An endless stream of power surged from this severed arm that did not belong to him. The fox demon's body convulsed, and he couldn't help but look up to the sky and let out a piercing shriek.
His only remaining tail suddenly swelled up, like an exploding kapok flower, only this time it was mixed with a few streaks of grayish-black fur.
He tried to clench his fist, and the air in his palm began to emit a muffled sound of being twisted. He finally burst into laughter, Haha, hahaha! I want revenge! I want revenge!!!
Revenge on whom?
The voice that suddenly rang out in the darkness made the fox demon stiffen, his maniacal laughter catching in his throat.
He turned around in a panic, only to see a person standing behind him at some unknown point. Perhaps he had been watching indifferently since he started digging, yet he had been completely unaware.
Why? The fox demon was incredibly frantic, feeling like an ant lured by sweet syrup only to be trapped by flowing water.
His mutated arm smashed fiercely into the ground as he angrily said, You lured me here?! What exactly do you want to do? Is it not enough that I won't eat that Bodhi heart anymore?!
You sought it out yourself, Shuangjian said lightly.
The fox demon's nature was inherently crooked; no matter how many times, he would still be bewitched by this severed arm.
His only selfish motive was to let him escape, to let him find this severed arm again.
But this time, he could not let him continue to wreak havoc in Tiandu City after gaining this empowerment. After opening the gate to the Demon Realm, he needed to finish off this demon, which was why he had pursued him here.
I hate you to death, I hate you to death! the fox demon broke down and cried.
He hadn't even been arrogant for half a minute after becoming stronger before he was beaten back to his original form. In fact, because he had become stronger, he could feel the gap in strength between himself and that demonic cultivator even more clearly.
How could this be? Why was this person so powerful, as if he had lived two lifetimes longer than an ordinary person!
But even though he hated him to the core, the fox demon truly cherished his life—he didn't want to fight, he wanted to escape... escape back to the Demon Realm! No matter how wicked this demonic cultivator was, he was still human and not a demon; he couldn't chase him back to his lair!
It just so happened that the aura of this village was truly dark. Generally speaking, the spatial barriers of the mortal world were the thickest, but the barrier here was as thin as cicada wings, already covered with invisible folds and fissures... His instinct to tear space was finally no longer hindered by a lack of power. The fox demon gritted his teeth and gathered his strength, roaring as he plunged his five fingers into the void in front of him, as if grabbing an invisible sheet of rice paper, and viciously tore it apart to both sides.
In the originally empty night sky, a rift suddenly bloomed open. Inside, a fantastically beautiful pinkish-purple halo faintly shone through, directly dyeing half the sky.
The fox demon darted into it swiftly, not even noticing if anyone was following behind him—it shouldn't be, right? A person couldn't possibly be a human, a demon, and a monster all at once like some kind of cheat, it just couldn't be.
...
Phew—
Yingshi was circulating her qi to cultivate, and just as she was about to completely calm her mind, her body was gently nudged.
This distracted her, causing her to open her eyes, only to see Xiangxiang jumping down from her side, its short little legs moving rapidly as it tried to run out of the courtyard.
Xiangxiang? Yingshi was startled and immediately got up to chase after it, What are you doing?
All along, aside from showing off a little in the Gate of Death to prove it was extraordinary, Xiangxiang acted like an unintelligent little pig doll every day, doing nothing but eating and sleeping.
But now it seemed to have some clear purpose, ignoring her calls and just running straight ahead, at a speed that could rival a cultivator using flash steps.
As soon as Yingshi stepped out of the door, she realized something was wrong—and there were many things wrong!
Xiangxiang's abnormal behavior was only the first. The second was that Shuangjian had gone who knows where, completely nowhere to be found!
They had agreed to cultivate separately, but no matter how separate, he should still be in this house, right?
As for the third, it was the color of the sky.
When she traveled to coastal cities in modern times, she had occasionally seen similar sky colors; the smudged pink and purple looked incredibly romantic, but it was the middle of the night right now!
Moreover, being in Fengmo Village, there couldn't possibly be urban light pollution, so how could the sky turn this color?
