A few days before the Winter Solstice that year, Shi Feiyang chanted the incantation again and established a telepathic link with E Shengfan.
E Shengfan was overjoyed and kept transmitting his delight to Shi Feiyang. Communication between Gods and demons needed no words; each could directly experience the other's emotions. As he continually released his joy, Shi Feiyang could feel it clearly.
Shi Feiyang also released a little restrained pleasure. "It's been a while. I thought I'd see how you were doing."
E Shengfan expressed his intense feelings directly. "I've thought of you day and night, fellow Daoist. Someone with your talent for demonic cultivation comes along once in a thousand years. It would be such a pity if you didn't practice my demonic arts! For more than a thousand years, our demonic path has declined, maligned by the ignorant. 'Demon' has actually become a derogatory word. How outrageous!"
"If you don't cultivate demonic arts, Fellow Daoist Shi, the demonic path will continue to sink, and all eternity will be like one long night. Only you can master the supreme great methods of the demonic path... I can sense that you've already achieved initial mastery of the All-Heavens Esoteric Demon Great Method. Such talent is truly rare in this world! I've been regretting things all this time. If anything I did made you turn against the divine arts of the demonic path, that would truly be my sin. Even ten thousand deaths couldn't redeem me!"
Shi Feiyang was delighted. "Since you put it that way, I'll forgive you. What other demonic arts do you have? I'll learn a few more."
E Shengfan did not understand why, despite clearly sensing that Shi Feiyang had cultivated the All-Heavens Esoteric Demon Great Method to a very high level, he still could not directly