“Really? You’re such a good person.” the demonic plant said.
Xu Yifan didn’t so much as blink. “That’s what everyone says.”
“So fragrant.” The demonic plant’s two leaves fluttered nonstop. “I want to eat, I want to eat.”
Xu Yifan tossed one over to it, and the vine tip of the demonic plant immediately plunged straight into the pill, the entire pill was drained dry in an instant.
The demonic plant flapped its two leaves and said, “So good, so good, I want more, I want more.”
“I can only give you one.” Xu Yifan said.
“But I still want to eat.”
The demonic plant had originally only thought this small, round thing smelled intoxicating, incredibly fragrant. It hadn’t known until it tasted it that it was actually this delicious.
Eating it felt so good, but now this person wasn’t willing to give it any more.
It started whimpering, about to cry again, when it heard the voice say, “If you form a contract with me, you can eat as much as you want, whenever you want.”
What…
As much as it wanted, whenever it wanted!!!
The temptation was overwhelming [1]literally “a hundred million points” of temptation, an exaggerated way of saying enormous jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015876_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015876_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
The demonic plant was nearly swayed, but hesitated. “But, but forming a contract with a human isn’t good.”
“What’s not good about it?” Xu Yifan said. “There’s nothing inherently bad about a contract itself. Whether it’s good or bad entirely depends on who you contract with. If it’s some twisted, evil cultivator, then sure, that would be bad. But if you contract with me, it’s definitely good.”
“Really?”
“Of course! We’ve only just met, so you might not know this yet, but I’m the kindest-hearted person there is. Back in the day I nearly became a monk because I was too kind. I won’t make you go around killing and burning things down. Even if I did have you kill something, it would only be bad people, so it wouldn’t add to your killing karma. And if you stick with me, you’ll get piles and piles of candy beans to eat, isn’t that a great deal?”
The demonic plant thought about it, that did make sense.
Its brain was simple, and it hadn’t been in the world long, so it was more than half convinced by Xu Yifan’s smooth talk. It immediately said, impatient, “I want to contract, I want to contract, I want to eat candy beans.”
Xu Yifan laughed, used his spiritual sense to check the surroundings, and only after confirming there was no one nearby did he tear off the concealment talisman on his body.
The demonic plant, seeing a person appear out of thin air, had its eyes light up instantly. It coiled itself around Xu Yifan’s ankle and said loudly, “I want to contract.”
“Alright,” Xu Yifan bit his finger and held it out. “Puncture into my blood.”
“Mm!”
The moment the demonic plant pierced into his fingertip, Xu Yifan chanted an incantation, and the contract was formed instantly.
Xu Yifan turned his awareness inward to his dantian and found a small dark-red grass seed had appeared inside it.
This must be the demonic plant’s true form.
The moment the contract was formed, the demonic plant said urgently, “I want to eat candy beans.”
“Alright, here you go,” Xu Yifan tossed the bottle to it. “We need to get out of here quickly, or that thing in the lake will find us, and then we’ll really be in trouble [2]literally unable to carry away what we’ve eaten, meaning facing serious consequences jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015876_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015876_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.”
The demonic plant wrapped itself around the pill bottle, its vine tip reaching in through the narrow mouth of the bottle. Then roots the length of two fingers crawled up out of the soil, and it happily trotted along behind Xu Yifan. “Okay, whatever Mother says.”
Xu Yifan stumbled, nearly tripping on flat ground. He looked at the demonic plant, which had only walked two steps before getting lazy and climbing up onto him, wrapping around his wrist like a bracelet, and his mouth twitched. “What did you just call me?”
“Mother!” the demonic plant said in its milky little voice.
“Who told you to call me that?” Well, whoever feeds you milk is your mother, I suppose [3]a twist on the saying “whoever nurses you is your mother,” meaning gratitude attaches easily to whoever provides for you jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015876_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015876_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, Xu Yifan thought. “From now on, call me Boss. Don’t just call me whatever nonsense comes to mind, if other people hear it, they’ll think I have some weird kink, and that wouldn’t be good. When you cultivate to human form, model yourself after how I look.”
The demonic plant’s two leaves twitched as it stared at Xu Yifan for a good while, then said “Oh,” reluctantly.
Xu Yifan was amused despite himself and asked, “You’re still not happy about it?”
“You’re too fat.” The demonic plant hadn’t been outside the inner region before, but during this time it had seen quite a few cultivators, they were all either lean or muscular, none of them like Xu Yifan.
“What do you know,” Xu Yifan poked its two leaves, stubbornly saving face. “Better to be elegantly plump than boringly thin and look like everyone else. This is called personality, understand? It’s scary how little you know.”
…
After returning, Xu Yifan refined several bottles of Spirit Plant Pills and tossed them to the demonic plant, telling it to cultivate diligently. He himself ate a Grain-Avoidance Pill and went to lie down on his bed, occasionally teaching Demon Sprout during his free time.
Before he knew it, more than half a month had passed.
