Chapter 854: Candied Hawthorn and Hunger

"Then let's head straight to the Wuji Realm." Sun Bumian immediately followed Chen Ling's lead,

"If we walk fast, we should be there in two days... If you're really hungry on the way, you can eat candied hawthorn."

Chen Ling was stunned,

"Candied hawthorn? Where would we get candied hawthorn?"

Sun Bumian rubbed his hands in the void, and two vibrant candied hawthorns appeared out of thin air, a rich aroma of hawthorn wafting out...

Chen Ling took a skewer in surprise, looking Sun Bumian up and down suspiciously. Even he couldn't tell where these candied hawthorns had been conjured from.

"Some special little tricks." Sun Bumian shrugged, "Don't you know how to do it too? All those playing cards from just now, weren't they conjured out of thin air?"

"But those were just illusions, they were fake. This of yours..."

Chen Ling hesitated for a moment, but couldn't resist the hunger in his stomach. He bit off the top one, chewed for a long time, and swallowed it... It was sweet.

"This of yours, it's actually real?!"

"It's real, the kind that can fill your stomach... But I can only conjure candied hawthorn, I can't conjure other things like you." Sun Bumian spread his hands helplessly.

Chen Ling was incredibly surprised.

You have to know, although his Scarlet Drama could conjure all things, most of them were fake, and its other function was just to replace things in others' hands with similar items...

But Sun Bumian's trick was true creation from the void!

Although he could only create candied hawthorn... that was already quite impressive.

Chen Ling finished the remaining candied hawthorn in a few bites. Jian Changsheng, seeing him eat so deliciously, also felt a bit tempted. He took the second skewer, ate a few bites, and said somewhat reluctantly:

"Hmm... tastes the same as last time, it's okay."

Chen Ling looked at Sun Bumian, "By the way, why did you only conjure two? Aren't you eating?"

"—Ugh!!!"

“？？？”

Seeing Sun Bumian suddenly turn pale and start retching, Chen Ling looked at the skewer in his hand in shock, at a loss.

The candied hawthorn didn't taste bad, was it really that bad?

"Not cool, man! What exactly is your deal?" Jian Changsheng cursed.

"Nothing..." Sun Bumian replied with a pale face, "Every time I had no food in the past, I would eat the candied hawthorn I conjured myself. At the worst, I ate them every day for half a year... Now, whenever I think of it, I... Ugh!!!"

Chen Ling: ...

After Sun Bumian recovered, he seemed a bit embarrassed.

He coughed twice, then remembered that Chen Ling and his companion didn't know his name, and took the initiative to reach out to Chen Ling:

"Uh... let me introduce myself properly, I am Diamond 6, Sun Bumian."

"Heart 6, Chen Ling."

"Spade 6, Jian Changsheng."

None of the three were people who cared about formalities, so they just exchanged names and left it at that. If it weren't for the fear of not knowing their companions' names when acting together next time, they probably would have skipped even this step.

"Four 6-generations, three have gathered all at once... now we're just missing the Club."

"Mm." Chen Ling seemed to remember something and turned to ask Sun Bumian, "Do you know anything about that Club 6?"

"Club 6..."

Sun Bumian pondered for a moment, "I haven't seen him, but I've heard some rumors about him. He seems to be a Witch God Path practitioner... and he seems very difficult to get along with."

"Difficult to get along with?"

"Yeah, a senior mentioned him before, and the descriptions were all like... 'autistic,' 'reclusive,' 'crawling in the dark,' 'you become unlucky if you get close,' and so on."

Jian Changsheng was surprised, "Sounds like he's on par with Heart?"

Chen Ling silently clenched his fists.

"Anyway, he's likely in the Wuji Realm, we might run into him this time." Sun Bumian pushed his small round sunglasses.

"Alright, let's get going."

Chen Ling had just finished a skewer of candied hawthorn and felt hungry again, so he simply walked toward the Wuji Realm, with Jian Changsheng and Sun Bumian following closely behind.

……

Theater.

As the spotlights turned on, Chen Ling on the stage slowly opened his eyes.

Traveling in the Gray Realm was destined to be boring and dull, so Chen Ling could only take advantage of the gaps when the three were resting to find time to enter the theater.

Chen Ling's gaze first looked down at the stage, where dense scarlet pupils were still staring at him, but he didn't see the shadow of the District 3 Chen Ling, nor was he in any other corner of the stage.

"Chen Ling, where are you?"

Chen Ling stood on the stage and called out softly.

Calling his own name made Chen Ling feel a bit awkward, but a moment later, a voice responded from above.

"I'm here, in the depths of your mind... This theater is too special, I can't enter it, I can only temporarily reside outside."

District 3 Chen Ling paused for a moment and spoke again,

"Also, if you feel it's strange to call my name, you can call me 'Yao,' that's my childhood nickname."

"Yao..." Chen Ling noted the name, "Will it have any effect on you if you're outside?"

"No, I am strong enough now. As long as I don't leave the physical body, I won't dissipate."

"That's good."

"But there is a problem..."

"What?"

"It was fine when my soul was weak before, but now my soul is complete, plus your soul, and this theater... This physical body is carrying so many things, it's already reaching its limit.

Haven't you noticed that your physical energy consumption is getting faster and faster?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Chen Ling seemed to realize something, his expression gradually becoming solemn...

No wonder he had been easily hungry since killing Kongwang. At first, he thought it was because his domain was too much of a burden, but now that he thought about it, it was indeed possible that the physical body couldn't carry such a heavy soul.

But the problem was, even if he knew the cause, there was no way to solve it in the short term.

Unless he drove Yao's soul out of this body... but Chen Ling couldn't do that. If it weren't for Yao, he would have been replaced by the Mocking Disaster long ago, and now there was some kind of connection between him, Yao, and the God Sacrifice Land, which couldn't be easily shaken off.

There must be some other way...

"Let's just hold on until the Wuji Realm." Chen Ling said slowly, "Aren't you a Witch God Path practitioner? Perhaps there will be a way to solve everything in the Wuji Realm."

"...Perhaps."

After answering, Yao fell silent, as if he had fallen asleep.

Chen Ling didn't call him again, but went straight to the screen at the edge of the stage... At the corner of the screen, a flashing, shaking treasure chest icon was extremely conspicuous.

The reward for the previous performance had arrived.

Chen Ling raised his hand and clicked on the treasure chest...