The young man seemed to accept that Bai Yuhuai was just a "bed warmer," and he dropped his hostility towards Bai Yuhuai. He even had someone prepare a hot bath for them.
Jing Jiujiu sat on the edge of the bathtub, kicking the water lightly, and said softly, "This is... very thoughtful."
More than thoughtful, in fact.
To add some romance (?), the young man's little follower had even scattered rose petals around the bathtub and placed a bottle of wine nearby.
Bai Yuhuai's eyes remained cold, and he didn't respond.
The more the young man acted this way, the more it showed that he was different from Daoist Master Qu Yi and his group. Daoist Master Qu Yi wanted to become the most powerful god, while the young man was purely after Jing Jiujiu.
Why did the young man speak so casually about being a "divine attendant"? Was it so that in the future, he could shamelessly offer himself as well?
"So... many people have already quietly pledged allegiance to him," Jing Jiujiu said, his foot accidentally kicking Bai Yuhuai's leg as he moved it in the water.
Bai Yuhuai bent down, grasped Jing Jiujiu's ankle, and stepped into the bathtub. Water splashed up, quickly soaking both of their clothes.
Bai Yuhuai didn't seem surprised at all: "People are selfish by nature." In the past, when he encountered evil spirits and monsters, he killed them without hesitation. But he also didn't believe that humans were necessarily all good.
The young man's followers indeed weren't limited to Daoist Master Qu Yi's family. Besides them, anyone in the metaphysical circles who didn't belong to a sect or organization had been taken under his wing.
These people had all heard of the famous Cloud Return Sect. When the young man brought them to meet Jing Jiujiu, they were so frightened they almost thought the place had been overrun by the Cloud Return Sect.
Later, they were reassured by a few words from the young man.
It showed how deep and heavy the young man's authority was here.
"I wonder if I've met all of them now," Jing Jiujiu said softly, then let out a quiet "Ah" and added, "It tickles."
"When we go to Mount Gusu, he will definitely bring everyone," Bai Yuhuai said calmly, massaging Jing Jiujiu's ankle.
"Then what do we do?"
"I'll handle it."
Jing Jiujiu: "What about me?"
Bai Yuhuai slowly leaned down, kissed Jing Jiujiu's ankle, and said in a low voice, "Didn't I say it today? You are my deity, and I am your attendant. Of course, I will clear everything for my deity. And my deity, sitting high on his throne, only needs to be served by his attendant."
His tone wasn't any different from usual, still calm and flat. But Jing Jiujiu's ear tips unconsciously turned red, as if he sensed some different, sensual meaning in those words.
Jing Jiujiu curled his toes.
The next moment, Bai Yuhuai held the back of his neck and pressed him down into the bathtub.
Water splashed heavily.
Merging with fiery passion.
Bai Yuhuai leaned close to his ear and said softly, "... Do you really hate this person?"
Jing Jiujiu looked up hazily, "Hmm?"
Bai Yuhuai: "When we reach Mount Gusu, if I flay him alive, break his bones, and tear him to pieces..." He kissed Jing Jiujiu's ear, "I know Jiujiu definitely won't be soft-hearted."
Although he also despised his past self from a thousand years ago.
But that painting was Zhuo Wu's after all, how could such a despicable thing keep it for a thousand years? Who knows how many times he gazed at that painting... And that's not all, he even led others to look at it... Flaying him alive a thousand times wouldn't be enough.
Early the next morning, the young man had already organized his people. They traveled in groups by car towards Mount Gusu.
The young man had half-removed his human skin, revealing the clear musculature underneath.
Holding several human skin masks in his hand, he asked Jing Jiujiu, "Which version of me do you like?"
Jing Jiujiu: "..."
Disgusting.
Put some clothes on, will you.
At this point, others came to advise him: "Dressing like that, you'll easily get caught by the police."
Hearing this, the young man seemed to be reminded of some unpleasant memories.
The young man gathered up the skin, saying with disgust, "It's a pity times have changed. We can't even have a proper procession to welcome you to Mount Gusu."
The procession the young man referred to meant countless "false gods" with heads embedded in their chests, flying in the air, surrounding Jing Jiujiu, riding on clouds and mist towards Mount Gusu.
Jing Jiujiu: "That won't be necessary."
Of course not. If they were to rise into the air, it wouldn't take half a minute before they'd be shot down for entering restricted airspace without prior application for a flight path, or on suspicion of attempting to spy on state secrets.
Jing Jiujiu smacked his lips, thinking it over, and actually felt this wasn't so bad.
Why not let them all be shot down?
Would they be badly hurt from the fall?
As Jing Jiujiu was pondering the feasibility of this, people had already brought out small cars and minibuses.
