When Shi Qianlv first noticed Shi Yan was missing, he didn’t think much of it.
Shi Yan was a person with no ambition, indifferent to cultivation—in Shi Qianlv’s eyes, she was nothing more than a lazy, complacent waste. Even when she had first lost her memories and remembered nothing, she had carried an innate air of idleness.
Still, she had been obedient over the years. To ensure complete control over her, he had kept her isolated from others during the first two years after her memory loss, fostering her dependence on the two of them.
But when she failed to return for an entire day and night, and Shi Qianlv’s secret tracking methods failed to locate her—even the tracing spell he had placed on her had been broken—only then did he realize something was wrong.
Had something unexpected happened? A bad premonition gripped him, and he immediately ordered Shi Zhenxu to search for Shi Yan. Yet the news he received was one he could hardly accept: Shi Yan was in Winter City, right beside Sima Jiao—the very man they had gone to great lengths to avoid.
Over the years, Sima Jiao had slaughtered most of the surviving Shi family members, leaving Shi Qianlv, as the clan head, with few trusted subordinates. To avoid disaster, he had no choice but to hide with Shi Yan, evading Sima Jiao’s relentless pursuit.
To conceal Shi Yan’s whereabouts, he had deployed countless illusions, sending the remaining Shi family members to mislead Sima Jiao’s attention. Through one meticulous scheme after another, he had successfully diverted Sima Jiao’s gaze elsewhere, managing to keep Shi Yan hidden for nearly a decade.
And now, after all that time, effort, and sacrifice—it had all been for nothing.
"Clan Leader, perhaps if Shi Yan is by Sima Jiao’s side, she might act under our long-standing influence and strike at him. Even if she can’t kill him, wounding him would still be beneficial," Shi Zhenxu offered, trying to console the visibly distressed leader, unwilling to see their efforts go to waste.
Shi Qianlv wanted to believe that was possible—but after all these years with Shi Yan, how could he not understand her? Why had he hesitated to use her as their secret weapon against Sima Jiao? Simply because he didn’t trust her to act as he envisioned.
"Regardless, we must quickly investigate Shi Yan’s current situation in Winter City."
"Yes, Clan Leader." Shi Zhenxu hesitated before asking, "Should we attempt to contact Shi Yan in secret?"
Shi Qianlv’s expression darkened as he considered it. "The initiative is no longer in our hands. Sima Jiao is likely waiting for us to walk right into his trap. Once Shi Yan returns to his side, we can no longer touch her. The weapon that once belonged to us is now all but useless."
The thought made Shi Qianlv’s blood boil, his rage so intense he nearly teetered on the edge of demonic qi deviation.
Sima Jiao had tormented the Shi family for far too long. If, in the beginning, Shi Qianlv had still dreamed of restoring the Shi family, reviving the Gengchen Immortal Mansion, and killing Sima Jiao—now, all he wanted was to preserve the Shi bloodline, biding time for a future resurgence.
But he feared Sima Jiao wouldn’t even leave them that chance.
Shi Qianlv and Shi Zhenxu didn’t linger in Crane Immortal City for long. Shortly after discovering Shi Yan’s disappearance, Shi Qianlv swiftly relocated beyond the city’s borders. And when he learned she had returned to Sima Jiao’s Winter City, he decisively retreated through several more cities, hiding deep within the southern reaches of the Demon Realm.It must be said that Shi Qianlv understood Sima Jiao all too well. Shortly after they left, the people sent by Sima Jiao had already arrived at Crane Immortal City. Despite their incredible speed, they still failed to capture the cunning Shi Qianlv.
This time, it was Black Snake leading the team again, accompanied by over a dozen demon cultivators at the level of demon generals. Though few in number, each was capable of confronting Shi Qianlv head-on.
Black Snake, who appeared dopey and naive in front of Sima Jiao and was naturally docile toward Shi Yan—the caretaker who carried her master’s scent—became instinctively vicious toward everyone else. Especially those with the Shi family’s aura. Over the years, it had bitten to death countless of them.
Its keen sense of smell always made tracking down the Shi family members effortless. Unable to find Shi Qianlv’s trail in Crane Immortal City, Black Snake pondered with its tiny brain and concluded that returning empty-handed might earn it a scolding from its bastard master. So, it shamelessly stuck to the other demon generals and diverted their path toward the three southern cities of Crimson Prison.
