Chapter 10

Consciousness is like a sinking ship, slowly rising from the dark deep sea.

Lin Yibai struggled to open her heavy eyelids. The first thing she felt was a lingering sting in her neck. She took a sharp breath before realizing the oppressive feeling of being tightly bound. She tried to move her arms and legs, but found them tied behind her back, and her ankles bound tightly by tough vines, preventing her from moving.

She looked around: This place... seemed to be a prison cell.

The touch beneath her was strange. It wasn't the hard ground or a stone bed, but a rough yet slightly elastic texture, like... the skin of some plant. She was startled, suppressing the scream in her throat. Then, using all her strength, she struggled to bend her bound legs and slammed them down.

"Boom..."

A dull and empty echo came from below, spreading in the silent darkness.

Are they hollow? Are they hanging from somewhere high up?

This realization made her heart chill, but now she was imprisoned, and even if she knew she was in a high place, it would be of no help to her, and instead added to her despair.

"What are you doing stupid."

At this moment, a low and cold voice suddenly sounded in the darkness, and it was particularly clear in this dead silent space.

Lin Yibai was startled and turned his head sharply to look in the direction of the sound. By then, his eyes had gradually adapted to the darkness, and he could vaguely make out the outline of a figure not far away - it was Yan Bujian.

He was also tied up tightly, even more thoroughly, with each finger individually wrapped and fixed with thin and tough vines. It was obvious that the old demon was afraid of the sword energy he had displayed earlier, and completely prevented him from making any hand seals or casting any spells.

The young man leaned against the wall, and even though he was a prisoner, his back remained straight.

"...What did you say?" He just spoke suddenly, and Lin Yibai was stunned for a moment, almost thinking that he had misheard.

The young man snorted impatiently and turned away without even a glance, as if looking at her any longer would pollute his eyes.

"If you don't want to say it, then don't say it. Why are you so arrogant..." Seeing that he looked so aloof again, the secret joy that had just risen in Lin Yibai's heart was instantly extinguished, and he muttered in dissatisfaction.

"Are you tired of living and afraid that the old devil doesn't know that you and I are awake, and will come to take our lives right away?" Yan Bujian didn't even turn his head, his voice was very low, but every word was like a needle, hitting Lin Yibai's heart hard.

"--Or do you still not understand what that old demon's plan was in abducting you and me?"

Lin Yibai choked suddenly and realized that the noise he had just made could indeed bring danger. He immediately felt guilty and shut up awkwardly, not daring to make any more noise.

The only sound in the darkness was the barely audible breathing of the two people.

After a while, a low and embarrassed voice was heard: "...What idea?" Lin Yibai opened and closed his mouth, and finally asked innocently.

—She truly didn't know! This part didn't even exist in the original novel. It made sense to kidnap the male protagonist, since he was the old demon's future mortal enemy and had incredible growth potential. Wanting to nip him in the bud before he could even fully develop made perfect sense. But why kidnap a newbie like her?

Yan Bujian suddenly opened his eyes and looked at her.

Lin Yibai was a little uncertain for a moment: a hint of... shock seemed to flash across those eyes that were always covered with ice?

What kind of reaction was this? She hesitated for a moment, and was about to speak—

However, at this moment, a heavy, dragging sound of footsteps approached from afar, accompanied by the rustling sound of vines being rubbed, breaking the silence.

Then, with a creaking sound, the withered, terrifying face of the Tengyan Patriarch appeared in the dim light at the doorway. He chuckled, holding a foot-long wooden barrel in his hand, pushed open the vine door, and slowly walked towards the two of them.

Seeing this, the two men froze, and then tensed up at the same time.

Lin Yibai couldn't help but curse in his heart: "The ability is basic, but the trouble is not basic"! It's all because of his cheap legs. Yan Bujian really got it right!

The turbid green eyes of the old ancestor Teng Yan greedily swept over the two of them, and finally stopped on Lin Yibai.

He sneered, then hooked his skinny fingers - a vine sprang out like a poisonous snake, wrapped around Lin Yibai's wrist, and the sharp thorns pierced her blood vessels again.

"What are you doing!" Lin Yibai gasped in pain, his eyes immediately turned red, but his hands and feet were tied, and he was unable to struggle at all. He could only watch as the bright red blood was continuously drawn out and poured into the dark green wooden basin next to the old demon.

Watching the old demon holding the bowl of blood carefully as if it were some rare treasure, Lin Yibai suppressed his dizziness and fear, his mind racing.

Why did he draw her blood at this time? !

The plot is so off. This old demon showed up decades in advance. There must be a reason...

She took a deep breath, her voice trembling from the blood loss. "My father once said that you had already entered seclusion at the foot of the Withered Blood Cliff eighty years ago, striving to reach the middle stage of the Spiritual Transformation Realm... Yunni Town and the Withered Blood Cliff in Central Continent are more than ten thousand miles apart. Why, why did you suddenly appear here?"

Patriarch Tengyan was concentrating on the blood bowl in his hand. Hearing this, he didn't even look up. He chuckled and said, "Little girl, you know my whereabouts very well."

Seeing the blood filling up, his mood brightened, and he actually replied, "I was originally cultivating at the bottom of the cliff, and indeed did not care about external affairs. However, a month ago, a strange lightning signal broke through the restriction at the bottom of the cliff and sent it straight to me."

