After the Villainess Awakens

The demons below the altar hadn't reacted to what had happened. Leng Mushi had already grabbed the Devil Emperor by the collar and dragged him into the crimson sedan chair.

The sedan chair curtains and the formation fell together, blocking the prying eyes of the demons. Leng Mushi, with one hand clutching the stunned Devil Emperor's collar and the other holding the bone sword, not only pierced him through, but she was also slowly pressing the Cangsheng sword downward, as if she wanted to split the Devil Emperor in half.

The veil on her head was pulled down, revealing Leng Mushi's calm face. Her makeup was exquisite, but she didn't wear any headdress. Her black hair cascaded down like a waterfall, enveloped in a faint spiritual light, making her look inviolable.

The Devil Emperor vomited a mouthful of blood, raised his hand to grab the blade, and abruptly stopped the bone sword that was still pressing down, trying to split him in two.

"You're awake…" He spat out a mouthful of bright red blood, but slowly raised his red lips and smiled.

"I really missed you," he whispered, his lips stained with blood, his voice cold yet his words tender. "You really have a heart of stone. You tricked me into Blood Demon Mountain back then, broke my tendons, and shattered my spine…"

"The war in the human realm has already begun. Even if I can't get my Shuiyin Demon Generals back, I won't stop! I've been starving in the hell of Blood Demon Mountain for ten thousand years, while you've been free in the human realm, experiencing human emotions… Hahahahaha—"

The Devil Emperor didn't care that Leng Mushi's sword was still stuck in his body. He even moved closer to her, causing the sword to pierce deeper.

He roared, almost touching Leng Mushi's face, "Kill me! Kill me and you won't be able to live either! I want to see how many times you can turn back time in your weakened state! When you reach your limit, the vitality of heaven and earth will prioritize sustaining you, just like a dying body will cut off all supplies to the brain. By then, it won't be me, the Devil Emperor, who will drain the life force of this world, but you, the Heavenly Dao!"

The Devil Emperor still had a bleeding hole in his chest. He spoke too excitedly, and they were too close. Blood splattered onto Leng Mushi's face.

Leng Mushi raised her hand and slapped him hard, sending him sprawling onto the cushion of the sedan chair.

Then Leng Mushi released the bone sword in her hand, leaned back against the inner wall of the sedan chair, reached out to wipe the blood from her face, and frowned deeply.

She looked down at the Devil Emperor lying on the cushion, the hilt of the bone sword protruding from his back, gleaming with blood. But he was trembling.

He was laughing like a madman.

Leng Mushi glanced at him with disgust, then grabbed him by the collar, pulled him up from the cushion, and mercilessly grasped the hilt of the bone sword, pulling it out of the Devil Emperor's body.

He groaned, a look of pain on his face. Blood gushed from his chest, but instead of using demonic energy to heal himself, his black eyes flashed, the bloodshot color and the spreading lines on his neck receded. He clutched his wound with a pale face, his black eyes staring at Leng Mushi as he whispered, "Nian Ci… save me…"

Leng Mushi's hand froze, her face hardening as she looked at the Devil Emperor crawling towards her. The bloodshot color in his eyes had faded, leaving a bloodstain at the corner of his mouth. He used his pale lips to reach Leng Mushi's ear and said, "Save me…"

Leng Mushi clenched her fingers, looking at this face that was identical to Xiao Mian's at this moment. She couldn't help but hesitate. But just as the Devil Emperor was about to reach her lips along her cheek, Leng Mushi slapped him hard again.

This time, he slammed directly into the inner wall of the sedan chair, cracking it. He got up, clutching his face, his eyes filled with bloodlust as he glared at Leng Mushi. "You actually like a human! Ha, humans are born in the morning and die at night. They're no better than ants, and you actually allow him to touch you!"

The Devil Emperor stepped forward and grabbed Leng Mushi's shoulders, gritting his teeth. "I'm sick of him, just like you're sick of your sanctimonious self. You think you're kind and pure, but you're just utterly stupid! I've already absorbed his soul. He doesn't even have a chance to reincarnate. Let's see how you'll continue to like him!"

Leng Mushi raised her head, her eyes meeting the Devil Emperor's crazed gaze. One was as fiery as lava that had been boiling for years, the other as cold as an ice field that had not melted for millions of years.

