Under the desolate night, moonlight streamed in through the window.
The fire burning in the temple hall illuminated the surroundings, and the cold wind outside seemed shut out.
Jian Zhen and Ye Jisheng knelt before the statue of the Buddha Mother. Folding his hands, Jian Zhen said, “Buddha Mother above, I am Jian Zhen, a disciple of the immortal clan.”
Ye Jisheng said, “Demon clan, Ye Wusheng.”
Jian Zhen looked at Ye Jisheng and met his eyes, his own filled with bright laughter. Gently, he said, “He and I are in love with one another. We sincerely pray for the Buddha Mother’s blessing, that he and I may be together for a long, long time.”
Kneeling on the ground, Ye Jisheng’s gaze was devout and serious. He said, “This disciple as well.”
The two of them lowered a solemn bow together.
The temple was quiet, save for the crackling sounds of fire burning through wood.
Looking at the statue ahead, Jian Zhen silently made a wish in his heart: “Great Buddha Mother, may you bless every citizen of the demon clan, and let Ye Jisheng safely pass through this calamity.”
The two stood up.
Ye Jisheng held Jian Zhen’s hand. His handsome face was filled with seriousness as he parted his lips and said, “In the future, I will definitely give you a ceremony bigger and better than this.”
Jian Zhen smiled. “Alright. Then I’ll wait for you.”
Seeing that he truly did not mind, Ye Jisheng finally felt relieved.
After bowing to the Buddha, the two were both in low spirits. Jian Zhen was a little sleepy, so Ye Jisheng said, “Sleep. I’ll keep watch.”
Jian Zhen said, “Then wake me in the second half of the night. We’ll take turns.”
Ye Jisheng nodded.
The temple was still somewhat messy, so Ye Jisheng took off his outer robe and spread it over the haystack. Jian Zhen did not stop him, because he knew stopping him would be useless. He simply lay down on the bedding Ye Jisheng had made for him. His body was very weak. After running about all day, he was already exhausted. Now, as soon as he closed his eyes, he fell asleep.
He slept very deeply.
When Jian Zhen slowly woke from his sleep, it was already the latter half of the night.
Wind blew in through the somewhat broken window lattice with a whistling sound. Jian Zhen slowly sat up from the hay bedding and saw Ye Jisheng leaning against a pillar not far away. Sitting on a wooden plank, he was weaving something in his hands, his expression focused under the moonlight.
Jian Zhen woke up and sat up. Ye Jisheng immediately put down what he was doing and looked at him. “Awake?”
“Mm.” Jian Zhen said, “Why didn’t you wake me?”
Ye Jisheng said, “You were too tired. Sleep a little longer. I’m not sleepy.”
Jian Zhen said, “Liar. How could you not be sleepy?”
Ye Jisheng smiled lightly. He said, “I’ve already entered the Golden Core stage. My energy is much better than before.”
Jian Zhen: “……”
Is this the world of Big Bosses?
Why does it feel like I’ve somewhat found the familiar feeling from before of getting along with the Demon Lord?
Sure enough, Ye Jisheng is always Ye Jisheng?
Jian Zhen sighed, but he did not feel sad. He only looked up at Ye Jisheng with some curiosity and said, “What were you weaving just now?”
Ye Jisheng said, “This.”
Jian Zhen leaned closer and finally saw clearly that in Ye Jisheng’s hand was a bracelet woven from grass cord. The weaving was very delicate. Others might not recognize it, but Jian Zhen recognized it at a glance!
This was the demon clan’s soul bracelet.
He had once woven one for the child, woven one for Ye Jisheng.
At that time, he wanted to give Ye Jisheng a home, wanted to make up for Ye Jisheng’s regrets, wanted Ye Jisheng to also have family, to have loved ones. Only then, he himself had none. He had always thought he had none.
Yet he had not expected…
It turned out he did have one. It turned out he had had one long ago.
It turned out that ten million years ago, Ye Jisheng had already made one for him first.
Jian Zhen took the grass bracelet from Ye Jisheng’s hand. He said softly, “Is this for me?”
Ye Jisheng nodded. He said, “This is our demon clan’s soul bracelet. When every child is born, their parents make one. It represents that from then on they are family. You once told me your parents had passed away. Since we have already bowed to the Buddha Mother, we have set our betrothal and are family from now on. I didn’t weave it very well. If you don’t like it, I’ll make another.”
Jian Zhen froze for a moment. This seemed to be the longest stretch of words he had ever heard Ye Jisheng say in one breath.
And these words were because he was afraid Jian Zhen would not want his soul bracelet.
Jian Zhen lifted his slender wrist. His skin was fair, as if glowing softly like white jade under the moonlight. He said gently, “Help me put it on.”
