Chapter 72: Once Upon a Time

Living beings.

Lu Ye’s blood-red eyes swept over the countless weak demons.

Though these demon creatures were feeble, they were young—their vitality like the rising sun. To snuff them out, to sever that surging upward momentum, brought an even greater thrill to the act of slaughter.

All the weak little demons turned their eyes toward Lu Ye.

Excitement lit up their faces.

So it was true—among humans, there were monsters, and some were even more monstrous than demons themselves.

Come on, kill me!

Lu Ye didn’t say a single word of nonsense. He swung his sword in a horizontal arc.

Pshhh—pshhh—pshhh...

Blood sprayed, staining the earth crimson.

The stench of it billowed upward into the heavens. One after another, the young demons were sliced in two by the sword aura. Their faces still held those eerie, twisted smiles. Even in death, streams of blood-red mist surged toward Lu Ye.

He didn’t care. He just kept killing.

The young demons continued pouring into the Heaven’s Chosen Ancient Battlefield in an unending tide.

But they came too slowly—not nearly enough for Lu Ye to kill to his heart’s content.

He turned his blood-red gaze to a filthy, disgraceful firebird nearby—too filthy to even look at.

He raised a fist.

"Boom!"

The firebird exploded into pieces. Feathers filled the air in a storm of red and gold.

“Hm?”

Lu Ye let out a faint sound of surprise.

He struck again, and in that moment, the heavens seemed to lend him strength. Fierce winds roared out from the void.

Vermilion Bird’s body was shattered by the blow, her soul consumed by endless regret. But in her heart, she felt... relief.

Let me die. Just let me die.

Lu Ye had saved her twice. She owed him two lives.

Her memories rushed back all at once.

“Vermilion Bird? One of the Four Divine Beasts? How come you’re such a tiny thing?”

“People who know will recognize you as Vermilion Bird. People who don’t might think you’re just some little chick.”

“Hey there, little chick. We meet again!”

“Ugh, look at you, all covered in soot. Come here, I’ll wash you off!”

“Cough cough cough! You little thing, how dare you repay kindness with betrayal? I helped you bathe and you dragged me into the water?!”

“Little birdie, we meet again. What’s wrong with your demon clan? Why do they keep trying to kill you? Come on, you’re Vermilion Bird for god’s sake! If they know what you are and still don’t treat you like their god, they’re blind idiots. Yet they still hunt you?”

“Stick with me. If you don’t, you’ll be dead before long.”

“This Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor really is terrifying. But don’t be afraid, little bird—watch me deal with him!”

...

Lu Ye had once fought the Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor in the most brutal battle of the First Heaven.

The deeper the fight went, the more silent Lu Ye became.

Until the very end.

“Lu Ye, you killed so many demons?”

“I had no choice. If I didn’t kill them, they would’ve killed me.”

Back then, Lu Ye’s eyes had been full of exhaustion... and killing intent.

“But those demons were so weak. How could they possibly kill you?”

“Weak demons? Do you know that the weak demon behind you—that little thing—was the Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor?”

“That’s impossible!”

“I’ve never lied to you.”

“Get out of my way!”

Vermilion Bird had believed him.

But there were too many... far too many dead. Even the helpless younglings, barely old enough to open their eyes, were slaughtered by Lu Ye.

Tragic.

Yet all she saw was the tragedy of the demon clan. She never looked into Lu Ye’s eyes... and saw the pain there.

To massacre the weak—for Lu Ye, that too was a torment beyond words.

But he had no choice.

If he didn’t kill them, then everything he had done would have been for nothing.

All the demons he had slain before—those deaths would be meaningless.

In the end, Vermilion Bird threw herself in front of one of the infant beasts, staking her life to block Lu Ye’s path. It was a newborn, barely a few days old—its eyes hadn’t even fully opened!

A beast like that—how could it possibly be part of the Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor?

“Step aside!”

Lu Ye’s face was dark with murderous intent, so thick it couldn’t be dispersed.

He pointed his stone sword at her.

“If you want to kill it, then kill me too! It’s just been born!”

“But it’s the Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor!”

“It’s not!”

Vermilion Bird couldn’t even imagine what kind of twisted, vicious expression that infant beast might have shown—when she couldn’t see it, hidden behind her back.

What she hadn’t told Lu Ye was that she had secretly hidden one young demon away. It was a firebird that looked very much like her, still missing patches of feathers.

She wanted to see for herself—whether or not it really was the Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor.

Later, because she kept interfering, Lu Ye finally knocked her unconscious.

When she woke up, half the demon world had been slaughtered by Lu Ye.

Especially the young ones.

Afterward, Lu Ye tried to explain it to her. And in her heart, she knew Lu Ye had been right. But she just couldn’t accept it at the time.

She was waiting. Waiting for that firebird to grow.

The firebird lived for a long time under her protection.

It lived for a long time. And then, by sheer accident, it died. All the way until its death, it never once showed any signs of being the Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor.

Later, even though she still couldn’t accept the truth, as she watched the broken demon world slowly recover its vitality, she finally began to let go.

But now, thinking back, she suddenly realized—

The time when she was raising that firebird under her protection... that was exactly when Lu Ye had suffered the most.

From the Second Heaven to the Fourth Heaven, it was like the entire world was against him. He had even provoked the Eternal Faith Sect.

Looking back now, there were too many coincidences. Too many things that didn’t make sense.

Until—until she found a demonic scripture in the Demon Clan’s ancestral court in the Seventh Heaven.

Blood-Dissolving Demon Scripture of All Spirits...

Hahaha. The Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor she believed had cultivated that technique—he hadn’t even known the name of it.

The Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor was the Parasite Heaven Demon.

She thought she had saved a firebird. Little did she know, she had saved the most terrifying existence to ever threaten the demon clan—the one that would bring their complete extinction.

She couldn’t die!

She absolutely could not die.

If she died, then maybe in this life, Lu Ye wouldn’t have to go kill the Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor.

Because this life’s Lu Ye... was too strong. He didn’t need enemies. He just needed to cultivate with all his strength, and he could leave all his foes far behind.

But she would kill the Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor.

She wanted to feel for herself what kind of agony Lu Ye had endured when he killed that thing.

After she had experienced the pain Lu Ye once bore, she would return to # Nоvеlight # him—and let him kill her with his own hands!

“Baptism by fire!”

A shrill cry of a phoenix echoed through the world.

Blazing gold and crimson flames erupted, soaring dozens of meters into the air. A massive Vermilion Bird emerged from the fire, revealing her true form—the supreme presence of one of the Four Heavenly Spirits, one of the Four Symbols of the Mortal Realm.

Suddenly, blood-red chains wrapped tightly around Lu Ye’s body. The Myriad Spirits Demon Emperor had made his move.

That was a parasitic vessel he had his eye on. He couldn’t let Lu Ye destroy it so easily.

Ordinary vessels didn’t matter—he could afford to lose as many of them as necessary. But someone like Vermilion Bird, though incredibly difficult to parasitize, was far too valuable to abandon as long as there was a sliver of hope.

What if it worked?

But he underestimated Lu Ye.

The blood-red chains couldn’t restrain him in the slightest.

Lu Ye punched out.

The chains shattered instantly.

“Boom!”

Vermilion Bird’s true flames were extinguished by that single punch. A faint glimmer of red light streaked into the teleportation vortex and vanished.

A new wave of young demons surged forward.