Chen Yixin lifted his chin to meet Wenren Li’s kiss. Their lips and tongues intertwined in complete intimacy.
By the time the kiss finally ended, Chen Yixin’s breathing was utterly disordered. He found himself genuinely disliking this mortal body. Otherwise, he could have gone on kissing Wenren Li for a very, very long time. He loved this feeling of their lips and teeth touching, of being as intimately close as two people could possibly be.
“A-Li…” Chen Yixin called, his voice already different. He arched his neck higher while Wenren Li’s scattered kisses descended one after another, neither too light nor too heavy, Wenren Li’s breath brushing across the overly sensitive skin at the side of his neck.
“A-Li.” Chen Yixin called him again, stroking Wenren Li’s hair before slipping his hand beneath Wenren Li’s robes and touching and squeezing wherever he pleased, evidently very fond of the sensation beneath his fingers.
“Does A-Li really know what he’s doing?” Chen Yixin could not help asking again. Judging by Wenren Li’s usual reactions, he could hardly have been more innocent, yet now they had suddenly reached the final step. Chen Yixin genuinely wondered whether he understood it at all…
Wenren Li half lifted Chen Yixin into his arms, and his kisses immediately moved from Chen Yixin’s neck and chest to another place. Chen Yixin sucked in a sharp breath and no longer dared tease him quite so recklessly. A moment later, however, he still muttered, “I’ve put A-Li’s flower in my mouth before too, so A-Li isn’t losing out.”
“Hey…” Chen Yixin braced one hand against the bed and tangled the other in Wenren Li’s hair. His face was flushed, as though he wanted to flee from the maddening sensation and yet also respond to it. His legs tightened until they ached, and then he abruptly lost control.
His expression darkened. Even he had not expected it to happen so quickly…
“A-Rong.” Wenren Li raised his head and lightly touched the corner of his mouth. The faint red in his eyes had deepened. He lowered his head and continued kissing Chen Yixin, the kisses slowly traveling upward until he met Chen Yixin’s conflicted, aroused gaze and placed one more kiss between his brows.
“Is A-Rong happy?”
“I am.” Chen Yixin answered. Though he was dissatisfied with himself, he was still happy with Wenren Li’s efforts. He raised one leg and hooked it around Wenren Li’s waist, then pulled Wenren Li’s neck down and whispered beside his ear, “I want A-Li to be happy too.”
Chen Yixin had no particular fixation on which of them took which position. He only wanted the two of them to truly be together.
“I’m happy.” As Wenren Li spoke, the robes Chen Yixin had already pulled into complete disarray vanished from his body. They were finally completely bare before one another, and Chen Yixin’s smile brightened further. He shamelessly touched and kissed Wenren Li everywhere while Wenren Li found the proper position.
The illusion was extraordinarily realistic. Every sensation was equally real, whether the shuddering of their bodies or the trembling of their souls, allowing them to understand the pleasure of physical union and the passions of the mortal world.
Outside the wooden house, the flower field began growing wildly just as the plants had once done around their residence in Luanmo City. Flowers even began blooming across the floor inside the house, vines climbing the walls while a sea of blossoms spread outward from the wooden house as its center.
Chen Yixin and Wenren Li drifted together in a sea of desire, unable and unwilling to stop.
Chen Yixin finally realized that he had genuinely underestimated Wenren Li. Never mind the experience accumulated over thirty thousand years; Wenren Li’s stronger body and far deeper cultivation were enough to overwhelm Chen Yixin, to say nothing of his seemingly inexhaustible stamina.
Chen Yixin’s toes curled slightly. His whole body had turned pink, his breathing alternately slow and rapid, and his fingers scratched helplessly against Wenren Li, yet nothing allowed him to escape the maddening state.
“A-Li, surely that’s enough now…” He would not be injured here, but enduring that helpless sensation for too long was still beyond what an ordinary person could withstand.
Wenren Li lowered his head and kissed Chen Yixin lightly on the lips. At last, he stopped. Compared with Chen Yixin’s half-conscious state, Wenren Li’s own desire had only just been stirred, but he also knew he could not continue tormenting Chen Yixin or Chen Yixin truly would not be able to endure it.
His kisses continued to cover Chen Yixin, from his forehead down his neck and over the rest of his body. Then Wenren Li pulled the red quilt around them both and simply lay there holding him.
Chen Yixin did not immediately fall asleep. Once he recovered somewhat, he returned Wenren Li’s embrace, his expression peaceful and content. “This wedding doesn’t count. Once we’re back at the Demon Palace, we have to marry again—and have another wedding night.”
