Chen Yixin and Wenren Li never seemed to tire of this kind of intimacy, but their bonding ceremony was tomorrow. They neither could nor should continue wasting time together in the underground altar.
After holding each other for a while, Wenren Li began helping Chen Yixin dress. When Wenren Li reached for his own clothes afterward, however, Chen Yixin snatched them away first.
“A-Li helps me, and I’ll help A-Li.” Chen Yixin had no intention of leaving the job half finished. He had come down here specifically to change Wenren Li’s clothes in the first place, and now that Wenren Li was awake, Chen Yixin still intended to do it himself.
Once Chen Yixin had dressed Wenren Li properly, he pressed down on Wenren Li’s shoulders and refused to let him move. He took a comb from his storage space and carefully combed and arranged Wenren Li’s hair. Only when he was completely satisfied did he finally allow Wenren Li to stand.
After finishing everything for Wenren Li, Chen Yixin turned back toward the silver Severed Wood Remnant and gave it another light bow.
There was no soul form inside the remnant, but it had at least occupied the place of Wenren Li’s mother in their minds. What he and Wenren Li had just done might have sprung naturally from their feelings, but doing it here had admittedly been somewhat excessive. Chen Yixin did not regret it, though.
Wenren Li naturally understood the meaning behind Chen Yixin’s bow. He stepped forward and helped him straighten. “These aren’t my mother’s remains. This should be something A-Rong left behind for me when you protected me during my descent to the lower realms.” Which meant that perhaps Wenren Li had never had a tree-yao mother or a Ghost King father at all…
Wenren Li had not finished investigating the Severed Wood Remnant, but he was already certain of what he had just told Chen Yixin.
Chen Yixin looked at him in surprise. After thinking for a moment, he gave a slight nod but did not immediately press him with more questions.
They returned hand in hand to the main hall of Li Palace, where Wu Fei, Nan Ke, and the others were already waiting. Outside the Likui Demon Palace, cultivators had flooded into Yanzhou City in numbers that made the place even livelier than the Xiguang Plains had been before.
The Likui Demon Palace had sent wedding invitations only to the other nine Demon Lords of the Southern Territory and a handful of independent cultivators who were acquainted with Wenren Li. But Chen Yixin had detained several orthodox disciples who had been stranded inside the Fentian Nether Abode, made them send those particular letters home, and then deliberately released news of the divine scion’s whereabouts.
By now, Yanzhou City was packed with orthodox cultivators. They had ostensibly come to ransom their disciples, and many prominent sect figures who had not participated in the previous expedition had appeared in person. Given Chen Yixin’s habit of naming extortionate prices in his ransom letters, they had even come with their storage spaces well stocked.
“Other than the Yuding Sect, every Immortal Sect of any real standing has appeared in Yanzhou City.” Nan Ke bowed slightly as he reported to Chen Yixin and Wenren Li. This was one of the matters Chen Yixin had specifically ordered them to keep watching.
“Could they have given up on Jing Zhihua?” Wu Fei asked doubtfully. The Yuding Sect still had not appeared in Yanzhou City, which naturally made the possibility cross his mind.
Chen Yixin refused to play by conventional rules. Could the Yuding Sect really be so unwilling to bleed resources that they had simply abandoned the divine scion?
The reasoning was possible, yet it still did not quite make sense. Put any other sect in the same situation, and they would never surrender something this important so easily.
Before they could analyze it further, Chen Yixin shook his head. “No.”
After considering for a moment, he continued, “Knowing Yun Zhenzi, he probably woke my master… woke Yun Yazi. They’re planning to muddy the waters from the shadows and seize Jing Zhihua when the opportunity comes…”
Wu Fei and Nan Ke both nodded in agreement. The Yuding Sect undoubtedly had something else planned.
“Demon Consort, rest assured. Everything has been arranged according to your instructions,” Wu Fei immediately added. By now, he was genuinely beginning to admire Chen Yixin’s talent for calculating how people would think and react. Whatever happened next promised to become a spectacle none of them would ever forget.
Chen Yixin’s brows lifted slightly. He caught Wenren Li’s hand and, concealed beneath their sleeves, lightly pinched and kneaded his palm. A small smile returned to his lips. “Then we’ll simply wait.”
Even when his cultivation had still been ruined, Chen Yixin had intended to spend the ten years he thought remained to him taking his revenge properly. Now that he had completely recovered, there was even less reason to hold back. Chen Yixin was hardly someone who allowed others to scheme against and betray him without consequences. They were going to learn exactly what those consequences were.
Wenren Li turned toward him, warmth entering his gaze as he reminded him, “A-Rong, don’t forget that tomorrow is our bonding ceremony.”
Those people certainly deserved revenge, but tomorrow’s most important event was still their bonding ceremony.
