Zixiao had already suffered a heavy injury when he failed his tribulation, and now he was dead and his cultivation dissipated. The sword intent he left behind only had around a hundredth of his previous power. After a few rounds of battle, he couldn’t overcome the bat’s momentum.
The bat chased after him in the wake of its victory, rushing toward the golden cage in the middle of the Serene Pool. His saliva was flowing down with anticipation. “I’m coming for you, my phoenix meat!”
On the other side, Yin Wuwang suddenly looked up at the sound of Yan Qing’s voice. Visible anger gathered on his pale face, and he wished he could take a pound of flesh from Yan Qing’s body. He said through gritted teeth, “What did you say?”
Yan Qing said, “I said, when are you going to return the sagecloud mirror I gave you? You don’t intend to steal it, do you?”
When had Yin Wuwang suffered this kind of humiliation before? Anger rushed into his heart, and he took a green mirror the size of a palm from his sleeve, throwing it to Yan Qing.
Yan Qing reached out and caught it in mid-air.
The sagecloud mirror was the most basic of spiritual tools for catching sight of phantasms, but it was still an irreplaceable magic weapon within the cultivation realm. The original host had given it away so easily, and given it to such an ungrateful brat. It was a pity.
Yan Qing wanted the sagecloud mirror so he could take a look at himself.
When he died in his last life, the demon god’s words had lingered in his heart.
“Yan Qing, you can’t escape me. A phantasm lives in each person’s heart, like a shadow from which there is no separation.”
Yan Qing’s lips hooked up.
A phantasm, huh.
He rather wanted to know whether or not he was a demonseed.
Yet the mirror spun in his hand, and carelessly reflected the phoenix within the golden cage in the Serene Pool. At the next moment, a mournful phoenix cry sounded within the Serene Prison. Then overwhelming waves of heat crashed toward them, with the golden cage as the center. The fire burned fiercer and fiercer.
Yan Qing couldn’t control the mirror in his hand. It flew toward the sea of fire!
“???”
With his current status, where could he find another sagecloud mirror?
Yan Qing leaped into the air and chased the mirror.
The bat rushed toward the golden cage.
Yan Qing rushed toward the sagecloud mirror.
They reached the center of the Serene Pool at almost the same speed.
When the bat saw him, he burst into anger. “Get out of here, don’t even think about snatching away my dinner!”
Blazing golden light lit the entire ceiling, and glittering fire burned on the black surface of the pool, swallowing white bones and melting the golden cage.
The bat had wanted to take his time making a slow-baked phoenix, sprinkling some paprika on it, and eating a delicious meal. Now, he didn’t have time for anything else. He opened his mouth wide, planning to swallow the phoenix whole. The bat’s head swelled up like a balloon, and his open mouth seemed to bend time, turning into a black hole.
The just-woken phoenix in the golden cage looked at it with dark green eyes. Slowly, a trace of evil appeared in its eyes. This evil encompassed a desire for blood and slaughter. It could not have come into existence without countless wicked acts.
But the bat didn’t notice.
The bat’s mouth was open so wide that at the same time that he swallowed the phoenix, he also swallowed Yan Qing’s sagecloud mirror.
Once he swallowed them both, he felt a little indisposed, and smacked his lips a few times, letting out a breath of air. He said with disgust, “That was hard on my teeth.”
Yan Qing: “......”
Yan Qing: “Hah.”
He stood in midair, all black hair and blue clothes, and the strands of hair tangled among his fingers turned into a thousand scattered shadows, rushing toward the bat.
“What are you trying to do to me?!” The bat was furious. He opened his mouth, wanting to bite through the silk Yan Qing was using to bind him. Then there was a crack. His tooth—his tooth was gone…
The bat: “Aaahhh I’m going to kill you!”
Yan Qing smiled. He was born with peach-blossom eyes, and when he seemed to smile without smiling, he had an affectionate air. His lips were red and his skin was like snow, making his smile seem calm and amiable. But only the people of Tenside City knew that every time the young city master was in a bad mood and about to kill someone, he had this expression on. The threads in Yan Qing’s hands tightened little by little. If he used a little more force, they would turn into sharp blades, cutting into the bat’s flesh, inch by inch.
Having met a harsh opponent, the bat was wilder than ever. He started crazily kicking his little legs: “Damn it! Let me go! To hell with this, I’m going to eat you!” But when his last word landed, red light began to radiate from him. The bat looked down and blinked. “Hey, what’s wrong with my stomach?”
His stomach immediately gave him the answer.
The phoenix Zixiao locked in the golden cage, creating dark fire to melt it little by little, was never some divine creature, but a demonseed that killed people like it was scything flax.
It hadn’t died in the bat’s stomach, and to the contrary, wanted to swallow the bat to replenish its strength. So the bat currently had its body bound by thousands of threads, while his organs were being corroded by fire.
The bat: “......” S-save me.
