Inner Demons

Chapter 212: The Lake and the Beauty

The old man's expression was one of carefree joy. Even with Li Yunxin's cultivation, he couldn't detect the slightest hint of pretense—it was as if an old man had casually jumped onto the back of a donkey and was smilingly asking him, "Have you ever tried riding a donkey?"

But if he really were an old man who was just living for the moment with no other thoughts… then why would he be standing on the back of this Vicious Flood Dragon?

He took a deep breath in the high-altitude winds, slowly lowered his height, and slowed his speed, so he was flying side-by-side with the old man on the Vicious Flood Dragon's head.

After a moment of silence, he said, “Master Su is truly a remarkable man of this age. I am impressed.”

“However, this Vicious Flood Dragon, although it looks like a dragon, is not a dragon. If we are talking about a True Dragon, there is only one in this world—so who has ever truly tried to ride a dragon?”

The old man chuckled at his words and said, “Heh, that you don't know—heh heh!”

He only said those few words and then stopped, as if he knew many secrets but wasn't willing to share them with Li Yunxin.

Li Yunxin didn't press him. He had gradually figured out how to get along with this old man, so he simply smiled faintly. "Master Su may not be able to speak of it now, but there will be a time when you can. I was impatient and anxious earlier, which led to me being rude and offending you. I hope you will not hold it against me, Master Su.”

The old man hummed with a smile, “I have already heard of the great name of the Human Demon, Li Yunxin. You don't need to pretend to be well-behaved. If you were truly a well-behaved person, I wouldn't have come to play with you. If you want to make amends, you should think of a good way to make me happy. If the old man is satisfied, when the one-month deadline arrives, I will grant you one wish.”

Earlier, when the old man kept saying he was just a simple old man, it made Li Yunxin feel uneasy. But now that he had finally said, “I have already heard of the great name of the Human Demon, Li Yunxin,” Li Yunxin's heart instantly calmed down.He didn't think he was “famous” now—not many ordinary demons or cultivators in the world would know of him. Just like he didn't know the name of some random small fry. Logically, there should be many demons and monsters that had been entrenched around the Wei River for a long time, but so far, he didn't know a single one—because he had no interest and no need.

But among certain other individuals... his fame should not be small among powerful figures in the great demon world, the Daoist Orthodoxy, and the Sword Sect.

He was already at the True Realm. Although he kept meeting other old folks with terrifyingly high cultivation, he was indeed worthy of the title of “great demon” among all the demons and cultivators in the world.

And he had many mysteries surrounding him that even he didn't seem to know about… For example, this old man beside him probably knew some of the inside story.

Now that the old man had said such a thing, it meant that he was also one of that small group of people at the very peak of martial power in this world. Li Yunxin felt that he at least knew the "background" and had narrowed the scope, which made him feel a little more at ease.

He just didn't know if the "great name" the old man spoke of was a bad reputation or something else.

He concealed the look of surprise on his face and said, "Master Su has already shown me a great kindness by letting me know the whereabouts of my disciples. Since this Dongting is also my place of cultivation, I, as the host, must not neglect my guest—there is no need to talk about promises or conditions. I just don't know what kind of interesting things Master Su is referring to?”

The old man smiled faintly in the wind, pointed forward with a hand, and said, “You, child—do you think this counts as interesting?”

Li Yunxin followed the direction of his finger and looked ahead.

However, he didn't see anything interesting.

They were in the depths of the Dongting at the moment, surrounded by a vast expanse of white lake water. The barrier at the edge of Dongting Lake was still very, very far away, and not a single hint of it could be seen. Therefore, only water, sky, and clouds came into view—Li Yunxin had been looking at it for six or seven days and was already bored of it.

The old man seemed to have guessed his thoughts and said, "Look closely. Look at the water—what is beneath us is an indigo blue. A little further away, it becomes a brilliant green. At the place where the water meets the sky, it becomes bright white. The white then gives birth to clouds—white clouds, against a clear, azure, sunny sky. Isn't this clean and refreshing scene a wonder?”

