Wu Xingxue truly didn’t know that seeking others for help partitioning his spiritual consciousness would yield this result, but if he did know, he definitely—

Just as Xiao Fuxuan’s internal energy probed deep into his spirit, he narrowed his eyes, and suddenly forgot what was supposed to come after "definitely."

He finally understood why he couldn’t just ask anyone for help—

No one could guarantee that upon their spiritual consciousness being touched, they wouldn’t kill the other person. Let alone triggering his instinctual killing intent, his spirit could rush all the other party’s wide-open vital gates.

The person helping would most likely die a miserable death.

If they didn’t die, then it’d…

Then it’d be pretty meaningful.

Xiao Fuxuan did not die.

Wu Xingxue’s half-lowered eyelids fluttered.

Before long, he could sense a wisp of his spiritual consciousness being lightly plucked…

It wouldn’t be at all correct to say that it hurt, but it was a particularly queer feeling. He didn’t know if it was only him or the other person as well; that moment, he’d even gotten a slight, ineffable, not-super-great feeling…

Before he could figure out what that feeling was, the plucked wisp of spiritual consciousness sprung back to its resting state. It was like a ripple in the water that had billowed out a pair of rings before being made to settle down.

Wu Xingxue: "?"

He blurted out: "What’s wrong?"

Xiao Fuxuan: "Changed my mind."

The internal energy gently withdrew from his spiritual consciousness, but remained wrapped around his heart. That voice was so close, it seemed to have emanated from within his body itself, so very deep and low.

Wu Xingxue gaped for a moment, then asked: "Changed your mind? Why?"

"No reason," Xiao Fuxuan said, "The bit I left here should be enough, you don’t need to do anything."

His tone was heavy and candid. Wu Xingxue didn’t quite understand why, and was confused for a while until he suddenly thought… Could it have been that the slight discomfort he’d felt when his spiritual consciousness had been parted had been sensed by Xiao Fuxuan?

Being stared at for a while, Xiao Fuxuan tossed out a word of explanation: "It could actually cause some conflict if we leave a portion of both of our spiritual consciousness here.”

"Really?"

"Indeed."

Yeah right.

"Prove it." Wu Xingxue said.

Xiao Fuxuan: "……"

Tianxiu’s handsome face went a bit wooden; seeing it, Wu Xingxue wanted to laugh. That slight, ineffable feeling from when his spiritual consciousness had been parted had disappeared without a trace. As though it were all just an illusion, even he himself couldn’t recall it.

The Devil Lord right now was quite keen. Looking at the Tianxiu Immortal, he especially wanted to ask, "You aren’t lying are you, why did you make an exception?" But, due to a certain subtle, nameless emotion, he didn’t let out this question.

Immediately after, the Tianxiu’s internal energy finally shed itself from his heart and slowly retreated.

Strangely enough, his whole body had tensed when that internal energy probed inward, feeling somewhat constrained. But now, with this unwarned evacuation, he felt an emptiness at heart.

Looking on as that impetus was about to withdraw entirely, Xiao Fuxuan suddenly opened his mouth to say in a low voice: "Actually, spiritual energy can transmit sound.”

Wu Xingxue: "?"

He stared fixedly at Xiao Fuxuan: "Transmit sound? What do you mean?"

Xiao Fuxuan said: "It means you don’t have to open your mouth."

As he said this, his lips didn’t move. Wu Xingxue, however, heard it loud and clear, in his own body.

Wu Xingxue: "……"

This sensory experience brought a little heat to the base of his ears. Tilting his head, he used his fox fur collar to cover it up.

I’m the stately Devil Lord……

He mocked himself in his head.Going to the Feng Sect, there would be a lot of various people, and they’d often be unable to say what they wanted. If they could transmit their voices, it would indeed be more convenient. Such was the justification he sought for himself.

Afterward, he said ambiguously: "Then don’t leave."

The next moment, that wisp of internal energy that was just about to withdraw stretched back on over. When it again wound around the innermost portion of his heart, Wu Xingxue heard Tianxiu reply: "Very well."

The voice still echoed from inside his body.

Wu Xingxue: "……"

He again suspected that the certain someone was doing it on purpose.

***

With this handy voice transmission, they made their way to the Feng Sect, rendering Wu Xingxue absent-minded the whole way.

Ning Huaishan was a chatterbox and rambled on and on at the side. He deserved a little idle conversation, and seemed to have even brought up spirit partition. The moment they left Falling Flower Mountain Market, Ning Huaishan stuck a talisman on the boundary stone in passing and hit it with a sigil.

