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Chapter 26: He Hates Array Cultivators! — Return to Ancient Times

"Where are we going?"

The Demon Emperor lightly tugged at the young human's sleeve cuff, swinging it back and forth absentmindedly.

Chen Moqing gazed straight ahead: "This place is an illusion realm, there should be a solution."

The moment he spoke, the top of his hair sank slightly.

Cang Shun had lowered his head slightly, his jaw pressing down on the top of Chen Moqing's head, rubbing against it gently.

Chen Moqing stopped walking without a word.

Cang Shun lowered his eyes again. This human's lower half of his face was covered by a mask, revealing a pair of clear, distant brows and eyes. He stared at the tear mole at the corner of those eyes, leaning closer without blinking.

Chen Moqing stepped back directly.

Cang Shun: "?"

Cang Shun was puzzled: "What's wrong?"

Chen Moqing said unhurriedly: "That's what I should be asking you. What is the Demon Emperor trying to do in front of so many people?"

Not far from them, several cultivators had already widened their eyes slightly, huddling together with a few friends, whispering to each other about them.

Cang Shun: "...You never used to avoid me before!"

Chen Moqing raised his hand, two fingers brought slightly together: "That was before, Your Majesty the Demon Emperor."

The unspoken meaning being, before he was a small fluffy thing, now he's a big dark lump.

Cang Shun: "......"

Cang Shun lowered his head and looked at himself.

Was he not good looking?

...Never mind.

He sulkily grabbed onto this person's sleeve.

Chen Moqing glanced at him, then walked forward again.

The frost white hair ends hanging at his waist were lightly tugged.

The sash around his waist was gently brushed by long, well defined fingers.

His thin back was patted twice by a palm.

Chen Moqing stopped again: "How can the Demon Emperor be so handsy with people."

Cang Shun said loudly: "I wasn't!"

After a moment, he tugged at Chen Moqing's sleeve again, and poked at his fingers.

Chen Moqing pressed his fingers lightly against his temple.

"What's wrong?" A handsome face leaned in close to his forehead: "Are you feeling unwell?"

Chen Moqing lowered his hand: "It's nothing."

Cang Shun looked at his calm, pale profile without blinking.

He'd gotten thinner again.

Once they returned to the Demon Realm, he would feed him up properly.

Thinking that this human would soon be going home with him, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly, and he lowered his head gently again

Chen Moqing quickened his pace and walked ahead.

Cang Shun: "?"

He caught up quickly. This time he didn't grab the sleeve, but tightly grasped the young human's slender wrist.

Chen Moqing led this restless Demon Emperor across the wide training grounds.

This sect here should be a major sect, with both humans and demons, friends to each other, with no distinction of status, and everywhere one could see people seeking advice from and sparring with each other.

"Quick, look, Second Senior Brother and Third Senior Brother are sparring again!"

In one part of the training grounds, a crowd had gathered. Chen Moqing and Cang Shun stood at the edge, watching two young men, one in black and one in white, standing opposite each other high in the air. Countless talismans surrounded the man in white, while a great formation array rose beneath the feet of the man in black.

The talisman path, the array path.

Chen Moqing's gaze focused. Whether talisman or array, both contained extremely deep mastery. Just by watching, he gained further insight.

"To think the Master's Path could be divided into two paths like this, I wonder what these two paths are called!"

A cultivator nearby exclaimed in surprise. He heard Cang Shun's voice sound right beside his ear: "It seems this place is the distant ancient past."

Chen Moqing turned his head, meeting those crimson demon eyes so close to him.

"Does Your Majesty the Demon Emperor have to speak so close?"

Cang Shun: "?"

Cang Shun protested loudly: "I've always spoken to you like this!"

He lowered his head sulkily, staring at those beautiful eyes.

He'd always done this before, so why was it not allowed now?

This person, was this person disgusted by his transformed appearance!

He got even more annoyed, and leaned in closer, pressing tightly against Chen Moqing, his tall body almost enveloping this thin human in his shadow.

Chen Moqing said nothing, turning his gaze back to the battle ahead.

In ancient times, talismans and arrays shared the same origin. These two senior brothers and disciples must be the great experts who first separated talismans from arrays.

His gaze settled on the talisman cultivator in white, whose bold young face was identical to Senior Xingyun's.

The battle shook the area for dozens of li around, blotting out the light of sun and moon, and in the end neither side won. The two senior brothers and disciples exchanged a smile and left together.

Having watched the entire match, Chen Moqing gained insight into both the talisman path and the array path. He immediately chose a spot, sat down quietly to cultivate, and digested the understanding he had just gained.

