Today, Tian Yao and Yan Hui were going to meet the king.
When Zhu Li came over to pick them up, Yan Hui really didn't want to go. She dawdled in the room for a long time until Zhu Li lost his patience. He stood in the doorway and said: "If we don't go now, we're going to be late. Are you really going to make the king wait?"
Yan Hui's expression was filled with bitter suffering.
Upon seeing that, Tian Yao spoke up: "There's nothing to be afraid of."
Yan Hui pouted: "You're a demon. Of course you're going to think there's nothing to fear. If you had to meet Chen Xing Mountain's Zhenren Qing Guang, wouldn't you be scared? What if something happens when meeting the king? In this clan of fox demons, no one is going to protect me."
It was like Zhu Li was stabbed in the spine by those words. He rubbed the back of his neck: "I...."
"I will protect you."
Tian Yao cut into the conversation, but he wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. It was like he was commenting on the weather. His tone was normal, but it also was enough to tug on the heartstrings.
Zhu Li was rendered stunned by that blow. He blankly looked at Tian Yao for a long time. Then he heard Yan Hui clear her throat and muttered: "You're the one with the weak body...[1]" But she finally stepped out of the courtyard.
Tian Yao looked down. He watched Yan Hui awkwardly walk over out of the corner of his eye. His face softened, but his voice was as indifferent and serious as before: "The king might know where the thing is in San Chong Mountain."
The thing Tian Yao was talking about was naturally his dragon tendons.
Yan Hui immediately became solemn at his words: "That's right, the king is most likely out of everyone in Qing Qiu would know. What happened at Qing Qiu's borders could escape everyone's eyes, but it couldn't escape the king's attention." The spell array to seal Tian Yao's dragon tendons wasn't a small piece of magic. The king wouldn't be completely ignorant of it.
Tian Yao shot Yan Hui a look: "Let's go."
Yan Hui nodded and followed along.
It wasn't until they reached the base where the king was that Yan Hui snapped back to her senses. Tian Yao wanted to get his dragon tendons; he wanted to ask the king for information. That had absolutely nothing to do with her at all!
One, she never promised to help him. Two, she had no agreement with him. Why did she feel a strong responsibility to help, to bear the weight of the world for him, to automatically step up now?!
What a weird habit!
Yan Hui inwardly was disdainful toward herself. At this moment a pure, fresh breeze blew from the peak's summit. It gently blew by Yan Hui's ear. The breeze was crisp, clearing Yan Hui's mind quite a bit.
What a fresh aura...
Yan Hui was shocked. Compared to Central Plains, the land where the demon clans seized and occupied had a very strong miasma. Where did such a fresh breeze come from...
Yan Hui followed where the wind came from. She raised her head to look. At the peak of the summit, a long cliff jutted out. There was a tree and a man standing there at the end of the cliff.
"That is....."
Yan Hui just started to voice her question when the demons by her side all stooped and respectfully bowed in greeting in the direction of that person. Even Zhu Li bowed; his expression was humble and solemn.
Turns out that person was Qing Qiu's king, The Most Powerful Nine-Tailed Fox Demon in existence.
For a demon's aura to be cultivated to become so pure and fresh, natural talent was essential in addition to putting in a lot of self effort. In a millennium, the demon races only had one person who cultivated to this level...
Thinking of that, Yan Hui not knowingly swept her gaze over face of the person next to her.
Tian Yao's expression hadn't changed. It seemed like he didn't think this aura was anything rare.
If the Tian Yao twenty years ago didn't encounter that tribulation, what would he be like now? His aura would probably also be so pure and fresh. The wind that blew past his body would probably also have the power to cleanse and refresh others. Afterall, he was once that close to ascension.....
Yan Hui was too lost in thought while looked at Tian Yao's profile. Her hot gaze was too much for Tian Yao to continue to overlook. Thus, Tian Yao turned to look. His deep eyes reflected her figure.
He didn't speak. This was like yesterday when he was drunk.
Looking at each other in silence made Yan Hui even more embarrassed. Her heart thumped. It was beating like when Tian Yao hugged her last night. Her inexplicable racing heart was frightening.
"If 20 years ago the one I met was you, what would've happened?"
Tian Yao's question popped into her mind at a most inconvenient time. For a split second, all Yan Hui could do was shift her gaze where had been glued on Tian Yao's face: "Um, uh...." She unnaturally coughed a few times. Her heart continued to pound:
Damn!...was the Fox Charm Fragrance effect returning?
This situation wasn't right! Not right at all!
