At the same time.
On Demon Mountain, within the Demon Hall.
The Evil Emperor sat on his demonic throne, holding a woman with deer antlers in his arms. He wore a floor-length black robe, and his sinister eyes were fixed on Ying Ling, who knelt in the center of the hall after reporting back.
"Who captured Qiu Ling'er?"
A wicked smile played on the Evil Emperor's lips, his voice betraying no emotion.
"Reporting to Your Majesty Evil Emperor, the Princess was captured by Gu Qianying and her group."
"Ha!"
On the table sat two plates of fruit.
The Evil Emperor flicked his sleeve.
The fruit plates overturned, scattering their contents at the table's legs.
The person in his arms, startled, immediately sat up and knelt at the Evil Emperor's feet.
"What's wrong? Who has angered His Majesty Evil Emperor again?"
Bai Shengjun, dressed in white, arrived with a stoic Duan Xifeng.
As they approached, the maids attending in the hall quickly prepared clean bowls and plates for Bai Shengjun.
Bai Shengjun took a seat to the side.
Duan Xifeng stood behind him, his expression unchanged.
His vacant eyes seemed the same as before, showing no alteration.
"Ling'er has been captured."
As he spoke, the Evil Emperor cast a cold glance at Bai Shengjun.
Without someone fanning the flames from behind, how could that foolish Qiu Ling'er have descended the mountain?
A servant attending him poured a cup of wine for Bai Shengjun.
Bai Shengjun took the cup, looked at the Evil Emperor, and smiled.
"Evil Emperor, she is not your biological daughter, why are you so angry?"
Bai Shengjun's tone was calm.
Upon hearing the words "biological daughter," the Evil Emperor's eyes darkened.
He raised his hand.
The maids waiting in the hall, except for the impassive Duan Xifeng, all withdrew.
The woman kneeling at the Evil Emperor's feet also cautiously departed.
Inside the hall, only Bai Shengjun, Duan Xifeng, and the Evil Emperor remained.
"I remember when I brought her back, she was only this big."
Saying this, the Evil Emperor gestured with his hand to Bai Shengjun, indicating the size of an infant.
When she was young, she looked like a wrinkled old man, quite unsightly.
Later, as she grew, he found her rather cute.
"So, His Majesty Evil Emperor taught this girl the art of puppetry and even named her Qiu Ling'er?"
Bai Shengjun listened as the Evil Emperor recounted Qiu Ling'er's childhood.
"She possesses a pure spirit body, unable to cultivate demonic arts or immortal techniques. To allow her to protect herself, the art of puppetry was most suitable."
It seems the Evil Emperor still has some affection for Qiu Ling'er. In that case, should we send people to rescue Qiu Ling'er and keep her under your watchful eye, letting her accompany you for a lifetime?"
"There is no need."
Returning to reality from his memories, the Evil Emperor picked up the wine pot that had not overturned and poured himself a cup.
He raised it and drank with Bai Shengjun.
As he set down the cup, he looked at Bai Shengjun, "Having raised her for so long, it's time for her to repay something."
With that, he raised his hand. A Ying Ling entered from outside the hall, knelt on one knee with a blank expression.
The Evil Emperor drew a few strokes in the air, and several characters glowing with golden light appeared on a piece of paper. The Evil Emperor handed it to the Ying Ling kneeling at his feet.
"Go, deliver this letter to that person, and tell her (him) that Qiu Ling'er's value is about to be realized."
"Yes, Evil Emperor."
The Ying Ling carefully put away the letter, stood up, and left.
At this moment, Duan Xifeng, standing behind Bai Shengjun, watched the departing Ying Ling with a fleeting glance from his vacant eyes. As his gaze lowered, a flicker of brilliance flashed within them.
Hidden beneath his sleeve, his hand gripping the dagger's hilt tightened.
"Does the Evil Emperor truly intend to do this?"
Bai Shengjun's lips curved into a knowing smile.
"I raised her for many years, precisely for this day. Otherwise, why would I have raised her?"
With that, the Evil Emperor rose and walked to the bottom of the stairs, his trailing black robe creating ripples on the yellowish carpet with each step.
He approached Bai Shengjun and personally poured him a cup of wine.
In front of Bai Shengjun, he summoned a maid and a Ying Ling, ordering the Ying Ling to gouge out the maid's eyes and soak the bloody eyeballs in the wine cups.
The Evil Emperor and Bai Shengjun each had a bloody eyeball in their cups.
The maid fainted with a scream, and the Ying Ling dragged her away.
"Bai Shengjun, I wish you and I early dominion over all beings in the Six Realms."
The Evil Emperor drank the wine mixed with the bloody eyeball in one gulp.
Bai Shengjun also smiled and stood up.
Seeing the Evil Emperor's declaration, his sharp eyes did not linger on the wine cup. He followed the Evil Emperor's lead and drank the bloody eyeball in his cup along with the wine.
He, too, had shown his stance.
That night, deep into the night.
In a room where many Ying Ling resided on Demon Mountain.
All the Ying Ling were asleep, their steady breathing and peculiar snores particularly noticeable in the silent room.
At this moment, Duan Xifeng, sleeping in the center, suddenly opened his eyes.
He rolled out of bed, tiptoed to the window, opened the casement, and slipped out.
In the past few days, he had been exploring the path down Demon Mountain.
As a result, he soon caught up with the Ying Ling on an envoy mission, following his footsteps.
This person was named Ying Qing.