From the time that his sagecloud mirror flew out of his control, Yan Qing had already guessed that the creature in the cage was an evil one. The sagecloud mirror was intimately connected with phantasms, so how could something that could attract it be a good thing? If he hadn’t guessed wrong, this phoenix had long since been controlled by a phantasm, becoming a demonseed.
“Leave!” Sensing that the phoenix demonseed had awoken, Zixiao used the last trace of his spirit to roar at them.
Yan Qing stood in midair, his blue clothes flying around him, looking at the bat from afar.
In the bat’s eyes, big as beans, red and dark green intertwined.
The phoenix demonseed was clearly consuming the bat’s soul. The demonseed gave Yan Qing a contemptful laugh.
Yan Qing smiled at it as well.
In his last life, he had dealt with the demon god for many years, so he wouldn’t have fallen so far as to be unable to deal with a single demonseed. When he had chosen thousand-strand silk as his weapon back then, it was for the sake of opposing phantasms.
A sea of fire covered the center of the Serene Pool. The people on the outside couldn’t see what was happening inside.
The phoenix demonseed cried out and rushed toward Yan Qing.
The threads between Yan Qing’s fingers pierced into the phoenix’s forehead and sunk into its sea of consciousness, sharp as a blade and quick as the wind. He turned slightly, dodging the phoenix’s attack.
A thread of hair drifted past his blood-red lips. When he looked up, he gave forth a cold killing intent. His fingers abruptly pulled back.
The phoenix looked up to the sky and cried.
At the same time, Zixiao’s consciousness struck its final blow. Along with Yan Qing’s movements, the fire billowed, destroying the formation Springturn Sect had guarded for a thousand years, and attacking the phoenix.
With a thunderous crash, the stone walls split open, and rocks fell down. The phoenix shrieked, full of fury. Its resentful gaze landed on Yan Qing. At the next second, wanting to take him down with it, it flew towards him, carrying the fire with it.
Within this chaotic scene, Yan Qing raised his head.
Who would expect that this scarlet fire would suddenly stop in the middle of rushing toward him?
“Stop, you damn bird! You actually dare to kill me along with yourself?”
The bat and the phoenix fought over ownership of their body. Their body flew from left to right, and in a moment of inattention, they fell from the air, landing on Yan Qing’s head.
With a sizzle, he heard the sound of his hair burning.
Yan Qing: “......”
Yan Qing’s method of attack in his last life had been black silk. Before he had found his divine weapon, the weaver girl’s silk, as a replacement, he had always used his own hair. Because he plucked a strand whenever he had to fight, the more he plucked, the less he had, until the word “bald” became his inverse scale. Even after he grew it out afterwards, he had never been able to get over this preoccupation.
And now, this creature had burned it with his flames???
Yan Qing’s face was expressionless. He lifted his hand and pulled down the bat.
“What are you doing?!” The bat and the phoenix were exhausted from fighting over their body. Now that Yan Qing had them by the neck, their ears pricked up.
Yan Qing smiled darkly. “Do you know what place on a man’s body can’t be touched?”
The bat: “The hell I know!” At the moment of life or death, he bit down on Yan Qing’s finger, his fresh blood flowing into his mouth.
Yan Qing was so angry he smiled. “Little beast.” But before he could retaliate, the bat swallowed his blood and spat out white foam, turning dizzy, and fell to the ground, unconscious.
Yan Qing didn’t care whether he was awake or not. He planned to kill him anyway.
Just when he put a little force into his hand, his temple suddenly throbbed, pulling on his flesh and soul, as if there was something invisible and irrevocable binding him.
Yan Qing took a step backwards, his eyes widening. In disbelief, he saw the black thing in his hand.
He instantly realized it was—a contract?!
Yan Qing: “......”
In his last life, as the young city master of Tenside City, how many divine and demonic creatures had sent themselves to his door? Not one of them had satisfied him enough to form a contract with them! Now, this bat had bitten him, and forcefully established a contract?! One drop of blood could force a contract? What exactly was this bat?!
Yan Qing was so pissed off he laughed.
The bat slowly came back into consciousness, its wings covering its head. “Why did I faint?”
He looked up and saw Yan Qing, whose face was ashen. He seemed like a cold-faced god of death, but he didn’t make a move toward him, so the bat carefully moved a little. Having escaped from the claws of a demon, once he let out a breath of relief, he immediately went back to his old nature, letting out a laugh. “I’m going to laugh myself to death. Something like you actually wanted to kill me? What kind of humiliation is that? I’ll return for sure! Just wait for me!”
He opened his skeletal wings with a whoosh, planning to escape, but before he could fly more than a few meters, he let out a screech, falling to the ground with a thump. The contract between cultivators and beasts was one of life and death, and meant that the cultivator had absolute control over the beast.
Yan Qing calmed down, and once his anger was gone, he went completely cold. He bent over and picked up this bat that was so ugly it angered the heavens. “Speak, what exactly are you.”
