Bai Wujin teased him a couple more times. When he saw that the demon was not amused, he assumed the fellow was thin-skinned and stopped pestering him.
“Actually, there isn’t much else I wanted to ask. I just want to know how you found out that there was a place for healing in the Third Veil.”
Names and love affairs were only material for idle conversation. Knowing the answers was hardly important. But the secret of the Third Veil touched upon a concern Bai Wujin had long carried in his heart.
Unexpectedly, the demon’s expression turned somewhat grave. “I don’t know.”
Bai Wujin raised an eyebrow. He was long past the age of settling matters by shouting and making a scene, and he knew that many things people said concealed deeper meanings. While he was pondering what sort of answer the demon had given him, he heard him continue, “To tell you the truth, my transformation into a demon happened suddenly, only recently.”
No sooner had the words left the demon’s mouth than Bai Wujin shuddered. A fierce light suddenly flashed in his eyes. He lunged forward, grabbed the demon by the shoulders, and asked coldly, “What did you say? Your transformation into a demon happened suddenly, only recently?”
“Why?” The demon felt a sharp pain in his shoulders. Seeing Bai Wujin’s extraordinarily complicated expression, he gritted his teeth and endured it. “Is something wrong with that?”
Bai Wujin repeated his words in a harsh voice. “Something wrong? You’re asking me what’s wrong?”
A thought stirred in the demon’s mind. He had assumed every half-demon underwent demonic transformation in this fashion, but Bai Wujin’s expression made it clear that things were not so simple. “Ever since childhood, I have lived with… with my mother, leading the life of an ordinary cultivator. I know nothing about half-demons. What exactly is wrong?”
All the color drained from Bai Wujin’s face. He stumbled backward a couple of steps, his thoughts unreadable, and said in disbelief, “I’ve only ever met two half-demons like you. One is you…”
But for a long time he did not say who the other was.
“You don’t know who the other one is?” Although Bai Wujin refused to say, the demon was determined to ask.
Only after a long pause did Bai Wujin give a strange little smile. He stared at the demon and murmured, “The other… the other is standing right in front of you. Naturally, it’s me.”
The demon was stunned.
Though the demon had no memory of their fight, he could tell from everything since their meeting that Bai Wujin was ordinarily carefree and forthright. Seeing how strange his expression had become, he no longer knew quite what to make of the situation. …What does this mean?
“If you don’t want to hurt that Daoist in the cave, with his icy temperament and delicate body…” Bai Wujin suddenly started running. “Then follow me.”
At the words “delicate body,” the demon involuntarily shuddered. For a moment, he could not decide whether to admire Bai Wujin’s audacity or worry more about the mystery of his own body.
At first Bai Wujin waited for him a little, but the farther they went, the more he seemed to forget he had someone following. He charged ahead at an astonishing speed. The demon had no choice but to cast aside his restraints and keep pace with him.
Two figures chased each other through the demonic mist, appearing and disappearing in flashes. The demonic qi in the Third Veil was so dense that anyone whose cultivation was insufficient would feel as though Mount Tai had fallen upon them, unable even to take a step. Yet the two of them moved through it freely and with ease.
The Third Veil was blanketed in dense mist, but the mountains and terrain still existed beneath it. The demon could dimly tell that the path sometimes widened and sometimes narrowed. At other times, the terrain became so bizarre and distorted that there was almost nowhere to set foot. At one point he seemed to hear the roar of rushing water, though he could not tell where it came from.
The human side of him was accustomed to maintaining control of his surroundings and circumstances, but his demonic side cared nothing for such things. Countless thoughts flitted through his mind, only to disappear again.
They ran for what seemed a very long time. The demon found the experience exhilarating, without a trace of weariness or hardship. But when Bai Wujin stopped, he had no choice but to stop too.
Standing amid the demonic mist, Bai Wujin pointed in one direction and asked gravely, “Lad, do you know what lies there?”
The demon gave a rueful smile and sighed. “Bai Wujin, whether I am clever or not is beside the point. Even the cleverest person cannot know everything.”
“One more step, and we’ll be in the Second Veil,” Bai Wujin said.
The boundary between the Second and Third Veils was not like a door between ordinary rooms, where one side was the Third Veil and the other the Second. It was formed of layer after layer of accumulated demonic mist, with the border of the Second Veil lying deep within the Third.
There was no such thing as being a single step away.
Even Qian Xuelang, with his level of cultivation, would probably have felt uncomfortable here. Yet the demon was unaffected.
“So this is the Second Veil…” The demon looked down at himself. “But I don’t feel anything?”
He began to understand. With Ren Yijue’s cultivation, forget the Third Veil: he would struggle to remain even in the Fourth for long. Yet his present body could venture into the Second Veil with ease.
Even if half-demons were naturally adapted to demonic qi, such an extreme difference could hardly be ordinary.
There was something unusual about this demonic body.
Bai Wujin stared at him without moving and said fiercely, “I know! I’ve already seen it! Do you realize that if it weren’t for this, I would have left you behind seven or eight times on the way here?”
The demon saw Bai Wujin’s face contort, anger seeming to surge in his eyes. Clearly something troublesome lay behind this. He considered for a moment, then said, “I am already here, and what happened has happened. Regret and lamentation won’t help. Why not tell me the truth, and we’ll see whether we can solve this problem together?”
