Chapter 19: There is much to consider. Let it be as it is.

Slender fingers pressed against his left eye, which was glowing with a faint purple light. Ji Yaoguang’s face flushed red, and he stammered, "I-is this not too intimate?"

"How is it intimate? Do you want me to tie a red string to your head and siphon it like a hanging thread?" Lin Zhao held down his eye, feeling the warm current he had drawn into his hand, and frowned. "Huh, why is it so little? It’s much less than the wave I got this morning."

If the level of corruption absorbed that morning was set at 100 points, what he had absorbed just now was at most 1 point.

Ji Yaoguang felt ashamed for a moment. "How can it be the same? When you first absorbed it, that was seven years of accumulated corruption. It has only been six hours since then; for you to absorb this much now is already quite a lot."

If he could reach that level of corruption in such a short time, he would not have been able to persist in the Vast Sea of the Demon Ruins for so long; he would have long since turned into a great terror on par with the remains of the Xuanwu deity.

Lin Zhao let go with a look of disdain. "Then, do those living corpses carry the corruption of the catastrophe?"

"They do," Ji Yaoguang said. "Although the purple sun corrodes all things, it also suppresses the vitality of eerie creatures. At night, they rampage across the land. That is why people light sacred wood at night to drive away evil spirits and avoid being targeted by them."

This was also the reason why human activity decreased at night. Although the land of the Fang Kingdom had been purified, it was still incomparable to the land of the Wu Kingdom, which had never been eroded. Hundreds of meters underground, traces of the catastrophe’s corruption still remained. While it would not form major monsters, it could still affect one's mind, making people suspicious and prone to anger. Thus, in such a world, it was best to rest early at night.

"Then can I absorb those monsters?" Lin Zhao looked at the tide-like living corpses, feeling restless. With such a massive quantity, would it suddenly push him to the level of a Golden Crow deity? Just thinking about it made him look forward to it!

Ji Yaoguang smiled, pulled him down from the mushroom-shaped roof, and after staring at the edge of the cyan city wall for a few moments, he waved his hand to release a ghost-face totem. In the blink of an eye, it wrapped around a corpse and brought it before them, revealing only a struggling, roaring, and hideously rotting head outside the ghost face, which tried to bite at Lin Zhao, who was closest to it.

"Come, try absorbing it." With a smile, Ji Yaoguang had the ghost face hold the living corpse closer to Lin Zhao.

Lin Zhao instinctively stepped back, his scalp tingling. He looked at the disgusting creature with its eyeballs rolling out and dangling beneath its sockets, then looked at his own slender hands. He took a deep breath, steeled himself, condensed a golden feather in his hand, and plunged it into the creature’s skull. Using the feather as a medium, he tried to absorb it.

The corpse instantly turned into a pile of ash, which was caught by the ghost face. By visual estimation, the amount was about the size of a finger.

Lin Zhao tried to feel it—really tried hard to feel it—but said with frustration, "I can't feel it, I really can't feel it."

Ji Yaoguang waved his hand again. The ghost face vanished and reappeared in a second. This time, it held something like a bat, equipped with a sharp, blood-sucking proboscis. Its head was twisted, and the bones in its body had been crushed into a pulp by the ghost face.

Lin Zhao absorbed it again. This eerie thing instantly turned into a thick layer of ash, weighing about ten pounds. He finally felt something, but it was as faint as a hallucination. He couldn't help but frown in disdain: "Useless!"

Ji Yaoguang felt inexplicably guilty and immediately said, "I understand. It seems that to nourish your bloodline, the monsters must be at least of the Human or Earth Rank."

"It won't work," Lin Zhao shook his head. "This quality is not enough, no matter how many there are; it's completely impure. I killed things much stronger than this in the Vast Sea every day and couldn't absorb anything meaningful. It can only nourish the physique—better than nothing."

At this point, he reached out to touch Ji Yaoguang’s eerie purple eye again. "This is still the only thing that hits the spot."

But as soon as he touched it, he could feel nothing. The eyeball felt like it was carved from jade, smooth and warm. That continuous, flowing heat made him very reluctant to let go.

"Is this eyeball fake?" He suddenly became spirited and tried to entice him: "Qingdi... ahem, Brother Yaoguang~"

"Don't even think about it. If I could really give it to you, I would be more than willing," Ji Yaoguang sighed. "But it has no physical form. I used my left eye to assimilate it and then used my entire life-bound totem to seal it. Once released, I don't know how much you could absorb, but the entire Di Kingdom and half of the Wu Kingdom would be corrupted."

"What kind of thing is that? So powerful," Lin Zhao exclaimed in wonder.

Ji Yaoguang was silent for a moment, then smiled. "I swore before the Father God not to reveal anything related to this matter. Once we reach the Wu Kingdom, perhaps the Father God will tell you."