Cang Shun watched him.

He sat beside him, one hand resting on his bent knee, the other cupping this person's long hair, white as falling snow.

He'd wanted to try this for a long time.

This Demon Emperor thought to himself secretly, and raised his hand—

When Chen Moqing opened his eyes from his brief seclusion, he found that several fine braids had appeared among his loose long hair, woven through with faintly shimmering silver chains— clearly taken apart from the silver ornaments in the Demon Emperor's hair.

"......"

He turned his face again. The handsome and bold Demon Emperor's sharp brows arched slightly, his chin lifted, watching him without blinking.

He looked like he was still waiting to be praised.

Chen Moqing said flatly: "Mimi's hands are quite skillful."

Cang Shun: "???"

The big Demon Emperor beside him started loudly protesting again. Chen Moqing pretended not to hear, and calmly walked off to the side with him.

He conversed with these cultivators, and learned from them that this place was called Changyao Sect, the foremost great sect of the Taichu Yuan Prefecture.

Neither Changyao Sect nor the Taichu Yuan Prefecture had any record in later ages, and the people here did not know of the Nine Thousand Prefectures either.

Inside the illusion realm, there was no distinction between day and night. Chen Moqing discussed the Dao with the Changyao Sect cultivators, sparring and exchanging ideas with each other, his understanding growing continuously, his cultivation also advancing rapidly— until he finally broke through from mid-Golden Core to peak Golden Core.

He also got to know several Changyao Sect cultivators. They didn't ask about his background, at first calling him 'fellow Daoist', but before long, the sect's eldest senior sister smilingly called him 'Junior Brother', and so the others followed and started calling him Junior Brother too.

"Junior Brother, Senior Sister went down the mountain today, come, I'll spar with you!"

"Uh, Junior Brother, why does this person of yours keep glaring at people?"

Chen Moqing calmly patted the head of the Demon Emperor beside him, and was about to say something to the Fourth Senior Brother in front of him, when suddenly the sky darkened, surging waves of blood red light spreading to engulf the heavens—

In the distant horizon, towering black flames came rolling in like a boundless sea, swallowing the world!

Chen Moqing and Cang Shun's expressions turned icy cold in an instant. In a moment, their figures had already appeared high in the sky.

—The Demon Abyss!

"Why is there a Demon Abyss here too?" Cang Shun said in a deep voice.

Chen Moqing flew forward swiftly, his robes whipping in the fierce wind, heading straight toward that sky devouring, sun swallowing sea of black flames.

According to historical records of the Nine Thousand Prefectures, the Demon Abyss first descended upon the world five thousand years ago, and was suppressed by the Demon Emperor.

However, past records had never mentioned that the Demon Abyss had already existed in an even more distant ancient era!

That could only mean one thing, from beginning to end, the Demon Abyss had been descending in repeated cycles, from intervals of tens of thousands of years to mere five thousand years apart, growing more and more frequent...

Did the Heavenly Dao merely watch, without stopping it?

He exchanged glances with Cang Shun, and saw the same grave look in those crimson demon eyes.

"What evil thing dares to wreak havoc upon the world!"

An ancient, dignified voice resounded across the sky above Changyao Sect. The sect protecting great formation activated, and three thousand disciples of Changyao Sect flew straight through the formation, charging toward the boundless Demon Abyss.

Whether six years ago, or five thousand years ago, or even further back in ancient times, the battles to suppress the demons were always brutal and bloody.

The battlefield burned through thousands of worlds, and the sky was stained red with blood light that would not fade.

Chen Moqing and Cang Shun also threw themselves into the battle, except that for every demon they killed, another would regenerate in its place, over and over, endlessly.

"We cannot influence the outcome of this battle," Chen Moqing looked down at the overflowing tide of black flames, his eyes cold as ice.

This was the ancient era, the fate of this world.

They were merely people from a later time, unable to change a fate already determined.

As the Demon Abyss sank into the world, Chen Moqing saw towering mountains collapse, great rivers run dry, and the sun sink in the west.

He also saw Changyao Sect's destruction, its sect's main peak that once pierced the clouds burned to ruin by the overwhelming demonic flames, leaving only broken walls and rubble.

The sect's eldest senior sister, facing a thousand demons alone, fell after exhausting her strength; the Fourth Senior Brother who had sparred with him the most was beheaded, his soul devoured and divided; the youngest junior sister who loved napping the most burned her own essence and blood, turning into one last sliver of light, and threw herself into the sect protecting formation.

All three thousand cultivators of Changyao Sect, not one of them avoided the battle.

