The Cliff : “I was going to have them throw it away, but then I thought of you and…”
Xu Baizhou carefully cradled a stalk of nethergrass as he followed behind Jia Wujie.
Jia Wujie had said that if Xu Baizhou liked them, he could send people to dig up all the nethergrass below the cliff and bring it back for him. But Xu Baizhou felt that since these nethergrass had chosen to grow here, they should be allowed to keep growing here in peace. If they were forcibly transplanted elsewhere, they probably wouldn’t grow so lushly.
Besides, the growth of every living thing maintained a natural balance just like this flourishing patch of nethergrass.
It was precisely because this place was suitable for survival and sparsely populated that the nethergrass grew here in dense clusters, which gave them a greater chance of having their seeds carried away by other creatures. Birds and beasts carried their seeds to every corner of the Demonic Realm, which was why nethergrass could be harvested endlessly there, sustaining many low-ranking demons who made their living refining medicine. If not for this one dense patch, if nethergrass only grew scattered across the Demonic Realm, it would likely be picked clean in no time and vanish from the realm entirely.
Seeing that Xu Baizhou seemed very fond of the nethergrass, Jia Wujie suggested picking one stalk to take back. Xu Baizhou thought that made sense and chose the one he had first spotted, the one with budding flowers.
Jia Wujie cast a spell on the plant so that it would remain in perfect condition even after leaving this place. Xu Baizhou planned to find a flowerpot for it once he got back.
Looking at Xu Baizhou cradling the stalk of nethergrass like it was a treasure, Jia Wujie suddenly asked, “You asked so many questions just now, why didn’t you ask about yourself?”
“Huh?” Xu Baizhou didn’t react at first. He looked at Jia Wujie in confusion before realizing that Jia Wujie was referring to what happened on the day of the birthday banquet.
That day, Jia Wujie had ordered his own arm to be broken and Xu Baizhou hadn’t provoked him in the slightest.
Just as Xu Baizhou was about to ask, Jia Wujie turned his head away. “Forget it if you won’t ask.”
Tch… Xu Baizhou rolled his eyes. “Fine, don’t tell me.”
Jia Wujie seemed to be in a good mood. Looking at the round crown of Xu Baizhou’s head beside him, a light smile appeared on his face. “I’ll tell you someday.”
After returning to the top of the cliff, the first thing Xu Baizhou did was go check on Chi Xian and Cang Gui.
As the esteemed Demon Venerable, it wouldn’t be appropriate for Jia Wujie to tag along with Xu Baizhou, so he called Dang Ji over to accompany him, instructing Dang Ji to bring Xu Baizhou back to the Demonic Palace afterward.
On the way, Xu Baizhou asked Dang Ji about Chi Xian and Cang Gui’s condition, learning that both had been injured to varying degrees but had already been treated.
Xu Baizhou was especially worried about Cang Gui, since he had been struck by that enormous Demonic Beast’s claw, a wound so deep the bone had been visible. It must have been agonizing.
When Xu Baizhou arrived at the courtyard where Chi Xian and Cang Gui lived, to his surprise, it was Cang Gui who opened the door.
“Cang Gui? Is your wound all right? Where’s Chi Xian?” Xu Baizhou asked.
The wound on Cang Gui’s shoulder had been properly bandaged, and judging by his state, he seemed to be fine otherwise.
“I’m, I’m fine,” Cang Gui said. “Just a s-small wound. Chi Xian is, in, the room, inside.”
Xu Baizhou followed Cang Gui into the room and found Chi Xian lying in bed with one leg suspended in a sling, moaning “aiyo, aiyo” in pain.
Hearing someone arrive, he moaned even louder.
“Aiyo! My leg! My leg is ruined! Aiyo, it hurts so much!”
Xu Baizhou hurried over to the bedside and asked, “What happened to your leg?”
Seeing that it was Xu Baizhou who had come, Chi Xian’s voice grew even more aggrieved.
“Aiyo, Second Brother, you’re here? If you’d come any later, you might never have seen this humble one again!”
“Th-the doctor said your leg just needs a few days of rest and it’ll heal,” said Cang Gui, who had followed Xu Baizhou into the room.
“What do you know! They say it takes a hundred days to heal broken bones, and my leg is actually broken! Aiyo… my poor leg! Second Brother, this humble one will probably end up crippled, never able to serve at your side again!” Chi Xian wiped his nose, smearing it on Xu Baizhou’s sleeve.
Cang Gui, finding Chi Xian too noisy, simply ignored him, shook his head, and went back out.
Now only Xu Baizhou and Chi Xian remained in the room. Xu Baizhou looked at Chi Xian’s leg, which was wrapped up like a rice dumpling, and said, “How did you break your leg? Weren’t you lying safely up in the tree?”
Chi Xian wiped his nose again and wailed, “Second Brother! Wasn’t it because I wanted to save you! When I saw you and Cang Gui being bullied by that Demonic Beast, I was truly anxious up there! Seeing you two at a disadvantage, I waited for the right moment and leaped down to lend you a hand! But who could have expected, who could have expected!”
“Expected what? How exactly did you fall and hurt your leg?” Xu Baizhou pressed anxiously.
“I never expected His Excellency to descend from the heavens, and a gust of wind swept me right off…” Chi Xian muttered under his breath.
Xu Baizhou cried out, “What? He knocked you off!”
“Shh, shh, keep your voice down!” Chi Xian quickly covered Xu Baizhou’s mouth, glancing out the window at Dang Ji standing in the courtyard. “His Excellency was only trying to save people. My leg is a small matter, a small matter…”
“Small matter? How could it be a small matter? Just now you were saying your leg would end up crippled!” Xu Baizhou said anxiously.
