Chapter 225: The First Demon of the World

Not yet three hundred years into cultivation, yet he is the number one demon under heaven.

The world is vast, with famous mountains and dead-end realms, and one knows not how many strange species are hidden within; yet, a large black dog managed to surpass them all and sit upon the throne of the world's number one demon.

If one were to include human cultivators, looking across the four seas and the mountains and rivers, he is a great expert sufficient to rank in the top five under heaven.

"King Yan..." Zhang Fan was lost in thought.

That large black dog—he had once seen it in the memories of the Three-Corpse Daoist.

During the Three-Corpse Daoist's youth, it followed by his side and saw Chu Chaoran in his childhood; one man, one child, and one dog, in those desolate years of war, they walked through almost half of China.

Sixty years ago, the Jiazi Demon-Purging.

The Three-Corpse Daoist perished at the peak of Mount Dongyue, and from that day on, that large black dog retreated into the ancestral temple of the Grand Void Gate and never stepped foot into the mortal world again.

"King Yan, the young man you saw was King Yan?" Zhang Fan said in disbelief.

Wearing a black leather jacket, wearing black sunglasses, walking along the river, he casually bought Yu Fu from a fishmonger when Yu Fu was not even a spirit creature yet.

Such an image appeared in Zhang Fan's mind, appearing somewhat ethereal.

"It should be him." Yu Fu whispered in a solemn voice.

"My affinity with him was very shallow, only a single meeting; he released me, and I fear it was just a casual act."

To such an existence, a little carp that didn't even count as a spirit creature really amounted to nothing.

Yet, that inadvertent act by such a great figure completely changed Yu Fu's destiny.

"Zhang Fan, do you know about a fish turning into a dragon?" Yu Fu changed the subject and suddenly asked.

Zhang Fan gave a light "Mm" and nodded.

From ancient times to the present, there has been the legend of "a fish leaping over the Dragon Gate, ascending to heaven to become a dragon."

It is said that hidden within the mountains and rivers of the world is a Dragon Gate; every midsummer, when thunder interweaves, that Dragon Gate appears at the river mouth. As long as a water-type creature crosses the Dragon Gate, it can draw heavenly fire to refine away its mortal body and transform into a true dragon.

"A fish leaping over the Dragon Gate..." Yu Fu said with self-mockery.

"A carp has the nature of a dragon but lacks the appearance of a dragon; a fish becoming a dragon is just like a person becoming an immortal—it is a dream... a dream beyond reach..."

"However, even such a dream can only be pursued by the carp destined by fate."

"What do you mean?" Zhang Fan asked, puzzled.

"The so-called Dragon Gate is not a real large gate, but a three-inch spot on the top of the carp's skull, just like the spirit platform at the center of a human's eyebrows..." Yu Fu sighed softly.

"It is said that a carp truly possessing dragon nature is born with a protruding spirit bone here, which is the Dragon Gate; only they can dream the beautiful dream of a fish becoming a dragon."

Rumor has it that once such a carp succeeds in cultivation, after a long time, the Dragon Gate will crack, bathe in heavenly fire, and a new body will emerge from within—this is the so-called fish leaping over the Dragon Gate.

This is similar to "a silkworm pupa turning into a butterfly" or "a golden cicada shedding its shell."

A few years ago, after the Qiantang River tide rose, a strange piece of fish skin floated ashore; its texture was rare, and even a blade could not cut it. Some said this was the skin shed after a fish became a dragon, and later a wealthy overseas merchant spent a large sum of money to buy it.

"I was born without the Dragon Gate spirit bone; I am the most ordinary carp." Yu Fu chuckled, as if he had long since come to terms with such a fate.

All living beings are like this; when they arrive, they are all protagonists, but after tossing and turning in this mortal world, they gradually accept their ordinary fate.

"But I was luckier than others of my kind. Relying on instinct to cultivate, twenty years after King Yan released me, I finally became a spirit creature in the water, no longer having to fear being caught by humans and becoming a meal on the plate..."

At this point, Yu Fu paused slightly, looking at the small fish swimming freely in the fish tank, and said gloomily.

"And it was that year, perhaps just as King Yan predicted, that I met the first noble person in my life..."

"She was a Daoist nun, cultivating at the foot of Mount Qingcheng."

"Mount Qingcheng!"

Zhang Fan remained silent; the threads of fate finally connected Yu Fu to this world-famous Daoist mountain.

"She often came to the riverside, and seeing that I had become a spirit creature, not only did she not subdue me, but instead showed compassion and enlightened me..."

A touch of tenderness, sealed by time, appeared in Yu Fu's eyes.

"For ten years, she often came to the riverside to preach to me and teach me principles. Sometimes, when the moon was high in the sky, if she was in the mood, she would play the flute to the river..."

"That was probably the most beautiful sound in the world."

Yu Fu murmured softly, his gaze gradually unfocused, as if before his eyes were the surging river waves, the moon's reflection shattered, and the melodious flute sound echoing over the river, melting into the long wind.

A carp half-emerged from the water, looking at the beautiful figure standing by the river, listening in a trance.

