end
In the open space lay piles of firewood. The village priest slowly lowered his torch, lighting the largest pile. On the firewood lay severed limbs and mangled remains. The face of the refined and handsome man was still clearly visible, as if he were still alive. Yan Dan tried not to look away, carefully examining the face. Nan Zhao's features did indeed resemble his.
All of this only brings sadness in vain.
Separation from life and death is an inevitable part of the cycle of heaven and earth, yet she still couldn't see through it.
"This story takes place nine years ago, involving two sisters and three close friends. Then a stranger from the martial arts world barged in, and the younger sister betrayed her clan and ran away with him. The older sister, however, also harbored feelings for him. When she learned they were trying to escape, she killed the martial artist and hid him in her room. Later, the older sister's eldest daughter discovered the secret in her mother's room and became just like her mother." Liu Weiyang's voice was low and somber. "The younger sister left with her six-year-old child, but was eventually found by her clan. By then, she already knew her husband was dead, so she threw herself against a sword and committed suicide, telling her child before she died that she must remember to take revenge."
He paused for a moment, then said, "Actually, everyone has evil thoughts in their heart. When they can't suppress them, these evil thoughts become inner demons."
Yan Dan felt a chill run down her spine and quickly interrupted him, "That's enough, don't say any more!"
Liu Weiyang's eyes remained calm as he gazed ahead: "They've arrived."
Yan Dan focused her gaze and saw a slender figure slowly emerge from the shadows. A light lake-blue silk robe shimmered faintly in the firelight, the gold thread at the cuffs particularly dazzling. The figure's steps were delicate, like a graceful woman strolling leisurely in a garden, her skirt swaying gently. But the figure's head remained bowed, hidden in the darkness and indistinct.
Yan Dan felt her throat go dry. After a long while, she reached out and grabbed Yu Mo's sleeve, her teeth chattering: "Let's... go quickly, there's nothing to see here."
Yu Mo reached out and put his arm around her shoulder, saying softly, "Okay, let's go now." Although he said that, he couldn't take that step.
A soft laugh suddenly rang out in the cool breeze. The person's voice was sweet and gentle, as if they were coaxing a lover: "So you're here. I've finally found you..." A light lake-colored robe flashed, and the person rushed to the center, carefully lifting a severed limb from the crackling firewood and holding it in their arms.
"Nan Zhao! Nan Zhao, what's wrong with you?" A girl's clear voice suddenly rang out. Shui Xing squeezed through the crowd, calling out urgently, "Nan Zhao, why are you dressed like this?"
As she got closer, someone realized what was happening and shouted, "Come back! Don't go any further!"
Shui Xing ran to the boy, tugging at his sleeve, tears streaming down her face: "Nan Zhao, why are you ignoring me? Say something! How could you become like this?"
Almost instantly, an unsharpened sword tip pierced through the water lily's back. The same voice Yan Dan had heard at Fuyun Temple, a voice that sounded like it was being strained, said, "I said that after you die you will not be allowed to enter a coffin, your souls will be scattered, and you will never be reincarnated! Your children will suffer the same fate as I am today!"
Nan Zhao's face was gloomy, completely different from usual.
Yan Dan murmured, "So this is what inner demons are... This young man is no longer Nan Zhao."
Shui Xing opened her eyes wide and struggled to reach out and hug him, calling out in a tearful voice, "Nan Zhao, wake up quickly... Have you forgotten? Tomorrow is your birthday, and we promised to spend it together..." Her face was pale with pain, and she gasped for breath as she struggled to hug the boy. Fortunately, she finally managed to touch him.
In the cool night breeze, Nan Zhao stood motionless, his face still blank, but he reached out and embraced Shui Xing. The two Luo Yue people embraced each other, separated by life and death.
This was also the night that Yan Dan spent that was the most unforgettable and the one she least wanted to remember.
The wind was very cool that night; it felt as cold as the dead of winter when it hit my face.
By sunrise the next day, they were already nearly twenty miles away from Luoyue Village.
Yan Dan looked back but could no longer see the village. She let out a long sigh: "How much longer until we reach the end of the Demon Realm?"
Palace Master Liu remained silent as always.
Yan Dan turned around, smiling at him. "You really won't tell me?" She patted her sleeves and spoke in a affected, high-pitched voice, "Young Master Liu, my heart, my soul, my darling..."
Liu Weiyang shuddered and hurriedly replied, "Soon, we'll arrive before dark."
"So, the second question is, once you remember what happened in the past, how will you repay us?"
Liu Weiyang glanced at her expressionlessly. Yan Dan shivered from the cold, but she held on and continued in a tender, affectionate tone, "Young Master Liu, my darling, my..."
"Anything I can do, just ask."
Yan Dan turned around with a satisfied look, only to see Tang Zhou and Yu Mo both staring at her with expressions of utter terror. She touched her cheek and asked innocently, "Is there something on my face?"
Yu Mo immediately turned his head away and remained silent.
Tang Zhou hesitated for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "You weren't too stimulated last night and got possessed by a demonic wind, were you?"
