Futile Devices Scans

After thinking it over from every angle, Chen Yixin concluded that Wenren Li’s breakthrough likely required too much time. The hidden realm would open soon, and Wenren Li was afraid that if Chen Yixin continued guarding him, he would miss the best opportunity to seize the phoenix remains.

“Still, he could’ve just told me himself. Why make you pass along the message?”

If Wenren Li had spoken to him directly, he wouldn’t have stubbornly refused to leave. He understood priorities perfectly well. Of course, in his heart, Wenren Li’s importance might still outweigh the immortal light secret realm.

Yinzi let out a low grumble and continued forward, not daring to provoke the slightly irritated Chen Yixin. Truthfully, even it did not fully understand Wenren Li’s intentions. The moment Chen Yixin flew out to undergo his tribulation, Wenren Li awoke and instructed Yinzi to bring him immediately to the Water Palace’s hidden realm afterward.

Chen Yixin remained in his small blue bird form, sprawled on Yinzi’s back for quite some time before returning to his half-demon form. Kneeling upright, he first carefully stored away the immortal light cluster before closing his eyes to consolidate his newly advanced cultivation.

Half an hour later, Chen Yixin and Yinzi emerged from the void. Before them stretched a dazzling curtain of light. After adjusting for a moment, Chen Yixin finally made out the scene clearly.

Aside from the floating reef beneath their feet, there was only a massive gate overflowing with immortal light, one corner broken away. Before the gate was emptiness. Beyond the gate was emptiness as well.

“Mother, be careful. The area is filled with void tunnels. One wrong step and you’ll fall into another world.”

Moreover, any small worlds connected this densely were likely ruined lower realms already in decay. If someone fell into such a place, cultivation would become vastly more difficult. Anyone capable of using so many small worlds to construct traps was terrifying beyond imagination. Whether other hidden methods remained was impossible to tell.

Hearing this, Chen Yixin did not move rashly. Blue flames swept from his hand, and Yinzi’s aura surged outward. Instantly, both their presences fused completely with the surrounding heaven and earth (天地).

Almost the moment they vanished, several floating reefs appeared not far away. Another group had arrived.

“Many thanks to the Taixuan envoy for leading the way. Now you can die!”

A burly man let out a savage laugh as a powerful treasure art crashed downward. The reef beside him, which had not yet fully manifested, was blasted directly into dust.

So-called envoys were only respected when they brought benefits. The moment conflicts of interest (利益纠纷) appeared, no one showed mercy. This kind of naked exploitation—crossing the river and tearing down the bridge afterward—was the true norm of the cultivation world.

“Activate the formation! Whoever enters dies! The treasures of this hidden realm belong to me!”

The burly man continued laughing wildly. His figure vanished from the reef where he stood, yet he did not appear on the platform before the immortal gate either.

“Venerable?”

His subordinates and allies stared around in confusion. “Did the Venerable enter the immortal gate already?”

“We’ll know once we go over and look.”

Their eyes burned with greed, but the moment they stepped forward, they disappeared silently without a trace. The platform near the immortal gate remained utterly empty.

“Mother, be careful. Within the spatial cracks near the immortal gate are beings similar to Yinzi.”

Those people had not fallen into another world—they had simply been dragged away and eaten.

“Hmph! Competing with Yinzi for food—how annoying!”

The Yinzi in Chen Yixin’s arms puffed up angrily. Chen Yixin soothed it with a few pats while continuing to conceal their presence. The formation those people activated would probably not last long. More importantly, aside from the two most suspicious and cautious individuals, the entire group had already been annihilated.

“Brother Ming, this place feels extremely strange. You know my cultivation art—it’s especially sensitive to danger. Ever since we stepped in here, everything has felt wrong.”

“I feel it too,” the other replied. Yet despite their unease, neither had warned the burly man earlier. Then the second man added doubtfully, “Did that envoy really die just like that?”

They had long heard of the immortal and demonic sects of Taixuan. The two sides usually minded their own affairs, but overall, the foundations of the Taixuan sects were stronger than those of Lai Continent. For the envoy to die so easily felt impossible.

“Didn’t Venerable Mo also disappear without—”

Before he could finish, a horrifying scream rang out. The burly man they had just mentioned stumbled back, one arm and one leg torn off, blood pouring everywhere.

“Brother Ming! Brother Lu! Save me!”

He stretched out a hand desperately. Before Ming Yuan and Lu Dong could react, his other leg was ripped away as well. The wounds were clearly bite marks from some ferocious beast.

“AAAAAHHH—!”

