A sudden flash of inspiration struck Yin Ming, and a silver hairpin appeared in his palm.
The old man was so eager to come to this island before he died, he must have known for a long time that there was someone or something he cared about here.
Furthermore, given that the hairpin he left behind was clearly a woman's item, Yin Ming boldly guessed that he might have come to find Chu Yi!
Besides, Yin Ming had a very bad feeling—could he be the Su Chen that Chu Yi had mentioned?!
The moment the hairpin was exposed to the air, it seemed to sense something and began to shake violently uncontrollably.
Yin Ming was somewhat surprised; this hairpin was actually a magical artifact!
With a loosening of his grip, the hairpin broke free from Yin Ming's grasp and wobbled as it drifted towards Chu Yi.
A glimpse of silver-white caught Chu Yi's eye, and she instinctively looked in Yin Ming's direction. After seeing the object clearly, her tone was one of undisguised surprise, "This is... Silver Frost?"
Chu Yi reached out and took the silver hairpin floating in the air, her gaze nostalgic and confused. "This is a magical artifact I left for Su Chen to protect him. How did it end up in your hands? Have you ever seen Su Chen?"
Faced with Chu Yi's barrage of questions, Yin Ming was stunned. He hadn't expected that she had actually guessed correctly, but he hadn't even thought about how to answer them yet...
Should we just say that the old man has already entered the belly of the Northern Sea Divine Kun? Let's not. Yin Ming is afraid Chu Yi won't be able to accept that answer.
Feng Yan stared at the hairpin, his expression one of utter shock.
Isn't this what that old man dropped on the shore? Could it be that the old man was Su Chen?!
Feng Yan immediately crossed his arms, looking puzzled. Then, remembering that Su Chen was just a commoner, he suddenly realized what was going on.
A cultivator's lifespan not only increases with their cultivation level, but they can also maintain their youthful appearance. However, Su Chen has no cultivation at all, so it's normal for him to have aged over the decades.
He didn't think things through.
It's just that the once bright and promising young man has now become so old and decrepit; time is truly merciless.
Having figured out the key point, Feng Yan looked up at Yin Ming and gave him a look, while shaking his head almost imperceptibly.
It's clear that Chu Yi is in a state where she can no longer withstand any stimulation.
If she knew that Su Chen was dead, and that he died while looking for her, she would definitely go hysterical.
Yin Ming received his signal and shrugged somewhat awkwardly.
That's putting him in a difficult position. How is he supposed to come up with a complete story in such a short time?
Most importantly, he didn't know the old man at all, so making up a completely airtight story was simply a pipe dream!
Chu Yi and that old man used to be lovers, and they knew each other very well. I'm afraid that if Yin Ming said anything wrong, it would be noticed immediately.
After a long silence, Yin Ming finally managed to stammer out a half-truth, "This was given to me by an old man from Qinghong Town."
"He recognized me as a disciple of the Divine Realm, so he gave me this hairpin and told me to give it to a disciple of the sect named Chu Yi if I ever encountered her."
"I couldn't recall that for a moment until you mentioned him..."
Yin Ming nervously adjusted his posture and straightened his body. Should she believe him if he said this? There shouldn't be any clues that gave him away, right?
Chu Yi paused in her caress of the hairpin, a look of sorrow welling up in her eyes. "Why did he return this hairpin to me? Does he... not want to remember me anymore...?"
Yin Ming waved his hand repeatedly, saying that such a misunderstanding was unacceptable. The old man had been trying to come here to see Chu Yi until his death, so how could he not want to think about her again?
“Su Chen has not married, nor has he had children, nor does he have a large family. In fact, he has never given up looking for you all these years.”
Once Lingyao completes his advancement, he will definitely be able to defeat that Sacred Kun. At that time, Chu Yi will surely be able to leave this land abandoned by the gods.
Therefore, she would find out sooner or later that Su Chen was dead; this couldn't be kept secret for long.
Rather than letting her get disappointed, it's better to tell her in a more tactful way that she can accept more easily.
Thinking of this, Yin Ming gritted his teeth and continued:
"But as you know, he doesn't have the aptitude for cultivation... so don't misunderstand, he has always loved you, it's just that his lifespan forced him to stop doing this."
