Chapter 116.3

The big fish let out another furious roar, blasting them with waves of fetid wind.

It seemed to be expressing its displeasure. It had already come, yet these people were still chatting and laughing.

Runsheng and Yin Meng did indeed wipe the smiles from their faces. They knew they had to buy enough time for Binbin in the rear.

But when it came to stalling for time, Li Zhuiyuan had his own method.

The boy said, “Didn’t you just ask why? I can answer you now. After all, we have plenty of time at the moment.”

The big fish’s gaze fell on Li Zhuiyuan. Its fish lips moved, producing a heavy series of bubbling sounds.

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. “I can’t understand you.”

The fish’s gills flared, and though no one knew exactly how it was doing it, a voice emerged amid the muffled rumbling:

“Speak. How did you see through this seat’s disguise?”

Li Zhuiyuan smiled.

Tan Wenbin was setting up a formation in the back. It was not as though the other side had failed to notice.

They were deliberately buying time, but wasn’t the other side also deliberately cooperating with the delay?

What, was it hoping to use the formation I set up to seize a chance to escape this place?

He felt that earlier, the other side had looked down on him. But after what had just happened, it had started thinking infinitely highly of him instead.

My formation can get us out, sure, but you are the one this formation is specifically targeting. How could you possibly escape?

To make such a stupid mistake and indulge in that kind of daydream could only mean one thing: the other side was truly anxious and panicking, long since stripped of all composure.

When Li Zhuiyuan still did not speak, the big fish’s gills snapped open and shut. “Answer this seat!”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Why keep talking about ‘this seat’ and all that? Doesn’t it feel awkward? You should keep calling yourself ‘this poor Daoist’ instead, Daoist Yuxuzi.”

Unease and confusion surfaced in the big fish’s eyes, but they were quickly replaced by fury.

“What are you saying to this seat?”

“I’m saying, Daoist Yuxuzi, how long do you plan to keep acting?”

The big fish’s body froze, and its gills shut completely.

Li Zhuiyuan continued, “You’ve been acting all this time. Don’t you ever get tired? Or is it because outsiders rarely come here, so once you start performing, you just can’t stop?”

The fish opened its mouth again, and this time it opened it very wide. Inside, a human figure appeared.

It was Yuxuzi.

Only, multiple patches of flesh on Yuxuzi’s body were connected to the fish’s body. They were one entity to begin with. More accurately, Yuxuzi had grown out of the fish’s body.

That counted as a corpse demon within a Dead Sinker...

But unlike a traditional corpse demon, his human corpse was on the outside, while the fish body served as the main body.

The Yuxuzi inside the fish’s mouth no longer looked like an immortal sage. He was covered from head to toe in sticky fluid, like some animal that had just hatched.

Yuxuzi asked, “How did you discover it?”

Li Zhuiyuan replied, “Discover what? Discover that the true master of this place was never that fish demon, but rather Daoist Yuxuzi, who took demon-slaying and defending the Dao as his mission and even left behind an inscription outside praising himself?”

“How... did you discover it!”

“I only realized it after coming inside. When I walked to the riverbank and saw you, the formation eye, appear before me, I knew.

“To be honest, back outside, when I was studying this formation, I already felt it was crude.

“It did function, yes, but it lacked an extremely crucial part. It only suppressed; it did not grind away.

“If you rely purely on time to wear down evil things, how long would it take to suppress one to death?

“At the time, I was even thinking that not only would I help you repair this formation, I would also make some additions and changes on top of the original design. At the very least, I would make up for its missing erosion effect.

“But once I saw you appear, I knew I had been mistaken.

“Anyone capable of laying out a formation with both yin and yang formation eyes must have extraordinarily deep attainments in formation arts. How could someone like that make such a low-level mistake when setting up a suppressive formation against an evil being?

“Unless you did it on purpose.

“You deliberately made it only suppress and not grind down this creature, because you had your own objective.”

