Chapter 82: Wandering for Seventeen Hundred Years, Lord Xiashan and the Demon King Jiu...
Later on, Shu Qing remained asleep within Jiu Su's divine soul. Occasionally, when she awoke, she would exchange a few words with him, or look through his eyes at the mortal world outside.
Jiu Su did not stay in the Northern Territory for long. Although the Northern Territory was rich in spiritual energy, it was covered in snow all year round. Everywhere you looked was pure white, so vast and desolate that it inspired a sense of desolation.
He couldn't stay still when he was young, and he still can't stay still now. After using the spiritual energy of the North to nurture and stabilize the souls of the two of them, they left the North and went to the human world where they once belonged.
The world after the war was peaceful and gentle, full of the warmth of everyday life.
Together they walked through the bustling market, the crowds flowing by, countless eyes peering through their transparent bodies. No one knew they had just brushed past the spirit of a monster. Steaming snacks, fried buns, and plain noodles were piled up on the food stalls, their aromas rising continuously. They lingered in front of the stalls, but couldn't find anything to eat, and left with regret after a long while.
One day, Shuqing woke up just in time for a lantern festival on a summer night, where people were putting river lanterns into the water and making sincere wishes.
Jiu Su lay on his side on a rock by the river, reaching out to fiddle with the lanterns in the water. He spread his transparent fingers and watched as the lanterns passed through his palm one by one, drifting away into the distance. Shu Qing, through his eyes, read the wishes written on the lanterns. Some wished for wealth, some for love, some for health, and so on.
At times like these, Jiu Su's mind would calm down considerably. If Shu Qing were awake, they could have a proper chat. Sometimes, he would ask her if she was bored while sleeping, and how well she was recovering; sometimes, he would ask her where she wanted to go and what she wanted to see when she woke up next time.
But kind words often don't last long. After a couple of sentences, either Shuqing can't hold on any longer and falls back asleep, or Jiusu, harboring old grudges, unilaterally ends the conversation.
Shu Qing didn't sleep well at first. Every four or five years, she would wake up once she regained some energy, so her recovery was indefinitely delayed. Decades passed, and there was no significant improvement.
Later, she finally got used to life within the Nine Elemental Demon Souls, and slept much more soundly than before, only waking up once every few decades. Only then did her soul gradually become stronger, no longer like a flickering candle in the wind that could be extinguished at any moment, but like a faint flame, always shining steadily.
Hundreds of years later, when Shu Qing awoke again, Jiu Su was wandering among ruins.
She looked outside and, through the heavy snow that was falling like cotton wool, she recognized the dilapidated buildings around her. They looked very familiar to her – they were the scenes of the ancient Kunlun Immortal Capital.
Ever since she conquered Kunlun, she had never returned here, not even in her dreams. Seeing the desolate scene before her, Shu Qing's heart clenched.
"Do you recognize it?" Jiu Su stopped in front of a stone tablet, her transparent fingers tracing the mottled and illegible characters on the broken tablet. "This is Kunlun Immortal Capital."
Shu Qing's gaze fell on the broken stele. It was the stone stele at the entrance of Liuxia Peak. No one maintained it, and it was eroded by wind and snow day and night, so it was no longer as bright as it used to be.
The lower half of the stone tablet was completely buried in snow. Jiu Su's fingers brushed against it, but she couldn't brush off a single snowflake.
Kunlun is the gathering place of spiritual energy in the world. Although the immortal capital is built on a high mountain, it is protected by spiritual energy and cannot be disturbed by wind and snow. The fact that it has become such a miserable state now shows that the spiritual energy has been completely exhausted.
All the struggles between the immortals and the demons back then have finally come to naught.
Shu Qing felt a mix of emotions. She sighed softly and gazed silently at the familiar palaces before her—though she couldn't quite say they were familiar. Hundreds of years after her death, Kunlun Immortal Capital had seen several generations of "Lord Xiashan," and with each generation's renovations and alterations, the herb garden and spirit pool had all changed beyond recognition, no longer resembling the ones she remembered.
She said wistfully, "In a few hundred years, this place will disappear and be completely covered by snow. When the snow freezes into ice... no one will ever know that there was once a capital of immortals on Kunlun Mountain. They will only think that this place is a perpetually frozen ice field."
