Great Demon Qijing? Demon God Qijing!

On Mount Buzhou.

Lin Yunji and Lady Nüwa sat facing each other.

As for Daoist Fuxi, he had only just returned to his cultivation grounds on Mount Buzhou when he seemed to gain some insight. Afraid it would slip away, he merely greeted Lin Yunji before entering secluded cultivation.

"Little Jade Bamboo, I heard earlier that the three Daoist brothers, Tongtian and the others, were going to preach the Dao to you. That would be good for your cultivation! So why did you follow me to Mount Buzhou?"

Nüwa was quite puzzled. Looking at Lin Yunji sitting across from her, calm and carefree, she couldn't help letting out a chuckle. "Little Jade Bamboo, you're not trying to slack off, are you?"

As she spoke, her eyes curved into crescents and the corners of her lips lifted in a sweet, enchanting smile. Apparently, Lin Yunji's visit to Mount Buzhou had put her in an excellent mood as well.

"What's this? Don't tell me Lady Nüwa doesn't welcome me?" Lin Yunji didn't answer her question directly. Instead, he smiled too and winked at her.

"Of course not..."

Nüwa immediately denied it. She had wanted to explain further, but when she looked up and caught the amusement in Lin Yunji's eyes, her pretty face flushed. She shot him a reproachful look before saying, "You brat, you're making fun of me!"

"I wouldn't dare!" Lin Yunji quickly denied it, but he couldn't hide his amusement. He broke into a laugh and said, "Ah, listening to Master and the others preach the Dao was just too boring, so dry and dull. I'd rather come here, where I can see a goddess whose beauty could topple kingdoms and cities!"

"You and that silver tongue!"

Though Nüwa chided him, she wasn't displeased by his words. In fact, she found them quite flattering.

Her lips curved and she couldn't help smiling, but her expression grew a little more serious. "Little Jade Bamboo, tell me the truth. Why do you find listening to the Dao so dull?"

She asked because she remembered the first time she had met Lin Yunji in the Purple Treasure Firmament Hall. He had fallen fast asleep while Dao Ancestor Hongjun was preaching the Dao, and had slept for thirty thousand years.

"Listening to the Dao can teach you and clear up your doubts. Isn't it good to have someone show you the way through the fog and help you gain understanding? At the very least, it saves you from taking detours in your cultivation. Besides, it's the Dao of a Sage. It can be immensely beneficial to your cultivation!"

Lin Yunji disagreed. He didn't look impatient, but his lackadaisical expression had returned. He waved a hand, signaling Nüwa to pause and say no more.

Only then did he say, "Dull is dull, and boring is boring. You're not a fish, so how can you know a fish's joy? You're not me, so how can you know that the sermons you find so useful are to me no better than worn-out shoes, utterly useless? Why must there be so many reasons?"

Lady Nüwa still wanted to speak.

But Lin Yunji beat her to it. "In that case, I'd also like to know why you're so beautiful."

"???"

Lady Nüwa hadn't expected Lin Yunji to suddenly bring that up. Her eyes widened, and her pretty face turned completely red in an instant. She froze, at a loss for how to answer.

After quite a while, the astonishment faded from Lady Nüwa's beautiful eyes, as though everything just now had been an illusion of Lin Yunji's.

Then he heard Nüwa say, sounding quite troubled, "Ah, Little Jade Bamboo, to tell you the truth, it isn't as if I can decide how I look. After all, I was born beautiful!"

"..."

She might have stayed silent, but once she spoke, she went straight for a humblebrag!

She really didn't hold back!

What did she mean, she was born that way? How were other goddesses and fairies supposed to live with that?

And yet, in truth.

When facing other beings, Lady Nüwa had long presented an aloof and solemn image. She might not have been cold as ice, but she was at least like a snow lotus on a lofty mountain or a white lotus in a pond. Her sacred, refined bearing made those mighty experts feel that she could only be admired from afar, never approached irreverently!

But whenever she faced Lin Yunji, somehow she became just like him, speaking without restraint, saying things as they were and voicing whatever came to mind, without even bothering with her usual disguises.

It was as though, in front of Lin Yunji, she only needed to speak the truth and didn't need to hide herself.

Was that why she liked chatting with him?

Was it because being with him was always so easy and carefree, free of restraint, with no need to think about social obligations and worldly affairs?

She had even shared jokes with him that she normally wouldn't have made!

She had even said something as shameless as claiming she was beautiful because she had been born that way!

Seeing Lin Yunji at a loss for words, Lady Nüwa tossed those jumbled thoughts to the back of her mind and burst out laughing, plainly delighted.

Even her beautiful eyes curved into a pair of crescent moons, making everything around her pale in comparison!

