I wouldn't mind lending you my embrace

Xie Xiyi could not help giving Chi Yu a few more looks. He did not know why Chi Yu was always so happy.

He turned his face slightly away, but the corners of his restrained lips still lifted a little, in an entirely different curve from before.

He had been planning to change the scented balm he used, but now he suddenly lost interest in doing so.

I might as well keep using it.

Three days later, they finally reached the border of the Wasteland.

Only after arriving did Chi Yu discover that they were not the only ones there. Senior Brother Qingxuan and his ill-tempered senior brother were also in the Wasteland, though they were very far away.

Privately, Chi Yu did not want to run into them, so he pointed in another direction.

They got off to a flying start. Not long after they landed, a yaomo caught their scent and charged at them.

Holding Xiaoqiu in one hand, Xie Xiyi leaped aside with ease and called to Chi Yu from a distance, "This yaomo is at the fifth level of Qi Refining. You deal with it."

Chi Yu's pupils shook. "!!!"

Help! The jungler's run off and left a healer to solo a lane!

Chi Yu frantically took out his Spirit Sword, poured spiritual energy into it, and launched an attack at the yaomo. The yaomo dodged easily and let out a sinister cackle. "Human flesh and blood taste the best! Don't move. I'll slowly bite you into pieces and swallow you!"

Xiaoqiu grabbed his sword to go help, but Xie Xiyi stopped him. "Let him handle it himself."

Xiaoqiu protested, "Your Highness, didn't you tell me to protect him? Why have you changed your mind?"

"He's at the Foundation Establishment Stage," Xie Xiyi said coldly. "If anyone needs protecting, he should be protecting you. If he needs you to protect him, can he still call himself a cultivator? If he can't take this little setback, he might as well go back to farming."

Xiaoqiu could only stand there hugging his sword, watching the fight nervously. He managed a strained compliment. "Aotian-ge is pretty fast at running away."

Then he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Aotian-ge, hurry up and kill it! You can do it, Aotian-ge! You're amazing, Aotian-ge!"

Xie Xiyi: "..."

Chi Yu was having a genuinely difficult time fighting back. Yaomo were hybrids of the Demon Race and the Demon Clan, possessing the Demon Race's brute strength and ferocity as well as the Demon Clan's cruelty and savagery. They were actually stronger than either pure demons of the Demon Race or members of the Demon Clan.

This was a setting unique to Divine Path. In other novels, mixed blood weakened them, but in Divine Path, yaomo were stronger than members of the Demon Clan and the Demon Race at the same level.

In other words, although this yaomo's cultivation was at the fifth level of Qi Refining, it should actually be equivalent to a member of the Demon Clan at the seventh or eighth level.

Chi Yu could only keep dodging, because his opponent was extremely fast.

Soon, Chi Yu had rolled around until his head and face were covered in dust, but he gritted his teeth and persevered. He could not let the Crown Prince look down on him.

It was not that he lacked ambition. Whenever he did something, he wanted to do it as well as possible.

The only reason he had not devoted himself to cultivating was that he still had the Forbidden Curse on him. He could not be certain whether it would send him straight into the Golden Core Realm.

If he reached Golden Core at this age, he would have at least four or five fewer years to grow and develop. For his body, the harm outweighed the benefits.

But now that he was truly facing a yaomo, Chi Yu felt his own weakness keenly. To talk about being Long Aotian when he was like this made all his usual talk seem entirely theoretical.

Chi Yu tried hard to concentrate and cast aside every distracting thought. His mind slowly calmed as he rapidly considered his tactics.

He first lured the yaomo into the woods. With the trees blocking its way, the yaomo's movement speed was noticeably restricted, but moving also became somewhat harder for Chi Yu.

Yaomo also had greater stamina than ordinary cultivators, so kiting it would not work for long. Chi Yu had no intention of wearing it down for too long anyway. He took several Explosive Talismans from his Sumeru Ring and threw them at the yaomo.

With a tremendous bang, a whole swath of trees was blasted to dust. Naturally, the yaomo was caught in the blast too. Half its body was blown away, and it fell from the air, howling in pain on the ground.

Chi Yu strode over and raised his Spirit Sword to cut off the yaomo's head.

But with his Spirit Sword raised, he could not bring himself to strike.

Xie Xiyi floated over with Xiaoqiu in hand. Seeing Chi Yu hesitate, he could not help asking, "You can't even bring yourself to kill a yaomo?"

Without a word, Chi Yu slowly lowered his sword, took an Explosive Talisman from his Sumeru Ring, and stuck it onto the yaomo's head. He stepped back several paces and detonated it with a thread of spiritual energy.

With a bang, the yaomo's head was instantly blasted to dust.

Chi Yu took a deep breath and said as though nothing had happened, "There. That's done."

Xie Xiyi's gaze settled on Chi Yu's somewhat pale face. After a pause, he said, "You did very well."

Somewhat stiffly, he imitated Xiaoqiu's words. "You're amazing."

Chi Yu froze, then could not help laughing. He lifted his face and looked toward Xie Xiyi from a distance, saying joyfully, "Senior Brother Xuanji, this is the first time you've praised me, isn't it?"

Xie Xiyi: "..."

He took those two sentences back.

