Yu Yi flew with him and landed on a stable broken wall. When she turned her head to look at him curiously, she only saw an extremely gloomy face.
Xue Chenjing lowered his eyes, his thick eyelashes pressing down on eyes as black as an abyss. That abyss seemed to be churning with a violent storm. His whole body exuded an uncontrollable anger, causing an unusual flush to appear on his face.
His chest heaved violently, his breathing heavy. His right hand gripped his own neck, the base of his thumb pressing against his Adam's apple, his five fingers distorting his throat. For a moment, Yu Yi felt that he truly wanted to strangle himself to death.
Yu Yi released his waist and stepped back in shock.
Xue Chenjing turned to look at her, slowly relaxing the fingers that were gripping his neck. Tears of physical pain welled up in the corners of his eyes. He opened his mouth and then closed it, giving her a complex look that was difficult to describe. Without saying anything, he jumped down from the broken wall and quickly ran away, disappearing behind a tree.
Yu Yi was utterly bewildered, having already given up on trying to analyze Xue Chenjing's mental state.
She raised her hand to touch her ear, where that voice seemed to still be echoing.
He said his name was Xue Mingyuan? Could the person just now be the young master from the mountain temple deep in Xue Chenjing's heart? Then the one who helped her break the formation in the underground palace just now was him?
No wonder he felt so different from Xue Chenjing.
So he could actually come out and control this body. What was going on with the two of them? Multiple personalities? Or were they like her and the little bird spirit before, two souls in one body due to some reason?
Thinking about it this way, it actually matched the plot of "Tidal Shock". In the story of "Tidal Shock", Xue Chenjing was indeed portrayed as a gentle and considerate secondary male character in the early stages, only to start going mad later on.
She had thought that the secondary male character turned into a villain because he couldn't get what he wanted, but it turns out they were actually two different personalities from the beginning?
Yu Yi looked again towards the tree where Xue Chenjing had hidden, but couldn't find any trace of him.
The formation at the bottom of Dark Cinnabar Mountain was completely destroyed, including the soul-settling formation.
All the past illusions of the Ghost Realm disappeared along with it. Palaces collapsed, the ground cracked, and the carved beams and painted pillars faded and were eaten by insects over the years. Rampant grass and vines covered all traces of the past.
This Ghost Realm returned to reality overnight. The demons scattered throughout the ghost city all became confused, and then gradually came to their senses.
It turned out they were already dead. They had been dead for a long time.
Some remained silent, some became hysterical, while others happily opened their arms, finally gaining liberation. They allowed their souls to slowly dissipate, their soul fires falling like stars, descending into the Yellow Springs to await the next reincarnation.
"Hahahahaha!" The Xuan Dan Mountain Lord threw back her head and laughed loudly. She supported her snow-white parasol and spun around on tiptoe on a protruding broken wall. The white light of her dissipating soul flew out from her skirt. "In the end, I still killed so many cultivators to accompany me in death. I, Xuan Dan, have not lived in vain!"
From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a figure standing behind the group of demons. The immortal lord's eyes, which had been corrupted by demonic poison, had regained their clarity. His jet-black eyes looked at her through the scattering soul lights.
There was neither hatred nor resentment on his face, but even a hint of pity.
"Ji Hanyi!" The remnant soul of Xuan Dan twisted in pain.
That look again. She remembered this look. She would never forget this look until her death.
Like the little bird spirit, Xuan Dan had also once been fortunate enough to receive the immortal lord's kindness. At that time, her cultivation was still shallow, and she was being chased by hunting cultivators, hiding here and there in constant fear. She was eventually caught by a human cultivator who wanted to dig out her snake gallbladder. It was Ji Hanyi who stood up and asked that person to let her go.
He said that she had no blood debt on her and wasn't an unforgivable demon, so she shouldn't be their hunting target.
The other cultivators burst into laughter, mocking him for being an idiot who had cultivated himself stupid. They said, "She's a demon. Demons are inherently evil. She will eventually kill people, eat people, and be stained with blood debt."
