Yu Yi turned her head to look at him, her brow slightly furrowed, and said, "I don't like clingy dogs."
Xue Chenjing once again put on his pretend pitiful expression. Yu Yi couldn't be bothered to play along with him. As soon as Huai Li fully regained consciousness, she relinquished control of the body.
The young girl blinked, her expression becoming confused. She heard the cat demon's roar and instinctively trembled, but when she turned her head and saw the blood-covered Li Su, she unconsciously stepped towards him, completely unaware of the immortal lord beside her.
"Li Su, you're injured?!"
The demon spirit transmitted her change in expression into Xue Chenjing's mind. He released his fingers, his tentacles silently writhing, allowing the little bird demon to run to Li Su's side.
"Huai Li." Li Su's cat eyes lit up, all the anger in his heart dissipating as Huai Li ran towards him.
Thank goodness, she chose me.
Huai Li ran to his side and urgently said, "Your wound, you're bleeding!"
"It's nothing." The cat demon smiled at her. The joy of regaining what was lost filled his heart, and he couldn't even feel the pain in his shoulder.
Li Su grabbed her and pulled her into his arms, transforming into a beam of light intending to escape from the stone chamber.
But Xue Chenjing's tentacles had already sealed the door of the stone chamber. His appendages quickly skittered across the stone bricks, and the walls of the chamber shook. The stone door closed in an instant, with the bricks fitting tightly together.
The beam of light crashed into the wall and fell back to the ground. Li Su held Huai Li tightly, warily looking back at the human cultivator sitting on the ground. This person had deceived the master of Dark Cinnabar Mountain and all of them demons, yet he still possessed cultivation power.
The human and the cat faced off silently. Demonic energy and the tentacles in the air clashed, bringing the atmosphere in the room to an extreme tension.
The little bird demon looked back and forth between them, not knowing what to do.
Yu Yi finally found an opportunity to draw Huai Li's attention and explained to her, "Ji Hanyi's current situation is the same as ours. The soul in his body is not the immortal lord, but another person."
Huai Li looked at the immortal lord in surprise, "Then where is the immortal lord?"
"His soul should just be suppressed." Yu Yi had heard Ji Hanyi's screams earlier; his soul had not yet been freed from being an Earth-bound Spirit. "I'm sorry, this person is here for me."
"Will he hurt you?" Huai Li said, immediately becoming alert and standing together with Li Su, glaring warily at the human cultivator on the ground.
Xue Chenjing frowned in displeasure, his tentacles crawling on all four walls, eyeing the two of them menacingly. The cat demon stretched out his arm to shield Huai Li behind him, wishing he could hide her entirely with his body, a threatening growl rolling in his throat.
Yu Yi said to Huai Li, "He won't threaten us for now. You should calm your cat down first."
Huai Li had always trusted her, so hearing this, she refocused her attention on Li Su. However, she had been frightened by the cat demon so often before that she always wanted to run when she saw him. How would she know how to soothe him?
Even now, she only dared to pull at a bit of his clothing from behind.
She hesitated and said, "Yu Yi, should I give him a stick and then a sweet date?"
Yu Yi said helplessly, "Don't give him the stick. Look how agitated he is now. If you give him the stick, he'll go berserk. Just hug him from behind, that's all you need to do."
Huai Li swallowed, her heart starting to pound. Even Yu Yi could feel her blushing.
She bit her lip and finally, before Li Su could pounce, she hugged his waist from behind and timidly called out, "Li Su, don't... don't be impulsive. Can I treat your wound first?"
The fierce cat demon instantly quieted down. His whole body stiffened as he felt Huai Li's hands carefully rise from his waist and gently cover his bleeding shoulder. A healing white light glowed from her palms.
He had once mocked her for studying medical arts instead of other techniques. They were demons, not medical cultivators from an apothecary. Demons should learn how to attack, how to occupy territory, how to bully others rather than be bullied.
But now, as Huai Li's hands eased the pain in his shoulder, he realized how warm these hands were.
Li Su was calmed by Huai Li, and an irrepressible low purr sounded in his throat. But his cat eyes still glared vigilantly at Xue Chenjing. If he made the slightest move, he would bare his claws and fangs again.
Xue Chenjing sat on the ground, leaning against the soft flesh of his tentacles, perfectly still.
After Huai Li stopped the bleeding on the cat demon's shoulder, sprinkled medicine powder on it, and finished bandaging it, Xue Chenjing tilted his head slightly and asked rather obediently, "I'm injured too and have been bleeding all along. Won't the mistress come to treat me as well?"
