Chapter 2045: Abyssal Ghost

Yun Che’s 'mature' advice left Hua Caiyi stunned for a long time, as if she were trying to comprehend and process his words.

But after a moment of silence, a particularly clear and melodious giggle broke the quiet.

Yun Che unconsciously touched his nose. "Was there something funny about what I said?"

"No, no," Hua Caiyi quickly covered her mouth, still smiling. "It's just that the way you looked and what you said just now was exactly like my father."

Yun Che: "..."

"Yet you're so young," Hua Caiyi said, her eyes twinkling. "I've carefully remembered everything you said. But there's one thing I can't agree with."

"Which part?"

"You said you were cold and heartless." Her faint smile held an undeniable seriousness. "Although I'm not as experienced as you and haven't met as many people, I'm certain of one thing: you are definitely not a cold and heartless person. On the contrary, you are the kindest person I've met during this training."

Just as Yun Che was about to speak, Hua Caiyi quickly interrupted him. "Don't rush to deny it. The day we first met in the Lin Yuan Realm, we were strangers, yet you decisively stepped in to save me. Princess Helian of the Lin Yuan Realm was indebted to you, and you helped the entire Helian imperial family qualify for the Lin God Realm, even helping them reclaim their long-lost dignity."

"As for me, you saved me multiple times, yet you constantly felt indebted to me, wishing you could repay me tenfold. And you agreed to my somewhat presumptuous request to travel together."

"Therefore, not only are you not cold and heartless, but you are also the most compassionate and loyal person I've ever met."

Yun Che opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Hua Caiyi interrupted him again. "There's another irrefutable piece of evidence!"

"Your profound light energy." She looked at Yun Che, her beautiful eyes rippling with starlight. "Although I've never seen profound light energy before, all profound practitioners know that those who possess it are rare because it requires a sacred, unblemished body and a pure, benevolent heart."

"And someone like that... someone like you, Young Master Yun, must be the furthest person from 'cold and heartless' in this world."

The girl's eyes were too bright and clear, causing him to avert his gaze and chuckle softly. "The so-called characteristics of profound light energy are merely rumors. You say I value loyalty, but do you remember that at the Lin God Convention, I wantonly tormented my opponents with cruel methods, showing no mercy at all? And just now, when I killed those three, I didn't even bat an eyelid."

"Or, you can try to guess how many people I've killed in my life..."

Yun Che's words didn't cause Hua Caiyi any confusion or shock. Instead, she slowly shook her head, her smile becoming even more enchanting. "My father once said that a person's appearance and talent are predetermined at birth and cannot be changed. However, setting aside these unchangeable things, to cherish loyalty, hate evil, and exact revenge when necessary, is a rare quality, one in ten thousand, and worthy of one's life."

"Being lenient to enemies harms oneself, and being kind to evil people aids evil..." she murmured softly, then blinked her eyes. "Before, I always thought my father's teachings were nagging and boring, but after meeting Young Master Yun, these words, which I should have forgotten, suddenly became very clear to me."

Her father was one of the Six Nations' Seven Gods. To be worthy of his praise was already the highest level of recognition in this world.

"Alright, alright," Yun Che said, half-helpless and half-flattered. "If Elder Sister Qu says so, then it must be true. Does that mean I can go around proclaiming myself a good person now?"

"You are, of course." After emphasizing this, she added, "And I must thank Young Master Yun for helping me find the answer; otherwise, I definitely wouldn't have thought of it myself even in many more years."

Imperceptibly, the distance between them seemed to lessen, replaced by a subtle warmth.

"No wonder you intentionally exposed your profound light energy," Lisha's voice suddenly chimed in.

"Establishing trust and narrowing the gap by revealing a huge secret is secondary. The most important thing is to activate the other person's 'perception'."

"Exactly," Yun Che replied unhurriedly. "I've marveled more than once that ingrained perceptions can be the most terrifying things in some respects."

"You see," he said, not without a hint of triumph, "because of her perception of 'profound light energy,' she has already subconsciously concluded that I am a person of ultimate purity and kindness. Even if I admit to being heartless, or she witnesses me abusing opponents and killing mercilessly, she will find reasons to deny it for me... Oh, irrefutable evidence."

"...Quite despicable," Lisha commented.

Yun Che smiled indifferently. "The moment I met her in the Misty Sea, that was already the start of something devious."

Lisha: "However, you seem to have failed."

"Failed?" Yun Che's eyebrows twitched. "How so?"

