This was too absurd.

How important was the Supreme God’s life essence? One would rather give their life than their life essence. How could someone as unrestrained as Xin Wu make such a gesture? If not for that unique immortal energy—half-divine, half-demonic—still entwined around him, Li Ye would have examined his divine soul.

“What help do you need from me?” he asked.

His throat moved. Xin Wu’s eyes were like an ocean pressed down by stones—his face completely sunken, but within raged turbulent waves.

He opened his other hand, revealing a soul-nurturing lamp. Inside the lamp flame lay half a remnant soul, too blurry to make out its appearance.

Before Li Ye could ask who it was, Er’er beside him gasped.

“Long Xu?” Her eyes widened. “Didn’t she return home?”

The hand holding the soul-nurturing lamp trembled slightly. Xin Wu lowered his eyes, his tone cold: “When I emerged from seclusion, only this half-remnant soul remained of her.”

Sucking in a breath, Er’er reached out to take the soul-nurturing lamp for a closer look, but as soon as she approached, the murderous aura around Xin Wu surged.

…

…

Realizing he was in a defensive state, Er’er felt caught between laughter and tears. His words were spoken so coldly, as if he wasn’t heartbroken at all, yet offering his life essence while preventing others from approaching—his actions completely contradicted his expression.

Recalling his expression when being pursued by Long Xu at the Dui clan, and then their later breakup, Er’er felt bewildered.

What exactly was going on?

Xin Wu also wanted to know what was happening. He had finally recovered from his injuries, only to emerge from seclusion to find her physical body dead, her corpse cold, and even her soul incomplete.

In that moment, he thought she was deliberately frightening him and even made a few sarcastic remarks.

Only after realizing she was truly destroyed in both form and spirit did Xin Wu panic—even if he didn’t think he was panicking, he couldn’t steady his trembling hands.

Long Xu wanted to take revenge on him, he knew that.

But he just couldn’t understand what she hoped to gain. Did she want to see him devastated? To make him regret beyond redemption?

The two of them never had a future together, so why sacrifice her life?

Xin Wu was a clever person with a clear mind. He had conjured the soul-nurturing lamp and knew to seek Li Ye’s help. But when offering his life essence, he didn’t seem so clever anymore.

It felt like a sharp awl was constantly drilling into the depths of his mind, causing so much pain that his face turned pale.

“I cannot save her,” Li Ye pulled Er’er aside and said calmly. “Her soul is damaged, and even the Netherworld would not accept her…”

“You can, but you’re unwilling,” Xin Wu interrupted, saying in a deep voice. “Because the soul-gathering technique would delay you for several days, and you want to return to the Nine Heavens immediately.”

“…” Li Ye narrowed his eyes, looking at him with displeasure.

Some things didn’t need to be said in front of Er’er.

Just because his woman died, it doesn’t mean he should come inflict trouble on him.

Indeed, the little one beside him had grown serious again, wanting to look at him but not quite daring, only sweeping her eyes over him twice before pressing her lips together.

Who knows what she was thinking about him now?

Li Ye gritted his teeth, saying with extraordinary impatience: “If I wanted to return to the Nine Heavens to kill, wouldn’t accepting your life essence be even better? Like adding wings to a tiger.”

Xin Wu remained silent, his eyes gazing at him calmly.

Er’er stood beside them and asked softly: “Besides Li Ye, is there no one else who knows the soul-gathering technique?”

“That’s an ancient forbidden technique, created by him naturally, so only he knows it,” Xin Wu said flatly. “Even if others learned the formula, they couldn’t match his ancient fire path cultivation, making it impossible to control.”

Hmm? Er’er blinked: “Ancient fire path cultivation? I have that.”

Xin Wu was startled and turned to look at her. He was about to say how could a mere small immortal like you possibly have that, but his thoughts shifted, and he couldn’t help cursing Li Ye: “You truly have no shame.”

Li Ye snorted and laughed, glancing at the soul-nurturing lamp in his hand, meaning: Are you in any position to talk about me?

Xin Wu fell silent.

Er’er seemed interested and looked up at him: “If I learn that soul-gathering technique, can I bring her back?”

“One-tenth.”

“Hmm?”

“The chance of saving her is one-tenth,” Li Ye said.

That’s still worth trying, certainly better than doing nothing. Er’er forced a smile and tugged at his sleeve.

Li Ye understood her meaning and didn’t stop her, very generously writing down the soul-gathering technique and giving it to her.

Er’er held the paper and looked at Xin Wu: “Shall we depart now?”

Xin Wu nodded, then glanced at Li Ye again. Seeing he had no intention of stopping them, he figured this gave Li Ye a convenient excuse to let Er’er leave him. Afterward, perhaps no one would stop him from ascending to the Nine Heavens.

But right now, he didn’t care about that; he only wanted Long Xu to come back to life.

Turning to leave, Er’er said a few words of farewell to Li Ye behind him, then followed him onto the traveling cloud.

“Supreme God Xin Wu,” she spoke suddenly, standing behind him as the wind rose around them.

Xin Wu responded, and then heard her say very seriously: “Long Xu and I are acquaintances, so I naturally don’t need to accept your life essence as a gift of thanks, but I want to know some things. Please be frank, Supreme God.”

What could a young girl want to know? Xin Wu shook his head: “My interactions with Li Ye in our early years were mostly battles—we fought whenever we met. About his other matters, I’m not very clear.”

“Not even about Hui Ji?”

His fingers paused slightly, and Xin Wu finally turned to look at her.

The soft little girl from before was now standing straight, with a hint of a smile in her eyes that made her appear somewhat cold.

“As a fellow ancient Supreme God, what Zhu Yan knows, you must surely know as well.”

After staring at her for a moment, Xin Wu’s expression became somewhat helpless: “If I knew, I certainly wouldn’t hide it from you at this time. But I descended to the world after Li Ye, and even he never saw Hui Ji, so naturally, I haven’t either.”

“We ancient gods mostly stand alone, without fathers or mothers. He has a mother, and with my opposing nature to his, I naturally wouldn’t ask or say much about it.”

“Ancient Supreme Gods are born by heaven and earth,” Er’er frowned. “So why does he uniquely have a mother?”

Xin Wu was startled and pinched his sleeve, thinking for quite a while, also somewhat confused: “Since his ascension to Supreme God, it’s always been heard that he had a mother. At that time, his body was full of evil energy. If not for his innate divine status, even if he passed the Heavenly Gate test, the Dao Diviner might not have accepted him.”

But what Hui Ji looked like or what kind of god she was, the immortals seemed unclear about.

Er’er lowered her eyes, her thoughts drifting, and after a moment asked again: “The Dao Diviner, what kind of person is he?”

This was easy to answer. Xin Wu waved his hand: “No different from your mortal emperors—not a sage, but high in position and power, with his way of doing things. In the world, divination is considered the highest level of magic. He is a diviner, calculating without error, so even though he is not a sage, he is destined to become one.”

Er’er listened in a daze, unconsciously touching her forehead.

Divination was the highest level of magic?