Chapter 1278: Chapter 702: Gaze
Sometimes, Chen Yi wonders if he’s too lenient with the Little Fox. Her feelings for him aren’t that deep, and she has a bit of a rebellious streak, obedient but not clingy.
Perhaps he should employ some tactics, perform a few techniques, concoct some elixirs to make her entirely dependent on him.
But then he thinks, wouldn’t that be too cruel to the Little Fox?
She’s always been trying to be obedient.
So sometimes, Chen Yi considers hardening his heart and doing whatever it takes, even if she isn’t utterly dependent on him, at least like Great Yin, where her heart appears outward but is actually inward, infatuated with him.
Yet when he lavishes her with attention and she looks so pitiful, it’s hard not to feel pity. If she sheds a few tears, Chen Yi’s heart softens, and the Lower Body must concede defeat.
Even when Little Fox once fled, Chen Yi didn’t use real tactics on her, unlike how he seized control over Great Yin. Even though she hadn’t learned to like him yet and still harbored grudges from the past, fearing him more often, just accustomed to him, he couldn’t harden his heart.
Even the promise about having children was let slide unknowingly, with no further insistence.
Now, the Little Fox before him has changed greatly in temperament, as if coming from a previous life but with memories of the future, seemingly giving him a reason to explore further.
Chen Yi shook his head slightly, dismissing these irrelevant thoughts.
No matter what, leaving the World of Ignorance is paramount.
"I once accidentally entered the Forbidden Land, since I came out, I indeed know the way out. I didn’t mention it earlier because you were untrustworthy."
"Now... if we don’t collaborate, it will be exceedingly difficult to escape."
"The World of Ignorance, being a place of gathered ignorance in people’s hearts, what is ignorance? According to the Buddhist Scripture, it’s greed, anger, and delusion; it’s obsession, whether good or bad, all constitute ignorance, and if one wishes to exit, as far as I know, one way is through sudden enlightenment, immediate Becoming a Buddha, the body may die but the law remains, entering Nirvana’s realm, naturally devoid of ignorance, thereby transcending and departing..."
"It seems you’re not fond of option one, so I won’t continue. The second is an instant of realization, though at present realization is futile, one must seek realization from within ignorance and depart from the Five Poison Dead Tree. The so-called Five Poison Dead Tree is the root of the World of Ignorance, and their roots happen to reach into the real world."
"Time is not on our side; if we continue to languish in the World of Ignorance, miscellaneous worries will multiply, sinking into the beginningless ignorance."
Not long ago, Yin Tingxue explained these matters thoroughly.
She thought Chen Yi would be skeptical, wary, so she was meticulously detailed, and at the end, she asked:
"I don’t know if you’re really Chen Yi. Right now, we can only work together, temporarily forsaking conflict. If you have reservations, just speak them."
But Chen Yi simply stood up, clapped his hands, and said, "Let’s go."
Yin Tingxue’s eyes widened slightly, evidently caught off guard, and she didn’t understand why this man had no defenses against her.
Nevertheless, the trio—two humans and a ghost—continued to tread the World of Ignorance.
Wandered aimlessly, unsure of their destination.
Not a trace of anomaly.
Chen Yi surveyed his surroundings; deep in this World of Ignorance, it had reverted to its former appearance, deathly silent, vast and boundless, the path beneath perfectly level without a trace of undulation, as though no place was inaccessible, yet any destination seemed the same.
The earlier Ancient Street of the Capital City seemed to be just a fleeting glimpse.
And after what transpired earlier, Yin Tingxue was visibly more restrained than before. Leading at the front, she remained silent on the path, while Donggong Ruoshu feared evoking anything and was wary of Yin Tingxue, staying silent as well.
Walking in such deathly stillness was almost like death.
Like a lonely ghost, wandering aimlessly.
Chen Yi frowned slightly, thinking it’s the Forbidden Land of the World of Ignorance, it shouldn’t be so tranquil and silent, devoid of anomalies.
This deathly stillness was too pure; even the sound of wind or the tactile feedback from the ground was so indistinct, as though walking on a void illusion.
The more he walked here, the less natural his body felt, reminiscent of the awkwardness of learning to walk in Handan.
"Are we going in the right direction?" Chen Yi stopped his steps, speaking to break the irksome silence.
Yin Tingxue did not turn back, her voice coolly drifting over. "There is no mistake. Although the World of Ignorance is founded on ignorance, chaotic and disordered, it obeys the principle of extremes reversing. Once, I taught the Great Strength Saintess to forcibly open an enlightened area here using ultimate Desire Power, like a lone light in the dark. Finding it will yield clues and means for departure."
Chen Yi suddenly recalled the recently neurotic Old Saintess, who always curled up within that No-Life Tripod. She once told him that the tripod was a gateway; so it seems that tripod... is indeed the passage connecting to the World of Ignorance?
