Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

Chapter 49 – This Venerable forbids you

After leaving Xuanyuan Sect, Wenren È began strolling openly in public. He wanted the righteous cultivators to know where he was, to make it easier for them to set up a trap for him.

He didn’t have to wait long. While he sat in a restaurant at the foot of Xuanyuan Sect’s mountain, drinking wine, he heard someone near him speak in a volume like they were afraid he wouldn’t hear. “I heard that the murderer of those seventeen experts was actually the Xuanyuan Sect’s Wenren È. He’s now kidnapped Baili Qingmiao of Shangqing Sect and is headed for the Blood Hell.”

“Baili Qingmiao? Is she powerful? Why would he kidnap her?” another person asked in the same tone.

“Don’t you know? She reached Body Unity in less than a century. Wenren È kills cultivators who are Body Unity or above. Since her aptitudes are so good, why would he pass her up?” the first person said emphatically.

“Who did you say kidnapped Baili Qingmiao?” Wenren È said.

“Of course, the Blood Demon Wenren—” The person “accidentally” turned his head and cried out in shock. “Wenren È!”

His companion quickly shrank into a corner. “D—don’t kill me! I’m only at Core Formation, I wouldn’t even be a snack for you. There’s no use consuming me!”

Wenren È, with a wave of his sleeve, beat them both black and blue out of formality, then set off for the Blood Hell.

At the same time, Baili Qingmiao opened her eyes. She had been trapped at the back mountains of Shangqing Sect for the past two months, and upon opening her eyes, found herself tied up in a strange and terrifying place. In the face of danger, she had protected her disciple first and foremost, and now endured the pain in her dantian as she shook Su Huai awake. Through gritted teeth, she said, “Disciple, wake up, we have to get out of here!”

Su Huai blearily opened his eyes. Looking around, he saw the dusky sky above and the dark crimson sea below him and exclaimed, “What is this place?”

“I’m not sure,” Baili Qingmiao said. “But we have to climb up.”

They were strung up by a rope around their waists, dangling off the edge of a cliff with the sea below them. The environment was very strange. Several times, she tried to fly up the cliff, but to no avail. Her spiritual energy wasn’t being suppressed, she simply couldn’t fly. An inexhaustible attractive force came from below, sucking in the surrounding spiritual energy. To get to the top of the cliff, they would have to climb.

Baili Qingmiao should’ve been scared, but her heart was still. Zhongli Qian was probably steadying her emotions.

It was going to be okay, Baili Qingmiao told herself. She set her sights on a jutting rock at her top left, preparing to grab it and start climbing. As the master, she had to go first and find a safe path for her disciple.

The moment her palm touched the stone, she felt a burning pain eating away at her flesh. She jerked her hand back, seeing that the fair skin of her palm had been blackened, blisters of blood continually forming and bursting within it.

“Master!” Seeing Baili Qingmiao injured, Su Huai frantically took out a medicinal pill for her to swallow. Whoever had hung them here was rather strange. Their spiritual energy hadn’t been sealed and their storage items hadn’t been taken away. They had only been strung up.

After taking the pill, Baili Qingmiao felt a lot better. She looked up, but couldn’t see anyone around.

“Where on earth are we? We were just at Shangqing Sect, so how come we’re suddenly here?” Baili Qingmiao said, holding her head. “Has something happened to Shangqing Sect?”

Su Huai really wanted to whack his master on the head and knock her tendency to see the best in everyone out of her brain. He said furiously, “Sir Zhongli was staying at Shangqing Sect as a guest. If something happened at the sect, do you think he would just sit back and let you be taken away? It’s obvious that he’s fine right now, so he either doesn’t know what happened to you or can’t do anything about it. With him there and the Shangqing Sect’s wards, do you think the sect could’ve been attacked?”

“Then… what happened?” Truthfully, Baili Qingmiao had already arrived at the answer. She just didn’t want to believe it.

“What could it have been? Before you got knocked out, who was the last person you saw?!” Su Huai nearly yelled.

