Divorce by Agreement C14

Chapter 14

#Then I’m Not Afraid of You Either

I’m not kind enough to care about a demon’s feelings. Taking advantage of his silence, I broke free from his control, turned, and slashed with my sword—aiming straight for the vulnerable spot at his throat!

But the blade imbued with celestial energy struck as if it had hit an unbreakable stone. With a loud clang, the backlash force split my grip open, blood splattered, and the celestial sword in my hand was flung away.

In the next instant, however, the sword was pulled back by some mysterious force. It floated in front of me—but its tip now pointed directly at my throat.

Dark mist coiled around the hilt, and on the other end of that mist was a shadowy figure obscured in darkness.

I couldn’t make out his face, but I could feel the bloodlust burning in his eyes. The black mist writhed around me like starving vipers, trying to devour me.

Zhu Lian was controlling my sword, making the tip circle around my throat as if drawing a pattern—dangerous and ticklish. I couldn’t tell if the next moment he would stab through my neck, or just continue this maddening game: “You carry his blood… and still don’t know who I am?”

Blood?

That’s right. After I returned to this side, Xie Zhuo had once said that unless he fed me blood when I ascended, our marriage bond would be considered severed.

So the “he” Zhu Lian spoke of could only be Xie Zhuo.

But Xie Zhuo had told me far too little over the years! What was special about his blood? Why did it matter? What would happen because I carried it? What was Zhu Lian’s relationship with Xie Zhuo, and how did he know any of this?

I knew absolutely nothing about Xie Zhuo’s world!

Damn it, Xie Zhuo! That fake marriage of yours!

I kept my emotions in check and looked at Zhu Lian, fully aware that this wasn’t an enemy I could beat by bluffing. I had to retreat. But the darkness above had already sealed me in—this formation had dragged me completely into its trap. I couldn’t break it by brute force alone…

Crack! A sharp shattering sound rang out, and light from the outside pierced through the darkness.

I looked up—within the blink of an eye, a longsword had descended from the heavens, cutting straight through the blade tip pressed to my throat!

As the sword entered, light followed and scattered the surrounding gloom. Suddenly, I felt the ground solid beneath my feet—the formation had receded, and I was once again standing on the soil of Kunlun.

It all happened too fast. I staggered from the abrupt transition, but a slender hand in black robes caught me firmly.

I looked up—and, as expected, saw Xie Zhuo’s back.

Just moments ago, I was threatening him with a rock to hand over the Pangu Axe. Now, in a moment of crisis, he was the one who came to save me. I couldn’t help feeling a bit awkward about it.

On the other side, the black shadow of Zhu Lian, despite the formation being shattered and the dark mist barely holding half his body together, still drifted gracefully in the air, slowly dissolving. He seemed quite pleased with himself.

“Xie Zhuo… I didn’t expect, after our battle, that you’d be able to arrive so quickly today.”

Hmm? A battle?

Could it be… this Zhu Lian was the one who fought Xie Xuanqing before and left him gravely injured?

I studied him. Based on the aura I sensed within the formation, this man was certainly no harmless being.

But now he was only barely maintaining a human form with that dark mist. Seems like he too had been severely injured—just like Xie Xuanqing.

What kind of demon was he, and why was he fighting Xie Zhuo? And more importantly…

I touched the necklace I had hidden in my sleeve—the one that belonged to Xie Xuanqing.

He only came to cause trouble for me after I obtained this necklace. He wanted to take it.

And both Xie Zhuo and Xie Xuanqing had to guard this necklace. So, for Xie Zhuo, this necklace wasn’t just about remembrance—it held some other crucial significance…

Something this important… and yet he used it as a prop just to sever our bond?

Just how much did he regret… marrying me in the first place?

These thoughts flashed through my mind. Xie Zhuo stepped forward with his sword toward Zhu Lian, but after just one step, he stopped and turned back to look at me.

In his usual calm and steady voice, he said four words: “Stand behind me—” But the last word “me” never left his lips. His gaze fell on my throat, and he paused.

His expression darkened, shadows gathering in his eyes. A murderous aura slowly rose around him. I had never seen this side of Xie Zhuo before—it frightened me. Honestly, I was almost relieved it had been Zhu Lian I’d faced earlier and not this version of him…

Puzzled, I reached up and touched my neck. Where the sword tip had grazed me, there was a faint sting of heat.

Confused, I wondered—was Xie Zhuo reacting to that tiny scratch? It hadn’t even broken the skin!

“It was the sword tip… just a graze,” I explained, starting to lower my hand.

