Chapter 255: Fusion

A heavy rain had long since washed away all previous traces.

However, at this moment, many fresh beast tracks had appeared.

Although Xu Chen was nervous, he still summoned his courage and ran quickly into the mountains along the rugged path used by mountain folk to chop wood and gather herbs.

If he couldn't find her before the sun went down, he feared that Feng Feiyi and the two cows would all be eaten by wild beasts.

Stumbling along the way, he didn't know how many wounds he had sustained from being scratched by thorns and branches; the already tattered linen clothes on his body had almost turned into strips of cloth.

Finally, on the edge of a cliff in a canyon, he saw Feng Feiyi's lonely figure, seemingly curled up on a rock.

"Feng Feiyi~" Xu Chen shouted loudly.

In the canyon, the stream, swollen after the heavy rain, roared like thunder, and combined with the howling forest waves and mountain winds, Feng Feiyi seemed unable to hear him at all.

Thus, Xu Chen could only climb up by clinging to the slippery rocks; when he finally climbed onto the cliff and discovered it was indeed Feng Feiyi, he hurriedly stepped forward to pick her up, only to find that she was ice-cold and on the verge of death, covered in wounds, with blood still flowing from her mouth and nose.

"Feng Feiyi, Feng Feiyi, what happened to you, how could you run here all by yourself..."

Xu Chen shook and slapped Feng Feiyi's cheeks vigorously.

After a long while, Feng Feiyi slowly opened her eyes, saw Xu Chen, suddenly pushed him hard, and struggled to spit out a few words: "Brother, run, it's the steward..."

"What's wrong with the steward?" Xu Chen shouted loudly.

"The steward wants your life!" Just then, an insidious voice came from behind.

Xu Chen turned his head and saw the steward holding a firewood knife in one hand and grabbing the little fox Xiaobai in the other.

Xiaobai struggled desperately, letting out whimpering sounds.

Xu Chen hugged Feng Feiyi and slowly stood up, his expression becoming incomparably angry, and he roared: "So it was you?"

The steward stepped forward step by step and sneered: "That's right, I've long wanted to find an opportunity to finish off you two little bastards, otherwise my affairs would sooner or later be exposed by you. Only when you are both dead can I continue to stay in the Zhang Family safely."

Xu Chen suddenly realized that it was his own threat to the steward last time that had buried the seeds of disaster.

Although he had not experienced much of the sinister nature of humanity, he also knew that the situation before him was extremely critical.

The steward was looking for this opportunity to kill him and Feng Feiyi, and then cover up his own sordid deeds.

In this desolate mountain wilderness, there was no need to bury anyone after killing them; after one night, they would be gnawed away by wild beasts until not even bones remained.

Every year in the town, people and livestock went missing in the mountains and could never be found.

"You, you don't come over... Help, someone save me..."

Xu Chen put down Feng Feiyi and looked around, discovering that there was nothing handy to use, not even a rock to be found, so he could only open his throat and shout for help.

"Hehe, stop shouting. I've been preparing for a long time to kill you two. No one will come here even if you scream your lungs out... Ouch, hiss, you little beast, you actually dare to bite me!"

The steward sneered and pressed forward, but he was caught off guard when the little fox bit his wrist; his face twitched in pain, and he raised his hand and threw the little fox off the cliff.

"Wuya..."

The little fox screamed as it fell, and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared from sight.

"You're courting death..."

For some reason, watching the little fox fall, Xu Chen felt as if an extremely fragile heartstring within him had been touched, as if the thing he held most dear had been destroyed, and suddenly an incomparable rage surged up; he roared and pounced on the steward.

"Go to hell!" The steward, with a ferocious expression, raised the firewood knife and slashed fiercely at Xu Chen.

"Puchi~"

Xu Chen only felt a sharp pain in his heart, but he did not retreat; instead, he hugged the steward tightly, let out a roar, pushed the steward into a large rock, and then they tumbled off the cliff together.

"Boom~"

A surge of icy, turbulent water instantly submerged the two of them.

Pitch black, cold, bone-chilling cold.

Xu Chen tumbled and struggled, sinking and floating in the roaring, rushing stream; the intense pain in his chest, stimulated by the icy water, felt like needles pricking and knives cutting. A mouthful of icy stream water poured into his belly, choking him so he couldn't breathe at all. After several more violent collisions against the hard rocks of the stream, amidst the world turning upside down, he finally lost his last bit of consciousness and disappeared, tumbling along with the rushing stream.

"Xu Chen... Xu Chen..."

Vaguely, Xu Chen seemed to hear someone calling him.

He used all his strength to open his eyes.

Everything before him was pitch black and cold, as if he were in a ten-thousand-year ice cave.

"Where am I?"

Xu Chen looked around in confusion and fear.

However, he soon discovered that something was wrong, because he couldn't feel the existence of his body at all, as if only a wisp of his soul remained, and he couldn't move at all.

Could it be that I am dreaming again?

As soon as he thought of dreaming, many memories from his dreams suddenly swept over him like a tide, and at the same time, tiny specks of blue starlight appeared in the darkness.

Blue starlight?

He looked blankly at these incomparably familiar starlights.

Could it be that I am not dreaming?

Could it be that those things in the dream were all real?

Then what about Xiaobai? What about Feng Feiyi?

