Thriving after the Moon Falls (I Can’t Possibly Take Pity On A Demon) - Chapter 98
Chapter 98
Yan Chaosheng hadn’t deliberately hidden himself, so the moment Liu shuang turned, she saw him standing there.
Unlike last time, he didn’t lose control.
He strode over, his voice icy as he demanded, “Zhan Xueyang came here twice. What did you talk about?”
She shook her head.
“I won’t tell you.”
He stiffened, clearly not expecting such a response.
Silence stretched between them, but he couldn’t bring himself to lash out.
Liu shuang found it almost amusing—she was the prisoner, yet Yan Chaoshan seemed just as aggrieved.
These days, he didn’t even bother with threats anymore, as if he’d realized they held no power over her and would only leave him trapped in his own bluffs.
So he just glowered, letting his expression speak for him.
From Zhan Xueyang, Liu shuang had learned the truth about the spiritual veins and this was a path of no return.
They would all fight for the veins, and in the end, they would spare no effort to seize the Huiling power.
He would still want her heart.
But this time, he wasn’t using love as a cage to imprison her, to refine her heart into the key.
That alone told her he couldn’t bear to see her die.
Liu shuang asked, “Yan Chaosheng, if Kunlun truly hands its spiritual vein to Feng Fuming, what will you do?”
He sneered.
“Do? That’s your immortal clans’ business. What do the spiritual veins have to do with demons and ghosts?”
How dishonest, she thought.
But she forgave him the lie.
Because he, Feng Fuming…none of them would ever obtain the Demon God’s power.
Whether that power could be extracted from the spiritual veins depended entirely on the Huiling Heart, didn’t it?
The thought of them exhausting themselves to seize an empty shell, only to end up with nothing, nearly made her laugh aloud.
The expressions on their faces then would be priceless.
Two lifetimes were enough for her to piece together all cause and effect.
With calm certainty in her heart, she no longer had to worry about Kongsang or the fate of the Eight Wilderness.
Freed from that burden, her steps lightened, as if she’d returned to the carefree days of being a immortal grass.
Back then, she hadn’t feared the fall of Canglan or Kongsang—the rise and ruin of the Eight Wilderness had meant nothing to her.
“Yan Chaosheng, today is the Lantern Festival in the mortal realm. The Ghost Realm is too cold;let’s go see the human world.”
When his warning glare flickered her way, she added, “Spring has come there.”
At the word spring, his pupils trembled faintly.
Liu shuang shifted her feet, tilting her head up at him with pleading eyes.
His fist unclenched, and the soul-locking contract around her dissolved into a bracelet encircling her wrist—before he yanked her forward by it.
The night wind of the Ghost Realm was biting.
The man hauled her along in a deliberately rough grip, but she didn’t mind.
With her burdens gone, knowing Kongsang wouldn’t fall and that the fate of the Eight Wilderness now rested in her hands—what did she have left to fear? She felt utterly at ease, even swinging her legs slightly as she indulged his pettiness.
With a laugh, she said, “Yan Chaosheng, you once promised to marry me when spring came—”
Before she could finish, he reacted as if stung, as though she’d dredged up some shameful memory.
In retaliation, his grip loosened, and she plummeted from the sky.
Liu shuang let out a perfectly timed scream but her eyes never lost sight of the black shadow streaking toward her.
She wasn’t afraid.
Not afraid that without her spiritual energy, she’d shatter upon impact.
Sure enough, at the last possible moment, he caught her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, muffling laughter against his shoulder.
His thoughts laid bare, Yan Chaosheng looked about ready to strangle her.
He tried to peel her off, but Liu shuang clung tighter, whining, “I haven’t eaten. Three days without food and your ghost maids drugged my meals, even slipped in bitter herbs. I’m too weak to walk.”
Yan Chaosheng stared down at her.
Once, she had treated him like this.
Now, what he’d yearned for day and night, she had given to another version of himself—the boy from a different world.
He understood exactly who she was speaking to.
The emotion that flashed through his eyes was something Liu shuang couldn’t decipher, but he masked it swiftly.
