The Phoenix Wisdom King, confined to the forbidden grounds of the Heavenly Dao, disappeared from Luminous Heaven after leaving the battlefield of gods and demons with a great demon from the Blood Sea.
The news reached the Thirty-Three Heavens, astonishing all the Venerables.
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Buzhou Mountain, Hell
Hell is categorized into four main types: Eight Hot, Eight Cold, Wandering Increase, and Solitary, with each category further divided into four gates and sixteen subsidiary hells. Buzhou Mountain is located at the center of the Four Hell Gates. Legend has it that it can bypass Sumeru Mountain and lead directly to the Formless Heaven, making it one of the sacred mountains alongside Hell Ash Mountain and Iron Wheel Mountain.
What makes it even more special is the legend of a Demon Eye on Buzhou Mountain, which is said to be the source of Hell’s demonic power.
Phoenix sat on the cliff, gazing at the ten-thousand-foot abyss below. Black mist swirled in the chasm like a giant dragon. From the rolling body of the dragon, one could see a bright, blood-red, colossal sphere in its deepest part, shaped like an eyeball, staring directly at the gloomy sky of Hell.
Zhou Hui approached from behind, carrying a gray outer robe, which he gently draped over Phoenix’s shoulders.
“I’m sorry, I was too…”
“It’s fine,” Phoenix said softly.
He waved his hand backward. Zhou Hui hesitated for a moment but then sat down beside him. The two sat side by side on the cliff, gazing into the abyss. The giant eye seemed to rotate once, emitting a dull, blood-red gleam.
“You’re not used to Buzhou Mountain, are you?” Zhou Hui said softly.
“Why do you ask?”
“…I just thought that you lived in the Thirty-Three Heavens, made of gold, jade, and glass, and held the esteemed position of Wisdom King. To suddenly come to a Lower Three Paths place like Hell…”
Phoenix tilted his head and looked at Zhou Hui.
His robes were very loose, making him appear even more slender. His hair was gathered to one side, revealing his distinct, delicate collarbones from his open collar. Deeper within, hidden, were fresh and secret scars.
“Were you born here?” he asked back, instead of answering.
Zhou Hui nodded. “Next to the Demon Eye, I’ve lived there for as long as I can remember. But later, the extremely hot and foul Sangha wind grew fiercer and fiercer, so I moved up from below. Sometimes I’d swim around in the Blood Sea. What about you?”
“…Heavenly Dao Forbidden Ground, Snow Treasure Peak.” Phoenix paused, then slowly said: “The mountain peak is frozen for a thousand miles, with wind and snow year-round. Countless glaciers extend endlessly, forming the ten-thousand-foot icy ridge of the Sumeru Mountains. At its highest point, there’s a majestic divine palace…”
Zhou Hui’s expression remained unchanged, but a subtle unease flickered in his eyes.
“The divine palace was deserted all year, only I lived there. Sometimes I felt like I was the only person in this world.” Phoenix revealed a faint smile: “In the past, I occasionally came to Hell and felt that Hell was much livelier than Sumeru Mountain.”
Zhou Hui’s heart was filled with complex and inexplicable feelings. A faint shadow of anxiety, after having gotten what he desired, subtly emerged from the depths of his heart: “Then… have you been to Buzhou Mountain before?”
“Yes, I have.”
Was it to subdue demons? Or did he pass by Buzhou Mountain while fighting for the Heavenly Dao? Such a harsh and dangerous place, even if he came, he wouldn’t stay, would he?
As Zhou Hui was thinking this, he heard Phoenix say, “Actually, I was born on Buzhou Mountain.”
Zhou Hui was instantly stunned.
He thought the other person was joking, but when he looked up, he saw Phoenix gazing at the Demon Eye in the deep chasm below, his expression calm, not at all like he was joking.
“I only heard about it later from Venerable Bhadra. In ancient times, when heaven and earth weathered and mountains shifted, the Phoenix Jade Embryo from Formless Heaven was dislodged. It passed through the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, and landed directly on the Demon Eye beneath Buzhou Mountain… The Buddha did not wish for an ancient divine bird to be born in Hell, so he forcefully opened a direct path from Formless Heaven to Buzhou Mountain, intending to retrieve the Phoenix Embryo. But I suddenly hatched from my shell by the Demon Eye…”
“But that was a very, very long time ago, many years before you were born.”
He looked at Zhou Hui and smiled faintly, his eyes seeming to say, See, I really was born much earlier than you.
For some reason, when he smiled, there was a deep solitude in his eyes, as if the thousand-year-old winds and snows of the glaciers still lingered in the depths of his soul, never to cease.
