Transmigrating as the Heart Demon of the Ruthless Sword Venerable – Chapter 3
by Little PandaMust Survive
But before she could live, she had to survive first.
Yu Zhaoming’s Sea of Consciousness1, deep within the lotus pond.
Ripples swayed, and a small fish playfully swam past Tang Wenchun, tail wagging.
They say the Sea of Consciousness is a reflection of a cultivator’s inner world — so why was the inner world of a sword cultivator practicing the Emotionless Dao2 so pastoral?
No — was this really the time to be wondering about that?
Tang Wenchun clamped a hand over her nose and tilted her head back. At the edge of her vision, the water’s surface glowed with a halo of light, like another sky altogether — she couldn’t see what was happening outside at all.
Had Yu Zhaoming left, or was she still here?
Tang Wenchun was frustrated. Hiding here had seemed like a brilliant choice, but it meant she couldn’t see a thing about the situation outside. And worse… she felt like she couldn’t hold her breath much longer…
Her lungs weren’t getting any air. Tang Wenchun didn’t think she could last much longer.
Should she just go for it? Worst case — worst case, she’d die again! Tang Wenchun gritted her teeth, steeled herself, and simply let go. She focused her mind and gathered her energy — only to realize she didn’t have a breathing problem at all. Right. She was a Heart Demon3 now, inside someone else’s Sea of Consciousness. Why would she need to breathe…
In that instant, Tang Wenchun relaxed, seized by an urge to just lie flat and give up. But just then, a chill raced down her back. Before she could think, her body moved as if with a will of its own — she turned and kicked off.
Tang Wenchun felt explosive force erupt beneath her feet. The water split apart, and the rebound launched her body upward. She twisted at the waist, spun, bled off the momentum, and finally landed on solid ground — the longsword she had summoned earlier flickering in and out of existence between her palms.
Tang Wenchun gasped for breath. She looked up and found Yu Zhaoming’s light brown eyes fixed on her. Beneath the green forehead band, those sharp, valiant brows were like blade edges — making Tang Wenchun feel like prey caught in a hunter’s gaze.
Tang Wenchun was an ordinary university student. This rapid succession of events had overwhelmed her — she was coping entirely on instinct from god knows where.
Now, with Yu Zhaoming staring at her like this, she was suddenly reminded of the cold, ruthless Sword Venerable4 from the novel — truly terrifying.
Yu Zhaoming took a step forward.
“Don’t—don’t come any closer!” Tang Wenchun scrambled backward, the longsword waving frantically in her grip, wielded with all the martial finesse of a child. “Don’t kill me! I’m not a Heart Demon!”
Yu Zhaoming paused. She cradled her own sword, her gaze settling on the blade flickering between Tang Wenchun’s palms. “The immortal sword Cangfeng. There is no second one in the world.”
Clearly — possessing a projection of Cangfeng — if she wasn’t a Heart Demon, then what was she?
“I—I’m really not a Heart Demon. I don’t even know how I got here, I…” Tang Wenchun hastily let go. Cangfeng fell to the ground and dissolved into scattered points of light. She tried to say more, but Yu Zhaoming was already surging toward her.
Strange to say — the first two times she was killed, Tang Wenchun hadn’t even been able to see how Yu Zhaoming struck. This time was different. Tang Wenchun clearly saw Yu Zhaoming’s sword coming. Panic surging, she threw up a blind block, and Cangfeng materialized, catching the blow.
Yu Zhaoming’s brow furrowed. Her gaze sharpened another degree, and her sword strikes abruptly accelerated.
Tang Wenchun had no room to think. She could feel Yu Zhaoming’s killing intent clearly — it clung to her like the sword strikes themselves, coiled around Tang Wenchun, waiting for the right moment to end her in a single blow.
She had died too many times already. Tang Wenchun had no desire to do it again. Without stopping to think, she flipped her wrist and formed a spell mudra.
“Divine Prison Piercing the Sky — Rise!5“
Yu Zhaoming’s figure lurched to a halt. For the first time, she retreated, evading the technique.
Tang Wenchun couldn’t help but smile at the sight. But she was, after all, a university student raised in peacetime. Though she had driven Yu Zhaoming back on combat instinct she didn’t know she had, she had no idea about pressing an advantage.
The spell mudra’s characteristic light effects blinded her. She squinted, trying to track Yu Zhaoming — but a chill ran down her back, and she caught a scent like freezing ice.
A breeze seemed to stir. The trailing end of the green forehead band blew forward, drifting past Tang Wenchun’s cheek — soft, gentle, almost tender, like a lingering caress.
