Transmigrating as the Heart Demon of the Ruthless Sword Venerable – Chapter 30
by Little PandaSword Sect Disciple (2)
Those Who Fall to Demons Must Be Killed
Tang Wenchun had inexplicably become the little disciple in Xuanjiu’s words. Her heart was in turmoil—if she were an ordinary person, this would naturally be a heaven-sent opportunity to soar. But she wasn’t! She was a heart demon!
Tang Wenchun’s heart raced, and she hurriedly turned to look at Yu Zhaoming. Yu Zhaoming nodded at her.
…What does her nod mean? Do you want a heart demon as your shimei? Will killing your heart demon be more exciting this way?
Yu Zhaoming clearly had no idea what Tang Wenchun was thinking. She simply stood at Xuanjiu’s side, her gaze sharp as she looked at Elder Wang. Elder Wang furrowed his brows—he naturally disliked a junior looking at him like that. As he frowned, he saw Yu Zhaoming produce the soul vial.
Elder Wang immediately suppressed his displeasure and turned to Xuanjiu. “Elder Xuanjiu, this matter concerns both sects. Please wait until I have interrogated this soul before making further plans.”
Xuanjiu pondered for a moment, then glanced at the soul in the vial—its color was clearly abnormal—before nodding in agreement.
The remaining matters seemed to have nothing to do with the Sword Sect disciples. Seeing the elders depart together, the remaining disciples immediately swarmed around Tang Wenchun, speaking one after another: “So Fellow Daoist Tang is Elder Xuanjiu’s new disciple… Why did you hide it from us before? Ah, calling you Fellow Daoist doesn’t seem appropriate anymore. We should call you shijie.”
“Shijie!”
These were all people Tang Wenchun had protected during the battle, and they called out “shijie” with genuine respect. Their calls made Tang Wenchun’s ears turn red and her face flush, leaving her utterly flustered. She hastily said, “No, no, no, it was really all Yu Zhaoming’s credit.”
Tang Wenchun felt she had spoken correctly. All of her cultivation came from Yu Zhaoming. If Yu Zhaoming hadn’t spoken up, Tang Wenchun didn’t know whether she would have protected these people herself. She thought she couldn’t take credit that belonged to Yu Zhaoming.
Thinking of this, she hurriedly looked toward Yu Zhaoming. Yu Zhaoming nodded at her: “Well deserved. It was all your credit.”
At that moment, the strange feeling that had risen in her heart when Yu Zhaoming patted her head earlier surfaced once more. It was clearly full of joy, yet tinged with shyness…
Tang Wenchun averted her eyes and didn’t look at Yu Zhaoming’s gaze again.
The future Emotionless Sword Venerable might be emotionless, but at this moment, she didn’t seem so emotionless after all.
…Could it be that because she was never an emotionless person to begin with, seeing an ordinary mortal couple was enough to make her Dao Heart crumble entirely…
Perhaps the Sword Venerable of the Emotionless Dao, before she became the Sword Venerable, in the distant past described in 《Immortal Path Hard to Find》, and in some future time that Tang Wenchun now inhabited, Yu Zhaoming had once liked someone…
This thought surfaced in her mind, and Tang Wenchun subconsciously frowned, instinctively displeased.
But if that wasn’t the case, how could she convince herself that the future Sword Venerable would meet such an end?
Perhaps… perhaps this was the very purpose of her transmigration—she could change Yu Zhaoming’s future?
Tang Wenchun fell into silence for a moment, and Yu Zhaoming didn’t speak either. Silence immediately fell between them. The people around them found the atmosphere strange, exchanged a few glances, and quietly slipped away.
Tang Wenchun walked to one side, leaning against a tree in thought. Yu Zhaoming followed not far from her, trailing along quietly.
“Ah… why are you following me?” Tang Wenchun came back to her senses and looked at Yu Zhaoming.
Yu Zhaoming stood tall and straight. Hearing her voice, she withdrew her gaze from the distance and let it fall on Tang Wenchun, replying: “Your constitution cannot be too far from me.”
…She really had forgotten about this.
At this moment, Tang Wenchun still didn’t know how much trouble this constitution would bring her. She just said “Oh” to indicate she understood, and sank back into thought.
Meanwhile, the Sword Sect disciples watching from afar were whispering among themselves.
“I’ve never seen Eldest Senior Sister follow someone so closely before.”
