In his spare moments, Qian Xuelang had speculated about the identity of this demon.
With such powerful demonic qi and such strength, the most likely candidate was undoubtedly the Demon Lord Bai Wujin.
Yet that only raised more questions. Quite apart from the fact that there was no connection between the two of them, even if Bai Wujin truly had fallen in love with him at first sight and kindly decided to help, his temperament ought not to be so strange and erratic, judging by the rumors.
Though perhaps that was unfair. When the demon was in his right mind, he could be described as courteous, refined, and reasonable.
Bai Wujin had been trapped in the Third Veil for a long time. Perhaps the demonic qi had affected his temperament, or perhaps something unknown to outsiders had happened to him. It was not entirely impossible.
Fortunately, whether the demon was Bai Wujin or not would have no bearing on Qian Xuelang’s ultimate decision. He therefore stopped dwelling on it and closed his eyes to rest.
His condition had improved considerably over the past few days. Given a little more time, he ought to be able to expel the deadly poison completely.
As Qian Xuelang rested, he suddenly felt something move against his shoulder. At first he thought it was only the infant spirits playing their usual games and had no wish to pay them any attention. But more and more of them crowded around him, actually managing to turn him over in the Womb Pool. Several even pressed close to his cheek and began shouting at the tops of their tiny voices.
“What is it?” Qian Xuelang finally sat up, looking surprised.
The infant spirits blew a few bubbles and babbled noisily, swimming toward him like a shoal of fish. Their tiny fingers clutched Qian Xuelang’s sleeves as though trying to lift him out.
Qian Xuelang did not understand what they wanted, so he could only go along with them. He stood up and slowly left the Womb Pool as they wished. Seeing that he had understood, several infant spirits immediately broke into delighted giggles.
“Hm? Could they be trying to drive me out of the Womb Pool?” Qian Xuelang had barely set foot on the ground when the infant spirits pushed him several more steps, nearly sending him stumbling. He steadied himself and felt a little guilty. The little snake’s Heart-Guarding Needles carry an extraordinarily potent poison. I have occupied this place for so long. I wonder whether the Womb Pool harmed these little ones while neutralizing it. No wonder they want me gone.
Then another thought occurred to him. No, if these infant spirits felt unwell, they would have pushed me out long ago. Why wait until today?
Qian Xuelang’s eyes had been able to sense light for several days now. Though his gaze was still blurred and unfocused, he could roughly make out the infant spirits’ movements. It seemed they wanted to take him somewhere. After a moment’s consideration, he followed their guidance.
Qian Xuelang had only just entered the demonic mist when he sensed something was wrong. The demonic qi here was dozens of times denser than in the Fourth Veil. With his body in its present condition, he feared he would not be able to endure it for long.
“Where are you taking me?” Qian Xuelang asked. “I cannot last very long here.”
How could the infant spirits understand what he was saying? They babbled a few more times and simply urged him onward. Seeing how anxious they were, Qian Xuelang suddenly had an idea. Has something happened to the demon?
The demonic mist was exceedingly deep. It was not entirely devoid of light, but the darkness was strange and oppressive. Only the infant spirits gave off a faint glow.
Qian Xuelang reasoned that the infant spirits could hardly travel a great distance, so the demon must be somewhere nearby. He said no more and continued following them.
From far away, Qian Xuelang heard a low roar, though he could not tell who had made it. His spiritual consciousness had already detected two powerful beings fighting nearby. This was no place to intrude upon recklessly.
But the infant spirits suddenly became excited, repeatedly throwing themselves against him and pushing him toward the battlefield.
Qian Xuelang understood. The demon must be fighting someone and losing. The infant spirits saw that things were going badly and brought me here to help.
Red-black baleful qi surged and churned across the battlefield. Qian Xuelang saw a heavy blood-red halberd sweeping through the air in great full-moon arcs, trailing countless dazzling afterimages.
The two figures crossed and recrossed one another so rapidly that for a while he could not tell which was the demon he knew and which was the newcomer.
