The midday sunlight poured down, searing and piercing like a blade of flame.
In the bright room with its windows thrown wide open, Zhao Changfeng leaned against the windowsill and gazed outside. He had been lost in thought for a long time.
He was not someone who liked meddling in other people's affairs, yet he had still felt compassion for Shi Yue.
The reason was simple: he had briefly become Shi Yue, weathering ordeal after ordeal through Shi Yue's experiences and state of mind, and had felt his suffering deeply.
Shi Yue's Heart-Demon Obsession had been resolved, but he had also lost his reason to live. Zhao Changfeng kept feeling that, since the Heart-Demon Obsession in the second cauldron needed resolving, he ought to see it through completely.
If Shi Yue died, it seemed something would be missing.
What does a person seek in life?
Shi Yue spent his whole life in misery, letting the years slip away. First he sought to break through the heaven-imposed limit on his lifespan, then he lived solely for his two children. In the end, he gained nothing.
Ruan Meizhen was grievously wounded by love. The meaning of her remaining life seemed to be nothing more than demanding an explanation from Xu Lang. Even if she succeeded, what then?
And what about me?
Looking at the street, now quiet and deserted, Zhao Changfeng felt a suffocating weight in his chest.
Experiencing half a lifetime in Shi Yue's body had left far too powerful an aftereffect. He still had not recovered, and could not help pondering the meaning of his own life.
At the very least, I should find out why I appeared in this world, and why my body and soul were separated.
That cauldron...
All the answers lay with the Bronze Cauldron floating in the void beyond the heavens.
Only by meeting the cauldron could he discover what had happened to him and recover those profound memories sealed away in dust.
On the bed, Ruan Meizhen sat upright and solemn, seemingly no longer in the mood to restore her combat strength with venom.
She, too, was troubled.
After returning to the room, she had seen Zhao Changfeng standing by the window, seemingly caught in some perplexing dilemma, and had refrained from disturbing him.
She could not understand why, after killing Chen Haoming, Zhao Changfeng had suddenly sought out Shi Yue and even felt compassion for a man who had once harbored greed and murderous intent.
Was their relationship not simply a transactional one?
How could Zhao Changfeng possibly be a kindhearted person?
She found that she could no longer see Zhao Changfeng clearly or fathom his thoughts. She did not know what sort of person the real Zhao Changfeng actually was.
As Zhao Changfeng stood by the window looking outside, one side of his face was bathed in direct sunlight, while the other lay in the gloom of the stone house.
Human nature was complex and multifaceted. She felt that Zhao Changfeng must also have another side unknown to others.
Suddenly, after staring at Zhao Changfeng for so long, she had the strange illusion that his image overlapped with Xu Lang's. Her chest began to tighten as well.
She had just received word that a trial party from the Primal Demon Temple, passing through Heavenly Shield City, had learned of Shen Yanrong's plea for help and was already hurrying over as fast as possible.
Before the gates of the Primal Demon Temple, she had endured the most humiliating and painful experience of her life. She believed many people from the Primal Demon Temple had witnessed that scene.
Over the years, she had longed so desperately to return to the Primal Demon Temple, yet she was also terrified of encountering its people.
She had been hiding all this time.
She avoided places frequented by disciples of the Primal Demon Temple, afraid she might encounter someone who had witnessed what happened back then and hear a few humiliating words directed at her.
Now, people from the Primal Demon Temple were about to arrive, but her master's orders left her nowhere to hide.
"Senior Sister Ruan, I need more spirit beast carcasses."
Zhao Changfeng suddenly spoke.
Her tangled thoughts abruptly drew together, and Ruan Meizhen returned to the present, her lovely brows furrowing slightly.
"Every rogue cultivator except Shi Yue has left. There probably isn't anyone left to trade with."
"Besides, after our people arrived, they bought from the rogue cultivators who had stores of spirit beast carcasses. They've more or less bought everything."
