“Xie Sui, my name is Xie Sui.”
After answering, the young man quickly added, “Lian Yin, get ready, we’re leaving.”
His voice was faint, and as more and more of their companions burned to death before their eyes, the girl stood frozen, completely at a loss.
The boy calmly took her hand and said, “…I’ll get you out of here.”
“But how are we supposed to leave?”
Almost the moment her words fell, Xie Sui drew his sword and cleaved open the wall of flames blocking their path.
The burning structure collapsed with a thunderous crash, sparks and splintered wood scattering through the air.
Startled by the sudden change, the girl cried out and pressed tightly against his side.
The two children walked out through the gap opened by that single strike.
“Let’s go.”
They followed behind the two children and exited together.
Outside the burning school lay boundless darkness. The two children leaned against each other as they walked ahead, faint sobs occasionally drifting back before finally fading into nothing.
Just as Lian Yin thought they were about to enter the next scene, in the blink of an eye she found herself standing in a corridor again.
The sky was dim and overcast. She had no impression of this place, so she turned her head and saw behind her a room draped in red gauze, its door not yet fully closed.
“We came out?”
“Yes.” Xie Sui did not look any more relaxed. “We’re still inside the secret realm. One wrong step and we might fall back in again.”
He began walking forward. “Keep moving. I came from the back.”
Lian Yin nodded. In truth, she did not hold much hope of getting out, though she did feel some regret that Xie Sui might die.
“You didn’t come alone, did you? Where are your companions?”
“I don’t know, probably dead.” Xie Sui paused, then asked, “Have I answered this before?”
“Seems like it. Why didn’t you go save them? Instead, you saved me.”
“I just happened to see you,” Xie Sui replied. “The secret realm splits people apart. If we get separated, I won’t come looking for you, so you’d better stay close.”
He had just saved her in passing, yet he still seemed like a decent person.
Lian Yin decided to give him a hint. “Do you know Luohun Demon Venerable? Are you sure this secret realm contains a divine artifact and not some trap he released? I heard he likes to spread things like this…”
“Luohun Demon Venerable has been dead for over three hundred years, completely gone without a trace. Not even a secret realm was left behind, and you think he’s still spreading news?” Xie Sui scoffed. “You said you’re from Zhongzhou, but your information is really outdated.”
Lian Yin froze in his first sentence. What did he mean by completely gone? And why was Xie Sui so certain?
Yet this secret realm, that room draped in red gauze, those paintings, they were clearly his handiwork, his will at play.
“Are you sure he’s dead?” she asked.
Xie Sui found the question odd but still answered patiently. “He’s been dead for over three hundred years. He cultivated through slaughter, stirring conflict across the five domains since the moment he rose to fame, bringing disasters everywhere. If he hadn’t fallen, the five domains wouldn’t be this peaceful now. Of course he’s completely dead.”
“How did he die?” she pressed.
“Heavenly punishment. What good ending do demonic cultivators ever get?” Xie Sui said. “Look at them, those who commit the greatest evils are all eventually struck down by heavenly punishment.”
“Still, he really was a genius among demonic cultivators. In less than twenty years he reached the level of a venerable, a speed no one will ever surpass again. It’s a pity…”
The rest of his words became indistinct, as if muffled by a layer of mist drifting far away.
So he too had been erased in that heavenly punishment…
Lian Yin raised her hands. The pain of her bones being shattered by heavenly punishment had been intense but fleeting, lasting only an instant. She was certain she had died back then, yet this body bore no trace of injury.
If Lu Ying had already died at that time, then what about her? Who saved her?
Lian Yin suddenly found the thought almost laughable.
She hated Lu Ying, denied his love, yet still believed that only he would be willing to do something like this for her.
She could not think of anyone else.
Her parents had died long ago.
In this world, aside from them, no one would remember her, no one would be willing to give so much for her…
Xie Sui, walking ahead, suddenly turned back and looked at the dazed girl.
One second, two seconds…
She kept walking forward and walked straight into his chest.
Her forehead hit the young man’s chest. She instinctively tried to step back, but he grabbed her shoulders.
“What are you doing?” Xie Sui beat her to it.
