Chapter 49 Old Grudges Her ankle was entangled by a familiar tail. ...
Shu Qing ignored the tall bookshelves on both sides of the archive room, went straight to the computer with a clear goal in mind, and opened the backend search.
The cursor hovered over the keyboard, her fingers resting on it. She hesitated for a moment, then, as if making up her mind, quickly typed in Jiu Su's name—whatever the truth awaited her, it was something she had to face.
With a tap of my finger, the circular progress bar on the internal network started to spin; it felt like an eternity in that one second.
The search results filled the screen, and the first one that popped up was the personal file that Jiu Su left at the Supermarket Management Bureau half a month ago when she joined the company.
Shu Qing took a deep breath and clicked on it.
The information on this file is extremely minimal. Apart from the essential information such as name, contact information, and current address, everything else is left blank, demonstrating the person filling out the form's lack of seriousness towards this file.
A one-inch ID photo was pasted on it. The face was not smiling, and the light sandalwood eyes stared at the camera with coldness and impatience, and were also staring at Shu Qing outside the screen. It almost sent a chill down one's spine.
Shu Qing endured the gaze and searched for the "energy level" column in the file form—it wasn't there, not even that. But the column wasn't blank; the person in charge of registration had entered five small words here: "Unable to assess at the moment."
What does "cannot be assessed at the moment" mean?
Fortunately, the registration staff were not as irresponsible as Jiu Su herself. In the remarks, they cited the "Standard for Classification of Extraordinary Bio-energy Levels (Provisional)" to explain the situation: "This version of the classification of extraordinary bio-energy levels adopts the common description of the strongest members of the demon race by the few remaining ancient demon races as the highest energy standard of level 10."
The registration staff wrote in the remarks: "Now that the Demon King has been resurrected, the energy level classification standards also need to be further revised. Registering at level 10 at this time lacks accuracy and needs to be reassessed after the level standards are adjusted."
Demon King.
Shu Qing stared at the screen in silence for a while. Although she vaguely knew that Jiu Su's background was extraordinary, she still felt a little unreal when the facts were actually presented to her in black and white.
"No wonder Niannian and Facai are so afraid of him," she thought. "I thought it was a hierarchy, but it turns out it's class oppression?"
His transformation into human form was simply a disguise for his true self. Given Nian Nian and Fa Cai's energy levels, they couldn't sense the truth beneath the disguise, so naturally they weren't afraid of his human form. No wonder.
After thinking for a moment, she opened the search interface again to look up records about "Demon King Jiu Su".
In that era that has become history, Jiu Su was a very prominent figure. The demon race did not have the habit of recording history, and what we can see now are all the historical materials left by Kunlun Immortal Capital. Even so, there is a separate record about his life.
"The Demon King Jiu Su possesses a beauty unparalleled in the world, is skilled in array formations and incantations, and adept at cunning... However, she is also solitary, suspicious, vindictive, and exceptionally cruel." The original records of Xiandu were written in classical Chinese, mixed with many unique characters of the time. The Super Management Bureau did its best to translate, but the text remained fragmented, making it very difficult for Shu Qing to read. "Her parents are unknown; she claims to have been born in the extremely cold snow-capped mountains of the Northern Frontier..."
My biological parents are the mountains and rivers of the place where I was born.
Shu Qing continued reading: "As a child, he was adopted by the previous Demon King Taiyu, becoming his ninth son. He then followed Taiyu... Several years later, the demon race openly broke their promise and invaded the Immortal Capital. Jiu Su was the vanguard, killing countless immortals. It was later confirmed that he had been imprisoned by rebels in the Immortal Capital when he was young, and thus he regarded the Immortal Capital as his enemy for the rest of his life..."
"Demon King Taiyu," Shu Qing memorized the name. Jiu Su had mentioned that he had an adoptive father in the past, so it seemed to be him.
As for the "Xiandu Rebellion"... in other words, the mountain prison she saw in her dream was actually instigated by people from the Kunlun Xiandu themselves?
This sounded like there was a lot more to it than met the eye. Shu Qing didn't have time to think about it in detail, so she wrote this down and continued reading.
"...The war between the two races dragged on for several years. Then, the Demon King Taiyu died in battle, ordering Jiusu to rule over all the demon races before his death. However, Jiusu subsequently disappeared without a trace, and Xiandu seized the opportunity to pursue them, forcing the demon alliance to retreat to the northern border..."
"As the world was about to be settled, Jiu Su returned to the demon alliance and led the demons in a counterattack. Her actions were ruthless and unpredictable... She eventually lured the people of Xiandu into the snowy mountains of the northern border and set up a great formation there. At this critical moment of life and death, fortunately, the goddess Shu of Xiashan turned the tide and poisoned Jiu Su with alchemy..."
