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“Chengzhu, I’m sorry.”
Hua Cheng frowned. He’d “lived” 800 years, and he’d yet to hear anything good after his informants started off with an apology. “Go on.”
“You asked me to keep an eye on a name in the underground circles—Xie Lian.”
His hands gripped the sides of the chair. “And?”
“A high-level demon has ordered his assassination.”
He would throttle this woman. “Stop parceling out the information and tell me everything you know!”
She flinched from the scathing anger in his voice. “I’m sorry,” she pleaded. “I just now received the information myself. News from so far away takes time to travel, and—”
He stood abruptly and placed his hand on the sheathed Eming, which got her to shut up with her useless babbling. “Tell. Me. Now.”
She bowed, trembling. “The attempt is to take place today, in a small village called Puqi. I heard an army of approximately 150 demons was sent to kill him. Chengzhu, I—it’s probably already happened. I’m so sorry.”
She was lucky he had no time to deal with her. His thoughts were consumed with images of Xie Lian—bleeding, hurt...dead. 150 was a large number. Xie Lian was unbelievably strong, but he was also twice-shackled. Would he have been able to hold out until now? He shook his dice and begged Xie Lian to hold them off just a little longer—begged him to be alive and whole.
He stepped into the swirling blackness of the portal. He never should have left Xie Lian alone in Puqi. He hadn’t even had urgent business in Ghost City. He’d just been terrified of coming off as too clingy. And now look at what had happened! Unforgivable. His place was by his god’s side, so that he could always protect and serve him. He should know that by now.
He stepped straight into a crowd of seated demons. His cold heart lurched. They were already here.
“Oh!” exclaimed a familiar voice. “And this is my friend, San Lang!”
He turned his head desperately towards that beloved voice and was graced by the vision of Xie Lian seated on a stump at the head of the Puqi shrine yard, smiling and unharmed.
“Gege!” He hurled himself towards him, demons flying out of his way left and right. “Are you hurt?” He scanned his god carefully, but Xie Lian’s eyes were bright and his skin was unbroken.
“Not at all! These are just...guests.”
His eyes narrowed at the neat rows of seated demons on the grass outside Puqi shrine. So they’d fooled Xie Lian into receiving them. How devious. “Gege, these trash demons were sent to assassinate you.” He positioned himself so he was between the demons and Xie Lian and let the murderous aura roll off him.
“Oh, I know!” Xie Lian said, wrapping a calming hand around Hua Cheng’s forearm. “And you won’t believe what they’re getting paid for it!”
He blinked at Xie Lian in utter disbelief. “What?”
“Nothing!” a demon seated in the front called out.
“Not a single thing!” a demon to the side chimed in.
“All this work and no food or pay to show for it!” another lamented.
“Except for this!” A demon lifted his shirt to show an ugly scar on his belly.
“He beats us!” another called out, showing a wound on her arm.
“And we never get any time off!” a gruff voice added to the list of complaints, getting into it.
“I have to share a room with 30 demons!” a shrill one complained. “30!”
Hua Cheng looked out at the rows of tattered, whining demons, many of them with tears in their eyes, every single one of them looking up pitifully at Xie Lian.
“I was just telling them they shouldn’t have to put up with treatment like that,” Xie Lian explained from his stool, face tranquil.
Hua Cheng looked from the demons to his saint of a love, then looked at them all again. And then he laughed. “Are you telling me, gege, that when you saw a demon army coming over the hill to kill you, you decided to sit them all down for a group therapy session?”
Xie Lian smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s right,” he said, tone embarrassed but earnest. “I couldn’t help but notice that their clothing was in rags and that many of them were hurt. That could’ve been from fighting, of course, but I had a feeling that something more sinister was going on. So I asked.”
Hua Cheng was so rattled that he spoke more truly than he meant to. “You never cease to amaze me.”
“Daozhang!” a demon in front called out. “Do you need an army? We’re a very good army, I can promise you that!”
“We pledge you our loyalty!” an overexcited one shouted, giving in to the moment.
“We do!”
“Just please don’t beat us!”
“Ah, shut up, you dummy!” one from the near back shouted to the other. “Can’t you see he would never beat us?”
“Daozhang, our services are very cheap!”
“Can I have my own room?”
Xie Lian held up his empty palms. “Hang on, hang on.” He smiled beatifically at them all. “I’m sure you’re a wonderful army, but, to be honest, I can’t afford to pay you. I don’t have anywhere for you to stay or anything for you to do.”
“We’ll build our own barracks in the woods!” a shrill demon proclaimed. “I’m not the chief carpenter for nothing!”
“We’ll just sit around until you need us, Daozhang!”
“Oh, thank my purple warts. I needed some time to sit around.”
“Thank you, Daozhang! We’ll serve you well!” the one in the very front proclaimed, then turned to the rest with a hand signal. As one, their neat rows rose, and they marched in an orderly fashion down the path.
Xie Lian laughed nervously. “Uh...don’t eat anybody!” he shouted after them.
The few who dared to grumble got slapped upside the head by their compatriots. “Stop complaining!” the head demon shouted. “Our general just gave us an order!”
Hua Cheng watched them disappear over the hill, presumably off to build their barracks. He was utterly stunned. “Gege, I think you have an army.”
Xie Lian shrugged, looking quite embarrassed. “Oh, dear. And I really don’t need one. Ah, San Lang, did you want a demon army?”
He scoffed, his anger breaching the surface. “I’d be liable to slaughter them all for daring to even think of harming you.”
“Ah.” Xie Lian smiled warmly at him. Was he imagining things, or were his lovely cheeks a little pink? “I’ll hold onto them, then, since they seem content to sit in the woods and not cause trouble.”
“You never know,” Hua Cheng mused. “The time may come when you want an army.” He shook his head in amused bafflement. Only Xie Lian could gain an army just by smiling at them.