For those who cultivated the Essence-Devouring Demon Art or the Corpse Demon Art, fellow humans with advanced cultivation and ranked spirit beasts were raw materials for rapidly acquiring power.
When Zhao Changfeng decided to kill Chen Haoming, he had refined all the first-rank spirit beasts in one go that very night. He truly had no materials left to use now.
But even the cleverest cook could not make a meal without rice. She, too, felt helpless.
With people from the Primal Demon Temple about to arrive and the threat of the demon spirit tide still present, she could only set aside her resentment over Zhao Changfeng's brazen public molestation of her for the time being.
After all, she had agreed to it herself, and had received the corresponding payment.
Though Zhao Changfeng had gone far too far and said things too obscene to bear, she had indeed obtained what she wanted.
I'll put up with you for now and settle the score later.
As Ruan Meizhen thought this, she suddenly realized something else.
She might not possess the combat strength to keep Zhao Changfeng in check in the future.
Zhao Changfeng was growing far too quickly.
The explosive power of the Blood Shadow Art was terrifying beyond compare. If he could already blast Chen Haoming, who was at the late Yuanqi stage, to death now, what about the future?
At that thought, Ruan Meizhen felt so uncomfortable that she could not help twisting her waist on the bed, rubbing her extravagantly full buttocks against the bedboards.
Zhao Changfeng frowned. "There really isn't any way? There truly aren't any ranked spirit beasts left for sale in all of Tamu Town?"
Ruan Meizhen considered carefully before saying, "Shi Yue should have a way. You could ask him."
"All these years, he's been active in the rogue cultivator settlements around Heavenly Shield City. Not just Tamu Town-he visits other towns, too."
"This is what Shi Yue does. You can think of him as a merchant. That blackhearted fellow has made far too much from the difference in prices!"
Even now, mentioning Shi Yue still stirred her lingering anger, for he had actually dared to harbor greed and murderous intentions toward her, and had tested her by demanding that bell.
"Shi Yue?"
Zhao Changfeng immediately rose.
Perhaps because the blazing sun was too scorching, Shi Yue, who no longer had anything to live for, had moved into the shade of the dilapidated stone house. He still sat motionless.
After pondering for an entire morning, he still felt that, with his meager cultivation and wretched talent, he had no hope of getting the Extinction Sect to investigate the reincarnation of his two sons.
The pitiful spark of vitality Zhao Changfeng had kindled was already nearly extinguished after just one morning.
When Zhao Changfeng came looking for him, he assumed he had come to collect his payment. He casually tossed out a cloth bag, not even bothering to speak.
Earlier, a crowd had gathered, everyone watching the two of them. To avoid causing Zhao Changfeng additional trouble, he had not handed over the spirit jade he had prepared long ago.
"Elder Shi..."
Zhao Changfeng recognized the change in him at a glance and understood its cause. After a few seconds of thought, he said, "With your own strength, it really would be difficult to get the Extinction Sect to investigate the current reincarnation status of your two sons."
"But what if it were me, Zhao Changfeng? Do you think I might have a chance?"
At these words, Shi Yue's eyes abruptly lit up.
The first time he had seen Zhao Changfeng was at the sand dune where he had spoken with Ruan Meizhen. Back then, Zhao Changfeng had only been at the Yuanjing stage.
Now, having only just entered the Yuanqi stage, Zhao Changfeng could already kill Chen Haoming with brutally ferocious methods.
How much time had passed?
What about the future?
What Shi Yue could not accomplish, Zhao Changfeng might truly be able to do for him, provided his cultivation continued advancing at this pace!
"Why would you help me? What can I do for you?"
Shi Yue's expression turned solemn.
"Right now, I want to purchase some ranked spirit beasts to improve my cultivation, but I don't have any connections."
Choosing his words carefully, Zhao Changfeng said, "In the future, I should have other uses for your help as well."
"Elder Shi, if you're willing to believe that I, Zhao Changfeng, am a man who keeps his promises, then work for me."
