Chapter 59
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Duan Qianli had not seen Duan Jisu for a thousand years. He had thought that the reunion with his father would be extremely moving but he did not expect that he would not feel any warmth of affection from his father. On the contrary, after Duan Jisu scolded Duan Qianli, he turned around and smiled at Li Fenglan, asking him the same question again.
In just a few seconds, Duan Jisu’s facial expression changed too fast. Li Fenglan almost didn’t react in time. Finally, he faced Duan Jisu’s slightly strange smile and said, “My name is Li Fenglan.”
“Fenglan! What a good name!” After Duan Jisu exaggeratedly admired Li Fenglan’s name, he once again shifted his inquiring gaze to Li Fenglan and said, “I wonder what you and… um, Ling Buyan are?”
Duan Jisu’s eyes became somewhat evasive when he mentioned Ling Buyan’s name, as if he was not used to calling him directly by his name.
Li Fenglan noticed this, but did not say anything.
“He is my master,” Li Fenglan said.
“Master?!” Duan Jisu was first surprised, then muttered to himself, “I never thought he would take in a disciple…”
Although Duan Jisu’s voice was low, everyone here was a cultivator, and they all heard his words clearly.
Without waiting for Li Fenglan to ask, Duan Qianli, who had always had a difficult relationship with Ling Buyan, spoke up. “Why can’t he take in disciples? Fenglan is exceptionally talented, and whether he needs a master or not is not certain.”
“Don’t be rude!” Duan Jisu turned around and glared at Duan Qianli.
Duan Qianli once again looked at Duan Jisu in disbelief… how did father become like this?
Li Fenglan didn’t know where his master had gone. After leaving the sect’s forbidden area, Duan Jisu took him to the palace of the demon clan.
Just now, after Duan Jisu recovered his demonic body, he patrolled over the demon realm several times. Now all the demons know that their former demon lord has awakened!
Before the group returned to the demon realm palace, a grand banquet had already been set up in the demon clan palace. Although Li Fenglan was a solitary cultivator, as a “distinguished guest of the demon realm”, he was still taken directly to the upper seat of the banquet.
At this time, he was still wearing the gray-white long shirt he wore when he went to Daiduo City. Compared with the gorgeously dressed demon aristocrats below, it was a completely different style.
Although Li Fenglan’s attire was very simple, after he sat down, the demon cultivators below couldn’t help but cast their eyes on him.
There were many beautiful demons, but few had seen someone like Li Fenglan – his clothes were so simple and inconspicuous, yet they did not diminish his charisma in the slightest. Even his features were more stunning under such attire.
After Duan Jisu returned, Duan Qianli did not sit in the main seat as before, but sat beside Li Fenglan.
Seeing everyone looking at Li Fenglan, Duan Qianli, who was wearing a golden robe, covered his lips and coughed softly, “Li–“
Before he could finish his sentence, Duan Jisu suddenly put down his wine glass on the main seat and said, “Don’t call Fenglan by his name!”
Duan Qianli: ???
Ling Buyan must have played some tricks when he woke up his father just now!
…
Although the demons were also very satisfied with Duan Qianli as the new demon lord, his prestige in the demon realm was still not comparable to Duan Jisu’s, who had ruled over the demon realm for tens of thousands of years.
Therefore, when this man who had dominated the demon realm for thousands of years awakened and returned, the whole demon realm became lively.
However, there was one place that was particularly deserted, unlike the bustling scenes in most of the demon realm.
At the very end of the demon realm lies a vast blue sea. No one knows if this sea has an end, and if so, where it would lead to. The demonic energy here is sparse, and very few fierce beasts occasionally appear. Generally, the demon race would not come here unless they had business to attend to.
At this moment, on the cliff that stood a hundred feet high, perpendicular to the sea level, there was only a black figure.
It was Ling Buyan.
He slowly threw the Xuyou Jade in his hand forward. If anyone saw it, they would think that the Xuyou Jade would fall into the water the next moment and scream in terror. But that didn’t happen.
Legend has it that the Xuyou Jade was just a useless piece of raw jade, with nothing special about it except for its age.
However, at this moment, the “nothing special” jade was suspended in mid-air and emitted a dark purple light. Ling Buyan standing on the cliff slowly formed seals, and at the same time, the raw jade slowly revealed its true appearance.
Hidden in the dark stone, it turned out to be a piece of ink jade.
At the moment it appeared, the sea water below the cliff surged like it was boiling.
The calm sea water was suddenly lashing towards the shore. Dhattered water droplets soaked Ling Buyan’s clothes, but he didn’t care and didn’t use his spiritual power to dry them.
