The system finally couldn’t withstand the pressure anymore and began to appeal to her emotions and reason:
“Host, look, if you want to obtain the Kunlun Sword, you have to undergo the Patriarch’s test.”
—It’s perfectly normal for the system to test her temperament.
She said unhurriedly:
“Everything you say is right, but what right do you have to compare yourself to the Kunlun Sword? The Kunlun Sword splits mountains and cleaves seas—what use are you?”
“When charging into battle, do you just stand at the side and clap?”
System: …
Chao Jinsui looked at the Butian Stone on the table:
“You knew ever since Su Liuyun died that the Heavenly Dao has a flaw. You knew about the Butian Stone, yet you kept it from me, testing me?”
The system trembled: “These are the secret matters of the Heavenly Dao, Host. They concern the survival of the entire world.”
Chao Jinsui sneered: “Then let me ask you—if the mission fails, what happens to me?”
The system’s voice grew smaller and smaller: “Your soul will scatter and your spirit will dissipate.”
No entry into reincarnation, no chance of rebirth.
This is the price that must be paid for starting over.
Chao Jinsui let out a laugh: “You see, for the past hundred years, thinking you were a heart demon—I wasn’t wrong.”
The system hurriedly explained: “Host, your temperament is steadfast. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been chosen in the first place.”
The system had never planned to let the host die. If the host died, the system would be gone too. It simply wanted to make its position clear, and only after confirming the host’s stance and attitude did it intend to lay everything out plainly.
Chao Jinsui: “Oh? Is that so?”
The system had no choice but to speak the truth:
“What if you really hit it off with the Demon God, fell into demonic corruption—wouldn’t the Butian Stone be in danger then?”
The system burst into loud sobs.
At first, the naïve system had truly believed that once the demon overlord was dealt with, all would be peaceful under heaven. Who would have thought that in the blink of an eye it would discover that the Heavenly Dao had a flaw? If the host and the demon overlord became all lovey-dovey and let emotions take over, it would end up digging its own grave alive.
Chao Jinsui: “…”
Forget it. She had known from the beginning that the system wasn’t very bright.
She had once suspected the system was the incomplete Heavenly Dao itself, but now it seemed—it was simply shockingly stupid. If the Heavenly Dao really were this sniffling, weepy system—
Then this world might as well be destroyed.
However, even if the system wasn’t the Heavenly Dao, it certainly couldn’t be unrelated to it.
She stopped it: “Stop crying. Just talk about the Butian Stone.”
The system choked with sobs:
“Host, you’ve heard the mythological legends of the ancient era, right?”
The cultivation world also has its myths, but they are very different from the versions among mortals—
It is said that in the ancient era, Pangu split open heaven and earth. The clear qi rose to become the heavens, and the turbid qi became the earth.
The remaining clear qi became spiritual energy;
The remaining turbid qi became demonic energy;
Pangu was the first Heavenly Dao.
Nüwa was the second Heavenly Dao.
“When Nüwa mended the heavens, she used five stones. From then on, the Heavenly Dao remained stable, passed down through generations.”
“What the Heavenly Dao lacks now are those five Butian Stones.”
Chao Jinsui asked, “So if we find those five Butian Stones and bring them back, we can mend the gap in the Heavenly Dao?”
System: “Yes. When the Heavenly Dao returns, the future where demonic energy flourishes will be changed. Once demons and the Dao are balanced, the calamities between heaven and earth will vanish.”
She looked at the first Butian Stone on the table, lightly tapping it with her finger, “Tell me everything you know.”
The system obediently said, “Each Butian Stone carries a portion of the Heavenly Dao’s fortune. Wherever it is located, fortune will be overwhelming.”
Chao Jinsui naturally thought of Su Liuyun, the so-called “Child of Fortune.”
So the first Butian Stone was hidden in the Su family.
For example, Madam Zi had brought disaster upon Yuanyang City for a hundred years. So many people died, yet no one ever noticed anything strange;
The Su family prospered more and more, their business growing ever larger; Su Liuyun’s luck was so good it was almost unbelievable.
In a sense, they were stealing the Heavenly Dao’s fortune.
“The flaw in the Heavenly Dao, is it man-made?”
System: “As long as we find the one who stole the Heavenly Dao’s fortune, we can find where the Butian Stone is!”
Chao Jinsui poured a bucket of cold water over the system:
“Luck can’t be seen or touched. How are we supposed to find it?”
“Are we supposed to hunt down everyone under heaven, and whoever has good luck and survives—that’s the one?”
System: “……”
What kind of devilish statement is that!
Although the system was still as useless as ever—at least it pointed out a clear path.
✦ ─ ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ ─ ✦
Her mood suddenly became very good. She got up and went downstairs to find the waiter to buy Yuanyang City’s specialty peach blossom wine, then leapt onto the rooftop and took out the glazed wine cup Chao Zhaoyue had prepared for her.
But just as she set everything out, she saw a demon overlord on the rooftop.
The young man in black clothes and black hair had an even darker expression:
“Why aren’t you sleeping? Getting up in the middle of the night to catch the wind?”
Cultivators may go without sleep, but no matter the circumstances, sleep is still the best form of recovery.
Chao Jinsui: “I can’t sleep.”
She handed him a cup of wine.
This demon overlord with two demonic horns sat down beside her. Being tall, he had to bend his long legs when seated. He glanced at her delicate little wine cup, then simply stretched out his long arm and took the wine jar instead.
He looked at her for a long time, then suddenly asked: “Does killing Madam Zi make you that happy?”
Killing a scum who brought disaster to one region, did that make her so happy?
All his life, he could never understand such human cultivators. Logically, he should disdain this kind of person—but somehow, he quite liked seeing her like this.
