novelraw Chapter 84 Zhongli Chapter
Chapter 84 Zhongli Chapter
Even though Mingxun had made every effort to arrange everything, and even deliberately chose to fabricate a terminal illness for herself when Morax was busy with his campaign and unable to attend to others, and successfully died of illness, human power is ultimately limited.
Three months after her death, Morax, finally able to catch his breath from the repressed emotions, stepped into her boudoir for the first time.
Originally, he was just packing up her belongings, but unexpectedly, he stood by her bedside for a while because he was thinking of her. Morax unexpectedly sensed a trace of the Dream Demon God's aura by her pillow.
The aura was very faint, as if the person had deliberately concealed their presence.
The territory of the Dream Demon is located in the northeast corner of Liyue. Because its strength is not particularly formidable, it is not on Morax's list of priority targets to eliminate.
However weak a demon god may be, it still has the desire to ascend to the highest realm, and the Dream Demon God is no exception.
Morax was not surprised that she would target him in such a sneaky way. It was also reasonable that she would choose Mingxun, who held a high position but was not very strong. However, he did not understand why her aura was so faint, and why he had never sensed this aura on Mingxun before.
There's only one possibility for this situation: Mingxun herself participated in the cleanup work, but humans aren't sensitive to the aura of demons, and she overlooked her own pillow—
Morax didn't want to suspect Mingxun, but he couldn't think of any other possible reasons.
He wasn't stupid. Some strange little details from the past started to surface now, and small details that had been overlooked because of Mingxun's banter also came to light.
Within half a day, Morax deduced the truth from the news that a new person had joined the Dream Demon God's side.
He strangely let out a sigh of relief first, as if he was glad that she was still alive, and then belatedly felt a little angry because of the betrayal. But perhaps the deeper feeling was confusion. He sat quietly in his room, stroking the string of jewelry that he hadn't had time to give away.
For several days in a row, the atmosphere around him was terrifyingly low.
The immortals had no idea who had offended him. They could only guess that his emotions, which had finally calmed down, had erupted again because of sorting through Mingxun's belongings. Because of their status, they couldn't comfort him, so they could only cautiously avoid him.
The news even reached Gui Zhong's side. As a fellow demon god, she was the most suitable person to comfort Morax.
Out of humanitarian concern, Gui finally made time to visit, and upon entering, he bluntly asked, "What's wrong, Morax? Still not recovered from the lowly priest's death?"
Morax gave her a cold look: "Tell me, who sent you this time?"
Gui chuckled, of course not revealing her girlfriends, although such things could be guessed.
However, she was lucky; Morax was in a situation where she needed an outlet for her emotions.
In Morax's eyes, Mingxun cherished her friends and was worried that if he told the immortals about it, someone would chase after the Dream Demon God to demand an explanation from Mingxun, or even break off relations with her. He hadn't told anyone these past few days that Mingxun might be colluding with the Dream Demon God.
But ultimately, it's different. Although she seems a bit carefree on the surface, she's a clear-headed person when it comes to big or small matters and won't act impulsively.
He briefly and concisely explained his guess.
The latter's eyes widened as she listened to his words, completely unable to believe that this was something the gentle and weak little priestess in her memory had done.
She was a woman of action. After returning from there that day, she disguised herself and infiltrated the territory of the Dream Demon God. After thoroughly verifying the correctness of her conjecture, she returned the next day.
"The little priest really doesn't want you anymore—" she said, drawing out her words with a sigh.
The cup in Morax's hand was crushed to pieces by her words.
He wiped his hands clean with a handkerchief, his face cold, and said as calmly as possible, "I didn't call you here to hear this. I want to know why she did this."
Compared to Morax, who was far removed from the people, Gui Zhong was clearly closer to the people in her territory. Morax believed that she probably understood human thoughts better than he did.
Gui Zhong did indeed have some thoughts on that.
She propped her chin on her hand: "Speaking of which, do you remember when I asked you a long time ago if you had any ideas about making the little priest immortal?"
Morax glanced at her, puzzled, not understanding why she would suddenly say that.
Gui Zhong said lightly, "I saw it this time, you know. The little priest is no longer subject to the human lifespan limit."
Gui Zhong initially found it hard to understand why Mingxun, who had everything she wanted in Morax, would choose to switch jobs to the hopeless Dream Demon God, until she discovered this.
After setting aside all the impossible factors, the only thing that could attract Mingxun from the Dream Demon God was this—immortality that Morax was unwilling to give but the Dream Demon God was willing to give.
"It seems that even though she wasn't there that day, she still somehow found out about our conversation." Gui Zhong sighed heavily. "The little priest's ambition is really well hidden; neither you nor I have discovered it."
Morax pressed his lips even tighter.
Gui Zhong's words were very bad, because it meant that the Ming Xun he remembered might be a fake. She was an ambitious person from the beginning, and she only approached him for the sake of immortality. That's why she quickly died when she knew that he was unwilling to give it to her.
Morax dislikes the feeling of being out of control and being fooled.
But he seemed to have no reason to blame Mingxun.
As the god of contracts and commerce, Morax understood the meaning of "exchange of benefits" better than anyone; they were trading from the very beginning.
The emotional value that Mingxun provided by offering her complete dependence was merely an attempt to exchange for immortality. Since he couldn't give it to her, she used another advantage of hers to make a deal with the Dream Demon God.
This is perfectly reasonable.
Morax felt more and more that Mingxun hadn't done anything wrong, but he also felt aggrieved. His expression was extremely somber, constantly shifting between pale and flushed.
