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CHAPTER 54: The One-Month Covenant (Part II)
The sea of consciousness is a faithful mirror of its master’s inner world. Perhaps because they had grown so familiar with one another, entering her mind this time felt as effortless and natural as returning home.
As he had twice before, Yan Xueyi witnessed many memories. Because the master of this realm was in a deep slumber, her memories were laid completely bare to him.
He could see everything from beginning to end. Thus, he learned from her memories that she had lived a previous life. All the divergence began with that Love Gu.
As the reincarnation of the Demon God, the "Little Demon" had lacked curiosity since childhood; most things failed to stir his interest. But in this moment, a profound, unprecedented curiosity seized him.
What happened to us in that past life?
He wondered: Was it like before? Did she chase me every day, bickering and fighting? When she saw me losing control under the influence of demonic energy, was she heartbroken? Did she chase after me, demanding her "Yanyan," just like she did in the Asura Path? When we finally turned our blades against each other, was it because I had lost my mind to the demonic surge and hurt her? When she wakes up, how should I make amends?
However, the expression of the demon floating enthusiastically through her sea of consciousness slowly froze. He did not see a spirited, rising Heavenly Dao.
She had lived a life of agonizing hardship.
He saw her kneeling in the snow for three days and three nights. Because of the damage from the Love Gu, she had been bedridden for years, leaving her with a frail constitution that made her perpetually sensitive to the cold. She loved the sword so dearly, yet because of those old injuries, it became impossible for her to ever reach the pinnacle of the sword path.
She had cultivated like a madwoman and endured endless suffering, yet her face grew more expressionless by the day. It was as if her heart had been left behind in that field of snow. There was no bickering, no playfulness, because she never smiled again.
The Yan Xueyi of that world went to see her, and she told him to get lost. Throughout her entire life, she never once turned to look at him. She never became the Heavenly Dao. She died.
And before her death, she thrust a sword through his heart.
He had tried to embrace her, only to shatter into a thousand fragments, scattered by the wind.
...
He looked down at his transparent form within her consciousness. Though his body was whole, he felt a piercing pain, as if the Subduing Demon Sword had truly transfixed him. It was a numb, dull ache.
The demon floating in mid-air fell silent. He turned and vanished from her mind.
While she slept, she occasionally maintained a vague awareness of the outside world, hearing muffled sounds through the haze.
At first, someone was by her bed telling ghost stories about gouging out hearts and lungs. Next, it felt as though someone were trying to assassinate her with a mortal torture, attempting to coat her face in something that made it hard to breathe. Fortunately, she was a cultivator and couldn't be killed so easily. Finally, someone treated her face like a canvas, constantly poking and prodding her.
Normally, this would have induced nightmares, but in her half-awake state, she realized it was that Great Demon messing with her. Once she knew it was him, she drifted back into a deep, peaceful sleep.
This slumber was exceptionally long. By the time she regained full consciousness, the Bodhi Qi had finished reconstructing her body. Her breakthrough to the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul stage had completed itself while she dreamed. Everything felt as natural as water flowing into a channel.
When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the Demon Vine flower by her bed. She couldn't help but reach out to touch the petals, a smile tugging at her lips.
However, when she looked into the bronze mirror, she froze. Nourished by the vitality of the Bodhi Qi, her black hair had grown to her waist at some unknown point. Her reflection now bore a striking resemblance to her past life, save for the crooked, messy braids.
Recalling the healing properties of the Bodhi Qi, she tested it by making a small nick on her hand with her Kunlun sword. The wound was instantly covered by a layer of green light, mending itself at a visible rate.
She marveled at the change. It seemed the Bodhi Qi would now keep her body in its optimal state at all times. This was A-Pu's final gift.
She pushed open the window to find herself in a beautiful valley. Ling Yun happened to push the door open just then, crying out in pleasant surprise, "Young Sect Leader, you're awake!"
"Ling Yun, where are we?"
