Wanxi Rebirth - Chapter 85

The refugees were thus settled by the Lord of Chuiyin.

With the joint effort of humans and demons, new houses were built, fresh clothes and delicate food were delivered, and the kind-hearted residents of Qingning City did not look down on the refugees, despite their being destitute and having fled their homes.

The goodwill of the city’s inhabitants felt like winter sunlight, seemingly capable of warming every heart that had endured chaos and endless cold.

Before long, the refugees integrated into the mixed city. The young and strong found work here, diligently laboring alongside local residents.

Their presence began to fill every corner of Qingning City.

Yet, looking at this scene that could almost be described as “beautiful,” Yue Tingxi felt a chill run through her body.

Qiongqi… or rather, the one once called “Chuiyin,” since she brought her to this memory and made it the initial scene, in a way meant that this memory was what she was obsessed with.

Both she and Qin Suoliu had experienced this kind of contrast before.

By the fifth year of the refugees’ settlement in Qingning City, Yue Tingxi saw the answer.

That morning, Chuiyin woke up restlessly for some unknown reason.

Her palace felt unusually silent, carrying a scent that made her uneasy. And she, a practitioner at the peak of Mahāyāna cultivation about to disperse her spirit back to the source, still felt discomfort—how much worse would it be for ordinary cultivators?

She put on her clothes and got out of bed, habitually calling for her attendants—but no one responded.

Stepping outside, she saw an attendant sweeping, though limping and moving unsteadily.

“Mingxuan? When did you get injured?” the Lord of Chuiyin instinctively asked, but as she approached, the uneasy feeling returned.

“…It’s corpse energy,” Qin Suoliu, sharing the view with Yue Tingxi, explained. “That attendant has already turned into a corpse.”

As if to confirm this, Chuiyin turned toward her maid and saw a face distorted and pale, tinged with purple.

Silently, her personal maid had died, transformed into a walking corpse.

Realizing this, Chuiyin felt her cognition overturned, stunned as if struck by lightning, yet her body instinctively moved to check every residence in the city.

—Low-level human and demon cultivators had all perished, turned into walking corpses endlessly repeating their actions in life.

Higher-level cultivators fared no better.

They had already lost mobility, entangled by a toxin they had never encountered before.

Those asleep woke too late, those secluded in meditation went insane, and those who tried to help their neighbors only succumbed faster to the poison, transforming into corpses themselves…

“Lord… save me…!”

“I don’t want to die! There’s so much I haven’t done…”

“It hurts… it’s unbearable… I can’t breathe…”

“Please give me release! Lord!!”

Each living human and demon cried out in unimaginable pain to Chuiyin.

Chuiyin could only curse herself for not waking sooner. Now, it was too late. She was no healer and didn’t know the origin of the poison; she only knew it would turn people into walking corpses. She tried desperately to infuse spirit power into higher-level cultivators, circulating it through their bodies to purge the corrupted energy.

One weak cultivator coughed up black blood and shook his head. While his mind was still conscious, he explained in fragments, “This evil art… seems to be the work of human Tongyou Masters…”

He tried to describe what a Tongyou Master was and their methods, but before finishing, his eyes rolled back, leaving only the whites, and he became a corpse in Chuiyin’s arms.

To Chuiyin, “Tongyou Master” was an entirely unfamiliar term.

She had been born in the North, growing up in a peaceful environment. After her parents ascended, she governed Qingning City in isolation.

She believed that such peaceful days could last forever. Even if she failed her tribulation and dispersed her spirit, losing her city, peace could still prevail.

—but all these beautiful visions shattered that morning.

Yue Tingxi and Qin Suoliu watched as Chuiyin frantically searched the city for every human and demon.

She initially thought it was a plot targeting herself, not harming the city’s people, but after several days of searching, she discovered the entire city’s humans and demons had become walking corpses.

None survived except herself, not even the refugees she had welcomed five years ago.

“The refugees she accepted were likely high-level Tongyou Masters,” Qin Suoliu sighed.

A few days later, Chuiyin realized this herself. She gathered the refugees—now mindless corpses—and used soul-searching forbidden arts on each of them.

These were a group of Tongyou Masters who had gone to extremes.

They believed all beings suffered. As long as they lived, suffering was endless. So, they reasoned, it would be better for everyone to become mindless corpses, forever free from pain.

Taking advantage of the chaos in the world, they secretly completed this plan in a remote demon city that would not be immediately destroyed by humans of high cultivation.

