“Is Ye Lingfeng your name, and Feng your nickname?” Tianming asked.
“Yeah.”
“So, why’d you engrave your name here?”
“Because I’d forget my name otherwise.”
Tianming’s thoughts were a little jumbled, because this youth didn’t seem too smart. Pointing at the tombstones, Tianming asked, “Did you carve those names?”
“Yeah, so that I don’t forget their names,” said Ye Lingfeng.
“Do you know who they were?” Tianming asked.
“My people? Me?” Ye Lingfeng frowned. His eyes suddenly trembled. He gnashed his teeth and grabbed his head, rolling on the ground in pain.
“Are you alright?” Tianming quickly hurried over and helped him up.
“It’s okay. I’m already used to it,” said Ye Lingfeng. Unless he was in his ferocious mode, he looked blank most of the time, his mind befuddled.
“Have you forgotten about the Infernal Soul Race?” Tianming probed. He knew what the Infernal Soul Race had gone through. The soul sacrifice they had done had resulted in the death of eighty thousand, just to contribute to this youth. Ye Lingfeng must hate the Theocrats for it, and it just so happened that Tianming had a lot of dissatisfaction with the ruler of the Theocracy of the Ancients as well.
“The Infernal Soul Race?” Ye Lingfeng stared at Tianming, biting his lips.
“That’s right.”
“I’m someone of the Infernal Soul Race?”
“Yeah.”
“What is the Infernal Soul Race?”
It seemed that Ye Lingfeng had lost a lot of his memories. The Infernal Soul Race has been suppressed for the past twenty thousand years, suffering the pain of having their souls burned for generations. It’s definitely inhumane, and at the very least, I can’t accept this kind of practice. The Infernal Soul Race struggled to live for so many years, and they fused their lives into Ye Lingfeng to seek survival. But something seems to have gone wrong, based on how confused he looks… Tianming pondered.
Tianming was a straightforward person, and decided to tell Ye Lingfeng about the details. He wasn’t trying to scheme anything, he just felt that this young man had suffered too much by himself. As someone whose entire race had planted their hopes on, Ye Lingfeng needed to remember their hatred, at the very least. Otherwise, wouldn’t his people be sad? It was easy to forget hatred. Tianming was someone who had hated, and to him, it would be shameful to forget about it. It would be letting down those who had passed away, such as Jin Yu and the rest of the Infernal Soul Race.
“You seem to know a lot. Tell me more!” Even before Tianming took the initiative, Ye Lingfeng’s gaze was fixed on Tianming.
“Sure, let’s sit down and talk about it,” said Tianming.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
As the surrounding lava churned, two youths were sitting on the edge of the altar. Ye Lingfeng was staring at Tianming with his crimson eyes. Tianming had also explained what he’d seen a few days before in his vision of the Infernal Soul Race. He could then infer that the scene he saw then was something that had taken place a few years ago. After all, Ye Lingfeng now looked a lot older, compared to the youth from his vision.
“Do you understand? That means that you contain the souls of eighty thousand people,” said Tianming.
“I got it. No wonder I can hear so many people whispering to me every day.” Ye Lingfeng lowered his head.
“Don’t you hate Theocrats?” Tianming asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t remember anything,” said Ye Lingfeng.
Tianming could understand what Ye Lingfeng was saying. When Ye Lingfeng heard of the Infernal Soul Race’s suffering from Tianming, it felt as if he was listening to someone’s story, because he had already forgotten about the past.
“Perhaps I’ll feel the hatred when I recall the past.” Ye Lingfeng looked up ahead blankly.
“Take your time. Don’t worry about it. You’re still young, and revenge is still a long time away.” Tianming patted Ye Lingfeng’s shoulder, which made him tense up; he was unfamiliar with physical contact.
“Why are you so nervous? Don’t worry, I have no interest in men,” Tianming laughed.
“What does that mean?” Ye Lingfeng frowned.
Tianming was speechless, caught between laughter and tears.
