Chapter 36: The Demonic Embryo Descends to Jiang Shangjing

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“Damn it! Why does it have to be now?” Ever since Bai Yao learned the truth within the Cave Heaven, she didn’t need to guess what was about to happen next.

She first glanced back at Mu Jingyue lying on the ground, her life or death unknown, then looked at Xiao Yunshan’s remains, lying peacefully with his eyes closed.

She didn’t hesitate for a moment before dashing straight toward Xiao Yunshan’s body.

So-called Unity of Knowledge and Action—since she knew what her heart desired, her actions could not go against the conscience within.

Finishing off Mu Jingyue would indeed remove a major thorn in her side, but to pay the price of her father being used as a blood sacrifice for someone else even after death—Bai Yao absolutely refused, and could not accept it.

The moment she put away [Sky Devourer], Bai Yao used her small and delicate-looking body, which seemed to harbor boundless explosive power, to carry Xiao Yunshan on her back.

The body of the deceased is always heavy, especially when it’s someone irreplaceable and dear to one’s heart.

“Little Baiyao, head toward the Stone Bridge! That’s the exit from the inner layer of the Cave Heaven! As long as you leave the inner layer, you won’t become a sacrifice. This old man will find a way to send you somewhere safe.”

The tone of the Azure Sparrow was equally urgent.

Without any hesitation, it leaped into the air and flew ahead to guide Bai Yao’s way.

Her muddy footprints were deeper than usual, but Bai Yao remained unmoved, carrying Xiao Yunshan toward the Stone Bridge over the little Yuning River at the village entrance without a moment’s slack.

After Bai Yao left, on the giant cocoon of water on the Da Yun Ning River, a beam of red light shot straight into the heavens.

At the riverbank, Mu Jingyue lay gravely wounded and motionless, but unbeknownst to anyone, a crane had descended from the sky at some point.

The crane’s exterior still showed the eerie state of interwoven gray mist threads, not resembling a living creature, and its aura was extremely similar to that of the Dongling Lark.

“Enough… child, you did your best. We’re just one Key short, but as long as you’re still alive, the Xuan Yu Sect still has its chance to seize the East Ming [Dragon Palace].”

The gray crane gently flapped its wings, and countless thread-like strands of mist wove around Mu Jingyue, wrapping her into a gray cocoon.

Then, the crane grabbed this gray cocoon with its talons and flew off toward the gray, overcast sky.

At the heart of the Yuning River, within the waves and the water cocoon.

Cangjie Shangren, clad in a flowing water-blue robe, sat quietly at the bow of the ship.

The river breeze blew, lifting her robe and long hair, along with the bangs that covered half her face.

Yet beneath the dim gray sky, on the half of her face hidden by her hair, the right eye socket was empty—but gray mist threads, similar to those of the Dongling Lark, slowly seeped out from within the socket.

That sword-spear had been reinserted into her abdomen.

Though no blood flowed, seeing such a weapon—clearly meant for taking down large creatures—planted in a woman of breathtaking beauty carried an indescribable sense of dissonance.

But at that moment, the sword-spear moved, slowly withdrawing from her back on its own.

“Ugh!” Cangjie let out a muffled grunt as the sword-spear came free from empty air, spun twice in midair, and landed at her side.

“September eighth… the hour has come.”

Holding the shaft of the sword-spear, she slowly rose to her feet, yet her gaze was filled with confusion as she looked through the cocoon chamber toward Yunin Town.

“A strange aura… I wonder what’s happening out there… But it doesn’t matter. Those who failed to awaken from their dreams, those who couldn’t escape the Illusion—they’re nothing but fools of insufficient strength who blindly coveted fortune. Not worth grieving over.”

Within the Pleasure Boat, Ming Ge’s Evil Spirit aura grew increasingly intense, especially at the restored pavilion at the center—the very place where Liu Linglin was in seclusion.

“The birth of the Mingzi is imminent. In the end, it’s still Ming Ge’s lingering obsession that arrives.”

Cangjie smiled, speaking her conjecture with an air of calm detachment, then lifted the sword-spear and slowly walked into the pavilion of the Pleasure Boat.

This sword-spear was [Duan Hai], the divine weapon she had used to battle Ming Ge’s evil obsession thousands of times within this Cave Heaven—yet even it could not avoid being eroded by Evil Force in the end.

Without Righteous Qi, and wanting to dispel the evil thoughts while maintaining [Duan Hai]’s power, the only way was to feed the sword with one’s own body.

Inside the great hall, upon the bed, Liu Linglin’s consciousness was hazy, but her body was propped up by condensed black mist, her legs spread wide apart, arranged in a posture of giving birth.

And her belly was already full as if she were nine months pregnant.

But no one would think there was a human fetus inside, because from the moment Liu Linglin stepped into this Illusion, whatever was in there no longer belonged to her.

Cangjie wasn’t worried at all about the Demon fetus being born.

