Chapter 370 358: Dawn Bids Dusk Farewell, As You Bid Eve Farewell

In an instant, Song Ciwan's thoughts raced like lightning, but she calmed her turbulent emotions just as quickly.

She faced all the strangeness before her with a cautious attitude.

The Eldest Princess disliked seeing Ao Yun so downcast and unhappy. She simply pulled her by the hand, leading her toward the crowd.

Then she introduced Song Ciwan, saying, "This little sister is a Celestial Pride of the Human Race, from the Song Family of Yong State. By the way, Little Sister Song, we don't yet know your name. Could you tell us?"

She was asking for Song Ciwan's name.

This also let Song Ciwan know that the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List had likely only revealed her surname, Song, but not her true given name.

'Why would that be?'

The Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List could ignore distance and barriers, refreshing a Celestial Pride's battle record in real-time and ranking them accordingly. So how could it fail to even display Song Ciwan's full name?

Song Ciwan recalled the transcribed copy of the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List she had once bought.

At the time, the records on the Celestial Pride List were what one could only call extremely detailed—

For example, when Chi Hua Fairy first made the list, her entry read: Chi Hua Fairy, Fang Yingxia, Late-stage Qi Refining, Daoist title Chi Hua, a true heir of Qionghua Pavilion, direct descendant of the Beichen Sword Immortal.

Primary Magical Treasure: Celestial Sword, Spirit Sword Level.

Battle Record: Ascended to Late-stage Qi Refining, exterminated seventy-two Demon Ghosts from the Hundred Souls Cave, fought a Core Formation Stage Mountain Spider Demon Ghost with Late-stage Qi Refining cultivation. Combat prowess rated Profound Level. Qualified for 98th place on the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List.

...

Song Ciwan's impression of that passage was truly, deeply profound.

With her memory, it was impossible for her to forget anything that had left a strong impression.

The Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List didn't just record a Celestial Pride's nickname, Daoist title, and true name; it also recorded their cultivation, primary Magical Treasures, major battle records, and all sorts of other information.

'To be honest, this thing is a little terrifying.'

It was like a Transparency Mirror that reflected every Celestial Pride on the list, clear as day. It seemed to expose them inside and out, leaving them without a shred of privacy.

Even ordinary mortals wouldn't like having no privacy. For the Celestial Prides, who possessed all sorts of outstanding combat abilities, this was even more true.

Some experts especially liked to keep trump cards hidden, but with the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List out there, it seemed to unreasonably expose everyone's hand completely. 'How could anyone tolerate that?'

...

Of course, that was what Song Ciwan had originally thought. Now, however, she felt that might not actually be the case.

If the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List could truly expose all of a person's trump cards, then the Eldest Princess shouldn't be unaware of her real name.

Song Ciwan then recalled the description for the first-ranked person on the list, Tushan Jing: Saint Heir of the Fox Race, Body of Ten Thousand Transformations, Celestial Demon Bloodline, Early-Stage Demon King, Cultivation Six-Tails.

Primary Magical Treasures: Ten Thousand Types of Frosty Heaven, Four Symbols Reincarnation Disc.

Battle Record: Defeated a Human Race's Returning Void expert, fought and won against a Late-stage Demon King of his own race...

'No, that's still very detailed.'

Song Ciwan pondered for a moment. She wanted to test the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List, so she replied, "My name is Song Zhao."

Song Ciwan wasn't exactly lying. Song Zhao was her formal name, and also her name from her past life.

Ciwan was her courtesy name, and the name she used in this life. The two were connected: 'Zhao' for the morning's dawn, and 'Ciwan' for bidding farewell to the evening.

'Once I leave this place, I must go see the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List with my own eyes to see how it displays my name!'

The Eldest Princess praised, "Song Zhao, Song Zhao! Little Sister Song, you have such a wonderful name! Zhao means bright, it means light. I just love straightforward people like you, Little Sister Song!"

Song Ciwan returned the courtesy. "I am not as radiant as you, Eldest Princess."

The Eldest Princess laughed again, her voice crisp and sweet. "Which of the people on the Ten Thousand Spirits Celestial Pride List doesn't carry their nose in the air, too lofty to notice the dust at their feet? Only Little Sister Song is a truly wonderful person, so humble and lovely. I really like you so much. Otherwise, how could I say we hit it off so well?"

Song Ciwan responded with a smile.

The Eldest Princess pulled Ao Yun along to speak with Song Ciwan, then arranged for the two of them to sit at adjacent tables.

