One of the Seven Demons · Desire

Yun Jingheng turned around.

In the dim gray light and shadow of the grotto, she stood leaning against the stone wall not far behind him.

A nearly transparent tulle draped over her body, the pale purple fabric cascading from her shoulders, cinched at the waist, and the skirt slit at the bottom, revealing her long, shapely legs.

Her hair was dark red, like the color of pomegranate seeds that had been settling for a long time, cascading over her shoulders and back, making her face appear as white as if it had been bathed in moonlight.

She looked to be in her early twenties.

Yun Jingheng looked at her without moving.

He felt the area deep between his brows, which had just closed, tremble slightly again, like a snail whose antennae had been touched, retreating into its shell while still vigilantly sensing the movement around it.

More than a thousand years?

Are you dead?

woman. "..."

"That's true, but saying that will hurt her feelings~"

Yun Jingheng looked at her without even raising an eyebrow. "Things from over a thousand years ago are either human or ghosts. Do you even have body heat?"

She opened her mouth, then closed it again, looked down at her hands, examined them from all angles, and then held them up and waved them at him. "Come here and feel them."

"I won't touch it."

"It's not like I'm going to eat you."

She pouted, and for a moment, her expression, combined with her overly delicate face, made her look like a little girl whose candy had been stolen.

But she quickly masked that expression, leaned back against the stone wall, crossed her arms, and tilted her head to look at him.

"I am a human being."

She said, "It's just that my physical body disappeared a long time ago, and my spiritual imprint resides on this island, so it's barely... well, if you insist on calling it that, half-dead."

"But your comment just now, 'You're a dead person,' was way too direct. I'm a girl, you should at least have been a little more tactful."

Yun Jingheng snorted lightly, "Tactful? You've filled my head with a bunch of girls in maid outfits, and you think you're tactful?"

Fei's eye twitched, and the corner of her mouth curved into a smile, as if she was struggling to hold back a laugh.

"Isn't that something from your own subconscious? I just magnified it. Look at that maid outfit, I even made sure you noticed every single fold of the lace trim at the neckline. Tell me honestly, wasn't I meticulous?"

"Heh~" Yun Jingheng chuckled softly, his eyes brightening slightly as a powerful Divine Power locked onto the woman before him.

"I have no interest in listening to your nonsense. Let them go, or I won't mind letting you experience my Soul Bone Skill."

She tilted her head to look at him, her pupils suddenly freezing in the dim light.

The playful smile remained on her lips, but something beneath it was sinking, growing cold and hard, like a thin layer of ice rapidly forming on the surface of water.

She didn't dodge.

Yun Jingheng's Divine Power locked onto her, like an invisible net covering her head, but she stood still, not even blinking.

She simply looked at him for about two breaths, then raised a finger and gently waved it.

"Little guy,"

She said, the frivolity in her voice was peeling away layer by layer, revealing a deeper, richer substance beneath, "You can't hold me back. You know nothing about this rock, this island, or what those two people beside you are going through. And..."

She paused, then pulled the finger that was pointing outwards back, clenched it into a fist, and then relaxed it again.

"I died once seventeen hundred years ago; your Soul Bone Skill can't kill me."

Yun Jingheng's brow twitched.

She leaned against the stone wall, her long, dark red hair moving behind her without any wind. A section of the thin veil slipped off her shoulder, but she didn't pull it back up.

She looked at him, and all the frivolity, flirtation, and teasing in her amber pupils vanished, leaving only a pure gaze, like a long-sharpened knife, sheathed but still sharp.

"This island,"

She spoke, her voice lowering slightly, echoing strangely in the cave, "Seventeen hundred and thirty-eight years ago, it suddenly appeared from the North Sea, completely black, barren of everything. There was a periodic life tide on the island, and each time the tide rose, the Soul Beast in the surrounding sea would go berserk, their cultivation levels would surge and their aggression would increase dramatically."

"The North Sea Legion has sealed off this sea area for almost two thousand years. Guess why?"

Yun Jingheng remained silent.

