Her consciousness was extremely hazy. Her whole person felt as if she were floating lightly in midair; she only had time to summon the Kunlun Sword from within her sea of consciousness.
She remembered that the Kunlun Sword was an extremely righteous yet baleful sword. Such a baleful object could slay evil and drive it back. She placed the Kunlun Sword within her sea of consciousness around the love gu, and so the restless love gu gradually calmed down.
The system helped block her sense of pain, and she could still vaguely perceive the outside world with a sliver of muddled awareness.
She felt herself surrounded by dense demonic qi. Faint voices drifted around her; it seemed someone was guarding her side, uneasy and irritable, nearly frightening away the physician who had come to treat her.
Like a giant dragon guarding a treasure that might vanish at any moment, anxiously swishing its tail, carefully encircling her in the middle.
This feeling was very unfamiliar.
When she was little, she once broke a rib and ran a high fever that would not subside. Chao Taichu merely found time to glance at her, then lectured her about her weakness.
She did not understand when she was young, but later she realized that Chao Taichu treated her as a useful blade—
People only cared whether this blade was sharp. Injury after injury and repeated tempering were only regarded as excellent whetstones. They would marvel at how the divine weapon had been polished to brilliance and keen clarity—who would care whether the blade hurt from being ground?
Back then, she could only lie quietly in bed. Fortunately, there was Chao Zhaoyue, but he was her elder brother and could not stay with her the whole night.
After all, Chao Zhaoyue was merely another blade. If he stayed with her, he would have to go to the Siguo Cliff to receive punishment—why bother?
But after he left, what remained around her was a suffocating silence.
At that time, she burned with fever until her consciousness blurred, yet she did not dare close her eyes, keeping them open as she waited for dawn.
Since childhood, she had always had an illusion that if she closed her eyes, she would vanish, melting into this boundless darkness.
Perhaps she would simply die soundlessly, without anyone knowing.
But for the first time, she felt the demon beside her growing restless and anxious because of her. He seemed to care even more than she did about whether she would live. She had never sensed panic from this demon before. He had always been an untouchable, self-proclaimed number-one under heaven great demon.
But at this moment, he seemed very anxious.
The surging demonic qi was the best proof. Once their emotions stirred, the demon race could not control their demonic qi. She could even sense his emotions within that heavy demonic qi.
She found it very novel.
—As if she were some unparalleled treasure, fragile like glazed glass.
But she was not glass. She was a blade tempered through a thousand hammerings. Wind-blades and frost-swords had never struck her down; he should know that clearly.
Yet the force with which he touched her was almost cautious to the extreme, as if afraid she might die the next second.
She found it very strange that beside him, she seemed able to fall asleep at ease.
After an unknown amount of time, she was awakened by the noisy sounds outside.
She heard voices speaking beyond—
As cautious as this demon lord was before her, that was how terrifying he was when he turned to face the physician.
At this moment, when “soul” was mentioned, a voice with a slick tone suggested that they might as well refine her soul into a ghost cultivator—wouldn’t that remove all trouble?
Wipe the head clean, cure all ailments.
This marvelous suggestion, brimming with demonic style, made the Demon Venerable slowly raise his eyes. For a moment, demonic qi surged violently, baleful aura filling his body, nearly freezing the small room into frost.
At that moment, a voice came from inside the room.
She said, “So noisy.”
Outside, it fell silent for a moment.
Someone actually dared to think the Demon Venerable was noisy?
They had thought the Demon Venerable, already at the edge of his patience, would fly into a furious rage. Ever since he returned, he had been on the verge of bristling, the whole demon so anxious his eyes were bloodshot.
He at least remembered to treat the physician a little better, so he had endured the strange ideas of these mediocre demonic doctors with considerable patience, merely sitting there sulking. But when that clever one proposed cutting off her head to cure the illness, he could no longer endure it.
The Demon Venerable had just lifted his foot, intending to kick that clever one flying, when he heard that voice and suddenly stiffened.
That voice was like a switch.
Just a light sentence, yet it seemed to carry a power completely mismatched to it, instantly soothing the surging demonic qi.
She opened her eyes and met the demon lord’s blood-red gaze. Honestly, it was rather frightening.
His voice deliberately softened: “Did we wake you?”
“Yan Xueyi, my head hurts.”
He immediately restrained the boundless demonic qi, looking at her as if she were a porcelain doll, not even daring to touch her, as though one touch would shatter her into fragments.
Such carefulness.
She sat up. Though her mind was still spinning, she felt much better already.
He frowned and swiftly pressed her down, making her hold the small white bead placed beside her.
“This is the Soul-Stabilizing Pearl. That monk said it can temporarily help stabilize your soul.”
He did not explain who that monk was, nor did he tell her—
That monk had also said the Soul-Stabilizing Pearl treated only the symptoms, not the root. If she could not wake up, the problem would be serious; her soul might very well leave her body.
