Little Alpaca – Chapter 205
by Little PandaVolume 6: Bound by the Life Soul
A Clumsy Method.
Yi Qiu had originally thought they would all be following a tunnel into the Earthly Realm, but it wasn’t long before she realized she’d been an idiot again.
Without a doubt, her overall understanding of this world teeming with immortals, yao, gods, and demons was still far too shallow.
The great Fusang tree: it could reach the Nine Heavens1 above, and by coiling and bending downward, it could also connect to the Three Springs2 below. Why would Jiang Yuyao need to dig a tunnel like a gopher to get to the Earthly Realm?
Yi Qiu had only been marvelling at this for a few seconds when she saw Jiang Yuyao’s hands transform into several vines, wrapping around everyone nearby. In an instant, countless Fusang leaves appeared from nowhere and began to swirl around them, as if swept up by a gale.
As her feet were pulled from the ground, a flash of spiritual light passed, and Yi Qiu’s vision went dark. It was as if she were plummeting into an abyss, and the wave of dizziness almost made her throw up the dinner she had eaten earlier.
Just then, she felt her feet touch the ground again, and a sense of stability settled in her heart.
However, as she landed, her legs gave out, and just as she was about to fall, You Yan firmly steadied her by the waist, silently channelling a bit of spiritual power into her body.
Yi Qiu practically leaped away, gripping You Yan’s right hand, which had stopped transferring spirit. “I’m fine!” she said with a frown. “Don’t waste your energy!”
You Yan raised an eyebrow and smiled, playfully ruffling the hair on Yi Qiu’s forehead. “Started managing the house already? My little housekeeper.”3
Yi Qiu pouted helplessly but didn’t argue, instead raising her eyes to scan their surroundings.
There were no stars or moon here. If she focused, she could feel that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth flowing slowly around them was completely different from that of the Mortal Realm.
It was said that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was omnipresent throughout the Three Realms. For any living being to cultivate, they had to choose one type of energy and merge it with their own spiritual veins. The more abundant the spiritual energy in a place, the more suitable it was for cultivation.
Most demons cultivated sinister and wicked arts, simply because the most abundant spiritual energy in the Earthly Realm was the Netherworld Power—a power that symbolized darkness, was called “Demonic Qi”4 by the gods of the Heavenly Realm, and was even scorned by the mortal and yao clans.
Although this type of spiritual energy existed in both the Mortal and Heavenly Realms, it only gathered in massive quantities in the Earthly Realm. This concentration would cause considerable damage to ordinary mortals and to the bodies of immortal gods, who were protected by the Power of the Sun’s Radiance.5 This was precisely why that bunch of gods in the Heavenly Realm had never dared to enter the Earthly Realm.
The Netherworld Power here was extremely dense, far heavier than in the most yin-heavy places in the Mortal Realm. They were clearly already inside the Earthly Realm.
The lore said that the Fusang could reach the Nine Heavens above and connect to the Three Springs below, and that was fine. It was like a cheat-code portal the author had given the protagonist, and Yi Qiu had no complaints. But hadn’t it been said before that gods and immortals would be corrupted by Demonic Qi if they entered the Earthly Realm?
In the original novel, the protagonists first developed a Demon Heart before entering the Demon Realm. Had they really just waltzed in with their cheat code, completely unscathed?
“You guys…” Yi Qiu paused, stunned, then couldn’t help but ask, “The Demonic Qi is so heavy here. Doesn’t it affect you?”
“How could we dare come without preparing first?” Jiang Yuyao said, raising her hand to reveal a deep black, bloody mark on her wrist. She smiled faintly. “The method to block the Divine Veins isn’t a particularly difficult forbidden curse,6 but its effects are time-limited. Once this bloodstain travels from here to my heart-meridian,7 the Demonic Qi will become uncontrollable.”
Yi Qiu grew worried. “Then… then does that mean as long as you leave before that happens, everything will be okay?”
Jiang Yuyao shook her head. “Of course.”
Yi Qiu fell silent for a moment and mentally asked the System.
The System, naturally, replied quickly.
【Nope. If it were that simple, the Heavenly Realm could have just sent people directly into the Earthly Realm. Why would they try to get help from the Yao Realm?】
Yi Qiu frowned. “You’re lying. Am I that easy to fool?”
Jiang Yuyao looked startled for a second before recovering, saying nonchalantly, “It’s no big deal. It’s just a loss of some cultivation base.”
The moment she finished speaking, the System continued.
