Chapter 79

Thoughts cannot shed tears, but Liuyu’s heart was damp, as if it were the rainy season.

She had never imagined their first meeting would be like this.

It was simply this.

Liuyu was never short of people who loved her.

Some loved her for her talent, beauty, and family background, while others loved her because they had benefited from her kindness.

The former were as fleeting as clouds, and the latter were not particularly special. The love born from gratitude was too shallow for her; she had simply done something good, and if someone else had saved them, they might have felt the same way.

But Mo Lin was different from them all.

She had never saved him.

On the contrary, she had pointed a sword at him, treated him as a heinous villain, and reproached him with the harshest words.

And what about him?

He struggled to survive for her, braved dangers for her, and… appeared here for her.

A vague suspicion began to form in Liuyu’s mind.

In their past lives, Mo Lin was supposed to die in front of her tombstone, yet here they both were.

Liuyu knew there must be some connection, and she suspected… it might not be a pleasant one.

In the morning sun, the young boy stood alone, watching the departing carriage. Just as Liuyu took a step forward, the scene changed again.

“—Look, do you see that red-haired demon? That’s Lan Zhu, the best fighter in the hunting grounds!”

On a scaffold made of bamboo and wood, many demons watched the demon in hunting grounds attire walking through the street.

The young boy on the eaves cast a cold glance.

“If only I could enter the hunting grounds,” a nearby demon said enviously, “I heard demons in the hunting grounds get to eat once a day, work from dawn till dusk, and even get paid by the aristocrats if they win. How fortunate.”

The young boy sneered.

“What’s so fortunate about being a plaything?”

The surrounding demons looked disdainful, whispering among themselves, some even cursing him as a “freak.”

Whether human or demon, they could not survive without hope.

The young boy was illiterate, had never attended school, but his powers of observation were extraordinary.

He knew the lord of the Colorless City had set up many rules, like the ban on killing and slightly better conditions in the hunting grounds, making the demons feel life wasn’t so bad, and that with some effort, there was hope.

Someone behind him whispered:

“How is it not fortunate? At least in the hunting grounds, even the aristocrats will look at us with respect and cheer for us.”

The boys and girls, their faces smeared with dust, blushed as they looked at the demons in the hunting grounds with admiration.

The young boy was stunned for a long time.

The next day, to the surprise of the other demons, he passed the entrance threshold to the hunting grounds.

Liuyu watched the young demon’s daily struggles, injuries, and growth in the hunting grounds.

Like bamboo shoots nourished by spring rain, he rose visibly in the hunting grounds. Even the aristocrats who enjoyed spending lavishly on the hunting grounds knew there was a demon code-named Lin who had the highest win rate and was undefeated.

He could no longer be called a young boy.

A hundred years were enough for a demon to grow from a child to a young man. His features had shed their childishness, his deep contours bore a brooding intensity, and when he looked at someone, his gaze was as sharp as a flash of light in a bamboo forest on a rainy night.

In the hunting grounds, beautiful demons began to throw overt hints his way.

Demons did not adhere to human etiquette; they lived for the moment, seeking pleasure in the dull and monotonous nights of the Colorless City.

“…You mean, they like me?”

Lan Zhu, who had come to pick a fight but was instead pinned down by the young man, shouted in frustration:

“Isn’t that obvious? You’re blind if you don’t see it! You stole my woman and then play dumb. Damn you!”

The young boy retaliated with a punch that completely shut him up.

He finally began to pay a bit of attention to the surrounding girls.

Some timidly greeted him, some proactively offered to mend his old clothes, and others stopped him by the peach blossom forest at night, their eyes sparkling like silk.

They were all very nice girls.

But he couldn’t lie to himself; their affection meant nothing to him. They didn’t move his heart.

Every time he won in the hunting grounds, covered in blood and greeted by thunderous applause, he scanned the surroundings in that fleeting moment of attention, but his emotions remained unbelievably calm.

This wasn’t it.

These weren’t the people.

He wanted to be seen, to be loved, but these people weren’t the ones.

Everything changed on the day he was caught secretly practicing the Immeasurable Ghost Fire.

“—What a beautiful otherworldly fire. Did you create it yourself?”

The young man in red stood at a distance, not too close, not too far.