Chi Xian’s leg wasn’t actually anything serious in the first place, he had merely been putting on an act in front of Xu Baizhou to win some sympathy. He never expected Xu Baizhou to take it seriously.
If Xu Baizhou really went and brought this matter up before His Excellency, then he’d be in serious trouble, Chi Xian thought. What was his own status, that he could blame His Excellency? Besides, Lord Dang was still in the courtyard, if he overheard Chi Xian harboring complaints against His Excellency, wouldn’t that be outright rebellion!
Chi Xian immediately changed his tune, putting on an ingratiating expression. “Aiyo, aiyo, Second Brother, I was exaggerating, just exaggerating… There’s really nothing wrong with my leg. The doctor said it’ll be fine after some rest! I can still walk, don’t believe me? Watch, this humble one will walk a couple of laps for you, Second Brother!”
With that, Chi Xian actually got up and tried to climb out of bed to walk.
Xu Baizhou quickly pressed him back down, stopping him from this extreme course of action.
“All right, no walking. Rest well and don’t let anything go wrong, a leg injury is no joking matter.” Xu Baizhou looked at Chi Xian’s leg with concern, then lowered his eyes somewhat dejectedly and said, “Come to think of it, this is all because of me. You got hurt for no reason, it’s all my fault.”
Seeing Xu Baizhou blaming himself so much, Chi Xian hurriedly consoled him: “How could this possibly be your fault, Second Brother? Absolutely not, absolutely not! Second Brother, please don’t overthink it, don’t overthink it!”
Xu Baizhou shook his head. “If I hadn’t wrongly trusted that bird and insisted on going to the bottom of the cliff, you two wouldn’t have run into such danger.”
Chi Xian said, “You can’t blame yourself for all of it, Second Brother! You were harmed by a treacherous person… a treacherous bird! Besides, weren’t you searching for nethergrass for our sake? This humble one knows you saw how hard we work and wanted to gather more nethergrass for us, so we could make more demonic potions and earn more money. We understand!”
Xu Baizhou knew Chi Xian was only saying this to comfort him, and that it really was his own foolishness that had nearly harmed those around him. Fortunately, both of them had only been injured nothing irreparable. It was a blessing amid misfortune.
“Then rest and recover well these next few days. I’ll come see you when I have time,” Xu Baizhou said.
“Don’t worry, Second Brother! The physician Dang Ji brought from the Demonic Palace has remarkable skills, and he left us so many precious medicinal ingredients that this humble one can hardly bear to use them! You go attend to your business, no need to worry about us!”
Xu Baizhou nodded and looked out the window, where Dang Ji still stood in the courtyard, blade in his arms.
After bidding farewell to Chi Xian and Cang Gui, Xu Baizhou returned to the Demonic Palace with Dang Ji. Unexpectedly, Dang Ji did not take him to Jia Wujie’s bedchamber, but instead led him to a courtyard.
Having delivered Xu Baizhou to that place, Dang Ji left.
This was an inner courtyard of the Demonic Palace. The path through the middle was paved with stone slabs, and on either side grew all manner of flowers.
Xu Baizhou crouched down and saw that the soil the flowers were planted in was still soft, they had clearly been newly planted.
Though the time Xu Baizhou had spent in this world wasn’t exactly long, it wasn’t short either, and having spent this period wandering the Demonic Realm with Chi Xian and Cang Gui, he had come to know it fairly well.
Looking at the flowers around him, Xu Baizhou felt something was strange.
He had never seen these flowers anywhere in the Demonic Realm, and as far as he knew, such delicate, vivid blossoms could not grow there.
They looked more like flowers from the mortal world.
Xu Baizhou leaned in and smelled their fragrance. The flowers of this world seemed somewhat different from those of his original world as well. Though Xu Baizhou couldn’t name this particular flower, in that long-lost fragrance he caught a faint trace of the mortal world.
“Do you like them?”
Jia Wujie’s voice sounded by his ear. Xu Baizhou turned around to see Jia Wujie standing behind him with his hands clasped behind his back, smiling at him.
“Why are there so many flowers from the mortal world here?” Xu Baizhou asked.
Jia Wujie walked to Xu Baizhou’s side, reached out, plucked a petal, placed it in his palm, and blew it into the air.
The petal drifted slowly down, landing right on Xu Baizhou’s head, and Jia Wujie laughed like a child whose prank had succeeded.
“Childish,” Xu Baizhou said, patting his somewhat overgrown hair to knock the petal off.
“You first, tell me if you like them or not,” Jia Wujie said with a grin.
Though Xu Baizhou found Jia Wujie rather tiresome, he still told the truth: “I like them.”
Jia Wujie seemed quite satisfied with the affirmative answer. He reached out and wrapped his arms around Xu Baizhou from behind, resting his chin on top of Xu Baizhou’s head. “A few days ago, at this venerable one’s birthday banquet, the human race presented these ordinary flowers to me. I was going to have them thrown away, but then I thought you might like them, so I kept them.”
Xu Baizhou responded with an eye-roll: “Well, thank you so very much.”
“You’re welcome,” Jia Wujie said. “You were also presented to this venerable one as a tribute, but I never wanted to throw you away, on the contrary, I saved your life. How do you plan to repay me?”
Xu Baizhou, wondering why he’d never noticed before how persistent Jia Wujie could be, replied perfunctorily: “This humble one will serve as your ox and horse, venerable one, devoting himself to you body and soul until his dying day, to repay the grace of having his life saved.”
A soft laugh came from above his head. “That’s more like it.”