The bat was impatient, throwing a fit like a teenager. “What the hell does it have to do with you?! I’m an eighth-wasteland six-unity thunderous world-ending black greater bat.”
Just from listening to this dumbass name, Yan Qing could tell he had come up with it by himself.
Yan Qing: “Change your name.”
The bat: “?”
The bat: “Ridiculous, you dare to say that? You think that just because you ask I’ll do it? —Hold on, I’ll change it, I’ll change it!”
Yan Qing suppressed his anger, and with great calmness, said, “The name isn’t the important part. As my contracted beast, first change that ugly appearance.”
The bat: “Contracted beast? What the hell is that?” When he heard what Yan Qing said afterwards, he instantly flew into an embarrassed rage. “What do you mean, ugly? You’re humiliating me! I’m a thunderous world-ending black greater bat, and I’ll be a thunderous world-ending black greater bat when I die!”
Yan Qing said with a chill, “I told you to change your name.”
The bat had a mouth that was as intractable as the beak of a duck. He said shamelessly, “Everyone in my clan is called thunderous world-ending, this is our clan name.”
Yan Qing: “Oh.”
The bat: “D-d-don’t hit me! I was wrong, I’ll change right now.”
He transformed in Yan Qing’s hand. A black parrot soon appeared in Yan Qing’s palm, but he was still ugly.
The bat was furious, but didn’t dare to speak. He cursed him in his heart. His eyes rolled upward, his gaze landing on the small patch of hair on Yan Qing’s head that he had burned off.
Phoenix fire had burned his hair clean off.
The bat thought for a while, and was discerning enough to express its concern for his now-master. “Wow, how did you go bald? Don’t humans grow hair?”
“......” The discerning bat soon received his master’s reward. Yan Qing tied him up into a zongzi and threw him into the water of the Serene Pool, where he gurgled, spitting out water.
“Young Master!” Congming rushed over as if his tail were on fire. “Young Master, nothing happened to you, right?”
Yan Qing used a spell to make his hair grow out, and combed it as he walked. He brushed away the hair on his forehead, snapped his fan open, and was once more the consummate gentleman. “I’m fine.”
The Serene Prison formation collapsed, and an emergency escape corridor appeared before them.
That dumb bird had swallowed Yan Qing’s sagecloud mirror, so Yan Qing had come in vain. He was in a bad mood, so he ignored the other people in the Serene Prison and walked straight into the exit.
Congming followed behind him, his little legs pumping.
A-Hu and A-Hua had reached the lifetime summit of their ability to express and understand. Once they figured out what had happened, they poured themselves out to each other while crying, and left while supporting each other.
Bai Xiaoxiao felt as if he were in a dream, with what had just happened. His slender fingers gripped Yan Jianshui’s arm, and he said softly, “Yan-shixiong, just now…”
“Xiaoxiao, let’s go.” Yan Jianshui felt like the night couldn’t get any worse. He suppressed his anger and took Bai Xiaoxiao away.
Bai Xiaoxiao: “But we still don’t know if Wuwang-gege will survive or not.”
Just as his words landed, Yin Wuwang suddenly stepped around the corner.
His face was pale, and his eyes were chilly. The diamond-shaped mark on his forehead had turned red. He ignored them and walked forward.
Startled and ill at ease, Bai Xiaoxiao called, “Wuwang-gege.”
This time, Yin Wuwang ignored him.
The incident at Serene Prison didn’t fail to rouse the entirety of Springturn Sect. Just as Yan Qing walked out, he saw a group of cultivators in midair, and the one at the head just happened to be his cheap father, Elder Huaixu.
Huaixu was about to pass out from his anger at him. “Yan Qing, I told you to reflect on yourself in the ancestral hall. That was for the sake of giving the sect leader a good explanation, so he wouldn’t send you to the Serene Prison. What have you done now?”
Yan Qing turned and looked at the collapsed peak, and tactfully said, “I’m sorry, Dad. But now, it looks like I really won’t be sent to the Serene Prison.”
Everyone: “......”
Was that your reason for blowing up the Serene Prison?
Huaixu was so angry he trembled. He roared, “Take him down!”
***
The author has something to say:
I’ve released Chapter 5 at the same time, but don’t forget to leave comments on this chapter!
I proclaim: Yan Qing hasn’t gone bald!!!
***
cela’s notes:
Zǐxiāo’s name is 紫霄, or “purple sky.” I assume that this is a courtesy name, as it works together as one word, and there is no surname 紫, so I translated it as a single name, without a space.
2 hours and 1 minute for 2,810 words, or 4.3 minutes for every 100 words. No change in rate.
A total of 10 hours and 49 minutes for 12,316 words, or 5.3 minutes for every 100 words. A decrease in rate by 0.3 minutes.
If you would like access to the next five chapters, please consider encouraging me on Ko-fi! 💛
Thanks for the chapter!
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