Right in the middle of the arena, two bare-chested men were fighting. The sweat glistening on their bodies flashed under the radiant red candles. Both men had bruises on their faces, their muscles bulging as neither was willing to admit defeat.
After all, the one who lost would face a brutal beating afterward, under the fine-sounding excuse: “Toughening you up so you can win next time.”
Accompanied by a dull thud as one of the men landed a heavy elbow strike, the other man’s neck bent at an extremely distorted angle, and then his entire body slowly collapsed onto the ground, unmoving.
This should have been an extremely gory and bloody scene, but the surrounding crowd acted as if they were witnessing some rare delicacy on earth, raising cheers and shouts in overlapping waves:
“Good! Excellent!”
“Hit him! Well struck!”
Watching this scene, Shi Yue could not help frowning, raising his teacup to take a calm sip, refusing to look at the ghastly sight any longer.
Song Huaian was also visiting for the first time. The face that had just been brimming with excitement was now tightly scrunched up. “So bloody, how can they look at this with such excitement?”
The bronze-skinned victorious man stood in the center of the arena with no prominent features that revealed what kind of demon he was, while the other fallen man was dragged away across the floor like trash.
A woman with her face covered by a light gauze veil walked out with graceful steps, her voice as pleasant as silver bells. Though masked and her features hidden, her figure clearly marked her as a top-tier beauty.
“Esteemed guests, what comes next is the main event.” The woman’s voice was alluring, and as she covered her mouth with a smile, she looked captivatingly charming in an instant. “The one entering the ring next is Shuang Jiang.”
Upon hearing this, Song Huaian immediately said excitedly, “Brother Shi, look, look! Shuang Jiang is coming out!”
Shi Yue chimed in with little interest, “Yes, yes, yes. Watch closely then.”
The woman clapped her hands. Following the crisp sound, a passageway suddenly appeared on the side of the arena pitch-black, obscuring the internal structure from view.
Shuang Jiang, who should have walked out from inside, showed no movement for a long time.
The woman’s voice turned somewhat cold. “Shuang Jiang, so many high-ranking officials and nobles have come to see you; it is your fortune. Acting this ungrateful, do you wish for me to punish you?”
As she spoke, her fingers pointed into empty air, and a small, mysteriously generated sword flew from the void straight into the dark passageway.
Inside the passageway, a figure slowly walked out.
The youth’s disheveled hair hung loosely beside his cheeks, and his shoulders were as lean and slender as a sword. His entire person exuded a lifeless pallor. At this moment, a short sword was stabbed right into his right shoulder, fresh blood slowly oozing from the wound. Yet, the youth’s expression did not change; his lips were pressed tightly together, and only their colorless hue betrayed his frail body.
Song Huaian anxiously fought the injustice for him, saying, “Shuang Jiang! Why is this woman treating him like this? He’s already injured; there’s no way he’ll easily win the fight later.”
But Shi Yue did not reply.
He was staring unblinkingly at the youth. The moment that figure walked out, his heartbeat seemed to stop entirely. Driven by a surge of excitement, Shi Yue stood up, leaning over the railing and staring intently.
“What’s wrong with you, A’yue?” Song Huaian asked with concern.
How could this be? How could this be?
Is this A’Yao?
Why does he look identical to A’Yao?
No, no. A’Yao shouldn’t have this kind of temperament.
This is Pei Xuan!
Shi Yue looked at that slender figure in disbelief.
Although his face was smeared layer upon layer with dark brown dirt for some unknown reason, making his original features hard to make out, Shi Yue could recognize him by his build alone.
Who would have thought that five years later, the Grand Chancellor holding the top-rank position, second only to the Emperor, was currently being watched and humiliated like an animal in a beast-fighting arena?
Pei Xuan was currently wearing coarse linen clothes whose original color was no longer distinguishable, speckled with dots of dark red bloodstains.
Was Pei Xuan actually a demon?
In order to suppress the demon race, the imperial court prohibited demons from participating in court politics in any form and barred them from holding important official posts—at best, they could only serve as gatekeeping guards.
Yet in his past life, Pei Xuan had clearly risen to the rank of Grand Chancellor.
How on earth did he pull that off, perfectly concealing his demonic identity without a single civil or military official noticing?
Following the blast of a whistle, the crowd erupted into cheers once again.
Shi Yue couldn’t help watching the figures of the two grappling together, their forms twisting as his thoughts drifted away.
Wearing that exact face as A’Yao while being beaten by others it really felt deeply uncomfortable in his heart.
Pei Xuan suppressed the fishy sweetness rising to his throat, sensing that his body had reached its absolute limit. With a fierce glare at his opponent, he seized the right moment to climb onto the large man’s back at a ghostly angle, tightly gripping his neck with his right arm and pulling him backward with a sudden jerk.
The burly man put up a desperate struggle, frantically trying to pry Pei Xuan’s arm away, but the strength in that arm was immense, wrapping around him like a python. The man’s face gradually turned the color of a pig’s liver, his eyes bulging to the point of splitting, and swollen veins protruding everywhere. The excruciating pain made him sweat like rain.
