Yin Wushu had probably never expected Xie Bai to ask so directly. With his fingers stirring the fish soup, there was a slight pause, and the porcelain spoon lightly tapped against the bowl, making a crisp sound.

He simply placed the spoon back into the bowl, his slender and clear hands loosely clasped on the table. He glanced up at Xie Bai, a hint of amusement in the corner of his eyes as he said, "Why ask this?"

Xie Bai was too familiar with him, so when he showed such an expression, it basically meant confirmation. He said lightly, "From what I observed from Li Dong, it seems he has seen this cat before."

Yin Wushu snorted disapprovingly. "Always so playful, but when it's his turn to be serious, he's clueless."

"You haven't answered my question. What's your relationship with this cat?" Xie Bai repeated. "At first sight, I almost thought it was you transformed into a demon."

Yin Wushu responded with an "oh," raising an eyebrow. "So, out of the love and care you've had for over a hundred years, you brought it back home?"

Xie Bai: "......"

The truth was actually similar to what Yin Wushu said, but Xie Bai didn't want to admit it. He remained expressionless, not even lifting his eyelids, and replied, "So I ignored it for almost half a month."

Yin Wushu: "......"

Yin Wushu was somewhat amused, tapping the table with his fingertips. "Behaving like this will incur the anger of the heavens, young man."

Xie Bai took a sip of soup, mercilessly retorting, "Throwing it away after raising it will also incur the anger of the heavens."

Yin Wushu fell silent.

In that moment, Xie Bai hoped he would continue to defend himself, even with some nonsense excuse, just to give him a reason. After more than a hundred years, he realized that he had harbored resentment for so long, but it wasn't something he couldn't forgive or move on from. As long as Yin Wushu gave him a reason, even if it wasn't convincing, he could accept it...

But Yin Wushu remained unusually silent, without even an explanation.

Xie Bai swallowed the fish soup with a blank expression, thinking, ‘There's no need to linger here. It's awkward for everyone. Let's go back.’ But when he looked up, he saw Yin Wushu's fleeting expression.

If he wasn't mistaken, Yin Wushu's expression in that moment was extremely rigid. He lightly narrowed his eyes behind the steaming white mist, staring blankly at a vacant point on the table, lost in thought. Such a look made one feel inexplicably sad.

Xie Bai felt as if his heart was being traversed by a line of ants, each step piercing slightly, but the pain was light, as if the tendons in the chest had been moved. He remained silent, mouth open, for a moment before easing that force.

That sentence, so full of sting, suddenly became impossible to utter.

He furrowed his brows, then lowered his gaze again, absentmindedly stirring the almost empty fish soup in the bowl. "It followed me for about half a month, so I brought it back with me."

Yin Wushu probably didn't expect Xie Bai to speak again. Instead of continuing to tease him, Xie Bai changed the topic to something more neutral, which caught him slightly off guard.

He took a light breath in the white mist, then reached out to help Xie Bai cover the bowl, reheating the slightly cooled fish soup until it was steaming hot again. "Take a few more sips."

Seeing Xie Bai drink from the soup again and not immediately leaving, Yin Wushu's expression returned to normal. He reached out to stroke the back of the little black cat's neck on the table, saying, "This cat is indeed mine. Li Dong saw it when I first brought it back. But it didn't stay with me for long. It had just opened its eyes and hadn't become familiar with people yet. I let it go to find you, and it acknowledged you as its master."

As he spoke, his gaze remained on the little black cat, neither shifting away nor looking at Xie Bai. After a pause, he continued in a solemn tone, "Its temperament is somewhat like yours when you were young. It probably only acknowledges you in this world, not even sparing a glance for anyone else."

He rubbed the little black cat a couple of times to demonstrate to Xie Bai. "See, even I'm not acknowledged by it."

Only after saying this did he lift his gaze, with a hint of amusement, saying to Xie Bai, "So rest assured, no one can deceive it. It will follow you until death. This kind of creature barely qualifies as half a family member for you... much more reliable than someone like me who lacks heart and emotions."

Actually, when Xie Bai was resentful, he had said countless times in his heart that Yin Wushu had no heart or emotions. But when such a description came from Yin Wushu himself, Xie Bai felt a bit uneasy.

