After Crossdressing and Provoking Long AoTian

Candle Nine Yin remained perfectly calm, without the slightest trace of embarrassment or annoyance. “Let’s go.”

Yu Qingtang looked shocked. “You’re not even going to wipe it off, Senior?”

“I can’t.” Candle Nine Yin was clearly experienced in such matters. He paid no attention to the rouge smeared across half his face. “She drew it there deliberately because she wanted to see me embarrass myself.”

“If I wipe it clean, she’ll only be more upset.”

Ye Chenyan looked thoughtful. He turned toward Yu Qingtang.

Yu Qingtang blinked innocently. “Why are you looking at me? I don’t even use lip rouge.”

Then he gave an evil grin. “But I might draw a turtle on your face while you’re asleep!”

He paused. “No, wait. You don’t seem to sleep. I’ll do it while you’re cultivating, then.”

Candle Nine Yin nodded slightly and offered Ye Chenyan the advice of a man who had been through it all before. “If he does, you mustn’t wipe it off right away. You have to let several people see it first. Only then will his anger subside.”

Ye Chenyan: “Senior, perhaps we should get to the trial.”

“Oh. Very well.” Candle Nine Yin nodded lightly. “The others should already have arrived.”

He led the two of them into the mist.

The moment they stepped through it, the scene before them changed beyond recognition. The Immortal-Bewildering Forest vanished, replaced by a majestic underground palace.

No one could tell how many mountains had been hollowed out to excavate it. At the center, a pitch-black pagoda hung upside down, bound by eight enormous chains. For some inexplicable reason, one glance at it conveyed an immense, desolate weight that made even the soul tremble.

Its origin came immediately to mind—a relic of primordial antiquity.

When Ye Chenyan saw the pagoda, his heart suddenly pounded.

It was not because of the pagoda itself. It felt more as though something inside it was calling to him.

He steadied himself and raised an eyebrow. “We’re fighting here today?”

Candle Nine Yin nodded slightly and lifted a hand. Several candles descended from the chains, their bright yellow flames flickering to life.

Only then did they see the rows of stone seats lining the underground palace’s walls. A surprisingly large crowd was packed into them.

Candle Nine Yin remained composed as he introduced them. “The representatives of Nanzhou’s Pleasure Sect—the demon race’s seventy-two former divisions—are all present.”

Yu Qingtang swept his gaze across them and spotted Pretty Butterfly waving from one of the seats. He cautiously poked his head out from behind Ye Chenyan and waved back to show that he had seen her.

Candle Nine Yin pointed toward another wall. “Starwatch Pavilion of Nanzhou, its young pavilion master, Tianxin, and...”

His gaze paused on the giant puppet occupying a stone seat beside Tianxin.

Tianxin spoke calmly. “This is my Master’s lifebound mechanism puppet. It bears the sect master’s seal, so its presence is equivalent to his own.”

Candle Nine Yin closed his eyes and shook his head lightly. “He dislikes leaving home even more than someone with limited mobility like you.”

He pointed toward another wall. “The demonfolk of Great Wilderness Mountain.”

His brows drew together. “How many kings are there now?”

The old Fox King, whom they had encountered at the Qingzhou Golden Core Competition, laughed lazily. “Seventeen. There were eighteen, but that old ape breathed his last yesterday and missed the excitement.”

Although he claimed there were seventeen, more than half of the seats on that wall were empty. Barely anyone had come.

Candle Nine Yin’s expression did not change. “Few of them came.”

“Indeed. They’ve shown you very little respect.” The old Fox King propped up his chin. “Then again, the seats here are cramped. Some of the old fellows who dislike taking human form don’t care to sit in them, so you can hardly blame them.”

“As for the others...” He laughed mischievously. “They’re putting on airs and refusing to appear, but they’re all watching in secret. They want to see whether this boy is any good first.”

Candle Nine Yin merely nodded. His tone was flat, but his words were supremely arrogant. “None of the demonfolk’s younger generation can compare to him.”

The old Fox King narrowed his eyes.

Yu Qingtang thought he was about to get angry, but instead he leaned back and waved dismissively.

“Well, that boy of mine who only likes playing with humans certainly can’t compare.”

