“Then is A-Li still going to be mean to me?” Chen Yixin continued asking in an aggrieved voice, kissing, rubbing against, and biting Wenren Li as he spoke.
“It was my fault.” Wenren Li endured Chen Yixin’s affection—which was really retaliation in disguise—and apologized sincerely.
The conversation Wenren Li had started in hopes of persuading Chen Yixin to take better care of himself had become impossible to continue. Still, Wenren Li’s determination to keep Chen Yixin firmly at his side where he could watch him had only grown stronger.
“Let’s go.” Wenren Li tightened his grip on Chen Yixin’s hand. Chen Yixin beckoned and picked up Yinzi, who had been exhausted for three years and still had not awakened. Hand in hand, they were about to leave the hidden site when, after rising into the air, Chen Yixin tugged on Wenren Li again.
They stopped in midair. The ring of the Fentian Nether Abode flew from Chen Yixin’s thumb, and the terrified Abode Spirit poked its head out. “Master?”
Chen Yixin had already erased the soul imprint that marked the Fentian Nether Abode as his. In other words, he was no longer its master. “Tell Father and Mother this is the last time.”
The true masters of the Fentian Nether Abode had never been Chen Yixin. They were the Sovereign and Phoenix Empress of the Ancient Phoenix Divine Clan. This was the last time Chen Yixin would tolerate their scheming against him. Whatever trust he had once been willing to give them had now been completely spent.
“A-Li, let’s go.”
The Fentian Nether Abode was a treasure even in the Upper Realm, but if a treasure like this could not truly belong to Chen Yixin, then he did not want it. He had always been capable of cutting things off cleanly and decisively.
The Fentian ring fell into the flower field without making a sound. The Abode Spirit existed through it. It anxiously tried to fly after Chen Yixin, but could not escape the ring’s restraint.
Chen Yixin turned and gave Wenren Li a reassuring smile. They were in a hurry to leave. What Chen Yixin had experienced inside this hidden site could not possibly be explained in a few moments. Everything could wait until they returned safely to Taixuan.
No matter what Chen Yixin did, he had been unable to leave the Heavenly Phoenix hidden site. For Wenren Li, however, it was hardly difficult. The sapling of his true body flew from between his brows. With one light tap, a passage appeared before them.
They entered the void together. Before Wenren Li even had a chance to protect Chen Yixin, a pair of blue phoenix wings unfolded behind Chen Yixin, each tall enough to tower over two people. Chen Yixin’s growth could no longer be compared to what he had been before.
He pulled Wenren Li toward himself, wrapped an arm around Wenren Li’s waist, and smiled. Only after stealing another light kiss from his cheek did he say, “You were injured and refused to let me heal you. Everything else has to be my way.”
Wenren Li stared at Chen Yixin’s brilliant smile for a moment, then slowly leaned closer and kissed him on the lips. He murmured, “All right.”
“I’ll strike first. A-Li, you finish them off!”
Chen Yixin’s phoenix wings rippled lightly. Countless restrictions spread through the void. Blue feathers appeared one after another and vanished again. Wenren Li glanced at Chen Yixin, and the spiritual vines beneath his feet extended along those restrictions.
Chen Yixin was angry that someone had injured Wenren Li.
Now he intended to avenge him.
They had already escaped the prison of the hidden site before the immortals of the Upper Realm could arrive, which changed the situation entirely. Depending on who came, they might genuinely be able to kill one or two immortals. Of course, if the newcomers were too powerful or too high-ranked, the restrictions they had laid would still be enough to let them escape safely.
And if even that failed, Chen Yixin still had the phoenix feather Heavenly Phoenix Qingruo had given him. That was the true trump card behind his audacity in plotting against immortals.
They continued laying restrictions while waiting. Nearly a full day passed, yet the void remained unchanged. Strange phenomena appeared from time to time, but none were caused by anyone from the Upper Realm. They were merely part of the void’s natural instability.
“Keep laying them!” The longer no one came, the more likely it was that whoever eventually arrived would be strong. That meant the preparations Chen Yixin and Wenren Li needed to make had to become even more extensive. Chen Yixin used almost everything he had learned about restrictions inside the Heavenly Phoenix hidden site.
Another three days passed. A crack appeared at the place where Wenren Li had killed the immortal. One person stepped out, then two, then three… Ten people emerged in total, followed by one more.
