My Darling Sick Beauty

During the first year following the little willow tree’s slumber, the fires of war spread across the lands, but the leader of this war was still returning every night to sleep with him. He continued to hold him and talk to him, everything staying just as it did before, as if he was just in a deep coma from his illness. He was simply sleeping to recover whilst staying by Wenren Ye’s side and nothing more.

No one dared to speak the truth, the Devil Realm just like the rest of the world, acting out a play with the Devil Lord called “He hasn’t abandoned me.”

Those who dared to speak out had all been killed.

Tongues were wagging in the Cultivation World, saying that the actions of Wenren Ye was dishonourable to Jiang Xianzun. But they were also hopeless as they were in the middle of a war with the Devil Realm and were barely escaping with their lives.

During the third year following the little willow tree’s slumber, Chang Qian returned to Jingshan Hall from the Demon Realm, and saw his little uncle and his shenxian gege again. He stood at the bottom of the steps, watching his little uncle feed Jiang Zheliu some medicine. He felt weak all over and was unable to even utter a word. 

Please read on bookswithqianya(dot)com

In the end, Chang Qian did not stay in Jingshan Hall to look after gege, and instead entered the Devil Realm’s army following Shi Binghen to war. He learnt about the toils of war and about battle planning and scheming. He also managed to activate his half-devil bloodline that had lay dormant for many years. This also brought out his strong but atrocious looking devil body.

Ah-Chu didn’t return, he didn’t dare to see him again.

In the fifth year of his slumber, the Devil Lord’s state of mind had become worse and worse, but the stalemate in the battle with the Netherworld finally had a breakthrough. After the ink knife split the River of the Dead in half, the source of the Netherworld’s strength was also severed. After searching for years, Lan Re Temple finally found Ming Jing’s location through his Buddha’s lamp. They intended to work with the devils to go and rescue the heir-apparent of their temple who had disappeared for several years.

Gongyi Yan agreed in place of her Devil Lord, because when the messenger arrived from Lan Re Temple, the Devil Lord was with Jiang Xianzun, so there was no way that he would have listened to anything the messenger had to say. 

Please read on bookswithqianya(dot)com

The two of them belonged in a world of their own. Wenren Ye could very naturally chat with Jiang Xianzun, even if only his voice could actually be heard.

The hallucinations fabricated by his mind were getting more and more serious, and he was showing signs of entering qi deviation. The devils were a peculiar race, when they used ‘qi deviation’, they just meant that his mind was unstable.

Whatever the race, to any cultivator, this was fatal.

But their hands were bound and they couldn’t do anything.

In the tenth year of Jiang Zheliu’s slumber, Wenren Ye finally began to realise that Jiang Zheliu was sleeping for a little too long.

But in addition to this, his deteriorating mind had also become more serious. Just as before, he could not believe that “perhaps he was already dead”. Instead, he still believed that Jiang Zheliu was simply ignoring him, and he wondered if he had upset his beloved in some way.

It was not only Wenren Ye’s mind that was not normal, Yu Jinnian and He Tan were also struggling.

During the Divine Sage of Medicine and the Ghost Puppet Master’s 3500th meeting, the two of them looked at each other, both feeling miserable.

“What are you crying for?” He Tan said angrily, “Wang Wenyuan’s whereabouts have been revealed, he will be captured by the devils very soon. Your little mute will be able to recover in no time, be happy and stop fussing.”

Yu Jinnian couldn’t even be bothered to bicker with him, he slumped down on the rattan chair and looked up at the sky, but all he could see was the pitch-black dome in the great hall of the Devil Realm. He stayed silent for a long while and then finally straightened his face and said: “You say that, but why don’t you cheer up then?”

“What have I got to be happy about?” He Tan stretched out his short little legs, “I’m a ghost cultivator, although I don’t need sleep,why do I have to grab my medical knife to consult the patient in the middle of the night, am I not a healer?”

He asked a question that was questioning his own ghostly existence.

