Chapter 16: I Simply Refuse to Believe It

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Yunjin Teahouse was packed to the brim.

A man in his fifties, dressed in a pale violet robe with a demon-slaying sword hanging at his waist, made his way through the crowd.

“Little Liang, what brings you here?”

Before Steward Xu could find Bai Ning, someone among the seated guests called out his childhood name.

Bai Ning half rose from her seat and waved her arm in the air.

“Little Liang, come sit here.”

Those words instantly carried Xu Liang back to his childhood.

The sun had been blazing that day, and the air was stifling.

Seven-year-old Xu Liang had gone to the river to fetch water when he was drawn to the bubbles gurgling up from its surface.

He was convinced that a giant fish was lurking beneath the water. He wanted to catch it and take it home so his mother could stew it into a pot of fish soup.

Xu Liang rolled up his trouser legs, pursed his lips, and edged closer to the bubbles.

Then he leaped into the air and plunged both hands into the river.

A slimy sensation immediately spread across his palms, and his eyes flew wide.

What a huge fish! It was so large that he could not even wrap his arms around it.

“Splash!”

A mass of water exploded across the river’s surface, and Xu Liang’s body shot straight into the sky.

Beneath him appeared an enormous catfish, its flattened body covering half the river.

The giant catfish opened its mouth and waited for Xu Liang to fall into it.

“Mother!”

Xu Liang shouted, and a figure came rushing toward him.

He had no idea what had happened. All he saw was the river vanishing in an instant.

The giant catfish landed on a smooth stone.

“Boom!”

The thunderous crash nearly burst his eardrums.

Xu Liang clapped both hands over his ears and watched helplessly as half the catfish’s body somehow disappeared.

A woman stood beside the severed fish. She glanced up at the sky and caught Xu Liang securely in both arms.

Rain began falling from a cloudless sky, each drop as large as a broad bean.

The vanished river slowly reappeared, sweeping away half of the giant catfish.

Xu Liang thought the woman who had saved him must be an immortal fairy descended from heaven.

The moment he returned home, he told his parents that he had seen a fairy.

After their initial shock, his parents explained that she was a member of the Demon-Slaying Office.

She was not a fairy from heaven after all, and Xu Liang became even happier.

Heavenly fairies were beyond reach, but the Demon-Slaying Office on earth was an attainable path.

Xu Liang’s family were prosperous farmers, and they lived relatively comfortably.

They had enough spare money for him to scour the markets for books on cultivation.

He practiced blindly on his own—and somehow, he truly succeeded.

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It was as though Heaven rewarded the diligent. Xu Liang eventually found Bai Ning, the woman from that year.

He also understood the gulf between them.

He had hidden his feelings for her well, quietly doing whatever small things lay within his ability.

After Xu Liang sat down, Bai Ning personally poured him a cup of tea and said excitedly:

“You came at exactly the right time. We’re just reaching the best part.”

“Chu Chen broke into Yellow Ridge at night, and a third-rank demon transformed into a fourth-rank demon.”

“Immediately afterward, Chu Chen unleashed Heavenly Immortal Descends from Beyond the Heavens, beating the demon senseless and scattering its teeth across the ground…”

While Bai Ning was speaking, someone behind them suddenly called out:

“Could the person in front please keep quiet?”

“Are we here to listen to you, or to listen to the storyteller?”

Bai Ning turned around and made an apologetic gesture.

She was utterly merciless toward demons and held fellow cultivators in contempt.

Yet toward ordinary people, she was remarkably tolerant.

Bai Ning rarely appeared in public, and most of the people in Jinnan Commandery did not recognize this general of the Demon-Slaying Office.

Steward Xu glanced back at the man who had spoken. The menace in his eyes needed no explanation.

The man was dressed in splendid brocade robes and was obviously the son of a wealthy family.

Frightened by Steward Xu’s warning gaze, he began trembling from head to toe.

Before Steward Xu could say a word, he immediately left with his friends.

