The sky had grown dark.
Gu Mang and Mo Xi walked side by side through the ruined Chonghua Royal Palace.
Everything Murong Chen had done over the years had been laid bare before everyone. It was like turning a splendid robe inside out and revealing the countless lice crawling beneath it, so ugly that one could hardly bear to look. An entire royal capital had also fallen into chaos and darkness because of his madness. Now, the palace was filled everywhere with fragments of brick and stone, broken wood, and shattered tiles.
The two of them walked along the main path. Mo Xi asked, “After the soul box shattered, who fused your two souls back together? Murong Lian?”
Gu Mang shook his head.
“Su Yurou. Jiang Fuli’s wife.”
“So it was her…”
“Mm. But she’s been very troubled these past few days. Probably because there’s still no news of Apothecary Jiang.”
“Logically speaking, with something this serious happening to Chonghua, no matter how far he was wandering, he should have come back by now.”
“Yeah. Unfortunately, he didn’t.” Gu Mang sighed. “Otherwise, the demonic qi in the city could probably have been brought under control more thoroughly. Right now, Su Yurou is the only one holding things together, but her medical skills are ultimately not as good as Jiang Fuli’s.”
Mo Xi pondered for a moment before saying, “Meng Ze once mentioned that there’s a reclusive medicine cultivator in Lin’an who may even possess the art of resurrection. I wonder if perhaps he could—”
Gu Mang interrupted him.
“Too late.”
His tone was indifferent. He seemed not to have the slightest enthusiasm toward the reclusive medicine cultivator Meng Ze had mentioned. And Mo Xi could tell that his indifference was not merely because the Blood Demon Beast was about to emerge. Rather, Gu Mang himself was completely uninterested in the legend Meng Ze had described.
Mo Xi even suspected that even if there had been enough time, Gu Mang would not have asked Meng Ze about the whereabouts of this reclusive cultivator.
“Do you think what Meng Ze said might not be reliable?”
Gu Mang paused, then smiled.
“I didn’t say that.”
Seeing that Mo Xi still wanted to ask something, he suddenly raised his hand and pointed toward the ruins of the Golden Palace ahead.
“Oh, right. Look at that.”
As he spoke, he pulled Mo Xi over.
It turned out to be one of the golden beast incense burners from the main hall, the kind that Murong Lian had specially had made in the past to curry favor with Murong Chen.
The little golden burner lay in the middle of the ruins, still doing its utmost to call out,
“May His Majesty enjoy boundless blessings.”
“May His Majesty’s grace spread through ten thousand generations.”
Gu Mang let out a long sigh upon hearing it, a little wistful.
In the end, he said, “What Murong Chen wanted was simply too much.”
Mo Xi said, “I wonder who will become Chonghua’s ruler after Liao is defeated.”
“Lian-di definitely can’t do it. He just said so himself. He said his health is poor and that Fusheng Ruomeng has ruined his body. Once everything is over, he wants to go to his fief in Linyi to recuperate. …But there’s no need to rush something like this. Everyone has their own fate, every country has its own destiny. When the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally take the straight path. There’s no need to worry.”
When Gu Mang reached this point, he paused and smiled.
“But speaking of defeating Liao—you’re that certain that we can win?”
Mo Xi raised his eyes. His gaze was calm and gentle.
“With you, we can win anything.”
A glimmer flickered in Gu Mang’s eyes. Then he raised his hand and tapped Mo Xi on the chest.
“Haha, thank you for believing in me. That’s right. I also think that with me here, we’ll definitely win. When it comes to understanding the Blood Demon Beast, none of you knows more than I do. So when we fight tomorrow, all of you have to listen to me. This time, I’m the commander-in-chief.”
Mo Xi looked at his ambitious expression and could not help reaching out to lightly poke his forehead.
“…You will always be my commander-in-chief.”
Gu Mang smiled, looking somewhat flamboyant and somewhat shy.
“But speaking of which…”
After a while, Gu Mang said, “I always feel that Su Yurou… seems a little strange.”
“How so?”
