“What are you doing?” Mengjun questioned the sand maiden. “Yuelong is going to be attacked by that thing and you’re here dancing!? Let me go now!”

The sand maiden stopped amidst her dancing and looked at the demon lord. “How impatient, I’m giving your boy friend a little hint, can’t you see?”

“How are you giving him a hint when you’re dancing in the middle of a sandstorm!?”

Jinglian shrugged her shoulders. “Who doesn’t like a dancing statue?”

“What?” Mengjun looked at her in confusion. “You know what, nevermind. Just let me go. I’ll do whatever you want, just leave me be!”

“What’s the rush, dear?” Jinglian asked, pausing to look at her non-existent nails.

Mengjun floated up to the sand maiden as they both were suspended in the air. “If Yuelong is harmed in any way, I will slaughter every Huangxue disciple and a river of blood will flow in this god damn desert.”

Jinglian looked into his eyes, as if determining whether he was serious or not. Finally, after a moment, she replied, “Since when did you care about him? I thought you hated him?”

“I—” Taken back by her response, Mengjun was speechless. “How is that relevant? And besides, why didn’t you do this earlier? Give one of your Huangxue girls a hint and message?”

“None of them can be trusted.” Jinglian replied coldly.

“What? What do you mean? Aren’t they your disciples or whatever?”

Jinglian sighed. “It’s a long story, demon lord. To keep it short, we were infiltrated a long time ago. After the duel with your mother, I went back to Huangxue Cave, and sealed myself in a room, hoping to improve my abilities. But who knew that one of my most trusted students would sneak an attack on me while I was in the middle of an important part in my cultivation? The result? I died. And here I am, with the rest of my sisters.”

Mengjun was at a loss of words. He thought he would be the only one in the world to face betrayal from his most trusted one.

“And later, more of my students appeared in this sandstorm,” Jinglian continued. “And that’s how we knew the Huangxue Sect was no longer sacred.”

“So all the maidens in Huangxue Sect are the enemy? They’re all from his side?” Mengjun asked angrily. “I can’t believe you didn’t discover this sooner! I thought your abilities would be enough to discern the demons from humans?”

“It’s too late for that, what’s done is done.” Jinglian replied. “The Huangxue Sect is no more. Shall we be on our way then, demon lord? I trust that we have the same goal in common.”

“Yes, we do,” Mengjun agreed. “Then let’s go then.”

His impression of the sacred maiden changed drastically. At first, he thought she was an all powerful, serious and emotionless person. But after what she had told him, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. He understood the devastating feeling of betrayal and how it can mortally wound the soul and heart. At the same time, Mengjun felt a bit of respect towards Jinglian, as she was able to let it go and see past the pain. He could never let go of his anger and pain, it was a reminder to him to never trust anyone again.

“So, are we moving towards the cave?” Mengjun asked, trying to peer through the whirling sand around him.

“Yes, we are. We will be there soon, but we cannot enter the cave or get too near. For we do not want to pollute the sacredness of the cave.”

“But isn’t it infected with demons already?” He questioned.

“You only trust what you can see, but we, as beings not of this world, we see many other things…” She replied.

“What does that have anything to do with it?” Mengjun crossed his arms. He was beginning to think that she was a little crazy.

Jinglian smiled. “Didn’t you find it weird that we selected you to stay behind while your friends entered the cave even though we knew it was dangerous?”

“That’s right, why did you do that?”

Jinglian pressed a finger to her lips, “Tis the will of the Heavens, my dear, follow the path of fate and all will be right.”

Mengjun looked at her funny and replied, “Alright then… whatever you say.” He internally wanted to roll his eyes. He didn’t trust the Heavens as they never helped him when he encountered trouble.

“One question for you, demon lord,” Jinglian suddenly asked.

“What is it?”

“Who is that young teenage boy that calls your boy friend, ge?”

“That’s Xiao-Kai, why?”

“You two look extremely similar, are you sure he isn’t your brother?” Jinglian asked, staring into Mengjun’s eyes.

“Wait, how does he look like me? We look nothing alike!” 

“Don’t forget, demon lord,” Jinglian put a finger on his lips. “We can see right through your disguise.”

“Right…” Mengjun murmured, trying not to swallow the sand Jinglian had put in his mouth. “He’s just a boy that Yuelong found. He’s no one.”

“No one, you say? Interesting…” She said mysteriously.

“What do you mean? Is he important in this war between our world and the Wasteland?”

She put her finger on her lips again, signaling that she wouldn’t tell him.

Mengjun rolled his eyes. “She is definitely psycho.” He thought as he took out a bone whistle out from his pocket. He blew into it but it made no visible noise.

“That is one loud whistle, I could hear it from the other side of the world!” Jinglian complained.

“What? This thing? You can hear it?” Mengjun lifted the bone whistle. “My friend gave it to me and told me whenever I needed her assistance, I could blow it.”

“How interesting…”

After a couple minutes, Mengjun felt the whirling sand around him slow down. He could faintly see the rough outline of the cave entrance.

“This is where we shall part.” Jinglian announced. “I hope you can help us get rid of those demons. If not, do it for your friend.”

“Even if you didn’t ask me, I would do it anyway. I don’t want to breathe the same air as that reptile anyways.”

With a wave of her hand, Jinglian opened a hole in the whirling storm.

