The various sects were truly on the verge of being driven mad with fury.
Truly.
Outside Qinghe Village, withered trees burned with ghostly flames and the ground was crisscrossed with deep ravines. The heavy stench of blood mingled with the scorched glow of firelight, illuminating faces below, each one exhausted, smeared with grime and blood, worn to their limits.
For days and nights, cultivators from every sect had fought the Demon Lord in a relentless battle to the death. No one knew how much cultivation they had exhausted, how many precious pills they had consumed. At last, they had forced that ferocious fiend into a desperate corner.
It seemed that with just one final, all out strike, they could annihilate him completely, body and soul erased from existence.
And yet, at that very final moment,
From the distant sky came the faint strains of celestial music, accompanied by a rich, intoxicating fragrance. A lavish Eight Treasure Agarwood Flying Palanquin, drawn by eight snow white spirit beasts, descended through the clouds at an almost deliberately unhurried pace.
Golden spiritual flowers drifted down in a soft rain, as the palanquin glided gracefully into the sky above Qinghe Village.
It gleamed with jewels and ornamentation, tassels and pendants swaying gently in the air.
With such ostentation… who present could possibly fail to recognize whose carriage this was?
In that instant, countless people felt their vision go black, nearly coughing up blood from sheer rage.
The Golden Toad Sect! That sect which had spent an entire year putting on a show of effort while contributing nothing, watching from afar, the so called righteous young master and model of virtue, Yin Xuanlin.
There had absolutely been a reason he was expelled from his sect back then, because he simply was not human!
A moment later, the beaded curtain of the palanquin parted and a dazzling figure in crimson descended lightly from within.
Yin Xuanlin’s dark hair was tied high, crowned with a brilliant golden headpiece. His luxurious red robe, embroidered with intricate golden toad and drifting cloud patterns, fluttered sharply in the wind, accentuating his already striking features and lending him an air of arrogant confidence and dazzling handsomeness.
Then, with a light step, he rose into the air, fingers forming a seal. In an instant, a grand and resplendent formation spread out beneath his feet, golden runes flowing within it, radiating blinding brilliance. Its light surged forth, completely overwhelming the lingering smoke and bloodshed of the battlefield below.
…As if anyone down there, covered in dust and blood, battered and exhausted, had the leisure to admire such a pointless, purely showy display of brilliance.
Behind him, the disciples of the Golden Toad Sect raised their voices in unison, their cries resounding across the battlefield, righteous and imposing, as though they had arrived under the banner of justice itself:
“The Golden Toad Sect has come to assist, eradicate the Demon Lord!”
The cultivators below, who had been struggling desperately to hold on: “…”
Ahhh, this is infuriating enough to kill someone!!!
They had been played.
Schemed against. Used. After all their toil and sacrifice, they had merely sewn a wedding garment for another.
And now, in broad daylight, he had come to harvest the fruits of their labor. Could there truly exist someone in this world so calculating, so shameless beyond belief?
Yet no matter how much their teeth ached with resentment, a reluctant thread of relief still surfaced deep within their hearts,
After all, the battle of these past days had reached a critical stalemate. Both sides, the cultivators and the Demon Lord, had been pushed to the brink of exhaustion. At any moment, either side could collapse.
And now that the Golden Toad Sect had appeared, regardless of their despicable intentions, they had at least brought reinforcements.
At last, there was hope that this campaign to eliminate the demon could succeed!
As for this outrageous display from the Golden Toad Sect… well… they could only grit their teeth and endure it.
Yet in the very next moment, that striking, flamboyant figure in red did not, as everyone had expected, summon a devastating heavenly flame to deliver the final blow to the Demon Lord.
Instead, with effortless grace, light, elegant and almost leisurely, he moved with precise intent…
Straight through the violent barrier of demonic energy that had held back cultivators from all directions, countless great powers unable to breach it and stepped through it as if walking on level ground, arriving directly before the Demon Lord.
That Demon Lord stood drenched in blood, his demonic aura in chaos, barely managing to remain upright by bracing himself against his sword.
How did he get in?
Everyone was stunned.
Their minds went blank.
And yet, how dared he?!
How dared he stand there so casually, hands clasped behind his back, exposing his entire defenseless back to the Demon Lord behind him, those scarlet eyes burning with endless killing intent and despair, those deep, shadowed pupils capable of piercing him through at any moment!
