Inner Demons

He only said "go out and look around," and most people probably thought he was going to look around the lake or outside Jun Mountain.

But when he appeared again, he was already in another forest. It was here, a dozen days ago, that Ying Jueran, Yu Meng, and their group were thrown into the mist and entered his "Dragon Palace."

The Rat Spirit and Rabbit Spirit only thought it was a Restriction, so they lingered outside. They didn't realize that if they had walked in, they could be "reunited" now.

Someone had opened the back door of his "Dragon Palace" to this very spot—that person was "Old Man Su."

"What great power," Li Yunxin sighed softly again in the deep night.

Since a long time ago—the White Yama King had expressed a similar sentiment to him—some people were helping him. But that help was not entirely out of baseless goodwill. They were more like providing a person or some people with a certain "condition" or "convenience," to see what they could achieve.

Old Man Su also revealed the same idea.

But their identities were all different, and Li Yunxin didn't know what kind of connection could gather them in one place, nor did he know their purpose. All he could do was utilize those things to live on and grow stronger as much as possible, hoping...

To transition from a potential chess piece to a decision-maker who could see the whole board.

Now, he was finally out of the predicament.

The mist that had previously shrouded this place had vanished. Li Yunxin gently tip-toed, floating onto a branch like a shadow. He pushed off the branch again, and his body leaped upward among the branches and leaves, finally standing atop the vast, dense forest.

His foot rested on a green leaf. That leaf trembled slightly with the wind, and so did he.

Looking south, there was the endless Yeyuan Forest. The forest in the darkness lay quietly on the Wei River Plain, like a whole expanse of gloomy ocean. The tiny sounds within the forest interwove into its enormous, deep breathing, and who knew how many secrets were hidden in the shadows.

He looked north again and saw Weicheng.

He had only been trapped in Dongting for about twenty days, but it felt like a whole year had passed. Even that Weicheng...

It felt strange just looking at it.

And in fact, it was strange.

The Weicheng of the past—Weicheng at night, although it had the lights signifying civilization, it was far from comparable to his former world. However, looking now—the entire Weicheng was brilliantly illuminated.

The city was so bright that it faintly reddened Li Yunxin's face, even from over ten miles away... Weicheng was burning.

Li Yunxin stood on the high treetop, staring at the city where he had briefly lived for a few months, then silently leaped down.

A thin mist appeared beneath the tree, and Li Yunxin disappeared into the mist. At the same time, he reappeared inside the Dongting Restriction, in the woods on the west side of the Ziwei Palace Central Hall.

He casually picked up his folding fan from somewhere—and at this moment, the people he had just rescued were only just walking onto the square in front of the Central Hall.

...

...

He had to take care of these mortal people. Thus, the candles in the room were lit.

Old Daoist Liu, Lady Sanhua, the unconscious Shi Kuizi. Yu Meng, Wusu and Lili, Ying Jueran.

They were either standing or sitting, none of them showing particular interest in the Central Hall—probably because they were restless and anxious. Li Yunxin sat on a low table in the hall.

Originally, this table was for the ancient ritual of sitting at a desk. But he wasn't in the mood to sit obediently kneeling behind the desk. For someone who hadn't grown up kneeling according to that etiquette since childhood, that posture was indeed a form of torture.

The main hall was vast and deep, and the candlelight only illuminated a small area in the hall, with most hidden in the darkness. Perhaps the emotions in these people's hearts were like this at the moment, which made their gaze towards Li Yunxin particularly apprehensive.

Li Yunxin sighed, propped his hands on his knees, leaned slightly forward, looked at them, and said, "I understand. The situation is not very optimistic, and you're unhappy."

He looked at Old Daoist Liu and San Hua, and nodded first: "You've been working hard all this time. You did a beautiful job earlier; I survived all thanks to you all. Now Sheriff and Shan-ji are missing—whether they're alive or dead, I will definitely give you an answer."

Then he looked at Ying Jueran: "I didn't expect you would actually come. It's just that I didn't foresee so many other things happening afterward, and as a result, Weicheng is finished—without Weicheng, are you interested in becoming a water bandit?"

Ying Jueran didn't know if they were serious or joking, and for a moment, didn't know how to respond. He had witnessed Li Yunxin's power, and now he was in such a place, which he felt was magnificent and comparable to an emperor's palace—although he had never seen an emperor's palace—so his heart was uneasy, and he was even less clear about what the other party meant by "Weicheng is finished."

Then he saw Li Yunxin cup his hands to Yu Meng: "Young Master Yu. We are somewhat connected by fate. I have some news—I saw Weicheng was set on fire just now."