His mental lock remained in place, but he could feel it—the lock was like a piece of flowing water, she was inside, but he couldn't hold on tight.

"Because there are two things pressed beneath the core of this island."

She held up two fingers, "The Life Origin. The Destruction Fragment. Have you ever heard of something godlike?"

"... I've heard of it."

"Then you should know what happens when you put these two things together."

She lowered her hands, letting them hang at her sides, the sheer sleeves gently brushing against the outside of her thighs. "Back then, a generation of Shrek Seven Devils was ordered to land on the island to investigate, hoping to retrieve that Destruction Fragment for research."

"They were incredibly powerful, almost unmatched on this continent. They made their way to this stone wall, found the fragment, and then—"

"They touched it."

The cave was silent for a moment.

"The Destruction energy exploded!"

She said, her tone as flat as if she were reading an old file, "The bodies of those seven people were torn to shreds in that instant, blood and flesh flying everywhere, not even bone fragments were left."

"But the Life Origin within the valley surged up like a tide, protecting their souls."

"They survived—as spirits, residing on the island, unable to leave; the moment they stepped outside the island's boundaries, their souls were annihilated."

She paused, shifting her gaze from Yun Jingheng's face to an empty space behind him.

Her gaze lingered in that direction for a moment before returning to its original position.

"But the Destruction Fragment won't let them off so easily."

"Those energies seeped into their spirits like poison; each of the seven was tainted by something— Ruin, Sloth, Greed, Abomination, Nightmare, devouring—and me."

"Desire."

Yun Jingheng looked at her.

She stood in the dim light of the grotto, her thin veil fluttering, her long, dark red hair reaching her waist, her face as white as if bathed in moonlight.

But he couldn't tell which part of her was truly human at that moment, and which part was something that had grown out after being contaminated by the Destruction Fragment.

"I am one of the Seven Old Devils, you can call me whatever you want." She shrugged.

"Xie Xie and Xu Xiaoyan are still in your illusion."

Yun Jingheng shifted his gaze from her face, glancing at the two frozen figures behind him. "What did you do to them?"

The Old Devil of Desire pursed his lips, a hint of grievance appearing on his face.

"Please, I didn't do anything to them. It's Greed and Nightmare. You'll see them later."

She took a step closer to him.

Dark red hair brushed against her shoulders, and the sheer veil swayed gently as she moved.

She glanced at Xie Xie and Xu Xiaoyan, her tone unusually serious.

"They both have to wake up on their own."

Yun Jingheng clenched his fist, then relaxed it. "What if I forcefully interrupt?"

The Old Devil of Desire turned around and looked at him.

Her gaze suddenly sharpened, like a dagger hidden beneath a thin veil suddenly revealing its blade.

"Then you're essentially throwing them into the core energy field of the Destruction Fragment."

She spoke each word clearly, "They are currently in an illusion, their spiritual bodies are in a stable, enveloping state. If you forcibly shatter that envelopment, their souls will be directly exposed to the radiation from the fragments, and their bodies and spirits will turn to ash on the spot."

The wind in the cave stopped.

The wailing sound that had been seeping in from the cracks in the rocks suddenly stopped, and the surroundings became as quiet as if a mute button had been pressed.

"How long will it take?" Yun Jingheng asked.

"Look at the person."

The Old Devil of Desire said, "Those with Divine Power wake up quickly, those with weak mental strength wake up slowly. That kid is far inferior to you, but his foundation is good. The girl's is stronger, but she won't wake up anytime soon."

Yun Jingheng remained silent for a few moments.

Then he walked up to Xie Xie and sat down on a flatter rock next to him.

He sat casually, one leg bent, elbow resting on his knee, his gaze fixed on the dark gray stone wall in front of him.

"Alright."

He said, "I'll wait."

The Old Devil of Desire leaned against the stone wall and watched him for a while.

"Aren't you afraid I'll lie to you?" she asked.

"My aunt brought me here, and my parents agreed, which proves that I can't possibly die here, otherwise they wouldn't have let me come."

The Old Devil of Desire chuckled. "You may leave. The other trials await you."

"It's better to get through sooner and leave sooner."