Transmigrating as the Heart Demon of the Ruthless Sword Venerable – Chapter 18

Heart Demon Manifested — Identity

Legitimately Moving Into the Sword Sect

“A friend? How do you have a friend… no, I mean, how did you come to make a friend?”

            

Xuanjiu dragged her disciple away for a private interrogation without a second word.

From demon head to friend—that shift was awfully fast.

Yu Zhaoming said nothing, only silence.

            

What a headache. That impermeable wooden expression again. The last time she’d been this silent was when she insisted on choosing her own Dao path.

Xuanjiu took a long drag from her pipe. Even the smoke she exhaled carried a vexed confusion. Her disciple had always been worry-free. Most children were restless, but not this one—every task assigned was completed with rigorous discipline, never requiring Xuanjiu’s oversight.

Who would have thought? Who would have thought…

            

Xuanjiu felt the same headache she’d had back when her disciple insisted on the Emotionless Dao. She let out a long breath, finally tapping her pipe, pushing down all her frustration. “Fine. If you won’t speak, then at least tell me about her background and family…”

What she received was yet more silence.

Xuanjiu pressed a hand to her forehead, desperately reminding herself: don’t lose your temper. This is the disciple you raised. Smack her dead and you won’t find another disciple this good.

            

Xuanjiu’s smile went rigid. “Then why did you call her a demon head initially? I see no demonic aura around her, nor any hostile intent.” Seeing Yu Zhaoming still mute, her expression turned several degrees graver. “Zhaoming, I can let other matters slide, but humans and demons are different. Their stands are opposed. This I must ask about.”

Yu Zhaoming lifted her gaze slightly to meet Xuanjiu’s. Xuanjiu was still smiling, but those brilliant peach-blossom eyes were fixed intently on her, holding a seriousness Yu Zhaoming rarely saw.

This wasn’t something she could dodge with silence.

            

“She…” Yu Zhaoming paused before continuing, “She obstructs my Dao path. Naturally, she is a demon head.”

Xuanjiu’s smile froze completely on her face. Her usually shrewd countenance revealed a bewilderment that would never normally surface. What do you mean, obstructs your Dao path? What did she do to you? Or what did you do to her?

But Yu Zhaoming had turned into a mute once more.

            

Xuanjiu took a forceful deep breath, rubbing her forehead. “Then… I mean, if she truly obstructs your Dao path…”

“Then I will naturally kill her.”

The answer was very Emotionless Dao—yet it also carried the air of a scum woman¹. Xuanjiu looked at her disciple’s crystal-clear conviction, her feelings a tangled mess. “In that case, you should still send her away.”

            

Yu Zhaoming shook her head. “She cannot leave me.”

This… there was actually a female cultivator in this world so besotted with romance? Xuanjiu inhaled sharply, finally exhaling in a heavy rush. She opened her mouth, hesitated, and looked at her disciple standing ramrod-straight, her expression utterly composed.

Who would have thought! Who would have thought! Her disciple was actually a top-tier scum woman!

            

What was she supposed to do?

For the first time in her life, Xuanjiu—who had never worried over teaching a disciple—sank into deep confusion and self-reproach. Had she set some kind of poor example that made her disciple turn out this way? Xuanjiu’s voice trembled slightly: “Then what do you intend to do?”

Yu Zhaoming shook her head again. “She cannot leave. She can only stay by my side. As long as she doesn’t obstruct my Dao path, I’ll let her be.”

            

Xuanjiu bit her lower lip, then gripped Yu Zhaoming’s shoulders. “You cannot kill her! Do you understand? If she obstructs your Dao path, come tell your master! But! No killing!! That is your master’s command. Understood?”

Yu Zhaoming looked at her Shizun in puzzlement. She didn’t understand, but she had always respected her Shizun. So she nodded and said respectfully, “Alright.”

Seeing that her disciple was still willing to listen, Xuanjiu breathed a sigh of relief. She kept one hand on her disciple’s shoulder, steering her toward Yu Zhaoming’s room while prattling on, “You need to be gentler with girls. Don’t treat her the way you treat your master and the other Sword Sect disciples—so utterly devoid of warmth.”

            

That poor girl had thrown herself wholeheartedly at her blockhead of a disciple. Xuanjiu couldn’t help but feel tender sympathy.

Though bewildered, Yu Zhaoming good-naturedly agreed to everything, committing it all to memory.

At the sound of the door opening, Tang Wenchun immediately looked over. She rose at once, standing restlessly to one side, watching Xuanjiu.

            

Xuanjiu was Yu Zhaoming’s Shizun, but she had never appeared in Immortal Path Hard to Find. Tang Wenchun didn’t know much about her. She saw the other woman’s bright, intent gaze fixed upon her and had no idea whether Xuanjiu knew she was a heart demon and wanted to kill her, or what she intended to do.

“So you’re Tang Wenchun.”

Before Tang Wenchun could blink, Xuanjiu had seized both her hands. Tang Wenchun barely had time to flinch before meeting Xuanjiu’s appraising, affectionate gaze. In that instant, Tang Wenchun had the uncanny sense that she’d encountered a nosy relative dropping by for New Year’s greetings.

            

That gleam in her eyes was identical!

She felt certain the woman would ask something like, “How old are you?” or “Do you have a boyfriend?” or “Better to marry young,” in the very next breath.

“Where are your parents and family? What about your sect and loved ones?”

            

What Xuanjiu asked wasn’t quite the nosy-relative script, but it was close enough.

Tang Wenchun froze. Since transmigrating, she and Yu Zhaoming had been locked in life-and-death struggles, or else she’d been glimpsing the outside world through Yu Zhaoming’s senses. She hadn’t thought of her own parents and family in a very long time. Hearing Xuanjiu’s question, her eyes instantly went red, and tears spilled forth unthinkingly. “They…”

The moment the words left her mouth, her voice broke with sobs.

