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Chapter 21: Breaking the Contract — Throwing a Tantrum
In early spring, the peaks of Wanhua Sect were still tinged with emerald, the forest leaves deepening in color, and by the time they drifted down, the mountains were blanketed in crimson maple.
Red maple leaves carpeted the courtyard. One of them gently landed on the back of a small, snow-white fluffy ball, only to be swatted off by a paw.
The small white beast leaped up lightly, dodging the formation array that appeared beneath its feet, and jumped onto the roof ridge, smugly shaking its ears—only to be trapped within a formation array that rose up in an instant.
The array spread out, talismans flowing and circulating, talisman and array combining—freezing the Demon Emperor's form for one second.
The next second, Cang Shun brought a palm down.
Maple leaves swirled up and then drifted back down, scattering a rain of red maple. A red leaf swept past the Demon Emperor's demon eyes, and was reflected in the clear, deep gaze of the young human.
【Not bad, to actually be able to freeze Benzun】
Chen Moqing smiled faintly: "It is the Demon Emperor's Majesty who showed mercy."
【Benzun simply doesn't like to be stubborn about such things like those people】
Cang Shun unhurriedly stepped across the red maple leaves drifting through the air and leaped onto Chen Moqing's shoulder.
【You've improved quickly】
Chen Moqing: "Mm, Mimi has been a good sparring partner."
Cang Shun instinctively let out a proud hum.
A second passed—wait, something was wrong!
Why was it that when he was genuinely being praised, that name was used again!
The small white beast opened its round beast eyes wide, raised its fluffy paw, and ruffled through the young human's dark hair.
Chen Moqing calmly took a step forward, bringing this Demon Emperor along as he walked out of the courtyard, passed through the mountain stream, and arrived at a small bamboo grove courtyard.
Yun Buwan was watering plants in the courtyard. Her streaks of white among dark hair were still pinned up with a hairpin carved with sparrow feather patterns, its luster flowing and gentle under the sunlight.
Chen Moqing, as usual, sought her guidance on questions regarding formation arrays, and received answers to all of them.
"In three days, the sect's secret realm opens. I will give it my all."
During this period of time, no array path secret realms had appeared in the Qingluan Prefecture. Instead, it was a sect secret realm belonging to Wanhua Sect that was about to open, and all inner disciples were required to enter it to take part in an assessment.
Yun Buwan wordlessly tossed something over—it was a scale-shaped magic treasure that shimmered with flowing, colorful radiance, known as the Heart-Guard Scale.
"The secret realm is treacherous. Even if something happens to you, I won't go in to save you," Her face remained as expressionless as ever: "Come out early."
Chen Moqing smiled and accepted the magic treasure: "Alright."
The Heart-Guard Scale flickered and glowed, its brilliant light reflected in a pair of crimson demon eyes. The small white beast silently drew close and stared at it, so Chen Moqing casually placed the scale on top of that fluffy little head, pressing a shallow dent into it.
The small white beast quickly shook its head and flung it off, then caught it in its paw to toy with.
Yun Buwan: "You're bringing a cat in with you?"
"Yes," Chen Moqing said, his expression calm and composed: "He and I retreat and fall together in life and death."
Cang Shun paused in his fiddling with that gleaming scale, turned his head to look at him, and slowly blinked.
Yun Buwan said nothing. Just as Chen Moqing thought she had nothing more to impart and was about to take his leave, he heard her light, unhurried voice: "In my youth, I once came upon an insight and created a array of my own."
Chen Moqing stopped in his tracks and turned to face her with a serious expression.
Yun Buwan clasped one hand behind her back, her bearing like a pine tree upon a high cliff: "I will demonstrate only once. Whether you can comprehend it is entirely up to you."
She formed a hand seal with one hand, took a single step forward, and a magnificent golden array rose up with formidable force, shooting straight toward the heavens and sweeping across the layered clouds over the mountain peaks!
—A golden array, the mightiest of all array types!
Pale golden radiance drifted and cascaded downward. Chen Moqing heard that clear and resonant voice beside his ear: "Remember, this array is called—Dawn of the Path!"
...
The formation array was fully committed to memory. Chen Moqing placed his slender hands together, bowed deeply: "Thank you, Master."
Yun Buwan turned and walked away, her long robes flowing, without a word in response.
