In Wei Jie’s previous life, the Dong Yuan Emperor had always watched from afar in the heavenly realm and never descended to the mortal world.

Who would have thought that such a universe-reversing anomaly would occur in the human realm?

Someone had traveled back two hundred years, twisting the fates of numerous people from two hundred years ago.

In his previous life, Lord Can, who had originally stolen Wei Jie’s divine status with his help and sailed smoothly, suffered defeats all the way this time, ending up only able to hide his identity.

And Wei Jie had left behind a hidden piece in his previous life, obtaining the divine status he had secretly sealed at Ghost Stone Cliff before his tribulation.

Ridiculously, to restore Wei Jie’s fate, Lord Can had eagerly returned Ghost Stone Cliff to those Talismonger Sect people through Princess Yongning’s hands.

After Lord Can sensed that Wei Jie was too powerful in this life, he set up an altar, carved a Dong Yuan divine statue from ten-thousand-year divine wood, and sacrificed with the blood of Xia family descendants, finally opening the forbidden seal of the high god and inviting Dong Yuan Emperor’s divine soul down to the human world.

This played right into Dong Yuan’s desires. In the original trajectory, Dong Yuan had single-mindedly placed all his bets on opening the gates of the underworld.

But who would have thought that just when he was about to succeed, he was seen through by Wei Jie, who, together with the Wei family members, risking their final divine status, summoned the Five Phoenixes to burn heavenly fire and seal the gates of the underworld.

This also cut off his last hope. Dong Yuan had thought there was no more chance, but who would have thought that Wei Jie, whose soul should have scattered to the winds, still had such ingenious methods to reverse the universe below and allow the red moon to appear again.

Dong Yuan felt this was also heaven’s mercy toward him, giving him another chance to enter the underworld to find someone.

Only this time, he wouldn’t put all his treasure on breaking into the underworld. As a high god, he originally didn’t want to be tainted by evil arts.

But there was no choice. Such a once-in-a-millennium opportunity was hard to come by. Dong Yuan was unwilling to miss it again, so he finally used the ancient evil art that gods must not touch – soul marriage, and found Princess Yongning as a good soul vessel.

However, such matters were best not personally tainted, so Dong Yuan instructed Lord Can and the disciples left behind by Wan Lian Shi of the Ghost Sect to manipulate.

Next was Dong Yuan’s layout, using a two-pronged approach. This time, he must find the person he had been longing to find in the underworld.

Even Wei Jie, who had fallen to become a mortal, could think of methods to reverse the universe. As a high god, there was no reason he should be manipulated by the heavenly dao.

He… was unwilling!

But who would have thought that even with such careful arrangement, after Cui Xiaoxiao and Wei Jie fell into the trap several times, they managed to escape each time.

Hatefully, Lord Can was eager to act and signaled Wan Lian Shi’s disciples to perform the soul marriage evil art before he had arranged the final step.

He could only personally enter the field, but unexpectedly was still cleverly designed by Xiaoxiao and suffered a complete defeat.

Although Lord Can didn’t know what had happened earlier, seeing Ye Yi’s forehead bleeding now, he knew he had suffered greatly at Wei Jie and Cui Xiaoxiao’s hands.

Although Lord Can also knew that the master-disciple pair was difficult to deal with, now that a high god had personally confronted them and suffered such a great loss was truly beyond Lord Can’s expectations – was that master-disciple pair so difficult to handle?

However, a god was still a god, and he recovered his emotions quite quickly. Ye Yi, or rather the Dong Yuan Emperor, touched his still-bleeding forehead with indifference.

When deities possessed worldly people, there was a great taboo against becoming angry. Unexpectedly, today he was caught off guard and fell into Cui Xiaoxiao’s scheme.

Although his divine status hadn’t completely shattered, it was damaged. For a time, his divine soul was trapped in this dandy’s body, unable to move.

Even if he healed his internal injuries, he would miss the opportunity to return his soul to the heavenly palace because he had stayed in the mortal dust too long. He could only return to the heavenly realm when another mortal ascended.

What was hateful was that he had finally been able to personally come to the human world, yet still missed the chance to exchange from the underworld what he had long desired.

Recalling that slender, beautiful girl with the mole at the corner of her eye and her infuriating manner, Dong Yuan Emperor gritted his teeth and smiled lightly.

