A Mermaid’s Torment and a Demon’s Scorn

When Gu Yan departed, she had explicitly instructed that the little fish be given water, lest it dry out and become a mere husk before others even awoke.

Xiyue, however, paid no heed to her words.

She had merely used Su Xiaoxiao as a bargaining chip to escape the Upper Heavens. Upon her return, she hadn’t killed the girl, but only because she found her face pleasing and her mermaid body uniquely suited to satisfying her own desires.

Care for? When had Xiyue ever deigned to look after another living soul?

If Xiyue were truly to heed such a request, the throne of the Demon Venerable would surely belong to another.

Su Xiaoxiao attempted to rise, but her body, riddled with weakness, betrayed her, sending her tumbling back down with a soft thud.

Her beautiful, clear sapphire eyes were still rimmed with red, causing Xiyue to subtly furrow her brow. ‘Still not done weeping?’ she mused.

Su Xiaoxiao’s bloodless lips were parched and cracked from dehydration, her chest a searing inferno, an unbearable torment as if ablaze.

Xiyue held a small flask in her hand, too indolent even to fetch a proper teacup. Looming over Su Xiaoxiao, she asked in a low, resonant tone, “Thirsty?”

Su Xiaoxiao’s throat was parched beyond endurance. For the first time in her three-hundred-year life as a mermaid, she tasted the agonizing torment of thirst.

Su Xiaoxiao was likely not entirely lucid, for otherwise she would have surely chosen death over submission. Yet, as her gaze met Xiyue’s, she nodded, as if under a spell.

Xiyue’s cruel nature was laid bare. She lifted her hand high, deliberately taunting, and allowed the water to trickle down. Su Xiaoxiao, kneeling on the ground, was forced to open her mouth and desperately try to catch each drop.

Her trembling body swayed, and the water, missing her mouth, ran down her form, splashing onto her undergarments. This made her appear soft and alluring, igniting a fervent spark in Xiyue’s eyes.

The silver flask was small, and Su Xiaoxiao managed to drink only a meager amount, yet it was enough to momentarily quell her burning thirst.

Xiyue then swept her into her arms.

Outside, her subordinates had long since prepared a bath.

However, the moment Su Xiaoxiao’s toes merely grazed the water, she let out a piercing shriek, struggling desperately to break free from Xiyue’s embrace.

“Scalding—”

No one in the Demon Race had ever kept a mermaid before. The cruder demons rarely bathed, sometimes going centuries without, while even the more fastidious among them merely washed in wild rivers.

The servants, thinking mermaids were naturally delicate and unique, had meticulously prepared the bath, only to inadvertently cause harm.

Between the recent humiliation and the current torment, Su Xiaoxiao’s spirit had finally shattered. For the very first time, a flicker of courage ignited within her before Xiyue.

Disregarding her utterly weakened state, she resolved to fight Xiyue to the death, even if it meant expending every last shred of her spiritual power.

Her mind clouded by shame, she channeled spiritual energy into her palm and unleashed a direct strike at Xiyue.

It was true, then: even the gentlest of races changed once they entered the Demon Realm. Su Xiaoxiao, who had been utterly meek and timid at their first encounter, shyly addressing her as ‘Immortal Elder’ and inquiring about the main hall for her birthday banquet, was now so cornered that she had learned to strike back.

Su Xiaoxiao’s desperate, full-force blow was effortlessly evaded by Xiyue.

Xiyue had ascended to her current formidable position by treading over the countless corpses of her own kind.

No one who dared to strike at her had ever walked away whole.

Her body’s subconscious reaction, in the very instant she dodged Su Xiaoxiao’s attack, had already delivered a retaliatory blow.

Having barely reined in her cultivation, Xiyue’s strike was far too potent for Su Xiaoxiao to withstand.

The force of the palm strike landed squarely on her chest, sending her crashing heavily against the wall. The blood she coughed up stained her undergarments crimson, and as she slumped to the floor, she appeared even more heartbreakingly fragile.

Though Xiyue had not used her full power, the blow still damaged Su Xiaoxiao’s heart meridian, nearly claiming her life. For a significant period thereafter, Su Xiaoxiao’s health would remain precarious, her cultivation entirely dissipated, rendering her no different from a mere mortal.

Later, when her two children were born, this injury would cause Su Xiaoxiao immense suffering, nearly sending her soul to the netherworld. But those were tales for another time.