Upon seeing this, Shu Qing's hand trembled violently, and she frantically clicked the red "X" in the upper right corner with her mouse.
The ancient historical records were gone, but Jiu Su's large blank file sheet remained spread out on the screen. Shu Qing swiped down and discovered that the form wasn't finished; there was a page of notes following it.
The "note" is highlighted in red and bold and reads:
According to historical records of Xiandu, the disaster caused by the Demon King Jiusu resulted in the largest known mass casualties in history. As an extremely dangerous supernatural being, it requires close monitoring to prevent it from spiraling out of control. If any signs of loss of control are detected, the highest level of alert must be issued to promptly guide the public to evacuate to safety.
Historical records indicate that Jiu Su was poisoned by Lord Xiashan, and the reason for her resurrection is unknown. An investigation must be conducted without provoking her hostility.
Its supervisor, Shu Qing, shares a high degree of similarity with Xia Shan Jun in terms of spirit and talent. However, after multiple exchanges, it has been confirmed that Shu Qing has no memories of Xia Shan Jun, and the specific connection between the two remains unclear. Close monitoring is essential to ensure Shu Qing's personal safety.
The signatures are Yang Zheng and Xie Heng.
Shu Qing didn't know how long she had been staring blankly at the screen. By the time she came to her senses, the computer screen had automatically gone into sleep mode.
The screensaver is a picture of a white cat, the kind of cat that has the ability to bring "joy," which is rolling over on its back towards Shuqing outside the screen in an adorable manner.
The screen saver promptly blocked out the bloody and offensive text, and Shu Qing finally regained some of her thinking ability. Only then did she realize that she was covered in a cold sweat. The air conditioner blew, and her clothes, soaked with cold sweat, clung to her body, chilling her to the bone, leaving her with not a trace of warmth.
Lord Xia Shan, Goddess Shu, Ashu.
Is it her?
Was it her, who had gone through life and death with Jiu Su, pledged their love in the peach grove, traveled the world together, faced a dilemma between love and duty... and finally, killed him?
Why did you die once?
—For no other reason than that I'm not as skilled as others.
When Jiu Su told her that he had died once, he spoke of it so casually.
What were his feelings when he told his mortal enemy that he was "inferior in skill"? And what was his reason for telling her "I have never betrayed your feelings" on that night when they were having a heart-to-heart talk?
Furthermore, why did he remain so tight-lipped about such a deadly grudge?
Shu Qing dared not think about it.
She reopened the display screen and clicked on the biographical record of Jiu Su that she hadn't finished reading earlier. Her gaze lingered for a moment on the description of him as "fierce and vengeful, with exceptionally cruel methods."
Then, she mustered her courage and read the last part of the record: "Jiu Su resisted to the death, killing more than 10,000 soldiers of Xiandu, and blood flowed for thousands of miles in the snowy land... The war was finally quelled. After the disaster, the people of Xiandu were afraid that the demon king was a natural monster that would die and then be reborn, so they had a thousand people chant incantations for seven days and nights to destroy its soul... More than a hundred years have passed since then, and there has been no trace of the demon king."
Shu Qing felt dizzy and her vision blurred. All the strength in her body seemed to have been drained away by this unimaginable truth, and she had no choice but to lean back in her chair to rest.
Her hands and feet felt weak. She pulled a piece of chocolate from her pocket, but her hand trembled and the chocolate fell to the ground. Last time, she had fooled Jiu Su with the "low blood sugar" story. Jiu Su knew she was lying, but he still went to look up what the symptoms were. She would forget to eat when she got into work, and Jiu Su felt that she was very much destined for this illness, so he would put two pieces of chocolate in her pocket every day as a backup.
A slice of silky milk and a piece of grape hazelnut are her favorite flavors.
Why? Why?
Is he truly forgiving and genuinely in love with her... or is it because he was ruined by love in his past life, and in this life, he wants to take revenge?
She didn't know which guess to believe.
Admittedly, he loved her, loved her very much... but he was also a decisive and extreme person. Even setting aside personalities and personal grudges, and only considering general human nature, no one could ignore a murderous enmity, could they?
Anyway, Shu Qing felt that she didn't have that kind of magnanimity.
She didn't pick up the chocolate on the ground. She closed her eyes, counted to ten, stood up, went to the vending machine outside the document room, bought a bottle of electrolyte drink, took two sips, and came back to continue reading the documents.
This time, she focused on finding records about "Lord Xiashan".
Information about Kasumi-kun is scarce in the Super Registry. This is understandable, as the Super Registry's target is "supernatural beings," and Kasumi-kun is not among them; she is a normal human.