Chen Yixin was about to attack when Wenren Li stopped him. “That is your Fourth Brother.”
When Chen Yixin and Wenren Li had held their bonding ceremony in the Upper Realm, all eight of the other sons and daughters of Sovereign Feng Yuan and the Phoenix Empress had attended. Now that Wenren Li remembered the past, he recognized both Hong’s appearance and aura.
Chen Yixin stopped himself, but his expression immediately cooled. Heavenly Phoenix Qingruo had been confined here, while the divine clan assigned to guard this Prison Realm was the Ancient Phoenix Divine Clan—Chen Yixin’s own family. That explained why his Fourth Brother had appeared here.
“A-Li, did I know about this place before?”
In truth, Chen Yixin did not even need to ask Wenren Li. He could already guess. The Sovereign and Phoenix Empress would never have wanted him to know about this place. Even Father Chen sending him here had probably been motivated largely by Heavenly Phoenix Qingruo’s remnant.
Perhaps they did possess familial affection toward him and had indeed cared for him, but now those acts of care seemed to contain far too much calculation. That made the affection itself feel far less genuine.
“You didn’t.” Wenren Li did not fully understand the sorrow in Chen Yixin’s eyes, but he and Chen Yixin had met extremely early. Not long after Chen Yixin hatched, the two of them had remained together almost constantly. Wenren Li knew nearly everything that had happened to him.
“Lord Hong! There’s a trap here!”
Several immortals flying toward the hidden site had taken only two steps before they were trapped inside the restrictions, sweat rolling down their foreheads. If someone attacked them now, they would have no way to fight back. The man was warning Lord Hong and asking him for help at the same time.
Hong looked around. Then a faint smile of relief appeared on his face. “Little Nine, are you here? I’m your Fourth Brother.”
“Little Nine, Fourth Brother came to take you home.”
At another time, perhaps the affection that had existed between them before Chen Yixin’s reincarnation would have made those words stir something in him. Now there was only scrutiny in his eyes. He and Wenren Li remained concealed at the center of the restriction formation, watching and ready to respond to anything.
Lord Hong’s gaze swept past where Chen Yixin stood without finding him. He suspected Chen Yixin was here, but could not determine exactly where. They had only arrived a little late, yet the area outside the hidden site was already packed with restrictions dense enough to make anyone’s scalp prickle.
“Little Nine won’t even come out and let your brother see you?”
Lord Hong looked over the guards who had been driven into humiliating states by the restrictions and called out again. He had come personally because he had accepted a mission he absolutely had to complete.
He had to see Chen Yixin.
“Fourth Brother insists on seeing me. Did Father send you with some message?”
Chen Yixin swept a hand forward and revealed himself. Wenren Li, standing beside him, remained hidden. Chen Yixin’s expression was cold and his gaze excessively calm—nothing like someone meeting family.
“Little Nine, have you remembered everything?” Delight appeared on Hong’s face. He started to step forward, only then remembering the enormous restriction formation covering everything around them. One movement could affect the whole, and one careless mistake might crack the void itself.
The Phoenix Clan possessed six divine arts. Other phoenixes could cultivate them too, but very few chose to learn all six. Most selected one or two that complemented each other and cultivated them to the extreme, which was already enough to overwhelm most Immortal Lords in the Upper Realm. Almost no one had done what Chen Yixin once had and cultivated all six to perfection. The others did not possess his extraordinary aptitude or determination.
Even among the Ancient Phoenix Divine Clan, aptitude differed. Chen Yixin had been the last of Sovereign Feng Yuan’s nine children to hatch, yet by the time he reincarnated into the Lower Realm, he alone had reached the half-step Sovereign realm. The others were still hovering around the sixth- and seventh-rank Immortal Lord levels.
Chen Yixin did not respond. He simply watched Hong and waited for an answer.
The coldness in Chen Yixin’s expression made Hong look somewhat hurt, but he nodded. “Before I came, Father summoned me. He told me not to harm Lord Li.”
Even without Sovereign Feng Yuan specifically ordering it, Hong himself would not have attacked. Wenren Li was another matter. A portion of the Phoenix Divine Clan still believed that Wenren Li had ruined Chen Yixin, turning the clan’s most outstanding young lord into someone cursed by all and leaving him missing, his life and death unknown.
