“Let go.”
She said.
Danyia did not wish to let go, but it was evident this matter was not within his will. His arms were forcibly pried open by an invisible force, and his body was propelled tens of meters away with a surge.
However, before Danyia could feel the arrow-piercing pain spreading from the depths, a darkness veiled his vision. His sleeve rustled, and mist rose as a slender, jade-like hand pressed against his sternum, between his chest and above his abdominal muscles, an area softer and more sensitive than the rest.
“If it hurts, cry out.”
After leaving Danyia with words that accelerated his palpitating heart, her fingers, like steel drills, plunged straight into his abdomen. Instantly, five bloody holes bled black blood that snaked down his belly.
The physical trauma itself was bearable. But when these five fingers, sharp as ice picks and silent as they cut through iron, forcefully gripped that writhing mass of “black energy.”
That was when the real pain struck.
Yet, more unbearable than the pain perceived by his nerves was having to watch his upper abdomen’s smooth skin transform in an instant into something dark, withered, and rough like tree bark.
His inner cavity could vaguely sense that a hand had grabbed a multi-limbed, entangled “great worm.” Its limbs were as numerous as strands of flax, all pulsating streams of black “lines.”
The “lines” pierced the blood vessels in clusters, extending infinitely. Within a few breaths, all the blue veins exposed on his body turned a dark purple.
These were demonic marks, the invasion of demonic energy. It had intended to slowly devour Danyia’s spiritual body. But due to the disturbance of this terrifying capturing aura from the outside, it abandoned its sure-win approach and opted for a risky, rapid advance.
As the demonic energy surged, Danyia’s entire body became covered in demonic marks. Even his dark brown pupils gradually became ink-dyed, turning as deep as an abyss, and his lips turned as white as paper.
He let out a roar from his throat, mouth agape, teeth bared, a picture of unbearable pain.
Gu Junshi and the demonic energy were sparring, using Danyia’s body as their battlefield. It invaded, she stripped it away. Each stripping was like flaying his skin. For a spiritual body, demonic energy was like bone-corroding poison, greedily and boundlessly siphoning his spiritual power and vitality.
His plump, tender young skin gradually lost moisture and withered, becoming a thin membrane draped over bone and flesh. Danyia’s eyeballs were bloodshot; he had no idea what a ghastly sight he had become…
The situation was proving a bit more troublesome than Gu Junshi had anticipated.
Seeing Danyia’s condition worsen, she said, “Your body… carries the aura of demonic descent. Therefore, once demonic energy invades, it takes root more firmly and spreads faster than in ordinary people.”
In other words, his constitution had been infected. He was prone to demonic corruption, possessing a natural potential to become a demonic cultivator.
Although Danyia was not of demonic race, he had clearly stayed with demonic creatures for a long time. Thus, when his spiritual energy circulated, his repulsion of demonic energy was not strong enough. To put it crudely, he was like a person who had been too close to pitch. Therefore, it would be more difficult for her to extract and remove it all at once.
After all, “one-sided affection” was not as easy as “mutual devotion.”
On the other hand, Gu Junshi was worried that if this dragged on, Danyia would either succumb to demonic cultivation or be devoured by demonic energy into a dried corpse, unable to hold on any longer.
Danyia, who had been sweating profusely from the beginning, was now shivering with cold, his face pale and tinged with green. He no longer had the strength to perceive the initial agony. This state of ethereal detachment was akin to the sensory and vital energy being drained from someone on the brink of death.
“I… I can’t die…”
Fearing he might struggle violently when in pain, his limbs were locked by black mist. A strand of black mist, like a ribbon, coiled around his throat, rendering him immobile and voiceless. His eyelids drooped halfway, his eyelashes still damp. His eyes struggled to focus, staring at her with an intense, almost fierce gaze.
This was the first time he had completely shed his proper, refined, and falsely immortal facade, revealing his sharp and biting true nature.
But Gu Junshi saw fear in him.
Was it fear of death?
Yes, but not entirely.
He was like someone unwilling to fall into the abyss, clinging to a rock at the edge of a cliff, refusing to let go. He knew he no longer had the strength to climb up, yet he refused to give up even a shred of hope.
Gu Junshi met his gaze calmly. She didn't think he was being fierce, but rather felt he was pleading or… acting coquettish? A strange thought flashed through her mind.
“You will not die by my hand.”
