Transmigrating as the Heart Demon of the Ruthless Sword Venerable – Chapter 21
by Little PandaSame Kind (3)
Shijie? Shimei?
Heart demons were demon creatures that appeared after the end of the War of Gods and Demons1.
Some had said this was a curse laid upon all cultivators before the Demon God2 fell—one that would only sprout in those of extraordinary talent, appearing time and again when these heaven-blessed prodigies sought to break through to new realms, tempting them into the abyss, or else…
Simply taking their place entirely.
This was a passage from 《Immortal Path Hard to Find》. Yu Zhaoming had a heart demon, and later, her disciple—the future female lead—naturally had one too.
But fortunately, the birth of a heart demon was exceedingly rare, and most of those with extraordinary talent also possessed iron wills. That was why the cultivation world had remained stable to this day.
Tang Wenchun thought she was already an anomaly; she never expected to encounter another heart demon. And in the instant their eyes met, that drowning sense of crisis told her the heart demon before her was extremely dangerous—far beyond what she could handle right now.
“…Are these items for sale?” The heart demon only glanced at her before lowering her eyes. She extended her hand, and Tang Wenchun noticed her hand was also pale—deathly pale, almost blending into the white of her clothes.
That pale—if it were her, she’d want to carry an umbrella on a sunny day like this too…
Wait—what was she even thinking!!
Tang Wenchun silently cursed herself. She bit the inside of her cheek—the pain snapped her back to her senses. This was not her safe, peaceful modern world! She took a deep breath and said, “The stall owner hasn’t returned yet…”
She hadn’t finished speaking before she met the other woman’s half-smiling gaze. That expression seemed to say that if Tang Wenchun gave an unsatisfactory answer, Yu Zhaoming wouldn’t be coming back either.
How could Tang Wenchun not understand? Those two people earlier—this was the heart demon’s doing!
She had deliberately lured Yu Zhaoming away. She had been watching Tang Wenchun for a long time.
When? When had she been marked by this person?
Tang Wenchun felt chills running down her back. She had always stayed within Yu Zhaoming’s Sea of Consciousness before—though there had been this and that inconvenience, Yu Zhaoming had been like a hard shell, shielding her from the storms outside.
And now, when she truly faced things on her own, she finally felt the dangers lurking in this novel world.
Tang Wenchun spoke slowly: “Of course, if you want to buy them, that’s not impossible. It’s just that there are a lot of items…”
“I’ll buy them all.” The heart demon made this grand declaration, stunning Tang Wenchun for a moment. The heart demon drew a circle in the air. “Wrap them all up for me. But I can’t carry them all—trouble you to bring them and walk with me a bit. Don’t worry, not far.”
Tang Wenchun’s face was not pleasant, but under these circumstances, she had no room to refuse.
Since that was the case, Tang Wenchun relaxed a little and said with justification, “Then pay up the spirit stones3 first.”
The heart demon stared at her fixedly. Tang Wenchun’s skin crawled under the gaze, but she still stiffened her neck: “Are you planning to welch on the payment?”
“I’m not as impoverished as your Sword Sect.”
The heart demon gave a derisive snort. With a light flick of her hand, a storage bag landed in Tang Wenchun’s grasp. “Count it, lest you say I’m bullying a junior.”
Tang Wenchun heard the hidden implication in those words—it seemed the heart demon was establishing herself as Tang Wenchun’s senior. She looked up at the heart demon once more, then lowered her head to count the spirit stones. After confirming the amount was correct, she swept all the items into the storage bag and followed slowly behind the heart demon.
The heart demon turned around. She held her umbrella and walked at an unhurried pace, looking almost lazily relaxed compared to the cultivators hurrying past alongside. Tang Wenchun noticed that the people around seemed as though they couldn’t see the heart demon—they only stepped aside subconsciously when they were about to bump into her, their expressions showing nothing amiss.
Just who was this person…
In any case, she was absolutely not someone Tang Wenchun could handle right now.
With that thought, Tang Wenchun actually felt much calmer. She followed the heart demon around a corner into a side alley. Calling it an alley was generous—it was really just an empty intersection.
“You’re the Sword Sect’s Yu Zhaoming’s heart demon?” The other woman turned to look at Tang Wenchun.
Tang Wenchun pursed her lips. “When speaking to someone, don’t you introduce yourself first?”
At these words, the heart demon’s face darkened. “What qualification do you think you have to speak to me?”
Tang Wenchun instantly felt a wave of oppressive pressure4 bearing down on her spine. Her life and death were merely a thought away for this woman.
