The quest for a quilt is fraught with hardship.
Huaiwen comforted him, saying, "Actually, being a priest is the same as being an official in the human world. No one is born an official; one learns how to be a good official by constantly being in their position. So Mo Heng, don't be too discouraged. I believe you can definitely be a good priest."
Mo Heng listened attentively and was extremely grateful. At that moment, Rong Yun also arrived. Seeing the four sections of the snake's body on the ground, he finally felt relieved.
The setting sun painted the sky crimson, and a bleak autumn wind blew. In this illusory space, there were too many uncertainties. Xuan Ye stood with his back to Huai Wen and the other two, gazing into the distance, his thoughts heavy.
Seeing Xuan Ye's desolate figure, Huai Wen felt a pang of melancholy. She had never seen him like this during the time she had spent with him.
Huaiwen walked over and softly called Xuan Ye's name. Xuan Ye gasped, then forced a smile and turned around. He laughed, "Let's go back, it's getting dark."
Back at the cherry blossom tree, Xuan Ye instructed the little fox demon to fetch some fruit, and then led the group to a cave behind their waterfall.
Mo Heng and Rong Yun had learned to read each other's expressions and ignored Huai Wen and Xuan Ye, continuing to eat their fruit. Huai Wen, however, couldn't help but notice Xuan Ye's dejected expression.
She felt she wasn't naturally good at pleasing people, so she took a small bite of the peach, her eyes darting around. Xuan Ye noticed this, and he chuckled to himself before finally whispering something in Huai Wen's ear.
"Is this not as good as the one from Zui Meng Lou?"
"I'll take you out for something delicious when we get back."
Huaiwen nodded shyly, and Xuanye breathed into her ear, making her feel tingly. Mo Heng and Rong Yun suddenly felt that even the peaches weren't sweet anymore.
The cave was cool at night, so Xuan Ye gave Huai Wen a fox-shaped cushion, while the other two received nothing. Even if Rong Yun wanted to complain, he couldn't ask for too much since he was staying on someone else's land.
In the middle of the night, Rong Yun needed to urinate. He got up and went outside. In the darkness, he saw a pair of glowing green eyes. The eyes blinked and disappeared.
Rong Yun wanted to step forward to investigate. In an instant, countless green eyes appeared, and Rong Yun subconsciously took a few steps back. Those green eyes hid in the grass, neither advancing nor attacking, but simply flashing continuously.
Rong Yun was puzzled. He moved forward cautiously. With each step he took, the number of green eyes decreased. He got closer and closer until only one pair of green eyes remained.
Just in case, Rong Yun took out his spear and tentatively thrust it into the grass. To his surprise, the spear was immobilized.
Rong Yun tried to pull back but was suddenly pulled by something, and under the direct gaze of those green eyes, he lunged into the bushes. Rong Yun pressed down hard, channeling his strength from his dantian, and forcibly steadied himself, gripping the spear in his backhand to stab at those green eyes.
Unexpectedly, countless green eyes lit up again, and accompanied by rustling sounds in the grass, a giant thousand-eyed spider demon crawled out.
It pounced on Rong Yun, its thousand eyes wide open, like the blinding midday sun, making it impossible to open one's eyes. Rong Yun tried to close his eyes and counterattack, but unexpectedly, he was first wrapped into a pupa by the silk spun by the Thousand-Eyed Spider Demon.
Hearing the commotion, Huaiwen and the others ran out of the cave. Just as Rongyun was about to be swallowed alive by the spider demon, Moheng quickly drew his sword and severed one of the spider demon's arms that was holding Rongyun.
The spider demon immediately went berserk, continuously spitting out poisonous silk towards Huaiwen and the others. Mo Heng's clothes were only slightly scorched by the poisonous silk.
Rong Yun writhed like a cicada pupa. The spider demon grabbed him with one arm and used the other to seize Huai Wen and Rong Yun. The two dodged, and Huai Wen managed to save Rong Yun, but was suddenly startled by the spider demon's open eyes.
But in an instant, the spider demon suddenly stopped moving. Huaiwen and his group looked over and saw Bai Yuqi dismember the spider demon with just a few strokes.
