After Chaos Hall gained six “consorts,” it truly became lively.
Shui Jun dug a pool in the hall and filled it with a clear lake, the water crystal clear and beautifully sparkling – it would have been even better if not for the few glowing ribs at the bottom of the pool.
Chui Deng Gui thought Chaos Hall was too dim, so he placed several hundred bright lamps throughout the hall. The flames were all blue-green. When Zanxing got up to drink water at night, looking at the ghostly fires wandering everywhere often gave her the illusion that she had mistakenly entered some graveyard.
Bing Mo was constantly coughing and wheezing. Sometimes he would drag his sickly body around the hall sweeping, but before he could finish sweeping half the floor, he would first cough up blood all over the ground, resembling a murder scene.
Lan Jiangjun and Jiu Mo competed in drinking contests daily. Whoever lost would hang themselves with a rope for an hour. Zanxing could often see swaying figures hanging from the locust tree branches outside her window.
In comparison, the beautiful and considerate Shu Nü was the most normal. She usually spoke in gentle, slow tones and had a thoughtful nature, except… the entire hall was covered with her fallen hair, rivaling Mimi’s shedding.
Thanks to these six individuals, Zanxing’s fear of ghosts and dead people was immediately cured without treatment after the six consorts entered the hall for just a few days. Sometimes when she was in a good mood, she would even help clean the bones in the pool.
Xiao Shuang said that Chaos Hall was formerly inhabited by Gui Diao Tang, and the former Demon Lord was noble and aloof, disliking others to approach. For all these years, no one from the Demon Realm had entered Chaos Hall. These six people finally had the chance to enter the hall, and with Zanxing being such an amiable person, they naturally put forth their best efforts to perform. Today, one would bring in a golden table, tomorrow another would gift a silver stool. The original Heishi bed was too cold in color, so it was replaced with a pure white jade bed. The pillars had no carvings, so crystal columns soon gained carvings of the Nine-Child Demon Mother. Bowls and dishes had to be red agate to show nobility, paired with green jade chopsticks… They decorated the originally eerie hall in a gaudy, colorful manner.
Sometimes when Zanxing watched them enthusiastically decorating, she couldn’t help but doubt herself: Perhaps her aesthetic sense was wrong?
But this question would never have an answer here.
Mimi had transformed into a small cat and was reaching her paws into the hall’s pool to catch the swimming bones when someone walked in from outside the hall, saying: “Zanxing.”
Zanxing, who had been sitting on the couch with her eyes closed in meditation, opened her eyes and looked toward Bujiang: “Mother.”
“With a few more people in your hall, it’s indeed much warmer than before.” Bujiang’s eyes showed considerable satisfaction: “After some more time passes, I’ll have the Mei Demon send a few more people. Keep changing, keep it fresh.”
“……” Not wanting to continue this topic, Zanxing asked: “Mother, did you come to find me for something?”
Bujiang had been imprisoned by Gui Yansheng in the Extreme Ice Abyss before, and her demonic essence had been severely damaged. Over this past year, while Zanxing was in closed-door cultivation, Bujiang had also been recuperating. However, Heishi City had been ruined by Gui Yansheng for two years, and everything needed rebuilding. Besides recuperating her demonic essence, Bujiang also had to handle all affairs of Heishi City daily, so she was always busy.
Zanxing didn’t see her very often.
“The weather is nice tonight. Come walk with me outside.” Bujiang said.
Zanxing looked at the continuous rain outside and fell silent.
The rainwater was as dense as silk mist, shrouding Heishi City’s dark mountainous terrain. The locust tree branches were washed bright, like cold, lonely fine stones. Every few steps, bull-head-shaped wind lanterns hung from the trees, emanating blue-purple light in the night.
Bujiang held a green oil-paper umbrella. The umbrella surface was large enough to shelter both of them, painted with delicate ink wash flower and bird paintings using fine brushwork – extremely exquisite and detailed. Compared to Gui Yansheng’s Ashura Umbrella, which was always ghostly and ominous-looking, this green paper umbrella appeared particularly elegant and refined, always reminding one of the misty Jiangnan spring rain.
Seeing Zanxing staring at the flower and bird patterns on the paper umbrella, Bujiang smiled slightly: “This umbrella still belongs to your father.”
“My father?”
“Back then, I was walking on the mountain in Heishi City when I met your father there.” Bujiang’s expression became nostalgic, as if remembering scenes from the past, her tone quite emotional: “I remember it was also a rainy day. He wore green robes, holding a beautiful green paper umbrella as he leisurely descended from the mountain. I thought at that time that such a beautiful man couldn’t be matched even by the immortals of the Nine Heaven Palace.”
“Beautiful man?” Zanxing was somewhat doubtful. All along, the information the Demon Realm people had conveyed to her portrayed Gui Diao Tang as handsome but cold-blooded, domineering, and cruel. She always felt that such a great demon should wear black cloaks or gold-trimmed robes, with features “carved by knives and axes.” She hadn’t expected that in Bujiang’s mouth, Gui Diao Tang would be so… normal.
Even somewhat transcendent.
Bujiang held the umbrella and continued walking slowly forward with Zanxing: “Of course. All of my lovers, Bujiang’s, each one picked out has top-tier looks, and among that group, he was the best. That’s why I married him and had you. I originally thought that with my looks and his, any offspring we produced would surely be stunning enough to shock heaven and earth. Who would have thought,” she paused, “that circumstances are unpredictable.”
“……” How did she manage to start criticizing her while talking?
Zanxing coughed lightly: “When choosing a dao companion, you can’t just look at appearance.”
Bujiang gave her a sideways glance: “Really? Then why, when I ask what’s special about that young martial uncle of yours, do you always emphasize that he’s ‘particularly handsome’?”
Zanxing: “…..”
“Everyone has a love of beauty. If your father had been ugly, no matter how capable he was, I wouldn’t have fancied him. However, if you think your father was just an embroidered pillow, you’d be greatly mistaken. Since the demon clan came into being, Heishi City has had ten Demon Lords in succession – he was the best among them.” When Bujiang spoke of this, she stopped walking and looked ahead, saying softly: “Look.”
This was already the highest point of the mountainous terrain. From this angle, looking down, all of Heishi City lay beneath their view. The night was deep, the night rain vast. White lanterns swayed at the cave entrances on the mountain, along with glowing golden statues, and ghostly fire wind lanterns in the trees, twinkling like stars… Those colors that looked particularly eerie individually had lit up the entire night of Heishi City, adding some brilliance and vitality, human warmth and liveliness to this desolate and lonely mountainous land.
“The human world is vast, with mountains, seas, and forests. Sects, to show their detachment from the world, always make themselves bland and tasteless to appear refined and transcendent. Little do they know that liveliness and vitality are what the demon clan yearns for most.” Bujiang smiled faintly: “You always think the demon clan’s preferences are peculiar and vulgar, but Heishi City only has black. Without more colorful brightness, this place would be lifeless.”
Zanxing was stunned: “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to feel sorry. Immortals dwell in the highest places, humans dwell in the most beautiful places, demons dwell in the darkest places – this is how it’s been since heaven and earth first opened. The demon clan and human clan are actually no different – each dwelling peacefully in their corner, coexisting without conflict.”