“Until we meet again, Lanyue.” Jinglian waved goodbye.

Mengjun nodded and stepped out through the hole and onto the solid ground. He turned back to see Jinglian’s figure disintegrating back into sand and the closing of the hole. The sandstorm then rapidly raced off in the opposite direction.

Mengjun turned back to face the entrance of the cave. He stomped on the ground and realized how much he missed having something solid under his feet. Just as he started into the cave, he heard the voices of two females approaching him.

“The sandstorm brought another person.”

“Another one?”

“Yeah, that sandstorm is so stupid.”

“I know right? Those Huangxue bitches should have designed that thing better!”

“If I were to design that sandstorm, I’d make it shred the people into tiny bits. Their blood would also dye the sands red!”

“The crimson storm, eh?”

The two maidens cackled. When they reached the entrance, they were expecting a body lying unconscious on the ground. But what they found was Mengjun standing with his arms crossed and staring directly into the eyes of the two Huangxue maidens. 

“What the hell,” one of them said.

“What vulgar language coming out from a sacred maiden of the Huangxue Sect,” Mengjun said. “I was expecting a more graceful speech or even a pitiful one. But it turns out that I’m stuck with you two bitches.”

The two ladies stared at him with gaping mouths, too stunned to speak.

“How dare you disrespect us like that?” One of them said.

“You must have a dying wish! You will be punished for your insults against us!” The other added.

Mengjun opened up his arms, as if waiting for an embrace. “Bring it.”

The sound of unsheathed swords rang out. The two maidens leapt into the air and plunged down with their swords. With a single leapt, Mengjun effortlessly dodged the attacks. Instantly, black ribbons shot out from his sleeves and wrapped around the two ladies, binding them together.

“You two are so boring, I expected a harder battle than this considering that you both are demons under Xiangliu.” Mengjun looked into the eyes of the two “ladies”. Their eyes were wide with shock.

“How did you know?”

“It doesn’t matter, because you just confirmed that you’re not worthy to be alive.” With a tug of his hand, the black ribbon tightened around the two’s waists.

“Wait! No!”

But it was too late. Their faces flushed red and their eyes bulged out from their heads. Then their skin fell off. It was like seeing a person unclothing themselves except that it was unclothing the entire skin. Underneath the human skin was a vixen’s furry face. Blood had oozed out from the seven holes on their face.

“Disgusting creatures.” Mengjun spat. With another tug at the ribbon, the fabric retracted back into his sleeve and vanished from sight. 

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” A voice called out from the entrance of the cave.

Mengjun turned around and greeted his friend. “You came fast, how did you get here all the way from Bi An Island?”

The priestess replied, “You dummy, I started the journey here right after you came back some days ago. Did you forget?”

Mengjun rolled his eyes. “Always insulting me every time we meet.”

“Hmph. Anyways, I can see that you dealt with these things. What do you need me for?” She leaned over the dead vixens and covered the lower half of her face with her black and white fan.

“Well, believe it or not, I talked with the dead spirit of a Huangxue maiden.” Mengjun explained.

“Hmm, how fascinating.” The priestess yawned.

“Are you not a bit surprised at all?”

“Just get to the point,” Qin Dan interrupted.

“Fine. So she says that basically everyone in Huangxue was now replaced by Xiangliu’s people. But what I don’t get is, how did no one notice?”

“Hmm, the Huangxue Sect is rather secluded in the middle of a desert and even if everyone here were to suddenly die, it would take months to know. By that time, they would be only dried corpses. As for the other disciples in Huangxue, I can only think of two reasons.”

“What are they?”

“That the demon’s powers were greater than the Huangxue disciples. They can easily overpower the less powerful disciples and cover up their demonic scent.”

“And the second?”

Qin Dan pointed to the human skin on the vixen bodies. “That is the second reason. The human skin.”

“How?”

“My dear idiot, you never paid attention to class, did you?”

Mengjun crossed his arms like a child.

“Humans are beings with the highest potential for cultivation, and hence, human bodies are one of the most precious things in the world. Using human skin as a disguise is, I’ll give it to them, a brilliant plan. It can cover up the demonic scent completely and allow lesser demons to disguise without being discovered. Got that, dummy?”

“Ugh, whatever you say.” Mengjun rolled his eyes again.

“Stop talking back and let’s get moving on.” Qin Dan snapped.

“You’re right, let’s go in there and stop this once and for all.” Just as Mengjun marched a couple steps into the cave, Qin Dan stopped him.

“You’re going to go in looking like that?” She pointed from his head to his feet with her fan. “How vulgar.”

Mengjun looked down at himself and touched his face. The clothing was torn in several places and visible marks of blood showed through the fabric. But he wasn’t thinking of his clothing. His mind had raced back to Jinglian and her willpower to let go of the pain in the heart. He thought of the pain and suffering he put himself through, unwilling to let go of the burden. 

He didn't want his heart to hurt, but the images of the day Yuelong betrayed him kept flowing back into his mind, constantly reminding him that love is not worth it, only power was. But on the other hand, he desperately wanted to be himself, his true self again. He truly longed to be in someone else's embrace once more.

“Maybe next time.” Mengjun patted some sand off of his raggedly robes and march straight into the cave. 

Qin Dan shook her head in disapprovement as she followed Lanyue into the cave.