They worked around the city, secretly establishing “anchor points” and accumulating the spirit power needed to activate the array, waiting for the day of activation.

Until then, they willingly disguised themselves as ordinary people, revealing nothing to anyone.

The deathly array was irreversible. The vast Qingning City was left with only Chuiyin and her transformed citizens.

She survived only because of her exceptional talent and high cultivation—being at Mahāyāna level, beyond the Five Elements, no corpse toxin could harm her.

Chuiyin pondered for a long time, unable to understand why it happened to her, or why Qingning City had been chosen by the Tongyou Masters.

If she had rejected those refugees back then, would the city have been spared?

But doing so would have broken her people’s hearts.

As the city’s lord and a Mahāyāna cultivator, she could never stand idly by.

Unable to find cause or source, Chuiyin wondered if she could lock the corpses in her inner palace, ascend, and take them to the higher realm, later seeking her ascended parents for help.

But fate had other plans.

Reinforcements sent to Qingning City saw only a winged tiger devouring cultivators—because even as corpses, they retained their cultivation, appearing alive to the untrained eye.

They returned urgently, declaring “the great demon of Qingning City has awakened,” naming it Qiongqi, and prepared to attack.

Unaware, Chuiyin managed to secure all residents except the Tongyou Masters in her inner palace and attempted to ascend.

But the Celestial Realm had closed the ascension paths due to the demonic threat. She endured eighty-one tribulation bolts, only to face annihilation, dispersing her spirit.

Yet in this world, there was nothing left for her to protect.

—The memory illusion ends here.

When Yue Tingxi opened her eyes again, the surroundings were no longer the familiar streets.

Desolation stretched everywhere, buildings were in ruins, only the market stalls retained some original form, though weathered over time.

The sky was black, without stars or moon, and the wind howled like ghosts in torment.

Being trapped in another illusion wasted some time, but because of Qiongqi’s earlier words, Yue Tingxi felt she would give them one last chance.

She waited for Qiongqi to appear, to stand by her side and help break the boundary.

“Can Grey Moth scan for Chuiyin… Qiongqi’s location?” Yue Tingxi asked.

“Yes, let me out and I’ll guide the way,” Qin Suoliu said. “Don’t worry about me; this is the World Consciousness’s territory. Qiongqi can’t harm me.”

Yue Tingxi knew Qin Suoliu would focus on strange details.

Still, time was pressing. Despite reluctance, she released the people from the inner palace and followed Grey Moth with the young lady, riding swords and wielding blades as they raced through the city.

The continuation of that memory was not shown by Qiongqi, but they could guess it: when faced with the celestial retaliation, she likely led the city and the corpses into the Ghost Domain, later breaking her cultivation and becoming a ghost cultivator.

—Unable to reach the Celestial Realm, she had no choice but to master dark arts, thoroughly understanding the Tongyou Masters’ evil method to save people.

As for why she provided cause-and-effect tokens to the Tongyou Masters or arranged for them to be sacrificed, Yue Tingxi guessed it was long-standing revenge.

Even with these clues, the puzzle was still incomplete.

Soon, they entered Chuiyin’s bedroom.

The door stood wide open, but outside, no corpses were in sight.

Only inside, everything retained its original state.

Perhaps Qiongqi still hoped that one day, awakening to see the unchanged palace, she would feel the catastrophe had been only a nightmare, and the city restored to peace.

Yue Tingxi stepped in first, seeing Qiongqi’s back.

Yet the air around her was thick with resentment; soon, she would be fully prepared.

“Why did you fall into becoming a demon?”

Yue Tingxi asked directly. “Was it just because of Bashé’s ideology back then?”

“Of course not,” Qiongqi replied. “I needed enough power—to compare with the laws of Heaven itself, to manipulate time and return to the past.”

“I am inherently kind, yet caused countless deaths. If this is the result of being kind, then I must turn to the other side, using any means to secure a chance for everyone.”

“Ultimately, human or demon realms don’t matter to me,” she said, turning her face. Her red eyes were bloodshot. “I only want Qingning City’s past back.”

“…And if I agree?” Yue Tingxi stepped forward. “I can replace the World Consciousness and reverse time. But before that, I must eliminate the invading forces threatening this world.”

“I need help,” she said, gazing into Qiongqi’s eyes. “If you can’t think of a better plan for now, perhaps we can temporarily ally, take a gamble?”

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