The screams gradually faded. The Soul Transformation Venerable was devoured alive before the seemingly tranquil immortal gate.

“It really isn’t picky. Flesh and blood taste nowhere near as good as souls.”

Yinzi had apparently forgotten the time when it was starving in the Burning Heaven Nether Manor and swallowed everything indiscriminately—even the floor tiles.

After complaining, Yinzi suddenly remembered another tragic truth.

“Mother, it stole Yinzi’s food again.”

Everyone who came to compete with Chen Yixin for treasure was their enemy—and therefore its rations.

“Be good. Wait until more people arrive. Then you can fight it for them and bully it properly in return.”

Blue flames flickered in Chen Yixin’s eyes, though he no longer paid attention to the two cultivators now pale with terror. Instead, he stared intently at the immortal gate radiating unprecedentedly pure immortal light. If all that immortal light could be gathered for Wenren Li, it should be enough for him to break through.

However, the immortal light on the gate was clearly different from the ownerless immortal light scattered throughout the sea. To gather it would require his cultivation to recover to the level of an ordinary immortal at minimum. Right now, he did not even have time to break through to Nascent Soul—it was merely wishful thinking.

“Yinzi, go destroy the formation. Make a little more noise too. Then wait for my orders.”

Yinzi’s long whiskers swayed once before vanishing from Chen Yixin’s arms. At the same time, without the void aura concealing him, Chen Yixin’s figure appeared before Ming Yuan and Lu Dong. Their pupils contracted slightly, and the vigilance in their expressions deepened.

Chen Yixin stepped forward, though not toward them. He was also attempting to reach the platform beneath the immortal gate. Just as Yinzi had warned, the moment he left the reef, he felt an overwhelming pulling force from other worlds, along with a divine sense far beyond the level of Taixuan cultivators locking onto him.

The pressure of both forces nearly rendered him immobile. At that moment, the three plume feathers on his forehead trembled lightly. The restraints enveloping him vanished, and the strange forces pulling at his body disappeared as well. Chen Yixin paused only briefly before diving forward.

A string of blooming blood flowers drifted downward. Chen Yixin’s body wavered slightly, but after paying a certain price, he successfully reached the platform.

Ming Yuan and Lu Dong had not merely stood watching either. The moment Chen Yixin suddenly rushed forward several steps, they moved as well. Both safely advanced two steps, but immediately afterward, terror filled their faces. Ming Yuan’s perception of danger was sharper; he severed one of his own arms and retreated back to the reef. Lu Dong, however, followed in the footsteps of the burly man from before.

He was devoured by the unseen beast whose form and aura they could neither perceive nor sense.

At that moment, a tremendous explosion swept through the area with the aftershock of the shattered formation, only to vanish completely upon reaching the immortal gate.

Chen Yixin raised a hand and casually wiped away the blood at the corner of his lips. Even with his phoenix bloodline awakened, his late-stage Golden Core cultivation was still insufficient here.

Ignoring Ming Yuan’s confusion, Chen Yixin sat down cross-legged to await Yinzi’s return while simultaneously resisting the probing pressure and restraints from the divine-sense beast.

“Fellow Daoist, perhaps we could attempt cooperation.”

Ming Yuan assumed Chen Yixin had concealed his true cultivation. Even if he was not equal to Ming Yuan himself, he should at least possess half-step Soul Transformation cultivation or some secret treasure capable of contending against Soul Transformation cultivators without defeat. That alone made him worthy of negotiation.

Chen Yixin ignored him entirely. After swallowing medicinal pills and meditating for a while, the internal injuries caused by the spatial rifts had mostly healed. Turning his back, he focused even more intently on studying the immortal gate.

After a long while, he suddenly muttered, “Looks familiar.”

“Palace spirit, are you there?”

Chen Yixin called to the Burning Heaven Manor spirit inside the ring. He and Wenren Li had already placed many heavenly treasures into the Burning Heaven Nether Manor. The spirit benefited as well, so even if it slept, it would not be the kind of slumber from which it could not awaken.

Two breaths later, spiritual light flashed from the ring as the palace spirit answered Chen Yixin’s summons.

“This old servant is here.”

“In the Upper Realm, have you ever seen an immortal gate like this?”

This was undeniably his first time here in this life, but such familiarity could not exist without reason. It could only have come from his previous life.

Hearing this, the palace spirit emerged from the ring and floated forward some distance. After observing the gate carefully for a long time, it finally said to Chen Yixin,

“This aura resembles a forbidden land in the Upper Realm called… the Divine Ruins.”

