Transmigrating as the Heart Demon of the Ruthless Sword Venerable – Chapter 36
by Little PandaXunyang Ghost Market (Part 3)
Will you kill me?
“How is it you!” Tang Wenchun cried out in alarm. She clapped a hand over her mouth and glanced around frantically. Only after spotting the soundproof barrier that Yunzhongjun had laid down at some point did she sheepishly lower her hand, meeting Yunzhongjun’s half-smiling, disdainful gaze.
“Since I came to see you unannounced, why wouldn’t I make thorough preparations?” Yunzhongjun said. She sat at the table, snapped her fingers, and tea appeared. She glanced at Tang Wenchun, who looked as though she were facing a formidable enemy. “Relax. Your host won’t notice a thing.”
Those words did not put Tang Wenchun at ease. If anything, she grew more tense, her eyes full of wariness as she looked at Yunzhongjun.
Yunzhongjun clicked her tongue in wonder. “You actually trust your host that much? In five years, she’s never tried to kill you?”
“Stop saying ‘host, host’ every other sentence. It sounds awful.” Seeing that Yunzhongjun meant no harm—she was more interested in gossip—Tang Wenchun’s courage grew. She sat down at the table and tilted her chin up. “I’m her Little Junior Sister. Why would she kill me?”
There was a naive pride in her voice that drew Yunzhongjun’s sidelong glance.
“How strange. Setting aside the fact that you’re a heart demon—just the fact that she practices the Emotionless Dao alone should make her… But she hasn’t broken through to Nascent Soul in five years, which does indeed…” Yunzhongjun’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
Tang Wenchun found this odd. “Not breaking through for five years—isn’t that perfectly normal?”
She thought of Bian Man. Bian Man had reached Golden Core before the age of a hundred, and from what Shizun and the Sect Master implied, that already counted as decent aptitude within the sect.
“Perhaps for an ordinary person. But someone like Yu Zhaoming, like…” Yunzhongjun pressed a hand to her own chest and gave Tang Wenchun a meaningful look. “Let me ask you this—guess the bone age of this body?”
Tang Wenchun stiffened. She didn’t like the way Yunzhongjun referred to “this body.” She frowned instinctively. But the discomfort passed quickly, as though some part of her didn’t find the description wrong at all. She studied Yunzhongjun carefully. Yunzhongjun’s face was youthful, her eyes clear as she looked back at Tang Wenchun. Tang Wenchun had seen plenty of cultivators with youthful faces and was no longer fooled by appearances.
Age had little to do with how one looked—but it had everything to do with the look in one’s eyes.
Even someone as spirited as Elder Xuanjiu still betrayed traces of weariness and age when she was quiet. But the Yunzhongjun before her didn’t give off that feeling at all. Tang Wenchun hesitated. “Two… two hundred years old?”
Yunzhongjun laughed. “I am a Mahayana cultivator. Your bargain-bin Shizun is at the Soul Emergence stage and already five hundred years old. And Yu Zhaoming is only twenty yet already half-step Nascent Soul. After Nascent Soul comes Soul Emergence, and after Soul Emergence comes Mahayana. Do you really think a human genius born from heart demon parasitism, inheriting the fortune of the human race, would need two hundred years to reach Mahayana?”
The arrogance in those words was staggering, but Tang Wenchun was far more alarmed by the information hidden within them. “Inheriting the fortune of the human race…”
Yunzhongjun swept her a glance, a look of sudden understanding crossing her face. “Ah, right. I forgot that there’s much you don’t know… If not for the aura on you, you truly wouldn’t seem like a heart demon… Could it be that the Emotionless Dao froze Yu Zhaoming’s brain and froze yours along with it?”
Tang Wenchun was momentarily speechless. Without Yunzhongjun’s shijie around, the woman’s tongue was truly insufferable. “…I’ll call Yu Zhaoming up here, you know.”
“Tch, stingy.” Yunzhongjun leaned back. She seemed to find the long flute at her waist bothersome and tossed it casually onto the table, then poured herself another cup of tea. She looked up and caught Tang Wenchun’s disapproving stare.
“What?”
Tang Wenchun pointed at the flute. “You treat your natal weapon like that, it’s going to get its feelings hurt.”
