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Chapter 32: Be My Spirit Pet

Hearing Zhu Ran's words, not only did Chen Moqing fall into silence, but even the Demon Emperor in his arms had its demon eyes freeze for an instant, stunned for a full several breaths, before slowly, slowly lifting its head.

Right into the silent gaze of the young human.

"……"

The gazes of person and demon collided for a few seconds, then the little snow-white beast quickly lowered its head, began burrowing into the young human's sleeve, fluffy and small, drilling its way in.

——Only halfway in, it heard that clear, pleasant voice transmitted in secret: "At the time the Demon Emperor had only just awakened, its power unstable, shedding fur was only to be expected."

Cang Shun's movement paused.

After a moment, the little snow-white beast silently crawled back out of the sleeve, lifted its head to glance at Chen Moqing's calm eyes, then without a word nestled back into his arms, taking this as tacit acceptance of what had just been said.

So person and demon continued walking forward in silence, only the chattering voice of that Sacred Sparrow young clan head filling the waterside corridor.

Cang Shun quietly rested its head against Chen Moqing's sleeve cuff, saying nothing, a complicated look seeming to linger in its eyes.

It was a great demon born from the Primordial Ruins, alone from birth, having never lived among any demon clan or community, so what Zhu Ran had just said was something even it was hearing for the first time.

Five thousand years ago, after staying alone in the Primordial Ruins until it took human form, it had walked the world in human form ever since, never once returning to its true form.

Upon first meeting this young human, it hadn't paid this matter any mind either. Back then, it had always been clumsy and hasty in getting along with this person, and before long had cast a spell on itself, not wanting him to take its things.

Later still, this person no longer wanted the things it gave him either.

Only recently had he finally become willing to accept some of them.

Cang Shun raised its eyes, its gaze falling across Chen Moqing's face.

A thought rose up from the bottom of its heart, unbidden—

If I undid the spell now…

"I've heard that the Sacred Sparrow clan's Lady Zhu Ming possesses extraordinary talent," its train of thought was interrupted, Cang Shun heard the young human speaking with a smile to that Sacred Sparrow fledgling, "I wonder if I might have the honor of meeting her?"

…smiling at someone else again.

The little snow-white beast scrunched up into a sullen ball, grabbed hold of Chen Moqing's slender fingers, tucked them beneath its own fur.

Chen Moqing lowered his eyes, looked at this little fluffy ball that seemed to have gained a bit more on its mind, stirred that drooping tail.

"That's my elder sister!" Zhu Ran's eyes lit up, then dimmed again, "She went traveling to other prefectures before I was born, hasn't returned to this day, even I have never met her."

——Zhu Ming, was precisely the Sacred Sparrow who had fallen in the Desolate Ruins Secret Realm, daughter of the Sacred Sparrow Demon King Qing Fen.

【Demon clans place great importance on bloodline; descendants all have a soul lamp kept with the family. If Zhu Ming's body has fallen, entering reincarnation, Qing Fen couldn't possibly not have noticed】

Cang Shun's low voice sounded by Chen Moqing's ear.

【Ask him more】

Chen Moqing's expression remained as usual, inquiring without a trace into some matters concerning the Sacred Sparrow from Zhu Ran, this young clan head's nature naive enough that a few words drew the information right out of him.

As they conversed, every now and then slender fingers would drop down, lightly stirring the fur atop the little snow-white beast's head.

Cang Shun: "……"

Was he, was he really fond of my fur?

The Demon Emperor muttered to itself in the depths of its heart.

——Then Chen Moqing felt the little fluffy ball in his palm rubbing against his fingertips, rubbing back and forth.

He paused for a moment, seeming to suddenly realize something, withdrew his fingers.

The little fluffy ball jumped up and hugged his hand.

"……"

A waterfall fell into a secluded ravine, a stream winding past a solitary, tranquil little courtyard.