Before long, the resistance grew weaker and weaker, until finally, the burly man collapsed heavily like a mountain and stopped moving altogether.
The guests fell silent for a fleeting moment, followed immediately by an endless surge of cheers and shouts.
Song Huaian also excitedly tugged at Shi Yue’s wide sleeve. “A’yue, he won! He is so amazing! He managed to beat that big guy even while injured!”
Shi Yue could not help nodding as well. He hadn’t expected the little madman’s martial arts to be this formidable. Looked at this way, when Pei Xuan choked him in his past life, he had truly been holding back immensely.
Since Pei Xuan was the top star attraction, he wouldn’t be kept fighting continuously on stage. After winning a match, he would be sent down, only to return to the arena two hours later.
Seeing the youth walk back inside, the crowd’s enthusiasm dropped significantly.
The heavy scent of blood in the venue gave Shi Yue a headache, and he frowned slightly. “Shall we head back?”
Song Huaian was also finding the noisy environment somewhat unbearable, and having already seen Shuang Jiang to satisfy his curiosity, he nodded in agreement. “Let’s go, let’s go. One really shouldn’t stay in a place like this for too long.”
The two left a silver ingot on the table and departed under the guidance of an attendant.
“Three days without beating you, and you’re showing attitude to who?”
“Still putting on a cold face to us in a place like this? Who gave you the gall?”
“…”
As Shi Yue and Song Huaian walked to the entrance, they heard a flurry of kicking, punching, and cursing.
Presumably, it was an attendant punishing the disobedient demons inside. Shi Yue figured he would just glance and walk past, since it had nothing to do with him anyway.
As a result, that single glance stunned him completely.
Pei Xuan?
Pei Xuan was surrounded in the middle of the group, his hands tightly clutching his head as he curled up on the ground. The blood on his body had soaked through his cloth garments.
Wasn’t he the top star? Even if his treatment wasn’t that great, he shouldn’t be surrounded and left at the mercy of servants’ beatings like this.
Perhaps because Shi Yue’s gaze fixed on him so intently, Pei Xuan sensed this unusual line of sight and looked over through the chaos.
This was the first time Shi Yue had ever seen Pei Xuan reveal this kind of expression—a fragile, injured look, like a wet, pitiful puppy.
In his previous life, the Pei Xuan he encountered was either ruthlessly cruel or coldly aloof in front of everyone, as if he possessed not a single flaw and nothing could ever make him show an embarrassed expression.
Yet the current Pei Xuan held no paranoia in his eyes, only the humiliation and agony of being beaten.
Shi Yue’s heart gave a violent tremor. Seeing such a fragile Pei Xuan, he had originally thought he would remain indifferent or even clap his hands in applause.
But seeing it in reality, facing that face resembling A’Yao, he truly couldn’t harden his heart.
“Stop!”
Before he could even think, the word slipped past his lips, leaving even Shi Yue stunned for a moment.
Pei Xuan looked toward the source of the voice. A youth stood looking down from above, casually waving a folding fan in his hand, his hair tied up high into a ponytail, revealing the face of a pampered young master alongside a pair of peach-blossom eyes.
Song Huaian looked over confusedly at Shi Yue. “Brother Shi, why did you suddenly…”
“I…” Shi Yue didn’t know how to explain either. He used his fan to block Song Huaian’s line of sight and spoke vaguely, “I can’t stand seeing them bully people at random.”
“I didn’t expect Brother Shi to be so warm-hearted nowadays.”
Shi Yue always felt that this sentence didn’t sound much like a compliment, but before he could dwell on it, those few servants looked over.
Recognizing them as distinguished guests who had just finished watching the spectacle, the servants restrained the mocking expressions on their faces and offered a salute. “Greetings, sirs.”
“Why are you beating him? Didn’t he just win his match?”
“Replying to the lords, this brat is too disobedient and even harbored thoughts of escaping. He needs to check his own station a low-class, inferior demon who knows a bit of martial arts really thinks he’s something special.”
As the lead servant spoke, he turned his head and shot a fierce glare at Pei Xuan on the ground, looking as though he were gazing upon something utterly filthy.
Shi Yue furrowed his brows deeply; this fellow’s words were far too harsh.
The servants in Song Huaian’s household were all purchased lesser demons, so he held no prejudice against demons and even felt they were no different from humans.
Therefore, he immediately retorted, “He has already become your cash cow, and countless people come solely for him. You fail to worship this god of wealth, yet you belittle him like this. I truly don’t know how you manage to stay in business.”
This retort was exceptionally blunt. Shi Yue gave him a mental round of applause; little brother Song Huaian’s offensive capability remained as formidable as ever.
The servant hadn’t expected anyone to speak up on behalf of a demon, and his face couldn’t hold the expression anymore as it darkened. “This is a matter for our beast-fighting arena, and he is a person of our arena as well. This servant will discipline him however I please. If the lords wish to leave, then please do so.”
Daring to chase customers away after saying just a couple of things?