When Shen Zhixian closed his eyes, Yan Jin no longer hesitated. As he drew in a faint breath, a layer of scarlet washed over his eyes. He continued to push a steady stream of spiritual power into Shen Zhixian’s body, replenishing and easing the veins that hadn’t been nourished by spiritual power in a long time.
Since Shen Zhixian had returned to his senses, he no longer needed to be restrained. Yan Jin slightly loosened his hold and his hands slid down to grasp Shen Zhixian’s palm.
Yan Jin’s hands were very warm and snug, giving Shen Zhixuan a sense of security. He also subconsciously held Yan Jin’s hand tightly, like a drowning man who’d finally caught his life-saving driftwood.
Shen Zhixian’s body was too weak. Yan Jin feared he would do more harm than good if he transferred too much spiritual power at one time. When Shen Zhixian’s state had almost returned to normal, Yan Jin slowly withdrew his spiritual power. Once done, he pulled his forehead away slightly from Shen Zhixian’s.
They were still so close that the moment Yan Jin’s gaze lowered to look at Shen Zhixian’s face, he could clearly see his lips, which were slightly dry and pale due to this obstacle.
Shen Zhixian was probably exhausted. His eyes remained closed, his eyelashes slightly trembling and his breath coming out in small, slightly heavy pants. Yan Jin studied his face for a moment and finally couldn’t help it. He quietly approached, and with great restrained, gently pressed his mouth to Shen Zhixian’s lips.
It was the lightest touch, like a warm breeze brushing across delicate lips, so fast that it was easy to think it a mere illusion.
Shen Zhixian felt something warm brushed against his lips but, at this moment, his eyes were closed and he was a recovering mess so he didn’t think much of it. Feeling Yan Jin pulling away from him, he opened his eyes tiredly.
He was so exhausted that he could barely sit upright. Yan Jin embraced him, and he rested his head on Yan Jin’s shoulder, breathing slowly and easily.
After a while, he regained his senses and finally had the energy to ponder over this weird secret realm.
This secret realm…had never been seen before. What’s more, no one had supposedly gone in before. It was rumored that this was a new secret realm, but….
“When I was speaking to that gray robed man that day, he seemed to have no knowledge of current events in Xin City. He couldn’t be someone who’d recently entered. Even those he was familiar with were not recent newcomers.” Shen Zhixian closed his eyes and pulled away a bit. “Since these people had entered a long time ago, why was there a rumor that this secret realm had never opened before and that this would be the first time…”
“For such a big secret realm, if people had already entered and exited, it would be impossible to hide its movements, unless…” He trailed off, but Yan Jin immediately understood what he meant. At last, Shen Zhixian stated his theory, “Unless those who entered didn’t leave.”
If no one came out, they wouldn’t be able to talk about the existence of this secret realm. The last time this secret realm opened, it was probably very low-key. As a result, few people knew about it and those who did enter never came out. It was no wonder that the outside world was unaware of its existence.
So why don’t these people leave?
Was it that they didn’t want to leave, or could it be that they just…couldn’t leave at all?
There was an aching pain in Shen Zhixian’s throat, and he gave a cough. Speaking in a low voice, he murmured, “My spiritual power has been sealed, and so I couldn’t see it. When you look at the people you’d seen these days, what were their state?”
Yan Jin saw that Shen Zhixian was uncomfortable and gave him water until he shook his head to signal him to stop. Then Yan Jin answered, “The realm is low and it’s spiritual qi is actually very weak.”
That was another strange thing.
In principle, except for Shen Zhixian’s case, everyone who can enter the secret realm should have certain high prerequisites in terms of stage and practice. When this place’s spiritual qi had not been totally exhausted, it was understandable that the cultivators would stay. But, once the spirit realm’s spiritual qi weakened, why didn’t they leave?
Shen Zhixian thought of the black robed man and murmured, “Everyone I saw that day couldn’t see me … but this black robed man I saw today could see me and even persuaded me to eat the so-called spirit fruit… ”
A creepy conjecture came to mind, and Shen Zhixian felt his palms began to sweat a little.