Jiu Su walked casually into the depths of the ruins, her clothes trailing across the snow without leaving any trace, as if she had never been there.
Shu Qing looked around and asked, "Is there really no one here anymore?"
“They disappeared decades ago,” Jiu Su said calmly. “With the spiritual energy depleted, their cultivation levels dropped, and they could no longer withstand the cold here. They gradually moved to the foot of Kunlun Mountain, and then migrated to cities even further away from Kunlun Mountain. In a few hundred years, there will probably be no more cultivators in this world.”
—From ancient times to the present, no country has ever survived. In the life-or-death battle of that year, both sides risked their lives for their own camps. Now, the behemoth that she once risked everything for, that once nearly killed her, has been utterly reduced to dust.
Only this dilapidated palace, half-covered by heavy snow, remained, offering her a meager recollection.
"What about the demon race?"
“I don’t know,” Jiu Su said. “I am now only a remnant soul and cannot return to the Snow Realm. But the Snow Realm is located deep in the mountains, isolated from the world, and the spiritual energy dissipates more slowly than outside. They… must be living better than people in the outside world.”
Sure enough, when Shu Qing woke up the next time, she and Jiu Su encountered the demon race who had returned to the human world from the snow realm... or more accurately, the descendants of those demon races.
Their demon bloodline became increasingly diluted, and eventually they gradually turned into ordinary beasts with only a few unique characteristics, and even lost those unique characteristics.
Jiu Su had encountered the descendants of his old friends and his former comrades-in-arms. However, he was now just a wisp of demon soul, so he couldn't even go and ask about the demons in the Snow Realm.
Even when encountering certain "cultivators" in this world, so-called sorcerers who claim to be able to catch ghosts and exorcise evil spirits, they still cannot see him. When Shu Qing encountered this sorcerer, he was a little nervous. Who knew that this sorcerer, who clearly had some spiritual energy, still could not find them. Not to mention exorcising them, they could not even communicate with him.
They are bystanders banished from this world.
But... Shu Qing thought, Jiu Su seems to care about nothing, but he is actually a monster who loves to eat, loves to play, and is afraid of being lonely.
When she was asleep, no one could hear him speak, and no one could talk to him. He was an illusion in this world, and everything in this world was like a mirage to him, something that could be admired but never reached.
So Shuqing wanted to stay awake as long as possible, so that he wouldn't be left to drift alone in the world, at least there would be her with him, exiled together.
But Jiu Su didn't seem to need it. Even when she was awake, he rarely spoke to her. He would sometimes go decades or even centuries without uttering a word, and he wouldn't even respond to her words.
Shu Qing even doubted that he had forgotten how to speak anymore—the world has changed drastically, he has traveled thousands of miles alone, walked through the smoke of cooking fires and stepped through the flames of war, witnessed the rise and fall of dynasties and the collapse of mansions, and also seen mortals fly into the sky and high-rise buildings rise from the ground.
A thousand years have passed, so it's understandable that he might not know how to start the conversation.
Come to think of it... until she left Jiu Su's demon soul, Jiu Su had spoken to her only twice.
The first time was when they wandered to a coastal city. By then, her soul had been almost completely restored, no longer as ethereal and elusive as before. When she raised her hand, her palm was solid, almost as if it were about to become a physical entity.
When she woke up, Jiu Su was sitting on a rooftop, looking up at the fireworks filling the sky. The fireworks were even more beautiful than the ones she had seen in Kunlun Immortal Capital years ago, made with Taoist magic. They were dazzling and spectacular, and the crowd below was bustling with activity, creating a scene of great joy.
Shu Qing watched for a while, then couldn't help but softly exclaim, "That's wonderful."
She was used to Jiu Su not answering her questions, which were devoid of any information. Unexpectedly, after a while, as the fireworks were about to fade, Jiu Su softly replied, "Yes, that's nice."
The sound was so faint and faint that it dissipated in the lingering echoes of the fireworks. Shu Qing wondered if she had misheard it.
The second time was a year later, after Shu Qing's soul had been completely repaired, in a hospital in the capital.
When a mortal is in the womb, he is nothing more than a lump of flesh and blood. Seven days after birth, he develops intelligence and a soul. Jiu Su plans to find a newborn infant who has not yet developed a soul and place her spirit inside him.