She dared not guarantee anything else, but saving his life was not difficult for her. She extended her other hand, parting his closed lips. She leaned closer and opened her mouth.
Danyia’s strained gaze slowly retracted and became dazed as her breath drew near. His knuckles tightened, clenching.
A stream of black energy, purer than white, flowed into his mouth and then into his body. This was Gu Junshi channeling some of her primal energy from her Qi Sea into Danyia’s body to stabilize his foundation and preserve his essence.
The effect was almost immediate. His body, almost drained by demonic energy, became filled again. His sunken cheeks smoothed out. And while Danyia’s body was in a state of equilibrium, Gu Junshi’s eyes suddenly changed. The calm lake surface rippled, her sleeves fluttering upwards.
She no longer played games. The dark, deathly energy transformed into neutral, neither yin nor yang,冥力 (Netherforce) and instantly surged in. It pursued the fleeing demonic energy as if looking down on insignificant beings, like a hunting dog chasing a rabbit, with a mix of playfulness and cruelty… until it bit off its neck.
Finally, her power locked onto all the demonic energy, and like casting a net, she pulled out all the enshrouding demonic power.
A surging, expanding mass of black energy spewed out violently. It carried a fierce, cold, evil intent, lunging to bite Gu Junshi. But alas, when it was hiding and lurking, it was no match for Gu Junshi. Now exposed, filled with hatred, it was still nothing but a doomed thing in her eyes.
She raised a palm, and death energy bloomed like a chrysanthemum, enclosing the charging demonic energy, trapping it within. With a pull, it wrapped around a slender fingertip, transforming into a ring of dark black thorny finger rings.
After Danyia’s demonic energy was extracted, Gu Junshi also released the deathly energy that bound his limbs. He slumped weakly to the ground, panting like an ox, his entire being a miserable green. Not a trace of his former elegance remained. But the man was handsome, not just in his face but also in his skeletal structure and muscles. Even in his disheveled state, unadorned, he was more pleasing to the eye than an ordinary person.
Gu Junshi, having obtained what she wanted, glanced at Danyia and prepared to leave. Unexpectedly, he grabbed the hem of her fluttering sleeve.
Gu Junshi felt the tug, stopped, and before turning around, heard Danyia behind her, panting, ask, “…Is it you?”
“Who?”
Gu Junshi retorted calmly.
Danyia paused, then lowered his gaze, unable to suppress a smile. He slightly loosened his grip on his whitened knuckles from trying too hard.
“It’s no one… I mistook you for someone else.”
Gu Junshi then turned, crouching before him. Beneath her dark, hooded hat, only a segment of her clean, cold jawline and her lips were visible. Her pale lips held a hint of indifference and faintheartedness. “It had better be a mistake.”
Danyia’s heart stirred. Not wanting her to leave just like that, he forced himself to muster his energy and asked, “You said I was afflicted with demonic energy. But this demonic energy came from the ghost infant. Does that mean the ghost demon is of the demonic race?”
Gu Junshi did not answer yes or no. She merely said indifferently, “Danyia, you are an intelligent person. Such foolish questions should not come from your mouth. You also likely don’t want me to save you one moment and kill you the next, do you?”
There are people who, when discussing the fate of a human life, remain so serene and detached, devoid of any bloodthirsty murderous intent. Yet, beneath that bottomless lake, lies a terrifying depth that humans dare not touch.
Danyia knew she was warning him; he should learn to keep silent about things he shouldn’t ask, lest he invite a deadly retribution.
He asked that question merely to attract her attention. He wasn’t foolish enough to continue testing her limits. The word "demon" had become taboo since the chaotic battles of the Six Realms over a thousand years ago.
Anyone associated with demons would be hunted by the entire immortal cultivation world.
“You saved me, yet you cruelly abandon me here. What if some demonic beast comes along later, and I can only be at its mercy? Is this not a case of ‘you did not kill the man, yet the man died because of you’?”
After the demonic energy was removed, Danyia’s blood was insufficient, making his complexion pale. He was already handsome and elegant; this added sickly beauty made him even more captivating.
Gu Junshi couldn’t help but look at him a few more times, musing, “It seems Chenghong truly injured your foundation, otherwise, you shouldn’t be this weak.”
Danyia froze at her words and then suddenly smiled, like a flower blooming in early spring.
