—

At that moment, Lin Xuanzhi suddenly had a feeling that his precious treasure was leaving him of his own accord.

Lin Xuanzhi recalled his past life: after Yan Tianhen cultivated the devil’s path, one misstep had led to his ruin — because the magic he practiced was too insidious and horrifying. He had to endure the rejection of the demonic Qi in his body every night, and thus lived a life filled with abject suffering.

Lin Xuanzhi’s mind was instantly thrown into chaos. All of the merciless and ruthless memories flooded his mind like an eruption in a barren world. His heart abruptly felt a stabbing pain, and a tear trickled down from the corner of his eye.

Yan Tianhen was wailing loudly at first, and sneakily turned around to observe Lin Xuanzhi’s reaction, but he never expected that he would see Lin Xuanzhi shed tears!

Yan Tianhen was so frightened that all colour drained from his face and he almost thought that he was hallucinating!

“Dage!” Yan Tianhen immediately crawled up from the bed and looked at Lin Xuanzhi helplessly. His lips were pursed and his face was filled with remorse as he sniffed, “I really know that I was wrong. I will never hide anything from Dage in the future, If that doesn’t make Dage feel relieved, then you can hit me a few more times.”

“It has nothing to do with you.” Lin Xuanzhi raised his hand and wiped the tears off Yan Tianhen’s face. “Just now, I was extremely angered. Ah Hen, don’t hate me.”

“How could I hate Dage?” Yan Tianhen hugged Lin Xuanzhi by his neck and leaned on his shoulder. He sniffed as he said, “I’m afraid that Dage will be so disappointed with me that you wouldn’t want me anymore.”

“I will never not want you.” Lin Xuanzhi patted Yan Tianhen’s back and used his other hand to gently wipe away that one tear drop at the corner of his eye.

“Even if I turn into a huge devil one day who’s spurned by everyone?” Yan Tianhen asked.

“A huge devil may not necessarily be spurned by everyone, unless he does something absolutely unpardonable.” Lin Xuanzhi pinched the back of Yan Tianhen’s neck and pulled him up, then narrowed his eyes as he looked at him. “Don’t tell me, you want to massacre the Nine Lands?”

Yan Tianhen quickly shook his head, “I was just mentioning it casually, don’t take it seriously ah.”

Yet, Lin Xuanzhi said lightly, “Even if Ah Hen does want to massacre the Nine Lands, it must be because the Nine Lands had let Ah Hen down. At that time, I will still stand on your side.”

Yan Tianhen was extremely moved. He looked at Lin Xuanzhi’s strikingly handsome face, “Dage, why do I feel like you’re the dangerous one who wants to massacre the Nine Lands?”

Lin Xuanzhi, “…”

Lin Xuanzhi asked, “Ah Hen, are your buttocks itching again?”

Yan Tianhen immediately held his butt cheeks with both hands and shook his head like his life depended on it. “No, no. I was just really muddle-headed so I spouted nonsense. Dage, please don’t take it to heart.”

Lin Xuanzhi looked at how weird Yan Tianhen was being and lost all will to pursue the matter. He stretched his hand out to pinch his butt, and thought it felt really good to the touch.

“Okay, go wear your pants and wash your face.”

Yan Tianhen’s face instantly flushed red. Being pinched by his Dage just now felt much more embarrassing than taking his pants off and getting spanked.

Blushing, he pulled his pants up and jumped off the bed. He then went to look for a basin to fetch some water to wash his face.

Just then, a knock could be heard from the windows.

Yan Tianhen was immediately alert as he turned to look in the direction of the windows.

Lin Xuanzhi pushed out a part of his soul force. The windows opened, and a young man adorned in a red garments jumped in lightly from outside.

Yan Tianhen’s eyes widened as he stared at the grinning young man, “Lin Yan, why are you here?”

Lin Yan patted his hands, “Well, you’ll have to ask your Dage about that.”

Yan Tianhen turned around to look at Lin Xuanzhi.

Lin Xuanzhi said, “Where did you hide the corpse?”

Lin Yan blinked, “Your Didi’s room.”

Yan Tianhen was stunned.

Lin Xuanzhi gazed at Lin Yan with a profound look in his eyes. This kid must have done it on purpose.

