Chapter 1304: Her Lin, He Ling

"Helin... wants me... to find... you... Finally... Ah... Ugh ahhhhhh!!"These few words exhausted Yun Che's meager returning consciousness. He then plunged back into a nightmare, unable to utter another complete word, only hoarse screams and frantic struggles.

"Lin'er... Lin'er!!"Heli's mind was in chaos, filled with images of Helin. It was as if Helin himself was struggling in agony before her eyes, causing her immediate excruciating pain. She abruptly turned, weeping, "Master, please save him... He is Lin'er... He is my brother Lin'er... Please save him, please save him!!"

Xia Qingyue stared blankly at the weeping wood spirit girl, who was pleading for Yun Che, just as she herself had pleaded.

"Ling'er," Shen Xi's voice carried a soft sigh, "He is not your brother; he merely carries his Wood Spirit Orb."

"Ling'er knows," the wood spirit girl replied, each word laced with tears, "But... he is Lin'er's benefactor, the one Lin'er entrusted everything to, and the continuation of Lin'er's life..."

With a thud, she knelt heavily on the ground. "Please, Master, save him! Please, Master, save him!"

Without their Wood Spirit Orb, a wood spirit would surely die. Seizing a wood spirit's orb was an unforgivable sin and an act of ultimate enmity against the wood spirit race.

However, a royal Wood Spirit Orb was different. The royal Wood Spirit Orb on Yun Che possessed a complete and intact aura, signifying it was whole and perfect. For a human to possess a complete royal Wood Spirit Orb, the only possibility was that a royal wood spirit had willingly entrusted it to them.

As the purest beings in the world, wood spirits possessed the ability to perceive good and evil. For a royal wood spirit to willingly sacrifice their life and bestow their Wood Spirit Orb upon a human implied either an immeasurable debt of gratitude or that the human was someone they were willing to entrust everything to.

As a descendant of the royal wood spirit lineage, Heli understood this more clearly than any other being.

"..." Long silence was the only response to Heli's plea. She could feel the profound sorrow and pain in Heli's heart. Heli's greatest desire, indeed, the very motivation for her tenacious survival, was to find her younger brother Helin—just as Helin yearned to find her. He was her last kin, and the last hope of the royal wood spirit lineage.

Now, the appearance of Helin's Wood Spirit Orb on a human meant that Helin was dead. It also meant... the royal wood spirit lineage had ended. The blow to her was undoubtedly devastating, as if the sky had fallen.

And Yun Che, bearing Helin's Wood Spirit Orb, was like the last straw of hope—or rather, a source of comfort—in her despair.

However...

"Master..." Heli heavily kowtowed, her weeping voice now hoarse. "Lin'er is dead... Ling'er... has no more family... My parents died protecting Ling'er... and Ling'er... lost Lin'er... not only failing to protect him even for a day, but also... never seeing him one last time...""He is the one Lin'er entrusted everything to... he is Lin'er's last hope remaining in this world... I must... protect him no matter what... Please, Master... please save him... Ling'er will never go anywhere else from now on... for this life... and for all lives to come, I will remain by Master's side... Please, Master... save him..."

Sorrow... tears... self-blame... guilt... despair...This wood spirit girl, who had appeared pure, delicate, and flawless at their first meeting, had her will and soul completely collapse upon sensing the Wood Spirit Orb on Yun Che.

She had witnessed her parents and countless clan members detonate their Wood Spirit Orbs and die, securing an opportunity for them to escape... She and Helin had gotten separated during their escape... In the years that followed, despite being targeted, she had searched frantically for him.

In this terrifyingly cruel world for wood spirits, finding Helin was her greatest support for survival. Almost every day, she lived with immense self-reproach for having lost him... Three years ago, she had traveled alone to a star realm rumored to have wood spirits in search of Helin, where she was ambushed. Fortunately, Shen Xi rescued her and brought her back here.

She served by Shen Xi's side, her only request being for Shen Xi to help her find Helin.

Now she knew that she could never see Helin again; only his Wood Spirit Orb remained in the world.

All her hopes, yearnings, and guilt from those years... now, under the verge of desperate sorrow, were firmly tied to Yun Che.

"Alas..."From the ethereal mists of the Samsara Forbidden Zone, a long sigh emerged:"It seems this, too, is fate. When I brought you back then, I promised to help you find your royal brother. Since I gave my word, I will not break it. Ling'er, rise... I will save him."

Heli's weeping ceased for a moment, and then she bowed deeply, "Thank... you... Master..."These three words were uttered with a tremor in her soul. Although she had only been by Shen Xi's side for a mere three years, she deeply understood what that statement meant to her... This divine grace, she was destined never to repay.

With tear-filled eyes, she looked at Yun Che, his pained sounds and appearance causing her own heart to ache to the point of suffocation. She grasped his struggling hands, comforting him through her tears, "Did you hear? Master has agreed to save you. You'll be fine very soon... You'll recover quickly..."

"..." As if an immense weight had lifted, a deep sense of exhaustion washed over Xia Qingyue, even as joy filled her heart. She glanced at Heli, then bowed gently forward. "Senior Shen Xi's great kindness, Xia Qingyue will never forget."

