“Years ago, Na Lian was besieged by several Great Masters. His demon eyes were gouged out, and he was ultimately struck down by Ming Zhao’s Red Lotus Sword. He fell from Biri Cliff, leaving no remains behind.” Shen Hongchuan tapped the red lotus mark on the back of Ming Zhu’s hand, speculating, “Just now, he said you smelled of Na Lian. It’s likely because the souls of those slain by the Red Lotus Sword linger for a long time. Don’t take it to heart.”
Ming Zhu frowned. “But… the memories…”
Shen Hongchuan remained silent. Perhaps he didn’t know how else to deflect, so he simply maintained a polite smile.
Ming Zhu was still troubled by the flickering silhouettes in his mind. As his head began to throb, a choked cry rang out from the second floor. He looked toward the sound and saw Nan Qinghe sitting on the wooden stairs, rubbing his eyes as tears streamed down his face. Two guards stood beside him, whispering something in an attempt to comfort him.
Ming Zhu hurried over. “Qinghe, why are you crying again? Did someone upset you?”
Nan Qinghe looked down, rubbing his eyes. Seeing Ming Zhu was like catching a life-saving straw; with a loud wail, he flew down the stairs and crashed into Ming Zhu’s arms like a fledgling returning to its nest. “Waaaah! Brother Ming! Brother Ming!”
The impact knocked the wind out of Ming Zhu’s chest, nearly causing him to pass out. He struggled to maintain his posture as a reliable older brother, gently holding Nan Qinghe and saying softly, “You’re acting like a child. Aren’t you afraid people will laugh? *Cough*...”
He was nearly killed by this little brat’s collision.
Most of the guests at the banquet knew of Nan Qinghe’s identity and were currently pointing and whispering.
But Nan Qinghe couldn’t care about any of that now. He smeared his tears and snot all over Ming Zhu’s outer robe, sobbing, “I don’t know what to do. It’s all my fault… Ugh, Brother… I’ve ruined Xi Chu.”
Ming Zhu’s head spun at the incoherent words. He had no choice but to half-carry the boy out of the front hall and sit him down on a sparsely populated corridor in the back garden to comfort him.
The clothes Ming Zhu wore belonged to Zhou Fuxue anyway, and they were already dirty, so he didn’t mind. He pulled up the hem of the robe and used it to wipe Nan Qinghe’s face. As he scrubbed, he said, “Those people back there were definitely laughing at you. Honestly, what’s there to laugh at? As if they’ve never cried before. It seems people of power and status don’t necessarily have good manners. I’ve certainly learned something today.”
It was unclear if Nan Qinghe understood, but he nodded frantically in agreement.
Ming Zhu desperately recalled Lu Qingkong’s shrewish way of scolding people and mimicked it: “Every one of them looks dignified on the outside, but they’re actually hypocrites who aren’t even human. How embarrassing.”
“Mhm, mhm!”
Ming Zhu wasn’t very good at mocking people; after a couple of sentences, he ran out of words. After a moment’s thought, he suddenly teased, “I used to have a junior brother who was just like you—a real crybaby. He’d follow me around all day with watery eyes. Even when he was bullied, he wouldn’t run; he’d just cry.”
Nan Qinghe looked up, sobbing. “And… and then?”
Ming Zhu shrugged. “Every time he cried, I’d beat him. In the end, I beat him so hard he defected from the sect.”
Nan Qinghe: “...”
Ming Zhu was talking nonsense, but seeing that Nan Qinghe seemed to have stopped crying, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Come on, tell me. What exactly is going on between you and Xi Chu?”
Nan Qinghe cried for a while longer before finally stopping. After a long hesitation, he choked out, “A few days ago, Xi Chu told me he wanted news of the Sunken City. I… I snuck out to the Wenfeng Pavilion to buy a Jade Token for him. But when I showed it to him, my father found out.”
Ming Zhu asked, “Uh… does your father forbid you from speaking to Xi Chu?”
Nan Qinghe said, “He used to allow it. But after Xi Chu saw the news on the Jade Token that the Sunken City had long since been destroyed, he wasn’t himself anymore. That’s why Father made him participate in today’s banquet, to make him… *sob*...”
As he spoke, he looked ready for another round of tears. Ming Zhu quickly interjected, “What do you mean? Did he not know the Sunken City had been destroyed?”
Nan Qinghe bit his lip and shook his head. “Father never told him. He only said that if he behaved, Father would return Na Lian’s demon eye to him and send him back to the Sunken City.”
