Chapter 53 – Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

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Chapter 53 – Inner demons’ illusions

CW: mentions of suicide interspersed throughout the next few chapters

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Zhongli Qian wanted to refuse. He was a Mahayana cultivator, so with his power and intellect, Yin Hanjiang wouldn’t be able to stop him unless he crippled his cultivation. And since Yin Hanjiang wanted Zhongli Qian to work for him, he would have to treat him properly, not like a criminal.

He was about to raise his objections and ask Yin Hanjiang to reconsider, but the red-robed man said, “Zhongli Qian, do you know what the first thing I wanted to do upon returning to the sect was?”

Zhongli Qian’s heart stuttered. “I have an idea.”

“My plan was to first send Xuanyuan Sect members to gather up wandering cultivators and small sects unaffiliated with the great sects. We could accept those willing to make spirit vows and join the Xuanyuan Sect, while those unwilling would be interrogated for their secret techniques and killed,” Yin Hanjiang said heartlessly. “Within three years, all cultivators unaffiliated with the great sects or cultivation clans would belong to us. At that point, we’d take on the weaker sects and make their disciples ours, then overcome the others one by one.”

Yin Hanjiang laughed scornfully at himself. “I’m not my lord. I don’t mind the lives of the members of Xuanyuan Sect, or the lives of innocent bystanders. I’ll do anything in order to achieve my goals.

“Zhongli Qian, your words have held me back, but since you got in the way of my plan, you’ll have to make up for it.”

“This…” Zhongli Qian used spiritual cognition to sense Yin Hanjiang, and found his words weren’t empty.

“I must take my revenge. If you don’t want me to bring chaos to the cultivation world, then you had better do your best to stop me. I won’t lock you up. It’s up to you whether or not you’ll be an Altar Master.” Yin Hanjiang stood up, turning his back and leaving the main hall, leaving Zhongli Qian to his decision.

Zhongli Qian smiled wryly. He knew Yin Hanjiang was telling him that once he left, Yin Hanjiang would return to his old plan.

Yin Hanjiang hadn’t been lying. He really didn’t care about Xuanyuan Sect, the cultivation world, or even all lives on Earth. The only person worthy of his concern in this world was Wenren È. In order to avenge Wenren È, Yin Hanjiang could throw away everything else.

“Still want to leave?” Shu Yanyan said, smiling.

Zhongli Qian sighed. “Sect Leader Yin and Sir Wenren both understand people well. Both have been open and upfront, never using underhanded plots so far, but… this is harder to deal with than a plot.”

“Well, Yanyan better go prepare a residence for Altar Master Zhongli. It’s not ideal to keep staying at Qiu Congxue’s place, right?” Shu Yanyan said.

“You don’t seem concerned about Sect Leader Yin’s current state,” Zhongli Qian said. “Aren’t you afraid of the world being thrown into chaos?”

“Altar Master Zhongli can worry about it, so why should I stress myself out?” said Shu Yanyan. “Even if the sky falls, there’ll be smart people to hold it up. I don’t desire much, so I’m happy just to have someone attractive near me to ease my eyes.”

Hearing her melodious laughter, Zhongli Qian said, “Protector Shu is wise.”

Resignedly, he followed Protector Shu to accept his position as Altar Master. No one was concerned he’d be unable to keep Altar Master Yuan’s former subordinates in line. With his capabilities, it wouldn’t take him more than a month to sort out the Main Hall.

Shu Yanyan dumped a huge pile of jade slips containing Xuanyuan Sect’s history, roster, and regulations on Zhongli Qian. A single jade slip of the cultivation world could hold as much information as a cartload of books, and there were over a hundred of them alone. After piling them all on Zhongli Qian’s desk, her face flushed slightly, and she said ruefully, “You don’t need to overdo it. Don’t stress yourself out too much. The white hair lends you a distinctive air, but if you went bald, there’s no way I could like you anymore.”

“…I’ll do my best.”

While Shu Yanyan messed with Zhongli Qian, Yin Hanjiang had come to Wenren È’s old room, which was now his.

Wenren È was a frugal person. Unlike Shu Yanyan, who filled her cultivation grounds with beds, his room only had a desk, four chairs, and a bed barely big enough to fit two adults.

The remaining vast space was for his cultivation. The floor was covered with arrays, only needing spiritual stones to be placed in their foci to be activated.

Yin Hanjiang came to the bed. Wenren È rarely laid down, so this bed was just here for him to meditate on.

He stared for a while at the simple wooden bed, then took off his boots and laid down with his clothes still on, resting his head on the pillow his Venerable rarely used.

His heart thumped, louder than the Burning Sky Drum. Counting his own heartbeats, Yin Hanjiang painfully closed his eyes.

When his Venerable was still here, he often came to this room to listen to his Venerable’s teachings. Sometimes, Wenren È would read silently, and as Yin Hanjiang waited, his mind would wander. Sometimes, he would stare at Wenren È’s handsome features, and sometimes stare at the bed and daydream.

What was he thinking about back then? Yin Hanjiang wondered quietly.

He didn’t remember.

