Wenren Qi’s words were always harsh. However, given that he had helped him, Cen Moyu was willing to be close to him and endure it. “I cannot make you understand,” Cen Moyu muttered.
“Then who do you intend to speak to?” Wenren Qi’s fingers stroked the child’s feathers. The streets of the East Realm’s Demon Capital resembled the cities of the human world, except the entire city was filled with pomelo trees. The scent of pomelos lingered through all four seasons, making it far better than the foul atmosphere of the West Realm’s Demon Capital.
He had not left the Qingheng Sect in years and rarely engaged in such idle chatter. Perhaps because the little demon sitting before him had shared skin-to-skin intimacy with him, or because the small bird in his palm shared their bloodline, his mood had unexpectedly improved.
“He said you spoke to someone throughout the entire journey.” If not for the limitations of the puppet body, Wenren Qi’s cultivation would have easily allowed him to dive into Cen Moyu’s consciousness to investigate his past. “Was that person a Shadow Demon?”
Cen Moyu was an imported soul; even after a hundred years as a gate-keeping disciple, there was much he did not understand. He blinked and asked, “What kind of demon is that?”
“A demon that hides in shadows,” Wenren Qi said, testing him. “They live near the Abyss of Delusion.”
“The Abyss of Delusion? Where is that?” Cen Moyu suddenly recalled Yu Xiang mentioning it. “Is it a place where Mara cultivators live?”
His gaze was naturally pure. Wenren Qi truly could not see any trace of a disguise.
“After I left Liyuan, aside from meeting a little sparrow at the Qingheng Sect, I have not known any other demons. The Cockatiel I am staying with is also a friend of that little sparrow. Of course, he treats me very well.”
Ignoring the various implements for intimacy in the singing hall’s guest room, the accommodations were far more luxurious than the small building Cen Moyu had previously lived in. The tables, chairs, and tea sets were all of the highest quality.
At this moment, Wenren Qi was not idle either. Having found willow branches from somewhere, he began weaving them right before Cen Moyu’s eyes. The male demon’s appearance was plain. There was nothing particularly ugly about him, yet nothing stood out. Everything was average, though his long hair was intricately braided. When he lowered his head, Cen Moyu could see silver threads entwined in the hair hanging by his neck.
Having eaten his fill, the tiny bird was currently nestled in the drooping sleeve of the Vine Demon, fast asleep. The scene was unexpectedly heartwarming. The puppet’s face did not possess even a tenth of Wenren Qi’s true beauty, but with his soul attached, even wood gained a certain radiance.
Even though his voice was not pleasant, it did not stop Cen Moyu from giving him extra credit for his meticulousness. “Then why did your birdling say you frequently talk to someone?”
“A-Qi, you said last night that Gugu was our child,” Cen Moyu said. His clothes were still somewhat disheveled, and he noticed the demon’s duplicity. “How did he become my birdling again today?”
Mentioning the little birdling made Cen Moyu’s smile brighten. “He takes my surname. I plan to register his residency in the Demon Capital. Brother Yu Xiang told me before that children in the Demon Capital can go to the academy run by the City Lord to practice cultivation.”
“No.”
The Vine Demon’s movements paused. Several soft willow branches were still wrapped around his fingers, making his distinct knuckles even more prominent.
Cen Moyu thought to himself, “He might not be handsome, but his physique and hands are nice, and he is very tall. Although he cannot compare to Xiaogu’s other father, he is the type whose mouth says no but whose heart is soft. He knows how to take care of small birds; he is a good demon.”
“Why not?” The System was nowhere to be found, though it might return. Cen Moyu’s cultivation was mediocre, so he certainly could not teach the child himself. This world was dangerous. Cen Moyu had given birth to the child in secret. If Wenren Qi found out about the child’s existence and tried to kill him, what then? The child had to cultivate, if only to be able to run away.
Wenren Qi had trained the little birdling within his consciousness and naturally knew the quality of his own flesh and blood. “He was born with infinite spiritual energy. The demonic energy here is too turbid; it is not suitable for his cultivation.”
“But we are both demons. If we are not in the Demon Capital, where can we go?”
“His,” Wenren Qi paused, asking a question he already knew the answer to. “Was your late wife not a demon?”
Cen Moyu choked. The original body’s romantic debts were relentless. He asked, “You took such a big risk to sneak into the Qingheng Sect; who helped you mask the demonic energy on your body?”
Wenren Qi let out a scoff. “Was it your late wife?”
Though he knew he was the “late wife” being spoken of, Wenren Qi was curious: who in this world could bypass his formations to plant a demon as a gate-keeping disciple in the Qingheng Sect? If it were Kuai Ou from the Abyss of Delusion, he would only know how to attack by force.
