Shrouding the Heavens: Empress, I am truly not the Desolate Heavenly Emperor!

"hiss--!"

The moment his toes touched the pitch-black seawater, Ye Chen gasped.

It's not cold. It's pain.

That kind of pain is like countless rusty, dull knives drilling into your pores, scraping your bones, and tearing your soul apart.

This is not water; it is clearly concentrated obsession and resentment.

Each drop of black water seems to seal away a soul that has been howling in despair throughout the long river of time. They roar and curse, trying to drag all living beings that come near into this bottomless abyss.

"Warning: The host's sanity is rapidly deteriorating. Immediate evacuation is recommended, or you will face the risk of permanent brain damage."

The system notification sounded urgently in my mind.

"Shut up."

Ye Chen gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead. Instead of retreating, he took a sudden step forward, submerging most of his body into the sea of ​​suffering.

"Fortune favors the bold; one cannot succeed without being mad!"

"Absorb the Heaven-Devouring Dao Scripture!"

boom!

The life spring within his body was operating wildly, and the extremely domineering technique revealed its ferocious side at this moment.

It was unreasonable and indiscriminate, like a gluttonous beast that had been thirsty for ten thousand years, opening its huge mouth and sucking in the black water of resentment that was trying to erode Ye Chen.

"Sizzle sizzle—"

As the black liquid entered his body, Ye Chen's skin instantly turned as black as charcoal, then quickly cracked and peeled off, revealing new tender flesh, before turning black again.

This is an inhuman form of torture.

It's like being thrown into a pool of strong acid, repeatedly melting and reforming.

But Ye Chen didn't utter a sound. His eyes became even clearer amidst the excruciating pain, even revealing a wolf-like ferocity.

He is using the resentment in this sea of ​​suffering to temper his soul!

To master the "Imitation of God" chapter of the Dao Yan Jue, one must temper one's soul through countless trials, making it as formless yet resilient as water.

"Found it."

After enduring a full quarter of an hour of excruciating pain, Ye Chen's eyes, gleaming with an eerie light, finally locked onto something floating in the center of the Sea of ​​Bitterness.

It was a corpse.

A corpse dressed in ancient clothing, who knows how many years it has been adrift in the sea of ​​suffering.

On the corpse's chest, where the heart was located, grew an extremely beautiful flower.

The flowers bloom without leaves, and their color is like fresh blood.

Red spider lily!

"A flower growing on the heart of a dead person... This setting is truly hellish."

Ye Chen muttered a complaint, enduring the excruciating pain of his soul being torn apart, and scrambled towards the corpse with both hands and feet.

Nearly.

Ten meters. Five meters. Three meters.

Just as Ye Chen reached out his hand, his fingertips about to touch the spider lily.

The previously lifeless corpse suddenly opened its eyes!

Those were eyes without pupils, only the whites, staring intently at Ye Chen. A terrifying aura of corpse energy, comparable to that of the Dragon Transformation Realm, erupted instantly, blasting the surrounding black water three zhang high.

"roar--!"

The corpse let out a non-human roar, its withered, claw-like hand, carrying a foul stench, aimed straight for Ye Chen's throat.

It's come back to life!

In this desolate and forbidden land, the dead are more ferocious than the living!

"I've been waiting for you for so long!"

Faced with this sudden and deadly attack, Ye Chen not only did not panic, but instead smiled ruthlessly.

Instead of dodging, he suddenly straightened his chest and roared at the corpse:

"Open your dog eyes and take a look!"

"who I am!!!"

boom!

With this roar, Ye Chen released the special aura belonging to the "Earth Soul" within his body without reservation, while frantically circulating the newly learned "Dao Evolution Technique" to simulate this aura as an extremely lofty and ancient fluctuation.

He's gambling.

Since this corpse can float here without decaying, it must be tainted by the karma of the Ruthless Great Emperor.

Since there is cause and effect, then there must be an instinctive fear of the aura of the "brother" that the Empress has been obsessed with for thousands of years!

really.

The withered, ghostly claw stopped abruptly just one centimeter from Ye Chen's throat.

In those pale eyes, a trace of instinctive...confusion and fear was revealed.

It sensed it.

That aura... is it... the closest relative of that forbidden being?

"Now!"

Taking advantage of the moment the corpse stiffened, Ye Chen swiftly grabbed the spider lily and uprooted it!

"Thanks, bro! Be a good person in your next life!"

The instant he succeeded, Ye Chen kicked the corpse's chest with both feet, and using the recoil, he darted towards the shore like a black swordfish.

"roar!!!"

Behind them came the furious roar of the corpse as it came to its senses, and a black wave crashed down like a tidal wave.

But Ye Chen had already rolled ashore.

He was panting heavily, soaked to the bone, clutching the spider lily that was still dripping blood in his hand, a wild laugh of relief spreading across his face.

"Hahaha...cough cough..."

"You want to kill me? I'm going to be a gigolo!"

……

On the outskirts of Peach Blossom Spring, inside a hidden cave.

