Chapter 14 : Meeting with Swords Drawn?

Bai Ling turned her head and saw the figure standing in the ruins behind her.

Moonlight flowed over the taotie patterns of the bronze beast mask.
The familiar light brown scar on his forehead was plated with a silver edge by the moonlight.

‘Blind Xu?!’

Bai Ling froze, her nails digging into her palm.

Even with the bronze beast mask covering half his face, she could still recognize the scar on his forehead at first glance.

Because that scar was for her.

When they were young, Xu Zhi would always proudly puff out his chest and point to the scar, saying it was a man’s medal.

Memories surged into her mind like a tide.

The mottled wall paint in the corner of the alley peeled off.
A young Xu Zhi opened his arms and protected her behind him, the dust kicked up by his feet dyed a golden mist by the setting sun.

“If you want to bully him, you’ll have to step over my face!”

He said such cool lines, probably learned from cartoons or martial arts movies, his voice trembling with a feigned fierceness.

His young body became a city wall, protecting Bai Ling tightly behind him, facing a group of bullies several times his size.

Those children, in their tender age, didn’t know the weight of their actions.
A broken brick grazed his forehead, and the twilight made the fresh wound look like molten amber.

The bullies were scared away by the dripping blood, but Xu Zhi grinned a foolish smile and said he was indeed cut out to be a great hero.

He had single-handedly beaten those bullies into a pulp.

‘It wasn’t that he was strong! It was that he was just plain stupid!’

‘He had been taking a beating the whole time!’

But back then, Bai Ling really thought he was amazing.

He was injured, and the two children didn’t dare to tell their parents.
They could only sneak back to their empty home, where Bai Ling clumsily stopped the bleeding and treated his wound.

It was probably because she was too clumsy when treating his wound that this scar was left behind.

She never thought he would actually become one of the executioners with a bronze beast mask that Guan Qing had mentioned…

‘Had he fulfilled his wish of becoming a great hero now?’

“Clang—”

The hum of a long saber cutting through the air tore through her memories.

The tip of Xu Zhi’s saber glinted with a cold star in the moonlight.
The fang-like patterns of the bronze beast mask licked the dew.

The faint blue patterns on the blade were reflected in her amber-gold vertical pupils, captivating her soul.

Bai Ling’s pupils trembled.
The person who had once stretched out his hands to protect her was now pointing his saber at her.

Her eyes were filled with disbelief, but she could only believe that this was not a nightmare.

Because she was now a demon, and Xu Zhi had become a demon-slaying Demon Suppression Envoy.

As a Demon Suppression Envoy, slaying demons was his duty and his destiny.

Even though she knew that perhaps Xu Zhi didn’t recognize her, even though she knew that as a member of the Demon Suppression Division, he was a mortal enemy of demons, but…

“Stay away from those guys wearing bronze beast masks.”

Guan Qing’s warning still lingered in her mind.

Bai Ling stumbled back.
Xu Zhi slowly closed in.

One retreated, the other advanced, until her back was against a broken wall, with nowhere left to retreat.

‘That’s right, he’s a member of the Demon Suppression Division. It’s inevitable that they would meet with swords drawn. What are you still fantasizing about?’

‘Wouldn’t it be great to be killed by him here and end this strange, broken life?’

‘That way, he might even be able to get some credit. Wouldn’t that be you doing something for him?’

“Where did the owner of this jade pendant go?”

Xu Zhi’s voice was as cold as ice, his knuckles white as he gripped the hilt of his saber.

He held up the jade pendant, the red string swaying with his movement.

“Maybe he’s dead.”

The amber-gold vertical pupils trembled.
Bai Ling craned her neck, trying to provoke him with these words.

‘It would be best if he could kill this demon self of hers with one blow.’

‘That’s right, the old Bai Ling was probably really dead. She was just a demon reborn from the blood in that bathroom.’

‘A demon should be slain by a demon slayer. This is a matter of course.’

She had fulfilled her wish of seeing Xu Zhi again.
Although they were meeting with swords drawn, she seemed to be content.

She began to seek death.
At least that way, the Bai Ling in Xu Zhi’s heart would still be the little kid who would hide under a bridge pier and count the shimmering ripples on the river.

“I’m asking you, where did the owner of this jade pendant go? Did you kill him?!”

Xu Zhi’s Adam’s apple bobbed violently.
His voice was trembling, as if he was afraid of hearing the answer he didn’t want to hear.

The tip of the saber was already at Bai Ling’s neck.
The “rustling” sound of the cold blade rubbing against her scales seemed to be carving a mark on her heart.

“Yes, he’s dead.”

Bai Ling trembled as she took a deep breath, hiding her eyes under her eyelids, not wanting to be seen by the tall, straight figure of the young man in front of her.

‘Provoke him, and then let him kill me.’

This was Bai Ling’s answer.

To this absurd life, to this foolish and ridiculous fate…

‘The only answer.’

‘He’s dead!’

Chaotic thoughts rushed into Xu Zhi’s mind, as if breaking the last string in his head.

He seemed to finally understand what he had lost…

“You’re lying to me!”

Xu Zhi’s arm muscles bulged, the tip of his saber trembling as it cut through the gap between her scales.

A scarlet bead of blood rolled down the blade and bloomed into a half-flower of blood-colored frost on the blue bricks.

With just a little force, he could cut her throat, and this great demon of at least level seven would be slain by him on the spot.

‘Do it, Xu Zhi! Just like you did with the other demons! Do it! This is a great achievement!’