The System was Cen Moyu’s greatest secret, an existence even the child did not know about. Even if the bird egg had discovered that its father talked to himself and seemed to have another person within him, the bird was small and did not know how to describe it. Wenren Qi naturally would not think of such a thing.
“I suppose so.” Cen Moyu’s eyes darted away, attempting to change the subject. “I am in no rush. This is Big Brother Hu’s territory. Brother Yu Xiang said he can protect me. I want to raise Little Treasure a bit more before considering cultivation.”
Wenren Qi had seen many low-level demons spend their entire lives practicing, only to never match the natural talent others were born with. Even though Cen Moyu was a rare Fairy Pitta, it seemed all his luck had been used up just becoming a demon. The Qingheng Sect was a prime location for cultivation, yet a hundred years had not improved his level. His talent was clearly mediocre.
Wenren Qi had disciples under his name. Though he rarely taught techniques personally, he could judge the maximum potential of any cultivator. This little bird stood no chance. Wenren Qi was dissatisfied with his passivity. “Do you intend to wait for others to protect you for the rest of your life?”
Cen Moyu had a soft personality and was easily frightened. Even before transmigrating into the book, he was not a particularly popular person. He had talent but did not know how to use his beautiful face; he preferred to hide behind the scenes writing songs for others, never sharing his feelings or life.
His first boyfriend had debuted through a talent show and become a top-tier singer, while he remained anonymous. He thought he could live without regrets, yet he was still abandoned. His life, which ended with a fall from an overpass, was just as passive as this man described. But no one protected him. Even the person he loved did not want him.
Cen Moyu felt a pang of sadness. He looked away, out the window, listening to the wind rustling the pomelo leaves. He said softly, “I will protect Little Treasure.”
Wenren Qi saw him sniffle and asked in confusion, “Are you crying just from that?”
“I am not.” Cen Moyu covered his face. “You saw wrong.”
Since his youth, Wenren Qi knew that not all demons were powerful, and not all were incapable of distinguishing good from evil. Humans could be heinous, and demons could be pure and kind. Before becoming the Sect Leader, he had always opposed indiscriminate demon-slaying operations. All things under heaven did not belong solely to cultivators and mortals. Plants and trees had spirits too; why should they be considered demons just because they gained sentience?
This bird had inexplicably laid an egg and did not seem to know how to raise it. Could he really protect a fledgling that had not even grown its feathers? Or was this all an act?
The Abyss of Delusion was considered the Mara Realm. The days were short and the nights were long. The same moon appeared red there. It was perpetually shrouded in thick fog, cold and chaotic, and the wind smelled of desire. Though there were cultivators who fell into the Mara path there, the number of Mara demons was massive, and they were far less orderly than the Demon Capital.
Seeing that Cen Moyu kept covering his face, Wenren Qi asked, “Do you plan to stay in the Demon Capital forever, or go somewhere else?”
“The Demon Capital is good.”
“I wonder who it was that was chased into hiding just recently.”
“That was,” Cen Moyu could not argue. He could not forget the hideous faces of those demons driven by lust. “Regardless, it is not Little Treasure’s fault.”
“He has high talent and is a prime candidate for the Dao,” Wenren Qi thought to himself. If Cen Moyu was not a spy from the Abyss, and word of the child got out, Mara Generals would surely come to snatch him. “In the eyes of his own kind, he is like a spiritual elixir.”
Knowing full well the child was sired by the little Fairy Pitta in secret, he still asked, “That late wife of yours, what kind of person was he?”
It was just idle chatter, yet Wenren Qi had already woven a small, delicate bird’s nest out of willow. He tucked the sleeping fledgling inside. In its sleep, the bird greedily swallowed the bird food the man fed it.
Cen Moyu leaned on the table, seemingly unwilling to recall the face of his late wife. He murmured vaguely, “He was very fierce.”
Wenren Qi let out a cold snort. “And yet he still sired an egg with you?”
Cen Moyu always felt a strange sense of familiarity from him. Suddenly jolting, he sat up straight and pointed at Wenren Qi. “You are very similar. Both of you are very fierce.”
The Vine Demon looked at him expressionlessly, his thick, dark eyebrows slanted toward his temples. His shoulder-length black hair softened his murderous aura slightly.
Given that he was very good at taking care of the little bird, making nests better than a real bird and acting more like a father than Cen Moyu, the little Fairy Pitta deflated. “Fine. Although you are not as beautiful as him, at least you are good at housekeeping and looking after children.”
What a bizarre evaluation. Wenren Qi was speechless for a long time. Then he asked, “Since he is a late wife, what are you doing here? Do you not know that half-demons do not have it easy in the Demon Capital either?”