Ye Jisheng’s red eyes darkened slightly. Taking Jian Zhen’s hand into his palm, he placed the soul bracelet onto Jian Zhen’s wrist. Jian Zhen could even feel the faint tremble in the hand holding the bracelet. He was careful as if handling a treasure. With his head lowered, the look in his eyes was so devout, within the desolate temple, like someone worshiping his own deity.
Jian Zhen’s brows and eyes were gentle. Looking down at the bracelet now on his wrist, he smiled softly. “It’s really beautiful.”
Ye Jisheng held his hand, unable to move his gaze away.
Jian Zhen said, “I can’t give you a soul bracelet right now. I promise you, in the future I will definitely give you one. You gave me a home; I will also give you a home. Do you believe me?”
Ye Jisheng looked up at him. Without the slightest hesitation, he nodded.
Jian Zhen smiled softly. He leaned forward and embraced Ye Jisheng. There was no particular reason, only that at this moment, he wanted to hold him. A tear fell onto his shoulder. Burying his head, he breathed in Ye Jisheng’s scent. Never before had he wanted so much to stay with him for a long, long time, never to be parted.
I will do it.
Jian Zhen said in his heart.
In the future you will not only have one home, you will also have a child, our child.
Jian Zhen said softly, “I won’t forget today.”
Ye Jisheng responded. He said, “Today is Ji Month. It is also the happiest day of my life.”
Jian Zhen paused. “Ji Month?”
“Mm.” Ye Jisheng said, “According to the demon clan’s new moon calendar, after Bai Month and Qiu Month, the month when winter begins is Ji Month.”
Jian Zhen always felt there was some meaning to the character “Ji.” He thought about it, wasn’t the “Ji” in Ye Jisheng’s name the same character? It seemed that people in later generations all knew the Demon Lord as Ye Jisheng, but the present Demon God was called Ye Wusheng. Could there be some connection between them?
Thinking of this, Jian Zhen softly asked, “Wusheng, have you ever thought about changing your name?”
Ye Jisheng said, “No.”
Jian Zhen let out a breath of relief. So it wasn’t related to that.
“However,” Ye Jisheng said, “if one day I leave Spirit Mountain and am no longer a sweeping disciple, I should change my name.”
Jian Zhen said, “Then have you thought about what you would change it to?”
Ye Jisheng seemed to think seriously for a moment. He said, “I want to change it to Ye Jisheng.”
Surprise filled Jian Zhen’s eyes.
Ye Jisheng said, “The ‘Ji’ from Ji Month. I used to be a lone wandering soul, but now I’m not.”
Jian Zhen’s brows softened. He had thought of many possibilities for what “Ji” meant, but never that it would be this reason. Ye Jisheng was a very strange person. He was not good at saying love, but every sentence he spoke seemed to be saying he loved him.
Jian Zhen gently repeated his name, “Ye Jisheng.”
Ye Jisheng looked up at him. In his red eyes, Jian Zhen’s figure was reflected clearly.
Jian Zhen threw himself into his arms and smiled softly. The wind outside howled as it blew in, almost like a sobbing sound. Yet in Ye Jisheng’s embrace he felt no cold wind at all, only warmth. His voice was very, very soft: “Actually, my name isn’t Jian Zhu either. But one day, you’ll know my name.”
Ye Jisheng heard him. After a moment of silence, he said, “Will that day be very far away?”
Jian Zhen: “Mm, perhaps it will be a bit far.”
Ye Jisheng said, “As far as several hundred years?”
“What if it’s even longer than several hundred years?”
Within the ruined and desolate temple, the air was mixed with dampness and dust. The burning firewood persisted alone in the cold wind. Inside the hall, it was so quiet that only the sound of the wind could be heard, somewhat lonely.
As Ye Jisheng’s words fell: “Then I will wait too.”
Jian Zhen’s eyes widened slightly, his eye sockets grew a little moist. He gently leaned against Ye Jisheng’s shoulder and smiled soundlessly.
That was enough.
Then everything he had undertaken by risking his soul scattering and spirit dissipating to come here was all enough.
The next day.
At dawn in the early morning, when Jian Zhen was still drowsy, he heard movement coming from outside. He faintly heard voices discussing outside:
“Is it here?”
“It should be them!”
“That b*stard spawn of the demon race stepped on us all into the water yesterday.”
“Go, find him and kill him!”
Jian Zhen was startled awake from his sleep. Looking at the morning light filtering in from outside, he became completely alert. He looked somewhat nervously toward Ye Jisheng, only to find that Ye Jisheng was already awake and was looking outside.
