Chapter 54
Xing Xu remained in the same position as when Ye Xiyao had left earlier, quietly and calmly asleep on the sofa, a blanket covering him. Everything was untouched, including his breathing.
Ye Xiyao frowned slightly, sniffing the air softly. Then, he realized something—he hadn’t smelled any familiar scent from this “Xing Xu.” Not just now, but even earlier, when he went downstairs to retrieve Xing Xu’s phone, there had been no scent.
Oh no…
Why hadn’t he noticed this earlier?
Luo Yiji, unaware of the situation, moved quietly, trying not to wake Xing Xu. He turned to ask Ye Xiyao what the plan was—should they tie up Xing Xu or simply say goodbye?
The next second, Luo Yiji saw Ye Xiyao rush toward Xing Xu like the wind, driving his fist straight through his chest.
Luo Yiji was startled.
Though he had once been an exorcist himself, watching a powerful demon kill someone he knew was a deeply shocking experience.
Luo Yiji was so stunned he almost couldn’t breathe, overwhelmed by anger because he felt that Ye Xiyao had deceived him.
But then, Luo Yiji noticed that Ye Xiyao was even angrier than he was.
And instead of holding Xing Xu’s heart, Ye Xiyao was gripping a curled-up, blood-red snake.
Ye Xiyao demanded, “Where is he?”
The demonic snake, Erroer, spoke in a sickeningly affectionate tone, “Oh, my beautiful little Neshua, you’ve grown up. You’re purer than any demon in this world and cuter than any angel.”
Ye Xiyao crushed its head.
“You’re being quite uncute yourself!” Erroer hissed, growing a new head, “You must’ve picked up some bad habits from that human boy.”
Ye Xiyao repeated, “Where is he!?”
Erroer replied, “He’s… he’s… okay, okay, don’t be mad. He’ll be back soon.”
Ye Xiyao was furious, angrier than he had ever been. Xing Xu and a demon had conspired to deceive him!
Luo Yiji, who had also realized what was happening, stayed surprisingly calm and found a chair to sit on.
“See, stopping Xing Xu is even harder than stopping you.” Luo Yiji couldn’t bring himself to smile, but since it had already happened, he started thinking about the best way forward. “I have just one question: if the Demon-Slaying Array really has backfired on Xing Xu, will that demon lord truly protect humanity in his place?”
“Do not doubt the demon lord’s promise,” Erroer proudly said. “Once he speaks, not even the gods can stop him.”
“Alright.” Luo Yiji rubbed his forehead. “At least Xing Xu hasn’t committed the worst sin.”
As Luo Yiji and Erroer continued their conversation, Ye Xiyao suddenly ran toward the door.
With a push of his demonic strength, the door shattered into dust.
Outside, under the moonlight, with the snow slowly melting, Xing Xu appeared.
It was Xing Xu, but not quite the same.
He was taller and more imposing than in his human form, like a towering mountain radiating an intimidating aura. His once black hair had turned crimson, matching the color of his eyes. His bones and muscles had grown more powerfully, and his demon horns were even more menacing than Ye Xiyao’s.
Step by step, he walked toward Ye Xiyao, holding a pure white feather—or rather, a feather-shaped light. Upon closer inspection, it had no physical form.
Ye Xiyao ran toward him, holding back the urge to cry. He raised his hand, wanting to hit him, but stopped just short. “How could you do this!”
There was no need to ask—he knew the Demon-Slaying Array had backfired.
Ye Xiyao didn’t know and didn’t want to know how Xing Xu had become a demon.
He bit his lip, trying to stay calm, but his trembling body betrayed him.
Xing Xu looked down at Ye Xiyao, knowing that Ye Xiyao was furious but unable to vent his anger. So he bent down, offering his face and said, “Hit me gently. Don’t hurt your hand.”
Hearing his voice, Ye Xiyao burst into tears, “You lied to me again.”
Xing Xu wanted to hold him, to wipe away his tears, but his hands were occupied with the feather of light, unable to free them. He could only look at Ye Xiyao helplessly and said, “You lied to me too.”
Those words made him seem pitiful.
Xing Xu was more terrified than Ye Xiyao. If he hadn’t made his decision so quickly, if he had been even an hour late tonight, Ye Xiyao might have already disappeared from this world.
At that moment, the demonic snake Erroer climbed onto Luo Yiji’s shoulder, using him like a human transport. It looked up at the moon in the sky and shouted, “Xing Xu, hurry up, hurry up! We don’t have time!”
Before Xing Xu could respond, Ye Xiyao turned and yelled, “If you keep talking, I’ll eat you!”
