24 – Wet Body Temptation: I am not Wu Zhi.
I am not Wuzhi.
With the real one appearing, the villain immediately vanished without a trace.
The chaotic spiritual flow scattered and condensed into white dew on her eyelashes, blurring her vision with a hazy mist.
Suppressing a cold laugh, Baili Zheque refocused his gaze on the young girl, his tone still lazily indifferent as usual: “Tilling the land in the middle of the night—is this also a new method for my consort to please me?”
Her tense spirit relaxed, and Liu Wuzhi instantly lost strength: “My head hurts…”
Her pitiful appearance, tormented by the Heart-Entangling Silk, looked even more foolish.
Those afflicted by the gu are unable to resist the allure of the dragon bloodline. Liu Wuzhi’s eyes grew unfocused, and before Baili Zheque could push her away, she instinctively grabbed his arm. The pain did not lessen, and she clung even tighter, pressing against him like a dodder vine.
Baili Zheque watched her exaggerated movements with a cold eye: “Want to detoxify? Why not beg your master?”
Under the moonlight, their shadows overlapped. The increasingly dazed girl pressed closer and closer, and the Demon Lord’s expression gradually turned cold.
If he killed her now, dissected her consciousness sea and the Abyssal Ruins one by one, could he still find traces of Baili Xuanye’s lingering presence?
Only by finding that person could he fulfill his long-cherished wish.
Before his brewing killing intent could settle, Liu Wuzhi suddenly jumped in place: “I don’t want anyone else.”
“I want you.” After saying this, she let out a soft snort from her nose.
Compared to the great Demon Lord, she disliked the great villain even more.
Her muddled mind reacted slowly and softly, her touch points climbing from her spine to her shoulders as if she were scaling a tall man like a tree.
As the beauty’s delicate body rubbed against him, the heart beneath his chest felt as if it had been bitten by some tiny insect. The Demon Lord’s killing intent faltered slightly, and he raised his hand to brush her off.
Liu Wuzhi thudded against the brick floor, instinctively protecting her cap—that is, Wuzhi’s head.
It hurt too much.
Lingzhi did not like pain, nor should she feel pain.
The turmoil in her consciousness sea mixed with the effects of the Heart-Entangling Silk. Finding the villain to detoxify was dangerous, and the Demon Lord ignored her. It was better to find a way herself.
In the immortal herb’s understanding, most injuries could be healed simply by returning to the soil.
Her thoughts in disarray, Liu Wuzhi rushed without hesitation toward the newly dug pit in the courtyard, attempting to bury herself.
However, though her steps moved forward, her feet seemed to hang in the air and retreat backward, instead colliding back into the Demon Lord’s embrace.
“Still not done playing hard to get?” Baili Zheque gripped her slender shoulder, coldly scrutinizing her.
Liu Wuzhi tried to struggle, but it was useless.
The Demon Lord had taken her bell, destroyed her senior brother’s mirror, refused to tear the seal, and wouldn’t help ease her pain. Now, he was even preventing her from planting herself back in the soil.
Moreover, traces of Demon Flame burns faintly lingered in her consciousness sea—how could this great Demon Lord burn an immortal herb?
Her cheeks puffed out, her dislike unconcealed: “I want to return to the soil.”
The Demon Lord found this amusing: “Are you threatening me?”
Exposed secrets, and now seeking death?
Seeing her futile, ceaseless struggle, his obsession with tracking down his sworn enemy was quietly replaced by an indescribable, malicious mischief. Baili Zheque flipped the little girl over with one hand, emphasizing: “Your life can only be ended by me.”
Liu Wuzhi: !
Indeed, the Demon Lord still intended to kill her! To roast her with fire!
Driven by the will to survive, she struggled even harder to escape his grasp. Suddenly, the restraining force loosened, and her body fell diagonally downward—
“Thud!”
The muffled sound was clear in the quiet night.
Liu Wuzhi sadly discovered that these soil pits were too small, barely able to accommodate even one of her hands. Burying her entire body in them was nearly impossible.
The pits needed to be dug larger.
Scrabbling left and right, using both hands, the efficiency remained pitifully low—the human body truly was useless.
The turbulence in her consciousness sea inevitably caused some disturbance, but it shouldn’t have been painful enough to seek death. The Demon Lord, who endured the torment of the Curse day and night, couldn’t help but sneer as he watched her suffer over such minor ailments.
Under his gaze, Liu Wuzhi continued desperately clawing at the soil.
She could no longer transform into Lingzhi, unable to return to the earth for self-repair. Her only option was to please the Demon Lord. Yet, he still scolded her, bullied her, and obstructed her.
She couldn’t go home.
The pain in her consciousness sea and the physical pain overlapped, and the pent-up frustration since her soul transmigration suddenly collapsed. Little Lingzhi slumped before the soil pit, sobbing, “I want hyphae… spores, wuwu…”
Her choked, intermittent cries echoed through the courtyard of the Ember Ruins Guardian, a place known for its extreme cruelty and bloodthirstiness.