Zhu Ran stopped, said: "I know the envoy has come for Father King, but Father King has been in secluded cultivation lately, and these next few days are the critical period. The Ten Thousand Demons Assembly isn't coming up that soon anyway, so the envoy might as well stay with our clan a few more days!"

Chen Moqing agreed, and Zhu Ran left, carrying his black cat.

This young Sacred Sparrow clan head wandered leisurely down to the foot of the hill, plucked a blade of grass to tease his black cat, the cat looking somewhat put off, jumped down off him, circling around his feet.

Chen Moqing withdrew his gaze, then lowered his eyelashes slightly.

The little snow-white beast in his arms was lifting its head up, its round, glossy demon eyes staring at him unblinkingly, as if thinking about something.

A little distracted, that fluffy little paw still rested on his finger.

There seemed to be a faint ripple at the bottom of Chen Moqing's eyes, gone in a flash, his expression as usual as he walked into the residence the Sacred Sparrow clan had arranged for them, sat down on the wooden couch, gently lifted the little snow-white beast aside, a distance of a dozen or so inches from himself.

Cang Shun, accustomed to this by now, lay sprawled between the young man's knees, swished its tail.

【Once night falls, we'll go explore this place】

"Alright."

Chen Moqing closed his eyes, began to cultivate.

The little fluffy ball on his lap rolled about on its own, now tugging at the hem of his robe, now nudging his fingers lightly, asserting its strong presence at every moment without fail.

Just like when they first met, through a twist of fate, this Demon Emperor had forcibly barged into his great path.

Within his spiritual sea, the heart demon sat cross-legged on the ground, chin propped on his wrist, sneering at him.

...

Deep at night, a crescent moon hung like a hook, the stars hidden and silent.

A black cloak embroidered with gold patterns fluttered slightly open against the night sky, the young cultivator wearing it standing above the Sacred Sparrow clan's grounds, a sharp-eyed little snow-white beast crouched on his shoulder, looking down from high above.

Chen Moqing's slender fingers moved slightly, a single stroke of a talisman taking shape in an instant, as if stars were scattered across the Sacred Sparrow clan's land. In that instant, his eyes rippled with talisman patterns, surveying the land below.

"There are two places with the strongest demonic power, southwest, and east."

Those two places happened to be the two tallest buildings in the Sacred Sparrow territory, exquisite pavilions, clearly belonging to people of no low standing at a glance.

【Southwest first】

Cang Shun finished speaking, leapt down with a plop, gripped firmly onto Chen Moqing's sleeve, burrowed into his cloak.

The gold patterns within the black cloak glimmered faintly, the tall, slender figure vanishing into the night.

——That was a sixth-grade peak-tier treasure from Wu Hao's storage pouch, named Moon Cage Gauze, able to conceal one's presence, hide one's form.

Within the Sacred Sparrow clan, aside from the secluded Demon King Qing Fen, the highest cultivation level was mid-Void Refinement stage—according to what Zhu Ran had said, they once had two elders at peak Void Refinement stage, who had died of natural causes several hundred years ago.

Relying on the Moon Cage Gauze, combined with Cang Shun's qi-concealing technique, they penetrated deep into the Sacred Sparrow clan's interior, as if walking through an unguarded land.

The Sacred Sparrow clan had begun its seclusion a thousand years ago, the stated reason to the outside world being that the Sacred Sparrow Demon King Qing Fen, newly at the Body Integration stage, needed to focus entirely on pushing toward a higher realm.

During the day, Chen Moqing had several times raised wanting to see Qing Fen with Zhu Ran, only to be refused each time. Zhu Ran had even specially explained that since his birth, he himself had rarely seen his own father king.

A tall pavilion faced the moon, the cloak swept past window and eaves, a figure stood still beneath the moonlight.

Cang Shun lifted a corner of the cloak, narrowed its eyes coldly.

Moonlight spread across the magnificent pavilion, condensing into a faint frost, every floor tile carved from the finest jade, clear enough to reflect one's image, and it reflected back a rigid figure—

Zhu Ran.