Candle Nine Yin withdrew his gaze without much interest and looked at Ye Chenyan. “It is nearly time to begin.”

“Wait,” the old Fox King interrupted. “I’ve been meaning to ask. Candle Nine Yin, what is that on your forehead?”

Candle Nine Yin turned to him. “Are you married?”

The old Fox King rolled his eyes. “Had I never taken a wife, do you think I gave birth to that little brat myself?”

His narrow fox eyes curved. Understanding dawned, and he laughed with undisguised delight at Candle Nine Yin’s misfortune.

“Oh—I see.”

Candle Nine Yin looked away. He raised his hand once more and pointed toward the final wall.

“That is your father and mother.”

Ye Chenyan froze and instinctively turned to look.

Yu Qingtang followed his gaze, but saw nothing except an earthen wall.

Candle Nine Yin glanced at him and explained, “Ordinary people cannot behold the true forms of a true immortal and a true demon. My ancestors passed down the claim that only those connected by blood to the Demonic Sovereign can see the images upon this wall.”

“Some did not believe it. I do.”

Yu Qingtang cautiously glanced at Ye Chenyan.

Ye Chenyan stared at the wall, his gaze trembling slightly. The hand gripping his silver battle spear tightened unconsciously.

In his eyes, beneath the dim candlelight, the yellow-brown wall transformed into two indistinct faces. In the next instant, it was as though he had entered an illusion.

A woman in white stood before him, breathtakingly beautiful, with a slender silver ornament between her brows. Her complexion, however, was somewhat frail.

Beside her stood a tall man. Fierce demonic markings covered his face, but his expression was gentle.

Together, they sheltered a tiny sphere of light, carefully placing it inside a pocket world.

“Do not worry, Zhi.” The man gently took the woman’s hand and laughed softly. “He is my child. He would never die so easily.”

“I know, Zhao.” The woman in white lifted her head, determination in her eyes. “It is time for us to go.”

“Heaven is about to collapse... We must do this for all beneath Heaven, and for our family.”

The man looked back one final time and burst into hearty laughter.

“Do not be afraid, child! Your father and mother are going to hold up the heavens for you!”

The woman in white also glanced back. Covering her mouth, she laughed softly. “Always boasting.”

The two rose side by side.

Vast demonic energy and ethereal immortal energy surged into the sky, black and white dividing the firmament between them as they ceaselessly supported Heaven and earth.

That was the final image Ye Chenyan saw.

He instinctively reached out, but the vision before him abruptly dissolved.

His hand snapped into a fist. He squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to shed tears in front of everyone.

Candle Nine Yin nodded with certainty. “He saw it.”

Ye Chenyan kept his eyes tightly closed. A streak of silver light flashed between his brows, and he slowly shook his head.

“It wasn’t an image. It was a message.”

Someone had hidden it here for more than a thousand years. Just before it finally faded away, it had at last found the person for whom it had been waiting.

Yu Qingtang cautiously took Ye Chenyan’s hand.

Ye Chenyan lowered his eyes and gripped it tightly in return.

Candle Nine Yin inclined his head. Then he rose into the air and looked down at Ye Chenyan from above.

“Good. Let us begin.”

“What?” Yu Qingtang looked up in shock. “He only just—”

“His mind and emotions have been shaken. This is precisely the right moment.” Candle Nine Yin stood with his hands clasped behind his back. “Human cultivators have taught some of the ferocity out of him. He is always suppressing himself.”

“The demon race’s cultivation methods demand absolute freedom—the conviction that nothing beneath Heaven is beyond one’s power.”

“Without all that emotion surging through him, something would still be missing.”

Candle Nine Yin turned his gaze toward Yu Qingtang. “I had originally planned to hang you up and use you to force it out of him.”

Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened in horror. “What?”

Had he not just said something incredibly dangerous in the most casual tone imaginable?

“Unfortunately, Pretty Butterfly refused to allow it.” Candle Nine Yin shook his head lightly.

He suddenly raised a hand, and a Flying Serpent war banner appeared.

His voice rang throughout the underground palace.

“The final trial.”

“My Flying Serpent division is unequaled in combat and has no use for tricks. Boy, use everything you possess and withstand three strikes from me.”

