EHRPS CH189

With action matching his words.

Tu Tianba grabbed A-Hui’s wrist and brought him to the new cave he had his eye on earlier. On the way, he even offered a seemingly plausible explanation:

“Taking you to the Wondrous Immortal Sect before was just a stopgap measure. After all, your body is weak and delicate; who knows if you could withstand my treatment methods? It’s not that my medical skills are poor…”

Entering the cave, he first set up an aura-concealing array. Then, he pulled a white jade bed from his sleeve, gestured for the man to sit on it, and said seriously:

“The secret art of abortion is never taught to outsiders. Even though you are my Dao Companion, business is business. You don’t mind if I cover your eyes, right?”

Without waiting for the man to answer, Tu Tianba took it upon himself to untie his hair ribbon, making a show of preparing to blindfold him. But he paused for a second at the sight of the man with his hair down, leaning in to gnaw on him a couple of times.

After gnawing, he said refreshingly: “Take it off!”

“I’ll blindfold you after you finish taking it off,” Tu Tianba thought carefully and changed his mind. “Oh right, maybe I’ll blindfold you first, and I can help you take it off. It’s on the way…”

What a familiar phrasing.

A-Hui fell silent.

He couldn’t do this.

A-Hui exceptionally skillfully wiped away the moisture sucked onto his lower lip, smoothly pressing down the youth’s hand that had landed on his belt, and said with certainty, “…I can do it myself.”

Tu Tianba was very disappointed.

A-Hui pretended not to notice. Under that extremely intense gaze, he slowly removed his upper robes, folded them, and placed them aside before looking up and saying, “Done.”

Tu Tianba’s eyes darted wildly, almost tying the hair ribbon around the man’s nose, but thankfully managed to tie it properly in the end.

A-Hui let out a nearly inaudible sigh and slowly lay down.

Honestly speaking, he had no objections to being blindfolded. But considering the youth’s obsession with certain things, A-Hui couldn’t help but ask: “You won’t take this opportunity to do anything weird, will you?”

Inside the system space.

The white orb hissed. “The protagonist speaks so tactfully and nicely. He definitely meant ‘perverted things’, right?”

However, falling on Tu Tianba’s ears, these words only served as an inspiration. He scratched his face as if suddenly enlightened and asked back, “So I can do that? Then I’ll…”

A-Hui cut him off: “You cannot.”

Tu Tianba: “Tch, who cares!”

Tu Tianba acted tough for a while, struggling to pull his gaze away. Then he closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.

When he opened his eyes again—

His expression had turned cold and stern, his pitch-black apricot eyes empty of all else, seemingly entering a profound state of “the chest passes through the eyes, abortion remains in the heart.”

Inside the cave, it was dead silent.

Tu Tianba opened his palm, letting it rest gently on the man’s slightly bulging abdomen. Soon, a thin wisp of blood mist seeped from his fingertips, trailing down the man’s skin…

As the blood mist dispersed, the flesh, blood, and meridians of that hand entirely melted away, leaving only a pitch-black skeletal hand. The bone surface wasn’t smooth; it was carved with densely packed vicious ghost patterns.

Because the resonance spell on the man was still active, Tu Tianba felt a long-absent, intense pain in his abdomen, as if his internal organs were being melted, dripping a puddle of bloody water.

Being refined by the Soul-Refining Cauldron felt exactly like this.

Tu Tianba remained unmoved, concentrating entirely on manipulating the blood mist to envelop the Pill Fetus—which contained a massive amount of spiritual energy—in the man’s abdomen. Yet he couldn’t help but secretly praise himself:

As expected of this Venerable, such foresight! Otherwise, wouldn’t this delicate crybaby have fainted from the pain? This Venerable truly is a considerate, good Dao Companion!

Right at this moment.

He suddenly felt bursts of abnormal movements coming from the Pill Fetus. It was evidently resisting the blood mist’s refinement with all its might, continuously outputting its stored spiritual energy.

If it were anyone else, they might really not have been able to outlast it.

—Unfortunately for it, it was up against Tu Tianba.

His demonic breath was inexhaustible, and ordinarily, it could even automatically convert the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into demonic qi. He possessed what could be called the ultimate physique for demonic cultivation.

On this end.

Tu Tianba was fully concentrated on refining the Pill Fetus.

On the other end.

With the alternating sensations of hot and cold coming from his abdomen, A-Hui’s consciousness gradually blurred. It felt as if he were entirely enveloped by boundless darkness, unable to break free.

He didn’t even realize that he had fainted again.

A-Hui only felt a sudden bright light before his eyes and subconsciously opened them. Strangely, his vision was not blocked by any fabric…

In a daze, he caught a glimpse of a chaotic sky.

The chaotic sky had a massive hole punched through it.

Beneath the sky, to his astonishment, was a scene of the ancient Immortal-Demon War.

A-Hui, like an ethereal soul, stared blankly at seventy-two Coiling Dragon Pillars thrust diagonally into the cracked earth. Atop each pillar was nailed the corpse of a Golden Immortal—

Seventy-two corpses, not a single one missing.

