Father Chen’s chest rose and fell several times. In the end, he knew Chen Yixin’s temperament too well. If they kept arguing like this, the only outcome would be Father Chen angering himself to death. He studied Chen Yixin seriously for quite a while before finally asking, “You’re completely healed?”
“Mm. A-Li cured me.”
Chen Yixin knew exactly what Father Chen was asking. Ten years ago, after Chen Yixin had been sent back to Zhenhai, Father Chen had come to see him. But he had visited only once before leaving Little Bamboo Islet, and not long afterward, news spread that the Chen clan and the Demon Palace were entering into a marriage alliance.
Father Chen nodded. Before he could say anything else, Chen Yixin immediately asked another question. “Were you the one who woke A-Li early?”
Originally, this had been little more than an unreliable guess. But the surprise Father Chen failed to hide told Chen Yixin everything he needed to know. So it really had been Father Chen who woke Wenren Li ahead of time. Otherwise, if they had waited until Wenren Li awakened naturally from his sleep, everything would already have been far too late.
“Thank you,” Wenren Li said as well. He and Chen Yixin had discussed this on the way here. Almost the very day after Wenren Li awakened, the Zhenhai Chen clan had sent Chen Yixin’s betrothal card to the Demon Palace.
Wenren Li had not forgotten anything that happened inside the Fentian Nether Abode, so naturally he had not hesitated over the betrothal proposal involving Chen Yixin. After making the necessary arrangements, he sent people to the Northern Territory to bring Chen Yixin back. Wenren Li himself remained behind because he still needed to recover from his injuries, and the resource he used to recover had supposedly been something Wu Fei obtained by chance.
Its effects had been astonishing. At the time, it had seemed like a coincidence. But now that the man sitting in front of them could be linked to a Sovereign of the Upper Realm, there was no possibility it had truly been accidental.
“You healed Jiu’er, so there’s nothing to thank me for.” Father Chen leaned back slightly as he spoke. By now he could tell that Chen Yixin and Wenren Li had definitely not simply stopped by to see him on their way through. They had come prepared.
“I obtained the inheritance of the Fentian Nether Abode.” Chen Yixin had always spoken directly, and he was even more straightforward with people close to him. His very next sentence went straight to the question he had come here determined to resolve. “Father, are you… an avatar of the Sovereign from the Upper Realm?”
Father Chen had once explained Chen Yixin’s mother’s death to him by saying that her aptitude had been limited and she had simply reached the end of her natural lifespan, so there was nothing particularly tragic about it.
Thinking back now, however, perhaps her death had never been caused by poor aptitude at all. Perhaps their avatars had been continuously weakened during the process of descending into the lower realm, resulting in his mother spending her entire life as a mortal while his father found it nearly impossible even to reach Golden Core.
“Do you know where I came from?” Chen Yixin’s expression was solemn. He did not need people hiding things from him supposedly for his own good. All he wanted now was for Father Chen to tell him the truth.
“I heard about it.” Father Chen glanced at the two of them and answered calmly.
News of everything Chen Yixin had done at the Yuding Sect had already spread throughout Taixuan, and his identity as the divine scion had essentially been confirmed. Small places like Zhenhai might receive such information a little more slowly, but that was only true for ordinary cultivators and common people. As the head of a cultivation clan, Father Chen had known for some time.
After asking his question, Chen Yixin stopped speaking. His eyes narrowed slightly as he watched Father Chen calmly drink tea, allowing the silence to stretch between them. Chen Yixin had never lacked patience. He was waiting for Father Chen to admit it himself, while Father Chen seemed to be considering something and remained silent for a long time.
Wenren Li finished the tea Chen Yixin had given him and set the cup on the stone table. Father Chen looked over at him. “How much do you know?”
“The Abode Spirit of the Fentian Nether Abode is sleeping inside this ring. How much do you think I know?”
Instead of answering, Chen Yixin threw the question back at him. In truth, however, Father Chen asking that question already amounted to a tacit acknowledgment of his identity.
Father Chen shook his head lightly. “I’m not asking what the Abode Spirit told you. I’m asking how much you yourself have remembered.”
How many restrictions Chen Yixin had already unlocked within the jade pendant would determine how deeply they could discuss these matters over the next few days. Otherwise, from Father Chen’s perspective, Chen Yixin and Wenren Li were still moving too quickly.
“So because I don’t remember much, you think I’ll be easy to fool?” Chen Yixin was clearly far more difficult to handle than Father Chen had expected. Even after guessing that Father Chen might be some kind of avatar, he showed no fear whatsoever. He said what needed to be said and concealed what needed to be concealed.
A trace of helplessness appeared on Father Chen’s face. He sighed, then shook his head. “Foolish child. How did you end up hanging yourself from this crooked tree?” Unable to do anything about Chen Yixin, he could only redirect his frustration toward Wenren Li.
“A-Li isn’t a crooked tree. What I don’t understand is this: being with him hasn’t harmed anyone. You and Mother made a token effort to oppose us, fine, but since when was it anyone else’s place to object to my marriage?”
More importantly, their objections themselves meant nothing to Chen Yixin. But once those objections turned into hunting and attempted murder, they were no longer something he could tolerate or ignore.
Even now, Chen Yixin did not understand the reason. But he could vaguely sense that an enormous secret lay behind all of this, something connected either to him or to Wenren Li. And no matter which of them it concerned, involving one meant involving both.
“Old man, if you don’t tell us now, are you planning to wait until A-Li and I fight our way into the Upper Realm before explaining everything? By then, do you really think I’ll still need you to tell me?”
Chen Yixin did not actually want to stand against the entire world, least of all against his own family. But if he was forced into a corner with no other choice, he was not afraid of doing so. Wenren Li was his bottom line. As long as nobody crossed that line, everything else could still be discussed.
