For a moment the world was silent. The hustle and bustle surrounding them receded like a tide, and the flow of people blurred like an illusion. It seemed that only Yan Jin was real.
His word "Master" echoed in Shen Zhixian's ears.
Shen Zhixian thought wryly, what about his disguise? What about his big disguise?
Countless thoughts tumbled chaotically in his mind, but only one thought remained in the end.
It would be better to give Yan Jin amnesia on the spot.
After acting as Sui Xian, Shen Zhixian still had no choice but to return as Yan Jin's master. He calmly removed Yan Jin's hand from his wrist and shoved his folding fan into Yan Jin's hand. After taking a deep breath, he sincerely said, "Actually, I..."
--A sudden change emerged.
Perhaps, it was that no one paid attention, or that no one cared. The secret realm was stagnant, but the white fog spread out, scattering everywhere. A trail of mist silently curled around Shen Zhixian's ankle and quickly climbed up along his hem.
The moment Shen Zhixian's word "I" fell, he felt cold all over his body. All of a sudden, the white fog rapidly unfurled out and then swallowed him completely!
This happened in the blink of an eye. Yan Jin's expression changed. He immediately reached out to catch Shen Zhixian, but his arms went through emptiness. There was nothing there. The fog seemed to be conscious, hiding from Yan Jin's hand and quickly retreating.
Yan Jin pulled his sword out. Afraid that Shen Zhixian was still caught somewhere in the fog, he dared not split the fog directly. He could only cut a section off from the rest, temporarily blocking it from further retreat.
An extremely deep sword mark split the ground, still emitting the icy chill of Yan Jin's sword intent. The fog fragment was scared witless. After a moment, it reared back and burst into countless tiny strands of mist, which then quickly drifted away.
Shen Zhixian, just like those who'd successfully entered the secret realm, had completely disappeared in front of everyone.
This pair of master and disciple had originally stood quite far from the entrance to the secret realm. As a result, this huge movement immediately attracted the public's attention.
Some people were uncertain about the nature of the fog and feared that they wouldn't be able to avoid it. Others wanted to enter the secret realm. Thus, when they saw the fog drifting toward them, they were unafraid and wanted to be swallowed up by the fog. It was too bad that, to avoid the approaching cultivators, the fog quickly melted back to its source.
With deeply furrowed brows, Yan Jin strode to the place where everyone was trying to enter the secret realm. There was also a fog there, quietly waiting for the next cultivator. But, sensing Yan Jin's presence, it suddenly grew frightened and immediately surged back in panic. Like the fog that had swallowed Shen Zhixian earlier, it hurriedly floated back toward the secret realm.
Yan Jin's expression was cold and severe as he raised his ice sword and ruthlessly used his sword ray to trap the fog in place, peeling it down like a radish into a small, tight dumpling.
"Where is that person?" Yan Jin's raised his sword, the tip slanted toward the ground. His voice was cold enough to freeze the small fog dumpling into fragments of ice.
The fog pretended to be stupid and remained stiff and motionless.
Yan Jin was extremely worried about Shen Zhixian's safety. Not wanting to waste any more time with words, he lowered his eyes and raised the sword.
His swordplay was taught by Shen Zhixian. Although Shen Zhixian's sword techniques had always been carefree and elegant, Yan Jin's current move was ruthless and violent. The cold and fierce sword intent could be felt by everyone standing nearby. The ice-cold sword ray sank into the boundless darkness in an instant.
Not far away in the mountain forest, on a large and sturdy tree, the lush leaves suddenly rustled. A moment later, a bald head popped out from within the green leaves.
"Ah, what's that movement..."
He squinted a pair of tiny, cloudy eyes and peered in the direction of the secret realm. In his younger years, he'd committed a great many sins, and his eyes were not easy to use anymore. Now, they couldn't see as well at a distance. But, no matter what the situation, he felt a sense of familiarity.
What fun thing was happening over yonder?
The bald monk swallowed the food in his mouth and emerged out from among the green leaves with a large steamed bun in one hand. He took a large bite from the steamed bun, not caring that he'd also bitten off a piece of green leaf into his mouth.
He'd lived for a long time and his brain was probably rusty. He thought for a while and couldn't remember what it was he was supposed to remember. But, he felt that there was something wrong in his mouth.
He spit out the dregs of the residual leaf. Then, he looked down at the big bun in his hand, exclaiming suddenly, "My roast meat! My roast meat!"
He looked around nervously and retracted his head back into the green leaves. After some searching, he finally found his half piece of roast meat on a protruding branch beside him.
The roast was as thin as the leaves, and it was only the size of half a mouthful. The bald monk pinched it down with two fingers, treating it like an incomparable treasure. He pressed it into the steamed bun, took a large bite, and chewed several times. His face twisted into an expression of delight. He forgot the strange movement from earlier and retracted his head back into the green leaves.
