Chapter 1277: Chapter 701: The Ignorance Within
"Chen Yi, are you sure she really is Yin Tingxue?"
Donggong Ruoshu drifted over nervously and landed in front of Chen Yi.
She lowered her voice, and as she spoke she kept sneaking glances inside, as if afraid the Demon Sect Saintess in there would suddenly rush out and tear her apart.
This place was so bizarre that she feared she wouldn’t even get to be a ghost when she died.
And the Yin Tingxue before her now had a completely different temperament; compared with the girl Chen Yi used to call "Little Fox," they were as different as heaven and earth. Aside from the face, there wasn’t much resemblance.
Yet the face was the easiest thing in the world to deceive people with.
"Chen Yi, don’t let her fool you. For all you know... what’s in there might be some evil spirit." Seeing he didn’t answer, Donggong Ruoshu urged him quickly.
Chen Yi came back to himself at her words, shook his head with a wry smile, wanting to say something, but after thinking it over, still didn’t answer.
The stupid girl furrowed her brows for a moment. She could already see something was off, so how could Chen Yi not see it? Could it be he was once again blinded by lust?
Seeing her looking dissatisfied and about to keep persuading him, Chen Yi thought for a moment and hurriedly said, "I know what I’m doing."
If he didn’t say that quickly, this stupid girl would probably once again be unable to help making things she thought about come true. Last time they’d escaped unscathed by sheer luck; what she might attract this time would be hard to say.
Donggong Ruoshu gave him a suspicious look and muttered, "As long as you don’t get blinded by lust."
Chen Yi naturally shook his head. Blinded by lust? What did she take him, Chen Yi, for?
Whether he’d be blinded by lust or not, he was confident in himself, and all the more in his self-control, which of course meant he was, to some extent, a bit blinded by lust.
Chen Yi turned his gaze aside and glanced back at the quiet side chamber. That face with its fierce gleam in the eyes flashed through his mind, and his thoughts drifted. Back then, after she killed him and he was reborn, he went to seek revenge on her.
Later he also got what he wished for; she became his concubine. Though she avoided him in every possible way and used every means she could, in the end she still yielded to him. That Instant Flower scattered, yet there was not much delight in it—what Chen Yi felt more of, in the end, was sorrow.
He should have been exultant at the great revenge repaid. When she killed him, she had done it so happily and freely—so why, when he turned his blade on her, were his feelings like that?
Many times, Chen Yi had wanted to just sleep with her freely and thoroughly, but many times it was either that he didn’t feel satisfied, or that he couldn’t bear it in his heart. Thinking it over, apart from the Little Fox’s petite body and her unwillingness to go along, what made him feel even more regret was that her pitiful, delicate look left one with no desire to conquer,
making it truly hard for one to steel their heart and be ruthless.
Only later, when their relationship eased and they married, did a bit of harmonious conjugal fun like phoenix and luan singing together appear.
Now the Demon Sect Saintess, at once familiar and unfamiliar, had reappeared, and the more Chen Yi thought, the more, intentionally or not, a faint spark of desire was stirred.
But when he thought it over, he still held it back.
It wasn’t the time, and as for the Demon Sect Saintess before him... Chen Yi was not without suspicion and inner struggle. What Donggong Ruoshu worried about, he too had doubts about. Only, no matter what, he no longer wanted to do that kind of thing to the Little Fox.
Back then, unable to resist the Little Fox’s pleading, they had agreed that in the next life he’d treat her better, since she was going to be with him for ten lifetimes.
For all he knew, the Demon Sect Saintess in front of him might be her reincarnation at some point in the cycle.
He didn’t know how much time passed before there was some movement inside the door. That black-robed figure pushed the door open and walked out, clearly having changed into a different set of clothes. Her expression was cold and severe. Chen Yi stared straight at her, suddenly feeling that when his Little Fox kept a cold face, she had a distinct kind of cuteness.