But today, he guessed wrong.
“No.”
Ever since she woke from that great dream, she had been thinking about whether there was some way to minimize the harm, some way to avoid ending up crossing blades with that demon overlord in the end.
She was actually very lost. After breaking free from Kunlun, after distancing herself from that suffocating home, what should she do to change their ending?
She did not want to kill him, so she gave the Fumo Sword to Yan Xueyi.
She often thought—if the flourishing of demonic energy was inevitable—
Then in the end, if Yan Xueyi still became the Demon God, still brought devastation upon all living beings, what would she do?
Perhaps… she would still draw her sword against him.
A thousand times, ten thousand times.
Without the Fumo Sword, there was still the Kunlun Sword, and countless other methods.
Because she was Chao Jinsui.
As long as she was still herself, no matter past heart-pounding moments or softness of heart, regardless of emotion or personal gain, in the end she would still make the same choice.
She said: “Have you heard a line from mortal songs? ‘All things are fate, not even half is in one’s own hands.’”
“I used to… believe in fate, a little.”
The demon overlord, however, sneered in disdain: “What fate, what not fate.”
He turned to look at her. The high, curved demonic horns made him appear arrogant and domineering, his phoenix eyes filled with contempt:
“If I believed in fate, I’d have never climbed out of that damned Myriad Demon Pit.”
Chao Jinsui froze.
The great demon sneered: “Isn’t that monk Guangping the same? He believed in fate, so he went mad from qi deviation.”
“Guangping used to be a monk of Tairuo Temple. He once liked a female cultivator. But Tairuo Temple’s rules were strict, and he was the future abbot. He didn’t dare break his vows, so he forced himself to face the wall for ten years, cutting off his feelings.”
“When he came out of seclusion, the person was dead—and he went mad too.”
“You see, if that monk hadn’t believed in fate back then, and had left Tairuo Temple with the one he loved—would any of what followed have happened?”
He had only just figured that out himself.
He glanced back at her, then drained the wine in one gulp.
Chao Jinsui hadn’t expected to hear Guangping’s old story. Only after a long while did she say, “I used to believe. Now I don’t.”
She touched the Kunlun Sword at her side and smiled.
She really was especially happy today.
Although the system had been far from honest, at least it had pointed out a clear path.
—She had a way now, she had a direction. Once again, she had taken fate into her own hands.
She no longer had to toss and turn at night, no longer had to occasionally look at this demon overlord, lose herself in thought countless times, struggle, and question herself.
He watched her shoulder-length black hair drift in the night wind. Her calm, cool profile under the moonlight seemed to glow with a gentle radiance.
She seemed very pleased, even softly humming some kind of tune.
He listened quietly, slowly swallowing the last mouthful of wine.
The demon overlord’s beautiful phoenix eyes narrowed, like a ferocious beast that was perfectly at ease and relaxed, obediently lying beside its beast tamer, lazily listening to her hum, its tail swishing back and forth.
He thought, if only he could coil her within his tail and listen to her sing for a lifetime.
✦ ─ ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ ─ ✦
Guangping was meditating under the eaves. Seeing His Excellency return, his gaze was extremely resentful.
He had come out in the middle of the night to strike the wooden fish, only to hear His Excellency using him to comfort someone.
“Your Excellency, how can you poke at people’s old wounds like that?”
He had not thought about the past for a long time.
His Excellency glanced at him. “Nothing. I just suddenly figured some things out.”
For example, when it came to dealing with the one he loved, this demon overlord realized he had to learn from that monk’s lesson—he must never end up like Guangping.
He tilted his head. “Guangping, ah, they say the mistakes of those before are lessons for those after.”
The one before: …
The one before became even more depressed, and so, he struck the wooden fish until dawn—
Hongniang, awakened by the noise, stormed down from upstairs and dumped a basin of wash water right onto the monk.
Monk: …
✦ ─ ˗ˋ ୨୧ ˊ˗ ─ ✦
When Chao Jinsui went to find the monk to remove the love gu, she discovered that Guangping looked a bit listless today.
When she asked him, Guangping sighed: “The world… is full of suffering, full of suffering indeed.”
Hongniang laughed so hard she swayed like a blossoming branch:
“What ‘the world is full of suffering’? Monk, isn’t it the wash water that’s bitter?”
Guangping: …
Fortunately, there was no Gu King among the gu inside Chao Jinsui’s body. In the time it takes for one stick of incense to burn, Guangping drew it out.
Guangping used a small box of incense ash, and the gu completely vanished.
After that, Guangping called Hongniang out.
Before leaving, Guangping instructed:
“Miss Chao, mending the soul is not something that can be done in a single day. It must be done slowly. Remember not to resist, otherwise your divine soul will suffer backlash and turbulence. Remember, remember.”
The divine soul is of utmost importance to cultivators, and her divine soul was already fragile—this matter was no small thing.
The great demon spoke in front of her, his voice steady and pleasant:
“There’s no need to force it. We can try slowly.”
Chao Jinsui closed her eyes and tried to open her sea of consciousness.
—When this demon’s divine sense entered her sea of consciousness, she had to control the instinct to resist.
However, the sea of consciousness is a person’s inner world, the place where memory and awareness reside. The stronger and more vigilant a cultivator is, the harder it is to suppress resistance.
He also closed his eyes, placing his finger against her brow, injecting his divine sense into it.
Her eyelashes trembled. She felt a divine sense as scorching as fire and utterly domineering. That divine sense condensed into the phantom of a demon, about to break into her sea of consciousness.
In an instant, countless scenes of fighting him, crossing blades with him, flashed through her mind. Almost by reflex, she resisted violently!
