Chapter 522: The Past of Jing Yueyue (23)

"We killed four Earth Bodhisattvas on Spirit Mountain in the Western Desert, beheaded five Subordinate Gods in the Southern Border, and decapitated four National Monarchs in the Eastern Emperor, all without being caught."

"Perhaps it was the victories along the way that caused us to lower our guard and not take this small mountain gate seriously... even I thought so."

Recalling that initial arrogance, Yaoyue shook her head with a wry smile, sighing for that past carelessness.

"We snuck into the mountain gate under the cover of night, just like before, preparing to behead the Sect Leader of this small sect. Everything went smoothly along the way, until we entered the back mountain, and everything changed."

"We were trapped within an Array, our Demon Qi stripped away entirely, our strength less than one-tenth of what it was, and we could only rely on our physical strength and the remaining Dharma Power to hastily face the enemy."

"The final result was simple: we were defeated. After sacrificing four Heavenly Demons, I and the remaining four demons fought to the death. If not for an unexpected turn of events, we would have all died there."

Even after so much time had passed, Yaoyue still felt a chill throughout her body when mentioning this past, with an indescribable fear in the depths of her heart.

Just then, she felt Jing Yueqin in her arms gently embrace her, as if unconsciously helping her dispel the chill in her heart, and Ren Yidao also sat over, his arm pressing against her shoulder.

Warmth.

Yes, it is different now.

"I stayed there, lived with her, and learned from her those knowledges and skills I had never understood before."

"To persuade me, she constantly used herself as an example, saying that her life was just like her surname, as bitter as a thorn, but she never compromised with anyone, and no matter what, she would make those who threatened her get poked with a few bloody holes."

Yaoyue paused here, leaned her body toward Ren Yidao, rested her head on his shoulder, and chuckled softly.

"Thunder Tribulation shattered the Array, no longer isolated from the outside world, allowing the Demon Qi in our bodies to recover. We finally escaped from it by luck; the other four Heavenly Demons scattered and fled, and finally, after being hunted, successfully returned to Demon Emperor City."

"I don't know why I live, but since I was able to survive by luck, I don't want to die in vain."

Her mouth corners drooped, her fists slowly clenched, she took a deep breath, and said heavily: "She was sick."

"The one who saved me was an old woman who had lost her husband and daughter. Her name was Jing Anfang. She found me unconscious by the seaside. She thought I was a child looking to end it all and persuaded me for a long time."

Those things are all in the past.

"It's just that, after all, I had forcibly broken through during the battle, my accumulation was insufficient, and coupled with the injuries sustained in the Array, shortly after fleeing into the Northern Sea, I, having shaken off the pursuers, ultimately could not withstand the Thunder Tribulation. My cultivation was completely destroyed, worse than even a mortal beast, and I fell into the sea, dying from severe injuries."

Yaoyue shook her head, casting away the distracting thoughts in her mind, and continued to tell the story of those years: "Perhaps there is always a glimmer of survival at the moment of life and death. At the last moment, relying on a flash of epiphany, I actually succeeded in breaking through, forcibly breaking through the barrier, and drawing down the Thunder Tribulation of the Ask Dao Peak."

"Weaving nets, fishing, making cages... these were all skills I had never come into contact with and previously didn't think were of any use. I once resisted, feeling that as a proud genius of the Demon Race, learning this was too demeaning, but I was lectured by her, saying that if I didn't learn, I wouldn't be able to survive in the future."

"Later, I stayed. I also wanted to leave, but I was too weak at that time; any wild beast could have killed me."

"But perhaps it was also that my life was not meant to end; I actually didn't die. After drifting on the sea for I don't know how long, I woke up in a wooden hut."

"Divine Path Sect is a dead zone, and I didn't know how many dangers remained. I fled north with the Thunder Tribulation; they didn't dare to approach me, fearing they would bring fire upon themselves, and finally, I successfully escaped into the Northern Sea."

"Don't you think this story is ridiculous? I consider myself a generation of geniuses of the Demon Race, comparable to the ancient Demon God, but in the end, I left nothing behind, and ultimately was destroyed by the Thunder Tribulation, ending up with the miserable fate of being buried in the belly of a fish."

Ren Yidao did not respond, and Yaoyue did not need him to answer; she was currently immersed in her memories.

Yaoyue paused, as if weighing her words, but in the end, she spoke bluntly:

"... I don't want to die."

"Although I reluctantly compromised at the time, I didn't take it to heart and didn't think anything of it, until..."

"Actually, she didn't need to say that; I hadn't planned on killing myself anyway."

When speaking of this period of time, the corners of Yaoyue's mouth curled up, her eyes squinted in a smile, and her whole body radiated a warm aura.

That memory was very beautiful; a long demon life could not annihilate it.

"There was no special reason; overwork led to illness, and after catching a cold, she fell ill and never recovered."

"She was already very old when she moved away from the crowd to live by the sea alone, yet she still had to prepare food for a useless person like me, helping a useless person who couldn't do anything but eat!"

"Why did she have to help me!!!"

A low roar came from Yaoyue's throat, startling the horse nearby so that it fell to the ground.

After scrambling up in a panic, it ran outward, then was put down by Ren Yidao with a flick of his finger, entering a deep slumber.

"Do you know? The time I was most afraid in my life was not the moment I was about to die under the Thunder Tribulation, nor when I was trapped in the Array, but when I clearly had enough knowledge, yet had no way to save a mortal."

Yaoyue grabbed Ren Yidao's arm, gripping it tightly, as if clutching a life-saving straw.

"A mortal... she was just a mortal! An ant that I could have killed by the hundreds of thousands with a flip of my hand! But, but, I... I couldn't save her."

Yaoyue muttered in a low whisper, repeating it over and over, questioning the ruthless Heaven.

