With power in his step, Xu Yangyi soared towards the mountain top like an arrow leaving a bow, yet his pupils suddenly needled. In a flash, his body at an angle impossible for ordinary people, he faced backwards in midair and turned, unceremoniously jumping off Li Zongyuan’s back, who was running. 

“Heaven Eye!” At the same time, he snarled and his eye instantly became blood-red.

“Dear god!” On the other side, the bearded man yelped in fright. He confirmed again that this was in no way a person!

Li Zongyuan’s demon form went unseen by him, so he only saw that after the humanoid creature charged towards the mountain top, it turned around high in the sky. Like so… it had stopped in midair?!

“What is this?!” All of a sudden, a man’s urgent voice rang out at his side. A slim, middle-aged man pushed the bearded man away, his complexion flushed as he zoned in on the digital camcorder. “Old Zhou! You fuck, you didn’t frickin’ call me! You went and shot a collection of this thing… I-Is this a mountain god?”

“I don’t even know how many times I called for you!” Old Zhou was also nervous, and the two men crammed in together. Their heads looked like a bundle of sticks. Neither of them dared to breathe loudly, their eyes unblinkingly trained on the digital camcorder.

“Master?” Just as Li Zongyuan opened his mouth, he felt the front of him abruptly turn cold. 

A drop of liquid had dripped onto Xu Yangyi’s forehead. Xu Yangyi customarily extended his tongue and licked, his eyes suddenly alight. This… was blood!

“Huh…” Xu Yangyi half-crouched on Li Zongyuan’s back and patted the other’s head, making a silent signal. He grimly gazed up in the air. Under the Heaven Eye, nothing could hide. He finally saw at the mouth of the Old Black Mountain volcano, stretching all around for a vast distance… boundless silver threads that resembled a spider web!

It was as if the dead volcano had been inserted with a mirror-thin cicada wing that was parallel to the ground. The moonlight reflected on this surface projected a deathly luminescence! Xu Yangyi had no doubts that if weren’t for his swift response, then maybe he would’ve just been torn apart into pieces!

But even if his reaction was fast enough, at that moment, seven to eight bloody scars had appeared on his arm, somewhat sinking into his flesh. Blood trickled down from his arm like a fountain, dripping onto Li Zongyuan’s body below. He stretched his arms, his expression calm. This was the first time he’d been injured since the graduation ceremony. 

A spectral figure appeared at the mountain top. Away from the light, its appearance couldn’t be clearly discerned. A voice like a rusty blade grinded. “The Ming Clan is handling affairs. Solicitors withdraw.” 

Xu Yangyi laughed. With a gentle pull, his body climbed up the rock face once again. In a single leap, he arrived below the large formation of silk. He extended a finger and lightly flicked. 

Huuummm…

 A noise like a chiming bell rang out from the silk, and the silver thread, fine as a hair, softly trembled. Subsequently, the first thread spread over to ten, ten spilled over to a hundred, and a hundred circulated among the myriad of them!

Huuuummmm…

 Countless threads vibrated at the same time, causing the heart to tremble! Between them, only a single arm could be accommodated for entry. No one saw that a black hair extended out from the crown of the man’s head, creeping a thousand meters away to the side of lakewater.

Over yonder, there was a glossy rock like a mirror. A young man with a well-tailored suit stood on a stone that was roughly four to five meters wide.

He was approximately twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. His face was placid, a place absent of too much color. There was simply a red vertical line between his brows, and a shawl of long silver hair that draped behind him. He gently rocked a folding fan in his hand, not a bamboo one, but rather a fan of silk surface and jade structure. The white fan’s spread slightly unfolded in both of his jade hands. 

“On a pavilion of ten li, we bid farewell under a frosty autumn sky… Our hair black, the years pass, when we meet, will it be white…?” His appearance wasn’t handsome, nor was it beautiful, but it possessed a kind of graceful magnificence, an eminent and unapproachable temperament. Perhaps his appearance wouldn’t stick out from the masses, but if he walked within a crowd, he would surely become the focus of attention.