But Xu Zhi’s hand, gripping the hilt of his saber, was frozen, unable to move an inch.

‘Don’t do it! Don’t do it, Xu Zhi! You’ll regret it!’

A voice in his heart suddenly said to him.
The voice was very soft, but it drowned out all the tide-like chaotic thoughts.

The scent of osmanthus suddenly drilled into Xu Zhi’s olfactory nerves, as if the osmanthus scent was being emitted by the demon’s blood.

“He’s dead. I killed him.”

Her trembling voice carried a trace of inexplicable despair.

“Why don’t you fight back? Just like you killed those two demons, why don’t you do something?!”

“I’m tired…”

‘Blind Xu, I’m so tired…’

‘What did I do wrong? Why did everything turn out like this…’

‘If I die here, will everything be over…’

‘Will you be sad for the dead Bai Ling?’

‘Do it, Xu Zhi! Fulfill your duty as a member of the Demon Suppression Division. Kill me…’

“Boom!”

A powerful demonic energy exploded.
The scent of wormwood mixed with aged agarwood filled his nasal cavity, overpowering the faint scent of osmanthus.

A cyan wind swept up the withered leaves on the ground, swirling them into a vortex in the air.
The strong wind blew through the leaves and wild grass.
The owls were startled and flew into the night sky.

“Kid, calm down!”

A voice like a nightingale’s song came.
A cyan wind swept over.
Xu Zhi was thrown back three steps by the blast wave, his shoe soles leaving a scorched mark on the blue bricks.

When he opened his eyes again, only a few cyan feathers were left falling in the clear night sky.

The stars and the moon emitted their faint, cold light in the sky.
The ground became farther and farther away in her vision.

The evening wind blew on her face, and the night wind caressed Bai Ling’s fading snake scales.
The sensation was as gentle as a mother’s hand caressing her skin.

“I told you to stay away from those guys wearing bronze beast masks. Don’t you want to live?!”

Guan Qing’s knuckles were white as she held Bai Ling’s collar.
A pair of phantom cyan wings behind her stirred the clouds.

Bai Ling was in a daze and didn’t speak.

The golden patterns in her pupils slowly faded, and her irises returned to normal, like a piece of amber in the night sky.

The branches of the sophora tree at the entrance of the old alley in the north of the city supported the two figures.
The wings behind Guan Qing dissipated like green smoke.

“Does it hurt?”

Guan Qing knocked her old pipe, which she never left her side.
Her eyes looked at the torn flesh on Bai Ling’s neck.
The blood beads seeped out of her body and then turned into blood-red ice crystals under the effect of her demonic energy, shattering as they fell to the ground.

The black cat was curled up in the shadows in the corner of the doorway, its eyes closing and opening with the blooming of the blood flowers.

“It doesn’t hurt…”

Bai Ling twitched the corners of her mouth, forcing a smile.

‘Whether the wound hurt or not was no longer important…’

“Does it hurt, does it hurt, does it hurt, does it hurt?!”

Guan Qing suddenly hit Bai Ling’s forehead with her old pipe.
The toad-shaped screw cap left a red mark on her forehead.

The sudden pain in her forehead stimulated Bai Ling’s tear glands to lose control.
The tears that had been accumulating for a long time suddenly burst their banks.

“It hurts…”

She hugged her forehead and squatted down, her black hair cascading over her shoulders like a waterfall.

“You’re crying from the pain, yet you still say it doesn’t hurt. Come on! Let’s go inside and I’ll put some medicine on it!”

Guan Qing didn’t care whether the tears seeping from the corners of Bai Ling’s eyes were from pain or something else.
She grabbed Bai Ling’s wrist and pulled her into the wooden door.

The green smoke from the incense burner in the room coiled around the dried medicinal herbs hanging from the crossbeams.
The scent of wormwood and borneol enveloped the two of them.

Guan Qing used a silver spoon to scoop out some ointment and applied it evenly to Bai Ling’s wound.

The smell of medicine in the room dispelled Bai Ling’s chaotic thoughts.
She suddenly felt a little relieved.

“Remember to run when you see those guys in the future.”

Guan Qing fiddled with a pile of miscellaneous ointments, applying medicine to Bai Ling like a nagging old woman.
“If you can’t beat them, run. Even If you can, run…”

“Mmm!”

Before she could finish, Bai Ling suddenly burst out laughing.
The undried tears at the corners of her eyes fell to the ground and shattered into ice crystals.

Guan Qing was stunned by Bai Ling’s sudden silly laugh.
She thought to herself, ‘Has this child gone crazy?’

‘She almost died at that kid’s hands just now, and now she’s laughing foolishly here. I haven’t seen her this carefree before, have I?’

The bronze mirror standing on the table was filled with smoke, reflecting Guan Qing’s stunned face.

Bai Ling tilted her head and rubbed against the black cat that had jumped onto her shoulder.
She reached out and touched the mirror, watching as her blurry self’s ten fingers overlapped with the person outside the mirror.
She suddenly felt that the pain, soaked in the scent of medicine, had become proof of her existence.

‘Let’s just say that the boy who would squat under a bridge pier and draw has drowned in a pool of blood. His current self is just a snake demon reborn from that child’s blood.’

‘Books say that people will see things more clearly after experiencing life and death. It seems that demons are the same…’

‘At least, Bai Ling didn’t want to think about those things in her memories anymore. Let the past be the past. Whether she was a girl or a demon…’

‘Life would still go on. Just like the six years she had been away from Lin’an, she had managed without Xu Zhi, hadn’t she?’