He paused for a moment, raised his head slightly to look at Yan Jin, and whispered, “I think these people are long gone. They didn’t leave, maybe not because they didn’t want to leave as they said, but because they couldn’t leave at all…”
These people should have lived a long time ago. The reason they couldn’t leave was because their flesh and blood had long turned into bones, and only a weak soul was left. How could they leave?!
Yan Jin took Shen Zhixian’s hand and tightened his arms around him, as if afraid he might disappear. Shen Zhixian felt momentarily strangled, only to realize that he was lying in Yan Jin’s arms in a totally undignified and unattractive way…He moved slightly, wanting to sit upright. However, the weakness and fatigue that seemed soaked in his bones dispelled him.
Shen Zhixian quietly looked at Yan Jin’s expression. When he noticed that Yan Jin was looking at him as if he didn’t care much, he gave a lazy, mental shrug and quietly pressed back against Yan Jin. He continued to ponder out loud. “It was said that most of them were taken with initiative into this secret realm, just like me. They should all be normal, living people when they enter…”
Until the secret realm gradually emptied them of any spiritual powers. Emptied them of anger, flesh and blood, and decayed them into dust. These ghosts were then trapped here, repeating the so-called 'secret realm experience” day and night.
“They can’t see living people because only the same dead souls can see each other …” Shen Zhixian felt that he’d faintly touched upon the tail-end of the truth, and he said, “The higher the cultivation, the slower the death. In the eyes of those with low cultivation who’d died early, it would only seem as if some people just take slower to become visible.”
This speculation was ridiculously absurd, but it was undeniable that this may be the closest speculation to the truth.
Yan Jin had spiritual power to protect his body, but Shen Zhixian, who has no spiritual power, will naturally be affected. If Yan Jin had not passed him some spiritual power and calmed his mind, he likely would not be able to control his need for the black qi “food” today. If not for Yan Jin, he feared he might have to fold the remaining half of his life here.
“Those black qi…” Shen Zhixian asked slowly, “Was it devil qi?”
Yan Jin was silent for a moment and said in a low voice, “They … should be devil cultivators.”
Shen Zhixian frowned.
This was a little unexpected. The gray robe man used black qi when he killed the deer that day. He thought it was because the man ate too much magical stuff in the secret realm, but it was because … They were originally devil cultivators?
In recent years, immortal cultivators had devoted themselves to fighting the devil cultivators. As a result, devil cultivators had almost disappeared for a long time. So, why were there so many devil cultivators here? Moreover, how long had they been here? Perhaps, they were from a long time ago, when immortal cultivators and devil cultivators still coexisted peacefully.
Why did the secret realm bring in so many devil cultivators?
No, it couldn’t be right. He was not a devil cultivator and many people in Xin City were not devil cultivators. Yan Jin…The only exception was Yan Jin. Shen Zhixian didn’t know if it was due to instinct or if he was too affected by the original book, but he’d always felt a sense of inevitability when he thought of Yan Jin becoming a devil cultivator…
Leaving aside Yan Jin for the time being, why bring so many cultivators in? Did it want to trap them all in a secret place and turn them into fertilizers for these flowers?
Unable to think of a reason, Shen Zhixian murmured to himself for a moment and finally said, “It hasn’t been too long and the people who came in earlier should still be okay. I just don’t know where they are… Let’s go find Duan Yuan and see what’s happening on her end.”
After hearing Shen Zhixuan mention Duan Yan, Yan Jin’s eyes flashed, so fleeting that it was gone within a second. His gaze grew calm once again and he asked in a low voice, “Are you still uncomfortable?”
“I’m okay.” After this brainstorming session ended, Shen Zhixian yawned tiredly. He closed his eyes, drowsy and lethargic. “Take care of me. Don’t let me touch those things…”
As he said this, his voice gradually trailed off. His light breathing puffed against Yan Jin’s neck, slightly moist, slightly warm, rubbing Yan’s Jin heart into a pool of water.
He quietly embraced Shen Zhixian like this. After a long time, he looked down slightly, watching Shen Zhixian’s pale face. His eyes were clear and his gaze calm. But, it was unclear what he was thinking at this moment.
