Jing Mo said, “Father sent me out to find you. He told you not to come back, and he won’t let me return either.”
Though the statement was brief, it carried significant weight. It could mean one of two things. The first was akin to certain solitary predator parents in the animal kingdom, who drive their young from the den once they reach adulthood, forcing them to hunt on their own. The second was that Gu might have encountered some insoluble trouble and, left with no other choice, sent his son out to find his estranged daughter, warn her, and keep her away forever.
Which of these two was the truth?
Chuci’s troubles began anew. With anyone else, she could resort to threats and bribes. But faced with this straightforward, utterly guileless osprey, who desired nothing and sought nothing, she found herself at a complete loss.
Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling—
Chuci, grasping at straws, willed the silver bells woven into her hair to chime twice.
Jing Mo asked, intrigued, “That’s a lovely sound. What is it?”
Chuci thought woodenly: Just as I suspected, illusions have absolutely no effect on someone like him. Just like that blockhead Kunlun. Save for moments when the mind is already clouded by desire, most of the skills I learned from the Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox automatically fail on them.
Kunlun caught Chuci’s resentful glare, and for a moment, she was the very picture of utterly baffled confusion.
The latter half of the thought had sprung into Chuci’s mind unbidden, a fleeting notion. She was completely unaware of it herself.
“This? They’re bells. Do you like them?”
Jing Mo clamped his mouth shut, neither nodding nor shaking his head.
Chuci: “…”
She decided she needed to calm down, lest her rising temper get the better of her and she ended up cracking this gourd open.
Kunlun, who had rarely seen Chuci so thoroughly thwarted, was watching with great relish from the sidelines, having forgotten entirely that she ought to step in and smooth things over. Just then, Jing Mo spoke up on his own: “I do like them. But I cannot accept them.”
Perhaps it was the sheer volume of frustration, but Chuci, for some inexplicable reason, felt an urge to argue with him. “Who said I was offering them to you? There are only three bells in total. If I gave them to you, what would I use?”
She had expected Jing Mo to get angry, allowing her to regain a point. To her surprise, Jing Mo replied with complete candor, “It’s good you’re not giving them to me. I like them very much. You truly are Father’s daughter, to use such beautiful things.”
Your father is neither human nor dragon! I am the Demon King. I wouldn’t stoop to being his daughter!
Chuci let out a heavy humph and, right there on the spot, fumed herself into the shape of a gourd.
Jing Mo: “…”
Kunlun, seeing this, nodded to Jing Mo. “I’ll take her out for a moment.”
She pulled Chuci outside.
“I’m so furious, I could die!” Chuci paced back and forth in the room, her complaints spilling out like a string of firecrackers. “Tell me, how can there be someone so wooden in this world? Even more rigid than you, even worse at talking than you! I’d be better off just eating him and searching for Zhong Mountain on my own! At least then I wouldn’t be suffocated alive!”
Kunlun: “…”
“Kunlun, why aren’t you saying anything?”
“I am rigid. I cannot talk.”
Chuci grabbed her hand and gave her own mouth a light smack with it, coaxing, “I’m the one who can’t talk. Your heart and words are one, direct and straightforward. I was complimenting you, praising your good character.”
A rare flash of white crept upwards in Kunlun’s eyes before returning to normal—an aborted eye-roll.
Chuci was astonished. “Did you just roll your eyes at me?”
Kunlun: “Did I?”
Chuci threw her arms around her, exclaiming, “I’m so happy! You actually rolled your eyes!”
“Surely Jing Mo hasn’t angered you into foolishness?” Kunlun said, helpless.
“Not foolishness, no,” Chuci shook her head, then added, “But it’s close enough. I can’t get any useful words out of him. I’ve already exhausted a lifetime’s worth of patience on you. Facing anyone else, I simply can’t calm my mind.”
Kunlun: “Then I don’t need so much of it. Give him a little of your patience, so you can get the information out of him first.”
Chuci stared at her, dumbfounded.
Kunlun: “What is it?”
Chuci: “Do you even know what you just said?”
Kunlun: “What?”
Chuci sucked in a breath and clutched her chest. “If I die someday, it will either be because you angered me to death, or bored me to death with your denseness.”
Kunlun furrowed her brow.
“Alright, alright, I’ll stop teasing you,” Chuci rubbed her temples, pulled Kunlun over, and pressed her down onto the bed. “Keep me company for a short nap. I need to calm down.”
“Won’t it be rude to keep Jing Mo waiting too long?”
“What rudeness? Does he even know how to write the word ‘rude’?” Chuci said. “He won’t mind. Don’t worry.”
Kunlun thought for a moment, then still got up from the bed. “I’ll go tell him.”
“Kunlun! Stop right there!”
“…” Kunlun paused, one foot still in the air.
Chuci let out a long breath, steadied her breathing, and said, “You lie down. I’ll go tell him.”
If Chuci’s expression had been merely displeased when she left, it was positively stormy when she returned. She burrowed headfirst into Kunlun’s embrace, panting heavily several times, so angry she couldn’t utter a single word. Kunlun looked at her eyes, red-rimmed with fury, and in that moment, she genuinely understood what it meant to feel someone else’s pain as one’s own.