She calmly watched this bizarre scene…

Because the black mist formed from Evil Force had already made all preparations for the delivery… Rather, one could say this inner Illusion heaven and earth was born precisely for this moment—the arrival of the Mingzi.

“The Demon fetus descends, and in the end becomes the Demon Lord. Though recognized by heaven and earth, it has lost the title of Sea Queen. Then the East Ming [Dragon Palace] has no connection with this child. But that’s fine—this way, this new Demon Lord can spare the mortal world one more calamity.”

Sighing, Cangjie wasn’t merely watching.

She kept her aura at its peak at all times.

Because she was always on guard for one thing—the final counterattack of Ming Ge’s obsession, and whether the Demon fetus, once born… would make a move against her.

In just a moment, a plump, fair-skinned child materialized above Liu Linglin’s belly, formed from radiant light, then gently lifted by a suddenly manifested humanoid figure of black mist, which caressed it like a mother—a life it had awaited for tens of thousands of years to be born.

Then, sudden change occurred.

The infant in the figure’s arms suddenly opened its eyes.

A burst of crimson light flashed, and it began to devour, mouthful after mouthful, all the Evil Force within the entire room, the entire Pleasure Boat, and even the entire inner layer of the Cave Heaven.

Cangjie’s brow furrowed slightly.

From the hissing and surging of the black mist, it wasn’t hard to tell that the evil spirits were in agony as their power and very existence were being devoured.

Yet the humanoid figure holding the child still gently rocked its arms like a mother, as if soothing a baby to sleep.

“So… this is the last trace of motherhood belonging to the Sea Queen, Ming Ge? The motherhood of an evil spirit has more humanity in it than many people. Truly ironic to the extreme.”

Cangjie didn’t intervene, only shaking her head with a sigh.

When the energy contained in the Cave Heaven proved insufficient, it would absorb living people.

Any cultivator who managed to enter the inner layer but remained trapped in a dream state died in their sleep without exception, turning into nourishment for heaven and earth to draw upon.

And those who were half-awake and half-asleep, because they couldn’t escape the inner Illusion, had their cultivation and vital essence drained dry, dying as they turned into blood mist.

After only the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, the humanoid figure of black mist formed from evil spirits completely dissipated.

The infant in its arms, after absorbing a massive amount of the Cave Heaven’s Evil Force, was no longer a newly born child—it had become a tall, slender young man.

The young man’s body was wrapped in mist like black cloth, a crimson mark at the center of his brow, his black hair dancing wildly in the fierce river wind.

His features were unmistakably a younger Xiao Yi.

And his cultivation was no longer the Half-Step Thousand Peak from his brief resurrection.

The aura of that cultivation fluctuation… thousands of peaks beneath his feet questioning the heavens, a single thought in his heart binding the mortal world.

Without a doubt, he was a true Thousand Peak Human Immortal!

The young Xiao Yi’s eyes opened slightly, yet he paid no attention to Cangjie Shangren before him, speaking as if to the air:

“You… are not my mother…”

Xiao Yi reached out and grabbed at the void.

A mournful wail came from nothingness, and the influx of heaven and earth’s Evil Force surged even more violently.

Xiao Yi accepted it all without exception, having no intention of leaving behind the final “nourishment” that Ming Ge had deliberately saved for him, her Mingzi.

Xiao Yi took a deep breath, extremely satisfied that this terrifying power entered his body without the slightest resistance.

Then, expressionless, he turned his head and looked at Liu Linglin, who remained in a haze on the bed.

“You… were nothing but a vessel…”

Xiao Yi shook his head gently again, then extended his right hand and drew from the palm of his left a pale Bone Sword covered in dense blood-red patterns.

“I told you, when Yuning’s September eighth comes, after my flowers bloom, a hundred flowers are slain… Liu Linglin, from the moment you stepped into the Illusion, that child had already been refined by the evil spirit Ming Ge. Now that I am completely reborn, you are useless as well.”

The moment Xiao Yi raised his sword, heaven and earth changed color.

Demon Energy surged from the void as if it would spill beyond the Cave Heaven itself.

Under the oppression of this mighty demonic power, the waters of the Yuning River rapidly receded.

On the dried-up riverbed lay the enormous skeleton of a Kun fish, stretching thousands of zhang in length.

This was the true body of the evil spirit sealed within the Cangjie Grotto-Heaven—the remains of the heaven-and-earth spirit essence to which the Sea Queen Ming Ge’s obsession had clung after death!

The Pleasure Boat had long since been crushed to powder by this demonic might.

The water, as if alive, lifted Liu Linglin’s body and slowly lowered her to the ground.

Xiao Yi felt not a shred of pity for her.

The White Bone Sword was about to swing, about to slay this woman who, like her mother Wang Lihua, had sacrificed her own flesh and blood for the sake of great ambitions.

But a gray crow remained perched on Liu Linglin’s shoulder, staring at Xiao Yi with cold red eyes, stirring a flicker of doubt in the otherwise single-minded Xiao Yi’s heart.