Everyone knew Su You was the one who guarded the coffin, but no one knew who exactly was in there. Xi Huai was no exception.

But listening to Su You, did the person in this coffin have any ties to him? 

His father was Xi Lin, and his mother was buried in Qing Ze Sect's Zhong Qing Peak. Aside from these two, no one else in the world deserved for him to kowtow. Like this, the person in the coffin was an exception. 

The others successively left, leaving Xi Huai alone in the clock tower.

He strolled around the clock, before squatting down to look at the bead in the wall. He wasn't ready to give up since he felt this artefact was very suitable for Chi Muyao to protect himself with. How could he just give up like that?

Xi Huai put his hand on the clock and suddenly noticed something. His finger touched the clock. He suddenly laughed.

After that, he retreated to the side and watched as Chi Muyao called Yi Qianxi over. Gone was his reluctance from before to let others come and try. 

Yi Qianxi couldn't get the treasure either.

Chi Muyao went to find other people. This time, he was looking for Yu Yanshu and Xi Zihe.

Surprisingly, this bead also did not select Yu Yanshu, which made Chi Muyao feel strange. He glanced at Xi Huai.

Yu Yanshu should be a virgin and a person of good character. Even he wasn't chosen? 

Then was this artefact waiting for a destined one?

Xi Huai didn't seem too surprised. He never thought much of Yu Yanshu, much less felt that he was of high moral character. This was an opportunity to let Chi Muyao know that Yu Yanshu wasn't some saint.

 It was not until Chi Muyao saw Xi Zihe easily take the bead that he realised this was the protagonist halo. This should be something only the male lead could get.

After that, he stopped thinking about it. For some reason, he was quite happy. First, he witnessed the scene of the male and female leads kissing, now he witnessed the male lead getting a gold finger. Any fan of the original novel would be happy.

He was lucky enough to survive so many years after transmigrating already, so there was no reason to care if he got the treasure or not. 

Xi Huai stood aside and watched Yu Yanshu with teasing eyes. His mouth was raised slightly in a meaningful smile.

Yu Yanshu slightly inclined his head and noticed Xi Huai's gaze. He glanced coldly in warning before not paying attention anymore.

“What kind of bead is this?” Yi Qianxi leaned over and exclaimed.

Chi Muyao followed. "The strong purification ability of this place is probably thanks to this treasure. I guess it can split and purify, maybe even forewarn."

By split, he was referring to the treasure's ability to split a clear boundary from the miasma forest, as well as split shadows from people. 

By purify, he was referring to how it purified cultivation and spiritual energy attacks. Even the attacks of a Nascent Soul stage senior towards it would be purified once it reached the protection radius.

By forewarn, he was referring to how the shadows on the wall told of what would happen several days from now. Utilised properly, perhaps one could even predict their opponent's moves in battle.

This was definitely not an ordinary treasure, but a divine artefact! 

With it, someone could be invincible!

Yu Yanshu nodded as well and said, "If we move this bead, the pure land will also move with it. Now we can go anywhere." 

Yi Qianxi was delighted. "So now we can get out of the miasma forest safely with it?!" 

After a moment of silence, Chi Muyao said, “Xi-shixiong, can you take me and Little Shijie to the underground sacrificial altar of Xiang Huang Pavilion? Even if we leave, the miasma will remain. We still need to fundamentally eliminate the source, otherwise this miasma forest will be difficult for us to leave." 

In the worst case, the seniors might be unwilling to open the Grand Array sealing the mountain even if they reached the boundary.

At this moment, Xi Zihe was still befuddled. 

He didn't expect to be suddenly recognised as the owner of such a good treasure. He found it hard to wrap his head around their conversation as well.

However, he still nodded quickly. "En, we should really go to the Xiang Huang Pavilion and try. If we can't, it won't be too late to leave the forest."

After reaching an agreement, they notified the others. 

The news made some happy, some envious. Some even tried to touch the bead in Xi Zihe's hand, trying their luck to gain the bead's recognition.

Alas, the bead only acknowledged Xi Zihe.

Since the purifying bead had made its decision, they could only follow Xi Zihe. After all, it belonged to him now. Otherwise they would be left to lose themselves in the forest.

However, some were still injured in the pure land. They could only walk like ordinary people while in it too. They even had to bring food along. Ready to eat items were best, otherwise it would be inconvenient to make camp and start fires along the way to cook.

Therefore, they needed to stay in the temple ruins for two or three more days before they could start their journey.

