Buhui erased his divine sense from the jade token. With a light tap of his toes, he leaped into the air, graceful as a startled swan. His golden beast-like pupils constricted as he gazed toward the shimmering high tower in the distance, sensing the lingering aura of the Spirit-Suppressing Lamp.
"The Spirit-Suppressing Lamp..."
His pale lips moved slightly. In the next instant, his body vanished from mid-air.
Ever since the Spirit-Suppressing Lamp began to flicker out, Ye Weiyang felt the warmth of the person in his arms slowly dissipate. Like a nightmare from decades ago, he was once again forced to watch the person he loved most lose their breath bit by bit, powerless to intervene.
Ye Weiai was exceptionally well-behaved. He did not cry or make a fuss, merely nestling in his brother’s embrace. He held Ye Weiyang’s cold hand, tracing patterns lightly in his palm.
"The reason humans are called humans is because they experience birth, old age, sickness, and death. They have the seven emotions and six desires, and they distinguish between right and wrong. If Weiai truly lived without regard for black and white just to stay alive—if I lived shamelessly knowing my life was bought with the blood of innocent people—then I couldn't be called human anymore." Ye Weiai tilted his head slightly, a smile on his face as if death held no terror for him. "You used to call Brother Mingzhu a monster. If that were true, wouldn't Weiai be even more of a monster?"
Ye Weiyang said nothing, his eyes fixed on Ye Weiai.
Ye Weiai looked up and smiled. "Brother, don't you agree?"
Ye Weiyang’s voice was hoarse. "...Yes."
"Then tomorrow, you must go to Brother Mingzhu and apologize properly, okay?"
"Okay."
"Don't be sad for Weiai," Ye Weiai said, then realizing that was unrealistic, he quickly added, "If you really can't help it, I'll allow you to be just a little bit sad. But you must recover your spirits quickly and live well. Otherwise, I'll worry."
"...Mhm."
The life force in Ye Weiai’s body had slowly ebbed away with the extinguishing of the Spirit-Suppressing Lamp. His body grew cold, and his pupils gradually transformed into those of the dead, splitting in two down the center as the light within them faded like a dying candle.
Finally, Ye Weiyang felt a weight against his chest. Ye Weiai slumped against him, the rest of his instructions destined to remain unspoken.
Ye Weiyang remained expressionless, holding the youth tightly. Joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness seemed to flow out of his hollow, vacant eyes along with Ye Weiai’s second death. Eventually, his gaze turned into a pool of stagnant water, devoid of any further ripples.
The Spirit-Suppressing Lamp slowly descended from the air to land beside him. Only a single white thread, resembling a wick, remained, lunging toward him with bared fangs and brandished claws.
That was an entity capable of hooking a person's soul out and devouring it completely. Ye Weiyang had used it to snatch countless souls, so he naturally knew its effects.
Yet this time, as the soul-devouring white thread lunged fiercely at him, he merely spared it a cold, indifferent glance before calmly looking away.
It was as if nothing in this world could move him anymore—not even life or death.
Just as the white cord reached him and was about to hook onto his wrist, a hand reached out from the side, pinching the thread with a slight exertion of force.
The Spirit-Suppressing Lamp let out a sudden, decaying shriek. The last glimmer of light vanished instantly as the white thread dissipated.
Ye Weiyang looked up at the person before him and asked coldly, "Who are you?"
Inside the Glazed Tower stood a man in white robes with white hair, elegant and tall. The only color on him was the petal-shaped mark between his brows, glowing brilliantly.
Buhui held the Spirit-Suppressing Lamp in one hand. His golden beast-like eyes shimmered as he spoke softly, "I am of the Buhui Wood of Guifang."
Ye Weiyang repeated, "Guifang... Buhui Wood?"
Dressed in white, Buhui’s pale skin was even whiter than his robes. He walked slowly across the glazed floor with bare feet, his tone gentle.
"Ah, I almost forgot. The Five Continents no longer have a Guifang. What do you call the old lands now?" He pressed a slender white finger to his lips, bringing a hint of color to his pale skin. "Oh, I remember—the Sunken City."