All thoughts were swallowed by a sense of utter absurdity and disbelief.
The demon needed only to lift a hand to tear him apart with ease.
A deathly silence enveloped the ruined Qinghe Village. Even the wind seemed to halt in that instant.
Only Yin Xuanlin moved.
He unhurriedly adjusted the cuff of his sleeve, which shimmered with a decadent sheen beneath the dim, overcast sky, its golden embroidery catching what little light remained. Then he slowly turned his head, glancing toward the person behind him.
A year apart and someone was looking truly miserable.
His clothes were in tatters, soaked with blood. That once cold and ethereal face was now crisscrossed with demonic markings and his eyes were an alarming shade of red, filled with a churning darkness Yin Xuanlin could not understand.
Then he glanced down at himself, his own garments immaculate, luxurious, his bearing noble and composed.
Yin Xuanlin could not help but feel even more pleased with himself.
One month later, in the grand and imposing council hall of the Golden Toad Sect’s mountain gates.
“Yin Xuanlin! What exactly do you mean by this?!” Several elders from the major sects trembled with anger. “Hand over that demon immediately and let the righteous path of the world publicly judge and punish him. Otherwise, do not blame us for disregarding our former camaraderie!”
“Young Master Yin, the Demon Lord’s appearance concerns the very survival of the cultivation world. This is no trivial matter! How can your Golden Toad Sect detain him privately? If such a precedent is set, the consequences will be endless!”
“Hand over the Demon Lord!”
“Yin Xuanlin! By acting so stubbornly and shielding a demon, are you planning to stand as an enemy to the entire righteous path?”
Yet no matter how agitated the crowd below became, no matter how loudly they shouted or how harshly they threatened, Yin Xuanlin, seated at the head of the hall, merely lifted his eyelids lazily.
His handsome face showed not the slightest ripple of emotion. He even shifted slightly, adopting a more proper sitting posture, as though this were nothing more than a tedious formality.
That utterly shameless, impenetrable attitude nearly drove several elders to faint from sheer frustration.
“First,” after allowing them to shout themselves hoarse, he finally raised one finger and spoke in an unhurried tone, “there are rules in the jianghu. I was the one who captured him. Therefore, I have the right to decide his fate.”
“You, you are twisting words! Since when has there ever been such a rule?!”
“Second,” he continued, raising another finger, “all of you keep insisting that Xie Chen is the Demon Lord. Where is your evidence? Just those few demonic markings? A trace of demonic aura?”
He tilted his head slightly, the corners of his lips curling into a faint, mocking smile.
“Not necessarily convincing, is it? After all, have you all forgotten? Back then, there was also a group of people who swore up and down, pointing at me and accusing me of ‘envying talent’ and ‘framing a fellow disciple.’ And what was the result?”
“Therefore, wrongful cases have existed since ancient times. Who knows whether this is yet another instance of a lie repeated so often it becomes truth? In summary, this matter is of great importance and must be investigated carefully and thoroughly. How could we possibly reach a conclusion so hastily?”
“Y….. you, you are simply, ”
Before they could finish their rebuttal, Yin Xuanlin had already raised a third finger. At the same time, his face adopted an expression of perfectly timed, utterly insincere sorrow.
“Moreover,” he said, “Xie Chen is, after all, a junior brother I have watched grow up since childhood, someone as dear to me as family, my closest kin. How could I possibly be like you all, so heartless, shouting for his death without even clarifying the facts?”
“Even if, taking ten thousand steps back, my junior brother truly is the Demon Lord, no one is perfect. Should he not at least be given a chance to repent and start anew, to become a proper person again?”
The people in the hall nearly spat out three mouthfuls of blood in fury.
Not to mention how utterly absurd it sounded to place “even if he truly is the Demon Sovereign” together with “no one is without fault.”
Ah! For more than a year, while he had been hunted to the brink of death, fleeing across the entire cultivation world, not once had this so called senior brother shown even the slightest shred of basic human compassion.
Yet Yin Xuanlin twisted words and muddled logic with shameless ease, leaving everyone unable to argue him down and so, just like that, Demon Sovereign Xie Chen was placed under the “temporary custody” of the Golden Toad Sect.
Of course, many refused to accept it.
Yin Xuanlin raised a brow. “Hmm? If you’re dissatisfied, then go ahead, attack the Golden Toad Sect.”
How could there exist such a person, such a brazen, utterly shameless individual?!
