Great Demon - Chapter 75 Part 2

This was Songling City.

Snow-capped mountains stretched endlessly before the eye, an expanse of ice and frost spanning a hundred miles. Was this not Songling City before her?

Jingyi had nearly crashed to the ground, on the brink of shattering into pieces, when she suddenly unfurled a pair of wings. Stiffly, they flapped, barely managing to keep her suspended in midair—just enough to prevent a devastating fall.

She raised her arms to shield her head, her whole body trembling violently. Fortunately, the howling winds around her had weakened somewhat, and her descent had slowed. With a dull thud, she landed against the cliffside.

Jingyi remained motionless, her eyes slowly rolling in their sockets. After a moment, she abruptly clutched her ears, as if someone were whispering incessantly beside her.

But aside from her, no one else could hear a thing.

Zhuyou descended gracefully with the wind, perching on a gnarled tree branch jutting from the cliff. Her silver hair billowed in the breeze, as pure white as the snow blanketing Qionghua Mountain.

So pristine—how could she possibly resemble a devil in the slightest?

“Where do you think she’s headed?” Changying’s clawed hand pressed tightly against Zhuyou’s shoulder, the dragon’s grip so forceful that it dug painfully into her flesh.

Zhuyou had already guessed. She lifted a hand, intending to pry Changying’s claws away, but her attempt was brushed aside.

Changying lowered her gaze, looking at her. “Why do you always push me away?”

Zhuyou gave the dragon claw a light slap, grumbling, “That hurts.” She had no idea why this dragon was suddenly acting aggrieved.

Only then did Changying loosen her grip slightly, her expression indifferent as she glanced over at Jingyi.

Jingyi, still hanging from the cliffside, stirred and let herself drop. This time, she landed steadily, encircling herself with spiritual energy. With a slight push of her toe, she stood firm upon the ground.

Her gaze was dazed yet filled with fear. Her lips parted as she muttered, “Stop talking.”

Changying nudged Zhuyou forward, keeping a tight pace behind her.

Jingyi concealed her presence and passed directly through the gates of Huacheng Sect. Moving with eerie precision, as if guided by an unseen force, she took not a single wrong turn and easily found her way to a secluded icy pool.

The frozen pool had begun to thaw—the gates of Shenhua Mountain were now open.

She plunged into the water, and at once, several silver-white water blossoms bloomed on the surface—only to wither the moment they appeared.

Zhuyou recalled diving into this pool once before. Back then, Changying had coiled around her wrist. But now, it was Changying pushing her forward instead.

Jingyi submerged herself, searching until she found a sealed wall of ice. Raising her hand, she struck it apart in an instant, then swung her arms and squeezed through the crack, emerging, soaked, onto the snow-covered shore.

The mountain was sealed in heavy snowfall. The peaks were blanketed in white, and the wind howled relentlessly.

On the shore, Jingyi scrambled to her feet and clutched her ears again, her distress growing. Frustrated, she barked aloud, seemingly to herself, “You will not disturb my mind! I lack skill in the arts not because I am incompetent, but because I was born missing a po soul and a hun soul! But I was born a divine offspring of the Nine Heavens! Even if my cultivation falls short of the Divine Lords above, I am not the worthless scrap you claim me to be!”

“You’re the useless one! Not me, not me!”

“When have they ever rejected me? Stop spewing nonsense! If you dare say another word, I will take your life right here and now!”

“Why wouldn’t I kill you? I-I…”

Jingyi trudged across the desolate tundra against the wind and snow. Her once-blank gaze turned sharp, brimming with resentment. She halted abruptly, inhaling sharply as cold air stung her lungs. Her chest heaved as if she were being pushed to the brink. Her hands, hanging at her sides, slowly curled into fists, her knuckles cracking.

“I will kill you. I’ll do it right now!”

“Who is she talking to? Who does she want to kill?” Zhuyou leaned forward, intending to get closer to Jingyi to see if she was truly speaking to someone.

But just as she moved, Changying’s arm suddenly blocked her path, holding her back by the shoulder. She halted abruptly, colliding against Changying’s chest.

A soft sensation enveloped her. A tingling numbness spread down her back, as though she had crashed into a pool of warm spring water.

With a gentle murmur, her heart stirred like rippling waves.

“Keep following her, and you’ll find out,” Changying whispered by her ear.

Jingyi was enraged, but unlike Changying’s past fury in the mountains—where she had transformed into a dragon and smashed the ice plains into towering cliffs—Jingyi’s wrath was different.

Muttering under her breath, she said, “I want to see what you’re up to.”

She strode forward, raising her head to gaze at the distant snowy peaks. Suddenly, she leapt and landed atop the mountain. With a light grind of her toe, a buried slab of rock surfaced from beneath the snow—then shattered into countless fragments.

Like a single thread pulling an entire tapestry apart, the breaking of that stone sent tremors through the entire mountain.

In an instant, Shenhua Mountain rumbled, shaking from top to bottom. Fissures split open in the snow-covered ground, snaking across the land in jagged black scars. From the peak, one could see an endless abyss below.

Jingyi dove down, where she saw a mortal caught in the destruction, plummeting into the chasm. But she hesitated, frozen by fear, unwilling to lend a hand. She watched as the mortal crashed, blood spilling from his shattered skull.

She landed at the bottom of the crevice and lifted her gaze—only for her pupils to contract sharply. Before her was a swirling mass of inky devil energy, writhing with countless grasping hands.

Zhuyou found it almost laughable. To think she would feel so calm after seeing this.

The scene unfolded exactly as she had once witnessed in Zhou Xizhao’s sea of consciousness—identical in every detail.

The mortal accused Jingyi of being a devil. Enraged, she struck him down. But unexpectedly, the devil energy in the crevice responded to her, devouring the mortal’s legs until only bare white bone remained.