These were the evil god organization's means of transportation.
The young man said with a gloomy face: "In today's human society, in the name of secularization, they emphasize so-called science and have made countless complicated rules. You need a license to drive, and if many people gather, they suspect you of illegal pyramid schemes."
Jing Jiujiu pouted. What's wrong with science?
Science is the greatest god of all.
It has saved so many people from the suffering of war, disease, hunger, and lack of clothing... Haven't you ever been online? Do you know how enjoyable it is to surf the internet? Mount Gusu is so amazing, but does it have WiFi? If we can't even play games together, what's the point of being a god? It's more fun to be human.
"Such a terrible world..." the young man sneered, "I will eventually restore the glory of a thousand years ago for you."
Jing Jiujiu: "That won't be necessary."
Go back a thousand years to experience feudal autocracy?
At this point, the others came out, all carrying black backpacks, wearing five-pointed star badges on their heads, and holding small flags that read: "Immortal Travel Agency."
Jing Jiujiu: "..."
They looked quite menacing.
But in the end, they still had to pretend to be good communist successors, pretending to be a tour group on an outing.
"Aren't you taking the high-speed train?"
"We don't have legal identities or household registrations."
Oh, so they're all undocumented.
No wonder they were hard to catch. Who knows where they've been hiding all these years. No wonder they're all so disgusting and perverted, living in the darkness.
But perhaps it's precisely because of this that they haven't been able to cause more harm to the world... although they've already done plenty of damage!
"You go serve them."
The young man sent Assistant Zeng and another metaphysical master to accompany them.
Those two had legal identities.
This was also why Assistant Zeng had been sent to join the film crew before.
Assistant Zeng wanted nothing more than to avoid this, but could only go with a bitter face.
Jing Jiujiu and Bai Yuhuai took the high-speed train and then a plane, arriving at the foot of Mount Gusu in just a few hours.
This Mount Gusu wasn't the one in Fen City.
It was on the tourist route of Mount Wudang, bordering Shennongjia.
As they drove further, there were fewer and fewer signs of human habitation.
"Stop the car," Jing Jiujiu said.
"There's still quite a way to go..." Assistant Zeng said dryly, shaking out the map in his hands.
Jing Jiujiu: "The area ahead is restricted. It's illegal to drive in, understand?"
Assistant Zeng: "..."
This is illegal, that is illegal.
Can't gods have a bit more freedom?
In the end, they abandoned the car and proceeded on foot... well, only Bai Yuhuai, Assistant Zeng, and one other person were walking.
Jing Jiujiu was practically riding on Bai Yuhuai's shoulders, not exerting any effort at all.
Bai Yuhuai, with his powerful physique, walked steadily in front. When they reached steep uphill sections, he held Jing Jiujiu securely in his arms.
Assistant Zeng was walking and panting heavily. Combined with the silence all around, without even the faintest sound of insects... and the endless towering forest surrounding them, it felt like they would never reach the end. The dual fatigue of mind and body nearly drove Assistant Zeng to breakdown.
Just kill him already!
He never wanted to walk with these damn gay men again!
Jing Jiujiu, however, was comfortably nestled in Bai Yuhuai's arms, talking in a low voice: "Why has that person been able to live for a thousand years? Don't all gods die? Only Yama, who was originally half from the underworld, fell into the depths of the netherworld and escaped destruction."
Bai Yuhuai replied softly, without even a change in his breathing: "Because he was originally a mongrel."
This wasn't meant as an insult to the young man.
It was because he truly was a product of mixed bloodlines between a demigod and a demon. And demigods were born from humans and gods.
"The divine bloodline in him is extremely thin, and because he has a trace of demonic blood, he has survived until today." Bai Yuhuai paused, "Zhuo Wu once had a fleeting thought to destroy the entire netherworld. It was just a momentary impulse, and he stopped himself."
Jing Jiujiu let out a soft "Ah."
He seemed to have roughly guessed what Zhuo Wu had intended to do back then.
Since we are all destined to perish anyway.
Why not let me destroy everything by my own hand first, then leave behind the divine remains and divine consciousness for future reconstruction of the three realms.
If we wait for the natural laws of heaven and earth to destroy the gods and Buddhas, then truly nothing will be left... Is that it?
Thoughts kept swirling in Jing Jiujiu's mind, but he still felt like there was some key point he was missing.
An unknown amount of time passed.
"Assistant Zeng is gone," a trembling voice said from behind.
Jing Jiujiu: "Hm?"
Bai Yuhuai pressed his hand to Jing Jiujiu's forehead and said calmly, "Don't worry about it."
It wasn't just Assistant Zeng.
Today, the young man, along with all the people under him, or those half-human, half-ghost, half-divine things, none of them would be able to leave this place.