Ji Hanyi fought with that cultivator, snatched her away and set her free, coldly saying, "If she ever incurs a blood debt, I will kill her with my own hands."
When they met again, the Xuan Dan Mountain Lord was no longer the helpless little snake at others' mercy. She had killed people and was stained with blood debt. On that day, Ji Hanyi pointed his sword at her with the same disappointed and pitying look.
At that moment, Xuan Dan suddenly understood. He really was an idiot who had cultivated himself stupid, stubbornly adhering to what he believed was justice.
These demons and ghosts, chased by human cultivators until their homes were destroyed and they had nowhere to go, how could they possibly keep their hands clean and never commit killing? Her father and mother, who could once protect her, were dead. If she didn't kill, she would only be killed by human cultivators, along with her younger siblings.
In that world, how could there be any good demons untainted by bloodshed?
The Xuan Dan Mountain Lord's cool parasol suddenly transformed into a snow-white curved bow. She drew the bow and nocked an arrow. The long arrow whistled as it shot out, piercing through Ji Hanyi's soul.
"If I'm reborn as a demon in the next life, kill me or flay me as you wish. But don't use your hypocritical words again. It's sickening."
Ji Hanyi didn't resist the arrow. His soul shattered under the arrow, and his clean and bright soul fire fell down, sinking into the ground. The remnant soul of the Xuan Dan Mountain Lord also disappeared completely, her soul fire falling to the ground and vanishing in the ruins.
"Yi'er," a voice called out.
Yu Yi turned her head at the sound. A small bird with a five-colored long tail fluttered its wings and flew over, calling "Yi'er, Yi'er" as it circled around her. The soul of the little bird spirit was dissipating, the scattering soul light looked like its falling feathers, or like ashes after burning.
Yu Yi reached out to catch it, but the soul light disappeared before it could land on her hand, like extinguished fireworks.
"Yi'er, being burned really hurts," the little bird spirit landed on her shoulder and stretched its head to nuzzle her cheek. "Yi'er, thank you. If it weren't for you, I would have been burned many, many more times."
"In the next life, I don't want to be a bird anymore. I want to be a fish, living in water."
Yu Yi said, "Fish can be grilled too."
The little bird spirit was startled into silence. Yu Yi burst out laughing, "You should be reborn in the deep sea then, growing into a big fish that people can't catch or dare not catch. As big as a kun, then you won't be caught and grilled."
The little bird spirit nodded vigorously, happily saying, "Alright, I'll listen to you. In my next life, I'll be reborn as that kun you mentioned."
A spotted wildcat emerged from the bushes, nimbly jumping over the broken walls and ruins to the foot of this ruined wall. He transformed into human form, crouched under the wall, looked up and called out, "Huai Li."
Huai Li nuzzled Yu Yi's cheek once more, saying sadly, "Yi'er, I have to go now."
Yu Yi gently stroked her, "Okay."
Huai Li flew up from her shoulder. Her five-colored tail feathers had already fallen away completely. She fluttered her incomplete wings, stumbling as she circled around Li Su, "Li Su, goodbye."
Li Su rushed over to hug her, but then feared that his action would make her soul dissipate faster. He could only carefully cup the five-colored bird, watching her beautiful soul irreversibly fade away. He cried out in anguish, "Don't go. I know how to treat you well now. Don't go, Huai Li, I love you..."
He thought he had finally learned how to love her, how to treat her well. They surely could have had a better future together. Who knew that they actually had no future at all?
Until death, he was still expressing his love in his clumsy and foolish way, smugly mistaking her fear and dread for something "special".
His heart was full of regret, but heaven didn't give him a chance to make amends.
"I shouldn't have treated you like that. I shouldn't have scolded you, shouldn't have bullied you, shouldn't have..." Li Su's voice choked up, unable to continue.
