That was after the Yin-Yang Realm War eleven cycles ago. Having distinguished himself in battle, he was promoted to the fourth hall Yama King, titled “Wu Guan.”

In life he was a fox among demons; in death he was a Yama King among ghosts.

His newly acquired status was truly prestigious, and being cruel and bloodthirsty by nature, with a vicious and perverse temperament, he naturally became even worse afterward, earning Taishan Wang’s frown.

His relationship with Taishan Wang was very strange and couldn’t be called friendly.

But if he had to choose the most well-known word to describe their relationship, Wu Guan Wang felt it would probably still be “close friends.”

When he first entered the Extreme Domain, his cultivation was already considerable. Moreover, as a fox clan being who cultivated the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox dharma body and excelled at illusion techniques, he often used these to play tricks on others.

One day while wandering to Wangsi City, he encountered a sleeping man selling straw sandals.

He thought: though the Extreme Domain wasn’t as abundant as the Nineteen Continents, it surely shouldn’t lack such straw sandals. For this big fellow to lie here selling straw sandals was truly strange.

With a thought, his mischievous spirit rose.

So he disguised himself as a judge of considerable cultivation and swaggered over to tell him: “Wangsi City is such an important place, trade has its proper market—how can you run wild here? Quickly pack up your straw sandals and get lost.”

Wu Guan Wang had played tricks on too many people and had never failed before. At that time, the Extreme Domain was still one where Qin Guang Wang hadn’t completely fallen out with the Nineteen Continents. Though Wangsi City had many brilliant talents, their time was short—those with high cultivation left early, leaving only those with low cultivation.

So by rights, no one should have seen through him.

But unexpectedly, after weathering great storms for half a lifetime, he finally capsized in a small gutter.

That lying big fellow lifted his eyelids to glance at him once, then ignored him, dropping his eyelids again and snoring back to sleep.

Completely dismissing him!

He was naturally furious and pretended to scold him sternly again, attracting many ghost cultivators to watch.

Probably annoyed by his noise, after half an hour that big fellow finally reopened his eyes and stared at him fixedly for three breaths.

At that time he felt uneasy.

Then he saw the big fellow suddenly stand up and grab toward him.

He tried to dodge but couldn’t escape no matter what, standing there like a fool as the other caught him squarely.

Rustle rustle, a bout of shaking, violent swaying.

It was truly earth-spinning and sky-turning, shaking him senseless, the fox losing its wits.

Without noticing, his illusion broke and he showed his true form before others, losing tremendous face.

That big fellow simply tossed him aside, acting as if this fox demon ghost didn’t exist. Seeing the surrounding commotion and chaos, he wrapped his ground straw sandals in cloth, tucked them under his arm, and walked away.

After a short while, he was nowhere to be seen.

From then on Wu Guan Wang hated him, only learning from friends that Wangsi City indeed had such a strange person who always sold straw sandals in the city, so he harbored malicious intent.

He went to trouble him repeatedly and was seen through repeatedly.

Later it developed to the point where he simply called friends to block his path, wanting to avenge that day’s humiliation.

As a result, that day he learned what a hard iron plate he had kicked…

By Extreme Domain standards, that big fellow already had Golden Body cultivation then, completely counting as a significant figure.

He had eyes but couldn’t recognize Mount Tai.

His own cultivation was insufficient, so he couldn’t see the other’s depth. After being severely beaten, he only saved his small life by begging for mercy.

From then on, he dared not provoke this person again. Only watching him sell straw sandals day after day, and after watching for a long time without causing trouble, did they gradually become familiar enough to exchange a few words.

He asked: “With such high cultivation, why sell straw sandals?”

He answered: “This is cultivation.”

What kind of cultivation was selling straw sandals?

Wu Guan Wang had never heard of such cultivation. He secretly scoffed, but feeling this person’s abilities were truly extraordinary, he harbored crooked thoughts and tried every means to take him as master.

Who would have expected him to say: “Your intentions are impure, you cannot be my disciple.”

Wu Guan Wang was somewhat angry and retorted: “Then you must have been from a righteous sect in life?”

The straw sandal seller laughed, saying: “Not so. Not only not from a righteous sect, but an evil demon of heretical ways.”

Wu Guan Wang became even angrier upon hearing this: “Since you’re an evil demon of heretical ways, how dare you despise me, a mere demon?”

