With his earlier warning, he hoped his fellow disciples would be a little more guarded when they encountered others.
Wu Fei was asking Kuzheng about what had happened after entering the inheritance tomb when a gaze with an unmistakable presence suddenly fell on him. Sensing it, he turned toward Jing Fanyu and, sure enough, caught a trace of gloom in the protagonist's eyes before he could hide it.
Was this... jealousy?
Wu Fei lowered his eyes slightly, a dark glint flashing through them.
Then he looked up and smiled. "Junior Brother Jing, will you come with me, or go look for the Heavenly Sword Sect disciples?"
Jing Fanyu had already composed himself and smiled gently. "Then I'll continue imposing on you, Senior Brother Wu Fei."
At night, the inheritance grounds covered in yellow sand looked even more eerie. More and more cultivators, Devil Cultivators, and Demon Cultivators were drawn here, keeping far apart from one another.
Wu Fei sat upright on the bed, his head slightly bowed, obscuring his expression. He slowly summoned a sphere glowing with faint golden light from his Dantian. This was his natal Spirit Artifact, the Silent Dust Pearl.
Before he refined the Silent Dust Pearl into his natal Spirit Artifact, it had also been a bead of unknown material, extremely similar to the black iron ball Jing Fanyu had obtained in the ruins.
It seemed a little too coincidental...
As he pondered, a lilting melody from a xiao flute slipped through the gaps in the wooden cabin's window and into the Buddhist disciple's ears. Wu Fei lifted his eyelids and swept his Divine Sense over his fellow disciples nearby, discovering that he alone could hear it.
After a moment's thought, Wu Fei put away his natal Spirit Artifact and slipped his Buddhist prayer beads back onto his wrist. Then he suddenly paused again. The flute music continued in his ears, and his lips curved slightly before he took a fresh Buddhist robe from his storage ring and changed into it.
In the woods not far from the inheritance grounds, Wu Fei walked slowly toward the sound of the flute.
The night was deep. When Yin Fan saw the Buddhist disciple emerge from the darkness, his eyes lit up. Leaning sideways against a tree, he let his burning gaze roam over Wu Fei without restraint.
"You look truly distinguished in that Buddhist robe."
Colorful patterns adorned the black Buddhist robe, lending the desireless Buddhist disciple a touch of worldly warmth. Clearly, the robe Wu Fei had deliberately changed into suited the Devil Venerable's tastes perfectly.
Wu Fei stopped two or three meters away from the Devil Venerable and asked, "May I ask why you lured me here with your flute so late at night, Devil Venerable?"
Yin Fan said, "Naturally, I've been thinking of you and longing for you. My obsession runs too deep, so I could only follow my heart."
Unfortunately, the Buddhist disciple's heart held only cultivation. "Obsession hinders cultivation. You would do well to root it out as soon as possible, Devil Venerable."
"For Devil Cultivators, obsession actually benefits cultivation." Yin Fan chuckled. Hadn't it been obsession that allowed him to kill the Northern Region's Devil Venerable?
Wu Fei remembered this as well. For Jing Fanyu, without such a deep obsession, how could a single thought have led him into becoming a devil?
He sighed softly, raising his eyes to look directly at the Devil Venerable beneath the tree. "It benefits cultivation, but I fear it may harm your body and mind."
Yin Fan froze for a moment, then drew closer. "Are you concerned about me?"
The Buddhist disciple of the Buddha Spirit Sect was actually showing concern for the Devil Venerable of the Devil Domain...
To his surprise, the Buddhist disciple really did nod, his eyes seeming to see straight through the Devil Venerable's mask. "You came with goodwill, Devil Venerable. What is wrong with my returning it with concern?"
"Goodwill?" Yin Fan raised a hand to cup the side of Wu Fei's face. "Have you forgotten that I injured your face the moment we met?"
Wu Fei naturally remembered those three marks, like scratches from a kitten, and smiled faintly. "Rumor has it that Devil Venerable Yin Fan is bloodthirsty by nature and brutal in his methods..."
How could a mere three red marks count as brutality?
Though he left the rest unsaid, Yin Fan could guess it. He fell silent for a moment, then, somewhat embarrassed and angry, brushed his fingers toward Wu Fei's lips. "Have you forgotten this as well?"
The ink-black robes touched the black Buddhist robe. In the dim night, it was almost impossible to tell which belonged to the Devil Venerable and which was Wu Fei's Buddhist robe.
Wu Fei neither flinched nor dodged, allowing the hand at his lips to brush them intimately as his eyes drifted shut. "Since your obsession now stems from me, how could I stand idly by?"
Buddhist cultivators believed in delivering all living beings. Wu Fei did not want to deliver anyone else, but he did want to deliver this protagonist who enjoyed teasing him.
As for how, what the two had in mind could not have been more different.
Yin Fan stared at him for a moment. Demonic Qi surged in his hand, and the ink-black flute he had played earlier floated above his palm, spinning and shrinking. The hand resting against Wu Fei's face shifted slightly, drawing out the lurking Demonic Qi.
Wu Fei watched his movements, surprise flashing in his eyes. The next moment, he saw the protagonist turn the Demonic Qi into a thin cord, tying one end to the miniature flute and attaching the other to the prayer beads on his wrist.
"In that case, let this flute protect you in my stead." Yin Fan studied the prayer beads, thoroughly satisfied. "Lest you die in this inheritance tomb before you can help dispel my obsession."
The miniature ink-black flute hung from the prayer beads, looking inexplicably harmonious.
A shadowy glint flickered deep in Wu Fei's eyes. He brushed his fingers over the prayer beads and removed a plump bodhi seed. "A gift in return. It can calm the mind and ward off evil qi."
The protagonist's Myriad Spirits Body was so heaven-defying that it actually made him more prone to injuring himself. If something like his injury from absorbing ghost qi for the first time happened again, this prayer bead could offer some help.
This scene seemed rather similar to when Jing Fanyu had given him ice lotus core tea and Wu Fei had returned the gift with prayer beads...
"If you give me this prayer bead, won't your strand be one bead short?" Despite saying this, Yin Fan took the bead from Wu Fei without the slightest hesitation and toyed with it fondly.
Wu Fei said, "It's fine. I can simply string another one on."
Wu Fei had plenty of bodhi seeds in his storage ring. They simply were not as fine in quality as the one Yin Fan held.
"Aren't you curious about what I look like beneath my mask?" Yin Fan still vividly remembered how Wu Fei had warned him when his mask accidentally fell off last time. Wu Fei was the first person who showed no curiosity whatsoever about the face behind his mask.
The real reason was, of course, that Wu Fei knew what he looked like beneath the mask, but...
"Living beings take countless forms. What I look at is your heart, Devil Venerable."