Several days later, in the far western land.
"Do you want to say what you just said again?" Bo Saixi's face was a little strange. She stopped her steps, turned her head to look at Lin Feng, an unknown brilliance sparkling in her eyes.
"Ahem, just a joke," Lin Feng looked up at the sky. "The sun is really big today."
Bo Saixi gave a fake smile. "It's night now."
"Oh, then the moonlight is really beautiful."
"It's cloudy. There's no moon."
Seeing that he was no longer speaking, Bo Saixi spoke, her tone icy. "You don't need to be concerned about those things. The last time Qian Daoliu came to find me, he had already shown that he had let go of the past."
"I am very unhappy with your probing just now. For me, nothing is more important than becoming a god."
Her gaze held an unknown color, which made Lin Feng's heart throb for a moment. He always felt that her mood had suddenly become bad.
Bo Saixi frowned and shook her head, suppressing the inexplicable irritability that had come from her heart. Just now, Lin Feng had asked her what she thought of Qian Daoliu. A few simple words had, for some reason, made her a little angry.
"Forget it. Let's continue on our way. The far western land is already within the continent's range. You can help me shape a Soul Vein, right?"
Lin Feng nodded and then shook his head. "No hurry. It is certain that I will help you shape a Soul Vein, but to arrive at Spirit City is the best choice. Before that, we still need to make a trip to the Heaven Dou Empire to get something."
"What thing?" Bo Saixi looked over with confusion.
"A very important thing for me, and also something I must obtain on this trip to the continent," Lin Feng's expression became serious. He looked at her seriously. "Similarly, it is also very important to you, if you want to achieve godhood."
Bo Saixi's heart inexplicably accelerated. A sharp light flashed in her eyes. "What thing is so important?"
Lin Feng laughed, his serious expression returning to his calm. He spread his hands. "It's a secret for now."
"In addition," Lin Feng stopped his forward steps. "How about I take you to see Tang Chen?"
Bo Saixi, who was closely following Lin Feng's steps, paused. A jade-like hand under her clothes fiercely clenched.
(What does he mean by this? Tang Chen is still alive? But why ask me now? Is it a test for me or something? Or is it for other reasons?)
Her gaze in an instant became complex. She gave Lin Feng a deep look, as if wanting to see something from his calm expression. "Tang Chen... he's still alive?"
Lin Feng nodded lightly. "Yes, he's still alive. However, his current state may not be very good, not much different from being dead."
Bo Saixi looked at Lin Feng. Lin Feng was also looking at her. The two of them, on this desert of the far western land, just looked at each other like this. For a long period of time, no one spoke.
In the end, Bo Saixi was the first to break the silence. Her voice was very weak. "If I say I want to go and see him, will you be angry?"
"No."
"Really?" Bo Saixi's gaze still carried a trace of uncertainty.
"Naturally."
"Oh," she replied, her mood indescribably good, or bad.
Lin Feng blinked his eyes. "What the hell is 'oh'? So do you want to go and see him?"
"No. Let's go," Bo Saixi shot Lin Feng a white-eyed glare, turned her head, and left.
Lin Feng looked at Bo Saixi's back, a playful smile on the corner of his mouth. Immediately, he stepped up to follow. The two of them, one in front and one behind, continued to advance in the desolate far western land. The night was deep, and the starlight was sparse, adding a bit of quietness to this journey.
"Actually, it's fine to go and see him," Lin Feng's voice sounded by Bo Saixi's ear, carrying a bit of a relaxed and casual tone. "After all, some things always need to have a conclusion, don't they?"
Bo Saixi's steps slightly paused. She did not turn her head, but just said softly, "A conclusion? The various entanglements of this world, how can they be so easily concluded?"
She was silent for a moment and finally turned around, looking at Lin Feng with a complicated gaze. "Why must you have me go and see him? Although the agreement to become a god was made back then, things have already changed. Without becoming a god, in the end, one is just a handful of yellow earth. In my heart, there have only ever been the two words 'survival' and 'becoming stronger'. Do you understand now?"
Lin Feng was stunned for a moment. Bo Saixi was looking at him with a very complicated gaze. He was a little unable to read it. He frowned and said, "I just feel that you two need to meet. To tell you the truth, the next time I see him will be a sure-kill situation."
"You three are, after all, the strongest of the same era. You are old friends and also formidable rivals. You have feelings for him, whether this feeling is friendship, or love, or hate, or something else."
"If there is no final meeting, I'm afraid you will be left with a regret."
"Why?" Bo Saixi couldn't help but ask. "What on earth has he done, to make you so resolute?"
"Spirit Hall and the Clear Sky Sect, and even more so because of the god he has inherited."
"For the sake of your position?" She wasn't stupid. She had quickly guessed the general reason. Bo Saixi opened her mouth, sighed, and gazed at Lin Feng for a long time. "So you are just afraid I will have a regret?"
