Still, He Lingchuan also keenly sensed that Longhao seemed interested in Fu Shanyue as well. Otherwise, bribing the king of the yin hui with merely a few boxes of fiend beads would have been a tall order.
After all, all things under heaven and earth thrived on spiritual energy, while species capable of absorbing yin fiend energy were vanishingly rare. It was entirely reasonable that Longhao felt curious about a ba and wished to observe one up close.
Fu Shanyue let out a cheer, punched the empty air, and slung an arm around He Lingchuan's shoulders. "Good brother!"
"While you're on Longji Island, do not stir up trouble," He Lingchuan admonished him earnestly. "I'm leaving on a distant journey soon and won't be around to clean up after you."
Fu Shanyue thumped his chest, making loud, hollow thuds. "Don't worry. Taozi and I will plant ourselves right here and never cause you any grief."
He turned toward the yin hui and cupped his hands. "Sorry for offending you earlier, truly! From now on, let's be good neighbors—peaceful and staying out of each other's hair."
The yin hui let out a snort. The elite messenger turned and slithered away, making a show of its disdain.
Fu Shanyue then asked He Lingchuan, "When are you leaving?"
"Tomorrow."
"Where to?"
"Heading east out to sea to handle some business."
"Come on, then! Back to Suoding Island to give you a proper send-off!" Fu Shanyue didn't ask when he would return. Hooking an arm around his neck, he steered him toward the shore where their boat was moored. "Tonight, no one goes to bed sober!"
Only after their small skiff drifted back onto the open sea did Fu Shanyue's smile fade, replaced by a serious look.
"Sorry for causing you trouble."
"Think nothing of it," He Lingchuan replied magnanimously. "If I were living next door to a paradise, I'd want to check it out too."
Knowing Fu Shanyue's personality well, he had not taken offense.
Fang Canran, the envoy sent by Lingshan, was genial at every turn and meticulous about etiquette.
Fu Shanyue, the representative sent by Beijia, was a reckless force of nature whom not even the Ruler of Chiyan could rein in.
Yet He Lingchuan had his own way of getting along smoothly with both of them.
"Right, exactly!" Fu Shanyue clapped his hands. "Those black pebbles you brought out had something special to them. Don't tell me they're related to yin fiend energy..."
He Lingchuan had been waiting for the question. "They are fiend beads, refined from fiend energy."
Even upon hearing this answer, Fu Shanyue found it hard to believe.
"Refined by whom?"
He Lingchuan smiled faintly. "Me."
With that, he brought out another palm-sized box and opened it. Resting inside atop a layer of fine sand were several more fiend beads.
Fu Shanyue leaned close, took two sniffs, and cautiously pinched one between his index and middle fingers.
Before he could even lift it free of the box, he shuddered violently as if scorched by flame.
The fiend bead dropped back into the box.
"Hss—" He blew on his fingertips. "Isn't this stuff a bit too vicious?"
He Lingchuan looked over. The two fingers that had touched the bead had blackened like they had handled charcoal, the flesh corroding away.
Even the Chiyan Crown Prince couldn't withstand it—just how staggering was the concentration in this bead?
However, tiny wisps of black smoke soon drifted from Fu Shanyue's fingertips as the injury slowly healed.
Curious, He Lingchuan asked, "If your father touched a fiend bead, would the same happen to him?"
"Probably not." Fu Shanyue circulated his true power to expel the fiend energy. "I was born a ba, carrying a thread of innate vital breath from my mother's womb—otherwise, I never could have grown up. But the old man is a living dead born from a land of yin fiends, very different from me."
Fu Shanlie was a naturally transformed ba, a process commonly called corpse transformation.
"Actually, Taozi is more like me. She transformed directly from an earth fiend child. Although that's also an acquired form, she never went through the transition of death before life, so the vitality within her body was never extinguished. That's why her resistance to these fiend beads is very poor."
"The yin hui don't look like they arose from corpse transformation either," He Lingchuan noted, rubbing his chin. "Every one of them seems full of vitality."
"Can ordinary yin hui touch these beads directly?"
"Uh, I suppose so?" Otherwise, how could the yin hui troop Longhao lent him leave the waters of Yangshan at will?
Fu Shanyue's eyes lit up. "Then I really must study this."
Within ten breaths, his fingers had fully recovered.
"Incredible!" Fu Shanyue shook his hand. "You said the king of the yin hui can swallow these things raw?"
"He eats them like sugar drops."
Fu Shanyue's expression changed slightly. He couldn't even touch one, yet the other could crunch on them like broad beans. The gap in their cultivation was plain to see.
As tempting as the fiend beads were, they weren't something he could touch at present.
He had better stick to quietly absorbing the ambient fiend energy to cultivate.
He Lingchuan reminded him again, "So don't go stirring up trouble on the island. You wouldn't want the yin hui king to gobble you up as a snack and drag Taozi down with you."
He was not worried about Fu Shanyue trying to cozy up to Longhao. Without the Heavenly Order Precious Scroll, humans and yin hui had no way to communicate.
"Relax, I definitely won't provoke it." Fu Shanyue chuckled. "When have I ever gone back on my word?"
"Fine, I'll trust you." Fu Shanyue was restless by nature; letting him cross paths with Longhao wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Fu Shanyue gazed at him intently for a moment, then sighed softly. "This Yangshan Archipelago really is a fine place. Now I understand why you refused to take an official post in Chiyan and ran all the way out here instead—who doesn't want to live free and unfettered?"
"You can too," He Lingchuan said, patting his shoulder. "Sooner or later, you will too."
He understood very well why Fu Shanyue had come to the Yangshan Archipelago, and Fu Shanyue certainly understood the tasks Beijia had assigned him:
First, draw closer to He Xiao;
Second, pry for intelligence.
He had no choice in the matter.
Though today's reckless intrusion onto the island had stemmed from genuine curiosity about the yin fiend leyline, Fu Shanyue had also deliberately tested He Lingchuan's reaction.
Not only had He Lingchuan refrained from anger, but he had even secured him the opportunity to remain and cultivate on the island.
He hadn't even hidden secrets like the presence of a profoundly powerful yin hui king on Longji Island or the fact that yin fiends could be condensed into fiend beads.
This fellow clearly knew why he had come, didn't he?
Why be so utterly open with him?
A rare silence fell between them.
Halfway through the crossing, He Lingchuan brought up a casual topic: "Right, I recall you mentioning before that your father's old wound has never fully healed?"
After clashing with Fu Shanlie in the Panlong World for over a year, he had formed a much clearer impression of the demon king of Chiyan.
"Yeah, for over a century now." Fu Shanyue crossed his legs and pointed to his chest. "He was wounded right here. Even after pleading for help from celestial gods, they could only keep the condition under control. Over all these years, it's flared up again and again, never fully healing."
Over the heart? He Lingchuan raised an eyebrow. The strike he had landed on Fu Shanlie in the Panlong World had also been a blade run through the chest.
"Just who wounded him?"
"Another celestial god, who later fell."
He Lingchuan understood—he meant Mitian.
In true history, Fu Shanlie had taken part in the final battle of Panlong City.
No wonder he had been able to establish the vassal kingdom of Chiyan; it turned out he had performed such a merit.
He Lingchuan remarked leisurely, "Back when I was in Chiyan, I should have asked you to introduce me. Of Beijia's thirteen vassal demon kings, the only one I've met is the Jeweled Tree King."
Chapter 1098