Wu Youqi quickly returned to the Blood Flame Flowing Cloud Palace.
This investigation had been futile. Shen Yu only knew how to scream for his blood, and Huo Lan had not uttered anything of value. The only pleasant surprise was the letter from Xi Laiyi.
It was a pity that in recent years, the Western Buddhist Realm had closed the Chan-Yi Gate, severing all contact with the Jinzhou Continent. Without a guide, he could not reach the other shore of the Buddhist realm for the time being, let alone meet Xi Laiyi in person.
Setting aside the matter of the letter for now, Wu Youqi took out a stack of rice paper, flattened it, and transcribed the list of book titles he had secretly memorized. He then ignited a wisp of spiritual fire and handed it to his confidants in the far north, ordering them to keep an eye out for the books on the list while they searched for the soul master.
Just as he finished, a rapid sound of wooden staves tapping on the floor echoed from outside the palace. Along with the sound, besides the familiar tinkling of shell ornaments, came a heroic, resonant female voice:
“Supreme Lord, you are truly disloyal. How could you not call me when there is a fight?”
The woman walking ahead of Star Master Yunyue was dressed in armor, with a red cloak draped over her shoulders and red hair tied high behind her head.
Behind Star Master Yunyue followed several anxious-looking demon envoys.
Wu Youqi knew full well why they had come, but on the surface, he laughed heartily and feigned ignorance:
“Has the Great General returned in triumph? How is it that I received no news of this? It seems the servants at the front lines have been lazy and failed to report it to me in time.”
“Bah,” the female general waved her hand dismissively. “I just returned and heard of your great feat, so I hurried over to congratulate you.”
This general was named Yunche Changyi, the older sister of Star Master Yunyue. The two shared a similar appearance but possessed vastly different personalities: the High Priestess was deep and reserved, while she was guileless, warlike, and boisterous.
Wu Youqi poured a cup of wine on his desk, gesturing for the palace attendants to serve the others below. “A toast to the General first; we shall hold a victory feast in the coming days!”
Yunche Changyi took the wine, smiling as she prepared to down it, but Star Master Yunyue, who had been waiting to the side, could no longer endure it. She raised her star staff to block her sister’s hand:
“Supreme Lord, I heard that you have announced plans to marry that Young Master Gu?”
As a priestess, Star Master Yunyue rarely spoke so directly. Most of the time, she preferred speaking in riddles, which had once caused Wu Youqi many headaches.
Before Wu Youqi could answer, Yunche Changyi let out an “Eh?” and turned around with wide eyes, “Are you—are you joking?”
She set down her wine bowl and stepped forward. “In all the generations of the Demon Palace, the demon consorts, even if they aren’t primordial or great demons, should at least be… demon kin. Even a guard in the Demon Realm should be a pretty girl. And… to take a step back… at least they should be mentally sound and have a normal brain. You, this…”
Yunche Changyi shook her head. “No, this won’t do.”
Wu Youqi was worried about how to maneuver through this, but with Yunche Changyi providing him a ladder, he took the opportunity to explain:
“General, you are overthinking this. I have three reasons for deciding on this matter—firstly, that Immortal Venerable Qingyi is the pride of the righteous path and the faith of the cultivation world. To marry someone who resembles him as a demon consort, and to have this person submit to the demon race—they will certainly find it hard to accept. This act not only bolsters our race’s reputation but can also lure cultivators to us.”
“As long as they come to the Demon Realm, that leads to the second point: because of the matter of the cage in the Demon He Luo Spring, various cultivation sects have repeatedly come to provoke us, which is quite annoying. It would be better to take this opportunity to wipe them all out at once; it would save us the effort, and we would not need to send people to the upper realm to capture them individually every day.”
“Finally, I intend to host this wedding banquet with great splendor, letting the righteous path see the strength of our Demon Realm and establishing our prestige. It is a win-win-win situation.”
His impassioned speech was convincing enough that he almost believed it himself, so naturally, it duped the group of demon envoys and the General.
Yunche Changyi clapped and laughed, giving Wu Youqi a thumbs-up. “Supreme Lord, what a brilliant scheme! Just thinking about it makes me feel thrilled!”
Several demon envoys also wiped the worried expressions from their faces and expressed their agreement, “We will go and prepare now. Next month, we shall ensure they have no return journey!”
By comparison, Star Master Yunyue was not so easily convinced. She pursed her lips and pondered for a moment before pointing out: “But Supreme Lord, haven’t you sent people to search for the nameless soul master?”
This matter was something they had tacitly understood and never brought into the open.
Wu Youqi did not want to argue about the Sazhi Sect’s assassins, and naturally, he did not want Star Master Yunyue to mention the soul master, so he knitted his brows the moment he heard this.
Just as he was about to lash out, he turned and met Star Master Yunyue’s large, lusterless eyes. The words on the tip of his tongue took a turn, and his expression relaxed:
“Why?”
This time, it was Star Master Yunyue’s turn to be stunned; her already large pupils widened even further.
