What Ben Li and Wang Xie are right now we're incorporeal entities. Subconsciously constructed entities that are untouchable in the realms were their mind and soul mingle together under their inseparable interconnection.
However, this realm wasn't dominated by the power of their minds. Thus, by conclusion, anything that belongs here can probably affect them in any unimaginable way.
Because of that, the both of them were inclined to avoid touching anything that seems it might kill them.
That conclusion practically includes the glyph. The glyph was a manifestation of the profound impartations belonging to the 1st commandment. In a way, it belongs to this realm.
But right now, Wang Xie held the glyph in his hands and issued a bloodcurdling scream. And back inside the mindscape, Ben Li's soul could see that numerous runes had gathered to surround Wang Xie's soul with strings attached and underwent the same process as he did back when he was getting brainwashed while soul tortured. Basically, he is cultivating the 1st commandment.
Realizing this point, Ben Li's countenance turned extremely grim. It was clear that Wang Xie wouldn't be able to hold out under the constant barrage of tortures that was beyond any mortal tolerance. Especially for someone who hasn't matured from his puberty. Young ones aged as them tend to have heavy mood swings and that was a huge case for Wang Xie. Therefore, his mind will give in first before his soul would crumble.
Once Wang Xie gives in, there will be no next time to save him.
Thus, not wasting a second longer, Ben Li entwined his finger around the Destiny String and tugged it lightly. As if the gears of fate had involved their lives once again, Wang Xie could feel that a big hand had emerged from the dark corner of the abyss and took him away from that place.
At the same time, the numerous runes surrounding Wang Xie's soul were struck back as they shattered to bits, detaching their strings in the process.
After which, Wang Xie removed himself from the glyph in his hands. His figure was dim and transparent as blue glass and if not for Ben Li's Soul having attained Soul Sense, he would have thought he had seen a ghost.
Chao Long inside the glyph didn't feel so good. As Wang Xie took the glyph by his hands, he took the chance to eat him away and recover his power. But he was naive to think that Ben Li standing by the side would let him do whatever he wants.
He couldn't believe it though. How was it possible that Ben Li could disrupt the process of the 1st commandment so easily without further harming Wang Xie himself?
If others tried what he did, then there was a 100% chance that they would fail at the first try and Wang Xie would disintegrate to his doom. Never to return in the light of day forever. With those risks involved, clearly no one would attempt any hands and Chao Long could get away with it.
However, what Chao Long didn't know was that Ben Li and Wang Xie had each other's fate in their hands. Through astronomical coincidences, their polar opposite Fates had inter-mingled into a string that had mysteries that can grant them power that was near omnipotence at the price of having their souls drained.
Thus, saving Wang Xie from that Gehenna was a easy.
Now that the process had been disrupted, Chao Long hadn't had time to assimilate what he had just absorbed and lost his arcane glow once again. Then he was swept far away under Ben Li's reach and the latter pressed down an invisible force that was grinding Chao Long into fragments.
"Ahh!!!" Chao Long bellowed an anguish cry as he suffers pain more unimaginable that what Ben Li and Wang Xie experienced combined.
Ben Li left him like that without mercy and rushed towards Wang Xie. The latter was heavily panting for breath in his pathetic state even though they were incorporeal entities that didn't even need to breathe, it doesn't really change the fact that breathing calms the mind.
"Are you okay?" Ben Li asked to which Wang Xie replied by silently speaking words he couldn't hear.
Ben Li shook his head to how delicate had Wang Xie's conditions had deteriorated. The latter's mind was simply too worn out to think and too weak to communicate with hm. Even more so when he was also too worn down before this.
Wang Xie had pushed himself too far relying on the Destiny String to strike Ben Li in his rage. Although the latter wasn't worried because he knew Wang Xie would give up by the time he realized he reached his limit, the situation had worsened when Chao Long went ahead to eat his soul away.
Now, Wang Xie was fading in weakness. He was like a ghost that was about to drift away into the wind. In a blink, the guy will disappear without a trace.
"You should rest your Soul until you recover. I'll be sure to keep you under my protection layers for now." Ben Li advised to which Wang Xie nodded without a choice.
He was too weak to do anything and it may take a long time for him to recover from his drainage.
...
Ben Li woke up feeling lightheaded and extremely exhausted. He opened his eyes to look around and saw that they were in a new room which Ben Li occupied.
He was sitting down on a chair next to a bed where Lu Qing was sleeping at ease.
The injuries she sustained were long gone thanks to him and by the time she wakes up, she won't feel a thing from back then and will think that it was all just a bad dream.
Ben Li had been holding her hand this entire time and had still held it without release. He caressed her smooth hand with his fingers and felt her soft touch. A tinge of warmth had flickered in his eyes before disappearing as he sighs.
You don't even love her.
She loves Wang Xie and Wang Xie loves her.
You are but a 3rd wheel that got caught into this messy relationship of theirs.
But if you keep acting like this then you might as well be her lover...
Ben Li shook his head as he disperses the thoughts.
