Tales of Demons and Gods Fic (CH3)

On their way back from the library, Shen Yue glanced around. If he remembered right, the original ran into Nie Lie and his goons, but he didn’t see them anywhere. Putting them out of his mind, he pointed toward a cozy little shop at the end of the street.

“That’s ‘Wang Xi’s Immortal Delights’. I heard about them before.”

Strolling next to him, Ye Ziyun said little—her silence had persisted most of the day. Frankly, Shen Yue found it rather confusing. In the novel, the girl had been impressed by Nie Lie’s showing-off, and he'd shown a rather good side of himself during class.

“Didn’t you suggest the food stalls yesterday?”

Shen Yue shrugged.

“Indeed, but this place’s menu is supposedly quite good. I haven’t tried it before, so I’m curious.”

“…alright.”

The atmosphere somewhat strange, the two entered the establishment together. Possessing an almost unearthly beauty, Ye Ziyun attracted glances wherever she went. If it were anyone else, they’d inevitably appeared lackluster by comparison. However, Shen Yue, being aware of this, had cleaned up for the occasion.

Dressed in a plain black robe, his long black hair held back by a silver circlet, he cut a striking figure. He was already tall, and having undergone body-refinement as a side-effect of his cultivation, his charm had gone up by at least one point.

“Wow, look at those two…!”

“I wonder which esteemed young master and lady is visiting today…?”

“This place is close to the Holy Orchid Institute, so they must’ve come from there…”

Amidst curious whispers, Shen Yue headed for the front desk. Someone was already waiting for him, an eager look on their face.

“If it isn’t young master Shen Yue from the Sacred Family. For you to grace this humble little shop with your presence—it’s an honor we don’t deserve.”

Inwardly admiring the person’s boot-licking skills, Shen Yue nodded toward Ye Ziyun.

“We’d like a private room. As long as Ms. Ziyun doesn’t mind…?”

Standing a little bit behind him, the girl was like a flowering violet.

“…I think I would prefer the common-room.”

Both Shen Yue and the receptionist were caught off-guard by this, though the formed made sense of it after a moment’s thinking. If he recalled correctly, Ye Ziyun always thought her station was a bit stuffy. In her heart, she wanted nothing more than to see the world.

Shen Yue gestured at the receptionist.

“Do as she says. But give us a big table. We’d like to try a variety of dishes.”

Eager to comply, the man lead the way, showing them to a corner-table. With a cross-latticed wooden screen on one side and a flower arrangement on the other, it had a bit of privacy.

“I’ll leave your esteemed selves to decide for a while-…”

“No need. Just bring everything you have. What we leave behind, you may wrap-up for our servants.”

Waving his hand, Shen Yue dismissed the man.

When he’d left, Ye Ziyun looked at him. There was something strange in her beautiful eyes.

“You’re...”

Shen Yue raised a fine eyebrow, waiting for her to continue. When she didn’t, he prodded her.

“I’m… what?”

“…it’s nothing.”

With her hands in her lap, the girl observed the commotion inside the restaurant. Many people were staring at her in turn, but she didn’t seem embarrassed. He knew it was a common occurrence for her.

Resting his elbows on the table, Shen Yue looked at her over entwined fingers. Spending the day with her had taken the edge off, but her appearance was still breath-taking. Not even Xiao Ning’er, the secondary female lead, could compare.

Not seeing a reason to force things, Shen Yue remained quiet until their tea arrived. He guessed her previous remark related to his odd behavior today, but there was nothing to be done. He wasn’t the original ‘Shen Yue’, so there was no sense in trying to fake it.

After pouring himself a cup did he break the silence.

“Miss Ziyun looks very beautiful. If I’m being honest, sitting next to you today made it a little difficult to concentrate.”

This attracted her attention, looking at him with astonishment. Shen Yue had never outright complimented her before.

“…then maybe you should change seats.”

Shen Yue smirked.

“That wouldn’t be proper of me. We’ve known each other since childhood. If it were someone else, they wouldn’t hear a single one of the professor’s words.”

Judging by her expression, the remarks both annoyed and embarrassed Ye Ziyun. Her cheeks gaining a delectably pink tint, she shook her head. Strands of shimmering hair fell across her shoulders.

“Why are you suddenly saying such things? You’ve really been out of sorts today.”

Shen Yue chuckled.

“We’re both turning sixteen. It won’t be long until we’re married. Surely, this much shouldn’t be a problem?”

“M-Marriage-…”

At the mention of that, Ye Ziyun lowered her head. There was a little shyness, but more than anything, she seemed uneasy.

Wondering if he put his foot in his mouth, Shen Yue sighed. He knew it was a bad idea to bring up so early, but the girl was simply too attractive.

Eventually, their dinner arrived. The two sat in silence all the while, the only sound being the clacking of chopsticks. Ye Ziyun didn’t eat much, only pecking here and there. Shen Yue made up for her reticence, devouring everything the waiter set in front of him.

After awakening his ‘Dao Body of the Heavenly Chaos Devil’, his appetite shot through the roof. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say his stomach was bottomless. Faster than he could eat, the food was digested, nourishing his physique.

When he was done, he politely dabbed at the corner of his mouth. Despite his voracious eating, he’d never once broken etiquette.

“Since we’re done, I wonder if Ms. Ziyun is ready to head home…?”

Dazed, the girl nodded her head. She had a vaguely regretful look about her, like she’d not quite eaten her fill. However, after ordering the entire menu, asking for more would be embarrassing.