Because of a single command from Sima Jiao, those three southern cities, famous for their Scarlet Cherry Fruits, were now being besieged by Winter City’s demon generals. It wouldn’t be long before they fell under Winter City’s control.
In recent years, Sima Jiao’s conquest of the Demon Realm had been unstoppable. Anyone with half a brain could see that his unification of the long-fractured Demon Realm was now an inevitable tide.
All the demon generals of Winter City’s Demon Realm dreamed of unifying the realm and then following their Demon Lord, Sima Jiao, into the World of Cultivation. Yet their Demon Lord himself had little interest in expanding territories these days—his mind was wholly occupied by his long-lost, amnesiac dao companion.
Since Shi Yan, despite not remembering the past, showed no resistance toward him, Sima Jiao wasn’t particularly bothered by her memory loss. In fact, he found it rather amusing.
She often concocted bizarre scenarios and scenes in her mind, never failing to make him laugh. Unaware that he could hear her thoughts when her emotions ran high, she would curse or praise him freely in her mind, spouting all sorts of strange, rambling nonsense—all of which he found endlessly entertaining.
But these past few days, Sima Jiao’s temper had been explosive, throwing Winter City into chaos.
Why was he so furious? Because he had just learned that Shi Yan had killed many people over the years. The revelation enraged him—back then, when he had forced her to kill just once, the nightmares that followed had haunted her for so long. She had cried so pitifully that he had promised never to make her kill again—meaning not only would he never force her, but he would also ensure she never had to.
And now? She had been forced to learn how to kill.
When Shi Yan spoke of those she had killed, her tone was indifferent, her eyes dry—no tears, no fear.
Sima Jiao: I’ll kill Shi Qianlv!
A surge of murderous rage erupted in his heart, reducing the Zhihun Clan’s demon general, who had come to complain, to a pile of ashes.
It was this very demon general who had reported to him that two of the Zhihun Clan’s prospective demon generals had been killed by Shi Yan, demanding an explanation. That was how Sima Jiao had learned of her killings.The Zhihun clan was a prominent family name in the Demon Realm, an old aristocratic lineage predating Winter City. Naturally, they carried themselves with an air of superiority. With many high-level demon generals among their ranks, Sima Jiao had found it troublesome to bypass them and had appointed some to positions of power. This had inflated the ego of one particular Zhihun demon general, who, egged on by those with ulterior motives seeking to test boundaries, ended up poking the tiger’s rear.
Sima Jiao reduced the man to a pile of ashes and scattered them over the livid face of the Zhihun clan head.
"Spare us, Demon Lord!" The high-ranking Zhihun patriarch immediately prostrated himself in apology.
In the Demon Realm, the law of the jungle prevailed. If someone died, why ask why? There was no why—if you were killed, it was because you were weak. If you couldn’t accept it, you were free to retaliate—if you could. But when the killer was under the Demon Lord’s protection, and you couldn’t touch them, the only option was to swallow your grievances and shut up.
Everyone understood this logic. Yet, there were always those who thought they could defy the rules.
In the days Shi Yan had spent by Sima Jiao’s side, she had seen a man who resembled a feral cat—occasionally even appearing somewhat endearing—nothing like the Sima Jiao of legend. She had no real grasp of his infamous cruelty and brutality until now, when she finally witnessed firsthand what his so-called "ruthlessness" truly entailed.
Sima Jiao was nothing like Shi Yan. He was a man who would kill at the slightest provocation, hypersensitive to any perceived slight or malice. Watching him sometimes, Shi Yan felt that this man alone could embody the roles of both tyrant and spoiled concubine—capable of throwing tantrums like the latter and erupting in fury like the former.
In a fit of displeasure, he decided to vent his anger by slaughtering the entire Zhihun clan. Shi Yan didn’t even know why he was so furious.
She shouldn’t have spoken up. A great demon lord was in a bad mood and wanted to kill a bunch of demon cultivators—what did that have to do with her? To her, it was no different from ancient emperors executing people. Though they might claim it was over a woman, in truth, it had little to do with her—it was just about venting their own rage and salvaging their pride. In such cases, persuasion was pointless.
But when she took a stroll through the White Mountain Forest outside the city, a crowd of Zhihun elders, women, and children rushed over, dropping to their knees in a sobbing mass. These were the kind of people who, in her past life, would have been offered seats on public transport. Their wails were pitiful. Deaths of strangers in unseen places didn’t easily stir the heart, but when faced directly, it was hard not to feel sympathy. So Shi Yan decided to say something on their behalf.