Li Zhuiyuan lifted his head and looked at the sky. Because they were inside the formation, the sky above them was gloomy.

“Daoist Yuxuzi, if I’m not mistaken, you laid this formation to deceive Heaven’s Way, didn’t you?”

Yuxuzi fell silent.

“You had your own designs on this demon. You wanted to merge with it, but you were afraid of heavenly punishment, so you deliberately set up this whole situation to give Heaven’s Way an explanation.

“That way, you could accumulate merit while also achieving your real purpose, killing two birds with one stone.

“Honestly, I’ve seen a few people who tried to muddle through and fool Heaven’s Way, but someone like you, willing to invest so heavily in the act, is a first for me.

“But what I can’t quite understand is this fish’s vitality was almost exhausted here already. Were you really merging that slowly? It took you this long?

“For example, this time, as the one-cycle deadline approached, you sent those fish out, intending to wipe out the descendants left in the area by your three disciples, to stop them from bringing the blood bowl as an offering.

“But Zhengmen Village has been gone for nearly three hundred years. Even if you completed the merge as early as fifty-nine years ago, that still means it took you over two hundred years.

“Did it really have to take that long?”

Yuxuzi said, “After sealing myself in here, I spent only forty years before I had gained control of the demon during the fusion. My consciousness had already overwhelmed its consciousness.”

“You succeeded in just forty years? Then by all logic, after the first full cycle, you should have been able to break free of the seal. Couldn’t you send messages to the outside then? Your three original disciples should not all have died yet, right? Even if they had, their second generation descendants should still have remembered their grand-master.”

This formation ran in cycles of sixty years. All they had to do was stop the three disciples and their descendants from performing the next blood bowl offering, and the formation would cease to operate. It would stop suppressing the demon.

That meant Yuxuzi had twenty years to communicate with the outside world. Even if he could not send a message directly, he could still have sent out those little fish.

Yuxuzi said, “After forty years, those three rebellious disciples were still alive and living nearby. But when I sent them a message, they thought it was the demon impersonating me, trying to bewitch them.”

“You didn’t tell those three disciples your real aim? Ah, right. If you wanted to hide something improper from Heaven’s Way, the fewer people who knew, the better.

“And then? Since they took you, their master, for a demon, you as their master surely wouldn’t have shown mercy, would you?

“Fish like those must not have been the first you sent out.”

“The three rebellious disciples had some ability, after all. Once those fish got out, they dealt with them themselves.”

At that moment, Li Zhuiyuan thought of the three mountains, and of the Xue, Zheng, and Zeng families, each situated in a different Min’an Town.

“So they not only dealt with the fish you sent out to kill them, they also took that as a warning. For the sake of their descendants, they set up even more measures to continue passing down this formation cycle every sixty years.

“Let me guess. There was a long stretch of time when you could not even find where those three families had gone, right?

“They no longer seemed to live here and had already moved away, but whenever the next sixty-year deadline came around, descendants of theirs would still appear with the blood bowl and extend your prison sentence all over again?”

Yuxuzi was silent.

Li Zhuiyuan knew he had guessed right.

“Daoist, that’s where you went wrong. Since you only wanted to put on a show for Heaven’s Way, and since you intended to get out someday, how did you end up choosing three disciples so outstanding to carry on this task?”

Yuxuzi answered, “When I came here, I deliberately chose the three disciples with the poorest talent, the most mediocre aptitude.”

This time, Li Zhuiyuan was the one who fell silent.

Yuxuzi laughed.

There was sorrow in that laughter, helplessness, fury, resentment, and just the faintest trace of consolation that came from being their master.

He had misjudged them. He had clearly brought the three stupidest disciples, thinking at the time that it would let him escape easily later.

Who would have thought those three dull disciples would steadily build themselves up and bloom so late in life?

Even Li Zhuiyuan found the arrangement of those three ancestral graves giving dream instructions to later descendants novel.

