Chapter 148

A few minutes later.

Luo Hou, now draped in his outer robe, sat by the edge of the bath with a dark expression. A red, swollen wound ran from his chest to his neck, even reaching the side of his face. He looked as though he’d been subjected to some kind of inhumane abuse.

Ke Xingzhou held the oil lamp Luo Hou had brought, his expression uncharacteristically awkward. “If you’re giving me something, just give it. Why were you undressing?”

Luo Hou let out a cold snort.

Ke Xingzhou was really not good at consoling people. Seeing that Luo Hou stayed silent, he thought for a moment and simply turned his attention to the oil lamp in his hand. “What is this?”

Luo Hou: “…”

Luo Hou was practically seething. He hadn’t intended to answer, but after a moment of silence while staring at the lamp, he finally spoke: “Your soul lamp.”

“Soul lamp?”

Ke Xingzhou instinctively looked at Nie Chen.

Before he could remember that this was something from ten thousand years ago and that Nie Chen might not know, the latter had already started explaining in a low voice: “It’s a fragment of a cultivator’s soul. Ten thousand years ago, many secret realms and similar places didn’t allow the use of communication talismans, so soul lamps were used to confirm whether someone was still alive.”

Nie Chen paused, then glanced suspiciously at Luo Hou. “Soul lamps are usually kept within the sect or by someone the cultivator trusts. Besides, Xingzhou had already… How do you have his soul lamp?”

When someone dies, the lamp goes out. Ten thousand years ago, Liancheng had watched with his own eyes as Ke Xingzhou was completely annihilated—body and soul. He and Duan Changsheng had spent an immense amount of effort just to barely piece together a soul fragment that could enter reincarnation, but they were never able to find the soul lamp Ke Xingzhou had left in the sect.

So it had been with the demons all along?!

And the lamp was still lit.

Nie Chen’s gaze turned dangerous. The blood at his fingertips seeped into the bow, and the once-dim intricate patterns instantly returned to their radiant, shimmering brilliance.

The atmosphere grew tense, ready to explode at any moment. One wrong word from Luo Hou and Nie Chen looked ready to act.

Luo Hou, staring at the overwhelming merit power surging from Nie Chen, remained silent for a moment with a blank expression, then spat out an answer that even he didn’t sound convinced by: “He gave it to me himself.”

“How is that possible?” Nie Chen didn’t believe a word of it.

Besides alerting others of its owner's safety, the soul fragment within a soul lamp was also extremely valuable. If it fell into the wrong hands, it wouldn’t be surprising if it were refined into a puppet.

The demon race had a known history with this sort of thing—after destroying a sect, they would control all its cultivators, no matter where they were, and turn them into demonic slaves. The level of depravity had once shocked the entire cultivation world.

Because of that, the demons were universally reviled. As the Demon Ancestor, there was no way Luo Hou didn’t know this.

Luo Hou shot him a look, his expression growing darker. He couldn’t be bothered to explain further. “Think what you want. This thing’s useless to me anyway—take it back.”After speaking, he stood up to leave, but paused before walking away and couldn’t help glancing at Ke Xingzhou again.

Ke Xingzhou: “?”

Luo Hou: “...You don’t have anything you want to ask?!”

“What?” Ke Xingzhou was momentarily confused. When he saw the increasingly swollen wounds on Luo Hou, he finally recalled, “You shouldn’t let that wound touch water—it’ll hurt like hell.”

Luo Hou: “……”

Nie Chen: “……”

In a sense, it made perfect sense that Ke Xingzhou would end up with a disciple like Zhu Chu.

Luo Hou was so furious he wanted to leave, but after a moment's thought, he turned back, sat cross-legged right in front of Ke Xingzhou, and threw off his outer robe. “Aren’t you at all curious why I have so many injuries?”

Ke Xingzhou instinctively almost raised his bow again, but when he saw the wounds on Luo Hou’s chest, he barely managed to restrain himself. He looked genuinely puzzled. “You’re the Demon Ancestor. Getting hurt in fights is normal, right? Why would I ask?”

What he was actually more curious about was why Luo Hou kept randomly taking off his clothes.

Then again, this was the demon realm. He’d heard before that demons were pretty open about such things. Maybe stripping was some sort of cultural custom?

He didn’t get it, but Ke Xingzhou had seen plenty of bizarre things in his life, so he tried to stay calm and open-minded. In the end, he didn’t ask.

Luo Hou, however, looked extremely defeated.

He stared at Ke Xingzhou for a while, then finally gave up, speaking with a tone of despair, “As long as a demon has enough demonic power, any injury can heal itself. You think we’re like you humans? One little wound and you’re bedridden for ten days, maybe even dead…”

He paused here, then quickly changed the subject: “You really don’t remember anything from your past life?”

Ke Xingzhou nodded. “Not a single thing.”

If he hadn’t completely lost his memories—and if everyone around him didn’t act like they were hiding something—Ke Xingzhou wouldn’t have impulsively followed Luo Hou to the demon realm in the first place.

