Chapter 10: Upstream

“Ah.”

In the silent great hall of the underground palace, Xiao Changxuan toyed with the divine statue in his hand. The dark-red light of the palace lanterns fell over him, lending another three parts of beauty to that already fine face of his.

He looked at the old man bound to the ancient sandalwood chair and said, as if merely chatting, “I’ve been found out.”

The old man before him was white-haired and aged, his appearance wretched beyond description. He was pinned fast to the armrests of the wooden chair, his eyes filled with terror and pleading.

When Xiao Changxuan’s gaze landed on him, he hurriedly opened his mouth. Yet the voice-control formation sealed in his throat locked away every sound he could make. Apart from tears and snot streaming down his face, he could do nothing.

“…He’s angry. He actually blocked out my divine sense.” Xiao Changxuan curved his eyes helplessly, almost wearing a doting smile.

As though he had grown tired of the jade statue in his hand, he tossed it casually to the ground. The jade idol shattered against the stone tiles, scattering fragments everywhere.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he paced idly through the empty hall, his voice echoing through it.

“Speaking of this, I really have to thank you. If not for you, I wouldn’t have known that the person on Ninth Heaven had truly succeeded. Old Xu, you’ve given me quite the fine gift.”

The old man immediately began crying out, “Ah, ah!”

“I’m guessing you never even saw him. You heard from your servants that he looked like Xu Yanran, and since I was rushing you so urgently, you hastily stuffed him into the bridal sedan. So,” Xiao Changxuan asked, rubbing his chin, “did you feel like you were just one step away from ruling Ninth Heaven?”

The voice-control formation sealed away all of the old man’s futile struggles. Xiao Changxuan did not need his answer either. He shrugged. “To be honest, I noticed him the moment the Xu family picked him up. Otherwise, I would have come looking for you long ago. How could I have let you live freely until now?”

“…”

“The Paper Men were quite good too. As expected of something made by a bionic-human expert. They were actually that sensitive to bionic humans. Both times, I only stirred up a little baleful qi in secret, and they practically confirmed his identity for me.”

Xiao Changxuan glanced sideways, casting his gaze behind the old man.

Countless exquisite four-corner palace lanterns hung overhead, casting a dim red glow that reflected off the winding stream below.

And above the stream, palm-sized ancient tower models stood in intricate detail, their edges inlaid with gold foil. They were arranged in staggered rows before the screen, giving off thin, curling wisps of white smoke. Like gauze, the smoke half-veiled the bright mirror behind the layers of little towers, making it seem like a beauty with her face half-hidden.

Then ripples slowly spread across the bright mirror, as if a stone had startled the surface of a lake.

“A naturally grown bionic human of spiritual power, with vague emotions—almost exactly like a real person. What a staggering technological achievement.”

Xiao Changxuan stared at the ripples and spoke each word slowly.

“Do you regret it? The thing you obsessed over day and night—one careless move, and you delivered it right into my hands.”

The bright mirror gave no answer.

Xiao Changxuan raised a finger and undid the voice-control formation at the old man’s throat. The crimson formation mark shattered instantly.

The old man had not even had time to inhale before Xiao Changxuan pressed two fingers together through the air. A blade formed of compressed air arrived beside his neck.

The cold sensation against his thick flesh was so real. The old man’s pupils trembled as he looked toward Xiao Changxuan.

The eyes staring back at him glowed faintly purple, full of coldness. In the dim hall, they were like a demon’s.

“It won’t come out.” Xiao Changxuan asked him, “Do you have any ideas?”

“I—I’ll call it! Lord Demon Lord! Lord Demon Lord, spare my life! Spare me—”

“How about this?” Xiao Changxuan interrupted him, watching the ripples in the bright mirror. “Tell me everything it made you do.”

“Everything…?”

“Yes.” There was not the slightest trace of a smile in Xiao Changxuan’s eyes. “Tell me every bionic-human manufacturing site, secret, and organization you know about. Then it won’t need to come out. I can spare your life, just like the first time we met, when you traded your descendants for your own life.”

Old Xu froze, seeming to hesitate. He did not dare look back. His guilty eyes darted around.

“You don’t dare?” Xiao Changxuan asked coldly. “Are you afraid I can’t save you, or afraid your bloodline can’t save you? Don’t worry. The Xu family bloodline is so special. I wouldn’t dare provoke it.”

After hesitating for a long time, Old Xu watched Xiao Changxuan gradually draw closer. The blade at his neck also cut into his skin with the shrinking distance. The moment that coldness sank deeper, terror finally overwhelmed hesitation. He hurriedly opened his mouth.

“East—”

He had only uttered a single syllable when the ripples in the bright mirror suddenly expanded.

An invisible sound wave instantly issued an order. The walls of the underground palace collapsed open, revealing countless armed machines, all aimed at them.

And on the chair, the senile Xu family patriarch’s expression abruptly turned savage. His pupils shrank to pinpoints, his face flushed scarlet, and he convulsed painfully on the wooden chair.