Ling Yun quickly filled her in on everything that had happened during her sleep. The Water-Cloud Realm had closed completely, and everyone had escaped safely. Even the Divine Tree Clan had left with them due to the Bodhi Tree's rebirth. Ling Yun had left the Five Poison Valley to follow Chao Zhaoyue.
Furthermore, Chao Zhaoyue had led the group to the border of the mortal and demon realms, settling in this place called Frost-Fly Valley.
It turned out that when Yan Xueyi heard Chao Zhaoyue wanted to rebuild a sect, he traded one of the demon race's strongholds in the mortal realm, this valley, for the position of an Elder in the new sect. Initially, Chao Zhaoyue wanted to refuse.
But Frost-Fly Valley was overflowing with spiritual energy. A silver waterfall cascaded down the cliffs, creating mist and rainbows in the sunlight. A stream meandered through the valley, and small blue flowers carpeted the meadows. The climate and environment were remarkably similar to the Divine Tree Plain. Since the Bodhi Tree required a very specific environment to grow, it was an exchange he simply couldn't turn down.
Hearing this, Chao Jinsui understood his motive instantly. Frost-Fly Valley was extremely close to the demon realm. That demon clearly felt that if she built her sect here, it would be convenient for her to live in the Demon Palace with him, and easy for him to visit her. It was a perfect "treasure land."
A flicker of amusement danced in her eyes.
"Young Sect Leader," Ling Yun continued excitedly, "you have no idea! Once Granny Shui heard we were rebuilding the sect, she had the Divine Tree Clan help out. Frost-Fly Valley has completely transformed while you were asleep!"
Construction was progressing steadily. Every day, the valley looked different. Ling Yun took her on a tour, chattering about the new sect. Chao Jinsui could see the silhouette of the buildings emerging, not as grand or imposing as the Kunlun Sword Sect, but elegant and full of life, nestled between the mountains and the water.
For those who grew up in a sect, it was more than an institution; it was their home and their roots. No matter how far they wandered, they craved a place to belong. After leaving Kunlun, they had been like drifting duckweed, guests wherever they went.
Ling Yun's excitement was palpable. The scene before them was bustling and filled with hope, exactly as they had imagined when they first left Kunlun.
"What is the new sect called?" Chao Jinsui asked.
"It hasn't been named yet! The First Senior Brother said we have to wait for the Young Sect Leader to name it herself."
Chao Jinsui found Chao Zhaoyue beneath the Bodhi Tree. He stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at the tree, his high ponytail fluttering in the wind. In just over ten days, the tiny sapling had grown nearly as tall as the banyan tree beside it.
Chao Zhaoyue heard her footsteps but didn't turn around. "Granny Shui says Mother must grow as large as the original Bodhi Tree before she can wake up. It might be a year, two years, or perhaps longer."
Chao Jinsui paused. Beneath the divine tree, she quietly watched the beautiful leaves sway. A cultivator’s lifespan was vast; they could afford to wait. Compared to A-Pu vanishing forever, her being alive was a blessing.
"Mother," she murmured softly.
The Bodhi Tree gave a little shake, raining down a shower of Bodhi seeds. It was as if she were using treats to coax a child. The siblings shared a smile. They sat beneath the tree, picking up the seeds to eat. Leaning against their mother's trunk, they felt no loneliness, only a sense of completion.
From the plains of Frost-Fly Valley, they could see the distant smoke of human hearths and the crowds busy with construction.
"Have you thought of a name?" Chao Zhaoyue asked. "Divine Tree Sect? Bodhi Mountain?"
As the words left his mouth, a Bodhi seed bonked him on the head.
...Alright, it seemed A-Pu didn't like those names.
Chao Jinsui thought of her past life and the trials in the Water-Cloud Realm. She was to become the Heavenly Dao, but what kind of Heavenly Dao? She didn't have the full answer yet, but she knew what she had to do.
"Let's call it 'Living Soil' (Xi Rang)," she said. "To stem the raging floods, and to flourish without end."