"You need not thank me," the ethereal, dreamlike voice slowly replied. "I save him for Ling'er, and also because he bears a royal Wood Spirit Orb, which will not defile this place."

Xia Qingyue, however, shook her head slightly. "For Senior to be willing to save him is an act of divine grace. Once the Death-Seeking Mark on him is removed, if Senior has any command, Qingyue will unquestionably obey."

A gentle divine sense swept over Xia Qingyue's body. It seemed only then that the ethereal figure within the mists truly assessed her. "What a stubborn woman. Have you always been this way?"

Xia Qingyue remained silent.

"Although I can save him, the Brahma Soul Death-Seeking Mark on him is extremely domineering. To completely remove it, at least fifty years are required. During these fifty years, he must remain here and not take half a step outside. Furthermore, I will need to seal his memories; for these fifty years, he will not remember his past. When he leaves after fifty years, he will also not remember anything that happened here."

"Very well, thank you, Senior, for your magnanimity." Xia Qingyue was not surprised by the words she heard. "This junior will entrust someone to come here and take him away in fifty years."

"Oh?" The ethereal voice gave a soft exclamation. "Why won't you be the one to fetch him?"

"..." Xia Qingyue did not answer, instead asking, "May I ask, Senior Shen Xi, during these fifty years, before the Death-Seeking Mark is completely removed from him, is there any way to alleviate his suffering?"

"Rest assured," the voice quickly replied with extreme gentleness, "While I cannot remove his Death-Seeking Mark in a short time, I can make it gradually cease its attacks. Even if it does act up, it will not be unbearable."

As the ethereal voice spoke, an incredibly pure white light drifted down from the mists, enveloping Yun Che.

As the white light neared her body, Xia Qingyue's beautiful eyes instantly narrowed... She felt as though her body, blood, profound veins, and soul... were being gently cleansed by the purest of springs. The pain from the wounds Yun Che had inflicted on her body lessened, the confusion and sorrow in her heart were gently soothed, and even her five senses became exceptionally clear...Was this... the "kind of power" her adopted father had spoken of?

The white profound light softly enveloped Yun Che. Immediately, his body's struggles eased, the twitching of his muscles and blood vessels, and his screams gradually subsided. He was like someone pulled from a bloody hell-pool and immersed in a hot spring, every cell and pore in his body relaxing.

A glimmer of clarity appeared in his chaotic pupils. One of his hands slowly rose with a tremor... He had evidently regained some control over his body, and from his mouth, two fairly clear words emerged: "Qing... Yue..."

The alleviation was, in the end, merely a temporary relief, not a complete removal. Yun Che's entire body still throbbed with agony, but it had reached a level his will could barely endure and resist.

With her last remaining worry dispelled, Xia Qingyue bowed deeply forward once more, then softly spoke to Yun Che, "This is wonderful... Senior Shen Xi has agreed to save you. You won't have to suffer like this anymore. There's... nothing else to worry about."

"Although fifty years is a long time, staying with Senior Shen Xi means no one can ever harm you again. If you manage to earn Senior Shen Xi's admiration or affection, it would be... an immense stroke of luck."

"Therefore, for these fifty years, stay here peacefully and forget everything outside."

With the Brahma Soul Death-Seeking Mark on him, Yun Che was destined to be unable to enter the Heaven Profound Pearl, thus missing out on the immense three-thousand-year opportunity in the Heaven Profound God Realm. However, having been targeted by Qianye Ying'er, there was originally no place for Yun Che in the world. Staying here, for Yun Che, meant fifty years of absolute peace and safety.

Because this was a forbidden zone that even Qianye Ying'er would absolutely not dare to trespass upon.

"Since I have agreed to let him stay, you need not worry anymore," Shen Xi's voice slowly came. "You possess a Glazed Heart, a daughter protected by the Heavenly Way. Since I've allowed him to stay, I can also permit you to remain here with him."

For Shen Xi, this was yet another exception... due to her Glazed Heart, a rarity seen only once in hundreds of thousands of years.

Gently placing Yun Che on the ground, Xia Qingyue slowly stood up. "Thank you, Senior Shen Xi, for your kindness. With him staying here with you, Qingyue indeed has no further worries."

"Qingyue has troubled Senior for a long time; it is now time for me to leave and return to where I belong."

"Oh?" Shen Xi seemed quite surprised by this response.

She took one last deep look at Yun Che, then closed her eyes, turned away, and prepared to leave with an almost resolute air.

At that moment, however, her skirt was firmly clutched by a trembling hand. Yun Che's entire body trembled, his face contorted, but the hand gripping Xia Qingyue's skirt was incredibly tight. "Qingyue... where... are... you... going..."

As the intense pain greatly subsided, his consciousness gradually returned. Where would Xia Qingyue go, where could she go... only the Moon God Realm.

Regarding the Moon God Realm wedding, she had become a sinner to the entire realm. Even if the Moon God Emperor truly treated her like his own daughter, as she claimed, and could forgive any mistake... beyond him, there was still the wrath of the entire Moon God Realm.

Moreover, no one could believe that the Moon God Emperor would truly suppress all his anger completely... The Moon God Realm might imprison her, banish her, abolish her profound energy... or even execute her.

"..." Xia Qingyue stopped, but did not turn back. "Don't worry, I'll be fine... This is something I must face."