Chi Muyao returned to the mediation room to pack his things. In the process of packing, he noticed that there were no shadows on the wall, confirming they wouldn't be here a few days from now. He could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. A sense of happiness that they would finally be free enveloped him.

Curled on the windowsill, the blue fox spoke with its divine voice, "I promised not to harm you people with illusion miasma, so why are you still having that disciple bring you to the Xiang Huang Pavilion?"

“I don't want anyone to know about your existence, that there is a blue fox who managed to cultivate into human form in the Ling Que mountain range. By relying on you to act, wouldn't that cause you trouble?"

The blue fox scratched its ear with a claw and replied lazily, “When I was sacrificed, I was only a Heaven grade spirit beast. Only with the willing sacrifice of others of my race, their desire for revenge, was I able to manifest a human form in advance. With my current strength, ordinary cultivators could not catch me."

"That's no reason to disturb your peace, ah." 

The blue fox was too lazy to chat anymore, plus it noticed someone was coming. It started napping in the sun.

Xi Huai pushed open the mediation room's door and said, "On the day we leave, you go to the Xiang Huang Pavilion first. I'll stay here and deal with some things."

Chi Muyao packed his things and asked, “Why are you staying behind? Are you going to use the Spirit Renewal Lamp again? What a waste.”

"There are some things I want to verify. Don't worry, I will follow soon."

"Oh..."

Thinking of Xi Huai using the Soul Renewal Lamp again, Chi Muyao's heart ached.

To him, Xi Huai would be his cultivation partner in the future. He couldn't let his cultivation partner squander the Qing Ze Sect's funds in this miasma forest.

So he tried to communicate using his divine sense, "Ancestor Blue Fox, could you..."

The blue fox ignored him. 

“He's not bad-hearted, just rough on the surface.” Chi Muyao pleaded again.

The blue fox moved this time. It looked up at Xi Huai and then sighed, "What rose coloured glasses you have."

How was Xi Huai just 'rough on the surface'? Normal people wouldn't even dare to breathe too loudly around him.

Chi Muyao continued to plead, "Please?"

The blue fox finally had enough. "En."

Chi Muyao hurriedly said to Xi Huai, "Xi Huai, take this blue fox with you. With it, you can resist the illusion miasma for a while. Then just take it and catch up with us. You don't need to use the Soul Renewal Lamp."

Xi Huai looked doubtfully at the blue fox and nodded. "Okay."

Xi Huai left Chi Muyao's meditation room, but did not go far. Instead, he stood outside the window and looked at the blue fox on the windowsill.

The blue fox ignored him and did not even look at him.

Chi Muyao walked to the window and asked, "What's wrong?"

Xi Huai did not answer. He reached in and tugged Chi Muyao's collar, dragging him out. He kissed him on the lips before leaving.

Chi Muyao covered his lips and looked at the blue fox, blushing.

The blue fox: "..." 

"I didn't expect him to do that..." Chi Muyao quickly explained. Kissing right above the Ancestor Blue Fox was indeed a bit offensive. 

The blue fox: "..." 

Chi Muyao pointed to the window again. "Do you need me to close the window?"

The blue fox: "I need you to shut up."

Chi Muyao nodded and obediently did just that.

On the day of departure, Chi Muyao packed up his things and gathered with the others. They seemed to be counting the number of people here.

 Yi Qianxi asked him, "Where is Xi Huai?"

All of their group also looked at him. He and Xi Huai were basically inseparable from each other these days. The others grew accustomed to both of them being together.

Now that Chi Muyao was alone today, one couldn't help but be curious if they fought or something.

Chi Muyao replied with forced calm, “He wants to stay for a while. He says he wants to bury the clock and hide the spiritual energy with an artefact so that Su You can't find it.” 

No one in this group of cultivators dared to speak to Xi Huai, so naturally they wouldn't confirm with the man. They took Chi Muyao's explanation at face value. 

Yi Qianxi was more concerned about the blue fox. "Why is the blue fox not here either?"

“Don't worry, it's with Xi Huai."

"Oh..."

Xi Zihe and the others did not wait for Xi Huai any longer. After all, Xi Huai could enter the forest by himself.

Xi Zihe took the bead and tried to move. Sure enough, the purified area moved with him. Pleasantly surprised, he ventured towards the Xiang Huang Pavilion with everyone. 

Tang Ming was so jealous that he was silent the whole way. How could he be calm when some ‘nobody’ got such a good treasure? 

