Wenren Li tightened his arms around Chen Yixin. He had kept the truth from him partly because he wanted Chen Yixin to remember it for himself, but there was another reason as well: he had been afraid. Afraid that Chen Yixin would blame him.
“A-Rong, I’m sorry. I made you wait all these years.”
Whether it had been unavoidable or simply beyond his power to change, Wenren Li still owed Chen Yixin that apology.
Chen Yixin remained rigid for several moments, unable even to tell whether what he felt was joy or anger, sorrow or happiness. His A-Hua had not died. Wenren Li was his A-Hua. Somehow, they had fallen in love all over again and found their way back to each other.
Wenren Li lowered his gaze to Chen Yixin’s complicated expression, but he had no intention of giving him too much time to think. He touched a fingertip to the center of Chen Yixin’s brow and directly showed him everything that had happened when they first met and came to know one another.
“Oh? You even know how to hide from me.”
A young man in white crouched before the only little garden bed in the courtyard. One finger was not enough to torment the sapling, so he brought both hands into play, poking it once from the left and once from the right, thoroughly enjoying himself.
“Looks like you’ve developed sentience. Come on, let’s have a chat about the Xiguang Plains… You don’t know anything about them? Then let’s gossip about Uncle Lin and Aunt Lin next door. How long have those two known each other?…”
Chen Yixin prattled on endlessly, refusing to leave the little sapling alone even after it had turned its entire body away from him.
“Hey, if you keep ignoring me, I’m going to pluck off your little flower bud.”
Chen Yixin said it with a grin, then abruptly lowered his head and kissed the sapling’s flower bud. Before his eyes, the little sapling went from vivid green to completely pink.
“Hahaha…”
Chen Yixin’s uninhibited laughter rang merrily throughout the courtyard. He continued living there for more than half a month, and aside from wandering around inside and outside the town every day, one of his favorite pastimes was teasing that exceptionally shy little sapling.
Two days later, Chen Yixin suddenly rushed back into the courtyard, packed his belongings, and prepared to leave town. He had already stepped outside when he changed his mind, turned around, and returned to the little garden bed.
“This town is too strange. If you stay here, you might get eaten one day. Come with me.”
The moment Chen Yixin finished speaking, the little sapling turned away from him as usual, clearly indicating that it had no intention of paying him any attention.
Chen Yixin fell silent for a moment, then simply took matters into his own hands. He pulled an old, dull-gray clay jar from his storage pouch and forcibly transplanted the sapling into it.
“I picked this out of the treasury after coming first in the sect tournament. I thought I might have found some overlooked treasure, but who would’ve guessed that a grand immortal sect would actually pass off a useless fake pot as a prize? I suppose it’s only good for growing flowers now…”
Chen Yixin had examined the clay jar from top to bottom more times than he could count, yet apart from using it to grow flowers or trees, he genuinely had no idea what else it could possibly do.
Chen Yixin looked down on the clay jar terribly, but Wenren Li’s sapling spirit form was practically stunned senseless by it. Ever since taking root here two thousand years ago, Wenren Li had encountered more than one person who had strayed into the town, and plenty had tried to take him away, yet every last one of them had failed.
Chen Yixin’s clay jar was definitely no ordinary object. While Wenren Li was still pondering what it could be, Chen Yixin had already tied the jar to his waist and carried him straight out of town.
“There are countless skeletons beneath the City God Temple. I suspect that none of the people in this town are actually human…”
Only after they had traveled far beyond the town did Chen Yixin finally offer the little sapling an explanation.
If they were not human, then they were probably some sort of man-eating, bloodthirsty spirits or monsters. That was why Chen Yixin had worried that this little creature, which had only just developed sentience, might end up being devoured.
He lowered his head to look at the sapling’s trembling flower bud and stroked it gently. “Don’t worry. Even if we can’t beat them, surely we can still run away. Once we’re strong enough, we can come back and help them pass on.”
Chen Yixin had never suspected that the sapling itself might be something malevolent. Apart from possessing a supreme-grade single ice spiritual root, Chen Yixin also had an extremely unusual constitution. The Zhenhai Chen clan had confirmed it at his birth, although they had always concealed it through special means.
During this dangerous journey, Chen Yixin had voluntarily released one layer of the seal suppressing his constitution. That single layer was already enough to let him sense certain unusual things in advance, such as the strangeness of the town and the extraordinary purity of the little sapling’s sentience.
As Chen Yixin talked to the sapling, he studied the one-third fragment of an ancient pendant in his hand. He had found it beneath the City God Temple as well. Something about it seemed useful, so he had brought it with him.
“It looks like part of a map. Too bad I only have one-third of it…”
As Chen Yixin spoke, he lightly poked the sapling again. “A-Hua, why are you sleeping? Keep sleeping and I’ll start touching you again.”
The little sapling’s drooping flower bud immediately sprang upright, full of energy once more.
The corners of Chen Yixin’s lips lifted, though this time he did not burst into laughter. Darkness had completely fallen around them. As he continued onward on foot, the sound of the wind drifted near and far around his ears. Flying across the Xiguang Plains was practically the same as announcing that one had lived long enough, so walking was their only option.
Chen Yixin walked from nightfall until dawn, yet the endless yellow sands surrounding him looked no different from those he had already crossed. He found a place sheltered from the wind, took a piece of silk from his storage pouch, spread it across the ground, and sat down.
“My master has a piece of Woven Cloud about the size of a fist. I’ve touched it before—it’s incredibly comfortable. If it were a little bigger, I could bring it out and use it as a cushion. Clean and comfortable…”
Unfortunately, conditions were crude, and for now Chen Yixin could only sit upon a piece of silk surrounded by endless yellow sand.
