Yan Zaizen carried the snow-white puppy in his hands as he walked the paved road. Beside him, Old Man Bo had a calm expression, but his eyes were flashing continuously with all sorts of complex light.
Earlier, Yan Zaizen had told Old Man Bo the truth. He was both the young boy he'd known since young and the Yan Clan Ancestor who'd lived thousands of years and cultivated to an unfathomable heights. While many believed informing others of the grand height of this world was detrimental to development, Yan Zaizen didn't have such a belief.
Not taking a page from that book, he slowly explained with immense details. At the moment, Old Man Bo was trying to comprehend in his heart those words, unsure whether to believe or not. Yet, Yan Zaizen's existence was already a fair share of proof.
"Yawn!" The snow-white puppy twirled around while in Yan Zaizen's arms, smacking its lips here and there while blinking its pure eyes. It was unaffected by everything. Yan Zaizen couldn't help but find this snow-white puppy grew more and more mysterious as he kept it in his possession. Besides its exceptional appetite, it also contained a complete lack of an aura. It was most certainly not a normal dog. Unfortunately, he couldn't pinpoint its exact oddity.
"Bra-uh, Master Zai…" Old Man Bo, after several hours, finally spoke. Yan Zaizen's attention shifted with a slight hum of curiosity. Witnessing this, Old Man Bo stilled somewhat and felt at a loss.
"You can speak whatever is on your mind," Yan Zaizen calmly reassured with a faint trace of his dao aura lingering about, effusing comforting warmth within the hearts and minds of those who hear it. Only then did Old Man Bo seem to relax.
"If you're the Yan Clan's Ancestor, then are you a devil?" Old Man Bo, like most, was taught the history of the devils of the country. They had devoured the flesh of newborns, the fetus within pregnant women's bodies, and minced young men into bloody balls of flesh. It was a horrific description, yet each mention of them only grew more grotesque and violent.
Yan Zaizen silently thought. A devil? In the end, he shook his head. "I've seen Celestials that can manipulate time, traversing billions of years for their dreams, the souls of asuras from hell, monstrous balls of hairy mouths that both existed and didn't, eyes as large as a universe yet as small as a marble, Heavenly Gods rise and fall, and dragons of myth, yet I have never seen a legitimate devil.
"That feels more like a concept of personification than an actual existence. If so, then it depends on who you ask. Personally? The devils described in those stories, I certainly do not match up to that calibre." Yan Zaizen slowly said.
Old Man Bo's hearts quivered as Yan Zaizen's described his experience to the point he felt a sense of surrealism. With each word, he felt himself enter a world and experiencing what Yan Zaizen experienced. The only thing he did not experience was a river of blood flow ceaselessly without end.
Yan Zaizen sighed inwardly. He looked around and analyzed their location. They were still in the territory of the Soaring Sword Sect. While he had access to his vital energies, it was not limitless and required refuel. If he had the Black Hole, energy replenishment would be a non-factor in every equation. Unfortunately, he had to slowly and properly rest to recover his various energies.
This left him feeling somewhat handicapped. He'll have to adjust to this soon, or his ability to handle matters and get to the bottom of his clan's history would be hindered. Thinking up to here, he slowly investigated their surroundings. Besides the paved roads, there was a lack of society in the thirty mile radius of his current location.
That was a pretty long walk.
"Here," giving the snow-white puppy to Old Man Bo, he removed the black soul jade that seemed tainted by crimson blood from his sleeves and glanced at it. He had delayed investigating the jade because of a trace of anxiety. This anxious feeling stemmed from the possibility of seeing his Aunt and Uncle insane, killing left and right without remorse.
He entered his soul perception into the soul jade and was welcomed by a brilliant sight of vivid scenes. He could barely describe it, except in a single word: Inhumane.
So, so much blood.
After several minutes, he halted his perception and clenched his fist.
Crush!
The soul jade was crushed into powder, vanishing with the gust of idle wind. Yan Zaizen's eyes were calm yet a hint of anger could not be concealed. When he observed the events of this soul jade, he saw numerous things. He saw the devilishly bloodshot eyes and decaying skin of the Yan Clan. He even smelled the blood that seemed to linger within the images, feeling the pulsing beat of the violent heartbeats of the devils as they ripped into others.
They feasted on pregnant women, the eyes of children, and even scalped young men as trophies. It was horrendously violent. The shrieks of pain, horror, and wails of mercy was heart-rending and mind-crushing. One could only watch as the devils ran rampant, slaughtering to their hearts' content with cold smiles and dark eyes. Their hissing growls lingered endlessly in the heart.
If he had been a normal person, he would've long since lost his stomach and had endless fear emerge in his heart at such scenes.
"Mas...Master Zai?" Old Man Bo felt the simmering aura within Yan Zaizen's body slowly rise with every passing second, and even his heart pounded fiercely. He hadn't observed the soul jade details because of his lack of cultivation, but he knew of the soul jade existence and heard the vivid stories.
Yan Zaizen deeply inhaled, held this breath, and slowly exhaled. His aura became steady. He only said two words:
"It's fake."
Indeed!
The soul jade's images were all faked! The descriptive events, the faces and images were all devised by others. While the people in this image truly were Yan Clan members that he remembered, so no one could ever say they weren't those who held the Yan Clan bloodline or not existed, he still knew it was fake. This was because of two reasons.
Firstly, his Paragon Soul Realm cultivation base was profoundly high and his soul sense was easily capable of noticing a forgery of soul memories. This was an example of such. It seemed as if it was pulled from the soul of one of the Yan Clan members, so the scenes were vividly witnessed from their perspective, but there were faint flaws within this.
Secondly, HIS PARENTS!
HIS GODDAMN PARENTS!
His eyes flashed with vicious violence.
Whoever devised this soul jade used other's memories to construct these events, not caring if the Yan Clan members were dead or not, and had put in the faces of many Yan Clan members he remembered. Halfway through, he found his mother ripping a young boy in half in the far off distance. Others might not notice her, but how could he not?
His father was also within the video, but he was a fodder in the background that was killed off by those trying to defend against the devils yet ultimately failed in the end.
He silently clenched his teeth. They used the faces of his parents to devise these events, labeled them as devils and constructed this entire plot to defame the Yan Clan's name.
But why?!
And for what purpose?
Also, why the Yan Clan specifically? They were insignificant. Besides his existence that had long since departed, there was no reason to place this on the Yan Clan, at least none that Yan Zaizen could think of. Yet, they went through the trouble of including all the Yan Clan members imaginable to legitimize this soul jade.
It baffled him.
In the end, only one person was needed to get answers. Yan Zaizen lifted his head to the skies. A dark, murderous light flitted across his amber-gold irises.
The Xiantu Realmlord!!!