My Darling Sick Beauty

The reunion of body and dream

During the first year following the little willow tree’s slumber, the fires of war spread across the lands, but the leader of this war was still returning every night to sleep with him. He continued to hold him and talk to him, everything staying just as it did before, as if he was just in a deep coma from his illness. He was simply sleeping to recover whilst staying by Wenren Ye’s side and nothing more.

No one dared to speak the truth, the Devil Realm just like the rest of the world, acting out a play with the Devil Lord called “He hasn’t abandoned me.”

Those who dared to speak out had all been killed.

Tongues were wagging in the Cultivation World, saying that the actions of Wenren Ye was dishonourable to Jiang Xianzun. But they were also hopeless as they were in the middle of a war with the Devil Realm and were barely escaping with their lives.

During the third year following the little willow tree’s slumber, Chang Qian returned to Jingshan Hall from the Demon Realm, and saw his little uncle and his shenxian gege again. He stood at the bottom of the steps, watching his little uncle feed Jiang Zheliu some medicine. He felt weak all over and was unable to even utter a word. 

 

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In the end, Chang Qian did not stay in Jingshan Hall to look after gege, and instead entered the Devil Realm’s army following Shi Binghen to war. He learnt about the toils of war and about battle planning and scheming. He also managed to activate his half-devil bloodline that had lay dormant for many years. This also brought out his strong but atrocious looking devil body.

Ah-Chu didn’t return, he didn’t dare to see him again.

In the fifth year of his slumber, the Devil Lord’s state of mind had become worse and worse, but the stalemate in the battle with the Netherworld finally had a breakthrough. After the ink knife split the River of the Dead in half, the source of the Netherworld’s strength was also severed. After searching for years, Lan Re Temple finally found Ming Jing’s location through his Buddha’s lamp. They intended to work with the devils to go and rescue the heir-apparent of their temple who had disappeared for several years.

Gongyi Yan agreed in place of her Devil Lord, because when the messenger arrived from Lan Re Temple, the Devil Lord was with Jiang Xianzun, so there was no way that he would have listened to anything the messenger had to say. 

 

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The two of them belonged in a world of their own. Wenren Ye could very naturally chat with Jiang Xianzun, even if only his voice could actually be heard.

The hallucinations fabricated by his mind were getting more and more serious, and he was showing signs of entering qi deviation. The devils were a peculiar race, when they used ‘qi deviation’, they just meant that his mind was unstable.

Whatever the race, to any cultivator, this was fatal.

But their hands were bound and they couldn’t do anything.

In the tenth year of Jiang Zheliu’s slumber, Wenren Ye finally began to realise that Jiang Zheliu was sleeping for a little too long.

But in addition to this, his deteriorating mind had also become more serious. Just as before, he could not believe that “perhaps he was already dead”. Instead, he still believed that Jiang Zheliu was simply ignoring him, and he wondered if he had upset his beloved in some way.

It was not only Wenren Ye’s mind that was not normal, Yu Jinnian and He Tan were also struggling.

During the Divine Sage of Medicine and the Ghost Puppet Master’s 3500th meeting, the two of them looked at each other, both feeling miserable.

“What are you crying for?” He Tan said angrily, “Wang Wenyuan’s whereabouts have been revealed, he will be captured by the devils very soon. Your little mute will be able to recover in no time, be happy and stop fussing.”

Yu Jinnian couldn’t even be bothered to bicker with him, he slumped down on the rattan chair and looked up at the sky, but all he could see was the pitch-black dome in the great hall of the Devil Realm. He stayed silent for a long while and then finally straightened his face and said: “You say that, but why don’t you cheer up then?”

“What have I got to be happy about?” He Tan stretched out his short little legs, “I’m a ghost cultivator, although I don’t need sleep,why do I have to grab my medical knife to consult the patient in the middle of the night, am I not a healer?”

He asked a question that was questioning his own ghostly existence.

“Plus the Netherworld is in battle with the Devil Lord, but I’m caged here!” He slapped the chair with anger and then continued to moan, “……… But it’s good to not have to fight.”

“I’m also here to treat an illness, but the dutiful wife is unable to cook rice without the ingredients1. This isn’t an illness, this person is already…..”

The end of the sentence got stuck in his throat and he was unable to say it out loud.

The Chinese doctor and the Western doctor sighed simultaneously due to their common predicament.

Yu Jinnian wasn’t sure what kind of syrup he should prescribe today.