“Back then, when the Sword Demon Li Qingqian caused trouble, they said that the National Preceptor of Liao had gone mad because the peerlessly beautiful Su Yurou had married someone else. He found more than a hundred women who resembled Su Yurou and sacrificed all of them on the mountain. At the time, the National Preceptor of Liao even said something like… What was so special about Su Yurou? If he wanted women with that kind of appearance, he could have as many as he wanted.”
Mo Xi nodded.
“That’s true. Miss Hongshao, Li Qingqian’s close friend, was also killed because of this.”
“Mm.” Gu Mang stroked his chin. “But Mo Xi, have you ever thought about one thing?”
“What?”
“Think about it. If an ordinary woman discovered that her former lover had fought his way right up to the gates of her own country, what kind of state of mind would she have?”
Mo Xi thought about it.
“She might try to send a message to him and plead for mercy.”
“And what else?”
“At the very least, she would be restless and anxious, not knowing how to face that man.”
“Exactly.” Gu Mang said, “But Madam Su is completely different. She seems not to care at all about what the National Preceptor of Liao is doing right now. Not even a little. Instead, she has been constantly sending people to inquire about Apothecary Jiang’s whereabouts.”
“Perhaps it’s because she and the National Preceptor of Liao are already in the past. She is now Jiang Fuli’s wife, so naturally she is concerned about Jiang Fuli’s safety.”
Gu Mang raised one finger and shook it.
“Incorrect.”
As he spoke, he even smiled and pinched Mo Xi’s cheek.
“You, this person, simply have too high a moral standard. You always measure people’s hearts through human ethics. Yes, Su Yurou is Jiang Fuli’s wife; there’s nothing wrong with that. I also don’t believe she would betray Jiang Fuli. That is human ethics. But if it really was as Li Qingqian believed, and Su Yurou had once shared such a deep entanglement with another man, then whether she was already someone’s wife or someone’s mother, if she saw that man again and had to become his enemy, there would be no way for her to completely ignore him in her heart.”
“…”
“But Su Yurou doesn’t care.” Gu Mang said. “From what I’ve seen these past few days, she has only two emotions toward the National Preceptor: fear, and disgust.”
Gu Mang shook his head.
“That isn’t the attitude someone has toward an old lover.”
Mo Xi looked at his serious expression and could not help feeling somewhat helpless.
“And how do you know what another woman is feeling?”
“Actually, this has nothing to do with whether someone is a man or a woman. It’s simply human nature.” Gu Mang paused before continuing, “Sigh, let me put it this way. Back when you believed I had betrayed my country, before the Battle of Dongting Water, when you knew you were about to see me after I had supposedly betrayed the country, what were you feeling?”
Mo Xi: “…”
“It definitely wasn’t fear, or nothing but disgust, was it?”
Of course it wasn’t.
Even now, Mo Xi could still recall that feeling with absolute clarity.
It had been unbearably painful yet unbearably hopeful.
Whether awake or asleep, there had always been Gu Mang’s figure before his eyes, as though he were soaked in the tenderness of the past while simultaneously wanting to be obscured by the unknown future.
Mo Xi lowered his lashes and sighed.
“I understand what you mean.”
“So Madam Su isn’t right.”
“Mm.”
Gu Mang said, “There are three possibilities for why she’s strange. First, Madam Su has some secret connected to the National Preceptor of Liao that no one else knows about. Second, Madam Su never gave the National Preceptor of Liao any response at all, and all his madness back then was simply his own baseless delusion.”
“And the third?”
“Third,” Gu Mang said, “Li Qingqian may have misunderstood some of the National Preceptor of Liao’s actions back then. His interpretation of the relationship between those two people was wrong from the very beginning.”
Mo Xi’s eyes widened at once.
Gu Mang stroked his chin and continued.
“Actually, I lean more toward the third possibility. Because when we subdued Li Qingqian back then, he saw Su Yurou’s true appearance. She whispered a few things to him that no one else knew, and then the Sword Demon Li Qingqian collapsed and dissipated. Compared with the first two possibilities, I think the third is more likely. It was precisely because Su Yurou destroyed the understanding that had originally caused Li Qingqian to develop his obsession that, as the Sword Demon, he felt everything was simply too ridiculous. His will collapsed, and he diminished into ashes. Otherwise, with nothing more than a face and a few words, how could she have shattered his sanity?”
