Chapter 123: Tao Yaoyao, the Demon Catcher

"Yaoyao, did you teach yourself the language of demons?"

"Hmm? No, I was born with—ouch! Master! What was that for?"

Tao Yaoyao rubbed her head and pouted at Old Xu.

Old Xu glared at her, then offered a flattering smile to Lian. "This girl, honestly... surely you don't think she learned the language of demons from anyone but me?"

It took Tao Yaoyao a moment to catch on. "Oh, right! I almost forgot. Ever since Old Xu picked me up, he’s been raising me as his disciple. He was worried I wouldn’t know how to communicate with demons, so he’s always spoken to me in their tongue."

Lian clasped her hands behind her back. "Oh, I see."

Seeing that Lian seemed convinced, Old Xu turned back to Tao Yaoyao and added, "Finish your meal. The porridge is getting cold."

Tao Yaoyao stuck out the tip of her tongue, made a face at Old Xu, and buried her head in her bowl.

...

The Abyss of Resentful Souls.

"Three hundred years! Three hundred years, ahahahaha! Chong Lian, I have returned!..."

A pair of evil eyes awakened from the darkness, shaking the heavens and the earth!

The Six Realms trembled, mountains and rivers quaking instantly.

In the Demon Realm, Demon Ye gently twirled the emerald thumb ring on his hand, a wicked smile curling his lips. "Pass the order: withdraw half the guards from the seal at the Abyss of Resentful Souls."

Wisps of black aura escaped from the seal, yet the guards turned a blind eye.

The evil spirit’s arrogant, manic laughter seemed to echo into every corner of the Demon Realm.

In the Underworld, Di Ting grew restless. Important evil souls imprisoned within the Eighteenth Level of Hell seemed to receive a command, beginning to frantically assault their shackles.

The Underworld Sovereign, accompanied by Black and White Impermanence, moved to reinforce the seals, barely maintaining control.

All the evil thoughts in the Underworld gathered together, flying in the same direction.

The Underworld Sovereign gazed toward that direction. "Fan Wujiu, Xie Bi'an, hear my command: guard the Underworld well." He then vanished from the spot.

The two ghosts, Black and White Impermanence, exchanged a look. "Understood!"

Meanwhile, the Demon Realm was also restless.

It was common knowledge that the Demon Emperor had once attempted to annex the Six Realms alongside the Demon Lord. The demon race was the Demon Lord’s most formidable force.

"Contribute your strength! Help Lord Evil Spirit break the seal!"

The Demon Emperor shouted to his subjects, and ten thousand demons bowed in reverence!

In the Nine Heavens of the God Realm, all the Higher Gods had gathered, including the Underworld Sovereign. Every serving deity from the four seas and eight wildernesses had been summoned back.

A five-colored phoenix shrieked within the hall, transforming into a beautiful woman. She bowed to the Divine Lord on the throne. "Divine Lord, the creatures of the Spirit Realm are pure of heart and weak in magic. In this battle, our King will not participate; I request that the Spirit Realm be sealed off."

The five-colored phoenix—envoy of the Spirit Realm and confidant to its Lord.

The Divine Lord sighed helplessly. "Please relay this to the Lord of the Spirit Realm: at this moment of life and death for the world, the demon and beast realms harbor ulterior motives. The Evil Spirit is a creature from beyond the Six Realms; I fear the God and Underworld realms alone cannot contain this situation."

The five-colored phoenix plucked a brilliant feather, which flew directly into the Divine Lord’s hand. "If my Lord changes his mind, use this feather to contact us."

The woman transformed back into the phoenix and vanished into the horizon.

"As you have all seen, the greater the crisis, the more we must pool our strength."

The Underworld Sovereign stepped forward. "The Underworld will assist the God Realm, but the seal of the Eighteenth Level requires several Higher Gods to reinforce it together; otherwise, the resentment within will become nourishment for it."

The Divine Lord nodded. "This matter brooks no delay. Water God and Fire God, accompany the Underworld Sovereign."

Suddenly, someone asked, "Have the other two from the Thirty-Third Heaven returned?"

The Fate-Weaving God, who had been quiet among the crowd, felt his hand tremble upon his staff.

The entire hall fell into a heavy silence.

...

In the Thirty-Third Heaven, Chong Fa felt an inexplicable pain in his chest.

...

[Master, what's wrong?]

Little Jianjian looked on with concern as Lian suddenly clutched her chest.

They had been watching the stars when the earth-shaking tremors began. Once things finally settled, Lian had grabbed her heart, looking as if she were in great pain.

"I'm fine," Lian responded softly.

The pain from that moment seemed like a hallucination, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

"Where were we?"

[You were saying that the people here are strange, including the demons that wander in, and Tao Yaoyao's master is even stranger!]

Lian cast a sidelong glance at Little Jianjian. "Isn't that something you should already know?"

[Jianjian is strange too—there's actually something I don't know! This place is weird everywhere!]

Old Xu deliberately hid the fact that Tao Yaoyao was born with the ability to speak the demon tongue, likely to conceal her true identity.

Born with the demon tongue? How could an ordinary human do that? There was only one answer: Tao Yaoyao was a demon!

Old Xu's deception was understandable; after all, what ordinary village could tolerate the presence of a demon?

But that raised another question: why did everyone have a red ribbon on their left wrists that they themselves couldn't see, yet Tao Yaoyao did not?

Even if Old Xu hadn't tied one on her, why didn't Tao Yaoyao notice the ribbons on her master's wrist?

What did that represent? It meant that those who were tied with the red ribbons, and Tao Yaoyao, were all unable to see them!

[Oh, Master, you've got me all confused!]

Lian, who had been deep in deduction, was interrupted and grew irritable. "Do you want to go back to the space?"

[No, I just wanted to say...]

"Are you asking for a beating?"

[No, Master...]

"Tell me, have you lost your attachment to this world?"

[Oh! Master! I'm trying to say that I know the answer!!] The stifled Little Jianjian finally blurted it out in one breath.

*Thwack!*

Little Jianjian rubbed his head, aggrieved. [Why did you hit me again?]

"Who told you to chatter so much!"

Jianjian felt wronged, but he didn't dare say it.

Lian hadn't used any real strength; Little Jianjian was just a drama queen, blinking his eyes to force out tears.

Following the direction Little Jianjian pointed, a reddish-brown eight-tailed fox stood gracefully amidst a cluster of fireflies.

"An eight-tailed fox... so, this place is an illusion."

The fox elegantly licked its paw, every movement that of an aristocrat.

It walked slowly toward Lian. The fox's mouth moved slightly, but the voice that emerged was that of a mature man. "Are you the missing Goddess from the Thirty-Third Heaven? I have waited for you for a long time."

Lian hesitated, then reached out and gently shook the fox's paw. "Waited... for me?"

"That is correct. Waiting for you."

As it walked closer, Lian noticed in the light of her night-luminescent pearl that there was a scar where a ninth tail should have been. "You aren't an eight-tailed fox. You are a nine-tailed fox?"

The male fox sighed helplessly. "Indeed."

"Because of Tao Yaoyao?"

The fox nodded.

Foxes were inherently arrogant, priding themselves on not mingling with other tribes, and the nine-tailed fox was the nobility among them.

A fox's tail represented a thousand years of cultivation; nine tails meant nine thousand years. This fox had lived for nine millennia.