The expressions on the corpses were incredibly peaceful, as if they had long anticipated this scene, even faintly revealing a sense of having fulfilled their wishes.

Beneath the Coiling Dragon Pillars lay the main battlefield.

The sounds of immortals and demons slaughtering each other filled the air. The blood of immortals and demonic creatures was scattered everywhere, the demonic blood continuously corroding the earth…

“Kill! Kill them all!”

The demonic creatures’ attacks were ferocious. The group of immortals had fought bitterly for a long time, helplessly retreating again and again. Just then, a voice transmitted through spiritual energy rang out: “Everyone, the sacrifice of the seventy-two Golden Immortals was not in vain. The Demon-Sealing Grand Array is complete! Activate the array!”

As soon as the voice fell.

A-Hui saw the Coiling Dragon Pillars light up with blinding white light. A Daoist standing at the array’s core tossed out a palm-sized white jade immortal cauldron!

In an instant, the white jade cauldron transformed into a giant cauldron as massive as the sky canopy, causing the heavens and earth to change color. The demonic creatures below were suppressed by it, and subsequently, their attacks grew even more aggressive.

Countless died on the battlefield, mangled corpses littering the ground.

“Buzz, buzz…”

The immortal cauldron seemed to sense the wailing of this world and let out a few resonant hums that shook the heavens and earth. The inverted mouth of the cauldron pressed down at terrifying speed, ignoring all cultivation boundaries, sealing the demonic creatures on the battlefield and the demonic qi surging from the earth veins completely inside the cauldron!

With the influx of demonic qi, the demon-suppressing runes on the white jade cauldron’s body gradually turned ink-black. The demonic creatures inside struggled to escape, but only managed to brand faces resembling vicious ghosts onto the cauldron’s exterior.

Then, the immortal cauldron filled to the brim with demonic qi, faintly showing signs of being unable to devour any more. The few remaining Golden Immortals sacrificed themselves to fill the gap, turning their magical weapons to pierce their own throats…

In the end, this ancient Immortal-Demon War concluded with mutual destruction. Both sides suffered heavy losses, and the mortal realm was left in ruins, needing who knows how many years to recover.

Fortunately, the immortal cauldron, coalesced with the spiritual power of countless immortals, sealed millions upon millions of demonic creatures. It also absorbed all the demonic qi that wreaked havoc on the world, returning an expanse of pure qi to the mortal realm.

It was just that it was completely dyed ink-black, never to return to its original appearance.

After doing all this, the immortal cauldron returned to its original size, but its master, who activated the array, had exhausted all his spiritual energy and died withered.

It became an ownerless magical artifact.

Yet the immortal cauldron still remembered its mission. It sought out an abyss, buried itself inside, and after letting out one final hum, sank into a slumber lasting millions of years.

“…”

A-Hui’s mind was reeling, naturally comprehending the current situation: What he was seeing was actually the memories of that immortal cauldron!

Time flew like a shuttle.

In the blink of an eye for A-Hui, millions of years passed.

The immortal cauldron’s spiritual consciousness had been corrupted and dissipated by the demonic qi. The countless demonic creatures inside, however, retained their undying resentment, washing and refining this immortal cauldron into an ancient demonic weapon. By a stroke of coincidence, it was dug up by a cultivator seeking immortality.

The cultivator, Lan Daozi, was bewitched by the demonic cauldron and fell into the demonic path. His temperament changed drastically, becoming cruel and cold-blooded. He frequently used living humans to refine the demonic cauldron through sacrifice, and even gave it a name—

The Soul-Refining Cauldron.

One day.

Lan Daozi passed by an impoverished village. The Soul-Refining Cauldron hummed, signaling him to stop there.

Sure enough.

Lan Daozi actually discovered a remarkably talented brat in this small village. He immediately put on the facade of a cultivator with an immortal demeanor, wanting to take the child as his disciple.

The mundane world was mostly ignorant.

Lan Daozi casually showed off a few tricks, and the entire village revered him as an immortal master.

The brat’s father was an illiterate butcher, shouting half in trepidation and half in pleasant surprise:

“Oh my, my Xiaoming really is exceptionally clever! I told you a kid this mischievous would achieve great things in the future, everyone should believe me this time, right?!”

The villagers nodded in unison, looking as if they shared in the honor.

Only the child, who had just come back from rolling around outside, holding a small branch, asked with a face full of cluelessness:

“Ah? Why are there so many people in my house?”

“Today isn’t pig-slaughtering day, and I haven’t caused any trouble these past two days?”

The child was covered in mud, his face dirty, but those large, round eyes were incredibly bright. Upon learning what had happened, he scratched his face and said bluntly:

“Cultivating immortality? Cultivate my ass, not going.”

Soon after, because of his disrespectful words toward the immortal master, he was dragged behind the house by his butcher father and given a spanking. But before he could even start wailing, he was pulled into his butcher father’s embrace, coaxed softly:

“You should go, this is your opportunity.”