After falling asleep, Shen Zhixian’s hand slightly loosened against his own. Yan Jin noticed it. He slightly released their clasped hands, and then he slowly and firmly squeezed his fingers between Shen Zhixian’s fingers.
Ten fingers tightly interlocked, as Shen Zhixian had done before.
Inseparable.
…..
Shen Zhixuan said it should be fairly easy to leave, but, in fact, they wandered for several days and still couldn’t leave these dark areas.
Shen Zhixuan was increasingly unable to resist the influence and erosion of the magical energy. Yan Jin originally only needed to spend one to two days transferring spiritual powers to him, and then he eventually had to do so every few hours.
Even so, Shen Zhixian could hardly resist the tiredness that had percolated from his bones. In the end, he became so groggy he couldn’t even walk. Yan Jin carried him on his back without a word.
Shen Zhixian clung desperately to his last sober awareness, wrapping his arms around Yan Jin’s neck, hands sometimes dangling in front of Yan Jin’s chest when he was too tired to hold on, and always leaning his head against Yan Jin’s wide shoulder.
The fog grew denser and quieter. Until, unexpectedly, a faint melodious singing drifted to them as if from a great distance.
“A’jin …”
Yan Jin was carefully identifying the road they’re traversing, walking fast. Then, he heard Shen Zhixian’s sudden whisper in his ear, “Did you hear…singing …”
Singing?
Yan Jin slowed down a little, listening attentively, and sure enough, a faint song came from a distance.
As the awareness in Shen Zhixian’s gaze slowly dissipated and his spiritual soul continuously weakened, he leaned against Yan Jin’s back in a muddled daze. He began subconsciously humming along: “…”
The singing was difficult to imitate or decipher. It was in a mysterious, ancient language, with each note wrapped in leisurely charms. Shen Zhixian didn’t understand the words, but he was good at imitating them. After humming along in a low voice, he actually learned seven or eight points.
His voice was not as clear as that of the distant song, and it needed to be softer and gentler. But, when he murmured with a weak ending, like a small hook, he suddenly hooked out some of Yan Jin’s deep memories in his heart.
Emotions surged, causing Yan Jin’s eyes to deepen. He accelerated his pace and continued to move forward.
As they went down the road faster and faster, the fog became more and more dense, and the road ahead couldn’t be seen at all. In the fog came many sounds that began to echo one another, drowning out the singing.
There was the voice of the man in the gray robe that Shen Zhixian had met at the beginning, the voice of the man in the black robe who gave him the fruit a few days ago, and other more unfamiliar voices, repeatedly echoing one another.
“Why are you leaving..?.”
“It’s so good here…”
“There’s a lot of treasures. Let’s stay together…”
“Stay… Stay with us…”
“With us…”
The cacophony of voices were too intrusive. Hearing these distant echoing voices, Shen Zhixian drew in a breath and began to feel restless.
He moved with great discomfort on Yan Jin’s back. Yan Jin felt it and tightened his grasp on Shen Zhixian, not daring to let go. He shouted “Sui Xian”, wanting him to wake up, but Shen Zhixian continued to struggle as if unable to hear him, saying he wanted to go into the fog, wanted to stay with “these people.”
Shen Zhixian continued to struggle weakly, and suddenly a slightly stiff, rusty male voice rang out, right in his ear, learning the distant song stiffly and humming softly.
Shen Zhixian gradually stopped struggling, falling into a listless daze. As he listened to Yan Jin’s song, he somehow calmed down and grew quiet.
Yan Jin’s face froze with hard concentration, thinking hard of those tones, those weird characters, stumbling and humming, as he walked quickly through the dense fog.
His voice, to Shen Zhixian, was full of soothing power, like an invisible barrier that isolated Shen Zhixian from the evil spirits of the outside world.
