Smoke and Fire [GL] - Chapter 6

“Demon Venerable.” (or “Demon Lord”)

Si Yin’s voice instantly brought Yi An to a sudden realization.

It seemed that this woman clad in a red veil was the great demon Si Yin had mentioned, the one whose name no one in the Six Realms dared to utter directly.

Lin Shuang’s reaction immediately proved Yi An’s guess. The young woman obediently knelt on the ground, her voice trembling slightly: “Mistress… why did you come yourself…”

The Demon Venerable merely pressed her left hand down gently, and Lin Shuang instantly fell silent.

She took a few more steps forward, her red veil swaying, each step graceful.

Yi An tried to catch a glimpse of the woman’s face from the corner of her eye, but only saw a pure black mask amidst her waterfall-like ink-black hair.

“Get up.”

It was a very mature, alluring voice, carrying a subtle hint of a smile. Yi An shivered instantly upon hearing it, feeling a tingle from head to tailbone.

Lin Shuang seemed greatly relieved. She was halfway up when she heard the woman add, “Not talking about you.”

So Lin Shuang plopped back down to her knees.

Yi An felt a slight urge to laugh and couldn’t hold back a genuine “pfft.” The woman in red seemed to glance at her, though no expression could be discerned through the mask.

She bypassed Lin Shuang, as if everything around her was irrelevant, until she stopped in front of Luo Yao.

“Did Lin Shuang disrespect you?”

She asked seriously in a volume only the two of them could hear.

Lin Shuang probably deeply regretted what she had just said and was about to open her mouth to explain something. The woman didn’t even turn her head; she merely used her left index finger to point at Lin Shuang from a distance, the meaning clearly being for her to shut up.

Luo Yao had her back to the three people at this moment. Yi An couldn’t see her expression, only hearing her say calmly, “That’s between Lin Shuang and me.”

The woman chuckled, saying nothing else.

The meaning of her laugh was too ambiguous. Si Yin, standing behind the two of them, seemed to steel her resolve, stood up, and shouted: “Luo Yao! If you’re going to make a move, do it now!!”

The woman, however, was not at all surprised. She glanced sideways at Si Yin and sighed with a smile, “So, God Si Yin missed me that much.”

“Nonsense!” Si Yin looked like she was all-in. She clenched her right hand in the air, and a sword instantly condensed in the space. “Luo Yao, Tan Tan, try slacking off one more time?!”

Yi An turned to Tan Tan in shock. The previously trembling Tan Tan was no longer shaking, her face etched with a look of “why do I have to work overtime again,” as she condensed a short blade in front of her chest.

Yi An, caught in the middle, hadn’t figured out what was happening when a centuries-long war between a God and a Demon erupted.

Si Yin flashed and shimmered behind the woman, immediately raising her sword to strike without a word. Tan Tan attacked from the front. In just an instant, they formed a highly coordinated pincer attack from front and back.

“…Overestimating yourselves.” The woman smiled faintly and calmly turned her shoulder slightly, narrowly avoiding the sword-wind coming from Si Yin behind her.

Then, she smoothly spun half a circle, twirled her fingers, and instantly drew out a pure black bone whip, at least three meters long.

“One High God whose true body is sealed, one Flower Goddess who has been demoted,” she chuckled, “What do you all take me for, hmm?”

With that, her red dress fluttered and approached, like a blooming Lycoris radiata. The black whip, like a flicking snake’s tongue, whistled through the air, carving a perfect arc straight towards Tan Tan.

“Clang—!”

Tan Tan only managed to block in the air with her short blade, clashing with the sharp bone spurs, producing a piercing, drawn-out sound.

The woman smiled again, slowly pressing her wrist down. The whip, like a snake, wrapped upwards along Tan Tan’s blade. The coldly gleaming bone spurs pressed directly against her carotid artery.

“…”

Tan Tan knew that in no more than one or two seconds, bl00d would splatter on the spot.