What a suffocating feeling.
Tang Wenchun fell silent. After a while, she said, “I am Yu Zhaoming’s heart demon. What did you call me out here for?”
“…We’re both heart demons. I simply wanted to see what a newly born junior looks like.” The heart demon scrutinized Tang Wenchun, then suddenly asked, “What’s your name?”
Tang Wenchun looked at the heart demon in surprise. Though the heart demon wore a soft smile on her face, the warmth didn’t reach her eyes—there was only cold indifference. This person… no, this demon… Tang Wenchun thought, she didn’t actually care about her at all. She was only talking to her out of some unknown reason, patiently bearing with her.
“I’m Yu Zhaoming’s heart demon, so naturally—”
A flash of impatience crossed the heart demon’s eyes. “How does Yu Zhaoming have such a wishy-washy heart demon? You don’t look like her, so clearly you don’t want to become her… Why are you looking at me like that? Human obsessions are endless and all different—wanting to become a different self, wanting to do things they desire but cannot achieve, or simply not wanting to be themselves at all. Anything is possible…”
For some reason, Tang Wenchun felt there was a peculiar undertone to those words. She silently set aside her doubts and said, “My name is Tang Wenchun.”
“Tang Wenchun…” The heart demon murmured the name once, then nodded. “I see you don’t want to walk the path of possession or demon temptation5 either. A demon like that is rare—and foolish.”
…No personal attacks, please!
Veins bulged on Tang Wenchun’s forehead, but years of exam-driven education still helped her catch the key point amid her emotional turbulence: “What do you mean? Is there a way for a heart demon to… to separate from the main body—” That description felt weird, as if she were some kind of parasite, but Tang Wenchun couldn’t care less about that now. “Is there a way to separate from the main body?”
The heart demon gave a cold laugh. “There are two methods…”
Tang Wenchun perked up her ears. But the heart demon’s words took a turn: “But why should I tell you? What do you have that’s worth my help?”
Tang Wenchun: “…”
This person had a terrible personality and a sharp tongue. So annoying!
She took a deep breath, finally understanding Yu Zhaoming’s perspective. At a moment of life and death, what did a little smile matter? It was all just to survive.
She plastered on a smile. “Senior, since you’re my senior and you deliberately sought me out to talk, you must want to guide a junior. Please, Senior, instruct me.”
Only then did the heart demon nod in satisfaction. “You’re not entirely beyond saving—you at least understand the ways of the world.”
Tang Wenchun tried hard to suppress her anger and said nothing. The heart demon walked a circle around her instead. “Interesting. I provoked you like this, and you didn’t get angry. That’s rather unlike a demon.”
Tang Wenchun frowned. She didn’t know what a heart demon was supposed to be like, but from what this heart demon said, they all seemed like antisocial personalities. Would she be suspected of having committed possession…?
The thought had barely formed when she heard the heart demon add, “But heart demons are rare, and human obsessions are strange indeed. Perhaps because your host6 practices the Emotionless Dao and has made herself quite strange… it’s made you seem like a normal person.”
Tang Wenchun couldn’t tell for a moment whether she was being praised or insulted. She couldn’t help asking, “Is the Emotionless Dao really that strange?”
The heart demon chuckled. “How could it not be strange? The Great Dao is emotionless, yet how does heaven nurture all things? As the saying goes—’With feeling, the seed is sown; because of the ground, fruit is born again. Without feeling, there is no seed; without nature, there is no birth.7‘” The heart demon trailed off, seeing Tang Wenchun’s blank expression, and stopped. “You don’t even know this. It seems you’re not just a newly born demon, but an illiterate one… Hah, and I thought Yu Zhaoming was the Sword Sect’s hope. Judging by her heart demon, she must be illiterate too. Nothing to fear, then.”
…No… life attacks!!
Tang Wenchun took a deep breath. She carefully considered the other’s meaning, and suddenly it clicked. “You’ve… already succeeded in possession?”
The heart demon wore a triumphant smile. Tang Wenchun gasped. The body the heart demon had taken over had clearly belonged to a great cultivator. She had already succeeded in replacing the original with no one the wiser.
When reading the novel before, Tang Wenchun had simply thought of this as a plot point. Now, seeing it with her own eyes, she belatedly grasped its horror.
Tang Wenchun couldn’t help asking, “You’re not planning to kill me, are you?”
The heart demon shook her head. “I just came to take a look. You’re somewhat interesting—no need to kill you for now.”
