Chapter 64: Demon Lord (9)

Han Qiu originally thought that the biggest difficulty in teaching the young heir of the Demon Realm to cultivate immortality would be whether her Heavenly Demon bloodline could accept spiritual energy. However, once lessons began, he realized that the real challenge was—she couldn’t read.

Although it wasn’t uncommon for six-year-old mortal children to be illiterate, she was the heir of the Demon Realm! How could she not know how to read?

“I do know how to read! I can even write my own name!” Qian retorted, gripping a brush and scribbling on paper.

Han Qiu took the paper and saw a mess of twisting, complicated symbols—clearly just random scribbles.

The little heir earnestly told him, “This is Dragon Script! My name!”

Dragon Script? Han Qiu had never heard of such a thing.

He sighed, wearing a fatigued smile that belonged to a man forced to work. “Young Master, Dragon Script is not useful right now. We need to learn the characters that people use.”

“I can write those too!” Qian lay on the paper, thinking as she wrote, quickly producing over a dozen characters.

Han Qiu took a look—some characters were indeed recognizable, but they were incorrect, missing strokes and poorly formed.

It seemed he had to start from the very basics.

Han Qiu sighed again. “Young Master, these characters are written incorrectly. We need to learn them properly.”

The child became sullen, stubbornly insisting, “They’re not wrong!”

“Alright, alright, they’re not wrong. We’re just going to learn another way of writing them,” Han Qiu rephrased.

But Qian suddenly looked a bit downcast. She sat there, twisting her fingers, refusing to listen to the lesson.

Suddenly, Han Qiu plopped down in front of her, covered his face, and started sobbing dramatically.

“My life is so miserable! Wuwu—”

The uncooperative child was startled by the grown man who burst into tears. A sly adult had used the weapon of tears first! Qian leaned in, resting her head on Han Qiu’s knee to check if he was really crying.

“Wuwu—” Han Qiu turned his head away, continuing to wail.

Qian shook his knee. “Stop crying.”

Han Qiu, in a pitiful, tearful voice: “If you refuse to learn, I’ll die.”

In the end, Han Qiu successfully used his impressive fake-crying skills to trick the child into practicing her writing at the desk.

However, the intimidation of tears didn’t last long. Soon, Han Qiu discovered that Qian wasn’t seriously practicing her writing—she was drawing.

“Young mise, what are you doing?” he asked with a forced smile, his tone dangerous.

Qian, completely oblivious, held up her drawing for him to see, beaming with an innocent and adorable smile.

“I’m drawing you. Look!”

Han Qiu examined it—considering her age, it was actually a decent drawing. But he wasn’t teaching an art class!

If this were an ordinary student, they’d be getting their palms smacked right now. Yet this completely unaware student even had the audacity to ask, “Aren’t you going to praise me?”

Han Qiu: “…”

For a brief moment, he was charmed by the child’s adorable smile—but then he quickly remembered the fearsome Demon Lord.

He resigned himself to his fate. “Forget it. We’ll deal with literacy later. I’ll just read the cultivation techniques to you.”

While explaining the preface, Han Qiu read aloud: “Thus, the human heart must maintain righteousness and suppress its desires…”

“What are you teaching the Young Master?” Luo Ye, who had been monitoring the lesson, interrupted coldly.

His expression was unfriendly. “This is the heir of the Demon Realm, not some disciple of the Immortal Sect.”

Han Qiu was aggrieved. “But the text you gave me literally says this.”

Luo Ye shoved him aside. “You don’t know how to teach. Let me do it.”

He turned to Qian. “Young Master, we are demons! We must follow our desires and do as we please! Those hypocritical cultivators bind others with their rules, but in truth, they are nothing more than thieves and degenerates, no different from us demons.”

“As the heir of the Demon Realm, you must be fearless. If anyone angers or offends you—kill them! Make them suffer worse than death!”

Qian listened, half-understanding. “If someone makes me angry, can I scold them?”

Thinking she meant Han Qiu, Luo Ye answered without hesitation, “Of course you can!”