As they were exiting the shop, Shen Yue gestured in a certain direction.

“I’m still a little hungry. If you have time, let’s stop by the food-stalls anyway.”

Not having been given a chance to refuse, Ye Ziyun followed him in a daze.

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Later that night, Shen Yue meditated in his room, dismissing his servants. Having lost the need to sleep, he could easily cultivate until the sun rose. However, after checking his status and finding everything to be normal, he realized a problem.

‘…Chaos Force is a really dumb name. In the first place, I don’t appreciate how this world’s cultivators use ‘Soul Force’ instead of Ki. I’ll just call that mysterious energy ‘Devil Ki’.’

When the thought flashed through his mind, a pop-up suddenly appeared.

[Would you like to rename ‘mysterious energy’ to ‘Devil Ki’?]

“…”

Inwardly, Shen Yue felt the system agreed with him, otherwise it wouldn’t give him such a prompt. He tapped ‘[Yes]’.

When the interface updated, he shoved such things to the corner of his mind. In all seriousness, he did have a big problem. One he wasn’t sure how to solve.

He didn’t have a cultivation technique.

So far, all he could do was accumulate Devil Ki by using his soul to cultivate next to the spatial rift. Due to the energy’s unique properties, he had massive gains from that alone. But a cultivation technique wasn’t something he could do without—not long term.

It was like a lever or a pully—something that allowed cultivators to leverage their Ki, producing otherwise impossible results. The problem was, he simply had no way of getting one. Combing through the system’s features was useless, and he couldn’t create one. Devil Ki was simply too different from this world’s Ki, and Shen Yue was never a genius in the first place.

In that aspect, he had to admit, he really was inferior to Nie Lie. If it were the protagonist, with his hundreds of years’ experience, he’d be able to figure something out.

Shen Yue’s only clue was the spatial rift. Knowing that Devil Ki filtered in from the other side, there was naturally something on the other side. If he was going to look for a cultivation technique, that would be the best place to start.

Letting out a slow breath, he touched his fingertips together. For now, he could only cultivate. Even if he did have some means of forcing the spatial rift open, with his meagre strength, he’d only be taking unnecessary risks. He’d reconsider the matter after powering up, or reaching a bottleneck in his cultivation.

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The next day, class was abuzz, gossiping about Xiao Ning’er suddenly approaching Nie Lie. A girl like her, being from a prominent family and a beauty besides had no reason to even speak with him.

Seated next to the academy’s local goddess, Shen Yue didn’t pay the matter much attention. He’d already known Nie Lie would solve Xiao Ning’er’s cultivation difficulties. If it were at all possible, he’d have done it himself. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the knowledge. The cure was barely touched upon in the novel, not in enough detail for him to replicate.

‘Well, she’s still engaged to my elder brother. If I leverage that, it’s not impossible to lay my hands on her.’

While he was in thought, a trio of individuals emerged, following his aunt. If Shen Yue remembered correctly, this would be another face-slapping opportunity for Nie Lie.

“…whether becoming a practitioner or demon spiritualist, inscriptions are very important. They’re divided into two types: device and battle inscriptions. For today, we’ll be covering the former…”

Shen Xiu launched into an explanation, drawing a strange pattern on the board.

“…this is the Sacred Fire inscription. In terms of research, the Sacred Family is acclaimed to be the leader. It has a total of 66 basic inscriptions. Take this one for example…”

Continuing her lecture, she cycled through one topic after another. Struggling to keep up with her pace, most students’ eyes started glazing over. In particular, Nie Lie straight-forwardly laid on his arms, sleeping in class.

Unable to tolerate such disrespect, Shen Xiu called him out.

“Nie Lie, daring to sleep in my class! Don’t tell me you understand everything already!”

The protagonist blearily raised his head.

“Yes.”

“…”

His answer shocked the class into silence, including the three assistant professors behind Shen Xiu.

“Fine. Then tell me about this inscription…!”

Resting his chin on his palm, Shen Yue watched the unfolding farce. Nie Lie, with his prodigious knowledge, naturally answered quite comfortably. He even corrected the textbook, going so far as to accuse the Sacred Family of plagiarizing the inscription from an older source text.

As luck would have it, a random student had borrowed a copy from the library, making the matter easy to verify. Nie Lie was proven correct, while Shen Xiu could only tremble in humiliation.

Being from the Sacred Family himself, Shen Yue attracted quite a few gazes. Though they didn’t dare say anything, their thoughts were clear—they were waiting for him to join the fray. Nie Lie was one of them, smirking condescendingly.

“Hmph, getting angry? Sacred Family members are all the same. Never daring to look at themselves for answers!”

Shen Yue just blinked. He didn’t say a word, simply sitting there like the matter had nothing to do with him. To him, that was indeed the case. So what if their ancestor ripped off someone to create the Sacred Flame inscription? Was he his ancestor?

Of course, Shen Xiu wasn’t willing to let things go so easily. Continuing to argue, she only pushed herself into a corner. And unlike last time, Shen Yue wasn’t in the mood to rescue her. Class concluded with her being thoroughly face-slapped, and an investigation being launched into Sacred Family’s inscription research.

Shen Yue didn't care, since none of it affected him personally. However, as a consequence of that lesson, something happened that he hadn’t anticipated.

The city lord, enraged by the Sacred Family’s duplicity, directly annulled the engagement between himself and Ye Ziyun. Sudden as it was, Shen Yue could only conclude resentment had been brewing under the surface for a long time.

Not that he was in any way dissuaded. He would get what he wanted, one way or another.

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