Chapter Ninety: The Truth and the Risk of War (3k)

The blood-red sun hung in the sky like a single eye, bathing the wasteland in crimson.

The plant demon stepped onto the ground and, with rising horror, discovered that his shadow had split into countless fragments, each one stretching far into the distance.

There stood tens of thousands of identical crosses, and on each was bound a green body exactly like his own.

Chains suddenly cinched tight, biting into his ghastly green skin.

Only then did the plant demon realize with a jolt that he, too, had been lashed to a cross.

He struggled to lift his head, and met the strange, demonic pupils of Candle Jade. A blood-colored mandala slowly turned within her eyes, as if it meant to grind his very soul to dust.

“You.”

Her voice split and multiplied in the air, becoming layers upon layers of echo.

The bound “selves” in the distance spoke at the same time, their voices surging toward him like a tide.

The scene was so grotesque that the plant demon’s scalp prickled. He even began to suspect that all his avatars, perhaps even his true body, had been dragged into this bizarre space.

Yet the eerie synchrony of the figures before him led him to another conclusion: only he was here.

The plant demon looked at Candle Jade.

“Who are you?”

She did not answer. Her eyes fixed on him coldly.

“Stop pretending. The moment you saw me, you wanted to run. That means you clearly know why I came.

So speak. How do you know the secret of the demonic eye? And why are you targeting me?”

Candle Jade raised a hand, and an axe appeared in her pale palm.

“In this space created by the divine prison of endless torment, time flows differently from the outside world. Three days here is only one second out there.

Any injury suffered here will not appear on the body. It only ravages the mind. But you will not die, and you will not break.

Endless torment is eternal purgatory.”

Her tone was cold as she recounted the power of the divine prison.

Before the plant demon could say another word, the axe came down on his neck.

“Ah!”

His scream overlapped with the cries of countless other versions of himself.

He felt the icy blade cleave through his windpipe with brutal clarity, yet saw not a single drop of blood. The instant the axe withdrew, the wound had already closed, leaving only the memory of agony etched into his nerves.

Cold sweat broke out on the plant demon’s brow, but he still gritted his teeth and said, “I don’t know what you mean. I only possessed a human body. What demonic eye? Who are you?”

For all his stubbornness, Candle Jade said nothing. She only lifted the axe again in silence.

...

After two and a half days had passed within the divine prison, the plant demon could endure no more.

Candle Jade’s method was simple: she hacked at him with an axe.

Yet that searing pain was impossible to grow used to.

Every blow felt as though it were the first time he had ever suffered such an attack.

His mind could not grow numb, nor could it collapse.

At last he cried out in surrender, “Candle Jade, stop! I’ll tell you.”

Candle Jade ceased her attack and stared at him coldly.

The plant demon gasped for breath and said, “I’m not your enemy.

On the contrary, your father sent me here to help strengthen the power of your demonic eye.”

The word father stabbed through Candle Jade’s composure like a blade.

Her pupils contracted at once, and the fingers gripping the axe handle went white with force.

In her heart, family meant only her departed mother and younger sister.

As for that damned demon who had forced himself upon her mother—

that culprit who had made her mother bear the scorn of others, driven her to hide in the mountains, and ultimately worked her to an early grave—Candle Jade felt only bone-deep hatred.

“Where is he?”

Her voice was ice.

The entire prison-space trembled violently under the weight of her killing intent.

The plant demon shook and said weakly, “I-I don’t know. Only the main body knows where Lord Di Hong is.

We’ve always communicated only one way.”

He was not lying. Candle Jade could tell whether someone was likely lying simply by observing the slightest change in expression.

Especially in such a weakened state, the plant demon was even less capable of deceit.

“After Di Hong strengthens my demonic eye, what does he intend to do?”

“Lord Di Hong suffered a devastating blow from the Emperor of the Xia Kingdom, and his lifespan was greatly reduced. So for thousands of years, he has continually sought out humans and demons to breed, trying to produce an heir capable of awakening the demonic eye.

Then he would pour all of his demonic-eye power into the awakened one, destroy humanity, and restore the demon race.”

As he spoke, the plant demon’s throat bobbed. Suddenly his eyes flew wide open, and something writhed beneath his greenish skin, like countless maggots fleeing through his veins.

Candle Jade sensed something was wrong and hurriedly asked, “Was I under Di Hong’s surveillance all along?”

“Yes, he—”

His words cut off abruptly. His body swelled like an air-filled balloon, chains sinking deep into the flesh as it burst apart.

Candle Jade’s pupils shrank. The mandala pattern in her eyes spun furiously as she withdrew the illusion.

In the real-world parking lot, the plant demon’s body had already swollen into a grotesque mass of flesh. When the buttons of his suit flew off, they revealed a bruised purple belly.

Candle Jade stared, and the pure white Southern Bright Fire instantly enveloped the twisted lump.

From within the flames came a bloodcurdling sizzling, like a hundred cockroaches exploding in a pot of oil.

The swollen body collapsed rapidly, finally becoming a heap of charred, smoking matter.

Within it, a human corpse long since rotten away was also exposed.

