After that, no one spoke for the rest of the journey. Xie Lingjun walked ahead, sword in hand, his back ramrod straight, his phoenix eyes sharp and piercing. Every inch of him screamed “stay away.”
“Whoosh!” A cold arrow shot out from a hidden hole in the side wall.
The arrow was precisely deflected. Xie Lingjun didn’t even break his stride, as if he had merely brushed away a speck of dust.
“Swish, swish, swish.” Sharp spikes erupted from the ground.
Xie Lingjun’s life-bound sword flew out and spun back, slicing through all the spikes.
“Hiss” A cloud of venomous mosquitoes swarmed toward them.
Xie Lingjun traced a circle with the tip of his sword, sweeping the poisonous insects away.
After Xie Lingjun casually blocked yet another trap, Fu Yun spoke up: “Junior Brother Xie.”
Xie Lingjun responded coldly after a few seconds: “What is it?”
Fu Yun said, “When you cut through the ground spikes earlier, your sword technique veered three inches to the left. Was that to guard against a hidden sword from the left wall?”
Xie Lingjun’s footsteps abruptly halted.
Fu Yun continued, “When you swept away the poisonous insects, you used a variation of ‘Returning Wind Dancing with Willows,’ eliminating the original weakness of being too light in attack. Was that modified for you by the Sword Venerable?”
Xie Lingjun turned to look at Fu Yun. After a few moments of silence, he replied stiffly, “Since Senior Brother can see it, next time, dodge it yourself.”
Fu Yun said, “Seeing it doesn’t mean I can execute it. The fissure three meters ahead has widened. There’s no moss, but there is dust likely a quicksand trap. I hope Junior Brother will be caref ”
His waist tightened as Xie Lingjun used a whip to pull him over the trap.
Fu Yun landed, catching his breath, and said with utmost sincerity, “Let’s put aside our differences and cooperate for now.”
Only then did Xie Lingjun withdraw the whip. Fu Yun looked at his torn belt, his smile vanishing this was his favorite one!
Perhaps his gritted teeth were too loud, as Xie Lingjun casually remarked, “When Senior Brother destroyed my sword tassel and gave it away, I wasn’t as angry as you are now.”
Fu Yun: “…” He forced a smile. “Junior Brother is truly magnanimous.”
He rubbed the belt, growing more distressed the longer he looked at it, and couldn’t help but ask the system, “Xie Lingjun goes berserk later, right?”
The system corrected the details: “Not berserk, just demonized the ‘I turned dark but also got stronger’ kind.”
Fu Yun was quite disappointed.
He watched Xie Lingjun’s rigid, arrogant back and asked, “How does this little brat turn dark?”
The system replied, “You’ll find out when the time comes.” To avoid seeming too useless, it added an inference: “Xie Lingjun’s demonization is 99% likely related to the protagonist. Unrequited love, turning into a demon… readers really eat up the yandere trope.”
Fu Yun asked, “What about the remaining one percent?”
The system said shyly, “It’s that I’m just a little uncertain.”
“Little waste.”
“Wah.”
With their fragile cooperation established, whenever they encountered tricky traps, Xie Lingjun would slow his pace and look back, waiting for Fu Yun to speak.
Though walking the same path with different intentions, their coordination was surprisingly effective. Fu Yun estimated they had walked for about half a day, destroyed fifty-three traps, and finally reached the end.
The stone wall slid open silently, and blinding light poured in.
The view suddenly opened up.
A full moon hung high in the sky. Beneath their feet was soft grassland, and in the distance lay a tranquil forest, with a lake at its center.
Most importantly, the water and wood spiritual energy here were exceptionally abundant. Fu Yun felt refreshed and invigorated just standing there.
“Ten thousand years ago, there was a flower demon skilled in weaving illusions. It perished in a heavenly tribulation.”
Xie Lingjun spoke the longest sentence he had ever said to Fu Yun. “Legend has it that a wisp of its demonic power remains, sustaining the Thousand Vines Secret Realm.”
Great clans often maintained the tradition of compiling family histories and had their own channels for information. Fu Yun asked, “What is the Heavenly Tribulation?”
