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Back when they joked and laughed together, Lu Li had thought nothing of it. But recalling it all now, a chilling dread gripped his heart.

Only Xie Jianwei knew the spell of pain transference, and that little incubus was Xie Jianwei.

His mind was in utter chaos as a truth nearly surfaced. Lu Li could not help asking, “Are only demons converted from humans considered non-native demons?”

The lesser demon replied, “Presumably so. My Lord was transformed from an angel, so aren’t you unaffected by the Night of the Sky Curtain?”

He indeed was not afraid. In the Demon Realm for several centuries, through countless Nights of the Sky Curtain, he had never experienced the bone-corroding agony. Yet thinking back carefully, it seemed that every time that night arrived, he would see that little incubus.

The creature secretly watched him from a corner, occasionally drifting closer as if by accident.

Had he touched him? With so many people mingling in the crowded banquet hall, even Lu Li himself could not be sure.

Perhaps he had.

The more Lu Li thought about it, the more uneasy he grew, his heart wrenching with sharp spasms.

In truth, there was no need for Lu Li to inquire further. Once night fell, nothing could remain hidden; because Xie Jianwei could not use spells, the bone-corroding pain would fall upon Lu Li himself.

Yet Lu Li could not wait even for that brief span of time. He opened his mouth and murmured, “Just how did I become a demon?”

As he murmured this aloud, Yan Ke and the lesser demon both looked at him in surprise: “My Lord, you do not know yourself?”

Lu Li’s pupils contracted sharply. “I…” He did not know. Back then, his mind had been entirely overwhelmed by agony and despair.

Xie Jianwei wanted to kill him for the sake of a mortal, their promise to stay together had turned into a mockery, and every vow of eternal love became the fuse that consumed Lu Li. Back then, Lu Li had not wanted to live on at all.

If Xie Jianwei would not let him live, how could he go on living?

Lu Li thought he was going to die, yet when he opened his eyes again, he had become an Archdemon. Immediately afterward, bone-deep hatred grew uncontrollably. Unwilling to accept it, resentful, he wanted to drag Xie Jianwei back and force him to taste what it felt like to have one’s heart torn apart!

Carrying this obsession, he lived for hundreds of years.

Yet over all these centuries, he had never once considered how he had survived in the first place.

Night descended as expected. On this night of revelry in which he had taken part countless times, Lu Li finally experienced the bone-corroding agony.

It struck without warning, seizing his entire body in an instant like a plague. The sensation was indescribable. After all, if an ordinary person had so many bones broken, they would surely pass out from the pain. Yet he could not die, forced to endure it raw.

At the extreme limit of agony, sweat truly poured like rain.

Lu Li recalled that curled-up incubus: his face was pale, yet he forced himself to walk, and with every step he took, those droplets of sweat were more piercing to the eye than blood.

Lu Li suddenly felt that compared to physical pain, his heart ached far worse.

What in the world was going on?

Why was he subjected to this bone-corroding agony, and why did Xie Jianwei bear this pain in his stead?

Over four hundred years, just how many Nights of the Sky Curtain had passed? Had Xie Jianwei endured it like this every single time? In an unfamiliar Demon Realm, huddled in a freezing corner, enduring it all alone…

He was so terrified of pain.

Lu Li could hardly fathom what kind of willpower Xie Jianwei, who would knit his brows over a minor bump, had used to endure such agony.

Yet why? Just why? Didn’t he hate him enough to kill him? Then why… why would he bear such excruciating pain for him?

Lu Li staggered to his feet. Sensing his abnormality, Yan Ke asked in astonishment, “Your Excellency, you are…”

Lu Li said not a word, stumbling back toward the room.

The moment the door burst open, Xie Jianwei stepped forward with an anxious face: “Lifuer, undo the restriction for me and let me restore my power.”

Lu Li stared fixedly at him, his eyes blood-red: “And after it is undone? You will use pain transference on me, won’t you?”

Xie Jianwei froze, his face turning pale: “You…”

Before he could finish, Lu Li demanded in a low, heavy voice, “Why? Tell me what in the world happened!”

Xie Jianwei’s eyes were full of heartache. He knew all too well what this bone-corroding torment felt like. Supporting Lu Li, he pleaded anxiously, “Undo it for me. Let me use pain transference on you. I am used to it, I don’t feel the pain.”

