Futile Devices Scans

“You… were you insulting me?” Lanxin had never, since birth, heard any harsh words directed at her. Yet now, with Chen Yixin saying the words “foolish” directly to her face, she could scarcely believe it.

“Well, that makes sense. How could a fool possibly understand that this Lord is insulting her…”

As Chen Yixin spoke, his eyes narrowed slightly. He had once attempted to hunt Lanxin down, but unfortunately he had never seen her before, nor recognized her appearance or aura. She had also remained hidden within the Palace of Immortal Emperor Guangle without coming out. Yet now she had personally delivered herself before him and allowed him to remember her — was that not foolish?

Lanxin’s face flushed red, angered greatly by Chen Yixin’s words. Some things she had never dared say to Chen Yixin before could no longer be held back at this moment.

“What is so good about that tree demon? He’s reduced you to this state and you still refuse to give up? I’m foolish? Fine, I am foolish. Even now I still wanted to save you, to plead on your behalf…”

“It’s good that you know you’re foolish,” Chen Yixin replied, the corners of his lips lifting slightly. He was fairly satisfied with Lanxin accepting that evaluation herself. He glanced toward Immortal Emperor Changdong, who was watching the spectacle unfold. “Still not tired of watching the foolishness of Guangle’s daughter? Shall this Lord accompany you in watching a little longer?”

Unexpectedly becoming the target of collateral damage, Immortal Emperor Changdong bowed slightly. “The Sea of Ice Extremity connects to the Heavenly River. Even Lord Yi must exercise caution there.”

“A land where gods have fallen — what caution is there to speak of?” Chen Yixin replied as he stepped forward.

Cold sweat appeared on Immortal Emperor Changdong’s forehead, and his back bent slightly lower before he hurried after Chen Yixin. As for Lanxin, she could only watch helplessly as the figures of Chen Yixin and Immortal Emperor Changdong disappeared into the distance.

Immortal Emperor Changdong’s attitude toward Chen Yixin felt extremely strange to Lanxin. But if she were to give up over this, then she would not be Lanxin, daughter of an Immortal Emperor.

After crossing tens of thousands of mountains and rivers in a single step, Chen Yixin suddenly paused. He turned his head and instructed Immortal Emperor Changdong:

“Oh, right. Have someone guard the Sea of Ice Extremity. I do not wish to be disturbed.”

“Y-yes… of course,” said Immortal Emperor Changdong. He had been expecting trouble and was relieved by the request, but no sooner had he relaxed than his tension rose again. “Fengyuan has arrived. Does Lord Yi wish to see him?”

Hearing this, Chen Yixin stopped upon a small earthen slope. Immortal Emperor Changdong looked toward him, waiting for his decision. If he was willing, they still had time to meet once. If he refused, then their next meeting would likely not be until five hundred years later.

“Then let him come. It’ll save him the trouble of going all the way to the Sea of Ice Extremity to find me…”

Chen Yixin waved a hand outward, laying down a barrier. The tables and chairs Wenren Li had prepared for him within the jade clasp were set out before them.

The figure of Immortal Emperor Changdong continuously flickered around the small hill as he arranged formations on the spot, ensuring that whether fighting broke out or secrets were discussed, no one who should not know would be alerted.

“Sit,” Chen Yixin said, lifting his gaze briefly toward Immortal Emperor Changdong after he returned from arranging the formations. Then he lowered his head once more, staring distractedly at the blue bell in his hand. Some people were not meant to be thought about — once he began thinking of them, his longing quickly spiraled out of control.

Immortal Emperor Changdong had been seated for less than two quarters of an hour before he could no longer endure the atmosphere. He felt he ought to offer Chen Yixin some comforting words, yet also felt he lacked the qualifications to say such things.

Another quarter hour later, Emperor Fengyuan finally arrived.

After landing, he first exchanged a glance with Immortal Emperor Changdong before walking toward Chen Yixin.

“Xiao Jiu, your father has his own—”

“Sit,” Chen Yixin interrupted, lifting his eyes from the bell and giving Emperor Fengyuan a slight nod. He pointed toward the seat opposite him. His full aura was on display, carrying the air of someone who understood everything completely. The effect left Fengyuan unable to continue the words he had started.

“What you should say is that the Phoenix Clan has its own hardships. First there was my elder brother, trapped within the prison realm until he died in grief and despair. Then there was me, used to guard the fortune of the Phoenix Clan for several eras without end. If not for the changes in heaven and earth in this lifetime, I might never even have been born.”

