Chapter 1160: Reincarnation Thrown into Chaos

Ruyi couldn't help but feel a little curious. "How did you do that?" she asked.

"Ah, that."

Ping'an explained, "It's actually quite funny. She mistakenly thought she was you, and that she'd been sold to me."

"Huh?"

Ruyi blinked.

Ping'an said, "I just told her that if she didn't practice her sword properly, she would never be able to seek revenge against those two bad people. She seemed to have an epiphany and started practicing much more diligently."

"..."

Ruyi's mouth twitched, and she immediately reached out and pinched Ping'an's ear.

"You little brat, Ping'an! You're actually plotting to murder your older sister!"

"What do you know, Sister? This is an overt scheme!"

"Bah, bullshit overt scheme! You treacherous scoundrels are just out there ruining my reputation!"

"Do you even have a good reputation to ruin, Sister?!"

"How bold! Eat my fist!"

After these consecutive days of playful bickering, it was finally time for Ruyi to leave.

She had only stayed this long primarily out of concern that Yu Youyu wouldn't adapt, which would make it hard to explain things to the girl's grandfather.

Now that she saw the girl was doing fine and working hard for her 'revenge,' Ruyi had nothing left to worry about. She moved up her departure, hoping the girl would soon forget her hatred.

Besides, she wouldn't be able to explain it clearly anyway.

Naturally, she tossed the blame onto Ping'an.

Ruyi told her, "Behave yourself here. Next year, when Huaixu is approaching, I'll come pick you up to go back."

Yu Youyu agreed on the surface, but in her heart, she was thinking, Once I master the sword next year, I'll stab you to death the moment you show up!

That sheer hatred was practically oozing from her eyes.

Seeing this, Ruyi couldn't help but cast a glance at Ping'an.

Ping'an simply smiled and urged her to hurry up and leave.

Ruyi snorted coldly, then handed the Princess's Waist Medallion to Yu Youyu.

"If you run into trouble, take this medallion and mention my name!"

With that said, she left with Dong Chiyu and Lihua.

The two girls had originally planned to head straight back to Qiuyue Fang.

But after thinking it over, they felt that returning so soon would be boring.

"Why don't we skip going back and just wander the jianghu for a bit? It's been so many years; the jianghu has probably forgotten our names."

Dong Chiyu nodded repeatedly; she also wanted to travel around.

Lihua popped out at this moment and declared, "Lihua objects! Lihua hasn't caught the mice for old master Li's family in Yan County yet, and Lihua already accepted their payment! And there's also Qiuyue Fang's..."

"Stop playing dumb! Back when we left Qiuyue Fang, I saw you sneak over there in the middle of the night!"

Lihua's eyes widened. "How did you know?!"

Ruyi crossed her arms and said, "The moment your tail twitches, I know you're up to no good."

Lihua opened its mouth and argued, "Well, Lihua isn't going anyway! You always go courting death, Ruyi, and you never care about the consequences. Lihua wants to live a few more years."

Ruyi's mouth twitched. She raised her hand, summoning a streak of Dragon Spirit, and a wisp of Sword Qi appeared in her palm. "With Uncle Chen's Sword Qi and the Dragon Lord's Dragon Spirit, I'll be fine."

"Lihua still won't go! You'd even dare to offend the Heavenly Emperor himself!"

"You are going!"

"Not going!"

Ruyi grabbed Lihua by the scruff of the neck, lifting it up as she commanded, "You're going whether you want to or not!"

Lihua struggled for a moment but ultimately gave up.

It couldn't win an argument against this maniac. If Ruyi insisted on going, Lihua naturally had to tag along. The main reason was to prevent her from suddenly dropping dead halfway through her journey, which would make it terribly hard to explain things to Chen the Good Man.

...

The Mortal World was at peace, but within the Cultivation World, chaos had begun to stir.

The emergence of a demonic overlord had also triggered the proliferation of demonic energy.

Even though the cultivators of the major Immortal Sects had descended their mountains to deal with the demonic energy, they still couldn't stop its growth at the source.

As the Daoists of Tianji Mountain drew in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, they detected that roughly one-tenth of it was tainted with demonic energy. The path of the demonic cultivator was gradually recovering.

It was as though a severed stairway to heaven was now being rebuilt, step by step.

"Where on earth is all this demonic energy coming from..."

Xiao Dongxu pondered this intensely but couldn't make sense of it. He consulted a massive number of texts and records, yet none provided the answer.

As time ticked by, the demonic energy only grew denser.

After compiling and categorizing the demonic energy reports sent by Tianji Mountain and the various Immortal Sects, Xiao Dongxu slowly discovered a pattern.

"Birth rates..."

"Lin Family Village, Dongyue City..."

Xiao Dongxu was shocked to the core. He realized that the concentration of demonic energy in these places actually showed a direct upward correlation with the local birth rates.

Were these newborn infants bringing demonic energy into this world?

But how could that be possible?!

He immediately launched an investigation.

Finally, during the birth of a child, he managed to capture the exact wisp of demonic energy that arrived alongside the newborn infant.

After verifying this a few more times, Xiao Dongxu was absolutely certain. This demonic energy was indeed being brought into the world along with the births of babies!

"Reincarnation. Something has gone wrong with Reincarnation!!"

Xiao Dongxu's heart jolted violently, and his thoughts immediately turned to the Underworld and Yellow Springs.

Back then, Mister Chen had borrowed the power of the various Daos to suppress the Yellow Springs, ushering it into the Underworld to recreate Reincarnation.

But now, this very Reincarnation was bringing demonic energy into the world.

So, their entire direction had been wrong from the start. They had always assumed the demonic cultivators were stirring up trouble directly within the world. Instead, the enemy had taken an entirely different route, tampering with Reincarnation itself.

But how could that even be possible?!

Mister Chen had perfected Reincarnation. He would absolutely never allow demonic cultivators to exploit such a loophole.

Xiao Dongxu hurriedly went to find Mister Zhong.

The two of them discussed the matter for a long time.

An offhand remark from Zhong Zhengyuan, however, made both of their hearts tremble.

"Could it be that the Underworld and Reincarnation have been seized by demonic cultivators?"

The two men exchanged a look, and panic immediately flooded their eyes.

Indeed.

If Mister Chen had truly become the Lord of Reincarnation back then, how could he not have returned to let them know?

After all, the Netherworld Bureau of the Cultivation World was not yet complete, and there were still many loose ends that needed tying up.

Zhong Zhengyuan paused for a moment before telling Xiao Dongxu, "Do not reveal this matter to anyone for now. I will figure out a way to make a trip down to the Underworld."

Xiao Dongxu was stunned by these words, but he shook his head and argued, "Mister Zhong, if the Underworld really has been occupied by demonic cultivators, I fear it will be a journey of no return..."

Zhong Zhengyuan replied, "If I do not return, it will serve as proof that the demonic cultivators have indeed seized the Underworld and tampered with Reincarnation."

Xiao Dongxu kept shaking his head; in his eyes, this was a terrible plan.

"There has to be another way. There has to be another way..."

Xiao Dongxu pursed his lips and added, "Mister Zhong, give me a little more time. Soon... I will find a solution very soon."

With that said, he bolted straight for the Library Pavilion. This time, he would not overlook a single detail. Somewhere within those millions of words, he would find a way to fix the chaos within Reincarnation.

Meanwhile, the sudden surge of demonic energy across the world was allowing the demonic cultivators to steadily grow in power. Disturbances throughout the Cultivation World became increasingly frequent, the most severe being in the Northern Territory, which had already been completely overrun by demonic cultivators.