Chapter 73
The blood-red sky seemed ready to come crashing down, pressing heavily upon the earth.
Countless white bones stretched beyond the limits of sight.
A man in white stood atop the bones. Even in such a filthy, blood-soaked place, he remained immaculate.
The black-robed young man silently gazed up at him for a long while. Then the man with his back turned suddenly chuckled. “Why haven’t you come over?”
At his words, the black-robed young man instantly appeared beside him.
The man’s profile was soft and gentle. Though he had clearly slaughtered so many people single-handedly just moments ago, not a trace of murderous violence could be sensed from him.
“Demon Lord.” The black-robed young man cupped his fists in salute.
The man turned to look at him, his fingers curling unconsciously. “When did you get out?”
The young man kept his head bowed. “Not long after you left.”
The cultivators, insignificant as ants, had made one desperate final struggle that forcibly expelled the Demon Lord from that toy. He had followed soon afterward.
The man nodded, extended his pale wrist, and sliced it open with one fingernail. Blood immediately surged from the wound.
The black-robed young man’s sharp, lucid eyes instantly became hazy. Unable to control himself, he stepped forward and seized the man’s wrist. The moment his lips touched the blood, he involuntarily murmured, “…It smells wonderful.”
The man showed no reaction as the young man gnawed at his flesh and drank his blood.
Only after the young man finished feeding did he slowly and casually wrap the wound, as though he cared nothing for it.
His mind clear once more, the young man frowned. “My lord, aren’t you going to heal it?”
The man looked into the distance and answered flatly, “No.”
Sensing what was on his mind, the young man looked up and abruptly said, “My lord, although I lost my memories while I was in there, I can say with certainty that the Yu Tai in that place was not the same one who died in reality.”
“Even in a false world, unforeseen accidents can occur-body possession, for example.”
“Otherwise, how could she fail to recognize her own brother?”
…
“Yu Tai… Is this really the Demon Realm?” Xia Mo asked, tugging at her hand.
To be honest, Yu Tai wanted to ask the same question.
She studied the town before her, which looked no different from one in the cultivation world. Vendors hawked their wares along the streets, while passersby started fighting at the slightest disagreement. Yu Tai fell into thought.
This really did seem to be the Demon Realm.
Judging by the blood-red sky and the demonic qi blanketing the place, which made her feel extraordinarily comfortable…
This was indeed the genuine Demon Realm.
How strange. Weren’t demonic cultivators supposed to fight each other to the death?
Yet they had actually built towns here.
Female demonic cultivators were far too rare, so Yu Tai had deliberately disguised herself as a man to avoid attracting attention.
At the very least, anyone with a lower cultivation level than hers wouldn’t be able to detect the truth.
To outward appearances, she was merely a passably handsome young man traveling with his younger brother.
Yu Tai found an inn where she and Xia Mo could spend the night, then placed a spirit stone on the front desk.
Fortunately, spirit stones were also used as currency in the Demon Realm. Otherwise, she would have struggled to exchange her money on such short notice.
“One room.” This place was completely unfamiliar, and she didn’t trust Xia Mo to stay alone.
The innkeeper, who was looking down at his abacus, pushed a token toward her without raising his head. “Second floor, fourth room.”
Yu Tai nodded but didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she set down several more spirit stones and sent the innkeeper a voice transmission. “Do you know where the witch doctor lives?”
The innkeeper’s hands paused when he received her transmission. He raised his head, his murky eyes examining Yu Tai from top to bottom. Only when the young man beside her glared at him in displeasure did he look away. He slowly accepted the spirit stones and gave her an address.
Yu Tai nodded, then dragged the snarling Xia Mo upstairs.
After closing the door to their room and setting up a formation, Yu Tai rapped Xia Mo on the head. “What do you want to eat?”
Xia Mo pouted. “This panda wants to eat that annoying innkeeper.”
Yu Tai patted his head. “Forget it. I don’t want to be hunted in the Demon Realm too.”
Now that she had obtained the witch doctor’s address from the innkeeper, Yu Tai planned to set out the very next day.
For some reason, however, she couldn’t shake a sense of unease, as though something was about to happen.
Yu Tai had always trusted her intuition.
After meditating in place of sleep for the entire night, she opened her eyes as soon as the faint light of dawn appeared.
She walked to the bed and woke Xia Mo, who was sleeping soundly with his arms wrapped around the quilt.
Rubbing his eyes and nodding off with every step, Xia Mo let Yu Tai lead him downstairs by the hand.
Perhaps Yu Tai was simply being too sensitive, but the moment she stepped through the door, she sensed the innkeeper lifting his head to glance at her.
Yu Tai narrowed her eyes.
After casually asking someone for directions, Yu Tai followed the road for a while. At an intersection, she abruptly changed course and entered a nearby teahouse.
Business at the teahouse appeared poor. The place was cold and deserted, and even the proprietor was dozing against his broom.
Yu Tai woke him, paid him, and once again asked where the witch doctor lived.
The proprietor’s eyes immediately lit up at the sight of so many spirit stones. After thinking for a moment, he gave her an address completely different from the one supplied by the innkeeper.
Yu Tai asked again, “Are you certain?”
The proprietor was naturally angry at being doubted, but remembering how many spirit stones she had given him, he patiently repeated his answer.
Yu Tai nodded and left with Xia Mo.
Xia Mo looked puzzled. “Which one is lying?”
Yu Tai’s lips curved into a cold smile. “The one at the inn.”
Interesting. The innkeeper’s gaze had felt wrong from the beginning, almost as if he had seen the real woman beneath her disguise.
Could wanted notices from the cultivation world have spread all the way into the Demon Realm?
The facts proved Yu Tai’s guess correct.
Rather than heading toward the address given by the innkeeper, she took a road leading in the opposite direction.
Unexpectedly, the innkeeper was shrewd enough to anticipate that Yu Tai wouldn’t believe him.
Several sanctimonious-looking cultivators suddenly landed in front of her. Yu Tai raised an eyebrow. “Colluding with demonic cultivators-is this the ‘righteousness’ you orthodox cultivators preach?”
Two of the cultivators grinned. “We’re all doing this for spirit stones. What methods we use hardly matter, do they?”
Yu Tai sneered. “Xia Mo, I’ll leave that one to you.”
Xia Mo nodded excitedly. The instant Yu Tai finished speaking, he shot forward like a streak of sword light.
Over the past three years, Xia Mo’s progress had nearly caught up with Yu Tai’s.
After all, with Shu Li gone, Xia Mo had to act like a man and protect Yu Tai properly.
Their opponents’ methods might have been insidious, but with their level of strength, they were no match for Yu Tai and Xia Mo.
Just as Yu Tai swung her sword to deliver the final blow, the doomed cultivator abruptly grinned. “Sect Leader Shen! Are you still not going to show yourself?”
Yu Tai’s expression changed. She instantly rushed to Xia Mo, grabbed him, and retreated into the distance.
Terrifying pressure rapidly swept toward her. The man she had met only once before descended from the sky, his cold purple eyes looking down at Yu Tai.
“I finally found you.”