Erroer immediately fell silent. For demons, the threat of being “eaten” was the simplest and most brutal. Killing them wasn’t the worst fate, as they always had a chance to come back. But if they were eaten, their souls would vanish.
“…Yao Yao.”
Xing Xu called for Ye Xiyao’s attention. His voice was especially soft when he said his name, as if afraid to make him even angrier, though he knew Ye Xiyao was already furious. “Take it.”
He was referring to the feather of light in his hand.
This was the Demon-Slaying Array that had been expelled from his soul after the demonic energy backfired, the purest form of the divine blessing.
Ye Xiyao didn’t even glance at the feather, instead staring directly into Xing Xu’s eyes. “You take it back. I don’t want it.”
“I’m already a demon. The gods won’t bless me with something like this.” Xing Xu laughed casually.
He wasn’t lying. Once the blessing left the soul, it couldn’t return to Xing Xu’s body. It would seek out another powerful soul to attach to.
If Ye Xiyao consumed it before it found its next inheritor, it would suppress the divine punishment within him, just as it had with other demonic energies.
A tear, formed from melted snow, clung to Ye Xiyao’s eyelashes. “You know what this means.”
“Don’t be mad. It’s all my fault. I’m useless, I couldn’t think of another way.” Xing Xu lowered his head, once again offering the feather of light to Ye Xiyao. “Don’t hate me.”
Ye Xiyao’s long hair blew in the night wind, some strands drifting in front of his face, but he didn’t brush them away. “How could I hate you?”
How could Ye Xiyao hate Xing Xu when he had gone to such lengths for him?
Ye Xiyao’s anger, much like Xing Xu’s helplessness, stemmed from their mutual powerlessness.
Neither could think of a better solution. It seemed like one of them would always have to sacrifice for the other.
It was as if no matter who ascended to heaven, one of them would end up in hell.
And they were both trying to send the other to heaven.
Xing Xu said, “Forget it, you might as well hate me. Otherwise, if one of us is up there and the other is down below, it’ll be awkward when we meet again.”
Ye Xiyao lowered his head and bit Xing Xu’s wrist. “I won’t hate you.”
Xing Xu brushed his face with the back of his hand. “Then do you love me?”
Without hesitation, Ye Xiyao nodded. “I love you.”
Xing Xu was silent for a long time, not sure if he was laughing or sighing. “Then we’re doomed.”
Ye Xiyao looked up at Xing Xu. In the overly bright moonlight, it felt like they were walking down a dead-end road.
They had set out with the belief that they wouldn’t turn back. No one knew what awaited them at the end.
But suddenly, Ye Xiyao said something that Xing Xu didn’t understand: “Actually, I had a different dream tonight.”
Erroer watched the moon grow larger and its light brighter. It anxiously crawled around on Luo Yiji, but didn’t dare speak, afraid that Ye Xiyao would really eat it.
Luo Yiji, annoyed by its movements, asked, “If you have something to say, I’ll relay it for you.”
Erroer quickly said, “The demon king used his power to summon a great snowstorm to hide Neshua, but now the snow has stopped, and Neshua can no longer stay hidden. If we don’t hurry, it’ll be too late!”
Luo Yiji glanced at Ye Xiyao and Xing Xu, sensing that the atmosphere wasn’t right. If he pushed them now, Ye Xiyao might decide to become a demon alongside Xing Xu. So he asked Erroer, “Can’t you summon another snowstorm?”
Erroer screamed, “You foolish human! Do you know how hard it is to summon such power across realms?”
Luo Yiji remarked, “Seems like your demon king is in a bit of a tight spot.”
Erroer: “No! The Demon King is incredibly powerful. In his prime, even the gods had to hold their tongues! But his power has been used for… Wait, why am I telling you this? Stop wasting time! Go urge Neshua to accept the blessing and ascend to godhood immediately—after all, Xing Xu has already turned into a demon. Can he really bear to see Xing Xu’s efforts wasted?”
Luo Yiji: “I think it’s obvious he can’t.”
Luo Yiji raised his hand, pinching the snake’s head to make it look towards Ye Xiyao. “Ye Xiyao has already accepted the Demon-Slaying Array—oh, I mean the god’s blessing.”
Ye Xiyao took the feather of light and held it to his heart. Without needing to do anything, the divine light enveloped him.
This was all because of the fragment of divinity in his soul that belonged to the archangel Karoqius.
Divine power is the most supreme and sacred force in this world, and such forces naturally attract one another.
The divine punishment stirring inside Ye Xiyao was wrapped in this new power. His entire body began to emit a unique glow, melting the surrounding snow and bringing everything back to life.