The Ling Que mountain range was huge. They were at the foot of the mountain before, and ascending proved to be tiring. They took a few rests along the way.

At the third rest, Xi Huai finally came. The blue fox sat on his shoulder. They seemed to get along quite well.

After catching up, he went to Chi Muyao's side and hung a small golden clock around Chi Muyao's waist.

“What is this?” Chi Muyao asked.

"I've refined the clock in that clock tower as a souvenir for you."

"Is this what you were doing?" 

"En." 

Chi Muyao suddenly felt that he had abused the favour of Ancestor Blue Fox this time. All this just for a souvenir? 

He should've known to ask Xi Huai what he was going to verify. If he had known it was such a small thing, he wouldn't have troubled the blue fox.

After the bead left the original place, it no longer was purified. Now everyone believed that the purification ability came from the bead.

No one cared about that clock anymore. At this moment, Chi Muyao only regarded it as an ordinary souvenir and didn't pay it much mind.

It was inconvenient for Xi Huai to explain right now, so he stayed silent. 

Yi Qianxi came to their side and took the blue fox into her arms.

Chi Muyao dully looked on as Yi Qianxi rubbed the fur of the blue fox before sniffing it, obviously treating it as a pet. He lit a candle for her in his heart.

You're playing with fire here, Little Shijie!

The blue fox let it all happen lazily. It impatiently pushed Yi Qianxi away with its claws at one point, but Yi Qianxi leaned over anyway and kissed it a few times.

Chi Muyao: "..."

Should he stop Yi Qianxi from being so disrespectful, or should he feel bad that Ancestor Blue Fox was being disrespected like this?

He eventually chose to pretend not to see a thing.

They walked for two days before reaching the Xiang Huang Pavilion.

Han Qingyuan and the others once visited the sacrificial altar of the Xiang Huang Pavilion, so they naturally led the way.

Along the way, they could see some corpses from time to time. It seemed that some of them had fallen mad and killed each other. Others died in very strange ways. They must have gone insane and eventually tortured themselves to death.

Yi Qianxi was a little scared so she stayed with Chi Muyao.

After a few steps, she felt someone pulling her away from Chi Muyao by her clothes. She could not help but glare up at Xi Huai.

As soon as she raised her head, she realised Xi Huai's unhappy expression was even scarier than the corpses on the ground. She straightened up immediately.

Chi Muyao noticed that the blue fox moved its paw, as if to teach Xi Huai a lesson. He quickly put a hand on its paw and then said to Yi Qianxi, "Shijie, the sacrificial altar may be even more horrific. Do you really want to come with me?"

Yi Qianxi thought about it and nodded. "Yes!"

"Okay, then you have to be prepared." 

"En."

The group entered the sacrificial altar. Some simply vomited after seeing what lay inside. 

Some female cultivators stopped walking. Anyone would feel uncomfortable here. 

The altar was like a large funnel, with the corpses of blue foxes densely nailed to the walls, bled dry. 

Most disgusting of all would be the crimson pool of blood at the center of the funnel. It emitted a foul odour and was the source of the miasma. 

Even if Chi Muyao was mentally prepared, his body still wavered after seeing the altar. Luckily, Xi Huai supported him.

Yi Qianxi collapsed to the ground with numb legs. She looked at the altar for a stunned moment before bursting into tears.

Her heart ached something fierce.

Yu Yanshu also frowned slightly. He glanced around and finally looked at Chi Muyao. “What should we do?” He asked.

Chi Muyao opened his mouth before realising he could not make a sound. He had lost his voice.

After a light cough, he replied weakly, "Take down all the fox corpses and separate them with oil paper. Each corpse must be affixed with a Soul Suppressing Talisman, and then buried respectfully."

Yu Yanshu was a bit unsure. "The Soul Suppressing Talismans need to be drawn up by us now, but we can't use spiritual energy here. How can we finish them?"

Chi Muyao thought for a moment and asked the blue fox, “Can you cooperate me? To bury your fellow foxes this time.”

It was a long while before he heard the very soft voice of the blue fox, "En." 

Chi Muyao also knew this was the most painful place for the blue fox. The blue fox must be in a lot of pain at this moment...

Did it have nightmares?

The most horrible nightmares probably took place in the spaces that left the deepest impression on you.

Here was the source of the blue fox's nightmares. Darkness in all directions, the bottom of the abyss, the deepest pain in its heart.

This was the tomb of the blue foxes and the source of their hatred.

