Chapter 23: Humans and Demons Walk Different Paths (Yes), Humans and…
“You… you heartless wretch!” The woman was teary-eyed, her complaint laced with anger. “You told me with your own mouth in Yun City that we would meet again if fate allowed. Now that Iâve come to find you, youâre unwilling.”
“All those romantic moments under the moon and flowers, those vows of eternal loveâthey were all fake!”
Hearing this, Jiang Si couldn’t help but glance sideways at Lin Nan. “Why didn’t you tell me you did all that?”
“I didn’t!” Lin Nan was flabbergasted, looking ready to raise his hand and swear an oath. “I’ve absolutely never seen her before!”
They both looked back at the woman. Out of thin air, she conjured a pendant; its acrylic casing reflected the light. Her tone was full of resentment. “Do you remember this?”
” The opposing party has produced evidence. Now it’s your turn to explain,” Jiang Si urged Lin Nan.
Lin Nan frowned, craning his neck to look. A moment later, he couldn’t help but let out a curse. “Damn it, how could it be you?”
Jiang Si squinted at him. “So it really is like she said?”
“No! I just ran into her at a scenic spot and picked up her umbrella for her. We happened to be going to the same place, so we walked together for a bit. She wanted to buy a souvenir on the way, but her phone was dead, so I paid for it.” The more Lin Nan thought about it, the more wronged he felt. “I just casually said ‘Zai jian’ (Goodbye)! Isn’t that just polite usage? It doesn’t literally mean we must see each other again!”
“How is that possible?” The womanâs eyes widened, unwilling to accept this. “If you didn’t like me, why did you smile at me?”
“…Am I not allowed to be happy?”
“Then why did you pick up my umbrella? Why didn’t you pick it up for someone else?”
“Your umbrella was blocking my way…” Lin Nan was turning red with anger at being blamed for something so ridiculous. By this point, he started speaking without a filter. “Besides, I like men, damn it! I’m gay!”
At these words, Hai Di, who had been idly watching, couldn’t help but spare him an extra glance.
“…” Jiang Si fell silent, thinking Lin Nan was truly unlucky.
However, standing behind Lin Nan were people even more furious than the woman. His parents, hearing the commotion, had come out wielding brooms. Hearing Lin Nanâs sudden coming-out declaration, they were shocked and enraged. His father smacked a stick onto his back.
“You bastard! How could you do this to your mother and me?” Mr. Lin was an intellectual; these were the only curse words he knew.
With a howl, Lin Nan instantly leaped into his bedroom, pressing himself against the wall and clutching his back, grimacing in pain. “Dad, Dad! Now isn’t the time for this! Your son is about to die, and you’re worried about whether I like men or women!”
Only then did Mr. Lin and Mrs. Lin notice there were two other people standing in Lin Nan’s bedroom: Jiang Si from across the hall, and a woman they had never seen before.
The woman still tried to salvage the situation. “Xu Lang, you’re just saying that out of anger, right? If you don’t like me being so direct, we can take it slow. Feelings can be nurtured.”
Mr. Lin got even angrier, pointing at his son and scolding him again. “You went off to school and even changed your surname?”
“I didn’t!” Lin Nan wanted to cry but had no tears left. “I don’t know why she calls me that!”
“Then why does she call you Xu Lang?”
Everyone looked at the woman together. She shyly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and spoke softly, “That’s how they act in the TV dramas I watch.”
“What TV drama?” Jiang Si had a bad feeling.
“The Legend of the White Snake.”
The woman continued, “I am a Snake Immortal, and he is ‘Xu’ (Xu Xian). Doesn’t that make us a perfect match?”
Her words were like a rock shattering the sky, leaving everyone present who had received even a modicum of education in stunned silence.
“TV dramas are fake. Humans and demons walk different paths; there can be no result between you two,” Jiang Si tried to reason with her gently. “Think about itâdo you know any snakes around you that are actually with humans?”
“Right, exactly! I’m really not interested in you!” Lin Nan echoed repeatedly, hiding behind Jiang Si.
The woman huffed a laugh. “According to your logic about humans and demons being on different paths, then what if I switch to him?” She extended a slender finger, pointing straight at Hai Di standing nearby.
“This one is actually a bit more outstanding. He wouldn’t be too bad a match for me.”
To Lin Nan and his parents, she was pointing at empty air; they thought she was mad with anger and spouting nonsense.
Hai Di, who had been watching the drama with a detached attitude, frowned as he was innocently dragged into the mess. But before he could react, he heard Jiang Si shout without hesitation:
“Absolutely not!”
