6 – Source of Fear: Not Favored? Even Ghosts Wouldn’t Believe It.
Without receiving favor, even ghosts wouldn’t believe it.
After the mist and clouds dispersed, what met the eye was a boundless clear sky.
Glazed pavilions floated among wisps of clouds, wind chimes hanging from the eaves collided with crisp, melodious sounds, dandelion puffballs swayed gently in the breeze, and warm winds carrying the scent of honey brushed past armor.
“Playing tricks with illusions,” Baili Zheque sneered, crushing the fallen petals underfoot as he followed the fluctuations of Spiritual Power toward the corridor.
He had killed countless fully or partially naked women in the dream world. These hypocritical Illusions, so different from the demon realm, were merely tricks meant to lull one into lowering their guard—nothing to be taken seriously.
Demon energy condensed into purple dragons, which slithered one by one through the carved wooden windows, yet not a single human figure was found.
Suddenly, an unusual commotion came from the direction of the backyard.
The Demon Lord reacted swiftly, thrusting his bare hand toward the center of the courtyard. What his palm touched, however, was a fluffy… snow rabbit? The snow rabbit’s crimson eyes reflected the lingering ferocity in his brow. After a pause, it actively pressed its pink nose against his fingers, which were usually stained with blood.
Soft, docile, utterly non-threatening.
A surge of disgust welled up in Baili Zheque’s heart. He flung his hand away as if scalded, and the snow rabbit dissolved into mist in mid-air.
In this Illusion, there was not a trace of living human presence.
If the dream world revealed its true nature, how could it possibly be empty?
With the willow leaves just turning green and the spring grass tender, the backyard held only a plump cat and the Demon Lord staring at each other in bewilderment.
Baili Zheque did not know that, at this moment, Liu Wuzhi in the dream was still a young Lingzhi, struggling to poke her small, pale head out of the rotten wood.
Joy, peace, and tranquility flowed undisturbed, greatly displeasing the Demon who thrived on fear and resentment.
High-level cultivators from the celestial and demon realms could fabricate a layer of superficial appearance within their consciousness sea to prevent others from prying into their privacy. All of this must also be an illusion.
Baili Zheque recklessly activated a demonic incantation. Under the erosion of demon energy, the corridor pillars gradually twisted and warped. As the sunset soaked the entire courtyard, the earth cracked, and plants stained with blood.
Reveal your dark side.
The first layer of fear was named survival.
Night fog shrouded the valley, not a sliver of light to be seen, darker even than the demon realm.
Seeing this gloomy, chaotic scene, a satisfied smile curled at the Demon Lord’s lips.
Ancient trees covered in moss were wrapped in Lingzhi hyphae, while rotting vines solidified into chains, entangling the newly formed Gills.
The heavy gloom soon gave way to rain. A relentless, drizzling downpour ensued, filling every breath with dampness. Grayish-blue mold spots gradually appeared on the surface of the mushroom Caps, resembling tarnished bronze vessels from afar.
Still, no human figure appeared in the dream, only an anxious, indistinct sobbing: “No, don’t…”
The Demon Lord focused intently, ready to feed on her fear.
“Stop raining, it’s too much…” the young girl struggled desperately in her nightmare. “It’ll grow bugs and mold!”
Demon Lord: ?
What mold? Mold on what?
Was this her survival fear? Afraid of her corpse molding after death??
The Cap slowly expanded in the dark green pond, the spore sacs oozing mucus. The surface of the stagnant water soon took on a murky brownish-yellow hue, trickling intermittently through the crevices of the rocks.
The fear harvested seeped into him, carrying a sour, pungent, damp, moldy stench that was nearly unbearable.
Baili Zheque almost retched, withdrawing from this layer of the nightmare without hesitation.
The second layer of fear was named death.
Between heaven and earth stood only a massive Alchemy Furnace, three people tall. Flames like crimson snakes flickering their tongues licked the furnace walls wantonly. Amid the howling winds, ashes and golden incantations rose and floated, mixing with sulfur, mercury, and powdered herbs into a boiling vortex.
The medicinal herbs were of excellent quality, and a rich, fragrant aroma wafted from the Alchemy Furnace, soothing the earlier nauseating sensation.
