The Demon Venerable Is Delicate and Charming (GL) Chapter 25

Bai Zhi obediently crouched closer to Li Lingjiang. Then, feeling uncomfortable, she simply sat down on the ground. She shook out her robe and propped up her chin, staring at the Life-Death River.
The thought Li Lingjiang had of telling her to sit up faded. First, she choked on her words. Then she slowly adjusted her breathing and said, “The night will be cold when it deepens. If you feel uncomfortable, do not sit on the ground.”
After saying this, as if she had endured for a long time, she turned her head and coughed hard, so hard her vision blurred. Yin Wu’s expression did not improve. She patted Li Lingjiang’s back and asked softly, “Why not sleep for a while?”
Li Lingjiang could not say where it hurt. Her violently rising chest made her whole body tremble. Her face was choked into a much redder color, and even the corners of her eyes held a trace of wetness. Skin and flesh were pulled and torn, and fine, prickling pain rose from some unknown place. Her body was thin, the shoulder blades beneath the black robe especially obvious, and under the smooth lines lay a hidden waist.
She placed a hand on Yin Wu’s arm. Her other hand clenched under her robe. Her coughing slowed, and even her breathing weakened. “I am not sleepy.”
Yin Wu’s gaze stopped on her fingers for several seconds. Without pausing, she held Li Lingjiang’s hand and warmed it in her palm. Li Lingjiang clearly shrank back, but Yin Wu stopped her.
Seeing she could not pull free, Li Lingjiang no longer struggled. She let Yin Wu hold her other hand in both palms as well. Clearly, she was the one with the fever, but it was strange. This person’s body temperature was even hotter.
“I am not cold,” Li Lingjiang said.
Yin Wu gave an “Mm” but did not let go. Her fingers rubbed the slightly uneven back of Li Lingjiang’s hand now and then. Suddenly, she smiled and leaned beside Li Lingjiang’s ear like someone who had gained a precious treasure.
“Demon Lord.”
The tail of her voice fell lightly, and her speaking speed was not fast. Most of her body had moved close to Li Lingjiang. “Have you noticed? You do not reject me much anymore.”
Li Lingjiang did not move. She turned her head and met Yin Wu’s eyes. The distance between them could vanish cleanly in an instant. Her tone was flat, and no emotion could be heard, only that sense of weakness. “If I rejected you, would you let go?”
“No.” Yin Wu answered at once, tightening her grip a little. “I am warming you. Coughing too badly will make you very uncomfortable.”
Li Lingjiang noticed her small movement and felt that Yin Wu paid special attention to her hands. “Do you like my hands very much?”
Yin Wu’s expression did not stall. Instead, she seemed embarrassed. Quietly, she hooked the corner of her lips, as if she had been waiting for this question for some time. She tilted her head, her face sincere. “I like your hands very much. I always feel they are beautiful.”
As for the other places… Yin Wu’s breathing grew heavier as she exhaled. As if teasing, her gaze drifted over several places before she drew it back.
After receiving the answer, Li Lingjiang stopped speaking. She was indeed much more tolerant toward Yin Wu than toward others. Since Yin Wu had this thought, Li Lingjiang simply accepted it and let the young immortal handle her as she wished.
Bai Zhi sat on the ground and heard every word she could hear, messy and alone in the wind. She looked at Feng Luan and Wuzhi talking under a tree not far away and suddenly felt that their choice not to come closer was correct.
Only when the two stopped talking did she softly insert a sentence to show her existence. “What does the Life-Death River make people see and hear?”
Only then did Yin Wu notice her. She lifted a smile and thought for a moment. “What people hear is mostly the same. Only seeing is different.”
Her tone lowered, gaining some mystery. “It is greed. It is desire. Whatever you think of in your heart is what you see.”
“Appearances are born from the heart,” Li Lingjiang said, lowering her head. Her gaze seemed a few degrees warmer.
Bai Zhi said, “Oh.” She bit her fingertip. “So if I like money, money will appear?”
Yin Wu said, “That is the idea.”
“How could something you want too much appear all at once?” Yin Wu tugged at the corner of her lips. “A person cannot be too greedy.”
Bai Zhi seemed to laugh. She shrugged at Yin Wu. “I understand that perfectly. But are you not afraid?”
Yin Wu waved a finger, her eyes filled with tiny smiles. “No. If one’s self-control is enough, one can endure anything. Besides, there are not many things I want in my heart.”
The reason they agreed to stop by the Life-Death River was not only because they were tired from traveling, but also because they were wary of the unknown road ahead. This river’s tricks were not powerful. As long as one endured and did not go near it, nothing would happen. Moreover, these little mind-bewitching tricks could not shake them.
Bai Zhi pouted at this. “You are not immortals. How could you have no desires?”
