CH 12

Seeing that he had already left his sea of consciousness, Yan Xuan suddenly averted his gaze, then without speaking, turned and walked away. He didn’t like to see Yi Ning look at him like this, with a pitying gaze. It made him feel like a wounded dog, wagging its tail at its owner looking for comfort.

A long sword suddenly shot over, nailing into the ground beside his foot. 

“Hold on.”

Yi Ning’s voice was faintly hoarse and he suddenly grabbed onto Yan Xuan’s collar, forcing him to lower his head to meet his eyes.

The cool scent of snow pint, with the chill of melting snow, drifted over and Yan Xuan’s heart grew colder.

Yi Ning was probably really disgusted by him now, a murderous demonic cultivator, a lowly slave born from a lowly slave, Yan Xuan thought. 

“Sorry.”

That pair of eyes, known by everyone for being famously cold and indifferent, were stained with a trace of guilt, staring seriously at Yan Xuan.

Yan Xuan stiffened slightly, belatedly realising that Yi Ning was apologising to him.

So the Immortal Master would also apologise for his mistakes?

“It’s my fault. I only wanted to know why you wanted to kill Yan Chengyun.” Yi Ning apologised lowly. “I didn’t think things through, I only wanted to save people but failed to take your feelings into consideration.”

“No need.” Yan Xuan avoided his gaze and said, a little self-deprecatingly. “If you had your cultivation, you would surely have killed me then.”

Immortal Master Yi Ning exterminated demons and defended righteousness, this was what he should be doing. It was just that Yan Xuan was not reconciled to Yi Ning never treating him with compassion. He was not reconciled to having half the blood flowing through his veins being human, yet Yi Ning still treated him like he was a full demon.

Yi Ning choked on his next words. Seeing that Yan Xuan was about to walk away, he subconsciously reached out to grab his wrist. Yan Xuan halted in his steps but didn’t shake his hand off. 

Then, Yi Ning silently pushed up his sleeve, and as expected, the area where he had been burned by the flames was covered in unsightly scars. He wanted to constantly remind himself to never forget his hatred and pay back all the humiliation he felt.

“Sorry.” Yi Ning repeated, “I wish I had known earlier.” He only knew that Yan Xuan was a natural-born Demon Venerable and never expected that even he would be humiliated like this.

“What’s the point of you saying such things? You would still protect Yan Chengyun.” Yan Xuan tugged his hand away, then turned his face back. He knew Yi Ning’s personality, if you wanted him to watch a demonic cultivator kill people and do nothing, he definitely wouldn’t do it.

Yi Ning lowered his gaze and spoke, slowly, “I won’t stop you, but,” He paused, then drew closer and looked into Yan Xuan’s eyes, “if you want to kill him, I want you to kill him cleanly.” 

Even when you kill people, I want your reputation to remain undirtied. I won’t allow you to be plotted against by others and become the target of public derision.

Right means right, wrong means wrong. Even if you were a demonic cultivator, I won’t allow them to splash a single drop of dirty water on you.

This was Yi Ning’s way.

Yan Xuan had never expected that Yi Ning would say these words. He was stunned before he realised that Yi Ning really was teaching him how to kill people. 

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He wanted to uncover the truth behind the situation, not just to dispel the hex poison on himself, but because Yi Ning felt that there was someone pulling strings in the shadows.

Someone who incited Liu Rugeng to come up the mountain and seduce Gong Xiuxian, driving a wedge between master and disciple, and who also got Yan Chengyun to cause conflict between him and Yan Xuan. 

This person in the shadows appeared to want Yi Ning to be isolated from everyone and ultimately become enemies with Gong Xiuxian and Yi Ning, fighting them to the death.

However, Yi Ning wasn’t going to let what happened with Gong Xiuxian happen again.

“So, I want to know the situation between Fang Shilan and Mu Xiaoyun, this way, I will be able to understand what Fang Shilan’s true motivations are.” Yi Ning said seriously.

Yan Xuan looked solemnly at him, feeling a little helpless Yi Ning when he acted like this. As if as long as he wanted to do something, he would be able to do it. 

“Fang Shilan is my subordinate. At the time, because her identity was lowly, she was disdained by the rat race.” Yan Xuan said indifferently, “Because I had just succeeded to the position of Demon Venerable, I needed people to support me. She wasn’t a bad choice.”

Fang Shilan’s personality was gentle, her identity was lowly and she never fought with anyone over anything, so she was the perfect choice.

Yan Xuan didn’t care whether the people under him were strong or not, loyal or not. He only cared if they were intelligent enough. Fang Shilan performed very well in this regard and never caused him any trouble, and so he continued to protect Fang Shilan.

Until one day, Fang Shilan told him she wanted to go to Ganlin City and marry someone there. 

A demon wanted to marry a human, it was just like something out of a fairytale. Perhaps Yan Xuan was the villain in this fairytale, he had warned Fang Shilan many times.

The very last time, Fang Shilan kneeled in front of him and said, “Venerable Lord, he is different from the other humans, I believe I will be happy with him.”

Since she believed she would be happy, then Yan Xuan would give her his approval.

What happened after they got married, Yan Xuan would occasionally hear a little from Gan’er. 

Mu Xiaoyun treated her very well, yet Mu Xiaoyun’s mother hated Fang Shilan for not being able to give birth to a child.

You chose your own fate.

“Because of this, Fang Shilan was determined to give birth to a child for Mu Xiaoyun.” Yi Ning took a deep breath.

People’s prejudices were always worse than expected. 

Another thought occurred to Yi Ning, and he asked, “Isn’t it very hard for a half-demon to survive?”

