The time it took Lie Zhen to fix the door was indeed fast and really did only take 15 minutes. The original door frame of the small pinewood house was replaced with the demon world’s Wan Ling stone, which came with the personal style of Vermilion Bird Zhenjun. So it was dazzling and flashy to the eye and you could tell immediately that it was expensive.

    Chang Qian who had been thrown on the floor earlier also changed back into his human form. First, he looked for a moment at the red-haired, phoenix-feathered Demon Zhenjun, and then he turned to look at black-robed, crimson-cloaked Devil Lord, his little uncle. Finally, he nervously glanced over at his Shenxian gege who was currently keeping his head down and drinking his medicine. Chang Qian had a feeling he was in the middle of some fantastical vortex.

    The youth squatted next to the furnace and poured out the remaining medicine. Then he took the bowl and put it into Jiang Zheliu’s hands.

    This was a very common medicine, it was actually so common that it looked like the kind of crude remedy that only mere mortals would drink. But with the current state of his body, Jiang Zheliu could only use this kind of crude medicine. His body was unable to support any sort of spiritual potion for immortals, because he had completely damaged his Daoist body. It now resembled a sieve with holes everywhere and his spiritual energy had been spilling out everywhere, not even a trace of could be retained.

    Wen Renye had asked for the prescription. He found out that the prescription was written by Jiang Zheliu himself and he also understood the severity of his injuries so he did not change the medicine without permission.

    This medicine actually wasn’t particularly useful, and was only for pain relief.

    Jiang Zheliu was so used to the bitter taste that even after drinking the whole bowl of medicine, he did not feel the overbearing bitter taste from it. Following the medicine, he took a sip of tea, looked across at Lie Zhen, who was still sulking about some unknown thing, he slowly opened his mouth to speak, “When did the Demon Realm find out?”

    Vermilion Bird Zhenjun suppressed his internal fire and glanced over at him. As soon as he saw his snowy white lacklustre hair and his dark and dull eyes, all the irritation in his heart seemed to sink into an ice cave, not even a single spark could ignite.

    “……I only found out today.”

    “That’s not fast.” Jiang Zheliu said lightly, “I guess you were able to find me thanks to the Azure Dragon. I’ve only been retired for two days, it was hard for me to wait until I had a full head of white hair but you’ve already come to disturb it.”

    Lie Zhen had many things to say in his mind but was unable to speak out. He dragged his seat forward sullenly, and reached out to grab his wrist, probing his meridians, while saying: “You just want to piss me off. If you live in seclusion, then live in seclusion, but why do you have to be with this devil……”

    “Well, are you able to kick him out?” Jiang Zheliu suggested it casually.

    Wen Renye, who was listening quietly on the sidelines, exhibited a rare polite smile: “Come on.”

    Lie Zhen’s red hair began to spark out with flames. He glared at Wen Renye viciously, then turned his head and said to Jiang Zheliu: “Wait till I come back with Qinglin, we will definitely be able to save you.”

    Jiang Zheliu looked at him for a while, and said, “If you and Qinglin work together, you could have also mend the Realm Boundary. Mending nature’s spirit would be easier than saving me.”

    Lie Zhen stopped in his tracks.

    “When the Realm Boundary was damaged, the first thing it did was extract the spiritual energy of the cultivation world. The Demon Realm wanted to wait until the Cultivation World decayed and everything was destroyed, before then attacking in one fell swoop, and finally proceeding with the reparation. Or… you both were waiting for me.”

    There was silence all around, even the sound of their breathing was quiet.

    “My injury, it is as you would have expected. As far as the Demon Realm is concerned, it has a hundred benefits and no harm done. Jiang Zheliu dusted off his sleeves and pulled his wrist back from Lie Zhen’s fingers. “The Cultivation World is connected to the Mortal Realm, and that includes trillions of creatures.”

    Jiang Zheliu watched as he stood before him.

    “Is it the medicine that is bitter?”

    ————

    Lie Zhen didn’t leave immediately but instead turned back into his bird form and perched himself up on an old pine tree outside the small house.

    Inside the house, a lamp was lit. The flame was bright.

    Chang Qian was sorting out the medicine that he had picked from Zhongnan Mountain, whilst secretly looking over at his Shenxian gege who was reading a book, hesitating for a while, he finally said: “Gege?”

    “En?”

    He was tired from reading, he felt quite sleepy, just as he was dozing off, the candle flame on the side brightened and the smell of pine and cypress invaded the whole place.

    Jiang Zheliu looked up, seeing his good neighbour naturally pulling up a chair opposite him.

    His eyes looked like he hadn’t eaten in a lifetime, they were filled with an intense…..appetite？

    Jiang Zheliu was unsure, looked down at himself, trying to remember anything about the recipes of the Demon Realm, he asked: “Hungry?”

    “……No.”

    Jiang Zheliu rolled up the book in his hands and hit Wen Renye’s hand with it and said: “Well I just can’t understand, what are you doing here, what exactly do you want?”

    He paused for a moment, then continued: “I don’t have any spiritual energy, you’ve already examined that for yourself. I have no assets, I’m penniless, even spiritual devices are useless to me，you can一一also see this. Unless my might is really that great that you don’t want to let down your guard and you must kill me?”

    Wen Renye exhibited absolutely no killing intent towards him, this, he could tell.

    After he said this Jiang Zheliu thought of another possibility, and then looked at him for a while before muttering to himself: “Even if you want to eat me, it could be done in one meal.”

    He was barely able to keep on living, two casual flicks of the hand from Wen Renye and he’d already be in pieces so Wen Renye probably didn’t want to kill him.

    He had disciplined many juniors over the years, the most competitive of whom was the Young Pavilion Master of the Peerless Sword Pavilion Sect, Jin Yujie, but even Yujie was not as nostalgic about his former defeat as Wen Renye was.

    Jiang Zheliu nodded and smiled slightly: “But I don’t want to recover.”

    The fire in Wen Renye’s heart snuffed out immediately, the residual heat rolled up against his throat and burned off the words he had been preparing.

    “To be able to choose between life and death, in this lifetime, that is the only freedom that I have left.”

    “But……”

    Jiang Zheliu cut him off and continued to say：“But for you, my interesting neighbour, I’ll try not to depart too soon.”

    Wen Renye’s heart was hanging by his throat, and he didn’t know whether to let out the breathe that he had been unconsciously holding in. He held Jiang Zheliu’s hand, moving in very close to him, he slowly said.

    “To watch over me?”

    “En.” Jiang Zheliu said: “To see the future of the Devil Realm.”

    Perhaps, it would also be the future of the World.