Chapter 5 The Showers stopped

Chu Xuyun secretly glanced at Yu Xiao standing by the door. He didn’t seem very angry, so why wasn’t he coming over to hold him?

After a long while, just as Chu Xuyun was about to lose his composure, Yu Xiao finally spoke.

“Today, I met with Ji Lianzhou.”

Even though he didn’t want to mention this name to Chu Xuyun, he couldn’t avoid it.

Sure enough, upon hearing Ji Lianzhou’s name, Chu Xuyun reacted.

Chu Xuyun raised his head to look at Yu Xiao, waiting for him to continue.

But Yu Xiao remained silent, just quietly gazing at Chu Xuyun. After a long pause, he finally spoke with difficulty, “Do you care about him that much?”

Hearing this, Chu Xuyun shook his head. Right now, he was more concerned about whether he’d have food to eat tonight.

Seeing him deny it, Yu Xiao, although still skeptical, felt some of his resentment dissipate.

Every movement of Chu Xuyun could easily soothe all of his discontent and reluctance.

“Immortal Lord, rest assured, I did not kill him.” Yu Xiao slowly walked to the couch, grabbing Chu Xuyun’s hand that was holding the chess piece.

Such slender wrists—how did they manage to slay demons?

Yu Xiao’s grip was not gentle, but Chu Xuyun did not resist, letting Yu Xiao press him into the couch.

Cold fingers traced up from under his clothes, and the fabric was quickly removed. A sliver of sunset light fell on Chu Xuyun’s face, casting a rosy glow.

Yu Xiao leaned down and saw Chu Xuyun’s reddened earlobes, hesitating for a moment. An absurd thought crossed his mind—perhaps Chu Xuyun liked him too.

“Xianjun, look at me.”

Chu Xuyun was forced to look at Yu Xiao.

No matter how many times they were this close, Chu Xuyun’s heart would skip a beat.

He wanted to look away, but Yu Xiao wouldn’t let him.

Chu Xuyun heard Yu Xiao ask softly,

“Have you forgotten the words you once said?”

Yu Xiao had left a spy outside Ji Lianzhou’s place, so he heard everything Ji Lianzhou had said.

It turned out that Chu Xuyun never kept someone like him in his heart and had long since forgotten him. This explains why Chu Xuyun didn’t remember their old promises.

How could someone be so heartless, but with Chu Xuyun, it seemed logical and justified?

Chu Xuyun looked at him, tilting his head in confusion.

What words? Which year?

His memory was always poor, and he couldn’t recall on his own. Why didn’t Yu Xiao give him some hints…

Seeing no response, Yu Xiao closed his eyes. After a moment, he opened them, suddenly leaning down to kiss Chu Xuyun deeply and desperately, invading his mouth with a fierce intensity.

Only when Chu Xuyun was breathless did Yu Xiao finally let go, his eyes still dark as ink.

“Forget it, from today on, I want you to remember me forever.”

*

Taiqing Sect, Zhuzhi Mountain.

A crisp sound of porcelain breaking echoed through the ancient hall.

“What did you say? Master was taken by the demon?”

Li Yanhe returned to the sect on his first day and received the most shocking news of his life.

His invincible master, the killing god, had been taken to the demon palace.

He took a deep breath and looked at his junior brother. “First, how could Master be taken by a demon? He is Chu Xuyun.”

One man and one sword could slay three thousand demons, his cultivation unmatched in the world.

Unless tricked, Li Yanhe couldn’t fathom how Chu Xuyun could be captured.

His junior brother opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Li Yanhe, who was gritting his teeth. “Second, who would dare to capture him? Are they insane? Who did it?”

Just as his junior brother was about to speak again, Li Yanhe angrily swept another teacup off the table. “Third, why isn’t our sect doing everything to rescue him?”

At this, his junior brother fell silent. After a moment, he spoke softly, “It was Yu Xiao.”

Li Yanhe froze, unable to react. “What?”

“It was Yu Yu who took Master.”

His junior brother sighed helplessly, his eyes starting to redden. Holding back tears, he slowly said, “You know better than anyone that only Master could control Yu Xiao in the Taiqing Sect. Now that Yu Xiao has fallen and his cultivation has skyrocketed, even Master lost to him. The Sect Leader had to ask the sword immortal from the neighboring mountain to rescue him from the demon realm.”

At the moment he heard the name, Yu Xiao, Li Yanhe was stunned and stood frozen. It wasn’t until his junior brother shook his shoulders with concern that he finally came back to his senses. He turned his gaze to his junior brother and spoke woodenly, “Yu Xiao won’t let him go.”

It’s over. Everything is over.

Yu Xiao definitely won’t let Chu Xuyun go.

Back then, when Yu Xiao was expelled from the sect, it wasn’t actually because he broke the Demon Binding Bottle.

Only Li Yanhe, Chu Xuyun’s first disciple, knew the truth. He saw it with his own eyes, with no falsehood.

The Demon Binding Bottle was just an excuse to drive Yu Xiao away. There were no world-destroying demons inside, only two little ghosts.

One green-headed ghost and one red-headed ghost.

The bottle was kept in Chu Xuyun’s room, and it was accidentally broken by Yu Xiao while cleaning.

