Chapter 124: The Mist Behind the Truth

Chapter 124 -123: The Mist Behind the Truth

The razor looked sharp, but no matter how much Li Ye thought about it, he couldn’t figure out how to develop its abilities. He couldn’t just use his Sword Control Technique to shave someone’s head with it, could he?

While the Ruler had activated many Derived Skills, apart from Every Inch Counts—which allowed him to see others’ strengths and weaknesses—the other skills were either too restrictive or too weak. They weren’t the abilities Li Ye was looking for.

In the end, Li Ye simply chose the roll of toilet paper, which seemed useless but had the most functions.

The more he looked at the roll of paper, the more he felt it drawing him in.

The first time he chose a Demon, Yang Feng had told him that Time Travelers pick their Demons based on fate.

More than half of the roll of paper remained, 21 meters in length. After being possessed by Demon Qi, it was a full twenty times tougher than ordinary toilet paper. A normal person couldn’t tear it at all, and even if it was torn, it could repair itself…

…

Yang Feng didn’t raise any objections. A Demon’s Derived Skills varied from person to person and weren’t related to the Demon itself. After all, hadn’t Li Ye managed to use the Team Emblem in all sorts of creative ways?

Having chosen his Demon, Li Ye didn’t wait for the other Time Travelers to return and immediately crossed over.

‘Every Time Traveler has their own way of doing things. There’s not much point in talking with them!’

…

This time, Li Ye arrived on a desolate mountain. As far as the eye could see, there was only unfamiliar vegetation.

The surroundings were desolate and deathly silent, and a faint, rotten stench seemed to permeate the air.

Li Ye was very familiar with this smell. It was the stench of corpses.

Back when Demons were rampant on Earth, with people dying in droves, the air had smelled just like this…

‘Have the Demons in this world started killing indiscriminately?’

This was the first thought that entered Li Ye’s mind.

After a Demon possesses a host, killing is the fastest way to increase its strength.

It had been almost five years now since the Demon Qi had escaped.

If the Demon Qi had started killing, and this world had no way to fight back, then after five years, there probably wouldn’t be many people left alive.

In that case, he would be facing a Demon that had been growing for five years.

‘So much for arriving in a bustling city or an uninhabited area.’

‘What the hell? This was the worst-case scenario for a Time Traveler.’

An ordinary Time Traveler facing a start like this would be walking into certain death.

…

He couldn’t feel any Spiritual Qi in the air.

‘It’s not a cultivation world.’

Li Ye made a preliminary assessment of the world.

No Spiritual Qi meant he couldn’t replenish it from the environment. All he could rely on was the Spiritual Qi stored within his Harmonization Realm body and his formidable physical prowess…

However, no Spiritual Qi also meant this world wouldn’t have any powerful Cultivators.

‘The Spiritual Qi reserves of someone at the peak of the Harmonization Realm should be more than enough. This might even be a good thing.’

*Sigh!*

Li Ye sighed softly and checked his remaining supplies.

Three top-grade Spirit Stones and a bottle of Nourishing Essence Pills for healing. Other than that, nothing. At least he still had three Spirit Stones to help him replenish his Spiritual Qi, which wasn’t too bad.

Just as Li Ye was about to investigate what kind of world this was, a voice suddenly sounded in his mind: “Kid, you’ve got a good eye.”

Li Ye froze.

“Stop spacing out. It’s me, the roll of paper you picked,” the voice continued.

‘Fuck!’

‘Other Demons needed him to accumulate Demon Qi before they could awaken their sentience. This thing was already awake from the start?’

“A roll of paper? You’re sentient?”

Li Ye took out the roll of paper, feigning shock as if this was the first time he’d learned a Demon could be sentient.

“Is being sentient so strange, you ignorant hick?” the roll of paper said contemptuously. “Back in the Ancient Era, I had a famous name: the Chaotic Heaven Silk.”

‘Chaotic Heaven Silk?’

Every Demon claimed to have once been powerful.

