Crashing into Daylight

By the time they had gotten downstairs, Chen Ran still didn’t appear to have gotten his wits about him. Xu Yinian waved a hand in front of his eyes. “Hey, have you gone dumb?”

“…” 

Chen Ran slowly looked in his direction, muttering to himself after a few moments. “You were in there for half an hour, yet you’re still alive and lively.”

For him, a mere face-to-face meeting with Yu Huai was akin to making a trip to the gates of hell. 

Initially, Xu Yinian couldn’t tell if Chen Ran was complimenting him or insulting him. He was right about to ask him to clarify when Chen Ran took a deep breath and cut him off first. “I didn’t come up here just for you. It wasn’t convenient for me to talk about it earlier.”

Xu Yinian was momentarily stunned. “What do you mean? No one is making trouble?”

This was a long story that couldn’t be explained in a few words. Chen Ran eyed him with a long-suffering glance, finally comprehending that Xu Yinian’s unwavering position as first from the bottom for theory exams was not without reason. 

He spoke in a low voice. “Two of the demon slayers from our team have gone missing. A short while after you went up, both of them were no longer reachable by phone. The communication incantation didn’t garner any response either.”

As the team leader, Chen Ran was a little more meticulous. He’d placed a communication incantation on every team member to maintain contact in the event that phones became unusable.　

Xu Yinian’s expression shifted slightly. “Have you contacted the local Demon Slayer Bureau?” 

“I already did. Their attitude was kind of weird.” Chen Ran hesitates for a bit, “They seemed to be patronizing me, saying that they’d send someone over to check things out. They told me to focus on the job and just wait for the news.”

After arriving at Qihai City, the local Demon Slayer Bureau had urged them repeatedly regarding the respective matters of concern for the auction. In comparison, their treatment towards what had happened was truly very perfunctory. 

“They might know something. Or rather, the disappearance of the demon slayers was tacitly enabled by them.”

“Doing things so sneakily1, the Qihai branch is pretty damn impressive.” Xu Yinian tsked. “Should we contact the academy?” 

According to the academy’s rules, during the process of the assessment, students could request assistance from the academy in the event that they meet with life-threatening events, but they would as a result fail this attempt of their graduation assessment.

“While you weren’t here, I gathered the opinions of the other team members. Everyone chose to contact the academy, a situation like this is too rare.”

Xu Yinian didn’t have any preference. “Then let’s contact the academy. Either way, we can always retake the assessment.”

“One last thing. Jiang Qiuyue said that she heard a conversation between two demons when she was standing guard at the side door on the west side.”

“It’s those two.” She used a finger to point out two demons who were standing a short distance away. One of them was idling about with a cigarette in his mouth, and the both of them had their heads lowered to their phones. Based on their uniform, these two demons were probably working as janitors at the auction. “I heard them complain that the daytime auction was boring and that what happened at night would be far more exciting.” 

Jiang Qiuyue wasn’t very tall; she looked especially petite and delicate when standing next to Xu Yinian and Chen Ran. She appeared flustered, likely worried that those two demons would suddenly turn back.

“The Demon Realm auction only happens during daytime.” Chen Ran stared at the two demons. “What’s going to happen at night?”

“I don’t know, you’re asking the wrong person.” Xu Yinian answered frankly. 

“Team leader,” Jiang Qiuyue’s voice trembled. “What should we do? We don’t know when Su Tang and the others went missing and the academy is too far away. The Demon Slayer Bureau isn’t helping us, but if we wait for the teachers to hurry here…”

“Don’t think too much about it.” Chen Ran comforted her.

Xu Yinian tilted his head. “I have an idea. Shall we try it?” 

The demon holding a cigarette in his mouth lazily exhaled a breath of smoke. He had three eyes, all of which were presently drooping. His expression spoke of unbelievable boredom. “How much longer till this is over?”

“Two hours or so.” The demon who answered didn’t even bother raising his head. His appearance was clearly not one belonging to the human species, his green skin resembling that of the moss that grew underneath the canopy, alongside damp tree roots. While on his phone, Green Skin’s grumbling was mixed with expletives. “Fuck! Attack their tower then retreat2! You’re an archer, what are you doing fighting hand-to-hand? Just watching you is enough to make me throw up, is your hand crippled or is your brain the problem?”    

“Lower your volume!” Three Eyes berated. “If you get caught by the patrol squad for secretly playing games on your phone, it’s going to be difficult for us to answer for it3! 

“Okay, okay, alright. It’s all my fault. Aren’t you overreacting…”

Three Eyes had only just finished his sentence when his unfinished cigarette fell onto the ground. 

