Chapter 63: Azure Cloud (41)

“Kill someone? Kill who?” Zhang Duixue’s eyes were blank. “That demon?”

He Tingzhen’s expression didn’t change. “You heard wrong. Pick up people—I’ll just wander around for a bit. After all, I still haven’t seen Fu Fengyan. I’m going inside to check if anyone’s been left behind.”

“No, I’ll go with you.” Zhang Duixue came back to his senses, carrying someone on his back and huffing along behind He Tingzhen. “You can’t act alone. It’s too dangerous here now. Xiangli Lingze has run off somewhere unknown. Your cultivation isn’t enough, your spiritual power won’t last long. We can’t get separated again.”

Zhang Duixue spoke righteously, only unfortunately there was a head stuck to his shoulder rubbing against him like a cat, making incomprehensible humming and calling sounds, grating on the ears, causing He Tingzhen to frequently glance sideways.

Young Palace Master Xie’s usually impeccable long hair was now loose and disheveled, his expression carrying an indescribable hazy vulnerability. “Little Xue, Little Xue,” he kept calling, his hands restless, touching and embracing everywhere, truly unseemly and further impeding Zhang Duixue’s movements.

He Tingzhen really couldn’t stand it anymore and reminded him: “Are you sure you want to follow me like this? I’m afraid you’ll be stripped naked halfway there.”

Holding his collar with one hand, Zhang Duixue’s face was red enough to drip blood. With his brain, he couldn’t understand why Xie Xuanxiao became so improper after falling into the nightmare. He could only slap away the other’s hands while clutching his own clothes, also having to prevent the person on his back from sliding down. Xie Xuanxiao was already quite tall—the moment he wasn’t careful, one of his legs would slip down. As soon as it touched the demonic energy, black spots would surge up another section, and the person’s condition would become even more chaotic. For a time, everything was a mess, hands frantically busy, completely undignified.

So He Tingzhen kindly suggested: “This won’t work. Young Palace Master Xie will only delay our rescue progress. How about I wait here for you, you send him out first, then come back to find me?”

Zhang Duixue was caught between difficulties, unable to manage everything at once. He suspiciously stared at He Tingzhen. “Then come out with me together, and we’ll come back in together?”

“No, it’s pitch black here. I finally calculated the path. If I come back in, I might not be able to find the location.” He Tingzhen stood there properly, appearing especially upright and reliable. “Brother Zhang, don’t worry. I’ll be right here, not going anywhere.”

“Your cultivation is higher, go quickly and return quickly. Let’s meet back here in a quarter hour, how about it?”

Zhang Duixue’s brows furrowed slightly. He thought for a moment, looking at He Tingzhen’s sincere eyes. After a long silence, he nodded. “Alright, don’t move around. I’ll be right back!”

With that, he grabbed Xie Xuanxiao’s two arms together, adjusted his posture and shook him, gave a heave-ho, and forcibly hoisted the person onto his shoulder, striding forward and running very quickly.

“Slow down, don’t drop him!” He Tingzhen waved goodbye. Seeing the person disappear into the fog, he turned and left.

He had died three times at Shen Xiyuan’s hands.

Once falling off a cliff, once from poisoning, once meeting on the battlefield—defeated and then tortured to death. After those three times, facing the couple Shen Xiyuan and Yun Zhi, he was never defeated again.

He formed seals with his fingers and looked up. It was pitch black—the world seemed to have been swallowed whole. In the dark fog, only dots of white light remained—those were disciples fleeing everywhere with spiritual power protecting their bodies. The further in he went, the dimmer those light dots became. Gradually, only his own figure remained, shrouded in a layer of faint fluorescent light, as if walking at the world’s end.

Shen Xiyuan’s Sea of Consciousness Heart Domain was called Nightmare Dream. With a range of 1,200 meters, it spread from the inside out. The closer to the center, the greater the influence. Being deeply trapped in it too long would cause one to lose their mind, sink into past pain, kill each other, or suffer mental collapse.

Countless black masses the size of eyeballs floated in the air like willow catkins. As the airflow stirred by a person’s walking rolled them up, they stuck on one by one, landing on the corners of clothes, robe sleeves, and hair strands, glowing with circles of colorful iridescent light. They licked at that thin layer of spiritual power like spring silkworms eating leaves, quickly eroding mottled holes, merging into the youth’s thin body. With a few gurgles, blood-red eyes bloomed on pale skin. Only those colorful, bewitching eyes wandered for a moment before dropping off He Tingzhen’s body one by one, rolling onto the ground.