Luo Hou stared him down for a while longer, then finally believed him.

“Yeah… If you hadn’t forgotten everything, how could you possibly be with a mortal?” Luo Hou glanced at Nie Chen, clearly displeased. “But doesn’t that mean I can’t get my revenge?”

“Revenge?”

Ke Xingzhou instantly grew wary. Wasn’t this Demon Ancestor supposed to be his friend in his past life?

Those two words seemed to trigger something. Luo Hou exploded: “Of course I want revenge! You screwed me over so badly I was nearly wiped out by rebels! Do you know how hard it’s been for me to survive until now? And you were supposed to help me suppress the rebellion, but after I went into slumber, you suppressed the entire demon race… for ten thousand years! Do you have any idea what I went through over that time?! What my people went through?!”

Ke Xingzhou: “……”

“I know you’re angry, but hear me out,” Ke Xingzhou tried to calm him down. “What you’re talking about was a deal between the past-life me and you. Doesn’t really have much to do with me now, right?”

Luo Hou: “…………”

Seeing him fall silent, Ke Xingzhou figured his emotions had stabilized and asked again, “What’s this about rebels?”

Wasn’t the demon race supposed to be known for their loyalty?

Luo Hou really didn’t want to talk to him anymore, but thinking about what had happened ten thousand years ago reignited his rage. “It was your human race’s fault, of course!”Ke Xingzhou thought, Here it comes—the deep-seated grudge between the demon and human races that has lasted for ten thousand years. Is the root cause finally going to be revealed?

Then he heard Luo Hou say, “...They just had to write those damn storybooks. Love between humans and demons, or cultivators falling into demonic paths only to be redeemed later, all about love, love, love. And the worst part is, there were actually idiots who thought this kind of romance was trendy and soul-stirring, and came to fall into the demonic path on purpose! Fine, fall if you want, but then they started trying to change the way we demons live. If we didn’t change, they’d call us depraved and violent, and because we wouldn’t let them into the demon realm, they started a rebellion!”

Luo Hou was so angry he nearly laughed. “Why wouldn’t we let them into the demon realm? Every one of them wanted to be in a relationship but refused to give up their cultivation. The moment they fell into the demonic path, they’d immediately dump a bunch of spiritual treasures into their cultivation, then get struck by a lightning tribulation and go right back to being human cultivators—all in under two months! Some even used us demons as a shortcut to ascend: join us, go through the demon tribulation, and poof—ascension! If everyone did this, who would dare let them in? Who knew what they were really after!”

He was fuming, breathing heavily, eyes reddened with anger.

“The rebels were exactly this bunch. Once they fell into the demonic path, there was no easy way to return to their previous identities. The earliest group of cultivators used piles of spiritual treasures to survive the worst part of the tribulation—what was left only added to their ‘tragic and beautiful’ love story, which made their schemes successful. Later on, the ones who came didn’t have the talent or the resources. When their companions died tragically during the tribulation, they turned around and accused us of false advertising—False advertising, my ass!”

Demons might be hedonistic and unrestrained, often crossing the lines of propriety in others' eyes, but when it came to luring people into the demonic path, they were always upfront about the benefits. Who would use love—a completely useless concept—as part of a sales pitch?

Luo Hou couldn’t help but grumble: “What proper demon has time for romance? If we’re happy, we get together. If not, we break up. Being single is so much freer. Why get tangled in all that mess... People who fall in love are all brain-damaged.”

Ke Xingzhou: “...”

Nie Chen: “...”

Ke Xingzhou cleared his throat and pulled the conversation back on track. “What does any of this have to do with me?”

He thought about his own unusually weak glow of karmic merit, and his expression turned serious. “Don’t tell me I was one of those idiots who tried to ascend by falling into the demonic path and ended up getting fried by lightning?”

Luo Hou’s expression finally softened a little when he heard that.

“At least your attitude still matches my taste,” he muttered. “But no, if you already know that kind of person is an idiot, of course it wasn’t you. Back then, you were just an ordinary half-step ascendant. I originally made a coordinated plan with you to bait all those opportunistic infiltrators into one spot and suppress them so they wouldn’t keep causing trouble…”

But somehow, something went wrong. After Luo Hou gathered the group of schemers, Ke Xingzhou never showed up. The rebels realized what was happening and turned on Luo Hou in a vicious ambush. He barely escaped back to the demon race and, due to the massive loss of power, fell into a deep slumber.

And when he woke up, he had the misfortune of discovering that he’d been sleeping inside a Demon-Sealing Formation.

Luo Hou was crushed.

He’d always wondered how a bunch of cultivators had managed to hurt him that badly. It took ten thousand years to recover, and when he finally opened his eyes, the entire demon race was nearly wiped out. It even took him ages just to open a portal back to the demon realm.

Thinking of this, his gaze toward Ke Xingzhou became increasingly bitter.

But Ke Xingzhou was stunned by something Luo Hou had said earlier. “A coordinated plan?”

He’d been that close with the demon race in his past life?

