Chapter 118

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Chapter 118: Conclusion

The sky above the southern border was blood red and visible from the inner city. The smell of charred bodies and ash also drifted in with the wind.

Inside the Demon Terrace, Lin Haoqing looked at the red glow in the distance and shadows formed under his brows.

"Why aren't you waking up yet?" Ji Ning paced anxiously back and forth next to Changyi's bed.

"Shunde came too soon," Lin Haoqing said. "It wasn't expected."

Ji Ning squatted down and looked sideways at the nape of Changyi's neck.

There, a small white formation swirled under his silver hair. It was impossible to see unless one looked from this angle. Ji Ning let out a soft sigh. "When will this formation start to glow..."

Lin Haoqing was silent for a moment then said, "Just keep waiting."

Ji Ning turned his head, his eyes passed over Lin Haoqing and looked at the reddened sky. "Do we still have the time to wait?"

Lin Haoqing did not answer him again.

...

Ji Yunhe had promised Lin Haoqing to not gamble with her life.

But she broke her promise.

Because Princess Shunde was more powerful than they predicted. The power of the Grand Master and Qing Ji had been underestimated all along. Ji Yunhe used everything she could just to lead her to the thunderfire cave without getting killed.

And by the time they reached the edge of the cave, Ji Yunhe had already been cut all over by wind blades along the way. She took advantage of the thick smoke outside the cave mouth to temporarily conceal herself.

She began using her magic to heal her wounds, but the sound of footsteps soon appeared.

Ji Yunhe looked back and saw Shunde walking toward her through the smoke, her body wrapped under a layer of green aura.

"I thought you've come up with an amazing plan, but you want to use this lava against me?" She smiled contemptuously. "So naive." She raised her hand and a gust of wind blew away the smoke around them.

The cave entrance ten feet away was now clearly in view.

They faced each other as time seemed to return to the darkness inside the Grand Master's prison. The light of the lava now cast a red tint onto both of their faces, just like the torch in that dungeon. Ji Yunhe heard that after she was rescued from the Grand Master's house by Changyi, Shunde became extremely afraid of fire. But now, she showed no signs of such fear.

Shunde looked at her own palm and moved her fingers. Ji Yunhe knew another storm began to stir at the border.

"I no longer fear the power of nature," Shunde said.

Ji Yunhe wiped a handful of blood from the corner of her lips. She sat on the ground, silently regulating her internal energy in self recuperation, while pretending to be calm and relaxed. "Don't overestimate yourself. If the power of nature can make you, it can also destroy you."

Shunde smiled. "Worry about yourself first."

Before she came, she had received news that the jiaoren was trapped in a deep sleep. The only person left able to put up a fight was Ji Yunhe. After killing Ji Yunhe, her puppet army would be able to conquer the entire land and convert everyone. She would then control the world with no one left to disobey her.

Thinking of this, Shunde's eyes glowed with a little madness and a longsword formed in her hand. "Ji Yunhe, I overestimated you. I never thought you would be so weak and defenseless. The power of the nine tailed fox, since you can't make much use of it, might as well give it to me."

She suddenly attacked before her words even fell. Ji Yunhe tried to dodge to the side, but Shunde was too fast. The longsword in her hand pierced through Ji Yunhe's right shoulder.

A fox tail behind her turned into a sword and aimed for Shunde's chest, but Shunde flipped her hand and Ji Yunhe's arm flew out and landed on the ground.

The blood dried up before it even had time to bleed, and the arm instantly withered under the searing heat.

Ji Yunhe endured the pain as sweat fell from her face. Her fox tail did not get to hurt Shunde, but she had managed to stay alive at the cost of an arm. She was trembling, but she did not show fear.

The blow was very satisfying to Shunde, and she grinned from ear to ear. "I was going to kill you, but now I changed my mind. It would be much more fun to cut off your limbs one by one then throw you into the lava."

Shunde was crazy.

Everything she said and did confirmed this.

The severe pain made Ji Yunhe unmotivated to argue back. She turned her head to look at the cave entrance then backed up a few more steps.

She was moving closer and closer to the mouth of the cave during their fight, and as of now, there were only three or five steps left.

Shunde stepped up looking more triumphant, but she was not completely unaware of the situation. She knew the direction Ji Yunhe was going, and with a slash of the sword, a strong gust of wind rose up behind Ji Yunhe.

