The deities dared not linger and transformed into a gale, speeding toward the cave entrance. Suddenly they heard a tremendous sound. The cave dwelling of broken walls and ruined ramparts instantly split open from the center. Below was deep and pitch-black, the wind howling—it actually seemed to be an extremely large underground cavern. The illusory azure light of the cave heaven overhead also began to rapidly crack and split. This demon clan cave dwelling was actually a temporarily made counterfeit. Only after collapsing did it reveal its true face: a huge rock suspended overhead, an empty cavern underfoot. From the moment they entered the cave dwelling, they had entered a trap.

The huge rock overhead came crashing down like Mount Tai pressing on their heads. The deities had nowhere to hide and had to take this blow head-on. They were all struck down into the deep underground cavern. The huge rock crashed down heavily, lodging precisely at the top of the cavern without the slightest deviation. The deafening sound continued endlessly, echoing for a long time in the sealed cavern.

Shao Yi groped around on the ice-cold huge rock for a while. The cavern opening was completely blocked by it, without even a crack. Fucang threw out Pure Jun. Tens of thousands of cold lights fiercely smashed against the huge rock. The rock was covered all over with blood-red demon clan curse words. A red light flashed and the crack quickly closed up again.

“It’s carved with demon clan curse words. Can’t penetrate through.” Shao Yi sighed. “We can only look downward.”

The deities stimulated their divine power. Auspicious light illuminated the pitch-black cavern until it was blindingly bright. They saw this cavern was a thousand zhang deep. The cave walls were smooth, densely covered with demon clan curse words—obviously it had been dug long ago. After falling to the bottom, it was a not particularly spacious sealed cavern. The ground was piled with withered bones. A rough count showed no fewer than a hundred. The bones were coarse and yellow, brittle and black—they should be mortal remains.

Everyone secretly breathed a sigh of relief again: fortunately, this locust tree demon didn’t eat divine beings.

Zhi Xi held Xuan Yi before her with trepidation. Just now she hadn’t been able to react in time—the huge rock had actually struck mostly on Xuan Yi’s body. She carefully examined this delicate Dragon Princess and indeed found she had already been knocked unconscious. A thin line of nosebleed ran down along her cheek.

She immediately panicked and said urgently, “You all quickly come look at Xuan Yi! Is she seriously injured again?!”

At these words, both Fucang and Shao Yi’s expressions changed abruptly. Fucang stepped forward and gently cradled Xuan Yi’s head. His fingertip lightly touched the vital points of her skull, then continued downward along her spine, gently pressing and kneading each point one by one. Finally, however, he breathed a sigh of relief. “…It’s nothing. She’s not injured, just knocked unconscious from the shock.”

Shao Yi sighed. “Her being knocked unconscious is the real problem. Without Zhuyin’s white snow, what should we do? How is this little loach so delicate and fragile?”

On ordinary days, he was always called “delicate and fragile” by Xuan Yi. Today he had finally found an opportunity to retaliate, though unfortunately she couldn’t hear it. All other members of the Zhuyin Clan were impressive and formidable, but she was either unconscious or injured. A celestial deity knocked unconscious by a rock—if word got out, even mortals would laugh their teeth off.

Zhi Xi was extremely self-reproachful. “Xuan Yi is still young. It’s my fault. My reaction was too slow…”

Fucang took Xuan Yi into his embrace. Her nosebleed flowed for a moment then stopped, only staining half her face with blood traces. He summoned rain dew to wash it clean, then once again touched the vital points all over her body, carefully checking whether there were any hidden dangers he hadn’t discovered.

Shao Yi’s gentle voice suddenly sounded softly by his ear. “Junior Martial Brother Fucang, seeing you take such good care of little loach for me, I’m much more at ease. Thank you.”

For him again?

Fucang raised his eyes and met his smiling gaze.

Shao Yi said softly, “I’ll still have to trouble you for some time going forward. Watch over her well for me. She’s extremely important to me.”

Fucang looked at him indifferently for a long while, then said flatly, “I never do things for anyone’s sake.”

Shao Yi blinked. “If you put it that way, could it be that Junior Martial Brother Fucang’s protection all this way has actually been for your own sake?”

Fucang neither confirmed nor denied it.

Shao Yi said in a low voice, “That’s not good. You’re destined to have your heart broken.”

Fucang’s brow furrowed, then relaxed. “I don’t think so.”

The moment his words fell, he suddenly felt an icy cold sensation at his chest. His entire body shook violently. He looked at Shao Yi across from him in disbelief. He was holding Pure Jun in his hand and had pierced his heart with one strike, while saying with a smile, “See, this is exactly that kind of heartbreak.”