But the straw sandal seller wasn’t angry: “Evil demons of heretical ways have their own principles too. It’s not despising you, just for your own good as a small demon.”

Good?

Good my ass!

Wu Guan Wang nearly had his three souls leave his body in anger. He turned and left, actually forgetting to ask why, only remembering those four words “take master and learn skills” firmly.

After all, he was a demon who only remembered things related to his own interests.

The elders of his clan had always taught thus.

Moreover, later, unable to withstand his repeated pestering, that big straw sandal seller finally relented. Though he didn’t take him as disciple, he taught him various techniques.

So questions like “why” were thrown even further away.

It could be said that until the end of the Yin-Yang Realm War, his cultivation never caught up. Being able to occupy the fourth hall when made Yama King was only because he killed many people. His landing in the sixth hall was only because he killed fewer people than Wu Guan Wang, with mediocre methods.

After the war, he became Wu Guan Wang, the other became Taishan Wang.

His nature was perverse, his demonic nature gradually growing. Finally one day when he casually threw all new ghosts into the eighteen levels of hell and ordered their souls divided, he enraged the big fellow.

After knowing each other for hundreds or thousands of years, this was the first time the big fellow scolded him so harshly, so mercilessly. He said that though he taught him techniques without hoping he could cultivate a pure child’s heart, he wished he could reform his obstinate nature. Who would have expected that after participating in the Yin-Yang Realm War and following Qin Guang Wang, his nature became increasingly cruel, worse than before. Among demon cultivators, the fox demon clan took “resembling humans” as their cultivation standard—if he persisted in his delusion, he would destroy his own foundation and dig his own grave.

He went mad with rage after hearing this.

They were still in his Yama hall then, nearly coming to blows. He cursed back: “You’re the one digging your own grave! Who always said among the Nineteen Continents’ three thousand sects, only Yashan was respectable, claiming all under that sect had pure child hearts? What was the result? Just a small scheme and they all died clean! Bullshit pure child hearts!”

The big fellow’s expression gradually turned cold. He said not another word and departed with flicked sleeves.

After he left, Wu Guan Wang grew angrier the more he thought about it.

In the end, thinking of those four words “pure child heart” made him grind his teeth in hatred. He suddenly remembered some plan Song Emperor had mentioned about cutting up the thousand cultivators’ souls to make soul puppets. Without telling anyone, he directly killed his way to the mortuary, wanting to drag out all those damned Yashan thousand cultivators’ souls to whip and humiliate them to vent his anger.

But after going there he discovered Song Emperor, Chu Jiang Wang and others happened to be there. Really wanting to vent but having no way, he could only leave the mortuary dejectedly and wander aimlessly along that Underworld blood river.

Walking to a river bend, he saw white bones piled throughout the bend.

The Underworld’s water scraped bone and stripped flesh—no living thing could survive within it. Even throwing in a cultivator of ordinary cultivation would leave only white bones upon emergence.

The white bones piled here were undoubtedly remains of cultivators from the realm war.

Wu Guan Wang originally paid no attention, but walking along, he suddenly discovered a special exception.

The Underworld blood river was crimson red. Compared to the broad river surface, that thing really couldn’t be considered very large. He only noticed it because of the surrounding white bones.

Though water at the river bend rose and fell in waves.

When water came it was naturally all red, but when water receded, this one crimson thing among a pile of white bones became quite conspicuous.

Wu Guan Wang bent down to look and discovered it was actually a flesh heart.

This was truly too strange.

What heart could remain completely undamaged in this Underworld, crimson as if freshly cut?

He guessed this object was extraordinary and simply reached to pick it up. But when lifting it he discovered a melted token tightly embedded in this heart, impossible to peel off, so he could only collect both together in a box.

Having shallow relations with Song Emperor and others, he didn’t let others know of this matter. He only brought the box back to Bafang City and shamelessly called Taishan Wang to help him examine it.

Who made him so knowledgeable?

Taishan Wang’s anger hadn’t yet subsided. When he came out to see him, his face was cold.

But after opening his box and seeing this heart, his expression wavered somewhat. After examining that token, he remained silent for a very long time without speaking.

Only after Wu Guan Wang urged him did he frown and ask where this object came from.

Wu Guan Wang explained the whole story and asked: “What exactly did you see?”

Only then did Taishan Wang point to the melted token, telling him to look carefully.