"Although Fang Chu’s sometimes got an unlikeable bitch face, but I’m a nice guy," Ning Huaishan said, "Not only am I cutting him some slack, I’m even leaving him an oral message to keep him from really getting so lost he doesn’t even make it back to Zhaoye City in the next life."

Yi Wusheng didn’t quite understand their devil way of "having to curse someone before helping them”, but still helped him strike the sigil to fully implant it.

This done, he went into a daze. After a while, he shook his head with a smile.

Back when he was young and energetic, he definitely wouldn’t expect that there would come a day when he was actually walking side-by-side with an ascended immortal and the Devil Lord, on a path in the mortal realm several centuries ago.

"You really made it big the past few days," Ning Huaishan said to the side, "Stuff somebody probably wouldn’t get to do in a few generations, you’ve done the past few days. Hey, taking a trip centuries in the past, a fragmented soul like you could live longer maybe? Extend it a few more days?"

"You don’t have to mock me," Yi Wusheng said.

"How was I mocking you! If we can go back a bunch of centuries ago, is there anything that can’t be done? Besides—" Ning Huaishan’s eyes darted back and forth, and he suddenly grabbed Yi Wusheng, stealthily transmitting his voice to say: "You’ve become like this. Ultimately, isn’t it all because of that guy underneath the Valley of Great Sorrow?"

Ning Huaishan thought it over, then continued transmitting his voice to out his rotten idea: "Do this: we got to the Feng Sect, and you don’t."

Yi Wusheng: "……"

He suspected this kid had held himself back half the day, just to say this.

Yi Wusheng replied irritably: "Then where will I go?”

Wearing an "are you an idiot" expression, Wing Huaishan said: "Where’ll you go? You’ll go to the Valley of Great Sorrow of course!"

Yi Wusheng was startled.

Ning Huaishan said: "I dunno when it is now, whether that guy’s dead or not, or whether that catacomb below the Valley is there or not. If he’s not dead, then… Then you can go stop him. If he’s already dead, and the catacomb is down there, then just go tighten up the catacomb’s seal a little.”

Yi Wusheng listened to him without uttering a word.

Ning Huaishan: "And if you have the chance to kill him for good in the tomb, then wouldn’t you not end up like this? Right?"

Ning Huaishan even shook his head and sighed to himself as he spoke: "Look, you almost tried to kill me before, and I’m still here nice enough to be giving you ideas like this. You really won’t meet many people as generous as I am."

Yi Wusheng: "……"

He cupped his hands in respect, quite properly expressing his admiration and gratitude. But his expression was momentarily dazed.

What Ning Huaishan had said was truly tempting.

Too tempting.

Since he’d entered a cultivation sect in his youth, he’d liked listening to folktales at market, and heard all sorts of "how to rise from the dead" and “starting back over again" stories. It was like, as long as "all who once lived must one day die," he’d inevitably like to delve into these two subjects.

Thinking about it now, perhaps all those stories carried a shadow of the divine arbor within; all took it as their foundation.

Back when he’d listened to those stories, he’d always chat a bit with Hua Zhaoting and Hua Zhaotai. And in the end, he’d always reach the verdict: One must not do things that went against the laws of nature and heaven.

It wasn’t until now that he discovered that that "one must not” back then was spoken too lightly.

He’d also finally come to understand why, when speaking on the divine arbor, Feng Huiming would say "so long as it existed in a place people could see or touch, there would inevitably be unrest."

Look, he thought, now the opportunity to start back over again is placed before you, and Ning Huaishan keeps bugging you about it from the side. Yi Wusheng kept on listening and replying ambiguously, but couldn’t let out the simplest "No."

"Here’s a fork in the road,” Ning Huaishan insisted, "This way goes to the Valley of Great Sorrows, that way goes to the Feng Sect. Think it over, if you change your mind midway it’ll be pretty embarrassing for you."

Yi Wusheng abruptly paused in his steps.As they reached the foot of the mountain, there were indeed two distinct paths. In the eyes of those beside him, one way was a horse carriage road leading to the Valley, and the other way was an official road into the city. But in his eyes, however, they were different—

One way was a possibility at life, and one way maintained his current state—certain death.

"I…" Yi Wusheng was at a loss for words.

To the side, Wu Xingxue and Xiao Fuxuan turned their heads, at which point he realized that he hadn’t used voice transmission to say this, but had accidentally gripped the talisman paper to say it out loud.