“All right.” Wenren Li naturally agreed to everything. He gently patted Chen Yixin, then suddenly his gaze sharpened. He swept one hand outward, and several people attempting to enter the inheritance ground were instantly erased into nothingness.
Chen Yixin slept peacefully through the night. When he opened his eyes again, he was still lying in Wenren Li’s arms, but they were no longer inside the illusion of the inheritance ground. Both were fully dressed, and that entire night seemed almost like an erotic dream.
Chen Yixin blinked and met Wenren Li’s eyes. Wenren Li, who was usually so easily embarrassed, showed no shyness this time, while Chen Yixin’s own thin-skinned face unexpectedly reddened. A moment later, however, he noticed the delayed blush creeping across Wenren Li’s cheeks and immediately regained his composure.
He wrapped his arms around Wenren Li’s neck and kissed both his cheek and his lips. “Even if it was a dream, it was real for us. A-Li can relax. I won’t pretend it didn’t happen.”
“I’ll remember A-Rong’s words.” Wenren Li raised Chen Yixin’s chin and initiated a long, lingering kiss. Only after Chen Yixin’s cheeks flushed just as they had in the illusion did Wenren Li finally release him.
Chen Yixin could not help licking his lips. Physically, he was clearly no match for Wenren Li, but verbally he still insisted on holding the upper hand. After considering the taste carefully, he declared, “A-Li is very sweet.”
He had never been such a clingy, lovey-dovey person before. Yet faced with Wenren Li, he had somehow learned it without a teacher. He liked it, and he was willing. What could anyone do about that?
They embraced for a while longer before standing. Chen Yixin still had not obtained an Inheritance Crystal, but the sigil at his brow had become two shades clearer than before. Wenren Li kissed it once more and concealed it.
They stepped through the low doorway. Compared with before they entered, the surroundings now showed considerably more signs of fighting. The Fentian Nether Abode had not yet reached its true opening date, but many sects had already used special methods to send talented disciples inside. Naturally, they had all come for the Inheritance Crystals within the inheritance grounds.
There were only six crystals in total. Counting the black crystal Chen Yixin had hunted a hundred years ago, Chen Yixin alone already possessed three. The remaining three were enough to make disciples from every faction fight until their heads bled, without necessarily obtaining anything in the end.
“The Fentian Nether Abode has existed for too long, which is why these loopholes have appeared. But A-Rong needn’t worry. You are different from them.” Wenren Li held Chen Yixin’s hand and walked at a leisurely pace, as though they were strolling through the garden back at the Demon Palace.
“Oh?” Chen Yixin did not think himself particularly different, aside from being somewhat better-looking than most people.
“Although you transferred the cultivation inheritance away, its imprint had already been engraved into your soul. You are the true inheritor chosen by the Fentian Nether Abode.” Unless something happened to Chen Yixin, no one else would ever obtain its true Inheritance Imprint.
Wenren Li even suspected that the ancient curse placed upon Chen Yixin’s soul might somehow be connected to this inheritance.
“Oh.” Chen Yixin nodded without appearing especially pleased. His free hand touched the jade pendant around his neck. He still felt that Yun Yazi had erased something critically important from his memories, something even Wenren Li could not know.
“A-Rong’s constitution is indeed unusual. Even I have never seen anything like it.”
Wenren Li had lived thirty thousand years and seen countless people and things, yet he had never encountered someone with a constitution like Chen Yixin’s. Even ancient texts contained no record of it.
“Is there something wrong with it?”
Chen Yixin turned toward Wenren Li. Wenren Li would not have deliberately brought it up if there were nothing to concern him.
“I still don’t know. But when we begin dual cultivation, I can examine it properly for you.”
Wenren Li met Chen Yixin’s eyes as he spoke and inexplicably blushed. He had not been thinking anything improper when he said it, but after meeting Chen Yixin’s gaze, his thoughts apparently followed in that direction anyway.
Before Wenren Li could fully process this change in himself, Chen Yixin planted a kiss on his cheek.
“A-Li is adorable.” The road ahead was uncertain, but with Wenren Li beside him, Chen Yixin felt as though he did not need to worry about anything. Being cherished and protected like this was something strange and extraordinarily beautiful.
They continued walking and eventually arrived before the rope bridge that Chen Yixin knew far too well. This was where Wenren Li had once dispersed his spirit form and soul form for Chen Yixin, and probably where Yun Yazi had later forcibly erased part of Chen Yixin’s memory.
Even after the memories vanished, the grief left behind had never disappeared from his heart. Chen Yixin’s hand tightened slightly around Wenren Li’s. His lips parted as though he wanted to say something, but in the end he remained silent.