Yan Xuan nodded, his pupils dimming. That year, his mother had been sold into the Yan family as a slave and had no choice but to give birth to him.

The amount of humiliation he had endured could not be quantified. He wasn’t a demon, nor was he a human. He was abandoned by both worlds.

Yet Fang Shilan was willing to risk her life to give birth to a half-demon, and wasn’t hesitant to make Yan Chengyun the bait… 

“No, that’s not right. If Fang Shilan truly loved Mu Xiaoyun, she wouldn’t risk her life to give birth to his child, she would only do it when she was certain it would succeed.” Because she still wanted to grow old with Mu Xiaoyun.

Yi Ning’s train of thought was suddenly derailed when a shocking conjecture surfaced in his brain. He looked at the Glazed Tower and murmured, “Why did Fang Shilan only kidnap women?”

There was the rosemary fragrance to prevent miscarriages, the heated jade floor, and the window that was insulated so well, no breeze could slip through…

Perhaps the pregnant one was somebody else. 

Yan Xuan immediately understood what Yi Ning was thinking of. His eyes narrowed, and he said coldly, “Fang Shilan isn’t pregnant. The ones pregnant are those 17 women. She wants to let those 17 women give birth to a half-demon to test it out.”

Those 17 women had been threatened by Fang Shilan through some unknown methods and were being used by her to find a way to safely give birth to a half-demon. Of those women kidnapped, the Xu family’s young lady was planted at the Yan Clan Pharmacy to divert Yan Xuan.

As expected, the moment Yan Xuan heard the name ‘Yan Clan Pharmacy’, he dropped everything and rushed there.

These events all seemed to have been carefully planned out by someone, Yi Ning had to be on guard. 

He had always tended towards being calm and rational, unswayed by other people. Even when Gong Xiuxian betrayed him, he could quickly stead his heart and prevent the birth of a heart’s demon.

However, when he saw Yan Xuan’s blood flowing out in his sea of consciousness, Yi Ning was rather anticipating the day Yan Xuan got his revenge.

“Are we going?” Yi Ning asked him lightly and, as if trying to see if Yan Xuan was still angry, a little carefully.

Yan Xuan’s expression froze for a moment before he turned his face away to hide the emotions swirling in his eyes, and said indifferently, “Go.” 

When he turned away, Yi Ning could see a flash of the reddened tips of his ears.

He was stunned, wanting to take a closer look.

A large hand covered his eyes, and Yan Xuan said lowly, “Just forget everything that happened just now.” In regards to his past and origin, Yan Xuan was not willing to let anybody other than Yi Ning know.

Eyelashes tickled the palm of his hand, and when Yan Xuan lowered his head, he spotted Yi Ning’s exquisite collarbones under the collar of his clothes, his pale white skin, and his pale lips. When he made a sound of agreement, the movement of his lips looked like they were asking for a kiss. 

Yan Xuan’s throat rolled unconsciously, and his heart suddenly birthed the thought of knocking Yi Ning out with his demonic fog. The Immortal Master Yi Ning of right now had no defense against him at all.

If he’s unconscious, no matter what he does, Yi Ning wouldn’t find out.

He would do it very, very lightly, and leave not a single trace.

Yi Ning lightly pulled his hand away, and asked a little confusedly, “What’s wrong?” 

“… Nothing.”

Yi Ning watched as Yan Xuan ran strangely out of the Demon Carriage, like he was escaping a demon or monster.

Weird.

When Yan Xuan returned, he brought with him a gush of cold fog, and the clothes on his body were also damp. He cast a brief glance over Yi Ning, then sat at the spot furthest from him. 

“Where did you go?” Yi Ning looked suspiciously at him. Why did it feel like he had taken a walk in a heavy rain before returning?

Yan Xuan looked out the window and said, a little apathetically, “Just around.” To the nearest waterfall to clear his head.

Seeing that he was unwilling to elaborate, Yi Ning also didn’t bother pressing him. In any case, they had other matters to attend to.

The Demon Carriage’s curtain was pushed aside and a small head poked in in embarrassment. 

“Immortal Master, why did you tell me to dress like this?” Gan’er’s face was red as she tugged at the hem of her clothes. She was clothed in coarse clothes, her pants just a little too short, and a patchy cloth hat perched on her head. Her face, on the other hand, was clean and shining.

Yi Ning thought for a moment, then reached out a hand and picked up a handful of dust on the Demon Carriage and smeared it on Gan’er’s face. He nodded and said, “This looks much more accurate.”

“Immortal Master…” Gan’er pouted, feeling wronged. She didn’t understand why the Immortal Master wanted her to look so dirty.

Yan Xuan, who was stealing a look, couldn’t help but snicker. Yi Ning had dressed Gan’er up like a little beggar. 

“I never expected that Immortal Master Yi Ning would bully a child.” Yan Xuan propped his hand on his chin and looked at him, his mood considerably lightened.

Yi Ning shot him a look. Seeing that he had cheered up, his own mood also mysteriously felt better. He pursed his lips and said quietly, “I didn’t bully anyone. I only asked Gan’er to help me do something.”

Pausing, Yi Ning turned to ask Yan Xuan, “Your demonic energy, how long can it linger on Gan’er’s body?”

His question seemed to have come out of nowhere. Yan Xuan narrowed his eyes, but still answered him honestly, “Ten days.” 

If he intentionally left behind his half-demon’s aura, it definitely wouldn’t dissipate before ten days had passed.

“Good, then leave a little energy on Gan’er’s body.” Yi Ning looked toward the Yan Clan Pharmacy, the hand on his sword tightening its grip.

He wanted to help Yan Xuan take revenge for everything that had happened to him in the past.