Chapter 17

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Chapter 17: Demonic Attachment

Changyi confirmed that the pool was bottomless.

Ji Yunhe pondered. The ground was flat everywhere aside from the crater here, and according to her explorations, the pool should be the center of the crater.

If she estimated correctly, this pool of water would also be the center of the seal, or the main eye. If they could shake up this eye, it would completely break the Ten Square Formation.

Ji Yunhe scooped up some water with her hand and held it to her eyes. She knew right away that this was their way out, down in the bottom of the abyss...

Because... she felt her double pulse as soon as she touched the water, though very faint.

Changyi suddenly grew alert. "Someone's here."

Ji Yunhe was taken by surprise and looked around. "Where?"

Then she heard it too. A low rumbling from the depths of the pool as if a giant beast had awakened.

Ji Yunhe and Changyi looked at each other.

There was something very unpleasant under the water.

Ji Yunhe immediately grabbed Changyi's arm and pulled with all her might. It forcefully plucked him out of the water and into the air with a circular arch, while she fell backward onto the ground.

When his huge tail flipped in the air, a cascade of water drops rained down across the courtyard.

Amidst the "rain", a cloud of black gas shot out from the bottom of the pool, solidifying into the shape of a giant phoenix on the surface.

A... black phoenix.

It lifted its head and called to the sky with the sound of nine heavens, and its huge flapping wings briefly dulled the golden light that surrounded them.

Ji Yunhe looked at the giant bird in amazement -- a second phoenix existed in this world? Did the ten demon masters actually seal two of these powerful demons?

But something seemed wrong.

This black phoenix, although only different in color from the jade phoenix, had no feet. Or its feet were somehow still trapped under the water and could not pull loose.

It was imprisoned inside the pool.

The black phoenix struggled and screamed incessantly. After Ji Yunhe got used to its shrieks, she suppressed her shock and asked Changyi, "Did you see it down there?"

"No."

"Then where did it come from..."

The demon bird suddenly flipped its neck within the black gaseous cloud, and its blood red eyes fixated on Ji Yunhe.

"Demon master!"

It let out a hellish cry, "I will eat you alive!" With feathers flapping, the black phoenix turned its body and charged at her with its monstrous beak.

Still sitting on the ground, Ji Yunhe only had enough time to shove her bottom a bit to the side. She watched as the bird pecked into the ground between her and Changyi.

It left such a deep pit that its own head was almost buried inside.

Ji Yunhe looked at the pit and twitched the corners of her mouth.

"What did I do..."

Ji Yunhe got up and dashed for the cabin, but the bird raised its head and thrashed against the walls, overturning half of the structure. Broken pieces made from wood and grass turned into golden dust and scattered across the ground.

Ji Yunhe jumped, rolled, flipped and dodged in every way she could to avoid the vicious attacks, but every time the bird would come after her again.

Soon she was backed into a corner with no way out. Ji Yunhe stopped retreating and stared into its wide open mouth. It charged at her then ferociously snapped shut its beak… an inch away from her face.

No matter how much it struggled, it could not move forward that extra inch.

Ji Yunhe leaned her body sideways and checked behind the bird. It looked as if its feet had been planted in the pool, and could only furiously snap at the air in front of her again and again.

Ji Yunhe flicked the giant beak.

"I say, you big chicken, you are really unreasonable! What did I do to you that you have to eat me?"

Her flick made the black phoenix even more furious. It thrashed and flailed, desperately trying to poke its beak forward.

"You're fearless." Changyi finally managed to pull and drag his big tail over to her side. "If you had miscalculated even slightly, you would be dead right now."

"What could go wrong?" Ji Yunhe gestured with her arms. "When straightened, its body is at most this long."

The demon bird screamed, "Demon master! I want you dead! I will eat you! I will eat you!"

Ji Yunhe looked at it up close, and unexpectedly saw a teardrop under its bloodshot eye.

So sad?

"Why are you crying?" Ji Yunhe asked.

"You demon masters are heartless! You use then abandon! I will eat each and every one of you I see!"

So, this was a big chicken with a story.

The demon bird enshrouded itself in a black gaseous cloud and dissipated. Then its body solidified again, this time into the form of a woman. She stood in the center of the pool, and her face looked identical to the jade phoenix.

A face very similar to Snow March.

Except she was dressed in all black. Her pupils were blood red and a tear still sat under one eye.

Resentful, furious, and... sad.

A big, strange chicken indeed.

"Hey, what is your relationship to the jade phoenix, Qing Ji?" Ji Yunhe stopped beating around the bush and asked. "Why are you imprisoned in this pool?"

"The jade phoenix?" The woman in black turned her head to look at Ji Yunhe. "I am the jade phoenix, I am Qing Ji." She spun around in the center of the pool and looked at her surroundings, then she went crazy. With tears rolling down like a mini waterfall, she pointed to the golden sky and furiously shouted, "I am the demon who was deceived by the Wuchang Saint and imprisoned by him in this Ten Square Formation!"

The Wuchang Saint? The great demon master who led nine other demon masters and built the formation here?

