Making Things Up

Small Priestess Jin Yu raised her snowy-white hand and spoke in a somewhat playful tone, "Shall I start?"

The High Priestess gave a slight nod.

The others remained silent.

Xu Xian waited quietly.

"Name?"

Xu Xian frowned slightly, feeling a bit bored.

"Bai Mang."

The Small Priestess continued her questioning, "Are you from the Bai family of the mortal demon race?"

Xu Xian shook his head and made up a story on the spot. "No. I took the surname Bai because of my white hair."

It sounded reasonable enough.

"What about your parents? Where are they from?"

Xu Xian thought for a moment, then spoke with a hint of melancholy, "I don't know."

"How can someone not know their own parents?" the Small Priestess questioned skeptically.

Xu Xian let out a dry chuckle. "Heh."

The Small Priestess's slender brows knit together in displeasure. "What are you laughing at?"

Xu Xian replied indifferently, "Outside the outer city of the Nether Capital, how many orphans are there who don't know their parents? That's not even counting the rest of the Demon Abyss. Is it really so strange that I don't know?"

The Small Priestess was a bit annoyed, but she found herself unable to refute him.

The head of the Huang family, the Yellow Demon, who sat in the first seat on the right, took over. "The registration at the Demon Court's city defense says you came from the Min Capital."

"Mm." Xu Xian did not deny it.

The Yellow Demon questioned further, "Then why is it that in the Min Capital, not a single person knows of your existence?"

Xu Xian lowered his gaze. Clearly, these people had been investigating him for quite some time.

They likely wanted to dig up his entire ancestry eighteen generations back.

He slowly explained, "I never said I came from the Min Capital. The gatekeeper wrote that down himself. I'm a person who dislikes trouble. For many things, I’d rather spend a bit of money to make them simpler."

The Blue Demon chuckled softly. "Hoho, so you're saying you're quite wealthy?"

Xu Xian glanced at the Crimson Demon and said boastfully, "I wouldn't say that. It just so happens that some time ago, outside the Blazing Fortress, I saved the goddess of the Crimson Demon Palace. She rewarded me with ten thousand shadow soul stones. It’s decent enough."

The Crimson Demon’s lips curled into a smirk, while the others cast strange looks his way.

He just exposed himself like that?

It certainly saved them the trouble of asking.

The Azure Demon took up the thread. "Regarding the matter of the Ze Capital, how much do you know?"

Xu Xian felt like they were getting off-topic. Was this really the main point?

He put on a look of total confusion and asked, "The Ze Capital? What happened in the Ze Capital?"

The events of the Ze Capital had been sealed off by the heavenly demon race. Since Chi Ji hadn't sold him out, he had to play dumb.

The Azure Demon said in a low voice, "You arrived in the Ze Capital alongside the Crimson Demon's goddess. You're telling me you don't know?"

Xu Xian blurted out the excuse he had prepared. "I really don't. As soon as we reached the Ze Capital, I slipped away on my own."

The crowd seemed to have expected this answer, but they persisted. "Slipped away? Why? What was your reason?"

Xu Xian repeated calmly, "Like I said, I'm afraid of trouble."

"Hmm?"

"Explain yourself properly!"

Xu Xian analyzed for them, "The daughter of a demon god was actually kidnapped by mere humans from the Immortal Demon Caves. There must be something fishy going on there. I figured it definitely had something to do with one of you sitting here. As a third-class mortal demon, how could I dare involve myself in the affairs of you great demon gods? So, I left."

After finishing, he turned the tables and asked tentatively, "What, did something actually happen? I knew it...."

The demon gods whispered among themselves. His story wasn't exactly seamless, but they couldn't find any logical flaws in it either. It was just human nature.

The Crimson Demon was not stingy with his praise. "You’re a rather clever child."

"Thank you for the compliment!"

Through this back-and-forth, Xu Xian completely distanced himself from the events of the Ze Capital, and naturally, from that single sword strike as well.

This way, his story matched what Chi Ji had said.