When Jian Zhen was about to move, Ye Jisheng pressed him down and said in a low voice: “You don’t need to move. I’ll go out for a moment.”
Hearing this, Jian Zhen became anxious. From the sound of it, there were quite a few people outside. Even though Ye Jisheng had already entered the Golden Core stage, he would certainly suffer a loss!
Seeing that the footsteps outside were getting closer, Jian Zhen grabbed Ye Jisheng and said, “Go hide in the back. Leave this to me.”
Ye Jisheng frowned, clearly unwilling.
But Jian Zhen was anxious. He said, “Believe me, okay? I’ll protect you.”
Meeting Jian Zhen’s gaze, Ye Jisheng only paused in slight contemplation before gently nodding. He was used to facing everything by himself. This was the first time someone rushed ahead of him to protect him.
Jian Zhen pushed him toward the back. After helping Ye Jisheng hide, the wooden boards outside were also kicked open.
“Bang!”
Huge clouds of dust rose and scattered everywhere.
Jian Zhen sat on the straw mat and frowned. He covered the dust a little with his clothes, looked at the crowd somewhat displeased, and sneezed, saying, “What are you doing?”
Three people stood outside. When they came in and saw him, they were also somewhat surprised.
One of them, the leading disciple who had fainted in the stream yesterday, said, “Senior Brother Jian, have you seen Ye Wusheng?”
Jian Zhen blinked and said innocently, “Wusheng? What happened to him? I haven’t seen him since entering the forest. Why are you looking for him?”
“That Ye Wusheng was really too ruthless!” the disciple said indignantly. “When we surrounded him yesterday, that b*stard spawn of the demon race actually dared to resist and even trapped us all in the water. If I weren’t good at swimming, I might have been drowned by him!”
When Jian Zhen heard the words “b*stard spawn,” his brows had already furrowed.
“That’s right, we must teach him a lesson.”
“If I catch him, I’ll skin him alive to vent my anger!”
“He actually made us lose so much face!”
Jian Zhen stood up from the straw mat and said, “Junior Brothers, this is only a disciple test. There’s no need to exterminate a fellow disciple, is there?”
The tall disciple seemed to have heard some joke after hearing this: “Senior Brother Jian, you and I are both of the immortal race. That Ye Wusheng is of the demon race. Does the life of a demon race even count as a life? Do they deserve to be our fellow disciples?”
As the words fell, the other two burst into loud laughter.
The slightly fatter disciple said, “When I was at home, demon race slaves could be killed whenever we wanted. They are originally a lowly and weak race. The strong prey on the weak. For these lowly people, not to mention killing one, what if we kill a hundred, a thousand!”
“Mm.”
Halfway through his words, the disciple suddenly found he could no longer speak. His chubby face turned red from being unable to speak. Shocked and terrified, he looked at Jian Zhen.
The tall disciple panicked: “Ah Di, Ah Di, what’s wrong with you?”
The chubby disciple pointed at Jian Zhen.
The tall disciple looked at Jian Zhen angrily and said, “What did you do?”
Jian Zhen said expressionlessly, “I used a Silencing Spell to silence him. I learned this spell from Senior Brother.”
The tall disciple flew into a rage: “What? Quickly undo it for my younger brother! Do you not put the rest of us in your eyes? Just because you are the Grandmaster Ancestor’s disciple, you can act recklessly?!”
Jian Zhen said unhurriedly, “Why not? Didn’t he say it himself? The strong prey on the weak. The weak deserve to be killed. Since that’s the case, I am the Grandmaster Ancestor’s disciple, stronger than you. I can also kill you.”
He spoke calmly, not looking like he was joking at all.
The tall disciple choked on his words. He said, “Have you gone mad? Do you believe I’ll report this to the Grandmaster Ancestor and Senior Brother and have them punish you!”
Jian Zhen said, “Go ahead. Then I will also tell Senior Brother that during the competition you privately intended to kill other disciples.”
“What’s wrong with us wanting to kill a demon race disciple?” The tall disciple drew his sword and pointed it at Jian Zhen. “Why are you protecting that b*tch so much? Could it be there’s something between you two? Ah, I remember, he seems to have always been your serving slave, right? True, he does look good. You’ve taken a fancy to him and can’t bear to part with him?”
Jian Zhen did not speak.
The tall disciple laughed even more arrogantly: “Couldn’t tell. You look sickly all the time, but your appetite isn’t small. How is it? Did he serve you comfortably? Could he satisfy you? If you haven’t had enough, how about we brothers satisfy you?”
As he spoke, he reached out to grab Jian Zhen’s clothes.
However, before that hand could approach Jian Zhen, a sharp red flash of light cut across. Jian Zhen only heard a scream. Crimson flames ignited on the disciple’s hand.
