The moment Su Su's hand touched Tantai Jin's, he recoiled violently as if burned.
The God Slaying Crossbow sensed its master's turmoil and flew out horizontally, positioning itself between them and everyone else.
Don't look! Don't you dare look!
Thunderous energy dispersed from the black crossbow, sweeping indiscriminately toward everyone's eyes.
Someone cried out in pain. Su Su quickly shielded her face with her sleeve, but in that brief moment, he was gone.
Su Su looked down at her hand. "How could this be?"
Her fingertips, where she had touched Tantai Jin, were stained with specks of blood. What exactly... had happened to him?
The tiger demon grew larger, carrying Tantai Jin as it ran.
Having followed Tantai Jin for so long and benefiting from his generosity, the tiger demon's cultivation had grown through association. Normally lazy, its body was now all flab in this critical moment.
Its tongue lolled out, panting heavily from exhaustion.
The God Slaying Crossbow followed menacingly, materializing a sharp arrow that stabbed into the tiger demon's rear. With a yelp, the demon clamped its tail and vanished like the wind.
The Demon God's Crossbow pursued closely.
Not the brightest, the tiger demon didn't know where to hide and could only take Tantai Jin to the place where his master had once found him.
Thinking of the eerie River of Wailing Ghosts that might lie beneath, the tiger demon shuddered.
Tantai Jin collapsed to the ground.
His clothes were in tatters, his pale, lean chest marred by ghastly claw marks from evil ghosts. Crimson fissures snaked across his body as if he were a shattered corpse.
The cracks seemed to tear him apart. His fingers dug desperately into the earth.
His tendons and bones were being forcibly separated. The skin on his hands split and healed repeatedly until he was drenched in blood, just as Immortal Lord Zhao You had found him years ago.
He resembled a vengeful spirit clawing its way from the River of Wailing Ghosts, only his bones emitting a faint golden glow.
The moon had risen unnoticed, pale as a icy sickle in the winter sky, gazing down upon him.
The night stretched endlessly.
Ghostly presences stirred in the shadows.
Tantai Jin knew he was now weak enough to be at anyone's mercy. If a great demon appeared, he wouldn't stand a chance.
I can't die. I mustn't die!
His fingers clawed at the dirt as he inched forward.
The tiger demon didn't dare touch him—he was so fragile now that even a slight contact might break him. It could only follow closely, remaining vigilant and fending off any demonic creatures eyeing the Emperor.
After what felt like an eternity, Tantai Jin crawled into a nearby cave and collapsed.
The cold ground pressed against his cheek.
As dawn approached, children gathering firewood passed by and screamed, "A monster! There's a monster here!"
"Kill it! Kill the monster!"
Stones were hurled into the cave entrance.
The tiger demon, unable to bear it any longer, leaped out and scared them away.
In his daze, a voice sighed faintly—
"Do you regret it? This is the price you paid for diving into the Underworld's River of Wailing Ghosts to search for her for five hundred years."
Year after year, five hundred times over.
"Cultivators misunderstand you, mortals fear you at first sight, and the one you love hates you. You've endured over five centuries of torment alone. Don't you see? Born with the Evil Bone, where in this world is there a place for you?"
A woman holding a red umbrella stopped gracefully, gazing at him with pity.
Su Su had initially been able to track Tantai Jin, but the God Slaying Crossbow's interference made his presence vanish completely.
Zhaocheng was littered with corpses, both human and demonic.
Chongyu transformed into a sword, and she soared above the city on it, seeing that it had become a ghost town.
Now everyone claimed it was Tantai Jin's doing.
Many had witnessed Tantai Jin plunging the Primordial Sword into Zhao You's body. Cang Hai, who had once trusted Tantai Jin, issued a kill order within the Carefree Sect: any disciple who encountered Tantai Jin was to eliminate him on sight.
After flying for an unknown length of time, Su Su spotted a figure.
She descended and walked toward the person in a daze.
The figure turned, and time seemed to shatter. Before her was a familiar face.
"Second Brother..." Su Su murmured.
It was actually Ye Chu Feng, a figure from five hundred years ago. Was it truly Ye Chu Feng, or had time flowed on, making this his reincarnation?
"Young lady?" Ye Chu Feng didn't recognize her. Hearing her call him "Second Brother," he paused. "You..."
A small fox in his arms chirped excitedly.
After a moment's hesitation, Ye Chu Feng asked uncertainly, "Are you... Xi Wu?"
Su Su didn't deny it.
