The Beautiful Demon Lord’s Disciple Won’t Pretend Anymore - Chapter 6

Perhaps accustomed to seeing Hua Yao as a cold, imposing figure, Xu Chengbi was momentarily stunned to find himself being glared at by such an adorable, jade-like little person. He stood frozen, gripping his whip, and after staring at Hua Yao for a long time, he suddenly burst into loud laughter.

He laughed until he was gasping for air, eventually clutching his stomach and rolling on the ground. If one looked closely, they could see the glint of tears at the corners of his eyes from his mirth.

Hua Yao: “…”

Turning his head and pretending not to see Xu Chengbi mocking him, he tightened his jawline, kicked his short legs, and laboriously climbed out of the pile of clothes.

Fortunately, when he had shrunk due to his weakness, he had managed to use his remaining spiritual energy to manifest a set of robes. Otherwise, if he had been left naked, he didn’t know how much more Xu Chengbi would have mocked him.

He had matters to attend to and was in a hurry to leave, but because his legs were so short now, he maintained his poise as a Great Elder and refused to run. After walking for a quarter of an hour, he was still quite a distance from the door.

Just as Hua Yao was persevering toward the exit, his body suddenly felt light. The next moment, he was lifted into the air by the back of his collar.

Xu Chengbi had intended to seize the shrunken Hua Yao, tease and torment him, and then take advantage of his vulnerability to threaten him into letting him go. But to his surprise, the moment he lifted Hua Yao and placed him in his palm, Hua Yao naturally sat cross-legged, looking completely unafraid and gazing at him with clear, bright eyes.

Xu Chengbi was taken aback by that look.

In those pupils, Hua Yao’s exquisite, refined features and porcelain-white skin were clearly reflected. Previously, when Xu Chengbi looked at Hua Yao, he only had a vague, general concept that “this man is very handsome.” But as he stared at him face-to-face, he suddenly realized that this person was truly, devastatingly beautiful.

Skin like congealed fat, red lips and white teeth, features painted like a masterpiece, he looked as cold and detached as an immortal.

He really was as beautiful as a celestial being.

This thought drifted aimlessly through Xu Chengbi’s mind. A beat later, he clumsily scratched the back of his head, wondering why he was acting like this over a man when he hadn’t been in a relationship for so long. He shook the thought away and asked Hua Yao:

“What happened to you?”

“You already know. My spiritual roots were damaged, and my cultivation has regressed,” Hua Yao said, his expression flat and unperturbed.

“Does cultivation regression make you shrink?”

Xu Chengbi looked at him with an “as if I’d believe that” expression.

“That’s not how it’s written in novels and storybooks.”

What kind of strange setting was this?

“I… have a unique constitution.”

Hua Yao paused, his fingertips instinctively tightening against the fabric over his knees. He lowered his eyes and said nothing more, clearly unwilling to elaborate.

“…Fine.”

Xu Chengbi had no interest in gossip. He sat cross-legged, mimicking Hua Yao’s posture, though his palm remained stiffly extended to ensure Hua Yao wouldn’t fall, as if he were holding fragile porcelain.

“You can’t beat me now. You can let me go, right?”

Hua Yao seemed to smile at this, but the curve of his lips vanished so quickly that Xu Chengbi suspected he had imagined it.

“Of course not.”

“You…”

“Even if I am injured and cannot restrain you, don’t forget, I still have the Oblivion Lock.”

Hua Yao continued, “Besides, the Xianxian Sect is vast, filled with barriers and powerful experts. You won’t be able to get out.”

Xu Chengbi paused, feeling deeply unwilling. After a moment, he narrowed his eyes.

“Then what if I hold you hostage and threaten your martial uncles and disciples into letting me go?”

“That is even less likely.”

Hua Yao tilted his head, a gesture so adorable it nearly caused Xu Chengbi to cough up blood, but his words were chillingly rational:

“Who holds more weight: the safety of Hua Yao or the safety of the world? I believe the Sect Leader and the others know the answer.”

Xu Chengbi shivered at Hua Yao’s icy expression. He cursed under his breath that all these immortal cultivators were insane, before finally running out of options.

“Then what you said about owing me a favor… were you lying?”

“I was not,” Hua Yao pressed his lips together.

“I don’t care. You need to come up with a compromise. Don’t lock me in here. Let me move freely.”

Xu Chengbi was so annoyed he wanted to die. “Did I owe you in a past life or something?”

Hua Yao pondered this, staring at Xu Chengbi for a while until the man felt his skin crawl. After a moment of hesitation, he slowly reached out his hand:

“It isn’t that you owe me. It is I who owes you.”

He extended his wrist toward Xu Chengbi, but because he was so small, Xu Chengbi didn’t notice the gesture and remained unmoved. Hua Yao was forced to stand up, hop in place, and raise his hand to finally capture Xu Chengbi’s attention.

“Look at this.”