Bai Wujin froze, then suddenly threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Well said! Regret and lamentation won’t help!”
His laughter seemed to shake the ground itself. Echoes rang from the surrounding mountain walls, sounding like sobs and weeping through the dense mist. Two tracks of tears ran down his cheeks. Only after a long while did he lower his head and quietly close his eyes.
The demon watched him, both grief-stricken and exhilarated, and said nothing. The two stood in a daze in the Second Veil for a while.
After some time, Bai Wujin finally lifted his head. “When you put it that way, you and I might almost be called blood brothers born to different fathers and mothers.” By now he had regained his former easygoing manner, and even reached out to pat the demon on the shoulder.
“How so?” the demon asked.
Bai Wujin led him back the way they had come. “It starts more than a hundred years ago. Do you know about the calamity of the Heavenly Demon back then?”
The demon considered briefly. “I do.”
“You actually know about it?” Bai Wujin glanced at him.
The demon had been intending to mention the Heavenly Demon’s return, but it did not seem a good time to interrupt. He listened in silence.
Bai Wujin was utterly absorbed in his recollections and noticed nothing amiss. He began recounting that old affair at an unhurried pace. “But no matter how capable you are, what you know is probably just those stale old tales. What I am about to tell you is a secret concerning the Heavenly Demon.”
“The Heavenly Demon died long ago. Whether god or demon, when one dies, one ought to disperse into Heaven and Earth. Yet for some reason, the Heavenly Demon can reincarnate like a mortal, and with even greater freedom than mortals possess…”
Here Bai Wujin paused.
“He can choose his body.”
The demon’s heart tightened. He felt as though he had begun to understand something.
“Of course, he can’t choose just anyone’s body. The true demon race has long since vanished, so he must settle for half-demons as his new bodies. Since you know of the Heavenly Demon, you should also know about demon thralls?”
“I know,” the demon answered slowly.
“Demon thralls are merely slaves chosen by the Heavenly Demon, and transforming them takes a long time. But among the people he selects, there is another kind. They’re called Heavenly Demon Vessels.”
The demon frowned. “Heavenly Demon Vessels? That name sounds rather…”
“Rather unpleasant? Inappropriate? A Heavenly Demon Vessel is certainly a person, but not to the Heavenly Demon. To him, a Heavenly Demon Vessel is like clothing to a mortal. All he needs to consider is which garment to put on, not whether the garment wishes to be worn.”
Bai Wujin continued coldly, “When the Heavenly Demon chooses a half-demon, their body transforms instantly, approaching the perfection of a true Heavenly Demon Vessel. But even then, a body of this world cannot sustain the Heavenly Demon for long. Once possessed, it will collapse completely, at most after a few decades and at the least after only a few months.”
Bai Wujin looked at the demon and said slowly, “I’m afraid you were chosen by the Heavenly Demon the moment you were born, and became a new Heavenly Demon Vessel.”
A Heavenly Demon Vessel…
The demon pressed a hand to his chest. His expression grew extraordinarily complicated. A hazy image of his father suddenly surfaced in his mind, along with his master’s evasive expression.
Neither his mother nor his master would ever have offered him to the Heavenly Demon.
Then his other half of the bloodline, and the father who had been missing for so long, were undoubtedly the likeliest possibilities.
But if that was so… had he approached Mother for the sake of…
“Is it difficult to choose a Heavenly Demon Vessel?” the demon suddenly asked. “Besides being a half-demon, are there any particular requirements?”
Bai Wujin considered for a moment. “I don’t know. The person possessed by the Heavenly Demon back then was named Li Wanjie—”
“Hm? What an ominous name.”
“It’s rather sinister, yes. I heard names like that were a feature of his branch of the family, passed down from some ancestor countless generations ago. It was as though they took ill omens to be good fortune. I didn’t ask much about it back then.” Bai Wujin waved a hand. “As luck would have it, that terribly unfortunate Li Wanjie was my father in name only. Before he turned up at my door, I’d always assumed I’d sprung out of a rock.”
The demon was taken aback. “Your mother…”
Bai Wujin shrugged. “She abandoned me after giving birth. An old beggar raised me, and he gave me this name too. Unfortunately, by the time I was twelve, perhaps my flesh had grown tasty enough to attract some demons. They ate him. I killed those demons afterward, and by sheer luck I survived. Then I wandered from place to place.”
He spoke as though discussing something trivial. “And then I met my so-called father. It wasn’t enough that he himself had been worn like clothing by the Heavenly Demon. He followed the bloodline right to me, hoping to turn me into the Heavenly Demon’s next new outfit.”
The demon was speechless for a moment. Not knowing what else to say, he apologized. “I’m sorry.”
“Oh, enough of that! I’d just praised you for being straightforward, and here you are getting all sentimental.” Bai Wujin waved a hand impatiently. “If your fists aren’t as strong as someone else’s, you’re bound to take a beating now and then. It’s too late for you to mourn the old beggar, and it doesn’t mean anything to me either. Besides, I was rather lucky after becoming a Heavenly Demon Vessel. Before the Heavenly Demon could put on his new outfit, a group of righteous cultivators killed him. All told, things could have been worse.”
“In any case, going by my experience, the Heavenly Demon seems to care about bloodlines. Perhaps it’s a question of compatibility, or perhaps it’s simply one of his preferences. I don’t know whether that counts as a requirement.”