Chapter 381 Qilin
Yuchi and I moved to the sanatorium's canteen.
There was still some time before dinner, and the cafeteria was nearly empty, with only a few scattered people eating snacks as if passing the time. We found a spot near a corner, and Yuchi sat down opposite me.
He placed his hands on the table, his gaze lowered, as if there were unseen, messy documents waiting for him to organize.
After a while, as if he had finally found the first page of the manuscript, he slowly said, "...You must have heard some rumors about me, right?"
“I’ve heard that you are a White Impermanence who is extremely proficient in formations, and also the most famous Great Completion level cultivator in Luoshan. I don’t know much else about you,” I said.
“Where should we begin the explanation?” Yuchi said. “Well, I suppose you’ve also wondered—why am I the most famous Grandmaster in Luoshan?”
I admit: "The mainstream in Luoshan is to worship power, especially power on the front lines, while the most famous Grandmaster is someone who is good at rear support... This really puzzles me."
“The reason is actually very simple,” Yuchi said. “My wife is a fickle woman.”
"What?"
Upon hearing this, I reflexively searched my mind for the eight Luoshan Great Impermanence figures I had encountered so far. All the Luoshan Great Impermanence figures I had seen so far were male, while the ones I hadn't seen were Old Fist God, Willow Shadow, and Wheel King; the first two were definitely male.
As for King Yama... well, his very existence is questionable, like the Great Impermanence. Although the records refer to him as "he" in the third person, the word "he" is sometimes used in a gender-neutral sense. Could it be that King Yama is actually...?
Just then, Yuchi added, "By the way, I hope you don't misunderstand, my wife is a woman."
I almost didn't react, and then said, "...No, my thinking hasn't slid to that stage yet."
It seems that in Yuchi's mind, King Yama is also male.
"So... which of the Great Impermanence is she?" I asked.
“My wife… ‘Qilin’ was a great impermanence from Luoshan in the past. You may not have heard of her name because she has been dead for many years,” Yuchi said.
Aside from exceptional cases like those involving turbidity of life, there is no such thing as a natural death for the Great Impermanence (a term in Chinese mythology referring to a person with impure destiny). It's obvious, even with one's eyes closed, that any Great Impermanence who dies died a violent death.
Combined with Yuchi's mysterious killing intent towards the old Fist God, I immediately guessed the most likely answer.
“Yes, Qilin died at the hands of the Old Fist God,” Yuchi said in a deep voice.
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Yuchi first explained to me how he met and fell in love with Qilin.
Like Zhu Shi, Yu Chi also comes from a demon hunter family. Most demon hunters have similar backgrounds, but Yu Chi is different in that his demon hunter family follows the demon path.
To ensure that all descendants of the family possess above-average demon-hunting talent, the Yuchi family chose the path of mating with demons, strengthening their offspring's bloodline by mixing in the blood of powerful demons.
Although this approach deviates from the mainstream, the underlying idea is not difficult to understand.
Compared to monsters, humans are inherently weaker, and only a few gifted individuals can master the power of monster hunting. Even then, they require a long period of training before they can stand alone. Humans with monster blood, on the other hand, may possess the advantages of both. One of the reasons why Master Zhu once designated Chang'an as the heir to the family's monster hunting magic was that Chang'an was born with monster blood and power, making him very suitable to debut as a monster hunter.
However, mixing monster blood also has its drawbacks. Aside from the possibility that offspring with monster blood might transform into aliens completely different from humans in terms of perception and thought, they might simply inherit the flaws of both species. Furthermore, crossbreeding between different creatures is extremely difficult, and even if successful, it easily leads to the death of offspring, resulting in an extremely low birth rate.
To increase the birth rate of their offspring and improve their talents, the Yuchi family forcibly mated many of their female members, who possessed demon-hunting abilities, with demons. Specific details are omitted, and Yuchi only touched upon the subject briefly.
As the saying goes, a large forest has all kinds of birds, and it's normal for a large demon hunter family to have one or two mavericks. Although Yu Chi was born into the Yu Chi clan, he could not accept the actions of his family from a young age and thought that one day he would escape from this place.
One day, he unexpectedly met a girl from a remote branch family. Just how remote? To put it bluntly, that family had practically no connection to the traditions of the Yuchi family anymore. The Yuchi family probably didn't even think about them when they were forcing their female relatives to breed with monsters.
The two were in the prime of their youth and had feelings for each other. After a period of friction and getting to know each other better, they became inseparable lovers.
