18
The immortal sects were making a huge commotion outside the entrance to the Demon Realm—
“Huyền Mặc, you are the Venerable of a realm. You must answer for what you’ve done!”
“You’ve killed so many of our female disciples. Today, we’ll see justice done!”
“You heartless fiend, come out and face your death!”
I listened, bewildered.
Huyền Mặc led me out of the underground palace to the barrier at the entrance to the Demon Realm.
On the way, he explained:
“Over the past year, the immortal sects have discovered that their female disciples were going missing one after another. Later, they were found dead, having lost their chastity. Someone was using them as cultivation furnaces to practice a wicked art.”
I asked in confusion:
“Then why are they blaming you?”
Huyền Mặc gave a cold laugh.
“Because I look a lot like someone.”
My heart stirred.
I began to piece it together.
Master?
Master and Huyền Mặc looked almost exactly alike.
“Wretched disciple!” The moment Master saw me, he flew into a rage and shouted:
“You dare consort with the Demon Realm and betray your sect!”
I opened my mouth to explain, but Huyền Mặc stopped me.
Huyền Mặc raised his voice:
“Immortal Venerable Lingxiao, years ago, I accidentally entered your sea of consciousness, and you mistook me for the inner demon you had created. Is that right?”
Master’s face was cold—an exact match for Huyền Mặc’s. He replied impassively:
“That’s right. To redeem you, I found an unclaimed body for you to be reborn in. I never expected you to be the damaged divine consciousness of the Demon Venerable Huyền Mặc!”
Huyền Mặc burst out laughing.
He couldn’t be bothered to explain. With a sweep of his sleeve, he sent a delicate treasure mirror floating into the air.
“This is an ancient divine artifact that records what truly happened. Immortal Venerable Lingxiao, see for yourself!”
The mirror’s surface blurred, then gradually came into focus.
A man in dark robes, with profound cultivation, abducted female disciples of the immortal sects.
He was ruthless, using the women as cultivation furnaces and absorbing their spiritual energy, leaving them deflowered and dead in agony.
The man looked very much like Huyền Mặc.
But there was no red mole beneath his eye.
“What does this prove? You could have simply removed that mole to frame me!”
Master roared in anger.
My heart went cold.
In the sea of consciousness, I had once seen Master kill my mother with his own hands.
Back then, I thought it was an illusion created by the inner demon.
Now, I was beginning to understand that it might well have been the truth.
“The truth is out. If you want to fight, get on with it!”
Huyền Mặc had lost patience. He raised his palm, conjuring a massive blaze of dark flame.
He swept his hand, and the flames poured down like a waterfall, crashing through the barrier with a tremendous boom!
In an instant, the ground beneath the immortal sect disciples split apart.
Everyone panicked and hurriedly fled on their flying swords.
“Just one move from the Demon Venerable, and he’s already this powerful…”
Everyone was horrified.
“Take the delicate treasure mirror and verify the truth for yourselves.”
Huyền Mặc swept his sleeve, tossing the mirror toward the abbot of Great Zhao Temple:
“Old monk, I find you agreeable enough. You can borrow it to take a look.”
19
Back in the bedchamber, I remained silent.
Master might well be the enemy who killed my mother.
Back then, he had led me into his sea of consciousness in order to make the inner demon develop feelings for me, so it could use a body to exist in.
With a body that looked similar, he could blame all his evil deeds on the inner demon.
But he had miscalculated.
He never expected that inner demon to be a powerful Demon Venerable of the Demon Realm.
“Do you want revenge?”
A man’s low voice sounded behind me.
He wrapped his arms around me from behind and said slowly, “Killing your master brings heavenly retribution. Seven bolts of heavenly lightning will strike, and I doubt you could withstand them. But it’s all right. I’ll bear them for you.”
I turned in his arms and leaned gently against his chest.
I said nothing.
This was my karma.
I had to settle it myself.
“Mother! Mother!”
On the black jade bed, the little baby stared wide-eyed and imitated its father: “I’ll take the lightning for you!”
I laughed and bent down to rub its little head. “You’re still so tiny. One strike of lightning would kill you.”
The baby wasn’t convinced. Its tiny fingers wiggled, and it puffed bubbles with its little mouth. “Take your place, kill, kill…”
It was just baby talk, so I didn’t take it to heart.
—
20
One month later.
The abbot of Great Zhao Temple led the other immortal sects to demand that Immortal Venerable Lingxiao be put to death.