Used to it… used to it… Those three words were like a poisoned blade stabbing violently into Lu Li’s heart and lungs. He pulled Xie Jianwei into an embrace, his voice hoarse beyond measure: “How could anyone ever get used to something like this?”

Xie Jianwei paused, then hastily amended, “I have a way. I can lower the sensation of pain. I have researched it. Please, leave it to me, alright?”

Lu Li did not believe him at all: “Tell me what that method is.”

Xie Jianwei was rendered speechless.

Lu Li buried his face in his neck. Thinking of what kind of life Xie Jianwei had endured over these hundreds of years, he could not control his emotions. This man, who had never wept in his life, let a scalding tear fall upon Xie Jianwei’s neck.

Xie Jianwei was genuinely scalded by it. Even knowing this was a dream, his heartache was beyond measure; aching both for the torment Lu Li’s body suffered and the guilt weighing upon Lu Li’s heart.

“Lifuer, I am sorry,” he forced himself to murmur.

Yet Lu Li suddenly relaxed. He did not continue questioning him, merely releasing Xie Jianwei and meeting his gaze: “Kiss me.”

Xie Jianwei looked at him blankly, clearly caught off guard.

Lu Li’s face was white as a sheet, his teeth chattering from the agony, yet he forced an airy tone: “Kiss me once, and it won’t hurt anymore.”

Memories surged in like a tidal wave. In a daze, Xie Jianwei seemed to see that Lu Li from their narrow brush with death; covered in blood, his lower abdomen pierced clean through, so wretched he could barely stand. Without a word, Xie Jianwei had performed surgery on him with a deadpan expression. Once the condition stabilized, Lu Li had whispered, “It hurts so much.”

Back then, Xie Jianwei was both furious and heartbroken, keeping his face stiff and stern.

Lu Li had smiled and said, “Kiss me. If you kiss me once, it won’t hurt anymore.”

What they experienced in dreams and reality differed completely, yet because it was always this same person, everything overlapped.

Xie Jianwei embraced him, doing what he had not done in reality.

He kissed Lu Li tenderly, tears rolling down uncontrollably.

Lu Li grew frantic: “Don’t cry.”

Xie Jianwei said, “Shut up.”

Lu Lu did not dare make a sound. Xie Jianwei had likely never been so discomposed in his entire life.

Crying while kissing him, he lost his composure completely.

He regretted it deeply, intensely. Why hadn’t he kissed Lu Li back then?

Indeed, a kiss could not genuinely diminish pain; the medication he had injected was what truly soothed his overloaded nerves. Yet Lu Li had yearned for such a kiss. The spiritual meaning represented by that kiss was vastly more potent than any medicine.

However, Xie Jianwei at the time had not realized it.

“I am sorry…” Xie Jianwei repeated those three words, speaking to Lifuer and to Lu Li, while continually reminding himself: do not make Lu Li sad ever again; the only thing he truly wants is him.

That night passed in a daze, and Lu Li finally fell into an exhausted sleep when dawn broke.

Xie Jianwei went nowhere, keeping watch by his bedside the entire time.

Around the afternoon, Lu Li awoke. As though jolted from a nightmare, the moment his eyes opened, not a trace of drowsiness remained.

He looked anxiously to his side, letting out a heavy sigh of relief only upon seeing Xie Jianwei.

Xie Jianwei held his hand: “I did not leave.”

Lu Li smiled faintly.

Xie Jianwei repeated, “I will not leave.”

Lu Li gripped his hand in return, his hoarse voice laced with exhaustion: “Were you the one who turned me into a demon so I could survive?”

By now, there was no longer any need for concealment. Xie Jianwei nodded.

Lu Li said softly, “That spell requires the life of one’s beloved as a catalyst. You…”

Xie Jianwei cut him off: “You do not need to worry about that. A Grim Reaper cannot die.”

Lu Li’s heart clenched, and he added, “The bone-corroding agony over these past centuries…”

Xie Jianwei said, “That is nothing.”

How could it be nothing? He had only experienced it once, yet it felt like a round trip through the gates of hell; the mere recollection of that torment set every nerve shrieking.

Lu Li gripped his hand tightly: “Why do all this? Didn’t you hate me? Didn’t you want to kill me? Then why burn your life for me, why bear this ceaseless agony on my behalf?”

