Miasma and corpse poison filled the surroundings, and the fog grew denser. It fell over them from the pitch-black night like a layer of black gauze woven right before their eyes, making it impossible to see one another even from a distance of a single foot.
Shen Shu raised his sleeve and swept his hand, pushing the fog before him away by a few inches. In the blink of an eye, the thick fog descended again overwhelmingly, clinging to his eyes and chest like a stubborn sticking plaster, as if eager to swallow people whole within the mist.
This fog looked intensely oppressive, giving a constant sense that something within the mist was pressing down on his heart, disrupting his thoughts and restraining his magic power.
Shen Shu knitted his brows tightly, gazing into the distance toward Pei Zizhuo. However, the fog was too thick; the person before him was only half an arm’s length away, yet he could only make out a silhouette. Staring at that tall, straight outline, he could not help but worry about the other’s old injuries. “Zizhuo, do you feel any discomfort?”
Pei Zizhuo’s cold voice sounded right beside his ear, low, hoarse, and steady. “The yin energy here is mixed with malevolent energy and is exceptionally heavy, exerting a significant suppression on cultivators. I imagine this is also one of the Ancestral Witch’s methods.”
Hearing his voice sound natural and observing his uninhibited demeanor, Shen Shu felt slightly more at ease. “The Gate of Life has closed. Within the formation, only the Open and Rest auspicious gates remain, alongside the Delusion and Scenery neutral gates, and the Death, Shock, and Harm inauspicious gates.”
Shen Shu suspended the Red Lotus True Fire in his palm, concentrating his energy to transform the true fire into a flaming Taiji Eight Trigrams array. The disk-like flames were surrounded by intersecting small seal characters representing Heaven and Earth, winding around one another within it.
Only a single corner of the Bagua disk had dimming firelight; everywhere else burned with fierce red flames, making it impossible to tell what distinguished the remaining seven gates from one another.
“If it were an ordinary formation, one would only need to focus on attacking the Open and Rest gates to crack it. But within the Illusory Realm, the cosmos is inverted, and the layout of the eight gates is chaotic and arbitrary. If you want to break through it, you cannot use conventional solutions. The safest approach is to first find the location of the formation caster’s weakness,” Pei Zizhuo frowned as he spoke. “Although the Ancestral Witch is a powerful ghost general, it is still ultimately a malicious ghost born of resentment. The grievances of this world stem from nothing more than human seven emotions and six desires: joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hatred, and desire, which happen to correspond to the remaining seven gates. If we can figure out what grievance caused the Ancestral Witch to be consumed by sorrow until its end, this formation will naturally resolve itself.”
The warm yellow glow shone upon Pei Zizhuo’s handsome profile, reflecting a shimmering light within his amber eyes. At this moment, his expression was entirely focused and concentrated, fading away much of his usual casual ruthlessness and making him appear quite human.
If Pei Zizhuo did not constantly imagine bizarre things, but instead remained as calm and tranquil as he was right now, perhaps after this mission concluded and the two of them reunited in the Heavenly Realm, they could once again share a jar of wine, laugh and converse knee to knee, and become close friends.
The true fire flickered slightly, the halo brushing past the back of Pei Zizhuo’s ear, faintly revealing a cluster of extremely fine black lines swirling like a spiderweb along the side of his neck.
Shen Shu’s gaze locked, his expression shifting slightly. What on earth is that thing?
“Am I good-looking?” Pei Zizhuo’s amber eyes swept over, looking at Shen Shu with a half-smile.
“Huh?”
“Haven’t you looked enough standing opposite each other day and night? Do you want me to come closer so you can take a good look?” Pei Zizhuo hooked the corner of his lips.
Shen Shu: “…”
“You…” Shen Shu uttered half a syllable, wanting to remind him that there seemed to be something at the back of his neck. But a sudden shift in his spiritual thought made him think of something else, so he swallowed the second half of his sentence and went along with the flow. “Then come closer and let me take a good look.”
Pei Zizhuo raised an eyebrow, thinking that the other had grown tired of playing hard to get and had switched to a direct frontal assault.
