Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR CAN FEEL ME

From the floor, Si Wang looks up at Xin Hulei in naked hatred. Yao Shen drifts to Xin Hulei's side, ready to defend him if Si Wang tries anything.

"Dage, are you really going to abandon me?" His eyes keep shifting around, trying to pinpoint Yao Shen's location.

"I don't remember being your Dage," Yao Shen says. His disembodied voice startles Si Wang who didn't expect an answer. "I saw the memories but that didn't make me recall them. The life you remember happened to a different person."

His words are meant to hurt Si Wang, but Yao Shen can see a muscle jump in Xin Hulei's jaw. He doesn't want the Crown Prince's memories. The impression he got was that he lived a sad, lonely life, brightened only by a cute little brother, but who later grew obsessive and controlling, and then experienced a brief respite of freedom from his responsibilities in that little cabin with Xin Hulei -- which motivated him to seek out his own path and forge his own happiness.

Yao Shen would like to remember those golden moments with Xin Hulei, but everything else about the Crown Prince's life is better forgotten..

Si Wang can't see Yao Shen's eyes, but he's looking directly at him when he says, "Your Dage is gone."

His words seem to break something inside Si Wang, his face crumples and he lets out a wounded animal sound. Yao Shen expects him to attack but instead he rolls to the side and covers the spinning paper lantern with his body, wrapping his arms securely around it.

In the next moment he's gone.

"Fuck!" Yao Shen shouts, kicking the incense burner at his feet. Hurting himself in the process and doing nothing to dispel his anger. "Now where will he find him?"

Xin Hulei picks up the incense burner and sets on top of the table, his expression unreadable.

"There's no way to predict his current location." Xin Hulei turns towards Yao Shen, who looks down at himself and sees that the effects of Invisibility have disappeared. "I think each ghost king has a specific skill set. In the same way as I can summon fire and Tan Liansi ice and snow."

That makes sense. Yao Shen wonders if it's tied to their specific roles as kings, or to themselves. If it's the former, maybe the Crown Prince would have had better luck choosing to be the fourth king instead.

"Regardless of where he has gone to, we should take the opportunity and attack now," Xin Hulei says.

His eyes drift towards Yao Shen, waiting for his opinion.

"What if he has warned the other ghost kings?" Yao Shen asks, chewing on the corner of his nail.

"It's a risk we'll need to take, but I don't think he has done that. From what you said and his actions with the spinning lantern. He wouldn't warn the other ghost kings, because his end goal is to remove them from the equation."

Yao Shen gives that some thought. He has long suspected that Si Wang was playing both sides, by pretending to be an ally to the traitor kings. However, his real ambitions were a mystery.

As mad as it is, Yao Shen thinks he knows what Si Wang's real goal is.

"He wants us to rule Youdu together," Yao Shen says, testing the words for size. "He said that he wanted the Crown Prince to be Emperor, and that he would be his loyal adviser. The Crown Prince's actions frustrated his plans, so he chased him down into the Underworld to make it a reality anyway."

Slowly, Xin Hulei nods. "That's what I think too. He suffered a blow, and must have gone somewhere to regroup, but he'll be back. Which is why we need to take this opportunity to release the sealed kings, and get rid of the traitors."