Chapter 35
At this moment, Si Lan was maintaining the spell formation, focused and undistracted. Seeing the hands of Dayong about to grab him, a white sword qi cleaved through the old woman, shattering the malevolent aura into pieces.
Once the malevolent aura dispersed, Haowei, wearing his hood, descended calmly.
Haowei said nothing, standing beside Si Lan, casting spells to strengthen the formation. Soon, the formation gained the upper hand, enveloping the entire array and emitting a dazzling white light.
After the light faded, the black demonic barrier shrouding the sky vanished, and the rampant demonic energy on the ground dissipated, restoring order to the world.
Almost instantly, those who had been sleepless for three days fell into a deep slumber.
The entire world suddenly became unusually quiet and peaceful. The eerie sky returned to normal, with white clouds drifting and gentle breezes blowing.
Relieved, Si Lan turned to Haowei beside him. “Thank you.”
Haowei adjusted his hood slightly. “No need. I’m also here to deal with Dayong.”
Now that Dayong’s curse had been lifted and the crisis in the human realm averted, though Dayong had not been sealed yet.
Their next task was to lure Dayong out.
Si Lan opened the ancient book brought down from the Heavenly Court, searching for information about Dayong’s descent into malevolence.
In the 334th year of Zhongtian, from the Xiling tribe, Yong, exhausted and grief-stricken after losing his beloved son, in his despair, he tore at his hair and beat his head, punishing himself for his excessive sleep, eventually driving himself to death.
After death, consumed by grief for his son, Dayong transformed into a vengeful demon, devouring other demons, eventually becoming a celestial demon and bringing calamity upon the human realm. Those targeted by him had no cure and suffered to their deaths.
Now, to lure Dayong out, they could only target his son, but even if they found his son, they didn’t know how many reincarnations he had been through.
Could he still be considered her son?
Si Lan handed the record of Dayong to Haowei. “Dayong descended into a vengeful demon after losing his son, perpetrating the Dayong curse again. Even without Pei Jia, Dayong will likely unleash the curse once more.”
Haowei’s tone grew solemn. “Without sealing Dayong, it will return with a vengeance.”
“Perhaps…” Si Lan looked into the distance, pursing his lips. “It seems Dayong has already returned…”
As he spoke, the sky, which had just cleared, suddenly churned with dark clouds, thunder roared, and streams of malevolent energy gathered, taking the form of an old woman. Though faceless, she seemed shattered and aged, exuding a mad fury and despair that filled the air.
This was the true form of Dayong, the demonic entity itself. What Si Lan and Haowei had previously destroyed was merely a portion of Dayong’s malevolent aura.
Despite being sealed for over a hundred thousand years and cast with the Dayong curse across the human realm, his cultivation remained unfathomable.
“Why do you persist in obstructing me time and time again?” Dayong’s voice was hoarse and piercing, like scales scraping against tiles, sending chills down one’s spine.
Suddenly, from within the black mist emerged a grotesque demonic face, charging straight at Si Lan and Haowei.
Haowei immediately grabbed Si Lan’s arm, pulling him away. Si Lan swiftly chanted a spell, setting up barriers around to prevent collateral damage to mortals in case Dayong went berserk.
Haowei glanced at Si Lan. “Do you know how to seal Dayong?”
Si Lan nodded. “I do.”
Haowei raised an eyebrow, surprised that Si Lan had memorized it after just one read.
“I’ll start with the Extreme Sound Eight Trigrams Formation.” Si Lan finished speaking and in an instant, appeared above Dayong’s head. Just as Dayong was about to attack, Si Lan’s palms displayed the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams pattern. The patterns struck Dayong head-on and quickly spread, enveloping the barriers, trapping Dayong inside.
Dayong is now like a headless fly, trapped within the array, constantly darting around. However, no matter how it darts and runs amidst countless illusions, it always ends up back where it started.
“Monsters arise from human desires, demons are born from the heart. To seal Dayong, we need someone to impersonate Dayong’s child, approach and seize its demonic heart, and place it in the conversion altar to seal the demon formation. Then, use the ‘breaking corpse’ technique to restrain its body,” Si Lan almost verbatim recited Tai Wei’s words.
