Lin Shijin instinctively ducked into a corner, avoiding Sheng Rufei’s fingertips. He couldn’t possibly be seen like this. He didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of his shixiong again.
He pressed his veil firmly over his limp ears and slid back further. Already tucked into a corner, he now leaned against the carriage wall, only a small section of his jawline visible.
“Shixiong knows I can’t transform anymore. Naturally, I can’t be seen like this.”
Sheng Rufei remained silent, his gaze seeming to pierce through the veil to rest on his ears, making them feel faintly warm.
“I won’t laugh at you,” Sheng Rufei said.
Lin Shijin shook his head, nudging Sheng Rufei with his fingertips. “Shixiong, there’s nothing to see. Didn’t you just say you’d let me go…”
Before he could finish, the carriage lurched violently, as if the horses had been startled. It swerved sharply, and Lin Shijin was pitched forward, his fingers gripping the carriage wall for support.
In that instant, his veil fell. His vision cleared, and he met Sheng Rufei’s eyes unexpectedly.
Sheng Rufei’s gaze moved from his face upward, lingering briefly on his perky ears.
The carriage came to a halt almost immediately, the timing strikingly deliberate. Meeting Sheng Rufei’s eyes, Lin Shijin’s face flushed, and his ears, which had been perked with fear, now drooped softly.
The young man, handsome to begin with, now wore a human-skin mask. His features were little changed, only slightly muted. His eyes appeared rounder, the dark pupils lively, and a tiny vermilion mole marked the corner of one eye. With the veil gone, his hair had fallen loose, and his fair face was streaked with red.
His ears drooped, then twitched again, looking even softer than usual.
Lin Shijin, clinging to the railing, noticed that Sheng Rufei had been watching him the whole time. He pursed his lips, mildly displeased.
“My cultivation’s too low; I can’t hide my ears.”
His tail, barely concealed, would pop out if he were startled.
Sheng Rufei’s gaze drifted briefly, then returned to his ears. His voice paused slightly. “This… is fine.”
Fine what? Sheng Rufei really didn’t have the right to say that. It wasn’t him who had long ears.
Lin Shijin tried to ignore him. Suddenly, the carriage shook again. An invisible, chilling aura pressed close, and a buzzing filled his ears. His eyelids twitched wildly. As a flash of silver light streaked past, a hand landed on his waist.
Sheng Rufei’s gaze sharpened. The Yinbing Sword was drawn, clashing with a resonant clang. Invisible pressure radiated outward from the blades.
He swept Lin Shijin up, moving them from the carriage. The moment they left, the carriage shattered with a loud bang, shrouded in a faint, swirling black mist.
Lin Shijin froze. Before he could react, he was airborne, held tightly by Sheng Rufei. Afraid of falling, he instinctively clung to him.
The Yinbing Sword became a streak of light. Sheng Rufei rode the sword through the air; Lin Shijin stepped onto it, still holding on, seeing only the ruined carriage and the dark mist surrounding them.
“It’s a demon.”
The black mist hovered not far away. This was Lin Shijin’s first close encounter with a demon; before, he had only seen Jun Yewu and the wisps of black mist that had vanished in Rakshasa city lord’s manor. His ears twitched with alertness, worried about falling and dragging Sheng Rufei down.
“Shixiong… can you put me down first?” he whispered, glancing anxiously at the dark mist ahead.
Sheng Rufei looked at him, holding the youth tightly against his warm body. His back stiffened slightly. “Don’t be afraid.”
The moment the words left his lips, the Yinbing Sword split into countless beams of light mid-air. A screech erupted from the demon, and as the black mist dissipated, Lin Shijin saw its face.
A pale, bloated visage, bluish as if soaked in a pool. Eyes entirely black, protruding like chunks of dead flesh, their sockets threatening to pop out. The face twisted with resentment before turning to ash and vanishing.
Lin Shijin slipped, darkness swallowing his vision. His heart raced, face drained of colour. It was far more terrifying than any horror movie. This was real.
As he fell, Sheng Rufei instinctively steadied him. Already loosely holding him by the waist, he adjusted, fingertips now below Lin Shijin’s hips.