"Or what else? At most, it's on the way? Since we're already here," Lin Feng stroked his chin and, after thinking for a moment, said.
"On the way..." The corner of Bo Saixi's mouth twitched. And he even said the other party was half-dead. This felt like giving a former good friend a visit on the way home. So strange.
"Alright. It's fine to go and have a look. What do you mean he's no different from being dead?"
"You will know when we get there."
---
Outside the Slaughter Town.
Lin Feng and Bo Saixi stood side by side. The scene before them was on the contrary greatly different from what she had imagined in her heart. This place was both desolate and carried a sense of killing intent. The soul masters, in twos and threes, were all fallen ones, with a bloody smell on them.
The entire small town was as if shrouded in an invisible haze. The air was filled with a repressive and uneasy aura. On both sides of the street, the dilapidated buildings were crooked. Many of the houses' doors and windows had been broken. From time to time, one could also see some soul masters wandering in the dark corners, their eyes empty and dazed, as if they had lost their souls.
"This is the Slaughter Town?" Bo Saixi frowned, a trace of disgust flashing in her eyes. "Tang Chen is here? Is he a fallen one now?" A trace of sorrow flashed in the depths of her eyes. The majestic Limit Douluo had become a fallen one?
"No. He is in another place. His identity may be beyond your imagination. Have you heard of the Slaughter City?"
"I've heard him say it. The place where Tang Chen had obtained the Slaughter God Domain. Slaughter..." She looked around. This small town, how could it be associated with the word "city"? "You're not going to tell me this is it, are you?"
"Something like that. It's just that we have to use spatial power to move over."
"Oh."
"So now there is a problem. This is a god's dojo. A single careless move may expose ourselves. We have to use my two qis of yin and yang to cover our auras. At the same time, when using spatial power, we need to have contact. I was thinking, should I be holding you by the collar, or some other place?"
Holding her by the collar? Like holding a little chick? Bo Saixi's face turned black.
Her suspicious gaze swept over Lin Feng's body once, and finally fixed on his face, as if to judge the authenticity of his words. She lightly raised her eyebrows, directly pulled up one of Lin Feng's hands, and put it in her own palm. Her tone carried a trace of displeasure. "I was wondering what was the matter. So indecisive. Hurry up."
Lin Feng was at a loss for whether to laugh or cry. The two qis of yin and yang circulated on each other's bodies. The two came to the spatial node that Lin Feng had left before and escape into it.
Before long, the two, with their auras hidden, had arrived in a corner of the black great hall of the Slaughter City.
Bo Saixi was holding Lin Feng's hand. The warmth in her hand, how come she felt it was quite comfortable? She glanced at the Lin Feng by her side, a blush of a moment appearing on her cheeks. So sneaky. It's as if the two of them are little thieves. And even peeping...
"He's right there. In the center of the great hall. The King of Slaughter."
Bo Saixi followed the direction of Lin Feng's finger and looked over. In the center of the great hall, a figure in a black robe, with two blood-red wings on its back, was quietly sitting on a throne. A faint, blood-red mist was circling around his entire body, as if it had become one with the surrounding killing intent. The man's face was hidden in the shadow of the black robe and could not be seen clearly. But Bo Saixi could feel a familiar yet strange aura.
"That's Tang Chen?" Bo Saixi's voice carried a trace of disbelief.
Lin Feng nodded lightly. "That's right. That's him. However, he is no longer the Tang Chen of the past. He has been eroded by an evil power and is possessed by a soul beast. He has become the King of Slaughter and has lost himself."
Bo Saixi opened her mouth, a trace of pain and pity flashing in her eyes. The expert who, along with Qian Daoliu and herself, was known as one of the three great peerless Douluos of the current world had now turned into this. How could she not sigh with emotion?
"Truly... fate makes a fool of people," Bo Saixi sighed quietly and shook her head at the black figure.
Just at this time, the King of Slaughter moved and walked towards the back. The two from Lin Feng's side followed in sync.
In the back of the pitch-black great hall was a sheet of a deep red. A blood pool formed from the condensation of endless scarlet blood and killing intent. The thick, bloody aura was almost tangible, making one want to vomit upon smelling it.
"Glug—glug—"
"Glug—glug—"
The King of Slaughter's mouth split open, revealing two abnormally sharp fangs. He slowly stepped into the blood pool and began to devour the viscous blood with large mouthfuls, as if it were the most delicious food in the world. Seeing this, Bo Saixi's brow furrowed tightly, a sense of an indescribable pity, anger, and disgust welling up in her heart.
"This..." Bo Saixi fiercely frowned. The hand holding Lin Feng's tightened. She looked at him, her tone firm. "Kill him. Give him a quick death."
Lin Feng's eyebrow raised. He had not expected Bo Saixi to be so resolute.
"Not for the time being. He still has his uses."