Lian Yin looked up at his face, now much too close, and asked dryly, “What are you doing, stopping all of a sudden?”
“?” Xie Sui frowned. “How can you even ask that? You were walking along and suddenly went silent. When I turned back, you looked like your soul had been taken away. Of course I had to check what happened to the person I just saved.”
Lian Yin fell silent.
Seeing she did not respond, Xie Sui curved his lips slightly and asked softly, “What is it? He died, so you’re sad?”
“No!” Lian Yin quickly denied. “I’m happy he’s dead!”
“Really?” Xie Sui leaned closer, lifting a finger to lightly tap the corner of her eye. “Your eyes are red.”
Lian Yin blinked. “That’s because I’m happy. He caused the death of my par… my relatives, from my ancestral line.”
Very precise wording.
Xie Sui chuckled, let her go, and said seriously, “Alright, don’t get so happy that you forget where we are. This place is dangerous.”
With that, he pushed open the door to a nearby room.
Lian Yin hesitated. “Do we have to go into every room? Isn’t that dangerous?”
Xie Sui stepped inside. “How else would we know where the divine artifact is hidden?”
Right, he was looking for a divine artifact.
If it were just exploring a secret realm, many dangerous places could be avoided. But if one sought a divine artifact, those dangerous places had to be explored.
The moment Xie Sui stepped inside, his gaze seemed drawn to the enormous hanging painting directly opposite the door, and he stopped in place.
Lian Yin followed and saw it as well.
The painting covered nearly half the wall. The red candles around it could not fully illuminate it, only revealing the vague outline of a young man holding a sword, his body slightly turned, his high ponytail falling behind him.
The background was faint, sketched with only a few strokes, suggesting a young girl standing among a crowd, smiling as she watched him, her hands raised as if cheering him on.
The upper half of the painting, hidden in shadow, felt eerie. The gauze draping down on both sides had the dark red of dried blood, obscuring the edges and casting a veil of mystery over the figure.
But that mystery existed only for others.
The moment Lian Yin saw the painting, memories surfaced in her mind.
It was during the Rising Star Tournament when Lu Ying participated for the first time and took first place.
In that decisive match, the young man had crushed his opponent with overwhelming strength, stepping on the second-place contender’s head.
Literally stepping on it.
Several powerful judges had changed expressions on the spot.
The one beneath his foot had flushed red with humiliation, and it was said that afterward his dao heart shattered, his cultivation regressing by two realms.
Lu Ying was punished upon returning.
Many criticized his nature as too wicked and vicious.
Others defended him, saying he was measured and true to himself.
Opinions about him were always divided. Often, his brilliance overshadowed his fatal flaws.
Xie Sui stepped forward to inspect the painting carefully. Once again, there was no face.
“The master of this secret realm is quite mysterious,” he said. “Afraid of being recognized?”
As he spoke, he reached out and lifted the painting—
Lian Yin almost watched it move in slow motion. The figure raised his sword, the tip extending out of the canvas and thrusting toward the unsuspecting Xie Sui below.
“Watch out!”
At the same moment, Xie Sui caught the faint sound of air being split and looked up sharply.
Steel clashed, ringing with a piercing sound.
Xie Sui saw the attacker clearly. It was the young man from the painting, his eyes now blood-red and a dark, twisted smile stretching across his face.
As Xie Sui engaged the eerie figure in battle, Lian Yin grabbed a nearby candlestick and stepped forward, only to feel a chilling presence wrap around her body.
“Yinyin.”
Like a bodiless ghost, it embraced her coldly, nuzzling her neck with intimacy. “I finally see you again… Yinyin, I missed you so much. I like you so much… stay here with me…”
Lian Yin stiffened. She turned, raising the candlestick to illuminate the painting behind her.
The lower half of the young man remained inside the painting, while his upper body had crawled out like a ghost, faint and indistinct. His face was as beautiful as ever, without a trace of a ghoul’s grotesqueness.
After a moment of silence, Lian Yin forced herself to ignore her racing heartbeat and asked, “Lu Ying, are you dead?”
The young man wrapped his arms around her neck and gently kissed her cheek. “Do you want me to be dead?”
His voice was sweet and clinging, like honey.
