Chapter 679: Fen Juechen!?

Chapter 679: Fen Juechen!?

"Big Brother, what's wrong?" Seeing Yun Che suddenly stop and his expression change several times, Xiao Yun and Tianxia Diqi immediately became nervous.

"Alas, it seems there might be a bit of trouble." Yun Che said with some resignation. "Let's go down."

As the largest profound cultivation clan in Liu Yun City, looking down from above, the Xiao Clan was particularly conspicuous throughout the entire city. The direction Yun Che descended to was not the main gate, but almost subconsciously, he landed in a courtyard on the eastern side of the Xiao Clan, near the back mountain.

This place was very quiet, the entire Xiao Clan was very quiet. The courtyard before them had only simple furnishings and simple houses. In the corner of the courtyard was a verdant grape trellis, covered in clusters of greenish-purple grapes. Beside the trellis were placed a simple stone table and two somewhat small stone stools, and on the right stool, there were several long cracks.

Standing in the center of the courtyard, looking at everything before him, Yun Che's eyes flickered slightly, and he was momentarily lost in thought.

"Big Brother, is this place...?" Looking at Yun Che's expression, Xiao Yun asked curiously.

"This is the place that holds almost all of my memories before I turned sixteen." Yun Che said softly.

"Ah? This is Big Brother Yun's home?" Tianxia Diqi looked around, astonished. In Liu Yun City, owning such a courtyard could be considered luxurious for an ordinary person. But for Tianxia Diqi, who was born into a Guardian Clan and was the only princess of the Tianxia Clan, such a home was far too simple and shabby. He was the young master of the Yun Clan, the Demon Lord of the Huan Yao Realm, and could even be said to be the one who saved the fate of the entire Huan Yao Realm. She couldn't imagine that the place where Yun Che grew up would be so humble.

"Yes, this is my home." Yun Che smiled faintly. "Ever since I can remember, I lived here. But at that time, this place didn't belong only to me, but to me and Little Aunt. Back then, we were together day and night. Wherever I went, she would go; wherever she went, I would go, like each other's shadows. Until I turned ten years old, Grandfather said we could no longer share the same courtyard, and he found a new courtyard for Little Aunt. Because of this, Little Aunt cried for many days, and I also protested with all my might to Grandfather. But Grandfather, who usually doted on us endlessly, refused to budge on this matter."

"After that, Little Aunt, who lived in the new courtyard, often sneaked back to sleep with me. But when Grandfather found out, he would scold her harshly. Until later, as we gradually understood that men and women should not touch each other intimately, Little Aunt never sneaked back again."

Yun Che spoke gently, with a faint smile. At this moment, his smile came from the soul, without any impurities. In those years, although he was often mocked and occasionally bullied, always bearing looks of contempt and pity, at that time, because of Little Aunt, his happy times far outweighed his sadness, and even his sense of inferiority was very faint.

In these years, he was no longer that waste with a completely crippled profound vein and no future. His strength grew greater and greater, admired and even feared by more and more people. The height he stood at was far, far above the Xiao Sect, which the Xiao Clan revered like gods. But it also caused his world to be forever filled with storms, and he could never return to that happy world that only had Little Aunt.

It had been over six years since he last came here. But everything here overlapped almost perfectly with his memories, with no changes at all—whether it was the doors, windows, stone table, grape trellis, or even the lanterns that had been hung there during his wedding with Xia Qingyue six years ago, they still existed, though they had weathered terribly.

The entire courtyard was extremely neat, without any of the dilapidated and dirty appearance Yun Che had expected from being unused for six years, as if someone swept it every day. Yun Che took a step forward, stood before the stone table, and gently pressed his hand on the stone surface, moving it. When he lifted his finger, there was not a speck of dust.

This place had just been cleaned by someone.

Yun Che's heart trembled. Could it be... could it be...

"Xiao Che, is that you?"

In this world, there were very few voices that could directly touch Yun Che's soul, which was as firm as a rock. But Xiao Lingxi's voice was definitely one of them. Yun Che's heart and soul stirred violently, and he almost instantly turned around. At the entrance of the courtyard, Xiao Lingxi stood in a light green dress, her star-like beautiful eyes filled with a thick layer of mist.

"Little Aunt..." Yun Che called out softly. His arm, completely involuntarily, lifted forward, as if wanting to cross space to touch this closest, most familiar, and most important girl in his life. "I'm back..."

"Ah..." Xiao Yun couldn't help but exclaim. He stared at Xiao Lingxi, stunned, and said, "She is... she is..."

The "Little Aunt" that Yun Che called proved to him the identity of this young girl. This girl with a stunning appearance, a pitiable demeanor, and who looked even younger than himself, was his Little Aunt... was his blood relative.

Xiao Lingxi's small hand pressed heavily against her lips. Crystalline tears fell like broken jade beads. After a brief moment of stillness, she let out a soft sob, and with tears flying, threw herself at Yun Che, crashing heavily into his chest. Her arms tightly wrapped around him, and her gushing tears quickly soaked a large area of his chest.

"Xiao Che... Xiao Che... Xiao Che..." She called out over and over, and soon she was sobbing uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry, Little Aunt. I promised you I would return in a month, but... but I made you wait bitterly for three years." Yun Che's arms circled around, gently holding the girl in his embrace. Her waist was even more slender than three years ago, and her body more delicate... even her profound strength had regressed rather than advanced. In three years, Yun Che had grown about half a foot taller, making the girl in his arms appear even more fragile and petite. What pained Yun Che the most was her crying. The Little Aunt he knew would laugh heartily and cry loudly, especially in front of him, unreservedly releasing all her emotions.

But the Little Aunt before him, though she was crying, was trying hard to suppress her sobs, only her shoulders shaking violently. Her body had lost some of its spirit, replaced by a melancholy so heavy that it almost made Yun Che's heart break and suffocate.

