Chapter 44: Tiger-Head Shoes Stepping on the Infant's Funeral Hall (Ten) Qingzhan, it hurts. ...

Ye Qingzhan seemed stunned by his question, and after a moment, she asked, "Preparing for what?"

Wen Gu leaned forward, his eyes quickly glancing over her belly. His ears felt hot as he said, "Ready... to be a mother?" His voice was hoarse, and even more shy.

The young man, standing just inches away, had a face as pale as a sickly person, but in the dim candlelight, it suddenly took on a rosy hue.

She didn't know if it was her imagination, but Ye Qingzhan had the feeling that Wen Gu's complexion was growing paler, almost translucent, while his lips were a searing red. Up close, his face resembled fragile white porcelain dotted with cinnabar.

"I can't say you're prepared. Tomorrow, whatever the Taoist asks, you and I will help each other, playing the role of a pair of 'new parents.'" She knew what he was asking, but she simply dismissed it as a mistranslation, understanding the meaning. Seeing his face so strange again, she couldn't help but ask, "Wen Gu, are you all right?"

She'd seen through it after all...

Last night, after a difficult time, he'd struck his heart. They'd calmed down, but his internal organs had been shaken. He remembered that the contract he'd signed with Yin Sha was about to expire.

He needed a new furnace...

Wen Gu looked at Ye Qingzhan and shook his head, "No problem."

Ye Qingzhan could see that the man before her was trying hard to force a smile, but it ultimately gave way to an expression on the verge of tears, his eyes reddening instantly.

Her heart tightened, and she placed a hand over his heart.

"You're lying."

"It hurts, right?"

It was like a thousand warm currents, flowing up through his veins, healing the ruptured organs and flesh wherever it touched.

Wen Gu felt no pain, yet it felt like he was aching everywhere.

The person in front of her suddenly overlapped with the phantom locked in the depths of her memory. A voice also asked: "Does it hurt?" He seemed to remember something...

After a long time, Wen Gu came back to her senses and said in a trembling voice:

"It hurts."

"Qingzhan, it hurts."

This was the first time he called her name, and every word was like a violent downpour in midsummer, hitting her heart.

Ye Qingzhan withdrew her hand, avoiding the tearful and fiery gaze of the young man, looking at the burning candle, but her eyes turned cold.

Someone walked out of her memories.

The room was silent, yet full of beauty.

A ginkgo leaf broke the silence of the two.

Ye Qingzhan bent down and picked up the ginkgo leaf that fell from his sleeve. Zhuxi Town was written on the leaf, and two more words were added: Come quickly.

Ye Qingzhan asked: "If the illusionary realm doesn't change on its own, is it very far from Sui'an County to Zhuxi?"

Wen Gu raised his hand to brush across the corner of his eyes, and after seeing the words clearly, he replied: "Use Yin Sha, it will be quick." The time limit of the contract is coming, but before that, Yin Sha still has to obey his orders.

Wen Gu spread out his palms, and thousands of wisps of black mist were bred from his palms, and a flower from hell bloomed. The flower branches and vines were as silky as silk, gathering the two of them in the center of the flower.

The two were originally standing side by side, but Ye Qingzhan missed him in the black mist.

Wen Gu glanced at her, and his heart began to ache again.

Like a black mist lotus falling into an ink pool, it passed the Ye Mansion and flew towards the sky. Along the way, the two were silent.

Ye Qingzhan followed the memory that had just flashed through his mind, and tried hard to think about the back that was moving away from her.

Wen Gu stood behind her, looking at her back.

From the moment they first met at the gates of hell, he sensed her scent. He allowed her to approach, heeded her promises, all in his quest to understand the source of his own aura within her. He also wanted... little by little, to lure her into sacrifice, to become the new cauldron of the Yin Sha.

He wanted to live, to find the hazy figure within his heart, the person he had so often dreamed of holding.

Only by living could he hope to untangle the demons that had taken root in his filthy heart. He was like a ghost lost for so long at the gates of hell, facing countless dangers and wounds, always striving to find a way home.

