Within this array forged from tens of thousands of souls, Cangshu Bai—who was supposed to be suffering the torment of karmic flames—actually woke up!
The inner demon felt a wave of disbelief before realization finally dawned on it. "Cangshu Bai, you never fell into the illusion at all. You were faking it!"
Tightly bound to the core of the array by iron chains, Cangshu Bai's eyes—which should have been consumed by the illusion—held no trace of confusion. There was only a dead silence, as deep and cold as an icy abyss.
Clang—
The iron chains shattered inch by inch from his wrists. Shards of metal flew through the air, striking the foundation of the array and sending sparks flying.
He raised his arms slightly, and the chains wrapped around his body snapped piece by piece like withered vines, falling to the ground as nothing more than scrap iron.
His white hair cascaded down like a waterfall, and his cyan robes fluttered. As his sleeves billowed, an inky, murderous aura spread out, staining the swirling light of the surrounding souls pitch black.
He took a step out of the array's runes.
The karmic fire beneath his feet extinguished the moment he touched it. The shrieks of thousands of resentful spirits came to an abrupt halt around him, utterly silenced by the overwhelming demonic energy.
The inner demon was pinned in place by a sense of oppression that seeped deep into its bones, its entire body trembling uncontrollably.
With every step Cangshu Bai took forward, it was forced to take a step back. It stumbled, its soul body fluctuating violently as if it could be torn apart by that monstrous demonic energy at any moment.
Like a madman, it desperately tried to channel its soul sense to contact Xie Guanxin—stop trying to get close to someone else's wife, come back quickly! The plan is completely ruined!
However, the chill surging from deep within the earth's veins had already condensed into an invisible barrier, firmly sealing off all of its communication channels.
The inner demon's pupils shrank drastically, its soul body twisting in terror. Its voice was shrill and broken. "The earth veins here should be ours to use. You... you actually altered the earth veins here? No, how is that possible!"
The iron chains binding Cangshu Linfeng were also shattered. Regaining his freedom, he moved his stiff arms, the corners of his blood-stained lips curling up. "Did you really think someone like Cangshu Bai could be lured into an illusion and drown in it?"
Cangshu Bai was a ruthless man who had severed his own arm and endured five hundred years of utter loneliness just to resurrect Mu Ran. How could he possibly fail to tell whether the Mu Ran before him was real or fake?
This trap was laid by someone else, but the one now controlling the situation was no longer the one who had set the board.
The inner demon had long been terrified out of its wits by that deathly coercion. One second it was screaming in disbelief, and the next, its survival instinct overpowered everything else.
It abruptly turned around, transforming into a cloud of thick black mist, ready to flee.
But as fast as it was, the chill creeping up from the earth veins was even faster.
The freezing cold swept over in an instant, and a bone-chilling, soul-freezing frost immediately entangled the black mist.
The inner demon only had time to let out half a shrill, trembling cry before its entire form was encased in layers of frost.
In the blink of an eye, the frantically fleeing black mist was firmly sealed within a solid, crystal-clear block of ice. Only its desperate struggles remained, twisting faintly beneath the ice, with absolutely no chance of escape.
Cangshu Linfeng said, "Leave this place to me, you—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Cangshu Bai's figure had already vanished.
Cangshu Linfeng closed his mouth. Looking at the shattered water mirror, he felt an inexplicable sense of realization. After a moment of silence, he muttered, "How foolish, exposing his own weakness so unreservedly like this."
Mu Ran was Cangshu Bai's weakness.
This was the consensus reached by all those with ulterior motives after looking into him.
For cultivators, a long life and supreme power were their true pursuits. As for love and romance, they were nothing but fleeting clouds.
After all, thousands of years of surging time were enough to wear away mountains and rivers, let alone human emotions.
No matter how passionate the vows or how deep the entanglements were at the beginning, when placed within the context of endless immortality, they were but a momentary speck of mortal dust.
Therefore, the fact that Cangshu Bai valued Mu Ran more than his own life was truly considered foolish by others.
Xie Guanxin thought the same way.
A true powerhouse would never allow themselves to have even the slightest exploitable flaw.
The moment a weakness appeared, it should be personally destroyed to eliminate future troubles.
And Cangshu Bai's actions, in Xie Guanxin's eyes, were not deep love, but self-destruction.
He quietly stared at the girl's back as she walked ahead, a dangerous, icy-frost power lingering at his fingertips.
This was a very interesting matter.
The girl whom Cangshu Bai had desperately revived, treated as the sole treasure in the universe, had her life and death so easily controlled in his hands.
Xie Guanxin was ultimately different from Cangshu Bai; he would not allow himself to have any weaknesses.
But just as the freezing power was about to strike, the person in front suddenly stopped and gently turned around.
As Mu Ran turned her head, her eyes seemed to hold shattered light, shining without a hint of gloom, completely unaware that her life had just been hanging by a thread. A pure smile curved her lips, and she walked toward him with brisk steps, her eyes curving into crescents.
"Jinzhi, why are you walking so slowly?"
She raised her hand and naturally gave his sleeve a gentle tug.
The dangerous power receded abruptly like the tide, leaving not a single trace behind.
The young man remained quiet for a moment before suddenly softening his voice. "It's too dangerous here. Let's leave first."
Mu Ran, however, still hesitated. "But what about Little Fish? Oh right, it's your spiritual pet, so you must be able to sense it, right? Jinzhi, can't you contact Little Fish and have it come back?"
He replied, "The earth veins here are unique and can isolate the transmission of spiritual sense. Let's leave this place first. I will find a way to get Han Yu back."
Mu Ran struggled with the decision for a long time before finally nodding. "Alright, I'll listen to you."
The corners of the young man's lips lifted slightly. "Mm, let's go."
The two walked side by side toward the outside of the cave dwelling. The surrounding spiritual energy was dead silent, and even the wind carried a suppressive chill.
As they reached the edge of a stone step, Mu Ran's legs suddenly gave way. Her body tilted sharply outward, and with a soft cry, she was about to fall.
Almost on instinct, the young man extended his long arm, accurately grasping her slender waist and forcefully pulling her into his embrace.
As his palm touched her delicate waist, his body felt a deep sense of familiarity due to the instincts existing in his bloodline, yet to his soul, it felt entirely foreign.
His brows furrowed slightly, but his expression suddenly froze in the next instant.
Held in his arms, Mu Ran's hand pressed steadily against the very center of his chest, seemingly out of subconscious habit. The gesture was intimate, as if no different from the past.
However, the spiritual energy released from her fingertips directly coiled around his beating heart. Like a gentle yet unbreakable shackle, it lightly locked onto his vitals.
She tilted her head up. Those bright, unguarded eyes from just moments ago were now filled with nothing but profound calm.
"Just who exactly are you? And where is Jinzhi?"
Having his lifeline grasped by someone else, the young man was neither anxious nor angry. A low chuckle escaped his throat, his breath brushing past her fingertips, dangerous yet languid.
"How did you find out?"
Over millions of years, he had long since learned to portray the truest essence of a person whenever he wore their skin. To be seen through like this today was a first.