“In ancient times, the remnants left behind after the divine clans’ great war were called the Divine Ruins. The place is unimaginably dangerous. How could a fragment have fallen into Taixuan…”

The palace spirit did its best to explain, but it still could not resolve Chen Yixin’s inexplicable sense of familiarity.

For such familiarity to persist even after reincarnation, something unforgettable must have happened there—something so deeply etched into his memory that even rebirth could not erase it. But what exactly had it been?

Chen Yixin frowned slightly, dismissed the palace spirit back into the ring, and began contemplating other matters instead. Over there, Ming Yuan did not dare move rashly, though he no longer attempted to persuade Chen Yixin. Still, he did not leave either.

Chen Yixin wandered around the immortal gate for nearly two hours before cultivators drawn by the shattered formation finally arrived. Yet their arrival failed to draw much of his attention. He continued circling the gate, seeming hesitant, as though unable to make up his mind.

“Fellow Daoist over there, could you inform us of the route to reach the platform? We would be endlessly grateful.”

After repeated attempts had only resulted in death, someone finally turned their attention toward Chen Yixin.

“If you help us reach it, we’ll help you enter the immortal gate.”

They assumed Chen Yixin’s wandering meant he could not enter the gate himself.

At that moment, Chen Yixin turned around. His naturally affectionate eyes landed upon the speaker as he asked,

“Truly?”

“Cultivators naturally keep their word.”

The male cultivator being watched by Chen Yixin inexplicably blushed. He spoke with even greater sincerity and earnestness.

Hearing this, Chen Yixin nodded lightly, seemingly convinced. He stepped forward once before adding,

“But I can only open the path once. If I open it for you now, I won’t be able to do so again for those who arrive later. Let’s wait a bit longer.”

“This…”

Chen Yixin’s gullibility and kindness were entirely beyond these cultivators’ expectations. They wanted to reject the suggestion and reveal their ruthless, selfish nature, yet somehow felt uncomfortable doing so. What if Chen Yixin decided they were too selfish and refused to open even this single opportunity for them?

“Then… there should at least be a time limit, right? The immortal gate won’t wait forever for me—I mean, for you to enter.”

The cultivator nearly exposed himself and flushed even redder. Hidden beneath his shy and seemingly honest appearance was an intense greed and desire for the immortal gate. He wished desperately that he, rather than Chen Yixin, stood before it now.

“Three days. Whether everyone arrives or not, after three days I’ll open the path once for all of you.”

For cultivators, three days was hardly long at all. Yet within the Abysswind Territory, it was enough time for news to spread throughout the region and for those rushing here to arrive.

Chen Yixin continued wandering around the immortal gate for most of the day before sitting down again to meditate, supposedly preparing himself to open the path in three days.

More and more people arrived. As time passed, the number of newcomers only increased. Some factions attempted to seal off the news, but with Yinzi capable of freely entering and exiting, such efforts were impossible.

The Merfolk Emperor, Ze Fang, and the Azure Roc Emperor eventually arrived as well. Seeing Chen Yixin, they were somewhat surprised, though not overly so. They had all witnessed Wenren Li’s abilities before. That the two of them could accomplish what others could not was hardly shocking anymore.

“Is the Divine Son deliberately stalling for time?”

The Merfolk Emperor spoke with the Azure Roc Emperor. Because of Chen Yixin and Wenren Li, the two factions that had once been irreconcilable enemies could no longer easily reignite conflict unless Chen Yixin and Wenren Li completely abandoned one side.

And after working together throughout the journey, while they could not claim to have forgotten their past hatred, calm conversation between them was no longer difficult anymore.

“Unknown. We shall wait and observe the situation, awaiting the Divine Son’s orders.”

The Azure Roc Emperor and the others all heightened their vigilance, ready to enter battle at any moment. To them, the secret treasure could be abandoned, but absolutely nothing could happen to Chen Yixin.

Time passed swiftly. Exactly three days had passed since Chen Yixin’s conversation with that male cultivator.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked outward. The once-empty opposite shore was now crowded with arriving cultivators. Reef after reef connected together, forming a platform no smaller than the one before the immortal gate. Cultivators packed the area densely, numbering nearly a thousand.

“Fellow Daoist, the agreed time has arrived.”

The male cultivator, unable to hide the excitement in his eyes, spoke to Chen Yixin while gazing at him intensely, with a hint of something unusual in his expression. During these three days, Chen Yixin had scarcely looked at anyone else, and the only person he had spoken with was him. That sense of special treatment stirred ripples in his heart.

