Demoness, Stop! - Chapter 1 - Chapter 1 – Baiyun Temple

“Li Yu, wake up…”

“Li Yu, Li Yu…”

…

A hollow, ethereal voice echoed around him, as if coming from the void. It kept ringing in his ears. His eyelids felt as heavy as a mountain, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t open them. Yet the voices were undeniably real, lingering right beside him.

Wait—how can I hear anything if I’m dead?
Could it be I’m still alive?

A thought surfaced in Li Yu’s mind, but he quickly dismissed it.

Impossible.

He was a firearms expert, and that bullet had gone straight through his heart. There was no way he could have survived. Modern medicine wasn’t that advanced.

Still, he wasn’t particularly afraid of death.

He had been in the late stages of cancer and didn’t have much time left anyway.

After graduating from the police academy, he had volunteered to go undercover in a criminal syndicate for five years. With his exceptional skills, he earned the trust of the syndicate’s leader and rose from a low-level member to become the second-in-command.

Thanks to Li Yu’s cooperation, the military was finally able to wipe out the largest criminal organization in the country.

But even after the mission was completed, Li Yu didn’t feel any particular joy.

That second-in-command position wasn’t handed to him for free. During those five years undercover, in order to fulfill his mission, he had done many things he shouldn’t have. So many, in fact, that he often couldn’t tell whether he was still a good guy—or had become the villain.

Later, when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he kept undergoing treatment, but from then on, he always volunteered for the most dangerous missions.

Until one day, during the arrest of an armed and dangerous criminal, he used himself as bait to save a hostage, took a bullet to the chest—and died a hero…

That was one part of his memory.

But another set of memories told him he was a disciple of Baiyun Temple in the Chen Dynasty. Two years ago, he had joined the sect and begun the path of cultivation, though to this day, he still hadn’t succeeded in gathering qi. Just yesterday, he had been cultivating in bed—and then woke up like this…

Two completely different sets of memories tangled in his mind. The emotional collision gave him a splitting headache, and a tear slipped uncontrollably from the corner of his eye.

Before he could process it further, someone shook his body. A youthful voice spoke by his ear:

“Hey, come on—man up! So what if you failed to gather qi? No need to cry. If Kunlun won’t take you, just come down the mountain with me. Once my father dies and I inherit the throne, I’ll make you a prince! You’ll live in luxury for the rest of your life—free and easy…”

The voice was annoyingly loud and nagging, making his head ache even more. Li Yu forced his eyes open.

The face that greeted him was young and unfamiliar.

The young man wore ancient robes, had sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, a handsome and spirited look with a heroic aura between his brows. But Li Yu didn’t recognize him, which left him feeling even more lost.

As the young man kept talking, fragments of memories that didn’t belong to Li Yu suddenly flooded into his mind.

Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul…

Kunlun, Shushan, Emei, Qingcheng…

Void Breaking, Integration, Tribulation, Ascension…

Massive and unfamiliar information exploded in his mind. Li Yu only felt a loud “buzz” in his head, his vision went black—and he lost consciousness once more…

…

Three Days Later

Chen Dynasty, Baiyun Temple

The morning breeze gently brushed the earth as the first light of dawn appeared.

Within the temple grounds, wisps of smoke curled upwards. As the national temple of the Chen Dynasty, Baiyun Temple had always enjoyed flourishing incense offerings. The sun had just risen, and early-rising locals were already arriving to light incense and pray for blessings.

Li Yu leaned against a cypress tree behind the temple, gazing absentmindedly at the rising sun.

For the past three days, he had been pondering a single question:

Was he truly dead?

After much thought, he finally reached an answer:

He had died, but not completely.

The Li Yu from the other world—the undercover agent—was indeed dead. However, his soul had somehow fused with the body of another Li Yu in this world. They shared the same name, the same appearance—down to every detail. The only difference was a faint birthmark on the chest of this world’s Li Yu, but even the body’s proportions were eerily familiar.

You could say that aside from slightly longer hair, there was almost no physical difference between the two.

Of course, this similarity was only skin deep.

Li Yu raised a hand and drew upon a mysterious force from the void. In the next moment, a flicker of flame appeared above his palm, swiftly forming into a fireball. As the fireball materialized, the grass beneath him slowly began to wither.

Staring at the fireball in his hand, Li Yu’s heart surged with emotion.

Even though it was just a basic Fireball technique, it was still real magic—something that had only ever existed as special effects in movies back in his previous life.

Over the past three days, Li Yu had absorbed a significant amount of memory and come to realize this was an entirely different world. Here, there were no cars, planes, rockets, or spacecraft—but there existed a mysterious force that defied scientific explanation.

With this power, one could summon wind and rain, soar through the skies or dive into the earth, move mountains and fill seas—not just fantasy, but actual reality. What’s more, the original owner of this body had been a cultivator. His cultivation was pitifully low, just barely stepping into the path of cultivation.

From lingering memories, Li Yu learned that three days ago, the original Li Yu had tried to force a breakthrough and failed, resulting in his death and soul’s annihilation. At that very moment, the Li Yu from the other world also died—and his soul inexplicably entered this body.

The flood of unfamiliar memories in his mind was overwhelming. It would take a long time to fully digest. In the past three days, Li Yu had only merged a portion of them—just enough to perform this minor Fireball technique.

He playfully tossed the fireball back and forth between his hands, completely absorbed.

But as time passed, the fireball quickly shrank. After a few stubborn flickers, it finally extinguished completely.

At the same time, Li Yu felt utterly drained, as though his body had been hollowed out. He slumped weakly against the tree behind him.

This body’s strength was truly pathetic. Casting even the most basic Fireball technique had exhausted him in such a short time. And yet, in the memories he now possessed, some of the most powerful cultivators could, with just a wave of their hand, turn an entire city into a sea of flames.

