My Darling Sick Beauty

Forever illuminating and chasing from sunset to daybreak.

The Netherworld.

The road in order to bypass the River of the Dead was even further, shuttling past the eyes of thousands of greedy but fearful ghost cultivators, the carriage slowly advanced and arrived at Wang Xiang Tai.

Gongyi Yan jumped off the carriage, she pushed aside the curtain and stuck her hand into the carriage, and helped the most treasured and beloved darling of the Devil Realm to descend the carriage and help him to keep standing upright beside her.

Jiang Zheliu was not doing too well, he felt that his body was on the verge of giving up. Layer upon layers of cracks on the resurrection stone had already become obvious on its surface, the cracks were a ghastly sight.

Gongyi Yan had resolved a lot of “surprises” along the way, such as the evil demons which had been enticed by the Heavenly Spirit Body’s scent, or the spirits that had been blocking the road, everything had perished under her blade. Sometimes, for the sake of not waking up Jiang Zheliu, she had even done it without making a sound. 

 

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On the way here, Jiang Zheliu had also been able to witness the situation and the aftermath of the ensuing war….. Zero casualties was impossible, but the little devil had exercised great restraint, the scope and the level of destruction was in the limits of Jiang Zheliu’s estimates, and perhaps the reality was even a little better than what he had expected.

If there truly could be one person to unify the realms, to check and balance power and in-fighting and to end the ceaseless enmity, in reality, he was an extremely suitable candidate.

Jiang Zheliu began to get a headache again thinking about this kind of stuff, hence, he could only suppress his own thoughts, and rather, he stretched out his hand to fix his cloak and collar before knocking on the front door of Wang Xiang Tai.

Although this place was called “Wang Xiang Tai”, in reality it was a very complicated and old compound. Behind the buildings were an enormous spiritual device that resembled a nine-storied pagoda. After climbing up to the highest point of the tower onto the stone terrace, this was the actual Wang Xiang Tai that looked over the Netherworld.

He knocked on the door, there seemed to be a bell attached to the inside of the door, which rang a few times. Following that a pale-faced young ghost cultivator opened the door and glanced at the two of them, and seemed to be ensnared by the beauty of the person in front of him, he said, “You …Are you a living person?” 

 

He couldn’t be blamed for asking. As soon as Jiang Zheliu stepped foot into the gates of hell, the vitality in his body also weakened.

Jiang Zheliu nodded, he replied calmly: “I am Jiang Zheliu, I’m looking for the Lay Buddhist of Wang Xiang Tai.”

The young ghost cultivator stared blankly for a moment, it was unknown whether it was because of the sound of the other’s voice or whether it was upon hearing his name. He opened the door to the courtyard and quickly said: “Please follow me.”

Gongyi Yan stayed beside her Devil Queen, following him into this tomb-like compound, following the white-faced ghost cultivator as he twisted and turned as he went, until finally stopping in front of a house.

After the youth announced their arrival, the doors of the house abruptly opened, exposing the neatly lined up spoiled limbs and corpses, as well as spiritual devices which were full of wandering spirits, letting out ear-piercing screams.

Jiang Zheliu took a step forward, and saw that under the shelf of the corpses’ limbs, there was a boy who looked only around seven or eight years old, half of his body was covered in blood. He raised his head while shaking the bottle in his hand, and his silver-grey eyes paused on Jiang Zheliu for a moment.

A living person.

He Tan confirmed whether this person in front of him was alive or dead, his gaze fell upon Jiang Zheliu’s neck a few times, and then he stood up, his gaze moving up to Jiang Zheliu’s face, and he finally said: “……. Jiang Xianzun?”

Jiang Zheliu said: “That’s me.”

When He Tan stood up, he only came up to Jiang Zheliu’s chest, but the puppet master liked to assemble bodies very much, so he could change his image at any time, and was not limited to just the appearance of a child.

“You’re on your last breath.” He Tan looked again at the resurrection stone around his neck, “Xianzun is depleted of cultivation, and your body is already in this state, aren’t you afraid it’s dangerous here?”

“You’ve already said I’m on my last breath, so what is there to fear?”

That was true.