“You do remember, don’t you?” said a familiar voice from beside the bed. It was his Venerable. Yin Hanjiang didn’t open his eyes, knowing this wasn’t real.

“Sect Leader Yin, at the time, you were thinking of how wonderful it would be to secretly lie in this bed, weren’t you?” The voice became more harsh, growing closer.

Yin Hanjiang’s eyes flew open. Wenren È was standing before him, only wearing a white inner robe.

As he kept his eyes on Wenren È, the phantasm came on to the bed with him, lying on his side next to Yin Hanjiang, saying in a low voice, “This Venerable is not opposed to sleeping alongside Sect Leader Yin.”

Yin Hanjiang sat upright, his gaze locked onto Wenren È, as if he was facing down his own unruly heart.

He had once said to Zhongli Qian, “If there is no desire, there will be no suffering. If there is only love, there will never be resentment.”

He had thought these words were the truth, straight from his heart. But the reason love led to suffering was that fantasies were hard to suppress. How could he not desire? How could he never have improper thoughts?

Even when he had not yet understood his heart, he had still thought that the wine from his Venerable’s cup was incomparably sweet, wanting to steal a sip. Now that he had realized, his fantasies had run out of control.

“Come here, Sect Leader Yin.” The Wenren È on the bed beckoned him. “Or do you want this Venerable to call you Hanjiang?”

“Enough!” Yin Hanjiang roared. He lunged across the bed, wanting to grab that Wenren È, but only met with empty air. 

There was nothing within his arms. His Venerable wasn’t there.

Yin Hanjiang stared at the empty bed in a daze. There wasn’t even a wrinkle at the place where Wenren È had been lying.

After spacing out for a while, he slowly rubbed the place where the illusion had been lying, seeming to feel a slight warmth. But when he moved over, then looked at the place where he had just lain, it was empty.

There seemed to be an insatiable beast in his heart, devouring all of his emotions.

He didn’t dare get on the bed again, despondently sitting at the desk. Another Wenren È appeared in the seat next to him.

Wenren È picked up a wine cup and poured himself wine. After drinking half the cup, he looked toward Yin Hanjiang. “Hanjiang, why are you looking at this Venerable in that way? Do you want to drink? Here.”

He purposefully turned the cup, letting the place he had drank from face toward Yin Hanjiang.

Obediently, Yin Hanjiang dipped his head, drinking from Wenren È’s hand, but as before, he sipped nothing but air.

He wasn’t devastated this time. He’d known it was fake, yet he had indulged himself in order to tell himself that this all was an illusion, and he could not trust in it.

He rubbed his face and took out God of Annihilation: Volume 2 from his storage belt. He needed to find some way to occupy himself in his Venerable’s room.

Yin Hanjiang had heard Wenren È say that Abusive Romance and God of Annihilation respectively recorded Baili Qingmiao and Hè Wenzhao’s fates, and they seemed to be the focal points of this world. Yin Hanjiang had personally witnessed the spiritual realm change depending on whether Baili Qingmiao was conscious, so knew that this book recorded fate itself.

In order to defeat Hè Wenzhao, he had to know his enemy. Even though the second volume told of the events in the immortal realm, he could at least find the weak points of Hè Wenzhao’s character.

Yin Hanjiang had been injured before, so he didn’t dare open this book which recorded his Venerable’s death, afraid that it might affect his mind and impede his recovery.

Only now that he was back at Xuanyuan Sect, in his Venerable’s room, a place that put him at ease, did Yin Hanjiang dare to open the book.

Doing his best to ignore the mention of Wenren È’s death in the summary, Yin Hanjiang speed-read through the book.

In the book, Hè Wenzhao and Baili Qingmiao arrived in the immortal realm, initially keeping a low profile and gradually gaining renown. Baili Qingmiao had good aptitudes and looks, so there were always immortals foolish enough to hit on her. The first part of the story relied entirely on Baili Qingmiao to move the plot. Someone would harass Baili Qingmiao and Hè Wenzhao would act, then she would be harassed again, so Hè Wenzhao would act again.

Hè Wenzhao had had several breakthroughs in his cultivation, seemingly just to save Baili Qingmiao.

After reading this, Yin Hanjiang was sure that women were Hè Wenzhao’s weakness.

Afterward, the Violet Spirit Master, the Gongxi mistress, Zhongli Kuang, Yao Jiaping, and Cen Zhengqi ascended one after another. Hè Wenzhao had also met several powerful female immortals and male immortals rebellious toward the Burning Sky Immortal. His influence gradually grew until he could contend with the Burning Sky Immortal.

In this part, Yin Hanjiang found Hè Wenzhao seemed to have no reservations toward women. He would even treat women who used to be his enemies warmly, as long as they didn’t already have a man. At the beginning, Baili Qingmiao had gotten plenty of scenes, but as the number of female characters grew, she became less prominent. After fighting a few times with Hè Wenzhao over his relations with other women, she stormed out and wound up kidnapped by the Burning Sky Immortal.

The Burning Sky Immortal cast Baili Qingmiao into the immortal realm’s divine flames, in order to refine her into a soul lamp.