He remained silent for a moment, not responding. He drank the last few sips of fish soup without a word. Because Yin Wushu had reheated it for him, it hadn't cooled down at all and went smoothly down his throat, slightly scorching.

"Why are you drinking without blowing it first, just got it reheated," Yin Wushu furrowed his brows.

Xie Bai put down the spoon, sat up straight, and looked at him. "How did you manage to make it so stubborn? If it can be resolved, then resolve it. It's not a good character trait."

Yin Wushu patted the little black cat's head, casually replying, "Can't resolve it anymore, just leave it like this. Since it acknowledges you as its master and you've been taking care of it for so many days, just keep it."

Xie Bai stared at the little black cat, neither answering nor nodding.

Seeing his lack of response, Yin Wushu continued, "Keeping it and then throwing it away will incur the anger of the heavens. Just forgot what I said? Don't inherit even this from me."

Xie Bai remained silent.

From the moment he spoke those words, Yin Wushu seemed to have broken the jar and lost all shame. He grabbed the back of the little black cat's neck and stuffed it into Xie Bai's arms without hesitation, then said to Xie Bai, "I still have half a bowl of fish soup left. Sit with me for a while, and we'll leave after finishing it?"

Xie Bai held the little black cat, his face full of a sense of speechlessness that seemed to say, "Can you be any more shameless?" He stared at Yin Wushu for a while, then turned to look at the small stall across the street and the pedestrians on the road. After a long time, he finally made a nasal "Hmm" sound as a response.

Yin Wushu glanced at him amusedly, reheated the half bowl of fish soup, and drank it spoon by spoon, as calmly and leisurely as ever. It seemed as if the strange state that Xie Bai had felt before was just his imagination...

After finishing the soup, the two of them had no intention of continuing their stroll. They leisurely walked back. After all, they had explored this long street and its old shops countless times over the past hundred years, and they had seen enough of the new shops along the way.

Although it was a long road, it felt like they had walked it in no time.

There weren't too many people still wandering around in the demon market, as many had already returned to their lodgings to rest.

As Xie Bai and Yin Wushu entered the inn's door, Li Dong followed closely behind. The timing was just right.

The three of them went upstairs and each opened their room doors.  Li Dong politely greeted them before entering his room and closing the door, leaving the two outside to themselves.

Xie Bai reached for the door handle, about to enter his room, but suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Holding the cat, he turned to Yin Wushu with some hesitation. "Did you really just pick it up?"

Yin Wushu chuckled. "Otherwise? Could it be that I gave birth to it? How silly. I just picked it up and used a bit of spiritual power to care for it for a few days."

Xie Bai made a sound of acknowledgment and nodded before pushing the door open and entering the room.

He didn't feel particularly tired, so he only slept for a while. When he opened his eyes, it was just starting to get light outside.

The exit of the demon market usually opened at this time and remained open until noon. Most of the demons who came to shop preferred to eat breakfast here and then browse the morning market before leaving.

Xie Bai glanced at the sky and decided to wait until it was a bit brighter before calling Yin Wushu and Li Dong to have something to eat before leaving.

He sat by the bed in a soft chair, reading a book that had been lying on the side table at home when he left. There were about ten pages left, so he flipped through it while waiting.

He had always preferred this kind of travelogue and miscellaneous records because he didn't interact much with the people of the demon world outside of official business. Most of his knowledge came from Yin Wushu's storytelling and books, especially some peculiar events from ancient times, which could only be found in these miscellaneous records.

Just as he had flipped through two pages, Xie Bai's fingers suddenly stopped. He put the book on the bedside table and walked to the window, pulling back the curtain to look down.

He saw the Stork Demon holding a book in one hand and a pouch the size of a wallet in the other, walking towards the door of the inn.

Xie Bai raised his hand and knocked on the window sill.

The Stork Demon heard it and looked up at him.

"Oh, it's you, My Lord! I'm sorry, there were so many books, I searched all night." The Stork Demon hurriedly ran to the spot directly below Xie Bai's window, waving the items in his hand. "The book you wanted, ‘Trivial talk by the western window,' and various travelogues and miscellaneous records, I brought them all."