"Out of fear and greed, you destroyed the ley lines the Guifang demons relied on for survival. You drove Nalian down the Sun-Blocking Cliff and sealed him with a barrier for hundreds of years." Buhui looked up slightly. His long white hair trailed on the floor, fluttering slightly in the wind. "This debt has been delayed for many years. It is finally time to settle it."
Even knowing the person before him was a demon cultivator, Ye Weiyang remained unmoved. He said coldly, "You want revenge? Fine. Take this life."
Buhui seemed not to hear him, still staring intently at the intricate patterns of the Glazed Tower, murmuring softly, "The bottom of the Sun-Blocking Cliff is a sea of blood, littered with corpses. Countless mindless beasts slaughter at will; no one can survive down there intact."
Ye Weiyang fell silent.
"It hurts so much. It's so agonizing. Why can't I die?" Buhui’s voice was light and soft, but his words were hair-raising. "Whenever my broken body floated in that nauseating sea of blood, I wondered: why must I endure the pain of my meridians being torn apart and reshaped while alive? Why... couldn't they just give me a quick end?"
"I have never done a bad deed in my life. Why must I suffer such inhuman agony?"
Buhui extended a slender finger, lightly touching the intricate carvings. He said nonchalantly, "Fortunately, one gets used to dying after a while."
He applied a bit of pressure to the glazed carving. His pale fingertip instantly turned red. Buhui stared at his finger for a long time, his eyes filling with mist as he instinctively murmured, "It hurts."
Ye Weiyang asked, "Why are you telling me this?"
Buhui stared at his finger for a long while before blinking away the mist in his eyes. He didn't dare touch the glazed patterns again. He turned his head, his beast-like eyes shimmering as he looked at Ye Weiyang. "I want you all to know exactly how much pain the demon race suffered because of your momentary desires, and exactly what price you must pay to withstand Nalian’s wrath."
"Who are you, really?"
"Nalian possesses a small world. When Guifang fell, he placed the remaining clansmen into that world and brought them to the bottom of the Sun-Blocking Cliff," Buhui murmured. "Nalian named that world the Buhui Wood, and my name comes from it."
He walked up to Ye Weiyang and crouched down, his eyes full of pity and sympathy. "My name is Buhui. I came here to find the leaders who besieged Guifang back then. The previous Master of Changye Villa was one of them. And you, as his descendant..."
Ye Weiyang let out a cold laugh. There was no fear on his face, only a sense of liberation.
Buhui tilted his head slightly. "But I will not kill you."
Ye Weiyang snapped his gaze toward him.
"I can't kill you," Buhui murmured. "Because I feel that for someone like you, living on is a far greater source of pain than a quick death."
Ye Weiyang looked at him almost ferociously. "You..."
Buhui said softly, "A life worse than death—that is the best punishment for you."
Having said his piece, he stood up and walked out of the Glazed Tower, cradling the Spirit-Suppressing Lamp.
Ye Weiyang stared blankly at his retreating back, trembling as he held Ye Weiai’s cold body. A moment later, he hunched over, burying his face in Ye Weiai’s neck, and let out a choked sob.
The moon was bright and the stars were sparse; a faint fragrance drifted on the wind.
Buhui rode the wind, flying through the darkness toward the wasteland fifty miles outside the gates of Shishen State.
Before long, he spread his arms and stopped in mid-air over the wasteland. Looking down, he saw nothing but yellow earth and wind-blown sand.
This was the old site of Guifang—the Sunken City.
Because the ley lines of Guifang had been destroyed by human cultivators, the city that had stood for thousands of years became a ruin, sinking deeper into the sandy earth year by year.
Fifty years ago, one could still see the old ruins of Guifang, but now, nothing remained.
Buhui descended from the sky. His toes touched the yellow sand, but before he could take two steps, he frowned and flew back into the air, seemingly afraid the sand would hurt his feet.
