Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Yunrong is injured. Go gather some daylily dew and wipe her down with it.”

When Chu Yi said this, he even blushed in a strangely awkward way.

Just now, when he had carried the injured Female Lead back in a frantic rush, all he could think about was her wounds. Only now did he belatedly remember to be embarrassed, so he wanted me to take care of the Female Lead while he kept his distance.

I was eating spirit fruit one bite at a time, watching the two little figures I had spent three days’ worth of spiritual energy conjuring in the Water Mirror act out a romance story.

Hearing Chu Yi, I rolled my eyes and answered without even turning my head, “I’m not going.”

Chu Yi said nothing. Through the reflection in the Water Mirror, I saw him standing behind me with his brows slightly furrowed, as if he truly could not understand my attitude these past few days.

In the end, though, he said nothing. He turned and went to gather the flower dew himself.

And so the mighty Demon Venerable went off to gather flower dew for the Female Lead like some little attendant.

After all, it was something the Female Lead would use. Even if it were only water for washing her face, he could not bear to let the demon servants in the Demon Palace handle it, afraid their foul demonic aura would offend his Yunrong.

As for why he had come to me, it was only because the Female Lead and I had once come from the same sect, fellow disciples of the renowned Orthodox Path cultivation sect, the Canglan Sect.

Unfortunately, the Female Lead was on the verge of attaining the Great Dao, while I was nothing but a useless wretch who had willingly fallen from grace and chosen to keep company with demons.

Chu Yi had always been restrained and innocent whenever he faced Yunrong.

After he finished gathering the flower dew, he merely sealed it beside her with his spiritual energy and left a note asking her to wash up on her own when she woke.

…

Even though I had once regarded Su Yunrong as a romantic rival, at this moment, I still could not help wanting to shake some sense into Chu Yi.

With him acting like this, how was he supposed to out-flirt the Male Lead, who strutted around like a peacock with his tail spread, and win the beauty’s heart?

At that thought, I could not help sighing. My breath stirred the air and blew out the tender romance inside the Water Mirror. The two little figures who had been holding hands and gazing at each other a moment ago dissolved into drifting mist.

Love, hatred, anger, obsession. In the end, they were nothing but dreams and bubbles.

Still, the tears gathered despite myself, rolling into a bright pearl that fell,

landing on the back of Chu Yi’s hand.

He had been sitting in front of me for quite some time. Seeing me cry, he had just raised his hand when he caught a tear instead.

“Is it really that sad?”

Chu Yi looked puzzled. In the past, he had complained more than once about my habit of crying over storybooks.

Even so, after one trip to the mortal realm, he had returned and tossed me a large Water Mirror, telling me to go entertain myself.

I would binge dramas through the first half of the night, then spend the second half hugging a pillow, too moved to sleep.

So I would go to the Demon Lord’s chambers and shake him awake. Together, we would climb onto the roof of the Demon Palace and look out at the black, oppressive sky of the Demon Realm.

I told him I missed home. He looked utterly disdainful and said I was weak-willed, destined never to accomplish great things, unlike his white moonlight.

So I asked him, “Why do I have to be like her?”

Then I started crying as soon as I finished asking, giving him no chance to retort.

After I had cried for long enough, he finally could not hold out anymore. His hand moved to my shoulder, and with stiff, awkward limbs, he drew me into his arms.

Back then, I thought Su Yunrong was different to him.

But I, Xie Mingling, was also one of a kind.

I had fallen from the sky, turned my back on the Orthodox Path, and chosen to stay with Chu Yi and care for him when he was at his lowest.

I stayed by his side as he rose again from an abandoned pawn, until at last he fought his way back to the Demon Palace and became the new Venerable Lord of the Demon Realm.

At that time, he stood at the pinnacle, looking down at the tens of thousands of powerful figures kneeling at his feet. Then he suddenly turned, pulled me out from the crowd, and said,

“Mingling, stand with me.”

When he said those words, his eyes were shining, as though he could not see the vast territory or the supreme power before him at all. Between heaven and earth, the only person he could see was me.

Back then, the two of us had been only one step away from staying together forever.