Chapter 30: My Lord, the Times Have Changed

Still not coming out? Wen Jinge silently counted in her heart, and when she reached three, she placed her hand on Wang Sichun, who served as the eye of the formation.

Everything had been improvised after she saw Qiao Yu. No matter how much she voiced her dislike for him, it was all to complete the mission. Deep inside, she knew perfectly well: Qiao Yu was innocent. Whether he had become a demon here or not, he was fundamentally innocent.

But what if there was a way for him to be powerful without turning into a demon?

At that moment, Wen Jinge thought of the Nine-Tailed Fox and Naruto.

She still hadn’t figured out how she was able to draw power from the heavens, but the principle should be similar. Whenever she borrowed that force, she would feel dazed, as if she herself were the sky.

The sky was within her heart.

If Qiao Yu could be made to feel that he himself was the demon, then the demon, too, would reside within his heart.

“Immortal Master, am I really up to this?” Wang Sichun had never imagined she’d be assigned such a crucial task right from the start.

“Trust your master,” Wang Xi said, taking a deep breath. He wanted to pat her on the shoulder for comfort, but Wen Jinge shot him a glare. Awkwardly, he pointed at the approaching, dazed Qiao Yu. “Master, senior brother is almost here.”

Tang Miaomiao and Wang Sichun sat facing each other on opposite sides of the cave. Strange things occasionally swept across the sky—humanoid columns of water, trees erupting from the ground, shrieking beasts… All of them were things that had been demonized and wanted nothing more than to avoid returning to the cave.

Upon seeing the people around the cave, these things would try to attach themselves, requiring the three sword cultivators to protect the formation.

“You two, go guard the formation on Tang Miaomiao’s side,” Wen Jinge ordered Yang Wennan and Yuan Qingling. “Wang Xi, keep an eye on your senior brother.”

“R-right, yes.”

Qiao Yu’s upper body was exposed, covered in wounds. He stumbled forward in a daze. A tree branch scraped his already bare arm, snapping the bone, but he seemed oblivious to pain.

Wang Xi trembled at the sight—demons were truly terrifying.

“Jade tokens, no, not jade tokens, demon cores—you already have so many demon cores!”

“So many, not enough, I want more, demon cores, demon cores.”

“I smell immortals, I smell them—demon cores, I want demon cores, no, I don’t want demon cores!”

Two voices kept alternating, Qiao Yu’s face growing ever more twisted, blood and blackness smeared all over it. When he saw the people at the cave’s edge, his mouth stretched to his ears, making him look like a grotesque clown.

“Jade tokens, fine, I’ll snatch jade tokens for you. No, I want demon cores, demon cores.”

Unlike the other demonized creatures, who were drawn in, Qiao Yu walked over on his own, which spoke volumes about the unusual force at work within him.

“Look at what you’ve done!” If her hands weren’t busy, Wen Jinge might have given Wang Xi another beating. She closed her eyes, and this time there was no trembling in the sky—only cracks, like shattering glass, ringing sharply overhead.

Qiao Yu’s pace quickened, and just then, a sudden “ding-dong” sounded in Wen Jinge’s mind.

[I’ve returned from the main brain.]

“Oh, good.” Wen Jinge continued to feign ignorance.

[Wha—what are you doing?!] The mechanical voice of “Nonexistent” changed tone. [That’s the protagonist, you can’t kill her! What have you done?! Stop! He cannot go into the cave.]

“Who said I was letting him into the cave? Wouldn’t it be fun to keep him around?”

If “Nonexistent” had a face, it would have undergone a dramatic transformation at that moment. Wen Jinge was still the same as always, still the familiar formula, yet it couldn’t help but feel she had seen through it.

[Then what are you planning to do?]

“An experiment,” Wen Jinge replied, taking a deep breath, continuing her meditation, and pressing harder with her palm. Soon, Qiao Yu reached the mouth of the cave.

