Xuan Yi suddenly stirred slightly. Immediately after, her eyes opened. The moment her scattered gaze caught sight of Shao Yi, she immediately bit through the tip of her tongue and spewed out a pitch-black ice barrier, forcibly pushing him back several zhang. She herself also fell heavily to the ground. The wounds on her back and abdomen were jolted with unbearable pain, nearly causing her to faint.

Shao Yi paid her no mind, leaning against the tree and sitting back down. He said indifferently, “Don’t move recklessly. Even with regenerative divine power, wounds from Huaxu Clan sword qi still require a long time to fully heal.”

Not to mention that Fucang’s sword was Chun Jun.

Xuan Yi panted and said in a low voice, “Are you going to send me to the Ministry of Justice to claim merit?”

His gaze fixed on the barrier shrouded in mist and clouds, his voice very indifferent: “That sounds like a good idea.”

The sudden downpour from the mortal realm drenched his long hair and turquoise robes. Crystal-clear raindrops rolled off his sleeves. He brushed them away with his hand, then suddenly said, “It would have been better to just perish in the Sea of Bitter Regret. Contaminated like this by the Darkness of Zhuyin in the Sea of Bitter Regret, I have no solution either. By the looks of it, you’re destined to become a demon king.”

Wasn’t this exactly the result he wanted? The Zhuyin Clan he detested most—of the three remaining descendants, two had been implanted with Heart Feathers and one had fallen into demonhood. He truly was playing with the invincible and mighty Zhuyin Clan like a ball.

Xuan Yi closed her eyes wearily: “The corpse of that dijun in the Sea of Bitter Regret has already been destroyed. If you firmly refuse to acknowledge it, even Tian Di can do nothing about it. Moreover, Tian Di also bears responsibility for the Sea of Bitter Regret becoming like this. Stop using the Heart Feathers to control my father and brother. With your abilities, you need not fear their retaliation either. Please retrieve the Heart Feathers.”

Please? She would actually use that word?

Shao Yi couldn’t help but look toward her. After a moment, his tone instead became gentler: “You’re right. The corpse has already been destroyed. I don’t need to worry about you all speaking of the matter.”

What did that mean? Xuan Yi narrowed her eyes and stared at him.

“Actually, choosing to go to the Sea of Bitter Regret was partly due to a fortuitous mistake, but secondly, a princess who never leaves her residence having an accident would create far less impact than a dijun and xiaolong jun having accidents.”

Xuan Yi laughed coldly: “You already knew that whoever went to handle the Sea of Bitter Regret would end up like me.”

That’s why he had specifically waited for her in the lower realm. His unscrupulous methods were truly formidable indeed.

Shao Yi said in a low voice, “It was only a possibility. I originally thought the likelihood of annihilation was greater, but since you’re still alive, it’s impossible to be unharmed. Right now is already the worst situation. However, I’m very pleased that you were smart enough not to let that foolish father of yours make the matter big. Otherwise, the only one who would suffer would be yourself.”

Xuan Yi gazed at him intently for a long while, then said lightly, “What you mean is, the Heart Feathers have actually already been retrieved?”

He didn’t speak, only leisurely rubbing his sleeve.

“Are there or aren’t there?” She pressed him closely.

Shao Yi glanced at her: “Since you’re so clever, why not guess for yourself?”

That same old trick again—ambiguous, vague, seemingly offering hope but actually leading to despair in the end. She couldn’t treat these few light and casual words as proof that there truly were no Heart Feathers. Yet she also couldn’t believe as wholeheartedly as before that the Heart Feathers still existed.

Saying she was suited to be a demon king—clearly he with his talent for tormenting methods was the most suitable one.

Xuan Yi zoned out for a moment, then suddenly gritted her teeth and turned to sit up. After exhaling, she said lightly, “I’ve already become a demon. Sooner or later I’ll be exterminated anyway. Either way it’s a dead end—when I die doesn’t matter. Your methods are superb. I truly don’t want to admit defeat.”

Shao Yi’s eyes narrowed. He saw the surroundings suddenly darken, becoming exactly like inside the Sea of Bitter Regret. The Darkness of Zhuyin filled with turbid qi and regenerative divine power once again tightly surrounded him. A faint pale candlelight danced in Xuan Yi’s palm.

