Chapter 22

A Fleeting Dream

And so, the battle began. Yin Ze fought against Fu Chenzi, and I fought against Xuan Yue. They flew up and down, moving like shadows in the empty demon hall. Yin Ze’s sword light was as silver as frost, and Fu Chenzi’s sword light was dyed red with evil energy. It was truly a battle between two powerful men, and it was incredibly exciting.

Especially since Yin Ze’s divine power was restricted, the two of them were evenly matched, which was truly spectacular. Even Floating Life Emperor, who had been talking trash, was silent, probably watching the battle with bated breath.

As for me and Xuan Yue, it was more like a quick and decisive battle. I ran over and smashed Xuan Yue from the air with an ice ball, pressing its body down and grabbing its four little legs. But it sprayed me with a face full of saliva and flapped its wings like a drowning bee, covering my face with dirt.

This little bastard was much harder to deal with when it went crazy.

I grabbed the fur at the back of its neck, lifted it up, and wiped the saliva off my face. After that, I maintained this position. It flapped its wings, kicked its legs, stretched its claws, bared its baby teeth, and spun around crazily, but I didn’t move at all.

And Yin Ze’s battle with Fu Chenzi was indeed more difficult. Yin Ze’s physical strength was limited, and since he was conscious, he had to control himself and not hurt Fu Chenzi; Fu Chenzi, on the other hand, had the body of an immortal and could use magic. Yin Ze had to move very quickly and consume a lot of energy to dodge his all-round attacks. After a long time, Yin Ze’s reactions remained unchanged, but he seemed to be running out of energy.

Noticing that the situation was not good, I looked at Xuan Yue and muttered to myself, “Floating Life Emperor, Floating Life Emperor, it means ‘a fleeting dream’. You chose such a grand name, but I thought you could create something more powerful, but it turned out to be nothing but fake. What’s the difference between you and an ordinary fox demon?”

“The demon called Floating Life Emperor is quite arrogant,” the demon sneered, “What if it’s fake? You’ve already been made to kill each other.”

I smiled, “No, no, if we were willing to hate and torture each other to death in your illusions, that would be true mutual killing. What you’ve killed is just desire. Even if one of Fu Chenzi and Divine Lord Yin Ze died, they wouldn’t hate each other in the end, they would still think you were the enemy.”

After a long while, Floating Life Emperor laughed, “Heh, you little girl, you’re quite stubborn. Fine, since you don’t believe I have the ability to make you hate each other, and I have nothing else to do anyway, let me see if you can kill your royal brother.”

“Come on, do you think I’m afraid of you?”

I said that, but I quickly formed an ice blade in my palm and focused my attention. Then, I saw a flash of blue light on a mural, and chaotic illusions appeared before my eyes: there was my father, my mother, and Kai Xuanjun and Fu Chenzi plotting together to kill my parents...

I quickly grabbed the ice blade and squeezed it hard between my fingers! The pain that shot through my fingers was incredibly refreshing, and I immediately felt refreshed.

“The mural!” I shouted towards Yin Ze and Fu Chenzi, “Grand Master, Floating Life Emperor is in the mural!”

Hearing this, Yin Ze immediately broke away from Fu Chenzi and rushed towards the mural. Leaping into the air, he held his sword horizontally in front of him, ready to cut the mural in half. But at that moment, Floating Life Emperor exclaimed urgently, “Divine Lord, spare me!”

Yin Ze didn’t stop, and Floating Life Emperor continued, “Don’t, don’t, spare my life, and I’ll make a deal with you!” Then, another blue light flashed on the mural, flying towards Fu Chenzi and Xuan Yue. They tensed up, and Fu Chenzi knelt on one knee while Xuan Yue fell to the ground on all fours.

Yin Ze finally stopped, but the tip of his sword still pointed at the mural. “Come out.”

Floating Life Emperor said, “Yes, yes, I’m coming, I’m coming...”

I never thought that someone who had been so arrogant and proud before would be such a coward.

But what surprised me was that the person who crawled out of the mural trembling was actually a man wearing the crown of a Spring and Autumn Period king, looking no different from an ordinary person.

He shrank his shoulders and bowed to Yin Ze like a turtle, “Thank you, Divine Lord, for sparing my life.”

I said, “I don’t understand, aren’t you just a demon? Why are you dressed like this? Or have you gone crazy trying to be an emperor, so you turned into the image of an emperor?”

“Shut up, you little demon, what do you know?” Floating Life Emperor turned his head and said angrily, “I was originally a king.”

Yin Ze pointed his sword at him, “Less nonsense.”

Floating Life Emperor took a step back in fear, his crown clinking. “Yes, yes, let’s talk about our deal, no, no, it’s not a deal, it’s just a small token of my gratitude to the Divine Lord. Divine Lord should know that there are ninety-nine eighty-one levels in this Demon Refining Valley, and you’ve only reached the twentieth level. If you go down level by level, it will take a long time. I have a teleportation talisman given to me by the ghosts of the Netherworld, which can send you and your friends directly to the eighty-first level, the entrance to the Netherworld...”

Yin Ze said, “Give it here.”

Floating Life Emperor took out several talismans from his pocket and tremblingly placed them on the ground. Yin Ze picked up the talismans with his sword and took them. “Scram.”

The Floating Life Emperor actually rolled away, crawled up at the corner, and disappeared into the air. I quickly went to help the dying Fu Chenzi and gave him some water to drink.

