Chapter 11: Xiǎo Hé’s Resentment |
The young man was about to speak when the guard next to him moved forward, “Be careful Lord Fú Shēng, this person . . .”
The crown prince was uneasy but his trusted aid, Fú Shēng, sneered at Shěn Lí. “The emperor only has seven sons. I know all the kings. How can you be a king, you demon?”
Shěn Lí’s smile was even colder than his. “I am a demon king!” She cut through the air with her silver spear. Those below felt a cool breeze as their belts fell down in unison. A slight panic ensued as they bent down to grab their pants. The only one not affected was the crown prince. His belt was different from the others, a strong and reinforced type. Shěn Lí was just enjoying herself and smiling when a pair of warm hands covered her eyes.
Xíng Yún said, “Don’t look. It’s inappropriate.”
Shěn Lí was momentarily stunned and didn’t think to pull his hand away. Despite the many things she’d done, he insisted on treating her like a regular person, like a woman whose eyes were innocent.
Everyone hurried to pick up their swords and pants before hurrying away. The belt around Fú Shēng’s waist seemed to be different than the others. Instead of being embarrassed, there was a thoughtful expression on his face as he looked at Shěn Lí. After looking at her for a moment, he turned and walked away from the burning courtyard. Shěn Lí retracted her spear but did not pry Xíng Yún’s hands away, she only said, “Come on I’ll bring you to Ruì palace.” After that, she would leave.
“Yeah OK,” Xíng Yún answered loudly, letting go of Shěn Lí as he did so. Glancing around he said, “But let’s wait for bit.”
Shěn Lí looked at Xíng Yún and saw the fire reflected in his eyes. Suddenly she remembered what he said yesterday at Ruì palace about wanting to stay in his little courtyard because it was his home. Now he had to watch as it all burned down. She could only imagine the sense of loss he felt.
Were it not for the fact she needed to conserve her energy in order to evade her pursuers, she would have settled the score with the crown prince once and for all. But recklessly using her energy in the situation would only complicate things and allow those chasing her to pinpoint her location. Her heart felt stifled as she looked at the small courtyard turning gray in places as the ashes settled down. She could not stay any longer.
“You— that’s what you were thinking about?”
“Yeah. What else would I be thinking about?”
Shěn Lí glared at Xíng Yún before taking a deep breath and grabbing him roughly by the collar. In a silvery flash they reappeared in a quiet garden. Xíng Yún looked up at the moon and sighed. “Wow . . . a transporting spell sure is convenient. But why did you send us to this deserted garden?”
“You think I wanted to? I don’t know the exact location of Prince Ruì’s residence inside the palace.”
“Xíng Yún laughed. “Well we’re going to have to find it then.” He barely took two steps forward before Shěn Lí yanked at his wrist.
“Don’t move. Can’t you sense how strange it is here?”
“Strange? What's strange?” Xíng Yún couldn’t detect anything odd. The sounds and sights were all ordinary night time sounds found in any garden – the insects were chirping, the flowers were swaying in the breeze, the leaves were rustling. There was nothing strange here.
Shěn Lí waved her hand and grabbed at something in the air. “I didn’t see it before during the day, but this Prince Ruì, to raise so many unformed demon spirits . . .” She opened her palm to show some condensed light as tiny as fireflies.
Xíng Yún raised his eyebrows. He took advantage of Shěn Lí’s distraction to pull his wrist free. Before she could stop him, he had already walked several steps away from her. “There’s no maliciousness in the air. Even though I can’t see them I can feel them.” He opened his arms as if to demonstrate.
Xíng Yún couldn’t know that there were hundreds of shimmering spheres floating like tiny soap bubbles in the air. The full moon’s light reflecting on them created an ethereal effect. Nor did he know that in the moment he opened his arms wide, they gathered and sparkled all around him. It was dazzling; he was like a god embracing the world. The vision was so blinding Shěn Lí had to blink a few times adjust her vision and regain her senses.
This was the same man who had pulled her from her nightmare, the one who held an umbrella and shielded her from the rain, the one she saw under the grape trellis bathing in the sun. Despite being indisputably weak, he somehow gave off an air of reliability.
“Let’s go.” Xíng Yún extended his hand to Shěn Lí. “You can hold onto me if you’re afraid.”
He really was treating her like some weak woman . . . Shěn Lí grabbed his hand and yanked him up forcing him into her arms.
He looked up and asked, “What is it?”
“Do you know who’s standing in front of you?”
After a long pause Xíng Yún replied, “M. . . yes King Shěn Lí I apologize for underestimating you.”
“You. Pay attention to what I’m about to say. I like you.” Shěn Lí stared intently at him as she spoke next. “Seems I’ve taken a fancy to you.”
Xíng Yún remained silent after that declaration letting the buzz of the insects in the garden fill the space between them. Then he grinned, “Oh, OK. Let’s go.”