To be so vicious yet still serve him, truly foolish to the extreme.
The Demon Lord raised his hand and pressed a finger to Liu Wuzhi’s forehead.
As he expected, the outer reaches of the girl’s consciousness sea were filled with Baili Xuanye’s aura. Though there was some pain from the intrusion, her Divine Soul was neither collapsing nor shattering. He had no idea what she was wailing and whimpering about.
His limited gentleness faded away. Seemingly sensing the Demon Lord’s impatience, Liu Wuzhi said, “It still hurts.”
“Just bury me.”
Whether it worked or not, returning to the earth would at least give her some sense of security.
Baili Zheque lowered his gaze. “Are you threatening this lord with death?”
“I’m not…” Liu Wuzhi began to explain, only to see the Demon Lord flick his wide sleeve and fill all the excavated soil back into the pit.
These holes were the fruits of her labor over three whole days!
Already suffering from a headache, she now felt a surge of anger on top of it.
“That pit took me so much effort to dig, I was going to plant…” Her words trailed off abruptly.
Baili Zheque pinched her jawbone with two fingers, as if ready to dislocate it at any moment. “Without this lord’s permission, even the underworld would not dare to claim your Soul.”
“If you seek death by burying yourself alive, this lord will trample the Court of Yama and ensure you never find reincarnation.”
“…” Completely missing the point, but truly domineering.
With a slight increase in pressure, Liu Wuzhi’s mouth opened involuntarily. A drop of crimson blood gathered at the tip of his cold, pale, slender finger and slid onto the tip of her tongue.
…Huh?
The thick blood dissolved on her tongue, cool and slightly sweet with a hint of metallic tang. Even just a single drop eased the pain considerably and cleared her mind.
The Demon Lord’s blood actually had the same healing effect as an immortal herb.
She remained frozen in place, but the Demon Lord had already placed that beautiful finger against her lips. “Must this lord deliver the antidote right to your mouth?”
Reason could not stop her craving for pain relief. Though Liu Wuzhi continued radiating dislike toward him, her jaw exerted no force at all.
It was like sucking, yet also like licking, with a tentative caution as if treading on thin ice. The friction seemed to brush against his heart, the strange sensation causing Baili Zheque to frown repeatedly.
Tonight, he had caught her red-handed conspiring with Baili Xuanye. He should have tortured her, interrogated her harshly, yet inexplicably, things had come to this.
Moreover, he had originally intended to offer just a few drops to lure her into submission. Now, unconsciously, he allowed Liu Wuzhi to hold his fingertip in her mouth. As the demon blood entered her system, the girl’s pale complexion visibly regained color.
It was almost like feeding her with his own life.
After an unknown length of time, the overlapping shadows on the ground finally separated.
Baili Zheque rubbed his fingertip. “Remember, your life is preserved by your own efforts.”
“Everything Baili Xuanye promised you, this lord can deliver. What he cannot achieve, this lord can also accomplish.”
“Choose whom to serve. Weigh it carefully yourself.”
For some reason, Liu Wuzhi mustered the courage to ask, “If I weigh it carefully, can you skip the identity verification?”
The Demon Lord was so clever; he would definitely discover she wasn’t Wuzhi.
Baili Zheque scoffed. “You overestimate yourself.”
Identity verification, then leaving a Divine Soul mark, binding with her for life? Wishful thinking.
She was merely a pawn. Once Baili Xuanye was captured alive, this woman who bit the hand that fed her would surely pay the price.
Their trains of thought were completely misaligned. Liu Wuzhi nodded perfunctorily and tentatively extended the little finger of her right hand—at first glance, most would likely mistake it for some kind of provocative gesture.
“Promise made, no going back.”
The thin sleeve slid down, revealing three blue Sword Marks at her wrist. The Demon Lord’s relaxed brow immediately tightened.
I almost forgot, she wasn’t just benefiting from both sides—she was clearly accepting everything that came her way.
The night deepened, and the wind seemed to grow several degrees colder.
Liu Wuzhi was still waiting for a pinky promise, but the Demon Lord had already turned and vanished.
Setting up a new home was an exhausting task.
Liu Wuzhi tied her hair into twin buns, changed into a short laborer’s outfit, and transformed the blood pool into a spirit field. First, she divided the courtyard into two sections: one for immortal herbs and the other for poisonous herbs, then further distinguished between aquatic and dryland areas. The ordinary flower seeds that unscrupulous merchants had mixed into the Auction seed packets became an unexpected delight in the corners—a small flower bed brimming with rustic charm.
The demon realm had weak sunlight, making it most suitable for shade-loving plants: ivy, monstera, snake plants… and little mushrooms!
She integrated the immortal-demon conversion method into the purple water used for irrigation, establishing a symbiotic cycle between the immortal herbs and poisonous materials. In just a few days, several sprouts had already emerged in the fields. The seedlings looked healthy, resembling a fine, colorful carpet from a distance.