Yet since the words were already spoken, how could he take them back? Pei Zizhuo slowly lowered his upper body, his pale eyes locked tightly onto Shen Shu. Their gazes met, both pairs of eyes harboring their own hidden thoughts.
Pei Zizhuo’s gaze was overly straightforward, staring until Shen Shu’s cheeks grew burning hot. Seeing this handsome face draw closer and closer to him without any reservations, Shen Shu’s heart hammered wildly. Truly unable to withstand the embarrassment, he instinctively took two steps back.
A pair of strong, powerful hands pressed against Shen Shu’s lower back almost simultaneously, helping him steady his stance.
Pei Zizhuo took in every detail of his flushed cheeks and shifting, watery gaze. He withdrew his hand, his fingertips feeling as though they had been slightly scorched by the natural warmth radiating from Shen Shu’s body.
How could any man’s waist be so slender that it could be spanned entirely by a single palm? He rubbed his fingertips, having long forgotten his original intentions. His eyes remained fixed without deviation on Shen Shu as he teased, “What are you dodging for? Weren’t you the one who said you wanted a close look?”
How can this man be so devoid of shame? Shen Shu steadied his flustered state, lifting his eyes to glare back half in bashfulness and half in anger.
Having lived for several millennia after all, how could he let himself be bluffed by the other? Pressing his lips together, partly to reclaim the momentum he had just lost and partly to check the back of the other’s neck, Shen Shu reached out one hand to grab Pei Zizhuo’s collar while placing the other on his shoulder. Standing on tiptoe, he leaned his entire upper body forward, his cheek accidentally brushing against the side of the other’s ear.
The hot, damp breath of the person before him suddenly puffed against Pei Zizhuo’s neck, causing his entire body to stiffen. His Adam’s apple rolled slightly, and the spot that had been touched felt as though it were about to catch fire. Yet the culprit merely paused for a brief moment before lightly breathing a single sentence past his ear: “I’ve had a good look.”
Those four words were light and airy, the trailing note carrying a lazy murmur. They drifted in through one of Pei Zizhuo’s ears and out the other, scratching at his heartstrings, heating his earlobes, and inexplicably stirring up a wave of restlessness.
He cursed Danxiao internally for being so daring and reckless as to brazenly seduce him at close quarters! And he still dared to claim he had no such thoughts about him?
Pei Zizhuo straightened his collar, which had been pulled askew, his phoenix eyes narrowing slightly as he laid a trap. “We all have two eyes and a mouth. I don’t know what extraordinary traits I possess to make Danxiao Sanren stare unblinkingly, looking over and over again.”
When he had leaned in close for a detailed look just moments ago, Pei Zizhuo’s neck had been clean and slender, completely devoid of the spiderweb-like black lines he had seen earlier. Shen Shu rubbed his eyes. Could it be that because the fog had been so deep and the light and shadow so dim just now, his vision had played tricks on him?
A wisp of malevolent energy weighed upon Pei Zizhuo, which for now seemed to have no major effect on him. However, back in the guest room of the Marriage Temple, Shen Shu had witnessed with his own eyes the redness surfacing in the depths of his pupils, on the verge of a demonic deviation.
Pei Zizhuo watched him with a steady composure, as if determined not to stop until he received an answer.
Shen Shu anticipated that Pei Zizhuo would not let this matter pass easily, and he genuinely had no idea what he had done to make the other person so mistaken. Explaining it clearly was impossible, and he refused to wrong himself by admitting he liked the man either, so he simply wanted to change the subject.
Just as he opened his mouth, a dark shadow faintly emerged from within the thick fog. Shen Shu’s expression shifted instantly. Fixing his gaze past Pei Zizhuo, he condensed his voice into a thread and warned, “Someone is coming.”
Amidst the fog and miasma, that dark shadow drifted forward soundlessly, resembling a human figure. What caused Shen Shu to freeze in astonishment, however, was that the figure appeared to possess two heads, one round and one flat, walking side by side like some mutated monstrosity.
What kind of evil entity is this now? Shen Shu quietly amplified the true fire, keeping his eyes locked on that shifting ghostly shadow. Just as he was about to make a move, a loud, thunderous crash rang out. Pei Zizhuo drew his ice halberd, leaped into the air, and charged straight toward the dark shadow!
