The sudden voice in his mind startled him, but he quickly recovered and asked, "Are you the System he mentioned?"
The System cheerfully replied, "Yes, it's me. Master, we've finally met."
Amused by the System's enthusiasm, he adapted quickly to this intangible entity that existed only as a voice in his mind. Curiously, he asked, "You sound like you've known about my existence for a while. Did he tell you about me?"
"He never mentioned you, but I've indeed known about your existence for a long time," the System responded.
Xue Chenjing would have loved to obliterate this aspect of his personality, never to appear again, and would never have mentioned him to others. But the System, holding the original script, naturally knew everything.
It even knew about their childhood bedwetting incident, where the older brother pinched himself, his eyes red and brimming with tears, pretending it was his younger brother who had wet the bed.
The younger brother would just stare blankly at the sheets, protesting too much: "It was my brother who wet the bed, not me."
However, before anyone else could speak, he would burst into tears from shame. So in their parents' eyes, only the younger brother was seen as a crybaby who frequently wet the bed.
"Known for a long time, huh." The man standing before the white stone memorial arch lowered his eyelashes, not dwelling on the thought. After all, with such an entity residing in his mind, all his thoughts could probably be seen by others, which he didn't like.
He stood up from the ground, rubbing his sore eyes. His voice was warm and tinged with a smile as he said, "You don't need to call me Master. Just call me Mingyuan."
The System, accustomed to being ordered around by Xue Chenjing, was hearing such a gentle tone from its host for the first time.
He was so different from Xue Chenjing. The System remembered how Xue Chenjing, upon first hearing its voice, immediately closed his eyes and searched frantically within his own body to find it.
He had scoured every corner of his chaotic mental sea, probed his meridians and flesh, nearly counting each hair on his body, trying to find and destroy it. He had even attempted mental control over it.
Of course, none of these attempts succeeded.
It took a long time for Xue Chenjing to accept being bound to such a useless and troublesome System.
While conversing with the System, Xue Mingyuan turned his gaze to look at the demon clan surrounding him with hostile intent, then back to the white stone memorial arch with its three sections and four pillars before him. His eyes fell on the imperial edict inscribed on the two central door pillars.
"Evil spirits shall not invade, demons and monsters shall not disturb." Xue Mingyuan reached out to feel the magical power in these two edicts and realized, "No wonder he couldn't enter."
He closed his eyes. In his mental sea, the surging demons had already been sealed away along with Xue Chenjing. Now, only an oath stele remained in the empty mental sea, covered by a black mist that obscured its contents.
Xue Chenjing had hidden the contents of the oath stele, not wanting him to see it.
The Xuan Dan Mountain Lord stood a hundred paces away from the memorial arch. Her slender phoenix eyes revealed a hint of confusion. Her red lips parted slightly, and a forked snake tongue flicked out, tasting the air.
Just now, when that man reopened his eyes, the feeling he gave off had changed. Even the blood-suppressing power he had over her earlier had vanished. Instead, he now emanated an aura similar to Ji Hanyi's, which she despised.
Xuan Dan retracted her long tongue, its forked tip brushing across her crimson lips. A dangerous glint appeared in the corner of her eye. She wasn't one to willingly submit to others. As the coldest and most heartless of snakes, she certainly wouldn't pass up an opportunity for revenge.
As Xue Mingyuan reached out to touch the edict on the door pillar, the Xuan Dan Mountain Lord's alluring figure flickered. She transformed into a sinuous white beam of light, passing through the ruins and reaching the white stone memorial arch in an instant.
At that moment, Xue Mingyuan was touching the edict, listening to the System in his mind saying, "Master, the female lead has been inside for a long time. We should hurry in too."
Xue Mingyuan nodded in agreement, "Alright. But can you tell me about her first?"
The System had high expectations for this personality of its host. Compared to Xue Chenjing, who had made no progress on the romance mission, he seemed more likely to achieve a happy ending with the female lead. It immediately replied, "Of course I can."