“Why are you being as pedantic as a Sword Sect disciple…” Yunzhongjun shook her head. “The one who cared about her natal weapon was the original Yunzhongjun. As for me…” Seeing Tang Wenchun’s curious smile, Yunzhongjun suddenly flashed a sly grin. “You still haven’t guessed my age.”
Tang Wenchun shook her head. “Can’t guess. Don’t want to.”
“You’re no fun at all.” Yunzhongjun propped her chin in her hand, her eyes curving slightly. “I’m barely a hundred years old this year.”
Tang Wenchun just said “Oh.” Sure, the other woman was a prodigy—but Yu Zhaoming wasn’t bad either! With Yu Zhaoming as her cheat, a hundred-year-old Mahayana cultivator didn’t really impress her. After all, in the future Tang Wenchun knew, there was no Yunzhongjun. The most impressive one was Yu Zhaoming!
She gave a dismissive snort. “Yu Zhaoming is better than you.”
Yunzhongjun’s mouth twitched. “What good is her being better? She’s still going to kill you.”
Tang Wenchun pulled a face at her. “But she hasn’t killed me yet, has she? Maybe she won’t kill me in the future either, hm?”
“Fool. Did you think a host must kill their heart demon for no reason?” Yunzhongjun sneered. Seeing Tang Wenchun’s blank expression, she showed not an ounce of mercy. “Your cultivation didn’t just appear out of thin air, you know.”
Yunzhongjun watched Tang Wenchun’s face go blank with realization. She leaned in abruptly, her finger poking Tang Wenchun right at the dantian. “You still don’t understand? Heart demons can only parasitize the most talented of the human race. This isn’t coincidence—it’s because anyone less than a genius simply cannot provide the vast quantities of spiritual qi and cultivation a heart demon needs to grow. Everything you have comes from your host. If she kills you, she can naturally reclaim all the cultivation she painstakingly accumulated, and only then can her path to the Great Dao be unobstructed.”
Tang Wenchun looked down at her own dantian. After a long moment, she snapped her head up to look at Yunzhongjun. “If my cultivation comes from Yu Zhaoming, then… then Yu Zhaoming has essentially been cultivating for two?”
“Hmph. So you’re not entirely stupid after all.” Yunzhongjun released her hand and leaned back. “Right now, Yu Zhaoming can barely keep pace with the progress of a genius. But a genius who’s grown accustomed to being a genius naturally wouldn’t choose to walk the path to heaven only to cultivate on someone else’s behalf. How is that any different from being a furnace? What genius could stomach that? And keep in mind—the higher you go, the more spiritual energy is required. This isn’t something you can just wish into being.”
She stood, looking down at the stunned Tang Wenchun. “Since we’re of the same kind, I’ll give you a piece of advice: don’t trust your host so much.”
“Then… then you didn’t come here specifically to warn me, did you?” Tang Wenchun asked.
She didn’t believe for a second that Yunzhongjun was the kind of person who would go out of her way to deliver such a warning.
Yunzhongjun rested her chin in her hand and sighed. “I was assigned to keep an eye on you little brats. What’s worth watching about any of you? My shijie is far more beautiful—I could stay by her side for another three hundred years and never grow tired of it. I can only amuse myself a little. Watching a genius eat dirt, or watching a genius fight her heart demon—either beats sitting around with nothing to do, doesn’t it?”
Tang Wenchun: “…”
So Yunzhongjun had come just to shove dog food in her face and sow discord? How exhausting.
A sudden knock at the door made Tang Wenchun spring to her feet. “Who—who is it!”
“It’s me.” Yu Zhaoming’s voice came from outside, edged with wariness. “The door isn’t locked, is it? I’m coming in.”
Tang Wenchun spun around in a panic. “Oh no, you need to hurry and—”
But behind her, the room was empty. Yunzhongjun had already vanished. The door pushed open and Yu Zhaoming stepped inside. Her gaze swept the room before settling on the table. The table sat quiet and bare—nothing out of place. But one of the round stools had been pulled out.
“You… why did you come in so suddenly?” Tang Wenchun said. Though Yunzhongjun was gone, her mind still felt tangled. She hurried forward, pushing at Yu Zhaoming’s shoulders, trying to steer her back toward the door.
“Mm… it was because I suddenly couldn’t sense your presence.” Yu Zhaoming’s fingers hadn’t left her sword hilt. She turned to meet Tang Wenchun’s eyes. “There was no one here just now?”