More importantly, Chen Yixin’s half-demon appearance was truly beautiful. Neither fully immortal nor fully demon, even sitting silently, he was scenery capable of shaking one’s heart.

Hearing this, Chen Yixin did not look at him. He slowly rose to his feet, then lowered his head slightly. Spiritual light overflowed from the plume feathers on his forehead, and moments later, a pair of enormous spiritual wings unfurled completely behind him.

A clear phoenix cry seemed to pierce through this entire heaven and earth. Blue flames rose within his eyes as he softly spoke,

“Open!”

The instant his voice fell, all the invisible spatial rifts hidden throughout the void were exposed before everyone’s eyes. Dense and endless like a giant web, the sight instantly made one’s scalp tingle with fear and lingering dread. At the same time, a gigantic Void Maw Beast revealed itself, its size rivaling the immortal gate itself.

With its back facing the crowd, it had been floating before Chen Yixin this entire time. Its gaping mouth remained fixed on him, the greed and hunger in its gaze beyond description. During all his meditation, Chen Yixin had been resisting this beast that constantly wished to devour him whole.

Chen Yixin lifted his gaze to meet the beast’s eyes. For a brief instant, it seemed petrified. Then it roared once more. No sound emerged, yet invisible sound waves surged outward. Cultivators with weaker cultivation immediately began bleeding from all seven orifices.

However, the plume feathers on Chen Yixin’s forehead trembled lightly, and the invisible sound waves were entirely blocked outside the barrier, unable to harm him in the slightest.

Chen Yixin’s so-called act of “opening the path” was not yet complete. One of his wings suddenly detached from behind him, transforming into a gigantic sword that slashed downward horizontally. Yet the beast’s hide was incredibly thick. It felt pain, but the attack failed to threaten its life.

“Everyone, attack with your full strength and help me slay it together!”

As Chen Yixin shouted, no one voiced objections. Clearly, if they wished to reach the immortal gate, they first had to eliminate this beast that had devoured countless people. Chen Yixin gestured once more, and standing atop the reefs, everyone unleashed their strongest attacks.

The beast sensed grave danger and roared as it prepared to flee. Yet its body suddenly froze, realizing that not a single attack had actually landed upon it. At the same time, the sword-wing Chen Yixin had struck it with had not dispersed at all.

The blue wing rose into the air, crossing countless spatial rifts and carrying all the attacks from the cultivators on the opposite shore. One visible, one hidden, then seven-colored radiant clouds burst forth as the blue wing reversed direction and slashed—not at the beast, but directly at the damaged immortal gate.

“BOOM!”

The sound exploded beside everyone’s ears like heavenly thunder itself. The crowd was shocked by Chen Yixin’s actions, and at the same time many coughed blood from the collision. Chen Yixin himself was no exception. In fact, he suffered the greatest backlash, coughing blood three consecutive times before finally stopping himself from being blasted off the platform.

His burning gaze remained fixed upon the immortal gate before his expression darkened.

“Still not enough!”

His left wing detached once more. This time, no one was willing to cooperate with Chen Yixin again. Yet the blue wing gathering power was no longer drawing upon their attacks or spiritual force—it was gathering the true blood they had coughed out from the backlash. Chen Yixin sliced open his own wrist and scattered several drops of blood into it as well.

“Break for me!”

As his words fell, the bloodstained left wing slashed downward toward the immortal gate once again. This time, everyone finally heard the sound of something shattering.

A crystal point upon the immortal gate shattered together with countless connected spatial rifts. And with every rift that broke apart, a strand of immortal light overflowed from the gate. Chen Yixin himself did not move, yet another pair of wings spread behind him as the immortal light instinctively attached itself to the spiritual wings.

One strand, two strands… ten strands, a hundred strands…

“Yinzi!”

Chen Yixin suddenly called out. Before him, a silver cloak swelled outward—it was Yinzi’s true form. It slammed directly into the Void Maw Beast. New hatred added to old grievances; it had endured long enough.

The two void beasts clashed violently, causing even more spatial rifts to collapse. Meanwhile, cultivators who had realized they misunderstood Chen Yixin also attacked with full strength to assist. One movement triggered another, and countless void cracks shattered again and again.

Several unlucky cultivators were injured by Yinzi and the Void Maw Beast. Others were caught in the aftermath and sucked into yet-unbroken spatial rifts, disappearing completely. Once chaotic battle erupted, only those clever and vigilant enough could preserve themselves.

