Chapter 85 A Soul Bond Forged: To the Ends of the Earth, a Bond That Will Never Farewell. ...

Inside a room in the Demon King's Palace, the door creaked open.

The Left Protector, carrying a bloody, mangled object, stepped in without changing his expression.

Su Yiqing and Yun Mingyu looked up at the same time. The former felt a chill, while the latter remained indifferent.

The Left Protector threw Yunxing to the ground.

Yunxing had been tortured for three days and was no longer recognizable as a human being, a rotten mess on the verge of death.

The Left Protector said, "You, kill him."

He was referring to Yun Mingyu.

This is the master's order. Since Yunxing values ​​this son, let his child end his life with his own hands.

Upon hearing this, Yun Mingyu stood up and glanced at Su Yiqing: "Can I refrain from killing in front of her?"

Since the master hasn't given any special instructions, then it's permissible. The Left Protector nodded.

Yun Mingyu dragged Yun Xing away to a secluded corner. The Left Protector did not follow, seemingly trusting him completely.

Yun Xing still had a breath left, and his voice, like a broken bellows, came out intermittently: "Yun Mingyu, I've nurtured you for so many years, and now you treat me like this, don't you feel any remorse?"

Yun Mingyu lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry, Father, it hurts me deeply."

Having said that, he let go of him, leaving him lying on the ground, and drew his sword.

He stared into Yun Xing's unseeing eyes and stabbed him mercilessly.

With a soft splatter, blood splattered all over the ground.

A raging fire ignited on his blood, burning him to ashes and preventing him from regenerating from a single drop of blood.

The voice of the Left Protector came from behind: "You did a good job. I will personally attend the Demon King's enthronement ceremony."

Yun Mingyu responded faintly, wiped the bloodstains off her body, and turned back into her room.

"We can go now." He squatted down in front of Su Yiqing, looking at her obediently. "Were you scared?"

Su Yiqing: "...I'm hungry."

Yun Mingyu smiled and helped her up, saying, "I'll take you out to eat."

*

After leaving the Demon King's Palace, the Left Protector was teleported to the vicinity of Tianhan Mountain.

Shen Zhou's tribulation took place here. The lightning tribulation was so powerful that it left the surrounding area in ruins for miles around. He and Jin Ze had no choice but to clean up the mess.

As Jin Ze removed the heavenly lightning that had seeped into the earth's veins, he said dejectedly, "He ran away so fast, leaving us to clean up this mess again!" The Left Protector silently went over to help, saying, "You won't say that once you have a Daoist partner."

Jinze immediately curled his lip, his face full of disdain: "Didn't you get kicked out by Madam last night? You talk as if you're doing so well."

The Left Protector smiled, looking completely at ease: "Arguments between husband and wife are common. You don't understand, it's also a kind of fun in life..."

"Alright, alright, I don't have time to care about your love life!" Jinze waved his hand irritably.

He simply doesn't understand these so-called feelings.

Even a few days ago, when Shen Zhou was about to undergo his tribulation, he said the same thing.

"Go and reincarnate, stop thinking about that woman! Anyway, once you're gone, she'll fall in love with someone else and forget about you," he said. "Besides, you've even left Lie Tian to her, what more could you want?"

Lie Tian was already the strongest magic weapon in the world, not to mention that it was infused with half of his magic power. Even if the Heavenly Dao wanted to kill that woman, she would still have the power to fight back.

Shen Zhou didn't say anything. His reaction was indifferent. He casually found a place and planned to break through on the spot.

At that moment, as if afraid he was about to die, Jin Ze couldn't help but ask, "You still haven't answered me, who exactly am I?"

Dark clouds gathered from the horizon, a cold wind suddenly rose, and Chen Zhou tilted his head slightly, his bright red hair ribbon intertwined with his black hair, fluttering in the wind.

His voice was calm and ethereal: "Many years ago, I met a man named Jin Yue."

"At that time, I had just become the leader of the Ziyang Sect. One day, I went to kill someone. After I finished, I found that a Qinglian Dao Body was being kept in this person's mansion."