Mo Xi pondered this and nodded.
“Yes.”
Gu Mang was just about to say something more when a thunderclap suddenly boomed in the distance.
He immediately turned his head.
“Not good!”
High in the sky, large masses of dark clouds suddenly gathered in swirling rings. At the center of the vortex formed by the black clouds, lightning flashed violently. It was as though the firmament had been torn open, and pale light, like blood from the heavens, poured down.
It illuminated the Liao army camp stationed in the distant outskirts.
Within that white light bright enough to illuminate even the Great Abyss, countless tiny black specks rose from the Liao army’s camp and flew toward the tear in the firmament.
Gu Mang activated his long-distance vision technique.
When he saw clearly what those black specks were, his expression immediately turned horribly pale.
“…Fuck. That’s the true resurrection ritual of the Blood Demon Beast.”
His lips moved slightly as he stared at the black specks and spoke in a low voice.
“Those floating into the sky are all living sacrifices. They’re the Butterfly-Bone Beauty Mat seats that Liao captured!”
Mo Xi was shocked.
“What?!”
They all knew that the so-called Butterfly-Bone Beauty Mat were a clan whose bodies carried ancient demonic blood.
However, after the war between gods and demons, the Demon Gate had been permanently closed to the world. This branch of the demonic race, abandoned in the human world, had lost the nourishment of demonic qi. Their spiritual cores had gradually withered, and they had lost all their magical power, becoming no different from ordinary humans—or even weaker.
The only demonic characteristic they retained was that they were suitable for use as cauldrons in cultivation.
“The Blood Demon Beast is a monstrous beast refined from fragments of ancient demonic texts. It requires a tremendous amount of demonic blood,” Gu Mang said. “When I was in Liao, I carefully read those surviving fragments concerning the Blood Demon Beast. According to legend, when the demons refined this monstrous beast, they used the spiritual energy of the demonic race to nourish it. And if ordinary humans wanted to truly refine such a beast, they could only find something in this world connected to the demonic race and offer it as a sacrifice—and the most useful were the Butterfly-Bone Beauty Mat.”
Mo Xi asked, “So… the Blood Demon Beast was actually raised by feeding it living humans of this special bloodline?”
“More or less.” Gu Mang said, “It takes more than a hundred thousand Beauty Mats to refine a single Blood Demon Beast. Wasn’t Li Qingqian’s village slaughtered back then precisely because the people of Liao were searching everywhere for Beauty Mats? They had been plotting this for a long time.”
As he spoke, his dark blue eyes gazed toward the place where the winds and clouds were changing dramatically.
“Looks like Liao wants to settle things with us before dawn. They can’t wait until tomorrow.”
As he spoke, he tied up the blue-and-gold silk sash Murong Lian had given him. A few stray strands of his bangs fell down onto his Heroic Pendant.
“Let’s go! We’re going to lead the troops!”
As he said this, a thin smile curved at the corners of his lips.
Perhaps it was only Mo Xi’s imagination, but beneath the light of the Blood Demon Beast, Gu Mang’s blue eyes seemed slightly moist.
Looking at his expression, a vague sense of foreboding suddenly rose in Mo Xi’s heart.
He could not help murmuring softly,
“…Gu Mang…”
He had originally thought Gu Mang would not hear the quiet call.
Even if he did hear it, the whisper meant nothing, and perhaps Gu Mang would not respond at all.
But he was wrong.
Gu Mang turned around.
His blue eyes reflected the distant firelight as he gazed at Mo Xi for a moment.
Then Gu Mang suddenly put an arm around Mo Xi’s shoulders and hugged him tightly.
That embrace carried so much meaning.
Love, intimacy, comfort, encouragement…
All the bright convictions Gu Mang had once promised Mo Xi.
The embrace was so natural, as though those years of drifting through hardship as a spy had never existed between them.
When Gu Mang released him, his handsome face shone with a sharp, spirited brilliance full of fighting spirit.
“After we finish this battle, you have to buy your Gu Mang-gege a drink. The very best Pear Blossom White. Otherwise, I’ll be unhappy.”
Before Mo Xi could see his expression clearly, Gu Mang had already turned around, grabbed him, and hurried toward the general’s platform without giving him a chance to object.