She stroked Chuci’s long hair soothingly and said gently, “Take your time. Tell me slowly.”
“I’m not afraid of clever people, truly. It’s the foolish ones I fear.” Chuci whimpered a couple of times, nuzzling against Kunlun’s neck. “Do you know what he said to me just now, right at the end? He actually said, ‘Very well, you may go, Little Sister.’ At my age, he dares to call me Little Sister?!”
Realizing the phrase “at my age” didn’t sound quite right, she amended it: “Given my status, the foolish son of Gu dares to call me Little Sister!”
Kunlun said, “When he asked if you were his father’s daughter, weren’t you the one who said yes?”
“But I made eye contact with you, and you nodded too.”
“Every time you look at me, I nod.”
Chuci bit down on her neck, catching a patch of tender skin. “Even you want to anger me!”
“Mm…” Kunlun jerked her neck back reflexively. “I don’t.”
“You do!”
Sharp canine teeth worried at the skin, occasionally replaced by the warm, wet sensation of a tongue gliding over it. Kunlun’s gaze gradually grew hazy. The fingers that had been stroking the top of Chuci’s head slowly threaded into her long hair, and her other arm circled upwards around Chuci’s neck.
Her lips brushed against Chuci’s ear, her breath unsteady. “I… don’t.”
Chuci felt the skin against her face growing increasingly warm, even the body beneath her hands starting to heat up. Curious, she raised her head to look at Kunlun, only to be caught off guard by a pair of eyes as deep and fathomless as the sea.
If Chuci’s eyes were limpid clarity, then Kunlun’s were profound depth—a dark, deeply settled black, as though their personalities had been completely swapped. When there was sunlight in her heart, her eyes would brim with its light. When there was rain or dew, they would shimmer like a fine drizzle. Pangu had given her a pair of loyal and beautiful eyes, faithfully reflecting all her emotions, plain to see.
Right now, those eyes were lucent, as if sunlight were shining through a gentle rain, casting a shallow, shimmering light.
As if touched by sudden inspiration, Chuci’s hand found the sash at Kunlun’s waist. Her voice was as soft as if it hadn’t been spoken. “Kunlun…”
Kunlun slowly closed her eyes.
Thump, thump, thump—
It wasn’t a polite knock, knock, knock, but it was still the sound of knocking at the door. Or rather, perhaps it could be called hammering at the door.
“Little Sister!”
Chuci yanked the collar of Kunlun’s robe closed in one motion. Fire ignited in her heart, one flame transforming into another, nearly burning her to ashes.
She jumped off the bed and opened the door, asking through gritted teeth, “What, exactly, do you want?”
“I just wanted to see if you were here,” Jing Mo craned his neck to peek inside but was blocked by Chuci’s outstretched arm. He scratched the back of his head and said, “It’s good that you are. I was afraid you’d heard the news that Father is about to die, get anxious, and secretly, disobediently run back.”
Chuci took a deep breath and roared, “Who would secretly… What did you say? Gu is about to die?!”
Jing Mo: “Didn’t I tell you earlier?”
Chuci, her face ashen, turned her head to ask Kunlun, “Did you hear him say that?”
“Mm… probably not.” From under the covers, Kunlun straightened her clothes, then threw off the blanket and got out of bed.
“Then I must have remembered wrong. Well, it’s not too late to say it now,” Jing Mo stared at Chuci’s face, puzzled. “Little Sister, why is your face so red?”
“Who’s your sister?” Chuci gave a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m flushed from anger. It’ll pass with some rest.”
“Who angered you?”
“Someone far away, yet right before my eyes.”
“Oh, are you angry because of the news about Father? That can’t be helped. I have other things to tell you.”
Chuci: “Any matter of importance can wait until tomorrow. Right now. This instant. Immediately. Get out!”
The doors and windows shook violently, as if about to tear themselves from the building. Kunlun quickly cast a spell to stabilize the room.
It’s the first time I’ve seen her angered to this degree.
Lightning Mother poured tea back and forth three times before finally receiving the Heavenly Emperor’s signal, putting an end to the groundless thunder and lightning strikes.
Lian walked out of the Thunder Tribulation completely unscathed. Jiang Yang still wanted to step forward and fight her personally but was stopped by Feng Jun. “Alright, alright, calm down, calm down.”
He lowered his voice. “This is someone we want to recruit for the Heavenly Court. At least give me some face. Even if you don’t care about my face, you two are old friends, aren’t you? Fighting the moment you meet—what kind of behavior is that? Won’t it damage your relationship?”
This particular “old friend” relationship was not that kind of “old friend” relationship. Still, it was enough to dissuade Jiang Yang. After all, Lian had once followed the King in battle and conquest. Even setting aside the monk, for the Buddha’s sake alone, beating her up wouldn’t reclaim the advantage she’d lost anyway.
But the more she thought about it, the angrier she felt!
With a flick of her sleeve, she stalked off on her own. “Feng Jun, if you want to bring her to the Heavenly Court, you tell her yourself. I don’t want to see her face ever again!”