Yunche Changyi, standing to the side, looked from Wu Youqi to her sister, losing patience with their drawn-out conversation. She picked up her wine bowl and took a fierce gulp:
“Supreme Lord, my sister means to ask: are you trying to summon souls to resurrect your teacher?”
She said this with a casual attitude, though her eyes held a keen sharpness.
Wu Youqi looked at them, turned to pour himself another cup of wine, and nodded frankly. Seeing the expressions on everyone’s faces change, he said with a strange, mocking smile:
“Yes, for these three years, I have wanted to resurrect him. I have never given up.”
Star Master Yunyue’s face darkened, and even Yunche Changyi stopped laughing.
But Wu Youqi raised his glass, looked around at the crowd, and then his expression shifted to one of evil ferocity: “Tormenting Immortal Venerable Qingyi is much more interesting than dealing with the cultivation world, isn’t it?”
Yunche Changyi was taken aback, then laughed in realization, raising her own bowl to toast him.
Only Star Master Yunyue pondered for a moment before asking again: “Then… what about the fool? You are exceptionally tolerant of him, allowing him to live in the West Courtyard where former demon consorts lived, and letting him come and go as he pleases in the forbidden areas! Do you… not have other intentions?”
Wu Youqi blinked, feigning sudden realization. “Ah? That dilapidated courtyard was where the former demon consort lived? If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have thought it was just an abandoned empty house.”
Before Star Master Yunyue could respond, he downed another cup. “Does the High Priestess feel offended? That’s easy to fix; I’ll just have him move out.”
Star Master Yunyue did not speak, her expression somewhat hesitant, as if she were weighing the truth of his words.
Wu Youqi found it amusing and set his wine cup down with a dramatic flourish:
“You don’t believe me? Before, the Gu family said he was just a soulless puppet, a living dead shell; I thought it didn’t matter to keep him around. In the future, when we find the soul master and succeed in summoning his soul, it will save me the trouble of finding a new physical body.”
“Lo and behold, the thing suddenly came to life. I just found it a novelty and kept him to raise for fun…” Wu Youqi gave them a meaningful look. “But speaking of which, do you, among you, not harbor other intentions?”
“And why exactly have I been having such poor luck in finding that soul master?”
Since it had all been laid out, Wu Youqi had to make this point clear to them.
Why should only Sazhi be allowed to use him?
Star Master Yunyue pursed her lips and finally raised her star staff, rapping it against the floor twice. “I understand your meaning, Supreme Lord. I will handle everything properly. However, Supreme Lord…”
She turned her head, her lusterless eyes “looking” in the direction of the West Courtyard, and sighed meaningfully:
“Even if the three souls and seven spirits are incomplete, they are still a person’s, and it is impossible for two sets of souls to exist in one person. I think you should be clear on that.”
Wu Youqi nodded. “And so?”
“So, when the soul master arrives, you will kill Gu Qingyi without hesitation, turning him into a true corpse, won’t you?”
“What else would I do?” Wu Youqi spoke as if hearing a massive joke. “He and I have only met a few times, and he is a fool who won’t live long anyway.”
He even became somewhat angry. “High Priestess, I may have some twisted intentions regarding my ‘good teacher,’ but I—I am not someone who will eat anything, do you understand?”
Star Master Yunyue breathed a sigh of relief, but the expression on her face remained somewhat strange. After a long while, she said in an even lower voice: “So… you are determined to resurrect Immortal Venerable Qingyi, aren’t you?”
Wu Youqi laughed, tilting his head to look at Star Master Yunyue. “High Priestess, rest assured. I have long since reached the Mahayana stage; I will not be soft-hearted because of old feelings. If he truly returns… heh heh, I think he will regret not having died more thoroughly.”
After finishing this, he raised his glass and drank another cup, his hand gripping the cup until his eyes were bloodshot, his jaw clenched so hard that a distinct tendon bulged on both sides of his cheeks.
Star Master Yunyue nodded and pulled up her sister, who was still drinking. “In that case, we will not disturb you, Supreme Lord. I will see to it that the matters you ordered are handled.”
Wu Youqi said nothing, only turning his back to pour more wine.
When Yunche Changyi returned to the Star Pavilion with her sister, she leaped onto the daybed in the room and began tossing grapes into her mouth:
“Hey, sister, although the Supreme Lord has guaranteed it, why do I feel like it’s so uncertain? That is Qingyi!”
She ruffled her hair in agitation. “Just kidding! Back in the day, he single-handedly slaughtered an entire army of mine and gave me a pretty good beating. It’s better for this person to be dead; if he comes back… tsk tsk, he really could scare someone to death.”
“Sister, rest assured, Qingyi will not live.”
Star Master Yunyue put down her star staff, groped her way over, and her sister reached out to steady her before asking, “What did you say?”
“What do you mean he won’t live?” She grabbed her sister’s hand. “Did you really finish off that soul master?”
Star Master Yunyue couldn’t help but laugh. “My silly sister, what are you thinking about? The soul master is under the protection of the Supreme Lord’s people; it wouldn’t be so easy to get to him.”
