Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 352 You're insane! You're the one who's insane!

He saw the emperor.

For a long time, the sovereign who had only manifested in his heart and could only be glimpsed by him in his dreams, the True Lord of Wei River, the Ninth Prince of the Demon King who assisted Li Ye in achieving the Eastern Emperor Taiyi and assisted Da Zhong in achieving the Western Emperor Gouchen three thousand years ago—he now truly saw him.

Li Wuxiang had previously claimed that he had seen the Ninth Prince and even conjured up the Ninth Prince's appearance with a talisman. Xu Zhen could tell at a glance that even if Li Wuxiang had not actually seen him, he must have seen the portrait of the Emperor.

Because the Ninth Prince he conjured up was almost identical to the portrait he had seen before, and also identical to the Ninth Prince who was now manifesting in the mortal world—he wore a lotus crown, a blue cloud robe, and a purple-gold belt. He was extremely handsome, with a solemn and indifferent expression. He was not standing on the ground, but a foot away from the ground, as if he was completely out of place in the mortal world and had no trace of worldly affairs!

For a moment, Xu Zhen thought he was hallucinating, but then he caught a glimpse of Tong Xu—Tong Xu looked extremely surprised…she could also see the Ninth Prince and the Emperor!

The next moment, he heard Li Wuxiang say, "Ninth Prince... Oh, Your Majesty, I told him I've seen you before, and that I'm from your lineage, but he doesn't believe me. Tell me, have we met before? Was it at Mount Ling?"

Xu Zhen turned around upon hearing the voice and shouted, "Brother, how dare you! How could you speak to the Emperor—"

But then she heard the Ninth Young Master beside her chuckle lightly: "You certainly have a lot of nerve. Didn't I tell you not to mention this to anyone else?"

The emperor's voice was exactly the same as the one I heard in my heart!
Xu Zhen immediately bowed down: "Disciple Xu Zhen pays respects to His Majesty—Li Wuxiang! You must not be rude! Pay your respects to His Majesty!"

He knelt down himself, then glanced at Li Wuxiang. Seeing that although Li Wuxiang looked reluctant, he still knelt on the beach and lazily said, "Greetings, Your Majesty."

The Ninth Prince then said, "Everyone, please get up."

Li Wuxiang immediately rose, but Xu Zhen kowtowed three more times before standing up. His mind was still somewhat dazed, and he found the scene before him absurd—the demon race had been worshipping Xihuang Gouchen and Weishui Zhenjun for over three thousand years. According to the Central Continent's doctrines, Xihuang Gouchen was a Golden Immortal, and Weishui Zhenjun was a True Immortal; neither of them could remain in the mortal world, and both had not manifested their divine power for an extremely long time.

It was only after he attained enlightenment that the sovereign manifested in his heart. He thus subdued the demons and became the demon king of Fangju Kingdom.

So the current situation is really absurd... Has Your Majesty not been showing his divine power in the Eastern Continent all these years, but instead in the Central Continent? Li Wuxiang really did see him before, and really spoke to him!

Xu Zhen then realized what that faint feeling in her heart was—jealousy!
He knew that his lord could sense his feelings, so he tried to suppress his jealousy and told himself that perhaps it was for the sake of a greater plan...

Then he indeed heard the sovereign say, "Xu Zhen, my manifestation of divine power in the Central Continent is for the sake of the great plan of the demon race."

Xu Zhen immediately looked up, feeling extremely pleasantly surprised: "Your Majesty, I understand."

"It's good that you understand. I passed down the Ranshan lineage in the Central Continent to ensure that the demon race's lineage in the Central Continent is not lost. Now the time has come. The two of you have met, and it is time for my demon race to revive."

"Just as I suspected!" Xu Zhen added, "Your Majesty, I understand as well!"

Seeing his expression, Li Wuxiang was practically laughing to death inside.

You don't understand anything.

My brother is completely obsessed, but he doesn't even realize it, hahaha!

Xu Zhen still has no idea what kind of extraordinary adventures he has had in less than a year since he left the Eastern Continent and came to the Central Continent!

When he was fighting Xu Pianpian, he summoned the starlight of the Great Calamity Star to counter Xu Pianpian's supernatural powers. At that time, Xu Zhen, oblivious to his own mortality, used his divine sense to "get closer," probably wanting to see what he had summoned.

Given Xu Zhen's cultivation level, Li Wuxiang would never have been able to plant the seed of tribulation for him. But Xu Zhen had come up to him on his own and even released his divine sense—how could Li Wuxiang sit idly by and let such a good thing come to him? With a thought, he immediately planted the seed of delusion for him!

