Whoosh, whoosh~

The rift valley was rough and wild.

The wind was like knives.

A fat figure was ground against the wind, with innocent little cracking sounds.

Peaceful Ghost Messenger Pig Dali had finally caught up with the Red Moon Demon King She Guyu.

Or rather, She Guyu was, for once, uncharacteristically unguarded enough to let him catch up. Her purple hair drifted lightly as she looked over, her gaze almost devoid of feeling.

In that hollow stare she was asking—why chase me.

"Join Taiping Dao!" Pig Dali said bluntly.

She Guyu did not speak.

"Join Taiping Dao." Pig Dali repeated, "I’ll tell you why we have to live."

He tore off his face cloth. On his fat, not very pleasant-looking face, there was utter earnestness: "I’ll take you to seek that answer."

Is this fellow trying to tell me? Or trying to tell himself?

She Guyu thought thus in her heart, but did not speak.

She was not some houseless Demon, not one with no road to walk.

She was born into the illustrious Approaching Fog Snake Family, with talent that amazed all directions, and very early became the new king of the Heavenly List.

Yet no one knew that the entire Approaching Fog Snake Family was, in secret, composed of members of the Suffering Cage Sect.

From childhood she too received the precepts and joined the Suffering Cage Sect.

The Suffering Cage Sect was utterly despairing of this world, its heart set only on self-destruction, their life’s pursuit to bid farewell to Ku Hai with a single brilliant death.

The Approaching Fog Snake Family schemed a grand plan to annihilate the Divine Fragrance Flower Sea, answering the call of the Suffering Cage Sect powerhouses, intending to use the Fu of the Divine Fragrance Flower Sea to liberate the entire Approaching Fog Snake Family. She Guyu, newly sealed as Heavenly List king, was an extremely important tool in this layout.

But a "tool" has thoughts of its own.

She Guyu, steeped in Suffering Cage Sect ideology since childhood, grew up and yet did not wish to die.

Her thirst for life grew ceaselessly, and in the end drowned the shackling lock upon herself.

Thus there was the Approaching Fog blood case.

Though she herself did not know why she so fiercely wished to live, did not know what the meaning of life was, did not know what hope could possibly exist within this vast cage of a world.

But she wished to live.

She had nothing, sought nothing, save this primal desire of life itself.

Now Pig Dali said he would lead her to the meaning of surviving, to the answer of why one lives.

She had no real expectations of Taiping Dao, yet it seemed she did not much resist it either.

Whatever. It doesn’t matter; life will hardly get any worse.

In the future that Cha Yin glimpsed, this scene was one among many.

Not necessarily all that spectacular.

It would even be hard to call it worthy.

Yet such scenes in their myriad were precisely the Demon clan’s future for which he was willing to trade three thousand years.

...

The Ancient Imperial City did not strictly regulate Evil God debauched worship, for within the vast Divine Way Dao Power that the God Enthronement Platform absorbed yearly, there was also the contribution of countless "in-the-wild Deities."

But thought currents such as the Suffering Cage Sect, which could not even be clearly classified as an organization, were absolutely taboo to the Demon clan. Any Suffering Cage Sect member once discovered would face the bloodiest extermination sent from the Ancient Imperial City.

Yet the Suffering Cage Sect did not fear this; they took delight in it instead.

The Suffering Cage Sect said the Demon clan were born prisoners, that to live is to suffer, and only death can bring Eternal release. They sought all manner of spectacular ways to die, so that their curtain call might bear a little radiance. Being hunted by the strong of the Ancient Imperial City could be counted as one such way.

Many of the Demon clan took this to be a kind of courage, for the Suffering Cage Sect "went to their death as if returning home."

But if you asked Lu Qilang, he would say this was the greatest cowardice.

Because they lacked the courage to face reality, lacked the courage to break the cage, and could only use death to flee from everything.

Those truly of great wisdom and great courage are like Yu Zhen, who never abandons resistance and always carves out a path ahead for the race. Are like Cha Yin, who pours three thousand years of accumulation into the snap of a single finger, forever believing in himself, believing in the future.

After interrupting one possible Transcendence, halting one certain Transcendence, and sacrificing one already-accomplished Transcendence...

A magnificent new era drew open its curtain before the Demon clan!

The Myriad Heavens and Worlds once more opened their arms to the Demon clan!

From this day, the Demon clan could no longer be bound!

When the divine infant was seized, Lu Qilang was only shocked and enraged; when Zhu Lanruo was slain, he still drew his sword; when the Demon Mark was cut off, he merely had Quan Yingyang take their foe seriously. Only now, seeing the Yu Zhen Ancestor upon the Long River of time embracing the heavens, he could not hold back his tears!

How great!

How arduous!

...

Back then upon the Long River of time.

Emperor Yuan Xi and the Yu Zhen Ancestor sat to debate the Dao—what did they speak of?

On the bronze cauldron wrought from Yu Zhen’s Flesh Body, Emperor Yuan Xi wrote the four characters, "You shall replace My mandate." He was perhaps the only existence in the world to have guessed Yu Zhen’s layout.

He left his scheme across ten thousand years, intending to use the Divine Way power of the Monster Realm to sculpt a Divine King Body, to decree a Supreme Revered Deity, to welcome Yu Zhen’s return. Under the premise of helping Yu Zhen fulfill his great vow, he would have Yu Zhen lead the Demon clan in welcoming that new era that embraced the heavens.

But to establish a truly open Shenxiao World, to unlock the Demon clan’s ten-thousand-year confinement, and Yu Zhen’s step of returning to Transcendence all at once—the chances of success were too slim.

Yu Zhen chose to refuse, and even took Emperor Yuan Xi’s scheme as fodder to be cast into it. He paved his own resurrection as yet another "loss."

Thus Emperor Yuan Xi sighed.

Beyond sighing, there was nothing more to say.

Back then, when he and Yu Zhen contended for the position of Demon Emperor, it was precisely because each held his own rightness, each believed in his own path, believed that he could lead the Demon clan toward a better future.

He focused on the Demon clan’s internal affairs, believing in the clan’s own potential, believing that the Demon clan could once more walk toward greatness and stride to the center of the Myriad Heavens and Worlds.

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