My Darling Sick Beauty – Chapter 6

That is the only freedom that I have left.
The time it took Lie Zhen to fix the door was indeed fast and really did only take fifteen minutes. The original door frame of the small pinewood house was replaced with the Demon Realm’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.

Wenren Ye 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.

Wenren Ye, 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 Wenren Ye viciously, then turned his head and said to Jiang Zheliu: “Wait till I come back with Qing Lin, we will definitely be able to save you.”

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

Lie Zhen stopped in his tracks.

“When the Boundary Membrane 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.”

“My good friend, back then, I had no choice but to go.”

Lie Zhen grasped lightly, but instead of holding on to his hand, he touched the snow-white, thin sleeve of his robe.

“Zheliu,I……” He was so flustered he didn’t know what to say,“We……I,I never would have thought that, it would be so serious.……”

“So.” Jiang Zheliu said,“My condition now, you can already see for yourself. Do not pity me, do not be ashamed, you and I have different ideals, I don’t blame you.”

Lie Zhen stared at him blankly, his scarlet eyes were full of confusion, all of a sudden he reached out and grabbed Jiang Zheliu’s wrist again. He quickly said:“I don’t pity you, I am……in fact I……”

He didn’t dare to say what he was actually thinking, his burning heart felt like it had been frozen over. His brain suddenly became clear:“I’m going to leave you a protection seal, I’m afraid you might……”

He hadn’t finished speaking yet. Jiang Zheliu slightly furrowed his brows but the little Zhunque who was before him just now had picked up with one hand.

Wenren Ye twisted his fingers and barbs came out of his finger bones revealing his malevolent devil form from his fingers to his elbow. The devil energy concentrated around the fingertips that were gripping Lie Zhen’s robes, the barbs from his bones were almost crushing the side of his throat.

“I’m here.” Wenren Ye said coldly, “No one will hurt him.”

Just as the Vermilion Bird suddenly ignited a soaring flame, Wenren Ye removed his hand and flicked it, the violent devil energy rushed forward like a sharp blade flinging Lie Zhen to the ground smashing his shoulder bone.

The sound of bones cracking was clearly heard.

A rapid flame wrapped up around the body of the Vermilion Bird Zhenjun, his pair of scarlet eyes looked up, facing Wenren Ye’s barbed devilish fingertips.

Almost impaling him in the eye.

Just as the barbed fingertips were inching closer to him, Jiang Zheliu who was still sitting there drinking his tea, put down the porcelain cup and said: “My good neighbour, the tea is really bitter, do you have any sweet goods to eat.”

Wenren Ye instantly stopped and then, his devil form vanished completely, bringing back the human form of his arm, he turned around to look at Jiang Zheliu.

Jiang Zheliu’s expression hadn’t changed, his eyes were still pitch-black, not even a thread of light could enter. But with his weak frame in his snow white clothes and his lacklustre snow white long hair, he looked as if he was snow that would melt at any moment.

Wenren Ye’s killing intent slowly dispersed from his body, no longer feeling the desire to kill, he relaxed. He didn’t bother with the demon again but instead he fished out from his storage a plate full of sweet preserved fruits but he didn’t give it to Jiang Zheliu.
Jiang Zheliu watched as he stood before him.

“Is it the medicine that is bitter?”

After a short moment, Jiang Zheliu replied: “Of course it is.”

“You’re lying.” Wenren Ye picked up a piece of the candy and placed it by Jiang Zheliu’s lips, “You can’t actually taste what is bitter at all.”

He had actually prepared this plate of preserved sweet goods a long time ago – from the second day that he had found Jiang Zheliu. He had treated him like a sick and weak willow sapling1This is imagery from ZHL name Liu = Willow in Chinese. Thinking that his medicine would be bitter, thinking that he would knit his eyebrows after drinking the bitter medicine and he would be disgusted, and at this moment, he could feed him with the candied fruits.

But the other party was not like this at all.

When he drank his medicine, he didn’t flinch one bit as if he couldn’t taste the bitterness at all.

What was bitter was his heart.

Jiang Zheliu looked at what he had brought over and said: “Is this how you feed your neighbours in the Devil Realm? You……urm.”

He had a piece placed into his mouth, fruit cured with sugar, it was way too sweet, a sweetness that he had seldom tasted spread over his entire tongue.

Afterwards, Wenren Ye looked down at his lower body, gazing intently he said:“You’ve suffered painstakingly over the years, are all your good friends this moral and righteous?”  

Jiang Zheliu wanted to say that this was one of the rulers of the Demon Realm but he had still not swallowed the sweet in his mouth and Wenren Ye had already picked up the little Vermilion Bird and thrown him outside, with a force that was enough to scare anyone.

