Archfiend

“What’s up?” Angel happily turned her head around at once. Her large aqua-blue eyes were like the face of a rippling jade-colored lake.

Xu Yangyi mumbled to himself for a long time and said in a deliberate manner, “There are some matter that I hope won’t…”

“I got it,” Angel pouted, “I won’t tell anyone else. But…” she laughed as she raised her head. “How about a reward?”

Xu Yangyi looked at for her for several seconds and uttered, “Ms. Angel, you are a good cultivatoress. I believe as long as one’s eyes are blinded, they will see.”

“And what if their vision isn’t too good?” Angel smiled, the enchanting dimples on her face slightly visible. Without avoiding him at all, she met his eyes straight-on. “Some people refuse to face reality, like a turtle tucking its head back into its shell. Even when they try, they’re unwilling.”

Xu Yangyi was silent, but eventually said, “Have you ever heard that falling flowers are willing, but running water is merciless?” [1]

“Right now, I’m that running water.”

“I can’t even think about how many enemies there are around me and the responsibilities that fall on me. If I agree to anyone now, I can’t be responsible,” he paused, “So I’m very sorry.”

There were some words he first had to think of before speaking clearly about.

Angel was also quiet. She was very quiet. Three seconds later, though, she raised her head and laughed, “You’re saying you’re water? But how is it that I’ve heard that there are no rivers for one who’s crossed the ocean, and no clouds for one who’s passed Mount Wu?” [2]

Xu Yangyi looked to the ceiling and said indifferently, “Then, are you at the point of having crossed the ocean?”

“No. But if you don’t try crossing something like the ocean then you won’t know,” Angel smiled and said. “I’m going. Don’t miss me now. Bye~”

Her figure dazzled and vanished. After she left, she gently patted her face and felt a little burning hot.

“How did he know I like earnest guys?” She sat in front of a mirror, and her hands pressed down on both sides of her ample powder-white cheeks to make a pig’s face. “What is a man without responsibility? Geez… that’s what I like…”

“What do I do? I really feel like dad finally didn’t introduce me to the wrong person.”

“Maybe… I can try?”

Xu Yangyi morosely sat down in the space-time treasure and settled his mind a good while later.

Was it purely a rejection? Or because his constant rhythm of life had been upheaved? Perhaps it was an instinctive refusal?

He himself didn’t clearly understand either.

He only knew that he wasn’t prepared to accept anyone. While Angel seemed obedient, her invasive intent was in fact strong. Step after step, she relied on Daomaster Yue to pound the walls of his city.

He did not like this.

Mhm, I don’t like this. Xu Yangyi mentally confirmed again. He softly snapped his fingers, and a four-legged cauldron two square meters in size appeared in front of him. Cast from bronze, the cauldron’s four sides were surrounded by animal heads, and the surface was engraved with a formation that sealed qi.

This cauldron was from the storage ring that Angel had brought, an acquisition from Daomaster Yue.

“It really is extraordinary.” He faintly swiped his hands over the cauldron. He could distinctly feel from the formation under his fingers that the spiritual force was almost sealed a hundred percent. With this, he would have added certainty for cultivating A Thousand Li Invincible.

Time passed day after day.

Ten days later, Angel entered the space-time treasure again and saw that Xu Yangyi had submerged his entire body into the cauldron. The blood-red liquid inside was persistently eroding him, and from time to time a grimace of agonizing pain was revealed on his face. In front of him, hundreds of heavenly treasures slowly rose into the air and were carefully cast into the pill-cauldron.

She originally wanted to watch, but she hesitated for a brief moment and left.

In the real world, half a month passed, one month passed… In the hotel, Yue Congrao’s figure slowly materialized. Angel was boredly drinking coffee, but upon seeing Yue Congrao appear she cried out in excitement, “Father, you came? I’m bored out of my mind…”

Yue Congrao waved his hand and said lowly, “There are five days left. In other words, there are still twenty days left in my treasure. The Holy War’s horn is about to sound in New York. He hasn’t come out once?”

Angel heard the two words ‘Holy War’, and her expression also became grave. She looked into Yue Congrao’s eyes. “Has… something happened? You weren’t this interested in the previous Holy Wars.”

Yue Congrao was silent for three seconds and laughed darkly. He pulled up his sleeve to display a scar of blackened blood.

“That’s?” Angel was dazed. She simply didn’t believe someone could injure her father.

“The candidate of the Sirens.” Yue Congrao lowered his sleeve, picked up a cup of coffee, and pursed it to his lips. He said in a nonchalant manner, “Which clans will participate, which ones won’t, and what people there will be. These are all top secret. Our means are inferior to the Two Great Houses, so I could only explore their foundations myself.”

He stowed his smile away. “Presently, I can confirm that the Sirens and the Dragonmen will participate, and their candidates are extremely powerful. I used the power of half-step Core Formation to feel them out, so they wouldn’t know who I am.Yet I didn’t expect that a late Foundation Establishment cultivator would actually be able to hurt me.”

Angel stared blankly for a long time, not even snapping back to her senses.

Her father was a late Core Formation Dao Master!

He was a hermit celestial; the people able to injure him could be counted on one’s fingers! In her impression, her father was the strongest, he was omnipotent! He was quite a few times more formidable than China’s Dao Masters!