However, this period of good fortune was short-lived. The Yuchi main family later discovered that this girl possessed an exceptionally strong talent for demon hunting, and the main family immediately hatched a wicked plan. While a normal demon-hunting family might have considered training her as a family demon hunter, the main family wanted to use her to improve their family bloodline. They captured the girl and intended to breed her with a powerful demon sealed in the family prison.
When Yuchi learned of this, he felt as if the sky had fallen. He rushed frantically into the main family's territory, determined to do everything in his power, even at the cost of his own life, to rescue the girl from the branch family...
However, he was too late.
Because the girl who had separated from her family was rescued by someone before she could.
This person was the old boxing master who happened to be passing by Yuchi’s house at the time.
On his path to power, the Old Fist God had challenged countless demon hunters and strange creatures, forging countless feuds in the process, one of which involved the Yuchi family. At the time, the Old Fist God had just reached the Great Completion stage and, presumably wanting to test his skills against someone, he conveniently targeted the Yuchi family, with whom he had an old grudge. Once inside, he swiftly and decisively destroyed the entire Yuchi family.
The powerful talent of the girl from the branch family caught the eye of the old Fist God, who took her in as one of his disciples and renamed her "Qilin".
Yu Chi also intended to become an apprentice of the Old Fist God, who readily accepted him and temporarily took him in. Unfortunately, unlike Qilin, a genius at hunting demons, Yu Chi lacked the talent to be active on the battlefield and gradually became unable to speak with Qilin.
Later, he was discovered to have a talent for formations, so he left the old fist god's school and joined Luoshan, where he grew up as Bai Wuchang.
"While I was studying hard, Qilin was also learning and training under the old Fist God, growing stronger with unstoppable momentum as the Black Impermanence. The speed at which she advanced to the Great Completion level was among the best in the history of Luoshan, and later she even became the Great Impermanence..." Yuchi recalled, "But... she changed."
"After becoming the disciple of the old Fist God, she became violent and evil, resorting to any means to become stronger; anyone who got in her way, whether good or evil, old or young, was beaten and killed. She was once known as a witch."
"At that time, although there was no concept of socialism and transcendence, the views of the demon hunter community towards ordinary people could be divided into two camps. From today's perspective, I was a socialist back then, while Qilin was simply a transcendentalist among transcendentalists. She utterly despised the weak, viewed weakness as the original sin, and while eliminating strange events, she indifferently dragged the ordinary people around her into it."
I recalled the life-and-death conflict between myself and Zhu Shi in Silver Moon's "Possibility World".
In the "Possible World," I repeatedly and carelessly got involved with the ordinary people around me, which eventually led to a break with Zhu Shi, to the point where we had to fight to the death.
“She wasn’t like this before… Although she was clumsy, she was gentle and kind, definitely not this kind of violent and evil person,” Yu Chi said painfully. “It’s all my fault.”
“If she hadn’t been involved with me, her talent wouldn’t have been exposed to the main family, and she wouldn’t have been kidnapped by them…”
"It must be because that horrific experience changed her personality, forcing her to become a violent madman."
Memories of childhood often become indelible marks that accompany a person throughout their life. In the world of ordinary people, the memories of the first ten years or so are enough to shape their mindset for the decades to come. No matter how great one's achievements, it is difficult to forget the traumas of childhood, because they have become the foundation of one's personality.
Perhaps even the most unpredictable impermanence cannot change this.
“Others have the right to condemn her evil, but I do not,” Yuchi said. “I brought darkness to her fate, and I was unable to personally save her from hell. This is a sin I can never atone for…”
"But even so... I hope she can rediscover the light in her heart she once had."
He said that since then, he has been trying to communicate with the Qilin.
At the time, Yuchi was considered a rising star of the righteous path in Luoshan, while Qilin, despite her extraordinary strength, was a mad witch whom even her own people disliked. The two frequently clashed and opposed each other. However, after repeated encounters, sparks of love ignited between them, and they quickly fell in love.
After they became husband and wife, Qilin seemed to have undergone a spiritual transformation and became Da Wuchang. While Yuchi deeply loved her, he still did not give up the idea of persuading Qilin to return to the righteous path.
On the other hand, the old Fist God back then wasn't as powerful as he is today, to the point that people doubted whether he had opened the third door. Many people thought that the old Fist God's path to becoming stronger had ended there, and that Qilin might surpass him and become strong enough to overtake the old Fist God.
After the Qilin became the Great Impermanence, one day, the Old Fist God came to the place where the Qilin lived.
According to the historical records of the Luoshan headquarters, a magical fluctuation reaction occurred there that day, indicating a fierce conflict between the Old Fist God and the Qilin.
When Yu Chi Shan Shan arrived late, Qilin had already been killed by the Old Fist God.
(End of this chapter)
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