Leng Mushi turned her head away in disgust, her aversion evident. The Devil Emperor's grip on her shoulders tightened, and he said with gritted teeth, "We were born as one. You control the life force of the world, and I control the killing power. But you loathe me, abandon me, hate me, deceive me, kill me, and chase me away! Even now, the only reason you're willing to speak to me like this is because of this human skin, huh?"

He let go of Leng Mushi and sat down beside her. He raised his hand and touched his face, smiling wickedly. "You can never hide your plans from me, just as I know all your plans. This time, let's try and see who makes the first move!"

Leng Mushi's face darkened. After a moment, she waved her hand in the air, and the Mirror of Cause and Effect appeared. It showed a scene of demon cultivators lurking in the human realm fighting with disciples patrolling from the cultivation world.

At first, the cultivation world had the upper hand. But they couldn't withstand the fact that the dead cultivators were also infected and controlled by demonic energy, and began to attack their former fellow disciples with their blood-stained, broken limbs and bodies.

Leng Mushi even saw familiar faces in the Mirror of Cause and Effect. This was the territory of the Joyful Union Sect. She saw the corpses of charming women scattered all over the ground in the mirror.

The demons were utterly devoid of humanity. Silver-scorched deer with long horns wore the dead female cultivators of the Joyful Union Sect on their horns as food reserves. Some of them weren't completely dead yet. Leng Mushi's gaze paused, and she saw a Buddhist cultivator in red gauze. It was the little Buddhist cultivator, Liao Chen, who had switched from the Buddhist sect to the Joyful Union Sect the day before entering the Demon Race ruins!

Liao Chen felt the spiritual power in his body rapidly draining away. He was impaled on the sharp horn of a demonic beast, his internal organs completely shattered. He hadn't died immediately only because of the inner core in his body that hadn't completely shattered.

Demons and demonic beasts were appearing everywhere. They had just dealt with a minor evil spirit reported by a human and were on their way back to the sect. They had been chatting and laughing, even discussing drinking together that night.

Liao Chen had been in the Joyful Union Sect for so long, but he still hadn't cultivated the sect's techniques. He still cultivated Buddhist techniques, and he didn't participate much in the private banquets of the sect's cultivators, adhering to all the precepts and rules that a Buddhist cultivator should.

It was said that Buddhist cultivators should not be moved by worldly desires, but he had indeed been moved that day, which was why Senior Brother Bu Jin had expelled him from the sect.

Since joining the Joyful Union Sect and being immersed in the "mortal world" all day long, he had actually broken through his mental barrier, and his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds. Now he was at the peak of the Star Realm, only a little bit away from advancing to the Moon Realm.

The disciples of the Joyful Union Sect were also very friendly to him, this "outsider." They never forced him to do anything and liked to take him on these walks in the human realm, allowing him to help the victims during their demon-slaying missions.

Liao Chen had always been grateful to his new sect, but due to his nature, he never participated in the banquets and private gatherings of the disciples, focusing on his cultivation.

But now, at this critical juncture of life and death, he felt his blood and life force draining away. Below him was his Junior Sister, who had already died, and above him was his Senior Sister, whose life was fading away. Sandwiched between them in this boundless red dust of blood, he couldn't even help his dying Senior Sister escape.

Screams were everywhere. The demon cultivators and demonic beasts had arrived abruptly, and they were all high-level demon cultivators that they couldn't possibly defeat. They could only wait for death; there was no room for resistance.

Liao Chen's vision gradually blurred. He heard the sound of his Eldest Senior Sister, Ni Hanyan's, whip, but he also heard her painful cry as she fell to the ground.

It seemed that none of them would be returning to the sect today.

At this moment, Liao Chen looked at the sky filled with crimson clouds, his breath faint. The setting sun was too beautiful, tragically beautiful.

What he regretted at this moment was not that he hadn't become a powerful cultivator and proved himself to the Buddhist sect.

He hadn't lost his Buddhist heart, nor had he been abandoned by Buddha. He had wanted to prove to the people of the True Martial Temple that even in the red dust, without a kasaya but in red gauze, he could still achieve great power and spread the might of Buddhism.

But what he regretted now was that he hadn't had a good gathering with his Senior Sisters and Junior Sisters from the Joyful Union Sect. Even if it was just sitting in silence, at least they could have drunk a cup of wine together and listened to their stories of the mortal world and their cultivation worries.

He was still too arrogant. To truly enter the red dust, there was no need to guard one's Buddhist heart. Buddha had never set any restrictions on the world. It was mortals who imprisoned themselves. It was the same with serving and sacrificing. They had all misinterpreted the meaning of cultivation.

