Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 351 Damn it, you're ending here, huh?

Xu Zhen took a few steps forward, stepping from the fine sandy beach into the water, his expression softening. He stretched out his hand, still holding the object that only Li Wuxiang could see in his palm, and said softly, "Come, Wuxiang, now that you remember who you are, come and pay your respects to our ancestor, and then come back with me."

Li Wuxiang stared at the thing in his hand for a moment, then paused, walked on the water, and walked all the way to Xu Zhen.

Then he frowned and said, "I don't want to worship. I remembered who I am and realized that I should be free. Why should I worship anything?"

Xu Zhen thought for a moment, then withdrew her hand: "Fine, if you don't want to worship, then don't. It seems you have a bigger temper than I thought, which is not bad."

Xue Baoping snapped out of her daze. She stopped speaking, gripping her small sword tightly, intending to look for an opportunity.

Even if she didn't understand any supernatural powers, she had already figured it out by this point—Li Wuxiang seemed to have become Xu Pianpian, or rather, become the role that Xu Pianpian used to play.

Previously, she thought Xu Pianpian was Mao, an enlightened tiger demon from the Eastern Continent, but now a conjecture popped into her mind—Xu Pianpian is Mao, Li Wuxiang is also Mao, and Mao is a "companion" by Xu Zhen's side.

This thing called "Mao" can transform into the appearance and temperament of the person it has devoured. Xu Pianpian previously devoured Hu Wei, and thus became Hu Wei. Just now, Li Wuxiang devoured Xu Pianpian, and now he listens to Xu Zhen, is bewitched by him, and has become a new "Xu Pianpian" by his side, his younger brother!
Perhaps Xu Pianpian wasn't Xu Pianpian or Xu Zhen's sister before!

Now there's only one chance... Li Wuxiang is no ordinary person; he possesses the status of a Great Calamity Star, a fact Xu Zhen is unaware of. Would he be more likely to regain consciousness? Because his cultivation level is also higher than Xu Pianpian's.

Perhaps he needs some kind of stimulus... an extremely strong stimulus... would his own self-sacrificing strike be effective?

In that instant, she remembered Li Yunxin's words. He told her not to be someone else's appendage, not to think of sacrificing for others. But Xue Baoping felt that what she was doing wasn't for Li Wuxiang, but for herself, because she wanted it this way, and she wouldn't regret it.

She slowly exhaled, her gaze fixed on Xu Zhen, but then she gave up. No. This great demon king, Xu Zhen, was always very wary; she couldn't possibly harm him, especially not seriously.

She then turned her gaze to Li Wuxiang—he now called her "Miss Xue," a distant address. Yet this distance still held a hint of goodwill and respect; if she were to lay a hand on him, he would...

The small sword hummed in her palm as she began to circulate her qi. But just then, a hand rested on her shoulder, easily neutralizing her qi.

"Don't do anything foolish." She heard Tong Xu's voice. "You're like an ant trying to shake a tree."

Xue Baoping abruptly turned her face, looking at Tong Xu with disgust. Tong Xu smiled, "You let me go this time, so I'll save you this time. Xu Zhen is different from Xu Pianpian. If you don't want to be his enemy, he's a pretty good person. If you insist on doing something, why now? The Taiyi Sect still has Mei Qiulu. Find an opportunity to try and find her."

Xu Zhen must have heard these words, but he didn't seem to care. It seemed that his attention was now entirely focused on Li Wuxiang.

Like taming a wild beast that had just calmed down, he slowly raised his hand, gently reached out, paused in mid-air, and patted Li Wuxiang's shoulder: "What else did you remember?"

“Fengdu City. My former fiefdom in the Eastern Continent was Fengdu City.”

"Yes. Do you remember what your place in the city looked like?"

Li Wuxiang laughed: "On a high platform. It's bare, because I like the wind. The platform is very high, and you can see everything around you—the distant mountains are bare, and when the sun comes out, they are all shiny because I've blown them smooth. The people and demons in Fengdu City all live under the platform or underground, because they don't know when I'll start the wind—haha, interesting, did I used to like playing this much?"

"Yes, that's exactly how you are. Now let me ask you another question—"

Li Wuxiang sighed: "Don't ask anymore, I really remember now. Now it's my turn to ask you—what are you doing in the Central Continent? Did the Emperor send you? Why are we helping the Five Mountains True Form Sect? Li Ye was a great scourge back then, but now the Six Departments Mysterious Sect is his main force—the fighting between the Taiyi Sect and the Blood God Sect is just the human race wasting its own resources, so it's best to let them fight it out. Why are you helping the Six Departments Mysterious Sect? If the Taiyi Sect is gone and the Mysterious Sect unifies the Central Continent, it won't be good for us!"

