A bloody lump of flesh was tossed right in front of her.
What, was she supposed to use her delicate ginseng roots to absorb nutrients from this pile of flesh and blood?
This villain was one hundred percent a caveman from the mountaintop!
But the other party was the villain, with terrifying destructive power, and not someone easy to offend…
Tian Luo forced a smile and said gently, “Bao, I don’t like eating raw food.”
She had originally wanted to say she didn’t eat meat, but what if this guy’s brain was too straightforward and he actually believed her, then made her eat only vegetables forever? That would be a disaster.
Lu Qizhi frowned. “Aren’t you a ginseng? Don’t you use your roots to absorb spiritual energy? This is an Iron-Piercing Beast. Spiritual energy is wrapped beneath its hide—very dense.”
!!!!!
His tone was so matter-of-fact!!!
Tian Luo even felt that he probably thought skinning the Iron-Piercing Beast for her was already being especially considerate!!!
Meeting the villain’s serious, intensely focused, and faintly irritable gaze—
Tian Luo choked on her words, thought for three seconds, and said carefully, “Well… it’s like this. After I took human form, I stopped eating like that. It’s fine. We didn’t know each other before, so it’s normal that you wouldn’t know.”
Lu Qizhi looked at her suspiciously.
It was exactly the kind of expression that said I’m eager to learn, so while I still have patience, hurry up and finish your nonsense.
“Well, now we’ve gone through killing people together, so I think we need deeper communication. Like telling each other our food preferences. For example, I like—”
Tian Luo paused, then rattled off, “Sweet-and-sour pork ribs, yuxiang shredded pork, braised prawns in oil, chestnut chicken stew, Four Joy meatballs, stir-fried beef, roasted squab, braised pork knuckle, osmanthus cake, chestnut cake, hibiscus cake, mung bean cake, mala cake, pumpkin cake.”
If she hadn’t noticed the villain’s expression growing darker and darker, she could’ve kept naming dishes.
Out of politeness, she symbolically asked, “So what do you like to eat?”
The villain said nothing, only glanced at the bloody Iron-Piercing Beast corpse on the ground, his face gloomy.
Tian Luo: ???
No way.
He couldn’t actually eat that, could he?
Tian Luo thought of the sticky bloodstains in that cave.
Case solved.
She hesitated, ready to tell him it was okay, he could eat first and she could wait.
But the villain spoke first.
“I don’t eat.”
Tian Luo could understand that. Someone as powerful as the villain probably only needed spiritual energy. But she couldn’t do that.
She was greedy.
Suddenly, Lu Qizhi pressed his fingers against his temple, irritation showing between his brows. His breathing had grown heavier than usual.
Tian Luo immediately noticed and instinctively looked at his chest.
In the night, the huge hole in his chest had started tearing open again, blood soaking the entire front of his robes.
She suddenly understood why the villain wore black.
It hid stains.
“What’s wrong? Does it hurt?” Tian Luo asked with concern.
Lu Qizhi glanced at her, said nothing, and tossed her onto his shoulder. His whole body shot forward like an arrow, charging straight toward the Spirit Suppression Formation.
Tian Luo felt like they’d reached it in the blink of an eye.
The moment they flew out, Tian Luo sharply sensed something behind them and couldn’t help turning back.
At that exact moment, she saw the Spirit Suppression Formation erupt with purple light.
That purple light looked almost identical to the glow from the villain’s ultimate move.
In an instant, the entire Tianyan Sect looked like it had been wrapped in a giant net of thunder.
The momentum was overwhelming.
Meanwhile, the Ancestor Xuwang, who had just arrived at the Zixu Sword Sect, suddenly felt his soul shake violently. His expression changed drastically, and he disappeared from where he stood, rushing back toward Tianyan Sect.
At that moment, Tian Luo heard the villain let out a cold laugh.
Turning to look at him, she saw him smiling happily.
He was already beautiful to begin with. Normally, his face was always gloomy, carrying an aura of violence and destruction, but now, smiling in genuine delight, even the brightest star in the night sky couldn’t compare to half his brilliance.
The villain tilted his head up at her, his eyes curved in a smile, carrying traces of purple light.
“The Liu bloodline is finished.”
Tian Luo didn’t understand, but seeing him happy made her happy too.
“How so?”
The villain froze for a moment. Then he remembered Tian Luo had no idea what he was talking about.
And explaining it would mean bringing up unpleasant memories.
His face darkened again.
Tian Luo: ?
The villain was always angry.
Tian Luo thought of how his eyes had sparkled just now and couldn’t help sweet-talking him.
“You’re amazing. What does the Liu family even count for? You could crush them with one finger!”
The villain’s lips curled upward again.
He glanced at Tian Luo, and there was even a trace of approval in his eyes.
He laughed softly.
“You really think so?”
The evening wind carried his laughter into her ears, and Tian Luo was caught off guard by how charming it sounded.
But her ginseng-heart remained steady.
She continued sweet-talking him.
“I really do.”
Lu Qizhi was genuinely in a good mood.
After being imprisoned for so many years, this was the first time he’d felt this good.
Then he decided to say a little more, so she could share in that happiness.
