On the outskirts of Qingshan Valley, a single dilapidated thatched cottage. The earthen walls were cracked in places, and the straw on the roof had already rotted away by nearly half. It was a familiar sight to Li Xin. Standing before the door, he steadied his breath briefly and carefully knocked.
There was no response from inside. Without hesitation, he pushed the door open, and with a creaking sound, it swung ajar. At that moment, a familiar stench rushed at him—the smell of demonic beasts. More precisely, the odor of byproducts left behind after extracting demonic beast essence.
As he stepped into the courtyard, Xu Hui came into view, seated on the wooden platform beneath the eaves. Hair streaked with gray, deep-set wrinkles. She was dressed neatly as always, yet today she somehow looked different.
Her face…
The creases around her eyes, her sagging cheeks, her clouded pupils. It was as if decades had passed in the span of a single month. The marks of time were carved deeper and sharper than before. At that moment, a phrase surfaced in Li Xin’s mind.
—Drawing Demonic Beast Talismans shaves away one’s lifespan.
—Xu Hui is only forty years old.
Back then, he had found it hard to believe, but seeing her now, it felt painfully real.
Li Xin pressed his lips together tightly. He did not know where to begin. So he simply waited in silence, for her to speak first. Xu Hui stared blankly for a long while, then suddenly spoke.
“Did you meet Xu Yul?”
Xu Yul?
Li Xin tilted his head. It was an unfamiliar name, but soon, a face surfaced in his mind—the young man he had met in the Archive Pavilion. The one knowledgeable about Demonic Beast Talismans, the one who had mentioned Xu Hui’s age.
Xu Yul… and Xu Hui…
They shared the same surname. Too clear a connection to be mere coincidence.
At Xu Hui’s question, Li Xin fell briefly silent. He had guessed that the young man had some sort of relationship with her, but giving a direct answer felt risky.
In the end, Li Xin simply nodded. Xu Hui seemed satisfied with that response and did not press further. Instead, her gaze lingered on Li Xin’s face. Like the deepened wrinkles around her eyes, her stare seemed to probe something unseen.
Time passed like that, and Xu Hui slowly opened her mouth.
“…Do you want to learn the talisman method of the Demonic Beast Talisman?”
Li Xin had not expected her to bring it up first. Just moments ago, he had been thinking about the warning that Demonic Beast Talismans consumed one’s lifespan, yet despite that, a thought rose from deep within him.
‘Maybe I’ll be fine.’
The ability he possessed—there was a vague hope that it might offset the side effects of Demonic Beast Talismans. There was no certainty, still, Li Xin lifted his head and answered clearly.
“Yes.”
“Even knowing that Demonic Beast Talismans steal your lifespan?”
“Yes, I know.”
At Li Xin’s reply, Xu Hui’s eyebrows lifted ever so slightly. As if she had not expected this reaction, she stared at him for a while before letting out a quiet sigh.
“…How much do you know about Qingshan Valley?”
It was an unexpected question. He had merely said he wanted to learn Demonic Beast Talismans, so why bring up Qingshan Valley?
Li Xin was momentarily at a loss for words, but soon answered honestly.
“I know nothing.”
“I thought so. You were just an ordinary mountain cultivator.”
There was a strange bitterness in Xu Hui’s voice. She slowly turned her gaze, looking past the courtyard toward the distant blue ridges of Qingshan Valley. Complex emotions were reflected in her eyes as she stared at that view.
Li Xin waited silently.
As though an old story were about to begin, Xu Hui spoke in an exceedingly slow voice.
“This place, Qingshan Valley, is a small land included within the Daejin Domain.”
“The Daejin Domain?”
“Among the 108 Domains of Donghuang, the Daejin Domain lies at the very edge.”
Daejin Domain. One of the 108 domains dividing the vast continent.
Li Xin imagined it. The endlessly stretching continent called Donghuang, with the Daejin Domain at its very fringe. And within that Daejin Domain, Qingshan Valley lay in an even more remote corner. The realization that where he stood was no more than a tiny dot on a vast continent filled him with a strange sense of dissonance.
“The Daejin Domain has long been sustained by countless demonic beasts and the Demon Hunters who hunt them.”
Li Xin did not interrupt, merely listening. Xu Hui continued her tale.
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“Our Xu clan was also one of the long-established Demon Hunter families. For generations, we were based in Daejin Immortal City, hunting demonic beasts.”
Her words trailed off as she looked up at the sky—a gray, overcast sky. Her eyes clearly recalled some day, some scene.
Li Xin unconsciously held his breath. He could instinctively feel that what she was about to say was anything but light.
“One day, a demonic beast that had survived a Heavenly Tribulation appeared.”
Fear flashed in Xu Hui’s eyes.
“A third-realm Demon King. A monster beyond defiance revealed itself in Daejin Immortal City.”
Ordinary demonic beasts were at the first realm, at most the second. Even those required Demon Hunters to fight at the risk of their lives. But the third realm—that was no longer merely a living creature, but a calamity itself.
“Daejin Immortal City fell in a single day. Cultivators who lost their foundation scattered in all directions, and the city fell entirely into the demon beast’s grasp.”
Li Xin quietly drew in a breath.
The fall of Daejin Immortal City. That meant the entire Daejin Domain, including Qingshan Valley, was no longer under human control. The truth that the place he lived in lay beneath the shadow of demonic beasts.
“Then why didn’t I know about this until now?”
“Because it had nothing to do with you.”
Xu Hui replied calmly.
“You were just a mountain cultivator drawing a few talismans to get by. Telling someone like you about Demon Kings or Immortal Cities would only leave you with fear.”