After this incident, quite a number of highly cultivated elders returned home only to find their dao hearts shaken and unstable.
But the problem was this: most sects had only just endured a brutal war. Their reserves of medicinal pills were depleted, their spiritual fields damaged and they urgently needed vast quantities of herbs and spirit fruits to recover.
And just so conveniently, the Golden Toad Sect had recently “kindly” reached supply agreements with everyone, offering goods at seventy five percent of the usual price…
To offend this living calamity now, what if he turned hostile, cut off supplies entirely, or raised prices on the spot? What then?
Rest assured, Yin Xuanlin was absolutely the kind of person who would do exactly that.
But could they really just swallow this humiliation? Submit to it?
How could that be acceptable?!
Since ancient times, when had any righteous sect ever detained a Demon Sovereign in such an unclear, private manner, locking him away in their own backyard as if raising him?
This… this was utterly overturning the natural order!
Not to mention the rumors spreading outside recently, so outrageous they were almost unbearable to hear.
Titles like “The Young Master Returns: The Entire Cultivation World Enables My Personal Revenge,” “The Golden Toad Sect’s Chronicle of Grudges,” and “Refining Medicine with a Demon Core” were already bad enough.
But lately, there were even things like “A Beauty Hidden in a Golden House,” “Using the Demon Lord as a Furnace Base,” and “Seizing by Force: One Hundred Nights with the Demon Lord” circulating everywhere.
Intolerable, utterly intolerable!
In the end, several hot tempered elders, unwilling to endure any longer, chose to risk offending the Golden Toad Sect and joined forces to demand an explanation once more.
However, just as they arrived in a storm of righteous fury, something even more blood boiling occurred.
From the direction of the forbidden grounds in the back mountains of the Golden Toad Sect, radiant light suddenly burst forth in dazzling streams, auspicious energy rolling in waves. A clear and resounding phoenix cry pierced the heavens.
Everyone turned to look in shock.
There, in the sky, a divine bird spread its magnificent wings, soaring gracefully among the clouds. Its feathers shimmered with flowing light, its tail trailing like a river of stars. Its entire being radiated a pure and powerful aura of blessing, solemn, sacred and awe inspiring enough to make one instinctively want to kneel in reverence.
Th… that was, the Nine Heavens Mysterious Phoenix!
A legendary sacred creature recorded only in ancient texts…
A divine omen said to appear once every few hundred years, destined to follow only the Chosen One, the bearer of the world’s salvation, the Illumination Lord.
So, So the one currently standing there, casually stroking the bird’s head with visible distaste while muttering complaints like, “Why did you suddenly grow so big? You were way cuter when you were chubby and small,”,
That cunning, scheming, morally bankrupt, profit obsessed, utterly shameless Yin Xuanlin,
H… he… he was actually the Chosen One of this era?
He was the Illumination Lord?!
“No… this can’t be real! Absolutely impossible!!”
“Fake! It must be fake! How could that wretched brat possibly be the Illumination Lord?! Heaven has no eyes, aaah!”
“The righteous path is finished, finished!!”
Enraged to the point of collapse, several elders on the spot felt their dao hearts shatter all over again.
This, this was even harder to accept than Xie Chen being the Demon Sovereign.
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Once a chosen one of heavenChapter 2 · Why didn’t you crawl in the shadows?!Chapter 3 · They would rather fight each otherChapter 4 · I’ll do a handstand and run naked three times!Chapter 5 · So what if I’m showing off!Chapter 6 · If you look again, I’ll gouge your eyes out!Chapter 7 · The young couple is fighting again.Chapter 8 · I’m back at the Jinchan SectChapter 9 · Sour, sourChapter 10 · To seize credit for someone’s workChapter 11 · The Golden Toad Sect has come to our aid to annihilate the Demon LordChapter 12 · Sect Leader’s HusbandChapter 13 · The stone, fox, tree, and scarecrow are named XuanlinChapter 14 · My junior and I have had sweet moments in private!Chapter 15 · The truth behind their first falling out back thenChapter 16 · Hate lasts longer than loveChapter 17 · Xie Chen was actually the Demon LordChapter 18 · Slaying the Demon LordChapter 19 · From resistance to enjoymentChapter 20 · Xiao Xie’s perspective begins!Chapter 21 · Only because it was Yin XuanlinChapter 22 · Xie Chen was not a foolChapter 23 · The End