In these three years, how many cruel scars had his "death" and the great calamity of the Cang Feng Kingdom carved into her heart?

Yun Che's hands silently clenched into fists. He raised his head, his eyes rippling with traces of pain. When I was worthless, when my profound vein was crippled, the thing I saw most every day was Little Aunt's smiling face. Now I grow stronger day by day, but why do I bring Little Aunt only heartbreak and pain, time and time again?

"What exactly am I pursuing strength for?!"

Xiao Lingxi shook her head vigorously, tightening her arms around him. The chest she leaned on was broader than before, and his chest was the only place in this world that made her heart truly calm and content. With sobs, she said softly, "I know Xiao Che didn't mean it... It's good that Xiao Che is back... I thought I would never see Xiao Che again... My Xiao Che has finally returned..."

Those murmurs carried the pain of longing and the joy of having lost and found again. Yun Che took a long, deep breath. He lowered his voice and said with utmost determination, "Little Aunt, I promise you, from now on, I will never let you..."

Yun Che's voice stopped abruptly. His entire body stiffened violently, and in an instant, his gaze turned ice-cold as it swept sharply behind him. He quickly turned his body, bringing Xiao Lingxi along.

Because at that moment, he was suddenly locked onto by an extremely yin-cold aura. He possessed the Water Spirit Evil Body, so he was not afraid of ice and cold. But when this aura enveloped him, it gave him a momentary feeling of piercing cold that stabbed into his heart and soul, and all the hairs on his body stood on end in an instant. In his mind, he even vaguely reflected a pair of pitch-black demonic eyes like an abyss, and in a trance, he felt as if he had suddenly been placed in a terrifying and sinister dark hell.

This unprecedented, icy, sinister, and extremely uncomfortable aura — could this be the demonic aura that Mo Li spoke of?

"Who exactly is it!?"

The moment he turned around, Yun Che's gaze firmly locked onto a black figure floating in the air. He was slightly shorter and thinner than Yun Che, dressed in black clothes, with hair as black as night that hung down to his waist. His face was stiff and pale, his eyes lifeless and dark, without a trace of brightness. The aura emanating from him carried a yin-cold that seeped straight into the bone marrow, but Yun Che could feel no life force from it at all — as if what was floating there was not a living person, but a dead corpse.

When he saw the face of this black shadow clearly, Yun Che's brows moved sharply, and a deep look of surprise appeared on his face.

"Fen Juechen!?" When he called out the last word, Yun Che's voice carried obvious hesitation.

His appearance, and even his eyes, were exactly the same as the Fen Juechen in his memory. But the Fen Juechen he knew definitely did not have such an aura. Moreover, from this black-clothed man, he clearly sensed a distinct and cold feeling of danger! With Yun Che's current realm, for someone to give him a sense of danger, they would need at least the strength of an early-stage Emperor Lord. And three and a half years ago, when he let Fen Juechen go, his profound strength was only at the Spirit Xuan Realm. In less than four years, there was no way he could have reached a level capable of threatening him.

"Oh? It's actually this person." Mo Li's voice also carried surprise.

"Yun Che!!" His face remained stiff, and when he spoke, neither his expression nor his dim pupils moved at all. But his voice carried a bone-piercing, icy resentment. "You're still alive... You're actually still alive!!"

The aura enveloping Yun Che turned dozens of times colder in an instant. And the moment this black-clothed man spoke, Yun Che confirmed that this person was indeed Fen Juechen beyond a doubt! Because this voice, this tone, and this resentment were exactly the same as when he had let him go back then!

"Do you know how much I hated, how much I suffered when I heard the news of your death back then!? These years, I have dreamed every night of longing for you to come back to life, so that I could personally tear you apart!!"

Fen Juechen's hands were trembling. Two clusters of black aura floated around his palms, becoming denser and denser. Yun Che's gaze flicked to those two clusters of black aura — just a glance, and his entire body felt an extremely uncomfortable sensation. He turned his gaze back, staring straight at Fen Juechen without flinching. "It seems your beautiful dream has come true. But do you really think that the current you can kill me?"

Before Fen Juechen could answer, a cold sneer from Mo Li came from within Yun Che's mind. "His current profound strength level is Sovereign Xuan Realm, Level 5. Add the special nature of demonic profound force, and if you fight head-on, he can definitely kill you!"

"!" Yun Che's eyes twitched violently. "You're not joking, are you!!"

Back then, he had destroyed the Fen Tian Gate, but had spared Fen Juechen alone. The main reasons were that he had indeed saved Xiao Lingxi once, and also because of Xiao Lingxi's plea. The secondary reason was that subconsciously, he did not think that Fen Juechen surviving could pose any threat to him. At that time, a thousand Fen Juechens couldn't have harmed him. Moreover, with his unparalleled growth speed, even if Fen Juechen's talent were ten times higher, he would only fall further and further behind, eventually becoming nothing more than an ant in his eyes.

The bloodline and divine power he possessed were what ordinary people couldn't even dream of in a hundred lifetimes! His master was Mo Li, who existed beyond this plane. In Tian Xuan Continent, in terms of growth speed, no one should be able to match him.

Xia Yuanba had such astonishing growth speed because he possessed the Overlord Emperor Divine Meridian! And it was this heaven-defying talent that made the Huangji Sacred Domain, ranked first among the Four Sacred Grounds, treasure him as a supreme treasure.

Fen Juechen, who was only at the Spirit Xuan Realm back then... how could he possibly have achieved the mid-stage Emperor Lord in less than four years!?

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Mo Li said coldly. "However, you don't need to be too surprised. His power did not come from cultivation. Even his demonic aura was not derived from his own will. Rather, a Demon Source was injected into his soul!"