Chen Yixin lightly scratched Wenren Li’s palm and softened his voice. “I won’t. I remember.”
Chen Yixin had always known perfectly well what mattered most.
Wu Fei and Nan Ke exchanged a glance before withdrawing from the hall. Unfortunately, the day was not going to give Chen Yixin and Wenren Li much peace. Not long afterward, Ping Cheng, who served as both a Protector and steward of the Demon Palace, requested an audience.
“Demon Lord, Demon Consort, the Sect Master of the Tianji Sect requests an audience.”
Although the Tianji Sect belonged to the orthodox path, its position there was much like that of the Likui Demon Palace within the demonic path of the Southern Territory: unusual, somewhat detached, and difficult to offend casually. Even demonic cultivators rarely went out of their way to provoke the Tianji Sect. Furthermore, Wenren Li had been friends with several generations of its former sect masters, so relations between the Likui Demon Palace and the Tianji Sect had always been fairly good.
“Invite him in.” Wenren Li gestured for Ping Cheng to bring the man inside, then quietly explained a few things about the current Sect Master of the Tianji Sect to Chen Yixin.
“He’s around a hundred years older than A-Rong. He’s considered the youngest sect master in the history of the Tianji Sect.”
The Tianji Sect cultivated very differently from other sects, whose disciples generally advanced step by step through ordinary cultivation. Its methods were exceptionally profound; without extraordinary comprehension and an affinity with the Heavenly Dao, achieving anything through them was extremely difficult. As a result, nearly every Tianji Sect Master throughout history had been the sort of cultivator who bloomed late.
By the time they became sect master, most already looked like white-haired old men. This was why the cultivation world often referred to the Tianji Sect Master as “Elder Tianji.” Applying that name to the current sect master, however, felt rather inappropriate.
He was only a little over two hundred years old and looked more like a refined young scholar from the mortal world.
“I met him once when he was still serving as a young attendant beside the former sect master. This will be the second time I’ve seen him.”
Wenren Li had lived for so long that nearly every accomplished cultivator in the Taixuan cultivation world belonged to a younger generation than his own, and the current Tianji Sect Master was no exception. By the time Wenren Li finished explaining this to Chen Yixin, Ping Cheng had already led Sect Master Han Zichuan into the hall.
“Zichuan pays his respects to the Demon Lord and Demon Consort.” Naturally, Han Zichuan had not forgotten Wenren Li after their single meeting, and there was nothing strange about him greeting Wenren Li as a junior. Yet when his eyes fell on Chen Yixin, a faint smile appeared on his otherwise cool and distant face.
“It’s you…” Chen Yixin remained seated, but he did not ignore Han Zichuan’s smile, which clearly implied that the two of them ought to know each other.
“Long ago, in the North Sea Secret Realm, Zichuan once had the fortune of meeting the Demon Consort.”
At the time, Han Zichuan had been traveling under the identity of an independent cultivator. Chen Yixin had gone to the North Sea Secret Realm because he had exhausted the soul-nourishing materials he carried and needed to find sea-yao soul essence capable of nourishing a soul. The two of them had briefly worked together.
But at the time, Chen Yixin’s entire mind had been occupied with sending his A-Hua into reincarnation. He had paid little attention to the independent cultivator working beside him and certainly had not imagined that the man, who had appeared to be only at Foundation Establishment, would turn out to be the current Sect Master of the Tianji Sect.
Chen Yixin was currently only at early Golden Core and could not see through Han Zichuan’s cultivation. Either Han Zichuan possessed some hidden treasure that concealed it, or he had suppressed his cultivation back then. But judging from the age Wenren Li had given him, Han Zichuan could not possibly have reached Soul Transformation. At most, he should be a Nascent Soul True Lord.
Han Zichuan looked toward Chen Yixin, but when Chen Yixin merely nodded, he let the subject drop. Chen Yixin had paid him little attention back then, and he was even less likely to care now.
“You came for Jing Zhihua?” Wenren Li disliked the way Han Zichuan looked at Chen Yixin, and he liked the smile Han Zichuan gave him even less. There was nothing between himself and Han Zichuan worth reminiscing about, so he went directly to the reason Han Zichuan had come to see him ahead of everyone else.
Han Zichuan’s expression remained unaffected by Wenren Li’s attitude. He raised both hands, and a gift box appeared cradled between them. “Zichuan has come to deliver a wedding gift on behalf of my late master. He prepared this for you in advance.”
In other words, the former Sect Master of the Tianji Sect had calculated ahead of time that Wenren Li would encounter such a marriage fate a hundred years later.
Wenren Li nodded without refusing the gift. Ping Cheng stepped forward and accepted it on his behalf.