It was her shixiong. Baili Qingmiao had long since remembered. Shixiong had come to see her, then she had lost consciousness and woken up in this place.

“It’s obvious that Shangqing Sect has strung us up here for some purpose,” Su Huai said. “Don’t we look like bait on a fishhook right now?”

As a ghost cultivator, he had often used bait to lure in ordinary people. This scene that he had opened his eyes to was totally familiar.

“What does the sect want from me?” Baili Qingmiao said, still disbelieving.

“What else?!” Su Huai yelled. “Remember what they wanted you to do before now, that you refused? That’s obviously what they’re after!” How come his master was such an idiot?

 “I…” Baili Qingmiao shook her head. It wasn’t that she hadn’t realized this either, she just hadn’t wanted to believe.

The Shangqing Sect wanted her to lure out Master Qingxue, and she had refused, thus being locked up in the mountains. Shixiong had begged her to reconsider once and she hadn’t listened. The next time he came, he had knocked her unconscious.

“Using their own disciples to lure out demonic cultivators!” Su Huai said furiously. “How can Shangqing Sect still call themselves the righteous path? They’re just a bunch of underhanded crooks!”

He had raised his voice, as well as used spiritual energy to make it travel further. He wanted to make sure the people lying in wait at the top of the cliff heard him.

At the clifftop, several cultivators had already set up a Heavenly Net in order to eradicate the Blood Demon. Hearing a junior like Su Huai yell at them, some people’s faces turned red, but no one dared make a sound.

It was an elder of the Nanguo clan, who had a grudge against Baili Qingmiao and her companions, who stood up and walked over to the cliff’s edge. “What’s the problem with sacrificing a few disciples in order to slay a demon?” he said.

“It’s you, old fart!” Su Huai said. “You Nanguos are still resentful because my martial ancestor exposed your evil deeds, so now you want to dispose of all of us who attended that banquet, huh? The Shangqing Sect has sunk so low they’re rubbing elbows with the Nanguo clan? Disgusting! I’m ashamed to be a disciple of Shangqing Sect!”

He was a ghost cultivator, one who had often hung out in marketplaces to eat wandering spirits. If he wanted to, he could cuss like a hoodlum, and there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t say.

He was about to die anyway, so Su Huai didn’t hold anything back, cursing out the Shangqing Sect and Nanguo clan with all he had. Baili Qingmiao was stupefied at the coarseness of his language and the sheer variety of his insults. Her disciple had always been so obedient, and even if he was occasionally a bit rebellious, he never meant any harm by it. Plus, he had studied literature under Zhongli Qian for all that time. She had never heard him cuss before, so she got quite a shock today.

She said quietly, “If Sir Zhongli heard you talk like this…”

Su Huai stiffened. His language immediately became formal, though he continued his insults, simply without the swearing. His language was still as varied as before, words like “cowards”, “scoundrels”, and “petty crooks” coming out of his mouth. Baili Qingmiao didn’t get how he couldn’t memorize poetry, but could memorize so many ways of cursing people.

“Old farts, your actions are lower than those of the demonic sects!” Su Huai yelled.

The righteous cultivators pretended they couldn’t hear him. The Nanguo elder couldn’t beat him in insulting, and after pointing a trembling finger at Su Huai and calling him a “vulgar brat”, backed off. Su Huai yelled until he was hoarse, but no one responded. He said to Baili Qingmiao, “Your sect’s no good and your shixiong’s even worse. Stop liking him.”

Baili Qingmiao said faintly, “Shixiong is unable to disobey the sect’s orders.”

Su Huai was on the verge of disrespecting his master. “When the Shangqing Sect wanted you to deceive Qiu Congxue, you were willing to be confined rather than agree. How come when Shangqing Sect wants to use you as bait, Hè Wenzhao is powerless to refuse?”

Baili Qingmiao was speechless.

[Good one, disciple!][1]

[Nothing will get through to the MC’s idiot brain unless someone cusses her out first.]

[Love interest number 5 is doing good! In the original version he was killed by Hè Wenzhao before his identity could be revealed and he was basically invisible. Now after the revision, we find out he actually has quite a mouth?]

