17 – Insatiable Greed, Not to Be Touched by Others
As a rising star of the Immortal Alliance and the head disciple of the Azure Mist Sect, Liu Shao was renowned for his Azure Fall Sword Technique. Yet few knew that beyond being a stern and disciplined sword cultivator, he was also a compassionate healing cultivator.
Innocent until proven guilty, leniency for grave offenses, no unnecessary killing, and even when killing, no bloodshed.
To temper him, the Immortal Alliance assigned Liu Shao only the most perilous and wicked tasks. That he could steadfastly uphold his Dao heart through it all only highlighted his upright nature.
One moment ago, Liu Wuzhi had been secretly contemplating whether to switch to the Demon Path. Now, she just wanted to hurry home with her senior brother.
“Senior Brother!” Liu Wuzhi urgently stepped forward.
Liu Shao was taken aback, instinctively retreating slightly. “This humble one and the young lady are not of the same path. Addressing me as a fellow disciple would be inappropriate.”
His tone was polite yet distant. In her current appearance, even Liu Shao failed to recognize her.
Liu Wuzhi halted abruptly. “Then… are you injured?”
Liu Shao evaded the question. “This journey was undertaken for the Immortal Alliance. Personal matters aside, I thank the young lady for her concern.”
As he spoke, his hand remained firmly on his sword hilt.
Liu Wuzhi felt as if she had been struck a heavy blow in a vital spot: her only family in the world was actually guarding against her.
Simply because, at this moment, he was an immortal, and she was a demon.
If senior brother knew that the immortal herb he had enlightened had cultivated into a demon, would he be even more disappointed?
With others present, the words of confession stuck in her throat, impossible to utter. Suppressing the inexplicable ache and grievance in her heart, Liu Wuzhi used the soft, charming tone belonging to Wuzhi to advise, “If you’re injured, remember to heal as soon as possible. Don’t push yourself too hard.”
Moonlight soaked in purple mist filtered through the tree canopy, casting fragmented halos upon her beautiful face. The overlap of memory and reality caused Liu Shao to momentarily lose focus.
He quickly composed himself, gently inquiring about Rong Xiao and the others’ experiences, then said, “This place is an illusion array formed by the convergence of a thousand layers of demon energy. We must find the core array eye and shatter it with a single strike.”
Under his direction, everyone dispersed to act. Liu Wuzhi also wanted to help, scanning up, down, left, and right for flaws in the array. Unexpectedly, a moment of distraction caused her to step on the bright red, floor-length hem of her dress, and she fell with a thud.
Coughing a few times, she shook her head, feeling the long dress was cumbersome. Simply following the tear, she ripped off the hem and sleeves.
Her slender arms and jade-like legs exposed to the air stirred the Dao hearts of the surrounding disciples. Liu Wuzhi, focused only on working efficiently, suddenly felt a wide piece of fabric draped over her shoulders.
Turning, she saw Liu Shao had already removed his outer robe for her. His movements were restrained, his fingertips not even grazing an inch of her skin. “The body is precious and should be cherished and protected. Moreover, the chill here pierces to the bone. How can one be exposed like this?”
Liu Wuzhi didn’t understand the literal meaning but could sense the concern. She thanked him with a sweet, delighted smile.
Indeed, even if he didn’t recognize her, senior brother was still that gentle person.
To protect senior brother, she had to work hard to find the array eye.
Beside her, Rong Xiao quietly tugged at her. “Hey, don’t use seduction art on Senior Brother Liu Shao.”
She had risked coming to the demon realm to follow Liu Shao; how could she let someone else interfere?
Liu Wuzhi didn’t understand her wariness toward someone of the same gender and asked in confusion, “Do you want the cloak too?”
Rong Xiao bit her lip, not answering, unwilling to conflict with her savior. She simply crouched between Liu Shao and Liu Wuzhi, silently separating the two.
A moment later, Liu Wuzhi discovered an anomaly and habitually called out, “Se… no, Liu…”
What should she do? What should she call him?
The senior martial brother did not like being called “brother.”
The troubled expression on Liu Shao’s face, aside from its stunning beauty, carried a hint of familiarity—as if they were strangers who had met by chance yet felt like old acquaintances.
He stroked the hilt of his sword, setting aside his thoughts, and ignoring the obstruction, he walked around Rong Xiao. “Did you discover something unusual?”
Liu Wuzhi pointed to a spot where space seemed distorted. Within the formation, the vision was dim, making it difficult to distinguish truth from illusion with the naked eye. However, because she was very familiar with the patterns of the trees, she could spot the difference at a glance.
Liu Shao bent down to confirm it, affixed a talisman to the spot, and instructed everyone to prepare to form the array. Liu Wuzhi also wanted to help break the trap but was stopped by him.
Liu Shao set up two protective barriers separately. “The two of you may stay here.”
