Chapter 13: Like a God

The black iron cage was unbreakable, but luckily, the stone wall where the cage bars were lodged into was not as strong. Ji Yunhe chipped away at the rocks with her sword and made a hole without much effort. Some of the gravel and dust rolled into the abyss, others fell inside the cage.

Ji Yunhe peeked through the hole and saw the jiaoren had not moved at all. He casually sat there with his tail spread out, and did not bother to even brush off all the dust that had landed on him. He held his head up and watched Ji Yunhe with a look that was part assessment, part curiosity, but mostly a waveless calm.

Here she was working up a sweat and her face was covered in dirt, yet he looked completely at ease. She felt a bit humorous.

"The emperor does not know anxiety. Big-tailed fish, do you want to come out or not?"

(This is part of the Chinese proverb "The emperor does not know anxiety, the eunuchs do." It describes a situation where a person directly involved with the issue shows no concern while those who are not involved stress out instead.)

The jiaoren tilted his head and looked a bit confused. He seemed to be wondering what Ji Yunhe was doing. Ji Yunhe sighed and thought this guy might look beautiful and powerful, but his brain was perhaps a bit dull...

That was why he got caught, right?

"Forget it."

Ji Yunhe got down and stretched her hand into the hole she had made.

"Come, I'll pull you out."

He still did not move. When Ji Yunhe started to suspect maybe he did not want to go, the jiaoren finally shifted his tail. The huge lotus-like tailfin brushed the rocks on the floor and propped up his body. A draft of air moved out from under him.

The fine air ruffled Ji Yunhe's hair and water droplets fell from the walls of the cliff.

A drop brushed against her cheek and landed onto his tail. In an instant, the scales began glowing with a captivating luster.

Then, as if riding the water droplets, he floated up into the air. His tail swayed gracefully behind him as he began "swimming" toward her. Ji Yunhe, with her hand still stretched out, froze.

He looked too beautiful. The jiaoren slowly approached her outstretched hand, but he did not hold out his hand to greet it. Instead, his cheek was the first to make contact with her fingers. He did not want to hold hands with her so he flew directly for the exit. Touching her fingers was an accident. But it made Ji Yunhe feel as if she had touched the face of a god... And she was being a bit...… disrespectful?

Ji Yunhe quickly withdrew her arm and straightened her body. The jiaoren exited the cage and hovered in mid air with his tail shimmering. His ice blue eyes quietly stared at her.

She felt a bit hypnotized. His aura looked so holy and pure. Ji Yunhe had not noticed it when he was half dead in the prison, but standing before him now, she almost felt... unworthy.

Books and scrolls often documented beautiful demons worshipped by people because of their god-like appearances. She herself had dealt with tens of thousands of demons throughout the years. But not one of them could compare with him.

Exactly what made Princess Shunde think she was entitled to such a creature?

"Let's go."

Ji Yunhe regained her senses and stepped onto her sword.

"You're going to float out by yourself, or do you need my help?" The jiaoren looked at the sword under her feet and thought for a bit, then stretched out a hand. Probably he was still weak and wanted a ride from her?

Ji Yunhe interpreted it as such, and grabbed a hold of his hand. It startled him. Her hand was warm, and his hand was cool. The jiaoren's eyes widened slightly, seemingly unfamiliar with the human body temperature.

Ji Yunhe pulled him toward her, but he did not move. They looked at each other in the dark. Ji Yunhe was confused.

"What's the meaning of this?"

Before the jiaoren could respond, a flash of golden light suddenly appeared down in the abyss. Ji Yunhe lowered her head and looked below...

"Not good... That old man is going to reactivate the Ten Square Formation!"

Even though Li Shu had broken the seal, the foundation was still there. Lin Canglan would not be able to rebuild it, but out of desperation, he could mobilize the remaining power of the formation to deal with the jade phoenix. Magical formations were made with a layout of focal points, called eyes. Seeing the flashing light beneath them, there must be an eye of the Ten Square Formation inside the abyss.

Although Lin Canglan's intended target was the jade phoenix, the magic power from the formation would attack anyone that got in its way.

"Let's go!"

Ji Yunhe pulled at him again. But he still did not move.

"What the hell..." Before Ji Yunhe finished talking, the jiaoren's hand let out a gentle force and she found herself helplessly pulled into his arms. His body felt cool, the skin on his chest was smooth, and the scales under his abdomen were hard like armor.

This was the first time Ji Yunhe had ever been held inside the arms of a demon. She was not used to this… Then his tailfin trembled. The damp air and surrounding cliffs released millions of water drops, converging onto his tail and moistening it.

The scales began emitting a glow that lit up the darkness around them. Suddenly, as if it had gathered enough force, the huge fish tail thrashed against the water in the air and they ascended at a speed Ji Yunhe never imagined.

She finally understood. Oh... when he held out his hand, he was patronizing her. He did not care for her rudimentary form of travel.

Well, excuse me big-tailed fish, Ji Yunhe thought. Being imprisoned for decades to the point she no longer had a soul, how was she supposed to know demons of the outside world had such efficient methods of transportation?

"Big-tailed fish, if you were given some more water, would you be able to zoom instantly into the clouds?" Ji Yunhe joked, tilting her head to look at him with no intention of getting a response. But the big-tailed fish gazed down at her intently, the look in his eyes suggesting he was seriously thinking about her question.

Then his lips parted. With somewhat of a broken pronunciation, he said, "With more water, yes."

He talked? Ji Yunhe stared at him in disbelief. And his first sentence, surprisingly, was to give such an earnest answer to her nonsensical question...

After a long silence, Ji Yunhe decided that this serious answer was super cute. She was just about to smile when a ray of golden light suddenly beamed out from the bottom of the abyss, shooting past their side like a fierce dragon. The jiaoren abruptly turned his direction in the air and dodged the beam without slowing his pace.

But that was not the end of it. After the first beam of light had passed, a second one shot out immediately after. Ji Yunhe could already see the skylight above their heads, but the second golden beam of light seemed to have a life of its own. After reaching the sky, it turned back down, heading straight for the jiaoren.

He dodged left and right, narrowly avoiding the strikes. But then a third beam came at them like lightning from below.

"Watch out!"

Ji Yunhe shouted. The jiaoren looked down and saw their current situation. If he were to dodge the second beam again, Ji Yunhe would surely be hit by the third.

Ji Yunhe held out two fingers to create a magic shield, no matter how futile it might be. But before the shield had time to form, she felt their movement come to a complete stop.

This fish... He had no intention of avoiding the second beam of golden light! She watched in horror as it viciously struck him in the back while she herself remained fully protected inside his arms.

Demon.

A demon who took the damage for her with his own body. Calls of the jade phoenix echoed in the sky just above. The jiaoren, still holding Ji Yunhe, fell. With scattering scales and water droplets, they plunged back into the depth of the abyss.