# Chapter 2022: The Shadow of Ni Xuan
The figure before him gradually became clear, and finally, in Yun Che's consciousness, a clear image emerged... the figure of an old man.
Old... man...?
This was not Yun Che's first encounter with the existence of the Evil God Ni Xuan. On the Water Seed, there had also been an extremely faint remnant soul of the Evil God attached to it. At that time, he had a brief conversation with the Evil God, but that remnant soul was too weak, unable to even manifest a form, only distinguishable as an old, hoarse voice, as if coming from an elder on the verge of death.
It was also at that time that he first touched upon the word "mission." It was not until Jie Yuan returned that he truly understood the profound meaning contained in those two words. When he came to the Abyss, before touching the final Evil God Seed, Yun Che had already thought... During the time Jie Yuan returned to the world, she could detect the abnormalities of the Abyss through the flow of dark energy. The period of battle and the aftermath of complete annihilation should have been the time of the most intense changes in chaotic energy. The Evil God had no reason to be completely unaware. Perhaps he had also tried to sink into the Abyss like Jie Yuan, but also like Jie Yuan, he returned without success. Since his body could not sink... then, the Evil God Seeds he cast into the Abyss might have carried a wisp of his soul, allowing him to witness whether the Abyss had truly undergone some mutation.
The facts indeed matched his thoughts. The moment the Earth Seed returned to the Evil God's Mysterious Vein, he clearly felt a soul awakening from slumber.
However, the image it manifested was far too different from what Yun Che had always imagined in his mind.
He was clad in a white robe, tattered and nearly in rags.
His long hair was a mix of gray and white, scattered messily around him. His long beard was also streaked with white, and both his hair and beard hung straight down to the ground, as if they had not been groomed for countless years.
His face, half-covered by long hair... had deeply sunken eye sockets, and his countenance was covered with grooves — impossible to tell whether they were carved by time or by poison.
And those eyes, belonging to a Creation God, even though they were but an insubstantial soul form, still showed an all-too-obvious cloudiness.
Was this... the Evil God at the end of his life, after dispersing the Evil God Seeds?
Facing the soul image before him, Yun Che slowly knelt and bowed.
This was the first person, besides his parents and family, to whom he kneeled completely voluntarily and willingly.
Because the Evil God was, to him, a benefactor, a master, and even more so, an ancient god who saved all worlds and whom he respected endlessly.
"Mortal human Yun Che pays respects to Senior Evil God. At the age of sixteen, I was fortunate enough to receive the divine inheritance left by Senior, and thus my fate was changed. I carry this grace for life. Now, at last, I can see Senior's true form, fulfilling one of my greatest wishes in life."
Different remnant souls experience independent worlds. The remnant soul on the Water Seed was aware of Yun Che's existence, but to the remnant soul attached to the Earth Seed, this was a complete first encounter.
The gaze cast upon him was clouded, but then, the aged, groove-covered face showed a gentle smile: "To be able to recreate this realm, how could you be merely 'mortal'?"
"And I am no longer the Evil God." He turned his eyes, looking at this mysterious vein world that seemed familiar yet distant: "If this world still has an Evil God, then only you are worthy of that name."
Yun Che shook his head: "Before Senior, this junior has no qualifications."
Ni Xuan smiled, neither confirming nor denying. He simply observed this world over and over, but without surprise, without nostalgia or reminiscence. If one had to name an emotion, perhaps it was... a kind of desolation under the twilight of life.
At that moment, Yun Che suddenly understood. What he was desperately sensing with his last spiritual awareness was not his former power, but... the aura of Jie Tian Mo Di.
On his body was Jie Yuan's Demon Emperor blood and Jie Yuan's Dark Eternal Calamity.
Yun Che's heart ached sharply. He had countless words he wanted to tell Ni Xuan, countless questions he wanted to ask, but facing Ni Xuan at this moment, he could not bear to disturb him for a long time.
"Is Jie Yuan... back?"
The aged voice carried a faint tremor, like a cold wind from autumn.
"Yes." Yun Che replied softly: "Senior Jie Yuan used the Cosmic Thorn to break through the Chaos Wall and returned... it has been less than ten years."
"Is she... well?"
He did not ask about what happened afterward. Even as a remnant soul about to dissipate, what he most wanted to know was still her well-being.
"...Senior Jie Yuan is very well, both in body and soul." Yun Che looked at Ni Xuan, allowing him to clearly perceive the sincerity in his gaze: "Although her body bears scars left by the power of the Outer Chaos, she is unharmed in form. Though her power is somewhat impaired, she can still, with a flick of her finger, suppress all living beings of this era." He did not hide the scars on Jie Yuan's body. The bond between Ni Xuan and Jie Yuan had long transcended races, transcended laws and prejudice. In the eyes of the mundane world, physical wounds were nothing to their feelings. Deliberately concealing them would instead be an insult to their emotions.
"Her soul is complete and great. When she returned, her hatred covered the sky. When she sensed the aura of the Heaven-Slaying God Emperor's subordinates, her heart was full of anger. When she heard of your death, she was lost in grief... When she speaks, she is always full of resentment toward everything, yet she chose to remain in the Outer Chaos forever with her demon subordinates, to give peace to the present world."
"The millions of years in the Outer Chaos did not wound her soul, nor did they erase the true goodness beneath her cold exterior. She is a demon that this junior — that all living beings of this era — should respect and thank for ten thousand generations. She is the greatest demon in the world."