Lowering his gaze to keep her from reading him, he summoned a dark mist that carried them through the Ghost Gate into the mortal realm.
He set her down on a rooftop overlooking the human world.
On this February night, the sky held no stars, but the streets and rivers below were alight with lanterns and floating lotus lamps and from afar, they looked like a river of stars.
Curled beside him, leaning into his warmth, Liu shuang knew in that moment…he had forgiven her.
She decided to be honest.
Softly, she said, “I gained some terrible memories… was hurt before. Once bitten, twice shy, so I treated you poorly. But now, I’ve let go of the past.”
Where she couldn’t see, Yan Chaosheng’s fingers trembled.
Her eyes bright with mirth, Liu shuang cupped her cheeks and pointed downward.
“Yan Chaosheng, do you see? My home used to be in that direction.”
He could only play ignorant, closing his eyes briefly.
“This lord was unaware the Immortal Liushuang had ever been mortal.”
She continued, undeterred, “Back then, every Lantern Festival, I’d sneak out without telling my parents. The world felt so peaceful, so full of wonders.”
With a smile, she murmured, “Yan Chaosheng, I think… in this era, being mortal is the greatest happiness. Don’t you agree?”
He said nothing.
“If one day, I’m no longer in this world, you mustn’t come looking for me. Because maybe… I’ve just been reborn as a mortal.”
Yan Chaosheng, who had been utterly still, suddenly seized her wrist with a grip so tight it hurt.
She quickly protested, “I was joking! Just joking…let go! I have no spiritual energy now. If you keep squeezing me like this, it hurts.”
He didn’t release her.
Liu shuang sighed helplessly.
“You’re this nervous about me… Could it be you still like me?”
Yan Chaosheng immediately let go, so abruptly he nearly shoved her off the roof.
Used to his tsundere ways, Liu shuang felt a sweet warmth in her chest.
She even found him pitifully adorable.
Looking back on their past, she had originally wanted to kill him, yet through a twist of fate, he’d misunderstood and fallen for her instead and venturing into the Ghost Real for her, even offering her his core.
He gave her the finest palace to live in and risked everything to marry her.
She had never known love so simple and pure… and it was ‘him’ who had given it to her.
Now, after painstakingly reforging his scattered soul, no matter how he treated her, it wouldn’t be excessive.
Yet he still held back.
He’s such a fool.
But this fool—she would still have to betray him utterly in the end.
She would personally destroy the Huiling power, ensuring it vanished forever in the Shennong Cauldron.
This time, though, she wouldn’t be shattered soul and body.
Maybe she could be reborn as a mortal, or if luck favored her, live a life like that little immortal grass.
Even now, she still couldn’t give Yan Chaosheng the prefect love he deserved.
Destroying the Huiling power was the one thing she could do…for Kongsang, for Yan Chaosheng, for the little demon bird, even for Changhuan (wherever she was), and for every soul in the Eight Wilderness.
It was her final duty.
Without the Huiling, the Demon God could never descend, and Feng Fuming’s schemes would fail.
In this world, there was only one person she had ever wronged.
She turned to the man beside her, not the Demon lord, but the boy who had loved her fiercely from the very start.
The young disciple who once knelt on a lotus platform, nervously smoothing his robes, afraid he wasn’t handsome enough for her.
The Lantern Festival’s vibrant mortal energy surrounded them.
Clad in black, the ghostly scales at his temples shimmered faintly as he coldly watched the world below.
Because of her, he was now this icy, spectral existence.
Twisting a corner of his sleeve between her fingers, she wished…not for the first time…that she had never regained her memories as the immortal grass.
She would have loved him properly, this boy who had loved her purely unto death.
His life had been too bitter.
But then again, without those memories, she wouldn’t have survived this long.
Cupping his face, she whispered, “Yan Chaosheng.”
He looked down, bracing himself, his eyes frosty with feigned impatience.
“Must you pester me? Do you truly think this lord would—”
She pressed a kiss to his lips.
His mouth trembled.