He could no longer say a single word. In unbearable agony, he looked at Xiao Changxuan as if using every last bit of strength to beg for life—

Yet when he met Xiao Changxuan’s gaze, his heart instantly went cold.

Those beautiful eyes were filled only with heartlessness and chill indifference. The coldness at his neck drilled into his brain in an instant.

He had begged the wrong person.

And trusted the wrong person.

That was the Demon Lord who had slaughtered fifteen cities in blood.

A clear snap of the fingers sounded almost at the same time as the electric current in Old Xu’s brain.

Then, on Old Xu’s despairing, flushed face, his murky eyes rolled upward. Lifeless, he died right in front of Xiao Changxuan.

“Quite bold,” Xiao Changxuan said, utterly unconcerned with the person before him. He merely looked at the bright mirror. “Killing a Xu family member up on Ninth Heaven. The Xu family’s miraculous bloodline will tell that person, you know. You’re in big trouble.”

The guns on the walls immediately loaded in unison and aimed at Xiao Changxuan. He watched the energy bars on the gun bodies rise rapidly, yet showed no fear toward the laser cannons that could turn a person to ash in an instant.

Behind the corpse, within the immortal mist, the bright mirror finally revealed a vague, illusory human figure. Its gender could not be discerned. Inside the mirror, it asked in furious rage, “What did you take from his brain?!”

“What else but memories?” Xiao Changxuan deliberately used a tone that invited a beating, then added with a cheeky grin, “Forcible extraction caused brain death. If you hadn’t acted, I really wouldn’t have had any way to take them while he was still alive. Many thanks.”

“You!”

The illusory ripples flickered for a moment.

In the next instant, all the laser cannons fired at once.

A hail of bullets and beams surrounded Xiao Changxuan. Waves of scorching fluorescent light burned everything, annihilating all they touched.

The Demon Lord stood in place, purple light gleaming faintly in his black eyes.

The next instant, white light burst forth.

*

A hundred meters away, smoke drifted through the laboratory.

All it would take was a single spark for another explosion to erupt.

The laser cannon in Xu Yanran’s hand gradually approached Lou Xun, but in the end, she did not fire. Helplessly, she bit her lower lip and met Lou Xun’s gaze. Neither of them could do anything to the other.

“You can’t kill him,” Xu Yanran was the first to relent. “The Xu family bloodline is too special. Otherwise, why do you think that adopted son and I don’t dare make a move?”

Lou Xun’s face was expressionless and unmoved.

“Getting rid of a public menace—what’s wrong with that…”

The young men gathered behind Lou Xun chattered softly among themselves, exchanging opinions in hushed voices.

“This pretty… uh, projection won’t explain anything clearly. How are we supposed to believe her?”

“Help, the laser cannon is already aimed at the whole area. If she fires again, we’re all dead.”

“Isn’t using that cyborg as a hostage kind of immoral…”

Lou Xun coldly glanced back. All the young semi-immortals who had spoken instantly fell silent in fear and subconsciously shrank back.

He looked up at Xu Yanran and said, “Let me leave.”

That was the real point.

When the spiritual-power link broke for the first time, Lou Xun’s first reaction had been anger. But after he successfully blocked Xiao Changxuan’s divine sense, he realized something—

Xiao Changxuan could not locate him through divine sense right now.

The reason he had stayed here in the first place was Xiao Changxuan. If he did not leave now, then when?

As for whether someone was a bionic human or whether the person who created bionic humans lived or died, he did not care.

Seeing Xu Yanran hesitate, Lou Xun simply dropped an explosive formation onto Xu Sheng’s forehead. The threat could not have been more blatant.

“You…” Xu Yanran seemed to force something down. Lowering her eyes, she said, “The Xu family bloodline is special. If you kill him, the people above will come for you. When that happens, you won’t survive either.”

“…I’ll give you one more chance.” Irritation and killing intent immediately appeared between Lou Xun’s brows. Dark red crept little by little through his pupils. “How do I leave?”

“…” Xu Yanran’s expression was conflicted. She lowered her brows, half her face hidden in shadow.

But certain people did not have the patience to wait.

Who knew when Xiao Changxuan would free up his hands?

He had no time to waste.

Formation marks began taking shape again beneath the immortals’ feet. The young men froze, then subconsciously covered their noses to prevent bleeding—Lou Xun was about to drain their spiritual power again!

Then the shocked voice of the formation-sect youth burst from the crowd.

“Holy shit?! What is that?!”

Everyone quickly looked up.

In the next instant, a glowing white formation disc appeared behind Xu Yanran. The ancient talisman patterns upon it were unlike anything they had ever heard of, twisting and coiling like roots ten thousand years old.

Xu Yanran did not even have time to react. It was as if her brain had been pierced through in an instant. Her expression suddenly twisted savagely.

Lou Xun instantly opened a formation to protect everyone behind him.

“Ugh—!!!”

The attack they imagined did not come.

Xu Yanran seemed to be suffering a splitting headache. She clawed frantically at her own hair and curled into a ball, her refined and beautiful features contorting completely from pain.

