Chapter 43.2

Chi Lu heard the hurried, chaotic sound of a heartbeat.

She tried to lift her head, but it was firmly held down.

“Young Sect Leader, please close your eyes,” Jing Shuxing’s voice whispered in her ear, so close it was almost palpable.

Thump, thump, thump.

Chi Lu felt her own heartbeat and obediently closed her eyes.

She didn’t see the gruesome scene outside the Nine-Tiered Tower, didn’t see the vengeful spirits that had previously vanished from the outside world returning with a vengeance, attacking the bloodline of the Jing family.

She didn’t see, in an inn far from Fengyue City, a young girl smiling gently as she raised a hairpin in her hand.

“Brother Yun(Jing Luoyun), put it on for me,” Yun Pianpian said with an exceptionally bright smile. Her joy had already far surpassed what one should feel during a simple meeting with a beloved.

In an instant, boundless white light spread outward, like a dragon surging from the depths of hell, or like the open embrace of the heavenly dao. All around was endless, dazzling white snow, which in the next moment transformed into foamy waves crashing against the shore.

The spiritual veins at the bottom of the Soul Transformation Abyss opened up and swallowed the two of them.

The moment they entered the spiritual vein, Chi Lu’s consciousness abruptly halted, as if it had been forcibly extracted.

After devouring the two, the spiritual vein gradually closed, and the wails of the vengeful spirits in the Soul Transformation Abyss grew distant.

In their place was a tunnel that seemed to have no end.

The surroundings were pitch black, with only the occasional flicker of light formed by spiritual energy, scattered like tiny stars throughout the darkness.

Through the dim light, the scene within the tunnel gradually became visible. At first glance, the flowers, plants, and trees seemed no different from those in the outside world, but upon closer inspection, it became clear that every aspect of the landscape was composed purely of spiritual energy.

The spiritual veins within the inner world were places that living beings dependent on spiritual energy flocked to in droves.

Those who remained within the spiritual veins were mostly spirits, ghosts, or souls unable to find rest.

Jing Shuxing wiped away the blood tears streaming from his eyes, and struggled to lay Chi Lu flat.

With one careless move, a drop of blood splattered onto Chi Lu’s forehead. Thankfully, the girl’s beautiful eyes remained tightly shut, her peaceful expression as if she were merely asleep.

Just a little more, and she would have seen him like this.

Jing Shuxing raised his hand to cover his face, with his complexion pale from the pain. He staggered back a few steps and made his way to the pond he had found earlier to cleanse his face.

He scooped up some clear water, and used it as a mirror to carefully wipe away the blood and dirt on his face.

Suddenly, his movements stopped.

His fingertips touched the side of his face, tracing the cracks that had appeared in his reflection. The cracks were gradually widening, and with the slightest pressure, his skin turned to dust, crumbling and falling away with a crackling sound.

Jing Shuxing’s breath caught, and he pressed his hand against the fractured wound, his arms suddenly stiffening as they supported his body.

Unlike ordinary mortals, when a cultivator falls, unless the body is specifically preserved, all the spiritual energy and cultivation they accumulated will return to the heavens and earth, nourishing all things.

This is what is meant by the phrase “with the death of the body, the Dao perishes.”

In an instant, Jing Shuxing’s entire face had changed. One side remained as smooth and beautiful as jade, while the other side continued to crumble, leaving only one eye still able to move.

In a few more hours, the disintegration would spread throughout his entire body. This was happening far too quickly, catching Jing Shuxing completely off guard.

Even though he had known from the beginning that this day would come, it was still far too early, far too sudden.

His gaze became vacant as he stared in a daze at his reflection in the water, until he heard the soft murmur of a girl’s voice behind him.

“…Jing Shuxing.”

Jing Shuxing instinctively covered half of his face and turned to look at Chi Lu.

Chi Lu was dreaming, a smile playing on her lips as she slept on the cold, stone slab. Unconsciously, she turned over in her sleep.

This place was within the spiritual vein, teeming with mountain spirits and wild creatures. Chi Lu, sleeping so casually in such a place, had already caught the attention of something nearby.

He couldn’t leave her here alone.

Jing Shuxing swallowed the blood rising in his throat and walked toward Chi Lu, reaching out to take her hand.

“Young Sect Leader, I’ll need to borrow your blood.” Fortunately, he still remembered how to draw the teleportation array.

As his fingertips touched her, more fragments of his body crumbled to the ground.

But suddenly, the fragments transformed into streams of light, returning to him and reassembling at the broken part of his fingertip.