At this moment, Ling Buyan’s expression was unprecedentedly serious.
He glanced at the Xuyou Jade, then slowly closed his eyes again.
The coastline slowly receded, and after a short while, a large open space appeared at the bottom of the cliff.
At first glance, everything seemed to have returned to calm. However, anyone familiar with the sea knows that it is brewing for the final blow.
And at that moment!
The sea water that had just receded surged back, like a dark high wall, rushing towards the cliff.
However, before the sea could crash onto the cliff, a dark light suddenly appeared and completely enveloped the entire cliff. Even the surging waves were instantly frozen in place.
What was even more terrifying was that the frozen area on the sea surface continued to expand. Accompanied by this, the sky also gradually darkened.
Ling Buyan finally opened his eyes.
He slowly raised his hand, and the next moment, a pitch-black long sword appeared out of thin air and fell into his hand.
The sword was slender and the blade was extremely thin, looking as though it would shatter at a gentle touch. Even though it was completely black, light could still smoothly pass through the thin blade, illuminating the circulating jade within.
If Li Fenglan were here at this moment, he would definitely be shocked by this scene – the sword in Ling Buyan’s hand was almost identical to his own, except for the color and the absence of a plum branch on the hilt!
At the moment when the black long sword appeared, the sky instantly darkened.
Countless members of the demon race looked up at the sky in panic, but Duan Jisu, who was sitting in the main seat, seemed to feel nothing about the scene before him.
At the moment when the music and dance stopped during the banquet, Duan Jisu just lightly put down his wine glass and looked down at the many members of the demon race, saying, “It’s nothing major, continue.”
… Nothing major?
At the moment the sky darkened, even Li Fenglan couldn’t help but feel nervous.
His first reaction was: could it be that the sudden darkening of the sky was a common phenomenon in the demon realm?
But looking at the reactions of the other members of the demon race, it was clearly not the case.
“Fenglan~” Even Cheng Huang, who had just been happily watching the show, was now nervously crawling back into Li Fenglan’s embrace.
“It’s alright.” Li Fenglan gently picked up Cheng Huang while couldn’t help but think in his heart: this incident just now was probably related to his own master…
However, what could possibly be the connection?
At this moment, on the edge of the cliff.
Ling Buyan gently stroked the long sword and his eyes were full of nostalgia. As his fingers touched the sword, the blade of the long sword emitted a light hum.
Then a dark light flashed, and the sky gradually brightened.
With the help of the light, the crack on the long sword finally became clear.
Ling Buyan frowned slowly.
For every cultivator, the fragmentation of their spiritual sword, their most treasured possession, was a fatal blow. It may not have been obvious when the sky was dark, but now, the crack on the sword was fully revealed.
It was on the verge of breaking into two pieces.
And the state of the long sword represented Ling Buyan’s current state.
As the long sword hummed softly, Ling Buyan gently stroked the sword while speaking in a gentle tone, “Don’t worry, your injury will soon be repaired. When the time comes, I’ll take you to find another sword.”
Upon hearing the four words “another sword,” the long sword, which was held in Ling Buyan’s hand, seemed to become even more excited.
At this moment, Xuyou Jade, who had been floating in the air, returned to Ling Buyan’s hand.
The Du Sheng plaque, which Ling Buyan had just retrieved into the space, reappeared and continued to absorb all the energy in the surrounding space.
What he was going to do today finally began–Ling Buyan was going to use the Xuyou Jade to repair his own spiritual sword.
…
In a blink of an eye, the demon clan’s banquet had been going on for most of the day.
Li Fenglan had no interest in the banquet or any of the dance and other activities. While many demon cultivators were excited, Li Fenglan was actually feeling a little tired.
In fact, his performance was not very obvious, but unexpectedly, the former demon lord Duan Jisu, who was high above, had been quietly observing Li Fenglan’s reactions all along.
Seeing that he seemed to have lost interest in the current banquet, Duan Jisu suddenly asked, “I wonder if Fenglan is tired?” He used a very affectionate name for Li Fenglan, but his tone was respectful.
Fenglan?!
As soon as these two words were spoken, all the demon clans turned their gazes towards him.
In their impression, Duan Jisu was very contemptuous of human cultivators and liked to judge people based on their backgrounds.
But now, not only did he address this seemingly ordinary young cultivator as “Fenglan” using those two words, but his tone was also so polite.
Could it be that this young cultivator was someone important who suppressed his cultivation level?
It had to be said that although the demon clan’s imagination was vast, what they guessed was not entirely unreasonable.
If they were to reveal Fenglan’s previous name, there would probably not be a single person here who didn’t recognize it.