The two demons locked eyes, neither of them moving. Someone was pressing against the middle of their backs with a hand; the temperature of their fingertips was scorching, like a blazing and sharp weapon. 

“Don’t make any noise and don’t turn back. If you say another word, both of you will be burned to ashes.”

“Maintain this position and walk backward.” Another voice continued, “Walk back to the warehouse by the corner. Go in one after the other.”

The demons glanced at each other, with Three Eyes nodding towards Green Skin first. 

After they entered the warehouse, Jiang Qiuyue who had long been waiting inside handed over the rope and tape. When Xu Yinian brought up his proposition to tie up these two demons for interrogation earlier, she had initially been very apprehensive. However, upon seeing Xu Yinian and the rest return safely, a sudden surge of courage overcame her the moment the warehouse doors and windows closed. “Team leader, there are so many things here. I found a screwdriver, pliers, tweezers… do you need a chainsaw?”   

Finally able to see their appearances clearly and figuring out their identities, the previously well-behaved Three Eyes abruptly acted out. “What are you doing?! Are you crazy? Don’t you care about the statutes of peaceful coexistence?!” 

Green Skin followed along, making a din. “Where are you demon slayers from? What the hell! You tied me up for doing nothing. What’s your work ID? Just you wait, I’m filing a complaint to the Demon Slayer Bureau tomorrow!”    

Xu Yinian had initially planned on talking things out with them, but upon reaching this point, he impatiently stabbed the fruit knife in his hand into the wooden container, the tip of the knife piercing into the wood. “As expected, hit first, ask questions later.”  

“Wait!” Seeing him lift his foot to take a step forward, Chen Ran hurriedly pulled him back, whispering softly in his ear, “Calm down! We’re here to ask questions!”

After finishing, he looked towards the two demons, his expression amicable. “Don’t worry, we just need you to answer a few questions. We hope you’ll cooperate. Otherwise, things will be troublesome for everyone.”

Three Eyes cast a glance at Xu Yinian. His appearance was beautiful and eye-catching, his complexion fair and his hair jet black. He was tall and thin, and his physique did not appear to be any menacing of a threat. Three Eyes could not help but let out a laugh. “How troublesome can it be? At most, we’ll be beaten up by him.” 

“Come on, come on. Didi, do you need me to teach you how to deck someone? 

Xu Yinian couldn’t be bothered with their nonsense, cracking his knuckles with a click.  

“The both of you are seriously too stupid. He’s the young master of the Xu family. Based on his status alone, if he wants to kill two nameless nobodies, he doesn’t need to report to anyone.” While Chen Ran spoke, he was tugging at Xu Yinian for dear life. Who knew what this brat had eaten while growing up? Although his arm looked slender, it actually possessed unbelievable strength. Chen Ran could barely hold him back.       

Three Eyes, whose expression had previously been full of disdain, shifted in an instant. “You’re Xu, Xu… Yu, Yu Huai’s…”

Upon hearing this demon’s name, Green Skin’s face turned equally pained. “Ghost, Ghost race…”

Xu Yinian instinctively denied it. “Huh? I’m not—”

Chen Ran gave Xu Yinian a timely pinch, hinting that he shut up for now. 

While he’d long heard about Yu Huai’s distinguished authority in the Demon Realm, he didn’t expect their attention to be hooked onto this. Chen Ran decided that he might as well take advantage of this opportunity4. “Since you’re aware of his relationship with Yu Huai, you should know how to behave.”    

Xu Yinian opened his mouth multiple times, but upon seeing Three Eyes and Green Skin tremble in fear from the mere mention of Yu Huai’s name, he forced himself to hold back his retort.

He clearly no longer had anything to do with Yu Huai, yet here he was, leeching off his reputation…

Xu Yinian felt a little guilty, the tips of his ears flushing faintly. 

It was a pity that Three Eyes hadn’t noticed these details at all. “You, you’re bullshitting! They broke up long ago!” 

Green Skin had long lost the ability to use his brain and was currently nodding frantically alongside Three Eyes. 

Chen Ran succinctly described their ambiguous relationship. “You’ve both probably heard about the high bid for the Flame in Water today. This thing wasn’t worth such a high price originally, which fool did you think had more money than sense? You see, Yu Huai bought that just to make him happy.”

Jiang Qiuyue had initially been standing by the side, engrossed in watching their performance. Upon hearing what Chen Ran said, her cheeks turned scarlet as she suddenly saw the light. “So it’s like this! Yu Huai, he’s… unexpectedly an enamored one.” 

