The Demon Venerable’s Return

Due to the alcohol, Su Xiaoxiao, who for years had maintained a regular schedule and awoke with the dawn, slept directly until late morning.

She felt a slight dizziness, yet her sleep last night had been exceptionally deep. As her eyes fluttered open, she realized an arm was wrapped around her waist.

This discovery jolted Su Xiaoxiao awake, and she instantly sat upright.

She saw Xiyue sleeping beside her, the very person who had held her. Su Xiaoxiao’s small face flushed as she quickly inspected herself.

Her clothes were still perfectly intact. Feeling no discomfort, she surmised that nothing untoward had occurred last night.

Su Xiaoxiao had never truly drunk alcohol, much less been intoxicated. When she pushed Xiyue’s arm away, her wrists and fingers still throbbed with a dull ache.

She attributed it all to the lingering effects of the alcohol. Xiyue, a light sleeper, had already awakened the moment Su Xiaoxiao gently pushed her hand aside.

Slowly, Xiyue opened her eyes. She feigned a natural awakening, offering Su Xiaoxiao a soft, “Morning.”

Su Xiaoxiao’s face went ashen. Her voice trembled uncontrollably.

“I… how did I end up here?!”

Noticing Su Xiaoxiao’s lack of memory, Xiyue effortlessly lied without a change in expression.

“Last night, we were admiring the moon in the courtyard,” she began. “Your alcohol tolerance is quite low, and after you got drunk, you kept making a fuss.”

“You refused to sleep, and I was afraid you’d wake the children. So, I had you stay in this room with me for the night.”

Su Xiaoxiao glanced at the bright sky outside. Hearing Xiyue mention the children, and thinking of Ruoli, her mind was too preoccupied to slowly recall the events of last night.

She gave a perfunctory nod. Then, she scrambled out of bed and rushed out, not even bothering to put on her shoes, intent on checking on the children.

Xiyue rose shortly after, following close behind with Su Xiaoxiao’s shoes in hand. The moment Su Xiaoxiao stepped out of the room, an urgent shriek erupted from next door.

“Ruoli—”

A belated realization dawned on Xiyue. Ruoli shouldn’t have slept in so late; she should have been up looking for Su Xiaoxiao by now.

Yet, the morning had been eerily quiet, with no disturbance from the child. Xiyue had simply forgotten about the child’s existence.

Her expression suddenly turned grave. Upon entering the room, however, she found only a frantic Su Xiaoxiao.

Su Xiaoxiao’s face became even paler. Her head spun fiercely with dizziness. With great difficulty, she choked out, “Ruoli is gone!”

Her emotions surged, causing her body to tremble violently. Xiyue urged her to sit, offering comfort.

“Perhaps Yanyan took her out. Just sit down for a moment.”

Su Xiaoxiao refused, insisting Xiyue come with her. Xiyue could only bend down and squat, helping her put on her shoes.

Eventually, they left the manor and found Gu Yan, who was also alone. “I didn’t return yesterday,” Gu Yan explained. “I haven’t seen Ruoli. Did she run off to play somewhere on her own?”

Su Xiaoxiao reacted sharply, her anxiety palpable. “She wouldn’t!”

Both Xiyue and Gu Yan were startled by her outburst. Su Xiaoxiao paused, then apologized.

“I’m sorry, I’m just too anxious,” she said. “This whole incident is my fault. Last night, I drank too much…”

With that, Su Xiaoxiao turned to search for the child. Seeing her terribly pale face, Xiyue quickly added, “She’ll be fine.”

Su Xiaoxiao was frantic, but Xiyue remembered the red jade bangle she had given Ruoli, which the child wore on her wrist. If Ruoli were in danger, the bangle would protect her.

Furthermore, Xiyue would sense it if the bangle shattered, indicating that for now, Ruoli was not in immediate peril.

The three split up, searching for the child in three different directions across the mountain. However, the culprit who had abducted Ruoli, having already secured one Mermaid pup, was far from satisfied.

He was unwilling to give up on Su Xiaoxiao. The fiend deliberately sent a message to Su Xiaoxiao as she frantically searched, instructing her to come alone into their trap.

Having lost her child, Su Xiaoxiao was consumed by self-reproach, her thoughts in utter disarray.

The voice continued.

“If you come alone, I will release your child.”

The captor exploited the overly naive nature of humans. Distraught and panicked, Su Xiaoxiao didn’t hesitate.

She went alone to the location the voice had mentioned. Upon arriving, Su Xiaoxiao realized the truth.

The one who had taken Ruoli was a spirit monster of the mountain, born within its depths. He had concealed his spiritual aura amongst the forest.

It was precisely because Xiyue and Su Xiaoxiao had set up a temporary barrier around the spring last night that he seized the opportunity, effortlessly slipping into the room and abducting the defenseless, sweetly sleeping Ruoli.

The child was missing, and Su Xiaoxiao, who had gone to search, also failed to return.

Gu Yan’s cultivation was limited, so she couldn’t sense Su Xiaoxiao’s aura. It was as if it had been deliberately hidden.

If Xiyue still failed to realize someone was secretly meddling, she would be utterly foolish. Abducting the child and threatening Su Xiaoxiao crossed Xiyue’s bottom line.

Gu Yan tried to stop the now infuriated Xiyue, whose eyes had turned crimson. “You, don’t panic yet,” Gu Yan urged. “These are just some illusions and petty tricks. We can break them later and find Su Xiaoxiao and Ruoli.”