Unlike the tense boy, he was dignified and at ease, his hair flowing like a spring, appearing as pure as jade in the moonlight, with a faint smile, more beautiful than a woman by three parts.

“What’s your name?”

“Alin? Hmm… Lin Zhi Zhi, a distinguished young man. That’s a great name.”

After that night, Yin Shanze, who rarely appeared in the hunting grounds, started to show up frequently.

Every time the boy entered the field, he would watch from afar but never spoke a word to him.

After some time, Yin Shanze bribed the guards of the hunting grounds, temporarily taking the boy out for half a day. The boy followed the young man in red step by step into a palace-like residence.

At this moment, Liuyu realized—

The rumors after the fall of the Yin Mountain Clan were not baseless.

Long before Wuse City was burned to ashes by the Immeasurable Ghost Fire, her father already knew Mo Lin.

Moreover, he even risked bringing him home.

“Young little demon.”

He leaned down, smiling at the sullen boy.

“Don’t be in such a hurry to kill me with your eyes. There’s a chance for you to lead your clan to overthrow me, maybe only you can do it, but maybe you can’t. Alin, would you like to give it a try?”

The spring breeze blew through the courtyard’s cherry blossoms.

When Mo Lin walked out of the inner chamber, he was still immersed in Yin Shanze’s words.

…This person is crazy.

Wuse City, controlled by several major families, was as impenetrable as a fortress. Even with the city lord providing defense plans, he still had to break through the siege on his own. Why would Yin Shanze want him to go and die?

He only wanted to live well.

He had no obligation to save anyone.

His steps into the floral rain were halted by a figure approaching. Mo Lin stood still, seeing a girl with a dress as bright as the morning glow running toward him, holding up her skirt, with a radiant smile.

“Father!”

She passed by him without hesitation, her voice as clear as jade beads:

“The results of the Lingyong Spring Examination are out, and I’m the top again!”

Yin Shanze laughed, “The fourth girl from the Zhongli family must be furious. Didn’t she say she’d definitely beat you this time?”

“She cried out of anger.”

The girl hummed proudly:

“Who told her to pick on the people I like? From now on, whoever she picks on, I’ll beat her up. As long as I’m in Lingyong, Lingyong listens to me. If Zhongli Lingzhao doesn’t change her ways, I’ll let her taste being bullied… Who is this?”

Yin Shanze looked at the boy with tightly pressed lips and a stiff back.

“Him…”

The young man in red patted his daughter’s head.

“He’s a kid who also stands up for those who are bullied.”

The girl raised her eyebrows, lightly jumped down a few steps, crossed her arms, and her light gold shawl fluttered in the wind like a fluttering golden butterfly.

“You’re pretty brave, like me.”

Her almond-shaped eyes scrutinized him without missing a beat, and as she got closer, an unknown faint fragrance seemed to brush past his nose.

He looked at her slightly parting lips up close.

“Are you also a student of Lingyong? Why haven’t I seen you? What’s your na—”

The boy suddenly stepped back.

A moment later, stepping on a ground covered with cherry blossoms, he fled in the girl’s astonished gaze.

Liuyu now knew why she didn’t remember seeing Mo Lin.

Not just this time, but every time they passed by each other in the Yin Mountain Clan’s residence afterward, Yin Shanze used disguise magic to hide his appearance, and it was never the same face.

She saw the boy tossed and turned after being sent back to Wuse City, sometimes showing disdain and contempt, sometimes appearing dazed and absent-minded.

“What is the king thinking?”

A head poked out from the lower bunk, it was the mountain demon who had been conquered by Mo Lin after several encounters in the hunting grounds.

Mo Lin looked down at him.

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

The mountain demon enthusiastically pointed at a few people in the thatched hut.

“Last time I heard Bai Pingting’s mother say, ‘King, duke, general, minister… something…'”

Lan Zhu rolled his eyes: “It’s ‘There is no inherent nobility in kings and generals.’ I remembered it.”

“Yes! That’s it!”

The mountain demon raised his chin slightly, his clothes patched seven or eight times, but with a look of lofty ambition.

“I really like that phrase, so I’ve decided that from now on, in the hunting grounds, we’ll rank people based on this. Lan Zhu and I were originally top-tier strength, but since you came, we’ve become second-tier, reluctantly taking the title of ghost marquis. Since you’re above us, you’re naturally the ghost king—”

The boy on the top bunk used the straw he was lying on as a sharp projectile, shooting it at the mountain demon’s leg.