He first touched something soft and yielding, then felt the youth grip his clothes, his fingers brushing a soft, furry texture.
Lin Shijin’s ears drooped, nearly hiding his eyes, and a small, furry tail swayed cautiously in Sheng Rufei’s grasp. Both reflected his owner’s state perfectly. Terrified yet clinging. The youth held on tightly, unwilling to let go.
“Shixiong… was that really a demon?” he asked, recalling the face he had just seen.
“It was,” Sheng Rufei said firmly. His fingers paused slightly, not moving; the youth’s tail nuzzled his fingertips in reassurance.
The youth seemed unaware of his tail, lost in fear.
“Why did it look human?” he asked.
“That’s its form after transforming,” Sheng Rufei explained. “The city is under martial law because demons have been causing trouble.”
“Oh,” Lin Shijin murmured, recovering slightly, ears tinged red, still held in Sheng Rufei’s arms.
“Shixiong, let’s go down.”
The longsword returned to his hand as a silver streak, and he set Lin Shijin down, eyes lingering briefly.
“Why would demons attack us?” Lin Shijin asked, noticing his tail swaying slightly.
The air seemed to freeze. Sheng Rufei considered, then said, “Perhaps because I am now a scourge-slayer. They are opposed to me, and they hate me.”
Lin Shijin quietly retracted his tail. “Then… being a scourge-slayer is dangerous,” he said.
Sheng Rufei, seeing worry in his eyes, said nothing immediately, only shifting his grip slightly, and gave a small, affirming hum.
Lin Shijin felt sympathy for him. Drawn into this role, hunted by demons despite being capable, it was troublesome. “Just finish your mission and leave the secret realm quickly,” he said casually.
Sheng Rufei didn’t speak but acknowledged the thought, adding after a moment, “I’ll protect you while you’re in the city.”
Lin Shijin felt a small surge of gratitude but remembered his mission. “Shixiong, I still have work. Even if I’m not much use to Su Lian-shixiong, does this mean you’re going easy on me?”
He glanced at Sheng Rufei, pretending nonchalance. “If you caught me, I wouldn’t mind.”
Sheng Rufei observed the youth’s twitching ears, anticipating his response. The youth blinked, hiding his true thoughts.
He wasn’t worried about the demons in the city but about being tricked and led astray.
“Their task wasn’t to have you spy on me?” Sheng Rufei asked calmly, already guessing Su Lian’s plan.
“Who said that?” Lin Shijin replied, feeling guilty. He still had the tracking talisman Su Lian gave him, but he knew Sheng Rufei would protect him.
“They asked me to watch you, but I won’t tell them anything,” he muttered.
Sheng Rufei watched him a moment, then gently rubbed his head, a hint of reward in the gesture, inadvertently brushing his sensitive earlobe. Lin Shijin’s ears twitched pleasantly. He liked being rewarded this way.
“Come back with me first; I’ll cover your ears.”
“Tail…”
Sheng Rufei paused. The youth’s tail swished back quickly, his face flushing. “I’ll put my tail away.”
Sheng Rufei observed him briefly, then looked away.
The carriage was ruined, but the manor wasn’t far. Flying on swords was forbidden in the city, so Sheng Rufei used teleportation to take him back.
…
At the city gate inn, Su Lian, mostly concealed under a black hood, frowned. “You came here just to take revenge on Sheng Rufei?”
The young man, dressed in a black brocade robe, already looked exotic and striking. Now, his true features revealed a hint of wickedness, eyes half-smiling.
“Of course not,” Xue Ning said darkly. “Sheng Rufei nearly had me killed at Forbidden Mountain. This grudge cannot be lightly settled.”
He had been stabbed and sent to Forbidden Mountain, ostensibly handed to the sect for discipline. But in reality, he’d been imprisoned with demons, clearly meant to die.
“I’ll give him a grand gift.” A faint, shallow smile appeared as he adjusted his hood, fingers obscuring most of his face.
“Those two bastards? I won’t let either of them go.”
