CBGC - ch103.1

Chapter 103: The Deal

     Before two days could pass, the Demon Venerable is once again shaking the little bell to make Su Tingyun possess Xi Guang’s body.

     The one he dispatched has yet to bring back any information about Su Tingyun, which is enough to show that this person is indeed not famous. The cultivation world is vast, and it is truly not easy to dig information about an unknown cultivator. But he is not in a hurry, so he tells Su Tingyun some things about Xi Guang back then, eventually mentioning: "Your former paramours, Duan Potian and Wang Xuanzhi, they obtained the secret key to the Immortal Palace. I will take you out in a few days, meet them and see if you can trick them into giving you the stuff, like before."

     He disdains being a lackey for those Upper Realm cultivators, and now he has much less information in his grasp. Failing to obtain the secret key of the Immortal Palace is making him feel a little unhappy.

     "I'm not Xi Guang." Su Tingyun's soul is much better now, but after hearing the Demon Venerable's words, specifically when he mentioned Wang Xuanzhi, her mood gets even worse.

     When Wang Xuanzhi heard that Senior E didn't mention him before she died, his dejected expression at that time made her feel that Wang Xuanzhi actually liked Senior E. Since the Demon Venerable doesn’t know that she’s familiar with E Changguang and Wang Xuanzhi, he couldn’t have made these things up to deceive her. That is to say, the relationship between Wang Xuanzhi and Xi Guang is ambiguous.

     Moreover, the Demon Venerable mentioned something about the secret key of the Immortal Palace. Maybe her previous guess was wrong– that the box containing the Heavenly Fire is not the key, that the real one has now appeared. Or… did Xiao Mei's key fall into someone else's hands? Su Tingyun hopes it’s the former.

     The Demon Venerable doesn’t contradict her, "You are not Xi Guang, you are Su Tingyun. So tell me, how can you make your soul possess a body?"

     The Demon Venerable usually has a sinister aura about him, but now that he’s asking questions, he has a friendly smile and a very gentle tone. His entire demeanor has changed, as if he’s transformed into a different person. However, as soon as he hears that Su Tingyun doesn’t know, that spring-like smile instantly turns into a malicious expression. He grabs Su Tingyun's throat with one hand and snarls, "Have you no sense of shame?"

     There’s a lot of strength in his grip, "Your sword is a soul device, and you can bring it as a primordial spirit..." He pauses for a moment, then his eyes shine. There’s a tremble in his voice, "Could it be that you are a sword spirit?"

     "I'm a human being,  I was born with an unstable primordial soul." Su Tingyun can’t breathe, but she squeezes out a weak reply.

     The Demon’s face is gloomy, and the hand locked around her throat becomes even more unforgiving. Just then, there’s another voice, "She can't give you answers, but I can help you."

     The Demon Venerable suddenly lets go, throwing Su Tingyun aside. He then reaches out to grab into the void, and the long knife on the weapon rack flies straight into his palm. The moment he’s holding the weapon, he becomes entirely murderous.

     This is considered to be the most heavily guarded place of the Moon Worship Cult, yet someone managed to sneak in unnoticed. The Demon Venerable can’t see the intruder, but he remains calm and merely strikes forward with his weapon. The air fills with countless wretched screams, and a formation array in the stone chamber begins to fluctuate.

     Sensing the direction of the fluctuations, the Demon Venerable slashes out again. Soon, a male voice continues to speak: "The remnant soul in your Nightmare Tapir Phoenix Feather Frame, I have a way to keep her primordial spirit from dispersing."

     As soon as those words land, the Demon Venerable's hand shakes slightly. His form brims with hostility, and he speaks in a sinister tone: "Who are you?"

     Who would have guessed that what the Demon Venerable wants the most is to preserve the device spirit of the Phoenix Feather Frame.

     It is possible for a magic weapon to give birth to a weapon spirit, but this takes a very long time, a long companionship, and chance. It may be a consciousness born to protect its master, or it may be the obsessions left behind after the master's passing. Of course, there are spirits in the world, and perhaps over the long years, they can also develop spiritual intelligence on their own.

     There is also a spirit in the Phoenix Feather Frame. But it is not by normal means that it came to be.

     The spirit of the weapon is formed by the condensation of a remnant soul, and is different from those naturally born device spirits. She has persisted for thousands of years, and is now getting weaker and weaker. She can't last for too long.

     She is a life he created with his own hands.

     She has the will of the Fire Phoenix back then.

     She is very beautiful. In the Demon Venerable's heart, the number one beauty that was Xi Guang cannot even compare to her in the slightest. But she has no body, she is not an entity born naturally in the world, an existence forbidden by Heavenly Law. The Demon Venerable likes to torture human souls because he wants to find a way to prolong her life. He stole Xi Guang's body in the hopes that she would have a real physical form. However, he tried countless times and still did not find a real solution.

     This is the secret he’s hiding deep in his heart, and someone has now exposed it so easily. The Demon Venerable moves his knife back and places the tip of the blade on Su Tingyun's neck, sneering as he says, "You may have snuck in without showing yourself, even finding my secret, but I know you came for her. I still hold all the cards."

     With a light swipe of his knife tip, a gash appears on Su Tingyun's neck, and blood flows out unstoppably. She was getting strangled before, and there are several deep finger marks on her neck, which is horrifying to see. Su Tingyun is in great pain, but she doesn’t utter a word. She has already guessed who came.

     The Demon Venerable continues: "If you want to negotiate terms with me, show some sincerity."

     ...

     After he says that, out of nowhere, a person appears inside the stone chamber. He looks like he doesn’t have any cultivation at all, and he simply stands quietly in the center.

     Su Tingyun's eyes flashes. It is indeed Bai Su. So he already came up from the bottom of the Sealed Heaven Border, but why is he alone? One should remember, Bai Su can't use spiritual energy. He normally can't even fly by himself.