Although the Demon Clan was called the Demon Clan, their realm was not as dark and gloomy as ordinary people imagined. The Demon Realm, like the human world, had mountains, rivers, lush trees, and flourishing grass.
As long as a disciple of the cultivation world had outstanding talent, whether they were a disciple of a noble family or a poor commoner, they could gain the attention of a sect.
But the demons were different. From birth, their bloodline determined the height of their cultivation. So, some demons secretly captured ordinary people to refine evil pills to improve their cultivation and prolong their lives.
When the first demon succeeded in using this method, the mortal world entered nearly a century of terrifying calamity.
Later, in order to repel these maddened demons, many cultivators in the cultivation world died. Even the reclusive yao clan came out to help the human race.
That was also the most harmonious period in the relationship between the yaos and the cultivation world. Even now, Jiu Hui could find some records in the sect’s ancient books about the yaos helping the human race back then.
The capital of the Demon Clan was extremely luxurious. Evil-boned horses adorned with gold, silver, and precious jewels pulled magnificent, fragrant carriages that arrogantly paraded down the spacious streets. Low-ranking demons lying in the corners of the walls were chased away with knives by the guards accompanying the carriages.
In the eyes of the high-ranking demons with noble status, the appearance of low-ranking demons within their sight was an insult to them.
Jiu Hui saw a slow-moving old demon who didn’t have time to get away. The princess’s guard grabbed him by the head and threw him to the farthest corner.
“Don’t look around.” The demon guard responsible for looking after Jiu Hui had a fierce look on his face. “Or I’ll gouge your eyes out.”
Zhi You glanced at the demon guard and moved closer to Jiu Hui.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Jiu Hui averted her gaze and forced out a timid, ingratiating smile. “I promise I won’t look around anymore.”
“You’re smart to know your place.” The demon guard glanced at Jiu Hui with disdain. He couldn’t understand why the princess had brought such a spineless human cultivator back to the demon realm.
“Make way, make way!“carpreads.pages.dev
Several arrogant demon guards swaggered around the corner of the street. The guards who had just finished chasing away the low-level demons bumped into these arrogant demon guards head-on. Before they could even open their mouths to speak, the leading demon guard slapped them twice in the face.
“Who do you think you are, daring to block our Highness’s path?” The arrogant demonic guards kicked all the guards aside. Seeing that the guards looked unconvinced, they crossed their legs and squinted at them, saying, “What are you looking at? You knew that our Third Highness was going to pass by, yet you still dared to block his way. Are the guards of your princess’s mansion dissatisfied with our Highness?”
Jiu Hui and the others watched this scene: “…”
The struggle between the princes and princesses of the noble demon clan was actually so simple and brutal?
Sha Luojia, who had been humiliated in public, had a very ugly expression on her face in the carriage. When she got out of the carriage, she had already put on a gentle smile: “The guards below were rude. I apologize to Third Brother on their behalf.”
“Ugh!” A hand stretched out from the luxurious sedan chair. The demonic guards on both sides hurriedly bent down and lifted the sedan curtain. The Third Prince Luohe lazily leaned against the soft pillow, looking like he was second only to the heavens. “You really should teach these subordinates a lesson. They have no rules, no discipline, and no sense of propriety!”
Sha Luojia bowed her knees and said, “Yes.”
“I heard you got something good from Father?” Luohe yawned. “You’re always so considerate, why don’t you lend it to me to play with for a couple days?”
“They’re just two Spirit-Controlling ropes, nothing special.” Sha Luojia smiled good-naturedly. “Once I’ve escorted the person to Father, I’ll send them to Third Brother.”
“Spirit-Controlling Ropes?” Luohe raised an eyebrow and looked at Sha Luojia. “Did you go to the cultivation world to capture someone?”
“No wonder your lover isn’t with you today. It turns out you went to the cultivation world to do evil deeds,” Luohe said sarcastically. “Aren’t you afraid your lover will find out?”
Sha Luojia sized up Luohe, and after confirming that he was only trying to mock her, she replied, “I also captured them to help Yin Ji avenge his grudge. He definitely won’t blame me.”
“Help him get revenge?” Luohe became interested. “Did you capture the Sect Master of the Jiutian Sect for Yin Ji?”
Sha Luojia：“……”
Sometimes, talking to this kind of idiot was a great insult to her.
“You all move aside a little so I can see who you’ve captured.” Luohe waved his hand, annoyed that Sha Luojia and her guards were blocking his view.
Sha Luojia forced a smile and took two steps to the side.
