Chapter 34.5 - Suppressing the Demonic Qi

Li Xinwen himself was not left unscathed from their exchange before. Blood trickled down his chins from the corner of his lips and Li Xinwen had to force himself to swallow the blood down his throat. Taking a deep breath, Li Xinwen turned to An Wuya, the killing intent in his eyes visible.

"It looks like your soul isn't that strong..." Li Xinwen said as he once again gathered his soul force towards his eyes and once again, used Moyan to transmit his attack.

"You are crazy!" An Wuya roared out and expended all of his soul force for a counter-attack. Since the other's soul was at Kongming stage, even if Li Xinwen is currently suffering heavy injury and his spiritual energy is in chaos, An Wuya didn't dare to be complacent anymore. Unfortunately for An Wuya, at his peak, he is only at Yuanying stage and Li Xinwen's soul strength was two realms above him.

Losing the second exchange, An Wuya knew that he could not beat Li Xinwen so he quickly threw Li Xinwen out from his dimension, sending the other back to the outside world.

Li Xinwen felt himself being thrown away. His vision darkened for a moment and when he regained his vision, he was staring at the ceiling of the Li family household, lying on his bed. Before Li Xinwen could form any kind of thought to assess what he experienced earlier, the pain of his spiritual energy colliding with the demonic qi within him made him turn over and threw out the blood that was rising up to his throat.

'I need to deal with this demonic qi...' Li Xinwen thought as he sat upright and then began to circulate his spiritual energy within his dantian to suppress the demonic qi. But he didn't expect that the amount of demonic qi that An Wuya injected in him was more than the amount of spiritual energy that he has in his dantian. 'That bastard. This amount of demonic qi is enough to even suppress someone up to Jindan stage, ah!' Li Xinwen cursed.

Demonic qi can only be suppressed by the spiritual energy that was already consolidated within one's dantian. If they were to use foreign spiritual energy, it would only harm them. Unless some other cultivator would be willing to help suppress by pouring their own spiritual energy into him. Unfortunately, no other cultivator would risk their lives to help someone who is already corrupted by demonic qi. After all, if something wrong happened why they are helping the other suppressing the demonic qi, they might also be corrupted by the demonic qi.

'Not to mention... I need someone who is already at Jindan stage. Min Shaotian is only at Xiantian, he's not enough,' Li Xinwen lamented before he remembered how the spiritual lake could help to purify one's spiritual energy. Without wasting any time, he quickly entered the dimension.

"Master!"

When Li Xinwen entered the dimension, he was immediately called by Lanyu. He saw the worried look on Lanyu's expression.

"Master, what happened? Earlier, I could sense that you were in danger but no matter how much I called, you wouldn't answer!" Lanyu said with tearful eyes.

"You were calling out to me?"

"Yes, ah! Even that demonic qi... I tried to help master suppress them but I can't do so for a long time," Lanyu replied. Then he saw that Li Xinwen's face was starting to get pale. "Master, are you alright?"

"Hmm? I don't think so. Lanyu, do you think the spiritual lake can help remove the demonic qi?" Li Xinwen asked.

Hearing this, Lanyu shook his head. "It can help to purify your spiritual energy but it cannot help dispel demonic qi. Master should know, that only your own spiritual energy can eradicate that demonic qi inside you," Lanyu replied. "But... I think the spiritual lake should be able to help suppress the demonic qi for a while. Only, the process would be painful," Lanyu murmured softly.

"En. If it could do at least that, I'd be saved," Li Xinwen said as he walked over to the lake. He bent down and scooped a handful of water. But before drinking it, he turned to Lanyu. "I might pass out from the pain. Lanyu, help me take care of this body," Li Xinwen said before finally gulping down the lake water.

He could feel the water flow down his throat, and before long, he could feel the demonic qi in him turn even more rampant. With a hiss, Li Xinwen sat down cross-legged and began to suppress the demonic qi once more.

Lanyu faithfully waited on Li Xinwen and whenever Li Xinwen coughed up some blood, he would go over the lake, grabbed some water and help clean the blood off.

Li Xinwen didn't know how long he took to subdue the demonic qi. He knew that half-way through, he had lost his consciousness. But when he woke up, he noticed that he was soaked. The first thing he did was to inspect his dantian, and he discovered that the demonic qi inside him as been suppressed.

Only then did he let out a sigh of relief. Looking around, he finally realized the reason why he was soaked. His body was submerged all the way to his neck into the spiritual lake. His body was held to the edge of the lake by thick vines, probably to keep him from sinking or floating away.

