His whole world was boiling, rolling, jumping and it seemed like he had gone crazy.

Everything in front of him was twisted and looked b.l.o.o.d.y red. He couldn’t see nor hear anything except the body in his arms which felt so real and so soft.

“Xin Mei…” He hugged her tightly, as if she would disappear in the next moment, “I…I have some…”

There was something wrong with him, and he could notice it himself, but he could not regain his sanity and calm down as quickly as he did in the past. His manic blood was surging forward, and he could not even say for sure whether it was because of he was high in pa.s.sion or murderous feeling that aroused by the smell of blood.

He just hugged her and rubbed her hair and back with his hand over and over again.

As he lowered his head looking down at her face, he was stunned by her round eyes, with black and white sharply contrasted¹Chinese idiom : no confusion eyes, delicately soft cheeks, beautiful eyebrows shape and thick eyelashes—

He loved this face, this person. Seeing her from the deepest part of his heart, he felt an unparalleled pleasure.

His fingertips ran down her cheeks. Her neck was so slender and white that he could not help but lowered his head and kiss it. He desired her. He wished to kiss her like this all the time. He wished... to let her beautiful life ended up in his chest.

Her neck was very fragile and would break with just a pinch. These shoulders were too slender to bear any heavy pressure. Her hands were soft and delicate. He thought she couldn’t even hold a sword, even if her strength was a bit bigger than that of ordinary people…but she, sooner or later, would become his weakness. This whole Imperial Mausoleum would become a fatal factor that could be used to hurt him. The more he loved, the more fatal they would become to him.

Weak ordinary people and small monsters could not afford the love of a war demon. A perfect war demon had no weaknesses, whether external or internal.

Her short coat that had absorbed a lot of water was stripped away, and her snow-white body was in his arms.

How beautiful.

Lu Qianqiao intruded deep into her, as his desire ran high, and his body was burning with something. He grabbed her by the hair and forced her to look up at him. He wanted to look at her. Probably because he had never been this rough, Xin Mei’s face was a bit dissatisfied. So she grabbed his hair with her backhand and pulled his head down. His forehead was pressed against her forehead as she gasped for breath.

No matter how beautiful she was, she would become his weakness. If she lived for him, she also ought to die for him.

His fingertips crept slowly around her neck. If he just clutched it like this and with just a slight twist, she was going to die at this most beautiful moment. This noob translation was translated by a noob translator きつね. Please read this chapter at xin-shou.blogspot.com.

A hand grabbed her neck.

There seemed…there seemed to be something wrong! Xin Mei was strangled until her eyes turned black. It happened that he was also pressing on top of her head with his other hand, which made her unable to struggle. She managed to open her eyes and try to see his face clearly. He had one eye as bright as boiling blood, while the other eye was as dark as ink. He ruthlessly lived high and look down²Chinese idiom : to tower above at her.

“Lu, Lu Qian Qiao …” She called him with difficulty.

As if he could hear her call, he slowly lowered himself, opened his lips and gave her a kiss.

Xin Mei opened her mouth and bit him. Her mouth was the only part of her body that she could move freely. Her bite was very real. He felt a shock all over his body. As if he was just woken up from a dream, he paused for a long time, and suddenly raised his hand to wipe his lips. There was a small blood stain on his fingertips. Then he looked at Xin Mei, who had pushed herself to the edge of the pool. She coughed out of breath as her face turned red.

The small scent of blood between his lips stimulated him. Liu Qianqiao’s face suddenly changed. He immediately stood up and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“h.e.l.lo! h.e.l.lo, h.e.l.lo…“

While coughing herself to death, Xin Mei wanted to shed tears at the same time. They were half way done, and he, how could he just run away like this?!

After she hastily tidied herself up and returned to their bedroom, she could see that Lu Qianqiao was not there, and his clothes that were scattered by the door were also gone. She looked around the Imperial Mausoleum in her wet hair. If she remembered correctly, his eyes just now…was there any change? One eye had darkened? He also strangled her neck. Did he start to change again? But…the transformation period should have been over!

Xin Mei ran all the way to the tomb pa.s.sage and suddenly heard Silan’s voice, “General, what’s wrong with your eyes?”