He was bound like livestock, barely clothed, and every day someone would come and gouge out his flesh and blood.

Yet, when such a person sees a stranger, they simply smile weakly and say, "Why are you here today?"

Thinking of someone, Shen Zhou took him away.

“He was a good man, so I promised him before I died that I would protect his descendants,” Shen Zhou said. “The medicine people are unwilling to be hunted down, and most of them are unwilling to have offspring. In this generation, you are his only remaining direct descendant.”

Jinze opened his mouth, all his previous guesses collapsed, and he squeezed out the words with difficulty: "So I was under your protection from the moment I was born."

As Lie Tian's vessel, any damage he suffers is transferred to Lie Tian, ​​allowing the spiritual energy attacking him to be absorbed by Lie Tian.

More than a decade ago, he turned on his father, Feng Chi, with a sword. In a fit of rage, Feng Chi wanted to tear him to pieces.

However, he did not die. When Feng Chi realized that he could not kill him, he was even more terrified and ordered him to be imprisoned under the Thunder Suppression Tower and left to fend for himself.

Later, someone broke through the Thunder-Suppressing Pagoda with a single sword strike, freeing him from the chains.

The man approached against the light, sword in hand, and asked, "What's your name?"

Having not spoken for so long, Jinze found it difficult to utter a sound. The man used magic to heal his throat, and he replied, "Call me Fengze."

The man said, "From now on, you will take your mother's surname and be named Jinze."

At that time, he thought it was an ordinary name. He never knew that the character "今" (Jin) carried such great weight that it could make a person never forget it for tens of thousands of years.

Over the years, Shen Zhou treated him neither well nor badly. Jin Ze was imprisoned in the Thunder Suppression Tower at the age of twelve and locked up for ten years. In the words of the Left Protector, he was still just a child. A child implies rebellion, stubbornness, and impulsiveness.

But then he encountered Shen Zhou. This man's desire for control was as terrifying as his strength; he wouldn't allow anyone to go against his will, and Jin Ze had countless thoughts of killing him.

He kept convincing himself that he didn't owe Shen Zhou anything, and that this man was willing to save him because he must have some leverage over him, or because he owed Shen Zhou a debt of gratitude from his mother or grandfather and was simply repaying that debt.

But now he can't convince himself anymore, because he knows in his heart that he owes Shen Zhou, and the Jin family has owed him for generations.

The wind grew stronger, and thunder rumbled as clouds rolled down.

Just before the first lightning bolt struck, Jinze shouted, "I lied to you! The Heart-Questioning Sword I gave you last time was fake; I threw the real one into the East Sea!"

"She pulled it out, Chen Zhou!"

There will never be anyone else; her heart has been given to you!

Boom—

Lightning burst forth as if the sky had shattered, and thousands of purple lights poured down.

Amidst countless streaks of purple lightning and thunderous roars like war drums, Shen Zhou's robes fluttered as he burst into loud laughter.

He said, "I know!"

Of course he knew. No one understood Hua Deng's feelings better than him, not even Hua Deng herself.

He actually said he knew? Jinze stared in astonishment, his eyes widening, and suddenly realized that he had never intended to die from the beginning; he wanted to live and stay with that woman!

"Since you know that, why don't you reincarnate!" Jinze shouted. "She loves you so much, she would be willing to wait for you!"

“But I won’t,” Shen Zhou said. “Each reincarnation takes hundreds of years, and I won’t make her wait.”

He wouldn't let her end up like he did, waiting for family and friends to turn back, only to be met with an "I'm sorry."

Jinze couldn't see his expression.

But Shenzhou is definitely not the same as before.

During his years at Ziyang Palace, the more things Shen Zhou thought about, the more silent he became.

Adding to the matter of Xue Zifei, when he discovered that even after finding the Heavenly Jade of the East Sea and the Boundless Wood of the Northern Plains to reshape his physical body, he still could not revive a dead person, he fell into an extremely frenzied state of cultivation.

Every moment, every day and night, he did almost nothing but cultivate. He wanted to die; only by transcending the tribulation as soon as possible could he achieve liberation.