Gui Zhong found it amusing and urged, "If you can't bear to part with her, then go find her and bring her back. What we demon gods are best at is being unreasonable; whoever has the bigger fist gets to speak. If you beat up the Dream Demon God, even if Mingxun doesn't want to come back, she'll have to tie her up and send her back."
Morax was shamefully tempted, but reason told him that if Mingxun really didn't want to come back, doing this would only make her hate him.
He remained silent for a long time, and finally could only wave his hand at Gui Zhong and say, "I'll think about it some more."
Gui finally understood that this meant he was being asked to leave, so he didn't linger. He quickly got up and prepared to leave, but before leaving, he reminded him, "If you decide to go, be sure to call me. The scene of you confronting the little priest will be quite interesting."
Morax was speechless.
Of course, he didn't make a decision so quickly. He hesitated for a very long time, during which he restrained himself from inquiring about the situation of the Dream Demon God, for fear that he might act impulsively at any moment.
But by the time he finally made up his mind, the Dream Demon God had died.
Morax didn't care how she died; he was just wondering if, now that the Dream Demon God was dead and Mingxun had gotten what she wanted and regained her freedom, she would come back to find him.
So Morax abandoned his plan to take the initiative and prepared to sit back and wait for Mingxun to take the bait.
Mingxun did not come on the first day.
Morax calmly drank tea inside the house.
Mingxun didn't come the next day either.
Morax thought that after all, the fall of the Demon God was no small matter, and the aftermath would indeed take some time to clean up.
On the third day, Mingxun still didn't come.
Morax couldn't sit still any longer, so he dragged Gui Zhong along and disguised themselves as mortals to go and see for themselves what was holding her back.
Of course, the cleanup could not be completed in just three days. At that time, Mingxun was discussing with others what to do with the humans here after the loss of the Demon God's protection.
Fu Jin and Yao Jun were both seriously injured and recuperating, so only Ling Yuan was present at the moment.
When Mingxun asked her this question, she blinked blankly, her innocent and naive nature completely overshadowing her cool and aloof demeanor.
Mingxun shook her head, feeling that relying on her was less desirable than praying to God.
She explained the implications: "It's difficult for just the two of us to protect so many people. We must quickly pledge allegiance to a new demon god, and this demon god must be more powerful than the Dream Demon God, and it can't be too far from here."
At this point, Ling Yuan, seeing her unusual quick wit, blurted out, "The Demon God of Rock!"
"...Morax is indeed good. He is powerful enough and kind enough, making him a suitable candidate." After a long silence, Mingxun gave his answer.
Lingyuan thought about it more and more and felt that this was a very good choice, and added another advantage: "Moreover, you are very familiar with him, which makes you very suitable as a link between them."
She pondered for a moment and said, "I can guide them to seek refuge with that person, but I will absolutely not act as a go-between for them."
"Why?" Lingyuan asked, his eyes wide with confusion.
For a moment, Mingxun didn't know whether to call her foolish or clever. Why did she think that after the news of her being alive was exposed, Morax would still consider their past relationship instead of treating her as a traitor and dealing with her directly?
She sighed heavily, deciding to give up on reasoning with Ling Yuan, and simply stated, "I don't want to see him."
It was a rather tactful way of putting it, and he managed to save face with great difficulty.
Lingyuan, being slow-witted, blankly uttered an "oh" upon hearing this, genuinely believing that she didn't want to see Morax.
She wasn't the only one who thought this way; Morax on the roof beam thought the same thing.
Lingyuan is naturally naive, which is why he agrees with whatever Mingxun says, while Morax does not understand humans.
He didn't realize that humans are contradictory individuals; what they say is often not what they think. He stubbornly believed that Mingxun had no reason to lie in this situation, so what she said must be the truth.
She doesn't want to see me...
He looked blankly at Gui Zhong across from him, which earned him a sigh and a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
After that day, Morax never came to Shenyu Valley again.
*
"I gradually gave up trying to find out about you. I figured you probably wouldn't like me doing that, since you really seemed like you didn't want to see me again back then."
Zhong Li said calmly, "I thought our story ended here, but I never expected we would meet again."
Ultimately, it was because Mingxun refused to believe Morax's feelings for her, stubbornly believing that her actions were unforgivable.
She stepped forward, kneeling, and suddenly felt a strong urge to mock herself for being ridiculous, but in the end, she changed her words to: "So, sir, do you understand now?"
Zhong Li looked at her. "I think so."
"Humans are indeed complex beings. Over the years, I have traveled in Liyue in the guise of a mortal, slowly getting to know them. But perhaps because I haven't found a suitable subject to observe, I still only have a superficial understanding of emotions. I can only vaguely sense that there were other reasons for your choice back then, but I don't know them clearly."
"gentlemen……"
Mingxun wanted to explain, but Zhongli pressed his lips against hers, stopping her.
"I just feel that since I made this decision in the first place because I wanted to understand you, perhaps asking you for advice is the best way."
"Liyue no longer needs the guidance of gods. Morax will die with Mingxun, and you—Miss Xunming, are you willing to agree to marry this human named Zhongli?"
(End of this chapter)
The author said: I revised the plot a bit earlier, moving Gui Zhong's death to after the Dream Demon God.
In short, this concludes the Zhongli chapter. I didn't expect it to take so long. The main reason was that the three incidents slowed down the progress. I haven't been able to squeeze out time to write lately, and so it ended up like this _(:з」∠)_
I hope the Heisen chapter can maintain a stable update schedule. I'll try my best. Thank you all for your support.
感谢在2024-04-24 21:49:54~2024-04-28 22:51:40期间为我投出霸王票或灌溉营养液的小天使哦~
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: Mingyueye (20 bottles);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!