I Reborn on the Night I Divorced the Sword Deity, My Childhood Friend - Chapter 6

The deeper his thoughts strayed, the colder the aura surrounding Yuan Muzhou became. Seeing this, the medical cultivators nearby grew increasingly tremulous.

Fearing that they could not cure Shen Siyuan and that Yuan Muzhou would vent his rage upon them, one medical cultivator finally ventured a suggestion. “Young Sect Master, our Sword Sect only excels in the Way of the Sword; healing and saving lives are not our specialties. It may not be entirely impossible to repair Young Master Shen’s Golden Core.”

Yuan Muzhou looked over with an expressionless gaze.

Meeting that piercing, cold stare, the medical cultivator wiped the sweat from his brow in his mind and immediately added, “Moreover, Young Sect Master is as meticulous as a hair. Upon arrival, you used the Sect’s Guardian Spirit Jade to protect Young Master Shen’s heart meridian. For now, his life is not in danger. Perhaps Young Master Shen should try contacting other sects to inquire if there is a way to heal him. After all, the reputation of our Sword Sect is still quite formidable when invoked.”

Following this earnest piece of advice, a spark of hope finally flickered within Yuan Muzhou’s icy eyes.

He immediately recalled the many sect masters and great experts he had entreated, and the various secret methods he had sought, to save Shen Junyu in his past life. In that past life, the secret methods and experts he visited were not found in the same year; there had been a gap of nearly seventy years between them.

Many of those experts had expressed the same sentiment: if only he had come a little sooner, Shen Junyu could have been saved. Back then, Yuan Muzhou had vacillated between hope and despair so many times that, by the end, he had become numb.

But today, everything was different. He now knew the locations and the costs of all those experts and secret methods. He could gather them all immediately.

Thinking of this, Yuan Muzhou fell silent for a moment before speaking to the medical cultivator. “I know you medical cultivators have your own networks. Issue a bounty for me: state that if anyone can find a secret method to reforge a Golden Core, I, Yuan Muzhou, am willing to give an entire spirit stone vein as a reward.”

His words sent a shockwave through the medical cultivators present. That was an entire spirit stone vein! One must realize that the entire Sword Sect possessed barely a hundred such veins. Yuan Muzhou was not yet the Sect Leader; this gesture was staggeringly extravagant. Furthermore, it was all for his brother-in-law.

By now, these medical cultivators had discerned the unusual nature of the relationship between Yuan Muzhou and Shen Siyuan, but none dared to speak of it. They could only agree submissively.

Having finished his orders, Yuan Muzhou ignored them and took out a communication jade slip, beginning to send messages to the various major sects and external powers he had contacted in his previous life.

At this moment, his gaze was exceptionally cold and determined. Even if Shen Junyu had abandoned the best chance to save Shen Siyuan due to their grievances, he certainly would not give up. After all, the soul residing in this body now was that of Sword Venerable Yuan at the peak of the Void Refinement Realm. He was no longer that green youth from the past life, still in the Golden Core stage, who only knew how to use the foolish method of a Life-Sharing Dao Companion Covenant to save someone.

This time, he would not fail to protect the person he truly wanted to guard.

Yin-Yang Secret Realm, Bottom of the Nameless Cliff

In the cave, the campfire still burned, occasionally letting out a faint crackle. The demonic cultivator had fallen into a long, speechless silence. He truly could not understand Shen Junyu’s miraculous train of thought. He could not help but look at Shen Junyu’s face, wondering what exactly was inside this beauty’s head.

But when his gaze fell upon those light brown eyes, which were clear as glass and calm as a lake, and saw the serious, pure light within them, his heart trembled slightly. He was silent for a moment.

A moment later, as if he had suddenly reached an epiphany, he discarded his previous attitude of flat refusal. With a nonchalant, faint smile, he said, “Eldest Young Master Shen, I have important matters to attend to, so I cannot teach you personally. However, I can give you a manual of demonic cultivation.”

