Shi Wuduan’s chest became a mess of bloody flesh. Very quickly, his blood had welled over the green glass tucked inside his robes. As it flowed into every mark etched into the green glass, the image on its surface started to look more like an array than a portrait. The thin channels carved on its surface were able to absorb some type of energy.
Just as the blood, as if it had a life of its own, had completed a circuit around the “channels” on the green glass, an orange glow suddenly shone from Shi Wuduan’s chest and, like two magnets of the same polarity, repelled Bai Li away.
Taken by surprise, Bai Li stumbled back, crashing heavily against the wall. He grunted faintly; the red in his eyes diminished significantly, and the malice on his face turned into confusion. He stared blankly at his lengthy claws.
As soon as the light from the green glass disappeared, Bai Li was confronted with the sight of Shi Wuduan, who was half-conscious. Bai Li’s eyes widened, he unwittingly backed away. His gaze fell on the blood staining his white sleeves. He spaced out for a moment before he suddenly yelled, “Wuduan!”
Was it me? Was I the one who harmed him? How could I…..
He worriedly rushed to his side but found that there wasn’t one place between Shi Wuduan’s chest and throat that wasn’t oozing blood. Who knew how many holes were poked into him. Instantly, he became flustered and clueless. He kept reaching towards him, wanting to lift him up and carry him, but Shi Wuduan’s neck was still bleeding and couldn’t handle any strain. The moment he moved him, he started bleeding out even more rapidly.
Bai Li was half-kneeling on the floor, his head almost blanker than it was before. His heart, his hands, and feet, were all freezing cold — as if the one dying wasn’t Shi Wuduan, but him.
Yet Shi Wuduan was still conscious, though unable to speak. His eyes were so calm they were almost indifferent as he looked upon a terrified Bai Li. His chest, which had been rapidly rising and falling, slowly started to still. His breaths became almost unnoticeable.
The ash of the Yin Corpse Fire wasn’t able to change a person completely, in fact, it couldn’t even make someone lose sight of their true self. All it did was make those with whom it shared an origin partially lose their self-control. Shi Wuduan knew — actually, he seemed to have known for a while already. He felt like his mind had turned into a mirror, all the good and all the ugly became reflected in its surface, having nowhere left to hide.
That’s right, or perhaps from another perspective, what the Yin Corpse Fire actually did was reveal a person’s true nature. So all this time, this was Bai Li’s true nature.
Shi Wuduan thought that he was just like a wolf; even if a wolf is raised in a pen and learns to wag its tail for attention like a dog, its bloodthirsty nature can’t be changed. As long as its fangs are still there, it’s only a matter of time before they sink into their master’s throat. Just like himself, even though he’d once been trapped on Jiulu Mountain, even though he was in a position of weakness and had to learn to socialize like a normal person, drinking and conversing with others, it couldn’t change his icy cold, rebellious blood. Only spilled blood and the utter destruction of this old era could ever ignite it. One day, either that fire would light the flames of war, or it would swallow him whole.
Shi Wuduan suddenly felt unbearably weary. Even animals didn’t have to betray their own nature, they ate, drank, ran, and cried, driven entirely by their instincts. Why did humans have to bitterly struggle to repress themselves? What did they even gain by doing so?
He held a breath and mustered up enough strength to swat Bai Li’s hand away. His blood-covered fingers were clenched so tightly they became pale. He forcefully clenched the front of his robes and ripped off the cloth that’d been glued to his chest by blood. Specks of blood were flung onto Bai Li, nearly scaring his soul out of him, “Don’t move! What are you doing?”
The corners of Shi Wuduan’s lips curved upwards. He sneered coldly, and his vision blackened, nearly making him sprawl forwards. He managed to raise a hand and press against the wounds on his neck. Haltingly, he recited a spell he’d learned so long ago he could hardly remember it. His wounds slowly, arduously, began to pull together. He was like a shoddily patched doll, one injury closing while another one tore open again.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Pucbglcu tlr qgbafrar, tf mjgfoeiis gfjmtfv jc jgw yftlcv tlr yjmx. Vtl Qevejc’r ojmf kjr cfjgis ugffc; tlr ijrtfr kfgf kfa ogbw atf rkfja gbiilcu vbkc ogbw tlr obgftfjv, obgmlcu tlw ab rilutais mibrf tlr fsfr. Valii, tlr ojmf kjr ralii aklrafv lcab atja mbiv rcffg. Llr wbeat bqfcfv jcv mibrfv. Djl Ol kjr jyif ab gfjv tlr ilqr. Vtl Qevejc kjr rjslcu, “Djl Ol, sbe’gf rb ubbv.”
“I… I didn’t do it on purpose,” he weakly tried to explain himself. He was a mess of emotions, yet he was gentle as he propped Shi Wuduan up, “I’ll take you to find a….”
