"Since you said there are so many rare treasures there, how could they possibly be so easy to get?" Liu Lin asked Zhang Lexuan with a serious expression.
There were seven Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts guarding the place, all of them thoroughly trained by Tang San. He was only a Soul Ancestor, and even with Zhang Lexuan, a Soul Sage, along with him, would they just be going in as cannon fodder?
Was he tired of living such a peaceful life, or what?
If Liu Lin entered the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, he would definitely charge in and take everything that could be useful to him. Wouldn't those Immortal Herbs beat him to death?
He might as well lie low and develop steadily for now, then enter the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well once he grew stronger.
Seeing Liu Lin's serious expression, the future Zhang Lexuan smiled and said,
"Have you forgotten about me? Though I'm only a wisp of divine consciousness right now, after so many years of recovery, I can still handle them."
"Besides, how else will you grow quickly if you don't go there? And even if you don't go, I still have to."
"If you don't come with me, there won't even be scraps left by the time you get there in the future. Don't regret it."
As Zhang Lexuan spoke, Liu Lin noticed the corners of her mouth lift slightly, revealing a sly smile.
As she spoke, Zhang Lexuan leaned forward a little and looked into Liu Lin's eyes, her voice softening.
"When you took me to the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well in your previous life, we didn't encounter any danger along the way. This time, we're just going a few years earlier. What's there to be afraid of?"
Liu Lin fell silent, his mind racing as he considered whether the plan was feasible.
After all, the future Zhang Lexuan truly had divine-level insight and experience. With her protecting him, the dangers of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well would be greatly reduced.
But he was still worried that helping him might destabilize Zhang Lexuan's divine consciousness.
"Can that wisp of your divine consciousness hold out? If not, we can wait a few more years and go once I'm stronger."
Hearing Liu Lin's concern, Zhang Lexuan's face lit up with a radiant smile.
Then Zhang Lexuan took off her shoes and climbed onto the bed, moving closer to Liu Lin, who was sitting there.
Seeing the dangerous look in Zhang Lexuan's eyes, Liu Lin started to say something, but before he could finish—
Zhang Lexuan reached out and flicked him on the forehead, cutting him off.
"Zhang Lexuan, what are you doing?" Liu Lin complained, covering his forehead.
After laughing to her heart's content, she finally stopped and looked at Liu Lin, whom she had teased until he was puffed up with anger.
"Of course I'm rewarding you for caring about me. Don't worry, it won't affect my divine consciousness. Just go ahead."
"Oh, right. What was it I told you to call me? Have you forgotten, Xiao Lin?"
Looking down at Liu Lin beneath her, Zhang Lexuan smiled.
Liu Lin's face was still a little red after she flicked his forehead. Though Zhang Lexuan had held him as they slept every night for the past two days, being teased like this still made him feel awkward. After hearing what Zhang Lexuan said, he stammered,
"Lexuan... Sister... could you stop teasing me? I still have something important to think about."
Feeling the warmth in the room, Liu Lin thought that if she kept teasing him, his face would soon be burning.
Looking at Liu Lin's flushed face, Zhang Lexuan couldn't stop smiling. She thought it was so much fun to tease the Liu Lin from the past.
"I don't want to get up. I think this is nice. What do you think, Xiao Lin?"
Liu Lin felt like he was about to cry. What was this supposed to be?
Looking at the expression on Liu Lin's face, Zhang Lexuan realized she might have gone too far. Her conscience pricked at her, after all, Liu Lin was only nine years old.
Then Zhang Lexuan got off Liu Lin and let him sit up.
Once Liu Lin had sat up, Zhang Lexuan sat on top of him again.
But as soon as she sat down, she felt something, and her expression turned extremely complicated.
Seeing the look on Zhang Lexuan's face, Liu Lin wanted to find a hole in the ground and start his life over.
But he quickly calmed down and changed the subject.
"Lexuan, where exactly is the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well?"
Seeing how quickly Liu Lin changed the subject, Zhang Lexuan couldn't help covering her mouth and giggling.
"Oh, now you can say 'Lexuan' so smoothly. All right, I'll stop teasing you. I'll tell you."
Then she shifted in Liu Lin's embrace and began telling him where the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well was.
Liu Lin finally let out a breath of relief and listened carefully as Zhang Lexuan told him about the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
The corners of Zhang Lexuan's mouth lifted slightly. A trace of nostalgia appeared in her cool eyes before she slowly began,
"You were the one who told me about this place in your previous life. It's somewhere in Sunset Forest."
