Chapter 1486 - 803: A Single Thought Into Demonicness (Double Chapter)

Ding!

The sound of the sword's cry shot straight toward Chen Yi!

When Chen Yi "heard" it, the killing intent had already reached him.

He still held the teacup in his hand, seemingly oblivious, as if he, like those spies, could not see the way of killing and taking lives in an instant, about to have his head fly off his neck.

The tea in the cup splashed, and the ripples slightly calmed.

Ching lang!

With a piercing loud crash, a ripple spread sideways between the two people atop the Three Pure Ones Hall from the dispersing Peiran Sword Energy. It spread out, tearing apart layers of tiles into dust wherever it passed, leaving the entire rooftop of the Three Pure Ones Hall unrecognizable.

Master Yunzhou's white-haired face slightly lifted, his vestment robe fluttering in the fierce wind, his pupils contracted, and then his figure suddenly blurred.

Just at the moment his figure faded away.

Rumble!

The section of the Three Pure Ones Hall rooftop where Master Yunzhou had just been seated seemed to be pierced by a giant siege crossbow from top to bottom, with the glazed tiles not shattering but directly turning into dust. A cloud of smoke and dust erupted upwards, and the ridge beasts on the roof ridge, the immortal animal figurines on the ornamental ridge, along with the small tea table and two still-warm teacups, all detached from gravity and tumbled into the air under a huge force.

The solemn hipped roof of the Three Pure Ones Hall was pierced with a hideous hole over two zhang in diameter, causing the incense smoke swirling within the main hall below to become a scene of chaos, inciting even more panicked and desperate screams from the crowd below.

Rubble fell like rain, the tea chairs swayed as they floated into the sky, and then, losing the support of force the next moment, they crashed despondently down into the chaotic plaza below.

Chen Yi had long since drifted back to the eaves of another building over ten zhang away, his garments fluttering wildly in the explosive shockwave, his hair slightly disheveled.

One hundred steps away, atop the crown of a century-old pine tree, Master Yunzhou's figure turned from faint to solid, quietly standing on a side branch as thick as a child's arm, the branch swaying slightly with the wind, yet he stood as if on flat ground, his figure motionless, still exuding the aura of an immortal Daoist.

Only, the originally clear and misty celestial light around him was swiftly turning dim. In Chen Yi's Heavenly Eye, his aura quickly darkened to red, and every gesture was filled with killing intent.

Chen Yi narrowed his eyes slightly, understanding in his heart what had happened.

...He became a demon in a single thought.

All people envy immortality, Daoists envy ascension; common people live hundreds of years aiming for two hundred, greedy for those extra years to see ultimate prosperity and enjoy all pleasures; Daoists, living through five jiazi, three hundred years, wish to see the scenery of heaven, the celestial palaces and mystic laws, dreaming of great freedom.

Both believe that what they seek is the ultimate solution, living an extra hundred years, ascending even more so, yet every so-called ultimate solution hides vast dangers beneath.

A Daoist's ascension may seem natural and virtuous, but in reality, it is the most perilous leap, the moment of ascension is when a cultivator's life essence and spirit are pushed to the peak, resonating with the Heaven and Earth Dao. Just as the Heavenly Gate is about to open but not open, the barrier between the mortal and the immortal worlds is thinnest, making it the time when the Outer Heaven Demon and one's Heart Demon are most likely to intrude. Most ascending Daoists rely on their cultivation to resist, but what if they can't? The moment of ascension is the peak of one's essence, spirit, and energy; if one becomes demonized then, the consequences are unimaginable.

The unimaginable consequence now stood before Chen Yi.

Just moments ago, the old man sat with him, drinking tea brought from ten thousand miles away, talking about things of "forgetting at the Jianghu," although there was some melancholy between his brows, he was still that accomplished Daoist, with an unrestrained demeanor, even having the leisure to jokingly say he "truly should die."

Kind appearance, immortal demeanor, about to ascend.

Then, in the blink of an eye, blood stained the plaza, killing intent filled the heavens, and with one thought, he became a demon.

Chen Yi looked at the old pine tree, looking at the figure atop it.

The sky, the dull thunder rumbled again, seemingly just above, lightning frantically moving within the clouds, as if Heaven was infuriated, ready to send down lightning to cleanse and purify.

"Ascension imminent, yet committing such great misdeeds, the Heavenly Thunder is extreme..." Master Yunzhou sighed and shook his head, "I can no longer ascend."

Previously, a line opened in the sky, cranes sang in unison, almost welcoming ascension, yet now, for a mundane lingering affection unsettled, he slaughtered the Liuyun Palace to be filled with corpses, angering Heaven and Earth to change colors, even if Master Yunzhou forcibly ascended, he would be killed on the spot by Heavenly Thunder. Chen Yi understood the weight of it; he had no further possibility of ascension.

The chaotic screams below, the panic and trample, all seemed to become distant background noise, distant hums, as he looked with blood-red eyes toward the mountain gate, where all the incense customers had already fled.

A gray figure, however, moved against the dispersing crowd, slowly stepping over the blood-stained stone threshold.

It was the old woman of the White Lotus Sect, still wearing that worn-out bamboo hat, walking neither fast nor slow.

She walked to the foot of the old pine and looked up.

The bamboo hat tilted slightly back, revealing that half of a face full of weathered wrinkles. She glanced at Master Yunzhou atop the tree, then her toes lightly tapped the ground.