“Now listen to the sound of the wind. It's sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes near and sometimes far. Cover your ears—” he said, and then, like a little child, he actually plugged his ears and looked at Li Yunxin happily, his voice getting a little louder. “The sound of the wind is gone! Instead, you can hear a humming and buzzing sound!”

“Now let go—” the old man said, opening his arms again and raising his head as if in ecstasy. “The sound of the wind pours into your ears in that instant—doesn't it sound like the living beings of this world, this sky and water, are talking to you?!”

Li Yunxin blinked, not knowing what to say to fit the mood.

The old man, seeing his nonchalant expression, was not bothered. He sighed in the wind, “You are already used to these sights, so you don't know how breathtaking they are. If a blind person or a deaf person could suddenly see and hear, you can't imagine how excited they would be. The flowers, plants, mountains, and water that we're tired of seeing are actually magnificent sights. It's just…”

He sighed again. "Our hearts are captivated by those mundane things, so we can't see the real wonders.”

Li Yunxin's heart skipped a beat.

Because of his words and actions just now, he had a little, not-so-certain, but very bold guess.

He had actually experienced the feelings the old man was talking about. And, he had experienced them more deeply and intensely than anyone else in this world.

One must know that he was born with memories—memories of his previous world and a longer period of time.

After spending decades in his previous world and a little over ten years in this one, which experience, what had happened, and which personality would prevail?

At least for him… it was the former.

People in this world could not imagine what his previous world was like, while people in his previous world had fantasized countless times about what this world was like. Just before he died there, a certain virtual technology that could make people feel like they were really there had matured, and he had even experienced it several times.

A vast amount of experience and knowledge filled his mind—these things could not be replaced or forgotten by the short dozen years of experience in this world.

He was born and opened his eyes. For a long time, even a single chopstick in his hand was worth a full day of study. He looked at the handmade marks on the tables and chairs and the tiny patterns on the fired porcelain cups and saucers. He looked at the riveting techniques of the wooden houses and what kind of material the window paper was made of.

At that time, the whole world was a huge secret and a novelty to him. He came into contact with and experienced it with the dual identity of a tourist and a native until one day he suddenly realized—

Oh.

This is real.

I probably can't go back.

That intense, almost explosive sense of novelty suddenly disappeared, and then he devoted himself to the mundane things the old man spoke of—magical arts and immortality.

His situation was not exactly the same as the old man's, but some of the feelings were common. This made him even more curious about the identity of this "Master Su"… Who exactly was he?

He thought this while listening to the old man continue to talk.

His previous question, “What kind of interesting things?” seemed to have opened the floodgates of the old man's words, and they couldn't be stopped.

First, he told Li Yunxin to look at the water and the clouds, and then he told him to listen to the wind.

Then he began to ask him to smell the scent in the wind. The old man claimed that he could smell hundreds of scents in the wind and could know what the owners of those scents were doing based on them. To prove his point, he also ordered Li Yunxin to dive a hundred meters deep and catch a fish from a certain stone cave. Then he used the thick and sharp bristles of the Vicious Flood Dragon to cut it open and show him, proving that what he said earlier was correct—

This big fish had just eaten a small fish, and there was a "scent of fear" in its belly.

An emotional and vibrant heart was hidden beneath his old appearance. He was so sensitive and emotional that if it weren't for the logic and reason in his words, Li Yunxin would have unhesitatingly classified him as mentally ill.

But this old man also reminded him of a saying from a Daoist scripture—

He who possesses a wealth of virtue is like a newborn baby.

This journey was not easy for Li Yunxin, but it was not difficult either. He was used to gauging a person's heart by their expression, tone, and what they said. That was because there was always a logic to a person's words. And this "logic," if we were to go a little deeper, to Li Yunxin...

Meant "concealment."

A thought process like "because, therefore" seems simple and direct, but the content in the "because" is already a prelude and a concealment to lead to the subsequent "therefore." Both trained and untrained people have this innate ability to conceal. Because of this ability, everything has a trace.

What would happen if a person spoke without any rules or patterns, but truly just spoke what they felt? Li Yunxin used to think there were two kinds of people like that. One was a madman who had lost his mind, and the other, he was seeing for the first time.

