After His Demise, the Demon Lord's Doted Canary Finally Sees the Light - Chapter 8

Qingming Palace, as Jiufang Cangze’s lair and the gathering place for countless demons, had intricate and complicated routes, heavily guarded with magical formations almost every two steps.

The patrolling demon soldiers didn’t recognize Qiu Fuxue, but they could feel the spiritual energy on him, and their gazes at him were filled with mockery.

Whether he was a prisoner or a male favorite, neither identity was particularly good.

He had a smooth journey, and the formations didn’t seem to have any effect. Qiu Fuxue stood in front of the library with a heart full of unease.

He had specifically taken a detour to the back to figure out how many back windows the library had. He planned to go in and then climb out from there, as his real purpose wasn’t to read ancient texts at all.

The old wooden door had no lock. He pushed it open, and a stuffy, musty odor rushed out. Qiu Fuxue frowned, covering his mouth and nose with one hand and waving away the dust in the air with the other.

It looked like no one had been to this library in a long time. Everything was filled with a sense of decay. It made sense; what would a bunch of bloodthirsty demons know about sitting down to read?

He closed the door behind him, pretending to have entered the library for the patrolling demon soldiers, then opened the rickety back window and climbed out.

As he passed by several bookshelves, he quickly scanned them and found that Jiufang Cangze’s words were true. There were indeed many ancient human texts here, and they were very old. He had no idea where the demon lord had gotten them.

He was used to traversing rooftops and walls, but without his cultivation, his body felt heavy. Qiu Fuxue held onto the window ledge, his legs fumbling outside for a long time without finding a place to land.

But he had just looked and was sure there was a stone here.

His wounds hadn’t fully healed, and a little bit of movement made him feel fatigued. He gritted his teeth, hardened his heart, and, thinking the ground wasn’t far, let go of his hands and let his body drop.

However, the expected solid landing never came. His fragile body fell like a light feather, slowly descending into a deep pit.

“Ugh…!”

The violent impact of his body hitting the ground forced a pained groan from Qiu Fuxue. The sudden fall from a height made his vision go dark, and then a sweet, metallic taste filled his throat. He curled up, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

The back of this library had been hidden by a magical illusion.

There were many stones here, and his legs were scraped in several places. He lay on the ground to recover for a bit, then he got up, wiped the blood from his lips, and looked at where he had landed.

This deep pit was at least a dozen meters high. It was lucky that Qiu Fuxue had his spiritual orb to protect him; otherwise, any mortal would have been crushed to a pulp.

The light in the stone cave was dim. Qiu Fuxue groped his way forward a few steps and found a heavy, towering stone-carved door.

What was behind this stone door was unknown.

Qingming Palace had existed far longer than the Qiannian Sect, and the thought processes of demons were different from normal people. Qiu Fuxue couldn’t figure out why Jiufang Cangze had built this area.

He pushed the stone door a few times, but it wouldn’t budge. Dejected, he sat down, leaning against the wall.

His delicate body was covered in scrapes, and blood seeped through the bandages on his wrists. He was a useless person now. He didn’t know how long he would be trapped here. If Jiufang Cangze sent people to find him, he had no idea what kind of punishment awaited him.

Just as he was about to despair, a glimmer of light appeared in front of him, accompanied by faint footsteps that grew closer.

“This is not a place you should be.”

A clear, pleasant voice came from the darkness. A man held a Nether Orb in his hand, which emitted a faint light, revealing his bloodless, pale face.

Qiu Fuxue recognized this man: one of the Four Evil Shadows, named Xiao Chang. He had been present when Qiu Fuxue was imprisoned and tortured in the dungeon.

His ankle hurt intensely, as if he had broken a bone. He gasped in pain and leaned on the stone wall to get up. “I stumbled in here by accident.”

Half of Xiao Chang’s face was hidden in the darkness. “Accident?”

The question made Qiu Fuxue feel uneasy. He clenched his fists and repeated, “By accident!”

“Ha.”

A light laugh came from the side. Xiao Chang stared at him for a long time without speaking, then looked at his twisted ankle and shook his head. “The Demon Lord dislikes anyone touching his things. I can’t help you. There’s an exit there; you can leave on your own.”

Xiao Chang pointed in a direction. Qiu Fuxue followed his gaze. With the faint light of the Nether Orb, he could see a long, steep stone staircase embedded in the stone wall.

He was certain that this staircase hadn’t been there before Xiao Chang appeared.