Ye Chen sat cross-legged.

Before him were two things: a bottle of pitch-black water from the Bitter Sea, and a beautiful, alluring spider lily.

"All the materials are ready."

"Now, it's time to see who comes out on top."

Ye Chen took a deep breath, a resolute glint in his eyes.

He opened his mouth, stuffed the spider lily directly into it, chewed it, and swallowed it. Immediately afterwards, he tilted his head back and gulped down the bottle of bitter sea water, enough to poison even a powerful being.

Rumble—!

It felt as if a battlefield had been opened up inside my body.

The deathly aura of extreme yin collided instantly with the medicinal power of extreme yang, and Ye Chen's soul felt as if it had been thrown into a millstone and crushed.

pain!

The pain was so intense that I couldn't even scream.

Ye Chen's facial features were contorted, his body was convulsing violently, and blood was flowing from all seven orifices.

But he steadfastly guarded that last sliver of clarity in his mind, frantically circulating the Dao Evolution Technique.

"Sculpting a god! Shaping a form!"

"I'm not Ye Chen anymore!"

"From this day forward, I am that light, I am that unwavering belief, I am... your brother!"

Over time.

The aura emanating from Ye Chen, which had been somewhat weak and mixed, began to undergo a qualitative change.

The sense of incongruity that originally belonged to the "time traveler" disappeared.

Instead, it exudes a gentle, jade-like quality, yet also carries a touch of sunshine and perseverance.

If Ye Chen before was acting while wearing a mask.

So now, he has fused the mask into his flesh and blood, and it has grown into his own face.

I don't know how much time passed.

The atmosphere inside the cave calmed down.

Ye Chen slowly opened his eyes.

In that instant, his eyes changed.

Gone is the former shrewdness and cunning; instead, it has become profound and warm, as deep as an abyss.

He raised his hand, looked at his long, slender, fair fingers, and smiled gently.

That smile was exactly the same as the boy deep in the Empress's memory.

"The first level is complete."

Ye Chen murmured to himself, his voice gentle and soothing, like a spring breeze.

"Right now, even if I stand in front of the Empress, as long as I don't lay a hand on her, I am the real deal."

He stood up, brushed the dust off his clothes, and strode out of the cave.

By this time, it was already daylight.

Ye Chen returned to Peach Blossom Spring.

Beneath the old peach tree, that peerless, solitary white figure has awakened.

The Empress stood there quietly with her back to him, watching the petals fall from the sky, her back view appearing incredibly lonely.

Hearing footsteps, she slowly turned around.

Her eyes were icy cold, carrying a hint of scrutiny, a hint of suspicion, and a hint of impending danger.

She didn't see Ye Chen when she woke up.

This made her very unhappy.

She even began to suspect that everything that happened last night might have been another elaborate hoax.

Where did you go?

The empress's voice was cold, and the surrounding temperature dropped instantly, causing a thin layer of frost to form on the ground.

This is a question posed by the "Emperor's Body" personality.

If it were the Ye Chen of the past, he would probably be sweating profusely by now, racking his brains to come up with a lie.

But Ye Chen now does not.

He stopped, his face showing no panic, but rather full of tenderness.

He's like an older brother who goes out to buy breakfast for his younger sister, only to come back and find her standing barefoot on the ground.

"Silly girl."

Ye Chen strode forward, ignoring the overwhelming imperial aura around him that could freeze one's soul, and naturally took off his outer robe, gently draping it over the Empress's shoulders.

"Why didn't you sleep a little longer? The morning dew is heavy; be careful not to catch a cold."

His movements were fluid and natural, and his tone was intimate and friendly.

The key is.

The aura emanating from him—that warm, reassuring aura unique to "older brother"—was so intense it almost tangible.

The empress's originally cold body froze.

For the first time, a genuine sense of disorientation appeared in her eyes, which seemed to have seen through the years.

so similar.

No.

This is... him.

That kind of deep-seated stirring in the soul cannot be faked.

The frost in her eyes quickly melted away, replaced by an emotion called "grievance".

I thought... you were gone.

The Empress lowered her head, her voice barely audible, as if a mosquito were buzzing, her fingers gripping tightly the robe Ye Chen had draped over her shoulders.

At that moment, the ruthless emperor who had shaken the ages vanished.

Instead, there was a little girl who was afraid of being abandoned.

Ye Chen was secretly pleased, but on the surface he wore a doting expression. He reached out, wanting to pat her head like he had done the night before.

But at that moment...

The Empress suddenly raised her head, her eyes, now clear again, fixed on the trace of black mud still remaining in Ye Chen's hand.

That is the unique filth of the sea of ​​suffering.

"Did you go to the Sea of ​​Bitterness?"

The Empress's tone changed instantly, carrying a hint of doubt, and a hint of... wariness.

Why do you smell like...a dead person?

Ye Chen's hand was suspended in mid-air.

My heart suddenly tightened.

Oops.

I was so busy catching my breath that I forgot to take a shower!