Inner Demons

Li Shan felt that his Great King's reaction at this moment was finally somewhat proper. He hurriedly said, "This subordinate doesn't know either—but I think those high-level demon-fiends must have some special methods. Perhaps this restriction can't stop them!"

As he spoke, he looked at Li Yunxin again—but naturally, he couldn't see him, so he just went through the motions, "Great King, what... what realm are you in?"

Li Yunxin was not in the mood to discuss these things with him, nor was he in the mood to respond to his guesses.

"Tenth Prince" Li Shan hardly ever left Dongting, and thus had only heard of the name of the Wei River Dragon King's Young Master Nine. Li Yunxin also said he was the Wei River Dragon King, and was indeed a genuine Dragon Clan member, so Li Shan naturally regarded him as Young Master Nine—

He heard that Young Master Nine was at the peak of the Manifestation Realm. That was enough to deal with the water tribe of the lake, but Li Shan didn't know how he would fare against Bai Yunxin... he probably didn't stand a chance.

That was why he was so worried and frightened, wanting only to find a way to avoid the immediate catastrophe. He also had no way to defect—those five Valley Lords had long hated him, and now that they had finally found such an opportunity, how could they let it go?

Therefore, after much consideration for his Great King, he suggested, "...Since Great King is unwilling to say, well, you must also be unwilling to directly confront that Bai Yunxin... Ah, that is only natural. As the Art of War says..."

He then started rambling on and on. In the end, it was to give his Great King an out, so that Li Yunxin would temporarily take him to avoid the danger. Perhaps when that Bai Yunxin got the insect meat, she would go far away—then they could plan for the great matter later.

As he spoke, Li Yunxin listened.

Was Bai Yunxin's arrival at this moment a coincidence?

Tonight, that Old Man Su "died." Before dying, he told Li Yunxin that he had a way to leave Dongting. Then Bai Yunxin broke in.

Li Shan's talk of "high-level realms having their own methods" was utter nonsense. Bai Yunxin was in the True Realm, and he was also in the True Realm. Furthermore, he understood the Daoist Arts of the Painting School—in terms of skill, not power, he was far superior to that terrifying little beauty. He had racked his brains and failed to find an easy escape route, which meant that it must be some unknown critical juncture, and had little to do with realm or power.

Moreover, there was a precedent—when the Lord of Dongting activated the restriction, Kun Wuzi of the Profound Mystery Realm couldn't enter.

And later, the Lord of Dongting managed to escape—

This meant that both the Lord of Dongting and Bai Yunxin had a way.

The method of escape that Old Man Su told him might be related to this Bai Yunxin.

Just as he thought of this, Li Shan was also speaking to the crucial point: "...I discovered it accidentally. It's a very hidden place. Let's go and avoid the attention for a while. When the attention fades, that Bai Yunxin will also definitely not stay long—"

Then he heard Li Yunxin laugh, "Yes. She probably won't stay long. I still have some unfinished business with her—it's best to clear it up early."

Li Shan was speaking enthusiastically and just replied, "Great King is wise, Great King is wise... Huh?"

He answered casually, not expecting that Li Yunxin was not planning to hide, but to seek out Bai Yunxin, and was immediately dumbfounded.

Li Yunxin didn't mind his reaction and casually tossed him down from the cloud, "Since you're afraid, then go into hiding."

After saying that, he mounted the cloud and mist and headed straight towards the gathering place of the lake demons that Li Shan had mentioned.

He flew for half an hour in the night, finally seeing distant lights. The lights were on a small island, deep in the heart of Dongting Lake. Normally, there would be no people there, but now it was bustling.

Generally speaking, the water tribe of the lake do not like smoke and fire, and even when they transform into human form, they prefer to live in the water. This time, they likely landed due to that Bai Yunxin and created such a commotion.

When Li Yunxin was a li (approx. 0.5 km) away from the island, he saw a dense crowd of the water tribe in the water—none had transformed into human form, but they were large and fat. They must be the untransformed relatives of those lake demons, probably with lifespans of one to two hundred years.

Moving closer, he saw small demons under the waves peering at him. After observing for a while, they hurriedly dove down, probably to report.

But he had come from the sky, riding the clouds and mist, so who wouldn't see him?

As he approached the shore of the island, the island's firelight illuminated his surroundings with a golden-yellow glow, as if he were wrapped in a ball of yellow jade.

It was only then that he clearly saw how the lake demons had lit the fires, causing the firelight to illuminate one or two li.

—They had actually set all the trees on the entire island on fire. The flames soared to the sky, but a water wall was erected by someone near the shore. The water wall shielded the flames and heat outside, enclosing a large expanse of white sandy beach as a "plaza."

On the plaza, a platform was paved with various bits of gold, silver, and jewels, and a throne was made of coral and reef on top of the platform.

A woman in white sat on the throne, propped up on one hand, leaning lazily, seemingly lost in thought.