Yan Hui looked toward the cliff. It just so happened everyone finished their greeting bow at that moment. She hastily found a topic to break this strange silence: "So he is...the King? Why is he standing there? Do we also have to go to the cliff to meet the king?"
"The king isn't just standing there." Now that everyone was done with the greeting, Zhu Li led the group forward. He explained while walking: "Every morning at daybreak, the king will always stand at the cliff and reminisce about The Queen, My Royal Grandmother."
Yan Hui made a sound in acknowledgement.
Speaking of Qing Qiu's Queen, that was also a hot topic at Chen Xing Mountain. They could enthusiastically gossip an entire afternoon about her.
No one could say how old the fierce Qing Qiu King was, but the gossip always said despite his long years of life, he only married once. This wife bear him ten sons and two daughters. But the most miraculous thing was she was an ordinary, mortal human.
Typically, when the blood of a demon and human are mixed, the offspring is weaker because the power in the demon blood is weakened. However Qing Qiu's king was an exception. Perhaps his power was strong enough to overcome the norm. None of his nine offspring were weaker than other nine-tailed fox demons. It was just compared to their father, that the children indeed a lot weaker.
But this didn't affect the king's love toward his wife. However, as long as the love was a mortal, then he would experience the bitterness of mortality. For a demon, a couple decades went by in a flash, but that time is enough to snatch away a mortal woman's youth, looks, and even life.
Qing Qiu's king thought of many methods to extend his wife's life. But in the end, he couldn't stop the blade of time. Cut by cut, it descended on that mortal woman's body until she stopped breathing.
In the version Yan Hui heard, the king attempted horrific methods to replenish life toward his wife. Eating human flesh, drinking human blood, cooking babies, and other terrible methods. In the end, nothing gave back that woman's life. Chen Xing Mountain's disciples would always use a melodramatic voice while dramatically retelling this tale. Such an evil demon who committed so many atrocious crimes deserved to live alone for the rest of his life. The more his love couldn't be begged back, the happier they were.
Actually after leaving the mountain for a time, Yan Hui thought that the talk at the time about Qing Qiu's king was all beneficial for Su Ying. In general, that kind of talk was appropriate.
Yan Hui gazed up at the cliff. The king was still standing under the tree. "Is the queen buried there?" Yan Hui was curious.
"Royal Grandmother didn't leave behind a body."
Yan Hui was shocked: "Why?"
"I was still little then. I don't remember much. I only heard Royal Father simplify it to me. At that time, Royal Grandmother was old, and it was hard for her to move. She knew she didn't have long to live. On the last day, she swallowed a potent poison. It restored her appearance back to when she was young. Then wearing her bridal clothes and veil, she went to that cliff and danced a last dance for Royal Grandfather. Then in front of him, she jumped off. Her body was ripped apart by the poison and she turned into snowflakes in the sunlight."
"My clan lives in the southwest, so it's dry and hot here. It never snow here, but after that day, it snowed on the mountain. It snowed for ten days and ten nights. It was light the earth and sky was covered in white silk in memorial for Royal Grandmother."
Zhu Li fell silent. He was greatly moved by the story. "Ever since then, Royal Grandfather will wait on the cliff for the first rays of the day. He will stay there until almost late morning, still thinking about the past."
Yan Hui didn't know the Qing Qiu King had such a poignant backstory.
But in hindsight, it also made sense she didn't know. These kinds of matters wouldn't be known in Central Plains. All the news about demons in the xian sects were terrible news. It was probably the same about xian cultivators in demon sects. That's why Zhu Li was so guarded against Yan Hui when he was locked in Xin Xiu Peak's prison even though she was there to release them.
"This time, the one Guang Han Sect's Su Ying killed was my aunt."
Zhu Li's tone suddenly changed. He spoke with chilliness: "She was the last daughter born. Out of all the children, she was the most similar to Royal Grandmother in looks and personality. When my aunt went to Central Plain, she even said she would bring back a present for me. I didn't think...." He gritted his teeth. He didn't finish talking, but it was clear the hatred he felt.
Yan Hui stayed quiet. She stole a glance at Tian Yao. His face was still blank, and it was hard to determine the expression in his eyes.
They followed the winding path at the base up to the peak. Enormous trees grew at the peak. Qing Qiu's demons had made the trees circling the peak into a palace. The trees were connected together by bridges, and the tree roots were linked by paths. Rooms were also built into the ground.
Yan Hui looked at the tangled paths. She felt like if she were walk along a path, by the time she reached the third fork, she wouldn't be able to retrace her steps.
Along the path, there were always some fox demon leaping out, all with different fur colors. The fox demons looked very young. Some of the naughty ones would leap out onto the path and stare at Tian Yao and Yan Hui with bright, black eyes. It seemed like it was extremely rare for strangers to be here.