"You also said back then that if you'd found this place sooner, your talent could have improved by a whole lot."
"Unfortunately, you learned about it too late and missed the best opportunity. So in this life, I'm taking you there early."
Hearing Zhang Lexuan's words, Liu Lin was deeply touched, but he didn't dare say anything casually for fear that Zhang Lexuan might force herself on him again.
Only after Zhang Lexuan had finished telling him everything about his previous life did Liu Lin speak. "Then, Lexuan, when are we going to the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well?"
"Tonight," Zhang Lexuan replied. After a pause, she added, "Use the Voice Recording Soul Tool to leave a message, or your little fiancée will start crying."
Hearing the jealousy in Zhang Lexuan's voice, Liu Lin could only scratch his head awkwardly.
"All right, I'm not going to get jealous over a little kid who still smells of milk. Hurry up and write."
Zhang Lexuan waved her hand dismissively. After all, based on what she'd observed these past few days, Liu Lin and Xu Jiujiu had done no more than hold hands. How could she compare to her?
"Mm, I understand. I'll write to her." At Zhang Lexuan's words, Liu Lin nodded and took a Soul Tool capable of recording messages from his Storage Soul Tool.
"I'll inform Shrek Academy. We'll fly straight toward Sunset Forest. At my speed, it won't take more than a few days to get there."
With that, Zhang Lexuan left and headed to the room of Shrek Academy's supervising teacher.
Liu Lin looked at the Voice Recording Soul Tool in his hand and sat silently for a long while.
He could already picture Xu Jiujiu's expression when she received the message. Her bright blue eyes would widen, and then she'd grip the Soul Tool and say angrily, "Liu Lin, just you wait!"
Then he said a few brief words into the Soul Tool and set it on the table.
He didn't explain much in the recording, only saying there was something he had to do. He'd be gone for at least half a month and at most a month, and he would definitely return. She shouldn't worry about him or come looking for him.
About ten minutes later, Zhang Lexuan returned in a neat, dark-blue outfit, her long hair tied into a high ponytail.
She held out her hand to Liu Lin, a teasing smile at the corner of her mouth. "Come on, Xiao Lin. Big Sister will take you flying."
Before Liu Lin could respond, she swept him into her arms.
A faint moonlight shimmered around Zhang Lexuan. She lightly tapped the window ledge with her toes, and the two of them shot into the night sky like a silver meteor.
The lights of Heaven Dou City quickly shrank beneath them. The night wind howled past their ears as Liu Lin was held tightly in her arms, her scent lingering beneath his nose from the collar of her clothes.
At dawn the next morning, when the sky had just begun to pale, Zhang Lexuan landed in a forest outside a small town.
Liu Lin dropped from her arms and rolled his stiff shoulders, which had been squeezed tight. He was about to say something when he suddenly realized that the person holding him had gone rigid.
Zhang Lexuan was looking down at the arm still wrapped around Liu Lin's waist, and at Liu Lin's face, so close to hers.
Her face visibly reddened, the color spreading from her ears down to her neck. Even her cool eyes were clouded with bewilderment.
"I... I..." She hurriedly released him and took two steps back, nearly tripping over a tree root behind her.
Liu Lin immediately understood. The person inside the body had changed.
The Zhang Lexuan now before him was the present-day Zhang Lexuan. She knew that her future self visited Liu Lin every night.
But knowing about it was one thing. Seeing herself holding a boy in her arms, and in such an intimate position, was another. How was someone who'd been single for twenty years supposed to accept that?
"Um... last night..." Zhang Lexuan stammered, unusually for her. Her eyes darted everywhere, but she didn't dare look at Liu Lin. "The future me didn't do anything strange, did she?"
"Since you want to know, then I'll tell you..." Liu Lin replied when he heard Zhang Lexuan's question.
At his words, Zhang Lexuan's face turned completely red. She spun around sharply, leaving Liu Lin with only her stiff back and ears so red they looked ready to drip blood.
About two minutes later, Zhang Lexuan took several deep breaths and tried to make her voice sound calm. "All right, let's keep going. We need to get moving."
Meanwhile, in Liu Lin's room at the Heaven Dou Empire hotel, Xu Jiujiu listened to the Voice Recording Soul Tool in her hands, her expression dark.
"Damn Liu Lin. Just let me catch you."
Even after saying that, Xu Jiujiu was still very worried about Liu Lin, afraid something might happen to him.