Her sense of taste stabilized, but her ears were no longer at peace.
“Ahhhhhhh!” A woman’s shrill scream pierced the air, yet as Baili Zheque circled the Alchemy Furnace, he couldn’t discern what she was so terrified of.
Inside and outside the furnace, there was no trace of anyone.
Finally, the herbs within the furnace condensed into an immortal pill roughly the size of a palm—perfectly round, complete, and gleaming with golden light.
After the green smoke dissipated, silence returned to the surroundings, leaving only the pitiful, mournful lament that drifted like a wandering soul: “It’s over, it’s over, I’m dead…”
Baili Zheque tapped the absurdly hard, iron-like golden pill, feeling both ridiculous and unreasonable.
Was her fear of death simply the dread of choking on this thing?!
The Demon Lord chewed on the inexplicable sorrow around him with disinterest, flicked his sleeve, and withdrew to the third layer.
The deepest source of human fear is often tied to childhood shadows.
Under the pale moonlight, the enormous shadow of a giant beast slowly approached, dragging a trail of silvery-white mucus across the ground.
The unseen girl screamed again: “Don’t come closer! Don’t eat me!”
Towering green plants reached for the sky, their branches and leaves askew, while the earth trembled incessantly. Baili Zheque stood with his arms crossed, unmoving, finally feeling a flicker of interest: What kind of demonic creature could frighten her so—a Bone-Eroding Wolf, a Blood-Heart Spider, or a Life-Devouring Beast?
Whatever it was, once they left the dream, he would capture a hundred of them to keep her company.
The magical beast crawled closer, a soft-bodied creature carrying what seemed like a mountain on its back. As the distance narrowed, he could gradually make out the spiral patterns on its shell, the breath expelled from its respiratory pores, the dark eyes at the tips of its antennae, and the tens of thousands of fine, dense teeth and tongues.
So, it was actually a giant—
Snail.
Yes, that’s right, a snail.
The Demon Lord, who had earlier thought of capturing a hundred of them: “……!”
Influenced by fear, the perspective of the dream world shrank. The so-called towering plants and mountain-like beast were, in reality, nothing more than ordinary-sized grass and a snail in the natural world.
Liu Wuzhi was still sobbing uncontrollably: “Snail, don’t bite me… I’m scared, wuwuwuwu…”
She wasn’t afraid of the Supreme Lord of Ten Thousand Demons, but she was afraid of a snail??
The sticky, damp taste of fear spread through his limbs and bones. Baili Zheque gritted his teeth fiercely, molten lava erupting in his eyes, as if ready to burn everything to ashes.
Fine! Just fine!
With a darkened expression, he crushed the Illusion and pinned the girl trapped in the nightmare firmly onto the bed.
Kill! He would kill her right now!
Liu Wuzhi had yet to awaken, her hair slightly disheveled and loose. From excessive fright, a delicate, snowy flush tinged the skin beneath her eyelids, and her lips parted slightly: “Snail… don’t…”
She mistook the Demon Lord for that terrifying and dangerous herbivorous snail.
A tear, shed unconsciously, slid onto Baili Zheque’s knuckle, causing his Demonic Pupil to tremble violently.
If he killed her now, even in the underworld, she would likely believe she had been bitten to death by a snail.
At that moment, the Demon Lord, who always drove others to the brink of madness, nearly lost his own sanity.
Liu Wuzhi lay on the Demon Lord’s bed for a full twelve hours. The verbally threatened deadline for her death had passed, yet she remained alive.
This sleep had been extremely uncomfortable—first drowning and growing moldy, then being roasted and refined in a furnace, and even dreaming of the snail that had once taken a bite of Lingzhi’s Cap before she had taken human form. Back then, if her eldest senior brother hadn’t arrived in time, she would have been done for!
She didn’t understand why having nightmares would leave her covered in demon energy. With the help of the Netherworld Butterfly and Dusk Crow, she tidied herself up simply and pushed open the door, just in time to see a demonic cultivator woman walking silently toward her.
Red eyes, green lips, holding a smoking pipe, her delicate figure leaning casually in mid-air. Her sleeves were embroidered with half-withered epiphyllum flowers, and the hem of her skirt was half-stained with blood, revealing a pair of bare feet.
