Outside the dilapidated temple, the blizzard grew increasingly violent, drowning the crumbling shrine in a void of blinding white.
Cang Yaochen sat with his head bowed, the pitch-black divine patterns already creeping up to his neck. Yet, unlike the uncontrollable ferocity from before, his gaze was now cold and profound, radiating a pressure born of absolute rationality.
Having transferred both the "Withered Cicada Sarira" and his own primordial divine blood to Jiang Li, his body was now weakened to the extreme.
[System Prompt: Detected significant fluctuation in Host's emotional threshold. The True Buddha personality has entered dormancy. The God of Love personality has fully awakened and taken control of the body. Current Objective: Maintain the life stability of the 'Destined Enemy,' Jiang Li.]
Cang Yaochen ignored the voice in his mind. He turned his head slightly to look at Jiang Li in his arms. The indifference in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a focus reserved for scrutinizing a private, precious treasure.
"Mm..."
Jiang Li let out a sharp, faint cry of distress in his embrace.
Cang Yaochen's brow furrowed instantly. He felt a piercing, agonizing pain in his chest—it wasn't from his own wounds, but from Jiang Li's pain. The "Symbiosis" system had been activated; he could clearly perceive that Jiang Li was currently enduring a living purgatory.
"The Sarira has entered your body; the Evil Godhead is bound to resist. This is a hurdle you must cross," Cang Yaochen spoke in a low voice. His tone was cold to the point of ruthlessness, yet his hand gently pressed against Jiang Li's trembling shoulder, placing his warm palm over her heart.
The Withered Cicada Sarira was composed of the purest Buddhist light. As it entered Jiang Li's semi-awakened Evil God physique, it triggered a violent rejection. The Mirror of Nether-Probing within her vibrated frantically, and streaks of pitch-black chaotic turbidity attempted to burst through her meridians, only to be forcibly locked down by the divine blood Cang Yaochen had left behind.
"Monk... save me... it hurts so much."
Unconsciously, Jiang Li gripped Cang Yaochen's robes, her nails digging into his flesh.
Cang Yaochen felt the pain within his own body amplify twofold. This "shared sensation" did not cause him discomfort; instead, it granted him a sense of control. Since the pain was shared, she could never escape his perception.
"Endure it, Li'er."
He leaned down, pressing his forehead against hers.
Through that thin layer of skin, Cang Yaochen's consciousness, as the God of Love, forcefully broke into Jiang Li's sea of consciousness.
In the depths of that pitch-black sea, a massive Buddha statue, riddled with cracks, was suppressing a slowly rising blood-colored mirror. That was the manifestation of the Withered Cicada Sarira.
An icy, sinister voice echoed through the sea of consciousness:
"Cang Yaochen... you cannot protect her. She is the Evil God destined to destroy the world. Do you truly wish to raise her as a docile cicada?"
It was the Malice hidden behind the Mirror of Nether-Probing.
Cang Yaochen's consciousness transformed into a smiling yet freezing deity, looking down upon the shadow.
"Destroy the world? If that is her wish, I shall accompany her. But you... are not worthy of commanding her body."
"Look at yourself, Holy Monk. The desire in your eyes can no longer be hidden. You simply want to turn her into your personal plaything..."
"A plaything?" Cang Yaochen smiled faintly, his tone calm in a way that made one's blood run cold. "She is my life. Who would toy with their own life?"
BOOM—!
In the physical world, the walls of the temple suddenly collapsed.
Cang Yaochen snapped his eyes open, his double pupils swirling with a mixture of dark gold and pale violet light.
The pursuers from Central Province had finally arrived.
Three blinding streaks of sword-light tore through the snow. Three inner-sect deacons from the Yaoguang Sacred Ground hovered in mid-air, the dharma-plates in their hands emitting a shrill, humming roar.
"Found them! In that ruined temple!"
Cang Yaochen looked at Jiang Li, who was at the critical moment of fusion. He could have taken her and left immediately, but if he retreated now, a flaw would be left in Jiang Li's soul.
He needed the blood-qi of these people to consecrate Jiang Li's awakening.
He rose slowly, gently placing Jiang Li in the shadows behind the offering table, even taking care to tuck in the corners of her robes. Then, he picked up a broken piece of incense.
"I intended to let you live one more night."
Cang Yaochen walked out of the temple. Upon his bare back, those divine patterns appeared exceptionally holy and cryptic under the moonlight.
The three deacons gasped as they saw Cang Yaochen's appearance. The aura radiating from this man was far too bizarre.
"Monster! Death is at your door, yet you still dare to—"
"Shh."
Cang Yaochen placed a finger against his lips, his eyes looking down on them with the disdain of a superior being. "Do not wake her. She is not sleeping deeply."
In the next instant, the snow-covered ground exploded.
Cang Yaochen's movement was too fast for the naked eye to track. He appeared before a deacon, his right hand elegantly seizing the man's throat.
"CRACK."
The moment Cang Yaochen killed, Jiang Li, hidden within the temple, jerked violently. Through their symbiosis, she perceived the shock of the slaughter; her pained expression actually flickered with a hint of excitement.
With every person Cang Yaochen killed, the Evil Godhead within Jiang Li grew more stable.
When the last corpse fell into the snow, Cang Yaochen stood amidst the blood. He pulled out a silk handkerchief and slowly, meticulously wiped the blood from his fingertips.
Jiang Li leaned against the wall as she limped out, her silver hair fluttering in the snow. She looked at Cang Yaochen, her eyes devoid of fear, filled only with a sense of fated surrender.
"You are not him... but the way you kill... is beautiful."
Cang Yaochen walked over and lifted her into his arms once more, his double pupils filled with an inevitable, possessive intensity.
"Then let us walk together from now on. Soon, there will be nowhere in this world left to hide. If there is no path, I shall carve one that belongs only to us."
In the blizzard, the silhouettes of the two faded into the distance, leaving behind a collapsed shrine and a scattering of broken bones.