As he spoke, the demonic cultivator took a blood-colored jade slip directly from his storage ring and tossed it toward Shen Junyu. Shen Junyu had not expected the demonic cultivator to be so agreeable, but despite his surprise, he reached out and caught the blood-red jade slip in his palm.

Injecting his divine sense, Shen Junyu scanned the technique within the jade slip. A rough reading revealed that the cultivation method was extremely exquisite. However, there was only half of it.

Shen Junyu looked up, meeting the demonic cultivator’s gaze once more. The demonic cultivator gave a leisurely smile. “Is Eldest Young Master Shen not going to lift this Wuzu Blood Curse for me? Please, proceed.”

Shen Junyu looked at the composed smile on the demonic cultivator’s lips. After a moment of silence, he lowered his eyes and put away the jade slip. “Wait a moment.”

“Fine,” the demonic cultivator replied.

Shen Junyu picked up the piece of wood again and began to carve it meticulously. Seeing this, the demonic cultivator yawned, leaned against the stone wall of the cave with his arms crossed, and closed his eyes for a nap.

The firelight flickered. After an unknown amount of time, Shen Junyu’s eyes finally moved. He raised his hand and gently brushed away the wood shavings from the carving in his palm. A statue identical to the demonic cultivator’s face appeared in his jade-white hand.

The demonic cultivator had been leaning in the corner of the cave with his eyes half-closed, appearing to be dozing, but in reality, he had never stopped observing Shen Junyu. Seeing such a lifelike small statue, the demonic cultivator’s brow twitched imperceptibly. He did not care much about this avatar; it would not matter if it were lost.

The trade with Shen Junyu just now had been a whim. A single demonic manual was truly nothing to him. Now, seeing Shen Junyu’s methodical, serious demeanor and this incredibly detailed carving, he was genuinely curious. Did Shen Junyu really have the ability to dispel the Wuzu Blood Curse, the foremost of the Ten Great Curses?

Suddenly, Shen Junyu looked toward him. The demonic cultivator reacted swiftly, immediately closing his eyes. After a moment of silence, a refined voice came from across the fire.

“Look at this statue. Is there anything that needs improvement?”

After a brief pause, the demonic cultivator slowly opened his eyes and looked over. He pretended to inspect it for a while before nodding. “Not bad.”

Shen Junyu asked, “Shall we begin then?”

The demonic cultivator was surprised for a moment. “Just like that? You do not need to prepare anything?”

Shen Junyu shook his head. “No need. If I did not have this confidence, I would not have agreed.”

The demonic cultivator was speechless. Perhaps this was the confidence of a Favored Son of Heaven. It was interesting.

Seeing this expression, Shen Junyu misunderstood, assuming the demonic cultivator thought he was boasting. After a moment’s consideration, he looked quietly at the demonic cultivator and said, “If you are afraid I will fail, you can first separate a wisp of your soul and let me demonstrate it for you.”

Gazing at Shen Junyu’s profile, which seemed exceptionally gentle and quiet when he was serious, the demonic cultivator felt a strange and subtle sensation well up in his heart. A moment later, he laughed freely. “No need. I trust you. Let’s begin.”

A flash of surprise crossed Shen Junyu’s eyes, but he quickly lowered his gaze and regained his composure, nodding. “Good.”

Dispelling the Wuzu Blood Curse, regardless of where it occurred in the cultivation world, was an affair that required extreme caution. Both the dispeller and the recipient needed to have complete trust in one another. The process was fraught with danger; if it failed, not only would the recipient suffer unbearable pain, but the dispeller would also face a severe backlash.

Yet, in this narrow and cramped cave, a human and a demon who had known each other for less than an hour dared to trust each other enough to perform the ritual. Had any other masters of curse-breaking seen this, their eyes would have widened in shock as they decried it as utter madness.