In her spare time, Liu Wuzhi also found some blank documents recording dungeon case files to use as planting notes.
Days without interference from the Demon Lord or the antagonist felt as smooth as sailing downstream, but she soon encountered a new problem.
The magical beasts brought back from the Defiled Realm appeared imposing, but they were merely force-grown cubs. After Liu Wuzhi detoxified them, the recovering cubs shrank significantly in size, gathering more and more as they called out to their companions. In small groups, they could help plow the fields and scatter seeds, but more often than not, they rolled around in the fields, fighting, brawling, and causing destruction.
Liu Wuzhi also tried having them follow her in tending to the plants, but the little ones only treated the seedlings as snacks, gnawing them into pieces.
“Don’t bite! That’s for medicinal use—” Liu Wuzhi rescued one herb seedling, only to have another cub snatch her hair ribbon. Sometimes mediating fights, sometimes soothing them—after days of such chaos, when she buried the uprooted seedlings for what felt like the millionth time, she finally collapsed among the flowers, gazing at the sky in contemplation.
If just a small garden exhausted her like this, how could she realize her dream of planting flowers and herbs all over the demon realm to curry favor with the Demon Lord?
Perhaps she needed some help.
After that night, the Demon Lord never paid her any attention again. It was said that the rumors of patricide had sparked a new wave of turmoil, and Baili Zheque was busy fighting and killing everywhere.
As for the antagonist, he had also fallen silent for a long time due to the backlash from the Forbidden Art.
Unable to reach any of the influential figures she could rely on, Liu Wuzhi was troubled when the scent of smoke drifted into the small courtyard, and a surprised female voice sounded in her ear: “Did you plant this… Dream-Embracing Herb?”
Looking up, she saw that the Delusive Epiphyllum Guardian, Lü Xiao, had arrived uninvited at some point, staring curiously at the green plants in the immortal herb section.
During these days, the undercover beauty had kept to herself without any movement. Lü Xiao had been urged by Yuan Lan to confirm whether Liu Wuzhi was alive or dead and to secretly investigate whether the recent assassination attempts against the Sovereign Lord were related to this undercover agent. But as soon as she arrived, she forgot her original purpose.
“This thing has the ability to communicate with dream souls and is most suitable for making medicine or poison. It’s always in short supply. The last time I saw it was decades ago—truly nostalgic,” she said, taking out her smoking pipe. “How long will it take for these seedlings to grow? Let me help you.”
Faster than Liu Wuzhi could say “don’t,” Lü Xiao poured immortal essence from her smoking pipe. Mist rose, and the plants instantly sprouted and grew.
Lü Xiao plucked the mature plant with satisfaction: “See? It’s fully grown now.”
“No, that won’t do!” Liu Wuzhi stepped forward urgently. “Look, although the Dream-Embracing Herb forced to mature has thick leaves, its roots and stems are very thin. In another day, the leaves will start to yellow, and it won’t have any medicinal effect at all.”
The distance was too close. Lü Xiao first assumed a defensive posture, but seeing that she posed no threat, she responded with skepticism: “Dream-Embracing Herbs in the Seven Territories and Eight Wildlands all grow like this.”
So it seemed Demonic Cultivators didn’t know how to cultivate healthy seedlings—no wonder they always had to raid the Immortal Realm.
Liu Wuzhi sighed softly: “The seasons cannot be skipped; flowering and fruiting must be waited for patiently. Don’t rush.”
Lü Xiao frowned at this: “Wait? That would just mean missing the chance to make money.”
Liu Wuzhi replied: “But the Dream-Embracing Herb is meant for creating dreams. Why use it to make money?”
This left Lü Xiao momentarily speechless. She took a drag of her cigarette as if to hide her reaction, glanced around the orderly little garden, and changed the subject: “When did you learn how to cultivate plants?”
Liu Wuzhi’s heart skipped a beat: “I learned from books.”
Lü Xiao curled her lip: “The Sovereign Lord despises pedantic writings. Most of the Demon Palace’s library is empty—where would such irrelevant miscellaneous texts come from?”
Liu Wuzhi stammered, unable to answer.
So the Demon Lord didn’t like books—no wonder he hadn’t taken her Seven Souls Soul-Guiding Tome.
Fortunately, Lü Xiao didn’t press further. Gazing at the vibrant plants flourishing in the garden, she reminisced: “Back in the day, I was wronged over a single Dream-Embracing Herb too.”
She had been the lowliest of immortal maidservants. After receiving a word of praise from an Immortal Venerable, she was framed by her peers for stealing a Dream-Embracing Herb, thrown into a dungeon, and tortured into a false confession. Ironically, the one who ultimately carried out her punishment was the very Immortal Venerable who had once praised her.
“Now, not only do I feast on immortal marrow every day, but I also don’t have to cater to anyone’s whims. I can kill as I please and never endure that kind of humiliation again. Being a Demonic Cultivator truly is carefree and joyful.”
