After Crossdressing and Provoking Long AoTian

Yu Qingtang’s fingers trembled. It took him several tries before he finally managed to grasp the Spirit-Locking Ring.

Somehow, Ye Chenyan could still smile. “Don’t you trust me?”

“I know you’ll win,” Yu Qingtang said softly. “But that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt.”

Just because he was Long Aotian—just because Yu Qingtang knew he would cut through every obstacle and sweep all before him—didn’t mean all the suffering he endured and every wound he suffered should be taken for granted.

After several attempts, he finally undid the Spirit-Locking Ring with his shaking fingers. It came loose with a click, and he carefully lifted the ring from around Ye Chenyan’s neck.

Ye Chenyan closed his eyes. His demonic energy roiled like water at a full boil. Instead of continuing to suppress it with his Nascent Soul, he guided it out of his body, releasing it in a vast, surging tide that gradually saturated the entire underground palace.

Candle Nine Yin’s gaze shifted. He nodded in approval. “Yes. That’s how it should be.”

His enormous serpentine body coiled into an attacking posture.

Ye Chenyan raised his eyes. Demonic energy surged around him as though it might drown even him, but the thin silver line between his brows glowed faintly, preserving a core of perfect clarity within his mind.

Candle Nine Yin suddenly opened his jaws wide. His fangs were razor-sharp, and his maw appeared bottomless, as though it could swallow heaven and earth. He hurtled toward the two of them.

The silver battle spear was steeped in demonic energy until it had turned almost completely black. At Ye Chenyan’s command, the demonic energy formed vortex after vortex, stacking into layers to obstruct Candle Nine Yin’s charge.

The Flying Serpent’s momentum was unstoppable. He smashed through every vortex and arrived before Ye Chenyan in the blink of an eye.

He clearly had no intention of holding back. He seemed determined to swallow them both in a single bite.

Ye Chenyan drove his spear into the ground. The silver battle spear became the formation’s nexus, and the demonic energy filling the palace transformed into a vortex that shielded Yu Qingtang.

Ye Chenyan himself leaped into the air. Concealed by the demonic energy, several totems flared to life behind him, their murderous intent hidden from view.

The enormous serpent slammed into him. Ye Chenyan locked both arms around its head and somehow brought its charge to a dead stop in midair.

Man and serpent remained locked together above the ground. Demonic markings emerged across Ye Chenyan’s body, lending him an even more dangerous, wicked air.

Through gritted teeth, he demanded, “Third strike—did I pass?”

The serpent’s bright yellow pupils narrowed.

Then his tail whipped upward and swatted Ye Chenyan out of the air.

“Careful, careful!” Yu Qingtang hurriedly threw open his arms and scrambled beneath Ye Chenyan’s falling path, trying to catch him.

Ye Chenyan braced himself against the silver battle spear behind him and arrested his fall before he could crash into Yu Qingtang.

Yu Qingtang stepped forward to support him.

“I’m fine,” Ye Chenyan said with a quiet laugh. Leaning on Yu Qingtang’s shoulder, he swayed unsteadily back to his feet.

The enormous serpent transformed once more into a demon cultivator.

Candle Nine Yin gave a slight nod. “You passed.”

“Since I passed, then—”

“Hold on.” Ye Chenyan laughed. Blood still clung to the corner of his mouth, but his eyes remained bright with fighting spirit as he pointed his spear at Candle Nine Yin. “You said three strikes. That tail just now made four.”

Up on the stone wall, Tianxin gave a slight nod. “That was indeed one strike too many.”

“Well, now.” The old Fox King was always happy to fan the flames when there was a spectacle to enjoy. “I haven’t seen that dragon-tail sweep in ages.”

“And you actually used it on a junior. Old snake, you’ve truly regressed with age.”

Candle Nine Yin considered the matter briefly, then admitted with complete honesty, “I couldn’t help myself.”

He looked at Ye Chenyan. “What do you propose?”

“Easy.” Ye Chenyan’s smile was brilliant as he tightened his grip on the spear. “Fair is fair. You take one strike from me.”

Candle Nine Yin did not refuse. He calmly nodded. “Very well.”

Ye Chenyan suddenly shot into the air. Raging demonic energy almost completely obscured his figure.

Candle Nine Yin narrowed his eyes, as though he had sensed something.

Within the boiling demonic energy, a gigantic wolf claw flashed out like lightning, swinging directly at his face.

Yu Qingtang looked up, his eyes widening in shock. He opened his mouth reflexively.

“...He really does love hitting people in the face.”