Ni Xuan smiled, without surprise, and murmured softly: "Yes, because she is... Jie Yuan."
If not for such a Jie Yuan, how could he have loved her so deeply.
"Yun Che, thank you for your words... I am but a lonely soul that should have dissipated long ago, yet I can experience such extravagant comfort and warmth at this final moment."
Yun Che shook his head: "What this junior said is only the truest truth. Both this junior and all people of this era bear the great grace you bestowed. How could we be qualified to receive your 'thanks'?"
Ni Xuan slowly raised his head. His hair, like withered grass, spoke of endless desolation: "Only regret that I cannot see her one more time, cannot... apologize to her..."
Yun Che shook his head again: "Between husband and wife, what is this talk of apology? Senior Jie Yuan's departure was without regret or resentment. Not being able to see you again is certainly her greatest regret as well."
"Yes..." Ni Xuan murmured: "If I truly apologized to her, I would surely be beaten severely by her again, hehe."
He showed a smile. Being beaten by her again... now it was an unattainable luxury.
His heart grew heavy, and Yun Che suddenly asked: "Senior Ni Xuan, regarding the events of that time and the consequences of today... do you... hate?"
"Hate?" His voice was like cotton fluff: "Hate... who..."
"For example," Yun Che said directly: "The cause of all tragedy — Heaven-Slaying God Emperor Mo E."
The world fell silent. Yun Che waited a long time for Ni Xuan's reply... and did not even sense a single trace of resentment from him.
Instead, an emotion of sorrow and pain spread silently. The remnant spirit was so weak, yet the bitterness it released was so oppressive that Yun Che's sea of soul grew heavy enough to forget its turmoil.
"Mo E..." He softly recited this distant, soul-wounding name: "How could I be qualified to hate him... Only he has the right to hate me... How could I be qualified to hate him..."
"...??" Yun Che was astonished.
When the name "Mo E" was mentioned, Jie Tian Mo Di gnashed her teeth in hatred. If his bones still existed, Jie Yuan would personally dig up his grave, crush his bones, and scatter his ashes.
This hatred radiated to all other divine clans, even to the later inheritors of Mo E's subordinates, showing how deep Jie Yuan's hatred for him was.
Given what Mo E had done to her, this hatred was perfectly normal. And if she were not Jie Tian Mo Di, with someone else, the accumulation of hatred over millions of years would surely have turned her into a thorough demon of revenge.
But facing the name "Mo E," what the Evil God Ni Xuan revealed was instead sorrow, pain, and... guilt and sin?
Only the most expected hatred was absent.
Only he has the right to hate me... How could I be qualified to hate him?
"Why?" Yun Che asked in confusion: "It was Mo E who ambushed Senior Jie Yuan, causing you to be separated forever, and Senior Jie Yuan suffered millions of years of torment in the Outer Chaos. Your child also died because of him... Even you, after that, were utterly hopeless and abandoned the name of Creation God."
"The war of annihilation between the divine and demon clans was also ignited by Mo E's sword that ambushed Senior Jie Yuan. Otherwise, nothing that followed would have happened, and today, the divine and demon clans would still be the rulers of the world." He wanted to say more — if not for the annihilation, the changes in heaven and earth's energy would not have been so rapid, and the Abyss's mutation would not have come so quickly. Even going ten thousand steps back, even if the Abyss had changed as it did now, a world ruled by divine and demon clans would not fear the invasion of Abyssal power.
"No, no." Ni Xuan said two "no"s, the first powerless, the second piercing: "All sin lies with me, not with him... not with him. It is I who wronged him."
"The former name of Element Creation God was not abandoned — I am unworthy of it. The seclusion after that was not utter despair — it was that I... had no face to face the world."
"????" Yun Che was completely bewildered.
What was he saying?
Why was it different from what I knew... completely different!
Could it be that the Heaven-Slaying God Emperor Mo E's ambush of Jie Tian Mo Di back then... had some other hidden circumstances?
He did not hesitate to sacrifice three-tenths of his lifespan to activate the Ancestral Heaven-Slaying Sword and blast Jie Yuan out of Chaos;
He did not hesitate to destroy the balance that the two races had maintained for countless years;
He did not hesitate to severely damage his own reputation as the First Creation God;
Afterward, he did not hesitate to sacrifice another three-tenths of his lifespan to defeat the Evil God...
Was his determination truly only because he could not accept the union of a Creation God and a Demon Emperor?
If there was indeed another, heavier reason, but Jie Yuan's hatred... could it be that even she did not know?
"Senior, what you just said is very different from the 'truth' I know. Was there perhaps another reason for the events back then?" But speaking of it, most of the "truth" Yun Che knew was gradually deduced by the Ice Phoenix God Spirit and himself based on more and more known facts, and then corroborated by Jie Yuan upon her return. But Jie Yuan's memories of that time only extended to when she was blasted out of Chaos by Mo E's sword...
Ni Xuan spoke slowly: "The past is all like smoke and clouds, no point in mentioning it again. When Mo E was alive, he would not mention or think of it even to his death. I am the same, let alone now... Let them, together with the former world, be forever buried in dust."
Various complex emotions poured into Yun Che's sea of soul, bringing suffocating oppression.
He did not want to speak of it anymore.
Perhaps even just thinking about it, even slightly, was unbearable pain and torment for him.
---
[When you see this line, the next chapter should already be updated.]