"How much further do we have to go?" Chen Yi pressed, his gaze sweeping over the seemingly unchanging grayness before him.
"No idea," Yin Tingxue replied bluntly. "The last time I ended up here, it was all a blur, with no sense of time passing. I moved forward solely by sensing a bit of spiritual light, unsure of when I’d reach my destination—it all depends on luck, or rather, on whether that bright place wishes to reveal itself."
Hearing this, Donggong Ruoshu felt slightly dumbfounded. If that were the case, wouldn’t they have to stay here indefinitely? How boring.
The thought sent a shiver down her spine. Given Chen Yi’s nature—with all Three Corpses slain yet still retaining an unsettling restlessness—and the presence of this unapproachable Yin Tingxue, how could they satisfy him? Eventually, it would be just the three of them in this desolate wilderness, and Chen Yi certainly wouldn’t let her, the extra one, off.
She feared she wouldn’t just be a side dish, but the main course.
The stupid girl was momentarily filled with regret, and then felt that a bit of regret wasn’t enough, so her intestines twisted in remorse.
Previously, she thought that having become a ghost meant there was nothing to fear, and she could occasionally provoke Chen Yi, at least completing some tasks assigned by the Empress Dowager. But in this bizarre and unpredictable World of Ignorance, her ghostly body was no longer an amulet. Reflecting on everything before and everything to come, Donggong Ruoshu wished she could shrink back into the shadows and never come out.
But she was a ghost and had no shadow.
Just then, Yin Tingxue, who had been moving steadily forward, suddenly halted, raising her head sharply to look at a certain void in the direction ahead.
Following her gaze, Chen Yi saw nothing at first, but upon closer inspection, he noticed that part of the gray space seemed to ripple faintly like water.
Yin Tingxue, with a sharp look in her eyes, whispered, "Something... is approaching, it’s... Resentment Demon Master again!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Chen Yi suddenly felt an unusual heaviness on his shoulders, as if pressed down by something, making each step an arduous task. That cold shiver of dread surged back within him.
The weight wasn’t from something physical but rather felt like it directly pressed onto his soul, making every breath feel labored, as if filled with molten lead. He could almost hear the faint creaks of his bones under the invisible pressure.
The surrounding darkness swirled as the two of them and the ghost halted once more, holding their breath, waiting for the Resentment Demon Master to pass by like before.
The darkness surged ever heavier, like a viscous tide of ink, mixed with the chilling whispers and hisses that climbed up one’s spine, converging from all directions, then slowly drifting away.
All seemed to occur as they anticipated, the massive entity merely on its routine patrol, unaware of their insignificant existence.
That suffocating sense of motion gradually subsided, the oppressive weight about to dissipate.
Chen Yi breathed a slight sigh of relief, preparing to move forward, but after just a couple of steps, something flickered at the corner of his eye,
In the darkness, something trembled slightly. Chen Yi turned his head to get a clearer look, crystalline...
It was an eye, emerging without warning from the darkness!
The eye was massive, taking up almost all of Chen Yi’s vision. Its pupil wasn’t round but instead an irregular void constantly twisting and changing, reflecting no image within, just purest emptiness.
It stared unblinkingly at Chen Yi.
There was a buzzing sound, and Chen Yi’s mind came to a halt. Then he saw the darkness around that eye boiling over, like molten iron, roiling violently, losing any semblance of order.
Inside his head, another buzz louder than before resounded, followed by a silent scream of madness.
Or perhaps a low growl.
Soon after, the endless darkness ceased flowing like a flood breaking through a dam, or a volcanic eruption, rushing toward him!
As the darkness fully enveloped him, Chen Yi’s head began to ache as though countless tiny ants were crawling through his veins, gnawing at his nerves, itchy and painful, piercing through his brain; it felt as if invisible iron skewers were threading through his mind, roasting it on raging karmic fire. The intense pain and indescribable scorching sensation made him wish to shatter his skull. His internal organs felt like they were thrown into a blender, churning, inducing nausea, his consciousness rising and falling amidst peak agony and chaos. The dam of his sanity was being battered by waves of torment.
He gradually became numb, his senses dulled by overstimulation, until after an unknown length of time, the destructive tide of darkness seemed satiated, slowly receding.
With the boundless dark tide gone, the scene before him transformed again.
No longer the dead silent gray void, but a narrow, damp alleyway.
On either side were mottled earthen walls, with thick moss growing at their bases. The air carried a faint mildew smell and... barely perceptible hints of blood. Overhead, the darkness loomed heavy, akin to nightfall, and from the alley’s end, the distant sounds of a busy market could be heard, though they seemed obscured by a thick layer of glass, rendered vague and indistinct.
Chen Yi abruptly lifted his head to look around,
Yin Tingxue and Donggong Ruoshu...
...had vanished.
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