Chapter 14: Companionship

She had long grown accustomed to that hollow feeling in her chest. So why did the tears still come so unexpectedly? Kunlun raised her sleeve, wiped the corners of her eyes dry, and then, as if nothing had happened, asked Little Chuci: “What did she say to you just now? That you needed me to search her soul.”

Little Chuci had never seen Kunlun shed tears. For a moment, she seemed frightened, even forgetting her anger. When she came to her senses, she turned and glared fiercely at Jiang Yang.

Jiang Yang sighed helplessly: “How am I wronged!”

Kunlun turned her head back: “Stop glaring. I’m asking you a question.”

“Hmph!” Little Chuci snorted and ran off.

Kunlun: “…”

After she left, Jiang Yang interjected coolly: “Jealous. Mortals have a word called ‘Vinegar King.’ The King was a vinegar king brewing for hundreds of thousands of years. You’ll need to be very tolerant, Divine Lord.”

Kunlun just looked at her, face impassive.

Jiang Yang met her gaze for a moment, then raised an eyebrow: “Divine Lord has no questions for me?”

“What happened… to her later?” Kunlun closed her eyes briefly, her voice soft. “What happened?”

Jiang Yang’s gaze swept across her face like a knife. Finally, she spoke with sharp sarcasm: “All thanks to you, Divine Lord. If not for that sword strike from you at the peak of Kunlun Mountain, how could the King have fallen to those… bastards?”

She seemed to belatedly realize that “those bastards” might include herself. She lowered her head and rubbed her nose, then continued: “I wasn’t by the King’s side during that time. I don’t know how she became so travel-worn and spiritually weak. I also don’t know why you had to stab her. She would have ripped out her own heart and given it to you if you needed it. Why exactly did you collude with that Heavenly Court…? When she returns, the first one she won’t let go is you!”

As if not hearing her, Kunlun murmured, lost in a daze: “I thought she…”

Her lips moved soundlessly, but she didn’t continue.

“Thought she what? Do you know why she wandered and fled across the Mortal Realm and the Heavens? Do you know she was chased by the gods of the Three Realms until there was nowhere left to run? Do you know that even imprisoned on the Demon-Suppressing Platform for years, her body didn’t decay, all because she was waiting for you to come for her? And what did you do?” Jiang Yang’s eyes suddenly reddened. “You did nothing! Or were you just as high and mighty as the Heavenly Emperor, laughing as the once-invincible Demon King struggled desperately?!”

Tears streamed continuously down Kunlun’s face. She didn’t even raise a hand to wipe them. She said, “I didn’t know. I just…”

I had just fallen into a long slumber.

Such a pale, powerless excuse.

She stopped talking, pausing for a long time before letting out a heavy sigh. “It was my fault.”

“What use is admitting fault to me? Can you bring back the forty thousand years she lost? Can you make her corpse emerge from the Chaos Realm? Can you let her return to the Three Realms, spirited and triumphant as before? Even if you immediately drew your sword and cut your own throat, would it change what’s already happened?”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

“Repair the King’s other half of her Primordial Spirit, then help her undo the Seal.” Jiang Yang said coldly. “Judging by your reaction, don’t you want to see her very much?”

“I do want to see her very much.” Kunlun wiped her tears away. “But I can’t agree for now.”

Her chin was shoved violently upward. Her vulnerable neck was suddenly gripped in Jiang Yang’s hand.

“Why pretend?” Jiang Yang’s voice was icy. “Do you believe I won’t kill you right now? The King isn’t here anyway. Even if she knew, what could the current her do to me? Someone like you will only become a stumbling block for the King.”

Kunlun was forced onto her tiptoes, her vital point held. Yet she suddenly smiled. “Look at what you just said. ‘The current her’—what can she do to you? The old Chuci is already dead in the Heavenly Realm. The one left is still a child of eleven or twelve. Why must you force her down the same old path?”

Jiang Yang: “What do you mean?”

“If she wants to stay on Kunlun Mountain, I will accompany her on Kunlun Mountain. If she wants to repair her Primordial Spirit and undo the Seal, then I will accompany her to undo the Seal.” Kunlun said, “No matter how long this life is, I will stay by her side.”

Jiang Yang: “The King will definitely choose to return to her position as Lord of the Demon World.”

“Oh?” Kunlun neither agreed nor disagreed. She slowly removed Jiang Yang’s hand from her throat. As far as she knew, Chuci had never wanted to be the Lord of the Demon World, going so far as to beat out any demon who came to pay respects. Or had her thoughts now changed?

Jiang Yang let her push her hand away. Kunlun swept a hand across her neck, and the blueish-purple bruise from the grip vanished without a trace.

Jiang Yang: “If Little King asks, you should know what can be said and what cannot.”

Kunlun nodded. “I understand her character. If she learns that Chuci has another divine consciousness trying to manipulate her, unless she devours that consciousness, you can forget about ever seeing your King again in this life.”

Only then did Jiang Yang give a reluctant “Mm.”

“Have dinner with us tonight. Meng Zhaozhong should be back. I’ll ask her tonight and give you an answer afterward.” Kunlun nodded at her once more and left the study.

Coming back to her senses, Jiang Yang stared at her own hand for a long time before a chill of fear crept in. She felt as if she’d been possessed just now. She wasn’t afraid of Kunlun; even in a fight, she wouldn’t be at a disadvantage. What she feared was the King. If the King found out about this, wouldn’t she dismantle her alive?

Chuci was the classic demon with the attitude: My people I can do with as I please. If anyone else dares touch a single hair, prepare to face her thunderous wrath.

“Forget this, forget this,” Jiang Yang tucked both hands into her sleeves, self-hypnotizing. “Mm, I didn’t do anything just now.”

Meng Zhaozhong didn’t know how many laps he’d run around the mountain before returning to cook dinner. At the table, he only focused on shoveling rice into his mouth, not daring to lift his head even once. Little Chuci didn’t spare a single glance at Jiang Yang. It was Jiang Yang who, finding even the sight of Kunlun annoying, occasionally received a meaningful look from her, complete with a standard smile.

“Mountain Saint, everything’s done. I’m going back to rest.”

“Go ahead.”

Like a walking wooden club, Meng Zhaozhong had planted himself in the kitchen, then at the dinner table, and now stiffly planted himself back at the bottom of his river.

Jiang Yang picked an empty side room at random and slept.

Kunlun gathered up clothes, wanting to enter the room to help Little Chuci bathe. She was ordered to put the clothes down and get out. For the first time ever—past and present combined—she was kicked out while Chuci was bathing. She was stunned for a long while.

Because they had eaten late, by the time both had washed up, it was already past midnight.

Kunlun watched her lying beside her and reached out to hug her. Little Chuci shrank inward. Kunlun shifted closer, but before she could even lift her arm, Little Chuci curled into a tight ball. Her rigid back was a clear refusal.

Kunlun remembered the recent incident. She tilted her head in thought, then put her hand down. She sat up, tucked in Little Chuci’s blanket corners, and then lay back down.

“Chu…”

She hadn’t finished the first word.