"What’s up?" Wu Xingxue asked.

Yi Wusheng looked at him, then looked at Xiao Fuxuan.

"I……" Yi Wusheng said, "I forgot something in the Falling Flower Mountain Market."

The Tianxiu Immortal’s line of sight fell on him. Everyone said this immortal’s eyes were cold as stars, harboring sword intent. Even if someone with a clear conscience were to be stared at for a while by him, they’d get nervous. And moreover… he didn’t have a clear conscience.

Yi Wusheng lowered his eyes to say: "Please go first, I’ll catch up when I find it."

Without raising his eyes, he couldn’t tell what Wu Xingxue and Xiao Fuxuan’s expressions were like upon hearing him, whether or not they believed him.

After a while, he heard Wu Xingxue say: "Sure."

***

In the end, those on the official road into the city, apart from the Feng Sect crowd, were down to just three. Yi Wusheng wasn’t present.

The one who’d initially urged him on was Ning Huaishan, and now, the first to have regrets was also Ning Huaishan. Because, he discovered that after Yi Wusheng had left, the entire atmosphere had become sullen.

The Feng Sect people were only naturally unhappy, each of them totally silent, only the overlapping sound of footsteps thudding out as they entered the city. But his city lord and Tianxiu’s expressions were also not too great.

"Ning Huaishan." Wu Xingxue suddenly opened his mouth and softly called his name, his ink-black eyes turning toward him.

Ning Huaishan inexplicably shivered; his scalp tingled.

"What were you saying to Yi Wusheng?" Wu Xingxue asked.

Ning Huaishan trembled: "…Uh, n-nothing."

Before Wu Xingxue could again open his mouth, he lowered his head to say: "Just a little… a little uhhh, if he didn’t wanna die, I just told him there was actually a little something he could do."

The more he spoke the quieter his voice became; the more he spoke, the more he felt a chill at his neck, sensing that he appeared to have courted death.

He got the feeling that city lord wasn’t very happy right now, but upon stealthily glancing over, he saw that his city lord was pursing his bloodless lips. He didn’t look like he was angry, more like he was a little… regretful.

But while this "regretful" expression would be just fine on an ordinary person, on a devil, it somehow seemed even scarier than pure displeasure.

Ning Huaishan couldn’t help but think: Why would he show this expression? And what’s he regretful about?

He racked his brains but still couldn’t figure it out.

In fact, even Wu Xingxue himself didn’t know. It was just that when he heard "there was a little something Yi Wusheng could do," the words "what a pity" somehow flashed through his mind.

It was just like he’d once seen this sort of thing quite often, felt this sort of emotion so often, that it had become a subconscious habit.

And, before he could come back to himself, he discovered that his fingers had actually felt at his waist, as though… feeling there for a nonexistent sword.

Too strange, what was he feeling for a sword for?

He looked at his fingers, and suddenly heard Xiao Fuxuan’s voice sounding in his heart: "Wu Xingxue."

Wu Xingxue’s fingers curled, and he turned to look at him.

Xiao Fuxuan: "My spiritual consciousness is following him.”

Wu Xingxue was momentarily at a loss before he recovered, and internally transmitted his voice to say: "You mean Yi Wusheng?"

Xiao Fuxuan: "Yes."

Wu Xingxue was suddenly relieved. At this moment, he heard Feng Huiming’s voice coming from in front: "We’ve arrived."

The frigid night of several centuries before was still shockingly cold. It’d rained the previous night, and the official road was covered in patches of ice. The city was shrouded in a cold fog, so that the few lanterns protected from the wind became splotches of light in the mist.

The place where lanterns were most numerous had faint traces of a cultivation sect’s prohibition barrier. This was the Feng Sect.

Feng Sect was the largest cultivation sect in this city. Unlike Peach Blossom Island’s Hua Sect, the Feng Sect bore a somewhat “official” air. The area above its threshold was wide, its eaves flung high, and there was even an extremely tall tower erected in the center. The entire sect looked magnificently imposing, like a city within a city.

This sort of cultivation sect, when picking out a site, would have been very precise throughout, with careful consideration as to spiritual qi and feng shui; none of it would have been randomly allotted. So normally speaking, upon entering any sect, one would feel a nourishing sense of spiritual qi

But upon entering the Feng Sect, Wu Xingxue felt discomfort throughout his body.

Although spiritual qi was abundant, there was an ineffable weirdness to it…

Yet everyone else’s complexions were normal. Even Xiao Fuxuan seemed not to have felt it.