The fourth thing she realized, only after chasing Xiangxiang out of the courtyard, was that Hu Xiaoli, who had been tied to the stone pillar, was gone.
Perhaps he had escaped, and Shuangjian went to apprehend him?
All of this was so bizarre, as if she were dreaming! Yet she clearly knew she wasn't! How could the world change so drastically after just a short while of cultivation?
Yingshi didn't have time to think about all that. She noticed that Xiangxiang was desperately running towards the direction where the pink light in the sky was the brightest and most eerie.
Xiangxiang, don't go over there, come back!
In a panic, she lunged forward and pulled the seemingly possessed little pig into her arms.
But the moment she hugged it, an irresistible suction force came from the rift in the pinkish-purple sky. Yingshi only felt the ground vanish beneath her feet, and she slid straight into the rift as if going down a slide.
...
She fell out on her butt.
Yingshi already had quite a bit of experience with spatial transitions. This time, as she landed, she consciously adjusted her posture, hoping to land on one knee to cushion the fall. But expectations were one thing; in reality, she still fell flat on her back with her limbs in the air.
The pinkish-purple sky she had caught a glimpse of outside now glaringly enveloped the land. A massive blood moon hung above, its demonic moonlight spilling down, casting an eerie filter over everything.
As far as the eye could see, there were bizarre buildings stretching endlessly, and the streets were crowded with people.
If they could even be called people—a tough guy with three heads and six arms dashed by carrying a wine jar; a woman with a human body and a snake tail was picking out beaded jewelry at a stall; a seemingly normal scholar-like man had two fluffy ears poking out from under his hat...
Yingshi held Xiangxiang, not daring to breathe too loudly, only constantly telling herself that she at least had the sword intent of the Nether Demon Lord protecting her, so she wouldn't lose her life at the very least... But why on earth did she suddenly enter the Demon Realm?
Yes, this was the Demon Realm; she recognized it.
After the fox demon completely destroyed Tiandu City and dominated the Demon Realm through the empowerment of killing people, swallowing hearts, and the severed hand, he brought Princess Jiaping and the male lead to live here for a long time. The book mentioned that the biggest characteristic of the Demon Realm was that blood moon; the moonlight was special to the demon race—the reason why the male lead suffered from the demon core on the full moon every three months was also somewhat related to this.
The blood moon tonight was so round and so large, and the streets were so lively... Could it be that the Demon Realm, just like the mortal world, was rushing to celebrate the New Year?
Yingshi's heart could not be said to be anything but apprehensive. Her appearance was like a drop of clear water falling into a pan of boiling oil, crackling and drawing the attention of all the demons.
Because humans, without being brought in by a demon, shouldn't be able to enter here at all!
Was it because she was holding Xiangxiang in her arms? Did the spiritual pets of Holy Spirit Mountain count as demons?
...A human?
It's a cultivator, right.
Why did she barge into the Demon Realm?
Seeing the few monsters closest to her stop what they were doing and turn their heads in unison to stare at her, squinting and sniffing her scent as they closed in, Yingshi felt her scalp go somewhat numb.
She forced herself to stay calm and stood up, struggling to come up with some sort of human-demon friendship declaration, or perhaps just pretending to be the servant of the pig demon Xiangxiang. Fighting was definitely out of the question; even if she could defeat one or two demons, she couldn't possibly fight off twenty or thirty of them!
But before she could speak, something slapped onto her face with a smack.
"...?!"
Her vision was instantly mostly obscured, leaving only holes for her eyes.
The object pressed against her face was cold and smooth, like some kind of ceramic mask, yet it was very lightweight, its edges clinging tightly to her skin.
At the same time, a hand grabbed her wrist, swiftly scooped her up by the waist, and carried her out of the demons' encirclement.
Yingshi was carried forward in a rush. She had no intention of struggling; instead, she instantly relaxed and let go of her tension, because the moment Shuangjian approached her, she caught his scent! Now, this embrace was so familiar that it was overwhelmingly reassuring!
She had many questions she wanted to ask, but for now, she could only stay quiet and let Shuangjian weave through the bizarre and dazzling demon market.
