novelraw Chapter 115 : I’m Not a Dowry
Chapter 115 : I’m Not a Dowry
Chapter 115: I’m Not a Dowry
“Why didn’t you let him finish speaking?”
Red Fox slowly climbed up from the distance. A large hole had been blasted through her chest; wind passed through the hollow, carrying a faintly cool sensation.
“It’s not like he disappeared. Besides, I’m no longer of the Human Clan. I can’t experience much of what humans feel—far from perfect.”
The girl looked toward the sky. Heavenly Tribulation wanted to descend there—punishment for her forcibly ascending to Jade Radiance and breaking the rules by summoning someone from Reverse Time and Space.
But the girl merely cast a calm glance at the Heavenly Tribulation and said, “He already returned. If you still insist on pestering us, even setting me aside, that one who cultivates the Dao of Time may not sit idly by.”
The Heavenly Tribulation paused.
“As an exchange, I will not obstruct your future arrangements. Chaos indeed ought to end.”
Red Fox leaned her head closer. “What are you jabbering about? Can’t you treat my injuries first… huh?”
A starry radiance fell, the Heavenly Dao title descending upon her—Red Fox ascended to Jade Radiance on the spot.
The girl turned her head and sized Red Fox up from head to toe. “I want to transform into the Human Clan, you—”
The fox was still savoring her own Jade Radiance arts when she abruptly flared up. “Don’t look at me! I’m not some dowry you’re taking along! What’s so interesting about those hairless humans? And besides—what kind of rabbit eats grass right beside its own burrow like you?”
The Nether Lord shook her head. “I want to help the Human Clan win.”
Red Fox twitched her ears, and her big tail stood up. “It’ll be very difficult.”
“Call Jue and the others to Jianmu. The Human Clan has prepared quite a bit as well.”
The Nether Lord looked toward the sky. That was her Nether Kingdom—hers and Feather’s Nether Kingdom.
A small illusory light orb appeared in the girl’s hand. It was Granny Long’s remnant will.
Red Fox swept her tail against the Nether Lord’s leg and said, “You really want to do it this way?”
“This is my Dao. There’s no reason not to try.”
The Nether Lord carefully tossed Granny Long’s remnant will into the Nether Kingdom. This would be the first illusory spirit to walk upon the ground of the Nether Kingdom. It had drunk deeply of the Nether Lord’s flesh and blood; from decayed flesh, it would sooner or later bloom with new life.
Red Fox said irritably, “You should know—even if she lives, she won’t be Granny Long anymore.”
“Mm.”
The girl only gave a brief response, then stood atop Mount Long, looking toward the misty sea.
“Senior Sister? What are you looking at?”
Qiu Yuehan withdrew her gaze, discarding the tangled memories in her mind.
“I’m looking at the clouds. The clouds here are quite beautiful.”
Moon Fairy tightened her grip on her sword. Her sword was exceedingly thin—and exceedingly fierce—but when she lightly waved it now, the clouds atop Mount Long wrapped themselves around the sword, finally turning into a strip of cloud brocade.
Xia Lianxue looked at Qiu Yuehan in astonishment.
She knew her senior sister’s talent was superb, but she had never imagined Qiu Yuehan’s talent to reach such a height.
When the little white-robed fairy followed Feng Xianlong in cultivation, Feather Moon Immortal Palace had already grown into an enormous power filled with countless geniuses—yet none of those countless geniuses could rank before Qiu Yuehan.
The title of Jade Palace’s chief True Disciple was indeed well-deserved.
Xia Lianxue suddenly thought of something else.
The two True Disciples of the Jade Palace were cultivated to inherit the position. But Xia Lianxue herself was already the Palace Mistress of the Jade Palace—so the remaining successor would be none other than Qiu Yuehan.
Was she supposed to hand her position over to Qiu Yuehan?
The very thought made Xia Lianxue’s head ache, because Qiu Yuehan was still the Young Master’s, the Young Master’s… what exactly?
Xia Lianxue gritted her teeth a little, but decided to just regard her senior sister as Heavenly Mountain’s little junior sister for now.
Then would that Dao Sect Master also fight her for someone?
Everything was tangled like a ball of yarn. Whatever—let the Jade Palace be whatever it wished in the future.
The Palace Mistress of the Jade Palace decided to stop thinking.
Qiu Yuehan turned back and said, “The ritual has begun.”
The sun had already set. The moon replaced the sun, and torches were lit all around. The runes upon the stone platforms emitted a bright azure glow. Countless fireflies seemed to crawl out of the forest, attaching themselves to those runes, fluttering alongside their radiance.