Shen Zhixian was muddleheaded, his body suddenly alternating between extreme cold and extreme heat. It made him feel both pained and distressed. He stared blankly for a long while, until, at once, he began to feel very aggrieved. He subconsciously tightened his arms around Yan Jin’s neck and grumbled injustices in his ears, “A’jin… Can’t bear it… I can’t bear it…”
The Shen Zhixian that Yan Jin had seen in the past had always been calm, gentle, free, and easygoing. He’d never seen Shen Zhixian’s grievous attitude. Even when he was suffering from heart attacks in Qingyun Sect, Shen Zhixian had not been so aggrieved.
His mind felt as if a fireball had ignited inside, making his body burn hot.
Unable to seduce them with sounds, many figures gradually walked out from the thick fog. They were all black skeletons, coated with a rotten stench. They surrounded Shen Zhixian and Yan Jin, repeatedly requesting that they stay behind with them.
Yan Jin held Shen Zhixian tightly with one hand, and with his other hand, he pulled out his sword. His eyes was a dense, malicious red and his expression was ice-cold as he killed without hesitation.
His fierce sword rays shattered skulls and black bones. Pained screams echoed around them and the dense fog retreated frantically, exposing a fog-like barrier in front of them—they finally found the edge of this strange land.
Within the depths of Yan Jin’s spiritual sea, the restraint that already had cracks in it began to widen, revealing redness underneath. Strands of black qi wandered into his spiritual sea more and more joyfully. Meanwhile, Yan Jin drew in a breath and used all of his strength as he brought down the sword.
There was a loud noise, and the misty barrier cracked, finally revealing the appearance of another boundary.
With beautiful mountains and rivers, and flowers and birds.
Shen Zhixian didn’t say anything, only repeatedly murmuring Yan Jin’s name.
Yan Jin carried him on his back and strode out of the place that had trapped them for many days. He glanced slightly around them for signs of danger, and when he found none, he immediately moved Shen Zhixian from his back and into his arms. He held him tightly, with great strengths, as if wanting to press him deep into his bones.
“I’m…” His voice was shaking as he whispered the words into Shen Zhixian’s ear, his mouth mere inches away from the shell-like curve. Every time Shen Zhixian called his name, he would say, “Sui Xian… I’m here.”
When Shen Zhixian closed his eyes, Yan Jin no longer hesitated. As he drew in a faint breath, a layer of scarlet washed over his eyes. He continued to push a steady stream of spiritual power into Shen Zhixian’s body, replenishing and easing the veins that hadn’t been nourished by spiritual power in a long time.
Since Shen Zhixian had returned to his senses, he no longer needed to be restrained. Yan Jin slightly loosened his hold and his hands slid down to grasp Shen Zhixian’s palm.
Yan Jin’s hands were very warm and snug, giving Shen Zhixuan a sense of security. He also subconsciously held Yan Jin’s hand tightly, like a drowning man who’d finally caught his life-saving driftwood.
Shen Zhixian’s body was too weak. Yan Jin feared he would do more harm than good if he transferred too much spiritual power at one time. When Shen Zhixian’s state had almost returned to normal, Yan Jin slowly withdrew his spiritual power. Once done, he pulled his forehead away slightly from Shen Zhixian’s.
They were still so close that the moment Yan Jin’s gaze lowered to look at Shen Zhixian’s face, he could clearly see his lips, which were slightly dry and pale due to this obstacle.
Shen Zhixian was probably exhausted. His eyes remained closed, his eyelashes slightly trembling and his breath coming out in small, slightly heavy pants. Yan Jin studied his face for a moment and finally couldn’t help it. He quietly approached, and with great restrained, gently pressed his mouth to Shen Zhixian’s lips.
It was the lightest touch, like a warm breeze brushing across delicate lips, so fast that it was easy to think it a mere illusion.
Shen Zhixian felt something warm brushed against his lips but, at this moment, his eyes were closed and he was a recovering mess so he didn’t think much of it. Feeling Yan Jin pulling away from him, he opened his eyes tiredly.
He was so exhausted that he could barely sit upright. Yan Jin embraced him, and he rested his head on Yan Jin’s shoulder, breathing slowly and easily.
After a while, he regained his senses and finally had the energy to ponder over this weird secret realm.