But where was his home?

... Could the fleeting figure he had just seen be the person he had so often dreamed of holding?

Wen Gu didn't know.

He only knew that they had become a couple in this fantasy realm. If it weren't for the constant pangs of pain in his heart, he would have almost forgotten his original purpose for coming here, for approaching her in the first place.

The stars are twinkling tonight. Ye Qingzhan, standing in the center of Yinsha, looks up. The sky is low, and the stars seem to be within reach, and so bright that it is blinding.

But she is so confused - the person in her broken memory seems to have left so decisively, which makes her very sad. This person seems... to be the young man behind her.

But...

Ye Qingzhan looks back, her eyes are clear and cold, without a trace of the warmth and purity of the past.

The young man behind her has a very bad complexion. His skin is as pale as snow in the room, but now his face is dark, even more decadent than when they first met.

Wen Gu's eyes met her cold and indifferent one, and his heart aches again.

What happened? It was fine just now.

Restraining the desire to ask, Ye Qingzhan looked back, and the cage formed by Yinsha fell to the ground.

In this scene, Li Zhixing, who was hugging his arms on the tree, had a panoramic view, and his eyebrows were filled with two words - incomprehensible! The two young men who were inseparable and walked side by side on weekdays were now separated by two mountains.

He shook his head, feeling that it was so hard to guess, so hard to guess, the young man's mind was so hard to

guess. While the exiled immortal was trying to guess, Ye Qingzhan walked to the tree where he was. When

she was about to climb up, the young man behind her, who said nothing, used Yin Sha to send her steadily to the branch. Then, he flew up and stood on another branch.

Li Zhixing rolled his eyes back and forth and said, "I am here, both of you."

Ye Qingzhan nodded and asked, "The exiled immortal summoned you urgently late at night. What's the urgent matter?"

Li Zhixing looked at the young man standing on the branch on the other side and said, "You two look over there." As he spoke, he pointed to a wooden house.

Before he finished speaking, Wen Gu and Ye Qingzhan looked in the direction he pointed, and both of them were startled.

Three figures were sitting side by side in front of a wooden house beside the Jianjia River.

Xinxin and Wang Jingshan propped up their cheeks with their hands, watching a young man in red clothes weaving grasshoppers for them with waterweed.

This young man, like Wen Gu, had the same face.

The young man's red clothes were like residual blood, dripping into the heart of the girl on the branch bit by bit.

Ye Qingzhan's heart trembled, and with his eyesight that was not affected by the night, he searched for the red mark on his forehead.

The young man in front of the water raised his eyes, and there was a crimson iris engraved on his brow, which was charming and gorgeous.

It was him.

It was him who wanted to pierce Jiang Xuejun's throat with a silver sword in the dream.

***

"Xinxin?"

Shanniang, who had been busy all day, crouched down and ran lightly into the backyard, but found that the bamboo basket of the water tank had been lifted down. She was anxious and fell. Ignoring the pain in her body, she wiped the dirt on the rattle with her hands, then hurriedly stood up and bent down to check the water tank.

The water tank was empty.

As if drained of all the life force, Shanniang collapsed to the ground, the rattle in her hand dropping to the floor.

"Where's my Xinxin?" Shanniang leaned against the water tank, her eyes dull as she gazed down at the rattle in her hands.

Rattles are used to soothe babies in arms, and her five-year-old Xinxin still yearned for one. Perhaps it was simply because she never had one when she was little, but the memory of it became even more unforgettable as she grew older.

She always said she'd buy her one, but she never quite had the money.

Shanniang turned the handle of the rattle, and a crisp sound struck a chord that resonated with her gloomy heart—she suddenly remembered the little brother Xinxin had been talking about these past few days.

Xinxin had said that the young man, dressed in bright red, had long lived by the Jianjia River at the east end of Zhuxi Town, seemingly searching for someone.

Her eyes lit up again, and Shanniang stood up, running eastward toward the town, unaware of the smiling fox in a white Taoist robe following behind her.

The fox followed her like a ghost, smiling.

