Bai Li felt Shi Wuduan’s grip begin to slacken. In a panic, he held onto him even tighter. They floated and sank in the waters, being swept away to who knew where. He himself was already half-unconscious from all the water he’d choked down. He used the remnants of his strength to cling firmly onto Shi Wuduan.
When they reached the outlet, the river began to widen. Even though the waves were powerful as ever, sweeping up the houses and fields on the riverbanks like a tornado swept clouds, at least it wasn’t as overwhelming as it had been in the valley.
Who knows where we’ll end up, Bai Li thought.
Shi Wuduan sagged softly against his shoulder, his breath almost inaudible. Bai Li carefully hoisted him upwards, his arm going under his armpits and across his chest; his other hand was grabbing onto the driftwood.
He glanced down at Shi Wuduan. He didn’t even know what he was thinking either.
Bai Li forcefully pressed the driftwood down, but perhaps because he’d done it incorrectly, or perhaps because the wood was done for already, it broke. Bai Li frowned. When he looked at his hand, the black mist was getting darker and darker. A section of the threads that Shi Wuduan gave him had dissolved. Before, he thought he’d used too much force; only now did he realize that something was wrong.
Shit!
Suddenly, a vortex appeared on the dark, chaotic surface of the water. Without any warning, the driftwood that Bai Li was grabbing to was sucked in. Countless black shadows writhed uncontrollably in the waves, dispersed by the currents only to pop up somewhere else. They were so numerous as to give one goosebumps.
By nature, demons didn’t have feelings or consciences, the only thing they understood was selfishness. The demons he kept in his shadow were ordinarily his to command, they’d obey his every order. He could make them tremble in fear with a single word. But there was not a single moment when they weren’t sizing up their Demon Lord’s strength, waiting for a moment of weakness they could use to devour him.
That was the Hall of Demons. If you didn’t want to die, you had to step on the corpses of others to live on.
Back then, when he’d still been half fox, he’d had trouble suppressing the demons because his bloodline was weak. Even though he’d managed to rein them in at the last second, they were constantly reminding him of the consequences of letting his guard down. But ever since that day, in that small courtyard in Guji, under Zou Yanlai’s protection, when he’d discarded his fox bloodline, the demons had never dared to rebel.
He couldn’t have thought that after he’d been swept away by flood, his chest and back injured, exhausted by the rapids, it’d become an opening that those things could take advantage of.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
They were borne of shadow, too low-level to have a solid form. It now became their advantage, for the floodwaters couldn’t harm them.
Dea tf vlvc’a fnfc cffv ab atlcx ab xcbk atja tf mbeivc’a ifa ub bo Vtl Qevejc ja atja wbwfca. Lf’v ilxfis rlcx atf wbwfca tf ibra tlr reqqbga. C yijmx mijk rtba abkjgvr Vtl Qevejc’r mtfra ogbw bea bo atf kjafg. Llr yjcvjufr tjv mbwf ibbrf lc atf kjafg jigfjvs. Ktf kbecv atja kjr rbjxfv ktlaf ys atf kjafg rajgafv rffqlcu yibbv, gfnfjilcu ogfrt oifrt. Pa kjr fzagfwfis afwqalcu ab atf vfwbc mgfjaegfr.
Burning rage seared in Bai Li’s heart. He swept his hand out, ignoring the driftwood, splitting the black shadow in two, and snarled, “Don’t you dare harm him!”
His life and death are both mine – I won’t let anyone touch a hair on his head!
Using the ferocity that surged through him, he managed to half-float on the surface, almost as if he was stepping on the surface of the water. The vortex swirled past him. He’d cowed the demon creatures; they temporarily backed away from him, watching from afar.
Bai Li forcefully took a deep breath, his mind was a bit muddled. He was in the mortal realm, regardless of his bloodline, he had a body of flesh and blood. Who knew how many miles he’d been washed away from the Min River’s outlet. Anyone else would’ve died already. He was still holding on, but he knew he was at his limit. If he didn’t manage to get those things in line, then the end wouldn’t be far off.
But before he mustered up the strength, the rapids suddenly took a turn and became even more violent. A large silhouette, kicking up a gust, slammed into him. It was a roofbeam from a house that’d collapsed in the flood. Bai Li tried to dodge to the side, but it wasn’t easy moving in the water. He had nothing to push off of.
He reflexively curled his shoulder around Shi Wuduan, using his back to protect him. The roofbeam struck him solidly, almost making him cough blood. His vision darkened as he nearly lost consciousness.
That was exactly what “fortune never comes in pairs, disaster never walks alone” meant. When someone was down on their luck, they could drink cold water and get it stuck between their teeth.
Even if he didn’t sink, those scattered demon creatures would gather back together eventually and drag Bai Li, who could hardly move, into the vortex. The rapids got fiercer and fiercer, more and more animals and people got pulled in. Borrowing the power of nature, the pull got stronger and stronger. Finally, Bai Li wasn’t able to hold on any longer. He, along with Shi Wuduan, were sucked in.
They didn’t surface again.
Shi Wuduan only knew that he was conscious one moment and befuddled the next. He felt like he was being spitroasted. The feeling of suffocation was still there, every breath he took was accompanied by fiery pain — all the way from the back of his throat spreading to every inch of his body.
