Why Do the Demon King and the Sword Venerable Look Alike? - Chapter 1

I’m a Taoist priest.

I only became one after I turned eighteen.

Before that, I was the Crown Prince.

When I was born, the Imperial Preceptor happened to be telling my imperial father that I would unite the realm.

The Imperial Preceptor’s words were as good as gold. Every prediction he made came true.

One offhand remark from him condemned me to eighteen years of misery.

From the age of three, I had to wake at the Hour of the Tiger every day to prepare for morning court.

At the Hour of the Rabbit, I began my lessons. Then came paying my respects, accompanying the emperor to court, receiving ministers, and studying the Six Arts of the gentleman and the Four Books and Five Classics. I couldn’t sleep until the Hour of the Boar.

There wasn’t a single day off all year. Even on the night after the New Year’s banquet, I still had to study.

Who had it worse than me?

Most importantly, there was my dear full brother, my imperial elder brother.

He thought I had stolen the position of Crown Prince from him.

He was the legitimate eldest son, after all.

I was just the lucky one. If the Imperial Preceptor hadn’t championed me,

there was no way I would have secured the position from the moment I was born.

So he competed with me at every turn.

I honestly wanted to crack his skull open and ask: did he think I fucking wanted to be Crown Prince?

Why didn’t he hate his father? Why didn’t he hate the Imperial Preceptor?

Why did he have to hate me with every fiber of his being?

The year I turned eighteen,

I finally couldn’t take it anymore. I knelt in the great hall and begged His Majesty to stop making me Crown Prince.

The emperor flew into a rage.

In the middle of a snowstorm, I knelt outside the palace for three days and three nights.

My dear imperial elder brother, Xiao Jingming, secretly slipped me a hand warmer and said through gritted teeth, “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

I grinned at him. “Of course. I’m giving you the position of Crown Prince.”

Xiao Jingming’s face turned black. “Who asked you to give it to me?”

By the fourth day, I was barely conscious.

Through the haze, I heard someone announce, “The Imperial Preceptor has arrived.”

I raised my head, but all I saw was his back.

White hair cascaded to his ankles, and his bare feet trod upon the snow.

Bells were tied around his ankles, chiming crisply with every step…

No, wait. What a goddamn poser.

Heh. Keep showing off. Hope you freeze to death.

Within fifteen minutes, Father summoned me into the hall.

I got to kneel somewhere warm instead.

My father sat at the highest seat in majestic dignity.

“Why has my son suddenly decided he no longer wishes to be Crown Prince?”

Without a trace of guilt, I replied, “Uniting the realm must naturally include the demon race. Everything I’ve studied can only make me a ruler of humans. Now that I’ve mastered it all, my next step is to become the greatest Taoist priest alive and bring down the Demon King.”

A soft chuckle came from beside me. It was remarkably pleasant to the ear.

I looked up and followed the sound. It was the Imperial Preceptor.

A veil concealed his face.

Heh. He had to be too ugly to show himself.

His smiling eyes turned toward me.

Fine. Those eyes were rather beautiful.

One resembled a piece of flawless jade edged with flecks of gold. The other looked like polished, translucent glass, light shimmering at its center.

I stared, entranced.

For one second, maybe.

Mainly because I had just seen his seductive figure from behind, and I already had a massive grudge against him.

I’d assumed he had the sort of bewitching beauty that could lead people astray.

I hadn’t expected his eyes to look so cool and otherworldly.

What a contrast.

At the height of my hostility toward him, I’d even suspected he was a spy sent by the demons to sow discord between my brother and me.

His goal would be to make Xiao Jingming and me fight until we cracked each other’s skulls open.

Without losing a single soldier, the demons could sever the lifeblood of our nation.

My father furrowed his brow, seemingly weighing how much of what I’d said was true.

Humans and demons coexisted fairly peacefully these days. Few demons came out to cause trouble, and the Demon King kept them in line.

Peace had lasted for two or three hundred years.

My father’s ambition wrestled with his benevolence. At last, he asked the Imperial Preceptor, “What do you think, Preceptor?”

The Imperial Preceptor’s eyes curved with his smile. “The Crown Prince possesses such lofty aspirations. It can only be a very good thing.”