Cang Shun sat perched on Chen Moqing's shoulder, tilting his head to look at him.
【You and I have been sparring together for so long, shouldn't you also call me Master?】
Having said that, he gave his fur a light, carefree shake.
Chen Moqing wordlessly raised his hand.
Cang Shun quickly covered his ears, darted up to the top of his head, and tucked his tail beneath his belly, his eyes carrying a hint of wariness.
"……"
Chen Moqing calmly raised a finger and ruffled the soft, fluffy fur.
And messed it all up.
Cang Shun: "?"
The small white beast began loudly meowing and grumbling. Chen Moqing showed no reaction whatsoever, as though he hadn't heard a thing.
"Brother Chi!" At the sect's training grounds, Chu Luo came running toward them from a distance: "Have you heard? Something big has happened at the neighboring Liandao Sect!"
Cang Shun gave him a quiet, sidelong glance. Chen Moqing said: "I'd like to hear the details."
Chu Luo paid no attention to Brother Chi's snow-white spirit cat with its fierce gaze, and launched into an animated account: "There's a very talented female cultivator at Liandao Sect named Ling Xiao. Her dao companion is a demon clan member. Not long ago, Ling Xiao came into possession of a fifth-rank talisman formula, and that demon clan member, coveting the treasure, actually secretly harmed her! He fled with the talisman formula and his whereabouts remain unknown to this day!"
Ling Xiao.
This name was not unfamiliar to Chen Moqing—nine months ago, when he had first come to the Qingluan Prefecture's Jinyin Pavilion auction, he had exchanged a fifth-grade Thunder Tribulation Talisman formula with Ling Xiao for a thousand year Sacred Sparrow feather.
At the time, Ling Xiao had also gifted him a fourth-rank Seven Emotions Burning Tether Talisman formula. Due to the rare and particular materials required by the formula, even after all this time, he had only managed to craft a single Seven Emotions Ignition Talisman.
As for the Sacred Sparrow feather, it was still with Cang Shun.
Chu Luo sighed: "What a pity, that Ling Xiao—a talent so exceptional, yet she met with the wrong person and perished in her prime... Alas, why would anyone fall for someone of the demon clan? Those not of our kind will always have different hearts..."
Cang Shun glanced at Chu Luo.
Chu Luo again felt a chill run over him, as though something extremely dangerous had set its sights on him.
—Though, over the past half a year or so, every time he came to talk to Brother Chi, this creeping, prickling feeling would arise from time to time, so he had already grown used to it.
He walked alongside Brother Chi for a stretch, watching that snow-white little cat leap from the top of Brother Chi's head to his arm, then climb up to his shoulder, and before long circle from the left shoulder to the right—jumping and bounding all over him, pawing at his sleeves and the ends of his hair, not still for a single moment.
What an insufferable cat. Good thing he didn't keep one.
Worthy of Brother Chi indeed—so utterly unfazed, clearly long accustomed to being pestered like this.
Upon reaching the front of the Scripture Pavilion, Chu Luo bid his farewell. Chen Moqing lifted the Demon Emperor down from the top of his head and cradled him in his arms.
This position quieted the small white beast, who curled up in his arms into a soft, fluffy little ball.
After a moment, Chen Moqing heard Cang Shun's unhurried, indifferent voice: 【What do you make of it?】
Chen Moqing knew what he was referring to, and shook his head slightly: "It is indeed a pity. However, rumors do not necessarily match the truth."
Cang Shun was silent for two seconds, then said: 【After Benzun fell into slumber, did humans and demon clan members fall in love with each other often during these thousand years?】
Chen Moqing: "I never paid attention to such things."
Cang Shun hummed: 【You've been single-mindedly devoted to cultivation, so I suppose you never had the chance for moonlit rendezvous with anyone either】
Chen Moqing glanced at the smug little white beast and said nothing.
Cang Shun: "?"
The small white beast's ears suddenly perked straight up. It raised its upper body, placed its paw lightly on his chest, and stared at his profile.
There really had been someone?
The small white beast quickly leaped back onto Chen Moqing's shoulder, its fluffy little head drawing almost right up to his face, its wide, round demon eyes staring at him intently.
There really had been someone??
Chen Moqing smiled, lowering his eyes to meet that pair of crimson demon eyes: "What does it have to do with the Demon Emperor's Majesty?"
