The Mute Fish and the Demon Venerable’s Fury

The little fish had turned mute.

Xiyue noticed the change. For days, Su Xiaoxiao had not uttered a single word to her, nor did she flit about the Demon Palace with her usual vivacity. She even shunned the cold spring, remaining dejected day after day, unwilling to even step outside her bedchamber.

She had grown alarmingly thin, her health deteriorating to the point where she could no longer endure days without food or drink as she once had.

Gu Yan remarked that Su Xiaoxiao was now as fragile as an ant, barely distinguishable from a mortal in her need for sustenance and recuperation.

Utterly troublesome, to say the least.

Moreover, Xiyue observed that the moment she drew near, the little fish would tremble. Whenever Xiyue entered the room, Su Xiaoxiao’s eyes would fill with a mixture of fear and guardedness.

This discovery thoroughly displeased Xiyue.

The fish, it seemed, was utterly ungrateful.

Just days prior, the Bird Tribe, typically aligned with the Immortal Clan, had been plagued by internal instability. Their newly enthroned leader, presuming they had secured passage on the Immortal Clan’s grand vessel, brazenly dispatched forces to repeatedly harass the Demon Realm. They even went so far as to decapitate slain demons and display their heads at the border, a public spectacle of defiance.

Xiyue was rather amused upon receiving the reports, initially expecting a formidable and intelligent opponent. Instead, she found their tactics to be mere imitations of the Demon Tribe’s discarded strategies, a truly disappointing revelation.

While Xiyue, as the Demon Venerable, harbored no particular inclination to uphold the Demon Tribe’s dignity, the new leader’s blatant provocation was a direct challenge to her authority. Could Xiyue possibly tolerate such an affront? Naturally, she could not.

With a spirit as boundless as the sky and a gaze that held nothing in reverence, Xiyue dared to breach the Bird Tribe’s territory, utterly alone.

Her demonic energy unleashed havoc, turning the Bird Tribe’s lands upside down and staining the battlegrounds crimson with rivers of blood. The new leader, initially buoyant with excitement and convinced Xiyue had come to her demise, only truly descended into panic when the sheer number of fallen Bird Tribe warriors became undeniable.

Xiyue entered the grand hall with a regal, unhurried gait, her presence a striking blend of arrogant swagger and captivating beauty. From the hand that had morphed into a fearsome claw, the blood of the Bird Tribe dripped rhythmically with her every step.

Xiyue seized the Bird Tribe leader by the throat, and just as she was about to crush it, she spoke with utter disdain, “Do you truly believe aligning with the Immortal Clan will save you? I’ve lingered here, unhurried, for quite some time now. Has the Immortal Clan dispatched anyone to your aid?”

“Did you imagine that by corrupting my own demon spawn, you could orchestrate a coordinated attack from within and without?”

Xiyue’s smile turned sinister. “You have, perhaps, gravely underestimated me.”

The carnage and bloodshed seemed only to heighten the dark pleasure within Xiyue. She impaled the Bird Tribe leader’s corpse in their sacred grounds. As she departed, she addressed a gathering of weak, defenseless women and children, saying, “When the Immortal Clan arrives, inform them that I have dealt with this incompetent leader. There’s no need to thank me.”

Xiyue single-handedly inflicted devastating damage upon the Bird Tribe. Yet, instead of fleeing amidst the chaos, a certain wolf demon brazenly launched a surprise attack on Xiyue while she was in cultivation.

Driven by a clear agenda, he deliberately aimed for Xiyue’s unhealed wounds. The unexpected onslaught nearly shattered Xiyue’s composure and threatened to utterly ruin her cultivation.

Xiyue, with her keen intellect, had initially assumed the wolf demon was merely colluding with the Bird and Immortal Clans. She had never anticipated such a “surprise” betrayal.

She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that someone had deliberately fed information to the wolf demon. Otherwise, how could he have pinpointed Xiyue’s precise injuries from the very beginning to the end of the attack?

Even after dispatching the wolf demon, her fury remained unquenched. She terrified Su Xiaoxiao into unconsciousness, and then had the severed wolf head delivered to the in-laws of the deceased Bird Tribe leader’s daughter, who had married into their family.

The resentment festering within Xiyue’s heart surged violently. She knew, with chilling certainty, that apart from this foolish fish, no one else could have divulged the secret of her unhealed wounds to the wolf demon.

Though Xiyue was incandescent with rage, her fury was solely directed at the Bird Tribe and the wolf demon. Never, from beginning to end, had she harbored any intention of taking Su Xiaoxiao’s life. When she had restrained her, she hadn’t even manifested her formidable claws; her hand had simply gripped Su Xiaoxiao’s throat, leaving behind only a few faint finger marks, not even breaking the skin.

Yet, this little fish seemed utterly oblivious, failing to grasp the gravity of the taboo she had committed. That Xiyue had allowed her to live was a mercy in itself; to expect her to not only refrain from tearful gratitude but also to remain silent for days, presenting a sullen face for Xiyue to witness, was simply outrageous.