After thinking for a moment, he explained patiently:
“That old thing, Liu Fulong, stole my belongings and now wants to use them to restrain me. But my things—how could that group of mediocre fools possibly control them? Even Liu Fulong himself would have to think twice. If it’s those useless descendants of his, they can only sacrifice their souls to my belongings.”
After speaking, he laughed again.
“My Thunder Breath earlier can’t harm the souls of cultivators above Void Refinement. But those idiots, panicking and unable to contact Liu Fulong, could only destroy their own souls together. My belongings devoured the souls of thirty-eight Void Refinement cultivators. Feels good.”
This was the longest Tian Luo had ever heard Lu Qizhi speak.
At first glance, it really did sound like something worth celebrating.
But somehow… it still felt off.
Lu Qizhi directly carried Tian Luo away from Tianyan Sect, leaving behind the Tianyan Sect cultivators, who were on high alert yet still unable to find the Tan Gu Demon Ancestor.
He was in such a good mood that he took Tian Luo to raid a restaurant in Qingyin City.
Everyone in the dining hall was thrown out by Lu Qizhi with a dark expression.
Tian Luo was so touched she could cry.
Looking at the luxurious restaurant and the delicious food, she held a chicken drumstick in one hand and gnawed on a pork knuckle with the other as she asked him,
“Do we really not need to pay?”
Is this what it feels like to go out with the villain?!
This is amazing!
Lu Qizhi wore the full expression of a demon king villain, elegant and cold, as he looked at the trembling waiter bringing dishes over.
The waiter was an ordinary mortal, his legs shaking.
“N-no… no payment needed.”
Even the local Golden Core tyrant of Qingyin City had just been tossed out.
He was just a pitiful waiter. How would he dare ask for money?
Tian Luo looked at him gratefully and said, “Your pork knuckle is really delicious! I’ll definitely come back often!”
Waiter: Please don’t!
He glanced nervously at Lu Qizhi beside her, then said tearfully,
“W-we welcome you anytime.”
Tian Luo left with her belly round and full, completely satisfied.
Since Lu Qizhi had cleared out the whole restaurant, she didn’t hear the gossip from the people thrown outside.
They were discussing excitedly, not even caring about being kicked out—
“Did you see the Bishui Immortal Forum? They say a ten-thousand-year ginseng spirit has appeared, and it’s at the Zixu Sword Sect now.”
“How dare the Zixu Sword Sect? They’re hiding a ten-thousand-year ginseng?”
“This might be true or false. I heard the Tan Gu Demon Ancestor escaped, and Tianyan Sect doesn’t have time to deal with trivial matters. Otherwise, how would it be Zixu Sword Sect’s turn?”
“I’m heading to Zixu Sword Sect immediately to check! But without a teleportation talisman, it’ll take several days.”
…
Tian Luo and Lu Qizhi returned to Tenth Peak.
On the way back, Tian Luo secretly glanced at him several times.
She kept wondering—why hadn’t he left her behind? Why was he still following her back to Tenth Peak?
What reason could there possibly be?
Could it really be something absurd like repaying kindness?
The eighth time she looked over, Lu Qizhi expressionlessly looked back at her.
“?”
Tian Luo frowned and said thoughtfully, “There’s a blade of grass in your hair. I’ll remove it.”
Lu Qizhi ignored her and let her do as she pleased.
He looked absent-minded, as though calculating something.
Tian Luo didn’t care what he was thinking.
She was only thinking that tonight she needed to take another bath and refill her clay jars.
When they got back, Tian Luo strangely discovered that Tenth Peak was raining.
Yes.
Only Tenth Peak was being drenched in a torrential downpour.
She quickly pulled out an umbrella and held it over herself and the villain.
Her master looked completely used to it. Holding a huge umbrella over his head, he lay in a recliner in the courtyard picking his teeth.
Her Senior Brother, shirtless, was practicing swordsmanship in the stormy darkness. His sword qi sliced through the rain, scattering it, and he was putting in so much force it looked like his eight-pack was about to burst.
“You’re back!”
Wuyinzi raised his eyes and greeted Tian Luo and Lu Qizhi warmly.
“Did you manage to grab the spicy chicken claws tonight?”
Tian Luo tilted her head at a forty-five-degree angle and stared sorrowfully at the sky.
“No.”
Wuyinzi immediately consoled her with an expression of try earlier next time.
“It’s fine. Just eat your fill tomorrow morning. It’s only one night—better than eating fasting pills.”
Then Tian Luo replied, “But I went to Qingyin City’s Wanganlou and ate braised pork knuckle, sweet-and-sour ribs, braised prawns, crispy fried chicken legs, and Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.”
Wuyinzi: “…”
Su Miantang, who had been practicing swordsmanship, accidentally shook his sword. Drenched in rain, he ran over excitedly, practically drooling.
“Junior Sister, can you take Senior Brother with you next time?”
Seeing his handsome rain-soaked face, Tian Luo suddenly remembered a hidden side-story setting about him from the novel.
Because the author updated slowly, she’d read it a year apart and treated it like a completely different book, so she hadn’t remembered when she first met Su Miantang.
