RIIDMDR chapter 163

After crying and shouting, Yun Yi knelt on the ground and looked at the endless expanse of red. He kowtowed several times, hitting his forehead on the ground with a thud. It was as if he could only express his sorrow this way.

Seeing this scene, which he had witnessed before from an outsider’s perspective, Nan Xu suddenly thought, “Humans at least have a place for the souls of the deceased to reside, but demons have nothing. Everyone knows that when spiritual energy vanishes and returns to the demon realm, a friend or relative who shared joy with you has disappeared from this world forever.”

After standing up, Yun Yi didn’t confide his sorrow to anyone. Perhaps, if he truly wanted to share those emotions with someone, they couldn’t be explained in just a few words. Although he was flamboyant and talkative, he wasn’t good at expressing himself.

While Yun Yi was kowtowing, Jing Yuan, Ting Chuan, and the others knelt beside him and bowed several times to heaven and earth. Seeing Yun Yi wipe away his tears, Jing Yuan seemed about to say something. He opened his mouth but ultimately remained silent.

“Should we tell them about the plan we discussed earlier?” Ting Shu asked after a long pause.

Yun Yi, with his excellent eyesight, looked at the demons watching in the distance and shook his head. “Useless. If they wanted to help, they wouldn’t have waited until now.”

Jingyuan was somewhat indignant. In his prime, full of youthful vigor, he wanted to rush over and beat them all up just thinking about the entire Golden Crow clan perishing while those demons remained cowering. His tone was laced with malice. “They won’t move until the fire reaches their eyebrows. Rather than pinning our hopes on them, we should figure out a way to deal with it ourselves.”

Compared to him, Tingchuan and Tingshu were much calmer. However, their expressions couldn’t hide their disgust. Tingchuan recalled what he had heard upon arrival: none of the northern clans that had come with the Golden Crow clan, including the Tiger Clan, had stepped forward to help. They had all coldly watched the Golden Crow clan’s annihilation.

However, considering that Ting Shu had suffered a backlash from the Tiger Clan leader’s greed while trying to heal him and had spent nearly thirty years recuperating in the Western Mountains, Tingchuan shouldn’t have held much hope for the Tiger Clan leader.

After convincing himself and suppressing his emotions, Tingchuan gritted his teeth and said, “Then we’ll do it ourselves.”

Tingshu nodded in agreement, and the little demon had no objections either. Rather, he was no longer capable of thinking clearly. It was as if his soul were being drained bit by bit; he could almost see his health bar nearly depleted. “I’ll cooperate with you to the best of my ability.”

They had each considered many methods on the way and now presented them one by one. They risked their lives trying all feasible options. Yunyi was originally supposed to be the first to try, but Jingyuan stopped him.

“Don’t argue with me. This method is my idea,” Jingyuan joked. “If it works, I will also benefit and gain fame in the demon realm as the first to try it.”

His words were humorous, but the demons knew that this method had been tried before their arrival; none had succeeded. The first demon who tried it faced too great a risk to his life. Jingyuan didn’t want the last remaining bloodline of the Golden Crow Clan to perish, so he offered to go first.

Yunyi refused, and the two demons argued for a long time. Ultimately, Jingyuan prevailed.

With a long howl, the Azure Dragon soared into the clouds, its agile form disappearing behind them. A faint beam of golden light headed towards the Heavenly Cave. It was Jingyuan, using all his power to repair it, disregarding his own life and the consequences.

The little demon looked up to observe. Although his cultivation was low and he couldn’t participate in the repairs, he understood the group of demons’ abilities better than anyone else. He could clearly sense whether they still had any strength left.

A moment later, the little demon called out. Yunyi quickly interrupted Jingyuan’s spellcasting, preventing the Heavenly Cave from draining his spiritual energy. He took over and continued the repairs. The Azure Dragon, injured, fell from the clouds. Tingchuan leaped into the air and caught him while Tingshu hurriedly channeled spiritual energy into him.

Every demon was busy, serving as vessels to transfer spiritual energy. They only groaned and cried out in pain when they could no longer bear it, but even then, it was only for a brief moment before they continued enduring.

No one questioned the method’s feasibility, nor did they doubt their closest friends’ abilities. This trust enabled them to maintain their rotation of spellcasting for three or four days.

Tingshu was the first to exhaust his spiritual energy, collapsing to the ground. Looking at the somewhat repaired Heavenly Cave, resentment crossed his usually gentle eyes.

Having observed the progress of the Heavenly Cave’s repairs and realizing that the method was workable, some timid demons finally agreed to try it. Even if they couldn’t take turns fighting like Jingyuan, they could contribute to the repairs once, preventing their clansmen from seeing them as cowardly and incompetent.

