The Beautiful Pariah Thought He Could Be Loved - Chapter 23

Chapter 23

In the quiet room, Xin Qishu’s cold scoff was exceptionally clear.

Behind the gauze curtain, Xin Sha’s face instantly darkened, appearing even more terrifying against the patterns of the fabric.

Xin Qishu stood at the doorway, the light and shadow cutting across the expression on his face. After observing Xin Sha’s current state for a moment, he slowly walked inside.

Xin Sha pounded the bed in frustration, shouting loudly, “Xin Qishu, what kind of expression is that?!”

He had fathered only this one child, yet on his deathbed, the child looked at him with such a face! There wasn’t a hint of filial piety! Resentment boiled within Xin Sha; his lifelong ambition to unify the world remained unfulfilled, yet his end was already near.

Throughout his life, he never cared for others. He didn’t care for the concern or love of others, and he certainly never gave any.

The fact that he found himself craving care at the brink of death made him furious—and what enraged him more was that it was being denied!

Xin Qishu was not like him.

He hadn’t raised Xin Qishu; this child had struggled on his own in the outside world for two hundred years, yet when he stood before him now, he was still a sentimental person.

Xin Sha felt it was a disgrace; he would have preferred Xin Qishu to die outside.

He ignored Xin Qishu, unwilling to invest even a shred of thought into him. He only remembered him when he needed to use him. But Xin Qishu was not obedient; he never followed his wishes. Breaking the engagement with Xu Qiyao twice had completely ruined the relationship between the two sects. Every time he thought of Xin Qishu, he felt a surge of loathing.

What he found most incomprehensible was that the boy insisted on being with a man who looked ice-cold at first glance.

Xin Sha considered himself “fair” to Xin Qishu, intending to do one “good” deed for him before dying…

“Let me into the secret realm of the Blood Demon Ring,” Xin Qishu said, cutting straight to the point.

The veins on Xin Sha’s face bulged like venomous snakes writhing under his skin. He could not accept Xin Qishu’s attitude!

“Is that the first thing you say to me after seeing me!”

Xin Qishu knew what he was thinking. With a blank expression, he said, “You never cared about me either. I am simply treating you with the same attitude you used on me.”

Xin Sha’s chest heaved violently, staring at him with ferocious eyes.

Xin Qishu remained composed. He knew Xin Sha was truly at the end of his rope; otherwise, the man would have jumped up to strike him long ago.

After a long silence, Xin Sha spat through gritted teeth, “I called you back specifically to let you enter the secret realm, but I have one condition.”

“Make that man get lost. You stay in the Demon Abyss and marry Fei Jia.”

Xin Qishu’s expression didn’t flicker; he had guessed this last night. For Fei Jia to act the way he did, he must have secured Xin Sha’s support.

To enter the secret realm, he had to marry him. Fei Jia really did know him well—but he also knew Fei Jia’s weakness.

“You and Fei Jia grew up together; I believe you can take good care of him.”

“No,” Xin Qishu uttered a single word.

“Then you can die right here.” Xin Sha’s fury ignited again. Even lying immobile on the bed, his aura remained powerful.

As the words fell, Xin Qishu let out a light laugh. Fei Jia’s expression also changed slightly, and he hurriedly pulled Xin Qishu behind a screen.

“Hey!” Xin Sha shouted, unwilling to believe he was being ignored like this.

“This wasn’t my idea, don’t even think about it,” Fei Jia whispered urgently at his side.

“You clearly know I don’t feel that way about you.” Xin Qishu lowered his gaze slightly. “You are making things very difficult for me.”

Fei Jia pursed his lips. “Feelings can be nurtured. Perhaps they will grow after spending time together. Do you remember? You used to love a dog named Xiao Zhen.”

“I brought that dog back. At first, you didn’t like it, you wouldn’t even look at it. But after it lived with us for a month, you fell in love with it and played with it every day.”

Xin Qishu interrupted him, “Are you saying you want the kind of love I have for a dog?”

Fei Jia went silent; clearly, that wasn’t what he wanted.

“I consider you my family, my only family.”

“Do you know the most important reason I was willing to return to the Blood Glory Palace?”

“It was you. Because your future is in the Blood Glory Palace. I wanted to stay by your side.”

“Then can’t you stay by my side in the future too?” Fei Jia clenched his fists. “Is it still because I leaked your whereabouts to Xu Qiyao?”

“That will never happen again.” Fei Jia paused and said, “I can even swear an oath.”

Xin Qishu didn’t call him out for eavesdropping. “…Haven’t we been apart before?”

“How is that the same? I knew we would reunite then.”

Xin Qishu said slowly, “Just consider this a brief parting. Perhaps one day in the future, we will meet again.”

They both spoke the words, but both knew the truth: they wouldn’t. Once Xin Qishu left the Blood Glory Palace this time, they would never see each other again.

Fei Jia gritted his teeth. “How do you plan to spend your ‘Demon Day’? Can He Shuaiqing accept you like that?” It wasn’t unheard of for lovers to be abandoned because the partner couldn’t accept the ears and fangs.

“He can,” Xin Qishu said firmly, turning slightly and rolling up his sleeve.

“He can do what? He’ll definitely take the chance to kill you,” Xin Sha finally caught a sentence and interjected.

Faint footsteps came from outside, likely a dozen or so people.

Xin Qishu stepped out. “Right now, you are the one trying to kill me.” He held onto the screen, looking coldly at Xin Sha.

The footsteps grew louder. Xin Qishu strode to Xin Sha’s bedside.

His jade-like, slender hand lifted the gauze curtain, looking down at the terrified Xin Sha. “You shouldn’t have agreed to let Fei Jia come today.”

The door was thrown open, and a dozen people rushed in.

