My Demon Friends-Chapter 693 - 654: How Would You Choose?

It was nearing midnight, and the mountain had become extremely cool. A Xing He hung diagonally in the sky, surrounded by dense, sand-like stars, forming this splendid starry sky.

Baozi stood on the rooftop, her arms prickling with goosebumps from the chill. But it was still much better than on the plateau, where the night cold could freeze a person stiff. Baozi had heard this from the old Mages in the group chat. She had been to the plateau but, unfortunately, hadn't encountered the Milky Way. If she wanted to capture it, perhaps she needed to wait, but she didn't have the money to do so.

Brother Nan truly did bring good luck.

Baozi was overjoyed. The excitement of encountering the Milky Way made her ignore the chill she felt, until she sneezed.

"ACHOO!"

Baozi rubbed her nose with the back of her hand.

Zhou Li was with Huai Xu and Tuanzi by her side. Seeing this, he couldn't help but remind her, "Don't catch a cold."

"I'm fine." Baozi didn't mind and continued to look up.

It was truly beautiful.

Within the dense and brilliant Xing He, there might be hidden wonderful worlds. Perhaps someone else was looking back at her on this night, exuding an almost infinite mysterious allure.

Her neck quickly grew sore.

Baozi lowered her head and moved her neck a bit. With the aid of the starlight, one could see the undulating mountains in the distance and the blurry tile edges and eaves close by, quiet and profound.

"Zhou Li, do you think Little Sister Zheng lives here alone? Wouldn't she be scared?"

"I'm going down," Zhou Li said.

"Cousin!" Baozi quickly corrected her address. Her expression was calm, as if she hadn't said anything. She casually asked again, "Do you think she would be scared?"

"I don't know," Zhou Li said. "Maybe she was a bit scared as a child, but she got used to it quickly."

"What can you do if you don't get used to it?" Huai Xu leaned in closer to look at the camera screen, casually saying, "Why do I see nothing on the screen? It's just pitch black."

"It's slowly exposing; it'll be ready soon," Baozi explained.

"You'll have to explain it in detail," Zhou Li said while petting Tuanzi. "Otherwise, he won't understand."

"Oh, you understand? You understand everything!" Huai Xu retorted.

"You could understand it as collecting the faint light of the night little by little and stacking it up. This way, you can make the night very bright and the stars very clear. But I don't have an equatorial mount, and the portable tripod I brought isn't very steady either, so the photos might not turn out very good," Baozi said, bowing her head deeply in contemplation of her poverty. After a moment of thought, she continued, "An equatorial mount... well, the Earth is actually slowly rotating. From our standpoint on Earth, these stars are rotating. Without an equatorial mount, these stars keep moving. The light collected each second is from a slightly different position. If the exposure time is long, you'll find they can't align when stacked, causing the stars to streak and create a star trail effect. If you have an equatorial mount, the camera will rotate with it, locking those stars in their original positions. They won't blur or create streaks."

"I see..." Huai Xu nodded deeply.

After nodding, he glanced out of the corner of his eye and caught Zhou Li secretly watching him. Huai Xu glared back, and Zhou Li quickly withdrew his gaze.

Huai Xu muttered to himself, Seriously...

"CLICK!"

Baozi quickly turned to check.

Zhou Li stood up from the mat on the ground. "Let me see."

Huai Xu was quicker, appearing instantly beside Baozi, his face full of curiosity. "Let me see too."

"Let Lord Dumpling see too!"

"It's too bright; it wasn't set right. I need to try a few more times," Baozi said as she showed them the camera. Then she casually deleted that shot, adjusted the settings, and continued to shoot. "I plan to go back to sleep at two o'clock. Cousin, will you stay with me?"

"No."

"Cousin~~"

"Then why did you ask me?"

Zhou Li rolled his eyes and simply lay down on the mat like Huai Xu, staring into the Xing He and zoning out.

Baozi turned her head to glance at them. Actually, she was quite tired too. She had been bustling about almost all day, and now, standing here, her legs were so sore. But seeing the two of them almost shoulder-to-shoulder, taking up two-thirds of the small mat, she felt too embarrassed to go over and sit. It all felt very strange.