After asking if Fenglan was tired just now, without waiting for the other party’s answer, Duan Jisu immediately beckoned to a demon servant beside him and said, “Take this cultivator to the side hall to rest.”
Li Fenglan had some hesitation just now, after all, leaving the table midway through the banquet was not a polite thing to do.
But after seeing Duan Jisu’s attitude, he hesitated for a moment, then nodded towards him and said, “Thank you.”
…It seemed that Duan Jisu really respected his master, so there shouldn’t be anything wrong with following his master and basking in his glory, right?
Li Fenglan gently picked up Cheng Huang while following the red-dressed demon servant out.
At this moment, Duan Qianli, who was originally sitting at his own seat drinking, suddenly stood up.
“Fenglan, let me…”
Before the smile on the Demon Lord’s face could fully appear, he heard his father’s soft reminder from behind.
“Duan Qianli, sit down for me!”
Duan Qianli: “…”
Come on, I’m the Demon Lord now, can’t you give me a little face!
Although he was wildly complaining in his heart, Duan Qianli still dared not speak out in anger.
He gritted his teeth and managed to squeeze out an “okay” from his throat.
You might as well continue sleeping!
The interior of the palace of the demon clan was very ornate and spacious. Li Fenglan followed the red-clothed demon servant for a while before finally arriving at the side hall that Duan Jisu had mentioned.
After a brief expression of gratitude to the other party, Li Fenglan finally carried Cheng Huang and walked in. When he lifted the veil covering the night pearl, he finally saw clearly that Cheng Huang had fallen asleep in his arms at some point, under the glow of the pearl.
However, unlike before, this time Cheng Huang seemed to be sleeping restlessly. Its eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and it was even murmuring something in its mouth.
Li Fenglan hesitated for a moment, gently placed Cheng Huang on the bed, patted its paws, and softly called out, “Cheng Huang? Did you eat something just now?”
Come to think of it, this was the first time Li Fenglan had seen Cheng Huang make such an expression while sleeping. Although he had warned Cheng Huang not to eat anything from the demon realm at the banquet earlier, the little guy’s eyes were still greedy. It was not impossible for it to have taken a bite or two of something tasty.
Upon hearing its master’s words, Cheng Huang slowly opened its eyes and looked at Li Fenglan. It seemed somewhat aggrieved, pouting and shaking its head as it said, “No, Cheng Huang is just…just having nightmares when it closes its eyes!”
Cheng Huang’s tone was somewhat agitated.
“Nightmares?” Li Fenglan couldn’t help repeating those words.
To be honest, he had never really thought about what a simple-minded little monster like Cheng Huang might dream about.
Curious, Li Fenglan asked, “What did you dream about?”
“Um…” Cheng Huang thought carefully for a moment, then slowly said as it lay on the bed, “There was just a lot of fire!”
A lot of fire?
After hearing these words, Li Fenglan couldn’t help but laugh. He thought, could it be that Cheng Huang had been scared by Duan Jisu’s true form and had a nightmare because of it?
After the laughter died down, Cheng Huang seemed to understand what Li Fenglan was laughing at. It quickly shook its head and said, “No, it’s not that! It was very scary! It was different from Duan Jisu…”
Although it has been a while since Cheng Huang became an adult and his speech has become more fluent, he may have been influenced by Duan Wannian and started to act cute.
Not only was his tone of voice childish, but even the content of his speech was very childish.
This seems to be the most serious conversation Cheng Huang has had with himself since he learned to speak.
“Hmm? What does it look like?” Li Fenglan also became serious.
Generally, people would not listen carefully to what a fierce beast says. Even if the fierce beast speaks human language, they still treat it as a simple animal.
But Li Fenglan was different. Cheng Huang was like family to him.
Seeing his master asking seriously and cooperating, Cheng Huang tried to organize his language and described it with his not-so-rich vocabulary: “It’s a big, big sea… the water is all fire!”
Although Cheng Huang tried his best to think, Li Fenglan still found it difficult to visualize what he was saying.
“En,” Li Fenglan nodded patiently.
At this point, Li Fenglan had not yet realized that Cheng Huang would say a sentence that would instantly make him wide awake.
Cheng Huang gently rubbed the blanket with his paw, then exclaimed, “Oh!” with an exaggerated expression and said to Li Fenglan, “That fire is green!”
“Green fire…”
This thing was really unique.
The place with green flames has appeared repeatedly in Li Fenglan’s life recently.
“Endless Purgatory.” Li Fenglan was silent for a while and said these words.
But why did Cheng Huang see the Endless Purgatory?
The Endless Purgatory is where all living beings perish, and it should be a place of no return… it is also the place where ancient fierce beasts go.