In the firelight, the shadows of the Moon Fairy’s eyelashes flickered, hiding her emotions. She suddenly asked, “Junior Sister, do you know whom the Spirit Clan is worshipping in this ritual?”
Xia Lianxue tilted her head. “No idea. Didn’t they say they’re worshipping their ancestors?”
The little fairy wasn’t part of the Spirit Clan—how would she know who their ancestors were?
Qiu Yuehan narrowed her eyes. Memories triggered by the ritual grew clearer.
“Junior Sister, I once read in an ancient text that the Spirit Clan of old nearly all died in the war against the Demon Clan. Only a small number of Spirit Clan members were led by their ancestor to Mount Long—to suppress… suppress something.”
“And what ancient text was that?”
“Something I stumbled upon,” Qiu Yuehan could only say.
Xia Lianxue felt her senior sister was strange—just like the Young Master. Every time something new happened, they claimed it came from some ancient book.
She was the Palace Mistress of the Jade Palace, had cultivated for over a thousand years—how had she never heard of such ancient texts?
Qiu Yuehan pointed toward Lan Xi, who had already donned a moon-white ritual robe. “If Mount Long is a place that suppresses something, why would they perform an ancestral ritual here?”
As soon as her words fell—
Lan Xi had already raised the white jade scepter high, chanting ancient words no one else could understand.
Qiu Yuehan frowned and looked toward a Spirit Clan member nearby. “Do you understand what this ritual chant means?”
That Spirit Clan member froze. He hadn’t wanted to answer her, but somehow he felt he didn’t dare refuse. “Not sure. It should be a ritual chant passed down orally from the clan leader.”
Which meant—
These Spirit Clan members themselves didn’t know what their ritual chant meant.
Qiu Yuehan understood it. It was the language of the ancient Spirit Clan. Its general meaning was: *using the identity of the Spirit Clan to call their ancestor back.*
Lan Xi was still chanting, and even lifted the ritual blade to drip his blood onto the center of the altar.
That was extremely common in rituals—blood and flesh as the link, proof of lineage, allowing the one receiving the ritual to distinguish their descendants.
The runes shining with blue light abruptly turned crimson, startling the onlookers.
If the memory she had seen was real, then Qiu Yuehan was eight-tenths certain this ritual was absolutely not worshipping the so-called Spirit Clan ancestor. Then who was it worshipping?
She didn’t think further.
Qiu Yuehan turned to Xia Lianxue and said, “Stop the ritual. Junior Sister, I have a bad feeling.”
Though doubtful, Xia Lianxue did not argue. She raised a finger—Lan Xi, halfway through the ritual, was lifted into the air and unable to move at all.
The two quickly descended onto the altar.
Lan Xi struggled. “Honored guests, what is the meaning of this?”
Xia Lianxue looked toward Qiu Yuehan—only to find that her senior sister’s delicate face had turned icy-cold, colder than usual.
Qiu Yuehan said, “This ritual of yours—are you certain it’s for your ancestor?”
Lan Xi answered immediately, “Of course.”
Moon Fairy asked again, “When did the ritual begin?”
That question had never been asked before. By reason, the starting point of a ritual should be difficult to trace.
“Since ancient times.”
Qiu Yuehan shook her head. “Junior Sister, he’s lying.”
Xia Lianxue narrowed her eyes. The force in her hand tightened. Time power surged around Lan Xi, causing him to age rapidly.
The once merely elderly Lan Xi instantly aged into something unrecognizable—like a strong old tree turning worm-ridden, becoming a dying piece of rotted wood.
Lan Xi could only cry out, “Three thousand years ago! It only began three thousand years ago!”
The little fairy snorted coldly, forcing him to speak truthfully.
The Spirit Clan ritual wasn’t inherited from antiquity, and the peak of Mount Long had never housed the Spirit Clan.
But three thousand years ago, on a certain night, a massive storm fell. A bolt of lightning struck the peak of Mount Long. Fire consumed the mountain for an entire night, revealing the altar.
And that very night, a Black-robed Man knocked on the door of the Spirit Clan’s patriarch.
He said, “The Spirit Clan has been suppressed by the Human Clan for too long, to the point of forgetting their original abilities. As long as you perform the ritual day and night at the mountaintop and use your blood to commune with your ancestor, the ancestor of the Spirit Clan will grant you blessings.”
The patriarch had been half-skeptical, thinking there was no harm in worshipping their ancestor. Thus, they began the ritual the next day, even constructing a massive jade cauldron according to the Black-robed Man’s instructions, and performed the ritual using the chant he taught.