However, inside the cave, the process proceeded remarkably smoothly. When Shen Junyu used his spiritual power to manifest the small wooden carving, the demonic cultivator did not hesitate. He closed his eyes, and a red light drifted from his brow, turning into a long rainbow that poured entirely into the carving.

At that moment, the Wuzu Blood Curse followed the demonic cultivator’s soul, transferring entirely onto the small wooden carving floating in the air. Red threads instantly entwined the small statue.

Soon, the Wuzu Blood Curse realized it had been tricked. Those red threads turned menacing and began to scatter, dancing wildly like tentacles as they lunged fiercely toward Shen Junyu, who was nearest. It was clearly attempting to treat Shen Junyu as its second host.

If an ordinary cultivator saw this, they would likely be scared out of their wits and turn to flee. But Shen Junyu’s eyes remained exceptionally calm. His slender fingers quickly formed a seal, and with a light press forward, a barrier condensed with golden light appeared before him.

With a soft hiss, the red threads that touched the barrier immediately emitted smoke, as if they had touched boiling water. Realizing Shen Junyu’s power, they dared not advance further and immediately tried to flee in the opposite direction.

However, it was too late. Shen Junyu’s bony, fair fingers moved continuously. Every time he tapped lightly in the air, a streak of brilliant golden light would fly out. These streaks of golden light, like chains, quickly formed an incredibly complex oval cage, trapping the wooden carving and the fleeing Wuzu Blood Curse entirely within.

Under the restraint of the golden light, no matter how much those red threads surged, they could not escape. As the golden cage was woven, Shen Junyu once again felt the spiritual power within his body being frantically drained by the mark over his heart.

This was the true reason why he wanted to save this demonic cultivator to obtain a demonic manual. Earlier, back on the Nameless Cliff when he swung the sword that blocked Yuan Muzhou, he had felt this eerie state. He was proficient in numerology and knew clearly that this was a form of Law Devouring from a higher Heavenly Dao.

He had sacrificed himself to that Eye in exchange for rebirth, so that Eye could continuously swallow his spiritual power through this mark until he was completely reduced to nourishment for it. But that Eye did not know just how many cultivation manuals, records, and even forbidden secret arts Shen Junyu had read during those nearly hundred years of imprisonment.

It was precisely because of this that, the moment Shen Junyu realized this bizarre devouring of laws, he had devised a solution. One must understand that this cultivation world was not a complete world, and its Heavenly Dao was not whole.

Legend had it that tens of millions of years ago, the cultivation world was a wasteland. The humans, the demons, and even the devils were all descendants of god-clans fallen from a higher world. Consequently, the three races fought incessantly for territory. Later, the demons retreated to the Eastern Sea, the devils occupied the Southern Desolation, and the humans established their foundation in the Central Province. Only then did the three races settle down.

The forbidden arts of the Yuheng Sect were techniques left behind when humans fell from the upper realm; naturally, they could restrain lower-level humans. However, they could not restrain the demon or devil races. Therefore, as long as he obtained the cultivation methods of the demons or devils, it would not matter even if his spiritual power was devoured by that Eye.

The demonic cultivator before him was the quickest entry point for Shen Junyu to obtain the manuals of these two races. Thus, even though the frantic driving of his spiritual power turned his face pale and caused a thin layer of sweat to break out on his forehead, he did not intend to stop for a moment.

With every gain comes a loss; Shen Junyu had always understood this principle. Finally, the cage was complete. After finishing the total suppression of the Wuzu Blood Curse, Shen Junyu looked up at the demonic cultivator sitting across from him. The demonic cultivator’s long lashes were lowered, his thin lips slightly pursed, and his expression was very quiet.

After this glance, Shen Junyu felt at ease and closed his eyes. In the next instant, a wisp of his divine sense transformed into a small figure in white, radiating a golden-red glow. It flew out of his body and dove straight into the golden cage.