[1]

“In this life, regret not the opportunity missed… If fate brings us together in the next life, may our affections persist,” he faintly sighed and unfolded his fan with a swish. “Someone has come at Fourteen’s position.”

[2]

Behind him wasn’t a shawl of long hair, but rather… boundless silver locks! Like flooding mercury, they spread forth on the ground! They extended a thousand meters… Over ten thousand meters! It covered the volcanic lake with a layer of silver silk weave! 

Afterwards, it spread out again, seemingly infinite, filling the entire night sky! Like a mirror’s surface in the sky, the screen formation was surprisingly weaved from his long silver hair!

“Lord God, are we required to assist?” Behind him were three elderly men wearing tunic suits, their cultivations shockingly at the late stage of Qi Condensation. However, they were extremely deferential to this young man. As for the young man, he’d only just recently stepped into middle Qi Condensation. 

“Unnecessary.” The man called Lord God quietly closed his folding fan, looking at the mirroresque surface of the several-thousand-meter dead volcanic lake and mumbling, “Senior Jadewave’s appointed time is coming. I haven’t met Senior for ages, as well. I shall respectfully welcome the elder.” 

“As for that moth…” He used his folding fan to lightly strike his palm. Originally, his suit, folding fan, and cape of hair were completely inharmonious things, yet they seemed to fuse together naturally on his person. “To come here at twelve o’clock midnight, the moment of the witching hour, this person has presumably come here for a decryption request, as well. If he’s able to come, I will make him kneel at my side and give him an opportunity once I have finished my questions.”

An old man slightly bowed and laughed, “Lord is benevolent.”

Swoosh!

 In a place a hundred meters above Xu Yangyi, fine sandstone rolled down. A shadow walked above him and looked down on him against the moonlight. Xu Yangyi discovered it was a fortyish-year-old man who didn’t have the slightest expression on his face.

The man was dressed in a tunic suit. However, his eyes were devoid of vigor, and he also lacked the faintest temperature. Even his walking posture was somewhat mechanical, like he was a corpse that had just crawled out from the cemetery. Coldly looking at Xu Yangyi, he repeated, “The Ming Clan is handling affairs. Solicitors withdraw.”

“Gulp…” At this time, behind Xu Yangyi, Li Zongyuan said oddly, “S-Sir, he’s not a human.”

It was unknown when, but the toad-demon had already transformed back into human form. Xu Yangyi’s gaze swept past, and his brows immediately began to furrow.

Li Zongyuan’s entire face suddenly sprouted a few warts, which then receded straightaway. In a second, the familiar’s eyes turned to the size of copper bells, his eye sockets bulged, and his pupils scattered, yet in the next, they transformed back into human shape. Wisps of black mist were radiating from his body and yellow liquid came out freely from his seven apertures… At a glance, Xu Yangyi knew that Li Zongyuan’s demon form would possibly manifest.

This situation was exactly the same as Vermilion Snow’s back then!

“What’s going on?” he asked heavily.

“I don’t know.” It was rare for Li Zongyuan’s mind to be exceptionally clear, and he shook his head and said, “I keep on feeling… that my body is mysteriously heating up, and my qi sea is fluctuating. I-I don’t know why.”

Xu Yangyi nodded, raising his chin at the man in the tunic suit. “He’s not human?”

“Yes…” Li Zongyuan seemed to be enduring something and clenched his teeth. “The Ming Clan, it’s God Ming’s clan… Their actual forms have never been revealed, but according to the most reliable legend… they should be Heaven Worms. In the era of war between the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou… this was their name. In the modern age… cough, cough, cough… they’re known as silkworms…”

[3]

“A puppet… A puppetry divine ability… The Ming Clan’s sole divine ability… Master, be careful. The Ming Clan is a great demon clan with over a thousand years of inheritances…”

Xu Yangyi raised his hand, stopping the other from speaking. “Are you alright?”