Vermilion Bird Zhenjun’s bones were all hollow, so he was in fact very light. His attacking power was his strength when his body was covered in blazing flames, even if Wenren Jian were to arrive in person, he would not be able to subdue him so easily.

The Junior Lord of the Devil Realm…… Jiang Zheliu was watching him from behind and thought of the expression “the younger generations will surpass us in time”. He smiled but then he thought of the younger generations of the Cultivation World and thought about his shidi that he had brought up himself and he could no longer smile anymore.

The sweetness upon his lips was still present, he picked up the porcelain cup to take another sip of the tea. He knitted his brows as if it was the first time that he had actually felt the bitterness of this tea.

If he hadn’t tasted the sweetness, he would never have been able to taste the bitterness.
————

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?”

Jiang Zheliu answered him and then asked:“What is it.”

“When I went down the mountain today I overheard some people talking, it sounded like they were looking for gege.” Chang Qian said whilst hanging his head, “They said that the entire Cultivation World is looking but can’t find you, they are all worried sick.”

Jiang Zheliu listened to him calmly and quietly but didn’t answer.

They were only worried because they hadn’t seen him with their own eyes, and seeing was believing. All those respectful words were just an excuse, most of those righteous sects had the same ideals as the little Vermilion Bird.

Chang Qian thought that this topic was actually not a good one so he changed the subject:“I met a little deer at the base of the mountain, he says that he has nowhere to go. I was thinking……”

Whilst he was thinking, he was looking over shyly at Jiang Zheliu, he continued: “if he might want to come and serve you as long as gege can give him some occasional guidance for his cultivation.”

Jiang Zheliu nodded, he had always liked deer demons, he casually replied: “if it’s like that,you can tell him to come.”

Chang Qian nodded happily as if he had gained a new toy. He looked only about eleven to twelve years old and mentally he wasn’t much older. In the eyes of Jiang Zheliu, he was just a child who liked to play.

Jiang Zheliu didn’t mind a few little demons coming as before he had already taken in a fair few little demons who had nowhere else to go. Plus it was Zhongnan Mountain, a spiritual ground and evil demons were rarely seen.
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 Wenren Ye’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?”

Wenren Ye 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 Wenren Ye and he’d already be in pieces so Wenren Ye probably didn’t want to kill him.

Wenren Ye had heard what he said and in his head, he was thinking about turning “one meal” into “every meal”. But he quickly came back to his senses, seeing Jiang Zheliu’s black eyes staring at him, the lustful thoughts in his mind disappeared instantly as if they had been covered over by a thin and cold veil.

Wenren Ye stared blankly for a moment, before saying: “I want to help you recover.”

Jiang Zheliu stared at him silently, his snow-white eyelashes were almost transparent under the candlelight.

“And then, we can finally determine who is better. And so I can avenge my loss to you back then.”

Wenren Ye said with insistence, it seemed like he was being candid.

Jiang Zheliu watched him for a long time, but he could not find a trace of falseness or hypocrisy.

What he could not see, was the heart in this devil’s chest beating frantically. The sword scar that had been slashed across his chest by the Ling Xiao sword at that time was faintly burning. Even his youthful wishful thinking was gradually heating up and burning with the rest of him.

Wenren Ye’s purple eyes darkened, keeping his whole focus on him.

Jiang Zheliu had defeated too many people, he really couldn’t remember when he had won against Wenren Ye but he did find it interesting.
He had disciplined many juniors over the years, the most competitive of whom was the junior Pavilion Lord of the Wushuang Jian Pavilion, Jin Yujie, but even Yujie was not as nostalgic about his former defeat as Wenren Ye was.

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

The fire in Wenren Ye’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.”

Wenren Ye’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.   
Author note:

“You can’t actually taste what is bitter at all.”

Your whole life has been a let down.

01/09/21 – Fixed terms + updated names.
18/12/21 – Re-edited, terms updated.
29/01/22 – Realm Boundary → Boundary Membrane

6 thoughts on “My Darling Sick Beauty – Chapter 6”

  1. Thank you!!

    So the demon realm doest want to repair the membrane because of greed i understand but why not te righteous sects? Wont they regress if the spiritual energy is gone?

    Reply
  2. The tone of this chapter is so melancholic and I like it a lot. It’s only chapter 6, but Jiang Zheliu is already thirsty kkkkk About Lie Zhen, his inaction leads to Jiang Zheliu’s injury. I am disappointed in him, but I like his character set up.

    Thank you for the chapter!!

    Reply
  3. Our second male lead had his own inactions that led to JZL getting to this state! The positive side to that is it really tamped down on my syndrome from last chapter! I still like him though. This story is just melancholic in tone. It’s a good take on a cultivation setting!

    Thanks for your hard work translating!

    Reply

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