Just at that moment when the two of them were both speechless, there were suddenly two knocks at the door and then it opened. Shi Binghen had come to pick up the new prescription of the day.

The great devil in red was even more wooden than the two of them, this had already become a routine task. Until he was blocked from advancing by He Tan.

He Tan was incredibly curious, his eyes glowing like crystals: “General Shi, is Devil Lord Wenren improving at all? Is there any news from the Cultivation World…….”

Shi Binghen couldn’t restrain from reacting, he turned and glanced at him and said: “He should be a bit better.”

Actually meaning there was not much change.

“As for the Cultivation World” The great devil frowned, “they are still trying to slander our Devil Lord.”

They couldn’t really be blamed for slandering him, what their Devil Lord was doing…. Was in fact a little unbelievable.

Who knew that Wenren Ye could be able to sustain this illusion for so long, in fact for over ten years. He must have said countless things to the ‘comatose’ patient.

But in reality those who were present knew that the responses that Wenren Ye was receiving were all a figment of his imagination. If it continued on like this, it wouldn’t just be a problem of mood swings, but he would enter into qi deviation.

“Only with Jiang Xianzun present will the Devil Lord not crumble.” Shi Binghen said, “It’s a terrifying thing for the world if a half-step golden immortal devil were to fall.”

When he finished speaking, he left immediately. He took the prescription and entered Jingshan Hall.

The flames of war had somewhat extinguished at this moment, as the Devil Lord’s most trusted aide and General, under these circumstances, he’d usually not be too far, staying close to Wenren Ye to serve upon him. 

 

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And it was because of this, Shi Binghen had witnessed much more than the others had seen.

The great devil in red handed the prescription to the little child who was preparing the medicine and then put down his sword and handed over his cloak to the servants at the door, before walking across the palace hall looking towards the screen at the rear of the hall.

The lights flickered creating shadows. The light from the lamp and the natural light mixed together and illuminated the figure behind the screen.

He heard Wenren Ye’s deep voice, which was using a very gentle and careful tone.

“Will you stop ignoring me?”

He raised a hand, it seemed as if he was holding onto Jiang Xianzun’s hand, it was not too evident through the hazy screen.

“I’ll come back earlier, I won’t make you wait too long…..”

Shi Binghen closed his eyes and took a deep breath in and then he stopped in front of the screen and reported to Wenren Ye the advancements in the war.

Their Devil Lord’s sickness did not seem to have any effect on other matters, he was still able to calmly listen to him explain what was happening with the war, he was also able to retain all the locations of their army camps and the number of casualties.

In reality, this was already enough, the devils were able to continue surviving as the natural resources that they had obtained were enough for them to grow and develop. But Wenren Ye was unwilling to stop before the Netherworld, he had a natural enmity against ghost cultivators….. More precisely, against the River of the Dead.

This source of this enmity came from the fight when he had almost severed the enormous ghostly chains previously.

When Shi Binghen had finished reporting, he should have left but he waited there without moving a muscle for a long time.

He stared at his Devil Lord’s back, watched him cuddling the lifeless corpse —— even if Jiang Xianzun was still beautiful and exquisite, beautiful like he had been carved out of icy jade.

He watched in the crack of the screen as his Devil Lord’s bony hand smoothed through Jiang Xianzun’s snow-white hair, and then placed him in his arms, and then brushed his hair up before placing a jade hairpin at the top.

Whilst Jiang Zheliu was just obediently leaned against his arm, with his head on the other’s shoulder. The hand that was resting on Wenren Ye’s black robes was frosty, his fingertips were ever so slightly red, he looked as if he was just sleeping in his arms.

The Tan Lamp was lit, with his broken soul swirling around the heart of the lamp.

Shi Binghen felt a chill in his heart, as if he had been trapped in a block of ice, he slowly left Jingshan Hall.

————

Thirty years later.

Wang Wenyuan who had been calculating and scheming all his life had been found in the Netherworld. He was locked under innumerable iron chains by He Sorsi. He looked like someone who had suffered a nervous breakdown and was not looking too normal in the head either.

But it didn’t matter, the devils did not require him to be in the correct frame of mind. This former Pavilion Lord of Tianji Pavilion was brought and locked up in the secret water prison underneath Jingshan Hall.

Ming Jing was returned to Lan Re Temple, but it wasn’t because He Sorsi was forced to let him go, the latter had let the little monk leave of his own accord.