Just then, in her peripheral vision, she saw wide, snow-white sleeves flutter. Then a blue light flashed, and the restraint on her neck suddenly loosened.

A person who shouldn’t have intervened had blocked in front of her.

“Today was originally about us, and it has nothing to do with others.” Luo Yao released her left hand. The pure-cyan prayer beads landed soundlessly, transforming into two ribbons that wrapped around her sleeves.

In fact, the moment Luo Yao intervened, the woman had already released eight or nine-tenths of her power. Even when Luo Yao genuinely pressed down her sword, she only dodged.

“I know you hate me,” she said earnestly, dodging Luo Yao’s long sword while also having to deal with the randomly slashing Si Yin, “Your Highness, calm down. I can let you strike, but you will hurt yourself like this.”

Luo Yao’s movements paused for a tenth of a second, but she concealed it well.

“Shang Mian, have you been bedridden these past few years? Haven’t used a whip?” she said mockingly, referencing the fact that the opponent consistently made no move to strike back.

The woman, or rather the Demon Venerable, thus mocked, showed no sign of anger. The amusement in her voice was quite obvious: “Love-sickness.”

This time, Luo Yao truly couldn’t maintain her composure and stabbed forward with a completely expressionless thrust.

But similarly, this reaction was also completely anticipated. The woman calmly retracted her whip to meet the sword, using the same move she used on Tan Tan just now: the whip’s tail took the opportunity to wrap around Luo Yao’s waist.

Then, without turning her head, she raised her left hand, and Si Yin was hit by an invisible force, sent flying over ten meters away.

She slightly raised her right hand again. Luo Yao felt the grip around her waist tighten. She stumbled and ended up crashing into the woman’s arms.

Luo Yao actually knew she was talking nonsense just now. This bone whip could slit the throats of hundreds of people in an instant. But at this moment, all the sharp bone spurs had retracted according to their owner’s will, and the force around her waist was controlled perfectly, like a forceful embrace.

“Knock me out, quickly.” Luo Yao whispered in a breathy voice next to her ear.

The woman seemed to raise an eyebrow under the mask, appearing very surprised, then laughed hoarsely: “Sister, you really are…”

Then, she very gently held Luo Yao with one arm and lightly struck her neck with the other hand. Luo Yao completely went limp in her embrace.

“Get up.”

Holding the unconscious Luo Yao with one hand, she said to Lin Shuang without raising her head.

Lin Shuang finally stood up, relieved, and cautiously followed behind them, albeit looking somewhat unwilling.

“Go back and tell your Venerable,” the woman swept her eyes over the three of them from above, her tone light yet dangerous, “If she wants to kill me, she can come herself. Don’t trouble my Highness.”

With that, a burst of black mist emanated from her, instantly swallowing her, Luo Yao, and Lin Shuang.

A second later, the three had completely vanished.

Witnessing this scene, Si Yin, who had been struggling to get up, closed her eyes and lay back down, covered in dust and looking particularly miserable.

“Si Yin, are you dead?!” Yi An finally emerged from stealth mode, rushing to her side, preparing to wail, “Can you tell me what you were talking about before you die! And why was Luo Yao taken away!”

Si Yin: “Get lost.”

“Oh.”

Yi An went over to Tan Tan.

“Tan Tan, you’re the best. Can you please explain this to me, your unevolved, tiny human friend, ahhh!”

Tan Tan, clutching her chest, waved her hand: “Didn’t you see I was fucking about to die just now? Let me calm down, OK?”

“Aren’t you a God…”

“A God, my ass!” Tan Tan snapped, “Do I look like a God at all these past two years? Can a God be beaten up like that?! This is just a human body, if I die, I’m truly dead!”

Yi An slowly posed a question mark: “…Then why were you being so reckless just now? I thought you two had a revival stone.”

“When the top boss says to go, can we not go!”

