Lin Shijin was frightened out of his wits. The moment Sheng Rufei opened his eyes, he almost leapt back. He was already perched on the edge of the bed, and in his haste he lost his balance.
The young man reached out to steady him. Sheng Rufei caught him by the wrist. Lin Shijin’s ears shot upright at once, his tail puffed out, and being caught red-handed made his cheeks burn scarlet.
Sheng Rufei tugged him back, drawing him even closer. They were now less than a foot apart.
“I…” Lin Shijin opened his mouth and blurted the first excuse that came to mind. “I saw Shixiong asleep and was a bit curious, so I came over to have a look.”
Thank goodness he hadn’t actually kissed him. He’d be done for if he had.
Sheng Rufei was still holding his wrist, and only gradually did he release him, his gaze pausing briefly on Lin Shijin’s face.
“Learned that from a little picture-book, did you?”
Lin Shijin shook his head at once. “No, Shixiong, you’ve got the wrong idea.”
He tried to explain himself, but the more he said, the less sense it made. Why was he so unlucky? Couldn’t he have slept just a little longer?
“I really was only looking…” Lin Shijin’s voice dropped. He felt guilty, his heart still thudding wildly, his nerves taut.
“I wasn’t planning anything,” he muttered, fingers pinching the brocade quilt. His ears and tail were frozen in place. Meeting Sheng Rufei’s eyes made him feel oddly exposed; he shuffled sideways.
“Shixiong, I’m going to sleep. I’m heading back to Su Lian-shixiong tomorrow.”
He didn’t wait for Sheng Rufei’s reply. Hugging the quilt, he scooted further in. He could feel Sheng Rufei’s gaze still resting on him.
He covered his face with the quilt. The hall was silent. After a moment, he lifted the edge… just a sliver. The instant he raised it, he met Sheng Rufei’s eyes.
Lin Shijin immediately pulled the quilt back down and turned the other way, presenting his backside to Sheng Rufei.
The youth on the bed couldn’t settle. He kept shifting; his ears would pop out from under the quilt, then duck back again, as though he were tussling with some internal dilemma. His pale fingertips clutched the brocade so long that the embroidered patterns were nearly rubbed off.
Sheng Rufei closed his eyes. He’d sensed earlier that the youth had been inching closer, and what he’d intended was fairly obvious.
The youth didn’t like him. Why would he want to be intimate with him if he didn’t like him?
He wasn’t blind. The youth only had affection for his little illustrated romances. For Sheng Rufei he had, at best, fraternal sentiment… and sometimes even a hint of fear.
Lin Shijin didn’t stay embarrassed for long. The quilt was soft and cosy, and before long he drifted into sleep.
Normally he slept soundly without dreaming, but tonight was different.
He dreamt he was walking through a shadowy forest, a vague mist hanging over everything. Half the sky glowed blood-red, and the ground was strewn with bones.
He didn’t know why he was there, but he kept walking. Ordinarily he would have been terrified of such a sight, but now he felt strangely calm, as if something ahead were beckoning him.
He walked for an unknowable time. The mist gradually parted, revealing a solitary figure at the forest’s edge.
A man in white stood tall, three thousand strands of black hair falling loosely at his sides, his bearing cold and remote. His pale fingers gripped a long sword as black as pitch, its tip resting on the ground, stained with blood.
Lin Shijin halted. Just as he looked towards the man, the figure seemed to sense him and slowly began to turn.
Lin Shijin opened his eyes. He felt something cool against his ear. When his vision cleared, he found himself staring at Sheng Rufei’s face.
“Shixiong…?”
Sheng Rufei withdrew his finger and said coolly, “I’m going into the city to exterminate demons today. Will you come with me?”
At those words, Lin Shijin immediately sat up straighter. He shook his head, touching his ears, which felt strangely warm. He still remembered what had happened yesterday.
“I’ve arranged to meet Su Lian and the others. I’m going to them today.”
Sheng Rufei stood still for a moment, then said, “Where are you meeting them? I’ll take you.”
He could very well have gone on his own, but Sheng Rufei was concerned for him, so he obediently gave the location.