This secret realm…had never been seen before. What’s more, no one had supposedly gone in before. It was rumored that this was a new secret realm, but….
“When I was speaking to that gray robed man that day, he seemed to have no knowledge of current events in Xin City. He couldn’t be someone who’d recently entered. Even those he was familiar with were not recent newcomers.” Shen Zhixian closed his eyes and pulled away a bit. “Since these people had entered a long time ago, why was there a rumor that this secret realm had never opened before and that this would be the first time…”
“For such a big secret realm, if people had already entered and exited, it would be impossible to hide its movements, unless…” He trailed off, but Yan Jin immediately understood what he meant. At last, Shen Zhixian stated his theory, “Unless those who entered didn’t leave.”
If no one came out, they wouldn’t be able to talk about the existence of this secret realm. The last time this secret realm opened, it was probably very low-key. As a result, few people knew about it and those who did enter never came out. It was no wonder that the outside world was unaware of its existence.
So why don’t these people leave?
Was it that they didn’t want to leave, or could it be that they just…couldn’t leave at all?
There was an aching pain in Shen Zhixian’s throat, and he gave a cough. Speaking in a low voice, he murmured, “My spiritual power has been sealed, and so I couldn’t see it. When you look at the people you’d seen these days, what were their state?”
Yan Jin saw that Shen Zhixian was uncomfortable and gave him water until he shook his head to signal him to stop. Then Yan Jin answered, “The realm is low and it’s spiritual qi is actually very weak.”
That was another strange thing.
In principle, except for Shen Zhixian’s case, everyone who can enter the secret realm should have certain high prerequisites in terms of stage and practice. When this place’s spiritual qi had not been totally exhausted, it was understandable that the cultivators would stay. But, once the spirit realm’s spiritual qi weakened, why didn’t they leave?
Shen Zhixian thought of the black robed man and murmured, “Everyone I saw that day couldn’t see me … but this black robed man I saw today could see me and even persuaded me to eat the so-called spirit fruit… ”
A creepy conjecture came to mind, and Shen Zhixian felt his palms began to sweat a little.
He paused for a moment, raised his head slightly to look at Yan Jin, and whispered, “I think these people are long gone. They didn’t leave, maybe not because they didn’t want to leave as they said, but because they couldn’t leave at all…”
These people should have lived a long time ago. The reason they couldn’t leave was because their flesh and blood had long turned into bones, and only a weak soul was left. How could they leave?!
Yan Jin took Shen Zhixian’s hand and tightened his arms around him, as if afraid he might disappear. Shen Zhixian felt momentarily strangled, only to realize that he was lying in Yan Jin’s arms in a totally undignified and unattractive way…He moved slightly, wanting to sit upright. However, the weakness and fatigue that seemed soaked in his bones dispelled him.
Shen Zhixian quietly looked at Yan Jin’s expression. When he noticed that Yan Jin was looking at him as if he didn’t care much, he gave a lazy, mental shrug and quietly pressed back against Yan Jin. He continued to ponder out loud. “It was said that most of them were taken with initiative into this secret realm, just like me. They should all be normal, living people when they enter…”
Until the secret realm gradually emptied them of any spiritual powers. Emptied them of anger, flesh and blood, and decayed them into dust. These ghosts were then trapped here, repeating the so-called 'secret realm experience” day and night.
“They can’t see living people because only the same dead souls can see each other …” Shen Zhixian felt that he’d faintly touched upon the tail-end of the truth, and he said, “The higher the cultivation, the slower the death. In the eyes of those with low cultivation who’d died early, it would only seem as if some people just take slower to become visible.”
This speculation was ridiculously absurd, but it was undeniable that this may be the closest speculation to the truth.
Yan Jin had spiritual power to protect his body, but Shen Zhixian, who has no spiritual power, will naturally be affected. If Yan Jin had not passed him some spiritual power and calmed his mind, he likely would not be able to control his need for the black qi “food” today. If not for Yan Jin, he feared he might have to fold the remaining half of his life here.
“Those black qi…” Shen Zhixian asked slowly, “Was it devil qi?”
