Inner Demons

Chapter 206: What Kind of Great Demon?

"Then you speak," he said, still not turning, but also unable to walk away.

Lady Hong, however, stepped on the chaos beneath her feet and gracefully walked to face him. She ran a finger over Li Yunxin's chest and said, "Young Master Li, think again. Young Master Nine lived in the Wei River for a thousand years, so how could Bai Yunxin not know? But why did he flee just a few days ago—fearing that Bai Yunxin would come after him?"

This question had been in Li Yunxin's mind all along.

When he first met Young Master Nine in the ruined temple on a rainy night, he seemed to be hiding from someone. He used the temple's incense table to make a fire and roast the limbs of a Lingxu Sword Sect Taoist priest. Halfway through eating, he heard a sound from the sky and fled in a panic. He later realized that at that time, he must have been hiding from Bai Yunxin.

Before, Li Yunxin thought that Bai Yunxin didn't devour Young Master Nine because both had powerful backers—Young Master Nine was the son of the True Dragon, and Bai Yunxin was the adopted daughter of the Golden-Winged Great Peng. The True Dragon was the lord of all demons in the world, and the Golden Peng was the lord of all feathered creatures. But later, he learned that at least "it seemed" that Young Master Nine was not "in a favorable position"—his status before the True Dragon was far from comparable to Bai Yunxin's.

And neither of them seemed like the kind of people who would play a game of cat and mouse.

"So, something happened during that time. And those things are related to my future in Dongting?"

"Precisely. Young Master Li is so intelligent." Lady Hong smiled and said, "The world says that the Golden-Winged Great Peng King loves to eat dragons. But how many dragons are there in this world? One True Dragon and nine Dragon's Sons—where would he get so many to eat? But this kind of thing can't be a rumor. If it were, how could the True Dragon, as the lord of all demons, allow such a rumor to circulate? So..."

"—It's this Vicious Flood Dragon?" Li Yunxin sighed softly. "So the legend of the Golden-Winged Great Peng eating dragons actually refers to this Vicious Flood Dragon?"

"Exactly. Bai Yunxin's claim of traveling the world is actually just her looking for food for her adopted father. That Young Master Nine was the one who handled the giao, and I, in the past, was the one who handled the giao with Young Master Nine. Young Master Li can think about it, where did the flesh and blood of the thousands of skeletons in this lake go? If they were allowed to rot away, would this Dongting still be livable?"This truth was a bit shocking. Eating the flesh and blood of the Vicious Flood Dragon was not shocking. It was just that—

"This Vicious Flood Dragon was born from a part of the True Dragon's Spiritual Soul leaking out and contaminating the aquatic creatures at the bottom of the lake." Li Yunxin felt that things were unusual. "In other words, although it's not a real Dragon Clan, it still has the word 'dragon' in its name. If the True Dragon knew that the Golden-Winged Great Peng was eating this stuff... unless he's a coward, why wouldn't he be angry?"

"But your father—"

"Lord Father said it was with the True Dragon Head's permission. Young Master Nine didn't know about this and thought I was hiding it from my Lord Father. But in reality, he knew everything. What are you worried about, Young Master Li?" Lady Hong's eyes darted around, as if to comfort him. "You don't have to worry. My father said it was probably because the True Dragon suffered a calamity and his strength was greatly damaged, so he used this method to win over the Peng King and intimidate the other demons. Bai Yunxin's pursuit of Young Master Nine was because this year's Vicious Flood Dragon was born a bit late. The Golden Peng was impatient, and so was Bai Yunxin. She said she would simply capture Young Master Nine and send him to her adopted father... I'm not very clear about the specifics, but... Young Master Li, now that this Dongting is sealed, there's no flood dragon meat to send to Bai Yunxin. Have you thought of a solution, Young Master Li?"

By this point, Li Yunxin had no idea what the Lord of Dongting was to him.

Young Master Nine claimed to be his friend, but Li Yunxin only wanted to get rid of him—he didn't want a friend who could take his life at any time.

He could also speak politely to Kun Wuzi, but that was just a pretense due to the circumstances. Once the conditions were right, he wouldn't even blink when he got rid of Kun Wuzi.

Only this Lord of Dongting...

Li Yunxin truly didn't know what kind of being this three-thousand-year-old great demon was.

—Every time he thought the Lord of Dongting was going to harm him, he would gain something from him. And every time he thought he could be a friend... or at least not an enemy, he would be schemed against once.

