Chapter 54

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Chapter 54: The Bet

Zhu Ling's punishment on Ji Yunhe was small potatoes.

Afterall he was just a spoiled kid who had never been to a real battle. And with Ji Chengyu constantly nagging him on the side, Ji Yunhe did not suffer much.

However, ever since that day, Ji Yunhe endured torture worse than death whenever Princess Shunde was present.

Ji Yunhe was patient. She waited for the perfect opportunity to attack and kill the princess in one fell swoop.

But the Grand Master always watched from the sidelines when Princess Shunde came. He seemed to be aware of Ji Yunhe's intentions, but he did not call her out on it. He only had interest in the changes happening inside her body.

Ji Yunhe's body did not change anymore.

Three months later, Princess Shunde came to the prison more furious than ever.

She did not listen to Ji Chengyu's advice, nor did she wait for the Grand Master to come. She pulled open the door of the cell and cursed under her breath, "You traitors..." Her eyes were red with rage, and she glared at Ji Yunhe while gritting her teeth. The princess stepped into the cell barefooted and with the scarlet whip in hand. "You all deserve to die!" she yelled out as she lashed ruthlessly at Ji Yunhe's head and face.

And Ji Yunhe had been channeling her power since the moment she walked in.

She knew this was the opportunity she had been waiting for.

The moment the whip came down, black gas surged around Ji Yunhe's hand, and she caught the end of the whip. With one forceful pull, Princess Shunde tumbled into her clutch.

The princess's eyes widened with shock as Ji Yunhe's fingers tightened around her neck. But right before the princess choked to death, her body was suddenly pulled away by an even greater force.

The attack only left a few bloody marks on her neck.

In an instant, Ji Yunhe was knocked back by another force. It covered her and plastered her to the wall like a spider web.

Princess Shunde touched her neck and saw her hand full of blood. With great alarm, she immediately ran to the weapons rack to look into the mirror-like steel blade of a broadsword. She examined her wounds carefully and repeatedly. Once she made sure her face suffered no damage, her eyes turned cold and she pulled a sword out of the rack.

Her gloomy and bloody face made her look like a devil from hell, wanting to chop Ji Yunhe into pieces.

But before she could set foot into the cell again, the door slammed shut.

"Enough." The Grand Master casually walked in. "Ruling, do not kill her."

"Master, it's not that I want to kill her." Princess Shunde tightened her fingers around the hilt of her sword, her knuckles turning white. "This bitch, she wants to kill me."

"I repeat, do not kill her."

Princess Shunde's breathing was rapid and deep. Then she finally suppressed her rage and threw the sword fiercely at the ground.

"Okay, I won't kill her. But master, the northern rebels are occupying the Demon Terrace and making bigger waves by the day, I want you to intervene."

Ji Yunhe smiled, still stuck to the wall. "So the princess is angry over not being able to suppress the northern uprising, and wants to take it out on me. And now that you've failed at both, are you going to cry to the elders for candy?"

"Ji Yunhe!" Princess Shunde spat out her name between her teeth. "Just wait! Once I take down the Demon Terrace, the world will watch as I strip you of your skin, piece by piece!"

"Two months have passed," Ji Yunhe teased her and laughed again. "Want to make a bet for two years? Or, better yet," Ji Yunhe collected the smile on her face, "I bet you can't suppress this rebellion, and you can't kill all the people rising up to fight you!"

"Fine!" Princess Shunde said. "I will bet with flesh and bones. If you lose, I will cut out a piece of your flesh every day!"

"Since it's a bet, the princess should wager the equivalent. If you lose, same thing."

"We'll see."

"Of course we'll see. What else can I do?"

Princess Shunde stopped paying attention to the snide Ji Yunhe and turned to look at the Grand Master.

"Master," Princess Shunde asked, "things have come to this already, why aren't you taking any action?"

"The little people are of no concern. The jade phoenix is top priority. I will need to find her and get rid of her before I can go north."

Princess Shunde had nothing more to say. She glanced at Ji Yunhe one last time then turned and left. Ji Yunhe was released from the wall and sat down at the edge of the cell. She asked the Grand Master, "Is the jade phoenix so powerful that she warrants such caution from you?"

"Yes, she is."

Ji Yunhe grew curious. "A demon master and demon who came from a hundred years ago, is there a story between you two?"