“But the conversion altar was shattered when Dayong Mountain collapsed,” Si Lan finished speaking and saw Haowei conjure a delicate altar carved with lotus flowers, smiling. “Is this the conversion altar?”
“Mm.”
Si Lan didn’t question where Haowei got the conversion altar from, just as he never doubted Haowei before. He pondered, “When Dayong’s child was lost, he must have been a young child. If Chong Ying and Xie Li were here…”
“… Haowei.”
Seeing Dayong about to break out of the Jiyin Bagua Formation, Si Lan quickly transformed a child and sent him into the array.
In the illusion, a young child with tousled hair rubbed his eyes, sitting on a rock, calling for his mother. Dayong’s attention was indeed captivated by the child’s cries, and it followed the sound, finding the child sitting on a large stone.
“Mom… Mom, where are you…”
Dayong rushed excitedly towards the child in the illusion, reaching out to hold him. The child turned his face, tears streaking down, and threw himself into Dayong’s arms, crying for his mother.
“My child… Are you my child?”
The child didn’t reply, just sobbed as if deeply wronged.
Si Lan manipulated the child’s arm, slowly reaching towards Dayong’s demonic core. But as soon as the arm touched Dayong’s body, Dayong’s chilling voice rang out.
“You are not my son!”
Dayong suddenly cruelly crushed the child in the illusion, destroying the Jiyin Bagua Formation on the ground and bursting out forcibly.
“My child, my son, give me back my son…” Dayong roared madly to the sky, causing earthquakes and shaking mountains. It seemed to have gone mad, relentlessly pounding against the barrier.
Seeing this, Si Lan quickly transformed another even younger child and sent him in. Dayong only glanced at this child before expelling a burst of demonic energy, dispersing the child’s form.
“You killed my son and sent a fake one to deceive me. How could you be so cruel?” Though Dayong’s face couldn’t be seen clearly, the demonic mist formed a woman’s shape, revealing endless sorrow and despair from its contours.
Dayong said… You killed my son?
Was Dayong’s son actually killed by someone?
Not merely missing as recorded in ancient texts?
Watching Dayong’s frenzied state, Si Lan suddenly thought of Luo Hui. If he had been quietly taken from Luo Hui and killed, Luo Hui would also go mad like this…
His mood sank.
Breaking through the barrier, Dayong lost its sanity, believing Si Lan and Haowei killed its child, gathering all its demonic energy to attack them.
Haowei pulled Si Lan aside, wielding a long sword wrapped in white qi, transforming into a dragon and charging at Dayong’s demonic energy.
Si Lan immediately swung the Xuanxin Whip, attacking Dayong alongside the dragon. They used all their cultivation, breaking through Dayong’s true form.
The Xuanxin Whip moved like an extended hand, searching wildly inside Dayong’s true form, but couldn’t find its demonic heart.
How could this be?
“Is it necessary for it to see its son before it shows its demonic core?”
“Seems so,” Haowei’s tone was grave.
Even though they could subdue Dayong together, they couldn’t kill it or find its demonic core. Therefore, they needed to find a fake son to deceive Dayong into revealing its demonic core.
As they communicated, Dayong’s body turned into countless black butterflies fluttering around them.
The butterfly wings scattered black powder, catching Si Lan off guard as he inhaled it, feeling dizzy. Butterflies turned into black hands around his neck, choking him.
Si Lan struggled to breathe, looking around to check on Haowei, only to find Haowei gone. He panicked, about to speak, when a hand grasped his, a voice echoed in his mind.
“Hold your breath, close your eyes.”
Si Lan complied immediately.
The suffocating feeling around his neck gradually subsided, and the butterflies around him disappeared.
It was all just an illusion, and he almost fell into it deeply.
“I will kill you… Kill everyone…”
Dayong’s angry voice echoed around him. Si Lan opened his eyes, snapped out of the illusion, and faced a new attack of black demonic energy. Haowei hurriedly pulled him away.