His lashes stilled.
Every word died unspoken.
His heart trembled with shock and bitterness—this kiss he had yearned for through millennia of loneliness should have been sweet, yet now it only made his chest ache with unbearable sorrow.
She said their past was over. That she had moved on.
When she pulled back, his restrained grief softened her resolve.
On impulse, she blurted, “Spring has come to the mortal world. Even if it’s three years late… I’ll marry you.”
He had died for this promise.
Before the Huiling power vanished, she could at least grant him this wish.
Yan Chaosheng’s fists clenched violently.
The roof tiles beneath them disintegrated into dust.
When he finally looked at her, his eyes burned with barely leashed fury…then, without a word, he shoved her away and vanished into the night.
Liu shuang stared blankly at the empty space.
She had imagined many reactions, even him scoffing at her presumption but never this scalding rage.
For that one instant, his eyes had been wildfire, as if he wanted to reduce her to ashes.
He had abandoned her on a mortal rooftop.
—
Yan Chaosheng had thought he could play the role of his younger self perfectly.
He thought it wouldn’t matter.
He had underestimated a man’s jealousy.
His vision tinged red, lips bitten bloody, he stormed through the festive streets, hatred and agony clawing at his chest.
Damn her. Damn her!
She truly wanted to marry that boy.
Even if that boy was also him—her words proved that the Yan Chaosheng who had crossed time to reach her no longer existed in her heart.
They had once cradled each other’s souls, sworn to grow old together.
Now, he was the only one left guarding those memories.
A guttural sound escaped him—half snarl, half sob.
Around him, lanterns glowed, laughter and music filling the air.
The Lantern Festival’s joy only deepened his torment.
She had abandoned him.
Utterly, irrevocably abandoned him…even the hatred he once held, the last thing he could claim as his own, had been let go.
—
Liu shuang huddled silently on the rooftop, pulling her cloak tighter around herself.
The young miss of Kongsang had offered herself in marriage—only for the man to flee, leaving her stranded under the night sky.
She had resigned herself to spending the night alone, but before long, Yan Chaosheng returned.
He unfastened his outer robe and draped it roughly over her.
With a cold laugh, he said, “Marry you? Even if you were willing, this lord wouldn’t take you.”
Rejected, she stared wide-eyed at his cruelty, searching for any hint of deception…only to find the faint redness rimming his eyes.
Hesitant, she asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he bundled her tighter in the robe and pulled her into his arms.
Before she could react, a chill kiss brushed the top of her head.
“Chishui Liushuang.”
His voice was low, his eyes briefly closing.
“Stay well. You must stay well.”
No more lies. No more hurting her.
“Liushuang,” he murmured, “the one you should marry… isn’t me. I don’t deserve that honor.”
She looked up.
Snow had begun to fall, swirling through the imperial city in a final winter farewell.
He smiled then—that old, arrogant emperor’s smile yet his eyes glistened faintly.
There was too much in his gaze, things she couldn’t decipher before his hand covered her eyes.
Darkness enveloped her as she blinked.
“Don’t look too closely,”Yan Chaosheng said.
“But remember this moment. Remember me like this, Liu shuang.”
The capital’s lanterns still blazed bright, the Lantern Festival’s revelry echoing through the streets.
Snow purified the world’s filth as Yan Chaosheng leaned into her embrace.
Flakes settled on them like premature white hair—
A fleeting fulfillment of their once-promised eternity.
His fingers traced the Soul-Locking Contract around her wrist, his expression unreadable.
Though confused, Liu shuang didn’t resist.
For once, the Demon Lord wasn’t lashing out with cruel words.
She hesitated, then let him keep her eyes shielded, resting her head against his shoulder.
Fine. No marriage then.
When she was gone, he’d realize his mistake—she just hoped he wouldn’t regret it too painfully.
High above, beyond mortal sight, violet lightning flickered ominously.
Yan Chaosheng narrowed his eyes at it before curling his lip in disdain.
The will of Heaven?
He had never believed in fate.
Not then.
Not now.