He Tan licked the blood on his fingertips, making it clean, and then went up to Jiang Zheliu and sniffed. Under the fierce gaze of Gongyi Yan, he moved his face away and frowned: “Why have you come, what do you want to do here? If our Ghost Lord finds out, it’ll be difficult for you to leave again.”

Jiang Zheliu was very patient, and completely calm when he repeated his request to him again.

“Only make your body into a puppet?” He Tan frowned incessantly, “reinstate your cultivation realm and seal the Ling Xiao Sword in your body?”

His line of sight turned to the famous sword in Jiang Zheliu’s hand, he was quiet for a long while and then said: “That’s an idea, your soul is already very weak, in less than two days, it will disperse into Heaven and Earth, and dissipate entirely. If the sword is sealed then what?”

“Naturally, it’s to be like a normal person, buried in a tomb and never to see the light of day again.”

When Jiang Zheliu said this, he was overly calm, as if he wasn’t speaking about himself. His snow-white hair was cold and gleaming like ice, and his skin was frosty and colourless, but his eyes were dark and cold, impenetrable to the light. Through his extreme physical fragility, he exhibited an unpredictable strength.

He Tan stared at him, he rolled his eyes and then turned to Gongyi Yan standing beside him and said: “Contrary to what you may believe, I am very willing to serve you, Xianzun. However, in order to create a puppet, I’d need to work on reconnecting the meridians in your body, that means going under the knife………. To be honest, I can’t bear to damage such a beautiful body. ”

Jiang Zheliu understood that He Tan wanted to refuse, he sighed and said: “I have already asked this devil here, that no matter whether it succeeds or not, she must deliver my remains out of the Netherworld without causing any trouble.”

This finally made He Tan break out into a sweet smile on his childish face. Then he rubbed his hands together and said, “As for the reward… Could Xianzun leave me some strands of your hair?”

He is a puppet maker, even if he knew that the body in front of him couldn’t be touched, he couldn’t help but want to leave a little bit of beauty from it.

This was unavoidable, and even this kind of request was more reasonable than Jiang Zheliu had expected. He nodded and agreed.

He Tan pulled him to sit down on a seat amongst the messy pile of corpse and limbs, then took out some scissors, and smoothed a section of hair from Jiang Zheliu’s head. There was a sudden pause and he asked. “I heard that you and the Devil Lord of the Devil Realm… are you cultivation partners?”

Jiang Zheliu was silent for a moment: “En.”

The puppet master laughed: “That’s great, but why didn’t you come here with him?”

This was obvious to others, but to He Tan it was not obvious at all. Ghost cultivators did not have any empathy, and it was hard for them to imagine a word like “unbearable”.

“He will cry.” Jiang Zheliu thought about, “he’s very afraid of me leaving.”

“Well, did you tell him that you came here?” He Tan asked.

“No.”

“…… You didn’t conceal from him that you are close to death right?”

Jiang Zheliu’s eyes were a little out of focus, and after a long time, he nodded slowly.

“En. I didn’t have the heart to say goodbye to him forever.”

The little puppet master cut off some of his white hair, tied it up into a little knot, and then put it into a precious box.

He turned his head and glanced at the female devil staring at him from the sidelines. He could sense that feeling of violence and recklessness of the Devil race that was emanating from Gong Yiyan’s body, and he asked with worry: “Did you make a will or something? I’m afraid that the Devil Lord……..”

“I did.” Jiang Zheliu comforted him, “he won’t hurt you.”

He Tan felt a little more relieved. He stretched out his hand and touched the waning resurrection stone around Jiang Zheliu’s neck. There were countless cracks on the jade surface, as if it would shatter at any moment. His hand just touched it lightly, and did not even use force, but then he felt this precious vitality disappear and turn into ashes.

The remnants of the stone slid through the fingers.

He Tan retracted his hand as if it were hot.

The resurrection stone was resolved to dust.

Just like him, he thought that he was about to break.

Jiang Zheliu untied the rope necklace from behind his neck and held the gift that had been carefully prepared by the little devil in the palm of his hand. His lungs became more and more painful, as if those glued together fragments were being torn apart, the pain spreading upwards layer by layer, as blood seeped up his throat.

