When Destiny Brings the Demon

Liao Tingyan lay sprawled on the bed, her eyes vacant as she gasped for breath, feeling utterly wrecked—the kind of wrecked that made her suspect her kidneys were failing. Forget being a broken ragdoll; she felt like a puddle of mud that couldn’t even be scooped up, or like water with no bones left, so limp she might have slid right off the bed if Sima Jiao hadn’t been there to block her.

She had no idea how long she’d been out of it, but when she finally came to, her first instinct was to clamp a hand over Sima Jiao’s forehead.

He pulled her hand away. "What are you afraid of?"

What the hell do you think I’m afraid of? Liao Tingyan shuddered at the memory. The back-and-forth between life and death had been terrifying—unbearable, really. She was scared, thoroughly scared. Like a pitiful, helpless salted fish, she tried to crawl away, only for Sima Jiao to grab her leg and drag her back.

With a plop, Liao Tingyan flopped facedown. "Spare me, ancestor."

Sima Jiao laughed, the mischievous grin of a troublemaking youth dancing at the corners of his eyes. "No," he said.

Liao Tingyan couldn’t tell if he was serious or joking. If serious, he looked too lazy, almost satiated. If joking, he still leaned in, making her shrink back with a yelp.

Slap.

A cool green leaf suddenly stuck to Sima Jiao’s forehead—a Clear Valley Heaven specialty, a type of Spirit Medicine used to calm the mind. In a stroke of quick thinking, Liao Tingyan had slapped it on him, hoping to cool his fervor. Though, admittedly, it looked more like a talisman pasted on a zombie’s head.

Sima Jiao paused. For a second, Liao Tingyan thought it had actually worked—until he plucked the leaf off, stared at it, and then collapsed onto the bed in laughter. Naked, sprawled across the disheveled sheets, his hair a wild mess, he looked utterly indecent—the kind of indecent that would get any photo of him censored on social media.

"You didn’t actually think this only works on the forehead, did you? Hmm?"

Liao Tingyan’s bad feeling returned.

And, as usual, her bad feeling was right.

Drained and breathless beside Sima Jiao, she hazily felt arms wrap around her and instinctively hugged back. When adrift at sea, one clings to driftwood—it’s human nature.

By the time the thoroughly squeezed salted fish regained her senses, tears still streaked her face. The chest she was pressed against vibrated with laughter—Sima Jiao, for some reason, couldn’t stop. He gazed down at her, the corners of his eyes faintly red, his long black hair cascading over his shoulders and spilling onto her chest like some seductive water spirit. With a cool fingertip, he wiped her tears and remarked, "You cried so loudly."

And you, you big jerk, laughed just as loudly.

Liao Tingyan’s sanity shattered. At this point, she almost wished Sima Jiao would just go ahead and do it the old-fashioned way—at least then there’d be breaks, moments to catch her breath. But this Soul Communion thing? No pauses, no respite, just endless, relentless intensity.

Resigned, she played dead, splayed out like a corpse waiting to be fried. "Go ahead, cook me if you must."

Sima Jiao poked the hollow below her collarbone. "Hmm… You think this’ll stop me?"Liao Tingyan felt a dull ache in her head from those words. To avoid dying in bed, she suddenly curled into a ball, nimbly slipped out from under Sima Jiao, rolled off the bed, and bolted out the door.

Sima Jiao lay sprawled on the bed, his laughter loud enough to be heard clearly outside.

Liao Tingyan, her hair disheveled, turned back and flipped him the middle finger.

After Sima Jiao woke up, Liao Tingyan noticed that the faint, ever-bright edges of this landscape were beginning to fade.

"Should we leave?" she asked, sitting three meters away from him.

Sima Jiao, now dressed, glanced thoughtfully out the window. "This place will vanish in half a day."

As Liao Tingyan pondered their next destination, Sima Jiao said, "Let's go."

He was a man of action, and no one knew what he was thinking—not even Liao Tingyan, who had wandered through his Soul Abode several times. All she knew was that the ancestor seemed more affectionate toward her now, and he liked holding her even more. She could understand that—who wouldn’t want to hold a sweet, soft girl? As long as he didn’t try any Soul Communion, he could hug her however he pleased.

