RETURN TO BEFORE THE VILLAIN'S CORRUPTION

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CHAPTER 3: The Root of the Matter

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Back to Before the Villain's Blackening Author: Hua Qi Chapter 3: The Root of the Matter

During the night, a gust of wind swept over from the surface of the Lyre Sea, painting the dense dark clouds into a thick, heavy layer that completely obscured the stars and the moon that had briefly shown their faces in the night sky. Within the Baitang Courtyard, several massive plantain trees stood by the base of the wall, their long, broad leaves swaying and expanding unfalteringly. At a certain moment, the continuous rain cascaded down in a sudden, swift torrent, clattering rhythmically against the grayish-blue tiles of the eaves. Qiu Shi reclined on her side upon the Arhat couch beneath the lattice window, her body draped in a thin layer of shark-silk gauze. Her long eyelashes cast a hazy, dark shadow beneath her eyelids as they lowered. By the table, white mist coiled up from a small, exquisite bell-shaped incense burner, dispersing a peculiar fragrance into the air and gradually filling the entire room. This was the incense Mingyue had just brought in to replace the old one, a unique tribute from the sea-serpent clan designed to calm the mind and aid tranquil sleep. Qiu Shi wanted to try one more time to see if she would experience the exact same dream. With her heart burdened by troubled thoughts, she managed to force herself to sleep, yet her slumber was far from peaceful. Fractured, ridiculous images rushed at her one after another, keeping her brows tightly knit even in her sleep. Half an hour later, Qiu Shi opened her eyes and sat halfway up. Her long, scallion-like fingers moved slightly as the thin blanket resting over her waist and abdomen slipped down. Her eyes held none of the groggy confusion typical of someone who had just awakened; instead, they were completely clear. Qiu Shi stood before the window clad in a lotus-pink, lightweight gauze shark-skin dress. Her slender shoulders, submerged in the night scenery and the veil of rain, resembled a carefully sketched portrait. The sound of rain never ceased, and the long wind howled. Qiu Shi gathered her ink-black hair by her temples, her lips moving slightly as she called out, "Chongying." "Young mistress." The space behind Qiu Shi rippled with an exceedingly faint shimmer, and a slender silhouette appeared soundlessly at her back, lowering his head to answer in a hushed tone. As the young princess of the sea-demon clan, Qiu Shi had been granted a hidden guard unit entirely her own upon reaching adulthood. Consisting of ten members in total, every single one had been meticulously selected and filtered through layer upon layer of severe trials. Their cultivations and strengths were extraordinary, and they answered solely to her commands. In her dream, it was precisely because of these ten guards and that stolen capital command token that Qiu Shi had been able to deploy everything so rapidly, smuggling Cheng Yi out right under everyone's noses. "Go investigate," Qiu Shi’s fingertips felt icy cold as she pressed them against her temple, carrying the smooth texture of polished jade. "Look into Cheng Yi's experiences within the Black Dragon Clan over these past years. Report every single matter, large or small, that can be unearthed, without a single omission." "Furthermore, pay close attention to the incident before my ten-thousandth birthday when I met with disaster at Baiyun Ridge and was secretly taken back to the Black Dragon Clan by Cheng Yi to nurse my injuries. Have your men heavily focus on this over the next few days to see if any eyewitnesses can be found." As the words left her mouth, Qiu Shi let out a self-deprecating chuckle, her eyelashes drooping. "Forget it. The Black Dragon Clan defected from the Demon Realm, moving their entire clan and climbing onto the branches of the Heavenly Tribe." "They were never a benevolent sort to begin with, and now that they have a backer supporting them, they've become even more arrogant and unbridled." "Investigate Cheng Yi first." Chongying nodded, slicing his palm through the void. This time, not even a microscopic ripple manifested as he vanished soundlessly from the room. Qiu Shi walked to the table and casually flipped through the music scores and dharma records she had left face down two days ago. Sweeping her eyes across the pages at ten lines a glance, her heart remained utterly unable to settle down. During the ancient eras, the Eight Wildernesses were fractured and the Four Seas knew no peace. After countless wars and frictions, the powers of each realm had finally drifted into stability, maintaining a delicate, subtle equilibrium. The Heavenly Tribe had always prided itself on being superior to others, maintaining close ties with the mortal realm. Nourished by the power of human merit and faith, and possessing the Enlightenment Halls left behind by the three ancient patriarchs, they were uniquely favored by heaven and earth. Devoid of numerous limitations, they constantly produced capable figures and outstanding geniuses, remaining endlessly prosperous. Comparatively speaking, the restrictions endured by the Demon Clan and Yedu were far greater. The Demon Clan prioritized bloodlines, meaning marriages were almost always arranged between major clans to preserve the absolute purity of their lineages. Meanwhile, the ghosts and spirits of Yedu experienced slow, grueling cultivation growth, and very few managed to carve out a prominent path. As for the Demon Race, they were an existence that gave everyone a headache just from being