Ji Tongzhou looked at her in bewilderment as she threw herself into his arms. He had been quietly following behind to protect her, and when he saw her being pulled into the city shrouded in black smoke, he didn’t hesitate to follow. The city was filled with crazed people and scenes, and it took him a long time to find her in this depraved place. The ground was covered with writhing, copulating bodies, but she alone was flying about aimlessly on her cloud.
He summoned Tianlai Fire to break through the black smoke, never expecting her to rush toward him.
“…What did you call me?” He incredulously gripped Li Fei’s shoulders and pushed her away, only then noticing that a faint layer of black smoke also enveloped her body. This alarming black mist seemed to be reflected in her eyes as well. She looked at him with wild joy and utter dependence, her pliant body no longer showing any rejection as she desperately tried to get closer to him.
Li Fei wrapped her arms around his neck, still overwhelmed with emotion, her voice trembling, “I’ve finally found you! Xiuyuan!”
She called him Yun Xiuyuan.
Anger surged within Ji Tongzhou, and he pushed her away forcefully, but she immediately clung to him again like a vine. After several attempts, she couldn’t help but burst into tears. Hearing her sobs, he felt as if the sea of fire around them was burning inside his body and mind. When she threw herself at him again, he didn’t push her away this time. He pressed his lips tightly together, his arms hanging at his sides, staring blankly at the flames surrounding them.
The young man’s body in her embrace was rigid like a wooden post, not even touching her. Li Fei looked up at him and said softly, “Xiuyuan? Hold me, hold me.”
He smiled, his voice tinged with bitterness, “Let’s not talk about this now. We need to leave this place.”
Ji Tongzhou picked her up and flew away swiftly on his sword. In this strange city, every time they reached the edge, they were immediately bounced back. He frowned deeply, then suddenly let out a clear shout. Tianlai Fire slammed into the city, and screams and wails erupted once again. The massive city was instantly engulfed in a sea of fire, with thunderous roars as if trying to shatter this decadent and extravagant city.
He spotted a gap in the black smoke on the horizon and immediately darted towards it, instantly breaking free from the city’s constraints. The countless laments, moans, and screams from within the black smoke were left far behind.
The sky was blood-red, as was the endless wasteland. Ji Tongzhou flew for a long time, but the scenery before him remained unchanged. This place was too vast, and the all-encompassing Tianlai Fire seemed insignificant, unable to break through anything. He stopped on a dune and looked around, feeling a hint of despair in his heart. They had been here for so long without encountering anyone else who had been swallowed by Taotie. Were they the only ones trapped, or were Master and the others here too?
The person in his arms clung to him softly, her face buried in his chest, motionless. Ji Tongzhou looked down at her for a long while before asking quietly, “Do you recognize who I am?”
Li Fei wrapped her arms around his neck, her voice alluring, “Xiuyuan, hold me.”
Xiuyuan.
He raised his hand, wanting to slap her hard, just as he had always dealt with those who defied him since childhood. She was truly a heartless and cruel woman, treating him in an unheard-of manner. His palm swung down forcefully, but he couldn’t bring himself to let it land on her innocent face. She wasn’t at fault; she simply didn’t like him.
What drove him to the brink of madness was precisely this lack of affection.
If she could just once call his name correctly while lucid, he would stay to protect her without hesitation, even if this place were a mountain of blades or a sea of blood.
But she was bewitched by Taotie and called him Yun Xiuyuan.
Ji Tongzhou’s hand slowly lowered again, caressing her face. She showed no resistance at all, leaning against him, needing him as if in a dream. The woman who had once been so obedient to him was false, he knew, and it was this knowledge that made it all the more devastating.
When he realized that the person he loved was Jiang Li Fei, even this initial naivety was mercilessly crushed. He couldn’t even bring himself to compete with Yun Xiuyuan for her. Jiang Li Fei’s heart and eyes were filled only with Yun Xiuyuan; he had arrived far too late.
Ji Tongzhou’s fists clenched and unclenched several times, his heart burning. His voice was hoarse from the fire within, “…You still don’t recognize me?”
Li Fei’s voice was playful, “Are you still joking like this? Xiuyuan! I’m going to get angry!”
Xiuyuan again. Ji Tongzhou couldn’t help but laugh coldly. He roughly picked her up, causing the pearl flower by her ear to finally fall, landing softly on the ground. He grabbed the crimson lotus and crushed it bit by bit in his hand.
He truly wanted to crush her inch by inch in the same way.
The bewitching, exotic fragrance was right before him. The enchanted woman cupped his face and lowered her head to offer her lips. Her soft lips grazed his gently. Ji Tongzhou pressed down on the back of her head, kissing her almost violently. He could no longer distinguish between truth and illusion; his soul and body had been thirsting for far too long.
A thick black mist rose from her body, or perhaps from his own. But who would care about such things now? Through her clothes, her skin felt soft and delicate. She entangled herself with him, grinding against him. This body, both familiar and strange, every reaction was novel, every moan heard for the first time.
Ji Tongzhou’s lips fell on her neck, and he heard her trembling whisper, “Xiuyuan…”
The raging flames in his heart were either extinguished or fanned even higher in that instant. Ji Tongzhou raised his head, panting, to gaze at her intently. He couldn’t even tell if he loved or hated her anymore. In her completely submissive, spring-like eyes, it was his reflection she saw, yet the person she was looking at was someone else entirely.
Ji Tongzhou couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Besides laughing, he truly didn’t know what else to do. Could he only ever embrace this woman in illusions? In his dreams or hers? Using others or being used as a substitute?