Chao Zhaoyue thought: That's a lofty ideal. Then he thought: Won't that be exhausting?
"However," she added casually, "I don't think I can be the Sect Leader. I'll just be an Elder." She pulled her cloak tighter and sighed. "In the past, I worried about every little detail of the sect. I woke up earlier than the roosters and went to bed later than the dogs."
She patted Chao Zhaoyue’s shoulder. "I'm counting on you from now on."
Chao Zhaoyue stared at her as she walked away, finally realizing her meaning. She had a grand ideal, and she had decided to let her brother realize it for her.
Stemming the raging floods? That was on him. Waking up earlier than roosters and sleeping later than dogs? Also on him.
Chao Jinsui returned to the small building where she was staying. Since waking up, she found her thoughts drifting uncontrollably toward that Great Demon.
In the past, she had simply found him clingy. He was so possessive he wanted to be by her side every moment. She often suspected that in his eyes, she was made of dandelion fluff, destined to blow away if he so much as blinked. She wasn't unobservant; she had realized long ago that he lacked security and lived in constant fear of loss, so she had tacitly allowed his hovering.
Eventually, a person as solitary as her had grown used to his presence. She used to practice, sleep, and travel alone, remaining distant from everyone. She never felt lonely; she only felt the world was too noisy. But now that he was gone, she felt out of sorts.
She would instinctively turn her head, only to find the "Yan Xueyi" who used to stare at her missing.
She assumed he was busy with affairs in the demon realm and would surely come for her once he was done. She waited, reading a book. But when night fell and the lamps were lit in the valley, the demon still hadn't appeared. She found she could no longer focus on her reading; her heart had flown far away to the demon realm. She decided to enter her sea of consciousness to practice her sword forms.
But as she stepped into her inner world, she looked up in shock. Her soul had been completely repaired; it was no longer mottled or broken.
The one-month period had passed while she slept.
She stood in her sea of consciousness for a long time. "Did he come here?" she asked the System.
"He did," the System whispered.
"He saw everything?"
"He knows it all," the System replied cautiously.
She exited her consciousness in silence. Looking at the lit lamp in her room, she knew he wasn't coming tonight. The room was filled with his traces: the book he had left open halfway through a ghost story, the Demon Vine flowers by her bed, the wardrobe he had filled, and countless little trinkets.
She blew out the lamp and sat on the bed for a long time. As she tried to close her eyes, his voice from the past life echoed in her ears:
"Do you sword cultivators truly have no hearts?"
She supposed that in her past life, she really did have the shadow of the Heavenly Dao in her. Her heart had been sealed shut after Chao Zhaoyue's death. Her world was filled with too much responsibility, too many burdens, and too much pain. She was forced to keep moving forward; how could she have found the time to look back?
And so, she never knew that within that final, shattered embrace was a love that a demon had never voiced in his entire life. She had hurt him, sealed him away, and then felt only confusion and shock when she saw him weeping at her grave on that snowy night.
But now, she could finally answer his question. She had a heart.
She didn't go to the demon realm to find Yan Xueyi. She rarely struggled with decisions, but for once, she didn't know what to do. She buried herself in sword practice, but the moment she stopped, she thought of him.
Unable to sleep at night, she climbed the Bodhi Tree and sat among her mother's branches. "Mother," she whispered, "I am a little sad."
The Bodhi Tree rustled, and a gentle power caressed the top of her head.
Chao Zhaoyue was the first to notice something was wrong. Busy as he was, he eventually realized that the Great Demon hadn't visited once since Jinsui woke up. Clearly, there was trouble between them.
He brought a jar of wine to find her.
"Chao Zhaoyue," she asked him, "if someone stabbed you in a past life and sealed you away, but they've changed their mind now and want to be good to you... could you forgive them in this life?"
Chao Zhaoyue was outraged. "What kind of scumbag logic is that? Yan Xueyi, that bastard! I knew men were no good!"
"I was the one who did the stabbing," she said.
Chao Zhaoyue: "..."