Bai Yuhuai led Jing Jiujiu, quickening their pace.
Gradually, that person also lost track of them.
Assistant Zeng collapsed on the ground, his surroundings still deathly quiet. He looked up at the sky, cursing, "Why did I have to follow them? Wouldn't it have been better to just claim credit at the end?"
"Damn it, this isn't human..."
Before Assistant Zeng could finish speaking, a tremendous boom echoed through the mountains.
The earth shook.
Assistant Zeng rolled over, crawling on the ground with weak limbs. He instinctively knelt and kowtowed, but even so, he still felt an intense suffocation...
By this time, the young man had already ascended the mountain.
He encountered Jing Jiujiu and Bai Yuhuai in front of a huge boulder.
The young man pointed at the boulder and said, "Behind this was once the dwelling of the most powerful deity in the three realms. No, he was beyond even being called a deity... At the beginning of creation, when the world came into being, a sage was born. He lowered the ladder to heaven for humanity and wrote down the methods for cultivating immortality and ascending to godhood. All the immortals and gods who attained the Dao in the world were his disciples. No one has ever seen his true face... On the day he perished, the heavens and earth shattered, rivers flowed backwards, and stars sank into darkness. I witnessed it with my own eyes."
"Today, you will take his place and become the new ruler of this world."
"The commotion in these mountains is a celebration of your ascension to the divine throne."
The young man slowly walked to the boulder, raising his hand as if to draw a symbol on it.
But Bai Yuhuai moved faster, casually grabbing the back of the young man's collar and pulling him back.
Though he only grabbed the collar, a painful scream suddenly erupted from the young man's throat: "Ahhh!"
Blood flowed from the young man's eyes as Bai Yuhuai forcefully extracted his three hun and seven po souls, his divine and demonic consciousness, from the back of his neck as if pulling silk threads.
Bai Yuhuai said, "Shh."
"Don't look, Jiujiu."
Jing Jiujiu blinked in slight surprise, narrowing his eyes.
The young man painfully twisted his head around.
His neck made a cracking sound, but he paid no attention to it, focused only on how to escape.
"How is this possible..."
"How can someone so powerful still exist in this world..."
Without even blinking, Bai Yuhuai placed his palm on the young man's face and peeled off his skin.
"Over a thousand years, how many layers of skin have you put on?" Bai Yuhuai said calmly.
The young man's throat let out an even louder roar, but no matter how he struggled, not even a breeze stirred around him.
He looked towards Jing Jiujiu: "He's going to... kill me..."
Bai Yuhuai: "Do you know why it's so quiet on this mountain?"
The young man's throat made "guh... guh..." gasping sounds.
The abilities that had allowed him to strut about for a thousand years seemed to be nothing more than an ant's strength in this man's hands.
Bai Yuhuai: "Because the master of this mountain has returned."
The young man's eyes suddenly widened.
He hadn't paid any attention to what Assistant Zeng had said that day.
Impossible!
"Zhuo Wu... is dead..."
"Everyone knows he was reincarnated, ha, ha... but with the six paths of reincarnation broken, unable to bear his divine form, how... how could he be reborn?"
"He's dead, completely dead..." the young man squeezed out the words from his throat.
That's why.
That's why the young man dared to harbor such wildly ambitious delusions afterwards.
He wanted to possess for himself that first deity Zhuo Wu had conceived - that youth who stood there, and with just a lowered gaze or pursed lips, seemed to embody all the radiance of the world.
Bai Yuhuai suddenly turned his head and asked Jing Jiujiu: "Jiujiu, do you know what he's called?"
The young man was stunned, seemingly only now remembering that he had never mentioned his own name to the deity. Because their names were taboo, not to be casually known by others. So after a thousand years, he himself had almost forgotten.
The young man struggled desperately, turning towards Jing Jiujiu, opening his mouth and shouting hoarsely: "You must remember my name, I, I am called..."
Bai Yuhuai interrupted: "Jiujiu. His name doesn't matter at all, does it?"
Jing Jiujiu was momentarily stunned: "...Mm."
Bai Yuhuai slowly turned his head: "He doesn't want to know."
The young man's eyeballs looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets.
Most of his soul and consciousness had already been torn out, and his body began to rot. Realizing his own ugliness, he struggled even more frantically, covered in blood.
Bai Yuhuai grasped his demonic consciousness.
Silently, it shattered.
"That painting was drawn by me. How dare you keep it privately and gaze upon it daily? A thing like you isn't even fit to be his follower."
"As punishment, until you die and completely vanish from this world, he will never know your name."
"Ahhhh!"
You are Zhuo Wu.
Only Zhuo Wu could be this cold, cruel, domineering and arrogant in the world.