“High God, is it that we have no chance this time? You promised me that you would compensate the Xia family for the missing two hundred years with immortal fate…”

Seeing Lord Can inquire with concern, Dong Yuan wiped the dirty blood from his forehead and said indifferently to Lord Can, “Rest assured, what I promised you will not be lacking. Wei Jie has already become a demon in this life. Although slower, he will also form his Yuan Ying and ascend to face the final tribulation. In the previous fate, his immortal position was yours. This time, although there are some twists, it won’t differ much… After all, I do owe your Xia imperial family a debt of gratitude.”

Lord Can squinted at the man before him with a gentle, warm smile.

He was a god, and when he spoke, he naturally had divine power that comforted people’s hearts.

If it were someone else, they would have already prostrated themselves at this deity’s feet, feeling the caress of holy light.

But Lord Can didn’t believe it! Because he was a descendant of the Xia family, and the imperial blessing of the Xia family had been cheated away for two hundred years by this man who spoke so gently and warmly!

Back then, the Dong Yuan Emperor, due to his private fight with the master of the underworld, nearly caused the underworld to collapse and severely injured both sides. At the same time, he violated immortal rules. He who should have entered the mortal world for re-cultivation instead cheated the imperial blessing from the emperor to make up for his deficiencies.

Such ingenious scheming was even more evil than demons!

But Lord Can couldn’t be angry, because this emperor was the son of the Heavenly Emperor, born a god, a true son of heaven.

Even if the Xia family were emperors, in the eyes of such a high god, they were as insignificant as ants. So even though the Xia family was deceived by the god, they could only grit their teeth and swallow their blood.

Lord Can couldn’t help but recall when he was young and accidentally learned the secret of how the imperial Xia family was deceived; he was extremely furious.

At that time, he had already ascended the throne as emperor. With one command, using the excuse of eliminating evil spirits, he ordered the destruction of all the Dong Yuan Emperor’s divine statues in Great Xia.

But it was precisely because of his recklessness that he angered the heavenly god. That year, Great Qi suffered torrential floods, and the people suffered terribly, all pointing fingers and cursing him as emperor.

Later, he still received guidance from an expert, repaired all the Dong Yuan divine statues, fasted in repentance, and requested heaven’s forgiveness for his sin of neglecting the deity.

However, it was precisely because of this that during his period of closed-door repentance, he sensed the Dong Yuan Emperor and established contact with him.

Dong Yuan Emperor showed divine compassion, expressing willingness to help him, this descendant of the Xia family, escape the bonds of birth, aging, sickness, and death, and transcend to become immortal. This immortal fate was the generous gift Dong Yuan Emperor compensated the Xia family.

Escaping death was always the treasure most capable of tempting mortal emperors. After tasting supreme power, if one could live forever, how joyful would that be?

Thus, under the deity’s guidance, he finally learned the evil art of using Xia descendants’ lifespans to fill his deficiencies. At the same time, he carefully arranged to save the Wei family traitor Wei Di, obtained the remaining pages of the Book of Life and Death that could peek into people’s fates, and thus stole Wei Jie’s destiny.

Lord Can knew this immortal wasn’t so noble and upright. His help wasn’t out of guilt and compensation, but using him to open the underworld and find something he was looking for.

As for whether this high god found it in the previous trajectory, even Lord Can didn’t know, since he had no previous life memories and only knew many heavenly secrets that mortals shouldn’t know through the remaining pages.

However, Lord Can knew that in the original trajectory, the Dong Yuan Emperor hadn’t risked summoning his soul down to the mortal world to possess a mortal’s body.

Unfortunately, when everything started over, it was all very different.

Even a high god like the Dong Yuan Emperor had his immortal soul trapped in the human world, not knowing the direction of future fate.

Dong Yuan Emperor said softly, “That Cui Xiaoxiao activated the universe reversal. Although it only changed the human realm, it will sooner or later alarm the heavenly realm. Although I retained my memories as an immortal body, entering the mortal dust, I must also start over according to the reversed time… But this is also good. At least I still have a chance to find again what I want…”

In his previous life, he had brought down Wei Jie, making Wei Jie, the former master of the underworld, disappear into smoke. He had also successfully used Lord Can’s power to annihilate the Wei family and open the underworld.

But Wei Jie used some unknown method at the final moment to summon the Five Phoenixes, ignite heavenly fire, burn down Qilao Mountain, and completely seal the underworld. So in the previous trajectory, he had labored in vain and fell short of success.