Loyal to the mindset that "his sister could do no wrong," he tried to think of a way to tell her there were plenty of fish in the sea, but seeing her expression, he remembered the anonymous birthday gifts that had arrived at Kunlun every year for decades. He swallowed the words.
Unable to bear seeing her so troubled, he made an excuse about praying for the new sect and had Ling Yun drag her to a nearby cultivation market.
"Young Sect Leader, I heard the local Earth God temple is very auspicious!" Ling Yun chirped. Compared to mortals, cultivators were actually more inclined to pray to gods, as various deities had truly existed in the ancient era. On the long road of cultivation, everyone hoped for a bit of divine favor.
Chao Jinsui knew that if she wanted to make a wish, she could just go to A-Pu. She realized Chao Zhaoyue just wanted her to clear her head, so she went along with them.
When she reached the mountain peak, she realized the Earth God temple faced the direction of the Kunlun Sword Sect.
"Host?" the System called out.
She snapped out of her daze. "What is it?"
Lately, whenever the System tried to talk to her, she was often lost in thought. The System wanted to comfort her but felt she wasn't listening.
"He was once here," the System said.
She paused. She thought the System meant Yanyan had visited recently. However, after she returned that night, the System allowed her to dream of the past life. Only then did she realize the System wasn't talking about this life.
...
It was the year she was about to undergo the Tribulation for the Spirit Severing (Hua Shen) stage. They said the chances of survival were one in ten. The night before her tribulation, she stood before her brother's memorial tablet all night.
Meanwhile, the demon who made the six realms tremble with fear had left the demon realm. It was a day of heavy snow, and the small town in the cultivation world was celebrating the New Year. He stood at the entrance of the mountain temple, snow piling on his shoulders, gazing toward Kunlun all night.
An old woman climbing the mountain early met the strange young man. "Young man, are you here to pray for peace and safety?"
Had this demon ever prayed to a god or bowed to a Buddha in his life? But when the woman asked, the demon looked up, his eyes reflecting the falling snow.
"Yes," he replied, his voice hoarse. "I'm here to pray for peace."
"May Suisui have peace (Suisui Ping'an)."
...
She was stunned. In that year of her past life, though she was about to break through, she hadn't been happy. She felt as though she were back in the Myriad Demon Abyss, unsure if she would survive. In ten thousand years, only a handful had survived the Spirit Severing Tribulation. At the time, she simply thought that if she died, no one would care. She had no brother, no kin. She wondered if anyone would even light a stick of incense for her.
She thought she was entirely alone. Yet someone was far away, wishing for her "Suisui" to have peace.
In her muddled dream, she wondered: Just how long has that demon been secretly loving me behind my back? And then: If he loves me so much, why won't he come to find me?
When she woke up, her heart felt hollow. She stayed in a daze with her eyes closed for a long time, only to realize: there was someone in the room.
The demon was hiding his presence well, but she was long since attuned to him. Someone was watching her with intense focus. She held her breath.
The tall silhouette of the Great Demon stood by her bed, silently watching her sleep. He hadn't seen her for a long time. Looking at her now, he seemed to want to carve her image into his heart; his beautiful phoenix eyes were filled with a desperate, greedy longing.
He was like a tall, silent black ghost.
She didn't open her eyes, pretending to be fast asleep. She was thinking of how to speak to him. She thought, Maybe I should let him stab me back? Then we'd be even. He wouldn't have to be sad or angry anymore, and we could go back to how we were.
But before she could speak, her eyelashes gave the slightest flutter, and the demon vanished instantly.
She opened her eyes and whispered, "Yanyan, you're a coward."
The room was pitch black; no one answered. After a long silence, she said softly, "I am, too."
I'm a coward, too. I'm so afraid of seeing you sad that I didn't even dare to open my eyes.
For several nights in a row, Chao Jinsui felt the demon appear at midnight. She knew that the moment she opened her eyes, he would vanish, so she simply kept them shut. He watched her with a silent, hungry gaze, and she let him, pretending not to notice.