Author's note:

Little Fish: the kind of puppy who gives you a smile when praised.

Little Fish will keep growing. According to a certain theory, using cold weapons is more likely to cause psychological trauma than using firearms. At this point, Little Fish still wants to protect his mental well-being as much as possible.

But in the end, he will still grow into a decisive, ruthless Long Aotian. A Little Fish who is still growing.

Chapter 32: I wouldn't mind lending you my embrace

Chi Yu was unwilling even to watch chickens being slaughtered at home. The impact of killing a talking yaomo this time went without saying.

He chatted with Xie Xiyi and Xiaoqiu. "I've attained enlightenment."

Xie Xiyi glanced at him without speaking.

Only Xiaoqiu played along and asked, "Aotian-ge, what have you realized?"

Chi Yu said with a serious face, "All appearances are illusory. If I get hung up on killing and bloodshed, unable to turn back, then I'm attached to appearances. People suffer because they cling to all kinds of appearances."

"But people are people precisely because they have emotions and desires, all kinds of worries, and all kinds of appearances that trouble them. If they could truly stop clinging to appearances, they would already have reached the realm of Buddha.

"That's a contradictory proposition: having emotions and desires while also transcending every appearance and present circumstance. But perhaps that's also the meaning and method of cultivation. All phenomena arise from the mind. As long as I know what path I'm walking, that is my original, true self. That is being as I truly am."

The CPU in Xiaoqiu's head was about to burn out. He did not understand. He opened his mouth, but ultimately remained silent.

Xie Xiyi spoke. "Having abilities in one's heart and looking down on all beings is an illusory appearance, yet also no appearance."

"Yes," Chi Yu said. "So I won't be troubled by this sort of thing anymore."

Only weak people needed others to talk them through their troubles. Chi Yu considered himself someone who had always been strong, so he talked himself through it and revived on the spot with full health.

He said cheerfully, "After fighting for so long, I'm hungry. I'll go cook."

With that, he scampered off to find somewhere to set up a stove.

Xiaoqiu moved beside Xie Xiyi and lowered his voice. "I always feel there's something strange about Aotian-ge being like this."

Xie Xiyi looked down at him and asked casually, "What's strange?"

Xiaoqiu said solemnly, "People can't be happy all the time, but Aotian-ge manages it. He's happy no matter when it is. But the moon wanes once it's full, and water overflows once it fills a vessel. Even the sun in the sky rests at night, with the moon taking its place. That's the Heavenly Dao."

Xie Xiyi raised an eyebrow. "Have you attained enlightenment too?"

"Your Highness!" Xiaoqiu said irritably. "I'm being serious."

"That's a matter of spiritual attainment," Xie Xiyi said casually. "As he said himself, joy is the realm of Buddha. He has attained constant joy, so he is as he truly is, observing things as they truly are. In this respect, I fall short of him. He's the one suited to being the Buddha-son."

Somewhat surprised by Xie Xiyi's honesty, Xiaoqiu did not know what to say for a moment. After struggling for a while, he finally said dryly, "Then that really is a shame. You're the Future Buddha-son, Your Highness."

Xie Xiyi said nothing. His gaze settled on Chi Yu, who was singing an unknown tune and chopping vegetables with a smile. His slender waist, cinched by his belt, swayed gently, and his toes moved to a regular, rhythmic melody as he put his unaccountable joy into practice.

What was the Dao of a Long Aotian like this? Ascension to the Immortal Realm? Neither arising nor ceasing?

Xie Xiyi thought it was neither.

Long Aotian, what is it that you want?

Xie Xiyi did not voice that question-curiosity was a kind of appearance. Once he became curious, more appearances would follow, along with more converging causes and conditions, dragging him into the abyss called "Long Aotian."

Xie Xiyi was casting that aside, so he would not be curious about him. All joy and contemplation would stop at a gentleman's friendship, as plain as water. It was best for them to remain simply fellow disciples.

After that, without needing Xie Xiyi to tell him, Chi Yu began actively seeking out yaomo himself. However, their cultivation was low, all at the fourth or fifth level of Qi Refining. Not one met the requirements.

Xie Xiyi had plenty of experience with this. "Yaomo at the higher levels of Qi Refining have strength comparable to Foundation Establishment cultivators and are more cunning. Naturally, they won't run around everywhere."

Chi Yu: Got it. We can't go around making such a big show of things.

So Chi Yu put away the flying artifact, and the three of them walked on the ground.

Chi Yu did not find this tiresome. He picked up another straight stick, ran excitedly up to Xie Xiyi, and held it out before him. "Senior Brother Xuanji, look at this stick."

Xie Xiyi had seen Chi Yu playing with sticks more than once. Even in his room, a pile of straight, smooth sticks of various lengths leaned beside his bed. They really were ordinary objects with little spiritual energy and nothing special about them.

Yet Chi Yu had picked them up one by one and placed them lovingly beside his bed, where he could see them as soon as he opened his eyes. And because of these ordinary objects, his face could show pure joy, unmixed with any other emotion.

Xie Xiyi glanced at the stick and said once again, "There's nothing special about it."

Chi Yu said thoughtfully, "There's nothing special about it, but it's very straight and smooth. Just looking at it makes me happy-actually, happiness is a very advanced emotion. It places very high demands on itself."