NEBM Chapter 68.1: Searching

Yan Jin was an extremely tough person.

When he was a child, no matter the number of times and ways he’d been bullied, no matter how alone or frightened he’d felt when he woke up and found himself face to face with countless demons and monsters, he never once collapsed.

But, everything fell apart when Song Ming laid at his feet in a pool of blood and told him the truth.

At that time, Qingyun Sect had already been squandered by Song Ming into an empty shell, allowing Yan Jin to destroy the entire sect with barely any efforts. In the end, the last one dying and struggling at his feet was Song Ming.

Song Ming felt Yan Jin’s killing intent, and he couldn’t help but shiver. Blood oozed out of his wounds. He looked both pitiful and ridiculous in his helplessness and in his inability to escape.Therefore, he could only cower vulnerably in front of Yan Jin.

But, he was not reconciled.

He looked at Yan Jin. Fear, pain, hatred, and unwillingness intermixed inside him, making his expression look extremely malevolent. He smiled strangely, but this smile revealed a hint of taunting. He let out a bloody cough, which splatter to the ground as he rasped, “Yan Jin, do you remember who you killed?”

Yan Jin didn’t answer. He gazed intently at Song Yan, his eyes full of condescension, as if he was looking at a worthless ant. Aside from that, there were no emotions at all in those red eyes.

After becoming a devil cultivator, Yan Jin’s hands were stained with too much blood. There were demons and devils and fiends. And there were immortal cultivators. He’d killed countless things. If there’s anyone he ought to remember, it should be…

His master.

The one who’d directly caused him to be this way.

The master who’d severed his spirit root and ruined all his hopes.

—No, that person was not worthy of being his master! His master shouldn’t be like this!

Yan Jin’s eyes deepened. When he was brought back by Song Ming from the edge of the wasteland, Yan Jin was infected by too much devil qi. For a long time, his memories were chaotic and full of holes. It wasn’t until later, when he became a devil cultivator, that he gradually recovered his memory and remembered that person who’d embraced and protected him.

Sui Xian.

Where did he go? Why did he disappear?

Yan Jin had searched for so long in so many places and asked so many people, but he still couldn’t find him anywhere. Where did he go?

The last time he saw Sui Xian was in the wasteland so, if he lived in the wasteland, maybe one day he’ll be able to see Sui Xian again.

“I’m afraid you don’t know that Shen Zhixian once put on a disguise and went out to gain practical experience. When he came back, his life was gone—Oh, it can’t be counted as being dead. After all, a half-devil only seized his body. At any rate, it allowed him to live a few more years.”

“There was some news that you’ve been looking for someone in recent years. You didn’t realize the connection between Sui Xian and Shen Zhixian. Hahaha—“

A sword ray flashed. Song Ming issued a sharp scream. He covered his shoulder that was dripping blood with one hand and rolled on the ground in pain. His severed arm landed nearby and was eaten by a cloud of black qi until only the bones remained.

Yan Jin’s eyes nearly dripped with blood. He held his sword so tightly that his hand was shaking. A cold, killing intent rose from within him, nearly breaking Song Ming into icy shards. “What did you say?”

“Hahahaha…” Song Ming’s wounds continued to bleed unceasingly. He knew he was going to die anyway and no longer cared. He merely held his wounds and laughed delightedly at his revenge. “Yan Jin, you’ve become a devil. You’re so powerful. But you didn’t know that when you killed Shen Zhixian, you killed Sui Xian. Hahahaha—“

The malicious laughter came to an abrupt halt. Song Ming didn’t even see Yan Jin’s sword coming. He just felt that his entire body had become light and tetherless, as if he was suddenly floating on a cloud in the sky. A gust of wind blew and his consciousness scattered like dust.

Yan Jin had the lives of countless masters and cultivators on his hands. Song Ming’s final end was nothing more than another death.

But, his words seemed to hide a point of truth and it pierced a small hole in Yan Jin’s walls.

“You’re going to kill me? You’ll regret it…”

“You’re killing him… You’re going to kill him…”

Shen Zhixian’s words before his death suddenly intruded into Yan Jin’s mind. His pupils suddenly dilated. His entire body felt as if it’d fallen in an icy hell, and every breath became saturated with pain and despair.

Yan Jin went mad.

Qingyun Sect was already in ruins. In that desolate place, Yan Jin continued to dig through the soil with his bare hands, desperate to uncover the place that was originally the Forbidden Room. He didn’t even look at the sword next to him and continued to scrape away the gravel and mud with shaking, bleeding hands. He dug under the broken stone and, with great efforts, finally found a piece of clothing.

The clothing was torn and soaked in blood. Because the blood had been there for a long time, the whole piece of clothing was dry and hard, so brittle that it seemed as if just a little bit of force would crumble it into ashes.

Yan Jin knelt within the ruins and held the piece of clothing that still faintly carried Shen Zhixian’s breath. In a daze, he looked at it for a long time. Sweetness rushed up his throat and he vomited a mouthful of blood, which ended up spraying on to the cloth.

