The Obedient Inner Demon

“Who’s crying?!”

Lu Qiancha shot up from the bed like a little wolf whose tail had been stepped on.

She hopped off the bed in a huff, dragged a meditation cushion over, threw it violently into a corner of the room, and then sat down cross-legged with a thump, facing the cold wall, striking the aloof pose of “I am cultivating, do not disturb.”

Shangguan Yunzhu looked at the small, ruffled blue back that was forcing itself to look composed, and her eyes curved into crescent moons.

She didn’t press the matter, but instead went to the kitchen to start preparing dinner for her.

In the corner, Lu Qiancha closed her eyes and focused on the wall, but the lake of her heart was like a pond with a stone thrown into it, the ripples refusing to calm.

A strange sense of grievance uncontrollably welled up from the bottom of her heart again.

‘That person… actually just left?!’

‘Isn’t she even going to… coax me?!’

“…Hmph!”

She pressed her lips together tightly, swearing an oath in her heart: ‘I will never, ever, ever speak to this baddie again!’

“Heh.”

An extremely faint chuckle suddenly echoed in the depths of her consciousness.

“What?”

Lu Qiancha felt as if she had been pricked by a needle.

She clenched her little paws, her voice muffled and thorny, that little bit of grievance instantly swelling into a flood about to burst its banks.

“Wuu~ Are you… going to kick me while I’m down and laugh at me too?”

“Laugh at you?”

The Demonic Sword Can Xin’s voice was filled with a condescending laziness.

“This one… wishes to save you.”

“Save me?”

Lu Qiancha was stunned, her blue eyes lifting in confusion.

Although being teased by Shangguan Yunzhu was a bit humiliating, it wasn’t exactly life-threatening, was it?

“Little one,” Can Xin’s voice suddenly turned cold, like ten-thousand-year-old ice piercing through a thick fog, “your brain… is about to be turned into a pile of mush by that little pink heart demon in your sea of consciousness!”

“What?!”

It was like a basin of ice water had been poured over her head!

Lu Qiancha was instantly jolted awake from her sulking grievance!

She sucked in a sharp breath and began to quickly retrace her recent actions…

If there was anything particularly strange—it was that her tolerance level was too high.

Faced with Shangguan Yunzhu’s excuses for sharing a bath, which clearly crossed the line, her first reaction was… to ignore it and compromise.

Lu Qiancha didn’t consider herself a particularly kind person, especially towards someone like Shangguan Yunzhu, who was practically a stranger.

On a normal day, the moment the other party had suggested bathing with her, Lu Qiancha would have just used a bottle of sleeping potion to make her sleep until dawn.

Hmm… she might have even kicked her a couple of times, but… she would have done it barefoot or in socks, otherwise it would leave shoe prints, which would be hard to explain when the other person woke up.

If you were to ask how Lu Qiancha knew she would be so decisive…

That’s because, three years ago, Gan Tang had merely been drunk and playfully suggested they take a hot spring bath together… and what was the result?

Lu Qiancha had, without a second thought, used a bottle of ‘Sleep Through the Mountains and Rivers’ and tied that silly girl up with an immortal-binding rope to swing on a swing for three days and two nights.

That person a moment ago… who was hesitant and could only sulk when cornered, was clearly not normal.

Her thoughts raced.

Without hesitation, Lu Qiancha’s consciousness instantly condensed into a soul form and stepped into the purple abode of her sea of consciousness.

The moment she entered, she keenly sensed it—wisps of formless heaven and earth spiritual energy were being drawn by some force, flowing like a stream into the depths of her sea of consciousness.

Then, that pure spiritual energy… was actually dyed with a faint, pink halo that gave off a milky fragrance.

Immediately after, this pink, misty spiritual energy, as if it had found its home, joyfully passed through the barrier of her divine soul and began to permeate deep into Lu Qiancha’s body.

“Cha—bao—!!”

Lu Qiancha’s soul form let out a sharp, explosive roar: “What are you doing?!”

The source of that bizarre, pink, misty spiritual energy pointed directly at that leisurely pink furball.

“Eh?!”

Chacha, having been called out, turned around in pleasant surprise, her pink eyes sparkling.

“Qianbao, you’re here!”

Chacha, like a lively little rabbit, hopped over in a few steps and threw herself into Lu Qiancha’s arms.

Unsteady, Lu Qiancha’s divine soul avatar was once again pinned underneath the other.

“What are you doing in my sea of consciousness?”

Lu Qiancha had no time to play cuddling games with her.

She looked at Chacha with dissatisfaction.

“Hmm?”

Chacha was startled by her sternness, blinking innocently.

“I’m… cultivating.”

“Cul… tivating?!”

Lu Qiancha’s heart pounded wildly.

She quickly looked inward at her Dantian—

Just as she thought.

At the core of her Dantian’s qi vortex, wisps of pinkish-purple, gauze-like spiritual mist were swirling and tangling with her original ice-blue spiritual energy, eventually merging with it.