He'd stopped paying attention to the strange movement, but the situation at the other end near the secret realm was not so good.
The wind snapped coldly, echoing with strange sounds that would terrify anyone who heard it. If it were to be described, one would say that it sounded like the horrifying cries of demons.
The thick patch of fog took advantage of Yan Jin's inattention to slip away. The secret realm also seemed to have felt a great threat, causing it to shake violently. Before his sword ray could completely split the entrance, the closed door suddenly opened!
In that instant, countless spiritual qi swarmed out, assaulting the senses. Many people couldn't bear the collision and took a few steps back, their faces pale and blood streaming from the corners of their mouths.
Seeing that the entrance was yawning open, Yan Jin halted his action. But his ruthless and tyrannical sword ray had already flown out toward the mouth, where it became immersed in the fog and disappeared completely.
Although the entrance was wide open, it was difficult to see past the thick fog on the inside. Someone struggled to get up, even crawling on the ground, but the cold fog blocked him, making it difficult for him to move any closer.
Yan Jin didn't care about others. With a cold expression, he tightened his grip on his sword and strode into the secret realm.
After Yan Jin's slender figure completely disappeared into the fog, the opening slowly resealed, shutting off countless envious eyes and many whispers.
Within the secret realm, there was only a white, thick fog.
As soon as Yan Jin slashed his sword, those dense fogs were immediately frightened and quickly dissipated. After a while, a path was revealed.
Although he didn't know where the path would lead to, Yan Jin lowered his eyes and strode forward without hesitation. While he urged the contract within his body, he maintained a close vigilance on his surrounding environment.
But, no matter how much he urged this time, the contract didn't respond, almost as if it'd never existed. He could only let it off and focus on the dense fog all around him.
Within the fog, there was only silence. He didn't know how long he'd walked, but suddenly, he heard a muted conversation that seemed to echo with no clear sign of its origin. It appeared to be the faint sounds of two people speaking.
A slightly elderly voice said, "He belongs to the boundless sea, moving free and easy. Your plan to trap and hold on to him will only hurt and sadden him. Why do you..."
A young man interrupted in a cold, hard and resolute voice, "Even if I have to break his fish tail and put chains on his two hands, I will make sure that he stays trapped forever at my side."
"This is too willful!"
The young man remained unmoved. His voice lowered, sounding slightly crazed as he murmured indignantly, "I'm willing to build thousands of illusions for him, creating the boundless sea, the sounds of wind and waves, the spoiled sun and the bright moon, the clouds and stars... All with no deficiency. All except one thing. I would never allow him to leave me."
"Don't be obsessed!" The elderly man's voice was both angry and helpless as he reprimanded, "In the end, illusions are still just illusions. How can you take it seriously?! Your mental state is tinted by devil qi!"
The last four words obviously touched the deepest part of the young man's heart. He became enraged. His words were ruthless, malicious and despairing. "What about cultivating the devil's path? The people who'd harmed me have all been killed by me. It's only that the one I love, I can't get..."
"...I couldn't get it. I couldn't get it." The young man continuously repeated this one line until his voice grew hoarse. "Entering the devil's path, the devil's path. I should have entered the devil's path sooner!"
The white fog around Yan Jin suddenly violently roiled and surged. Strands of cold and powerful qi were tightly interwoven around the turbulent fog. Yan Jin's acute senses concentrated on the source. With his eyes narrowed, he immediately raised his hand and brought down his sword.
The white fog scattered in panic to avoid his strike, but it moved too late. It was shattered by the sword qi and, at once, the source of the voices appeared in front of Yan Jin's eyes .
--It was a spirit pellet, about half the size of a fist and looked like a pure red jade pearl.
When Yan Jin looked at the spirit pellet's glossy surface, he seemed to see scenes of countless human figures, intertwined and intermingled together. All indistinguishable and unclear. All the while, the lingering sound of a devilish voice rasped in his ears.
His eyes, which reflected the spirit pellet, turned red. The voice that had hidden at the deepest part of his heart and had not appeared in a long time suddenly became active again, shouting in harmony with the young man's roar.
Fine threads of black qi drifted silently from the spirit pellet and floated toward Yan Jin, coiling around his body and refusing to leave, settling in like bone gangrene. The black marks embedded into him like scars, ruthlessly and painfully digging under his skin.
The countless insults, abuses, and tortures. The countless times he'd suffered, homeless and miserable. All kinds of memories whirled chaotically in his mind. There were people from his previous life, people from this life, people who were strange and unfamiliar. They all intertwined into an indistinguishable mess.
Yan Jin perceived this dire turn of events. He tried to raise his sword to destroy the spirit pellet, but a vague, black mist had wrapped around him, curling around his wrist and applying a heavy, almost physical pressure to prevent him from raising his hand.
