NEBM Chapter 62: The Middle

One after another, various memories tumbled like a tide through Shen Zhixian’s head, sweeping up the long-forgotten past. It made him muddle-headed, made him feel as if he’d come back to life.

In fact, that feeling was true.

As he dragged himself back from the memory of the illusion, he was distracted and despondent. After a long time, he suddenly pulled his sword and lashed out. The sword qi swept across a cluster of flowers, breaking numerous flowerheads and sending them scattering all over.

Shen Zhixian gasped for breath and gradually calmed down. From his mind emerged the thought of the “original owner.” Really, truly absurd.

He’d always thought that he was an outsider who’d transmigrated into a book. But, this turned out to be false!

He was the true person!

On the edge of that strange sea, Sect Leader Wen rescued him but also ended up taking away the half-devil soul that was attached to the bones.

At that time, he was seriously injured. He was struggling on the edge of death and had only a breath left. Halfway to Qingyun Sect, that half-devil seized his body.

Meanwhile, Frost Return’s sword spirit was affected by his master, and it was also greatly injured in battle with the wicked dragon. It fell into a deep sleep. And thus, the truth was hidden.

Working in concert with Fourth Elder, Sect Leader Wen tried his best and used countless elixirs before he was finally able to barely save the person. But, Sect Leader Wen wasn’t happy for long.

After the half-devil won his body, it was unable to fully integrate with Sui Xian’s memories. It only vaguely knew the little bit of recent memory but didn’t know much about Sui Xian’s past.

It was half-human and half-devil and had a very humble identity. It belonged to a miscellaneous class that was neither recognized by demons nor accepted by humans. The mind of these types of beings, who’d struggled as a bottomfeeder all their lives, was easily twisted.

In a moment of inattention, the half-devil’s body was swallowed by the wicked dragon. It only had a trace of residual soul left. It was unreconciled and unwilling to leave. After working so hard to claim such an excellent body, it was naturally unwilling to lose it.

In order not to expose itself to Sect Leader Wen and the others, the half-devil pretended that it was too seriously injured and had lost its memories. For a while, it was able to deceive everyone.

It was just that this body was Sui Xian’s. Sui Xian’s talent was not just due to his spirit root. The half-devil was just a mediocre half-devil. It barely managed to act as Sui Xian and so it wasn’t too surprising that Sect Leader Wen would perceive that something was wrong.

This was the first time Sect Leader Wen encountered such a situation. He was unable to thoroughly understand it. He wanted to probe the matter out, but the half-devil was wearing Sui Xian’s body and so he didn’t dare recklessly instigate it. Because of this, his hands were tied, and there was nothing he could do.

The half-devil was very excited at first. It had finally found a good body and would no longer be ashamed of its status. But, it soon turned out that, because of the wicked dragon’s claw, the body’s heart veins were too damaged. Even Sect Leader Wen and Fourth Elder could not heal it. This body could no longer grow in cultivation.

The half-devil was unwilling and tried multiple times, only to receive a backlash that resulted in a heart attack that nearly pushed it to its death. This body could no longer cultivate normally.

Someone else in the sect began to feel that something was wrong. In order not to alarm the half-devil, Sect Leader Wen could only blame the heart ailment.

Everyone knew that Sui Xian had great ability. After all, he was already appointed to become the next sect leader. This time, Sect Leader Wen took the opportunity to cancel this appointment, saying that Sui Xian had a heart ailment and could no longer assume the sect leader position.

Later, many things happened. As the current Shen Zhixian recovered his memory, he couldn’t help but feel confused and could only quickly captured the individual memories that trickled forth.

Soon after, Sect Leader Wen’s promotion failed, resulting in the qi deviation that led to his death. Song Ming became the Qingyun Sect Leader, even though he wasn’t Sect Leader Wen’s inheriting disciple and was only superficially addressed as senior brother by Shen Zhixian. In fact, he was just an ordinary disciple who’d somehow won Sect Leader Wen’s favor, resulting in his appointment as the next sect leader.

With Sect Leader Wen gone, the half-devil breathed a sigh of relief. There was no one to suppress it anymore. Over time, it became more irritable and hot-tempered. Its temperament turned cloudy and its behavior became more and more strange. As a result, everyone in the sect avoided it.

Then later, by chance, the half-devil met Little Yan Jin, which was 13 or 14 years old at the time.

It almost instantly recognized him and instinctively wanted to avoid him. But, it looked at Little Yan Jin. It saw that he was ignorant and that he was looking at it without any familiarity at all in his eyes. It hesitated.

Little Yan Jin only knew Sui Xian, who’d changed his appearance when he left the sect to gain experience, and so he didn’t recognize this Shen Zhixian from Qingyun Sect.

The half-devil probed him with one or two sentences when no one was around and was relieved to find that Little Yan Jin didn’t know what happened. Most of his memory was lost. Let alone what happened later, he could only vaguely remember this person named Sui Xian.

The half-devil remembered the words that the wicked dragon had said and remembered that Sui Xian had praised Little Yan Jin’s inner talent, intelligence, and outstanding spirit root. In that moment, hatred was born, and he accepted Little Yan Jin as a disciple without hesitation.

Sui Xian had originally said that he wanted to accept Little Yan Jin as a disciple and wholeheartedly wanted to teach him. But, now the body’s core had changed. The half-devil accepted Little Yan Jin as a disciple, if only to torture him to vent his unwillingness.

Little Yan Jin was a natural born demon. Although his spirit pellet was sealed, he still had a good spirit root. The half-devil didn’t teach him at all, leaving him to attend lecture and fumble around by himself.

After the half-devil took Little Yan Jin as a disciple, it didn’t bother venting on Little Yan Jin unless he didn’t appear in front of it. Until, one day, he heard a junior disciple whispering that Little Yan Jin was very talented, just like Shen Zhixian when he was thirteen.