With a flash of a wide sleeve, a long blade as white as snow was pressed against the side of Xin Sha’s neck.

The atmosphere in the hall tightened instantly.

“Actually, my personality is somewhat similar to his.”

“Fei Jia, kill him quickly!”

Fei Jia was about to step forward to seize the blade when his pupils suddenly constricted.

Xin Qishu held the long blade against Xin Sha’s neck, while a second dagger was slightly inserted into his own chest. His face turned deathly pale instantly, his expression sorrowful as he sighed softly, “I don’t know how to deal with you both anymore. Fei Jia, you have only one chance, and you can only take one blade at a time.”

“Now? How will you choose?”

Fei Jia froze in place. After a moment, he turned around and blocked the dozen people.

Xin Qishu exhaled, pulling out the dagger. Seeing this, Xin Sha’s heart sank as he threatened, “You’d better think this through. If I die, you’ll never have another chance. You’ll spend your whole life pleasing others, kneeling on the ground begging for protection!”

The blade on his neck pressed deeper, and several streaks of black blood flowed out. Xin Sha screamed, his face turning gray instantly; in his current state, every drop of blood he lost invited a backlash.

Finally, he shouted: “Stop! I’ll let you in!”

The blade stopped. Xin Sha closed his eyes to concentrate; in an instant, large beads of sweat covered his forehead. After half a stick of incense’s time, he opened his mouth and forced out a wisp of black air.

The black air drifted to the side, lingering on the ring. Xin Sha’s mouth opened and closed several times, and a flash of white light erupted.

Clang! The blade fell freely to the floor.

Xin Qishu had vanished; he had successfully entered the secret realm.

…

Trees towered into the clouds, sunlight filtering through the gaps in the dense leaves. The soil was soft after the rain, leaving a footprint with every step.

“Tsk,” the air was fresh after the rain. Facing two diverging paths, the young disciple Jiu Jiu looked back respectfully. “Senior Brother, can you still calculate where they ran to?”

The Mo Sect had been investigating the whereabouts of the Qingrong Flute. They had chased the demon who stole it to this place, where the demon’s aura suddenly vanished.

The man behind him had a white cloth tied over his eyes, possessing an otherworldly aura. He pinched his fingers to perform a divination. After a moment, Duan Shi pointed vaguely in one direction: “The Qingrong Flute is that way.”

They moved immediately, and indeed, there were remnants of demonic energy along the way.

At the back of the group, Senior Brother Duan Shi secretly gave a thumbs-up and bragged to the person next to him. “Look, see? My Junior Brother is just that amazing!”

The short-haired youth rolled his eyes. “He’s my Senior Brother too, okay?”

The person in front suddenly looked back, catching them red-handed. A smile played at the corners of Duan Shi’s mouth. “Focus your attention.”

The two nodded like chickens pecking at rice.

Duan Shi slowed his pace to walk alongside them, asking in a seemingly casual low voice, “How are things over at the Law Rain Court?”

The Senior Brother replied, “The two of them are still staying at Xiaoqing River.”

Duan Shi nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly said, “Did He Shuaiqing not force him back to the Demon Abyss? That doesn’t seem like his style…”

The short-haired youth asked, “Have you dealt with him before, Senior Brother?”

Duan Shi smiled. “No, but he just looks like the kind of person who doesn’t understand human emotions.”

After chasing a bit further, a small wooden hut appeared in the forest. The door was wide open, leaving everything inside visible at a glance.

Jiu Jiu asked in confusion, “Did they just drop the Qingrong Flute here and run away?”

The smile on Duan Shi’s lips suddenly faded. He raised his hand and caught an iron bar swinging toward the back of his head, his arm bulging with beautiful muscle lines.

His voice was cold: “Do I look like the weakest one?”

The demon used every ounce of strength, but the iron bar didn’t budge an inch. Realizing he had hit a wall, he couldn’t help but curse: “Shit!”

The demon cultivator instantly abandoned his weapon, trying to escape. Duan Shi didn’t let go; he stepped forward, gripped one end of the iron bar, and swung it back.

The place he struck was ten steps southeast of the demon cultivator. In the next instant, the demon appeared right under the iron bar, as if he had actively run into it.

Just as the bar was about to crush his head, the demon cultivator didn’t seem to care, his eyes still looking elsewhere.

The Senior Brother grinned and took a large net out of his storage space. They had been carrying this net for a long time; today it finally came in handy!

Duan Shi, however, frowned slightly.

The next moment, a gust of wind rose. The net instantly fell toward the demon’s position, but a cluster of blood-red particles suddenly erupted and flew toward the crowd.

Duan Shi and the others covered their mouths and noses to avoid them. When the particles vanished, the net lay flat on the ground, having caught nothing.

“How is that possible? I clearly… don’t demon cultivators turn into black smoke to escape?”

Duan Shi murmured, “Is his bloodline purity higher than those we’ve met before?”

A disciple ran out of the hut, shouting, “Senior Brother, the Qingrong Flute isn’t here!”

Duan Shi performed another divination. After a long while, he shook his head. “The Qingrong Flute is no longer in the Kuangjin Realm.”

“He Shuaiqing’s side needs to speed up. If the Qingrong Flute falls into the hands of the demons, I’m afraid war will break out again.”

At that moment, his communication jade token suddenly lit up. Although it was the token linked to Ye Yi, He Shuaiqing’s voice came from within.

Great powers across the Kuangjin Realm stopped what they were doing, took out their communication tokens, and listened intently.

“The plan is in motion. Xin Qishu has entered the secret realm with the artifact.”

“In three days, the Blood Demon Ring will be damaged. That will be the best time to attack the Blood Glory Palace. Everyone, please head to the Demon Abyss immediately to eliminate the demons together and ensure the peace of the world.”