The demon stared at Yisang for a long time before speaking in a hoarse voice.
Even he seemed to find it hard to believe.
“Killing your own kind… aren’t humans better at that than demons?”
The demon suddenly let out a cold laugh.
“Yes.”
Yisang shook her head.
“The person I want you to kill is not an ordinary human.”
“It’s different.”
“Rather, it’s the hero who participated in the final battle for the Demon King’s throne and killed the Demon King—along with her little sidekick.”
At this, the demon suddenly stopped laughing.
The Demon King was dead.
He had already learned of that a while ago.
Now, Yisang bringing it up again was like stabbing several more knives into his chest.
“So, under these circumstances, it’s inconvenient for us humans to act.”
Yisang continued.
“If we act, it will inevitably leave traces.”
“If one of her own kind killed such a hero, it would be easy to trace.”
“But if the one who kills her is a demon, then the situation is different.”
“A hero?”
The demon’s voice trembled slightly.
“You want me… to kill a hero of the human world?”
“If she could kill a severely wounded Demon King, she must be at least the Heavenly Domain realm, right?”
“Me, fighting a Heavenly Domain realm? You serious?”
“Relax. She’s crippled now, completely reduced to an ordinary person.”
Yisang tried to calm the demon down.
“Now she’s nothing more than a symbol, a mascot.”
“And her little sidekick is only good at support, not combat.”
“You’re excellent at stealth, and you’re not weak. Under these circumstances, finding an opportunity to kill them both should be simple, right?”
“I’ll prepare everything for you.”
“And after you kill them, I’ll give you your freedom, even help you return to the other side of the Great Barrier.”
Yisang finished speaking and quietly looked at the demon, waiting for his answer.
“What if I kill more than just those two?”
“It doesn’t matter how many you kill. As long as they die among them, that’s enough.”
“You’re human too. Is this really okay?”
“Who are they to me? Those people are just ants crawling on the ground.”
The demon still seemed not to trust Yisang, and asked again:
“Why should I believe you?”
Yisang replied expressionlessly:
“Because you have no other choice, do you?”
“Think about it.”
“Will you be sliced open here, dissected, and die horribly?”
“Or will you gain freedom, return to demon territory, and spend your final days?”
She looked at the demon.
The demon’s dim yet blood-red eyes stared back at her.
“…I agree.”
Finally, after much consideration, the demon agreed to Yisang’s request.
“I hope you humans will keep your word.”
“Then let’s make a blood oath here.”
Yisang raised her hand.
Soon, an ancient blood-colored scroll appeared in her hand.
The demon had no better choice and could only make the blood oath with Yisang.
It was a one-sided blood oath—only the demon would pay the price.
If he violated it, he would explode on the spot, his soul and body annihilated.
She wanted the demon to swear by his soul and flesh.
She gave him no room to choose.
Seeing that time was almost up, Yisang said to the demon at last:
“That’s it for today. I’ll come back in a while and prepare everything else for you.”
She turned and walked toward the exit of the prison.
“I really don’t understand you humans…”
The demon spoke faintly at the end.
“One moment you say killing the Demon King is to save the whole world, the next you say it doesn’t matter how many die.”
“You want to kill the Demon King, and you want to kill the one who killed the Demon King…”
Yisang did not answer him.
Her figure disappeared into the darkness.
“Yisang, are you really going to set him free?”
On the way back, Gellenson asked in a low voice.
“Of course not.”
Yisang shook her head and said coldly.
“Why would I ever let a demon go?”
“Besides, he already knows too much. He absolutely cannot be allowed to live.”
“The best outcome for him is that after killing Lu Mo and Cecilia, his magic goes berserk, he goes completely mad, and then he destroys himself along with the surrounding people and buildings.”
“That way, the Holy Sanctuary will never get any useful information.”
“As for why that demon killed Lu Mo…”
“It could be revenge for the Demon King, or it could be him taking Lu Mo and the demon race’s future down with him. Let them guess however they want.”
“As for us, we have nothing to do with any of this.”
“This is the trial I prepared for the hero…”
Yisang spoke.
Her voice was filled with joy, excitement, and madness.