Dayong remained in a frenzied state, making communication impossible.
They exchanged a glance, understanding each other’s intent.
Now they had to first trap Dayong with magic and then find a way to seal it.
Si Lan was about to cast the Jiyin Bagua Formation again when Xie Li’s urgent voice came from afar.
“Your Majesty… Your Majesty…”
This time, Si Lan left the Azure Cloud Peak without informing Xie Li. Xie Li, driven by the thought of not missing Si Lan, hurried to find him, afraid Si Lan would encounter danger without him.
Furthermore, before leaving, Si Lan had promised Xie Li that if he ever wanted to find him, he could come anytime.
However, Xie Li didn’t expect that upon arriving in the mortal realm, he would witness Si Lan being choked by a terrifying monster, and was instantly frightened into tears.
Descending on a rainbow cloud, Xie Li cried bitterly across the barrier, “Your Majesty, are you okay.”
Si Lan was about to instruct Qu Ze to take Xie Li away when unexpectedly, Dayong, upon seeing Xie Li, suppressed its entire demonic energy and pounced towards Xie Li.
Xie Li stumbled back in fright, falling to the ground.
Qu Ze, seeing this, immediately drew his long sword and looked towards Dayong, only to be struck down by a palm from Dayong.
Dayong’s demonic aura slowly enveloped Xie Li, whose face turned pale with fear. He stared wide-eyed at Dayong, perhaps so frightened that he ceased to feel afraid, just staring blankly at Dayong.
He slightly opened his mouth, revealing a small decayed tooth and a half-eaten candy inside.
The silhouette of the dark woman gradually became clear. Her crimson, sunken eyes fixed on Xie Li. She appeared young but wore an exhausted and pale expression, her demeanor resembling that of an old woman, feeble and aged.
She cradled Xie Li’s face, her fingers lightly brushing over the red mole at the corner of Xie Li’s eye. “My child… my child…”
Xie Li dared not speak, biting his lip nervously.
Tears streamed down Dayong’s face as he remembered something, pulling out a candy from his pocket excitedly. “My child, eat this candy, and the pain will go away…”
Xie Li furrowed his delicate brows slightly, stealing a glance at Si Lan from the corner of his eye.
Si Lan nodded at him, and Xie Li obediently took the candy offered by Dayong.
Dayong’s expression grew increasingly joyful as he buried his head in Xie Li’s neck, his arms tightly wrapping around him.
Over tens of thousands of years, she had lost her sanity, no longer remembering her child’s face but recalling the mole beneath his eye, his love for candy, and the decayed tooth in his mouth. Whenever he spoke, his voice was soft and childish, calling out “mother” regardless of the circumstances.
Unfortunately, during their last meeting, the child fell ill, curled up in her arms, murmuring about a headache and craving candy, which she did not have.
She comforted the child, promising candy once he woke up.
She had planned to find fruit to substitute for the candy, but she was too exhausted. Planning to rest for just a moment, she never expected that when she awoke, her child would be gone.
“My child… I miss you so much…”
Dayong wept bitterly, almost obsessively staring at Xie Li’s face, then pulling him into a tight embrace.
Xie Li trembled, his face turning pale.
“My child, is your head still hurting?”
Xie Li didn’t know how to respond, glancing at Si Lan. Si Lan communicated silently with Xie Li through their shared consciousness, “Tell her your head hurts.”
“It hurts…” Xie Li spoke softly, his bright eyes adding a touch of softness that melted Dayong’s heart even more. She grinned, and in the next moment, produced a red demonic pill from her body.
“Eat this, and your pain will vanish, and you will become immortal…”
She had consumed so many demonic beings and practiced for so long just to use her body as a furnace to refine a powerful demonic pill to cure her son’s ailments.
Si Lan hadn’t expected to obtain the demonic pill so easily. He spoke in a deep voice, “Xie Li, take the demonic pill.”
Xie Li reached out tremblingly and took the demonic pill.