The members of the Coursing Wolf lineage among the demon race’s seventy-two divisions reacted even more strongly.

The middle-aged man leading the Coursing Wolf division sprang to his feet, both astonished and delighted. “He embodied the totem! No, wait—there’s more...”

He suddenly remembered the ancient dagger that a mysterious cultivator had sent back to them. His expression shook.

“Could that truly be the long-lost Heavenly Wolf Tribulation?”

The sheer force behind Ye Chenyan’s attack made the expressions of many people present change.

Yet even with the Spirit-Locking Ring removed, he was still only a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator. For him to attack an Integration cultivator three major realms above him was no different from an ant attempting to shake a towering tree.

Candle Nine Yin did not move. He probably intended to let Ye Chenyan vent his anger.

But when the claw descended, Candle Nine Yin frowned slightly and looked down at his sleeve.

A piece had actually been torn from his cuff.

Ye Chenyan landed beside Yu Qingtang and leveled his spear at Candle Nine Yin.

“Remember this.”

“Next time, it won’t be just a piece of your sleeve.”

Candle Nine Yin slowly raised his head. For once, a faint smile appeared on his normally expressionless face.

He nodded, approval flashing through his eyes. “Good.”

Then he swept his gaze around the palace. “Seventy-two divisions. Do you acknowledge him?”

The Coursing Wolf lineage was the first to cup their fists.

“We do! Welcome, Demonic Sovereign! Welcome, sect master!”

Their cry set off a tidal wave.

The seventy-two divisions joined them one after another, their thunderous shouts filling the underground palace. The sheer fervor of it made the blood surge and the senses reel.

Ye Chenyan held his head high, his gaze shifting slightly before he turned to look at Yu Qingtang.

Yu Qingtang had been swept up by the atmosphere. He was opportunistically raising one hand and sneaking in a couple of enthusiastic “Oh! Oh!”s with the crowd.

When he noticed Ye Chenyan looking at him, he promptly raised both thumbs.

Ye Chenyan could not help laughing. He reached out and took Yu Qingtang’s hand.

“It has been thousands of years.” Candle Nine Yin looked toward the inverted black tower. “At last, the wait is over.”

“The Demonic Sovereign has emerged. It is time to open the Demon-Suppressing Tower.”

The old Fox King exhaled and narrowed his eyes at the tower. “So this day has finally come.”

“Good thing I brought the key.”

He rose and looked at Tianxin with a smile. “Girl from Starwatch Pavilion, are you authorized to make this decision? Or do you need to go back and fetch one of your elders?”

“There is no need.” Tianxin looked at the giant mechanism puppet seated upon the stone throne beside her.

It raised one hand, revealing a command token carved from red jade. A single ancient character was engraved upon it: “human.”

The old Fox King wasted no more words. He raised his own hand and summoned a stone token.

There was only a single claw mark upon it, yet no one could possibly have mistaken it for an ordinary stone.

Candle Nine Yin lifted his chin and spat out a command token with a black surface and a red character.

Yu Qingtang could not read the demon race’s script, but he knew the setting.

The character meant “demon.”

When the demon race had relocated to Nanzhou, the human race, demonfolk, and demon race had entered into an agreement. They sealed the last breath of true-demon energy inside the Demon-Suppressing Tower.

They had agreed that the tower would not be reopened until the next Demonic Sovereign emerged.

No one had expected the wait to last so many years.

Bang. Bang.

One after another, the eight chains suspended in the air snapped apart with deafening crashes.

The entire underground palace shook without pause. Chips and fragments of stone pattered down from the walls.

Then the black sludge coating the tower sloughed away, revealing a vivid crimson structure beneath. The tower suddenly righted itself, and its doors yawned open in midair.

Candle Nine Yin looked at Ye Chenyan. “Go.”

After a pause, he turned to Yu Qingtang as well. “You should come too.”

Yu Qingtang immediately grew wary. “You’re not planning to use me as bait again, are you?”

“No,” Candle Nine Yin said calmly. “I do not use the same move twice.”

While the black tower had remained sealed, Ye Chenyan had only sensed it vaguely.

Now that the seal had been lifted and the tower doors stood open, his heart pounded relentlessly, as though urging him to hurry inside.

He turned to Yu Qingtang and asked quietly, “Coming?”

Resigned, Yu Qingtang draped Ye Chenyan’s arm around his shoulders and helped him stand.

“I don’t have much choice. I already promised I’d go with you even if it killed me.”

He closed his eyes mournfully. “Once you say something like that, it always finds some completely unexpected way to come true.”

Ye Chenyan laughed softly. “Relax. No one is taking your life.”

