The Ancestor of All Demons

Yao Suxiu, desperate to survive, once again mustered all her strength to lift a stone as large as a face basin in front of Lei Que. She raised it high and said, "Priest Lei, have a good journey, I'll burn more paper money for you when you're gone!"

She smashed the large stone down with all her might, which could have shattered Lei Que's head in one hit, enabling her to save her own life. Suddenly, a bright white light flashed before her eyes, and before she could react, her body was severed in two.

Lei Que pinched a sword technique between his fingers and marshaled the last bit of his True Yuan from within his body, sending his Flying Sword upward to slice. This cleaved Yao Suxiu, along with the stone, right through the middle—both she and the stone were now split in half, from her ribs to her chest.

Having released that stroke, Lei Que was completely drained, seeing stars before his eyes as he collapsed there, incapable of summoning his landed Flying Sword back. Unable to collect it back into his body, it simply kept twinkling and wailing on the muddy ground.

The Xuan Turtle cheerfully said, "Now that Yao Suxiu is dead, you can let him off, right?"

The Red Snake snorted coldly and slid off the Xuan Turtle, quickly crawling toward Alchemy Creek: "You old turtle, you always like helping humans. Sooner or later, you'll die by their hands!"

The Xuan Turtle retorted indignantly, "You only curse that I will die by human hands, not realizing that one day a human will save your life too!"

He wasn't an ordinary turtle but was of primordial bloodline, an Innate strange species. His turtle shell naturally formed into the pattern of the River Diagram and Eight Diagrams, yet he had fumbled through life by instinct alone, never truly finding his entry point, until he met Shi Feiyang.

Shi Feiyang, who was well-versed in all kinds of magic and divinations, had carefully studied the pattern on his shell. It wasn't just the River Diagram; there were also the Five Mountains True Forms and the Four Symbols Star Map, which had quite some similarities to the Golden Seal found at the bottom of Dinghu Peak. Thus, Shi Feiyang taught him much about divination and magic. Fortunate in this aspect, the Xuan Turtle made significant progress in the comprehension of the universe in a very short time.

He took Lei Que onto his back for the second time, taking along the Flying Sword, and carried them northward.

Lei Que lay on his turtle shell, needing to muster great effort even to speak: "Thank you, Brother Turtle, for saving my life. If Lei Que survives today, I will surely repay you handsomely in the future."

The Xuan Turtle, swinging his tail happily as he crawled forward, replied, "You will certainly survive. That foolish snake has already retracted the poison air from within your Dantian. Of course, I don't seek repayment from you—just remember today's grace and, should you encounter my brother snake again, please refrain from utterly destroying him, and that will be thanks enough."

Lei Que didn't answer, just breathed heavily. After a long while, he suddenly asked, "Did I really save you five hundred years ago?"

"No, that never happened. I made it up to deceive him," the Xuan Turtle said, grinning, "But I saw you when you were little. Your hometown isn't here; it's Jiulijing over there. You were a mischievous little thing, scampering all around the hills, raiding bird nests, digging up mouse holes, even using snake eggs to pelt squirrels. Once, you mistakenly ate a Shanglu fruit and collapsed, about to breathe your last. It was I who detoxified you and carried you back home."

"Ah..." Lei Que exclaimed in surprise, "You actually know my hometown is Jiulijing! I did indeed once eat wild fruit as a child and passed out in the woods for half a day. When I awoke, my sweat had soaked through all my clothes. My grandmother said it was a big black turtle that carried me home. I didn't think it was you who saved me. Today you saved me once again. For saving my life twice, I really don't know how I could ever repay you."

The Xuan Turtle was unconcerned, "I help others without seeking reward, not just humans but any cat, dog, flower, or tree—I wish them all to live well. I'll take you back to White Water Temple now. Since you have taken a Sword Immortal as your master, you should diligently continue your cultivation, and live well; as for me, I'll roam freely through mountains and waters, and we'll forget each other in the vast Jianghu."

The turtle and the man disappeared happily into the dense forest.

...

Shi Feiyang didn't know what the Red Snake had done afterward. He didn't care about Yao Suxiu's life or death but simply continued to refine the Jiaotai incense. Once successful, he used it for his cultivation, which indeed helped the divine energy in his body to merge, and significantly accelerated his training process.

On that day, he was sitting cross-legged on the Wolong Stone, with the faint fragrance of Jiaotai incense drifting in the air.

His mind was entranced, free from any distractions, his divine sense guarding within. He allowed his two inner cores to attract and orbit each other. When they spun rapidly, they formed the pattern of a Tai Chi Diagram, generating much True Yin and Yang Qi.

Suddenly, he heard a woman's voice by his ear, "Dragon King, please save my son... Dragon King, our youngest son has been missing for several days, and we've found neither a living boy nor a dead body. Please show mercy..."

Shi Feiyang's heart trembled, and he awoke from his meditation, tilting his head and concentrating to listen, but he heard nothing more.

What was happening? Could it be that, with the advancement of my effort, I am beginning to encounter demonic obstacles? The Dan Scripture says that introspection can easily lead to inner demons, and both illusionary visions and sounds are by-products of the Demon Realm, which should not be focused on or stressed over, and should simply be ignored.

He had faintly speculated when he was comprehending the Golden Seal a few days ago that he was about to face a tribulation. He had believed it would be related to this and resolved to guard his true heart. Otherwise, once he deviated, the consequences would be unimaginable. In Shu Mountain, cultivators who deviated would often end up with hemiplegia or their whole body stiff, paralyzed for decades. He couldn't afford to be paralyzed on this rock!

He resumed his cultivation but soon heard the woman's plea again, followed by men's, the elderly's, and children's crying, "Grandpa Dragon King, my sister is gone, sob... I took her out to play... I don't know how, but she was swept away by a gust of wind... sob, my mother hasn't eaten in two days, my father has even hit me... If we can't find my sister, I won't be able to live on..."

At first, Shi Feiyang disregarded all these as illusions from the Demon Realm; however, as he listened more, it seemed increasingly wrong, the voices more abundant and realistic.

Could it be that this wasn't the Demon Realm, but real events occurring? Were people truly pleading with him?

He stopped cultivating, leaped up, and flew across the lake to the top of the peak. Clinging to a rock on the shore, he looked southwest and indeed saw many people kneeling in the direction of the old Dragon King Temple, earnestly beseeching him.

Using his eyesight from afar, he saw that a new temple had been erected on the site of the old Dragon King Temple, larger and grander, with a pure copper incense burner in front. Judging by the accumulation of incense ash, it was evident that the temple saw a lively attendance on regular days.

Many villagers were prostrating and begging in front of the temple. What he had heard was not from the Demon Scripture but was due to his increased power that had naturally developed divine skills. The villagers were praying fervently there, there was resonance here, and thus he was able to hear their prayers in his heart.

With his Dan Qi, he created a cloud and darted toward them.

As soon as they saw him approaching, the villagers cried out to the heavens, crawling on their knees, kowtowing, and pleading, "Dragon King, save our lives! Save our children! Please, have mercy, Dragon King!"

He asked the villagers, "What exactly happened? Whose children have been lost?"

The villagers rushed to tell him about their children going missing, all talking over each other with their stories. One said his little daughter disappeared while he turned his back working in the field; another mentioned taking his son up the mountain and having him disappear after a sudden black wind blew past.

After gathering information, Shi Feiyang tallied a total of eighteen missing children—boys all eight years old, girls all seven. The disappearances were very peculiar, not characteristic of wild animals or human traffickers. He casually inquired about a few children's birth hours, and, sure enough, they displayed a pattern. This almost certainly confirmed an evil cultivator's doing.