“You know so much about Ya…”
His words were murmured softly, laced with a sticky ambiguity.
She suddenly leaned closer. Her eyes, calm, dark, and transparent to the world’s dust, though Danyia couldn’t see them: “Why did you resist demonic cultivation so much just now? Your body clearly accepted the demonic energy’s invasion readily. Why are you wavering between good and evil? Why not embrace evil and enter demonhood directly? Wouldn’t that achieve your desired goal faster?”
Demonic cultivation is from the heart. Cultivation can advance by leaps and bounds, especially for someone like him.
Hearing her earnest inquiry, Danyia felt as if she wasn’t mocking him but was genuinely confused as to why he hadn’t surrendered to demonhood.
A sharp pain suddenly pricked his heart, and he felt a pang of sadness. Yet, paradoxically, the more distressed he felt, the more he smiled. He murmured mockingly, “Do I have to become utterly unrecognizable, leaving not even a skin to cover my ugliness, before you deem me consistent inside and out?”
The self-deprecation in his words was too strong. Gu Junshi understood immediately. She looked at him for a long time with a look of incomprehension mixed with sudden realization. Only then did she understand. Unlike her, who was naturally tainted, a person who was originally a pure little white flower, was forced by a harsh environment, relentlessly changed by a damned fate, only to become a man-eating flower. In reality, its heart still yearned for the sun…
Danyia was a little nervous, unsure of her reaction to his words. He wasn’t a good person, and he knew she had likely seen long ago the unsightly, disgusting conglomerations he carried. He wasn’t seeking sympathy, nor did he wish to whitewash himself. He simply wanted her to know… he knew his own ugliness and was ashamed of it. Even if it was fake, he wanted himself to not appear so “dirty” in her eyes.
Gu Junshi, with her straightforward heart, truly didn’t understand Danyia’s convoluted and twisted mindset, which he himself didn't fully grasp. She simply said, “Whichever side you choose, if it doesn’t allow you to have it both ways, since you dare to do it, why still cling to pride and live a life of pretense.”
Danyia’s heart constricted.
This was hardly “clinging to pride.” If anything, Danyia had lived his life by sacrificing both substance and pride to reach this point. He never cared about what others gossiped about him behind his back. It wasn’t that he wanted to maintain a good impression in front of her, but he hadn’t expected her conclusion to be that he was merely “living a life of pretense.”
Gu Junshi also sighed, acknowledging the true complexity of the human heart. What she thought she understood clearly might not be the whole picture.
“Then, which side are you on, good or evil?” Danyia asked her directly.
If she was evil, he wouldn’t need to hide anything. If she was good… he felt he could still manage to be “white” if he tried.
Which side did she belong to?
Gu Junshi stood up. She found his question rather interesting. After a moment’s thought, she said, “Once, someone told me that morality is an inward act of self-discipline. In reality, everyone is different, and there is no standard to adhere to. Likewise, it cannot be judged as good or evil. So, you can listen to this too.”
She was neither evil nor good. She was not lost in the future, her disposition firm in the present. Therefore, she did not need any external standards to measure herself, because her “morality” and “good and evil” were her own standards.
—
Chenghong walked leisurely from the coastal reef cliffs into the Floating Light Forest. The spiritual energy within the forest was exceptionally dense. It was lush and verdant, with dense leaves rustling against each other, creating a captivating “hissing” sound. However, upon closer observation, one could notice that the trees in this forest were not “trees.”
As he went deeper, towards the dark, withered, dense paths, only various planted flowers and herbs emitted a faint, eerie purple glow. As the wind blew, luminous, star-like spore dust drifted through the air…
As the weight behind him grew heavier, Chenghong’s steps faltered, and he stopped.
He suddenly sensed something was wrong.
His calm, clear eyes sharpened. He swiftly formed intricate seals with his hands, and a blinding golden light, meant to smite evil, shot towards his back.
Just as the golden light was about to strike, a skeleton appeared within a dark cavity of a shadowy figure. The wind gradually filled its bones and flesh, and it let out a sinister chuckle.
It wasn't her—
He had actually thought—
At this moment, Chenghong’s eyes turned sharp and cold: “Audacious ghost cultivator, to dare to enter by my power?”
“Hahahaha, I must thank you, great master of the Maha Chan Temple. If not for your assistance, I, this old man, might not have been able to enter so smoothly.”