Duan Xifeng followed behind him. After leaving Demon Mountain, he saw that there was no one around.
He quickened his pace, stepped forward, and patted Ying Qing on the shoulder.
"Wait a moment!"
Ying Qing turned around abruptly and was surprised to see Duan Xifeng behind him.
He was stunned, "Duan Xifeng? Is that you? Why are you out here, does Bai Shengjun have something to tell me?"
Everyone knew that Duan Xifeng was Bai Shengjun's subordinate.
They also knew that Duan Xifeng was a mortal with a partially suppressed consciousness.
"Give me the letter, the Holy Lord sent me to deliver it."
Duan Xifeng's eyes remained vacant, just as they had been when everyone saw him.
At this moment, Ying Qing did not suspect anything, merely showing a look of confusion, "Why give it to you? Didn't the Evil Emperor say I was to deliver the letter?"
Ying Qing took a step back, wary, and instinctively covered his chest.
This subconscious action caused a smile to play on Duan Xifeng's lips.
"It's not for you to deliver the letter, but for you to deliver yourself to death!"
Duan Xifeng lunged forward, circled behind Ying Qing, and wrapped his other arm around the Ying Ling's neck. As he raised his dagger-holding hand, he fiercely slashed at Ying Qing's neck.
Blood spread, dripping onto the dagger.
Ying Qing's pupils widened, his head tilted, and he slumped to the ground, soft against Duan Xifeng's clothes.
The night wind blew, ruffling the hair on the sides of Duan Xifeng's face.
He bent down and retrieved the letter Ying Qing had hidden in his chest.
Unfolding the letter, Duan Xifeng's eyes darkened, and he frowned.
It was a blank piece of paper with no writing!
He did not know how the words on the letter were supposed to appear.
Duan Xifeng had no time to ponder further. After dealing with Ying Qing's body, he returned under the cover of darkness.
He had a蛊 placed in him by Bai Shengjun, and he could not escape far before Bai Shengjun discovered that he had awakened and regained his senses.
If this happened, he would be hunted by Ying Ling.
As a mere mortal, he was no match for Bai Shengjun and his ilk.
If he acted this way, not only would he not survive, but he would also implicate Ouyang Qinglin.
In the past few days, he had frequently brought fresh flesh and blood to Ouyang Qinglin. Each piece of flesh and blood belonged to disobedient maids or useless elderly individuals.
The Evil Emperor intended to cultivate Ouyang Qinglin into a Shadow Demon.
The first step for a bloodthirsty Shadow Demon was to consume fresh flesh and blood daily.
This was to destroy their conscious minds.
And in the past few days, it was he who had been delivering the meals to Ouyang Qinglin.
On the way to the dungeon, he had already replaced the plates of fresh flesh and blood with steamed buns.
On a few of those days, he would report his progress to the Evil Emperor.
Seeing that only half the brain pulp remained, and then only a few pieces of unchewable flesh and bone, the Evil Emperor was very satisfied with the results.
In the following days, the Evil Emperor no longer inquired about the matter.
He merely ordered his subordinates to prepare the Myriad Spirit Snake Cave.
The Myriad Spirit Snake Cave was where evil spirits were devoured to become snake spirits, a gathering place for many snake spirits.
According to the Ying Ling who had stayed on Demon Mountain, the first step to becoming a Shadow Demon was to survive in a place where many snake spirits gathered.
Upon returning to Demon Mountain, Duan Xifeng quietly went back to his room, without alerting anyone, and lay down to feign sleep.
The next day, he carried the bloody and mangled internal organs that two Ying Ling had just extracted from an old woman to the dungeon.
Curled up in a corner, with his eyes squeezed shut, Ouyang Qinglin heard footsteps approaching from outside and suddenly opened his eyes.
After Duan Xifeng entered, he glanced back. No one was behind him.
He quickly threw the steamed buns he had hidden in his embrace to Ouyang Qinglin.
Ouyang Qinglin, wearing handcuffs, caught the steamed buns and devoured them ravenously.
Duan Xifeng did not deliver meals three times a day.
It was once every two days, then once every five days.
When he did not come, Ouyang Qinglin would be starving.
Furthermore, when Duan Xifeng arrived, to avoid attracting attention, he could not hide too many steamed buns in his embrace, only two, otherwise, his sleeves and clothes would be bulging and noticeable.
As Ouyang Qinglin gnawed on the buns, neither he nor Duan Xifeng spoke.
When he had eaten most of it, Duan Xifeng squatted down and took out the blank letter he had hidden behind him.
"This blank letter, do you have any way to make the words appear on the white paper?"
"Where did this letter come from?"
Ouyang Qinglin swallowed the last bite of the bun and asked, looking up.
"The Evil Emperor asked an Ying Ling to deliver a letter to someone. I don't know who that person is. I killed the Ying Ling and got the letter back, but... it's just a blank piece of paper. Yet I clearly saw the Evil Emperor write the letter with his finger, and there were no words on it? It's very strange."
Saying this, Duan Xifeng handed the blank paper to Ouyang Qinglin.
Ouyang Qinglin took it and looked at it for a few moments, then handed the "blank paper" back to Duan Xifeng, "Shall we try with blood?"
"What?"
Duan Xifeng did not quite understand.
Ouyang Qinglin did not explain further. He bit his finger and dripped blood onto the white paper.
As the bright red blood slowly soaked the "blank paper," a visible line of text appeared before their eyes...