Early that morning, Ming Zhu smashed everything in his room that could be broken. The entire chamber looked as if a gale had swept through it, leaving nothing but a chaotic wreck.
Na Lian pushed the door open and stepped inside. After searching for a long time without finding a clear spot to place his feet, he sighed helplessly. "My dear ancestor, what is it now?"
Ming Zhu sat in a chair, his face a mask of cold, mocking laughter.
Na Lian summoned servants to tidy the room. In moments, it was restored to its original state. Ming Zhu watched with a frigid gaze. When he saw them place several small jade and porcelain ornaments back on the table, he gave a cold snort and swept his sleeve, sending them crashing to the floor once more.
It was pure, unadulterated petulance.
Na Lian sat beside him. "What happened? Talk to me. Did that Zhou Fuxue upset you again?"
Ming Zhu ground his teeth, his expression blank.
When Zhou Fuxue had fled the room earlier that morning with a beet-red face, Ming Zhu had sat on the bed for a long time before finally realizing what that hard, hot object pressed against him had been. First came the blush, followed immediately by a raging inferno of fury.
*Fine, Zhou Fuxue! You claim to love me, yet the moment you turn around, you can have a reaction to some random demon cultivator?* Ming Zhu had been seething all morning, his entire body trembling. He wanted nothing more than to drag Zhou Fuxue back and demand to know if he was playing him for a fool. How could anyone be like this?
Ming Zhu said coldly, "Go. Throw Zhou Fuxue out right now."
Na Lian was still marveling at how ruthless this little ancestor was—to the point of even insulting himself in his anger—when he heard the command. He asked in confusion, "Are you sure?"
Ming Zhu snapped, "Immediately! Right now!"
Na Lian wanted to say more, but Ming Zhu shot him a sharp glare. Na Lian could only concede. "Fine, fine, I’m going—but are you really not going to regret this?"
Ming Zhu gave a cold huff. He tapped his jade fan against the air, and his long, silvery-white hair began to darken, slowly transforming into a curtain of ink-black tresses draped over his back. Even his pale eyelashes turned black.
He peeled the "skin" from his face and tossed it aside, revealing Ming Zhu’s true, handsome countenance.
"I’m going to ask him myself exactly what he means by this!"
Na Lian’s lips twitched. After a long pause, he said, "As long as... as long as it makes you happy."
Ming Zhu spared him a glance, changed his clothes, and casually tied his hair back with a ribbon. With the air of a seductive menace on her way to catch a cheating lover, he walked out with a swaying, graceful gait.
Na Lian pressed a hand to his forehead, nursing a headache. Only after Ming Zhu had left did he go to the backyard to find Zhou Fuxue. He spoke bluntly: "You should leave."
Zhou Fuxue’s expression didn't flicker. He said, "I want to know how he survived at Biri Cliff."
Na Lian suddenly looked up, his beast-like pupils fixed coldly on him.
Even though Zhou Fuxue had lost his cultivation, the aura he had cultivated over the years remained unchanged. He met the gaze with equal coldness.
Soon, Na Lian withdrew his murderous stare and shifted his eyes to the jade fan Ming Zhu had left on the table. "When did you find out?"
Zhou Fuxue replied, "Yesterday."
Na Lian let out a mocking laugh. "He thought his disguise was perfect, but anyone who paid even a little attention could see the similarities between Buhui and Ming Zhu. He’s been fluttering around you for so long; why did it take you until now to see it?"
Zhou Fuxue remained silent.
Naturally, it was because no one dared to think in that direction. For Zhou Fuxue, such a suspicion was no different from plunging a knife into his own heart; even the slightest movement brought heart-wrenching pain.
Na Lian was merely venting his frustration on Ming Zhu’s behalf and didn't intend to say much more. He said faintly, "Biri Cliff is hardly a pleasant place..."
Biri Cliff was no paradise.
It was a place where bones littered the ground and a sea of blood churned.
Blind vultures and crows nested in dense clusters upon the mountain walls. The moment they caught the scent of fresh blood, they would swarm like a dance of demons; their numbers were enough to strip a living person to a skeleton in an instant.
