Chapter 2

Chapter 2

And now, Chu Yi sat across from me, the gloom on his sharply defined face impossible to hide.

“Mingling, don’t you think you’ve been acting especially strange lately?”

I could tell he had chosen his words carefully before speaking. In the past, he would have asked me outright what kind of madness I was up to now.

“Oh. Is that so?”

I was in no mood to bicker with him. I gave a perfunctory reply, put away the Water Mirror, and rose to leave.

“Wait!”

Chu Yi instinctively grabbed my sleeve. I turned back and caught the flash of panic that crossed his face.

After becoming the Demon Venerable, he had long since learned to keep joy and sorrow from showing. Only in front of me would he turn back into that willful, reckless boy.

Oh. Now Yunrong had to be added to that list too.

“What?”

Perhaps my tone was too cold, because Chu Yi froze for a moment. Then he frowned.

“Mingling, you’re angry with me.”

His tone was utterly certain.

I thought it was indeed time to have a proper talk with him, so I pulled my sleeve free from his grip and sat down in front of him again.

“You have two chances left, Chu Yi,” I said calmly.

“What?”

For a moment, he failed to remember.

“The day before yesterday, you said you would take me to Nanping to see the sea of clouds.” As I spoke, I simply took out the Water Mirror and handed it to him. “But Yunrong happened to be advancing in rank and undergoing her lightning tribulation. I waited for you in Nanping for two days, and you never came.”

Only then did Chu Yi react. A trace of remorse surfaced in the young man’s eyes. “The situation was urgent at the time. I forgot to tell you.”

“No need.” I returned the Water Mirror he had given me. What I took back in exchange was my expectation of him. “From now on, you don’t need to inform me about your affairs either. I’ve decided to return to the human world. I’m giving the Water Mirror back to you. If you still remember our old friendship, please find me a dwelling in the mortal realm. I’ve wasted ten years. I should return to the proper path.”

“The proper path?” The hand showing beneath Chu Yi’s sleeve slowly clenched into a fist, blue veins bulging on the back of it. “After following a devil like me for ten years, you’ve finally been moved by the Orthodox Path after all? You think yourself too good to keep company with demons now?”

“No.” As I spoke, I turned my hand over and placed the cup from earlier upside down on the table, looking at him calmly. “Chu Yi, you, Yunrong, and everyone under heaven all have people to guide and move you. But no one has ever done that for me.”

“I simply no longer expect anything from you. Chu Yi, you have two chances left. Next time, I will take back my trust, and we will go our separate ways.”

With that, I stopped looking at him and truly turned to leave.