[One moment Baili Qingmiao was in reflection in the mountains, the next she woke up here. I thought I missed a few thousand words. Now that it’s all explained, turns out it’s Hè Wenzhao being shameless, forcing MC to do something she doesn’t want while acting like it’s for her own good.]

In order to stay on top of developments at all times, Wenren È was reading his book while rushing to the Blood Hell. After Baili Qingmiao woke, Abusive Romance had changed, though God of Annihilation remained the same. Hè Wenzhao was probably still under the control of the Blood Demon.

He put away the book and arrived at the Blood Hell. Acting like he was unaware of the ambush, he charged forward and appeared before Baili Qingmiao.

Baili Qingmiao was currently dejectedly accepting her disciple’s insults when someone appeared before her. After a moment, she saw it was Wenren È and exclaimed, “Senior Wenren, why are you here?”

“This Venerable has told you that he owes you a debt,” Wenren È said.

He was also unable to fly above the Blood Hell. Feeling the sea’s relentless gravity, he stuck a spear into the cliff face, standing on its shaft and holding Baili Qingmiao. “Hold on tight, you two,” he said. “I’ll take you to the top.”

“Lord, there’s an ambush at the top!” Su Huai had no time to say more. A golden net appeared above them.

Nine experts appeared in the sky. Among them was the Shangqing Sect Master, who had not been awake for long at this point.

Wenren È chuckled. “Even the righteous sects will resort to such underhanded methods? But if you plan to kill this Venerable, shouldn’t you send out a few more people? What good will nine do? Ah, this Venerable remembers now. During the Great Sect War, I killed most of your experts, so now you can’t even muster up ten people! Hahahaha!”

He threw back his head in laughter. “Rest assured,” he told Baili Qingmiao. “This handful of people can’t threaten this Venerable.”

“Senior Wenren, all I did was help you find the Snow Flame and the Shattered Mountain Meteorite,” Baili Qingmiao said, tears staining her cheeks as she looked at Wenren È. “You don’t have to face danger for me.”

“This Venerable isn’t here to save you,” Wenren È said coldly. “I simply want you to realize something.”

Wenren È felt no fear in facing nine experts. He had lots more magic weapons on him beside the Seven Killing Halberd, so he took out a pair of swords, using them to first cut Baili Qingmiao and Su Huai’s rope, then sticking them in the cliff face, leaping up with them as footholds.

The cliffs surrounding the Blood Hell were constantly subject to its chaos and demonic energy and were highly corrosive. Even Wenren È didn’t dare to directly touch them. He could only create footholds like this in order to get to the top.

Even first-rate magic items would dissolve into blood with a few minutes of contact with the cliff face. Baili Qingmiao saw that the spear and twin swords had already dissolved. Thinking back to her own hand, she gulped, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Had her shixiong known how dangerous this place was when he brought her here? Baili Qingmiao wondered in bewilderment.

Fortunately, Wenren È had plenty of weapons on him. Sticking knives, spears, and swords into the cliff face, they made it to the top, near the net, in just a few hops.

“Merely a Heavenly Net Array,” Wenren È said, glancing at the net. He raised the Seven Killing Halberd, and with a swing, the power of the stars slashed through the golden net.

With Baili Qingmiao in hand, he leapt up, nearly free of the net. The nine experts’ attacks were powerless to touch him, unable to even slow his progress.

At that moment, Hè Wenzhao appeared. His eyes were cold. Seeing the way Wenren È protected Baili Qingmiao, his eyes gleamed, and he raised a sword, stabbing it toward Baili Qingmiao’s heart.

Wenren È knew this wasn’t Hè Wenzhao, but the Blood Demon Elder.

But it was fine. Seeing this, Baili Qingmiao’s feelings toward him should truly die.

Wenren È turned to shield Baili Qingmiao, taking the blade in his back. Seeing her shixiong heartlessly attack her, Baili Qingmiao was stunned.