This was the Delusive Epiphyllum Guardian under the Demon Lord, Lü Xiao.
Liu Wuzhi asked in what she considered a very friendly manner: “Are you also here to attend the bedchamber?”
Lü Xiao: …How dare she!
This woman was provoking her, wasn’t she!
Blocking Liu Wuzhi’s path, she asked incredulously: “You actually slept on the Sovereign Lord’s bed all night?”
“Isn’t a bed meant for sleeping?” Liu Wuzhi didn’t understand where her shock came from.
Where else was she supposed to sleep? In the dirt? But there was no dirt in the Demon Lord’s bedchamber.
Lü Xiao roared inwardly: But that’s the Sovereign Lord’s bed! Women who enter the bedchamber have never come out alive!
Outwardly maintaining her composure, she examined Liu Wuzhi carefully from head to toe—the beauty still bore the miserable state from last night when she had fallen face-first. Her lotus-like face was streaked with blood and tears, her body covered in bruises, her dress torn and tattered. It was hard not to associate this with the unbearable devastation of first receiving favor.
Although the Demon Lord had not been enthroned for long, he had never lacked followers over the centuries.
He was the highest, most unattainable moonlight in the entire demon realm—how could he possibly favor a beauty offered up as a plaything?
Yet the fact was, at this moment, the girl was radiating the Demon Lord’s aura from head to toe, and even the Life Beast circled around her incessantly.
Lü Xiao felt like crying but had no tears.
It must be that to find clues about Baili Xuanye, the Sovereign Lord had no choice but to “sacrifice himself for righteousness.” As one of the Five Great Guardians, she couldn’t disrupt the Sovereign Lord’s plans.
Finally suppressing her surging jealousy, Lü Xiao took a heavy drag from her pipe: “The Sovereign Lord will kill you sooner or later.”
Liu Wuzhi completely agreed.
The Demon Lord killed without hesitation. As for why he hadn’t killed her yet, it was probably… because he fancied Wuzhi’s face.
Perhaps once her injuries healed, she would have to formally attend the bedchamber.
Next time, she might not be able to stop the Demon Lord. She needed to find other ways to avoid attending the bedchamber.
Liu Wuzhi stared unblinkingly as Lü Xiao exhaled the last of the smoke from her mouth and couldn’t help saying: “Sister Lü Xiao, your smoke is really cool.”
Lü Xiao smiled faintly: “This isn’t ordinary smoke—it’s the life marrow of immortals.” As she spoke, she used the bone-crafted pipe to shatter Liu Wuzhi’s crooked golden hairpin.
Liu Wuzhi immediately leaned in to smell it—a scent of cold plum blossoms mixed with musk: “Very fragrant.”
Would her life marrow smell this fragrant too after she ascended to immortality?
The pipe was just an inch away from shattering her spiritual platform, yet the girl showed no fear at all. Her eyes overflowed with something akin to a child’s longing for adult life, not a trace of malice stirred by the smoke.
A strange light similar to Yuan Lan’s flashed in Lü Xiao’s eyes. She tucked the pipe at her waist and threatened viciously: “Don’t get carried away! The Sovereign Lord has been busy lately dealing with the joint rebellion of three territories. When he returns, he’ll make you pay!”
Liu Wuzhi remembered: the Immortal Realm had Five Cities and Ten Continents, while the demon realm had Seven Territories and Eight Wildlands. Baili Zheque seemed to have only formally ascended the throne not long ago, and there were always endless rebellions to handle.
“Then can I go back and rest?” She still wanted to try spraying spores again.
“Wishful thinking.” Lü Xiao sneered, grabbing her not-yet-fully-recovered arm. “The Sovereign Lord has ordered that from today onward, you will interrogate all death row prisoners.”
“If you fail, you will die.”
The world spun upside down in an instant, and the two of them teleported directly to the death prison beneath the Demon Palace, where a thick, pungent scent of blood assaulted their senses.
Damp stone steps were stained with winding trails of dark red blood. With every step Lü Xiao took, her bare feet crushed several pieces of bleached white bones. Liu Wuzhi imitated her, but after several attempts, she couldn’t break a single bone, leaving her slightly frustrated.