Luohe didn’t recognize any of the two men and one woman. He lay back down, lacking interest, and was about to have the demon guard lower the curtain when he suddenly saw a familiar figure appear behind the trio.
Zhi You?
Wherever he was, there was…
His throat felt a little cold, and he looked up at the person next to Zhi You with trembling hands. His knees gave out, and he rolled out of the sedan chair.
“Your Highness!” The demon guards scrambled to pull Luohe up from the ground.
“All of you, step back. Step back.” Luohe pushed aside the demon guards who were blocking his view, rubbing his eyes in disbelief. Those two familiar figures were still there!
“Are those two the ones you tied up and brought back with the Spirit-Controlling Ropes?” Luohe felt the cold wind howling into his chest, and his teeth chattered as he spoke.
“That’s them.” Sha Luojia turned her head to glance at Zhi You and Jiu Hui. “These two are young, but they’re already at the Nascent Soul realm. If we don’t capture them and bring them to the Demon Clan, they’ll become a serious threat to our Demon Clan in the future.”
Luohe stole a glance at Jiu Hui, who smiled at him in a friendly and kind manner.
Luohe quickly averted his gaze. “Did you just tie them up and brought them back?”
“With the Spirit-Controlling Ropes, they won’t be able to escape even if they want to.” Seeing that Luohe kept sneaking glances at Jiu Hui, Sha Luojia thought he was lusting after her beauty and smilingly reminded him, “Third Brother, although she has a pretty face, she’s not some delicate little girl. Don’t have any ideas about her.”
Luohe：“……”
She was indeed not a delicate and dainty girl, but she was a female Rakshasa who could use a knife to split open the Soul-Swallowing Net, a supreme treasure of the Demon Clan!
This was not Sha Luojia capturing Jiu Hui, but rather inviting a wolf into the house and courting death!
“You…” Luohe wanted to remind Sha Luojia not to seek death, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he met Jiu Hui’s smiling eyes: “Tie them loosely, don’t hurt them.”
By the Demon God, this was all Sha Luojia’s doing, and he Luohe had nothing to do with it!
Sha Luojia smiled and said, “Third Brother, rest assured, I won’t take their lives now.”
What a fool who couldn’t walk when he see a beautiful woman!
Luohe looked at Sha Luojia with pity. “You…take care of yourself.”
“What do you mean by that, Third Brother?” Sha Luojia raised an eyebrow. “This woman may be somewhat pretty, but she’s a gift that I’m giving to Father. Even if you like her, you can’t steal her from Father.”
And she even wanted to send the person to Father?!
He usually just made his father angry, but Sha Luojia wanted him dead!
Luohe didn’t have much father-son affection for his father, who fed on young boys and girls. Luohe was a little disgusted when he thought of his father’s ugly and crazy appearance because he was afraid of death and hated his young son.
He took a step back and glanced at Jiu Hui across Sha Luojia and the princess’s mansion.
Seeing that he had relented, Sha Luojia smiled with satisfaction. “Third Brother, once I send them to the royal palace, I’ll send you the Spirit-Controlling Ropes.”
The Demon Clan’s palace was extremely luxurious. Jiu Hui looked at the palace that used gold as stone and jade as pearls, and her eyes were dazzled by all the gold, pearls, and jade.
The guards of the Princess’s mansion escorted Yu Li and the other two to the gate of the Demon King’s palace, while Sha Luojia took Zhi You and Jiu Hui through the gate.
The entire Demon King’s palace was filled with a lingering resentment and bloody smell. Demon guards escorted several emaciated young men and women past them.
Jiu Hui also smelled blood on them.
Sha Luojia dragged Jiu Hui and Zhi You into the main hall with the Spirit-Controlling Ropes. On the throne at the head of the hall, an old man lay half-reclining, his face ashen. He held a jade cup in his hand, filled with bright red blood.
When Sha Luojia entered, the Demon King’s cloudy eyes cleared up a bit. “Sha Luojia, why are you here?”
“Father, I have brought you a gift.” Sha Luojia bowed to the Demon King. “These are the most promising cultivators in the cultivation world. They are all Nascent Soul realm cultivators despite their young age.”
“Oh?” The Demon King drained the blood from his cup. His face, full of deathly energy, had only his blood-stained mouth that was incomparably bright red: “Human cultivators?”
“Good, very good.” The Demon King glanced at Jiu Hui and Zhi You, a satisfied look on his face. “Take them down there and fumigate them with spiritual energy. Tomorrow, I shall savor their flavor.”
