The demon woman was completely different from Xue Yu’s “secondary body.” On the contrary, she had an extremely gentle and delicate appearance, with small eyes that narrowed to mere slits when curved, a tiny face only palm-sized, and a pale complexion.

Perhaps to match the festive occasion, or perhaps genuinely wanting to marry her beloved man, the demon woman also wore a deep red dress adorned with jade beads and tassels. At this moment, blood rushed out from her body eagerly, then seamlessly merged into the dark fabric, creating patches of water stains that bloomed and exploded like fireworks.

She collapsed sitting in the center of the array, looking at the interwoven lights around her with an extremely bewildered expression. After a long while, she slowly covered her eyes with her hands, and a line of clear tears meandered down her cheeks, hanging precariously on her chin, about to fall yet not falling, evoking pity from all who saw her.

A beauty shedding tears was pitiable indeed, yet in this situation and scene, what burst forth from that slender, petite body was an ultimate bewilderment and helplessness that reached the depths of sorrow.

“When we discovered her, she was rushing straight toward here, with a very strange expression on her face. I don’t think it looked like pure joy.” Ji Tingxi stroked his chin while watching this scene, frowning as he spoke: “It looked more like she was coming to seek help.”

“Seek help?” Xue Yu lifted her eyes to look at the heavy sky that seemed ready to crack. Ever since the demon woman was bound, the temperature between heaven and earth seemed to have heated up in the blink of an eye. She repeated those two words, then said: “From whom? Marquis Dingjiang?”

“I think that’s most likely the only possibility.” Yin Ling took the round fan from Shan Shu’s hand and waved it, but didn’t feel any improvement. She looked around in puzzlement and said: “But since she separated a secondary body, it proves she didn’t trust this marriage in her heart. So exactly what kind of situation occurred that even this clan leader couldn’t resolve, forcing her to desperately seek medical help anywhere, ultimately turning to a marquis without real power?”

“Let’s observe first.” Xue Yu approached the demon woman, and after careful observation, her eyelids lifted slightly: “The Soul Seizing Array is taking effect.”

Not long after her words fell, the demon woman’s eyeballs gradually stopped moving, revealing a stiff, puppet-like, bewildered color. Eight crystalline light beams separated from her body. At a certain moment, these beams seemed to have absorbed some kind of power and shot straight toward the brows of Xue Yu and the others like meteors.

This light came suddenly and brooked no refusal. In the eight people’s dilated pupils, the beams sank into their brows, then with a “whoosh,” seemed to change the color and background of the world before their eyes.

Ancient sealed events, from unknown period of history, were revealed before their eyes in complete detail at this moment.

These were events of the past. Through the Fusang tree’s various miraculous transformations, Xue Yu had not merged into the identity of the demon woman’s secondary body. Instead, she seemed to have become a true Demon Exterminator.

In ancient times, the Human Emperor unified the world, and all seas submitted.

The demon clan emerged into the world for over seven hundred years, the Demon Extermination Bureau existed for four hundred years. The court established the Demon Extermination Bureau, allowing them to slay demons. In later periods, the Demon Extermination Bureau’s power became so great that court officials viewed them sideways, and common people both revered and feared them.

When power is held in hand for too long, forgetting one’s original intention seems to become a perfectly normal thing. This was true for the Demon Extermination Bureau, and it was true for the Human Emperor as well.

After killing many demons, they eventually became numb. Regardless of good or evil, anyone who fell into the Demon Extermination Bureau’s hands found skinning and breaking tendons to be the best possible outcome.

They were truly exterminating demons. They wanted to completely and thoroughly slaughter this race that had appeared out of nowhere and seemed full of ill omens from this world, most decisively and cruelly.

But what about the demon clan? They didn’t understand, understood nothing at all.

To them, this world was brand new, requiring constant exploration. They didn’t understand what reverence meant, didn’t know what being low-key meant, and acted entirely on instinct.

Because no one restrained them, plus they were born with abilities that could harm ordinary people, they became arrogant for a time, loving to scare people until they fled in terror before laughing heartily. They naturally enjoyed the thrill and pleasure of pranks, which caused them to provoke universal anger at their peak, becoming thorns in the eyes of all clans and families, and even the Human Emperor on the golden throne.