At some point, Yu Zhaoming had appeared behind her, her whole body as cold and still as an ice sculpture. Tang Wenchun felt something sharp press against her back. She glanced down instinctively — at least the sword tip hadn’t pierced through her chest.
“You wield my sword, use my sword techniques, and still claim you’re not a Heart Demon?”
Yu Zhaoming’s voice fell against Tang Wenchun’s ear. It felt like a winter gale had blown across it — freezing cold, chilling to the bone. The sword at her back pressed another inch deeper. It felt like the next moment Yu Zhaoming would pierce through her chest and kill her again.
Even though she’d probably revive if she died, she really, really didn’t want to taste death again.
“I… I…”
Tang Wenchun racked her brain. Then, in a flash of inspiration, she shouted: “Heart demons are all the same as the main body! I’m different!”
The sword tip stopped abruptly. Tang Wenchun stood there trembling, and after what felt like forever, nothing happened behind her. She slowly turned around. It was empty — Yu Zhaoming had left the Sea of Consciousness at some point.
Tang Wenchun let out a long breath all at once. Her legs gave out, and she slumped to the ground, gasping.
When Yu Zhaoming had left, and why — Tang Wenchun had no idea. Just as she had no idea why Yu Zhaoming had chosen to enter the Sea of Consciousness in the first place, right in the middle of a crisis.
It took Tang Wenchun a good while to collect herself. She took a deep breath and extended her hand — Cangfeng appeared in her palm.
Tang Wenchun gazed at Cangfeng in her hand. This was Yu Zhaoming’s personal sword from the novel — the last “legacy” she hadn’t left to the female lead.
The novel described how, after Yu Zhaoming’s death, the immortal sword possessed spirit — its blade trembled and mourned for days before vanishing. The Sword Sect members searched but found no trace. After that, there was no more news of Cangfeng in the world.
The one in Tang Wenchun’s hand had the same form and the same sharpness — but she couldn’t feel any spirit in the blade. It was nothing but a crude imitation.
Yet it was the only thing she had to stand against Yu Zhaoming.
Since she couldn’t separate from Yu Zhaoming, her only option was to find some way — whether through fighting or making peace — to stop Yu Zhaoming from killing her.
Tang Wenchun silently psyched herself up, pressed her lips together firmly, and looked toward the white fog. It surged at once, responding to her thoughts, revealing the scene outside.
The Scorching Fire Phoenix Bird’s pair of crimson eyes was right there, as if inches away, staring down at her from above.
“!! What the hell is this thing!!”
Tang Wenchun screamed — and Yu Zhaoming’s sword trembled.
In the heat of battle, there was no room for the slightest distraction — and the Scorching Fire Phoenix Bird’s cultivation was already higher than Yu Zhaoming’s to begin with. The Scorching Fire Phoenix Bird let out a piercing shriek. Visible sound waves exploded outward from its body in all directions, and the first to be hit was Yu Zhaoming.
Yu Zhaoming brought two fingers together and moved her lips silently: “Golden Light Appear Quickly, Cover and Protect My Body.”
A point of golden light flashed from her chest and rapidly covered her entire body. But the sound waves were impossibly fast — even so, Yu Zhaoming was forced back dozens of steps. She braced herself with Cangfeng, and a thread of crimson had already seeped from the corner of her mouth.
“No, this is bad.”
Tang Wenchun was panic-stricken. She had resolved to fight to survive, even if it meant opposing the Sword Venerable from the novel.
But… but if Yu Zhaoming died here, then as her Heart Demon, she couldn’t possibly survive either, could she?
Without realizing it, her life and Yu Zhaoming’s had been bound together — before either of them had even settled their fight!
“Think, think of something! There has to be a way, there has to be…”
The author has something to say:
Author: What did you want to say in this chapter?
Yu Zhaoming: You screamed so loud, you startled me.
Tang Wenchun: I’m just an ordinary university student! Ah, I’ve unconsciously accepted that I’m a Heart Demon!
Reach out — come on, give me a bookmark! (…)
Footnotes
- A cultivator's inner mental space, reflecting their psyche and spiritual state.
- A Dao path based on severing all emotions to achieve cultivation breakthroughs.
- An inner demon born from a cultivator's psyche that obstructs their cultivation. Slaying heart demons is necessary to prove the Dao and achieve immortality.
- A prestigious cultivation title for a top-tier sword cultivator who has reached the highest echelons of power.
- A named sword technique activated by a hand mudra and spoken incantation, a common convention in xianxia cultivation fiction. The middle dot separates the technique name from its activation command.
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