“And as the Demon Lord said, Zichuan has also come regarding the divine scion.”
Han Zichuan bowed slightly again. Since he was the one asking a favor, he did not arrogantly put on airs. “I would like to see the divine scion.”
There was no possibility that Han Zichuan merely wanted to look at Jing Zhihua and leave it at that. Even Wenren Li was somewhat wary of the methods used by the Tianji Sect, which meant Han Zichuan might very well be capable of identifying Jing Zhihua as a false divine scion almost immediately.
If Chen Yixin really allowed him to do that now, how was tomorrow’s show supposed to begin?
Before Wenren Li could answer, Chen Yixin spoke first. “You can see him. Prepare the ransom and come back tomorrow.”
If Jing Zhihua’s false identity as the divine scion was exposed, so be it. But Chen Yixin was not giving up so much as half a coin of the “ransom” he intended to collect. Han Zichuan certainly did not have enough face with him to earn that privilege.
Han Zichuan turned and met Chen Yixin’s gaze. A complicated expression crossed his face before he finally nodded. “Very well. Zichuan will return tomorrow.”
His easy agreement surprised Chen Yixin slightly. Chen Yixin glanced sideways, first looking at Wenren Li with a reassuring expression before turning back to Han Zichuan. “If you want the divine scion, bring plenty of ransom money. If the price is too low, I’m not selling him.”
Chen Yixin’s shameless ways had not changed at all over the years. He delivered the declaration with such righteous confidence that it sounded as though this were simply how things ought to be.
Han Zichuan said nothing further. He inclined his head and followed Ping Cheng out. When he reached the entrance to the hall, his steps paused briefly, but in the end, he did not turn around.
Chen Yixin and Wenren Li both watched him leave. Chen Yixin looked mildly intrigued, apparently rather looking forward to Han Zichuan paying him an enormous sum for Jing Zhihua. Wenren Li, on the other hand, remained expressionless. Even Chen Yixin could not tell what he was thinking as he watched Han Zichuan.
“What is A-Li looking at?” Since Chen Yixin could not tell, he simply asked.
“He’s different from every Tianji successor before him.” Wenren Li’s brows drew together slightly. He simply could not tell whether that difference was good or bad.
Chen Yixin had never met the previous Tianji Sect Masters, so naturally he had no basis for judging what Wenren Li meant. Instead, he gently took Wenren Li’s hand, raised it to his lips, and kissed it. “He is himself, and old friends are old friends. Whether he’s an enemy or an ally, we can decide that for ourselves.”
Wenren Li’s good relationships with previous generations of Tianji successors did not mean the relationship would remain friendly forever. The deciding factor was not Wenren Li, but the current successor himself—whether Han Zichuan chose to become Wenren Li’s enemy or his ally.
“Still, if there’s money to be made, we’re making it. A-Li isn’t allowed to go soft on him.”
Chen Yixin was determined to recoup his losses through Jing Zhihua and had no intention of allowing a Han Zichuan whose allegiance was still unclear to ruin his plans.
“Besides, he and I can’t even be called friends. After that one time we worked together, I never saw him again. If he hadn’t looked at me in a way that might make A-Li misunderstand, I would’ve simply treated him as someone I barely knew.”
But Han Zichuan had gone and smiled at him. It was not quite an ambiguous or flirtatious look, but since Chen Yixin himself felt no familiarity toward the man, the smile nevertheless created the strange impression that Han Zichuan regarded him differently from everyone else.
Chen Yixin looked at Wenren Li and asked teasingly, “Is A-Li jealous?”
Getting a block of wood to become jealous over him was probably rather difficult. Even so, Chen Yixin preferred to extinguish the first spark of any unnecessary misunderstanding before it had the chance to catch fire.
To his surprise, Wenren Li nodded with complete honesty. “Mm. I am.”
He was not only jealous of Han Zichuan. He was jealous of Jing Zhihua, who was currently locked in their prison, as well. Time that should have belonged to Wenren Li had been spent accompanying other people, and all the kindness Chen Yixin should have given him had instead fallen upon someone completely irrelevant.
Chen Yixin paused. Then he looped an arm around Wenren Li’s neck and kissed him softly on the cheek. “A-Li doesn’t need to be jealous. From now on, I’ll be ten times, a hundred times better to A-Li.”
There was no recovering what had already been misplaced, but nothing like that would ever happen again.
Still feeling that his words were not enough, Chen Yixin kissed Wenren Li’s other cheek as well. “I’ll only ever be ten times, a hundred times better to A-Li.”
“Mm.” Wenren Li nodded with complete seriousness. He turned his head, accurately caught Chen Yixin’s lips with his own, and after the briefest pause, the two began to kiss. The gentle kiss carried the same trace of solemnity as before and seemed to stretch on without end.
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