Chà Chà Novel

Seeing Qin Du grow increasingly downcast, Lin Huaiqing felt as though someone had squeezed his heart.

He could only let him return to his room, a lonely figure.

After that, Qin Du shut himself away for days. Lin Huaiqing did not see him come out at all.

In the side hall of Qingming Hall, Qin Du devoted himself to meditation, taking fasting pills whenever he grew hungry.

He wanted to become stronger. He wanted to break through beyond Foundation Establishment. He wanted Lin Huaiqing to see him in a different light.

The books his master had told him to read lay piled to one side, already gathering dust.

Night fell. Qin Du was just about to close his eyes when a dark figure flashed past his window. At that speed, it clearly wasn’t Lin Huaiqing or Mu Yunting passing by.

Had someone sneaked onto Lingxiao Peak to harm Lin Huaiqing?

The thought that his master might be in danger sent Qin Du springing out of bed, ready to investigate.

As he hesitated, something whistled through the window. A streak of light shot straight into his bedpost.

Looking toward the sound, he discovered an iron throwing dart embedded in the wood, with a note pinned to it.

Puzzled, Qin Du reached to remove the note.

But the moment his hand touched the dart, it dissolved before his eyes into a thin wisp of black demonic energy, then dispersed into the air.

Only high-ranking demons could condense demonic energy into solid weapons like this.

Several bold words stood out on the paper: “Meet in the rear mountains of Lingxiao Peak.”

If a demon wanted to meet him, he would have to go. Anyone capable of infiltrating the Xuantian Sect was certainly no ordinary demon.

He burned the note to ashes with a fireball spell, then cautiously left his room.

Only the three of them lived on Lingxiao Peak. No one would be wandering its rear mountains in the middle of the night.

Carrying a lantern, Qin Du could already make out the figure of a grown man standing by the cliff in the distance.

Even from behind, the man looked familiar. He resembled a subordinate from Qin Du’s previous life—his most capable and trusted lieutenant.

Sadly, during the final war between the immortal sects and the demons, Xiao Sha had died beneath Mu Yunting’s sword while trying to save him.

Xiao Sha had been one of the few subordinates utterly loyal to him. Even at the very end, he had never betrayed him.

If there was anyone Qin Du had trusted most in his previous life, it was Xiao Sha.

In the end, they had even died in the same place. Perhaps that, too, was a strange twist of fate.

“Were you the one looking for me?”

Qin Du called out tentatively. The man turned, and in the faint moonlight, Qin Du recognized him at once.

It really was Xiao Sha.

Suppressing his excitement, Qin Du dared not reveal too much.

After all, the two of them should not know each other in this life. Why had Xiao Sha sought him out?

As Qin Du studied him, Xiao Sha was examining Qin Du just as closely.

He would remember that face even if it were reduced to ashes.

With a thud, Xiao Sha dropped to his knees before him, his voice trembling with emotion.

“Xiao Sha pays his respects, my lord!”

“Xiao Sha?!”

Qin Du hurried to help him up.

“It really is you? How did you find me?”

Seeing that his lord still recognized him, Xiao Sha’s handsome, icy expression instantly softened.

“So you were reborn too! I’ve searched so hard for you!”

“Get up first. Stop kneeling. And don’t call me your lord anymore. Just use my name.”

In his previous life, Qin Du had been the exalted Demon Venerable, and Xiao Sha his subordinate. Who knew what peculiar whim had possessed him back then to make Xiao Sha address him as his lord?

Now he was merely an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator. Times had changed. Hearing Xiao Sha call him that was genuinely embarrassing.

“My lord will always be my lord. I would never dare address you by name.”

As he spoke, Xiao Sha dropped to his knees again.

Qin Du had to haul him back up.

“I’m no Demon Venerable now. I’m just one of the many disciples in the Xuantian Sect.”

Xiao Sha, however, had his own interpretation of this change in status.

“You’ve disguised yourself as a cultivator and spent all these years infiltrating the Xuantian Sect to prepare for the demon race’s restoration. Your foresight and dedication command my deepest admiration!”

In truth, when Xiao Sha first realized he had been reborn, he had spent his days in a daze. Unable to return to the demon realm, he could only hide from place to place in the cultivation world.

Though a demon himself, he had grown up in the cultivation world. The two horns on his head, proof of his pure demonic bloodline, had marked him as an outcast.

He had endured endless scorn from humans.

Had it not been for his lord, those villagers would have burned him alive long ago.

From then on, he had remained constantly at his lord’s side, serving as his subordinate.

After his rebirth, his only goal had been to find him.

If he could be reborn, why couldn’t his lord?

Once he realized that, he searched tirelessly for news, day and night. After five years, he finally confirmed that his lord was in the Xuantian Sect.

But the Xuantian Sect was hardly a place he could enter at will.

The hardships he had endured along the way scarcely needed mentioning. Now that he had finally found his lord, every one of them had been worthwhile!

“My lord! Lead me back to the demon realm! I’ve already damaged the barrier, and the old Demon Venerable is at death’s door. Reclaiming your position will be effortless!”

He had planned everything. To pave the way for his lord, he had even risked his life by pouring his own pure demon blood into the Spirit-Suppressing Stone.

Now that the barrier had weakened, they could return to the demon realm whenever they wished.

“You were the one who damaged the barrier?!”

Qin Du was stunned.

No wonder Mu Yunting had suspected him. It seemed he couldn’t claim this had absolutely nothing to do with him after all.

He pondered for a long time, torn.

“But in this life, I don’t want to be the Demon Venerable anymore.”

He had wrestled with those words deep inside before finally deciding to say them aloud.

“There’s nothing so wonderful about being the Demon Venerable. To reach that position, I caused so much needless slaughter. For the demon race’s great cause, I cast aside my humanity. Countless humans and demons died by my hand!

“But what happened in the end? We still lost. We lost to Mu Yunting.”

Seeing that Qin Du wanted to give up, Xiao Sha immediately dropped to his knees, casting aside his dignity to plead.

“My lord! One more time! Let’s try once more. What if we succeed this time?! If Mu Yunting hadn’t suddenly broken through during your battle, how could he ever have defeated you?!”

“But that’s exactly the problem. Why could he suddenly break through? Why did even the Heavenly Dao favor him?

“At first, I thought he was simply lucky. But later, I understood. Everything we were doing was something the Heavenly Dao would not tolerate.

“In this life, I don’t want to slaughter anyone anymore.”

At last, Xiao Sha fell silent.

The rumors he had heard below the mountain were true.

His lord had taken a human cultivator as his master. He wasn’t infiltrating the Xuantian Sect—he had genuinely become a cultivator.

But what was so appealing about that? Being constrained at every turn, having to obey a master’s every command?

His lord, so accustomed to ruling as the Demon Venerable in their previous life, was now willingly attending to someone else?!

What sort of spell had this Lin Huaiqing cast to bewitch him so completely?

Not only had his demonic nature vanished, but he had even forgotten the bloodlust etched into the demon race’s very bones.