Their savior was already injured. The Zhaoying Sword Sect disciples were not heartless people, so naturally they were worried about him.
Ning Zhou spoke tactfully. “Senior, you are hurt, and who knows how many dangers remain in this dem—this village? Even if we are to negotiate peace, you should put your own safety first. Why don’t you come down the mountain with us, and then we can decide what to do? What do you think?”
“It’s nothing.” Qian Xuelang shook his head. “This little injury won’t hinder me.”
Tang Wenxian moved his lips and, to everyone’s surprise, sided with Ning Zhou as well. “I don’t know just how capable you are, and I don’t want to say this village is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers, making us sound like cowards for nothing. But honestly, according to He Yuntao, there’s someone here whose maze formation even the Jiufang Clan could scarcely break, and a gatekeeper whose swordsmanship is practically supernatural. Even if this place isn’t a mountain of blades and a sea of fire, it’s certainly a dragon’s pool and a tiger’s den. No matter how strong you are, you don’t have to act tough.”
Qian Xuelang hesitated a moment.
He was not supremely clever, but his innate gifts were extraordinary, and all the many forms of human behavior were perfectly clear to him once he observed them. The formation here had not been repaired for many years, which showed that its great master was long dead and had left no successor. As for the gatekeeper, if he had companions, he would never have retreated so readily, nor would he have been the only one to appear.
These disciples had been frightened out of their wits. They imagined this little village to be unimaginably dangerous, as though traps lurked everywhere.
After thinking it over again and again, Qian Xuelang still offered no explanation. He merely wiped the blood from his lips, turned to leave, and said evenly, “Do as you see fit. You can go down the mountain or wait here for me. If you are willing to wait, I can set up a barrier for you to recover inside and remove it when I return.”
The sword-sect disciples began whispering among themselves, unable to reach a decision. Tang Wenxian, however, gritted his teeth and called out, “Put up the barrier!”
Ning Zhou stared at him. “Second Senior Brother?”
“Hmph. He Yuntao is half-dead. Are you expecting him to wake up and lead us down the mountain?” Tang Wenxian said. “We’re trapped here anyway, so we may as well stay put and wait. Even if… I mean, even if his barrier doesn’t hold, He Yuntao isn’t in the enemy’s hands now. Are we really incapable of fighting back? If the demons attack, we’ll fight them to the end. Who’s afraid of whom?”
Qian Xuelang thought, This fellow can be obtuse and thoroughly irritating in ordinary circumstances, yet at a crucial moment like this, he can actually be of some help.
The disciples sat down together. Qian Xuelang erected the barrier and only then went outside. The woman carved in stone was still gazing up at the moon, her face filled with bitter resentment, as though her grievance had endured for thousands upon thousands of years and would never fade, even if her flesh and bones had long since vanished.
Can hatred truly endure for so long?
Slowly he shook his head and put the thought aside. What could a statue prove? It preserved nothing more than the craftsman’s feelings at the time, a face belonging to one moment. Only because stone endured had that moment become lasting. This statue had merely held one instant of the woman’s existence fast within time.
The statue stood on high ground. Looking down, Qian Xuelang saw the village scattered unevenly along the mountainside. A few points of firelight were visible even in the moonlight. In the central square stood a strange flower-decked bridal palanquin, with no enclosed cabin at all: merely a rectangular board carried on two bamboo poles, lavishly adorned with an intricate profusion of flowers.
Directly opposite the goddess’s statue lay a huge white outcrop vaguely shaped like a human being. It sprawled amid the mountains, its trees like hair and its gullies like crevices. Except for the face, the torso and legs had recognizable outlines. Seen from afar beneath the moonlight, it resembled a reclining woman.
More importantly, there was not a single house upon that enormous white rock. The villagers seemed deliberately to have avoided building on this woman-shaped outcrop. Perhaps it, too, was a place of worship.