Xie Lingjun answered earnestly when it came to serious matters: “The Heavenly Tribulation of Annihilation. Legend has it that it occurred once ten thousand years ago, wiping out the four realms. However, its authenticity is questionable.”
With that, the conversation ended. They turned away from each other in tacit understanding, each observing the “wonderland” on their side.
Xie Lingjun said, “The moon is strange.”
“Yes, it was a crescent last night, but tonight it suddenly became a full moon,” Fu Yun replied. “The secret passage might be part of a spatial formation, drawing us into another space.”
This was where Xie Lingjun’s expertise fell short. He immediately adopted a humble stance: “Please enlighten me, Senior Brother.”
Fu Yun said, “The key lies in finding the formation’s core. Unfortunately, spatial formations are the most difficult kind. If the core is buried ten meters underground, we can dig. If it’s buried a thousand meters underground, we can still dig we might as well treat it as our own grave.”
Xie Lingjun did not appreciate Fu Yun’s humor: “The spiritual energy here is pure, but there is no trace of life. Do not act recklessly.”
Fu Yun still wanted to reach out and touch the thin mist before him. Xie Lingjun said, “Senior Brother, I will not help you dig a pit to bury your corpse.”
But Fu Yun’s fingers passed through the mist, pointing in a certain direction “Perhaps we won’t need to dig after all.”
In his eyes, deep within the dense, twisted, and entangled vines of the distant forest, a vivid pink hue emerged, spreading outward. It was abrupt and conspicuous.
Fu Yun said, “It seems to be a half-opened flower.”
Xie Lingjun followed Fu Yun’s finger and looked over, slowly furrowing his brows. “I only see a lake and trees, no flower.”
A chill ran through both their hearts.
Perhaps the illusions had already begun to affect them the moment they stepped into this space.
With this thought, all sounds seemed to be muffled by a layer of water, becoming hazy and indistinct. Xie Lingjun’s mind wavered, and he saw himself ascending to immortality alongside another person, clouds surging like waves.
Fu Yun, meanwhile, observed from a peculiar third-person perspective as “he” inserted his fingers into flesh, unblocking clogged meridians, the pain as tangible as reality.
Both snapped back to their senses at the same time.
The illusions of desire shattered into bizarre, fragmented pieces.
Xie Lingjun quickly retrieved two Clear Mind Talismans. He pressed one against his own chest and was about to hand the other to Fu Yun when he suddenly stopped: “I cannot distinguish whether you are real or not. You should be equally wary of me.”
Fu Yun attached his own prepared talisman, silently reciting the Clear Mind mantra.
But the changing scene before him made his expression even more grimthe demonic flower bloomed, and a thick pink mist began to spread.
However, it seemed to fear the lake, slowing down as it drifted over the water.
There was no time to discern truth from illusion.
Fu Yun made a swift decision. Without warning, he swept his leg sideways, knocking Xie Lingjun toward the lake just a step away.
Fu Yun could sense there was nothing in the water and had checked it with talismans it was clean.
His intention was to remind Xie Lingjun to investigate as well, but he hadn’t expected Xie Lingjun to actually fall into the lake.
As the sword came slashing toward him, Fu Yun noticed several fresh bloodstains on Xie Lingjun’s palm self-inflicted wounds from clenching his fist.
Upon closer inspection, Xie Lingjun’s spiritual energy was sluggish and obstructed.
The water and wood spiritual energy here was excessively pure. For Fu Yun, it was nourishment, but for Xie Lingjun, it seemed like poison. Fu Yun’s mind wandered, thinking, What a wonderful space. I truly wish I could take it away.
Xie Lingjun in the water: “Fu… Senior Brother?”
At that moment, he could confirm the person before him was real.
Only the real Fu Yun could be this cunning.
Fu Yun dragged himself into the lake and, before the next sword strike came, quickly explained what he had seen the pink mist. “The lake water seems to block the mist.”
With serious matters at hand, Xie Lingjun set aside his temper, his expression grave. “What if this mist can dissolve in water?”
