Chapter 1066: Chapter 600: Come (Extra Update 2-in-1)

The sword edge was almost in front of his eyes, nearly ready to strike.

"It’s not that I don’t want to," Tongxuan shook his head and said, "The more you betray your master and ancestors, the deeper I will take root."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yi sneered, "You don’t want to? You are the Heart Demon, of course you don’t want to."

Tongxuan looked at him with a strange expression, then burst into laughter and retorted, "Is being this woman’s Heart Demon really that fun?"

Such a sudden question made Chen Yi pause; he looked Tongxuan up and down incredulously. Tongxuan met his gaze without dodging or retreating.

Outside, vine tendrils tightly entwined, the dead branches and leaves shattered by the wind; tall fir trees stood merely as empty shapes, their insides withered and shriveled hard. In Chen Yi’s eyes, this scene was as barren as it could be,

smoke dissipated, clouds vanished, and the mountains lay eternally silent.

Under the fir trees piercing the sky lay buried two lifetimes of unspoken obsession.

Chen Yi understood that she really wasn’t unwilling; if positions were swapped and he were Zhou Yitang’s Heart Demon, he would certainly go mad here.

"Heart Demon, Heart Demon, born from the heart, nurtured by the heart, like sowing seeds," Tongxuan placed a piece as if pouring beans from a bamboo tube, "In this barren, exhausted Heart Lake, seeds cannot be sown, roots cannot take hold, there is truly nothing left worth lingering over. It’s a pity the Heart Demon cannot commit suicide. To be her Heart Demon is not to torture her, but to torture me."

After a moment, Chen Yi turned back, smiling wryly, "She is such a woman."

After saying this, he sheathed his sword and continued trying to surround the white pieces’ offensive, playing as he spoke, "How can I eliminate so much obsession? I see they all listen to you."

Tongxuan did not rush to answer, saying, "Call me Master and let me hear it?"

"...Master."

"Good. The obsessions have no spirit or intelligence; they all obey me. However, this doesn’t mean they will offer their necks to be slaughtered; they also avoid harm and seek benefits."

"I know they avoid harm and seek benefits, but I want to do my utmost to clear Zhu Yu’s obsessions."

"Then, how much are you willing to sacrifice?"

During the conversation, the two played as swiftly as flying, the battle on the chessboard growing fiercer, with cutting through, blocking, surrounding, and killing; the black and white dragons slaughtered each other back and forth. Even as the situation became more dire, Chen Yi still had no intention of conceding defeat.

"I’ve sacrificed a lot for her, so this time is no different," Chen Yi said calmly.

Tongxuan smiled helplessly, seemingly understanding Chen Yi similarly; she did not try repeatedly to persuade him to change his mind but said, "Do you already have an idea?"

Chen Yi dropped a piece heavily on the board and said, "I know the obsessions avoid harm and seek benefits, but what is called harm and benefit requires comparison. Although this place is barren, they have nowhere to go. With sword pressure they naturally are harmed; with abundance they naturally seek benefits."

"You mean..." Zhou Yitang’s Heart Demon looked astonished at this moment, "bring these obsessions into your Heart Lake?"

Chen Yi closed his eyes and nodded slightly.

"Are you mad?" Tongxuan’s face was serious, "She cuts off Three Corpses, though the obsessions are numerous, this place is so barren that they cannot form into Heart Demons, unthreatening to life. But this is both one truth and another; the orange born in the south remains an orange, born in the north it becomes a trifoliate orange. Any strand of obsession entering your Heart Lake could easily become a Heart Demon. When it does, a decline in Martial Arts, broken meridians—these are trivial matters; eternal damnation isn’t just empty talk."

"I can’t just watch her die," Chen Yi was resolute and said slowly, "In extraordinary times, use extraordinary methods."

Following this Heart Demon all the way here, Chen Yi had been pondering how to clear Zhou Yitang’s obsessions. He had long realized these obsessions listen to the Heart Demon’s orders, hence the sudden idea: simple, dangerous, yet highly effective.

Furthermore, Zhou Yitang was currently engaged in combat with someone, unable to consider what was happening in the Heart Lake, allowing no obstacles at all.

Tongxuan furrowed her brow and pondered for a long time. She even forgot to play the piece, only after Chen Yi motioned did she finally look at Chen Yi, wanting to speak but stopping.

"First, let me thank Master," Chen Yi sincerely bowed, expressing his intention.

Tongxuan did not smile; her expression was complex, the chess piece held in her palm, still unable to be placed. It was the last hesitation.

Chen Yi patiently waited, and although she was Zhou Yitang’s Heart Demon, her feelings as a mentor were genuine.

After a moment, Tongxuan finally moved to place the piece, the white piece slowly falling towards the black dragon. She slightly opened her lips, and just as the word "good" was about to escape, her hand suddenly jerked, causing the piece to land sideways on the board.

An unreasonable move.

Chen Yi suddenly stood up, quickly turning to look out the window.

The world changed color.

It wasn’t Tongxuan’s deliberate trembling a moment ago, but the entire Heart Lake trembling, like a dragon turning over. At this moment, the bright sky suddenly turned dark, as if a celestial being had swallowed the sun. The blazing sun illuminating the sky dispersed, with infinite darkness spreading.

The night fell abruptly, the daylight pushed farther and farther away, the darkness grew deeper and deeper, the layers of the mountains instantly blurred. The entire Cangwu Peak surrounded by nothingness, as if sent into a Vacuum Home.

Chen Yi looked at the pitch-black sky, subconsciously turning back to Tongxuan.

The state of mind can be influenced by the outside world, and the changes in state of mind are projections of the outside world. So... where exactly has Zhou Yitang gone now?

Tongxuan also stood up, and said solemnly:

"Vacuum Home."

.......

Zhou Yitang looked around, heaven and earth were void, boundlessly dark, seemingly arriving at a realm of pure, undyed eternal bliss; she stood in place, inexplicably lost.

Suddenly she remembered many things.

Indifference, loneliness, regret, nostalgia, and reluctance—not scenes after scenes, nor words one by one, but pure memories flowing through her mind.