Cen Moyu was puzzled. “Half-demons can live very well. Did you not see?” He pointed to a big-tailed half-demon passing by on the street, likely the child of a werewolf and a human. “The entrance even says the City Lord will take in homeless demons, regardless of status.”
Wenren Qi countered, “Then have you ever seen the child of a cultivator and a demon survive well?”
Cen Moyu thought for a long time, and his face turned pale. “Brother Yu Xiang did not tell me the Demon Capital would not accept us.”
“It is not a matter of acceptance, but,” Wenren Qi paused. There were still extra willow branches on the table. This was top-grade willow wood from a blessed land with the densest spiritual energy. If anyone knew it was being used to make a bird’s nest, they would likely scream about the waste.
The little Fairy Pitta was clearly frightened, biting his lip until teeth marks appeared. The cultivator disguised as a demon glanced over, remembering the bite marks he had left on the other’s body. His Adam’s apple bobbed. As his fingers wove a new nest, he said slowly, “They are easily eaten.”
The fledgling in the nest on the table had a pink beak; it was tiny and young. Cen Moyu had worked so hard to give birth to him and fled all the way for him to hatch. This was not only his only relative in this world but the most blood-related being he had across any world.
The little Fairy Pitta hugged the bird’s nest. His loose white inner robe slipped down to his elbows. Just a bit more, and Wenren Qi would have seen the scar on his abdomen.
“That cannot happen.” He held the nest cautiously, as if nothing in the world was more precious. Seeing this, Wenren Qi suddenly felt a headache. Fragments of images he had never seen flashed before his eyes. Was it from the day of the Lightning Tribulation? It did not seem like it. Cen Moyu seemed to have held him like this before, as if he were so important that Moyu would shield him from everything.
The soul residing in the puppet coaxed him, “Then why not seek protection from the child’s other parent?”
Cen Moyu almost told him everything. But Wenren Qi was his secret, along with his identity and the circumstances of his arrival in this world. The beautiful little demon’s lips were bitten red. He insisted that Wenren Qi was the late wife. “I consider him dead.”
“Even if he were dead, I would not seek his protection.”
Wenren Qi, who was being treated as a dead man, pressed his lips thin. He asked in a deep voice, “Why?”
“Do you have no affection for him at all, or do you have a grudge? If so, why did you give birth to that person’s child?”
“Of course it was not voluntary!” Cen Moyu was on the verge of tears. “I have no grudge against him either. He is very good-looking, but he is too fierce. And I am not the person he is destined to be with.”
Cen Moyu suddenly thought of the ex-boyfriend who had taken everything from him. That man’s scandals were constantly on the trending searches, yet no one acknowledged Moyu’s existence, his talent, or his potential.
“None of them belong to me.” Cen Moyu thought of his mother who died young, his late grandparents, the lover in the cold snow country who abandoned him for a career, and the biological father who sent him away for a family alliance. Every step he took was wrong. Even transmigrating into a new world was a massive mistake. Even the System seemed to have disappeared because of him.
“Is my very existence a mistake? Then why did I come here?”
His tears completely startled the sleeping little bird. The fledgling flapped its wings, and though its flight was unstable, it exerted all its strength to peck at the culprit. “You bully Daddy! You scoundrel! Go die! You are a bad person!”
Curses and bird droppings fell together. Fortunately, Wenren Qi had the foresight to put a diaper on him, so the scene was not too unsightly. The Vine Demon caught the fledgling with one large hand. The endless stream of curses made the veins on his forehead throb. A puppet body could not contain intense emotions. Wenren Qi calmed his breathing and feigned composure. “When did I bully him? Let us be reasonable, shall we?”
Cen Xiaogu chirped and scolded his father: “You did! You did! Moyu is crying!”
Cen Moyu hurriedly wiped his tears. “It is okay, baby. Daddy was just…”
The little fellow, whose intelligence had developed while still an egg, had picked up human speech from somewhere. He chirped and repeated, “Apologizing means you have to lick the tears clean, you scoundrel!”
Cen Moyu hurriedly tried to stop him. “No, baby, what are you saying?”
“Daddy, do not cover my mouth! Uncle Mai said…”
Cen Moyu realized why those words sounded so familiar. Mai Li had said them when sending him to the Demon Capital, apparently intending for them to be used on a lover. His child was not a parrot, yet he was mimicking everything. Had Yu Xiang done some early childhood education while he was still an egg?
Licking this and that… Cen Moyu’s tongue felt tied. “I am sorry, I…”
The man opposite him suddenly stood up. His shadow was large enough to envelop both the Fairy Pitta and his son. Looking at his frame, Cen Moyu knew he could not win a fight, and his cultivation made it even more impossible.
He went to pick up the little birdling and was about to apologize again when his chin was suddenly pinched. A warm lip pressed against his face. Cen Moyu was stunned.
He actually licked them!