Si Lan felt somewhat reluctant, but he didn’t dare delay. He exchanged a glance with Hao Wei, who nodded slightly. Then, Si Lan flew towards Xie Li while saying, “Xie Li, throw the demonic pill to me.”
Trembling, Xie Li threw the demonic pill towards Si Lan.
Seeing this, Dayong suddenly turned around, his eyes filled with tears and anger. Before he could react, Si Lan swiftly tossed the demonic pill to Hao Wei.
Hao Wei immediately used the altar of conversion to contain the demonic pill. Instantly, the demonic aura from Dayong surged towards the altar of conversion. He howled and lunged towards Hao Wei, who was currently forming seals. Si Lan stepped forward to block Dayong’s attack with the sword transformed from Xuanxin Whip, its blue light enveloping it with sword energy, forcing Dayong to retreat step by step.
Losing the demonic pill, Dayong’s cultivation nearly halved. Soon, he was trapped by Si Lan in a formation, unable to move. Perhaps realizing he was about to be sealed again, Dayong looked tearfully at Xie Li.
“My child, run away quickly…”
Dayong was oblivious to the fact that over a hundred thousand years had passed in this world, and her son was no longer here, and no one would harm her son again.
Yet she still couldn’t escape from the nightmare.
The demonic pill was sealed within the Altar of Conversion, nearly extinguishing the demonic aura around Dayong. Her form grew increasingly aged, with deep wrinkles gathering on her face, almost obscuring her features. Her eyes were cloudy, but she still reached out towards Xie Li, murmuring “my child” incessantly.
Si Lan recalled Luo Hui’s final moments, the pouring rain as she struggled to heal Luo Hui’s spiritual wounds. However, no matter what he did, he couldn’t heal her.
More blood flowed, but Luo Hui seemed oblivious to the pain, reaching out to touch his face with tear-filled eyes, wanting to see him one last time.
Even after more than nine hundred years had passed, he still remembered every detail of his time with Luo Hui. Despite coming from a different world and being mentally mature, he couldn’t help but be moved by Luo Hui.
One of life’s regrets was never telling Luo Hui that he loved her.
Only after her death did he realize that Luo Hui’s love for him was unconditional and without expectation of return.
Si Lan’s eyes reddened as he wavered, holding onto spells but unable to bring himself to act.
Hao Wei noticed his distress and approached him. Seeing the tears in his eyes, Hao Wei couldn’t help but recall the night the boundary of the curse broke, when Si Lan had also lost control like this.
Hao Wei intended to cast the spell in Si Lan’s place, but Si Lan suddenly grabbed his sleeve. “I want to help her find her son.”
Hao Wei met Si Lan’s tear-filled eyes. “Her son is already dead.”
“I want to find the reincarnation of her son.” Si Lan’s voice was slightly hoarse.
Hao Wei remained silent.
Though separated by a veil, Si Lan felt the intensity of Hao Wei’s gaze, as if probing something.
It was strange indeed that he, a Demon King, would feel such compassion.
After a moment of silence, Hao Wei said, “Using the Return Spell within such a short time will cost you a significant portion of your cultivation.”
The reversal of reincarnation through formations was never sanctioned by the heavens, which was why the Return Spell gradually faded away.
“It’s okay, I just need a few days to recuperate.” After saying this, Si Lan instructed Song brothers and Qu Ze to guard the formation, then began to weave spells and silently recite incantations, transporting himself back to the day when the child was lost in Dayong.
—
Si Lan entered the illusionary realm and before he could steady himself, he saw another familiar figure entering with him.
He smirked, “Haowei, did you also accidentally stumble in this time?”
Haowei paused for a breath, knowing he’d be teased for following, but upon seeing the scene where Si Lan was enveloped in white light, he instinctively followed.
Haowei coughed softly, glad for the change of scenery, and pointed ahead, “That’s Dayong.”
“Yeah.”
They saw Dayong holding a child, with two bundles on his back, sleeping against a large rock. The child in his arms seemed sickly, cheeks flushed red, lips slightly parted, revealing a tiny gap where a milk tooth had fallen out.
