Side Effects

‘No, I can’t let this heart demon continue to cause trouble!’

Lu Qiancha decided it was time to take back control!

Focusing her mind, she reclaimed command of her body.

In her sea of consciousness, the pink furball blinked her pink eyes, tilting her head with a slight look of surprise, but she quickly accepted it—she had eaten what she wanted to eat, hugged who she wanted to hug, and even had an intimate moment with the mother she most wanted to see… This “outing” was a huge win.

In reality, Lu Qiancha reopened her eyes, a flash of ice-blue light in her pupils. Her body moved slightly, and like a nimble fish, she slipped out of Xun Xue’s warm but suffocating embrace.

“Gan Tang, you can go back first. I… have some things to discuss with Mother alone.”

Her voice was slightly stiff from the recent switch, and she tried her best to maintain her usual calm tone.

“Oh… okay, Senior Brother!”

Gan Tang keenly sensed the change in atmosphere and obediently replied, leaving with a hint of curiosity and reluctance.

Back in her own small room, the door closed softly.

Lu Qiancha turned, her clear yet serious gaze fixed on Xun Xue, “Mother, can the bloodline link from just now be severed?”

“Of course, it can be…”

Xun Xue nodded, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the lingering warmth of her daughter on her palm. A flash of understanding crossed her ice-blue eyes—that little daughter who had brought her so much joy and worry was indeed just a fleeting illusion.

“However, after it’s severed… there will still be some subtle ‘marks’ left behind,” Xun Xue emphasized.

“Then please help me sever it… This feeling of being restrained is really something I can’t get used to…”

Lu Qiancha said decisively, with a hint of an almost imperceptible plea.

“Mm… but, Little Qiancha, aren’t you going to explain… what was going on with that ‘you’ just now?”

Xun Xue nodded, not refusing, but her beautiful eyes shifted, her knuckles tapping lightly on the table, her gaze as sharp as a torch.

Lu Qiancha closed her eyes helplessly, a war raging in her heart. In the end, she couldn’t withstand Xun Xue’s gaze and confessed everything—the birth of the heart demon, lending her the body which led to the “social death” scene, and that the bloodline link was all the heart demon’s doing.

“You’re saying…” Xun Xue listened, a thoughtful light in her eyes as she summarized, “That little one is, in essence, your… ‘heart demon’?”

“Mm, at least that’s what she calls herself.”

Lu Qiancha nodded solemnly.

“Interesting…” Xun Xue tapped her fingertips on the table, lost in thought. “In my past travels, I once heard a theory about heart demons…”

She looked at Lu Qiancha, her voice carrying the profoundness of one who has seen the world, “The so-called ‘heart demon’ isn’t necessarily always a manifestation of bad karma or evil miasma. It’s more likely… another ‘possibility’ of a cultivator that was erased or not chosen at the endless crossroads of fate…”

She paused, her tone growing heavier, “And ‘succumbing to a demon’ is not a fall from grace, but rather another form of ‘attaining the Dao’! It is to completely accept that entirely different possibility and embark on a different… ‘path’!”

Lu Qiancha’s pupils contracted slightly, instantly understanding—

A heart demon, one could say, is another version of oneself from a parallel universe.

That soft, cute, defenseless Chacha who craved affection… was also a “possibility” that had once existed?!

‘But… the contrast between this possibility and myself is just too great!’ Lu Qiancha’s inner self facepalmed frantically.

With that said, Xun Xue composed herself. Her slender fingers, like orchids, gently picked up Lu Qiancha’s soft paw that was resting on the table. A blade of incomparably condensed, frost-white immortal energy silently extended from her fingertip!

“Brace yourself.”

Zheng—!

A faint, almost inaudible clear ring, like a snapping lute string.

Lu Qiancha felt the formless yet heavy shackle within her body break. The suffocating feeling that had constantly lingered receded like a tide. Finally… she was free.

The tense tail behind her subconsciously wagged a few times in contentment.

Her heart slightly at ease, Lu Qiancha immediately remembered Xun Xue’s earlier warning and pressed, “Mother, you mentioned… the ‘few marks’ that would remain?”

She had a feeling that the word “few”… carried a heavy weight.

“About that…”

Xun Xue actually winked slyly, a meaningful and slightly devilish smile playing on her lips. “Allow me… to keep you in suspense for a bit?”

Her gaze swept over Lu Qiancha’s wary wolf ears. “Let’s talk about… a more important issue.”

She leaned forward slightly, a scrutinizing look brewing in her ice-blue eyes, “For example—you! Why did you willingly lower your mental defenses and allow a ‘heart demon’ of unknown origins… to control your own body?!”