He knew that he had likely caught a fever, that he was soaking wet, and that he felt miserable. It looked like he wasn’t in the water anymore. His surroundings were very dark. He hadn’t had the time to figure out what was going on before he blearily passed out again.
When he woke up once more, his wet clothes had already been removed. That person, afraid he couldn’t handle the cold, left a half-dried jacket covered on him.
Still muddled, he blinked his eyes open and saw a campfire not far away. He was somewhat astounded; it still wasn’t day yet?
Someone approached him from the darkness, helped him up, and clumsily tried to give him water. Shi Wuduan glanced at him, unable to fully open his eyes and see clearly. He thought, am I still dreaming? I almost thought this person was Bai Li.
He managed a chuckle. He felt weary as if he hadn’t rested in months, years. Very quickly, he was unconscious again.
Bai Li sat there, staring blankly at him for a while. Shi Wuduan’s tired smile wasn’t gone entirely. Just then, when he’d helped him up, his hand had accidentally touched his bare shoulder. His temperature was abnormally hot, like it was burning. His slightly bony shoulder was like a lit stick of firewood.
I’d originally intended to kill him — Bai Li finally remembered that whole business. His hand shifted towards his throat. But after resting his hand there for several minutes, he couldn’t manage to put any strength into it. It seemed more like he was gently caressing his neck. Slowly, it seemed to take on an ambiguous air.
He thought for a while, then decided to discard that train of thought. He thought that since the two had already fallen to such a point, and Shi Wuduan was so feverish, he wasn’t in the mood to do anything.
So he stood up and stuck his hand into a nearby stream. Chunks of ice floated up around his hand. Bai Li took his hand, encased in ice, out of the water and laid it on Shi Wuduan’s forehead, helping him lower his temperature as he griped, “It’d be better if the fever cooked your brains silly.”
It was almost a day and night later when Shi Wuduan woke up again.
His fever had receded for a while already, all thanks to Bai Li freezing his hand in ice and lowering his temperature. When he was unconscious, he hadn’t felt anything, but now that he was awake, his whole body was searing with pain. His lips were so cracked and dried he could hardly speak.
A hand instantly reached out from his side, raising him up. A pitch-black leaf from some unknown plant was brought to his lips. Icy cold water spilled into his mouth.
The person giving him water obviously hadn’t done anything like it before. They were just pouring the water in all at once, like they were watering a flower or rinsing his face. Shi Wuduan hurriedly swallowed. He hadn’t survived a flood just to choke to death while someone was helping him drink water.
Then, his forehead was touched by a hand just as icy. That person said, “It’s not so hot anymore.”
“Little…” Shi Wuduan paused, then said quietly, “Bai Li.”
They’d already had the precedent of fighting to the death as soon as they met when they reunited, not sit and talk face-to-face. Bai Li was stunned for half a minute, not knowing how to react. He vaguely mumbled something in assent.
Shi Wuduan, feeling dizzy, closed his eyes, then opened them again as he surveyed the location he was in.
He opened and closed his eyes several times, and found the sky was still black. He noticed this time that the sky wasn’t an ordinary black, rather it was a very dark red, so red it was black. There was no moon, there were no stars. Occasionally, a black shadow would fly overhead. Whatever it was, it’s cry was piercing as a bird’s, yet oddly terrifying.
There were water and plant life around him, but they looked very strange, like nothing he had ever seen before. Under the deep red sky, they seemed doubly bizarre.
“What is this place?” Shi Wuduan asked.
“Before, they called this place the Inferno Realm. As to what it actually is, I don’t know either.” Bai Li spoke to him unusually calmly. He walked over to the river, scooped up another leaf-full of water, and held it by Shi Wuduan’s mouth, “Need any more?”
Fearing for his life, Shi Wuduan didn’t dare to let Bai Li keep servicing him. He managed to prop himself up and take the leaf from his hand. But his hand shook like a sieve. He only managed to gulp two mouthfuls, the rest was all spilled by his shaking.
Still next to him, Bai Li said, “We were swept out some tens of miles by the flood. When we were exhausted and at the end of our tether, the demons in my shadow counterattacked. In a moment of panic, I had no choice but to hide in this realm temporarily. Still, I didn’t expect we’d end up in this damn place. It’ll take some effort to get out of here.”
Shi Wuduan “oh’ed.” Then, full of schadenfreude, thought, serves you right for not being a proper person, for not listening to your elders. Now look who’s reaping what they sowed. Then he realized that there was nothing to be smug about, since he was in the same situation. He supposed it counted as what goes around comes around.
After Bai Li was finished, he had nothing more to say. A while later, Shi Wuduan finally coughed to break the awkward silence. He asked quietly, “Why didn’t you kill me.”
Bai Li looked up, the fire’s flickering embers reflected in his eyes like stars, making seem like a raging blaze. A moment later, he abruptly looked away and said softly, “I suddenly didn’t feel like it anymore.”
I like to imagine that the author put them in a black room to reconcile. hopefully
Thank you for the chapter!
Typo
Bai Li forcefully took a deep breath, his mind was a bit muddled. He was in the mortal realm, regardless of his bloodline, he had a body of flesh and blood. Who knew how many miles he’d been washed away from the Min River’s outlet. Anyone else would’ve died already. He was still holding on, be [but]he knew he was at his limit. If he didn’t manage to get those things in line, then the end wouldn’t be far off.
whoops x.x fixed now
thanks for pointing it out 👍
💙💙💙