That day, early in the morning, there was a great commotion of voices outside the house. The demonic plant lay pressed against the windowsill, watching eagerly outside, while Xu Yifan, disturbed by the noise, rolled over and asked, “Why’s it so noisy out there?”
“People have arrived.” the demonic plant said.
“Huh?”
“Something about Xianhao Sect,” the demonic plant leapt down from the window and jumped onto Xu Yifan’s stomach, saying, “I heard that older brother who came over to our place next door say they’re here to recruit disciples.”
Oh!
Xu Yifan remembered now.
There was indeed such a thing happening. He wasn’t interested in joining the crowd, since he had no intention of going anyway. “Bored sitting at home? You can go take a look outside, just be careful not to get spotted. But…”
Xu Yifan’s tone shifted. “If you cause trouble for me again, I’ll skin you alive.”
The demonic plant’s eyes lit up instantly, and it bounced around on his stomach. “Thank you, Boss, thank you, Boss, I promise I absolutely won’t cause any trouble.”
Xu Yifan waved his hand and turned over to go back to sleep.
Top-grade demonic plants were born with Golden Core–level cultivation to begin with. Because of their “demonic” nature, their cultivation aptitude was outrageously overpowered, how overpowered? One could say they had essentially no bottlenecks.
Demonic beasts were the same way.
When a human cultivator reached the peak of Qi Refining ninth layer and wanted to advance to Foundation Establishment, it was very difficult to succeed without the aid of a Foundation Establishment pill.
But demonic plants and demonic beasts were different.
Moreover, if human cultivators didn’t rely on “unorthodox methods” [4]shortcuts or improper techniques outside the standard cultivation path jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015876_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015876_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); and instead cultivated step by step like demonic beasts and demonic plants did, their progress would be extremely slow. Perhaps a demonic beast or demonic plant only needed a few hundred years to reach Nascent Soul, while a human cultivator might need over a thousand years.
In battles at the same cultivation level, human cultivators also rarely had the advantage. Take fox cultivators, for example, that race typically had several lives, and a nine-tailed fox cultivator was practically an unkillable cockroach [5]refers to something absurdly hard to kill or eliminate, from the idea that cockroaches always survive jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015876_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015876_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. The turtle race was the same, though they didn’t have nine lives, their defense was astonishing.
Human cultivators simply couldn’t compare in these respects.
But the reason cultivators regarded human cultivators as the leading race wasn’t because Heaven’s Dao favored them specially. It was because, although human cultivators couldn’t match the physique and racial advantages of demonic plants and beasts, humans possessed something demonic plants and beasts entirely lacked: soul power.
With soul power, one could refine pills, forge artifacts…
With the aid of pills, weapons, and the like, human cultivators were able to rise above demonic plants and beasts.
However, while every cultivator had soul power, not everyone could refine pills or forge artifacts…
To refine pills or forge artifacts, one’s soul power had to reach at least the fourth grade.
Xu Yifan’s cultivation wasn’t high, only Qi Refining sixth layer, but his soul power was naturally deep and abundant, making pill refinement effortless for him.
This demonic plant he’d brought back should have originally had cultivation at early Golden Core stage, but now it was only at early Foundation Establishment. It seemed that fending off the lightning tribulation that night had cost it dearly. After eating quite a few Demonic Plant Pills afterward, its body had recovered, though its cultivation remained at Foundation Establishment, but that was fine for getting by in the village.
Cultivators from a low-grade continent had narrow horizons, even if the demonic plant were right under their noses, probably no one would recognize it for what it was. And even if it was unlucky enough to be discovered, if it couldn’t win a fight, it had talismans and array plates that Xu Yifan had given it, escaping would be effortless.
With that thought, Xu Yifan settled down comfortably to read.
However, by the time evening came and he’d finished an entire book on pill formulas, the demonic plant still hadn’t come back.
Xu Yifan reached out through the contract to sense it, then his brows furrowed tightly. He slapped on a concealment talisman and vanished from the spot.
On the way, he casually picked up a wooden stick, just like most parents whose kids stayed out past dark without knowing to come home, he just wanted to find the kid and give it a good thrashing.
Following the contract’s connection, Xu Yifan arrived outside a spacious little courtyard.
This was the place the village had temporarily cleared out for the Xianhao Sect disciples to stay in. They would be lodging in Xiaolin Village for two days while waiting for the disciples from the surrounding villages who were participating in the selection to be sent over.
The house inside was noisy, filled with the sounds of jeering laughter, and also cries for help, struggling to break free.
That cry for help, though somewhat hoarse, sounded absolutely stunning.
The instant the voice reached his ears, Xu Yifan’s whole body trembled. He held his breath and slipped inside, and only then did he see the full scene.
There were three, no, four people in this room. However, one of them, an extremely good-looking disciple, had both hands bound behind his back and was currently having his hair yanked by a skinny man forcing wine down his throat.
There were also two unopened jars of aged wine on the table.
The instant Xu Yifan got a clear look at the person tied up, his heart skipped two beats.
Damn, this person was seriously, unbelievably gorgeous!
It was like his ideal type had stepped straight out of a dream into reality.
