Inner Demons

Fu Liangzi was dumbfounded—three breaths ago, he was confident of victory and about to succeed. Three breaths later, he was bound on the ground and had even lost his body... How could this be?!

But Li Yunxin didn't care what he was thinking at the moment. He walked over to the body of "Kun Wuzi" and searched him. After a while of searching, he pulled something out and tossed it into the void—

That thing immediately cried out: "Yikes! Oh no! Damn it... my body! Oh no... Kill! Kill!!"

Li Yunxin also sighed regretfully: "It took a lot of effort to create this body—you certainly were ruthless."

As he spoke, he walked to Fu Liangzi and gave him a few more kicks—not on his body, but specifically on his face. It was evident that his heart was utterly dark.

Logically, such a wandering soul cannot be touched without using Spiritual Power. But how could the object Li Yunxin used to bind him be an ordinary item? It was the Soul-Snaring Iron Chain that the White Yama King had bestowed upon him when he was made the Judge of the Mortal World, specialized in restraining Yin souls. Bound by this object, there was nowhere to hide, and even the Yin soul had to appear. Since he had appeared, what Li Yunxin was kicking now was not just his face, but directly his soul.

Such terrible pain—how could that Fu Liangzi bear it? The astonished thoughts in his mind instantly flew beyond the heavens, and he screamed heartbreakingly, looking extremely pitiful.

Li Yunxin kicked him a few times to vent his hatred and yelled: "What are you howling for? Your hard times are still ahead—behave yourself!"

He then turned to scold Li Shan and Seven-Segment Brocade not far away.

This Li Shan was already in the True Realm, so logically, he was not much weaker than the slain clone of Li Yunxin. But strangely... he was genuinely out of strength. He didn't know what kind of terrifying Restriction was instantly drawing away any Spiritual Power generated in their bodies, making it impossible to accumulate even a trace.

He had just been trying to take advantage of Li Yunxin's distraction to rush out, but after this shout, he immediately stopped moving.

Li Yunxin narrowed his eyes, staring at the two of them with a sneer: "I know what you are. And I know you can abandon these bodies and run. But I advise you not to do anything stupid—in my formation, once your wandering souls leave your bodies, hehe..."

He didn't say the result. But the final sneer was enough to make the two of them pause—and dispel the thought that he had seen through.

Li Yunxin then sat down on the rattan chair that had lost its backrest and sighed.

He first stared at Fu Liangzi and pointed: "Fu Liangzi."

Then he looked at Li Shan: "Tan Liangzi."

Finally, he looked at Seven-Segment Brocade, frowning: "I thought there would be one hiding in the Su Family. Who knew one was hiding in Trapped Sky Mountain—what is your sequence number... or Daoist name?"

This Seven-Segment Brocade rarely spoke. She was like a mere attendant or follower until this moment. But when Li Yunxin asked her, she hesitated slightly but still spoke honestly: "Yang Liangzi."

"Ha." Li Yunxin sighed. He didn't know what he was sighing about.

He was silent for a while, bent down, picked up his Folding Fan, and tucked it into his sleeve. He turned to Fu Liangzi: "Speak. Where is your headquarters? How many people do you still have in the Daoist Orthodoxy? I remember there was also a Linliang Zi—where did he run off to?"

Fu Liangzi glared at him, clearly unwilling to accept his failure.

No one would be resigned to it.

To this day, he still didn't understand how the situation could have reversed so completely. He stared at Li Yunxin for a while and said in a deep voice: "Clearly that Folding Fan is your Traveling Palace. How did you... run out of this Profound Light Precious Mirror?!"

Old Daoist Liu had found a table to sit at, catching his breath and recovering. Hearing him ask this question, he exchanged a look with Li Yunxin, and then strange smiles appeared on both their faces.

Fu Liangzi was already so angry that he was about to explode. Seeing this mysterious and deliberately profound smile made him feel even more thoroughly fooled—fooled after failing...

This was supposed to be his job!

Thus, he gritted his teeth and said: "What are you smiling at?!"

Li Yunxin kicked him with the tip of his shoe, making him yelp in pain again: "Smiling at how cute you are. Old Liu knows the kind of person I am... I love to talk. For example, after I thoroughly humiliated you when you three fools were full of confidence—what should be done after the humiliation?"

Fu Liangzi frowned, not knowing what deep meaning was hidden in Li Yunxin's words. Thus, he dared not say another word, afraid that this terribly cunning and deep-scheming fellow might hear some secret.

Old Daoist Liu, however, smiled playfully: "Savouring the moment."

Li Yunxin laughed and clapped his hands, pointing at Fu Liangzi: "That's why I like an idiot like you the most, one who asks questions after being stepped on. If you don't ask, how can I be so smug?"

Fu Liangzi opened his mouth, speechless.

Li Yunxin looked down at him with drooping eyes: "You recognize this Profound Light Precious Mirror—you know it was the magic treasure of that dead guy Yue Yunzi from your Langya Grotto-Heaven, right? He died, and I took this thing. What's it called—in a literary sense, it's called 'killing and seizing treasure.' But a magic treasure is a personal private item, so I don't think Yue Yunzi would go around telling everyone about its marvelous uses before he died. But you don't know, and I do."

