Chapter 44: Cruelty

Listening Crane Manor passed into He Qian’s hands in its fourth generation.

The He family was not a cultivation clan. Its fortune had begun when an ancestor of the family risked his life to save a cultivator’s relatives. In gratitude, the cultivator gifted him a vast quantity of spirit stone, which became the foundation of the He family’s wealth.

By He Qian’s generation, Listening Crane Manor had become renowned throughout the surrounding region for its prosperity. Yet no matter how wealthy it was, it remained an ordinary mortal household, separated from cultivators by an unbridgeable chasm.

He Qian had wanted to cultivate ever since he was a child. He wanted to become a cultivator so badly that it nearly drove him mad.

He even dreamed of awakening a spiritual root, entering Yonglu Mountain, and becoming a mighty figure in his own right. But that beautiful dream ended when he turned eighteen.

Like his forebears, he had no spiritual root and could not cultivate. He was doomed to spend his life as an unremarkable rich man. What made him even more jealous was that a boy from a collateral branch of the family, who groomed horses for his household, awakened five spiritual roots.

He knew perfectly well that five spiritual roots represented an atrociously poor talent among cultivators. The boy might never rise beyond the Foundation Establishment Realm in his entire life.

Yet He Qian was still consumed by jealousy.

Why?

Why hadn’t those spiritual roots grown inside him? Why had they appeared in some lowly member of a collateral branch instead?

He Qian refused to accept it. He schemed and struggled, trying to use his wealth to pry open the gates of cultivation. But the problem was not that he lacked money.

He could not even find where those gates were.

For a mortal gazing toward the immortal path, it was the greatest distance in the world.

He Qian had tried to resign himself to his fate, but he could not. He could not live out his life the way his father had. He wanted to soar through the clouds and command wind and rain. What use was money?

He wanted longevity. He wanted eternal youth. He wanted to stand above everyone else.

With such thoughts festering inside him, He Qian began walking down a crooked path.

Money was still useful, in the end. If righteous cultivators refused to open their doors to him, he would seek out unorthodox and evil means instead.

Perhaps even the heavens took pity on him, because he truly did find a path that seemed… viable.

He Qian appeared to be a shrewd, worldly businessman, but in truth, he was more like a madman driven insane by his inability to cultivate.

When he was twenty-three, he brought a young woman home and declared that he would marry no one but her. The old manor lord naturally could not change his mind, so he arranged the ceremony for them and even invited a cultivator to bestow a blessing.

Not long after the wedding, He Qian had an adorable daughter, whom he named He Qinqing.

Seeing that their son had finally settled down, the old manor lord and his wife put their worries to rest. Before long, both died of illness.

He Qian took up the burden of managing Listening Crane Manor. He truly was gifted at business. Under his management, the manor grew to more than twice its former size.

But perhaps because his business prospered too smoothly, his wife died in an accident when their daughter was three.

He never remarried afterward. Outsiders praised him for his devotion, but only He Qian knew the truth.

Women would only slow his progress along the immortal path. Had it not been necessary to produce this half-demon daughter, he would never have married or fathered a child at all.

That was right.

No one knew that the beloved wife he had overcome every obstacle to marry was actually a low-level demon.

He had rescued her and made her fall in love with him. Then, using an expensive “immortal art” he had purchased, he devised a way for her to bear a child.

Because he was not a cultivator, He Qian did not know how to identify a half-demon. As He Qinqing grew older, she appeared no different from an ordinary mortal.

He even secretly spent a great deal of money to have someone test her spiritual root, but nothing could be detected.

He became increasingly anxious, terrified that all his years of planning would come to nothing. He spent every day in restless uncertainty.

Then, at the beginning of this year, He Qian finally witnessed the arrival of the half-demon’s “transition period.”

It was called the transition period among humans and the differentiation period in the demon world.

Half-demons were rejected by both sides. Upon reaching adulthood, they had to choose whether to become human or demon.

Those who chose to become demons had to return to their maternal clan, because demon cultivators possessed their own unique inheritance methods.

But if they chose to become human, the demon blood within their bodies would eventually condense into a spiritual root. It was guaranteed to form.

In other words, although half-demons appeared to be forsaken by the heavens, in a certain sense, they were also heaven’s favored children.

The benefactor who had taught He Qian the “immortal art” told him that when a half-demon regressed into an oviparous state during the differentiation period, a direct blood relative could consume and digest them.

That relative would then obtain the spiritual root produced when the half-demon chose to become human.

The method was undeniably evil and utterly unheard of, but He Qian believed it was worth trying.

Or rather, he had no other option.

She was only one daughter. He believed he could afford the loss.

And now, his half-demon daughter’s differentiation had finally begun.

He Qian was beside himself with joy. He believed the immortal path he had awaited for so long had finally opened before him.

However… he had never expected the half-demon’s differentiation to take far longer than he had imagined.

Nor had he expected it to be so difficult.

At first, she only required large quantities of medicinal herbs that replenished vital energy. Soon, ordinary herbs were no longer enough. She needed spiritual energy and miraculous pills and medicines.

Before long, even common low-level pills stopped working, and his daughter’s condition began deteriorating rapidly.

He was frantic with worry. He even considered seeking out a spirit physician or another cultivator to examine her, but in the end, he restrained himself.

Fortunately, his daughter’s condition soon began to improve, and she regained consciousness.

Just as he thought he had completed ninety-nine of the hundred steps, his daughter discovered what he had been planning.

He had believed his preparations were flawless.