Still complaining, Chen Yixin untied the sapling from his waist, gathered it into his arms, and only then began to meditate.
A few breaths later, the jade pendant around his neck floated upward, and a stream of pale-blue light poured into the center of Chen Yixin’s brow. He voluntarily released another layer of the seal. His appearance did not change, but as the light entered him, the impression he gave off transformed completely in an instant.
Divine radiance surrounded him, as though an immortal had descended into the mortal world.
A pillar of light was just beginning to surge toward the heavens when the little sapling swayed gently, causing the phenomenon surrounding Chen Yixin to disappear at once.
Only two hours later did Chen Yixin slowly open his eyes. For an instant, his gaze carried an intimidating pressure before softening again. He lowered his head and promptly took liberties with the little sapling once more, then smiled with a wickedness that somehow only made him look even more beautiful.
“I found the clue. Looks like we can enter the Fentian Nether Abode ahead of schedule.”
As Chen Yixin spoke, he tossed the ancient pendant fragment into the air. A dark red-and-black glow appeared around it, and the fragment began guiding them forward.
Chen Yixin stood and prepared to continue onward with the sapling in his arms, but the little sapling suddenly trembled. The clay jar in which it was rooted rapidly shrank until it was small enough to sit over its flower bud like a hat. Its roots wrapped around Chen Yixin’s clothing, and with considerable effort, it climbed all the way onto his shoulder before finally stopping.
Chen Yixin raised his left hand and plucked the little sapling off his shoulder just when it had finally managed to reach its destination. Looking at the sapling wearing the clay jar like a hat, he narrowed his eyes. “Oh? Not bad. You even know how to dislike me now.”
Thus far, the only thing Chen Yixin had ever taken liberties with was this little sapling that did not possess so much as a single leaf, yet now it was openly showing its dislike for him.
He tapped a fingertip against the clay jar, making it float slightly upward, then opened his mouth and directly took the flower bud between his lips. There was no particularly unusual taste—just the fresh fragrance of grass and trees. Pleasant enough to lick, he supposed.
Chen Yixin continued walking for another two steps before releasing the flower bud from his mouth. Only when he saw that even the sapling’s roots had turned pink did he smile in satisfaction. “I’m your lifesaver. You can dislike anyone you want, but you’re not allowed to dislike me. Understand?”
The little sapling went completely rigid and stopped reacting to Chen Yixin altogether. Even Chen Yixin’s unusual constitution could no longer sense its emotions. There was only an immense blankness, as though the poor thing had suffered some devastating blow. But all he had done was lick it once.
Despite thinking that, Chen Yixin still took the initiative to examine the sapling’s flower bud. When it continued showing no reaction, he carefully replaced the clay jar over it. Yet the sapling remained pink and utterly vacant, only gradually returning to normal three days later.
Chen Yixin had also finally discovered that the little sapling possessed quite a temper. He spent no small amount of effort coaxing it over the next few days. Of course, even when his hands started itching and he wanted to tease it again, he exercised a little more restraint and did not repeat the incident of putting the flower bud in his mouth.
“This is the place.” Chen Yixin had walked across the yellow sands for a full ten days before finally finding a small earthen mound. He spread out his silk again and settled himself comfortably beside it, then controlled his spirit sword to begin digging while chatting with the sapling.
“A-Hua, A-Hua, I was wrong, all right?” Chen Yixin’s expression was solemn and his voice gentle, his sincerity seemingly beyond question.
The sapling’s roots tapped against Chen Yixin’s shoulder again and again as though considering the matter. Only after another moment did one root poke Chen Yixin’s neck, which counted as an answer.
The clay jar was extremely important to Wenren Li. If only for its sake, he could hardly do anything to Chen Yixin.
Chen Yixin raised an eyebrow. His solemn sincerity vanished instantly as he scooped up the sapling and ran his hands over it from top to bottom. “So cool and refreshing. A-Hua really is lovely to touch.”
Chen Yixin was extraordinarily picky. Everyone throughout Yuding Sect, including his master Yun Yazi, had been tormented into fearing his standards. No matter how many treasures they painstakingly found and considered excellent, very few actually caught Chen Yixin’s eye.
Yet this shy and amusing little sapling was clearly exempt from Chen Yixin’s usual pickiness. He genuinely adored it.
The sapling turned pink again, but compared with when Chen Yixin had first begun teasing it, it was much more docile now. They remained beside the little mound while Chen Yixin dug for an entire month before finally opening a narrow tunnel beneath it, barely wide enough for one person to pass through.
Chen Yixin packed his belongings back into his storage pouch, settled the sapling upright on his shoulder, and entered the tunnel together with it.
“A-Hua, you really can’t be this easy to embarrass. I’m your lifesaver. Whatever I do to you is perfectly justified.”
Chen Yixin spoke as though this were the most natural thing in the world. He had forcibly dug the little sapling out of the town and carried it away, yet somehow he had turned that into a life-saving debt—one that apparently could never be repaid.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. Just remember it.” Chen Yixin turned his head as he spoke, and his lips brushed the clay jar over the sapling’s flower bud. He immediately curled his lips in distaste. “A-Hua is much nicer to kiss…”
The little sapling continued swaying along with Chen Yixin’s steps. Half an hour later, before Chen Yixin had even reached the true entrance, it shrank the clay jar smaller and smaller until it covered only the very tip of its flower bud.
Chen Yixin turned his head, kissed it again, and only then praised, “Good A-Hua.”
The little sapling turned pink again but neither protested nor objected. Compared with making Chen Yixin kiss the clay jar, it would rather let him kiss its flower bud.
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