Luo Hou snorted. “Otherwise, why do you think the Xiaoyao Sect was branded as demon lackeys?”

Ke Xingzhou: “?”

What does this have to do with the Xiaoyao Sect now?

He turned to Nie Chen with a sharp look.

Nie Chen: “…”

—

What he heard from Nie Chen was a completely different version.Nie Chen glanced at Luo Hou, his expression rather cold: “From what I know, it wasn’t Xingzhou who deceived you back then—it was you who deceived him.”

As for whether those so-called romance storybooks about human-demon love existed ten thousand years ago, Nie Chen could find no trace of them in Liancheng’s memories. However, it was true that Ke Xingzhou had dealings with Luo Hou under the name of the Xiaoyao Sect.

Nie Chen looked at Ke Xingzhou. “...And you used the name Chen Xiaoyao.”

Ke Xingzhou: “?”

Chen Xiaoyao—that was the fake name Duan Changsheng had used before, wasn’t it?

Nie Chen: “...Yeah.”

All in all, the first half of the story was mostly as Luo Hou had described.

When Ke Xingzhou and Luo Hou first met, neither knew the other’s true identity. Ke Xingzhou was traveling outside his sect and had made up a fake identity for himself. Luo Hou had taken on human form to walk among mortals, also using an alias.

Each believed the other was just an ordinary cultivator, so they agreed to explore secret realms together to train.

Because both of them were carefree and easygoing, they got along quite well and gradually became close friends.

—Until their identities were exposed.

Luo Hou had been disappearing frequently for a time. Ke Xingzhou hadn’t meant to investigate, but one night while going out to buy a late-night snack, he unexpectedly ran into Luo Hou leading a group of demons to discuss important matters.

Ke Xingzhou: “…”

Luo Hou: “…”

The two stared at each other across the inn corridor, both caught off guard and too relaxed to keep up their disguises.

Ke Xingzhou finally discovered that Luo Hou was a demon patriarch, and Luo Hou also realized that Ke Xingzhou was far from the weakling he had claimed to be—not a Golden Core cultivator, but already at half-step ascension.

If they were ordinary people, they would’ve started fighting right then and there.

But neither of them operated with a normal thought process. After exchanging a look and recognizing each other’s true identities, they each simply returned to their rooms—one to sleep, one to hold a meeting.

The next day, they continued traveling together. But instead of visiting minor secret realms for Golden Core cultivators, they began exploring ancient ruins.

Being exposed didn’t create any tension between them; rather, it made them even more relaxed around each other. The plan Luo Hou mentioned was actually formed during this time.

After revealing their identities, their conversations became more open. Luo Hou casually brought up internal demon affairs, and Ke Xingzhou just as casually offered him advice.

A human and a demon bounced ideas back and forth late into the night and finalized the so-called “coordinated plan.”

Luo Hou’s angry expression faltered as he looked at Nie Chen suspiciously, wondering how this human knew so much.

Nie Chen also paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping coldly over Luo Hou. “But as far as I know, the agreement was that you would find a way to gather all the rebels, provide a list of names, and Xingzhou would bring elders from their sects and families to take them back.”

Not to wipe them out completely, as Luo Hou had claimed.

Ke Xingzhou: “Huh? Was that it?”

Luo Hou: “…”

The once-righteous Luo Hou suddenly looked a bit guilty. He quietly put his clothes back on and pretended nothing happened: “Was it? Maybe it’s just been too long—I must’ve forgotten.”Nie Chen mercilessly pointed out the flaw in his words: “The demon race relies on demonic power to survive. If you still had enough power to open a passage back to the Demon Realm, then you clearly weren’t so weak that you’d forget things.”

Luo Hou: “……”

He was shocked—how did this human know so much?!

The functions of demonic power were never disclosed to outsiders. He had only ever mentioned a bit of it while drinking and bragging with Ke Xingzhou ten thousand years ago. And Ke Xingzhou was never the type to go around spreading such things. At most, only Liancheng—that cold and aloof artifact spirit—might’ve known.

So how did Nie Chen know?!

Luo Hou began to suspect that Liancheng was only pretending to be all cold and detached, but was secretly gossiping and spilling demon race secrets behind everyone’s back... No wonder the demon race had declined so drastically in just ten thousand years—it all made sense now!

Then he saw Ke Xingzhou wave his hand disapprovingly, signaling Nie Chen not to make things hard for him: “The demon race is inherently an unrestrained people. Telling a few lies to achieve their goals is normal. But this cultural trait of yours shouldn’t be brought over to the human world—depending on the severity, it could even be against the law.”

Luo Hou: “……”

What do you mean it’s normal to lie?! And cultural trait?!

What kind of upstanding race has lying as a cultural trait?!

As a demon patriarch, even he couldn’t listen to this nonsense anymore—but what intrigued him more was the latter part of Ke Xingzhou’s words. He couldn’t help but follow up: “…And what’s so serious about breaking the law?”

The demon race had always challenged the laws of the human