Chapter 60
His presence had already been erased completely.
Absolute zero.
No spiritual leakage.
No killing intent.
No movement within qi itself.
And yet-
That explanation alone wasn't entirely correct.
Because Wuming's existence itself was the problem.
Even with his spiritual qi restrained, the density of his soul and spiritual pressure remained terrifying beyond measure. Human instinct alone rejected looking toward him. Weak minds would unconsciously avoid his direction. Creatures beneath his level would lower themselves without understanding why.
No ordinary human could gaze at him directly.
No demon beneath his rank could raise their head toward the heavens where he stood.
Except-
This man did.
Not only did he look upward-
He dared to continue staring.
No hesitation.
No fear.
No submission.
His dark green eyes pierced through layers of clouds and atmosphere itself to reach Wuming directly.
Gazing.
Not glaring.
Not challenging.
Simply looking at him calmly from the earth below.
Wuming's lips curved faintly.
How very interesting.
Not only is he capable of seeing me...
He dares to maintain eye contact.
The sword beneath Wuming tilted slightly.
Then slowly-
He descended.
Lower.
His figure drifted beneath the clouds now, allowing moonlight and sunlight mixed together to reveal him more clearly against the sky. Wind roared around his robes as he floated high above the forest, silver hair dancing endlessly behind him.
Still-
No one else looked up.
Not the birds.
Not the wandering cultivators below.
Not even the man standing beside the stranger.
Only him.
Only those dark green eyes continued watching him from the forest floor.
Wuming descended further.
Not because he wanted a better look.
No.
He already understood enough.
He lowered himself because he wanted to be seen.
For the first time since entering this empire-
Wuming allowed someone to witness his existence willingly.
The man's gaze remained on Wuming for only a moment longer before his lips moved faintly beneath the shadow of the bamboo hat.
"The phoenix... will reach the serpent fast enough."
The words were mouthed lightly.
Quietly.
As if they were never meant to be heard.
Then-
He looked forward again and continued walking normally through the forest path, the dark cape shifting behind him with each step while the bamboo patterns disappeared between shadows and dying sunlight.
But the man beside him suddenly stumbled.
His body shook violently.
One breath later-
His knees nearly gave out beneath him.
Wuming watched silently from the sky as the man struggled to even remain standing. Sweat dripped down his pale face while his spiritual qi turned unstable, trembling uncontrollably around his body.
It would not have affected him...
If he had not tried to look upward.
The moment he forced himself to search the heavens, his soul had touched the pressure surrounding Wuming.
Not spiritual qi.
Not killing intent.
Something worse.
Soul pressure.
The weight of a soul refined beyond mortal limitations.
A presence so ancient and overwhelming that even concealed, it distorted instinct itself.
Wuming's expression remained indifferent as cold wind passed around him.
No matter how much I suppress myself...No matter how perfectly I erase my qi...A soul cannot truly disappear.
Not yet.
Not in this body.
His golden eyes lowered slightly toward his own hand resting behind his back.
Right now, he did not even possess a fraction of his original vessel. This body was incomplete. Weak. Mortal. Far beneath what he once was.
He had yet to cultivate through the enormous stages again.
Yet to rebuild the countless pathways.
Yet to reclaim authority over the thing sleeping within him.
And because of that-
He could not fully control himself.
Not completely.
It was the will of the heavens itself.
No existence could entirely conceal a soul that powerful without absolute mastery over its vessel.
Even Wuming had to regain power step by step.
His soul demanded strength.
The kind no one possessed naturally.
The kind that had to be seized.
Taken.
Earned through blood and ascension.
The sky above slowly darkened.
Evening approached quietly as the setting sun burned gold and crimson against the horizon while, directly opposite it, the moon began rising into the heavens.
Perfectly parallel.
Sun descending.
Moon ascending.
One dying.
One rising.
Wuming watched silently.
Everything falls eventually. Everything rises eventually. The question is only-When.
Far below, the green-eyed man continued walking without slowing once.
He never looked back.
Never checked on the man struggling behind him.
The bamboo hat had already returned to rest atop his head, hiding most of his face once more beneath shadow.
Meanwhile the second man finally collapsed onto one knee in the middle of the path, breathing heavily, unable to withstand the lingering pressure left behind merely from trying to perceive Wuming.
And yet-
The green-eyed man remained unaffected.
Wuming's eyes narrowed faintly.
Then he saw it.
The man's spiritual pressure.
Concealed.
Perfectly.
So refined that even Wuming had failed to notice it immediately.
Interesting...
Very interesting.
A faint smirk touched his lips.
He is far superior to me right now.
Down below, the man could barely breathe.
His body trembled violently as his knees dug deeper into the cracked earth beneath him, blood staining the soil where the pressure had forced him down. Sweat poured from his face uncontrollably while his spiritual veins screamed in agony.
How the hell am I getting buried into the ground...?
His breathing turned uneven.
How is this possible...?
They had only sensed it for a moment-
A spiritual presence descending from above the heavens with the speed of lightning itself.
Too fast.
Far too fast.
At first he thought it might have been someone on the same level as the man beside him.
But now-
Now he understood something was terribly wrong.
The man gritted his teeth and forced himself to look upward again.
Instantly-
More pressure descended upon him.
His vision blurred.
Blood rushed against his ears.
Above the atmosphere, Wuming had already vanished once more, his figure flying toward the distant estate beyond the forests, yet even after leaving, the lingering spiritual pressure remained wrapped around the heavens themselves.
As if the sky still remembered him.
The man gasped heavily before forcing his eyes forward again, only to see the green-eyed man continuing to walk calmly through the forest path, silent and composed as though nothing unusual had happened.
No one around them noticed anything.
No civilians.
No cultivators.
No beasts.
Only him.
Only he had suffered.
