Chapter 59 Fire Cloud Cave.
Compared to Flower Fruit Mountain, Mount Hao better fits Jiang Huaisu's stereotypical image of a demon's lair: towering trees and dense foliage block out the sun, making it dim even during the day. The Qiankun Ring emits a faint golden light, reminding its master that the area is filled with demonic energy, and that thousands of demons may be lurking on the mountain.
Before Jiang Huaisu even reached the entrance of the Fire Cloud Cave, demon soldiers came to greet her, politely saying, "Our master invites you." It seems that as soon as she stepped into this place, some mountain demons had already noticed her and Nezha and quickly relayed the message to Red Boy.
She didn't care about this. She hadn't planned to hide her tracks anyway. It was her first time visiting Fire Cloud Cave, and having demon soldiers to guide her made things much easier.
The cave wound its way through the air, its stone walls adorned with various skulls, which the demon soldiers claimed were the spoils of the Holy Infant King. Nezha's gaze was drawn to one in particular; he stopped and stared at the rounded skull of a demon beast for a while. Jiang Huaisu quickened her pace, following the demon soldiers around the corner.
She bumped into someone's shoulder, took a step back, and looked up to see the person leaning close to her. Her magic ribbon floated over just in time, blocking the way between them.
The smooth satin made intimate contact with the man's lips, and the Hun Tian Ling suddenly withdrew, then collapsed to the ground half-dead.
Jiang Huaisu looked at Hong Haier with a puzzled expression. Why was this person suddenly so close? Surely his eyesight wasn't so bad that he hadn't seen her?
Nezha turned his head and happened to witness her standing opposite the red-haired boy.
"Sorry, I mistook you for someone else." Red Boy put on his usual welcoming smile.
Nezha approached warily. "What do you mean?"
"I mistook my aunt for someone from my cave and wanted to hug her..." Seeing Nezha's unfriendly expression, Red Boy added, "But I couldn't hug her, I didn't even touch the hem of her clothes."
Now it was Jiang Huaisu's turn to be puzzled: "A hug? Is that how you usually greet your subordinates?"
“She’s not a subordinate, she’s Xiao Yuan. Your figure and clothing are similar to hers, which is why I mistook you at first glance. Oh, Xiao Yuan and I often have some intimate moments, just a hug, it’s nothing.”
"Who is Xiao Yuan?"
Red Boy thought for a moment, seemingly unsure how to properly introduce her. After hesitating for a while, he blurted out four words: "A confidante?"
"Never mind, that's not important." He changed the subject, his gaze shifting back and forth between Jiang Huaisu and Nezha. "What brings you two here? As far as I remember, this seems to be my aunt's first time visiting Haoshan."
Nezha walked up to Jiang Huaisu and said bluntly, "I heard you're going to marry two wives. Your aunt was curious to see if it was true, so she came to take a look."
Red Boy readily admitted, "I did have that thought before. My father can marry two women, so why can't I?"
"But my thinking has changed now. One is already difficult to handle, let alone two. I was impulsive before, thinking I should emulate my father, which is why I spoke so arrogantly." Red Boy
With a cheerful expression, she said, "In short, having Xiao Yuan by my side is enough for me now."
Nezha: "You two got married?"
"Of course not, otherwise I would have invited my aunt and Uncle Sun to the wedding banquet long ago."
"Oh, so you'll get married later?"
Seemingly reluctant to answer the question, Red Boy's tone was somewhat indifferent, and he gave an ambiguous answer: "No one can predict what will happen in the future, let nature take its course."
"It seems your relationship isn't that great either," Nezha said without any beating around the bush.
Jiang Huaisu still hadn't given up on her suspicions; she suspected that Hong Haier was using people to replenish their yin and yang. But it wasn't convenient to ask such a question directly, so she could only inquire tactfully, "Having this... confidante by your side, does it help with your cultivation?"
"Not at all." Red Boy scoffed. "Little Kite is useless. She can't help at all. It's good enough if she doesn't drag me down."
They didn't hesitate to speak ill of each other, suggesting their relationship wasn't very good. Furthermore, Red Boy didn't show any aftereffects of practicing evil magic; even Nezha didn't notice anything unusual. Therefore, this statement should be highly credible.
Jiang Huaisu then guessed that the two might have a sexual relationship. If it was consensual, then it was none of her business. Having confirmed that Hong Haier wasn't using any unorthodox or evil methods, she stopped pressing the matter.
"Would you like to stay for dinner?" Red Boy asked Jiang Huaisu. "If you're curious about Xiao Yuan, you can meet her during dinner."
