MD Ch 2 Part 8

The cave ceiling was incredibly high, providing ample space for Ah Jiu’s palace-sized body to lower and turn its head. He was currently sitting like a human, his hindquarters on the ground, his long, powerful claws extended. On a shelf made of unknown material lay thick skewers, and impaled on them were none other than snakes. The lizards had been brutally skewered, yet due to the tenacious vitality of demonic beasts, they were still twitching feebly.

Ah Jiu had placed a cauldron filled with Fire Crystals beneath the shelf. He occasionally breathed fire to control the heat, expertly grilling the skewers back and forth. He was a seasoned professional.

Even though he knew I had arrived, he didn’t even turn his head, continuing to oil and salt the grilling meat. Holding back my laughter, I asked,

“Ah Jiu, are you angry with this Lord?”

Ah Jiu was over three hundred years old, but a Vermilion Bird only reached adulthood after five hundred years. In other words, despite his enormous size, his mental capacity was still that of a child. At best, he was a powerful young man in the cultivation world, still far from mature compared to the old monsters of the divine beast families.

Adolescents were already emotionally complex, and it seemed he was sulking because I had confiscated the Reincarnation fruit in the morning and hadn’t properly explained the matter with the Azure Dragon. Upset but unable to find another way to vent his frustration, he seemed to have taken it out on these unfortunate pets.

I spoke as his pomegranate-colored eyes glanced at me before he replied.

“If you’re going to ask me to let these go, then take me to that filthy snake bastard right now. I can devour everything in this cave within two hours! And…”

Ah Jiu pointed to Song Qiyuan, who was lying exhausted from the heat inside the cage.

“I’ll eat that guy as a snack. Are you scared?”

Are you scared?! Ah Jiu, why are you so cute?

Seeing Song Qiyuan barely breathing made my heart ache, but I wasn’t afraid of him dying. Song Qiyuan’s lifespan was so long that he wouldn’t die unless he eliminated me.

“Ah Jiu, don’t make a fuss. This child is indispensable to you when you search for the Azure Dragon later, so you can’t eat him.”

According to the timeline, Song Qiyuan would accidentally save the Azure Dragon’s life during his cultivation in the Abyss of Ghostly Howls. After encountering each other a few times and developing a rapport, they would eventually join forces. Their relationship would be more like friends than the master-servant dynamic between Yu Ke and the Vermilion Bird. Song Qiyuan would be 18 years old then.

Wait a minute! There were still 8 years left?

Calculating it this way, the road ahead seemed daunting.

“Indispensable? Are you joking? You’re saying that cripple will help me find that blue snake bastard?”

Ah Jiu tore into the grilled snake meat, his sharp beak opening and closing, making my teeth ache just watching him. He tossed the finished skewer into Song Qiyuan’s cage. The metallic clang echoed through the cave.

With Yu Ke’s exceptional eyesight, I noticed Song Qiyuan’s trembling long eyelashes. He looked childishly frightened, and it was rather endearing.

However, the moment he opened his eyes, any semblance of cuteness vanished. He leaned against the wall, his eyes devoid of focus and light. He slowly turned his head towards me and Ah Jiu, but remained silent, his chapped lips tightly pressed together.

After screaming so much yesterday, it was understandable that he couldn’t speak.

Ah Jiu, realizing Song Qiyuan was awake, grasped the bars of the cage with his sharp claws. His playful crimson eyes mocked the caged boy.

“The Demon Lord says he needs your help to find my nemesis. But I could crush you with one claw and roast you over the fire without even feeling full. What makes you so important that the Demon Lord would say such a thing?”

I finally understood why Song Qiyuan in my previous life hated Ah Jiu so much.

The Ah Jiu I saw in the bedchamber earlier was small and acted cute towards Yu Ke. But the Ah Jiu in front of me, sneering at Song Qiyuan, was completely different. While he was adorable, I worried that our current treatment of Song Qiyuan might sow discord in the future.

I could hide my dealings with Song Qiyuan from Gu Jincheng, but not from the Vermilion Bird who was constantly by Yu Ke’s side. Even if I ordered Gu Jincheng to stay away, I couldn’t tell a child not to follow their guardian.

Divine beasts didn’t distinguish between good and evil, only between like and dislike. Ah Jiu treated those he liked well, and completely ignored those he disliked. If he didn’t kill something he disliked, it was considered fortunate. It was understandable why he was so cruel to Song Qiyuan, someone he found utterly displeasing.

“Ah Jiu, you can’t eat him. He’s still useful.”

