Chapter Ninety-Seven: Yes, My Only Home

“Baili Mo?” Yao Yao frowned delicately, as if the name stirred some faint reaction in her, but after only a moment she gave a small, dismissive smile. “I have never heard of him.”

“How could you have never heard of him? It was because of him that you became this way!” Yu Daoyi’s emotions flared.

“But this really is the first time I have heard that name.” Yao Yao smiled awkwardly, a little constrained.

Yu Daoyi felt a pang of disappointment. At the very least, it proved that Yao Yao resisted those memories; otherwise, as that peach tree had said, she would not have forgotten something so important.

“I was abrupt,” he said. “But let me ask you something else. You know what happens here at night, don’t you?”

“I do not understand what you mean.” Yao Yao’s expression suddenly became unnatural, her gaze drifting away.

“It is a living hell.”

“You know?” Yao Yao’s voice grew heavy.

“You may have forgotten, but I once said I would help you. I have learned everything now. The wounds on your body, what happened to Xiao Qian, all that you know, and all that you do not.”

“So that is why?” Sadness surfaced on Yao Yao’s face. No matter how strong she was, she was still only a girl.

“Are you sure you have the courage to know the past?” Yu Daoyi lowered his eyes and spoke softly.

“The past?”

“Your past, and this village’s past. If you are not ready yet, I can wait. Anyway, if this matter is not resolved, I will not be able to leave anytime soon.” Yu Daoyi said with a careless air.

“I want to know!” After a long silence, Yao Yao finally opened her lips and spoke with determination. “I do not want to keep watching them hurt each other day after day! I want to help them!”

Yu Daoyi smiled gently. No matter how many times he started over, no matter how many times this girl had been hurt, she was still herself. She had never changed.

“It will be a very long story, and one about good and evil.”

“You... once loved someone...”

Night fell, and the evening banquet continued as before.

Yu Daoyi looked at the dishes on the table and was utterly speechless. That village chief really was a damn genius.

He had actually recreated, almost perfectly, the dishes from that menu chant, and they looked, smelled, and tasted marvelous.

Even if this was only an illusion, could you at least consider whether these ingredients could even be grown in this season?

“Hey, where is my sister? Why can’t I see her?” Xiao Qian’s voice came from behind him, carrying a trace of dissatisfaction.

“Children should not ask so many questions. You will see her in a moment.” Yu Daoyi turned around and said softly, his eyes carrying deep meaning.

“Tch! You are nothing but a liar! You even said Auntie Zhang had braised pork! I got beaten by my Uncle Zhang because of you!” Xiao Qian shouted angrily.

Yu Daoyi rubbed his forehead helplessly. He truly could not accept that the foolish boy before him was the final boss.

“Xiao Qian,” Yu Daoyi said, looking up at the night sky and suddenly changing the subject, his tone somewhat complicated. “To you, what is this place?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? You lied to me and now you want to change the subject as if nothing happened?”

...Since when had this kid’s intelligence switched back on?

“If you do not want to answer, forget it. What a waste—I was being so serious asking you.” Yu Daoyi sighed deeply, then walked toward the banquet’s main seat. Today, he was still the star of the show.

“It is... my only home.” He had only taken two or three steps when a mumbling voice drifted from behind him.

Yu Daoyi turned back and found Xiao Qian looking up with a slightly red face, as if embarrassed.

“Then remember it well. Do not forget. Never, ever forget.” Yu Daoyi smiled gently. As the evening breeze passed, his shoulder-length hair lifted lightly.

“Tch! How shameless!” Xiao Qian said with obvious disgust, then ran off to a table and began stuffing his face with everything in sight.

The night stretched on, the moon bright and pure. Lanterns were hung everywhere, decorations filled the air, lights blazed brilliantly, voices rose in a swell, and drums and lion dances thundered through the village.

Flutes sang, the moonlight drifted like water, and the whole night seemed alive with fish and dragons in dance.

“If such a place truly existed, how wonderful that would be... how wonderful.” Yu Daoyi was so intoxicated by the scene that he could not help murmuring.

Then he turned suddenly, and there stood that person in the dim glow of the lights.

Yao Yao stood at the end of the lantern-lit path. Her exquisitely beautiful face, a little pale, wore a faint smile that was almost there and almost not, yet her eyes betrayed an unhidden weariness and fragility.