Before he finished speaking, the cat demon had already bared his fangs, fiercely saying, "In your dreams!"
Huai Li was held possessively in Li Su's arms, unable to move at all. She turned her head to look at Xue Chenjing.
He was indeed bleeding profusely, with obviously more wounds on his body than before. Blood soaked through his clothes, visible even on the bright red wedding attire. Yu Yi had lain on top of him for such a long time that even her clothes were stained with mottled bloodstains.
The soft-hearted little bird demon asked worriedly in her heart, "Yu Yi, what should we do? Should we help him?"
Yu Yi didn't have the same soft heart as the little bird demon. She only found it troublesome and said, "Don't bother with him. He won't die."
The little bird demon was still concerned: "But that's the immortal lord's body. The immortal lord's cultivation has already been crippled. If he keeps bleeding like this, won't he die?"
Yu Yi became troubled. She had almost forgotten that although she knew they were already dead, these Earth-bound Spirits immersed in the past believed they were still alive.
"Yu Yi, he really has lost a lot of blood," Huai Li said. But since Yu Yi didn't speak, the little bird demon obediently remained still, showing no intention of getting up to treat the immortal lord.
Li Su's expression became even more smug. He wished he could wrap all six of his tails around the person in his arms, marking her with his scent.
Xue Chenjing sat on the ground with tightly pressed lips, his tentacles adhering to the walls of the stone chamber writhing violently, causing the bricks to crack.
Suddenly, a rustling sound echoed in the room. This sound rose and fell like the tide, reverberating around them like murmurs.
Gradually, this sound coalesced into a kind of indistinct human voice, pitiful and whining.
"You lied to me you lied to me you lied to me you liar—"
"You promised you wouldn't abandon me, mistress. I'm in pain too, I'm in so much pain. You won't abandon your dog, will you—"
Huai Li rubbed her ears, "What's that sound? I think I heard something."
Li Su had also heard this voice. His cat eyes looked around vigilantly, finally locking onto Xue Chenjing.
But the red-clad human cultivator remained sitting there, quietly facing them, not moving at all.
The surrounding sounds persisted, echoing in the room, as if weeping and pleading, more unpleasant than ghost cries, causing headaches. Yu Yi was extremely annoyed and sighed, "Alright, Huai Li, I..."
Before she could finish, Huai Li immediately moved aside, urging in shock and fear, "You go quickly, go quickly and pacify your cat. How is he even more frightening than Li Su?"
After all, apart from the immortal lord, she didn't dare approach that person.
Yu Yi: "..." Xue Chenjing was just a brainless tentacle monster.
As soon as the person in his arms moved, Li Su's arms immediately tensed, alertly asking, "What are you trying to do?"
Huai Li quickly straightened up again, grabbing Li Su's sleeve and persuading, "Li Su, I'm just going to check his wounds. The immortal lord once saved me. I can't let him die here."
Li Su wouldn't listen. "No, I won't let go of you. I won't let you go over there."
Unable to persuade him, Huai Li lowered her head and thought for a while. Her hand secretly reached into the pouch at her waist, fumbled for a moment, and pulled out a dry grass stem. She crushed it and sprinkled it on Li Su's face.
Li Su twitched his nose, his pupils suddenly contracting and then rapidly dilating, his entire expression becoming dazed. His body went limp and he suddenly reverted to his original form, lying on the ground and rolling in the crushed grass, unable to stop meowing.
Huai Li clapped her hands, "There, this really works!"
Yu Yi regained control of the body and looked at the constantly meowing cat on the ground. The small cat had a slender, supple body covered in spots - it was a leopard cat. She rubbed her fingertips, unable to resist saying, "I want to pet it."
Huai Li felt the same itch, "I... I want to as well."
It was the first time she had seen Li Su completely transformed into his original form. He was so tiny, much cuter than when he deliberately enlarged himself to look imposing.
The two agreed, and the girl in the ruqun dress crouched down without hesitation, extending her wicked hands towards the little kitten intoxicated by catnip.
The system let out an anguished wail: "Master, you've lost, you've lost so terribly!"
Xue Chenjing was so angry that his tentacles were trembling. He coldly snorted in his heart: "Huh, it's just a low-level stupid cat spirit."
He reached out to pull a quivering tentacle into his arms and knead it. The tentacle's surface was smooth, and its flesh was both supple and elastic. Wasn't this texture more comfortable than that furry thing?
To be bewitched by a low-level cat spirit, it seems Yu Yi's taste is equally low-grade.