Chi Ji had claimed she didn't pay attention to Bai Mang and thought he was dead, while Bai Mang claimed he had slipped away early.

However.

High Priestess Jin Qing did not believe that he truly had nothing to do with it.

If that were the case, why would Chi Ji go looking for him in secret?

There were too many inconsistencies.

Fortunately, no one raised further questions. After all, the theme of today wasn't that sword strike or settling old scores—it was whether he truly knew the primordial demon script.

She cut off the tedious questioning and went straight to the heart of the matter. "Enough. Let's get to the main business. You claim to know the primordial demon script. Is this the truth?"

Everyone’s eyes turned toward him, filled with anticipation.

Xu Xian, acting as if he were tired of repeating himself, vowed, "Naturally!"

"Who taught you?"

Xu Xian took a deep breath. "Then I suppose I must tell the story of my youth."

The High Priestess knit her brows.

The others looked on with great interest.

Xu Xian’s gaze slowly swept across the room as he spoke in a heavy voice, "When I was young, I lived as a scholar's attendant in a wealthy household. Unexpectedly, the master's entire family was slaughtered. I was hunted down and unfortunately fell off a cliff. I survived the disaster and encountered a deity who taught me cultivation, the demon script, and divine arts. That is all."

Xu Xian's few sentences left the gathered demon gods in a stunned silence.

Though it was their first time hearing his story, it felt incredibly familiar.

Especially those tropes.

Being hunted, falling off a cliff, surviving, and learning divine arts.

This....

Little stars twinkled in the Small Priestess’s emerald eyes. She thought Bai Mang’s story was quite interesting.

The High Priestess’s lips couldn't stop twitching. If he was going to make something up, he should at least make it plausible.

The ten demon gods didn't know what to say.

If they believed it, it sounded incredibly fake.

But if they didn't believe it? How did he learn that demon script? Where did his knowledge of formations come from? And where did the foundation that allowed him to insta-kill a seventh stage cultivator as a sixth stage come from?

Moreover, when they probed the youth, they could feel a thin veil over him that made it difficult to see through him. Even when they secretly exerted pressure on him, it was ineffective.

When all these factors were combined.

His claim of meeting a deity might actually be true.

The Small Priestess was very sincere as she asked expectantly, "A deity? What did this deity look like?"

Xu Xian paused for a moment, then said with an entirely serious face, "You probably won't believe me if I tell you."

Their eyes flickered with anticipation.

But Xu Xian stopped there, saying nothing more....

It felt as if crows were cawing over their heads.

The Wind Demon, who was impatient by nature, urged, "Whether we believe it or not, just say it!"

Xu Xian looked over the crowd and said solemnly, "He was a man."

"And?"

"He had hair like a rainbow."

"What?"

"Exactly ten different colors."

"Hiss!!"

Xu Xian nodded. "Even his demon horns were ten-colored, with rings one by one, like this."

The group fell silent. Their expressions shifted through various shades of shock as they looked at one another in total bewilderment.

Even the High Priestess hesitated before asking cautiously, "Which ten colors?"

Without a second thought, Xu Xian blurted out, "Crimson, orange, yellow, green, blue, azure, purple, white, black, and gold."

Chi Ming’s throat bobbed. "You’re sure you haven't misremembered?"

Xu Xian laughed cheerfully. "What are you saying? That was my master. How could I possibly misremember?"

The light in the demon gods' eyes became even more complex. Their thoughts surged like the surrounding scarlet mist.

They knit their brows and lowered their eyes.

The Small Priestess murmured softly, "The Immortal-Demon lineage... how could it be?"

Xu Xian was also a bit confused. He had just made that up on a whim. Why was their reaction so strange?

Could it be that there actually were demon people with that hair color?

"What did you say?"

The Small Priestess glanced at him and asked, "He... your master. Where is he now?"

Xu Xian's heart skipped a beat. He thought to himself that he’d messed up—there really was such a person.

He didn't know whether to be happy or worried as he quickly fabricated another detail:

"I don't know. One morning, I just never saw the old gentleman again."