A stone horse. This carved stone of a horse is in Qiangling Mausoleum.
Image Credit : CchattyArticle (Stone Carvings and Pottery Sculptures, February 07, 2019)

She hurried around the pile of stone peoples and stone horses. As expected, she saw Lu Qianqao, draped in an over cloak, walking slowly in the snow. His back figure…was kind of chilling.

Silan asked Lu Qianqao twice, but he didn’t answer a word. He just walked slowly forward. Silan quickly overtook him, “Is General going out? I will lead Lie Yun Hua here.“

“Go away.” Lu Qianqiao suddenly opened his mouth and his voice was cold.

Silan had served him for ten years and had never been treated so coldly. He was stunned for a moment.

“Go away.”

With the second icy words coming out from his mouth, there was a sharp, piercing sound, as his black whip flew up like a ghost and hit Silan hard on the chest. Without even having the time to grunt, Silan flew out while spitting blood and then he rolled on the ground.

“Lu Qianqao!”

Xin Mei exclaimed in astonishment. He had obviously killed Silan, right?!

The long whip trembled slightly in his hand, and Lu Qianqiao suddenly turned around. His eyes, which had once been translucent red, were now black and red. It was very strange.

His voice seemed to be shaking slightly, “Don’t come here, go back.”

He could not suppress the killing intention inside him, which was totally different from the past. As long as he took a second look, he would grind all the creatures in the Imperial Mausoleum into powder with his long whip, as if to wipe out all his weaknesses without mercy.

Xin Mei shrank behind a stone man, poked out her head and shouted at him, “Have you, have you gone crazy again?!”

With the sound of ‘bang’, the long whip brushed the stone man, and it instantly snapped the huge stone  people head. Xin Mei jumped up like a rabbit, turned around and hid behind a stone horse, still in shock.

“…Go back.”

Once again, the whip curled up on the stone horse’s head and smashed it hard on the ground. Xin Mei reacted very fast. She slipped and rolled, and then hid behind another stone horse. After waiting for a long time, the long whip seemed to no longer tried to chop her head. With her heart in trepidation remaining after a trauma³Chinese idiom : to have lingering fears, she tried to scout out the situation by peeking from behind the stone horse, only to find that snow had fallen all over the tomb pa.s.sage. The fallen heads of the two sad stone men and the stone horse had created several big holes in the ground. At this point, the unfamiliar and chilling shadow of his figure had disappeared.

What…what the h.e.l.l is going on here?

She crawled out slowly and stared at the footprints in the snow for a while. She tried to chase after them, but she hesitated again after thinking of his terrible whip. If he was as crazy as he was in Jiaping Mountain Pa.s.s last time, at least there were still stones she could use to hit him. But this time, his murderous look was directed at them, but this time, he was much more calm and so high of killing intention.

Although she didn’t know why…

She tried to rush after him, afraid that something would happen which could make both of them felt  so much regret. 

After thinking for a long time, Xin Mei finally turned around and walked to Silan’s side. She then bent down to have a look—fortunately, the whip didn’t hit him hard. He probably had broken several ribs and fainted.

As soon as she picked up Silan, she turned and ran, while shouting at the top of her voice, “Lord Zhao! Honglian Jiejie⁴older sister! Tao Guoguo! Somebody help! Silan is dying!“

Lu Qianqiao sudden disappearance made numerous rumors prevailed among the monsters. The most common version was: Lord Zhao’s ‘Unhappy Couple Made In Heaven’ had angered General daren⁵t.i.tle of respect toward superiors. He suddenly recalled that the relationship between his wife, Fox Fairy and the good-for-nothing Immortal were indeed a little unclear. Then he found out that his loyal subordinate, Silan, had become his wife’s pretty boy⁶gigolo whom he had beaten half to death in anger, then he left angrily.

Lord Zhao could not help but cried profusely while beating his chest and stamping his feet⁷Chinese idiom : feeling extremely guilty, feeling regret for writing such an unfortunate play book.

Meanwhile, the fresh snow on Baitou Mountain didn’t melt that day. Though, late in the evening, it began to rain again. In Meishan’s courtyard, soul spirits were making a snowman, but the raindrops made many small holes into it.

As Lord Meishan drank his wine, he remembered the tofu Meishan made by Xin Mei and burst into tears.

