He had once been a stray cat, taken in by Fu Ye. If Fu Ye hadn’t rescued him, he would probably have died long ago. He would never have had the chance to cultivate with Zhuohua’s help, become a demon, and take human form.
Fu Ye was his master. In the end, Sangbiao simply couldn’t defy him, so all he could do was stay by his side.
If Fu Ye offended Xi Yu, Sangbiao would stand in front of him and take the blow for him, regardless of whether he lived or died.
Sangbiao stopped looking at Fu Ye. He was afraid he would lose control and drag the man away, so he could only turn his attention to Xi Yu and watch him carefully.
Xi Yu looked at Fu Ye’s pale, frail figure. His slender fingertips tapped slowly against the redwood dining table.
“If it weren’t for the fact that you’ve never taken a life and have performed countless good deeds, you wouldn’t even have the chance to kneel here and speak to me.”
Xi Yu’s voice was harsh and merciless. “Using a magical artifact to detain souls unlawfully is a serious crime. Even if you went to the Hall of Yama, you would have to endure a turn in the boiling oil before being cast into the cycle of animal rebirth.”
At those words, Fu Ye’s back stiffened. Sangbiao’s pupils, however, contracted sharply.
He was a demon. Ever since the founding of the country, spirits and demons had been forbidden from revealing their true forms, so they all kept out of sight and cultivated in secret. He had spent all his time in Wutong Stronghold and knew nothing about the rules of the Hall of Yama.
But hearing Xi Yu say this, cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.
He didn’t want Fu Ye to be thrown into boiling oil, much less condemned to the cycle of animal rebirth.
Sangbiao bent his knees and knelt down.
“Let me take his place. Whether he has to go into the boiling oil or be cast into the cycle of animal rebirth, let me take his place.”
He had been an animal to begin with, one disliked by humans and looked down upon by other beasts. They thought the cats were a fragile species that could die easily, with no fangs, no speed, and barely any meat on their bones.
He had lived that kind of life before meeting Fu Ye. He could endure it again.
As for the boiling oil, that was even less worth mentioning. He was the king of the cat world, a male calico among ten thousand calicos—a rarity among rarities. A mere cauldron of boiling oil was nothing to fear.
“Shut up!” Fu Ye could barely catch his breath. He whipped around to look at Sangbiao. “I’m the one who committed the crime. I should bear the consequences alone. You’re a cat demon who has already managed to take human form and walk among people. You shouldn’t waste your life for my sake!”
Fu Ye’s words spilled from his throat, full of reproach, yet every syllable revealed how much he cared for Sangbiao.
Xi Yu watched the two of them fighting over who would take the punishment, as though they weren’t competing for the right to die but fighting over some priceless treasure.
Suddenly, he remembered the moment Zhili had tried to sacrifice himself to the arrow. Back then, he had been just like Fu Ye…
Xi Yu’s expression faltered for a moment. But in the next second, he slammed his palm hard against the table.
“Do you think the Hall of Yama is somewhere you can go whenever you want, or somewhere you can choose to take someone else’s place? Do you think this is a children’s game?”
Xi Yu glared at Sangbiao through gritted teeth.
“What right do you have to take his place? Do you think you’re so magnanimous, willing to throw your own life away just to protect him?”
“But does he agree?” Xi Yu pointed at Sangbiao and asked Fu Ye. “Do you agree?”
Fu Ye shook his head violently. “No! I committed the crime. I don’t need someone else to pay the price for me.”
“Did you hear that? He doesn’t need you to!” Xi Yu turned back to Sangbiao, complicated emotions swirling in his dark eyes. “The people I hate most are self-righteous fools like you! You charge ahead on a surge of passion, using love as an excuse to hurt yourselves and torture others!”
Sangbiao furrowed his brows. He had been inexplicably scolded, but he still stuck out his neck and retorted, “Fu Ye saved me. Now I’m taking his place to repay his kindness! It’s what I should do!”
“Who asked you to repay him?!”
“Who asked you to repay me?!”
Xi Yu and Fu Ye spoke at the same time.
Fu Ye’s gaze flickered. He had initially worried that Sangbiao would take matters into his own hands and sway Xi Yu’s decision.
Now it seemed there was no need to worry about that.
He didn’t know what was happening between the two people outside, one kneeling and the other standing. But since Xi Yu could understand how he felt, Sangbiao could not take his place.
“Mr. Xi,” Fu Ye said, bowing his head to the floor, “I’m willing to endure the boiling oil and be cast into the cycle of animal rebirth. I only ask that you allow my people to continue living in peace.”
Sangbiao gritted his teeth. “Your people are all you care about! Have you ever thought about me? Fu Ye, you…”
Xi Yu couldn’t be bothered to listen to any more irrelevant arguments. He swept his arm through the air, and Sangbiao was immediately thrown out of the room.
With the barrier in place, only Xi Yu and Fu Ye remained inside.
Without Sangbiao in sight, and without having to listen to his hotheaded declarations, Xi Yu’s breathing finally began to settle.
He gave a cold laugh and said to Fu Ye, “Do you think I brought you here to make you choose between two options? To save your people? The moment I leave with Zhuohua, your people will turn to ashes in an instant. Their souls have lingered here for too long to be reincarnated, and without Black and White Impermanence to guide them, they have neither resentment nor hatred. They can’t even become vengeful ghosts. Most likely, the moment the first ray of sunlight touches them after I leave, they’ll evaporate into smoke!”
“You’re still stubbornly refusing to see the truth, still convinced that you’re doing what’s best for them!” Xi Yu grabbed Fu Ye by the collar, hauled him up, and pressed him down against the table. “Ask them yourself! Ask whether they think you’re doing what’s best for them!”