Li Lingjiang’s gaze still rested on her. “Are immortals so good? How could they have no desires?”
“Are immortals not good? Do you cultivators not cultivate in order to ascend? It is just that immortals can be good or bad. At least none of what I begged for ever came true. They accept incense from the human world, but do not do things for people.” As Bai Zhi spoke, she found herself amused. “That is also true. There are so many prayers every day. They might not hear mine.”
Li Lingjiang withdrew her gaze a little and only said, “There will be one.”
Yin Wu also poked her head out, lifting her chin. “Maybe the immortal you found was not good. Why not worship someone else? I think the demon clan’s-”
The young immortal stopped speaking. Li Lingjiang quietly touched her palm and sent over a cool, indifferent glance. Yin Wu blinked, coughed lightly, and did not dare continue.
Bai Zhi did not notice. She waved a hand. “I will not worship anymore. I do not believe in that now.”
She propped up her head, bent one knee, and struggled to keep herself awake. She waited until a whole dream had passed, yet nothing happened.
The ghost shadows had already arrived beside them, repeating the scene from the previous night once more, as if closely following them. From somewhere in the wind came the sound of bells, clear and crisp, yet faintly mixed with roughness.
Bai Zhi felt a little afraid and moved closer to Li Lingjiang.
Yin Wu had not slept at all. Seeing that Li Lingjiang’s fever had improved somewhat, at least no longer like before, when even the breath she exhaled was hot enough to upset the heart, she relaxed a little.
Only then did Li Lingjiang hear the movement. She lifted her eyelids and lazily looked toward the Life-Death River.
In an instant, many people’s laughter mixed together and surged from all directions. Wen Si drew his sword and protected the group from the front, his brows and eyes sharp.
“Who is laughing? Why is it so strange?”
“Stop talking nonsense. This is obviously that broken river making noise.”
“I… why do I feel like there is a baby crying too?”
The speaker’s voice trembled. When many people heard it, they listened carefully, and goosebumps instantly rose all over them. The crying of an infant came with the laughter of women. Cold climbed from the soles of their feet upward. The temperature seemed to freeze, making them shiver. The sounds circled behind them like they were taking lives, then wrapped around them like poisonous snakes.
Bai Zhi’s face tightened, and she did not dare say a word. She stared hard at the Life-Death River. Seeing the rolling waves become somewhat terrifying, she had just been about to withdraw her gaze when she heard a familiar murmur beside her ear.
“Mengting.”
Her whole body shook. Her eyes clouded, and she stared at the Life-Death River without blinking. Bai Zhi’s mouth opened slightly. Her gaze became blank, and also seemed mad. She could make no sound. She only knelt on the ground and crawled over bit by bit.
Li Lingjiang’s brows and eyes sharpened. She hooked Bai Zhi’s collar and used some strength to pull her back. Softly, she called, “Bai Zhi.”
Bai Zhi did not react. She slowly turned her head. Her eyes, filled with tears, were full of grief. Her fingers clawed at the ground, digging in little by little. Her mouth made unclear sounds.
“Let me go.”
Let me go.
That voice exploded through Li Lingjiang’s mind like something drifting and distant. She only dazed for an instant. When she blinked again, she found the scenery around her had changed. She raised her hand and looked at it, quickly realizing that she had entered Bai Zhi’s feelings.
She had not expected this.
Li Lingjiang raised her head. The plaque over the gate clearly read “Bai Manor.”
“Daddy, higher!” Joy could not be hidden in the child’s voice. A tall man held up a jade-carved little girl, and behind him followed a gentle-browed woman.
Li Lingjiang frowned slightly, then quickly relaxed. This was Bai Zhi?
“Mengting, come down. Do you not think your father gets tired holding you? Have you finished your lessons?” There was no blame in the woman’s tone.
The girl called Mengting stuck out her tongue in the man’s arms, her eyes full of longing. “I want to become a general like Mother and Daddy! I do not want to be some lady locked away in the inner rooms!”
The man laughed loudly. “As expected of a descendant of my Bai family. Daddy will wait for you to become unstoppable.”
Li Lingjiang’s eyes reflected the warm scene of them together. But in an instant, frightening thunder came from the distance, one strike after another falling into people’s hearts. Rain began to fall in a fine drizzle, then grew heavier and heavier. Behind her was no longer the noise of crowds, but flashing blades and sword light, hands rising and blades falling.
She looked at the blood flowing to her feet and did not move. Li Lingjiang’s fingertips moved. Only then did she raise her head and look at the scene before her.
The woman was covered in wounds. With eyes full of pain, she raised a blade and slashed her daughter’s face. Her hand trembled. The rain finally bent her waist. She roared, “Mengting, run! Run!”