Looking at the direction where Floating Life Emperor disappeared, I asked in confusion, “The difference between Floating Life Emperor’s behavior before and after the battle is too big. He’s not like the same person at all. Could he have been acting?”

Yin Ze said, “No, he’s always been like this. He’s killed many people, but he’s more afraid of death than anyone else.”

“That’s strange, why? If he has the courage to kill, why isn’t he afraid of life and death?”

“He is a demon spirit condensed from the resentment of Qi Huan Gong when he died. In other words, his earliest memories were of hunger, regret, a miserable death, and maggots. He didn’t want to experience such things again.”

“Qi Huan Gong? Was he the emperor of the state of Qi?”

“He was a king during the Spring and Autumn Period.”

According to Yin Ze’s description, Qi Huan Gong was quite a character: he had conquered many states during his lifetime and became the overlord of the feudal lords, but after his wise minister Guan Zhong died, he employed villains and became a tyrant. In his old age, when he was seriously ill, his five sons fought for power, and they didn’t even know he had starved to death until sixty-seven days after his death. Only then did the new king discover him and bury him.

Therefore, his resentment had been lingering around Qi Huan Gong’s corpse, thinking about life all the time. In the end, he came to a wrong conclusion about life: life is like water, it can bring pleasure to oneself but harm others. After that, Floating Life Emperor’s favorite thing to do was to make people live in the dreams he created, sometimes sweet and sometimes terrible, and eventually die of starvation in their dreams.

After hearing this, I felt a chill down my spine. “Since Floating Life Emperor is so insidious, will he trick us again?”

“No. Although he is despicable and shameless and afraid of death, he is quite trustworthy. After all, he still has some similarities to Qi Huan Gong.” Yin Ze flipped through the talismans in his hand, “The talismans are real.”

“So what should we do now? After my brother wakes up, shall we... go down?” To be honest, I felt a chill just thinking about the Netherworld...

“Yes.”

I asked timidly, “Grand Master, isn’t that the most terrifying place in the underworld? If we go down, will we be able to come back?”

Yin Ze said, “No, every time the underworld hooks a soul, even if it’s just an ox, a horse, an insect, or a fish, there will be detailed records. Not to mention those who are sent to the Netherworld, they are all serious criminals, and their names will be recorded in countless books before they are imprisoned. If they are not recorded, the ghost messengers will not be forced to imprison them.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. But Yin Ze added another sentence, “I haven’t been to the Netherworld, but everyone who has been there says it’s disgusting.”

I looked at him and froze.

It took two hours for Fu Chenzi to wake up, and Xuan Yue returned to normal.

It turned out that after Yin Ze and I fell into the teleportation array, Xuan Yue had been flying nonstop for several days and nights to Qinghong Mountain to seek help. Coincidentally, Fu Chenzi had returned to Qinghong Mountain, and he followed Xuan Yue to the Demon Refining Valley to find us. But they were unlucky and ran into the troublesome Floating Life Emperor, and they were both trapped here under the illusion.

After regaining consciousness, Xuan Yue seemed very embarrassed and kept lying on my lap, sticking its butt up, and hiding its face in its paws.

Fu Chenzi was still a little weak and was sitting cross-legged, recovering his internal injuries. Taking this opportunity, I also told Yin Ze about Ru Yue Weng framing me, but I concealed the fact that he had joined forces with Huang Dao Xianjun to attack Suzhao.

“Logically speaking, Ru Yue Weng should be able to see that you are not a demon. Why would he go to great lengths to chase you to Kyushu and specially set up a formation to trap you here?” Yin Ze thought for a moment and narrowed his eyes. “Luo Wei, are you hiding something from me?”

Oh no, the older generation is indeed wiser. Yin Ze is too smart, and he quickly noticed the problem. If this continues, I’m afraid I won’t be able to hide it for much longer.

However, the matter was very serious, and I really dared not take the risk. I still couldn’t reveal the matter of Suzhao, for fear that the Divine Lord would say something like, “Oh, that’s just an empty city I built casually. I don’t want to play with it anymore, so let’s destroy it,” and with a wave of his sleeve, Suzhao would become a place name in history books. Therefore, I dared not say more and could only shake my head desperately, “No, absolutely not.”

Thank goodness, Fu Chenzi suddenly said, “Master, I have rested enough, we can go.”

After being separated for so many days, seeing my brother again, I was extremely happy. With him and the Grand Master protecting me, what was I afraid of? Even the Netherworld was not scary. I finally didn’t have to follow Yin Ze around like a little tail anymore, but instead clung to Fu Chenzi’s arm and ran around.

Although Fu Chenzi still didn’t show his emotions on his face, I could tell from his eyes that he was in a good mood. I held Fu Chenzi’s arm and asked secretly, “Brother, is that fairy named Shang Yan your real mother?”

“Did you see?” Fu Chenzi nodded. “She is my biological mother.”

“And she knows the Grand Master?”

“Yes, they are old acquaintances. That’s why Master took me in as his disciple.”

“You two,” Yin Ze frowned. “What are you mumbling about? Is it so fun to go to hell?”

We were like two children who had done something wrong and obediently shut our mouths. Then, Yin Ze took out the talisman and teleported us to the underworld.

“I’m not afraid of the Netherworld,” I had to take back those words.

With a particularly cute scream from Xuan Yue, I saw a world that I never wanted to visit again.