"Mmm." Shen Fu tasted something bitter and instinctively tried to spit it out, but Ji Yanzhi covered his lips with his hand.
A warm body pressed down against him, leaning close to Shen Fu's ear and whispering in a voice meant only for the two of them: "Don't be afraid, Master. It's just medicine to ward off the miasma."
The two were far too close. The warmth of Ji Yanzhi's breath as he spoke burrowed straight into Shen Fu's ear. Shen Fu felt uncomfortable and turned his head away, a faint blush creeping up to the tips of his ears.
"Your teeth—don't let them touch it. Press your tongue down. Yes, just like that. Relax a little."
Ji Yanzhi pinched Shen Fu's cheek and said something highly suggestive with a grin.
Shen Fu's mouth was blocked, so he couldn't spit it out. He had no choice but to swallow.
After he finished, Ji Yanzhi still wasn't reassured. He pried Shen Fu's mouth open with force, carefully inspected it to confirm he'd swallowed everything, and only then released him with satisfaction.
Seeing this, Shen Fu tried to push the man off him, but as soon as he reached out, his hand was caught and pinned back above his head.
"Shh—" Ji Yanzhi said. "She's back."
The moment the words left his mouth, a faint rustling sound came from by the door.
Shen Fu fixed his gaze on the doorway and saw a swaying figure pacing back and forth outside.
In the dead of night, the old woman's footsteps were especially clear, accompanied by a grinding sound like the gnashing of teeth that echoed through the air, eerily sinister.
"What is she doing out there?" Shen Fu lowered his voice.
If she didn't leave, what would happen to tonight's plan? Shen Fu had originally intended to cast a spell the moment they entered, putting everyone here into an illusory realm. After all, the mana in his body was borrowed and wouldn't last long—the earlier he acted, the better his advantage.
But clearly, this wasn't the right time to make a move.
The commotion outside continued, and Shen Fu remained pinned beneath Ji Yanzhi until his arms went numb.
"Hey, is she ever going to leave? And how much longer are you going to keep doing this… up and down thing?"
Shen Fu looked at Ji Yanzhi, fully dressed, doing push-ups over him, and felt a strange sense of absurdity.
Sweat had already formed on Ji Yanzhi's forehead. Hearing this, he only coaxed patiently: "Almost done, Master. In a moment I'll pretend to finish, and she should leave."
"…"
Shen Fu suddenly lifted his eyelids and, without warning, met Ji Yanzhi's gaze.
Those amber eyes stared at him without blinking, like a boundless black hole—once locked on, the only possibility was falling in.
Shen Fu was no exception. He looked at Ji Yanzhi and inexplicably felt that this scene seemed familiar.
Crimson robes brighter than fire, candlelight flickering. In a daze, Shen Fu didn't know how long he'd been staring at Ji Yanzhi.
It wasn't until Ji Yanzhi lowered his head and pressed toward him that Shen Fu abruptly turned his head away, face burning red.
His heart was racing, as if it might leap straight out of his chest.
"Master," Ji Yanzhi called out, his voice hoarse beyond belief—as if something had actually happened between them, even though nothing had. "If I can't hold myself up and end up falling on you, can you not push me away?"
Ji Yanzhi furrowed his brows, looking like he was about to give out at any moment.
"Don't press your body on m—mmph!" Before Shen Fu could finish, Ji Yanzhi's body came crashing down heavily on top of him.
Gravity squeezed out every gap between them. Skin against skin, heartbeat passing to heartbeat.
Shen Fu furrowed his brow, instinctively feeling that this was highly improper—even crossing a line. So he shoved Ji Yanzhi off and rolled himself to the edge of the bed.
"She's gone." Shen Fu reminded him in a low voice.
Ji Yanzhi wiped the sweat from his brow, his gaze dark and unfathomable as he stared at Shen Fu, lost in thought.
Shen Fu quickly gathered his clothes, sitting up awkwardly. His head was spinning, and heat radiated from his cheeks and neck. "W-We should get to business."