Even if he’d lowered himself to half-step Core Formation, his scope, experience, combat expertise, and intuition wouldn’t weaken. He could pinch a normal middle Foundation Establishment cultivator to death as easily as crushing a bug. Now… a Holy War candidate had actually injured him? To the extent that a late Core Formation master had to praise this Foundation Establishment cultivator as ‘extremely powerful’?

Only after a brief spell did Angel regain her wits. She clenched her teeth. “Are they dead?”

“No. Right now, murder is too unwise. Still, I didn’t expect that these clans had such excellent seeds. The ones to injure me are perhaps on par with Sunnihilator back then.” Yue Congrao narrowed his eyes. “You would best pray that your sweetheart leaves a little quicker. Once the horn sounds, the ballot immediately follows. He… won’t have another chance.”

Angel was silent.

After ages, she murmured, “This event… How could they be this strong…? Father, once in a while in the past you became interested and tested them, but it was like no one could last ten moves against you. This time, though, some were actually able to escape, and there were a few seriously able to hurt you… What kind of people are being sent out for the Holy War?”

“It’s normal. In any case, the foundation of a great noble clan with a thousand-year-old inheritance is deep. In total, the Holy War has been going on for less than forty years since the Holy Relic was unearthed,” Yue Congrao said faintly. “If said, they still didn’t care all too much in the past. But in case the House of Dracul’s strength obviously rises after comprehending the Holy Relic, they definitely won’t be able to sit still. This is a normal wave. It’s just that kid Xu’s luck is no good. It was just by chance that he hit the peak.”

“Well regardless, this peak is a little too excessively high,” he said calmly and looked out the window pensively.

But at this moment, the floating space-time treasure suddenly shook.

While calm moments ago, Yue Congrao bolted up to his feet, the light of his eyes flaring. He snapped his fingers, and a screen of light appeared in the room without missing a beat.

Inside the treasure, the great cauldron was no longer present. Xu Yangyi’s bare upper body was standing in front of the pill-cauldron, and each of his muscles were surprisingly radiating a faint-golden luster.

As if he was copper man of the Shaolin Temple.

“This is…” Yue Congrao focused on the image on the light-screen. His eyes were like X-rays, directly seeing through Xu Yangyi’s skin and flesh until he peered into the demon slayer’s bones.

“Impossible!” As soon as looked carefully, he quickly stood up and looked at the image in shock. “It’s been four months! Why… Why is he becoming a perfected person?”

“A perfected person… can only appear from the legendary cultivation constitutions! Not even I know how many successors there are! He actually has one!”

“Did it awaken in these several months? Or has it always existed?” He looked away, heart shaking with rapid rhythm. It wasn’t that there were no special constitutions in the present day, but they were too, too few! It could be said in such a way that it was a question if there were even fifty successors in the entire world. But right now, one was in front of him!

His heart shuddered intensely, but he had no time to care because the pill-cauldron in front of Xu Yangyi… was already fully ablaze with a sky of fire!

The fire pillar reached the roof of the treasure’s great hall, and in between this fire there was a fist-sized silver pill lightly pulsing.

Yue Congrao’s fists couldn’t help but involuntarily tighten.

The Spirit Forbiddance Pill…

The Holy Relic, a fragment of a Secondary Realm Anchor. All of everything hinged on whether the Spirit Forbiddance Pill could be completed.

The room was quiet. The sound of breathing was audible. The only thing visible on the light-screen was Xu Yangyi’s hands weaving seals at lightning speed. Rays of silver light lingered at his fingertips, corresponding to the ceaseless surging of the silver pill in the pill-furnace. The pill bulged inwards and outwards, just like a jumping spirit was wrapped inside.

“Dad… can you learn it?” said Angel.

Yue Congrao shook his head. “I can memorize all his seals, but I cannot. The Dao of Pills is profound and complex. There’s no use in empty hand seals.”

At this time, Xu Yangyi’s hands slammed together, and an expanse of silver light blossomed. In its wake, a sonorous boom echoed from the pill-furnace, and all the blossoming silver light and the drifting qi in the air seemed to surge towards the pill-furnace like a vortex. Visible to the naked eye, the light and qi converged into a silver lotus that was around five to six meters in size.

Jingle…

The first petal opened, and a sweet-sounding noise rang out.

Clang… Hum… Swish… Four petals opened and four sounds of nature echoed. The silver lotus, layer after layer, blossomed. At the center, a golden pill was bundled in a vast, dense fog, bobbing up and down.

Yue Congrao said nothing. He only clenched his shaking hands, already expressing the boundless thirst in his heart. “The Spirit Forbiddance Pill…” After a long period of time, he closed his eyes, forced down ecstasy in his heart, and stammered, “I… have hope for Nascent Soul!”

Boom! An explosion rang out, and cracks inched up the pill-furnace. Angel was inwardly surprised and quickly looked over. Yue Congrao was also startled by the booming noise, and his hands formed seals at once. Visible restrictions appeared around the hotel.

However, it was already too late.

Plain to see, a silver qi ripple punched through the seal at an unimaginable speed and vanished with a swoosh into New York’s sky.

1. This is a fun little Chinese idiom (落花有意流水无情) that’s about love. Usually refers to one-sided love.

2. Mount Wu refers to the Mount Wu on the Yangtze River.