Chapter 60 - 57: Red Simurgh Tribulation Body
A steady drizzle fell upon the mountain.
Unlike the rains of summer, autumn rains were more reserved, yet they were incessant. Linger in them too long, and you’d easily catch a chill.
A young girl slowly made her way up the mountain from its base.
Yet the rain did not touch her.
The young girl murmured, "Hm?"
Before her lay a scene of utter ruin. Splintered wood was scattered everywhere; the entire temple had been reduced to rubble.
This was the Compassionate Temple, the very place Lu Changyuan had found Qiu Yuehan.
"Who could have destroyed this temple."
No one could have discerned the emotion in the young girl’s voice. She was merely stating a fact.
Curiously, though the girl was blindfolded, she could see everything.
Su Youwan reached out a hand. The timbers shattered by Xian Qingqiu parted before her. She stepped inside the temple, folded her umbrella, and set it in a corner. Carrying the birdcage covered in black cloth, she gazed upon the statue of the White Jade Guanyin.
The Buddha Statue hadn’t been destroyed. It sat intact within the temple, merely coated in a layer of dust. At a glance, it still wore the downcast eyes of a Bodhisattva, yet its nature was that of the Supreme Heartless.
The young girl waved her hand, and the dust on the statue vanished, revealing its true form—like that of a multi-limbed spider. Yet, compared to this White Jade Bodhisattva, it was the girl who seemed to hold more compassion for all living things.
She spoke.
"Master, I failed to retrieve the sword. Someone used it to unleash A Sword from the West."
The Buddha Statue actually responded.
The White Jade Guanyin seemed to come to life, its crystalline form radiating a soft glow.
After a long moment, the young girl said, "Yes."
’This is about what I expected,’ Su Youwan thought. ’That young man is anything but normal. It’s highly likely Master has taken an interest in him.’
The glow from the White Jade Guanyin faded.
In truth, she too was quite interested in the young man. It wasn’t because he was handsome, or because his Swordsmanship was masterful, but because of his scent.
Su Youwan loved the young man’s scent. It was like a delicious green bean pastry, making one’s mouth water.
’Right now... he’s probably at Miao Yu Palace.’
’This is a problem. How do I get to Miao Yu Palace?’
Su Youwan had no choice but to return to the Glazed Dynasty. After finding the still-living National Preceptor and asking for directions, she set off for Miao Yu Palace once more.
By the time she arrived, it was raining again.
Su Youwan actually hated the rain. Rain meant holding an umbrella, and holding an umbrella meant both of her hands would be occupied.
But when the heavens wish to rain and a Fairy wishes to marry, some things are simply out of one’s hands.
Something caught the young girl’s attention.
The rain.
It was unlike ordinary rain, and even more unlike the black rain that fell over the Glazed Dynasty. The rain at Miao Yu Palace was more like ink.
Su Youwan could even smell the scent of ink in the raindrops.
Carrying her birdcage and holding an oil-paper umbrella, the young girl flew into midair.
She suddenly felt a pang of hunger. She removed the white cloth covering her eyes, revealing a pair of exquisitely beautiful eyes beneath. But what was most striking was their color: a deep, vibrant crimson.
White hair, red eyes—all the signs of ill omen were embodied in this young girl.
Su Youwan murmured, "Ink?"
So the young girl held out her hand, catching a drop of the inky rain. The black liquid stained her pale, slender fingers, a stark and filthy blemish.
BOOM!
In the distance, a brilliant flash of sword-light split the rainy night for a moment, but only a moment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Han Ze wasn’t the only one who had Fallen into Demon.
Beneath the blood moon, Xian Qingqiu had also Fallen into Demon.
The moment Hanyi severed the chains, Xian Qingqiu felt something was wrong.
It was a dazed, disorienting sensation, as if the world itself was receding, and she along with it.
Her consciousness felt like it was being devoured, and her memories began to fade.
She stumbled through Miao Yu Palace, finally collapsing against a tree.
’Am I dying?’
The random Thought surfaced in her mind.
As a red mist abruptly rose around her, she realized she was disappearing. Black fur sprouted from her elegant arms, and her long, straight legs twisted and contorted.
’I... I’ve been corrupted by the Desire Demon?’
Xian Qingqiu stared at her own body in disbelief.
