Wenren Li lowered his eyes toward Chen Yixin, then carefully sensed the place on his brow that Chen Yixin had touched and kissed. His hand settled on Chen Yixin’s waist, using no spiritual power at all as he simply massaged it.
Only after a long time did Wenren Li quietly answer, “Mm.”
His will was enough to influence his spiritual power. It should not—and would not—make Chen Yixin uncomfortable.
Wenren Li had thought the matter through, but Chen Yixin was becoming thoroughly distracted by the massage. Asking Wenren Li outright to stop rubbing his waist was impossible, so Chen Yixin could only force himself to concentrate even harder on the jade slips in his hands.
“What exactly are they trying to do?” Chen Yixin’s eyes showed deep thought. The “they” he referred to were the Otherworld Demons mentioned in the reports. Their activity was not limited to the former territory of Yuding Sect; traces had also appeared around other immortal sects and in several mortal empires.
Even during the current northern campaign, while fighting the Immortal Alliance, they had discovered signs that Otherworld Demons were participating under the identities of immortal cultivators.
“If my guess is correct, they either possess the Demon Abyss Well or know where it is. They don’t want me to recover completely.” Wenren Li had read everything Chen Yixin had, but he ultimately knew more than Chen Yixin did.
All three wells—the Myriad Worlds Well, the Three Lives Well, and even the still-missing Demon Abyss Well—contained remnants of Wenren Li’s original true body. If he wanted to recover his former combat strength within a short time, he needed to locate all three.
Chen Yixin set the jade slip aside, turned, and wrapped both arms around Wenren Li’s waist. Curling his legs slightly, he tucked his entire body into Wenren Li’s embrace and pressed his face against Wenren Li’s chest.
“A-Li, can you tell me why the Void-Heaven Battlefield exists? I heard Elder Brother mention some things when he was chatting with all of you, and later I heard other things in the Upper Realm, but I’ve always had questions.”
Chen Yixin had wanted to ask Wenren Li this for a very long time. But this was not merely an ancient secret; it also contained the story of Wenren Li’s betrayal. Every time Chen Yixin thought about it, his heart hurt too badly for him to ask.
“Probably because I had been lonely for too long. Heaven and Earth moved through cycles. Prosperity reached its peak, then began to decline. The Age of Dharma Decline approached. I watched the people around me disappear one by one. At first, I could still feel pain when they left. Later… gradually, I stopped feeling much of anything.”
Wenren Li held Chen Yixin gently, his gaze drifting far away. He did not know whether Chen Yixin could truly understand the feeling. “I was still myself, yet little by little, I was becoming someone who no longer felt like me.”
As an undying god, Wenren Li’s life had lasted for such an incomprehensibly long time that he had experienced a loneliness no ordinary being could understand. His memories reached far further back than Chen Yixin had ever imagined.
“The Void-Heaven Battlefield was created to restrain the Void Origin and prevent the Age of Dharma Decline from arriving. At first, it was only an idea. But then Qingruo, Lin Yu, Nangong, and Dongfang appeared one after another, and I began to see hope.”
Qingruo was a Heavenly Phoenix. Lin Yu was a Heavenly Speaker. Nangong was a Qilin Saint. Dongfang was a Heavenly Dragon. They were fundamentally different from ordinary divine clans: beings born naturally from Heaven and Earth, like Wenren Li himself. Wenren Li alone could not accomplish what he envisioned, but with them, perhaps the impossible was no longer impossible.
“Yuxu Palace was established, and the Four Divine Generals appeared. We gathered a group of divine clans who wanted to change the laws of Heaven and Earth, and the trend from prosperity toward decline was reversed. Of course, those of us who established the Void-Heaven Battlefield also had to pay a certain price.”
“But A-Li took all of that price upon yourself alone, didn’t you?”
Chen Yixin, who had been listening obediently, suddenly asked the question. Light flickered in his eyes, and his emotions were almost impossible to untangle. He could not judge whether Wenren Li’s ideals and actions had been right or wrong—but the divine clans that enjoyed the blessings he created and then betrayed him were absolutely unforgivable.
Wenren Li remained silent for a moment before giving a light nod. “Mm.”