As more demons tried, Tingchuan, Yunyi, and the other demons, having exhausted their last bit of spiritual energy, lay down to rest.

A few demons initially lost their lives due to poor coordination, but as the repairs progressed smoothly and the Heavenly Cave shrank, the demons were finally able to relax.

Nan Xu, watching from the sidelines, held his breath. He felt a heavy weight on his heart because he remembered Yao Lin’s words that the Heavenly Cave wouldn’t be easily repaired.

Sure enough, what followed was exactly as Yao Lin had predicted. Some fought with all their might; others seemed to be putting on a show. The more demons there were, the more chaos ensued. Before the Heavenly Cave could be repaired, infighting broke out again. More demons stirred up trouble, causing Yun Yi to collapse from exhaustion. He had fallen from the clouds once more and spat out a mouthful of blood.

He wiped the blood from his mouth and observed the chaos around him. His pent-up anger surged forth, impossible to suppress any longer. He raised his spear, his eyes bloodshot, and charged into the disorderly demons.

Nan Xu’s eyes reddened as he gazed at the red-haired youth weaving through the demon horde. His spear moved with breathtaking grace, piercing the chests of the troublemaking demons and splattering blood onto his face. He smiled, his lips growing crimson. The pain from overdrawing his spiritual energy was forgotten in this moment, as was the agony of his people’s annihilation. He felt a pleasure unlike anything he had ever felt before.

Like a madman, he roared with laughter: “Today, I, Yun Yi, will perish here. Tomorrow, countless cowardly demons will perish here as well. The day after tomorrow, the demon realm will collapse, and countless demons will die. So be it!”

When Tingchuan and the other demons fought their way out and reached Yun Yi, his clothes were torn in many places and he was covered in blood, which stood out starkly against the chaotic battlefield. He stood upright, supporting himself with his spear. Blood flowed from his body, staining the ground beneath his feet.

He was at his last gasp. Seeing his close friends arrive, he let out a long sigh. Ting Shu stumbled forward to treat his wounds, but Yun Yi held his hand and interlocked their fingers. Looking into Ting Shu’s eyes, he smiled freely and said, “Don’t waste your energy on me. I won’t live. Meeting you all has made my life worthwhile.”

Nan Xu knew he had given up on life long ago.
Given his personality, living in disgrace for a lifetime would be worse than dying gloriously. However, he could not die; he had carried the burden of hundreds of lives from the Golden Crow Clan. Until now, he had fulfilled his duty.

Looking into Ting Shu’s desperate eyes, however, he felt a pang of pity. They had never openly expressed their feelings, yet Ting Shu would bear those unforgettable moments and unspoken emotions alone. As a healer, it was cruel and tragic to watch his beloved perish before his eyes.

“I’m sorry… I really can’t go on. I can’t live the rest of my life filled with hatred for the demon realm.”

He couldn’t turn a blind eye to the annihilation of the Golden Crow Clan. He didn’t know whom to blame for those grudges. He wished the demon realm would be destroyed, but he couldn’t hope for that.

Ting Shu released his hand, but amidst Yun Yi’s sorrowful gaze, he embraced him tightly again.

“I know, I know.”

As the two embraced, the demons around them pursed their lips but didn’t disturb them. The little demon’s eyes welled with tears. Yun Yi glanced at the little demon, smiling weakly and saying, “I won’t call you a little demon anymore.”

When Nan Xu saw Yun Yi close his eyes, Ting Shu was still muttering. The person in his arms was losing their life force, and spiritual energy was dissipating throughout the demon realm. Ting Shu, a healer who had probed the life force of countless demons, was the first to sense this, but he pretended not to notice. When the hand on his back fell and the spear collapsed to the ground, Ting Shu felt an unbearable agony from a piercing pain.

He held the increasingly cold Yun Yi, calling his name again and again. He poured all his remaining spiritual energy into Yun Yi’s body, trying to awaken him.

Across thousands of years, Nan Xu couldn’t help but want to pull him away. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and torrential rain poured down, washing away the bloodstains on the earth as if those tears and blood had never been shed.

Yun Yi’s arrogant suicide awakened the reason in some of the demon clan. When they looked up again, they saw the mostly repaired Heavenly Cave expand once more. Unlike before, this time it threatened to devour everything, causing earthquakes and splitting the continent into ever-expanding abysses.

Their spiritual energy was suddenly drained. The demons instinctively sensed that something was wrong and realized that the previous chaos was not the whole story. They had missed the best opportunity to repair the Heavenly Cave, and an even more desperate apocalypse awaited them.