Chen Yixin’s slow, leisurely tone spoke of matters they scarcely dared mention. Even though they had mentally prepared themselves, both Immortal Emperor Changdong and Emperor Fengyuan still felt their hearts pound with fear, to the point that they could hardly remain seated.

Yet Chen Yixin’s gaze remained calm and clear. He was already able to face these bloody truths of the past with composure.

Qingruo had been an Ancient Heavenly Phoenix, and so was Chen Yixin. They had been phoenix eggs born naturally from heaven and earth, only two existing in all creation. Within the Phoenix Divine Clan, a Heavenly Phoenix was akin to a saint, holding supreme status. Yet even such exalted beings ultimately possessed only the value of being used until death.

To trade a single saint for the continuation of an entire race seemed worthwhile from the perspective of racial prosperity, without any concern for whether the saint himself was willing.

As for Chen Yixin, he was even more innocent. He had been enshrined like some inherited treasure within the forbidden grounds of the Phoenix Divine Clan. Only after his consciousness grew muddled and he nearly became a dead egg was he finally allowed to hatch into the world.

To both him and Qingruo, the Phoenix Clan’s hatred outweighed its kindness. Emperor Fengyuan, as the Emperor of the Phoenix Divine Clan, understood this perfectly well.

“At what point… did Lord Yi come to know?” Emperor Fengyuan no longer dared address Chen Yixin as “Xiao Jiu.” Sweat dampened his palms. Having not experienced nervousness for tens of thousands of years, he was now feeling it over and over again.

“After I sent A-Li down to the Lower Realm…”

“At the bottom of the Heavenly River, I remembered. What I know is not limited to my elder brother Qingruo. There was the War God Linyu, Qinglong Baocheng… and the Great Emperor Yuxu, who held back countless calamities for the Upper Realm.

At that time, Chen Yixin had merely been an egg, yet he had already been a lively and expressive Heavenly Phoenix egg, capable of showing joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. At this moment, every name he spoke carried the feeling of weeping blood.

Some grief could not be erased by the passage of time. If Emperor Fengyuan had expected him never to remember, then that had been far too wishful.

“They shed divine blood upon the earth, fighting desperately on the Battlefield of the Void Heavens to secure peace for all realms. And what were the people they protected doing? Deceiving one another, fighting for power and profit, competing over whose territory was larger, competing over whose household possessed more beauties… The Ten Emperors and Nine Clans, heh…”

Fengyuan and Changdong opened their mouths, wanting to argue that not everyone was like that. Yet when they met Chen Yixin’s gaze, the words of rebuttal could not leave their lips. They truly had failed those heroes who had once died in battle upon the Battlefield of the Void Heavens.

“Changdong, Fengyuan, no matter what A-Li and I do from this point onward, you may continue choosing neutrality as before. But if there is even the slightest sign that you stand against us… I will not hold back, and neither will A-Li.”

As Chen Yixin spoke, a cold glint flashed through his eyes. He was not warning Fengyuan and Changdong — he was merely informing them.

Fengyuan and Changdong took deep breaths and nodded, only to hear Chen Yixin speak again in a low voice that seemed even more dangerous.

“This place is no longer the land my elder brother and the others spilled blood to protect.”

As Chen Yixin spoke, he slowly lifted his gaze toward the heavens, as though he could already see the divine-blood barrier on the Battlefield of the Void Heavens, teetering on the verge of collapse at any moment. The peace bought with the fall of an entire generation of gods should come to an end here. It was time for them to taste the bitter fruit planted by their predecessors.

“Lord Yi, could Lord Li truly be… the Great Emperor Yuxu?” Even with the barriers and formations fully arranged, Immortal Emperor Changdong still revealed unmistakable nervousness when asking this question.

Compared to Immortal Emperor Changdong, Chen Yixin appeared far more casual. He did not avoid the topic at all. “Perhaps. But I would rather he were not.”

His former friends and subordinates had either died in battle, been imprisoned, or been persecuted to death. Among the people he once protected, almost no one even remembered his existence anymore. Chen Yixin would rather Wenren Li never recall such unhappy memories.

That unbearably heavy title of Great Emperor Yuxu was better left forgotten.