“Now is not a good time. You’ve hidden your identity for so long; are you really going to reveal it just to find someone now?”

But it was utterly useless. Xiyue refused to listen to another word.

“ROAR—”

A dragon’s roar erupted, and with it, dragon might descended, causing heaven and earth to lose their luster. A single, deafening bellow, like a mountain collapsing, tore through the sky.

Amidst its majestic presence, thunder echoed through the clouds, and fierce winds howled. A colossal black dragon, appearing as the sovereign of the firmament, descended, wielding the might of heaven and earth.

Its power shook all four directions. In that instant, not only this small mountain but the entire Nine Provinces trembled.

The identity hidden for three years was instantly revealed to all. The Demon Venerable Xiyue had not perished in that heavenly tribulation; she was alive.

She had transformed into a dragon!

****

Despite the ground shaking beneath her feet, and her wrists and ankles bound, Su Xiaoxiao’s first thought was to protect the child.

Her cultivation was not high, and her mind was solely focused on Ruoli, trapped in the cage. She couldn’t spare any energy to sense Xiyue.

The sudden tremors in the mountains led Su Xiaoxiao to believe it was a natural disaster, akin to a tsunami in the South Sea.

However, the culprit, who had been gleefully excited moments before, now displayed a level of panic after the tremors that Su Xiaoxiao found unusually extreme.

The spirit monster was tall, but its abilities were limited. It could freely change its size and briefly conceal its aura with illusions, making it seem like a mere plant.

If a real fight broke out, its only option would be to flee for its life. The cave shook violently, and碎石 fell from the ceiling, striking the edges of Ruoli’s cage.

Ruoli, being so young, couldn’t help but cry from fright. She seemed afraid that Su Xiaoxiao would worry, so her sobs were tiny, almost imperceptible.

Hearing Ruoli’s muffled sobs, Su Xiaoxiao’s heart shattered. Overwhelmed with regret, she blamed herself intensely.

She shouldn’t have left Ruoli to drink in the courtyard last night, nor should she have indulged so much that she lost all awareness, completely forgetting about her child. It was utterly irresponsible.

Moreover, after Ruoli left the Mermaid clan, her cultivation was too low and she was too young to adapt well to the outside world.

Now, due to her carelessness, the child had been captured. If any harm came to Ruoli because of this incident, Su Xiaoxiao feared she would never forgive herself.

She watched Ruoli, confined in the cage, looking at her with pitiful eyes. Suddenly, profound regret, like a surging tide, washed over Su Xiaoxiao.

She shouldn’t have taken Ruoli away from the Mermaid clan. She was incapable of taking good care of her.

As Su Xiaoxiao was consumed by regret, the spirit monster, who had been greedily smiling moments ago, delighted at capturing two Mermaids and pondering how to deal with Su Xiaoxiao and Ruoli, suddenly underwent a drastic change in expression.

He muttered incoherently, “A dragon…”

“How can there be a dragon in this place…”

“She’s still alive, she’s actually still alive…”

Su Xiaoxiao listened, utterly bewildered. She too found the recent tremors highly unusual, accompanied by an inexplicable palpitation in her heart.

It felt like the unease and agitation animals displayed before a disaster. “What are you saying?” Su Xiaoxiao asked him aloud.

It was as if Su Xiaoxiao’s voice pulled the spirit monster back from his shock. His previously panicked face instantly twisted back into one of greed.

This time, however, his greed was laced with frantic urgency. “We need to get out of here, fast,” he muttered.

The Mermaid clan lived in seclusion. Even the few Mermaids who left their sealed territory would conceal their identities, never exposing themselves.

Mermaids were exceedingly rare, and Mermaid offspring, due to tribal rules, could only venture out alone once their cultivation reached a certain level and they had attained the prescribed age.

Mermaids themselves were a sight rarely seen in a millennium, let alone the even rarer Mermaid children. ‘This would surely fetch a handsome price…’

The spirit monster, a greedy and wicked smile plastered on his face, approached Ruoli’s cage. But before his hand could even touch it, a flash of white light, like the gleam of a sharp sword, streaked past behind him.

The previously dim cave instantly illuminated as if daylight had burst forth. When the white light vanished, only a pungent, bloody stench remained in the cave.

The spirit monster, who had been standing before Ruoli’s cage, was now severed at the waist. With his last breath, he struggled to utter two words: “Demon Venerable…”

Even if the spirit monster hadn’t gasped those words in his dying moments, Su Xiaoxiao would have known who stood before her.

No matter how foolish or low her cultivation, she wouldn’t be so utterly oblivious as to not realize it now.

The cave reeked of foul, bloody stench. Ruoli, trapped in her cage, watched wide-eyed as the spirit monster was cut down before her.

Some of its blood even splattered onto her tender, pale face. A black sword was impaled in the ground. Standing before the cage was a woman of breathtaking beauty, yet radiating a chilling aura, with long, silver-white hair.

The oppressive pressure emanating from her, coupled with her crimson eyes, rendered Ruoli too terrified even to cry.

The sturdy cage’s lock was effortlessly crushed by Xiyue. Xiyue assessed her with a glance. Seeing that Ruoli was unharmed, she simply uttered, “Come out yourself.”

Then, she moved to Su Xiaoxiao’s side, kneeling to unlock the long chains that bound her. Both her actions and her expression were considerably gentler.

Her tone was laced with concern and worry. “Are you hurt? I’ll unbind you right away.”

Su Xiaoxiao stared at Xiyue’s face, feeling the overwhelming aura that emanated from her.

‘It’s Xiyue.’