Chi Muyao pretended to use his fingers to calculate something, and then found a space on the altar. He bit his finger to draw a pattern, and nailed nails on four corners.

After the last nail was set, the surrounding miasma dispersed like magic. Even the blood pool did not emit miasma anymore. 

Chi Muyao said to the people around him, “This formation can suppress this altar for an hour. Everyone should hurry up and move.”   

Everyone was shocked and went to look around. There was really no miasma left.

 

 

Yu Yanshu, on the other hand, kept looking at the pattern. For some reason, he seemed to have seen it somewhere before.

Realising that Chi Muyao's method might really dissipate the miasma, everyone was in high spirits. Listening to Chi Muyao's instructions, they endured the discomfort of the scene and began to deal with the fox bodies.

Xi Zihe left with the purifying bead, so that it would not affect their work.

The bead was really awkward to use. Holding it, Xi Zihe would become a mortal who couldn't use spiritual energy. He couldn't even put the bead in his qiankun bag. He could only hold it like this.

This treasure...wasn't easy to use.

Xi Zihe walked far away with the bead alone, still mulling over how to use it.

Chi Muyao finally regained his spiritual energy. The soreness of his body disappeared instantly, and he was brimming with joy.

At this time, Xi Huai walked to Chi Muyao and grabbed his wrist to look at his finger. He first blew on it twice, before putting it in his mouth.

Chi Muyao quickly reminded him, "It's dirty!"

Xi Huai ignored him, continuing to look up at him with his finger in his mouth. With just one glance, Chi Muyao's heart trembled. 

His cheeks flushed uncontrollably.

When you like someone, your emotions grow out of control...

Any random move by Xi Huai would touch his heart.

 

Feeling almost finished, Chi Muyao found the original body of Ancestor Blue Fox and carefully wrapped it with oil paper. Ducking around the other busy people, he took it out of the altar by himself.

After looking around a while, he took the corpse to a small, hidden space, presumably a room the Xiang Huang Pavilion used as storage.

The blue fox followed him in and sat down beside its body. It just stared quietly and fell into a long silence.

Chi Muyao said to the blue fox, "Soon, this disciple will try to heal your original body."

He knew that the blue fox's original body did not lose its vitality. It was just in a low energy state, playing dead so as not to attract the attention of others.

The blue fox didn't reply. The young fox's body suddenly disappeared without notice.

Chi Muyao opened the oil paper and saw that the original 'corpse' gradually recovered, blue fur growing again. However, the nailed areas were still injured.

 He gently raised the blue fox's leg to check the extent of the injury, estimating the amount of cultivation and soul that he would need to expend.

At this moment, Xi Huai came looking for him. "What are you doing here?"

Apparently, Xi Huai noticed him leaving and followed him over.

Chi Muyao quickly re-wrapped the blue fox with oil paper. He stood up and replied, "The miserable state of those spirit beasts made me feel bad."

Compared to the sobbing Yi Qianxi, Chi Muyao was already very restrained.

Xi Huai did not know how to comfort people. He could only say, "The Xiang Huang Pavilion did all this. They've already received retribution. Don't be too sad."

Chi Muyao closed the door of the room again and walked to Xi Huai. He raised his head and asked, “Xi Huai, can I siphon some spiritual energy?" He needed to spend a lot of energy shortly after. If he could get some spiritual energy from Xi Huai, it would make the treatment go smoother.

Xi Huai looked down at him, surprised. This was the first time Chi Muyao made such a request.

However, he agreed. "En, sure." 

Chi Muyao walked up to him and held his shoulder. He got on tiptoe and carefully approached. He touched Xi Huai's lips with his own lips and looked into his eyes.

Seeing that he didn't mind, he kissed him again.

This was the first time Chi Muyao kissed him of his own initiative.

Not in the dark, nor sealing his eyesight, nor wearing a peach blossom mask.

A peerlessly beautiful face that was somewhat cautious and shy. Still, it proactively kissed him.

From a gentle touch, shyly deepening. 

He was obviously embarrassed, but he still boldly closed the distance.

Xi Huai's heart was gently being pressed by a soft little paw. It throbbed for a moment.

Lowering his eyes, he could see Chi Muyao's slightly trembling eyelashes. He immediately used a hand to press Chi Muyao's head closer. 

Chi Muyao was helpless for a moment. He wavered and almost lost his balance. Still, he reached out and cupped Xi Huai's shoulder.

Very submissively.