The banquet tables on this small lake island were arranged according to ancient rites, meaning each person had their own individual table with separate food and drink.

Behind the tables were not the currently popular stools, but low benches.

Of course, although the low benches and sitting places were provided, whether the guests wished to kneel or not was their own business.

Many of the beings attending the banquet had unique personalities—and a large portion of them weren't even human.

Even the hosts of the banquet, the Eldest Princess and the Third Princess—though Song Ciwan didn't know their specific race, she was certain they were not Human.

Since many weren't Human, there was also a wide variety in how everyone sat.

Sitting cross-legged was considered quite polite. There were also those who sat sprawled out with wild abandon, and that was nothing out of the ordinary.

There was even a super tall individual who looked like a black bear, squatting behind his small banquet table. He grabbed the roasted legs reeking of Demonic Qi from his table one by one and ate with fragrant, greasy gusto.

He completely ignored the Little Cyan God in the center of the banquet, who was enthusiastically performing with Fire Technique as if it were fireworks.

He also paid no mind to the conversations of the other guests around him, or the occasional disdainful glances thrown his way. The bear-like giant was completely unconcerned.

Sitting behind that banquet table, he had already eaten dozens of three-foot-long roasted legs.

Every time he finished one, a serving girl behind him would replace it with another. As for the hosts, the Eldest Princess's side was arguably providing impeccable hospitality.

Song Ciwan couldn't identify what kind of Demon Beast legs they were, but just by judging from the Demonic Qi they emitted, she could guess that the roasted legs on the table were at least at the Spirit Communication Stage.

This is where one must bring up the values of the Demon Race.

Generally speaking, although humans lump them all together as the Demon Race, their own internal racial divisions were more detailed than anyone else's.

Wolves eating sheep, snakes eating rats, big fish eating little fish—all of this was commonplace.

Even if a member of the Demon Race gained sentience, they would never refuse to prey on another sentient being of their kind.

It wasn't just hostile species that devoured each other; even cannibalism within the same species was not uncommon among the Demon Race.

So, a demon eating another demon was nothing strange at all.

Only the Human Race absolutely forbade the consumption of their own kind.

Anyone who violated this taboo was no longer considered human, and could be killed by anyone!

But, if you were to say that it was wrong for demons to eat other demons... that didn't seem quite right either, did it?

After all, the animal world was just like that. Wolves eat sheep, snakes eat rats, rats eat insects... and some insects also eat snakes.

Humans ate meat too. If you told people not to eat meat, how many in the world would be willing?

It was just that human reason could often better control instinct, whereas even if demons gained sentience, they often still found it difficult to escape their species' innate nature.

But at the banquet, Song Ciwan discovered that the higher-level members of the Demon Race actually held a certain degree of contempt for some of the more untamable demons.

Take Dragon Maiden Ao Yun, for example.

Ao Yun was of the Dragon Race, but dragons... it seemed one couldn't say they weren't demons, could they?

Ao Yun sat at the table next to Song Ciwan. Her gaze swept over the bear-like giant, but she quickly looked away as if she had seen something filthy.

The Eldest Princess was mingling around the venue, meeting with other guests.

After her gaze swept past the bear-like giant, Ao Yun commented faintly, "That Bear Demon's animalistic nature is too hard to shed. Even if he has formed a Demon Core, he can forget about ever advancing further in this lifetime."

Song Ciwan picked up the conversation, "A hard-to-shed animalistic nature affects one's Cultivation? Why is that? Don't the Demon Race pursue atavism in their bloodlines?"

Ao Yun said, "To only cultivate the bloodline and not the mind will ultimately come to nothing."

After saying this one sentence, Ao Yun fell silent again.

A faint melancholy always seemed to cling to her, one that was hard to shake off. Although the Eldest Princess had taken the initiative to introduce her and Song Ciwan, seemingly with the intention of having two good friends become friends with each other, Ao Yun's temperament clearly made it difficult for her to socialize.

Seeing her aloofness, Song Ciwan naturally kept a certain distance from her as well.

In contrast, the Great Cyan God sitting on her other side, a Mountain God, was very enthusiastic toward Song Ciwan.

She introduced all the beings present that the Eldest Princess hadn't gotten to, one by one. She even pointed out the other guests in the lakeside garden across the water with Song Ciwan.

"That Bingzhou Li Family, they vanished without a trace for three thousand years. No idea how they've popped up again. Heh, one Spiritual Energy Tide, and all the riffraff comes crawling out of the woodwork!"