For a long while, I spoke in a stern tone, filled with empty threats, hoping to intimidate Ah Jiu into abandoning any further resentment.

“Who would eat him? He’s tasteless.”

The boy sitting in the cage seemed accustomed to Ah Jiu’s attitude. Leaning against the wall, he opened his eyes wide and stared directly at me. His voice, though hoarse and childish, was incredibly cold.

“Yu Ke, I didn’t know I was still of use to you. Keeping me alive for three months must mean I have some value, right?

I don’t know what grudge you have against me, nor what grudge you have against the Song Clan. You led an army across the Heavenly River, annihilated the Song Clan in the Celestial Realm, and brought me here.

I’ve lived for ten years and never even seen you, never wronged you. Why… Why did you bring me here?”

Song Qiyuan stared at me intently, his empty eyes welling up with tears. His completely broken voice was unpleasant to hear, and now he was on the verge of crying.

As if his emotions were contagious, a lump formed in my throat, making me uncomfortable.

I approached the cage, crouched down, and met his gaze. Even though I knew he couldn’t see, I believed he could feel it.

Facing Song Qiyuan, with the cold metal bars between us, I spoke.

“Song Qiyuan, I’m sorry.”

In this time, in this place, given our current identities, circumstances, and experiences, my words were undoubtedly strange. They could even be considered insane.

But I truly wanted to apologize to Song Qiyuan. Everything Yu Ke had done was written by me; I was the mastermind behind it all.

Looking at Song Qiyuan now, I felt remorse for the world I had created. I had taken everything from this chosen one, destroyed his family, subjected him to all kinds of humiliation, and forced him to remain optimistic on his path to immortality.

Song Qiyuan wore an expression of disbelief, utterly dumbfounded. His innocent, childish expression seemed somewhat endearing, and I reached out to stroke his dirty hair.

“You’ll leave this place soon, and you’ll gain everything back eventually. I’ll wait until you become strong.”

After uttering these profound words, I felt incredibly pretentious.

They say that if you offer a drowning man a straw, he will grasp it with all his might and climb back up. I hoped my words would offer him some solace and that this world wouldn’t become too dark and lonely for him.

When you eventually reach the pinnacle of this world, I will disappear to a place where no one can find me, where I can die without falling victim to your hands.

Caught off guard by my touch, Song Qiyuan flinched and recoiled, but he didn’t hurl insults as I expected. There were no cries of “How dare you touch me!” Instead, he remained silent, his lips pursed in thought.

He was an unpredictable child.

Before I could ponder further, Ah Jiu threw the half-eaten demonic beast meat in a fit of anger.

“Why did you pat his head?! You actually touched that filthy thing?”

Before I could even stand up, Ah Jiu flapped his wings and landed on my shoulder. His small, crimson eyes darted between me and Song Qiyuan, who wore a completely blank expression.

Leaving Song Qiyuan in his silence, I exited the cave. I took a spirit fruit from my interspatial ring and stuffed it into Ah Jiu’s beak, silencing his sharp complaints.

Only after we were a good distance away did I soothe Ah Jiu, stroking his ruffled feathers with a smile.

“Alright, Ah Jiu. Don’t be angry. You won’t tell Gu Jincheng about this, will you? And if this Lord does anything incomprehensible to Song Qiyuan in the future, will you try to understand? That child is quite pitiful.”

Ah Jiu, having already devoured the spirit fruit, still seemed upset despite my words.

“Jincheng said that boy wants to kill you! He even swore an oath! Why are you still keeping him alive? Do you still want to be nice to him? Demon Lord, are you playing games?”

That Gu Jincheng, he had met with Ah Jiu before seeing me and only then told me that Ah Jiu had returned this morning. He was a warrior of few truthful words.

I reached out and covered Ah Jiu’s chattering beak, explaining,

“This Lord is not playing games. Whatever you think, you don’t need to know, and absolutely do not tell Jincheng.”

“That’s completely tyrannical! You’re just bullying me into obeying you!”

Ah Jiu’s words meant he had accepted my terms, and I finally felt relieved. At least in this world, Ah Jiu was on my side, and he would obey me no matter what I said. He truly was the most obedient child under heaven.

Ah, a three-hundred-year-old child.

I chuckled softly and looked at Ah Jiu again. He was staring at me, completely entranced, then quickly averted his gaze when our eyes met.

I heard him whisper softly,

“Sigh, you’ve changed a lot in the few days I was gone. Your smile is becoming more and more beautiful.”

…Haha, my face. I needed to adapt to Yu Ke’s persona quickly.

***