Faced with Yisang like this, Gellenson suddenly shivered.
Nine days later.
In the Priscian family’s forbidden prison.
Several family members guarding the demon lay severely wounded on the ground, their fates unknown.
The demon imprisoned at the deepest part of the prison had disappeared from his cell.
A very strong aura of demon realm power filled the entire prison.
The demon had escaped.
For a moment, the Priscian family’s high-ranking members were all alarmed.
“Escaped?”
“How could this happen…”
Many high-ranking members’ expressions changed.
They had long announced to the outside world that they had eliminated all demons within their territory.
They had not revealed that a demon was still alive, imprisoned in the forbidden prison.
They were also quite confident that a weakened demon could never escape the forbidden prison.
But now…
“How did he get out?”
“Will he now go on a rampage of revenge?”
“Is he still inside the family, or has he already reached the outside?”
But there was one thing they agreed on.
They must never let the outside world know about this.
That this demon had escaped from the Priscian family.
Even if the demon really destroyed a city, they would not admit it.
The Priscian family head’s face turned extremely gloomy at this moment.
“Damn it…”
“How did he manage it?”
“Did he break through?”
“Did his talent awaken a second time?”
“The outermost formation of the family hasn’t detected any demonic aura. He’s likely hiding somewhere inside the family.”
“You, prioritize searching inside the family.”
He ordered his clansmen.
“Yes!”
“As for Yisang, you take some of the clansmen and search outside the family.”
At this, he gave Yisang a meaningful look.
“No matter what, you must find that demon. An Earth Pulse realm demon still has considerable destructive power.”
“In any case, we need to find him alive or see his corpse!”
“Understood!”
Yisang bowed to the old man.
Soon, she quietly led some of the clansmen out of the Priscian family manor.
They began a search outside.
Once they were far away, Yisang lifted the God-blood seal.
She spoke to an invisible figure beside her:
“Go. I’ll tell you what to do next.”
“I hope you… can show me a satisfying result.”
The figure did not answer her and quickly moved away.
Soon, it disappeared from her perception range.
At this time, Lu Mo and Cecilia still had no idea that dark clouds were gathering over them.
Summer was almost over.
And at the end of summer, Lu Mo and Cecilia went to Smail Town once again.
This was the distant place they had first come to after escaping from their families.
Seeing the town before her, Cecilia’s eyes lit up.
“We’re back again.”
“After all the places we’ve visited, I never thought Smail Town would be the most nostalgic.”
Lu Mo smiled but said nothing.
They walked hand in hand down the street.
Beneath their feet were the same stone slabs they had walked on as children.
The buildings on both sides hadn’t changed much from when they first visited this town as kids.
Unlike those bustling, fast-paced big cities.
Time seemed to flow slowly in this town.
They could see many traces of their childhood here.
They had arrived at just the right time.
The town was holding a market again.
Many familiar voices and familiar figures.
They saw the vendors from back then still hawking their goods, but their voices weren’t as loud as before. They had to stop every now and then to cough and drink some water.
They saw the middle-aged magician from before, now old, his hands not as nimble as they used to be.
His hands trembled, and he almost gave away the trick several times.
Cecilia watched nervously, her heart in her throat.
Fortunately, the magic trick was completed in the end.
The boys and girls showed surprised expressions, and the man smiled triumphantly.
Just like back then.
Copper coins were tossed into the hat.
The man bowed gracefully in thanks, just like back then.
The girl who used to sell flowers was now a married woman.
The couple worked together at the stall, trimming flowers and tying them into bouquets.
Even though it was hot and sweat beaded on their foreheads, the looks they exchanged were full of love and a bit of hope for the future.
At that moment, they were happy.
Walking forward.
Then, Cecilia saw a short little girl laughing as she darted past her and Lu Mo.
She paused for a moment, then smiled.
Many years ago, they had been like that too.
That cool girl had carried her over the wall, brought her to a place farther than the family, and spent the most wonderful day of her life with her.
“Miss Lu Mo?”
She snapped back to reality and suddenly realized Lu Mo was no longer by her side.
Panicked, she began searching for Lu Mo in the crowd.