Lin Yan laughed as he explained, “You’ll feel more at ease when it’s somewhere you can see it ma.”

But what he thought was actually: Don’t think I didn’t hear how you were just tossing Yan Tianhen here and there making him cry and moan nonstop. I don’t even need to think to know what kind of relationship the two of you share, it’s self-evident. Since they were going to sleep on the same bed, then even if a corpse was placed in Yan Tianhen’s room, it wouldn’t be much of a problem.

Yan Tianhen was absolutely puzzled. He looked at Lin Yan who he had just been acquainted with today, then looked at Lin Xuanzhi, “Dage, did you and Lin Yan know each other from before?”

“We have met a few times.” Lin Xuanzhi said.

“No no no, you’re my benefactor.” Lin Yan quickly waved his hands as he explained, “Our family is a side branch of the Lin family. A few years ago, my parents inadvertently obtained a profound-level top-grade cultivation method, and this news was accidentally leaked, so it invited a lot of covetous people. My parents could only helplessly write a letter to the family to request for assistance, and they were willing to hand the cultivation method over to the clan. Afterwards, it was Xuanzhi Dage’s father who had come forward to help, but he was a step too late, so he could only save me.”

When he spoke up to this point, Lin Yan clearly looked a bit more dejected, but he quickly perked up.

“At first I was thinking that the item that my parents had left behind would certainly be taken away, but I didn’t expect that the Head would ask me to keep the cultivation method and cultivate it in secret. He told the outside world that it had been snatched away by enemies, and he even brought me back to the Lin family’s main branch to stay for a while. I only left after my home had regained its peace.”

As Lin Yan spoke, he was looking at Lin Xuanzhi with eyes full of gratitude.

Lin Xuanzhi said, “When my Dad was alive, he regretted it more than once for arriving too late.”

But Lin Yan had already gotten over it. He waved his hands and said, “Life and death are predestined. My parents missed their chance to escape because they wanted to protect me. As long as I can live a good life, they will be at ease.”

Yan Tianhen came to a sudden realization as he said, “So that’s what it was. Lin Yan, are you here to repay the favour?”

Lin Yan stroked his chin, “That’s not wrong. In any case, I’ll definitely stand on Xuanzhi Dage’s side. I’ll do whatever he asks me to cough.…sigh, I just didn’t expect that the first thing he would ask me to do was to move a corpse!”

Yan Tianhen rubbed his nose out of guilt. “That corpse is mine.”

“I know it’s yours.” Lin Yan said, “I’ve heard about you before. You were obviously a good-for-nothing not too long ago, yet you managed to jump straight to the fifth layer of your Refining Qi stage within such a short time. If you didn’t cultivate the devil’s path, then you should’ve met a ghost.”

Demonic practitioners always advanced very quickly in the earlier stages, but their speed slows down exponentially at their higher levels.

。

Yan Tianhen smiled at Lin Yan in embarrassment.

Lin Xuanzhi said, “I’ve seen your《Imperial Corpse Technique》. Refining a corpse requires many different kinds of materials. Since we have the money now, let’s go buy a few of them ba.”

Yan Tianhen nodded and took a deep breath, “Okay.”

Yan Tianhen, Lin Xuanzhi and Lin Yan, who insisted on coming to Qing city’s neighbour to broaden his horizons, arrived at the market specially set up for cultivators.

According to  Yan Tianhen’s request, Lin Xuanzhi purchased a total of 12 items: the poisonous tail of a scorpion in the year 300, the rhizomes of a Tyrannical Poisonous Bacteria in year 200, 3 Changming lamps with corpse oil that had been burning for at least a thousand years in tombs.

Of course, it was better to buy these items separately. If they had bought them all at once, it would easily arouse others’ unwanted suspicions, and thus, Lin Xuanzhi specially got Duan Yuyang to obtain a few of the items that weren’t easy to get a hold of.

Duan Yuyang only asked who would be using those items, and after Lin Xuanzhi said that Yan Tianhen was the one who needed them, he didn’t ask anymore questions. Within the time it took for one incense stick to burn, he had obtained everything they wanted and delivered the items into their hands.