This was an unfamiliar face. Rong Yun and Mo Heng didn't know who it was, but Huai Wen had a guess in his mind, so he tentatively called out, "Senior Brother?"
"Ah Jun, are you alright?" Bai Yuqi asked with concern.
Huaiwen breathed a sigh of relief: "I'm fine."
Mo Heng helped Rong Yun up and asked, "What happened?"
Rong Yun grumbled and recounted his ordeal, which made Huai Wen uneasy. They must have an inseparable connection with these demons here.
Bai Yuqi first inquired about Rong Yun and Mo Hengdi's identities from Huaiwen. Upon learning that the two were priests, he was greatly surprised and quickly bowed.
Huaiwen asked, "Senior brother, don't you think this place is strange?"
Bai Yuqi replied, "Yes. This place is very strange."
"What's strange about it?" Mo Heng asked.
Bai Yuqi continued, "Let's not even talk about how each of us has taken on a different identity since we arrived here. Just the fact that we've encountered these demons one after another is quite remarkable. Have you noticed that your power has greatly increased after slaying these demons?"
The three of them looked at each other in surprise, then calmed their minds and circulated their qi to sense the difference. Indeed, it was different. The snake bite wounds that Rong Yun and Huai Wen had suffered were gone.
They could even use the illusion technique, which they couldn't normally use. However, they couldn't fully control the illusion technique yet, and they were transformed back into their original form after a short while.
Mo Heng was shocked: "Why is that?"
Huaiwen thought for a moment and said, "It's probably because we're trapped here now, and we've transformed into other people. That means we might have replaced the people who were originally trapped in this formation."
“That’s right,” Bai Yuqi replied. “The only way we can escape right now is to kill these demons. The more and stronger they are, the stronger we will become, strong enough to break through this formation.”
"Does that mean that when we can turn back into ourselves, that's when we break through the formation?" Rong Yun asked.
Bai Yuqi nodded and glanced at the three people around him: "A-Jun, where did your friend go?"
"Yes, where did your little follower go?"
"It seems like we haven't seen him since we fell asleep."
Everyone looked at Huaiwen, but Huaiwen was just as clueless as they were about where Xuan Ye had gone.
She hadn't seen Xuan Ye since she ran out after hearing the commotion outside the cave. She suddenly realized that she didn't really know Xuan Ye, nor did she know what he was up to.
Suddenly, a thought struck Huaiwen, and he tensed up. Everyone here had transformed into other people's appearances, except for Xuan Ye, who had become himself.
Something's not right.
She wanted to find out the truth before anyone else could react.
"Senior brother, Your Excellencies, please return to your cave to rest. We can discuss this further tomorrow. I'll go find Ah Ling now."
"I'll go with you."
“No need, I’ll be fine.” Huaiwen politely declined Bai Yuqi’s offer. “If anything happens, I’ll send a distress signal to your senior brother.”
Seeing Huaiwen's determination, Bai Yuqi didn't think much of it and followed Mo Heng and Rong Yun back into the cave.
That night, the moon was nowhere to be seen. A small nightlight illuminated the way ahead, and a fairy butterfly landed on it to guide the way. Huaiwen followed behind, weaving through the woods.
After searching for a while, both Lingdie and the night lamp stopped. Looking around where the night lamp illuminated, there was no sign of Xuan Ye. Huaiwen landed back on the ground, holding the night lamp in his right hand, and followed Lingdie slowly forward.
The nightlight shone on the ground, revealing bloodstains. Huaiwen felt tense and worried. She quickened her pace along the bloodstains, and then started jogging.
Finally, they found Xuan Ye, covered in blood, sitting on a withered tree trunk by the dark lake. Huaiwen ran over, placed the nightlight on the ground, and knelt down, looking up at Xuan Ye closely.
Huaiwen reached out, wanting to touch Xuan Ye. Xuan Ye turned his head away and murmured, "Filthy."
Huaiwen's hand stopped in mid-air and slowly lowered, her voice as sweet as honey: "A-Ling, are you badly hurt?"
"Not heavy."
As Huaiwen listened to Xuan Ye's nonchalant tone, she took a closer look and noticed that there was blood at the corner of Xuan Ye's mouth, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked very tired.