To where he wanted to go in his path of cultivation, Love was irrelevant. A distraction. A hopeless case of hindrance.
To what he aims to do, his love cannot just focus on one person but on all things that needed his love.
He can love Lu Qing, but it won't amount to the love Wang Xie had for her.
Besides, she's just not his type. He preferred spunky girls that don't whine too much and are easy to understand if they're suddenly angry.
Ben Li let go of her hand and stood up as he stretched his lazy back.
It was still morning. Probably 7 o'clock.
He opened windows and let the warm breeze flow in. He breathed a lung full of air and sighed deeply.
His room was at the second floor of the building, so he had a good view of the village when he looked out the window.
Outside, he could see the buildings of the village. Some torn down. Some gone along with everything else and some were still okay.
He looked below the ground and saw countless silhouettes of the ghosts that haunted this village. All of them prostrating before him in reverence. Their emotions were vividly fluctuating for Ben Li to see. All of them felt the same thing.
Joy. Respect. Hope. They seem to want to crown Ben Li as their emperor.
Ben Li wasn't concerned about this too much. After all, it was said in the impartations of the Ten Commandments of The Demonic Hades Imperial Gospel that whoever cultivates the it will become the Emperor of Hades and receive the legacies of the dead.
That was what Ben Li was aiming for in the beginning. The legacies of the dead.
In the countless eras of history, how many have people died as time flew by without anyone's control?
Apart from the 1st man who became an Immortal God, no one in this world has ever outlived time and history as they all returned to the dust regardless whether the one who died was an demonic emperor or a hungry criminal.
However, it would be wrong to say that no one who had lived his time had wasted competing to become the best they can ever be as they grow until they surpassed their own potential.
For in their time when they stood proud and alive, they had all accumulated the knowledge and experiences that settled the eternal foundations of the world of today and paved the path filled with bloody battles and large-scale sacrifices towards the future of endless innovations and undying happiness.
There was no mistake that our predecessors were always thinking about the future. A future filled with love, glory and honor to all things.
And what they gave to us was the compilation of their creations that changed the world forever.
What Ben Li had in mind when he wanted to cultivate The Ten Commandments Of The Demonic Hades Imperial Gospel was its ability to command the dead as the Emperor of Hell.
He wanted to command the dead to give him their memories and complied their knowledges and experiences together to create a Universal Cultivation Art that will pave his path towards Immortal Godhood.
With the Universal Cultivation Art he tailored for himself, he will be sure to rise above the Divine Dragons and soar like a rising God. He will surpass destiny and transcend beyond everything.
However, Ben Li knew that not only did he needed the knowledges and experiences of the dead, he needed the Heavens to estimate the Legacies he inherited from the major issues down to the detailed subtleties what was right and wrong. And he wasn't even too sure if the heaven would cooperate with him.
What kind of Universal Cultivation Art he had planned to compile will be unprecedented in all of history.
It will become the most powerful Cultivation Art in the whole world.
But Ben Li knew as well that the journey he chose will be arduous compared to anyone's path. He wasn't sure how much sacrifice he had to make but he was sure that the path he had chosen was too great to bear and he will need the help of Ling Xiufeng if he wanted to even gain just 1% of success.
He will look before he leaps.
He will not take the first step unless he is absolutely ready to take a million steps more.
And he can only have one shot at this. No other plan will succeed compared to what he has brewing in his mind right now.
And Ben Li wasn't impatient. He had a lot of time in his hands. But the more time he wastes, the more Destiny will take a hold of him once more.
Suddenly, he heard someone groaning.
Turning his head to look, he saw Lu Qing had sat up on her bed and stretched her body lazily.
Her reaction was normal per say when she looked around the room. When she saw her young master looking at her with a smile, she was taken aback by it and a tinge of pink had on her cheeks.
She got up from the bed and fixed herself up before bowing to her young master.
"Good morning, young master."
"Good morning, Lu Qing." said Ben Li. "You look like you had a good time sleeping. Did you enjoy a good dream?"
"Young master, I..." She was about to say that she had the best dreams she could ask for until she had taken a glimpse of Ben Li's eyes, which were still crimson red rather that dark is black.
Her heart couldn't help but thump wildly and the horrible experiences this morning began to resurface in her mind.
"I..." Lu Qing wanted to cry. She wanted to take her young master's embrace and cry on her chest. But she thought of the words her young master said to her.
'Become strong and face your fears. Only then will you feel happy for yourself and make others happy like yourself. Nobody can stop you. And if there's one thing that can stop you, then it's only you.'
Lu Qing felt her heart calming when she recalled that and clenched her hands hard as she became determined to become strong.
There is no use crying over spilled milk.
You only cry when there's no milk at all!
That's why, she said. "No, young master... I didn't have good dreams. I had a nightmare. A nightmare that I couldn't fight."
"I see..." Ben Li saw the determination flashing in her eyes as he asked. "Then, do you want to fight the nightmares?"
"Yes." Lu Qing immediately agreed.
So, what was there to hesitate.
"Alright then," Ben Li stood before Lu Qing and said with his heart out.
"Let's get stronger."