"Just a little bit of Dharma Power would have been enough! A little bit would have been enough for me to help her dispel that insignificant cold! Why wouldn't you give it to me?"

"I had thought about parting with her, but I never thought it would be so soon."

"Finally, I thought of the only method: using my blood!"

"I am a Heavenly Demon; although I fell in realm to a mortal beast, my blood is also a great tonic and contains special effects."

"After she fell unconscious, I cut my wrist and fed her my blood, but... that only extended her life by one day in the end."

The hand gripping his arm gradually loosened, and she let her head hang down powerlessly, sighing with sorrow.

"I just stayed with her, but after she woke up, she angrily scolded me, cursing me for being an idiot, wanting to make her a wronged ghost who couldn't close her eyes even in death."

"She didn't want to drink my blood anymore; she would rather die than do it."

"I asked her if she didn't trust me? I told her I was a demon and that drinking my blood could extend her life, but she scolded me again."

Yaoyue shook her head helplessly, imitating the old woman's tone, and said:

"Who doesn't know you're a demon! Do you think someone who drifts from the sea and can go dozens of days without eating or drinking can be a mortal? You don't know anything, so you definitely aren't an Immortal, which means you can only be a demon that has taken human form!"

"She had known I was a demon for a long time, but even so, she still treated me like an ignorant child, even though she knew I was a demon..."

"I could force her to drink my blood, but that would be meaningless. If she were truly determined to die, I couldn't stop her."

"She complained about me, blamed me for not letting her reunite with her family, and also complained that I didn't understand anything and only caused her trouble... At the very last moment, she finally forgave me before she died."

Yaoyue did not say what exactly the woman said at the end; that was a memory that belonged only to her.

After finishing this past story, Yaoyue let out a long breath, shook her head vigorously, and calmed her agitated emotions.

"Until she died, I finally realized that I didn't understand the Human Race at all. Not all humans are hostile to the Demon Race, and even the other members of the Demon Race are the same; I had never tried to understand them, always thinking self-righteously with the arrogance of the strong..."

"What exactly is the Human Race? What is the Demon Race? What is the difference between the two?"

"And in order to find these answers, I made a choice... to recultivate."

"Everything starts over from the beginning; becoming a mortal, starting to cultivate again from Qi Refining."

That the most talented prodigy in the history of the Demon Race began to switch to cultivating the methods of the Human Race—one has to say, this is truly moving.

"And since I am to learn the methods of the Human Race, I must learn the strongest ones." Yaoyue looked again at the mountain gate behind her, "In all my impressions, the strongest Human Race is right here."

"After recovering some of my strength, I walked from the Northern Sea and came here."

"Perhaps because the Thunder Tribulation washed away everything of mine, I was not discovered for my true form, successfully joined the Divine Path Sect, and remained in this place that had nearly killed me. And here, I also had a new name—Jing Yaoyue."

"You likely know the story after this, so I will not recount it one by one; it should not differ much from what you know. I cultivated step by step within the Divine Path Sect, took over the mantle of Luoyue Peak, picked up little Yueqin, and took Xiaojian as my disciple."

"Let me say something different. When five hundred years had passed, my strength on the surface had just broken through to the Heaven Realm, but in reality, I had already returned to the peak. That's right... Ask Dao Peak."

At this moment, even the usually arrogant Ren Yidao was somewhat shocked.

A Great Demon at Ask Dao Peak for five hundred years, who reached Ask Dao Peak again after only five hundred years of switching to cultivate Daoist Art.

In one thousand years, she had walked both paths to completion.

This talent... wow!

It's practically on par with me, Huhu!

Yaoyue did not notice Ren Yidao's gaze; otherwise, she would certainly have given him a good beating to dampen his arrogance.

"When I encountered the Thunder Tribulation again, I relied on the foundation accumulated over one thousand years to easily pass the Thunder Tribulation. But after passing the Thunder Tribulation, a new problem appeared." Yaoyue's expression sank, and she sighed somewhat helplessly, "There was no path ahead; the road was broken."

The road ahead was broken?

Ren Yidao associated this with the reason and confirmed, "The matter of mending? Heaven and Earth are incomplete and need to be mended?"

"That's right." Yaoyue nodded, acknowledging the mending method, "The first time I stepped into Ask Dao Peak, the time was too short, and I fell quickly; I did not notice the problem... there was no path ahead."

"But when I stepped into Ask Dao Peak for the second time, I discovered that whether it was the path of the Demon God or the path of the Human Immortal, both were completely broken. With my aptitude, I could not see the path ahead."

Ren Yidao was uncharacteristically silent.

How Yaoyue's aptitude was, the fact that she had mastered both paths in a millennium had already proven; no one could deny it. If even she had encountered such a predicament, one could imagine how desperate others would be.

Ren Yidao had always been confident, feeling that Heaven would not cut off all paths, and with his aptitude, he would certainly walk a path that no predecessor had ever walked.

But now, as a fellow gifted individual, even Jing Yaoyue had not been able to avoid the common fate, then he... no!

Jing Yaoyue spent two hundred years entering the Heaven Realm, while I only used one hundred years to touch the threshold of the Heaven Realm... she is not as good as me.

Just because she has no way does not mean I have no way!

"Heaven will not cut off all paths." Ren Yidao said in a deep voice, "It is impossible to have no solution; there must be a way to resolve it."

He was saying this to himself, but Yaoyue did not know; upon hearing this, she nodded in approval.

"Yes, I thought so too."

Yaoyue did not know Ren Yidao's internal change, only feeling that this cheap disciple of hers was indeed a prodigy.

"So, after failing countless times, I made an adventurous decision to cultivate a technique from my memory..."

"The 'Ten Thousand Demon Incarnation Art'."