As a small gazette compiler with ambition, Zhou Xuanle, after completing the latest round of disciple exchange studies at the Jinchan Sect, resolutely requested permission to descend the mountain and undergo training.
He decided to embark on a long journey in pursuit of the truth.
He would retrace the path of the Demon Lord Xie Chen’s escape from that year, seeking out the ordinary villagers and wandering cultivators who had once seen him with their own eyes, or even briefly offered him aid. He would ask, verify and uncover the truth buried beneath layers upon layers of rumor.
One month later, in a fishing village by the Eastern Extreme Sea, an old fisherman squinted into the distance, smacking his lips thoughtfully as he puffed on his pipe.
“You mean that young lad Xie? A fine boy, he was… quick with his hands, hardworking. A bit quiet, sure but kind-hearted. See that old boat by the pier? He repaired it. Even gave that big reef at the village entrance a proper name.”
Three months later, at the edge of the great desert in the Western Wastes, a shepherd woman shook her head as she milked her sheep.
“The Demon Lord? How could little Xie be anything like that… such a good person, he was. In sandstorms he’d help look for lost lambs, not a word of complaint. Just a bit odd, talked all refined and scholarly, even liked naming the little foxes hiding in the dunes.”
Seven months later, in a snowbound village in the Northern Territories, a hunter warming his hands by the fire said,
“Must be some mistake, don’t go wronging a good man! When the mountains were sealed by heavy snow, little Xie went door to door delivering firewood. Didn’t talk much but he worked honestly. Even liked naming the pine trees buried in the snow. How could someone like that be a Demon Lord?”
The journey was long and the road dusty.
Damn it!
Long enough that, inside a rattling carriage, Zhou Xuanle, utterly bored, finally finished reading that book: Forceful Seizure: One Hundred Days and Nights Between the Demon Lord and Me.
A full eighty percent of the book consisted of large, unaltered excerpts lifted directly from his own meticulous research notes!
Although it did state they were quoted, still, still, how could the entire book twist his rigorous investigations with such wildly subjective interpretations!
What did it mean by: “Isn’t it obvious enough? Senior Brother Yin must have secretly gone to see his junior before their official meeting and fallen in love at first sight! Otherwise why would he keep putting on airs the moment they met?”
And what was this: “Hey, is no one paying attention to the details? Every time the situation turned critical, Junior Brother Xie always saved Senior Brother Yin first! First priority, second priority, everyone else can just cry about it. Doesn’t that say enough?”
Even more baffling was: “The entire sect’s Xie-fandom only breaks down when it comes to the real sister-in-law.”
What kind of incomprehensible language was that?
After reading it once, Zhou Xuanle was full of disdain.
But the road was simply too long. As if possessed by something unseen, he opened it again for a second read.
“Look at that, so furious, absolutely furious, saying the other doesn’t appreciate his kindness, breaking ties… and yet still dressing up beautifully and wandering around in front of him every day.”
“Look at that, even if he hates him, setting aside the facts, my junior brother is the Demon Lord, how could the entire cultivation world possibly be wrong?”
“Look at that, kicking him out of the Jinchan Sect after a lover’s quarrel, only to feel bad and drag him back within days.”
“And the other side is no better.”
“Senior brother’s sarcasm? Ignored completely. Being beaten by senior brother until coughing blood? As if it never happened. Stabbed through the chest twice? Still pleading on senior brother’s behalf. All the good things from the Tianzhen trial go to senior brother. Hanging senior brother from a tree because entering the Crimson Realm secret境 would be too dangerous for him.”
“Never once said a word of love yet the moment senior brother’s shoes break, he notices immediately.”
Zhou Xuanan:
Zhou Xuanan: “???”
It had to be said, this ridiculous book becoming wildly popular and selling like wildfire… well… it did have something going for it.
More than half a year later, Zhou Xuanle finally arrived at the final destination of his journey: Qinghe Village.
The Demon Lord Xie Chen had once lived here in seclusion for nearly half a year.
Although the final battle to eliminate the Demon Lord broke out not far beyond the village, in the midst of that fierce fight, Xie Chen still diverted a portion of his demonic power throughout, shielding this ordinary little village completely, ensuring it remained untouched, without suffering the slightest harm.
It was evident how close he had been with the villagers here.