Her expression instead carried a kind of strange calmness and eeriness. Ignoring the wounds on her body, she knelt elegantly on the ground, staring at the candlelight and slowly saying, “Becoming a demon isn’t so bad. Releasing the Darkness of Zhuyin in the lower realm is quite effortless.”

She blew out a breath. Several pitch-black ice blades began spinning around her body. Xuan Yi looked at them, then raised her eyes to look at Shao Yi. The extremely annoying smile that usually hung on his face had disappeared. Looking at him now, he was exactly like that dijun in the Sea of Bitter Regret. But of course—they had been one and the same all along.

“You’re actually very afraid of the Sea of Bitter Regret, aren’t you?” she said mockingly. “Want to try enduring for another few million years?”

Shao Yi looked at her expressionlessly for a long while, then said in a low voice, “This time you’re finally not concerned about your father and brother’s lives?”

Xuan Yi laughed coldly: “In the end, you refuse to retrieve the Heart Feathers. They can never be safe in the end either. Since that’s the case, having you perish together with me would actually be quite pleasant.”

She finally felt that becoming a demon wasn’t such a terrible thing. At least with him, there was no longer the trouble of being bound by Heart Feathers. Just let him perish together with her in this profound and boundless darkness!

The pitch-black ice blade rose and unhesitatingly stabbed down toward her heart. After she destroyed herself, this second Sea of Bitter Regret filled with black fog would once again remain in the lower realm. But she didn’t care one bit. Since she was going to be a demon king, she might as well be a thorough one. She would wreak havoc now and lock this detestable Qingyang Clan member in the black fog once more.

Her shoulder was grabbed. Xuan Yi felt a great force attack her, forcibly pushing her down to the ground. She rolled several times with him, then both her wrists were also pressed down hard against the ground. The two wounds on her back and abdomen hurt so much that her vision repeatedly darkened. She had to hold on—absolutely couldn’t faint!

Dense pitch-black ice blades attacked like raindrops. Shao Yi’s expression was cold. He swept her up in his arms, his form like lightning as he dodged through the darkness. Suddenly he felt a cold flash at her chest. He swiftly moved his hand, gripping the ice blade that had nearly pierced her chest.

Who knew that in a flash, another ice blade stabbed viciously toward her heart. Shao Yi’s brow furrowed. The divine soul jewel on his forehead instantly became dazzlingly brilliant. He exhaled in one breath. Scorching breath filled the entire narrow gap of darkness, melting all the ice blades dancing through the sky. Then he seized Xuan Yi by the throat, sat cross-legged on the ground, and trapped her tightly in his arms with both arms.

“Little mudfish,” his voice revealed neither joy nor anger, “once you’re annihilated, there will be nothing left.”

The scorching wind he had exhaled still remained. The ice blades were useless. She wanted to bite through her tongue tip to spray out a barrier, but the hand gripping her throat was one step faster than her and covered her mouth. She struggled with all her might. The wounds on her abdomen and back gushed fresh blood once more. But his arms tightened more and more, almost making it impossible for her to breathe.

The nightmare-like darkness descended once again. A fine layer of cold sweat appeared on Shao Yi’s forehead. His eyes flowed with light, yet for some reason he actually laughed softly: “Having you perish together with me does indeed seem quite pleasant. Even if it means entering the Sea of Bitter Regret again, it’s nothing. Mm, let’s wait for annihilation together. I won’t allow you to leave one step ahead of me.”

In the struggle, several more dragon scales fell to the ground. Soaked by the turbid qi in the darkness, they instantly turned to black ash. Her icy cold blood also soaked through her clothes, congealing into ice inch by inch.

The golden-cyan regenerative divine power in his palm immediately burst forth, once again helping her slightly heal the ruptured wounds. Shao Yi used his fingertips to carefully trace the curves of her cheeks and jaw. He with his thousand schemes and ten thousand methods had pushed her toward a dead end. She too with single-minded focus and persistent concentration wanted mutual destruction with him.

He said in a low voice, “This little mudfish—there are plenty of detestable celestial deities in heaven and earth, yet the one you like has always been hurting you. Your luck really isn’t very good. You’re just like me. Those who like me, I don’t like. Those I like, I can’t cherish either.”