Gazing at the radiant fairy before him, Ye Chu Feng couldn't help but lament how much had changed. Countless old acquaintances had turned to dust, yet the girl who had once leaped from the city walls before thousands of soldiers had become this stunning woman.
"Why did you come from Zhaocheng?" Su Su asked, eyeing the fox in his arms. "Is that... Pian Ran?"
"It's a long story," Ye Chu Feng said with a bitter smile.
Five hundred years ago, after leaving the Zhou Kingdom's palace with Tantai Jin, one day Tantai Jin announced he would seek the supreme Immortal Path.
Before leaving, he gave Ye Chu Feng a glass vial containing a fragment of Pian Ran's soul.
That was why Ye Chu Feng, knowing Pian Ran was already dead, had obeyed Tantai Jin without question.
Over the years, Ye Chu Feng carried the vial across the Three Realms. By chance, he killed a demonic creature and obtained the Life Gathering Pearl, using it to nurture Pian Ran's remnant soul until consciousness slowly returned to the vial.
He spent centuries raising a naive little fox.
But the fox had no intelligence—no longer the nine-tailed fox of millennia past, nor even the seven-tailed one from before.
It was just an ordinary little fox demon with a single fluffy tail.
Ye Chu Feng cherished it as his long-lost love, but it didn't recognize him, treating him only as its caretaker.
The fox fled year after year, longing to return to the wild—until one day, it saw the usually stoic and rigid man weeping silently as it left.
After a long pause, it hesitantly returned to his side.
Later, Ye Chu Feng went to Zhaocheng and gradually became its lord. He raised the fox demon there, finding refuge in the city when the mortal world rejected them.
But now, all had been destroyed by demons. Zhaocheng was no more, and only thanks to Immortal Venerable Zhao You had they survived.
"Then you saw who massacred the city?" Su Su asked.
Ye Chu Feng hesitated, glancing at her. "That person... looked exactly like Xiao Lin and wielded a terrifying demonic sword."
Like Tantai Jin, he believed "Third Sister" had deeply loved Xiao Lin.
"It was Senior Brother," Su Su murmured. "So it really wasn't him."
"Third Sister, have you seen the Immortal Venerable who saved me?" Ye Chu Feng asked worriedly. "He rescued Pian Ran and me, but I sensed demonic energy on him, as if wounded by a demon."
Only then did Su Su learn that Immortal Lord Zhao You had saved Ye Chu Feng.
"You're saying Immortal Lord Zhao You had demonic energy on him?" She immediately connected this to those previously implanted with demon cores. Could this be why Tantai Jin had killed his master, who was on the verge of becoming a demon?
This was bad! The demonic realm would surely be hunting Tantai Jin now.
With both cultivators and mortals seeking his death, Su Su wasn't sure she wouldn't turn to the demonic realm under such relentless misunderstanding.
She had to find him immediately and bring him back!
"Third Sister!" Ye Chu Feng suddenly said. "After I parted ways with His Majesty back then, I didn't go far. I followed him and saw him jump into the Underworld's River of Wailing Ghosts."
"You know what that place is, don't you?"
Su Su froze.
Of course she knew.
When she was young and still had the curved jade, it would scare her with stories whenever she misbehaved. Two things stood out in her memory as the most terrifying: the Demon God, who could overturn heaven and earth with a wave of his hand, and the dark, horrifying River of Wailing Ghosts.
It was said the river had no end, no light, no life—only shattered souls tearing at each other. Falling in meant being ripped apart until one's soul scattered to nothingness.
"Back then, when he dealt with the Ye family, I hated him. I even thought about killing him once I had Pian Ran's soul. But later..." Ye Chu Feng's expression grew complicated. "I realized I didn't need to. He was living a fate worse than death, and I actually pitied him."
At least he still had a fragment of Pian Ran's soul. Su Su had left Tantai Jin with nothing.
"There's something else I must give you."
Ye Chu Feng retrieved an aged thumb ring from his storage pouch.
"He saved Grandmother. Later, I cared for her until her passing. This is what she left for you. Her final wish was for Xi Wu to live happily after marriage."
May that person cherish you, treasure you, love you, and hold you dear.
For this life and the next.
The ring was warm in her palm.
It was as if a door in her Spiritual Platform had been gently opened.
Past grievances and guilt over promises made to Ye Xi Wu but left unfulfilled dissolved in that moment.
A tear fell onto the ring.
Su Su had thought that after cultivating the Path of Ruthlessness, she would never cry again—her tears had long dried up.
