CH 10

As Zhou Keyi was saying these words, he was closely observing the changes in Changming’s expression.

And his expression indeed became a bit more complicated.

Zhou Keyi knew he had guessed it right, but now it was hard for him not to remember some old grievances—after all, this old thief still thought no one could be compared to Yun Weisi.

Zhou Keyi remembered how he was trembling from fear those years, practicing diligently days and nights in order to please his shifu. But Jiufang Changming not only didn’t have a high opinion of him, but even made excessive demands all around. In the end, because Zhou Keyi started practicing demonic techniques, Changming drove him out of his sect. Zhou Keyi couldn’t help feeling murderous intentions again.

A good chance indeed: this old thief is close at hand, so Zhou Keyi could easily raise his arm and destroy him. One death would end so many troubles.

This would make his inner demons disappear and maybe even help him progress in his cultivation.

Changming only needed to take a glance at him to understand his thoughts became dangerous once again.

Those who practice demonic ways always had their minds affected by demons. At best, they lost their tempers quickly, at worst, their characters changed a lot.

For instance, Zhou Keyi tended to extremes from birth, and the higher his cultivation rose, the harder it was for him to control himself; now it came to the point where he needed to drain human vessels to advance in his skills and suppress his madness.

“If you keep behaving this way, your body will break one day. Even if you have an infinite supply of human vessels, you won’t be able to drain them completely, because after all it is not your own cultivation.”

Bearing in his mind their history, Changming tried to point him to the shore that was just behind his back.

The shore is just behind you: repent and be saved.

“There is only one way to save you now, and that is to disperse your cultivation completely and let you start anew. Even if it is hard to build your cultivation layer upon layer, it is still better than clinging to your ways.”

“Shut up! If it wasn’t for your selfishness, why would I go as far as to start demonic cultivation!”

Zhou Keyi’s eyes turned bright red.

This was a sign of him being possessed by his demons.

He couldn’t control himself anymore, ferociously grabbed Changming by his chin with one hand and pressed him against a pillar, almost crushing his chin.

They stood face to face, their noses almost coming in contact; Changming could even feel his breath.

Stinking of blood breath.

This was one of a kind feeling.

The smell of fresh blood filled the room, assaulting his nostrils at once.

This was the smell of blood and essence of those “human vessels” that Zhou Keyi had devoured over the years, mostly the souls of those who had died unjustly and bore grudges. Of course, his cultivation had an unparalleled growth, but the terrible backlashes flared up over and over again, and he was sure to have an ending in line with Changming’s words.

Changming saw Zhou Keyi’s mad bloodthirsty expression and his soul concealed in the depth of his eyes.

That timid and introverted soul from the past that now became paranoid and fierce.

“You were…”

His chin hurt badly, his throat was also grabbed; it was hard for him to talk, yet Changming opened his mouth.

“I admit I was too stern with you, but I treated my disciples equally without discrimination. Be it Yun Weisi or Sun Buku, I never treated them with leniency. Your aptitude is higher, so you should be even more hardworking. If you followed the path I paved for you, you could have become a first class master…”

“I don’t need this first class!”

Zhou Keyi interrupted him and exerted even more force.

Changming couldn’t stand the pain and frowned.

“I want to get above the others, be unrivalled, extraordinary; everything Yun Weisi accomplished, I can accomplish too! Jiufang Changming, why are you pretending to be righteous in front of me? When you rebelled against Daoism and Buddhism, didn’t you start demonic cultivation as well, and didn’t you advance in it? Yet you value the broom because it’s your own and refuse to pass your techniques to me! I…”

To value the broom because it’s your own: to value something insignificant that you invented/made.

Hate you to the very marrow of my bones, but I couldn’t defeat you, so I could only admire you from afar for so many years.

Back then, just when he had thought he would defeat Jiufang Changming soon with his own strength to prove the other was wrong, Changming took away this hope.

But now—

His soft and fragile neck was just under Zhou Keyi’s hand, he could even feel Changming’s pulse with his fingertips.

He only needed to use a bit of force to accomplish this long-cherished wish!

