When Destiny Brings the Demon

Liao Tingyan alternated between playing dead and acting coquettish, finally managing to coax the half-mad ancestor into relenting.

He stared at her with that terrifying gaze for a moment, his brow twitching almost imperceptibly, before bending down to pick her up. Liao Tingyan knew—he had given up on forcing her to take revenge with her own hands. She relaxed, placing a hand on her stomach and inhaling sharply through the pain. It really did hurt; she wasn’t faking that.

In this world, there might come a day when, driven to desperation, she would kill to protect herself. But being forced to do so under these circumstances, with someone gripping her hand and compelling her? She wouldn’t obey.

Of course, this was mainly because the one pressuring her now could be considered someone relatively close to her. She knew he wouldn’t actually harm her, so she felt secure enough to act spoiled.

Even if she wasn’t particularly skilled at it, it had worked.

Sima Jiao carried Liao Tingyan over to where Yue Chu Hui lay. Yue Chu Hui grew even more terrified, wailing, "Spare me! Don’t kill me! I’m the young Palace Master of Moon Palace! If you let me go, my mother will give you priceless treasures—heaven-tier techniques, spirit artifacts, Spirit Pills, anything you want!"

Pinned in place by Sima Jiao’s power, unable to move, she could only watch as death approached, breaking down into hysterical sobs. For years, she had lived a life of privilege, carefree and adored by all. Never could she have imagined that throwing a tantrum and tormenting a low-status woman would lead to her own demise.

Even now, she had no idea who these two people truly were.

Sima Jiao had no intention of wasting words on her. Coldly, he raised his foot and brought it down on Yue Chu Hui’s face.

She shrieked, her pleas growing more frantic. "If you kill me, you’ll be making an enemy of Moon Palace! My mother will never let this go! If you spare me now, I’ll forget everything, grant you status and reputation—Yong Lingchun, right? Plead for me, and I’ll have my mother aid Night Wanderer Palace!"

Liao Tingyan buried her face against Sima Jiao’s chest, unwilling to witness the bloody scene.

She simply refused to kill with her own hands—it was just that she hadn’t yet adapted to this world’s brutal laws. But she had no intention of imposing her own standards on others. Besides, she was technically part of the villain faction now. Why would she plead for someone who had harmed her? She knew where her loyalties lay.

Squelch.

The sound of a watermelon being crushed, followed by something wet and sticky.

With a single step, Sima Jiao crushed Yue Chu Hui’s beautiful head—along with the Divine Soul that had just begun to disperse.

Liao Tingyan stayed perfectly still as he carried her away from the Cloud Platform palace. Along the way, she didn’t lift her head to look around. The entire area was a bloodbath—one glance would probably give her nightmares.

Outside, the Black Snake was brooding over a pile of corpses. It was unclear how a snake could convey "brooding," but there it was, gaping at the bodies with hesitation.

Having been raised by Sima Jiao for so long on Three Sage Mountain, it had essentially become a living trash can, responsible for devouring corpses to maintain its master’s living environment. Over time, it had developed the habit of automatically swallowing any dead bodies it came across.In the past, when there was nothing else to eat, it had no choice. But after being spoiled with so many delicious treats by Liao Tingyan, how could any of those compare to corpses? It really despised these 'leftovers' and didn’t feel like eating them now.

But if it didn’t eat, it feared its master might lose his temper. This hesitation dragged on until Sima Jiao returned with his men.

The moment the Black Snake sensed its master’s familiar, terrifying aura, it immediately cowered and opened its huge maw, ready to swallow the corpses.

Sima Jiao saw this and scolded, "You’ll eat any filthy thing. Shut your mouth."

Black Snake: "..." You didn’t say that before. Poor snake is so wronged.

But at least it didn’t have to eat those corpses—happy.

Liao Tingyan finally got her wish—a bath and a return to her soft, spacious bed. The pain in her body seemed to ease slightly. Sima Jiao, who had disappeared while she was bathing, returned. In such a short time, who knew which treasury he had raided? He brought back several medicinal pills.

