Reborn After Becoming the Villain's Inner Demon

--Jiu Wenmeng is the legendary demon blade that brings calamity upon the world.

When the chosen person lays eyes on it, they will behold the thing they desire most in all their life. For the rest of their days, they will chase after it, consumed by obsession and unleashing disasters beyond measure.

When Yu Qi read these words in a pile of discarded paper, the lonely ghost who had somehow attached itself to him made a sound of surprise.

"Jiu Wenmeng. That's my name." Its voice was full of delight.

Yu Qi, fated to become a demon, did not respond. The young man clutched his wound and fled a thousand miles, bearing a false name.

His sect condemned him as guilty. His friends and family turned against him. At his most desperate, with the whole world his enemy, the only one by his side was a nonhuman being who was always at odds with him.

In the icy snow, Yu Qi gripped those cold hands. Half-dazed, he thought: So what if this ghost has ulterior motives? It has taken my hand now, so it can never leave me for the rest of its life.

After exhausting himself with every effort and keeping ever vigilant, he finally got a chance to clear his name. The sage who had guided the world offered him just one condition: suppress the demon blade Jiu Wenmeng.

Yu Qi: "Dream on!"

Without a moment's hesitation, he turned and left.

Abandoning an opportunity within easy reach and giving up the innocence he had sought for half his life, Yu Qi dragged his broken body, with only half a year left to live, and took Jiu Wenmeng with him, heading of his own accord toward the road of death he had fought so hard to escape.

Jiu Wenmeng thought: How could this be?

What a lunatic.

That day, the demon blade that had brought calamity upon the world destroyed itself, and heaven and earth changed color.

Only Yu Qi was left, running desperately through the snow, trying in vain to hold on to the fading warmth in his palm.

*

Hundreds and thousands of years later, the resurrected demon blade had forgotten the past. Sitting on a rooftop where the stars were visible, it listened to the young disciples of the Immortal Sect tell all sorts of stories.

They said the snowy plains outside the Wuyai Immortal Sect had the brightest stars in the world, that the mist-shrouded desolate sea held the sweetest dreams, that someone had broken the curse of the demon blade Jiu Wenmeng, and that a person had defied Heaven's decree, becoming a living legend...

Jiu Wenmeng asked curiously, "Who was that?"

Beneath the eaves, the young disciples chattered away, each saying something different.

Amid the hubbub, a tired voice sounded behind it.

"If you want to hear, then let me tell you."

So Jiu Wenmeng turned around and saw the face of the legend.

Yu Qi saw the dream that had circled through the nights for hundreds and thousands of years.

*

Through a long night of life, I pray for a dream.

The inner demon said: I will let you see the gods and Buddhas.

Theme: To see the demon in one's heart is to see the gods and Buddhas.