Yinzi’s strength was slightly inferior to the Void Maw Beast’s, but it possessed a bloodline suppression over it. Together with the cultivators’ supporting attacks, the beast soon began bleeding as well. Its belly split open, and blood mixed with traces of silver threads poured out in torrents.

None of the blood spilled by the crowd went to waste—including the Void Maw Beast’s blood. Chen Yixin drew it all toward himself and smeared it across the immortal gate, accelerating the destruction of the spatial rifts.

“Divine Ruins, divine fall, divine burial…”

Chen Yixin’s eyes suddenly widened. At last, he understood why this place felt so familiar.

It was in a place like this that he had found Wenren Li.

Yin-void power—Wenren Li’s soul still carried traces of the aura from such places. There could be no mistake.

“Fellow Daoist, please forgive us. We misunderstood you before.”

Chen Yixin truly had been wholeheartedly opening a path for them. Yet when they saw him strike the immortal gate, they believed he was merely using them so he alone could enter.

As more and more spatial rifts shattered, the cultivators’ range of movement was no longer confined to the reefs where they arrived. The male cultivator who first spoke with Chen Yixin now stood only three steps away from the platform before the immortal gate.

The strength Chen Yixin had displayed only made him even more dazzling in the man’s eyes. Without realizing it, the immortal gate no longer held his focus. The one captivating him instead was the mysterious and beautiful figure before him, someone he could no longer deny had stirred his heart.

“I still have not learned Fellow Daoist’s name. I am—”

At last, Chen Yixin shifted his gaze slightly toward him. Yet his eyes remained completely unfamiliar. Chen Yixin remembered the words he had spoken, but had never cared who exactly he had spoken to.

And that man would never have the chance to tell Chen Yixin his name.

The Void Maw Beast suddenly appeared behind the male cultivator and bit down, severing him into two halves at the waist. The beast’s aura forced Chen Yixin two steps backward, after which he lowered his eyes and concentrated completely, ignoring the slaughter around him as he devoted himself entirely to gathering immortal light.

The spatial rifts nearest the reefs shattered first, while those closer to the immortal gate broke later. As time passed, Chen Yixin’s wings became almost entirely covered in immortal light, resembling the true divine wings of a phoenix.

At that moment, Chen Yixin’s wings suddenly dispersed. Blood from his wrist flowed once more, this time dripping onto the clusters of immortal light. Since the yin-void power’s hidden dangers were still uncertain, he used divine blood to cleanse them all at once.

Meanwhile, just as Yinzi was about to deliver the final blow to the dying Void Maw Beast, it suddenly flashed back beside Chen Yixin. Opening its mouth, it swallowed the immortal light, rubbed its whiskers affectionately against Chen Yixin, then vanished back beside the beast and finally dealt the fatal strike.

“Tell A-Li to come to the Water Palace and fetch me.”

As Chen Yixin spoke, he raised his right hand high. Attached to it was a single strand of immortal light. This was the last strand—the only immortal light containing yin-void power capable of entering the immortal-light secret realm.

Before anyone could react, Chen Yixin stepped backward and disappeared into the immortal gate.

And without that final strand of immortal light, the immortal gate exploded completely. The entrance ceased to exist.

Yinzi, carrying both the message and enough immortal light for Wenren Li’s breakthrough, had already escaped through the void.

The cultivators, who had barely survived the bloody battle and not yet caught their breath, stood stunned, unable to process what had happened.

Chen Yixin truly had opened the path. Yet he had also severed the path afterward.

These nearly thousand cultivators, all individuals who had lived for hundreds or even thousands of years, had been thoroughly manipulated by a Golden Core cultivator barely over a hundred years old.

“Honored One!”

At the very back of the reefs stood three people who had never once participated in the battle. Their appearances were utterly ordinary, and their presence so faint that no one noticed how different their behavior was from everyone else’s.

Yet if Chen Yixin had paid them more attention, he would have recognized their auras immediately. They were Han Zichuan of the Heavenly Secrets Sect, along with his two attendants Mingyue and Tianyang.

“Will the Divine Son return?”

They had traveled thousands of miles from the Taixuan Continent to this sea because they had divined that there existed a path here leading to the Upper Realm, and that this path could only be walked by Chen Yixin. Once he departed, the hope that Taixuan had placed upon him for tens of thousands of years would disappear with him.

They had come precisely to prevent Chen Yixin from entering the secret realm, to stop him from using this chance to return to the Upper Realm. Yet human calculations could not surpass heaven’s will. Chen Yixin had awakened his phoenix bloodline, and even with merely Golden Core cultivation, borrowing momentum and power from others, he was no longer someone they could easily stop.

