Fu Wang went to refine the golden lotus inside the room. Shu Yu sat in front of the door as a guard. Her aura looked like that of a man guarding his wife’s room from other men.
But after a while, the sky outside was still a dark and deep purple-blue, and gusts of chilled wind blew through, giving an ominous feeling. Shu Yu rubbed her nose and sat straight against the door, and finally didn’t feel chills on the back of her neck.
Thinking a bit, from her dimensional pouch1 Shu Yu took out a spiritual sword that sparkled with divine light. This spiritual sword was a souvenir from when she swept through a nest of pangolin demons, although it was a mystery to which unlucky demon it actually belonged to. She sat cross-legged while holding the sword and immediately felt more at ease.
There’re a lot of demons that knew how to use weapons, but Tianfeng Jinyu never used weapons and preferred using her hands to rip through bodies, so Shu Yu didn’t use weapons much either. However, during times like these, it was more comforting to hold a weapon since she was alone right now.
While hugging the sword in brief deep thought, there was a sudden gust of wind. This small courtyard was chosen by Fu Wang; the place was remote, and there were no spiritual treasures in the surroundings, so people were unlikely to come here, but it was too run down and desolate. Another gust of wind blew over, blowing the withered leaves all over the courtyard with crunching noises, blackened branches snapped off dead trees and fell to the ground noisily; the atmosphere was extremely spine-chilling.
As Shu Yu looked on, her thoughts suddenly twisted to a strange direction. She stood up and gathered a large pile of twigs and started to make a fire in the yard.
A spiritual item with a golden shine was taken out of the dimensional pouch. Shu Yu rolled up her sleeves and decided to start with roasted fish, then bamboo shoots, and after that some lotus root soup and bird mushroom stew. She had collected an array of strange spiritual foods that were edible and maybe not edible, but she’d cook anything that entered her sight first.
After Fu Wang finished refining the golden lotus, he can eat these to recuperate. In this moment, Shu Yu wasn’t really thinking about how so many spiritual tonics could overdose the Boss to death.
The scent of food wafted through the air outside the courtyard. The fumes of Shu Yu’s hard work floated to the sky. But inside the courtyard’s room, Fu Wang’s state was not as wonderful.
The Pure Golden Lotus was a rare spiritual item. Although Fu Wang had known refining it wouldn’t be an easy task, he didn’t think the Pure Golden Lotus’ refining process would be so tyrannical. Almost as soon as the Pure Golden Lotus integrated into his body, it immediately destroyed all the meridians and veins in his body. Not only were his demonic bones shattered but his demonic Core, which was considered as the body’s most important part by the demon race, was instantly pulverized.
If not for the gold lotus continuing its function inside him, with his skeleton and core shattered as was, Fu Wang would’ve long since become a mere wisp of a soul.
Even someone like Fu Wang, who treated injuries as just another meal, was tormented by the incomparably agonizing process to the point of going mad and nearly losing his mind.
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From inside out, from flesh to bone, he was torn apart inch by inch and turned into a bloodied figure. Aside from still having a humanoid form, if Shu Yu were to see him this moment, she probably wouldn’t be sure this was Fu Wang.
The formations that Fu Wang laid down earlier performed as intended. Whether it was the horrifying sounds or the pungent smell of blood permeating the room, none of it was noticed by Shu Yu, who was outside.
Barely clinging to a ray of clarity through the endless pain, a strong sense of wrongness surged in Fu Wang. He remembered that the ancient texts described the Pure Golden Lotus as a gentle spiritual object; even if the refinement and absorbing was difficult, it certainly wouldn’t violently ruin a body like this. Moreover, the spiritual qi rampaging through his body didn’t have any pure feeling, and instead emitted an unsettling black aura that burst through his countless wounds and nearly enveloped his whole body.
Is this really the Pure Golden Lotus?
No, this definitely isn’t the Pure Golden Lotus.
