“Are you hiding? It’s really a gift.” Hun Yao was still smiling. He bent down to pick up the dagger, exposing all his flaws to Langmuir without care, “Are you scared now?”
Langmuir pursed his lips, stared at Hun Yao for a few seconds, and then spoke.
“…Has your suspicion of me reached the point where you want to hold a knife to my heart and test whether I will resist?”
He actually pulled a corner of his lips and said coldly, “Why doesn’t my King just stab me directly?”
Hun Yao was genuinely stunned and didn’t recover.
Is Langmuir… angry?
He’s actually angry!
Hun Yao couldn’t believe it. Over the years, there had been times when Langmuir was angry, but it was either because he had killed too many demons or because he had risked his life on the battlefield.
He thought that this son of god was born without any personal feelings or desires, yet tonight he was angry because of a reasonable and well-founded suspicion?
The Demon King’s chest, which was already numb with pain, was suddenly stirred up with a mixture of resentment and grievance.
He thought, what are you angry about? I’m here losing face and life, putting the dagger in your hand, losing thoroughly, what are you angry about!?
That retort just now seemed to be the sharpest words Langmuir could say.
He stood there, staring straight at Hun Yao, his thin shoulders trembling, and gradually even his breathing became heavy and difficult, and he opened his lips several times but couldn’t speak.
Finally, Langmuir shook his head and said softly, “I played that song for you for the first time in the third year. It turns out that every time after that, my King was waiting for my ‘evidence of guilt’.”
As he spoke, he took a deep breath again, unusually agitated, and reached out to draw the bronze curved scimitar from Hun Yao’s waist, “Now that you finally have the evidence, how can the dagger be enough? Why doesn’t my King…”
It was this action that caused trouble.
The effects of the bone chip illusion hadn’t dissipated yet, and it seemed to stir up a bone-cutting pain in his left horn.
In a flash, the Demon King’s pupils suddenly contracted. His thinking couldn’t keep up with his body’s instinct, and his scaly tail lashed out!
Smack!
Langmuir didn’t expect Hun Yao to make a move. The wrist-thick tail was like an iron rod. He fell heavily to the ground with that force, and a wave of intense pain and dizziness surged from deep within his body.
Everything went black before his eyes. He couldn’t even scream, curling up on the ground and trembling.
When Hun Yao reacted, his heart went cold.
The first thought was: It’s over.
By the time he came to his senses, Langmuir had already fallen under the window. The small items like bone ornaments that had been shaken off fell around him, shattering all over the floor.
Under the faint light of the cliff moon, the loose, wrinkled white robe, silver-gray hair, and those bone shell fragments all showed the same color.
It was as if Langmuir, this person, had been smashed to pieces.
Hun Yao almost stopped breathing, he instinctively rushed over, then forcibly stopped himself.
He hardened his heart and cooled his tone, saying, “Get up.”
Although the hit just now was an accident, Hun Yao’s cognition was not so unclear. That was a defensive instinct, not an attacking force, it couldn’t cause multiple injuries to a person.
Moreover, because of Langmuir’s constitution that feared the cold and liked to walk around barefoot, the palace had long been covered with woolen blankets even on the floor. How could it hurt so much? Isn’t it just waiting for him to hold him?
Langmuir moved a bit, and sure enough, he slowly got up on his own.
He hung his head low, and a few glass stones slid down from his hair.
Hun Yao let out a sigh of relief, irritably swept away the fragments around the human with his tail, feeling that this night was out of control and made him sick.
He knelt down, bit by bit picking up the sharp fragments from Langmuir’s hair and clothes. After a moment of silence, he said, “Alright, don’t be angry, I’ll listen to your explanation.”
Langmuir didn’t speak, the Demon King who never deigned to explain was silent for a while, and then stuttered, “You can’t possibly think I really want to kill you?..Don’t be stupid, if I want to do something to you, it’s just a matter of a moment.”
Still no response. Hun Yao frowned, reached out to lift Langmuir’s face, and was startled the moment he touched his skin.
This human’s cheeks were as cold as ice.
“…Langmuir!?” Hun Yao’s face changed suddenly, he nervously touched Langmuir’s neck and palm, both were wet and cold.