Lisha slowly replied, "Your intention must have been to make her develop romantic feelings for you. But she just said that your demeanor is like her father's. In that case, how could romantic feelings arise?"

"You don't get it," Yun Che said leisurely. "Her inexperience in the world is obvious at a glance. Therefore, the man she has interacted with the most, admired and respected the most, and whose image she perceives as the grandest in her life, is undoubtedly her father. And in her conversations with me, she always inadvertently mentions the word 'father'."

"Therefore, her casual remark means that subconsciously, she is associating me with her father's image. This is not a failure at all; on the contrary, it's a transfer of closeness, trust, and even a touch of admiration, which is the best possible state."

"......??" Lisha couldn't understand and was left speechless.

"Oh, I forgot," Yun Che said, realizing. "You don't have parents, so it's naturally hard for you to understand."

"..." Lisha said nothing more.

Just then, an extremely abnormal abyssal dust fluctuation came from behind them.

Yun Che quickly turned around, and Hua Caiyi simultaneously let out a surprised cry. "Look! Ah... Could it be..."

As far as the eye could see, the middle-aged man whom Yun Che had just impaled to the ground with a sword, his life force already extinguished, was now enveloped in gray mist. The surrounding abyssal dust surged towards his corpse as if drawn by an invisible force.

This lifeless body was not swallowed by the abyssal dust; instead, it slowly turned completely black. Following this, a violent, chilling profound energy slowly began to rise from it.

The body under the gray mist moved. Its legs supported the still impaled body, and it slowly stood up.

Gray mist swirled around him, and his faintly discernible face was ashen like a corpse. His eyes, however, glowed with two points of terrifying black light, similar to those of an abyssal beast.

The profound energy that should have been eternally silent with the death of the body surged again within him, only more violent than when he was alive.

"An Abyssal... Ghost!" Hua Caiyi murmured softly.

Profound beasts completely eroded by abyssal dust transform into abyssal beasts.

When humans are eroded, they typically go from severe injury to death, and then are eroded into nothingness. Those who can transform into Abyssal Ghosts are one in ten thousand.

As for the circumstances under which a person can be eroded into an Abyssal Ghost, some speculate it's due to a special physique that mutates them before they are devoured. Others guess it's due to a special divine soul that assimilates with the abyssal dust. There are many theories, but no definitive conclusion has been reached.

A strange light suddenly appeared in Yun Che's eyes.

During his time in the Misty Sea, he had encountered countless abyssal beasts and occasionally seen Abyssal Ghosts. But this was the first time he had personally witnessed a deceased profound practitioner being mutated into an Abyssal Ghost.

The newly formed Abyssal Ghost gripped the hilt with both hands and forcibly pulled the sword out of its body. What splashed out was dark red blood, like that of an abyssal beast.

A pair of terrifying abyssal eyes pierced directly towards Yun Che and Hua Caiyi.

Following that, he let out a savage, inhuman roar and swung the greatsword directly at the two of them.

Abyssal Ghosts, like abyssal beasts, possess the purest desire for destruction.

But unlike abyssal beasts, their abyssalized bodies retain control over power and combat instincts. In the Misty Sea, with its endless abyssal dust, their wounds heal quickly and their strength never wanes, making them far more terrifying than abyssal beasts, and even more so than when they were alive.

The sword might and intent carried by the swinging greatsword were no less than when he was alive, and even more violent under the enhancement of abyssal dust.

Hua Caiyi let out a soft grunt, forced back several meters in an instant.

Yun Che met it head-on. With Hell Emperor activated, his palm fearlessly grabbed onto the greatsword.

With a resonant clang, the Abyssal Ghost's hand bones were all shattered, and its gray-mist-shrouded body was flipped backward in mid-air. Yun Che then swung the sword backhanded, smashing it heavily onto the Abyssal Ghost's body.

Boom boom boom boom boom—

Each strike of his demigod power smashed and twisted the Abyssal Ghost's body. When the seventh sword struck, the Abyssal Ghost's body finally could no longer endure, shattering into several pieces in mid-air.

Yun Che took a step forward, and Ice Phoenix power instantly enveloped and sealed the shattered Abyssal Ghost's body, then disintegrated it into a cloud of ice dust.

Around the ice dust, wisps of dense gray mist rose and dispersed, quickly merging into the endless Misty Sea.

Yun Che slowly lowered his hand, his gaze following the dispersing wisps of gray mist.