Whether he was making an excuse to change the subject or something else, Shen Fu spoke at a lightning-fast pace.
Ji Yanzhi casually tied his loosened sash, but his gaze never left Shen Fu's bright red ears. "Going out in the middle of the night, we might run into mindless ghosts wandering the streets. Master took the miasma-warding pill earlier, so they won't see you. But don't make too much noise either—we mustn't disturb the lost souls."
Shen Fu nodded quickly and stood up to leave.
"Slow down, Master. I haven't finished dressing yet." Ji Yanzhi called out, but instead of stopping, Shen Fu walked even faster. "Stay here in case she comes back. I'll go and return shortly."
Absolutely not—if Ji Yanzhi really was the one behind this, bringing him along would ruin the whole investigation.
Shen Fu ran incredibly fast, his figure vanishing into the darkness in the blink of an eye. Because he was running so quickly, he even stumbled a few times, like a kitten that had twisted its paw—staggering for a moment before continuing to run ahead.
Ji Yanzhi watched him leave, his movements coming to a halt.
The candle flame in the room flickered. The smile at the corner of Ji Yanzhi's mouth hadn't yet faded when he turned his head and came face to face with a wisp of black qi.
Looking closely, one would notice that the tip of the black mist was stained with a thick green liquid—the very same liquid left behind when those Ghost-Eyes outside had burst.
"He doesn't remember you at all. What's the point of all this probing?" The black mist's voice was hoarse and strange, as if scraped across coarse sandpaper, grating to the ears.
"If it's useless, then why help me?" Ji Yanzhi said.
The dreams Shen Fu had been having were all the handiwork of this mass of black mist. To be precise, they weren't dreams at all, but illusory realms crafted by the black mist from Ji Yanzhi's memories. As Xie Jiuzhang had said, illusion arts had long been lost—but unfortunately, this thing happened to know them.
Hearing this, the black mist circled Ji Yanzhi twice before coming to rest beside the short blade at his waist. "Don't forget why you approached him. You're only one step away from attaining godhood. Whatever you do… don't lose your head."
"You talk too much."
Ji Yanzhi's tone was impatient. "The Great Dao of Longevity, Karmic Samsara. I owed him a debt of affection in the past, and now that he's repaid it, this ill-fated bond is settled. I hope you won't obstruct my path to godhood by claiming my root of affection remains unsevered."
"And know this—if you go back on your word, even if you call yourself the Heavenly Dao, I, Ji Yanzhi, am not without the power to fight you."
As he spoke, his fingers suddenly tightened.
Several dazzling beams of light burst forth from the short blade, encircling the black mist completely.
"Fighting the Heavenly Dao will bring you no benefit." Even as the black mist was crushed breathless under the weight of overwhelming mana, it continued to provoke. "The divine power within you is the legacy of the Sinful God, born with baleful aura. If you don't sever your emotions and desires completely, the Ascension Platform won't easily acknowledge you. Remember this—do not sink into temptation. An emotional obstacle can only be cleansed by killing it with your own hands."
"Human desires have no end. How do you know I've truly severed mine?" Ji Yanzhi countered.
—This thing that called itself the Heavenly Dao had been following him ever since he fell from the Ascension Platform, claiming it wanted to help him attain godhood, purify his soul, sever his emotions and desires, and walk the path to godhood anew.
Ji Yanzhi hadn't believed it at first, but the moment this thing made its move, it restarted the entire world, bringing him back to the time when he was being hunted by the Dongxu Sect.
Even Ji Yanzhi at his peak would have had to expend most of his cultivation base to accomplish such a feat, yet this mass of black mist did it with ease.
Hearing this, the black mist leisurely circled the short blade once before speaking calmly: "On the Ascension Platform in your past life, if I hadn't noticed in time, you would have been killed by him."
"What were you thinking when you saw him? Why didn't you follow my arrangement and eliminate the emotional miasma with your own hands? Wasn't attaining godhood what you'd always pursued? Why did you hesitate?"
