Wanxi Rebirth - Chapter 1

In the Human Realm, atop the Demon-Locking Platform.

The scorching sun had beaten down for an entire month, turning the once-crimson demon blood into a deep brown that stained the entire white jade platform.

At the center of the platform, beneath layers of chains, a disheveled, foul-smelling black rat snake demon lay in her own blood and filth, utterly motionless and in a twisted pose.

Her internal organs had spilled out through a large, gaping wound in her abdomen, now shriveled and dry from the Demon-Slaying Array and the relentless sun. Her empty dantian, having lost the nourishment of her demon core, could no longer hold even a wisp of spiritual energy to protect her body.

The sharp sword strike that had severed half of her snake tail lay carelessly discarded within her line of sight, now swarming with flies and wriggling maggots. The area where her scales had been completely stripped away before execution was a hideous, grotesque mess of scars.

Even a demon, if gravely injured to this extent, could not survive on the Demon-Locking Platform for more than five days, yet she had held on, as if a single breath of life still clung to her.

Yue Tingxi had lost all sense of time.

Seven days ago, she had lost her sight, and a constant ringing filled her ears. She could only use the temperature of the ground to distinguish between day and night.

All she knew was that ever since she had been tearfully struck down by her “husband” and had her demon core brutally ripped from her abdomen, every day trapped on the Demon-Locking Platform, her life was slowly ebbing away.

For the first time, she hated that her century-plus of cultivation had not been in vain. Otherwise, how could she have endured this day after day?

Fortunately, her last reserves of life were almost gone. Finally, she would be free from this suffering and from a life that was not her own.

She was too weak to struggle. Despite her immense unwillingness—to not be able to personally kill the one who had brought this calamity upon her, to not be able to dismember him and tear him to shreds—she now just longed for a quick, clean end. It was far better than continuing to be an uncontrollable “puppet on a string.”

In the midst of the numbing pain, Yue Tingxi unconsciously coughed up a mouthful of dark blood. She breathed weakly and quietly fell into a daze.

Perhaps it was the final glimmer before death, a sudden surge of lucidity, but in these last few days, she had been clearly dreaming of past events.

A century ago, she was born from the spiritual energy of a mountain stream, a black rat snake diligently cultivating in the deep mountains. Her only deviation from her path was twenty years ago when she happened to save two children who had wandered into a dangerous area.

Who would have thought that twenty years later, the boy she had saved, now the Sect Master of the Qingxu Sect, would come to her mountain with extravagant gifts, earnestly wanting to repay her kindness with a vow of eternal love.

When Yue Tingxi heard this, she was utterly bewildered. She was perfectly happy in her mountain stream, cultivating day and night, free and unburdened. Why would she get involved in human affairs?

Moreover, according to the millenia-old contract between humans and demons, demons living in the eight great human mountains had to obey its rules. Even when she went down the mountain for provisions, she had to assume a human form. If not, she would no longer be protected by the contract.

Besides, if it was simply to repay the debt from twenty years ago, leaving some gold, jewels, or magical artifacts would have been more than enough. If he was so insistent that she come down the mountain to become his Dao companion, it would surely put her life in danger!

So, she flatly refused.

Noticing his silence, she hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should be even more decisive—perhaps by throwing him and his gifts out of her mountain. Suddenly, she felt an inexplicable wave of dizziness, and her skin tensed up instantly.

When she came to, she found herself sitting in a strange palanquin. She looked up and met the gaze of the Qingxu Sect Master who had just proposed to her.

Their eyes met, and a fire ignited in Yue Tingxi’s heart. She opened her mouth to curse him, and her limbs began to crack as she prepared to transform back into her demon form, break out of the palanquin, and flee back to her mountain.

She never expected the words that came out of her mouth would not be a curse, but a sweet, cloying “Brother Lin.”

As for transforming back into her demon form and breaking out of the palanquin…

As she frantically screamed “no” and “get away” in her mind, “she” let out a disgusting laugh and wrapped her arms around the Qingxu Sect Master’s neck!

From that day on, she completely lost control of her own body.

She was forced to marry a man she felt nothing for, forced to act as his loving wife for years, and watched helplessly as she became the envy of the human world, the “Sect Master’s wife.”

No matter how many curses she hurled in her mind, how many incantations she silently chanted, or how many attempts she made, in the end, she could do nothing!!