It was unknown how that fragile piece of clothing could withstand a mouthful of blood from the devil lord. But as Yan Jin’s blood silently soaked into the cloth, a few drops of blood slid between his fingers, as if not wanting to leave behind a single remaining breath for him.

….

The devil Yan Jin, who came from the wasteland, was madly raging at the entire cultivation world. He seemed to have completely lost his mind. Regardless of whether it was demons, fiends, or immortal cultivators from various sects, as long as they had the misfortune to appear in front of Yan Jin, they would all become ghosts under his sword.

For a while, the cultivation world was chaotic. While cultivators struggled to kill various demons that had escaped from the wasteland, they also had to be vigilant in case Yan Jin would suddenly appear and make their lives even more miserable.

The cultivation realm finally ushered in a second calamity. The first calamity was the riots of countless demons and fiends thousands of years ago. At that time, there were several powerful cultivators who drove the demons into the wasteland. However, the current cultivation realm was stable for far too long and there was no one powerful enough to suppress Yan Jin.

This situation lasted for nearly a year, dragging the entire cultivation realm to the brink of extinction.

Until, with painstaking efforts, Yan Jin finally found the Undead City.

It was rumored that there was a Soul Tracing Grass in the Undead City. This grass could turn back time and cultivate the soul.

This was Yan Jin’s last hope.

This wretched man was very carefully nurturing a lamp that burned all day and all night. The lamp had no candle; there was only a broken bone wrapped in a ray of light. That light displayed a faint image.

It was just that the image was very weak and fragile, as if it would dissipate with the wind at any moment.

“Sui Xian, don’t be afraid. I’ve finally found it… I will bring you back,” the man murmured, his voice thick with desperation.

The Undead City’s original’s intent was to bolster the wasteland’s restriction seal. After the restriction seal had shattered, this mysterious Undead City was also quietly hidden away by its owner. Therefore, it was extremely difficult for Yan Jin to find it.

The Soul Tracing Grass was crucial to the existence of the Undead City. But, Si Fei’s thoughts were unknown. Instead of fighting, he simply surrendered the Soul Tracing Grass.

After Yan Jin left, a cluster of Wanggui flowers blossomed around Si Fei. He covered his mouth and coughed a few times, until blood stained his hand.

He carelessly wiped the blood stain with a handkerchief and tossed it into the air, where it ignited in fire and burned down into ashes before dispersing in the wind.

The bald monk moved away from the shadows and looked anxiously at Si Fei. “Without the Soul Tracing Grass, how can you still suppress the Wanggui flowers?”

“Without Soul Tracing Grass, I wouldn’t be able to control it for long. It will probably weaken.” Si Fei added, “Did you hear what he just said?”

The bald monk was silent. The scene from earlier flashed before his eyes.

“Merely one person had died. Are you going to bury the whole world with him?” The youth in dark red stood within the field of flowers and asked calmly.

Yin Jin was more calm than the youth, but his calmness had a ruthless undertone. “Why not?”

The killing intent that exuded from Yan Jin’s body was terrifying. The bald monk shivered. “Calm down, calm down…”

He was silent for a long moment, then suddenly sighed. There was a trace of melancholic regret in his narrow eyes. “I have divined three big hexagrams in my life.”

The first hexagram was Yan Jin’s.

When the bald monk first met Yan Jin, he was only a newborn child. At that time, the bald monk was also younger and more impetuous and didn’t understand restraint. He happened to be passing by when he saw Little Yan Jin’s face. He even thought of a divination and left behind the words of “Calamitous Star.”

This hexagram ruined a newborn innocent child’s life.

The second hexagram was calculated for Sect Leader Wen.

He’d met Sect Leader Wen while out practicing, and they soon became close friends. When he came out, he calculated a hexagram for Sect Leader Wen, and the result was startling—It was a hexagram showing death.

He failed to conceal this hexagram from Sect Leader Wen, resulting in Sect Leader Wen being unable to escape the fate shown in the hexagram. In the dark quiet of night, the bald monk sometimes couldn’t help but think that if he didn’t calculate this hexagram, perhaps Sect Leader Wen would not deliver the position of sect leader to his disciple so frankly and ignore himself. He wouldn’t have fulfilled his fate and died such a terrible death.

This hexagram killed his only best friend.

“The third hexagram …” The bald monk sighed heavily. “Should never be wrong. When Yan Jin became a devil, I calculated another hexagram for him.”

When the third hexagram was calculated, he cast Yan Jin into trouble. This life that will endanger the world needed to be extinguished. His original intention was to let cultivators join forces to suppress Yan Jin and the wasteland demons. But who would ever thought that the natural born devil would be so powerful? Countless cultivators were killed by Yan Jin with no restraint.

With this hexagram, he destroyed the entire cultivation realm.

—No, maybe there was a way.

The bald monk took a deep breath and brought out from his sleeves the idle birth weapon that had laid unused for a long time. A stack of thick destiny paper.