But now, the love and hate of Ye Xi Wu, the love and hate of Li Susu, all found their answers. Qu Xuanzi's words became clear: How can one who has never loved cultivate the Path of Ruthlessness?
Only by reconciling with her past self could she truly comprehend the Path. To transcend emotion, one must first experience it.
She had always been loved.
By her grandmother, and by the Tantai Jin who once had no love thread.
He had loved her in the most painful, most clumsy way possible.
Was it too late to bring him back now?
Ye Chu Feng watched in astonishment as the goddess before him seemed to transform. The cinnabar between her brows spread like a teardrop, blooming like an epiphyllum, the vibrant red cooling into half of a divine seal.
The phoenix was meant to be born a god. Her half-demon, half-god bloodline had been deliberately suppressed, forcing her to undergo tribulations and rebirth. Only now had she truly completed her trials.
She was but half a step away from godhood.
Su Su hadn't expected that this single delay would span a month in the mortal realm.
Winter still burned with unnatural heat in the human world, while time flowed sluggishly in the immortal realm. Legend said time stood still in the ancient divine realm.
She hadn't found Tantai Jin, but Qu Xuanzi and other immortal leaders had discovered a way to open the Demon Realm. Today, they would invade and destroy the Nine Revolutions Profound Return Array.
Su Su looked down at the luminous green pearl in her palm.
The Life Gathering Pearl.
Though its purpose remained unclear, both she and Ye Chu Feng knew it was crucial.
As they neared the Demon Realm, Yaoguang grew increasingly tense.
Unlike the others' zeal to slay demons, her heart was heavy—Gongye Jiewu, now mindless, had killed many.
Yaoguang clung to hope that he could still be saved. If the demon core within him could be extracted, he might return to being the noble senior brother she remembered.
But if they failed to rescue him soon, Gongye Jiewu would be lost to the demonic faction forever.
A grim boundary stele came into view.
Someone cheered, "The Demon Realm is open! It's open!"
"Kill that demoness Jingmie! Destroy the Nine Revolutions Profound Return Array!"
No sooner had the words been spoken than an elegant umbrella appeared in their line of sight, prompting wary retreats.
A tinkling, girlish laugh echoed.
"Honored guests from afar, Jing naturally welcomes you." The umbrella tilted, revealing Jing's enchanting face. "But mere juniors dare clamor at my gates? I may permit it, but my Demon Lord certainly won't."
This infuriated Elder Qingwu.
"Demoness! You've corrupted my disciple Jiewu! A noble immortal sect member cannot be defiled like this. Today, I, Qingwu, will take your wretched life!"
"Such bravado." Jing's tone was mocking. "My Demon Lord is no callow youth from your Hengyang Sect."
With a roar, Qingwu attacked, followed by countless other immortal sect members unable to restrain themselves.
Jing remained unmoved, her gaze burning with intensity as she stared at a point in the sky.
A sense of foreboding gripped Su Su, and she too looked up.
Amid the churning demonic clouds, a figure in black gradually materialized. The demonic energy whipped his robes into furious motion.
The silver patterns on his garments seemed sinister as he calmly gripped the Heaven Severing Sword.
If the sword had been formidable in Gongye Jiewu's hands, now, in his grasp, it radiated a terrifying stillness.
A black fallen god's mark—resembling both flame and blade—adorned his forehead.
The youth opened his eyes.
The innate suppression of higher realms forced the crowd back.
Even Qu Xuanzi's heart sank to the depths. How could this be? The legendary Demon God's Mark!
The youth's skin remained unnaturally pale, his features delicate, yet no one dared underestimate him now.
When the first cultivator fled, panic instantly spread through the immortal sects.
The youth parted his lips and uttered coldly, "Heaven Severing, annihilate."
The sword trembled, tearing a rift in the sky. In Tantai Jin's hand, its blade turned blood-red.
As it descended, a devastating sword aura expanded for miles. Fleeing disciples turned to ash before they could scream.
The youth chuckled darkly under his breath. The cultivators' souls flew into his palm, where he crushed them to dust.
Behind him, the God Slaying Crossbow drew back, taking aim.
Killing cultivators was easier than crushing ants.
They realized instantly—no one would cross the Demon Realm's threshold today.
"Su Su, run!" Qu Xuanzi urged.
If they didn't flee now, all would perish here.
An instant before the crossbow fired, the black-robed Demon God's wrist was seized.
"Tantai Jin!" The girl's divine seal bloomed like an epiphyllum between her brows, her eyes glistening. "Ye Xi Wu has returned. What about you?"
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