He was so efficient that Lin Yan couldn’t help but click his tongue.

It was already late. Lin Xuanzhi stood at the entrance of the market, “What else do we need?”

Yan Tianhen said, “We lack corpse Qi.”

Lin Xuanzhi asked, “How do we obtain that?”

Yan Tianhen paused, “We can only get it from the dead.”

When Lin Xuanzhi heard this, he didn’t show any discomfort. He nodded and made light of it as he said, “Then let’s make a trip down to Mass Graves Ridge tonight.”

When Lin Yan heard this, his eyelids twitched as he said, “I won’t be going to that kind of place with you guys.”

Although he hadn’t thought much of the fact that Yan Tianhen was using a corpse to cultivate, he would like to politely decline going to the Mass Graves Ridge — a place that smelled like rotten corpses and was chock full of Yin Qi.

In the evening, at the Demonic Beast Institute.

Ah Bai and Hu Po looked miserable as they tidied up the nest for a snake demon.

Ah Hen bit a soft feather in his mouth that he placed into the nest, then he spat, “Hu Po, why does a snake demon not sleep in trees, and instead sleeps in such a huge cave?”

Hu Po’s mouth was stuffed with feathers as well. He said angrily, “It wants to bei, how is it any of your business?”

Ah Bai nodded and continued, “Does that snake have OCD? It’s so insistent on laying its nest with feathers, and the feathers must be pure white too.”

Hu Po said, “How would I know?”

“Hu Po, I still think…”

“Why do you have so many questions? And 100,000 ‘why’s?” Hu Po roared.

Ah Bai was stunned, and immediately looked like he had been wronged, “Hu Po, I feel like your temper has been getting worse recently, and you’ve been especially impatient with me.”

Hu Po said gloomily, “I’m not specifically targeting you.”

“You are.” Ah Bai pursed his lips unhappily and lay down on the ground.

When Hu Po saw Ah Bai’s feeble and pitiful appearance, he suddenly felt a little guilty.

Hu Po walked over and nudged Ah Bai with his paw, “Wei, you’re really angry?”

Ah Bai used his amethyst eyes to shoot Hu Po an accusing glance, and turned his head away to face the mountains, ignoring Hu Po.

Hu Po felt even more guilty now.

“I really didn’t mean to scold you, I just…… they make us lay their nest out for them everyday, we have to endure their beatings, and we don’t get enough to eat too, so I was in a bad mood. I had nowhere else to vent, so I flared up at you.” Hu Po spoke submissively in a coaxing tone, “Gege, don’t be angry ma.”

Ah Bai stood up and walked over to Hu Po, then pressed against Hu Po’s forehead with his own. “Hu Po, if you don’t want to do these things, then just leave them to me. My only wish is for you to be happy every day.”

Hu Po’s head dropped as he said with great frustration, “I can’t be happy. I feel like I’m really too weak.”

“You are indeed very weak~” The snake demon slithered over with its twisted body, then leaned on the face of a mountain looking all carefree. It assumed an enchanting posture and stuck out its red tongue, “You guys are obviously tigers, yet you look just like pugs. Even Great Aunt me can’t bear to watch any longer.”

Hu Po’s hairs immediately stood on their ends. He glared at the snake demon with his clear eyes that were filled with hostility.

The snake demon sneered, “Yoyoyo, you still dare glare at me? I asked you guys to clean up my nest before I was done with my meal. Since this place is still a mess after I have finished eating, then neither of you need to have dinner tonight.”

“Roaaaaarrr—!” Hu Po roared angrily at the snake demon.

The snake demon narrowed its slit eyes, “What are you dissatisfied with?”

Hu Po shouted angrily, “What right do you have to not let us eat?!”

The snake demon said unhurriedly, “Just based on the fact that I’m stronger than you. Amongst demonic beasts, the strong is king, it doesn’t matter how amazing or noble your bloodline is.”

At this moment, the bear demon that looked like it had been pregnant for 10 months trotted over to the entrance of the cave and said with a voice as loud as thunder, “Rascals, once you’re done with this side, come over to your Grandpa Bear’s side immediately to tidy it up.”

Ah Bai revealed a despondent look on his face.