TIC Chapter 67: Bewitching Demon

The sun slowly rose higher.

Lin Fuqing lifted his robe and sat on the ground. Holding the small stone he’d picked up from somewhere, he began drawing runes on the sand on the river bank.

After the thirteenth attempt, he finally rubbed his brows and sighed in annoyance to the gurgling sound of the river.

He wanted to break the Life-Bearing Soul Array.

What a pity that it was a high-level magic formation with the name of “Serving life until death.” Even with his talent, it would take at least ten days to half a month to break it.

He gritted his teeth and threw the stone away.

He really didn’t know where Fang Zhiyuan learned this technique, but it actually looked like his master’s…

The purple bird that had just been released lay on the ground with its body drooping, staring at him with complicated eyes. It had stopped chirping.

Lin Fuqing raised the corner of his eye slightly. “Why are you staring at me? The Holy Son flew out to save the evil star on his own, I didn’t force you to do that.”

It would have been fine if the Demon Lord hadn’t mentioned it, but once he did, Ziwei felt so disheartened that he buried his little head under his wings.

Yes, why did he fly out to save them.

The Life-Bearing Soul Array was on Fang Zhiyuan, and so he would have absorbed all the damages from the explosion. If the evil star died, wouldn’t that be the perfect fulfillment of his original intention?

But he got carried away at the time, and when he came to his senses, he was already standing behind the two of them.

Ji Na thought in despair: Ah, his heart for the Tao has become corrupted.

Lin Fuqing stretched lazily and laughed brightly, “So, Holy Son, do you also think that my little star of misfortune is such a good star and you don’t want him to die?”

Ji Na: “………………”

At this moment, the Holy Son felt thankful for the first time that he was in the ridiculous body of a little bird. At least it could help him avoid the Demon Lord’s half-smiled questioning…

Ji Na looked up at Lin Fuqing, tilted his head, and said, “Ji?”

Playing dumb, perfect.

Lin Fuqing poked its belly with his fingertip and said through his soul, “Stop whining, Holy Son. Tell me, what’s going on outside the Golden Osmanthus Palace?”

A moment of silence passed through his mind, and then Ji Na’s deliberately cold voice came: “…I sent a message to the Thunder Sky Immortal Leader yesterday, saying that the star chart indicated a bad omen and asking him to check the situation in the smaller fantasy realms. The Immortal Leader should have discovered it by now.”

Lin Fuqing nodded and thought to himself: Zhiyuan and I are both trapped here, and with a little demon child in tow, Lu Kuifu must be worried to death right now.

Ji Na said coldly, “Devil, don’t be too happy too soon. I used the Ziwei Pavilion’s star array yesterday. It’s impossible for the evil star not to notice something is wrong. When he knows that you imprisoned my soul…”

Lin Fuqing said, “Why? Do you still think he really knows nothing? Zhiyuan is very perceptive, he must have guessed it a long time ago.”

The Demon Lord licked his lips thoughtfully, “It’s just… he loves me. He never asks about my affairs.”

Ziwei: “………………”

Little Ziwei became silent again.

Lin Fuqing raised his eyes and vaguely saw Fang Zhiyuan sitting cross-legged through a layer of light pink mist.

Several bewitching demons crowded around him, slowly exhaling new streams of fragrant mist.

Zhiyuan had been in the illusion for a while. What was he seeing now? Was he being devoured by the negative energy?

Lin Fuqing moved his fingers, and a thread condensed from spiritual energy appeared, stretching from between his fingers to the depths of the mist of the dewitching demons, and then circled around Fang Zhiyuan’s right wrist.

He closed his eyes and carefully counted the pulse flow coming along the silk thread, and felt that it was about enough.

The bewitching demons were indeed magical. In less than an hour, Fang Zhiyuan’s injuries had almost recovered.

Lin Fuqing stood up, put the little bird into his sleeve, and walked towards the place where the dewitching demons were

This was a clever trick, and it was also the solution they finally came up with.

Fang Zhiyuan entered the illusion, while he guarded outside

When the time comes, Lin Fuqing would use his soul to penetrate into Fang Zhiyuan’s sea of ​​consciousness and enter the illusion to look for him.

Since Fang Zhiyuan had determined that his inner demon was Lin Fuqing, it was actually easier to deal with.

Anyway, Lin Fuqing knew all about the trivial things in his previous life and believed that he would not be trapped. If Fang Zhiyuan really fell into the illusion and lost himself, he could still go in and pull him out.

But before that…

Lin Fuqing stopped, the enchanting aroma lingering before him. He slightly bent his slender jade-like fingers and fanned them over.

