chapter 17

Jiang Xunyi calmly retracted his hand and met Yun Xie’s eyes. Wu Tianqi hurried forward: “I am truly ashamed at having troubled the two of you.”

Yun Xie’s expression showed rare seriousness: “The demonic energy is spilling out; those with insufficient skill to resist it will become corrupted just like the ones we saw just now, with unimaginable consequences. I have set up an enchanted boundary at the inner courtyard inside the Heavenly Seal School. School Master Wu, please restrict your disciples from carelessly going out in the near future.”

Beads of cold sweat appeared on Wu Tianqi’s forehead. He repeatedly agreed, and then said: “I will send people to redo the banquet…”

Jiang Xunyi frowned. Given his cleanliness and fastidiousness, he now felt some nausea after having seen those disgusting walking corpses just now. He shook his head: “I’m not eating any more.”

Yun Xie saw the situation and hurriedly said: “I’m not eating either.”

The two of them returned to their individual rooms, and Jiang Xunyi first took a bath. He had rubbed his hair dry and was about to go to bed, when Yun Xie jumped in from the window.

Jiang Xunyi: “What are you doing?”

Yun Xie smiled: “Ah-Xun, you didn’t eat anything just now—won’t you be hungry like this? Hurry and get up, Gege’s taking you to the night market for a feast!”

Jiang Xunyi wasn’t actually hungry, but remembering what had happened this evening, he felt it was somewhat awkward to stay here. After pondering it over, he nodded and followed Yun Xie out.

Yuele City at night was extremely lively and bustling, with rows upon rows of street stalls. The shouts of vendors and the aromas of food mixed together, all in all giving off the atmosphere of an animated and vibrant mortal society. Jiang Xunyi’s mood improved at this sight. He followed Yun Xie to sit down at a shack that counted as passably clean, and they ordered a few appetizers.

Yun Xie saw the mildness between Jiang Xunyi’s brows, and his own lips could not help but curl up into a smile. He first picked out a pair of clean chopsticks and handed them to Jiang Xunyi, and then moved several of Jiang Xunyi’s favorite dishes over to the other side.

Jiang Xunyi had evidently grown used to Yun Xie indulging him ever since they were little, and he did not find anything strange about this arrangement. He naturally took the chopsticks over and began to eat.

However, on this day they were doomed to have no way to eat in peace. The two of them had just sat down for less than fifteen minutes, when suddenly a dry and hoarse voice came from Jiang Xunyi’s side. The voice carried a hint of a faint sigh as it floated into his ear: “The Demon Sovereign… finally resurrected.”

Jiang Xunyi turned back to look, and was practically shocked out of his seat. Ever since he had become famous at an early age, he rarely encountered any worthy opponents, and had especially never encountered someone who could silently circle behind his back without his noticing. In particular, the woman behind him was unkempt and disheveled, all skin and bones. Her face seemed to have only a single thin layer of skin adhered to her skull. Only her eyes were bright and wide, fixated on him with something similar to feverish mania, making her appearance even more bizarre.

Upon being stared at by those eyes, Jiang Xunyi momentarily felt his entire body stiffening up. A feeling of ever-increasing unsolvable mysteries1 rose in his heart, so he actually forgot to move.

Yun Xie followed him to look up, and was also shocked. He quickly reached out to grab Jiang Xunyi’s shoulders and pull him to his side, and watched the woman with heightened vigilance.

But the woman did not care the slightest about Yun Xie’s hostile gaze. She only looked straight at Jiang Xunyi.

When Yun Xie’s hand settled on his shoulder, Jiang Xunyi’s heart calmed down significantly. He made an effort to collect himself: “Regarding this senior’s words just now, I would like some elucidation on the details.”

With concealed fear in her faint croaking voice, that woman continued: “Xuan Li has forcibly possessed a new body and now descends on Hidden Spirit… You must be cautious of him, he is truly dreadful, truly dreadful…”

“Who?”

The woman suddenly smiled. Her appearance was already terrible enough when she wasn’t smiling, and now with this smile she didn’t even look like a human. Yun Xie found this sight too horrible and turned away, but Jiang Xunyi’s eyes widened as he waited with bated breath for the answer.

“Immortal Master Ti Ming!”

Hearing these words, Jiang Xunyi was completely stunned. He had suspected Huang Yan, had suspected Elder Jinghai, but he could never have suspected his Shizun who loved him so dearly and furthermore had already passed away. What…What exactly was going on here?

The woman shot a deranged and erratic look at Jiang Xunyi. All of a sudden, she clapped her hands and laughed out loud.

Yun Xie’s hand tightened, and he growled: “Shut up!”

With his expression turning serious, Yun Xie appeared very majestic and dignified. Even this lunatic woman was awed and intimidated. She indeed shut her mouth and looked back at him.

With this glance, her expression suddenly changed drastically. She extended a hand to point at Yun Xie, her voice quavering: “How… how are you also… No, impossible!” Her entire body trembled violently, as if Yun Xie was the most terrible demon or monster in the world. She staggered and stumbled back two steps, and turned to rush out the door.