Mimicking Lü Xiao all the way, Liu Wuzhi was having a great time until a faint glimmer of light appeared ahead, accompanied by a cold, threatening voice: “Considering we were once colleagues, if you confess truthfully, you might be spared some of the physical torment.”
The person being interrogated gave no reply, but a lively voice came from behind: “Brother Yuan Lan.”
Yuan Lan turned around and saw the figure, lively yet covered in wounds, and for a moment thought he was seeing a ghost: “Wang Tan, why have you released another unrelated soul?”
“She’s alive,” Lü Xiao said, grinding her teeth against her pipe. “Before the Sovereign Lord left the palace today, he attended the bedchamber with her.”
Yuan Lan: “…? …!”
After all, given Liu Wuzhi’s current state—thoroughly saturated with the Demon Lord’s aura—even a ghost wouldn’t believe she hadn’t received his favor.
Wasn’t attending the bedchamber just an excuse to lure the enemy in? How could it have been taken seriously??
Unaware of the silent exchange between the Guardians, Liu Wuzhi explained proactively: “Brother Yuan Lan, the Sovereign Lord asked Sister Lü Xiao and me to help you interrogate the prisoner.”
Lü Xiao sneered coldly: “Help? The Sovereign Lord never once mentioned the word ‘help.’ Figure it out yourself.”
With that, she glanced at the dying prisoner bound to the rack and whispered to Yuan Lan: “Only one can survive—the traitor or the beauty.”
The Sovereign Lord’s meaning was clear: if this beautiful spy proved useless, she would be killed outright; if she couldn’t escape and was forced to seek help from Baili Xuanye, it would play right into their hands.
And if, in her arrogance, she believed she could stir up trouble and tried to earn the Sovereign Lord’s trust by achieving merit, she would inevitably resort to any means necessary to interrogate the death-row prisoner, awakening the malice within her heart. In doing so, the Sovereign Lord would find her weakness.
Yet Yuan Lan remained deeply uneasy: Let her interrogate alone? With those slender, bruised arms and legs, interrogating these vicious, unyielding traitors?
Besides, she was still a suspected spy! Among the prisoners, there might very well be her accomplices. What if they colluded and rebelled?
With the Sovereign Lord away and Lü Xiao unsure of controlling the situation, she turned her pipe toward Liu Wuzhi, who was staring blankly around: “I think it’d be easier to just kill this girl.”
Yuan Lan stopped her: “If you kill her without the Sovereign Lord’s order, aren’t you afraid of the consequences later?”
The Five Great Guardians were referred to by codenames because they could be replaced at any time. The previous Delusive Epiphyllum Guardian had died for overstepping the Sovereign Lord and killing someone on her own authority.
Lü Xiao saw the logic in this and temporarily lowered her pipe.
Then they would wait and see. The suspects were right under their watchful eyes, unlikely to cause any trouble.
In the dimness of the death prison, Liu Wuzhi took the prisoner registry from Yuan Lan’s hands. Instead of flipping through it, she stared intently at the person Yuan Lan had just been interrogating.
Lingzhi was exceptionally sensitive to life force. She could tell—this person was about to die.
After enduring severe torture, the death-row prisoner was barely conscious, wracked with excruciating pain as the Bone-Dissolving Curse continued to corrode his body.
The Demon Lord was cruel and merciless. Resigned to death, the prisoner refused to divulge any information, when suddenly something soft touched his forehead.
The touch of the hand against the skin was gentle and warm, carefully avoiding the wounds—no, this must be an illusion conjured by the Delusive Epiphyllum Guardian using bewitching smoke.
The condemned prisoner opened their eyes warily, meeting a face brimming with a gentle smile.
“Would you like something to eat first? Your stomach has been hurting for hours.” Author’s Note:
Zhizhi: Snails have over twenty-six thousand teeth and even eat lingzhi. Isn’t that terrifying?
Demon Lord: Hmm, absolutely terrifying 🙂
Yuan Lan + Lü Xiao: Do condemned prisoners get such good treatment these days?
The Demon Lord will return next chapter. Let the young couple spend some time adjusting to each other first, and once their feelings deepen, they can start cultivating the land. Bookmark to stay on track, and please don’t let me go unfed~ [pitiful]