“So formidable and cruel?”
Yun Qingxue was inwardly shocked. The actions of that demon were practically a one-demon challenge to the majority of the races in the Xuanling Continent!
“Yes. Since members of various races were successively harmed, the kings of those races naturally felt provoked and thus joined forces to subdue the demon…
However, the demon was cunning and truly powerful. He faced the elite warriors sent by the human, aquatic, beast, and avian races head-on, suffering only minor injuries, while those four races’ elites were severely wounded by his demonic arts…”
“Wait.” Yun Qingxue interrupted Hua Yin, asking, “Didn’t the flora race also have victims? Why did you only mention four races when describing the siege against the demon?”
“Because the flora race didn’t intervene at all!”
“Why? When their own people were harmed, shouldn’t their king have sent forces to capture the culprit?” Yun Qingxue couldn’t understand.
“Because a thousand years ago, the previous Flora King, Lan Xuechen, had a strained relationship with the other races due to her romantic involvement with the Demon King, Yun Ye…
At the time, she resided in the demon realm and wasn’t present among the flora race. For various reasons, the flora race ultimately chose to stand by and do nothing, which only intensified the resentment of the other races toward them.”
Yun Qingxue frowned. Though a millennium had passed, she felt there was more to the story.
Even if Lan Xuechen had been at odds with the other races, the demon’s rampage didn’t just harm others—it also affected the flora race’s own people…
From Lan Xuechen’s perspective, no matter how reluctant she might have been, she should have at least sent someone to deal with the demon, if only for appearances.
For a ruler to show indifference toward the harm of their own people…
Such behavior wouldn’t just provoke dissatisfaction from other races—it would also alienate and disappoint her own subjects!
Lan Xuechen, as a ruler, couldn’t possibly be ignorant of this.
“What happened next?” Yun Qingxue pressed Hua Yin.
“Afterward, the four major races took the demon more seriously. On one hand, they guarded against further casualties, and on the other, they began investigating the demon’s origins…
But strangely, while all spiritual beings in this world have a traceable origin, no matter how much they searched, the demon’s background remained shrouded in mystery.
During this time, more subjects from different races fell victim.
The four kings were furious and no longer held back, dispatching their strongest warriors—five in total—to confront the demon again. Yet this time, they barely managed a draw.”
By now, Yun Qingxue’s emotions couldn’t be described as mere shock. For the demon to hold its own against the elite warriors of five races without suffering defeat spoke volumes about its terrifying power!
She was now deeply curious: how was such a formidable demon ultimately subdued? Had the four races been reduced to the desperate measure of their kings intervening personally?
Thinking this, she voiced her question.
“What happened after? Did the four kings join forces?”
“No.”
Hua Yin answered bluntly, not keeping Yun Qingxue in suspense. “During the battle between the five elites and the demon, someone uncovered its origins.”
“What origins?” Yun Qingxue pressed urgently.
“The demon’s techniques were recognized by the avian elder as resembling those of the divine race from the upper realm…”
“The demon was a divine being?” Yun Qingxue was too stunned to speak. In her mind, the divine race embodied light and majesty.
Hua Yin corrected her, “At the time, the speculation was that the demon was likely the soul of a fallen deity, transformed into its current state for some reason. The four races concluded that, regardless, since it was a soul, it fell under the jurisdiction of the Underworld’s Ghost King!”
“Once the demon’s identity was confirmed, the kings of the three non-human races—unable to descend to the underworld at will—along with a letter from the human king and their entourages, stormed the underworld. They blockaded the River of Forgetfulness, preventing wandering souls from crossing the bridge to reincarnate, demanding the Ghost King take responsibility.
The underworld’s envoys immediately reported this to the Ghost King, who was no pushover. He refused to act, citing that since the soul had not been registered in the underworld, it was beyond his jurisdiction.
The standoff lasted some time before both sides compromised. The four races offered concessions, and only then did the Ghost King agree to intervene. Using the Ghost King’s decree and forty-nine soul-suppressing nails, he subdued the demon and imprisoned it beneath the River of Forgetfulness.”
“If the culprit now is truly the soul of that deity from a thousand years ago, and he’s so powerful, the ancient town’s gate barrier will never open to contain him. Doesn’t that mean we’re trapped?”
Yun Qingxue sighed.
Hua Yin frowned. “Not only trapped—we should hope we don’t get implicated!”
“What do you mean?” Yun Qingxue was startled.
Hua Yin said grimly, “The cultivators in town can’t suppress that ghost—they can only temporarily confine it with the gate barrier. They’ve likely already sent word for help, and soon, true elite human cultivators will arrive to subdue it. By then, hiding our presence won’t be easy!”
At such a sensitive time, with this incident occurring, the humans’ hostility toward other races must have reached its peak.
Yun Qingxue pursed her lips, puzzled. “But… if the culprit really is that demon from a thousand years ago, and he’s so powerful—last time, it took the combined might of four races’ elites to barely match him—won’t the human elites suffer greatly this time?”
If those cultivators were overwhelmed by the ghost, wouldn’t they be too preoccupied to bother with uninvolved outsiders like them?
Hua Yin shook her head. “Why do you think the Ghost King imprisoned the ghost beneath the River of Forgetfulness? Do you know what power that river holds?”
“The Yellow Springs and the underworld are divided by the River of Forgetfulness. Its waters run blood-yellow, teeming with restless spirits unable to reincarnate, infested with serpents and reeking of decay.
Some say those with pure hearts see its waters as clear, but as for what power it holds… I truly don’t know…” Yun Qingxue tried recalling modern descriptions of the underworld’s river.
As for figures like the Lady of Forgetfulness—given the different time and the mystical nature of this continent—she wasn’t sure if ox-headed and horse-faced enforcers existed, or if there was a Lady of Forgetfulness with her amnesia-inducing soup, or the Stone of Three Lives that recorded past and future bonds.
Hua Yin nodded. “The River of Forgetfulness indeed appears differently based on the observer’s nature. But its original purpose was to suppress and drain the power of powerful, unruly spirits that defy the underworld’s authority.”
At this, Hua Yin looked at Yun Qingxue.
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