Chapter 4

"Willingly? You'd only just met. Why would she willingly give you her core?"

"Perhaps she felt we were both in the same boat. She said most of her core had been destroyed and she wouldn't live much longer anyway, but it could save my life."

Bai Xiuming watched A Chan with a smile. Only after she finished did he speak, unhurriedly. "This is the first time I've heard of a demon so kindhearted. And yet, by sheer coincidence, you happened to meet one."

As he spoke, he slowly circled the iron frame, the end of his whip trailing along the ground with a faint scraping sound.

A Chan felt him come to a stop behind her. Thinking that the pain from before might strike again, her body trembled despite herself, but she still gritted her teeth and said, "Perhaps I was lucky."

"Getting into the Mingjing Division proves your luck... isn't very good."

As soon as he finished speaking, fabric tore. The short jacket, already pierced by an arrow, was ripped open even wider, along with the garment beneath it.

Though a brazier burned in the Interrogation Room, a chill still seeped through her clothes, and A Chan's body stiffened at once.

Bai Xiuming looked at the smooth, fair back revealed beneath the tattered jacket and narrowed his eyes slightly. As expected, not a single scar remained.

"Now tell me, why does the Ji Chan I investigated seem like a different person from you?" The barbed whip brushed lightly over her spine. "I don't like people who keep lying. Understand?"

A Chan drew a breath and tugged at the corner of her mouth. "I wouldn't dare deceive you, sir. After I ate her core, I gained some of her memories. Perhaps absorbing those memories changed me."

"Is that so?" Bai Xiuming returned to stand before her. "But I think the idea that a Fox Demon possessed a human body and tried to deceive me sounds more reasonable."

"You think I'm the Fox Demon?" A Chan gave a bitter laugh, her eyes reddening.

"Are you not?"

"You're a lot like my father, sir. You keep trying to pin all sorts of blame on me. If you really want me dead, why bother looking for an excuse?"

As she spoke, her tears fell in a string, like beads slipping from a broken thread. They trickled down her pointed chin and dropped onto her body, but she only stared fixedly at Bai Xiuming.

"Anyway, even if I get out of here alive, who knows how many more days I'll last? My mother is dead, and my father wants me to die with her. I thought it would be better to die at your hands, sir. At least someone would be there to bury me."

Bai Xiuming gazed somberly at the woman before him, who kept saying she wanted to die. Suddenly, he remembered someone from many years ago who had begged him to kill her in just the same way.

She hadn't wanted to die, but she had no choice except to beg him for death.

The memories of the past made Bai Xiuming lose focus for a moment, but he quickly came back to himself.

He thought that the person before him was still very different from the one in his memories.

It was clear that she was doing everything she could to stay alive. That was why she could cry so... beguilingly.

His fingertips twitched. At last, he spoke. "Guards."

"My lord." Two prison guards appeared outside the Interrogation Room.

"Lock her up."

"Yes, sir."

Once they took her down from the iron frame, A Chan's legs gave way and she sank to the floor. That single lash had nearly taken half her life. Still, at least she was alive.

One guard took each of her arms and carried her into a pitch-black cell, then quickly locked the door and left.

There was nothing in the cell—not even the straw that lined ordinary cells. A Chan simply curled up on the floor, enduring the pain in her body and the cold beneath her.

She was too weak to pay attention to anything else, so she naturally didn't know that Bai Xiuming had been standing outside, watching her ever since she was locked in.

He rubbed the ring on his hand, still unconvinced that Ji Chan was telling the truth.

After standing there for a while, he quietly gave the guard waiting nearby a few instructions, then turned to leave.

After leaving Town Prison, Bai Xiuming headed for the Library Pavilion in the northwest corner of the Mingjing Division offices. In a small room on the top floor, he found an old man with a full head of white hair and a trembling hand that shook even when holding a brush.

When the old man saw Bai Xiuming, he put down his brush and tried to stand, but Bai Xiuming stopped him.

"No need for formalities."

The old man sat back down, but still greeted him. "Zhan Yi, former keeper of the Library Pavilion, pays his respects to the Pacification Commissioner. May I ask what you wish to look into, sir?"

Bai Xiuming didn't waste time with pleasantries. He asked directly, "Can a person survive after swallowing a demon core?"

Zhan Yi thought for a moment before answering. "In theory, no. The power of the Demon Race is far beyond that of humans, and the two are very difficult to blend."

"'Very difficult' means it's possible?" Bai Xiuming seized on the uncertainty in his words.

"Sir, my ancestor once recorded in a private manuscript that if a demon willingly cut out its core and gave it to a mortal, the mortal could prolong their life by swallowing it. But I've lived for more than a hundred years and have never seen it with my own eyes."

"Do you think what your ancestor recorded in his manuscript was true?"

"My ancestor left behind a manuscript for posterity, so I expect he must have witnessed it himself. When I was young, I searched for strange tales from all over the land. Quite a few described a Demon General giving its core to a beloved. I doubt those stories all sprang from thin air."

Seeing Bai Xiuming furrow his brow, Zhan Yi continued unhurriedly. "I also studied a few demon cores in the past. Besides their violent demonic power, they truly contain an immense vitality. If one could disperse the demonic power within a core, what remained would be the finest life-extending medicine in the world."