It blew her forward and her neck landed in Shunde's hand.

The long sword shortened into a dagger as Shunde looked at Ji Yunhe. "Tell me." She raised her dagger and cut along Ji Yunhe's face, from the temple all the way to the chin. Blood flowed down onto her fingers, adding to her excitement.

"Should I cut out your eyes first, or shave off your ears? Or cut off your fingers one by one?"

Surprisingly, Ji Yunhe smiled.

Her face was full of blood and her body was crippled, but the disdain in her eyes told Shunde she did not fear her, even now.

"You're pathetic," Ji Yunhe said.

The satisfaction on Shunde's face was instantly ripped away...

Her expression turned hideous and her fingers tightened, choking Ji Yunhe. "I might as well cut out your tongue first!"

She raised her hand.

At the same time...

Away from the snowy mountains, on the bed in the side hall of the Demon Terrace, a white light suddenly flashed over Changyi's body.

A formation rotated on the back of his neck, under the silver hair.

Ice blue eyes suddenly opened.

And at the cave above the mountains, thunderfire lava tirelessly tumbled and rolled. With a muffled boom, a small eruption spurted out of the cave mouth and scattered on the ground.

A searing wave of heat swept out. The temperature grew so hot that even Shunde squinted her eyes.

And during this blink of an eye moment, an ice sword shot out from behind the lava burst, past Ji Yunhe's ear, and headed straight for Shunde.

It easily pierced through Shunde's protection shield and into her throat.

Shunde released Ji Yunhe and staggered back a few steps clutching her neck. Her face turned blue, but the blood was choked back by the ice sword so she could not spit it out.

And Ji Yunhe was swept into someone's arm.

Through the silver hair, Ji Yunhe looked at him with a bloody smile. "You woke up."

Ice blue eyes took in all of the injuries on her face and shoulder.

Changyi trembled and his body grew cold, almost colder than when he was frozen.

"I'm fine." Ji Yunhe stared closely at Changyi, her remaining hand held on to his. "You know I'm fine."

Under her calm reassurance, Changyi blinked away his rage and looked at Shunde.

The princess tossed around on the ground in pain with the ice sword in her throat. It slowly liquified but did not turn into water. Instead, it expanded outward and wrapped her entire body in frost that even the scorching heat around them could not melt.

Changyi pulled Ji Yunhe behind him and took two steps forward, shielding her. He looked at the princess as she struggled to breath.

He had been just a jiaoren living comfortably in the sea, this human world had nothing to do with him. Yet, because of her selfish obsession, he went through thick and thin all the way to this point today.

Shunde looked at Changyi and gasped in a hoarse voice, "You... you couldn't have... Why..."

He did not bother saying anything. With a wave of his hand, an ice spear pierced Shunde through the chest. And like the sword, it liquified and covered her under more layers of frost and ice.

"You shouldn't… be... this strong..."

Shunde desperately tried to summon her green aura, but Changyi called forth numerous icicles and pinned her limbs in place, restraining her from all movements.

Ji Yunhe stood behind him and looked at the glowing formation on his neck.

"This is how strong I used to be," Changyi said.

"What..." Shunde bitterly grinded her teeth. "How?"

"The jiaoren's slumber was part of the plan. Ruling, you failed to see through it after all." Shunde froze at the sound of this voice. She looked beyond the thick smoke and saw the Grand Master dressed in his usual white robe.

His expression was as cold as ever.

Even in the middle of all this blood and fire, his face did not change a bit.

"Impossible... I locked you up, I..." Shunde paused. When she left the capital, she had done everything except checking in on him in the prison. She was so sure he was harmless...

But... he had come to the Northlands, and was now helping Changyi and Ji Yunhe…?

When Ji Ning fled to the north, he brought the Grand Master with him.

Changyi actually did wake up already after using the shewei, but the Grand Master had a secret discussion with them. The shewei plant was a very precious thing. It could help people repair all damages inside their bodies if used properly, including regrowing limbs and giving new life. The Grand Master was able to use the power of the shewei to help Changyi reconnect all the severed meridians in his body. (In traditional Chinese medicine, people's bodies contain many paths through which their internal energy flows. Those paths are called meridians.)

And Ji Yunhe finally learned that when he lost his tail, he also lost half of his power. Shewei gave them back to him.

