But Li Xun still didn’t react. “So from childhood to now, for decades or maybe a hundred years, every step you take is watched and judged by soone. What does that even feel like?”
Shui Die Lan laughed and smirked. “Let’s not even talk about whether anyone in this world could do that,” she said proudly. “Even if soone could, either I would have killed them already, or they haven’t been born yet.”
“Oh… that sounds wonderful.”
“Uh, what’s that supposed to an?”
Li Xun’s gaze dropped to the Jade Bixiu in his palm. He let out a bitter chuckle and shook his head. “I an the question was stupid. Soone like you, a great demon who roams wherever you please with no real rival... who in this world could ever control you? Soone like , though, is a whole different story.”
Shui Die Lan could tell Li Xun was in the absolute gutter right now, wallowing. Too bad she wasn’t the soft, sweet wife who’d pat his head and coo. Even if she felt like saying sothing nice, it ca out sideways: “Oh really? I always thought soone was born to sche circles around everyone else. So who the hell’s actually better at screwing people over than you…?”
Halfway through her sentence, she suddenly realized what she was saying.
Mid-sentence, it hit her like a brick. The smirk died on her face. She grimaced like soone just kicked her in the teeth. “...Uh… if we’re talking about Zhong Yin, then forget I said anything. Just chalk it up to your bad luck and move on.”
“Chalk it up to bad luck? That’s really what you’re going with?”
Oddly enough, her words made Li Xun loosen up a little. He shook his head helplessly, then reached out again and gently brushed his fingers over the Jade Bixie embedded in his left palm.
This ti was different. The jade gave off a soft blue glow, and the force pushing back was stronger. So strong that it flicked Li Xun’s fingers away the instant it lit up.
Just when Shui Die Lan figured this was going to end the sa way as all the other attempts, Li Xun let out a low growl. The energy around him shifted all at once.
Standing beside him, Shui Die Lan let out a loud, impressed whistle.
In that mont, the aura filling the small pavilion shifted into the purest, most authentic Daoist True Breath. At the sa ti, the Jade Bixie embedded in Li Xun’s left palm sprang loose. It shot into the air, tumbling over and over with a halo of blue light swirling around it. The reaction was far stronger than anything they had seen before.
The Jade Bixie flew right over Li Xun’s head, but he made no move to catch it. He simply watched as the precious artifact flipped through the air and dropped toward Shui Die Lan, who snagged it with one hand.
She turned it over in her palm for a while, but nothing stood out. Eventually she frowned. “What are you trying to… huh?”
The aura inside the pavilion shifted again. The pure, gentle Daoist True Breath from monts before felt like it had never existed. Now, with Li Xun as the center, the “scent” spreading out was scorching and fierce, with a faint tallic tang. It was the sa intensity as before, maybe even stronger.
The skin on Li Xun’s hand was knitting back together at a shocking speed. Shui Die Lan glanced over and saw nothing but a writhing mass of bloody foam.
“Ugh, that’s disgusting!” she blurted out straight, then imdiately squinted at him. “The hell was that just now?”
“Nothing much. I just figured out a few of the trickier parts of the Bone-ridian Heartlink technique and decided to give it a try... looks like it actually does sothing.”
“Huh? I thought your Daoist cultivation was ruined.”
Li Xun shrugged. “It is. But isn’t the Bone-ridian Heartlink technique ant for exactly this kind of situation? You use the heart as the core to command the bones, flesh and ridians. Besides making it easier to reshape the body, it can create sothing out of nothing. It suits my condition pretty well.
“Of course, at the end of the day it’s still demonic cultivation. The outward form is just different. And I can’t keep it going for very long yet.”
“Oh, so that’s the Bone-ridian Heartlink? Not bad. It even has a bit of the Heavenly Demon's Ten Thousand Forms feel to it.”
While the two of them were talking, a deep red mark was already forming on Li Xun’s left palm. He shook out his hand and let out a cold laugh. “Yeah, just got yanked around by the fucking throat one more ti. Perfect. Just perfect.”
Shui Die Lan caught every drop of venom dripping off that “perfect.” She’d been watching this shitshow long enough. And with how sharp she was, she could already guess most of what was going on.
Wanting to lighten the mood a bit, she dangled the Jade Bixie right in front of her eyes, and blew on it gently. The cool green shimr rippled across its surface. She clicked her tongue a couple tis, admiring it, then finally drawled: “Man, you’re such a dumbass for no reason. Even a clever animal knows to swallow the bait but not bite the hook. Take the free advantage, skip the trap. How do you still not get that?”
Li Xun shot her a glance, answering only with another cold laugh.
Shui Die Lan raised her brows. “Tell I’m wrong. Whether Zhong Yin’s dead or ascended, either way he’s not in this world anymore. Even if his arms were a mile long, he couldn’t still grab you from afar. You’ve been cultivating seventy, eighty years now. You still can’t see sothing this simple? What did you do with those decades, cultivate yourself into a dog?”
“Exactly!”
“Huh?”