Hearing this, Bo Saixi's willow-like brows wrinkled again. "Then if there is a possibility in the future, I will send him off on his final journey. A Limit Douluo possessed by a hundred-thousand-year soul beast. Truly... sigh."
She pulled on Lin Feng's hand, looked at him, and said softly, "Let's go."
"Alright."
The two of them withdrew.
The King of Slaughter, whose entire body was soaked in fresh blood and was wantonly devouring in the blood pool, his body's movements and the crazed joy on his face paused for a moment. He looked at the direction of Lin Feng and the others before with some confusion.
His body trembled for a moment, and then he continued to devour the blood in the blood pool with large mouthfuls, as if the strangeness of that one instant was just an illusion.
After leaving the Slaughter City, on the way to Heaven Dou City, Bo Saixi's mood was a little heavy.
"You have a knot in your heart," Lin Feng's voice gently sounded by Bo Saixi's ear, carrying a trace of an imperceptible concern.
Bo Saixi slightly turned her head to the side, avoiding Lin Feng's gaze, her tone still indifferent. "No need to say more. I am just a little emotional."
Lin Feng, however, did not just let it be. He slowly said, "Tang Chen's strange change is indeed lamentable. But you also know that the matters of this world are often unpredictable. What we can do is to cherish the present and to grasp the now."
Hearing this, Bo Saixi was silent for a moment and finally sighed lightly. "You are right. It's just that, to see an old friend of the past, now in this state, is truly lamentable. To become a god..."
She turned her head to the side and looked at the Lin Feng by her side. "Lin Feng, will you deceive me?"
"No," Lin Feng replied with absolute certainty.
Bo Saixi looked at him, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes. She nodded lightly and did not say more, but her heart was as if a great stone had landed, and had become much more at ease.
"Then that's good," she let out a long breath. For some reason, the frustration in her heart had gone by eighty or ninety percent. A trace of an imperceptible smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
"After all, you are my disciple. How could I deceive her?"
The smile on the corner of Bo Saixi's mouth gradually disappeared. Her silver teeth were lightly clenched for a moment. "Then this disciple truly thanks you, Master."
"You're welcome," Lin Feng laughed.
Damn it! Bo Saixi snorted in her heart. One day, I will surely make him look good!
The night view of Heaven Dou City gradually came into view. This city was prosperous and noisy, forming a sharp contrast with the Slaughter Town from before. Lin Feng looked at this familiar yet strange city, and an inexplicable emotion couldn't help but well up in his heart.
The first stop after he had left Spirit Hall back then was precisely this Heaven Dou City. Here he had obtained immortal herbs and had laid his foundation. He had also made Qian Renxue give up the thought of personally going undercover.
Bo Saixi looked at Heaven Dou City, a trace of a memory also flashing in her eyes. She had heard of this city's fame before but had never set foot in it herself. Now, coming along with Lin Feng, her heart couldn't help but feel a little emotional. Sure enough, compared to Sea God Island, this imperial capital of the continent had a more prosperous scene.
"So where are you taking me?" Bo Saixi asked with some curiosity.
"To get something. And to take you to see your god."
"My god... the Sea God?!" Bo Saixi's sandalwood mouth opened slightly. "What kind of ghostly words are you talking about?"
"To be precise, it is a wisp of his divine sense, a phantom."
Bo Saixi's heart was thumping. "Didn't you say that we couldn't be known by him? What if we..."
"Indeed. But this is just a wisp of a divine sense. I can make it so that he can't even send back a message. Have you forgotten the Rakshasa divine soul that is being tortured in my body at this moment?"
"..." Bo Saixi was silent for a moment and said softly, "Be careful in everything. If you are not sure, do not do it. A single item, it still cannot decide whether I can become a god or not."
"You may not know, but I don't do things I am not sure of," Lin Feng looked at a courtyard and flew over.
Bo Saixi closely followed. "Oh? Then how sure are you of this matter now?"
"Ninety-eight percent, I suppose. Quite low."
The corner of Bo Saixi's mouth twitched again.
Lin Feng walked to a stone slab in the courtyard and, according to the rhythm of three short and one long, two short and one long, gently tapped. Not long after, the stone slab slowly moved away, revealing a hidden underground passage.
"Follow me," Lin Feng said to Bo Saixi and was the first to walk into the passage.
Although Bo Saixi was puzzled in her heart, she still followed. The passage was not long. The two of them soon arrived at a spacious underground room.
"Make yourself at home," Lin Feng gestured to Bo Saixi with his hand.
Then he tapped twice on the desk.
"This subordinate pays his respects to Your Highness, Holy Son. This subordinate did not know of Your Highness's arrival. Please forgive me for my neglect," a figure in a black robe suddenly walked out from the shadows, knelt on one knee, cupped his hands, and bowed. His voice carried a trace of a tremble. He raised his head to look at Lin Feng, his eyes full of reverence.
"No matter. Go and call 'Xue Qinghe' to come. It's time to reel in the first net."
"Yes. This subordinate obeys."