The Demon Lord tilted his head back, half-closed his eyes, and inhaled a wisp of fragrant mist.

…He admitted that the tone in Fang Zhiyuan’s last sentence really irritated him.

He would rather know that Fang Zhiyuan was really aggrieved and dissatisfied, even if it only showed a little bit of resentment, than to say so naturally, “Your inner demon is not me.”

That would be better than accepting this unequal relationship without complaint.

His consciousness gradually became blurred, and Lin Fuqing sat down swaying.

He really wanted to take a look at his inner demons and what they would be like without Fang Zhiyuan.

=========

At the bottom of the illusion, he passed through the past memories and saw a shadowy figure.

The faint light of dawn rose from before his eyes, illuminating the eaves and brackets in the hall, and even the patterns of scorching sun and golden osmanthus carved on the eight huge white jade pillars were clearly visible.

The faces of the dozens of immortals in front of him were illuminated by the light, but it did not bring any warmth.

Each of their faces was filled with an emotion about to explode: panic, anger, and, more importantly, an unconcealed sense of helplessness and weakness. Their faces darkened as they gathered together, looking from afar like a group of evil spirits eager to devour anyone they chose.

“——That’s what Lin Fuqing said three years ago! He said that a yin qi disaster would pour down from the west of Liuhua Continent, and as long as we hold on to the northwest, we’ll be safe!”

Lin Fuqing’s body was icy cold. A sharp buzzing sound filled his ears, mixed with the angry and panicked shouts of many people. Someone shouted, his face grim and furious, “What now?!”

“For the past three years, the immortals have emptied their fortunes to build spiritual towers and set up defenses on the northwest sky clouds, all with the sole purpose of protecting the immortal world! Now, half the sky has cracked! The immortal world is doomed!”

Another person shook his head angrily and said, “Alas… How could the Ziwei Pavilion’s divination be so wrong this time!”

Inside the spacious hall, all the immortals from various sects gathered. Lin Fuqing, the former celestial being, half-crouched before the central table, the only one sitting.

Compared with these cultivators who were dozens or even hundreds of years older than them, the young man in white looked so thin and pale. There was a dying gray color on his lips, and his whole body was trembling slightly.

“What nonsense!”

A roar of curses erupted from the crowd of immortals. An old man wrapped in a loose purple robe raged, “Our pavilion’s Ziyan Star Chart has never made a mistake. You all know the late Holy Son’s talent! Now that it’s in this predicament, I’m afraid someone deliberately misrepresented the hexagram…”

“—— Immortal Lord Lin, you have to give me a straight answer. What exactly happened on the Mountain, Sea and Star Terrace back then?!”

Lin Fuqing tried hard to open his eyes, but his eyelids were as heavy as if filled with lead. They kept rising and falling, and his vision was filled with dark stars and black mist.

Through this blurred vision, he could vaguely see the sky outside the window.

The vast sky was torn in two by a hideous, enormous rift, from which dark, malevolent energy surged and rolled like a dragon, its cold and resentful aura flowing endlessly outwards.

The four continents of the mortal realm and the five continents of the immortal realm became mere pebbles of earth shrouded in the shadow of death; the creatures that cried out in fear on the land of the Nine Provinces became tiny insects that wandered aimlessly under the clouds of despair.

This was so different from what Jina had shown him.

Zi Yan’s prediction was wrong…

“Everyone, be quiet! What’s the point of making such a fuss? The sky is already cracking with yin qi above us. What’s the point of making such a fuss?!”

“Immortal Lord Lin, please don’t listen to those people’s nonsense and suspicions. All the immortals believe in you. Tell me what other solutions you have…”

Lin Fuqing opened his mouth but could only shake his head silently.

In fact, from the moment he saw the sky crack with his own eyes last night, Lin Fuqing vaguely realized that it was not going to work.

But he still worked tirelessly all night long to deduce, arranging ninety-nine kinds of formations to the extreme, until he was exhausted, but he still couldn’t find a way to resist the yin qi.

There was no other way.

Under the laws of Heavens, all living beings were but ants. But now that the laws of Heavens were about to split asunder, what could the people living under the heavens do?

A woman’s voice mocked rudely, “Ridiculous, what can he do? Look at him, does he look like he has any ideas?”

Lin Fuqing closed his eyes, feeling a splitting headache and an increasing dizziness. He struggled to speak with his pale lips, “Don’t…”

He wanted to say, stop arguing.

His throat felt like it was being scraped by a knife, set aflame, and he couldn’t make a sound. 

He struggled to maintain consciousness. He felt as if the moment he released the breath he had been holding in his chest, he would faint.