“Qinglin, how does this wine taste? Come on, open your mouth like a good boy. Once you’re drunk, you’ll feel real good in a bit.” said the shifty-eyed cultivator sitting at the head of the table.
The wine was being poured down hastily, part of it was forced down his throat, part of it trickled down his slender, pale neck. Xian Qinglin struggled with all his might, “Get lost… cough cough… I’m… I’m going to kill you all.”
“Ooh, still being stubborn even now!” The disciple sitting at the head of the table laughed, stood up, walked over and pinched Xian Qinglin’s face, then let his palm trail down along his fair, smooth neck, his technique thoroughly lecherous. “You’ll feel good in a bit, I hope your mouth stays this tough then too.”
A wave of revulsion swept through Xian Qinglin, his stomach churning and roiling.
“Oh! Forgot to tell you, I added something to this wine. Tsk, why look at me like that, it’s good stuff that’ll send a person to heaven and back [6]a vulgar euphemism for an aphrodisiac’s effect jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3015876_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3015876_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. Other people beg me for it and I won’t even give it to them! You should feel lucky, having such good fortune.” Ma Xiu’s gaze fell, obsessed, on Xian Qinglin’s ethereal, unworldly face.
Xian Qinglin glared at Ma Xiu with hatred, feeling that pair of hands drifting endlessly around his waist, as if trying to slip into his robes.
By now his body had already begun to change, the drug’s effect must have kicked in. After his weak, aching limbs struggled uselessly, Xian Qinglin closed his eyes, drained of strength.
No matter how carefully he’d guarded against every danger, he still hadn’t escaped this one.
“Why the long face?” Ma Xiu’s other hand stroked Xian Qinglin’s smooth neck, his eyes filled with excited, lecherous desire.
He truly liked Xian Qinglin far too much, this person was simply too beautiful. He’d pined after him for years, but no matter how he tried every which way to please him, the other man refused to so much as glance at him more than once.
Countless people in the sect were infatuated with Xian Qinglin, even the sect’s senior disciple was pursuing him. Ma Xiu didn’t dare openly compete with the senior disciple for him, so he could only take advantage of this outing to try to claim Xian Qinglin for himself first. Even if his methods were despicable, as long as he could obtain Xian Qinglin and taste what he had to offer, nothing else mattered.
“If you go with me, spirit stones, pills, talismans, array plates, magic tools, whatever you want, you can have. All kinds of cultivation resources would be right at your fingertips. Isn’t that better than doing chores as an outer disciple? If you agree, you’ll serve only me tonight. Otherwise, I don’t mind letting the others have some fun with you too.”
The other men restraining Xian Qinglin, hearing this, immediately began breathing heavier.
“Ptooey~”
Xian Qinglin spat in Ma Xiu’s face, saying nothing.
“Got some backbone,” Ma Xiu wiped his face and gripped Xian Qinglin’s chin, forcing him to look up. When their eyes met, Ma Xiu’s expression had already turned twisted.
“I just love ones like you, fierce and unyielding, much more satisfying to play with.”
Xian Qinglin’s face began to flush, sweat beading on his forehead, his gaze growing hazy and unfocused, this state of his was truly impossible to resist.
Ma Xiu watched, blood boiling, and couldn’t help but lick his lips. He untied the rope binding Xian Qinglin’s hands, shoved him down onto the floor, and impatiently prepared to pounce on top of him.
Xian Qinglin’s whole body had gone weak and unresponsive, a foreign lust surging through his limbs and bones, as if searching for some outlet. Ma Xiu pounced and pressed down on top of him, he wanted to push him away, but his hands were too weak and sore to muster any strength.
Desire kept rising. Ma Xiu’s slick, wet tongue was licking at his face, he clearly felt disgusted, yet his body betrayed his heart’s wishes, inexplicably feeling pleasure instead.
“Don’t… don’t.” This reaction of his body filled him with panic and fear. His consciousness wasn’t entirely clear anymore, and he cried out purely on instinct to resist,
“Don’t~”
“Yes I will, yes I will.” Ma Xiu licked at his face a few more times, propping himself up with one hand while the other went to untie Xian Qinglin’s waistband.
Xian Qinglin felt utterly hopeless. “Don’t…”
“Smack~”
Suddenly, an abrupt sound rang out from midair.
Ma Xiu’s backside stung with pain, and he stopped his hand instinctively, turning his head to look back, only to see a wooden stick hanging strangely in midair. The two disciples nearby had gone pale with fright, frozen in place.
“Who’s there?”
No one answered.
“Damn it, whoever’s playing tricks, get your ass out here right now.”
The moment Ma Xiu finished speaking, the wooden stick moved again, striking down hard on his backside once more.
This time the force was tremendous, it felt like it might cripple him. Ma Xiu leapt off of Xian Qinglin, clutching his backside, running around in circles and howling.
“Who, who the hell are you, if you’ve got the guts, come out and face me.”
“I’m just not coming out. If you’ve got the guts, come hit me yourself.” the voice suddenly rang out from midair.
References[+]