After Shi Qianlü discovered Shi Yan was missing, at first he didn’t think anything was wrong.
In Shi Qianlü’s view, Shi Yan was a person without ambition who didn’t care much about cultivation—a worthless individual who was content with mediocrity and never strived to improve. Even when she first had her memories erased and couldn’t remember anything, she possessed a natural, innate laziness.
Fortunately, she had been obedient over these years. To completely control her, during the first two years after she lost her memory, he never let Shi Yan interact with other people, thus fostering her dependence on just the two of them.
But when she hadn’t returned for a whole day and night, Shi Qianlü couldn’t find her using his secret techniques, and the tracking spell he had placed on her had been broken, he finally realized something was wrong.
Could there have been some development he was unaware of? Shi Qianlü had a bad premonition and immediately ordered Shi Zhenxu to search for Shi Yan. However, the news he received was something he couldn’t accept—Shi Yan was actually in Winter City, beside Sima Jiao whom they had tried every possible way to avoid.
Over the years, most of the surviving members of the Shi family had been killed by Sima Jiao. Shi Qianlü, as the family head, had few people left to use. To be safe, he had no choice but to personally take Shi Yan into hiding to avoid Sima Jiao’s search.
To conceal Shi Yan’s whereabouts, he arranged many diversions, sending the remaining Shi family members to distract Sima Jiao’s attention. Through one brilliant arrangement after another, he had managed to completely divert Sima Jiao’s gaze elsewhere, hiding Shi Yan for nearly ten years.
Yet after spending so much time, energy, and manpower, in the end it had all been for nothing.
“Master, perhaps Shi Yan going to Sima Jiao’s side might follow our years of influence and take action against him. Even if she can’t kill him, being able to wound him would be good,” Shi Zhenxu said, trying to comfort the grim-faced sect leader, not wanting their efforts to be wasted.
Of course, Shi Qianlü also wanted to believe this was possible, but after living with Shi Yan for so many years, how could he not understand her? Why had he delayed using Shi Yan, this secret weapon, against Sima Jiao? Simply because he didn’t believe she would act according to his plans.
“Regardless, we must quickly investigate Shi Yan’s current situation in Winter City.”
“Yes, Master.” Shi Zhenxu asked, “Should we secretly contact Shi Yan?”
After pondering with a stern face for a moment, Shi Qianlü said, “The initiative is no longer in our hands. Sima Jiao is probably waiting for us to walk into his trap. Once Shi Yan returned to his side, we can no longer influence her. This weapon that originally belonged to us probably has little use now.”
Thinking of this, Shi Qianlü felt his blood and qi surging, showing signs of falling into demonic deviation.
Over these years, Sima Jiao had been too cruel to the Shi family. If initially, Shi Qianlü had thought about restoring the Shi family, reviving the Gengchen Immortal Mansion, and killing Sima Jiao, by now he only wanted to preserve as much of the Shi family bloodline as possible, waiting for a chance to rise again in the future.
The fear was that Sima Jiao wouldn’t even leave them that opportunity for a comeback.
Shi Qianlü and Shi Zhenxu didn’t stay long in Hexian City. Soon after discovering Shi Yan’s disappearance, Shi Qianlü immediately relocated outside Hexian City. When he learned that Shi Yan had returned to Sima Jiao’s Winter City, he resolutely retreated through several cities, hiding in the southern cities of the Demon Realm.
It must be said that Shi Qianlü understood Sima Jiao very well. Shortly after they left, people sent by Sima Jiao had already arrived in Hexian City. Despite their exceptional speed, they still couldn’t capture the cunning and crafty Shi Qianlü.
Once again, it was the big black snake leading the team—a dozen demon cultivators with General-level cultivation came to capture them. Though few, each could directly confront Shi Qianlü.
The big black snake appeared adorably foolish when facing Sima Jiao and was naturally gentle with Shi Yan, who carried its master’s aura. But when facing others, its natural demeanor became naturally savage, especially toward those with the Shi family aura. Over the years, it had bitten countless Shi family members to death.
Its sensitivity to auras always allowed it to thrive when hunting down Shi family members. After failing to find Shi Qianlü’s traces in Hexian City, the big black snake contemplated with its not-so-large brain and figured that returning now would likely earn it a scolding from its dog-bully master. So it could only play dumb, following the other Demon Generals as they detoured toward the three southern cities of Chilao.