His corpse.

Blood flowing from all seven orifices, slumped sitting on the ground, face turned toward outside the room, dim eyes staring open wide in death, blue-green feathers scattered all over the floor.

His black cat lay sprawled beside him, cut clean in two.

Chen Moqing's face turned utterly cold, a silver formation flashed instantly beneath his feet, flickered once, then went out again.

…The soul had already scattered, beyond recall.

The young clan head of the Sacred Sparrow clan, had actually had his soul scattered to nothing, silently and without a trace, right within his own clan's territory.

The surroundings were dead silent, quiet to an almost glaring degree. Chen Moqing turned his wrist, about to activate a space-spanning earth-escape talisman at once—

Boom!

A massive roar erupted from deep underground, a great formation surged skyward, in an instant blanketing the entire deathly silent Sacred Sparrow territory, sealing off sky and earth alike!

The formation's brilliant lines of power transformed into countless chains, converging toward the two figures at the formation's eye. In that instant, neither Chen Moqing nor Cang Shun could move at all!

——The aura of the Mahayana stage!

Beneath the Sacred Sparrow territory, a Mahayana stage formation lay buried!

"My child…"

A hoarse, malevolent voice slowly rang out, and in the dead of night, a pair of dark green eyes, like flickering ghostly flames, hovered beneath the dim moonlight.

"It was you who killed my child!"

The furious roar resounded throughout the Sacred Sparrow territory, the deathly silent territory seeming to finally stir awake, countless figures rushing in from all directions.

"Clan Leader!"

"Our young clan head… good heavens! The young clan head is dead!"

"The young clan head treated you with courtesy, yet you struck him down in secret?!"

In an instant, pairs of eyes burning with fury, carrying sharp killing intent, stabbed toward those two outsiders within the formation.

"Clan Leader! Kill them!"

Cang Shun remained unmoved, standing beside Chen Moqing, as if an outsider to all this, coldly watching the scene unfold.

Across the pale, indifferent moonlight, it saw once more its former deputy general of years past, a face entirely different from the one in its memory, far more aged, far more decayed.

It caught a scent of decay, coming from the person before it—such a scent had also once appeared on that worm called Xiao Jibai.

The Sacred Sparrow clan leader Qing Fen, clad in a long robe of gold and green, his eyes a ghostly green like the hellfire of the underworld, stretched out a withered, pallid hand from beneath his wide robe: "I'm going to strip your tendons and skin you alive, grind your bones and scatter your ashes…"

His aura swept outward, mid-Body Integration stage!

Cang Shun sneered coldly.

【Don't be afraid】

The deep voice fell against Chen Moqing's ear, unlike the chill in those crimson demon eyes, the Demon Emperor's voice was as soft as the furry tail that brushed past his cheek.

【I'm here】

Chen Moqing's eyes flickered slightly, transmitting a voice in secret: "Do your best, just don't shrink down on me, Your Majesty."

【Forgot to tell you】Cang Shun gave its tail a light flick, then nuzzled against the young human's cheek again: 【After last time, my cultivation—has recovered to seventy percent】

Silver-white thunder burst forth, a surging sea of thunder pushing outward a thousand zhang, as far as the eye could see, nothing but raging, churning, blazing bolts of lightning!

Qing Fen retreated hastily, his dim, ghostly green eyes reflecting that brilliant, blazing silver sea. Against the night sky lit up by thunder, the massive demon beast, its fur exuding a cold lunar frost, stood planted in the high heavens, looking down upon all living things.

Those demon eyes burned with fierce, heatless flame, a cold, killing voice resounding through every Sacred Sparrow's spiritual sea: 【If this one wished to wipe out the Sacred Sparrow clan, it would take no more than a turn of the hand, why would there be any need to go to such trouble】

The voice was sharp as thunder, spiritual seas trembling, the other Sacred Sparrows felt themselves engulfed in an overwhelming, crushing pressure, unable to utter a single word, trembling as they fell to their knees one after another, bowing their heads toward the Demon Emperor high above.