As his head started to become tipsy, he racked his brains to search for lingering poems he had seen before, and he wanted to recite them to express his depression. Only a verse kept turning over and over in his mind: ‘How bitter that we had not met, When I was given away!’. It was totally inappropriate. The two of them merely met by chance before she even married. What could be done if they could only brush past each other? Such a poor cannon fodder whose tears had filled the front of his garment.

He wiped his tearful face with his sleeve, then dug out a glittering box from the drawer and opened it. Inside was a box of mooncakes sent by Xin Mei during the Mooncake Festival. Each moon cake was packed in a small crystal box so that he could hold one and rub the other one while drinking.

Soul spirits were sweeping away the snow in the courtyard while the rain was still not heavy. This was done to avoid the snow from freezing up the next morning which would make it hard for them to walk on. Since Lord Meishan was leaning in front of the window and chanted poems while he was drunk and crying, everyone tacitly avoided the window, and n.o.body paid any attention to him. The last time a soul spirit was kind enough to comfort him, it had been pulled by Meishan and had been forced to listen to him talking about Xin Mei for a whole afternoon. No matter what the soul spirit did, he could not be shaken off, and after that, no one ever dare to comfort him again.

“I bet he will talk about her for a sichen⁸hour today.” The first soul spirit bet with its two copper coins.

“I’ll bet two hours.”

“Three hours.”

……

When the last soul spirit called out “Ten Hours”, there was suddenly a sound of horse neighing could be heard overhead. A fiery horse came down from the sky and landed right in front of the window where Lord Meishan was leaning, while breathing disdainfully into his face.

Lord Meishan startled, and instantly sobered up from his tipsy feeling. He looked at the expressionless man on the horseback with tears streaming down his cheeks, as he said in a trembling voice, “Gen, General daren⁵t.i.tle of respect toward superiors…you, you, you, you, come to visit, my disheveled residence, that is, your presence brings light to my humble dwelling…”

Lu Qianqiao took out a letter from inside the chest  part of his clothes and handed it to him. He lightly said, “Check it out for me. The reward is ten jars of wine which usually used to worship G.o.ds in heaven.”

Although Meishan wanted to ask him why Xin Mei didn’t come along with him, he didn’t want to be beaten by him and swallowed his own blood…he didn’t even dare to say a word directly to Lu Qianqiao’s face, which was 10,000 times colder than usual. He opened the envelope and took a quick look at it. He was asked to investigate how Lu Jingran, a powerful minister who once held a good reputation in Qiongguo 20 years ago, had died.

Speaking of which, this man…seemed to have died quite suddenly. At that time, the Old Emperor of Qiongguo was very old and quite suspicious. He was not satisfied with the high position of this official, but before he could do anything, this official had pa.s.sed away. After his death, the Old Emperor took advantage of the opportunity to raid the official’s house and confiscated his properties. The Lu family disappeared after the killing and looting made by the Old Emperor. It was not until the new emperor, Rongzheng was enthroned that the official was given a proper t.i.tle.

And this Lu Jingran, if he remembered correctly, seemed to be the father of this War Demon General?

Lord Meishan looked at him doubtfully and suddenly his eyes got in contact with his cold, red and black eyes. His fragile little heart suddenly dropped down.

“I’ll check, I’ll check, right now…right now!”

With tears streaming down his face, he called out Little Crow and then turned around as he instructed with his smallest voice, “Little dear, don’t fly to the war demons this time. Those war demons are very fierce. If they use even a little bit of force on you, your little life will cease to exist.”

The Little Crow flew away with disdain. This time its investigation was really fast. It flew back after half a day, then threw the paper that was shaped into a ball to Lord Meishan’s hands.

He hurriedly became timid and gave out a beautiful smile as he delivered the paper ball respectfully to Lu Qian Qiao’s hand.

There was only a few lines scrawled on the paper ball:

【Qiong? In the thirty-two years of the Imperial Ruling, the Li clan of the War Demon Clan, had a female named Chaoyang. She was 25 years old. It was actually hard to see a perfect war demon in a hundred years, and with that power, she had ma.s.sacred 137 members of her husband"s family. This matter was rarely been seen and is extremely unusual.】