CH 28

Translator’s note: Okay I said before that it’s ear cuffs, not ear nails, I take that back again. I just read the manga, it’s literally three nails in his ear :skull:

Also, I sincerely apologize for the inactivity. There are college applications and financial aid forms and stuff that I had to fill out, but now most of them are finished. I will try to make up the days I have missed.

—

Ning Huaishan silently pinched Fang Chu’s waist and whispered, “Did you see? Spirit King…”

Fang Chu: “……”

He gritted his teeth and swallowed the pain, then pinched Ning Huaishan’s fingers, “I did, I’m not blind. Pinch again, I dare you.”

Ning Huaishan: “I’d rather be blind.”

He thought about it for a while, but the more he thought, the more strange this seemed to be. “He’s our almighty City Lord in control of the entire Devil’s Den,  Zhaoye City. He’s an infamous Devil Lord, so how in the world would someone be calling him with an immortal title?”

“… Why? Maybe he’s crazy?”

“Perhaps he does look similar to that immortal and Yun Hai recognized the wrong person, or perhaps—” Fang Chu tried hard to come up with another reason, but he gave up in the end, “Never mind, I can’t think of anything else, that’s the only possibility.”

It would be really hard to find anyone that looked similar to their City Lord. Like all the legends say, anyone who sees his face once would never forget it for the rest of their lives, so how could one possibly have mistaken him for someone else?

In addition, Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu both clearly remember the way Spirit King caught his sword that was thrown at him by his servant boy.

Anyone who had spent some time with Wu Xingxue would know: The Devil Lord didn’t like to have things in his hand. Anytime he wanted something, he would usually just get it from the spot, or ask from the people beside him.

Ning Huaishan and Fang Chu have been with Wu Xingxue for the longest. Oftentimes, all Wu Xingxue had to do was stick out his hand, and they would know what to give him.

And every time Wu Xingxue caught something, he would always twirl it in his hand.

It was rather ironic. In the Yao Palace of the Immortal Capital, twirling something in the hand would seem graceful and cool, whereas doing the same thing in the Devil’s Den would seem incomprehensibly dangerous.

Although they were the exact same motions.

Ning Huaishan was stunned for a moment, then threw this strange thought out of his head. Together with Fang Chu, they took a look at their City Lord for reassurance, trying to find out what happened by looking at him.

On the other hand, Wu Xingxue was just as confused as they were.

He was silent for a moment, then lowered his eyes and asked Yun Hai, “What do you call me?”

Yun Hai didn’t reply.

He had slept here for way too long and hadn’t seen the light of day in ages. His face was sickly pale, like a pile of burnt paper, about to be blown to shreds any second.

He blinked lightly and slowly, giving a slight reaction when scanning over Wu Xingxue. He then turned slowly toward Xiao Fuxuan, scanning him from top to bottom as well, including his wrist with the black mark.

After that, Yun Hai closed his eyes, his body trembling slightly under the wrapping vines.

Only a moment later did Wu Xingxue realize that he was smiling.

Because he was too weak, the uncontrollable smile was very subtle.

“Did you ask me, what I called you…?” Yun Hai moved his lips slightly, making an extremely weak sound. It was as if those vines on him were wrapping him too tightly, pressing against his chest and choking his threat. To the extent that he couldn’t even let out a full breath.

But he was already used to being tied up like this and didn’t seem to mind at all. With his eyes closed, he spoke in a hoarse and barely audible voice, “I never thought, there would be, one day, when you would ask me, what I called you…”

“Isn’t that something, only a banished immortal, with his memory wiped, would ask? Never expected to hear it from you…”

Yun Hai gave a few silent laughs then continued silently, “Spirit King… Tianxiu… ordained by the heavens… No need for offerings, and no need for worshipers…”

With his eyes closed, he looked like he was having a peaceful dream. In the dream, the scene in which he just entered the Immortal Capital was as vivid as if it was from yesterday. He slowly repeated the words that the immortal envoy once said.1

“I used to… envy you two so much,” he continued softly.

Wu Xingxue raised his eyes and glanced at Xiao Fuxuan.

At that moment, a sentence suddenly flashed in his mind – “I really envy you…”

The voice wasn’t as hoarse, and the sound wasn’t so soft either. It was more like a casual complaint among friends. Wu Xingxue couldn’t recall the exact scene, but he subconsciously knew that this was what Yun Hai said before.

