GD Ch. 17

Chapter 17: What’s Missing

No one understood what the Three Lords were doing better than Zhuyou.

The Three Lords of the Devil Realm were doing nothing good. Instead of staying in their rightful place, they insist on mingling among mortals, pretending to be one of them, and doing it quite convincingly.

Zhuyou never expected that Jing Kexin, in particular, would hide away her wanton indulgence after taking over a human host. At first glance, she really resembled a little junior sister in the human sects who seek enlightenment and pursue the Dao.

Although there was a clear distinction between the immortals and the devils, both had trodden over countless predecessors’ bones. They had reached the peak by their own abilities, one through righteousness, the other through cunning, heading in opposite directions.

Though most devils were looked down upon by humans, their cultivation level was no less than that of wandering immortals. Hence, the Upper Realm was divided into two halves, one for devils and the other for immortals. However, after the demise of the Devil Lord, the half of the realm where the Devil Realm resided experienced constant tremors, inexplicably sinking a portion of it.

Shangxi City was still situated between the Immortal and the Devil Realms. It was disturbed by the tremors, facing a worse situation than the Devil Realm itself. It was like a copper weight on a balance scale; originally capable of maintaining equilibrium between the two realms, in recent years, it had been tilting more and more toward the devil’s side.

With the Devil Lord extinguished, two of the Three Lords were neglecting their duties, leaving only Luo Qing with some concern for the Devil Realm. Consequently, the Devil Realm was becoming increasingly worse off compared to before.

Zhuyou naturally guessed that if the Dragon Clan discovered the missing dragon egg in the stone chamber, their primary target for retaliation would be the Three Lords of the Devil Realm. After all, based on her understanding of Jingyi, it was unlikely that the bird would sell her out.

It took only a hundred miles to leave the snowy mountains to reach Songling City.

Originally, Zhuyou had no idea what kind of city it was. She merely sensed some human presence and abundant spiritual energy from a hundred miles away, suggesting the presence of a sect. It wasn’t until she saw the heavily guarded gate that she noticed the words “Songling City” written on it.

The handwriting was worse than hers.

Once inside the city, she concealed the diabolic markings on her body and used magic to alter her appearance slightly, so as not to frighten the mortals.

Mortals couldn’t withstand fright; if scared, their souls might leave their bodies, leaving them as fools.

Perhaps due to the upcoming opening of Shenhua Mountain, the city had gathered many mortal cultivators. They wore different attire, some in white, some in blue, seemingly disciples of various sects.

Although these disciples had spiritual energy protecting them, they couldn’t maintain it constantly like immortals and still felt the cold. Moreover, Songling City was situated at a high altitude and experienced snowfall year-round. The sky was always blanketed in white, resembling the Heavenly Realm. One needed a fur coat to withstand the cold to stay in the city for long.

As the idle disciples chatted about Shenhua Mountain and the peculiarities of the early opening of the mountain, a bone-chilling gust of wind suddenly swept through, bringing with it a sense of pressure.

The city was covered in snow, with flurries of snowflakes swirling in the air. Despite the fierce winds, this gust felt particularly cold, making even their knee bones feel weak as if it carried a sense of oppression.

Several disciples quickly turned around to see a woman in a dark thin shirt standing nearby, her fingers touching the object coiled around her wrist. Her black hair cascaded down, unbound, with the ink-black beads on her head almost blending into the color of her hair. One would hardly notice the strands of beads entwined within her hair without a close look. Despite the chilly winter weather, she wore only a black silk skirt covered by a mist-like gray robe, with her hands, feet, and neck exposed, yet she showed no signs of shivering.

Zhuyou didn’t mean to stand there looking intimidating, but the dragon coiled around her wrist moved again, its scales rubbing against her skin, seemingly intentionally.

She glanced down at Changying and vaguely sensed a bit more of her spiritual energy being siphoned away. Yet, this dragon didn’t seem to think she was doing anything wrong; she even rotated her golden eyes slowly, meeting Zhuyou’s gaze deliberately.