That was why this demon lord had grown so anxious in the first place.
But she had woken up, and he finally let out a breath of relief.
As long as she woke up, there would always be a way.
She lowered her head and saw that her clothes had already been changed. Her gaze subconsciously shifted toward that demon lord. He awkwardly looked away and gave a light cough:
“I had someone help you change them.”
When she fainted, because of that sentence “crushed to death,” the demon lord had developed a psychological shadow. When had he ever personally taken care of anyone? He had, however, personally crushed people to death before.
Worried that his rough hands might truly crush this sword cultivator to death, he had found a demon to take care of her.
Only, this foolish sword cultivator had always been so upright it bordered on fanatical. She had never been polite toward demons, as if all demons were utterly heinous criminals—raising her sword at the slightest provocation, ready to fight or kill.
He called in the demon who had been caring for her, while quietly observing her expression: “Hongniang.”
A demon woman named Hongniang walked in through the doorway. Hongniang’s face was extremely delicate and charming—yet on such a beautiful and alluring face, she had three of them.
Chao Jinsui recognized it at a glance: this Hongniang was also a born demon seed.
The human race had always hated and despised demons, especially those with grotesque forms. In the human world, they were like rats crossing the street. In the cultivation world, there were countless troupes that made a living through sideshow performances.
It was said that a nearby troupe had a beheading act to watch. Back then, when Yan Xueyi was still a little demon lord, he brought a group of his underlings to join the excitement.
They saw a born demon seed brought onto the stage. Born demon seeds always had some inhuman traits. For example, Hongniang had three heads, yet she could not use illusions to conceal them. After being abandoned, she suffered endless bullying and scorn. She finally stumbled her way to adulthood, only to be captured and forced to perform in sideshows.
Back then, the beheading act drew many spectators. Just as the troupe leader was about to chop off the girl’s other two heads, the little demon lord who at that time was merely a mountain bandit—felt he still lacked a fire-tending maid, so he picked up little Hongniang and took her back. No one had expected that decades later, that little Hongniang would already be a high-level demonic cultivator, notorious throughout the demon realm and dominating one region.
Yan Xueyi looked at her and said calmly, “If you are unwilling to let Hongniang care for you, this seat can also find a human to come.”
After hearing that introduction of Hongniang, Chao Jinsui froze for a moment, then fell silent briefly:
“Hongniang, there are always some heartless and ungrateful people in this world. I’m sorry.”
Hongniang froze for a moment.
Then she laughed brightly. “Miss, you’re quite interesting. It wasn’t you who harmed me, why apologize?”
“If there is anything inconvenient in the future, Miss need only instruct this servant~”
Chao Jinsui nodded.
Yan Xueyi only slowly loosened his tightly clenched palm after Hongniang’s figure had completely disappeared.
This great demon was cautiously observing her attitude. Around him were only a group of strange and peculiar demons; even when dressed, they hardly resembled humans. Like the eternal night of the demon realm, he could not make the sun rise in the demon realm just because she liked sunlight.
If she, like before, could not accept demons—
But she had not shown disgust or dissatisfaction. She had even lowered her head on behalf of her own kind.
This foolish sword cultivator.
The great demon looked at her again and again, his eyes astonishingly bright. The frightening blood-red in them had vanished, and the corners of his beautiful lips could not restrain their smile.
She seemed to have guessed what he was thinking and smiled:
“Yan Xueyi, is that the kind of person I am in your eyes?”
“The kind who would indiscriminately despise the demons who saved me, the demons who care for me?”
The demon lord stiffened, his thin lips moving slightly.
He wanted to say that the human race and the demon race were bound by a blood-deep enmity; he also wanted to say that she had once taken slaying demons and eliminating evil as her duty… In his eyes, she truly was a somewhat stubborn, somewhat foolish, single-minded sword cultivator.
She said helplessly, “Yan Xueyi, my heart is also made of flesh.”
She could not keep her heart as hard as iron after her life had been saved again and again by the demon race.
“My sword is also only for fairness and justice. It does not strike the innocent.”
She lowered her eyes. “To be born a demon is not your sin either.”
When she was young, Chao Jinsui had held the Fumo Sword, believing that as long as all evil demons in the world were eradicated, the seas would be peaceful and the world would be at rest. But later she discovered that this idea was so naive and laughable. Demons bathed in blood could risk their lives to rescue people from demon pits, while relatives who spoke endlessly of benevolence and righteousness could push her into the underworld.
Only then did she realize that where karmic sins grew thick, all were asuras wearing human skin.
“In the past… I had many prejudices. I’m sorry.”
His entire body stiffened, then he turned his head away and said softly, “You’re quite good.”
She did not hear clearly and looked up at him in confusion.
