Zheng Xie and Chu Fu began to traverse the desolate expanse. The air was a heavy, scorching blanket, yet on their temples, there was not a single drop of sweat. An unseen, cool force seemed to push back the oppressive heat.
Chu Fu's mind raced, her gaze fixed on the ground as she walked. She didn't understand how he did it, but she was certain the demon was responsible for the phenomenon. She had seen him act with a casual, almost friendly demeanor, yet he hadn't blinked when he had broken someone's limbs.
'What can a person like him desire?' she wondered, a chilling thought striking her. 'He wanted to kill because we saw him use his soul path techniques. There was no other reason to kill us, especially not for our souls.'
A fragile, dangerous hope sparked within her. If she could just convince him that she would never speak a word of his techniques or his presence, there might be a slim chance of survival. But the plan was fundamentally flawed.
Even if she were to take an oath on her Dao Heart, he would never believe her. A shattered Dao Heart merely crippled a cultivator, destroying their dantian and leaving them with a physical backlash or a near-death experience. It was a punishment, not a death sentence.
Chu Fu's family, in their relentless hunt for Soul Cultivators, had documented countless instances of cultivators breaking their Dao Heart oaths. The hatred ran so deep that death was often seen as a preferable alternative to a life protecting a soul cultivator.
Given his formidable strength and the likelihood that Soul Cultivators formed associations, he would almost certainly be aware of this.
"Miss, your complexion looks increasingly worse as time goes on," Zheng Xie remarked, his voice a low hum. "If I may, could you please share what's going on in your mind?"
Chu Fu quickly shook her head, her face a mask of panicked denial. "No... nothing! It's just that my head hurts," she said, her eyes widening in a sudden realization. "It's not like I'm blaming you! I'm just replying to what you asked!"
She waved her arms desperately, her flustered movements an attempt to soothe an offense that hadn't been taken. Her panic, however, only seemed to amuse him. A soft, genuine smile curled his lips, and a deep chuckle rumbled in his chest.
"You are an interesting one," he said, the amusement evident in his tone. "Usually, righteous family cultivators are stubborn, their pride as unyielding as the Serene Flora Mountain. They refuse to bow down. Yet here you are, being submissive."
His voice dropped as he leaned closer. "You know how to adapt to your situation," he murmured, his breath a cool whisper against her skin. "This is a very rare quality. It's good that you have that."
The numbing dread that had seized Chu Fu's scalp began to subside. 'Don't worry,' she told herself, 'he just complimented you... nothing else. Keep calm... keep calm.'
Suddenly, his playful demeanor vanished. He leaned back and turned, his eyes narrowing on the horizon. An enormous sandstorm, a raging maelstrom of dust and sand, was hurtling toward them from the east. It was like a colossal, churning beast, poised to devour everything in its path.
Zheng Xie sighed wearily, the sound heavy with fatigue. "We have to run. Getting caught up in a sandstorm would be unpleasant, especially since they usually carry beasts within them."
Chu Fu quickly nodded in agreement. "Yes, we should hastily move away from here. But…" she stopped, her eyes wide as they scanned the vast, featureless expanse around them. There was nowhere to hide, no shelter to be found.
Her dilated eyes returned to the monstrous horizon of the approaching sandstorm, and a slow, creeping dread began to engulf her. She was going to die, not by the hand of the demon beside her, but by a natural calamity. But before a bitter, self-deprecating laugh could escape her lips, a sound of resigned despair.
"Hah," a low shriek was let out by her lips as she was suddenly scooped up into a princess carry by Zheng Xie. He held her easily, a soft smile on his lips. "Hahaha, Don't worry. I won't leave you to die just yet. The challenge with your friends is still going on. Until they fail, I will protect you."
The sincerity in his smiling face conflicted Chu Fu greatly. How could such a person, who could hold a demonic heart, possess such an endearing smile? A fragile hope intensified in her heart: the hope of getting him on her side. From her perspective, even though he was a demon and a soul cultivator, he still had a set of morals and rules. He was a person to be reasoned with.
