“Chi Xian and Cang Gui are still in danger!” Xu Baizhou suddenly struggled.
Jia Wujie leaned back, dodging the fist that had nearly swung into his face, and tightened his arm around him. “Dang Ji is up there. Stop squirming.”
“Oh.” Learning that Chi Xian and Cang Gui had already been rescued, Xu Baizhou finally relaxed.
Seeing that Xu Baizhou had gone quiet, Jia Wujie suddenly said, “What’s so great down at the bottom of this cliff that you’d risk your life for it?”
“I…” Xu Baizhou was about to explain, then suddenly realized that whatever he said would probably seem foolish to Jia Wujie.
From Jia Wujie’s perspective, all Xu Baizhou had to do was stay quiet and obedient, be a good pet, and please him, and he’d receive things others could never get in a lifetime. His own hopes and dreams must seem laughable and stupid in Jia Wujie’s eyes.
“Forget it. You wouldn’t understand,” Xu Baizhou said.
At those words, Jia Wujie’s brow furrowed. He caught a trace of desolation on Xu Baizhou’s face.
“Want to go see the bottom of the cliff?”
Xu Baizhou looked at Jia Wujie in mild surprise. What had he just said? He was asking him… whether he wanted to go down to the bottom of the cliff?
“Is that allowed?” Xu Baizhou asked cautiously.
“Let’s go.” Jia Wujie suddenly dipped down, swooping rapidly downward. The weightless sensation of free fall came without warning, and Xu Baizhou instinctively clung to Jia Wujie, squeezing his eyes shut as they plunged together into the darkness at the bottom of the cliff.
Feeling the speed of their descent suddenly slow, Xu Baizhou opened his eyes and peeked out from Jia Wujie’s embrace, only to be stunned by the sight before him.
The two of them were hovering in midair, slowly descending, and beneath their feet stretched a vast expanse of lush demonic plants.
The bottom of the cliff never saw sunlight; even in daytime it was dim. Yet in this dark chasm, the demonic plants were glowing with a faint purple luminescence.
They finally touched the ground, and Jia Wujie gently set Xu Baizhou down.
“This is… nethergrass?” Xu Baizhou crouched down to get a clear look at the plants beneath his feet.
“You risked your life climbing this cliff wasn’t it for exactly this?” Jia Wujie said.
It was the first time Xu Baizhou had seen so many nethergrass growing together. He had never imagined it could be such a beautiful creature.
In the darkness, the vast field of nethergrass gave off a soft glow, transforming the bottom of the cliff into something like an illusion. For a moment, Xu Baizhou was simply transfixed.
Watching Xu Baizhou seem to lose himself in the scene, Jia Wujie found it a pleasant way to pass the time, taking his Little Medicine Guide out for a stroll was rather fun. The Little Medicine Guide had seen so little of the world; even showing him some wild grass made him this happy. Next time, he’d take him to see the Equinox Flowers blooming along the banks of the Nether River.
Jia Wujie said, somewhat smugly, “Well? Not just anyone gets to see the scenery at the bottom of this cliff.”
“It’s beautiful,” Xu Baizhou said. “I’d love to take it all back and make it into demonic potion.”
Jia Wujie’s interest vanished instantly. This Little Medicine Guide really knew how to ruin the mood.
But Xu Baizhou seemed terribly curious about the nethergrass field, and before long he had wandered right into its center.
“Why is there so much nethergrass here? Isn’t nethergrass supposed to be rare in the Demonic Realm?” Xu Baizhou asked.
“Nethergrass is a demonic plant that grows at the bottom of the cliff. Birds carried their seeds up to the cliff top, and only after overcoming countless hardships did they manage to survive in the Demonic Realm under such harsh conditions. But the cliff is far too precipitous and bottomlessly deep, few people can ever reach it, so hardly anyone knows that vast fields of nethergrass grow here,” Jia Wujie said.
Xu Baizhou nodded. “So that’s why. The nethergrass here really does grow much better than the patches up on the cliff.” He looked down at a stalk of nethergrass at his feet, on it, a small purple flower bud had even formed.
“Your Excellency, look! This nethergrass is blooming!” Xu Baizhou crouched among the pale purple nethergrass, turning back to call out to Jia Wujie.
The wind at the bottom of the cliff stirred the lush, beautiful plants, and the nethergrass swayed gently. Tiny points of starlight slowly rose from among the swaying stalks. Crouching amid that shimmering light, Xu Baizhou’s face broke into a radiant smile.
Ever since arriving at the Demonic Palace, Xu Baizhou had always seemed half-dead and listless. This was the first time Jia Wujie had ever seen him look so happy.
Only, Jia Wujie found it strange, it was nothing but a field of wild grass, yet he somehow found it a little bit beautiful.
Seeing that Jia Wujie ignored him, Xu Baizhou didn’t mind. He rose and looked around, following the direction in which the nethergrass grew. On the side far from the cliff wall, there was a mass of mist blocking his view. And within that mist, something seemed to be there.
Curious, Xu Baizhou felt an inexplicable pull from the mist, drawing him unconsciously toward it.
“Don’t go over there.” Jia Wujie’s voice suddenly came from behind him.
Xu Baizhou stopped and turned to look at him.
“What’s back there?” he asked.
Jia Wujie had been momentarily distracted, and only then realized that half of Xu Baizhou’s body had nearly entered the mist. He frowned, seeming somewhat hesitant, and after a long while, said, “It’s the Human Realm.”