Splat.

The corpse fell. As the decayed head struck the car door, it immediately separated from the neck and rolled twice across the ground.

The air reeked horribly, like dead fish left in a sealed space through the heat of summer.

With a dull pop, White Jade Capital appeared behind Candle Jade, nearly retching from the stench.

Pinching his nose, he asked, “What happened?”

In his perception, Candle Jade’s spiritual pressure had become increasingly violent and hateful, as if countless wronged spirits were wailing around her.

Candle Jade turned. Her face was strikingly cold and beautiful, and the power radiating from her demonic eye was even stronger than before, the red glow more intense.

Hatred for Di Hong churned in her chest.

Yet her expression did not change much as she said lightly, “It’s nothing. I just found out who was behind all this.”

“Need help?”

“No. I’ll tear it to pieces myself, then grind it to ash.”

Her voice was utterly frigid.

If she had been under Di Hong’s surveillance all this time, then that meant he clearly had the power to save her mother, her sister, and her—yet had done nothing.

Perhaps that was because he wanted her to awaken the demonic eye.

That old plant demon...

He seemed to know too much about the demon race, and too much about the demonic eye.

The more Candle Jade thought, the colder her eyes became.

White Jade Capital said solemnly, “Candle Jade, I won’t try to stop your revenge.

Taking equal, or even more extreme, vengeance against the one who harmed you is perfectly normal.

But I hope you won’t turn a personal grievance into hatred for an entire group.

If it comes to that, I won’t stand by and do nothing.”

He drew a clear red line here, not wishing to see the day she crossed it.

After spending time with her, White Jade Capital understood that Candle Jade was different from Willow Frost Feather and Tea.

Those two difficult temperaments were innate.

Candle Jade was not.

Her nature was actually quite simple. It was only that, after enduring despair and pain, that simplicity had curdled into a stubbornness that gave people headaches.

The plan to become a god and the enemy of the world—

rather than saying she wanted peace for all, it would be more accurate to say that her hatred for this world was simply too intense.

So intense that, if humans could not all be good people, then none of them deserved to exist.

Candle Jade stared at White Jade Capital and did not give an inch.

“Master, I will kill you, then become a god and make war on everyone in the world.”

It should have been a shocking declaration, at least in Candle Jade’s own view.

Yet White Jade Capital suddenly laughed.

He laughed so easily, even reaching out to rub the top of her head, as though soothing a ruffled cat.

“All right. I’ll be waiting.”

His relaxed tone, and the broad hand resting on her head, made Candle Jade resentful. She felt she was being looked down upon.

She was seriously thinking of killing White Jade Capital, after all.

Candle Jade pressed her lips together, said nothing, and vanished from the underground parking lot in a flash of footwork.

...

At the same time, in the garrison of the Royal Guards.

Most of the rooms were swallowed by darkness, with only a few still lit at night, answering the moonlight outside.

As Tang Zicong’s long boots crossed the corridor, the crows perched at the eaves were startled into flight.

He stopped before a sandalwood door carved with a fearsome beast design. The moment his fingertips touched the panel, a lazy voice drifted from within.

“Come in.”

Inside the office, only a bronze palace lamp flickered atop the desk.

The commander sat in the shadows, resting his chin on one hand, his tousled hair gleaming faintly with oil in the lamplight.

Tang Zicong said respectfully, “Commander, you called for me. Is something the matter?”

“Higher-ups gave me a troublesome assignment. The Saint James Island incident. Someone out there is smearing us, trying to spark a war between us and the Crimson Queen.

I don’t know exactly what the higher-ups are discussing with the Crimson Queen,” the commander said, scratching his nest-like hair with an expression of annoyance. “Anyway, Secretary Wang’s message said the Crimson Queen will send a secret delegation, mostly half-demons, to visit Shang Hai and work with the Six Gates on the related case.”

“We’re cooperating with the Crimson Queen?!” Tang Zicong looked shocked.

The commander shrugged. “Politics is like this.

Just because we kill the demons in our own country to the last one doesn’t mean we’ll do the same abroad.

Right now, the problem is that forces both at home and overseas want to provoke war.

If that delegation is wiped out here, war will be unavoidable.

Openly sending guards would be too easy to expose, and could easily cause a public scandal.

My idea is to find someone through unofficial channels.”

Tang Zicong immediately understood why the commander had called him, and quickly said, “All right. Tomorrow I’ll have Qi Xiang send an order to the master of the Azure Cloud Sect.”

The commander’s expression was grave. “Will he accept such a protective assignment?”

Tang Zicong nodded. “Don’t worry. Master Bai is very easy to get along with. I’ve never seen a ninth-rank spirit master as easygoing as he is.”

“Good. Leave it to you.”

The commander nodded.

The reason he had chosen Tang Zicong was precisely because he favored White Jade Capital as the escort.

Not only was his strength formidable, but his connections were also spotless.

The only political stance he had taken was signing the petition from the people supporting the Emperor Azure’s revival of the search into demonic beings.

Coincidentally, the commander was also aligned with the Emperor Azure’s faction.