Xu Yinian could no longer continue listening to this. “Stop making up rumors, that’s not what he——”

Chen Ran sneakily stomped on his foot. 

The sudden stab of pain drew a sudden breath of air out of Xu Yinian. If it weren’t for the pressing situation at hand, he seriously wanted to flip out. 

“The both of them did break up, but Yu Huai’s treatment towards him…” Chen Ran smiled slightly, the implication behind his words clear.  

These two demons were both employees working for the auction and naturally knew the person who had bid for the Flame in Water today. Three Eye’s three eyes each exposed a different emotion: bewilderment, fear, and ‘how about we just spill’. 

Chen Ran took the opportunity to fan the flames. “It’s fine if you decide not to believe this, but he has a bad temper and has always killed without a second thought.” 

After waiting for a long time, Xu Yinian finally heard the signal to take action. He pulled out the fruit knife he had stabbed into the container earlier, holding onto the knife and stepping forward. “So you don’t want to talk? Fine, then you won’t be talking again in this life.”

Three Eyes, “…”

Green Skin, “…”

Green Skin broke first. He wept, “That’s not it. Ge, it’s not that I’m not willing to spill, but after going around in circles, what exactly are you asking about?” 

　　-

The light along the hallway was dim, and the smell of mold drifted in the air. It was difficult to imagine that this villa fit for royalty would house such a dark and damp tunnel. Xu Yinian’s two hands were bound behind him, and with Green Skin holding onto the chains that were restraining him, the two of them walked ahead, one after the other. 

Some distance away, Three Eyes was holding Chen Ran in custody, the latter with both his hands bound like Xu Yinian. The light at the end of the hallway gradually grew brighter, and the commotion coming from the auction could be faintly heard. Xu Yinian lowered his voice in warning, “Don’t even think about pulling anything. I can kill you anytime.”   

A bright stream of violet-tinted lightning flashed on the tips of his fingers, shocking Green Skin till both his hands had gone numb. He replied bitterly, “I wouldn’t dare, I definitely wouldn’t dare to.” 

According to what these two demons had said, what was hidden beneath this magnificent infrastructure was the decennial revelry of the demon species. The auction held during the daytime was merely a show put up by the organizers to deceive the demon slayers. The demons would pretend to get along peacefully with demon slayers, co-existing harmoniously in the same space as their human guests. They swapped their novel and sanguinary auction goods for prized treasures accepted by humankind, maintaining this facade until night came and their true colors were exposed. The real Demon Realm auction would only be carried out underground.    

The explanation provided by the two demons made it clear that the more they delayed, the more likely it was that things would bode ill rather than well for their missing team members. After some discussion, Chen Ran and Xu Yinian decided to take the risk and sneak into the auction. 

The underground auction was hosted by the Phantom demons. The invited guests received an invitation slip from the host that was then used to enter the venue. Being merely employees working for the auction, Three Eyes and Green Skin could only bring them in through this dim and concealed cargo route. As the employees working the auction had all gone through intensive background checks, it was decided that Jiang Qiuyue would stay aboveground to wait for help from the academy. Chen Ran and Xu Yinian would pretend to be goods that had been captured and be brought into the underground auction by the two demons.  

The moment they went underground, all regular communication incantations would cease effect. As such, Xu Yinian had no choice but to cast a Shared Heart incantation with Chen Ran. Such incantations that were normally cast by couples to hear each other’s inner thoughts were typically not affected by external interference. In the instant that the incantation was cast, Xu Yinian and Chen Ran both heard the sound of dry heaving from the other person.    

The lights that lined the walls cast elongated shadows on those that walked by. When they made it to the last corner of the hallway, Xu Yinian caught a glimpse of the grotesque novelty of the auction. 

Unlike the proper and legitimate auction hall on the surface, this place was built in a circular structure, much like the colosseum of ancient Rome. Xu Yinian was unsure of the number of demons he was seeing; he even felt as though some of the faces he glimpsed in passing belonged to fugitives on wanted posters. Hundreds upon hundreds of demons were excitedly watching the exhibition stage, the four corners of the hall echoing with announcements of price quotations and discussion.

“Five million!”

“Five and a half million!”

“You want to buy sixty years of life with that little bit of money? The market prices are getting worse.”

“Isn’t it all because of the pressure from the Demon Slayer Bureau? During the auction ten years ago, how much did the final item go for?”

Words were just words, after all. The price continued to soar. A demon that was participating in the bidding couldn’t help but exclaim, “All of you are still young, what youth are you even trying to recover? Why are you fighting with us old folks — seven million!”  

