Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Demon Tide did not recede until midnight.

Demon’s Passing is the second most beautiful sight, surpassed only by Tumi.

Tumi occurs when a demon voluntarily relinquishes their cultivation and dissipates into the world.

Demon’s Passing, however, happens when the myriad demons who have absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth die. Their bodies dissolve into a sky full of fireflies, returning to the place they first came from.

At this moment, the moon was thin and the stars sparse. The fireflies shone brilliantly, and a warm late-spring breeze brushed gently past my ears.

We sat on the edge of the cliff, watching the demons transform into specks of firelight that scattered into the night sky.

Cangyu pulled a flask of fine wine from his bag. The scent was so wonderful it made my nose twitch.

“Want a drink?” He shook the wine skin.

I nodded.

“I can’t give this to you. She brewed this wine.”

I nodded, only half-understanding. “It’s his mother-what?”

Cangyu’s face darkened. He turned his head away, no longer bothering to acknowledge me.

I wasn’t upset by his silence.

I sat beside him, stuffing the Inner Cores I had scavenged into my mouth until my cheeks puffed out like two small hills.

My eyes crinkled into slits with joy again.

“I’ve never seen such a gluttonous Little Demon,” he said, staring at me playfully.

“Whateber goes into my belly is mine,” I mumbled, the slurred words barely escaping as I reached out to grab more low-grade demon cores from the ground before I had even swallowed what was in my mouth.

“Hey, do you really want to become an immortal that badly?” Cangyu had drunk too much; he leaned back and lay down.

“If I become an immortal, I can climb up to the Ninth Heaven. The spiritual energy there is abundant, and cultivation is faster.” I looked at his profile. “Down here, we can only trample over each other and scheme just for a tiny bit of spiritual energy.”

“The Hundred-Demon King thought so too,” he said softly. “That’s why he’s dead.”

His words nearly made me choke to death.

My eyes widened and my neck stiffened as I struggled to swallow the demon core.

“You’re joking, haha…” I waved my hand awkwardly.

“Don’t set your sights on the Ninth Heaven,” he said, his tone softening. “It’s very dangerous.”

The Ninth Heaven was not to be provoked; of course I knew that.

I wouldn’t dare dream of the Ninth Heaven, not while a living Yama like Cangyu was guarding it.

I could only find a way to become an immortal.

Seeing my dejected expression, Cangyu perhaps wanted to comfort me. He reached into his Mermaid Silk Bag and pulled out an even greater treasure-a shimmering, multicolored demon core.

He lowered his head, rummaging through his Storage Bag for something else.

“This one is for you. Eat it slowly…”

I nodded, opened my mouth, and swallowed the rainbow-colored demon core in one gulp.

“After all, it’s the Hundred-Demon King’s demon core. Eating it all at once might burst your foun-”

He looked up just in time to see my face turning red from choking. I had to thump my chest several times with a stiff neck before I finally swallowed the Hundred-Demon King’s core.

Seeing his look of utter disbelief, I shyly wiped my mouth.

“What did you want to say, Young Master? My foundation?”

“Aren’t you afraid of bursting?” Cangyu rested his chin on his hand, looking at me in astonishment.

This Immortal Cangyu, whom everyone in the Monster Race feared, was actually showing concern for a Little Demon like me at this moment.

Under the moonlight, that handsome face made my own feel slightly warm.

“N-no, I’m not afraid,” I whispered, lowering my eyes. “I-I’m more afraid you’ll regret it and want it back.”

The Hundred-Demon King’s demon core was something I hadn’t even dared to dream of.

“Do I look like such a stingy immortal?” His mouth twitched.

“No, no, not at all.” I shook my head ingratiatingly.

“You really are a slippery Little Demon.”

He let out a soft chuckle. The moonlight swirled in his golden eyes, making my heart flutter and my cheeks burn.

Oh no!

I hurriedly tried to cover my head, but countless peach blossoms bloomed from between my fingers.

“You’re flowering?” He looked at the blossoms sprouting from the top of my head in surprise. “Why are you flowering?”