Her life is described in just a few brief sentences: She was in charge of Flowing Cloud Peak. She was skilled in alchemy, medicine, and poisons. She once used her own flesh and blood to make medicine, benefiting the world. The people called her a goddess, embodying all their wishes and power. Later, she poisoned the demon king Jiu Su, quelling the chaos of the demon race.
"Gathering all the power of one's own will"...
Both Jiu Su and Xie Heng told her that her "golden finger" was a manifestation of her will in the modern era, so was this talent actually left over from her past self?
Skilled in alchemy, medicine, and toxicology... Oh right, Shu Qing remembered that she had indeed shown a remarkable talent for traditional Chinese medicine when she was a child. At that time, Shu Tong wanted her to follow in her footsteps, but she absolutely refused to learn it. She would burst into tears whenever she was asked to learn these things, so Shu Tong finally gave up.
Is this also a remnant of a past memory?
Shu Qing tried to find other records, but to no avail. In the vast database, the remaining records about Xia Shan Jun were almost all about her MVP moments: poisoning Jiu Su at a critical moment, ending the great war between the Immortal Capital and the Demon Clan, making her a savior goddess and a hero of the Immortal Capital.
That's all. The savior goddess only has one outstanding achievement, but the background and details are not mentioned at all.
How was she able to poison Jiu Su? What did she use to kill him? What did she gain after killing him? How did she ultimately die? When did they meet? What were their interactions? What were those past events in her dreams...?
She didn't say anything, the whole story was a blank, and she lived like a dazzling record of kills.
As Shu Qing quickly scrolled down, she thought: This is too strange.
Even if Xiashan Jun isn't a target of the Super Management Bureau, Director Yang and Professor Xie are so worried about Jiu Su getting out of control, and there's a successful kill record in history. They should at least pull it out and study how it was done, so they can prepare for the future.
But there was absolutely nothing? There was no detailed review, no investigation into the matter. Could it be that both of them had lost their minds under the influence of some kind of magical monster? If she could think of it, why couldn't they?
Shu Qing quickly browsed through all the records she could find in the backstage area—those about Jiu Su and those about Lord Xiashan. Finally, her gaze fell once again on the eight characters in the biography of Jiu Su: "vindictive and exceptionally cruel," and she stared at them for a long time.
She had never been this terrified when she provoked the Huiyao Group, or rather, she had never been this terrified in her entire life.
"Should I go to Xie Heng... no, go to Director Yang to apply for protection?" She tried to think rationally. "But I'm Xiao Hong's supervisor, and they clearly know about what happened between Xiao Hong and me... They won't agree, and they can't do anything about Xiao Hong. They simply think I'm the one who can help..."
"I'm going home... No, I can't. Xiaohong knows where I live, he'll definitely find me. I can't let my parents get into trouble..."
"Or, I could run away now and hide in another city... But can I hide forever? He's the king of monsters, where can I go... No, I should still go talk to Xie Heng and Director Yang. They said they'd protect me, see if they can help me remember more..."
She felt like her mind was a battlefield, with all sorts of thoughts clashing and fighting within it, unable to reach a conclusion.
Many ideas were torn apart as soon as they emerged, countless thoughts were shattered into pieces in her mind, and not a single idea was complete.
Finally, a terrible thought suddenly occurred to her: "I should have cut ties with him back then."
Shu Tong had clearly warned her that Qi Da was not a good match for her, and having a boyfriend like that was not a good thing. Why didn't she listen?
Shu Qing sat blankly in front of the computer for a long time, then realized she couldn't continue like this. She didn't dare to think about how Jiu Su would react if he knew she had seen everything. Even if she had to pretend, she had to act as if nothing had happened.
She jumped up, quickly deleted the search history on the computer, and closed the Super Admin Bureau's search page. She picked up the chocolate from the ground and hid it, even taking out a wet wipe and wiping the keyboard and mouse she had touched, destroying all traces of her presence that evening, leaving no trace.
I'll ask Tu Nan to help me delete the access history to the archives tomorrow... No, that's not necessary. She could just say she came to look up other monsters; as long as the browsing history is cleared, that's fine...
Shu Qing walked towards the door, feeling dizzy, but suddenly stopped in her tracks.
She stiffly turned her head, bit by bit, because her ankle was wrapped around a familiar tail. The scales were warm, gradually moving upwards from her ankle to her waist, unhurried, like a snake devouring its prey.
The lights in the archives flickered and then went out all at once. The entire floor went dark, with only the cold, ancient moonlight watching from the sidelines.
Jiu Su, as she had done on many previous midnights, leaned down and hugged her from behind.
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Author's Note: Ashu: Is he trying to get revenge on me? [frightened]
Xiao Hong: Does she not want me anymore? [Pity]
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