Part 2
“You… Hmph, I can restore my arm after I get out. But if you leave this pet now, can you leave the Secret Realm alive?” Yan Ye stared at the green jellyfish, his gaze sharp as a knife, pondering where to strike.
“If you dare touch Ah-Duo, I’ll drag you down as a cushion. Yan Shajiang is just outside. I remember you killed his younger brother in the last siege. That guy said sooner or later, he’d take your demon core to pay tribute to his brother.”
Hai Jie’er stroked the jellyfish with one hand, her smile seemingly laced with lethal poison.
“What a coincidence. Zhan Beicheng is outside too. You schemed to kill seventy percent of his Northern City army in the last siege. He’s been wanting to use your blood to sacrifice to his fallen subordinates for a long time too.”
Yan Ye exposed her shortcomings without showing weakness.
As the two were in a stalemate, another figure turned into this corner.
Man She arrived only to meet a red and a blue pair of eyes. The three looked at each other for a moment. He raised his hands to show he had no intention of attacking and smiled. “Greetings to you both. Didn’t expect it to be lively here too. You don’t mind adding me, right?”
Seeing the newcomer, Hai Jie’er was surprised. “Man She, who are you hiding from?”
Incubi were rare social butterflies in the Demon Realm. Apart from some romantic debts, they rarely offended anyone.
Moreover, the Incubus’s ability was to influence emotions. They generally liked to go where demons were dense, making it easier for them to fish in troubled waters, incite the group, and find puppets for themselves.
“That… I’m not hiding from anyone. I just felt it was a bit dangerous out there.”
Man She covered his chest with one hand. “Did you know? I saw the Little Highness of the Wood Demon Clan unlock his seal.”
Hai Jie’er and Yan Ye certainly knew; they were at the scene.
Man She scanned their expressions. “You knew. Were you in the same place as Mu Miao earlier? Want to exchange intelligence?”
Yan Ye and Hai Jie’er’s distrustful eyes fell on him simultaneously.
Man She: “To show my sincerity, how about I share my intelligence first?”
“I met a Demon Lord I’ve never seen before in the Illusion Tower.” As soon as Man She said this, the looks in Yan Ye and Hai Jie’er’s eyes changed instantly.
Hai Jie’er: “A Demon Lord never seen before?”
Man She: “Yes, never seen. He moved unimpeded in the Illusion Tower, suspected to be the owner of the tower.”
Yan Ye immediately denied it. “Impossible. Lord Yan said this Secret Realm is a remnant from the ancient era, millions of years ago. Even a Demon Lord can’t live for a million years.”
“Don’t get excited. I didn’t say he was the original owner of the Illusion Tower; that would be too scary. I suspect he was a demon who entered the tower in the previous two times, used some method to stay in the Secret Realm, avoided the vision of the Demon Lords, obtained some opportunity in the Secret Realm, and advanced to become a Demon Lord.” Man She voiced his conjecture.
Hai Jie’er and Yan Ye felt this explanation was much more reasonable. Compared to an old monster surviving from ancient times, Man She’s guess made the demons feel more at ease.
“I’ve told you a piece of important intelligence. In exchange, can you two tell me what the situation is with that Wood Demon?” Man She probed.
Hai Jie’er summarized broadly: “We entered a ruin with the Wood Demons. It was dangerous inside, so Mu Miao unlocked the Little Highness’s seal.”
Yan Ye listened to these words, which said practically nothing, marveling at the low amount of information and the high level of perfunctoriness.
While he couldn’t hear the information, it was different in Man She’s ears. “It seems we all underestimated the danger of these ancient buildings.”
“The previous two times we came, this Secret Realm was dead. Now, it seems to have come alive.”
As his voice fell, the stone statue where the three demons were hiding began to move. The field of vision rose rapidly. The stone statue, which originally only had a head on the ground, rose continuously, pulling a body out from underneath.
