All he had to do was let go of his hatred for the demon race and accept Zhiyue as a person, and they would be able to stay together.
But he knew all too well how coldhearted the demons could be.
Zhiyue’s demonic aura had been born from his obsession. All demons were products of greed, obsession, and desire.
Zhiyue’s reason had not yet been consumed, but sooner or later, he would lose control of his vicious nature and bring harm to both others and himself.
Xi Yu had been unable to protect his mother. At the very least, he could protect Zhiyue now.
The bedroom door slowly opened. Luo Cheng’an stood at the entrance, his face pale and his dejection plain to see.
Luo Cheng’an looked at Xi Yu, his voice trembling slightly. “Lanxing…”
He called out softly. He didn’t know what he wanted to say—or rather, he didn’t want to say anything at all.
Luo Cheng’an’s gaze remained fixed on Xi Yu’s face, never shifting for even a moment. His eyes were deep, as though he wanted to carve Xi Yu’s present expression into his very bones.
Luo Cheng’an walked up to Xi Yu, the corners of his mouth pulling into a strained smile. “Maybe… maybe if we wait a little longer, there’ll be another way… It doesn’t necessarily have to…”
Xi Yu lowered his eyes and gently interrupted him. “There is no other way. Only by activating the Execution Array can the demonic aura be stripped away.”
…………………………..
At the center of Mount Guihong, where the human and divine realms met.
Lu Zhixing was kneeling on one knee on the ground. Crimson blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and the Prophetic Feather he held was enveloped in thick black mist.
Staggering to his feet, Lu Zhixing raised his head to look at the stars aligned with the moon. He tightened his grip on the Prophetic Feather, flew into the air, and roared as he took control of the formation.
“Execution Array—RISE!!!”
The Prophetic Feather in Lu Zhixing’s hand let out a piercing sword cry. A gigantic golden formation appeared, resembling an impenetrable net that almost completely enveloped Mount Guihong.
Lu Zhixing threw himself toward it, only to be repelled by a barrier outside the formation.
The enormous golden array that had just appeared dissipated once more.
After activating it dozens of times, Lu Zhixing had expended far too much of his power. This time, he collapsed to the ground, his face deathly pale.
He had failed again…
How could this be…
The incantation was correct, and the Prophetic Feather was correct. So why couldn’t the Execution Array take shape? Why couldn’t he activate it?
He had tried more than a dozen times, and every attempt had failed. How could this be!!!
Everything was clearly correct. Almost everyone in the Divine Realm knew how to activate the Execution Array. It was a very simple formation.
The formation had been created by the First Demon Venerable. It contained immense killing power, but its techniques were not difficult to understand.
The only thing that was hard to obtain was the Prophetic Feather. Only someone holding the Prophetic Feather could activate the Execution Array.
But he had now become the Demon Venerable, and the Prophetic Feather had acknowledged him as its master. Why couldn’t he activate the Execution Array?
Having suffered repeated backlash, Lu Zhixing’s hands were trembling.
Where exactly had things gone wrong? The Nine Stars aligned with the Moon, his identity as the Demon Venerable, the magical weapon known as the Prophetic Feather…
Everything was correct, yet he still couldn’t activate the Execution Array. What had gone wrong?
Lu Zhixing’s breathing was unsteady, but he didn’t hesitate for long. He gripped the Prophetic Feather and prepared to try again.
This time, however, before he could even get up, a calm voice interrupted him.
“There’s no need to try again.” Xi Yu walked slowly toward Lu Zhixing and looked down at him from above. “You can’t activate the Execution Array.”
Lu Zhixing abruptly raised his head and saw Xi Yu standing before him, dressed in snow-white robes, his hair secured by a jade crown.
The Xi Yu before him—no, he wasn’t Xi Yu.
He was the Venerable God Lanxing, worshipped by all the gods and peerlessly beautiful throughout the three realms.
“Ma… Master…” Lu Zhixing murmured.
