Xu Ziqing’s face went pale.
His senior brother’s hand still rested against his cheek, yet he no longer recognized him?
For a moment he could not speak. Yun Lie asked again, “Who are you?”
Xu Ziqing looked into Yun Lie’s eyes. Though they were black and lightless, they reflected the figure of a green-robed youth: himself. Suddenly, the tension in his heart eased a little.
Even if his senior brother had lost his memories, he had not attacked or injured him. Something essential within Yun Lie must remain unchanged. Why should Xu Ziqing wallow in sorrow and become attached to outward appearances?
The thought broadened his heart. He smiled slightly. “Senior Brother, I’m your junior brother. Even if you don’t remember me, I will always remember you.”
Yun Lie tilted his head, a hint of puzzlement in his eyes. “Name?”
Xu Ziqing smiled. “I’m Xu Ziqing. We’ve known one another for more than ten years and have rarely been apart. Even though we’ve fallen into this place without heaven or earth, seeing you here still sets my heart at ease.”
Of all he said, Yun Lie seemed to catch only one thing. He frowned slightly. “Ziqing?”
Xu Ziqing nodded. “Yes, Senior Brother.”
Only then did Yun Lie withdraw his hand. “You are good.”
Xu Ziqing smiled. “Senior Brother is good too.”
At this point, he noticed something strange. His senior brother, who had always kept his seven emotions frozen, was actually revealing a little of what he felt. Compared with ordinary people, the changes were still exceedingly subtle. But Xu Ziqing had spent so many years with Yun Lie that he knew him well. His senior brother’s emotions now were truly different from before.
Was it… the influence of the Seven Emotions Demon Mara?
Xu Ziqing raised his head. Sure enough, hidden among Yun Lie’s long black hair was a dark crimson petal, emitting an almost imperceptible glimmer.
So that was why.
Having finally determined that his senior brother was not in immediate danger, Xu Ziqing could calm down and analyze their circumstances.
Ancient records spoke of the Seven Emotions Demon Mara, also known as the Flower of Seven Emotions and Six Desires.
The flower possessed forty-nine petals. It bloomed after four thousand nine hundred years and withered forty-nine shichen later. On first blooming, it was red as blood. After repeating this cycle many times, the petals finally turned dark crimson, producing a Seven Emotions Demon Mara Flower King.
It was a rare and extraordinary flower of heaven and earth, yet also a demonic flower. It formed from the seven emotions and six desires gathered throughout the world. It could grow in many places, but wherever it appeared, extraordinarily pure demonic energy gathered around it. Over time, that energy could even condense into demonic crystals, forming a natural demonic domain.
To cultivators of the demonic path, the flower was an excellent tonic.
Demonic cultivators followed their desires. By consuming a petal of the Seven Emotions Demon Mara, one could vastly improve one’s demonic cultivation, purge impurities from one’s energy, and refine a body of pure demonic power. Some could even cultivate a supreme demonic physique. Its effects varied from person to person and were too numerous to list.
But one thing was beyond doubt. According to legend, every demonic cultivator who encountered the flower eventually became a mighty figure of the demonic path, capable of stirring up tremendous upheaval across the nine thousand worlds.
For immortal-path cultivators, however, the outcome was often very different.
Some were invaded by the demonic flower and lost all reason, becoming mindless demons. Others fell completely into the demonic path, abandoning immortal cultivation. Still others were corrupted without being able to cultivate demonic techniques. Their bodies retained immortal-path arts, but neither side would accept them. Unable to cultivate as immortals or demons, they remained at the same realm until their lifespans ended and they became a mound of earth.
The best outcome was extraordinarily rare.
If an immortal-path cultivator possessed exceptional willpower and endured forty-nine full days of demonic transformation, there was still a chance to awaken their immortal-path convictions during the heart-demon trial of a future breakthrough. They could then turn from demonic cultivation back to the immortal path, their body transformed into a physique encompassing both immortal and demonic qualities.
In such a case, the ordeal would be a fortuitous opportunity rather than a calamity.
Xu Ziqing had complete confidence in Yun Lie. To him, this would certainly become an opportunity for his senior brother.
Thinking so, he looked again at the dark red petal in Yun Lie’s hair and almost laughed.
His senior brother had always been so meticulously dignified. Seeing him with a flower petal in his hair was surprisingly adorable.
But although Xu Ziqing had read the ancient records, his cultivation was still too low for him to understand Yun Lie’s true condition.
The danger Yun Lie faced was a hundred times greater than he imagined.
Yun Lie cultivated the Ruthless Slaughter Sword Dao, which required him to freeze his seven emotions. To form his Golden Core, one emotion had to awaken all seven. Once his core was formed, the seven emotions were frozen again, allowing nothing external to disturb him until his eventual ascension.
The Flower of Seven Emotions and Six Desires was a natural wonder. Although it had not awakened full intelligence, the faint will it possessed particularly disliked beings who lacked emotion and desire.
Thus, whenever it encountered an immortal-path cultivator practicing an Unfeeling, Severing Emotions, Forgetting Emotions, or similarly detached Dao, it invaded them in an instant and released all seven emotions and six desires.
A person who had long extinguished their emotions was accustomed to never feeling them move. If all those feelings and desires suddenly flooded back, it would be like spilling ink over a blank sheet. The onslaught could tear their sea of consciousness apart.
Consequently, cultivators of these paths often suffered the worst outcome: complete loss of reason, sometimes accompanied by a violent frenzy, turning them into demons driven entirely by their emotions and desires, capable of recognizing neither family nor friends.
Once such a demon appeared, cultivators of both immortal and demonic paths would inevitably hunt it until body and soul were destroyed.