Ming Zhu felt his breath hitch in disbelief. Because of this, Xi Chu had been deceived by Nan Yue for so many years?
“He always believed Na Lian was still alive, so he wanted to get the eye back and go home,” Nan Qinghe said, feeling more and more aggrieved on Xi Chu’s behalf, and began to whimper again.
Ming Zhu stroked his head and sighed, not knowing how to offer comfort.
Just then, a thunderous crash erupted from the front hall. It sounded as if someone had fallen from a great height, accompanied by the chaotic noise of splintering wood. In the next instant, a massive surge of demonic aura instantly enveloped the entire Lanyue Tower.
Nan Qinghe froze, then scrambled to his feet. “It’s… it’s Xi Chu!”
Ming Zhu stood up immediately and ran into the front hall with Nan Qinghe.
The Lanyue Tower was now in total chaos. Boundless demonic aura and spiritual power intertwined in the air amidst flying wood chips. A blood-soaked man lay in the ruins, his life or death uncertain. Most of the people in the vast hall had fled; only a few cultivators remained, looking upward with great apprehension.
The sound of light, slow footsteps echoed as Xi Chu walked slowly out of the second-floor room. The phantom image of nine tails appeared behind him. He still wore his usual frost-cold expression, but his beast-like pupils had turned a deep, bloody crimson.
Xi Chu’s clothes were disheveled, and his exposed skin was faintly covered in red marks. He didn’t seem to care. Tilting his head slightly, his hollow eyes swept over the terrified people in the hall. His thin lips parted slightly: “Ming… Zhao…”
On the Jade Token Nan Qinghe had bought for him, there was a brief sentence regarding Na Lian’s end: *Wounded by Ming Zhao, fell into Biri, no remains.*
No one can control the mind of a Chengyao, yet Nan Yue had spent centuries using a lie and the crisp sound of a golden bell to domesticate the peerless Xi Chu into a plaything that anyone could trample.
Until Nan Qinghe placed that Jade Token in his hand, abruptly tearing away the veil to reveal the bloody reality.
Guifang was destroyed, its ley lines dried up, the city had sunk and was renamed the Sunken City—a place where not a single blade of grass grew.
Na Lian’s demon eye had been stolen, and he had fallen from Biri Cliff, leaving no corpse behind.
Only then did Xi Chu realize that the Chengyao had ceased to exist centuries ago. Even if he gained his freedom, he had no home to return to.
Over these hundreds of years, Xi Chu had been trained by Nan Yue’s golden bell into a state of instinctive obedience. Even after learning the truth and feeling the urge to resist, his body still uncontrollably followed commands—until a sharp pain flared through him just now. His demon eyes instantly turned crimson as he jolted awake from the nightmare.
Xi Chu leaped lightly from the second floor, barefoot. Lowering his long lashes, he looked at the man he had beaten into a bloody mess. The blood pooling on the floor seemed to awaken him. He let out a soft “ah,” his voice thin and weak: “I am… looking for… Ming Zhao…”
Nan Qinghe cried out, “Xi Chu!”
Xi Chu turned. Seeing Nan Qinghe rushing toward him, he tilted his head slightly, but his gaze drifted toward Ming Zhu, who was running over from the side. His pupils constricted slightly.
Before Nan Qinghe could reach Xi Chu’s side, he felt a cold, sharp wind brush past his ear. A flash of cold light followed. By the time he reacted, Xi Chu had already passed him, his figure moving like a phantom toward Ming Zhu.
Xi Chu’s toes lightly tapped the ground. His massive fox tails drifted around his slender frame, his sleeves fluttering. Expressionless, he lunged toward the stunned Ming Zhu.
Shen Hongchuan, who had been watching coldly from the side, finally panicked. A Chengyao who had broken free from control was not something human strength could obstruct. Recalling Xi Chu’s earlier words to Ming Zhu—“I will kill you”—his heart skipped a beat. “Senior Brother!”
But it was too late for Shen Hongchuan to intervene. Xi Chu was incredibly fast, reaching Ming Zhu’s side in an instant. His slender fingers reached for Ming Zhu’s exposed neck.
Shen Hongchuan’s pupils shrank. “Stop!”
In the next moment, Xi Chu’s cold, malevolent hand gently touched the side of Ming Zhu’s pale face. A look of dazed realization appeared on his normally indifferent face. Then, his body floated slightly as he circled Ming Zhu once before his toes touched the ground and he landed softly.