“Thank you for telling me so much, but I might forget it again,” Ye Lingfeng said gloomily.
“It’s okay. It doesn’t matter if I repeat it a few more times. If there’s no other way, you can write it down in a notebook and recite it a hundred times a day,” Tianming chuckled.
“What should I call you?”
“How old are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“If you don’t know how old you are, then don’t blame me for being impolite. My family name is Tianming, and my given name is Big Brother. You can just call me Big Brother Tianming.”
“Big Brother Tianming.”
While they were talking, Ying Huo was flying around them out of boredom. “I’m in the mood for some poetry, so listen well! When Feng’s hair reaches his waist, he’ll definitely be more coquettish than Ling’er. What do you think about that? It rhymes, right?”
“Screw you!” Tianming threw a pebble in Ying Huo’s direction. Ye Lingfeng blankly looked at the two of them, as he had no idea what they were talking about. Honestly speaking, Tianming was very curious about Ye Lingfeng’s body and cultivation methods, such as his soul mutation and the lifebound beast stars in his right eye.
“Feng, where’s your lifebound beast?”
“What lifebound beast?”
Tianming had already hit a wall with his first question. But if this fellow didn’t have a lifebound beast, how did he cultivate? Tianming grew curious, as it was said that the Infernal Soul Race had undergone a mutation in their bloodline; they were merged with their lifebound beasts from birth. Apart from the stars in Ye Lingfeng’s right eye, there were no traces of the lifebound beast in Ye Lingfeng. He didn’t look like any of the eighty thousand people who had been sacrificed.
“How do you cultivate?” Tianming asked.
“According to the Infernal Soul Sutra and battle art from the Myriad Souldevouring Canon,” Ye Lingfeng answered.
The battle art was something that had passed down from the ancestors of the Infernal Soul Race, and Tianming could tell that it was a decent one, judging from the name. However, this involved the Infernal Soul Race’s secrets, and Tianming couldn’t possibly ask to take a look out of curiosity. He had his own speculations; the Infernal Soul Race should have a cultivation system similar to symbiotic cultivation. He might not be able to tell anything from just looking at Ye Lingfeng, but Ye Lingfeng was someone who had fused with his lifebound beast. Or, in other words, their cultivation method was developed from symbiotic cultivation.
“Big Brother Tianming.” Ye Lingfeng turned and looked at Tianming. Whenever he looked at someone, he wouldn’t blink, which made him seem terrifying. If Tianming didn’t know about it, he would’ve thought that Ye Lingfeng wanted to kill someone.
“What’s the matter?”
“I often see people walking above, but I don’t dare to approach them. When I heard what you said about the Infernal Soul Race earlier, I’d like to ask you something. Is the outside world big? And how big is it?” Ye Lingfeng’s eyes were blazing with curiosity. The question sounded ridiculous, but coming from Ye Lingfeng, it was just sad.
Pursing his lips, Tianming explained, “The vastness of the world is beyond your imagination. It’s millions of times bigger than this place here. But if you want to know about its actual size, you will have to take a look at it personally with your own eyes.”
“The books mentioned that there are white clouds, the sun, stars, and even bright colors in the outside world. Is that real?” Ye Lingfeng asked.
“Yes, it’s all real,” said Tianming.
“Then can you take me out?” Ye Lingfeng looked at Tianming with anticipation, so much so that he nearly started crying. Going to the outside world had always been what he dreamt about. So even if he had lost his memory, going to the outside world was something that had been deeply imprinted down to his bones.
“I can bring you out, but your identity is a little sensitive in the Divine Capital. The people above are known as the Ancient Qilin Clan, and they’re keeping me imprisoned. If I bring you out, you will be killed immediately.” Honestly speaking, Tianming had already considered this issue, but it was too unrealistic. If the Ancient Qilin Clan saw Ye Lingfeng, Tianming had no doubt that they would immediately kill him.
“So you’re saying that as long as I’m not seen I’ll be okay?” Ye Lingfeng asked.
