Yan Qianlie sat alone amidst the clouds, casually chugging a wine jar.
The Heavenly Qiong Cloud Brew from Cloud Sky City was fine wine, its aroma ethereal, like clouds hanging from the sky. Unfortunately, it wasn't strong enough; after half a jar, he felt nothing—a sissy's drink.
He missed the Blazing Hell Wine of his Fire Hell Sect. Those two scoundrels ruined his sect, leaving him hiding and without wine.
And they were flirting over there, so annoying.
Just then, Chu Ge, carrying a jar of wine, sat down beside him.
Yan Qianlie glanced at him sideways, disdainfully moving three feet away with his own wine.
Chu Ge moved three feet closer.
"Get lost," Yan Qianlie said. "I'm just a little flame… There are plenty of women in Cloud Sky City. Xie Jiuxiao's wife and daughter are both quite beautiful; I doubt he'd dare disobey you now…"
Chu Ge: "?" Qiu Wuji, watching from afar, gripped his sword sheath tightly.
"What nonsense are you spouting?" Chu Ge said irritably. "A man's loneliest moment is drinking alone. As your father, I'm here to have a few drinks with you. What are you thinking?"
"Oh?" Yan Qianlie scoffed. "You call yourself a man? The kind who gets his ear pulled and makes 'mmmmm' sounds?"
Chu Ge gritted his teeth. "That's love. What do you, an elemental being, know?"
"I'm not an elemental being, I'm just a Soulfire now. Don't get me wrong!" Yan Qianlie said. "Back when I had women, if a woman dared to nag me, I'd slap her across the face! Women just need to serve their men; they have no right to talk nonsense!"
Chu Ge's face turned green.
"Crunch..." The sound of a sword sheath scraping against each other came from behind, a chilling aura emanating from it.
"If you don't want to listen, then get lost. You think you can listen?" Yan Qianlie was never afraid of Qiu Wuji, glaring at him with his tiger eyes. "What does a woman have to do with what a man says? Do you think I'm afraid of you in a fight?"
Qiu Wuji took a deep breath and endured it.
Fighting this bastard will only make things worse. He won't listen; go talk to Xie Jiuxiao.
Speaking of which, Yan Qianlie's "looking down on women" trope has always been there; it's an original setting Chu Ge wrote long ago. So, this guy also has this thought in his heart, which is why he was able to write it, right?
Qiu Wuji, who's feeding Chu Ge in the real world, shoved a spoonful into the mouth of the mentally challenged child.
Chu Ge: "Damn... I saw you were feeling down, so I came to keep you company, and this is how you betray me?"
Yan Qianlie said: "You got bullied, didn't you? You're too scared to confront the bully, so you're blaming me?"
Chu Ge: "..." That makes so much sense; I'm speechless.
"Well, it's interesting that you actually came to drink with me." Yan Qianlie raised his wine jar and clinked it against Chu Ge's. "I never thought our Heavenly Dao was like this before. Now that I see it, it's not bad at all. It makes me feel like I'm following a big shot back in the day—not shameful at all."
"Ahem." Chu Ge took a sip of wine and tentatively asked, "Qianqian, is something bothering you? Come out and let us... cheer you up?"
Yan Qianlie was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "While I was helping you refine pills, I secretly glanced at this book. There's Qiu Wuji's autobiography in it, right? So, Qiu Wuji's ten-thousand-year journey wasn't written by you. You just provided a basic setting and then developed it yourself?"
"Yes, you want to ask about your own?" Chu Ge said, "I didn't even write that much about Qiu Qiu, let alone yours. From the moment your name appeared, you were the Lord of the Fire Prison Sect, a domineering, arrogant, bloodthirsty, and fiery-aggressive demon lord. Other past events weren't written; what you experienced was your true experience."
Yan Qianlie fell silent again.
Chu Ge asked curiously, "What are you doing? Just say it straight, this stammering isn't like you." Yan Qianlie whispered, "I was thinking, there are some things I regret. If I beg you to change them…wouldn't that just lead to more regret?"
Chu Ge paused, "Why would you regret it if I changed it?"
"I have to beg you, grovel, and never have the confidence to challenge you again. If things turn out well, then it's worth it. But what if in the end we find it's better not to see each other at all? Wouldn't we be filled with regret?"
"E…" "...Qianqian, you've had a story, haven't you?"
"I don't know what love is." Yan Qianlie suddenly smiled: "Domineering, rampant, bloodthirsty, aggressive...that's one of your traits. It wasn't innate...or maybe it was partly innate. My becoming this kind of person actually has a story." Chu Ge became interested: "Come listen."
"The reason it was partly innate is that I've always been brave and fierce since I was little, and I despise those who work hard. As a teenager, I was a sleazy guy in town. Later, when bandits robbed, I simply joined their ranks." "Bandits, I followed them to kill and burn. There's no way you can get a story about a naive young man turning to the dark side." Yan Qianlie laughed nonchalantly, "Do you know what the first secret they taught me when I joined the caravan was? I doubt even you, the author, could have imagined it." Chu Ge was genuinely surprised: "What?"
