Chapter 70: A Twist of Fate

“Ahem.”

Yu Qingtang cleared his throat and sat up straight, assuming the solemn bearing of a proper gentleman. His eyes, however, followed the food swaying in front of him of their own accord.

“What is it? You actually dare try bribing me with food? Hand it over. Let me see.”

Ye Chenyan passed it to him, propped his chin on one hand, and watched him with a smile. “Well?”

Yu Qingtang took a bite and stole a glance at him. “What happens if I eat it but still refuse to ask?”

Ye Chenyan stared at him, then sighed. “Forget it. You’ve read the book, so you already know. Making you listen to it all over again would only be asking too much of you...”

Yu Qingtang squeezed his eyes shut. “Oh, come on. I didn’t read the book that carefully! I’ve forgotten plenty of the details. Go ahead!”

“Really?”

Only after receiving an affirmative answer did Ye Chenyan smile.

“You probably saw my Nascent Soul phenomenon before. My origins are somewhat unusual. I carry both demon-race and human blood.”

Yu Qingtang had known that for a long time, but hearing Ye Chenyan say it himself still felt different.

Since he had already asked, he dutifully played the attentive audience. With his mouth still full, he nodded and went, “Mhm, mhm,” urging Ye Chenyan to continue.

Ye Chenyan quietly observed his expression.

Yu Qingtang did not seem bothered by his demon blood in the slightest. Only then did Ye Chenyan relax a little.

“The demon race originally didn’t live in the human world. They had their own homeland in Demonic Soil. But during that great war, Demonic Soil and countless immortal sects vanished overnight. The great experts of antiquity—the true immortals and true demons—also disappeared.”

Ye Chenyan pressed his lips together.

“Afterward, the demon race migrated to Nanzhou. Starwatch Pavilion took responsibility for handling all matters involving them.”

“The demon race is different from ordinary humans. They have their own cultivation system. Spiritual roots don’t matter. Instead, they draw primal power from ancient demonic-beast totems to strengthen themselves.”

“After taking root in Nanzhou, the demon race also established sects of its own. They don’t judge prospective disciples by their spiritual roots, only by their ability to comprehend the totems. Most demon cultivators can comprehend only one totem, but the Heavenly Demon bloodline is special. How many they can comprehend depends entirely on their talent.”

“Any member of the demon race who earns the recognition of all seventy-two totems becomes the next Demonic Sovereign.”

Yu Qingtang’s chewing gradually slowed. “Is that the trial you’re undergoing now?”

“Mhm.”

Ye Chenyan took a jar from his storage ring and poured out a clattering pile of little stones carved with strange patterns.

“These.”

Yu Qingtang curiously rummaged through them. Each stone was engraved with a bizarre-looking animal.

He lifted one. “A puppy!”

Ye Chenyan corrected him with amusement. “A Coursing Wolf.”

Yu Qingtang picked up another. “A kitten or a rabbit?”

Ye Chenyan laughed. “A White-Tailed Wildcat.”

Yu Qingtang continued sorting through the stones. “This one belongs to Senior Candle Nine Yin, right?”

Ye Chenyan nodded. “You got that one right. The Flying Serpent.”

Yu Qingtang asked curiously, “Which one did you choose today?”

Ye Chenyan opened his palm with a beaming smile and showed him the totem there.

The stone engraved with the Henggong Fish glowed faintly, brightening and dimming as if it were breathing.

“The little fish.”

Yu Qingtang fell silent.

He stared at the stone, then looked up at Ye Chenyan.

“I passed the little fish’s trial, so I received permission to take this stone inside and accept its inheritance.”

Ye Chenyan’s eyes curved with his smile.

“See? I wasn’t injured at all. Apparently, fish like me quite a bit.”

Yu Qingtang looked away and pretended not to understand. “W-well, congratulations!”

Then he asked, “Are you going again tomorrow?”

“I am.” Ye Chenyan lowered his eyes. “Once the trials begin, they can’t be stopped. I have to attempt the next challenge within three days, and continue until I’ve passed all seventy-two totem trials.”

“I wasn’t injured today, so I can keep going every day.”

He deliberately added, “You’ll have to stay here with me for at least seventy-two days. Provided I work hard and attempt one trial every day for seventy-two days straight, I can get you out of here sooner.”

Yu Qingtang lowered his head and fiddled with the totem stones. “That’s fine. I don’t have anything urgent to do anyway. You can rest for a while whenever you’re tired. I’ll just treat this as staying indoors while eating my way through all of Nanzhou.”

Ye Chenyan could not suppress a laugh.