This time, although time was reversed, allowing Wei Jie to come back from the dead and survive again, for him, Dong Yuan Emperor, it wasn’t necessarily an opportunity.

Because this time, he wouldn’t just remotely control from the heavenly realm, but personally descend and possess a mortal’s body to arrange and plan.

He wanted to fully utilize this reversed opportunity to obtain what he had always sought but couldn’t get…

Thinking of this, Dong Yuan Emperor said indifferently, “I’m now temporarily trapped in this dandy’s body. But such a mortal body is inadequate for great use.”

Lord Can quickly said, “I’ve already thought of this for you. That Young Master Qin Lingxiao of Lingyun Pavilion has achieved success at a young age and seems to have already formed an Inner Core. Once the timing is right, he can be used by you. However, before that, please be patient and make do with this body.”

Dong Yuan Emperor smiled and said nothing, only turned and gracefully left.

Behind the emperor, Lord Can slowly withdrew his smile.

Although he was a descendant of the Xia family and the Great Xia emperor, once the Supreme Emperor, before the son of the heavenly god, he was still like a commoner ant, driven and used by the divine son.

The former emperor silently took a deep breath. What he had cultivated since childhood was the art of emperorship. Although he could control people, he couldn’t control gods.

How could Lord Can not know that he was now merely a chess piece habitually used by this son of the heavenly god?

However, whether person or god, they had all now fallen to the mortal dust, standing on human ground, breathing human smoke and fire.

Who was using whom was still uncertain! It just depended on who could be more skillful and calculate to the end…

Setting aside Lord Can and the Dong Yuan Emperor’s respective calculating schemes, let’s talk about the Talismonger Sect people. After treating the wounded, they escorted King Changshan back to the city.

King Changshan, who had survived the great disaster, had been in a daze these past days. After being rescued, he held his daughter and cried bitterly.

The father and daughter could be considered reborn after calamity, naturally having many unspeakable words.

The immortal masters of the Talismonger Sect were treated as honored guests by King Changshan, entertained with good wine and meat.

However, Lord Can, along with the Marquis’ residence’s Ye Yi, both disappeared. When King Changshan heard that someone had impersonated him and even arranged an absurd marriage for his daughter, he was immediately furious. He not only sent people to cancel the marriage but also directly stated that the young master of the Marquis residence had colluded with villains and attempted to harm imperial relatives.

Although the princess and they were all witnesses to the events, knowing that Ye Yi was merely a vessel for souls.

However, Princess Yongning said that being able to raise a son so filthy and detestable showed the Marquis’ residence’s moral deficiency. The Marquis’ residence had done too many things, bullying men and dominating women, so however they were dealt with wouldn’t be unjust. She then greatly exaggerated before her father.

In short, several days later, at the Crown Prince’s indication, King Changshan’s memorial was sent to His Majesty’s desk.

His Majesty, hearing of such a case of usurping others’ positions, was greatly enraged. With a stroke of his brush, he ordered a strict investigation of this matter. Not only was the entire Marquis residence investigated and confiscated, but Ye Yi’s face was also put on the wanted list.

Tang Youshu said that Ye Yi’s divine seal was damaged and probably wouldn’t heal for some time. He would be trapped in Ye Yi’s body for a period. No one knew which high god he was, but having finally come to the human world once, he would have to suffer nationwide manhunts. Hopefully, the high god could enjoy these days as a street rat.

However, the disciples Wei Jie had previously taken in, upon hearing news of their master saving King Changshan and his daughter, swarmed like flies, blocking the former Lord Can’s residence entrance completely.

Xiaoxiao stood on the pavilion of Lord Can’s residence, able to see the residence entrance.

Wei Jie didn’t meet his newly accepted beloved disciples. Tang Youshu was leading Yu Ling’er with money bags, preparing to give those disciples severance pay.

Because Xiaoxiao had originally wanted to establish the Hehuan Sect and search everywhere for strong disciples, Wei Jie was possessed by divine status at the time. Jealous but unable to show it, he casually took in these fence-sitters.

Unfortunately, at that time, he accidentally let in a female disciple, who now became the handle Wei Jie couldn’t raise his head about before Cui Xiaoxiao.