What Yun Hai said before while he was still at the Immortal Capital.

2Back then, Yun Hai had just been demoted to the Immortal of Valley of Great Sorrow and was still enduring Immortal Leader Hua Xin’s additional punishments. One day, he passed by Lingtai six times, yet he didn’t have the face to go in. In the enormous Immortal Capital, he detoured the longest way to the most remote place, “Seated Spring Breeze.”

Spirit King was rarely there. He was sitting with his legs crossed by the window frame, and the table in front of him even had a jug of Immortal Wine and also two empty cups. 

“You keep saying barely anyone ever comes here, yet you seem to be pretty prepared for guests.” At that time, Yun Hai did not endure nearly a hundred years of hardship yet. Every time he spoke, he would always bring out a smile and joke around, hiding his inner sadness. “Spirit King, is this a date with some gorgeous beauty? Did I come at a bad time?” 

“You did, it’s not too late to go yet,” Spirit King replied rather angrily.

“That won’t do. I’m frustrated today, I need to find someone to talk to, or else…” Yun Hai paused.

“Or else what?”

“Or else I might have to detour past Lingtai for the seventh time today,” Yun Hai laughed at himself.

The Spirit King didn’t ask about Lingtai’s business, this was his usual rule. So he didn’t reply and changed the subject, “So, what made you so frustrated today? Making you so desperate to let it out?”

“Can I drink this wine?” Yun Hai asked.

“No.” Spirit King swept his hand, causing the Immortal Wine and the empty cups to land steadily on the empty plate held by one of the servant boys. “This is an apology gift I prepared.”

With that, he waved his hand at another servant boy, and brought another jug of wine to Yun Hai.

“Apology? Who dares to ask for an apology from you? The best way to appreciate the night scenery here is with wine and women. Wouldn’t it be a waste if you use it for an apology?” Yun Hai muttered as he poured himself a cup of wine. 

After drinking, it was easy for one to let out his complaints.

After three cups, he didn’t say what happened to him today, and only complained how the wine wasn’t as sweet as before. Three cups later, he was already drunk.

He raised his wine cup, hitting it on the desk in front of Spirit King, and said, “I really envy you. No need to worry about the amount of incense, and you can compete with the Lingtai to see who lives longer.”

“Why does my master have to compete with the Lingtai for who lives longer?” Before Spirit King replied, the servant boy already spoke.

Yun Hai laughed then squeezed the servant boy’s face. He said with the wine jug in his hand, “The servant boys at the Lingtai are literally like old gramps, nothing like the cute and clever boys here at Seated Spring Breeze.”

The Spirit King accepted the compliment, “Naturally, I raised them myself after all.”

The little boy rubbed his face and ran, only to bump into a pair of long legs at the door, and yelled “Ouch”.

The Spirit King raised his eyes, and Yun Hai also dizzily turned his head. Tianxiu Immortal raised the veil in front of his face and appeared beside the door. 

His eyes swept across the room, and finally landed on the Immortal Wine that Yun Hai was holding. After a while, he looked at Spirit King and said in a low voice, “You grabbed the immortal bamboo leaves of my palace and left a note on my servant’s forehead, just to ask me to come just to see this?”

Yun Hai was already drunk at the time. He looked at Spirit King, then at Tianxiu Immortal, over and over again, then laughed. “This is the first time I heard such a long sentence from Tianxiu Immortal. How very strange; definitely an eye-opener today.”

He then said, “Don’t tell me the gorgeous beauty you were waiting for, is… Master Tianxiu?”

Tianxiu Immortal’s expression suddenly turned very interesting.

He had originally planned to leave, but suddenly changed his mind. Holding his mist-thin veil with two fingers, he waited to see what other nonsense was going on.

Perhaps it was because he was interrupted too many times back then, and he said those words so dizzily, that he even forgot what he had said. It was not mentioned again until hundreds of years later.

The person who was laughing and holding the wine in the air back then now turned into a ghostly devil. The elegant Tianxiu Immortal was now only a puppet clone. And the host at the Seated Spring Breeze couldn’t even remember who he was now. 

“I once thought, that you two didn’t have to worry about life and death, that you two didn’t have to worry about being banished, that you two will live as long as the Lingtai and the Immortal Leader, but who could imagine…”

Yun Hai’s silent laughter was full of ridicule, no one knew whether he was mocking himself or others.

