Chapter Twenty-Six: The Master and His Fated Tribulation
Ya Feiyu awoke in a damp space that seemed to smell of mildew. His clothes were soaked through by the water beneath him, revealing glimpses of his skin. He pushed himself up with his hands, his hair wet, glistening droplets falling from it. Strands of his slightly disheveled hair clung to his cheeks, and a gentle breeze carried a chilling cold.
...He fainted? When did that happen?
Staring at the unfamiliar space, Ya Feiyu felt a rare sense of bewilderment. He felt a slight ache in his body, but this was nothing compared to the excruciating pain that felt like his soul was being torn apart. Something had happened to his avatar, Ya Feiyu was so certain of it. He tried to peer into the avatar's perspective, but it was as if a wall stood between him and the avatar, preventing him from seeing what the avatar had experienced.
When the avatar is injured, the soul will also feel the corresponding pain. Ya Feiyu had made preparations when he decided to do this, but he did not expect it to hurt so much.
It would be a lie to say that people are not afraid of pain; even battle-hardened cultivators cannot escape such physical punishment.
Footsteps echoed from a distance.
"Hehe, long time no see, Celestial Snow Immortal." It was a voice so familiar that Ya Feiyu could hardly forget it. A slender woman slowly stepped out from the shadows. By the faint light from the wall, Ya Feiyu could barely make out her direction. The woman covered her face with a fan, the darkness blurring her features, making them indistinct. But the malice that seemed to accompany her made Ya Feiyu realize who she was in an instant.
“Sikong Yue.” His voice was cold, almost devoid of any emotion. He glanced at her and said, “You’re still alive. That truly surprises me.”
Sikong Yue narrowed her eyes, raised her hand, and a cold, hard object suddenly sprang out from the ground, clamping down on Ya Feiyu's joints before he could react. At this moment, Ya Feiyu was suffering from mental torment and was unable to concentrate his mind and regulate his spiritual power, thus his movements were controlled by her.
Sikong Yue, however, seemed completely unsurprised by this development. She curled her red lips into a smile, gently waving her folding fan, and said with a laugh, "How pathetic, Heavenly Snow Immortal Venerable, to specially set up an avatar to follow those little disciples... I think you didn't do this simply to protect them, did you?"
The cold object lifted him up, suspending him against the damp stone wall. Ya Feiyu looked down; these were vines of unknown origin. He wondered how a demonic cultivator without spiritual roots could manipulate these creatures from nature, but that was clearly not something he should be thinking about right now. Ya Feiyu gritted his teeth, enduring the excruciating pain, and said expressionlessly, "You're here, which means your accomplices are here too."
He was naturally referring to the strangely behaving man in black robes. Moreover, compared to Sikong Yue, this man's attitude was significantly more ambiguous; on one hand, he seemed to hate him to the core, yet on the other hand, he repeatedly avoided direct confrontation. This man clearly possessed sufficient strength and countless opportunities to silently eliminate him, but he consistently refrained from doing so.
Perhaps after going astray in cultivation, one's personality would become somewhat distorted... Ya Feiyu couldn't quite understand this. But at least he was certain that this man was no good, and someone he needed to be wary of.
"Oh, you mean that lord?" Mentioning this person, a hint of apprehension seemed to flash in Sikong Yue's crimson eyes, but due to the surroundings, Ya Feiyu couldn't see it clearly. However, his keen intuition told him that Sikong Yue's condition was clearly not right.
He closed his eyes and subtly channeled his spiritual energy. A pale silver stream of spiritual energy gently enveloped his eyes, and although he had his eyes closed, he could see even more clearly than when his eyes were open.
—Sikong Yue’s body was filled with a deathly aura, as if it were decaying.
In that instant, Ya Feiyu understood something.
Contrary to his expectations, Sikong Yue did not escape his real attack using some strange magic; rather, she had indeed died within that illusion.
But now she's standing right in front of him, which means this Sikong Yue isn't a living person.
At least this body comes from a dead person.
Recalling the countless forbidden books of the demon race he had read in his previous life, his expression hardened. His excellent memory allowed him to instantly recall this description that had been dormant deep in his memory—it was said that the first Demon Lord's wife died under the sword of the God Lord. The Demon Lord was overwhelmed with grief and forcibly reversed life and death by splitting off a part of his own soul and spirit, pulling his cold wife from the deepest hell back to the mortal world.
However, reversing life and death is a great taboo that goes against the natural order.
The fate of the Demon Lord is unknown, but both the legends passed down through generations and the records in books indicate that the Demon Lord was ultimately destroyed for violating the laws of heaven, and his wife was imprisoned in the depths of the ghost realm, unable to be reincarnated for all eternity.
Nowadays, people are not concerned about this tragic love story, but rather about the resurrection technique used by the Demon Lord.