They were born human, and the path they cultivated could never be separated from the Way of Humanity. And how could the Way of Humanity be considered human if it deliberately severed love and abandoned affection?

Liao Chen's last bit of strength and blood were exhausted together. Impaled on the horn of the Silver-scorched Deer, his last thought before his guts spilled out was, "Buddha is merciful…"

At that moment, the spiritual light surrounding him flourished, mixed with a red-gold light that shot up into the sky from his shattered body.

He had actually achieved enlightenment at the brink of death, comprehended the Way of Humanity, and entered the Moon Realm.

The demon cultivators and demonic beasts, who were wantonly killing, were instantly burned by the spiritual light and could only flee with shrieks. However, this enlightenment came at the right time, but it was also too late.

He still couldn't save his Senior Sister, who was impaled on the deer's horn and whose flesh was mixed with his own. As the Silver-scorched Deer fled in a panic, the Senior Sister finally died.

As for Liao Chen himself, he used the last of his power to detonate his cracked inner core, which could no longer contain his spiritual power, and perished together with the Silver-scorched Deer and the demon cultivator riding on its back.

A cloud of blood mist exploded between heaven and earth. Of the thirty-four people from the Joyful Union Sect, only Ni Hanyan survived. She raised her head from the river of blood under the setting sun, tears washing away the blood on her face, but it was as if she was shedding tears of blood.

A moment later, she opened her mouth and howled in grief.

It was at this moment that Leng Mushi waved her hand, putting away the Mirror of Cause and Effect and cutting off the scene. She closed her eyes.

"What's wrong? This isn't the first time you've seen this. Why can't you bear to watch?" The Devil Emperor absorbed the fear and despair transmitted from the battlefield through the formation.

Whether it was from the cultivators of the Joyful Union Sect or the fleeing demons, he absorbed it all, then sighed contentedly. The wound on his chest visibly healed at a speed noticeable to the naked eye, leaving only a scar.

"Is it because you know this little monk, or that female cultivator with the whip?" The Devil Emperor smacked his lips regretfully. "What a pity. That little monk had good comprehension and pure spiritual roots. If he had lived, maybe the cultivation world would have had another Buddhist patriarch in the future."

It wasn't the first time Leng Mushi had seen this. This was the fourth time. Every time, she had to watch these people die once, each time in a different way.

She slowly turned her head to look at the Devil Emperor, at his triumphant face. She grabbed the bone sword beside her and slammed it into the sedan chair. The sedan chair instantly shattered into pieces.

Her bone sword shot straight towards the Devil Emperor's head. This time, he didn't just sit there and wait for death. He swiftly engaged Leng Mushi in battle.

The demon cultivators below the altar had no idea what was happening. They only saw two blinding lights clashing countless times in the span of a few breaths.

A fierce wind swept up, the sky changed color, and the altar cracked in many places, on the verge of collapse. In the end, the two of them crashed onto the altar with a loud boom, and the altar instantly turned to ashes before the shocked eyes of the demon cultivators. All the demon cultivators who were close by were blown away.

When the smoke and dust settled, two figures in wedding attire stood where the altar used to be.

They each held a black and a white bone sword in their hands. The shapes of the two bone swords were identical, even the joints were indistinguishable.

The white bone sword pierced through the Devil Emperor's body and emerged from his back, while the black bone sword grazed past Leng Mushi's waist.

"You're always so cruel to me." The Devil Emperor lowered his hand, dropping the bone sword, and raised his other hand to stop the demon cultivators who were about to charge at them.

"There have been some unforeseen circumstances. The Shuiyin Demon Generals haven't returned to their positions yet, but…" He turned to look at Leng Mushi and chuckled. "This is your Demon Queen. Anyone who dares to offend her will be killed without mercy."

Leng Mushi withdrew her bone sword. The Devil Emperor swayed, then stood firm, still looking at her with a smile on his face. "You have compassion for this world and can't bear to see living beings suffer, but are you not in pain at all when you treat me like this?"

He wasn't asking if she felt sorry for him, but if she felt pain.

The fingers gripping the hilt of Leng Mushi's sword twitched slightly. Of course… she was in pain.

She and the Devil Emperor were born as one. Even though she had separated and suppressed him in Blood Demon Mountain seventeen thousand years ago, they still shared their senses.

