The demon-race world.

A man walked through the mountain forests.

He wore a blue scholar’s robe, a longsword at his waist, looking just like a wandering sword-bearing scholar.

If this outfit were in the Ten Thousand Arts world, it would seem perfectly normal.

But in the demon-race world, to countless demonfolk, the way he was dressed was dazzlingly conspicuous.

And behind the man, a woman in palace dress followed.

Her hands rested before her as she stepped lightly beneath her skirt. Her eyes would flick now and then toward the husband beside her, as if afraid he might be thirsty or tired.

And atop the mountain peak before them, thick demonic qi spread through the air.

That demonic qi had already taken on substance, congealing into a dense black cloud in the sky.

“Husband, are we really going back to the Ten Thousand Arts world?”

The woman named Wang Yue asked her husband.

Wang Yue had not originally been called that.

As a rabbit spirit, when she first gained intelligence, she gave herself a name: Xiao Yue.

Later, Xiao Yue followed the man into the Ten Thousand Arts world. After they concealed their identities, she changed her name to Mingcha.

Later still, as the man grew more and more formidable, Xiao Yue no longer needed to worry as much while following her husband, and she wanted to change back to her original name.

But she had never had a surname to begin with.

So she split the character “Yue” apart.

The left became her surname, the right became her given name.

From that day on, her name was set: Wang Yue.

“We should go back to the Ten Thousand Arts world,” the man named Luo Yang replied.

“...” Wang Yue lowered her head again, looking as though something weighed on her mind.

Luo Yang smiled and rubbed his wife’s head. “I know your impression of the Ten Thousand Arts world isn’t very good, so if you want to stay in the demon-race world, I have no objection. Once I finish what I need to do, I’ll naturally come find you.”

Hearing her husband’s words, Wang Yue shook her head and said earnestly, “This concubine wants to stay at Husband’s side. Wherever Husband goes, this concubine will go!”

“Alright.” Luo Yang smiled. “Don’t worry. As things stand, once we return to the Ten Thousand Arts world, even if others learn of it, they won’t dare do anything to us.”

“With Husband by my side, of course I’m at ease. And I really have not seen Mister Xiao in a long time.” Wang Yue smiled. “I wonder how Mister Xiao is these days...”

“Junior Brother probably won’t recognize the two of us anymore. As for how Junior Brother is doing... it likely won’t be too bad, but it might not be too good either.”

Luo Yang sighed softly, his tone full of feeling.

He knew that Miss Bai had already found Xiao Mo’s reincarnation.

But over these years, as his realm rose, the more secret the matters he came into contact with, the more he understood that each of his junior brother’s reincarnations was anything but simple.

Luo Yang only hoped his junior brother would not end up being split and shared.

Besides, since he was going back this time, he also needed to see his junior sister.

Over these thousands of years, no one knew how many people had pursued his junior sister, yet she had remained unmoved every time.

By now, his junior sister had become the headmaster of White Deer Academy, and still she had not married.

How could Luo Yang not know?

On the surface, his junior sister looked “without feeling and without desire,” but in truth, there had long been someone in her heart.

Only, that person in his junior sister’s heart...

He sighed.

“Enough. No more thinking about it.”

Luo Yang let out a breath in his heart and stopped thinking of anything else.

Matters of love were like tangled threads—impossible to cut, impossible to smooth. In the end, it could only depend on the fate of those involved.

Without noticing, Luo Yang had already reached the foot of the mountain where the demonic qi was thickest.

This mountain was called Liubo Mountain.

“ROOOOO!”

A bellow like a bull’s cry shook the clouds, making the earth tremble. Ferocious beasts scattered and fled in every direction.

“Stand behind me,” Luo Yang said to Wang Yue.

Wang Yue nodded, retreating behind her husband without causing him trouble.

The next moment, that demon beast’s body swelled larger and larger, until it became as massive as a mountain!

It was shaped like an ox—azure-bodied and hornless—with only a single leg.

An ancient record once wrote—

In the Eastern Sea there is Liubo Mountain. Upon it there is a beast, shaped like an ox, azure-bodied and hornless, with one foot. When it enters or leaves the water, there must be wind and rain. Its radiance is like sun and moon, its voice like thunder. Its name is Kui.

It was said that Kui was born together with Heaven and Earth, and there were only three.

There was also a legend from an age when gods walked the world: when humanity’s Sword Immortal led humankind in the final battle against the gods in the sky, he once slew a Kui, stretched Kui-hide over a war drum, and used the bones of a thunder beast as drumsticks.

With a single strike, the sound carried fifty thousand miles—then struck again, reverberating across thirty-eight million miles!

It vastly emboldened the human soldiers. Every one of them faced death as though returning home!

The Kui in the demon-race world was naturally not one of those three born with Heaven and Earth.

It was a green ox that had cultivated unceasingly, refining and purifying its bloodline until signs of ancestral reversion appeared. Now it was a great demon at the perfected completion of the Jade-Pure Realm!

“Filthy human! Do you know the consequences of trespassing into my domain?!”

Kui roared. Demonic qi of the Jade-Pure Realm pressed down on Luo Yang like a mountain range.

“I have come to Liubo Mountain only because there is something I wish to request from Your Excellency,” Luo Yang said, his tone extremely courteous.

“Something to request from me? Hahahaha...”

Hearing that, Kui first froze, then burst into laughter, its voice shaking heaven and earth.

“Interesting, human! Say it! What is it you want?”

Luo Yang clasped his hands and bowed. “What I seek is a piece of Your Excellency’s hide to make a garment, and Your Excellency’s demon core to steep a pot of wine, as a meeting gift to a friend.”

“Impudent! Then let’s see whether you, a human, have the life to come and take it!”

After hearing this, Kui was furious and rammed straight toward Luo Yang!

Luo Yang looked at that head like a mountain peak bearing down. His expression did not change.

His longsword slid from its scabbard by only half an inch, and sword qi drifted for ten thousand miles!

Half an incense stick’s time later, Luo Yang walked out from the mountain range.

Inside Luo Yang’s storage pouch, there was now an extremely choice piece of hide taken from Kui’s back, as well as a demon core.

And just as Luo Yang took his wife and continued toward the Ten Thousand Arts world,

a fox-clan woman appeared before Luo Yang, blocking the way. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

“A palace maid of the Nine-Tails Kingdom—Keqing—pays respects to Mister Luo under Her Majesty’s command.”

The palace maid named Keqing bent and bowed.

“The Nine-Tails Kingdom?” Luo Yang looked at the woman before him. “May I ask what instruction your ruler has?”

“I would not dare call it instruction.”

Keqing shook her head.

“It is only that my ruler heard Mister Luo is returning to the Ten Thousand Arts world. And Mister Luo owes the Nine-Tails Kingdom a favor. Her Majesty wishes for Mister Luo to help with a small matter.”

Luo Yang’s brows furrowed. “Please speak, miss. If it is something Luo can do, Luo will certainly not refuse.”

“Mister Luo certainly can do it.”

Keqing smiled faintly and took out a letter from within her robes.

“This is a handwritten letter from my ruler.”

“I ask that Mister Luo deliver this letter into the hands of Zhou’s ruler, Xiao Mo.”