The crimson flames of war scorched the Taichu Yuan Prefecture, until this world shattered, breaking apart into thousands of worlds large and small.

In the end, the ten elders of Changyao Sect sacrificed themselves to suppress the Demon Abyss, and the brilliant light of Changyao sank into the black abyss.

Chen Moqing stood quietly amid the ruins of the battlefield for a long time. Cang Shun walked over and stood beside him.

"Ten thousand years have passed, perhaps they have already been reborn, returned to the world."

Chen Moqing was quiet for a moment, then nodded gently, gazing into the distance.

Under the blood stained dusk, the pair of senior brothers and disciples who had founded the two paths of talisman and array returned to the now ruined Changyao Sect, facing each other from afar amid the crimson light— just as they once had after every sparring match back at the sect.

This time, they walked away from each other, one heading east, one heading west, leaving wordlessly, neither looking back.

Chen Moqing stood quietly beneath the sky, watching this scene of light and shadow cast from who knew how many tens of thousands of years ago. Heaven and earth were silent, not even the sound of wind could be heard.

"Fellow Daoist!"

His shoulder was suddenly patted lightly. He turned around.

The blood red color faded, the sun rose again, time turned back. On the wide training grounds, someone said with a smile: "Fellow Daoist! Where have you come from?"

"......"

Chen Moqing said: "From the day the Demon Abyss ended."

The moment he spoke.

The great formation activated.

The old image of Changyao Sect crumbled and peeled away, transforming into an enormous formation array of unfathomable depth, its light blazing brightly, as if it could shroud the heavens and the world, dispelling every dark place in existence.

Chen Moqing found himself trapped within the formation, and saw Cang Shun beside him reach out his hand, trying to grab the hem of his robe—

In an instant, the formation activated, and the positions where he and Cang Shun stood were instantly split apart, one to the east, one to the west, one falling downward, one rising upward.

Cang Shun realized something instantly, and spoke: "Only one person can leave this illusion realm!"

His long black hair flew wildly in the wind as he fell downward, looking up at Chen Moqing above: "You go first, I'll come find you!"

In this ancient era's formation, their contract was temporarily ineffective, and not only that, even many of their cultivation techniques and methods were restricted.

Chen Moqing stepped down, his ascending figure pausing, one hand forming a seal: "Then I'll alter the formation!"

He bit his fingertip, smearing a drop of blood across his brow. With his frost white hair and the dot of blood between his brows, his eyes shone like cold starlight in the night.

Talismans flowed and circulated, rising together with the formation array, talisman and formation combining, covering this ancient great array.

The intricate, interweaving array pathways moved through his dark eyes. Chen Moqing's spiritual sense converged, and amid the countless pathways, he found the eye that would reverse the great formation!

He brought two fingers together, pointing from afar, fierce as a sword drawn from its sheath, his spiritual power surging forth like a blade's edge— and the slowly turning ancient formation suddenly froze!

In Cang Shun's slightly widened demon eyes, the young human fell downward, robes fluttering, frost white hair streaming, as if a bright full moon were coming toward him.

He leaned his waist slightly, raised both arms, and stepped forward, wanting to catch that bright, pure moon—

The great formation reversed, and vanished from sight.

The illusion realm shattered, and they returned once more to the hidden valley.

A small snow white beast landed on the ground with a thud, its paws stubby and short.

Cang Shun: "......"

The little snow white beast looked down at its fluffy self, sitting on the ground in annoyance.

He hated array cultivators.

A slender hand picked up this fluffy little ball of fur, swinging it in midair. Cang Shun looked up, meeting those eyes that held the faintest trace of a smile.

Then he was held against the young human's chest, who gently stroked his soft fur.

Cang Shun: "......"

He didn't hate it anymore.

His tail tilted up slightly, and the round little ball of fur burrowed silently into the young human's robes, pressing softly against his chest.

After two seconds, he lifted his little head again.

【Why don't you pet me when I'm in my transformed form?】

Chen Moqing said nothing.

His fingers scratched the soft chin of the little snow white beast, then his palm came down, smoothly stroking from the small head all the way along the soft back, down to the tip of the slender tail.

After being stroked along the grain like this a few times, the little snow white beast narrowed its demon eyes slightly, and fell silent.

It continued pressing softly against him, tail swaying back and forth.

Turning into a soft little white sugar cake.

Chen Moqing's fingers lightly flicked the soft, fluffy beast ears, and the little white sugar cake rubbed against his fingertips.

Sticky and clingy.

A dry cough sounded behind them.

"Are you done?"

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