Fu Wang collapsed there. The hand that was gently holding Shu Yu’s own not long ago clawed bloodied scratches on the ground, tightly clutching the hard wooden planks. The agony persisted, but his mind was gradually clearing, as if it was separating from any physical senses.
He suddenly recalled that young boy from the Spirit Clan who got a hold of the gold lotus. At that time, he had bitten a lotus petal and then threw him the golden lotus without second thought. He was certain it was the Pure Golden Lotus then, and was also distracted because of the matter with Shu Yu, so he didn’t pay much mind to this and assumed the teen’s behavior was just peculiar. But it wouldn’t be out of place if he went from the angle of the Pure Golden Lotus not being the ‘Pure Golden Lotus’.
If it was as he suspected and what he acquired wasn’t the ‘Pure Golden Lotus’, then what was it? Thirty-six golden petals with symbols, a lotus stamen with an unusual vision, a lotus pod that dissipated once the petals did, all the descriptions were on point. Where exactly did it go wrong?
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It was like all the blood in his body was flowing out, accompanied by some filthy sludge. He watched as his blood was drained and his flesh started melting like ice, revealing a ribcage and a beating heart in his chest. In this state, he was, unbelievably, still alive and capable of thought.
Fu Wang noted he couldn’t feel pain anymore. And when all the flesh and blood melted completely, Fu Wang also found his soul had left the body, although only some bones and a rapidly beating heart remained of it. But he wasn’t dead. There were countless black threads clinging to his soul, the other end was firmly tied to his heart.
Using the floating form of his soul to look at his body was strange, yet even stranger was, the skeleton was slowly being dyed black – a thick ink-like black, full of a forbidding aura. The bones considered most important by the demon race grew back and his Core reformed itself, but they were colored a purplish black as well.
Blood, flesh, and skin gradually crawled up the black skeleton.
Soft and pale skin, long black hair, it was clearly the same face as before, but somehow looking at it again was just unnerving. Maybe it was because of how those eyes were now slightly slanted, or the faint red marks in the corners of his eyes, that served to add an indescribable stunning effect.
From appearance alone, aside from some subtleties, there wasn’t much difference from before, but Fu Wang was distinctly aware that this body was completely different now. Completely blackened skeleton notwithstanding, even the blood which started to flow in his body again had changed from red to purple – a rich purple so deep it could be mistaken for black ink.
The hovering soul was dragged back into the body once it was completely restored. Just as he entered the body, Fu Wang felt a severe headache, and after an intolerable sense of vertigo, an inherited memory2 appeared inside his head.
This golden lotus was planted by Penglai Mansion’s master; it could be described as the Pure Golden Lotus, as well as the… “Six Desire Devil Lotus”. As of today, there were no more Pure Golden Lotus, but many years ago, this maddened master of Penglai Mansion combined the last Pure Golden Lotus and the Six Desire Devil Lotus into a single flower.
Although the master of Penglai Mansion’s original intention was to use the Pure Golden Lotus and the corrupted energy of the Six Desire Devil Lotus, to turn the flower into a divine object that could reconstruct a godly vessel, he failed. The Pure Golden Lotus and the Six Desire Devil Lotus became a single lotus, but the result was the Six Desire Devil Lotus assimilating the Pure Golden Lotus, thus becoming a corrupted lotus that could make any celestial being, God, demon or ghost fall into depravity and become a Devil.
Fu Wang sat up. Long, black hair covered half his face, the dim light cast a dark shadow over his brow and eyes, giving off an undiscernible look of gloom and malice.
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A Devil. He actually turned into a Devil, just like that!
Hands bracing against the floor made a forceful gesture and long claws pierced soft skin, drawing and spilling drops of dark purple blood. Unless it was the Devil itself, few external objects could harm the Devil’s vessel. Fingers as fair as jade, stained with dark purple blood, smeared across thin, pale lips.
“Ha, hahaha! The Heavenly Dao is merciless, driving me to this point!” Fu Wang viciously wiped away darkened-violet blood from the corner of his lip, his expression twisting hideously for an instant.
What was a Devil?
Devil.