“Immortal! No, not an immortal—who, who tricked me here! Show yourself! Was it you?” He stared at Yang Wennan, raising his sword to strike, but his movements were so sluggish, like a sloth, that Yang Wennan easily dodged.

“Was it you?” Lifted by a whirlwind, he circled the cave entrance, swinging his blade at Yuan Qingling. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

Yuan Qingling retreated, but then noticed that the revered Immortal Wen spat a mouthful of blood, and Wang Sichun, whose shoulder Wen Jinge had been pressing, had fainted. As the blade fell, Wen Jinge stretched out her leg and swept Qiao Yu to the ground.

Returning to normal, the demonized Qiao Yu stood up and pointed his blade at Wen Jinge. “Oh, it’s you. You’re the strongest.”

“Nonexistent” curled up in Wen Jinge’s mind, trembling with terror—the feeling of being seen through returned.

“Shut up!” Wen Jinge shouted.

Qiao Yu had always been afraid of Wen Jinge. Even demonized, a sword embryo’s will remained strong; his true consciousness still lingered.

At her shout, he froze in place.

“Woman, you’re afraid of this woman—useless, useless! No, I’m not useless! Demon core, demon core!”

“Demon core, my foot!” Wen Jinge slapped him.

Qiao Yu covered his face, staring at her in disbelief. He—he’d been struck.

“Say ‘demon core’ one more time! Can you even eat demon cores?”

“Master? That’s Master! Master hit me!” He looked both aggrieved and sorrowful. So Master still cared about him after all. Yet his mouth blurted out, “Useless, worthless master—getting beaten by a woman!”

Smack!

Wen Jinge slapped him again, and he dumbly covered the other side of his face. “You hit me? Hit me?”

Slap, slap, slap, slap, slap.

Wen Jinge lost count of how many times she’d struck him. Qiao Yu’s face was already a bloody mess; she only stopped when she grew tired.

Qiao Yu kept crying, though he no longer knew if it was himself or the man inside him weeping. In any case, he’d never again complain about losing face at the hands of a woman.

“Want to go down?” Wen Jinge pointed at the cave beneath him. Qiao Yu was suspended in midair, and inside the cave, other demonized monsters plummeted downward at breakneck speed. “Do you want to?”

Slap, slap, slap.

A few more blows.

“Do you or don’t you?”

“You—you know who I am? Be careful, or I’ll destroy your disciple—”

Slap, slap, slap.

“Go on, do it if you can!”

“Qiao Yu” looked at his own body, sealed all over with immobilizing talismans. If only he could move!

“Immortal Master, I’m almost done,” Tang Miaomiao said, holding a large brush. She was a stroke away from drawing a bigger immobilizing charm over all these talismans.

“I’m finished too,” Wang Xi said, crouching down and patting Qiao Yu’s leg. “Senior brother, just bear with it. Master says you not wearing clothes brings shame to our Peak of Ten Thousand Fathoms, so I stuck a paper robe on you. No need to thank me!”

“Don’t you dare think—”

“I sealed my disciple, not your soul. You’re free to run if you can,” Wen Jinge sneered. “Are you stupid?”

Qiao Yu’s body suddenly went limp, and a cloud of black smoke drifted from the top of his head. Yuan Qingling hurried to catch him, while Wen Jinge stood by, watching coldly.

“I, the mighty White Deer War God, Lu Wei, am not someone you can restrain, ignorant child!”

“Oh?” Wen Jinge nodded. “Then by all means, go down.”

Lu Wei gazed at what appeared to be the cave mouth. “You—where did you move the real entrance?”

“It’s already sealed!” Wen Jinge pulled the corners of her mouth into a grin eerily similar to Qiao Yu’s earlier one. “Sir, times have changed!”

“Scoundrel! Despicable! Scoundrel! Despicable! You tricked me!”

“Sorry, I didn’t know your eyesight was so poor you couldn’t even tell a shadow stone from the real thing.”