"You tried it?" His words had piqued Bai Xiuming's interest.

Zhan Yi chuckled. "I didn't, but someone had already tried it for me."

He narrowed his eyes and thought back for a moment before continuing. "That was back in the Previous Dynasty. A Demon God Sect appeared around Tongzhou, following the path of becoming gods through demon cores. The sect members buried demon cores inside their bodies. Those who survived underwent Demonization and caused the imperial court no small amount of trouble."

"What happened afterward? Did the Previous Emperor send people to destroy the Demon God Sect?"

"No." At that, Zhan Yi couldn't help laughing. "Before the Previous Emperor could send troops, the Sect Leader of the Demon God Sect died."

"How?"

"The Sect Leader heard that a Mystic Tortoise Demon Core could extend one's life for a thousand years, so he hunted a three-realm Mystic Tortoise. He even told his followers that he'd successfully dispersed the demonic power inside the core and that, in the future, every member of the Demon God Sect could live forever. Then he swallowed the core in front of everyone. The result was that a Fourth Realm expert exploded into dust, taking every high-ranking member of the Demon God Sect with him."

"He hadn't fully removed the demonic power?"

"I don't think so. The Sect Leader had already reached the Fourth Realm. He shouldn't have been unable to tell. I've always believed a demon core is like an important organ of the Demon Race, containing their power and vitality—and perhaps even their own consciousness. If they don't want to be devoured by someone, of course they'll fight back."

Bai Xiuming gave a slight nod, though it was impossible to tell whether he accepted the explanation.

"If someone happened to swallow a demon core and survive, could her personality change?"

"According to my theory, a demon core contains more than just power and vitality, so it would certainly have an effect. Unfortunately, it's all conjecture. There's no proof."

"If a demon possesses a human, will heavenly lightning inevitably descend?"

"That is certain. There are no exceptions." Zhan Yi answered with complete confidence.

Bai Xiuming rose. "Thank you for clearing things up, Mister Zhan."

"Take care, sir."

Bai Xiuming left the Library Pavilion, turning over the day's events in his mind.

That night, thunder had rolled across the sky above Shangjing City. Clearly, a demon had tried to possess someone, but the lightning hadn't fallen, which meant the attempt had failed.

Whether the core Ji Chan spoke of had been given to her because the Fox Demon pitied her, or because it meant to repair her body before possessing her, she had benefited from it in the end.

Just as she'd said, she'd been lucky.

After that night, A Chan never saw Bai Xiuming again.

She remained locked in her cell, and the injuries she'd suffered gave her a fever. The guards called a doctor to treat her.

Later, when one of the guards heard the doctor say she was frail and wouldn't withstand the cold here, he tossed her a thin quilt.

The doctor came to examine her for three days in a row. He left her pills and went without saying much.

A Chan felt grateful to the doctor. If he hadn't spoken up, there was no telling whether this body of hers would have lasted until she was released.

She didn't know that as soon as the doctor left Town Prison, he went straight to the Mingjing Division's main hall.

"How is she?" Bai Xiuming asked without even raising his head from the official documents he was reviewing.

The doctor stood at the entrance and answered respectfully. "Reporting to the Pacification Commissioner, the young lady has very poor bones, and the Meridians in her body are blocked. There is no demonic breath flowing through them, and no signs of Demonization. Her body is extremely weak, even more so than an ordinary person's."

"I understand. You may go."

Three days had passed since the doctor's examination. Anyone else might have been driven to despair after spending six days in Town Prison.

But A Chan had always been patient. Otherwise, she never would have waited for an opening beneath Tianluodiwang and successfully escaped to Shangjing.

This time, she waited patiently once again.

On the seventh day, the subordinate of the man she'd met came for her. His name was Feng Yang.

Feng Yang ordered the guards to open the cell door and let her out.

During her seven days in the cell, A Chan had become a little disheveled, but she hadn't grown much more haggard.

Feng Yang, however, glanced at her only once before hastily looking away. He called for a black cloak and tossed it to her.

For the past few days, A Chan had been wearing the quilt as a wrap. She'd almost forgotten that her clothes were torn—and that human women were supposed to care about such things.

She fastened the cloak and tidied her hair before thanking Feng Yang. "Thank you for your consideration, sir."

"You don't need to thank me. It was all on the Pacification Commissioner's orders. Come along."

He led A Chan out of Town Prison, then escorted her through the gates of the Mingjing Division.

They were just letting her go? A Chan still found it hard to believe.

She stood outside the Mingjing Division offices for a while. Only after confirming that no one was calling her back did she get her bearings and head toward Changping Quarter.

Walking and resting along the way, she took a full shichen to reach Ji Chan's dwelling at last: the little shop with its doors shut.

But a carriage was parked not far from the shop. It bore no markings, so it probably didn't belong to Jinyang Marquis Manor. Whose carriage was it?

She was still searching her memories when an elderly woman climbed down from the carriage. Smiling warmly, the woman came straight toward her.

"You must be Miss Chan. When the madam heard you'd been taken away by the Mingjing Division for questioning, she worried for days. She's had this old servant waiting here for you." A Chan finally remembered who the woman was: Mama Sun, who served her aunt, Lady Xiao Lin.