"No need," Jiang Huaisu declined repeatedly, making up an excuse that "the rice at home is already cooked," and then she and Nezha made up an excuse to leave.
Seeing that neither she nor Nezha wanted to stay any longer, Red Boy didn't stop them, but simply raised an eyebrow: "The Fire Cloud Cave will soon be hosting a banquet, and we hope you will do us the honor of joining us then, little sister."
Based on the previous discussion, Jiang Huaisu subconsciously assumed he was referring to a wedding banquet. He had clearly avoided Nezha's question about "when to get married," but now he was saying he wanted to hold a banquet—what an unpredictable man!
On second thought, attending Red Boy's wedding might not be so simple. After all, he's going to become a disciple of Guanyin, and I wonder if they allow dating there.
But that wasn't something Jiang Huaisu should worry about. She gave a perfunctory "okay" and took Nezha's hand, walking out of the cave. The little demon leading the way followed them for a while, but was quickly waved away by Nezha. He said he already remembered the route and wouldn't get lost in the cave, so he didn't need it.
"What do you think," Nezha asked Jiang Huaisu for her opinion, "is "it better to go that way?"
"How would I know... Didn't you say you remembered the route?" Jiang Huaisu was even more confused than him. She glanced at it a few times, and the left and right sides were exactly the same.
“I don’t think I took this fork in the road when I entered the cave…” Nezha pondered for a moment, “It’s okay, I’ll just try them all.”
A sudden female voice rang out from the right rear, weakly saying, "Um, you won't be able to get out like this."
Jiang Huaisu and Nezha turned around at the same time and saw a girl push open a hidden door in the stone wall, peeking out half of her head and observing them.
"There's a maze of stones in the cave, and the passages change. If you keep going straight, you might end up back where you started," the girl whispered. "Didn't the Holy Infant King tell you that?"
Jiang Huaisu and Nezha looked at each other, realizing that no one had ever told them this.
"I'll take you out." The girl pushed the hidden door open a little wider and beckoned to them. "Come with me, this way."
Seeing that the girl meant no harm, Jiang Huaisu started walking towards her. Nezha, however, remained where he was, staring at the girl thoughtfully for a while.
"Are you Xiao Yuan?" he asked.
The girl was somewhat surprised. "Has the Third Prince seen me before?"
“No, but Red Boy said that you and Jiang Huaisu have similar figures and clothes.” Nezha looked her up and down. “You’ve never seen me before, but you still recognized me.”
"Because we have the Hun Tian Ling (a magical ribbon)." Xiao Yuan pointed to the weapon fluttering behind him.
Since she was Red Boy's lover, she must know the layout of Fire Cloud Cave like the back of her hand. Jiang Huaisu breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that it was fortunate that she had met Xiao Yuan, which would save her a lot of trouble. If they continued to be lost in this maze, Nezha and she would have no choice but to force their way out of the cave, smashing the stone walls to pieces and possibly having to pay for repairs.
Red Boy is really not a good friend. He set up the bewildering stone formation and didn't say so earlier. Was he just waiting for Nezha to demolish the Fire Cloud Cave so he could turn around and extort money from them?
Nezha followed Jiang Huaisu's footsteps, crouching low as he slipped into the hidden door. As he passed Xiao Yuan, his gaze swept over her face. "Then, please lead the way."
"No problem!"
Since it was their first meeting, Xiao Yuan was a little shy in front of them, but it was easy to see that she was lively by nature. She groped her way forward in the dimly lit stone corridor, humming a strange little tune to herself.
Towards the end of the journey, she turned back to remind them, "The road ahead is a bit winding, so stay close to me."
"Okay." Jiang Huaisu cooperated and closed the distance. "Have you been living in the Fire Cloud Cave for a long time? You can even remember such a complicated route."
"It hasn't been that long, but I've walked this path many times. The Holy Infant King won't let me go out, so when I have nothing to do, I can only wander around in the cave."
Jiang Huaisu was taken aback: "You're not allowed to go out?"
"Yes, he said he liked me very much and wanted to stay with me in the Fire Cloud Cave for the rest of his life."
"Isn't this the same as imprisonment?" Nezha said quietly.
"Right! You all think so too."
Imagining a scene of a small, dark room with mosaics, Jiang Huaisu suddenly felt that things were not as simple as she had imagined. Could it be that Red Boy was taking the route of forced love?
"But there's nothing I can do. The entire mountain is full of the Holy Infant King's spies. I can't escape even if I wanted to." Xiao Yuan sighed.
Jiang Huaisu couldn't help but ask, "Were you kidnapped here by him?"