Demon woman Zi Peng was born in this era.

She walked over many mountains and waded through thousands of waters. Even without predecessors’ experience, she could keenly sense something different from the discussions passed down orally among the people. Being unwelcome and rejected could no longer describe other races’ attitudes toward the demon clan. A kind of resentment continued under the court’s deliberate rendering and exaggeration, like pouring hot oil on a fire.

The demon clan needed restraint, so she came to restrain them, but no one managed the human race.

The Human Emperor allowed the Demon Extermination Bureau’s power to rise like flood waters. Perfunctory killings had made them feel bored. Under such a mentality, almost naturally and unsurprisingly, an unprecedented idea erupted within the Demon Extermination Bureau.

Why couldn’t they solve this once and for all? Why couldn’t they strangle all evil in the cradle?

From the moment three people from the Demon Extermination Bureau jointly memorialized the throne to report the entire plan to the Human Emperor, that memorial was turned over and over in the Human Emperor’s hands for more than ten years, until Tian He’s side made another mistake, accidentally killing a team of court soldiers.

The Human Emperor was furious, and the contradiction became irreconcilable.

It was under these circumstances that the Human Emperor finally nodded and agreed to the marriage between the demon woman and Marquis Dingjiang.

Zi Peng had met Marquis Dingjiang more than ten years ago. Marquis Dingjiang was refined and courteous, gentle and handsome, and always had unique views on people and matters that differed from others. The two quickly became friends.

This seemed to be a good man, especially after she revealed her true identity and he still smiled while proposing marriage.

That day, Zi Peng was genuinely happy from the bottom of her heart, not only because she could spend her life with someone she had developed feelings for, but also because she felt she had found a secure path for the demon clan.

The human race had sayings about marriage connections and nepotism. Willingness to marry meant willingness to be tolerant and close.

With her stationed in the imperial city, from now on, all demons wouldn’t dare act rashly. Over time, people would eventually change their opinion of them, and the demon clan would integrate into this world like all other races.

But this beautiful wish was false, the demon clan’s future was false, and even the young prince who had always appeared tolerant, gentle, and spring-like was false.

Just as she set out for the imperial city, on the day Marquis Dingjiang married her secondary body, news came from Qiongzhou that the human race had deliberately risen up, taking advantage of Qiongzhou being leaderless, and led by Cang Long, had bloodily washed Qiongzhou, obtaining half of the Origin Stone that had been offered on the altar.

At the same time, another piece of terrible news followed. Tian He had been ambushed, his primary and secondary bodies both appearing, surrounded by masters from various clans, and he finally died in the imperial city.

On his body was the demon clan’s other Origin Stone.

At that moment, Zi Peng understood the Human Emperor’s plan. This wasn’t intentional tolerance and acceptance at all – this was complete extermination, cutting grass and eliminating roots!

In the April spring breeze, she looked around in all directions, helpless to the extreme. Finally, she could only go to Marquis Dingjiang’s mansion at night. Even though she now understood that the so-called alliance and marriage were all traps, she had no other choice but to come here to seek a thread of survival for the demon clan.

She wanted to say that the demon clan was willing to live in seclusion, willing to offer everything, never to cause trouble again from now on, begging the Human Emperor to show mercy.

She asked for nothing else, only for a way to live.

But what awaited her was an inescapable net, a Soul Seizing Array that had been set up long ago.

That painting-like noble young master walked out from the door wearing red robes, lofty and aloof, his brows carrying an indescribable complex expression. He said, “When the emperor is angry, corpses float for thousands of miles. Zi Peng, you shouldn’t have walked into the trap, seeking your death.”

He spoke with that pitying yet ruthless attitude: “You are different from the demons I’ve seen. I have no intention of taking your life. Go, leave this mansion, run as far as you can, and never come back.”

Different, because she was like humans, having soft moments, having a heart that could be easily touched, and would never actively harm anything.

But Zi Peng had no time to question even half a sentence about the decade-long deliberate entrapment. She stood in the rain, her makeup and hair disheveled, crying hoarsely with all her strength: “How many demons have you seen? How do you know there aren’t those among them like me, like you? What gives you the right?”

By the end, she was utterly powerless.

What gave the Human Emperor the right, what gave Marquis Dingjiang the right to condemn an entire clan to death, to strangle all vitality, to negate all meaning of their existence in this world?