As she spoke, the red mark between her eyebrows flickered incessantly.
Liu Wuzhi remembered that what distinguished Demons from monsters, aside from differences in power, was that Demons possessed a singular obsession—less focused on form and more on the heart.
In other words, only those with an obsession belonged to the demon race.
Lü Xiao and the Demon Lord’s obsession was revenge, but what was Wuzhi’s obsession?
In the cultivation world, everyone sought to attain the Dao and Ascend to Immortality—the same kind of obsession. So why weren’t they Demons?
The immortal herb, lacking such an obsession, couldn’t understand.
Both lost in their own thoughts, they were interrupted by a drawn-out sound: “Mew”
Beside a damp, soft dirt pit, a few tufts of fur trembled. Moments later, the little tiger cub pushed aside the clods of earth and poked its head out.
Its vivid blue fur and white stripes were now covered in a layer of grimy dust, with bits of grass stuck to its nose, but that didn’t hinder its innate vitality. It tilted its head, staring at the pair of bare feet beneath Lü Xiao’s skirt, and let out another kitten-like whimper.
“Mew”
Lü Xiao, who had been muttering about killing and flaying, instantly changed her expression: “A blue-striped tiger cub?”
Her red eyes seemed to shimmer with starlight: “This lineage of magical beasts was nearly extinct a century ago. How did you manage to find a purebred?”
Seeing that she wanted to touch it but was restraining herself, Liu Wuzhi said: “If you like it, sister, you can take it back.”
This Fierce Beast had grown accustomed to running wild in the Defiled Realm, always fighting and never tilling the land—it definitely needed some reforming.
“Who said I liked it?” Lü Xiao paused. “Wait, you’re giving it… to me?”
Liu Wuzhi nodded: “It specializes in eating poisonous things.”
Blue-striped tigers had enormous appetites, and since Lü Xiao was in charge of internal affairs, she surely had access to more poisons than Liu Wuzhi did.
“The poisonous herbs here still need some time to grow. Feeding it forced-ripened ones isn’t good for the magical beast’s health. Why don’t you raise it, sister?”
“And besides, it likes you.” As Liu Wuzhi spoke, she lowered her gaze and gave a meaningful glance.
The blue-striped tiger understood immediately, stumbling over to pounce. Its little paw pads landed with a soft pat on the hem of Guardian Wang Tan’s skirt, the demon markings beneath its fur shimmering with a faint blue glow.
Damn, that’s adorable.
Lü Xiao’s eyes widened, her mind racing: What if this spy has ill intentions… But what’s there to fear? It’s just a tiger cub… But if the Sovereign Lord finds out… No, she can’t resist it anymore—ahhhhh!
A moment later, the smoking pipe in Guardian Wang Tan’s hand was replaced by a fluffy tiger cub. She stroked it nonstop, though her expression remained composed. “One does not accept gifts without merit. Do you have a request for me?”
Liu Wuzhi was equally straightforward. “I want to find a few helpers.”
Lü Xiao assumed she simply lacked attendants. “All matters in the Demon Palace are at the Sovereign Lord’s discretion. I cannot make such decisions.”
If her accomplices were to sneak in, it would only cause more trouble.
Hearing that she needed to approach the Demon Lord, Liu Wuzhi felt a wave of pressure. “Then how should I please the Sovereign Lord to get him to find helpers for me?”
“Please him? So you really do want to seduce the Sovereign Lord.” Lü Xiao seemed to have seen through her motives. “Don’t get carried away. The reason the Sovereign Lord showed you some leniency before was only to lure out the traitors. Now that the Desolate Ruins have vanished again, you’re probably of little use anymore.”
Liu Wuzhi blinked innocently.
So, pleasing him means seducing him. Her goal of pleasing the Demon Lord to return home and the antagonist’s demand for her to seduce him had unexpectedly converged. Truly fitting for a spy.
Liu Wuzhi tried to prove her other worth. “I can also help the Sovereign Lord grow herbs.”
“…?”
When facing the Sovereign Lord, people in the demon realm either trembled in fear or burned with fervor. Only she remained calm and composed.
Thinking of her unpredictable master, Lü Xiao mused: In a way, they actually seem somewhat compatible, don’t they?
She quickly suppressed her gossipy thoughts. “In my opinion, you’d be better off honing your skills in the bedchamber. Perhaps when the Sovereign Lord executes you someday, he might at least leave your body intact.”
Liu Wuzhi grew even more confused. “What are bedchamber skills?”
She only knew of skills for the air and water.
Lü Xiao twitched at the corner of her eye. “You’ve already Attended the Bedchamber, and you still have the nerve to ask me?”
“But I still don’t really know how.” Liu Wuzhi earnestly sought guidance. “Sister Lü Xiao, please teach me.”