A breeze stirred around them. The silver cloud patterns embroidered along the hem of Xi Yu’s robes resembled frost and dew, giving off a faint, cold gleam. They shimmered before Lu Zhixing’s eyes, causing his expression to freeze for a moment.
It was as though time had returned to the moment they first met. His Master had been dressed in white, possessing unmatched beauty and grace.
Back then, he had also been in such a wretched state, kneeling on the ground with one knee and looking up at the bright moon in the sky.
Lu Zhixing’s chest rose and fell. He could almost smell the cool, delicate fragrance of pear blossoms on Xi Yu.
Xi Yu lowered his eyes. After a moment, he slowly raised his hand and gently wiped the blood from the corner of Lu Zhixing’s mouth. He sighed, sounding somewhat helpless. “You’re always making yourself look so pitiful.”
Zhiyue was someone he had saved and raised, someone he had shaped into the person he loved most.
He had never been able to bear seeing Zhiyue in such a pitiful state.
Lu Zhixing stared at Xi Yu, holding his breath and not daring to move.
If not for the fine threads of pain running through his body, he would truly have thought he was living in a beautiful dream.
Xi Yu pressed his fingertip against the corner of Lu Zhixing’s lips. In the next instant, he pressed down hard, rubbing and grinding against them.
Lu Zhixing’s expression did not change in the slightest. He simply gazed at Xi Yu with infatuation.
Xi Yu’s movements were not gentle. They could almost be described as cruel. Before long, Lu Zhixing’s pale lips had turned a vivid red. Only when they looked as though another touch would make them split did Xi Yu finally stop.
When the pain in his lips disappeared, Lu Zhixing seemed to come to his senses. The Xi Yu before him was his Master, not an illusion.
“Master…” Lu Zhixing reached out, seemingly wanting to tug at the hem of Xi Yu’s robe. But he quickly withdrew his hand, as though he didn’t dare touch him. Gritting his teeth, he asked, “Did you come here because you couldn’t bear not to watch me die?”
Why else would his Master have come?
His Master hated him so much that he wished he could kill him and be done with it.
A desolate feeling welled up in Lu Zhixing’s heart, so overwhelming that he completely overlooked Xi Yu’s earlier statement that he couldn’t activate the Execution Array.
Clutching his sword, Lu Zhixing tried to get up and continue his attempts, but a tremendous force pressed down on his shoulder.
Xi Yu held Lu Zhixing by the shoulder, making him remain kneeling on the ground, at Xi Yu’s feet.
Xi Yu’s fingers were long and strong. Pressing down on Lu Zhixing’s shoulder, they carried an overwhelming, crushing pressure.
“Zhiyue.” Xi Yu spoke word by word, repeating what Lu Zhixing had failed to hear clearly earlier. “You cannot activate the Execution Array.”
Lu Zhixing’s pupils contracted. He protested in a hoarse voice, “I can! I’m the Demon Venerable, and I hold the Prophetic Feather. How could I be unable to activate the Execution Array?!”
Xi Yu gazed quietly at Zhiyue. “Haven’t you already tried?”
Lu Zhixing’s back suddenly stiffened. Terror flashed through his long, narrow phoenix eyes. “I can do it! I definitely can!”
If he couldn’t activate the Execution Array, then he truly had no hope left…
Lu Zhixing knocked Xi Yu’s hand away and stood up.
Clutching the Prophetic Feather, he shouted, “I can definitely activate the Execution Array!”
He clenched his teeth, as though doing so would help him control the terror that was about to break through the dam.
Xi Yu smiled at Lu Zhixing and used the gentlest words to shatter his only remaining hope.
“Zhiyue, you cannot. The only person in this world who can activate the Execution Array is the First Demon Venerable, because the formation’s core requires a single drop of his blood.”
Lu Zhixing’s face turned as pale as paper. He swayed as he stared at Xi Yu.