The system's howls reached her ears. Yu Yi turned back to look at Xue Chenjing sitting quietly to the side. His face was pale white, his long hair disheveled and black, his eyes covered with a gauze inscribed with runes. Beneath his vibrant bridal robes, a faint black aura floated, making him look like a resentful ghost bride.
Even Huai Li could feel the gloomy resentment emanating from his body. She shuddered, her soul shrinking into a corner, and urged with a trembling voice: "Yi, you should go quickly."
Yu Yi reluctantly withdrew her hand and stood up, walking towards Xue Chenjing.
As she approached step by step, the tentacles in the air also converged following her footsteps, connecting behind her and surrounding her in a fleshy cocoon, "watching" her from all directions.
—Master, master, master, I'm in so much pain, so much pain—
"Shut up, stop calling out!" Yu Yi stopped a step away from Xue Chenjing, looking down at his blood-stained wedding clothes. "I'm not as good at treating wounds as Huai Li."
The room-filling whimpering finally ceased. Xue Chenjing raised his hand to pinch her sleeve, revealing a pleasing smile, "It's alright, as long as it's master helping me, it's fine."
Yu Yi shook off his hand and crouched down, directly pulling open his loose collar. She glanced at the burst wounds on his body and frowned, "When Huai Li helped you earlier, you didn't have so many injuries."
"It was injured by the cat spirit's demonic energy. When he scratched my pseudopods, it was reflected on my body," Xue Chenjing lied without changing his expression. He certainly wouldn't admit that these wounds were all self-inflicted.
Because touching here earned more points.
Yu Yi suspiciously examined the wounds closely. Three bloody gashes stretched diagonally from his left chest to his lower right abdomen, indeed looking like beast claw marks.
"Pseudopods?" Yu Yi asked in confusion, and immediately a cold sensation crept into her palm.
Yu Yi was startled and instinctively waved her hand to shake it off. A blue sword light sparked at her fingertips, almost piercing through. But from the corner of her eye, she caught Xue Chenjing's face suddenly darkening, and she immediately realized what he meant by pseudopods.
The sword energy at her fingertips dissipated, and she reproached, "Without my permission, don't touch me with your pseudopods. I can't see them, and when they suddenly touch me like that, anyone would be startled."
Moreover, she had almost been strangled by these tentacles just moments ago.
Xue Chenjing grumbled sullenly, withdrawing his tentacle and wrapping it around the wound on his abdomen. The transparent soft flesh was tinged with fresh blood, revealing a slender and rounded tip, looking like jelly drizzled with a spoonful of honey-sweetened fruit juice. He thrust it back in front of Yu Yi.
Yu Yi stared at the blood-stained tentacle tip with a complex expression, noticing a familiar bite mark on it. "... You don't actually want me to touch it, do you?"
Xue Chenjing nodded expectantly. Seeing her not moving for a long time, the anticipation on his face subsided, and even the blood-stained tentacle drooped its tip, asking plaintively, "You were so happy to pet someone else's cat just now, but you're unwilling to pet your own dog?"
Brother, do you look anything like a dog?
Yu Yi's eyes held undisguised disgust: "It's too dirty, I don't want to touch it."
Xue Chenjing's breath sank heavily, and he suddenly retracted his tentacle.
A series of cracking sounds resonated from the stone chamber walls, and rocks of various sizes fell with a clatter. The once-smooth walls had already been scratched into a pockmarked state by the tentacles.
Perhaps he was truly angered; his blood surged, and another stream of blood seeped from his wounds.
Yu Yi performed a simple healing spell to stop his bleeding, then began rummaging through Huai Li's treasure bag for various jars and bottles of medicine. "Tell me, how did you find me?"
Xue Chenjing was in a sullen mood, his voice cold, "I met Crane Senior Brother outside who was looking for you. Knowing you had fallen into this ghost realm, I came in to take you out."
Yu Yi moistened a handkerchief, cleaned his wounds thoroughly, sprinkled on medicinal powder, and glanced up at him, "Really just 'met'?"
Xue Chenjing was silent for a moment, then admitted, "I came looking for you on purpose."
"How did you know which way I went? What trick have you played on me again?" Yu Yi's voice rose, clearly angered. She deliberately pressed harder on the wound on his abdomen, "Take it back."
With this body's meridians severed and senses dulled, Xue Chenjing felt no pain, completely unaware of Yu Yi's secret retaliation. He reached out towards Yu Yi's neck.
Yu Yi immediately raised her hand to block, without a moment's hesitation.
Xue Chenjing's hand stopped midair, and he said sadly, "Master, the Heart Sea Oath Stone has been formed. If I violate the oath, my Purple Palace will be torn apart. You don't need to be so guarded against me."