Xie Jianwei’s eyes dimmed. After what seemed like a very long silence, he spoke slowly: “I do not hate you.”

Lu Li said, “I slaughtered the entire Vance family and nearly drove that boy insane. How could you not hate me?”

Dredging up these bloody past events left everything in shambles once again. Lowering his eyes, Xie Jianwei said, “I resented you, but I could not hate you. Because…” He paused before continuing in a strained voice, “Because I cannot help but love you.”

Lu Li’s heart skipped a beat, yet the words that tumbled out were, “Didn’t you love that mortal?”

Xie Jianwei said, “From beginning to end, from the day we first met, the only person I have ever loved is you.”

“However…” Lu Li could never forget the scene from that day, unable to hold back from speaking.

Xie Jianwei froze visibly, saying, “I… never did such things. Yali (mortal Lu Li’s original name) and I were always just friends, without the slightest impropriety. However…” He paused, “During those years, I believed you were dead, so I had no desire to keep living. I drifted along in a daze, spending more time in dreams than in reality. Perhaps…”

In truth, pursuing that matter now was pointless. Xie Jianwei undoubtedly loved him; Lu Li knew this clearly, and deeply at that. Otherwise, through countless Nights of the Sky Curtain across hundreds of years, Xie Jianwei could never have borne it so willingly.

Yet… if he loved him, what about that strike of the sword?

Lu Li did not dare ask this question.

Xie Jianwei, however, brought it up on his own: “All these years, I did not dare see you, nor did I have the face to see you…” He hung his head, his voice steeped in remorse: “No matter what, I was the one who stabbed you with that sword. It was I who… killed you.”

Those last three words seemed wrenched from the depths of his throat, carrying a regret that centuries could never dissolve.

Lu Li finally asked after all, “Back then… what exactly happened?”

He believed Xie Jianwei would not kill him, yet the tragedy had occurred.

Xie Jianwei seemed finally unable to hold on, breaking down completely: “I don’t know, Lifuer, I don’t know… Seeing the destroyed Vance family and Lu Li, my mind was consumed by fury. Then a voice sounded beside my ear, asking if I wanted everything restored. I did, of course I did! I felt that this couldn’t be your doing, that the one who did this wasn’t you…”

His words were incoherent, yet even after so much time had passed, the memories remained vivid; it was an unhealing scar that bled profusely at the slightest touch.

“Everything that followed, I could only watch helplessly. I could not control my body, I could not control my actions, I didn’t even know what I was doing!”

“By the time I fully regained consciousness, a black sword was thrust into your heart, and your body was pierced clean through by my scythe.”

By this point, Xie Jianwei was sobbing uncontrollably. Lu Li felt such heartache that his breathing turned ragged. Holding him tightly, he comforted him: “It’s alright, it’s alright now, it’s all in the past.”

“I didn’t want to kill you! How could I bear to kill you? I would rather die myself than let you die! You don’t know how overjoyed I was to learn you were still alive, you don’t know how despondent I was when I thought you had fallen in the Demon Realm! Having finally seen you again with great difficulty, how could I bear to hurt you!”

Lu Li held him fiercely, kissing him without pause: “I know, I know everything now. Ah Wei, I am so happy, I am truly, truly overjoyed.”

No words could describe Lu Li’s emotions at this moment.

As long as Xie Jianwei loved him, his world held nothing but brilliant sunshine.

What did bone-corroding agony matter? If he could be with Xie Jianwei, he would willingly endure it every single day!

Except…

While coaxing Xie Jianwei, hatred sprouted in Lu Li’s heart: evidently, Xie Jianwei had been manipulated back then. The one who thrust that sword was not Xie Jianwei, but that Archdemon.

He was the root cause of every tragedy!

Because of that creature, he and Xie Jianwei had missed each other for so long; because of that creature, he and Xie Jianwei had suffered for hundreds of years; and most of all, because of that creature, Xie Jianwei had tasted bone-corroding torment countless times!

That final point alone stoked Lu Li’s fury to the absolute limit.

How dared it subject Xie Jianwei to such suffering!

By this point, Xie Jianwei could finally catch his breath.

Having appeased Big Li and successfully directed all hostility onto “it,” as for what came next…

Disposing of them one by one.