Yan Dan was very distressed: "Senior brother, you spend so much time with me, and you can't even handle a joke? How can this be?"
As soon as she finished speaking, a loud bang resounded from ahead, and a magnificent palace descended from the sky, causing the earth to shake and dust to fill the air. Yan Dan was jolted and staggered, managing to steady herself by grabbing Tang Zhou's sleeve.
In the distance, a white jade and amethyst plaque hung above the palace, with three large characters written on it in a flamboyant style: Yuntian Palace.
They have reached the end of the demonic realm.
The master of Yuntian Palace is the evil god Xuanxiang.
Western evil gods are inherently arrogant and warlike, and Xuan Xiang is the most outstanding among them, said to be able to rival 30,000 heavenly soldiers. When Yan Dan was cultivating in the Heavenly Court, she once gathered with those celestial children to chat, and one of the things they talked about was what the evil god Xuan Xiang, who could rival 30,000 heavenly soldiers, looked like.
A celestial child vividly described that Prince Xuanxiang had long, slanted eyebrows, a large, bell-like eye between his eyebrows that was captivating, ears that reached his shoulders, four heads, eight legs, and eighteen hands, each wielding one of the eighteen kinds of weapons. In short, he was able to see in all directions and hear in all directions, possessing the strengths of the four heavenly kings: Virudhaka, Dhritarashtra, Vaishravana, and Virupaksha.
Yan Dan naturally didn't believe it. In her opinion, the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" still held true; it was really too shabby for a perfectly good-looking person to look like this.
Liu Weiyang seemed to take a deep breath, stepped forward, and placed his hand on the handle of the bronze carved door. Without any apparent effort, the bronze door creaked open with a long "creak." Liu Weiyang walked slowly into the Yuntian Palace. There were three passageways at the outermost part of the palace: left, center, and right. He knew his way around and took the rightmost one, continuing to walk further in.
Before long, Yan Dan realized that the space in front of her had suddenly become empty, indicating that she had reached the end. She saw that the ceiling of the stone chamber had been carved with many small holes, through which light spilled in and cast mottled marks on the ground.
Yu Mo looked up for a while, then said in a low voice, "The center is Tian Shu, outside is Zi Wei Yuan, Hua Gai, Di, Hou, Bei Dou, and beyond that are the Twenty-Eight Mansions. This Yun Tian Palace must have been built according to this constellation arrangement, no wonder so few people can get here."
Liu Weiyang gripped the jade flute, as if forcing himself to speak: "I've been here before." He walked to the wall directly opposite him, whispered a spell, and a flame shot up into the air, illuminating the murals on the wall with exceptional clarity.
The mural had faded somewhat, its colors dull, but the subject matter was still clearly visible: a black dragon with amber eyes, shimmering scales, and a powerful, soaring form—quite beautiful. Liu Weiyang took two steps to the right, and the flame followed. The black dragon in the second mural appeared much more imposing, its amber eyes now radiating a fierce and ruthless aura. On the third wall, besides the black dragon, a graceful fairy appeared in the mural, wielding a jade sword and slashing at the dragon.
Liu Weiyang said calmly, "The black dragon in this mural is the progenitor of the evil gods, and the woman holding the sword is Nuwa, the creator goddess. The evil god was arrogant by nature and angered several gods at that time. This progenitor of the evil god eventually died by Nuwa's sword."
Yan Dan stared intently at the mural. The next mural depicted a dying black dragon, its fierce eyes slowly closing. To the right was the first mural of a black dragon soaring through the air. She couldn't help but exclaim, "Why do I feel like these murals are connected? The one on the left shows the black dragon dying, but the one before it is reborn."
Liu Weiyang nodded slightly: "That's about the gist of it. These murals also illustrate the cycle of life and death in the universe." As soon as he finished speaking, there was a snapping sound, and the mural at the front suddenly split in the middle, revealing a long and wide walkway that stretched into the distance.
At the very top of the walkway stood a long bench inlaid with gold and white jade, with a whole piece of snow-white tiger skin covering the steps below.
Looking from a distance, one can see a person sitting rather uneasily on that luxurious bench.
Liu Weiyang gripped the jade flute tightly; the flute, unable to withstand his forceful handling, cracked in several places, and a few pieces of jade fell off. His back was upright as he walked slowly and cautiously up the corridor. The tension was palpable; for some reason, Yan Dan also felt her breathing become somewhat labored.
As they drew closer, the figure sitting rather slouching on the opulent white jade and gold-inlaid chair became increasingly clear. The person propped their face up with their hand, rested their elbow on the armrest of the chair, and sat with a languid, almost languid posture. Their eyes held a profound depth, and they watched them approach without surprise, a hint of a smile playing on their lips.
Yan Dan had already seen the portrait of the Evil God Xuan Xiang in the Luo Yue Clan, and only now did she realize that the portrait had failed to capture even a fraction of his spirit. Even though he and Liu Weiyang shared nine-tenths of their features, she could still tell the two apart at a glance. Liu Weiyang certainly wouldn't possess Yan Dan's ruthless yet handsome demeanor.