Qian Xuelang soon started down the mountain. He was not walking particularly quickly when two figures appeared on the path, one tall and one short. He had just met the shorter one: the purple-eyed swordsman.
The tall one… was very familiar too.
Qian Xuelang frowned slightly and studied the tall demon beneath the moonlight. The man’s features were perfectly clear. Qian Xuelang had never had much sense of beauty or ugliness; he merely thought the demon looked remarkably imposing, enough to inspire awe. So this is what a demon looks like, he thought.
His vision had been blurred back then, but toward the end he had managed to make out a few things. The demon had approached him intimately more than once, and he remembered the man’s face. He had simply never seen it as clearly as he did now. Recognizing him, however, was not difficult.
The demon’s breathing suddenly grew heavier. In a deep voice he asked, “You’re saying… you’re saying this is the intruder?”
The purple-eyed swordsman appeared a little surprised to see Qian Xuelang there, but his manner toward the demon was much more docile. “That’s him.”
Qian Xuelang pondered, I had no intention of hurting anyone to begin with. Besides, this demon saved my life. I ought not to fight him. Perhaps I should speak first and see whether they’re willing to hear me out. If they refuse, I’ll think of something else. What’s more, since the demon wants something from me, that shared interest should mean he won’t disregard every human consideration.
“I mean you no harm.”
Beneath the distant, chilly moon, Qian Xuelang’s voice sounded even more remote than the moonlight. The purple-eyed swordsman snorted, about to speak, but the demon beside him stopped him.
The demon stared at Qian Xuelang with deep eyes for a long time, almost dazed. Only after a considerable pause did he say, “If you mean no harm, what brings an honored guest here?”
Qian Xuelang found the man’s aloof attitude and unfamiliar tone strange, as though they were meeting for the very first time. Could it be that he doesn’t recognize me? No… impossible. Perhaps he regrets the request he made that day and no longer wants to die, so he assumes I was poisoned and blind and is pretending not to know me. Even an ant struggles to stay alive, let alone a demon of such strength. That may be it.
Since the demon had no desire to acknowledge their acquaintance, Qian Xuelang naturally would not force him to. He explained why he had come.
The demon said slowly, “Hua Hanyan… I know that person.”
He knew considerably more than that. To be precise, the demon could now be certain that even if Hua Hanyan was not a subordinate of the Heavenly Demon, she undoubtedly knew a great deal about him. Yet her position remained impossible to pin down. This woman had made arrangements of her own inside the Third Veil, and now she had sent the Jade Beauty to this demon village, whose people worshipped the Heavenly Demon’s wife. What on earth was she plotting?
After encountering Hua Hanyan in the Third Veil, the demon had tried to use her to uncover the cavern’s secrets. The two had each pretended to be innocent and ignorant, wasting no small amount of time in their mutual playacting. When he finally returned to the Earth-Mother Womb Pool, Qian Xuelang had departed without leaving so much as a word. Unable to find him in the pool, the demon had wandered about in a daze.
Only in the Earth-Mother Womb Pool could Ren Yijue put aside every consideration and concern.
Qian Xuelang needed time to recover from his injuries, so those days could not exactly be called time wasted. The demon had watched over the Jade Beauty and cared for the Jade Beauty day after day, wishing that this springtime dream would last forever.
But every dream had to end, just as the demon eventually had to become Ren Yijue again.
He had not wandered for long before realizing that the Jade Beauty would probably try to find Ren Yijue. He therefore returned to the little house beneath the spring to look for clues. Several strips had been torn from the bedding, although he did not know whether the Jade Beauty had done it. Later, at Liuyanzhu, he heard that someone had taken the Demon-Slaying Sword and immediately understood that he and the Jade Beauty had narrowly missed each other.
Anyone who had the sword would inevitably go looking for its case. Unfortunately, by the time the demon arrived, he was too late again.
Qian Xuelang had already left.