Bai Mengting seemed to react. She reached out, wanting to hug her mother, but was pushed away with great force. She watched her mother force herself to stand, retreating step by step, every word filled with desolation. “My Bai family has produced heroes for generations. My husband and I served the emperor for decades, yet we ended up like this!”
She raised her hand and laughed loudly. “We entrusted ourselves wrongly. Wrongly!”
“Mengting, carry your father and mother’s lives and live well.”
Bai Mengting stared wide-eyed as her mother killed herself before her. Before she could hug her one more time, she could only flee in panic and hide among the dead, trembling.
Her face was ruined, and because of that, she escaped many pursuits. Later, she was abducted and sold to a household.
Li Lingjiang watched her hide in the stable, being whipped, spat on, and cursed. “Dead monster. So ugly! You still dare come out? Roll back where you belong.”
Bai Mengting could not walk or crawl. Like a toy, she rolled in humiliation into icy water. She struggled and looked blankly through the water toward the dim gray sky in the distance.
At last, Li Lingjiang moved. Her vision seemed to be pulled very far away, and she saw Bai Mengting searching through piles of dead bodies.
With each step, she knocked her head to the ground, only begging for forgiveness. Li Lingjiang watched her search for a very, very long time. The moonlight that night was bright.
Finally, she found a perfect face. The body was already ruined. Bai Mengting slapped her own face hard while crying and peeled off that face skin. Trembling, she held it in her arms. She sat high among the dead, yet was lonelier than anyone.
She saw someone walk toward her and slowly bend down. The corners of that person’s mouth curved with no smile in them. Bai Mengting raised the face skin and only said, “Bai Zhi bows here in thanks.”
Li Lingjiang seemed to have watched Bai Zhi’s memories like a lantern of a passing life. There seemed to be emotion in her eyes, yet also only indifference. In just a few short breaths, one person’s past had ended.
She felt her organs twist in pain. Unable to endure it, she bent at the waist and groaned dully. She shook her head. In the blurred moonlight, she saw a familiar figure.
Yin Wu stood not far from her, as if pitying all living beings. She reached out to her. The moonlight that night was too cold, making Yin Wu look full of chill. “Li Lingjiang, come here.”
Li Lingjiang began panting sharply. She had just returned to herself and saw clearly that it was Yin Wu. The young immortal looked at her with worry. But Li Lingjiang could not say a word. With difficulty, she spat a mouthful of blood. Her mouth was full of that hated rust taste, and for some reason, her fingers loosened slightly.
Bai Zhi gained an opening and ran toward the Life-Death River like a madwoman. Feng Luan reached out to stop her, but in confusion, only a piece of her clothing remained in his hand. In disbelief, he looked at Bai Zhi, who had already walked into the Life-Death River, his eyes full of shock.
“You came.” Bai Zhi smiled with understanding. Looking at the person before her, she softly called, “Mother.”
The water of the Life-Death River was icy. Bai Zhi stood still. The river was not deep. She smiled, and as she smiled, tears fell. “Long time no see.”
Her mother also said to her, “Long time no see.”
Bai Zhi smiled, as if she were once again Bai Mengting from back then. “You left too early. You did not get to see Mengting grow up. What a pity.”
She suddenly took a few steps back. “Actually, I know you are fake. But I still wanted to come see you. Mengting will not live to become unstoppable. For a full five years, I could not dream of you or Father. What a pity.”
Bai Zhi continued stepping backward. “This river cannot be stayed in for long. But if I did not come in, I could not see you clearly. Forgive your unfilial daughter. One day, when I reach the Yellow Springs, I will apologize to you.”
Li Lingjiang watched her movements and exchanged a glance with Yin Wu. She slowed her breath and finally said, “Yin Wu, catch her.”
Yin Wu looked deeply at her, then immediately got up and ran toward the Life-Death River. “Bai Zhi, do you not want your life? Come out. The Life-Death River did not take your life.”
“I know. I knew the moment I came in.” Bai Zhi smiled boldly. She turned and stepped toward the bank bit by bit. “I still want to live. I want to live!”
She stretched out her hand. Just as she was about to touch Yin Wu’s outstretched hand, she suddenly paused. With an expression she had never shown before, Bai Zhi stared blankly at her own legs. Looking at the legs that had already turned into bloody foam, she tilted her head in confusion.
Yin Wu’s expression tightened. She also discovered something was wrong and wanted to pull Bai Zhi up. In the next second, her hand caught nothing. The person who had been perfectly fine suddenly turned into a pool of water and vanished without a trace. The Life-Death River did not rise at all, as if no person had melted into it.
Li Lingjiang’s eyelashes trembled. She breathed out slowly and stood. The sachet at her collar fell out and landed beside her foot.
Specks of daylight rose and covered the entire sachet.
Dawn had come.