“Jiu’er, Fourth Brother has never lied to you.”
As the fourth son of a Sovereign, Hong considered lying beneath him. His words were at least somewhat believable.
“In that case, I’ll be going.” Chen Yixin nodded coldly, tightened his grip on Wenren Li’s hand, and stepped half a pace backward. The sense of unease inside him had only grown stronger after hearing what Hong said.
Clearly, Sovereign Feng Yuan had already calculated that Wenren Li would come looking for him. How could he possibly have made no preparations? “Do not harm Wenren Li”—to immortals and Immortal Lords like these people, perhaps allowing Wenren Li to return alive to Taixuan would already count as not harming him.
“A-Li, from now on I’ll listen to you…”
Chen Yixin turned toward Wenren Li’s lowered gaze and admitted his mistake. He should not have been so eager for revenge that he lingered here to take vengeance. He should have taken Wenren Li and left immediately. Then they would not have ended up trapped in a situation even Chen Yixin could not read.
“It’s all right.” Wenren Li raised a hand and gently rubbed Chen Yixin’s hair, then lowered his head and kissed one of the feathers on Chen Yixin’s forehead.
The kiss made Chen Yixin’s expression soften, and the negative emotions inside him gradually receded. He remained silent in Wenren Li’s arms for a moment, then lifted his face, wrapped an arm around Wenren Li’s neck, and offered his lips.
Chen Yixin’s spiritual wings closed around both of them. Lord Hong and the guards could not see the two being intimate, but when Chen Yixin disappeared and then reappeared with flushed cheeks, there was hardly any need to guess what he had been doing.
When Chen Yixin revealed himself, Wenren Li did as well. Two feathers had been tucked into the back of Wenren Li’s collar: one was the phoenix feather Heavenly Phoenix Qingruo had given Chen Yixin, and the other belonged to Chen Yixin himself. He hoped neither would be needed, but he could not avoid making preparations.
“Explode.”
Chen Yixin looked at Hong. His flushed lips moved lightly, and the word fell.
Strike first and seize the advantage. Even after realizing that the situation had turned against him, Chen Yixin still intended to reclaim whatever initiative he could. The people scheming against him could be the Phoenix Divine Clan and could even be his own family, but he would not go easy on them.
The restrictions Chen Yixin and Wenren Li had spent four days laying all detonated at once. The area around the two of them remained untouched, but the rest of the void was devastated. Even the solid barrier surrounding the hidden site cracked under the force.
Cough, cough… Hong, caught unprepared, coughed blood. Half of his ten immortal guards were dead. The remaining few were barely clinging to life. A few more strikes from Chen Yixin or Wenren Li would finish them.
“Little Nine!” With matters already at this point, Hong could hardly speak kindly to Chen Yixin. His dignity as a seventh-rank Immortal Lord had been thoroughly trampled, and half his guards were dead.
Chen Yixin barely paid attention to Hong’s furious shouting. He watched Wenren Li’s spiritual vines spread. Just as they had agreed earlier, Chen Yixin would strike first, and Wenren Li would finish them off.
Once Chen Yixin had decided to kill, everyone here except Hong—immortal or demon—had to die.
Hong moved as well, but he had not expected Chen Yixin and Wenren Li to be this ruthless. Every time he approached one person, Wenren Li killed them before Hong could arrive. Divine soul and body alike were destroyed beyond recovery.
“Little Nine, do not think that because Father and Mother spoil you, you truly can do whatever you please! It is indeed our Phoenix Divine Clan that guards the Heavenly Prison, but these ten guards belonged to Immortal Emperor Guangle.”
“You killed all ten just like that. I’m afraid even Father will not be able to protect you from the consequences.”
“And even if they didn’t—do you truly intend to massacre your own clan? Your demonic thoughts are far too severe. Lan Xin was right. You really should be locked in—”
“Enough!”
A voice carrying even greater authority cut off Hong before he could finish. A man in golden robes appeared.
Chen Yixin still had some impression of him. He had appeared in the images the Abode Spirit once showed Chen Yixin and Wenren Li. This was Sovereign Feng Yuan’s eldest son—and therefore, in Chen Yixin’s previous life, his Eldest Brother.
Leave a Reply