Just as a hundred years ago, he had to cross this bridge. His reason was the same too: one day, he wanted to be strong enough to protect Wenren Li.
Wenren Li touched a finger between his brows. His sapling spirit form emerged and wound its roots around the necklace at Chen Yixin’s throat. They remained holding one another a little longer before Wenren Li finally released Chen Yixin’s hand. “I’ll wait here for you.”
Meeting Chen Yixin’s gaze, he pulled him briefly back into his arms. “I promise.”
What happened a hundred years ago would never be allowed to happen again.
Chen Yixin embraced Wenren Li once, then stepped back. His hand returned to the necklace around his throat. With a hard tug, he tore it free, placed the little sapling on his shoulder, then took both ends of the red cord and looped them around Wenren Li’s neck, tying it securely.
“I don’t have many good things left. I hope A-Li won’t dislike this.”
That “won’t dislike this” also carried another meaning: Chen Yixin had once given the pendant to the wrong person, and he hoped Wenren Li would not mind.
Wenren Li held the pendant between his fingers, hesitation appearing in his expression. Chen Yixin smiled gently at him, then turned with the little sapling and stepped onto the rope bridge.
Chen Yixin understood that Wenren Li’s hesitation had nothing to do with disgust. Wenren Li simply knew what the pendant meant to Chen Yixin. It was probably equivalent to Wenren Li’s spirit form and soul form: though it possessed no sentience, to Chen Yixin it was effectively another life.
Giving Wenren Li that jade pendant meant that if danger ever came, this life could be exchanged for Wenren Li’s.
“A-Li wants to give me the best of everything. All I can give A-Li is everything I have.”
Chen Yixin lightly stroked the little sapling when it reached a root toward him. He turned his head. After hesitating, the sapling voluntarily brought its flower bud closer and allowed Chen Yixin to kiss it.
Chen Yixin narrowed his eyes and smiled brilliantly.
He teased the sapling while glancing around. Nothing here felt particularly unfamiliar. Yun Yazi would not have dared tamper too heavily with his memories of the central palace itself.
The place appeared to contain only a single palace and several doors, but in truth it was an enormous bewildering formation. Reaching the true inheritance palace was far from simple.
Chen Yixin had done this once already, so the second time came much more easily. He moved rapidly in and out of different doors. His eyes suddenly brightened as he stepped toward one entrance, only to change direction at the last instant.
He entered another door and immediately began running. After passing through several more changing gateways, he stopped abruptly when he came face-to-face with someone.
“Zhou Yan!”
The little sapling had warned him that someone was following behind them. Why would Chen Yixin lead a pursuer down the correct path?
“Yi’er.” Zhou Yan remained where he was, the same habitual smile appearing on his face, as warm and familiar as when Chen Yixin had first met him. Yet that warmth had been genuine then. Now it was difficult to say. The friendship between them had long since changed beyond recognition.
“You spent ten years accompanying me in the Fentian Nether Abode. Looks like you gained something from it after all.”
When Chen Yixin had been searching for that soul, Zhou Yan had come here to persuade him and had even stayed with him for more than ten years. Apparently Zhou Yan had also obtained something during those years, otherwise he would never have slipped past Wenren Li’s awareness and entered the central palace now.
As Chen Yixin spoke, the bell around his left ankle chimed lightly. His body shifted instantly to another doorway. He was still technically a mortal, but within the Fentian Nether Abode, a person carrying its Inheritance Imprint could hardly be treated like an ordinary mortal.
Chen Yixin caught the little sapling just as it was about to leap forward, brought it to his lips for a reassuring kiss, then tucked it inside his robes.
“A-Li doesn’t need to fight for me here.” The sapling’s cultivation was far weaker than Wenren Li’s human body or soul form. Chen Yixin could not bear to let Zhou Yan injure it.
Besides, now that he had learned this dance, why would he not use it? Especially when it was a dance designed to kill.
Zhou Yan looked to be only around thirty, but in truth he was over two hundred years old. When Chen Yixin first entered the Yuding Sect at nine years old, Zhou Yan had been the one who cared for him. As senior brother and junior brother, Chen Yixin had always thought well of him.
But once a person’s heart changed, who could stop it? Whatever friendship they once shared had ended the moment Zhou Yan schemed against him. The next time they met, it would be a matter of life and death.
The bell at Chen Yixin’s left ankle rang intermittently. Six ice-blue mystical birds formed from spiritual power appeared around him, driving Zhou Yan back every time he attempted to approach.
“To think that the first time Yi’er sees me again, you’d dance for me. I’m truly… overwhelmed with delight.”