By the edge of the Sea of Blood, even a single breath tasted of thick, foul-smelling gore. Na Lian, having stayed in the Buhui Forest for so long, was nearly choked to death by the stench when he first arrived. He casually manifested an umbrella from spiritual energy and opened it. A cool wave of spiritual power washed down from the canopy, shielding him from the surrounding stench.
"Most of the demon cultivators of Guifang are dead, and the few survivors are hiding in the Buhui Forest. Where did this demonic aura come from?" Na Lian asked as he walked.
The demon cultivator following him bowed slightly. "No one has descended into Biri Cliff for centuries. Even if they did, they wouldn't survive. However, we did indeed spot a demon by the Sea of Blood. The demonic aura hasn't dissipated for days. They are likely still by the shore."
Na Lian frowned.
The demon cultivator asked cautiously, "Could it be... the Young Master?"
Na Lian immediately replied, "Impossible. Xi Chu is protected by Kong Gu; he wouldn't end up in a hellhole like this."
As they spoke, the two stepped over piles of skeletons and slowly reached the edge of the Sea of Blood.
The Sea of Blood bubbled like boiling water. Looking out, one could see a massive set of withered bones leaning against the shore—it looked like the skeleton of a giant serpent, stark white and stripped of all flesh. Lingering blood stained the bones, slowly dripping down.
Na Lian’s brow furrowed. "The demonic form’s original body has been dissolved. They shouldn't be alive."
He paused, then added, "But then where is that demonic aura coming from?"
A powerful demonic aura emanated from beneath the withered bones, surging continuously as if it didn't know how to restrain itself. It was precisely because of the vitality within this aura that the fierce beasts beneath Biri Cliff were drawn to it, devouring it inch by inch.
*Even if he isn't dead, he won't last long,* Na Lian thought. Carrying this cold indifference, he passed through the bones. With a casual glance, his pupils suddenly constricted.
At the edge of the Sea of Blood, a white-haired man lay half-collapsed on the shore. One hand rested on the crimson earth, pale as snow. Part of his body was submerged in the Sea of Blood; a closer look revealed that half of his flesh had been corroded away. There were beast bites on his wrists—flesh that looked as though it had been gnawed away and then regrown, leaving bloodstains all over the stark white bone.
Na Lian walked slowly to the person, whose life or death was uncertain. He knelt down slightly and whispered, "Are you still alive?"
With a body in such a state, he couldn't truly be considered alive. Na Lian had only asked in passing, but to his surprise, the hand resting on the ground suddenly twitched. Then, a bead rolled out from his palm.
Na Lian looked at it; it was merely a dirt-cheap Recording Pearl.
The white-haired man lifted his head slightly, his serpent pupils not yet dissipated. He looked at Na Lian in a daze, his lips moving faintly.
"Mas... Master..."
Na Lian hadn't expected him to still be alive. Meeting those golden beast-eyes, he whispered, "What is your name?"
The man murmured, "Ming Zhu."
Na Lian frowned and thought for a long time. "I have governed Guifang for so many years, yet I have never known of a white snake demon named Ming Zhu."
The demon cultivator behind him added, "The only white snake demon is Zhi Xian."
Na Lian nodded.
Ming Zhu was dazed for a moment before speaking again. "Thirteen..."
Na Lian: "Is your name Thirteen or Ming Zhu?"
Ming Zhu pressed his forehead against the ground. Tears fell from his eyes in torrents, but he refused to speak another word.
Na Lian likely found it bothersome. Seeing that the man looked like he was not long for this world, he didn't bother further and simply stood up to leave.
The demon cultivator followed. "My Lord, shall we not intervene?"
Na Lian said, "I can't. In that state, he’ll die sooner or later. I don't have the energy to save him."
Na Lian left quite decisively. Several months passed, and just as he was about to forget the matter, someone came to report that the demonic aura by the Sea of Blood still hadn't dissipated.