He couldn’t even remember whether he was pushed here this morning or simply dragged here.

When disaster strikes, there are always some people who go crazy out of fear.

Another gentle male voice roared in anger, “Shut up! When Lin Fuqing was entrusted with the care of the Holy Son, he was only nineteen years old! You, all of you, and you—each of you is a great master of the sect, hundreds of years old. Now, faced with disaster, you have nothing to do but blame and oppress a child. Don’t you feel ashamed?”

Another man with a muffled voice answered, “We’re not blaming him! But if we don’t clarify things now, what will the other immortal sects do in the future? Who will they listen to? In short, if Lin Fuqing can’t accomplish anything, he must leave this position!”

Lin Fuqing was already groggy and his head felt like it was being split in two. He even had difficulty breathing.

He felt sick, his body alternating between hot and cold, shivering weakly. He struggled to open his eyes, but all he saw was the dawn light, a hazy mass of white.

He didn’t know how long he would have to suffer in this chaos, and he couldn’t imagine what kind of darkness would be after the chaos ended.

The Immortal Realm was about to be in chaos, the Immortal Realm was already in chaos…

–Bang!

Lin Fuqing suddenly woke up. Someone suddenly slammed their hands on the table in front of him. It was the original elder of Ziwei Pavilion.

“Lin Fuqing!”

The white-haired old man hunched his shoulders. He was still preoccupied with preserving the sanctity and dignity of the Ziwei Pavilion. His saliva flew across his face. “Today, I must ask you a question. Three years ago at the Mountain, Sea and Stars Terrace, the hexagram you spread throughout the world on behalf of the Holy Son… was it true?”

Lin Fuqing raised his eyes, trying to hold on to his shaky consciousness, and said hoarsely, “…It’s true.”

The elder refused to give in. “Absolutely not! You really haven’t concealed a single thing? Do you dare to go with me to the Palace of Illusion and Reality and have your spirit examined in the Mirror of Truth?”

Lin Fuqing was silent.

He half-closed his eyes and looked at the old man in front of him with a distracted gaze. The old man had white hair, a youthful face and bright clothes.

Thinking back to the skinny and dying little boy, a cold fire of disgust suddenly rose up in his already despairing heart.

Lin Fuqing lowered his eyelashes, pressed his chest inconspicuously with trembling fingers, and slowly took two breaths.

In the next moment.

There was a loud crash! Without any warning, Lin Fuqing suddenly stood up and kicked over the table, scattering the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone all over the floor.

The elder was so shocked that he stumbled back two steps and fell on his behind. He pointed at Lin Fuqing and said, “You, you, you…!”

Lin Fuqing half closed his eyes.

A faint light fell on his long, black eyelashes.

He was originally sitting there peacefully, the morning light pouring down from the rosewood window lattice, illuminating the young immortal’s snow-white fur coat.

But when he slowly straightened up, he was out of the light. Shadows gradually enveloped Lin Fuqing’s eyebrows and eyes, as if the claws of darkness were swallowing up the light inch by inch.

Lin Fuqing’s eyes were icy black as he opened them, and words spitted out from between his teeth: “…Fuqing is grateful to the Holy Son Ji for his appreciation and entrusting me with his mission. This is a debt of gratitude that I will never forget. I dare not conceal a single detail from you about the divination that occurred back then.”

Under the astonished gazes of the immortal lords, he extended his slender wrist forward and said, “If the elders want to capture me and take me to the Palace of Reality and Illusion to examine my spirit, then fine, I’m right here. Please do as you please.”

The Ziwei elder did not expect Lin Fuqing to suddenly become so emotional. He was shocked and frightened, stammering and unable to move.

Lin Fuqing took another step forward. “Come.”

No one could tell that his vision had become so blurry that he could barely see anything. He only find the elder’s location by relying on his memory.

“You don’t dare?” Lin Fuqing shook his wrist and smiled grimly, “Whoever doesn’t dare is a coward. Come on.”

Now all the immortals were in chaos, and someone came to persuade them, “Oh, forget it…”

“Little Immortal Lord, calm down. It’s not worth it. Calm down…”

Some people also scolded the elder, saying, “What nonsense are you talking about, old man! Watch your mouth!”

For a short moment, Lin Fuqing just let the surging crowd push him. After he slowly caught his breath, his vision became much clearer, and his body felt lighter.

Lin Fuqing thought to himself: How strange.

Just before the elder of Ziwei Pavilion rushed over to interrogate him, he felt that he could not go on any longer and was about to collapse.

But now, he could actually step down the jade steps one by one and walk gracefully among the immortals in a white robe.