One was certainly lurking within Demon Lu Li, while the other was likely that troublemaking demon.

After all, from any angle, Xie Jianwei lacked any motive to kill Lifuer, and the timing of that demon’s appearance was far too coincidental.

How could such a powerful Archdemon emerge at just that exact moment? The Demon Realm’s situation back then had been dire, with almost all major figures dead, fled, or crippled. If such a formidable Archdemon still existed, how could the heavenly army have captured seven demon cities in a single breath?

Furthermore, another detail was quite suspicious: given Loren’s abilities, without assistance, how could he have entered the sanctuary to take Xie Jianwei away?

This nameless Archdemon was undoubtedly derived from the little skeleton, because it could alter the settings to a certain degree.

Meanwhile, the “it” attached to Lifuer was probably a “guest” just like Lifuer, capable only of tampering with Lifuer’s emotions rather than orchestrating major disruptions.

Therefore, the urgent priority was to eliminate that Archdemon first.

Even more amusingly, Xie Jianwei felt that this “it” acting as the “master” could not tell which Lu Li was the genuine master of the dream.

Looking at the entire flashback plot, even if the master of this dream was Mortal Lu Li, Mortal Lu Li was far too weak and inconspicuous from start to finish, wholly unable to contend with Lifuer.

Thus, it assumed that this high-and-mighty Archangel was the master of the dream, directing all its schemes against him throughout.

Yet it did not truly understand Lu Li. The Lu Li capable of manipulating the dream would inevitably set the premise from the very start that “Xie Jianwei does not love him.”

Therefore, throughout this entire memory, Lu Li as the master of the dream set Xie Jianwei falling in love at first sight with this “other person” Lifuer, loving Lifuer to death, while setting himself as a pitiable human who could never have him even after being saved, daring only to watch from afar without approaching, savoring the piercing agony of unrequited love every single day.

This was the kind of melodrama the master of the dream would script for himself.

Yet it did not understand; it saw only Lifuer’s might, saw Xie Jianwei loving him, and saw the two entwined in passionate romance, thereby deciding that Lifuer was the master.

It was precisely because Xie Jianwei realized this that he dared venture alone into the Demon Realm, preparing to join hands with Lifuer to eliminate it.

Without this prerequisite, Xie Jianwei would not have dared act rashly.

Because if he soothed Demon Lu Li, it would inevitably instigate the little skeleton, and what the little skeleton might do then was unthinkable.

Now, however, it believed Lifuer was the master of the dream, paying no heed to the little skeleton. Even after Xie Jianwei appeased Lifuer, it would scramble in panic to launch an emergency countermeasure aimed at Lifuer, which would certainly expose its flaws.

Taking down an Archdemon was hardly difficult for the current Lifuer.

What was more, with that Archdemon having committed such acts and hatred maxed out, it was doomed to die.

Xie Jianwei was in no rush to track down its whereabouts; under these circumstances, it would certainly lose its cool first and deliver itself to their doorstep.

Besides, having finally made Lu Li happy with great effort, Xie Jianwei wanted to spend more time with him.

The two were sweet and affectionate in the Demon Realm, passing their days quite happily.

Although Lu Li wished he could make up for the centuries they had lost in a single breath, he did not forget serious business. He had long dispatched subordinates to investigate the Archdemon’s whereabouts; once news arrived, he would make it wish it were dead.

Knowing him thoroughly, Xie Jianwei offered a subtle reminder: “The things of the past, I hope we can both let them go.”

Whenever this was mentioned, Lu Li felt intense heartache. Kissing him, he said, “It is all in the past.”

Xie Jianwei clenched his fists: “Yet that Archdemon must die!”

Lu Li said, “Rest assured, I will not let him off.”

Xie Jianwei insisted, “I want to watch him die.”

Lu Li had originally intended to subject the creature to a fate worse than death, but seeing Xie Jianwei’s insistence, he said, “Alright, let him die.”

Xie Jianwei’s reminder hit the mark, which should dispel Lu Li’s thoughts of torture and send it straight to its end.

Hateful as it was, eliminating it cleanly and decisively was the proper path; leaving it room to breathe, who knew what might happen?

After all, this was a dream that was simultaneously logical and profoundly illogical.