Then she couldn't help rubbing her nose. She had no idea why it had been so itchy since she woke up that morning.
Meanwhile, as Liu Lin and the Zhang Lexuan from the present timeline traveled over the following days, the subtle awkwardness between them gradually faded.
At first, Zhang Lexuan would blush at the slightest thing and didn't even dare touch Liu Lin's hand. But soon, she could walk beside him naturally, start fires and cook with him, and discuss cultivation insights around the campfire.
Liu Lin also gradually learned how Zhang Lexuan had grown over the past few years: from being saved by her future self on the night her family was massacred, to entering Shrek Academy, to breaking through step by step under the guidance of the future Zhang Lexuan.
Her path of cultivation was completely different from the original story. She wasn't bound by a betrothal to Mu En, nor had she taken a twisted path because of hatred, but she still carried the past of her family and the weight of her responsibility for the future.
Every night, after the present-day Zhang Lexuan fell asleep, her future self would quietly take control of the body.
She no longer chained Liu Lin up, but she still held him as they slept, burying her face in the crook of his neck. Sometimes she would wake in the middle of the night and quietly watch his face.
Whenever Liu Lin awoke, he would find himself resting on Zhang Lexuan's lap, covered by her outer garment.
On the evening of the eighth day, Zhang Lexuan and Liu Lin arrived in a small town near Sunset Forest.
They decided to spend the night there before heading to the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well in Sunset Forest.
There was just one little incident when they rented a room.
Zhang Lexuan took Liu Lin to an inn to rent a room. As the landlady checked them in, she saw Liu Lin's young face.
"Young man, you're so handsome. Plenty of girls will like you when you grow up. Make sure your big sister protects you."
"I'm his wife. He doesn't need to find anyone else," Zhang Lexuan said from beside them.
After hearing Zhang Lexuan's words, the landlady looked at Liu Lin, then at Zhang Lexuan. She could no longer hide the shock in her eyes.
"Haha... I see. That's great, then. You can nurture your relationship from a young age. I have things to do, so go on upstairs."
With that, the landlady left the front desk.
Meanwhile, in Star Luo City, at Xu Jiujiu's palace,
a maid stood to one side with a book in her hands, reading a story to Xu Jiujiu, who was lying in bed. As she listened, Xu Jiujiu suddenly sneezed.
"What's going on? Why have I been sneezing so much these past few days?" Xu Jiujiu asked, puzzled.
"But it's been nearly ten days. Liu Lin, why aren't you back yet? I miss you so much," Xu Jiujiu thought silently.
Seeing Xu Jiujiu lost in thought, Xiao Yu, her maid, cautiously asked, "Princess, shall I keep reading?"
"Mm, go on." Xu Jiujiu nodded at the maid, signaling for her to continue.
"Mm, last time we left off with the heroine and her disciple forming a soul contract, while the hero watched..."
At Xu Jiujiu's words, Xiao Yu continued reading the story to her.
Listening to the maid's story, Xu Jiujiu couldn't help frowning.
"Isn't this author just making things up? Forget it, stop reading. You may leave."
"Yes, Your Highness." At Xu Jiujiu's words, the maid left her chambers.
At dawn the next morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, Liu Lin and Zhang Lexuan left the inn and flew toward Sunset Forest.
At noon, Zhang Lexuan carried Liu Lin into Sunset Forest and flew toward the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
About half an hour later, Zhang Lexuan brought Liu Lin to a stop at a certain place.
"We're here. It's inside." The future Zhang Lexuan looked at the place before them and set Liu Lin down.
"We finally made it." At Zhang Lexuan's words, Liu Lin climbed down from her and looked at the scene before him.
A ring of mountains, more than five hundred meters high, enclosed a conical basin-like valley. The mountainsides were bare and jagged, their rocks weathered and mottled. The valley entrance was completely blocked by the Bi-Phosphorus Poison Miasma, a thick green fog that rolled endlessly through the years, sealing off the inside from the outside.
The vegetation in the forest had withered. The ground was muddy and strewn with foul marshes, while sulfurous air mingled with currents of alternating heat and cold and spread in every direction. The remains of those who had wandered in by mistake could be seen everywhere.
"Mm, this is the place. Let's go. And don't forget what I told you earlier."
At Zhang Lexuan's words, Liu Lin nodded.
"I know."
Zhang Lexuan nodded at Liu Lin's reply and led him deeper into the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.