Wu Youqi did not answer, but he did stop walking.
Accompanied by the light clinking of shell beads, the star staff tapped against the ground, and a woman cloaked in white slowly emerged from the shadows. She had long, silver-white hair, and her eyebrows and curled lashes were a lighter, grayish-brown. With the hood of her cloak pushed down onto her shoulders, she appeared slender and petite, like an exquisite doll.
After asking that question, she kept her eyes on Wu Youqi. Though her eyes were wide open, there was not a glimmer of light within them, resembling clouded glass beads.
“Why has the High Priestess come here?” Wu Youqi crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe, a smile curling the corners of his lips. “Has your sister returned in triumph?”
The Three Sages of the Demon Clan consisted of three people or, to be precise, a pair of sisters and an old man. Mo Yiyao was the eldest, serving as the imperial physician of the Demon Palace and the most renowned divine healer in the Demon Realm.
The High Priestess, Yun Yue Xing Shi, and the Great General, Yun Che Changyi, were sisters one born blind yet capable of prophecy and astrology, the other possessing immense magical power and a love for conquest and combat. It was Yun Yue Xing Shi who had prophesied the collapse of the Demon Realm, which led to the Queyue Demon Venerable casting his body into the Demon Heluo Spring to stoke the flames.
Unfortunately, she was born frail, and every act of star-prophecy took a massive toll on her. Since Wu Youqi became the Demon Venerable, she had spent most of her time in seclusion; she rarely stepped out of her Star Pavilion unless it was a matter of great importance or related to her sister. Moreover, once the star chart was activated, the astrolabe in the plaza in front of the Blood Flame Flowing Cloud Palace would rotate along with it; the commotion was so significant that it was impossible for anyone to remain unaware.
This was why Wu Youqi had asked if the Great General Yun Che Changyi, who was on an expedition in the borderlands, had returned.
Yun Yue Xing Shi did not answer; she simply continued to “look” at him with her sightless eyes.
Finding the interaction tedious, Wu Youqi pursed his lips, straightened his posture, and returned to his initial question with a mocking laugh: “And what does the High Priestess think?”
Before Yun Yue Xing Shi could respond, he cut her off:
“I entered Qing-shuang Mountain at fourteen and served as his disciple for five years. I consider myself to have been respectful and observant of the rules. Even when I was repeatedly wronged and piled with vile reputations, I felt I had a clear conscience. But him?”
“What did he do to me? On one hand, he preached to me that all living things are equal and the three realms are one; on the other, when the world slandered me as the reincarnation of the Demon Star, he shut me out and said nothing. And in my darkest hour, he dealt me that cruel blow!”
Wu Youqi threw his head back and laughed. Looking at the remnants of the crimson moon, he laughed until his back arched and his shoulders shook. “I care about him? Ha! You say that I—care about him?!”
Yun Yue Xing Shi’s grip on her star staff tightened, but she did not follow Wu Youqi’s lead. Instead, she turned her head to “look” at the West Courtyard.
“But the way you treat him is different.”
“Hmph,” Wu Youqi scoffed. “The High Priestess doesn’t understand.”
Yun Yue Xing Shi turned back to face him, her expression calm, as if she were humbly seeking enlightenment.
Wu Youqi ground his back teeth. “Death, at times, is the greatest reward.”
Yun Yue Xing Shi could not see, but these words made thin beads of sweat seep from her palms, and the beads hanging from her star staff couldn’t help but emit a crisp sound.
“Look at the affair he orchestrated—how magnificent!” Wu Youqi suddenly sneered. “Detonating his own spiritual core, body dying and soul dissipating, leaving not even a scrap of residue behind! It is truly befitting of the ‘First Person of the Cultivation World,’ the high, lofty, and noble Qingyi Immortal Venerable. Even in death, he is decisive and fitting!”
“No tombstone or spirit tablet, no traces of returning to the ruins. Truly a one-of-a-kind act since the dawn of time! Using his life to forge a seal—ha, it is truly good, truly wonderful!”
“Leaving right and wrong to the judgment of others, accepting no incense or offerings from future generations, and leaving behind no grave or corpse for people to seek revenge upon.”
Hearing him say this, the expression on Yun Yue Xing Shi’s face suddenly relaxed.
At the same time, Wu Youqi cast a glance at her, a glimmer of mockery flashing in his eyes. His tone remained wild, but beneath the madness, he seemed to loosen up.
“I went through so much trouble to find someone so similar to him…”
He deliberately left the sentence unfinished, his trailing tone long and ambiguous, as if to invite wild speculation.
“Guess what I will use him for?”
Although Yun Yue Xing Shi was a member of the Demon Clan and the head of the Three Sages, she had been protected too well by the Great General for the past few centuries; she was ignorant of many things.
“You… you must have your reasons,” she interrupted, fearing she might hear talk of boudoir affairs or bedroom antics.
Wu Youqi curled his lips; that was barely the beginning.
Fortunately, the High Priestess of the Demon Clan was thin-skinned and in poor health, unable to constantly perform prophecy and divination. And the Great General was hot-tempered, possessing nothing but a heart full of fire and skill, while lacking in strategy and easy to fool. As for the old man who dabbled in medicine, he possessed a clever mind but was obsessed with medical arts and mostly ignored worldly affairs.
Though they were called the Three Sages, the only one Wu Youqi truly had to contend with was Yun Yue Xing Shi.
Her one weakness was her modesty. At other times, the High Priestess was perceptive and ruthless. Back when the Queyue Demon Venerable was alive, she had even proposed blowing up the Extinguishing God Well to create a collapse, using the souls of ten thousand people to nourish the Holy Fire.
People who were too clever were often hard to deal with. And this clever person happened to be blind; those who could not see often observed more with their hearts. Therefore, concealing anything from her was no simple task.