But this was the first time Li Ye had learned the specific name a Demon had before it was sealed in the Demon Suppression Tower.

“Nezha’s Chaotic Heaven Silk?” Li Ye swallowed and asked tentatively.

“Who else would it be?” the roll of paper said. “That bastard suppressed me for thousands of years.”

“So, all the Demon Qi suppressed by the Demon Suppression Tower came from Immortals’ Magical Treasures?” Li Ye was stunned.

“What do you mean, ‘Immortals’?” the roll of paper snorted. “Don’t you know that Nezha is the Spirit Pearl? If I were stronger than it, *he* would be *my* Dharma Artifact.”

‘Fuck!’

Li Ye had just heard an incredible secret. He pressed his lips together. “So, Nezha was possessed by the Spirit Pearl.”

“Don’t be scared. You’re too weak, not even qualified to be possessed by me,” the roll of paper said. “I know you only have the right to use me for a year. During this year, you can just focus on helping me grow without any worries.”

In the last two worlds, Li Ye had managed to trick the Team Emblem and the wristwatch into not possessing him. This time, the Demon had preemptively reassured him.

‘Heh!’

But Li Ye was still fixated on the fact that the roll of paper’s former identity was the Chaotic Heaven Silk. Unwilling to give up, he pressed, “So, Nezha was really possessed by the Spirit Pearl?”

“Correct,” the roll of paper said. “After his physical body was destroyed, it took over the body of a Lotus Demon…”

‘The Spirit Pearl possessed Nezha’s physical body, and after that body was destroyed, it took over a Lotus Demon’s body… Could this be the true meaning of the Lotus Divinity Transformation?’

‘In that case, could the scissors lost by that other Time Traveler be the Golden Jiao Scissors?’

‘And the fountain pen was the brush of Ma Liang with the Divine Brush?’

‘The Ruler he gave up was very likely the Celestial Measuring Ruler?’

‘Could the toilet in the Demon Museum be the Primordial Golden Dipper?’

…

‘Nezha’s Golden Brick, Qiankun Circle, Demon-Slaying Sword…’

‘The Lord Great Sage who was once a spirit-awakened Stone Monkey.’

‘The Great Sage Equal to Heaven Ox Demon King…’

‘The Pangu Axe that split the heavens and the earth?’

‘Does this mean that everything in the universe originated from Demon Qi?’

‘If you look at it that way, it would only be natural for Demon Qi to be superior to Spiritual Qi…’

‘But if all the demons and magical treasures from mythology originated from Demon Qi, why was so much of it suppressed?’

‘And what kind of incredible existence was the Demon Suppression Tower?’

Li Ye’s imagination ran wild. A cataclysm had occurred ten thousand years ago in the previous world, shattering the path to Ascension and nearly wiping out civilization. Could that have been the process of the Demon Suppression Tower’s master suppressing the Demon Qi?

‘After all, even the Demon Qi of the Chaotic Heaven Silk was extracted. If its Demon Qi was taken, Nezha must have perished as well!’

‘And an entire civilization being nearly wiped out fit the pattern of Demon Qi killing by any means necessary in order to grow…’

‘The ten-thousand-year cataclysm… the master of the Demon Suppression Tower tried to suppress the Demon Qi, the Demon Qi fought back by slaughtering the entire world, and then the Tower’s master brought it to Earth.’

…

He seemed to have touched upon the truth of the Demon Qi and the Demon Suppression Tower, but this only left Li Ye with more questions.

Since the Demon Suppression Tower had suppressed the Demon Qi, why had the seal inexplicably been released?

‘Li Ye no longer believed that the seal on the Demon Suppression Tower would crack on its own for no reason. How could there be so many coincidences?’

“Lord Ling, how did you get locked up in the Demon Suppression Tower?” Li Ye asked tentatively.

“I forgot,” the roll of paper said.

“What about Nezha? Did he perish?” Li Ye pressed.