He couldn't find any flaws in the old man's thought process or logic. To put it simply, he was so emotional, sensitive, and free-spirited that he was full of flaws, and there was simply no way to start.

When he first met the old man, he seemed only "slightly strange." But now that his "true nature" was being revealed more and more, he was gradually turning into a "madman."

Finally, the two arrived at Jun Mountain.

Compared to when Li Yunxin left seven days ago, the only change to Jun Mountain was the appearance of a small wooden pavilion on the beach.

It didn't look anything like the original wooden pavilion at Three Rivers' Mouth. But perhaps Lady Hong only needed the memory and the Intent Realm.

Li Yunxin spent a quarter of an hour on the way, hesitating, and then told the old man how to lift the Dongting barrier. The old man just smiled faintly and didn't comment.

There was no further drama.

Li Yunxin had been to the Jun Mountain Ziwei Palace once and had been to the front hall and the middle hall. Now he brought the old man in through the main gate of the Ziwei Palace, listening to him ramble all the way, and finally settled him in a bedroom in the middle hall.

By then, it was already late, and birds were returning to their nests. The old man, who had been in high spirits during the day, began to yawn. Li Yunxin said a few casual words to him, left him in the room, and then left himself—

He left, ascended high into the sky, and watched the Ziwei Palace under the bright moon. After watching all night without any movement, he finally went into his "Dragon Palace" for a short rest.

He had thought that the second day of the old man's stay on Jun Mountain would still be a day that was both novel and boring.

But he didn't expect it to be another day that made him both surprised and suspicious.

In the morning, he saw Lady Hong with a pot of wine, drinking alone in the pavilion on the beach. There was a lake breeze in the morning, and her figure was quite slender. The wind blew her red clothes against her body, outlining her beautiful curves. Her hair was also messy, hanging loosely down, and the wind blew it to cover half of her face, revealing only two delicate red lips and dazed eyes, with a bit of a worldly feel.

Li Yunxin stood outside the pavilion and quietly watched her lean against the pillar with one leg propped on the railing, drinking like a common person. After a while, she took her gaze away from the lake, turned her head, and leaned against the pillar to look at Li Yunxin.

With a loose grip, the empty wine pot fell into the lake.

She looked at him sideways with her intoxicated eyes for a moment before a lazy smile bloomed on her lips. “Why did you bring a person back?”

Li Yunxin knew that the "person" Lady Hong was referring to was an ordinary, common person with no cultivation or magical power. He could also hear that her words were a little tipsy.

He had come to see her to ask about the barrier again and didn't want to hear her pour out her heart again. So he smiled, “He's not a person—not an ordinary person. He's a remarkable person.”

But unexpectedly, Lady Hong giggled, reached out to brush the hair off her lips, and slowly shook her head. “A remarkable person? What kind of remarkable person is he?”

When she spoke, she seemed not to take the old man's matter to heart, just talking casually. “Isn't he just that Old Man Su from Su Town by the lake? I've seen him many times in recent years. His ancestors were originally fishermen. During his great-grandfather's time, they netted a chest of gold and silver jewelry from the lake and became rich. So they went into business and bought land.”

“This later benefited their descendants, but they still lived by the lake for generations, saying that this Dongting was their family's lucky place to get rich.”

“This Old Man Su… I watched him grow up. He was a strange person from a young age. He didn't like to read or do business, only traveling around, and he almost lost all the family business. Fortunately, he had a good son and daughter who took over the family business, and things slowly improved. In his old age, his personality became even stranger.”

“I used to be bored in the lake, so I often secretly went to see some interesting people—he was one of the more interesting ones among the people along the lake, so I have an impression of him.”

“How did such a person become a remarkable person in Young Master Li's eyes?”

Li Yunxin listened to her in a daze. After two seconds, he blinked. “Are you—are you serious?”

“Of course I'm serious. When have I ever lied to Young Master Li? On the other hand, you…”

The beauty's playful complaint wasn't finished when Li Yunxin's body swayed and he disappeared from the spot.