He and It Chapter 104: Dark Sky Sanctuary (39)

If you want more of this novel, we are accepting donations on Ko-Fi for sponsored chapters. https://ko-fi.com/exiledrebels

Thank you Komaeda for the support!

Chapter 104: Dark Sky Sanctuary (39)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

The fall was over, and the cold winter was coming.

Because the little animals couldn’t stand the cold, Yu Mengzhou created a compartment on the periphery of the palace, set up a clean and constant temperature in there, then bought small clothes to protect them from the cold and put them on the ponies and calves.

A calf opened its big innocent eyes and licked Yu Mengzhou’s hand gently, while a pony was beside it, jumping and running around.

Compared to the demons, their intelligence was limited, but all animals are spiritual. They keenly felt that compared to those thirteen terrifying existences whose breath could scare them with a single thought, this cute and lovely breeder was the real master of the territory.

In the first month, the ponies could only sleep standing up because of fear, while the calves slept uneasily; rolling to their feet and mooing loudly whenever the wind blew or the grass moved. Slowly, the animals adapted to those thirteen powerful creatures who were not very friendly, but would never hurt them and had to serve them food and water. Sometimes, when they came in to change the mats, the calves didn’t even raise their heads, and the ponies only raised their heads lazily, then fell back asleep.

“And the straw mat!” Striker looked left and right to make sure that Yu Mengzhou was not there, and then reassured himself by saying loudly and conspiratorially, “I didn’t even have a straw mat to lie on before!”

A pony snorted, while a calf chewed slowly and blinked its big eyes gently and honestly.

Striker stuck out his tongue and tried to scare the little things with a fierce glint in his eyes that had more guts than truth. Unfortunately, after Yu Mengzhou’s lessons of knocking their heads and twisting their ears, the Princes had long since lost the majesty of being the Rulers of Hell, so the calves and ponies were unmoved, and only changed their positions and slept more soundly.

Striker rolled his eyes in exasperation, as he punched the pony’s ass not too gently. “Get up! Eat and get fat then watch out for a wild animal one day!”

By the time he finished changing the hay, Ether had sleepily arrived.

“What are you doing here?” Striker asked.

Ether’s eyes couldn’t help but light up at the sight of the baby calves. He randomly selected one that looked handy, picked it up, and left.

“I came to get the hand warmers,” Ether said. “Going to the movies later.”

Winter had arrived, and along with the snowflakes, the cold winds and the icicles on the window ledges and eaves, the temperature in the mountains was always a little bit colder than in the city.

Ether was one of the Demon Horses who didn’t like winter because breathing in the freezing air made his nose itch. In their cases, the “Live Cow Hand Warmer” was especially popular because the cows were calm and quiet, and when held in the hand, they didn’t move around like the ponies.

“What are you watching today?”

Ether thought for a moment and replied, “Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, Part II.”

“I’ll be right there!”

Now that they’d gotten settled, Yu Mengzhou had brought in the wires and cables and then gone on an electronics shopping spree. They moved out the long tables and golden chairs from the council chamber and thickened the carpet under their feet. Yu Mengzhou also bought many low tables in plain colors and cute shapes, customized many oversized lazy sofas, and built a super-sized pillow fortress with pillows and soft duvets.

They had a movie screen in front of them and a snack larder with thirteen different flavors next to them…plus Noel had developed a levitating platform that used magic as kinetic energy – so that when they were watching a movie, they didn’t even have to get up to reach for a drink.

Yu Mengzhou has fully realized his vision of returning to Earth with his Demon Horses and giving them the spiritual food created by mankind.

Among them, Falchion, Noel, Blasphe and Iron Scepter like to read books, and they also favored the more literary masterpieces.

Sevenfold Eyes was keen on going to global academic websites, and very much liked to imitate the tone of human beings. He was even writing some research projects with very strange theses. Yu Mengzhou didn’t know where this hobby of his came from, so he could only warn him not to disturb the academic exchanges of human beings.

Bloody Butcher, Striker, Ether and Gao’er, on the other hand, were all avid 3A game fans. They Accounts on various platforms, various models of game consoles, the phenomenal masterpieces from the years of the emergence of the Internet, they had collected all of them. When they came out of the game room, the first thing they said when they met Yu Mengzhou was the sneaky, “Can I hook the souls of the creators of XX game company to have a look? They haven’t released a sequel for several years, and the devil is very worried about them.” Then they were knocked on the head by Yu Mengzhou.

That left Radiant Angel, Deathstar, Crusade, and Catastrophe, all of whom praised the art of the movie. There were dramas in Hell, but the dramas in Hell were real, with death, bloodshed, intrigue, and war, all of which happen in real life and exist for the enjoyment of those in high places. They, therefore, appreciated the creation of virtual things that happened only in imagination, and felt that it was very much in keeping with the laws of the development of the cycle of abominations.

In short, the big demons were all playing like mad.

“Fried chicken!”

“Got it.”

“Beer!”

“Got it. Coke and sparkling water, too.”

“I’ll have the Shao Xian Cao Taro Paste Boo Boo Four Seasons Spring Milk Covered Milk Tea!”