“As long as Wenren Li remains, he will definitely return.”

As Han Zichuan spoke, his brows furrowed slightly. Turning away, he muttered softly,

“I only hope he does not use the Phoenix Blood Token.”

Once Chen Yixin used it, even without relying on the passage within this secret realm, he would still be taken away. The Emperor Lord of the Ancient Divine Clan had never abandoned his efforts to help his youngest son escape this tangled conspiracy and the inexplicable twists of fate.

“Honored One, can Father Chen’s words truly be trusted? He told you so much, but now it seems he was merely using you.”

Unable to confront Chen Yixin directly, he instead used them to bring about this bloodstained conflict and create the situation where Chen Yixin would enter the Immortal Light Secret Realm alone.

“Perhaps.”

The figures of Han Zichuan and his two attendants vanished from the reefs. Only then did Ze Fang, the Azure Roc Emperor, and the others finally react and retreat from this entrance that was soon to be completely swallowed by the void.

They felt some regret. Had they known earlier, they would not have let their people leave Chen Yixin’s spatial treasure that day. Otherwise, their people could have entered the Immortal Light Secret Realm together and sought their own opportunities there.

As for Yinzi, after escaping through the void, it quickly located Wenren Li’s new secluded cultivation site through the connection between them. It was located hundreds of zhang deep beneath the seabed in the deepest sea trench. Following Chen Yixin’s instructions, Yinzi poured all the clusters of immortal light inside. Even then, it still did not dare approach the underground cavern by even a single step.

Clearly, the breakthrough Wenren Li was undergoing was so dangerous that it could almost injure those nearby. Only after all the immortal light had been delivered did the terrifying sensation that made Yinzi’s scalp crawl ease somewhat. Yet it still dared not approach. After devouring the Void Maw Beast’s soul and guarding Wenren Li for two months, it too entered a semi-dormant slumber.

This sea region lay at the very center of the Abysswind Territory, the most dangerous part of the Abysswind Territory. Even Soul Transformation cultivators would never willingly step into such a place. Moreover, after the chaos Chen Yixin caused, the cultivators who had come here were either wounded or killed.

After searching the area around the immortal-light emergence site for some time and confirming there were no further gains, everyone reluctantly departed one after another.

The Abysswind Territory gradually returned to its former state. Sea beasts, strange winds, and violent sea vortices continued endlessly. Only the central region remained exceptionally calm—there were no strange winds, nor did any sea beasts dare approach. Yet once one left this central zone, the density of sea beasts became astonishingly high.

To outsiders, it merely appeared that the Abysswind Territory had become even more dangerous. None could perceive the abnormality within the center itself. This state persisted for nearly ten years.

Yinzi grew from the size of a cloak to the size of half a bedroom carpet. With every breath it took, its aura stretched long and profound. After devouring the Void Maw Beast, its strength had multiplied several times over.

Wearing black robes with silver hair draped over his shoulders, Wenren Li emerged from the underground cavern. He walked before Yinzi without waking it. Instead, he waved forth a mass of silver light, and the lingering aura upon Yinzi immediately reconstructed all that it had experienced during the past years.

“Ten years…”

According to Wenren Li’s expectations, he should have needed only one month to complete his breakthrough. Yet the immortal light Chen Yixin had sent back caused him to slumber for ten whole years.

But that was not what he truly sought to see. He wished to search for traces of Chen Yixin within those ten years, yet there were none. Only when he traced the flow of time back to ten years earlier did he finally glimpse Chen Yixin once more—not the bright and captivating smile he remembered, but instead his bleeding wrist and resolute expression.

Using the Phoenix Blood Token alone, Chen Yixin could have entered the Immortal Light Secret Realm directly. Yet he stubbornly refused to use it. In order to gather immortal light for Wenren Li, even if it meant draining every last drop of his divine blood, Chen Yixin was determined to ensure the success of this breakthrough.

Was he moved? Yes, he was. But above that emotion existed worry and anger.

Worry that Chen Yixin, entering the secret realm in such a condition, would suffer hardship. Anger that Chen Yixin always disregarded himself so completely for his sake. After those emotions settled, Wenren Li pressed a hand against his chest.

He felt heartache.

With each wave, the pain grew stronger.

“A-Rong…”

The situation Chen Yixin faced upon entering the secret realm did not differ greatly from Wenren Li’s predictions. Though he appeared to have manipulated every cultivator in this sea region and achieved all his goals, his cultivation level remained a weakness he could never erase.