There are many kinds of difficult tribulations, and each one has different powers for different people. He just so happens to know which kind of tribulation Xu Zhen is best suited for—

His demon king brother's supernatural powers are quite terrifying. The reason he can dominate the Eastern Continent, to put it in a more mystical way, is that he can turn the fake into the real.

Because Xu Zhen's true form is the "Xiezhi"—a legendary magical beast. According to the Zhonglu people, this magical beast, the Xiezhi, can distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong. But in reality, this explanation is still superficial—distinguishing between good and evil, right and wrong, is to distinguish between rules and regulations; distinguishing between rules and regulations is to uphold the principles and reason.

With Xu Zhen's current level of cultivation, this kind of supernatural power is almost a much weaker form of "authority"—he is not a true immortal, nor has he merged with the Dao, yet he can still use this supernatural power to create rules and modify the mortal world. For example, he just told that little girl Xue Baoping that she was a wandering cultivator and should find a place to cultivate properly, and so the little girl truly believed she had become a wandering cultivator and indeed had!
If a human cultivator were to master this kind of supernatural power, they would certainly be very wary—you always use this method to turn people into something else, won't you one day become so ruthless that you even deceive yourself?
While demon cultivators also adhere to laws and traditions, their systems are not as strictly governed as those of human cultivator sects. Especially since Xu Zhen is the Demon King of Fangju City, who can control him? Therefore, he used these supernatural powers recklessly in the past, eventually using them on himself—

After wandering off to the Central Plains for fun, he became incredibly bored and created many "younger brothers" and "younger sisters" for himself. This wasn't really a problem, but he eventually went mad, even believing he was favored by the emperor and that the emperor had manifested divine power in his heart!
Little did he know that what he had long believed the emperor was saying to him was actually just him talking to himself!

According to the otherworldly visitor he swallowed, what's the difference between this and having a mental illness?
Reaching this point would already be considered entering a state of delusion. However, because his true form was a xiezhi (a mythical beast), he didn't go mad like a human cultivator.

Thus, Li Wuxiang planted the seed of the "Delusion Tribulation" in him—a tribulation that would cause him to become hopelessly immersed in his own world. If he couldn't overcome it, going mad would be the least of his worries; he might even kill himself. If he did overcome it, he could finally break free from illusions and advance his supernatural powers to a higher level.

But judging from his current state, there's no way he'll be able to get through this!
He's getting increasingly insane. How insane? He's not just thinking in his mind that "the emperor has manifested himself," he's actually conjuring up an emperor standing right beside him!
Li Wuxiang only chuckled inwardly a few times before immediately calming himself. He really couldn't afford to kill his elder brother. The best outcome, in fact, was to find a way to subdue him and use him for his own purposes. To be honest, the Central Continent was rather uninteresting; he missed Fangju City in the Eastern Continent. However, his elder brother had ruled Fangju City for nearly a thousand years, and all the demon kings, big and small, in the city were subdued by him. He himself had little prestige in the city before, and had to rely on his brother to suppress the surrounding forces.

Even though he thought this way, when he heard Xu Zhen respectfully say to "Your Majesty," "Your Majesty has manifested divine power in the world, this disciple is overwhelmed with fear and trepidation. Please instruct me on what to do next," he couldn't help but burst into laughter inwardly again.

This silly way of being so engrossed without realizing it is absolutely hilarious!
At this moment, Xu Zhen was still speaking respectfully when Li Wuxiang took two steps back to look at Tong Xu—she was still standing there, looking at Xu Zhen and then at "Your Majesty" with a face full of astonishment.

This woman is indeed very clever. She's been spending a lot of time with her older brother these days, so she has to be careful.

Li Wuxiang walked up to Tong Xu and stood very close to her, almost shoulder to shoulder, staring at her.

Tong Xu seemed startled by her own gaze—not long ago they were enemies, but now that she knew he was Xu Zhen's brother, she wasn't sure how to react.

Li Wuxiang sneered and said in a low voice, "Staring at the Emperor like that is extremely disrespectful. Be careful, or my elder brother will get angry."

Tong Xu opened his mouth, looking away from Xu Zhen and Jun Shang, and instead looked at him. His expression was both confused and fearful, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

“My elder brother respects the Lord the most. Oh, I shouldn’t say respect—it’s like how you humans worship Taiyi and your ancestors. Sect Leader Tong, think about it, if your ancestors or Donghuang Taiyi were to manifest themselves right now, and someone were to speak ill of them in front of you, wouldn’t you be furious?”