’How could this be... How?’
’How many people had I killed? I risked everything to regain my cultivation! How could I be corrupted by the Desire Demon now!?’
The world before her eyes suddenly transformed into an ink-wash painting. A black-and-white longspear materialized before her.
’The Overlord Spear... My... spear?’
Xian Qingqiu remembered.
She hadn’t started as a disciple of the Canglan Sect. She was from a Minor Sect in the Black Realm—the Overlord Spear Sect. She had once been the most beautiful Fairy in the entire Overlord Spear Sect.
So, the Overlord Spear Sect gifted her to an Elder of the Canglan Sect.
Xian Qingqiu would rather have died than submit. In response, the Elder destroyed her Cultivation.
She was tortured by that Elder for three years. Later, when the Elder fell from power and a new regime took over the Canglan Sect, she finally escaped from the lightless dungeons.
Hatred. An endless, bottomless hatred.
’Why? Why was I the one to be tortured so? All the Cultivation I had so bitterly earned—gone, just like that?’
As her hatred festered, the Desire Demon took root.
She came to understand: cultivation was nothing more than a world where people devoured one another.
Xian Qingqiu began to willingly debase herself. From a mere servant to a True Inheritor, she seduced the disciples of the Canglan Sect one by one. She feasted on human blood and persecuted her sect-mates, exchanging their lives and secrets for Spiritual Medicine and Cultivation Techniques. At long last, she clawed her way back to the Fourth Realm.
’This time, if I can just devour Miao Yu Palace, I can be promoted to a True Inheritor of the Canglan Sect.’
’How could I let myself be corrupted by the Desire Demon here!?’
Xian Qingqiu’s thoughts turned to Xia Lianxue.
In her eyes, Xia Lianxue was just as base as she was, seducing men just to restore her cultivation.
’But why did Xia Lianxue have to be so lucky? Why did she get to meet a handsome, gentle man who would help her escape the Sea of Suffering?’
Xian Qingqiu pushed herself to her feet and staggered forward.
After who knows how long in a stupor, her Spirit Platform suddenly cleared. She lifted her head and found herself standing beside the Scripture Pavilion of Miao Yu Palace.
The landscape painting hanging on the Scripture Pavilion seemed to shimmer before her eyes.
「In a flash.」
Her surroundings bled into shades of ink-wash, and a long staircase materialized before her.
’The painting?’
Somehow, the landscape painting was already in her hands. With a violent tug, she ripped it from the wall.
Everything enveloped her in a swirl of Ink-Wash. She transformed back into a pure and beautiful Fairy. The sword she had learned from the Canglan Sect snapped in two, and in her hand was now an Ink-Wash longspear.
Xian Qingqiu didn’t know what was happening. She only knew that a voice was speaking in her mind—a voice whose gender and even species were impossible to discern.
The voice said, "Find Xia Lianxue."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now that the grand spectacle was over, Jiang Jiayi had been planning to leave.
The Miao Yu Palace Master had not fallen, so the affairs of Miao Yu Palace were no longer her concern. But just as she was preparing to leave with Qiu Yuehan, something unexpected happened.
Ink began to rain from the sky.
RUMBLE.
For some reason, the Thunder Tribulation had not yet dissipated. It continued to hammer the world with golden bolts of lightning.
An Ink-Wash Person emerged from the curtain of rain, longspear in hand. The entire Miao Yu Palace then began to lose its color, as if a painting were fading, everything devolving back into a blank sheet of paper.
Before Jiang Jiayi could even process what was happening, the Ink-Wash Person raised its spear and charged straight for her.
’Since when was a Yao Guang-level Ink-Wash Person hiding in Miao Yu Palace!?’
Qiu Yuehan, standing beside Jiang Jiayi, said in disbelief, "Xian Qingqiu."
Jiang Jiayi frowned. "Who is Xian Qingqiu?"
"A disciple from the Canglan Sect."
’If she’s just a disciple of the Canglan Sect, how does she have the power of the Yao Guang Realm?’
Soon, Jiang Jiayi no longer needed to puzzle over the matter. Xian Qingqiu’s face began to fade like dissolving Ink-Wash, transforming into a face Jiang Jiayi had once seen in a portrait.
"Ancestor Red Simurgh!?"