“Then what you just said…?”
Star Master Yunyue patted her sister’s hand, telling her to be patient, then dismissed the attendants in the Star Pavilion and cast a layer of demonic energy over the doors and windows before revealing the truth:
“Lord Huanyi often traveled through the cultivation world to gather intelligence, so he had vast experience. That year when the Supreme Lord first came to the Demon Realm, I asked him about the nameless soul master and the matter of resurrection.”
“What did he say?”
“During the time Lord Huanyi was at the Valley of Pharmacists, he once gained the trust of the Valley Master and was taken as an inner disciple. One late night, over drinks, he tricked the information out of him—he said that for a person to be resurrected, everything depends on the three souls and seven spirits.”
The three souls refer to heaven, earth, and human; only when these three are gathered can the seven spirits be born.
Yunche Changyi knew this.
“After a person dies, the ‘heaven soul,’ which governs the pure yang energy of the Taiqing, returns to the heavenly path to reach an eternal and boundless state; the ‘earth soul,’ which governs the yin energy also known as the shadow soul returns to the underworld, entering the cycle of reincarnation according to the law of cause and effect.”
“The remaining ‘human soul’ is the master soul, the foundation of the seven spirits. This soul remains in the mortal world, wandering near graves and ancestral tablets, enjoying the sacrifices of descendants and protecting the land. The ‘ghosts’ one sees in the mortal world are mostly this soul.”
Star Master Yunyue paused and continued:
“To be reborn, one must gather all three souls. The human soul is the easiest to find; whether there is someone at home offering sacrifices or if it is a lonely wandering ghost, it can be found quickly. The harder one is the earth soul. This is where the soul master comes in; he is proficient in the forbidden arts of yin and yang and can hide the aura of the living to enter the underworld and bring the earth soul back to the world of the living.”
“But that is already incredibly difficult!” Yunche Changyi couldn’t help but exclaim. “The yin soldiers of the ghost realm are hard to deal with! Last time I faced them, I barely made it back.”
She felt a lingering fear, then suddenly sat up. “Isn’t it three souls? Is the remaining heaven soul even harder to get?!”
“Yes,” Star Master Yunyue nodded. “This is the key to resurrection, and it is also the reason why the soul master has only successfully resurrected one person in all these years. Because the heaven soul is actually the pure yang energy of the Taiqing, once it detaches from the human body, it blends with the pure energy of heaven and earth. It is not only extremely difficult to collect, but it is also easy to have deficiencies, leading to the resurrection of a monster with an incomplete soul whose life will not last long.”
Yunche Changyi blinked rapidly. “Incomplete soul… like that fool?”
Star Master Yunyue shook her head. “That was natural. What I mean by ‘life will not last long’ is that the method of resurrection defies the natural order, and upon rebirth, the Heavenly Dao will descend divine punishment. Those with incomplete heaven souls are easily struck down by golden thunder.”
“…So that’s how it is,” Yunche Changyi thought about it for a while but couldn’t make sense of it, so she shouted that she was tired. “Anyway, sister, you make the decision. If this Supreme Lord doesn’t work out, we’ll just switch to the next one—I’m sleepy, I’m going to sleep for a while.”
Star Master Yunyue turned her head, “looked” at her sister with a helpless sigh, and pulled the cloak off her own shoulders to use as a blanket for her.
She believed that Qingyi had people behind him to offer sacrifices, and she believed the nameless soul master could go down to the underworld again. Even if he didn’t go in person, with the Supreme Lord’s ability, he could retrieve the earth soul.
But the heaven soul was absolutely impossible to find.
In the past, the lady successfully resurrected by the soul master was a coincidence:
Her husband loved her deeply, and when she was critically ill, he opened a spiritual domain and cut himself off from the world, accidentally trapping all of her heaven soul in the process.
Qingyi, however, had died by self-detonation; his soul had scattered in an instant. It had been more than three years now, so where would one find his heaven soul?
Since he would never succeed, Wu Youqi would continue to stay in the Demon Realm and be used by them for the sake of having a place to live, resources to use, and manpower to deploy.
And thus, the Sacred Flame would not go out.
Meanwhile, inside the Demon Palace, Wu Youqi threw himself back into his gold chair. Dealing with these two sisters, especially Star Master Yunyue, was truly mentally exhausting.
Words could not be said too fully, nor could they be too true. Speaking in such a mix of truth and lies, he truly felt like a monkey performing for others.
He picked up the wine flagon and drank from it. The people of Qingshuang Mountain all said his teacher was the best, yet his good teacher had never taught him how to smile and act out this play of life.
Just as he was drinking, someone came to report from outside the hall, saying someone from the West Courtyard requested an audience.
Wu Youqi turned his head, half-squinting, and saw Xizhu walk in, bow, and say hesitantly:
“Supreme Lord, the… the Young Master asks for you to come and see the… house he built.”
Having said this, Xizhu turned bright red, twisting the corner of her dress in great embarrassment.
Wu Youqi sat up slowly: That’s right, there was still that fool.