And the idea of splitting one Min’an Town into three, so that each of the three families would be rooted in a different Min’an Town, was something that left even Li Zhuiyuan amazed, even deeply impressed.

If those three had not needed to stay here to keep the demon sealed, and if their descendants had not been forced to remain rooted here to inherit that responsibility, then at the height of their lineages, those three families truly would have been qualified to make a name for themselves in the world of Xuanmen formations. And Li Zhuiyuan himself might even have stumbled across one of their formation treatises in Taigong’s basement.

That was truly a pity.

An even greater pity was that they still could not escape the cycle of history. Their families gradually declined, and their closed-off, reclusive family traditions only accelerated that decline.

Take Xue Liangliang, for example. He had absolutely no idea that his family had once belonged to the Xuanmen world as well.

Otherwise, when they went to meet the Bai Family Matron beneath the river, he might even have been able to compare seniority.

The decline of family inheritance was one factor. Another huge one was the new way society operated.

In the past, apart from natural disasters and human calamities, people rarely moved around. Generation after generation could genuinely live in the same place. But now, in each of the three surnamed families, some people had already left for major cities to build careers and settle down.

No matter how good the ancestors’ rules were, they could not withstand the tide of the times.

That, in turn, gave Yuxuzi another chance to break free from his cage.

And he had very nearly succeeded.

Li Zhuiyuan sighed. “Actually, those three really were your good disciples.”

“They were rebellious disciples,” Yuxuzi corrected. “When they destroyed the three fish I sent out, I refuse to believe they never once suspected that the messages truly came from me, their master.”

“Maybe it didn’t matter,” Li Zhuiyuan said. “Because in their eyes, their master was a great hero who had sacrificed himself alone to seal the demon. Their master had long since died a brave and glorious death.

“And you... what exactly are you?”

At that moment, Tan Wenbin planted the last formation flag.

Before Tan Wenbin could even send a signal, the big fish suddenly leaped up, trying to cross past the blockers and rush toward the newly arranged formation.

Runsheng instantly threw open his qi sea, gripped the Yellow River Spade, and viciously sliced at the fish’s belly.

Slash.

The big fish’s stomach was split open, and fish roe spilled everywhere.

Yin Meng lashed out with the whip in her hand. The whip slipped through the wound Runsheng had opened and plunged into the fish’s belly. At once, huge amounts of pus came pouring out of the wound.

But Yuxuzi completely ignored that brutally damaging assault. He would rather take the injury than miss his chance to reach the new formation at once.

Seeing that, Tan Wenbin was just about to throw himself in front of it like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

“Move. Let it go!”

Tan Wenbin immediately complied and rolled to the side.

The big fish landed inside the formation.

The Yuxuzi in its mouth began activating the formation.

Runsheng was about to rush forward to stop him, but Li Zhuiyuan stopped him first. “No need.”

The formation activated. The barrier in front of them twisted. The big fish began desperately forcing its way outward, as though it were about to succeed.

But at that very moment, the stone altar table outside suddenly cracked open, and a skeleton dressed in a yellow Daoist robe stood up from within.

It was Yuxuzi’s own corpse.

The skeleton walked up to the barrier, raised a fist, and smashed it toward the big fish trying to crawl out, toward the “himself” inside the fish’s mouth.

Boom!

The entire grand formation thundered.

Of the yin and yang formation eyes, the yin eye governed the inside, and the yang eye governed the outside.

With that single punch, the barrier stabilized again, and the big fish crashed back to the ground in despair.

The last sliver of hope had shattered.

That meant he would have to wait another sixty years. But the problem was, that demon no longer had another full cycle of vitality left in it.

After stabilizing the formation, the yellow-robed skeleton returned to the stone altar table, sat back down inside it, and the stone altar table closed up again, sealing it within. Only a bit of skull remained exposed on the tabletop, like an upside-down bowl.