“How did you guys end up like this?” He was silent for a moment, then suddenly his neck twitched slightly, and the eyeballs under his eyelids trembled for a moment. He gave an “ah”, as if he suddenly remembered something and said, “Oh, that’s right, even the Immortal Capital is gone, naturally no one is an immortal anymore.”

Hearing this, Wu Xingxue frowned, “How do you know that the Immortal Capital is gone?”

Ning Huaishan and the others were also stunned after he said this, ”Yeah wait, how did you know?”

Yun Hai has been trapped here for at least a few hundred years. Back then, the Immortal Capital was still perfectly fine.

Although, in the past centuries, he had absorbed a lot of nutrients for himself through the “worship marks”, and he had also gone into dreams to lure people to come here, attempting to break the suppression array. But regardless, no one would come to the depths of this catacomb and tell him what was going on outside these years.

Then how did he know that the Immortal Capital was destroyed?

Wu Xingxue glanced around and suddenly realized that there were runes engraved on the stone walls of the cave. The only reason he didn’t notice them before was because those runes were way too messy. At first glance, they didn’t look like runes at all, more like cracks formed by the shaking just now.

Now with a closer look, he realized that the reason those runes looked so messy was because there were two layers — There was once a layer of runes here, then another new layer was added on. 

And the brushstrokes of the two layers of runes seemed to be different; they didn’t come from the same person.

If the old rune was left behind when Hua Xin buried Yun Hai here…

Then what about the new one?

A guess suddenly flashed in Wu Xingxue’s mind.

He abruptly turned his head to look at Yun Hai, who was wrapped in vines. Yun Hai whispered with half-opened eyes, “Because I went out before.”

Everyone was instantly shocked.

This simple sentence gave all present cultivation disciples a layer of cold sweat.

The devil trapped here escaped before?!

Just as they were about to raise their swords, Yi Wusheng spoke in a light voice, “Was it… over twenty years ago?”

“Was it over twenty years ago when you left this place?”

“Did you… come to the Hua Sect?”

Yi Wusheng tried his best to recall the stranger whom the Hua Sect greeted more than twenty years ago. At that time, people were still falling victim to the mark from Valley of Great Sorrow, so there were many people who came to the Hua Sect.

If this devil was mixed among those people, then he and Hua Zhaoting’s inexplicable worship mark appearing on their neck had an explanation now…

“But how did you manage to come out?!”

Yun Hai didn’t reply and instead said, “I’ve been to the Hua Sect more than once.”

The moment his voice fell, the vines that tied him suddenly started to grow as if they became alive. With a violent gust of wind, they slammed toward where everyone was standing.

The cultivation disciples cut through the vines with their swords, but then an endless amount of devilish energy started to flow out of the vine stems.

His sudden outburst caught almost everyone off guard.

Fortunately, Xiao Fuxuan’s sword wasn’t sheathed yet. Golden light suddenly started to spread like an ocean wave, destroying all the vines in its path.

The air was filled with broken vines and devilish energy at this point. The Mian Sword plunged down, and just as it was about to pierce through Yun Hai’s heart, it stopped.

At that moment, the entire catacomb was silent.

Everyone held their breath for a long time, and then heard Xiao Fuxuan’s low voice, “Since you have gone out, then why bother coming back.”

Everyone was stunned for a moment before realizing.

Yeah, since he was able to escape, then why bother coming back? After all the deliberate struggle, wasn’t it all just to break the seal and be able to escape, to see the light of day again?

Now with some careful thinking, they also started to realize that Yun Hai’s sudden outburst wasn’t really a critical sneak attack at all. Instead, it seemed like the dying struggle from a flame that was about to be burned out.

What did he want…?

Yun Hai’s hoarse voice sounded, “Me and Spirit King were old friends, I didn’t have a deep connection with you. Please don’t bring up the unnecessary old feelings when in battle.”

As he said that, the vines on his body suddenly wrapped around Xiao Fuxuan’s sword. Many of them burst into pieces as they couldn’t withstand the continuous flow of celestial energy coming from it, but also at the meantime, they were fiercely trying to pull the sword down—

With a puff…

When the celestial sword pierced through his heart, everyone felt a wave of coldness. They were reminded of the scene under the blue-gray sky in the Valley of Great Sorrow hundreds of years ago.

