Lu Zhixing’s face was as white as paper, and his entire body trembled uncontrollably.
Xiyu pushed Lu Zhixing away and slowly rose to his feet. Behind him, a black lotus was shrouded in mist. This was his true form, its layers upon layers of lotus leaves swaying in the air. One missing petal had been used to forge Chen Yu.
The first-generation Demon Venerable had returned to the world.
Chen Yu was in Xiyu’s hand. After casting Lu Zhixing a deep look, he turned around decisively.
The power of Chen Yu was unleashed to its fullest in Xiyu’s hands. The wind blew, the trees swayed, and the Nine Stars aligned with the moon. Xiyu summoned all his strength and roared, “Slaughtering Formation—RISE!!!”
With that shout, an enormous formation slowly emerged from beneath Xiyu’s feet. In no time, it enveloped the entire mountain forest.
Golden formation nodes and various runes and patterns intertwined, radiating a mysterious and immense power.
“No!!!” Lu Zhixing’s voice turned shrill and broke. Cold sweat soaked his entire body. “Master!!!”
Lu Zhixing stumbled to his feet and tried to rush forward, but Luo Cheng’an swiftly grabbed him.
“Get out of my way!” Lu Zhixing’s eyes were bloodshot. His breathing was so labored that it seemed as though a wad of cotton had lodged in his throat. His legs were terribly weak, yet he clutched the still-glowing green lotus against his chest and wrapped his arms around Xiyu from behind.
Lu Zhixing held him tightly, as though doing so would be enough to stop Xiyu.
With Lu Zhixing clinging to him, a crushing heaviness and reluctance surged through Xiyu’s chest like a rising tide, almost leaving him unable to breathe.
“Master, I’m scared. I’m scared. Don’t do this to me,” Lu Zhixing wailed. “Don’t leave me. I can’t bear it. I can’t bear it…”
He couldn’t bear to watch his master die before his eyes a second time.
Moisture welled up in Xiyu’s eyes. He couldn’t see Zhixi, but he could feel the warm, damp tears against his neck.
He had raised Zhixi himself. At this moment, he couldn’t simply turn a blind eye to his tears.
“Zhixi, wait for me.”
Even though he wasn’t sure whether he would be able to come back out, he wanted to give poor Zhixi a little hope, something to soothe his nearly shattered soul.
After speaking, Xiyu pried Lu Zhixing’s hands apart, rose into the air, and headed toward the formation’s core.
“MASTER!!!”
Lu Zhixing’s piercing scream echoed throughout Guihong Mountain.
………………………
The enormous golden formation, his master’s fluttering robes, the overwhelming terror, the excruciating pain tearing through his chest—many years later, whenever Lu Zhixing recalled this moment, he would still find the scene terrifying.
At that instant, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Lu Zhixing’s pupils contracted. He was utterly incapable of processing a scene that threatened to destroy him completely.
The intense demonic aura of Chen Yu shrouded the gaps in the formation.
Luo Cheng’an braced himself against a thick tree trunk, his heart nearly stopping. He closed his eyes, ultimately unable to watch the person he loved sacrifice himself for someone else.
From the moment Lanxing had told him that night that there was another way, right up until now, the whole situation had felt surreal to him.
The person in this world who hated the demon race most was the very first Demon Venerable, who had once struck terror into the hearts of all three realms.
After such a tragic past, Lanxing ought to have despised the demon race with every fiber of his being.
Yet just as he had always believed, love was stronger than hatred.
Lanxing hated the demon race so deeply that he would never abandon his desire to slaughter them simply because Zhixi was a demon. But precisely because Zhixi was a demon, he couldn’t bear to watch him die. Instead, he was willing to die in Zhixi’s place.
Back then, Lanxing had possessed both divine and demonic powers, yet he had lost all his cultivation after entering the Slaughtering Formation. Now that Lanxing had been reborn, he possessed only divine power.
His demonic aura belonged to Zhixi.
He had forcibly absorbed the demonic aura, and the two powers had never fully merged. Under these circumstances, Lanxing’s chances of surviving the Slaughtering Formation were hardly any better than Zhixi’s, who lacked divine bones.
Lanxing wanted Zhixi to remember his hatred, to remember that every time Zhixi made a mistake, Lanxing would make him pay for it.
Luo Cheng’an bit his lip, desperately suppressing his pain. His eyelashes trembled, but he couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes. He didn’t dare watch Lanxing enter the formation. He was afraid that if he opened his eyes, his reluctance would overwhelm him and he would end up hating Zhixi to death.
His mind was completely blank. He was so terrified that he felt like retching, yet a sudden, urgent cry reached his ears.
“Zhixi!”
There was an unmistakable note of panicked disbelief in Xiyu’s voice.
Luo Cheng’an abruptly opened his eyes, his breath catching in his throat.
Xiyu had stopped just a fraction of a step away from the formation’s core. His eyes were wide as he stared at the scarlet restraints wrapped around his body.
Xiyu wasn’t bound tightly, but the force holding him was something he couldn’t break free from.
Once one’s cultivation reached a certain level, there were very few things capable of harming them. It was like how the Demon Venerable could only be killed by the Zhuohua Arrow.
And there was only one thing in this world that could restrain him.
The Blazing Flame Shackles, forged in the molten sea guarded by ancient demonic beasts.
He possessed an extremely cold constitution, while the Blazing Flame Shackles had been forged from a hundred kinds of fire. Their properties directly counteracted his, and only one such length existed in the world.