Her words were not wrong, yet Li Xin could not simply nod.
“If the Daejin Domain became land of demonic beasts, shouldn’t the Heavenly Dao Gate intervene?”
The Heavenly Dao Gate. The supreme authority of this world, the guardian of order. To someone with memories of a past life, it felt like a vast government. A protector that upheld balance and safeguarded human cultivators.
At least, that was what he had believed, but now—reality was starkly different.
Why had the Heavenly Dao Gate remained silent over the fall of the Daejin Domain?
At his question, Xu Hui gave a bitter smile. It was not mockery, but the resignation of one who knew the truth.
“What the Heavenly Dao Gate protects is the system itself, not Immortal Cities or sects.”
Li Xin’s heart sank heavily at those words. It meant that the principles he had believed in all along were nothing but an illusion.
“The Heavenly Dao Gate has existed for over thirty thousand years. In all that time, how many sects have declined, how many deaths have they witnessed? To them, the fall of a single Daejin Immortal City is nothing more than a passing breeze.”
Xu Hui’s gaze drifted into empty space.
“The Heavenly Dao Gate reigns, but it does not rule. Whatever happens beneath them, they do not intervene.”
They were not champions of justice, nor protectors of the weak. They cared only for maintaining the order of the vast world itself—mere bystanders, indifferent to individual life and death. That realization struck like a bone-chilling cold. With the Daejin Domain fallen, there was no one left to protect him. And Qingshan Valley—this place too was fated to fall into the hands of demonic beasts.
Only then did Li Xin realize. How arrogant and ignorant his life as a mere “mountain cultivator” had been. The arrogance of trying to understand this world through knowledge from a past life. The ignorance of failing to notice danger looming right before him.
A shiver ran down his spine. A dark shadow also settled over Xu Hui’s eyes. Soon, she continued in a lower, calmer voice.
“Daejin Immortal City has fallen, but the Daejin Sect still remains.”
The Daejin Sect she spoke of must have been the sect rooted in that Immortal City.
“They plan to gather the remaining people and head to the Xuanjiang Domain. Breaking through the demonic beasts’ encirclement, it is their last attempt to escape.”
Xuanjiang Domain. It was a name he heard for the first time, but the meaning was clear. A new refuge beyond the Daejin Domain.
“Most merchant guilds and sects are preparing for this. Qingshan Valley is nothing more than a temporary waypoint before heading to the Xuanjiang Domain.”
The real reason so many merchant guilds and sects were gathering talent in Qingshan Valley. They were not simply seeking capable individuals. They were gathering strength. To break through hordes of demonic beasts. To survive. To escape this place.
Even as Li Xin sorted through his thoughts, Xu Hui continued.
“The head of our Xu clan was an outstanding Demon Hunter and also a talisman craftsman.”
“But he lost his life in battle against demonic beasts. After that, the clan lost its pillar.”
“The only reason we survived until now was one thing alone—the Demonic Beast Talisman.”
“In wars against demonic beasts, a talisman that disguised one’s energy as that of a demonic beast was more effective than any other. There was no more strategic resource for deceiving their eyes, escaping, and causing confusion.”
The Demonic Beast Talisman. That strange talisman said to be made at the cost of the craftsman’s lifespan. Only now did Li Xin begin to vaguely understand its importance.
“But crafting it required consuming the talisman craftsman’s lifespan, and it was not something that could be made or learned with ordinary talent.”
Weariness seeped into Xu Hui’s voice. Li Xin suddenly looked at her face. Only forty years old. Yet she looked like an elderly woman who had already lived out her natural span.
Xu Hui had chosen a life of drawing Demonic Beast Talismans for her clan. And in return, she had burned away her own life.
“With me, the Xu clan will no longer produce another Demonic Beast Talisman craftsman.”
Xu Hui closed her eyes. She looked like someone calmly accepting an approaching death. But…..
It was not yet time for her to rest.
“The problem is what comes next. Who will succeed me?”
Her voice sank low.
“That’s why the Xu clan used the merchant guild it controls, the Baizhang Association. To find a talented talisman craftsman to carry on the Demonic Beast Talisman.”
Only then did everything click into place for Li Xin.
The Baizhang Association, and the reason Liu Guangjin had approached him.
“All of it was to find a ‘talented talisman craftsman’ to inherit the Demonic Beast Talisman.”
Li Xin inhaled sharply. Without realizing it, he had become part of a vast plan, and Xu Hui was not finished.
“The one who tested your talent at the final stage was Xu Renlu, the owner of the Script & Brush Pavilion and a member of the Xu clan.”
At last, Li Xin understood what “the worth of three hundred jeon” truly meant. It was not about money. It was a test—a test to see whether his talent could benefit the Xu clan. Whether he was a vessel capable of inheriting the Demonic Beast Talisman. And now the reason Xu Yul had sought him out at the Archive Pavilion also became clear. As a member of the Xu clan, he had been watching Li Xin, a promising candidate.
A chill ran through Li Xin’s entire body. Everything fit together. From the beginning, it had all been meticulously planned. Every experience he had gone through had flowed toward a single purpose. While he himself had known nothing.
Like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web, he had stepped into this grand design. At that moment, Xu Hui’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“I’ll ask you again. Do you truly wish to learn the talisman method of the Demonic Beast Talisman?”
The chilling aura of one facing death pressed down on Li Xin’s body, but he did not waver. The calm he had gained from the Warm Heart Talisman, and the Calm Heart Mantra protected his mind. Thanks to that, Li Xin was barely able to open his mouth and answer with a single word.
“Yes.”