Lian Yin lowered her eyes slightly. The firelight flickered across her face, casting her expression into shadow.
Receiving no answer, the young man lowered his gaze like a wronged puppy. He paid no attention to his burning body, still clinging to her, trying to crawl further out of the painting to be closer.
“Yinyin, I like you, I like you, I like you…”
His murmurs faded in the flames.
Lian Yin stared at the charred painting before her, breathing unevenly, cold sweat covering her body. If not for the ugly scorch marks left on the wall, she might have thought the boy who crawled out and embraced her had been an illusion.
Please, if you’re dead, stop haunting her.
The sounds of battle echoed nearby.
Lian Yin snapped back to herself and remembered Xie Sui was still fighting. She turned and hurled the candlestick at the massive painting.
A corner of the painting ignited. The sword-wielding youth paused and turned to look at her. The red in his eyes faded as he gazed at her, the gauze falling before his clear black-and-white eyes, hazy, as if he were crying.
He said nothing, but his expression was just as wounded as before, like a wronged puppy.
She helped someone else kill him. He would feel sad.
That was all.
Lian Yin did not look at him. She feared Xie Sui would notice her connection to this secret realm, and that would complicate things… it was rare enough to have someone she could speak to.
“I didn’t expect the evil spirits here to be this troublesome,” Xie Sui said after the figure vanished. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” Lian Yin replied. “After it attacked you, I burned the surrounding paintings immediately. They didn’t have time to attack me.”
Xie Sui had been unable to spare attention earlier and did not suspect anything. “I found a hidden passage behind the painting.”
He paused slightly. “My decision might not be right.”
Lian Yin said, “You’re not doubting yourself just because you fought that evil spirit to a draw, are you?”
Xie Sui’s expression shifted. “Of course not! I just don’t want you blaming me if you die.”
Lian Yin replied considerately, “If you hadn’t saved me, wouldn’t I have died back in that room?”
His expression softened, though he said nothing. Instead, he opened his storage pouch and handed her a stack of talismans.
“You know how to use them, right?”
Lian Yin took them. He had initially held a sword to her, so she was still a little wary, but not overly so.
She wondered whether following him would help or harm her.
After putting away the talismans, she felt she should help him if she could, since she had accepted his things.
It would be best if Xie Sui could leave.
They entered the hidden passage one after the other.
“What was that painting just now?” Lian Yin asked.
“It should be a spirit of the realm, part of the secret realm master’s will,” Xie Sui said. “But for demonic cultivators, they’re usually called evil spirits.”
Normally, such spirits were mild, allowing cultivators to leave or setting conditions before letting them go. But evil spirits had no such intentions, they simply liked to kill.
Thinking of this, Xie Sui frowned slightly and continued,
“The master of this secret realm probably split his will into many parts. If he doesn’t let us leave, we’ll have to destroy all the evil spirits and the secret realm itself. That will be troublesome.”
Destroy the secret realm.
After a cultivator dies, a secret realm is the last thing they leave behind in the world. It contains their lifetime of treasures and inheritance, as well as their memories and emotions.
The former is what everyone fights over. The latter becomes worthless after death.
Lu Ying’s state was indeed strange…
If he could appear freely, he would not meet her like this, nor allow Xie Sui to stay by her side for so long.
He really was dead…
Lian Yin was uncertain about that conclusion. She did not want to believe that the man who had lived so arrogantly had died before her.
Destroying the secret realm would erase the last trace he left in this world…
She felt she should be happy, happy to finally be rid of this nightmare. Yet when she calmed down, his soft whisper of “I like you” surged back like a tide.
The darkness around her was so deep she could not tell whether her eyes were open or closed. She kept walking forward.
Countless images flooded her mind.
A vivid, blinding red.
Lu Ying loved the color of blood. He liked to decorate his palace like a wedding chamber.
Shadows of red gauze swayed.
He liked to bind her to the bed with thin chains, then lie beside her, holding her, whispering again and again, “I like you.”
His cold lips would trace over every inch of her skin.
“Yinyin, I say it so many times every day. Even if you don’t believe me, you must be tired of hearing it.”
“That way, whenever you hear those words in the future, you’ll think of me.”