After that, He Sorsi told Wenren Ye some matters regarding Zhu Wuxin, told him that he had once sought Jiang Zheliu and then told him that the person he loved had already died many years ago.

He succeeded in enraging Wenren Ye.

The enraged Devil Lord was completely lacking in reason. He was finally rid of his Netherworld chains, and regained his freedom. But at the same time, He Sorsi was also cut by the blood-red knife that was specially made to cut through souls, and his primordial spirit was damaged, destroying at the same time more than half of the tens of thousands of evil spirits in the River of the Dead.

Wenren Ye’s body had the Dao seed of slaughter, nothing could stop him. The hand that was wielding the blood red knife was bleeding, it was splitting open, his bone armour and bone wings were also splitting open as violent devilish energy poured out of them.

He Sorsi was trapped at the bottom of the river, ghostly energy dispersed from his entire body, two half-step golden immortals were locked in a stalemate in the river, continuous heavy killing intent being dispersed in all directions.

The black haired ghost cultivator lifted his hand and then sighed deeply, his primordial spirit had been damaged by this knife, he was in great pain, but as he looked at Wenren Ye, he thought that the other was more lamentable than him.

“The way you are now,” he opened his lips slightly, “you’ll never achieve Dao Fusion.”

Wenren Ye’s deep purple eyes stared at him, half his face had turned into his devilish bone form, like a bone mask covering his face.

His purple eyes had already ignited and turned into ethereal flames, signaling the state of the devilish body.

His killing intent was powerful, gruesome and hideous, filled with the brutality of a predator, but likewise, his restless and angry state of mind was tormented, not less than what He Sorsi was feeling at this moment.

“He’s not dead.” Wenren Ye said.

He Sorsi choked on his own ghostly energy before laughing loudly and said: “If you kill me in this state, how long can you live on?”

If he allowed the Dao seed of slaughter to take root in his mind, he would fall even quicker into the flaming calamity than Wenren Jian.

“He’s not dead.” He stubbornly repeated again, as if he wanted to make He Sorsi admit this fact.

But He Sorsi would not admit it, he grasped the blood knife, and the palm of his hand was sliced in half, but he still used all of his energy to pull the knife out and then he rolled to the side gasping for breath.

His primordial spirit had nearly been smashed to pieces by this devil.

Wenren Ye was bleeding all over his body, from his skin to his spread open bone wings.

His violet eyes had turned a shiny blood red, those ethereal flames came out from behind his bone mask illuminating his tail that was at the bottom of the River of the Dead.

As soon as he moved, his bone armour, his bone spurs, and his entire devilish body that was on the verge of disintegrating, would create a noise like collapsing metal.

Half a catty against eight taels2. Wenren Ye edged minutely ahead.

He Sorsi was paralysed on the floor, he was vomiting and laughing at the same time, it seemed like he wasn’t quite right in the head either. He looked towards the apex of the River of the Dead and said: “I finally understand now what that idiot, Wang Wenyuan, was talking about when he was going on about the real calamity to come.”

The two of them were both not quite right in the head, and he continued to mention another who also had issues.

He lowered his hand, and made a decision to save his own ghostly existence, and forced himself to compromise: “He isn’t dead.”

The blood knife in Wenren Ye’s hand was impaled in the ground. He stared at the black-haired ghost cultivator, as if in the next moment, he was going to explode destroying He Sorsi’s entire primordial spirit.

Injure a thousand enemies, lose eight hundred3. At this moment, this devil’s brain no longer contained any reason, it was not wise to infuriate him.

“He’s just sleeping.” He Sorsi dispersed his ghostly energy which turned into a mist, and entered into a state of recovery, “I hope that when he wakes up, you won’t have gone completely mad.”

His ghostly energy dispersed in all directions, like fog without form.

Wenren Ye reached out to pull up the blood knife, not knowing why he had not killed him yet.

Perhaps it was his body’s response feeding back to his brain, like an explosive warning. Or perhaps it was because the aftermath of him killing He Sorsi was unknown…… But more importantly, he could not get seriously injured again, he had to go back to guard the little Willow tree, he needed to protect him.

Wenren Ye slowly closed his bone wings, he stretched out with his hand, the palm of his hand was covered in blood, but he didn’t care. Instead, he was busy trying to conceal the half of his face which had transformed, as well as trying to extinguish the purple flames.

This time, his devilish form had been maintained for too long, he needed some time before he was able to return to human form.

His devilish form was too hideous, he mustn’t let his beloved see it.