Although Shunde had the power of Qing Ji and the Grand Master, she herself had no methods in cultivation. She consumed and drained the power in her body with everything she did. When she was in the capital, she kept absorbing power from other demon masters and demons to replenish her energy.

But when she arrived at the north, no one supplied her with what she needed anymore.

The flame boundary at the border was a drain on Shunde, and so was her army of puppets. By the thunderfire lava, Shunde had to keep using magic to resist the scorching heat, so it was even more of a continuous drainage. If they could hold Shunde here long enough, the power in her body would eventually deplete.

And the power of nature did not drain. Thunderfire lava could burn for another hundred years, or a thousand years…

The only thing that surprised them was how fast Shunde came.

If Changyi's awakening had been a few seconds later, their plan, perhaps, would have failed.

"Why do you want to kill me?" Shunde no longer cared about Ji Yunhe or Changyi. She only asked the Grand Master, "Don't you want to mourn for the world? When they become my puppets, they die! I am helping you realize your wish!"

The Grand Master looked at Shunde for a while then said, "My wish now is to end the chaos that I have created."

His wish was never about destroying the world. He had just wanted to make everyone pay for the injustice against that one person.

At first, Changyi and Lin Haoqing did not trust him. But Ji Yunhe chose to believe him.

Because she had spent time with the Grand Master at his residence, and she also met Ning Xiyu. She knew their story.

A hundred years of enmity started by his hands could also be destroyed by him.

She had not been entirely sure if the Grand Master really wanted to help them, she took a gamble. Luckily, she won.

"Haha..." Shunde laughed hoarsely. "You want to kill me... You think I can die like this..."

She struggled and ripped her own flesh and skin against the icicles, then looked at Ji Yunhe. "I will not die, I still have the power to change the sky. Even if my body dies, I will just turn into the wind! Scattered into the air, I will kill anyone and anything I see! You can't stop the wind and you can't stop me!"

As she spoke, her hair slowly dissipated into layers of green light, waving around and flying toward the sky.

"If you want to save them, you can..." She stared at Ji Yunhe wickedly. "You are half human and half demon just like me, you can absorb me into your body and jump into the thunderfire lava." She smiled and continued, "The tragedy of my life began because of you and this jiaoren, you, you! If you want to save the world, then you can die with me..."

Her body dissipated faster and faster.

Ji Yunhe smiled and said, "Okay."

She glanced at Changyi, walked to Shunde and squatted down in front of her. "Then I will die with you."

Surprisingly, Changyi did not try to stop her. Shunde's face sank.

Ji Yunhe pressed her remaining hand onto the top of Shunde's head. Nine black tails behind her swept up all the green aura floating in the air.

"Why?" Shunde stared at Ji Yunhe in disbelief. "Why?!"

"Because we've been expecting you to do this."

Shunde stared viciously at the Grand Master off to the side. "No..."

But it was too late for her. The Grand Master formed a seal with his hand and a golden light flashed beneath Ji Yunhe's feet. It merged into the dirt next to the thunderfire lava.

Under the ash and dust, the formation Ji Yunhe drew a few days ago lit up.

Shunde knew this formation. She saw it in the Grand Master's house when flipping through the forbidden books. This was the Ten Square Formation inside the Demon Valley… The one that sealed the jade phoenix for a hundred years.

Although this version was not as big, and there were no ten demon masters to sacrifice, trapping her was still more than enough.

"Why?" Shunde looked at Ji Yunhe in confusion, and then looked at the calm Changyi behind her. "Why? You will die too! Why are you smiling?!"

The green aura flowed into Ji Yunhe's body, and the tremendous influx of power caused her a great deal of pain, but she still maintained a smile on her face.

The Ten Square Formation and the Grand Master both began to glow.

"Master!" Shunde called out to him. "Master! Everything I did was for you…!"

The Ten Square Formation required a sacrifice. The Grand Master looked at Shunde with detached eyes as the golden light diffused around his body. Then he shifted his gaze and looked up through the smoke into the clear blue sky.

A soft breeze blew by and he closed his eyes with a smile.

Nothing could escape the wind, and everything in this world would eventually turn to dust.

The Grand Master vanished with the completion of the Ten Square Formation, and Ji Yunhe absorbed all of Shunde's green aura into her body.

She stood up and looked at Changyi through the golden light of the formation.

Changyi gazed at her quietly.

"Let's go eat after this," Ji Yunhe said.

He nodded.

Ji Yunhe waved her hand at Changyi and leapt into the thunderfire lava.