His injuries were far more severe than he had allowed himself to show. Within the Immortal Light Secret Realm, under the condition that he did not use the Phoenix Blood Token, trial after trial awaited him, giving him almost no time to recover between them.

In the end, Chen Yixin could no longer maintain his half-demon form. The little fledgling bird that had once possessed sleek, glossy feathers gradually became a thin little bird that shed feathers every day. This condition persisted for nearly three years, until Chen Yixin reached the center of the secret realm and entered the first blood pool left behind by the Heavenly Phoenix for its inheritor. Only then did his condition improve somewhat.

At the same time, the palace spirit within the Burning Heaven Nether Palace also began recovering. Chen Yixin remained seated in that blood pool, enhanced with spiritual materials, for half a year before finally climbing ashore and entering the first palace hall.

The walls were completely covered with ancient jade slips. Without question, these were pieces of knowledge the Heavenly Phoenix absolutely required its inheritor to learn.

These jade slips all concerned the Sword Dao of countless worlds. Besides text, the ancient slips also contained recorded sword forms made of light and shadow. At first, Chen Yixin still worried about the passage of time, but later, once he immersed himself within the vast ocean of swordsmanship, he completely forgot the flow of time itself.

Wenren Li was cultivating outside, while he himself was growing within this secret realm. He could not continue falling too far behind.

What he did not know was that the flow of time within the secret realm differed from the outside world. The deeper he advanced, the slower time passed. Thus, the time available for his studies became comparatively more abundant.

Three years passed in the outside world, while nearly three hundred years had already gone by for Chen Yixin within this palace hall.

Soaking in blood pools, practicing swordsmanship, comprehending the Dao—this comprised the entirety of his life during the first two hundred years. Yet during the final hundred years, Chen Yixin simply floated above the center of the blood pool in silent meditation.

A blood-colored phoenix water blossom bloomed beneath him. His aura became nearly imperceptible.

One day, he opened his eyes.

The wings behind him spread wide, and then a single plume feather drifted gently downward. He lifted his gaze to it. The falling feather appeared at his fingertips, and he pointed forward lightly.

The wall at the deepest end of the palace hall collapsed with a thunderous crash.

He had studied the Sword Dao of the world, and from it comprehended a sword art belonging solely to himself—the Burning Heaven Sword Art. It appeared light and graceful, yet within it hid endless killing intent.

“Burning Heaven Sword Form One, Fallen Feather Returning to Tranquility!”

Chen Yixin did not remember what his Burning Heaven Sword Art had been like in his previous life. This was the comprehension he achieved in this lifetime regarding swordsmanship, a realization uniquely his own. What the Heavenly Phoenix desired was never for Chen Yixin to imitate or copy the sword arts of itself or anyone else. Its inheritance existed precisely so that Chen Yixin could comprehend his own sword path.

After stepping through a newly opened gate, Chen Yixin once again encountered a similar predicament.

He could not move forward.

This palace hall was not constructed from immortal jade. Instead, it had been formed entirely through restrictions. If he wished to pass through the hall, he had to unravel every restriction throughout the entire structure.

Chen Yixin’s understanding in this area was practically nonexistent. Everything he had comprehended from the Burning Heaven Nether Palace until now was still insufficient even to unravel the very first and simplest restriction trapping him at his feet.

Fortunately, within the jade-pendant space Wenren Li had given him were also jade slips concerning restrictions and formations. From complete bewilderment, he began fumbling his way through learning them.

It took him nearly one year merely to unravel the very first restriction.

Yet before him stood an enormous palace containing at least millions of restrictions.

This was an undertaking so immense it nearly drove Chen Yixin into despair.

He stepped forward once more and continued his research. Three days later, he suddenly turned his head. A dangerous sensation swept over him, causing the three plume feathers upon his forehead to stand upright.

The palace had not granted him unlimited time to solve the restrictions. Had he been three days slower in unraveling it, even if he survived, he would have suffered grievous injuries.

The sense of crisis and urgency left Chen Yixin no time to dwell upon the seemingly endless future of unraveling restrictions ahead of him.

He devoted himself entirely to learning and breaking them apart, advancing at an extremely slow pace.

Chen Yixin did not know the exact flow of time, but another three years had already passed in the outside world.

Within the palace, he had spent at least five hundred years unraveling all its restrictions.

All traces of impatience disappeared from between his brows. The blue light within his eyes gradually deepened and settled into a profound dark-blue hue.

After unraveling over a million restrictions, Chen Yixin faced a choice.

Should he continue advancing, or should he sink his consciousness into the jade pendant?