Yan Jin was silent for a moment and said in a low voice, “They … should be devil cultivators.”
Shen Zhixian frowned.
This was a little unexpected. The gray robe man used black qi when he killed the deer that day. He thought it was because the man ate too much magical stuff in the secret realm, but it was because … They were originally devil cultivators?
In recent years, immortal cultivators had devoted themselves to fighting the devil cultivators. As a result, devil cultivators had almost disappeared for a long time. So, why were there so many devil cultivators here? Moreover, how long had they been here? Perhaps, they were from a long time ago, when immortal cultivators and devil cultivators still coexisted peacefully.
Why did the secret realm bring in so many devil cultivators?
No, it couldn’t be right. He was not a devil cultivator and many people in Xin City were not devil cultivators. Yan Jin…The only exception was Yan Jin. Shen Zhixian didn’t know if it was due to instinct or if he was too affected by the original book, but he’d always felt a sense of inevitability when he thought of Yan Jin becoming a devil cultivator…
Leaving aside Yan Jin for the time being, why bring so many cultivators in? Did it want to trap them all in a secret place and turn them into fertilizers for these flowers?
Unable to think of a reason, Shen Zhixian murmured to himself for a moment and finally said, “It hasn’t been too long and the people who came in earlier should still be okay. I just don’t know where they are… Let’s go find Duan Yuan and see what’s happening on her end.”
After hearing Shen Zhixuan mention Duan Yan, Yan Jin’s eyes flashed, so fleeting that it was gone within a second. His gaze grew calm once again and he asked in a low voice, “Are you still uncomfortable?”
“I’m okay.” After this brainstorming session ended, Shen Zhixian yawned tiredly. He closed his eyes, drowsy and lethargic. “Take care of me. Don’t let me touch those things…”
As he said this, his voice gradually trailed off. His light breathing puffed against Yan Jin’s neck, slightly moist, slightly warm, rubbing Yan’s Jin heart into a pool of water.
He quietly embraced Shen Zhixian like this. After a long time, he looked down slightly, watching Shen Zhixian’s pale face. His eyes were clear and his gaze calm. But, it was unclear what he was thinking at this moment.
After falling asleep, Shen Zhixian’s hand slightly loosened against his own. Yan Jin noticed it. He slightly released their clasped hands, and then he slowly and firmly squeezed his fingers between Shen Zhixian’s fingers.
Ten fingers tightly interlocked, as Shen Zhixian had done before.
Inseparable.
…..
Shen Zhixuan said it should be fairly easy to leave, but, in fact, they wandered for several days and still couldn’t leave these dark areas.
Shen Zhixuan was increasingly unable to resist the influence and erosion of the magical energy. Yan Jin originally only needed to spend one to two days transferring spiritual powers to him, and then he eventually had to do so every few hours.
Even so, Shen Zhixian could hardly resist the tiredness that had percolated from his bones. In the end, he became so groggy he couldn’t even walk. Yan Jin carried him on his back without a word.
Shen Zhixian clung desperately to his last sober awareness, wrapping his arms around Yan Jin’s neck, hands sometimes dangling in front of Yan Jin’s chest when he was too tired to hold on, and always leaning his head against Yan Jin’s wide shoulder.
The fog grew denser and quieter. Until, unexpectedly, a faint melodious singing drifted to them as if from a great distance.
“A’jin …”
Yan Jin was carefully identifying the road they’re traversing, walking fast. Then, he heard Shen Zhixian’s sudden whisper in his ear, “Did you hear…singing …”
Singing?
Yan Jin slowed down a little, listening attentively, and sure enough, a faint song came from a distance.
As the awareness in Shen Zhixian’s gaze slowly dissipated and his spiritual soul continuously weakened, he leaned against Yan Jin’s back in a muddled daze. He began subconsciously humming along: “…”
The singing was difficult to imitate or decipher. It was in a mysterious, ancient language, with each note wrapped in leisurely charms. Shen Zhixian didn’t understand the words, but he was good at imitating them. After humming along in a low voice, he actually learned seven or eight points.