Seeing this, the Wuzu Blood Curse frantically lunged forward. However, within this golden cage, they could not even touch the trailing light of this wisp of divine sense. Finally, the divine sense plunged into the wooden carving tightly wrapped in red threads.

Before long, the divine sense found the deep-red soul-form sitting in the center of the carving. Looking at the soul-form before him, the divine sense glanced at the red threads frantically chasing him from outside and reached out his hand directly.

“Come with me.”

At that instant, the soul-form snapped his eyes open. He looked at the small white-clad figure radiating golden-red light. After a second of silence, he gave a faint smile and grasped the outstretched hand.

In the next moment, two rays of light, one gold and one red, intertwined and spiraled. Like a bolt of lightning, they broke through the heavy encirclement of the Wuzu Blood Curse within the golden cage and flew out. From the time they left until their souls completely returned, only a few breaths had passed.

When the demonic cultivator opened his eyes, a sharp, piercing light flashed within those eyes as dark as the sea. However, that light soon softened. He silently watched the white-clad figure across from him, who had also opened his eyes and was putting away the golden cage.

Seeing Shen Junyu’s slightly pale face, the demonic cultivator was silent for a while before smiling. “Eldest Young Master Shen is indeed a once-in-a-generation genius. Even your method of dispelling curses is so extraordinary. I am impressed.”

Shen Junyu did not reply immediately. He first placed the golden cage and the Wuzu Blood Curse into his storage ring before saying, “If you had not trusted me completely, it would not have gone so smoothly.”

A flicker appeared in the demonic cultivator’s eyes. Suddenly, he rested his hands on his knees and, after appearing to think for a moment, looked at Shen Junyu with a lazy smile. “Eldest Young Master Shen dispelled the curse for me so easily; are you not afraid I will go back on my word?”

“You should know, we demonic cultivators are not exactly known for our integrity.”

Shen Junyu finally looked over. Through his silver mask, the demonic cultivator met Shen Junyu’s eyes, which were slightly weary from overexertion, with a smile.

Shen Junyu gazed into those smiling, pitch-black eyes. After a moment, he calmly looked away. “If you go back on your word, I do not mind putting the curse back on you.”

The demonic cultivator was silent. After a brief silence, he yielded. “It was just a joke.”

Having said that, after a slight hesitation, he proactively took out another blood-colored jade slip and tossed it toward Shen Junyu. Shen Junyu caught the slip, injected his divine sense, and scanned it. Sure enough, it was the remaining half of the demonic cultivation manual.

After confirming there were no issues with the technique, Shen Junyu’s expression softened slightly. After putting away the jade slip, Shen Junyu looked at the demonic cultivator, who was still watching him with a faint hint of expectation in his eyes. He cupped his hands. “Thank you. Farewell.”

The demonic cultivator asked, “Wait.”

Shen Junyu stopped and frowned slightly. “What is it?”

The demonic cultivator fell silent.

Shen Junyu said, “If there is nothing else, I am leaving.”

After a good while, the demonic cultivator seemed to remember what he was going to say. With an air of nonchalance, he said, “When I was undercover in the Spirit Medicine Sect earlier, I managed to get maps for several treasure locations.”

Shen Junyu raised an eyebrow slightly.

The demonic cultivator smiled. “If Eldest Young Master Shen is willing, how about the two of us cooperate to take the treasures?”

Hearing this, Shen Junyu’s gaze shifted, seemingly in thought. The demonic cultivator just watched him. After an unknown amount of time, Shen Junyu suddenly said, “Sure. However, I prefer doing bigger business.”

The demonic cultivator was confused.

One hour later.

Standing behind Shen Junyu, the demonic cultivator looked through the dense forest toward a treasure cave in the distance, which was guarded by dozens of Sword Sect disciples. His mouth twitched slightly.

However, he soon gave a thin smile. “A treasure cave of the Sword Sect will certainly have plenty of loot. Eldest Young Master Shen is indeed generous.”