Giant stones fell from overhead, smashing toward the place where the demons were most densely packed. After the demons hurriedly dodged, these giant stones moved again, one after another, forming a long stone staircase road. The end of the road was a high platform.
On the dim stone platform, amidst the shadows, a hand lit a candlestick. Candlelight spilled in all directions, giving color to the figures in the darkness.
Before the demons below could see the person lighting the lamp clearly, clusters of floating flames ignited one after another, extending from both sides of the stone steps to the surroundings. Like two long fire dragons being born, they circled half the building and then converged again.
From then on, the place was brightly lit.
A giant cage hung suspended in the air above the heads of the demons, parallel to the stone platform.
Inside the cage, a hand reached out, waving constantly at the stone platform. “Temple Master, Temple Master, I’ve been locked up~”
Yun Wuxiang glanced at Song Yilou, whose head was stuck between two bars and was gesturing with one hand in the air. He asked in confusion, “Why do you think he is my weakness?”
Yun Wuxiang genuinely didn’t understand. Did he and Song Yilou really look that ambiguous?
Why did both the Tower Spirit and the entity before him—suspected to be the artifact spirit of Daoist Venerable Jiangzi—think there was that kind of relationship between him and Song Yilou?
After being pulled here by the purple light, a voice told him to light the candle and see his weakness clearly.
Yun Wuxiang lit the fire, the surroundings brightened up, and then he saw Song Yilou locked in a birdcage.
See my weakness clearly???
A weakness should be the place one fears being attacked the most. What did that have to do with Song Yilou?
“I heard it. Though that Waste Tower is dilapidated, it wouldn’t make a mistake in such matters.” A large illusory bird made of black mist stood on the long bench opposite Yun Wuxiang.
Yun Wuxiang: “I don’t think so. There are no absolutes in this world.”
Leaving aside Lust and Fame, the illusion of Gluttony was a feast of poisonous insects plus Song Yilou slices.
He would absolutely never think of eating sliced Song Yilou! Even if his brain short-circuited, he couldn’t do such a thing!
Black Mist Bird: “I saw it too. The marriage line between you and that ghost creature is filled with ominousness.”
“Jiangzi acted on emotion, harming herself and others. You must not follow her old path.”
Yun Wuxiang wanted to refute his relationship with Song Yilou, but the words reached his lips and were swallowed back.
This was the third person to say he had a marriage line with Song Yilou. Princess Shunming, 6669’s host, and now the Black Mist Bird before him.
But listening to this Black Mist Bird, it sounded like it wanted to help him cut the marriage line?
Such a good thing existed?
The corners of Yun Wuxiang’s mouth pressed down slightly, keeping his expression taut. He asked, “What is your intention in telling me this?”
“Since you know it is not a good match, you should make a decision early to avoid endless entanglement in the future.”
Black Mist Bird: “If you cannot make a decision, I will help you once.”
A chessboard appeared on the table between Yun Wuxiang and the Black Mist Bird.
Black Mist Bird: “Let’s play a game of chess. If you lose, this place belongs to you. You can inherit my Master’s Dao Fruit, enjoy endless longevity, and the person in the cage dies.”
“If you win, you can never step into this place again. Your cultivation in this life will stop at Demon Lord, with no chance to reach the peak again, and the person in the cage lives.”
Song Yilou stopped smiling. His gaze stared gloomily at the Black Mist Bird. “Ruining people’s marriages will get you struck by lightning, dead bird!”
Black mist shrouded the birdcage, and the inside became very quiet.
Black Mist Bird: “He is still alive. Just making him quiet for a while so he doesn’t disturb the chess game between you and me.”
“A piece of advice for you. Tracing the source is not difficult for me. Clones are meaningless to me,” the Black Mist Bird said.
Yun Wuxiang looked down at the chessboard. Lose a game, and Song Yilou disappears on the spot, while he gains control of another array eye and an Inheritance Dao Artifact left by a Daoist Venerable.
Was he actually still in the illusion? Could such a pie-in-the-sky event really happen?
It felt like there was a trap somewhere.
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