Yan Hui cocked her head and looked at the little fox demon. The demon also cocked its head and looked at Yan Hui. After staring for awhile, it wagged its tail and nudged closer to Yan Hui's feet. Then, it rubbed its head against her head. Yan Hui's heart immediately softened when the little thing rubbed its fluffy head on her: "It likes me!"
She turned to look with sparkling eyes at Tian Yao.
Her turn was too sudden. Her surprise turn caught a flash of gentleness in Tian Yao's eyes. It was the same gentleness when she was looking at the fox demon...
But after looking closely, Tian Yao's expression was the same as usual, somewhat bland. It seemed like he had no interest in her actions and was hardly concerned with her.
"The miasma is thick here. It's hard for the little ones to live." Zhu Li bent down and hugged to fox demon to pry it away from Yan Hui's ankle. The demon tried to scratch Zhu Li's face, but its legs were too short. No matter what, it couldn't reach Zhu Li. Zhu Li tossed the fox demon into the arms of an attendant. "The air by the king's palace is the purest. That's why they all live here."
The king's palace was actually the clan's biggest nursery...
The fox demon in the attendant's arms wouldn't stay still. It kept sticking out its neck to try to reach Yan Hui. Yan Hui turned and looked at it: "Can I hold it?"
Zhu Li had no time to refuse when Yan Hui already reached out and took the fox demon. It immediately quieted down once in Yan Hui's arms. It placed its chin on Yan Hui's chest, eyes closing in comfort.
Yan Hui was treating it like a animal and thought that it was cute. However, the two people watching from the side both didn't have a good expression.
They continued along a path until they reached the roots of the largest tree. At the point, the accompanying servants naturally halted. They respectfully waited at either side of the path. Zhu Li hadn't opened his mouth yet when Tian Yao spoke: "It can't enter." Saying that, he lifted the fox demon by its tail. The fox demon only had time to let out a yelp when Tian Yao threw it away. It landed in the nearby underbrush and didn't crawl out.
Yan Hui was stunned: "Did it die because of the fall?"
Zhu Li hurriedly led her forward along the path: "The little ones fall all the time. It's not dead."
Tian Yao immediately grabbed her wrist and tugged her through the doorway beneath the tree roots.
Past the doorway was a reception area made out of the hollowed out tree trunk. When Yan Hui looked up, she could see the branches and leaves above. The sunlight filtered through the foliage, looking like starry beams of light. The entire room was filled with this diffused light. It brought out the beauty in the room design.
Yan Hui was pleasantly surprised for a little, but then she looked to Zhu Li: "The trunk is hollowed, but the tree is still alive. How did you do it?"
"The king's aura nourishes all the plants here."
Protecting the demons here.
Yan Hui couldn't help turning to look at Tian Yao again. Before when he guarded the valley, was it also like this.....
She didn't know why, but was becoming more and more curious about the Tian Yao of the past.
Tian Yao sensed Yan Hui looking at him, but he didn't know what she was thinking. It was just wish a twist of his head, he also let go of her wrist. However his motions weren't as calm and collected as usual.
Yan Hui felt her wrist be suddenly released. In that moment of surprise, Zhu Li also suddenly bowed in greeting toward the throne in the middle: "Your Majesty."
Yan Hui's mind froze. Right afterwards, a cool breeze wafted by and melted away her alarm. Yan Hui lifted her head and looked the figure. His hair was long and white. His features were the pinnacle of beauty, yet they were also masked by his aura of indifferent chilliness.
His appearance was so pure that Yan Hui thought she met the Mahayana of legend, the holy xian who had ascended.
This was the demon who could up-heave the entire world with one small movement.
Qing Qiu's king looked at the two people standing before him. His gaze slightly paused on Yan Hui's heart: "Dragon Demon Tian Yao, I didn't think you would be able to break the seals."
He knew about Tian Yao's situation! Yan Hui inwardly thought, the dragon tendons.....perhaps not just the tendons, even the dragon heart Tian Yao was missing, the king might know where they are.
Tian Yao faced the king just as he would with any other person, straight-backed with neither fawning nor commanding manner: "It was merely with the help of fate."
The Qing Qiu King was grave: "My clan currently needs people. You've returned to this world. Are you willing to help the demons?"
"I'm not willing to be used by others," said Tian Yao. "However, I am looking for a person in the xian sects. I'm owed a blood debt."
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[1] You're the one with the weak body...
The actual phrase is "Just you right now has three-legged kung fu." I changed it up, so it makes more sense in English.