The fifteenth day of the first month, the day of the lantern festival.
Battle broke out.
The people beneath the walls used their bodies as shields. Arrows rained down from the walls, felling wave after wave of people. The whole moat was dyed red with blood, but the soldiers were like the tide. When one wave retreated, another one came. Sabers, spears, swords, halberds, Yan Zhen took one look from atop the walls and thought these people could use their nails to pry the wall to pieces. They were so vicious it made one’s scalp numb.
When noon passed, the remnant of the sects’ disciples within the city moved out, facing off with the cavalry outside the walls. Day was as night, night was as day, it was utter chaos. No one knew what time it was, some couldn’t even tell whether they were alive or dead. They rushed into the fray all the same, driven by instinct.
Until their last drop of strength was spent, until they’d screamed their voices hoarse.
“Bitan-shishu.” From afar, Shi Wuduan saw the frazzled man of the Xuan Sect holding down the fort on the walls. He laughed bitterly, as if realizing a beat too late that he was no different from a traitor to his sect.
Then, he waved towards Bai Li, and in the furor yelled incoherently, “Do you know what happens when a person’s flesh and blood are separated, and one part is about to die?”
Bai Li frowned, “What?”
“Nothing. Just asking.” Shi Wuduan shifted his gaze. He’d gotten considerably thinner recently, perhaps because his thoughts were too heavy. His face became even more expressionless; he seemed like a carefully carved wooden doll.
“Are you asking me how the soul and the fox’s blood that I discarded returned to me?” Bai Li asked.
Shi Wuduan asked in return, “Then why… did you end up in a rabbit’s body back then?”
He’d never mentioned that question before, but now he’d finally asked. Bai Li pushed his hair, disheveled from the wind, to the side. His fingertips brushed past his cheeks, cold from the relentless northern winds. A good while later, he said, “Maybe I was worried about you, I suppose? If I couldn’t see you, didn’t know how you were doing, I’d panic.”
Shi Wuduan looked at him blankly, but just then, a thunderous drumbeat suddenly rang out, bringing him back to his senses. He looked and saw that the skies, which had just moments ago been filled with stars, was suddenly half enveloped by black energy. A violet-black light rose from the west. The wind stopped unnaturally. The stench of rot permeated the air, like the decay of a mass grave exposed to air after an earthquake.
They heard the sound of rustling from afar; it resembled hushed whispers.
Suddenly someone yelled in alarm, “Demon creatures! Demons out of the depths of hell!”
Xia Duanfang unconsciously glanced towards Shi Wuduan, who was looking at the city walls. His face seemed blurry in the inconstant flickering of the fire. He faintly raised his head; his jaw was clenched tight. The wind had already swept most of his hair from his bun, where it now fell his back, unmoving… yet his expression was tranquil.
He seemed to be forever tranquil. Of all the joy, anger, sorrow in the world, nothing could move him any longer. Xia Duanfang couldn’t help wondering sometimes, whether he’d have turned into a lunatic if Bai Li hadn’t returned, whether he’d break down all at once or turn into a rock, forgetting everything of happiness and grief?
At some point, a line of young children had been pushed onto the wall. Each one of their tiny bodies were bound with rope. Bloodied soldiers held swords and spears to their backs.
Yan Zhen lowered his eyes and lightly gestured his hand.
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.
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His voice was much clearer than most childrens’. Perhaps he was a young actor. He spoke, then gulped difficultly and roared, “Listen now, you traitorous villains, you were born beneath the emperor’s sky, on the empress’s earth, yet know nothing of gratitude, mercy, or piety. You break the law with force, doing whatever you please, provoking the wrath of the deities and bringing sin on all people. All the common people are wandering and bereft yet besmirch my lord and use wicked arts to disrupt the order of the court! You… you…”
His voice cracked like it’d been chopped in two. He opened his mouth but was unable to make a sound, so he suddenly burst into tears on the wall. He was so choked up his round face was reddish-purple. The moment he cried, it was like a dam had burst. The whole row of little children all started sobbing as well, as if the wall had become a stage, putting on the most absurd of plays.
The chubby kid was crying so hard he couldn’t catch his breath. He managed to say, “You all… you all are unforgivable sinners! Deserving… of a thousand deaths!”
The whole wall was crawling with black shadows, like it was painted with a thick layer of black water. They writhed, twittering with excitement, slavering after these dozen plump, soft-skinned children. Their shifting forms conveyed their wretched desire and greed.
On the massive battlefield, in which tens of thousands were present, not a single soul spoke a word. Only Shi Wuduan had the barest trace of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. The dimple on his left cheek made a brief appearance. He lightly opened his mouth, yet all could hear his voice; his words reached the very top of those towering walls.