He looked at Old Daoist Liu: "Old Liu, do you still remember? When we were staying at the Yu Family's secondary residence, Yue Yunzi came to talk to me, acting all superior—his clone came out of this thing."

Old Daoist Liu appropriately stroked his beard and nodded: "That's right. At that time, this thing was hanging on the Silk Tree, it truly looked like a moon."

Li Yunxin let out a breath: "Actually, this thing can split into two halves, like a portal. One half stayed on the back of this chair, and the other half I carried with me—so do you understand? The one in Trapped Sky Mountain was my clone. My true body was within thirty miles of Trapped Sky Mountain at the time. After I finished my business, I walked into one half and came out of the other—you insisted on staring at my Dragon Palace. If you don't die, who will?"

Old Daoist Liu chuckled: "It's also because my acting was so good."

The two of them were now smug and triumphant, their expressions making Fu Liangzi and the other two resentful enough for their hearts to bleed, yet they were helpless. He gritted his teeth and frowned: "How do you know all this... Wait, no?!"

He looked up at Li Yunxin: "How did you know our identities?? And this Restriction of mine—how did you know how to break it?!"

If he hadn't mentioned it, it would have been fine. But as soon as he said that, it was as if Li Yunxin suddenly remembered something. He clapped his hands: "Ah, I almost forgot about this."

As he spoke, he stood up and walked around the wide hall. As he walked, he reached out his hand to grab something in the void.

When Fu Liangzi saw this, his face instantly turned deathly pale—even more so than Old Daoist Liu's before. Not until Li Yunxin finished walking and came back, rubbing and squeezing the things in his hand, did he hiss: "How could you... possibly... know about this thing too?!"

But Li Yunxin was focused on squeezing the ball of air in his hand. After a long while, he seemed to be failing, and he sighed, pulling the Folding Fan out of his sleeve. He held it up to his ear and said: "How do you manipulate this thing again?"

A sound seemed to answer him from the Folding Fan. He smiled: "Got it, got it."

Then he stared at his empty palm for a long time, pointed two fingers, and said: "Cloud, come!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a small ball of cloud mist immediately gathered in his palm—looking like an auspicious cloud.

This soft, white, and adorable little thing floated in his palm, trembling slightly due to the airflow in the hall. It was as if a cloud from the sky had been reduced a thousand times and was now held by a person.

Fu Liangzi's face was ashen. Li Yunxin, however, looked as if he had found a treasured toy. He took out the Profound Light Precious Mirror from his sleeve, while chanting something under his breath, as if repeating unfamiliar, clumsy steps and essentials, he tapped the precious mirror a few times. Then he tossed both into the air simultaneously: "Go!"

The Profound Light Precious Mirror and the white cloud immediately combined.

The golden moon halo, accompanied by a floating cloud, drifted quietly in the hall. The soft light emanating from it filled every corner of the room, as if it were the Mid-Autumn Festival and the colorful cloud was accompanying the moon!

Fu Liangzi was speechless for the umpteenth time.

Li Yunxin, having gained the advantage, acted even more smugly, saying triumphantly: "That Kun Wuzi valued you and Yue Yunzi the most. That's why he split this treasure. The moon wheel was made into the Profound Light Precious Mirror and given to Yue Yunzi. The colorful cloud was made into the Profound Light Mist and given to you. Unfortunately, neither of you lived up to expectations, and as a result, I got them. Now I'll tell you—when these two are combined, the name is 'Mist Locking the Toad Palace'. It is a top-tier treasure of your Langya Grotto-Heaven—personally made by the Book Saint back in the day."

He paused slightly, looking at Fu Liangzi: "So, do you feel a little guilty? If we just talk about character, Kun Wuzi was quite decent—he valued you so much, yet you quietly killed him."

Fu Liangzi was silent for a while, then said bitterly: "We each serve our own master, that's all. And now, it was just a moment of carelessness on my part. Furthermore, I infiltrated the Daoist Orthodoxy... Hmph, this kind of thing. There's no right or wrong."

Li Yunxin frowned, staring at him for a while: "Your values are messed up, my friend. He never harmed you, he was very good to you, and now you say there's no right or wrong?"

Fu Liangzi really didn't want to continue this topic. He turned his head and sneered: "You are indeed talkative. Since you are talkative, you might as well say everything—how did you break my Restriction Formation?"

Li Yunxin pouted and looked at him with disgust: "How can you even ask such an idiotic question? Do you know how Yue Yunzi died?"

"He also set up a Formation in Weicheng that day. But he didn't realize that his Formation was inside mine. He used the same Daoist Orthodoxy method as you—using himself as the Formation Core to activate the Qi mechanism and Spiritual Power. So his Qi mechanism and Spiritual Power circulated in the grand formation I had set up in advance—activating my formation with the Spiritual Power from his formation. His Spiritual Power was thus suppressed by my Formation, leaving him with less than one-tenth of his strength. Don't you know all this?"

Fu Liangzi was stunned for a moment, then yelled: "What does that have to do with me?!" (To be continued.)