"This..." Li Xinwen looked around and saw that Lanyu was nowhere to be found. Exerting a bit of strength, Li Xinwen broke through his confinement and got out of the lake. He had just taken a step when he saw Lanyu came flying over.

"Master!! You're finally awake, ah!" Lanyu said as he went and 'hugged' Li Xinwen's face. "You didn't wake up for a day and Lanyu was getting worried. I thought you'd disappear again like the old master, ah! If you do, Lanyu would be troubled..."

"Didn't wake up for a day? How long was I out?" Li Xinwen asked in a worried tone.

"Roughly, a day and a half?" Lanyu replied.

'A day and a half so in the outside world... roughly half a day passed. I came here at night so...' Li Xinwen started to calculate how much time has passed and realized that it was already close to lunchtime. After finding out about this, Li Xinwen immediately exits the dimension, leaving Lanyu alone.

"Master...?" he called out helplessly.

[Li Xinwen: I'm sorry, Lanyu. I have something to do. I'll talk to you later.]

"Oh, okay. Then at least will you bring along some of the lake water? Though the demonic qi is already suppressed, they can still act up and it would be dangerous for you, master. Having the water beside you would put me at ease. As long as you consume them the moment there's a sign that the demonic qi would go rampant, it can help you restrain them," Lanyu explained.

Outside the dimension, Li Xinwen who heard what Lanyu said didn't even need to ponder about it before he agreed with Lanyu's suggestion. After he dressed himself up, Li Xinwen went downstairs and saw mother Li sitting on the sofa, eyes focused as she watched a cooking show.

Putting on a smile, Li Xinwen approached her from behind and encircled his arms around her neck before placing a kiss on her cheek. "Mom, good morning~"

Mother Li jumped in surprise when she felt arms around her neck but relaxed once she knew it was only her son. "Morning? It is already this late and still say it's morning? What did you do the whole night that you even missed breakfast?" mother Li asked as she playfully pinched on Li Xinwen's nose.

"Ahahahah, it's nothing. I just lost track of time when watching drama last night," Li Xinwen explained, naturally with a lie. "Today, I'm going to go out for lunch. My manager called to discuss some work with me," Li Xinwen added. Though he felt guilty for lying to the older woman, he doesn't know how else to handle this situation.

"Oh, alright. Then you go on first," mother Li replied. "Do you need me to pack you some sandwich to eat on your way?" she asked, about to stand up.

Li Xinwen quickly applied a gentle force down on her shoulder to keep her from standing up. "No need, mom. I will be eating anyway. But, do you want anything? I can buy you something along the way home."

"If this old lady needs anything, then there is always delivery service. You don't have to worry about your mother. Go quickly before Manager Su gets angry because you're late," mother Li ushered Li Xinwen to hurry.

Li Xinwen just let out a small chuckle before he leaned closer and pecked mother Li's cheek once again. "Then, I'm off," Li Xinwen said in a gentle tone before he left the living room. But before he left the house, he made sure to grab the thermos from the kitchen and sent it to the dimension. 'Lanyu, put the water inside.'

[Lanyu: On it! And... done! You can take it out now, master!]

Li Xinwen took the thermos out and gently shake it. The thermos was full and he smiled in satisfaction. Once he was ready, Li Xinwen finally left the house. Once outside, he called for the taxi and he only needed to walk out of his neighbourhood to wait for the taxi.

Half an hour later, Li Xinwen found himself standing in front of Lakeside Pavilion. He stared at the luxurious-looking building before him, then at his current casual attire. Because he was running late, he only managed to put on a simple grey T-Shirt and simple jeans. "It's no wonder that the driver was staring at me with a weird gaze," Li Xinwen said with a sigh. "But... why do I feel like I've forgotten something..."

"Xinwen...?" a familiar hesitant voice called out to him.

Turning his head to the direction of the source, Li Xinwen saw Xue Rui and Xue Jun standing side by side. Behind them, a luxurious car was being parked by the valet. "Hello, Rui-ge, Young Master Xue," Li Xinwen greets them with a slight nod of his head.

Xue Rui then quickly approached him and Li Xinwen thought that he was about to get hugged. But to his surprise, Xue Rui stopped in front of him, took off his sunglasses and helped Li Xinwen putting it on. "Not wearing any disguise, what will you do if your fans saw you? Won't you get troubled?" Xue Rui said in a soft voice.

'Ah, right. Now I know what's missing but... I still feel like there's something else I've forgotten. Something quite important...'

"Where is Jinghua?" came another question from Xue Rui.

Li Xinwen who finally remembered the important thing that he had forgotten: ...