Yu Qingtang immediately looked up at him warily. “But you’re not allowed to cheat and drag it out on purpose!”

“I won’t.” Ye Chenyan smiled and held out his little finger. “It’s a promise.”

“Why do we have to pinky-swear?”

Yu Qingtang grumbled, but obediently hooked his finger around Ye Chenyan’s anyway.

“You have another trial tomorrow. You should go to bed early.”

“I can’t sleep.”

Ye Chenyan edged closer to him.

“I only learned the full story of my past over the last two days, and I haven’t had anyone to talk to about it.”

He propped up his chin and turned to look at Yu Qingtang.

Yu Qingtang stared back at him.

Then he obediently propped up his own chin as well.

“All right. I’m listening.”

“Why are you being so agreeable?” Ye Chenyan reached out and poked his cheek. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll take a mile after you give me an inch?”

“Can’t be helped.” Yu Qingtang sighed deeply. “When someone gives you something, your tongue has to be short.”

“I remember you said you have five spiritual roots.” Ye Chenyan tilted his head. “When I entered the sect, no one tested mine. I didn’t join through the usual process, after all. Master simply found me and brought me back.”

“He always told me I had a metal-type Heavenly Spiritual Root, so I believed him. During the sect disciples’ competition that year, the test really did show that I possessed one.”

“Mhm.” Yu Qingtang nodded.

That was indeed how the plot had described it.

“But that spiritual root was fake.” Ye Chenyan shrugged helplessly. “He fabricated it to help conceal me from heaven’s notice.”

He sighed.

“Whatever else you might say about that old man, he’s unrivaled when it comes to fooling every kind of spiritual treasure.”

Yu Qingtang thought of how Tianji Zi had fooled the Flying Immortals Ranking on his behalf, as well as the mysterious voice in Sage-Hearing Academy.

He nodded with heartfelt agreement. “Unrivaled.”

Then he casually remarked, “But you can use immortal techniques, so you must possess a spiritual root of some kind.”

“Mhm.” Ye Chenyan’s expression became a little strange. “They said I inherited the bloodline of an ancient true demon and a true immortal. There’s also an immortal spiritual root hidden within me. But it restrains my demon bloodline, and the two suppress each other, so it can’t display much power.”

Yu Qingtang was silent.

One spiritual root that supposedly couldn’t display much power had already made him this strong. Sure enough, Long Aotians and ordinary people were two entirely different species.

“It certainly sounds like an impressive background,” Ye Chenyan muttered, lowering his head. “But when I asked them for specific details about those two great figures, none of them could answer.”

“They said it happened too long ago. There was no way for them to know.”

“All they could tell me was that I was still in my mother’s womb before the great war.”

Ye Chenyan frowned.

“But heaven and earth were on the verge of collapse, and war was imminent. The two of them had no choice but to join forces and place me inside a pocket world to continue developing.”

“Once I absorbed enough power, I would naturally be born.”

“The Esoteric Sect calculated when I would emerge and sent people to find me, but Master got there first. That was how I ended up growing up in Guiyi Sect.”

Yu Qingtang scratched his chin and cautiously began, “Actually...”

He knew more than Ye Chenyan did and had intended to reveal a few additional details.

But the moment he opened his mouth, dark clouds abruptly gathered across the sky. Muffled thunder rumbled overhead.

“Hm?” Ye Chenyan looked up in puzzlement. “Nanzhou’s weather truly changes without warning... What’s wrong?”

Yu Qingtang stared at the thunderclouds in horror.

He could practically see dog Xiaosa hiding behind the dog Heavenly Dao, borrowing its might while viciously drawing a finger across his throat.

Yu Qingtang spoke with a trembling voice. “Do you remember that book I read?”

“I do.” Ye Chenyan looked away from the sky. “Master had already calculated that you came from beyond this world. I simply never imagined that our world might be nothing more than a book somewhere else.”

“Perhaps that’s what Dharma Academy means when it seeks a world within every flower and every leaf?”

He paused, then added, “But what the book says isn’t necessarily true!”

Yu Qingtang was in no mood to discuss Buddhist philosophy with him. He kept a wary eye on the thunderclouds.

“I actually know quite a lot, but...”

He pointed upward.

“It won’t let me say it.”

Ye Chenyan narrowed his eyes at the sky and clicked his tongue softly. “What right does it have to stop you?”

“Exactly!”

Yu Qingtang ducked behind him and, sheltered by the halo of fate’s favored son, secretly pointed at the sky.

“What right does it have to stop me?”

Yu Qingtang patted Ye Chenyan’s shoulder. “Ignore it. Keep talking. Where were you?”