Her figure rose like a weightless gray feather, ascending along a straight path, passing through the rustling pine needles, and landed steadily on the same branch where Master Yunzhou stood.

The branch only sank slightly before springing back.

They stood only three chi apart.

The murderous aura boiling around Master Yunzhou paused the moment the old woman approached; his ancient eyes trembled slightly when they met her calm gaze.

He subconsciously raised his hand, trembling slightly, reaching toward the old woman's cheek.

His fingertips stopped an inch away from her skin.

It felt like the mirror flower water moon before me, touching it would awaken me from a grand dream.

"Is it… really you...?"

The old woman reached out and grabbed Master Yunzhou's wrist, which was suspended in mid-air.

"Aside from me," the old woman spoke, her voice not loud, "who else could it be?"

Master Yunzhou trembled all over.

The genuine tactile sensation from his wrist dispelled some of the bloodlust in his eyes. His elderly face twitched at the corners of his mouth and pulled upward.

It was not the sinister smile of someone possessed.

It was like that of a child lost for far too long, finally grasping the thread they had been endlessly searching for, a mix of grievance, relief, and almost foolish joy.

A cautious, almost clumsy smile blossomed on his face.

"Yes, only you..."

Chen Yi took in this scene entirely, his mouth twitching involuntarily.

This was easily snagged...

The murderous aura just now was instantly retracted, someone grabbed him by the wrist, and he started grinning foolishly like little Chu Nan—no wait, even old Daoists who only know bitter cultivation and grow old are just old little Chu Nans.

Caught at eighteen in youth, caught again at fifty in old age...

Isn't this a bit too easy to hook? Purely Chu Nan manual labor thinking.

Having too many romantic connections, Chen Yi could not comprehend, could not resonate with the emotions of reuniting with a young true love, and couldn't be moved to the extent of life or death over a relationship, abandoning even ascension, ignoring the sect, seeing that face still bearing memories of the past despite the ravages of time, a single thought falling, willing to give everything in an instant.

Perhaps... the me before betraying the master and ancestors in the previous life would have empathized.

However, people always change.

One lifetime, one couple isn't good precisely because of this, so Chen Yi felt that if there were another life, he'd rather be emotionally burdened, leave women heartbroken, than to be bound to anyone for a lifetime. Besides, among the women now… who could he abandon in the next life?

While muttering inwardly, Chen Yi didn't relax his vigilance, operating his Heavenly Eye, carefully scrutinizing the suddenly appeared gray-robed old woman. Previously, when far away and with a bamboo hat obscuring her face, she seemed inexplicably familiar. Now, observing closely, her actions and posture...

Chen Yi's mind suddenly recalled someone.

Descending Dragon and Tiger Mountain and joining the White Lotus Sect, entering the main altar, that old woman surrounded by the various Saint Sons... White Lotus Saint Mother.

Indeed, when she lifted her hat and turned to cast her gaze over, Chen Yi once again saw that bizarre face, the left half of which was a cloudy-eyed old woman, while the right half was smooth like a young girl, two halves pieced together seamlessly.

"We meet again." She opened her mouth, appearing hideous, yet just looking at the right half, it would be the most captivating smile of a demoness from the Demon Sect.

Chen Yi's expression turned grave, looking at the two, he finally felt a long-lost sense of facing a formidable foe.

He spoke, "Are you... here for me?"

"Correct, Mother of Non-Birth has long been aware of everything under heaven and earth, specifically sending me today to ambush and kill you."

Chen Yi shook his head and said, "Apparently not."

If what White Lotus Saint Mother said were directed at regular Jianghu people or those cultivators who only partially understood White Lotus Sect secrets, it might have frightened a few into feeling anxious and paranoid.

But Chen Yi had personally experienced the "Battle of Ninety" on Dragon and Tiger Mountain, witnessed with his own eyes how the Tenth of the world, the Blind Arrow, met his end, and heard from Zhou Yitang about how, in that celestial battle, Mother of Non-Birth gave her all and cooperated with some unspeakable entities, intending to overthrow the Taoist Ancestral Court, resulting in a disastrous defeat, with the top forces severely damaged, their power waning significantly, and the White Lotus Sect's subsequent unruly uprisings quickly suppressed by the Great Yu court with thunderous means, never regaining momentum.

In that battle, Dragon and Tiger Mountain summoned martial artists to ascend, previously it was claiming good and evil atop Dragon and Tiger, borrowing the Tai Sha Sword, entering the Demon Refining Abyss searching for the Holy Emperor... A grand scheme with significant implications for the celestial situation, although Chen Yi wasn't on that battlefield at the time and doesn't know the specifics of what occurred.

He only remembered Zhou Yitang explicitly told him, the White Lotus Sect itself, had become negligible. White Lotus Saint Sons mostly perished in that battle, leaving only the beguiled mass of adherents, dwindling under the purging alliance of the court and the Righteous Path, even the Mother of Non-Birth was severely injured.

Now, the White Lotus Saint Mother, who should be avoiding pursuit, appeared personally thousands of miles away in Western Jin, at this ascension ceremony for Master Yunzhou, with whom she had a past relationship...

What for?

A cold light flashed in Chen Yi's eyes,

Helping Mother of Non-Birth recover her vitality?

No need to think further, since they've crossed paths,

Whether you're a Holy Mother or a demoness, no matter what affectionate entanglements you have with Master Yunzhou.

Kill first, talk later!

Kill, then Soul Search.