Li Xun jabbed a finger right at her face. “That’s the point. You just said I’ve been cultivating for seventy or eighty years, didn’t you?”
“Obviously!”
“You’re soone who’s seen a lot. Have you ever t anyone who spent seventy or eighty years cultivating and could still toy with you like it’s nothing?”
“You’re looking for a beating…”
Shui Die Lan’s temper flared, but her voice caught in her throat.
She realized it too. Sches and clever tricks were one thing. But when had she ever seen so junior who hadn’t even cultivated a full century reach a level like his?
Seventy or eighty years, and already brushing the ‘True Person’ realm. Calling it a miracle wasn’t right. It was more like a nightmare…
She was speechless for a long mont before forcing a smile. “Maybe you just got lucky. Not everyone gets their hands on a Nethermyst Puppet, after all.”
“Luck is still just a pile of garbage. When have you ever seen soone build a city wall out of garbage?” Li Xun’s voice was weirdly gentle. “From the mont I started cultivating, every ti I hit so impossible obstacle, every ti it all looked ready to collapse, Zhong Yin would reach out and prop it back up for . You’re not , so you can’t understand what that felt like. What attitude do you think he had? Admiration? Confidence in ? Nonsense. It was scheming. Scheming!”
His voice suddenly spiked. And his emotions burst open, like a volcano erupting after ages of pressure. What ca spitting out of his mouth now wasn’t spit anymore; it was molten lava.
“Whether he’s still in this world or not, I know he’s watching . Why am I still alive right now? Because he won’t let die. He hasn’t had his fun yet. And I know this too: if he could build a scaffold for , he could tear it down just as easily!
“Every ti I looked at that Voidslayer Sword on Zhiguan Peak,, I can’t even breathe. Can you imagine what that feels like?”
Before he realized it, Li Xun’s voice had gone hoarse.
Shui Die Lan could only watch him in silence, shaking her head. Every muscle in his face twitched uncontrollably from the force of his fury. And his entire body was shaking.
She finally realized: the man in front of her had truly fallen into madness.
Maybe even before this, Li Xun himself hadn’t realized how deep his fear of Zhong Yin ran. Deep enough to tear at his core, leaving a wound that would never fully heal. And after he began cultivating the Blood God Child, that crack in his mind had beco the perfect soil for inner demons to take root.
His outburst just now was the beginning of those demons breaking free. It was a process nobody could stop. Even if she wanted to help, there was nothing she could do.
Besides, why would she need to force anything?
As long as Li Xun was still Li Xun, that was enough.
Shui Die Lan greeted whatever ca next with a small smile. Hidden inside her gauzy sleeves, her fingers quietly crushed a few grains of spice. With a touch of her true breath, they released a faint, strange fragrance. It drifted through the pavilion and, without Li Xun noticing, soothed the storm of demons churning in his heart.
Shui Die Lan’s voice grew unusually soft. “Alright, I understand why you’re troubled. But what can you really do? Just keep going step by step like this?”
“Of course not. I’m not going to sit around and wait to die.”
Even Li Xun didn’t realize that his voice had already beco much calr.
“For now, I won’t and I can’t openly go against him. I need to strengthen my cultivation. More importantly, I need to figure out what Zhong Yin really wants. He’s keeping around and giving benefits, but what is he after? Until I understand that, all I can do is go along with his plans.
“So I have to keep the identity of ‘Spirit Bamboo.’ And I absolutely need to go to Star River. Before anyone in the sect starts questioning who I really am, I need to actually do sothing. That’s all there is to it.”
Shui Die Lan blinked. “And what exactly do you think you can accomplish there? Don’t forget, you said it yourself. That Bone-ridian Heartlink thing won’t last very long.”
“No, it’ll hold.”
Li Xun was growing calr by the mont. He gave a small smile and motioned for Shui Die Lan to pass him the Jade Bixie. Sohow, he took the artifact as casually as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Then he did sothing that made Shui Die Lan roll her eyes.
He undid his robe as if she weren’t standing right there, baring his chest. After taking a deep breath, he pressed the jade against the center of his chest.
Almost instantly, his skin hissed like it got branded. It sank nearly two inches deep, swallowing the Jade Bixie and locking it against his heart. On the surface, it now sat almost flush with his skin.
Shui Die Lan leaned in with real curiosity. “So what’s this supposed to do?”
“Ca up with it five seconds ago,” Li Xun said. “Using the Jade Bixie to hold down the evil qi, then reshaping the ridians with the Bone-ridian Heartlink technique. That way I can still utilize all the Mingxin Sword Sect techniques... won’t get in the way at all. And when things get critical, it can even cushion the impact and buy a few breaths. I’m guessing it’ll keep going for a few days. If I can catch a break and take it slow, I could even use it again.”
“Sounds good. But this has to affect your strength, right?”
Shui Die Lan had hit the mark. Li Xun nodded. “Yeah. With this thod, my strength drops by at least forty percent. But I’ve been improving fast lately. Even at sixty percent, I can barely keep up with Spirit Bamboo… So what do you think?”
“Not bad. Can’t believe you managed to co up with it.”
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