This time the demon could not be bothered to keep up his empty courtesies with Hua Hanyan. The frustration of repeatedly missing the Jade Beauty filled this identity with demonic qi once more, and anger crept inch by inch across his skin. For a brief instant he almost lost consciousness. When he next came to, he had destroyed more than half of the Sea of Sin and Heaven of Passion, and Hua Hanyan had told him where the Jade Beauty was.
Whether Hua Hanyan had noticed something, or whether he had done anything while his awareness was lost, were concerns for Ren Yijue, not for Wan Yuntao.
Wan Yuntao had been born for Qian Xuelang. Likewise, the demon had room in his heart for only one person: Qian Xuelang.
Unfortunately, when the demon reached White Stone Village, Qian Xuelang was nowhere to be found. He was deeply discouraged. To his surprise, however, the people of White Stone Village warmly welcomed this unfamiliar stranger as though he naturally belonged among them, even inviting him to take part in the coming celebration.
Stranger still, the demon could sense that some connection truly existed between him and the villagers. It was exceedingly faint, yet undeniably real.
And ever since he set foot in the village, he had been overwhelmed by the boundless moonlight. It seemed to have traveled through countless ages to reach him, as though he had returned to a savage and ancient world. The cold moon shone upon the body of the demon race, bringing it inexhaustible strength.
He had a vague premonition that he might find what he sought here.
So the demon decided to remain in White Stone Village for a while. Besides, since no one in White Stone Village had seen Qian Xuelang, perhaps something unexpected had delayed the Jade Beauty, who would arrive a little later.
What the demon had not expected was that only one day would pass before the Jade Beauty appeared.
The purple-eyed swordsman said in disgust, “Excuses upon excuses. If you came alone, why were you traveling with those disciples and deliberately saving them? Doesn’t that mean you’re together?”
“No,” Qian Xuelang answered. “Though in a sense, yes.”
The purple-eyed man sneered. “Either you are or you aren’t. I dislike all this twisting and turning.”
“They and I do not share the same path. I traveled with them to break the maze formation,” Qian Xuelang explained. “But I cannot stand by and watch you kill the Sword Sect’s disciples, just as I have no intention of hurting you.”
The demon gazed at him almost entranced and found himself smiling inwardly. How rare. The Jade Beauty has actually learned to explain himself.
When he thought about why Qian Xuelang had changed, though, the demon’s pleasure turned to sorrow. He could not tell whether he felt more gladness or loss.
The White-Jade Skeleton had exploited the Jade Beauty’s goodwill and used Lord Pu to gravely injure the Jade Beauty. And he himself… he had taken advantage of the Jade Beauty’s vulnerability and forced his attentions upon him. The Jade Beauty truly had fallen from his place above the clouds. Although he never spoke of it, he must have spent those days deep in thought.
Even with Ren Yijue beside him, the Jade Beauty might not have spoken of these matters. With a frivolous, reckless demon at his side, he would surely have been even less inclined to confide anything.
The purple-eyed swordsman said, “The maze outside makes our wish to keep outsiders away perfectly clear. You humans love making rules of your own. You forbid anyone to trespass in restricted places. Why throw all those rules aside when it comes to another race? Since you did, you should accept the punishment.”
“Then what about the child He Yuntao saved?” Qian Xuelang asked in return. “Did you kill him too?”
The purple-eyed swordsman said darkly, “He belongs to our people, so of course he is different. But he fled the village without permission, and village rules will punish him.”
“He Yuntao was brought here because he saved that child. Yet the moment you learned he knew the entrance, you tried to silence him by killing him. How is repaying kindness with betrayal justifiable?”
The purple-eyed swordsman replied coldly, “A lifesaving debt should naturally be repaid. Unfortunately, you humans are insatiably greedy. Once he knew, it was as though countless people knew. For the village’s safety, I had no choice but to kill him. He narrowly escaped with his life, and I had already decided not to pursue him further. But sure enough, he came back with more people. Had I known, I should have hunted him down to the very end, and spared us the deaths of dozens more.”