Volume 1, Chapter 310 – Where to Go

“It is not that I dared defy the heavens. I was simply forced into it.”

Shi Lan did not panic. She lowered her head slightly and admitted it openly.

Her frankness seemed to catch the man somewhat by surprise.

In truth, Shi Lan had long expected that someone might see through her. Back when she accepted the inheritance of the Guiyun Sword Emperor, Wuxu had already warned her about it.

These little tricks of heterodox means could only fool demon race cultivators below the Nascent Soul Realm. In the eyes of experts at the Heaven Demon level and above, they were completely transparent.

“Senior, since you have kept me here, may I ask what you intend? Please make it clear.”

Shi Lan asked directly. For some reason, she could sense that this person bore her no malice, which left her somewhat puzzled.

The blood feud between the human race and the demon race was so deep that even the Human Race Chronicle could hardly record it all. By all rights, now that he had seen through her identity, he ought to have struck immediately and killed her.

“I see that the blood evil at your brow has not yet faded, and the aura of slaughter hangs thick about your every movement. You just came down from a battlefield? From Chengtian Domain?”

Instead of answering Shi Lan’s doubts, the man suddenly asked a question of his own.

Shi Lan was instantly alarmed. This man’s eyesight was terrifyingly sharp.

“Yes.”

After a moment of silence, Shi Lan nodded.

“Your luck is not bad.”

The man lifted his teacup and drank it dry in one gulp. After letting out a breath, he said slowly,

“Establishing a clan within my demon race is no small matter. It must be registered with the Demon Emperor Hall. After the Lan Clan was founded, the Feather Emperor Hall once sent a Heaven Demon to verify it. I imagine you were not there at the time. Otherwise, you would not have lived to this day.”

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Shi Lan fell silent. Although Lunhui had still been by her side then, and that Heaven Demon probably would not have been able to do anything to her, the Lan Clan certainly would not still exist.

The road she had walked had not been without hardship, but in the end she was still alive. Perhaps this man was right. Her luck really had been fairly good.

“Do you know why the demon race attacked Chengtian Domain?”

At those words, Shi Lan instinctively straightened in her seat and listened attentively.

“Please enlighten me, Senior.”

“A million years ago, Chengtian Domain did not belong to the human race. It was once a chaotic battlefield. The number of Emperor-level experts buried there cannot be counted on two hands. Experts of the human race, demon race, and even devil race all shed blood there.”

As he said this, the man’s phoenix eyes narrowed slightly, and his hand lightly stroked the blood-red folding fan at his side.

“If I am not mistaken, the emergence of that human Sovereign Weapon some time ago should have had something to do with you, yes?”

This time, Shi Lan did not answer. She remained silent.

When Wuxu emerged, that single sword strike slaughtered nearly ten thousand demons, including several hundred great demons. Who knew whether any of them had been connected to this man.

Seeing that Shi Lan did not respond, the man did not mind and continued,

“Much like that Sovereign Weapon, in present-day Chengtian Domain, the arrangements left behind by those Emperor-level experts of old are all about to emerge. Perhaps inheritances, perhaps other things.”

“Is there a reason for that?” Shi Lan asked instinctively.

“This land is about to fall into chaos. The pattern of power will be redrawn. When the world nears upheaval, strange and uncanny things emerge.”

“Why will it fall into chaos?”

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The man shook his head. It was unclear whether he did not know or simply did not wish to say.

After a long silence, Shi Lan asked,

“What does Senior need me to do?”

The man extended a finger, sliced open Shi Lan’s wrist through the air, and drew out a ball of blood.

“There is something I may need your help with in the future. In return, I will spare the Lan Clan and let it develop as it pleases.”

“But I am human. Is that not a problem?”

Shi Lan lightly brushed her wrist, and the wound healed in an instant.

“Among both the human race and the demon race, there are many who do not care about this so-called blood feud between the two races.”

The man seemed unconcerned. He had not participated in the battle in the starry skies beyond the domain, and even the Demon Emperor Token had failed to summon him.

“I understand, Senior.”

Shi Lan nodded.

“May I ask Senior’s name?”

“My surname is Feng, my given name is Yichuan. The demon race in this region honors me with the title Feather Emperor.”

As the words fell, the man smiled, and the brilliant maple forest around them seemed to lose all color.

Shi Lan was stunned for a moment. When she came back to herself, the scene around her had changed completely.

The maple forest was still a maple forest, but the branches were bare and clean, with only tender new buds just beginning to sprout. Not far away stood a pavilion, old and dilapidated, covered in cobwebs.

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The lake from before had become a dark swamp, giving off a faint foul smell.

Warmth touched her palm. Shi Lan instinctively lowered her head and glanced at it. At some point, she had come to be holding a tea brazier in her hands. Inside, more than a dozen crystal-clear tea leaves wreathed in Dao resonance drifted up and down.

…

An ancient war chariot crossed the sky. Before it, eight flood-dragons drew the carriage, their baleful aura towering to the heavens. All of them were great demons above the Nascent Soul Realm.

These flood-dragons followed the cultivation path of the ancient demons and fiends, never taking human form and always walking the world in their true bodies.

That made them powerful, but beasts of this type were also the most sought-after mounts and draft beasts for chariots, and so they were easily seized by mighty experts.

Inside the carriage, Feng Yichuan reclined against the wall of the carriage, a ball of essence blood suspended in his palm.

That smooth, rounded mass of blood gradually changed shape in his hand, until it finally became a tiny blood phoenix.

Looking at the little blood phoenix, Feng Yichuan’s brows took on a somewhat lonely cast.

“Xingyuan…”

…

…

Shi Lan returned to the Lan Clan with that brazier of Ancient Enlightenment Tea tucked away, feeling somewhat uneasy the whole way.

She had not expected to run into a Demon Emperor just from wandering around casually. She truly could not tell whether that counted as good luck or bad.

Once she returned to the center of the Lan Clan, Shi Lan’s heart settled somewhat.

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Tianbai had already awakened. Its injuries were almost healed, and its cultivation was growing rapidly as well.

When it saw Shi Lan, it grew visibly excited and kept circling around her, looking exceedingly fawning.

Once she was safe for the time being, Shi Lan began making plans for herself.

Feng Yichuan’s appearance had sounded an alarm for her. The Boundless Demon Domain was far too dangerous for her. If she encountered even a single Heaven Demon, she could easily fall into a dead end.

Right now, all Shi Lan wanted was to find a place to go into seclusion, sort out her cultivation, and fully absorb that brazier of Ancient Enlightenment Tea.

After entering the Myriad Phenomena Realm, cultivation could no longer rely on the growth of true qi alone. Insight into the laws and the strength of the soul were both indispensable.

Shi Lan had considered returning to Chengtian Domain, but in the end she dismissed the idea. After all, she had been hunted all the way here. If she went back, she might only have to deal with new open and hidden attacks.

After hesitating for a long time, Shi Lan slowly raised her head and looked toward the sky above the Vast Land of Shenzhou.

One life-bearing star after another hung suspended in the void, with Emperor laws winding around them, brilliant beyond measure.

One of them belonged to her.

With her current strength, she ought to be barely able to protect herself. Perhaps going to the Illusory Star Domain would not be a bad choice after all.

Once she made up her mind, Shi Lan acted at once. She immediately began making preparations.

The moment she stepped out of the cave abode, she saw Tianbai squatting off to one side.

The last time Shi Lan had said she was going into seclusion, she had vanished outright, and when she returned, she had been gravely wounded and on the verge of death.

Now that Shi Lan had said she was going into seclusion again, Tianbai was already starting to panic.