Thus, the ensuing battle scene became Yinze fighting against Fu Chenzhi, while I fought against Xuanyue. I watched them soar through the air and land in the spacious demon hall, shifting shapes and shadows. Yinze’s sword light was silver like frost and snow, while Fu Chenzhi’s sword light was red with evil qi. This was truly a duel between two master swordsmen, domineering beyond measure.
Especially with Yinze’s divine power being controlled, the two were evenly matched—it was spectacular. Even Floating Life Emperor, who had been showing off verbally all this time, remained silent, probably watching the battle with his heart pounding.
Looking at my fight with Xuanyue, it was even more like cutting through tangled hemp with a sharp blade, or frying peanuts—more straightforward than theirs: I sprinted over and used ice balls to knock Xuanyue down from the air, pressed down on its body, and grabbed its four little legs. Who knew it would spit saliva all over my face and frantically flap its wings like a drowning bee, covering my face with miasma and mud.
This damned thing was much harder to deal with when it went crazy than in its normal state.
I grabbed the fur on the back of its neck and lifted it, rolling my eyes as I wiped the saliva from my face, maintaining this posture throughout. No matter how it flailed, kicked, extended its claws, showed its baby teeth, or spun wildly in place, it couldn’t shake me in the slightest.
The battle between Yinze and Fu Chenzhi indeed seemed somewhat troublesome. Yinze’s stamina was limited, and since he was clear-minded, he had to control himself to avoid harming Fu Chenzhi. Fu Chenzhi originally had an immortal body and could cast spells, so Yinze needed very fast footwork and consumed a lot of physical strength to dodge his all-around attacks. Over time, while Yinze’s reactions remained unchanged, he was becoming somewhat overwhelmed.
Sensing the situation was turning bad, I looked at Xuanyue and pretended to mutter to myself: “Floating Life Emperor, Floating Life Emperor—it means ‘life is like a dream,’ right? Taking such a grand and imposing name, I thought he could conjure up something formidable, but what he creates is still fake. How is this different from an ordinary fox demon?”
Unexpectedly, this demon called Floating Life Emperor was quite proud and arrogant. He snorted coldly: “So what if it’s fake? I’ve already made you kill each other.”
I laughed: “No, no. It would only be true mutual killing if we willingly hated each other in our illusions and tortured each other to death. What you’re doing now is just killing desire. Even if one of Fu Chenzhi or Divine Lord Yinze dies, in the end, they still won’t hate each other—they’ll still consider you the enemy.”
After a long moment, Floating Life Emperor laughed: “Heh, you little girl, are quite stubborn. Fine, since you don’t believe I can make you hate each other, and I’m idle anyway, let me first make you kill your royal brother.”
“Come on then! Do you think I’m afraid of you?”
Though I said this, I quickly formed ice blades in my palm and concentrated my attention. Then I saw azure light flash on a mural, and chaotic phantoms appeared before my eyes: there was Father King, there was Mother Queen, and there were scenes of Lord Kaixuan and Fu Chenzhi conspiring together to murder my parents…
I quickly gripped the ice blade and squeezed hard at my fingertips! This pain connecting ten fingers to the heart was truly refreshing—I immediately returned to reality with renewed vigor.
“The mural!” I shouted toward Yinze and Fu Chenzhi’s direction: “Grand Master, Floating Life Emperor is in the mural!”
Hearing this, Yinze immediately broke free from Fu Chenzhi and sprinted toward the mural. He leaped up, holding his sword horizontally at his chest, preparing to slash the mural in half. At this moment, Floating Life Emperor urgently said: “Divine Lord, please show mercy!!”
Yinze’s steps didn’t stop, so Floating Life Emperor continued: “No, no, no, spare my life! I’ll make a deal with you!” Then another azure light appeared on the mural and flew onto Fu Chenzhi and Xuanyue. Their bodies tensed and shuddered. Fu Chenzhi half-knelt on the ground while Xuanyue fell flat on her back with all four paws in the air.
Only then did Yinze stop, but his sword point was already aimed at the mural: “Get out.”
Floating Life Emperor said: “Yes, yes, yes, I’m coming out, I’m coming out…”
I hadn’t expected that after speaking so arrogantly and proudly just now, underneath he was a big pustule…
But what surprised me somewhat was that the person who tremblingly rolled out of the mural was a man wearing the crown of a Spring and Autumn period ruler, looking no different from an ordinary mortal.
He hunched his shoulders and bowed to Yinze like a turtle: “Thank you, Divine Lord, for sparing my life.”
I said: “I just don’t understand—aren’t you just a demon? Why are you dressed like this? Or are you so crazy about wanting to be emperor that you’ve transformed into an emperor’s appearance?”
“Shut up, you little demon. What do you understand?” Floating Life Emperor turned around and said angrily, “I was originally a king.”
Yinze pointed his sword at him: “Cut the nonsense.”
Floating Life Emperor was frightened by the sword light and stepped back, sitting down with a thump on the ground, the ornaments on his crown jingling: “Yes, yes, yes, let’s talk about our deal—no, no, this isn’t a deal, it’s a small token of respect that this humble one wishes to offer the Divine Lord. The Divine Lord should know that this Lianyao Valley has eighty-one levels, and you’ve only reached the twentieth level now. If you walk down level by level, you’ll have quite a journey and quite a fight ahead. I have teleportation runes given by the Endless Fierce Ghosts that can send the Divine Lord and the Divine Lord’s friends directly to the eighty-first level, to the entrance of Endless Hell…”
Yinze said, “Hand them over.”
Floating Life Emperor took out several talisman papers from his bosom and tremblingly placed them on the ground. Yinze picked up the talisman papers with his sword and caught them in his hand: “Scram.”