Before Jing Shuxing had time to be surprised, the other gaps in his body were filled with spiritual energy, healing his wounds.

On his left wrist, a jade green bracelet suddenly appeared.

The design was extremely familiar.

The bracelet on his wrist flickered and, in the next moment, appeared on Chi Lu’s fair wrist.

The vibrant green jade stood out conspicuously.

Jing Shuxing had no time to ponder the significance of this. He grasped Chi Lu’s hand, his gaze moving inch by inch over the bracelet, engraving every detail into the shadows of his eyes.

He lifted his own sleeve, searching for the mark left on his wrist.

He kept checking, again and again, until the last shred of hope in his heart was completely extinguished.

He recognized the name of the bracelet.

It was called the “Symbiotic Ring.”

The Symbiotic Ring naturally comes as a pair. When both are worn, the lifespan of the wearers is divided equally. The ring of the one providing lifespan becomes an imprint, hidden within the wrist bone, while the one who receives the lifespan wears the visible ring. The Symbiotic Ring does not distinguish between a primary and secondary ring, and the exchange of lifespan is seamless.

Jing Shuxing didn’t have time to ponder the origin of the Symbiotic Ring. His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a sudden wave of pain. Instinctively, he covered the left side of his face. When the pain subsided slightly, he slowly moved his hand aside.

Where his palm had been, before the traces of the spiritual repair vanished, an image flickered in his eyes.

His knees hit the ground hard, and the half-shattered sea of consciousness within him seemed to crack open, sending waves of shock through his entire body, causing him to tremble uncontrollably.

New information, which he had never encountered before, suddenly surged through his sea of consciousness like crashing waves.

Meanwhile, Chi Lu was dreaming.

In her dream, she walked out of the Nine-Tiered Xuan You Tower and left Fengyue City, innocently admiring the magnificent mountains and rivers along the way. When she saw something interesting and wanted to take a closer look, she realized that she was uncontrollably following a young man in front of her.

No, it shouldn’t be called a young man anymore.

In the dream, Jing Shuxing, though still not old enough to have had his coming-of-age ceremony, had already lost all traces of boyishness from his face, appearing much more mature.

Chi Lu saw Jing Shuxing leave Fengyue City with a bundle on his back, walking on foot as he visited various sects.

While traveling among the common folk, there were occasional curses directed at some unknown evil spirit that had killed an outstanding cultivator from a particular sect. Jing Shuxing merely lowered his gaze, remaining silent and completely unaffected by the outside world.

The only thing that seemed to affect him was his deteriorating health. Initially, he was afraid of catching a chill and needed to warm himself by the fire like an ordinary person. But eventually, no matter how many layers he wore, he couldn’t stop shivering.

Chi Lu sat beside him in a jolting carriage, listening to his labored breathing.

Worried about his condition, her gaze accidentally fell on the half-opened bundle beside him.

What she saw inside was nothing but ghastly white bones.

Startled, Chi Lu jerked awake from the cold stone she had been lying on.

The bracelet on her wrist emitted a gentle green light, and a screen of light flashed before her eyes, notifying her that the death escape mode had successfully activated.

[Host has arrived at the spiritual vein. Please proceed with free movement and aim to leave this place as soon as possible and return to Linghua Sect.]

The area around her was rich in spiritual energy but unfamiliar. As far as she could see, there were traces of wandering soulless ghosts and drifting black mist.

In a place like this, there are vengeful spirits too?

Chi Lu rubbed her eyes and, after confirming that she could still see wild vengeful spirits even after leaving Fengyue City, suddenly realized that Jing Shuxing was no longer by her side.

Her breath caught for a moment. She vividly remembered the scene of the vengeful spirits gnawing on bones in the Soul Transformation Abyss and feared that Jing Shuxing might encounter a similar fate.

In a hurry, she jumped off the cold stone, not bothering to fix her hairpin, and sent out her spiritual energy to search for Jing Shuxing.

When she finally found him, he was gently holding a small lantern, using the floating light as a guide, sitting quietly by the ancient path bathed in clear light.

The lantern in his hand, and the glowing wick inside, were both crafted entirely from pure spiritual energy. The dark, sinister energy swirled around him, and any vengeful spirits that came too close were vanquished by him, though many more streams of black mist continued to approach.

Low-level spirits and creatures also hid in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to snatch a piece of the action.

Chi Lu raised her hand, and with a swift motion, she cast down a barrier that securely blocked Jing Shuxing’s aura.

Deprived of their target, the vengeful spirits drifted away aimlessly.

~