mentioned. This race was extraordinarily gifted by nature, mastering anything they learned with frightening speed. Yet, they possessed a naturally brutal disposition and relished in committing acts of absolute extermination, disrupting the peace of the Six Realms. The terrifying Great Abyss of the Demon Race had been concocted by the previous Demon Monarch; even now, the various clans had to take turns dispatching people to guard it and purify its miasma, a topic that brought irritation to anyone who spoke of it... The various realms and clans appeared to mind their own business on the surface, but in reality, they jockeyed for power covertly. Various frictions and disputes cropped up endlessly; from the rulers of each clan down to the young geniuses, no one could escape being brought up for discussion and comparison. For instance, the successive Three Little Immortal Kings of the Heavenly Tribe were invariably the most outstanding and exceptional figures of the younger generation. Wherever they went, they became the focus of the crowd, firmly occupying the top three positions on the Six Realms Leaderboard, serving as the meticulously chosen candidates for the next ruler of the Heavenly Tribe. Through tens of thousands of years of overt and covert struggles across successive generations, the younger generation that had once grown up suppressed by their rivals had now become rulers themselves. Watching their own juniors repeat the exact same cycle, they came to a thorough realization, since they couldn't win, they might as well fight less, or not at all, to avoid leaving themselves uncomfortable while letting others mock them. Yet, the innate bloodlust and pride within young people often dictated otherwise; the more they were forbidden from doing something, the more they insisted on doing it. Qiu Shi was precisely one of those people. At that time, she had just celebrated her ten-thousandth birthday. Bearing a loud and impetuous temperament, she had been instantly provoked by Yun Xuan, the most mischievous of the Heavenly Tribe's Three Little Immortal Kings, and immediately agreed to a duel with him at Baiyun Ridge. She had hidden this matter exceptionally well, using the excuse of traveling to Mount Liuqi to find Qin Donglin to slip away to Baiyun Ridge entirely alone. Who could have anticipated that halfway through the fight, the mountains would suddenly shatter and the earth would split as the sky changed color? Upon closer inspection, they realized that the Mountain Lord of Baiyun Ridge's main peak was undergoing his lightning tribulation. Lightning snakes and thunder bolts danced wildly across the sky, carpet-bombing the mountaintop indiscriminately, showing absolutely no regard for friend or foe. Yun Xuan had previously studied the Thunder God Scripture of the Heavenly Tribe, and his cultivation was higher than Qiu Shi's. After sequentially destroying over a dozen protective magical treasures, clutching his chest and coughing up a few mouthfuls of blood, he found an opportunity to tear through the void and escape. Qiu Shi was not so fortunate. The Demon Clan was inherently unfavored by the Heavenly Dao, and pure lightning was practically the bane of all cultivators. At that time, even though she held multiple life-saving magical treasures in her hands, she was left in an exceptionally wretched state, ultimately losing consciousness within her protective barrier. When she woke up, she found herself within a meager courtyard, having sustained significant injuries—her meridians were severed, and her sea of consciousness was an absolute mess. She had originally wanted to contact her family immediately, but she felt it was too embarrassing. Scoldings would be unavoidable, and lies would be difficult to spin convincingly. Cheng Yi had walked in carrying a bowl of cooling dew right when her thoughts were spinning out of control. The youth possessed bright red lips and stark white teeth. When he smiled, his eyes gathered a gentle warmth, and as if afraid of startling her, his voice was tender and patient: "Do not be afraid. My place is very safe; you can nurse your injuries with peace of mind." The surroundings of their courtyard were entirely enveloped by barriers, and the aura belonging to a black dragon made Qiu Shi dare not act rashly. Fortunately, she possessed a magical treasure that concealed her aura, and being clever, she spent every day simply lying in bed. Once she felt slightly better, she only agreed to walk around the courtyard. With great difficulty, she endured ten days until Chongying and the others finally located her. Finding an opportunity, she slipped away quietly, departing without saying goodbye. After returning to the Lyre Sea Capital, Qiu Shi had tried to search for him. However, because the Black Dragon Clan and the Heavenly Tribe were interacting frequently with constant covert maneuvers, the Capital and Mount Liuqi applied simultaneous pressure. Having no success in her search, Qiu Shi could only temporarily suppress this matter and this debt of gratitude. She never expected their next meeting to occur under such circumstances. She had been wearing a veil over her face back then and had not removed it until the day she left. Cheng Yi had failed to recognize her. After rescuing him and bringing him back to the Lyre Sea Capital, she had been in no hurry to explain the cause and effect, merely wishing for him to stay peacefully and recover from his injuries. The Demon Clan was inherently open-minded and didn't care much for the idle gossip of outsiders. With a status like Qiu Shi's, she had grown up amidst the good and bad discussions of others since childhood, having long learned to remain