Yun Lie’s frozen seven emotions were just as offensive to the flower. The instant he arrived in this place, it had shed a petal that attached itself to his body.
His seven emotions were awakened at once, and he fell into demonic corruption.
Worse, Yun Lie cultivated the Sword Dao of ultimate slaughter. He had killed countless enemies over the years and would need to continue killing to perfect his path. Demonic impulses had long been buried within him. His frozen emotions kept those impulses from emerging, while his formidable will suppressed them.
Now the demonic flower had released those impulses. Once Yun Lie absorbed the flower completely, his desire to kill might dominate his consciousness and make him a mad demon controlled by slaughter, just like those who cultivated this sword path but failed to find the ‘one emotion’ necessary to form their Golden Cores.
Fortunately, Xu Ziqing had been drawn down here with him.
After falling into demonic corruption, Yun Lie truly no longer recognized anyone. But Xu Ziqing was the very person whose presence had once stirred his single emotion and awakened all seven, allowing him to form his Golden Core. He was therefore different from everyone else.
He was the only person Yun Lie found familiar, the one person Yun Lie could not bring himself to kill.
In other words, Yun Lie was not quite like those cultivators who had completely extinguished their emotions. His seven emotions had once been awakened and continued to exist; they were merely frozen beneath his killing intent.
That single emotion had taken deep root. Over time, the desire to kill might otherwise have overwhelmed it. But now the person embodying that emotion stood right before him, and the killing impulse was suppressed instead.
The two martial brothers stood facing one another. Xu Ziqing was smiling, his expression unfailingly gentle.
Yun Lie remembered nothing, but now that his seven emotions had been stirred, he was following his instincts, which accounted for his earlier behavior.
After a while, Xu Ziqing made a soft sound of surprise.
The dark red petal in Yun Lie’s hair was gradually dissolving into his body like flowing water.
Xu Ziqing wondered whether his senior brother had been continually circulating his cultivation art and refining the Demon Mara petal even while standing there.
He said, “Senior Brother, I don’t know what this place is, but it probably isn’t somewhere we should linger. If you need to do anything, please don’t worry about me.” He paused, then added, “I’ll meditate here and wait for you.”
Yun Lie appeared to consider his words and nodded. “All right.”
Then he turned. Xu Ziqing did not know what technique he used, but his long black hair lifted slightly and he suddenly appeared several zhang away, before the Seven Emotions Demon Mara flower.
Watching Yun Lie sit down and close his eyes, Xu Ziqing was reassured. Once his strange eyes were shut, his meditative posture looked exactly the same as before.
Feeling more at ease, he began examining his own surroundings.
The region he stood in was brilliantly illuminated, in utter contrast to his senior brother’s demonic domain. Spiritual energy filled the air, and his nose caught a delicate lotus fragrance.
Wait. Lotus fragrance?
Xu Ziqing turned and hurried forward.
Countless lotus leaves almost completely covered the Cold Jade pool. The closer he approached, the more biting the chill became. Each breath brought icy air into his lungs, filling him with cold.
At the same time, it made his mind clearer than ever.
When he finally reached the pool and looked down, he saw another pair of twin lotus blossoms growing from one stem.
They were far smaller than the pair he had seen in the white-jade pool, but the spiritual energy they emitted surpassed that earlier pair many times over.
He remembered that strange powers released by the twin lotus blossoms had suddenly dragged him and his senior brother here. Could the white-jade pool have been a transportation array? And what relationship did these blossoms have with the pair he had seen above?
After thinking for a long while, Xu Ziqing crouched and studied them carefully.
What he discovered startled him.
Cultivators had excellent memories. Xu Ziqing had examined the flowers in the white-jade pool closely. Only now, seeing these smaller blossoms, did he realize that the two pairs were identical in every detail.
Nothing in heaven and earth was ever perfectly identical to anything else. If such a thing happened, there was only one explanation: these blossoms were the same pair he had seen before.
Xu Ziqing looked again at the Cold Jade pool and sighed.
Yes. They were the very same pair.
Even the shape of this Cold Jade pool matched that of the white-jade pool exactly. Did that not suggest the pool above was merely a projection of this one?
As for how the projection had been made to appear so lifelike, it was presumably another illusion array left by Perfected Master Luofu.
Xu Ziqing grew increasingly curious about the ancient master.
If Perfected Master Luofu truly wanted to find an heir, was this illusion array another test? Or perhaps…
If his reasoning was correct, the white-jade pool and twin lotus blossoms should have constituted a transportation formation. The little beast carrying the inheritance crystal had deliberately fled toward the formation. Once the destined person acquired the crystal, it would naturally activate the array and transport them here.
The spiritual energy here was exceptionally pure, far surpassing that outside. It would be an ideal cultivation site for the inheritor. The Cold Jade pool itself must also be a treasure. The twin lotus blossoms were clearly intelligent and presumably another valuable legacy left by Perfected Master Luofu.
But if Xu Ziqing’s reasoning was correct, the Seven Emotions Demon Mara should not exist here.
Even a Nascent Soul cultivator without an exceptionally precious Buddhist treasure would be unable to withstand the flower’s corrupting influence. And the heir Perfected Master Luofu was seeking had to be below Nascent Soul.
Furthermore, Xu Ziqing dimly recalled that the inheritance crystal had not been brought here at all. It seemed to have been left outside. That did not fit his theory either.
However he examined the matter, he could make no sense of it.
If Perfected Master Luofu sincerely sought an heir, the Demon Mara should not be here. If he harbored some hidden design, why go to such lengths to leave so many treasures and arrange so many trials?
The contradictions were baffling.
Just then, wild laughter suddenly sounded from the empty air.