The palace was just east of Zhuxi Town, only a mile away from the reed field. When Shanniang arrived, Xinxin was sleeping soundly with the young man in red in her arms, and the third young master of the palace was following behind him.

The young man in red was very eye-catching, with the fragrance of plum blossoms lingering around him, but his temperament was cold and stern, and his eyes were even more icy.

He glanced at the woman, then his gaze fell behind her.

The smiling fox met his gaze, clasped his hands in his sleeves, and bowed slightly to him, looking humble and polite.

Shanniang was confused and looked behind him, then suddenly stepped back.

How long had this person been following him?

The young man skillfully handed the girl in his arms to Shanniang, looked at the fox man, and said to her, "Stand back."

Shanniang did as she was told, holding Xinxin and protecting Wang Jingshan, and retreated behind him.

The three people in the tree were confused, each of them staring at the people not far away without blinking.

The fox man spoke first, "I have heard from the secular world that there is a young man in red, carrying the fragrance of plum blossoms, who traveled the mortal world. He came from the East China Sea, but overturned the Dragon Palace and flogged the dragon's son, causing unrest in the East China Sea."

As he finished speaking, the exiled immortal in the tree exclaimed "Wow," looked at Wen Gu, and praised him from the bottom of his heart: "It is you, young hero Wen Gu, who has done what all the immortals have always wanted but dared not do." He had Ye Qingzhan cast a barrier around the tree, so that no one outside could see or hear them.

Wen Gu ignored him, concentrating on the scene beneath the tree.

"I also heard that the young man was born in an extremely dark place, filthy and dirty. Those who came close to him never heard from him again. His old friends called him Yin Chen Jue." The Smiling Fox's voice was neither loud nor soft, falling into the ears of everyone present. "If my guess is correct, Yin Chen Jue must be you, young man."

The young man looked at him, his head slightly tilted. His dark eyes were dull, but the iris between his eyebrows became even redder. He said, "It was me." His voice was also extremely cold.

Hearing this, the Smiling Fox suddenly bowed and said, "I have long admired you. I am sorry for your disrespect."

Yin Chen Jue glared at him.

After bowing, the fox man straightened up and said, "I heard that the young man is looking for someone in the human world?"

Yin Chen Jue's expression on the ground was slightly disturbed, while Wen Gu on the green branch frowned.

Ye Qingzhan glanced at the "him" in red, then at the "him" in white. He and the exiled immortal exchanged a glance, and the depression in their hearts dissipated a little, but the confusion increased.

Yin Chen Jue remained silent.

"Am I right?" the Smiling Fox muttered to himself. "I am not talented, but I happen to know who the young man is looking for?"

"You are looking for your parents."

The Smiling Fox wasn't asking, but answering, his words full of affirmation.

Yin Chen Jue looked at him, his cold eyes suddenly turning red. He said, "I don't look for people, I only kill people."

The Taoist fox laughed a few times and said, "I have never miscalculated the hearts of people - may I ask, who do you want to kill?"

"You."

As the words came out, an ice-bladed longsword appeared, flashing a cold silver light, the blade pointed at the fox man.

The Smiling Fox stood there without dodging or evading.

Suddenly, a long whip came from the air and swept the sword away from the young man's hand.

Yin Chen Jue stepped back, exerting force on his arms and wrists, and struggled to retract the silver sword. A shower of pear blossoms fell on him.

The people on the tree and Shan'e who was holding the child were all startled by the sudden change. They looked up to see who was coming -

they were a pair of chivalrous men with immortal looks. The woman wrapped a long whip around her wrist, and the man moved like a phantom to Yin Chen Jue's side, sealed his meridians, and then retreated to the woman's side.

The smiling fox said to the two: "Thank you for saving my life. I will take my leave first." Before leaving, he walked to the young man and whispered:

"The person on the horizon is the person in front of you."

The fox man took a few steps forward and disappeared into the dark night.

The woman, whose face did not look old, but whose eyebrows were frosted, stepped forward, walked to the young man, and asked in a soft voice: "Are you Yin Chen Jue?"