“Have you... decided?” Yu Daoyi asked.

“I hesitated for a long time. I even thought that you were lying to me, but...” Yao Yao seemed about to say more, but then she clutched her chest, her expression twisting in pain.

“But this place does not lie,” Yu Daoyi said, pointing toward her chest.

“It hurts. It hurts so much. The moment I heard what you said, the pain here became impossible to suppress.” Yao Yao lowered her head and bit her lip. Her chest, her heart, throbbed with agony.

“If you do not want to do this, leave it to me. That boy just needs a proper beating; it is nothing serious.” Yu Daoyi looked at her with some concern. He did not know exactly what to do, but he wanted to become someone she could rely on.

He did not want to see her cry, because in her tears he would only see his own helplessness and her suffering.

He did not want to break his promise.

“He is my family too! He is my only younger brother!” Yao Yao lifted her head, her eyes reddening even as she forced herself to stand firm.

“Yes.” Thinking of his own troublesome younger brother, Yu Daoyi could not help but smile.

“Sis! Come quick! There’s something delicious here!” Xiao Qian called out with his mouth full of grease, waving a chicken leg in Yao Yao’s direction, grinning with utter abandon.

“One more hour. This time, there is no need to drug him again. Just stay beside him.” Yu Daoyi smiled at Yao Yao.

“Mm.” Beneath the lantern glow, Yao Yao smiled like a child, bright and breathtaking.

That smile was worth everything he had.

“Truly... it is only an illusion. Why am I beginning to hesitate?” As if a wind had blown in with dust, Yu Daoyi looked at the scene before him with moist eyes and found that he did not want to leave.

Very well. This time, he would clear the stage in one go. He did not want to have those unpleasant memories ever again.

No matter how long regret lasted, there would come a moment when it was finally cut off.

He had cried, shouted, and raged until he was beside himself. He might even have died once already. What remained now was only to cut through thorns and forge ahead without looking back.

This ending would be written by him.

Yu Daoyi’s gaze became exceptionally firm.

An hour later, the dead of night stirred with a faint breeze, bringing a touch of chill and a thin, murderous edge. Slowly, a trace of blood began to drift through the air. The moon was no longer bright and pure; as though soaked through with blood, it had become a crimson orb hanging high above.

Xiao Qian had fallen asleep safely in Yao Yao’s arms, looking as if nothing could wake him. Yao Yao gently stroked his brow, her eyes full of lingering tenderness.

“Xiao Qian, even after I learned the truth, I never hated you,” she whispered softly into his ear.

Low, ragged growls began to rise from all directions. The villagers who had been drunk senseless at the banquet seemed to rise all at once. Their eyes burned red, fangs bared, hair disheveled. After a brief moment of confusion, they fixed their gaze on Yao Yao and Yu Daoyi.

“What do you do when a child refuses to listen? Most of the time, he has been spoiled. Beat him once, and he will behave.”

Yu Daoyi suddenly looked up. After the indescribable changes from before, he could now see more clearly. On the blood-red moon above, a pair of eyes hung there—an unfamiliar yet strangely familiar pair of crimson eyes.

Yu Daoyi exhaled deeply. That thing was too high up to hit.

Those eyes needed no guesswork; they belonged to Xiao Qian. But that gaze was no longer the innocence and clarity of a boy. It was filled now with thick resentment and fury.

Never mind. Protecting Yao Yao came first. I am not the lead actor in this play.

Ancient Demon First Transformation!

As smoothly as an arm obeying the mind, the change was completed in one breath. There was no trace of the awkwardness that had accompanied his first use of the Nine Ancient Demon Transformations. In an instant, a faint red glow radiated from Yu Daoyi’s body, and his features began to shift.

His sharp edges softened slightly, giving him a faintly handsome, otherworldly allure. The ends of his long hair tinged themselves with red. Yet compared with the peak first transformation achieved before through the power of the artifact spirit, the degree of change this time could be said to be almost negligible.

“How strange. I thought my body still could not bear the pressure of the first transformation of the Ancient Demon Form. Why is it so smooth this time? Could my spiritual sense have grown stronger, and with it the flesh formed in this illusion?” Yu Daoyi murmured in confusion.