"Zhou Ni~~ Lord Dumpling is sleepy."

"Lord Dumpling is sleepy, huh?" Zhou Li picked up Lord Dumpling. "Then Lord Dumpling should go to sleep first."

"Mmm, no… Brother Lan doesn't want Lord Dumpling next to her when she's sleepy, and Lord Dumpling doesn't want to be sleepy by herself," Tuanzi said drowsily, raising her little paw to rub her eyes.

"Then Lord Dumpling can sleep here? Once Baozi has finished shooting, I'll carry Lord Dumpling down," Zhou Li suggested. "It can't be helped; Baozi is a scaredy-cat. She got so scared after encountering a Demon once. If Zhou Li and Lord Dumpling aren't here to protect her, she'll be very scared."

"Is that so, meow?"

"Yes."

"Alright then…" Tuanzi nodded, accepting the explanation, and added, "If there's danger, just wake Lord Dumpling up. Lord Dumpling will protect you."

"Thank you, Lord Dumpling."

"You're welcome, meow! Now Lord Dumpling is sleepy!"

"Sleep then."

Zhou Li set Tuanzi down, letting her lie on his chest.

"See you in my dreams, Zhou Ni..."

"See you in my dreams."

Tuanzi found a comfortable position, curled into a round cat-pancake on his chest, and closed her eyes.

Baozi silently stood by, her ears perked up as she eavesdropped on their conversation, imagining what Tuanzi was saying, all while pretending she hadn't heard a thing. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

「Three in the morning.」

Zhou Li had already dozed off. When he was woken up, he checked the time and found it didn't match what Baozi had said. He couldn't help but feel quite exasperated. "Didn't you say you were going down to rest at two?"

Baozi bowed deeply. "I'm sorry."

Zhou Li shook his head. "I don't know who you learned this expert bowing of yours from…"

Baozi silently gave him a look. Realizing it, Zhou Li immediately retorted, "That's not like me at all! I don't like bowing."

Baozi knew her cousin was petty and didn't want to argue with him. She slowly walked downstairs, softly asking, "Do you always come here every time you have a vacation?"

"How did you know?"

"You seem so comfortable here."

"You..." Zhou Li said earnestly, "shouldn't always be observing others all day long. It's not good."

"Got it," Baozi responded obediently.

Out and about in an unfamiliar place, she felt like a fool right now; whatever her cousin said, went. She'd do whatever he told her.

「...」

「The next day, morning.」

The girl with the bedhead sat up and looked around, finding herself alone in the room.

"NNGH!"

She stretched her arms wide, accentuating her youthful bust. Then she got out of bed, slipped on her slippers, and walked over to the window.

"CLINK..."

The bolt was rusty and difficult to open.

"CREAK..."

The outward-opening window was also hard to push due to its old age, but it didn't prevent the morning's fresh air from bringing in a good mood for the day.

The girl poked her head out and looked around.

The clouds were slightly more numerous than the day before, and the morning's sea of clouds was lighter. The air was moist and cool, carrying the sweet scent of ripe fruits from the nearby trees, refreshing her spirit. Faintly, she could hear barking dogs and bleating sheep from behind the house, along with the crowing of roosters and quacking of ducks. The small mountain village had already come alive early in the day.

These sounds were somewhat jumbled, yet not at all annoying; instead, they brought a sense of tranquility to the heart.

His Royal Highness, the Prince of Yu, chuckled softly and stepped onto the windowsill.

"SWOOSH..."

The girl jumped out of the window and flew off, riding the wind.

「A moment later.」

She was walking on a small path beside the village, wearing flip-flops that exposed her clean, pretty feet, her steps casual.

The floral scent also carried moisture. A huge Monster soared in the sky, occasionally roaring as it shot up into the heavens, appearing as just a small black dot to the naked eye. Then it would suddenly dive sharply, plunging into the valley's sea of clouds. In moments, it would burst out from another part of the misty pool, its thunderous roars filling the sky.

The girl looked at him and smiled.