“…No. Get out and go buy your own.”

With everything ready, Yu Mengzhou nestled in Falchion’s arms, while his favorite, and countless times watched, movie series playing on the big screen in front of him, and he was surrounded by the family he would spend the rest of his life with…

As he sank into the plush heat, he held Falchion’s fingers, listened to the slow, heavy heartbeat behind him along with the familiar soundtrack and dialog, his eyelids grew heavy. Eventually, he closed his eyes comfortably, leaned back against his love’s body, and drifted off to sleep.

.

The following year, Ether and Noel researched fixed-point teleportation portals based on the properties of space magic. One foot could step out the door of the Palace, and the other foot would land in a subway station in another city. Based on that magic, the convenience of life was once again greatly improved.

Yu Mengzhou began to lead them to run around all over the world. No matter how strange and magnificent the scenery was, it could be reproduced in the Demon Realm, but the harmless human environment, the bustling market vendors, and the peaceful local residents were rare scenes that couldn’t be found in Hell.

They looked at the stars in the sky, pale green plains, wide waterfalls that boomed like thunder, and stalactites in caves with the colors of frost and jade.

“Is this edible?” Deathstar broke off a small piece of stalactite and put it in his mouth. “Hmm. No flavor, but crunchy.”

“Don’t destroy the natural environment!” Yu Mengzhou rushed to stop him. “You guys aren’t allowed to eat it either!”

They also traveled across endless golden deserts, where, for fun, each horse had a jingling camel bell tied around its neck, and Yu Mengzhou played the role of the ancient caravanner, as he covered his head and face against the sweeping sandstorms, while he gasped for air and laughed.

They also went down into the ocean. Since a Demon Horse of earth-centered magma can’t read water, it led to a hilarious pandemonium at the bottom of the sea. 

Each demon rushed to burst the others’ air bubbles, committed to making their blood brothers show their drowning ugliness.

Finally, they walked up to the highest snowy mountain, where the inhabitants had naturally red faces, and the streamers looked like dancing flames in the wind and snow. Falchion curiously picked up a prayer wheel, the coral-colored wheel ruddy and cracked like the heavy drop of a tear. ¹ “What is this for?” He spun it around. “For arm exercise?”

Yu Mengzhou laughed. “This is a prayer wheel. You turn it once and recite the Six Character Truth. It serves as a blessing.”

He took it and gently shook it. “People here believe that spinning it for one week is equivalent to reciting the Great Tibetan Sutra once. Spinning it for ten million weeks will free all beings in the six paths from the sea of suffering…”

“Does it work?” The demon watched in wonder as a tiny strand of chanting power flew away from the prayer wheel and into the distance. “It doesn’t seem to be of much use.”

“Whether it is useful or not, for people, what matters is not between believing and not believing,” Yu Mengzhou smiled. “Because there are always moments in life when you can’t do anything about events, and there are always moments when you suffer, or when your friends and family are far away, so turning this is a way to have psychological comfort.”

Falchion nodded thoughtfully, but before he could speak, a large snowball whizzed up behind him, which he instantly moved a few steps out of the way to avoid.

“Ah, missed,” Bloody Butcher said.

A hush of disgust erupted behind him.

Falchion looked down at the remains of the snowball and wordlessly pulled up his sleeves.

“Snowball fight, huh? Come on.”

At the end of the day, Yu Mengzhou tugged away a number of demons covered in snow that clung to their heads and frosty faces, and had nearly triggered a large avalanche, into the vacation-only King’s Tent. He wiped their faces and patted off the snow one by one as they boiled gurgling hot water in the center of the tent.

“You all go out and cut the meat!” he said nonchalantly. “I want carrot and lamb soup tonight.”

Immediately the centaurs replied in honest unison, “Oh.”

.

In the third year after returning to earth, Yu Mengzhou finally came to a decision, and became soul mates with the Emperor of Hell, who had been waiting impatiently in his heart, but was still calm and relaxed on the surface.

After being nourished by Origin magic for many years, Yu Mengzhou was no longer a spirit body that would get dizzy after a few days, and now his life would be closely connected with the Emperor of Hell, so they will never be separated again.

After the vows, the exchange of rings, and the kissing of each other, their wedding night lasted…Well, it lasted for more days than Yu Mengzhou could count.

It was just as Falchion had promised. He fed his human impatiently and thoroughly, as he nurtured the youth’s tight waist and belly to the full curvature of a pregnant woman.

A few days after that, a fully awake Yu Mengzhou didn’t speak to the Emperor for several more days. It wasn’t just because he was so angry that his brain hurt. He had broken down and cried for so long that his voice was all but hoarse, and even if he wanted to roll his eyes at his husband, the gesture couldn’t be done.

Well, the principle of not being able to roll your eyes was roughly the same as the principle of having a mute voice.

The Emperor of the Demon Realm was overjoyed. His tail wagged happily as he was finally able to rightfully call Yu Mengzhou his beloved companion. The herd was equally as happy, since Yu Mengzhou had finally been completely ensnared by them and couldn’t run away any longer.

