Chapter 11: You can hide it from me, but can you hide it from your own heart?!
Yan Jingyu had long known that Liao Chen surely carried many flying artifacts, and certainly more than a few capable of carrying passengers.
After all, the former Demon Lord Chi Yuan was a man who cared a great deal about pomp and circumstance. Every time he went out, he would use all sorts of magnificent carriages, and they were all real objects, not the cheap tricks low-level cultivators used to fool mortals.
Of course, most of them were stolen from others.
This small boat was just over a person long, enough for Yan Jingyu to lie down completely flat. He found a comfortable position inside and said again, “Cold.”
Liao Chen took out a thick, heavy black robe and draped it over him.
Yan Jingyu pulled the collar up himself, tucking it under his chin. The small boat floated beside Liao Chen, carrying him. This indeed saved him a lot of effort, allowing him to size up the other man with impunity.
Unfortunately, he really didn’t have the energy, and he soon fell into a deep sleep.
Even in a half-dreaming state, Yan Jingyu was still wondering what had happened inside the barrier. He first dreamed that he was being ordered by Liao Chen to pick up feathers. The wind howled, the snow fell, and he was cold and hungry, but he could never finish picking up all the feathers on the ground. Then he dreamed that Liao Chen had turned into a giant demonic beast and made him comb his fur with a small comb. Yan Jingyu climbed all over him, but Liao Chen’s original form was too big, the fur as dense as ten acres of wheat seedlings, endless to comb. The sharp pinions scratched bloody marks all over his body. Yan Jingyu was tired and in pain, so wronged that he cried, and he was even poked in the butt several times by the supervisor, ‘Lian Feng’. It was truly miserable…
When he woke up, he realized that a dream could only be a dream.
How could Liao Chen possibly order him to do something so idiotic?
He sat up in the small boat, wrapped in the black robe, and found that he and Liao Chen were at the edge of a cliff. But unlike the cliffs of the outside world, beside this cliff was only a void. At a glance, it looked as if it were enveloped by a vast, chaotic space.
Behind them was an endless green forest, with no sound of birds or beasts to be heard.
He realized that this must be the edge of Jiuyi Mountain. Looking at this chaotic netherworld from here, the space felt even more deathly still, without a trace of air circulation.
“What, you can’t get out either?”
A bonfire was lit beside the small boat. Yan Jingyu stretched out his hand to warm his somewhat cold hands. Not far away, Liao Chen sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, the fire-element spiritual energy circulating silently around his body. He was once again seizing every opportunity to cultivate.
“After the Vermilion Bird’s divinity is taken away, Jiuyi Mountain will return to the world.” Liao Chen’s tone was faint as he answered Yan Jingyu’s question. Yan Jingyu held both his hands out to the fire and glanced at the chaos outside again. “So, Jiuyi Mountain is rising now?”
Liao Chen didn’t answer. After all, there were no reference points around. Who knew if Jiuyi Mountain was rising or falling now? Yan Jingyu hadn’t expected an answer anyway. He was just feeling unbalanced because he couldn’t cultivate himself, while Liao Chen could do so with such impunity.
“I’m hungry.”
The response was a familiar bag of Bigu Pills. Yan Jingyu didn’t take it. “This stuff only makes me not feel hungry, but I’m actually still hungry.”
“You’re still running a fever. The Bigu Pills are rich in spiritual medicine. They are more nourishing for you than food.”
Only then did Yan Jingyu know he had a fever. He touched his forehead. “I don’t care. I want to eat something delicious.”
“Cultivators should abstain from the desires of the palate.”
“I’m not a cultivator,” Yan Jingyu said. “I want to eat meat.”
Liao Chen ignored him.
Yan Jingyu withdrew his hands, picked up a stone from under the small boat, and threw it at the other man. The stone, of course, couldn’t hit Liao Chen and fell directly to the ground.
“If it weren’t for you bullying me inside the barrier, would I have gotten a fever?”
The circulating spiritual energy came to an abrupt halt. Liao Chen opened his eyes, looked over expressionlessly, and said coldly, “How did I bully you?”
“How would I know?” The words were spoken with righteous indignation, but Yan Jingyu’s body instinctively wrapped the black robe tighter around him. The robe was large, making him seem exceptionally small and weak. “You can hide it from me, but can you hide it from your own heart? Have you forgotten how you treated me inside the barrier?”