The tall disciple frantically shook his arm: “Fire, fire, ”
Intense pain spread from his arm. He rolled on the ground in agony but could not extinguish the flames. The other two disciples hurried to help, but they too were ignited by the fire. The three of them were burned together in a mass, yet the flames seemed to have consciousness and did not ignite any other objects in the temple, burning only on the three of them.
Ye Jisheng slowly walked out from the back. His face was frosty cold, his crimson eyes like icy gems, looking down from above at the people on the ground wailing in pain.
When the tall disciple saw him, he cursed: “You b*stard spawn, I knew it was you behind this!”
Another disciple also said: “Hurry and put out the fire, or in a moment we’ll skin you alive and make your life worse than death!”
Ye Jisheng let out a cold laugh, as if he had heard some joke.
The fat disciple’s Silencing Spell was undone. He wailed: “Ye Wusheng, quickly put out the fire for us, or when we get out we’ll go to the Ancestor and accuse you! You, a slave, dare to hurt us, just see if we don’t kill all the slaves of your North Peak and wipe out all you lowly demon race people entirely!”
The crimson flames burned, yet they could not burn away their aggressive arrogance.
Ye Jisheng lowered his eyes and said indifferently, “What if I don’t?”
The three people were wrapped within the great fire.
Ye Jisheng stood to one side and said, “My soul fire cannot be extinguished except by myself. It will keep burning, burning until even your bones and blood are burned clean. Don’t you love killing demon race people for fun? Well then, how does it feel to die at the hands of a demon race person?”
Only then did the three people panic.
The tall disciple shouted loudly: “Senior Brother Jian!! You are of our immortal race. Quickly kill this slave and save us!! I’m going to skin him alive!!”
Jian Zhen looked at the raging fire. His brows had originally frowned slightly, but upon hearing the latter sentence, his expression turned cold.
Seeing that he did not move, the tall disciple crazily cursed: “Jian Zhu, you ungrateful traitor! You want to be with this demon race person? Keep dreaming! Grandmaster Ancestor and Senior Brother will absolutely not allow it! The two of you will absolutely come to no good end, hahaha, Jian Zhu, you will die a miserable death, ”
“Boom!”
The huge soul fire swelled like a bloodthirsty beast.
Ye Jisheng lunged forward and threw a punch into the man’s face. Surrounded by flames, he punched again and again; there was even blood splashing onto his face.
Jian Zhen quietly listened to the disciples’ wails until the sounds gradually grew smaller. He slowly stepped forward, reached out and pulled Ye Jisheng, and said softly, “Stop hitting him. He’s already dead.”
Only when Jian Zhen’s words fell did the man, ruthless in his strikes, slowly stop his movements.
Ye Jisheng’s eyes were crimson as if soaked in blood.
The firelight inside the temple flared up. Ye Jisheng’s soul fire was the strongest weapon in the world, burning the three bodies until not even dregs remained, leaving only a faint smell of blood in the temple that would not disperse.
Outside the hall, the sky had brightened.
Yet the cold wind blew in gust after gust without ceasing.
Jian Zhen looked toward the forest and the open ground outside and said softly, “It’s snowing.”
Between heaven and earth, snowflakes drifted down in abundance, falling piece by piece, covering the ground with a layer of white. The dilapidated temple stood alone between heaven and earth.
Ye Jisheng came from behind and draped an outer robe over Jian Zhen.
Jian Zhen turned his head, saw the bloodstains on his cheek, and took out a clean handkerchief to wipe it clean for him. He said softly, “You killed people. When the disciple assessment ends tomorrow and they count the numbers, the immortal race people will not let you off.”
Ye Jisheng raised his eyes to look at him. His tone was calm, his movements gentle as he tied the sash of Jian Zhen’s outer robe: “You leave first. No one will know about everything here. I won’t let this matter implicate you.”
Jian Zhen said, “What about you?”
Ye Jisheng was silent for a moment. He did not speak, yet it seemed he had already spoken.
Wind and snow fell upon the world, falling upon the two of them. A hand landed on his wrist. Jian Zhen said, “Let’s run away together.”
To h*ll with Spirit Mountain, to h*ll with the immortal race, with responsibilities.
He was Jian Zhen; he was only a blade of grass.
He wanted to be with the person he liked, that was all.
Jian Zhen’s eyes were slightly red, yet his whole person seemed vividly alive, as if burning. He tightly pulled Ye Jisheng and said, “Didn’t we worship the Buddha Mother together? We made a vow to be together forever. Naturally we cannot be separated. Take me with you. Leave here, leave Spirit Mountain. We can go to the demon race, or anywhere at all!”
A warrior charging forward for love~!
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