“What’s wrong with you, are you uncomfortable? Langmuir!? Speak up, don’t scare me, say something——”
Langmuir moved a bit, struggling to prop up his upper body, as if he wanted to sit up straight.
But in the next moment, he suddenly fell powerlessly onto the Demon King’s shoulder like a puppet with its strings cut, and his whole body went limp!
“Langmuir!!!”
Hun Yao’s heart almost stopped beating, he held Langmuir in his arms, supporting that slender neck, his voice trembling, “What…what’s going on!?”
Under the flickering copper lamp, Langmuir’s face was pale, as if he was in extreme pain, and a thin layer of cold sweat had already soaked his forehead, even his eyes seemed to be veiled with tears.
“…My King,” he said with difficulty, “Langmuir has been with you for seven years. Whether you are pretending to test me, or really intending to kill… I can tell…”
“No, no, don’t think nonsense.” Hun Yao was completely panicked. He pulled the quilt from the bed and wrapped Langmuir tightly in his arms, shouting outside, “Liu Sha!!”
The female demon attendant rushed in and almost screamed when she saw the mess inside.
Hun Yao didn’t care to explain, he growled with a gloomy voice, “Call Duogu over, now! And move all the fire stone stoves in the palace here, as many as there are!”
The outside quickly became noisy. Hun Yao hugged Langmuir tighter into his arms, aimlessly lifting his robe to look at the place where his tail had just whipped.
The upper arm was already swollen, it should be painful, but it was obviously just an external injury, the bone wasn’t broken. How could it…
However, Langmuir suddenly reached out with difficulty to grab Hun Yao’s wrist. He held it tightly, trembling as he said in a breathy voice, “My King… I’m sorry.”
The signs of anger from just now were nowhere to be found. His face was only filled with unresolved sadness and confusion, “I forgot again, the things of the human world… I…I don’t…cough, I have no evidence…I have no proof, my King really shouldn’t listen to my explanation…”
Langmuir said sorry twice, and a thin line of blood silently overflowed from the corner of his lips.
He seemed to be unaware, smiling sadly, his expression surprisingly gentle, “But my King, don’t be sad…I won’t live long, at most…wait another…another three months…”
“What nonsense are you talking about…what nonsense!!”
Hun Yao was numb all over, as if he had been stabbed in the chest, his liver and gallbladder were splitting.
He roared in rage, “Langmuir, are you sick and muddled, dare to say anything!”
“When I die, there will be evidence…”
Langmuir’s focus in his eyes gradually dispersed, he said in a dreamy voice, “Don’t kill me… let me accompany my King for another three months.”
“Shut up!” Hun Yao almost ground his back teeth, “Dare to talk nonsense again, I——”
He was at a loss, and for a moment he couldn’t think of what to threaten, he blurted out, “I will go to the barrier cliff tomorrow and burn all the flowers you planted!”
Whether it was really heartache for the innocent wildflowers or not, Langmuir finally stopped talking.
He leaned into Hun Yao’s arms, closed his eyes, and his chest rose and fell weakly.
At this moment, the Demon King regretted it terribly. He wondered why he had to listen to Tianpo’s words to find Tada for divination. If he didn’t go to divination, he would return to the palace early tonight and stay by Langmuir’s side.
There wouldn’t be a quarrel, and he wouldn’t notice Langmuir’s physical discomfort…
Originally…originally if he didn’t know anything, or pretended not to know, then he and Langmuir could at least get along well until the snow fell in winter.
Hun Yao bowed his head deeply, touching Langmuir’s cold cheek, and said softly, “Alright, alright…I was wrong tonight. Don’t be afraid, you won’t die, even if I die, you won’t die.”
……..
When the old witch doctor Duogu arrived with a few witch doctor apprentices, Langmuir was already completely unconscious.
The palace was very warm with several fire stone stoves. The Demon King was holding a bundle of quilts, covered in blood, and his face was even worse than the patient wrapped in the quilt.
Duogu was so scared that his legs went soft on the spot, “My King!”
“Don’t talk nonsense, save people first!”
The old witch doctor hurriedly nodded frantically. Hun Yao protected Langmuir’s neck with his hand, and slowly laid the ice-cold human on the big bed.