A faint trace of obsession crossed Zhou Yan’s eyes as he watched Chen Yixin. He stopped trying to approach and retreated two steps, choosing instead to attack Chen Yixin with words. “Yi’er…”
“Zhou Yan, you’re disgusting.”
Chen Yixin’s movements slowly drew to a close. The six mystical birds abruptly turned and flew toward Chen Yixin himself. A burst of spiritual radiance swallowed him. Zhou Yan rushed forward, but not even a trace of Chen Yixin’s figure or aura remained.
No matter how powerful the dance was, a mortal killing a Golden Core cultivator would still be like a mayfly trying to shake a tree. But distracting Zhou Yan long enough to escape was entirely possible.
“A-Li doesn’t need to be angry. The next time I see him, I’ll dig out his eyes.” Chen Yixin’s dance was not something Zhou Yan had the right to watch. Since he had looked, he could lose his eyes.
They passed through several more doors before entering a palace flooded with blue light. Chen Yixin walked directly to a faceless stone statue, sat cross-legged before it, and began comprehending the inheritance.
The longer he remained inside the central palace, the harder things would be for Wenren Li outside, so he could not allow himself to become distracted.
There were six stone statues within the inheritance hall. A hundred years ago, Chen Yixin had comprehended them one after another in precisely this manner, but back then he had entered using only one Inheritance Crystal and therefore obtained merely one sixth of the inheritance.
Now he possessed half of the complete Inheritance Imprint, and Wenren Li outside would continue sending more Inheritance Crystals to him. Chen Yixin intended to obtain the entire inheritance. Otherwise, the hundred years they had lost would truly have been wasted.
While Chen Yixin focused entirely on comprehension, the little sapling poked its head from his robes. Its roots gently brushed Chen Yixin’s cheek before it jumped to the ground. The flower bud lightly touched Chen Yixin’s body, and the man sitting cross-legged immediately disappeared from both sight and spiritual perception.
The little sapling hopped out of the inheritance hall. Spiritual power turned within its body, and the form of a three- or four-year-old child appeared.
This was the humanoid form Wenren Li’s spirit form had finally managed to take after his awakening. The clay jar obtained from Chen Yixin had allowed it to grow somewhat, making transformation possible, though Wenren Li had not expected to become such a young child.
He wore dark-green robes and had vivid green hair, with a small brown mark between his brows. His eyes were dark green as well, clear and translucent, extraordinarily beautiful. Combined with slightly rounded cheeks, red lips, and pearly white teeth, he looked exactly like a little immortal child carved from jade.
His expression was overly mature, but that did nothing to diminish how adorable he looked.
Wenren Li examined himself, and a faint stiffness crossed his expression, though on such a round little face, even that stiffness merely made him more endearing. He glanced back once, then walked toward the place where Chen Yixin had trapped Zhou Yan.
Chen Yixin was familiar with this inheritance ground, and Wenren Li was no less so. Wenren Li had explored it nearly as thoroughly as his own Likui Demon Palace, and unlike ordinary cultivators, he did not have to obey all of its rules when entering and leaving.
Zhou Yan had once been a prince in the mortal world. He entered the Yuding Sect at twelve years old, and because he possessed a single spiritual root, Yun Yazi accepted him as a disciple immediately, just as he later did Chen Yixin. Zhou Yan’s status within the sect was exceptional, and he had long been admired and respected by its lower- and mid-level disciples.
In bearing, Zhou Yan certainly resembled someone of the orthodox immortal path—refined, aloof, and untouched by dust. Even while trapped inside the bewildering formation with no path forward or back, he showed neither frustration nor discouragement. He had never dared underestimate his youngest junior brother, and he still did not.
Had Zhou Yan not feared alarming Yun Yazi in seclusion, he would never have wanted Chen Yixin to return alive to the Zhenhai Chen Clan in the first place. And now, less than a year and a half later, his youngest junior brother had already returned before him smiling and baring his claws again.
Wenren Li approached. Zhou Yan did not even turn before smiling. “Yi’er, stop playing around.”
“Who gave you the right to call A-Rong that?” Yi’er, Yi’er… Perhaps not even Chen Yixin’s birth parents had ever addressed him so intimately, yet Zhou Yan said it with effortless familiarity.
The moment Wenren Li spoke, however, even his voice was unmistakably that of a small child. He pressed his lips together and abruptly found himself reluctant to speak any further.
He had once remained in this form for three thousand years. It was not that he was unused to it, but as an undying yao child who never aged, most of what he had experienced during those years had hardly been pleasant.
Zhou Yan turned and looked at Wenren Li, a trace of wariness appearing in his expression. “Who are you?”
