Hearing his words, Xie Linghua fell silent for a moment before murmuring, “No, Junior Brother, do you still remember that little girl at the foot of Canglan Mountain? The one I saved a year ago, she would certainly never—”
“Is that so?” Shen Zaixin chuckled softly. The next instant, his sword Zhaoyan flashed out of its scabbard, and the echo of snapping chains sounded exceptionally eerie within the hollow, gloomy dungeon.
Xie Linghua collapsed limply onto the cold ground.
152 couldn’t help chiming in: You’re just letting a woman fall straight to the ground like that? Host, you truly have zero gentlemanly manners.
Shen Zaixin smiled with feigned innocence: “Even if I went to help her up, she wouldn’t accept it, fearing that her bloodstains might dirty Junior Brother’s pristine robes and burden a kind lady with guilt. Wouldn’t that also lack gentlemanly manners?”
152: Hmph, she certainly has no idea that her pristine, radiant Junior Brother is actually a hypocritical scoundrel!
Channeling his spiritual energy, Shen Zaixin transmitted it into Xie Linghua’s body, only withdrawing his hand once she finally regained the strength to stand.
“Junior Brother, what are you…?”
“I’m taking you to see the truth for yourself,” Shen Zaixin said mildly. Forming hand seals with his right hand to activate a spatial teleportation array, he stepped through it first.
Understanding what he meant by the truth, Xie Linghua pressed her lips together, finally following in silence as she stepped into the array behind him.
Protected by the spiritual energy the youth had just infused into her, the immense pressure and dizziness of the teleportation array failed to affect her in the slightest. In the blink of an eye, the two of them arrived at the town at the foot of Canglan Mountain.
Because her true form had been exposed in the city and caused a panic, the streets remained sparse and desolate even after the Canglan Sect dispatched a venerable elder to pacify the populace, devoid of their usual bustling liveliness.
However, that did not include the little girl standing beneath the large banyan tree ahead.
The unsoftened sound of footsteps rang out with crystal clarity in the quiet street. The exquisitely sculpted little girl turned her head curiously, and upon spotting the two figures, her eyes lit up brilliantly as she broke into a trot: “Immortal Xie! Immortal Shen!”
Stopping in front of Xie Linghua, the little girl caught her breath slightly, then lifted her round, wide eyes to look up with deep concern: “Immortal Xie, are you alright? Uncle Du and the others all say you’re a monster and a bad person, but Xiaoxiao knows Immortal Xie is definitely not a bad person!”
Xie Linghua crouched down to meet her at eye level, a deep wave of emotion stirring her brows as she choked out, “Xiaoxiao, thank you.”
The very second she was about to touch Xiaoxiao’s face, the spiritual energy within her body destabilized once more. Her originally gentle and serene features abruptly shifted into the monstrous, terrifying true form of a crow.
“Ah!”
The little girl’s terrified scream echoed down the entire length of the street.
Xie Linghua’s outstretched hand remained frozen in mid-air. She watched in helpless confusion as Xiaoxiao, who had just been so affectionate toward her, collapsed palely onto the ground, scrambling backward in terror and looking utterly disheveled as her body scraped a faint white mark against the bluestone pavement.
That scream carried such intense panic that it lured the surrounding townspeople out from behind their tightly shut doors, though none dared to speak up, for they had spotted the monster that was supposed to be locked away in the dungeon appearing in the world once more. Only the little girl’s mother came running out from an alley by the street, clutching a wooden stick as she shielded Xiaoxiao behind her.
Xie Linghua’s grotesque facial features had only shown themselves for a fleeting second, yet they were enough to make the little girl refuse to look her in the eye ever again. Clearly, she was the terrifying monster, yet her expression was far more shattered and helpless than that of the ordinary mortal before her.
Looking past Xie Linghua, the woman standing before her daughter gazed at the silent red-robed Immortal in the background, experiencing doubt toward the lofty immortals for the very first time: “Immortal Shen, why must you bring this monster here again? Aren’t you supposed to be an immortal who cares for all living beings?”
If not for 152 reminding him that he was currently playing the part of a hypocritical immortal, Shen Zaixin would have burst out laughing on the spot; caring for all living beings and his own nature were absolute polar opposites.
“Naturally. You can rest assured; I have sealed her demonic powers. Bringing her down the mountain this time is merely to bring closure to a lingering attachment,” Shen Zaixin put on a solemn expression, glanced at Xie Linghua whose pupils were scattered, and stated indifferently: “Now that this attachment is settled, she will be locked back in the dungeon.”
Hearing these words from Immortal Zhaoyan, the woman finally dropped her guard, reverting to her usual cautious and deferential demeanor in front of immortals: “With the Immortal here, demons and monsters naturally wouldn’t dare run rampant.”
Giving a calm nod, Shen Zaixin stepped forward to pull the paralyzed woman up from the ground, speaking quietly: “Let’s go.”
Xie Linghua followed him in a daze, keeping her head lowered in absolute silence, resembling nothing so much as a convicted criminal being led to exile.
Behind them, the little girl timidly hid in her mother’s arms, peeking through a gap in her clothes at the retreating figures.
They say ignorance is bliss; the moment she truly witnessed the true form of a demon with her own eyes, that slight touch of spiritual clarity that had made her stand out was also shattered into dust, reducing her to the level of ordinary mortals.
Right at that moment, a panic-stricken cry suddenly rang out from the alley: “Husband, what’s wrong with you? Don’t scare your wife!”
Shen Zaixin pretended not to hear a thing, but Xie Linghua, true to her nature as a healer, came to a halt, even though these people despised and feared her.
