Wenren Li stepped closer to Chen Yixin, lowered his head, and gently kissed the center of his brow. The faint sigil that made Chen Yixin appear even more otherworldly immediately disappeared from sight. “A-Rong is beautiful.”
The dance had been beautiful, but the person dancing it was even more so.
Wenren Li stroked Chen Yixin’s hair, then took his hand. With a single step, they left the inheritance ground.
Chen Yixin let himself be led along, but his free hand rose involuntarily to touch his forehead. The heat spreading across his cheeks seemed intent on reaching his ears. Somehow Wenren Li’s simple words had made him shy.
Of course, Chen Yixin told himself that Wenren Li’s overly plain compliment was not the sole reason for his flushed face. Surely dancing just now had contributed as well. He was not someone who became embarrassed that easily.
Even while thinking that, Chen Yixin’s gaze remained fixed on Wenren Li, a smile curving his lips. Wenren Li had not blossomed, yet Chen Yixin himself felt so happy he could have bloomed.
“Actually, A-Li is very good-looking too. Really.” Chen Yixin swung their joined hands slightly, then looked away as he spoke. It was also the truth. At this point, no matter where he looked at Wenren Li, he found something to treasure.
Wenren Li turned his gaze toward him. Their eyes met, and the Demon Lord who had once been cold and piercing suddenly showed another hint of shyness. He pressed his lips together. “As long as A-Rong likes it.”
“I do.” Chen Yixin’s smile became even brighter.
The scenery inside the Fentian Nether Abode was honestly nothing impressive, but because Chen Yixin was in such a good mood, even the surroundings seemed beautiful.
“Where are we going now?”
“To retrieve the other Inheritance Crystals.” Wenren Li spoke calmly as he brought Chen Yixin to a low doorway. This was the exit from another inheritance ground within the Fentian Nether Abode.
Wenren Li did not take Chen Yixin inside. Instead, he drew a soft couch from his spatial ring, helped Chen Yixin sit down upon it, then returned his gaze to the low doorway.
With another Inheritance Imprint, Chen Yixin felt somewhat better than before, but the terrible pain had not actually left him. He had simply endured pain for so long in the past that once he adapted, it no longer affected him very much.
“I wonder which sect’s disciples will come out…” Chen Yixin mused while leaning against the Woven Cloud, though his gaze still remained on Wenren Li. After a moment, he tugged at Wenren Li’s sleeve. “Would it interfere with anything if A-Li sat down?”
Wenren Li turned toward him, took one step backward, and sat on the couch beside him.
Chen Yixin leaned closer and rested his head against Wenren Li’s shoulder. Apparently still finding the position uncomfortable, he stretched out both legs and placed them over Wenren Li’s thighs.
At that moment, three people emerged from the low doorway: one Nascent Soul cultivator and two Golden Core cultivators. All three were pale and visibly shaken, clearly having suffered badly inside.
Wenren Li frowned faintly, an inexplicable trace of disdain appearing in his expression. Not one of the three had obtained the Inheritance Crystal; they had escaped the inheritance ground only by relying on powerful treasures they carried.
The three had only just breathed a sigh of relief when they looked around and noticed Wenren Li and Chen Yixin. They were immediately frightened again. Both Golden Core cultivators’ legs nearly gave out, while the Nascent Soul cultivator fared somewhat better, though she instantly raised a magical artifact above her head, ready to attack at any moment.
“You… Chen Yixin!” The Nascent Soul cultivator was a woman dressed entirely in white, like an immortal maiden from the Moon Palace. Yet the moment that aloof beauty saw Chen Yixin, her expression twisted.
“That’s me.” Chen Yixin had always rather enjoyed seeing her look like this. He wrapped himself around half of Wenren Li’s arm and opened his mouth with his usual talent for infuriating people. “Granny Meng, long time no see.”
“You’re still not—” Fairy Meng Suo did not finish before a terrifying pressure descended upon her. With a thud, she dropped directly to her knees.
“A-Rong knows her?” Wenren Li narrowed his eyes. Both Golden Core cultivators had already begun vomiting blood, while Fairy Meng Suo no longer dared raise her head. This was unquestionably a Soul Transformation powerhouse, and clearly one who had reached that realm long ago and possessed terrifying methods.
Chen Yixin lifted one brow and hesitated several times before answering, “More or less. She’s jealous that I’m prettier than she is.”
Fairy Meng Suo’s expression twisted even further.
She was three hundred years older than Chen Yixin, yet every time he saw her, he called her “Granny” several times. And that was merely what he did with words. When Chen Yixin truly wanted to infuriate someone, he could drive them mad without lifting a finger. Blessed with that absurdly beautiful face, he nevertheless behaved with all the shamelessness of the demonic path, taking whatever bargains came his way without the slightest concern for whether anyone regretted them afterward.
The miraculous fruit Chen Yixin had once consumed had even been obtained from her in exchange for what appeared to be an ordinary broken stone. After she learned what the fruit could do, she regretted the trade so badly she could have turned green.
Chen Yixin still did not believe he had done anything wrong. Fairy Meng Suo had willingly agreed to the exchange. What was he supposed to have done about that?
Besides, there were plenty of people in the cultivation world who hated him enough to want him dead. Adding her made little difference. Had Chen Yixin not run into her here, he would not even have remembered her.
“Useless.” Wenren Li waved his hand, and all three immediately vanished. Several objects simultaneously fell into his palm, including one third fragment of an ancient pendant and a high-grade artifact.
Chen Yixin opened his mouth, still intending to mock her a few more times, only for Wenren Li to make her disappear entirely. Fairy Meng Suo was the vice sect master of the Yanyue Sect, and before Chen Yixin appeared, she had once been the cultivation world’s foremost beauty.