Xi Yu couldn’t understand why there were always so many self-righteous people who used the excuse of acting for someone else’s good to justify doing so many terrible things.
Fu Ye was like that. Sangbiao was like that. Zhili was like that. Huai Xi was like that.
And so was Xi Yu himself, who had forcibly extracted Zhili’s memories without regard for his wishes, all because he believed it was for Zhili’s own good.
Xi Yu’s eyelashes trembled. He flicked his fingertips across the tabletop.
In the next instant, several hundred thumb-sized souls appeared on the redwood table. They lifted their heads and looked at Fu Ye, whose neck was being pressed down.
Smiles spread across their faces. With their hands folded before them, they bowed to Fu Ye.
“Greetings, Holy Son.”
Fu Ye’s breathing was unsteady. His breath blew against the person closest to him, knocking the tiny soul onto his backside.
“Ow, ow!” the little soul cried out twice. “Holy Son, stop breathing so hard! You’re blowing like a gale!”
Fu Ye abruptly held his breath.
Afraid he might suffocate himself, Xi Yu released his grip. Fu Ye straightened up and cautiously looked at the souls before him.
“Uncle Wang, Auntie Ling, Xiao Shi…”
Countless familiar faces were there. Every member of his clan had gathered on the table, all looking at him.
A particularly tiny soul climbed onto Fu Ye’s finger, which rested on the tabletop, and giggled.
“Holy Son, I’m so glad you didn’t die.”
The soul beside the child smacked him on the head.
“Just shut up, will you?”
Hearing this, Fu Ye sensed something and spoke in a hoarse voice.
“You… have you all remembered?”
…………………………….
Souls trapped inside physical bodies had no memories. They could neither laugh nor cry. They could only live according to the images Fu Ye had imagined for them, guided by the parasitic insects he had placed inside their bodies.
But now Xi Yu had summoned their souls. Once separated from their bodies, they had remembered everything.
The little boy nodded.
“Yes, Holy Son. I remembered how I died.”
The child’s innocent words were like a sharp blade, slicing open a wound in Fu Ye’s heart. Then a howling, icy wind seemed to rush through it.
Fu Ye bit his lip and sobbed uncontrollably.
“I’m sorry. This was all because of me. All because of me…”
A thousand years of guilt erupted in that moment, magnified a hundredfold.
Back then, there had actually been a way to survive. He had been born in a yin year, yin month, and yin hour, and from the day he came into the world, he had been designated the Holy Son.
It sounded so prestigious. But in truth, the Holy Son was nothing more than a vessel for parasitic insects. His blood could neutralize hundreds of poisons, and that was also why he had managed to hold on until he was the only one left alive.
He had once resented his status. He had hated being the Holy Son. Why could everyone else disregard the rules and come and go from Wutong Stronghold as they pleased, while he was forbidden from ever stepping beyond its borders for his entire life?
But eventually, he stopped resenting it. His people had always put him first in everything. They hadn’t done so out of fear of the Holy Son. They had genuinely cared for him as a person.
So when the plague came, he had willingly offered himself to be eaten by his people.
But his people had refused. They had even carried every last bit of medicine and food into the Holy Son’s Hall, hoping he could survive.
Fu Ye sobbed uncontrollably, his vision so blurred that he could no longer make out the faces of his people on the table.
Yet he could still hear an elderly woman’s voice, gentle and composed, speaking to him.
“Don’t cry. Natural disasters and human calamities aren’t your fault.”
“That’s right,” another man’s voice said firmly. “You’ve already done very well. Our deaths had nothing to do with you. It was simply fate.”
It really was fate, Xi Yu thought.
Everyone’s destiny had been determined from the moment they were born.
The descendants of the Miaojiang branch skilled in the art of parasitic insects should have been wiped out a thousand years ago.
It was Zhuohua’s arrival here that changed Fu Ye’s fate, resulting in the hundred or so souls who remained in this world, unable to enter the Yellow Springs.
Fu Ye’s long hair fell against the side of his neck. His once immaculate white robe was now stained with dust and dampness along the hem. He stifled his sobs, raising a hand to wipe away his tears, utterly disheveled.
A young woman in a red dress pushed through the other souls and hurried over to Fu Ye. Her pretty face was flushed.
“Holy Son, Brother, you don’t have to feel guilty because we didn’t eat you to survive. Whether it was you or anyone else, we’re human beings! How could we eat our own companions just to stay alive? That would be horrible!”
Xi Yu had originally wanted to avoid witnessing such painful scenes. He was already troubled enough and simply wanted to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.
But the moment he heard the girl’s bright voice, he whipped around. His face turned an almost sickly shade of pale, and his entire body stiffened like a stone.
The girl continued speaking.
“I still prefer eating candied hawthorn and flaky pastries.”
The little boy beside her clapped his hands.
“I like stinky tofu and rolled glutinous rice cakes!”
“Eat, eat, eat! All you two ever do is think about food!”
The auntie chuckled and teased them before turning back to Fu Ye.
“You’ve been carrying this burden alone for a thousand years. It must have been so painful. Let go, Holy Son. Don’t keep making the same mistake.”
“That’s right. Don’t stay trapped in the past. Don’t feel guilty. If it had been me, you certainly wouldn’t have eaten me just to survive. How terrifying would that be?”
“Holy Son, if you really want to do something for us, please take the trouble to dig a grave and bury us. Hehe.”
The girl tilted her head back to look at him.
“Brother Holy Son, let go of your obsession. Let us be reincarnated. We never did anything bad, so in our next lives, we’re sure to be rich and blessed, with everything going smoothly!”
“Holy Son, let us go. Living without our memories, like walking corpses, means nothing to us. I want to be reincarnated.”