Yin Tingxue seemed extremely disgusted by that sort of look in his eyes. She gave a cold snort, and as soon as they met, she spoke directly:
"Now that things have come to this, there’s no point hiding many things. I hope you won’t hide anything from me either. Right now we’re in a cooperative relationship."
There was a deliberate chill and distance in her tone.
"Mm. You and I live and die together."
"..."
Seeing her fall silent for a moment, Chen Yi smiled at her. "Did I say something wrong?"
After a moment, Yin Tingxue said, "Let’s get straight to the point. This place... I’ve been here before. I believe you can tell. And the scenes we saw along the way just now were all..."
"Your memories?"
Yin Tingxue stiffened for a beat. Unexpectedly, she didn’t ask "How did you know," but after a moment only gave a slight nod.
"Correct."
"Looks like I hit the mark in one go, Little Fox. That woman just now, she wasn’t your mother... She’s the Medicine Buddha Bodhisattva; your mother is one of her incarnations."
Yin Tingxue abruptly looked up, staring at Chen Yi in shock.
Chen Yi only smiled and said lazily, "Don’t be too surprised, Little Fox. I know you down to every last hair on your body."
He... was talking dirty again... Yin Tingxue shook her head, cut off that train of thought, and ignored it as she said:
"The World of Ignorance is opposed to the World of Enlightenment, and it is the dwelling of the Resentment Demon Master. The thing that just drifted past above you and me was precisely the Resentment Demon Master."
As the words reached his ears, the teasing look vanished from Chen Yi’s face in an instant, and he grew solemn.
Resentment Demon Master...
This name, in the scattered words of the scriptures of both Bright and Dark Sects, was a deeply taboo existence. It was no ordinary demon, but a lord utterly opposed to the supreme Ming Venerable. In the Divine Sect’s ancient legends, it was not created, but manifested from the primordial void at the same time as the Ming Venerable, an existence akin to the Demon Buddha Po Xun in the Buddhist Scripture.
Seeing his grave expression, Yin Tingxue knew he understood the danger within, and said softly, "No need to worry. It has not truly taken notice of us. We merely caused a slight disturbance when we first entered, so we can still count it as a narrow escape. It just passed by on patrol. But next time, we might not have such good luck. The Resentment Demon Master cannot be communicated with, nor can it be fathomed by common sense."
Chen Yi frowned tightly and asked, "Cannot be communicated with?"
"Brightness is wise; darkness is deluded." Yin Tingxue’s voice sank low. "The Resentment Demon Master acts by the thought of ignorance and feeds on the thought of ignorance. It has no reason, no soul; its very existence is a great mass of ever-devouring ignorance. If you encounter it, do not harbor any fluke mentality. Annihilation is but a single instant."
Her gaze slid past Chen Yi and fell on the dead, gray sky outside the window, as if she could see that terrifying being blindly swimming through it.
After a long time, she murmured, "I have faced it head-on once."
Chen Yi jerked his head up.
Yin Tingxue’s eyes were fixed in the distance, her voice calm to the point of utter flatness as she said, "If not for that, I fear... I wouldn’t even know how to kill."
Chen Yi lowered his gaze.
After a long while, he slowly asked, "Little Fox, you... how did you..."
Yin Tingxue said coldly, "Those matters have nothing to do with you. I won’t talk about them more. I’m only warning you: don’t let yourself be disturbed by the ignorance in the World of Ignorance. The World of Ignorance appears to make your wishes come true, but in truth, what comes true are all the ignorances in your heart."
As the words sank in, Chen Yi suddenly gained some understanding. So that was it. No wonder he had always felt the wish-fulfillment in the World of Ignorance was particularly twisted, whereas that of the Purity Saintess was completely different.
Whether it was Yang Chongwei’s circumstances, or that moment when he turned and stabbed Qin Qingluo, or the many things along the way—they all stemmed from this.
Thinking of this, he looked at Yin Tingxue again.
In fact, the coincidental truth was that Yin Tingxue... was precisely the ignorance in his heart, and had always been.
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