“I’m A-Rong’s Dao companion.” Wenren Li spoke indifferently. He swept one hand outward, green spiritual light spilling into the air. Together with Chen Yixin’s six mystical birds, it immediately bound Zhou Yan in place.
Red spiritual light surged from Zhou Yan’s body, but to his shock, he could not break free of Wenren Li’s spell at all. Before Wenren Li, he had no ability to resist.
“You’re the Likui Demon Lord?” Zhou Yan frowned. The Likui Demon Lord was the most mysterious of all Demon Lords in the Southern Teritory, though the ancient history of his lineage was beyond dispute. There was even an unspoken consensus shared by both the orthodox and demonic paths: they could fight one another however they liked, but under no circumstances should they provoke the Likui Demon Lord.
Wenren Li occupied an extraordinary position in the Taixuan cultivation world, something Zhou Yan had never been able to understand.
When the Likui Demon Palace had announced its intention to propose marriage to the Zhenhai Chen Clan, the other demonic cultivators and rogue cultivators who had once shown interest immediately withdrew. Otherwise, Zhou Yan had originally intended to have Chen Yixin married off to a rogue cultivator overseas.
Wenren Li could not be bothered answering. He stepped closer and tugged lightly on the spiritual cord in his hand. Zhou Yan immediately toppled forward and smashed face-first into the ground with an impressively loud thud.
“You can’t kill me here…” Zhou Yan threatened, though the emotion in his eyes was far less certain than his words. He had experienced the pressure of Soul Transformation cultivators before and did not dare underestimate one in the slightest.
Wenren Li acknowledged the truth of that statement, but then lifted one foot and stepped directly on Zhou Yan’s face.
“Trying to devour your master… You must have remembered something, haven’t you?” Wenren Li’s voice was childish, but to Zhou Yan the words struck like five thunderbolts crashing down at once.
Zhou Yan froze, and several emotions he failed to conceal were immediately caught by Wenren Li.
“A servant who would devour his master deserves death!” Wenren Li’s words fell like judgment. Zhou Yan’s expression twisted even further, and strange currents of power began running through his body, far exceeding anything a mere Golden Core cultivator ought to possess.
He had been frightened badly enough that he intended to flee. Wenren Li could not prevent him from escaping, but he could make sure Zhou Yan left something behind first.
Green spiritual power transformed into a blade and plunged directly into Zhou Yan’s sea of consciousness. An Inheritance Crystal was forcibly stripped from him, and as the blade swept downward across his face, both of Zhou Yan’s eyes fell to the ground.
Wenren Li had not forgotten Chen Yixin’s earlier declaration that he would dig out Zhou Yan’s eyes. He simply carried it out for him.
Zhou Yan screamed and transformed into a streak of light, vanishing from the central palace and leaving the Fentian Nether Abode entirely.
Wenren Li stared at the tear in space through which Zhou Yan had fled while his spiritual power refined the Inheritance Crystal. As expected, he discovered traces of a curse left by Zhou Yan inside. Wenren Li frowned. “I’m afraid he wasn’t the only one who came along.”
Wenren Li’s dark-green eyes gradually deepened, his expression solemn as he returned toward Chen Yixin’s hall. The moment he stepped inside, he found Chen Yixin standing at the entrance with a dark expression. Chen Yixin’s gaze first showed astonishment when he saw him, then immediately turned cold and severe.
“Come here.”
Wenren Li’s footsteps paused. The spell he had been about to use to transform back into a little sapling abruptly stopped.
Chen Yixin looked down at Wenren Li, who barely reached his thigh, then bent and simply picked him up. His expression remained stern. “Where did you go?”
“To retrieve something that belongs to A-Rong.” A crystal remained clutched inside Wenren Li’s small, chubby fist. It was the Inheritance Crystal he had purified anew. He brushed it lightly against Chen Yixin’s brow, and the crystal immediately merged into the faint Inheritance Imprint there.
“You went after Zhou Yan?” Chen Yixin understood at once. “Did he touch you?”
Even in this childlike form, Chen Yixin would be unhappy if someone laid hands on Wenren Li, let alone injured him. Murderous intent surged across Chen Yixin’s face so fiercely that even Wenren Li was momentarily taken aback.
“I stepped on his face, stabbed his sea of consciousness, and dug out his eyes…”
Put that way, Wenren Li was not entirely sure whether it counted as Zhou Yan touching him.
While Wenren Li was still puzzling over that question, Chen Yixin’s murderous anger vanished. He turned his head and began covering Wenren Li in enthusiastic kisses. “A-Li is unbelievably adorable like this.”