Qian immediately put her hands on her hips and shouted, “Demon Lord, you big bad egg! Rotten egg! Yucky egg!”

Luo Ye: “…”

Han Qiu wisely stepped back two paces. “Hey, you taught her this. I had nothing to do with it.”

Luo Ye raised both hands in protest. “Young miss! You can’t say that!”

“But you said I could say anything.”

Han Qiu interjected, “Because you can’t win against him. If you curse him, you’ll get beaten.”

Qian looked at her own pale, chubby arms and let out an old-man-like sigh, complaining in frustration, “He’s like a little dog. How can he just bite people?”

Han Qiu and Luo Ye pretended not to hear her, both clearing their throats.

The teaching progress was slow, and the Demon Lord was displeased.

“Perhaps it’s because there’s no suitable spiritual energy in the Demon Realm. The Young Master cannot sense it and therefore cannot grasp the cultivation techniques,” Han Qiu finally came up with an excuse.

Who knew that within two days, the Demon Lord would have someone deliver a scroll filled with dense spiritual energy?

“What is this?” Han Qiu frowned, recognizing the scroll with an ominous twitch in his brow.

“This is the Ten Directions Mountain Scroll. Within it lies a true-to-life version of the Ten Directions Mountain Range, complete with several spiritual veins. It is a secret realm world filled with spiritual energy, perfect for the Young miss’s cultivation,” Liu Sha explained.

So it was you, Ten Directions Mountain Scroll.

This was a treasured artifact of the Bihui Yuntian Sect, containing secret realms for training disciples and spirit pools for cultivation.

As one of the sect’s heirs, Han Qiu had been chosen by his father to inherit the scroll, which had led to jealousy and assassination attempts from his siblings. Sick of it all, he had hidden his identity and fled to the Demon Realm.

Well, now the problem was solved. The Demon Lord had stolen the treasure, so there was no longer any need for bloody family infighting.

Han Qiu let out a bitter, tearful laugh.

Now that they had this, what excuse could he possibly use next time to justify the child’s lack of progress?

She had a new playground now. The place was filled with mountains, small lakes, and architecture completely different from the Demon Palace. Though there were no people, there were plenty of small animals around.

Forget studying—she had already completely forgotten about Han Qiu as she ran around playing.

“Young Mise, shouldn’t we be studying now?”

Lying on the grass in the back mountains, plucking grass to feed wild rabbits, Qian laughed happily, treating Han Qiu’s urging like the chirping of the birds in the trees.

It wasn’t until Liu Sha, who had come to supervise, picked up both Qian and the rabbit and placed them at the desk that Han Qiu was able to start his lesson.

As for how effective the lesson was… better not to speak of it.

Han Qiu gave up. Rather than suffering through this, he might as well enjoy what little time he had left.

Having made peace with the situation, Han Qiu reclined in a rocking chair in the bamboo building of the secret realm, sipping tea and fishing, savoring the breeze.

Meanwhile, Qian played to her heart’s content, occasionally coming over to the desk to scribble.

Then, he suddenly noticed an unusual gathering of spiritual energy and turned to look at her in confusion.

“Young Miss? Did you just draw a spirit talisman?!” Han Qiu sat up in shock.

This child hadn’t even learned the basic cultivation methods yet—he certainly hadn’t taught her talisman or array techniques. But she had managed to write a functioning spirit talisman on her own?!

Han Qiu had never seen anything like this. He moved closer to inspect it and found that she had simply been drawing as usual. She had sketched a strange creature with wings and a tail, alongside a mess of crooked lines—what she had previously claimed to be “Dragon Language.”

But those strange lines, unlike any spirit talisman symbols he had seen before, were glowing with spiritual light—clear evidence that the talisman had worked.

What was going on? Had his student become a self-taught genius after he gave up? And not just any genius—one capable of creating a new type of talisman unknown to the cultivation world?!

A plan suddenly formed in Han Qiu’s mind. Since she had such a natural talent for spirit talismans, why not use them to channel spiritual energy for cultivation?

