Chapter 80

On the night the Colorless City burned, the crows cried long into the night, and the moon set over Jade Capital.

“After planning for over a decade, today, at last, we are going to face these aristocratic families head-on.”

Standing on the city tower, Yin Shanze threw the torch in his hand into the endless night below.

The flames licked the oil-soaked ground, spreading from the city tower down the main street of Colorless City, like a fire dragon slowly awakening, roaring to devour everything in its path.

Mo Lin, dressed in black, faced the gusting winds stirred by the flames. He turned his head to glance at Yin Shanze.

“I don’t want to be a wandering soul. If I die today, my bones and corpse—can they be buried in the Yin family’s tomb?”

Yin Shanze paused for a moment, and a gentle smile appeared on his otherwise cold, jade-like face.

“If you want to be buried in our family’s tomb, you’d better consider marrying in.”

“Tonight, the Qilin steps on demons; it’s the day the ruler of all demons and monsters rises—don’t worry about my family’s tomb. Lead your people, go to a broader world.”

He slowly raised his head, letting the moonlight soak into his eyes.

Under Yin Shanze’s puzzled gaze, he took out a hairband meant for women, winding it around his wrist, circle by circle.

The overwhelming flames ravaged the land, burning everything in sight, as he leapt from the city tower, falling into a sky filled with blood, rain, and the scent of blood and death—yet it felt like falling into a vast and magnificent dream.

In this dream…

There would no longer be mothers forced to give birth to monsters, nor aristocratic families relentlessly hunting down demons.

The women sacrificed to demons would not be seen as a disgrace to the human race, nor lose their place in the world. The innocent demons who come to this world would not be treated as mere tools for profit and slaves at will.

In this dream, demons can walk calmly under the sunlight, watching the mountains bloom, the sun rise and the moon set.

In this dream, demons are bound by the same laws as humans and enjoy the same dignity.

In this night, in this illusion that may fade at any moment…

He doesn’t want to be an angry monster slaughtering without restraint.

He wants to walk out of the city that traps him and his people calmly and soberly. He wants to walk proudly in front of her—

He wants to be seen by her.

The “Forty-two Chapter Sutra” once said:

“Lovers are like holding a torch, walking against the wind, they will inevitably suffer from burnt hands.”

Liu Yu stood in misplaced time, watching him walk alone in the endless darkness, watching him burn in the fierce flames, yet still unwilling to stop, walking against the wind toward her.

The Demon Lord who burned Wuse City to ashes, following the direction pointed out by Nangong Jing, crossed mountains and valleys, and came to the chaotic and dark Northern Wilderness’s Nine Hells.

He spent two years settling the demons, ruling the Nine Hells.

He was ruthless, suppressing those who tried to incite the people to rebel against humans, and actively proposed peace talks to the Xiandu Yu Jing.

At that time, the entire Xiandu Yu Jing thought that the demons of Nine Hells would open war on them. The Yinshan clan’s defense was weak, and they were already under pressure. The peace talks proposed by the Demon Lord alleviated some of the pressure on the Yinshan clan.

This had already been planned in advance.

Mo Lin knew that this step in the plan was completely betting on his conscience, and that was why he could not fail it.

…But no one expected Liu Yu to propose a marriage contract.

That day at the Chaotianque platform, when the young girl pointed from afar at the Demon Lord, who was feared by thousands…

He felt as though he had become that little slave again, wanting to flee in panic.

The favor was as heavy as a mountain.

It could not be betrayed.

He knew he should refuse.

How could he drag the precious pearl of his benefactor down from the clouds into the mud he hadn’t yet escaped?

But she was so determined.

So determined to choose him.

In that moment, the Demon Lord felt dizzy, forgetting the situation of the Yinshan clan, forgetting her apparent purpose, forgetting that she could never have any affection for the demon Mo Lin.

He seriously selected the betrothal gifts, and humbly sought permission from her family.

The betrothal gifts were thrown out by the clan elders of the Yinshan clan, and the wealth of Nine Hells seemed like scraps of broken copper and iron compared to the wealth of the world’s richest Yinshan clan.

But it didn’t matter.

In the end, they still agreed.

The Demon Lord was happier than he had ever been.

The Eternal Night Palace was too old and needed to be repaired.

The soft, luxurious dresses, the small, exquisite embroidered shoes, the golden and jade jewels adorning black hair glistened in the sunlight—these were things he had wanted to give her for a long time.

Unfortunately, the Nine Hells had no flowers, and he couldn’t even grow her favorite golden-threaded jade.