The environment of the Sunken City was too harsh. Yellow sand danced in the sky, and the howling wind roared in his ears. Buhui did not wish to stay long. He flew half a circle in the air, and after confirming that no ruins remained, he flew back the way he came.
Midway, Buhui connected his divine sense to Nalian via the jade token.
"Buhui?" Nalian’s divine sense appeared beside him instantly. His illusory figure was as ethereal as smoke in the wind. He sounded a bit groggy, likely having just woken up.
Buhui said, "I have reached the old site of Guifang. Because the ley lines were destroyed, the city has been completely buried by the yellow sand."
Nalian was stunned for a moment before lowering his gaze to hide his disappointment. "Is that so?"
The bodies of the clansmen who died in battle could not be recovered either.
Sensing Nalian’s disappointment, Buhui pursed his lips. After a long silence, he said, "Nalian, once the ley lines of Guifang withered, it is better for the old site to be buried under a hundred feet of sand than to be occupied by human cultivators..."
Nalian forced a smile. "I know. When are you coming back? There is no one left in Shou'an City. I plan to take our people to Shuoyu City next."
Buhui said, "I still have some things to handle, so I might be a bit late... Ah!"
Nalian was waiting for Buhui to finish, but he suddenly heard a cry of pain. Then, Buhui’s divine sense seemed to be forcibly cut off, and his image flickered in and out of existence.
Nalian was startled. "Buhui! What happened? Buhui!?"
He waited in trepidation for a long time before the divine sense reconnected. As soon as it did, he heard Buhui sobbing on the other end.
Nalian was nearly frantic. "Buhui!"
Soon, the connection stabilized. Buhui’s slender frame was slumped on the ground, clutching his head and sobbing quietly, his face covered in tears.
"What on earth happened over there? Don't scare me!"
Buhui’s eyes were full of tears as he sobbed, "The boundary... of Shishen State... I, I crashed into it..."
Nalian: "..."
"It hurts so much."
Nalian: "..."
Nalian was at a loss for words. He said weakly, "That boundary is at most a barrier set by a human in the Great Ascension stage. If you were careful, you could have just torn a hole in it or used an Eye-Obscuring Grass to enter. How could you just crash into it?"
The fault lay in the fact that Buhui insisted on talking to Nalian while flying. Distracted, he had flown straight into it. His skin was naturally pale, and now a large, red, swollen bruise had formed on his forehead, looking quite severe.
In truth, an ordinary person would have just endured such pain, let alone a man. But Buhui had spent over a decade dying and reviving at the bottom of the Sun-Blocking Cliff; he had likely developed a psychological trauma regarding pain. Normally, even a small scratch could make him cry, let alone slamming directly into a hard barrier.
"I... I..." Buhui was crying too hard to speak. "You, you come save me..."
Nalian said with a massive headache, "I'm in Shou'an right now, how can I save you? Look around for something to hide your presence, conceal your demon aura, and go find a doctor in Shishen State."
Buhui still couldn't stop his tears.
"Ah, you're going to be the death of me, you ancestor!" Nalian rubbed his temples. He was about to say he would come over when someone outside came to report.
Buhui sat on the ground and cried for a long time before his tears finally subsided. Seeing that Nalian hadn't spoken to him for a while, he asked, "Nalian? What's happening?"
Nalian seemed to be giving orders to someone else. Hearing Buhui, he reconnected his sense and said, "I heard a Great Ascension cultivator has attacked Shou'an. I'm going to take a look—what did you say? People from Rizhao?"
The last sentence was directed at someone else.
Buhui tilted his head. "Rizhao?"
Nalian gave a few more instructions to those around him before saying to Buhui, "I have some matters to handle here. Apparently, Shang Yanfeng and Yan Xueyu of Mount Rizhao have arrived in Shou'an. They've come at the perfect time. Rizhao played a part in the siege of Guifang back then. I'll go deal with these two and then come get you. Just bear with it for a bit, be good."
Buhui let out an "Ah?" and was about to speak, but Nalian had already cut off the connection.
***