Before Lu Li could unearth news of this Archdemon, it had already delivered itself to their doorstep just as Xie Jianwei anticipated.

And it even presented Xie Jianwei with a grand gift!

Xie Jianwei and Lu Li could not remain in the Demon Realm indefinitely; Xie Jianwei had missions to fulfill, while Lu Li needed sustenance.

Regarding this, the two had coordinated well.

Xie Jianwei would locate souls of heinous criminals for Lu Li to hunt.

The corruption level of such souls was exceedingly high; even if they entered the cycle of reincarnation, they would only emerge to commit further evils, so it was better to have them consumed directly.

In truth, demons and mortals could maintain an equilibrium.

Souls constantly reincarnated, yet in the process they would split. If the split souls reincarnated again, they could divide further; without demons consuming some of them, the mortal realm would become overcrowded, leaving living space desperately scarce.

Previously, Lu Li had loathed mortals, slaughtering indiscriminately and wasting many souls. Now, constrained by Xie Jianwei’s duties, he naturally became a demon who fed reasonably, diligently assisting his wife in “purifying” souls.

Xie Jianwei had come to the mortal realm this time to help Lu Li filter edible souls. Yet in the lair of this mortal archvillain, he spotted a youth.

He looked identical to Mortal Lu Li, down to his exact expression, flawlessly recreating the scene from all those years ago.

Xie Jianwei curved his lips, stepping forward to ask, “Are you alright?”

The youth stared fixedly at Xie Jianwei with dark eyes.

Looking at his injuries, Xie Jianwei asked with concern, “Do you need my help?”

As he spoke, he reached out, but the disheveled youth slapped his hand away.

Xie Jianwei froze visibly.

An unspeakable mix of emotions flickered in the youth’s eyes: love mingled with hate, hate entwined with lingering love.

Xie Jianwei was taken aback by that gaze.

“You…” Xie Jianwei said with unease, “Are you Yali Vance?”

The youth looked up, his voice hoarse: “Does the name Lu Li no longer belong to me?”

Xie Jianwei showed “eyes full of astonishment,” his body stiffening noticeably as he murmured, “How is that possible… How…”

The youth seemingly did not want to look at him. Even though his leg was injured and immobilized, he refused his care, snapping in a low voice: “Go away, don’t let me see you ever again!”

His hatred made complete sense. If he truly was Mortal Lu Li, his entire life had essentially been ruined by Xie Jianwei.

Falling in love with him without looking back, yet never even getting the chance to say it aloud, able only to watch him in secret; telling himself that Xie Jianwei had a lover, that they were deeply devoted, that he shouldn’t entertain wild fantasies, yet helplessly drawn to him all the same…

Until Lifuer fell in battle. Seeing the despondent Xie Jianwei, Lu Li thought his chance had finally come. He invited him to his home as a guest, caring for him with patience, hoping to help him step out of the shadow of his lover’s demise, hoping his devotion would touch him.

Yet in the end? Merely because he stole a kiss from him, he suffered such retaliation.

Did he not hate? He hated him to the marrow.

His family slaughtered like swine before his eyes while he was powerless to do anything, watching helplessly, roaring in fury, despairing endlessly. And Lifuer even told him that Xie Jianwei was in the sanctuary, in his bedchamber, tangled with him day and night.

Whom did he hate? He hated Lifuer, and he hated Xie Jianwei.

Loving him was his own fault, but did they have to torture him like this? Did they have to vent their wrath upon the entire Vance family!

What was an angel? Lifuer was nothing more than a cruel tyrant!

One had to admit, pretending to be a reincarnated mortal Lu Li who still retained his memories was quite clever of “it.”

What a magnificent angle of attack. Xie Jianwei had always felt indebted to Mortal Lu Li, harboring profound guilt toward him. After all, this mortal was genuinely innocent, an outright casualty of the romance between him and Lifuer.

Furthermore, Xie Jianwei truly held deep affection for Mortal Lu Li, considering he was also a “Lu Li.”

Moreover, “it” disguised itself flawlessly, down to an identical aura. Had anyone other than Xie Jianwei entered this dream, they would probably have failed to tell the difference.

That way, “it” could exploit Xie Jianwei’s soft-heartedness to deal a devastating blow to Lifuer.