Below the throne was a chaotic dance of demons—all the demons that could land, no matter how strangely shaped, gathered together. They dared not approach the woman but only watched from a distance. Some incessantly praised her, some begged for something, some whispered among themselves, and some fought over minor matters. A rough count numbered several hundred, truly resembling a pot of boiling muddy water.

When Li Yunxin flew closer, the demons simultaneously raised their heads. Most did not recognize Li Yunxin, but they must have heard of his matters—"a great demon-fiend has come to the lake." And because they had that Bai Yunxin backing them, they were incited by the Valley Lords and Stream Masters of the lake to shout and demonstrate against him—either baring their fangs like wild beasts or speaking foul, incoherent words. However, they didn't understand human language very well and spoke utter nonsense.

Li Yunxin had no intention of concerning himself with whether they wanted to provoke him into seeking trouble with Bai Yunxin—he could no longer remember the last time he used such a simple and primitive scheme. He merely rode the cloud to the platform in front of the throne, stared intently at the woman, and let out a long breath.

It was indeed Bai Yunxin.

Only after landing did he notice a black donkey behind the throne. When Li Yunxin first met her, she was riding this donkey—he didn't know if it was actually a divine creature or just an ordinary donkey.

There was also a small maid beside Bai Yunxin. Li Yunxin remembered the scene of this maid eating the head of a Sword Sect cultivator outside the Temple of Lady Sanhua.

Li Shan said this maid was the daughter of the Toad King of the lake. But judging by her current presence beside Bai Yunxin, her cultivation seemed to be even higher than her father's—instantly killing a fully alert Sword Sect cultivator was not something just any demon-fiend could do.

He was relieved—he was only afraid that Li Shan had gotten the news wrong.

So, he smiled, took a few steps forward, and stopped about five steps from Bai Yunxin.

At this moment, the lake demons had all gathered—the five Valley Lords in front, and a dozen Stream Masters behind. Further back were the small demons who had transformed into human form, making a ruckus and jumping high, wanting to see a good show.

King Ao pointed at Li Yunxin and said to Bai Yunxin, "Great King, do you see, it is him! He came to our lake and stirred up a storm, claiming he wanted to take over this Dongting. This subordinate sent people to ask him, what place is this Dongting? It is the fishing ground of the Golden-Winged Great Peng King! By what virtue or ability does he take this Dongting?!"

"Who would have thought this arrogant scoundrel would say... say... say..."

His initial words were very smooth, truly eloquent and persuasive. But he stammered in the second part. His eyes darted around, but he just couldn't recall what to say. The Red Serpent King beside him coughed anxiously, but to no avail. She simply pulled King Ao aside and spoke for him, "He actually said, what is Bai Yunxin? Even if she came, he would make sure she never returned, skin her, pull out her tendons, pluck her feathers for a fan, and use her slender legs for drumsticks—"

King Ao hurriedly pulled her, afraid of incurring Bai Yunxin's wrath. But the Red Serpent King was enjoying the speech and went around asking the other three Cave Masters, "Isn't that right?"

The Old Wang Ba saw that his daughter was also present and felt supported. If he wasn't tongue-tied, these words would have been said by him. He nodded eagerly and added fuel to the fire with a few extra phrases.

Only the Toad King of Long Bend Valley was clever. He just hummed and hawed in agreement, not offering any opinions, pretending to tie the belt of his large robe. The Serpent demon usually disliked him, so she kept pressing him relentlessly. Yet the Toad King still didn't speak, only tying his belt higher and higher—almost up to his chest.

The Serpent demon glared fiercely at him, spat in her heart, and then turned back to add more sensational details.

King Ao hadn't said much, and the Serpent demon spoke quickly—even with all this fuss, not much time had passed in total.

Then they saw Li Yunxin land, walk a few steps, and bow to Bai Yunxin, "First, I must thank you."

The demons were noisy and couldn't hear what he said, but only saw his action. Therefore, they were even more convinced that this demon-fiend was afraid of Bai Yunxin, and they cheered louder.

Bai Yunxin had been listless earlier, but now that the person she wanted to see had arrived, she finally seemed more energetic. So she straightened up on the "throne," stared coldly at Li Yunxin for a moment, and said, "You don't need to thank me. I didn't help you; I just helped the Ghost Emperor. I owed him a promise before, and now it's repaid. So now—"

"Now it's time to talk about the business between the two of us," Li Yunxin put down his hand and straightened up, "I apologize, I killed your Young Master Nine. But this matter was very difficult—if I hadn't killed him, he would have killed me sooner or later. Now that he's dead, I've become him—the physical body and soul you like are still here. If I had died, you would have suffered the loss of a loved one."

Bai Yunxin had a heart full of words to question him with, but now he spoke in such a "shameless" way, completely blocking them. It was the first time she had encountered such a person. For a moment, her eyes widened, and she was slightly stunned.

The little maid beside her actually burst out laughing and whispered a few words into Bai Yunxin's ear—they looked exactly like a mistress and maid in the mortal world.