At that moment, the moon suddenly transformed into a vast blaze of fire.
The entire sky seemed to be consumed by silver flames.
Erroer let out another piercing scream, its wails echoing across the wilderness: “The wrath of the gods—!”
In the next instant, the light around Ye Xiyao vanished.
Simultaneously, the moonlight in the sky was extinguished, as if doused by a bucket of cold water.
Erroer’s cries abruptly ceased. “Huh? Their anger dissipated so quickly? It ended before it even began?”
Luo Yiji looked up at the sky, stunned into silence by everything he had just witnessed as the only human present.
But only Ye Xiyao knew that it wasn’t that the gods had calmed their wrath.
It was that they had no place to direct their anger.
The moment they found him, the divine punishment within Ye Xiyao was completely dissolved. It was all over.
At some point, the puffy down jacket Ye Xiyao had been wearing disappeared. His goat horns transformed into a pure, holy light, and his tail folded into a pair of white wings. His long silver hair, like moonlight, turned into a brilliant golden sheen.
The light above Ye Xiyao wasn’t just a small halo—it slowly expanded, eventually covering him entirely, with the radiant glow stretching endlessly into the sky.
“That fits my stereotype of an angel.” Xing Xu, now a demon, took a step back and smiled. “Go on. I’ll watch you leave.”
Unlike typical angels, Ye Xiyao possessed divinity within him. So, after the divine punishment vanished, he was destined to become a god.
Erroer, excited by this, chattered in Luo Yiji’s ear, “Did you see? A god! Neshua is becoming a god, and it was Erroer who helped make it happen!”
Luo Yiji scratched his ear and asked, “Would you dare say that to his face?”
Erroer: “Shh… I think he might use his divine power to burn me to death.”
Just as everyone thought things had been settled, Ye Xiyao walked closer to Xing Xu.
“If heaven doesn’t have you, I won’t become a god.”
He took Xing Xu’s hand and kissed it.
Humans couldn’t understand the significance of this action, so when Luo Yiji saw this, he could only feel a tragic sense of grandeur.
From now on, Ye Xiyao and Xing Xu would be separated—one in heaven, one in hell.
If they stubbornly insisted on loving each other, perhaps another divine punishment would strike. Could Ye Xiyao, now a god, withstand the punishment? Or was there an even more terrifying punishment waiting for them?
At that moment, it seemed that their story was destined to become a tragedy.
So, Luo Yiji thought this kiss was a farewell kiss.
A middle-aged man in his forties, he couldn’t help but shed sorrowful tears.
But suddenly, the snake on his shoulder, Erroer, sprang up like an elastic band and shouted, “Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! Out of a thousand inevitable disastrous outcomes, a wonderful surprise has appeared!”
Luo Yiji, still mid-tears, was stunned. “What surprise?”
Ye Xiyao and Xing Xu’s kiss hadn’t ended yet, but behind them, the entire land had begun to warm, with the ice and snow melting in an instant.
Though no one knew exactly what had happened, every waking soul on earth could feel an intense and vibrant energy.
A blessing.
Ye Xiyao was using his divinity to bless Xing Xu—even though Xing Xu had already become a demon.
The process of this blessing was long and somewhat lonely. An endless flow of divine power was being transferred from Ye Xiyao’s divinity to Xing Xu. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the gods never blessed demons—it consumed far too much divine power.
Ye Xiyao used a great deal of his strength to purify Xing Xu’s soul and gave almost half of his divinity to him.
Erroer’s vertical pupils slowly changed color.
It climbed down from Luo Yiji and onto the now-revitalized grass, gazing at the two people embracing tightly in the distance.
Luo Yiji, still confused, asked, “What happened? What’s going on with them?”
Erroer didn’t use the term “blessing.”
Instead, it said, “They shared their divinity.”
As a human, Luo Yiji was amazed. “Divinity can be used like that? Why didn’t they think of this from the start?”
Erroer gave him a look as if he were an idiot, then slithered into the shadows of the grass and disappeared.
Of course, divinity isn’t meant to be used like that, and no one had ever known it could be done this way before.
Only Ye Xiyao, who was on the verge of becoming a god, understood what was happening.
Perhaps he was just taking a gamble.
Many things weren’t planned ahead of time.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have come to this point.
Fortunately, even without a perfect plan, even when they both thought they would fail, neither of them chose to back down. If Xing Xu hadn’t been willing to offer the Demon-Slaying Array, Ye Xiyao wouldn’t have had the chance to gain a complete divinity.
And now, they were taking the final step toward their rebirth.
Whether it was heaven or hell, it didn’t matter if they couldn’t go together.
So, they chose to stay in the human world together.