“Then you haven’t seen Eldest Senior Sister frowning while waiting for someone.” Bian Man tossed her head, her earlier fear from being glared at by Yu Zhaoming completely gone. “Eldest Senior Sister cares a lot about Tang-shijie.”
“…Um, isn’t Eldest Senior Sister on the Emotionless Dao?”
“Pfft, the Emotionless Dao can be changed. In all these years, has anyone in our Sword Sect ever achieved great completion in the Emotionless Dao?”
“Well said. I went to the Scripture Pavilion before to look for books on the Emotionless Dao, and I honestly couldn’t understand any of it. It’s not something humans can practice.”
“My Shizun also said, who knows what Elder Xuanjiu is thinking…”
Though the disciples kept their voices low, the elders’ cultivation was such that they could hear even insects dormant beneath the ground, let alone the disciples’ words.
Elder Wang raised his head and glanced at the unconcerned Xuanjiu. “Your Sword Sect is truly… lacking in proper hierarchy.”
“They’re just a bunch of children talking nonsense.” Xuanjiu smiled as she rotated the smoking pipe1 in her hand, leaning sideways against a tree. Elder Wang’s cultivation wasn’t poor; he could naturally see that she had a layer of spiritual energy between herself and the tree, preventing herself from actually leaning against it.
As cultivators, untouched by dust, their bodies self-cleansing—why bother?
And Xuanjiu’s posture—neither standing properly nor sitting properly—didn’t seem to worry her about being seen by her disciples.
Elder Wang shook his head, thinking that the Sword Sect had truly declined, with both master and disciple looking like this. He looked at the writhing, wailing soul in his hand. “This person has now confessed everything, but the memories of where he was corrupted by demon qi have been sealed with a restriction2. We need to return to the sect before we can conduct a soul searching3.”
Xuanjiu nodded and exhaled a long plume of smoke.
Elder Wang was anxious to return to his sect and already couldn’t stand Xuanjiu, so he offered only a perfunctory bow, deployed his artifact, grabbed the raving Thirteenth Young Master beside him, and departed on the wind.
Xuanjiu watched Elder Wang’s retreating figure until it disappeared, her expression rarely darkening. Not long after, she composed her emotions, put on a smile again, and turned to look for her new disciple.
The new disciple and the old disciple were inseparable.
Although Xuanjiu found it strange in her heart, she didn’t overthink it. Instead, she felt that if someone could break her disciple’s Emotionless Dao and have her choose a new path, that would be even better. She was happy to see it happen, so her gaze toward her disciple was soft and benevolent.
It was just that this gaze was truly at odds with her glamorous appearance, startling Tang Wenchun into a shiver: “S-Senior…”
“Oh my, why call me Senior? You should change how you address me now!”
This line was far too reminiscent of those mother-in-law dramas4, where the mother-in-law tells the new bride to change how she addresses her and call her “Mom.”
The next moment, Tang Wenchun, in a daze, called out: “Mom?”
Yu Zhaoming couldn’t bear to watch and averted her face. This person was actually her heart demon—what did her heart demon normally think about? Could it be because she had lost both parents at a young age, so she wanted a mother…
No, this absolutely could not be her own thoughts!
Yu Zhaoming reflected silently in her heart. She… somewhat didn’t want to admit that Tang Wenchun was her heart demon anymore.
Xuanjiu chuckled and reached out with an “oh my.” Tang Wenchun, not yet having suffered her poison, was bewildered, but Yu Zhaoming had already reacted—she reversed her sword and blocked Xuanjiu’s vicious claws with the scabbard.
“Stingy!” Xuanjiu shot a scolding glance at her disciple.
In that instant, Tang Wenchun felt as though Xuanjiu’s entire being was radiating pink. Even though she was a heart demon, she still felt her breath catch for a moment.
Xuanjiu paused, and she and Yu Zhaoming simultaneously looked at Tang Wenchun. Tang Wenchun looked back at them with innocent eyes: “What?”
Yu Zhaoming remained silent, and Xuanjiu was also speechless. But after a moment, she smiled again: “Worthy of being my good disciple. It seems you and I are fated. You have emotion in your heart—you should cultivate my Red Dust Sword Intent5.”