Tong Xu was still in a daze, and glanced again in the direction of "Your Majesty".

Li Wuxiang hissed, “You’re still looking! Let me tell you—I’m doing this for your own good. You’d better not look at him, and don’t even mention him! His Majesty has always only manifested in my elder brother’s heart. Now that he is in the real world, even if you look at him for a second, my elder brother will be unhappy. He will feel that you have stolen some of his favor and gained some advantage from him. Do you understand?”

“I… understand,” Tong Xu said. “Okay, then I won’t watch anymore.”

After saying this, she slowly took two steps back from Li Wuxiang. Seeing that Li Wuxiang was still staring at her with a hint of wariness in his eyes, she took another ten steps back, until she reached the edge of the maple forest and stood with Xie Qi.

They're both insane... They've both gone mad!
Tong Xu felt cold and numb all over, as if she were standing at the bottom of two cliffs. Both cliffs were constantly breaking off rocks, making a rumbling sound, and were at risk of collapsing at any moment, but she had nowhere to escape!

These two cliffs are named Xu Zhen on one side and Li Wuxiang on the other!

What scene is she seeing now?
Xu Zhen—Xu Zhen was speaking to the air in front of him. He knelt, spoke, and murmured to himself, his face sometimes showing piety, sometimes solemnity, and sometimes tears of gratitude!

Li Wuxiang—Li Wuxiang had previously knelt and spoken to thin air alongside Xu Zhen. At that time, Tong Xu thought Li Wuxiang had gone mad. But just now, when Li Wuxiang walked to her side, his eyes changed, becoming very clear-headed.

However, she felt "clear-headed" because right after that thought came to mind, she heard Li Wuxiang mention Xu Zhen as "my elder brother" over and over again!
Does he really think he's a demon from the Eastern Continent? He's replaced Xu Pianpian and become Xu Zhen's younger brother?!
Only then did I realize that his "clear" gaze just now... was a kind of clear madness, a madness that he thought was clear-headed!

The two must have been engaged in a magical battle just now—while they were speaking. Tong Xu's cultivation was far inferior to that of the demon king Xu Zhen and the divine lord Li Wuxiang, so she couldn't understand what kind of supernatural powers they were using to fight. But now she understood the outcome…

Both of them must have fallen for it—Li Wuxiang fell for Xu Zhen's trick, actually believing himself to be... or actually becoming a demon, Xu Zhen's younger brother.

Xu Zhen also fell for Li Wuxiang's trick; he became obsessed, to the point of madness!
Who is Xu Zhen? He is not human, he is a demon! He acted normally on Qingpu Mountain, but what normal person would treat piercing his own sister's collarbone as a spanking, especially doing it every now and then? Beneath his peaceful exterior lies an undeniable demonic ferocity!

Who is Li Wuxiang? He is a swordsman of the Taiyi Sect! He and Mei Qiulu killed the spirit god of the present world! In terms of ferocity, swordsmen are no less ferocious than demons, but because of the constraints of morality and rules, they can bury it deep in their hearts.

But now, Xu Zhen is obsessed and has gone mad. Who knows what his temperament will become?
Li Wuxiang felt that he was now the Demon King, but who knew if the moral principles in his heart were still there?
When they were at Qingpu Mountain, Tong Xu still felt that he could control Xu Zhen—albeit cautiously and extremely dangerously hovering around a certain balance point.

But now that there's Li Wuxiang as a variable, she no longer dares to try to control him... She even started to regret it. She shouldn't have asked Xu Zhen to go to Qingpu Mountain, and she shouldn't have come here with Xu Zhen to deal with Li Wuxiang!
She couldn't help but glance at Xie Qi—the old man was just standing there silently, probably stunned by the scene before him.

"Elder Xie," she whispered, "did you see that?"

Xie Qi finally came to his senses: "You...you...did you see that?"

He had acted very angry before, but now he couldn't even be angry anymore when he spoke. Tong Xu knew that he was just like him, shocked and terrified.

She shook her head slightly: "I didn't see it."

"Then what are they doing...?"

“They’ve both fallen for the trick and become obsessed with it.” Tong Xu lowered his voice even further. “Elder Xie, our two sects have had such a long-standing relationship, and I never intended to push things to the extreme. But given the current situation, for the sake of your Shangchi Sect disciples, you should do whatever they say. Right now, their ideas are probably unreasonable. Don’t… don’t… provoke them… just let them fight like gods…”

(End of this chapter)