Thus, he had to find the soul-master as soon as possible.
“Speaking of which, why does the High Priestess seek me?” Not wishing to waste more time, Wu Youqi asked a question to which he already knew the answer.
Yun Yue Xing Shi shook her head and descended the steps. “As long as Your Venerable knows your limits. I was just stifled after staying in for so long and came out for a stroll.”
“Is that so?” Wu Youqi laughed, throwing a glance at the sky. “Well, the moon is beautiful tonight, High Priestess. Enjoy the view.”
With that, he turned and headed toward the Blood Flame Flowing Cloud Palace.
Beneath the black-gold throne in the center of the palace was a mobile mechanism; turning the top corner of the third ink-wood screen opened a secret passage leading underground. At the end of the passage was the Demon Palace’s library, piled with all the classics passed down since the Primordial Demon era, containing both cultivation techniques and narrative scrolls.
Demon Venerables before Wu Youqi were often born of the Demon race, and all they sought in life was the prosperity of the Demon Realm and the attainment of the highest realm. Thus, those narrative scrolls and ancient books recording the secrets of the Demon race were shoved into corners, covered in thick dust.
Wu Youqi was the exact opposite. He had no obsession with pursuing the ultimate realm; instead, he was interested in the odd anecdotes and strange tales that had emerged over the last hundred years. With Yun Yue Xing Shi watching from behind, Wu Youqi could not go directly to the Forbidden Land. On second thought, he decided to simply go underground to flip through the old classics.
He refused to believe that man was dead.
At first, he was unwilling to believe it; later, it became an obsession. Reason told him the person was dead, but his heart refused to accept it. He felt that someone who had lived for so long, and was the only Immortal Venerable in the Cultivation World to reach the Mahayana stage, should have mastered forbidden arts that others did not know. How could such a powerful person not have left a glimmer of hope for himself?
Thinking like this, time passed—three years had passed, and it had become a nightmare.
In the past, Wu Youqi only thought about it himself, as if holding onto a certain belief, stumbling forward alone in the dark, viscous swamp. Now, the Gu family had unexpectedly sent Gu Qingyi, and this person was shrouded in mysteries, each one lacking a reasonable explanation, as if light had been sent to him without cause.
If…
Deep in the underground palace, Wu Youqi bowed his head to leaf through the ancient books. The copper-wire lamp wick high above his head suddenly emitted a pop.
If “Gu Qingyi” had died early and become a soul-less puppet, and this hollow shell had attracted some wandering soul due to certain circumstances…
Then was it possible, perhaps… that it was… his?
Wu Youqi read ten lines at a glance, searching through anecdotes and forbidden arts, but found no clues after a long time. Estimating that Yun Yue Xing Shi had already returned to the Star Pavilion, he clipped a gold leaf into the pages as a bookmark and returned to the surface.
The blood moon had passed its zenith, and the Demon Palace was silent. Wu Youqi glanced from afar at the dim astrolabe in the plaza, then turned and stepped into the Forbidden Land without looking back.
He took out the blood mirror and contacted his secret guards far in the Far North. Braving the wind and snow, they had finally locked onto the secret realm where the soul-master was hiding.
“But we have yet to figure out the situation inside the secret realm…” The dark shadow in the mirror hung his head. “This subordinate is truly incompetent.”
Wu Youqi thought for a moment. “And that group of people chasing him?”
“After entering the snowfield, they fell into an ambush and were quickly wiped out by us one by one. For the time being, three… for the time being, they have not sent anyone else. Please rest assured.”
The soul-master had no name, yet he was a legendary figure in the Cultivation World. It was said that he possessed forbidden arts to bring back the dead; he had once successfully summoned the soul of a loved one who had been dead for seven days, allowing the beauty to return to the world of the living.
However, such forbidden arts defied the heavens, and in the end, they were not tolerated by the world. The soul-master himself suffered heavenly retribution, his flesh and blood rotting away, and his family also died tragic deaths. After successfully resurrecting three people, the soul-master vanished from the Cultivation World, hiding and clinging to life for all these years.
The secret guards Wu Youqi had dispatched spent a year and a half tracking him before finally obtaining a clue and locking onto his trail. However, the very next day after they found his trail, another group of people appeared, secretly dealing deathly blows in an attempt to take the soul-master’s life. The secret guards dared not act rashly; they immediately contacted Wu Youqi, continuing to track the soul-master while simultaneously dealing with this group of mysterious assassins. Fortunately, their movements slowed after entering the Far North snowfield, and the secret guards found an opportunity to strike back and wipe them all out.
The secret guard had spoken too quickly and had already revealed his suspicions. However, since the suspicion had no proof, speaking of it rashly would only cause trouble. He corrected himself quickly, so Wu Youqi only gave the blood mirror a light glance without rebuke.
“Leave it at that for now. Be careful, all of you.”
The relationship between him and the Three Sages of the Demon Clan was not actually close; to put it plainly, they were harboring their own schemes and utilizing one another. He needed this place—the Demon Realm—as a refuge to uncover the truth of the unredressed grievance he had suffered and the truth behind the reappearance of the dark undercurrents.
And the Three Sages of the Demon Clan needed him someone capable of using the dark undercurrents to fuel the Holy Fire to help them preserve the Demon Realm and complete the rise of the Demon race.
Just as he was thinking about this, a ripple of fluctuation spread through the barrier, and the sound of footsteps approached. This time, the visitor did not speak first, but instead draped a blanket over his shoulders.
Then, carrying a small pillow and a small quilt, Gu Qingyi found a vacant spot beside him to make a bed and, meeting his complex gaze, leaned in:
Poch, a wet kiss landed on his cheek.
“Brother Youqi, have a good dream”