“Who’s there!”
A familiar, startled cry burst forth unexpectedly. Shen Shu started, then immediately shouted in panic, “Wait! It’s Jian Tianwang!”
Pei Zizhuo pulled up short in mid-air, his movement coming to a screeching halt as a result. The ice halberd in his palm sliced through the empty air directly in front of Jian Tianwang, smashing into the ground with a loud crash and boring out a half-foot-deep hole.
Seeing this, Jian Tianwang hurriedly slid his feet, retreating several steps with lingering fear before finally managing to stop. Regaining his wits, he raged angrily, “Are you two out of your minds! I was just trying to scare you, did you have to play for keeps?”
Drawing closer, they saw it truly was Jian Tianwang. He was clutching a talisman-wrapped warding-off-evil sword in his arms, and viewed from afar through the dense fog, he had indeed looked like a damned creature with a second head.
Seeing that Jian Tianwang was already moving about as usual, Shen Shu couldn’t help praising him inwardly; as expected of the young master of the Cangyang Sect, recovering from a state of spiritual depletion after resting for just a few hours.
“An upright gentleman is magnanimous, while a petty person is full of worries. You brought this upon yourself, you have no one else to blame,” Pei Zizhuo flicked his sleeve to withdraw the ice halberd, crossing his arms as he resumed his cold, aloof demeanor.
Jian Tianwang had acted with deliberate intent, so he naturally felt in the wrong now. Clearing his throat, he put on a front and asked, “How can this fog be so thick? Where are the villagers?”
Shen Shu stepped forward and detailed their encounters on Mount Chan from start to finish.
There had been several hundred townspeople who entered the mountain past noon, but now only a little over a dozen had been rescued, while nearly ninety percent of the villagers had been turned into walking corpses. The Ancestral Witch had committed countless evil deeds and deserved execution for its crimes.
Listening to this, Jian Tianwang lowered his head in silence for a long while before exhaling a breath and saying, “No matter how advanced the Illusory Realm is, it must have a formation core. I… I probably know what he’s using as the Gate of Life.”
Shen Shu said blankly, “That wedding robe has already been entrusted to someone else and sent out of the formation.”
“Sent away?” Jian Tianwang’s expression changed drastically. “Then this is going to be difficult.”
“Things that are easy, we’ve already finished. Young Master Jian is wise and martial, do you have any other ideas?” Pei Zizhuo mocked sharply.
“You…” Jian Tianwang pointed at Pei Zizhuo, suddenly remembering that these two still hadn’t revealed their names, and angrily demanded, “Why are you two hiding your names so tightly? Are you afraid I’ll come looking for you to settle scores after we leave Mount Chan?”
That wasn’t it at all. Shen Shu and Pei Zizhuo exchanged a tacit look of mutual understanding.
He is a wanted criminal on the run from the cultivation world; to ensure his safety, the truth cannot be told, Shen Shu thought, lowering his head in contemplation.
He is a notorious, massive pervert; to protect his own innocence, the truth cannot be told, Pei Zizhuo muttered inwardly, knitting his brows.
A moment later, the two raised their hands to point at each other, each offering a different name:
Shen Shu: “His name is Zhang Sanshui.”
Pei Zizhuo: “His name is Li Yiyun.”
“…”
Jian Tianwang: “Are you two treating me like an idiot?”
Pei Zizhuo let out a snort of laughter.
Jian Tianwang flared up in anger. “You don’t even dare give your real names. Could you two be wicked villains of the cultivation world?”
Though Shen Shu didn’t understand why Pei Zizhuo had arbitrarily made up a fake name for him on his own accord, since the words were already out, he could only smooth things over. “You’re overthinking it. It’s just that our real names are too vulgar, so we’re ashamed to speak them.”
“Then your name really is Li Yiyun?” Jian Tianwang asked in surprise.
Shen Shu touched his nose. “Right, I’m Li Yiyun.”
“Then you?”
“Zhang Sanshui greets the young master,” Pei Zizhuo nodded in acknowledgment.
Jian Tianwang: “…” I still feel like they’re lying to me.