Chapter 17: Ba She Part 2

Xiao Kun understood. “So, influenced by the Heaven-Earth Veins, they still age and die after leaving the White Jade Palace, but thanks to the flower nectar, they retain all memories from their previous life!”

“Right,” Chaosheng said. “Maybe even their cultivation base?”

Xiang Xian had hastily heard a rough explanation from Shan Yu Hong earlier. For a person to retain all memories after death and reincarnate—what a blessing that would be?

“Good stuff!” Xiang Xian sighed. “I want some too.”

Chaosheng burst out laughing, then said: “Moreover, like Lady Hua Rui and Yao Ji, they’re demons with naturally long lives. With Hui Lun’s blessing, it must be quite interesting, right?”

Xiang Xian: “Does that Lord Jumang still bloom? If there’s more flower nectar, share some with me and Xiao Kun?”

“Sure!” Chaosheng said. “If it blooms, Chang Ge will rush down the mountain to tell me!”

Xiao Kun: “You go drink the flower nectar yourself. If I die someday, I don’t want to carry past life memories. Better to be a carefree ordinary person.”

“Ordinary people can’t be carefree,” Xiang Xian lay back in the front of the cart, gazing at the sky. “Living day to day, lives hanging by a thread—who can truly be happy?”

Xiao Kun thought about it and agreed. Casually, he said: “Truly carefree? Only your Dog Emperor. And he’s dragged your Great Song into a mess. The court doesn’t worry, so everyone else in the world does.”

Xiang Xian closed his eyes and replied: “The ones wiped out by the Jurchens weren’t our Great Song.”

Xiao Kun: “The ones pushed to Yongzhou by the Li Dynasty weren’t our Great Liao either.”

Chaosheng: “?”

Xiang Xian sat up abruptly. He had no rebuttal—the Great Song’s crushing defeat to the Southern Viet Li Dynasty in the Xi Ning era, abandoning armor and helmets in flight, was the utmost humiliation.

“There’s no Great Liao anymore,” Xiang Xian said.

“Soon there’ll be no Great Song either.” Xiao Kun gave Xiang Xian no quarter.

Chaosheng: “???”

Xiang Xian got serious. “Want to fight?”

Xiao Kun: “You brought up national destruction first.”

“You cursed my Great Song first,” Xiang Xian said. “I can curse it, but you can’t.”

Chaosheng: “Are you two fighting? Why did it start so suddenly?”

Xiao Kun: “I curse whoever I want. Deputy Emissary, do you talk back to your superior like that in the Kaifeng Exorcism Department?”

Chaosheng said: “Let’s think about who that ‘Mu’ really is instead!”

That was what Xiang Xian and Xiao Kun cared about most right now. Their trip to Chengdu had yielded nothing on the key matter, yet by a twist of fate, they’d uncovered a demon-possessed Exorcism Division envoy.

But both were heated now and in no mood to analyze.

Xiang Xian took a deep breath. Xiao Kun had pulled rank on him, and with Chaosheng there, he held back.

Xiang Xian said: “Whether it’s the emperor or my direct superior, I curse whoever I want. To be honest, I came to the Shu Region from the Central Plains precisely because I cursed the Official Family. So what?”

“Oh.” Xiao Kun replied offhandedly.

That “oh” made Xiang Xian explode with anger. He ignored Xiao Kun.

“Guo Jing orders you around,” Xiao Kun continued, “and you half-ass it like that?”

Hearing this, Xiang Xian suddenly understood—it was because he hadn’t drawn his sword during the exorcism!

“Got it.” Xiang Xian immediately sidled over and amiably threw an arm around Xiao Kun’s shoulders. “Chief Emissary, let me see if your hand hurts.”

Xiao Kun: “Get lost!”

Though he didn’t understand Xiang Xian’s sudden attitude shift, Chaosheng found it amusing and laughed heartily.

“Let me see…”

“Get away!”

“I’ll blow on it for you…”

“You… Xiang Xian!”

Xiang Xian grabbed Xiao Kun’s left hand. Xiao Kun struggled to push him away, and the two sparred on the cart. Chaosheng said: “The cart’s gonna flip!”

Xiang Xian finally shouted: “Don’t move! This is me caring about you!”

Now all three fell silent. Xiao Kun had awakened the Blazing Flame on Senluo Wanxiang with Blood Sacrifice earlier, severing one of Demon Person Shan Yu Hong’s limbs, but in less than two hours, it had miraculously healed.

Xiang Xian and Xiao Kun exchanged looks. Xiao Kun quickly withdrew his hand.

“Chaosheng, did you heal him?” Xiang Xian asked Chaosheng.

“No.” Chaosheng glanced at Xiao Kun, then Xiang Xian, unsure if he should speak. But Xiao Kun explained himself.

“I have a Half-Demon Body,” Xiao Kun said. “Father was a demon, mother human. Ordinary wounds heal quickly.”

Xiang Xian nodded and said no more. He recalled how Xiao Kun’s broken bone in the Xuan Yue Mountain cave had healed fast last time—he’d suspected some special bloodline then.

The three fell quiet on the cart until near dusk, when they reached the city outskirts. A plaque hung high at the gate with two large characters: “Gongzhou.”

Gongzhou boasted developed waterways, occupying the strategic confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers. It extended into the river like a peninsula, with the city gate at the junction of land and peninsula—a natural barrier easy to defend and hard to attack. Chaotianmen led straight to the river surface, where local officials received decrees from Bianjing. On this long winter night, the river was full of moored ships, their scattered lights dotting the great river like the brilliant glows in a glass lantern, echoing the city lights.