Just then, the massive snake demon rose from the ground. Its body, covered in scales as hard as armor, reflected a blinding white light in the sunlight.
The white light grazed the corner of Xue Mingyuan's eye. He turned to look and saw a huge, gaping maw with sharp fangs lunging towards him. The demon's bright red tongue lashed out like a whip, and even the saliva droplets from its tongue tip sizzled on the ground, releasing toxic fumes.
Xue Mingyuan twisted his waist to dodge the incoming snake tongue, stepping back into the doorway of the white stone memorial arch.
The barrier on the doorway rippled slightly, swallowing his figure without any resistance.
The snake demon crashed into the white stone memorial arch, triggering the sword formation barrier once again. Countless beams of sword light shot out. Xuan Dan coiled up on the ruins, raising her long tail to fend off the rain of swords. It took quite a while for the sword rain to subside.
The coiled white snake disappeared, and as the dust settled, her alluring figure was revealed. Xuan Dan's white dress was somewhat disheveled, with a few bloodstains, but her injuries weren't severe.
The snake scales on the side of her face hadn't fully receded. Her vertical pupils gazed at the unyielding white stone memorial arch, and she said in disbelief, "He actually went in..."
The barrier that repelled demons, evil spirits, and monsters had accepted him without any resistance. Wasn't he a demon?
...
Behind the white stone memorial arch was the hidden underground palace of the Ji family. This underground palace was vast, like a spacious underground plaza, supported only by encircling pillars.
In the center stood a three-tiered Circular Mound Altar, wider at the bottom and narrower at the top. Each level was enclosed by white jade stone railings, with staircases on all four sides leading upwards.
On the ground of this underground palace were tens of thousands of lamps, one at each step, extending from the base of the altar all the way to its top. Each lamp held a flame the size of a fingertip, illuminating the entire underground palace brightly.
Half an hour ago, when Yu Yi passed through the white stone memorial arch and entered this place, she was initially awestruck by these lamps that resembled a galaxy of stars on the ground.
But it didn't take long for her to notice something strange about these lamps. The pattern formed by their arrangement was exactly the same as the Soul Settling Formation that Xue Chenjing had completed in his notebook.
The cracks between the stone tiles on the floor of this underground palace were filled with plant roots, and the surrounding pillars were also entwined with plant tendrils.
However, these plants seemed to be under some kind of restraint, only extending their roots through the cracks without damaging any of the stone tiles or creating even a single fissure.
Yu Yi reached out and pinched a slender root with her fingernail, guessing it might be from a locust tree.
She had originally thought that the locust tree absorbed the spiritual energy of this place, causing its flowers to glow. Now it seemed that the tree must have absorbed the power from the Soul Settling Lamps underground, which was why when the locust flowers fell, they were guided by the Soul Settling Formation, forming the layout of the underground formation on the ground.
Yu Yi walked to the outermost lamp and made a grasping motion in the air, summoning her Green Bamboo Sword. Blue flames erupted from the sword tip. She gripped the hilt with both hands and thrust downward forcefully at the oil lamp.
When the sword tip was an inch away from the lamp, it suddenly stopped. The sound of the sword's cry echoed repeatedly in this vast underground space.
Yu Yi was forced back two steps. She swung her sword to disperse the reverberating sword energy. Frowning, she intensified the sword light on her Green Bamboo Sword and struck three more times in quick succession. The sword light howled towards the ground lamps but was once again deflected by the light from the lamps.
The blue sword light, weakened by a third, veered off to the right.
Yu Yi followed the path of her sword light and suddenly saw a figure appear where it was heading. He raised the long sword in his hand and brought it down vertically, splitting Yu Yi's remaining sword intent with one strike.
Behind the dissipating blue flames, a familiar face was revealed.
At first, Yu Yi thought it was Xue Chenjing who had followed her in again, but upon second glance, she noticed the differences and asked in confusion, "Are you Ji Hanyi?"