Huai Li smiled and made chirping bird sounds. She gently nibbled his fingertip with her beak. "I don't blame you, Li Su. You should remember, in the next life, don't die for anyone again."
The little bird spirit closed her eyes in his palm, her three hun and seven po souls completely dissipating. A soul fire the size of a fingertip fell from his palm. No matter how he tried to cup it, no matter what he used to catch it, he couldn't stop the descent of that soul fire.
Li Su watched helplessly as she left, crawling on the ground and lamenting, "If you don't blame me, why can't you stay for me? I just wanted you to see me. How can you be so heartless? How can you leave without any attachment?"
"Where should I go to find you?"
The soul lights fading in the ghost city were becoming scarce, as the souls that needed to leave had departed.
Yu Yi crouched on the wall, looking down at the cat demon weeping on the ground, and asked, "Are you going to sit here forever? Turning into an earth-bound spirit again because you can't let go, trapping yourself here?"
The cat demon didn't respond, only digging at the ground, seemingly still desperately trying to dig out the little bird demon's soul fire.
"If you keep guarding this place, you'll never see her again," Yu Yi said. "She said she doesn't want to be a bird anymore. In her next life, she wants to be reborn in the sea, as the biggest fish that no one dares to mess with."
The cat demon finally stopped moving. After a long while, it let out a mournful cry, and its soul began to dissipate.
Yu Yi quietly waited for the cat's cry to cease and Li Su's soul fire to sink into the ground before jumping down from the broken wall.
Three years in the Ghost Realm had passed like a dream. She had always been prepared that once the Ghost Realm was broken, the little bird demon would leave.
But after all, this was the first close friend she had made since coming to this world. They had eaten together, slept together, and spent so much time in the same body. Parting like this inevitably left her feeling a bit lost.
Suddenly, a crane's call came from under the fallen locust tree. The crane senior brother squeezed out from under the tree full of withered yellow leaves and flowers, and as soon as it saw Yu Yi, it opened its wings and rushed towards her, calling out.
"Crane senior brother, long time no see." Yu Yi hurriedly reached out to catch it, the sense of loss in her heart easing considerably at the sight of the crane senior brother.
The red-crowned crane finally reunited with its little junior sister, opening its wings to hug Yu Yi, resting its bird head on her shoulder and crying "ga ga".
To save her, the crane senior brother had obediently followed Xue Chenjing's instructions, perching on the locust tree and calling out.
However, not long after Xue Chenjing went in, this locust tree suddenly withered, scaring the crane senior brother so much it almost lost its bird soul. It was terrified that Yu Yi would never come out again, and it would never see its sword spirit again.
Fortunately, it finally waited for her return.
Yu Yi soothingly patted the crane's head and took out the green bamboo sword to give to it, comforting its longing.
The crane senior brother hugged the bamboo sword with both wings, its crane call lingering, as if crying and complaining, as if they had been separated for thousands of years - truly a deeply affectionate bird.
Halfway through pouring out its feelings, the crane senior brother lowered its head and saw the cracks on the bamboo sword. Its call stopped abruptly.
It angrily raised its long beak and pecked Yu Yi without mercy, flapping its wings against the sword body, its small eyes accusingly glaring at her, as if she were a sinner of all ages who had mistreated its wife.
Yu Yi's gaze shifted guiltily back and forth, not daring to meet the crane senior brother's small eyes. "Ah, well..."
She let out a dry laugh and patted the crane senior brother's back. "I've now reached the middle stage of the Golden Core, my cultivation has increased by one level, and this sword couldn't withstand my spiritual power for a moment, so it cracked a tiny bit."
The crane senior brother let out a long cry - who cares about your cultivation? It only cared about its sword spirit.
Yu Yi patted her storage bag again and promised, "Don't worry, before I left the secret realm, I stored over a hundred green bamboo swords in my storage bag, as well as more than a dozen high-grade spirit swords plucked from the Sword-Sealing Stone. When we get to Yinzhou City, I'll find a place to melt down the spirit swords and reforge the green bamboo sword, ensuring that the sword spirit will live comfortably in my green bamboo sword."