Before departing, he instructed the teahouse attendants to bring over the finest tea and pastries as an apology.

When the attendants delivered the tea and pastries, Bai Ning asked in a low voice:

“Little Liang, did you order these?”

Xu Liang nodded with a smile.

“Try them and see how they taste.”

Bai Ning picked up a pastry and put it into her mouth, praising it without pause.

“This is delicious.”

Seeing the smile on her face, Xu Liang could not bear to tell her what had happened.

He simply kept her company in silence and listened to the entire story.

“Little Liang, let’s go.”

Bai Ning rose and led Xu Liang to a second teahouse.

The same melon seeds, the same tea, and the same story kept the two of them there until dusk.

On the road back to the Demon-Slaying Office, Bai Ning gazed into the distance.

“I wonder when that rascal Chu Chen will return.”

“I really want to hear how he managed to defeat a fourth-rank demon.”

“Little Liang, you’re clever. Tell me—how could Chu Chen, who had only just entered the Qi Refining realm, defeat a fourth-rank demon?”

Xu Liang smiled and answered with a question:

“Is there anything in this world that General Bai Ning doesn’t know?”

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“I really can’t think of anything.”

“Then… what do you think would be a reasonable outcome?”

Bai Ning thought about it. A newcomer to Qi Refining fighting a fourth-rank demon would surely end up dead.

“He should have died in battle. That would make sense.”

“Exactly. Chu Chen died in battle.”

At first, Bai Ning did not understand. She walked two more steps before suddenly stopping in place.

“What did you say?”

“Chu Chen died in battle…” Xu Liang repeated.

An unusually tense expression appeared on Bai Ning’s face, and even her speech quickened considerably.

“Impossible. My disciple is extraordinarily talented. He opened his meridians in half an hour, and I even gave him a demon core so he could absorb spiritual energy constantly. There is no way he could have died in battle.”

At the Jinnan Demon-Slaying Office headquarters, the other four generals had been waiting for them for quite some time. A fierce exchange was unavoidable.

“I understand how you feel. Chu Chen and the others encountered a corpse-guarding demon on their way back. Only Zhao Xiaoshi returned.”

“It was only a corpse-guarding demon. When I encountered one back then…”

Before Bai Ning could finish, Little Liang—who had never once interrupted her before—cut in:

“Chu Chen was only at the Qi Refining realm, a novice who did not even know which way the entrance to the Demon-Slaying Office faced. How could he have escaped an ambush by a corpse-guarding demon?”

Bai Ning paid no attention and continued arguing.

“I refuse to believe that Chu Chen died in battle. He must have found a way to escape!”

Steward Xu had never seen Bai Ning like this. He suddenly fell silent.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Bai Ning asked.

Steward Xu suddenly smiled as he recalled the first time he had met Chu Chen in the cave.

“I went to North Mountain Village to deal with a demon. That was where I first encountered Chu Chen, in the cave.”

“That boy was different from the others.”

“When he learned that he had been chosen as a sacrifice, he initially tried every possible way to escape, just like everyone else.”

“Yet he was also unlike everyone else.”

“When he realized that the chains could not be broken, he did not give up.”

“Instead, he said all sorts of strange things and made me believe that he would not die.”

“I still have no idea where he found such confidence. He sounded as though he truly believed it.”

“And in the end, things really did go as he wished. He survived.”

Steward Xu told the story to soothe Bai Ning’s emotions. Seeing how tense and serious she looked, he knew that if she were forced to accept reality all at once, she would demand revenge for her disciple—and who would be able to stop her?

If she caused a major disaster, a mere steward of the commandery’s Demon-Slaying Office would never be able to cover it up.

For now, he could only calm her down and let her gradually come to terms with reality.

After finishing the story, Steward Xu said:

“Perhaps Chu Chen really does possess some extraordinary good fortune and can escape death a second time.”

“I think so too,” Bai Ning replied with absolute confidence.

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