Tianming briefly pondered about it. If no one could see Ye Lingfeng, then it was worth a shot. At the worst, he could just get Ye Lingfeng to run for his life upon going out.
“Big Brother Tianming, my soul can leave my body and hide in your consciousness. So as long as you can bring my body away, no one will be able to see me,” Ye Lingfeng said. His breathing also started growing heavy.
“What’s that?” Tianming had never heard of such a thing.
The soul was located in the consciousness, but how could it be separated from the body? Suddenly, Tianming thought of the soul sacrifice, where eighty thousand souls left their bodies and merged into Ye Lingfeng’s consciousness. Ye Lingfeng fell straight to the ground, and a white mist condensed above his head. When Tianming saw the size of the mist, he was instantly stunned. “Holy shit! It’s eighty thousand times as big as mine!”
Tianming knew the white mist’s size in his consciousness well, and the mist before him almost looked solid, and had taken Ye Lingfeng’s form. When Tianming looked closely at the white mist, it was a little horrifying to see that it was comprised of countless tiny souls, and every tiny soul represented a person. It was a soul formed by combining the souls of eighty thousand people.
“This is probably an unprecedented soul mutation, right?” Tianming was dazed. He had never expected that, one day, he would be able to see someone’s soul staring at him. When he looked down at Ye Lingfeng’s body, it seemed dead and had no signs of vitality at all. Feeling a headache, he said, “Go back quickly. Don’t let your body grow cold.”
Ye Lingfeng was briefly stunned, then merged back into his body. A long while later, he sat up and started rolling around on the floor from the head-splitting agony.
“Are you alright now?” Tianming asked.
“Yeah.”
“How long can you maintain that state?”
“Half an hour. Any longer, and my body will really be dead,” said Ye Lingfeng.
“Half an hour.…” Tianming locked his brows together and started pondering the possibility.
“The problem is I can’t leave the Ancient Qilin Clan. If I could leave, it wouldn’t be a problem for me to take you with me.”
“Why?”
“Because of the damned lifetime curse on my forehead,” said Tianming.
“Holy shit, Tianming!” Ying Huo suddenly looked at Tianming with its eyes wide open.
“What’s the matter?”
“Your lifetime curse is gone.”
“Are you serious? If you dare lie to me, I’ll stab your butt with the Grand-Orient Sword!” Tianming said, taking a mirror out to look at himself.
“What the hell? Why are you carrying a mirror around when you’re a man?” Ying Huo mocked.
“Screw you! It’s for Ling’er!” Tianming looked at his reflection in the mirror and started laughing. “Screw that lifetime curse! It actually faded! And here I was starting to grow feelings for it!”
That meant he would be able to leave as soon as someone came from the Decimo Dao Palace. It was clear that the marking of the lifetime curse hadn’t been successful, and what was left on his forehead was probably just some residue. Tianming remembered how the Prime Tower had moved when Ye Lingfeng attacked him earlier, and it was perhaps at that time that the Lifetime Curse had fully disappeared.
“Big Brother Tianming, can you bring me out?” Ye Lingfeng asked.
“Let me go up and see if I have any backup. If so, I’ll be able to take you out,” said Tianming.
“Alright.” Ye Lingfeng balled his fists together nervously.
“Ying Huo, go up and take a look at the situation.”
“Hehe!” The little chick flew up, and in less than twenty breaths, it returned. “There’s three Hall Kings outside, so we can finally leave this damned place!”
“Big Brother Tianming….” Ye Lingfeng stood up and looked at Tianming with a trembling gaze.
“Let’s go!” Tianming smiled, patting Ye Lingfeng’s shoulder.
“Since your ‘corpse’ is dead, I’ll try and put it in my spatial ring. I have no idea how long it’ll be, so you’ll just have to hold on,” said Tianming.
“Okay!” Ye Lingfeng’s crimson eyes glowed with anticipation for the very first time.
1. This obviously doesn’t rhyme in English, but it does in Chinese.