Jin Se

Chapter 51

Before Bai Li, was a mirror. On the mirror, was a thin layer of water. He sat there motionlessly, and the mirror was empty.

He sat there, fossilized as though he'd never move again. Even though he was the only one in his room, nay, the entirety of the massive courtyard, he was still in the habit of sitting straightly and lifelessly as a wooden column.

Aside from the things he raised in his shadow, there wasn't anyone so brave as to approach his residence. The expansive Demon Lord's mansion was like a haunted house. The further in, the heavier the gloom. There wasn't a single breath of life, for even the summer cicadas and sparrows kept their distance. Time itself seemed to stagnate in that place.

He was the only living thing in the entire mansion, aside from the cloth person guarding the gates.

Bai Li lightly tapped the mirror with his finger, but though its surface rippled, nothing appeared.

The Water Mirror Technique was a secret art of the fox race, it could show its user anything their heart desired. But ever since he'd excised his fox bloodline, he hadn't been able to use it.

But he still wanted to catch a glimpse, through that thin glass, of Shi Wuduan.

His longbow hung on the wall, glowing faintly in the night. An audacious shadow oozed up the wall towards it; immediately, it wailed in pain as it was pierced through by a blaze of cold light. Bai Li sat, passively as ever, as though he hadn't heard a thing.

All he thought about, day in and day out, was how to deal with Shi Wuduan. If he lived, he was miserable, if he died, he'd still be miserable. No matter what the outcome was, he'd end up miserable.

So really, what was he trying to accomplish?

Sometimes, Bai Li would spend a few moments of his overly long and dreary life trying to answer that question. But that line of thought never got him anywhere.

Whenever he met him, he wanted to kill him, whenever he couldn't meet him, he wanted to see him. When he did meet him, he'd been flayed bloody within the span of a few remarks. Sometimes, Bai Li thought he'd never be at peace so long as Shi Wuduan lived, yet the moment he unleashed an arrow through his heart and realized that he would forever cease to exist in this world, he became unsettled and at a loss.

Meeting with what one hates; unable to obtain what one desires.

Suddenly, a bell rang crisply outside the door. Bai Li looked up dispassionately; the cloth person fluttered through the door, gurgling feebly like the one kettle that wasn't boiling.

Bai Li frigidly replied, "No."

The cloth person said, "Gurgle gurgle."

Bai Li listened, his lips convulsed into a mockery of a smile, but even that hint of vaguely malicious emotion was gone from his face in an instant. His expression became wooden once more. He abruptly stood and threw open the doors; the sudden gust blew the cloth person into the rafters, clanging into the golden bell hanging there. Then, as if stunned by the impact, it dumbly drifted down.

Bai Li side-eyed it and said, "If that's the case, then go invite Sir Yan inside to talk."

The cloth person shook its paper-flat head a few times then lurched back into the air and flew away. Bai Li remained leaning against the doorframe, looking up at the sky. As he watched the stars glide along their paths, he was reminded of all those complicated equations he didn't understand, and couldn't help wondering: is my fate within those stars as well?