She didn’t ask where they were going. Wherever Sima Jiao decided, she doubted she could change his mind, and it didn’t matter much to her anyway.

Unsurprisingly, he would return to Gengchen Immortal Mansion. Sure enough, a day later, they arrived at Luohe Immortal Market.

This wasn’t a city but a mixed settlement of ordinary people and cultivators—the outermost fringe of Gengchen Immortal Mansion and the first stop within its territory. The Luo River marked the boundary between the immortal mansion’s domain and the outside world.

Luohe Immortal Market only had the privilege of bearing the word "immortal" in its name because of its association with Gengchen Immortal Mansion. In reality, it leaned more toward a mortal marketplace, with very few cultivators. Those who did live here were mostly minor practitioners who had been marginalized or those with low cultivation levels. These cultivators were insignificant even in the outer reaches of Gengchen Immortal Mansion, but in this remote little town, they were treated with reverence.

As Liao Tingyan and Sima Jiao walked through Luohe Immortal Market, they saw a group of fierce-looking guards clearing the streets, forcing everyone to stand at the roadside—a grand spectacle.

Of course, they weren’t pushed aside. Sima Jiao’s cultivation was peerless, and even while injured, he could easily overpower a crowd. He and Liao Tingyan rode atop the Black Snake, invisible to those around them, who instinctively avoided them. Even the guards clearing the path unconsciously steered clear.

Liao Tingyan turned to see who was coming. Sima Jiao glanced at her, then tapped the Black Snake’s head with a knuckle, slowing it to a sluggish crawl down the street.

In the distance, over a dozen people carried a palanquin the size of a small house, followed by a long procession of maids. At first, Liao Tingyan thought it must be someone formidable, only to realize the middle-aged man inside was merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

After encountering so many powerhouses, she hadn’t expected she could now be considered one herself—oh right, thanks to Dual Cultivation, her cultivation had advanced yet again. She was now at the peak of late-stage Nascent Soul, just a step away from the Void Refining Stage.Though quite powerful, upon careful consideration, Liao Tingyan still felt it was useless. On their side, their ancestor could take on a whole group single-handedly—she was just spare change. Even if she could provoke one opponent, it wouldn't make a difference to Sima Jiao. So she could comfortably remain idle without worry.

Other cultivators often faced bottlenecks, with major and minor Tribulation Lightnings during breakthroughs, but Liao Tingyan had none at all. Out of curiosity, she asked about it. Sima Jiao scoffed, though it was unclear what he was mocking, and said, "Otherwise, why do you think everyone covets the Blood Clot Flower from Feng Mountain?"

"I thought this flower wasn’t hard to grow," Liao Tingyan replied, recalling how he had casually plucked one and tossed it to her back then. She simply couldn’t grasp the same sense of rarity others felt.

Sima Jiao glanced at her. "Growing one flower requires half of my blood. It only blooms under a new moon, and each time, my vitality is severely depleted. If left unplucked, a single flower can live for a thousand years."

Even the Shi Shi clan, despite their long accumulation over the years, would never possess more than ten petals in their hands. Compared to them, Liao Tingyan—who had obtained dozens of petals at once—was practically rolling in wealth, though she remained utterly oblivious to it.

Losing half one’s blood at once would kill a person. Liao Tingyan thought of modern medicine, then recalled how Sima Jiao’s battered body had rapidly recovered before. She decided to bow to the logic of this fantastical world. Fine, you’re amazing, you call the shots.

A palanquin made of gold, precious gems, and rare wood passed by, with the massive Black Snake slithering alongside. Taking advantage of the fact that no one could see her, Liao Tingyan used the wind to lift the curtain and peek inside curiously. The middle-aged male cultivator was quite handsome, and the young man and woman seated beside him were even more so.

Liao Tingyan stole a few extra glances. Sima Jiao curled two fingers slightly, pried a gem embedded in the palanquin’s exterior, and casually flung it inside, hitting the two youths who had been fawning over the middle-aged man and making them yelp in pain.