Rong Xiao chimed in as well. “Let’s not cause any trouble.”
Liu Wuzhi didn’t mind the senior martial brother’s precaution in separating her from Rong Xiao. She only realized that with Liu Shao’s arrival, it felt like they were back in the Azure Mist Sect again. Whether safe or not, she remained the Little Immortal Grass who needed constant protection.
Could one truly cultivate to immortality while being protected?
The disciples of the Immortal Sect formed a circle, swinging their swords in unison to set up the array. As the light of the sword formation rose, Liu Wuzhi vaguely sensed something was wrong. Before she could speak, the tree canopy above suddenly trembled violently.
“Junior Brother Fang Xuan, what are you doing?!” someone exclaimed. Unexpectedly, Fang Xuan’s Spiritual Qi turned demonic, reversing and destroying the formation.
Splattering venom corroded the barrier, and the heart of the formation was the first to be damaged. Cracks like ice spread all the way to their feet, and both Liu Wuzhi and Rong Xiao fell. In the chaos, Liu Shao quickly stabilized the sword formation and dove toward them.
Time suddenly slowed.
Seeing the senior martial brother drawing closer and closer, reaching out his hand, Liu Wuzhi instinctively reached for it. But Liu Shao grabbed Rong Xiao first. With a single motion, he pulled Rong Xiao out, then turned back toward Liu Wuzhi—but it was already too late.
The distance widened again. In the boundless sense of weightlessness, Liu Wuzhi’s pupils trembled.
Rong Xiao was indeed closer just now, wasn’t she?
Distance determined proximity, and the senior martial brother had always been clear about closeness and distance in his heart.
Liu Wuzhi was close to him, but Wuzhi was merely a stranger. He bore the responsibility of leading the team, so of course, he had to save his companion from the Immortal Alliance.
The harsh wind cutting against her skin felt unfamiliar and painful.
It didn’t matter. She had the body of Lingzhi and the soul of an immortal herb. She wasn’t afraid of pain.
Below the young girl, a ghost-faced spider flashed its crimson compound eyes, waiting to enjoy a delicious meal.
At the brink of life and death, a silver-purple streak of light suddenly flashed by, like starlight plunging into the deep sea. He didn’t reach for the girl’s hand to keep her suspended but instead wrapped his arm around her waist, lifting her entire body.
“Using yourself as bait, do you think this lord has no choice but to save you?” His voice was like a blade coated in honey, enticing yet laced with thinly veiled mockery.
Liu Wuzhi widened her eyes.
It was Baili Zheque.
Against the fierce wind and with his back to the moonlight, his refined silhouette was swallowed by the ink-like darkness. Only his heterochromatic eyes reflected a few slivers of faint light—one side like the cool glow of the moon, the other like cinnabar piercing blood, both carrying the same arrogance and disdain. In these eyes, there was no sense of crisis, no warmth—only her own reflection. No, wait, it was Wuzhi’s reflection.
He was as cold as an ice sculpture, suppressing a murderous intent that seemed to surge like mountains and seas, as if he had just emerged from an intense battle. The faint echoes of an ancient zither swayed beneath his sleeves.
Without needing any leverage, the gravitational forces and inertia of this world could not bind him. With a flip, he soared backward out of the fissure. The moment they landed, his form transformed back into the youthful appearance from the auction.
After the fluctuations stabilized, the surrounding scenery returned to its original dense forest.
Breaking the formation had failed.
Everyone remained vigilant, staring at the Demonic Cultivator who had suddenly intruded.
“Lord…” Liu Wuzhi thought of the identity she had hastily fabricated earlier and quickly corrected herself, “Master!”
Baili Zheque: ?
He lowered his gaze and raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised that this rebellious spy would so easily submit and acknowledge him as her master.
No, it was merely empty words. Otherwise, why would she keep staring at those insignificant ants?
The impact of the fall had left the girl’s face a shade paler. With her senior brother still in front of her, Liu Wuzhi tried to push the Demon Lord away but remained firmly restrained by his domineering grip.
In the silence, an intense emotion emanated from the surroundings—not fear, but contempt tinged with disgust.
Baili Zheque glanced around with the corner of his eye and saw that everyone had subdued Fang Xuan, all staring at him with hostile gazes.
Someone whispered softly, “A beast in human clothing.”
What a “master” indeed—this lecherous fiend had harmed Miss Wuzhi!
Baili Zheque: ??
Recalling the phrase “slay demons on sight,” Liu Wuzhi, to avoid arousing suspicion, tried to cover for the Demon Lord: “Like me, he didn’t intentionally fall into demonhood.”
Natural-born demons had always been sworn enemies of the Immortal Sects, but accidental demonhood at least left some room for negotiation.
The problem was, she could easily clear her own name, but this youth reeking of murderous intent clearly didn’t look like a good person.