calm and pay them no heed. What truly triggered her were the actions of her parents and brother. Closing her eyes now, Qiu Shi could still feel how suffocatingly aggrieved and stifled the version of herself in the dream had been. Her closest family members, bound by blood thicker than water, yet simply because she uttered a few angry words, Cheng Yi had to be secretly executed. When making that decision, no one cared about her feelings. This made her feel that even if she explained the events of that year, they would only doubt her, question her, and believe it was merely an excuse she fabricated to protect Cheng Yi. Since that was the case, there was no need to say anything at all. Yet the person who had fled far away back then, driven by a surge of spite, could never have imagined that for many years afterward, due to various reasons, she would become like a stranger to her closest kin, so homesick yet terrified of returning that she dared not take a single step into the Lyre Sea Capital. Even less did she anticipate that this debt of gratitude, in the process of being repaid, would ultimately plunge her into an absolute dead end. Qiu Shi paced over to the red-lacquered wooden cabinet beside the screen, her fingertips resting upon the hollowed golden edge of the small incense burner. Her complexion was stark white, her fingers slender. With her shoulders slightly relaxed, she cut a thoroughly indolent and lazy figure. Setting aside how this dream had come to be, since she had dreamt it and everything aligned perfectly with reality, her primary consideration ought to be how to reverse the current situation. The dream could not be entirely believed. She owed Cheng Yi a massive favor, and she could not allow him to lose his life here. However, she would no longer act purely on emotion like she did in the dream, committing actions she would regret out of a temporary fit of pique. Qiu Shi remained awake throughout the entire night. She stood by the bookcase for a long time, roughly flipping through the books placed upon it before returning them one by one. After contemplating for a long moment, she summoned Mingyue, who had been waiting outside the door. "Young mistress, you cannot go out anymore." Mingyue was laden with anxiety, deathly afraid that she was still thinking of going out to see Cheng Yi. She lowered her voice and said, "Now our courtyard has also been surrounded by the Flying Fish Guards. Everything required within the courtyard will be handled by the Flying Fish Guards on our behalf. Neither maidservants nor attendants can enter or leave freely." Qiu Shi had no intention of going out; if there were truly any changes outside, Chongying and the others would naturally come to report to her. Right now, she was concerned with a different matter. "Go to the library tower on the western pavilion and find the scrolls recording the successive Demon Monarchs." Mingyue instantly breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she wasn't going to the Dongheng Courtyard to find Cheng Yi, anything else was perfectly fine. The western pavilion was located right within the Baitang Courtyard. Because Qiu Shi enjoyed reading, Song Chengshu had casually waved his hand to construct this library tower, tossing many rare, solitary volumes into it. However, because the Demon Race had always been elusive, their temperaments unpredictable, and their behavior bizarre and eccentric, records concerning them were truly sparse. Mingyue and two maidservants searched for two whole hours before managing to unearth only two volumes. The cover pages of the rawhide paper were worn and yellowed, and the handwriting upon them was crooked and untidy, making it somewhat difficult to decipher. Qiu Shi read with absolute focus. When she closed the final page, her eyelashes fluttered a couple of times. Lightly caressing the scroll resting on her knees, she gained a rough understanding. The current Demon Monarch was a natural-born demon seed. His path of succession from Young Demon Lord to Demon Monarch had been entirely smooth sailing, devoid of any twists or turns, offering nothing particularly noteworthy. What caught Qiu Shi's attention was a certain page in the scroll that mentioned a particular past Demon Monarch. This Monarch had originally been a cultivator of the human race, possessing a steadfast Dao heart and dedicating himself entirely to the sword. Later on, an abrupt crisis occurred, leaving him heavily injured, which led to the swarming generation of inner demons. His mindset and temperament altered drastically, his entire sword intent transforming into demon qi, turning him ruthless and murderous until he ultimately ascended to the position of Demon Monarch. "Qin Donglin." Qiu Shi spat out this name that could not be more familiar. After a brief pause, she added in an extremely low whisper: "How could he possibly become the Demon Monarch?" In that dream where she could only clearly see the beginning and the end, why did others address Qin Donglin as the Demon Monarch? He was born as the Young Lord of the Demon Clan, and what he ought to inherit in the future was the position of the Demon Lord of Mount Liuqi. The cultivation methods they practiced were all the absolute pinnacle techniques of the Demon Clan, and their states of mind elevated hand in hand with their cultivation realms. Logically speaking, such a development should be absolutely impossible. Furthermore, that person was Qin Donglin. Just how deep of an obsession, how terrifying of an inner demon would it require to cause Qin Donglin to fall into depravity and become a demon? Qiu Shi simply could not imagine it.

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