The Demon Lord had already let her sleep in his bed twice. Who knew if he’d allow it again next time? To avoid exposing her identity, she needed to quickly learn the proper way to climb into bed—no, the proper way to Attend the Bedchamber.
Lü Xiao fell silent for a long while before finally stepping closer to ask, “Last time in the Sovereign Lord’s chamber, how exactly did you Attend the Bedchamber?”
Liu Wuzhi gestured as she recalled. “The Sovereign Lord threw me onto the bed, choked my neck, touched my hair, and took off my clothes.”
Lü Xiao grew intrigued. “And then?”
Liu Wuzhi replied, “After we finished talking, he left.”
“…” Everything was set, and you’re telling me it stopped there?!
Lü Xiao refused to believe it. “At that time, what did you do?”
Liu Wuzhi said, “I looked at the Sovereign Lord.”
“Anything else?”
“We chatted face-to-face.”
Lü Xiao: ?
No wonder the Sovereign Lord left so quickly that day! Even with such obvious hints, she still didn’t understand. Is there something wrong with this spy?!
But isn’t she a seduction cultivator?!
Lü Xiao gritted her teeth in frustration, raising her hand to knock some sense into the other’s forehead, only to realize she was holding a fluffy-tailed tiger cub instead of her pipe. Tucking the cub under her arm, she yanked Liu Wuzhi over forcefully. “Come with me.”
“But the garden still needs watering…”
“Seems like your brain needs draining instead!”
The Delusive Epiphyllum Guardian had thought it was already devastating enough that the Sovereign Lord would stoop to selling his charms to extract information, but he never expected this undercover agent to show no respect at all. And then, considering the recent rumors about the Demon Lord’s “Hidden Affliction”… sigh!
Sovereign Lord, they have all wronged you!
The residences of the Five Great Guardians were quite far apart, yet Liu Wuzhi was dragged to Lü Xiao’s courtyard in the blink of an eye, her feet never touching the ground the entire way.
As soon as she entered, Lü Xiao cautiously scanned her surroundings. Only after confirming no one was around did she open a secret chamber, retrieving a yellowed ancient scroll from the dust-covered, hidden-locked bottom shelf of a storage rack. On it were four large characters: Yellow-Red Arts.
Opening the scroll, she found it was actually an illustrated manual, much easier to understand than the text-heavy Seven Souls Soul-Guiding Tome. Each drawing depicted a man and a woman.
The Yellow-Red Arts, also known as Chamber Arts or Male-Female Qi Union Arts.
“Study this book well. Once you’ve mastered it,” Lü Xiao tightly wrapped the illustrated manual in silk cloth and stuffed it into her hands, emphasizing, “don’t say I gave it to you.”
“If you dare leak it, I’ll peel off your grass skin.”
Liu Wuzhi nodded. Seeing her act so mysteriously only strengthened her belief that this was a secret manual not passed down to the outside world.
No wonder the elders always said, “Understanding worldly affairs is all learning.” It turns out seduction is also something that requires cultivation.
Once she mastered this, she would surely be able to more smoothly impersonate Wuzhi and please the Demon Lord.
“It’s not in vain that you call me ‘sister’,” Lü Xiao cleared her throat lightly. “Now that you’ve taken this, when the blue-striped tiger cub grows up…”
This time, Liu Wuzhi immediately grasped her meaning: “Sister, you can keep it as long as you like. I have many more magical beasts over there.”
Lü Xiao patted the little tuft on her head with satisfaction. “You’re quite sensible.”
Before parting, she added one more piece of advice: “In the future, if the Sovereign Lord punishes you, remember to make good use of those eyes of yours.”
Liu Wuzhi tilted her head. “My… eyes?”
Lü Xiao smiled at her. “Yes, just like that is perfect.”
What she referred to was not the seductive contours of this physical body, but the unparalleled brilliance contained deep within those pupils. Smiling, they resembled twilight clouds and slender willows; tearful, they were like spring rain and pear blossoms, illuminating the Three Hun and Seven Po, purifying all distracting thoughts, allowing even this eternally dark demonic realm to glimpse a sliver of daylight.
Keeping company with these eternally damned villains, one could only hope this bright pearl would not be tarnished.
Having obtained the “secret manual,” Liu Wuzhi became even busier. Besides planting grass and raising cubs, she now had to burn the midnight oil studying.
As for why the people in the drawings were all naked, Little Immortal Grass accepted it quickly. After all, being naked made things clearer to see.
The manual had no annotations. Even though Liu Wuzhi studied it diligently, practicing alone against thin air for a long time, she still couldn’t grasp why mimicking the acrobatic poses in the drawings would please the Demon Lord.
“Yin and yang unite, qi and blood blend… isn’t this just the principle of grafting Spiritual Plants?” She decided to find a partner to act it out.
The two-headed demon lizard’s skin was too rough, so Liu Wuzhi caught a bone-eroding wolf and earnestly instructed it: “You need to be fiercer, like the Demon Lord.”