Lin Yibai's heart skipped a beat: "Lei Xin?"

"That's right." The old ancestor narrowed his eyes, as if recalling something. "The letter contained very few words, stating only that the person with the 'natural sword bone' had appeared in Yunzhou. Enclosed with the letter was a compass needle, pointing precisely to this small town of Yunni."

Lin Yibai immediately turned to look at Yan Bujian, secretly complaining in his heart: Sure enough, I was tricked by this guy! This old demon's target was originally just Yan Bujian, but I was unlucky enough to be caught in the trap!

However, the next moment, she was speechless. She turned to Patriarch Teng Yan and said, "Then you believed it as soon as the thunder letter came? You are hundreds of years old. You believe whatever others say."

"Hmph, I initially suspected a trick," said Patriarch Teng Yan with a cold snort. "But the aura in the letter was so ethereal that I couldn't discern the origins of the sender. Furthermore, the allure of 'natural sword bones'... was simply irresistible. Even if there was a one-in-a-million chance that it was true, it was worth the effort—" He paused, then bent down to the wooden barrel, greedily inhaling the blood vapor within. "But now it seems this trip has yielded quite a reward. Not only a sword bone, but also a profound body of supreme yin! Regardless of that person's true intentions, I owe him my gratitude!"

Seeing that the barrel was already two-thirds full of blood, Lin Yibai's face turned as pale as snow. If he continued to draw blood, the girl's life would be in danger. So he clicked his tongue and retracted the blood-sucking vine.

"Alright, today's blood collection is complete. You two just behave yourself here—soon, I'll give you a supreme 'reward' that no one else can even dream of."

Then he laughed triumphantly three times, picked up the bucket of precious blood, turned around and walked out with satisfaction.

The vine door closed with a "click".

As the footsteps faded away, Lin Yibai suddenly felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, his whole body shivering with cold - not only because of the blood loss, but also because of what Patriarch Teng Yan had just said!

Someone! Someone deliberately lured Patriarch Tengyan to Yunni Town! Who was it? Who had the power to send Lei Xin to the bottom of the Withered Blood Cliff, accurately predicting Yan Bujian's whereabouts, and who was behind all this, causing the plot to completely derail?

The huge sense of conspiracy was like a dark cloud pressing down on her head, making it almost impossible for her to breathe.

In the darkness, she felt a cold gaze falling on her.

Yan Bujian obviously also heard what was said just now.

After a long silence, Lin Yibai took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down: Now is not the time to panic. Although she doesn't know why the old man Teng Yan would draw her blood, but since he has already started, she must find a way to save herself!

Now, one of them is only at the peak of the Golden Core stage, and the other is only at the initial stage of Qi Refining. It is undoubtedly a pipe dream for them to force their way out from under the control of the old ancestor Teng Yan.

Thinking of this, Lin Yibai couldn't help but frown -

Is there no other way to outsmart them?

Just when he was at a loss, suddenly, a passage from the original novel flashed through his mind like lightning!

——When the original body was young, when Lin Wuya was still "normal", he had accidentally said something to her while teaching her. At that time, it was just a casual conversation in her spare time, but now it suddenly flashed a white light in her mind——

"Wood cultivators, because their cultivation methods are close to nature, have strong vitality and are extremely difficult to kill... but most of them share a common problem: a fear of insects. Especially—they are capable of devouring strange insects."

"Alien insects..." Her voice trembled and her whole body began to tremble.

Then, an extremely risky plan quickly took shape in her mind.

She struggled to move her bound body and turned towards Yan Bujian. Her voice was extremely low, trembling with desperation: "Yan Bujian... do you believe me?"

The moment she asked this question, her heart sank and she was ready to face his cold sneer - after all, she had hurt him so much, and the past was like thorns between them, how could he believe her?

She could almost imagine that he would turn his head in the next second, glare at her with the kind of eyes that could freeze a person, and spit out heart-wrenching words.

But unexpectedly, there was silence in the darkness.

There was no expected sneer, no merciless ridicule. Yan Bujian remained silent, not even his breathing rate changed.

This unnatural silence, like a stone dropped into stagnant water, sent ripples through her heart. She froze, then an indescribable surge of ecstasy gripped her heart—there was a chance! He hadn't rejected her out of hand! Did this mean...he was willing to listen to her?

So she mustered up all her courage, inched closer to his side, and whispered, almost in his ear, "I don't know why this old demon wanted to kidnap you and me, but if we just sit there and wait for death, we'll definitely die. Instead of that, why don't we... give it a try."

She then laid out her plan in full, then looked nervously at the young man. This plan was bold and crazy, and while the chances of success were slim, it was the only straw she could grasp at in such a desperate situation. If Yan Bujian didn't agree, she was afraid she would really be dead.

In the darkness, she could see that Yan's beautifully contoured jawline was extremely taut.

He is thinking and weighing the pros and cons.

After a long time, so long that Lin Yibai almost thought he would no longer pay attention to her, she heard a very light, almost inaudible sound——

"good."

...Did she hear it right?

In the darkness, she stared wide-eyed, trying to see Yan Bu-Shu's expression, but could only catch a glimpse of the boy's vague outline. Nothing was clear, and the next moment, a huge, unbelievable ecstasy, like a flood bursting through a dam, instantly washed away her forced composure.

——He actually agreed!