He put his hand on Zhou Hui’s shoulder to stand up, but stumbled, and Zhou Hui abruptly rose to support him, then picked him up in his arms.
Phoenix leaned docilely in his embrace, his arms wrapped around Zhou Hui’s strong neck.
Phoenix didn’t weigh much to begin with; even in human form, his bones were hollow, making him even lighter for Zhou Hui. The two leaned against each other as they descended from the cliff, following the rugged mountain path, passing through the demon forest of Hell, where red smoke burned. On a flat area halfway up the mountain was a small wooden hut. In front of the hut, fiery red Asura flowers grew, blooming profusely in clusters in the wind.
Zhou Hui stepped across the wooden plank walkway in front of the hut. Steps connected the hut to a platform, which was covered with a soft, black demon beast fur.
He placed Phoenix on the fur, turned to fetch water in a green bamboo tube, and then sat before him, gently feeding him.
Phoenix, however, tilted his head, indicating he didn’t want to drink, then turned back and gently leaned his forehead against Zhou Hui’s.
“I don’t have many good things…” Zhou Hui said, a little flustered.
Phoenix, however, said, “It’s fine.”
His long eyelashes drooped slightly, seemingly lost in thought. After a moment, he suddenly looked up at Zhou Hui as if realizing something: “When I say it’s fine, it really is fine. You don’t need to overthink it.”
“But…”
“Just sit here with me,” Phoenix said softly. “I haven’t… talked to anyone in a long time.”
He seemed to sigh, but the sound was so soft it was almost inaudible, dissipating into the damp wind as soon as it left his lips.
Phoenix wrapped his arms around his shins and rested his head on Zhou Hui’s lap, gazing quietly at the dense red pine forest of Buzhou Mountain in the distance. His eyes were clear, with distinct black and white. Zhou Hui had never seen the supposedly gem-like, crystalline lakes of Sumeru Mountain, but now, looking into Phoenix’s eyes, he suddenly felt that perhaps those legendary ice-and-snow lakes were nothing more than this.
He had once wondered if Phoenix would feel bored or find Hell’s hot environment unbearable, but soon realized that Phoenix was very indifferent to everything around him. It seemed that whether it was the beautiful, ornate divine palace of the Heavenly Dao, or Buzhou Mountain in Hell with its pervasive blood-sea hot springs and poisonous smoke, to him, there was no difference.
Phoenix nestled beside him, simply enjoying the warmth of his presence.
It seemed that when he curled up and sat there, a tranquil little world formed around him, and no matter how the outside world changed, with its vicissitudes and shifting stars, no trace would be left in those lonely and peaceful eyes.
Why did he agree to me? Zhou Hui thought.
A Wisdom King, high above, a beauty beyond compare, someone who should be flattered and praised by all. Why did he specifically agree to me?
On Phoenix’s seventh day on Buzhou Mountain, Fan Luo, the Lord of the Four Evil Paths and the Great Asura King, sent an envoy to pay respects, inquiring if His Highness would be willing to visit the Demon Palace for a discussion.
At that moment, Phoenix was clinging to Zhou Hui’s shoulder, trembling with the intense movements, uttering intermittent moans. The sounds were somewhat hoarse due to the extreme tearing, sounding very painful at first, but on closer listening, they also hid an eager emptiness and craving.
Zhou Hui pulled back slightly, and when he touched, he felt extreme dryness. Although the intense friction doubled his wild pleasure, his dwindling rationality also knew that this meant the other person felt no pleasure at all, only great pain.
Zhou Hui stopped moving, kissing Phoenix’s cold, trembling lips, and asked in a husky voice, “Do you want me to be gentler?”
Phoenix shook his head, his sweat-dampened hair clinging to his cheeks, making his face appear even more pale and pitiful.
“Is it that I’m too…”
Phoenix strained to lift his head and actively kissed Zhou Hui, his finger joints marked with kiss imprints, which looked horribly sensual on his skin, almost transparent from sweat.
That desperate fear of loneliness, that willingness to endure pain rather than lose, passed through his cold, soft lips and tongue like an electric current, striking directly at Zhou Hui’s heart. No man could bear this.
At that moment, Zhou Hui completely forgot all his reservations and pity. He pushed Phoenix down onto the bed and violently thrust into him. Amidst Phoenix’s broken moans, he furiously pumped, unsure how long he continued in his excitement, until he finally erupted deep within that softest part with an exceptionally deep thrust.
The eja-culation lasted a long time. Only when it finally subsided did Zhou Hui let out a long breath, hugging the exhausted Phoenix and kissing his sweat-soaked hair.