But suddenly, the door to Shi Wuduan’s room was forced open. Xia Duanfang barged in first, a bunch of Daoists wielding various magic artifacts, ready to face some enemy, trailing in behind him. Even Lu Yunzhou had come, sword in hand. They’d been drawn here by the lightning and the sounds of combat. Once they entered, they were all stunned by what they saw. They looked back and forth between Shi Wuduan and Bai Li, not sure what was going on.
Then, Shi Wuduan sucked in a breath and forcefully pushed Bai Li away. He stumbled back three steps, standing at the place where he belonged, drawing a clear battle line between the two of them. Lu Yunzhou stepped forwards in silent understanding, catching him and helping him rest against the door. Then, throwing all caution to the wind, not caring at all what Bai Li was, he drew his sword and attacked. He didn’t even say a word; it was clear that the only thing he was willing to exchange with him was killing blows.
Bai Li dodged instantly but didn’t dare attack in return. His eyes never left Shi Wuduan’s figure, whose expressionlessness made his heart wrench painfully. He couldn’t even tell whether he was feeling guilt or terror anymore. Infamous throughout the jianghu, Lu Yunzhou’s mastery of the sword was exceptional. Distracted, and unwilling to fight back, Bai Li was quickly forced out into the courtyard.
As he passed by Shi Wuduan, he couldn’t resist taking another look at him and saying, “Wuduan, I… I didn’t do it on purpose….”
Lu Yunzhou snorted coldly, each slash and stab unrelentingly oppressive. Pushed past the limit of his tolerance, Bai Li deftly caught Lu Yunzhou’s sword. He yelled, “Wuduan!”
The tip of the sword left a wound on his hand from which black blood began to flow. The confused onlookers, not knowing what was going on, instantly began to whisper amongst themselves — how is it that a person…. would have black blood?
An elder of the Dasha Sect couldn’t help muttering to Xia Duanfang, “Surveillance Commissioner Xia, what is this person…”
Xia Duanfang dithered for a moment before responding quietly, “I’m afraid it’s exactly as you suspect.” He dug a small copper mirror out of his robes. Strangely, instead of reflecting their images, the copper mirror allowed them to see through it to what was behind it. The Dasha Sect’s elder and the others all huddled over and simultaneously sucked in a cold breath. They saw seven streaks of mist hanging high over Bai Li’s head, its form shifting and amorphous, its aura unspeakably fiendish and threatening.
“Demon…. Lord….”
Someone said quietly, “It’s a common saying that when a country’s end is nigh, evil things will surface. And right now…. is Great Qian’s fate really…..”
Shi Wuduan laughed coldly, thinking, that’s because you guys don’t know who this Demon Lord was released by. He was surprised by how calm and detached he was. In his eyes, Bai Li had simply turned into an abstract symbol. He was no longer the old friend he’d reminisced about for years; he was no longer the close friend he wholeheartedly treated as a confidant.
Xia Duanfang said, “Seeing as he’s injured, his powers are somehow diminished, and we’ve got the advantage of numbers, there’s no need to fear him. We won’t get another chance like this! Capture him!”
The Dasha Sect’s elder, Song Zongming, couldn’t help taking a glance at Shi Wuduan, who was leaning against the door, his eyes half-closed. He had the feeling that something was strange about the situation, so he said somewhat indecisively, “Then…“
Noticing his gaze, Shi Wuduan looked up and smiled slightly, saying quietly, “In that case, I’ll lend everyone a hand.”
The moment he spoke, the water in the courtyard’s small pond suddenly burst out, turning red as it fell. In an instant, it permeated the entire courtyard. Someone gasped in surprise, “This is the Blood Array of Slaughter!”
It was an extremely complicated array, one that was definitely impossible to construct in such a short amount of time. It seemed it’d been hidden for some time already. The hazy blood mist congealed into ropes, lashing around Bai Li, binding him where he stood. Through the layers and layers of uncountable threads, he disbelievingly looked at Shi Wuduan. He was holding a familiar piece of green glass.
The green glass blazed with crimson light — even Bai Li, an amateur when it came to arrays, could tell that that was the eye of the array.
The eye of the Blood Array of Slaughter had to be something that its target’s blood had touched before. Even if nothing in the world could suppress you, what about your own blood?
“This piece of green glass has been immersed in my blood for over a hundred days, it can protect you on my behalf. ”
Those ardent words he’d whispered in that quiet night almost seemed to linger by his ear.
So, it was like this after all. We really were just putting on a play, pretending everything was fine between us. Bai Li suddenly felt like the threads binding his hands and feet were sucking all the blood out of him, yet he couldn’t find even the slightest will to struggle or resist. It seemed to him that the bloody threads binding him seemed more like a large cocoon; it took but a moment for it to wrap him up completely, stifling him inside.