After being detoxified, the bone-eroding wolf had also reverted to its cub form. Upon hearing this, it let out an “awoo.”
Liu Wuzhi pressed the little wolf cub flat on its back on the ground, leaning over it in a stacking position—human dual cultivation was really so troublesome. Lingzhi only needed to touch hyphae to solve the problem.
As the human and beast drew closer, Liu Wuzhi could clearly see the Bone-Eroding Wolf cub’s round, wide eyes and its submissive, helpless posture. It even retracted its sharp claws before she approached.
Cute enough, but lacking in ferocity.
“……” No good. The Demon Lord is too beautiful—looking at this ugly thing just doesn’t let me get into the role.
Bone-Eroding Wolf cub: ?
Liu Wuzhi seriously reflected on the lesson, deciding that the magical beast partner wasn’t suitable. As Wuzhi, it would be easier to grasp the essence by finding a human-shaped practice target.
After some thought, she decided to go find Yuan Lan.
The Calamity-Darkness Guardian spent his days with corpse puppets, so he must have plenty of experience with “physical contact.”
Wuzhi was skilled in nothing but seduction arts. Without Lü Xiao’s help, Liu Wuzhi had to take a long detour after leaving her courtyard to reach Yuan Lan’s residence. Strangely, the Demon Palace was unusually quiet today—not a soul in sight even in the central courtyard, though the smell of blood hung thick in the air.
With her status as the Ember Ruins Guardian, she slipped in without needing to announce herself.
Inside the courtyard, a damp, rotting odor mingled with the metallic scent of rust. Mutilated corpses lay half-submerged in a dark red pool of blood. Yuan Lan stood with his back to Liu Wuzhi, his cloak hanging low as he slowly threaded a long spike through the joint of a corpse puppet.
With the sound of bone grinding against bone, two clusters of eerie green phosphorescent flames ignited in the corpse puppet’s hollow eye sockets. Its jaw clicked open and shut as if silently screaming.
Many had died inside and outside the Demon Palace recently, leaving a backlog of corpses and remains to be dealt with. This was already the seventh day Yuan Lan had been immersed in refining corpse puppets. Just as his rationality was nearly drowned in excitement and brutality, he suddenly heard a voice: “Brother Yuan Lan, I want to practice cultivation with you.”
The Calamity-Darkness Guardian paused and glanced back. “Practice cultivation?”
The consciousness sea crisis had exposed her identity, and Baili Xuanye dared not contact her for the time being. This spy must be restless, racking her brains to regain favor.
While his mind raced, Liu Wuzhi had already taken out an illustrated book and held it before him. “Practice this.”
Yuan Lan took it and flipped through a few pages. The bloodlust in his eyes gradually gave way to shock.
“……” He’d rather go blind.
Liu Wuzhi earnestly emphasized, “Besides the Sovereign Lord, only you can do this.”
Using such lewd material to seduce him—was she perhaps suffering from lonely nights??
After repeated refusals, Liu Wuzhi didn’t want to force the issue. “If you really don’t want to practice cultivation with me…”
She pointed toward the horrific blood pool piled high with corpses. “Then could you lend me a few corpse puppets to help with farming?”
Yuan Lan: ?
The Demon Lord was busy suppressing unrest on the front lines, while the Guardians were tasked with protecting the Demon Palace. With the spy beauty’s next move unclear, the Calamity-Darkness Guardian weighed his options and finally stepped into Liu Wuzhi’s little garden.
He had brought over a dozen corpse puppets to handle chores, but in just three days, the demon beast cubs had devoured every last one of them. To uncover the spy’s motives, Yuan Lan had no choice but to take matters into his own hands.
With a wave of his feathered fan, Heaven-Burying Abyss Water transformed into raindrops and sprinkled down.
“Amazing, Brother Yuan Lan!” Liu Wuzhi cheered from the sidelines, offering plenty of emotional support. “The soil you’ve turned is so loose and even, and you even water the flowers!”
Listening to the endless stream of praise, Yuan Lan began to feel a bit lightheaded.
The demon realm had only ever known three colors: black for night, white for bone, and red for blood. But now, gazing at the garden full of tender green, what welled up in his heart wasn’t the hollow boredom after killing, but a deep sense of fulfillment.
Growing grass was far more interesting than the dirty work of refining corpse puppets.
The outside world was in turmoil, but within the small garden, all was peaceful. At this moment, Yuan Lan suddenly understood a little why those hypocrites from the Immortal Sect were so fond of worldly cultivation. After these days of labor, even he felt his desires and obsessions had diminished somewhat.
…Wait, what was he doing?! He was clearly a Demonic Cultivator!!
Beside him, the little girl feeding the magical beasts continued her chatter: “With Brother Yuan Lan here, the young ones are behaving too. Otherwise, they’re always nibbling on the tender sprouts.”
Her tone held unconditional gratitude, tinged with a small joy. With her around, even the most agitated heart inexplicably grew calm.