“Does it hurt?”
Phoenix closed his eyes, and said softly, “…It’s alright.”
He pressed his face into Zhou Hui’s strong shoulder, his eyelashes wet, showing a slightly upturned curve at their long ends. After a while, his fragmented, disordered breathing finally calmed, and he asked hoarsely, “Why are you so hot?”
Zhou Hui said, “Your body temperature is too cool. What is this?”
His fingers gently pressed on a narrow, old scar on Phoenix’s ribs. The scar had faded so much that it was barely noticeable, even upon close inspection. However, Phoenix did not answer immediately. Zhou Hui looked up and realized that Phoenix’s eyes were already half-open, his expression seeming subtly stiff.
“It was left when you extracted your Phoenix bone…” Zhou Hui realized: “Was it the pure azure arrow that I cut in half?”
What he didn’t know was that at that moment, Phoenix wasn’t thinking about the broken arrow, but rather about a more pervasive, inescapable hidden fear that emerged from the depths of his being. It was about the person for whom he had extracted his bone to make the arrow, the one who could send down heavenly thunder at any moment from Formless Heaven, and about the long years they had lived together in the desolate divine palace, and about the increasingly cruel methods and layers of deception behind that seemingly affectionate facade…
What would Zhou Hui think if he knew?
Would he leave?
“It’s alright… don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt anymore.” Phoenix squeezed himself into his embrace, whispering, “Really, it doesn’t hurt anymore, I don’t feel anything at all…”
His voice was somewhat scattered.
What he really wanted to say wasn’t that it “didn’t hurt anymore,” but other, more painful and obscure things. Unfortunately, back then, Zhou Hui had no way of discerning those deeper secrets from his pale words.
Phoenix hid the injured side of his chest, turned over in bed, and then suddenly cried out in pain as he pressed on his hair. Zhou Hui immediately picked him up, brushed his hair away, and gently massaged the back of his head with his thumb, the pressure even and soothing, quickly overriding the pain.
“How is it?”
Phoenix seemed to enjoy this intimate embrace immensely, nodding silently.
Zhou Hui looked at his slightly closed eyes, and the deep, weary shadows beneath his eyelashes, his gaze filled with unconcealed desire and adoration. After a long while, he lowered his his head and pressed a kiss on Phoenix’s earlobe. His breath tickled, making Phoenix flinch, then turn to earnestly kiss him back.
“Why did you agree to me?” Zhou Hui asked softly amidst their entangled breaths: “Why didn’t you kill me, and instead agreed to me?”
Phoenix did not answer.
Zhou Hui very gently pulled the hair from the back of his head, making him tilt his head up slightly to look at him: “Hmm? Why?”
His expression was very persistent, staring unblinkingly into Phoenix’s eyes, leaving no room for pretense, not just for Phoenix, but for himself too.
However, Phoenix’s returning gaze was very calm, and his voice was natural: “Why do you think that? Do you think there’s something wrong with you?”
“…I am a great demon of the Blood Sea, and compared to the esteemed position of a Heavenly Dao Wisdom King, there’s nothing to boast about…”
“So?”
“So…” Zhou Hui paused, then said, “Ever since you released me from the Heavenly Dao, I returned to the Hell Blood Sea, and your words kept replaying in my mind. Unconsciously, admiration for you arose. At the moment love blossomed, it was like a sudden enlightenment, igniting a wisdom that Hell demons should absolutely not possess. Then, from the fire of wisdom, I cultivated the human form that only top-tier great demons can attain… One could say everything I am was bestowed by you. Before you, I am humble as dust. In fact, at the moment I ascended the city wall, I was not prepared for you to agree…”
Phoenix looked at him steadily, without smiling.
Instead, there was a more obscure and profound emotion in his eyes, seemingly a deep sorrow, and a hint of subtle self-mockery.
“You’re wrong to think that,” he said. “Perhaps it is I who am humble as dust.”
Zhou Hui froze, not understanding what he meant, but Phoenix did not explain further.
Just then, footsteps sounded outside the hut. Someone ascended the steps, crossed the wooden platform, and stood at the door, asking hoarsely, “—Is His Highness Phoenix Wisdom King present?”
Zhou Hui abruptly threw on his robe, grabbed the long blade leaning against the bed, and strode through the main room towards the wooden door: “Who’s out there?”
Silence for a moment outside the door.
“I am a demon. Is His Highness Phoenix Wisdom King present?” the hoarse, strange voice asked again.