“What’s this?”

Xu Chengbi’s attention was finally caught. He lowered his head and stared at Hua Yao’s wrist for a long time, looking bewildered.

“Why do you want me to look at your hand?”

“…No, look here.”

Hua Yao pointed to his wrist with his fingertip, emphasizing:

“Look here.”

Hua Yao was pale all over, which made the small red mole on his wrist stand out like a drop of fresh cinnabar.

“This looks familiar,” Xu Chengbi leaned in. “I think I saw this mole the day you threw me away.”

“Guess what this is?”

Suddenly confronted with that memory, Hua Yao felt inexplicably guilty and subconsciously shifted the topic.

 Xu Chengbi stared at the mole for a long time, his expression gradually growing grave, making Hua Yao straighten his posture in confusion.

“This is…”

Xu Chengbi looked at Hua Yao cautiously.

“A vermilion mark of chastity?”

“…”

Hua Yao jumped up and, without a word, kicked Xu Chengbi in the forehead with his tiny foot.

“Ouch, that tickles…” Xu Chengbi rubbed his forehead, his handsome features scrunching up in grievance.

“What is it, then?”

“This is an Affinity Mark,” Hua Yao took several deep breaths to maintain his cold expression. “It only appears when one becomes entangled in karma. It suppresses cultivation and serves as a veiled warning from the Heavenly Dao.”

“My Path of Ruthlessness does not permit excessive karma, nor can I touch the worldly desires of mortals. By accepting your help, a fated entanglement has been formed. If I do not repay this debt, I will never be able to break through my bottleneck.”

“So, what does that have to do with me?”

Xu Chengbi teased, looking at him. “It has nothing to do with me.”

“Don’t forget, you cultivate the Path of Emotion. You need to experience the deepest emotions of the human world to successfully overcome your tribulation and ascend.”

Hua Yao said slowly, “Since we share such a fate, if our story ends in a slovenly way, would you not be failing this experience and losing the chance to achieve enlightenment and ascend?”

Xu Chengbi…

Xu Chengbi’s expression went blank, unsure if he had been swayed or simply bamboozled by Hua Yao’s logic. Seeing this, Hua Yao did not press the matter further. He grabbed a strand of Xu Chengbi’s hair, intending to swing down to the floor, but he was grabbed again.

By the cheek.

Hua Yao’s cheek was very soft. Xu Chengbi pinched it once, felt it wasn’t enough, and ignored Hua Yao’s protests to rub it repeatedly with his fingers. After a long while, he laughed, pretending to have just come back to his senses:

“Alright, fine. I’ll help you out.”

He glanced at Hua Yao’s “Affinity Mark” one last time before looking away.

“I’ll find a way to get rid of it.”

…

“Greetings, Elder Qinghe.”

The cold, immortal-like man before them was not dressed in his usual attire. He wore his hair in a high ponytail tied with a white ribbon, and a pigeon-blood red earring dangled from his earlobe. The stark contrast of red, black, and white highlighted his exquisite features perfectly.

Hua Yao stood before the Qingshui Villa, where Ren Jun used to rest. Hearing someone call to him, he turned and smiled at the disciples standing to the side:

“Hello there.”

Hua Yao did not usually smile. As his long, dark lashes lifted and fell, that smile stole the souls of half the disciples present.

It wasn’t until Hua Yao had walked far away that they slowly regained their senses, doubting in a daze whether they had seen a ghost.

“Why are you smiling at them?”

The real Hua Yao was currently hiding in Xu Chengbi’s earring, taking in everything before him. Feeling his body pressed against Xu Chengbi’s skin, his face burned with inexplicable heat.

“What’s wrong with a little smile?”

“Hua Yao”—or rather, Xu Chengbi, walked with a light, brisk stride that lost nothing to Hua Yao’s own, and pushed open the door to Ren Jun’s Qingshui Villa.

“It’s better to smile more often.”

“Don’t do it again.”

Thinking of the expressions on those disciples’ faces, Hua Yao frowned. “Why cause unnecessary ripples?”

Hua Yao wanted to tell him not to destroy his original persona by acting out of character, but Xu Chengbi misinterpreted his intent and replied:

“You know, when you smile, it makes people feel…”

Xu Chengbi wanted to say that it made people feel an itching in their hearts, but the thought circled in his head before he could voice it. He frowned for a moment, feeling that the sentence sounded strange, so he decided to just let it go.

Fortunately, Hua Yao didn’t care what he had been about to say. Relieved that his “true identity” hadn’t been discovered, he directed Xu Chengbi to begin tidying up Ren Jun’s belongings.

“So, you were in such a rush just now because you wanted to gather Ren Jun’s things?”

Xu Chengbi scanned the somewhat chaotic furnishings and couldn’t help but remember the overly monotonous arrangement of Hua Yao’s own room. He suddenly felt a longing for it.