“Amitabha. Benefactor Lingxiao, take your own life.”
The abbot chanted the Buddha’s name and hurled out the exquisite treasure mirror.
Once again, Immortal Venerable Lingxiao’s crimes were laid bare before everyone.
“An ancient divine artifact cannot be forged.”
“The exquisite treasure mirror contains a drop of Benefactor Lingxiao’s blood, so it can retrieve the past.”
“Benefactor Lingxiao has taken too many lives.”
Huyền Mặc took me into hiding in the shadows, saying he wanted to bring me to see a good show.
He even brought along the little one, who was only a few months old.
“I stole that drop of blood.” Huyền Mặc leaned close to my ear and whispered, as if boasting, “Is your husband clever or what?”
I nodded, keeping my eyes fixed on the scene before us.
Immortal Venerable Lingxiao refused to confess, and the situation had reached a stalemate.
The immortal sects had always prized harmony, so for a while all anyone could hear was the back-and-forth arguing.
The exquisite treasure mirror began to retrieve the scene of my mother being possessed by a fox demon, then brutally killed by Immortal Venerable Lingxiao.
My heart ached, and I murmured, “Mother…”
The baby in my arms called out too: “Mother!”
Its soft little hands stroked my cheek. “Don’t cry, Mother. Kill, kill.”
It was still so little and liked to repeat words, making it sound both innocent and adorable.
But at that very moment, a fierce wind rose, sweeping up the crowd as they argued.
Dust filled the air. No one saw a miraculous streak of light, sharp as an arrow, shoot straight into the vital point three inches below Immortal Venerable Lingxiao’s dantian!
Though his cultivation was profound, that spot was a hidden, fatal weakness.
A deafening boom!
Immortal Venerable Lingxiao collapsed on the spot.
“What happened?!”
“Where did that strange wind come from?”
“How could Immortal Venerable Lingxiao have died?”
“A wicked fiend like him dares call himself an Immortal Venerable? Even Heaven couldn’t stand it and had to punish him!”
Curses rang out without end.
I tugged at Huyền Mặc’s sleeve and whispered, “Was that you?”
He shook his head regretfully. “I didn’t even get the chance to act.”
I stared in astonishment and lowered my eyes to the child in my arms.
The adorable baby grinned, showing its pink, tender gums. Deep dimples dimpled its cheeks, and its expression was utterly innocent.
“Love you, Mother! Love you, Mother!”
—
21
At my wedding to Huyền Mặc, all the divisions of the Demon Realm came to pay their respects.
The abbot of the Great Zhao Temple came in person, both to return the ancient divine artifact, the exquisite treasure mirror, and to discuss a peace treaty with the Demon Realm.
The protracted war between the immortal and demon realms was temporarily brought to a halt.
“My wife once taught me: The highest good is like water. Water benefits all things and does not contend; it settles where people disdain to be, and so it is close to the Way.”
Huyền Mặc wore his wedding robes, his bearing lofty and his looks peerless.
His gaze settled on me. “I listen to my wife.”
Beneath the beaded veil of my phoenix crown, I smiled faintly.
Right and wrong both lie in the heart.
What good is it to stand among the immortals if your heart is corrupt?
The Master I once revered was a perfect example.
If your heart is upright, you can cultivate anywhere.
21
Our wedding night.
Huyền Mặc thought our son was too noisy, so he whisked me off to a spirit spring in the Demon Realm.
“Oh? This place feels familiar.”
“That's right. Back when we were in the sea of consciousness, I secretly thought that someday I would bring you here to bathe in a real spirit spring.”
Huyền Mặc gazed intently at me.
Moonlight shone into his eyes, where a blood-red glint flickered, full of wickedness.
I slipped my arms around his neck and teased, “Confess. Back in the sea of consciousness, when I nearly suffered cultivation deviation, did you set it up on purpose?”
Huyền Mặc raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
He suddenly swept me into his arms and stepped into the spirit spring.
“A spring night is worth a thousand pieces of gold, my wife. Let’s not waste it talking.”
He bent down and silenced me with his lips.
After recovering his memories as the Demon Venerable, he was even more uninhibited and domineering than he had been in the sea of consciousness.
If not for the three hundred years of spiritual energy protecting me, he would have worn me out long ago.
The spirit spring was warm, yet in that moment it made me feel as if I were burning up.
Water splashed everywhere; there was nothing to hold on to.
Huyền Mặc held my waist and caressed me without pause.
The moonlight gradually faded, vanishing behind dark clouds.