Now that he was trapped in this Dongting and knew all these things, he completely failed to understand the old demon's intentions.

If what the Lord of Dongting said was not a lie, it meant that his "bloodline" was more noble than anyone else's in this world.

The emperors and royalty of the mortal world had noble bloodlines, but more than one country's royalty would worship the Two Saints—and only their portraits at that. An emperor with millions of subjects couldn't even get a glimpse of the Two Saints' true appearance in their lifetime. Qing Kingdom was not a small country, but when Lingkongzi went to Jinghua, he could still receive the emperor's courtesy.

This was not only because the cultivators had incredible power, but also because the Daoist Orthodoxy and the Sword Sect had the power to control the world.

And now, the Lord of Dongting told him that the Book Saint and the Sword Saint had a son when they were young and never had another.

That son entered the mortal world and multiplied.

Then, the Ancient Wei State was established more than two thousand years ago, and its branches and leaves spread.

After that, the State of Wei was destroyed, and only one branch of the Shangguan family remained.

In fact, since a long, long time ago, the Two Saints probably no longer cared about the so-called "kinship." One, two, three, or four generations, or maybe more, might still be in their hearts.

However, after thousands of years... such a blood relationship seemed to have no meaning for anyone. The Shangguan family had been royalty for hundreds of years, and besides the direct lineage, they must have left countless descendants in the world. If it was just "descendants of the Two Saints" who were related by blood... the number of people in this world would probably be in the millions.

But Li Yunxin's mother, Shangguan Yue, returned to the Daoist Orthodoxy after nearly three thousand years—this was what cultivators often called "causal relationship."

Because of this causal relationship, the thin bloodline of the Two Saints on her body finally had real significance. And when it came to Li Yunxin... it also had meaning.

The Lord of Dongting, because of the kindness of the Sword Saint's guidance before he became a Saint, helped the Shangguan family establish the Ancient Wei State. But Li Yunxin didn't quite believe that after two thousand seven hundred years, this great demon suddenly remembered that relationship and decided to help him again.

His mother, Shangguan Yue, "ran away" with the "Painting Saint's remnant" and the Lucid Jade Slip, living in seclusion for more than ten years, safe and sound. But now, suddenly, some small fries from the Mutual Aid Society and the Lingxu Sword Sect came to cause trouble...

With these things mixed together, Li Yunxin realized that he seemed to have fallen into a huge vortex. At the very least, it was no longer the "country boy in crisis struggling to survive" kind of plot.

He sighed slightly in his heart—this was how the real world should be.

To survive such a dangerous experience, there must be other people helping or restraining him.

For example, when he first came to Weicheng, someone did something to Head Constable Yin. Head Constable Yin sent people to investigate his past, and he didn't care. Because it would take more than a day to find out the truth, and by then, he would have already finished what he needed to do. But he didn't expect that a veteran like Head Constable Yin would quickly come to a concrete conclusion—even finding out where he lived.

Naturally, it was incorrect information.

This meant that someone was helping him.

Therefore, Li Yunxin deliberately or unintentionally left some flaws or room for maneuver in everything he did afterward, so that the forces hidden in the dark would have a chance to get involved. But the problem was... they seemed to have just disappeared.

Now, Lady Hong asked him again "what to do"—

Li Yunxin was silent for a long time. It wasn't intentional, but he really didn't know... what to do.

Too many fragments of information, too many clues. Because there were so many, he was at a loss—it was like he was back in the days when he first came to Weicheng.

He sighed, "There's no way. First, help me find Lingkongzi."

—This was a key figure he had overlooked.

Liongkongzi had met the Two Saints before going down the mountain—that was not an ordinary thing. Li Yunxin didn't know his background before, and he thought that what the Two Saints told her were all the internal secrets of the Daoist Orthodoxy, and it was related to how to take the Lucid Jade Slip. But now he realized... it might also be related to himself.

It was at this moment that Lady Hong's face suddenly changed.

"Young Master Li, there's someone outside." She said in a low but serious voice, completely different from the enchanting Lady Hong just a moment ago. "They're fighting on the edge of Dongting and have triggered the Dongting's restrictions."

Without waiting for Li Yunxin to ask, Lady Hong already said, "Lord Father refined the Jianmu Tree into my body, and I can sense it. You can't leave me."

Li Yunxin sighed, "Alright. Let's go take a look."