Yun Xie watched gape-mouthed as she left, and said to himself: “What the hell is this? Only speaking halfway and then stopping right at the good part is really way too annoying!”

Jiang Xunyi let out a sigh and waved aside Yun Xie’s hand still on his shoulder: “Did I mishear her just now? That woman was talking about my Shizun?”

Yun Xie said: “You heard her correctly, but that doesn’t mean what she said was true. Just the words of a crazy old hag, don’t take it too seriously.”

Jiang Xunyi’s lips curled up in a faint smile as he looked at Yun Xie: “Like you didn’t take it seriously? You ‘didn’t take it seriously’ but still placed a Tracing Talisman on her!”

Yun Xie applauded him: “Sure enough, Ah-Xun deserves your fame. On this earth, only you can see through my talismans at a glance. But don’t get jealous: that woman looked so ugly, there’s no way I’d take a fancy to her.”

Jiang Xunyi harrumphed: “After all we’ve gone through today, I finally have the chance to eat a full meal—can you first stop being so disgusting?”

Yun Xie let out an overblown and pretentious sigh, and then bowed his head to eat.

After the two had finished eating, the street lamps outside of the restaurant had already begun to light up. Seemingly out of nowhere, Jiang Xunyi asked: “Where?”

Yun Xie had achieved a deep tacit understanding with him, so hearing this he stood up and replied: “Apparently not far, just a few streets away from us——let’s go and check it out.”

Jiang Xunyi followed him out of the restaurant. Yun Xie flicked a finger, and a vague red string appeared in mid-air that only the two of them could see.

As they followed this red string all the way over, Yun Xie’s expression turned more and more alarmed. Jiang Xunyi whispered: “What is it?”

Yun Xie hesitated for a moment before speaking: “Why do I sense… an increasingly dense aura of death…”

His talisman was connected to that emaciated woman’s body, so this aura of death right now was naturally referring to no other person but her. Yun Xie saw Jiang Xunyi not replying to those words, so he added: “I probably got it wrong.”

“No.” Jiang Xunyi said. “You sensed correctly.”

Yun Xie: “?”

Jiang Xunyi jerked his chin forward, and Yun Xie attentively looked in that direction with slightly narrowed eyes. Next to the road was a corpse with ragged robes, scattered hair covering its face. It was exactly the woman who had just been alive and kicking not long ago.

Yun Xie rushed over first to check the body. As he neared the corpse, he involuntarily cried out: “The Marrow-Washing Jade again!”

Jiang Xunyi also walked over and casually glanced over the body: “Limp and soft as mud, skin and flesh cracking open… Rather than the Marrow-Washing Jade, it’d be more accurate to say Demon Sovereign Xuan Li. I reckon we’re now about to draw his attention too.” Despite the content of his words, his face did not even show the slightest bit of fear.

Yun Xie was even more indifferent, and he even smiled: “Not necessarily. I heard that Demon Sovereign Xuan Li is a perverted lecher. Maybe he just took a fancy to that woman and wanted to engage in some deviant behavior, but then unexpectedly encountered resistance and lashed out in anger for the kill…”

Jiang Xunyi: “Hah! You might as well say this woman took a fancy to him and Xuan Li had no other choice but to defend himself.” As he spoke, he had already turned around: “Stop talking nonsense, let’s go.”

Still grinning cheerfully, Yun Xie was about to follow him. However, he had not yet taken one step when their surroundings suddenly darkened, the nearby lights extinguished. A gust of fierce wind rose from the flat ground, sweeping sand and rocks to pelt their faces. Yun Xie backed up to block in front of Jiang Xunyi, covering his own nose and mouth with his sleeves. He looked up with alarm and uncertainty.

He saw a mass of thick black clouds above them, overlapping and gathering together. A bolt of purple lightning ripped open the sky with a rumble and flash.

Amidst the booming thunder, Jiang Xunyi’s countenance changed in surprise: “What’s going on? How did Heavenly Lightning get called over?”

Yun Xie promptly made a decision: “Don’t ask me! There are too many mortals here, let’s first leave and draw the lightning away!”

Jiang Xunyi nodded and the two turned at the same time to sprint towards an area without other people around.

That mass of clouds chased over relentlessly2. Bolts of lightning struck the ground right behind them, almost scraping their heels. Jiang Xunyi had never in his life fled in such helter-skelter desperation before. He could only keep running to the point where he almost couldn’t breathe, and he forced out a fragmented comment: “How… come I… get the feeling… this cloud is alive…… Did you… did you seduce its wife…”

Yun Xie grabbed his hand, laughing as he pulled Jiang Xunyi to run: “I don’t know about that, but if it is true, am I now eloping with you?”

Footnotes:

1. I believe this phrase “玄而又玄” lit. “mysteries upon mysteries” comes from the 道德經 (dào dé jīng) [Classic of the Dao and its Virtue], which is the famous fundamental text of Daoism.

2. 如影随形 lit. “like the shadow following the body”