She finally saw Lu Mo standing in front of a hat stall, picking up a white dome-shaped hat.
The style of the hat was very similar to the one she had worn as a child.
After buying the hat, Lu Mo quickly returned to Cecilia’s side and placed it on her head.
“Huh?!”
The brim blocked Cecilia’s view, and she let out a small cry.
“Your head’s gotten bigger, so of course you need a bigger hat, right?”
Lu Mo smiled.
Soon, Cecilia smiled too, nodding vigorously, countless specks of starlight shimmering in her eyes.
“Mm!”
“Miss Lu Mo, I want to eat this!”
“This, this, this, and that one too—I want them all!”
They ate the food they had loved as children.
Fried things, takoyaki, cotton candy…
Cecilia didn’t care about being ladylike at all as she happily ate.
“Eating so much, aren’t you afraid of bursting your stomach?”
Lu Mo teased.
“No way!”
Cecilia retorted.
“I could eat this much as a kid, so of course I can eat even more now.”
As she spoke, she held up a piece of fried food to Lu Mo’s mouth.
“Here, Miss Lu Mo, open wide—ah—”
“I’m not a little kid, you know.”
Lu Mo said, but she still opened her mouth and accepted Cecilia’s offering.
The two of them walked while eating.
Looking up, they saw the low buildings with open windows, the brightly colored cloths hanging out.
And above them, the clear, boundless blue sky.
A breeze blew, making the cloth strips rustle.
The wind carried whispers from the past.
Cecilia faintly heard, in the wind, a girl humming that distant song across the years.
The song was called “Scarborough Fair.”
“Are you going to Scarborough Fair?”
“Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme…”
She still remembered Lu Mo’s explanation of the song back then.
“A linen shirt without seams or needlework, an acre of land between the sea and the shore, heather reaped with a sickle…”
“The singer wants her lover to do impossible things.”
She had once asked Lu Mo in confusion.
“But they love each other, so why does he make her do those things?”
Lu Mo had thought seriously, then finally gave her an answer.
“Maybe… it’s because he thinks love can overcome everything?”
Love overcomes everything—
Wasn’t that just like them now?
The saintess who should have been sacrificed lived until the end of the war.
The knight no one believed in ended up killing the lofty Demon King.
They had overcome their fates.
Overcome… everything that had once stood in their way.
Right now, they were living in the most beautiful years of their lives.
Possessing each other.
And they would continue to live happily like this.
Forever.
Was it a coincidence?
As they walked, they somehow ended up at that seldom-visited staircase again.
The weather was a bit hot.
Several cats were lying lazily in the shade.
One of the big cats looked a bit like the one from before?
Cecilia thought.
Even that cat wasn’t single anymore.
They sat down on the steps, just like before.
Watching the lazy cats, the clear sky, and the sunlight spilling down.
Time stood still, peaceful and serene.
At that moment, Cecilia seemed to see her younger self again.
She sat timidly on the steps ahead of them.
And then Lu Mo suddenly leapt up, reaching out to catch that hat blown away by the wind.
The girl’s long hair floated, her skirt dancing in the breeze, like a stunning flower in full bloom.
In that instant, time seemed to freeze into eternity.
She couldn’t see anything but Lu Mo.
She only wanted to watch Lu Mo.
Watch her… for a lifetime.
Back then, she didn’t know what that feeling was called.
But now, she understood.
That feeling was love, wasn’t it?
From a very, very long time ago, she had started to like Lu Mo.
Hopelessly.
Incurably.
“Miss Lu Mo.”
Cecilia suddenly spoke, turning her head to look at Lu Mo.
“Hm?”
“Remember? Back then, right here, you told me about that song—”
She smiled, a faint blush blooming on her cheeks.
“Of course I remember.”
Lu Mo smiled too.
“Actually, I—”
Cecilia said softly.
But at that moment, another wind blew through.
Except this time, it didn’t bring coolness.
Instead, it brought a trace of…
Chill!
The invisible wind turned black.
Lu Mo saw a figure coming toward her and Cecilia in the black wind.
Carrying a strong killing intent.
Carrying… a thick aura of demon realm power!
It was a demon.
With fierce killing intent, with dense demonic power.