Only then was the crane senior brother satisfied, no longer raising its long beak in an attempt to peck her to death.
After the bird's cries subsided, Yu Yi heard the system's voice coming from the vine-covered ruins. She looked over in that direction but couldn't find Xue Chenjing's shadow.
The system sighed and asked helplessly, "Master, what are you hiding here for? At this time, you should go comfort the female lead and find a way to make her happy!"
Xue Chenjing let out a cold laugh in his heart that made the system's hair stand on end. "Master? Who is your master? Isn't your master Xue Mingyuan?"
System: "..." We're all on the same side, why do we have to distinguish between you and me?
The system was silent for a moment, then made a "ding" sound.
[System: Ding — Congratulations to the host for successfully completing this temporary mission. You have obtained a total of 110 reward points. You can now exchange for one plot clue. Does the host want to exchange immediately?]
Xue Chenjing frowned, "Where did the additional fifteen points come from?"
The system replied, "When the female lead rescued the host who was swept into the ground fissure by the gale, she held the host's waist while bringing you out of the fissure, thus earning a fifteen-point reward."
Xue Chenjing looked through the lush vines and leaves at the person hugging the crane senior brother not far away, and said ominously, "She didn't save me, she saved Xue Mingyuan."
If it were him, he thought, Yu Yi would probably abandon him without hesitation and coldly watch him fall, wouldn't she?
Why? Why am I not good enough? They've only met twice, and haven't even had a proper conversation, so why can Yu Yi trust him so easily? Why? Why? Why am I the only one who's not acceptable?
Xue Chenjing stared coldly at her through the gaps in the vines, biting down on a dangling vine flower in front of him, grinding his teeth fiercely.
The fresh scent of the plant and a hint of sweetness from the nectar spread on his tongue, very similar to her scent. She must taste just like this.
Yu Yi keenly felt the intense gaze on her body. She turned her head to look towards the area submerged in vines.
The vines there had broad leaves, piled up in layers, with clusters of small white flowers blooming among the green leaves, looking very lovely in the golden light of the morning sun.
They covered the broken walls and ruined earth below under a veil of spring.
She heard the system's voice ask again, "Then does the master want to voluntarily give up these fifteen points?"
Xue Chenjing licked off the white petals sticking to his lips, watching as Yu Yi's gaze scanned back and forth across this patch of vines, yet never managing to find him.
"Give up? What a joke," he said righteously, no longer quibbling about you and me at this moment. "Exchange for the plot clue right now, immediately."
[System: Ding — Exchange successful, points have been deducted. The clue comes from the lotus pond below the Circular Mound Altar. There is something there that the host has been searching for. This item is related to the next stage of the side plot.]
Xue Chenjing's expression became solemn. The Earth Impurity floated out from his sleeve, quickly enveloping him, turning his form into mist, and flowing into the underground palace along the ground crevices.
In just a few breaths, his figure appeared on the collapsed Circular Mound Altar in the underground palace of the Ji Family Ancestral Hall, and he jumped down into the deep crevice in the center without hesitation.
As he fell, Xue Chenjing asked with a cold laugh, "Will you also exchange this clue for Xue Mingyuan?"
The system said weakly, "You are both my masters."
Xue Chenjing's laughter echoed in this deep crevice, and he said through gritted teeth, "A good horse doesn't wear two saddles, a good dog doesn't serve two masters. You're worse than pigs and dogs."
The system listened to his angry nonsense, feeling very innocent. As far as this system is concerned, you're not really two masters either.
On top of the Circular Mound Altar in the underground palace, another figure landed. Yu Yi looked down and could faintly hear laughter coming from below. This sound echoed between the walls, changing its tone by the time it reached her ears.
"So happy? What good thing is it?" Yu Yi thought to herself as she leaped down.
Since she couldn't shake off Xue Chenjing, it meant she couldn't escape those troublesome plots to some extent. Since she had a part in unlocking the plot, of course she should also reap the fruits after unlocking the plot.