In the present moment, Xiyue harbored not a shred of remorse. Instead, she believed Su Xiaoxiao’s actions were entirely her own fault, a foolish display of overestimation.

****

Compared to Xiyue, Gu Yan possessed a significantly softer heart.

A mermaid! Such a creature was one that ordinary mortals might never glimpse in an entire lifetime.

Xiyue had taken her again and again, showing not a single flicker of tenderness, and now she had nearly beaten her to death.

To describe Xiyue as merely ‘brutal’ would be a disservice to her true nature.

Xiyue stood to the side, her face utterly devoid of remorse. Instead, she stated airily, “She threw herself at me. What concern is that of mine?”

“If she lives, she lives. If she dies, she dies.”

“You are truly heartless,” Gu Yan remarked, casting a faint glance at Xiyue. Then she added, “Mermaids are such rare creatures. If you genuinely have no use for her, then once I revive her, she shall be mine. What do you say?”

The nature of demons was inherently depraved.

The notion of a ‘life-long companion’ was nothing short of a colossal jest among demons, a sentiment so rare that one might not find such a devoted soul in ten millennia.

Yet, Xiyue frowned upon hearing these words. She was no romantic, but she harbored a possessive conviction: since Su Xiaoxiao had graced her bed, she was unequivocally hers.

Whether she was to be kept as a plaything, torn limb from limb, or allowed to live or die, all decisions rested solely with Xiyue; no other dared to covet what was hers.

Xiyue’s eyes darkened, and she warned in a chilling tone, “Heal her, as instructed. Spare me your incessant prattling.”

Gu Yan offered a perfunctory acknowledgment, her gaze fixed upon the lifeless, paper-pale Su Xiaoxiao lying on the bed. Lowering her voice, she exposed Xiyue’s inner thoughts, ‘All this bluster… I’d say this ancient iron tree is finally about to blossom.’

****

When Su Xiaoxiao finally awakened, several days had already elapsed.

Moonlight streamed, casting a cold, desolate glow upon the silent, empty chamber.

She vaguely recalled the day she had been forcibly taken by that beast, Xiyue, and subsequently subjected to repeated torment. Her heart had been utterly shattered, sparking a desperate resolve to fight to the bitter end.

Yet, her attempt had failed to harm Xiyue. Instead, she had been struck squarely in the chest, her internal organs churned into a chaotic mess. Even now, upon awakening, a dull ache persisted, feeling as though a raging fire consumed her.

Moonlight filtered diagonally through the window, casting dappled shadows. Su Xiaoxiao gazed at it blankly, lost in thought, her mind drifting to the sunny days in the South Sea—the shimmering expanse of the ocean, the refreshing breeze, and the joyful laughter of her kin.

Snapping back to reality, Su Xiaoxiao raised a hand to rub her aching chest, unwilling to simply resign herself to fate.

Since the heavens had favored her, sparing her from Xiyue’s lethal strike, she resolved to exhaust every possible means to return to the South Sea.

Beneath the bed, there wasn’t even a single pair of shoes.

In the South Sea, mermaids rarely wore shoes, preferring to tread barefoot on soft, fine sands or to unfurl their magnificent tails and frolic in the ocean.

She paid it no mind, yet she hadn’t ventured far before a sharp pain shot through her feet.

Her jade-like feet, exquisitely pale and tender, found the Demon Realm’s stones excruciatingly harsh and jagged, though they posed no issue to others.

She had no time to spare for her aching feet. The burning sensation in her chest intensified with every movement, and an uncontrollable cough wracked her body, a futile effort even with her hand pressed to her mouth.

Su Xiaoxiao disregarded the pain, even quickening her pace, utterly oblivious that the moment she departed Xiyue’s chambers, word had already reached the Demon Venerable’s ears.

Xiyue’s own injuries were far from healed. She had recently been preoccupied with a looming sense that her Dragon Transformation Tribulation was nigh, dedicating her days to meditation and recovery. Yet, this troublesome fish, barely clinging to life, was still heedlessly stirring up trouble.

“She seems remarkably spirited,” Xiyue murmured.

“Should we retrieve her?” a subordinate inquired.

Xiyue still recalled their first encounter, the sight of Su Xiaoxiao circling aimlessly within a small space, utterly lost and bewildered, unable to find her way out.

The Demon Palace was vast, and Xiyue scoffed, “A foolish fish who can’t even navigate beyond a bedchamber. Why bother with her?”