His Demoness

11 ⚔️ Healing Fire

Zhijian grabbed the book that Jinlong was holding on, his eyes scanning across the pages. Loathing every single word that clearly described how he was sealed to his soulmate.

"No..."

He shook his head incredulously, his mind was in a whirl. There was absolutely no way in hell he was bonded with the Demoness – someone who walked the path of evil.

They were like fire and water; two opposing forces. Any future together would simply be an enigma.

Zhijian slammed the book shut, his heart trembling like a leaf. He didn't blink and just sat on his bed with an emotionless, blank stare on his face.

Whilst he was having a hard time letting everything sink in his mind, Jinlong was being infuriatingly annoying by jabbering on in that animated tone of his.

"According to the book, from the seventh day onwards, you would require the Healing Fire every two days for survival. You can't miss it once. If you do, you will–"

"–die from the fever," Zhijian finished the rest of the sentence. "Yes, I know. You don't have to remind me."

This explained why the book was kept and locked up in the Forbidden Chamber of Dark Arts. If one didn't bond with his soulmate in time, he would die a tragic death. Only a fool would ever resort to using such a summoning spell.

Without a doubt, someone had swapped his talisman when he wasn't looking.

But who? Who would play such a cruel joke on him?

It wasn't like he was begging for a lover. Never had he shown any interest in the opposite gender before. All he ever knew were books, demons and sword fighting. If he had to name a person that he loves dearly, it would be his little brother.

Jinlong clutched his arm and pulled him to a stand. "Come one, snap out of it! You can't be sitting down here and brooding over this all night. We have to stop them from executing her!"

"Wait," Zhijian stopped him. "We can't just simply go up to the Elders and tell them to revoke their orders because of me. The longer the Demoness roams in this world, the more likely she would do harm to innocent people."

Jinlong stared at him goggled-eyed. "Are you kidding me? Is this the most important thing right now? If she dies, you die. I can't watch that happen to my best friend. Besides, what would happen to the little one?"

The little one – his brother. How could Zhijian forget?

The child had already lost his parents when he was born and now he might be losing his brother? There was absolutely no way Zhijian was going to put him through another painful ordeal of losing his remaining blood relative.

A lunatic or not, Zhijian would rather face the wrath of the Elders than make his Zhixuan cry.

He hurriedly put on his outerwear and snatched his sword from the stand, rushing to the door. Jinlong trailed after him, grinning at the determined look on his face.

"That's more like it," he said. "You definitely look the part of a knight saving his princess."

Zhijian rolled his eyes at the joke. "Let's go find my godfather. I don't know about the others, but I believe he's the only one who would believe our nonsensical story."

***

Leader Xu regarded the two boys carefully, his hand running through his short beard as he pondered over what they had told him. He glanced down at the ancient book that they had presented to him earlier.

"I've come across this book before," he started. "But I have never seen the spell working on someone. Zhijian, in that dream that you saw, was it really the Demoness?"