"W-Wei Yi!"
His voice cracked desperately.
The man stopped walking.
Slowly-
He turned his body halfway.
Then vanished.
The air distorted faintly.
The kneeling man's eyes widened in shock. "H-How could he leave me behind-"
"I don't leave anyone behind, Shayu."
The deep voice came from directly behind him.
Shayu nearly froze.
Wei Yi stood there silently, expressionless, his dark green robes unmoving beneath the black bamboo-patterned cape. His eyes remained hollow, calm beyond understanding.
Shayu swallowed hard.
"I... I can't get up..." His breathing trembled. "Who was that guy... no... what was that in the sky...?"
Fear entered his voice.
"That spiritual presence... was it the Marquis of Wu'an from Eastern Wei?"
Wei Yi ignored the panic in his tone.
His gaze lifted quietly toward the heavens, toward the direction Wuming had disappeared in-the distant estate hidden beyond forests and mountains.
Then finally-
He spoke.
"That..."
His deep voice remained calm.
"...was Xuan Yin Wuming."
Silence.
Shayu stopped breathing entirely.
His eyes widened so much they nearly trembled out of disbelief.
"What...?"
He slowly looked up at Wei Yi as if expecting him to laugh.
But Wei Yi's face remained emotionless.
No expression.
No mockery.
Nothing.
"T-That was Xuan Yin Wuming...?" Shayu's voice came out weakly. "The heir of the infamous Xuan clan?"
"Yes, Shayu."
Wei Yi's gaze lowered toward him.
"It was."
The forest suddenly felt colder.
Shayu's mind blanked completely.
A seven-year-old child?
No.
That wasn't possible.
No seven-year-old should possess spiritual pressure capable of crushing an adult cultivator into the earth itself.
"Mind helping me get up...?" Shayu muttered weakly.
Wei Yi stared at him for a moment.
Then stepped forward.
He was tall-
Exceptionally tall.
Around six foot four.
Shayu, barely reaching five foot ten, looked almost insignificant beside him. Wei Yi leaned down slightly, dark hair falling near his face before he extended a single finger and pressed it lightly against the center of Shayu's chest.
Instantly-
The pressure disappeared.
Shayu sucked in air violently as if drowning moments ago.
His body loosened.
His trembling stopped.
And only then did he notice the state around him.
The ground beneath his knees had caved inward.
Cracks spread across the earth in circular patterns while loose soil surrounded his legs where he had literally been forced downward.
Buried.
Not by spiritual qi attacks.
Not by techniques.
Only by presence.
Shayu stared blankly at the blood coating his knees.
His thoughts turned numb.
I was being buried into the ground...by the spiritual pressure of a seven-year-old child?
"I knew the Xuan clan produced monsters in every generation..." Shayu muttered while forcing himself upright slowly, his legs still trembling faintly from the lingering pressure, "but this... this is impossible."
His breathing remained uneven.
"Is it because of the name?"
His eyes darkened slightly as he looked ahead at Wei Yi's back.
"Xuan Yin Wuming... the Demonic Sovereign... the greatest demon cultivator in recorded history..." His voice lowered unconsciously, almost reverently. "The only man who ever read the Books of Heaven... the ruler of the Forbidden Kingdom... the Shen Nation..."
A brief pause.
"The Divine Nation itself."
Even speaking those titles felt heavy.
Shayu swallowed once before continuing carefully, "Is... is that truly the power carried by that name?"
Wei Yi walked calmly beside him, his black cape swaying lightly with the evening wind, the bamboo patterns upon it shifting faintly beneath the setting sunlight.
"It might be," he answered indifferently, "but this child is the closest thing to the lowest expectation of that name."
Shayu frowned slightly.
Wei Yi's gaze remained ahead.
"Because the real Xuan Yin Wuming died already."
His tone remained calm.
"Centuries ago."
Silence followed.
Shayu stared at him. "That's actually true...?"
Wei Yi nodded once.
"Yes."
No hesitation.
No mystery.
Just certainty.
The two men continued walking through the forest path quietly while the wind brushed against the towering bamboo trees around them.
After a while, Shayu finally spoke again.
"If that's true..." his curiosity returned slowly, "then what was the real Demonic Emperor even like?"
His eyes lit slightly despite the fear still lingering within him.
"I've heard countless stories about him since childhood. Some call him a tyrant, others a god, some a calamity... and I heard historians themselves gave him more than a hundred titles."
Wei Yi's expression did not change.
"Yes," he said quietly. "That is true."
"The titles numbered more than ten thousand."
Shayu's eyes widened slightly.
Wei Yi continued walking.
"They are preserved inside the archives of the Xuan clan itself." His voice remained deep and steady. "But only a hundred are publicly used."
A faint pause.
"To display the glory of the Demonic Sovereign."
The wind passed between the trees again.
Neither man spoke for several seconds after that.
Eventually, the forest began thinning.
The distant sounds of civilization slowly reached them.
Markets.
Voices.
Lanterns.
Life.
Shayu looked around the massive forest surrounding the empire before speaking again, confusion entering his face.
"Why don't they cut these trees down?" he asked while observing the endless greenery. "People could build entire businesses and districts here."
Wei Yi glanced ahead calmly.
"They already do."
Shayu blinked.
"But only within the five percent of land permitted by Emperor Yin."
His voice remained emotionless.
"Ninety-five percent of the forest is protected."
"To preserve the empire's beauty... and for travelers."
The trees swayed softly around them as the final rays of sunlight stretched across the horizon.
Shayu looked ahead-
And the capital finally appeared fully before his eyes.
Massive walls.
Countless lanterns.
Golden rooftops reflecting beneath the rising moon.
The entire city glowed between dusk and night like a living dragon resting beneath the heavens.
For a moment-
He simply stared.
End of 60