"You mean..." Chu Yi raised her tearful eyes in a daze, a single tear sliding down her cheek with her movement, her beauty poignant and sorrowful, "He's dead?"
Yin Ming couldn't bear to look at her expression, so he lowered his eyes and nodded heavily under the pressure.
What a tragedy! Two lovers who hadn't seen each other for so long, and who missed each other dearly, heard news of each other's death the next time they did... Why did he have to be the one to announce such a cruel thing? He was heartbroken too!
Upon receiving Yin Ming's affirmation, Chu Yi's body went limp instantly. Fortunately, she braced herself with her elbow on the stone table, which prevented her from falling backward.
A sharp pain shot through Chu Yi's heart, and she could no longer utter a word. She simply raised her hand and clutched her chest tightly, her face already streaked with tears.
Yin Ming was most afraid of seeing others cry, and he had absolutely no idea how to comfort them!
Suddenly, he remembered that he had seen a half-corroded river lantern at the source of the black water, and he had picked it up and put it in his spatial ring.
Now that he could take it out, he thought it might have some amazing effect, so Yin Ming quickly summoned it and placed it on the stone table.
It was a river lantern made of an unknown material, white mixed with black, shaped like a common lotus flower, with something written on the inner wall, but the writing had long been blurred by the corrosion of the black water.
Ordinary river lanterns are colorful and made of ordinary oiled paper, but this unique river lantern is the one that the old man released on the night of Qixi Festival.
The river lantern must have been carried in by the undercurrent. Thanks to its special material and the fact that Yin Ming discovered it early enough, he was able to retrieve its remains before it completely corroded and melted.
"Before Su Chen passed away, he asked me to release a river lantern like this every year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. This is the first one I released for him... I just discovered that it had drifted into the River of Resentment with the current. I felt it would be a waste to let it be corroded, so I had a sudden thought and fished it out..."
Yin Ming tried his best to make his excuse sound plausible so that Chu Yi wouldn't disbelieve him and expose his lies.
“This fool…” Chu Yi looked at the river lantern, and finally smiled through her tears.
She raised her sleeve to wipe away the tears on her cheeks. "Everyone says that the moat of Qinghong Town is connected to the waters of the Qitian Temple. As long as they release lanterns into the river, the heavens will grant their wishes..."
"He probably believed this explanation, thinking that I, being in the Qitian Temple, would receive this river lantern. He was also afraid that a river lantern made of ordinary oil paper would not be able to float far downstream, so he chose soft silver as the material."
Oh? This is actually SoftBank? Yin Ming looked around at the river lanterns in front of him.
If I remember correctly, this thing costs ten jade stones per inch. To make one of these river lanterns, it must cost several hundred jade stones.
Yin Ming seemed to know why the old man hadn't taken the Soul-Nourishing Pill he'd given him.
It was clearly meant for him to heal his wounds, but he actually used it to exchange for materials to make river lanterns... What a devoted lover!
Chu Yi reached out and took the river lantern in front of her to examine it carefully. Her mood seemed to have calmed down a bit, but when she saw the words written on the inner wall, she couldn't help but reveal a sad expression.
“‘We’ll weather the storm together and share the joys and sorrows.’ That was the promise we made when we swore an oath, but in the end, I was the one who betrayed him first.”
Wow, I didn't expect that even though it's so blurry, Chu Yi could still make out what the words were. How careless.
However, the handwriting was so blurred that the strokes were almost stuck together, so Chu Yi probably could only roughly guess what it said and couldn't tell whose handwriting it was.
Yin Ming's lie should not be exposed, so there shouldn't be any major problems.
Recalling what she had just said, a look of disapproval appeared on Yin Ming's face.
Chu Yi's words made it seem like she was taking all the blame upon herself, but this was clearly not her fault at all.
If it weren't for that damned divine realm forcing her to become some kind of goddess, Chu Yi and Su Chen would definitely be living happily together.
Therefore, the blame lies with the Divine Realm!
"This divine realm is truly something else," Yin Ming slammed his fist on the table in frustration—"They claim to be gods, yet they do such despicable things; they're utterly beasts!"
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