Therefore, in this life, his power increased at a much faster rate than before, and his body also collapsed at a much faster rate than in his previous life.

He was about to die, but someone stopped him on his way to death, and from then on he could never leave.

Jin Ze said, "You have to start all over again! Thirteenth life, starting all over again!"

Shen Zhou remained unmoved, and upon hearing the voice, laughed, "So what?"

Jinze shook his head, and after a long while, he also smiled.

Yeah, so what?

For him, it was just another ten thousand years.

*

Are you sure you won't regret it?

Hua Deng leaned against him, tilting her head back to ask.

She couldn't tell how much time had passed; she only knew that he had carried her to the bed, and that her body was covered in his scent.

Shen Zhou gently kissed her forehead and said casually, "No."

Hua Deng grabbed him: "How do you know it won't happen again?"

Shen Zhou said slowly and deliberately, "I can't guarantee anything about the future, but right now, I will absolutely not let you go."

Seeing that Hua Deng was about to say something, he simply said, "Never mind all that."

The whispers of the city lights turned into a low murmur, then were swept up in a new wave.

He held her tightly with his arm, panting as he asked, "Hua Deng, I miss you so much. Have you ever thought of me?"

The streetlights trembled slightly: "Yes... I miss you so much."

Shen Zhou: "Do you like the lantern I gave you?"

Hua Deng immediately pinched him: "I knew it was you who sent it!"

Shen Zhou chuckled softly: "So clever."

Hua Deng angrily demanded, "Why didn't you come to see me?"

Shen Zhou countered with a question: "How do you feel when you miss me?"

Hua Deng pursed her lips slightly: "...I'm very sad."

It's like being submerged in water; just thinking about it makes it hard to breathe.

“I want you to remember this feeling,” Shen Zhou said frankly.

Those who have never experienced separation always think it's no big deal. He wanted her to taste this bitterness, to remember it forever, and to never push him away again.

Hua Deng, with her eyes closed, felt both angry and heartbroken, and finally nodded gently.

She will remember this; she never wants to be separated from the one she loves again.

As she succumbed to her desire, she felt Chen Zhou's fingers caress her ankle, stroking it as he asked, "Hua Deng, do you know what this is?"

When she opened her eyes, she saw him playing with the bone chain he had given her, and on his wrist, there was an identical bracelet that had appeared at some point.

"What is it?" she asked.

“It’s a contract,” Shen Zhou replied with a smile.

He stared into her eyes, giving her no room to back away, his entire presence enveloping her, leaving her no choice but to look at him.

He said, "I want to form a spiritual bond with you."

"Are you willing?"

"..."

Hua Deng laughed: "Can I say I don't want to?"

“Okay.” Shen Zhou nodded without hesitation. “I won’t force you to do anything.”

Before she could finish speaking, Hua Deng was forced to take the force and was thrown backward. She bit her lip hard to keep from screaming.

She glared at him angrily: "You said you wouldn't force me!"

Shen Zhou stretched out his long arm and pulled her back, brushing the stray hairs from her cheek: "I didn't force you, you were the one who wouldn't let me go out."

Hua Deng kicked him: "Aren't you going to form a bond?... Go ahead and do it!"

Shen Zhou: "Do you know what forming a bond means—"

Hua Deng blushed and whispered, "I know! Are you still going to pay or not? I'm not paying."

Shen Zhou laughed heartily and lowered his head to kiss her.

At the deepest point of the kiss, he clenched his fingers and crushed the bone bead.

The red thread grew wildly, penetrating flesh and blood, and wrapping around the entire heart.

They could never be separated from each other again; their souls would be imprinted with each other's marks, lasting until death.

"Watano, no matter where I go, I can find you."

"No matter where you go..."

This is the bond between the soul and the spirit.

To the ends of the earth, we will fight to the death.

The bed curtains swayed and rolled, and the faint sound of a man's low, husky voice could be heard.

"Hua Deng, don't abandon me."

"I have been waiting for you for a long time."