The First Demon Venerable’s blood…
But the First Demon Venerable was already dead. That meant there was no one left who could activate the Execution Array.
What was he supposed to do? What could he do?!
His chances of surviving the Execution Array had already been minuscule, and now even that last glimmer of hope had been shattered.
Driven to the depths of despair, Lu Zhixing muttered to himself, “I don’t believe it. I can do it… I still have a chance…”
Xi Yu’s heart ached terribly for him. He walked over to Lu Zhixing, held the hand gripping the Prophetic Feather, and touched his cold face.
“Zhiyue, do you know why I hate the demon race so much?”
Lu Zhixing answered mechanically, “Because the demons are brutal, filthy, and notorious for their evil.”
Xi Yu shook his head. “No. It’s because the only person I had left in this world died at the hands of the demon race.”
Lu Zhixing’s unfocused gaze slowly settled on Xi Yu’s gentle face. He looked at Xi Yu warily.
Xi Yu was simply too different from before. His gaze was so gentle that it frightened Lu Zhixing. He was afraid that in the next instant, Xi Yu would slap him across the face again.
Lu Zhixing was so terrified of Xi Yu’s hatred that, for a moment, he had even forgotten to wonder how the Venerable God Lanxing, who had been born from a snow lotus in the Jade Pool, could possibly have a close relative.
Pain filled Xi Yu’s gaze, but his voice remained steady.
“Hundreds of thousands of years ago, gods and demons lived alongside one another. There was a goddess named Chilian who fell in love with the Demon King while undergoing a tribulation. After returning to the Heavenly Realm, she would rather endure eighty-one heavenly lightning strikes and lose all her cultivation than give up her love for him.”
“She abandoned her divine status and joined the demon race, giving birth to a son who possessed both divine and demonic blood.”
…………………
“At first, the Demon King still had some affection for the goddess. But as time passed, the goddess, who no longer possessed magic, gradually lost her former brilliance.”
“She could no longer provide him with any help. The only thing she had left was her divine bones, which could greatly increase his cultivation and help him defeat another powerful demon who coveted the position of Demon King.”
“The goddess gave her whole heart to the man she loved, only to end up being eaten alive by him.”
Xi Yu’s voice began to tremble. The hand gripping Lu Zhixing’s tightened until his knuckles turned white.
“Do you know what it means to be eaten alive? The goddess’s arm was torn off and thrown to the other demons by the man she loved, like she was nothing more than an animal. A chunk of flesh was ripped from her neck, spraying blood everywhere. Her divine bones were broken apart, and her flesh was chewed to pieces. The fragments of her flesh were chewed and swallowed in the mouths of those demons—”
“She was a human being! A living, breathing human being!!!”
Xi Yu’s breathing became uneven. His face was deathly pale, and his entire body was as cold as though he were standing in the depths of a thousand-foot-deep frozen abyss.
“The goddess’s child witnessed his mother being devoured by his own father and the members of their clan. His heart filled with hatred, he swore that he would slaughter every demon in the world. So he cultivated day and night. On the day he came of age, he extracted the souls of half the demon race and used his own true body as the foundation to forge the Prophetic Feather, becoming the First Demon Venerable.”
“But the demonic bloodline was inherently evil. His hatred was so powerful that he was already on the verge of losing himself to demonic madness. Knowing that he would eventually lose all reason if things continued, he withdrew from the world for a long time and created the Execution Array. He then entered the array himself to strip away his demonic aura, all so that one day he could slaughter the demon race.”
Lu Zhixing’s face grew paler with every word Xi Yu spoke. A horrifying suspicion slowly surfaced in his mind.
Xi Yu gripped the blade of the Prophetic Feather. As the sharp edge cut into his palm, crimson blood slid down the blade. He looked at Lu Zhixing, his voice hoarse.
“Zhiyue, do you understand now why I hate the demon race, why I insist on killing every demon in this world? If you still don’t understand, then let me tell you. The son born to that goddess was named…”
“Lanxing.”