"From Cancong to Yu Fu, the founding of the kingdom is so vague. Forty-eight thousand years have passed, and it has never communicated with the Qin border. To the west lies the bird path of Taibai, which can cross the peak of Mount Emei..."

"The earth collapsed and the mountains crumbled, the brave men died, and then the sky ladder and stone plank roads connected..."

"This was her favorite poem, which she often recited facing the Linqu River. I asked her what it meant..."

"She said that Cancong and Yu Fu were both ancient kingdoms of Sichuan, with a long history, but they never communicated with the outside world, precisely because the road to Shu is harder than ascending to the blue sky..."

"Harder than ascending to the blue sky..." Yu Fu sighed.

"Cultivation in the human world is the same. Pure Yang Limitless, Earthly Immortal—which piece of blue sky can be reached?" Yu Fu's voice trembled slightly, as if he had returned to the scene of those years.

"Every time at that moment, when I looked at her eyes, it was as if I saw myself..."

The path to becoming a dragon, the road to becoming an immortal—compared to that road to Shu, it is more than a thousand, ten thousand times harder.

At this point, Yu Fu stopped, his gaze becoming increasingly blurred.

She stood by the river, looking at the endless waves, reciting that poem about the difficulty of the road to Shu; time seemed to freeze at this moment.

At that time, that carp once thought that that moment was a lifetime.

Ten years passed in a flash.

That night, the bright moon hung high, brighter than ever before.

"I swam to the shore as usual, waiting for her arrival, but after waiting for a long time, she did not come..."

Yu Fu's eyes were filled with an unspeakable sorrow.

"This had never happened before. At that time, I felt a vague sense of unease."

"In the second half of the night, heavy rain fell from the sky, thunder rumbled, and the river water surged... just at this moment, she came..."

"Covered in blood, her face pale and miserably beautiful, but behind her were waves of killing sounds..."

Speaking of this, Yu Fu's hands clenched involuntarily; even after so many years, his emotions remained intense.

"A group of Daoist priests from Mount Qingcheng chased and killed her until they reached the riverside..."

"Why?"

Hearing this, Zhang Fan finally spoke: "Wasn't she a Daoist priest of Mount Qingcheng? Why?"

Yu Fu turned around, his gloomy gaze looking at Zhang Fan, and then shook his head.

"I will never forget that day..."

Under the dark sky, by the Linqu River, that miserable beautiful figure fell into the river. The next moment, a soul-aspect soared into the sky, plunging into the surging river water. Immediately after, a behemoth emerged from the surging river waves, accompanied by a roar that shook the sky.

"She is..." Zhang Fan could not help but be moved.

"She is a demon!"

"A flood dragon turned demon!" Yu Fu said expressionlessly.

"So the Daoist priests of Mount Qingcheng chased and killed her?"

"Should a demon deserve to die?" Yu Fu said in a deep voice.

"Mount Qingcheng, they circle and raise demons—is it the righteous path, or selfish desire?"

Mount Qingcheng, the region they marked out, hides numerous spirit creatures and demons, allowing them to recuperate, which indeed maintains the balance and peace of one side.

However, when a certain individual's cultivation becomes so powerful that it nears the point of being uncontrollable, it will be wiped out.

Even, sometimes, Daoist priests will enter the demon village to hunt spirit creatures and demons, in the name of eliminating demons and defending the Dao.

Like the umbrella ribs of the 【Black Umbrella Sword】 that Zhang Fan snatched, they were refined from the wing bones of a black bat demon in the demon village, and the bone arrow that Lan Tingzhu used to ambush him was also obtained by hunting demons.

"Heaven and earth are unkind, treating all things as straw dogs... In the eyes of the Heavenly Dao, there is no high or low, no noble or base, no good or evil; anyone can die, and everyone has the right to live..."

"But Mount Qingcheng will absolutely not allow any hidden danger to become powerful, powerful enough to escape their control." Yu Fu gritted his teeth. "In fact, from the day she stepped onto the path of cultivation, she already knew her ending... but she still wanted to fight, to struggle for her life against heaven."

That night, no one expected that such a behemoth was hidden in the Linqu River.

Under the running thunder, in the deep black river water, that behemoth appeared even more ferocious.

Even that carp at the time was terrified by this legendary creature.

Flood dragon!

A flood dragon walking and turning into a dragon, wind, rain, and mountains collapsing.

"That was the most intense moment of her life, and the Linqu River seemed to have emotions... I have never seen such monstrous giant waves..." Yu Fu sighed.

Unfortunately, although a flood dragon is strong, it has two biggest weaknesses.

One is fearing iron, and the other is fearing thunder.

Iron tools and thunder methods are the nemesis of flood dragons.

This is the experience summarized by the ancestor of the Xu family, Celestial Xu Three Tian Shi, who traveled all over the world and almost slaughtered all the flood dragons in the major rivers.

In the version where there is no error at all!

Today, more than half of the "Dragon-Locking Wells" in many places were left by this Celestial Xu Three Tian Shi.

"Mount Qingcheng is one of the ten great Daoist mountains under heaven; no matter how strong she was, she ultimately could not defeat them..." Yu Fu's emotions became increasingly sad.

