Chapter 2343: Purple Yang Heart Demon

But this is exactly what Nie Xiaolou hoped for. As a spy, whether she was willing or not, she was now involuntarily letting down her guard.

This was already a secret chamber, so there was no need to open doors or windows. Nie Xiaolou first carefully laid three layers of barriers, then took out a treasure gourd from her bosom.

Most gourd magical artifacts are sealed with red talismans, but this one was multicolored, at least red, blue, green, black, and gold, with a kind of spontaneous and aesthetic graffiti feel.

Nie Xiaolou pulled out the stopper, and black smoke immediately billowed from the gourd.

This smoke was thicker than the ink squirted by a cuttlefish, instantly filling the entire room. If not for the barriers containing it, it would have leaked out.

Amid the thick blackness, a wisp of gray-white smoke quietly slipped out of the gourd.

But it did not escape Nie Xiaolou's magical eyes; he immediately stuffed the stopper back in, sealing the remaining white smoke inside the gourd, not allowing it to escape.

A strange voice immediately sounded in the room: "Hehe, still not trusting me?"

One could not tell if it was male or female, sharp or deep, pleasant or harsh—just such a voice.

"Who let you be the heart demon of the Purple Yang Immortal? No one would trust you." Nie Xiaolou put away the gourd, "Withdraw a bit of your traces, it's better for both of us."

For most cultivators, heart demons are things to be avoided.

Purple Yang Immortal was a great immortal from ancient times. Others severed three corpses and eliminated heart demons to attain the Great Dao, but as a scion of an aristocratic family, he did not know whether it was luck or misfortune—his early life was marked by clear thinking, smooth state of mind, and rapid progress, with hardly any heart demon resentment to eliminate. On the contrary, after attaining immortality, major setbacks came one after another: his own defeat and grave injury, sect blame, betrayal by his most trusted disciple, and even his descendants left in the mortal world were slaughtered to the last...

To other immortals, these probably amounted to nothing. The path to immortality is perilous and tortuous; which immortal is not unyielding, having forged an indestructible diamond heart?

But Purple Yang Immortal came from a prestigious aristocratic family, and in his early life he devoted himself solely to pure cultivation, shutting his ears to worldly affairs. These consecutive thunderbolts stunned him so that he could not recover, and heart demons were born!

He could not withstand the heart demon's bewitching, went on a killing spree, and nourished the heart demon with madness and killing karma.

Not long after, the great immortal was instead controlled by the heart demon, becoming mad and frenzied, stirring up a stench of blood and rain in the mortal world.

When the immortals finally joined forces to slay him, they discovered that Purple Yang's heart demon had already taken physical form, making it very difficult to destroy. Thus they subdued it, sealed it into this purple-gold treasure gourd, and slowly refined it.

The root of the Purple Yang heart demon was trapped in the gourd and could not escape; it could only send out a small fragment of divine thought. Soon immortals discovered it had other wonderful uses.

Since this heart demon, having been placed in the gourd, became a tool, it was inevitable that someone would want to use it for shady deeds.

For thousands of years, the gourd circulated among the folk, and the Purple Yang heart demon's power to escape the gourd grew ever greater—it seemed it could break free within a hundred years at most. Fortunately, the treasure gourd fell into the Qing Palace and became a top-tier storage, accessible only to the palace master.

Even when Nie Xiaolou used it, he was extremely cautious.

When the black smoke spread, he actually opened another barrier around himself, floating just an inch above his skin, separating the smoke from him.

The gray smoke slowly condensed into a vague humanoid shape: "Fine, what do you want me to do?"

Nie Xiaolou then took out a glazed round bottle; through its transparent body, one could see hundreds of tiny lights darting inside, which only upon hitting the glass would transform into hideous human faces.

"This is the resentment of believers collected from the Heavenly Palace; they love this thing the most." Believers climb Mount Xushan to the Hall of Myriad Gods, pray to the heavenly demons they believe in, and often unconsciously utter their deepest desires and evil thoughts.

The Hall of Myriad Gods absorbs many negative emotions, takes them away to be refined—these are the things inside the bottle. And when believers descend the mountain, they feel light-hearted, temporarily free of worries, and feel that worshipping the gods on the mountain is very useful, thus becoming even more devout.

"Just use this as payment—you search her sea of consciousness for me!"

Nie Xiaolou pointed at Tong Yiyi: "She is a spy from Cangyan, having eavesdropped on many secrets from the Heavenly Palace. But I feel she hasn't told the whole truth."

"Tsk tsk, you don't know how to cherish and pity jade." The heart demon approached Tong Yiyi, circling her twice, "Your strike is quite ruthless. Did you drug her?"

"Of course, otherwise her will would be firm, and she would certainly be wary of you."

Earlier, those two subordinates treated Tong Yiyi's wounds, and in the process added Luo Luo smoke to the medicine—this substance is not only a good analgesic but also numbs the mind and has strong hallucinogenic effects.

If the dosage is increased for certain people, they will soon feel light as if about to become immortals.

This is the most easily mind-disrupting drug; for cultivators like Tong Yiyi, especially those trained as spies, ordinary hypnotics don't work well on them.

The Purple Yang heart demon chuckled softly, moved behind Tong Yiyi, and extended both hands, pressing respectively on her left and right temples.

"How long?" the heart demon bargained, "Human memory is too vast and complex, with new memories and fragments every moment—I can't trace her life for you."

Actually, it's not impossible—it's just too energy-consuming and low-reward, and this old demon doesn't feel like it.

Want to see more? That'll cost extra.

Nie Xiaolou had already calculated: "Just take the past ten days. Focus on digging—does she have any other major secrets hidden deep down? And—"

He hurriedly instructed: "Don't burst her soul, don't injure her into idiocy—this person is still useful."

The Purple Yang heart demon immediately lost interest: "Ah, no fun."

"Come on, little miss, let me take a close look—" the Purple Yang heart demon chuckled and poked, actually driving all ten fingers into Mei Wuniang's skull! "—What little secrets have you hidden!"

Though the move was frightening, Mei Wuniang's expression remained peaceful and unchanged.

The heart demon asked Nie Xiaolou: "What are you looking for?"

"What she did and what secrets she stole between the seventh and tenth days."

"Between the seventh and tenth days—" the Purple Yang heart demon gently moved its hands, and Nie Xiaolou knew it was rummaging through Tong Yiyi's sea of consciousness.

Tong Yiyi is the master of this body; now, under the effect of Luo Luo smoke, her primary consciousness has sunk into sleep, or entered a stable state; while the heart demon is a seasoned intruder, taking advantage of the master's sleep to ransack everywhere for things.

Actually, it prefers to be a bandit, kidnapping and ransoming at the drop of a hat, but Nie Xiaolou this time does not allow it to go all out.

It can only proceed cautiously.

"Oh ho, here it is!" Soon, the Purple Yang heart demon fished out one bead after another from Tong Yiyi's mind, tossing them before Nie Xiaolou.

These are gray-white smoke beads; Nie Xiaolou can point at any one, and it will explode into a scene, sometimes with sound.

This is Tong Yiyi's memory from the past ten days.

Thanks to book friend 20191025093510751 for the reward~~