His inner demons were on a rampage, his thoughts contradicted each other. When he was almost ready to make a move, a ray of white light suddenly broke out from his opponent’s sleeve, so dazzling that it made him close his eyes for a moment.

But in this moment of hesitation, the white light abruptly turned into a giant dragon, soaring up with a roar. It opened its ferocious large mouth and jumped at Zhou Keyi at once!

Zhou Keyi was taken by surprise and subconsciously recoiled from it. Even though the giant dragon was not corporeal, it unexpectedly managed to shake the whole room; when it raised its head, pieces of tile on the rooftop were broken, a tremendous noise filled the place, and the floor tiles were shattered into small pieces. He Yingyuan who was guarding the room outside the doors had long since disappeared without a trace, and no one dared to come closer to observe the scene.

Zhou Keyi grabbed the air, and a long black sword appeared in his hand. He swung it toward the dragon that pounced at him, and the black glowing sword met the roaring dragon. When the black and the white rays fused, it didn’t resemble the primal chaos at all, it was like a clash of incompatible surging waves!

Boom!

The roar of the giant dragon shook the earth and swayed the mountain, making the whole peak tremble.

The brilliant rays gradually waned. Zhou Keyi slowly landed on the floor, dropping his long sword. Blood was dripping from the corners of his mouth. The giant dragon turned into ice crystal fog, broke into bits and pieces and dispersed in the air.

In the dense mist, two people that were once a master and his disciple were looking at each other, and there was no need to say much to let anyone guess these two had both gratitudes and grudges from their past.

Changming had blood dripping from the corners of his mouth as well, but stood up straight, and Zhou Keyi couldn’t measure how injured he was.

Could it be that this old thief was actually speaking the truth, that he has already ‘returned to the void’, and now could turn the void into substance?

When he thought about all the things that had ever happened with Changming, Zhou Keyi, even if he refused to voice it, admired his shifu almost to the point where this feeling was engraved in his bones and imprinted on his heart.

He used to believe that he had grown stronger, so this admiration had changed completely, even turning into disdain. But at this moment he realised with astonishment that this admiration, awe and reverence still existed, but hidden so deep in his heart that they had almost deceived him.

Zhou Keyi gasped for breath, finding his state of mind completely clear all of a sudden.

It has been a long time since he had thought about a problem so calmly and deeply.

Every time when he was possessed by demons, he was ignorant of his actions, as if drunk or entranced. This fast recovery might have had something to do with their battle.

“What did you do?” he whispered.

Changming indifferently clasped his hands behind his back.

“There was just a simple clearing heart mantra hidden in the ice dragon. I have already explained it to you a long time ago, balance is the way of Heavens. If you take something you don’t own, you will eventually be punished. I entered demonic cultivation to take the cream while discarding the dross. In my opinion, draining human vessels is exactly that dross of demonic cultivation. You, on the other hand, took this wrong shortcut to achieve quick success.”

To take the cream while discarding the dross: to be selective when studying.

“You took the wrong road by mistake and should turn round now, mend the fold after a sheep is lost, it is not too late yet. Although we don’t share a master-disciple relationship now, I still root for your success.”

Mend the fold after a sheep is lost: better late than never.

Zhou Keyi had been staring at him for half a day, and then suddenly burst into laughter.

“I would have never thought that the formidable Jiufang Changming could say such words to a disciple!”

He remembered very well what Changming said back then. You took the wrong road by mistake, but refuse to repent and mend your ways. From now on, don’t call me your teacher. After all, even if we share a master-disciple relationship, we are still strangers. You’re on your own.

Zhou Keyi was dissatisfied. He didn’t want to hear such words from Changming, so he just turned around and went away without looking back.

As he was looking back, scenes of the past were leaping before his eyes. The harsh words and stern looks of that old thief from his memories, the wrinkles between his brows—he could never forget them.

Changming looked calm. He even raised the corners of his mouth.

“I am a human, not a god, so I was too violent and stern those years. Do I really look like a flawless person who makes no mistakes in your eyes? Keyi, you are really still too infatuated with your teacher. It’s been so many years, yet you still look up to me as if I am a god.”