The Demon Lord touched the withered branches and leaves in the flowerbeds.

“I’ve tried my best.”

He lowered his eyelids and murmured.

“Will you like Nine Hells? Will you… like me a little bit?”

Liu Yu’s shadow knelt before him, and though she knew it was long past, she still wanted to tell him—

“I will.”

“Not just a little, I will like you very much.”

But you have to wait.

She, too proud and too strong, must overcome many prejudices and misunderstandings before she can see your true heart.

Liu Yu reached out her hand, and as her fingertip passed through his face, the vision in her sea of consciousness wavered, and without warning, the scene plunged into darkness.

Liu Yu instinctively touched the moon-daughter wound around her wrist.

She was fine, still in deep sleep.

“…Mo Lin?”

Liu Yu tried to call out to him in the dark.

“Can you hear me? Do you still…” Liu Yu choked up, “Do you still have consciousness?”

Why?

Why is he here?

The darkness melted in the white light, and snowstorms raged, blood staining the snow. The sound of a knife chipping away intermittently reached her ears.

Liu Yu turned and saw the green-robed demon lying in the snow in front of her gravestone.

She had been buried at the top of the silver-white snow mountain.

And he, exposed to the wilderness, slowly decayed into white bones.

Liu Yu had once tried everything to change this ending, but now, looking at Mo Lin in this life, she would rather he sleep peacefully here, than seeing his soul, in an unconscious state, being led by some unknown force to the Cliff Mountain.

Cliff Mountain, the Heavenly Gate.

The place where the outer demons are sealed.

Living beings cannot pass through this boundary, but Liu Yu saw the dead soul pass through the Heavenly Gate, entering the domain of the outer demons.

Beyond the sky, there was no immortal palace.

There wasn’t even a trace of light, only thick, ink-like darkness, and beneath her feet was a sticky, bottomless mire.

It was exactly the same as the black mud Liu Yu had seen in the puppet general’s sea of consciousness.

【Demons of the human world, welcome back to the celestial domain of your father’s tribe.】

The raspy demonic voice echoed in the darkness.

【You will not stay here long. We will reverse time and let you possess a demon from the bottom of Cliff Mountain. The cunning humans use our powers to complete their lowly struggles, but demons of the human world, you must truly unlock the seal and let us return to the human world to devour everything.】

【Revenge, revenge, revenge.】

【Destruction, destruction, destruction.】

The demonic words mixed into strange, eerie sounds.

Liu Yu vaguely saw huge monsters hidden in the black mist, but the noises they made resembled swarming insects.

Liuyu tried to understand their words.

The evil creature at the bottom of the Cliff Mountain Sea must refer to the same one from the previous life, the one that caused the Heavenly Gate seal to weaken.

As they had previously speculated, the weakening of the seal was not caused by the evil creature’s actions. It was the noble families—or rather, the Jiufang clan—who found it and used it to shake the seal, gathering all the noble families on a single day, eventually framing the Yin Mountain clan to eliminate rivals.

And now these voices said they wanted Mo Lin’s soul to merge with the evil creature’s body.

So, the puppet general she had seen was likely the result of the evil creature’s body and Mo Lin’s soul from his past life merging.

This meant that Mo Lin had indeed listened to them and followed their wishes.

“…No.”

But in that moment, the soul spoke.

“I want to find my wife.”

The whispers of the evil creatures began again:

[What is a wife?]

[She is the body that bears children for the human race. Every male will find a mother body to bear offspring.]

[Evil creatures are superior beings, they do not need such inferior pursuits…]

“I want to see my wife,” he said, ignoring them. “She left before me. She is waiting for me.”

The evil creatures outside the heavens fell silent for a moment before quickly whispering to each other again.

[He is persistent. He must have this.]

[Give it to him. As long as he opens the seal for us, give him what he wants.]

[How do we give it to him?]

The evil creatures in the black mist focused their attention on the soul.

[As long as we reverse time, your wife will come back to life.]

The soul responded, “But she will still die because she won’t remember anything. Everything will proceed as it originally did. Even when the Heavenly Gate seal is reopened, everyone will die.”

[What if he refuses?]

[If he refuses, the soul cannot merge with the evil creature’s body.]

The leader of the evil creatures thought for a moment before saying:

[Let’s make a deal.]

[The souls of the dead will dissipate in the Outer Heavens. As for the monsters in the human realm, if you can find your wife’s soul, you can merge them after reversing time. She will remember everything that happened in this life and have the chance to change everything. She will even stop you when you try to break the Heavenly Gate seal.]