Chen Yixin had no problem kissing Wenren Li simply because Wenren Li had become smaller. Whether Wenren Li was a tender little sapling or a thirty-thousand-year-old antique, Chen Yixin intended to kiss him all the same.
Chen Yixin kissed and touched the little tree-spirit version of Wenren Li for quite a while before finally stopping. He returned to sit before the stone statue but still placed Wenren Li on his lap, encircling him securely in his arms.
“A-Li must remember that you are the most important person in the world to me. There will always be opportunities to deal with people like him.”
Wenren Li met Chen Yixin’s serious, concerned gaze and nodded. “Mm.”
“Good A-Li.” Chen Yixin smiled and rubbed his soft little cheek before closing his eyes and returning to his comprehension.
Now that Wenren Li had become small, the blush on his cheeks became even harder to conceal. He raised his flushed little face and looked toward the stone statue. A clear light appeared in his eyes, allowing him to see the face carved upon the statue.
The features were beautiful and exquisitely refined, something scarcely found in heaven or earth—and they resembled Chen Yixin by eight or nine parts out of ten.
Wenren Li had heard of the Lost Pearl of the Upper Realm from the old master of the Tianji Sect more than ten thousand years ago. The man had even warned him, “Lord Li, he has come to Taixuan to undergo a tribulation. He may seek to kill you to prove his Dao. You should prepare yourself.”
It was partly because of that warning that Wenren Li had gone to the Southern Teritory and truly taken up the mantle of a Demon Lord. His soul form had entered the Fentian Nether Abode in order to learn more about the Upper Realm before that person appeared. Instead, before he learned very much at all, he had become bound to Chen Yixin by fate and affection.
Chen Yixin was Chen Yixin. Even if he had once been someone from the Upper Realm in a previous life, in this life he was Chen Yixin, Wenren Li’s Dao companion. Whatever happened in the past could not determine their present or their future.
Wenren Li closed his eyes. Half an hour later, his transformed spirit form could no longer be maintained, and he reverted to a little sapling. He crawled into the front of Chen Yixin’s robes and settled there comfortably.
Chen Yixin opened his eyes at that moment. A beam of clear light flew from the stone statue into his brow, causing the Inheritance Imprint to surface again. He rose and moved to another statue, continuing his comprehension.
Outside, Wenren Li had finally obtained the other two Inheritance Crystals as well. He returned to the rope bridge and tossed them inward. The crystals flew on their own, soon reaching the hall and merging together into Chen Yixin’s brow.
The imprint ceased to be merely a shadow and transformed into an ice-blue flame. All six stone statues trembled lightly before threads of flame connected them, surrounding Chen Yixin completely.
At the same time, phoenixes danced and dragons soared above the entire central palace while auspicious clouds gathered endlessly. The passage from the outside world into the Fentian Nether Abode opened ahead of schedule, startling the countless cultivators waiting outside. A moment later, all previous agreements and arrangements were forgotten as everyone surged into the secret realm.
Nan Ke, Wu Fei, and the others, who had brought the red bridal sedan all the way here, entered as well. Before they could search for Wenren Li, Wenren Li found them first.
“Stay hidden for now.”
“Yes.” Nan Ke and the others obeyed, and Wenren Li disappeared again.
He did not go anywhere else. He remained beside the rope bridge in front of the palace. Anyone who approached was immediately transported into Burning Prison through his formation. This method could not be maintained indefinitely, however. Wenren Li could move cultivators below Soul Transformation without anyone noticing, but he could not do the same to Soul Transformation cultivators without alerting them.
“This bridge… heavens, at least six or seven Soul Transformation powerhouses must have died here to leave behind such terrifying remnants of power.” Hei Yu and You Ruo arrived together. After sensing the area briefly, Hei Yu’s expression immediately worsened.
Within Taixuan, Soul Transformation was already the pinnacle of cultivation. Between cultivators of the same realm, killing one another was extraordinarily difficult. Most Soul Transformation cultivators simply lived until their lifespan ran out and died of age. Yet the remnants here unmistakably came from cultivators who had been slaughtered.
Hei Yu and You Ruo stopped in their tracks, unwilling to advance. After exchanging looks, they turned and disappeared, evidently planning to lure the other Soul Transformation cultivators here as well.
Wenren Li, seated cross-legged before the rope bridge, lifted his eyes slightly before closing them again. He made no attempt to stop them.
This time was different from the last. A hundred years ago, Chen Yixin had possessed only one sixth of the Inheritance Crystals. This time he had gathered every one of them. No one except Chen Yixin could enter the central palace anymore.