“Do any of the seventy-two divisions object?”

“I do! You’re so powerful—mmph!”

Pretty Butterfly had barely begun protesting before a fellow disciple behind her covered her mouth.

Aside from her, the entire palace remained silent.

Ye Chenyan exhaled slowly, without the slightest fear in his eyes. “Very well.”

He turned toward Yu Qingtang. “Go over to Starwatch Pavilion first—”

“He cannot leave,” Candle Nine Yin said indifferently.

Ye Chenyan froze.

Candle Nine Yin raised a hand. “I told you to use your full strength.”

“He will remain behind you. If you fail to withstand my attacks, he will die with you.”

Yu Qingtang was even more shocked. “What?”

Was he not merely an audience member dragged here to fill out the numbers? No one had told him he would be participating!

“You!”

Demonic energy erupted from Ye Chenyan in an instant. The pitch-black demonic markings crawling up his neck climbed another inch.

Candle Nine Yin had no intention of negotiating. He raised one leg and stamped down.

“First strike.”

“Qingtang, Lotus Realm!”

Ye Chenyan had no time to worry about the demonic energy surging out of balance within him. Silver battle spear in hand, he charged forward.

Ever since seeing that vision, the demonic energy inside his mind sea had been churning with unnatural violence.

Were it not for the Mind-Sea Bodhi Tree and his Nascent Soul holding it in check, he would probably have lost control already.

Terrified, Yu Qingtang immediately sat cross-legged where he stood.

A Lotus Realm larger than usual blossomed inside the dim underground palace.

He had only just begun to feel somewhat reassured when a terrifying pressure descended from above. It nearly crushed him flat against the ground and broke his meditative posture.

Since inheriting the Lotus Realm, this was the first time he had assumed its stance and still felt such overwhelming pressure.

He struggled to raise his head and looked toward Ye Chenyan in midair.

Ye Chenyan spat out a mouthful of blood and was hurled backward. He planted his spear against the ground and barely managed to stop directly in front of Yu Qingtang.

Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened. He reached out to support him.

“Ye—”

Ye Chenyan abruptly turned his head. Without even wiping the blood from his mouth, he spoke in a low voice.

“When the next strike comes, run toward Senior Sister.”

Candle Nine Yin did not give them time to whisper.

His eyes transformed into bright yellow vertical pupils as he raised one palm.

“Second strike.”

Instead of retreating, Ye Chenyan advanced.

Pitch-black demonic energy wrapped around his silver battle spear as he shot skyward with enough force to pierce the heavens.

Yet the descending palm resembled a five-fingered mountain, pressing down inch by inch, grinding away every shred of hope.

Pretty Butterfly could no longer remain seated. “You can’t be serious! Father, are you really using Integration-level cultivation against a Nascent Soul?”

The old Fox King chuckled. “Had he truly used his Integration cultivation, those two youngsters would already be ashes. Don’t worry. He knows his limits.”

“He does not!” Pretty Butterfly cried in exasperation. “Father!”

Yu Qingtang stared wide-eyed at Ye Chenyan.

Ye held his head high, refusing to allow his spine to be forced down inch by inch.

Yu Qingtang gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and lunged forward. He desperately circulated his cultivation method, silently praying for the Lotus Realm to grow larger.

Bigger. Bigger. Just a little bigger.

Large enough to envelop Ye Chenyan.

Ye Chenyan abruptly turned around and pressed a hand against Yu Qingtang’s shoulder, stopping him beyond the range of the palm strike.

Then he took the blow squarely on his back.

“You...” Yu Qingtang frantically tried to wipe the blood from his face. “Don’t...”

Candle Nine Yin transformed into a colossal Flying Serpent and looked down at them.

“The final strike. Remove the Spirit-Locking Ring.”

Ye Chenyan slowly guided Yu Qingtang’s hand upward, placing his trembling fingers against the Spirit-Locking Ring.

Only his eyes remained bright.

“Don’t be afraid.”

Author’s Note:

Candle Nine Yin: Thank you all for giving me this opportunity to beat up Long Aotian. I will cherish it dearly.

Ye Chenyan (smiling): Look how warm and gentle my smile is. I’m obviously not angry at all.

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