This bigshot strolled into the Gengchen Immortal Mansion’s treasury as if it were his own backyard, coming and going as he pleased. Liao Tingyan swallowed two white pills he handed her, and warmth spread through her body. The stagnant thunder spiritual power trapped in her wounds dissipated.

These injuries had been inflicted by a Transformation Stage thunder cultivator. Yue Chu Hui, displeased with her disobedience, had ordered the thunder cultivator to whip her with a lightning-attribute lash. To please the little princess, the cultivator had deliberately driven explosive thunder spiritual power into her wounds, nearly making her pass out from the pain.

Sima Jiao pressed his hand against her injuries, moving slowly. His touch was cold, but as his fingers traced her wounds, the remaining traces of rampaging thunder spiritual power were drawn out. Her spiritual veins felt much better, and with the aid of the medicine, the damaged areas began to slowly heal.

The blocked spiritual power also gradually resumed its flow, naturally repairing the injuries. The most severe wound was on her abdomen, inflicted by an earth-attribute cultivator under Yue Chu Hui’s command.

That short, stubby bastard kicked like a beast. If she hadn’t been at the Transformation Stage, his kick might have exploded her stomach outright. Even so, her internal organs were injured, and her abdomen was covered in dark bruises. She wasn’t sure if the fatso had used some special technique, but the wound looked horrifying and throbbed with a deep, dragging pain.

When Sima Jiao lifted her clothes to examine the injury, his expression darkened. "I was too lenient earlier," he said coldly. "Had I known they hurt you like this, I would have made their deaths far more painful."

Liao Tingyan: "..." How much worse could it get? Weren’t those guys already dead in the most gruesome ways? Just take the thunder cultivator—this man had blasted violent lightning through his skull, shattering his spiritual veins along with his brains. And that earth cultivator? His Soul Abode had been torn open, his stomach gouged, his intestines yanked out and used to strangle his own comrade.

"Ugh." She couldn’t think about it—she’d vomit.

Right now, with Sima Jiao gently stroking her stomach using the same hands that had disemboweled people, she couldn’t help but feel uneasy. What if he suddenly decided to give her a "black tiger rips out the heart" move? Earlier, in his fury, he’d even threatened to kill her. Now, he still looked furious—ripping out her stomach seemed entirely possible.

Besides, when he’d torn open those people’s bellies, he’d been smiling. But now, as he touched her wound, his expression was even darker than when he’d been gutting them.Probably sensing her tension, Sima Jiao narrowed his eyes, his large hand covering her stomach as his fingers traced the edges of her wound. Leaning down, he asked, "Scared?"

This felt like one of those questions where telling the truth would get her killed. Since the Truth Buff wasn't active, it meant the ancestor allowed her to lie to survive. So Liao Tingyan said, "No."

Sima Jiao: "You still don’t know fear yet."

His tone was eerily calm—so calm it was terrifying. Liao Tingyan thought, Did I choose the wrong option?!

Sima Jiao cupped her face with one hand, brushing the wound on her cheek. "You deserve some punishment."

Liao Tingyan: "……？？？!" What did I do wrong to deserve punishment?

What kind of punishment? Was he really going to gut her? Please no—he’d just have to heal her again afterward anyway. Nervously, she covered her stomach, only for her clothes to be stripped away.

For a moment, Liao Tingyan’s emotions were complicated. If this was the kind of "punishment" he meant, he should’ve said so earlier—she wouldn’t have been so tense.

Sima Jiao: "You don’t seem inclined to struggle."

Liao Tingyan: "Huh? If that’s what you want, I can try."

She half-heartedly squirmed twice and said, "Stop this, let me go."

The furious Sima Jiao nearly laughed at her antics, but he suppressed it with a twisted expression, pinching her cheek. "Don’t make me laugh."

Liao Tingyan: How was I supposed to know where your weird sense of humor lies? You’re seriously hard to please, you know that?

Sima Jiao: "Don’t struggle."