During the fall of the gods, for the sake of eradicating all the Devils and burying them in the Abyss of Buried Gods, no matter the demon race as a whole or the other races, everyone regarded the Devils as great catastrophes that must be eradicated. It was easy to imagine, if his identity as a newly born Devil was found by anyone, then what awaited him was an endless and relentless hunt. The greater demons shadowing the backs of the demon clans and all the demon race would stand against him.
Yet he was only a newborn Devil. Even if in the future he could overturn the clouds and call rain with a hand gesture and look down on all living creatures in this world devoid of Gods, right now he was still not fully grown. He needed time; and by contrast, he didn’t have enough time.
But if he already resented this and was enraged over these facts, then the thing that caused him the most pain was that, after becoming a Devil, his temperament would slowly mutate, because Devils were the origin of all malice and filth. He would gradually lose himself and turn apathetic, heartless, bloodthirsty, and derive joy only from slaughter – a monster.
Would he hurt Shu Yu?
No, this was the only thing he couldn’t accept. It didn’t matter who, it didn’t even matter how many living beings were killed, he didn’t care; but only Shu Yu, she was the only one he could not hurt. Lovely, lovely Shu Yu – who moved his heart, who’s become his soft spot, who makes him go out of control. How could he ever hurt her?
He cannot allow that frightening possibility to exist. When it came to this point, no matter how much he believed in himself, he didn’t dare gamble his beloved’s safety on it.
When a desperate risk-taker has a cherished treasure, then he will always be accompanied by dread.
Fu Wang looked up at the wooden door ten steps away. Shu Yu was outside. If he just opened this door, Shu Yu will smile at him and call his name.
No matter if he was a half-demon or the Devil, he needed to live and keep Shu Yu by his side forever and ever.
Creak.
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Shu Yu heard the door opening and immediately turned around. Fu Wang had already been inside for three days. The first day it was still okay, on the second day she began to worry, and she’d decided if Fu Wang didn’t come out by today, that no matter how she would sneak in to see how he was.
Him coming out meant he succeeded and fulfilled one of his wishes, Fu Wang must be very happy! If he was happy, she felt happy too.
“Fu Wang!” Shu Yu saw Fu Wang stepping out and her joyful smile faltered. She didn’t know why, but for an instant she felt something was off. But as Fu Wang gazed at her with his usual warmth, that strange feeling disappeared.
“Fu Wang, it’s good you came out safely, I made a lot of delicious food… What’s wrong?” Shu Yu was suddenly hugged tightly, so she raised her head to look at Fu Wang, slightly bewildered.
Fu Wang stared at her slightly flushed face and suddenly smiled, murmuring mirthfully in her ear, “I don’t want to eat anything, I only want to eat small fish.3”
This “eat small fish” was a very connotative problem.
“Let’s go home immediately, and then, can Xiao-Yu give herself to me? Is it okay?” Fu Wang didn’t give her the opportunity to retreat as he hugged her tightly. He reached out to tuck away a lock of hair, leaning to press a gentle kiss on her earlobe and working sideways to the corner of her mouth, leaving behind soft red marks.
Shu Yu covered his mouth, stopping his kisses, mumbling inaudibly for a while before sucking her teeth and saying in a low whisper, “Then let’s go home.”
Staring at the swirl on top of her head, tenderness rippled in Fu Wang’s eyes, and he tugged her closer in his arms. “Yes, let’s go home now.”
Chapter Description: The author is preparing a big game of chess.
乾坤囊, typical dimensional pocket in fantasy/xianxia backgrounds.
2传承; Inheritance, legacy, heritage (or similar definitions) passed on to a successor of power through some physical medium, telepathy, spiritual connection, or just imprinted on a bloodline. They’re often in the form of memories and knowledge, but there are cases of physical assets like treasures, special dimension rings/necklaces/whatever, scrolls, assets, etc.
3小鱼; Xiao-Yu means small/little fish. A play on words saying he wants to eat small fish, AKA eat Shu Yu.