“That’s not my blood,” Xuan Ye explained.
Huaiwen glanced again at Xuan Ye's white robes, which were stained crimson with blood. She could only conclude that Xuan Ye must have just killed a giant demon, and during their fight, the demon's blood had splattered onto Xuan Ye.
Xuan Ye's deep eyes seemed to want to see right through Huai Wen. He reached out and pulled Huai Wen up from the ground, making her sit next to him.
Huaiwen turned to him with a worried expression and asked, "A-Ling, can you tell me what happened?"
Xuan Ye sighed. He had wanted to dodge, but when he saw Huai Wen's face, he surrendered. He looked at Huai Wen and explained, "I don't want you to get hurt."
“I’m not injured.” Huaiwen asked, puzzled, then, as if remembering something, she tentatively asked, “Do you know how to get out of here?”
Xuan Ye forced a smile: "You're really smart."
Huaiwen didn't respond with her usual playful tone. She was both worried and afraid. She asked, "So you knew you had to kill demons to leave this place, so you came here to kill them?"
Xuan Ye fell silent immediately. He looked sharply towards the lakeside, hesitated for a long time, and asked casually, "Huaiwen, I am also a demon."
In that instant, Huaiwen understood what Xuan Ye was talking about. If they, as Taoist priests and officials, needed to kill demons to restore their true forms and break through the formation, then Xuan Ye, as a demon, was asking him to kill these demons as well—to put it bluntly, to kill his own kind.
This is a sin.
Huaiwen remained calm as she explained, “A-Ling, whether you are a demon or not, it is not a reason for me to kill you without cause. Taoist cultivators kill people and demons for the sake of peace and harmony in the world, not the other way around.”
Xuan Ye's eyes gleamed, and he smiled slightly, a genuine smile playing on his lips, but he remained silent. Huai Wen was still worried: "If you don't like hurting your own kind, then let me do this. A Ling, we'll definitely get out of here."
The sight of Huaiwen, with his handsome male face, made Xuan Ye's thoughts drift away. Seeing the same face again after a thousand years was infuriating; he wanted nothing more than to tear it to shreds. Yet, this very face was imprinted on the person he loved.
Xuan Ye took a deep breath, reached out his right hand and hugged Huai Wen tightly. He felt the warmth emanating from Huai Wen's body, smelled her scent, and repeatedly confirmed that Huai Wen was not the person she used to be; Huai Wen was herself.
The sudden embrace caught Huaiwen off guard; this was the first time they had embraced without any other reason. It was an embrace after a heart-to-heart talk. Huaiwen hesitated for a moment, then finally raised his hand and patted Xuan Ye on the back.
People say that the Demon King kills without blinking an eye, but the Demon King that Huaiwen met, although sometimes cold and ruthless, was also flesh and blood.
"Let's go back," Huaiwen whispered in Xuanye's ear.
"good."
Huaiwen got out of Xuanye's arms, stood up, and tried to walk forward, but Xuanye held her hand and wouldn't let her go. She looked down in confusion, "What's wrong?"
"Change your clothes before you leave."
Huaiwen smiled and said, "Then I'll give you a set of clothes."
Xuan Ye smiled and nodded, seeing Huai Wen take out the white Taoist robe. He smiled absentmindedly and gave up, getting up and walking towards the lake. He lowered his head, wanting to see his reflection in the water, but it was too dark, and he couldn't see anything. Huai Wen picked up a small nightlight and slowly walked to his side: "Wash your face, then we'll go back."
Xuan Ye nodded, but took off his outer garment. Huai Wen quickly turned to the side, and Xuan Ye said, "The smell of blood is too strong. I'll soak in it before going back."
Huaiwen responded shyly, picked up the nightlight, and turned to leave. However, after taking a few steps back, she suddenly remembered something and turned back.
Huaiwen looked at Xuan Ye, who was soaking in the lake, with a smile on his face. He first put away the night light, then held it up in his hands and gently blew on it, and countless silver butterflies emerged.
These silver butterflies fluttered around Xuan Ye, like fireflies in the night, illuminating his path and adding to the beauty of the night. Xuan Ye raised his hand, and a silver butterfly landed on the back of his hand. He smiled.
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