A short while later.
Xie Jinhuan slipped out of the crowd's sight and entered an alley alone. Only after making sure no one had followed did he stop and look at Coal Ball on his shoulder.
"Was something wrong just now?"
"Coo, coo..."
Coal Ball stared at the Zhenglun Sword, looking rather frightened.
Xie Jinhuan knew this sword was Purple Emblem Mountain's divine demon-suppressing weapon, and had been holding it as a protective charm.
Seeing Coal Ball react as though facing a formidable enemy, and having encountered one strange incident after another, he could not help suspecting something unclean lurked in the sword. After some thought, he flicked it with a finger.
Shing~
The blade slid out three inches, revealing its dark blue-green surface and the words "Zhenglun." Nothing looked unusual.
Unable to determine whether anything unclean was inside, Xie Jinhuan considered briefly, then vaulted over a wall into a residence's courtyard. He approached the privy and lifted its curtain.
Bzzzz~
Flies scattered at once, and a stench hit him in the face.
Holding his nose, Xie Jinhuan drew the Zhenglun Sword and tried to push it into the slop bucket.
The result was obvious. Even among Heaven-Reaching Demons, few would willingly roam a sea of shit.
Before the Zhenglun Sword entered the bucket, Xie Jinhuan felt dizzy. Then a woman's sharp rebuke came from behind him.
"Boy, are you asking to die?"
It was the same seductive, mature woman's voice as before, but this time it was overbearing.
Despite having braced himself, Xie Jinhuan shuddered in fright. He quickly glanced around behind him, then slowly raised his gaze.
An enormous apparition had appeared in the courtyard behind him at some unknown point.
It was a woman in a blood-red gown, at least five meters tall by his estimate, with a slender, graceful figure.
Her sash resembled a golden dragon coiled around her waist. A gigantic Red Umbrella proportioned to her size rested on her shoulder, nearly covering the entire courtyard overhead, its canopy also patterned with golden dragons.
As their eyes met, he saw brows like distant mountains, serene and ethereal, yet her peach-blossom eyes were utterly bewitching. She looked like a mountaintop succubus enthroned above the nine heavens.
At such close range, her towering bosom loomed over his head like two mountains. As for that enormous backside, it felt as though she could bury him outright if she sat down...
What a massive ride...
Although Xie Jinhuan had read the description of this female demon in the notes, he truly had not expected her to be this big when she appeared!
Facing a goddess two stories tall, Xie Jinhuan could not help blanking for a moment.
Soon, however, he noticed his consciousness was somewhat hazy. Coal Ball had vanished, and his surroundings had become unreal, like a dream. He was probably hallucinating.
Xie Jinhuan lightly bit his tongue to wake himself, to no effect, then raised a hand to touch the red-clad apparition.
It really was an illusion: his hand could not touch anything solid. So he stuck his head through her cool skirts to see how realistic it was.
But he had only just glimpsed pale thighs when the red-clad woman floated several feet backward, her expression like a goddess of the nine heavens.
"So young, yet so bold."
Realizing the illusion could speak, Xie Jinhuan abruptly came to his senses and stepped back.
"Are you Qixia True Person?"
The red-clad woman twirled the Red Umbrella on her shoulder, making it feel as though the entire sky were spinning.
"My name is Ye Hongshang. I'm not the young Daoist nun you think I am, nor am I some demon or ghost."
Looking like that, how could you not be a demon or ghost?
Standing before a woman over five meters tall, Xie Jinhuan could not have kissed her buns even on tiptoe. The pressure was easy to imagine, but he still forced himself to remain composed and asked coldly,
"Those bandits today, and that carriage just now-were you behind all that mischief?"
Ye Hongshang shrugged slightly. "Why call it mischief? I saw your chivalrous heart and merely helped you find some evil fiends and heretics."
"Those men at noon really were bandits, but that carriage just now..."
"That was a Witch Cult witch. Couldn't you tell?"
How could Xie Jinhuan possibly have known? Though when his palm touched her earlier, he had noticed something just a little unusual...
With his own safety in question, Xie Jinhuan had no mind to concern himself with some Witch Cult witch. He demanded again,
"Did you tamper with me and make me lose my memory?"
Ye Hongshang shook her head. "The Demon-Suppressing Mausoleum has a Soul-Locking Curse. Once triggered, it seals away your past memories. Like you, I can't remember anything. You only forgot the last few years, perhaps because your exposure was brief. The tomb collapsed just after you pulled out the Zhenglun Sword..."
"I pulled out the Zhenglun Sword?"
Xie Jinhuan felt he should have been a wandering hero who went there to stop the grave robbers. These words baffled him.
