“Mu, Mu Cheng?”
Seeing this beast-like face covered in bloodstains about to press close, Lian Yunzhi instinctively blocked it with his hand and cast a Dust Removal Technique on him in one smooth motion.
However, the unique grassy fragrance of Lian Yunzhi’s Dust Removal Technique seemed to stimulate Mu Cheng even more. He suddenly opened his mouth, revealing sharp teeth, and bit toward Lian Yunzhi’s hand!
“Ah!”
Lian Yunzhi scrambled forward in a panic, but Mu Cheng fiercely pounced on him, pinning him to the ground, and viciously bit into his neck!
Lian Yunzhi had already braced himself for a scream, but moments later, he realized he hadn’t been torn apart. Instead, he faced a rough, insatiable bout of intimacy, one after another.
Lian Yunzhi lay on the rough vine bed, tilting his head to gaze at the sky outside the Cave Mansion. His body remained tense from head to toe, and his heart pounded wildly.
Mu Cheng was still unsatisfied.
Even as he leaned in to bite Lian Yunzhi’s lips, even as he began sucking the blood from a bite mark that had accidentally torn open, even as he pinned Lian Yunzhi beneath him for one dual cultivation session after another.
He was still unsatisfied.
His teeth never left Lian Yunzhi’s body, and his eyes remained a solid blood-red.
Lian Yunzhi trembled involuntarily. He felt pain, fear, and at every moment dreaded being torn open and swallowed whole by Mu Cheng.
“Ding ling ding ling ling…”
Lian Yunzhi heard the bell toll again.
He felt a moment of daze, almost thinking it was his imagination, but the next instant, the ringing grew more urgent.
In fact, with Lian Yunzhi’s current Divine Soul Force at the Nascent Soul Stage, he could have completely resisted the bell’s sound. But he was in too much pain, too afraid, and too desperate to leave that he allowed himself to sink into it.
It was the Red Mist again, and within the Red Mist stood the masked Cyan-Clothed Person.
Lian Yunzhi wrapped himself tightly in vines once more and walked toward the Cyan-Clothed Person.
The Cyan-Clothed Person turned, sighing lowly, “It’s just the two of us left now. All our other companions have sacrificed themselves.”
“No, they’re not,” Lian Yunzhi said coldly. “Don’t you still have ‘companions’ outside?”
After advancing to the Nascent Soul Stage, Lian Yunzhi had used his Divine Sense to search for Mu Cheng and spotted a Soul Transformation Cultivator’s corpse at his feet. The cultivator had been dead for some time. Lian Yunzhi didn’t know if black mist had erupted from his body at the moment of death, but he had seen a Soul Scattering Needle clutched in the severed hand.
Upon careful thought, although Mu Cheng had killed a “Lin Xian Sect disciple,” the news had spread far too quickly. Someone must have tipped them off.
The Cyan-Clothed Person let out a miserable laugh. “Now they’re really all dead. It’s just the two of us.”
Lian Yunzhi didn’t respond. He was truly exhausted; every inch of his skin trembled with numbness and pain. In the end, he couldn’t hold back. He turned and wove the softest, tenderest vines and leaves into a vine chair, then sat down.
Lian Yunzhi relaxed into the vine chair, then suddenly remembered something else. “What was that foolproof method you mentioned before for killing Mu Cheng?”
The Cyan-Clothed Person gave Lian Yunzhi a profound glance. “What’s the point of talking about that now? Mu Cheng can even kill Soul Transformation and Void Refining cultivators. What foolproof method do I have left to kill him?”
Lian Yunzhi sneered, “Maybe you can wait for the next restart and collude with the Four Great Families again to exterminate the young Mu Cheng completely. Who knows, you might have a slim chance.”
The Cyan-Clothed Person replied, “There won’t be a next time. The last restart was an accident. If this world follows its normal course of destruction and reboot, Mu Cheng will devour every soul here and fall into complete madness. He will summon endless flames to burn for seven full years. Lian Yunzhi, your vine cage is indeed remarkable at fire resistance, but can it withstand seven years of blazing inferno?”
Lian Yunzhi’s smile faded slightly.
The Cyan-Clothed Person continued, “Mu Cheng is completely mad now, isn’t he? In this world, aside from certain special individuals like the Family Heads of the Four Great Families, the black mist power in other cultivators is tied to their cultivation levels. Mu Cheng has killed so many Soul Transformation and even Void Refining cultivators, absorbing all that black mist power. He’s long since lost his sanity.”
Lian Yunzhi asked, “What is the relationship between the Black Mist and Mu Cheng?”
The Cyan-Clothed Person answered, “Haven’t you read that book? The Black Mist is the origin of this Illusion Realm world. It’s the souls Mu Cheng once devoured, his sins, and also the power he scatters and reaps time and again.”
Lian Yunzhi asked again, “Is Mu Cheng’s Madness Illness incurable?”
The Cyan-Clothed Person said, “Completely impossible.”
Lian Yunzhi fell silent.
He knew Mu Cheng’s Madness Illness could be alleviated, but the methods that once worked were useless now.
So what was he to do next?
Was he really going to let Mu Cheng tear off his flesh to feed him?
Lian Yunzhi didn’t want to.
He curled up silently in the large vine chair. He actually didn’t want to meet this Cyan-Clothed Person at all. He knew this man was rotten to the core, no good sort. He kept harping on how Mu Cheng was mad and the world was doomed, but Mu Cheng’s madness was at least half this man’s fault—yet Lian Yunzhi didn’t want to go back right now.
The Cyan-Clothed Person stepped closer and said lowly, “I really don’t understand why you’re siding with Mu Cheng, opposing us time and again. Even if he’s bewitched you, you should have snapped out of it by now. Aren’t cultivation and your life more important than some romance?”
Lian Yunzhi glanced at him, unsure what nonsense he was spouting.
Seeming to notice the disdain in Lian Yunzhi’s eyes, the Cyan-Clothed Person paused, his tone hesitant. “You…”
He looked Lian Yunzhi up and down in disbelief. “…Don’t tell me you’re eyeing Mu Cheng’s physique and using him as a Human Cauldron?!”
Lian Yunzhi: “…”
He wasn’t sure whether to refute it.
The Cyan-Clothed Person took a deep breath. “Don’t tell me you plan to use Mu Cheng to boost your cultivation, ascend in this realm, and shatter the void to escape the Illusion Realm?”
