In 《The Fisherman’s Story》, there was a fisherman who went out to sea, fished out a bottle made of copper and released the evil demon that was locked away inside.
The evil demon that was sealed by the god of heaven within the bottle told the Fisherman that during the first century of his imprisonment, he had decided that should someone release him from within the bottle, then to repay that person he would bestow them enough riches to last their lifetime. But no one came to save him.
During the second century of his imprisonment, the evil demon decided: Should there be someone who could save him, then he would dig up all the treasures beneath this earth for them. But still no one came to save him.
During the third century, he started to think: Should there be someone who could save him, then he would fulfill three of their wishes. And still, no one came to save him.
As the fourth century trapped within the bottle rolled by, the miserable evil demon swore: Should there be anyone that came to save him, he will kill that person.
… Just like Fu Wang.
During the first ten years when Shu Yu died, he escaped from the Abyss and fell into frenzied vengeance. He kept slaughtering fox demons, refusing to let even a single one escape. Afterwards, it was the Tiger Clan and other clans. All the demons who became involved with that hunt were all devoured by him and turned into devil qi to nourish himself.
As the number of demons dwindled, Fu Wang gradually became unstoppable. Faced with a Devil brimming with grief and hatred, the demons could do nothing but retreat and run, hiding away within mountains and forests inside secret realms or fleeing to the human realm. The lands of Mengze splintered apart, at least until the Spirit Clan offered up the remnants of an ancient scroll; within the scroll, there was a broken Soul Re-Coalescing Formation scribbled on, which could re-coalesce souls who had been torn apart and dispersed.
The Devil who had fallen to madness put a stop to his rampage. As if he had been bestowed a treasure beyond measure, he started collecting countless scrolls and ingredients and, after a painstaking amount of effort, by the time the second decade rolled around he had managed to restore the ancient Soul Re-Coalescing Formation.
However, for some reason, the Soul Re-Coalescing Formation did not fulfill its intended purpose at all. Perhaps it was because Shu Yu’s soul had dissipated too cleanly, or perhaps it was because she didn’t belong to this world to start with, the Soul Re-Coalescing Formation was useless.
Being submerged in misery and then given hope, and then once again being disappointed, that feeling made the already maddened Devil go even more crazed.
He killed the branch of the Spirit Clan that had offered him the Soul Re-Coalescing Formation, and this time, he started slaughtering all the demon clans. It didn’t matter if they hadn’t participated in hunting Shu Yu and him or not, they all indiscriminately died once he hunted them down. This became a slaughter even more cruel than the one a decade before, it almost exterminated all the demon clans; even those half-demons and mixed demons who followed Fu Wang, there were countless of them who died by the hands of the crazed, insane Devil Lord.
Those ten years became something that made any surviving demon turn pale at its mere mention. The name of the Devil Lord – Fu Wang – once again resounded throughout Mengze, becoming the nightmare in the hearts of every demon.
It wasn’t like no one didn’t try resisting, however, no matter how many forces were gathered, they were all slaughtered and devoured by Fu Wang, and instead it only served to empower him.
The Devil Lord – temperamental and terrifying – became the nightmare in the hearts of the demon race. Even the demon clans who had submitted and become his subordinates were afraid of being consumed by him every day, worried that one day he would suddenly go on a rampage and kill them all.
But their worries didn’t come true. The Devil Lord who had indiscriminately slaughtered countless demons – as if he had grown tired of all of this – started to fall silent and stopped devouring other demons. He stopped killing. He stopped seeing anyone at all. In a place where no one was allowed near, he shut himself away quietly for ten entire years, becoming so quiet that the demons almost thought that perhaps he had died.
The whispers of how the Devil Lord, Fu Wang, had once fancied the Saintess of the Fox Clan – Tianfeng Jinyu – wasn’t a secret with the demon clans of then. On the days where the Devil Lord gradually sank into silence, someone within the demon race who slowly let their guard down tried sending to the Devil Lord a demoness who looked similar to Tianfeng Jinyu. However, no demon could’ve expected for this to be the beginning of another tragedy.
