Chapter 81: A Debt of Scales

“You should’ve said you were here to rescue someone!” Lu Qingtian hugged his rifle to his chest and complained as he hurried toward the ruins. “Even if you’re a demon and I’m a Demon Suppression Officer, since you’re here to save our boss, I’ll let you off today. Next time I see you, I’ll definitely kill you.”

“Kid, talk big after you can beat me!” Behind Lu Qingtian, the Wolf Demon was picking his teeth with a sharp claw.

He had just given the kid a beating and only after a lot of back-and-forth had convinced him that he was accompanying the Young Miss to save his boss.

If he hadn’t seen that the kid was Xu Zhi’s junior and that Xu Zhi was the Young Miss’s lover, he wouldn’t have wasted words explaining. Most likely he would have killed him and been done with it.

Don’t let the fact that he and the Tiger Demon spent all day joking around under Guan Qing, playing the two jokester guardian generals, fool you. These two had fierce reputations in the demon world. Decades back, who in the Demon Suppression Bureau didn’t tremble at their names?

It was only because they had grown used to peaceful days under Guan Qing and hadn’t shown their strength before the Demon Suppression Bureau for so long that this kid showed them no respect.

“Boom!”

The explosion came from the center of the ruins, and the blast threw Lu Qingtian’s bangs back.

“What’s going on?! Is it those people?!” Lu Qingtian quickly climbed over a half-broken wall and slipped into the rubble to hide.

The people he meant were the Enforcement Department agents under Night Owl. Before Feng Yi’s execution operation began, he’d traded plenty of fire with those men dressed as school workers.

If those people had come to make trouble, Lu Qingtian wouldn’t mind requesting heavy fire support right now.

“Look carefully. That’s not anyone else. It’s your own Demon Suppression Bureau people.” The Wolf Demon stood behind him with arms crossed. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Firing on your own. Your Demon Suppression Bureau is really something.”

“Zhu Ning, that bastard!” Lu Qingtian raised his rifle and aimed, the red dot in the scope fixed right on Zhu Ning’s brow.

This Zhu Ning had always been at odds with Xu Zhi. Faction-wise, he was Elder Qin’s disciple, a pawn for Elder Qin and that group of senior Demon Suppression Envoys. Even his provocation of Ye Zi at last night’s meeting had been ordered by Elder Qin.

Those people relied on their seniority. On normal days they acted like heaven was first and they were second. They not only threw their weight around in the Demon Suppression Bureau, they didn’t even respect the rules and regulations.

Before Xu Zhi joined the Demon Suppression Bureau, the youngest Demon Suppression Envoy in the Lin’an Bureau was Zhu Ning. But him? A guy who had led missions no more than five times before becoming an Envoy, what right did he have to be promoted?

You should know the Bureau’s internal promotion rules were simple and clear. For a Demon Suppression Officer to rise to Envoy, they had to lead at least thirty demon suppression missions before they even got a chance at promotion.

But all because he was Elder Qin’s disciple!

At the time, Ye Zi had just arrived in Lin’an for her post. Without her own team, she couldn’t keep those old-timers who pulled rank in line, so she had no choice but to let him get away with it.

It wasn’t until Xu Zhi became a Demon Suppression Envoy that Ye Zi had the leverage to suppress those old bastards.

It was normal for this guy to hold a grudge against Xu Zhi. But even with a grudge, he couldn’t just open fire on his own people, could he?

No matter how fierce internal conflict got, it was still internal. In front of outsiders, everyone was still a colleague, one of their own.

Attacking his own people! Just that alone was enough to have him tried by the Mystic Gate Council! But in the end, Elder Qin would probably smooth it over with the excuse of battlefield chaos.

“If you fire, you’ll be a traitor…” The Wolf Demon suddenly pushed down his barrel.

“But…” Lu Qingtian’s mutter was cut off when the Wolf Demon flicked his forehead.

“Stay put. My Young Miss will handle it.” The Wolf Demon’s last words were swept into the air. When Lu Qingtian looked up, he was already gone.

****

Dust and debris rose in the ruins. Rubble pattered down, and collapsed floor slabs formed a sealed space that cut off all sound and light from outside.