Ji Hanyi sheathed his sword on his back. His eyes were still gray and lifeless, his sight not yet recovered, but because the locust tree spirit had sacrificed itself to reconnect his broken meridians and bones, half of his immortal lord cultivation had been restored. He could now rely on a cultivator's keen senses to perceive his surroundings.
He faced Yu Yi's direction, cupped his hands in a salute, and said with a neither humble nor arrogant attitude: "Miss, this place is where my clan's ancestors rest. I hope you will show mercy and not disturb the spirits of the departed."
The immortal lord's demeanor was cool and dignified, proper and elegant. His eyes seemed to be covered with a thin layer of ice and snow, yet he was not overbearing. He was like a winter plum blooming alone on a snowy branch, completely devoid of the gloomy demonic aura that Xue Chenjing had when he occupied this body.
Yu Yi couldn't help but look at Ji Hanyi a few more times before replying: "This spiritual place has been occupied by evil spirits, even its name changed to Dark Cinnabar Mountain. Demons revel wildly overhead. Does the immortal lord truly believe your ancestors can rest peacefully here?"
This could truly be called dancing on graves.
Ji Hanyi's brow furrowed slightly, a fleeting look of pain crossing his face. He said guiltily: "It is our generation's incompetence that we couldn't protect our home. But the Soul Settling Hall is the last place of peace. I cannot stand by and watch you act recklessly here."
Yu Yi withdrew her Green Bamboo Sword and tried to explain, "I'm not acting recklessly. I'm trying to release the earth-bound spirits trapped above and restore peace to your clan's ancestors."
"Where does this idea come from, Miss?" Seeing her sheathe her sword, Ji Hanyi politely put away his own long sword. His attitude towards this intruder in his ancestral shrine was not aggressive.
Yu Yi said: "Doesn't the immortal lord find it strange? Someone suddenly entered your body without reason and suppressed your soul."
"That was a demon. It was my lack of firm resolve that allowed the heart demon to take advantage." As Ji Hanyi finished speaking, there was a hint of doubt in his expression, as if he couldn't quite convince himself with his own words.
When earth-bound spirits are deeply trapped in the past, they only regain clarity when they reach the moment of death again.
But that clarity lasts only for a moment before they sink back into the past, continuing the next cycle, repeatedly experiencing what they endured in life.
Yu Yi had experimented on Huai Li before. After explaining it clearly, the little bird demon cried until she fainted. When she woke up, she had forgotten everything. Yu Yi wondered how the immortal lord would react.
She observed Ji Hanyi's expression and tried to speak frankly: "The immortal lord must have sensed it too, that it wasn't some heart demon. His name is Xue Chenjing, and like me, he accidentally fell into this Ghost Realm."
"Ghost Realm?" Ji Hanyi's dull gray eyes widened slightly, making the immortal lord's expression seem somewhat bewildered.
Yu Yi said: "Yes, Ghost Realm. You were forced to marry Xuan Dan, but that's an event from a thousand years ago. Afterwards, the Jiang, Yao, and Yun families led cultivators to attack Dark Cinnabar Mountain to save you, resulting in a great battle between humans and demons."
"All the demons on Dark Cinnabar Mountain, including you, immortal lord, have been dead for a thousand years," Yu Yi observed his reaction. "Since entering this place, I've been investigating what's binding so many souls here, preventing them from transcending. I've recently found some clues suggesting it might be the Soul Settling Formation in this underground palace."
Ji Hanyi turned to face the direction of the circular altar, the furrow between his brows deepening.
He wasn't convinced by the few words of the female cultivator before him, but during the time his soul was suppressed, he had vaguely sensed something was amiss.
When things first deviated from their original course in the bridal chamber, his soul had been disturbed, hovering on the edge of consciousness and unconsciousness, which led to his confusion.
What Yu Yi was saying now was like a gust of wind, blowing away the last layer of mist obscuring the truth he had already begun to glimpse.