Even the elders of the village, when recalling him, wore nothing but gentle, kindly smiles on their faces. “He was a very amiable young man and exceptionally handsome too, like an immortal who had stepped right out of a painting. It’s just that his health didn’t seem very good. His complexion was always pale and he would cough from time to time.”
“But even so, plenty of the young girls and boys in the village liked to gather around him. Some even wanted to take him in as a son-in-law. What a pity, he always said he wouldn’t be staying long, that he would have to leave sooner or later.”
A little grandson chimed in noisily, squeezing his way forward to add, “Big Brother helped the village with so many things! Those wooden houses over there were all built with his help!”
“He even played hide-and-seek with us!”
“He also gave names to the scarecrows!”
Listening to all this, Zhou Xuanle realized that Qinghe Village’s account was no different from the places he had visited before, Xie Chen was kind, frail and fond of naming things. Nothing like a Demon Lord.
That was, until the little grandson tugged at his hand, hopping and skipping as he led him toward “the little wooden hut where Big Brother used to live.”
All the village’s scarecrows were clearly out in the fields yet in front of this wooden hut, where there were no fields at all, stood a lone scarecrow, abrupt and out of place.
The scarecrow itself was nothing remarkable and otherwise no different from the others scattered across the village.
The only distinction was that it had clearly been dressed with care.
It wore an old robe of deep black and crimson and though faded, one could still faintly make out the dull gleam of golden thread woven into the fabric. Tied around its head was a hair ribbon, its colors long worn away yet still discernibly once luxurious, interwoven with gold and silver strands.
“Look! It’s this one!”
The little grandson pointed at it, raising his voice. “Big Brother gave it a name, called it ‘Xuanlin’!”
“There are hundreds of scarecrows in the fields but he only gave a name to this one! So this one belongs to him!”
“Sometimes Big Brother would sit over there on the steps and just stare into space for a long, long time… just looking at this scarecrow.”
“But later, Big Brother’s health kept getting worse.”
“And he didn’t smile much anymore.”
On the day Xie Chen left Qinghe Village, dark clouds pressed low over the sky, heavy with the promise of a storm. Without alerting anyone, he slipped away quietly.
“But that day, when we were playing hide-and-seek, we hid under the bridge over there,” said a slightly older child in a hushed, conspiratorial tone. “And we saw Big Brother… he was talking to that scarecrow!”
“He said… that they probably would never see each other again.”
“He also said… that he blamed himself for being ignorant and reckless back then, foolish and cowardly, unable to understand so many things.”
“It sounded like he also said that he had originally planned to go look for some senior brother once he had recovered a bit and that if only he had been willing to listen to his senior brother’s teachings back then, or at least not been so arrogant when his senior brother tried to explain…”
“Enough.”
But in the end, on that day, the Demon Lord merely lifted his hand and gently brushed his fingertips over the scarecrow’s hair ribbon. “Fortunately, my senior brother is doing well now.”
Zhou Xuanle stood upon the ridge between the fields, waves surging within his heart.
After endless wandering and exile, everyone had assumed Qinghe Village would be the final end of the Demon Lord Xie Chen.
Yet, within that hell abandoned by the world, a figure clad in striking red had once cut through layers of dark clouds and descended before him, just as unrestrained and vivid as in memory.
Carefree, dazzling and utterly untouchable.
What must Xie Chen have felt in that moment?
There were many other rumors as well, ones Zhou Xuanle had once believed impossible to be true.
For instance, on that day in Qinghe Village, it was said that Yin Xuanlin had carried Xie Chen away in his arms. “The young lord’s expression was so dark it was terrifying, as though the one he held was not his mortal enemy, the Demon Lord but his own deceased father.”
There were also later rumors that he had spent vast sums of money, scattering gold like dust to gather rare medicines from across the world, all for the sake of treating the Demon Lord’s injuries. It was precisely because of this rumor that the later tale of “hiding him away in a golden house” came to be.
There were also stories that, during all the places Xie You fled to, he had always carried close to his body a certain important recording stone.
People all said that it must have contained some great secret of his as the Demon Lord, evidence of unforgivable crimes, records of deep-seated grudges, or memories tied to some demonic treasure.
Yet that recording stone, in the end, was given by him to a child of Qinghe Village.
Zhou Xuanle had been fortunate enough to view it once. The memory fragment sealed within it was not any earth-shattering secret, nor some supreme treasure of the demon realm, as everyone had speculated.
It was merely an ordinary scene from his youth, one simple instance of sword flight.