He cupped Ming Zhu’s face with one hand. His long hair and clothes settled slowly, and the murderous aura surrounding him gradually dissipated. A rare trace of confusion appeared in his eyes as he said softly, “You… are not him…”
Ming Zhu stared at him blankly.
Xi Chu touched his face again and asked, “Why are you… crying?”
Only then did Ming Zhu realize that, for some reason, tears were already streaming down his face.
He stared blankly at Xi Chu and murmured, “I… I don’t know.”
Since his mother’s death in his childhood, Ming Zhu hadn’t shed a single tear, not even when his spiritual veins were brutally destroyed. Yet now, facing a stranger, an uncontrollable bitterness surged in his heart. Before he could even process it, his tears had fallen.
Xi Chu watched him quietly. His hands, which had grown sharp claws that looked like they could pierce a person with a mere touch, very gently brushed the red mark under Ming Zhu’s eye with his thumb. He said softly, “The bloodline… in your body… is very strange.”
For no reason, Ming Zhu felt as if his heart were about to explode. A massive wave of loneliness and sorrow swept over him, making his tears fall even harder despite his efforts to stop them.
He was even more confused than Xi Chu. Why was he crying like a fool in front of a complete stranger?
Ming Zhu desperately wanted to stop those embarrassing tears, but he suddenly realized that his body and emotions seemed beyond his control. Aside from weeping in sorrow, he couldn't move a muscle.
The massive commotion finally alerted Nan Yue, who had not been gone long. He rushed back, swept a glance over the hall that Xi Chu had nearly demolished, and his face darkened. He shouted sternly, “Xi Chu!”
Xi Chu ignored him, his eyes still fixed on Ming Zhu. He said, “I…”
Nan Yue yelled, “If you want your brother’s demon eye, stop this instant!”
“I… cannot kill you,” Xi Chu said suddenly.
Beside them, Shen Hongchuan was drenched in cold sweat. Ming Zhu might not have noticed, but from Shen Hongchuan’s angle, it was clear that although Xi Chu appeared devoid of malice, the moment he approached Ming Zhu, he had pressed a cluster of spiritual energy against the center of Ming Zhu’s back. With a single thought, that energy would have blasted a bloody hole through Ming Zhu’s body.
But for some reason, he had never struck.
Ming Zhu’s lips trembled slightly, his tears still flowing.
“I know that if I move again, not only will I… fail to kill you…” Xi Chu continued to gently stroke the red mark under Ming Zhu’s eye, “I will also… lose my own life.”
Ming Zhu met Xi Chu’s eyes.
If Ming Zhu’s androgynous features could be described as a brilliantly bewitching red lotus, then Xi Chu was a cold plum blossom, crisp and frost-laden. When these two exquisite faces were close together, the first reaction of the onlookers wasn't to find it pleasing to the eye, but rather to feel a bizarre, bone-chilling coldness that seemed to rise from the depths of the earth.
Xi Chu said softly, “Will you… make a deal with me?”
Ming Zhu let out a trembling breath. His tears had stopped at some point. He turned his head to look at the crowd behind them and murmured, “I have nothing to trade with you.”
Xi Chu replied, “No, you do.”
Ming Zhu said, “I don’t.”
Xi Chu looked at him with some confusion. After confirming that the rejection in Ming Zhu’s eyes was genuine, he said softly after a long silence, “Then let us die together.”
Ming Zhu’s pupils contracted. After saying this nonchalantly, Xi Chu swept his two fox tails forward from both sides, completely encircling Ming Zhu’s body. Then, a plume of white mist rose up.
Shen Hongchuan instinctively lunged forward to grab Ming Zhu the moment Xi Chu spoke, but he was a step too late. The mist rose and vanished with incredible speed.
By the time everyone could see clearly again, both of them had vanished from the spot.
A figure who had been hiding in a corner of the second floor suddenly let out an impatient “tsk.” He withdrew the churning demonic energy in his hand and slowly exhaled a cloud of smoke.
***
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
--- | --- | ---
那帘 | Na Lian | Xi Chu's brother, a powerful demon.
蔽日崖 | Biri Cliff | Literally "Sun-Blocking Cliff," where Na Lian fell.
陷落城 | Sunken City | Formerly Guifang, the home of the fox demons.
鬼芳 | Guifang | The original name of the fox demon city.
成妖 | Chengyao | A specific term for a powerful demon or a demon's true form.
玉令 | Jade Token | A magical item used for information or identification.
闻风楼 | Wenfeng Pavilion | An information-gathering organization.
魔气 | Demonic energy | Also known as Moqi; associated with demonic cultivation or beings.
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