After he finished speaking, suddenly behind him, a pair of long wings with white bases and black feathers spread open. He flapped them a few times and flew up to the height of Xie Bai's window. He handed the book and the small pouch in his hand to Xie Bai.

He pointed to the book and said, "The shopkeeper earnestly asks the sir to take good care of this book. After all, it is an old work of a deceased friend."

Then he pointed to the pouch and continued, "There are a total of one hundred and twenty-six books stuffed inside, all carefully selected."

Xie Bai nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work."

The Stork Demon bid farewell to Xie Bai and was about to leave. However, just as he turned around, Xie Bai spoke up, "Wait a moment!"

"Huh?" The Stork Demon turned back again, blinked, and looked at him. "Does the sir have anything else?"

Xie Bai put the book and pouch back on the bedside table, then extended his left hand, palm facing upward, and presented it to the Stork Demon. "I almost forgot, have you seen these beads before?"

He held several dark red beads of various sizes in his palm, which were the ones he had picked up in the demon corpse array and at the bridgehead.

In this demon market, the people who might know the most about things were the miscellaneous goods and treasure vendors, and the people from the Canghai Bookstore.

The Stork Demon stared at the red beads for a while, then carefully looked up at Xie Bai and asked, "Sir, may I touch one to smell it?"

Xie Bai nodded.

The Stork Demon picked up the largest bead, sniffed it a few times, and then carefully placed the bead back into Xie Bai's palm. He said, "My Lord, if I'm not mistaken, this is blood."

Xie Bai was startled. "Blood?"

The Stork Demon nodded seriously. "Yes, blood. My family's shopkeeper and I go on a journey every year. Once, we found these beads on the snowy peaks of Tianshan Mountains (NT: Mountains of Heaven, a series of peaks in Northern China). There was a whole bunch of them, large and small, probably about a hundred or so. At that time, we felt that these beads were not ordinary, so we brought them all back. The shopkeeper pondered over them for a long time but couldn't figure out what they were. Then, one day, he accidentally melted these beads and found that they were a big puddle of blood. However, this blood was very special. It quickly solidified into these beads again."

He pointed to the beads in Xie Bai's hand and continued, "When the blood solidified into beads, the blood scent was very faint, but if you sniff carefully, you can still faintly smell it. You can try to melt one of these blood beads, and the blood scent will become much stronger, but it's not unpleasant because there's also a hint of indescribable fragrance mixed in, which smells quite nice."

Xie Bai frowned. "Fragrance?"

The Stork Demon scratched his head. "Uh... How to describe it? It's a bit like the scent of grass and wood when rain falls on bamboo. Hmm... It's hard to describe, but it's quite special."

Xie Bai nodded. After all, his sense of smell was impaired, so even if he melted them, he couldn't smell anything. He could only imagine based on the Stork Demon's description.

"My Lord, are these beads very important to you? My shopkeeper and I are quite curious about this thing too. After that incident, we've been paying attention while flipping through books, hoping to find any mention of blood turning into beads. If we find something, I'll let you know," said the Stork Demon.

Xie Bai nodded and thanked him.

As soon as the Stork Demon left, Xie Bai put away the beads and picked up the book " Trivial talk by the western window" and started flipping through it. He quickly found the section about the man in black and the white tiger. However, as he continued reading, he noticed that the content below was different from what he had glanced over that day.

He couldn't recall the exact words, but he was sure it wasn't anything like a white tiger jumping into the palm of the man in black and then leaving with him, as described in the mundane version.

Interfered with?

He held the book, and his first instinct was to suspect the Stork Demon who had just delivered the book. But then he quickly dismissed the thought. The Stork Demon had no idea why he was looking for this book, so why would he meddle with it...

After a moment of confusion, Xie Bai turned his head to look at the wall.

Yin Wushu?

As soon as this thought occurred to him, Xie Bai pushed open the door to the next room.

With a cold expression, he raised his hand and knocked on Yin Wushu's door. However, the door wasn't properly closed, just slightly ajar. It swung open as soon as he knocked.

Xie Bai's heart skipped a beat—there was no one in the room.

 

Translator : DarNan