But she knew she had to break the stalemate. She couldn't actually go to the Demon Palace and ask him to stab her. She realized belatedly that it was a terrible idea, the demon was ruthless to the world but couldn't lay a finger on her. Suggesting such a thing would likely make him fly into a rage. He might sneer at her, saying, "Do you think I'm as cold-hearted as you?" and then never see her again.
There was only one way: feigning illness.
The Great Demon wasn't in the Demon Palace; he was staying in Monk Guang Ping’s Wuxiang Valley. Guang Ping was one of the few people the demon could call a "friend," and the Demon Lord often sought him out when he was in a foul mood.
When the demon appeared in the valley, he looked terrifying. His expressionless, cold gaze made people's skin crawl. He had reverted to his Demon God state, stealing Guang Ping’s meditation mat and wooden fish. Guang Ping didn't dare utter a word of protest.
The demon did indeed use the valley to try and calm himself. Sometimes, while walking through the valley, he would instinctively look down at his chest, as if a gaping hole existed there, empty and hollow.
The demon was petty, held grudges, and had immense pride.
On the first day, Guang Ping heard him sneer, "She stabbed me! I’m going back to kill her!"
A day later, he thought: I’ll spare her life, but I’ll never speak to her again. We are finished!
Three days later, he thought: Let's be finished for a year. A lifetime is too long.
In the end, he managed to stay "finished" with her for seven days. On the seventh day, he realized he hadn't managed to conjure a single ounce of hatred; instead, his longing was driving him mad. He felt like he would lose his mind if he didn't see her, so he went to see her at midnight.
He told himself: I will not say a single word to her. I won't pay her any attention.
But the moment he saw her, he thought: Why does she look thinner? He wanted to poke her cheek and ask why she wasn't eating well, but then he remembered the past life and the sword through his heart. His face darkened. Let her starve! he thought. But seeing the dark circles under her eyes, his heart softened again.
He had intended to only look once, but it became an addiction. He couldn't endure a night without seeing her. Yet every time he left, he despised his own lack of backbone. I am the Demon God! How did I end up like this?
He mocked himself: If she really wanted to kill me now, I’d probably wash my own neck and present it to her. Then he realized he was overestimating himself. Why would she need to do it herself? A single look or a command for him to "get lost" would be enough to kill him.
He cycled through his grudges and realized the thing he resented most wasn't the sword strike, it was that she had told him to "get lost" in the past life.
When he closed his eyes, he thought: She told me to get lost.
When he opened his eyes, he thought: She told me to get lost.
He struck the wooden fish with a dark expression. She wants me to get lost? In her dreams!
Perhaps the valley truly had a Zen influence, or maybe the wooden fish actually worked, because the demon soon grasped the core of the problem. The point wasn't being stabbed in the past life; the point was whether she would do it again in this life. The former was in the past; the latter was what mattered.
Though she seemed soft-hearted, she was the Heavenly Dao. Her character and methods were cut from the same cloth as the divine. He knew that if the Heavenly Dao were anyone else, he would have done everything to kill them. The reverse was likely true.
She's much more ruthless than the Demon God, he thought. The Demon God could never bring himself to tell her to get lost.
He paced and pondered until he came up with a plan. I'll give her one last chance, he decided.
He found Guang Ping. "Hit me."
Guang Ping: "?"
Guang Ping: "Lord, after breaking countless wooden fish of mine, have you finally gone mad?"
The demon sneered. "Hit me until I spit blood!"
Guang Ping: "??"
The demon gave him a death stare. "If you don't make me spit blood, I'll kill you first."
Guang Ping: "In all my years as a monk, I have never heard such an absurd request."
That night, a torrential rain began to fall. Just as Chao Jinsui thought the demon wouldn't come, the door to her building was slammed open.
The demon appeared before her. He was clutching his chest, his face as pale as a corpse. His tall frame swayed twice before he collapsed directly onto her.
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