Coming closer, they noticed a birthmark near the child’s eye, much like Xie Li’s, but the child didn’t resemble Xie Li.
According to ancient texts, Dayong had lost his mind because he lost his child due to overwork. However, the current situation showed Dayong not laboring, but fleeing with the child.
Si Lan sighed bitterly, “Taowei once sealed Dayong using a plan. Now, we’ve sealed Dayong again. Is it because Dayong is foolish, or does she knowingly play along with the scheme just to see her child… even if that child is just a shadow, it can still soothe her longing and pain of over a hundred thousand years.”
If it were his mother, she would probably make the same choice.
Haowei had also heard of the love story between Si Shaoxun and Luo Hui from the mouths of immortals, always tinged with mockery, how the once noble Si Shaoxun fell into darkness, forsaking a divine phoenix for a mountain chicken as his wife, truly resigning himself to decadence.
At this moment, three men in the illusion, naked above the waist and clad in animal skins below, approached Dayong, taking the child from his arms.
The child woke from sleep, instinctively calling out, “Mother…”
Dayong, exhausted, heard the cry and patted his chest, thinking the child was still in his arms, murmuring a lullaby to soothe him to sleep.
The men covered the child’s mouth, ignoring his struggles, and carried him away.
Si Lan and Haowei followed the men as they walked on. After an unknown time, they arrived at Xiling Clan.
Xiling Clan was surrounded by mountains, with a flat area in the center where a circular sacrificial platform stood. Clan members held red spears, surrounding the platform. Three young children, similar in age to Dayong’s child, were tied to the platform.
Si Lan saw them tie Dayong’s child to another wooden stake. Then, as if performing a ritual, everyone circled the platform with bowed heads, chanting incantations.
An elderly man resembling a high priest stood at the center of the platform, praying, “By the decree of Heaven, in this life’s path, honoring the way of Heaven, and following its will, we offer four children, two female and two male, to eradicate the calamity upon our clan.”
Si Lan hadn’t expected the true reason for Dayong losing her child was because Xiling Clan intended to sacrifice two boys and two girls to Heaven to remove a clan disaster.
As the clan chanted, the bodies of the four children on the platform gradually changed. Golden rays burst forth from their bodies, their faces contorted in pain.
Si Lan didn’t know what kind of spell this was, but listening to the children’s whimpering, his eyes reddened slightly.
Did Heaven anticipate such events when it handed down punishments to mankind?
Perhaps the all-powerful Heaven had long foreseen it, but it didn’t matter, as all living beings were mere experiments in its eyes.
Si Lan noticed Dayong’s child tightly gripping something. Upon closer inspection, it was a small tambourine made of animal skin.
Trembling with fear, his arms uncontrollably shook, causing the tambourine to emit a faint sound, like a sob.
When Dayong finally found her way there, all she saw was the scene of her child being thrown into the sacrificial altar. The golden light bursting from the bodies of the four children instantly enveloped the entire altar. The solemn beat of drums resounded from afar, and all the clan members knelt down, praying toward the altar.
Dayong rushed towards the sacrificial altar like a madwoman, only to see four sets of bones at the base of the altar after the golden light dissipated.
She immediately recognized which one was her son’s, holding onto the bones, she wailed in despair.
“Mother had taken you far away…”
“It’s all Mother’s fault for falling asleep. If Mother hadn’t fallen asleep, you wouldn’t have been taken away by them. Mother won’t sleep again.”
“My son, open your eyes and look at Mother. Mother has come to find you.”
Dayong’s cries echoed through the mountains and rivers, stirring countless evil energies.
Dayong, half human and half demon, completely lost her mind, her face contorted, her eye sockets crimson, her eyeballs turned completely black, surrounded by black demonic energy, like a vengeful spirit from hell seeking revenge.
“Dayong’s son is already dead. What are you going to do?” Haowei turned away and asked Si Lan.
Si Lan looked at the tambourine that had fallen from the sacrificial platform, and a thought formed in his mind. He couldn’t bring Dayong’s living son back, but he could leave her a shred of comfort.