“Um… this…”

Lu Qiancha’s gaze instantly darted around, looking everywhere but at Xun Xue’s eyes. The large, fluffy tail behind her swung back and forth erratically. She couldn’t think of a suitable reason at all. She couldn’t just say that she had been deceived by the other’s appearance and had agreed out of a moment of weakness…

“…Sigh, you silly daughter.”

Seeing her “I’m done for, she’s seen through me” expression, Xun Xue sighed a long, helpless, yet soft-hearted sigh.

She suddenly reached out and, with a mix of “tough love” and fondness, pinched Lu Qiancha’s soft, bouncy cheeks as if kneading dough. “Promise Mama—”

Her voice was low and carried an unprecedented solemnity, “In the future… you must never do such a dangerous thing again! Okay?”

“Ngh… know… stop… pinching!”

Lu Qiancha tried her best to shield her face with her paws, her words muffled.

“Alright, I believe you.”

Xun Xue knew when to stop and retracted her demonic claws, her expression turning serious again. “Then… this ‘heart demon,’ what do you plan to do with her?”

“Do with her?” Lu Qiancha finally breathed a sigh of relief. She rubbed her reddened cheeks and fell into thought.

The simplest and most direct method would be to slay the heart demon… but she probably couldn’t defeat her. And slaying a heart demon could very well lead to an unstable state of mind, clouding her future.

The second method would be to eliminate the root cause. To put it simply, to kill or forget everyone and everything related to the heart demon, and the heart demon would naturally cease to exist.

Lu Qiancha immediately rejected this method. To kill wantonly just to get rid of a heart demon… she would rather be replaced by the heart demon.

After thinking for a long time, Lu Qiancha said thoughtfully, “For now… let’s shelve it. She can’t pose a threat to me right now.”

“Mm, a prudent choice.”

Xun Xue nodded in agreement.

The topic paused for a moment. The sly smile reappeared on Xun Xue’s lips. She stood up gracefully, walked over to Lu Qiancha, and leaned down slightly.

“Oh~ right,” her voice was sickly sweet with triumph, “About that… the ‘little~ side effect’ that remains after the link was severed…”

“?” Lu Qiancha looked up with her small face, uncomprehending, her guard slightly lowered. Was Xun Xue finally going to explain?

“Want to know?” Xun Xue’s fingertip gently hooked a strand of Lu Qiancha’s soft hair. “I… can tell you now.”

She smiled like a wolf that had cornered its prey.

Lu Qiancha saw that smile and a chill inexplicably ran down her spine. Before she could process this warning of danger—

Whoosh.

A large hand, carrying a cool fragrance, had already landed on top of her head without any warning.

It wasn’t a pat. It was a precise capture of her left blue, pointed ear, which was trembling slightly from nervousness.

Weng—!

It was as if a secret switch deep within her soul had been flipped.

Lu Qiancha’s mind went blank. An indescribable… ultimate sense of peace and comfort, like a hot spring under the winter sun, gently and irresistibly enveloped her entire body.

Every cell in her body greedily soaked up this sudden tranquility.

“Good girl~ good girl~”

Xun Xue’s low whisper was filled with a smile and an “as expected” understanding. The fingertips of her other hand even moved up, skillfully scratching under Lu Qiancha’s chin—just like soothing a favorite cat.

“Ngh—!”

An unprecedented tingling sensation mixed with a sense of secure contentment shot straight to the top of her head like an electric current.

Lu Qiancha completely lost control of her throat, and a soft, sticky whimper escaped.

“How is it~”

Xun Xue’s voice seemed to come from a distant cloud, laced with a beguiling smile. “This ‘side effect’… is it… memorable?”

Satisfied with the sight of her little daughter, who had completely softened into a “ball of blue fluff” in her arms, a glint flashed in Xun Xue’s eyes, and she stopped just short of going too far.

The immortal energy at her fingertips quietly receded. She even considerately took a step back to give her space, and then… quietly turned around.

She floated out of the room as lightly as the wind.

The room was empty, and the comfortable halo of light slowly faded like the tide…

The warmth of being endlessly pampered was suddenly withdrawn from her body…

A sense of emptiness and helpless loss, like a cub abandoned in a snowy plain, fiercely gripped the just-awakened Lu Qiancha.

She stood frozen, her blue eyes staring blankly at the empty room, the huge contrast between the extreme dependence just now and the sudden emptiness now.

“I see this little one of yours has been pretty much trained by that Wolf King. The next step should be for you to become a good little baby in her palm…”

Seeing Lu Qiancha’s reaction, Can Xin’s voice was filled with a gloating mockery.

“I have not!”

Lu Qiancha immediately retorted, a wave of panic rising in her heart.

“Heh.”

Can Xin let out a light laugh and said no more.