Lin Fuqing glanced at everyone one by one, among whom were those who blamed him, those who were suspicious of him, those who pitied him, and those who trusted him.

These faces are all under the light of dawn, but the long night of the immortal world was about to come.

He said quietly, “Man has done his best, but fate will not allow it. Lin Fuqing was unable to turn the tide, and I feel ashamed to face you all.”

It was the cold fire just now that was burning in his heart, burning through his lungs, but also supporting his spine to be straight and his eyes to be bright enough to be breathtaking.

It was the elder of Ziwei Pavilion who made him understand that there was only one thing he could do at this moment.

“Now we are facing a great disaster, a calamity of the immortal realm.”

It was not the misfortune of one person alone.

“Naturally, all beings in the immortal realm should share this responsibility.”

Fang Zhiyuan shouldn’t be the only one who suffered the pain of slowly being cut and the torment of purgatory, with his body torn into pieces and his soul scattered.

“Ever since the night of the celestial fire at the Mountain, Sea, and Stars Terrace, I have been adhering to the Holy Son’s will and have not dared to harbor any selfish motives.”

Lin Fuqing spoke in a light tone as he walked through the crowd of immortals and headed towards the gate.

The white light of dawn shone on his beautiful but pale face, and dozens of people followed his thin but upright back with complicated gazes.

In fact, judging from Lin Fuqing’s age alone, most people present could regard him as a child.

But even such a young man, whenever he speaks quietly, had a power that made people forget his age.

Just like this moment.

Lin Fuqing swallowed the blood and bitterness boiling in his throat, closed his eyes and opened them again, his expression calm.

“For three whole years, I’ve been away from my sect and hadn’t set foot outside Liuhua Continent. I’ve been exhausted and haven’t had a single night of good sleep…I consider myself to be open and honest with the three realms.”

He finally…at the last moment, he used up his last bit of strength to make up for his original lie.

A chaotic voice came from behind him, and the questioning voices were drowned out. Most of them turned into words of comfort and gratitude to him.

No one would ever know that he was digging a grave, burying the truth of that year.

Lin Fuqing finally stepped out of the door, and the sunlight and breeze hit his face.

With unfocused eyes, he looked blankly at the thousand long steps extending beneath his feet, with the misty mountains and rivers in full view like a splendid painting.

He could see every lane and alley in Liuhua Continent, small but exquisitely spread out on the ground.

There were cultivators looking up at the sky anxiously, small vendors shouting hard, children running hand in hand and mothers calling them gently from behind.

This would all soon be destroyed.

But the most ridiculous thing was that although he was in great pain, when Fang Zhiyuan’s handsome and unrestrained eyes appeared in his mind, he could not find the regret he should have.

Lin Fuqing thought to himself: As expected, he is just a selfish mortal, and is ultimately not suitable to be a savior.

The fortune his master had calculated for him back then was wrong, just like Zi Yan’s.

Behind him was the Golden Osmanthus Palace’s meeting hall, and in front of him was the vast mountains and rivers of the Immortal Realm. Lin Fuqing suddenly shook and fell forward.

Kneeling on the ground, he lifted up his clothes and knelt down heavily.

Everyone exclaimed:

“Immortal Lord Lin, what are you doing?!”

“This, this…Oh no.”

“You’ve tried your best, why do this…”

Lin Fuqing pretended not to hear and said in a trembling voice, “…Now that things have come to this, I’ve done all I can. The Immortal Realm will be in chaos from now on. How many lives can be saved depends entirely on the shoulders of each of us.”

“I sincerely hope that all of you immortals will not be afraid of the coming calamity, and will not lose your sense of benevolence and righteousness. The cold night is approaching… Take care of yourself.”

He bowed his head deeply.

It hit the jade tile floor with a crisp sound.

This kowtow was an apology to heaven and earth.

He caused chaos in the three realms with his evil thoughts and devilish heart.

=========

In the smaller fantasy realm, a tear fell from beneath Lin Fuqing’s wet eyelashes, leaving a faint trace of water on his cheeks.

He sighed softly in his heart: Zhiyuan, you see…I still love you very much, don’t I?

My inner demon is not you, but the inner demon that traps me, the shadow that imprisons me, the sin that I can not escape from in my life…are all because of you.

At least, this makes me worthy of your warm feelings, right?

“Chi?”

The little purple bird poked his head out from Lin Fuqing’s sleeve, tilting his head.

He looked at the Demon Lord as he closed his eyes and shed silent tears, and had no idea what illusion he saw or what inner demon he encountered.

It just felt strange. Lin Fuqing had only inhaled a little bit of the fragrance, so he shouldn’t have lost his mind.

So why was he crying?

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