But faced with the imminent great victory, no one could listen to her words.

The entire imperial city was in silent celebration.

The Soul Seizing Array at Marquis Dingjiang’s mansion was originally meant to search out the location of the demon clan’s Origin Stones. Since the Origin Stones had already fallen into the Human Emperor’s hands, this array formation had lost its meaning. Zi Peng finally crawled up from Marquis Dingjiang’s mansion. She staggered out the door, but in the face of the established grand situation, one person’s strength was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, completely useless.

Finally, the Human Emperor raised a high altar, and under heaven’s witness, crushed the two Origin Stones to powder. He announced in a tone that brooked no questioning befitting one in a high position: From now on, there will be no more demon clan in this world.

The demon clan truly had no fire of new life, which made the people in the imperial city act without any worries.

The demons still existing in the world were hunted down by court armies and forces from various clans. Every day, countless demons died hopelessly.

During that time, death qi and resentment qi intertwined in the imperial city, like a thick layer of gloom accumulated in the sky overhead. But no one paid attention until the last group of demons hiding in Qiongzhou’s ancestral land died.

That was something worth celebrating. Many clans that had been summoned to participate in the great plan to hunt down the demon clan were invited to feast in the imperial palace, led by Cang Long and Tian Ao, the undisputed overlords among the demon clans. Even the Human Emperor treated them as honored guests.

On such a day of universal celebration, the human world welcomed unprecedented, unexpected backlash and disaster.

Something that was neither human nor human, neither demon nor demon, neither magic nor magic appeared out of nowhere. They were wrapped in black qi, shaped strangely and differently from each other. Some could fly in the sky, some could swim in water, and some could run swiftly through mountains and fields.

Unlike the demon clan, they had no thoughts, no reason, no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness that normal life would have, not even curiosity about this world. In their eyes, there was only destruction, blood, and death.

They bit anyone they saw, and feared no one. Even the weakest, most inferior type was extremely troublesome, as if wearing ten layers of thick armor, invulnerable to swords and spears, incredibly hard.

The world turned upside down in a single day.

Countless people died in bewilderment. Court armies, sects, and even major reclusive families searched through all texts but still couldn’t identify what these things that seemed to come specifically for revenge were.

The next day, many sect disciples and family young masters took spiritual weapons down the mountain, trying to quickly quell this disaster. But what made people’s scalps tingle was that among these things, there were also strong ones, superiors, even kings.

The stronger they were, the more intense their desire to destroy heaven and earth became. They led lower-level beings, sweeping through human cities like locusts, using their limited remaining wisdom entirely to trap and kill more humans and demons. Most terrifying was their grass-like endless vitality that grew explosively in the wind – two became ten, ten became a hundred, hundreds became thousands, and tens of thousands.

They wanted no power, status, wealth, or beauty – only killing in their eyes.

Communication was utterly impossible.

The human race called these things “Mei.”

That was the most painful, dark, and unbearable period in human history since their emergence.

For future descendants, for beautiful mountains and rivers, for former peace and tranquility, countless strong ones and elders stood forth, facing this catastrophe with their bodies. Fighting to the end, the air was always filled with the smell of blood and nauseating, rotten liquid.

Just when this world could bear no more, the spirit god of the Fusang tree was finally awakened.

Born as a sacred object, leader of all clans, with roots spread across the four seas and power like a vast ocean, yet facing such “Mei” clans, after long silence, the first thing it did was step into the court and depose the Human Emperor.

I still remember that day when the giant tree’s branches entered the court like pillars holding up the sky, as if entering an uninhabited realm. It pointed once at the Human Emperor’s jade seal, and the seal lost all its light. Besides this, all clan leaders who had participated in the demon extermination plan were deposed.

That branch hung more than ten great figures whom the world viewed as unclimbable mountains and threw them onto the altar, as if using this act to calm heaven’s anger.

After doing all this, the Mei that should be eliminated still had to be eliminated. The Fusang tree couldn’t intervene. No matter how reluctant, it could only command capable people to form an unbreakable defense line, guarding the defenseless masses behind them.

The Fusang tree promised that all who fell in this battle, whose souls could still be saved, would have a secret realm set aside for them to rest, also offering the final torch of inheritance to humanity’s descendants.