As soon as the Devil Lord saw that demoness, he laughed. Then, with eyes which had turned bloodshot red, he killed the demoness who looked extremely like Tianfeng Jinyu; he clawed off her face, sliced her apart limb by limb, and then slowly and gradually crushed her into paste.
That kind of cruelty was bone-chilling even amongst the demon race, but it didn’t stop there. The long-baiting blood seemed to arouse the bloodlust within the Devil Lord’s heart. The demon race who had barely begun to recover started to be mercilessly slaughtered by the Devil Lord once again. The Winged Clan that had previously sent the demoness also met a similar fate to that of the Fox Clan.
The Winged Clan had no choice but take their clan and escape to the human realm, the Devil Lord therefore chased them to the human realm.
During that time, the human realm had already gone up into smokes, the world was dark and dreary with every country at war with each other, its bloody and murderous atmosphere was even more intense than that of Mengze.
The Devil Lord seemed to become intrigued by and attracted to the wars. He would help the defeated countries win against stronger countries, and after waiting for the weak country to become strong, he would go on to aid even weaker countries and lead them to defeat the previous one. He coaxed the human continent into an even more chaotic mess and the human population within the continent started decreasing as a result of the endless wars.
But the Devil Lord seemed to have fallen in love with this kind of feeling. During wars, countless people lost their loved ones and became miserable like him.
That’s right. The heavens had taken away his beloved, how could these people still live so happily? It was the nature of a Devil to destroy and plunder, to take away the joy of others, to make everyone suffer alongside him as he despaired for someone who had long since died.
The heavens looked down at him with loftiness and made him lose his beloved with a mere wave of their hands, so why shouldn’t he do the same? The Devil thought this with malice in his heart, playing the countries of the human realm like fiddle the palm of his hand. The rise and falls of kingdoms became a result of his whims.
Nevertheless, such games soon came to an end, because Fu Wang suddenly started to become disgusted with the unending passing of time. He still remembered how he used to scheme madly to try and increase his lifespan, but now that he had such an abundance of it, he began to get sick of it.
Every day was the same. Every day was uninteresting and aggravating. Whether it was massacres or anything else, nothing could move his heart anymore.
The remembrance and love towards that departed beloved gradually festered with the pain and loneliness of each passing day, eventually morphing into a deep-sated malice.
In the very beginning, when Shu Yu had died, Fu Wang had thought: Should there be anyone who could return Shu Yu to him, he would be willing to fulfill all the wishes of that person in return.
Later, after ten more years passed, Fu Wang thought again: Should Shu Yu be able to come back right now, he shall never kill again, he shall never hurt another again. He will want for nothing, no overwhelming strength nor a long lifespan, he will only take Shu Yu away and live in a place where it was only the two of them.
After another ten years, Fu Wang thought in despair: Should he be allowed to see Shu Yu one more time, he was willing to give up on his life.
And then, after having succumbed to his despair, Fu Wang’s heart suddenly began festering hatred towards that dead beloved for no reason. Even though she had done nothing wrong, even though he knew this clearly, he still could not control the hatred and malice taking root in his heart.
Why did he have to meet someone who would become more important than his own life? Why did she have to die so unexpectedly before his eyes? Why did she have to keep appearing endlessly in his mind? Why did he have to be constantly tormented like this?
If he could go back in time… If he could meet her once more, then he must kill her before she ever met him.
Whether it’s her body or her soul, he shall devour every part of her, this way, he won’t have to keep hurting or continue to desperately seek an impossible hope. He will never have to gain and lose something, again and again and again.
If it is so painful and meaningless, then why not simply destroy everything? The Devil thought this, his bright red lips splitting into a bloodthirsty grin.