The Calamity-Darkness Guardian waved his feather fan once more.
Forget it. Demonic Cultivators didn’t necessarily have to fight and kill. Hoeing and shoveling weren’t so bad either.
After the crimson night swallowed the royal city, a dark rain quietly arrived.
Greasy water rolled down the blade of the sword, mingling with the blood and flowing down, carving sticky red streams across the amethyst-paved corridor floor.
Baili Zheque dragged his heavy steps, his battle armor shattered, wounds gaping hideously. The deepest one nearly pierced through his shoulder blade, with dark purple demon energy seeping out in wisps.
The pain of flesh and blood was far less than the soul-rending agony in his right eye. Every pulse brought a sharp, bone-deep throbbing. The world before his eyes sometimes flooded with crimson, sometimes twisted into bizarre, fragmented shards.
The Demon Lord was not immune to injury; he was simply accustomed to bloodshed and slaughter. The two pains ebbed and flowed, and Baili Zheque even found a strange exhilaration in it.
These days, he had almost become a tireless killing machine, crushing one rebellious den after another. The dying curses of Demonic Generals mixed with the wails of battlefield ghosts buzzed in his ears—still far better than the three-hundred-year nightmare at the bottom of the Heaven-Burying Abyss.
No, perhaps not just three hundred years, but countless lifetimes.
The burning pain in his right eye grew increasingly vivid, like a scalding needle repeatedly piercing his eyeball. Baili Zheque instinctively tried to raise his sword, but it triggered a violent cough that agitated all his wounds, bringing a metallic sweetness to his throat.
He thought of the Immortal-Demon Conversion Array that Liu Wuzhi had clumsily tinkered with—it did seem to offer a faint, slight relief.
His fingertips attempted to channel demon essence, but under such severe injuries, the magic array simply could not coalesce.
“Wang Tan.” A hoarse voice echoed in the empty royal hall.
Lü Xiao instantly appeared not far behind him, posture respectful yet tinged with hidden fear. She was all too familiar with this version of the Sovereign Lord—wreathed in lingering bloodshed and ferocity, like a volcano on the verge of eruption, utterly dangerous.
“Medicine.” Baili Zheque was brief.
Lü Xiao lowered her head, cradling a jade box in her palm. Inside lay the withered remains of several Spiritual Plants.
Spiritual Plants were inherently poisonous to the demon race, yet they were called “medicine.”
“Lord, please calm your anger. The mature plants cultivated earlier… have almost all withered,” she said with difficulty. “The Spiritual Plants seized from the Immortal Sect last time were already ill-suited to our environment. Forcibly extracting their celestial power to convert into magical power hastened their withering, and the effect was… extremely minimal.”
The growth conditions for rare Spiritual Plants were exceedingly harsh. Even the Delusive Epiphyllum Guardian, who hailed from an Immortal Garden, found cultivation beyond her strength.
After a pause, as if recalling something, Lü Xiao cautiously added, “However, it seems Lady Wuzhi has been growing something over there. She has quite a knack for tending to flowers and plants.”
This was both a fact and a test. The demon realm was engulfed in endless war, its land barren and toxic, making it difficult for plants to grow. That Wuzhi could cultivate anything at all was inherently suspicious.
More importantly, by leading the Sovereign Lord there, she could temporarily slip away and check on her furry little tiger cub. These past few days, busy handling the aftermath of the battlefield, she hadn’t had time to cuddle that little bundle.
Blood trickled sharply down the line of his jaw. The Demon Lord slowly turned his face, his one intact left eye seeming to pierce through Lü Xiao’s thoughts: “A single blue-striped tiger has won your loyalty?”
Lü Xiao stiffened all over, cold sweat soaking through her back. She fell to her knees with a thump on the Amethyst floor: Damn it, she got carried away!
Fear instantly seized her—would she die here? If she died, what would happen to the little tiger cub? It was still so small. What if it, confused and naive, came out looking for her and ran into this god of slaughter before her…
Baili Zheque clearly sensed the intense emotions radiating from the woman at his feet. Not the usual ruthless scheming or fawning flattery, but pure terror, fear of loss, and even… fragile pleading.
The Delusive Epiphyllum Guardian was vicious and cruel, obsessed only with consuming immortal marrow. In just a few short days, that spy had developed other attachments?
“Heh…” A laugh, extremely soft, yet chilling to the bone. It was the signal the Demon Lord often gave before killing, mixed with a twisted sense of amusement.
Lü Xiao closed her eyes in despair.
The anticipated fatal blow did not fall. When she looked up again, only a wisp of blood-saturated Demon Breath remained in the spot.
A dreary rain of blood fell from a dark, overcast sky.
Netherworld Butterflies fluttered gracefully, transforming and stretching into a black canopy formed from the skeletal frames of butterfly wings, as Dusk Crows descended and morphed into the umbrella’s handle. The Demon Lord held the umbrella, step by step, walking toward the courtyard of the Ember Ruins Guardian.