They couldn’t change the course of history, but some insignificant things could still be altered.
For example, obtaining the tambourine from the illusion.
Si Lan tentatively drew a portal in mid-air, thinking portals could only be cast in the real world, not expecting they could be used in this illusion.
Taking advantage of the chaos between Dayong and Xiling Clan, he used magic to retrieve the tambourine.
“I intend to seal it together with Dayong.”
Haowei gazed at the tambourine in silence.
This was what the child threw out before being pushed into the sacrificial altar, perhaps his intention was for his mother to see this tambourine and know he was here.
When they emerged from the illusion, Si Lan heard Dayong’s furious roar that pierced through the heavens. As he glanced back at the illusion for the last time, he saw Xiling Clan buried under a massive mountain, thick smoke billowing up through the cracks, filling half the sky.
Xiling Clan’s original intent was to sacrifice young children to ward off the clan’s calamity, but it backfired, triggering Dayong’s massacre of the clan.
All of this seemed predestined, each link in the chain of cause and effect.
No one could escape the predetermined outcome.
—
Back in the real world, Si Lan saw Xie Li squatting near the formation, allowing Dayong to stroke his face, even though Xie Li had been trembling with fear at Dayong’s presence before.
“Your Majesty, I’ve realized this monster isn’t actually ferocious at all.” Xie Li saw Si Lan appear and immediately covered his mouth with one hand, whispering quietly.
Approaching, Si Lan rubbed Xie Li’s head and noticed him chewing on a piece of candy, understanding the reason for Xie Li’s “betrayal.”
Truly, a little disciple swayed by a single piece of candy.
Si Lan handed the tambourine to Dayong.
Dayong’s expression froze for a moment, then tears streamed down her face as she gazed at the tambourine.
This was the tambourine Dayong had made for her child. On the day she fled Xiling Clan to evade her child’s fate of being sacrificed to Heaven, the child had taken nothing but this tambourine.
She remembered the stick figures of herself and him drawn by her child on the back of the tambourine, representing Dayong and him.
Dayong gently touched those two little figures, feeling as if ten thousand years had passed, hearing her son playing the tambourine and calling her “Mother” by his side.
A tear fell from Dayong’s eye, landing softly on the animal skin of the tambourine.
In the next moment, a faint glow emanated from the surface of the tambourine, and a wisp of determination quietly surged out of the tambourine, transforming into the likeness of a young child.
It was Dayong’s son.
After his death, this determination had attached itself to the tambourine, waiting all this time for Dayong to find him.
Dayong looked at the determination in disbelief, her lips trembling slightly, unable to utter a word. Instead, the determination leaped into Dayong’s arms, calling out, “Mother…”
Only then did Dayong cry out in pain, “My son, Mother is here.”
Si Lan hadn’t expected the child to leave behind such a determination on the tambourine. It seemed his decision to bring out the tambourine was not wrong. Watching the touching scene before him, his heavy heart gradually eased.
He said, “Dayong, your child has already reincarnated. This determination he left behind in the mortal world. I will seal it with you.”
Once the determination fulfilled its purpose, it would disappear. Si Lan intended to seal it with Dayong before that happened. Perhaps this was the only thing that could comfort Dayong during her long period of sealing.
Upon hearing this, Dayong looked up at Si Lan, her eyes full of gratitude. “Thank you.”
“Dayong, how did the seal on you come undone?”
Dayong’s eyes showed confusion. “I don’t know. I just know I slept for a long time, then one day I woke up from the chaos and came to the mortal realm to find my son.”
Si Lan hadn’t yet visited Dayong Mountain to investigate what exactly had happened. Hearing Dayong’s words, he felt a sense of unease and strangeness.
Nine infants and now Dayong.
Two ancient demons whose seals had inexplicably come undone.
Once might be a coincidence, but what about twice?
T/N: Hey there! There is plenty more where that came from, so stay tuned! And stay healthy! Straighten your posture, so some stretches and drink some water before continuing hehe~
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