He was leaning against the tree with one leg bent and the other stretched on the ground. His appearance made Pan Xiaodie's eyes involuntarily linger on him for a moment longer than necessary, especially on that ridiculously handsome face.
She recovered swiftly, and her brows knitted into a deep frown. Why had she failed to sense his presence earlier? No! In the first place, why were her senses nonexistent?! It was only then that she realized her power had been significantly reduced!
She was weaker than even lowly mortals who had not yet stepped into the Divine Way!
"What is happening?!" A sharp surge of fear rose within Pan Xiaodie. Losing her original True God Realm cultivation was not something she could accept with calm indifference. Worse still, she had no idea where she was. This place bore no resemblance to the northern half of the Primal Chaos.
Could this be the other side of the Abyss?
Wait! In the first place, she and Mo Su had fallen into the Abyss of Nothingness. They were supposed to die. Why was she still alive?! Was she trapped inside some final hallucination before death?!
'No, It can't be. Shouldn't be... right?' The mere thought made Pan Xiaodie's blood turn cold. She fiercely shook her head, ran a hand through her long inky black hair, and took a deep breath. Steadying herself, she strode forward toward that stupidly handsome man.
As she drew nearer, the man tilted his head slightly in her direction. He regarded her with eyes brimming with open, unguarded curiosity, as though she were some rare and fascinating creature that had wandered into his quiet world. Pan Xiaodie's lips parted. She meant to demand answers, to question him sharply, but the instant her gaze locked with his face, those clear, starry eyes that seemed to hold entire constellations, the words simply dissolved on her tongue.
In the end she could only raise one hand in cautious greeting and speak softly.
Pan Xiaodie was usually straightforward, open and aboveboard. She knew clearly what she loved and what she hated. Proud but never contemptuous, strong but never bullying the weak.
However, at this moment, she truly could not bring herself to act as overbearing as she used to be. Perhaps the sudden disappearance of her cultivation had left her feeling insecure.
"Oh, hey!" Yun Wuji waved back at her, smiling brightly. "You look lost."
After routing Pan Xiaodie's feelings and guiding her out of her self torment and sense of abandonment, just as he had expected, she did not wake up immediately. So he followed his initial plan and entered her dream, though he modified it.
"Where is this place?" Pan Xiaodie remained at a safe distance from him. For some reason, she sensed a familiar feeling from him, as if she had felt this presence before.
"Who knows," Yun Wuji shrugged his shoulders casually, he pointed a finger at her and asked, "Shouldn't you be the one knowing this?"
"Me?" Pan Xiaodie pointed at herself, genuinely confused. What the fuck was this man talking about? Still, why was he acting as if he were familiar with her? Did she know him before? That was impossible. There was no way she would forget a man this handsome.
Heck no one would be able to forget someone with an appearance like this even if they have no feeling for him.
Yun Wuji held the black butterfly between his palms, cupping them carefully. He stood up and strode toward her. His movement caused Pan Xiaodie to tense. She took two steps back and readied herself to fight, watching vigilantly as he approached her and opened his hand.
The black butterfly rose into the air, flapping its wings and leaving a dark trail behind it. From that trail, more and more butterflies were born. They flew around Pan Xiaodie several times before drifting away.
"This is your dream, you can decide where to go and when to wake up," Yun Wuji said, stretching out his hand as a soft white light bloomed around his palm.
He could not wake her up forcefully. After all, Mo Su had spent more than three million years nearly destroying the entire universe and still failed. With the path he chose, Yun Wuji could only try to guide her and help her wake up. At the same time, he would do what he always did... try to take over the world!
Cough... I mean, rizz women up.
"Dream? What do you mean?" Pan Xiaodie's pupils shrank to half the size of your wiwi.
She stiffened in an instant. Was this all nothing but a dream? How could that be?! Even if the thought had crossed her mind earlier when she first came to this place, that did not mean she truly believed it. Besides, how could someone else exist inside her own dream? Why would a virtual character conjured by her own mind tell her something like this?!
"What is this familiar feeling? Was... was it you?" Her attention suddenly shifted to the light in his hand. The same sense of peace and serenity she had felt when she escaped that hellish darkness washed over her once again. Her tense nerves relaxed, her body responding before her mind could catch up. Her legs moved on their own, drawn toward that feeling, and her hand reached out to touch it.
