Chapter 89 Inner Demons
After burning down the dilapidated palace and escaping the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion's territory, Su Yunyu learned her lesson and quickly swallowed the pill that could temporarily shield spiritual energy.
As he floated in the air and surveyed the Central Continent, he pondered for a moment and decisively decided to head to the most remote area.
As the saying goes, mountains are high and rivers are far. Although the cultivation world may not be slow, traveling a long distance at least provides some psychological comfort.
However, Su Yunyu didn't remember the map very clearly. She just randomly picked a direction and rushed off. Looking down, she saw that she had passed through a large area of forest and fields. She only slowly descended when a village appeared.
Clad in white, she landed gracefully on a patch of yellow earth. Looking into the distance, a boundary marker leaned precariously against the land, and a tall archway stood beside it bearing the words "village."
The rustic and idyllic atmosphere made Su Yunyu feel somewhat at ease, but he wasn't in a hurry to go in. There was a towering tree nearby, so he went over and sat down under it to take a short rest.
Now that things have settled down, that lingering fear immediately returned, as if Long Aotianxia were about to catch up with her in a second. Su Yunyu leaned against a tree to calm herself down, closing her eyes to feel the dappled shade.
He hadn't felt this way in a long time; the sun was shining brightly, the leaves were rustling, and he couldn't help but fall into a deep, weary sleep...
In his hazy sleep, he seemed to hear a barely perceptible laugh, and some force lifted him up, then, with a jolt, placed him on a stable surface.
It felt like she had slept for a very long time. It wasn't until her temples were throbbing and her eyelids were heavy that Su Yunyu slowly woke up. She subconsciously wondered if she was really that sleep-deprived.
He got up and rubbed his eyes, one hand supporting himself on the "ground." Still not fully awake, his hand unconsciously rubbed the area beneath him until the cool, smooth touch became increasingly clear. Su Yunyu immediately felt a chill run down her spine—
He suddenly opened his eyes and looked down, only to find that he was no longer leaning against the tree trunk and sleeping on the ground, but was now lying on a hard wooden couch.
Looking again at the edge of the bed, I unfortunately met a pair of smiling eyes. Those eyes were like those of a fox, with upturned corners and inward-curving corners, a long-lost feeling that was both strange and familiar.
You're awake.
His flippant, teasing voice drifted over, and with each subtle movement he made, a blinding flash of red filled the darkening sky.
The brilliant rays of the setting sun streamed in through the window, inadvertently illuminating the face of the person speaking—Feng Mingye, whom I had almost forgotten existed.
"you……"
Su Yunyu shrank back into the corner, hesitant to speak, her emotions a jumble of conflicting feelings. She didn't know whether to be afraid or not, but she decided to try and stabilize the situation first.
What are you doing here?
"Pfft..." Feng Mingye laughed, his ghostly face filled with mockery.
"That's not a question I should be asking you."
He continued, seemingly oblivious to his own words, "The Immortal Venerable of the number one sect in the world actually fell asleep under a tree at the village entrance. Isn't that bizarre?"
"Heh," Su Yunyu sneered twice.
"Then how come you, a demon lord, are also at the village entrance? Isn't that even more bizarre than me?"
Feng Mingye's eyes narrowed slightly, his tone calm:
"I am no longer the Lord."
Seeing that Su Yunyu still wanted to interrupt, he leaned forward and placed his hands on top of her. Strands of his long hair, which was only tied up with a red ribbon, fell down, startling Su Yunyu, who shrank back even further, her eyes wary.
"What are you going to do? Kill me to silence me?"
Realizing this possibility, Su Yunyu felt a sudden clarity, as if the clouds had parted and the sun was shining. He had originally intended to end his own life anyway; if Feng Mingye could do it for him, wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?
Su Yunyu, who was initially afraid of what Feng Mingye might do, now adopted a "do whatever you want" attitude and relaxed.
This change was immediately apparent to Feng Mingye. His gaze deepened, and he raised his hand to brush away the stray hairs that fell across Su Yunyu's brow, his tone carrying a profound meaning:
You don't seem afraid at all.
Su Yunyu met Feng Mingye's gaze with pride, seemingly unafraid, and inwardly she was even urging Feng Mingye to make his move quickly.