“I…” Just as Li Zongyuan opened his mouth, his entire mouth split open to his cheeks, and he said painfully, “Master… save me. I-I’m dying… I don’t know what’s happening…” 

He worried that Xu Yangyi simply wouldn’t care for him. As it went, the life-death pact was always one directional. If the master died, the demon familiar would die. If the demon familiar died, not a damn thing would happen to the master.

Whether or not he died wasn’t connected in itself to Xu Yangyi. The other possessed no compelling reason to save him. The anxiety in his eyes was almost palpable. Within his body, his blood and qi were at a complete boil. Xu Yangyi looked at him for three seconds and nodded.

Li Zongyuan shivered as he let loose a long sigh.

Xu Yangyi didn’t take action. The Ming Clan… He’d read a few records about them. As a human cultivator, some of demonkind’s great powers had to be clearly understood. For example, the Ming Clan, a heritage of over a millennium. They had nearly witnessed half of China’s historical development. From their family, they had previously produced three Core Formation cultivators. While this amount didn’t seem to be much, they were number one within the same realm of Core Formation!

And thus, this clan also had a title: number one beneath Nascent Soul! Even if the Ming Clan hadn’t produced a Core Formation demon in the past several centuries, their rank in the top five of China’s demon clans was almost ironed and nailed in place!

Yet what of it?

Since Li Zongyuan was his demon familiar, only he could met out death and punishment as Li Zongyuan’s master. Someone else obstructing aid was never a justification! Even supposing Xu Yangyi threw Li Zongyuan away and then kicked him, that was his matter as well. As for his affairs… no one was ever permitted to interfere!

“Ten Cardinals Red Lotus…” Xu Yangyi’s hand swiftly formed a seal. The technique was already memorized in his veins and arteries, and silent qi clamored in an instant!

Even though Li Zongyuan was anxious, he began to tremble upon hearing this gentle sound! Down below… was a public place with countless people! THIS was at a scenic spot of the fifteen dead volcanoes!

A demon form could be concealed, but a divine ability couldn’t be hidden whatsoever! Once Xu Yangyi used this move, according to the limitless degree of silver strands...

The entire firmament would become a sea of fire!

“Mhm?” At the lakeside, the brows of the man with a folding fan knitted dispassionately. He sensed… in the direction of Fourteen, a heart-churning qi condensing in the air at an astonishing rate! It shook his heart… to the extent that he felt his emotions stir!

“Looks like the person who’s come isn’t just a moth…” His gaze hung downwards, and he stifled his bubbling astonishment of moments ago at the bottom of his heart. It was the fluctuation of a divine ability.

This person… was truly insane… Actually daring to use a divine ability in the mortal realm! There were at least dozens of campers in the surroundings of the volcanic lake. Once in play, the confrontation of divine abilities would transform the color of heaven and earth!

As for the witnesses… there were tens of people at the volcanic lake and at least over a hundred people down below!

He actually dared? Did he not fear the Cultivation Court’s pursuit? This was simply… to a degree that he dared not venture, regardless of law and morality!

“Cultivators are prohibited from displaying their endowments before humans because we are true super beings…” The man’s eyes narrowed. “If you’re forcing me to reveal my might with you in front of mortals… then…”

He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. After five seconds, they snapped open, now completely morphed into a white color, pupils unseen!

“I shall help you in your endeavor!”

1. This is one of the few things that unless you really know Chinese to a decent level you can’t see the beauty of. This line, from what I was able to find, originates from the Song Poet Liu Yong (987-1053 CE). In Chinese, the line actually rhymes and sounds nice.

2. This line is also from the same poem as mentioned before.

3. In China, Chiyou is considered the god of war and pictured as a tyrant who fought the future Yellow Emperor. This time period itself though is considered the “Three Sovereigns and Five Emperor’s Period”. Thought to be 2800 BCE to 2000 BCE.

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