“Plus the Netherworld is in battle with the Devil Lord, but I’m caged here!” He slapped the chair with anger and then continued to moan, “……… But it’s good to not have to fight.”

“I’m also here to treat an illness, but the dutiful wife is unable to cook rice without the ingredients1. This isn’t an illness, this person is already…..”

The end of the sentence got stuck in his throat and he was unable to say it out loud.

The Chinese doctor and the Western doctor sighed simultaneously due to their common predicament.

Yu Jinnian wasn’t sure what kind of syrup he should prescribe today.

Just at that moment when the two of them were both speechless, there were suddenly two knocks at the door and then it opened. Shi Binghen had come to pick up the new prescription of the day.

The great devil in red was even more wooden than the two of them, this had already become a routine task. Until he was blocked from advancing by He Tan.

He Tan was incredibly curious, his eyes glowing like crystals: “General Shi, is Devil Lord Wenren improving at all? Is there any news from the Cultivation World…….”

Please read on bookswithqianya(dot)com

And it was because of this, Shi Binghen had witnessed much more than the others had seen.

The great devil in red handed the prescription to the little child who was preparing the medicine and then put down his sword and handed over his cloak to the servants at the door, before walking across the palace hall looking towards the screen at the rear of the hall.

The lights flickered creating shadows. The light from the lamp and the natural light mixed together and illuminated the figure behind the screen.

He heard Wenren Ye’s deep voice, which was using a very gentle and careful tone.

“Will you stop ignoring me?”

He raised a hand, it seemed as if he was holding onto Jiang Xianzun’s hand, it was not too evident through the hazy screen.

“I’ll come back earlier, I won’t make you wait too long…..”

Shi Binghen closed his eyes and took a deep breath in and then he stopped in front of the screen and reported to Wenren Ye the advancements in the war.

Their Devil Lord’s sickness did not seem to have any effect on other matters, he was still able to calmly listen to him explain what was happening with the war, he was also able to retain all the locations of their army camps and the number of casualties.

In reality, this was already enough, the devils were able to continue surviving as the natural resources that they had obtained were enough for them to grow and develop. But Wenren Ye was unwilling to stop before the Netherworld, he had a natural enmity against ghost cultivators….. More precisely, against the River of the Dead.

This source of this enmity came from the fight when he had almost severed the enormous ghostly chains previously.

When Shi Binghen had finished reporting, he should have left but he waited there without moving a muscle for a long time.

He stared at his Devil Lord’s back, watched him cuddling the lifeless corpse —— even if Jiang Xianzun was still beautiful and exquisite, beautiful like he had been carved out of icy jade.

He watched in the crack of the screen as his Devil Lord’s bony hand smoothed through Jiang Xianzun’s snow-white hair, and then placed him in his arms, and then brushed his hair up before placing a jade hairpin at the top.

Whilst Jiang Zheliu was just obediently leaned against his arm, with his head on the other’s shoulder. The hand that was resting on Wenren Ye’s black robes was frosty, his fingertips were ever so slightly red, he looked as if he was just sleeping in his arms.

The Tan Lamp was lit, with his broken soul swirling around the heart of the lamp.

Shi Binghen felt a chill in his heart, as if he had been trapped in a block of ice, he slowly left Jingshan Hall.

————

Thirty years later.

Wang Wenyuan who had been calculating and scheming all his life had been found in the Netherworld. He was locked under innumerable iron chains by He Sorsi. He looked like someone who had suffered a nervous breakdown and was not looking too normal in the head either.

But it didn’t matter, the devils did not require him to be in the correct frame of mind. This former Pavilion Lord of Tianji Pavilion was brought and locked up in the secret water prison underneath Jingshan Hall.

————

Not long after, each realm discovered what this “true calamity” was.

Wenren Ye had gone completely mad.