Tan Tan said with profound grief:

“I am so utterly done. The only person surnamed Shang who will not lay a hand on is Luo Yao! That’s it!—Si Yin and I are, at most, just a part of their two-person ‘play’!”

Yi An exclaimed, “Holy crap! What kind of ‘play’?! With that whip of hers, can my Luo Yao even handle it?!”

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Tan Tan suddenly fell into an eerie silence, her mouth starting to twitch.

It was Si Yin who suddenly burst into a bout of hysterical laughter. She climbed up, roaring with laughter: “Don’t let those two hear what you just said, hahahahahaha… Come, come, help this High God up. Just for your misunderstanding about the two of them, I have an obligation to give you a remedial lesson.”

Half an hour later, Yi An looked up at a 24-hour nightclub in the suburbs of Cangzhou City, falling into an awkward silence.

“You two didn’t sell me out, did you?” she slowly asked.

“Though I’d love to,” Si Yin glanced at her, “I just want a drink to calm my nerves right now.”

To be honest, stepping into the noisy nightclub at dawn, Yi An felt a sense of displacement: you’d understand if you suddenly discovered overnight that all your roommates were not human.

The three sat in a corner by the bar. Around them were only a few rebellious girls in heavy makeup and miniskirts, occasionally bursting into loud laughter.

After downing three glasses of whiskey, Si Yin finally prepared to give Yi An a proper remedial lesson.

“What do you want to know?” she asked.

Oh wow, if we’re talking about that, then I’m afraid to say…

Yi An took a deep breath: “If you ask that, then I want to know everything. What is Luo Yao’s identity? What are your and Tan Tan’s identities? When did you meet? Is Lin Shuang Luo Yao’s biological daughter? Why did Luo Yao suddenly transform? What is the whole story of Yunshan Village? Who is the woman in red? What is her relationship with Luo Yao? Why did you two have no reaction when she knocked Luo Yao out and took her away? You all—Gods and Demons—what is your purpose in approaching me? And—”

“OK, I got it. Shut up.”

Si Yin made a ‘Zip your mouth’ motion, rubbing her temples.

“Are you the ‘100,000 Whys,’ my dear,” she rubbed her ponytail, seeming to ponder how to begin, “First, let me give you a quick primer on our worldview.”

“Are you writing a novel, talking about a worldview—?!”

“Silence.” God Si Yin commanded, “First, you need to know that in our world, there are not only the Gods, Humans, and Demons you know, but also Beasts (or Spirits), Ghosts, and Immortals. These six each occupy a dimension. This is called the ‘Six Paths of Existence’.”

“Is there a difference between a God and an Immortal?”

“A huge difference. An Immortal (Xian) is a human who has ascended. They have a very long lifespan but it still has an end. A God (Shen), however, is born as such. The day they are born, they are a God, and as long as their divine status remains, their life is infinite.”

She continued: “Humans become Ghosts if they die with lingering attachments. Animals that have cultivated become Beasts upon death. But neither of these two easily becomes a Demon.”

“Then what is a Demon?” Yi An was confused. From what she had heard earlier, Lin Shuang and the woman in red should both be Demons, right?

Hearing this, Si Yin’s expression became slightly grave. She said, “You must know, no one is born a Demon in this world. The so-called Demon Clan are all those who have fallen from the other five realms after experiencing heart-wrenching pain.”

Falling…

Yi An suddenly recalled that when Lin Shuang was interrogating Luo Yao, she once said, “Who was it who watched her daughter, who was about to become a demon, writhe in heart-wrenching pain, yet remained unmoved?”

“Lin Shuang… fell and became a Demon?” she asked blankly, unable to imagine what such a beautiful girl had been through, and why Luo Yao would treat her that way.

Si Yin took a sip of her drink: “More than that.”

“The current Demon Venerable also fell from a divine position to become a Demon. But she is special,” she paused. “Falling into demonhood is usually done out of necessity, involuntarily…”

“But she did it willingly.”