He couldn’t resist it any longer, he lifted his hand to cover his mouth and coughed, but he couldn’t stop it, and it almost turned into a heart-piercing sound. Blood dripped from the corners of his lips, seeping through the fingers, before dripping on to the ground drop by drop.

The blood dyed through the rope necklace he was holding on to.

The little devil was the last ever gift that the heavens would give to him.

No one spoke. He Tan stood beside him, Gongyi stood on the other side, the two of them did not speak, the entire room was silent aside from the sound of his violent coughs.

The blood did not stop flowing out, filling up the palm of his hand.

In the end, this heart-piercing cough finally stopped. Jiang Zheliu, who was wearing a soft velvet cloak, laid down on the table, breathing rapidly and chaotically, fragmented and broken.

Drops of blood fell from his fingertips to the ground.

The place was already chaotic, with corpses and limbs scattered all over the place. But only the blood in the palm of Jiang Zheliu’s hand exuded the light and enduring fragrance of the Heavenly Spirit Body.

He Tan felt his throat tightening, he didn’t want to make him into a puppet. But sealing the Ling Xiao Sword was his wish, and He Tan didn’t want to return that knot of snow-coloured hair.

Gongyi Yan couldn’t stand it even less than him to see Jiang Zheliu like this any longer. She held on the shoulders of her Devil Queen, and restrained the devilish energy that was all over her body, those blue eyes under the mask not looking away from him for even a moment.

Until his gasps for air slowly became to calm down.

Jiang Zheliu took off the ink bracelet from his wrist, his bloodied fingers touching Gong Yiyan’s hand.

She heard the extremely quiet voice of the other.

“Deliver me to the Mortal Realm and then find a secluded place to bury me.”

Gongyi Yan was speechless, no noise was coming out of her mouth, she couldn’t agree to it.

“Just give him the letter, there’s no need to say anything…..”

Gong Yiyan clenched her fist that had been bloodied by his hand, and took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure how to reply but said: “…..Okay.”

————

The outside of Wang Xiang Tai was full of overgrown wild weeds.

Gong Yiyan actually didn’t know when his soul had dissipated.

Perhaps in the wisp of wind that just blew past her ears, there were his souls1 returning to Heaven and Earth.

The great devil was tired of sitting outside. Not only did she have numb legs from sitting, but her heart also became numb. Holding the letter and bracelet left for her Devil Lord, she got up and walked around the loose limbs and random bottles outside, before knocking on the window.

The curtain shook twice, and He Tan’s childish voice was heard: “Come in.”

Gongyi Yan lifted the curtain to enter, and raised her eyes to see the square jade table, which was exuding a strong chill.

This chill was bound to his hair, his eyelashes, and covered his bloodless lips with a faint red, his fingertips were a little red, his long eyebrows stretched out, he looked like he was asleep.

Gongyi really thought that he was asleep and she lightened her footsteps.

The faint fragrance of the Heavenly Spirit Body floated around in the air, even if it was blood, it would still not make people feel irksome. The thin light-coloured shirt on his body was soaked with spots of blood.

Since it was necessary to go under the knife.

He Tan wiped his hands next to her, and complained in a quiet voice: “I reconnected all the meridians that were broken in his body. You have no idea, I’m practically going blind…”

Gongyi Yan stared at him, but didn’t reply, after a while she finally asked: “Is a puppet that good-looking?”

“Oh…… No.” He Tan said, “I haven’t made him into a puppet.”

Gongyi Yan stared blankly, she turned her head and stared at him intently.

The Ling Xiao Sword was still standing on the edge of the jade table, and was not sealed into his body, which showed that He Tan did not use the method of puppetry to restore his cultivation.

“Although I am reconnecting meridians of a corpse, he is just so beautiful that I couldn’t do it.” He Tan said truthfully, “And… anyway you devils are so stubborn, do you really think the Devil Lord would be so obedient to not go looking for him?”

It was impossible.

“As long as we put your Devil Lord’s focus on Jiang Xianzun, only then, will you not die, and I won’t get in any trouble either.” He Tan sighed and reached out to look around the chest until he fished out a tiny box containing a pearl which he put into Jiang Zheliu’s mouth.