He negated the agreement, and washed each realm in blood. Aside from the Mortal Realm who were powerless to resist, all the others died under the Devil Lord’s bloody wrath. His current thunderous might was considerably different from his previous boiling frog attitude. The war was advancing at an incredulous speed, and innumerable souls had fallen under his knife.

In a short ten years, he was conferred the Supreme Leader of Six Realms, even the Empty that had never had any contact with the rest of the realms came out to reach an agreement, sending a letter to request that the Devil Lord not set forth into their peaceful realm.

He Sorsi had shed his body and fell into a deep slumber, Qing Lin retreated, challengers from the Cultivation World fell continuously one after the other, it was a bloodbath.

Under the heavens, there now only existed one Lord.

Now, not even a peep of idle gossip could be heard, the name Jiang Zheliu had become taboo, it was a mistake to mention it. No one said anything, and no one dared to speak the truth. There was only the faintly glowing Tan Lamp that was still standing there as it was before, showing no interest in anything.

Even those generals who had accompanied Wenren Ye on his missions did not dare to touch upon the subject. Their Devil Lord had succeeded in fulfilling the Devil Realm’s long time wish, and had achieved what others had only dreamt of doing. However, their Devil Lord did make them worry.

He had mood swings often. When he was in a good mood, he would just feed medicine to the Devil Queen, help the latter to freshen up and get dressed, and carry him back to Zhongnan Mountain to see the plum blossoms.

When he was occupied with the Devil Queen, he was relatively pleasant.

When he was in a bad mood, he would be trapped inside the Dao Seed of slaughter losing all rationality. The most serious thing was that the murderous energy was difficult to contain and he had even injured Shi Binghen and Gongyi Yan, as well as a large number of devilish generals and destroyed Jingshan Hall.

As Shi Binghen spat out a mouthful of blood, he covered up his internal injuries with his hand. He exchanged a glance with Gongyi Yan who was just as injured as he was, and then watched as their Devil Lord retracted his blade and turned around to help Jiang Xianzun change his robes.

All the energy in his body had been exerted, Shi Binghen was so weak he fell to the ground, he didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, after a long while, he rubbed his devil horn and sighed: “I can’t believe that this time, it was still Jiang Xianzun who saved our lives.”

Gongyi Yan had almost transformed entirely into her devilish form, even the scaly horns that had grown from behind her ears were in pain, her arms were half transformed into wings. She twitched her eyebrows.

“You should try to study a bit more about the Sealing method.”

Shi Binghen’s mouth was filled with fresh blood, he retracted the blood wings behind his back and then gasped: “Seal our own Devil Lord, I don’t think there is anyone on Earth who is more pitiful than us two subordinates. Even if I was able to find a way to seal our Devil Lord’s emotions, who would cast it?”

It was impossible. There was only one person who could get close enough to Wenren Ye, but this person was dead.

Gongyi Yan threw her arms out, her hands which were previously transforming into steel wings began to revert to human form.

“ When we get to the mountain, there’ll be a road through4.

“Okay.” Shi Binghen was incredibly frustrated, “even if there is a road, we can’t stop, until our superior sends us away.”

The two great devils bitterly tried to support the peace and tranquility of the Devil Realm, whilst looking into the Emotions Sealing Method, to make sure they were fully prepared until —— Zen Master Ming Jing came to visit.

He who dared to come into the Devil Realm under such circumstances was truly a brave master, to dare to face the darkness of one’s own existence.

Ming Jing was not obstructed in any way, or in other words, to the devils, he was not considered a threat at all.

The little monk was dressed in white Buddhist robes, wearing a conical bamboo hat, which had a long semi-transparent muslin fabric which draped down all around it.

The Zen Master stood by Jingshan Hall, waiting for Shi Binghen to announce his arrival, before entering the palace hall whilst looking at the screen.

At first glance, he saw the Tan Lamp which was still lit.

Ming Jing took a few steps closer and saw the Devil Lord’s black robes and black hair, he was sitting on the chair beside the bed. The latter’s gaze was fixed on the bed the whole time and didn’t look over at him at all.