            

Tang Wenchun drew a deep breath before she could finish in halting fragments, “They’re gone. I… I can’t see them anymore…”

Perhaps one day, Tang Wenchun could shed her identity as a heart demon and break through the void to return home. But even then, whether she could see her parents and family again, whether she could successfully return to her own world—she hadn’t the slightest certainty. She didn’t even know if this world within the novel was truly real, or merely her own Nanke dream².

Tang Wenchun’s features were entirely unlike Yu Zhaoming’s. She had a kind, winsome face and demeanor, and those moist, dewy doe eyes now brimmed with tears that seemed ready to fall but didn’t—evoking instant tenderness. Moreover, Tang Wenchun’s bone age was young; to Xuanjiu, she was practically a child. Add to that the fact that her own troublesome disciple seemed bent on conducting herself like a scum woman in both word and deed, and Xuanjiu was already predisposed toward guilt.

            

Seeing Tang Wenchun like this now, how could Xuanjiu not understand everything? Such tragedies were not uncommon in the cultivation world. She let out a long sigh, patted Tang Wenchun’s hands, and said warmly, “Since you have no family or sect, you may stay here for now.” She paused, then added, “When we return to the Sword Sect later, if you’re willing, I can take you on as my disciple.”

As she spoke, Tang Wenchun felt a thread of spiritual energy tracing up along her meridians. She had just begun to struggle when Xuanjiu’s laughing voice reached her, “Don’t be nervous. I’m only testing your root bone³… Hmm?”

Tang Wenchun stared at Xuanjiu in alarm, stammering, “Wh-what’s wrong?”

            

Xuanjiu looked at the young woman before her. She had originally pitied the girl for being alone and destitute, and since her disciple was hardly a worthy partner, she’d intended to take her on as a disciple—that way, her scum-woman disciple would at least restrain herself from killing her out of consideration for their fellow sect ties. But this test had revealed an exceptional root bone.

“You possess a Flawless Sword Body⁴ just like my disciple… Truly, you were born to join my Sword Sect.”

Xuanjiu’s eyes gleamed as she looked at Tang Wenchun, resembling a starving wolf spotting a pheasant, her gaze radiating a feral green light. Such an outstanding seedling, arriving here by such a stroke of fate—Heaven clearly intended for her Sword Sect to prosper! Truly her fine disciple’s doing!

            

“Shizun.” Yu Zhaoming spoke up suddenly. “Tang Wenchun already has a master of her own. Though she has no parents or family, it’s not fitting for her to join another sect.”

“That’s right! That’s right!!” Tang Wenchun had no idea why Xuanjiu wanted to take her as a disciple, but her identity remaining here was a hidden landmine—any moment it could be exposed and get her killed.

Seeing Tang Wenchun’s response, Xuanjiu silently lamented the missed opportunity and slowly released her hands. “Master and disciple require fate. Since you’re unwilling, I won’t force you… In that case, you may stay in the Sword Sect for now.”

            

Tang Wenchun blinked, stunned. She’d been worried Xuanjiu would drive her away, in which case she’d have no choice but to return to Yu Zhaoming’s Sea of Consciousness. She never imagined Xuanjiu would actually let her stay. Joy flooded through her. “Really? I can really stay here?”

Xuanjiu smiled. “Of course. I’ll have someone arrange a room for you right now… How about right next to Zhaoming’s?”

Tang Wenchun turned to glance at Yu Zhaoming. Yu Zhaoming kept her eyes lowered, saying nothing. Tang Wenchun wasn’t a mind reader, but she could tell that expression probably meant tacit agreement. Her eyes curved into crescents as she bowed. “That’s wonderful! Thank you, thank you… um…”

            

Tang Wenchun faltered. Xuanjiu beamed. “My Daoist name⁵ is Yaoxing. I practice the Red Dust Sword Intent⁶—what I pursue is the utmost in emotion and nature, acting as my heart desires. You can just call me by my name.”

“I-is that really okay…” Tang Wenchun mumbled. How could someone who pursued the utmost in emotion and nature have raised a disciple on the Emotionless Dao?! And besides, she was being way too warm—a social-anxiety alien⁷ like her found it terrifying.

Hearing this, Xuanjiu smiled faintly. “In that case, you can call me Shizun, just like Zhaoming does.”

            

“…Shizun.”

Did she just get maneuvered into that?

“Shizun, that’s enough.” Fortunately, Yu Zhaoming spoke up from the side to rescue the situation.

            

“Alright, alright, I know. I won’t take her as a disciple. Don’t worry, don’t worry.” Xuanjiu waved her hand, then smiled at Tang Wenchun. “You two are close in age. If anything comes up, or if Zhaoming bullies you, just tell me. I’ll definitely help you.”

If she couldn’t have a disciple, then a disciple-in-law would do nicely! If her disciple could resist temptation and hold firm to the Emotionless Dao, that would naturally aid her cultivation path. If she couldn’t hold firm, switching Dao paths early would be a good thing too!

Xuanjiu secretly congratulated herself on her calculations, watching the two young ones before her, her eyes curving with delight.

            

---

The author has something to say:

Xuanjiu learning her disciple wants to kill Tang Wenchun: My scum-woman disciple!!!

After learning Tang Wenchun’s root bone: My good disciple!!!

            

Yu Zhaoming: ……..

Author: Ah, what you said really does sound like a scum woman

Yu Zhaoming: ……..

            

Alright, now Little Tang has legitimately met the in-laws and moved into her new room (not really).

---