After the Mad Villain Is Reborn - Chapter 3

Mu Qingke and several other disciples hurried forward. “Greetings to the Sect Master!”

Before anyone could speak further, several disciples glanced at Jiang Youbai with disdain. Then, seeing the red thread in the Sect Master’s hand, a weapon capable of ending a life in an instant, they spoke up indignantly: “Sect Master, this demonic beast killed Senior Brother Liu Yingyuan. It is wild and untamable; you must avenge Senior Brother Liu!”

“That is right! Kill it! Skin it and strip its tendons!”

Mu Qingke took one look at Shen Changchuan’s indifferent expression and quickly warned the disciples. He said to Shen Changchuan respectfully, “Please forgive us, Sect Master. The disciples are only distraught because their senior brother was harmed by this beast.”

The disciples also realized their mistake. The figure standing before them, like a moonlit immortal, was not their usual approachable senior brother. They could not afford to be so presumptuous. He was the Sect Master of the Shangqing Sect and the leader of the entire Immortal Alliance. He was a person of the clouds whom they rarely had the chance to see.

Regardless, this vicious demonic beast had to die. Even if it were not killed outright, it would surely be dragged back by the Sect Master, its tendons used for whips, its blood used for medicine, and its bones forged into weapons. Its fate would be wretched!

The surroundings suddenly fell silent. Jiang Youbai looked at Shen Changchuan, who stood to the side. Bathed in sunlight, the man’s frigid aura did not melt in the slightest. The sunlight falling on that face made him look like a divine statue in a temple come to life, so breathtakingly handsome that one could barely breathe.

Jiang Youbai had thought that seeing Shen Changchuan again would fill him with endless hatred and a desperate urge to kill him. Yet, when the man truly appeared before him, that intense impulse suddenly vanished.

What would Shen Changchuan do? Would he restrain him and let these disciples skin him, or would he do it himself? Either way, he certainly would not let him go.

He felt as if he were watching a farce with a predetermined ending, finding it all meaningless. His gaze slowly shifted to the red thread on his wrist. It extended to the other end, held by that man. The man’s articulated fingers looked as if they had been meticulously carved by the world’s greatest craftsman; every bone and every muscle was perfectly placed. The red thread hung from his loosely gripped palm, looking less like a lethal weapon and more like a red string of fate given by the Matchmaker, or the red silk from a wedding.

Everyone was waiting for Shen Changchuan’s verdict. Yet, Jiang Youbai, feeling like an outsider watching a play, suddenly felt the red thread binding his vital pulse loosen.

Jiang Youbai lifted his eyes. Instead of wondering why Shen Changchuan had loosened his grip, he gripped the feather in his hand and lunged toward Mu Qingke and the others.

“Sect… Sect Master, save us!”

A chaotic scene of panicked screaming ensued. The disciples scrambled backward. None of them had expected that, with Shen Changchuan standing right there, Jiang Youbai would dare to act so recklessly.

Moreover, the demonic beast’s movements were ghost-like, and wherever they fled in this Spirit Mountain, they were surrounded by his demonic aura; there was nowhere to hide.

“Did you think that with the leader of the Immortal Alliance backing you, I would not be able to kill you?”

“What a pity. Even with him here, you will have to die before me and will not get to see my miserable end.”

Every word was laced with mockery, falling upon their ears like a death warrant.

The ghostly figure stopped, and the surrounding demonic aura solidified. The passage of time seemed to slow, and even the falling leaves slowed their pace.

“Remember to drink an extra bowl of soup when you reach the underworld. Forget all the filth in your hearts, so you do not run into me again in your next life.”

A cold light flashed before their eyes. It was the last light they would ever see. The next moment, they all collapsed simultaneously, not even having time to let out a cry of agony.

A large pool of blood spread from their throats, staining the grass into a puddle.

Jiang Youbai stood there, looking at the blood on the ground, the blood-stained feather in his hand. The feather looked like a razor-sharp spirit sword, covered in the blood of heaven knows how many people, including his own.

He stared for a long while, then abruptly turned, appearing directly before Shen Changchuan. The bloody feather dripped, stopping just inches from piercing that god-like figure. A faint, golden light materialized before him, preventing him from moving a single inch further.

A phantom image of a jade token blocked his feather. Even though it was just a phantom with no substance, the force behind it kept him frozen. The man behind the jade token walked to the boulder where Jiang Youbai had been sitting, sat down gracefully, and met his gaze through the faint golden barrier.

Those glazed eyes held a deep, serene pool, yet they were frozen with a thousand years of ice that would never thaw.