Lin Zhao stopped dwelling on it. Thinking about it, a thing that could cause Ji Yaoguang—the son of the Witch God and a strategic national weapon—to be exiled must be a huge problem. He changed the subject: "By the way, if we kill monsters on the city wall, do we get rewards?"

Ji Yaoguang smiled. "Of course. You can take this ash to any watchtower to exchange for firewood. Six portions for one; that is the reward."

Lin Zhao looked at the pile of ash on the ghost face and laughed. "You’re stupid. Why let the middleman earn the price difference? Can't you just turn them into trees?"

Ji Yaoguang fell silent instantly.

He reached out and picked up a handful of ash. Slender branches grew from his palm, and dozens of twigs sprouted from the ash held by the ghost face. In the blink of an eye, there was a neat bundle of new firewood before them.

Lin Zhao reached out and picked up a piece, but immediately noticed the difference.

He had absorbed a tiny bit of the catastrophe's aura. Although it wasn't much, as if it were a hallucination, he was certain that if one used this wood to build a fire, it wouldn't drive away those fierce monsters; instead, it would attract them.

"No wonder you were chased away." Lin Zhao looked at the silent young man gazing at the branches. He reached out and pressed his hand onto the twigs. In an instant, flames leaped from his fingertips, setting the wood ablaze. The light shone on their faces, which were held very close together in the darkness, as if they were wrapped in a halo.

"It's a bit like the Little Match Girl," Lin Zhao smiled. "I like this firewood. I'll help you light them up!"

The Golden Crow's flames burned away the catastrophe, releasing light and warmth in his hands. Ji Yaoguang slowly revealed a smile and let go, letting the burning branches fall.

"Hmm?" Lin Zhao, feeling moved by his own actions, couldn't help but turn to look at him. "What's wrong?"

Ji Yaoguang raised his blistered hand and said gloomily, "A-Zhao, it burns!"

...

"I used to burn you with fire before, how come I never saw you get blisters?" Inside the small hut, Lin Zhao complained while watching Ji Yaoguang pick a leaf from his crown to squeeze a wisp of fire out of the blister, after which the wound finally healed.

"The fire you used just now was truly hot." Ji Yaoguang watched the wisp of fire that had been squeezed out, dancing in the air. "You've discovered more ways to use your bloodline. Congratulations."

Lin Zhao recalled the feeling of lighting the fire earlier, and a few wisps of the same flame appeared at his fingertips. He could feel that the temperature of this fire was likely approaching that of the sun's surface, much stronger than before. The previous fire was barely the temperature of a gas stove.

He played with the tiny flames at his fingertips like a child and waved them near Ji Yaoguang. "Even this kind of fire only gave you blisters. You old tree are quite heat-resistant, aren't you?"

"I'm not old. By tree-age, I'm still a sapling." Ji Yaoguang huddled on the straw mat in the hut, moving away from his hand. "Don't come over here. I am a very precious tree... the Law of Touch..."

"I'm going to burn the tree, what can you do about it? Go report me to the officials!" Lin Zhao laughed as he watched him dodge everywhere. "Alright, move aside. Go to the next room. Your Master needs to rest."

Today had been too exciting—being captured and bled, coming to the Witch City, and waiting for the sunset. It was time to rest.

Ji Yaoguang stood up, straightened the chains tangled on his body, and smiled. "Then I respectfully wish my Master a good rest."

He rose, his necklaces clinking with a faint sound that was inexplicably hypnotic. Lin Zhao yawned, curled up in the corner of the room, and slowly closed his eyes.

...

Stepping out of the small hut, Ji Yaoguang sat quietly at the door, gazing at the distant battlefield where the dead were still locked in combat.

The surrounding deafening shouts could not reach his ears. The memories of fighting together to defend this place felt as if many cycles had already passed.

He experienced the burning pain on his hand, but his expression was inexplicably joyful.

Since that choice, he hadn't felt pain for a long time.

The power of the catastrophe first eroded the physical body, then touched the seven spirits, and finally assimilated the self and consciousness within the soul. By the time that happened, he would no longer be himself, but a creature belonging to the world of catastrophe.

Therefore, when he was in the Vast Sea, he was constantly sealing every eerie and fierce thing he encountered.

Because he knew that when the time came, he would be the greatest threat to the Wu Kingdom.

"Father God," he gazed at the distant sky, "I have wavered. Just now, I was thinking, if someone really hurt him, I might not be able to restrain myself."

He smiled, rested his hands behind his head, leaned against the wall, and slowly closed his eyes.

He wanted to rest, too.

Ever since he entered the Vast Sea, he had never rested, for he was afraid that the one who woke up would no longer be himself.

As expected, trees and birds are best suited to be together.

The bird only needs to catch bugs for the tree, while the tree has much more to consider.