Only after Chen Yixin had laughed his fill did Wenren Li help him recline against the Woven Cloud once more.
“I examined the injury to your dantian yesterday. Now I need to inspect the damage to your divine soul.” This would require Chen Yixin’s cooperation. If anything went wrong, Wenren Li, as a Soul Transformation cultivator, would naturally remain unharmed, but Chen Yixin could very well die.
Chen Yixin did not agree immediately. His gaze settled on Wenren Li, unconsciously taking on a contemplative cast once more. No kindness in this world came without reason, whether it was shown to oneself or to another, so what reason did Wenren Li have for treating him so well?
A trace of helplessness entered Wenren Li’s expression. He raised a hand and covered Chen Yixin’s eyes outright. He had only just told him not to overthink things, yet Chen Yixin had not taken a single word to heart. It was a habit ingrained in him through his years of navigating the cultivation world.
For the time being, 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 the ordinary. Apparently aware that he could not win an argument, he had simply started using his hands instead.
“Fine. Go ahead and look.”
After agreeing, Chen Yixin raised a hand and dragged the one covering his eyes elsewhere.
Wenren Li’s gaze flicked toward the hand Chen Yixin was holding before he nodded. He slowly leaned closer and stopped half an arm’s length away. A glimmer of pale gray light flashed at the center of his brow, then sank directly into Chen Yixin’s forehead.
Chen Yixin’s eyelashes trembled lightly before his eyes closed.
He currently possessed no cultivation whatsoever, but he had once come within a single step of becoming a Nascent Soul True Lord. His body and divine soul still possessed qualities no ordinary mortal could ever have: his body was like flawless crystal, untouched by dust or impurity, while his soul resembled a golden lamp, bright and translucent.
Now, however, his Golden Core had shattered, his dantian had been destroyed, and the Dao foundation he had cultivated for more than a century had vanished without a trace. More than half of his once-brilliant, translucent divine soul had been steeped in smoke as black as ink. The moment it completely contaminated his divine soul would also be the moment Chen Yixin lost his life for good.
With Chen Yixin’s half-step Nascent Soul cultivation destroyed, his sea of consciousness had been left in ruins as well.
Compared with the empty sea of consciousness possessed by an ordinary mortal, Chen Yixin’s was extraordinarily dangerous. To the divine soul, this place was equivalent to another real world, one that should originally have been governed by Chen Yixin alone. Now that his primary divine soul was trapped within the black mist, even Wenren Li had difficulty finding him.
After searching for a long time, Wenren Li finally found Chen Yixin’s trapped divine soul upon an isolated reef amid the black mist.
Chen Yixin lay upon the reef, his limbs bound by chains condensed from the black mist. Stranger still, ominous dark markings spread across his skin in patches of varying depth, steadily corroding his divine soul.
Only when Wenren Li arrived did Chen Yixin open his eyes. Turning his head toward him, he asked, “Can you save me?”
Wenren Li did not answer. He stepped forward, and the black mist seemed to tremble in fear before surging up savagely once more. Wenren Li swept a hand through the air, instantly shattering the chains, but the dark markings covering Chen Yixin’s soul body did not disappear.
The fact that Wenren Li could intimidate the chains of black mist was already enough to delight Chen Yixin. Ever since the mist had invaded his divine soul, he had been fighting against it every moment of every day. By now, his understanding of it was already comparable to that of an ordinary medical cultivator.
Yet it was precisely because he understood it that he had grown increasingly hopeless. His chances of escaping it were vanishingly small, and anyone who attempted to treat him could easily be dragged down with him. Had Wenren Li not been a Soul Transformation cultivator who also seemed to have studied the matter, Chen Yixin would not have wanted him to take the risk.
This curse possessed one particular characteristic: the higher its victim’s cultivation, the more powerful it became. Otherwise, even if Chen Yixin had failed to form his Nascent Soul, he would never have lost all his cultivation in such a short time.
Part of his cultivation had been destroyed by the curse, while the rest had been voluntarily dispersed by Chen Yixin himself. Only by doing so had he managed to gain another ten years of life.
Wenren Li crouched down and tried to help Chen Yixin up, but the moment his hand touched Chen Yixin’s shoulder, a sizzling sound of corrosion rang out. Just as Chen Yixin had expected, the black mist could corrode even the divine soul of a Soul Transformation cultivator like Wenren Li.
Wenren Li’s movements did not slow in the slightest. As though he could not feel it at all, he continued helping Chen Yixin upright before lifting him fully into his arms.
Wenren Li closed his eyes, then opened them again. With him and Chen Yixin at the center, the black mist suddenly began to churn, but it was only because Wenren Li was clearing out a slightly more comfortable space for Chen Yixin.
Chen Yixin obediently allowed himself to be held. Beside his ear came the constant sizzling of the black mist corroding Wenren Li’s divine soul. A soul body had no true hardness or softness, and nearly all Chen Yixin’s attention was occupied with resisting the dark markings’ corrosion, leaving him able to feel very little, yet at that moment he felt warm—a strangely familiar warmth.
Wenren Li lowered his eyes to look at him. Chen Yixin’s expression grew momentarily dazed, and he took the initiative to avert his gaze. His lips moved lightly before he said, “I’m sorry.”