He had never told anyone. Every hundred thousand years, he would become weak and sleep for nearly a century. No matter how carefully he hid it, after enough time passed, someone would eventually notice the pattern and find the flaw. Nangong and Dongfang had chosen precisely one of those periods of extreme weakness to betray him.
Chen Yixin’s eyes stung, and the ache in his chest became almost unbearable. He hugged Wenren Li tighter and asked in an even quieter voice, “A-Li… do you hate them?”
Before Wenren Li could answer, Chen Yixin immediately answered for him. “You should! You absolutely should! A-Li, don’t worry. We’re definitely going to get revenge!”
Wenren Li raised a hand and gently pinched Chen Yixin’s puffed-up cheek, then lowered his head and rubbed his forehead against Chen Yixin’s. “The price wasn’t that terrible. It mostly just made me less inclined to move than usual.”
He knew Chen Yixin was not hurting only because Wenren Li had been betrayed. Chen Yixin also hurt for all the years Wenren Li had borne heavenly punishment alone.
Chen Yixin pursed his lips. He did not accept Wenren Li’s attempt to minimize it at all, but neither did he want to make Wenren Li continue dwelling on those painful memories.
“Besides… A-Rong has forgotten. You were with me during those periods too.” Even when Wenren Li was weak and barely moved, there had still been a clingy phoenix egg beside him. In fact, Chen Yixin was probably the only living being ever to have seen Wenren Li looking even slightly bedraggled.
“Then what happened after that? You and Elder Brother still sealed me away. A-Li has no idea how miserable I was back then.”
Chen Yixin had never witnessed what happened in the final battle. He had sensed that something was wrong and clung stubbornly to Wenren Li’s palm, refusing to leave with the members of the Ancient Phoenix Divine Clan, only to be sealed away first by Wenren Li and then by Qingruo.
Wenren Li’s hand slid to the back of Chen Yixin’s neck and gently rubbed it. He lowered his head until their foreheads touched and apologized with complete sincerity. “That was my fault.”
Chen Yixin could do little more than stare at Wenren Li from close range. He could not truly keep blaming either Wenren Li or Qingruo, because he knew perfectly well that they had sealed him away to protect him.
“As for the Otherworld Demons, they are a species born from the Void Origin. Their purpose is to carry the aura of the Age of Dharma Decline into the various realms.” That meant the appearance of Otherworld Demons in Taixuan had never been accidental. There were traces of their activity in other Lower Realms as well.
“But after so many years, the Otherworld Demons of today are probably no longer the same as those of the past.”
Heaven and Earth changed. The Otherworld Demons could not possibly remain unchanged forever either. It was entirely possible that some of them had developed intelligence, and they were the only beings in existence naturally capable of restraining Wenren Li.
“That isn’t our problem. We only need to clean them out of Taixuan. Everything else can be left for the Upper Realm to worry about.”
Even as Chen Yixin said this, however, his gaze on Wenren Li revealed lingering thoughtfulness. He had the persistent feeling that what Wenren Li had told him was nowhere near as simple as it sounded.
“Demon Abyss Well…” Chen Yixin murmured. His expression suddenly froze. He raised his head abruptly, eyes widening while his teeth ground together, anger flooding his chest in an instant.
“Don’t tell me… from the past until now, you’re still the one bearing the price for defying Heaven?”
Aside from the divine crystal seed Chen Yixin had recovered from beneath the Nine Abysses, the other remnants of Wenren Li’s original body had been full of life, yet none could truly revive. It was not because they lacked the ability. Nangong and Dongfang had killed Wenren Li, and even after his death, they still had not released him.
The remnants of Wenren Li’s true body sealed inside the three Divine Wells were being used to suppress the Void-Heaven Battlefield while simultaneously bearing the price of heavenly punishment.
The reason the Divine-Fall Punishment called down by Chen Yixin’s Soul-Gathering Art had no effect on Wenren Li was because Wenren Li had spent such an incomprehensibly long time resisting punishments far more terrible than this that he had developed the ability to withstand them.
Chen Yixin’s eyes reddened with anger. He pushed against Wenren Li and tried to rise from his arms, but Wenren Li immediately tightened his hold and refused to let him leave.
“If my guess is correct, the Demon Abyss Well should be inside the former Yuxu Palace—and Yuxu Palace lies deep within the Void-Heaven Battlefield.”