But she endured the sharp pain of the sword piercing through her abdomen, stood up straight, and calmly put away her sword.

The Devil Emperor also stopped letting himself bleed like a leaky bottle and allowed his body to heal itself.

A moment later, he raised his hand, and the cheers of the demons abruptly stopped. The Devil Emperor turned to Leng Mushi and smiled. "Let's go, my lady. Come and see the new room I've prepared for you."

Leng Mushi naturally didn't reach out to hold his hand, but she followed him into the depths of the Demon Palace.

The war in the human realm had already begun. After the Devil Emperor awakened, he would definitely need to devour the despair and fear of humans to feed. But she couldn't completely kill him yet.

Or rather, he couldn't be killed at all. Even if she killed his body, as long as the Devil Core wasn't completely destroyed, he would awaken again.

And every time she killed him, she would also weaken. Unless Leng Mushi killed herself and destroyed her own inner core.

But the Heavenly Dao, which was born from heaven and earth, couldn't die. By then, the life force of the world would be completely drained to nourish her, just as he had said.

Leng Mushi had experienced the initial hundreds of thousands of years of her birth. At that time, because there was no life force, this world was barren. She didn't want to go back to that time.

Therefore, she could only temporarily follow behind the Devil Emperor. There were still traces of blood on his robe, but he completely exposed his back to Leng Mushi, not afraid that she would stab him in the back.

Leng Mushi resisted the urge to chop him into mincemeat, just like she had done in the previous three time regressions, and followed him into the depths of the Demon Palace.

She had to make him willingly hand over the Devil Core, just like she had done seventeen thousand years ago, so that she could seal him again. Only then would the balance between good and evil in the human realm be maintained.

The three times she had killed him, she had chosen the time when she was reborn into the body of the human Leng Mushi as the starting point for the time regression.

But every time she repeated the same mistakes, this was the cause and effect that she couldn't escape.

Leng Mushi followed behind him, looking at his current appearance, which wasn't the same as her own like in the previous time regressions, but instead occupied Xiao Mian's body. A sense of powerlessness welled up in her heart.

The Devil Emperor and the Heavenly Dao had no gender or physical form. They were just two forces that existed between heaven and earth, maintaining the balance of the world.

It was her fault that tens of thousands of years ago, she had developed the desire to experience the joys and sorrows of the human world and secretly reincarnated into a woman's body. Little did she know that love and hate, yin and yang, were just like the Devil Emperor and the Heavenly Dao, always coexisting.

She had experienced the joy and happiness of the human world, so naturally, she couldn't escape the grief and resentment of the death of her loved ones, friends, and family.

This had caused her to develop a demonic obstacle, which had fueled the Devil Emperor's energy and made him yearn for the human world, leading to his awakening in the human realm.

However, what he yearned for was the pain and despair of the human world. By the time she realized that things were out of control and wanted to get rid of her emotions and return to her formless state, it was already too late.

Seventeen thousand years ago, she had tricked him into personally handing over the Devil Core and, together with the powerful cultivators of that time, sealed him under Blood Demon Mountain. But… what was meant to be would eventually happen. He had still awakened.

She had carefully chosen the kindest people in the world to be her parents, the most considerate childhood sweetheart to be her husband, and she would even have the most adorable child. As long as she went through this life in the human world, the demonic obstacle in her heart would disappear, and the Devil Emperor's power would naturally dissipate as well.

Who would have thought that he, unable to break free from Blood Demon Mountain himself, would actually have his subordinate possess her child's body? Therefore, before the first time regression, she had a child with a despicable character, and she couldn't live a carefree life. The demonic obstacle in her heart intensified, making it even more impossible to eliminate.

She had chopped the awakened Devil Emperor, who looked exactly like her, into mincemeat and reversed time.

In the second time regression, she still chose that carefully selected family. But he had his demon general ruin her family. Her originally wealthy and comfortable life became one of displacement.

When a couple is poor, there are a hundred things to worry about. She didn't have a happy childhood because of this, and she killed the awakened Devil Emperor again.

In the third time regression, he even directly had his demon general possess the body of her soon-to-be husband. She suffered a tragic betrayal and killed the awakened Devil Emperor once again.

In the fourth time regression, he still had his subordinate possess her father. As a result, when she was only one year old, her father suddenly changed his mind, took a mistress, frequented brothels, and even fathered Leng Tianyin.