Yet Shi Wuduan didn’t even look at him once. He craned his head slightly as if he was waiting for someone to appear. He put all his effort into standing up straight, then shallowly saluted towards the door, “You grace us with your presence, sir. Our hospitality is truly lacking, deepest apologies.”
Everyone was still reeling from shock when the doors opened wide and a man, his hair unbound, entered the courtyard. The black cloth-like shadow floating behind him, upon seeing that Bai Li had been restrained, quickly darted towards him but was stopped by the array. All it could do was bounce around as it circled him.
The man gave Shi Wuduan a once-over, then suddenly laughed, “You’ve used my own trick against me, little mister, how impressive.”
Shi Wuduan said, “You praise me overmuch. I think your Yin Corpse Fire ploy was rather ingenious, Sir Zou.”
When the words “Sir Zou” left his mouth, even Lu Yunzhou froze in disbelief and couldn’t’ help asking, “Little six, which Sir Zou are you talking about?”
“There are only two or three people with enough prestige to respectfully welcome the Demon Lord back to the court. Grand Mentor Yan, I’ve met already, Sir Zhang is rumored to be performing a ceremony up in the northwest to relieve their disaster, and is likely too busy to be in two places at once. It’s said that Zou Yanlai, Sir Zou, is a revered disciple of the Mi Sect, a debonair gentleman that can make one sigh in amazement at first glance. It seems the rumors are true after all.”
Zou Yanlai’s face stiffened. Now that Shi Wuduan had forced him out, the fact that the court was in cahoots with demons could no longer be kept hidden. But if he refused to admit it…. he looked around the courtyard — he wouldn’t be able to take him away.
The Blood Array of Slaughter used one’s own blood to trap them. Unless the array’s caster willingly let him go, things would be difficult for him.
Zou Yanlai’s gaze swept across the courtyard as he weighed his options — it was no more than a rabble of lesser sects and nameless peons; he didn’t have anything to fear. Right now, it was more important to retrieve the Demon Lord….
So he dug a token of authority from his sleeve and said, “Carrying out the Grand Mentor’s orders.”
Everyone jolted in shock, but Shi Wuduan laughed and bowed, “Yes, forgive my insolence.”
He then waved his hand and dispelled the array, the light coming from the green glass fading away. Bai Li staggered, kneeling to the ground. Zou Yanlai hurriedly helped him up. Shi Wuduan held the green glass in one hand and brought it before Bai Li, softly saying, “I return your item in its original condition, please receive it, Demon Lord.”
Bai Li stared at him unwaveringly, yet Shi Wuduan refused to even look at him. He shoved the green glass at him then turned away.
I won’t let anyone stop me, he thought heartlessly, it’s cleaner to sever ties.
Suddenly, Bai Li began to laugh hysterically. The green glass morphed into a dagger, which he then turned towards himself and stabbed into his chest. But there was no blood spurting from the wound. All that happened was that the color of the green glass deepened a bit.
“My blood?” He said lowly, with a hint of insanity, “I don’t need this blood anymore. No one can ever bind me again. The fox race… I should’ve gotten rid of this fleshly body I received from the fox race. I kept this weak thing for the sake of one person, but he doesn’t appreciate it.”
Shi Wuduan didn’t even turn his head.
That dagger that seemed to have sucked all of Bai Li’s blood away suddenly dropped onto the ground and dissolved into a wisp of green smoke. All that remained was a stain of pitch-black blood on the ground and the snow-white flower that grew out of it.
Zou Yanlai wordlessly turned and took Bai Li away.
Omg these two. They’re breaking my heart I swear. Thanks for translating 🙏🏼
Nooooooo my sons 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
waaahhhh my heart 💔
Fate is cruel. Poor Bai, trying to hold onto the only person that make him keep his humanity.
How hard was it to translate this heart wrenching chapter?! 💔💔💔
Thank you so much for your dedication to this novel. Greatly appreciate it 👏🙏💐
F*ck 😕
I really want to strangle MC, how heartless!
Shit, im crying😭😭
If the necklace that bai li gave was in shi wuduan, how did bai li managed to hurt him, he said that it’s gonna protect it from him or does he only mean when he use magic or something
People are angry at SWD but try to see it from his POV–he knew Bai Li was in deep with the empire now (who are the ones behind the lantern ritual and the murder of his shifu) and someone had set a demonic plague loose in the city, and he prepared that array just in case Bai Li would turn on him (of his own free will or not), and that’s kind of exactly what happened. SWD would have died and his souls consumed by Bai Li if the green glass hadn’t been activated at the last moment. That’s not exactly conducive to trust. He also has no idea about how Bai Li is being manipulated and influenced by that black shadow working with Zou Yanlai.
I feel very sorry for Bai Li as well, he never intended for this to happen, but it’s not like SWD turned on him with no cause at all.
Poor Bai Li 🙁 am so heartbroken
Nooooo~ poor Bai Li 🥺🥺