Hua Xin’s sword, which had a peach branch pattern on the hilt, was not as cold.

Yun Hai didn’t know how the fatal hit from Hua Xin didn’t kill him back then. He also didn’t know what Hua Xin did to him while he was in his long sleep.

He only knew that one day, when he suddenly woke up from his dream and opened his eyes, he was already covered from head to toe in a pitch-black place.

He was surrounded by runes, rendering him immobile.

Anxious, his devilish energy soared. But before he did anything, he heard a voice. It sounded from afar, but also close at the same time. It was a voice that he couldn’t be more familiar with, a voice that he would never forget.

The voice said, “My disciple Yun Hai.”

He immediately quieted down, listening to that sentence over and over again.

But sometimes, he couldn’t control himself. This was what cultivating the diabolic path was like. In the end, one wouldn’t even be able to tell if they were controlling the evil, or if the evil was controlling them.

The feeling of his soul being split apart came up again. Half was saying: I need to get out, no one can stop me!

The other half was saying: No.

People frequently passed by the Valley of Great Sorrow. Taking advantage of the loosening array, he sent out a string of spiritual consciousness outside, attaching it to a passerby.

When he smelled the smell of raw humans, he realized that he was really hungry for too long. That day, he stood quietly on the altar of the celestial temple, looking down at the worshipers like the Immortal he used to be. While sneering at them, he also left some marks on them.

At that moment, the other half of his soul said: You are still that devil you used to be.

By using the worship mark, he experienced what humans taste like. Then, he started to use other methods so that he didn’t have to do anything physically and he could still absorb the spirit of the living.

He gathered more strength, and one day he attached himself to a stranger and left the Valley of Great Sorrow.

Looking at the unfamiliar world, he didn’t know where to go for a while.

By the time he returned to his senses, he was already standing in the hall of Hua Sect in Chunfan City, quietly looking at the portrait hanging in the hall.

At that moment, the devilish energy prevailed, and he was a little angry.

Half of his soul sneered: Why bother letting off someone who wanted to kill you?

The other half said: I’m not completely dead yet.

The half sneered again: Then do you want to die again? I won’t allow it.

In those days, although he was barely considered alive, he did a lot of evil.

One, because of the nature of a devil, and two… perhaps he wanted to see that person come down from the Immortal Capital again.

To reprimand him, or even kill him, anything was fine. 

But that person never came.

Every time he was about to run out of spiritual energy, he would hide in the catacomb to gather more “food”. He didn’t know how long he would sleep each time, maybe months or years.

Like this, he entered and left the valley several times. Until one day, he once again stood in the hall of Hua Xin. He looked at the Hua Xin portrait for a long time.

A Hua Sect disciple asked him, “Mister, did you encounter some trouble? Is it related to the soul? Would you like to go see Yi Wusheng, or…?

Yun Hai didn’t know who Yi Wusheng was, and he didn’t pay attention to what the disciple was saying either. He just stared at the portrait blankly for a long time, then asked, “How’s Mingwu Immortal Leader doing these years?”

The little disciple opened his eyes wide and said in surprise, “Mister, the Immortal Capital has perished for several years already. The Lingtai Twelve Immortals no longer exist, and that goes for the Immortal Leader as well.”

Yun Hai couldn’t remember how he escaped the body he was on that day, nor what evils he did that day. He even couldn’t remember how he returned to the Valley of Great Sorrow that day.

He suddenly felt like, in this enormous world, there is nothing worth living for.

What was so good about seeing the sunlight again? It wasn’t even as good as the catacomb under the Valley of Great Sorrow. At least there, he could still hear his master’s voice.

The conflict between his split souls were clashing like never before. Half of it wanted to escape, yet the other half wished to stay here forever.

Sometimes, he would be Hua Xin’s disciple, Yun Hai. Other times, he would be Devil Yun Hai.

Sometimes awake and conscious, other times crazy and insane.

During the times in which he was insane, he would use a diabolic technique to try and break through these layers of suppression. When he was conscious again, he would go add more layers of rune on the weakened array.

He fought with himself like this for over twenty years, he had enough already.

Now that the array has finally dissipated, he would never hear that person’s voice again. Without another reason to be here, he wanted to be dispatched by one of his old friends… fast and painlessly.

From this moment on, the matters of the world had no concern for him.