His strike having failed, Jiang Youbai withdrew his hand with a touch of regret. “The leader of the Immortal Alliance just watched as I killed his disciples; that is truly something worth publicizing.”

Just now, the red thread Shen Changchuan had been holding had loosened. He did not know if it was an accident or intentional.

Shen Changchuan spoke in an indifferent tone, stating a cruel truth: “No one will believe you.”

Jiang Youbai paused. That was right; no one believed him.

Just like back at the Shangqing Sect, when the junior brother had somehow let a captured demonic beast go, and Jiang Youbai happened to run into him. When he asked why the junior brother let the beast go, the junior brother attacked him.

His spiritual power was naturally superior to the junior brother’s, so he kept his strength restrained while fighting, impatiently asking, “Junior brother, what are you doing?”

The junior brother said nothing, and after a few exchanges, took a palm strike from him.

Coincidentally, the senior brothers heard the commotion and rushed over, witnessing him wounding the junior brother. Jiang Youbai wanted to explain, but before he could, the senior brother shielded the junior behind him, his eyes sharp. “Why did you strike our junior brother?!”

Before he could answer, the junior brother spoke first: “It is not Senior Brother Jiang’s fault. He must have done it by accident. I saw him release the demon and tried to stop him, but I did not expect him to strike suddenly. He surely did not mean to target me; he must have mistaken me for a guard.”

In a few short sentences, he pinned the crime of releasing the beast on him as well.

Jiang Youbai looked at the junior brother in disbelief, but his line of sight was blocked by the senior brother, whose tall frame was determined to protect the other. “Releasing a demon and wounding a fellow disciple—Jiang Youbai, you have some nerve!”

Jiang Youbai bit his lip until it turned white. “It was not me! I saw him release the beast; I did not intend to hurt him…”

The senior brother interrupted his defense coldly: “Are you saying our junior brother hurt himself? Ever since he joined the Master’s sect, you have been targeting him everywhere. Now you have resorted to such despicable schemes as framing him?”

The surrounding crowd echoed with agreement.

“Exactly. If he was not guilty, why would he hit him so hard?”

“There were only the two of them inside. The junior brother was wounded by him, so of course he can say whatever he wants. Maybe he was threatening him in there!”

“Junior, do not be afraid. We all saw him strike you.”

It was all the same; no one believed him.

Jiang Youbai let out a soft laugh, the memories dissipating like smoke. “So? Does the Sect Master intend to settle scores with me?”

Shen Changchuan glanced at Jiang Youbai. The little peacock looked up at him, a smile on his lips as if he were asking about something as mundane as having a meal.

He said, “Follow me back to the Shangqing Sect.”

Jiang Youbai took a step toward Shen Changchuan, feigning surprise. “As a demonic beast, would going to the Shangqing Sect not be like a sheep walking into a tiger’s den?”

Seeing the other stay silent, he took another step closer, deliberately saying, “Or does the Sect Master want to emulate the Demon Lord and engage in dual cultivation with a human-shaped beast?”

As soon as he finished speaking, without waiting for a reply, he thrust the feather toward the man’s heart again.

Shen Changchuan did not move. His right fingers twitched, and the red thread tightened instantly. Jiang Youbai felt a sharp pain in his wrist, and the feather fell to the ground.

Jiang Youbai narrowed his eyes. A trace of blood-red crawled into his amber pupils for a split second, only to be suppressed immediately. He glanced at the red thread around his wrist and looked up with a pure, innocent expression. “Ah, it is bleeding.”

With his hand constrained by the other, he could only lean in and lick the beads of blood seeping from his wrist with the tip of his tongue. When he raised his eyes, he met Shen Changchuan’s cold gaze. He took the blood from his lips into his mouth and smiled. “It hurts so much.”

The two were incredibly close now, the scent of blood spreading between them. Jiang Youbai noticed the red thread tightening even further. He did not know what it was made of, but it could easily slice through skin, cutting deep into his flesh.

Shen Changchuan lowered his eyes, his thick lashes casting a shadow on his face. “You did not cry when your heart had a hole in it, but you cry for a small scratch like this?”

Jiang Youbai followed his gaze to his own chest, where his robe was pierced by his own feather, blood already staining half of his clothes in a shocking display.

He blinked, as if only just realizing it, though his face still showed no signs of pain. “Ah, that hurts too, but I cannot reach it. Could I ask the Sect Master for a favor?”

Shen Changchuan looked up. “What favor?”

Jiang Youbai extended his other, unconstrained hand. “Lend me your hand.”

Shen Changchuan looked at that pale, bloodless palm, white as freshly fallen snow, unlike a normal person’s. He placed his other hand into the other’s palm. While their other hands were locked in a stalemate that threatened to crush bone, this side felt strangely familiar, as if he were placing his hand into the other’s safely.