“You’re going to kill the demon?” Fu Fengyan’s voice suddenly sounded. “If your spirit body continues to be damaged, it will hurt a lot when you wake up.”

“It’s alright. I move very quickly. The Marriage Mirror is reaching its limit—it will explode in at most half an hour, so I can’t suffer too severe an injury.” He Tingzhen asked with a smile, “Where are you?”

“Sending you back to the small courtyard.” Fu Fengyan’s voice was wooden. “The rain has stopped.”

He Tingzhen: “How’s Xiao Yue’s situation?”

“Sleeping.” Fu Fengyan pushed open the door, looking at the youth sprawled in a pile of books in the room, reporting: “The seal Qin Tan placed on him is about to break. Demonic energy is showing externally, spirit body is stable, only on his head… horns have grown.”

Yue Qianxun lay on the ground, brows tightly furrowed, not knowing what dream he was trapped in. His lips were nearly bitten through, and on his sweat-covered forehead emerged two bulging pitch-black dragon horn bumps, looking somewhat bizarre and comical.

“Do you need me to help conceal them?” After observing for a moment, Fu Fengyan asked, “You can’t move now. I can kiss you myself—won’t be at a loss.”

He Tingzhen was silent for a long time before firmly refusing. “The seal on Xiao Yue has loosened. Brother Tan and the others should have already noticed and will soon come to reseal it. If you kiss me, be careful of getting beaten. As for other small troubles, we don’t need you, Divine Lord, to take action yet. Rest for now.”

Fu Fengyan’s bargaining failed. Quite disappointed, he wandered around the courtyard. In another room, Zhang Duixue was sprawled on a table, face flushed, obviously also fallen into some unspeakable trouble.

The vast Azure Cloud Academy was now quiet to the point of being somewhat boring. He wandered around in a circle, finally entering He Tingzhen’s room. Sensing Qin Tan’s approaching aura, he lay by the bedside, pillowing on He Tingzhen’s hand and rubbing against it. After a while, still not satisfied, he climbed onto the bed, found a more comfortable position, and “passed out.”

Shen Xiyuan’s whereabouts weren’t difficult to find. One external release of the Sea of Consciousness Heart Domain was enough to drain all his demonic energy. Add Xie Xuanxiao’s entrapment array, and though the current Nightmare Dream looked intense, its master’s condition might not be that good.

The closer to the center of the battlefield, the more those chaotic pavilions, towers, and scenery from various states were completely eroded, revealing the mirror’s true nature.

With a crack, He Tingzhen stepped out a fissure like broken ice. The figure beneath his feet instantly turned into dozens. It also alarmed the young man who was meditating to regulate his breathing.

Shen Xiyuan shed that cumbersome shell, revealing his sinister and demonic true form. Turbid foul energy surrounded him, his eyes were blood red, his long hair danced wildly, and beneath his feet lay the unconscious Yue Qianxun.

The youth’s spirit body was curled into a ball, his robes pitch black and filthy, demonic energy almost wrapping him into a cocoon. His form had changed greatly, as if he’d shot up, stretched from a short lump into a slender strip. A glimpse of his profile showed it was covered in dragon scales, vaguely carrying some shadow of the Demon Lord from the previous life.

Probably still affected by some demonic energy, He Tingzhen felt irritated just looking at that face.

Several Nightmare Dreams surged over and drilled into his body. This time, because of this thread of negative emotion, they couldn’t detach. They flickered on He Tingzhen’s body and quickly corroded a large area of texture.

He Tingzhen glanced at it and raised his sword to cut it away.

Spirit bodies had no flesh and blood. Where that piece was cut away left a hollow. The Nightmare Dreams that had fed on spiritual power bounced and hopped toward Shen Xiyuan, planning to provide him nourishment. Only before they could roll over, they were stepped on by a foot and crushed flat.

“So it’s you.” Looking at the youth before him with light, swaying steps and no威懾力 whatsoever, Shen Xiyuan sneered, not caring at all. “A tiny ant dares to come before this lord to seek death.”