“It’s… it’s probably triggered by the Inner Core.” I was so flustered I didn’t dare look at him.
He nodded and stopped questioning me.

It was strange; because he didn’t push for answers, I felt a sense of loss instead.

Cangyu had an immortal he loved. I knew this.

I hadn’t pried it out of him. He had finished the wine in his wineskin himself, and as he lay drunk by the edge of the cliff, he called out her name over and over again.

Choulu.

It was a beautiful name. I rested my chin on my hand and watched the stars, my heart feeling a bit sour.

Just as I was thinking this, Cangyu murmured, “…Little Demon, you look a lot like her.”

He said it, but I couldn’t find it in me to be happy.

How could a Little Demon like me resemble a fairy from the Ninth Heaven? Especially a Fairy who was the beloved of the Immortal Cangyu?

“Is she pretty?”

“She is.”

“Is her cultivation high?”

“Higher than yours.”

“Is she a good person?”

“She’s good to everyone.”

“Can she eat a lot?”

“That… she can’t eat as much as you.”

I felt a secret joy. Even if she was a fairy, it seemed there were still things she couldn’t beat me at.

That night was short and beautiful as we leaned against each other.

We talked about everything-from how Siyuan Shangxian had terrible eyesight and was always playing matchmaker for the wrong people, to how the Immortal King liked polka-dot underwear. We talked about the Peach Blossom Wine from my home in the Peach Blossom Spring, and how the assembly of demons loved to snap off my branches to pray for marriage, nearly leaving me bald.

As the conversation grew lively, he even generously gave me the shimmering Mermaid Silk Bag at his waist, which was filled with demon cores.

I had nothing to give in return, so I snapped off a peach branch from my true form and handed it to Cangyu. “I’ll give you this peach branch. You can use it as a spare hairpin.”

We snuggled together and talked for four hours, until the horizon began to turn the pale white of a fish’s belly.

Just as I was marveling at the fact that no one had ever spoken to me so much before…

Cangyu seemed to feel he had said too much. He picked up his wineskin, performed a Sword Art, and flew back toward the Heavenly Palace.

“Will you come find me again?”

“I live in the Peach Blossom Spring West of Weak Water!”

There was only a faint, ethereal silhouette against the sky.

Cangyu didn’t tell me if he would come back for me.

“I’ll cultivate an immortal body as fast as I can! I’ll go to the Ninth Heaven to find you!”

No one responded.

I had thought he lusted after my body when we first met, which was why he gave me the demon cores and told me to hurry up and cultivate to immortality.

But five hundred years passed, and he never returned.

I still hadn’t touched the threshold of the Heavenly Dao. Those demon cores were like clay oxen entering the sea-vanishing without a trace, as if mocking me for overestimating my own abilities.

That was until Siyuan Shangxian, the one Cangyu said had bad eyes and played matchmaker at random, came to the West of Weak Water to ask for some peach trees to plant.

Siyuan’s eyes and hair were both a light tea color, and his long hair was held up by a Marriage Needle. I reached out and tugged at his sleeve, which was embroidered with “Double Happiness” patterns. He turned back to look at me in surprise.

I shamelessly asked him about Cangyu. He told me that Cangyu had been titled the War God and had recently won a battle. In a while, the Empress of Heaven would be holding a victory banquet for him.

“Is that kid owing you some kind of Peach Blossom Debt?” Siyuan Shangxian asked with an ambiguous look.

“No, it’s just been a long time…” I looked away, my eyes darting.

If anyone owed anyone, I was the only one who owed him.

“Do you want this immortal to take you to the victory banquet to find him?” A sharp glint flashed through Siyuan Shangxian’s eyes.

“Can I?” I was stunned, looking at him warily. “Why would you help me?”

You can’t trust a single Immortal Lord from the Ninth Heaven.

That was what Elder Niangui had told me before.

They viewed demons as mere ants. Any demon who snuck into the Ninth Heaven would be as good as dead if they were discovered.

“Work for five hundred years without an official position, and you’ll take charge of the Peach Grove outside my palace,” Siyuan sighed. “I don’t want to either, but everything I plant in my palace dies. I can’t take it anymore.”

“Deal.”