And indeed, anomalies occurred. The Sacred Pearl manifested out of thin air, helping Spirit Clan members break through many stages in a short time.
Qiu Yuehan said coldly, “Where is that Black-robed Man now?”
Lan Xi screamed, “I don’t know! I really don’t know!”
Moon Fairy turned her gaze to her junior sister. “Junior Sister, did anything happen three thousand years ago?”
“Three thousand years ago, apart from the first appearance of the Nether Kingdom.” The Little Fairy furrowed her brows, then pondered carefully. “And then, four hundred years ago, when the Food-Buddha Temple was founded, they once claimed their origin traced back to a True Buddha from two thousand six hundred years ago.”
Xia Lianxue also only remembered these two matters. After all, the Little Fairy was not someone from three thousand years ago. A millennium was long enough to bury many things—if one truly wanted to know, perhaps they would have to ask the vanished Feng Xianlong.
Boom!
The three of them turned their heads simultaneously.
The Blood Demon on the altar was glowing strangely, accompanied by an unsettling chewing sound.
“The moon!”
Tonight, it should have been a bright, round, cold moon, yet at that moment, the moon had turned into a crescent—and its color into a deep, scarlet red, as if it were about to drip blood.
Lan Xi looked at the scene, then suddenly grinned savagely. “So it’s true! Our clan’s ancestor was suppressed beneath Mount Long by you humans!”
Xia Lianxue pressed, “What ancestor?”
“When your Human Clan won the fortune of Heaven, you suppressed our Spirit Clan’s ancestor under Mount Long! If that black-robed man hadn’t told our previous patriarch, we Spirit Clan might have been deceived by you until extinction!”
Qiu Yuehan said expressionlessly, “So, even though your Spirit Clan obtained the Sacred Pearl and later lost it, you still continued performing sacrifices on this mountain—only to use the clan’s connection to feed the ancestor sealed below, preparing to release it someday?”
Lan Xi laughed arrogantly. “Exactly! You humans forbid other standing races from possessing Jade Radiance. Now you shall reap your retribution! Our ancestor had already attained Dao long ago. Once released, it will become a Jade Radiance your humans never anticipated!”
Xia Lianxue said indifferently, “Mm, go on.”
Lan Xi froze for a moment.
Only then did he recall that the Palace Mistress of the Jade Palace had long since attained Jade Radiance. The so-called ancestor, suppressed for countless years—even if freed—could it defeat the Little Fairy in White?
But he did not panic at all. Instead, he sneered. “That black-robed man said that when our ancestor is reborn, he will also return.”
If that black-robed man was also a Jade Radiance, then it would be two against one.
The Little Fairy was still only at the Sixth Realm—there was no way she could win.
Qiu Yuehan said coldly, “Do you truly think what’s sealed beneath this mountain is your ancestor?”
Lan Zun retorted, “Otherwise? Our Spirit Clan has been stationed here for ten thousand years!”
“Being played for fools for so long, and you still feel proud about it?!” The Moon Fairy raised her sword horizontally, her voice icy. “Junior Sister, we have a serious problem.”
Even without Qiu Yuehan’s warning, Xia Lianxue already understood—because from the altar, blood was bubbling up with a gurgling sound. That thick, wormlike blood quickly spread and crawled outward.
A Spirit Clan member muttered in confusion, “What is this?”
The blood soon engulfed him. His flesh and blood were completely devoured by the crimson tide.
Lan Xi shouted in disbelief, “Impossible!”
Qiu Yuehan snapped, “Fool! If what’s sealed below were truly your ancestor, would we humans allow your Spirit Clan to live here?”
Lan Xi had clearly never considered that.
Perhaps he believed it was a form of humiliation—that humans had suppressed their ancestor and then made them guard the seal.
“Junior Sister! What’s sealed beneath is the Blood Demon! These idiots have been feeding it every ten years—it’s about to come out!” Qiu Yuehan cried.
Xia Lianxue immediately circulated her Dao of Time, attempting to reverse the seal back to its unopened state. But the massive altar was already collapsing inch by inch. The surging blood only paused momentarily before continuing to gush forth endlessly. The entire Mount Long was now shrouded in a nauseating stench of blood.
“Blood Demon? Impossible! The Blood Demon should have been sealed in the Blood Demon Palace!” Xia Lianxue said incredulously. “The Blood Demon Master of the Blood Demon Palace was the one who suppressed the Blood Demon, then devoured it to comprehend the Blood Path and ascend to Jade Radiance!”
That was, in fact, a secret of the cultivation world.