Hai Diâs expression softened slightly.
The smile froze on the woman’s face as she had been making eyes at Hai Di. “What did you say?”
“Why not?! This one won’t do, that one won’t doâyou’re just like that old bald donkey, meddling in everything! You say I can’t have him, well, I want him specifically.”
As she spoke, the woman lunged forward. In the blink of an eye, she closed the two-meter gap, her hand about to grab Hai Di’s suit sleeve. A stick glowing with golden light flew through the air, blocking the space between them. As if it had eyes of its own, it struck viciously at the woman’s arm.
Startled, the woman flipped backward, barely dodging the blow.
Now abandoning any pretense of ladylike grace, she shouted abuses at Jiang Si. “Don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit! It is an honor for anyone this Grand Auntie takes a fancy to. I gave you some respect because you seemed to have some skill, but you’ve obstructed me time and again. Do you really think I’m a pushover?”
Jiang Si was getting angry too. “I tried to reason with you nicely, but you just won’t let it go, will you?”
A cold sneer escaped the woman’s lips. The lights flickered twice and then went out completely. The entire world seemed to be placed inside an airtight, sealed coverâsilent and lightless.
Suddenly plunged into sensory deprivation, Jiang Si panicked slightly, but he quickly composed himself.
Fortunately, Xiao Feng Xian had told him yesterday about the tricks Snake Immortals liked to use. It was nothing more than conjuring various environments to immerse the victim, then launching a sneak attack when they were off guard.
It seemed like the environment had changed, but in reality, nothing truly changes unless the mind does. Jiang Si mentally mapped out where everyone had been standing a moment ago. Lin Nan was behind him; to his back right were Hai Di and the Snake Immortal…
Thousands of tiny white paper strips fluttered in the air. Jiang Si swung his hand back, lashing out into the abyss behind him. The first strike hit nothing…
Then, twirling the mourning staff in his palm, he followed the momentum and struck out again in a different direction. This time, Jiang Si felt a moment of resistance.
Almost instinctively, before his brain could even process it, he slashed the white tung wood stick diagonally upward. The force was sharp, cutting through the air, and a faint whipping sound filled Jiang Si’s ears.
Immediately following was a fierce, pained shriek: “You deserve to die!”
From the dark abyss in all directions, a swarm of snakes surged in. Sharp, cold tails wrapped around Jiang Si’s calves, arms, and neck. Amidst the cold, damp, sticky saliva, the snake tails tightenedâtough and sharp like twisted steel wiresâcutting off Jiang Si’s breath.
One second stretched into an eternity.
He heard the sound of the mourning staff in his hand being crushed, seemingly turning to powder in his grip. His hands and feet were bound by the snake swarm; he could even feel the sensation of those things sliding over his skin.
The stench was overpowering. Jiang Si could barely suppress his nausea; if he hadn’t been immobilized, he might have vomited.
Before he could think of a countermeasure, in the next second, a golden light tore through the darkness. Blinding white light returned to the world, forcing his eyes shut as tears leaked out.
A hand, colder than the snake’s body, covered Jiang Si’s eyes, causing his eyelids to jump and his eyes to move instinctively beneath them.
“Hai Di?”
“It’s me.”
Jiang Si let out a breath of relief and pushed the hand away, squinting to check his surroundings. Hai Di stood in front of him. Lin Nan and his parents were all collapsed on the floor. At the very front, leaning against the wall, was a creature that was half-human, half-snake. The mourning staff that had been in Jiang Si’s hand was smashed to pieces, scattered across the floor.
The woman clutched her chest. Even while bent over, she glared daggers at the person who had injured her. As soon as she opened her mouth, blood trickled out. “You… you all just wait.”
Hai Di prepared to step forward with his golden staff, but Jiang Si stopped him.
“We have no grievances or hatred between us. Do you really want this to end with one of us dead?” Jiang Si said. “I’ll warn you one last time. As a spirit, if you don’t focus on benevolence and instead use magic to toy with and kill humans, your cultivation will eventually backlash.”
“You seem to know a lot,” the woman sneered.
“I asked around.”
“In any case, no human who has injured me has ever lived to tell the tale. If I don’t avenge this, I won’t be able to quell the hatred in my heart.” The woman spat, blood spraying. Her face, rosy just a moment ago, turned deathly pale. Her thick, long snake tail slapped against the floorboards with her movements.
Jiang Si looked at her miserable state coldly, feeling no guilt whatsoever.