“Though this token is severely damaged, you can still see it’s a Yashan token, possessed by Yashan disciples. This heart should belong to this token’s owner—the pure child heart you just cursed as ‘not even worth shit.’ Only, the Underworld corrodes bone and dissolves flesh, yet this heart alone could exist in the blood river’s evil water, indicating its owner hasn’t died and still exists in the world.”

Everyone knew that cultivators reaching a certain realm could break free from bodily constraints. Without a shell they could still rely on Nascent Soul to avoid death—without a mere heart, naturally there should be no major problem.

Only, where had the Extreme Domain ever had any living people before?

So this heart must have been lost by some Yashan disciple during the previous Yin-Yang Realm War, and must belong to a cultivator of considerable cultivation—otherwise his heart couldn’t resist the Underworld’s water.

Wu Guan Wang found it very strange: “If this heart can resist the Underworld’s water, then its original owner’s cultivation in Yashan should also be a notable figure who should have had direct or indirect combat with us. Fighting at such a realm, to have even your heart torn out yet still not die—even if that person escaped quickly, given the Extreme Domain’s ruthless methods, it would absolutely be impossible to spare that person’s life.”

Taishan Wang also pondered for a long time, obviously never having encountered such an incomprehensible matter.

In the end, unable to think of an answer, he only mused: “It surely couldn’t be that its owner carved it out himself and abandoned it…”

What kind of person, and under what circumstances, would cut open their own chest and throw a blazing pure child heart into the Underworld?

Suffering for nothing.

Thinking about it, it was truly impossible.

After all, body and heart were one—wanting to sever the connection wasn’t so easy.

With the heart in the Underworld, the body would also suffer accordingly. In severe cases, one would die from pain and torment; in light cases, heavily injured with damaged cultivation, even if living in the world, probably unable to advance an inch.

Wu Guan Wang’s eyes rolled as if remembering something, then suddenly said: “Big fellow, I remember you said what I lack is precisely a pure child heart. Moreover, being a demon clan ghost cultivator who cultivates the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox dharma body, I have human form, human speech, and human actions but lack a human heart. If I could cultivate a ‘pure child heart’ it would be perfection. Then you say, if I claim this heart as my own, wouldn’t that achieve success at one stroke, with half the effort and double the result?”

Without doubt, these words earned him another scolding from Taishan Wang.

Nothing but saying he sought shortcuts and had impure intentions.

Finally he also advised him not to harbor such crooked thoughts: “Under heaven there are many common folk, yet among ten thousand there might not be one with this pure child heart. Moreover, this heart’s original owner surely walked the righteous great dao. To make him abandon this heart and completely sever the connection, unless he died or abandoned dao to enter demonhood—otherwise with your demon heart and ghost body, even if this heart were placed here and given to you, you couldn’t refine it, much less claim it as your own.”

Wu Guan Wang naturally didn’t believe in this evil. Seeing such a great opportunity before him, how could he not try before easily giving up?

He was too lazy to argue with Taishan Wang, hugging that box and leaving.

Returning to his own Yama hall, he secluded himself for refinement.

The result was again “not listening to the big fellow’s words, suffering loss before your eyes.” Not only did he fail to refine that heart, he nearly went fire-mad. From then on he gradually became more sensible. Though he coveted this heart’s effects, he also feared the backlash of forced refinement, so he only kept it in his hall without touching it lightly.

However, even just this had some effect.

His temperament gradually became smoother, cultivation speed also increased greatly, and his cruel bloodthirsty nature was inexplicably suppressed considerably.

The big fellow said that just placing it nearby had such miraculous effects—one could imagine what kind of figure its original owner must be.

Wu Guan Wang didn’t care.

As time passed, nearly ten cycles later, his cultivation had surpassed Taishan Wang’s. They gradually became inseparable, and naturally this pure child heart matter was slowly forgotten.

Until over eighty years ago on a certain day, while meditating in his hall, he suddenly sensed vibration and humming within the hall. Opening the box to look, he saw that originally lustrous crimson heart rapidly becoming dim.

Startled and suspicious, he felt something was wrong.

But in just that instant, he thought of Taishan Wang’s earlier words and was overjoyed: Had that person finally died? Abandoned dao to enter demonhood?

Fearing some change might occur, and afraid the heart would become an ordinary heart after its old owner’s death, Wu Guan Wang remembered he began refinement without hesitation.

This time, there truly was no obstruction.