Whether it was human or demon territory, everything became a warzone. The skies were dyed with a faint red, the smell of blood spread to every corner of the world, as far as the eye could see. The Devil brought war, death, and endless suffering. He seemingly sought to kill every living creature, until finally, the carnage of the Devil Lord wrought upon himself the punishment of the Heavenly Dao.
One divine thunderbolt after another seemed intent on eradicating him, yet even the Heavenly Dao could not easily subdue him. After a long stalemate, it was finally the Heavenly Dao which emerged victorious.
The once destroyed Abyss of Buried Gods became Acheron Mountain. The Devil Lord, Fu Wang, was suppressed in the underworld situated within the deepest depths of the mountain. There was nothing there but the altar where the Devil Lord was pinned upon. The light from the sky could not reach the dark, the sounds from the outside could not reach it either, there was only absolute silence and darkness, as well as the pain of having one’s soul flayed day after day.
A hundred years crawled by like this. The torment of having his soul torn apart day after day, the suppression of his body, the flogging of his soul, all his love and hatred was gradually worn away amidst the unending pain.
Time can erase everything, including the love and hatred which had once been engraved into his bones.
Fu Wang had once devoured the demigod corpse of Tianfeng Jinyu; he also devoured the remnants of that god who was imprisoned by the Grand Elder of the Fox Clan. The soul of a devil was tough, such that even the Heavenly Dao could only suppress it rather than eradicate it in one shot. And yet, in the midst of such punishment, Fu Wang unexpectedly went along with it and tore apart his soul into three pieces of souls and seven mortal senses1三魂七魄, there are many interpretations of this, however in Daoism it points towards each person having “Three souls, seven mortal forms/senses”, the former representing the spirit and the latter representing carnal desires. It often comes up in CN novels and PERHAPS already came up in past chapters, but i’m leaving this note here just in case., leaving a single piece of his soul – the spectral essence2幽精, one of the three souls/spirits in 三魂七魄, as depicted in Daoism. behind. He therefore utilized this to deceive the Heavenly Dao, leaving that piece with his body underneath Acheron Mountain, while the remaining two parts and seven forms made their way to the human world.
The piece of soul left behind was allocated with his emotions. By separating that part of his soul from himself, leaving it to become suppressed with his body underneath Acheron Mountain, Fu Wang had abandoned his own emotions.
Without emotions, even if he still retained the memories, they would still be forgotten little by little in the centuries – a near millennia – that followed.
At least, Fu Wang thought he had forgotten.
Even with only a soul, Fu Wang was still very much powerful. He used corpses and devil qi to create a shell that could suit his needs and walked amidst humans, seeking a way to allow himself to completely break the shackles of the Heavenly Dao.
The Heavenly Dao was intricately linked with Fate. In his divination, Fu Wang learnt that a dynasty would rise in the future and that a monarch boundlessly favored by Fate would appear— the child beloved by the Heavenly Dao.
If he could seize the fate and blessings of that person, he will surely be able to break out from below Acheron Mountain.
Thus, Fu Wang became the Grand Advisor of Tianyun Kingdom, guarding the country, watching as it grew stronger and stronger. Generations of kings died, and new kings appeared, until the current master of Tianyun Kingdom – Long Xuan – was born.
When Long Xuan was born, he was the only one who saw the ephemeral sight of a dragon soaring into the heavens. Without a doubt, this was the sacrifice necessary to confront the Heavenly Dao that he had long waited for.
Originally, he meant to seize it immediately, but something unnatural seemed to stop him. Moreover, Long Xuan seemed to hold a sort of malice towards him; the fates protected him, rejecting the approach of a devil like him.
Fu Wang was unconcerned though; he had sincerely become bored after the long passing of time, there was no harm in playing for a while, after all, the life of a mortal could end so quickly like the snap of one’s fingers.
But Fu Wang did not expect that another person who possessed great blessings from fate would appear, Situ Jingjing. Her fate began to gradually thicken from the moment she met Long Xuan. Fu Wang didn’t go meet Situ Jingjing, he merely fiddled with his trigram board indifferently and decided to use both Children of Fate as sacrifices and consume them both.
