Chapter 1: Demon

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In the era of Tianshu, a blizzard covered the islet of Mian.

Snow enveloped the Boundless Sea for kilometers on end, reaching all the way to the Canglang Northern Territory.

***

It was too cold here.
Thin ice floated on the stagnant water.

Wu Xingxue stood atop a withered tree in the middle of the water, washing the blood off his hands.

His hands were slender and pale, without a hint of liveliness.
It seemed as if he had just teased the birds of a yao palace[1], had just played with the flowers from the Immortal Capital.
But not long ago, those fingers had unscrupulously torn off several heads.

So he washed carefully, without any intent to speak, and those waiting at the shore were also afraid of speaking.
After holding their breath thus for a long stretch of time, they finally were offered a single sentence.

“What year is it?” Wu Xingxue asked.

His voice penetrated across the vast surface of water, a little hazy.

The people on the store took a moment to react, and then hurriedly said: “The twenty-fifth year of Tianshu.”

Wu Xingxue sniffed his washed fingers and finally looked over: “Tianshu?”

“Yes, Tianshu.”

“Tianshu…” Wu Xingxue lightly repeated this unfamiliar name.

The person who responded hurriedly said: “The cultivation sects changed it.”

“Oh.”

Wu Xingxue dropped his hands.
The sound of clanging metal sounded with his movement.

…It sounded like he was shackled.

The reaction of the people at the shore to this sound was immense; their scalps all tingled.
They looked cautiously at the person in the middle of the water.

They only saw Wu Xingxue dressed in dark green, almost blending in with the cold fog.
But no matter the wrists within his sleeves, or the stretch of ankle peeking above his bare feet, all were bleak white and clean, with no sign of any chains.
But the clanging was truly there.

Someone murmured softly: “That sound is—”

“Shh! Are you crazy? You’re going to bring it up in front of him? If you’re looking for death, don’t drag us along too!”

The person who interrupted was deathly afraid that the one in the water would hear; even when scolding, he didn’t dare raise his voice.

But unfortunately, he was still heard.

“What is it?” Wu Xingxue asked.
“Don’t stop, continue.”

The crowd at the shore stopped breathing.
They swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and the hands hanging beside their bodies trembled softly: “No… no! We… we didn’t say anything, we really didn’t say anything.”

As everyone knew, Canglang Northern Territory was more dangerous than a demon lair.
The demons and monsters of the world weren’t afraid of retribution and weren’t threatened by priests and monks; their only fear was dying there.

The demons who were imprisoned there were all nailed with heavy heavenly locks[2].
The locks weren’t visible and couldn’t be removed; they represented punishment from heaven.
From a day to a year, the demons who were nailed inevitably succumbed to the torture, their souls scattering, both their spirit and flesh extinguished.

So, for the five hundred years that Canglang Northern Territory floated atop the Boundless Sea, there was only entrance and no exit.

Except for the demon Wu Xingxue.

He was the only one who had been locked here for twenty-five years and still lived.

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This type of demon, now bearing locks that could not be seen, softly saying “what is this clanging sound exactly, explain it to me,” who dared answer?

The dead quiet slowly pervaded through the cold fog.

The people at the store looked carefully at each other, but they only saw Wu Xingxue staring at them, his head tilted, not saying a word.
Suddenly, they were cold from head to foot.

It’s over.

The emotional instability has started.

The crowd thought.

Actually, this infamous demon didn’t look very scary.
He had a haughty, wealthy guise, his voice was extremely pleasing, and his appearance was also quite pretty, especially his eyes.

The corners of his eyes curved downwards very slightly, and when he looked down, they resembled ink that had just melted in a cold pond.

But so what?

Not to mention these demon subordinates, he even killed the initial Lingtai Twelve Immortals on a whim.
Who wouldn’t be afraid?

When he spoke, fear.

When he didn’t speak, fear.

And when he tilted his head like this, it was even fucking scarier!

The crowd dripped with cold sweat.

 A second later, the person who initially said the wrong thing shivered, unable to hold his words in: “Chengzhu[3], chengzhu, I was wrong.
I spoke carelessly, I shouldn’t have brought up the lock… pst! Anyhow, I shouldn’t have! I’m really, I’m really—”

He smeared a streak of blood at the corner of his mouth, preparing to seal his promise with a talisman.

Then, he heard Wu Xingxue say: “Where were you wrong? I don’t understand.”

“…”

“Also, you called me chengzhu?”

“…”

Fuck.

How did chengzhu offend you now, we can’t call you that anymore?

Under so many rounds of interrogation, the people at the shore were almost driven insane.
But what they didn’t know was, the person on the tree had actually broke a long time ago.

Wu Xingxue appeared completely unaffected, but roaring waves crashed towards the heavens in his heart.
All of his thoughts consisted of four huge words: “How did this happen!”

He had only had a deep slumber; how could he possess someone else’s body???

Clearly only a moment prior, he was still an eminent noble of Que Capital.
He had just set down the fine wine from the Winding Waters Banquet[4], draped on his overcoat and started to head back home.

Que Capital had been storming for two days with no end in sight, so getting back was a little bit difficult.
He was tall, so his servant struggled to hold the constantly tipping umbrella.
He couldn’t stand it and took the umbrella himself, passing his jade handwarmer to the boy.
The entire way back, the servant boy was overwhelmed by this sort of favor.

The people at his residence had already set out the hot earthenware; it was so warm that he was sleepy the moment he entered his room.

He remembered he had offhandedly selected a popular storybook, flipping through it at the edge of the bed.
Outside, a winter bird landed on the flower bells outside, lightly jingling.
He listened, read, and unknowingly fell asleep…

When he was awoken by noisy voices and opened his eyes, he found that he was already at this damned place—

Vast waters in all four directions, fog filling up the entire sky.

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A withered tree stood alone in the middle of the water.
The water beneath was bleary and indistinct, seemingly filled with short, light green branches.
At first, he thought it was the coral that had trended for a bit in Que Capital.
Looking closely, however, he found that they were all human arms.

All human arms…

And he stood on a branch of the withered tree that could fall at any moment, balancing precariously on bare feet.

…

And wind was blowing at him.

And he was dizzy.

And his hands were filled with blood.

Heaven knew that in that moment, he really wanted to curse someone out.

In storybooks, when people closed their eyes, they always “dreamt suddenly of youth,” but when it came to him, it turned into “being possessed by a ghost.”

Oh, wait.

It was him who was possessing the ghost.

Thanks to the loose lips of the those on the shore, he still hadn’t said anything wrong yet, but he had come to understand the most important points—this damned place was called Canglang Northern Territory, and it was used for the purpose of imprisoning demons.

He was the demon who had been chained here.

Those at the shore seemed to be his previous subordinates.
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