Duogu directed his apprentices to use a brush dipped in special medicine to draw life symbols on Langmuir’s hands and feet, while he himself murmured and touched Langmuir’s chest, sending his demonic breath in to check the situation.
Hun Yao stood by and watched for a while, his mind was like rust, even his emotions were numb.
He heard the sound of pattering. Looking out the window, he found that it was raining, and it seemed to get heavier in the blink of an eye.
“Miasma erosion causing lung and internal organs to weaken.” Duogu wiped his sweat, looked up from the side of the bed, “Oh, it’s raining, ah, no wonder…”
There wasn’t much rain in the abyss, but as long as it rained, the miasma would fall to the ground mixed with the raindrops, which was very humid and uncomfortable. Langmuir gets sick every rainy season.
The rainy season of this year had already passed, but surprisingly, there was such a heavy rain before the onset of winter.
Hun Yao: “Take another look at his right arm. It was injured just now, you have to be gentle.”
Duogu had already vaguely seen it just now. When he opened the robe to take a closer look, he took a light breath of cold air.
It’s not that the injury was serious, but this was obviously a trace of the tail whip. The King actually quarreled with the lord…
Duogu had mixed feelings in his heart, he looked at the Demon King with fear, thinking: Did the lord tell the King about that thing?
Hun Yao stared at the rain curtain gloomily, without saying a word.
So it’s because of the weather, just the weather… He listened to the sound of the rain, constantly telling himself in his heart. The abnormal rainy day made Langmuir sick, and it will get better when it clears up.
As for what three months, what can’t live long…
The Demon King gritted his teeth and stubbornly determined that Langmuir was talking nonsense. When this slave wakes up, see if he doesn’t teach him a lesson.
But thinking about it carefully, Hun Yao could also understand why Langmuir would have this idea. This person was indeed terrifying when he was seriously ill.
Speaking of which, that was also the third year.
There was no cold winter, but it caught up with the heavy rainy season that was rare in a hundred years. The abyss rained for months and months, and even the demons were miserable.
Langmuir fell directly. He was sick with alternating high and low fevers, shivering in the quilt from morning to night. Gradually, the time of coma became longer than the time of consciousness.
Even so, Langmuir still pleaded with him when he was conscious, saying that he was so sick that he couldn’t let the King take care of everything by himself.
‘Let Attendant Liu Sha come back, she is very efficient in doing things.’
At that time, Hun Yao had already sent Liu Sha back home because of the unpleasantness of the second year. The kind of thing where someone pleads for mercy and then taking it back was absolutely impossible for the Demon King. But Langmuir was so sick that it was horrifying. At the most serious time, he couldn’t even drink the soft porridge, and he vomited blood with every mouthful.
Even Duogu once thought there was no hope. The old witch doctor said that this could only depend on fate. If the rain stopped and the miasma rose, there may still be a way to survive.
Hun Yao found Liu sha. The female attendant’s face was soaked when she came back that day, not knowing whether it was rain or tears.
Langmuir smiled weakly, coughing while picking up a rabbit ornament made of bone shell from the head of the bed and giving it to her.
Later, when Liu Sha took it home and took a closer look, she found that the red eyes of the rabbit were not ordinary stone beads, but a ruby.
Two days later, there was thunder and lightning, and the heavy rain poured down on the vegetation.
Langmuir hadn’t been able to eat anything for nearly four days, his eyes closed, his lips as dry as lime. In the evening, Duogu came to see him once, and shook his head straight when he went out.
Hun Yao held Langmuir and stayed up all night, without saying a word.
When it was almost dawn, the rain finally got a little smaller. Langmuir laid in his arms with a blurred consciousness, and said with a breath, “Rain… wait for the rain to stop, I want to see the Cliff Moon…”
Hun Yao immediately said, “Okay.”
Langmuir seemed to have not expected to get the agreement so easily, he raised his head sluggishly, and reconfirmed, “Can I go to the barrier cliff to see…?”
Hun Yao: “Wait for the rain to stop, I will take you.”
Unexpectedly, from that day on, the rain really gradually weakened.
Langmuir was like a plant that was about to wither but had a strong vitality. When the bad weather ended, as long as one carefully fed some water and sprinkled some nutrients, he could tremble and spread his leaves and try to live.
