Volume 1 Volume 7 Chapter 20

Volume 7 Chapter 20: I Shall Become a Demon (Part 1)

"Wang Li, how did he get here? How did he come to this place?"

Xu Qingfan felt confused, as Rainbow Spirit Seven Islands were separated by a hundred miles of ocean, where ordinary people seldom traveled. Cultivators could fly in the sky, so there were no boats between the seven islands.

As Xu Qingfan expanded his Divine Sense, he noticed Wang Li silently kneeling in front of the house. The entire situation of Rainbow Spirit Seven Islands entered his mind. Most people were in seclusion, practicing their cultivation. Bai Yu was playfully chasing Little Green with Little Gray, while on Tianquan Island, the Medicine Pill Master and Alchemy Masters were still busy, seeming like they could keep refining as long as they had exquisite materials.

Meanwhile, Shen Gang was searching for something with his sixteen friends who were also cultivating.

Suddenly, Xu Qingfan figured it out. After Wang Li saw that Xu Qingfan had taken Shen Gang as his disciple, he was stirred and, not knowing how to act, ran from Tianshu Island to Yuheng Island to request Xu Qingfan to accept him as a disciple again.

Over the past three years, Xu Qingfan had paid great attention to Shen Gang, but for some reason, he also found himself unable to stop focusing on Wang Li. It might be because Wang Li’s experience was similar to his own, or perhaps it was due to Wang Li’s extreme emotions and determination, or maybe it was the mix of despair and desire in Wang Li’s eyes.

In comparison to Shen Gang, whom Xu Qingfan liked more the more he observed him, Wang Li was a different situation. His emotions did not show on his face, he was very deep and self-centered, completely unaware of the care and protection others showed him, extreme yet slightly mad.

All of this made it hard for Xu Qingfan to like him, but he still felt unable to help but watch him constantly.

However, Xu Qingfan also discovered that Wang Li had some strengths: he was resilient, proud, observant, and good at enduring.

After being saved by Wang Zegang, a normal person with Wang Li’s experience would have immediately begged Wang Zegang to accept him as a student, but Wang Li did not. He only asked Xu Qingfan to take him as a disciple after seeing that Xu Qingfan was clearly much stronger than him. His patience and pride were truly remarkable.

After Xu Qingfan declined, he went on to earnestly request to become a disciple of Liu Ziqing, Wang Zegang, Zhang Yi, and Bai Qingfu, in that order, which clearly showed the ranking of their cultivation strength in the Rainbow Spirit Seven Islands! It’s worth noting that even many cultivators from Rainbow Spirit Island were not very clear about this ranking, yet Wang Li managed to discern it through careful observation of everyone’s actions.

To be honest, Xu Qingfan could have helped Wang Li cultivate. Even though Wang Li didn’t have much talent for cultivation, Xu Qingfan’s own talent years ago was not necessarily better than Wang Li’s. He had only improved significantly through Zhang Xusheng’s secret technique, eventually achieving a decent level of cultivation talent in the cultivation world.

However, after the incident with Zhang Hualing, Xu Qingfan no longer wanted to use this secret technique on others. Let alone Wang Li’s extreme personality, even a very kind person could turn dark and unpredictable after undergoing such an alteration. No one could predict how Wang Li would change if he was transformed by the secret technique, and no one wanted to guess.

With this thought in mind, Xu Qingfan sighed softly and decided not to pay attention to Wang Li’s request, leaving him to kneel outside the door, hoping he would give up.

However, after a short while, Xu Qingfan’s expression suddenly changed.

He realized that Wang Li’s life force was quickly fading, and if he continued to kneel like this, he might not last much longer.

Frowning slightly, Xu Qingfan stood up, opened the door, and saw Wang Li quietly kneeling in front of his room. Under the moonlight, his torn right arm and left leg were strikingly visible, and the blood all over him made him look like a desperate figure. Despite his severe injuries, he maintained an upright posture, which was both resilient and sorrowful.

Noticing someone had appeared, Wang Li used a lot of strength to lift his head. His eyes, which appeared pale from losing too much blood, stared directly at Xu Qingfan. His vision seemed to blur, his body trembled, and he said with great difficulty, "Master… please take me as your disciple. I only want revenge…"

After saying this, Wang Li seemed to lose all his strength and fainted.

※※※※

As long as he was not hurt by a cultivator or at the end of his life, if Xu Qingfan wanted to help, it was very difficult for an ordinary person like Wang Li to die in front of Xu Qingfan.