Cang Shun: "……"
The small white beast seemed to want to say something, yet could not find the words. The corners of its round eyes drooped, falling ever so slightly.
It tucked its paws in huffily and sulked all on its own.
An hour later, Chen Moqing emerged from the Scripture Pavilion.
Every soul-path tome in Wanhua Sect, he had read and studied in full. He had also cast the corresponding techniques upon his own spiritual consciousness—yet still, he had found no method to break the contract between him and Cang Shun.
Cang Shun, having sulked for a full hour, seemed to have coaxed himself back into good spirits. He lightly kneaded his paws on Chen Moqing's shoulder and remarked in an even tone: 【Why are you so fixated on the soul path?】
Compared to other paths of cultivation, the soul path was all the more obscure and difficult to navigate due to its lack of a coherent system. Over the past half a year or so, every time this young human came to the Scripture Pavilion, the greater part of his time was devoted to this path.
Chen Moqing's tone was unhurried: "To break the contract."
Having spent this time together, he could see that this Demon Emperor's attitude toward the contract seemed to have shifted somewhat.
But, as far as he was concerned, the contract must not be allowed to remain.
The path he would walk in the future was destined to end badly, ten deaths with no chance of survival... There was no need to drag Cang Shun down with him.
Cang Shun: "……"
Seeing that the Demon Emperor had suddenly gone quiet again, Chen Moqing said calmly: "If this path proves useless, I will turn to other methods. There will always be one that serves its purpose."
Cang Shun: "…………"
The crimson demon eyes resembled glaciers of frozen snow, all warmth drained away, leaving only emptiness and stillness.
Cang Shun turned his head and looked at Chen Moqing without a word, and kept looking for a long, long while.
All the way until three days later, when the sect's secret realm opened and the inner disciples' assessment began, Cang Shun had not spoken a single word.
"The Desolate Ruins Secret Realm was a world formed after the fall of an ancient great demon in ages past. By a stroke of fortune, it came into our sect's possession."
Ancient mountain ranges stretched endlessly, one after another. A stone stele standing as tall as the mountains loomed before them, weathered by the ages. Before the stele, one of the sect's elders looked down upon the inner disciples and began to speak slowly.
"Over a thousand years, countless demon creatures have emerged within the secret realm, all of which have been suppressed here by our sect, preventing them from escaping—this is what has kept the Qingluan Prefecture in peace and stability."
"The inner disciples are the sect's future and will one day bear the sect's responsibilities. Now, you may enter the secret realm and slay the demon creatures."
He swept his robed sleeve, and several hundred jade tokens flew out, hovering before each inner disciple.
"These are life-saving jade tokens. Should you find yourself in mortal danger, crush the token and you will immediately be removed from the secret realm."
"All disciples will be ranked according to the number of demon creatures slain. The top three in the rankings will each receive a reward. Go."
The inner disciples, having received their jade tokens, set off at once, surging toward the stone stele like a flock of birds. The ancient stele glowed faintly, and one by one the figures disappeared into it.
Chen Moqing stood at the back of the crowd and tilted his head slightly, glancing at Cang Shun beside him.
Cang Shun still said not a word, floating silently in the air.
Chen Moqing stepped into the stone stele.
Above the mountain range, a massive formation array supported a pavilion. The sect's senior leadership sat within it, observing the situation of the disciples inside the secret realm through the array's light screen.
"Elder Yun isn't coming this year either?"
"Heh, five hundred years ago, Elder Yun suffered grievous injuries the first time she entered the secret realm, and her original essence was damaged. Her cultivation has been stagnant ever since. She likely has no wish to lay eyes on this place that holds such painful memories."
"Elder Yun's disciple does carry quite a resemblance to her in her younger years. One wonders whether he will follow in her footsteps..."
"In my view, that Chi Fei truly cannot compare to Elder Duan's disciple. Although he managed to win against Xiao Mo in the entrance assessment by a stroke of luck, Xiao Mo's cultivation has broken through repeatedly since then—going from early Foundation Building to the verge of assaulting the Golden Core stage in just a matter of months. Such talent is nothing short of astounding!"
"It is Elder Duan's exceptional guidance at work, wouldn't you say—isn't that right, Elder Duan?"