Fu Wang went to refine the golden lotus inside the room. Shu Yu sat in front of the door as a guard. Her aura looked like that of a man guarding his wife’s room from other men.
But after a while, the sky outside was still a dark and deep purple-blue, and gusts of chilled wind blew through, giving an ominous feeling. Shu Yu rubbed her nose and sat straight against the door, and finally didn’t feel chills on the back of her neck.
Thinking a bit, from her dimensional pouch1 Shu Yu took out a spiritual sword that sparkled with divine light. This spiritual sword was a souvenir from when she swept through a nest of pangolin demons, although it was a mystery to which unlucky demon it actually belonged to. She sat cross-legged while holding the sword and immediately felt more at ease.
There’re a lot of demons that knew how to use weapons, but Tianfeng Jinyu never used weapons and preferred using her hands to rip through bodies, so Shu Yu didn’t use weapons much either. However, during times like these, it was more comforting to hold a weapon since she was alone right now.
While hugging the sword in brief deep thought, there was a sudden gust of wind. This small courtyard was chosen by Fu Wang; the place was remote, and there were no spiritual treasures in the surroundings, so people were unlikely to come here, but it was too run down and desolate. Another gust of wind blew over, blowing the withered leaves all over the courtyard with crunching noises, blackened branches snapped off dead trees and fell to the ground noisily; the atmosphere was extremely spine-chilling.
As Shu Yu looked on, her thoughts suddenly twisted to a strange direction. She stood up and gathered a large pile of twigs and started to make a fire in the yard.
A spiritual item with a golden shine was taken out of the dimensional pouch. Shu Yu rolled up her sleeves and decided to start with roasted fish, then bamboo shoots, and after that some lotus root soup and bird mushroom stew. She had collected an array of strange spiritual foods that were edible and maybe not edible, but she’d cook anything that entered her sight first.
After Fu Wang finished refining the golden lotus, he can eat these to recuperate. In this moment, Shu Yu wasn’t really thinking about how so many spiritual tonics could overdose the Boss to death.
The scent of food wafted through the air outside the courtyard. The fumes of Shu Yu’s hard work floated to the sky. But inside the courtyard’s room, Fu Wang’s state was not as wonderful.
The Pure Golden Lotus was a rare spiritual item. Although Fu Wang had known refining it wouldn’t be an easy task, he didn’t think the Pure Golden Lotus’ refining process would be so tyrannical. Almost as soon as the Pure Golden Lotus integrated into his body, it immediately destroyed all the meridians and veins in his body. Not only were his demonic bones shattered but his demonic Core, which was considered as the body’s most important part by the demon race, was instantly pulverized.
If not for the gold lotus continuing its function inside him, with his skeleton and core shattered as was, Fu Wang would’ve long since become a mere wisp of a soul.
Even someone like Fu Wang, who treated injuries as just another meal, was tormented by the incomparably agonizing process to the point of going mad and nearly losing his mind.
Advertisement
From inside out, from flesh to bone, he was torn apart inch by inch and turned into a bloodied figure. Aside from still having a humanoid form, if Shu Yu were to see him this moment, she probably wouldn’t be sure this was Fu Wang.
The formations that Fu Wang laid down earlier performed as intended. Whether it was the horrifying sounds or the pungent smell of blood permeating the room, none of it was noticed by Shu Yu, who was outside.
Barely clinging to a ray of clarity through the endless pain, a strong sense of wrongness surged in Fu Wang. He remembered that the ancient texts described the Pure Golden Lotus as a gentle spiritual object; even if the refinement and absorbing was difficult, it certainly wouldn’t violently ruin a body like this. Moreover, the spiritual qi rampaging through his body didn’t have any pure feeling, and instead emitted an unsettling black aura that burst through his countless wounds and nearly enveloped his whole body.
Is this really the Pure Golden Lotus?
No, this definitely isn’t the Pure Golden Lotus.
Fu Wang collapsed there. The hand that was gently holding Shu Yu’s own not long ago clawed bloodied scratches on the ground, tightly clutching the hard wooden planks. The agony persisted, but his mind was gradually clearing, as if it was separating from any physical senses.