But then Xie Zhuo finally spoke again:

“What about your hand?”

I blinked, looked down: “Oh… when he knocked the sword away, the impact broke the skin a little…”

I didn’t even finish the word skin before Zhu Lian exploded.

Yes—literally exploded.

In the instant Xie Zhuo lifted his hand, the terrifying shadow I had just faced was instantly obliterated.

I slapped a hand over my mouth, trying not to seem too uncultured. I refrained from exclaiming over Xie Zhuo’s power.

It’s fine, it’s fine… Even Queen Mother of the West could do this sort of thing…

Only by invoking Kunlun’s patron deity could I find a sliver of balance here…

The dark mist may have blown apart, but remnants of the formation still lingered. Amid the lingering black-red aura, Zhu Lian’s cold laughter echoed:

“For someone you care this much about, you didn’t even tell her… that you’re of the Snow Wolf Demon Clan?”

Xie Zhuo flicked his sleeve. The remaining formation crumbled into dust and scattered into the sky. But Zhu Lian’s voice still lingered in Kunlun’s cool air—

So clear: Snow Wolf Demon Clan.

I stared at Xie Zhuo’s back, stunned.

I was an immortal of Kunlun, and while I knew little of the affairs beyond the Northern Sea Wastelands, I had heard of the Snow Wolf Clan in legend.

They were said to be descendants of an evil god—silent, wordless beings who hunted all immortals and demons alike, extracting their soul power. All feared them.

But many years ago, one Snow Wolf went mad. He slaughtered his entire clan, taking all their soul power for himself. He became the last Snow Wolf in existence—and the being closest to the evil god’s true form…

If Xie Zhuo really was a Snow Wolf Demon… no wonder he had hidden it from me for five hundred years.

But still…

“…Is it true?” I asked.

I looked at him. He stood amid the year-round snow of Kunlun. His figure seemed lonely—on the verge of transcending the mortal world. But in the end, he turned back to look at me, his gaze calm and steady.

“…It’s true.”

He really was the last of the Snow Wolves.

The mountains stood silent between us.

Xie Zhuo didn’t offer further explanation. He simply turned toward me, gently brushed a finger across my throat, and with a cool sensation, the small scratch vanished. He also healed the wound on my hand with a wave of spiritual energy.

I let him do as he pleased, then opened my mouth: “Then I’m not afraid of you either.”

Xie Zhuo paused slightly, then looked up at me.

Meeting his eyes, I felt an unexpected ache in my heart.

What kind of person is Xie Zhuo? Do I not know? I believe it when people say he’s cold. I even believe it when they say he’s ruthless. But saying he slaughtered his entire clan for power—I don’t believe that. I’ve lived with him for five hundred years. Even if we didn’t live as husband and wife in the truest sense, we still spent every day together.

I looked at Xie Zhuo, my lips moved. The words “I don’t believe the rumors, I only believe you” reached my lips, but what came out instead was a teasing remark: “Don’t get me wrong. What I mean is—no matter what you are, I still have to get the Pangu Axe from you. I’m not backing down.”

As soon as I said that, Xie Zhuo’s gaze dropped.

I looked away too. There were things I could even say to Xie Xuanqing, but not to Xie Zhuo anymore.

I was the one who cut the marriage bond with my own hands. He was the one who could even use something that important—a stone—to scheme and destroy our bond.

We weren’t meeting for the first time. We weren’t old friends reuniting. We were saying goodbye.

This was a farewell we both orchestrated. Don’t even talk about comfort—even all tenderness had to be measured and restrained, with clear boundaries…

I looked up toward the distance. “No need to heal me. My wounds will recover on their own…”

As I said it, I tried hard to suppress the faint melancholy in my heart. But the moment I saw another black figure in the distance slowly approaching us, that bit of sorrow vanished instantly.

Xie Zhuo was saying, “As long as the stone is on you, he’ll come for it. Let me—”

I cut him off by shoving him off the mountaintop with one push, completely catching him off guard.

Then I immediately shouted toward the distance, “Xie Xuanqing! Don’t come any closer!”

The sentence ended too abruptly, so I added, “Wait for me to come to you!”

After saying that, I turned and started walking toward Xie Xuanqing. Just before I left, I twisted back and muttered under my breath in a voice only the wind could catch: “Stay far away!”

See? In a moment of crisis, even if Xie Zhuo were the only Snow Wolf Demon in the world—or even if he were the Emperor of Heaven himself—I really wouldn’t be afraid.