Supporting Ye Chenyan, Yu Qingtang followed Candle Nine Yin into the Demon-Suppressing Tower.

Candle Nine Yin glanced back at the two of them, then removed something enormous from his storage ring.

A... bathtub.

Steam billowed from inside it. It had apparently come complete with hot water.

Yu Qingtang stared, dumbfounded. “We came in here to take a bath?”

Candle Nine Yin raised his eyes. “Originally, your body contained one breath of true-demon energy and one immortal spiritual root. The two maintained a precarious balance.”

“But you were born deficient, and the demon-race cultivation method was too domineering. When you were young, you lacked the strength to suppress it yourself and were instead badly harmed by it.”

“Tianji Zi devised a solution. He had my people use the demonic weapon inside the Demon-Suppressing Tower to draw out that breath of true-demon energy and seal it here.”

He turned away.

“Now it is time for you to reclaim it.”

He pointed at the bathtub. “The medicinal bath will assist you. Get in.”

Yu Qingtang hesitated, but ultimately asked, “Then what exactly was the point of bringing me?”

Ye Chenyan looked at the bathtub, then at Yu Qingtang. His eyes widened slightly as something clearly occurred to him.

Candle Nine Yin glanced at him. “Do not overthink it.”

“This medicinal bath uses a secret Nanzhou formula. Its effects are fierce. An ordinary human cultivator could never endure it.”

Ye Chenyan looked away. “I wasn’t thinking anything.”

Candle Nine Yin gave a slight nod. “Bringing him inside was merely to put your mind at ease.”

“I will wait farther ahead. Once you reclaim the true-demon energy, continue onward and claim the demonic weapon.”

Ye Chenyan paused. “What demonic weapon?”

A trace of nostalgia appeared on Candle Nine Yin’s face.

“The sword that once remained at the former Demonic Sovereign’s side and accompanied him as he campaigned across the world.”

Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow and muttered, “...I don’t use swords.”

Candle Nine Yin looked back slightly. “You would refuse even the greatest sword beneath heaven?”

Ye Chenyan closed his eyes. “I would.”

Yu Qingtang nodded knowingly. “There he goes being stubborn again.”

“That is no concern.” Candle Nine Yin calmly withdrew his gaze. “As I said, it is a demonic weapon—an artifact from ancient times. It can change according to its wielder’s will.”

“In the former Demonic Sovereign’s hands, it was an invincible sword. In yours, it may become a spear, a saber, or anything else you please.”

Only then did Ye Chenyan show some interest. “That’s more like it.”

“I am leaving.” Candle Nine Yin lingered no longer and headed deeper into the black tower.

Ye Chenyan turned around. He looked at the bathtub, then at Yu Qingtang.

Yu Qingtang cooperatively covered his eyes and turned his back. “I’m not looking, I’m not looking. Hurry up and get in.”

Ye Chenyan chuckled. “As if I care whether you look.”

When Yu Qingtang truly did turn away, Ye Chenyan moved his body experimentally. Feeling the searing pain across his back, he closed his eyes, released a slow breath, removed his clothes, and stepped into the bathtub.

With his back still turned, Yu Qingtang heard the water move.

Then Ye Chenyan said quietly, “I passed the trial. Once this is over, I can take you out with me.”

Yu Qingtang remained facing away. “Huh? Didn’t you say before that you had to reach the Out-of-Body stage...”

“I need to reach the Out-of-Body stage before I can leave Nanzhou,” Ye Chenyan said with a laugh. “Now that I’ve passed the trials of the demon race’s seventy-two divisions, I can move freely within Nanzhou.”

“Right.” Yu Qingtang nodded along. He sat cross-legged and casually leaned back against the bathtub. “After all, you’re the sect master of the Pleasure Sect now. You can swagger around Nanzhou however you please.”

“I have no interest in being any kind of sect master.” Ye Chenyan rested his arms on the rim of the tub and poked Yu Qingtang in the head. “How many fun places have you visited in Nanzhou?”

He asked expectantly, “Starting tomorrow, shouldn’t you bring me along?”

Yu Qingtang put on an affected air. “Hmm—I’ll consider it.”

Ye Chenyan narrowed his eyes, dipped a finger into the medicinal bath, and dabbed a single drop onto Yu Qingtang’s neck.

Yu Qingtang: “Awooo—!”

Author’s Note:

When I first wrote the silver line between Little Ye’s brows, I called it a “silver mark.” Then I read it aloud, and somehow it kept coming out as a “sinful mark.” (clasps hands behind back)

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!