This jade pearl was very small, barely noticeable in his mouth. But it did not slide down his throat.

Ghost Cultivators were good at preserving corpses. This jade pearl could keep Jiang Zheliu’s body in this state forever. His corpse wouldn’t turn to ash like a normal cultivator, nor would it rot. It would always be soft and warm, just like he was asleep.

But he was not breathing, and there was no heartbeat.

“This is Jiang Xianzun’s last opportunity.”

He Tan stared at him, as if he was a little reluctant to let him go, “If he can wake up, I will become the Devil Lord’s benefactor, what….. a risky gamble.”

He turned around, stood on tiptoes to get a lamp off of the shelf.

This lamp was shaped like a Queen of the Night cactus, and in the middle, there was a hollow wick.

He Tan poured the blood of the Heavenly Spirit Body into it and burned it like it was gas for the lamp. Then suddenly the cloudy lamp lit up, surrounding the flame were two little awns that encircled the flame.

“What is that?” Gongyi Yan asked with astonishment.

“It’s his broken soul.”

He Tan put the cloudy lamp next to Jiang Zheliu, and the faint flame faintly lit up his white eyelashes.

“When someone dies, their flesh and souls do not separate entirely, so we can use his blood and recall the remnants of his two souls.” He Tan stretched out his hand to play with Jiang Zheliu’s long and slender eyelashes, and felt that they were cold to touch, “Of course, a broken soul is useless… Those fragments of his souls that have returned to Heaven and Earth can only be recalled slowly.”

Gongyi frowned, and asked a little angrily: “Why didn’t you light it earlier? Why did you wait until after he died…….”

” “What do you know.” The child curled his lips in disdain, “If I don’t let the majority of his souls return to Heaven and Earth to warm up and absorb spiritual energy, even if they are gathered in this spiritual device, they would just be as weak as before.”

“Then when will he wake up again?” Gongyi Yan breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well….. I don’t know.” He Tan played with Jiang Zheliu’s long white hair, “Place somebody on a field of death and he will fight to live, no matter what, it’s still not that easy.”

He was touching more and more vigorously until his hand was slapped away by the devil, whilst she said a very forceful “thank you.”

Gong Yiyan picked up the cloudy lamp and carefully put it into a qiankun pouch. Then she reached out and picked up her Devil Queen.

His body was extremely cold. But after investigating it more thoroughly, she sensed that it was a bizarre temperature. This made Gong Yiyan feel gradually more relieved. She looked down at Jiang Zheliu and whispered: “Sorry, I cannot obey your words.”

Jiang Zheliu was in her arms, his long hair draping softly on his shoulders, the eyelashes were slender and long, and his thin lips were slightly pursed. He did not resemble a corpse at all.

He Tan rubbed his hand that had been slapped away, he looked at the fierce devil and couldn’t help saying: “If he lives, remember to come back and thank me… Hey, don’t press on the knife wounds on his body, where are you going to take him… Take the sword away as well!”

————

Ling Xiao Sword was placed beside Jiang Zheliu’s body.

His body was soft and very light, like it weighed nothing at all. But because the meridians had just been reconnected inside his body, it was still a bit difficult to keep the energy from the jade pearl that kept his body from desecrating, to keep flowing through his meridians all over his body.

The jade pearl was cold, Jiang Zheliu had also been lying on the icy table for a long while, plus, his body also had its own icy aura, her fingertips were extremely frozen.

Gongyi Yan placed him into the carriage and watched him for a long while, before sighing and then she whispered: “Jiang Xianzun, we’re going back, is that okay?”

Naturally he was not able to reply.

She placed the cloudy lamp on the table, the flames were flickering.

Jiang Zheliu looked calm and harmonious under the dim light, like a lifeless but very beautiful puppet.

Gongyi Yan watched him for a long time, she didn’t want him to suffer any bumps on the road. So instead, she summoned the devils under her command to deliver the letter that the Devil Queen left for the Devil Lord to the frontlines.

Whilst she just sat in the carriage, watching and guarding over this lamp that she could not let extinguish. Watching him lying next to the table, with his head resting upon the Ling Xiao Sword, looking like he was asleep.