Duan Ya, who had just recently emerged from seclusion—and had, for reasons unknown, actually dropped an entire cultivation realm somewhere in the middle of it—wore a dark expression. He glanced at the person who had deliberately flattered him, and said through gritted teeth: "Chi Fei applies himself diligently day after day. Heaven rewards the hardworking, and with Elder Yun's devoted guidance, he will surely be exceptional in the days to come."
The other senior members of the sect: "……"
What on earth had come over the old man! What did he mean by this?
The sky was dim and overcast, and the stench of blood came rushing to the nose.
Chen Moqing was transported to a place where, as far as the eye could see, the earth was barren and cracked, split by long, jagged fissures across the ground. From within those fissures, a mass of blood-red creatures squeezed their way out.
These demon creatures seemed as though their flesh and bones had melted and fused together, coalescing into twisted forms. Without limbs, they writhed and crawled across the ground, letting out shrill, piercing shrieks.
Chen Moqing's gaze sharpened slightly.
——In just that first glance, he recognized that these were not demon creatures at all.
Six years ago, the Demon Abyss, sealed for five thousand years, had broken free of its seal once more. Demon creatures had ravaged the world, and he had fought them countless millions of times, witnessing many sects crumble and fall because of them.
If a single Wanhua Sect were enough to suppress true demon creatures for a thousand years, the Demon Abyss War would never have swept across all Nine Thousand Prefectures for six full years.
A voice cold as an ice cavern rang out—the Demon Emperor at his side: 【These are what your human kind call demon creatures?】
Chen Moqing lowered his eyes and met that pair of icy demon eyes churning with fury.
That blood-red, twisted creature shrieked as it crawled toward him, while he stood rooted in place, utterly still.
It was not of the demon clan. Even with its contorted limbs and grotesque form, not the slightest trace of demon energy clung to it—only... demon beast energy.
——Demon beast souls.
After the demon beasts had fallen, their souls found no release, left to wander here, reduced to prisoners.
Before long, one after another, twisted blood-red creatures crawled out from the cracks in the earth. Their physical forms from life had all been destroyed, their spiritual bodies shattered, leaving behind only shapeless masses of flesh and blood, letting out screams and wails.
Surveying the scene, every single 'demon creature' that had appeared was a demon beast soul.
This place was not a secret realm for suppressing demon creatures at all—it was a graveyard where countless demon beasts had fallen, a cage imprisoning them all.
Chen Moqing lowered his fingers and gently pressed down on Cang Shun's paw: "I will get to the truth of this."
Cang Shun looked out over the earth before him, his eyes dark and vicious, every single hair on his body radiating a cold gleam like the edge of a blade.
【No matter what the truth may be, these humans here——】He glanced at the young human beside him, then turned away with cold indifference:【They must pay a price.】
"Alright."
Chen Moqing casually drew the small white demon beast into his arms.
Cang Shun shifted slightly but did not pull away, lying flat on his arm with a sullen expression, not moving a muscle.
"Well, if it isn't Junior Brother Chi!"
A bright, ringing laugh drifted down from above. Xiao Jibai came from a distance and came to a stop opposite them.
"Long time no see, Junior Brother Chi doesn't seem to have made any progress in cultivation at all?" Xiao Jibai wore an air of confidence and high spirits, his folding fan snapping lightly shut as he pointed it at the nearest demon beast soul: "How about we have a little competition, who can slay the most demon creatures?"
Chen Moqing's eyes were still as deep water, his expression utterly unmoved: "I'd advise you not to make a move."
"What's the matter? These are demon creatures. Demons are born of heaven and earth, and bring ruin to heaven and earth—they ought to be eliminated," Xiao Jibai said with surprise: "Junior Brother Chi, you're not making a move against them, could it be that you actually pity demon creatures?"
The small white beast in his arms stirred. Chen Moqing's palm gently stroked along its furry spine, his gaze sweeping past Xiao Jibai's eyes: "You are also a cultivator. You ought to be able to see what they truly are."
Xiao Jibai looked even more surprised.
"What? In my eyes, in the entire sect's eyes, they are demon creatures," He wore an expression of complete incomprehension, lightly tapping his folding fan, and the look in his eyes as he regarded Chen Moqing shifted: "Why is it that only Junior Brother Chi cannot see them for what they are?"
The corners of his mouth curled: "Could it be... Junior Brother Chi, that you have fallen to demonic corruption?"
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