Chen Weichen looked up and met Ye Jiuya's gaze.

"Don't look at me." He covered his face with the fan, "Sect Leader Ye should be considerate of the ill."

"What is the name of this fan?" Ye Jiuya suddenly asked.

"Fan?" Chen Weichen was puzzled, "It has no name."

After a moment, he suddenly looked as if he had thought of something very troublesome. He raised his head, revealing his eyes, and hesitantly said, "Could it be that you..."

Ye Jiuya said, "Yes."

Chen Weichen looked at the fan over and over again, feeling quite melancholic.

However, this melancholy dissipated like smoke after just a moment. "Actually, it's not that embarrassing..."

Ye Jiuya said, "The Mirror Flower and Tushan Flute are too demonic. The weapons in the armory have long rusted. Only this fan remains."

"It's fate. After all, I'm still a gentleman and can't carry swords." After thinking it over, Chen Weichen not only wasn't melancholic, but also felt a few traces of complacency. "From now on, it can't leave my side. Let's call it 'Huaiyou'."

To enter the illusion, one needs an object connected to the original owner's essence blood as a guide. For example, when Chen Weichen entered Lu Hongyan's heart demon illusion, he borrowed the connection between the Shattered Kunlun and its owner.

But when Lu Hongyan awakened from the illusion, Chen Weichen still hadn't returned for a long time. At this time, Ye Jiuya and the monk outside had to find ways to bring him out as well.

Young Master Chen had just entered the immortal path and didn't have a weapon connected to his essence blood like the immortals. The situation in Jinxiu Ghost City was also quite bad, and there were no suitable divine weapons for him to recognize as his master.

"My family's wealth is not much worse than the imperial relatives. Naturally, the finest silk and the best fan ribs must be used," the young master fanned himself in the ice and snow, "The paintings and words were drawn by myself, but I have some innate talent for these things since birth. I'm often praised for its spirituality—I'm not sure if that's true or false—but in any case, it's a good fan."

By chance, the fan caught the eye of the immortals and connected with his essence blood. In the future, if he had to fight, while others were fiercely engaged in swordplay, he would just stand aside fanning himself and watching the excitement. If he really had to engage with someone, he could close the fan and use it as a weapon of moderate length - that would be extremely elegant.

Young Master Chen was very satisfied with this. He often carried a fan to begin with and was even ridiculed as carrying a mundane object by that young Daoist priest with the surname Xie. Now he could justifiably keep it on hand.

Ye Jiuya asked him, "Have you practiced martial arts?"

"I know the moves, but I can't endure hardship, so my fundamentals are quite ordinary." Chen Weichen didn't mind, "But by Sect Leader Ye's side, I'm naturally not afraid of losing my life. Just don't force me to practice martial arts."

Ye Jiuya looked at the hint of a casual smile at the corner of his mouth.

If it was him, how could his temperament change so much?

If it wasn't him...

He only said lightly, "It's fine if you don't practice."

Chen Weichen finished his drink and said with a smile, "Shall we go?"

The illusion collapsed layer by layer as before, but in a daze, it changed to another world.

In the storyteller's building, the young master and servant boy sat at a table, with tea and snacks in front of them, gleefully bantering back and forth. The storyteller tapped his bamboo clapper. "Last time, we talked about..."

The two of them stopped in unison and started listening.

Chen Weichen: "Oh no, wrong again."

The clamor of the tavern instantly faded away, and the scene changed again.

This time it was related to Ye Jiuya. Moonlight reflected on the snowy white waves, and someone was coming over from the shore.

Chen Weichen's voice was very troubled, "Still the wrong one."

Ye Jiuya didn't speak.

He could only struggle at death's door, "Sect Leader Ye, trust me one more time..."

He closed his eyes, not looking at the white-robed Swordmaster on the shore, nor at the real person beside him.

The sound of the waves grew louder and louder, and the humidity of the seawater hit his face.

He opened his eyes and saw the vast sea rushing everywhere, flooding the entire world.

Young Master Chen tentatively reached out and grasped Ye Jiuya's wrist. Fortunately, he wasn't repelled by the heartless sword intent of the immortal legends, and he was quite pleased with himself.

"Let's go." As soon as he finished speaking, he pulled Ye Jiuya and leaped forward, plunging into the cold seawater. His whole body seemed to become a small boat drifting in the vast ocean, floating up and down.

He calmed down, sinking deeper and deeper, and returned to clarity in the silence.

When he opened his eyes again, he had already returned to the old capital's armory. The walls were pitch black and the bronze doors were rusted.

Lu Hongyan stood to the side, leaning on her sword. She looked up at him. Who knew how much of the illusion she remembered.

The monk saw that they were awake and chanted a Buddha's name with kind eyes.

Ye Jiuya said, "Thank you, Master, for your protection."

The monk smiled slightly and said nothing else.