She felt like she had become a part of the puppet show she had seen years ago when she went down the mountain, her every move controlled by a puppeteer.

When the puppeteer wasn’t pulling her strings, she was a docile puppet, sitting in the Sect Master’s study or in the most conspicuous spot in the sleeping quarters, where everyone who saw her would praise her as “dignified and virtuous!”

She couldn’t find the source of this strange spell or where it was affecting her. She also had no idea what the Qingxu Sect Master’s true intentions were. All she could do was grit her teeth and wait, day after day.

Yue Tingxi was drifting in and out of a daze, dreaming of her past calamities, when she suddenly felt a gust of wind swiftly brush against her skin.

Something was coming for her—!

She instinctively tried to dodge, but her dying, broken body had no strength left. In the next moment, a heavy object carrying a strong scent of blood smashed onto her.

Yue Tingxi let out a muffled groan. She couldn’t see or hear what was happening. Instead, the “thing” on top of her quickly moved away, and then a woman’s trembling hand gently touched her cheek, her slender, sharp nails scratching her skin, causing a faint sting.

Faintly, she smelled a light scent of a fox demon, as well as the foul stench that only comes from a long-decayed corpse.

No, to be precise, that was the smell of the Demonic race.

…She suddenly knew who had come.

Qin Suoliu, the once-arrogant eldest daughter of the Qin family, the Qingxu Sect Master’s childhood sweetheart and his fiancé by a long-standing marriage agreement.

Three years ago, the Qin family was suddenly wiped out. Qin Suoliu had also unfortunately fallen into the Demon Realm, a place of exile for evil demons and cultivators, and had been missing ever since.

But just a few days ago, she had clawed her way out of the demon-infested realm. Demonic energy swirled around her, and her cultivation had shockingly jumped up by an entire major realm!

Falling to the demonic path, devouring the soul of a powerful fox demon, fusing with the essence of demonic creatures, and taming demons for her own use…every one of these actions was a horrifying taboo in the Human Realm, and Qin Suoliu had done them all!

At that time, everyone spoke of her with fear. Even Yue Tingxi, who had been a “puppet on a string” within the Qingxu Sect, had heard of her “glorious feat” of leading a demonic army to slaughter her way back into the Human Realm and ignite a great demon-led catastrophe.

…If she wasn’t the sacrifice for this “glorious feat,” Yue Tingxi would have been happy to hear it as a legend.

—”Lin Chaoyao! How dare you, the head of a sect, openly marry a demon and keep a demon by your side for five years!”

—”And now you still have the audacity to talk about slaying demons and evil spirits? You’re not worthy!”

Yue Tingxi had not forgotten that during the battle, the eldest daughter of the Qin family had held a curved blade, her bloodshot eyes blazing, staring at her with cold fury as she said these words.

The most absurd part was that the Qingxu Sect Master, who had initially begged her to come down from the mountain and sworn eternal love, immediately drew his sword after hearing this. He struck her down and brutally plunged the sword into her dantian!

Even though the Qingxu Sect Master’s hot tears fell on her wound and his subsequent words were filled with choked sobs and reluctance, Yue Tingxi heard and saw everything clearly.

It was as if…he had been waiting for this day for a very long time.

He was pleased and liberated by her death.

And she, because the invisible force still controlled her body, couldn’t dodge or fight back. She could only watch in agony as the sword sliced open her abdomen and pulled out the demon core that held over a century of her cultivation.

All this time, Yue Tingxi had no idea what she had done to offend this crazy bastard of a Sect Master.

She didn’t understand why he had taken her from her mountain and turned her into a “puppet on a string,” nor did she understand why he had so fakely treated her with such affection.

The act of kindness she had done with her hands twenty years ago had, twenty years later, brought about her own demise. It was truly laughable!

Feeling the hand on her face still stroking her, Yue Tingxi used her remaining strength to turn her head away in disgust, trying to distance herself.

What was the Qin family’s eldest daughter doing, touching the face of a dying demon?

Was she going to devour her completely disabled demon body, just like she had devoured the soul of the fox demon, and use her demon essence to fight the other immortal sects?

For the first time, Yue Tingxi felt a surge of irritation in her heart, which had been as dry as stagnant water.