"Little Jade Bamboo," Lady Nüwa suddenly said, looking at Lin Yunji across from her, "why don't we go travel the Primordial Wilderness now?"

"We?"

"Just you and me!"

Nüwa blurted it out, only to be startled by her own words.

How had she managed to say something like "you and me" out loud so directly? How embarrassing!

Lady Nüwa's pretty face flushed red again. A fleeting shyness passed through her beautiful eyes, along with some complicated feelings. No one knew what she was thinking.

"Just you and me, traveling the Primordial Wilderness together!" Looking at Lady Nüwa, Lin Yunji put the whole sentence together and repeated it in full, placing special emphasis on it. Then he laughed and agreed, "That's a wonderful idea!"

In Lin Yunji's view, going elsewhere with Lady Nüwa was far better than staying on Mount Buzhou all the time without going anywhere.

After all, his time was precious too!

He still had to busy himself collecting Heavenly Scar Fragments!

If he went out and looked around, he might just run into one!

"Exactly!"

At Lin Yunji's response, Lady Nüwa immediately stood up, her smile blooming like a flower. As she spoke, she beckoned for Lin Yunji to follow her.

And so, Lin Yunji and Nüwa left Mount Buzhou, transforming into two streaks of light that flew toward the lands of the Primordial Wilderness.

At that very moment.

On the Sun Star, an ancient palace of magnificent grandeur stood in a vast valley.

It was none other than the Sun God Temple.

Inside the great hall, two powerful beings were conversing.

"Hahahaha! We've already severed our good corpses, and now we've reached the early-stage quasi-sage realm!" Taiyi said loudly, his excitement overflowing in his voice.

He held a great bell in his hand, none other than the Eastern Emperor Bell. Another powerful being stood across from him and spoke. "Second Brother, you're quite right. Our cultivation has reached the early-stage quasi-sage realm, and we possess innate Law Treasures. Subduing those members of the Demon Race will take no more than a little effort. It's no difficult task!" Dijun replied with a smile. Compared with his younger brother Taiyi, he was considerably calmer.

"But that's assuming we don't run into those experts with great Divine Abilities..."

Taiyi acted as though he hadn't heard that last remark and began pouring out his ambitions to his elder brother.

Dijun didn't point it out.

Thus, the two joined hands and ventured deep into the Primordial Wilderness to subdue the Demon Race.

Dijun and Taiyi were the emperors of the Demon Race appointed by the Heavenly Dao in the first place, and they now possessed sufficiently powerful cultivation. Thus, subduing the Demon Race was just as Dijun had said: with a little effort and time, they succeeded in bringing the demons from all sides under their command.

Some three hundred years later, Great Demon Bai Ze, one of their subordinates, chanced upon a realm quietly coming into being above Mount Buzhou. Spiritual Qi was dense there, its spiritual blessings stretched far and wide, and the land was rich, fertile, and boundless. He reported it to Dijun and Taiyi.

The two were delighted by the news and moved every member of the Demon Race into that realm.

And founded the Heavenly Court!

Dijun and Taiyi bestowed numerous titles upon the great demons under their command. In all, they appointed ten demon gods, all at the Daluo Golden Immortal realm.

They also appointed three thousand demon kings, all at the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm.

Besides the demon gods and demon kings, there were hundreds of millions of lesser demons serving as demon soldiers and generals.

For a time, the Demon Race's power flourished, its might rivaling that of the three great ancient races of High Antiquity: dragons, phoenixes, and qilins. It showed signs of becoming the overlord of the Primordial Wilderness.

What was even more worth mentioning was that among the ten demon gods was one named Demon God Qijing!

He was the very one who had come looking for trouble with Lin Yunji before and been driven off!

After losing his fight with Lin Yunji, two of the seven false worlds he bore on his back had shattered, and his true body had been gravely injured. He had been forced to flee using a Secret Method.

No one knew what had happened to him afterward, but over the course of thirty thousand years, not only had his injuries healed, his cultivation advanced, and his bearing grown much more formidable, but his realm had leapt from late-stage taiyi golden immortal to early-stage daluo golden immortal!

Now, not only had his Three Flowers Gathered at the Crown, he also held the five Qi in his breast and had mastered the Power of Principle!

Compared to before, his strength made him seem like an entirely different being!

What was more, Great Demon Qijing had now become Demon God Qijing, appointed as one of the Demon Race's ten great demon gods. With Dijun and Taiyi to rely on, he was no longer what he had been!

But no one knew that the awe-inspiring Demon God Qijing still carried a knot in his heart that no one could touch!

Or perhaps it could be called a shadow from his past!

That was Lin Yunji!