Inner Demons

Chapter 98: Friend

Li Yunxin finished humming a song, but Young Master Nine had not yet arrived. ≤.

He stood up and used another painting. As before, this painting contained a little spiritual energy from Young Master Nine; in fact, if one worshipped this painting, Young Master Nine would also absorb the incense and votive power.

After using the second one, he sat down again and continued humming.

This continued... until noon. He had used nine paintings in total.

The sun was directly overhead, the sky a brilliant blue, without a single cloud. The sunlight steamed the leaves and grass, his cotton robe was dry and warm, and tiny beads of sweat even began to seep onto his body.

But he didn't try to stretch, instead he wrapped himself up even more. After a quarter of an hour like this, sweat was also seeping from his forehead—and combined with an entire night and morning without drinking or eating, he looked a little disheveled at the moment.

He rubbed his eyes, took out the tenth painting, and offered it.

After the faint light from this painting dissipated, Li Yunxin heard footsteps behind him.

And a familiar voice.

"Why are you so eager to summon me, young master? Are you in a hurry to die?"It wasn't a friendly tone; the speaker seemed quite displeased.

But Li Yunxin sighed with relief inwardly and a smile appeared on his face. Then he suddenly turned around, his smile abruptly gone, replaced by a look of panic and anxiety: "Young Master Nine, something terrible has happened!!"

"...Ah." Young Master Nine saw his expression, and his originally menacing face froze slightly. After a moment, a cruel and eerie smile reappeared, and he bared a row of sharp teeth, "Then tell me, what terrible thing has happened, ah?"

As he spoke, the teeth in his mouth slowly elongated. By the time he finished the upward inflection of the trailing "ah," his mouth had almost stretched to his ears, and the white teeth in his mouth... had become fangs!

Such a set of teeth, appearing on a handsome man, and under the brilliant sun... was utterly bizarre and terrifying.

His demeanor and tone were as if he had originally been filled with anger, ready to demand an explanation, but found Li Yunxin's reaction completely unexpected. So, the flood of rage was temporarily held back due to this anomaly—but only temporarily, with an extremely dangerous attitude, he intended to listen to what the person in front of him had to say.

Once a word went wrong, it would erupt with double the intensity!

Li Yunxin wiped a bead of sweat, completely unconcerned by his attitude, and quickly pointed into the Wei River: "You must leave quickly! No time to explain! Someone wants your life! I waited here just to tell you this! I thought you wouldn't be able to come!"

"I have all the time in the world, young master." Young Master Nine's eyes gradually turned light yellow. His pupils also became increasingly narrow—Li Yunxin knew this was a prelude to extreme anger.

But he still didn't care: "If you consider me a friend, then leave quickly! Don't you know I won't live much longer?! Do you want me to die in vain!?"

He took a deep breath, and before Young Master Nine's pupils completely narrowed to a thin line, he said, "I have ordered people to replace all your divine positions near Weicheng! Although I don't know if it will be effective or if it can be done, but... she has discovered it!"

As soon as these words were spoken, it was as if time had been paused, and the gears had jammed.

Young Master Nine's extremely angry expression froze on his face. Then his gaze suddenly softened, returning to normal: "You? Hmm? You had someone do it? You did this on purpose?"

Li Yunxin blinked in surprise: "Ah? You... know about this?"

Young Master Nine didn't speak, his eyes strangely rolling around in their sockets. After rolling for a while, he said gloomily, "Then tell me, why did you do this?"

"I know you are the Wei River Dragon King!" Li Yunxin shouted excitedly, "When that woman came looking for me, I thought long and hard and realized there must be a reason. I checked the Temple Annals and the aura in the Three Rivers' Mouth Dragon King Temple, and then I knew you were the Wei River Dragon King!"

"The deity in Old Daoist Liu's temple was originally yours... I removed your deity to break the seal on myself, replacing it with mine—to receive that incense and votive power. Later I learned..." Li Yunxin gritted his teeth, stared directly at Young Master Nine, as if trying to suppress his emotions, "Later I learned this... You... you... you truly treat me as a friend!"

After these words, Young Master Nine's handsome face subtly tilted back almost imperceptibly, but then quickly leaned forward again—as if the turbulent and intense emotions Li Yunxin expressed just now had astonished him like a raging wave and made him difficult to bear. But in an instant, he realized...

That was precisely the emotion he had always longed for.

The security of being... truly cared for, without any cost, exchange, or effort.

Young Master Nine was Chiwen, the ninth son of the Dragon.

Last night, Li Yunxin had thoroughly questioned the Great Ghost.

The Great Ghost had been in the world for over four hundred and sixty years, and had been hiding with Young Master Nine for so long—it was the one who knew the most about this Dragon's Son near Weicheng.

At Qionghua Tower, Li Yunxin knew that Young Master Nine was looking for the Great Ghost, so he asked Liu Ling to capture it for him. He only thought that since Young Master Nine was looking for it so eagerly, perhaps he had something that his "good friend" valued highly, which he could use.

However, what he learned from the Great Ghost last night... far exceeded his imagination.

Although the Great Ghost was not as clear-headed and logical as ordinary people feared, it was different from ghosts like Qiao Jiaxin. Li Yunxin only questioned him for an hour, but he figured out many things.

This Young Master Nine...

Turned out to be disfavored.

There are true dragons in this world. And there is only one true dragon.

This true dragon beast commands all aquatic and even demonic creatures, almost equivalent to the emperor of the demon world.

But this true dragon's "imperial title" was not bestowed by anyone—it was earned by itself. It is said that when the true dragon was born, there were many other powerful great demons in the world, but they were all subdued by the true dragon one by one.

Thereafter, the "nobles" of the demon world submitted to the dragon's might, giving it supreme authority.

Once the world was pacified, this true dragon went into seclusion.

After seclusion... it then appointed nine sons.

They were—Qiuniu, Yazi, Chaofeng, Pulao, Suanni, Baxia, Bi'an, Fuxi, and Chiwen.

These nine sons managed seven tenths of the world's waterways. Although this management was not absolute or powerfully controlling, but more like a nominal "lord" of a region, regardless...

This world is vast. According to Li Yunxin's estimation, the territory of this Great Qing Dynasty was roughly one-third of the country he was from. But such a land area was only a middle-sized empire among many dynasties.

To the north of Qing Kingdom, across the Ye Kingdom, was the known world's superpower—Li. The territory of Li Kingdom was roughly equivalent to ten Qing Kingdoms. And the Emperor of Li Kingdom even called himself "Heavenly Emperor."