The Blood Demon Elder’s consciousness retreated, leaving Hè Wenzhao in charge. Hè Wenzhao looked down at his hands and seemed to realize what he had just done. “Shimei, it wasn’t me!” he cried. “I didn’t do it!”

The blade had been imbued with the Blood Demon’s power, and was able to damage the blood array Wenren È had carved on his soul. A blood cultivator understood blood cultivation the best, so only the Blood Demon could know how to destroy Wenren È’s power.

The exit was right before his eyes, but Wenren È had been badly injured. Holding Baili Qingmiao and Su Huai in one hand as he wielded his halberd to block the nine experts’ attacks with the other, he flung the two into the sky, shouting, “Catch them!”

A figure in the sky snatched the two out of the air. Qiu Congxue had arrived just in time.

“Master Qingxue…” Baili Qingmiao had sustained too many shocks today, and sobbed as she clutched Qiu Congxue’s robes. “Please, go save Senior Wenren. Please…”

“Too late.” Qiu Congxue stood in the sky, quietly watching the scene below.

Inside the golden net, nine different magical weapons had pierced through Wenren È’s body.

All the while, the sword stuck in his back continually destroyed his blood marks. Even if Wenren È wanted to dissolve everyone around him into blood and absorb their powers to heal himself, he couldn’t do it.

Feeling his blood qi being drained, Wenren È burst out in laughter. He knew the Blood Demon would have a way to kill a blood cultivator. Since his blood marks had been broken, the plan he had made with Zhongli Qian had not been in vain.

The plan had three goals. The first was to have Baili Qingmiao see Hè Wenzhao attacking her with her own eyes, and thus completely let go of him.

The second was to take advantage of the Blood Demon and Cen Zhengqi’s cooperation in order to expose the traitor and obtain the second volume. At the same time, he could destroy the blood marks on his body, freeing himself from his bloodlust.

The third was to force the Blood Demon into action. Until now, he had been suppressed by Hè Wenzhao and hadn’t dared to consume cultivators to restore his power, so the righteous sects had no way of discovering him. Now that he had acted directly, the sects might be confused for a time, but they would figure it out eventually. And previously, he could blame the deaths of those seventeen experts on Wenren È, but after Wenren È “died”, could the Blood Demon restrain himself from consuming more people? He couldn’t. After a blood cultivator started killing, they wouldn’t be able to stop. In the book, the Blood Demon had waited until the divine realm to take Hè Wenzhao’s body, and hadn’t done anything before then. This time around, things were different. He wouldn’t be able to hold out until the divine realm.

Everything was going according to plan. The remaining question was whether he could use the chaos energy within the Blood Hell to restore himself.

With his body impaled by weapons and the nine experts endlessly throwing talismans, Wenren È fell toward the sea of blood.

When it came to absorbing primordial chaos energy, Wenren È had some confidence, due to something he’d realized from the third volume. Given some time, he would be able to regain his strength.

Everything was going perfectly, Wenren È thought.

Then, he suddenly heard a desperate cry. “Venerable!”

Wenren È’s eyes flew open. In the instant before he fell into the sea, he saw a masked man charging through the Heavenly Net Array, plunging toward the Blood Hell after him.

Beneath the mask was Yin Hanjiang’s burning red eyes.

Wenren È suddenly remembered something he had once said—”If this Venerable is gone, you can follow me.”

Yin Hanjiang was a single-minded person. If Wenren È allowed something, he would carry it out.

“No!” Wenren È shouted, as Yin Hanjiang drew closer to him. “This Venerable forbids you!”

With a thought from Wenren È, his defensive robe flew over and wrapped around Yin Hanjiang.

At the moment he fell into the waters, Wenren È lifted his hand and thrust his palm at the robe with all of his strength, shoving Yin Hanjiang back up the cliff.

Yin Hanjiang had been pushed back from the sea of blood. He could only watch as his Venerable, his body covered with wounds, fell into the most hellish place in this realm.

“AHHHHHHH!” A pained cry echoed across the Blood Hell.

If Polis fell, Alkaid would go mad.