.

Time passed day by day. The spring flowers covered the winter snows and melting streams. The north wind then dropped branches and shrank golden leaves.

The world moved on, every minute and every second. Time didn’t stop for anyone, but Yu Mengzhou’s face didn’t show the slightest trace of old age. He had been dead for a long time and had long since left his mortal body.

He changed his ID again and again, and when he walked in front of familiar people, he needed to use illusions to hide his still young face and body. Yu Mengzhou finally understood the loneliness of a long life, without the support of his soul’s love for Falchion, without so many tens of years like a day with the Demon Horse herd, even though he wouldn’t grow old over the years, he would surely wither and die in an unknown corner.

Many years later, Master Hu and his wife passed away one after another. Their daughter, who at that time was an innocent, laughing little girl shouting prince and princess, grew up to become a tearful, restrained, mature woman.

At the funeral, Yu Mengzhou sent flowers and more flowers. In fact, later on, Master Hu already knew about his relationship with Falchion, but the old man was very open in his sight. He simply advised Yu Mengzhou, that whoever he was in love with didn’t matter, he should just leave himself a way back. He was are so rich, he couldn’t be coaxed by a white man in two sentences, or all his money would roll away.

When Yu Mengzhou heard that, he laughed and cried on the inside, and hastened to argue that they had true love, were planning an early marriage, and wouldn’t just casually be together!

However, he was grateful to Master Hu, whose advice crossed gender and worldly barriers at a time when prejudice and dissimilarity still existed. Who only cared about Yu Mengzhou as a person, not whether he was in love with a person of the same sex or the opposite sex.

In that way, he sent away one old friend after another. After even more years, the former calves and colts also became old cows and horses that couldn’t walk.

In fact, they were very long-lived animals. The average lifespan of a cow was nearly twenty years shorter than that of a horse, but there with Yu Mengzhou, where there were no natural enemies, no worries about food and drink and even more than that, by the time the first cow left, it had already lived for forty-two years, an astonishing number that was enough to break the world record and human common sense.

It wasn’t that Yu Mengzhou hadn’t thought of ways to prolong their lives, but Noel hesitantly told him that following the demon’s methods would only increase their suffering.

Yu Mengzhou nodded haphazardly and gave up. The centaurs knew everything about him, and they would surely fulfill his wishes whenever he wanted. Since Noel had said so, he realized that the only thing he could do was let go.

When the last calf passed away, Ether held its body for a long, long time in silence.

“It’s asleep,” he said. “It’s okay, it’s asleep.”

The rest of the horses they cared for more attentively, and even Striker was afraid to tease them into running and jumping to their hearts’ content. Eighty-five years later, the night was quiet in the forest where the fireflies danced in silence, like stars descending from the sky.

They sent the last horse away.

As he huddle in Falchion’s arms, Yu Mengzhou asked in a hoarse voice, “…Are you like this too?”

Falchion hugged him tightly and asked softly, “Also what?”

“When I died, were you also like this…? Or was it much harder than I feel now?”

Falchion thought for a moment and replied in a low voice, “There’s no point in comparing the pain. If I really had to say…I just had a bigger heart than you, so it broke more than yours did.”

Yu Mengzhou wept silently as he hugged his husband’s body just as tightly.

.

Too many years had passed, and the centaurs ran around the planet, enjoying their vacation from court politics, without fighting or long wars. Eventually though, the Emperor and Princes who had been enjoying themselves, finally found their consciences and thought about things, and returned to the Demon Realm.

The huge time difference between the two sides had made the Demon Realm, once again, very different from what it was when they left. Several regents had come and gone. They had made themselves kings and divided the infinite borders of Hell. The Weaver had fallen asleep in his domain, becoming one of the few great demons with a rare end of life.

“There doesn’t seem to be much to see.” Crusade brushed his long white hair. “It’s the same old thing, you die and you fight.”

Sevenfold Eyes shrugged. “It’s not even time for the fourteenth demon horse to be born, but it’s so messy.”

Catastrophe said excitedly, “But that’s not…not the point! The point is, we can…can travel across the border!”

“That’s right! Noel, get on it!”

Since he designed the teleportation spell from the Demon Realm to Earth, Noel had picked up where he left off and continued to make great strides in his attainment of cross-world teleportation. Then they decided that the herd would use the Demon Realm as a staging area to take a tour around time and space. This was Falchion’s first order to ease the grief of his beloved partner’s loss of his pets.

The novelty of new scenery and new world settings could always make one forget a part of their earlier grief.

“Ready?” He held Yu Mengzhou’s hand and kissed his forehead. “We’re going to see other worlds.”

Yu Mengzhou breathed nervously as he smiled, then gripped his partner’s fingers as well and nodded firmly, “Alright, let’s go!”

In the distance was the infinite sea and a sky even wider than infinite. Amidst the gleeful shouts of the centaurs, Falchion shielded him from the overly harsh light, and with a single leap, crashed through the gates of another world.

 

For Yu Mengzhou, a life of love and adventure had only just begun.