"I watched her skin tear and flesh open, gradually sinking to the bottom of the river. I swam to her side, wanting to wake her up, but she could only look at me powerlessly..."

Yu Fu's hands clenched tightly.

Just at that moment, a large ship arrived, and chains were dropped, intending to fish up that flood dragon, strip the corpse, divide the bones, and extract the inner core.

The flood dragon's inner core is a sacred item.

At that time, that carp went crazy; it activated demon methods, shook the large ship, and summoned a thousand carp to cross the river, actually wanting to lift up the dying flood dragon and cross the river to the sea.

"Knowing it cannot be done, yet doing it." Zhang Fan sighed in his heart.

The scorching moon fire always attracts moths.

The ending of such a thing can be imagined.

The bells and drums are slow in the long night, the stars are bright as the sky approaches dawn.

"That night seemed incomparably long, and I saw the light of day..." Yu Fu's voice became powerless.

The Linqu River surged, and dead fish with white bellies floated on the river surface.

That flood dragon fought to the death, killing several experts of Mount Qingcheng, but ultimately died with hatred in the river.

"My physical body was destroyed in that great catastrophe; before she died, she used her inner core to wrap my soul-aspect and sent me out..."

Yu Fu's voice gradually calmed down, but the sorrow in his eyes had not faded.

"My soul-aspect was incomparably weak, drifting and floating; I don't know how much time passed..."

"When I woke up, I was in a house in the countryside..." Yu Fu murmured softly.

He still remembers the scene from back then.

When he woke up, he actually had a human body; he looked at himself and felt incomparably strange.

"You're lucky to have run into such a hiker; you weren't cold yet, so the body is yours."

Just at this moment, a lazy voice came from the side. Looking up, a young man was boiling water and adding firewood to the stove; the steaming heat filled half the room.

"Do you have a name?" the young man asked.

"Yu... Yu Fu..."

At this moment, it was as if he was reborn.

Yu Fu looked at the young man with his back to him and asked, "Who are you?"

"My name is Bai Buran!"

"Boss!" Zhang Fan was slightly moved.

"That was my first meeting with the Boss. From then on, I followed him and left the land of Sichuan, and never went back."

Speaking of this, a look of mockery could not help but appear on Yu Fu's face.

"King Yan is worthy of being King Yan; what he said was really accurate."

Back then, King Yan once said that three noble auras were hidden in Yu Fu, not in the present, but only in the future.

That is to say, in the distant future, he would meet three noble people, and his destiny would change because of these three noble people.

Yu Fu's first noble person was that Daoist nun, the flood dragon in the Linqu River; the latter taught him cultivation.

The second noble person was Bai Buran; the latter gave him a new life.

"I have been in Jiangnan Province for more than ten years, and the people of Mount Qingcheng have never let me go; they want my life, and they also want that flood dragon core."

"After hiding for so many years, they finally found me." A cold light flashed in Yu Fu's eyes.

"What do you want to do?" Zhang Fan asked.

"Tomorrow I will leave Yujing City." Yu Fu whispered.

"Believe me, the moment you leave, they will be able to block you on the road."

"Staying here will only bring endless trouble." Yu Fu shook his head.

For him, Ye Buliang is home; the Boss, Wen He, Zhang Fan, Jiang Hu, Jiang Lai... they are all family members who spend their days and nights together.

Naturally, he is unwilling to stay and bring trouble to everyone, or even a fatal disaster.

"Old Yu, this is Jiangnan, not Sichuan..." Zhang Fan said.

"Rest assured and stay; I can guarantee that no one can move a single fish scale of yours."

"..."

"You should still treat me as a human."

"I can guarantee that no one can move a single hair of yours."

Zhang Fan's voice was incomparably firm; he had promised Bai Buran that he would protect Ye Buliang, and would not let anyone have the slightest mishap.

Now he has such confidence, and also has such strength.

He is no longer the rookie who just joined the company and needed everyone's care.

At this moment, Yu Fu was a bit dazed; he looked at Zhang Fan, vaguely remembering the appearance of when he first joined Ye Buliang.

In less than a year, he had grown too fast.

The night was deep.

Yujing Hotel.

Room 2306.

At this time, Xu Qinglai and Lan Tingzhu appeared in the room, and sitting opposite them was a woman, heroic and spirited, with an extraordinary temperament; it was none other than Meng Qinghuan.

"Qinglai, it's been many years since we last met; you just arrived in Yujing City and are already in such a sorry state—it really ruins the reputation of Mount Qingcheng." Meng Qinghuan said lightly.

"We have known each other for more than a day or two, so let's not say any more unnecessary words." Xu Qinglai shook his head and whispered.

"You should know that I came to Yujing City because of official business for the Dao Alliance Headquarters; after dealing with the Tiger of the Yin, I will be going back in these two days." Meng Qinghuan said lightly.

"You want me to help you deal with Zhang Fan? He is no small character."

"Even if he has heaven-defying abilities, he cannot escape your palm." Xu Qinglai's eyes narrowed into a line.

"Others don't know, but I know..."

"You are already at the Great Being rank!"

(End of chapter)