Jiang Youbai grabbed Shen Changchuan’s wrist with his other hand, his gaze lingering on those well-defined fingers, and guided the man’s hand to his own chest.

The man’s hand had thin callouses; his broad palm could wrap around his own hand completely. It was beautiful, but cold.

Demonic energy flowed from Shen Changchuan’s fingers into his chest. He guided the man’s hand in slow, circular motions, from the outside in. Where his hand passed, the wound visibly began to heal.

Shen Changchuan’s hand was very cold. The moment Jiang Youbai touched him, he felt as if the blood in his own hand were freezing. Although his own skin was not as snow-white as a normal person’s, his blood was warm. Shen Changchuan was the opposite; the man’s hands had color, yet lacked the warmth that blood should have.

In his previous life, he had never dared to be this close to Shen Changchuan. He had treated him with respect like everyone else, never daring to overstep by even half a step, and had never touched his hand. He wondered if it was due to the cultivation technique he practiced, or something else.

The moment he finished channeling the energy to heal his wound, Jiang Youbai immediately let go without a hint of hesitation and flickered away from Shen Changchuan’s side.

“The Shangqing Sect is not for me. Sect Master, you should go back alone.”

He tossed these words behind him and turned to leave. The red thread around his wrist had been shredded to pieces at some point, falling like dust into the mud.

There was no movement behind him. Jiang Youbai dashed out of the forest at top speed, not daring to look back, afraid that if he were distracted for even a second, the man would catch up.

But he had underestimated Shen Changchuan.

A phantom image of a pale golden jade token unfurled before him like a scroll, hovering in mid-air and forcing him to stop abruptly. He stared at those tokens, which felt like the manifestation of a god, his pupils overtaken by red. He lashed out with his feathers, throwing them at the tokens, but they could not produce even a single crack.

Hatred surged in his eyes like a rising tide. He turned and flung more feathers at the man behind him.

Shen Changchuan approached as if taking a leisurely stroll, yet in an instant, he caught up to Jiang Youbai. Every step he took brought him dozens of feet closer, and wherever he stepped, the frost turned the life force to nothing.

No matter how tricky Jiang Youbai’s feather strikes were, they were all blocked by the jade token phantoms appearing out of thin air around Shen Changchuan. He could not harm him in the slightest.

Jiang Youbai watched the man stop a hundred meters away and tilted his head. “Not killing me?”

Why was Shen Changchuan so obsessed with taking him back to the Shangqing Sect? In his previous life, he had not killed those disciples, and when Shen Changchuan saved him, he was willing to go back. But now it was different; he had killed those disciples, and he intended to kill Shen Changchuan, yet the man still wanted to take him back?

As he pondered, he heard the man’s ethereal voice carried on the wind: “Does it not hurt?”

Jiang Youbai did not react. “What?”

What was this? Why the sudden concern?

However, the next second, he knew he had thought too much.

Shen Changchuan looked at him, his eyes calm and still. “My spiritual energy and Xie Qingli’s demonic energy are fighting inside your dantian.”

The moment the words left Shen Changchuan’s lips, Jiang Youbai felt an agonizing pain erupt throughout his body. It was not just his dantian; it felt as if every meridian in his body were about to explode.

A flash crossed his mind. When he touched Mu Qingke’s jade token, a burst of spiritual power had entered his body, and just moments ago, when Xie Qingli’s blood-stained fingertip grazed his lips, something had slipped down his throat with the blood.

The pain rolled over him like the sea, and he could not think anymore. Two extremely dominant forces, spiritual power and demonic energy, clashed within him like fire and water. Anyone else would have exploded and died by now.

Jiang Youbai stood his ground, blood overflowing from his mouth. After a long while, he managed to pull off a smile. “So, you knew all along that I would die.”

He met the gaze of that tall, slender figure a hundred meters away again, so graceful and immortal, just like in his previous life when the man stood at the edge of the cliff and he, like a lone goose, plummeted from the sky. The red moon hung above the man’s head as they looked at each other with cold indifference.

Jiang Youbai whispered, “Then, you shall be my funerary companion.”

In his past life, Shen Changchuan had personally struck him down the cliff; it was a pity he had not been able to drag the man down with him. If he were destined to die now, then Shen Changchuan should die with him!

The red thread that had turned to dust earlier appeared on the hand Shen Changchuan had touched. This time, the initiative was in Jiang Youbai’s hand. He yanked the man toward him, the scarlet in his pupils leaping like flames.

In the next second, a trace of blood-red slowly climbed into Shen Changchuan’s cold, dark eyes.