The woman acted tough on the surface, but inside, she was calculating her options.
Suddenly, an ethereal chuckle was thrown into the ice-cold room like a firecracker. It crackled and popped, catching everyone off guard and getting the air moving again.
“What a bold Bai Qiniang (White Seven). It seems your elders aren’t around, letting you run wild like this.”
As the voice spoke, Xiao Feng Xian, dressed in a red skirt, stepped out of the void. Her freshly drawn eyeliner hooked sharply upwards towards her temples, but the eyes beneath glowed with a faint red light.
“Who are you?” The woman called Bai Qiniang instantly changed expression.
“I am your father.” Xiao Feng Xian looked at her mockingly. “Just a little snake who only recently successfully sought a title, yet you dare to bully humans at will. Did you really think there was no one here who could handle you?”
“Nonsense.” Although Bai Qiniang said this, having her background exposed meant she dared not be arrogant anymore. Her eyes darted around, sweeping over Xiao Feng Xian’s glamorous face, then over Jiang Si and Hai Di, before finally landing on the unconscious Lin Nan on the floor.
“I only came to find my husband. If they hadn’t obstructed me first, I wouldn’t have attacked. It’s their fault for not knowing what’s good for them. Ifâ”
Jiang Si couldn’t help but interrupt her. “If you continued to pester him, Lin Nan would have died at your hands sooner or later. Do you think ‘humans and demons walk different paths’ is a joke? Putting aside reproductive isolation, could Lin Nan even withstand the demonic energy on your body?”
“Impossible!” Bai Qiniang didn’t believe it at all. “That’s how it plays out on TVâ”
“I call you stupid and you don’t admit it. Only a fool treats that stuff as real.” The disdain on Xiao Feng Xian’s face was palpable as she pointed at Jiang Si. “See him? Those stories are all made up by people like him.”
“Really?” Bai Qiniang was suspicious. “Isn’t he a paper effigy maker?”
“…Can’t a person have multiple jobs?” Jiang Si retorted self-righteously.
“If you don’t scurry back now, be careful I don’t go tell on you to your clan members,” Xiao Feng Xian added coldly.
Bai Qiniang feared nothing in heaven or earth, causing chaos in the neighborhood recently, but hearing about her clan members made her panic. Still, she stayed stubborn. “Who knows if you’re bluffing. Hmph, I’ll let you off today. Once I heal my injuries, I’ll come back to settle the score.”
With that, a white light flashed, and she drifted out through the crack in the window.
The night breeze rustled the thin curtains. Jiang Si looked at the three unconscious people on the floor and felt mentally exhausted. He turned to speak to Xiao Feng Xian first. “You know her?”
“I held her when she was a baby.” Xiao Feng Xian was keeping up with the trends as always, leaving Jiang Si choking on his words.
But seeing her sincere look, Jiang Si paused and realized, “Really?”
“What else? The metaphysical sects have been in decline for decades. She is the only Snake Immortal who has successfully sought a title in recent years. I met her when I was invited to the celebration ceremony. Tsk, I didn’t expect her to grow up into such a love-brained fool.”
“It seems that whether for humans or spirits, calling the parents works every time.”
Saying this, Jiang Si flashed a smile at Hai Di. “Lucky you were here just now. Otherwise, I probably would have ended here today.”
“It was the item you folded that was good,” Hai Di replied with a smile.
As the two locked eyes, Xiao Feng Xian couldn’t stand it and interjected, “Hey! When I said her, I didn’t say you two were exempt, right? Humans and demons walk different pathsâhumans and ghosts don’t work either.”
“…The fact that you’ve survived this long is entirely because you died early,” Jiang Si said speechlessly. “What nonsense are you spouting all day?”
He woke the people on the floor one by one, calmed down Lin Nanâwho was crying for his parentsâand returned to his own home. It was nearly dawn.
Jiang Si added an extra meal for the two ghosts who had performed a great service. Staring at Xiao Feng Xian, who was inhaling the incense with a look of intoxication, he asked, “Why hasn’t Sister Xu come back?”
“She drove her sports car to the Ghost Market for a stroll. Don’t worry about her.” Xiao Feng Xian’s eyes were half-open, a strange red light appearing on her pale face. The lips her finger touched were so red they looked ready to drip blood.
“Alright, I’m going to rest. Remember to turn off the lights when you’re done eating.”
Jiang Si thought the matter ended there. Little did he know that two days later, Bai Qiniang would be dragged to his door by her ear to apologize.
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