But earlier, when Li and Bai exchanged words, although the demons couldn't hear clearly, they only felt that they weren't saying anything good. Thus, they were even more delighted. Now, seeing the maid's action, they were momentarily stunned—the noise quieted down sporadically, and finally, they could hear what Li Yunxin was saying.

They saw him slowly walk casually towards Bai Yunxin's side, pick up a few trinkets on her throne to look at, and then toss them away. As he tossed them, he walked around her like taking a stroll, saying, "Things are much simpler now. Look, this is how I feel—you walk around in the mortal world and even mimic the actions of mortals. It shows that you are empty, lonely, and also very cold. I see that you are also an interesting person, and you must also feel that there are few people in the world worthy of being your friend. For example, these idiots—"

Li Yunxin raised his hand and pointed at the increasingly quiet demons, "They all think they are extremely smart, but they don't know that they are utterly foolish in your eyes and mine. You allowed them to gather here just to find me and have endured their noise for so long; it makes my heart ache just to watch."

After saying this, he walked up to Bai Yunxin's side, sighed, and said gently, "Why bother degrading yourself like this? Listen to the nonsense that Serpent demon was saying—and she was even smug about it. Let's not talk about these things; let's talk about our business—I am now in the True Realm."

When the demons heard him speak and saw that Bai Yunxin was neither angry nor taking any action, they gradually felt that something was amiss. Hearing Li Yunxin say that he was in the "True Realm" now—those who understood what that meant were all dumbfounded!

By this point, even the stupidest demon knew that this Li Yunxin seemed to have had some past interaction with that Bai Yunxin—but who could have known such a thing?!

"I am in the True Realm, and you are also in the True Realm. Now, I'm not very afraid of you, and I feel that being friends with you wouldn't be bad." Li Yunxin looked at her—but this Bai Yunxin's face was wooden. He didn't know if she was too lazy to make an expression or knew what expression to make—Li Yunxin thought it was the latter, "In the past, Young Master Nine wanted to be friends with me, but in reality, he only intended to treat me as a plaything. He didn't realize it himself, which is sad—that's called the limitations of class."

"Now that I am no longer a plaything, I can finally talk to you like this..." Li Yunxin paused slightly at this point.

There were a few sentences he was about to blurt out—just like he used to say to Lingkongzi and Lady Hong.

However, a dull, muddy surge of emotion suddenly rose in his heart, forcing the words back down his throat.

Taking advantage of this pause, the maid, seeing that her mistress wasn't speaking, hurriedly spoke for her—looking at Li Yunxin with that terrifying innocence and simplicity unique to demons, she giggled, "So, you worked so hard to do all this just so you could be worthy of my mistress and be her friend?"

In the past, Li Yunxin would probably have responded calmly and said many sweet, deceptive words. He could even try to use the environment here for some "good deeds"—the firelight behind the water wall flickering and changing, which was most suitable for using words to confuse the mind.

However, he paused for two more breaths before smiling and sighing, "No, it's not. It was just necessity. I was a human before, how could I dare to eagerly seek friendship with a demon-fiend?"

The maid pouted when she heard this.

Li Yunxin, however, felt the muddy surge in his chest subside—it felt much better.

"I am still a demon-fiend," Bai Yunxin stood up from the throne, took two steps, and turned to look at Li Yunxin.

"I am too," Li Yunxin smiled and spread his hands, "A demon-fiend's body with a human's mind—you won't find a better friend than me. Besides, the world is about to descend into chaos now, and having more friends means more paths."

Bai Yunxin didn't speak, tilting her head like a bird to scrutinize him, as if making a decision.

Li Yunxin made the decision for her. He smiled indulgently, "There's nothing to be shy about. You liked me the first time we met, and later, after knowing I killed Young Master Nine, you still helped me—you were repaying a promise, but you could have killed me instead of helping him. You stopped being angry with me long ago. And the current situation suits you perfectly, you're just having a little internal tantrum, truly acting like a young lady in a boudoir. I find it amusing."

"Furthermore, you helped me gather these demons—first, it could be said to scare me, and second, you're using this little bit of petulance to show goodwill to me... the little thoughts of you young girls. They truly are delightful."

As he spoke, he took two more steps forward and casually waved his hand.

The powerful and unparalleled demonic power emitted by a True Realm great demon "buzzed" as it shot into the crowd—the Red Serpent King was the first, instantly turning into a mist of blood. Followed by the group of small demons behind her, who didn't even know what happened... they splashed down all over the ground.

In the space of a single sentence, Li Yunxin had plowed a path of blood through the demons with one attack... and without even looking back, he smiled gently and shook his head at Bai Yunxin, "She said many bad things about you just now. I don't like it."

Bai Yunxin tilted her head, looked at the terrified demons, looked at the blood path, and then looked at Li Yunxin.

After a moment of silence, a faint, yet dreamily beautiful smile finally appeared on her face, "I don't like it either."

"Then I will kill them all."

"Be quick. I still have things to say to you."

Li Yunxin grinned, "Good. It will be fast."

Then his robe sleeves wildly flailed as he swooped down towards the group of demons! (To be continued.)

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