At the top of the world is the end – his own end, untimely and quite unexpected at that. Granted, the onslaught had not been unexpected; he had known it would be the final offensive from the alliance of cultivation sects before the latter fractured completely. Many had died already, and earlier today, even more had joined their ranks.
Granted, the side of demons and demonic cultivators had also suffered losses. However, tonight, the fighting would finally draw to a close, and each and every one of them would be forced to bow and acknowledge him as their true sovereign. Such had been the plan at any rate.
He – Youming Jun – had made it to the pinnacle of the world. He’d established his dominion, crushing all that dared to stand in his way. Then again, few managed to rise to the top without trampling on a few toes at the very least, and he had certainly done that and then some. There was a trail of blood and violence in his wake, and corpses, so many corpses.
Now Youming Jun is about to become one himself, and lying next to one as well.
However, lying side by side with his killer, he experiences a strange sort of calm.
He’s dying, yes, and while a strong enough elixir or a skilled enough healer would’ve been able to save him, the only one left alive is already Core-less and dying and while it’s not unlikely that they might’ve been able to save him, they’d rather just stand there and watch him die if they didn’t decide to hurry it along – to finish the work already started by another.
So no, Youming Jun wouldn’t be surviving this. Strangely enough, this doesn’t bother him much. Also, since there’s not an awful lot to do besides lie there and wait for death, Youming Jun finds himself looking at his foe – an unexpected one, to say the very least.
He almost doesn’t recognise other where he lies, his face pale underneath all that blood and grime.
With his eyes closed and his expression strangely peaceful, it’s almost as though the other is just sleeping. But he is dead, and by his own hand at that; he had stabbed Youming Jun first and then himself. Why had he done that?
Youming Jun stares at the other’s face, struggling to understand why. Because he would’ve understood hatred, and he would’ve expected it from the one beside him. However, he hadn’t sensed it; he hadn’t sensed anything until the tip of the blade was already deeply embedded into his chest.
Youming Jun would’ve understood hatred. That’s why he is confused.
He tries to move his arm, to not just see but also touch. He can’t though, his limbs remaining cold and unresponsive. He can feel death creeping in, but he’s not afraid. He’s not afraid but instead puzzled.
“Shixiong…” he thinks to himself as he sinks into darkness. “You...”
“Well,” the Demon Prince said. “Long story short... I decided to take over the world, and to kill anyone standing in the way of that. I was pretty successful too, for a while. Then, right after I’d decimated the final remnants of the righteous sect alliance, I got myself assassinated, and then I woke up here – like a few months ago? Yeah, a few months ago.”
Huh. “Okay...?”
“Anyways,” the Demon Prince continued, offering up a dismissive wave. “I woke up, and it was really weird, and then I... well, I originally went back to that place to look for Yue-shixiong to see... if it was the same for him.”
Right. “I feel like I’m missing some context here. Yue-shixiong?”
“Ah, right.” The Demon Prince shrugged. “I forgot. Technically, I too was once a disciple of Bai Mingyue.”
Huh. “...You were?”
“Yes,” Youming Jun said. “Difficult to believe, I’m sure, but that’s how it was. I mean, I find it difficult to believe, but that’s actually the truth. I mean, sure, it’s not like I took part in that official thing... ‘the Selection’, right? Then again, neither did Yue, so...”
He trailed off, leaving Jiao Ziyu a moment to process all the things he’d just heard, and once he had, Jiao Ziyu finally asked: “What happened to Yue?”
For a long moment, the Demon Prince said nothing, giving him a definite look before promptly averting his eyes.
“Yue-shixiong... well, I’m not sure what to say honestly. I didn’t think much of him back then, and I can’t really say that I cared all that much when I saw how the others behaved towards him. I mean, I’m pretty sure I thought he was pathetic, with him being the Head Disciple and all. I mean, I definitely considered those guys even more pathetic for acting up, and ganging up on him like that but... I guess I wasn’t really all that interested at the time? I mean, my intention was always to return to the Demon Realm to exact bloody vengeance upon my uncle after all.”
His uncle, Demon King Youming Hongyan.
“I mean, I eventually did and all, and I was pretty busy with stuff over there so... I didn’t really hear about what happened until much, much later.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know the details,” Youming Jun said. “I only know that Yue-shixiong suffered a major bout of qi deviation and that Bai Mingyue allegedly flew into a rage and killed his other disciples afterwards so... I imagine it was pretty bad.”
Yeah, that did sound... pretty bad. “And then?”
The Demon Prince shrugged. “I was kind of busy in the Demon Realm at the time, and after that, I was busy waging war with... well, you guys. As for you though, I’m pretty sure you were already dead at that point. Not sure when or how it happened. I didn’t really ask for details.”
Huh. “You do know who I am, right?”
“Oh, do I?” Youming Jun said, and a vicious smile spread across his face. “Jiao Ziyu, Peak Lord Jiao, in charge of trade and logistics and an oh-so-secret spy network. Also, helplessly oblivious and helplessly in love with⸺”
“With all due respect, Youming Jun, if you’d been in my shoes, would you have dared to act upon such feelings?”
The Demon Prince blinked, momentarily caught off guard – and this in turn caught Jiao Ziyu slightly off guard, because given the other’s previous displays of shamelessness, he would’ve honestly expected a swift yes.
Instead, Youming Jun scrunched his face up and uttered a very quiet, yet still perfectly audible noise of disgust. Frankly, Jiao Ziyu was a bit offended – not just on Mingyue’s behalf but also on his own.