He could not move, yet he could clearly perceive that these blue starlights around him were real, as familiar as his own body; every speck of blue starlight seemed to carry an exceptionally familiar aura.

Like the people and events he had experienced in his dreams.

"Master, Thirteenth Senior Sister, Jiu Shixiong, the fox Xiaobai, Blue Jade Bead, Third Elder, Great Elder, Song Qingshi, Third-Tier Demon Wolf, Princess of Xiyun, Emperor of Great Song, Yulong Zhenren, Lin Qiuya, Qin Feng... Seven-Colored Spirit Sparrow, black Demon Beast... Feng clan..."

As the various dreams he had once forgotten emerged clearly in his mind like a tide, Xu Chen's state of confusion also disappeared like a receding tide, replaced by a tranquility he had never felt before.

He remembered now that the childhood events and the fight with the steward he had just experienced were the dream.

And the pitch-black, cold situation before him was the reality.

This was not the first time he had experienced such a predicament where only his consciousness remained.

He recalled that he had merged with the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele, then dragged the Heitian Demon Lord into it, and then, when the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele wanted to continue devouring the White Bone Demon Emperor, a violent explosion occurred, and then he lost consciousness.

"Feng Feiyi..."

Xu Chen recalled the only clue connecting his dream to reality and was suddenly struck by the realization that when the explosion occurred, he did not know if the Demon Lord Youtong would die; after all, it was a terrifying aura triggered by the self-detonation of a Demon Emperor's remnant soul, which even the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele and the Blue Light Treasure Bottle could not withstand, so Demon Lord Youtong was likely in grave danger.

"No, I must find a way to wake up!"

Xu Chen did not know what state he was currently in, but if he were still in the Minghuang, such a terrifying explosion would inevitably attract even more powerful members of the Underworld Clan, and it was possible that the true form of Demon Lord Heitian might descend.

Thus, Xu Chen began trying to release his Divine Sense, but he did not succeed; he then tried to use his consciousness to make contact with the Blue Starlight flowing all around him, and soon he felt something familiar. As his consciousness touched these Blue Starlight, a sliver of power would return, and as his consciousness grew stronger, the boundless pitch-black and icy cold aura also continuously diminished and faded.

However, this process was very slow.

His consciousness moved very slowly as well.

Every time he touched a piece of Blue Starlight, he felt he had recovered a sliver of faint perception, but these starlight were incredibly sparse, as if scattered across a vast and boundless universe, and it required a massive amount of time to touch each one.

Although he was anxious inside, Xu Chen did not lose his patience; after experiencing so many life-and-death crises, his state of mind had become incredibly stable and strong.

Even if someone were to put a blade to his forehead right now, he would still persist in completing his goal according to his own will.

Because he knew very clearly that when facing a life-and-death crisis, one could only use all their strength to accumulate power, and only then would there be a chance to escape the crisis; struggling without power would yield no results.

He did not know how much time had passed.

Xu Chen was like someone frozen in a boundless, pitch-black, and icy layer of ice, able only to use his consciousness to touch the Blue Starlight one by one, slowly accumulating power.

Perhaps it was a month, or perhaps it was a year.

Xu Chen had no concept of time, completely immersed in his own perception as he continuously extended and expanded his consciousness, until at one moment, he suddenly felt a sliver of Divine Sense return, and immediately a bright blue light shone before his eyes; in the blink of an eye, a magnificent blue nebula appeared, floating and slowly spiraling in the boundless pitch-black Void, resembling a massive vortex connecting heaven and earth.

Looking at this familiar vortex, he suddenly remembered that this was the entrance the Blue Light Treasure Bottle had released to devour Demon Lord Heitian after his consciousness began to be merged by the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele.

And right now, he was certain that his Soul and consciousness were still inside the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele.

Since it was an entrance, then perhaps it was also an exit!

After observing intently for a long time, Xu Chen gathered his Divine Sense and plunged headlong into the center of the vortex.

"Boom—"

Amidst the violent shaking of his Soul, he only felt himself traversing an incredibly empty and long passage, the Blue Starlight all around turning into flowing, afterimage-like streaks of light, flying past him like a tide.

Perhaps it was an instant, or perhaps it was a day.

Until a phantom image of a complex and strange Ancient Rune pattern appeared ahead, his Divine Sense flew rapidly through this phantom of the Ancient Rune, and his vision suddenly brightened; he felt an incredibly familiar aura—it was his Sea of Consciousness, and at the same time, his own body.

His consciousness returned abruptly, and his Soul and Seven Souls were finally in smooth communication.

However, what surprised him immensely was that the Blue Light Treasure Bottle, which had always been suspended in his Sea of Consciousness, had disappeared; now, only a broken, ancient stone stele remained, emitting a glowing five-colored light, standing in the position where the Blue Light Treasure Bottle had been.

A cluster of blue nebula vortex was slowly rotating right in the center of the complex patterns on the stone stele; his Divine Sense landed on it and instantly sank in, only to see a phantom of a giant stele connecting heaven and earth, standing in a vast and boundless pitch-black Void, with scattered specks of Blue Starlight flickering and extinguishing all around it.

The Blue Light Treasure Bottle had actually disappeared, seemingly having merged with the Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele.

Xu Chen stared blankly at the changes in his Sea of Consciousness, feeling somewhat lost and bewildered, not knowing whether this was good or bad.

(End of this chapter)