The main hall of the Demon Palace stood silent. Seventy-two levels of obsidian steps led to the most prestigious seat. These steps acted as a boundary, separating two rows of high-ranking demons who now stood with heads bowed. Not one dared to glance toward the throne, nor did they dare to make a sound.
“Withdraw,” Feng Ji commanded indifferently.
The demons retreated with practiced efficiency, leaving only two people in the towering hall.
Yu Huaixin was forced to sit on Feng Ji’s lap with his legs apart. His hands were bound by demonic energy and looped around Feng Ji’s neck. He had no room to resist and was forced to look directly at Feng Ji’s gloating face.
“Beauty, how do you think I should settle the score for the wound you gave me that day?” Feng Ji asked with a smile. He pinched Yu Huaixin’s chin and looked at his face with eyes dark with unreadable intent.
Faced with this situation, Yu Huaixin felt no fear because everything was within his control. Even if Feng Ji succeeded in his physical advances, Yu Huaixin had long ceased to care about matters of the flesh. Moreover, Feng Ji might not succeed at all.
Yu Huaixin remained silent.
Feng Ji took this silence as a display of false pretension. The savage nature of the Demon Race erupted. He pulled the jade hairpin from Yu Huaixin’s head. The pin and the hair crown fell to the floor and shattered into pieces.
As Yu Huaixin’s snow-white hair spilled out, Feng Ji caught a strand and breathed in its scent with lingering greed. His movements were elegant, yet his words were crude. “This body is a natural cauldron for cultivation. Perhaps I should enjoy it now. Once my wound is fully healed, I will take you to play even more interesting games.”
Yu Huaixin slowly leaned forward. Feng Ji assumed he was surrendering, but instead, Yu Huaixin bit down hard on the side of Feng Ji’s neck in an act of revenge.
To Feng Ji, the bite was neither painful nor itchy. Rather, it felt like a flirtation. It only served to excite him further, making him eager to show the person in his arms who was truly in charge.
“Slavish creature, do you want me that badly? I still remember the look on your face back then.”
Yu Huaixin’s lips curved into a faint, silent smile. He said nothing more. The incense in the hall grew thicker. As Yu Huaixin breathed it in, his body grew weak. Eventually, he hung limply against Feng Ji as if his bones had been removed.
“Before the real show begins, I have specifically invited a guest. Do you want to know who it is?” Feng Ji asked.
“As you wish,” Yu Huaixin replied weakly.
“Hahahaha! Good! Then I shall let you know! Bring him in!”
An iron cage was lowered from above onto the open floor. Inside was a youth whose clothes were relatively clean and whose spirit was not yet broken. As soon as the cage door opened, the youth rushed out, only to be stopped by a transparent barrier.
This youth was Li Sichen.
After seeing Yu Huaixin captured, Li Sichen had tried to follow him, but he was quickly intercepted by a group of demons. He had woken up in that dark cage.
Yu Huaixin, unaware that the spectator was Li Sichen, kept his head rested tiredly on Feng Ji’s shoulder, not even bothering to look back.
Feng Ji spoke loudly, “I rejected him, yet this slave insisted on clinging to me, begging for my attention. Look at how tightly he holds me, as if he is afraid I might run away.”
Feng Ji struck Yu Huaixin and cursed, “How lowly.”
Li Sichen was livid. He brandished the Yanpo Sword, ready to fight to the death. “Go to hell! Feng Ji, I will kill you!”
Unsurprisingly, Feng Ji used a simple spell to throw him against the wall. Li Sichen coughed up blood, unable to even stand.
Yu Huaixin finally turned his head to look at Li Sichen. His eyes were misty with tears, filled with an endless sense of grievance as if he wanted to tell Li Sichen everything.
Li Sichen’s heart shattered. He usually believed that a man should not cry easily, but today, he could not control himself. Seeing Yu Huaixin in another man’s arms filled him not with jealousy, but with rage and soul-crushing pain.
Yu Huaixin was so pure, like the bright moon in the sky. His radiance was something one should not dare to offend. Li Sichen had cherished him with everything he had, so how could this man humiliate him like this?
Feng Ji looked at the injured Li Sichen and sneered. “The play has not even started. Why are you in such a hurry? You have already tasted how he feels, have you not?”
“You! Let him go! If you have the guts, come at me!”
Feng Ji turned his attention back to Yu Huaixin. He leaned close to his ear and whispered, “You stayed with him the whole way. Are you that reluctant to part with your precious disciple? I remember in your previous life, he was largely responsible for you becoming a plaything. I should really thank him. Without him, I would not have such a perfect cauldron. Why the long face? If you miss the past, I can fulfill your wish right now.”
“What do you want to do?” Yu Huaixin asked.
“I will return his memories to him. I will let him remember how he treated you before and then let him do it all over again in this life.”
Yu Huaixin could not allow that. If Li Sichen remembered everything, his plan for revenge would be ruined. His gaze turned sharp as he threatened Feng Ji. “Feng Ji, do you think I met you that day just to wound you with a blade?”
“What do you mean?” Feng Ji’s expression turned serious.
This was why Yu Huaixin was confident Feng Ji would not succeed. “The blade was poisoned. If you want to live longer, you had better stay quiet. The trigger for the poison is in my hands. If I crush the charm, you will die.”
“Heh, you are more interesting than I thought. In that case, I will play along. I know you are immune to the Poison of the Netherworld now, so I have prepared something else. I wonder if this will be to your liking.”
Feng Ji shifted Yu Huaixin in his arms. With a sharp tearing sound, the fabric gave way. He roughly forced a thumb-sized white pill into Yu Huaixin’s mouth. Yu Huaixin’s body shuddered, and his consciousness blurred instantly.
Feng Ji then grabbed a wine flask, pinched Yu Huaixin’s cheeks, and poured drugged wine down his throat. Yu Huaixin coughed and choked, but Feng Ji did not stop until the other man’s eyes closed in exhaustion and he slumped drunkenly against Feng Ji’s chest.
Finally, Feng Ji cut his own arm and let his blood drip into Yu Huaixin’s mouth. Once the blood merged with Yu Huaixin’s body, the other man would have to think twice before trying to kill him.
“You want to save him, do you not?” Feng Ji looked at Li Sichen. “Then let me see your sincerity. Use your sword to cut yourself. Take a step forward for every cut. Once you reach me, I will give him to you. I never break my word. How about it?”