His voice was not as clear as that of the distant song, and it needed to be softer and gentler. But, when he murmured with a weak ending, like a small hook, he suddenly hooked out some of Yan Jin’s deep memories in his heart.
Emotions surged, causing Yan Jin’s eyes to deepen. He accelerated his pace and continued to move forward.
As they went down the road faster and faster, the fog became more and more dense, and the road ahead couldn’t be seen at all. In the fog came many sounds that began to echo one another, drowning out the singing.
There was the voice of the man in the gray robe that Shen Zhixian had met at the beginning, the voice of the man in the black robe who gave him the fruit a few days ago, and other more unfamiliar voices, repeatedly echoing one another.
“Why are you leaving..?.”
“It’s so good here…”
“There’s a lot of treasures. Let’s stay together…”
“Stay… Stay with us…”
“With us…”
The cacophony of voices were too intrusive. Hearing these distant echoing voices, Shen Zhixian drew in a breath and began to feel restless.
He moved with great discomfort on Yan Jin’s back. Yan Jin felt it and tightened his grasp on Shen Zhixian, not daring to let go. He shouted “Sui Xian”, wanting him to wake up, but Shen Zhixian continued to struggle as if unable to hear him, saying he wanted to go into the fog, wanted to stay with “these people.”
Shen Zhixian continued to struggle weakly, and suddenly a slightly stiff, rusty male voice rang out, right in his ear, learning the distant song stiffly and humming softly.
Shen Zhixian gradually stopped struggling, falling into a listless daze. As he listened to Yan Jin’s song, he somehow calmed down and grew quiet.
Yan Jin’s face froze with hard concentration, thinking hard of those tones, those weird characters, stumbling and humming, as he walked quickly through the dense fog.
His voice, to Shen Zhixian, was full of soothing power, like an invisible barrier that isolated Shen Zhixian from the evil spirits of the outside world.
Shen Zhixian was muddleheaded, his body suddenly alternating between extreme cold and extreme heat. It made him feel both pained and distressed. He stared blankly for a long while, until, at once, he began to feel very aggrieved. He subconsciously tightened his arms around Yan Jin’s neck and grumbled injustices in his ears, “A’jin… Can’t bear it… I can’t bear it…”
The Shen Zhixian that Yan Jin had seen in the past had always been calm, gentle, free, and easygoing. He’d never seen Shen Zhixian’s grievous attitude. Even when he was suffering from heart attacks in Qingyun Sect, Shen Zhixian had not been so aggrieved.
His mind felt as if a fireball had ignited inside, making his body burn hot.
Unable to seduce them with sounds, many figures gradually walked out from the thick fog. They were all black skeletons, coated with a rotten stench. They surrounded Shen Zhixian and Yan Jin, repeatedly requesting that they stay behind with them.
Yan Jin held Shen Zhixian tightly with one hand, and with his other hand, he pulled out his sword. His eyes was a dense, malicious red and his expression was ice-cold as he killed without hesitation.
His fierce sword rays shattered skulls and black bones. Pained screams echoed around them and the dense fog retreated frantically, exposing a fog-like barrier in front of them—they finally found the edge of this strange land.
Within the depths of Yan Jin’s spiritual sea, the restraint that already had cracks in it began to widen, revealing redness underneath. Strands of black qi wandered into his spiritual sea more and more joyfully. Meanwhile, Yan Jin drew in a breath and used all of his strength as he brought down the sword.
There was a loud noise, and the misty barrier cracked, finally revealing the appearance of another boundary.
With beautiful mountains and rivers, and flowers and birds.
Shen Zhixian didn’t say anything, only repeatedly murmuring Yan Jin’s name.
Yan Jin carried him on his back and strode out of the place that had trapped them for many days. He glanced slightly around them for signs of danger, and when he found none, he immediately moved Shen Zhixian from his back and into his arms. He held him tightly, with great strengths, as if wanting to press him deep into his bones.
“I’m…” His voice was shaking as he whispered the words into Shen Zhixian’s ear, his mouth mere inches away from the shell-like curve. Every time Shen Zhixian called his name, he would say, “Sui Xian… I’m here.”