“You said—!” Xu Yanran gritted her teeth and shouted at someone unknown. “You wouldn’t—touch the mainframe—!”

Lou Xun froze.

He saw Xu Yanran’s projection, already flickering from signal failure, become even more violently fragmented. Even her cries of pain were filled with the sizzling static of electrical malfunction.

Xu Sheng, held hostage by Lou Xun, immediately widened his eyes and shouted in worry, “Yanran!”

“Ah… aaaaah—!!!”

A mass of blinding light, bright as the sun, suddenly erupted from her body.

As if it could pierce straight through their eyelids, it instantly engulfed everyone’s consciousness.

Everything happened in the span of a breath—

Lou Xun’s vision was suddenly filled with intense light. Every sight and sound vanished from his mind.

*

He did not know how long had passed before scenery appeared before his eyes again.

White daylight fell from the sinkhole overhead onto his body. Lou Xun could barely open his eyes. He could only lower his gaze and look at his long sleeves dyed red with blood, and at his hands covered in wounds.

And at the mangled corpse before him.

What was going on?

Lou Xun tried to stand, but his body gave no response.

He clicked his tongue. Remembering Xu Yanran’s words, he could figure out with his toes who was behind this good deed. Irritation rose in him at once.

That bastard was simply haunting him like a ghost.

Right now, he was kneeling in the center of the underground palace hall. Before him stood a towering bluestone divine statue, so tall its top could not be seen. Yet what was drawn on the LED screen was not a demon-suppressing talisman, but the Xu family’s golden hereditary formation. The talisman marks flew like dragons and phoenixes, while a clan banner made of countless green-blue electrode tubes swayed in the underground wind.

Around him were countless Paper Men burning incense and bowing in worship. Kneeling mats were arranged in neat rows. Their appearances were proper, their long robes dragging along the ground.

“Xu Yanran.”

Lou Xun’s line of sight lifted. He froze for an instant, then looked up with her at the benevolent divine statue, as if gazing upon a god.

A dignified female voice descended from the top of the statue, echoing through the cold palace.

“As a heavenly spiritual root, with outstanding aptitude, you had a broad and open path to the heavens before you. Why have you repeatedly violated taboos and destroyed the Xu family’s future?”

The hall was silent for a while. The rustle of Paper Men’s robes dragging over the ground reached his ears. Then the girl whose body he occupied opened her mouth. Her dignified, crisp voice was now extremely hoarse.

“Is killing to pay for a life also considered a violation…? That sinful immortal merely brought the Xu family an adopted son… How dared he covet the Xu family’s hereditary formation and use the Eight-Direction Heavy Slaughter to kill my elder brother—!!!”

Her long hair hung loose. Her eyes were blood-red, making her look even more terrifying than a malicious ghost.

“You people wouldn’t let me kill him… and even gave the bastard he brought the title of adopted son… You say Yanran violated a taboo? Where did I violate one?! On what grounds?! Could it be because my elder brother was a mortal! And he—was a semi-immortal?”

A surge of crazed despair rose violently from Xu Yanran, spreading through every limb and bone.

Lou Xun’s heart jolted. He quickly mobilized spiritual power to separate himself from Xu Yanran.

“Xu family son Xu Sheng… will you save him or not?”

Xu Yanran asked.

The divine statue did not hesitate. “Mortals are as cheap as grass. He is beyond saving. Life and death are determined by fate. You should not have violated the forbidden arts for this.”

Xu Yanran fell silent.

The underground palace was quiet for a while. Then the girl’s laughter rang out, almost deranged.

“Ha… should not… should not?”

The despair in her heart grew deeper and deeper, as if it would swallow a person whole.

“What is ‘should not’?! Heaven and earth are heartless. Gods and Buddhas are heartless. They treat all living things like straw dogs! They kill, spare, take, and seize as they please! Is that what you call ‘should’?!”

The divine statue did not answer.

The palace was silent for a long time. There was only the faint sound of the Paper Men offering incense.

Xu Yanran’s hysterical questioning received no response from anyone.

The person she had given up everything to save lay before her, his cold corpse telling her plainly—

It was useless.

Even if she smashed her head open kowtowing, she could not make the immortals lower their eyes once for a mortal.

In the vast, dim underground palace, only her own despair answered her, threatening to drown her.

Lou Xun, who had narrowly separated himself from her emotions, watched in silence.

“Ten years ago,” a voice suddenly sounded behind Lou Xun, “Xu Yanran passed Ninth Heaven’s Ascension Ceremony and was about to enter Ninth Heaven. But the Xu family patriarch was unwilling to let her leave, so he found someone to kill Xu Sheng with the Eight-Direction Heavy Slaughter and took that person’s child in as an adopted son. To save Xu Sheng, Xu Yanran violated forbidden arts several times, but could not reverse his fate. In the end, she could only come to the feet of the Xu family ancestor who had become a god.”

Lou Xun: “…”

He turned around.

Xiao Changxuan stood in the shadows and bent slightly toward him. Purple light flickered in his black eyes.

“Hi. Miss me?”

“…”

He did not want to speak.