The Human Realm? Xu Baizhou was startled.
If he passed through this mist, could he return to the Human Realm? And the Human Realm beyond this mist would it be his original world?
Xu Baizhou turned his head, gazing at the mist before him, trying to make out something within it. But the mist was thick and deep, and he could see nothing at all.
“Don’t go over there,” Jia Wujie said again.
“If I walk through here… will something happen to me?” Jia Wujie had stopped him twice, so Xu Baizhou assumed there must be some danger in the mist.
But Jia Wujie shook his head.
“Is it that if I go through here, I can return to the Human Realm?” Though phrased as a question, his tone was utterly certain.
Jia Wujie pondered for a moment, then nodded.
“If you don’t want me to go, why don’t you stop me?”
Xu Baizhou looked at Jia Wujie, who remained standing in place, seemingly unwilling to approach the mist by even half a step.
Could it be… that the Demon Race cannot pass through this mist?
Soon enough, Xu Baizhou’s guess was confirmed by Jia Wujie himself.
“This world is divided into Three Realms: the Demonic Realm, the Human Realm, and the Immortal Realm. The Demonic Realm and the Immortal Realm are locked in endless conflict, but their wars never spill into the Human Realm that is the bottom line shared by both realms. And as the Demon Venerable, the moment I cross this mist and descend upon the Human Realm, calamity will surely befall it.”
“So you’re saying you don’t want the Human Realm to suffer because of you?” Xu Baizhou said.
Jia Wujie did not answer his question. He simply asked, “Do you want to go back?”
Honestly, when Xu Baizhou learned this was the entrance to the Human Realm, his first instinct had been to rush back. But now, he still had some questions.
“You said calamity never reaches the Human Realm but have you truly kept that promise? At the birthday banquet, Jia Liangping, the one who presented you with the porcelain vase, he was human. Didn’t you kill him anyway?” Xu Baizhou demanded.
“Jia Liangping was human, yes, but his methods were so cruel that even the Demon Race could not match them. Relying on his vast wealth, he murdered his own kind at will, treating human lives as worthless grass. For someone like that, I merely gave him a taste of his own medicine.” Speaking of that day, Jia Wujie seemed to carry a trace of contempt.
What Jia Wujie said did make sense. Xu Baizhou had always assumed Jia Wujie was simply vicious and bloodthirsty, killing for pleasure, he had never imagined this was what he actually meant.
“Then… Gan Xin…” Though Xu Baizhou could roughly guess what Jia Wujie would say, he asked anyway.
“Gan Xin? Hmph. He was too clever for his own good, using cruel methods to create filthy, vile things. I killed him not only to give him a taste of his own medicine, as I said, but also to kill one as a warning to the rest, so no one would dare imitate him in the future. As for that Chou Mingde, his skills were indeed impressive. That Four-Unlikes he pieced together from Immortal Beasts, I genuinely liked it. But the man was far too arrogant. I gave him a small reward, then a show of force, merely to knock him down a peg and make him see his proper place.”
With that, Jia Wujie looked at Xu Baizhou. “Anything else you want to ask?”
Xu Baizhou clenched his fists. He believed what Jia Wujie said, believed that every one of those killings had its reason, only the methods were too extreme.
But there was one thing that could not be explained away.
“And the Immortal Sect disciples? They claim you destroyed their sects without provocation and forced them to come celebrate your birthday. Is that a lie too?”
At this, Jia Wujie’s calm expression suddenly darkened. His brows knitted tightly, and rage seemed to smolder in his eyes.
“They deserved to die.”
Xu Baizhou regretted it. Why had he asked Jia Wujie that question? Asking a murderous fiend why he kills, how stupid could he be?
Perhaps Jia Wujie truly had his reasons for killing those people; perhaps they truly were so wicked that death was too good for them. But one thing was undeniable: Jia Wujie was the Demon Venerable of the Demonic Realm, the king of the Demon Race and that throne was built upon the corpses of countless people.
Perhaps Jia Wujie had his reasons for killing humans. But the Demon Race and the Immortal Sects had been enemies since time immemorial. When he killed those Immortal Sect disciples, he needed no reason at all, simply because they belonged to the Immortal Sects.
Xu Baizhou looked at Jia Wujie.
Immortals slay demons, and the Demon Race kills immortals in return just as Jia Wujie said, it was simply repaying one in the same coin. That Jia Wujie harbored no intent to harm the mortal world was already remarkable.
Jia Wujie’s expression returned to normal, as if the anger he’d shown when mentioning the Immortal Sect had been Xu Baizhou’s imagination. He looked at Xu Baizhou and asked again, “Do you want to go back?”
Xu Baizhou took one last look at the mist before him.
Beyond that mist lay the mortal world, but Xu Baizhou knew it would not be the world he was familiar with.
Even if it were the world he once lived in, what would going back accomplish? Repeating his old life, one year, two years, or if he were lucky, ten or twenty until he inevitably died of illness in the end.
He looked down at the nethergrass at his feet. Here, living under Jia Wujie’s protection, he could barely get by, and he could even learn a craft from Chi Xian Cang Gui. Here, he could see far into his own future.
Perhaps this world was a new beginning.
Xu Baizhou stepped back out of the mist and returned to Jia Wujie’s side.
“No, I’m not going back.”