Chapter 30 Part 2

Lian Yunzhi: “…”

He kept his mouth shut.

The Cyan-Clothed Person exclaimed, “Don’t you know that cultivation in the Illusion Realm is all fake? You can never ascend from practicing here!”

Lian Yunzhi shot to his feet. “What makes you say it’s fake? It’s clearly real!”

The Cyan-Clothed Person looked at him with pity. “Didn’t I tell you? The Black Mist here is the souls of the dead, Mu Cheng’s sins, the foundational power of the entire Illusion Realm space. The spiritual energy in the Illusion Realm space is fake, so how could your cultivation from it be real? The faster your realm advances, the easier it is to suffer qi deviation and end up a madman like Mu Cheng. For us, the first thing we do upon escaping is to disperse all the cultivation we gained in the Illusion Realm.”

Lian Yunzhi’s fingers trembled faintly. “I haven’t gone mad.”

The Cyan-Clothed Person corrected, “Not yet, anyway.”

Lian Yunzhi took a deep breath, slowly calming his emotions. He remembered he was different. He remembered he could “purify” the Black Mist. He remembered he could alleviate Mu Cheng’s Madness Illness.

…He wouldn’t go mad. Absolutely not.

Lian Yunzhi sat back in the vine chair and said, in a tone that sounded stubbornly defiant to the Cyan-Clothed Person, “I won’t go mad.”

The Cyan-Clothed Person: “…”

He sighed, his tone almost earnestly advisory. “Fine, fine, you won’t go mad. But surely you don’t think staying sane lets you escape? The Black Mist power in the Illusion Realm space is finite. Even Mu Cheng, who once held all of it, couldn’t break the Pure Bottle’s seal. What makes you think you can?”

Lian Yunzhi said nothing, but his grip on the vine chair’s armrest tightened until his knuckles turned white.

The Cyan-Clothed Person handed Lian Yunzhi a slender, long Black Wooden Box once more, saying meaningfully, “Still the same words: If anyone in this world can kill Mu Cheng, that person must be you.”

…

The Red Mist dissipated.

Lian Yunzhi found himself still lying beneath Mu Cheng, as if he had never left at all.

But now he held a slender, long Wooden Box in his hand.

Mu Cheng had been gnawing at Lian Yunzhi’s waist when he suddenly sensed something. He lifted his head, his blood-red eyes locking tightly onto the Black Wooden Box in Lian Yunzhi’s hand.

Lian Yunzhi shivered with cold dread.

But under Mu Cheng’s gaze, he slowly tightened his grip on the Wooden Box.

He looked into Mu Cheng’s eyes and said word by word, “I’ll keep this thing. If I truly can’t ascend or leave the Illusion Realm someday, then I’ll kill you.”

The current Mu Cheng was a madman.

He seemed to have no understanding of what Lian Yunzhi said. He tilted his head, his blood-red gaze shifting between the Black Wooden Box and Lian Yunzhi’s face. Then he pried Lian Yunzhi’s fingers open one by one, drew out the Black Wooden Box, and tossed it into Lian Yunzhi’s Storage Bracelet.

Finally, he leaned down and bit fiercely into Lian Yunzhi’s lips.

…

Lian Yunzhi had thought this ordeal would never end.

He imagined the conclusion would be Mu Cheng finally tearing into his body. He would resist, be subdued, and in the end, unable to endure it, he would prematurely stab a Soul Scattering Needle into Mu Cheng’s spine.

But things took a turn one morning.

That day, as he awoke, he felt his hair being tugged.

Looking down, he saw Mu Cheng staring fixedly at him with blood-red eyes, teeth biting his shoulder, a strand of hair accidentally caught and rubbed against his skin.

“Pa.”

That strand of hair was suddenly bitten off by Mu Cheng.

Mu Cheng halted all movement, his gaze following the strand.

Lian Yunzhi looked too.

Suddenly, his eyes widened bit by bit.

The thick black strand of hair, after being bitten off, instantly changed form. It fused, shortened, thinned… and ultimately became an almost invisible tender green vine silk.

Lian Yunzhi reached out carefully and picked the vine silk from his shoulder. But before he could examine it closely, Mu Cheng leaned in, opened his mouth, snatched it, and chewed it up.

Lian Yunzhi: “.”

Immediately after, Mu Cheng licked his lips and stared intently at Lian Yunzhi’s full head of dark hair.

Lian Yunzhi: “…”

Lian Yunzhi pried open Mu Cheng’s eyelids to check and saw the blood-red in his eyes fading at a visible speed. His emotions turned profoundly complex, but he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Under Mu Cheng’s ravenous gaze, he quickly tied up his long hair and asked, “What did it feel like when you ate it?”

He hadn’t expected an answer from Mu Cheng, but Mu Cheng frowned in thought, as if seriously searching for one.

Moments later, Mu Cheng leaned in and pressed his lips to Lian Yunzhi’s.

Lian Yunzhi parted his lips in confusion to meet him, but the next instant, his eyes flew wide open.

A strand of Divine Soul forcefully breached his Divine Sense barrier, invaded his Knowledge Sea, tore through the thick Black Mist, and wrapped straight around his Plant-Form Primordial Spirit!

The plant trembled with a rustle, and Lian Yunzhi shuddered all over, as if something exploded deep in his soul, leaving him dazed, enchanted, scalp tingling.

That strand of Divine Soul had intended to share Mu Cheng’s current sensation of pleasure with Lian Yunzhi, but its intrusion was like a gale stirring up his Knowledge Sea. The thick, pitch-black mist scattered in rings from the shock. Sudden light pierced through, myriad things flooded in. The plant lifted its head and saw a scene.

The plant saw… a somewhat familiar courtyard. The sky, a tall unknown tree swirling as leaves fell on its shoulder, a drop of blood falling into the river beside it.

The plant followed that drop of blood.

It saw a youth.

The youth wore a treasure-blue robe, nailed to a giant tree by a Soul Locking Chain and Soul Fixing Needle. His spine had been sliced open, half of his small Myriad Absorption Spiritual Root exposed to the air, the other half still growing inside him. He was covered in wounds, silver needles pierced into his fingertips, blood dripping drop by drop into an artificially dug canal.

The youth looked down at the plant and smiled.

“Hey, what kind of grass are you? You smell so good. Hurry and grow taller so I can have a taste.”

The plant swayed in the wind.

It thought, who is this person? His smile looks so ugly.