But when he bent down to kiss the scars on her stomach, Liao Tingyan couldn’t help but squirm—it felt too strange. Yet with her waist firmly in his grip, she couldn’t break free.

"Your face is red." Sima Jiao lifted his head, brushing her cheek with his thumb before leaning in to kiss her.

This brutal man moved with a tenderness completely at odds with his nature.

However, Liao Tingyan soon understood why he called this a "punishment."

"Do all women suffer like this with the men of your Sima family?!" Liao Tingyan couldn’t help but cry out, her arms around his neck clawing at his shoulders and yanking his hair.

Her entire body burned red, the sensation like fire scorching her skin. Overwhelmed, she headbutted his chin, sobbing incoherently, "I’m burning to death!"

The Sima clan rarely intermarried with outsiders, partly because their Fengshan spiritual blood carried the essence of spirit fire, which was unbearable for outsiders—especially the first time. Calling it a "punishment" was no exaggeration. If Liao Tingyan hadn’t previously consumed so much of Sima Jiao’s blood, she would never have endured the searing agony of his spirit fire today.

Yet this was the torment Sima Jiao had endured day and night for years.

"I didn’t want you to suffer this much," he murmured hoarsely, kissing her flushed forehead, "but you displeased me. So this time, you must endure it. Understand?"

Liao Tingyan, too overwhelmed to listen, tightened her arms around his neck as if trying to strangle him right then and there.

Sima Jiao bit her cheek, then licked the Blood Beads welling from the wound—like a grown beast soothing an injured cub, yet unable to suppress his own savagery, always craving to inflict more pain on her.He brushed aside the stray hairs by Liao Tingyan's cheek and pressed his face against hers.

Soul Communion wasn't their first time, but combining it with physical intimacy was entirely new. Liao Tingyan felt utterly overwhelmed by his high-level techniques.

"Don't be afraid. With me here, no one can harm you."

"You'll never have to endure such pain again."

"Cry to me when it hurts. Don't hold it in."

"Never make me feel your pain again."

Sima Jiao was known for returning every slight with vengeance—he would kill anyone who caused him suffering. Yet Liao Tingyan also brought him pain, and instead of killing her, he could only endure it.

How infuriating.

"If there's a next time, I'll kill you." Only Sima Jiao could make a murderous threat sound like sweet nothings.

Through their Divine Soul Intertwining, Liao Tingyan sensed the genuine intent behind his words and trembled. So you really mean it, Boss?

But instead of fear, she felt her nose sting with emotion.

She recalled the "aftereffects" of Soul Communion her teacher had once mentioned. The deeper the bond and affection between two people, the more "your pain is my pain" became literal truth. Why else would lifelong Daoist companions choose to end their own lives after their beloved's passing?

To live and die together wasn't some forced mechanism—it was simply the natural consequence of love too profound to bear alone.

Unconsciously, she had grown increasingly dependent on Sima Jiao. Their emotions influenced each other reciprocally; she couldn't tell whether she affected him more or vice versa.

Love blossomed in her heart, nourished by each session of Soul Communion like rainfall, causing it to flourish endlessly.

Liao Tingyan's Soul Abode had once been an endless blue sky, but now vast flower fields had appeared unbidden. When Sima Jiao's Divine Soul came to rest in her abode, he always favored settling among those blossoms.

Sima Jiao's own Soul Abode remained scorched earth, save for one pure land that had emerged—free of crimson karma flames or parched black soil, where a cluster of flowers basked in the only beam of sunlight.

After Liao Tingyan fell unconscious, Sima Jiao checked her forehead temperature.

Her body was undergoing transformation. After this, she would become more resilient than ordinary cultivators, recovering swiftly from future injuries.

Ironically, the stronger the Sima bloodline, the slower their own wounds healed—yet they possessed the ability to accelerate others' recovery.

Sima Jiao retrieved the pheasant cage hanging outside and released its two occupants, restoring them to human form.

Yong Lingchun and Yong Shiqiu would resume their original identities with no memory of recent events, while all traces of his and Liao Tingyan's presence here would be erased.

It was time for them to leave.