14
Knowing the inner demon would stay at the sect to be cleansed, I felt at ease.
Taking advantage of the quiet dead of night, I slipped away from the sect.
Time flew by. After a year of traveling, I returned to the Eastern Continent and immediately heard rumors spreading everywhere.
They said Demon Venerable Huyền Mặc, who had supposedly died in battle a hundred years ago, had come back to life. The demons had rallied to him, and the Demon Realm was growing more powerful by the day.
Even stranger, the Demon Venerable had somehow fathered a child in a man's body.
For the past year, the entire Demon Realm had been searching frantically for a faithless woman who had abandoned the Demon Venerable.
“I heard she was a female disciple of an immortal sect.”
I heard the rumors at a teahouse.
“That female disciple slept with the Demon Venerable, then got dressed and walked out. She was utterly heartless.”
“How could she treat the Demon Venerable like that? Isn’t she afraid he’ll hunt her down for revenge?”
“Maybe she’s a disciple of the Hehuan Sect. Those women have always been shamelessly wanton.”
I listened with interest and asked:
“Then why does everyone say the Demon Venerable had a child? Isn’t he a man?”
An old Daoist replied:
“Miss, don’t you know? The Demon Venerable was born with demonic bones, and he also possesses half of an ancient divine bloodline.”
“Which divine bloodline?”
“The ancient Gunshen.”
I couldn’t help staring blankly.
It sounded a little familiar…
I thought I’d heard the inner demon mention it before, in my Master’s sea of consciousness.
What had he said?
“The ancient Gunshen possesses divine power. When souls unite, it can sow the seed of life.”
Could it be…?
I jolted and shook my head frantically.
No, no, no! It can’t be!
“Miss, what’s wrong?”
The kind old Daoist asked me, but the very next moment he fled the teahouse in terror.
In the blink of an eye, the once-bustling teahouse stood empty.
A chill crept down my back.
I turned around.
A silver-haired man stood silently behind me.
He wore all black, his sleeves wide. Whenever the wind blew, his robes fluttered as if an immortal had descended to earth.
He was devastatingly handsome, his features sharply chiseled, his eyes deep and dark, with a glint of red seeming to flicker in their depths.
Beneath the corner of one eye, a red mole looked like a broken teardrop.
“You… you… you…” My heart pounded, and I stammered, “You’re not my Master… You’re… the inner demon!”
He curled his lips into a faintly wicked smile.
His eyes gleamed. “I finally caught you.”
I gripped the sword at my waist and backed away step by step. “You were looking for me? Why? My Master already cleansed the demonic energy from you, didn’t he?”
Before he could answer, I spun around, leaped up, and burst through the window.
The wind roared behind me.
A strong arm suddenly cinched around my waist and held me fast.
A low male voice sounded beside my ear, making it itch unpleasantly. “Still trying to run? You heartless woman.”
I whipped around to speak, but before I could get a word out, he captured my lips.
“Mmm… we can… talk this out…”
I managed to force out a few syllables.
“I don’t want to waste time talking right now.”
He flatly refused.
I was standing on my sword and flying on it. With him added to the load, the blade began to wobble wildly.
He tightened his grip around my waist, held the back of my head with one hand, and bent down to kiss me fiercely.
My heart lurched, and the sword trembled with it.
We nearly toppled off.
As if deliberately punishing me, he dug his fingers into my waist and ravaged my lips.
“Dao Gia, this time you’re done for.”
He threatened me furiously.
I’d been caught!
I had three hundred years of cultivation, yet I couldn’t resist him for even a moment!
He imprisoned me in his palace in the Demon Realm.
The palace of Demon Venerable Huyền Mặc.
Just as I remembered from the sea of consciousness, this bedchamber was built of black jade, dark and cold.
The black-jade bed I lay on was also strangely familiar.
“You… let me go first. We can talk this out calmly.”
I tried taking a gentler approach.
“There’s nothing to discuss.”
He rejected me coldly.
Vines suddenly sprouted from the four corners of the black-jade bed. As if endowed with a will of their own, they immediately bound my hands and feet.
I was pinned to the bed.
“What happened this past year? Aren’t you going to tell me?”
