Demonic Tribulations - Chapter 77 preview (Patreon)

Chapter 77 – Fa Yuan

Silence lingered, stretching out like dragon beard candy, on and on till you would expect it to snap. Knew it would snap, because once the sugars hardened, when it was no longer being worked, it grew brittle. The art was in cutting and separating, in combining and working the candy till it was soft like a cotton bud but with the taste of honey and the morning.

Fa Yuan let the silence linger, tasting it on her tongue, sensing the sudden appearance of a balance point in their discussion. What she said next was much more important than before. The fact that it had not appeared at all in her own conception of this meeting spoke highly of Elder En’s own strength.

He might have been a patient sword fighter, but in the social arena, the elder was less prone to waiting. He punctuated his next words with a subtle, but obvious, shift of his weight. “Well?”

“There were numerous reasons for allowing Yin Xue to leave. Most of all?” She fixed the older man with an unimpressed glare. “All life has meaning, and all life should be valued. So long as the demons do not invade this realm, their lives in their realms are as sacrosanct as ours.”

“He is neither demon nor human, but an ill-created hybrid from what I hear.” Elder En sneered. “What if he were to ascend? Would he be demon or human or, more likely, something worst?”

“And we are neither mortal nor immortal.” Fa Yuan shook her head. “If Yin Xue dies attempting to become an immortal creature, that is his fate. As it is ours. And don’t act as though he is the first of his kind. We are gathered here to deal with an entire kingdom.”

“Exactly! Deal with. Slaughter them to the last or break their cultivation, so that they may never rise again as demons.”

“Or give them the option to leave.”

“If that was possible, we could discuss that.” More of the old man’s bloodlust leaked outwards, and Fa Yuan was reminded that his name had come from too many years walking the rivers and lakes of the kingdoms. Hunting down bandits and evil-doers, slaughtering heretics and dark sect like they were rice in the field.

There was a reason this nice, kindly old man who now leaked bloodlust such that the tea she shipped on had taken the taste of iron had not ascended. A mismatch between his professed beliefs and  his prior actions. She said as much with the placement of her teacup, letting it tink on the table and a single, raised eyebrow.

“No discussion. All life matters, and these were – mostly – soldiers. Even their king never undertook the darker actions that might engender such fervent action.” She watched as his lips sneered, his mouth opened to rebut her. Then, he met her own, cool and implacable gaze and he remembered who he was talking to. She was no wilting flower kept in a greenhouse, no jade beauty whose hands had only ever been stained with ink. She had washed blood from them, cared for those caught in the machinations of the dark sect. Arranged for the disposal of corpses torn apart to be unrecognizable and the prayers to be said by priests and monks alike. Sought out places of rest for the survivors and paid good taels for their care, till this day.

“Well, they aren’t.” Almost, he pouted, at losing the argument. Then, as though remembering the point of their initial discussion, he roused himself to his original level of spite, though Fa Yuan needed not her dao to tell it was an act. “That is your defense, then. That the demon-hybrid is gone and thus, no longer a problem.”

“So much as it is necessary to have a defense, yes.” Fa Yuan leaned forward, concern on her face as she touched his hand. “Hu Ming… You do not need to keep revisiting the wound. They surely must have been reborn by now, having their memories and sins washed away. Your family…”

“Will still curse my name, if I forget them.” Elder En looked aside, pulling his hand back after letting her touch linger for a moment. “You cannot know what it is like, to lose everyone. To come across their corpses strung across the walls of your family compound, from the smallest to largest. To see their faces…”

“You must let it go. You cannot…”

“I cannot rise without doing so? I cannot rise anyway. I have stained my sword with blood, of the accused and guilty and innocent alike. There is no place in the heavens for one such as me.” A snort. “Should be no place.”

“And yet, the demons and dark immortals rise. In all the Dao, there is place for them. Surely there is place for you too, to find peace.” A softer voice. “If you let yourself.”

He shook his head immediately, his body shrinking in on itself as the bloodlust faded. He closed himself off and Fa Yuan, understanding all too well the pain he harbored, let the topic go.

“Yin Xue is no longer our problem. He went through the portal along with one of their strongest, before the entire thing was closed. Now, there are but a few, broken and shattered generals left. If we are willing to risk it, we might finish this properly.”

“With minimal losses on our side.”

“Perhaps. If we join hands. So. Will you tell me more about those who came with you? What are your thoughts of what they may commit? And what do you know of their ambitions?”

“So many mortal concerns… If you don’t learn to shed them, you too will be tied to this realm.”

Fa Yuan nodded and Elder En, grateful to be out of the contentious topic of his emotions, broke out into discussion about those he had arrived with. Stopping only long enough to sip on his drink, spit it out and ask his guard to acquire new water for the tea along with snacks.

After all, not even the Ten Step Death liked the taste of blood.