He thought that the people fighting were probably "Yazi" and Kun Wuzi's clone. The Taoist priest from Langya Grotto-Heaven tracked Yazi here, and now the Lord of Dongting was not in charge, and he had a belly full of anger from being manipulated by him before, so it would be strange if he didn't find someone to vent his anger on.

But after sneaking a quarter of an hour at the bottom of the lake, he realized he was wrong when he reached the surface.

It was still night. Only two or three hours had passed since the Lord of Dongting took him to the bottom of the lake. The place where he emerged was in the center of Dongting. Looking around, all he could see was vast water vapor. He couldn't even see the small mountains or the horizon. The sky was bright with the moon and stars, as if they were in the middle of the sea.

—If you ignored the line of light on the east bank.

It was a "line" of light. The rest of the horizon was dark—the boundary between the water and the night sky was quite clear due to the clouds. But the section in the east was bright. The sky was also slightly yellow, as if the sunset was still hidden behind the distant mountains.

Li Yunxin only took one look and realized that the section, which looked only a finger's length from here, was actually more than a thousand meters long—a thousand-meter-long area on the east bank of Dongting was now ablaze with raging fire. He had witnessed this scene before when Lingkongzi and Bai Yunxin were fighting.

"Let's go take a look." He frowned and exhaled softly, saying only three words.

—Weicheng was also on the east bank of Dongting.

Lady Hong also didn't speak. She seemed to have not expected this scene either. With a wave of her hand, she summoned the White Jade Boat. Li Yunxin stepped onto the bow, and the magic treasure, driven by Spiritual Power, shot toward the east bank like an arrow from a bowstring. It was even faster than Li Yunxin's true form on the water!

In just a quarter of an hour, the outline of the east bank gradually became clear—it was indeed a huge fire that reached the sky!

Yesterday afternoon, Li Yunxin had brought down a heavy rain that soaked the surrounding land. In the evening, Kun Wuzi overturned Dongting, and the giant waves that splashed up destroyed the surrounding trees and buildings, making the land a muddy mess.

But on such a piece of land, a raging fire was now rising! The flames seemed to be burning the mud and water, soaring more than ten meters high out of thin air. When Li Yunxin and Lady Hong approached on the White Jade Boat, they felt a terrifying wall of fire coming at them, obscuring even the sky!

But the Dongting's restrictions had, after all, taken effect. At this moment, Li Yunxin could see its appearance—it was like a huge hood. An inverted semi-circular hood enclosed Dongting. The wall of fire was raging on the shore, but it could only burn against that invisible restriction. The heat could get through, but the flames could not.

Li Yunxin and Lady Hong looked at each other—realizing that this kind of momentum might not have been created by Yazi and Kun Wuzi. Yazi was not a fool; why would he fight Kun Wuzi's Spirit Soul Avatar head-on at this time?

But besides that...

"I wonder how Weicheng is." Li Yunxin looked at the wall of fire in front of him and sighed. "I have a few helpers and a friend outside. Now I'm trapped here, and they are—"

He didn't finish his sentence.

His and Lady Hong's White Jade Boat was knocked away!

An indescribable huge force suddenly descended. The last thing Li Yunxin saw was, in the overwhelming raging flames—the invisible Dongting barrier seemed to be hit hard by an unseen giant fist.

The force was so huge that the barrier, like a truly tangible thing, dented inward with a "tiny" arc. And this "tiny" was only relative to the entire Dongting restriction. But for Li Yunxin—

The flames from that bank came rushing over, stirring up a terrifying shock. The shock immediately sent the two unprepared people flying. Even the lake water was sent backward in giant waves more than ten meters high!

Lady Hong's figure disappeared in an instant—he didn't know where she was knocked to.

But Li Yunxin's vision, before being blocked by the waves, saw the last scene—

This impact did not seem to be aimed at him and Lady Hong.

He saw a huge figure—almost as tall as his true form—but it was a human figure's height, crashing into the Dongting's restriction. It seemed to have been knocked back by a terrifying blow and hit this barrier. But the impact was not just once. In that instant, when the figure touched the barrier, its movements were clumsy, and it hadn't had time to make an effective counterattack, at least hundreds of attacks came again!

The figure trembled due to the continuous bombardment, and this trembling formed a terrifying shockwave inside the barrier. In other words...

The aftermath of a fight between some unknown person and this giant figure—just the aftermath—directly sent him, a great demon of the True Realm, flying!

—What kind of great demon is he?

This was Li Yunxin's first thought at the time.