Liao Chen stared at him unblinkingly. Yan Jingyu inexplicably felt a dark, murderous intent. He held his breath slightly, until the other man’s lips curled in a cold sneer. “Yan Qi, why don’t you think carefully about why you’ve ended up in this state? I set up a barrier outside the realm. Why did you enter for no reason, and why did you provoke me? If you hadn’t tried to take my life during the critical period of my merging with the divinity, how would you have become like this?”
His eyes were full of ridicule and disgust. Yan Jingyu was stunned for a moment. Although he didn’t remember anything, he knew that what Liao Chen said was probably true. When faced with an unstable Liao Chen, it was possible that he would want to take his life…
“I didn’t kill you and sealed your memory because I didn’t want you to feel embarrassed. But if you really want that memory, I can give it back to you.”
The man raised his hand languidly, his words spoken one by one, “You can take these disgusting memories and go die.”
Yan Jingyu immediately raised his hand to stop him. “Can’t I just not want it?!”
He could see that Liao Chen was truly moved to kill, and would really take his life. And he also keenly sensed that those memories… didn’t seem to be anything good for Liao Chen either.
Recalling the other’s various abnormal behaviors along the way, Yan Jingyu was actually even more curious. But he wisely chose not to ask. It wouldn’t be worth it to lose his life… and watching Liao Chen continue to be triggered by those bad memories was also quite enjoyable.
Liao Chen stared at him sinisterly for a while longer, then readjusted his breathing and closed his eyes.
The dissipated spiritual energy fluctuations began to circulate again, but not as smoothly as before. It stuttered several times before it finally spread throughout his body again.
Yan Jingyu, while observing, said heavily again, “Cough—”
The spiritual energy fluctuations were briefly interrupted, fading from his body bit by bit, and then, under Liao Chen’s strenuous efforts to stabilize his mind, spread throughout his body again.
Yan Jingyu: “Cough cough cough—”
The spiritual energy instantly disappeared from his body. Liao Chen’s figure appeared in front of Yan Jingyu in a flash. Yan Jingyu, caught off guard, shrank back into the small boat and instantly saw his demonized crimson pupils, his whole body overflowing with demonic energy. “Yan Qi, are you, really looking to die…”
The man’s long hair danced, his five fingers formed a claw, and sharp pinions rapidly grew on the side of his neck. This time, Yan Jingyu was truly scared. He immediately shrank his head into the black robe as well, motionless like a quail.
The body under the black robe trembled silently. Yan Jingyu’s mind was filled with the other’s suddenly approaching face and the sharp pinions that had sprouted all over his body. The ferocious pinions were like thorns, exceptionally fierce and terrifying.
Yan Jingyu held his breath, motionless, until he felt the malicious intent surrounding him completely disappear, and then he gradually relaxed.
He timidly poked his head out from under the black robe.
Liao Chen had completely given up on cultivating. He stood with his back to him at the edge of the cliff, facing the chaotic void, his dark hair moving without wind. He was clearly still trying his best to suppress the violent energy within his body.
…Although he has obtained divinity, in the end, he is still a demon.
No, the Vermilion Bird’s divinity belongs to the fire element… This guy is clearly even more prone to rampage than before.
For the rest of the time, Yan Jingyu was very well-behaved and did not disturb him. He obediently ate the Bigu Pills to fill his stomach. He had eaten the eleventh one when he finally felt the ground beneath his feet begin to tremble gently.
A touch of dawn appeared in the gray sky above. The sunlight melted all the chaos like fire. Amidst the vibrations, light filled every corner of Jiuyi Mountain.
Yan Jingyu got out of the small boat and stared in awe at this scene of seeing the light of day again.
Liao Chen casually set up a barrier.
This time, Yan Jingyu finally felt Jiuyi Mountain slowly rising. Rocks and mountains gradually appeared around the chaos. As Jiuyi Mountain rose higher and higher, Yan Jingyu’s gaze shifted from the giant rocks and moss at the base of the mountain to the giant pines and forests in the middle of the mountain, and the clouds and giant sun at the top.
“The dawn tears through the gray dome’s cage, the sun’s flame melts the chaos’s trace. The mountains and rivers gradually awaken, the rock shadows move, the pine waves chase the clouds, reflecting the bright sun.”