If only she had the strength and her tail, she would have wrapped this delusional demon tight! And killed her!

The thought had just crossed Yue Tingxi’s mind when she felt something warm drop onto her face.

It wasn’t the smell of blood or foul saliva. It was…tears?

As she froze, the back of her neck went cold. In the next instant, a wave of intense pain shot through her life gate and neck.

It seemed to be a curved blade, which had pierced her life gate and neck from behind.

It was a fatal blow.

Yue Tingxi struggled in a purely symbolic way, her hands, already drained of strength by the Demon-Locking Platform, desperately clawed at Qin Suoliu’s arm, her broken nails digging into the other woman’s flesh.

“If you want to eat me…then help me…kill him…kill Lin Chaoyao!” She used her last bit of strength to speak in a low, vicious tone. “Otherwise…even in death, I will haunt you…and curse you…to a miserable end!”

The Qin family’s eldest daughter had used her as a stepping stone to shake the respected position of the Qingxu Sect Master, which had led to her demon core being ripped out and being tortured on the Demon-Locking Platform. Now that she was dying, the eldest daughter wanted to use her corpse to fight the human cultivators. Was it too much for her to demand a bit of a winning prize?

As her consciousness began to fade completely, Yue Tingxi vaguely felt a pair of wet hands tightly embracing her.

For a moment, the scent of the fox demon and the demonic race, as well as the pungent smell of blood, were incredibly close. She could even feel the woman’s warm breath on her forehead, and then on her ear.

Qin Suoliu seemed to be saying something to her, but unfortunately, she could no longer hear.

Was she laughing at her meaningless threat?

These sensations quickly faded—when a demon is about to die, even their sense of smell ceases to exist.

Amidst her chaotic thoughts, Yue Tingxi took her last breath.

She had expected her consciousness to disperse quickly, returning to eternal darkness and silence.

But after the intense pain, she found herself falling into a space filled with countless floating, dark gold characters.

Yue Tingxi had never heard of such a place in her life. She couldn’t help but look at the characters, trying to find a clue.

However, as soon as her gaze fell upon the words, a buzzing sound erupted in her mind. In the next instant, all the characters around her swarmed towards her like moths to a flame!

She felt as if her mind had been through a violent storm, and then tossed and turned on a turbulent sea.

After this sense of losing control, which had almost shattered her soul, slowly subsided, she discovered that an entire book had been etched into her memory.

Its title was The Book of All Things, and it contained her entire life’s experience, but it was clearly written from an outsider’s perspective.

The “her” in the book was a naive female protagonist who was used and betrayed. All the “sincere feelings” and suffering she had endured were merely to help the male protagonist, Lin Chaoyao, achieve his goal of unifying the human realm!

[She joyfully hoped to become an immortal couple with the Qingxu Sect Master, Lin Chaoyao, who had come to repay her kindness. For this, she hid her fangs, demon pupils, and tail, and was willing to emulate a human virtuous wife, cooking for him…]

[But in the end, she not only died tragically, but in her miserable final moments, she also received a cold sneer from Lin Chaoyao: “What a fool!”]

Just recalling this part made Yue Tingxi want to explode with rage.

Preposterous! Ridiculous! The most absurd thing ever!

She had never thought this way or done these things!! Not a single word was true!

If that controlling force hadn’t prevented her from doing anything until her death, she would have strangled that bastard of a Sect Master and thrown him off the mountain a long time ago!

Everything that scoundrel had done to her later was enough for her to tear him to shreds a thousand times over!

Yue Tingxi raged at the air and the words for a long time before she slowly calmed down. When she thought back to the records of what happened after her death in The Book of All Things, she couldn’t help but click her tongue.

Before she died, she had threatened Qin Suoliu to kill the mastermind, Lin Chaoyao, but the eldest daughter of the Qin family did something she never expected.

After giving her a quick death, Qin Suoliu didn’t devour her demon body. Instead, she held her corpse, crying heartbrokenly. She then embraced her and self-destructed her core right before Lin Chaoyao and the executioners walked onto the Demon-Locking Platform.

The eldest daughter of the Qin family always wore purple. On the Demon-Locking Platform, that almost demonic purple instantly scattered into countless blood blossoms. The rain of blood stained the clothes of everyone who tried to get close.

They had died together, completely and utterly.

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