Someone burst into hearty laughter. “Good! Excellent! What a fight! Come on! Again!”
The blood-red halberd moved even faster and more fiercely, almost weaving an impenetrable scarlet net across the sky.
Only after listening for a while did Qian Xuelang realize that the laughter came not from the familiar demon but from the other combatant. By the sound of it, the man was enjoying himself enormously and growing fiercer with every exchange. The demon, by contrast, had remained silent. Presumably he sensed the danger and was concentrating on defending himself.
Even though he could not clearly see their techniques, their respective momentum told him that the demon’s defeat was already inevitable.
A spray of bloody mist suddenly spread across his blurred field of vision. He could not tell whose wound it came from.
The other man let out a howl of pain, then began laughing wildly. His voice rang with excitement, fierce fighting spirit, and killing intent. “Excellent! That was a good hit! It’s been years since anyone managed to wound me!”
Terrified, the infant spirits trembled and huddled behind Qian Xuelang.
Qian Xuelang could not see the battle clearly, but he now realized that the demon might not merely be sensing danger. He was probably too hard-pressed to spare the effort to speak at all. If this continued, he might exhaust his strength and die fighting.
The other man’s purpose was unknown, as was whether he was good or evil. He looked more like a battle-crazed madman than anything else.
Seizing the moment before the next attack began, Qian Xuelang stepped forward and entered the fight in an instant. He placed himself between the two, flicked out his sleeves to disperse the demonic qi on both sides, and said coolly, “Stop.”
The battle-loving man had not been fighting at full strength, but he was still startled. “Hm? Who are you?”
Qian Xuelang was not nearly as untroubled as he appeared. Injured and surrounded by such dense demonic qi, he felt a dull pain in his chest. Determined to settle the matter quickly, he ignored the question and said simply, “Demon.”
The battle-loving man misunderstood his answer and looked even more puzzled. “There’s no demonic qi on you. You look like someone from an orthodox sect. Why are you calling yourself a demon?”
Qian Xuelang said evenly, “How are you?”
Only then did the other man realize his mistake, and he looked sheepish. “…So you were talking to him.”
The demon did not answer. He merely lowered his head and stared heavily at Qian Xuelang. Only now did Qian Xuelang notice something wrong. The person before him was not the demon he knew, but the other side of him, the one he had always tried to keep hidden from Qian Xuelang.
Put simply, the demon had lost control.
Even with Qian Xuelang’s sense of smell dulled as it was, he could still detect the powerful stench of blood coming from the demon. Evidently, his injuries were serious.
“Can you hear me?” Qian Xuelang asked coldly.
The demonic mist was terribly dark. Afraid of missing something, Qian Xuelang reached out and, rather unhappily, cupped the demon’s face between his hands. “Nod if you can hear me.”
The demon showed no response, but the battle-loving man exclaimed in surprise, “So you’re blind! What a pity. Such a beautiful face, and you can’t see a thing. Though perhaps that’s for the best. If you looked at your own face too often, it would probably be terribly difficult for you to find a Dao companion!”
His gaze wandered back and forth between the demon and Qian Xuelang. Suddenly, he burst out laughing. “Oh, I understand! I was wondering why he started fighting me. It was because of you!”
“Tsk.”
Qian Xuelang frowned slightly. He was not skilled at coaxing others gently, and there was little he could do with the demon in this state. Just as he was about to turn toward the other man, he felt his wrist tighten. The demon had seized it firmly, though he still said nothing and did not nod.
Hm? He still remembers me even after losing control?
Qian Xuelang knew little of romantic love. From their earlier conversations, however, he knew that the demon was usually well-mannered and possessed some inexplicable, obsessive infatuation with him. He had not expected that obsession to survive even this loss of control.
The battle-loving man leaned over again and asked, “If you two are that close, why do you address each other so distantly? ‘Demon’ this and ‘demon’ that. Doesn’t he have a name?”
“What relationship do we have?” Qian Xuelang frowned. “Besides, he has never told me his name.”
