"What are you trying to say?" Xie Xiyi watched him with eyes that remained deep even after turning light brown.
"..." Chi Yu fell silent for a moment, then took out his bead. "Senior Brother Xuanji, you can have this one."
Xie Xiyi's faintly smiling face froze slightly, revealing a rare look of surprise. "You... which Buddhist sect's Righteous Object is this?"
"The Zhengtong Buddhist Sect," Chi Yu answered.
Xie Xiyi's smile faded. "You're the Zhengtong Buddhist Sect's Future Buddha-son?"
Chi Yu wanted to say no, but explaining would be troublesome, so he simply said, "Yes."
Xie Xiyi accepted the Righteous Object and reached out with one hand to stroke Chi Yu's face.
Chi Yu instinctively raised his hand to cradle Xie Xiyi's, tilting his cheek gently toward his palm.
Xie Xiyi's voice softened a little. "It seems you're quite used to being caressed by your Senior Brother Xuanji."
Those words undoubtedly drew a distinction between himself and Senior Brother Xuanji.
Chi Yu realized it, but neither withdrawing his hand nor turning his head away seemed right. He simply froze there.
Xie Xiyi laughed, a somewhat inscrutable laugh that was certainly not kindly. He covered Chi Yu's eyes with his palm, drew out the sword energy inside them, and flung it onto the ground, splitting a small stone.
"How pitiful. Your eyeballs have already been shredded." Xie Xiyi spoke regretfully, but there was no sign of distress on his face.
Once again, Chi Yu recognized that this was definitely not his Senior Brother Xuanji-he was very likely the Xie Xiyi from the original novel.
But how did the Xie Xiyi from the original novel... know his name?
"What do you want?" Xie Xiyi asked Chi Yu, accepting the Righteous Object prayer bead.
Chi Yu had originally intended to give it