But what astonished her even more was that wherever the pink spiritual energy reached, the barrier of her cultivation realm had actually loosened considerably, steadily progressing towards the mid-stage of the Void Refining realm.

She could stabilize her realm and even barely pass the initial stage in less than half a month?!

It was absolutely impossible for her to achieve that by cultivating bitterly on her own.

The only explanation… was that the pink spiritual energy cultivated by this heart demon was indeed greatly beneficial to her.

Then there was only one truth: her heart demon could actually help her cultivate?!

Lu Qiancha was full of questions.

She had never heard of such a thing happening in the books she had read.

Was her situation a special case?

Lu Qiancha thought for a moment and felt that this matter wasn’t so strange after all.

After all, the heart demons or demonized people one usually saw, weren’t they all beings with blood-red eyes, filled with hostility, and who walked around shouting, “Kill in life, kill in death, kill everyone.”?

The belief that heart demons could not cultivate, logically speaking, should be a form of discrimination and prejudice against the ‘heart demon’ species.

Hmm… stereotypes are not to be trusted.

A glimmer of understanding emerged in her mind.

What followed was an even deeper sense of unease—if she allowed this pink, misty spiritual energy to continue nourishing and assimilating her…

Her pitiful little bit of masculinity… would probably be completely wiped out.

She would become a little loli who was soft from soul to body, with a light voice, a soft body, and easily pushed over.

No! Absolutely not!

“Chacha…”

Lu Qiancha took a deep breath, trying her best to soften her tone.

“…how about you don’t cultivate anymore?”

“Why not?”

Chacha pouted aggrievedly, her pink tail drooping in disappointment.

“If I don’t get stronger… I’ll be bullied by bad guys! I don’t want Qianbao to be bullied! And I don’t want to be bullied either!”

“The spiritual energy you cultivate…”

Lu Qiancha explained patiently, trying her best to use words Chacha could understand, “…and my own original power, are like oil and water… they can’t mix, and it will make me feel uncomfortable and strange.”

“O… kay…”

Chacha lowered her head, finding it extremely difficult to accept.

Her fluffy pink ears drooped.

But after a moment’s hesitation, she carefully raised her head again, her eyes filled with hopeful light.

“Then… then if I don’t cultivate… can Qianbao let me… go out and play for a little while sometimes?”

“No.”

Lu Qiancha shook her head and refused directly.

“Wuu, why?”

Chacha’s lips trembled, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Xun Xue said so. She told me not to lend my body to you.”

Lu Qiancha said, then released a wisp of her divine soul, recreating the scene in her sea of consciousness.

Seeing the serious expression on Xun Xue’s face in the image, the light in Chacha’s eyes instantly dimmed.

She wrung her fingers in disappointment.

“Mmm… since Mother said so… then… okay, I’ll listen to Mother…”

Her voice was filled with a suppressed sense of loss, that tiny little desire forced to be pushed deep back into her heart.

“Heh, actually… it doesn’t have to be so black and white.”

Can Xin’s lazy voice, tinged with a hint of amusement, sounded at just the right moment.

“Hm?”

Lu Qiancha frowned.

“That little pink furball’s ‘variant spiritual energy,’ although not to your liking… is not entirely useless.”

The Demonic Sword’s tone carried a shrewd calculation.

“Hand it over to this one.”

“You can handle it?”

“A trivial matter.”

Can Xin’s voice sounded as if she were enjoying an interesting transaction.

“Absorb it into the body of the demonic sword… transform and temper it… and it can naturally be turned into pure heaven and earth primordial energy to fill your Dantian’s foundation.”

“And the price? What do you want?”

Lu Qiancha cut straight to the core—there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.

“Mmm… naturally, I’ll have to collect a little ‘handling fee’.”

Can Xin haggled leisurely.

“This spiritual energy… this one will take forty percent, just enough to… repair some old wounds on the sword’s body.”

“For—ty—per—cent—?!”

Lu Qiancha nearly jumped up.

“Are you robbing me?! Can’t we bargain?”

“Sixty percent is the limit your body can handle.”

Can Xin’s voice was filled with a rogue-like certainty and a hint of detached insight.

“If you want this little pink mist to ‘paint’ you anew, then do as you please. This one… won’t lose out either way.”

“…Alright, deal.”

Lu Qiancha had no way of knowing if what Can Xin said was true or false.

She could only nod helplessly and agree to this forty percent tax.

Chacha, who had been listening intently with her ears perked up the whole time, now had a bright little flame rekindled in her eyes.

Her fluffy tail began to wag quietly, and she looked up at Lu Qiancha with a face full of anticipation.

“Qianbao~ Qianbao~ So… so can Chacha cultivate now?”

“…You can.”

Lu Qiancha nodded in agreement, feeling a little tired and helpless.

“That’s great!”

Chacha instantly cheered and jumped for joy, like a child who had just been given candy.

Looking at Chacha’s purely happy smiling face, and the obedient way she immediately sat down cross-legged and began to diligently absorb spiritual energy…

Was this… considered child labor?!

Lu Qiancha’s cheeks felt a little hot, and a strange sense of guilt welled up in her heart.