Shen Shu's tone was solemn.
It wasn't a joke.
Ye Yunlan felt absurd.
After 30+ years, his disciple had not only plunged into the demonic ways but also wanted to recommend himself as his human furnace.
How could that be proper?
Even if the Demon Lord in his previous life had healed him and had done something similar to him, but...now Shen Shu was his disciple.
He had taken care of his grown-up disciple since childhood.
A thin blush rose on Ye Yunlan's cheeks. Its cause was indefinite: anger or Shen Shu's outlandish words.
The hand gripping Shen Shu's lapels tightened. He said hoarsely: "This matter cannot... For Master's body, Master will act with propriety."
"Master always said that he would act with propriety." Shen Shu said, "Master is clearly so weak that I can strangle Master to death with a squeeze. Why show off?"
Ye Yunlan remembered the scene that had just happened: Shen Shu teleported to him just before they met, then stretched his hand out to choke his neck.
At this moment, he peered into Shen Shu's chilly red eyes. He suddenly couldn't tell whether Shen Shu had any intention of killing him at the moment and if he wanted to actually strangle him when he saw him.
Shen Shu looked around and chuckled softly.
"The Primordial Immortal Boat of the Ye Clan. After so many years, it can still be activated. The Primordial Divine Phoenix's methods are indeed powerful. If it were not from a different age, I would want to fight against it."
He changed his words. "If I hadn't used the method of blood sacrifice to forcefully deduce that Master's body was in the void and tried to enter the void to see Master, would Master have to stay in this Immortal Boat for three or five years until everything came to an end? We would then never see each other again in this life?"
He narrowed his smile and looked down at Ye Yunlan. His eyes were somewhat cold and hollow.
"After all, I fell in love with Master against Master's will. I also don't know how to act in propriety, not restraining myself at all. Yet, Master remembered Disciple and was willing to leave me a letter to stop my wishful thinking. It was your meticulous virtue and attention to duty, wasn't it?"
Ye Yunlan wanted to say no.
But there was a shadow gently wrapped around his neck. Another sealed his lips, not giving him a chance to speak.
"For the time being, I will have to wrong Master."
Shen Shu's voice returned to its original softness.
"The void is dangerous. If Master speaks again, I'm afraid I won't be able to control myself. Then, you and I will be in danger."
The shadow behind him suddenly dispersed like a pair of expansive crow-colored wings. It spread out, screening the sky and occupying the entire space.
"Many things have occurred over the past 30 years. When we return, I'll slowly tell Master everything."
He hugged Ye Yunlan and walked into the crack.
The shadow sealed Ye Yunlan's lips, and Shen Shu's arms confined him. The white hair hanging on Shen Shu's arms kept dangling as he walked. His eyelashes were trembling as if he wanted to struggle to stop it, but it was difficult to move. His golden pupils contracted and enlarged.
Shen Shu stepped into the turbulent flow of the void.
Chaos shrouded everything in the dim and hazy void. It was toilsome to distinguish east and west, north and south.
The dark turbulence raged like frightening lightning. It was problematic to avoid.
Shen Shu hugged Ye Yunlan and swept across it.
The space turbulence split his body apart, then he regrouped in the floating shadows. As time passed, he couldn't maintain his human form and presented a chaotic and hideous appearance.
The dark blood flowed to the pale palm, where he finally maintained a human shape. The massive crow feathers behind him hugged Ye Yunlan. He covered Ye Yunlan's eyelashes with his palms and said hoarsely.
"Don't look. You will be back in our world soon."
The palms were blindfolding his eyes, so Ye Yunlan could no longer see the appearance in front of him. He only heard wind rushing, limbs splitting, and blood splashing.
Only he was well guarded.
Not knowing what he encountered, Shen Shu let out a hoarse, unhuman-like muffled sound.
The steady flight suddenly became weightless, and the other party's arms hugged him tightly as if they were crossing a boundary. The two rolled and fell to the ground.
Bright warm sunlight shone in through the gaps of the shadows.
Shen Shu was silent for a long time.
A soft shadow enveloped Ye Yunlan, and he suddenly realized something.
Only Void Tracing cultivators could enter the void.
In just thirty years, advancing to the Transcendence Realm with Shen Shu's aptitude would be phenomenal, let alone the Void Tracing Realm.
Since ancient times, due to the shackles of the world itself, only a handful of cultivators have entered the Void Tracing Realm.
Only amid the Great Tribulation, when the rules were haywire, did cultivators have the possibility of being promoted and even immortalizing.
Now it was more than a hundred years before the genuine catastrophe began.
Shen Shu's realm should not have entered Void Tracing.
Then, he must've employed other methods if he could set foot in the void.
Costly methods.
Moreover, he could unearth a lone boat in the boundless void. Shen Shu must've ventured into the void perhaps more than once.
Why? he thought.
When he left the letter, he had never thought that Shen Shu would be so obsessed with him.
He wanted Shen Shu to travel all over the five continents and four seas, see more scenery, meet different people, and not plummet into the demonic way again. He didn't want him to become an enemy of the world and depart because of the heavens, repeating his previous life. Instead, Shen Shu had been driven astray and ushered to the demonic path.
...Was it his fault?
The shadow encircling him slowly disbanded. He stared at the sky and realized that they were in an area of twilight. The orange-red sunset irradiated down, shedding a curtain of blood. Wreckage and misery pervaded the ancient ruins.
Primordial God Ruins.
Shen Shu had infused spiritual power into his body, and he scarcely redeemed minimal mobility. He sat up to survey Shen Shu's condition.
Shen Shu's semblance could no longer be classified as humankind.
He was like liquefying black lava, tumbling and boiling. His face submerged into the shadows, and his limbs were long and twisted. The broad black wings were only fragments, winding and twisting on the ground.
This was what the Nine-Turn Celestial Demon Body looked like out of control.
Rational told Ye Yunlan that he should flee now. The farther away, the better.
However, he just supported his incapacitated limbs and inched closer.
The long silver eyelashes drooped down.
The demon's figure filled the golden eyes.
He touched his disciple's hand.
"...Shen Shu."
The surging black lava steadily stilled, and the pitch-black curved knuckles tightly clasped five of Ye Yunlan's fingers. He turned his head, and the two scarlet flames blazing in the shadow gazed over.
"Master, are you not afraid of me?" he asked softly.