It had come to this point.

There was no other way.

Under such circumstances, Xue Yu became a Demon Exterminator. At that time, there were no more demons, replaced by Mei, who were thousands of times more troublesome. She fought on the front lines, battling high-level Mei, with Jiu Feng and others cursing as they fought alongside her.

That was the most difficult battle Xue Yu had ever fought.

The Mei were too numerous, with extremely strong reproductive abilities. If methods were slightly weak, those exploded green liquids would unexpectedly form another slightly weaker Mei, repeating endlessly without end.

In the end, when she looked up at the sky, it was always yellow-brown. Arms raised and lowered, spiritual power exhausted, wounded, fallen. When she really couldn’t bear it anymore, she would release spiritual weapons to block for a while, rest briefly, then grit her teeth and stand up again, with endless strange cries and shouts in her ears.

Xue Yu finally understood what the terrifying killing power of the All Living Beings Array was meant to deal with, and what those things that suddenly injured people at Wuwei Temple were.

Gradually, everyone fell. Ji Tingxi and Lu Qin were swept down to half-kneeling positions by a royal Mei, coughing blood. Yin Ling and Shan Shu barely supported each other as they retreated again and again. Jiu Feng transformed into her true form, and a terrifying prairie fire erupted, who knows how many times.

Terrible sword qi surrounded Su You as he fought while moving closer to Xue Yu.

When the eight were pushed to their limits, another scene suddenly appeared before their eyes.

The catastrophe of all living beings ended in the tenth year after the “Mei” emerged. Tian Ao’s body was the world’s most magnificent container and strongest cage, while Cang Long possessed the most terrifying attacking power. In that earth-shaking chaos, both clans came out in full force, cooperating with the pillars of a hundred clans fighting on the front lines to lure almost all the Mei to broad plains and great seas.

Tian Ao used his body as a cage, Cang Long used his body as a sword, simultaneously displaying ancestral techniques to surround, trap, and kill ninety percent of the Mei, at the cost of their lives.

The last Cang Long fell heavily from mid-air, its massive body crashing into continuous mountain ranges. Its body was wrapped with countless streams of black qi, while its chest was filled with nauseating green liquid from exploded Mei.

That was the new clan leader of the Cang Long clan, still very young, with lustrous and resilient scales, blood the color of gold, and huge pupils, making the passing of life seem especially long and cruel.

Lying beside him was the old clan leader of the Cang Long clan, trembling as he closed the eyes of the clan’s most outstanding junior. Before dying, he heavily swung his tail and said: “I finally understand—”

Finally understood.

No one had the right to determine whether a clan should exist or not.

Not the human race, not the demon race, not the Human Emperor, not even the Fusang tree.

After paying an unimaginable price to win this great battle, the Fusang tree listened to heaven’s will, erased this period of history, and simultaneously established three parties: the Human Emperor would govern humans, the Demon Capital would govern demons, and the Sacred Lands would form their faction, maintaining world peace and keeping mountains and rivers safe.

The tens of thousands of years of peace that followed came from this.

Like a handful of fireworks exploding before everyone’s eyes, the eight people were all shocked out before they could react.

Ji Tingxi and Yin Ling suffered the greatest internal consumption and immediately fainted. Jiu Feng couldn’t support herself, covered her chest, and “wa” spat out a mouthful of blood, gritting her teeth and cursing angrily: “Heavenly Mechanism Book, you better not let me—”

As soon as her words fell, a magnificent light whooshed over and enveloped her. That was a top-tier opportunity left behind by ancient great powers.

Jiu Feng’s eyes flickered as she recited “a hero doesn’t suffer immediate losses” countless times before barely swallowing back the curses filling her chest.

She closed her eyes, allowing herself to fall into slumber.

Xue Yu remained motionless, half-collapsed in place. Her hair was disheveled, her forehead covered with fine beads of sweat. Su You had known her for over ten years and had never seen her in such a state. Both were breathing heavily. He set his sword aside and sat facing her.

Two of the most brilliant rays of light descended from the sky, one entering Su You’s brow, the other spiraling into Xue Yu’s body.

Under the morning light, in the ancient city of Cang Yi, eight crooked, exhausted figures all fell into slumber.