Ye Chenyan laughed. “You already know everything. Listening to me explain it can’t be very interesting.”

“Of course it can.”

Yu Qingtang waved the snack in his hand.

“Gossip heard from someone else has a completely different flavor from hearing it straight from the person involved!”

Ye Chenyan narrowed his eyes, suddenly leaned over, and bit off half the snack in Yu Qingtang’s hand.

“Hey—!” Yu Qingtang’s eyes widened. “There’s plenty more! Why did you steal mine?”

Laughing, Ye Chenyan changed the subject.

“Master said that when he reached the ancient battlefield back then, he encountered Senior Candle Nine Yin. The demon race had also been searching for me.”

“They fought, but neither side truly became serious, because I happened to be born at that exact moment.”

“I was so weak I was nearly dead. I looked nothing like the prodigy they had imagined—a child who would burst into the world carrying the supreme bloodlines of immortals and demons.”

“My parents had planned everything perfectly before they left. The spiritual power of that pocket world was supposed to nourish me. But no one expected heaven and earth to change so drastically after the war. Spiritual power was no longer remotely as abundant as before.”

“The pocket world was affected too. Its spiritual power dried up. The fact that I survived until the day I was born was already extraordinarily fortunate.”

“When the two of them saw that I was about to die immediately after being born, they temporarily put aside their grievances. One went to find a shaman healer in Nanzhou, while the other sought out the old Pill King. They were both trying to save my life.”

Yu Qingtang looked him up and down. “You’re so healthy now that no one would ever guess you suffered that much as a child.”

“I wouldn’t really call it suffering.” Ye Chenyan smiled. “I was barely conscious then. All I did was make the people around me worry.”

“Saving my life wasn’t easy. The great experts Master knew gathered together and exhausted themselves calculating heaven’s secrets before they finally found a path that might let me survive.”

“First, they needed to raise me somewhere with abundant spiritual power while supporting me with all kinds of pills. The cultivation grounds of the major sects all fulfilled that requirement.”

“Second, the demon race’s cultivation methods are extremely fierce. My body was too frail as a child to endure them. I needed a balanced and orthodox cultivation method to build a stable foundation. Guiyi Sect’s cultivation method was the most suitable.”

“So I first used immortal techniques to establish my foundation. Once I formed a Nascent Soul and broke through, I was supposed to return to Nanzhou and inherit the demon race’s legacy.”

“If I cultivated only immortal techniques, then one day, when the spiritual power within me overwhelmed my demonic energy and the balance completely collapsed, I would...”

Yu Qingtang caught his hand and shook his head slightly. “Don’t worry. That won’t happen. It won’t.”

Ye Chenyan laughed softly and lowered his gaze to their hands.

“At the Nascent Soul stage, you can use the Nascent Soul to perceive your true self. It is the most direct method, and the perfect opportunity to combine the two cultivation systems and fuse them completely.”

“This is the most crucial stage. That’s why Master was in such a hurry to send me here. He was also afraid I would cultivate on my own, allow my spiritual power to grow too strong, and destroy the balance.”

“Originally, when I formed my Nascent Soul, he was supposed to give me a demon-race artifact to prevent my spiritual power from becoming excessive and upsetting that balance.”

Ye Chenyan turned toward him.

“But no one expected me to learn a demon-race cultivation method inside the Ancient Academy Realm first. It happened entirely by a twist of fate.”

He gazed steadily at Yu Qingtang and chuckled.

“All of it happened by a twist of fate.”

Actually, that wasn’t the only reason Tianji Zi had been so anxious to send you to Nanzhou, Yu Qingtang thought.

But before he could speak, he heard a noise and turned around.

“Who’s coming?”

Ye Chenyan frowned. “Ordinary people can’t enter this place. That must be...”

“Brother Ye!”

A familiar voice rang out.

They both turned toward it. Three people were approaching, and Yu Qingtang recognized two of them.

Scholar Xiao walked up and was just about to speak when he suddenly spotted Yu Qingtang.

He froze on the spot.

His mouth fell open, and his gaze darted back and forth between them. Then he slapped his folding fan against his palm as understanding dawned.

“Oh! I thought Brother Ye was cultivating bitterly in seclusion here. I never imagined you were hiding a beauty away in your golden nest!”

His delighted smile was entirely sincere.

“Very good, very good. We’ve clearly come at the wrong time. We’ll return tomorrow. Tomorrow!”

He grabbed the person beside him and began to turn away.

Chi Yantian, however, remained rooted to the spot. He scrutinized Yu Qingtang in confusion.

“Wait. Why are you dressed as a man?”