To Be a Demon - Chapter 9

“Heavenly Venerable!” I called from midair. “Thank you for saving me. I nearly died. Could you put me down first, though?”

As if startled awake, he raised his eyes.

I saw killing intent surge through them like a sudden downpour.

Before I could react, the force holding me vanished.

For one weightless instant, I hung there. Then I fell back into the water.

Much later, when suffocation had nearly robbed me of consciousness, that force dragged me into the air again.

“Who are you?” Each word was icy.

If I had thought I stood the slightest chance against him, I would have fought him to the death right then.

“Wang Xiangyun. I’m Wang Xiangyun,” I answered weakly.

“Who sent you here?”

“What are you talking about, Heavenly Venerable?” I squeezed out a few tears, hovering on the brink of crying. “You read it yourself. Grandpa sent me.”

He dumped me into the water again.

When I breathed air once more, I heard him say indifferently, “Think before you answer.”

Patience, Yan Beibei, I told myself.

Remember fifty years of loneliness circling those same five chi of space. I had endured that. What couldn’t I endure? Hadn’t I waited this long for the freedom almost within reach? I still had things I wanted to do. A life I wanted to live.

“I told you. Grandpa sent me.” I wept in little gasps, imitating Yue Lingyan.

“Then…” He changed the question, unhurried. “What did Wang Tuofeng send you to do?”

“Come back to the sect to study.”

“Study at Yunyan?” he asked. “Who could teach you better than Wang Tuofeng? What does he expect you to learn here?”

I stalled.

Before I could answer, he asked another question.

“Who does Wang Tuofeng think you resemble?”

…Fuck. I couldn’t answer that either. The old man had only said I resembled someone who could make Fu Chen happy. Yue Lingyan, perhaps? Had I already resembled her then?

I couldn’t just guess.

All I could do was say weakly, “Grandpa says I look like my dad.”

For fuck’s sake. Even that perfectly standard answer didn’t satisfy Fu Chen.

Back into the water I went.

The next time I could breathe, I wanted to murder someone.

“Heavenly Venerable.” I restrained the impulse, though my voice came out through gritted teeth. “What answer do you want? Just tell me. No need to go to all this trouble.”

I was direct. He fell silent.

Eventually, the force shifted me away from the pool and over the grass beside it. Then it abruptly let go, dropping me hard on my backside.

“Go back and tell Wang Tuofeng…” Fu Chen’s sigh was almost inaudible. “It makes no difference how much someone resembles her.”

“No one can replace her.”

I actually sensed sorrow in him.

…Such devotion? Yue Lingyan would climb out of her coffin and weep.

No. I was the one who should be crying.

This devoted bastard wanted to drive me out of Yunyan and ruin everything.

I decided to gamble.

“Heavenly Venerable.” I got up, rubbed my backside, then knelt back on my heels in the grass. “Has anyone ever told you you’re a little full of yourself? Of course, I’m not insulting you. I mean, you seem to believe only your own ideas and dismiss everyone else’s.”

“Naturally, you’re powerful and important, so you only pay attention to yourself. Perfectly normal.”

“But have you considered that some people aren’t what you imagine?” I pointed at myself. “Me, for example. My reason for coming to Yunyan isn’t remotely as complicated as you think.”

I was still angry. My voice rose despite myself. “You’re the one forcing all those messy ideas onto me. You’re overthinking everything! You know my grandpa. Calling you Uncle would already be knocking you down a generation. To me, you’re just an old man with a young face.”

“But you did ask one very good question. Who could teach me better than Grandpa?”

“There is someone.”

“You.”

I said it all in one breath. After being held underwater so long, I was exhausted, and paused to catch my breath.

“Heavenly Venerable. I came here because I want you as my master.”