The inn by the city gate wasn’t far. Sheng Rufei brought him there, and only once they were in the carriage did Lin Shijin remember his dream. Sheng Rufei had woken him before he’d even seen the man’s face.
“Shixiong, I had a dream yesterday,” Lin Shijin said, curled into the corner of the carriage like a little mushroom. “I dreamt of someone I didn’t recognise. I was just about to see their face when you woke me.”
He spoke on his own while Sheng Rufei simply listened, accustomed to his muttering. “I didn’t see the face properly, but they must have been handsome. The back view alone was enough. Definitely a beauty.”
After saying this, he glanced at Sheng Rufei, then leaned over, wanting to see Sheng Rufei’s token. “Shixiong, may I look at your token? How many jade pieces have you collected?”
He had two hundred and fifty himself, which he thought was quite a lot, but he had no idea what counted as enough.
Since he wanted to look, Sheng Rufei handed the token over. Lin Shijin counted—one, two, three… there were still two digits before that. Altogether, seventeen thousand jade pieces.
…Far too many.
Lin Shijin looked from Sheng Rufei’s seventeen thousand to his own two hundred and fifty and found his utterly pitiful in comparison. “Shixiong, how did you get so many?”
In just a single day, Sheng Rufei had nearly twenty thousand.
Surely he hadn’t obtained all of them from killing demons? How many demons would that take?
“They were all earned by slaying demons,” Sheng Rufei replied.
“Demons keep gathering in the city, and we still haven’t found out how they’re getting in.”
Sheng Rufei lowered his gaze. This was a millennia-old ancient city. He didn’t know why the elders had chosen it as the training site. The Spirit-Building Platform examined the place again and again, but it made no difference.
Demons still infiltrated.
One could never finish killing them.
“Isn’t the city gate inspection very strict?” Lin Shijin asked, unfamiliar with such matters. “Shixiong, apart from your group, are there other forces in the city?”
At present they only knew of the Scourge-Slayer Envoys and the demons, with the scourge-slayers representing the city lord’s manor.
“There are also disciples from the immortal sect,” Sheng Rufei said. “They were ordered to investigate the source of the demons in Yixiu City. The immortal sect and the Scourge-Slayer Envoys are separate factions. One representing the human world of three thousand generations, the other the cultivators of the immortal realm.”
Lin Shijin made a small “oh”, so it was a three-way balance of power. There were no demonic cultivators at this time, and he hadn’t yet seen immortal sect disciples.
They chatted for a while, and soon the carriage arrived near the inn by the city gate.
“Shixiong, don’t worry too much. We’ll find out eventually,” Lin Shijin said with a hint of earnestness. “Just do your best hunting demons. Don’t get yourself injured.”
After offering these words of concern, Lin Shijin picked up his veiled hat. Outside, at the street corner, he saw two figures wearing bamboo hats… Su Lian and Ye Lang, by the looks of them.
“Shixiong, I’m going.”
“Wait,” Sheng Rufei called.
Lin Shijin stopped. Sheng Rufei caught his wrist, and a golden spell slipped into it.
Lin Shijin felt nothing at all. He touched his wrist, curious. “Shixiong, what’s this?”
“If you’re in danger, it will protect you,” Sheng Rufei said, releasing him.
“Thank you, Shixiong.” Lin Shijin brightened, casting Sheng Rufei a few more glances. “Then I’ll really go now.”
He grabbed his sword, climbed down from the scourge-slayer carriage, crossed the street, and just before leaving the road turned back. The carriage was still there, Sheng Rufei’s coldly beautiful profile framed by the beaded curtain.
A moment later the curtain was lowered, and the youth withdrew his hand.
Lin Shijin turned back as well. Su Lian and Ye Lang lifted their bamboo hats only when he approached.
“He even escorted you over,” Su Lian said with a smile and a shake of his head. “Looks like he’s warning us.”
Ye Lang cast a glance towards the carriage, his expression dark. He looked away quickly. If he stared too long, someone with sharp senses would notice.