"Why would I casually pull out something used to suppress demons?"
Ye Hongshang sounded utterly certain. "You pulled the sword out yourself! When I woke up, you'd already killed three of the four grave robbers. You had the old Daoist by the throat, forcing him to break the restrictions, and then the tomb collapsed. Only you and the old Daoist escaped.
"You'd already been hit by the Soul-Locking Curse. After escaping the tomb, you noticed your mind slipping. Afraid the old Daoist would exploit your weakness, you turned around and killed the donkey once the grinding was done. Quite ruthless..."
"..."
Xie Jinhuan had woken up lying in the tent, with no memory of what came before.
From what he knew of himself, he should have been a fine, law-abiding young man with sound values.
Threatening grave robbers into opening the Demon-Suppressing Coffin to seize its treasures, then silencing the unstable element afterward-why did that sound like the work of a ruthless villain...?
"How am I supposed to believe you?"
"If you don't believe me, ask that scruffy little bird~ It was keeping watch outside for you the whole time. How could it not know what you did?"
Hearing this, Xie Jinhuan knew the demoness was almost certainly telling the truth.
If someone had harmed him and knocked him unconscious last night, Coal Ball could not have been so calm.
The tomb had collapsed and he had fallen unconscious, yet Coal Ball had suffered no mishap. The only possibility was that he had caused everything himself, then entered the tent to rest.
Xie Jinhuan found this reality hard to accept, but without remembering what happened, he could not refute it. He could only ask,
"How do I undo the Soul-Locking Curse?"
Ye Hongshang leaned closer, her enormous bosom nearly pressing before his eyes, her expression becoming much friendlier.
"The one who tied the bell must untie it, but after all these years, whoever laid the formation must be long dead. Only my soul got out; my body is still buried beneath the mountain. Help me dig up my grave, and afterward I'll find a way to undo your Soul-Locking Curse. How about it?"
Faced with the facial cleanser practically touching him, Xie Jinhuan refused with righteous dignity.
"You're a Heaven-Reaching Demon suppressed by the Daoist sects. How could I release a tiger back into the mountains?"
Ye Hongshang blinked her fist-sized eyes.
"You were digging harder than anyone last night. Why so proper today? Doesn't saying that make you blush?"
Having forgotten last night's experiences, Xie Jinhuan naturally did not blush.
"A prodigal's return is worth more than gold. Every expert in the city is searching for traces of a great demon. Even if I didn't know you were inside when I rashly dug open the Demon-Suppressing Mausoleum last night, I know the consequences now. If I dig up your true body too, wouldn't that make me someone who brings calamity upon the world?"
Ye Hongshang crouched before him, her heavy, beautiful backside tracing an astonishing curve, as though she were looking at a little doll on the ground.
"Then what do you plan to do? You dug me out last night. It's too late to rein in your horse at the cliff now. If I'm discovered, I'll merely go back to sleep. If you're caught, you'll have to come in and sleep with me."
Xie Jinhuan fell silent.
Anything sealed in the Demon-Suppressing Mausoleum had to be something that normal methods could no longer kill, leaving only the slow grind of the years.
The last Heaven-Reaching Demon had been the chief culprit behind the Witch Cult Rebellion, who had slaughtered a full third of the world!
If Ye Hongshang possessed the same level of power, then even if the Imperial Court caught her, the worst outcome would merely be another burial.
But a brazen "Hu Bayi" like him was not even qualified to enter and attend her in bed. If the Imperial Court discovered him, it would most likely be nine-clan elimination time.
Realizing the situation was bad, Xie Jinhuan calmed down. After some thought, his tone softened.
"Miss, could I send you back to the Demon-Suppressing Mausoleum, and we pretend none of this happened?"
Ye Hongshang looked utterly unconcerned. "Sure. I don't know what to do out here anyway. But you'll only have a chance of sealing the Demon-Suppressing Coffin once you reach first rank. If you can't manage it, you can ask someone else to help. Then, though, the Imperial Court will know which 'living ancestor' defied all under heaven and dug open the Demon-Suppressing Mausoleum."
Knowing the consequences of discovery, and seeing room to salvage things, Xie Jinhuan asked,
"My martial skills are excellent. Roughly what rank am I now?"
Although Ye Hongshang had lost her memory, she still had her discerning eye.
"The first three martial realms are Body Tempering, Flexion, and Spirit Qi, with the early, middle, and late stages each assigned a rank. You can injure enemies with qi, so you've currently touched the threshold of the Spirit Qi realm. That counts as the peak of fourth rank. Not far from first rank."
That's not far?
As far as Xie Jinhuan knew, fourth-rank martial artists were already the pillars of the major sects. For him to possess such strength at only nineteen was simply inconceivable.