Mindful of Gu Yan’s admonitions, Xiyue exercised extreme restraint, fearing she might truly lose control and annihilate Su Xiaoxiao with a single strike. Yet, instead of receiving a few gentle words, Su Xiaoxiao would cower like a frightened hedgehog the moment she appeared.

Xiyue, naturally, found this intolerable. The more Su Xiaoxiao reacted this way, the more Xiyue’s own temper flared.

Su Xiaoxiao would instinctively recoil at Xiyue’s sight. The Demon Tribe was inherently ill-tempered, and Xiyue was no exception; indeed, she was worse. With a brutal grip, she seized Su Xiaoxiao’s ankle, mercilessly dragging her from the bed’s corner.

“What are you hiding for?!”

The instant Xiyue’s hand brushed Su Xiaoxiao’s delicate ankle, the horrific, blood-soaked scenes from before surged back into Su Xiaoxiao’s mind.

“No! Let, let go of me!! Cough, cough—”

Her agitation immediately exacerbated her unhealed wounds; damage to the heart meridian was far from a trivial matter.

Xiyue could no longer tolerate Su Xiaoxiao’s deathly pallor. She had issued countless threats, and when her irritation peaked, she would fix Su Xiaoxiao with an intense stare, warning in a sharp, dangerous tone, “Cry again, shed a single tear, and I will slaughter one of your kin.”

But such emotions were not easily suppressed. Su Xiaoxiao could only clamp a hand over her mouth, yet the tears still streamed down her face. Xiyue held her close, listening to her pained, sorrowful whimpers. Without a word, she gently lifted a hand and, with her thumb, wiped away the tears from the corners of Su Xiaoxiao’s eyes.

“That’s enough.”

Unversed in the art of comfort, the most she could manage, even at her most lenient, was a less-than-gentle command: “Cease your weeping.”

While her threats were unfailingly effective on other demons, Su Xiaoxiao only grew more terrified, her coughs becoming more violent with each warning.

Xiyue, however, did not act on her threats. Instead, she simply held Su Xiaoxiao tightly in her embrace, refusing to release her.

****

Su Xiaoxiao’s spirits remained low. She consumed very little food, and her water intake had halved compared to previous days. She spent the better part of each day asleep, only to awaken and stare blankly into space within her room.

Gu Yan, for her part, remained dutiful, daily delivering to Su Xiaoxiao a bowl of—what exactly, Su Xiaoxiao couldn’t say—but undeniably foul-smelling medicinal broth.

To Su Xiaoxiao, nothing originating from the Demon Realm could ever be considered good.

Feigning that the broth was too hot, Su Xiaoxiao knew that Gu Yan, being Xiyue’s attendant, wouldn’t linger indefinitely for her to finish. Once Gu Yan departed, Su Xiaoxiao promptly emptied the contents of the bowl out the window.

She believed her actions were entirely clandestine, yet Xiyue had, in fact, noticed the very first time.

Xiyue possessed an acute sense of smell; the medicinal aroma, imperceptible to Su Xiaoxiao, was unmistakably present to her.

The little fish’s instinct was to hide upon seeing her. Xiyue, despite her initial discovery, had refrained from immediate action. However, when Su Xiaoxiao persisted in discarding the medicine for three consecutive days, Xiyue’s patience finally snapped.

With a grim expression, Xiyue commanded that Gu Yan be summoned to bring another bowl of the broth, then stand directly before Su Xiaoxiao and compel her to drink it.

Su Xiaoxiao resisted, the bowl still emanating steam. “I won’t drink it; it’s too hot,” she protested.

The excuse sounded all too familiar. Disbelieving her, Xiyue gripped Su Xiaoxiao and forced the liquid down her throat. In the struggle, some of the broth spilled down Su Xiaoxiao’s neck, scalding a significant red mark across her chest.

This incident made her inconsolable, beyond any hope of calming.

Gu Yan, observing from the side, shook her head in resignation. Her initial intention had been to gently help Su Xiaoxiao remove her clothes to inspect the burn. Instead, Xiyue, acting like a brutish tyrant, stubbornly tore Su Xiaoxiao’s garments to shreds during her desperate struggles.

“Ah, it hurts so much! Go away, go away!”

“Go away! Don’t touch me! It hurts!”

With a single hand, Xiyue effortlessly restrained Su Xiaoxiao’s flailing hands, bringing the entirety of Su Xiaoxiao’s chest into full view.

Su Xiaoxiao’s chest still bore the faint marks from Xiyue’s previous palm strike, wounds that had never fully healed. Now, with the fresh scald, her distress intensified, making her cries even more vehement.

Having lived for millennia, Xiyue found it utterly inconceivable that she could be rendered so utterly helpless by a fragile little fish, barely three hundred years old, capable of being extinguished with a mere squeeze.