Ji Yunhe had read historical documents praising the Wuchang Saint, but she had never seen anything about him having a relationship with the jade phoenix...

But these things were not for her to dig into right now.

Ji Yunhe only felt confused. If the one being held here was the real jade phoenix, then who was the one that had broken through the seal and escaped? That one also called herself Qing Ji. The cat demon, Li Shu, should be her old acquaintance, but when he saw her, it did not look like a case of mistaken identity.

While Ji Yunhe pondered, Changyi spoke.

"She is not a demon." Changyi looked at the woman in the center of the pool. "There is no demonic aura on her."

"Then what is she?"

"Seems... she is just some emotion cast out by the original host."

"Huh?"

Ji Yunhe had read in a book that powerful demons sometimes stripped out emotions like great sorrow and great joy to help them maintain inner stability and keep their cultivation from damage. Some demons just throw it away while others would bury it in a fixed place.

These discarded emotions usually dissipated into thin air. However, the extra stubborn ones sometimes linger and take form. People called them demonic attachments.

It would look identical to the original demon, but with no magic power. The attachments recorded in the books did not live long because they had no real life, and always disappeared with the passage of time.

Ji Yunhe never thought they could be so solid...

She looked at the wreckage all around them.

Although it had no demonic power, its body was still very strong. In bird form, it could cause physical damage to its surroundings.

"This offshoot of a demon is a little too powerful."

"Hrm, perhaps the emotions of the host were too intense, or too many were tossed into the pool and it simply built up over the years."

Of course, Ji Yunhe thought. The jade phoenix was imprisoned here for a hundred years.

The woman circled around twice, muttered a few words to herself, then burst into tears again. "Why? Why? Ning Ruochu! Why did you betray me? Why did you imprison me?"

Her tears fell into the pool, stirring up a wave of ripples that overflowed the shore and moistened the ground.

Then a cloud of black smoke rose and she transformed back into the giant bird. But this time, it no longer attacked Ji Yunhe as if it had forgotten her existence. Instead, it went on a frenzy. It flapped its wings ferociously and kept pecking out one deep pit after another with its beak on the ground. Golden earth and dust spewed everywhere.

Ji Yunhe covered her mouth and nose and took two steps back.

"Let's retreat first, and come back when she calms down," Ji Yunhe said while looking at the frenzied bird. "If I guessed correctly, the exit is most likely in that pool."

The demonic attachment was so hostile toward demon masters that it had immediately come out and attacked Ji Yunhe after she touched the water. To get out, they would have to dissolve this bird.

But how do they dissolve such strong emotions...

A woman was betrayed by a man and her heart broken...

Ji Yunhe pondered while she squatted down to carry Changyi on her back like before.

She scooped up his tail and walked away from the chaos, but her mind remained there.

What could mend a broken heart? Ji Yunhe felt like if this had happened to her, and some guy betrayed and abandoned her, she would immediately go out and find another one. Out with the old, in with the new.

But where in this Ten Square Formation could she find a man to comfort that bird...

Wait.

Ji Yunhe paused her steps and looked at the sturdy arm holding her neck.

No man... but a male fish… here's a big one!

Ji Yunhe placed him back on the ground.

Changyi was a little confused. "Am I too heavy? Are you tired?"

"No no no, not heavy." Ji Yunhe smiled at him purposefully. "Changyi, you want to get out, right?"

"Yes."

"It's just that if we want out, we must take care of that possessed demon. But you have no demonic power, and I have no spiritual power, and she is so big… It would be very difficult for us to get past her, right?"

"Yes."

"So, if I have a solution, would you like to try it?"

"I'd like to hear it."

"You go and seduce her a little. Pretend you love her and make her..."

Changyi immediately frowned and cut her off, "No."

Such a stern rejection, Ji Yunhe was a bit surprised. "No, I'm not asking you to actually do something to her..." Ji Yunhe lowered her head and peeked at his huge lotus tail.

Although... she did not know exactly how these fish people "did things" either...

Ji Yunhe cleared her throat and recollected her thoughts. "What I meant was to coax her verbally, untie the knot in her head. These demonic attachments will quickly dissolve once their grudges are broken, and it would be a good conclusion for her..."

"No."

Once again a righteous refusal.

Ji Yunhe was puzzled. "Why not?"

"I don't lie and I don't cheat."

Looking at this honorable face of his, Ji Yunhe paused for a moment. "But… well-intentioned lies?"

"There are no well-intentioned lies." Changyi's tone was very firm. "The so-called good intentions are just a form of self deception."

Ji Yunhe held her forehead. "Then what do we do? I go coax her myself?" She glared at Changyi with a bit of frustration, but he met her gaze with eyes as pure as water. Ji Yunhe suddenly could no longer say a single word encouraging him to deceive.

Yes...

It had come to this...

She would have to go do it.

Ji Yunhe touched her chest and thought to herself… wrap it up, change the hair, lower the voice, roll up the sleeves...

Let's get on with it then.

Proofreader: Gem, Joker