With his current mastery over restrictions, he was confident he could now unravel the restrictions within the jade pendant itself.

During these five hundred years, the first four hundred had been extraordinarily difficult. Nearly every time, he only managed to unravel a restriction at the very last possible moment. Once, he had even used phoenix divine power to forcefully push forward.

Yet after four hundred years, the quantitative accumulation of Chen Yixin’s unraveling speed finally transformed into qualitative change. The speed at which he broke restrictions became faster and faster. Even his spiritual sense quietly began changing.

Each time a restriction was unraveled, a phoenix phantom would appear.

This was the Burning Heaven Restriction Art the Heavenly Phoenix wished him to master: no restriction could remain unbroken, no law could be extinguished.

Chen Yixin’s footsteps paused only briefly before he chose to continue forward.

Now was not yet the time.

At the very least, not before all the cultivation he had suppressed for hundreds of years had fully risen.

Beyond this palace hall stood a small square room that appeared rather cramped.

Now that he had already arrived here, there was no longer any reason to hesitate.

He approached and pushed the door open.

Inside was an extremely simple memorial hall.

A memorial tablet, a wooden box, and a crimson phoenix feather.

The moment Chen Yixin stepped closer, a streak of red light flashed across the spirit box, and a man dressed in red appeared before him.

He possessed a pair of blood-red eyes, yet there was not the slightest trace of bloodlust or killing intent within them. They were clear and pure. The way he looked over carried the gentle elegance of moonlight itself, refined and soft, enough to make one forget the mortal world.

He was a Flame-Bathed Heavenly Phoenix, yet unlike the Heavenly Phoenixes spoken of in legends.

He was very different.

“I never expected that such a spiritually perceptive phoenix descendant would appear in later generations. Come closer.”

He beckoned to Chen Yixin, his gaze filled with the benevolence one held toward a younger generation.

Even Chen Yixin before undergoing these nearly thousand years of trials could have sensed something unusual about this man, much less the current Chen Yixin who had comprehended the Eye of Restrictions.

This was merely a strand of soul consciousness that would dissipate before long.

“Greetings, Ancestor. My name is Yixin.”

Chen Yixin bowed slightly before walking closer as requested.

“My name is Qingruo. Since you have accepted the benefits I left here, you must also help me accomplish one matter.”

Chen Yixin bowed again.

The Heavenly Phoenix Qingruo continued,

“Bring this box of ashes back to the Upper Realm and scatter them into the Heavenly River.”

Chen Yixin stepped closer and lifted the ash box into his hands.

This was not the Heavenly Phoenix’s remains.

Inside were the ashes of a member of the Divine Clan.

A trace of gentleness passed through Heavenly Phoenix Qingruo’s eyes as he murmured softly,

“Even if the Upper Realm wronged him, it was still the homeland where he was born. The endless Heavenly River is the resting place of gods. I think he would like it there.”

“This place is the Taixuan Heavenly Prison Realm. Were you and he imprisoned here?”

Feeling that he had received immeasurable benefits within this secret realm, Chen Yixin found the Heavenly Phoenix’s requested repayment far too small in comparison. Thus, he took the initiative to ask further.

“Taixuan Heavenly Prison Realm…”

Qingruo repeated the words before shaking his head.

“If we ourselves had not grown cold-hearted and chosen to leave, who in this world could possibly have had the ability to imprison us?”

The anger upon his face paused slightly. Then he let out a faint sound of confusion.

“Hm?”

His nose twitched slightly, as though trying to smell something upon Chen Yixin.

Chen Yixin blinked as well before lowering his head to sniff himself. Though he had not bathed for years, the phoenix body did not gather filth. There was no way any strange smell could exist.

The Heavenly Phoenix stepped closer again and reached toward Chen Yixin with one hand.

Wenren Li’s phantom briefly surfaced before scattering away.

Immediately afterward, the way Qingruo looked at Chen Yixin became even stranger.

“You cultivated together with him?”

“Yes.”

Chen Yixin saw no reason to deny it. He carefully observed Qingruo’s expression, trying to determine whether the Heavenly Phoenix cared about the dual cultivation itself—or about the fact that the person involved was Wenren Li.

“Oh…”

Qingruo nodded, and his reaction quickly returned to calm indifference.

Chen Yixin continued staring at him.

At the very least, one thing was now certain: Wenren Li was not the reincarnation of the person this Heavenly Phoenix loved.

At last, he no longer had to worry about becoming romantic rivals with the Heavenly Phoenix across generations.

Previous

Main

Next