After the Bug Man known as the "Supernatural World's Bai Xiaosheng[1]" brought me the information I wanted, my first thought was — if I don't kill Zhuge Jun, I would be born a demon in vain. Zimiao, you should have lived a good life in this world, even if the person by your side is no longer me.
The bone-deep pain of Zimiao's disappearance has always been with me. For eighteen years, aside from the pain, I have occasionally wondered how that bunch of old bastards in the heavenly realm could have known so quickly about his love affair with the mortal woman. For a time, I even suspected that it was the evil dragon who had a conflict with Zimiao who was the informant. After the evil dragon adamantly denied it, I, exhausted both physically and mentally, stopped pursuing the truth behind this calamity. During that time, my heart was filled with nothing but utter desolation.
However, eighteen years later, as my shattered heart healed piece by piece, when I saw Zimiao's daughter about to get married, when I learned that the man she loved was Zhuge Jun, the man whose smell had given me a sense of some inexplicable danger years ago, whether out of curiosity or simply out of boredom, I sought those bug demons who roam the Three Realms all day long and make a living by selling information, and asked them to investigate Zhuge Jun's inside information.
This unintentional inquiry led to another truth that struck me like a huge thunderbolt.
Upon seeing the look in my eyes after learning the truth, the bug man who reported the information fled without even taking the payment.
I sat on the highest rock in Fulong Mountain, in the howling cold wind, from sunrise to sunset.
I've gazed upon the scenery of Fulong Mountain for thousands of years, yet never before have I seen everything tainted in blood-red like today - the sky, the clouds, the mist, the rocks.
My eyes and every vein in my body filled with an emotion called anger.
Zhuge Jun, Zhuge Jun... My nails dug hard into the solid rock.
He was the one who snitched to the heavenly realm.
Eighteen years ago, in order to "get back" Ni Xuechang, who he thought should have belonged to him, he surprisingly made a pact with a powerful evil monster known as the Six Desires Fiend, exchanging his own body to forever separate Ni Xuechang and Zimiao.
In the past, I heard from Zimiao that in the darkest swamps of the devil realm, there breeds a monster called the Six Desires Fiend. It resembles a spider with six heads, six eyes, and six legs. It specializes in using human desires as bait, forming contracts with those who strongly thirst to fulfill certain desires. With its evil power, it acquires everything the other party wants most. However, as an exchange condition, it enters the body of the other party and eats away at everything of the "host" sooner or later, becoming the owner of the body. Moreover, after perfect integration with the human, the Six Desires Fiend systematically devours everyone around this person. The more people it eats, the stronger the monster becomes.
Of course, when forming the contract, the Six Desires Fiend certainly doesn't disclose these details. It only says — I will satisfy all your desires for you. You just need to lend me your body for a few days to recover my vitality, and I will leave on my own afterward.
Once you allow the Six Desires Fiend to enter your body, there's no hope of it leaving again. From then on, there will be a smug and dark voice inside your body reminding you at all times — Sorry, your body and your identity will soon be mine. Starting from the person you care about the most, everything around you will become my most favorite food.
For countless years, many people have been fooled.
Zimiao said that the Six Desires Fiends are the most thriving monsters in the world. As long as the human race has almost crazy desires, they will have a place to exist.
It is normal to have needs, hopes, and desires for various things. But only those who can control their desires are human; those controlled by desires are nothing but monsters.
Zhuge Jun is the best example of changing from a person to a monster.
I began to understand why the Zhuge family's fortune grew so wildly under his control, and I also understood why he, who was once gentle and even timid, became so ruthless and decisive, willing to use any means to achieve his goals.
All of this is the manifestation of the Six Desires Fiend eating away at his body and soul. This monster distorts and expands human desires infinitely, attempting to use this abnormal yet powerful force to engulf the entire world starting from its host.
Ni Xuechang was Zhuge Jun's greatest "desire."
Zhuge Jun and she were childhood sweethearts. Zhuge Jun loved her deeply, and their marriage had been decided for a long time.
Who would have thought Zimiao's appearance would completely ruin Zhuge Jun's beautiful dream.
He couldn't understand how the years of friendship between him and Xuechang were no match for a man she met by chance by Dongting Lake.
Xuechang felt guilty towards him and told him that she and Zimiao were destined to be together. Since the world was born, from the time she was still the female immortal Xuechang who was the incarnation of an orchid in the heavenly realm, she belonged only to Zimiao. Even though she was banished to the mortal realm because of this fate, after countless cycles of reincarnation, Zimiao would eventually find her. The two of them were destined for each other, and this fact would never change.
That day, he silently left, and his overwhelming frustration and hatred, as well as his desire to snatch back Xuechang at any cost, completely engulfed him...
The promise the Six Desires Fiend gave him was — to make Zimiao disappear.
He accepted it without the slightest hesitation, and signed his name on the monster's contract, opening the door for the Six Desires Fiend to enter his body.
The immortals in the heavenly realm soon found out that the esteemed Water God of the Four Directions had fallen in love with a mortal woman and even had offspring with her. This was the greatest blasphemy against their divine status, bringing disgrace upon the heavenly realm. Those immortals who had past grudges against Zimiao seized the opportunity to hit a person who was down and reported to the Emperor of Heaven one after another, requesting a three-year severe drought as punishment for the mortal realm to let those lowly mortals understand that gods are unattainable.
It was their actions that finally forced Zimiao to sacrifice all his true essence and transform it into life-giving rain, nourishing the mortal realm and saving it from calamity.
Zimiao's disappearance brought peace to the mortal realm, but constant deep pain to me.
Zhuge Jun, what do you have to pay back?!
For the past eighteen years, if it weren't for his younger brother who knows a little about Taoism and used the Heavenly Seal to suppress the Six Desires Fiend in his body, Zhuge Jun might have been devoured by that monster long ago. However, even so, the evil nature of the Six Desires Fiend still affects his mind from time to time. In addition to the extreme actions reflected in the expansion of the Zhuge family's power, even small things like forcibly giving his own surname to Zimiao's daughter, all give him an abnormal sense of "satisfaction."
However, the longer the Six Desires Fiend is in his body, the stronger it will become. Despite being forced to hibernate, there will be a day it awakens completely. Long Renyu's Heavenly Seal has a maximum power of eighteen years, and now it can hardly suppress it anymore. In about a month at most, the Six Desires Fiend will surely replace Zhuge Jun completely, and the first to suffer will be the person closest to Zhuge Jun.
Zhuge Jingjun cannot escape this disaster.
And the simplest and most effective method I know is to kill Zhuge Jun before the Six Desires Fiend breaks free from the power of the Heavenly Seal. In doing so, the Six Desires Fiend will disappear without a trace along with the life of its host, and this will take care of everything.
But at this moment, the way Zhuge Jingjun looked at him came to my mind involuntarily.
It is the most sincere, deepest, and most cherished look in the world.
Yes, if I act, I will be killing the man she loves the most.
And Jingjun, Zimiao's daughter, is the person I most wish to be happy.
This contradiction gave me a splitting headache.
Finally, I took a deep breath, jumped off the rock, and walked quickly down the mountain.
[1] 百晓生 literally means a person who knows everything. Therefore, "Bai Xiaosheng" is usually used to describe a Know-it-all.
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