Naturally, Xie Jianwei would play along with its act first. Once hatred was maxed out, it could be sent straight to oblivion in a split second. As for the grand gift it brought him, he would accept it with pleasure.

Xie Jianwei said with apparent fluster, “How could you… how could you be…”

The youth sneered, “Are you disappointed that I didn’t die completely?”

“No!” Xie Jianwei explained hurriedly. “The things in the past… I truly wronged you.”

“Heh… wronged me?” As the youth spat those words, his eyes clouded with darkness and ferocity.

Xie Jianwei said, “Regardless, it is a blessing that you are still alive. Let me tend to your wounds first.”

“A blessing to be alive?” The youth glared at him with bloodshot eyes. “What meaning is there in living like this? My family is dead! They died right before my eyes, pleading, weeping, and struggling! I was powerless to do anything. I cannot kill that devil, and I cannot avenge them! What purpose is there in living like this?!”

He roared with heart-wrenching anguish. Xie Jianwei genuinely felt a pang of heartache, though not for this fake imposter, but for his own little skeleton.

As expected, it was better that this memory was never recalled. It was far too cruel, far too dark, an impossibly tangled dead knot.

While thinking this, Xie Jianwei wore a face dripping with guilt. “I… I will make it up to you.”

“Make it up to me?” The youth snapped viciously. “Then go kill Lifuer! Go avenge me!”

Xie Jianwei fell silent.

Staggering to his feet, the youth said with bitter defiance, “Do not appear before me again. Though I do not know why I remembered these things, I am no longer Yali Vance, so…” Lowering his raspy voice, he added, “Let me be.”

He stubbornly refused Xie Jianwei’s help, insisting on leaving alone. Yet how could “it” truly walk away? It was merely playing hard to get.

Sure enough, after taking a few steps, the youth stumbled and collapsed onto the ground, falling unconscious.

How could Xie Jianwei ignore such a scene? Naturally, he rushed forward, gently supporting him and tending to his wounds.

With the youth unconscious, he could no longer refuse his aid.

Xie Jianwei looked after him for a full day. During that time, the youth ran a fever and babbled in delirium, delivering a remarkably convincing performance.

Xie Jianwei could only comfort him repeatedly with feigned heartache.

Once his condition stabilized, the youth slowly woke up. Seeing Xie Jianwei before him, he struggled to rise once more.

Xie Jianwei said with a bitter smile, “Do not move rashly, or your wounds will reopen.”

Yet the youth refused to listen. “Let them reopen! Let me die! I do not want to see you!”

Lowering his eyes, Xie Jianwei murmured, “Do not be like this. If you wish to seek revenge, you must first nurse your body back to health.”

“Revenge?!” The youth cried hysterically. “Whom would I seek revenge against? He is the supreme Archangel, how could I ever…”

“He has been reborn as a demon now.” Xie Jianwei appeared to offer him hope so he would want to live.

The youth froze visibly.

Xie Jianwei said, “He is a demon now, no longer an angel. Thus you have a chance at revenge.”

Mortals stood no chance against Celestials, but they could stand against demons. Even if the odds were slim, it was not total despair.

The youth stopped resisting. Sinking back onto the bed, he stared blankly at the ceiling.

Xie Jianwei re-bandaged his wounds, and the youth no longer rejected him, clearly having taken those words to heart.

Xie Jianwei said nothing, and the atmosphere between them grew stiff and taut.

Come evening, Xie Jianwei would return to the Demon Realm, returning the following day to tend to him.

The youth was silent like a stone statue. Until he fully recovered, the words he exchanged with Xie Jianwei were pitifully few.

Yet whenever Xie Jianwei turned away, the gaze he fixed upon him brimmed with tender yearning.

Seeing that the timing was ripe, Xie Jianwei prepared to accelerate the process.

With him running back and forth between realms these past few days, Lu Li naturally questioned him. Xie Jianwei hid nothing and told him the truth directly.

Lu Li was rather surprised, asking, “How do you need me to cooperate?”

Xie Jianwei laid out the details, and Lu Li’s eyes flickered as he said, “That is easy enough.”

For him, this was essentially playing himself.

When Xie Jianwei stepped out today, Lu Li pretended to tail behind him, soon laying eyes on that exceedingly familiar human youth.

While Xie Jianwei sorted medicinal herbs nearby, the youth sat under the sun, his gaze steeped in thick affection as he watched him.