Jiang Zheliu wasn’t…… paying any attention to him anyway.

Wenren Ye’s hand pressed against the ice-cold bones, he had received acknowledgement and confirmation from the mouth of He Sorsi.

The little willow tree was just sleeping.

He will still….. He will still wake up, he will forgive him.

Although Wenren Ye did not know what he had actually done wrong.
 

————

Not long after, each realm discovered what this “true calamity” was.

Wenren Ye had gone completely mad.

He negated the agreement, and washed each realm in blood. Aside from the Mortal Realm who were powerless to resist, all the others died under the Devil Lord’s bloody wrath. His current thunderous might was considerably different from his previous boiling frog attitude. The war was advancing at an incredulous speed, and innumerable souls had fallen under his knife.

In a short ten years, he was conferred the Supreme Leader of Six Realms, even the Empty that had never had any contact with the rest of the realms came out to reach an agreement, sending a letter to request that the Devil Lord not set forth into their peaceful realm.

He Sorsi had shed his body and fell into a deep slumber, Qing Lin retreated, challengers from the Cultivation World fell continuously one after the other, it was a bloodbath.

Under the heavens, there now only existed one Lord.

Now, not even a peep of idle gossip could be heard, the name Jiang Zheliu had become taboo, it was a mistake to mention it. No one said anything, and no one dared to speak the truth. There was only the faintly glowing Tan Lamp that was still standing there as it was before, showing no interest in anything.

Even those generals who had accompanied Wenren Ye on his missions did not dare to touch upon the subject. Their Devil Lord had succeeded in fulfilling the Devil Realm’s long time wish, and had achieved what others had only dreamt of doing. However, their Devil Lord did make them worry.

He had mood swings often. When he was in a good mood, he would just feed medicine to the Devil Queen, help the latter to freshen up and get dressed, and carry him back to Zhongnan Mountain to see the plum blossoms.

When he was occupied with the Devil Queen, he was relatively pleasant.

When he was in a bad mood, he would be trapped inside the Dao Seed of slaughter losing all rationality. The most serious thing was that the murderous energy was difficult to contain and he had even injured Shi Binghen and Gongyi Yan, as well as a large number of devilish generals and destroyed Jingshan Hall.

As Shi Binghen spat out a mouthful of blood, he covered up his internal injuries with his hand. He exchanged a glance with Gongyi Yan who was just as injured as he was, and then watched as their Devil Lord retracted his blade and turned around to help Jiang Xianzun change his robes.

All the energy in his body had been exerted, Shi Binghen was so weak he fell to the ground, he didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, after a long while, he rubbed his devil horn and sighed: “I can’t believe that this time, it was still Jiang Xianzun who saved our lives.”

Gongyi Yan had almost transformed entirely into her devilish form, even the scaly horns that had grown from behind her ears were in pain, her arms were half transformed into wings. She twitched her eyebrows.

“You should try to study a bit more about the Sealing method.”

Shi Binghen’s mouth was filled with fresh blood, he retracted the blood wings behind his back and then gasped: “Seal our own Devil Lord, I don’t think there is anyone on Earth who is more pitiful than us two subordinates. Even if I was able to find a way to seal our Devil Lord’s emotions, who would cast it?”

It was impossible. There was only one person who could get close enough to Wenren Ye, but this person was dead.

Gongyi Yan threw her arms out, her hands which were previously transforming into steel wings began to revert to human form.

“ When we get to the mountain, there’ll be a road through4.

“Okay.” Shi Binghen was incredibly frustrated, “even if there is a road, we can’t stop, until our superior sends us away.”

The two great devils bitterly tried to support the peace and tranquility of the Devil Realm, whilst looking into the Emotions Sealing Method, to make sure they were fully prepared until —— Zen Master Ming Jing came to visit.

He who dared to come into the Devil Realm under such circumstances was truly a brave master, to dare to face the darkness of one’s own existence.

Ming Jing was not obstructed in any way, or in other words, to the devils, he was not considered a threat at all.

The little monk was dressed in white Buddhist robes, wearing a conical bamboo hat, which had a long semi-transparent muslin fabric which draped down all around it.

The Zen Master stood by Jingshan Hall, waiting for Shi Binghen to announce his arrival, before entering the palace hall whilst looking at the screen.

At first glance, he saw the Tan Lamp which was still lit.