"You startled me," Hua Caiyi said, quickly walking over. Her beautiful face was full of surprise and excitement. "It's my first time seeing someone transform into an Abyssal Ghost right before my eyes."

"Me too," Yun Che nodded. "An unexpected bonus, perhaps?"

The roars of abyssal beasts came from afar, clearly disturbed by the huge commotion.

"Let's leave here first."

The two suppressed their aura and headed in the direction where no roars were heard.

As their figures were completely engulfed by the abyssal mist, Yun Che silently looked back, glancing at the location where the Abyssal Ghost had been.

"Why is your soul sea surging so violently?" Lisha suddenly asked.

Even when he saw the Lin God in the Lin God Realm, his soul had never trembled so violently.

"I seem to have... discovered something extraordinary." Yun Che narrowed his eyes, unsure what he was thinking. "However, it will take time to verify."

Ten days later, on the outskirts of the Misty Sea.

"...I still can't face the death of living beings as calmly as you do. Is this very cowardly of me?"

"No. It's because your nature is too pure and kind, and all you've seen before are the beautiful things in this world. You haven't yet become accustomed to miseries more cruel than death."

"Miseries more cruel than death..." Hua Caiyi thought for a while, then asked, puzzled, "What kind of misery could be more cruel than death?"

These past few days, she had unconsciously asked Yun Che too many questions.

"Many, many," Yun Che replied in a calm voice, looking straight ahead:

"For example... a homeland crumbling into ashes before your eyes..."

"Loved ones lost forever..."

"Truths revealed too late for regret..."

"Despair with no choice..."

"Trust given to the corrupted, and poisonous words and wounds inflicted upon those you cherish..."

"Many... In comparison, death is merely a moment of fear and pain, sometimes even a longed-for release."

One of Hua Caiyi's fair hands unconsciously pressed against her chest.

Such plain words, yet they gave her a feeling of sorrowful suffocation.

Her mind involuntarily flashed with images of her father, her aunt, and the Profound Sky Divine Kingdom. She shook her head slightly and said, "I've never thought about these things before, and now I... I don't dare to think about them. Oh... just hearing you say these things feels so terrifying."

"Anyone who encounters even one of these is truly pitiful."

Yun Che smiled and said, "Don't worry. A beautiful person like you surely has the blessing of the Heavenly Dao. Your dearest relatives will also ensure that none of these worldly miseries touch you in the slightest."

She turned her eyes to Yun Che for a long while and asked, full of seriousness, "It's really strange. You're clearly only thirty years old, yet you know and have seen so many things. It's just like those... seniors who have traveled countless worlds."

"Perhaps because my experiences are quite special. And..."

His voice stopped, and he hesitated for a long while before finally seeming to make a decision. "Elder Sister Qu, actually... my age is not thirty years old."

"Eh?" Hua Caiyi's eyes widened in surprise. "But at the Lin God Convention, I personally saw that your bone age was measured to be a little over thirty years."

Yun Che stopped. "It's not that the profound measuring stele had a problem; what it measures is a person's bone age. And I..."

His words trailed off. A blue light suddenly flashed around him, and a huge azure dragon's shadow slowly appeared behind him, accompanied by an ancient dragon might that instantly sealed the entire space.

"Ah!" Hua Caiyi exclaimed in surprise, taking half a step back. Her wide, beautiful eyes reflected the dragon shadow overlapping with Yun Che, right before her.

Yun Che smiled faintly, lowered his arm, and the dragon shadow and dragon might dissipated with it. "I possess dragon marrow and a dragon soul bestowed by my master, so my bones and blood are naturally different from ordinary people. The profound stele used to measure a person's bone age naturally cannot determine my accurate age."

"As I said before, when my master saved me, I was probably only ten years old. Since then, over a hundred years have passed. So my real age should be sixty years old."

Looking at Hua Caiyi, whose pink lips were half-open and whose surprise had not yet faded, he said with a look of remorse, "Dragon marrow and the dragon soul are also secrets my master strictly forbade me to reveal, which is why I've kept it from Elder Sister Qu for so long. If Elder Sister Qu is angry, I... will accept any punishment."

Compared to Hua Caiyi's surprise, Hua Qingying's mind and soul, observing from afar, trembled as if ten thousand mountains were collapsing.

With Hua Caiyi's limited experience, she couldn't recognize anything unusual about Yun Che's dragon soul. But Hua Qingying, with her vast experience...

"A Dragon God..." she murmured softly, her voice filled with unbelievable astonishment:

"Above... the... Ancestral... Dragon...?"