“Yes,” Sha Luojia said. “However, these two have cultivation bases, and I’m afraid they might seize the opportunity to escape. Why don’t we lock them up in Kunqian Palace, which can suppress spiritual energy?”
“You’ve thought it through very carefully.” The Demon King was exhausted, and he closed his eyes. “Do as you wish.”
Sha Luojia led the silent Jiu Hui and Zhi You out of the palace. “Are you scared now?”
Jiu Hui felt an itch in her hand hidden in her sleeve.
“Both of you stay put in Kunqian Palace, or I’ll kill those three mortals.” Sha Luojia pinched Jiu Hui’s chin, her gaze sweeping from her eyebrows to her lips. “It’s a pity. If you hadn’t been such a nuisance, I wouldn’t have the heart to put you in this position.”
“Princess, you’re looking at me like that. I almost thought you liked women like me.” Jiu Hui smiled lightly. “Unfortunately, you like Yin Ji. Otherwise, I would have tried to win your favor to save my own life.”
Sha Luojia scoffed, it was unclear if she was mocking the mentioning of liking Yin Ji or laughing at Jiu Hui’s flattery.
She released Jiu Hui’s chin. “I don’t like women who are too clever, and I like clever men even less. No matter what you’ve guessed, you’d best keep your mouth shut, or you’ll find out what regret really is.”
-—–
Kunqian Palace, despite its name, was actually a prison built in the Demon Clan’s royal palace. It was equipped with a magic formation and cursed runes that suppressed the spiritual power of cultivators. Once a cultivator entered, they would become no different from mortals.
Sha Luojia pushed Jiu Hui and Zhi You into a room covered with demonic patterns and removed the Spirit-Controlling Ropes from them. “Behave yourselves. If Father is satisfied with your blood, you might live a few more days.”
“If you hadn’t saved the Sect Master of the Shenji School and let them discover that it was our Demon Clan who poisoned them, I wouldn’t have bothered to argue with you.” Sha Luojia put away the Spirit-Controlling Ropes and looked at Jiu Hui with complicated eyes. “But you just had to oppose me.”
Jiu Hui stretched her arms. “Because the princess is a demon, and I’m a human.”
“If you were my subordinate, I definitely wouldn’t bear to kill you.” Sha Luojia put her hands behind her back. “If you’re willing to swear to the Heavenly Dao to submit to me, I can release you right now.”
“Yin Ji has already betrayed his sect and the cultivation world for you, Princess. Are you still not satisfied?” Jiu Hui rubbed her arm. “Or is it that Yin Ji isn’t that important to you?”
“You’ve guessed it,” Sha Luojia sneered. “When he was still useful, he was very important to me.”
“What?” Sha Luojia asked in return. “Do you really want to hear me say those disgusting vows of eternal love?”
Jiu Hui shook her head.
“We’re not the only ones in the cultivation world who have fallen in a master-disciple relationship. But because I’m a princess, with a noble status, this relationship has become particularly different.” Sha Luojia sneered, “If I weren’t a foolish princess obsessed with love, how could my good brothers tolerate me?”
“What’s love? What I want is power, the status of having all the men of the Demon Clan obediently kneeling at my feet.” Sha Luojia wasn’t worried about telling Jiu Hui these words. She even seemed a little excited and pleased to have someone to confide in. “Those scholars in the mortal world always like to write about women being heartbroken, being willing to give up everything for love, or fighting for love. But why?”
“Can’t I fight for myself?” Sha Luojia raised her chin proudly. “What kind of love could be more alluring than power?”
Jiu Hui thought carefully for a moment, then shook her head honestly. “I don’t know. I’m only eighteen.”
“Oh?” Sha Luojia turned her gaze to Zhi You. “Isn’t he your lover?”
“He’s my little junior brother.”
“I’m a lackey under the command of my little Senior Sister.”
Jiu Hui glared at Zhi You helplessly, “If you call yourself a lackey again, I won’t take you with me next time.”
“Oh.” Zhi You obediently lowered his head.
“This little junior brother of yours is more likeable than those men who are full of sweet talk.” Sha Luojia wanted to lift Zhi You’s chin, but Jiu Hui reached out to stop her.
“Princess, my Zhi You is still young. You are so beautiful, I’m afraid you will turn him into another Yin Ji.” Jiu Hui held Sha Luojia’s hand with a smile. “Princess, this is not allowed.”