The half-devil heard these words and resentment and unwillingness boiled in its heart. It was a half-devil whose status was humble and not worth mentioning, and its qualifications were even worse. It couldn’t make progress no matter how hard it worked. The more people talked, the deeper its hatred. Because of these praises, it decided that it mustn’t allow Little Yan Jin to advance any further. It began to intentionally make things difficult for Yan Jin.

Its actions became more and more ruthless.

Later, it used the discipline whip on Yan Jin and, even after severing Yan Jin’s spirit root, it wasn’t lenient at all.

This was what happened in the original book….or rather, what happened in his last life. This was the pain that Yan Jin had endured.

When Shen Zhixian thought of this, his eyes grew red with distress. He wished he could tear that half-devil to pieces. The hand gripping his sword trembled violently, gripping with so much force that blue tendons appeared on his fair skin. He stumbled to his feet and was about to go and find Yan Jin when a quiet sigh came from the side.

“The flowering period for Wanggui is short and lasted for only a few hours. This cluster has just bloomed and you’ve ruined it. It was innocent.”

Shen Zhixian turned his head. Standing not far away was a young man dressed in a dark-red robe with a jade ribbon in his hair. His face was like precious jewel. He looked over at Shen Zhixian with a smile and clasped his hands in greeting.

Shen Zhixian looked down at the Wanggui flower scattered around his feet and raised his eyes to look at the youth. He asked quietly, “—Undead City?”

The bald monk’s words rang in his ears, and he added: “Si Fei?”

Si Fei didn’t appear to be surprised. The wind bellowed his fiery sleeve as he raised his fingers. In a flash, a small Wanggui flower bloomed quietly from his fingertips. “Yes.”

The bald monk appeared to be familiar with Si Fie, and it was precisely the bald monk who’d lead them to this place before letting him fall here. Shen Zhixian’s mind turned sharply, and he asked, “Where’s the person with me?”

There was a trace of complexity in the youth’s eyes. But, the smile on his face didn’t falter. “When you came here, you were alone. What to do–Wait, let’s talk. Don’t draw your sword. These flowers are so beautiful. It would be a pity to ruin them, wouldn’t it?”

Shen Zhixian raised his sword and pointed it directly at the youth. He didn’t know if it was caused by the secret technique but, after he’d restored his memory, his cultivation level had leaped forward and allowed him to directly break through to the twelve tier. At this moment, his entire body was agitated, causing his sleeves to bellow. Shen Zhixian’s voice changed from mild to ice-cold. “Where is he?”

No matter if their actions to help restore his memory were done with good intentions or malicious intentions, he only wanted to quickly find Yan Jin.

Si Fei was silent for a moment. He turned his head to look at the flowers in the distance. He was still smiling but it’d obviously become a shade cooler. He said, “Shen Zhixian doesn’t know where this place is?”

“Thousands of years ago, demons grew unrestrained across the land. At that time, a group of immortal cultivators joined forces to drive countless demons into the wasteland in a concerted effort to suppress them. Then, they opened a sea here to separate the wasteland, casting a dark seal that prevented these demons from seeing the sky.”

Shen Zhixian reluctantly held back his anxiety and listened to his words for a moment.

These words…

Si Fei didn’t wait for him to respond, and continued: “After thousands of years, those immortal cultivators fell down one by one until there were hardly any left. As a result, the power of the restriction seal continued to weaken, and cracks gradually began to appear. Occasionally there would be a few little demons who were able to escape from these gaps.”

“Here lies the edge of the restriction seal.”

When Si Fei said this, Shen Zhixian’s grip tightened on his sword hilt. His immediate thought was to wonder, did he and Little Yan Jin somehow walked through one of the cracks and into the wasteland?

In those days, they were chased every day by demons and devils. In fact, it was precisely because they were being chased. Shen Zhixian didn’t have time to think about what direction he was heading. Coincidentally, he’d managed to break into the restriction seal by walking in between the cracks?

Shen Zhixian felt that something was strange about this, but now wasn’t the time to mull over this matter. He asked coldly, “What does that have to do with us? I’ll ask again, where is the person who was with me?”

Si Fei turned his gaze back and took a deep breath. With this breath, it was as if a difficult decision had been made. “He is in the wasteland.”

A gale suddenly rose from all directions. A single Wanggui flower broke off in the middle, the piece falling past the cold sword and grazed Si Fei’s neck. The youth remained motionless. His eyes drifted close.

“The seal of the wasteland will soon fall apart. Once the countless demons and monsters from within see the sun again, it will bring bad news for all living beings under the heavens. The natural born devil is rarely seen in thousands of years. As a natural born devil, only he could maintain the seal and keep the thousands of demons and monsters inside.”

Shen Zhixian was extremely angry and said hatefully, “Other people’s life are just other people’s life, not his! Where is the restriction seal?”

Si Fei said nothing and raised his hand. A Wanggui flower twined around his fingertips, bud half opened. His finger moved slightly and the stamen poured out a moon-white ray, which wrapped around Shen Zhixian’s wrist.

Shen Zhixian felt a cool sensation on his wrist. He only had enough time to see the smile on Si Fei’s face before the world turned upside down. The flowers and the youth suddenly disappeared. In front of Shen Zhixian’s eyes was a handful of soil. Growing on that soil was a very familiar-looking green grass bud.

A small wooden plaque was planted next to it. Shen Zhixian looked at the three powerful characters engraved on the plaque.

Soul Tracing Grass

Shen Zhixian stared blankly.

This grass looked exactly like Xiao Caoya. The number of leaves were exactly right. Even the twisted posture was exactly the same as Xiao Caoya!