Because of one word from Sima Jiao, those three southern cities rich in crimson cherry fruit were now being overwhelmingly surrounded by Winter City’s Demon Generals. It wouldn’t take long before they would be brought under Winter City’s control.
In recent years, Sima Jiao’s pace in reclaiming the Demon Realm had been unstoppable. Almost anyone with a brain knew that his unification of this long-fragmented Demon Realm had become the inevitable trend.
All the Demon Generals of Winter City dreamed of unifying the Demon Realm and then following Sima Jiao, their Demon Lord, to invade the Cultivation World. However, their Demon Lord Sima Jiao currently had no interest in conquering territories, focusing solely on his amnesiac partner who had been lost and now found.
Since Shi Yan didn’t reject him despite not remembering their past, Sima Jiao didn’t mind her memory loss much and even found it quite interesting.
She often imagined strange plots and scenes in her mind, always making Sima Jiao laugh. She hadn’t realized that he could hear her thoughts when her emotions were intense, so she often cursed or praised him in her mind without restraint, saying all sorts of strange and boundless things, all of which amused him.
However, in recent days, Sima Jiao has been extremely angry, disturbing the peace of Winter City.
Why was he angry? Because Sima Jiao had learned that Shi Yan had killed many people over the years, and he was furious. He had once forced her to kill someone, and he still remembered how she had suffered from nightmares afterward, crying so hard. He had promised then not to make her kill, meaning not only would he not force her to kill, but he would also ensure she wouldn’t need to kill in the future.
But what about now? She had been forced to learn how to kill.
When Shi Yan spoke of the people she had killed, her tone was flat, and her eyes weren’t red at all, showing no signs of crying as if she was no longer afraid.
Sima Jiao thought: I’ll kill Shi Qianlü!
A tremendous rage welled up inside him, and he burned the complaining Zhi Hun clan Demon General to ashes.
It was this Zhi Hun clan Demon General who came to report that two aspiring Demon Generals from the Zhi Hun clan had been killed by Shi Yan, hoping for an explanation. That was how Sima Jiao learned about Shi Yan killing people.
The Zhi Hun clan was a prominent surname in the Demon Realm, and also an established family in Winter City. They inevitably felt entitled, and since they had many high-cultivation Demon Generals, Sima Jiao had found it convenient to employ some of them. This led to this Zhi Hun clan Demon General becoming somewhat arrogant. Instigated by some people with ulterior motives who wanted to test the waters, he came to poke this tiger.
Sima Jiao turned the man into a pile of ashes and scattered them on the ashen-faced Zhi Hun clan master’s face.
“I beg the Demon Lord for forgiveness!” The high-cultivation Zhi Hun clan master immediately apologized without a second word.
Originally, in the Demon Realm, it was survival of the fittest. If someone died, why ask why? There was no reason—being killed simply meant you were useless. If you weren’t satisfied, you could kill back if you could. But the one who had acted was now under the Demon Lord’s protection, and they couldn’t touch her, so naturally, they could only accept it and keep quiet.
Everyone knew this principle, but there were always people who thought they could break the rules.
These days besides Sima Jiao, what Shi Yan saw was a young man like a crazy cat, occasionally quite cute, unlike the Sima Jiao others described. She had no accurate understanding of his infamous cruelty and ferocity, until this time when she witnessed firsthand what Sima Jiao’s so-called “ruthlessness” meant.
Sima Jiao was completely different from Shi Yan—he was a man who would readily kill at the slightest provocation. He was too sensitive to others’ offenses and malice. Sometimes, watching him, Shi Yan felt that this great lord could single-handedly cover all the roles of both a tyrant and a favored concubine. He could act as capricious as a favored concubine and as violent as a tyrant.
Because of this momentary displeasure, he decided to kill the Zhi Hun clan to vent his anger. Shi Yan didn’t even know why he was so angry.
She shouldn’t have spoken up—what did it matter to her if the great Demon King was unhappy and wanted to kill a group of Demon Realm cultivators? In her view, it was like ancient emperors wanting to kill people. Though they claimed it was because of women, it had little to do with women; it was mainly about venting their anger and saving face. There was no use in her trying to dissuade him.
However, while walking in the white forest outside the city, a group of Zhi Hun clan members—elderly, young, women, and children—ran over and knelt before her in a large group, wailing pitifully. They were the kind of people who would be offered seats on public transport in her previous life, and their crying appearance was truly pitiful. When people die unseen, it’s not easy to be moved, but when they’re right before your eyes, it’s hard not to feel compassion. So Shi Yan decided to say a word for them.