His condition actually wasn’t that good. He already had old injuries before, and this time the soul fragment was forcibly split. His cultivation had dropped several realms and he was trapped in this secret realm, taking several beatings. His divine soul was hit by Xie Xuanxiao’s killing array—even if he didn’t die, he’d shed a layer of skin.

Outside, there was still that group of old geezers from the Immortal Alliance eyeing him covetously. This soul fragment of his absolutely couldn’t return. But if he could refine this group of children clean, then charge out of this small secret realm and cause chaos throughout Azure Cloud Academy, that would live up to the demon clan’s reputation and be enough to anger the Immortal Alliance for three to five hundred years.

Looking up disdainfully, although Shen Xiyuan didn’t understand why He Tingzhen still had his sanity, facing a mere third realm cultivator, he could completely handle him easily. After all, within the Sea of Consciousness Heart Domain, he was the ruler of this world!

With a casual wave, boundless demonic energy surged forth like giant waves on the sea, rushing toward the youth who didn’t even have much protective spiritual power. Only unexpectedly, what rushed out from the black fog wasn’t thousands of well-fed Nightmare Dreams, but a sword.

An ordinary spiritual weapon, a spiritual sword that every Sword Sect disciple received upon entry—the sword tip pierced through the dim fog. A dot of silver light, like a star hanging in the sky, utterly inconspicuous, yet in the next instant it broke through and pressed against his throat. With a light slash, Shen Xiyuan’s neck suddenly ruptured!

His pupils constricted sharply. Pressing his head that had nearly split apart, he awkwardly pulled away and drew a long blade from the demonic energy to block the remaining strikes.

He Tingzhen’s eyes were calm, neither happy nor sad. Countless Nightmare Dreams surged over, drilling into his body, then dropping out the next second. He seemed to have no emotions, no love or hate, no likes or dislikes, not even killing intent. Only the sword in his hand came stabbing from extremely tricky and terrifying angles. Shen Xiyuan was shocked to discover he could hardly parry.

In just one short year—a year ago when he drew his sword, He Tingzhen didn’t even have a chance to draw his own. A year later, he could actually completely suppress him with swordsmanship alone!

Shen Xiyuan landed heavily, shattering large pieces of mirror surface. Among countless cracks, there were countless He Tingzhens, smiling at the corners of their mouths, eyes pitch black and calm, figures slender, executing a sword flourish with one hand. “Brother Shen, I yield.”

Shen Xiyuan stared at him as if seeing a ghost. He remembered what Yun Zhi had once mentioned—that after He Tingzhen fell off the cliff, both his skills and personality had completely changed.

He hadn’t taken Yun Zhi’s words seriously at first. How formidable could he be? At most he’d fallen off a cliff and gained some inheritance, or been possessed by something.

If it was an inheritance, no matter how heaven-defying, studying for a year or two—what could come of it? If it was possession, as fellow practitioners of the demonic path, perhaps they could even have a few words of common language.

As one of the Six Lords of the Demon Realm, he had always looked down on these ants. Back then he didn’t have much contact with He Tingzhen. Now having just arrived at Azure Cloud Academy, sneaking around investigating news about Yue Qianxun every day, there was even less reason to.

Only now, as he reattached his severed wrist, did he properly examine the youth before him—or rather… the monster.

Amid cracking sounds, the shattering of mirror surfaces continued endlessly. He Tingzhen raised his hand to brush away the black fog before his eyes, pressing closer toward Shen Xiyuan step by step. Not much time remained—he still needed a quick battle and swift resolution to clean up this mess before reporting back.

Only before he could continue approaching, he suddenly heard a sharp rebuke from the side: “He Tingzhen, stop! Go any further and I’ll kill him!”

Slowly turning around, he saw Yun Zhi running out from somewhere. He’d had it quite comfortable—someone had protected him, his spirit body was still completely intact. Apart from some dishevelment from running too long, he hadn’t even depleted half his spiritual power. Now panting heavily, he held a sword across Yue Qianxun’s neck, threatening: “If you dare touch a single hair on A-Yuan, I’ll make your lackey’s soul scatter!”

Shen Xiyuan: “…”

He Tingzhen laughed. “Young Sect Master Yun, you’re still so stupid.”