At that moment, Hun Yao’s heart was filled with complexity.
The golden sunlight and the blue sky, the fragrant flowers and the blowing spring breeze…These earthly things, he had indeed longed for them when he was young.
But as time passed, he no longer held any illusions about these ethereal things.
“What’s so good to look at,” Hun Yao withdrew his gaze indifferently, “You don’t really think that demons are rare in the human world? Instead of looking at flowers, it’s better to have more abnormal beans.”
Langmuir was taken aback, lowered his eyelids and stopped talking, as if he had been greatly hit.
——But if you think this matter will end like this, then you don’t know Langmuir well enough.
One day after the cold winter, the Demon King let this person go to his private library to pick a reward, and the human actually took out a small packet of seeds.
Hun Yao looked at him with a headache. “…”
His original intention was to let Langmuir take back his old things from the temple, such as harps or statues, who would have thought…
Langmuir’s eyes were full of expectation, saying, “My King, I still want to plant, please allow this slave to try a little.”
Hun Yao: “I’ve said that this thing can’t be planted.”
Langmuir: “Even if it can’t be planted, what’s the loss?”
“Isn’t it a waste of energy for nothing?”
“It’s just entertainment. My King likes to ride horses and go around, and the demons dance around the bonfire. Isn’t that also a waste of energy for nothing?”
“…You just want to plant!”
“Yes, please, I really want to plant.”
The Demon King couldn’t resist the slave’s longing gaze, and a few days later, he took Langmuir to the barrier cliff.
That day was a rare good day for the abyss, with thin miasma and a pleasant breeze. Langmuir specifically wore a linen garment that was not easy to stain, and his long hair was braided.
He knelt between the cliffs, using a small knife to dig into the not-so-fertile soil between the rock crevices, planting the seeds, and then covering the soil with both hands.
Hun Yao stood behind him, bored. “…Don’t say I didn’t warn you if your flowers don’t grow in the future.”
Langmuir perfunctorily responded. The Demon King waited a while longer, then simply sat cross-legged on the cliff, propping up his cheeks, staring at the faintly visible lines on the Gasuo barrier.
Langmuir finally opened the water pouch and poured a little water on it.
He turned his head and called out, “My King.”
Hun Yao: “Finished?”
Hun Yao walked over, grabbed his hand, and patted the soil in his palm. “Let’s go, let’s go back.”
Langmuir smiled, his fingertips still stained with a bit of fine soil, pointing to the barrier. “Do you want to learn magic array study?”
The topic jumped a bit too fast, the Demon King was stunned. “What study?”
“Magic array study, light array,” the human’s face was innocent, “The essence of the Gasuo barrier is a magic array.”
“…”
Hun Yao suddenly had a sense of crisis that he had fallen into a trap.
He squinted his eyes. “What trick are you playing again?”
Langmuir smiled slightly, revealing his scheme. “Planting flowers requires sunlight.”
…..
Starting from the fifth year, Langmuir began to write.
Perhaps sensing the urgency of time from his gradually weakening physical strength, he began to pave the way for future generations.
But soon, Langmuir found that the literacy rate of the demons was too low. Trying to plan for education, he found that the current situation of the abyss was far from being able to support the popularization of culture.
——Without fundamentally changing the harsh environment of Gasuo, no matter how much farming is encouraged, high-quality and large quantities of crops cannot be grown.
And without enough food security, where is the energy to learn text and knowledge when you can’t even survive?
Even if he established laws in the royal court, prohibiting cannibalism among the same race, everything would collapse with the arrival of famine as long as there was a cold winter or continuous rain disaster.
Langmuir tiredly realized that the hurdle that couldn’t be avoided was still the barrier.
After going around in a circle, he returned to the starting point again.
But now Langmuir had learned to be smart, no longer saying to the Demon King “Do you want to open the Gasuo barrier” this kind of dangerous words.
He knew that Hun Yao often fell into a struggle between emotion and reason when dealing with his problems, even if “Hun Yao” wanted to believe him, but the “Demon King” dared not easily believe “Hun Yao”’s judgment.
So Langmuir tried to detour, since Hun Yao could not agree to him, a human, touching the barrier, then, how about simply teaching magic array studies to the demon race? Even if it’s just to thin the barrier a little bit?
Hun Yao had no reason not to agree.
On the first day of learning, the Demon King was enthusiastic.
On the fifth day, he showed difficulty.
On the tenth day, he gradually became tortured.
In the first month, he began to look like dying embers.
In the second month, he tried every means to skip class.
In the third month…
“What is this!”
The Demon King collapsed, throwing the parchment to the ground. “Get out!”
Langmuir stood by the desk, desperately comforting, “My King, it’s not difficult, just try a little harder.”
Hun Yao cursed, “I can’t learn, get out!”
Langmuir: “As long as you understand this rule, everything else is simple!”
Hun Yao: “You said the same thing a month ago, and two months ago!”
“…”
The white-robed human was very at a loss. He held a pen in one hand and a parchment filled with calculation rules in the other. Looking at the empty palace, he felt a sense of defeat.