The lens before his right eye was dampened by raindrops, each step accompanied by a bone-deep, excruciating pain. A mix of biting cold and searing agony—this sensation somewhat resembled the wretched state of his youth, dragging his maimed body as he fled the demon realm.
At the entrance to the residence, the once congealed and blackened bloodstains had been deliberately cleaned, leaving only faint brown traces in the stone crevices. The main gate stood wide open, with several strings of roughly polished small crystal beads hanging from the lintel. They reflected colorful halos in the gloomy rain, like a child’s clumsy decoration, exuding an abrupt yet strangely vibrant vitality.
Inside the courtyard, a place that should have been filled with torture devices and echoing with miserable screams, was now so quiet that only the rustling of rain on leaves remained. No scent of blood, only the damp smell of earth washed by the rain.
In the center of the yard, the figure of a young girl entered his blurred vision.
She wore light, plain clothes suitable for movement, her long hair loosely tied into two small buns with ribbons. She sat on the cleaned stone steps once used for drying corpses, tilting her small face upward, allowing the cold rain to pour over her.
A drop of water happened to land on the tip of her nose, bouncing before sliding down toward her lips. The girl did not flinch. Droplets also clung to her eyelashes, trembling with every blink. Her pupils held a pure curiosity and tranquility, as if she were earnestly observing and experiencing the rain itself—utterly out of place with the grim, oppressive atmosphere of the Demon Palace.
No clamor, no curses, no fear. Only the quiet sound of rain and a person watching it.
Baili Zheque’s steps halted. Raindrops formed lines from the umbrella’s edge, creating a watery curtain before his eyes. He watched the girl’s soaked, thin clothes clinging to the curves of her body, the corner of his mouth curling into a sneer—what act was this now? A clumsy attempt at seduction through a wet appearance?
As if sensing an invisible gaze, the girl on the stone steps abruptly turned her head.
Through the curtain of drizzling rain, their gazes collided violently.
One was bloodshot, burning with unextinguished killing intent and bone-deep agony.
The other was clear and pure, only flickering with a trace of confusion at being disturbed, as if asking: What are you doing here?
Author’s Note: Zhizhi will gradually win over all of the Demon Lord’s subordinates XD
The red envelopes for comments and subscriptions are given out in two waves. Wouldn’t you like to claim them all, dear readers? (Trying to tempt you [owl emoji])
Seeking collections for the upcoming pre-release “Little Pitiful Junior Brother Rescue Plan [Transmigration into a Book]”—synopsis below:
【Black Lotus Junior Brother x Porcelain Doll Senior Sister】
【Positive Vibes Only, No Darkening Allowed】
Ending a story carelessly feels great in the moment, but Lan Wan never expected to transmigrate into a nameless cannon fodder in her own abandoned pit—the senior sister of the tragic male lead, Hua Jin. Fighting enemies with a sword while coughing up blood in the wind, she’s essentially… both strong and fragile.
According to the plot, she not only drains her junior brother’s cultivation for years but also takes advantage of Hua Jin when he’s physically and emotionally wounded by the female lead, enduring a hundred heavenly bolts of lightning alone, forcing him to cut out his heart to extend her life—only to be killed by her junior brother in a desperate counterattack. Afterward, Hua Jin, left utterly alone, falls into demonhood and becomes the great villain who destroys the world.
Lan Wan weakly massages her forehead: The pit she dug herself, she must fill it no matter what.
At first, Hua Jin was as obedient as a drenched puppy.
When she sprained her waist practicing swordsmanship, Hua Jin silently brought her ointment.
When she fell off a cliff while sword-flying, Hua Jin caught her immediately.
Even when Lan Wan merely choked on a sip of water, Hua Jin would appear at just the right moment, gently patting her back: “Senior Sister, be careful.”
Until she saw the young man standing amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, slowly wiping his fingers clean, turning around with a gentle smile: “Senior Sister, the wind is strong outside. Let’s go back.”
“…?!”
Lan Wan dragged her sickly body and fled overnight, only to be gently embraced from behind as soon as she reached the mountain gate.
Hua Jin applied spiritual medicine to her wounds, his fingers lightly stroking her wrist bone, his smile not pitiful in the slightest: “Senior Sister, aren’t you going to make Ah Jin cut out his heart to extend your life anymore?”
Lan Wan’s vision went dark.
—This tragic male lead was actually reborn!
Before meeting Lan Wan, Hua Jin had already killed countless “senior sisters.”
Only for this one did he build a golden cage, tie golden bells, and drape golden veils, sometimes devout and fervent, sometimes humble and pleading, resorting to any means to impose his endless greed upon her.
Leave? Not a chance.
At the end of the story, it was the demon who chose to kill himself to send her home.
#Wait, wasn’t he supposed to be a pure white flower junior brother?
#Got locked in a dark room by a paper man after transmigrating into a book
#Is it too late to change the plot now?