"No, I came here on my own initiative. I heard a few months ago that he was looking for a wife, so I came to try my luck." Xiao Yuan revealed her little thoughts without any attempt to hide them. "He has a very wealthy family and is very powerful. Being his lover wouldn't be a bad thing; I could get a lot of benefits."
Speaking of what had happened in the past few months, Xiao Yuan seemed a little melancholy. She didn't know if being chosen by Red Boy to stay was a good or bad thing.
Most of the time, she was alone. Red Boy rarely visited her, and they never had any physical intimacy. Xiao Yuan increasingly felt that his "liking" was just empty words to deceive her, unsure how genuine they were. She had considered taking the initiative to get closer to him, but he always maintained that aloof attitude, unwilling to be intimate with her yet unwilling to let her go.
This was nothing like what she had expected. She hadn't received any benefits and was being restricted in her freedom. This mascot-like treatment was unbearable, and she didn't know how long this situation would last.
Hearing this, Jiang Huaisu was also puzzled. The way Hong Hai'er and Xiao Yuan interacted didn't seem like they were attracted to each other.
Although Xiao Yuan didn't directly express her resentment towards Hong Hai'er, her words revealed her dissatisfaction with the current situation and her desire to leave Haoshan. Jiang Huaisu thought for a moment, then asked, "Do you like him?"
Xiao Yuan was very honest: "I like his face. Hmm... maybe his family fortune too." What she meant was that she simply coveted his money and looks, and there were no deeper feelings involved.
“He probably feels the same way about you,” Nezha pointed out bluntly, “He just likes looks.”
"Really?" Xiao Yuan wasn't disappointed at all. Instead, she happily touched her face. "Looks like my transformation went pretty well."
Nezha snorted coldly for no reason. Objectively speaking, Xiao Yuan was indeed very beautiful, and her eyebrows and eyes bore some resemblance to Jiang Huaisu, but it was only a superficial resemblance. He didn't believe that Red Boy couldn't see it.
After winding through the passage, the light ahead gradually brightened, and after a few more steps, the exit of the cave would be in sight.
Xiao Yuan stopped a step away from the cave entrance. "We're here. You can go now."
Nezha: Aren't you leaving?
"Didn't I already say that the Holy Infant King..."
“Yes, he won’t let you leave, so you can’t escape.” Nezha completed the second half of her sentence, then tilted his head as if puzzled. “But you should know that with me and Jiang Huaisu here, it wouldn’t be difficult to help you escape. Isn’t that what you were thinking when you took the initiative to lead the way for us? Or am I wrong, and you’re just being kind-hearted?”
After a long silence as they stared at each other, Xiao Yuan's eyebrows drooped and her voice lowered: "Alright, you guessed right. That's what I thought at first, but you don't seem like the type to meddle in other people's business, and I can tell you don't really like the Holy Infant King, so you probably don't want to get involved with him."
"How could helping you leave have anything to do with him?"
"He'll cause you trouble." It wasn't just wishful thinking on Xiao Yuan's part; she didn't actually feel that she was that important to Hong Hai'er. But for some reason, she had this premonition that if she ran away, Hong Hai'er would never pretend that nothing had happened.
Nezha gave a look that suggested he didn't want to say anything more. He didn't know if Xiao Yuan was deliberately trying to provoke him. How ridiculous! Red Boy had come to cause him trouble; did he think he'd be afraid?
His patience had run out, so he said directly, "Alright, just tell me if you want to leave or not."
Xiao Yuan hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly.
The days she spent in the Fire Cloud Cave were far from what she had imagined. Red Boy neither helped her cultivate nor gave her any substantial benefits, nor did he show any intention of marrying her. Staying here any longer would be unwise; now that she had a chance to escape, she naturally had to seize it.
“Alright.” Nezha said succinctly, “Jiang Huaisu and I will take you away from Mount Hao first, and then I will have heavenly soldiers send you to the Southern Continent. As long as you keep a low profile in the near future, Red Boy will not be able to find you so easily.”
The matter was settled, and Xiao Yuan cooperated fully throughout. With Nezha around, escaping Haoshan was indeed not difficult. The feeling of being restricted in her freedom for the past few months had been unpleasant, and she decided never to set foot in Haoshan again. Although Red Boy was handsome, she couldn't have him, and besides, that bull was even more cunning than her, making him difficult to control.
As planned, after sending Xiao Yuan to Nanzhanbuzhou, Jiang Huaisu and Nezha returned to Huaguo Mountain.
Jiang Huaisu felt uneasy. She had only gone to Mount Hao to see what trouble Red Boy was up to, but she had unexpectedly become an enthusiastic bystander. She looked at Nezha and asked, "Red Boy won't really come looking for trouble with you afterward, will he?"