Seeing “soul lamp”, Yin Hanjiang’s eyebrows rose. He felt this Burning Sky Immortal was somehow familiar.

Indeed, when he flipped the page, he saw: The Burning Sky Immortal looked sadly at Baili Qingmiao and said, “Since Wenren È loved you, you shouldn’t betray his feelings. I’m going to refine you into an everburning lamp, to place into the sky above the Blood Hell and illuminate it for eternity, so you can always be with him. Isn’t that good?”

With these words, and his relation to the Burning Sky Drum, Yin Hanjiang was now certain that the Burning Sky Immortal in the second volume was himself. But what was his future self saying?

His Venerable loved Baili Qingmiao?

He put down the book, sitting at the desk in a daze, his eyes blank.

Baili Qingmiao had been recovering in Xuanyuan Sect for over a year at this point, spending most of that time unconscious. Her bonded weapon had been disintegrated by chaos energy. If a bond with a weapon was forcibly severed, the dantian would be seriously damaged and it would be difficult to recover.

This wasn’t a problem to Qiu Congxue though. This just affected her flesh body. It would be so much better to just discard it and cultivate her soul as a ghost cultivator. She could give Baili Qingmiao all her secret techniques, as well open up the hungry ghost path for her and throw her in there to cultivate. That was a sacred ground for ghost cultivators.

Qiu Congxue always acted according to her words and was highly efficient. It was fortunate that Zhongli Qian arrived in time and told Qiu Congxue that Baili Qingmiao’s heaviest injury was not on her body, but in her heart. Even if she cultivated as a soul, the injury to her soul wouldn’t heal, and she had no possibility of surviving the hungry ghost path in such a state.

Zhongli Qian wasn’t doing so well at the moment either. He knew that Baili Qingmiao’s heart was broken. He himself was affected, feeling the urge to end his own life every day.

In truth, if Zhongli Qian wasn’t restraining her, Baili Qingmiao might’ve attempted suicide numerous times.

Eventually, Shu Yanyan had sought out Altar Master Miao for help in suppressing the heart-linking parasites. Altar Master Miao wasn’t sure of Wenren È’s death at the time, so he didn’t dare remove the parasites and only gave some medicine to alleviate the effects. Thus, Zhongli Qian was temporarily freed, but Baili Qingmiao’s condition became worse.

Zhongli Qian could only ask Altar Master Shi to sit with Baili Qingmiao for a night. After one night, Baili Qingmiao fell ill, drifting in and out of consciousness, so she didn’t have the strength to take her own life even if she wanted to.

Baili Qingmiao had spent these past days half-conscious, not knowing where she was and unclear on how much time had passed.

In her daze, she faintly felt that Su Huai had set down a rack of white bones next to her, mumbling to himself as he wiped them. “Are you an idiot? Always looking for trouble. Is there anything in your brain besides fighting and eating?”

The skeleton moved its jawbone, making a click-clack sound, as if it were speaking.

Baili Qingmiao couldn’t understand it, but Su Huai seemed to have no trouble doing so. He said casually, “Are you proud that you’re a skeleton again? After all the effort I went through to get a body, do you know how happy I was? Yet you’ve managed to get yourself the body of a wandering immortal, and treat it like this.”

Click-clack, click-clack… clack! The skeleton’s jawbone fell off.

Su Huai’s voice was suffused with worry. “How long is it going to take you to recover now? Consider from time to time, that you’re not a ghost cultivator anymore. You’re a wandering immortal, with a body grown from the Flesh Mushroom. Each bit of flesh you lose lowers your power. Sect Leader Yin has already diminished your power to the Nascent Soul Stage. If this keeps up, you’ll lose your position as Sect Protector.”

Sighing, Su Huai helped the skeleton reattach its jaw. “Protector Shu said that you first absorbed the Flesh Mushroom by soaking your bones in its broth, so its essence is in your bones. You’ll recover with top-grade spiritual stones and attentive care. Sir Zhongli is currently setting up a spirit gathering array for you, so I’ll take you there in a bit. Cultivate properly. Stop abusing the flesh on your body.”

He let out a long sigh. As a Core Formation cultivator, he was taking on responsibilities far above his station.

After settling down Qiu Congxue, he went to feed Baili Qingmiao medicine. He pried open his master’s jaw with practiced motions, stuffing the pill in, then used his spiritual energy to move Baili Qingmiao’s throat and force her to swallow.

After he finished, he picked up the skeleton and went to find Zhongli Qian.

Baili Qingmiao was somewhat aware at this moment, and guessed that the skeleton was Qiu Congxue. She wanted to ask Su Huai if her master was okay and how she had gotten so injured. Her lips had moved slightly, but she was unable to open her mouth.

After Su Huai left, Baili Qingmiao laid there, her body feeling heavy. She felt someone sit by her side. An ice-cold piece of metal touched her face a few times.

She sensed powerful murderous intent, and her survival instincts made her open her eyes.

The moment she did, she saw Yin Hanjiang sitting by her bed, holding a spike blade over her nose. There was a dark look in his eyes, as if he was deciding whether or not to stab down.

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Thank you for reading. If there are any mistakes, I hope my fellow cultivators will offer guidance.

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