Xiyu would never allow others to get their hands on his weakness. The Blazing Flame Shackles had always been kept in Lanxing Hall, and they had only been revealed in public once.
That was—tens of thousands of years ago.
“I don’t want to fight with Master anymore. Master is always bullying me. You use the Immortal-Binding Rope to tie me up, and I can’t move for ages.”
“You’ve been crying for half an hour. Are you ever going to stop? Fine, then. I’ll let you tie me up too.”
“I don’t want to! Master can break free from the Immortal-Binding Rope whenever you want. How could you possibly understand how helpless I feel when I can’t break free?”
“…Here. Take this.”
“What is it?”
“The Blazing Flame Shackles. They’re the only thing in this world that can restrain me. Use them to bind me, and for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, I’ll lose all my cultivation and magic. Will that satisfy you?”
“There’s actually something that can restrain Master? That’s amazing! Let me see… But I don’t want to tie Master up. If Master makes me a flower crown, I’ll forgive you~”
The Blazing Flame Shackles, which had not been used to bind him back then, now sealed away all of Xiyu’s magic and cultivation.
At last, he experienced the helplessness Zhixi had described when he’d been unable to break free.
Lu Zhixing’s expression became somewhat twisted. He could neither laugh nor cry. All he felt was the relief of having survived a catastrophe.
At the critical moment, he had remembered the Blazing Flame Shackles. He had always kept them on his person.
They were the one thing capable of restraining his master. He had carried them close to his body all this time without ever revealing them, and now they had finally come in useful.
Lu Zhixing staggered forward and caught Xiyu as he fell, gathering him into his arms and savoring the joy of getting him back after nearly losing him.
“Master… Master…” Lu Zhixing buried his face in the crook of Xiyu’s neck. His tears dampened his face, making him look utterly wretched. “I was so scared. Don’t leave me…”
Don’t die before my eyes again.
Xiyu struggled with all his might to break free of the Blazing Flame Shackles. But before he could make a move, the restless demonic aura within his body suddenly grew calm.
His eyes flew open in horror.
The jade-green lotus on Lu Zhixing’s chest had not yet withered. Now, under Lu Zhixing’s control, the demonic aura that churned and roiled between their pressed-together chests began to be extracted, inch by inch, from Xiyu’s body.
Xiyu shouted, “Huai Xi! Stop him! Quickly!”
Luo Cheng’an’s previously dazed gaze finally shifted at Xiyu’s cry. He summoned his life-bound sword and rushed toward Lu Zhixing, only to be repelled by a barrier.
“No,” Luo Cheng’an gritted his teeth. “He’s set up a barrier. I can’t get in!”
A layer of cold sweat had already formed on Xiyu’s forehead. He desperately forced himself to calm down.
“Zhixi, calm down. Look at me. Look at me.”
With both his hands restrained, Xiyu couldn’t push Lu Zhixing away. His voice trembled slightly as he spoke.
Lu Zhixing held Xiyu with such force that it seemed he wanted to press Xiyu’s entire body into his own.
Hearing Xiyu’s words, he loosened his grip slightly and leaned back a little to meet his gaze. But he couldn’t bear to move too far away. Their noses were almost touching.
As the demonic aura continued to leave his body, the painful pressure caused by the collision of the two forces within Xiyu began to ease. Yet his heart sank.
Lu Zhixing was breathing heavily, his eyes bloodshot, and his eye corners and cheeks were wet with tears.
Xiyu took a deep breath and did his best to remain calm. Looking at Lu Zhixing, he softened his tone.
“Zhixi, I’ve entered the Slaughtering Formation before. I created this formation myself, so I have a very good chance of getting out.”
“I still have your divine bones inside me. Compared to you, I’m much more likely to make it out.”
Lu Zhixing’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He shook his head, his voice hoarse.
“You’re lying to me.”
If Xiyu were really so confident, he wouldn’t have kept this from him until now, nor would he have used such a method to make him suffer so terribly.
“You made me suffer because you didn’t want me to take your place again, to take your place and…” The word die was so closely tied to Xiyu that Lu Zhixing simply couldn’t bring himself to say it. After a pause, he continued, “You were afraid I’d go mad and do something foolish after today. You want me to keep living a good life, don’t you?”
“If you already know that, then what are you doing now?!” Xiyu growled. “Do you want me to hate you? If you don’t stop right now, then even if you come out of the Slaughtering Formation alive, I will never forgive you.”
“Zhixi, think about everything that has happened during this time. If you enter the Slaughtering Formation and somehow survive against all odds, I will forever loathe you, hate you, and humiliate you,” Xiyu said coldly. “Zhixi, you know I always keep my word.”
……………………
Lu Zhixing looked at Xiyu. Pain and helplessness flashed through his eyes, as though he were recalling everything that had happened during this period. His expression twisted as he struggled with himself.
“It hurts so much… All this time… It’s hurt so much…”
Seeing him like this, Xiyu relaxed a little and slowed his speech.
“Zhixi, I love you. I love you.”
Xiyu said it twice, each declaration firm and gentle.
Lu Zhixing’s eyes suddenly widened, his face filled with utter disbelief.
“Master… You… What did you say?”
Xiyu’s voice was so soft it was almost coaxing. His tone was low and tender.
“I love you, Zhixi. I love you in the same way you love me. I want to become divine consorts with you and never be parted, in life or death. That’s why I have to enter the Slaughtering Formation. I have a better chance of coming out than you do. If the Slaughtering Formation couldn’t kill me the first time, it won’t be able to kill me the second time either.”
“Let go of me now. Once tonight is over, we can… Mm.”