Su Miantang was originally the most talented sword cultivator in the entire Zixu Sword Sect.
But because he was unbelievably unlucky, something always happened during every sect competition, so his rankings were terrible.
Also, he used to live on Disciple Peak, where disciples gathered.
But because of him, it rained three hundred out of three hundred sixty-five days every year, seriously affecting everyone else’s sword practice.
So Wuyinzi had gritted his teeth and brought him to live by his side, sacrificing himself for the greater good.
Misunderstanding cleared up!
So he really wasn’t master’s illegitimate son.
Because the male and female leads had protagonist luck, his bad luck didn’t affect them.
Whenever he was with them, everything stayed normal.
But ever since he arrived at Tenth Peak, it had rained three hundred days a year.
Just like now.
The torrential rain fell only on Tenth Peak.
Tian Luo remembered one time he, Tian Yue, and Nan Rong represented Zixu Sword Sect at a disciple exchange conference. They accidentally wandered into the Hehuan Sect courtyard.
Wuyinzi had happily waited for the Hehuan Sect to send a marriage proposal, planning to marry this unlucky guy into their sect so he could plague them instead.
But when they found him the next day, he’d spent the whole night playing mahjong with three female cultivators and had won all their spirit stones.
The furious female cultivators of Hehuan Sect no longer wanted the strong virgin sword cultivator who had been delivered right to them.
In the most famous extra chapter, the author finally revealed the foreshadowing behind Su Miantang’s later title—Human-Demon.
At that time, Su Miantang had gone to the remote Eastern Demon Forest to mine, hoping to earn money to support his sword.
He’d been tricked.
After mining for a month, he came back dark as charcoal and hadn’t earned a single coin.
That mining operation was basically an exploitative labor scam.
They didn’t even feed people enough, and the guards were powerful great demons.
In the end, he dug a tunnel and escaped.
From Eastern Demon Forest all the way to Zixu Sword Sect.
It took him three full months.
A lot of low-level demon beasts had smuggled themselves over too, causing no small amount of trouble for Zixu Sword Sect.
During that time, every night when it looked like Su Miantang was diligently practicing swordsmanship until midnight, he was actually going into the tunnel to feed demons.
Of course, for a fee.
Because they were all little demons, and everyone had mined together as laborers, practically becoming sworn brothers.
Su Miantang was still part of the righteous path, so he couldn’t bring himself to kill them.
Over time, he became the Human-Demon King of one region in Eastern Demon Forest.
That title had been requested by the little demons themselves from the Demon Emperor.
Even though he wasn’t a demon, his reputation among demonkind was enormous.
There had simply been too many mining demons.
To make him fit in better, the Demon Emperor had officially registered him as a demon.
Thus, he became a Human-Demon, ruling over one city as the Human-Demon King.
This wasn’t revealed until the side stories.
An apparently ordinary character who actually had an incredibly rich life experience.
The author wanted to show that every character in the story had their own life, even if they seemed ordinary.
Tian Luo looked at the upright, handsome face in front of her with complicated feelings.
Senior Brother Su is absurdly ridiculous to his ancestors!!
And the Eastern Demon Forest was a land of treasures where all the demon race lived.
When she had transmigrated into the novel, she’d been on a mountain outside the Eastern Demon Forest.
That side story had also mentioned that the ten-thousand-year ginseng spirit who died dismembered had come from the Eastern Demon Forest.
The novel never said whether she had relatives.
But there definitely had to be more than one ginseng in the world.
Anyway, having one more escape route meant she had to investigate it first.
According to the foreshadowing in the original story, Su Miantang currently went into the tunnel every night to feed the little demons.
That was also one of the reasons he was so poor and always had to keep earning money.
“Senior Brother, look, it’s not raining anywhere else. I want to go out with you and look around Zixu Mountain a bit.”
Tian Luo put on an expression like we’re bros.
Su Miantang glanced at Senior Lu, who was half-squinting nearby, and felt it wasn’t a good idea.
Senior Lu had the kind of face that looked like he wanted to eat people.
Just as he was about to refuse—
His master suddenly sprang up like a carp.
“Hurry! Hurry and go!”
The moment Wuyinzi heard Tian Luo wanted to go night wandering with Su Miantang, he immediately folded his umbrella and rushed back inside, urging them to leave quickly.
The expression on his face practically screamed that he hoped they wouldn’t come back tonight.
Tian Luo: “…”
Su Miantang: “…”
Ordinary-looking Su Miantang calmly put on his outer robe as usual and thoughtfully asked, “Junior Sister, where do you want to start?”
Tian Luo answered firmly, shattering his calm without mercy:
“Let’s start with that three-hundred-thousand-li tunnel.”
Without waiting to see Senior Brother Su’s expression, she turned to Lu Qizhi with a cheerful your shift is over expression and said,
“You can go sleep in the house now. Goodnight!”
Lu Qizhi, who had been quiet ever since returning, immediately frowned.
A storm gathered between his brows.
The way he looked at Tian Luo was like an angry, irritable husband left at home while his wife went out to have fun with some pretty boy.
Then he said darkly:
“I’m going too.”
Tian Luo: “…”
Why was the villain so clingy?!