If the one sitting on this bench is the evil god Xuan Xiang, then who is Liu Weiyang?
Yan Danwei felt bewildered. If Liu Weiyang was not Xuan Xiang, why did the Blood Eagle have such a strange reaction when it saw him? Why were the two of them so similar in appearance?
The man sitting on the bench finally moved, but then adopted an even less dignified posture. His gaze swept over the crowd below, and he said slowly, "You have finally arrived." When he saw Liu Weiyang, his eyes paused slightly, but he still had a slight smile on his face, neither too strong nor too weak: "Heavenly Extreme Purple Void Sage Emperor, my clansman, my brother."
There are three Emperors of the Nine Heavens. The first is Emperor Tianji Zixu Shengzhao, followed by Emperor Yuanshi Changsheng and Emperor Dongji Qingli Yingyuan.
However, this Emperor Zixu was truly unlucky. He entered Yuntian Palace with Jidu Xingjun before, and later perished together with that Prince Xuanxiang. He died young, and not even half of his body was recovered.
At that time, his several celestial attendants were all crying their eyes out, forcibly pulling Yan Dan along and sobbing as they told her that their emperor was a rare celestial ruler, whose elegant demeanor went without saying, whose strict yet gentle nature was meticulous yet refined, whose knowledge spanned ancient and modern times, and who knew everything. They were only short of denouncing the heavens for being jealous of their talent. Yan Dan secretly glanced at Liu Weiyang. His elegant demeanor was one thing, but as for his gentleness, she wondered where to find it, and as for meticulousness and refinement, there wasn't even a trace of it.
However, Xuanxiang seems to have just said that Emperor Zixu is his clansman and his brother.
No wonder the blood eagle reacted so strangely; their features were nine-tenths similar.
Could it be that during the war between immortals and demons, the two of them colluded from within, with Emperor Zixu actually being a spy planted in the Heavenly Court? That would truly be pitiful for Star Lord Jidu, caught in the middle and becoming a sacrificial lamb. As for why the Cloud Heaven Palace disappeared and the Demon Realm was destroyed, it was probably because Xuanxiang and Emperor Zixu had a dispute over the spoils, which led to some rift and ultimately resulted in them killing each other?
Yan Dan had only finished half of her story when Xuan Xiang said in a deep voice, "Li Shu, I didn't expect that after so long, you would have become such a good-looking but useless person."
Liu Weiyang had already steadied his breathing and said calmly, "That's better than someone who doesn't even have the ability to be reincarnated and can only seal himself in paper ink."
Yan Dan was terrified.
Suddenly, Xuan Xiang stood up and slowly took two steps up the stairs. His brows seemed to hold a thousand mountains and rivers in them: "For the past thousand years, I have been waiting for someone to come. I am willing to give everything I have to ask for one thing." He opened his palm, and for a moment, the hall was filled with dazzling light: "I have fully repaired my soul and can reincarnate directly. As long as you can take my soul out of here, I am willing to exchange all my cultivation with you. From then on, there will be no one in heaven or earth who can stand shoulder to shoulder with you."
Liu Weiyang was silent for a moment: "I just want to know what happened after I arrived at Yuntian Palace. Why did I lose this memory?"
"At that time, I broke the seal that protected the Demon Realm, and everything here was about to perish. Then the Underworld Palace appeared out of thin air. The Star Lord Jidu said he wanted to explore the ultimate secrets of the world inside, so you all went into the Underworld Palace together. As for what happened after that, I will not see it."
Yan Dan rested her chin on her hand, thinking to herself that, listening to their question and answer, the truth of what happened back then seemed to be that this Prince Xuanxiang had gotten tired of living and destroyed his own territory. After witnessing this commotion, Emperor Zixu and Star Lord Jidu happened to see the Underworld Palace that liked to wander around, and legend had it that the Underworld Palace held the ultimate secret of heaven and earth. The two of them hit it off and went in together. Later, something happened, and Emperor Zixu lost his memory, becoming the current Liu Weiyang.
Fortunately, the rumors in Heaven have always been about how the three of them fought a great battle that was so earth-shattering that they eventually perished together. This is completely contrary to the truth. Are those rumors just for fun?
Liu Weiyang slowly extended his hand: "I will help you bring your soul there, so don't worry."
Xuan Xiang smiled slowly, the smile still slightly warm, neither too deep nor too faint: "Then, I will see you all out."
As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding scenery twisted and spun, just like when he first entered the Demonic Realm. He suddenly felt dizzy and his vision blurred, as if it were the vast chaos before the creation of the world—no light, no vegetation, only endless darkness and helplessness. He didn't know where he was and could only let that mysterious force pull him along. That force was completely irresistible.
After the chaos subsided, Yan Dan opened her eyes and found herself lying in front of a stone tablet. The surroundings were very elegant, and she was indeed back in the Divine Firmament Palace.
A pot of tea on the low table was boiling, emitting a fragrant aroma.
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