"Holding hands? How lewd!" Yun Wuji stared at the pale, delicate hand wrapped around his own and spoke in a surprised tone.
Two major things, aside from his frightening genius, defined him. His acting skills and his extremely high attainment in Light Profound Energy. It always helped him create a good first impression on others. The reason he used Light Profound Energy to help her break free while guiding her emotions back to herself was obvious. He wanted to give her a sense of closeness.
Despite being a Devil God and the daughter of a Devil Emperor, she felt no pain or repulsion toward this Light. On the contrary, she was instinctively drawn to it, as if it were the one thing that could keep her serene and sane. "You, it was you who helped me!"
She did not let go of his hand. Or rather, she had not even noticed she was holding it so tightly. Her voice came out urgent as she asked him, her grip tightening even more.
"Indeed it was me. You were asleep for so long, so in my great compassion I decided to help," Yun Wuji replied in his usual narcissistic tone, staring back into her black eyes that looked like shining black jewels reflecting the light.
"You? Why?" Pan Xiaodie blinked in confusion. Only then did she realize she was holding a man's hand. How lewd! As if electrocuted, she hurriedly pulled her hand back. The moment she did, a sense of regret and disappointment welled up in her heart. That feeling of peace she had missed for countless years vanished just as quickly.
"Because I wanted to," Yun Wuji shrugged and smoothly changed the topic. "You refused to wake up no matter what I did, so I used some special means to enter your dream."
"So this really is a dream?" Pan Xiaodie said in disbelief, shaking her head faintly. She believed his words to some degree, but she could not immediately trust a strange man, even if he was handsome and gave her such an addictive, soothing feeling. Absolutely not.
"Yeah, but it seems you are not waking up anytime soon. Let us go play elsewhere in the meantime. Perhaps one day you will grow bored and decide to get your lazy ass up," Yun Wuji turned around and walked ahead, waving his hand for her to follow. "Come with me."
"Lazy ass? That is rude!" Pan Xiaodie felt offended by his crude words. She stomped her foot and ran after him. Perhaps because she sensed he was not an immediate danger, she relaxed, and her original straightforward and aboveboard personality began to resurface.
"I am the Great Limitless Emperor Yun. Why would I care if I am rude to others?" Yun Wuji shrugged indifferently. He cast a sideways glance at the woman now walking beside him and said, "You should be honored that I deigned to speak to you in the first place. Do you have any idea how lucky you are?"
"Great Limitless Emperor Yun? What is that? Did you give that title to yourself?" Pan Xiaodie rolled her eyes at his boastful claims and snickered. "Who in the Primal Chaos would dare call themselves a Great Emperor in the presence of Creation Gods and Devil Emperors? You must either be extremely arrogant or a fool sick in the head."
She had fallen asleep long before the start of the Great War between Gods and Devils. She had no idea that the Era of Gods was already long gone.
"Devil Emperors? Creation Gods? All but two are long gone. Even if they still existed, I would not put them in my eyes," Yun Wuji dismissed her words casually. This universe truly favor the jade beauties. The Ancestral Goddess was female, and despite the majority of Creation Gods and Devil Emperors being male, they all died, leaving only two females behind.
"They died? That is impossible. Who could kill Royal Father? What about the others?!" Pan Xiaodie's face turned deathly pale as she froze in place. She could not accept or even imagine what he had just said. She would rather believe everything he said was a lie, an enormous lie.
"Everyone is dead. All the True Gods and Devils are gone, except for Li Suo and Jie Yuan," Yun Wuji said calmly as he observed her reaction.
He could have hidden the truth, pretended this was nothing more than a dream, and spent a long time with her here. Given enough time, he could certainly make her fall for him. But that path carried a fatal flaw. Once she woke up, she would realize he had been playing her.
So Yun Wuji made a big brain move. He stated clearly that this was a dream, then rizzed her up while waiting for her to wake. In fact, he could even use this to force her awakening. If she fell for him deeply and he suddenly disappeared, would she not desperately want to wake up and find him?
...
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