive you.”
Wenren Li emphasized the words again.
Chen Yixin laughed softly once more. Turning slightly onto his side, he reached out and grabbed Wenren Li’s sleeve.
His eyes slowly closed.
Then, with a faint sound through his breathing, he answered softly:
“Mm.”
Wenren Li looked at Chen Yixin, his brows knitting faintly together. He knew Chen Yixin had not truly believed those words.
The two people Chen Yixin had trusted most had both betrayed him. Now that he had been wounded until nothing remained, how could he so easily trust a Demonic Path Demon Lord he had only known for two days?
“Wenren Li, I believe you.”
Eyes still closed, Chen Yixin repeated the words.
But this time, it was not merely something said to placate Wenren Li.
He trusted him.
Without reason.
He simply trusted him.
The gaze Wenren Li directed at Chen Yixin suddenly turned heated. Regardless of whether Chen Yixin could see it or not, he nodded solemnly.
“Mm.”
The tiny slit of Chen Yixin’s half-open eyes finally closed completely, the corners of his lips curving upward.
He had originally thought that believing Wenren Li was sudden, and also his only option.
But now he understood it was not merely that.
Had Wenren Li been any other cultivator, they would never have shared such a conversation.
Wenren Li…
For the first time, Chen Yixin seriously began pondering why this name felt so familiar.
Wenren Li continued staring at Chen Yixin for a long while before resuming the refinement of the black mist.
Two quarters of an hour later, he swept his hand again. The black mist disappeared from the sleeping chamber, while Chen Yixin—still clutching his sleeve—had already fallen fully asleep.
Wenren Li tried pulling back his sleeve, only to discover that even in deep sleep, Chen Yixin showed no intention whatsoever of loosening his grip.
A simple spell could have resolved it.
But the person before him possessed an indescribable magic over him.
His fingers moved lightly as streams of information continuously transmitted from the sleeping chamber.
Yet throughout it all, he remained by Chen Yixin’s side.
From having his sleeve tugged, to his hand being grasped, and finally to half his arm being hugged.
Futile Devices Scans 
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