Wenren Li only needed to guard this place and take Chen Yixin away when he emerged. Until then, the more thoroughly the waters were muddied and the more the orthodox and demonic paths exhausted one another, the better.
As for Nan Ke, Wu Fei, and the others, Wenren Li had told them to remain hidden, but in practice they went treasure hunting. Flying the banner of the Likui Demon Palace, very few people dared compete with them, and they truly discovered quite a few valuable treasures. The red bridal sedan remained parked outside, so many people still believed Wenren Li and Chen Yixin had never entered the Fentian Nether Abode at all.
Three months passed before the flames engulfing Chen Yixin and the little sapling finally dimmed slightly. At the same time, the curse within Chen Yixin’s sea of consciousness began to be uprooted. Once the curse weakened, the Nether Aegis Soul Wenren Li had obtained for Chen Yixin finally began to function.
It started repairing Chen Yixin’s memories. Everything unfolded just as Wenren Li had previously shown him, except this time Chen Yixin also recovered his own thoughts: all the things he had silently teased Wenren Li about, his confusion over their feelings, the gradual certainty that followed, and finally the complete conviction that Wenren Li was the one he had chosen.
The truth was that Chen Yixin had been so overwhelmed by grief back then that Yun Yazi had knocked him unconscious. When he awakened, his memories had already been altered.
Even now, Chen Yixin found his master’s decisiveness astonishing. Perhaps from the very moment Chen Yixin entered the Yuding Sect, Yun Yazi had already intended for him to become the protector guiding the so-called Lost Pearl of the Upper Realm along his Dao.
Afterward, Chen Yixin had broken into the Yuding Sect’s Heaven-Reaching Pavilion and obtained the Soul-Seeking Lamp kept within. He returned to the Fentian Nether Abode to search for Wenren Li’s soul. When the Soul-Seeking Lamp proved useless, Chen Yixin employed one secret method after another, even fully releasing the seal on his own special constitution in an attempt to find Wenren Li.
For forty-nine years, grief slowly hardened into indifference. Yun Yazi came several times to persuade him to stop, while Zhou Yan remained in the Fentian Nether Abode with him for twenty or thirty years.
Just as Chen Yixin was nearly ready to give up, the soul lamp he had abandoned for decades suddenly lit. He tore the jade pendant from his neck to stabilize the soul, then transferred the inheritance so the Fentian Nether Abode itself could continue protecting that wisp of spirit.
After that, he traveled far and wide in search of treasures that could nourish a soul. It took another twenty years before he finally succeeded in sending it into reincarnation.
Because of Yun Yazi’s concealment, everything Chen Yixin had done throughout those hundred years had been for someone who had absolutely nothing to do with him. His grief and pride had been ignored, and every sacrifice he made ultimately benefited someone else.
Chen Yixin’s eyes suddenly opened. Two ice-blue flames danced within his pupils, while an entire sea of blue fire roared to life inside his sea of consciousness. The curse and every trace Yun Yazi had left behind were burned away completely. The only thing Chen Yixin deliberately preserved was that wisp of life-soul containing Wenren Li’s soul oath.
Once the curse vanished, Chen Yixin closed his eyes again. Only now did he begin receiving the true inheritance of the Fentian Nether Abode: the Six Fentian Arts. Fentian meant burning the heavens, yet this cultivation system could only be practiced by cultivators possessing an ice spiritual root, and its demands upon comprehension were astonishingly severe.
While Chen Yixin continued comprehending the inheritance, the little sapling crawled from his robes and began laboriously searching around the bases of the stone statues. After quite some time, it finally gathered together the pieces of an extremely ancient jade slip.
The sapling had only just returned to Chen Yixin’s feet when Chen Yixin scooped it into his palm. The little roots rubbed obediently against the back of Chen Yixin’s hand, looking extraordinarily well behaved. Chen Yixin declined to comment. He took the jade slip, examined it, then lowered his head and kissed the sapling again.
The Six Fentian Arts consisted of offensive techniques. The Ascendant Immortal Scripture recorded in this jade slip was the true orthodox cultivation method.
Chen Yixin pressed the jade slip to his brow and began studying it. Three days later, he finally started cultivating in earnest.
He understood Wenren Li’s intention. Before leaving the central palace, Chen Yixin was expected to recover to at least the Foundation Establishment realm.
It took Chen Yixin a full three days merely to draw qi into his body and temper his flesh. This was not because his aptitude was poor, but because it was too extraordinary. Even at this simplest stage of absorbing qi, the spiritual-energy baptism his body received was many times stronger than that of an ordinary cultivator.
Once he successfully drew in qi, he could open the storage space Wenren Li had prepared for him. An inconspicuous hidden clasp on his clothing contained an enormous pile of Duo-Duo Fruits. Using them for cultivation could shorten the process considerably.