The real reason for his expulsion—

Was that Yu Xiao’s affection for Chu Xuyun discovered by the sect Master?

This person had secretly painted a portrait of Chu Xuyun and even slept with it day and night, like a madman.

The sect Master said this matter couldn’t be spread, so he used the Demon Binding Bottle as an excuse to cover up the truth.

What Li Yanhe couldn’t understand was, who in their right mind would like a master as terrifying as theirs?

Though their master treated them well, he was, after all, an elder and a senior. They didn’t even have time to be afraid. What was Yu Xiao thinking?

In any case, the sect Master already disliked Yu Xiao. After learning of this matter, he was furious, fearing any connection between Chu Xuyun and Yu Xiao. He then ordered Chu Xuyun to expel Yu Xiao from the sect.

At first, Chu Xuyun didn’t expel Yu Xiao, only punished him by making him kneel in the rain in front of the Hall of Heaven and Earth.

Yu Xiao, with his immense pride, stubbornly knelt there for three days and three nights in front of everyone, becoming the laughingstock of the entire sect.

Unfortunately, it was all in vain. Yu Xiao was still expelled. It was said that on the day he left, he knelt in front of the mountain gate, pleading with Chu Xuyun for a long time. No one knew what heartless words Chu Xuyun said to him, but Yu Xiao finally gave up and left. Since then, they never saw Yu Xiao again.

The next time they heard his name, Yu Xiao had become the Demon Lord.

So Li Yanhe knew that Yu Xiao would never spare Chu Xuyun. Now, it was his turn to save his master.

“I won’t have dinner.” He took a deep breath. “Go report to the sect Master, tell him I will definitely rescue our master.”

His junior brother was stunned for a moment, just about to stop him, but Li Yanhe had already drawn his sword and left without hesitation.

“You… do you even know where the entrance to the Demon Domain is? How can you go rescue someone blindly!”

*

Yu Xiao had always known what kind of person he was. If Chu Xuyun was the moon at the end of the celestial staircase, he was the mud at the foot of it.

He was the child of a demon cultivator, with a demon gu planted in him at birth by his biological father. The gu matured every twenty years, turning him into a terrifying monster capable of absorbing any demonic energy.

Thus, everyone in the sect saw him as a scourge, and their worries were not unfounded. After all, many years later, Yu Xiao indeed became the Demon Lord.

Because of him, Chu Xuyun also endured much slander. The sect Master insisted on eliminating Yu Xiao, but Chu Xuyun, against all opposition, saved him, allowing Yu Xiao to stay in the Taiqing Sect.

In the three years by Chu Xuyun’s side, he never dared to hope that Chu Xuyun would even glance at him. The snow-like purity of Chu Xuyun, if it touched the stain-ridden moss that was Yu Xiao, would only turn to dirty water.

His mere existence would tarnish Chu Xuyun, like the time he daringly lifted Chu Xuyun’s hem, only to be scolded and despised by other disciples, blaming him for tainting the celestial lord’s robe with his demonic aura.

Even such a trivial act was beyond his right.

How many times had he reached out, trying to touch Chu Xuyun’s hair? In truth, he didn’t really want to touch Chu Xuyun; he just wanted to get a little closer without being noticed.

Heaven could attest, he initially only wanted to get a little closer, just a little would suffice.

No other delusions.

Really, no more.

But even this tiny delusion, heaven was unwilling to grant him.

The sect Master found his portrait and decided Chu Xuyun must drive him away.

That day.

Yu Yu remembered it was a misty autumn rain. Chu Xuyun stood with an umbrella on the ninety-nine steps of the Taiqing Sect, looking down at him.

That was the first time Yu Xiao heard Chu Xuyun speak to him, his voice as clear as a plucked string, icy and shattering, making Yu Xiao reminisce countless nights, unable to forget.

He said, “Leave.”

Yu Xiao continued to kneel before him, not moving an inch. He thought, that even if Chu Xuyun were to draw his sword to kill him, scold him, or look at him with loathing, he would never leave.

So Yu Xiao repeatedly kowtowed and confessed his wrongs, tremblingly begging him not to drive him away.

“Xianjun, I will never desire those things again. Please don’t drive me away.”

“I truly know my mistake. I swear by the Dao of Heaven, I will never disobey you again.”

But Chu Xuyun did not draw his sword, did not scold him, not even glaring at him with hatred.

His eyes were like a clear and bright lake, serene and indifferent. When his gaze passed over the blood on Yu Xiao’s forehead, there was a brief and subtle flash of compassion.

“I told you to leave, I didn’t say you couldn’t come back.”

Yu Xiao looked up in disbelief, muddy water mixed with the blood from his forehead streaming down, extremely wretched. The person before him, however, was impeccably dressed, neat and proper, his ink-black hair bound by a silver hairpin, moving with the wind, flawless.

Suddenly, a hand thrust an umbrella into his palm, stopping the cold rain above him.

“When you come of age, if you still have feelings for me…”

To this day, Yu Xiao did not know why Chu Xuyun would say such words. Was it out of pity, or just an excuse to make him leave, or something else?

But at that moment, he preferred to believe that Chu Xuyun’s words contained some sincerity.

“Come back to me, I’ll marry you.”