Only Qing Fen still hovered in midair, his dim, deep eyes gazing up at that dazzling, soaring bright moon.

He said slowly: "Everyone… still not showing yourselves?"

Heaven and earth shifted once more, clouds churning and rolling, and from high above, several more figures descended!

The biting wind stirred his robes, snapping in the air, Chen Moqing slightly raised his head, his unruffled gaze cast up toward the sky, a faint trace of mockery rising at the corner of his mouth.

The first to appear beneath the roiling layers of cloud was a white-haired elder, in wide robes with broad sleeves, the robe patterned with a dazzling crimson golden crow design—among the upper prefectures, only one sect dared use the golden crow as its sect emblem.

Tianming Prefecture, the Jinwu Sect!

An elder of the Jinwu Sect, at peak Void Refinement stage!

Before the eyes of all present, this elder, half a step from Body Integration, stepped aside, making way for the one behind him.

A person walked slowly past him, appearing extremely young, looking no more than twenty-some years of age, an elegant young man in white robes, a pair of upturned peach-blossom eyes glancing down below, dark and indifferent.

His lustrous jade-white robes were embroidered with gold thread and jade silk in flowing patterns of seven stars in formation—in the Nine Thousand Prefectures, that likewise meant only one sect.

——The Tianshu Sect.

Across the bright moon in the sky, Chen Moqing's gaze met his from afar, and in that instant, those peach-blossom eyes narrowed slightly.

——The Tianshu Sect master Yu Bai's second disciple, Gongsun Bushi.

It was widely known that back when the Tianshu Sect's head disciple Chen Moqing was still in the sect, the one he'd been closest to was this second senior brother of his.

Beneath those fixed peach-blossom eyes, Chen Moqing took a step forward, coming beneath the night sky, standing shoulder to shoulder with the flamboyantly imposing Demon Emperor.

Cang Shun tilted its head slightly, brushed lightly against his hair.

【Is that the broken-down person from your broken-down sect?】

Chen Moqing was just about to speak, when a gentle, refined voice came falling from on high.

"I see your cultivation, little demon, is far below this great demon's—you must be coerced by him, aren't you?" Gongsun Bushi's mouth curved into a warm, gentle smile, his peach-blossom eyes fixed on Chen Moqing, drifting continuously over his face, "Why not turn from darkness toward the light, come back with me…"

He raised a hand slightly, fingertips slowly stroking through the air, as if caressing Chen Moqing's face from a distance, said the rest of the sentence with a smile: "Be my spirit pet, how about it?"

Before he'd even finished speaking, the Demon Emperor raised a pair of icy, forbidding demon eyes.

Thunder tore through the long night, blazing silver-white split the heavens apart, transforming into a tree of light connecting sky and earth, lighting up the darkness in an instant as bright as day!

Gongsun Bushi hadn't even managed to dodge yet when the peak Void Refinement stage elder beside him gave a cold snort, raised a hand—

The raging bolt of lightning, like a giant sword cast down from the heavens by an immortal, stirred up a thunderous tide a thousand zhang high! The elder at peak Void Refinement stage collided with that roaring, mountain-and-sea-like heavenly might, caught completely off guard, his body flung backward a full kilometer, slamming into a cliff face!

The cliff face shattered, Gongsun Bushi's dying scream swallowed up within the thunder, his physical body reduced to ash and smoke on the spot!

The whole scene fell silent, and within the thunderlight illuminating heaven and earth, Cang Shun stepped forward, blocking in front of Chen Moqing, its massive form like a mountain range, completely shielding the slender young human within its shadow.

Brilliant thunderlight reflected in those cold, blood-red demon eyes, encircling its imposing form, setting off this great demon as if it were a god of ancient times who commanded the thunder itself.

In that moment, everyone present heard that voice, resounding directly within their spiritual seas, dangerous and terrifying as if a volcano had erupted:

【Who dares touch him?】

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