【The principle of this method is to draw Demonic Qi into the body ahead of time and seal it within a spiritual vein. This is done to accept, adapt to, and block the flow of Demonic Qi in the other spiritual veins. Doing so greatly reduces the Demonic Qi’s effect on the body, but when the sealed spiritual vein reaches its limit, it will cause an extremely strong backlash.8 Moreover, even before reaching the limit, the parts of the spiritual vein corroded by Demonic Qi will be essentially crippled and can never be used for cultivation again. So, you could say that the longer the bloodstain grows, the greater the irreversible damage to the body.】
Spiritual veins weren’t like spiritual power or cultivation base. Once damaged, they were damaged for good. No amount of effort could easily restore them.
And yet, some people spoke of it so lightly.
Yi Qiu wanted to say a few words of persuasion, but Luo Mingyuan, who had been silent for a long time, spoke up. “Some prices have to be paid by someone, one way or another. If we didn’t come today, the Heavenly Realm would send others another day. The price then might be more than just this.”
This response left Yi Qiu speechless.
It was just as You Yan had said before: if this wasn’t resolved before the Heavenly Realm made up its mind to search for Chao Yun in the Earthly Realm, a war between the Heavenly and Demon Realms would be inevitable. The price then would indeed be far greater.
Even without the screw-up9 main plot of 《Thin, Withered Branches》, even if they weren’t the protagonists and had no protagonist halo, their identities and the reason for Chao Yun’s departure meant they truly had to bear this responsibility.
No matter what, they were the ones who knew Chao Yun best. If they did run into an obstinate Chao Yun, it would be better to have them there to persuade her.
“If that’s the case, let’s not waste any more time. Let’s find her quickly,” You Yan said, turning to walk ahead. Yi Qiu glanced at the two protagonists beside her, pouted helplessly, and quickly trotted after You Yan.
The lifespans of yao and demons were extremely long; three or five years were but a fleeting moment to them. You Yan had been away from the Demon Realm for less than a year, and it was as if not a single blade of grass had been disturbed. The entire Demon Realm was just as it had been, without the slightest change. Furthermore, most people in the Demon Realm had never seen You Yan, and even if they encountered her, they wouldn’t recognize her at all. Thus, her return caused not a single ripple.
Right now, numerous Heavenly Soldiers and Generals were stationed in the Netherworld, ready at any moment to block their Divine Veins and charge into the Earthly Realm, regardless of the cost. If they couldn’t find Chao Yun first and send her back to the Mortal Realm, this matter would be difficult to resolve peacefully.
In the original novel, the Yi Bird’s fall to demonic nature and escape into the Demon Realm had made her name known to every demon. But for some reason, after entering the Demon Realm, Yi Qiu’s inquiries about the Yi Bird had all been fruitless, to say nothing of the always low-key Chao Yun.
The two supporting characters who had fled into the Demon Realm had vanished as if they had evaporated from the Mortal Realm… or rather, from all Three Realms. Not a single trace of them could be found.
Faced with this incredibly frustrating situation, Yi Qiu had repeatedly tried to threaten and bribe the System into giving her Chao Yun’s location, but every attempt had ended in failure.
In the Demon Realm, only the demonic capital, Buhuo City, had a concept of day and night. Everywhere else, demons could still sense the passage of time by the changing concentration of Netherworld Power with each passing hour.
You Yan had taught Yi Qiu this long ago, when they first left Buhuo City.
Time here was slipping away.
Though it had only been a few short days, a period others would consider trivial, Yi Qiu grew more and more anxious with each passing moment.
On the third day in the Earthly Realm, after much consideration, Jiang Yuyao transformed into her original form, sinking her roots deep into the ground and growing into a colossal tree upon the barren Demonic Land.
She seemed to have discussed it with Luo Mingyuan beforehand. The moment she became a giant tree, he began pouring his spiritual power into it. The leaves that fell from the tree were carried away by the wind, bearing her unique spiritual power to every corner of the Demon Realm, clearly sending out a message.
They couldn’t find Chao Yun, so they could only hope that Chao Yun was willing to come out and meet them.
It was undoubtedly a clumsy method, but at this moment, it was also the one most likely to work.
Fusang was a divine tree of the Heavenly Realm. This act would certainly attract the attention of all the clans in the Demon Realm, yet You Yan did nothing to stop it. She simply summoned her personal long whip, causing it to coil around the great tree like a giant python.
Three days later, the various clans of the Demon Realm sent people one after another. Seeing the whip from a distance, none of the newcomers dared to advance another step.
They knew that the Snow-Blowing Whip was the Demon Lord’s personal weapon. Its appearance here meant the Demon Lord was engaged in something important.
Curiosity made them all stop where they were. Some hid themselves, while others watched openly, surrounding the area in layers upon layers.10 If Yi Qiu closed her eyes and focused, she could sense the countless, unfamiliar spiritual signatures of the demons.