“Then we’ll leave it to fate,” Fu Yun replied calmly. “The mist can’t be blocked. To catch the thief, first catch the king should we cut down that flower first?”
Xie Lingjun said, “But I can’t see it.”
“The water will guide you.” Suddenly, Xie Lingjun felt a cool sensation before him. Fu Yun had manipulated the water into a thread, extending outward. Under the full moon, the water gleamed like glass.
Fu Yun bit his finger, squeezing a drop of blood into the water thread. Gradually, the translucent thread turned a pale red, one end wrapped around Xie Lingjun’s wrist, the other leading toward the demonic flower.
Xie Lingjun followed its direction, focusing intently, and finally caught a glimpse of something eerie.
Fu Yun reminded him, “Don’t leave the water. I’ll use wood spirit to draw away the vines. You go kill the flower.”
Xie Lingjun said, “Agreed.”
As Fu Yun’s wood spirit emerged from the water’s surface, drawing the vines away, Xie Lingjun drew his sword. The force of his strike shattered the smaller vines, and a rainbow-like light shot straight toward the demonic flower at the center.
With a resounding crash, the flower shattered, and the poisonous mist gradually dispersed.
The crisis temporarily resolved, the two remained submerged in the cold lake, wary of the demonic flower’s counterattack. Yet, for a long while, the surroundings remained calm, and the moon’s reflection in the water remained undisturbed.
Was the demonic flower really so easily repelled?
The system timely added in his mind, “Because this is a wish-fulfillment novel, the demonic flower serves as a catalyst for romance. After all, the original work is about the protagonist and his many lovers engaging in passionate encounters before ascending to godhood.”
Fu Yun said, “Quiet.”
Xie Lingjun was a jinx.
The pink mist was gone. But.
“Are you starting to feel hot inside too?” Fu Yun moved a few steps away from Xie Lingjun before turning his head to ask.
Xie Lingjun had raided the Joyful Union Sect last year and had some experience. “It feels like a love poison.”
Fu Yun said, “The lake’s cold energy is deep and heavy, seemingly able to accelerate the poison’s infiltration into the meridians. One good news, one bad news…”
Xie Lingjun was busy blocking the cold energy, feeling miserable. “Speak.”
“My constitution leans toward yin, so I can use the cold energy to temporarily slow the love poison,” Fu Yun said slowly. “But you have a single yang-fire spiritual root. The cold energy suppressing the passion is like adding poison to poison for you, making it easy to lose reason.”
“…” Xie Lingjun understood Fu Yun’s meaning and took several steps farther away.
He imitated Fu Yun, drawing in cold energy to suppress the passion. But the heat in his body dissipated slowly, and there was a pair of intense eyes fixed unwaveringly on him.
Xie Lingjun couldn’t bear it any longer and abruptly opened his eyes, only to see Fu Yun with a strange expression. “I have a solution. But first, a few questions.”
Xie Lingjun never liked it when people kept him in suspense, and now, trapped in a state of ice and fire, he almost wanted to rush to Fu Yun and force him to finish.
But he still had a shred of reason left. “Senior Brother, please speak.”
Fu Yun asked, “If someone forced you to do something you didn’t want to do, how would you handle it?”
“Kill them.”
“And what about a lifesaver?”
“Repay the favor.”
“Then… what about a lifesaver who forces you?”
Xie Lingjun froze.
Fu Yun shot out a binding talisman, immobilizing the weakened Xie Lingjun. Xie Lingjun’s eyes filled with disbelief and fury. “Fu Yun! You!”
Fu Yun ignored him, closing in.
His figure blocked the bright moonlight. A cold droplet fell from Fu Yun’s hair, landing precisely on Xie Lingjun’s lips. Then, he could no longer speak.
Fu Yun condensed water into ice, freezing his lips and teeth.
In the haze, every sensation was amplified the nauseatingly strange fragrance, intertwined with a faint trace of bitterness. Xie Lingjun knew this was the scent of Fu Yun’s wood spirit energy.
He heard the person’s clear, crisp voice: “Junior Brother, shall we help each other out?”