Lin Shijin understood. So Sheng Rufei had been giving him cover. He felt a little embarrassed. “Shixiong let me return. He agreed to let me complete the task myself.”
“Su Lian-shixiong, I didn’t stick the talisman on you. He let us off this time. It wouldn’t be fair to stick it again.”
Indeed, with Lin Shijin present, Sheng Rufei had effectively looked the other way.
Su Lian sighed inwardly at Sheng Rufei’s good fortune. He had just happened to draw the identity of a scourge-slayer, which made things far easier… unlike them. They had to tread carefully.
Although it might not be mere luck. Sheng Rufei had always despised demons… perhaps the elders had arranged it so.
“It’s fine,” Su Lian said gently. “It’s good that he let you return. We were thinking of how to get you out.”
Lin Shijin was touched, his expression plainly softening, his eyes lighting up.
A derisive chuckle sounded beside him. The youth leaning against the wall, sword in arms and a stalk of grass in his mouth, shot Su Lian a mocking glance. “We should head back. We’re splitting up.”
“There’s an annual Ghost Exorcism Festival in the city. Su Lian will go undercover among the immortal sect disciples. As for you…” Ye Lang’s gaze settled on Lin Shijin. “You’re coming with me to the underground demon clan outside the city.”
Lin Shijin was still digesting the news. It was only the second day. How had they gathered all this already?
“The underground demon clan? Outside the city?”
“Yes. The city currently has three factions… or four, counting the scourge-slayers. The immortal sect, the city lord’s manor, the demons, and the scourge-slayers,” Ye Lang replied.
“Don’t the Scourge-Slayer Envoys represent the city lord’s manor?” Lin Shijin asked.
“That’s correct. Over the past two days, we’ve uncovered some new information,” Su Lian said after a brief pause. “Although the Scourge-Slayer Envoys answer directly to the city lord’s manor and hold great authority, they don’t entirely represent it.”
“If the city lord’s manor truly trusted them, they wouldn’t have summoned disciples from the immortal sects.”
“Around this very time a thousand years ago, the Scourge-Slayer Envoys’ power began to swell. Bit by bit, they broke away from the city lord’s manor and became an independent force.”
Su Lian’s voice grew distant with recollection. “Across the Fifty Cities of the Three Thousand Worlds, whenever a scourge-slayer appeared, they could decide the life and death of anyone in the city, all under the pretext of exterminating demons.”
“This era is… uniquely special. As for why events are unfolding the way they are, we simply don’t know.”
The truth had been buried a millennium ago, lost in the dust of forgotten years.
“Our mission is somewhat difficult,” Su Lian continued. “It’s easier for me to infiltrate the immortal sects. But Ye Lang’s demonic aura is far too strong, and the wolf demon clan holds considerable standing among the demon race. So we’ve decided to act separately.”
He explained further, “Lin-shidi, it will be troublesome for me to enter the immortal sects. You will go with Ye Lang to the demon realm and investigate how the demons have managed to ambush us here.”
“They’ve already launched three coordinated attacks against the Scourge-Slayer Envoys within the city. I suspect they have other means of entering besides the city gates.”
Su Lian pressed his bamboo hat down firmly. “This is where we part. I’ll send word if I uncover anything.”
Lin Shijin didn’t even manage to call out “Su Lian-shixiong” before the man vanished from sight, leaving him with far too many unanswered questions and far too much information to digest.
Now only he and Ye Lang remained.
Ye Lang spat out the blade of grass in his mouth, amusement glinting in his eyes. With a casual sweep of his hand, he hauled Lin Shijin into his arms. The impact nearly sent Lin Shijin’s tail shooting upright.
“Stupid rabbit,” Ye Lang murmured beside his ear, baring sharp canine teeth, his voice a low threat, “it’s just the two of us now. You’d better behave yourself, or I’ll—”
He never finished the sentence.
Because the youth in his arms went rigid, his face turning completely white, and a fluffy tail popped straight out from behind him.
A moment later, a sudden weight landed on Ye Lang’s shoulder. Lin Shijin had fainted clean away.
Ye Lang: “…”