Ming Jing took a few steps closer and saw the Devil Lord’s black robes and black hair, he was sitting on the chair beside the bed. The latter’s gaze was fixed on the bed the whole time and didn’t look over at him at all.

This devil was clearly drowning in the innumerable debts of blood, but he did not reek of fresh blood, as if he was afraid that someone would not like it.

The Zen Master walked up to the lamp and finally attracted Wenren Ye’s attention.

The monk stood before the lamp, and then he took out the fortune stick from back then from his sleeve. He had given one to Jiang Xianzun and kept one for himself.

The final two sentences of the fortune stick were: “The long candle chases from sunset to daybreak, the reunion of body and dream.”

Now the flame had been searching for innumerable days and nights, but the two people were unable to retrieve their reunion.

Ming Jing fiddled with the fortune stick in his hand, and pondered for a long while, and then he put the fortune stick upon the flame of the Tan Lamp and burnt it.

The ashes of the fortune stick began to fall.

“Did Xianzun make any promises to you previously?”

Wenren Ye was still quite normal at this moment, his purple eyes deepened elegantly, like a pool of standing water that had a slight ripple on its surface.

After a long while, the Zen Master finally heard the other’s quiet voice.

“I asked him if it was true that he would never abandon me, and that he would never leave me.” Wenren Ye paused for a moment, “He said yes.”

After the great Devil Lord finished speaking, he finally remembered who this person in front of him actually was, however, his brain had not been functional for a while, to only think of it now was not important, it didn’t matter.

Ming Jing sighed and said: “If he promised you, then he should have come back by now.”

But in reality, at that time, Jiang Zheliu couldn’t hear through his left ear. When he responded to this question, his answer should not have been taken seriously.

The Zen Master stared at the Tan Lamp which had two specks of broken souls inside, and whispered: “That verse about the reunion is worthless, Devil Lord Wenren, what else did he tell you?”

Wenren Ye’s gaze fell worriedly on the Tan Lamp, and then slowly returned his gaze over to the bed, and saw that there was a hand that had come out from the embroidered quilt, it was snow white and slender but with a hint of softness.

He absent-mindedly thought that the little willow tree was pushing off his quilt but that was his imagination.

In reality, Jiang Zheliu had not moved in the slightest.

Zheliu was ignoring him. But he didn’t know what he had done wrong, and he wasn’t sure why, he was stuck. When he was clear-headed, he’d be going through this issue in his hand over and over, and continually questioning himself.

In the end, he believed that everything he did was wrong, he shouldn’t have started a war, he shouldn’t have left Jiang Zheliu, he shouldn’t have left him waiting so long……. This time, Jiang Zheliu was just too angry with him, he wouldn’t be able to coax him no matter what he did.

Wenren Ye reached out and put Jiang Zheliu’s snow white hand back under the quilt, his hand then swept across his ice-cold eyelashes, and finally past his smooth cheek.

He really wanted to kiss him but at the same time he was afraid that the little willow tree wouldn’t be happy about it.

A long while passed. It was so long that Ming Jing was starting to believe that he was not going to get any further answers, he was about to take his leave, when he heard Wenren Ye’s voice.

“He said that he would stay with me.”

Ming Jing turned around and looked for the burned fortune stick in the Tan Lamp, the ashes had been reduced to nothing, the Buddhist Cultivator’s Karmic deduction method had been absorbed into the flame, making the flame burn brighter.

The souls which had returned to Heaven and Earth seemed to have been awoken by a promise.

Specks of the broken souls that were formless and almost invisible to the eye floated into the Tan Lamp.

The Zen Master finally let out a sigh of relief, unsure of whether it was for Jiang Qianbei, or for every living being.

Because the world was in chaos, the elders of Lan Re Temple had ordered him not to leave, so he was not able to come here earlier. Now, he found a solution, but he didn’t know if it was too late.

The bodhi mark on Ming Jing’s forehead was illuminated by the flame of the Tan Lamp. He couldn’t stay any longer and he no longer had anything to offer, so he quietly departed from Jingshan Hall. Before he left, he received great admiration from Shi Binghen and Gongyi Yan that he was able to come out alive, and he was bestowed with one of the great gifts which was reserved only for the friends of the Devil Realm.

In this case ——

A pair of beautiful skulls.

Magnificent hospitality is hard to refuse. The little monk returned to the temple carrying the pair of beautiful skulls. The more he thought about it, the less it bothered him.

He’d lived through two lifetimes, and the first time, he’d even been an iniquitous Buddhist monk.