The girl quickly dug through the rubble, revealing Xu Zhi’s dust-covered face.

“You idiot, when will you ever stop making people worry…”

The girl held Xu Zhi’s cheeks. His eyes were shut tight, his lips pale, as if he were having a nightmare.

“It’s okay. It’s over now…” The girl couldn’t help but stroke his rain-soaked hair, like petting a large dog that had finally gone to sleep.

Thirty seconds earlier, he had suddenly opened his eyes while unconscious in the rain, an incomprehensible light flickering in his pupils.

Before the girl could even be surprised, he had already pulled her into his arms.

The next second, the world spun. The blast wave from a high-explosive grenade detonating at close range hurled them both into the half-destroyed library.

The girl only had time to form a thin layer of ice behind Xu Zhi to block the fragments and heat, but the scorching flames still slipped through cracks in the ice, searing his back.

If Xu Zhi hadn’t shielded her in his arms at the last moment, those cinnabar flames would have scorched her instead.

“Why are you trying to be a hero?” The blue-tinged face made the girl both angry and heartbroken.

Even if she feared fire, even if the scales all over her body had been mostly broken down by baleful energy and would need at least seventy-two hours to recover, a grenade and cinnabar fire of that level could only hurt her for a little while.

There was only silence in answer. Xu Zhi had lost all ability to respond. The baleful energy in his body, which had been settling, began to stir again after the explosion.

Most of his blood had evaporated during the fight with Feng Yi. What remained could not suppress the baleful energy that had started raging again, especially now that he had lost consciousness.

Without his guidance, the agitated baleful energy rushed into his limbs and bones like a wild beast. It was devouring its host!

This was even more dangerous than the previous loss of control, when the baleful energy had leaked out.

“Young Miss!” Purple lightning exploded. The Wolf Demon and Tiger Demon pushed aside the rubble.

The girl held Xu Zhi in her arms and gently wiped the dust from his face.

“Young Miss, are you all right?” The Wolf Demon saw Xu Zhi’s blue-tinged face. He had dealt with plenty of people afflicted by baleful energy before, and he understood this situation all too well.

The baleful energy was eroding the kid’s heart meridians. In less than half an hour, he would die of heart failure.

“What’s the situation outside?” The girl didn’t turn around. Her tone was as cold as ancient ice that never thawed at the poles.

“The kid’s baleful energy has attacked his heart. There’s no saving him. We need to retreat now…”

“I said!” The girl suddenly turned back, amber gold flowing slowly in her vertical pupils like molten resin. “What’s the situation outside?!”

“Demon Suppression Bureau reinforcements have arrived!” The Tiger Demon hurriedly pushed the Wolf Demon’s head down. Beads of sweat seeped through his fur. “They’re advancing this way.”

For some reason, in that moment, the pressure the girl gave him was no less than Guan Qing’s!

“So the grenade just now was fired by them?” The girl wiped the last bit of dust from Xu Zhi’s face. “Stop them.”

“After this, I don’t want anyone stepping into the library ruins. Understand?”

“Yes!”

The two demons’ response was swallowed by a sudden crack of purple lightning. Firelight reached in through gaps in the floor slabs and lit half the girl’s face.

‘Blind Xu, Blind Xu… you really are a troublemaker…’

The girl laid Xu Zhi gently on a relatively flat piece of ground.

‘But what can I do? You’re my only friend.’

She slowly unfastened the frog buttons on her qipao. Orange firelight fell on her collarbone, and the fine, cold scales looked almost warm.

“You owe me a huge favor now…”

That woman Qin Fengling had said that maybe the jade pendant could once block baleful energy, but by now the thing inside the pendant had long since transferred to the girl.

The girl didn’t know what exactly was inside the pendant, but she knew that the only thing that could replace it and soothe the restless baleful energy in Xu Zhi’s body was herself.

There was too much baleful energy in him, too heavy. It couldn’t be solved as simply as with Gu Xiyan. The only way to save his life now might be this one.

Clothing slipped away. Cold scales touched warmth. Her lips parted slightly, and her forked tongue brushed against skin tinged with blue and purple.

‘I’m really taking a loss this time…’

The girl thought this as the scales on her cheek slowly rubbed against Xu Zhi’s neck.

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