So there’d be a need later? And didn’t that mean if she wasn’t so “interesting,” the heart demon would have killed her!
Tang Wenchun didn’t even dare to breathe, staring at the heart demon in terror.
The heart demon added, “But if you leak word of me… I’ll turn you into a puppet! I don’t know what stroke of fortune you received to have your own physical body, but—well, that works out. Having a body has its advantages. I’m quite skilled at dealing with human cultivators—I’ll sew your eyes shut, place a heaven lamp on your head, and let your divine soul…”
“I won’t, I won’t, I won’t.” Tang Wenchun shook her head like a rattle drum. She didn’t even know who this heart demon was—how could she possibly leak anything about her? She wanted to cry but had no tears left, not knowing how she’d gotten tangled up with such a terror.
Seeing this, the heart demon nodded and said, “You and I are of the same kind. Since you’re this sensible, I’ll naturally return the favor.”
Tang Wenchun hung her head in defeat, speechless for a moment. She just wanted to get away from this heart demon as quickly as possible. She was about to say no need, when the heart demon spoke again.
“When heart demons cast spells, if they don’t use their host’s body, it’s very easy for their demon qi8 to show. I have a technique that can suppress demon qi. As long as you don’t use demonic cultivation methods, others won’t be able to tell.”
Tang Wenchun’s eyes lit up at once. She listened with full attention and memorized the entire technique. Seeing that Tang Wenchun learned it extremely quickly, the heart demon showed no particular reaction. Heart demons could only grow in those of extraordinary talent, so naturally, every one of them possessed remarkable aptitude.
Seeing Tang Wenchun master it, the heart demon’s face darkened again as she said with a grim expression, “There’s one more matter…”
Tang Wenchun knew it—there really was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Her heart was just rising in panic when she heard footsteps in the distance, along with a voice carrying a smile: “shimei9, what are you doing here with the Sword Sect’s little friend? They were so worried they came running to find me to look for you.”
Before Tang Wenchun could react, the heart demon before her abruptly changed her expression. All of that impatient, malicious demeanor vanished entirely, replaced by flawless gentleness and warmth. When she turned her head, even that harsh, impatient voice—which had seemed ready to turn into piercing icicles at any moment—became soft.
Tang Wenchun: Caught completely off guard.
What was going on? Was this a live face-changing performance?
The author has something to say:
The verse “With feeling, the seed is sown; because of the ground, fruit is born again. Without feeling, there is no seed; without nature, there is no birth” comes from 《Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch》 by Huineng of the Tang Dynasty. Its original meaning is that only sentient beings possess Buddha-nature; as long as one has the aspiration to learn and attain Buddhahood, it is like sowing a seed in the ground of causation (the ground of causation being the inherent Buddha-nature one already possesses). From this ground, the fruit of Buddhahood will sprout, restoring one’s original Buddha-nature and bearing the fruit of Buddhahood. Insentient beings, however, have no Buddha-nature—no seed of Buddhahood—and thus cannot bear the fruit of Buddhahood. In this story, the heart demon uses it to argue that the Emotionless Dao cannot reach the Great Dao. Cultivating the Emotionless Dao turns a sentient being into an insentient one, causing one to lose their Dao-nature and thereby forfeiting the chance to attain the fruit of the Dao. Our world is a xuanhuan world without Buddhism; we’ve simply adapted a Buddhist phrase.
From this we can see that the heart demon does have some culture.
Heart Demon: Tch, illiterate. Since you are one, it seems your host is too.
Yu Zhaoming: …
Tang Wenchun: …I’m just an ordinary transmigrator, isn’t it perfectly normal not to know this!!
Tomorrow we’re going behind the paywall with a 10,000 word drop. Thank you all for your support!
Footnotes
- An ancient war after which heart demons are said to have emerged, possibly from a fallen Demon God's curse.
- A fallen demon deity whose dying curse is rumored to have spawned heart demons.
- Base currency unit in the cultivation world, subdivided into low-, medium-, and high-grade stones.
- Aura pressure exerted by higher-level cultivators to dominate those beneath them.
- A heart demon path of tempting and corrupting its host rather than replacing them.
- Term used by heart demons for the cultivator whose body they inhabit, distinct from 'Main Body' (the original cultivator).
- A verse from the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, arguing that sentience is the seed of enlightenment; without it, there can be no spiritual fruit.
- Demonic energy emitted by demonic beings, which can be concealed by a suppression technique when not using demonic cultivation methods.
- Pinyin term for a junior martial sister in the same sect.
- Pinyin term for a senior martial sister in the same sect.
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