Chapter 24: The Demon’s Slumber Under the Starry Moon

The night was deep, but Mianbao couldn’t settle her heart to sleep at all.

She tossed and turned on the relatively soft grass with her arm as a pillow, the surrounding short grass rustling in protest under her.

Today was Mianbao’s birthday.

It should have been a happy day, yet so many mentally devastating things had happened.

The only thing that could be considered good was the necklace Hu Qingyu had given her in the morning.

Hu Qingyu had originally been peering at the faint starry sky through the gaps in the branches and leaves.

But hearing Mianbao’s constant tossing and turning, Hu Qingyu turned to look at her from the side.

“What’s wrong, Miss Mianbao? Can’t sleep?”

Hu Qingyu asked in a very gentle voice.

Mianbao simply propped herself up with both hands and sat up.

“Yes.”

It was understandable; anyone who learned they were not their parents’ biological child would surely feel upset.

“I never thought I’d turn out to be some unknown wild child who fell from the sky.”

Mianbao hugged her knees, her peerless, beautiful face, dappled by the sparse moonlight, resting lightly on them.

Ka Slan · Wei Er’s diary seemed to confirm the speculation that Mianbao was a demon who fell from the sky.

“Is it very painful?”

Hu Qingyu looked up at the sky again.

“Then just cry. My royal mother… mother said that the best way to vent is to cry.”

Hu Qingyu had heard his royal mother say this since he was a child, but he had never cried in his entire life.

His birth didn’t count.

“No.”

Mianbao shook her head from side to side, pivoting on her knees.

“I’m a man, how can I cry?”

After hearing this, Hu Qingyu, with a serious expression, lifted Mianbao’s face.

Then he turned it back and forth before his eyes, as if appraising a priceless piece of jade.

“What are you doing!”

Mianbao frowned, wrenching her face free from Hu Qingyu’s clutches.

Hu Qingyu chuckled lightly.

“Forgive my poor eyesight, but I’ve never seen a man as beautiful as a heavenly fairy, like you, Miss Mianbao.”

“…”

A suspicious blush flashed across Mianbao’s face.

After a moment of silence, she said, “You don’t understand.”

At this point, Mianbao couldn’t be bothered to tell people that she used to be a man.

After all, who would believe such an unscientific and unmagical thing if she said it?

She could only say, “You don’t understand.”

Just as Mianbao lowered her head, a gentle melody drifted past her ears.

It was a beautiful tune she had never heard before, with a timbre she had never heard either.

And the source of the sound was, surprisingly, a flat leaf that Hu Qingyu held to his lips.

“Amazing!”

It was the first time Mianbao had seen someone play such beautiful music using an ordinary leaf instead of an instrument.

‘Are people from other worlds all this amazing?’

“How did you do that!”

Mianbao’s attention was now completely focused on Hu Qingyu’s skill, which seemed heavenly to her, and all her troubles were thrown to the back of her mind.

Hu Qingyu stopped playing and said with a smile, “A skill passed down through my family, not to be taught to outsiders.”

Of course, this was just something he made up to fool Mianbao.

Mianbao took Hu Qingyu’s words as truth and felt a little dejected in her heart.

Then she heard Hu Qingyu ask, “Do you want to hear more?”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

Mianbao nodded her little head like a chick pecking at rice.

She might not learn it, but she still wanted to listen.

“Then lie down for me and close your eyes.”

Hu Qingyu said this, and Mianbao did as he said.

However, she didn’t lie on the ground, but leaned against the large rock that Hu Qingyu was leaning on.

And her eyes were only slightly closed, with no intention of closing them completely.

Mianbao knew Hu Qingyu was telling her to rest well.

She hadn’t expected a stranger she had never met before, whom she had only known for a few days, to be so concerned about her.

It made her feel a little touched.

The gentle melody swirled around her ears.

Hu Qingyu played with one hand holding the leaf to his lips, while raising the other to use a miraculous power called “internal energy” to part the leaves above their heads.

The cloudless night sky stretched for miles.

Moonlight spilled unimpeded onto the earth.

The myriad of stars twinkled, as if in harmony with Hu Qingyu’s gentle and melodious tune.

This piece, 【Star-Moon】, was a very famous lullaby in “Shenzhou,” where Hu Qingyu was from.

It was mostly used to calm the mind and induce sleep.

Naturally, it was of great help to the current Mianbao.

Under the shroud of 【Star-Moon】, Mianbao’s eyelids slowly grew heavy.

She panted softly, fighting against the god of sleep.

In the end, she closed her eyes, her head tilted to the side, and fell asleep.

Hu Qingyu looked at Mianbao, who was curled up and leaning asleep on his shoulder, and a slight smile lifted the corners of his mouth.

Very skillfully and shamelessly, he wrapped his slender arm around Mianbao to prevent her from catching a cold during the night.

After all, Mianbao didn’t cultivate battle aura, practice magic, or know internal energy.

Apart from knowing how to use a gun, she was no different from a delicate, ordinary girl.

Of course, this was out of concern for Mianbao; Hu Qingyu had not the slightest intention of taking advantage of her.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t want to kill you…”

Having only just fallen asleep, Mianbao helplessly began to talk in her sleep.

Her body curled up tighter in fear, and she subconsciously hugged Hu Qingyu beside her.

“I’m sorry…”

Tears unconsciously streamed from the corners of Mianbao’s eyes, soaking the clothes on Hu Qingyu’s shoulder.

Hu Qingyu sighed and pulled Mianbao a little deeper into his embrace.

“So many people, all dead.”

Kunta walked, leaning on her cane.

The darkness before her could not prevent her from seeing the scene that was like a human tragedy.

Behind her floated Wendi, who had come to Lange Village with her.

“It shouldn’t be the work of the Saint. After all, from such a distance, the Saint couldn’t possibly have the ability to accidentally harm everyone in Lange Village.”

Kunta thought, looking down.

“There is no aura of magic or battle aura. Looking at the way these people died, they must have been dead for at least a few days,” Wendi said.

“Why, when Firia and Hu Qingyu came back, did they say that everyone in Lange Village was alive?”

“Heh.”

Wendi’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Didn’t you feel it? Firia’s expression was clearly off when she heard you ask about Lange Village. Perhaps the two of them know something.”

Kunta nodded in agreement.

“To be able to kill everyone here with swords without using battle aura or magic.”

“This person must be a master.”

Kunta thus concluded.

“The cross…”

Wendi discovered something else.

“Many of the bodies of the dead are turned away from this cross… forming a radiating pattern…”

“They were moving away from this cross. Something terrible broke free from the cross.”

Wendi’s withered hand groped for the blood-stained cross.

A white magic array unfolded at the junction of her hand and the cross.

Level-nine support magic, Retrace.

Before Wendi’s eyes was a constantly traversing void.

Her brows were tightly furrowed.

A swath of white light; Wendi could only see a swath of white light.

The scenery continued to traverse through time until a slender humanoid figure with flowing long hair appeared before her eyes.

The figure’s back was to Wendi, its appearance and clothing completely indiscernible.

The scene rotated, suddenly turning to the person’s front.

A pair of golden pupils, so brilliant they eclipsed the heavens and the earth, instantly stung the mind of Wendi, who was peeking into the past!

Wendi let out a bloodcurdling scream, letting go of the cross and stumbling back several steps.

Endless sweat flowed down her forehead.

Wendi’s body trembled as she said, “A demon… it’s a demon!”