Heishi City hadn’t seen such lively days in a long time.
At dusk, all the demon clan members came out in full force, lighting the eerie blue ghost fires at their cave entrances and moving out Ghost Head Flowers to decorate both sides of the roads. At the cave entrances, mountains of white bones were piled up, their eye sockets filled with sparkling crystals, with lanterns and decorations hung everywhere in brilliant colors.
Today was the day the Demon Realm’s Young Highness emerged from closed-door cultivation, and the entire Heishi City was celebrating wildly.
The Qin Demon had a handsome appearance; his long hair was pinned up in a high bun with a finger bone, plucking at a pipa made from human bones. The music was melodious and pleasant, though the tune was somewhat rough and eerie, making one’s spine tingle while listening.
The Mei Demon wore a snow-white gauze dress covered with mottled blood flowers. As she danced gracefully, bloodstains scattered from her skirt hem across the ground, creating a shocking sight.
The Jin Jing were small in stature, only reaching people’s calves, wearing uniform yellow and white robes while riding short horses and charging about wildly. Wherever they went, they left behind a trail of glittering gold and silver that nearly dazzled people’s eyes.
There were also Ape Spirits, Willow Spirits, Bone Grannies… Throughout the hall and beyond, it was a chaotic dance of demons. If anyone accidentally wandered into this place, they would surely think they had entered an endless hell and be scared out of their wits on the spot.
Zanxing sighed deeply. If she wasn’t clear that she was in the Eastern cultivation world, she would have thought she had stumbled into some wonderful Halloween night.
Her sigh was rather loud, causing the high-pitched qin music in the hall to pause as everyone looked toward her in unison.
The woman on the high seat wore a slate green long robe, its hem flowing onto the ground, the body embroidered with exquisite Four Divine Beasts patterns in silver thread. She held a snow-white large cat in her arms, casually grooming the cat’s fur. Her long hair was pinned up in a bundle with a wooden hairpin, with the rest hanging to her waist. Deep green luster flowed faintly through her hair – that was abundant, Demon Lord Yuanli.
She had a very beautiful face. Unlike Demon Empress Bujiang’s captivating charm and heroic beauty, her features were refined, with vigor and brightness between her brows and eyes, gentle yet serene, like a tree growing from the depths of an abyss, bringing vitality to this place.
A full two years – the Demon Realm’s princess, now the Young Highness, had finally emerged from cultivation. Compared to her inexperience two years ago, the young girl seemed to have grown considerably. When she leaned against the high seat, looking down at the singing and dancing spectacle in the hall, her expression already carried some shadows of her father from years past – lonely yet powerful.
But compared to the former Demon Lord, she had an additional touch of brightness and affability.
It was precisely this brightness that made everyone in the Demon Realm quickly grow fond of her, not only because she was the Heavenly Demon’s daughter, not also because she could make the withered spiritual veins flow again, and simply because of who she was as a person. Even setting everything aside, if she were just an ordinary demon clan member, she would still be a likable one.
“It seems they like you very much.” Bujiang walked up from the steps below, her tone cheerful: “Such grand occasions only occurred when your father made the spiritual veins flow again back in the day.”
Zanxing propped her chin with one hand, watching the singing and dancing in the hall, and responded with a listless “Mm.”
“Doesn’t it look good?”
“Like a chaotic dance of demons,” Zanxing answered honestly.
She could understand the good intentions of everyone in Heishi City, who had seriously rehearsed singing and dancing programs for a long time just for her emergence from cultivation, all to make her smile. But speaking objectively, the aesthetic differences between the demon clan and the human clan truly spanned the distance of the Mingming River. When she was at Gufeng Mountain, she was accustomed to the sect’s hazy, minimalist style, while the Demon Realm had gone to the complete opposite extreme. They loved bright reds and greens, golden glitter, and rainbow colors. All their residences were arranged in caves on Heishi Mountain, with each cave renovated to look like a haunted house. They decorated their entrances with ghost-painted lanterns, drew hell scenes on stone walls, sometimes placed glowing ghost face sculptures at cave entrances, along with oddly-shaped ornaments…
They were quite generous with gold and silver, though. The Demon Realm never lacked gold, silver, pearls, and stones, so many caves had tables, chairs, and benches all made of pure gold, sometimes adding a few crystal pillars, as if they wanted to install everything that could glow and had color.
In short, they overused colors with bizarre aesthetics.
Bujiang laughed: “Do you know? Yesterday, the Mei Demon came to tell me that you, a young girl in the prime of your youth and beauty, should add more brightly colored dresses to your wardrobe. Being so plain and simple makes you seem insufficiently lively.”
Zanxing glanced at the woman dancing merrily in the hall. She was beautiful indeed, but that blood-stained garment covered with bloody handprints looked rather creepy no matter how you looked at it.
She shuddered: “No, no, thank you.”
Bujiang smiled knowingly and didn’t press her further, only asking: “How do you feel having just emerged from cultivation?”
Zanxing answered: “Pretty happy.”
“Really? I see you looking troubled about something.” Bujiang looked at her thoughtfully for a while: “Still thinking about your friend from Taiyan Sect?”
Zanxing fell silent.
Before emerging from cultivation, she had asked Bujiang to continue gathering information from the cultivation world. Some demon clan members not in the Demon Realm hid in Duzhou, usually maintaining contact with Heishi City through secret letters. When Zanxing emerged from cultivation, she immediately inquired about Gu Baiying and Hong Su’s current situation. The news she received was that everything in the cultivation world was normal – there had been no reports of disciples perishing or geniuses being punished. Taiyan Sect was the same as always.
Sometimes, no news was the best news.
Mimi sensed Zanxing’s distraction and turned her head to lick her finger. Zanxing snapped back to attention.
Over these two years, Yinlang Shi had also entered closed-door cultivation with her. The large cat with only a trace of divine beast bloodline had now become a true divine beast, able to freely change its size and form. To avoid frightening the demon realm inhabitants and for Zanxing’s convenience in caring for it, Mimi appeared in house cat form most of the time.
“Mother,” Zanxing scratched under Mimi’s chin with her finger and asked wistfully: “If someone constantly takes care of you, protects you, even shares their primordial soul with you, and despite everyone’s opposition still stands before you, willing to face the entire world as your enemy – what would that be for?”
“Then he must be a complete fool,” Bujiang answered without hesitation.
“……”
“Don’t look at me like that,” Bujiang sighed. “What did you want me to say? That he loves you deeply, and his devotion never changes? Fine, for him to do so much for you, he does indeed seem to be someone with deep feelings. However, Zanxing, when lovers are deeply in love, they’re willing to do anything for each other. But later, when feelings gradually fade and the novelty wears off, looking back, it’s just that – nothing special. I’m someone who’s been through it all, I understand this better than anyone.”
Demon Empress Bujiang had countless lovers throughout heaven and earth. Zanxing didn’t know whether these lovers existed when Gui Diao Tang was alive or came after his death. In any case, just from the few times Zanxing had seen, the men cuddling beside Bujiang had changed several waves, and she seemed to like each one very much.