Yu Meng, Wusu, and Lili were stunned. They heard Li Yunxin say again: "It wasn't just a fire; it was set alight. You know, even the city walls were burning—it's probably some kind of Formation being set up by those rotten Taoist priests of the Daoist Orthodoxy, taking the opportunity to consecrate Weicheng. These people... ah, the things they do are beyond even me."

He didn't know what Yu Meng was thinking, but Wusu and Lili were first startled, and then they didn't know how they felt inside.

Although a super-large family like the Yu Family couldn't have everyone living in Weicheng, and they would have branches in other kingdoms and cities. But with the main family gone, the remaining ones probably couldn't be considered the Yu Family anymore. Some would become independent, and others would collapse—their young master's "Yu Family" was truly gone.

But Weicheng was, after all, the place where they grew up. Suddenly hearing Li Yunxin say the city was destroyed, the two young girls only felt a slight bitterness in their hearts, and for a moment, recalled many wonderful memories of chasing butterflies and playing with flowers in the city during their youth.

It was Wusu who sighed first: "Alas. It's hateful that those people that night—"

Li Yunxin already knew what had happened in the city. Hearing her say this, he knew she meant "It's hateful that the Yu Family is gone, Weicheng is gone, but the person from that night didn't get their retribution." So he smiled: "No need to hate. They are already dead too."

"I looked towards the city and saw the towering resentment turn into spiritual energy. You can't create such a grand spectacle without tens or hundreds of thousands of casualties." He looked at the two young girls, then at Yu Meng, "The people you hate are also dead."

Upon hearing this, a clear expression of surprise finally appeared on Yu Meng's face: "You mean... how could this be?"

Wusu and Lili were stunned for longer. Only after their young master spoke did they cry out in surprise: "How could this be?!"

They thought for a moment: "Aren't they afraid of such a thing?!"

Li Yunxin didn't answer that question immediately but stood up and paced a few steps. Then he asked, "Young Master Yu, now that things have come to this, what are your plans for the future?"

Yu Meng had always seemed dispirited, looking uninterested in everything, completely different from when Li Yunxin first met him. It wasn't until this moment, hearing Li Yunxin ask him a question, that he slowly raised his head, looked him in the eye for a while, and said, "I just want to know, on that day, when I saved you by the roadside and then brought you into the city—were you deliberately trying to harm my family?"

Li Yunxin thought for a moment: "I was not deliberately trying to harm your family."

Wusu and Lili frowned, about to press for an answer. But Li Yunxin had already continued: "For example, your family deals in business, selling cloth. You want to monopolize Huicheng, so you first need to acquire a few large shops, then lower prices to make the small shops either go bankrupt or submit. When the matter is accomplished, you might even show some kindness and help those bankrupt merchants, so people don't say you drove them to a dead end—for those small merchants, it can't be considered deliberate harm, right?"

He looked at Yu Meng: "You should know that if you worry about how they will live, and what they will eat and wear in the future while you are conducting business, you won't succeed."

Wusu and Lili frowned even tighter upon hearing this, about to question him again, but heard him continue to speak—he even smiled: "But that's not what I want to say. In this example, the Yu Family is me. Your monopolizing is what I wanted to do in Weicheng. But your family... is not even comparable to those small shops."

"As for you... you are the even smaller vendors and common folk who rely on those small shops to live after they go bankrupt. I might clearly know what fate awaits the small shops, but I'm sorry... I really didn't know what would happen to those vendors and common folk."

He sighed: "Sometimes you would say 'Immortal affairs'... you have now been drawn into Immortal affairs."

Lili finally spoke—after a moment of silence: "But... that was our home..."

Li Yunxin nodded: "I understand. After all, that was your home. If you kill a random bandit by the roadside, he is still an extremely important person to many others. If you look closely, every person is important, alive—to themselves. But the problem is... you still haven't clearly understood what 'Immortal affairs' means."

It was probably difficult for ordinary people to keep up with Li Yunxin's train of thought, so Yu Meng and the two girls did not speak immediately.

Instead, Ying Jueran couldn't help but interject: "Hmph. You're an efficient official when arresting those miserable people. But now—are you just going to ignore it?"

Li Yunxin paced two steps in place, stopped, looked at the four mortals, and slowly said, "It might be hard to understand, but let me tell you."

"According to what you said, when the Taoist priests of the Daoist Orthodoxy came to your home, your master went to welcome them. At that time, he was still thinking about... how to bargain." Li Yunxin sighed slightly, "Your master was a top-tier figure in Weicheng, but he already knew that those people were not someone he could refuse. Therefore, he was only thinking about how to find some advantage or leverage after agreeing. He probably never thought... that they would kill him."

"In his view, that was impossible—it exceeded his common understanding." (To be continued.)

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