But three heavenly chasms stood between peak fourth rank and first rank. Who knew how many heroes had spent their entire lives without even glimpsing the threshold?
Now experts throughout the city were searching for the source of the demonic aura. He had no time at all to level up. Once anyone discovered his connection to it, he would undoubtedly die.
What now...?
Compounding the mistake by digging up her true body would be madness. A peerless luxury ride over five meters tall-if she really got out, wouldn't she destroy the world...?
Throwing away the sword wouldn't work either. This demoness was alive. If he quit, she would surely find another fated person, and then someone would learn that he was the living ancestor who had dug open the Demon-Suppressing Mausoleum...
Finding no suitable path, Xie Jinhuan could only try making a deal with the devil, despite knowing the risks.
"You know my situation. Even protecting myself is a problem. Whether I dig up your grave or bury you properly, I first have to evade the Imperial Court's pursuit. You must be a senior with heaven-reaching powers, miss. Could you..."
Crouching before him with her enormous parasol on her shoulder, Ye Hongshang blinked her large eyes.
"You want a little sweetness up front?"
Xie Jinhuan did indeed need a lifesaving trump card, and nodded earnestly.
Without another word, Ye Hongshang stood and began working her mischief.
Xie Jinhuan looked up and saw the red-clad giant succubus's clothes begin to change, slowly becoming a low-cut red dress with a high slit!
The neckline was exceedingly open, bringing pale half-globes close enough to touch, each big enough to serve as his body pillow. Her cleavage was even more unfathomably deep...
Her two long legs also appeared and disappeared beneath the slanted skirt, like a pair of voluptuous white pythons...
Holy shit?
And you still dare claim you aren't a temptress!
Xie Jinhuan had been waiting for magical treasures and Immortal Weapons. Seeing this scandalously magnificent luxury ride over five meters tall, he froze completely.
"What are you doing?!"
Scantily clad, Ye Hongshang brought her dazzlingly white thigh close to Xie Jinhuan.
"Didn't you want some sweetness? Isn't this sweet?"
Xie Jinhuan could not deny it was very sweet, but what use was this to him?
One last pleasurable wank before dying?
"All of Danyang is searching for the source of the demonic aura, and they'd rather kill the wrong person than let anyone go. I can't bury you again right now. If you can't give me divine weapons, precious artifacts, martial souls, or exotic flames, surely you can at least teach me a Divine Ability for escaping?"
Ye Hongshang looked helpless. "I can't remember my past, and my body is buried in a grave. What do you expect me to give you? If you're really scared, dig up my true body. I'll back you up. If the Imperial Court dares touch you, I'll wipe out all of Great Qian for you."
You'll wipe out Great Qian?
If I let you out, I'll probably be the first one wiped out.
Xie Jinhuan had already seen that this temptress was no easy ride. How could he dare release a tiger back into the mountains?
But without digging her out, Ye Hongshang was merely a ghost, and an amnesiac one at that. Apart from beauty, she had nothing, and even that could only be seen, not touched...
Feeling trapped between two impossible choices, with this giant succubus unable to help either, Xie Jinhuan could only wave a hand.
"I need to sort this out properly. Please disappear for now, and make sure you stay hidden. Stop making mischief everywhere."
"Fine. I'll give you a month. Tell me whenever you've made up your mind."
With that, Ye Hongshang's figure faded soundlessly, and the courtyard returned to bright moonlight and sparse stars.
As though waking from a dream, Xie Jinhuan looked around. Everything was normal, and the buzzing of flies reached his ears again.
Coal Ball had sensed something unclean earlier, and Xie Jinhuan had talked to thin air as though possessed. Frightened into hiding on a distant rooftop, Coal Ball only now timidly poked its head out.
"Coo?"
Xie Jinhuan looked at the sword in his hand and asked,
"Last night, did I tell you to keep watch outside, go into the mountain to dig up a grave, slaughter several people, then enter the tent and lie down myself?"
"Coo."
Coal Ball gave him an affirmative look.
"Was I drunk, mentally unwell, or being threatened?"
Coal Ball shook its head like a rattle drum.
Confirming that he had brought this upon himself, Xie Jinhuan could not help blurting, "Fuck!"
With his level of strength, taking it upon himself to dig up the Demon-Suppressing Mausoleum-wasn't that like a pretty widow willingly entering a bandit den, just itching for trouble?
But it had already happened. No matter what, he had to wipe the ass of yesterday's deranged self.
Only, the mess he had made seemed a little too big. Even if he wanted to wipe it, he had no paper, and he did not dare run. Running would make him a prime suspect.
What was he supposed to do now...?
Before you continue