In fact, at the beginning, Langmuir’s students were not just the Demon King.
He thought that teaching one was teaching, and teaching many was teaching, so he enthusiastically called up the young king Tianpo, who was the heir to the royal court, the old priest Tada who was in charge of knowledge, and the four disciples carefully selected by Tada.
Now, they have all run away.
Langmuir was very sad.
Could it be that his lectures were really that bad…
But on second thought, this was actually very normal.
As a son of god, Langmuir studied these knowledge under the guidance of the elders since he was a child, and later specifically studied for a period of time, so that he could enter the room in the field of magic array studies at a young age.
The cultural level of the demon race is worrying, and only the demonic breath is cultivated without Mana. It is really harder than reaching the sky to start learning a human magic knowledge from scratch!
Langmuir had no choice. “My King, maybe… let me handle the Gasuo barrier?”
Hun Yao had already been drained of energy by the magic array studies, and he was listless and slumped in the chair.
Hearing this, he suddenly sat up straight and glared.
“Wait, Langmuir! You wouldn’t be deliberately torturing me, waiting for me to admit that I can’t learn, and then take advantage of the situation to hit the barrier——”
Langmuir: “…”
The Demon King was not reconciled, he pointed at the parchment he had just thrown out. “Pick it up!”
Langmuir obediently went to pick it up.
Hun Yao pointed to himself again. “Come here, continue teaching.”
Langmuir smiled. “Okay.”
When he was severely whipped by the magic array studies again, the Demon King was in a daze, thinking…he wouldn’t be reverse motivated, would he.
But at least, Hun Yao knew one thing.
Lies can make up a person’s emotions, make up a person’s past experiences, but absolutely cannot make up such a complicated and logically interlocking knowledge.
This must be the crystallization of wisdom passed down over thousands of years. The deeper you learn, the more you can appreciate the vast knowledge in it.
So the Demon King picked up the pen again with a hardened scalp, thinking secretly: If he really could understand the magic array studies, would there be a day when he could convince himself and other demons—Langmuir claimed to be willing to open the barrier for the demons, was it sincere?
Later, the days passed one by one.
He was really pushed by Langmuir, half coaxed and half deceived, using both soft and hard tactics, to learn the magic array studies in his spare time.
As for how much of it was for the hope of opening the barrier, and how much was to prove Langmuir’s “innocence”, he couldn’t tell.
At that time, Hun Yao was not in a hurry.
At that time, he felt that there was still a lot of time.
The royal court was getting better, their relationship was also getting better, and both he and Langmuir were still young. Whether it was studying magic array studies, breaking open the Gasuo barrier, or entrusting all trust to the human, they could all be more cautious and not rush for a while.
Hun Yao didn’t expect that just two years later, he would be able to shake the barrier a thin layer under Langmuir’s guidance.
Sunlight sprinkled on the barrier cliff, and flowers and grass sprouted.
Also two years later, Langmuir would lean in his arms, pale and thin, quietly holding his arm, saying–
“My King needs to make a decision early, I don’t have much time.”
…..
In the darkness, blood stains were on the trembling fingers, gathering into a few bright red drops falling from the fingers.
Langmuir slowly picked up the handkerchief, first hastily wiped his fingertips, then covered his mouth, and spit out the remaining blood in his mouth.
The suffocating night filled the wooden house like seawater.
Hun Yao held him from behind, gently stroking his back, and lightly rested his jaw on his head.
Langmuir put the handkerchief aside, patted Hun Yao, and smiled weakly. “It’s okay… go to sleep.”
Since moving to the barrier cliff, his illness had briefly eased.
But the calm days suddenly came to an end.
Langmuir began to show symptoms again, pain, coughing up blood, dizziness, sometimes falling into a coma…This time, the signs of decay were more obvious.
“…Langmuir.”
The Demon King suddenly spoke hoarsely.
Langmuir was stunned, reached out to hold Hun Yao’s face. “Why are you crying?”
He frowned his slender eyebrows, wiped the water stains with the palm of his hand. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry.”
In the night, the Demon King’s eyes were wet. But his expression was still calm, saying, “Before in the royal court, I went to find old Tada for a divination…divination about you.”
“What was the result?”
The Demon King slowly pulled out a smile, pointed at the human’s forehead. “Until it snows, you are still alive and well.”
Langmuir said sadly, “But, until the first snow of this year…cough, it should not be long.”
Hun Yao’s smile faded sadly.
Are all the sons of god so ruthless, he thought. Just like the god they believe in, never really coming, just watching the birth and death of all things with cold eyes?
Langmuir said, “Please make a decision early, my King.”
“Sleep,” Hun Yao lowered his head and kissed him, “Tomorrow, I have a few questions to ask you.”
So Langmuir’s heart, in this weak body, began to joyfully flutter.
Perhaps, the final moment was about to come. His Demon King was about to pronounce his fate, to set the deserved ending for these long yet fleeting seven years.
Thinking this way, he peacefully closed his heavy eyes, struggling to maintain each breath, and his chest rose and fell accordingly.
Slowly, his consciousness, like sugar crystals melting in water, dissipated bit by bit.