Unexpectedly, there was another hidden space deep beneath the Circular Mound Altar.
To maintain the formation on the Circular Mound Altar, the Ji family had set up a hidden spiritual eye here to capture the spiritual energy of the surrounding mountains and rivers. Now that the Circular Mound Altar had collapsed, the spiritual energy in the spiritual eye had leaked out, returning to this world.
But in this defunct spiritual eye, there was still a pool, a pool filled with lotus flowers.
In the pool, one lotus flower had lost its petals and withered, four were still half-open, and there were two newly emerged flower buds.
The lotus flowers floating on the water's surface were crystal clear and white as jade, identical to the lotus flowers on the Circular Mound Altar that enveloped the golden soul fire petal by petal, ultimately transforming it into an embryonic element.
Xue Chenjing plucked a petal from a half-open lotus flower at the edge of the pool. As soon as it detached, it immediately dissipated in his hand.
He leaned over, took a deep breath, and with a slightly dazed expression on his face, murmured, "Primordial chaos energy."
No wonder those old ghosts of the Ji family could bypass reincarnation and directly transform into newborns. These lotus flowers were the crucial element that allowed the Ji family ancestors to be reborn through the Nine-Transformation Lotus Rebirth Formation.
Yu Yi was quite unfortunate. When they opened the Ji Family Ancestral Hall, a lotus flower in this pool had just matured, capable of allowing a soul to be reborn through the Nine-Transformation Lotus Rebirth Formation. That's why she was dragged into the underground palace, nearly becoming the vessel to nurture the Ji family's embryonic element.
Xue Chenjing had already guessed what was at the bottom of the pool. With a gloomy expression, he reached out and tore away all the lotus flowers in the pool, watching them dissipate into primordial chaos energy.
He then reached into the water and, after a moment, pulled something out from the bottom.
Just as his hand emerged from the water, he saw a white blur flash before his eyes, and whatever was in his palm was suddenly snatched away by something.
Xue Chenjing immediately looked up. Countless tentacles surged from the void, chasing after the white blur. But when he saw the white figure crash into someone's arms, the tentacles writhing in mid-air instantly froze.
Yu Yi hugged her crane senior brother, who had been shrunk by a talisman, and took from its beak an object that looked like jade but wasn't quite jade, resembling a lotus root segment. "What is this?" she asked.
Xue Chenjing stood up from the edge of the pool, his pitch-black eyes fixed on her, and asked, "Why did you come down?"
"I saw you come down, so I followed," Yu Yi replied, stroking the lotus root-like object in her hand, examining it with curiosity.
Xue Chenjing pressed his lips together, his body tense, with invisible tentacles rigid around her, their tips quivering anxiously. His breathing was heavy, his pupils trembling slightly. He clenched and unclenched his fists several times before finally managing to suppress the violent impulse in his heart.
He said softly, "It's a tailbone, an infant's tailbone."
Yu Yi's motion of stroking the object froze. She instinctively wanted to throw away the thing in her hand but ultimately resisted the urge and asked, "How do you know this is an infant's tailbone?"
The object in her hand was exquisite and lustrous, not even as long as a finger, with four pieces nested together, larger at the top and smaller at the bottom, looking more like a piece of fine white jade.
Xue Chenjing stared at her unblinkingly, focusing on the tailbone between her fingers. "Because it was once cut from my body."
This bone was clean, neither tainted by demonic energy nor containing any divine power. It was a bone of primordial chaos from when they were first born.
Yu Yi lowered her eyes to look at the bone in her hand. Xue Chenjing had lied to her too many times; there wasn't a single truth in his mouth, so she didn't believe his words at all. But after what he said, holding this bone still felt like holding a hot potato.
Xue Chenjing slowly walked towards her, his face pleading, and asked, "If the master doesn't believe me, would you like to feel for yourself? Feel if I have a tailbone or not."
