Chapter Ninety: Madness

“So this is the peak power of the first Ancient Demon Transformation? If this much belongs only to the first transformation, then how terrifying must the nine transformations be?” Feeling the tremendous force coursing through every part of his body, Yu Daoyi murmured to himself.

“This power does not belong to you. As a spirit of the vessel, my strength is constrained by you. What you are using now is merely the power I have accumulated over all these years.”

“If you remain this weak forever, then I will never possess true strength either. I am only a vessel.”

“The power I have stored is limited. Whatever you intend to do, do it quickly.”

“I know. I will not stay weak forever.” Yu Daoyi turned and looked at Little Qian, who sat dumbstruck in the tree, then said in a low, grave voice, “Either get lost, or die.”

It was as though he had witnessed something impossible. Little Qian stared helplessly as the man who had seemed half-dead a moment ago suddenly rose in might, then changed into someone else entirely, so handsome that even he, a man, felt a fierce stab of jealousy.

Yet the words from that absurdly beautiful man were like a demon’s whisper. Without another word, Little Qian bolted at once, sprinting toward Peach Blossom Village.

The savagery in those eyes told him plainly that the man before him truly would kill.

No matter how handsome he was, he would still kill.

“Have you not noticed how much you have changed? Before, you would never have spoken so to a child, even if all this could begin again.” The voice could not help but laugh, teasing him.

“Perhaps the blood-soaked nights here have been changing me little by little. Or perhaps being reset again and again has simply made me weary of it. Or perhaps it is because I know they will not truly die anyway.” The strangely enchanting Yu Daoyi merely shrugged, unconcerned. Every movement he made seemed filled with beauty, enough to leave one astonished, and impossible to tire of.

“Or perhaps,” the vessel spirit said lightly, “you have always been this kind of person.”

Yu Daoyi fell silent for a long while.

“I can no longer tell whether I am doing this for Yaoyao... or for myself.” Lifting his head to look at that peach tree, Yu Daoyi spoke with a trace of cold detachment.

“You need not think so much. Those thoughts will only become shackles binding you. Feel the power now within you, and do what you wish to do,” the voice said indifferently.

“Then the first thing I shall do... is uproot this tree.” Tilting his head, Yu Daoyi muttered softly. With that handsome, uncanny face and those careless yet exquisite gestures, he was enough to stir envy in every man and madness in every woman.

“If not for this tree, you would have died at those people’s hands who knows how many times already. Is this not repaying kindness with hostility?” the vessel spirit said with a laugh.

“Repaying kindness with hostility? I simply do not believe there is nothing wrong with this tree! Half of everything that has happened revolves around it. So now either I rip it out by the roots and we all perish together, or it comes out obediently and explains everything here to me!

“I found it strange long ago. Why does Yaoyao appear here every time she is wounded? Why can this tree drive those creatures away? Why are there peach trees everywhere here? And why is it that every time I am reborn, it is here? There must be something wrong with this place!

“Scholar trees are yin in nature, ghost-laden wood, gentle and soul-nourishing. Peach wood is yang in nature, warding off ghosts, evil, calamity, and disaster. A peach tree this enormous must contain a spirit of its own, and that is precisely why it can drive off those villagers as dreadful as vicious ghosts.

“I have had a suspicion for some time now. This place has never been any paradise hidden from the world. Every villager, every scene, every last thing here is false!

“This is a kingdom of the dead! And this peach tree will be the key to shattering it all!

“I have no patience to proceed step by step and wait for those lurking behind the curtain to reveal themselves. I will end all of this now!”

Power poured out of his body without cease. The earlier emptiness within him was now gone without a trace; the listlessness of spirit had become radiant vitality. At this moment, Yu Daoyi seemed like a demon god descended to earth, the surging scarlet demonic aura around him jarringly conspicuous within this illusion.

Slowly, Yu Daoyi raised one hand. The scarlet light around him grew almost blinding, then vanished, gathering little by little into his right hand. A breeze swept in, followed at once by a sudden gale. The grasslands were crushed flat beneath the wind, and peach blossoms filled the air, scattering wildly without pattern.