Just one sentence.
"If you’re not angry anymore, could you kill fewer of the Zhihun clan?" she asked Sima Jiao when she returned.
The still-fuming Sima Jiao stared at her for a long moment before replying, "If you don’t want them dead, then forget it."
The man who had just been viciously intent on wiping out an entire clan now gently stroked her hair with unexpected leniency and said, "If you don’t want others killed and only wish to vent your anger on those two already-dead brothers, I can resurrect them and kill them again."
Shi Yan: "???" Resurrect them just to kill them again? She had never heard of such an outrageous move.
But this wasn’t the first time Sima Jiao had done something like this. Years ago, he had slaughtered so many of the Shi family, and some of them still had their one-time chance at resurrection through soul transference. So their relatives and friends brought them back to life. Sima Jiao didn’t stop them—he simply waited for them to revive, then hunted them down and killed them all over again.The once spiritually abundant Tai Xuan Peak of Gengchen Immortal Mansion was now a place no one dared to visit, for it was filled with pillars displaying the severed heads of the Shi family. Many were two heads strung together—those who had been revived only to be killed again, eliminated twice over.
After Shi Qianlv took Liao Tingyan away, leaving Sima Jiao unable to find her, he hung the heads of all the slain Shi family members in their ancestral lands. The Shi family was so terrified they didn’t even dare to retrieve the bodies, leaving them exposed in the wilderness.
Shi Yan didn’t know any of this. She latched onto the key point and sat up abruptly. "People can come back to life after dying?"
"Can you revive someone for me?" she asked eagerly.
Sima Jiao had always been good to her, granting nearly everything she asked for. But aside from food and drink, Shi Yan had never requested anything, treating herself like a misplaced green onion just trying to survive. This was the first time she had explicitly asked him for something.
"I had a friend named Hongluo who was very kind to me. Can you bring her back?"
When Sima Jiao spoke of reviving others, his tone was casual, as if it were no big deal. Hearing Shi Yan’s request, he naturally agreed.
"If you wish it, of course I’ll do it. It’s nothing more than a trivial matter."
The Soul Transfer Rebirth Method used by the Shi family was derived from a forbidden technique originally created by a Sima ancestor.
Using either the corpse or an object frequently used by the deceased in life, the complete soul of the dead could be summoned. Through secret arts, the deathly aura would be cleansed away, nourished with special spiritual energy, and sealed into an early-stage fetus that had not yet developed a fetal spirit. The pregnant woman would then swallow a precious Soul Revival Pill, and the revived person would be born with the memories and emotions of their past life, as if awakening from a long dream.
In ordinary reincarnation, the soul fragments containing memory and emotion would scatter into the world, while the remaining fragments would be cleansed, shattered, and fused with other souls in the cycle of rebirth, forming a new, complete soul. Thus, in most cases of reincarnation, the person from the past life could not be fully recovered. Only the Soul Transfer Rebirth Method was different—a true defiance of heaven’s will.
The Sima clan specialized in such heaven-defying techniques, which might have been the reason for their eventual destruction.
After Sima Jiao agreed, he quickly resolved the matter. The Soul Transfer Rebirth Method worked best when the pregnant woman had some blood relation to the deceased. However, Hongluo had no living relatives, so they had to go through extra effort to find a woman whose soul resonated most closely with hers. Coincidentally, the most compatible candidate was from the Zhihun clan.
The same clan that had taken her life would now give her a new one.
Having narrowly escaped disaster, the Zhihun clan was overjoyed by this turn of events, their previous fear replaced by celebration. The Zhihun clan leader even promised to treat the soon-to-be-reborn Hongluo with the utmost care.
"If rebirth is really like what you described—if I could be born with my current memories and intelligence—I definitely wouldn’t end up in such a miserable state! At the very least, I’d rule a city as a Demon Lord!" Hongluo had once chatted excitedly with Shi Yan about rebirth and transmigration, full of grand ideas.
Remembering how Hongluo had slammed the table in enthusiasm, Shi Yan couldn’t help but smile.
"You seem happy," Sima Jiao remarked, watching her expression.
Shi Yan smiled back at him. "Yes. She was the only person in all these years who was truly kind to me."Sima Jiao brushed aside the hair by her ear and said softly, "I once treated you with sincerity, but you don't remember."
"It's alright if you don't remember. As long as you're still here."
The memories she had lost were his punishment—a lesson for neglecting her life.
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