Chapter 76
“Junior Brother Jiang, you took my Dao foundation. How are you still so useless?”
Shu Li smiled gently, his voice as warm as though he were reminiscing with an old friend after a long separation.
Unexpectedly, that single sentence made Jiang Yibai break down completely. “It wasn’t me! I didn’t do it! An elder from the Zuiyin Sect was the one who suggested it to my father!”
“I knew nothing! When I woke up, your Dao foundation was already inside me! What was I supposed to do?!”
Shu Li nodded. “I know. You don’t need to be so afraid of me.”
“The Black Mist brought you here of its own accord. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Black Mist: That’s right. But whether he lives or dies still depends entirely on you.
Jiang Yibai’s mind remained fairly sharp. Even in the grip of extreme terror, he didn’t stop thinking and take Shu Li’s words at face value.
“Senior Brother… Senior Brother Shu Li, you doted on me the most when I was little… Please, please…” Supporting himself with his hands, he dragged himself across the ground toward Shu Li.
Shu Li nodded at his words. “That’s right. I doted on you the most.”
“When you were young, you disliked the food prepared by the servants and often came to me for something to eat.”
“Your wood spiritual root wasn’t suited to the path of a sword cultivator, and you spent every day dejected. I was the one who pleaded with the sect leader to let you try, and I personally taught you swordsmanship.”
“To win a smile from the newly arrived Junior Sister, you went to the Lower Realm in search of a Lingxiao Flower that bloomed only once every thousand years, only to become lost. I was the one who searched for three days and three nights and brought you back.”
As Shu Li recounted the past, a trace of emotion entered his voice. He took the initiative to walk toward Jiang Yibai, then abruptly changed direction. “But what did you do?”
“You clearly knew she was a demonic cultivator. You secretly witnessed everything that happened, yet for the sake of that laughable infatuation, you stood by coldly and watched the Senior Brother who had watched you grow walk step by step toward eternal ruin.”
“You also knew that your father had secretly given benefits to an elder of the Zuiyin Sect. When the other party proposed replacing your Dao foundation, you deceived yourself into believing you knew nothing and silently accepted this ‘gift.'”
“I could never understand why you did it. I even wished I could personally flay your skin and scrape your bones, making you taste every agony I endured.” In reality, that was indeed what Shu Li had done.
“But one day, I suddenly understood-”
He slowly approached Jiang Yibai, whose face was filled with remorse and drenched in tears, then stopped before him.
Crouching down, Shu Li looked indifferently at the wretched man and said softly, “You saw it, didn’t you?”
“You saw Shen Zhiyou teaching me swordsmanship, didn’t you?”
Jiang Yibai abruptly burst into hysterical sobs.
Covering his face with bloodstained hands, he wept in a muffled voice. “Senior Brother! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It was my fault. It was all my fault. I was only jealous for a moment!”
“Father promised me he would find a way to get me into the Zuiyin Sect!”
“You knew! You watched me grow up! How could you not know that I had always worshiped Sect Leader Shen?”
“I thought… I thought he had changed his mind because of my aptitude and given my place to you!” Jiang Yibai cried in collapse.
Shu Li stood and put some distance between them.
His expression didn’t change. When that ugly truth tore open a history that had long since passed-even ceased to exist-and presented itself before him once more, Shu Li realized that his heart no longer stirred.
“Then shall Senior Brother help you fulfill that dream now?”
He ordered the Black Mist to envelop Jiang Yibai again and carry him along in Shu Li’s wake.
Only when they reached a pitch-black cave and faint sounds drifted from within did Jiang Yibai’s face turn white.
He didn’t know what was inside, but his instincts screamed that he must never enter.
Without giving him a chance to beg for mercy, the Black Mist threw him inside.
The moment his fingers touched something soft and cold, Jiang Yibai sprang back.
A cultivator’s eyesight remained excellent even in darkness.
As a result, despite the absence of any light, Jiang Yibai could still see the thing before him with perfect clarity.
“Aaaaaah!” He released a piercing scream.
Before him lay something that had been cruelly fashioned into a human swine.
It had no hands or feet, no nose, and not even any hair. Where its eyes should have been, only two pitch-black holes remained.
Black Mist curled around it, presumably suppressing the regeneration of the severed parts.
Something must have been poured into its ears as well. Despite the enormous commotion, it remained completely unresponsive and motionless, like a corpse.
Only its continually rising and falling chest showed that it was still alive-and living in extraordinary agony.
Hearing Jiang Yibai’s scream, Shu Li stood outside and said softly, “What’s wrong? This is Sect Leader Shen, whom you have always worshiped.”
“Would you like Senior Brother to help you complete the ceremony of accepting him as your Master?”
Terrified out of his wits, Jiang Yibai frantically kowtowed and pleaded with Shu Li. “Senior Brother! Senior Brother Shu Li, I know I was wrong! Don’t leave me here! I beg you!”
Shu Li ignored his screams and merely ordered the Black Mist to seal the entire cave entrance.
“Enjoy the rest of your life, Junior Brother.” Shu Li smiled faintly and gave him a polite nod.
Jiang Yibai’s screams were sealed inside as the Black Mist closed around the cave. Shu Li raised an arm and sniffed his sleeve, looking somewhat troubled.
Had some unpleasant odor clung to him? Yu Tai would surely dislike it.
He should bathe and change before going back to hold her.
Even though the world had suffered a catastrophic disaster, the sun and moon in the sky continued their work.
When the sun rose the next day, Shu Li watched Yu Tai’s and Xia Mo’s auras gradually fade and knew that everything had reached its end.
He forcibly returned Xia Mo to his beast form and placed him inside the demon-beast pouch, then carried Yu Tai out the door.
After one final glance at this place, he waved a hand without the slightest reluctance.
The fabric of space seemed to tear open into a black fissure.
Shu Li lowered his head and gently kissed Yu Tai’s lips. “Let’s go. We’re returning to the true paradise.”
In the next instant, their figures entered the fissure.
They disappeared from this world completely.
…
Yu Tai felt as though she had experienced an incredibly, endlessly long dream.
At first, it contained only memories of her childhood. Then those scenes moved farther and farther away, and at some point, someone appeared beside her.
He accompanied her through every memory of her previous life.
Yu Tai felt no resistance to his presence.
It was as though she had grown accustomed to having him beside her.
Later, a young man also appeared before Yu Tai.
The man and the young man each took one of Yu Tai’s hands and led her toward the radiance shining ahead.
They spoke in unison-
“Come. Let’s go to a new paradise together.”
Yu Tai’s eyes flew open.
The lightness of her body felt unreal.
Why was the air filled with such abundant demonic qi?
Could she still be in the Demon Realm?
Her intact qilin inner core and Nascent Soul rested quietly within her body. Yu Tai sat up in astonishment.
How was this possible?
The devastating damage she had suffered should have been almost irreversible.
Suddenly sensing an aura, Yu Tai’s expression sharpened and she turned to the side. “Who’s there?!”
A slender figure knelt in terror. “D-Demon Empress, you’re awake!”