Na Lian was shocked. He returned to the shore with his umbrella, only to find to his astonishment that the white-haired man—half of whose body was now skeletal—was still alive.
Only then did Na Lian truly look at Ming Zhu. Given his injuries, he shouldn't have lasted a single day. Yet, from some unknown source, he had grasped a thread of vitality, forcibly keeping his consciousness from extinguishing. That was how he had lingered until now.
He reached out and grasped Ming Zhu’s wrist. After a quick probe, he stared at him in shock.
This person was filled with demonic aura, yet his bones and blood were human. Na Lian had never seen such a strange body. He stood frozen for a long time before murmuring, "Soul-seizing..."
It was indeed a case of soul-seizing.
Ming Zhu’s original vessel, his dantian, and his golden core had all been shattered. He had lost his life the moment he fell into the serpent’s belly. Yet, for some reason, his three souls had refused to dissipate. Almost at the exact moment the white snake demon’s soul perished within the formation, Ming Zhu’s soul had seized the demon core that should have also vanished.
A dead man, a lingering soul, and a masterless demon core had forcibly forged this bizarre shell.
And once the soul-seizing was complete, life and death were no longer under his control. That demon core, having survived heavenly tribulations, possessed peak cultivation. Even if the body were ground to dust, as long as the demon core remained, he would exist forever—whether as a vessel of flesh or a withered skeleton.
Ming Zhu was in so much pain he had almost lost all sensation. During these days in the Sea of Blood, his shell was being boiled by the scalding blood, his flesh dissolving and being torn by beasts, only to have the demon core suspended in his dantian slowly generate new bone and blood.
*If you want me to die, why not let me die quickly?* Ming Zhu thought in a daze. *If you want me to live, why must I live in such agony?*
*Did I do something wrong?*
*I never killed a good person, nor did I let a bad one go. I fought so hard to stay alive for over twenty years—was I really wrong?*
He was in pain and despair. He wanted to cry, but the months of agony had drained every drop of blood and every tear from his body. His emotions were covered in a layer of ash, no longer revealing even a hint of their former self.
Ming Zhu struggled to reach out and grab the sleeve of the person before him. In a raspy voice, he whispered, "Kill me..."
Na Lian froze.
After saying those two words, Ming Zhu had exhausted all his strength. His hand suddenly dropped, and he lost consciousness once more.
Na Lian looked at him with a frown. After a long while, he finally deigned to reach down and haul him out of the Sea of Blood. Because of his movement, the Boundary Pearl around Ming Zhu’s neck fell to the ground. Since the soul of its original owner had perished, the items inside spilled out in a chaotic heap.
Na Lian glanced at them and ordered, "Pack these things up and bring them back to the Buhui Forest."
The demon cultivator asked, "My Lord, this person..."
Na Lian said, "Hmph. Since he can't die, there’s no need to leave him here to suffer. We’ll take him back first—wait, what is that?"
Na Lian’s eyes fell on two blood-stained objects on the ground. He signaled the demon cultivator to pick them up and hand them to him.
Na Lian wiped the blood away. When he saw what was in his palm, he was instantly stunned.
—It was his own demon eye, and Xi Chu’s demon core.
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
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妖艳贱货 | Seductive Menace | Lit. "Seductive/Flamboyant Bitch/Slut." Used here to describe Ming Zhu's dramatic, "vengeful beauty" persona.
蔽日崖 | Biri Cliff | Lit. "Sun-Shielding Cliff." The abyss where Ming Zhu fell.
血海 | Sea of Blood | The corrosive, boiling sea at the bottom of Biri Cliff.
夺舍 | Soul-seizing | Also known as possession; when a soul takes over another body or core.
畛域珠 | Boundary Pearl | A spatial storage artifact.
妖瞳 | Demon Eye | Specifically referring to Na Lian's eye.
妖丹 | Demon Core | The source of a demon's power; Xi Chu's core was found among Ming Zhu's things.
不讳林 | Buhui Forest | Na Lian's domain; also the name Ming Zhu took as an alias.
鬼芳 | Guifang | The demon sect or region governed by Na Lian.
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