Jingyi seemed to be under someone’s influence. Though she clutched her ears, unwilling to listen, she still reached into the devil gate. A moment later, she recoiled in panic, hurriedly retreating from Shenhua Mountain and fleeing back to the Heavenly Palace.

“Did you see who is luring and manipulating her?” Changying asked.

Zhuyou was silent for a long time.

From beginning to end, she had not seen anyone suspicious near Jingyi. When Jingyi had covered her ears, there had been no disturbance in the surrounding spiritual energy—clearly, no one was transmitting thoughts to her.

Suddenly, realization dawned upon her.

“It’s… her own heart devil.”

“No.” Changying moved closer, lowering her voice. “It is her devil hun soul.”

Zhuyou froze on the spot.

A sudden tight grip on her shoulder, and Changying took her soaring into the sky again. They watched as, after returning to the Heavenly Palace, Jingyi pretended as if nothing had happened. Yet, when no one was around, she was restless and on edge, clinging to Zhuyou’s side without a moment’s separation. Then, during Zhuyou’s fire tribulation, Jingyi reached into the flames.

The tribulation fire burned fiercely. As soon as the flames touched Jingyi’s hand, her flesh and blood were instantly stripped away, dissolving into the fire and turning into thick, black devil smoke that shrouded her open eyes.

At that moment, Zhuyou saw herself within the tribulation fire—her gaze was clouded, lost, utterly unaware. Even when the Burning-Heart Wood was taken, she remained oblivious.

So it was like this…

“Do you understand now?” Changying murmured beside her ear.

How could Zhuyou not understand? She let out a quiet scoff and followed Jingyi’s silhouette with her eyes. She watched as that bird, having obtained the Burning-Heart Wood, left anxiously, even soaking her hand in the celestial pool to restore it to its original state.

Meanwhile, Zhuyou—her tribulation had failed, her cultivation level had plummeted, and even her sight had dulled to near uselessness.

Now, Jingyi no longer seemed the dull and naive person she once was. It was clear that she had planned everything meticulously. Though she hadn’t used the Burning-Heart Wood immediately, the evil deed was done. The moment she took it, she had already planted the seed of wickedness in her heart. She was no longer the same as before.

Zhuyou watched her without expression. Then, she saw Jingyi invite her to Mount Danxue. With her vision still hazy and her body weakened from the fire tribulation, she was in no state to resist Jingyi’s persistent coaxing. In the end, she let her take one of her own feathers.

She couldn’t see. She was tripped by a tendril of spiritual energy and fell from a sheer cliff, her body shattering like scattered bones. Her dizziness was so severe that even the outlines of everything around her blurred into nothingness.

She had been the one to fall off the cliff. Yet, it was still her who was dragged onto the Immortal Execution Platform. Someone declared that they had found an ancient god’s incarnation on her body. She couldn’t see it. She didn’t even know what this so-called incarnation looked like.

Nor did she know when Jingyi had planted it on her.

“The ancient god has taken form, but its consciousness has yet to solidify. Though she has not committed the crime of deicide, she has endangered the Heavenly Realm. A heart devil may have already taken root—this offense must be punished severely!”

Two hundred years ago, Zhuyou had known nothing.

But now, she saw everything with perfect clarity.

That incarnation of an ancient god—it was an egg. A beautifully formed egg.

It was Changying.

The hand pressing against her back withdrew in silence. Then, those pale fingers landed gently on her shoulder.

“It was you,” Zhuyou murmured.

Changying finally spoke. “At the time, I did not know.”

This was no coincidence of fate—it was a tightly wound chain of cause and effect, binding them both in a knot that could never be undone.

And as for Jingyi—her hun soul and po soul incomplete, her mind clouded—just this feather and that ancient god’s incarnation had sealed her fate.

On the Immortal Execution Platform, the divine maiden fell into devilhood. The skies darkened, the winds howled, and devilish energy raged wildly as birds shrieked in distress.

No one stopped her.

No one pursued her.

The immortals witnessing the execution simply watched as she plunged into the devil’s domain. Meanwhile, the Jingyi who harbored a devil hun soul quietly overcame her fire tribulation. Her own parasol tree was burned to ashes, leaving not even a single fragment of Burning-Heart Wood behind. Her eyes were filled with shadows as she retrieved the piece she had stolen earlier.

Jingyi moved her fingers slightly, but still, she could not summon phoenix fire. Not even a single spark.

She muttered to herself, “I know. I can’t let others find out that my tribulation was an empty one. If the Phoenix Lord notices, then this Burning-Heart Wood will naturally become mine. And if no one questions it, then… it will have been a gift from Zhuyou.” She stroked the Burning-Heart Wood absentmindedly, whispering, “That’s right. A fine gift from Zhuyou.”

Zhuyou let out a bitter laugh and murmured to herself, “So I was the real block of dead wood all along.” Sorrow and rage churned in her heart, suffocating her. She had never expected that the hun soul she had been searching for—the one that had wronged her—was one and the same person.

Changying gripped her shoulder and suddenly pulled her close. Their heart’s blood seemed to connect, bound together like an unbroken thread.

Zhuyou had been seething with fury, but the way Changying half-embraced her somehow calmed her down.

Meanwhile, the heavenly soldiers summoned to the Mortal Realm—along with the Evil-Punisher Divine Lord, Immortal Zhiying, Mangfeng, and Jingyi—were all swept into the Turbid Mirror, witnessing the events of two hundred years ago unfold before their eyes.

Before the immortals could even process what they had seen, the world spun violently. Their hun soul and po soul were wrenched back into their bodies.

With a single blink, they found themselves outside the Turbid Mirror once more.