Li Zhuiyuan’s gaze fell once more on that “brook.”

So the “brook” was not guiding you to the doorway. It was helping lead you into that river. In the past, all those fish could only be sent there. If they were sent directly out through this doorway or brought near the stone table, then the fish Yuxuzi himself sent out would be killed by Yuxuzi himself.

This Yuxuzi truly was a prodigy in formation arts. He really had managed to build something remarkable inside such cramped confines.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, “Daoist Yuxuzi, after being trapped here for so long, did you ever write any books in your spare time?”

The Yuxuzi inside the fish’s mouth lifted his head and looked at Li Zhuiyuan without speaking.

Li Zhuiyuan explained, “I like reading.”

His attainments in formation arts might not have been the greatest in the world, but the man had lived a very long time. That meant he had had plenty of time to settle and refine his understanding.

Yuxuzi said in a low voice, “I did carve quite a few stone inscriptions in that river, but not a single one is complete.”

“That’s fine. Fragments are fine too. Reading while reconstructing them actually deepens understanding.”

The Black Book in his dorm room would happen to come in handy.

Yuxuzi said, “I’ll complete those inscriptions for you to read. Stay here. Keep me company for one full cycle and relieve my boredom.”

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. “I read very fast. It won’t take that long. Besides, do you really think you still have another full cycle left to live?”

Yuxuzi said, “True, I do not have a full cycle left. Perhaps only another thirty or forty years.”

Before today, he had originally still had seventy or eighty years of vitality left. But first his soul-body had been beaten and then burned, shaving off thirty years.

Then the punch from his own corpse outside had knocked off another ten.

Now he had only thirty or forty years remaining.

“No, no. Even thirty or forty years is far too long. I think you won’t survive today.”

Yuxuzi said, “Those words should have been mine after you refused my request. Heh...”

The next instant, the two of them spoke in unison, both giving the same disdainful laugh.

Li Zhuiyuan: “Heh. Where does your confidence come from?”

Yuxuzi: “Heh. Where does your confidence come from?”

The big fish reared up, opening its mouth once more. Its body was now rotting at an accelerating rate, while fish scales gradually began sprouting across Yuxuzi’s body.

Li Zhuiyuan reminded him, “You’re already very weak.”

Rage flared in Yuxuzi’s eyes.

The boy’s words had struck him right in the swim bladder.

He was like a clown on a stage, performing an entire show for himself, stabbing himself three times, then asking the audience below: Are you afraid of me?

“But dragging all of you down with me will be more than enough!”

Li Zhuiyuan took a step forward and began performing the Liu family rite of homage, his expression solemn as he said:

“Li Zhuiyuan, heir to the Dragon Kings of the Qin and Liu clans.

“I have come here today

“to send you on your way.”

Yuxuzi’s eyes instantly widened. His body began to tremble, and a terror buried deep in the dust of memory began to awaken.

Both he and the senior brother he had killed with his own hands

had been admirers of the Liu family.

And admiration has a near synonym:

fear.

Though his formation had one regrettable flaw, lacking a grinding aspect, in all other respects it was flawless, as sturdy as could be.

Even when Li Zhuiyuan had examined it outside earlier, he had only felt it was somewhat regrettable. He had not noticed any major problem with this grand sealing formation.

Why had Yuxuzi built his own “cage” so solid and durable?

It was not only for Heaven’s Way to see.

It was even more for the future Liu clan Dragon King who might come here one day to see.

This big fish had been gravely wounded by a Liu clan Dragon King. Judging by how the Dragon King’s clan handled things, she would pursue matters from start to finish, so there was a high chance she would trace the fish’s escape route and come here.

Yuxuzi’s senior brother had come to deal with this big fish precisely because he had hoped to use the chance to seek an audience with the Dragon King.

Therefore, the top priority when Yuxuzi built this formation was that he absolutely could not let that Dragon King see any flaws in it.