That Floating Life Emperor rolled away, crawled up to the corner by the door, and disappeared into thin air in a flash.
I quickly went to help up the barely breathing Fu Chenzhi and gave him water to drink.
Looking in the direction where Floating Life Emperor had disappeared, I said in confusion: “Floating Life Emperor’s behavior before and after defeat is too different—he doesn’t seem like the same person at all. Could he be acting?”
Yinze said, “No, he’s always had this personality—killed quite a few people, but is more afraid of death than anyone.”
“How strange. Why? If he has the guts to kill people, why doesn’t he have the guts to face life and death?”
“He’s a demon spirit formed from the condensed resentment of Duke Huan of Qi before his death. In other words, his earliest memories are of hunger, regret, miserable death, and maggots—things he never wants to experience a second time.”
“Duke Huan of Qi? Was he an emperor of Jiuzhou?”
“He was a ruler during the Spring and Autumn period.”
According to Yinze’s description, this Duke Huan of Qi was quite a character: during his lifetime, he campaigned east and west, dominating the feudal lords, but after his virtuous minister Guan Zhong died, he employed petty people and became foolish and tyrannical. During his serious illness in old age, his five sons fought for power and succession, not even knowing he had starved to death. It wasn’t until sixty-seven days after his death, when maggots crawled out of the windows, that the new ruler discovered him and buried him.
So his resentment kept circling Duke Huan of Qi’s corpse, pondering life when he had nothing to do. Finally, he came up with a fallacious theory about life: life is like water, amusing oneself while harming others. After that, Floating Life Emperor’s favorite thing to do was to make people live in various dreams he created, sometimes sweet, sometimes nightmarish, until they finally starved to death alive in their dreams.
After hearing this, I felt a chill down my back: “Since Floating Life Emperor is so sinister, might he set another trap for us?”
“No. Though he’s despicable, shameless, and afraid of death, he keeps his word—he does have some resemblance to Duke Huan of Qi.” Yinze looked through the talisman papers in his hand. “The runes are real, too.”
“Then what do we do now? After big brother wakes up, do we… go down?” To be honest, hearing about that Endless Hell made me feel creepy all over…
“Yes.”
I said timidly, “Grand Master, isn’t that the most terrifying place in the underworld? If we go down, might we not be able to come back out?”
Yinze said, “No. Every time the underworld captures a soul, even if it’s just cattle, horses, insects, or fish, there are detailed records. Those sent to Endless Hell are all serious criminals whose names have been recorded in countless ledgers before being imprisoned there. If not recorded, ghost officers won’t be forcibly detained.”
I breathed a sigh of relief and patted my chest. But then Yinze added another blow: “I’ve never been to Endless Hell, but people who’ve been there all say it’s somewhat disgusting.”
I looked at him, frozen like stone.
After two hours, Fu Chenzhi woke up, and Xuanyue also returned to normal.
It turned out that after Yinze and I fell into the teleportation array, Xuanyue had gone several days and nights without sleep, flying straight to Qinghong Mountain to get reinforcements. Fu Chenzhi happened to have returned to Qinghong Mountain, so he followed it to Lianyao Valley to find us. But they essentially hit their noses against pot-bottom ash, running into Floating Life Emperor, this troublesome fellow. Both fell under illusions and had been trapped here ever since.
After regaining consciousness, Xuanyue seemed very embarrassed, staying curled up on my knee with her little bottom raised and her face hidden in her paws.
Fu Chenzhi was still somewhat weak, sitting nearby in meditation to heal his internal injuries. Taking this opportunity, I also told Yinze about Ruyue Weng framing me, but omitted the matter of him joining forces with Huangdao Immortal Lord to attack Suozhao.
“Logically, Ruyue Weng should be able to see that you’re not a demon body. Why would he mobilize forces to chase you to Jiuzhou and specifically set up an array to bring you in?” Yinze thought for a moment and narrowed his eyes. “Luowei, are you hiding something from me?”
Oh my, ginger is indeed spicier when old. Yinze’s mind was too sharp—he immediately sensed where the problem lay. At this rate, I probably couldn’t hide it much longer.
However, the matter was too important. I didn’t dare take the risk and still couldn’t reveal the Suozhao matter. I was afraid that when the time came, the Divine Lord would say, “Oh, that was just an empty city I randomly built for fun back then. I don’t want to play with it anymore, so let’s destroy it,” and with a wave of his sleeve, Suozhao would become just a place name in history books. Therefore, I didn’t dare say more and could only desperately shake my head: “No, absolutely not.”
Thank heavens, Fu Chenzhi suddenly said: “Master, I’ve finished recuperating and can set out now.”
After being separated for many days, seeing Big Brother again filled me with joy. With him and Grand Master protecting me, what did I have to fear? I wasn’t even afraid of Endless Hell. I finally didn’t have to be Yinze’s little tail anymore and could run around clinging to Fu Chenzhi’s arm instead.
Though Fu Chenzhi still didn’t write his emotions on his face, from his eyes you could tell he was in quite good spirits. I held Fu Chenzhi’s hand and secretly asked: “Big brother, that immortal woman called Shangyan—is she your birth mother?”
“You saw her?” Fu Chenzhi nodded. “That’s my birth mother.”
“She knows Grand Master?”
“Yes, they’re old acquaintances. It’s precisely because of this that Master took me as his disciple.”
“You two.” Yinze frowned. “What are you whispering about? Are you so happy about going to hell?”
Like two children who had done something wrong, we obediently shut our mouths. Then Yinze took out the runes and teleported us to the underworld.
I take back the words “I’m not even afraid of Endless Hell.”
Along with Xuanyue’s particularly milky shriek, I saw a world I never wanted to visit a second time in this lifetime.