Liao Tingyan withdrew the wind. She feared that if she kept watching, their ancestor might dismantle the extravagant palanquin right there in the street.

Though she stopped looking, Sima Jiao had the Black Snake follow them, as if he’d taken an interest in the group.

Liao Tingyan: "..."

The middle-aged cultivator’s surname was Mu. Though his cultivation wasn’t particularly high, he had some distant ties to the Mu clan of the inner mansion, which allowed him to act as a minor local tyrant in Luoxian Market and enjoy such luxuries. This time, he was making a grand display to fetch someone.

A young mistress of the Mu clan had married out and become the Dao companion of a young Palace Master from the Night Wanderer Palace, bearing him a son and a daughter. Now that the two children had turned sixteen, they were being sent to their maternal grandfather’s home at the Gengchen Immortal Mansion to study.

Within the Gengchen Immortal Mansion, there were several academies of varying levels, both inner and outer. Though this pair of siblings wasn’t of exceptionally high status and could only study in the outer mansion, they were still enrolled in the top-tier outer academy—something already worthy of pride. Thus, the brother and sister arrived with their heads held high, like proud peacocks.

Liao Tingyan and Sima Jiao followed the middle-aged cultivator and witnessed the entire scene. The two privileged young prodigies showed not a hint of courtesy to the man who had come to fetch them. The girl, in particular, scoffed outright and sneered, "Vulgar and tasteless. What kind of lowly thing dares come to receive us?"The young man looked decent enough and tried to persuade his sister with a few words, but the mockery and disdain in his eyes were completely unconcealed—anyone could see it. The middle-aged cultivator didn’t mind, bowing and scraping as he welcomed them inside. To him, these two young masters were important figures he needed to flatter. Securing this reception task had taken him considerable effort.

The siblings had traveled thousands of miles with a large entourage of servants and were stopping temporarily at Luohe Immortal Market for a rest, planning to stay for a day.

Sima Jiao followed them all the way to the middle-aged cultivator’s residence. They swaggered in riding the Black Snake and then strutted into the siblings’ temporary lodgings.

"Brother, this place is so shabby! Do we really have to stay here for a day? I can’t stand it—I want to leave soon, or at least find a better place!" The girl started throwing a tantrum the moment she entered the room.

Liao Tingyan glanced at the opulent furnishings and architecture, which reeked of wealth. Aside from being a bit too flashy, it had nothing to do with "shabby." This little miss was clearly spoiled rotten.

Why were there so many spoiled second-generation brats in the cultivation world?

The young man took out a jade fan—purely for show—and waved his hand, instructing the servants he had brought to redecorate the room. They carried everything in their Qiankun pouches, seemingly having packed their entire house. In no time, the servants had transformed the room into something brand new.

"When traveling, conditions naturally can’t compare to home. Just bear with it for a while," the young man said.

The girl huffed but then smiled again. "Brother, what do you think the academy in Gengchen Immortal Mansion is like? Is it better than the Chongjiu Academy we visited before?"

The young man scoffed. "Chongjiu Academy can’t even compare to the academies in Gengchen Immortal Mansion. Even the outer mansions’ academies aren’t just for anyone. Mother said we should behave ourselves this time. If we can become disciples of Gengchen Immortal Mansion, we’ll be the envy of everyone in the future. Who knows—maybe even Night Wanderer Palace will rely on our protection someday."

The girl smirked. "I know. I’m definitely better than all those other bastards. Night Wanderer Palace will be ours one day."

While the siblings were fantasizing about their future, Sima Jiao had already taken Liao Tingyan for a stroll around their courtyard and returned to stand before them. Pointing at the siblings, he asked Liao Tingyan, "How about using their identities?"

Liao Tingyan: "Huh?"

Sima Jiao took that as agreement.

And just like that, Liao Tingyan and Sima Jiao transformed into the siblings’ appearances, while the real siblings… were turned into two small, mottled-gray pheasants by Sima Jiao.

Wearing the brother’s appearance, Sima Jiao pushed the terrified pheasants toward Liao Tingyan. "Here, little sister, play with these."

Liao Tingyan: Ancestor, what kind of weird roleplay is this…?