After four time regressions, she found an unexpected person who could be of use to her, someone she never thought would be helpful: Xiao Mian.

She gathered her thoughts. Although she had been separated from the Devil Emperor for many years, they could still sense each other, but she could no longer know all of each other's thoughts. Still, she was careful not to think about Xiao Mian, lest he find out.

Leng Mushi followed the Devil Emperor into the Devil Emperor's bedchamber. Naturally, there was no new room. He wasn't going to marry Leng Tianyin. He didn't even have a concept of gender, so how could he take a wife?

He had only occupied Xiao Mian's body as a cover to bring back Leng Tianyin, who had half of the Shuiyin Demon General's blood, in order to realize his grand plan of filling the world with pain and despair.

Even though he was wearing human skin, he was just a disgusting creature who only knew how to devour despair and fear.

"Rest here for a while." The Devil Emperor actually spoke as if he regarded Leng Mushi as a good friend who had come to play. "You're not going to help them, are you? Hahahaha… The more you help them, the worse off they'll be. So just stay here."

He wore Xiao Mian's skin, and his smile was filled with demonic energy. His red lips and black robe had a breathtakingly vivid charm, but it wasn't something a human would have.

Leng Mushi really couldn't go and help those cultivators. She had helped before, but her help would only make those cultivators die faster.

Because the divine sense that she had sealed in Cangsheng had returned to its rightful place. She was the source of life force, and also the destination of life force. Once she made a move, the surrounding life force would crazily surge towards her. Whether it was living beings or plants, as long as it had life force, it would automatically nourish her and be used by her.

Although she could easily kill those demons, she couldn't kill them all. Because now, all the demons were puppets controlled by the Devil Emperor. Under his black robe were countless blood demons. Killing him was slowly killing herself, and her power would continue to weaken along with the Devil Emperor's.

Leng Mushi could only endure and wait for the right opportunity. She really did sit down on the Devil Emperor's bed, crossed her legs, placed the Cangsheng sword beside her, and was about to summon the Mirror of Cause and Effect when the Devil Emperor grabbed her wrist.

"You've never stayed with me so quietly before." The Devil Emperor smiled and squatted down at Leng Mushi's feet. "Do you really like this person that much? More than the lover you had tens of thousands of years ago who died?"

"More than the mortal husband, Ji Jing, you were supposed to marry?" The Devil Emperor's hand moved up from Leng Mushi's knee, his fingertips tapping lightly. "In my opinion, you like him more than the previous two. After all, you didn't chop me into mincemeat as soon as you saw me like you did before. Is it because of this face?"

The Devil Emperor touched his own face and suddenly stood up as if he had thought of something interesting. He quickly tore open his robe, revealing his strong chest and waist.

"I guess you only like his face and body." The Devil Emperor leaned closer to Leng Mushi and pressed her hand against his chest. "How can you fall in love with a human? Your previous husband loved you so much, but didn't you abandon him and reverse time as soon as you realized that you couldn't eliminate the demonic obstacle in your heart?"

Leng Mushi's face remained impassive, without a single ripple of emotion. The Devil Emperor said, "Why don't you admit it? You're just like me. We were born as one. I understand you better than you understand yourself. You're the source of life force born from heaven and earth. How can you like an ant…"

"If you like this body, I can be like this too." The Devil Emperor withdrew the crimson color from his eyes and transformed into an exact replica of Xiao Mian, even the half-worn robe on his body turning into the pure white uniform of a Tai Chu Sect disciple.

Leng Mushi's mind wavered, and he keenly caught it. His hair began to stick to his face, wet with water. The way he looked at Leng Mushi became bashful yet resolute, just like Xiao Mian's when he had tried to confess to her the night before entering the Demon Race ruins.

The Devil Emperor leaned closer, catching the flicker of emotion in Leng Mushi's eyes. He spoke softly, his voice filled with a temptation that no barrier-breaking technique in this world could break.

"Why don't you want me? I was born to be with you. No one in this world is more suitable for you than us. Only I can accompany you until the end of time. You can make me look however you want…"

He reached out and hugged Leng Mushi, his wet hair brushing against her neck. "Why don't you want me? What's good about humans who live for such a short time… They'll betray, they'll deceive, they'll get tired of you and change their hearts. I won't."

"How can a man and a woman be intimate? Teach me." The Devil Emperor's breath, damp and cold, reached Leng Mushi's lips. "I can satisfy you too."

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