“No, impossible, impossible. Didn’t you say the Liu family hadn’t walked the river in decades?”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. “Before me, it’s true that no one from the Liu family had walked the river for decades.”

Though Uncle Qin had failed, he had at least tried to walk the river.

But Aunt Liu had never done so. Uncle Qin’s failure had probably left Liu Yumei with lingering fear, making her unwilling to let Aunt Liu go walk the river and face that danger.

“No, this isn’t real. Dragon King of both the Qin and Liu clans? Hahahaha, how is that possible? What kind of ridiculous bluff is that? Don’t you know that among the river Dragon King families, they are hereditary enemies?”

“Of course I know.”

Li Zhuiyuan could not be bothered to explain Granny Liu and Grandpa Qin’s legendary love story from back then.

Especially not to someone who was about to vanish completely. Why waste the breath?

“Speak, then! Why aren’t you saying anything? Go on, keep making things up. Why have you stopped?”

Yuxuzi was slipping into hysteria. His body began stepping out from the fish’s mouth, while the big fish behind him grew steadily weaker.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “I can’t be bothered to explain that to you.”

“Can’t be bothered? Hahaha, what a joke. If you can’t be bothered, then why did you announce yourself before me just now and perform a Liu family rite of homage?”

“Because those words were not spoken to you. And that rite was not performed for you either.”

“If not for me, then for whom?”

Li Zhuiyuan asked, “You already merged with this demon long ago, didn’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Completely?”

“Naturally. I am the dominant will.”

“But your soul was completely destroyed earlier. And just now you were punched by your other self outside.”

“So what? I already told you, even in my current state, dragging all of you down with me would still be effortless!”

The madness in Yuxuzi’s eyes gradually receded. He sensed a trace of danger. With a wary gaze, he carefully swept his eyes across the boy and the three people beside him one by one.

Li Zhuiyuan raised a hand and lightly tapped his forehead. “I’ve already hinted so clearly. How have you still not thought of it?”

Still, it was not entirely Yuxuzi’s fault.

He said he had fused with the big fish after only forty years of activating the formation. That meant that for more than two hundred years he had existed in this state. In his understanding, he was the demon, and the demon was him. There was no distinction.

“Daoist, aren’t you curious why we arrived at exactly the right moment, just in time to ruin the plan you’d been waiting over two hundred years to see succeed?

“You really were just a tiny bit away from wiping out the bloodline of your three disciples.

“It wasn’t because you were unlucky.

“It was because

“someone tipped me off.”

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his hand. First he pointed at Yuxuzi, then slowly lifted his finger higher until it pointed at the big fish behind him.

In his mind, he saw again the scene from when he had first arrived at the river by the village entrance, the chase the big fish and Yuxuzi had staged at the very beginning.

The fish, having failed to catch Yuxuzi, had seemed to vent its anger by leaping high above the river surface in a great arc before slamming back down into the water.

That scene had been exactly the same as in Ah Li’s dream, when he had been fishing with a lantern.

Earlier, when Yuxuzi had asked how he saw through him, Li Zhuiyuan had only answered with the formation issue.

But in truth,

there was an even more direct clue he had left unsaid.

That was this:

they had clearly “met” before, yet Yuxuzi did not recognize him at all.

Because the one who had truly recognized him, and knew his identity,

had always been that big fish lurking in the river, exposing only those fish eyes as it silently observed.

“You’ve been enslaved, controlled, made into someone else’s wedding dress. You resent it, don’t you?

“Since you were willing to bite the hook yourself,

“then I’ll give you a chance for revenge.

“What are you still waiting for

“now!”

The big fish behind Yuxuzi, which had already been listless, suddenly lit up with a crimson glow in its eyes. Flames erupted all over its body as it instantly burned itself up.

Then it opened its bloody maw, bared its sharp fangs, and in one bite,

swallowed Yuxuzi whole.

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