Although he hadn't had a chance to enjoy himself during the seven days the pill was in effect before falling into Feng Mingye's hands, he was going to die anyway, so it didn't matter.
“Indeed,” Feng Mingye murmured twice, misunderstanding something, his smile widening.
"It seems you know I can't bear to hurt you."
In his words, he seemed to take Su Yunyu's fearlessness as an assumption that he was arrogant and unrestrained.
Su Yunyu's eyes widened for a moment. What did she mean by "reluctant to part with"?
111, who had been watching the show in her mind's eye for a while, popped up:
"How did you end up on the second male lead's bed instead of the main character's?"
"..."
He didn't want to talk, feeling as if he had just escaped one tiger's den only to fall into another.
Just as he was inwardly cursing the injustice of fate, Feng Mingye lowered his head, brushed his nose against his neck, and said in a fascinated tone:
"The cool fragrance emanating from the Immortal Venerable is truly unsettling."
broken.
Seeing the flames flickering in Feng Mingye's eyes, Su Yunyu instantly thought of Xiao Shuying and immediately guessed his ulterior motives. She froze, her voice urgent:
What do you want to do?
Feng Mingye did not answer, but moved most of his body closer to Su Yunyu, placing his hands on Su Yunyu's sides, almost trapping him in his arms.
His eyes were fixed on Su Yunyu, who was stiff all over. His smile grew wider and wider. Ever since that kiss on the lips from the blood mark last time, he had been unable to forget it. Now that she had come to his territory, he couldn't blame him for bullying her.
Just as Su Yunyu lowered her head to search for those thin lips, and was about to fight back desperately, a noise came from outside:
"My Lord, My Lord—"
Feng Mingye paused, and Su Yunyu seized the opportunity to shove him away from the edge of intimacy. Just as they were about to have a final showdown, Feng Mingye stood up, smoothed his sleeve, glanced down at Su Yunyu, and said:
"Immortal Venerable, please wait here for my return."
The once fiery gaze seemed to cool down because of the abrupt interruption from the person outside. After saying that, Feng Mingye pushed open the door and left. Seeing this, Su Yunyu breathed a sigh of relief and repeatedly thanked the person who had just interrupted her from afar.
Little did they know that the man was carrying the hopes of the entire demon race because the new Demon Lord had been severely injured by Xiao Shuying, and had come here to beg Feng Mingye to return.
However, Su Yunyu was unaware of the turmoil in the Demon Realm. He only wanted to take the opportunity to escape as quickly as possible. He glanced at the wooden window, and in no time, he broke through the diamond-shaped window and jumped out.
[Tsk tsk tsk, host, you're getting more and more skilled at running away these days.]
111 picked up some sunflower seeds, feeling a slight regret over the interruption of the scene.
"..."
Su Yunyu couldn't help but shed tears when he thought about how he always ran away for the sake of his integrity, but he quickly sobered up because he noticed that the air around him was vibrating.
Everything around him looked exactly the same. Su Yunyu knew that he had entered the formation and was now separated from the real world as if by a layer of frosted glass.
"Damn it!" Su Yunyu cursed angrily, thinking that she had really encountered many setbacks. How could they play her like this? She had finally managed to escape from Long Aotian's death trap and Feng Mingye's, but now she had run into a formation.
This enemy of Heaven is truly formidable.
Now that things had come to this, Su Yunyu could only search for a way to break the formation with a heart full of resentment. Although formations generally have a key point, high-end formations are often like solving a puzzle, requiring one to find the key by understanding the internal structure of the formation.
Before Su Yunyu could examine the scene carefully, he heard voices around him. He looked around and was immediately stunned, because the scenery around him had changed to daytime, and the village looked even more prosperous than when he had seen it before.
The speaker was a woman dressed in ordinary coarse linen clothes, but her profile was incredibly beautiful. Opposite her was a man who exuded an aura of sinister evil.
The woman's eyes were filled with affection, her tone expectant:
"You will marry me, right? I gave myself to you last night..."
Having said that, she appeared extremely shy and lowered her head, naturally not noticing the man's impatience.
"Of course, don't worry, I won't let you down."