"We need to get out quickly," Lu Hongyan said. "The ghosts are all gathered outside the door now. It's thanks to the master's powers that they haven't come in."

"Wait a moment. I see that Benefactor Ye's sword has no emotional intent and can suppress the ghosts' heart demons and resentment. If he joins hands with this poor monk, we may be able to help all the ghosts in the city pass on." The monk looked at Ye Jiuya, "Is Benefactor Ye willing to assist me?"

Ye Jiuya nodded, "Alright."

The group stepped out of the armory's main gate. The sky was dark red, and in the gloomy wind, the wails of ten thousand ghosts could be heard. In the dark, abandoned buildings and dilapidated towers, ghostly figures loomed, oppressing people's hearts.

The monk asked, "Is there anyone guarding the door outside?"

Ye Jiuya: "The current generation's successor of Qingjing Temple is there."

The monk nodded, "That's good then."

He then sat cross-legged on the ground, his Sanskrit chants clear, solemn and majestic. In the sky, filled with sinister ghost energy, countless golden, glorious Buddha lotuses vaguely appeared.

Ye Jiuya's sword left its sheath, and sword energy soared to the sky, carrying a cold, bone-chilling intent.

The sword energy grew more and more abundant, finally almost condensing into a tangible form. It was frosty white, extremely cold, not piercing to the bone, but carrying a boundless, limpid stillness. It was like the snow-capped mountains at the edge of the sky, sublime in its state and profound in its meaning.

There was no Buddhist compassion, nor Daoist profundity.

If one carefully appreciated it, it was even empty of all things.

It was the heavenly dao that looked down on all living beings from high above.

This quality—the so-called heartlessness, the ultimate forgetting of emotions—existed because the sword's nature was close to the heavenly dao.

This was just as the Daoist priest Xie Lang had said.

The immortal path had continued for thousands of years, transcending the world and not being tainted by the dust, all stemming from the phrase "Heaven and earth are ultimately heartless".

The heartless sword intent stretched across the high sky. All obsessions and heart demons were suppressed by it, appearing so insignificant that even the wails of the ghosts were frozen because of it.

Xie Lang, who was outside the city gate, witnessed this scene. He must have shouted that he had gotten his wish and had hope of glimpsing the heavenly secrets.

These two, one guiding the souls of the deceased and the other setting up a sword formation, were both fully occupied. Lu Hongyan initially had her sword ready to protect them, but seeing that their strength was not only sufficient but more than enough, she stopped.

Chen Weichen couldn't help, so he just stood under the eaves nearby, holding his Huaiyou brocade fan and watching the excitement.

The young lady walked up to him, fidgeted for a while, and finally squeezed out a "thank you".

Young Master Chen smiled, "Lady Lu, no need to thank... no, you should thank me a little. If it weren't for this young master, you would have been in great danger relying only on yourself."

The young lady glared at him, "If it weren't for you, how would I have fallen into the illusion!"

Chen Weichen looked very innocent, "I was just telling the truth, who knew you couldn't even take these few words."

The young lady didn't say more to him.

She didn't ask about what happened in the illusion, it seemed she was trapped too deep to remember the beginning and end.

He felt the situation between them was really cold, so he said, "Not going to comprehend your Swordmaster Ye's Heartless Dao?"

"Tried, couldn't comprehend it." The young lady's reply was very stiff.

"Then what dao is Lady Lu comprehending?"

"The ordinary way of entering the dao through martial arts," Lu Hongyan probably saw that he had barely entered the first level, so she didn't refuse to answer. "Compared to those Daoists who are unwilling to exercise and only want to comprehend the Dao by refining pills to ascend in broad daylight, I can simply endure more hardship, which is why I have some cultivation."

"Lady Lu is already one of the Three Lords, it can't be said to be just some cultivation."

"I'm just a bit stronger than the Fourteen Marquises, but I rank last among the Three Lords." The young lady said, "I haven't seen Lord Wansi, so I don't know. I met Lord Lanshan once in the South Sea, my realm can't compare, and I can't beat her either."

"Ye Jiuya has the Heartless Sword Dao, this dao has never existed before, but from the looks of it, he will be able to enter the third level sooner or later. In so many years of the immortal dao, only in the third level..."

The young lady's words trailed off. She turned her head away, and her movements suddenly paused.

She shouted "Be careful!" and dashed forward.

The heavy sword hummed as it came out to block.

A streak of black shadow suddenly shot out from the open window of a nearby house and arrived in front of them in the blink of an eye.

The true qi of the sword formed a huge net, almost airtight.

However, the black shadow suddenly elongated, turned in a tricky direction, crossed the huge net, and went straight for Chen Weichen.

Lu Hongyan flew back, but in the end, she was a step behind that inhuman thing, and the strange heavy turbid qi had already pounced in front of Chen Weichen.

At the critical moment, she could only hurriedly say, "Protect the Jinxiu Ashes well!"