“Don’t call me that.”

The boy coldly refused, turning over.

He would never risk his life for these people.

However, that night, he dreamt of the girl he had seen during the day.

In his cherry blossom-colored dream, the beautiful girl once again ran towards him through the rain of flowers.

But this time, she didn’t pass by him. Instead, she softly and gracefully threw herself into his arms, like a cloud on a clear spring day.

She lifted her head, looked at him with her glassy almond eyes, and said softly, “Lord Ghost King, you truly are brave and peerless, a young hero…”

The next morning, the mountain sprite was awakened by a punch from the Ghost King, who slept on the bunk above him.

When he entered the Yin Mountain Clan’s residence for the second time, Mo Lin felt like he was possessed.

He tried to convince himself that the reason he agreed was not to be some damned hero.

He only wanted power, status, and to escape this cramped slave city, to achieve great deeds like all men dream of.

He was no longer the foolish child who escaped from the Colorless City years ago.

He wanted no genuine feelings, no empty love. He had tried those things before, and they did not interest him at all.

Yin Shanze unfolded the defense map of the Colorless City in front of him.

He wanted Mo Lin to imprint the map in his mind, understand the abilities of all the monsters in the hunting ground, and bring their information to the Yin Mountain Clan residence once a month to discuss the deployment for the day of the siege with him and Nangong Jing.

The effort required from Mo Lin was extraordinary.

He had to participate in matches in the hunting ground, improve his skills as much as possible, recognize every monster in the hunting ground, memorize the faces of the strong figures from the major clans in the Colorless City, and even learn to read.

He was so busy that he hardly had any free time.

So, he wouldn’t look at the girl practicing her sword under the tree when he passed through the moon gate.

He wouldn’t look at the girl lowering her lashes to apply medicine for that person named Jiu Fang Zhanghua by the water pavilion.

Nor would he pay attention to the love poems written by the noble youths of the immortal capital, hanging on the nearest flower tree outside her window during the Flower Morning Festival.

He also wouldn’t listen to the servants gossiping about how Miss Liu Yu and Young Master Zhanghua went to some place to train yesterday, helping many poor people hand in hand, like a perfect couple meant to be together.

…He had decided he would not look even once more.

“Hey.”

The girl, lightly napping in the sea of cherry blossoms, opened her eyes and looked through the layers of flowers at the monster boy passing by.

“You’re not a student of Ling Yong, you’re a monster, right?”

Mo Lin suddenly stopped, belatedly realizing he had used the same face as when he first saw her.

“Those injuries on you, did you get them for standing up for the monsters?”

She rested her head on her arm, her gaze sweeping over the exposed part of his wrist.

He instinctively moved his arm back.

“There are indeed quite a few annoying guys from the immortal capital who like to go to the Colorless City…”

She seemed to attribute his injuries to the noble families, casually sighing, and her clear eyes turned back to him.

“Sorry, you know, some humans are good people too. Next time you come, don’t peek. I’ll teach you how to practice swordsmanship.”

Mo Lin stared at her in a daze.

So, she had already noticed.

She had known a monster was hiding in the dark, watching her, but hadn’t chased him away.

She even said… she would teach him swordsmanship.

“Oh.”

The girl, sitting up among the branches, got her hairband caught. The golden hairband was blown by the wind and fell into the nearby courtyard.

Before the girl could speak, Mo Lin said, “—I’ll get it.”

Once again, he fled in embarrassment in front of her.

When he returned, the girl, beautiful as a flower demon, was already gone, leaving a medicine bottle under the tree with a handwritten note pressed beneath it.

[This is for you. If you get beaten again, remember to report my name next time.]

The handwriting was elegant and flowing, almost flying off the page. At the end was her signature—

Yinshan Liuyu.

Mo Lin tightly grasped the girl’s hairband, the emotions he had suppressed in his heart silently creeping like vines to fill his chest.

He could no longer deceive himself.

He wanted to occupy her sight, receive her praise, no longer live in disgrace as before, and didn’t want the girl who had looked up to him to know he was once a selfish and cowardly wretch.

Those riches and power couldn’t stir a single ripple in his heart. From the beginning to the end, what he desired from this world—

Had always been love.

And more importantly, the love of the one who wrote this note.