With a loud ringing in his ears, Lu Li felt as if he were reliving the piercing agony of that sword through his heart. Approaching with a chilled expression, his voice dropped terrifyingly low, “Just what is going on here?”

Xie Jianwei turned around in frantic disarray, calling out urgently upon seeing Lu Li, “Ah Li, this is…”

Faster than him, the human youth sprang to his feet, eyes blazing with hatred. “Lifuer!”

Lu Li ignored him entirely, fixing his gaze solely on Xie Jianwei.

To lower its guard, Xie Jianwei continued his dedicated performance. He seemed desperate to explain yet at a total loss for words, his shifting gaze only fueling Lu Li’s fury further.

“I will kill you!” The human youth snarled through gritted teeth at Lu Li.

Yet Lu Li only demanded of Xie Jianwei, “Tell me what in the world is happening.”

Just as Xie Jianwei moved to speak, the human youth cut in, “Ah Wei, didn’t you say you would help me seek revenge? Lifuer is right here! Help me kill him, and I will forgive you!”

That was a bit too hasty of the boy.

Yet it was remarkably effective at provoking Lu Li. Turning to glare at the human youth, he asked, “What did you say?”

The human youth showed zero fear. “You devil, you butchered my family and destroyed my life, I want you to pay with your life!”

Lu Li sneered, “I could kill you once, do you think I cannot kill you a second time?”

The human youth displayed not a trace of terror. “Kill me then, you deranged monster!”

Xie Jianwei felt it was time to step in, crying out anxiously, “Ah Li, calm down! Do not harm him anymore, we owe him enough as it is!”

“Owe him?” Lu Li erupted in fury. “If he hadn’t harbored such filthy desires toward you, would things have come to…”

“I do love him, I do want him, but did I ever say it aloud? Did I ever stand between you two? Did I ever meddle and ruin your relationship? But what about you? What did you do? Just because I love him, you slaughtered my entire family and killed me?” The youth seemed to have lost all reason, glaring at Lifuer as he shouted, “Let me tell you, I love him! I will love him forever! Even through reincarnation and rebirth, I can never forget him! So what can you do? Kill me all over again?!”

Lu Li took a deep breath. “Fine, fine! Since you wish to die, I shall grant your wish!” As he spoke, he unleashed his strike.

“Don’t!” Xie Jianwei naturally had to leap forward to block. If he did not block, “it” would dodge on its own. To prevent it from dodging, Xie Jianwei had to throw himself forward to make it drop all vigilance.

With things escalating to this point, its plan had succeeded flawlessly. Just as it seemed Xie Jianwei was about to get struck…

In a flash of lightning, Xie Jianwei, who had been shielding him, suddenly sidestepped, allowing Lu Li’s lethal strike to land dead-on.

The human youth’s eyes widened in horror. He could not dodge. Even if it reverted to its demonic form, it could not evade it in time!

What was happening? Why didn’t Xie Jianwei save him? He was Lu Li!

Xie Jianwei did save him, but he was saving this physical vessel, not “it.”

As it was violently expelled from the body, Xie Jianwei’s Grim Reaper scythe materialized out of nowhere. With a swift slash of the blade, that stray soul was instantly ground into dust.

Yan Ke cheered excitedly, “Success!”

Beside him, Lu Li said with lingering displeasure, “He got off too easy.”

Xie Jianwei coaxed him, “As long as he is dead, that is what matters. Otherwise, it would have been truly difficult to track him down.”

Lu Li said in disgust, “To dare disguise himself as Yali Vance, he was simply courting death.”

Xie Jianwei let out a soft sigh, “I was rather surprised as well.”

As he spoke, he turned his gaze toward the soul-stripped body of the youth.

Lu Li looked at him.

Xie Jianwei murmured, “Head back first. I will bury him.”

Lu Li began, “I…”

Xie Jianwei smiled wryly and shook his head, “He probably would not want to see you, so it is better if I send him off alone.”

Lu Li had no choice but to agree.

The person was already dead, and clinging to grudges would make him appear petty. What was more, Xie Jianwei had truly cared for this human youth like a didi from the very beginning.

__

Author’s Note:

“It”: The most pitiful villain in history, who else could it be but me? [Weeping bitterly]