He said calmly, “Very well, Sir Yan. Ruthlessness is the mark of greatness. I really do admire how you’ve broken your caldrons and sunk your boats.”
Yan Zhen looked at him from afar, his gaze flashing. A lingering voice came from behind him, almost like a sigh. It said, “Sacrifice –”
The children were simultaneously shoved off the wall, and almost immediately swallowed by the black shadows. The children’s screams were short-lived but sharp, vanishing in an instant. Then, the black shadows dispersed, leaving a pile of bloody white bones behind. That sound sang once more, “Ceremony complete –”
The ground began to tremble. A sea of black wafted forth. They were on the ground, in the air, atop the walls, in the shadows, eating men and drinking their marrow. They forcefully shoved those tattered souls within their own bodies, revealing their hideous forms in the dark night. Bai Li’s hand suddenly clenched tight.
Yet Shi Wuduan caught his wrist and pried his fingers apart.
His gaze was extremely deep, as well as extremely gentle. Bai Li heard him say softly, “Hold on to this.”
Bai Li unwittingly opened his hand and received the item. It was a small wooden figurine. Unlike the crude, ugly frog he’d once carved, this figurine was almost lifelike. It probably took immense skill to craft. Even the strands of hair were clear and distinct.
The wooden figure was the spitting image of Shi Wuduan himself, except that its cheeks were slightly fuller, and that it had an utterly carefree, mischievous grin on its face. Perhaps it was Shi Wuduan in his youth.
“Take care of it.” Shi Wuduan said, “I’m giving this to you, then later I will return and find you.”
He finished and didn’t wait for Bai Li’s response. He forcefully spurred his horse and charged out. Xia Duanfang snuck a look at Bai Li, his gaze complicated, then rode after him. In mere moments, they were separated by the crowd. Bai Li stared intently at Shi Wuduan’s form, but no matter what he did, he wasn’t able to break free from the encirclement of the Redscarf soldiers around him.
He couldn’t help snarling in rage, “Get out of my way. Do you think that because of him, I won’t kill you? I’m the Demon Lord! Even if those things come out in full force, so what? If I could kill them all once, I can kill them all a second time!”
No one answered him. Since they’d come to this battlefield, none of them had planned on making it back alive.
Bai Li swung his horsewhip. Even though he was so anxious his eyes were nearly red, he didn’t strike any fatal blows, on Shi Wuduan’s account. The whip curled in midair like it had a life of its own and swept away all the people in his path. He stared unblinkingly at that silhouette moving farther and farther away. The moment he was about to chase after him, a green light rose from beneath his feet. Countless threads emerged from the ground, cocooning Bai Li like layers of spider webs.
They didn’t break his skin and didn’t harm him. They only firmly held him in place. That ice-cold texture was one that Bai Li had come into contact with numerous times before — it was starsilk, starsilk from the Ghoulish Astrolabe.
He looked down in shock; a lot of people did, because the ground seemed to have turned into a giant mirror. It was like the illusory arts mixed with arrays that Shi Wuduan had used to coordinate the attack on Dazhou Mountain. The illusionists mixed into the cavalry yelled, “Begin!”
Signalling that the preparations were complete. Shi Wuduan was already standing in the center of the mirror. The mirror reflected the image of an astrolabe, multiplying its size countless times. Stars and clouds flowed on its surface. It looked like he was standing on the Milky Way.
The wooden figurine in Bai Li’s hand glowed like the starsilk. A drop of blood suddenly ran down that small naive and innocent face like a tear. It contrasted oddly with that carefree smile.
Bai Li suddenly realized that the material the figurine was made of was originally part of the astrolabe’s base.
He felt extremely uneasy. He remembered how Shi Wuduan fed the astrolabe his blood every day, remembered the question he’d suddenly asked… what was he planning to do?
Countless black shadows frenziedly surged towards Shi Wuduan, standing within the astrolabe. He didn’t even blink, as if they were nothing more than specks of dust. Gale winds suddenly rose from beneath his feet and like an invincible wall, mercilessly, inexorably swept all the shadows away.
Xia Duanfang stood solemnly to the side. Even his rather laughable goatee and the large copper coins he hung all over himself gave him an air of gravity, despite their comical appearance.
Shi Wuduan said, clearly enunciating each word, “Tanlang enters the sixth palace, advances three breaths, goes towards the divine seat….”
Many years ago, loose cultivator Jiang Hua had used a living array to trap Shi Wuduan on his mountain. He, in his youth, not knowing how high the skies were or how deep the earth was, used a borrowed galaxy pestle from Bai Li and manipulated the stars on the astrolabe into moving according to his will, tricking the living array, which moved according to the stars, to open for him.
In the decades after, he’d never pulled off another trick so daring or amazing. Shi Wuduan almost wondered if he was getting more useless the older he got.