“Most of my memories are gone,” the roll of paper said. “I only remember that I was once the Chaotic Heaven Silk, wielded by Nezha to wreak havoc everywhere. After that, only my recent memories remain.”

“Was Nuwa also a demon corrupted by Demon Qi?” Li Ye asked cautiously.

“I don’t know. I told you, my memories are gone,” the roll of paper said impatiently. “Maybe I’ll be able to recover my past memories after I’ve grown stronger!”

‘Son of a bitch!’

‘Do you have to be as strong as Nezha to be able to suppress a Demon and use it for yourself?’

Li Ye felt a wave of exasperation, and his future suddenly seemed bleak.

‘The Three Altars Sea Meeting God could probably kill a whole crowd of Harmonization Realm cultivators like him with a single slap!’

‘No, wait. Nezha himself was also a Demon.’

‘He first had to withstand the Demon’s corruption before he could even think about using it…’

‘The situation on Earth was hopeless.’

‘The Demon Hunters from the Demon Hunting Bureau had no way to resist the Demon Qi’s corruption. The wristwatch was right—the Demon Qi was just raising them like pigs.’

‘Only once the pigs were fattened up would they be qualified to be possessed…’

‘And he was clearly the biggest, fattest pig in the sty right now. The best of a bad lot. He was the most likely one to be possessed.’

‘No.’

‘There was still a chance.’

‘The master of the Demon Suppression Tower was able to suppress all Demon Qi, so there must be a way to resist its corruption in the universe. He just hadn’t found it yet.’

‘If he continued to grow stronger, he might well be possessed by Demon Qi, but he might also become someone who could rise above it.’

‘Having a chance was better than no chance at all.’

Li Ye steadied his mind.

‘He would risk it all.’

‘Besides, he had no other path to take. Was he supposed to stay on Earth as a normal person and become food for the Demon Qi?’

…

Li Ye stopped asking about the secrets of the ancient past and asked with a grin, “Lord Ling, how many strands of Demon Qi are in this world?”

“Three,” the roll of paper said lazily.

“Three?” Li Ye’s eyes widened.

“That’s right, three,” the roll of paper said. “So, you’d better not let me down. Back in my day, I overturned rivers and seas, cleaved through waves, and threw the sun, moon, and stars into chaos. Don’t you dare tarnish my name.”

‘You might have been the Chaotic Heaven Silk, but right now you’re just a roll of toilet paper. What damn name are you talking about!’

Li Ye grumbled to himself before asking, “Lord Ling, can you actively go out and bind people on your own yet?”

“Not yet. I need you to operate me manually. It should be possible once I’ve accumulated enough Demon Qi,” the roll of paper said.

“Then how did you guys accumulate Demon Qi back in the Ancient Era?” Li Ye asked again.

“Fame,” the roll of paper said. “The greater the reputation you build, the more Demon Qi you accumulate. There’s another way, too—killing people.”

‘Fame?’

‘He had certainly built up the wristwatch’s fame.’

‘But he had used the Team Emblem through soccer, never really promoting the emblem itself. Yet its Demon Qi was no less than the wristwatch’s…’

‘Maybe it wasn’t just fame. The impact you have on the world might work too.’

“Mm, I get it.” Li Ye nodded, pulling at the roll of paper and wrapping it layer after layer around his palm. “Let’s go. We’ll explore this world.”

“Why are you wrapping me around your hand?” the roll of paper asked.

“The Chaotic Heaven Silk’s main function is to bind enemies. Wrapping you around my hand will make it easier to fight,” Li Ye said with a smile.

‘The roll of paper claimed it was the Chaotic Heaven Silk, but right now, it was just a roll of paper.’

‘The two were completely different in nature.’

‘Toilet paper should be used like toilet paper. I shouldn’t be constrained by the idea of the Chaotic Heaven Silk.’

‘Besides, I want to develop my own Derived Skills, not help the roll of paper grow back into the Chaotic Heaven Silk.’