"How much trouble could it cause?" Nezha said dismissively. "Even if he learns the Samadhi True Fire, he's still no match for me."
"He has been cultivating desperately for the past few hundred years, and his strength is probably much higher than when he fought you last time."
Jiang Huaisu wanted to remind him not to underestimate his opponent, but she saw Nezha resting his chin on his hand, looking deep in thought.
"You mean..." he drawled, "that he didn't train so hard because he lost so badly to me in our last fight?"
"Well, it's not impossible."
Perhaps it was the competitive spirit at play, wanting to prove that he was already a mature and powerful demon... so that others would look at him with new respect?
Red Boy should know very well that as long as he's by Jiang Huaisu's side, no one else will have a chance. So, that brat wants to grow up quickly so he can be qualified to compete with him? The more Nezha thought about it, the more he felt that this was the truth.
But as long as Jiang Huaisu doesn't realize it, Nezha will never point this out to her, lest she be distracted by that demon.
Anyway, he and Jiang Huaisu are already a well-known couple. Even if Niu Zaizi goes to the Flaming Mountain to train for thousands of years, he still won't have a chance to interfere. She won't cast more glances at him just because he becomes stronger.
If she simply liked strong people, she probably would have fallen in love with Sun Wukong when she lived on Flower Fruit Mountain hundreds of years ago, right? Fortunately, that didn't happen.
“What’s the point of talking about marriage for a brat who hasn’t even grown his first hair?” Nezha snuggled into Jiang Huaisu’s arms and said, “His relationship with Xiao Yuan was probably just a whim. He saw that she was well-behaved and clever, so he left her in his cave without thinking about what to do with her afterward. If we send Xiao Yuan away, he probably won’t even care, and he certainly won’t come looking for me to fight.”
Nezha untied Jiang Huaisu's hair and then pointed a finger from afar to extinguish the candle. "Besides, even if you made the appointment, he'll be the one who suffers the defeat. There's nothing to worry about. Stop thinking about that ox and get some sleep."
With the beauty in her arms, Jiang Huaisu's attention was immediately diverted, and a blush crept up her cheeks. She remembered what she had told him before: "Um... we agreed on this in Pingdingshan, that I could borrow the Hun Tian Ling tonight?"
"..." He thought Jiang Huaisu would forget about it, but he didn't expect her to still remember it.
The result was pretty much as he had imagined. Jiang Huaisu had very little patience in these kinds of things; once she was done, she wanted to sleep, leaving him alone, unsure whether to continue or stop. In the end, he took over the second half, forcibly extending the duration.
The commotion continued until dawn, when Jiang Huaisu finally couldn't hold on any longer and fell into a deep sleep. The young man sat up, turned his head to gaze at her sleeping face, and stroked her warm cheek with his fingers. The emptiness in his heart seemed to be filled completely, and he felt an indescribable sense of peace.
The cave walls trembled slightly. Something was happening outside, but the shouts of the monkeys could be faintly heard. Nezha's relaxed expression vanished instantly. He rolled out of bed, put on his outer robe, glanced back at Jiang Huaisu, and kept his eyes closed, undisturbed by the small noise.
He tucked the blanket around her, then pushed open the door and went out.
They quickly learned the situation from the little monkey: there was a red-haired monster outside, carrying a gun, trying to break into the cave.
Nezha hummed in agreement, telling the little monkey to go back to the cave and that he would handle the matter. Red Boy had only appeared once in the Water Curtain Cave, and the little monkey on duty tonight didn't recognize his face. Seeing that he was carrying weapons and looked hostile, he naturally marked him as an enemy.
"Nephew, what brings you here?" Nezha stood at the cave entrance, looking up at Red Boy. The other boy's face was unusually sour; he didn't even address him as "uncle," clearly indicating he was in a terrible mood.
"Where did you hide Little Kite?" There were no polite greetings, only a direct question.
Red Boy was certain that Xiao Yuan's disappearance was related to Nezha, and he could no longer give this annoying old god a friendly look.
"Let's talk somewhere else." Nezha drew his demon-slaying sword and glanced back at the water curtain behind him. "She's sleeping."
Frowning, Red Boy turned and walked away, with Nezha following on his Wind Fire Wheels. They finally stopped when they reached a clearing dozens of miles away from Flower Fruit Mountain.
"Xiao Yuan," he repeated the name impatiently, "give it back to me."
"What's this talk about not paying her back? She has her own legs. I was just going with the flow and helping out." Nezha gently wiped the sword with his fingertips. "You don't even like her, so why keep her by your side?"
"None of your business."
"What do you take that girl for?" Nezha's tone turned serious. "You know the answer in your heart."
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