“Actually, we’re both music cultivators,” Liu Wuzhi forced herself to continue fabricating lies. “He’s so fierce because he’s trying to find the right mood for playing the qin. As for me…”
“Um, I can sing nursery rhymes.”
Her attempts at covering up only made things more obvious, and the crowd grew even more resentful toward the Demon Lord.
Baili Zheque’s gaze shifted slowly from the girl’s timid appearance to the light cyan cloak draped over her shoulders, his eyes darkening with a profound chill.
As soon as she left him, she immediately hooked up with someone else?
Demons were selfish and self-centered. What they possessed, even if it was a corpse, had to rot in their hands, never allowing others to lay a finger on it.
Disloyalty? Then death it was.
Liu Wuzhi tightened her grip on the cloak, her knuckles turning white.
The Demon Lord loved snatching others’ belongings—even her senior brother’s cloak wasn’t spared.
Baili Zheque glanced indifferently at Liu Shao. “That Immortal Alliance disciple, do you have a history with him?”
Liu Wuzhi hurriedly turned her head back, seeing the overwhelming killing intent in his eyes, and grew even more anxious.
Oh no, oh no, the great Demon Lord had noticed her senior brother!
A cold fingertip brushed against the back of her neck. “Since you dare to scheme openly and secretly…”
Before he could tighten his grip and snap her neck, her vision suddenly darkened. Liu Wuzhi stood on tiptoe, shielding him from behind as she hastily wrapped the outer cloak around the Demon Lord. “Why so fierce? If you want it so badly, I’ll give it to you!”
Baili Zheque: ??
Did she think he was arguing with her over a cloak?
The crumpled green cloth piled around his neck like a baby’s bib, yet there was no hint of mockery in her eyes.
The killing intent faded into disdain. The Demon Lord looked at Liu Wuzhi’s pitiful state, her clothes tattered, and let out a laugh devoid of any warmth.
The repulsive scent of pine resin seeped into his nostrils, as pervasive and hypocritical as the girl before him—full of suspicion yet untouchable.
The demon realm’s covert connections had just surfaced, and now they were entangled with the Immortal Sects. Truly, she knew how to play both sides, her greed insatiable.
Liu Wuzhi remained wary of the Demon Lord, only to see Liu Shao’s cloak shatter into pieces in his hands. Immediately after, a snow-violet brocade fabric was draped over her head.
Little Lingzhi: ?
The Demon Lord’s robes were heavy, even longer than the cumbersome red dress. She instinctively wanted to remove them, but Baili Zheque lowered his gaze indifferently, as if softly threatening: “Still daring to move?”
Liu Wuzhi feared he would vent his anger on her senior brother, so she stopped moving.
The demon energy overshadowed the scent of pine. Baili Zheque tapped her shoulder with a bent finger, his gloomy expression easing slightly.
The two whispered intimately, putting on an affectionate display that left the Immortal Sect disciples utterly bewildered. Could it be that they had misunderstood, and “forcing the innocent into debauchery” was actually just some kind of playful dynamic between a demon realm couple?
Fang Xuan, restrained by the Immortal-Binding Chains, stared at Liu Wuzhi and suddenly struggled to speak: “Kill… the sacrifice…”
His crimson eyes sent chills down the spine.
Baili Zheque merely uttered lightly: “Just a dead man.”
Liu Shao had already checked and discovered that Fang Xuan’s consciousness had long been controlled, his vitality on the verge of being completely devoured.
A fellow cultivator had fallen under demonic influence, yet no one had noticed earlier. Moreover, Fang Xuan himself was considered a talented youth, on his first training mission dispatched by the Cinnabar Glory Sect—how could his soul have been silently controlled?
While pondering gravely, Liu Shao turned to ask Baili Zheque: “Since you can perceive such sinister and bizarre arts, might you know a method to break the Curse?”
Having finally broken free from the Demon Lord, Liu Wuzhi also stepped forward to check Fang Xuan’s pulse, temporarily sealing his soul. Without her lingzhi mushroom true form, she was powerless to do more and followed up by saying to the Demon Lord: “Show some mercy and save him.”
Baili Zheque ignored her.
Mercy? It was nothing but a burden.
“Saving people can accumulate merit,” Liu Wuzhi continued to encourage. “If you’re ever captured by the Immortal Alliance, it might reduce your sentence.”
Surveying the righteous and stern-faced Immortal Sect disciples around, Baili Zheque chuckled dismissively: “Want to save him? Then use your body to draw out the poison, exchange your life for his.”
“Who among you dares?”
Just then, a shadow fell, and beneath the dense gloom, his jade-like face transformed into that of a wrathful judge. Once the question was posed, no one answered.
Regardless of whether his words were true or false, even if they were true, such a choice could not be made lightly.