“Heh.” Sha Luojia bent down to look at Jiu Hui. Their eyes met. “Jiu Hui, you’re the first person to discover that I don’t like Yin Ji. I admire you for that. I didn’t want to kill you, but if I let you go, you might tell others my secret, and that would be a big problem for me.”
No one in the world could stand in the way of her path to power.
“Watch your words.” Sha Luojia stood up, her tone indifferent. “As long as you don’t cause me any trouble, I’ll let the other three go unharmed after the two of you die. I’ll do it because I appreciate you.”
“If you didn’t care about your family, those three wouldn’t be your weakness.” Sha Luojia looked down at Jiu Hui from her high position. “But the enemy’s weakness is my best weapon.”
She glanced at Jiu Hui and turned to walk out the door.
“Princess, one can choose to disregard love, and one can choose to disregard other emotions, but as long as one lives, one will always experience joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.” Jiu Hui called out to Sha Luojia, “If you were to lose all of these, when you become the Demon King, will you be able to see your Demon Clan subjects? Will you be able to see other living beings?”
“Those weak and useless trash, what does it matter if they live or die?” Sha Luojia sneered. “This world is a place where the strong prey on the weak. Only you hypocrites in the cultivation world care about mortals. In my eyes, mortals are nothing more than food for us demons.”
“I greatly admire the princess’s ambition and strategy, but I cannot agree with the princess’s idea of using mortals as nourishment.” Jiu Hui and Sha Luojia looked at each other through the door. “If the princess is willing to lead the demons to cultivate properly and not feed on mortals, the grudges between the cultivation world and the demons over so many years can be slowly resolved.”
“How naive.” Sha Luojia laughed as if Jiu Hui had just told the funniest joke in the world. “Mortals are nothing more than food for us demons.”
“Tens of thousands of years ago, the Demon Clan didn’t feed on mortals, and their power was far greater than it is now.” Jiu Hui raised an eyebrow. “Your Demon Clan has eaten so many people and refined so many elixirs and magic weapons with the blood resentment of the human race. Have you become stronger?”
The Demon Clan was now a target of universal condemnation, and its power was far from what it used to be. When they walked in the mortal world, they were like rats that dared not show their faces. Mortals feared them, cultivators detested them, and the yao clan looked down upon them.
“Or perhaps, you actually enjoy the feeling of being looked down upon by the other clans, which is why you pretend to be so weak?”
Sha Luojia shot a glare at Jiu Hui and turned away.
“Hey, don’t go!” Jiu Hui clung to the doorframe and shouted at Sha Luojia’s back, “Didn’t you say you admired me? Let’s chat a little longer!”
As soon as she said this, Sha Luojia walked even faster.
The demon guard watching over Kunqian Palace watched Jiu Hui, who was so audacious, and silently placed his saber at the entrance of the room, lest Jiu Hui really chase after their princess to chat.
“Ugh, why is she so quick to anger?” Jiu Hui sat back down at the table. She glanced at the sky outside and whispered to Zhi You, “Once it gets dark, I’ll go check on where they’re keeping the mortals and talk to little Bai and the others about rescuing them.”
Who would have thought that the old geezer Demon King actually feed on human blood? What a disgusting piece of shit.
“I’ll go with you.”
“We need to leave someone here, in case the princess can’t sleep in the middle of the night and comes to talk to me again?” Jiu Hui put a substitute straw doll in Zhi You’s hand: “This is a substitute straw doll made by Uncle Wu himself. After I leave here, it can transform into my appearance.”
Zhi You pinched the straw doll, not saying a word.
“Trust me, I’ll definitely do things properly.” Jiu Hui patted her chest, then lay down on the bed: “I’ll sleep for a while first, wake me up after dark.”
After hiding the straw doll in his sleeve, Zhi You walked to the bedside and tucked Jiu Hui in. “Okay.”
After dark, a demon guard delivered dinner, but the demon palace’s chefs were not very skilled, and Jiu Hui couldn’t eat it. She clasped her hands together. “Wasting food is a sin, a sin.”
When the night was deep and the entire palace was quiet, Jiu Hui removed the luxurious hairpins from her head, put her hair up in a simple single bun, and was about to take out the mermaid yarn from her storage ring to put on when she suddenly heard a slight movement coming from underground.
“Who is it?!” Zhi You and Jiu Hui simultaneously dodged to the corner.
The floor shook, and Luohe, covered in dirt, emerged from the tunnel. “Shhh, it’s me. Keep your voices down.”
“Luohe?” Jiu Hui wanted to reach out and pull him out of the tunnel, but seeing that he was covered in dust, she retracted her hand. “How did you get in?”