With a wave of his hand, Wang Li’s body slowly floated up and flew into Xu Qingfan’s house. Then, Xu Qingfan fed Wang Li various healing medicines that Scholar Beihai and others had prepared over the years and began to heal Wang Li using the "Way of Life and Death."

Seeing Wang Li faint, Xu Qingfan was shocked by the injuries on Wang Li’s body. When he noticed the broken piece of wood at Wang Li’s feet, he finally understood how Wang Li traveled from Tianshu Island to Yuheng Island. He had actually used a piece of broken wood to swim from Tianshu Island to Yuheng Island. Although there was only a little over a hundred miles between the two islands, it was nothing for a cultivator, but it was truly impossible for an ordinary person to swim over.

More importantly, the Rainbow Spirit Seven Islands are located thirty thousand miles deep in the East Sea, where there are many demon beasts and constant storms. Therefore, the fish here have evolved to be extremely tough for their survival, and they are very aggressive, many are carnivorous. The wounds and scars on Wang Li’s limbs clearly showed that they were bitten off and devoured by those fish while he was swimming here.

Looking at Wang Li’s youthful yet deeply troubled face, Xu Qingfan felt a shock in his heart.

How much suffering did this child endure to come here? How did he survive?

If it were him, Xu Qingfan did not think he could have the courage and determination to do these things.

At this thought, Xu Qingfan’s gaze towards Wang Li changed a bit.

If it were not for the Shura Clan and the disaster, and all the hatred it brought to Wang Li, with Wang Li’s determination, keen observation, and patience, he might have been an excellent hunter in their village, admired by his peers and children, and respected by the elders.

Unfortunately, before all the beautiful assumptions, the word "if" always appears, and the premise of "if" is that such wonderful assumptions will never come true…

As Xu Qingfan sighed, the various wounds on Wang Li’s body were healing quickly, and the two broken limbs were also forming scars rapidly. Even with Xu Qingfan’s abilities, it would not be something that could be done in just a day or two to regrow Wang Li’s broken limbs.

With a long groan, filled with immense pain and exhaustion, it seemed as if Wang Li had just woken up from a nightmare, he suddenly sat up, drenched in cold sweat, his eyes wide open, panic and pain still clearly lingering in his gaze, breathing heavily, as if trying to expel everything he had seen in the dream from his body.

"What did you dream about just now?"

While Wang Li was gasping for breath, he suddenly heard a gentle voice. Startled, he turned his head and saw Xu Qingfan sitting at the bedside, observing him with a strange look, as if curious, worried, and hesitant.

After a slight hesitation upon hearing Xu Qingfan’s question, Wang Li replied sadly, "I dreamed that my parents were killed by the Shura Clan."

"Have you seen the Shura Clan?" Xu Qingfan asked again.

Wang Li nodded slightly, his expression a mix of pride and sadness. He murmured, "My whole family were the best hunters. My father was, my mother was too, and I was the best hunter in the village besides them. When the village sent people to the valley to find food, I was the only hunter under the age of sixteen… Then… we were discovered by a Shura Clan. It was like they were playing with us. They could have killed us all in an instant, but they chose to kill us one by one, slowly torturing us. At first, the Shura Clan wanted to kill me first because I was the youngest, but my parents kept shooting arrows at him, which made him angry. Then, he did it right in front of me…"

As Wang Li spoke, his body suddenly trembled, breathing heavily like before. He continued, "He put his hand into my father’s mouth and pulled out his intestines piece by piece, wrapping them around my father’s neck…"

As he spoke, Wang Li suddenly leaned against the window and started to vomit. At that moment, the usually strong-willed Wang Li seemed so fragile.

Xu Qingfan gently patted Wang Li’s back, soothing his troubled emotions. His mind drifted away for a moment. Xu Qingfan knew that such tragedies did not happen only to Wang Li. He had long been aware that for many years, humans on the Shenzhou Continent had suffered greatly. But as he grew stronger and saw himself as a player in a game, his heart became indifferent. To Xu Qingfan, these tragedies were just words, a sigh, a string of numbers representing death. Far from the disasters, he could never understand the true feelings of the people living in the prosperous Middle-earth over the years until he heard Wang Li’s fragmented story.

"Then did Wang Zegang save you?"

Wang Li silently nodded.

Xu Qingfan sighed and said, "So, you should cherish your days now. Being an ordinary person isn’t so bad. You should know that your life was bought with your parents’ lives. Since I will take revenge for you in the future, why are you so focused on seeking revenge yourself?"

Upon hearing Xu Qingfan’s words, Wang Li, who had just seemed very weak, suddenly turned and stared at Xu Qingfan, his eyes turning blood-red.