He suddenly recalled that young boy from the Spirit Clan who got a hold of the gold lotus. At that time, he had bitten a lotus petal and then threw him the golden lotus without second thought. He was certain it was the Pure Golden Lotus then, and was also distracted because of the matter with Shu Yu, so he didn’t pay much mind to this and assumed the teen’s behavior was just peculiar. But it wouldn’t be out of place if he went from the angle of the Pure Golden Lotus not being the ‘Pure Golden Lotus’.
If it was as he suspected and what he acquired wasn’t the ‘Pure Golden Lotus’, then what was it? Thirty-six golden petals with symbols, a lotus stamen with an unusual vision, a lotus pod that dissipated once the petals did, all the descriptions were on point. Where exactly did it go wrong?
Advertisement
It was like all the blood in his body was flowing out, accompanied by some filthy sludge. He watched as his blood was drained and his flesh started melting like ice, revealing a ribcage and a beating heart in his chest. In this state, he was, unbelievably, still alive and capable of thought.
Fu Wang noted he couldn’t feel pain anymore. And when all the flesh and blood melted completely, Fu Wang also found his soul had left the body, although only some bones and a rapidly beating heart remained of it. But he wasn’t dead. There were countless black threads clinging to his soul, the other end was firmly tied to his heart.
Using the floating form of his soul to look at his body was strange, yet even stranger was, the skeleton was slowly being dyed black – a thick ink-like black, full of a forbidding aura. The bones considered most important by the demon race grew back and his Core reformed itself, but they were colored a purplish black as well.
Blood, flesh, and skin gradually crawled up the black skeleton.
Soft and pale skin, long black hair, it was clearly the same face as before, but somehow looking at it again was just unnerving. Maybe it was because of how those eyes were now slightly slanted, or the faint red marks in the corners of his eyes, that served to add an indescribable stunning effect.
From appearance alone, aside from some subtleties, there wasn’t much difference from before, but Fu Wang was distinctly aware that this body was completely different now. Completely blackened skeleton notwithstanding, even the blood which started to flow in his body again had changed from red to purple – a rich purple so deep it could be mistaken for black ink.
The hovering soul was dragged back into the body once it was completely restored. Just as he entered the body, Fu Wang felt a severe headache, and after an intolerable sense of vertigo, an inherited memory2 appeared inside his head.
This golden lotus was planted by Penglai Mansion’s master; it could be described as the Pure Golden Lotus, as well as the… “Six Desire Devil Lotus”. As of today, there were no more Pure Golden Lotus, but many years ago, this maddened master of Penglai Mansion combined the last Pure Golden Lotus and the Six Desire Devil Lotus into a single flower.
Although the master of Penglai Mansion’s original intention was to use the Pure Golden Lotus and the corrupted energy of the Six Desire Devil Lotus, to turn the flower into a divine object that could reconstruct a godly vessel, he failed. The Pure Golden Lotus and the Six Desire Devil Lotus became a single lotus, but the result was the Six Desire Devil Lotus assimilating the Pure Golden Lotus, thus becoming a corrupted lotus that could make any celestial being, God, demon or ghost fall into depravity and become a Devil.
Fu Wang sat up. Long, black hair covered half his face, the dim light cast a dark shadow over his brow and eyes, giving off an undiscernible look of gloom and malice.
Advertisement
A Devil. He actually turned into a Devil, just like that!
Hands bracing against the floor made a forceful gesture and long claws pierced soft skin, drawing and spilling drops of dark purple blood. Unless it was the Devil itself, few external objects could harm the Devil’s vessel. Fingers as fair as jade, stained with dark purple blood, smeared across thin, pale lips.
“Ha, hahaha! The Heavenly Dao is merciless, driving me to this point!” Fu Wang viciously wiped away darkened-violet blood from the corner of his lip, his expression twisting hideously for an instant.
What was a Devil?
Devil.