Ever since his spectral essence was ripped away, there was nothing that could tug at his heartstrings anymore.
Yet that day, that woman in red came out from behind the screen during the evening banquet, a sword in her hand, and cast a glance in his direction.
As if separated by countless mountains and rivers, Fu Wang suddenly felt that those eyes were indescribably familiar.
Those red robes that fluttered inside the grand hall seemed to overlap with memories from so long ago in a single instant.
They both wore red clothes. They both used the sword. They both practiced the same sword stances. The whistle of wind, the cry of birds, the scent of flowers, the blue sky. A face he cannot remember, only a pair of eyes, shining with softness and affection when they looked at him, intoxicating him with merely its gaze.
“Fu Wang, what do you think of the sword stance I just learnt?” She said, her eyes filled with anticipation.
As that voice rang out in his head, the face which had seemed hidden away by a hazy halo of light began to become clear.
Shu Yu.
Sitting amidst the grand hall, Fu Wang expressionlessly looked at that person below who was performing with a sword, silently chewing through the name that had suddenly appeared within his heart. He had forgotten how long it had been since he had thought of this name, just as he had almost forgotten that there was such a person. He thought he had already completely forgotten.
But the once profound memories will not disappear, they can merely be sealed away. With a gust of wind, the pages of the dusty book fluttered wildly, bringing with it everything that had belonged in the past, just like… the rebirth of a nightmare.
So what if he remembered? His spectral essence was still pinned underneath Acheron Mountain. Even if he remembered some memories, they cannot move him in the slightest.
Furthermore, it was nothing more than a person who was merely slightly similar. That person has been dead for more than one thousand years. Fu Wang indifferently thought, quietly watching that red-clothed figure return behind the screen.
Once he returned to the Grand Advisor’s tower, FU Wang sat by the window, fiddling with a few divination cards between his fingers. Then, he proceeded to divine the fate of that red-clothed woman, Situ Jingjing. He had once divined her future before; the result was that she beheld the destiny of a clear phoenix. But this time, he was unable to see her destiny. Things that were closely related with the diviner cannot be divined.
The soul within Situ Jingjing’s body, was different from before.
Could it be, the return of an old acquaintance?
Fu Wang smiled gently and then changed into Ye Linhuai’s identity. Regardless of whether it was Ye Linhuai or the Grand Advisor, they were nothing more than bodies he had created on a whim; if he wished, he could settle into the role of any character he wanted to play.
He deliberately wore Ye Linhuai’s face – which was so similar to his own – and appeared in the path of that woman who was suspected to be an old acquaintance, and sure enough, she immediately chased after him, calling out his name in a voice full of joy.
“Fu Wang!”
Ah, so it really is the return of an old acquaintance.
This is just… truly wonderful.
During his most painful and hopeful times, she did not return; and now when he no longer cared about it, she suddenly appeared once again, her face full of innocence and confusion.
She did not know anything. She did not do anything wrong. But it was exactly because of this that Fu Wang suddenly desired to see— once she learnt of everything, what will her expression be like? She will surely cry, she will surely hurt, just like he did back then.
Fu Wang’s thoughts were cruel, still smiling as he steadied Shu Yu and gave her a negative response.
I am not your Fu Wang. Your Fu Wang is already dead.
Desiring for her to experience the same torment as he did, Fu Wang took control of everything around her and lured her to the Grand Advisor’s pavilion and showed her the book depicting the history of the Devil Lord.
Do you wish to save Fu Wang? Will you save him? Even after becoming such an irredeemable and wicked villain, will you still save him? If you have to trade something which you care about for it, would you be willing?
With great difficulty, she agreed to his request to sleep with him for a night, and then mechanically and soullessly went to soak in the bathing pool, like a puppy abandoned by its master, her head ducked low and dejected, lost, and helpless.