His feelings for her had become so humble, even so despicable.
He couldn’t accept such a degraded version of himself, nor could he believe that he was indulging in such fleeting pleasure.
Ji Tongzhou forcefully pushed away her soft restraint and gripped her neck tightly. With a pulse of spiritual energy, she immediately fell unconscious.
Let Jiang Li Fei think of all this as just a dream.
She was still clutching his sleeve tightly. He pried her fingers open one by one, resolutely stood up, and flew high into the sky.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Fei felt the entire ground shaking violently. She suddenly awoke to find herself lying on a dune. What was going on? Hadn’t she just been in that city? When did she come out?
She looked around in confusion. The endless blood-colored wasteland was trembling, making it almost impossible to sit steady. Li Fei scrambled to summon her small white cloud and took to the air. She saw countless grains of sand on the dune jumping and rolling as if boiling, becoming increasingly violent. Suddenly, Immortal Cuixuan’s aged voice boomed, seeming to come from the horizon and echoing through the clouds: “Useless youngsters! Even for Taotie, we old folks have to step in. Ah! How can we entrust the sect to you in the future?”
As his words faded, a huge crack suddenly appeared on the horizon. The blood-red sky and earth were torn apart, and dazzling light poured through the opening, too bright to look at directly. Li Fei covered her face to avoid the blinding radiance. Suddenly, she heard the wind whistling above her head, followed by someone tightly embracing her. She struggled to open her eyes in the blinding light and saw Yun Xiuyuan’s eyes. He looked at her with anxiety and wild joy.
“Xiuyuan!” She hugged him tightly, then suddenly had a strange feeling that this scene had just happened before. She couldn’t quite remember clearly.
He simply picked her up in his arms and flew swiftly towards the crack. They saw the blood-colored wasteland suddenly turn into nothingness, transforming into an endless, dense mist-like black fire. Within the mist, countless people were laughing, crying, lamenting, and moaning. Numerous pitch-black hands reached out from the mist, trying to grab them.
Golden light emanated from Yun Xiuyuan’s palm, instantly illuminating their surroundings and shattering those black hands. He drew out Baihu Wei, and the golden light sword grew to several zhang in length. It swept across in a huge arc as fast as a meteor, cleaving through the thick black mist. The light sword struck countless times in rapid succession, significantly thinning the black mist.
The dazzling crack was right before their eyes. Yun Xiuyuan rushed in, and they heard Immortal Cuixuan’s voice echoing through the sky once more: “You two stay in there! Wait until we’ve slain Taotie!”
The crack suddenly closed. Li Fei looked around anxiously and saw that they were on a small mountain peak. Strangely, above their heads was another inverted mountain peak, its vegetation, and landscape exactly mirroring the peak they stood on as if a giant mirror were reflecting the scenery.
An extremely familiar and intimate aura emanated from the inverted mountain peak. Li Fei felt her hair stand on end. She knew that this must be Immortal Cuixuan’s small world, and the strange tomb was here!
She instinctively broke free from Yun Xiuyuan’s embrace and took a couple of steps forward.
Suddenly, her arm was grabbed. Li Fei turned around in confusion, and Yun Xiuyuan stepped forward to embrace her again. His heartbeat was like a drum, pounding in her ears.
“I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I couldn’t catch you in time.”
Li Fei’s mind, which had been drawn to the strange tomb, slowly returned to her body. She hugged Yun Xiuyuan tightly in return, recalling the helplessness she felt inside Taotie’s belly. Her throat felt a bit sore, but she managed to smile and say, “I’m fine. Everything’s alright.”
She remembered flying back and forth in that huge city, then meeting a group of disciples, and then watching helplessly as they descended into madness. After that… she couldn’t remember what happened next, no matter how hard she tried. She didn’t know how she had fallen asleep, only to wake up and see Immortal Cuixuan opening his small world.
“Xiuyuan, where were you before?” Li Fei couldn’t help but ask, feeling a bit wronged. She had been searching for him all along but couldn’t find him anywhere.
Yun Xiuyuan looked down at the messy red marks on her neck. Her collar was a bit loose, and the crimson lotus in her hair was missing. He smiled and gently adjusted her collar, covering the red marks. “I wasn’t sucked into Taotie’s belly. I used Baihu Wei to hook onto the mountain and stayed outside the whole time. Only after Immortals Cuixuan and Shouzhong, along with Master, broke out of Taotie’s belly could I go in to look for you.”
No wonder she couldn’t find him no matter how hard she tried. Li Fei gave him a relaxed smile, “Then you were really lucky. Taotie’s stomach was truly awful.”
She chattered on about all the terrifying and bizarre things that happened inside Taotie’s belly, but after a while, she noticed that he seemed distracted. Li Fei gradually fell silent and asked softly, “What’s wrong? Are you tired?”
He must have been extremely anxious being left outside alone, probably exhausting his spiritual energy trying to break into Taotie’s belly. Li Fei held his wrist and slowly infused wood-attribute spiritual energy into him. Sure enough, his internal spiritual energy was not full; he had consumed a lot.
Yun Xiuyuan suddenly gripped her arm tightly, and then quickly loosened his hold.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly once again.
Li Fei lowered her head and chuckled lightly, “What are you apologizing for? It’s great that you didn’t go in, or I would have been so worried.”
Yun Xiuyuan closed his eyes, then slowly opened them again. He held her hand and said in a low voice, “It’s rare to be in an immortal’s small world. Would you like to look around?”