PROLOGUE TWO

After the death of the Baize Goddess, the Baize power was unaccounted for, causing a state of great disorder.

In the space between heaven and earth, stuck in a little mound of dirt, there was a piece of rotten wood with no writing on it and no drawing. This was the burial mound Wen Xiao made for Zhao Wan’er.

Wen Xiao brought a bunch of wildflowers to place in front of Zhao Wan’er’s grave. After, she knelt there in the dirt, ruined and silent. The figure of a tall, imposing man came to stand behind her. This man wore a mask over his face. It bore a decorative pattern, burned at the edges, not really hideous, but still strange. Out of the ordinary, this mask changed with his mood. At this moment, his mood matched Wen Xiao’s, so the corners of the mouth on this fierce mask turned faintly downward, endlessly heartbroken.

Wen Xiao had never seen the face beneath that mask. She supposed that, compared to the mask, it might be even more horrible. Wen Xiao had also never learned his name, she just called him “Great Demon.”

Great Demon was her master’s old friend.

During Wen Xiao’s childhood, Great Demon often came to find her master. Wen Xiao still remembered the first time she met Great Demon; he always had the appearance of someone weighed down with heavy matters and anxieties. Sometimes he stood very still and silent, but she didn’t know what he thought about; a figure in the dim light of night as they melted into one another, indistinguishable, always able to frighten Wen Xiao out of her skin.

Later, Wen Xiao became more familiar with Great Demon. She most liked to leverage the powerful reputation of her master to make the Great Demon push her on a swing, even if he was unwilling and his mask changed to a disdainful expression. Yet, every time, he did as he was instructed and gave the swing a push.

Wen Xiao remembered, on the day her master died, Great Demon carried her home on his back.

Beyond that, that day’s memory was like the road that Li Lun smashed to pieces with brute force, disorderly, confused, incomplete.

After that day , Wen Xiao often had nightmares and each time she awoke from one, Great Demon was there. His expression sad, he stood looking as he had the first time she saw him, a figure merging with the darkness. He told Wen Xiao that Li Lun would not appear again.

Now, with master dead, only she and Great Demon remained. Did he miss her, too?

“Great Demon, what does death feel like?” she asked softly.

Great Demon thought a moment, then answered honestly: “I haven’t died, I can’t answer.”

Wind whistled past their ears, Wen Xiao’s eyes blankly looked toward the grave. “Master said death is just a person going to a far, far away place, and they can never come back.”

Just like a drop falling into the Wilderness sea, unable to be found again.

Through the mask there came a barely audible sigh.  Great Demon said: “But my other friend told me dead demons turn into stars in the heavens. He told me, don’t be sad because of death, don’t become incapable of resisting sad things. Use all your strength to grasp tightly to what you can get, cherish them. Finally, calmly accept the things you have no way of changing, like death, like fate.”

Bitterness filled Wen Xiao’s heart. Fate only played tricks on people, how could she accept it calmly? Fate had taken nearly everything, fate had made her the Wilderness’s new Baize Goddess, yet without the power of the goddess, no different from an ordinary person, even inferior to an common person. She had a hollow reputation, so what could she do? She could only look on helplessly, watching everything her master gave her life to protect fall apart.

Wen Xiao stubbornly tensed her lips and pinched the hem of her skirt tightly between her fingers, refusing to cry. She could not let fate have its way.

“Can fate possibly be changed?” Wen Xiao’s voice trembled.

“He says it can, but I don’t think so.” Great Demon thought a moment, then answered honestly.

“Are you mortal, too?” Wen Xiao looked down, expression dark and dull.

“Yes.” But sometimes death wasn’t so easy. Great Demon didn’t say that.

Wen Xiao couldn’t believe him. Shocked, she turned her head to look at Great Demon’s back. He was mortal? Wen Xiao only knew Great Demon had lived a long, long time; she’d never thought he was also mortal.

Unable to clearly explain her fear of death, fear of parting, fear of loneliness, or anything, Wen Xiao fell silent for a time, then she couldn’t hold back the sobs any longer. Her shoulders shivered as she cried.

“Don’t worry, I won’t randomly die. I will always accompany you. A demon’s life is long compared to a human’s, I won’t abandon you to be alone,” Great Demon hastily explained, the expression on his mask becoming somewhat helpless.

“I don’t believe you. You just said it: Everyone dies, fate can’t be changed!” Wen Xiao cried out like a child. Tears blurring her vision, Great Demon handed over a sheet of paper stamped with a handprint of blood. 

Wen Xiao looked at Great Demon’s hand where the wound had yet to heal, his slender fingers still wet with blood.

“Keep that safe. In the future we’ll see who is right.” Great Demon turned to Wen Xiao, mask changing to a smiling face as he handed Wen Xiao this contract of his solemn promise.

After Wen Xiao conscientiously folded it, she placed it in her bag with the greatest of care. Then, she wiped her tears and her swollen-red eyes, and smiled at the Great Demon.

Great Demon gently patted Wen Xiao’s slim shoulder, reassuring. His hand wasn’t cold, it felt warm like a human’s hand. His voice came softly: “As a matter of fact… the years are endless, life isn’t necessarily good, and death isn’t necessarily bad. What’s most important is…”

“Is what?” Wen Xiao didn’t understand.

“Why we live and why we die.”

Wen Xiao still didn’t understand, but Great Demon seemed as if he had no plans to go on and explain. Perhaps he didn’t understand himself. Great Demon sat down beside her, softly humming a Wilderness lullaby.

In the vast space between heaven and earth, amid the weeds there sat a grave, a human, and a demon.

On that windless, moonlight night, Great Demon carried Wen Xiao on the long road from the empty Wilderness to the lively, bustling human world. His footsteps never stopped, as if rushing toward a fixed destination. A familiar uneasiness grew in Wen Xiao’s heart as she clung to Great Demon’s back, fingers gripping tight in his clothes.

“Great Demon, where are you taking me?”

“Tiandu.”

“You’re not going to keep looking after me?” Wen Xiao’s tone made it hard to tell: Was she angry at the thought of being abandoned, pleading in fear, or both?

Great Demon paused, head lowered, as emotions churned in his heart. His body shook. After a time, his words flowed steadfast without hesitation: “I will come find you.”

END OF PROLOGUE TWO