Eh . . . was he toying with her? What was with that perfunctory reply? And that grin? What the hell?! Even ridicule would have been a better reply than this ambiguous one. Shěn Lí’s hand trembled for a moment. Fortunately for Xíng Yún, before she could unleash her anger, she detected a faint whiff of something in the air that distracted her and put her on alert. Although light, she could tell there was magic in the air. She released him and turned toward the sky, but the tiny spirit demons flying in the air blocked her vision. The scent disappeared before she could analyze it properly. The only thing she could tell was the direction of the magic - somewhere from the southeast. Shěn Lí furrowed her brow in thought. Although it was a magical scent it was not the same as those of the demon troops. Something was off . . .
The air changed dramatically without warning. Shěn Lí pulled Xíng Yún behind her, scattering the tiny demons. The demons spread apart and were no longer clustering together; their bodies buzzed and slowly took on a reddish hue. “What’s the matter?” Even Xíng Yún could feel the sudden hostility vibrating in the air.
“I don’t know, but it’s not good. Let’s find Prince Ruì first.” If something happened to Prince Ruì, then Xíng Yún would be out of luck with nowhere safe to go. She barely finished speaking when a terrifying scream filled with unrestrained anger and resentment cut through the air. It stimulated the flying demons and they twitched and buzzed even more fiercely. The sound, like a wailing baby, was sharp and penetrated to the bone.
“Let’s get out of here.” Xíng Yún also heard the wail.
Shěn Lí brought some qi up into her hand and used it to forcefully clear a path. She grabbed Xíng Yún and quickly walked into the clearing. As they continued farther in the palace, they heard more terrifying sounds. Screams of, “Monster!” and, “Help!” rang out. Once they passed the garden walls, they could see the whole palace was filled with bloody spirits.
Shěn Lí kept Xíng Yún behind her as they walked. Some of the lesser spirits morphed into malformed small children, a few even took the form of disfigured newborn babes and filled the air with their poisonous fumes. They squatted and crawled on the ground, latching onto anything they could get their chubby deformed hands on. Their acidic tears flowed unchecked and eroded everything in the way.
The guards and maids were in a panic, clearly in pain as their skin came in contact with the demonic fluids. It reminded Shěn Lí of the hell in her nightmare from earlier.
Shěn Lí muttered to herself, “We’ll have to find the lord of the demons here and defeat it if we want to clear this. Let’s find Prince Ruì as soon as possible.”
The odds of finding a sentient fully formed demon spirit amongst all the nascent souls was one in a hundred million. These were obviously very poor odds, but then the alternative wasn’t that great either. Even if a really talented person painstakingly cultivated a spirit and managed to help it develop a physical form, there was no guarantee it could reach the next evolutionary step and form a soul. It would most likely be an empty vessel that lacked any spiritual essence.
The only demon that could take physical form in Ruì Palace was Xiǎo Hé. Something big had to have happened for her to manifest such a strong sense of resentment against her lord and betray him.
“Shěn Lí.” Xíng Yún pointed to the distance.
Shěn Lí turned to look in the direction he was pointing. “That’s Prince Ruì’s residence.” There was a swarm of bloody malformed baby demons crawling all over it completely obscuring the building from view. All she could see was a pulsating blob of red as the babies moved around the exterior like worms underneath the skin. Her flesh crawled just looking at it. “Don’t stray more than three steps away from me,” she told Xíng Yún as she watched several babies crawl toward them. She originally planned to leave him here, but with so much danger all around, she couldn’t risk it.
Honestly, Xíng Yún didn’t want to be left behind either. He watched as several babies tried to make their way toward them. “How could I? Your grip is so fierce.” His vision turned dark for a moment as they transitioned from one location to another. Once they landed, he could see they were in the middle of a traditionally styled room, only this one had blood oozing over all the surface areas. A drop landed on his hand and burned his skin. Looking down, he saw blood quickly sizzle away at his flesh as it ate a hole in his hand. He didn’t make a sound so Shěn Lí didn’t know he was injured.
Shěn Lí led them to a bookshelf, the kind that screamed “I’m a secret door!” and pushed at it. Sure enough, it opened to reveal a hidden passageway. It was dark, so she formed a flame in her hand to light the way. They walked inside with Shěn Lí in the front taking each step carefully.
“Ah!”
The scream shot like an arrow into Shěn Lí’s heart. If anything happened to Prince Ruì . . . They finally reached the end of the passageway. The only thing separating them from the room proper was a paper screen. Shěn Lí kicked it out of the way revealing a room lit with candles.
Floating in the air, with her hair scattered about like an incensed demon filled with static electriciy, was Xiǎo Hé. “Zhu Chengjin![notes] I’m going to kill you then kill her. You can both die together!” In front of her was a bloodied Prince Ruì. He was holding a sword facing her for all the world looking like he intended to protect the bed with his life. Aside from Prince Ruì, there was only one other occupant on the bed. A woman lay fully dressed, pale and beautiful, like a certain fairytale appearing as though she had been slumbering for years.
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