Eventually, an "improved version" emerged—one that could resurrect the dead, but the resurrected people would become like zombies from folk tales, soulless and mindless, undoubtedly monsters.
The woman in front of me... is probably in the same situation.
It's not that Ya Feiyu is boasting, but there are really very few people in this world who can withstand his sword light. Even though Sikong Yue's cultivation is not much inferior to his, the more a cultivator cultivates to the later stage, the greater the watershed between each level becomes. The difference between the late stage and the early stage of the Tribulation Transcending Realm can be considered as vast as heaven and earth, not to mention that Sikong Yue hasn't even touched the threshold of the Tribulation Transcending Realm yet.
The ability to reverse life and death...
Before Ya Feiyu could think any further, a sharp pain abruptly pulled him back to reality. Sikong Yue grabbed his long hair, showing no mercy, pulling until his scalp ached. She half-squatted down, pulling his hair back, forcing Ya Feiyu to look up at her. She wanted to see a different glimmer of color in those silvery-white eyes that always exuded indifference—but there was none.
Ya Feiyu's eyes remained empty, as if mocking her actions and negating everything she had done.
Sikong Yue's once pretty face was now contorted with rage. She slammed Ya Feiyu's head against the wall, the sharp stone spikes breaking his skin and drawing blood. Ya Feiyu closed his eyes, silently enduring this brutality.
"Why, why!" she roared hoarsely, "You hypocrite, why can you sit upright on this high platform while we demonic cultivators are forever trampled under your feet—"
Her already hoarse voice was filled with resentment and anger. She no longer covered her face with the fan, revealing the other half of her face, which had become hideous. She had indeed died once under Ya Feiyu's sword. The other half of her face was like a corpse, festering and stinking, with the flesh peeling away bit by bit. Even maggots were disgusted and did not choose to parasitize her.
Blood had blurred his vision.
The crow remained silent. The more it hurt, the less it spoke. Like a rabbit, it never uttered a sound when it was sick or injured.
"That's enough," another hoarse voice came. "Don't kill him."
Sikong Yue paused slightly, then reluctantly withdrew his hand. Ya Feiyu lowered his head. This minor injury wasn't particularly serious for a cultivator, but it did make him dizzy and disoriented. His already poor eyesight became even more blurred, making it impossible for him to see the person approaching. He could only hear footsteps so light they seemed nonexistent.
From the shadows, a man in black robes slowly emerged. Ya Feiyu wasn't surprised by his arrival; he merely lifted his eyelids, not even bothering to look up, and said indifferently, "What do you want from me this time?"
The unpleasant parting last time had already foreshadowed that they had no chance of amicable cooperation, and Ya Feiyu had no intention of letting his guard down. The man seemed to think the same way. He curled the corners of his mouth, his silver mask gleaming coldly, and slowly walked over. He pinched Ya Feiyu's chin with two fingers and said casually, "Nothing, I just wanted to slow down your good disciple a little."
Ya Feiyu's gaze sharpened: "You dare!"
The man in black robes snorted coldly, disdainfully tossing Ya Feiyu's face aside. He took a few steps back and cast a cold, condescending gaze down at her: "I'm fed up. Every time we meet, you say the same things. Can't you say something else?"
Ya Feiyu gritted his teeth in hatred, his hands clenched into fists. He forced himself to calm down, suppressing his wildly beating heart, and said, "Likewise."
The man in black robes laughed. He paced back and forth around Ya Feiyu and said, "Although you are very valuable, it's a pity that your disciple is far more qualified to be my pawn. You have rejected me time and time again... To be honest, even though I pride myself on my good temper, I am more or less annoyed now."
He curled his lips into a smirk, his intentions malicious: "If I could eliminate you while simultaneously turning your disciple into a pawn for my purposes, that would be the best solution..."
"You!" Ya Feiyu exclaimed in astonishment, "Ye Chi, he couldn't possibly..."
The man paused, then burst into a sharp laugh. His hoarse voice pierced the silent air like a blade, sending chills down one's spine.
"Who told you I wanted him?"
The man looked at him with disdain. "He's just like you. To me, he's not even as valuable as you."
Ya Feiyu pursed her lips, her silvery eyes reflecting a chill: "You want to harm Shi Bai?"
"Do you know, Ya Feiyu, the way you look right now is like a lioness whose cubs are about to be kidnapped by villains." The man avoided answering, staring directly into Ya Feiyu's eyes, which were cold enough to kill. "Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try, you can't change the ending of this story. You know, the damned never live."
Ya Feiyu's face paled. He lowered his head, and the man changed the subject: "Instead of that, I want to ask you a question—"
He gently scratched Ya Feiyu's chin with his index finger, raising goosebumps.
"Why did you create an avatar and place it beside those ignorant junior disciples?"
"Do you want to spy on them?"
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