“Ugh,” the other finally said, averting his eyes once more. “Like Hell, that guy’s⸺”
Whatever the Demon Prince had intended to say next, he seemingly forgot about it the moment his attention was drawn elsewhere.
Then, in the next moment, he stood up and vanished. He wasn’t gone for long though, because Jiao Ziyu scarcely had the time to wonder where he’d gone off to before he heard the gates opening, and the sound of voices growing nearer.
“⸺Told you I’d⸺”
“⸺No reason to stay. They said I could⸺”
Moments thereafter, Yue entered the courtyard, trailed by the Demon Prince. The latter didn’t seem to have alerted the former to Jiao Ziyu’s presence though, because upon spotting him, the medicinal cultivator suddenly grew very still.
A moment thereafter, he even took a step back, just as Jiao Ziyu stood up to greet him.
“What’s he doing here?” Yue hissed.
“Yue⸺” the Demon Prince began, reaching out only for the other to sidestep him and smack his hand away.
“No,” Yue hissed. “Don’t touch me.”
At this, the Demon Prince held up his hands slightly and took a step back, clearly indicating that he’d do no such thing. And apparently, this satisfied the other, who in turn directed his ire towards Jiao Ziyu.
“No,” he said. “I’m not going back there.”
Well, all things considered, Jiao Ziyu hadn’t exactly come here with any hopes of the sort but⸺ “Mingyue would be very happy if you did though.”
He noticed his mistake midway through, because Yue visibly recoiled and then⸺
“Ah, you’ve sure done it now,” said the Demon Prince, who immediately slung an arm around Yue’s shoulders, tugging him into his side. “Yue-shixiong, it’s not too late yet. We could still kill him, and maybe even make it look like an accident.”
For some reason, the mention of murder drove some of that haunted look from Little Yue’s face, and the younger cultivator looked from the Demon Prince to Jiao Ziyu and then back again.
“I never said I wanted to kill him⸺”
Great.
“⸺I just wanted him to make him suffer⸺”
Awesome.
“⸺the humiliation that I was put through, all because of⸺”
Yeah, no. “No offence, but the me that exists right now hasn’t actually done anything to you. If anything, if we’re talking about revenge, then I should be the one to⸺”
“Well,” the Demon Prince interrupted, tugging Yue along, and when the latter attempted to shrug his arm off, he promptly tripped him and scooped him right up.
“Well,” Youming Jun repeated, completely unfazed by both the fingers digging into his chest and the fierce glare directed at his person. “It’s been nice talking to you and all, Jiao Ziyu, but you should really get going. I mean, the offer of a threesome is still⸺”
Yue promptly punched him in the chest, bringing about a genuine grimace of pain. The Demon Prince quickly recovered though, hoisting him up so that he could hold him even more securely.
“Anyways,” Youming Jun said. “This one’s mine. You can’t⸺”
“This one’s his own person,” Yue hissed, grabbing him by the lapels. “Also⸺!”
“Ah,” the Demon Prince sighed. “I helped my lovely Yue when he was in such throes and yet he still won’t⸺”
This time around, Yue’s hand covered his mouth. The Demon Prince remained quite unfazed though, and judging by the look he sent Jiao Ziyu’s way, he was very much aware of the fact that he’d already said enough.
And judging by the mortified look on Yue’s face, the other realised this much as well, hastily tearing his gaze away from Jiao Ziyu and his hand away from the Demon Prince’s mouth, using it to shield his face instead – for all the good that this ultimately did, because Little Yue’s embarrassment was perfectly obvious.
Jiao Ziyu probably shouldn’t have felt as much vicious satisfaction as he did, but... he did. He also felt something else though – an undeniable thread of concern.
“You... went through with dosing me without even having the antidote on hand?”
Yue didn’t say anything. He turned his head away, burrowing his face into the Demon Prince’s shoulder – and the other promptly put his feet back onto the ground to wrap him in a tight hug, tucking Yue’s head firmly underneath his chin while smiling the sort of smile that made Jiao Ziyu have all sorts of suspicions.
“He did actually,” Youming Jun said. “He did, and it didn’t work, so...”
The way the Demon Prince said it made it extremely easy to believe that he might’ve tampered with it.
However, this fact could’ve hardly escaped Little Yue – nor could it have escaped Bai Mingyue.
And considering the relevant time frame, Jiao Ziyu suddenly found it extremely doubtful that the pair had actually engaged in any sort of ‘strenuous activities’, or whatever the Demon Prince had called them, on the night in question. Still⸺ “...How come it didn’t work?”
“We’re not sure, actually,” Youming Jun said, offering up a mild shrug. “The ingredients aren’t in the stuff he usually takes, so he shouldn’t have developed any sort of resistance to⸺”
The stuff he usually takes?
Jiao Ziyu’s confusion must’ve been quite apparent, because the Demon Prince soon caught his gaze and mouthed something that might’ve been ‘later’.
“Well,” Youming Jun said, with a low purr. “This has been pleasant and all, but... Peak Lord Jiao, you should really get going. Duty calls.”
It was left somewhat ambiguous as to whom duty was calling.
However, seeing the still quietly purring Demon Prince steering Little Yue towards the indoors, Jiao Ziyu took the dismissal for what it was, cupped his hands together and bowed – as deeply as he deemed appropriate, considering the individuals involved.
He would probably be back later though, because he’d learned more within the last hour than he had throughout the whole week leading up to it.