Wei Jie had just told Tang Youshu that all these bad debts should be blamed on Tang Youshu. If not for his divine status, even if Wei Jie had scraped these people with knives, he wouldn’t have taken them in.

So now this mess had to be cleaned up by Tang Youshu.

As the founder of the Talismonger Sect, Tang Youshu was unwilling to ruin the Talismonger Sect’s two-hundred-year reputation. Taking disciples and then abandoning them – wherever this spread, it wouldn’t be a good reputation!

So he gathered the silver he had on hand, divided it into small bags to give to these abandoned disciples of the Talismonger Sect, fulfilling his duty as senior brother. Everyone could take the silver and part on good terms!

But those disciples still wouldn’t give up, clamoring to see Master Wei Jie and asking what crimes they had committed to become abandoned disciples of the Talismonger Sect just after entering.

Yu Ling’er saw Tang Youshu being besieged, spending silver but not gaining favor. Angrily, she stood out and said loudly, “Wei Jie has already turned into a demon. Once his demonic nature erupts, he’ll randomly kill people. His dismissing you is also for your good. Do you intend to join a demon cult and become a demon cult disciple?”

Everyone knew about the Talismonger Sect master Cui Xiaoxiao’s transformation into a demon.

It’s just that the young sect master was always smiling cheerfully, very approachable, showing no signs of being a demon head. She was beautiful and charming, and even if she had turned into a demon, it carried some sense of tragic fate that made people pity her.

She didn’t admit to being a demon head, and these people were happy to turn a blind eye. Whether she was a demon or an immortal, as long as they learned real skills!

Of course, being able to worship someone like Wei Jie, who hadn’t turned into a demon and even manifested divine status, would be even better!

Although Wei Jie’s bloodline wasn’t pure, he was still from the demon-subduing Wei family. Having such a master would make for a resounding reputation.

But now, Yu Ling’er openly declared that Wei Jie had become a demon and would commit killings. Their last fig leaf for self-deception was thus gone.

Now they could only look at each other, no longer able to say such nonsensical words as wanting to worship him as master, even if Wei Jie became a demon.

After most people took the silver and said some righteous words like “I’m irreconcilable with the demonic path, we cannot coexist under the same sky,” they left sheepishly.

But Ling Zhishan remained stubbornly refusing to leave. She said to Tang Youshu, “Once a master, always a master. Even if he has become a demon, I’m unwilling to leave his side!”

Xiaoxiao stood in the high pavilion, hearing Ling Zhishan’s earnest vow through the wind, and couldn’t help but nod emotionally, “If she hadn’t united with Qin Lingxiao to kill you in her previous life, just based on this sincere heart, you should take her as a disciple again.”

Wei Jie’s expression had started returning to coldness these past few days, and for some reason, he spoke much less.

At this time, he stuffed a piece of cut sweet melon into his master’s mouth, was silent for a moment, then said, “Cui Xiaoxiao, stop being irritating!”

Xiaoxiao bit the melon in her mouth, then pointed to the grapes in the fruit plate he was holding, indicating she wanted more to eat, then said, “Miss Ling admires you. If she keeps stubbornly refusing to leave, what can you do?”

Wei Jie didn’t want to engage in such a difficult topic. He simply stuffed large grapes into Xiaoxiao’s mouth again, then said, “I received the Crown Prince’s reply. He agrees to let us enter the palace’s library to examine ancient texts.”

To investigate Ye Yi’s origins, they inevitably had to explore which high god the Xia family had originally entangled with.

The Crown Prince had also been reading many books in the library during this period, but unfortunately, as a non-cultivator, many obscure passages in ancient texts remained incomprehensible even when he consulted great scholars.

So he felt it would be more reliable to let Wei Jie and Cui Xiaoxiao find clues themselves.

After Xiaoxiao and Wei Jie’s group bid farewell to the princess, they left the residence.

When Wei Jie took the lead walking in front, his elegant black robes, broad shoulders, and narrow waist were quite eye-catching.

Although his divine status was shattered, his divine soul had awakened. Like that, Ye Yi, his every gesture carried an indescribable aura.

Unlike Ye Yi’s gentle jade-like quality, Wei Jie’s aura became increasingly cold and severe, carrying a dangerous, oppressive force.

Xiaoxiao knew this was the aura of a demon.