This had blown up into a huge incident. The immortal gods from the Heavenly Realm guarding the entrance to the Earthly Realm had probably already received news. Who knew which day they would decide to charge into the Demon Realm with their army.
Does this really work?
Yi Qiu tilted her head back, gazing at the towering tree, and asked herself this question again and again.
No one knew how long they, already injured, could hold on. Even if they could keep it up indefinitely, the Heavenly Realm would surely take action before long.
Besides, what if Chao Yun truly didn’t care about old ties and only wanted to live as an inseparable couple11 with the Yi Bird? With their abilities, they could probably hide in the Demon Realm for a thousand or a hundred years. By then, that once-beautiful Mortal Realm would no longer exist.
As Yi Qiu thought of this, a strange idea popped into her head.
If this story can never reach a true Great Perfection,12 but the male and female leads do successfully get together, does my mission count as neither a success nor a failure? If the mission gets stuck here and can’t be settled, can I justifiably stay here?
The thought made her secretly slap herself, where no one could see. She raised her hand with force but brought it down lightly—after all, she had always been afraid of pain.
She realized she was truly thoughtless.13 As long as a disaster wasn’t happening right in front of her, she didn’t feel the same intense compassion as when she witnessed it firsthand. She could put herself first, eating and drinking as usual every day.
But this thoughtlessness wasn’t etched into her bones, wasn’t a deep-seated selfishness. Every time such a thought arose, she would be assaulted by an inescapable wave of guilt.
She knew she ought to hope for the best possible ending.
On the fifth day of the great tree’s vigil, Yi Qiu was gnawing on dry rations brought from the Mortal Realm, staring blankly at the Fusang tree that soared into the clouds.
She didn’t know if it was an illusion, but this cold, gloomy world seemed to be welcoming a bright light. It was like suddenly entering the night of an immortal mountain, as if the stars and moon of the Mortal Realm were casting their celestial light here, carrying an exceptionally gentle spiritual energy of heaven and earth that dispersed the chilling, terrifying darkness.
After a brief daze, Yi Qiu noticed that the Fusang tree seemed to react to it, its sky-blotting canopy rustling gently.
But this power also carried an extremely dense Demonic Qi, a complete contradiction to the feeling it gave off. In what felt like a mere instant, many of the demons hiding in the surroundings scattered, as if they had sensed the arrival of danger.
Yi Qiu couldn’t help but reach out and shake You Yan, who was resting beside her with her eyes closed. You Yan showed no sign of panic. As she slowly opened her eyes, the five-colored spiritual light, which had arrived unnoticed, was already illuminating the entire dim world.
This spiritual light was all too familiar to Yi Qiu.
She had almost been killed by this thing back on Snake Mountain.
Footnotes
- In Chinese cosmology, the Jiǔtiān (九天) are the highest levels of Heaven, often representing the celestial domain in its entirety.
- The Sānquán (三泉) is a poetic name for the underworld or the netherworld, the realm of the dead.
- Original: xiǎo guǎnjiāpó (小管家婆). A ‘guǎnjiāpó’ is a bossy housekeeper, but adding ‘xiǎo’ (little) makes it an affectionate, teasing term.
- Mó qì (魔气), the energy native to the Demon Realm. It is corrosive to beings aligned with other energy types, especially gods.
- Rì huá zhī lì (日华之力), the pure, yang-aligned power of the sun. It is antithetical to the yin-aligned Demonic Qi.
- Jìnzhòu (禁咒), a powerful and dangerous spell that is typically forbidden due to its high cost or destructive nature.
- Xīnmài (心脉), a vital energy channel in cultivation systems, directly connected to the heart and one’s life force.
- Fǎnshì (反噬), a common term in cultivation stories for the harmful recoil effect of overusing one’s power or employing a forbidden technique, often causing severe internal injury or a drop in cultivation level.
- Original: kēngdiē (坑爹), a popular and versatile internet slang term, literally ‘to pit one’s dad.’ It’s used to describe anything that is deceptive, frustrating, or not as good as advertised.
- Original: lǐ sān céng wài sān céng (里三层外三层), literally ‘three layers inside, three layers outside.’ It’s an idiom describing a place being surrounded by a massive, dense crowd.
- Original: shuāng sù shuāng fēi (双宿双飞), literally ‘to roost together and fly together.’ It’s a poetic idiom describing a couple that is always together, like a pair of birds.
- Dà yuánmǎn (大圆满), a term often used in Buddhism or to describe a perfect, complete, and happy ending.
- Original: méixīnméifèi (没心没肺), literally ‘heartless and lungless.’ It describes someone who seems carefree and doesn’t worry, but can also imply they are inconsiderate or simple-minded.
Tqvm. Excitedly waiting for the next chapter..