The man was momentarily stunned. Whatever his face revealed, his voice was full of astonishment. “Huh? What’s that supposed to mean? You aren’t a couple? Then what’s someone from an orthodox sect doing in the Third Veil? Why did you interrupt our fight? You even seem to have something going on with this demon. I thought you two were forbidden lovers who had run away together!”
“Of course not,” Qian Xuelang replied coldly.
“Er, well…” The man froze.
Qian Xuelang said, “Your arrival saves me the trouble of calling for you. Bai Wujin—”
It hardly took any effort to recognize Bai Wujin. With a blood-red halberd in his hands, moving freely through the demonic mist, his identity was obvious. Now Qian Xuelang was genuinely curious about the identity of the demon he knew.
Bai Wujin laughed and cut him off. “How interesting. You can’t even say his name, yet you know mine. Unfortunately, no matter how pretty you are, I’ve no desire to become a couple with you. Rest assured of that, my friend.”
His first sentence had been directed at Qian Xuelang. The last was plainly meant for the demon.
“Do all you demons speak without the slightest restraint?” Qian Xuelang asked coldly.
Bai Wujin chuckled. “Depends how you look at it. According to you humans, when someone says something insulting, it’s called speaking without restraint, but when they say something complimentary, it’s called being straightforward. I didn’t mean to offend you. But this demon just fought me over you. Naturally, I ought to put his mind at ease first. If you’re unhappy, go ahead and slap him a few times. I doubt he’ll fight back. And if he does, all the better! The three of us can have a fight together.”
After a moment’s silence, Qian Xuelang asked slowly, “Whatever lies between him and me can wait. Why were the two of you fighting?”
As it turned out, Bai Wujin had only recently returned from the Second Veil and was resting at his residence in the Third Veil when he heard some disturbance outside. There were never people about in the Third Veil, so his curiosity was piqued. He followed the sounds and searched along the way until he came upon the demon. Unexpectedly, the demon suddenly became ferocious and attacked him.
Bai Wujin rubbed his nose, looking somewhat embarrassed. “Thinking about it now, he probably saw me approaching this place and couldn’t tell whether I was friend or foe. That’s why he attacked.”
Only then did Qian Xuelang learn that he was in the Third Veil. “Apart from you, has there never been anyone else in the Third Veil?”
“I’ve lived here for decades, and never seen anyone,” Bai Wujin replied. “Unless you count those little ones behind you.”
“You know them?”
“Of course I know them. Every last one runs from me faster than if they’d seen a ghost. Anyone would think I was going to swallow them whole.” Bai Wujin clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Demons can be so heartless. But they can’t help me with anything, and I can’t help them, so we’ve simply been good neighbors. I wouldn’t say we’re familiar.”
Doubt immediately stirred in Qian Xuelang’s mind. Bai Wujin has lived in the Third Veil for decades without seeing anyone else or having any dealings with the infant spirits. Then how did the demon know there was a place here where I could recover?
Perhaps Bai Wujin had been talking a little too enthusiastically with Qian Xuelang, for the demon suddenly seemed displeased. He tightened his hold on Qian Xuelang’s hand and pulled him roughly into his arms.
Caught off guard, Qian Xuelang actually let himself be pulled down into the demon’s lap. He did not hurry to escape. Instead, he turned slightly to the side, nestling in the embrace with an appearance of intimate affection, while one snowy-white hand settled on the wound in the demon’s shoulder.
An instant later, the demon let out a mournful cry. Blood gushed from the wound, all strength drained from his shoulder, and his arms fell open.
Only then did Qian Xuelang rise unhurriedly. Not the slightest emotion touched his stern, indifferent face. Paired with those lifeless eyes, he scarcely looked like a living person.
He then drew a handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped the blood off his hand, apparently thinking something over.
Bai Wujin felt his own wound ache just watching. The pair looked neither like lovers nor like enemies. He could not help wondering, Have I been away from the world so long that relationships among people have become this complicated?