Not until the cliff in front of him had completely connected with the land of the world did Yan Jingyu suddenly wake up as if from a dream. He quickly caught up to Liao Chen’s footsteps and said happily, “Congratulations, Jiuyi Mountain has finally seen the light of day again.”
Liao Chen’s eyes curved slightly. He casually pushed aside the messy dead branches in front of him. “What kind of crooked poem was that?”
Yan Jingyu’s happiness was immediately discounted.
Jiuyi Mountain was located on the Cangzhou continent. There were many mountain ranges, but few sects, mainly because some large demonic beasts were entrenched nearby. Therefore, besides the cultivators who came and went to hunt demonic beasts, the human population was also very sparse.
This place was quite far from both the Demonic Domain and Hutian. Liao Chen didn’t care, but Yan Jingyu was unwilling to continue eating those blasted Bigu Pills with him.
He didn’t know if it was on purpose, but the more anxious Yan Jingyu was to go to the city for wine and meat, the slower Liao Chen walked.
Two days after leaving the mountain, they still hadn’t walked out of the continuous mountain range. They could still see the tip of Jiuyi Mountain in the distance.
After walking for another half a day, Yan Jingyu sat in the flying boat with his chin in his hands. Although he comforted himself that he didn’t have to walk, he also knew that controlling the flying boat was a piece of cake for Liao Chen.
Just as he was feeling depressed, he suddenly heard a sound from ahead. Yan Jingyu listened for a few moments, then suddenly slapped the small boat. “There’s a tavern ahead!”
This should be the closest tavern to Jiuyi Mountain, opened in the middle of nowhere. He ordered a whole roasted chicken and deliberately tore it to pieces in front of Liao Chen, then tore off the skin and flesh with force.
Liao Chen completely ignored his provocative actions, casually poured a cup of tea, and looked completely at ease.
Sword lights occasionally streaked across the sky. Yan Jingyu poured himself a large bowl of wine, picked up some peanuts, and listened to the gossip around him.
“Look at this momentum. Almost all the nearby sects have come.”
“It’s rare for such a top-tier treasure to appear in the world. I estimate Hutian will also send people over.”
“If the forces of Hutian come, we’ll really just be along for the ride…”
“I never expected such a great opportunity to fall on me anyway. I’ll see if I can get some soup to drink, share some other treasures, like catching a phoenix demon or something…”
Someone was curious. “That Jiuyi Mountain has been submerged for so many years. Are there really still phoenix demons inside?”
“Didn’t the Phoenix King submerge Jiuyi Mountain just to protect his descendants? I heard that all the unhatched phoenixes back then were hidden under the Qiwu flowers. This Qiwu flower grows together with the Divine Wutong Tree. Who knows, after we get the phoenix eggs, we might even be able to get a share of the divine wood!”
“That’s right, that’s right. We’ll just pick up a few phoenix eggs. We wouldn’t dare to dream of the Vermilion Bird’s divinity…”
Yan Jingyu frowned slightly and couldn’t help but say, “The Vermilion Bird’s divinity?”
“That’s right. Jiuyi Mountain has seen the light of day again. Now the whole world is saying that the Vermilion Bird’s divinity is there!”
How could this be… Yan Jingyu immediately looked at Liao Chen. The latter was looking down, sipping his tea, as if he hadn’t heard what was being said around him at all.
Before Liao Chen entered Jiuyi Mountain, no one in the world had mentioned the Vermilion Bird’s divinity. Now, just as Liao Chen had taken the divinity, countless people were rushing here for it.
It wasn’t suspicious that the reappearance of Jiuyi Mountain would attract explorers. After all, with such a big commotion, everyone on the Cangzhou continent would surely know. But to use the divinity as a gimmick to attract people was particularly suspicious.
“You spread the news.” Yan Jingyu could only think of this. After all, before Liao Chen obtained the divinity, no one knew about this matter. Liao Chen looked up, his lips curling. “You’ve guessed again.”
“Even in the ancient texts, the Vermilion Bird’s divinity is only mentioned in a few words. Even if someone were certain that there was divinity inside, they would only go to get it quietly. Only you…” Yan Jingyu said. “You’ve already got it in your hands, so you’re not worried about anyone else going… Liao Chen, what are you planning now?”
“Guess.”
Yan Jingyu thought of the barrier he had casually set up when Jiuyi Mountain was rising. At that time, he had thought it was a protective shield set up by Liao Chen to prevent the mountain from collapsing and hurting the two of them. Thinking about it now, it was clearly the hand gesture for setting up a formation.