Father Chen’s gaze moved from Chen Yixin to Wenren Li. He sighed softly. “It isn’t that I refuse to tell you. I cannot. Jiu’er… and Lord Li as well. Cultivate properly. Even after you reach the Upper Realm, trust no one except each other.”
What Father Chen meant was that even the Ancient Phoenix Divine Clan could not be trusted completely. They had their own concerns and positions and could not always stand on Chen Yixin and Wenren Li’s side. If the two insisted on loving each other, then ultimately they could rely only on themselves.
“Jiu’er, it isn’t that your father is heartless. It’s just that… there is no other way.”
As Father Chen spoke, he slowly raised a hand and rested it on Chen Yixin’s hair. Chen Yixin’s eyes reddened faintly. There was confusion in them, indignation, grievance, but in the end he did not move away.
The fact that their avatars had descended to the lower realm meant they had not wanted to sever all familial ties with him. And because of that, Chen Yixin could not simply cast those ties aside without hesitation either.
“I understand.” Chen Yixin answered and leaned a little closer to Wenren Li. Father Chen withdrew his hand.
He studied Chen Yixin, who had lowered his head, for another moment before rising. “Wait here. I’ll get something for you.”
“Mm.” Chen Yixin nodded. His gaze followed Father Chen until his back disappeared through the doorway before finally withdrawing.
“A-Rong, I’m sorry. Because of me—”
Before Wenren Li could finish, Chen Yixin shot him a sidelong look, and the rest of the sentence died on its own.
“Being with you was my own choice. There is no need for apologies between us, and there never will be. The fact that A-Li loves me too and chooses me is already enough for me. You’re not allowed to say things like that again.”
Apparently a verbal warning was not enough for Chen Yixin. He slipped one hand inside Wenren Li’s clothes and repeatedly pinched the soft flesh at his waist. Wenren Li’s true body was a tree, after all, and his nerves did not seem especially sensitive to tickling. Chen Yixin tormented him for quite a while, but Wenren Li remained as immovable as a mountain without the slightest reaction.
Chen Yixin was hardly someone who gave up easily. His hand slid upward from Wenren Li’s waist and found a much more sensitive spot, which he pinched and teased repeatedly. Wenren Li instinctively caught Chen Yixin’s hand. “A-Rong…”
“Do you know you were wrong?”
“Mm.” Wenren Li nodded. He released the hand he had been holding down, but the hand still inside his clothes merely changed the pressure of its touch and went right on teasing him.
“Cough, cough!” Father Chen coughed loudly twice, his face turning red from the sheer irritation of witnessing Chen Yixin molest Wenren Li in front of him.
Only after hearing the coughing did Chen Yixin reluctantly withdraw his hand. His body, however, remained tilted toward Wenren Li with no intention of moving back. He was unbearably clingy with Wenren Li and completely shameless about it, showing not the slightest embarrassment at having been caught.
“What is it?” Chen Yixin glanced at Father Chen before his gaze immediately landed on the brocade box in his hands.
Father Chen placed the brocade box on the stone table, pushed it toward the two of them, and only then sat back down.
Inside the opened box lay a jade pendant and a token. The jade pendant was similar in design to the one Chen Yixin wore around his neck, except Chen Yixin’s was ice-blue while this one was ink-black.
“This is something you and Mother prepared for A-Li?” Chen Yixin guessed without needing Father Chen to explain.
“More precisely, it was something you prepared for yourself and for him.” In the Upper Realm, Chen Yixin had personally arranged every detail of his own wedding and even prepared the tokens of affection himself. His initiative was enough to put to shame Immortal Lords who had lived for hundreds of thousands of years without ever daring to confess their feelings.
Father Chen swept a hand around them. A dark barrier of light rose on all sides before he continued. “You’ll have to explore its functions yourselves. But whatever happens, you absolutely cannot lose it.”
As Father Chen said this, he glared at Chen Yixin. He was reasonably reassured where Wenren Li was concerned. Chen Yixin, however, could become so stubborn that nobody could persuade him of anything. And the one person who actually could restrain him—Wenren Li—did nothing but indulge him, making him increasingly lawless.
“Oh.” Chen Yixin answered lightly, clearly uninterested in revisiting this old argument. He picked up the jade pendant, examined it carefully, then turned around and fastened it onto Wenren Li himself.
Chen Yixin smiled at Wenren Li, and Wenren Li could not help smiling back. After spending so long with the naturally smiling Chen Yixin, Wenren Li had been influenced by him, and even his smiles were becoming increasingly natural.
“A-Li looks good wearing it. Really good…” Chen Yixin praised him after fastening the pendant. If he had not remembered Father Chen was still sitting right there, he probably would have preferred to kiss Wenren Li as an expression of his admiration.
Father Chen could not stop himself from rolling his eyes. He had already reached the point of despairing over Chen Yixin’s taste and simply accepting it. He lowered his head and went back to brewing tea, then refilled Wenren Li’s cup. “If you have questions, ask them. I’ll answer whatever I can.”
The restrictions imposed on Father Chen and the Phoenix Empress after they came to Taixuan had been enormous. In order to give birth to Chen Yixin, the Phoenix Empress had become completely unable to cultivate afterward and passed away not long after his birth. Father Chen himself was also nearing the end of his lifespan.
Even if Chen Yixin and Wenren Li had not come looking for him this time, Father Chen would have made a trip to the Demon Palace in the Southern Territory before his lifespan ran out. The situations in both the Upper Realm and Taixuan were becoming increasingly complicated. When it came to worrying about one’s own child, there was never such a thing as enough.
Only then did Chen Yixin finally turn back around. His expression became serious as he began thinking carefully. It was not that he had no questions. He had far too many and, all at once, had no idea where to begin.
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