Fu Wang was hidden behind a curtain, watching her. Then his finger twitched and flicked a droplet of water into the pool. The droplet entered the water and transformed into a group of small fish that began chasing after Shu Yu and playing around, so rowdy that Shu Yu could not stifle her laugh, her reddened and swollen eyes almost crinkling together.
What am I doing? Fu Wang asked himself, staring at his own fingers. He suddenly felt this was absurd. His sleeves whipped as he left, returning to his bedchambers to wait.
Not long after, Shu Yu inched inside with an expression that looked tortured. Right then and there, Fu Wang sincerely meant to humiliate her, he knew what to do to make her suffer; however, when he pressed her underneath him and felt her trembling body, he stopped. Before he could realize what happened, the person on the bed was already properly asleep. She was even covered with a quilt.
What the hell am I doing? Fu Wang sat by the window and asked himself once again. Didn’t he wish to make her suffer? He had clearly stopped caring already, his heart was clearly full of malice, and yet when he saw her, he still couldn’t help but step back.
Fu Wang hasn’t felt this kind of alien emotions in far too long. He palmed his chest; the heartbeat of the shell he had created was slow and steady, his emotions were calm.
How about a game then?
Show me then, how far you’re willing to go for Fu Wang. If you can satisfy me, then I shall keep you a prisoner by my side forever; if you cannot satisfy me, then I will kill you, and this time I will devour your soul myself. There will be no one who can cause me pain then, not even you.
After becoming Yinlan, he purposely took her to that ruined village in the mountains which was occupied by demons, just to let her see the barbarity of demons. Now that she had become human, would she become afraid of these demons who ate humans? Would she be afraid of him?
It was a pity that the goal wasn’t reached. But that was fine, there was still more time to verify this point.
The most senior brother of the Malice-Suppressing Sect— this identity, just like Tianyun Kingdom’s Grand Advisor, was only created to make things convenient and to also pass the days in the meantime. Besides, the scenario where those righteous people who keep crying out to suppress and kill him and yet end up admiring a devil like him, honoring him as their leader, wasn’t that amusing?
It was only occasionally that Fu Wang would return here. Yet this time, once he returned and saw the stardew blossoms that covered the island, it suddenly dawned on him: The one whose obsession had not been extinguished, wasn’t it none other than himself?
Even if he had forgotten, his subconscious still sought for something. His habit persisted on year after year, as if it were mocking him: You indeed still remember.
He suddenly remembered that year, when Shu Yu secretly planted some stardew blossoms in their yard; because she had used too much water, the seeds had been soaked to death and could not germinate, so he had gotten up early in the morning and replaced them with a crop of budding stardew blossoms. She hadn’t wanted him to know, so he had not.
Once those stardew blossoms sprouted flowers, would she just feed them to him, or would she be silly and try to trick him into eating them?
Fu Wang could remember the soft, tender feelings he felt at that time.
Afterwards… They didn’t have the chance to wait until the stardew sprouted its flowers.
Fu Wang’s patience disappeared when faced with Shu Yu. He wished to know, if Shu Yu were to meet a person in a confusing, awful situation, who was good to her and guided her, would she fall in love with that person as well? Like how she had fallen in love with him back then.
However, after merely a few days, Fu Wang found it unbearable. Day after day, he would watch as Shu Yu avoided him, he watched her occasionally space out with a sad expression, he watched her toss and turn every night, unable to sleep, hiding under her quilt and softly crying.
An indescribable agitation made Fu Wang decide to stop enduring and he brought her to the underworld where the physical manifestation of the Devil was being suppressed and gave her a choice:
Save me, or kill me.
If you wish to kill me, I will not resist, but at the same time I will have you die with me. If you wish to save me, then I shall never let you leave me again— whether you are willing or not, whether you regret it or not, you can only be tethered to me for eternity.
“I’m so happy. You chose correctly, Xiao-Yu.”
Chapter Description:
Shu Yu: Alright so you don’t love me anymore? Ok, I understand. →_→
