“My calculations are not always accurate.” The Godfiend looked at Shen Ying as a flash of something darted through his eyes. “Whatever happened afterwards was outside of my calculations. That was why I chose Hui Ling. She was just a puppet, formed from nothing with Zi Chen’s demonic Qi. She accidentally entered the River of Forgetfulness and obtained a soul. She was never a part of the Three Realms. Hence, I granted her wish when she asked me for strength.”

　　So on the day of the Great Competition, the white light that appeared in Hui Ling’s jade pendant, and the aura that was following Shen Ying around, was really the Godfiend.

　　But did Hui Ling already know of her identity from the very beginning?

　　It was no wonder that she had always picked on Shen Ying. If she really was formed from Zi Chen’s demonic Qi, she would not be able to fight against the power of the Godfiend.

　　“But the immortal realm and the demonic realm have always been against each other. Are you not afraid that a fight will break out between the two realms, causing more souls so perish?” Yi Qing suddenly asked. He looked up at the man not far away from him, frowning. If not for Master, the demonic and immortal realms would have broken out in a fight a long time ago. What was the point of merging the realms? “When the divine beings isolated the demonic realm, weren’t they trying to avoid this? As the ancient Godfiend, the demon who created all other demons, do you think that you’re rescuing them or sending them to their deaths?”

　　The moment he finished speaking, Lonemoon stared blankly at him. It took Lonemoon awhile before he could respond. That’s right, the Godfiend claimed to be rescuing the demons, but merging the two realms was going to result in a major sacrifice.

　　“Whether they emerge dead or alive is not within my calculations.” The Godfiend’s expression remained unchanged, as if it did not matter in the least whether the demons were dead or alive.

　　“You-” The two men were obviously exasperated.

　　“What I’m worried about is the balance.”

　　“What rotten balance!” Lonemoon could hardly keep himself from shouting. “If you really cared about balance, you would not merge the immortal and demonic realms!”

　　The Godfiend fell silent for awhile and scanned the two of them. “You’re focusing on the survival of the two realms, but I’m looking at the cycle of the Three Realms.”

　　“What do you mean?”

　　“There is a limited number of living souls in this world!” The Godfiend lowered his voice. “The demonic realm is a part of the Three Realms. Even though the River of Forgetfulness in the demonic realm cannot enter Samsara, things change… The immortal realm cannot enter the demonic realm, yet mortals can become demons. As time goes on, what do you think is going to happen?”

　　“…’” The two of them paused. Indeed, when mortal demons ascended, they entered the demonic realm.

　　From the looks of it, mortals could only enter the demonic realm but could never come out from it. As time goes by, more and more souls in the demonic realm would not be able to enter Samsara. The number of souls that can be reincarnated in the Three Realms would reduce. One day, there will be no more souls left.

　　“That’s why it’s not important to me whether the demons are dead and alive. What is most important is the balance in the Three Reams.”

　　If one focuses on the survival of the entire world, even if the immortals and demons fought to their deaths, they would just re-enter the River of Forgetfulness. In the grand scheme of things, this did not make a difference to the world.

　　Suddenly, the two of them fell silent.

　　“What about me?” Shen Ying broke the silence. She looked up at the Godfiend. “Where do I feature in your plan?”

　　“Well..” The Godfiend smiled and hesitated. Then, his grin widened. “You have special powers. I’m just afraid that things might go wrong, so-”

　　“I’m just an insurance plan?”

　　“Heh heh heh…” There was guilt in his eyes. He immediately regained his official demeanour. “It’s proven that even though things did not play out as I planned, it is because Shen Ying is here that the immortal and demonic realms managed to merge more than a few hundred thousand years ahead of schedule. This has saved a great deal of souls from disappearing forever.”

　　“So… You did good?” Shen Ying narrowed her eyes.

　　He immediately looked indignant. “Everything I did was for the sake of the Three Realms, and for the world.”

　　“To save the Three Realms?” Shen Ying looked at the Godfiend squarely in the eyes. “You’re making yourself seem extremely selfless and noble, like you’ve done nothing wrong? Is that why you expect everybody to cooperate with you and be used by you, and to throw aside everything at that?

　　“It was for…”

　　“The sake of the world!” Shen Ying suddenly laughed mirthlessly. “You said it before and you were right to say that everybody has a duty to save the world! But you’re freaking forgetting that this isn’t even our world!”

　　“…”

　　“The River of Forgetfulness? Samsara? What has all of this got to do with Father Niu and I?”

　　“I-”

　　“If you wanted to save the world and merge the realms, and if you wanted to predict the future, I have nothing to say about that. But don’t drag people into this mess if they have nothing to do with it in the first place. You’ve brought us full circle, and given us all of this nonsense about the Three Realms perishing, and you expect us to act like nothing has happened? Heh… Do you think that we from the alternate world are so easily bullied?”

　　“No, I just-”

　　“Even children in kindergartens know that you need to seek others’ consent first if you want their help. You did not even bother to ask us before you dragged us from an alternate world into this place. That isn’t getting help – that’s kidnap!”

　　“…”

　　“Just because you have reasons and valid excuses – just because you wanted to save the Three Realms – you think you can capture us as you please?”

　　“…”

　　“May I ask, did we enter your River of Forgetfulness? Or did we eat any of your grains by mistake?”

　　The Godfiend: “…”

　　Yi Qing and Lonemoon: “…”

　　Er, she did indeed eat their grains – and a lot of it at that.

　　“I hate being kidnapped! Especially being kidnapped for a good purpose!” Shen Ying got to her feet and looked down, twisting her lips in a nasty grimace. “No matter how many people you saved, no matter how much you achieved, you owe Father Niu and I an apology! And I… I love using violence to extract apologies!”

　　She suddenly clenched her fists and there was a loud sound of bones cracking. The Godfiend jumped and subconsciously retreated several steps. In a flash, Shen Ying appeared right in front of him, ready to strike!

　　“Wait!” The Godfiend became pale. His casual and proud demeanour was completely gone by now. Who was the real Godfiend? He retreated about five or six steps when he saw her approaching and raised his voice hastily to explain himself. “I did get your consent before I transmigrated you!”

　　“My ass!” Lonemoon reacted immediately. He was almost bought over by that story. It was indeed important to save the world, but they did not even belong to this world. They should not have been taken into this world to save it – and by force at that. If they helped, it was out of the goodness of their hearts and not out of a sense of responsibility. What they hated was not that they were forced to save the world, but that they were being used and taken for granted. According to the Godfiend, if not for Shen Ying, the Godfiend would not have even bothered to explain this entire situation to them.

　　“Shen Ying, he’s buying time. Hit him!” He really wanted to take revenge for the suffering that the Godfiend caused them to endure.

　　“It’s true! I’m telling the truth!” The Godfiend quickly retrieved something from his robes and handed it to Shen Ying. “I really did get your consent before I transmigrated you. If you don’t believe me, look!”

　　Lonemoon glanced and saw that it was a letter that the Godfiend was holding. That letter did not look like it was from this world – it looked like it belonged to the modern times.

　　Shen Ying hesitated, then took the letter. She pulled out a piece of paper.

　　She scanned it, then suddenly looked furious. Her face drained of all colour until she looked as pale as the paper she was holding.

　　Shit !