Jingyuan and Tingchuan, one demon carrying one person, lifted the spiritually-exhausted Tingshu and the already fallen Yun Yi, heading toward a safer place. Along the way, they encountered severely wounded demons from the South Sea. Jingyuan hesitated slightly, but the little demon immediately took Tingshu from him. The little demon told Jingyuan to escort the South Sea demons back a thousand li and return them to the South Sea’s borders.

When Tingchuan and the little demon returned to the central continent, they both realized that they did not know how to deal with the ever-growing heavenly Cave. For the sake of their clans and the younger generations, however, even those who had once retreated and schemed had no choice but to give their all.

When the tide turns, no eggs remain whole. If they had not reached a point with no path left, how could they have taken action? Yet, at that moment, none of the demons cared about old grudges.

Mountains of corpses and seas of blood unfolded before Nanxu’s eyes, a brutality he had never seen before. Among the fallen demons were many familiar faces—some whom he had encountered during his travels in past years and some who were relatives of his close friends. Tingchuan Brother, who had once trained Jingyuan and Yun Yi, was among them. His white fox fur was no longer spotless; he was just another fallen demon.

Jingyuan returned once more, passing the corpses of one Azure Dragon after another. He glanced at them briefly before hurrying on—not because he was unfeeling, but because he had no time to grieve. Every demon was likely experiencing the sorrow of losing a family member. Who could stop to mourn when they might be the next to fall?

The demon realm suffered a devastating loss in the battle against Heaven. Even the little demon participated. He should have been among the first to fall, yet he survived. As more and more demons perished, he survived. This strengthened his belief that he was different—different from every other demon in the realm. Heaven could not break him because he was born to sustain all living beings.

If all things lived when he lived, then all things must live on even if he fell.

Seeing Jingyuan fall from the clouds into an abyss with no visible end, the little demon crawled to the edge. Seeing only darkness below, the same panic he had felt when Yun Yi died surged again. He grabbed Tingchuan’s clothing and pleaded, “Save him.”

Tingchuan was torn. The little demon clutched his clothing tightly, his nails piercing the fabric and cutting into his palm. He repeated, “Hurry and save him! He must still be alive.”

Tingchuan looked down into the abyss, knowing Jingyuan was likely facing death. But the little demon’s stubbornness left Tingchuan with no choice. “But you’re just a little demon with weak cultivation. If I’m not here to protect you, how will you withstand this heavenly abyss? Should I send you away first and then go find Jingyuan?”

The little demon shook his head. Feeling the ground beneath him crack and close again, he said, “There’s no time.”

Tingchuan had no choice. In haste, he shoved the sword at his waist into the little demon’s arms. “If you can’t handle it, this can protect you for now.”

It was his magical weapon, linked to his heart. No amount of instructions could match his desire to protect the little demon. After giving brief orders, he transformed into his original form and leapt into the abyss.

Thunder roared. Thick lightning bolts struck down. Piles of corpses covered the ground like mountains and were then swallowed by the earth. Heaven and Earth, once worshiped by the demon clan as gods, had now become their hell.

The little demon stood, holding Tingchuan’s sword. His life force continued to drain away. His spiritual consciousness followed the energy flowing out of him. He sensed the energy spreading in all directions and restoring the life force of countless demonic beings.

He seemed to understand something. He was neither demon nor human. He was a mountain—a mountain range that did not exist in the demon realm. Born from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, he took form before the demon realm was in chaos. Heaven had cast down a punishment upon the demon realm yet had also left them a chance to survive.

He should not have been able to wander freely in the demon realm. He should have remained there when the demon realm reached its dead end, existing eternally without aging or dying and blessing the rivers and mountains for ten thousand li.

But he realized this too late. His spiritual energy was nearly gone, and transformation was impossible. Amid the falling lightning and countless corpses, he felt spiritual energy returning to the demon realm from their bodies, carrying the desire to quell its calamity—the unresolved wishes left behind.

Turning those obsessions into spiritual power and contending with the heavenly abyss for the demon realm’s spiritual energy, the world dimmed. Without spiritual energy to support it, the heavenly abyss shrank. The surrounding sounds grew quieter and quieter until the last demon fell. The sky turned completely black. The little demon stood in the darkness for three days and three nights until he finally exhausted all his strength and transformed into a mountain range stretching thousands of li, suppressing the quaking earth.

Author’s Note:

Little Demon’s Diary:

I have taken my true form: an unbroken mountain range stretching a thousand li. When I live, ten thousand trees live. When I die, all things should die. Though Tingshu is an excellent physician, he is surely not as good as I am in this matter.

I do not know if Jingyuan is alive or dead, nor if Tingchuan has seen my majestic true form. The little demon can transform too…but I cannot speak. I must sleep forever beside Yun Yi.

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Acargoreng: This chapter broke my heart. Reading it was so painful.😭

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