Zhou Keyi almost became possessed by his demons again because of those shameless words.

“Clan Master!”

Seeing that the sounds coming from there had stopped long ago, some people finally dared come closer.

Xu Jingxian walked unhurriedly behind a few other Peak Masters. She didn’t want to confront the troubles ahead of her at all.

Everybody knew that the Jianxue Clan’s head had an unstable character and was extremely moody. She didn’t want to repeat the unfortunate fate of that person.

Much to her surprise, that “human vessel” from the Qixian Sect who was supposed to be dead was actually standing in front of the Clan Master, almost unharmed, safe and sound—he only had some blood on the corners of his mouth.

The huge building was heavily damaged, and broken tiles were chaotically scattered on the ground around. This was the source of the noise that drew their attention.

But there was no doubt that person had no trace of cultivation, she had checked it herself; he could hardly even capture a chicken, how could he oppose Zhou Keyi?

Let alone oppose, Zhou Keyi could probably take him down to the ground with one finger.

Could it be that the Clan Master was possessed? That sounded even less possible, since all the others who met him in this state were drained of their blood and essence, leaving behind nothing but corpses. How could this one remain unharmed?

In Zhou Keyi’s eyes, all the bystanders were only empty shells.

He could only see Changming.

His gaze was ice cold, like the one of a statue.

His expression was blank, not moved by the eight winds.

The eight winds: Bud. eight forces that move people: profit, loss, shame, reputation, praise, ridicule, suffering, happiness.

Without Zhou Keyi’s orders, no one dared come and capture Changming.

They were stuck in this situation for a while.

Zhou Keyi was suddenly reminded of the past.

One year, when his skills were not yet high, he was training on a ground covered with snow, and he couldn’t bear the cold. He fainted after three days and three nights. When he woke up, he was lying on Jiufang Changming’s bed. The latter dispersed the cold air around Zhou Keyi.

When he felt some warmth coming from his strict teacher, he wanted to express his gratitude, but his teacher poured a basin of cold water on his head before Zhou Keyi could do that. Jiufang Changming told him that Zhou Keyi’s endurance was awful, he was far behind his two shixiongs; it was very possible that he could have trained for three months and gained no results, and that he would have to cultivate more than a year or two to accomplish what his shixiongs could accomplish in one month.

Zhou Keyi from that time was really just a lonely and helpless fledgling under the eyes of a powerful eagle. But this eagle not only didn’t encourage and comfort him, but even pushed him off a cliff.

“If you don’t advance in a year, stop following me as your teacher.”

Why was Changming heartless to the point that he didn’t even resemble a human?

Was he also so ruthless towards Yun Weisi and Sun Buku?

If Jiufang Changming had been more patient in the past, instructed him earnestly, would he still have chosen this demonic cultivation path of no return?

Zhou Keyi was thinking over these questions again and again.

To no avail.

The events from the past have no answers.

A history cannot be repeated.

The waters that had flowed to the east can never return back.

East: Chinese rivers mosty flow from the west to the east.

“Xu Jingxian.”

When he opened his mouth, unexpectedly, Zhou Keyi’s voice was calm.

Ice cold, without a trace of rage.

In her heart, Xu Jingxian was crying because of her bad luck—she came last, but was still singled out by him. She could only brace herself and come out, forcing a smile beautiful as the autumn moon.

“Does Clan Master have any instructions?”

“Take him to the Nine Layers of the Abyss.”

Everyone’s expressions changed slightly.

Xu Jingxian gasped.

“This… Clan Master, Jingxian is afraid that she won’t be able to complete this task!”

The author has something to say:

A small theatre not related to the main text:

Changming: My disciple, you still look up to your teacher.

Zhou Keyi: Aaah total rubbish! (getting possessed by demons)

Changming: Yun Weisi and Sun Buku are both more outstanding than you, why have you been cultivating for many years and still have so little progress?

Zhou Keyi: Aaah that can’t be! (getting possessed by demons)