[Humans may have a chance to stop us, but of course, we also have a chance to succeed in opening the seal. It’s fair, isn’t it?]

The soul finally reacted.

“…Where is the Outer Heaven?”

The demon lord spoke in a vague demonic language, tinged with a hint of amusement.

[Nine million Outer Heavens. You really want to find her, don’t you?]

The soul raised his eyes and answered coldly, with a look of disdain, “Stop talking nonsense.”

The scene collapsed in pain, rebuilt, turning into a watery marsh shrouded in milky white mist. Above the marsh, countless golden threads floated and drifted.

Outer Heaven.

One of the nine million Outer Heavens.

Gripping the only thread of consciousness he had obtained from the Outer Evil Creature, the soul moved through the vast white mist, searching for his wife, who had dissipated within it.

The millionth Outer Heaven, the soul lost the ability to speak after being silent for too long.

The four millionth Outer Heaven, the soul’s thoughts began to grow chaotic. Liuyu, connected to his emotions, could feel his memories slipping away little by little.

The six millionth Outer Heaven, the soul no longer remembered who he was or where he came from. He only remembered he had to find someone very important.

Her name was Yinshan Liuyu.

He had to protect her.

The seven hundred eighty-fifth Outer Heaven, all the scattered threads of consciousness were finally gathered. The soul returned to the Heavenly Realm.

For the Heavenly Realm, only an instant had passed. The Outer Evil Creatures did not expect him to truly gather all the consciousness threads of a person who had dissipated. More whispers followed.

After the discussion, the demon lord, seeing that his consciousness had been worn down by the long passage of time in the Outer Heavens, was very satisfied.

Just as it was about to break its oath and shatter the consciousness threads, it realized that the soul had tightly bound the threads to itself.

Unable to destroy the consciousness threads, the demon lord became furious.

But in the end, it had no choice but to send the soul back to the human realm, from the Heavenly Gate. It had no other options.

In the dark depths of the Cliff Mountain Sea, Mo Lin’s soul merged with the evil creature’s body.

Liuyu could only hear faint, repressed, mournful howls coming from the bottom of the sea. These sounds shifted from restraint to a piercing cry, from human voices to wild animal howls.

Liuyu watched all of this, desperate to kill these evil creatures, but she could do nothing.

The Outer Evil Creatures in the Heavenly Realm tried to reverse the time of this world before the soul returned to his wife. But just as they started the formation, the evil creature beneath the sea broke through the water and rushed toward the burial place of Liuyu’s remains!

The world was vanishing into gray ash.

Everything was retreating, reversing in time.

The running evil creature passed through mountains, cities, and a crowd praying for the purification of the day.

A woman held a newly made longevity thread, to give to her child.

“My little one will live to a hundred…”

Under the reversal of time’s formation, everything was crumbling inch by inch.

The evil creature picked up the longevity thread from the ground and sealed the soon-to-dissolve consciousness thread within it. Finally, it arrived at the gravestone.

[Grave of my wife Yinshan Liuyu.]

The evil creature dug up the body that, under the protection of the treasure bead, remained as perfect as before.

The evil creature, lacking fingers, could not tightly bind the fine thread around her but carefully placed it on her blood-soaked chest, praying that this would allow the consciousness thread to merge with her.

It held her body tightly, hoping that this thread of consciousness would merge with her soul.

Even if time reversed and everything started over, the soul would remember everything that had happened.

In that way, its mission would be complete.

The evil creature opened its mouth:

“This time… it will… live long… to a hundred… a thousand…”

This was his final consciousness.

The demon from Wuse City, Mo Lin, had never been loved from birth to death, and he gave all his intense love to her.

The young lady of the Yinshan clan was loved by everyone from birth to death, but she was the only one who was stingy with her love for him.

The celestial formation crushed all things, and in a fleeting moment, the world turned to chaotic emptiness. The embrace of the demon returned to stillness, leaving only a thread of longevity, faintly lingering, as it had not yet dissipated after bearing the consciousness thread.

The vision turned dark again.

“…Found it! The source of the demonic breath is here!”

Liuyu recognized the voice.

It was Jiufang Shaogeng speaking.

“Then below must be the demon father mentioned. Quickly, bring the Zhongli clan’s artifact… Wait, what is this? Silk thread? A bracelet?”

“Never mind, bring it all back. Be careful, it must not be damaged in the slightest. This thing could be of great use.”