This false world seemed on the verge of facing a storm capable of sweeping everything away. The sky darkened, and an immense pressure radiated from Yu Daoyi.

At last, when all had reached its limit, he took a great step forward. In an instant the earth shuddered, a vast stretch of ground split apart, and then came that scarlet punch, that uncanny punch, that punch so fierce even the wind seemed to cease.

The first Ancient Demon Transformation! Nine Purgatories!

The power of the Nine Hells!

With a single punch, he drove forward with unstoppable force, invincible and unbreakable.

With a single punch, all in its path was laid to waste.

With a single punch, the wind stilled, the clouds scattered, and heaven and earth dimmed.

With a single punch, a thousand-zhang chasm split the land apart.

With a single punch, it was as though the end of days had come.

The earth began to tremble. With a thunderous crash, smoke and dust billowed up, mingling with a sky full of flower petals. When the force of that punch faded, pale wisps of smoke rose along the path it had torn through, turning up the deep soil below, heavy with the raw scent of earth.

Behind the peach tree, a small hill had been blasted to utter ruin, shattered stone flying everywhere. Yet when all gradually settled, the peach tree still stood as before, utterly unharmed, its branches and leaves swaying gently in the passing breeze as though mocking the man before it.

Then in the next instant, as though a stone had been tossed into the still surface of a lake, every scene rippled. Everything returned to its original state. Not the slightest trace of destruction remained, and all this happened in no more than a single breath.

“Interesting. So you truly are the key to this illusion. At the very least, through you I can find a way to break through it!

“Then let me see whether you recover faster, or I destroy faster!”

Yu Daoyi laughed wildly, bent slightly forward, and suddenly lunged ahead. His right hand clenched into a fist; scarlet radiance burst forth. This time he did not strike at empty air. He drove his fist directly into the trunk of the peach tree. The impact was like mountains collapsing and earth overturning, and the peach tree shook violently.

At once, gust after gust of fierce wind rose around the tree. Sand and stone filled the air. The grassland around it cracked apart inch by inch, centered on the peach tree, until a gigantic pit nearly a hundred zhang across was blasted open. Thick smoke rose heavily upward. Yet the result was still the same. After trembling violently for a moment, the peach tree remained standing, not the slightest damage visible.

The scene before him rippled again like water stirred by waves. By the time Yu Daoyi came back to himself, everything had once more returned to its original state, as though all his effort had been for nothing.

“Again!” Yu Daoyi roared. Left hand after right, right hand after left, scarlet light gathered around him again and again, then dispersed again and again. The power in his body seemed inexhaustible.

Yu Daoyi grinned and laughed loudly, utterly unlike his usual self. His scarlet eyes were fixed relentlessly on the peach tree before him, and his crimson hair flew wildly with each punch. The area of destruction around him spread wider and wider, while demonic aura poured ceaselessly from his body.

He was like a tireless machine of ruin, like a humanoid demon beast gone berserk.

The sky slowly darkened once more, no longer the clear blue of before. White clouds began to retreat, dark clouds gathered in clusters, the air grew moist, and the wind howled on and on.

Then rain began to fall from the sky.

A long time passed.

“Come! Come! Again!” Drunk on overwhelming power, ignorant of both time and fatigue, Yu Daoyi continued to laugh recklessly. He did not notice in the least that faint black patterns had begun to emerge upon his body, so faint that without careful attention they would have been impossible to see.

Yet the moment those black patterns appeared, this whole illusion began to tremble. An ancient, mysterious force arose. It was as though the illusion itself could no longer bear it, and in hidden corners, space itself began to crack.

A change was taking place in Yu Daoyi, exceedingly subtle, a change whose nature was impossible to tell, whether blessing or doom.

“Have you... struck enough?” A heavy, aged voice came from within the peach tree, sounding exhausted beyond measure, frail with the weariness of countless years.