Wenren Li was Wenren Li, yet Chen Yixin had been searching for another person’s shadow in him. That was truly going too far.
“Between you and me, there is no need for apologies.”
As Wenren Li’s words fell, the gray-black sky overhead suddenly split apart, allowing warm sunlight to pour through. The excruciating pain that had plagued Chen Yixin’s divine soul for months abruptly eased a little.
Chen Yixin looked around. Although the space remained confined, it had become entirely different. The waves of black mist had been shut outside, revealing dark-brown earth beneath them. Wherever Chen Yixin’s gaze fell, tender green shoots rapidly broke through the soil, looking remarkably charming.
Still holding Chen Yixin, Wenren Li sat directly upon the newly grown grass. He then scattered several seeds over the ground. What emerged this time was not grass, but a kind of vine commonly found in the mortal world.
Chen Yixin looked at the twisting vines, then at Wenren Li’s unchanging expression. He said nothing, simply waiting to see what Wenren Li intended to do.
Wenren Li proved far more skillful with his hands than Chen Yixin had expected. Using the mature vines, he wove a vine bed for him on the spot. Chen Yixin touched it with fascination, looking thoroughly delighted.
“You will have to make do with this for now. I still need some time to remove the curse.”
“This is hardly making do. It’s very nice.” Chen Yixin smiled faintly and reached out to stroke it twice more.
Wenren Li lifted Chen Yixin onto the vine bed and lowered his gaze to look at him once more before his figure gradually faded. As an outsider, he could not remain inside Chen Yixin’s sea of consciousness for long. Otherwise, like the curse itself, he would inflict irreparable damage upon Chen Yixin’s divine soul and sea of consciousness.
A gray shadow flew out from between Chen Yixin’s brows and sank back into Wenren Li’s forehead. Once his divine soul returned to its proper place, Wenren Li raised a hand, and a mass of black mist rapidly condensed above his palm. It was the mist that had seized the opportunity to invade him while he was in contact with Chen Yixin’s divine soul and had been dragged back out with him.
As Wenren Li began removing the black mist, Chen Yixin opened his eyes as well. He looked slightly more energetic than before. Gazing at Wenren Li, he lightly pressed his lips together. Why did he keep involuntarily associating Wenren Li with someone who had nothing to do with him?
Wenren Li was not that person, and neither was Jing Zhihua of Yuding Sect.
Although Wenren Li was occupied with refining the black mist, it did not prevent his spiritual sense from detecting every shift in Chen Yixin’s emotions. The fleeting desolation in Chen Yixin’s eyes did not escape him, but what Wenren Li guessed was clearly far removed from what Chen Yixin was actually thinking.
“This is an ancient curse, but it is not without a cure. I can heal you.”
Wenren Li did not know how to comfort the sorrow that had suddenly appeared in Chen Yixin. He could only do his best to soothe him with the words he believed appropriate.
At those words, Chen Yixin’s emotions immediately dispersed. He smiled faintly. “All right. I believe you.”
Even if his trust proved misplaced, it would not matter. Ten years was enough time for him to accomplish many things.
Hearing this, Wenren Li frowned once more. The only person in this world he could not understand was Chen Yixin. Even now, he still could not make sense of what Chen Yixin was thinking.
“I won’t deceive you,” Wenren Li emphasized.
Chen Yixin could not help smiling again. He turned slightly to the side, reached out, and caught the hem of Wenren Li’s robe. His eyes slowly closed, and a quiet sound of acknowledgment escaped through his nose. “Mm.”
Wenren Li looked at Chen Yixin with a slight crease between his brows. He knew Chen Yixin had not truly believed what he had said.
The two people Chen Yixin had once trusted most had both betrayed him. Now that he had been injured until he possessed nothing at all, how could he easily trust a Demon Lord of the demonic path whom he had known for barely two days?
“Wenren Li, I believe you,” Chen Yixin said again with his eyes closed. This time, however, he was not merely saying it to placate Wenren Li. He believed him. There was no reason or foundation for it; he simply did.
Wenren Li’s gaze abruptly grew a little more intense. Whether or not Chen Yixin could see him, he nodded with exceptional solemnity. “Mm.”
Chen Yixin’s eyes, which had opened to a narrow slit, closed completely, while the corners of his lips slowly curved upward. He had initially believed that his sudden trust in Wenren Li was merely because he had no other choice, but now he understood that it was not only that.
Had Wenren Li been replaced by any other cultivator, they would never have had this conversation.
Wenren Li… Chen Yixin finally began seriously considering why that name felt so familiar.
Wenren Li continued staring at Chen Yixin for a long time before resuming the refinement of the black mist. About half an hour later, he swept his hand through the air, and the mist disappeared from the bedchamber. Chen Yixin, who was still gripping the hem of his robe, had fallen completely asleep.
Wenren Li attempted to retrieve the hem of his robe, only to discover that the deeply sleeping Chen Yixin had no intention of relaxing his grip. He could have solved the problem with a minor spell, but the person before him possessed an indescribable power over him.
His fingertips moved lightly, sending one message after another from the bedchamber, while he himself remained beside Chen Yixin the entire time. Chen Yixin went from gripping the hem of his robe, to holding his hand, and finally to embracing half of his arm.