»Zhen yan?« He called softly. Immediately the darkness retreated. In the next moment, he and Zhen yan were standing opposite each other, Xiaodan's tip pointed at him, trembling, and behind the large demon, who seemed wilder than usual, Mei ling was cowering in the scorched grass. Ying yue's hand trembled.
Zhen yan's hair was open, his eyes glowing, and black lines were visible on his skin, as if the demon's form was crumbling. Ying yue let Xiaodan down slowly, back then in the cave with the turtle and the seven heads, that hadn't been an illusion.
He put away his sword and took large steps towards the demon. Zhen yan looked to the side, as if he didn't want to look at him directly, as if he was ashamed of showing himself to him like that. Ying yue gently stroked Zhen yan's cheek and wiped away the blood. The wound was already closing underneath. For a moment, Ying yue thought the red thread on his finger shimmered.
»Did she hurt you?« Ying yue asked gently. Zhen yan's gaze fell on Ying yue. He had almost completely restored his appearance, the dancing wisps of smoke licked over his skin and played with the strands of his long hair, but the wild look in his eyes had given way to a softer, loving look. He took Ying yue's hand and snuggled up close to her. Ying yue blinked as the other end of the thread gently wrapped around Zhen yan's ring finger, binding them together. A moment later, he had vanished.
»No big deal,« he said softly.
»You bastards, how can you be so shameless in front of me in a situation like this?« Mei ling shouted angrily. Ying yue withdrew his hand, but only to pull Xiaodan again when he turned to her. With one hand, he held up his sword; with the other, he dangled the Gao seal in front of her nose. Completely exhausted, Mei ling looked up only briefly before breaking out into maniacal giggles.
»What did the Gao clan want with you?« Ying yue asked.
Mei ling hissed at him angrily. Her unearthly beauty was gone and she looked more and more like a human, an exhausted and sick human. Now she was no longer a shadow of her former self. Without her bones and the jade splinter, she was no longer a real danger. Nevertheless, Ying yue would kill her, and she was aware of that.
»Just kill me, cultist. You should have done that two hundred years ago. Instead, you let me suffer and bound me to this temple, yearning for nothing. Tell me, swordsman, is he dead? That useless husband-god?« she whimpered hoarsely. Ying yue put the seal away again. Tuér Shen was no marriage god, as she would have needed one, but he couldn't tell her that without owing Zhen yan an explanation, and right now, he didn't want to have to deal with his smug grin and probing hands. He sighed.
»A god without a temple and followers cannot exist,« he finally said, looking at the pile of rubble and ashes behind them.
The heap of rubble was still smoking, and the fight between the two Yao had also completely destroyed the courtyard. When Ying yue rose, Mei Ling held on to his sleeve weakly. It seemed as if she was struggling with her fate, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it.
»A demon and a human,« she murmured softly. »You really are weak-minded, I'm laughing my head off,« she sneered weakly. Ying yue pulled back on Xiaodan, the gleaming blade quivering slightly.
»Then who have you been waiting for for two hundred years?« he asked lightly. Mei Ling's head shot up in surprise, but before she could answer, he plunged his sword into her chest.
A thin trickle of blood flowed from her mouth over her lips and chin and dripped onto her clothing. She slumped to the ground, while her skin cracked and became brittle and slowly began to turn to dust. As she disintegrated and the dust was carried away by the wind, only her scarlet wedding robe remained, which slowly turned yellow and disappeared.
The sun rose and bathed everything in a golden yellow light. It crept over the treetops, over the scorched vegetation and the path, and illuminated the ruins. Ying yue felt the warmth and power of the spring sun on his face. Zhen yan stepped up beside him.
He had fully resumed his old form, with a gold-embroidered robe and an elegant knot in his hair, held together by a white, bony hairpin. The rest of his long black hair blew gently in the wind, while he looked down at him with a gentle smile and dark green eyes. Some of the Ying yue had already noticed that the big demon was not only big in name, but also in the flesh, and towered at least twenty centimeters above him.
Zhen yan stroked his head, over the spot where Hong yi had hit him.
»What happened?« he wanted to know. There was no question that Ying yue was so clumsy as to repeatedly bang the back of his head against a wall. Ying yue scratched the spot, and surprisingly, he felt no more of the injury, only the blood crust trickled down his shoulders.
In short sentences, he told him about Gao Hong yi and the events that had taken place before he had fallen into his arms. Zhen yan's eyes darkened as they took the winding path through the forest and rocky plains down the mountain. When Ying yue had finished, he asked his next question.