“Alright, alright, we’ve rested enough. Let’s get on our way!”
A group of cultivators picked up their swords, their green robes brushing past the table.
Yan Jingyu looked at Liao Chen for a few moments. In his meaningful gaze, he suddenly slammed the table and stood up. “Jiuyi Mountain is already an empty mountain!”
Everyone, whether they were about to leave or had just sat down, looked over at him.
Yan Jingyu said straightforwardly, “All the current rumors about Jiuyi Mountain are all the work of the Demonic Domain! There are no phoenix demons, no divine wood, and certainly no Vermilion Bird’s divinity! Liao Chen has already set up a killing formation there! Those who go will only die!”
The tavern was quiet for a moment, then someone laughed. “Who are you? How would you know Liao Chen’s actions?”
“I…” Yan Jingyu was stunned by the question. Liao Chen also looked over at him.
“Me? I am Yan Jingyu. I say that Liao Chen has already set up a killing formation ahead. Do you believe me or not?”
A hundred years ago, the same question. The youth held his sword, his eyebrows raised, playful and unrestrained, because he was the Yan Jingyu known to everyone in the world.
The people in the tavern looked at him, with curiosity, with inquiry, with contempt, with doubt. The Yan Jingyu of today, without the Heavenly Mandate Eyes, without the Du Fang Sword, was no longer known to the world. He was a passerby from a hundred years ago. A hundred years later, it was the era of another generation.
Liao Chen gazed at his back, watching as his spine straightened bit by bit. His voice was not as high-spirited as it had been back then, but it was still clear and pleasant, with a calmness that came from the passage of time, and a sense of relief that came from reconciling with his own wasted self. “I am…
“A kind-hearted person who wishes to remain anonymous!”
Liao Chen: “…”
A burst of laughter erupted in the tavern.
“Waste.” A gloomy, cold voice came from behind. Yan Jingyu looked around nonchalantly. “You must believe me. What I’m saying is all true!”
“Alright,” someone said. “Little brother, I see you’re not that old, and your cultivation… with your current state, even if we all believed your rumor and turned back immediately, you wouldn’t have the ability to enter Jiuyi Mountain on your own!”
“Haha, so little brother doesn’t want us to go because you want to monopolize the treasures of Jiuyi Mountain?”
Then came even louder laughter, it was hard to tell whether there was more goodwill or malice, or if they were just treating him as a joke.
Yan Jingyu frowned and was about to say something more. Suddenly, he was pushed back into his chair as if by something. Liao Chen’s face was exceptionally cold. “Good advice can’t persuade a ghost determined to die.”
This was a deliberate provocation. Yan Jingyu’s heart tightened. As expected, he heard a hot-tempered cultivator stand up. “What did you say, kid?!”
Among these people, there were rogue cultivators and disciples of sects. The one speaking now was clearly the latter, with some background, but not prominent enough, with some arrogance, but lacking in judgment. Yan Jingyu’s gaze quickly swept over the few of them. The one speaking now was a young man. He recognized him at a glance. This was one of the three major sects of the Cangzhou continent, the Youyue Sect. These major sects all had powerful figures from Hutian as their backers. For example, the Youyue Sect had dealings with an elder of the Ling Clan of Hutian.
“I said,” Liao Chen’s voice was calm, “you are all going to die.”
No one wanted to hear such unlucky words on their way to find treasure. Someone immediately looked over in anger, while others, more cautiously, sent out their divine sense to observe. Finding that they couldn’t see through the other’s cultivation level, they appeared somewhat hesitant.
“Forget it, forget it.” Yan Jingyu saw that he had moved to kill and quickly tried to smooth things over. “Drink some water, cool down.”
As he spoke, he poured him another cup of tea. Noticing that he still had one in his hand, he took it from him and stuffed the one he had just poured into his hand.
Liao Chen: “…”
He glanced at Yan Jingyu. The latter smiled fawningly.
He was a little unsure of Liao Chen’s intentions. This guy clearly wanted these people to go to their deaths, but now it seemed as if he wanted them to listen to his advice… Of course, Yan Jingyu didn’t believe he would be so kind. He guessed that the other had moved to kill and wanted to silence these people in advance.
…But why would he suddenly get angry?