Compared to her, Wei Jie had a constitution more prone to demonization. After all, he was the former master of the underworld, a generation of immortal demons. His aura was completely different from those upper realm immortals.

It was said that the underworld was a place all upper realm gods avoided, equivalent to the immortal realm’s Ninggu Pagoda.

Besides never seeing sunlight year-round, long-term residence in the underworld would affect an immortal’s divine status.

The Ancient Flame Emperor’s cold, inhuman divine nature was greatly related to his long residence in the underworld. Over time, even dignified righteous gods gradually transforming into immortal demons was quite normal.

Now Wei Jie’s divine status was shattered, but his demonic nature grew wildly like grass after rain. That aura of “stay away, living people” filled his entire being.

So much so that Ling Zhishan, who was stubbornly refusing to leave and wanted to argue with Wei Jie a bit more, was frightened by his sideways glance when she looked at Wei Jie, involuntarily stepping back two steps.

He was still the same person, but somehow, the originally devastatingly handsome man now seemed like a hellish evil spirit, carrying an intimidating power that made people dare not look directly…

In the moment of distraction, Wei Jie had already pulled Xiaoxiao’s hand and strode away.

The man who looked so cold and terrifying, whose previously casual and handsome face no longer wore smiles, only when looking at the slender girl beside him would his cold gaze soften slightly, as if looking at the world’s most precious treasure, his expression focused…

It seemed he had reconciled with Cui Xiaoxiao again, and in public he unhesitatingly held her hand, apparently not caring at all about their master-disciple relationship…

Where was this master-disciple relationship? They were a well-matched couple.

Ling Zhishan looked at Wei Jie’s large hand firmly holding Xiaoxiao’s, suddenly feeling her long-held persistence was meaningless. That man had always had only one person in his eyes, and it was never her…

Thinking of this, Ling Zhishan smiled miserably, no longer following Wei Jie and the others, not even bothering to respond to the fellow disciples who spoke to her. She just walked away in confusion, squeezing into the bustling crowd, destination unknown.

As for Wei Jie and the others, traveling by wind, they quickly reached the capital’s imperial palace.

Compared to Luoyi City, the capital’s prosperity was even more dazzling.

Unfortunately, the Talismonger Sect’s eating and drinking pursuits couldn’t be fully displayed for now.

Upon reaching the palace, Wei Jie and Cui Xiaoxiao were led into the deep palace by an old palace attendant personally assigned by the Crown Prince. It seemed the Crown Prince was even more anxious than they were to know the Xia family’s secrets.

After all, having an undying former Supreme Emperor lurking in the shadows disrupting court affairs meant neither His Majesty nor the Crown Prince could sleep peacefully.

Moreover, Great Qi had five hundred years of national fortune but was cheated out of two hundred years, which was deeply disappointing.

Although Great Qi had only been established for about a hundred years, as imperial descendants, how could they be content with Great Qi’s dynasty collapsing after two hundred years?

The Crown Prince studied the way of governing the world. As for ghostly matters, he could only entrust them to experts.

Because this was an important imperial location unsuitable for too many people to enter, only Wei Jie and Xiaoxiao went inside together. Under the palace attendant’s guidance, they crossed gate after gate, heading toward the library.

When passing the imperial temple in the palace, Wei Jie looked up at the imperial temple, then stopped. Xiaoxiao followed his gaze and immediately saw, among the many divine statues enshrined in the imperial temple, one statue holding a precious sword.

This divine statue was carved majestically yet handsomely, with a treasure-like countenance. The divine seal on his forehead was a lightning-like pattern, the same as the one on Ye Yi’s forehead.

The leading palace attendant, hearing Wei Jie inquire which deity this was, respectfully answered, “This is the deity Dong Yuan Emperor that the Supreme Emperor invited in when he was alive. At that time, the Supreme Emperor spent the entire nation’s resources to find a ten-thousand-year-old tree to carve this divine statue. Speaking of divine manifestation, since the divine statue entered the palace, Great Qi’s years of floods receded, and it was again a time of national peace and prosperity…”

Hearing these words, Wei Jie and Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but look deeply at each other.

The former Supreme Emperor using the entire nation’s resources to find ten-thousand-year wood was probably not simply for prayer, right?

This Dong Yuan Emperor’s forehead divine seal was the same as Ye Yi’s – they wouldn’t be unrelated!

Wei Jie’s accidental discovery had narrowed down their search scope considerably.