“I fear if I agree so easily today,” Li Jinglong said calmly, “then when I depart this world, I won’t be able to face the ghosts of the ordinary mortals who met wrongful deaths at your hands.”
“This is war, not murder,” Yang Guozhong said, examining Li Jinglong. “I see the Marquis of Yardang is a righteous man who abhors evil, but the conflict between humans and yao has raged since long before you or I were born. The yao who have died by human hands number in the tens of millions.”
Hongjun again felt that Yang Guozhong was lying, though he couldn’t see any signs of deception. Li Jinglong said, soft and succinct, “Deal.”
“You have twenty days.” Yang Guozhong flicked his sleeves, and the walls around them crumbled. “The Department of Exorcism will cease its operations during this time, and you will remain a wanted fugitive.” He turned to study Li Jinglong once more. “An Lushan is using a spiritual device to guard the heart demon seed in his body. Once this device is removed, I should be able to summon the third of my immortal souls. Do not attempt anything reckless, Li Jinglong; I assure you, you lack the ability to destroy it.”
As he spoke, Yang Guozhong sketched an array in the air before him—the very same the Department of Exorcism had once analyzed. There was a brief hum, and Li Jinglong and Hongjun were transported away.
When Li Jinglong reappeared in the alleyway behind the Department of Exorcism, Hongjun was nowhere in sight.
“Where’s Hongjun?! Hongjun!” Li Jinglong began shouting at once.
Yang Guozhong’s voice echoed in the alleyway. “Worry not—I’m not taking him hostage. I will return him to you in one hour.”
Hongjun’s vision flashed white; in the next breath, he found himself in a lavishly decorated courtyard. Cherry blossoms drifted past on the wind. There was no sign of Li Jinglong. As he got to his feet to look around, he spotted Yang Guozhong ambling toward him.
“Where’s Li Jinglong?” Hongjun demanded, immediately furious.
“Let’s have a chat,” Yang Guozhong said, the picture of serenity. His tone was no longer so imperious; now he spoke as if he were nothing more than an ordinary family friend. “I can send you back now if you wish to leave.”
Hongjun drew a steadying breath as Yang Guozhong stepped into the garden, where he sat down with his hands on his knees. He called for the housekeeper, who soon arrived. Yang Guozhong gave the man instructions to bring the pastries Hongjun favored along with a pot of tea.
“Do you remember your father?” Yang Guozhong asked.
Hongjun was torn. Qing Xiong and Chong Ming had once ordered him to kill Xie Yu so the phoenix clan might return to Chang’an. Yet he had come to the inescapable realization that, even with Li Jinglong at his side, he was no match for the yao king.
Perhaps it was just as well. Since coming to Chang’an, he had discovered that many things were not as simple as he’d thought. He could no longer see the world in black and white.
“You lied to us,” Hongjun said coldly. “All you’ve ever wanted was the demon seed inside me.”
“Obviously,” Yang Guozhong replied. “Did you really expect me to help Li Jinglong in his mission to fight evil, uphold virtue, and exorcise yao in defense of proper Confucian values?”
Hongjun slowly shook his head. “Well, I won’t fall for your tricks.”
“When you were little, I advised your dad to entrust you to me. You thought I was the person chasing your parents all over the land?”
Hongjun made no response.
“You are different from the others,” Yang Guozhong said, watching Hongjun with a deeply furrowed brow. “You’re the son of Kong Xuan, and the adopted child of Chong Ming and Qing Xiong. The blood that runs in your veins is half yao, Kong Hongjun. Why be so obstinate? Don’t you feel the slightest hint of kinship when you see me? We are the king of all yao under heaven, yet to you, we’re no better than that old geezer Li Longji?”
While Hongjun was momentarily speechless, Yang Guozhong motioned toward the pastries. “If I wanted to poison you, I would have done so ages ago. How much of the people’s lifeblood have you already eaten?”
He had a point—but still, Hongjun didn’t move. “I don’t want any. I’m not worried you’ll poison me. I don’t eat at the table of my enemies.”
“There is no such thing as an everlasting enemy, only temporary friends.” Yang Guozhong looked at Hongjun with interest, then continued, “It seems the phoenix and the golden-winged great peng never taught you these things. They’ve protected you very well.”
“What are you trying to say?” Hongjun narrowed his eyes; there had to be a reason Yang Guozhong had separated him from Li Jinglong.
“I merely wanted to see you,” Yang Guozhong said, earnest now. “What kind of person you’ve become. After all, your father once promised me you would one day become my disciple.”
“What?!” Hongjun could scarcely believe his ears.
“Why do you think your parents moved to Chang’an before they died?” Yang Guozhong asked. “Unfortunately, ten years ago, a momentary lapse in judgment led me to fall prey to the plot set out by Di Renjie, and all my efforts came to naught. Now, thanks to Chong Ming and Qing Xiong’s teachings, you have become foolishly stubborn. We can no longer be master and disciple.”
Standing before Yang Guozhong, Hongjun felt himself waver. He still knew too little about that incident from the past; the period of time Yang Guozhong referred to remained a vast blank in his mind. But why hadn’t Yang Guozhong mentioned any of this until now?
“Ten years ago, it was your father who suggested I transform my three immortal souls into heart demons. Why else would I expend so much energy on such a venture?”
Hongjun’s eyes went wide. “My dad…?”
Yang Guozhong slowly nodded. “Mara appears once a millennium. Demon seeds absorb excess malign energies not taken into the heavenly and earthly meridians; when they have absorbed enough, they transform their host into a demon. In my case, all the nightmares of the mortal world came together to form the first demon seed; the unresolved loneliness, suffering, and sadness of separation formed the second; and the bitterness born of wrongful death formed the third. All malign energies are produced in this manner.”
Immediately, Hongjun recalled the storm of resentful energy released when the fox yao were burnt to ash, when Fei’ao was exorcised, and when he used demonic energy to grind the dark lady and the plague god into a pulp in Dunhuang. “So the one inside An Lushan…”
“It was created from the resentment of unjust death. You ought to know how difficult it is for an old man of over a thousand years such as myself to endure so much pain and suffering. Especially when I don’t have the protection of the heart lamp, as you do.”
“Xie Yu, why do you want to become a demon?” Hongjun asked. “Don’t say it was to save my life. I don’t believe you.”
Yang Guozhong regarded Hongjun quietly. “Of course it’s not for you, but for myself. Hongjun, can you imagine the agony of being locked at the bottom of a tower for nearly a thousand years?”
Hongjun fell silent.
“There is no future, no passage of time. In the boundless void of darkness, all you can feel is the seals around you, binding you in place. You have no future; you can only agonize over your past. That is what the humans did to me.”
Yang Guozhong studied the expression on Hongjun’s face, then slowly smiled. “Your companion Qiu Yongsi is still searching for me. He wants to lock me up again.”
“But before that, you committed terrible crimes!” Hongjun argued.
“I was merely living my life in the Yangtze River,” Yang Guozhong responded. “The humans fed on the fish and shrimp in the water, and I fed on the humans on the shore; what crime is there in that?”
Hongjun’s head spun; he had no way to dispute his argument.
“I know you cannot accept the truth all at once,” Yang Guozhong said. “Let’s leave things here for now, my dear disciple.”
“I’m not your disciple!”
“There is sure to come a day when you change your mind and recognize the ugliness of the world. Until then”—Yang Guozhong leaned in and said with utmost seriousness—“think carefully about what I said. Come find me once you have made your decision. Hongjun, Yuan Kun cannot help you. Only I can save you.”