Su Yunyu felt that the man looked familiar. After thinking for a long time, she suddenly realized that this man was the one who appeared in the illusion created by Feng Mingye a long time ago and asked the young Feng Mingye to kill the Lord of Yuehu Tower!
Wait a minute, this makes the identities of these two people quite intriguing. If this obviously heartless man is a member of the demon race and Feng Mingye's father, then wouldn't the woman be...?
As expected, the scene changed again. This time, the man was gone, and there was only a slightly dilapidated house. Inside, a woman was sitting on a couch sewing something. Upon closer inspection, it was small clothing. And upon closer inspection, her belly was swollen, indicating that she was pregnant.
Su Yunyu seemed to have guessed what was going to happen next. Sure enough, the woman touched her pregnant belly, and the face that had been full of admiration before was now filled with deep sorrow.
"Where did you go? Why didn't you come to marry me..."
So this is Feng Mingye's background. The scene then shifts again, seemingly to a few years later, where a thin child is chopping firewood, his gaze occasionally drifting to the big tree at the village entrance, where his mother is waiting anxiously.
Tired from chopping firewood, the child ran over to his mother and asked:
"Mother, don't wait anymore, my father is a heartless man."
As soon as he finished speaking, the woman's face darkened with anger, telling him to shut up. But then, seeing the child's sorrowful expression, she couldn't help but cry out in guilt.
"No, he's not that kind of person..."
The scene changed scene by scene. The woman stood under the tree and waited day after day. The tree withered and then turned green again. The child grew much taller. But the person never appeared at the village entrance.
Just as Su Yunyu was cursing men for being such scoundrels, the scene before her eyes changed again, and the man actually appeared!
However, he didn't come looking for the woman; instead, he went directly to the child who was fetching water from the back mountain. This child was none other than Feng Mingye.
Inside the formation, he was only six or seven years old. Facing the man with a murderous aura, he couldn't help but feel timid and seemed to want to run away. The man scrutinized him with a very critical gaze, then nodded.
“Indeed, exceptionally talented, just what I need to make use of.”
He spoke very softly, and after saying this, the man told Feng Mingye:
“I am your father. You were born into the Demon Realm. Come back to the Demon Realm with me.”
"Demon Realm"
The still-young Feng Mingye looked astonished, then shook his head:
"I want to stay with my mother."
But the man's face darkened, becoming extremely frightening, and he then coldly warned:
“I didn’t discuss this with you anymore.”
Having said that, he directly took Feng Mingye's hand, his body surging with demonic energy—it was a teleportation array. Feng Mingye realized what was happening and shouted:
"Mother, mother——"
"Before you take me away, let me tell my mother—"
But their shouts and prayers were in vain. Then, the demonic energy dissipated, and the two had vanished. Several years seemed to have passed within the formation. This time, however, there was a newly erected grave, and some villagers looked on with regret.
"Sigh, this Fengqin, not only was she deceived by a man, but she also lost her child. What a miserable life..."
"Let's say less," another villager sighed.
“I often saw her waiting under that tree, filled with both infatuation and resentment. After losing her child, she became ill from the accumulated depression…”
A gust of wind blew by, and the mourning villagers turned to ashes. Weeds grew on the graves, and the village gradually declined. But those who were forcibly taken away never returned.
At this point, everything the formation intended to convey seemed to have been completely eliminated. Su Yunyu felt somewhat depressed, wondering if Li Qingyuan had written such a tragic passage when creating this character.
The grave in front of her was incredibly desolate. Su Yunyu wanted to go up and pull out the weeds, but her hand passed right through them. Only then did she realize that she was just a transparent object.
So how exactly do you get out of the formation? He explored it with his spiritual energy, but there was no core to the formation. So what else could it be?
The entire formation seemed to be telling him his final regret. Looking at the dusty tombstone, Su Yunyu narrowed his eyes and gradually made up his mind.
Inner demons need to be overcome by breaking free from obsessions, so can formations do the same?
-----------------------
Author's Note: I'm going to briefly explore the second male lead's storyline. Initially, I was debating whether to simply fade out of the story or give him a proper ending. I decided to write an ending, even though the character development wasn't great, I didn't want to just rush through it. [Clown]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