“I’m here to save you.” Luohe crawled out of the cave. “Follow me quickly. My mother has arranged for someone to meet you outside.”
“If I leave, will it cause trouble for your mother if someone finds out?” Jiu Hui glanced at the secret passage behind Luohe. The secret passage that even Sha Luojia and the Demon King didn’t know about, but the Demon Queen knew it clearly. Did she take the initiative to expose this to show her goodwill?
“You go back and tell the Demon Queen that I won’t do anything against her.” Jiu Hui chuckled. “The Demon Clan might be in a bit of chaos over the next few days, so please ask Her Majesty the Demon Queen to prepare in advance.”
“What do you intend to do?” Luohe asked with concern. “You’re not planning to burn our Demon Clan’s palace to the ground, are you?”
“Don’t let your imagination run wild, child.” Jiu Hui kicked him back into the tunnel. “Remember to pass on my words to Her Majesty the Demon Queen. You don’t need to worry about anything else.”
The Third Prince, who had been thrown to the ground and was covered in dirt, wiped the dirt off his face and returned to the Demon Queen’s Palace, suppressing his anger.
That damned Jiu Hui, did she even know how difficult it was to climb this secret passage?!
After covering the floor and sweeping away all the dust, Jiu Hui didn’t rush to leave. She touched her chin thoughtfully, “The Demon Queen is truly a wonderful person.”
The Third Prince was made to crawl through the secret passageway to prove to her that the Demon Queen had nothing to do with the demons capturing her and that she was willing to cooperate with her from within.
“I’ll be back within an hour.” Having figured out the Demon Queen’s intention, Jiu Hui put on a mermaid yarn dress and snuck out of Kunqian Palace.
When she found Bai Yan and the others who had been imprisoned together in the enormous royal palace, Bai Yan was comforting the other mortals who had been imprisoned there. Judging by the expressions on the faces of these ordinary people, it seemed that they already trusted Bai Yan very much.
The young master of the White Tea Clan had the best means of winning people’s hearts in the entire yao clan.
She put the note she had written in advance and the map of the royal palace into Yu Li’s hand, and turned and left the place.
The entire Demon Clan’s royal palace was filled with a sense of decay and resentment. Jiu Hui stealthily entered the palace hall and memorized all the formations inside. When she returned to Kunqian Palace, she saw a man in black cleanly kill the guards outside the palace and then search each room for something.
Could it be… that they came to find her and Zhi You?
Jiu Hui followed silently behind this person, watching as he cut a bloody path through the enemy ranks, and she guessed his identity.
The masked man in black finally found the room where Jiu Hui and Zhi You were being held. Outside the room, countless guards stood densely packed. Seeing him walk in with his sword, they immediately activated the formation.
“Your Highness guessed correctly. Someone really did come to save these two cultivators!”
“Catch him!”
The black-clothed man trapped in the formation moved much slower, and soon several knife wounds appeared on his body.
Just when the man in black was gradually losing his strength, a silk scarf flew out of the darkness, wrapped around the man’s waist, dragged him out of the center of the formation, and flew out of the Kunqian Palace with him.
“Who saved me?” The man in black leaned against the base of the tree and reached out to catch the pill bottle that flew out of the darkness. “Are you friend or foe?”
No one spoke in the darkness.
“Your Excellency, your cultivation is profound. Please save the two people in Kunqian Palace.” He stood up and bowed towards the void.
The night wind blew gently, and the only response he received was the rustling of leaves.
-—–
The next morning, Jiu Hui and Zhi You were washed clean and personally escorted to the royal palace by Sha Luojia.
As the night passed, the old Demon King’s death aura grew heavier. He leaned back on his throne, while the Demon Queen sat beside him, gently massaging his shoulders.
The Third Prince and the two Demon Cult Dharma Protectors were also standing in the hall.
The Demon King’s gaze fell upon Jiu Hui and Zhi You. “Take their blood.”
“Princess?” Jiu Hui looked at Sha Luojia in surprise and anger. “Before you brought us to the Demon Clan, you only told us to gain the Demon King’s trust and kill him when the opportunity arose. You didn’t say anything about taking our blood?!”
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire hall fell silent.
The Third Prince was so shocked that his mouth fell open, and even the Demon Queen couldn’t help but turn her gaze to Jiu Hui.
Author’s Note
Little Garlic Chive: Princess, this is not what you promised me!
Princess: Father, she slandered me! She slandered me!
Third Prince Luohe: Why did you provoke her?