During the fall of the gods, for the sake of eradicating all the Devils and burying them in the Abyss of Buried Gods, no matter the demon race as a whole or the other races, everyone regarded the Devils as great catastrophes that must be eradicated. It was easy to imagine, if his identity as a newly born Devil was found by anyone, then what awaited him was an endless and relentless hunt. The greater demons shadowing the backs of the demon clans and all the demon race would stand against him.
Yet he was only a newborn Devil. Even if in the future he could overturn the clouds and call rain with a hand gesture and look down on all living creatures in this world devoid of Gods, right now he was still not fully grown. He needed time; and by contrast, he didn’t have enough time.
But if he already resented this and was enraged over these facts, then the thing that caused him the most pain was that, after becoming a Devil, his temperament would slowly mutate, because Devils were the origin of all malice and filth. He would gradually lose himself and turn apathetic, heartless, bloodthirsty, and derive joy only from slaughter – a monster.
Would he hurt Shu Yu?
No, this was the only thing he couldn’t accept. It didn’t matter who, it didn’t even matter how many living beings were killed, he didn’t care; but only Shu Yu, she was the only one he could not hurt. Lovely, lovely Shu Yu – who moved his heart, who’s become his soft spot, who makes him go out of control. How could he ever hurt her?
He cannot allow that frightening possibility to exist. When it came to this point, no matter how much he believed in himself, he didn’t dare gamble his beloved’s safety on it.
When a desperate risk-taker has a cherished treasure, then he will always be accompanied by dread.
Fu Wang looked up at the wooden door ten steps away. Shu Yu was outside. If he just opened this door, Shu Yu will smile at him and call his name.
No matter if he was a half-demon or the Devil, he needed to live and keep Shu Yu by his side forever and ever.
Creak.
Advertisement
Shu Yu heard the door opening and immediately turned around. Fu Wang had already been inside for three days. The first day it was still okay, on the second day she began to worry, and she’d decided if Fu Wang didn’t come out by today, that no matter how she would sneak in to see how he was.
Him coming out meant he succeeded and fulfilled one of his wishes, Fu Wang must be very happy! If he was happy, she felt happy too.
“Fu Wang!” Shu Yu saw Fu Wang stepping out and her joyful smile faltered. She didn’t know why, but for an instant she felt something was off. But as Fu Wang gazed at her with his usual warmth, that strange feeling disappeared.
“Fu Wang, it’s good you came out safely, I made a lot of delicious food… What’s wrong?” Shu Yu was suddenly hugged tightly, so she raised her head to look at Fu Wang, slightly bewildered.
Fu Wang stared at her slightly flushed face and suddenly smiled, murmuring mirthfully in her ear, “I don’t want to eat anything, I only want to eat small fish.3”
This “eat small fish” was a very connotative problem.
“Let’s go home immediately, and then, can Xiao-Yu give herself to me? Is it okay?” Fu Wang didn’t give her the opportunity to retreat as he hugged her tightly. He reached out to tuck away a lock of hair, leaning to press a gentle kiss on her earlobe and working sideways to the corner of her mouth, leaving behind soft red marks.
Shu Yu covered his mouth, stopping his kisses, mumbling inaudibly for a while before sucking her teeth and saying in a low whisper, “Then let’s go home.”
Staring at the swirl on top of her head, tenderness rippled in Fu Wang’s eyes, and he tugged her closer in his arms. “Yes, let’s go home now.”
Chapter Description: The author is preparing a big game of chess.
乾坤囊, typical dimensional pocket in fantasy/xianxia backgrounds.
2传承; Inheritance, legacy, heritage (or similar definitions) passed on to a successor of power through some physical medium, telepathy, spiritual connection, or just imprinted on a bloodline. They’re often in the form of memories and knowledge, but there are cases of physical assets like treasures, special dimension rings/necklaces/whatever, scrolls, assets, etc.
3小鱼; Xiao-Yu means small/little fish. A play on words saying he wants to eat small fish, AKA eat Shu Yu.