"Not a good story." The Grand Master turned his head to look at her. "Daring to make a move on Ruling even as a prisoner. Do you really think you have a free pass from the death penalty?"

Ji Yunhe smiled. "At least for now, yes." She studied him a bit. "If I kill the princess, will my free pass be useless?"

"I won't let anyone kill her."

"Grand Master, have you lived too long that you've grown confused? You are powerful and cannot age or die, but Princess Shunde is obviously not that powerful. Even if I don't kill her, time will kill her. Do you think you can fight God?"

"I said, no one can kill her. Not you, not time, and not God."

Ji Yunhe smiled and silently surveyed the Grand Master for a long time. "Why are you so obsessed with her? Do you love her?"

The Grand Master paused for a moment. "I love her face."

"..."

She never thought he would be such a superficial person... Please excuse her...

"Her face is exactly the same as someone I have lost."

"Oh..."

Ji Yunhe digested the information then grew curious again. "Lost love?"

"I have lost her, so any trace of her in this world, I will not lose again. No one can take Shunde away from me."

"Even if it's just a similar face?"

"Mhm."

Ji Yunhe sat cross-legged and clasped her hands together. "Now what? Princess Shunde, I still have to kill. She has done too many bad things."

"Then you will be buried with her."

"Doesn't matter." Ji Yunhe smiled. "My cheap life for hers, fair trade."

The Grand Master also seemed to grow curious. "And why are you obsessed with her?"

"I have someone to protect too," Ji Yunhe said. "No one can touch him."

The "heart-to-heart" between Ji Yunhe and the Grand Master ended after a moment of silence.

Due to the rising power of the rebels in the north, Princess Shunde became more and more involved with official affairs and rarely came to the Grand Master's house. Except for the occasional war strain, or when the court suffered major losses. Princess Shunde would then bring dozens of demon masters to the prison so they could carry out her orders and vent her fury on Ji Yunhe.

Ji Yunhe was back to waiting for an opportunity to strike back.

The time interval between Princess Shunde's torment on Ji Yunhe, however, was growing longer and longer.

At first, she came once every ten days or so. Then once every couple of months. Then three or five months would go by without seeing Princess Shunde.

The battles were growing more intense.

The jade phoenix still did not reappear, so the Grand Master kept waiting and did not intervene. But he was not stingy over lending out disciples of the Grand Master's house.

He was very generous with the needs of the court. No matter how many disciples they asked for, or how many talismans they requested. But he himself sat home firmly like a mountain. Regardless of how much the court and Princess Shunde begged him, he did not care to move an inch.

Two years passed, then another two years. Four years went by, and no one came to the Grand Master again.

But during the four years, all of the disciples in the house had been lent out. There was no one left to even guard Ji Yunhe. The large Grand Master's house only had a prisoner and the boss himself. And when the boss grew bored, he would come to the cell and sit next to his prisoner to read a book, sharing ideas from time to time.

Ji Yunhe felt as if she had gone from being a prisoner to being a companion to the lonely elderly.

He even occasionally chatted with Ji Yunhe about the situation in the world. Although he did not leave home, he knew everything.

He told Ji Yunhe about the rebels occupying the northern Demon Terrace. Their numbers started in the dozens, then grew into hundreds, then thousands, tens of thousands… And now they had formed an army pressing against the northern borders of the kingdom.

Most of them were desperate demons forced into a corner, and renegade demon masters. And because of their ongoing battles with the court, their reputation grew and attracted more and more people to join.

These rebels even formed a northern "kingdom" centered around the Demon Terrace, calling it the "Bitter Cold State", saying they were the "Bitter Cold Ones", and establishing a leader --

The jiaoren, Changyi.

Ji Yunhe was surprised upon hearing the news. Partly surprised by how much Changyi had grown, and partly surprised by the sheer number of rebellious people that existed in this world.

Ji Yunhe could deduct from just these bits and pieces of information that the world was in absolute chaos. And yet the Grand Master, the supreme leader of the country, was still sitting peacefully in the prison, leisurely reading his books. As if the world had nothing to do with him.

Ji Yunhe even thought maybe the chaos was what he had wanted.

He wanted the rebellion, the bloodshed, and the disorder.

He wanted war.

He wanted...

… to mourn for the world.

Or perhaps, he wanted to use the blood of the world to pay tribute to the love he had lost.

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