“How could there be anyone?” Tang Wenchun laughed. Her heart was pounding with guilt, but she knew she couldn’t look away now—if she did, Yu Zhaoming would suspect something.
As for why she had instinctively covered for Yunzhongjun, Tang Wenchun wasn’t sure herself. In her five years in this world, she had heard plenty about the atrocities committed by demonic cultivators and evil cultivators. But Yunzhongjun… thinking of the woman’s cutting, caustic words, and the actual help she had provided—
Maybe evil cultivators and demon races weren’t all bad people.
The thought made Tang Wenchun push at Yu Zhaoming with a bit more force.
Yu Zhaoming’s eyes narrowed slightly. She relaxed her stance and let Tang Wenchun steer her to the doorway. Hearing the heart demon carefully exhale a quiet breath, she suddenly spoke. “Something is off with you.”
“No, I’m just…” Tang Wenchun looked down at the floor below. Ascending Immortals Tower was the finest restaurant in Xunyang City—bustling yet not noisy. The sound of a singing girl playing the pipa drifted up, the soft, sweet melody falling upon the ear.
“I’m just feeling a bit tired.” Tang Wenchun rested her chin on her hand, gazing below, her eyes clouded with confusion. Yunzhongjun’s words had shattered the calm she had thought existed between herself and Yu Zhaoming. She turned to look at Yu Zhaoming. “Do you want to break through to Nascent Soul?”
Yu Zhaoming lowered her gaze. She watched the people coming and going below—most of them cultivators. Some were uninhibited and free-spirited, others upright and solemn. But they moved through the world in stark contrast to the mortals beside them.
Mortals gave way to cultivators.
Cultivators steered clear of mortals.
As distinct as the Jing and Wei Rivers1.
Yu Zhaoming’s lips moved. “The reason mortals revere and yearn for immortals is for their joy without sorrow, their long life and enduring sight—a single dawn and dusk can span a thousand years. How could this not stir the human heart?2 Of course I want to break through.”
“Right. Who wouldn’t want to break through?” Tang Wenchun’s hand, pillowed beneath her chin, gripped the railing tightly. She was silent for a long time before finally standing up, head bowed. To break through meant Yu Zhaoming would have to kill her. Otherwise, she would need far longer than normal. But Tang Wenchun herself…
“Yu Zhaoming, you…” Tang Wenchun turned and met Yu Zhaoming’s gaze. Yu Zhaoming’s eyes were always like this—when she looked at someone, she was utterly focused, as though she were truly listening. It made it so easy to believe that whatever she said next came from the bottom of her heart.
But Tang Wenchun hesitated. She wanted to ask Yu Zhaoming whether she would kill her. But this time, she didn’t have the certainty she had once held back at the Sword Sect.
“What… do you want to ask?” Yu Zhaoming said. She took a step forward, leaning in slightly, her eyes locked onto Tang Wenchun. “What do you want to ask?”
“…Nothing. It’s nothing.” Tang Wenchun looked away. She didn’t want to meet Yu Zhaoming’s overly earnest eyes right now.
But a sharp pain seized her chin. Before she could react, Yu Zhaoming had pinched her chin and turned her face back, forcing her to meet her gaze. “Look at me. Answer me.”
“I…” Tang Wenchun frowned.
“…would you two like to go out tonight to…” Zhan Lun’s voice rose from behind Yu Zhaoming, then plummeted into a whisper as it rapidly deflated. “Ah… s-sorry to intrude…”
The author has something to say:
Tang Wenchun: Will you kill me? The deliver-the-cultivation kind?
Yu Zhaoming: …
Yunzhongjun, chaotic neutral alignment, here for the drama and the bigger the better.
The quote “The reason mortals revere and yearn for immortals” originates from 《浪迹丛谈》.
Footnotes
- 泾渭分明 | jing wei fen ming | Classical idiom from the distinct colors of the Jing and Wei Rivers, which remain visibly separate even where they converge; used to describe two things kept sharply apart.
- 人间所以贵慕神仙者 | ren jian suo yi gui mu shen xian zhe | Classical quote from 'Langji Congtan' (《浪迹丛谈》), a Qing-dynasty miscellany by Liang Shaoren, expressing why mortals yearn for immortality—freedom from sorrow and eternal life.
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