“Li Yu, what are you doing here? I’ve been looking for you everywhere…”

A familiar voice called from behind. A young man strode over, handed Li Yu a steaming hot bun, and casually plopped down beside him. He slung an arm around Li Yu’s shoulder and said, “Don’t be too upset. More than ninety percent of cultivators never make it to Foundation Establishment. Living as an ordinary person can be just as fulfilling. Just wait till I inherit my father’s throne—I’ll make you a prince!”

The young man was Jiang Li, Li Yu’s closest friend at Baiyun Temple. Among the hundred or so disciples there, Jiang Li was the one he got along with best. Jiang Li was the crown prince of a small dynasty. That might sound impressive, but within Baiyun Temple, there were at least eight or ten such princes from small nations.

The region they lived in was under the control of the Daoist sects. All the surrounding kingdoms, large or small, relied on these sects for survival.

Li Yu and Jiang Li got along well for two reasons: they were both handsome—and both quite bad at cultivation.

They had been training at Baiyun Temple for over a year. Among the many disciples, some had already succeeded in gathering qi. Li Yu and Jiang Li, however, were still stuck at the “guiding Qi into the body” stage.

If they failed to form qi within the next three months, they would be expelled from Baiyun Temple and forced to find their own way.

Jiang Li, at least, had a royal throne to return to.

Li Yu, on the other hand, would become a rogue cultivator. Without the backing of a sect, rogue cultivators had very limited prospects—many never progressed beyond the Qi Refining stage in their entire lives.

Behind Baiyun Temple stood the Kunlun Sect, one of the ten great Daoist sects of the Eastern lands. If one could enter Kunlun, Foundation Establishment was practically guaranteed, and one’s lifespan could be extended to over two hundred years.

Jiang Li’s comforting words warmed Li Yu’s heart, but becoming a carefree prince was never his dream.

In his previous life, he had sacrificed himself for a greater cause.

In this life, he wanted to live for himself.

In such a mysterious and fantastical world, a true man should gaze at the azure sea by day and rest beneath the violet woods by dusk, soar across the heavens and dive into the earth, slay demons and vanquish evil—this was his most romantic dream.

Li Yu patted Jiang Li on the shoulder and stood up to leave.

Jiang Li could see the determination in his eyes and sighed. “Alright, I won’t try to talk you out of it anymore. Anyway, the position of prince will be waiting for you. You can claim it whenever you like…”

As Li Yu’s figure gradually disappeared, Jiang Li called after him, “Hey, just remember not to leave the temple grounds alone these next few days. I heard from Elder Sun that demonic cultivators have been spotted near the mountain…”

Li Yu waved behind him to show he understood.

In his mind, the memories of this world’s Li Yu—disciple of Baiyun Temple—were slowly being digested, and he was already gaining a basic understanding of this world. Aside from the Daoist sects of the Eastern Lands, there were also the Buddhist Kingdom of the Western Region, the Demon Court of the Southern Wilderness, the Demonic Sects of the North, and the Central Imperial Dynasty. It was said that across the vast seas, there were even more lands yet unknown…

Although these great powers each dominated their own territory, they didn’t necessarily stay out of each other’s affairs. Disputes over cultivation resources and other interests often led to conflicts. Both the Daoist sects and the Demon sects claimed to be the true orthodoxy of the Immortal Path, and their enmity had deepened over thousands of years.

But none of this had anything to do with Li Yu.

For now, the most important thing was to successfully gather Qi. Only then would he stand a chance of being selected by the Kunlun Sect, and continue advancing down the path of cultivation.

After returning to his residence, Li Yu took off his shoes and sat cross-legged on the bed. Following the guidance within his inherited memories, he sat in meditation with the ‘five hearts facing the heavens’ pose, and began to draw the spiritual energy from the void into his body.

This was the first step of cultivation—guiding Qi into the body.

Only when one could gather spiritual energy into the meridians without it dissipating would they be considered to have entered the Qi Refining Stage, the true start of the path to immortality.

However, the spiritual energy Li Yu managed to draw in would only remain within him for a short while before dispersing.

He tried several more times, but each attempt ended in failure.

Opening his eyes with a sigh, Li Yu muttered, “If only I had a Qi Gathering Pill…”

Qi Gathering Pills were alchemical medicines that increased the chances of successfully gathering Qi. However, all such pills required spiritual herbs to refine, and they were expensive. They could only be bought with spirit coins, and just one pill cost five hundred spirit coins. Li Yu didn’t even have fifty, so the idea of consuming pills wasn’t even worth considering.

He remembered Qi Gathering Pills so clearly because the original owner of this body had long dreamed of obtaining one.

Still, Li Yu was not discouraged. His five years as an undercover agent had tempered his will to be unyielding—he never gave up on anything easily.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he continued drawing in Qi, again and again, tirelessly and patiently.

Time flew by. The sky gradually darkened, and night fell over Baiyun Temple.

During this time, Jiang Li came by twice. Seeing that Li Yu was cultivating, he didn’t disturb him. He simply left some food, lit a candle in the room, and quietly closed the door behind him.

Li Yu remained seated on the bed, eyes shut in meditation. Then, at a certain moment, a soft sound came from the door.

And then—silence.

Sensing something unusual, Li Yu opened his eyes and looked toward the center of the room.

By the table sat a figure, calmly sipping tea.

Li Yu froze for a moment. It wasn’t Jiang Li.

It was a young woman, dressed entirely in black. Her slender waist could be encircled with a single hand, and her face was exceptionally beautiful—delicate brows, phoenix-like eyes, skin whiter than snow. But her expression was cold, and she stared at Li Yu blankly, without a trace of emotion.