It instantly swallowed her body.

Even though he knew of the entire plan, Changyi still could not help but feel pain in his heart.

Ji Yunhe dissolved and a green light flashed out, but the Ten Square Formation kept it from going anywhere, successfully trapping it inside the lava.

Changyi watched until all movements died down, then he reinforced the Ten Square Formation with an additional layer of frost.

And his body disappeared. In the blink of an eye, he was back inside the Demon Terrace.

Ji Ning rushed up to Changyi to ask about the situation, Lin Haoqing followed. But Changyi did not stop for anyone and kept walking toward the inner hall.

Pushing open the door, he was so hasty he even tripped over the threshold.

Ji Ning was about to ask again when Lin Haoqing pulled him back.

Changyi walked through layers of curtains and veils, finally seeing the one sitting inside.

He lifted the curtains and walked in.

Ji Yunhe, intact and without injuries, looked up at him.

Changyi knelt down and took her into his arms.

Ji Yunhe brushed his hair with her fingers and held him gently. "You know it was just another body of mine made from half of my inner pearl."

"I know."

Lin Haoqing proposed this idea as soon as the Grand Master told them about Shunde's ability to turn into the wind.

He had used Ji Yunhe's inner pearl before to make an Aji, so it was not difficult to use half of it now to make a duplicate Ji Yunhe.

Only after they laid down the entire plan did Changyi go into his deep sleep to have the shewei mend his body.

But seeing Ji Yunhe in that beaten state and jumping into the lava, he still panicked... he was so afraid of losing her again. Being able to hold her in his arms right now, he was finally at ease.

"Changyi." Ji Yunhe gently patted his back while she hugged him. "It's over."

Everything was over.

Shunde's puppet army at the border turned into ashes and flew away.

Demon masters and demons in the frontlines cheered and hugged one another.

Luo Jinsang's injuries were stabilized by the military doctor.

It was over.

Changyi released Ji Yunhe from his embrace and said, "Let's go. You said we will go eat."

Ji Yunhe smiled. "I've been lying down for a long time, my legs are still a bit soft. Why don't you carry me."

Changyi leaned down and carried Ji Yunhe on his back.

Ji Ning wanted to block them. "There are many people outside..."

"Don't care," Changyi said as he walked out.

Sounds of cheer filled the city. The Northlands had never seen such joy.

Changyi and Ji Yunhe smiled at each other as a breeze blew by. The sky was blue, and the clouds were as white as snow.

...

Changyi dropped the position of the venerable lord and threw it at Kongming.

Luo Jinsang was mostly healed by now, but Kongming was still overwhelmed between caring for her and dealing with official affairs. Changyi suddenly said he was done with working and wanted to go out and play.

Then he took Ji Yunhe with him and left, not concerned at all about the monk's feelings.

Kongming was so furious he nearly passed out.

Fortunately, things in the city were busy, but not bad.

Changyi knew this, so he was able to leave without worry.

Ji Yunhe had always dreamed of seeing the world, and Changyi was now fulfilling her wish.

They traveled all the way from the north to the south and ended at the sea.

The sun was currently setting over the western sky.

"Big-tailed fish," Ji Yunhe said as she looked at the endless rolling waves. "You got your original power back, does that mean your tail..."

Changyi had not yet confirmed if his tail was back. He deliberately avoided this matter just in case. Disappointing himself was fine, but he did not want to disappoint her.

But Ji Yunhe brought it up.

"Let's give it a try." He removed his robe and placed it next to her.

Ji Yunhe stared at him without blinking. "And the pants too, right?"

Changyi looked around.

There was no one here except for her.

But he was still silent for another moment. Having had these legs for so long, taking off his pants suddenly felt...

"I'll go inside the water first," he said as he walked into the waves.

They churned and gradually engulfed him.

With a lot of anticipation and nervousness, Ji Yunhe followed until the water soaked into the hem of her dress.

The waves washed against the beach again and again, but Changyi seemed to have vanished into the sea.

Ji Yunhe stood on the shore with the sunset drawing her shadow onto the sand. Suddenly, she heard the water break in the distance.

Her eyes widened as a giant blue fish tail emerged from the surface, its scales reflecting the sparkling sea and brightening her dark pupils.

The corners of her lips curled up into a smile.

The waves had never felt so warm, and the sea breeze so gentle.

Proofreader: Gem