It seemed like this dragon was growing, perhaps feeding on Zhuyou’s spiritual energy was more effective than feeding on spirit stones. Initially, the slender black creature could coil neatly around her wrist in a circle. Now, upon closer inspection, she seemed to have grown a small segment.

Zhuyou tugged at Changying and compared her with her fingers; indeed, she had grown a bit. Not much, just about half the length of Zhuyou’s index finger.

Changying opened her mouth, revealing two sharp teeth as if she intended to bite.

Zhuyou grabbed her mouth and scoffed, saying, “Aren’t spirit stones enough for you?”

The storm, carrying snowflakes, howled away, leaving several disciples clad in fur coats dumbfounded. They stared blankly as the woman in black took out a large piece of spirit stone from her mustard seed bag and offered it to her wrist. It turned out that the coiled object wasn’t a bracelet but rather something that looked like a black snake.

The black snake didn’t even take a bite; after all, snakes don’t eat stones.

Seeing her refuse, Zhuyou reluctantly took back the spirit stone, thinking that this dragon was truly picky, now even refusing to eat spirit stones. In the future, what would she eat? Did she want to take a bite out of her occasionally?

Her expression darkened. Although she hadn’t raised a divine offspring before, she knew enough to understand that allowing one to act recklessly like this was inappropriate.

Changying stared at her without blinking, her golden eyes cold and indifferent.

“For the last time, if you can’t transform, I’ll tie a knot around you,” Zhuyou said grimly.

Changying closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Zhuyou had never been so annoyed since entering the Devil Realm. She immediately stuffed the dragon into her sachet and tied the opening tightly.

She noticed brazen glances from afar and casually glanced sideways at the group of disciples from the sect. Her gaze was as light as air like she wasn’t looking at living beings.

Those disciples were startled by the gaze, but then they noticed the face that seemed too exquisite for the mundane world. Despite the coldness in her eyes, the person’s thin lips were slightly curved. The woman was not smiling, but she still had a hint of innocence in the downturned corners of her eyes.

Zhuyou suppressed her spiritual energy. Though she wasn’t as powerful as she used to be, intimidating a few mortals seemed like overkill. 

And those disciples seemed fearless, perhaps because they hadn’t faced much hardship in life. They boldly extended their spiritual senses, wanting to test her cultivation.

Zhuyou wondered if mortal cultivators were all this naive and innocent, lacking reverence. She found it somewhat amusing.

The dragon inside the sachet stirred, suddenly banging her head, rubbing against the fabric intermittently. Compared to her initial state, the dragon indeed seemed stronger now. Initially, it felt like scratching an itch, but now it was starting to hurt.

Zhuyou adjusted the sachet hanging by her side, thinking that she would feed the dragon again a bit later. After all, she needed the dragon; she couldn’t mistreat it indefinitely. But she couldn’t overfeed it either, or she’d go blind.

This was the last chance. Even if the dragon pouted and acted cute, she wouldn’t relent next time.

The disciples from the sect who had caught her glance surprisingly walked against the wind toward her. Though they stared at her face, their question was about something else.

“Senior, may I ask if the black snake just now is a contracted demonic beast?” one of them asked.

The black snake in the sachet seemed to understand. She suddenly went quiet for a moment before struggling again, seemingly unwilling. What black snake? She was clearly a dragon.

Zhuyou remained silent, allowing them to scrutinize her. She thought to herself, if there were any other devil encountering such a situation, would they kill to keep it secret, or simply make something up on the spot?

In the Devil Realm, there was hardly anyone more dedicated to being a devil than her.

Seeing her silence, the disciple who asked scratched his temple awkwardly, unusually sincere as he said, “Senior, please don’t be offended by our abruptness. It’s just that our shishu from the inner sect just ordered us to inquire about the origin of any newly born demonic beast we encounter.”

(T/N: Shishu = The literal meaning is “martial uncle,” yet it’s gender-neutral. It refers to both male and female martial siblings, whether older or younger, of one’s own master.)

Zhuyou’s eyes softened slightly, the phoenix markings at the corners of her eyes already hidden, giving her a less mysterious appearance. She calmly replied, “Could it be that someone has lost a demonic beast?”