Chapter 011: The Demon Empress!
The realm above the Profound Understanding stage is the Void Spirit stage, and the baseline damage for a cultivator at the Void Spirit stage attacking this wooden dummy is an astonishing two hundred thousand points. This clearly shows that, although Profound Understanding and Void Spirit are only separated by one major realm, the disparity in power is immense. The Void Spirit stage stands as a bottleneck for many cultivators; only one in ten thousand manages to break through, so even across the entire Xuan Ying continent, Void Spirit stage cultivators are exceedingly rare.
It took Song Ye nearly a year to achieve seventy-five thousand points of damage. To reach two hundred thousand points, who knows how much longer it would take. However, his current strength is equivalent to that of a Profound Understanding stage cultivator—more than enough to protect himself. As long as he doesn’t provoke the great powers of cultivation, he faces no mortal danger.
Moreover, he is immortal here, so time means little to him—it is the least valuable currency at his disposal. One day, he will deal two hundred thousand points of damage, or even more!
...
A month later, in Luocheng, the capital of Li State.
The city was crowded around a storyteller’s stall. The storyteller was recounting the tale of Qin Xuanxi, the sect master of the Brahma Abyss Sect. Qin Xuanxi was a famed female demon lord across the Xuan Ying continent, so the audience was vast.
“Just three months ago, the Lord of the Brahma Abyss, Demon Sovereign Qin Xuanxi, single-handedly slaughtered the entire Holy Heaven Sect. Even the sect master, the Holy Emperor Mingyang, met a grisly end at her hands, flayed and dismembered alive,” the storyteller said, his voice vivid and dramatic. “This incident shocked the whole cultivation world, striking fear into the hearts of countless cultivators—her name alone provokes dread!”
“This Demon Sovereign Qin Xuanxi is the most enigmatic female demon lord in the cultivation world. She wears a purple death mask year-round, clad in the Abyssal Nine Nether Robes of Brahma Abyss,” he continued. “Few have ever glimpsed her true face behind the mask.”
“But rumor has it she is a peerless beauty, her allure rivaling the Saintess of the Grand Void Palace.”
“Of course, that’s just hearsay. She might be ugly, ashamed to show her real face, hence always wearing that purple mask.”
“I happen to have a portrait of her right here,” the storyteller said, producing a painting. In it, the woman wore a black long dress, her face shrouded by a chilling purple death mask.
“No one can paint her true visage, nor dares to, so all we have is her masked likeness. Make do with what you see.”
Among the crowd was Zhao Zhigao, a constable from Cheng County. Since arriving in the capital, he had shed his usual constable attire for a plain linen robe. After all, county constables held no rank or official title—they were merely workers at the county office, akin to temporary employees in modern terms. Thus, when Zhao Zhigao escaped Cheng County for the capital, he lost his job and was no different from the refugees fleeing disaster.
He was luckier than most, though; at least he had a place to stay in Luocheng.
At that moment, Zhao Zhigao recognized the black dress worn by the woman in the portrait—it was identical to one owned by Song Ye’s fiancée. Unable to restrain himself, he shouted, “My brother’s fiancée wore a dress just like that black gown!”
His outburst immediately drew the attention of the crowd, even the storyteller fixed him with a meaningful gaze. “Friend, the dress in the painting is called the Abyssal Nine Nether Robes; there’s only one in existence, owned solely by Demon Sovereign Qin Xuanxi. She is the only one who dares to wear it!”
After all, what woman would dare to dress like the infamous Demon Sovereign Qin Xuanxi? To offend such a ruthless figure would be tantamount to courting death.
The storyteller went on, “Could it be your brother’s fiancée is Qin Xuanxi herself? Hahaha!”
He burst out laughing, and the crowd joined him. The very idea that a demon lord like Qin Xuanxi would enter into a marriage contract was absurd.
“What are you laughing at? I’m telling the truth!” Zhao Zhigao protested, bewildered.
He couldn’t understand what was so funny.
The storyteller teased him, “Then tell us: just who is your brother?”
Zhao Zhigao answered honestly, “My brother is just a simple tea vendor from our village. Nothing remarkable, but he’s deeply devoted.”
“His fiancée left half a year ago, yet he remains in the village waiting for her to return. He’s practically become a ‘Stone of Waiting for Wife.’”
“More unbelievably, despite knowing the Yan State army was about to invade and everyone in the village had already fled, he refused to leave. He insisted on waiting for her, risking his life for his beloved! Such devotion—I’ve only ever met one man like that in my life!” Zhao Zhigao’s voice grew louder and more passionate as he spoke.
The onlookers sensed his sincerity and began to think perhaps his brother’s fiancée really did own a similar dress, though nothing more. Surely the woman herself couldn’t be the same.
“But to be honest, my brother’s fiancée is indeed beautiful—the most stunning woman I’ve ever seen. To call her a national beauty, a peerless enchantress, is no exaggeration.”
“But such beauties are often fickle and indifferent.”
“Besides, a woman of her charm and youth, who knows how many admirers she has elsewhere? How could she possibly settle for my foolish brother, let alone willingly marry into our village and become an ordinary wife?”
“So, when she found an opportunity, she left. And once gone, how could she ever return? Only my brother, naive and slow-witted, still believes she’ll come back. He worries that if he leaves, she’ll be unable to find him, so he’d rather risk his life waiting in the village!”
As the crowd listened intently, someone suddenly shouted, “It’s Immortal Master Wang from the Grand Void Palace!”
“Greetings, Immortal Master Wang!”
At once, nearly everyone turned toward the end of the street. There, dressed in a flowing white robe, stood a middle-aged man with an air of transcendence. This was Immortal Master Wang Haoxuan of the Grand Void Palace.
Three disciples followed behind him, swaggering down the middle of the road, basking in the bows and greetings of the townsfolk lining the street.
Zhao Zhigao had heard that the Grand Void Palace was even more prestigious in the cultivation world than the Palace of Pure Profundity, and its immortal masters were accordingly more powerful. He hurried to bow deeply toward Immortal Master Wang, just as everyone else did.