“Do we need to take all of these?”

“Yes.”

Hua Yao had only brought Xu Chengbi along because his shrunken state made moving about difficult.

“I told the Sect Leader the truth about how Ren Jun died. He was furious that I owed you a favor and acted impulsively, lashing out at me.”

“Regardless, Ren Jun was my chief disciple and the Eleventh Prince of the Yulong Kingdom. As his master, I cannot allow his belongings to simply be left here. I must organize them and send them back to the Yulong Kingdom with his remains.”

“Indeed.”

Xu Chengbi took off the earring and set Hua Yao down before pouting.

“Why couldn’t your Sect Leader just speak properly instead of getting physical?”

“…The Sect Leader wasn’t like that before.” Hua Yao climbed onto Xu Chengbi’s fingertip, carefully lifted his hem to stand steadily on his shoulder, and sat down. After a moment of contemplation, his expression turned to one of slight bewilderment.

“He became suddenly agitated as soon as he heard your name. I don’t know why.”

“Maybe he’s worried that I’ll distract you from your cultivation.”

Xu Chengbi didn’t know the personality of the Xianxian Sect’s leader, only that he was a strange man who insisted on wearing a hood to hide his face. He replied dismissively, then half-squatted to begin carefully gathering Ren Jun’s items.

Hua Yao raised an eyebrow in disapproval at the remark, but after a moment, he had no argument to offer. He only pressed his lips together and said:

“The Sect Master is indeed worried that I will fail to breakthrough and ascend.”

He lowered his gaze, watching Xu Chengbi sift through the items. Sitting on his shoulder, Hua Yao cupped his chin in his hands and let out a sigh so faint it was nearly imperceptible.

“It is just that I owe you a favor, and I also owed Ren Jun so much. Now, I truly do not know what to do.”

The debt to Xu Chengbi was easy to repay—the man was still alive, so there would be opportunities. But having caused Ren Jun’s death through his own oversight, how could he ever repay that debt?

Bang.

As Hua Yao sat in melancholy thought, the tall bookshelf suddenly wobbled from Xu Chengbi’s movements and tipped over, crashing onto the floor and sending up a light cloud of dust, startling them both.

A scroll hidden in a false compartment fell out as the cabinet door swung open. It rolled across the floor and stopped against the tip of Xu Chengbi’s shoe.

“What’s this?”

Hidden in a secret compartment, it must be precious, right?

Xu Chengbi and Hua Yao exchanged a look. The next second, Xu Chengbi moved his toe, seemingly trying to flick the scroll into the air to catch it.

However, his kicking motion was a bit stiff, and instead of successfully flicking the scroll into his hand, he kicked it even further away.

Hua Yao: “…”

The roots of Xu Chengbi’s ears grew hot. He rubbed his nose, ignoring Hua Yao’s look of disdain, and jogged over to pick up the painting. He felt the scroll for a moment before undoing the tie.

The painting slowly unfurled.

A moment later, a young woman dressed in bright red palace robes appeared before them. She had a graceful figure and a gentle face, sitting in a pavilion with her head bowed, extending a slender, fair hand to feed the fish in the pond.

Beside her stood a tall, upright man with an elegant posture, looking every bit the immortal expert.

However, the expert’s face had been obscured by ink marks. Only the lower half of his face was visible. The person who had done the smearing seemed to be fueled by a deep-seated hatred, cruelly ruining the harmony of the entire painting.

“Damn, why smear it like this?” Xu Chengbi leaned back, gasping.

“What a grudge.”

“…” Hua Yao frowned, saying nothing for a long time.

“…”

In the eerie silence, Xu Chengbi seemed to notice that Hua Yao was acting strange. He turned his head to look at the little person sitting on his shoulder.

“What’s with that look… do you know them?”

“I suppose you could say that.”

Hua Yao knit his brows, his icy face displaying a rare hint of confusion. He pointed his finger at the man whose face had been ruined in the painting and said:

“That is me.”

Before the stunned Xu Chengbi could react, Hua Yao moved his arm again, shifting his gaze to the woman in the palace robes.

“That is Jun’er’s elder sister, the Grand Princess of the Yulong Kingdom, Ren Yunjiao.”

He then pointed to a small, inconspicuous child with his hair in traditional buns, being looked after by a nurse in the corner. “That is my chief disciple, Ren Jun.”

Xu Chengbi’s mouth opened slightly. His gaze darted back and forth between the painting and Hua Yao, his expression growing increasingly dumbfounded.

After a long while, he seemed to hesitate, his brain working rapidly as if trying to connect the dots. Finally, he hesitantly blurted out:

“So… your chief disciple hated you to the extreme, which is why he deliberately broke into the forbidden grounds to be killed under your ‘oversight,’ all to force you into owing him a debt of gratitude?”

Hua Yao heard this, and his heart skipped a beat. A moment later, his expression grew increasingly heavy.

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