Three years passed. Chen Yixin reached the peak of Qi Refining, and thunderclouds gathered above the Fentian Nether Abode like a prison. Merely advancing to Foundation Establishment would bring down a tribulation normally seen only by Nascent Soul cultivators, but that only demonstrated how extraordinary his cultivation method truly was.
Outside, nearly all of the Soul Transformation cultivators had gathered before the rope bridge. Among them was Yun Zhenzi, sect master of the Yuding Sect. The orthodox and demonic factions faced one another from opposite sides, and clashes broke out every few days. As a result, cultivators below Nascent Soul no longer dared approach this region.
“Thunderclouds. Someone inside is undergoing a tribulation.”
“If it isn’t Nascent Soul, then it must be Golden Core… They’ve probably obtained some extraordinary opportunity.” Discussion spread continuously, but no matter how much they speculated, none could do anything about the central palace, which remained sealed like an impenetrable tortoise shell.
“Didn’t Chen Yixin enter the central palace back then? Why not invite him here and ask him to explain it to us?”
Miao Yin, the Yanyue Sect’s sole Soul Transformation elder, addressed Yun Zhenzi. Given her position, there was no possibility she did not know what had happened to Chen Yixin. Her suggestion was clearly intended to unite the orthodox factions in pressuring the demonic path into bringing the Likui Demon Palace’s Chen Yixin here.
“Bullshit!” Hei Yu immediately cursed. He looked around, and only after confirming Wenren Li was nowhere nearby did he relax slightly. “You think you can casually summon the Demon Consort of our demonic path?”
Even the Demon Lords themselves respectfully addressed Wenren Li as Demon Lord. Chen Yixin, whom Wenren Li openly protected, therefore had to be respectfully called Demon Consort even by them. Experience had taught them that failing to do so never ended pleasantly. Wenren Li had far too many methods for dealing with people who offended him.
As a Soul Transformation cultivator, Miao Yin naturally could not tolerate being rebuked by Hei Yu in this manner. She stepped forward, and the two immediately began fighting. Before two breaths had even passed, however, two other Demon Lords joined Hei Yu. Ordinarily, neither got along particularly well with him, but when it came to Wenren Li and his Demon Consort, all nine Demon Lords shared the same position.
Once three great cultivators on the demonic side began fighting together, those on the orthodox side could hardly stand by. The thunder tribulation had not even descended yet, but the two factions had already drawn their weapons against one another.
The thunderclouds gathered for three days before finally striking. Strictly speaking, this was Chen Yixin’s second time undergoing a thunder tribulation. The previous time had been little more than a year earlier, when he attempted to break through to Nascent Soul. Yet the power of this tribulation was no weaker at all. Lightning tore his flesh open without the slightest mercy.
Chen Yixin swallowed a Duo-Duo Fruit and regulated his breathing. A wash of clear light spread across his body, and all the wounds vanished. He had successfully advanced into Foundation Establishment—and directly reached the third level. Once his cultivation stabilized, he could begin attempting to break through into mid-Foundation Establishment.
The thunderclouds dispersed, and the battle outside the central palace finally ended as well. Miao Yin had been slapped twice, Hei Yu had taken two punches, and with that the conflict was apparently settled.
Miao Yin, however, utterly hated Hei Yu now. Slap marks left by a cultivator of the same realm were not easily erased, and she was a woman besides. She trembled with rage. Had she retained even slightly less reason, she would have challenged Hei Yu to a fight to the death.
“Yun Zhenzi, a disciple of our orthodox path betrayed his sect. Why wasn’t he simply killed? Instead, he was allowed to marry into the Demon Palace, disgracing—”
Smack!
A slap came out of nowhere and struck Miao Yin squarely across the face, sending her flying until she crashed against a palace wall and fell.
“Courting death…” Hei Yu rubbed his shoulder, his expression full of malicious delight. When those of equal cultivation fought one another, killing the opponent was difficult. If Wenren Li personally attacked, however, half the people standing here might not survive.
That was the difference.
Wu Fei and Nan Ke arrived personally carrying the red bridal sedan. The slap had not come from Wenren Li himself but from a command talisman in Wu Fei’s hand. One sweep of that talisman was equivalent to a Soul Transformation cultivator striking personally.
“Miao Yin, I suggest you keep your mouth a little cleaner. Next time, it won’t be this humble one reminding you.”
Wu Fei spoke with his usual pleasant smile. He and Nan Ke set down the red sedan, while the nine Demon Lords spontaneously gathered around it as protectors.
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