Ji Yanzhi remained silent, offering no reply, so the black mist continued: "To be human is to have emotions, but gods have no need for them. The World-Ending Snow Calamity of your past life has already begun. Surely you haven't forgotten why you sought godhood in the first place? Don't repeat the same mistakes, Ji Yanzhi."
"That one tried to test you with an illusory realm. I'm merely here to remind you—whatever you do, don't sink into it again. An illusory realm is ultimately just an illusion. If your heart gets lost in there, the Great Dao will be forever estranged from you."
Having said this, the black mist let out a soft laugh, then dove into the short blade and vanished.
The room fell back into silence. Ji Yanzhi's face was hidden in the darkness, his emotions unreadable. He gently rubbed the pad of his ring finger and called out in a low voice: "Shen Fu…"
?
"Did you hear someone calling me?" Shen Fu patted Xiao Jinjin on his shoulder.
Xiao Jinjin had finally managed to come out for some air and replied lazily: "There's no one here but ghosts who'd call your name."
"Really?" Shen Fu glanced back at the pitch-black alley. "I keep feeling like someone's calling me."
"This godforsaken place is full of ghosts—maybe one of them knows you." Xiao Jinjin teased, rolling over on Shen Fu's shoulder.
"…" Shen Fu was silent for a few seconds before speaking: "We need to figure out exactly how many lost souls there are before I can cast the illusion arts. I'll take the west side, you take the east. Count them all and come back to tell me. Try not to miss a single one, understand?"
Xiao Jinjin flew up, all its fur bristling. This place had plenty of resentment and miasma and every other kind of foul air, but little Spiritual Qi. It didn't like the murky atmosphere, feeling as though something bad was about to happen.
"Hiss, don't you feel a chill in the air?"
"Not really. Maybe it's because I just took the miasma-warding pill." Shen Fu said, turning to leave the alley.
He'd barely taken two steps when Xiao Jinjin suddenly grabbed his hair. "W-wait!"
Shen Fu's steps halted, and he abruptly looked up to find himself face-to-face with a burned and melted visage.
He startled back half a step, only to feel his back press against something else ice-cold.
"It's the eldest Miss of the Chen family. Why are you out in the middle of the night?" The person behind him spoke, and the yin energy exhaled from their mouth sent a chill through Shen Fu.
Shen Fu slowly turned around to see a person with no lower jaw standing behind him, bare white bones exposed, gleaming pallidly in the moonlight.
Behind him stood several dense rows of people, each one like a paper effigy without a soul, all staring at him with hollow, eerie gazes.
A chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to his scalp. In just a few seconds, Shen Fu found himself surrounded by a crowd of ghosts, packed so tightly there was no room to move.
"What the hell, what the hell! What is this! Why are they all here!" Xiao Jinjin clung to Shen Fu's hair, trembling with fear and burrowing into his collar.
Shen Fu's mind stirred, and he formed a hand seal with his fingertips, quietly releasing it.
So many lost souls suddenly gathering here all at once—this was far too abnormal.
"Seven hundred and fifty-three in total!" Xiao Jinjin sensed it slightly and instantly felt his scalp crawl. "Over there—there are even the lost souls of cultivators with mana!"
"We're doomed, we're doomed! The lost souls of the entire village are all here!"
The spirits pressed forward step by step toward Shen Fu, their bodies tattered and torn—missing arms or legs was already considered a good look. They all chanted the same phrase in unison: "Why did you come out in the middle of the night? Why did you come out in the middle of the night… Why in the middle of the night… did you come out…"
The sight made Shen Fu's scalp tingle with dread.
Just as he was about to be swallowed by the swarm of lost souls, the mana he had released earlier flew back to him at that very moment.
At the same time, a sharp blade pierced through the crowd with a cold gleam, shooting straight for Shen Fu's face!
Shen Fu's expression turned icy, and he summoned Xiao Jinjin's sword form, meeting the cold gleam head-on.