Zhou Hui swung the door open, revealing a human-faced, white-winged demon bird. Its enormous membrane wings almost covered the entire corridor, its pale eyes staring unblinkingly at him.
Asura tribes possessed divinity and were superior to all beings in Hell, often appearing as masters of the Four Evil Paths. However, in Hell, facing the abode of a top-tier great demon like Zhou Hui, the demon bird was clearly apprehensive and did not rashly employ the great summoning spell that demons typically used on Hell demons. Instead, it uncharacteristically chose to pay a personal visit.
Zhou Hui gripped his iron blade and coldly said, “—What do you want?”
Phoenix, draped in his white robe, emerged from the inner room, leaning his shoulder against the inner room door behind Zhou Hui, his exquisitely beautiful face devoid of expression.
Compared to a great demon from the Blood Sea, Phoenix Wisdom King, someone who had actually cleared Hell several times, clearly had a more concrete deterrent effect. The human-faced, white-winged bird paused, then said hoarsely, “Your Highness Wisdom King, the Great Asura King has learned of your esteemed arrival on Buzhou Mountain and wishes to invite you to the Iron Wheel Mountain Demon Palace for a discussion…”
Phoenix asked, “Who is the Great Demon King?”
The human-faced bird replied, “It is His Highness Fan Luo.”
Phoenix didn’t recall who this person was and said, “Understood. Tell him to come himself.”
Phoenix turned and walked towards the inner room. The human-faced, white-winged bird had not expected this reaction at all and immediately stepped forward, saying urgently, “Your Highness Wisdom King…”
Zhou Hui’s iron blade partially clanged out of its sheath.
—That was the man who had just cut down eleven Phoenix bones!
The human-faced bird immediately froze, then angrily said, “Your Highness Wisdom King!—The divine Buddhas of Sumeru Mountain have issued a decree to the Great Asura King, ordering you to proceed to the Hell Demon Palace to receive instructions! Do you intend to disregard the will of the divine Buddhas?!”
Zhou Hui suddenly turned to look at Phoenix, but heard him say, without turning his head, “Oh? What decree?”
“The Great Asura King requests your esteemed presence at the Hell Demon Palace to…”
Phoenix turned his face, his gaze and expression completely calm, even his tone of voice showed no elevation: “How did the previous Great Asura King die?”
The human-faced bird was struck with dread and remained silent.
All beings in the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths knew that the previous Asura King had been shot dead in the Blood Sea by Phoenix Wisdom King, which led to the thousand-year turmoil in the Four Evil Paths.
Phoenix asked, “Does Fan Luo wish to die that way too?”
—The human-faced bird instantly trembled, its face paling in anger!
Phoenix turned and walked into the inner room.
The human-faced bird was immediately enraged. Its pale eyes flashed crimson, and it almost immediately lunged forward to break through!
But the next second, Zhou Hui unsheathed his blade horizontally. The human-faced bird immediately froze in astonishment before the flash of the blade, hesitated for a few seconds, then suppressed its heavy breathing, letting out a sharp scream: “Phoenix Wisdom King! Venerable Bhadra of Sumeru Mountain demands your return to the Thirty-Three Heavens! You must leave the Hell Path immediately!”
Phoenix’s unruffled voice came from the inner room: “If I were you, I’d leave here now.”
—He said this so calmly that the human-faced bird was momentarily stunned, not immediately understanding what he meant.
Then, Zhou Hui casually flicked his blade upwards, cutting across the human-faced bird’s neck, and closed the door.
The next moment, a splashing sound erupted outside the door, and the heavy body of the human-faced, white-winged bird crashed heavily down the steps!
Zhou Hui casually flicked the blade, and beads of blood splattered onto the dark wooden wall, quickly soaking in.
He didn’t even seem to think anything was amiss. He sheathed his blade and walked into the inner room, only to see Phoenix standing by the window, facing away from him, gazing absently at the distant and gloomy sky outside.
Is he thinking of leaving? This thought instantly flashed through Zhou Hui’s mind.
Although he immediately forced himself to dismiss the thought, the anxiety and brutality it generated lingered in his mind for a long time, causing a burning sensation in his nostrils when he breathed.
“You…”
“No,” Phoenix interrupted him, seemingly already knowing what he wanted to ask, saying, “I’m not thinking of leaving.”
He turned his head to look at Zhou Hui, and a faint, gentle smile actually touched his lips.
—At this time, neither Zhou Hui nor Phoenix believed that the decree from the Heavenly Dao was merely a warning. At this delicate juncture, it did not represent any actual threat.
However, a nightmarish shadow followed. Phoenix soon discovered a very terrifying and ominous sign appearing on his body.
