Why Do the Demon King and the Sword Venerable Look Alike? - Chapter 6

Lan Xiao had been even busier lately.

He vanished for more than two months straight.

First Senior Brother was terribly dejected.

In his dejection, he began teaching me.

While he taught, he would ask about Lan Xiao from time to time.

That day, Zuo Xu sparred with me as usual.

At first, we traded blows evenly enough.

Then his sword flashed, and the force behind it suddenly surged.

I was hurled through the air. My back slammed into a tree trunk, nearly knocking all my organs out of place.

Zuo Xu’s face went deathly pale. He dropped his sword and rushed over to help me.

“I’m sorry… I—I didn’t mean to…”

His hands trembled violently. I swallowed the metallic sweetness rising in my throat and smiled at him.

“It’s all right, First Senior Brother. I’m fine.”

Zuo Xu abruptly turned to the right.

I followed his gaze.

At some point, Lan Xiao had appeared at the edge of the bamboo grove. He stood with folded arms, watching us.

Zuo Xu’s voice was hoarse as he bowed his head. “Your Excellency the Sword Venerable.”

Lan Xiao waved for him to rise.

Then he walked straight up to me and placed his slender fingers on my wrist.

“You won’t die.” He channeled a current of spiritual power into me, swiftly setting my displaced organs right.

Lan Xiao cast Zuo Xu a cool, indifferent glance. Zuo Xu’s face grew even paler.

I hurriedly said, “Senior Brother has been teaching me with great care. I was the one who failed to block the strike.”

Zuo Xu knelt. “Please punish me, Grandmaster.”

Lan Xiao withdrew his hand. “Three days at the Cliff of Reflection.”

Only the two of us remained in the bamboo grove.

Lan Xiao handed me a sword.

“Take it. You’ve trained for more than half a year, yet you still can’t withstand one move from Zuo Xu. At this rate, what will you do when you face the Demon King?”

I accepted the sword and examined it closely.

Its scabbard was black as night, dragon patterns adorned its blade, and an eye set into the hilt shimmered beneath the sunlight.

The eye curved as if smiling.

“Wow, thank you, Your Excellency! You love me so much!”

The sword looked almost identical to Lan Xiao’s, except for the extra eye.

“With such a divine weapon, I will never fail Your Excellency’s expectations. I will beat the Demon King black and blue!”

Lan Xiao smiled. “Then I truly look forward to seeing how you beat the Demon King black and blue.”

I casually flourished the sword and made a grand boast.

“Heheh. Just wait and see.”

“Fine. I’ll be waiting.”

Late that night, I felt my way through the darkness to find Zuo Xu at the Cliff of Reflection.

He was hanging upside down from a broken tree at the cliff’s edge.

I approached and sent him a voice transmission.

“First Senior Brother, His Excellency said it’s all right. He has lifted your punishment.”

Zuo Xu raised his eyelids and stared at me.

“I’m sorry.”

But he showed no intention of coming down.

I opened a recording stone and showed him Lan Xiao saying it in person.

Zuo Xu still refused to come down.

I began to panic.

I’d spent half an hour pestering Lan Xiao to obtain that recording!

“Senior Brother, no one blames you. Please come down.”

Zuo Xu cut off our private voice channel from his end.

The next moment, I was hanging upside down beside him.

Zuo Xu jumped. “What are you doing up here? Get down.”

“I’ll get down when you do.”

Zuo Xu and I sat at the edge of the broken cliff, admiring the moon.

“Senior Brother, why did you suddenly strike so hard?”

Zuo Xu pursed his lips. With some difficulty, he said, “I sensed an immense surge of demonic power. I lost control for a moment… I’m sorry.”

Demonic power?

What demon would dare enter a Taoist temple?

I took out the sword I’d received that afternoon.

“Did it come from this?”

The eyeball on the hilt swiveled about. When it turned toward Zuo Xu, it narrowed.

It looked rather unfriendly.

“Yes, from that. But the demonic power this afternoon was enormous. By now, it has almost completely dispersed… Did Grandmaster give you this?”

“That’s right.”

I could see the naked envy in Zuo Xu’s eyes.

He continued, “This sword was made from the spine of a century-old demon dragon, set with the eye of a phoenix, and tempered for seven times seven—forty-nine—days… Grandmaster treats you exceptionally well.”

I hugged the sword, delighted.

Lan Xiao truly had high hopes for me. I could never disappoint him.

Perhaps the moonlight was intoxicating that night.

First Senior Brother told me many things.

He spoke of his past.

Of the hatred for demons that had accumulated in him day after day, night after night.

Yet everyone told him

that the demon who killed his entire family had already been executed.

They told him to let go of his hatred of the demon race.

Even the Temple Master urged him to do so.

There were good and bad humans in this world, and good and bad demons.

He should not hate every demon.

In the moonlight, Zuo Xu’s face looked so cold and so lonely.

“Tell me, should I really let go of my hatred? If I can’t, how am I supposed to take revenge? Who am I supposed to take revenge on?”

I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know either.

I hadn’t lived through what he had. I couldn’t pretend to understand and think in his place.

Naturally, I couldn’t make the choice for him.

Zuo Xu asked me, “Why do you want to attack the Demon King?”

“I set myself a goal. Once I defeat him, I’ll be the strongest Taoist priest alive.”

Bitterness filled Zuo Xu’s voice. He said he envied my carefree life.

He said I already had everything.

I had even won the Sword Venerable’s favor.

He poured out his admiration, reverence, and longing for Lan Xiao.

I remembered how he’d said before that I wouldn’t understand.

Now I did.

This was terrible. First Senior Brother was my rival in love now.