Fucang grabbed his arm. Suddenly he felt a bone-piercing cold all over his body. In an instant, the scene before his eyes changed dramatically. He was still sitting in his original place. Pure Jun was properly hanging at his waist. Shao Yi and Zhi Xi were crouching across from him, both with expressions of incomprehensible shock. And the Xuan Yi in his embrace had somehow already awakened. Rustling Zhuyin’s white snow slowly drifted down from three feet overhead. She was glaring at him in furious rage, shouting angrily, “You’re pinching me so hard it hurts! Let go!”

Fucang was momentarily confused, with some lingering shock remaining. Suddenly he realized what had just happened was an illusion spell. He had been completely unaware of when he had been struck by it.

Xuan Yi only felt her shoulder was about to be crushed by his pinching. It hurt until her face turned green. She simply kicked at him. “Let go quickly! Don’t touch me!”

Fucang slowly released her shoulders. After a long while, he said in a low voice, “…Such formidable bewitching illusion arts.”

Zhi Xi looked him up and down, somewhat worried. “Junior Martial Brother Fucang, are you all right?”

Just now Xuan Yi had been knocked unconscious by the huge rock. Fucang was examining her injuries when he suddenly stopped moving. Immediately after, he began trembling all over, which gave them quite a fright. Fortunately, Xuan Yi was pinched awake by him and summoned Zhuyin’s white snow in time. The snow had already accumulated three inches on his shoulder, yet he was still covered in cold sweat with a shocked expression on his face. The illusion spell just now must have been extremely formidable.

Not wanting him to dwell on it, Zhi Xi simply smiled. “It’s all right now. Xuan Yi has already awakened, so there’s no need to fear that bewitching illusion spell anymore.”

Fucang closed his eyes to concentrate for a moment. When he opened them again, he had already recovered his usual indifference. He nodded. “Thank you, Senior Martial Sister. I’m fine now.”

He looked around in all directions and saw Xuan Yi sitting alone in a corner, head lowered as she pinched the white snow glazed pagoda in her hand. She hadn’t finished pinching this glazed pagoda before encountering the fall of the Sea of Severed Regret. The process of descending to the mortal realm had been too violent, and the rudimentary form had somewhat shattered. She was slowly filling in the gaps with white snow.

Fucang watched quietly for a long while, then rose and walked toward her. His snow-white robes spread across the ground. He slowly sat down at her side and said in a low voice, “…I apologize.”

Xuan Yi turned her head and widened her eyes into circles. “And then what?”

He knew she would have this kind of reaction.

“There is no ‘and then.'”

Xuan Yi drew in a breath. Her shoulder was still hurting even now—he had definitely pinched it purple. This brute—every time she encountered him nothing good happened, and his attitude was still so terrible! She stuffed the glazed pagoda into her sleeve, stood up, and was about to hop away when suddenly he pressed down on her shoulder, happening to press right on the painful spot. She let out a pained “hiss” sound. He immediately released his hand, then instead grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him.

What did he want to say? He didn’t know either.

Fucang paused for a long time before opening his mouth. “How long can Zhuyin’s white snow last?”

Right now their power of life and death was all in her hands. Xuan Yi glanced at him with ill intent and said slowly, “If I’m willing, ten days is also possible. If I’m unwilling, it could be gone the next moment.”

This Dragon Princess never seemed able to speak properly with him. From the Hua Huang Fairy Island until now, if it wasn’t cold mockery and hot sarcasm, it was tit-for-tat confrontation. Fucang reached out and grasped a section of her hair, then asked again, “How long can it last?”

Xuan Yi tried hard to pull her hair from his hand. As a result, she used too much force and instead broke off several strands. She said angrily, “Yours will be gone immediately!”

She went to pry open his fingers one by one. After prying open one, she went to pry the second, but he would close his palm again. She pried for quite a while, then raised her head with an iron-blue face to glare at him. Fucang’s eyes concealed a trace of amusement, along with some malice, and also some of that gentle intimacy that made her avoid him like a snake or scorpion.

Xuan Yi’s hand slowly lowered and retracted into her sleeve. She turned her face away.

“It should be able to last until rescue arrives from the upper realm.” Her voice became light and indifferent.

Fucang was about to speak again when suddenly an unfamiliar and aged voice rang out in the sealed cavern. “There’s a Zhuyin Clan member.”

Fucang whirled around abruptly and threw out Pure Jun with one motion. Cold light flashed. The voice cried out in pain. A black shadow that had come from who-knows-where was forcibly pinned by Pure Jun to the cave wall, struggling incessantly. Phoenix nirvana flames instantly spread across the ground. As if possessing spiritual intelligence, they directly devoured the incessantly struggling black shadow.

“This is the locust tree demon?” Shao Yi touched his nose with some surprise. “Doesn’t seem very formidable.”

But they saw the black shadow suddenly transform into a mass of black ash and disperse hazily. Immediately after, it recongealed into a human form on an empty space to the side, while saying in a heavy voice, “I do not wish to slaughter true deities. Leave the Red Emperor’s little princess behind, and you all may go!”