“Dad doesn’t want you trapped here for your whole life…”

The child was originally still angry. Hearing this, he awkwardly turned his head back, speaking while still mad: “If I leave, you’ll be the only one left at home. And what if that person is a scammer? If he turns around and sells me, how will I find the way back home?”

“That immortal master has such great abilities, how could he be a scammer! Trust me!”

“…Hmph, not going.”

“Then how about this, you finish your apprenticeship as quickly as possible, then come back to see me, is that okay?”

In the end, the child was persuaded to step onto the path of cultivating immortality.

On the day he left the village, A-Hui and the other villagers saw the two of them off. He watched the child walk away, turning his head back every three steps, his face full of reluctance.

A-Hui understood the causes and consequences, his heart incredibly heavy. But before he could think further, the scene before him abruptly shifted. It was actually Lan Daozi returning alone, feeding the lives of the entire village into the cauldron!

In an instant, wails and cries of agony rose from all sides.

A-Hui stood among them, his eyes displaying a rare, piercing coldness, like an unsheathed blade. Sadly, he was merely a phantom projection, and the scene before him…

was just an old event from an unknown number of years ago.

No one had the power to change it.

A-Hui’s heart sank heavily. Like a wandering ghost, he watched the child—kept completely in the dark—cultivate diligently just to return home sooner.

Ten years later, the child grew into a young teenager.

And it was exactly in the tenth year, when the youth reached Foundation Establishment, that disaster struck.

Prompted by the demonic cauldron, Lan Daozi revealed his ferocious true colors to the youth, throwing him into the cauldron to be refined by demonic breath and yin fire.

During this time, Lan Daozi also spat out the truth about massacring the village, and how the souls of those people were trapped in the cauldron, unable to escape for all eternity. This fueled the youth to spawn numerous emotions like anger and sorrow, which the demonic cauldron required…

A-Hui couldn’t feel pain.

So standing in front of the youth, whose eyes were nearly splitting open, he didn’t know exactly how painful it was when the other’s flesh, blood, and internal organs were being melted.

In a daze, A-Hui only thought of one sentence.

It was the sentence the youth had said while clutching his chest: “It feels like ants are biting my heart.”

…A-Hui finally empathized.

Right at this moment.

He suddenly heard a familiar hum. It was actually a sliver of remaining divine intent from the immortal cauldron sending a revelation to the youth.

Strangely, A-Hui also understood it.

The cauldron spirit was willing to exhaust its final sliver of divine intent to release all the wronged souls thrown in by the demonic cultivator, helping them re-enter the cycle of reincarnation. But the price was that the youth had to fuse with it, taking its place to continue suppressing the demonic creatures’ resentment, preventing it from continuing to bewitch cultivators and bringing disaster to the mortal realm.

Looking at the familiar, wrongly killed faces in the cauldron, two lines of blood tears flowed down the youth’s face, and he hastily agreed to it.

But how could the resentment of ancient demonic creatures be so easily resisted?

The youth simply split his own soul in two. One half remained in the cauldron to resist the demonic creatures’ resentment, while the other half retained the majority of his humanity, which resulted in the youth’s personality leaning toward a childish erraticness and playfulness…

He never forgot the promise.

Perhaps because a person’s willpower weakens after falling asleep, the youth never slept. He would even slap his own face to stay awake, taking the opportunity to bicker with the demonic creatures’ resentment in the cauldron.

He even planted a powerful restriction acting on his own soul: Only when the problem of fusion with the Soul-Refining Cauldron was resolved could he sleep.

For the next ten years, the youth rushed about on the path of seeking medical help, yet was constantly feared due to the demonic qi covering his body. Furthermore, the demonic qi would amplify the evil thoughts in people’s hearts…

A-Hui followed by his side, watching him be ostracized or attacked by mobs, watching this youth—who was resisting ancient demonic qi—step by step become the universally recognized, murderous Demon Lord by both the immortal and demonic paths.

—Truly ridiculous.

A-Hui gazed at the utterly exhausted youth, who had locked himself in a cave just to exchange for a moment of rest. Unconsciously, he stepped forward, wanting to gently stroke his face…

But it was merely wishful thinking.

He was worse off than a wandering ghost.

At the very least, wandering ghosts truly existed in the youth’s past, whereas he was merely an ethereal spectator, unable to do anything.

A bitter smile surfaced on A-Hui’s lips.

The next instant.

The surrounding scenery changed again.

A-Hui turned his head and saw the youth walking on a small path with a butcher knife, humming an off-key tune, not showing the slightest hint that he was enduring pain beyond ordinary imagination.

…It evoked admiration in one’s heart.

A-Hui subconsciously lifted his leg to follow.

Never in his wildest dreams did he expect that the moment he looked up, a tall, slender figure dressed in fluttering white robes would abruptly crash into his line of sight.

That person stood not far away.

That person…

Had a face exactly identical to his own.

A-Hui felt as if struck by lightning.

At the same time, a bizarre sound rang in his ears, like the sound of a box hidden deep in his mind being opened.