Tang Wenchun’s face was full of confusion. How had she suddenly become her good disciple, fated with her? Seeing Xuanjiu’s smiling, amiable manner, she seemed easy to talk to. Tang Wenchun was about to ask in detail, but Yu Zhaoming had already interrupted her.
“Shizun, when can we depart?”
Xuanjiu glanced at Yu Zhaoming. Her long smoking pipe rotated once in her hand, and she accepted her disciple’s goodwill: “Let’s set off now. I’ll escort you back.”
Yu Zhaoming nodded calmly, but it was Tang Wenchun who spoke up: “Aren’t we supposed to be doing the trial?”
Xuanjiu smiled and affectionately pinched Tang Wenchun’s cheek. As Xuanjiu drew closer, the fragrance of her cosmetics washed over Tang Wenchun—gorgeous but not cloying, the vulgar and the elegant coexisting—making Tang Wenchun’s face flush red instantly.
It had been a long time since Xuanjiu had derived such amusement from her disciple, and she couldn’t resist pinching Tang Wenchun again.
“Shizun.”
This time Yu Zhaoming’s voice was heavier. Xuanjiu reluctantly withdrew her hand with a sigh, deciding to pinch her again later when her eldest disciple wasn’t around. She said: “That soul has been tainted by demon qi. Though the issue isn’t severe, we must still be careful. Speaking of which—” Xuanjiu fiddled with her pipe pouch, “recently, there have already been three similar incidents. Previously, they were only ordinary people performing evil rituals to become immortals, but this time it has involved a sect.”
“…Tianji Pavilion?” Yu Zhaoming suddenly said.
Xuanjiu narrowed her eyes slightly: “Tianji Pavilion says that recently, inauspicious black qi has shrouded the starry sky, and the Ziwei Star has dimmed—the human race faces calamity. There haven’t been demons in this realm for a long time, but evil cultivator techniques originate from the demon race, so we can’t be careless.”
Hearing this, Yu Zhaoming’s expression darkened slightly, and her gaze fell on Tang Wenchun.
Tang Wenchun immediately flinched.
Xuanjiu pulled Tang Wenchun over: “Zhaoming, why are you glaring at your shimei? Don’t worry. Even if the demon race truly returns to this realm, that’s a matter for us old ones. Your cultivation is still so little—working hard on your practice is what matters.”
“Besides, you’ve already done very well, capturing that demon-qi-tainted soul. Hmph, a cultivator who can’t even control himself, swallowed by demon qi—truly a waste of cultivation…”
“Senior…” Tang Wenchun started, then seeing Xuanjiu look at her, changed her address. “Shizun… um, but if the Wuji Sect inner sect disciples hadn’t bullied him, couldn’t he have controlled himself?”
Xuanjiu had also seen what the soul had said and knew the inside story. Hearing Tang Wenchun speak like this, she suddenly smiled: “Little Disciple Wenchun, I don’t know how your elders taught you before. But in this cultivation world, righteousness and evil cannot coexist. Regardless of the reason, once someone falls to demons, even if they have the greatest grievance imaginable, they must be killed first before anything else.”
“No matter who they were before, once they fall to demons, they are no longer themselves. They couldn’t care less about any human ethics or morality.”
Xuanjiu spoke, her tone heavy, and a flash of pain crossed her face. She turned her head, looked at Tang Wenchun’s startled expression, and thought for a moment: “It seems you’ll need to study hard after we return.”
The author has something to say:
Sword Sect disciples: Wow! Is Eldest Senior Sister finally going to change her Dao and re-cultivate?
Xuanjiu: Wow! Can I finally take a disciple who’ll learn my Red Dust Sword Intent?
Tang Wenchun: …Why do I still have to study?
Yu Zhaoming: …Why is everyone so happy?
Footnotes
- 烟杆 | Yan Gan | A traditional Chinese long-stemmed smoking pipe used for tobacco, often carried as a personal accessory by scholars and elders.
- 禁制 | Jinzhi | A spiritual seal or restriction that locks access to memories, information, or power within a cultivator or artifact.
- 搜魂 | Souhun | A technique to forcibly extract memories from a soul; often invasive and damaging to the subject.
- 婆媳剧 | Poxi Ju | Chinese TV dramas centering on conflicts between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, a ubiquitous genre in mainland Chinese entertainment.
- 红尘剑意 | Hongchen Jianyi | Sword Intent born from experiencing worldly passions and mortal attachments; the opposite of Emotionless Dao.
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