I didn’t give up and kept coaxing him.
But he didn’t fall for it. He bent down and pressed himself against me, silencing my incessant chatter.
I struggled with all my might, but the vines growing from the black-jade bed were soft as cotton, as if they didn’t want to hurt my wrists.
But they still held me fast, and I couldn’t break free.
“Don’t move.”
His voice was hoarse, as if venting his anger, as he bit my neck.
My whole body went rigid.
“For a whole year, you abandoned me and ran away.”
He gave a hoarse, cold laugh, spreading his five fingers and clamping them around my throat.
I tilted my head back, my breathing growing more labored.
When I was about to suffocate, he bent down and breathed air into me.
He breathed air into me even as he punished me.
His body was long and strong, brimming with solid, physical power.
Unlike in the sea of consciousness, I could clearly feel every contour of his body.
He was even more ardent than when I’d sensed him with my spiritual awareness.
“Dao Gia, this is what you owe me.”
He covered my eyes and forcefully claimed me.
I didn’t know how many days and nights went by.
I was utterly exhausted and wanted only to sleep.
But a child’s piercing cry pulled me from the edge of sleep.
“Whose baby is this…?”
I drowsily opened my eyes and saw a newborn beside the bed. I had no idea who had put it there.
“Little one, where are your parents?”
I reached out and gently poked its dimpled cheek.
This baby was so beautiful.
Fair-skinned, with big, dark eyes and long eyelashes, it wasn’t at all afraid of strangers.
Like me, it had dimples in both cheeks that showed whenever it smiled.
“Hee-hee…”
The baby giggled, pursed its little lips, and blew a spit bubble.
I laughed and rubbed its cheek. “You’re so adorable. Whose child are you?”
“Yours.”
A man’s voice suddenly rang out.
A figure in black flickered into view, handsome and elegant, and stood before the bed.
“What did you say?”
I looked at him skeptically. “I’ve never been pregnant or given birth…”
He bent down and looked straight into my eyes. His intense gaze made me panic, and I raised a hand to push him away. “What are you trying to do?”
He suddenly pinched my cheek. “Heartless woman.”
He let go, and the child beside me burst into tears as if protesting on my behalf.
“You’re a little ungrateful thing, too.”
He scooped up the baby and scolded it. “Now that you have a mother, you don’t love your father anymore?”
The baby quickly stopped crying and began to giggle again.
He lightly flicked the child’s forehead with a finger. “Don’t try that trick. I’m not falling for it.”
I watched the scene, my mind in a daze.
A devoted father and an obedient child?
This inner demon… already has a child…?
17
I was kept prisoner in the palace, raising a child.
This child was extraordinary. It drank dew and fed on qi, growing at an astonishing rate.
After just a few days, it was already able to call me in a childish voice:
“Mother.”
I still hadn’t come to my senses.
Was this my child?
I hadn’t carried it for ten months or endured the pain of childbirth, and yet I had such an adorable child?
“Mother, give me a kiss.”
The baby nestled in my arms, puckered its lips, and begged for a kiss.
I lowered my head and was just about to kiss it when a hand grabbed me by the back of my collar.
“You’re not allowed to kiss it.”
A cold voice rang out, imperious:
“You may only kiss me.”
The baby immediately let out a loud wail, crying as it spoke:
“Father, mean! Mother, kiss-kiss!”
The man gave a cold laugh, snatched up the baby, and set it on the black jade bed.
“Go play by yourself.”
The baby wailed a few times. Perhaps realizing that crying was useless, it started playing by itself with the vines on the bed.
I couldn’t help laughing as I watched.
Just then, a respectful report came from outside—
“Reporting to the Demon Venerable: the immortal sects are attacking!”
“Immortal Venerable Lingxiao has led the people of several major immortal sects into the demon realm!”
“We await your orders, Demon Venerable!”
I was startled.
Immortal Venerable Lingxiao was my Master.
But the Demon Venerable…?
I couldn’t help looking at the man.
“Could you be the Demon Venerable they’re talking about?”
The man raised an eyebrow and smiled, then bent down to lightly kiss my lips.
“Dao Gia, you finally figured it out.”
—