»Who is Yi Rui qin?«
Ying yue took a deep breath. He didn't know to what extent the sword master was involved, but he knew that he wouldn't live long enough to tell him if he told Zhen yan the truth.
He was about to answer and ask Zhen yan to be patient for a little longer when they heard voices at the foot of the mountain, discussing something animatedly.
»You could carry me up the mountain, then we'd be faster,« suggested an amused voice. It sounded familiar to Ying yue.
»I'm not your pack mule!« someone replied, snorting. He hadn't heard that voice for the first time either.
»Then why have you been following me like that all this time?«
»I'm just trying to repay a debt of life, so unless you're willing to risk your life, I'll have to follow you for a while!«
»Is that one of the unwritten principles of a fox? To repay everything with the same coin?«
»Are you making fun of me?«
»Of course, that's extremely amusing!«
Zhen yan and Ying yue stepped out from behind the last row of trees and watched the exchange between the two men with irritation. One of them was Wang Bing wen, his white robe billowed in the wind and his topknot with the exclusive hair crown was recognizable from afar. Next to him stood Yian, who looked frustrated and embarrassed at the same time.
His red hair was slightly disheveled, as if he had repeatedly pulled at it; both turned to them when they were within earshot. The smile on Wang Bingwen's face disappeared and he came to meet them immediately. Yian eyed him skeptically at first, but then followed suit.
»Bai Gongzi, you're alive, what a wonderful surprise!« he exclaimed with relief. He put on a business-like smile, which was completely different from the broad grin he had just worn. Ying yue bowed, he was so irritated that he also bowed to Yian, after all, he was in the company of a high-ranking member of the cultist world.
»Wang Gongzi, why would you send me on a mission if you assume I won't come back alive?« Ying yue asked skeptically. Wang Bing wen sighed and scratched his head, now it was he who had to let go of some scratched strands.
»It's not like that, Bai Gongzi. In your report, you mentioned a splinter of black jade. Shortly after you left, we received a flood of requests for help, one of which came from a large city that could only defend itself with great difficulty against the attacks of the Yao. I sent some of the best fighters, but when I arrived at the battlefield shortly after, there was no one left alive. Bai Gongzi, the city had been overrun and the cultists with it.
One of the last cross-fades stammered something about black jade with his last ounce of strength. When I contacted the Gao clan, I was told that they had closed themselves off and sealed off the area. We can't reach the clan, nor can we get anything from inside. We don't know if they've also been overrun and have closed the borders to stem the flood of demons or ... » He raised his hands helplessly and left his suspicions unspoken.
As a representative of the Wang family, he couldn't say something like that openly. Ying yue nodded, he knew the situation and it was getting more and more intense. »The attacks of the Yao follow the same pattern, demons that were normally classified as harmless and easily defeated, gain great power within a very short time and overrun all security measures, and then I thought of the demonic bride.
If she was also infected with the black jade, then the mission would be a suicide mission,« Bing wen said. He reached for Ying yue and shook him vigorously. ‚Bai Gongzi, tell me the truth!' Zhen yan brushed Bing wen's hands off Ying yue's shoulders. Yian narrowed his eyes in annoyance, but didn't dare to raise his voice against the demon. Ying yue took a step back and allowed Zhen yan to stand in front of him.
»I don't know the truth, but it's true that someone is distributing splinters of the jade from the Daiyu Plain. The power of the splinters causes the demons to mutate and gain great power in a short time, but also to fall into madness!« He showed Bing wen the seal of the Gao clan. ‚I found this in the underground vaults of the temple near the bride's coffin,' he explained. Bing wen closed his eyes and held his head.
»Was she... did she have...?« He sighed heavily. Ying yue nodded.
»Yes, she also had a jade splinter,« Ying yue confirmed and felt the face of the stone in his breast pocket.
»Wang Gongzi, why are you traveling with a demon?« he asked. Just a few months ago, he wouldn't have even asked the question, but would have held his sword at him and Yian, especially considering the fact that Yian wasn't even trying to act like a tamed demon.
»Oh!« Bing wen blushed a delicate pink. ‚That's... I mean... maybe you really are the only one I can tell this to,' he began, glancing quickly at Zhen yan.