He successfully refined this heart, then later had Taishan Wang forcibly help him place this heart along with that inseparable token into his chest, claiming it as his own, completely making it his own heart.

The so-called pure child heart was pure as white paper, sensing heaven and earth’s changes in one’s heart, able to grasp the wonder of wind, thunder, rain, lightning, flowers, birds, insects, and fish; able to comprehend the suffering of death, life, gathering, scattering, sorrow, and joy; able to understand the principle of sunrise, moonset, withering, flourishing, prosperity, and decline. Desire emerged from emotion, emotion arose from the heart—unadorned and unbranched, upright and peaceful.

Over eighty-plus years, he gradually shed his former evil nature, and his cultivation soared even more.

But strangely, Taishan Wang spoke less and less.

Most of the time, he cultivated alone. Even when they met, he would always look at him in silence.

What kind of gaze was that?

Wu Guan Wang blinked, actually unable to recall clearly.

He was grasped at the throat by Jian Chou, pressed under her palm, and tormented by the palm power she constantly emitted. His consciousness was already somewhat muddled—he only wanted to turn his eyes to look at Taishan Wang’s current expression.

But all he saw was an emotionless face like a clay or wooden puppet.

So that deep, intense sorrow all surged up.

Wu Guan Wang’s eye sockets gradually reddened.

Turning his head, he looked at Jian Chou, at her calm and unrippled face. The demonic color on his own face slowly receded as he gave an indistinct laugh.

“I’ll give you the remaining half heart. But I want to ask you one thing—”

Ask.

Using this word was truly somewhat heavy.

Jian Chou had already prepared to be ruthless with him, directly cutting open his chest to take the heart. She hadn’t expected him to speak such words, and glimpsing that sea-like sadness rising in his eyes—definitely not fake—her tightened hand finally loosened somewhat.

“What matter?”

The youth’s tears immediately rolled down as he said hoarsely: “Save him…”

Jian Chou was stunned.

Before she could respond, Wu Guan Wang’s eyes already showed resolute color. He directly reached into his own chest, forcibly extracting that remaining half heart from the depths wrapped by his soul!

Tearing divine soul!

Piercing the heart!

He couldn’t know what state of mind his former owner had been in when this heart was carved out years ago, what kind of pain—he only knew his own state of mind, his own pain.

Only after tasting it did he know.

The crimson half heart was brilliant enough to drip blood, with that severely damaged token still embedded in the blurred flesh cross-section.

The youth extended it toward Jian Chou.

Though Jian Chou clearly detested his earlier unscrupulous means for victory, and especially his use of close blood relatives’ past to touch her reverse scale, at this instant she couldn’t help but feel her heart surge tumultuously.

After pausing for a moment, she reached out and received this half heart in her palm.

It was actually warm.

The moment the half heart left his hand, Wu Guan Wang’s features uncontrollably began changing. Fierce energy suddenly arose between his brows and eyes, his pupils filled with deep blue demonic strangeness!

“Kill!”

One word seemed ground out from between his teeth!

As the word fell, he followed by pouncing out, attacking toward Jian Chou!

Jian Chou almost instinctively raised her sword, piercing through his brow the instant his claws reached her!

How sharp was Yixian Tian’s fierce killing energy?

In just this instant, it scattered Wu Guan Wang’s already fragile soul body, causing him to fall backward with head thrown back.

“Haha, how sad, how pitiful! That was real!”

The fishy soil bore his weightless soul, yet he still used his last breath to grin fiercely at Jian Chou, carrying deep, vengeful malice. His eyes were filled with gloomy cunning, as if this was his true nature.

Finally, it gradually faded.

He said indistinctly: “Imperial Purple, Yama King fate. You kill Qin Guang—how do you know you won’t become the next Qin Guang…”

Tear tracks entered his eye corners.

Ghost nature gone, human nature also gone.

Wu Guan Wang lay on that filthy soil, blinking his eyes as if returning to those days when he went to the straw sandal stall in Wangsi City to make trouble. A smile hung at his lips, but his eyes gradually lost their luster.

The demon fox’s original soul manifested, instantly blown away by wind.

After soul scatter and spirit dispersal, only the golden ancient characters originally deeply embedded in his soul remained, gathering in the ground’s depression like a pool of dark gold water. The dim Book of Life and Death lay beside it.

And also…

In Jian Chou’s palm, this half bloody pure child heart!