Faced with such an answer, both Changdong and Fengyuan became even more solemn. Previously, they had only been one or two parts certain; now that certainty had risen to four or five parts. Chen Yixin was the only living being remaining who had once interacted with the Great Emperor Yuxu.

Their love may have been accidental, but their meeting absolutely had not been.

“Do not harbor hopes that A-Li and I will still be like my elder brother and the others. We are not fools.”

After speaking, Chen Yixin stood up. Emperor Fengyuan and Immortal Emperor Changdong likewise rose to their feet. Before the Chen Yixin who had recovered memories from ages long past, they were both juniors. That had little to do with how many secrets one knew or how much power one possessed.

“The Sea of Ice Extremity is not far from here. There is no need to escort me,” Chen Yixin said. With a sweep of his sleeve, the tables and chairs were put away, and the barrier he had arranged dissipated as well.

Emperor Fengyuan and Immortal Emperor Changdong bowed slightly, watching Chen Yixin depart. The Sea of Ice Extremity truly was not far away. Whether Chen Yixin arrived or not, their immortal senses would be enough to observe it.

A long time passed, yet Immortal Emperor Changdong’s expression remained grave. Emperor Fengyuan, meanwhile, still appeared as though he wanted to speak but could not.

“Indeed… it was my Phoenix Clan that wronged them…”

Originally, he had intended to ask Chen Yixin for the Heavenly Phoenix remains. Fortunately, he had never spoken those words aloud. Otherwise, even the last remnants of sentiment between them would likely have vanished. And with Chen Yixin’s temperament, even if he had not recovered his memories, he would never have handed over the Heavenly Phoenix remains.

Once they confirmed that Chen Yixin had entered the Sea of Ice Extremity, they parted ways upon that small hill. Changdong needed to return and deal with Immortal Emperor Guangle, while Fengyuan had to return and discuss matters with the clan elders to prepare for the great calamity the Upper Realm might soon face.

Chen Yixin had only come to the Sea of Ice Extremity once before. It had been in these deepest depths that he retrieved water for Wenren Li. After that, he had never returned.

Transforming into his true form, he dove downward in a single leap, plunging deeper at incredible speed. One hundred zhang, one thousand zhang — he continued descending. At such depths, even an Immortal Emperor arriving in person would likely be unable to endure.

In ancient times, the Sea of Ice Extremity had been a punishment established by the Great Emperor Yuxu for the immortal and divine races. Nearly every trace he had left behind in the Upper Realm had been erased, save for these divine punishments that could not be removed.

Chen Yixin continued descending. A thin layer of frost began covering his feathers, yet he still did not slow his descent.

He was not tired of living and seeking death. Rather, only if his true body in the Upper Realm approached a state of suspended death would the soul-summoning and guiding art Wenren Li had established in Taixuan have any chance of succeeding.

Eighty-one Soul-Gathering Lamps had burned atop Shuanghe Mountain for nearly forty-nine days. During that time, not a single unusual response appeared. Meanwhile, Wenren Li sat cross-legged among the soul lamps, his own soul lending support to them.

“A-Rong, A-Rong…”

For those forty-nine days, Wenren Li repeated this call endlessly. At the same time, through the strange power of the soul lamps, his soul arrived within a land of chaos. At the center of that chaotic land revolved a gigantic wheel — the Wheel of Reincarnation.

Wenren Li himself did not understand why the power of the soul lamps had brought him there. Yet as he gazed upon the Wheel of Reincarnation, he felt an inexplicable familiarity. Merely observing it also brought immense benefits to his cultivation.

“Wheel of Reincarnation, can you guide a path for A-Rong and me?”

Wenren Li did not linger long within that state of enlightenment. Eighty-one soul lamps were not enough to sustain his stay there for too long.

Two breaths after Wenren Li spoke, a faint silver thread extended from both ends of the Wheel of Reincarnation. Without hesitation, Wenren Li stepped forward. What was being guided toward him on the other side was a frozen phoenix.

Immediately afterward, the chaotic land vanished from before his eyes. The Wheel of Reincarnation disappeared as well. When he opened his eyes again, he was still atop Shuanghe Mountain of Heaven’s Secret Sect, except now there was an icy phoenix egg cradled within his arms.

With Chen Yixin’s cultivation at the Half-Step Emperor realm, it was already impossible for him to return to Taixuan in person. Only in the newborn form of a phoenix egg could Taixuan allow Chen Yixin and Wenren Li to reunite once more.”

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