For example, he had worried that his daughter might grow attached to her mother and choose to become a demon, so he had disposed of the little demon in advance. Of course, he also despised demonkind. Enduring her for three years had already been his limit.

He had also raised his daughter with painstaking care all these years. Every resource in Listening Crane Manor had been directed toward her.

Yet even after everything he had done, that ungrateful half-demon still refused to become human!

How could he possibly tolerate that?

In a fit of rage, he placed her under house arrest, intending to wait until she fully regressed into an egg before consuming her.

But he had not expected half-demons to be innately cunning. She escaped in the middle of the night.

Fortunately, he had taken away all her talismans and artifacts beforehand. Otherwise, if she had alerted Xia Ying, the city lord’s niece, his entire plan would truly have fallen apart.

He Qian knew Xia Ying and his daughter were extremely close. The excuse that his daughter had eloped would not fool her for long.

Therefore, immediately after coaxing Xia Ying into leaving, he took out the spirit talisman the “immortal master” had given him.

He had to find his daughter as quickly as possible.

He could not wait another moment.

He Qian was a clever businessman. Had his obsession with cultivation not driven him to madness, he would never have summoned an evil cultivator at a time like this.

But when desire overwhelmed a person, calm and rational thought became impossible.

He knelt atop the array left behind by the evil cultivator, as devout as a believer begging a god for a blessing.

But an evil cultivator would never pity him.

The evil cultivator would only drain He Qian to the marrow, because evil cultivators had never been kind enough to answer the wishes of their followers.

“Please! I beg you, you must find her!”

The summoned evil cultivator was wrapped in a black cloak. Its hood was so large that only a thin, sharp chin could be seen.

Even so, the aura surrounding the figure was indescribably sinister.

“Right beneath Yonglu Mountain? You certainly know how to choose a place to live. I remember you used to live much farther away.”

The evil cultivator’s androgynous voice rang out.

Anyone who saw the figure would know at once that this was no righteous cultivator. Yet He Qian called the stranger “Immortal Master” without blinking, his voice so reverent that even an evil cultivator would have found it pleasing.

“Immortal Master, I beg you. As long as you help me bring my daughter back, I will offer you all the wealth of Listening Crane Manor!”

The evil cultivator let out a sinister cackle.

“Your wealth?”

“Yes. I can give you this entire manor!”

The evil cultivator laughed even more delightedly.

“But it already belongs to me, doesn’t it?”

He Qian froze.

When he raised his head, the cloak’s hood had somehow fallen away. A pale and terribly familiar face crashed into his mind.

In an instant, terror swept through He Qian’s entire body.

“You—”

“Why are you looking at me like that, Husband? Do you not like this face?”

The evil cultivator deliberately raised her voice into a shrill pitch, her expression filled with malice.

“Or are you surprised that I’m not dead?”

He Qian turned to flee.

But just as he moved, a powerful force dragged him backward.

When he turned his head again, that haunting face had appeared beside his ear.

“Aaaah—!”

“Scream again, and I’ll kill you.”

He Qian immediately clamped his mouth shut.

He covered it with both hands, but the terror in his eyes spilled out uncontrollably.

He Qian was frightened to tears.

He was terrified of death.

“You didn’t truly think you were the one who fathered our daughter, did you?”

The evil cultivator giggled happily.

“You really do love making jokes, Husband. Still, I must thank you this time. Had you not notified me so promptly, I truly would not have known that our daughter really was a half-demon.”

He Qian’s eyes nearly split with rage.

He refused to believe her.

“You’re lying! I delivered the child with my own hands. How could—”

“Magic, Husband. You really are stupid.”

She smiled.

“You are only a mortal. If I hadn’t willingly faked my death, do you think someone like you could have killed a demon?”

Humiliation—overwhelming, crushing humiliation—filled He Qian’s bloodshot eyes.

Yet no matter how deeply he hated her, he remained unable to struggle.

To those outside cultivation, everyone was an ant.

Why were the heavens so cruel to him?

He had never asked for much. Why would they rather grant a spiritual root to a mere stable boy than fulfill his wish?

“Enough. You may die now.”

The evil cultivator’s demonic voice sounded beside his ear.

“Thank you, Husband.”

In that instant, He Qian felt even his soul tremble.

He knew he might truly be about to die.

He had spent his entire life plotting and scheming, yet in the end…

“Tsk. Being beneath Yonglu Mountain really is inconvenient. They arrived far too quickly.”

The evil cultivator’s lips curved slightly.

“Still, they’ve saved me quite a bit of trouble by delivering themselves straight to my door.”

When Xia Ying arrived at Listening Crane Manor with Ah Qing, she immediately sensed the evil cultivator’s presence inside.

Her heart sank.

She had only enough time to send her uncle a communication talisman before the evil cultivator’s power dragged her into the manor. She never had the chance to leave a message for Wen Xu and Bian Chunzhou.

Her heart lurched.

She silently prayed that the two of them would not follow her.

But clearly, her wish went unanswered.

“Three cultivators in the Qi Refining Realm? You’re certainly brave!”

Xia Ying tightened her hold around Ah Qing.

Looking at He Qian lying on the ground in the distance, she shouted sternly, “Evil wretch! How dare you cause trouble in Langyuan City!”

At that moment, Wen Xu and Bian Chunzhou had just broken through the killing move and charged into Listening Crane Manor.

When the evil cultivator saw their disciple robes, delight appeared on her face.

“So you’re new disciples of Yonglu Mountain. It seems my luck is rather good. If I can make a great sect suffer humiliation, the name Madam Shen will surely become several degrees more famous across the continent!”

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