Xu Zhen was taken aback by his words, staring at Li Wuxiang for a long time before saying, "You couldn't have said these things before. Sigh, it's a good thing you came to the Central Continent. These days you... have grown up, and you actually ask me these things."

He then laughed, "Do you know what bothered me most before? It was having no one to talk to. I knew you were smart, but I also knew you never used your intelligence in the right way. Now, looking at you... sigh..."

Tong Xu was still working on Xue Baoping. Hearing Xu Zhen's words, both of them paused, almost identical questions arising in their minds—

Li Wuxiang was undoubtedly mesmerized. It seemed that he had grafted his own memories onto Xu Pianpian's memories, or rather, "Mao's" memories, and it appeared that he had truly come to regard himself as a demon from the Eastern Continent and Xu Zhen as his older brother.

But what's wrong with Xu Zhen? His words don't sound right either—is he genuinely expressing his feelings? Is he saying it on purpose, as if Li Wuxiang believes him more, or… what's going on? What's wrong with him?
Xue Baoping and Tong Xu, who had previously been at odds, suddenly felt a chill run down their spines and were speechless for a moment.

Li Wuxiang had already reached the shore. He shook himself slightly, removing all his scales and revealing himself to be naked. He then reached up to touch his belly, but after touching it repeatedly, he couldn't find anything, as if he were scratching an itch.

His physique was well-proportioned, with fair and clean skin, making him quite pleasing to the eye. However, being naked was rather indecent, so Tong Xu avoided his gaze. Xue Baoping, on the other hand, stared at him intently, and only after seeing him frown slightly and rummage around a few more times did she say, "Are you trying to pull your clothes out of your stomach? Why are you doing this? Could you have pulled your clothes out of your stomach before?"

Li Wuxiang was slightly taken aback by his question, and Xu Zhen immediately turned to look at him with a fierce look in his eyes: "If you say another word, I'll kill you."

Turning to look at Li Wuxiang, his expression immediately softened: "This woman is trying to confuse you—what happened in the Central Plains is just a dream, don't fall for it."

He reached into his sleeve and took out a cloak, which he draped over Li Wuxiang's shoulders: "Wear this for now."

Li Wuxiang nodded, then looked at Xue Baoping: "You don't need to scare her. When I came out of the furnace, I lost all my demonic power, and she was the one who saved me. She has been very good to me these days, just like you were to me before. Let her go. Didn't you tell me before that wherever you go, you should abide by the local customs? This is the Central Continent, and we shouldn't kill someone who has been kind to me."

Xu Zhen smiled and said, "If you're happy, then let's do it this way."

He turned to look at Xue Baoping: "Little girl, you've been wandering the martial world, upholding justice, how did you end up on Dapan Mountain by accident?"

Upon hearing this, Xue Baoping immediately sensed something was wrong—Xu Zhen's supernatural powers were terrifying; it seemed he could make the false appear true!

She immediately raised her hands to cover her ears, but Xu Zhen's words echoed directly in her mind—"This is none of your business. Those in the martial world should understand best the principle of not seeing what they shouldn't see and not hearing what they shouldn't hear. Go down the mountain, go far away, away from worldly strife, hide away and cultivate to seek immortality, wouldn't that be better? What do you say?" Xue Baoping slowly lowered her hands, and when she looked at Xu Zhen and Li Wuxiang again, her face was full of surprise and uncertainty. Turning her head and seeing Tong Xu beside her, she was even more startled and quickly took a step back. Then, while keeping her mouth tightly shut, she slowly retreated, and when she reached the edge of the maple forest, she immediately slipped into the woods. Only the rustling of the trees and the falling of a few maple leaves could be heard before silence descended.

Tong Xu's expression turned solemn, and he dared not utter another word. He then watched Xue Baoping leave, and frowned again: "You haven't answered my question yet. Why are we helping the Six Ministries of Mysterious Sect?"

Xu Zhen sighed, but it was a sigh of delight: "Alright, why don't you think about it again? We're not helping the Xuan Sect, but the Blood God Sect. His Majesty is currently within the Blood God Sect and has already assumed some of the authority of the True Lord of Fate. Now it should be our turn to help the Xuan Sect and the Blood God Sect wipe out Taiyi. Brother, what were we thinking before? To counterattack the Central Continent? That's too much trouble. There are six Great Emperors in the Central Continent; they're not so easy to take down. The most efficient way to deal with this kind of enemy is to let them disintegrate on their own."