A couple of children stood at the foot of the exhibition stage.

The girls wore little dresses while the boys were dressed in little suits. A neat row of children dressed impeccably, the sight resembled that of dolls lined up and displayed in a store window.  

[They’re buying more years for their lifespan.] Xu Yinian’s eyes widened in alarm.  [But this is prohibited.] Chen Ran was also dumbfounded, and the utter astonishment in his voice rang in Xu Yinian’s mind. [This already violates the laws set by the Demon Slayer Bureau. Moreover, it’s children – the punishment is a death sentence…]  

Extra years of life couldn’t appear out of thin air. One life had to be exchanged for another. By sacrificing the lifespan of a human to the demon, the demon would be able to obtain a longer lifespan.

While they had been conversing, the sixty years had been sold for a startling price. After the auctioneer announced the price, a demon that was stooped over and shrouded in a cloak stepped onto the stage.

Chen Ran: [Fatechanger5.]

Xu Yinian was staring steadily at the demon wrapped in the cloak. [Didn’t they say that all the Fatechangers were in jail? What’s up with the organizers of this freakish hellhole?!]

The auctioneer continued. “Can the buyer sitting in section C seat 13 please come onto the stage? The Fatechanger will help you to swap your life spans.” 

The buyer who had successfully bid for the sixty years was a female demon who was getting up in years. Under the scrutiny of everyone present, she strutted onto the exhibition stage with a face full of glory. The Fatechanger signaled for the buyer to select a child. After making her choice, the Fatechanger reached out, taking the hand of the chosen boy and the hand of the buyer in each of his own. 

It was unknown what the Fatechanger had done, but the figure of the boy visibly started to grow at an unbelievable speed. Simultaneously, the white hair along the temples of the female demon turned black, and the wrinkles around her eyes faded away. The boy had transformed into a grown man, while the originally elderly female demon had reverted back to her middle-aged self.

The female demon’s face was full of joy. She could not stop looking at her hands, where the skin was now firm, and using those same hands to caress her face non-stop. Although the human boy’s outer appearance had turned into that of a twenty-something man, his demeanor and manner still belonged to a little child. Due to the pain brought about by his growth spurt along with his body being trapped in now ill-fitting childrens’ clothes, he suddenly erupted in a loud wail.    

Such entertainment sent the entire venue full of demons into cheer and applause. They exclaimed with jubilation. “Another one!” “Let’s have a girl this time!” 

After getting their lifespan leeched, even if they were lucky enough to be able to return to human society, the majority of children with the appearance of grown adults would find it difficult to readapt to their lives.

“Ge, stop looking.” Standing behind Xu Yinian, Green Skin frantically reminded him. “If you keep looking, we’ll be exposed.”

Xu Yinian forced down his emotions, and Green Skin pretended to berate him, fiendishly walking to his side. “Hurry up! Stop dragging your feet, do you wanna die?” 

Xu Yinian expressionlessly turned his face away. Green Skin lowered his voice and whispered into his ear, “There’s going to be a small room ahead – it’s where the goods are checked. In typical situations, the goods will be sent backstage. But, ge, your face might be a little dangerous. They’ll probably send you to the second floor.”

There wasn’t any more time to continue explaining. Green Skin shoved him forward. Upon seeing that they had brought along two demon slayers, the demon in charge of inspecting goods whistled. “Yo, another new one.”

Green Skin twisted Xu Yinian’s chin. “Take a look, the goods this time are something else.” 

Xu Yinian was checked out from head to toe by the demon bearing malicious intentions. As the blunt and undisguised gaze of the demon clung to every inch of his body, Xu Yinian’s enragement brought him close to letting out electricity. 

Half a moment later, the demon laughed. “He is a valuable beauty. Send him to the second floor, those VIPs will definitely like him.”

In a now-deleted Author’s Note, it was mentioned that Xu Yinian is currently 21 and Yu Huai is 26. I’m assuming this still applies, but I’ll edit this if I notice any changes!

 

 鸟儿悄: Derived from northeastern China. It means to be sneaky, inconspicuous, etc. Read here for more information.点塔: A kind of gaming style where you attack the enemy’s tower and then retreat, then attack again. Rinse and repeat. Gaming terms are hard… Source.够你喝一壶: When an issue is hard to handle. Comes from 够呛.顺水推舟: Literal translation means to push the boat along with the current. To go with the flow and make use of an opportunity for one’s own benefit.换命师: Deciding on an adequate name for this was impossible haha. Rather self-explanatory definition: they’re a demon race that can leech the lifespan of a human.