“What is that?” After hearing the four words “Endless Purgatory”, Cheng Huang suddenly asked Li Fenglan in his milk voice.
“It’s…the place with green flames,” Li Fenglan paused for a moment before continuing to ask Cheng Huang, “Did you see anything else?”
Cheng Huang continued to think, “Um…I saw a piece of wood.”
It took Cheng Huang some effort to come up with these words.
When the words came out, Cheng Huang didn’t seem to think much of it. But little did he know that this sentence made Li Fenglan’s heart tremble.
The Endless Purgatory should be a sea of fire, so how could Cheng Huang see a piece of wood there?
Cheng Huang was Li Fenglan’s spiritual beast, and their way of communication was naturally different from that of ordinary people.
By this point, Li Fenglan was already full of doubts. But at the same time, he also knew that Cheng Huang’s vocabulary was probably not enough to explain this matter clearly.
So Li Fenglan thought for a moment, then gently patted Cheng Huang and said, “You go to sleep first, I’ll be here. If you dream of anything else, just tell me.”
“Okay!” Cheng Huang became Li Fenglan’s spiritual beast shortly after he was born. To this simple-minded beast, Li Fenglan was everything in his world.
Upon hearing Li Fenglan’s words, Cheng Huang obediently curled up in the bed, smacking his lips and closing his eyes again.
At this point, night had slowly fallen, but unlike at the banquet earlier, Li Fenglan had absolutely no sleepiness.
He gently placed his hand on Cheng Huang’s forehead, then closed his eyes and entered the spiritual beast’s sea of consciousness.
This was the first time Li Fenglan had done this since signing the spiritual contract with Cheng Huang.
The nightmare from earlier had obviously left a deep psychological shadow on Cheng Huang. As soon as Li Fenglan entered Cheng Huang’s sea of consciousness, he saw the “green sea of fire” that Cheng Huang had just described to him.
Everything here was almost exactly the same as Li Fenglan had seen in Ling Buyan’s memory.
In the endless sea of fire, one after another a fire dragon rose into the sky, and at the very center of the flames was a dark green fire core…
Even though Li Fenglan had seen this place before, he still felt a little nervous as he suddenly found himself back in endless purgatory.
Nevertheless, when a fire dragon attacked him, Li Fenglan overcame his instinctual fear, and opened his eyes wide, looking into the heart of the dragon.
Li Fenglan was trying to find the wood that Cheng Huang had mentioned here.
But to his disappointment, the piece of wood was not hidden within the fire core.
Li Fenglan saw nothing.
Could it be that the wood had nothing to do with the endless purgatory, and was only something that Cheng Huang had unconsciously associated with it in his dreams? Li Fenglan couldn’t help but wonder.
However, before he could come out of Cheng Huang’s sea of consciousness, the environment around Li Fenglan suddenly changed.
The sea of fire disappeared, and all that was left before Li Fenglan’s eyes was pitch black.
Just as he was wondering what had happened, a giant ferocious beast appeared before him.
The beast had two horns on its back, and stepped on dark blue flames, its body extremely large…
“Cheng Huang?” Right, wasn’t the ferocious beast in front of him just a giant version of Cheng Huang?
Was it dreaming of itself?
In theory, even if it was in the sea of consciousness, Cheng Huang should have turned around to look at his owner when he heard Li Fenglan’s call.
However, when Li Fenglan called Cheng Huang’s name, it still stood still in its original position.
“Cheng Huang—” Li Fenglan called out again.
This time, Cheng Huang finally moved.
But it didn’t look at Li Fenglan; instead, it made a low growl with a threatening tone in its throat. At this time, Li Fenglan also saw that this Cheng Huang was different from what he had in mind, seemingly more mature, and had many scars on its body.
Some wounds were even bleeding.
After calling out a few times, Cheng Huang suddenly leaped forward.
Then Li Fenglan saw a small black wooden plaque being swallowed by Cheng Huang.
The fierce beast swallowed the wooden plaque.
And if Li Fenglan wasn’t mistaken, that wooden plaque was the Du Sheng plaque he had seen before!
My goodness… wasn’t everything in front of him just coincidentally consistent with the legend from before?
The Du Sheng plaque caused trouble in the mortal realm and was eaten by a dying fierce beast, which was then brought to the Endless Purgatory.
So, the dying fierce beast was Cheng Huang?! Or, was it Cheng Huang’s previous life?
But didn’t fierce beasts not have reincarnation?
Li Fenglan felt that his worldview had been refreshed once again.
…
At the same time, the man standing on the cliff finally repaired his spiritual sword.
The words “Split Karma” on the black sword flashed lightly and disappeared again.
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