Just one word.
“If you’re not angry anymore, could you kill fewer people from the Zhi Hun clan?” she asked Sima Jiao when she returned.
The angry Sima Jiao looked at her for a good while and said, “If you don’t want to kill, then so be it.”
This man, who had previously been cruelly intent on exterminating their clan, now very tolerantly stroked her hair and said, “If you don’t want to kill others and only want to vent your anger on those two brothers who are already dead, I can resurrect them and kill them again.”
Shi Yan: “???” Resurrect them to kill again? She had never heard of such a bizarre operation.
But this wasn’t the first time Sima Jiao had done such a thing. Years ago, when he killed so many people from the Shi family, some of them hadn’t used their once-in-a-lifetime soul transfer rebirth opportunity, so they were resurrected by their relatives and friends. Sima Jiao didn’t prevent their resurrection, but waited until they were revived, then went to kill them once more, one by one.
No one dared visit the formerly spiritual Taixuan Peak of Gengchen Immortal Mansion nowadays, because pillars there were hung with the heads of Shi family members. Many had two heads strung together—these were the ones who had been resurrected and killed twice.
Since Shi Qianlü had taken Liao Tingyan away making her unfindable, Sima Jiao had hung all the killed Shi family members’ heads in their former home, preventing Shi family members from even daring to collect the bodies, forcing them to be left exposed in the wilderness.
Shi Yan didn’t know these things. She focused on the key point and sat up straight: “People can be resurrected after they die!”
“Can you resurrect someone for me?” Shi Yan asked eagerly.
Sima Jiao was very good to her, almost giving her whatever she wanted, but Shi Yan hadn’t asked him for anything except for food and drink. She just treated herself like a misplaced green onion, getting by, but this was the first time she had asked him for something.
“I have a friend called Hong Luo who was very good to me. Can you bring her back to life?”
Sima Jiao had spoken casually about resurrecting others, obviously not considering it a big deal. Now hearing Shi Yan’s request, he naturally agreed.
“Of course, I’ll do it for you if you want. It’s just a small matter.”
The soul transfer rebirth technique used by the Shi clan was derived from a forbidden technique originally used by the Sima clan, created by one of the Sima clan’s ancestors.
Using the corpse or objects frequently used by the deceased in life, the complete soul of the dead is summoned. Through secret techniques, the death energy is washed away, nourished with special spiritual energy, and then sealed into an early-stage fetus that hasn’t yet developed its spirit. The pregnant woman then swallows a precious rebirth pill. After birth, this person will possess the memories of their previous life, inherit all their previous feelings, and live again, feeling as if they had just experienced a long dream.
In ordinary reincarnation, one of the three hun and one of the seven po souls responsible for memory and emotions dissipate into the universe, while the remaining two hun and six po souls are also washed and fragmented in the cycle of reincarnation, merging with other souls to form a new complete soul before being reborn. Therefore, in the concept of reincarnation, one usually cannot find the complete person from a previous life. Only this soul transfer rebirth technique is different—it truly defies the natural order.
The Sima clan specialized in these heaven-defying creations, which was perhaps the reason for their clan’s destruction.
After Sima Jiao agreed, he quickly resolved the matter. The soul transfer rebirth technique ideally required a blood connection between the pregnant host and the deceased, but since Hong Luo had no relatives, it took some effort to find a pregnant woman whose soul was most compatible with hers. Coincidentally, the most compatible pregnant woman was from the Zhi Hun clan.
This clan that had taken her life would now grant her a new one.
The Zhi Hun clan, having escaped disaster, changed from their previous fear to joy because of this matter. The Zhi Hun clan master even promised to treat the soon-to-be-born Hong Luo especially well.
“If what you said about rebirth is true, and I’m born with my current memories and intelligence, I definitely wouldn’t end up in this sorry state! At the very least, I’d lead a city and be a Demon Lord!” Hong Luo had once said with great interest when chatting with her about concepts like rebirth and transmigration.
Shi Yan couldn’t help but smile remembering how Hong Luo had slapped the table when saying this.
“So happy?” Sima Jiao observed the smile on Shi Yan’s face.
Shi Yan returned his smile: “Yes, she was the only person who truly cared for me in these years.”
Sima Jiao brushed the hair near her ear and said softly, “I once truly cared for you too, but you don’t remember.”
“It doesn’t matter if I don’t remember, as long as you’re still here.”
Her lost memories were a lesson for him—a lesson for neglecting her life.