Of course, after Chen Yixin appeared at thirty years old as a Golden Core cultivator, no one paid much attention to the beauty who had been demoted to second place.
“Where did you send them?”
A sect’s vice sect master was not someone one could casually kill, especially now that many people had already entered the Fentian Nether Abode. Of course, if they truly did kill her, then she would simply be dead.
“Burning Prison.”
Wenren Li named a place Chen Yixin had never heard of, but judging by the name alone, it clearly was not somewhere pleasant.
With the irritating people dealt with, they could finally attend to what mattered. Using the ancient jade fragment, they entered the inheritance ground again.
It was little wonder Fairy Meng Suo and the others had failed here. Illusions layered upon illusions filled the place; anyone unable to see through them would never awaken.
Chen Yixin opened his eyes in Wenren Li’s arms. Before his brows could even draw together, Wenren Li smoothed the frown away with his fingers.
Chen Yixin looked at Wenren Li and slowly sat up, then leaned close enough to rub his cheek against Wenren Li’s before embracing him. “You are A-Li, and you are my A-Hua. You belong to me, Chen Yixin.”
As he spoke, he raised a hand to stroke Wenren Li’s cheek. A blade of ice suddenly appeared in that hand and sliced straight across Wenren Li’s throat. There was no blood. The figure simply vanished.
Another fake.
“How could I fail to recognize my own A-Li?”
He had already mistaken someone once. He would never allow such a thing to happen again.
Ten times, a hundred times… False Wenren Lis continued appearing, and each became increasingly convincing, but the real was real and the false was false. Eventually Chen Yixin grew tired of distinguishing between them and simply killed nearly everyone he saw.
He continued forward until he came across Wenren Li bathing in a pool with his back turned toward him. Mist curled above the water, and that exposed back was remarkably tempting. Chen Yixin, who had been radiating murderous intent moments earlier, froze and swallowed.
He raised one brow, his gaze sliding over Wenren Li’s straight, beautiful back, then flicked his sleeve dismissively. “A seduction trap won’t work on me. The only beauty I’m interested in is A-Li’s.”
He advanced with the ice blade while still muttering, “Though having A-Li bathe for me to watch would be perfectly acceptable.”
Thinking that only made Chen Yixin more eager to awaken and see his real A-Li.
Chen Yixin raised the dagger and was just about to stab through the bathing Wenren Li’s back when the man suddenly turned around. Chen Yixin froze, astonishment filling his eyes. “A-Li?”
“It’s me.” Wenren Li nodded and waved a hand. The illusion of the bathing pool disappeared, replaced by the flower field of the valley where they had once lived within the strange realm.
“How did A-Li get in here?” Chen Yixin approached, first sniffing him, then touching him. Only after meeting Wenren Li’s gaze did he finally confirm it, and once all doubts disappeared, he immediately rose onto his toes and kissed him.
Wenren Li would have answered Chen Yixin’s question, but his mouth had already been sealed by Chen Yixin’s lips. With no way to speak, he wrapped an arm around Chen Yixin’s waist and responded to Chen Yixin’s enthusiasm, deepening a kiss flavored with faint longing.
“I came to fulfill A-Rong’s dream…”
After saying that, Wenren Li released Chen Yixin and knelt among the flowers. “I, Wenren Li, willingly take Chen Yixin as my spouse. In life and until our hair turns white, we shall never part.”
Chen Yixin suppressed the excited pounding of his heart. Looking at surroundings identical to that day long ago, he smiled and knelt as well. “I, Chen Yixin, willingly take Wenren Li as my spouse. In life and until our hair turns white, we shall never part.”
They looked at one another, bowed to the ground together, and completed three ceremonial bows.
Wenren Li took Chen Yixin’s hand and led him toward the wooden house. Red candles burned beside a bed dressed in mandarin-duck bedding. It was an exceedingly simple bridal chamber, yet every object there carried intimate familiarity for them.
“What comes next?” Chen Yixin tightened his grip on Wenren Li’s hand and looked around. The moment he spotted a wine jar beside the door, he immediately dragged Wenren Li toward it. “I know. We drink the cross-cupped wine.”
Wenren Li nodded and poured wine into two small bamboo cups.
They raised the cups, linked their arms, and drank, never once taking their eyes from the person before them.
“Next… comes the bridal chamber.” Wenren Li took Chen Yixin’s hand and led him toward the bed.
Chen Yixin sat on the edge and looked up at Wenren Li, then spread his arms, clearly telling Wenren Li to undress him.
When Chen Yixin had first arrived at the Demon Palace and Wenren Li had cared for him, Wenren Li had undressed him plenty of times. Yet here and now, Chen Yixin finally understood what nervousness felt like. There was nothing unwilling in that nervousness, however. They were fulfilling a dream. That was exactly what this was.
“A-Li, to see through this illusion, my state of mind supposedly has to become complete… but what does completeness even mean? We lost a hundred years, but we still have a thousand years, ten thousand years, another life, and countless lifetimes after that.”
“I don’t need some perfect completion. I just… want A-Li.”
Chen Yixin tilted his head as he spoke and caught Wenren Li’s lips, sucking and licking them lightly before drawing back a little. “What about A-Li?”
Wenren Li was not surprised by Chen Yixin’s insight. He had entered this illusion alongside Chen Yixin claiming that he wanted to help him, but the truth was that he did not want Chen Yixin touching anyone else, even a person manufactured by an illusion who did not truly exist.
At the same time, before Chen Yixin resumed cultivation, this was also one way for them to become more deeply intimate without harming him.
Wenren Li did not answer aloud. He wrapped his arms around Chen Yixin, pulled him onto the bed, and pressed him beneath his body. Perhaps there had once been a time when he did not understand these things, but after meeting Chen Yixin, he had begun to understand. Some things were instinctive; they required no deliberate instruction.
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