"It's just that the Taiyi Sect and the Thirty-Six Sects in the Central Plains were too incompetent and disorganized in the past. Now, Junshan is in Lingshan to unify them—and then use the methods of these cultivators to fight against the Taiyi Sect. When they are both exhausted, we can make a comeback. Wouldn't that be better?"

Li Wuxiang was stunned for a moment: "So I guessed right."

"what?"

"On my way to Dapan Mountain, I was thinking, isn't the Blood God Sect's method of cultivation just turning people into demons and making them into spirits? So it really is our demon race pulling the strings behind the scenes?"

Xu Zhen laughed: "You should have thought of that long ago. You just said that the Ranshan lineage is the lineage of the Ninth Prince of the Demon King. But there's one thing you never thought about: Ancestor Ranshan, Li Jiaotu, is the successor of the Ninth Prince. Could he actually be a Demon King as well? If a Demon King becomes a True Immortal, then he is naturally a Demon Immortal—all of this is true, it can't be faked. Even if there's a little bit of falsehood in it, it becomes true because of this truth."

Li Wuxiang nodded: "Brother, may I see the Emperor?"

"Oh? You didn't want to worship just now, but now you want to see me?"

Li Wuxiang frowned and snorted: "You've always been the only one who gets to see the Emperor. When I was in the Eastern Continent, you always talked about what the Emperor said today and what he said tomorrow. When I said I also wanted to hear the Emperor talk to me, you said the time wasn't right and that I wasn't ready yet."

"And now? You just said I'm no longer interested in playing around and can offer you advice. Can't I even see the Emperor? If you won't let me see him, can't I at least listen to him talk?"

Interesting, very interesting. Xu Zhen smiled to himself. He had originally thought that Li Wuxiang's personality would become similar to Xu Pianpian's, but they were quite different. There was only one similarity, though—he was somewhat willful and liked to act coquettishly.

However, Li Wuxiang's coquettishness was different from Xu Pianpian's. How to put it... it shouldn't be called coquettishness, but rather a tantrum. Yet, it was done with great restraint and reason, which reminded him of Xu Pianpian's previous relationship with Wei Kongkong. However, Li Wuxiang seemed even smarter than Wei Kongkong, unlike his own foolishness...

This time it will last for quite a while. It's interesting and fun; this time it's like his favorite younger brother or sister, and maybe they can stay together for many years.

But things are still unstable at this stage and could change. Old age is inherently unpredictable, so in the beginning, you have to coax him carefully to avoid leaving any trouble behind. But you can't let him have his way—when Xu Pianpian became old, he really liked her and spoiled her too much, which resulted in her becoming playful and capricious, often giving him a headache.

As for his current statement that he wants to hear what the emperor has to say...

He naturally couldn't hear or see it. The only one in the world who could hear and see the ruler was himself.

However, there is a way. Just let him know that the emperor can hear what he has to say.

Xu Zhen smiled inwardly and sighed, saying, "Alright. I can give it a try. As for whether I can hear it or not, that depends on whether Your Majesty wants you to hear it."

So he calmed his mind and tried to visualize the emperor in his heart.

As always, the response came extremely quickly. This meant that he was the sole recipient of the emperor's favor.

The first sound heard was a voice. This voice was like a thought arising in his own mind, seemingly his own idea. But upon closer examination, it became clear that it came from some grand yet familiar being somewhere unknown—

"coming."

Xu Zhen thought to himself, "It should be 'I've arrived.' If it were the Emperor speaking, his original words would be 'I've arrived.'"

So he thought to himself, "My younger brother, Mao, Li Wuxiang, wishes to hear the Emperor's teachings."

"Let him hear it."

Another thought popped into Xu Zhen's mind. Although this had happened many times before, Xu Zhen still felt a flutter in his heart—the emperor granted his every request, which often made him feel apprehensive, fearing that one day he would lose this favor.

"What does Your Majesty want to say to him?" Xu Zhen thought to himself. "He is very concerned about the situation in the Central Plains and has his own insights. I think he can be of use to Your Majesty."

"He certainly has a good mind."

Xu Zhen heard the emperor's praise. A strange, inexplicable feeling welled up inside him, but he dared not show it when the emperor manifested. So he looked at Li Wuxiang, intending to relay the compliment to him.

But he saw Li Wuxiang lower his gaze slightly and lean forward slightly—

"Thank you for your praise, Your Majesty. My mind is entirely at Your Majesty's disposal."

Xu Zhen stood there, stunned.

How could he hear that?! How could he hear the King's words?! The King is manifested in my heart!
But the next moment, he abruptly turned his face to look at his side—

(End of this chapter)