"Ah!"
"Huff, huff, huff..."
In the pavilion of Purple Cloud Fairy's cave abode, Li Qingyuan suddenly jolted awake from his sound sleep. Sweat covered his head, and excruciating pain swept through every inch of his bones, tendons, and muscles, even eating into his Primordial Spirit.
Li Qingyuan's blue robes were soaked through as he gasped for breath, like a drowning man hauled out at the thin line between life and death, lucky to have survived.
"You're awake?" Zixiao smiled gently and asked, "How do you feel?"
Li Qingyuan clutched his chest. "It hurts. It hurts so much."
"It felt as though I was truly there, facing a mighty True Immortal. The pain of self-detonation was no different from the real thing. I thought I was doomed."
Zixiao asked with an enigmatic smile, "When faced with a True Immortal searching your soul, you detonated yourself without hesitation. Was that because you still had a Natal Clone through which you could instantly revive? Or because you had secrets you couldn't reveal?"
As she spoke, Zixiao leaned forward slightly, propping her chin on her fair hand. Her beautiful violet eyes, dreamlike and illusory, stared straight into Li Qingyuan's.
Li Qingyuan felt uncomfortable beneath that beautiful gaze. Zixiao was stunning, and her eyes could captivate the soul. He instinctively turned his head to avoid her gaze.
"Senior, how did I end up on the Immortal Path Battlefield?" Li Qingyuan pressed. "Does the Investiture of the Gods Realm truly exist? Does Opening the Immortal Path inevitably mean being intercepted and killed by True Immortals?"
"Was all of this a dream?"
Zixiao straightened her leaning body and slowly settled her peach-shaped bottom beneath her purple dress onto her seat. With one hand supporting her chin and the fingertips of the other tapping the table, she made