Seeing their hesitation, the Demon Lord laughed even more delightedly.
See, this was the so-called mercy of the Immortal Sects.
In the silence, a clear voice suddenly rang out: “I would like to try.”
Liu Wuzhi stood before Baili Zheque once more.
Lingzhi’s constitution was different from others; perhaps she could save him.
Seeing her step forward, Rong Xiao also approached: “Senior Brother Fang is my fellow disciple. Let me do it.”
A few more disciples joined in.
Finally, Liu Shao stepped forward: “The Immortal Alliance has never harbored cowards who fear death. We only wonder if you truly possess the intent to save him?”
One by one, figures emerged like faint sparks igniting in despair—easily extinguished, yet endlessly resilient, without cease.
It was precisely this kind of gathering of minuscule sparks into a towering flame that had once pushed Baili Zheque into the Heaven-Burying Abyss—scattered points of light converging into a wildfire because of a common enemy.
Cursed to death by everyone—that pain was truly unforgettable for all eternity.
He brushed past the crowd, pulling Fang Xuan before him through the air: “Using earth veins as an array and borrowing underworld arts to control the soul—the Defiled Realm’s Realm Lord is truly sparing no expense.”
“Since I have already entered the game, how long do you intend to keep hiding?”
Under immense pressure, Fang Xuan spat out a mouthful of black blood, laughing maniacally: “Why must the Sovereign Lord struggle so? Since I have already captured the Calamity-Darkness Guardian, you are nothing but a fish trapped in a jar.”
“Is that so?” The words were spoken lightly, like snow leaving no trace.
Unnoticed, only shadows and night remained behind Baili Zheque. Amidst the blood and bones, an boundless, cold ferocity seemed to approach, poised to overturn this thousand-layered illusion.
“Fang Xuan” suddenly realized something was wrong, but the thought of escape couldn’t outpace the icy finger joint piercing her forehead.
Silver eyes seemed capable of penetrating her consciousness sea and seeing through everything: “Empty Desolation, southern pole.”
The Demon Lord had already locked onto her location.
The Calamity-Darkness Guardian had never been his shield—only bait.
As the blood-stained finger withdrew, the entire world emitted a crisp “crack” like shattering glass.
The muddy ground rippled with bloody waves, the swaying tree shadows transformed into jagged white bones, the sky collapsed, mountains and rivers overturned, and the surrounding scenery peeled away layer by layer like a fading ancient painting. Within a square inch, they traversed thousands of miles, transforming into a crimson wilderness.
His arrogance lay in shattering formations instantly without needing to locate their cores.
His supremacy manifested in disdaining hypocrisy, deliberately committing known offenses.
Unyielding, unrepentant, unchanging.
As the illusion shattered and draconic features became fully apparent, everyone finally reacted—
The Supreme Lord of Ten Thousand Demons, Baili Zheque.
In the southern pole of Empty Desolation, the Defiled Realm’s Realm Lord Mu Yingyou finally revealed her true form. Her stunningly beautiful, demonic face was branded with demon markings, and a black dress made her crimson eyes blaze like fire.
Clutching the area where the formation backlash struck, though defeated, she showed no panic. Bowing low, she said, “Mu Yingyou has been awaiting the Sovereign Lord here for a long time.”
“Four hundred years ago, the former Demon Lord Baili Ming died violently in the old palace. His son Xuanye proved unfit for the position, plunging the demon realm into chaos since.” Mu Yingyou escorted Yuan Lan forward, offering a sanctimonious recount.
She pointed toward a bronze stele slowly rising in the distance: “Fortunately, the Sovereign Lord returned through bloodshed. Yet since your ascension a decade ago, the Seven Territories and Eight Wildlands have been rife with rumors and doubts about the legitimacy of your rule. Only the memory fragments of Baili Ming within the ruins can vindicate you.”
Regarding what Baili Zheque had done back then, the entire demon realm had only ever whispered in shadows—yet today, they dared to cast it openly before the stage.
Had Baili Xuanye promised them some benefit?
Mu Yingyou swept away the obscuring veil, and countless bone cages plummeted from thin air. Inside were imprisoned the wealthy patrons from the Auction, along with recently trapped or missing disciples of Immortal Sects.
The demon woman’s voice carried a leisurely smile: “Including those behind you, the nine thousand living sacrifices are now prepared. We ask the Sovereign Lord to open the ruins and prove the legitimacy of the legacy.”
A few words stirred towering waves; winds and clouds abruptly gathered.
Author’s note:
Demon Lord’s inner thoughts: Playing both sides, insatiable desires.
Demon Lord’s action: (Swiftly takes off outer robe to wrap around Zhizhi)
Dropping a red envelope in the comment section for the holiday, little angels please bookmark it if convenient, more nutrient solution, more and more! [dog head holding rose]