The hand holding the sword's hilt clenched tighter with increasingly more strength, making the blue tendons on his hand bulge. Yan Jin gritted his teeth and fought against the voices.
Fake, they were all fake....Between the various flashes of memories, Yan Jin struggled to maintain his last trace of clarity, telling himself over and over again that the old things in the previous life had passed. What was true was right now.
Master had said, cherish the present and don't hurt the innocent...
Don't hurt the innocent...Master said...Sui Xian....
Before his eyes was a scene washed in scarlet. The previous life, dyed with blood and shattered spirit qi, coated the tip of a sword. The image lingered in his mind, repeated again and again, until he became muddleheaded with it. Yan Jin sensed himself being picked up shakily and, in a burst, he was tossed recklessly somewhere.
"Just throw it away. Anyway, he's just a waste."
"Alright. Let's go back to report the completion of our task...."
The two strange voices gradually drifted away. Yan Jin's heart trembled. Was this a memory?
This was the memory from his previous life, after his spirit root was severed?!
Realization was at the tip of his mind. He tried to trace it back to the chaos, but before he could grasp a fragment, it seemed to elude him. For a moment, he was at a loss and was nearly overturned by the strange voices.
No!
He didn't know where Master was and whether he was safe. He had to find Master.
Yan Jin lifted the sword with great difficulty and held the sharp blade's edge against the palm of his hand. He swiped lightly, causing blood to suddenly flow out. He clung to the pain as he resisted the erosive and strange voices.
In his mind, Shen Zhixian's voices pierced through the countless noise, sounding soft and gentle as he said, "....Master presents you with this sword, not to make you afraid, but for you to be able to raise this sword against those who want to bully you."
The sword. That's it!
Yan Jin gritted his teeth and raised his sword before his last trace of clarity was subverted.
This time, he used Shen Zhixian's swordplay. The wind was clear, the moon was bright, the sword was light, and the sword was free. The sword ray swirled up like a cold breeze, dispelling the gloomy and cold haze.
All the chaotic noises came to an abrupt end as the sword's ray fell across the the scarlet spirit pellet. It seemed to freeze momentarily before abruptly shattering into powder.
Yan Jin panted as he fell to one knee, using the sword as support. He narrowed his eyes, calming his inner turmoil.
Just now, everything had happened too suddenly. The tangled, chaotic mess of information was too shocking. He was too busy trying to regain stability and so he didn't hear it. Within the depths of his sea of knowledge, an inaudible crack appeared, splitting a seam in the invisible barrier.
Strands of black qi drifted out from the thin slit and quietly merged into his vast sea of spiritual qi, blending in and melding with the pure spiritual powers within.
If Yan Jin was looking inside at this moment, he would see that what was exposed behind the slit was a hint of red.
It was almost the same color as the spirit pellet, only clearer and redder.
.............................
On Shen Zhixian's side, after the white fog unexpectedly swallowed him into the secret realm, he was worried about possible danger and immediately brought out the various lifesaving items from his storage bag.
Because of his lack of spiritual power, he deliberately brought out many simple and easy-to-use instruments. Unless the the other party was powerful enough to destroy the world, it wouldn't be a problem for him to escape.
Fortunately, the white fog didn't seem to be malicious to him. After dropping him here, it ignored him and drifted about before finally fusing with the large white fog around.
The white fog was so thick that no sounds could be heard. He had no spiritual power and could not use divine knowledge to detect his surroundings. He could only hold the life-saving weapons and proceed cautiously.
The path under his feet seemed to be endless. Shen Zhixian walked for a long time and, let alone a person, he couldn't even glimpse any other living creatures. But, a faint sound drifted into his ears.
It was the sound of the sea breeze rolling and of the waves tumbling, one after another. It seemed to come from a distance, circulating back and forth and never ending.
Shen Zhixian listened intently. Within the sound of the waves, he faintly heard a melodious and clear singing.
The singing was too far away and was intermittently drowned by the sea breeze and the crashing waves. Only the words passed to Shen Zhixian's ears, and Shen Zhixian ... didn't understand.
This was a mysterious, ancient language that carried with it a leisurely charm. Shen Zhixian suddenly remembered the mermaid and his heart jerked. He continued to move forward.
A large mass of fog in front of him seemed to have suddenly met something terrible and spread out in a hurry, exposing an open road and a slender figure with a sword in his hand. His back was very familiar.
Shen Zhixian's eyes brightened. It was a joy to meet someone he knew, even if this person had just peeled away his disguise earlier.
He yelled "Yan" and was prepared to complete the rest of his words. But, Yan Jin heard his shout and turned slowly.
Shen Zhixian's footsteps suddenly stopped.
The cold-looking young man still looked the same, but he saw ...
A pair of cold red eyes.