The Blood Demon Palace, a rising force, did not have an ancient predecessor like the Jade Palace. It was founded by the Blood Demon Master, who rose to power alone.
The Blood Demon Master cultivated the Blood Path, and the foundation of the palace itself lay in the Blood Demon suppressed beneath it—whose power the master drew through great supernatural means.
It was precisely because of this that those of the Blood Demon Palace advanced at an astonishing pace, firmly securing their place among the Nine Sects and Twelve Palaces.
But if the Blood Demon was beneath the Blood Demon Palace—then what was sealed under Mount Long?
That question was soon answered.
In the center of the altar, within that viscous, swamp-like blood, a figure slowly began to take form.
It was a colossal, blood-colored worm!
It, too, was a Blood Demon—but the strangest thing was that this worm possessed only half a body. On its forehead, woven from writhing threads of blood, was a large character—冥 (Ming).
Qiu Yuehan had already slashed out a sword light. “Junior Sister! It has already emerged—Mount Long can no longer be stayed in. This place has become its demon kingdom!”
Throughout the thousands of years of suppression, the Blood Demon had infiltrated every corner of Mount Long.
From the gazes of Qiu Yuehan and Xia Lianxue, the entire mountain seemed to be bleeding.
The Little Fairy, moving swiftly, tried to sweep Qiu Yuehan away—but in the next instant, the one she wrapped up turned into a puddle of blood.
“Senior Sister?!”
The surrounding blood curtain parted. At some unknown moment, the real Qiu Yuehan had been switched.
The Little Fairy in White, ignoring the blood staining her robe, tore through the blood curtain—and finally saw the truth. Qiu Yuehan had already been seized by a crimson hand, being dragged toward the worm’s enormous maw.
The Blood Demon knew Xia Lianxue would be difficult to deal with, so it had never targeted her.
Moreover, that face which had suppressed it for tens of thousands of years—the Blood Demon could never forget. From the moment of its rebirth, it went mad, bent solely on vengeance against the Nether Lord.
And now, its enemy was right before its eyes. No matter the cost, it would kill Qiu Yuehan here.
Xia Lianxue raised her sword. She cultivated the Dao of Time, but her mastery of the Thirteen Swords of the Jade Palace was also formidable, and she had learned Lu Changyuan’s swordsmanship well.
The sword light blooming from the girl’s hand reached the monstrous hand in an instant. The Blood Demon’s body was sliced apart inch by inch—yet Qiu Yuehan was still not saved.
The Blood Demon, even while grievously wounded by Xia Lianxue’s strike, still risked damaging its origin power—just to devour Qiu Yuehan.
“Senior Sister!”
Xia Lianxue’s voice echoed from afar, filled with desperate anxiety.
Qiu Yuehan coughed a mouthful of blood. Her frail body was crushed under the monstrous grip; she heard her own bones wailing. The hem of her black dress was stained with her own bright red blood, dazzlingly vivid. The sprayed blood turned to mist and was instantly absorbed by the Blood Demon’s mouth.
The fairy’s cherry lips turned pale as she bit down, trying to lift her sword—only to hear the sound of another bone cracking. The gaping maw full of sharp fangs loomed before her. She looked as fragile as a blossom drifting in the clouds, as helpless as a willow in the storm.
Was she about to be eaten?
For no reason at all, Qiu Yuehan suddenly thought of many things. The old monster’s face flashed before her eyes. Her past memories flowed like a gentle stream.
So hot.
A surge of heat suddenly seared across her fair foot. The jade bracelet on her ankle glowed intensely, scorching her delicate skin.
The agony across her body made Qiu Yuehan think she was hallucinating.
She seemed to… see someone?
They said one sees a revolving lantern before death—was this her lantern?
Bang!
It sounded as if a hammer struck the ground—an earth-shattering impact. The Blood Demon was forced to release Qiu Yuehan, its massive worm body smashed halfway into the ground.
Qiu Yuehan drifted downward like a black snowflake, falling into Xia Lianxue’s arms.
From the “Ming” character on the worm’s forehead stepped out a man in dark robes, a long sword strapped to his back. It was he who had driven the worm into the earth.
No one knew why he did not use that razor-sharp sword.
Xia Lianxue cried out in delight, “Young Master?!”
Lu Changyuan smiled. “Mm.”
Then, suspended in midair, he stomped on the worm’s body, blood spraying everywhere. “Long time no see—well, to you it might be. But to me, I’m truly sick of you.”
His eyes opened and closed once.
Before Lu Changyuan could even react, he saw the Blood Demon worm open its maw once again—as if to swallow Qiu Yuehan whole.
He instinctively threw a punch.