"I promise you that, once I possess that kind of power, I will help you fulfill your wish!"
Zhao Changfeng spoke with a serious expression.
Petty nobodies could tear up contracts and agreements at will, but the great demonic overlords who could truly dominate a region were all men whose word was worth a thousand pieces of gold.
Shi Yue looked deeply at him, rapidly reviewing everything Zhao Changfeng had done in his mind, and confirmed that he absolutely had the potential to become a great demonic overlord.
Then Shi Yue declared in a deep voice, "Very well!"
With those words, his spark of life flared anew. This time, all of it rested on Zhao Changfeng.
In the courtyard where Cui Pinyuan lived, there was a windowless side room.
Deep beneath the ground.
A stone well, constantly giving off pale, ghostly cold mist, plunged deep into the earth. Numerous recesses had been carved into the hard rock walls around it, each holding a spirit beast carcass.
Dryland sand lizards, four-eared sand foxes, Eternal Night Scorpions, Greenbone Snakes...
Besides first-rank spirit beasts, there were actually quite a few second-rank spirit beasts inside, all frozen solid by the cold.
The days in the Sola Desert were far too hot, making dead spirit beasts extremely difficult to preserve for long. This underground cavern, however, was bone-chillingly cold, serving as his ice cellar for storing them.
Chen Jian of the Ghost-Controlling Sect sat upright, the Yin Ghost Spirit-Seizing Banner above his head fluttering without wind. Yin Ghost Bats clung around the mouth of the well like bats, drawing in the rising, pale cold mist.
Chen Jian narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Zhao Changfeng, whom Cui Pinyuan had brought inside.
"Those few words you said to persuade Shi Yue, along with that bell belonging to his son, made him reveal my secret to you."
Cui Pinyuan, who called himself the mayor, frowned, seemingly displeased with Shi Yue's actions. But at the thought of what was about to happen, he could only set aside his plans to settle accounts with Shi Yue for now. He said flatly, "How many spirit beasts do you want to purchase?"
Thud! Thud!
Zhao Changfeng tossed every cloth bag containing spirit stones, spirit jade, and assorted trinkets he had no use for over to Cui Pinyuan.
"Everything I've acquired is in there. Please count it, Senior, and see how many spirit beasts I can exchange it for."
Zhao Changfeng smiled.
Without Shi Yue's revelation, he never would have imagined that Tamu Town's largest spirit materials merchant was actually Cui Pinyuan, or that an Earth Yin Cold Spring lay hidden deep beneath the town.
The demon spirit tide was so terrifying that every rogue cultivator except Shi Yue had already left. Cui Pinyuan himself was also a rogue cultivator, with no obligation to hold his ground in Tamu Town.
He remained only because his Blazing Sun Demon Art was incomplete, and something had gone wrong during his cultivation. He needed this Earth Yin Cold Spring to withstand the agony of burning demon flames.
Once he left Tamu Town, the moment the demon flames within him flared up, they would burn his primordial spirit to ashes.
"These things could ordinarily be exchanged for five second-rank spirit beast carcasses."
"Since you exposed the identities of Song Zejun and his wife and helped Tamu Town avert a potential crisis, Brother Zhao, I'll give you two more."
Cui Pinyuan spoke after counting the contents.
"Thank you, thank you."
Zhao Changfeng cupped his hands in thanks, then prepared to collect the second-rank spirit beast carcasses.
He had never obtained a second-rank spirit beast before. Anticipation rose within him, and he wanted to take them back as soon as possible to refine them with the Essence-Devouring Demon Art.
"Brother Zhao, just refine them here. There's no need to go to the trouble of hauling them back and forth."
Cui Pinyuan gave a bitter smile and said dispiritedly, "And be quick about it."
"Once those people from the Primal Demon Temple arrive, we may not be able to keep any of these spirit beast carcasses-or even this Earth Yin Cold Spring."
After saying that, he looked at Chen Jian beside him. "The same goes for you. Strengthen as many yin ghosts as you can."