"Earth-bound spirits..." Ji Hanyi murmured, his expression changing several times. A thousand years of repeated humiliation caused his expression to twist in pain for a moment, but he closed his eyes and quickly suppressed this pain. Finally, he said with acceptance, "Very well, I am willing to work with you to break the formation here."
Yu Yi admired his ability to see through the illusion and stabilize his state of mind so quickly.
"This formation is operating at full capacity. It's nearly impossible to shake it from the outside. We can only go to the circular altar at the center and see what we can do," Yu Yi said.
Ji Hanyi nodded, and the two walked together towards the center of the formation. With Ji Hanyi leading the way, their progress was much smoother. After all, he was of the Ji clan bloodline, and while the ancestral grave might guard against others, it would never guard against its own descendants.
Yu Yi followed behind Ji Hanyi as they ascended the circular altar, turning to look around.
Lit lamps were also placed on this circular altar, but at the center of the lamps was an exquisitely carved crystal lotus platform. The lotus platform was as white as jade, with each petal flowing with dense spiritual energy. It appeared to be made from a large piece of natural spirit stone.
At the center of each lotus platform floated a soul flame. Just on this first level of the circular mound, she could count seven or eight lotus platforms with soul flames within her sight.
Yu Yi's fingers moved slightly within her sleeve as she turned her head to look at Ji Hanyi. She felt a bit wary but asked with a puzzled expression, "Why did your ancestors leave these soul flames here?"
During her five years in the Bamboo Grove Secret Realm, she had read all the books left by her master. Her understanding of this world was no longer limited to the 800,000 or so words in the novel.
She now knew many things that those 800,000 words had never mentioned.
The Way of Heaven has its rules, life and death have their order. The human body has three fires, and the soul also has a soul fire. The soul fire is the foundation of the soul's existence. After death, the soul dissipates, but the soul fire doesn't extinguish. It enters reincarnation to reshape the three hun and seven po, to be reborn.
The Ji family leaving their ancestors' soul flames on lotus platforms, surrounded by a Soul Settling Formation - could it be that they wanted their ancestors to never be reborn? This defied common sense and human nature.
Ji Hanyi frowned, equally confused, "I only knew the location of the ancestral shrine. I've never been allowed to enter here before."
As they were speaking, the ground suddenly shook beneath their feet. The surface of the circular altar began to rotate, with Yu Yi and Ji Hanyi on different levels. She stood on the bottom level of the altar, while Ji Hanyi was on the second level.
They were carried in opposite directions. Yu Yi acted quickly, leaping backwards into the air, trying to fly away from the altar.
However, the circular mound rotated rapidly, the positions of the lamps changing with it, causing the formation they created to change as well. It suddenly locked into a strange formation pattern.
Yu Yi had clearly jumped backwards to retreat, but when she landed on the ground, she found herself standing on the topmost level of the circular mound. Her gaze was quickly drawn to a lotus platform in front of her.
This was the only lotus platform on the top level, with the light of the formation flowing into it from all directions.
The white stone lotus platform gradually became translucent, as if coming to life. From the center of the half-closed petals emerged a light golden soul flame. The light of the soul flame reflected in Yu Yi's eyes. She stared fixedly at the flame, as if entranced, her expression gradually softening. Unconsciously, she raised her hands to cup the lotus platform.
As she touched it, the lotus petals closed one by one, enveloping the central soul flame, finally transforming into a white pill about the size of an egg yolk. Yu Yi grasped the white pill and raised her hand to feed it into her mouth.
Just as the white pill was about to enter her mouth, her wrist was suddenly gripped tightly.
An overly familiar face appeared before Yu Yi's eyes. He blinked, and a tiny red mole on his right eyelid flashed for a moment before being hidden in the fold of his double eyelid. His gaze was clear as he looked at her and said, "Don't swallow it. If you do, you'll become pregnant."