In fact, Wang Bingwen's story wasn't as exciting as Ying yue's own. Just thinking about telling someone that he had fallen through the roof of the demon's house, got tangled up in red curtains, and bowed three times, still made his face flush with shame. His gaze slid unobtrusively to the ring finger on his right hand and then to Zhen yan, but the red thread was no longer visible.
Yian was a demon from the Daiyu Plains who had managed to escape the seal with great difficulty and then been involved in a hunt. He was then found on a battlefield by Wang Bing wen, who, because of his condition, had initially taken him for a human and nursed him back to health. Apparently the Ghost Foxes had an unwritten rule of returning everything with the same coin, revenge as well as favors, and so he had attached himself to Bing wen's heels.
At least that explained his appearance in Shuisheng, where he had tried to have Chen Chen lu killed for him, and his stay at the Fubai senlin, and the ominous sentence, »When they meet again, it will be because they have the same goal.« It all made much more sense now. Ying yue frowned. He couldn't understand the demons' way of thinking; he would have accepted it if Zhen yan had been an exception, a crazed demon who had fallen for a mortal, but apparently he was no exception.
Ying yue had become very adept at interpreting the looks of these creatures, and Yian looked at Bing wen almost the same way Zhen yan looked at him, only not too obviously. At least one of them still had some decency. Together they went back to the tea house outside Suzhou. Although Ying yue was exhausted, he hadn't slept in three days, except for the painful blackout in the temple. Just before they entered the inn and were able to calm the nervous people, Bing wen turned to him again.
»Bai Gongzi, this matter is very delicate,« he began, seemingly considering how to phrase his request. »The Gao clan is not to be underestimated, and we have no evidence that they could be involved in the jade business. I would ask you to keep quiet for the time being, until I have done more research and...« His gaze slid to Yian. ‚Would you also leave Yian unmentioned for the time being?' he asked cautiously.
Ying yue didn't answer right away. Normally, he didn't interfere with the cultists' affairs. He was given a task, he completed it, and didn't ask any questions. But things were different now; if the Gao clan was indeed strengthening the demons and removing the seal, was silence really the best option? On the other hand, what could he do? There was actually no evidence at all; the seal and the piece of jade he was carrying wouldn't be enough.
Even if he handed it over to Bing wen. A man like Gao Teng fei would not let himself be disturbed by an assumption. After all, he had sent the stupidest idiot on the job and could still claim that he had acted on his own initiative. Even Ying yue would have believed him after he had met Hong yi for the first time. On the other hand, he didn't know Wang Bing wen well enough to trust him in the matter either. Just because they were both accompanied by a demon didn't make them friends, let alone allies. There was only one thing he was relatively certain about: Yian posed no threat.
For one thing, Zhen yan had said that the fox was harmless, even if he had probably only spoken for himself. Someone who had made it through the seal under his own power, even if it was crumbling, was certainly not an opponent to be underestimated. But on the other hand, he couldn't sense any hostility from the fox either. Without wasting many words, he just nodded and stepped inside.
»Gongzi!«
»Gongzi, you're back!«
»Thank God, the young master is still alive.
»What happened, where's the bride, is the demon dead?«
Ying yue felt overwhelmed by the thousands of questions that rained down on him almost immediately. He pushed the robe of a desperate man away from him, pushing him an arm's length away.
»Yes, the demonic bride is dead, you can all go back,« he finally said. Nevertheless, they bombarded him with questions for hours, which he answered more or less patiently. At
some point, Zhen yan simply took his hand and led him out of the crowd up the stairs to her room. Ying yue sat down on the narrow bed.
»I'm tired!« he said wearily. Zhen yan came to him after locking the door and brushed his upper robe from his shoulders.
»Then sleep,« he said gently and pushed Ying yue onto the bed before taking off his boots and covering him. Ying yue reached for one of the demon's sleeves. Even though he was overcome by tiredness, he was dirty and hungry, he felt warm and safe. He would never have thought that he would be so relaxed in Zhen yan's presence, let alone that the great demon could ever be the reason for it.
He opened his eyes again and looked at him, into the dark, green eyes. Zhen yan had laid down next to him, the scent of spring blossoms and cedarwood surrounded him.
»Be honest with me!« Ying yue said softly.
»I'm always honest!« Zhen yan defended himself. Ying yue laughed.
»You have quite a story to tell me, Daiyuzhu!« Zhen yan's hand, which had been caressing his back, paused briefly, but then Ying yue felt the vibration of his chest when he laughed softly and continued to caress him before he sank into the deepest darkness.
»It's a long story,« the demon said softly.