It was said that recording stones were precious, that people would only use them to preserve their greatest crimes, their deepest hatred, or their most beautiful memories.
And yet, what Xie Chen had preserved was not even the first time in his life that he had flown on a sword.
There was none of the excitement of a beginner, nor the ease and delight of admiring mountains and rivers from above. There was only Senior Brother Yin, deliberately making things difficult for him, riding that utterly improper, ridiculous treasure carriage of his, crashing into him again and again and knocking him off his sword.
But at that time, Xie Chen already had a solid foundation; he had not been flustered or overwhelmed.
So to call this a record of guilt or hatred made no sense at all. No matter how one looked at it, it did not seem like a memory worthy of such careful preservation.
And yet, it had become the only fragment of his past that he carried with him throughout his long exile.
Perhaps it was only because, within that stretch of time, there had been imprinted too much, too much youthful pride, too much stubborn competitiveness, too much ignorance that somehow still saw through everything… and, in the end, a quiet, helpless sense of having just missed one another.
Two years later.
Another storybook, based on the present-day Zhaoye Lord and the Demon Lord, titled I Took the Demon Lord as My Furnace, was finally completed amid great anticipation. Unexpectedly, it ended as a deeply sigh-inducing tragedy.
Enemies entangled in love and hatred, their burdens too heavy to undo in the end.
Left with no choice but to forget each other and drift apart in the wider world, earning countless tears and regrets from its readers.
Fortunately, Zhou Xuanle received an invitation.
Presented respectfully by the Jinchan Sect:
It is hereby determined that a birthday banquet shall be held at the Cloud Summit Heavenly Palace of the Jincheng Sect, in honor of Immortal Lord Xie Shuhan.
We sincerely invite your presence.
Xie Shuhan was none other than Xie You.
With a casual wave of his hand, Senior Brother Yin had simply given him a new name. He had not even changed the surname, just like that, he was transformed into a highly respected Immortal Lord elder of the Jincheng Sect.
Though the outside world harbored countless grievances, in the end, none dared to voice them.
At the banquet, wine cups crossed and laughter intertwined.
The one who should have been the central figure, the birthday celebrant, kept his dark gaze fixed on a single person from beginning to end.
Instead, Yin Xuanlin moved about the hall with easy laughter, weaving through the crowd, raising cups and exchanging drinks with everyone, utterly carefree.
Only when the feast had gone on long enough for a gentle haze of intoxication to settle did a familiar scene unfold once more,
Someone’s shoe broke again.
Xie Chen lowered his eyes in silence and, as naturally as breathing, lifted him into his arms.
Yin Xuanlin: “Hah…”
Junior Brother Xie seemed to murmur something softly but it was swallowed by the clamor of the banquet, impossible to hear clearly.
Yet beneath the glow of the lanterns, his face, usually so calm, so restrained, rarely revealing emotion, was now unmistakably lit with a look of deep focus, almost tender, touched by the faintest trace of a gentle smile.
Zhou Xuanle: “…”
All of a sudden, he felt that he, too, could write storybooks.
He would surely set down everything he had seen, everything he had heard, everything he had sought and uncovered over this past year and more, committing it all to paper. This time, he would no longer merely provide material for others.
He would take up the brush himself and faithfully restore the story he had witnessed.
He would write this story well.
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Once a chosen one of heavenChapter 2 · Why didn’t you crawl in the shadows?!Chapter 3 · They would rather fight each otherChapter 4 · I’ll do a handstand and run naked three times!Chapter 5 · So what if I’m showing off!Chapter 6 · If you look again, I’ll gouge your eyes out!Chapter 7 · The young couple is fighting again.Chapter 8 · I’m back at the Jinchan SectChapter 9 · Sour, sourChapter 10 · To seize credit for someone’s workChapter 11 · The Golden Toad Sect has come to our aid to annihilate the Demon LordChapter 12 · Sect Leader’s HusbandChapter 13 · The stone, fox, tree, and scarecrow are named XuanlinChapter 14 · My junior and I have had sweet moments in private!Chapter 15 · The truth behind their first falling out back thenChapter 16 · Hate lasts longer than loveChapter 17 · Xie Chen was actually the Demon LordChapter 18 · Slaying the Demon LordChapter 19 · From resistance to enjoymentChapter 20 · Xiao Xie’s perspective begins!Chapter 21 · Only because it was Yin XuanlinChapter 22 · Xie Chen was not a foolChapter 23 · The End