“If Senior Sister wishes to save him, I will not stop you,” Shen Zaixin said mildly.
Raising her haggard face, Xie Linghua forced a faint curve onto her lips: “Thank you.”
With that, she lifted her feet and walked toward the depths of the alley.
152 clicked its tongue in wonder: If this senior sister of yours had been born in the era before you transmigrated, she would be the ultimate doormat.
Following behind her, Shen Zaixin replied softly in his mind: “She simply longs for the feeling of being needed.”
The self-healing capabilities of cultivators were exceptionally powerful, meaning they usually required only high-grade elixirs; as for medical cultivators, only mortals truly had need of them.
Though Xie Linghua was a crow, no one knew that her spiritual energy could heal all manner of injuries, save for the fact that the spiritual energy she expended could never be recovered, causing irreversible damage to her own body.
She required no precious elixirs, and those seeking treatment didn’t even need to pay any price to recover completely. Had mortals not always loved to exaggerate cultivators into paragons of virtue without ever digging into the hidden secrets behind it, his senior sister would likely never have known peace again.
By the time he reached the afflicted household, the family inside had already descended into complete chaos due to Xie Linghua’s arrival.
“I can save him,” a gentle voice drifted from inside.
“You’re a demon, an evil crow at that! Why should we trust you?” Seeing that the newcomer, despite being a demon, possessed an ordinary presence, the woman’s hatred quickly overwhelmed her terror. “Mother, you absolutely cannot trust her! My husband suddenly fell like this; it might just be because she brought bad luck by coming here!”
Before the white-haired old woman could utter a response, a flash of red crossed the threshold, his striking and dazzling appearance instantly drawing the attention of the crowded room.
“It’s Immortal Shen!”
“Could Immortal Shen have come looking for this demon, Lady Xie?”
The crowd automatically parted to clear a pathway. Without walking all the way in, Shen Zaixin simply stood at the entrance, casting a lazy glance at the unconscious man on the floor who was twitching and having sudden symptoms resembling an epileptic seizure.
He then lifted her gaze to calmly sweep over the woman blocking Xie Linghua’s path: “Your husband’s condition can probably only be cured by this former Medical Immortal.”
Someone immediately stepped forward to advise: “Ah, with Immortal Shen watching right here, what are you worried about?”
“This… ah, very well.” Hesitating for a moment, the woman stepped aside to clear the way to the unconscious man, holding her breath alongside everyone else in the room.
Leaning against the doorframe, the red-robed Immortal showed zero concern for the situation inside, lazily admiring the fragrant osmanthus tree in the courtyard and letting his thoughts drift away.
It was already the season for osmanthus pastries.
The system’s cold, mechanical voice chimed in: Don’t think I don’t know that you brought Xie Linghua down the mountain simply to skip this month’s sword-lecture.
The monthly lecture at the Sword-Questioning Platform was something Shen Zaixin was supposed to host, yet every single time he showed up looking utterly impatient, while the junior disciples were utterly captivated by him as if under a spell.
They had no idea that this immortal spent all his energy thinking about how to slack off. Thinking of this, 152 let out a cold snort; in their System Department, a slacker with such zero ambition would have been ruthlessly purged!
“Sending an immortal full of bad intentions to teach a batch of innocent kids, aren’t you afraid the lecture will turn into a villain recruitment seminar?” Shen Zaixin smiled amiably.
152 imagined that exact scenario, shuddering through all its data: That would be terrifying!
Amidst their exchange, fragments of conversation from inside the room drifted to his ears.
“He’s awake, he’s awake!”
“Husband, how do you feel? You scared your wife to death!”
After a round of anxious fussing, Xie Linghua’s flustered voice suddenly rang out: “What are you doing? You mustn’t!”
The woman, who had previously been full of hatred and terror, knelt down beside Xie Linghua along with her entire family, kowtowing in gratitude: “Thank you, Immortal Healer, for saving his life! Earlier, this wife was rude and misunderstood the Immortal Healer’s kind intentions. I was truly blind!”
Unexplainably weary of such scenes, Shen Zaixin decisively leaped up onto the rooftop, resting the back of his head against his arms as he closed his eyes to rest. Unable to hear those voices, his mind instantly grew peaceful.
Before long, he sensed a familiar aura approaching: “Junior Brother.”
Shen Zaixin slowly opened his eyes, offering a lazy acknowledgment.
“I want to stay here.” Serene joy flickered within Xie Linghua’s calm eyes. People had accepted her identity as a demon, and she was needed.
Yet she also understood that this matter required Shen Zaixin’s approval; since he was the one who had brought her down the mountain, she couldn’t cause trouble for him. But when her junior brother turned to look at her, she couldn’t decipher the emotions hidden within those soul-captivating phoenix eyes.
It was only later that she realized that look was called pity.
“Follow Senior Sister’s wishes. I will handle the rest.”
To avoid the lecture, Shen Zaixin used the excuse of worrying about his senior sister’s unstable spiritual power to remain behind as well, much to the delight of the townspeople.
He owned a private courtyard in the town that was reasonably elegant, though naturally incomparable to the Azure Sky Palace. Perhaps for this reason, his sleep on the first night was rather unsettled, drifting into a hazy dream strikingly similar to the one before.
No, it should be said it was a dream far more excessive than the last.
A warm, solid chest pressed down against him, and his tongue was left aching from the unrestrained, greedy suckling of the dream figure. Shen Zaixin couldn’t make out the face of the figure in his dream, but he vaguely felt that the other’s build was slightly taller than an ordinary man’s, capable of gathering his entire body into a tight embrace.