The stars in the astrolabe slowly set into motion. All the black clouds in the sky suddenly stopped, as if confused by the two skies, one above and one below.
The six realms surrounding the demon realm connected to each other in the way of the Six Circles Array. The human realm and demon realm split one into two, and were to each other as light to dark. Yan Zhen had used Bai Li’s karma to force open the Hall of Demons, thus the Six Circles array had been damaged. It was the perfect tool for Shi Wuduan to use to light his last, end-of-days, lantern.
Without destruction, there’s no creation.
Yan Zhen was stunned; everyone was stunned. Gu Huaiyang pushed everyone aside and grabbed one of the cavalries who’d helped set up the mirror image and demanded, “You… tell me what’s going on! What is Lord Sixth planning to do?!”
The cavalry solemnly replied, “General, Lord Sixth said that this was the last thread holding the so-called fate of the country together. Once this thread is severed, even heaven itself cannot stop him from rearranging the laws of this world. All will move in accordance with the new order. Please, rest assured, General.”
“Rest assured?!” Gu Huaiyang’s eyes were bulging. He turned to look at the person standing amongst the stars, as if they were about to sacrifice something. He grabbed the cavalry’s collar, “How can I rest assured? That’s my brother, who I found when he was young and kept beside me for so long. I see him almost as a son, how can I rest assured?!”
Shi Wuduan’s hair was blown into disarray by the wind that rose beneath him. Every star was within his palm. All those complicated trajectories were like fate, inconstant and intertwined. For hundreds, thousands, of years, no one had been able to calculate it all.
The blackness of the sky slowly receded. It was clearly midnight, yet a beam of light suddenly peeked out from the clouds. That beam was like a mighty sword coming from beyond the heavens, stabbing a mass of demon shadow to the ground and instantly burning it into charred ash.
Yan Zhen suddenly took a step back, his whole body violently trembling, “You dare… you dare…”
Six lights, their color each different, suddenly shone in the sky. Their light was ominous as the omen of an earthquake. They rose and fell in succession, affecting one another from afar. Everyone covered their eyes; the light was so bright even Bai Li’s eyes were pained, but he knew that these were the strange realms surrounding the demon realms, within which he and Shi Wuduan had once been trapped for over a month.
The stars seamlessly revolved around one another. The six lights suddenly scattered, each heading towards a different direction, then sinking into the earth. The ground rumbled as if it were about to split. Out in the distance, six huge mountains rose from nothing, like six nails holding down the ground that was about to burst.
Countless streaks of light rained down from the sky, sweeping away all the demons on the ground. They shrieked and squirmed hysterically as they were gradually forced into the ground by a net woven of starlight. That light seemed almost burning hot. Bai Li couldn’t help turning his face away, but found that the threads surrounding him like a cocoon had already blocked the light for him.
He raised his eyes and saw that Shi Wuduan was looking back at him, past tens of thousands of people, smiling at him.
Then, a bolt of thunderous lightning crashed down, as heaven raged at the mere mortal who’d dared to do what only deities could. The strange sunlight shone together with the lightning, temporarily blinding everyone.
Yet Shi Wuduan began laughing loudly.
Xia Duanfang crouched by the side, huddling his arms over his head, forced to curl into a ball by heaven’s rage, too frightened to even move, when he heard that impudent laughter. He thought, why is it that even though Sir Bai returned, Lord Sixth still went mad?
That moment, all of the grief and indignation in Shi Wuduan’s heart left him in a burst of mad laughter. Gods? Heaven and earth? So what.
Since I was given a soul, why must I be trapped within the world? Since I was given eyes, why am I not allowed to look into the distance? Since I was given ears, why am I unable to hear a single truth? Since I was given a mouth, why am I forced to remain mute?
There is no freedom!
There is no freedom!
There is no freedom!
What is Nature? Why is it Nature? Now, isn’t it a mere plaything in the palm of my hand?
As lightning scorched his body, the pain searing into his bones, Shi Wuduan thought, so it’s nothing more than this after all.
All that that so-called heaven’s wrath could do was destroy a mortal’s fleshly body. This easily deceived dumb thing might never realize — as long as the soul was not annihilated, the seeds of rebellion would never break.
Oh Lord Six!! How can Bai Li stand this ? 😲😢
Thank you so much for all your hard work ❤️🙏👏💐🧨🦋
I FEEL FOR HIM.
WHAT IS NATURE, WHY IS NATURE?
WHEN READING THIS NOVEL, NEVER ONCE IT MADE ME FEEL LIKE THIS OMG.
I CAN FEEL HIS LOSS THROUGH THE WORDS IT BLEEDS
THANK U FOR THE CHAPTER!!
SWD jumped on a tiger’s back and now he has to ride it to the end of the road…
Oh he’s crazyyyyyy