"The older brothers taught me, first, you have to speak loudly, your insults have to be harsh, your eyes have to be fierce. Practice it, practice in front of a mirror, in front of the river. If you can't even speak loudly, what kind of bandit are you?" Chu Ge: "...Very spirited."
"Later..." "When the Demonic Sect recruited bandits, I joined them. On the path of cultivation… tsk, it's either you betray me or I rob you, a complete mess. Whoever is ruthless is the boss, and the ruthlesser you are, the more favored you get from above. I was one of the more ruthless ones, and eventually, an elder of the Fire Prison Sect took a liking to me and made me their cultivation vessel."
"Wait, wait a minute. Why?"
"Nominally a disciple, but in reality, a cultivation vessel." Yan Qianlie said nonchalantly, "Elder, it's nothing. The Fire Prison Sect's techniques are inherently violent; all that malevolent energy needs an outlet." , she felt that she was sucking me, so I was venting on her, that's all. "
"Fuck. Then why are you still alive?"
Yan Qianlie suddenly smiled: "In a sense, I can be regarded as a son of heaven, right? The lord of the Hell Sect destined by Father God."
Chu Ge thought for a while: "Yes. One of the protagonists of the previous generation, if you think about it."
"It didn't take long for my master to discover that I had the potential to become a god. Naturally, he stopped collecting supplements and found other furnaces to nourish me to make up for my previous losses."
Chu Ge said: "She has begun to have high hopes for you at this time, hoping that you will inherit the mantle?"
Yan Qianlie smiled and said, "I thought so too at the time, but later I found out that she actually wanted me to practice Nascent Soul, and then use the Soul Soul to refine elixirs to help her break through to the Divine Transformation."
Chu Ge: "?"
Yan Qianlie said calmly: "After a battle of wits and courage, she was killed by me. The Nascent Soul cultivated the soul-nurturing bead, which is the bead I store now. After that, she provided a lot of help to me in the process of advancing to become a god." "Chu Ge slammed his hand on the wine jar: 'You might have killed someone by mistake!'" Yan Qianlie asked, 'How do you know?'
'Because the chaos of the demonic path always has its limits; it must be within a basic framework. If it were purely chaotic, with masters and disciples killing each other and fellow disciples cannibalizing each other, then no new talents could rise up. It would have collapsed long ago, without even needing the righteous path to suppress it! This is my basic logic as the creator. I can conclude that there must be a misunderstanding in this matter!'" Yan Qianlie remained silent for a long time before slowly saying, 'It's a pity that the Heavenly Dao didn't tell me this back then.' Chu Ge: '…'
'Actually, her lifespan was already exhausted at that time. Refining my pills would have had a high chance of helping her break through. She was even really preparing to act; she had already prepared the pill-refining materials…' Yan Qianlie said in a low voice, 'Moreover, I was no match for her at that time. My cultivation was inferior to hers, and she had taught me all the techniques. She knew too much about me… I don't know why, but in the end, she hesitated, revealing a fatal flaw, which I seized upon and killed with a single blow.' Chu Ge opened his mouth, unsure what to say.
Your master has fallen in love with you… Holy crap.
At least the original concept of the novel *Boundless Chu Sky* was a story with a significant emphasis on romance, and your character's initial setup was based on that. Thinking in that direction is the right approach…
Yan Qianlie said, "After that incident, I didn't think too much about it. In short, all her resources became mine, and from then on, I made rapid progress, eventually ascending to the throne of the Fire Prison Sect Master. And I became even more ruthless. If I could kill my master, what wouldn't I kill? I myself don't know how many people I killed on my path to the top. That's how I became the Peerless Demon Lord."
Chu Ge sighed.
"But as time passes, perhaps it's because I'm getting old, I always find myself vaguely recalling why… she hesitated at the last moment." Yan Qianlie sighed deeply. "After I achieved success in my cultivation, I stopped getting close to women. It's partly due to the psychological trauma of being a furnace in my youth, and partly because of a certain unpleasant feeling. Seeing women annoys me and only hinders my cultivation speed." Chu Ge said directly, "You're running away. You know the right answer." Yan Qianlie remained silent, picked up the jar, and gulped it down viciously, then smashed it to pieces. "You… you help revive her. I'll ask her if it really was her fault, and that will put my mind at ease. If it really was her own brain-damaged mistake, I can just kill her again. If not…"
"If not…" "Yes, she not only taught you, but also loved you. Ultimately, she hesitated because of love and willingly died at your hands… I'm afraid you'll cower before her, even more henpecked than I am."
"…" Yan Qianlie's voice trailed off, becoming almost inaudible: "Both I and she are covered in blood, committed countless evils, and deserve their fate. And after so many years dead… if you don't want to be resurrected… I have no objection." Chu Ge laughed loudly: "You yourself are conflicted, hesitant, and cowardly, yet you hand the decision over to me, blaming 'fate'? Yan Qianlie, I don't care if you are righteous or demonic, just give me one question: do you want her resurrected? I want to hear your own answer!" Yan Qianlie, clutching the shards of the wine jar, his soul devoid of blood, crushed the jar to ashes.
After a long, long time, his hoarse voice finally rang out: "Please, Father God, help me… resurrect her. I… must ask her this question, otherwise I will never be at peace."