Hun Yao carefully raised him for half a month. By the time the rainy season was completely over, Langmuir already had the energy to entangle him, asking him to fulfill his promise.
That promise was actually made quite poorly.
The Cliff Moon was the boundary of Gasuo.
For the demons, it was both a death door that locked them outside the sun, but also because the door gap was not completely welded, it became the only way to survive.
All along, the pure demonic breath of the Demon King’s bloodline had been a glimmer of hope to break through the Gasuo boundary. When Hun Yao’s horn broke that year, the entire abyss thought that he could no longer have the power to tear the boundary, but seven years later, the boundary was torn open.
So, what about the human race?
The boundary was a door for them to block demons and miasma, but that door was not completely welded.
Over the years, the human race must have been trying to strengthen the boundary and seal the demons forever in the ground.
Bringing the former Holy Monarch to the barrier cliff, if Langmuir harbors evil intentions, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Hun Yao didn’t dare to publicize this matter, he led a horse on a certain night, sneaked out with Langmuir like a thief, and made an appointment with the human. “Only once.”
Langmuir: “I understand.”
Hun Yao pointed to the prohibition lock on the human’s neck. “Don’t run around at that time, or you will suffer.”
The barrier cliff of that year was still very desolate, and a few clusters of ugly dead trees were growing sporadically in the cracks of the rocks, striving to stretch their bodies towards the sky.
That day was lucky, the breeze was blowing, and the earth fire was also gentle.
The Demon King tied the reins of the wildebeest to a section of the tree trunk, and took the human slave up the cliff with one hand.
Several large pits still retained undried rainwater, reflecting the figures of the two like a mirror.
In order to prevent the human from being burned to ashes by the earth fire that might rush up at any time, after climbing the cliff, Hun Yao allowed Langmuir to sit in his arms.
Then, here, Langmuir played that harp song for him, but did not tell him the content of the song.
At that time, Hun Yao just felt that this person was too serious, like a child, and he said with both anger and amusement. “Anyway, you are talking nonsense, I don’t know.”
Langmuir pursed his lips: “How can I lie to you?”
When they were arguing about deception, that huge barrier array was expanding above the heads of the Demon King and the slave.
“Okay, don’t you want to see the Cliff Moon? Take a good look, this is the little thing you stare at the palace window every day.”
Langmuir held the harp and looked up for a while, his thin cheeks still had a pale sickness.
He asked, “If there is no such barrier, the sunlight of the human world will always shine to the deepest part of the abyss, right?”
“Yes, the sunlight will come in, and the miasma will run out. What runs out together is the evil and bloodthirsty demons, who want to catch all your people and swallow them…”
“You want to lie to me again, demons don’t eat people.”
“Who said it doesn’t eat? When we are really hungry, we eat the flesh of our own kind. Compared with that, your meat is much more tender and delicious.”
“So,” Langmuir turned his head back, “If there are enough pancakes, fish, vegetables, and fruits, and you are no longer hungry, you won’t eat me, right?”
Hun Yao’s fingers twitched slightly, and he was about to say: I won’t eat you even if I’m hungry.
But he suddenly met Langmuir’s eyes-those clear and eager eyes, not at all like the appearance of a serious illness. “The demons will not eat people, right? They will not eat the flesh of their own kind?”
It was those eyes, and the things contained behind them, that made Hun yao’s heart beat for a moment.
“…Langmuir.” The Demon King’s originally relaxed and lazy posture changed a little bit.
His eyes became cold and compelling, like a beast walking out of the vast mountains, slowly showing an attacking posture.
“I ask you, do you actually know…”
Hun Yao suddenly chuckled, with some pretentious ease and ridicule, but what really burned in his eyes was a strong hatred.
The huge wind came from the far horizon, blowing the dead wood on the cliff, the bone ornaments on the Demon King’s chest made a sound, and his voice became cold.
“..Why were the demons sealed at the bottom of the abyss two hundred years ago?”
Langmuir’s silver-gray hair was also blown up, and he combed his hair back with one hand. His calm demeanor formed a sharp contrast with the Demon King.
“Yes.” He lowered his eyelashes and spoke in a low tone, “I do know.”