By now, that place had probably become the nest of the Otherworld Demons. Nangong and Dongfang had deliberately left the Demon Abyss Well there from the very beginning. They had almost certainly made some sort of agreement with the Otherworld Demons.
Chen Yixin’s nose stung. He stopped struggling and turned his red-rimmed eyes toward Wenren Li. “A-Li… does it hurt?”
One trembling hand rose to Wenren Li’s chest. What appeared in Chen Yixin’s mind, however, was the scene he had once seen through the Three Lives Well: a bottomless black pool, with a sleeping Wenren Li submerged inside while countless black threads continuously drained divine power from his body.
Before Wenren Li began absorbing the Severed Wood Remnant, he should have had little connection left to his former body. But Chen Yixin had awakened his memories and reconnected him with everything from his past. All the suffering still being imposed upon Great Emperor Yuxu had therefore returned to Wenren Li as well.
Even now, Wenren Li had never truly escaped the betrayal and suffering of the past. Understanding that made Chen Yixin’s heart ache with guilt as well as pain. He wanted to bear it for Wenren Li, but there was nothing he could do.
“No—” Wenren Li had barely begun trying to reassure him when Chen Yixin lunged forward and sealed the comforting lie beneath a kiss.
Their soft kiss finally ended. Wenren Li supported Chen Yixin’s chin, the corner of his mouth curving faintly. “Saying it doesn’t hurt would indeed be lying to you. But… I’m used to it. A-Rong doesn’t need to blame yourself. As long as you are here, I accept it willingly.”
Without Chen Yixin, remembering the past truly would have been torment. But Chen Yixin’s existence had transformed both the suffering of the past and the suffering of the present into something Wenren Li could bear. Their falling in love had been an accident—but an extraordinarily fortunate one.
Chen Yixin did not answer. He simply remained pressed tightly against Wenren Li, holding him and refusing to let go. A moment earlier, he had wanted to rush back to the Three Lives Well and demand answers from it. That had been an impulse born of anger. Now that he had calmed down, he wanted far more simply to hold Wenren Li like this.
The sky outside the command tent grew completely dark. An Cheng came several times and quietly withdrew each time. Chen Yixin and Wenren Li remained embracing one another until the sky slowly brightened again, and only then did Chen Yixin finally pull himself out of Wenren Li’s arms.
“A-Li, I promise you. Whatever they did to you, I’ll repay a thousandfold. Ten thousandfold.”
Wenren Li looked at the calm, sharp-edged Chen Yixin before him, took his hand, and slowly tightened his grip. Then he gave a light nod. “All right. We’ll do it together.”
They walked out of the tent hand in hand. An Cheng appeared several steps away. “Good news. All Ten Demon Generals attacked together. Lingxu Sect has fallen.”
As he spoke, An Cheng handed over a jade slip. Chen Yixin scanned it with divine sense and returned it to him, then continued walking while holding Wenren Li’s hand. “A-Li and I are going to Lingxu Sect. You and Qiu Yi remain here.”
“Yes.” An Cheng accepted the order. Only after a long time did he raise his head and look toward the direction in which Chen Yixin and Wenren Li had disappeared. Somehow, after this single night, Chen Yixin seemed another degree or two more decisive and ruthless than before.
Sigh… their sweet, soft Young Highness really was gone forever…
No—more accurately, that version of Young Highness was completely gone in front of them. Perhaps Wenren Li could still see him.
Chen Yixin and Wenren Li left the military camp and disappeared immediately. Two breaths later, they arrived on a mountain not far from Lingxu Sect. Chen Yixin continued pulling Wenren Li toward the sect. After several steps, however, he turned around and gave Wenren Li a slightly wary look.
“Does A-Li think I’ve become too fierce?”
Compared with the past, Chen Yixin truly had become more willful and far more ruthless. He had threatened and ordered Wenren Li around more than once, much less everyone else. Overall, he was definitely much “worse” than he used to be.
Wenren Li was silent for a long while before nodding. “You are fierce. But you’re also adorable.”
So he still thought Chen Yixin was fierce.
Chen Yixin narrowed his glaring eyes, then gave a dissatisfied little hmph. “Then I’ll become even fiercer in the future!”
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