Qiu Fuxue lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, then softly retorted, “I am not Jiufang Cangze’s thing.”

“If the Demon Lord hears that, you’ll be in for some trouble.”

Xiao Chang squeezed the Nether Orb in his palm, shattering it and scattering the light onto the staircase to illuminate the way. “Please.”

The Demon Realm itself was a giant cage for Qiu Fuxue. No matter where he ran, he was still inside a cage. He stared at the staircase, refusing to move. Not to mention his current injuries, even in good condition, climbing up would not be easy.

Xiao Chang didn’t urge him. His paper-pale face was expressionless, as if he was determined to be stubborn to the end.

Suddenly, a dark red blood crow flew down from above, landed on Xiao Chang’s shoulder, and cawed into his ear twice, then dissipated into a puff of demonic energy.

“A message from the Demon Lord,” Xiao Chang said, his face stern, and told Qiu Fuxue word for word, “If you don’t want to walk up, I’ve been ordered to break your legs and drag you up.”

He intentionally emphasized the word “drag,” which made Qiu Fuxue remember being dragged out of the dungeon by Lun Ling.

He had no desire to experience that feeling a second time.

He lowered his head, making his expression unreadable. He bit his lip, and his clenched fingers dug into his palm. Red liquid dripped onto the ground, forming a small puddle.

“I’ll… walk.”

Qiu Fuxue no longer remembered how he climbed that staircase. The only thing he remembered was the piercing pain from the soles of his feet.

The flesh was worn away, exposing the white bone, but the golden thread cage imprint that bound his soul was still clearly carved on it.

Jiufang Cangze had been waiting at the top of the cave for a long time. The moment Qiu Fuxue climbed up, he grabbed his ink-black hair, pulled him forward, and gave him a hard slap.

“Ugh…!”

“You’re ungrateful! I gave you freedom, not for you to come to a place like this to play!”

Qiu Fuxue was slapped to the ground in a sorry state. The blood overflowing from his mouth smeared all over his disheveled hair, making him look unspeakably miserable.

He was then viciously kicked in the chest. His body rolled on the ground. He coughed weakly and closed his eyes, passing out.

When he opened his eyes again, Qiu Fuxue was awakened by the pain.

Jiufang Cangze stood in front of him, his gaze cold. In his hand was a long whip covered in sharp barbs.

He wasn’t locked in the dungeon or bound by chains. He was right here in the sleeping chamber, taking thirty lashes from Jiufang Cangze without moving.

The sound of the whip lashing through the air finally stopped. Qiu Fuxue didn’t know how many times he had passed out and woken up. His breathing was so faint that one might mistakenly think he was dead by looking at his motionless chest.

Jiufang Cangze threw the whip away, the hard handle making a “thud” as it hit the ground.

His jaw felt like it was about to be crushed. Qiu Fuxue let out a faint groan from the pain, and then a strong slap landed on his face.

After beating the man to a pulp, Jiufang Cangze finally vented his anger. He turned and sat back on the bed, placing one foot on Qiu Fuxue’s back, where the flesh was turned inside out.

“Argh—!”

The person under his foot jolted in pain, stretching his neck like a dying swan before collapsing back down from exhaustion.

Jiufang Cangze ground his foot down. “Little one, you won’t learn your lesson until you’re beaten!”

“Ha…” Qiu Fuxue’s slender eyelashes trembled, and a drop of blood fell. “Jiufang Cangze… If you have the guts, kill me…”

“Thinking of death won’t be that easy,” Jiufang Cangze sneered. “I not only want you to live, I want you to experience every kind of pain in this world!”

“Don’t you just want… this spiritual orb…” Every word Qiu Fuxue spoke was punctuated by long pauses for breath.

Suddenly, he found some strength and half-sat up. He put his five fingers against his chest and roared with all his might, “—I’ll give it to you then!”

There was a squishing sound of flesh being pierced. His five fingers plunged almost halfway into his chest cavity. Blood gushed out, staining the clean bed curtains red.

This so-called Pure Spiritual Body was all sustained by a single spiritual orb. If all the pain he suffered was caused by this orb, then he would rather not have it.

His five fingers tried to pierce through his chest cavity to dig out the spiritual orb, but they couldn’t advance an inch.

He turned his head and saw Jiufang Cangze holding his arm, stopping his action.

“I didn’t give you permission to die.”

With all his strength gone, just before he lost consciousness, Qiu Fuxue only vaguely heard the demon lord’s cold voice.