"Seven years have passed, and it's grown this large. It seems you've fed it quite a lot these past few years."
Gu Junshi landed lightly, as if carried by the wind. With a swift "vine entanglement," she pulled Wei Li behind her.
Wei Li had only recently taken human form, and his demonic power had not fully recovered. He had been too eager for revenge, secretly coming here to capture Dan Ya without her knowledge.
He never expected that instead of avenging himself, he would nearly become food for the malevolent thought.
"Ah Yi."
Dan Ya felt like someone struggling to escape a mire, afraid to dirty her if he reached out, yet fearing only a cold stare if he did.
He called her gently, "Ah Yi..."
Gu Junshi looked at him calmly and responded with a detached "Mm."
This single response seemed to give Dan Ya courage. He raised his eyes and gazed at her, lost in thought.
She was no longer the mortal Gu Yi from the beginning, nor the Gu Yi dressed in simple robes with a bamboo hairpin. She had changed, and so had he.
They had, in truth, been unable to return to their past selves for a long time.
Yet, standing before her now, he still yearned for the simple days at the Dayan Sect.
Despite his own schemes, his defenses were always broken when facing her, and he would forget his original purpose.
"Did you call me Ah Yi?" Wei Li poked his head out, spitting furiously.
"Quiet down," Gu Junshi glanced at him and pushed him back.
Wei Li pouted, glaring at her with teary eyes, as if questioning how she could treat him this way for someone else.
He was no different from a spoiled child now. His demonic nature lingered, his humanity was lacking. Although he retained his memories, his mindset was no longer mature. His intellectual and psychological age could not simply revert to what it once was.
This was a biological consequence, much like a teenager whose brain was damaged, suddenly regressing in intelligence to that of a five-year-old. He recognized people, but he simply couldn't control his childlike behavior.
"Ah Yi, you actually know everything, don't you? So you've always hated me, haven't you?"
Dan Ya's voice was laced with bitterness, growing softer towards the end.
Gu Junshi did not hide anything from him. "Yes."
He asked again, "You were acting the entire time then, weren't you?"
"Yes."
The two "yeses" struck Dan Ya's heart like daggers. No matter how malicious he was, his current composure was about to shatter.
He had wanted to make a dignified exit, but he feared he could no longer achieve that.
"Couldn't you have lied to me? Confirmed that I was willingly self-destructive, consumed by jealousy, cunning, sinister, and wicked? So, seeing me in this miserable state, aren't you feeling triumphant?"
"Yes."
Dan Ya gritted his teeth, his face pale, his eyes reddening. "Gu... Jun... Shi!"
"If you refuse to act like a human, do you expect me to treat you as one?" Gu Junshi found it somewhat amusing.
"I am bad, I am ruthless, I am inhuman, but towards you..." The words slipped out, only to be bitten back and swallowed.
He wondered if he had some kind of illness. Gu Junshi was not a pure, flawless celestial maiden, yet he felt she was noble, and he himself was defiled and unworthy.
He rephrased what he was about to say, his eyes filled with sorrow: "I deeply regret the things I did to you when we first met, and I regret giving you up for revenge against Liu Jiang Fusheng when I had the chance to hold onto you. I understand that you despise someone as two-faced as me."
Gu Junshi saw the sincerity in his words but remained unmoved, stating, "Dan Ya, your conscience and goodness were discarded as useless when you crawled out of hell. That's why you have no scruples and no psychological burden. Regret? Do you truly possess such a thing? I suspect you are still acting even now."
Gu Junshi smiled as she watched him, her gaze like a piercing demonic arrow hitting the bullseye of his heart.
Dan Ya stiffened, then his shoulders sagged in defeat. "You've always been so intelligent, seeing everything so clearly."
Dan Ya did not deny her statement.
While he did regret certain things, if he could relive it all, he knew he would remain incorrigible. He would still steal another's wife and kill Liu Jiang Fusheng!
He would even go further.
"Dan Ya, do you know what you are like now? Have you always believed that you and the malevolent thought within you are separate entities?"
Gu Junshi's pointed questions made Dan Ya's eyes flicker abruptly.
"Although it has been behind me, I still have reason and can think clearly. It has not controlled me..."
His murmured words suddenly stopped.
Because he saw Gu Junshi's eyes, clear and calm like a reflective lake. They mirrored his image without reservation.
In them, he saw...
He saw his true appearance in her eyes.
The malevolent thought had already rooted itself around him like tree roots in the earth. Every inch of his bloodline was black, and the veins surfaced on his skin like black spider silk. His pupils were now entirely white, the void of darkness staining the whites of his eyes.
So... he too had long ago become a monster, just like the malevolent thought.
How laughable that he had never realized it...
"Do you see?" Gu Junshi asked him expressionlessly. "Do you see what you've become?"
"No..." Dan Ya twisted his lips. He clawed at his face, shaking his head vigorously. "This isn't me... I haven't become like this... How can this be me? The malevolent thought is a part of me that I discarded, I abandoned it long ago. I am me, it is it!"
The malevolent thought, previously dispersed by Gu Junshi, was now regrouping, growing stronger with every passing moment. The more agitated Dan Ya became, the more his emotions fluctuated, the faster it grew.
"Ah—so fragrant, so fragrant, so fragrant, so fragrant, so fragrant... Hungry—so hungry—"
The malevolent thought, like a hysterical madman, its sharp, rapid voice echoing around them, no longer focused on Wei Li, but on Gu Junshi. If its previous desire for Wei Li was greedy longing, then seeing Gu Junshi evoked an extreme frenzy, a desire to feast on her blood and flesh.
For this, it would pay any price.
"Ah—I'll swallow you—"
It stretched into a black cloth and lunged from behind Dan Ya towards Gu Junshi.
Dan Ya watched her, his eyes vacant.
"It..."
Gu Junshi tilted her head, a smile curving her lips, catching his unspoken words. "Is you."
Dan Ya's pupils contracted to pinpricks, as if struck by lightning.
"Ah—Junshi, it's coming!" Wei Li tugged at her, trying to pull her away.
As the malevolent thought ravenously lunged to swallow her, a wide span of black and blue flames erupted from Gu Junshi. With icy eyes, she extended her arm towards the malevolent thought, clenching her five fingers.
The very space seemed to tremble. Light and shadow shifted continuously. It was pierced and stretched like cut thread into flattened cloth, unable to break free.
"Ahhhh—Let go, I'll eat you! I want to eat—hungry—"
The malevolent thought shrieked at her, its cries so sharp they threatened to rupture eardrums. It twisted and struggled, willing to tear itself apart to escape. Yet, before Gu Junshi, it could never find freedom.
"Doesn't it resemble you? Your appetite has always been insatiable."