'Maybe he chose the soul path because of some tragedy, or perhaps he was forced to cultivate it,' Chu Fu's thoughts wandered, her mind trying to find a reason for his existence.
Her conflicted thoughts were an open book to Zheng Xie. He knew exactly what was going on inside her mind. 'A person's greatest enemy is not an external competitor, but their own mentality—their own indecisiveness. Someone who is conflicted about their paths, ideals, and decisions could never hope to achieve anything, forever destined to grovel beneath those who are unshackled by their mental prison.'
For him, Chu Fu's indecisiveness stemmed from her inability to choose which path she wanted to take. At first, she considered him a heinous demon she wanted to kill. Yet, just hours later, her mindset had changed. From feeling hatred, she now felt… pity.
'Whatever,' Zheng Xie snickered inwardly. 'What does it have to do with me? My goal is to break her, one way or another. Her feeling conflicted and emotional would lessen my own struggles.'
Whirr— Whirr—
Behind them, the sandstorm whirled and raged like a beast in a manic hunger, devouring whatever little dried vegetation was present. Zheng Xie's eyes moved frantically, searching for a place to hide in the deserted expanse.
Then, a movement. BOOOOM!
A deafening noise echoed around them, and his body reflexively jolted toward the sound. In front of him, a massive, ancient structure erupted from the ground. It was forgotten and broken in many places, yet it carried a threatening spiritual pressure.
Zheng Xie looked back at the raging storm, then back at the structure. The choice was clear. He immediately beelined toward the enormous gate, formed with blackened stones, and plunged into its shadows.
…
The inside of the ancient structure was a suffocating void of pitch-black darkness, a cold so uncanny it seeped directly into one's bones. As he stepped in, the absolute darkness disoriented Zheng Xie, and he stumbled, crashing into a stone wall. Yet, he held Chu Fu gently, ensuring she didn't get hurt, even as a soft whimper escaped her lips.
Narrowing his eyes, Zheng Xie asked, "Are you perhaps… crying?"
No voice answered him in the darkness, only the continued sound of whimpering. He traced his fingers across Chu Fu's face until they touched something wet beneath her eyes.
She was indeed crying. 'So, she is afraid of the dark,' he thought, a soft smile curling on his lips. 'She is similar to Ling Xue, who is also extremely fearful of the dark so much so that she doesn't venture out of her cottage when the sun sets.'
But.
There was no time for tears. Zheng Xie gently slapped her cheeks once, then twice, and then a third time, until her crying turned into a sharp, indignant protest. The whimpers still came, but now they were laced with an unmistakable anger directed at him.
"Miss, it would be better if you don't waste your energy crying over mere darkness," Zheng Xie reasoned, his voice calm. "Especially when you aren't alone. We are in a different, unknown place. It's better to keep our guard up instead of sulking and crying."
His words did little to calm her, but they did prompt her to stand up and flare her golden qi, illuminating the space around them. The sudden light revealed an endless, narrow corridor. The space was compact, barely wide enough for three people, with a low ceiling no taller than eight feet. All along the walls, the same disturbing carvings were depicted.
One carving showed a person with dark tendrils emerging from their body, clawing at their own flesh and gouging out their eyes. Another depicted a figure with a mad expression, sneakily attacking their supposed friend and then mutilating their corpse.
There were also depictions of beasts of various shapes and sizes—rotten, corroded, yet still standing and fighting a group of cultivators, their bodies also surrounded by the dark tendrils.
Seeing the carvings, Zheng Xie's mind stirred. 'So I was right. These carvings do hold immense importance, and they are most definitely the way through which one would ascend to the next island.'
He had seen similar carvings on the many boulders of the desolate area they had just left. Now, finding them again in this ancient structure that had just erupted from the ground, the chance of it being a mere coincidence was abysmal.
'The story of these three figures… let's see if I can find more clues related to them, or confirm my own hypothesis.' While he was lost in thought, his eyes slowly locked onto the girl beside him, who was looking at the carvings with keen interest.