Suddenly, a roar exploded right in front of her—

"ROAR!"

It was deafening.

Immediately, there was the howling wind, nearly roaring like thunder. Accompanied by the violent gust, the monstrous figure unfolded its wings and rushed up into the sky from in front of her, brushing against the cliff face.

The Evil God moved with incredible speed, yet stopped abruptly, landing with a thud on the ground behind the girl.

BOOM!

She turned around calmly, showing no fear. Behind her were two plots of land: one covered in wild grass and the other planted with corn. The Great Demon, notorious for its brutality, bloodlust, and savage power, stood on the barren plot, lifting its head to look at her. Seeing this, the girl tilted her head and smiled, revealing her white, neat teeth.

"ROAR!"

The Evil God, thinking she was provoking him, also bared its teeth. It lowered its neck, moved closer, and stared at her fixedly, emitting a deep, continuous growl.

The girl and the Monster were only two meters apart. "It's been a long time…" The girl raised her hand in greeting, her smile beaming.

Then she frowned. "What was your name again?... Well, I'll just call you Evil God."

The Evil God continued to roar, expressing his dissatisfaction.

The girl withdrew her gaze and kept smiling. "I didn't expect to find you here! I thought with your personality, you'd be taken out by a Blood Demon sooner or later... Hmm, by the looks of it now, it seems that because you've become the Guardian God of this village, Hong Ran has a reason to spare you."

"ROAR!!"

The hot breath it exhaled made the little cowlicks on her head flutter like grass in the wind.

"YEESH!"

The girl waved her hand in front of her face and said earnestly, "Don't be so irritable. With a bad temper and being unsociable, no matter how tough you are, you'll still get beaten. After all, you're my subject. Do you think I want to see you suffer? I definitely don't."

"ROAR!!!"

"Alright, alright, enough teasing. Listen well—" The girl looked up at the Monster, her expression stern, her tone serious. "Our migration plan is about to succeed, and the entire Old Land World will be moving away from here. I've ordered that all Demons with insufficient intelligence be gathered; they will be forcibly removed from this planet when the time comes. If you have the ability to make your own decision, tell me whether you want to leave or stay. Then, the search teams will skip you. But if you can't give me your answer, Blood Demons and an army will come, give you a beating, and take you away forcibly. Did you understand?"

"ROAR!!"

"Understand? Nod your head."

"ROAR!!"

His Royal Highness, the Prince of Yu, fell silent for a moment, then muttered, "What an idiot."

"ROAR!!!"

The girl grew impatient and waved her hand, showing her exasperation. "Anyway, that's all I have to say. If you're smart enough, you should understand you can neither resist this decree nor withstand so many Blood Demons. Just give me your answer honestly.

"If you're not smart enough, then it's even better to take you away; keeping you here isn't good either.

"Either you'll be killed by the rising human Heavenly Masters and their atomic bombs... Do you even know what an atomic bomb is? Anyway, it's very powerful. Back then, it won't be like now; you won't be able to retreat into the Old Land World to hide. Once the atomic bomb comes, you'll just have to brace yourself and take it. Can you handle that?

"Or you'll just be wreaking havoc on Earth, which would make us look very ungracious, leaving a scourge behind after we've gone."

「...」

Upon hearing this, the Evil God fell silent. The girl looked surprised and smiled cheekily. "Looks like you understand, good boy. Nod for leaving, shake your head for staying."

The Evil God turned its head away, glancing into the distance. Seeing this, the girl turned her head too and saw the small mountain village in the morning light. Smoke rose from a chimney of one house; it was so peaceful and serene.

Withdrawing her gaze, she thought for a moment, then smiled brightly. "You're guarding her here, but how long can you keep that up? Heavenly Masters don't live much longer than normal people.

"And… are you guarding her, or is she guarding you? Are you trapped by her here, or is she trapped by you? Give me your answer before I leave."

Having said that, the girl resumed walking along the path. Her calves gathered dew from the plants as she slowly moved away.

The Evil God remained in place. Only after a long while did it roar furiously and fly up into the sky.