The sound of the wind and the eerie sights flashing past on both sides blurred into the background. Finally, they stopped at the end of a secluded, deep alleyway where there were no more grotesque demons wandering around.
"Shuangjian, can I take this thing off my face?" Yingshi immediately asked, unable to hold it in any longer. "Why are you here? You disappeared first, did you also notice something wrong with the sky, and got sucked into this demon realm when you went to investigate?"
This was exactly what Shuangjian wanted to ask Yingshi in return.
Before he left, he had set up a barrier in the stone chamber so Yingshi could safely meditate. By the time she finished a few cycles of her cultivation, he would have already returned from the demon realms. He never expected Yingshi to fall into the demon realm just a little while after him.
His gaze fixed on the little pig in Yingshi's arms, shifting away only after two seconds. The hand resting on Yingshi's back applied a slight pressure, like a comforting pat, before he personally took the mask off for her.
"This is a salamander mask. It can temporarily fool the sense of smell of some demons in this realm."
Just as demons had to conceal their auras when walking in the mortal world, humans coming to the demon realm naturally had to know how to disguise themselves.
Shuangjian continued, "The fox demon escaped in the middle of the night. In the Village of Encountering Demons, he was tempted by the severed arm, just like in the original text. To shake off his pursuers, he tore open the gates to the demon realm... I came here chasing him." For once, there was not a single word of a lie in his statement. Then he asked Yingshi, "Did you hear some noise after nightfall that woke you up?"
"Xiangxiang suddenly ran outside like crazy. I was sucked in by the rift of the demon realm's gate while trying to catch him." Yingshi struggled down from Shuangjian's arms, stood on her own feet, and tugged at Xiangxiang's ears, frowning helplessly. "You little rascal, now you're behaving. Why were you trying so desperately to squeeze into that rift just now? What is so attractive to you in the demon realm?"
Shuangjian watched the ignorant-looking Xiangxiang along with her actions, and suddenly said, "I heard the fox demon let slip some information. The Blood Moon Festival of the demon realm is happening soon."
Of course, the fox demon didn't need to let slip any information to him, but he needed a cover for the amount of information he already knew.
"...Blood Moon Festival?" Yingshi began to recall blankly, confirming that she hadn't read any similar descriptions in the book. "What is that?"
"It is the moment when the tide of demonic power between heaven and earth reaches its peak. The moonlight contains the purest primeval demonic essence, and the Demon King will receive his rite under the moonlight."
Demon King... If it wasn't mentioned, Yingshi would have forgotten. The demon core inside Shuangjian's body was just an abbreviation; its full name was the Demon King's spiritual core!
"But, is there still a Demon King in the demon realm now?" Yingshi asked in surprise.
The previous Demon King had fallen long ago, and even his spiritual core had ended up in Goddess Changyi's womb, merging into Shuangjian's body.
Although the original book hadn't written the detailed story of the parents' generation, it was vaguely hinted to be a melodramatic tale of deep hatred and passionate love. Many readers had guessed that the former Demon King might have played the role of the cannon-fodder second male lead in it.
As for when the fox demon mentioned in the original book later dominated the demon realm, he was not the Demon King either, because he had not received the moonlight's acknowledgment.
Right now, the position of the Demon King was vacant.
But whether it was vacant or not, what did this Blood Moon Festival and the ancient demonic essence have to do with them, and what did it have to do with Xiangxiang?
"..." Shuangjian looked thoughtful, staring at Xiangxiang as he said, "In the Gate of Death, it once swallowed the spirit within the hellfire."
Just like swallowing an eggshell, it had swallowed the core of the Gate of Death. Was its purpose the same as swallowing the eggshell, to nourish its body and strengthen itself?
The implication of his words was actually not very obvious, but Yingshi had a sudden flash of insight and quickly grasped what Shuangjian was thinking. She couldn't help but say in astonishment, "Are you saying that Xiangxiang might be coveting this ancient demonic essence?"
No way, right?
Was Xiangxiang really that intelligent?
Could it be that, facing an anticipated bitter battle that was soon to come, the ones striving to become stronger were not just the two of them, but also Xiangxiang, who wanted to quietly accomplish something great?