He turned back and glared at her fiercely. “This seat says you’re quite good, suited to this seat’s temperament.”
He sprang to his feet, shoved her into the bedding, pulled the quilt up over her head, wrapped her up like a rice dumpling, and forced her not to get up.
The Soul-Stabilizing Pearl’s effect was extremely limited; she understood that, and obediently did not struggle anymore.
But this sleep was still very restless.
Her consciousness gradually blurred, and she slowly felt extremely thirsty.
Someone placed a teacup by her lips, but she showed no sign of improvement. She still felt thirsty and could not help but subconsciously grasp that hand.
When she touched his body temperature, a very intense sensation suddenly arose in her muddled consciousness.
—It was as if a voice was urging her: get closer, closer still.
The person she held felt like a warm heat source, the only warmth in a world of bitter cold.
She dimly realized the love gu was causing trouble, but at this moment, only that voice remained in her mind.
Closer. Closer still.
She grabbed that hand and subconsciously pulled.
Though he was an extremely tall demon lord, his long body filled with explosive strength—crushing several cultivators barehanded would be nothing—yet perhaps because he was distracted, his vigilance had dropped to the extreme, and he was truly pulled off balance by her.
Almost the moment he fell into the bedding, she flipped over him, executed a clean chokehold, and in one swift motion pinned him down!
She felt that the one this voice clamored for her to approach—she needed to take something from him, obtain something from his body.
As for barehanded combat, this demon had clawed and fought his way through the Myriad Demon Pit since childhood. How could he be so easily subdued by her? No matter how formidable a sword cultivator was, in close combat they could not match this rogue leader.
Suddenly attacked, the demon lord was caught off guard—shocked and furious.
Grinding his teeth in restraint, he intended to flip her over and ask what madness had suddenly possessed her but the moment he moved, his whole body froze.
—Because around the powerful, taut muscles of his waist, those supple legs had locked him tight, like a beautiful serpent that could strangle at any moment.
Like a thin rope tied around a vicious hound, it made his entire body go rigid in an instant, his throat dry.
Her hand locking his throat, the cascade of dark hair brushing near the side of his neck…
In her muddled consciousness, she felt she did not want much. At least the suppressed love gu craved far less than before, and the target that could satisfy this craving—her gaze fixed on his thin lips; not a word he said entered her ears.
The vicious hound pinned beneath her endured and endured again, the veins on his fingers bulging, almost ferocious.
But he still retained a trace of reason.
—It was as if a voice was urging her: get closer, closer still.
The person she held felt like a warm heat source, the only warmth in a world of bitter cold.
She dimly realized the love gu was causing trouble, but at this moment, only that voice remained in her mind.
Closer. Closer still.
She grabbed that hand and subconsciously pulled.
Though he was an extremely tall demon lord, his long body filled with explosive strength—crushing several cultivators barehanded would be nothing—yet perhaps because he was distracted, his vigilance had dropped to the extreme, and he was truly pulled off balance by her.
Almost the moment he fell into the bedding, she flipped over him, executed a chokehold, and in one swift motion pinned him down!
She felt that the one this voice clamored for her to approach—she needed to take something from him, obtain something from his body.
As for barehanded combat, this demon had clawed and fought his way through the Myriad Demon Pit since childhood. How could he be so easily subdued by her? No matter how formidable a sword cultivator was, in close combat they could not match this rogue leader.
Suddenly attacked, the demon lord was caught off guard—shocked and furious.
Grinding his teeth in restraint, he intended to flip her over and ask what madness had suddenly possessed her—but the moment he moved, his whole body froze.
—Because around the powerful, taut muscles of his waist, those supple legs had locked him tight, like a beautiful serpent that could strangle at any moment.
Like a thin rope tied around a vicious hound, it made his entire body go rigid in an instant, his throat dry.
Her hand locking his throat, the cascade of dark hair brushing near the side of his neck…
In her muddled consciousness, she felt she did not want much. At least the suppressed love gu craved far less than before, and the target that could satisfy this craving—her gaze fixed on his thin lips; not a word he said entered her ears.
The vicious hound pinned beneath her endured and endured again, the veins on his fingers bulging, almost ferocious.
But he still retained a trace of reason.
He sneered: so she had finally revealed her true purpose—was she making a move against him now?
Why couldn’t she even wait a little longer?
If she had pretended just a bit more, he really would have believed her.
Still in the demon realm and already making a move—she truly was…
The demon lord said coldly, “You are courting death.”
A flash of viciousness crossed his beautiful face.
He was about to seize her waist, furious, and flip this heartless, reckless sword cultivator over and throw her out—
Yet upon the thin lips of this beautiful demon, just as he was about to speak harsh words, soft lips suddenly covered them.
The stunned vicious hound was pushed back by her—she kissed him.