He led her through room after room of the maternity ward, trying to find her a new body that resonated with her soul. Thanks to modern obstetrics, all the pregnant women in the vicinity were concentrated in the hospital, so finding a new body wasn't difficult. After wandering around for a while, Jiu Su found several newborn girls whose souls resonated with hers, and who were naturally strong and had auspicious destinies.
He was very meticulous in his search, carefully considering the newborn's physical condition and destiny. Taking advantage of the fact that no one could see him, he secretly observed the newborn's future family—too poor was unacceptable, too complicated interpersonal relationships were unacceptable, and families that did not want girls were even more unacceptable.
Ideally, she would have loving parents and relatives, no messy grudges or enemies, and some spare money at home. That would be enough for her to live the ordinary and happy life she desires.
Finally, he stopped in front of Shu Tong's delivery bed, looking down at the tiny baby girl.
He searched diligently for several months before finally choosing this family. The father, Zhao Yuqing, was a scholar of integrity who taught at a university; the mother, Shu Tong, was even better, coming from a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. She had previously practiced Taoist alchemy, and in this life, she followed her mother to learn medicine, which suited her perfectly.
Coming from a wealthy and scholarly family, just as she had always wanted, she was sure she would have a wonderful new life.
He lowered his head, looking at Shu Qing's still-sleeping soul. She had been sleeping inside his demon soul for so many years, the two of them almost becoming one. To separate her now would be tantamount to tearing a part of himself apart, and she would suffer immense pain.
He deliberately sealed her consciousness to prevent her from suffering the same pain as him. Then, he bent down and pressed his forehead against the baby girl's forehead.
A moment later, Jiu Su stood up again. His face remained expressionless, as if words like pain and weakness describing mortal beings were irrelevant to him. However, his transparent demon soul once again became blurry and swaying.
The baby girl opened her eyes and smiled at him, her dark, bright eyes seeming to gleam with a clear light.
Jiu Su smiled silently. He reached out his fingers to touch the baby girl's face, but naturally couldn't touch anything. But in his heart, he had already touched her face in this life, and that was enough.
A shimmering light danced between his fingertips, and a restriction quietly took shape in his hand. This restriction entered her mind, and as it settled, all memories of her past life vanished. The baby girl, like a completely new life, opened her mouth and cried out.
"In this life, never again be burdened by grudges, love, or hatred," Jiu Su said softly, her voice like a lover's whisper. "May you be free from all worries and anxieties from now on."
These words drifted away amidst the cries of infants all around, but the young babies, preoccupied with their weeping, could no longer see him.
Shu Qing's head was throbbing with pain.
She watched the girl grow up year by year, becoming more and more radiant and lovely, studying and taking exams step by step, surrounded by the love of family and friends. All her troubles were just too much homework and a drop in her grades. She had good grades and was good at drawing, but unfortunately, despite having a talent for medicine, she was extremely resistant to herbs. Shu Tong couldn't do anything about it, so she just let her be.
She was clearly a girl who was happy to the point of being lucky, so why did she feel a vague sadness in her heart?
Whose bloodshot eyes are those in my dream?
Shu Qing struggled to break free from the control of the restriction. An unprecedented sense of confusion and doubt enveloped her. Was she the Lord of Xiashan, or a lucky mortal woman who had never experienced any storms in her life? She herself became increasingly blurred and confused.
Memories from two lifetimes clashed back and forth in her mind, the joys and sorrows of over a thousand years tearing at the restrictions left by Jiu Su, ripping at her soul. If she were to let the love and hate within these memories run rampant, she thought, she would probably be shattered to pieces.
That only benefited the spirit ape demon who devoured her soul; it might be secretly watching, waiting for the moment she completely collapses...
A glint of cold light suddenly tore through the chaos around her.
Shu Qing instinctively looked up. She fell into a cold embrace. Someone burst in, and the cold tip of a knife tore the chaos apart. Her feet landed firmly on the ground. Looking around, she was back in the prison cell of the Super Management Bureau—cages all around, all the lights off, and calming music spilling in from the windows, silently soothing her turbulent emotions.
Jiu Su took a step back and silently watched her.
Seventeen hundred years later, the former Lord Xiashan and the Demon King Jiusu stand silently facing each other in this prison surrounded by demons.
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The author's note: From ancient times to the present, there has never been a country that did not perish, nor a tomb that was not dug up. (From Cao Pi's "Final Edict")
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