This method was far simpler than forcing her to memorize complicated cultivation techniques. As long as she translated the meanings of the talismans into her so-called Dragon Language, most of them would work successfully.

Han Qiu watched with satisfaction as the spiritual energy in her body increased, to the point where even the parasite inside her seemed to be getting squeezed into a state of depression.

But he still had some concerns. With her Heavenly Demon bloodline, if her spiritual energy accumulation reached a certain level, it could clash with her demonic lineage.

It wouldn’t kill her, but she would suffer greatly before making it through.

Han Qiu paused. Wait—why was he, a spy, worrying about the well-being of the Demon Realm’s young miss?

Besides, at the slow and inconsistent pace she was absorbing spiritual energy, that crisis was still a long way off.

Before every lesson, Qian would explore her “new world,” crawling into nearby caves, picking flowers, and feeding the free-roaming animals.

Only after that would she sit through a short period of class.

One day during a lesson, Han Qiu noticed her face was flushed. He touched her forehead—it was burning hot.

Pulling over her chubby arm to examine her, his expression grew increasingly serious.

“Did you eat something strange?”

“Hmm?” Qian mumbled drowsily.

Han Qiu rummaged through her pockets and pulled out a few half-eaten red beans.

The secret realm was bound to have some rare spiritual medicines capable of drastically increasing spiritual energy, and these red beans were one such item, ripening only once every hundred years. Even he had never tasted them. Who knew where she had found them?

The issue of children eating random things was truly a headache. He didn’t even have kids—why was he dealing with this?

“Uuuugh, it hurts!” Qian whimpered.

“That’s what you get for eating random things. Will you still do it next time?” Han Qiu scolded as he held her burning-hot body, trying to ease her pain.

But this was a battle between her surging spiritual energy and her Heavenly Demon bloodline. Feeling threatened, her demonic blood suddenly unleashed its domineering nature, rapidly transforming her body.

For the first time, the child’s form shifted into her Heavenly Demon original form.

Demonic beings in the Demon Realm had different original forms. A pure-blooded Heavenly Demon would take on the shape of a savage, fur-covered beast with a fierce head. But mixed-blood demons had varying appearances.

Demons only revealed their original forms under special circumstances.

Han Qiu had heard of this phenomenon, and looking at the creature in his arms, he realized it was a little red-furred pup—short and stout, with round limbs and a chubby belly.

Its head was pointed like a fox’s, completely unlike the terrifying descriptions of Heavenly Demons.

“Hiss!” The little creature bit his hand when he tried to hold it still. As soon as he let go, the pup scurried into a crack in the room.

Han Qiu couldn’t coax her out. He could only hear her pitiful animal-like whimpers.

“Come, the Demon Lord is here.” Liu Sha suddenly appeared, grabbed Han Qiu’s shoulder, and pulled him out of the secret realm.

Han Qiu and the Demon Lord passed each other in the corridor.

Qian huddled inside the narrow crevice, the tight space giving her a sense of safety.

In her previous world, she had hatched from an egg and grown little by little, receiving plenty of love from an early age. That love had quickly helped her adapt to and accept her unfamiliar surroundings.

But in this equally unfamiliar world, she had lacked that initial sense of security.

Liu Sha and Luo Ye had treated her well, but more out of reverence. The others dared not approach her at all, so she had rarely spoken in those early days.

Even though she had gradually become familiar with this world and had started talking more, at this moment of fear, her first instinct was still to hide.

Then, an overwhelming aura drew near, making her chubby little legs go weak with fright.

Yet, within that terrifying presence, there was also a strangely reassuring scent.

The round, red-furred “pup” opened her eyes and saw a massive beast before her. Its mouth was full of sharp, white fangs, drawing close to her head.

If there were a mirror at this moment, she would realize that this fierce beast looked like a larger and leaner version of herself.

The beast seemed to be trying to grab her by the scruff of her neck, but either due to inexperience or because she was simply too small, it couldn’t get a proper grip. So, instead, it bit down on her entire head and carried her out of the corner.

The little red-furred pup kicked its legs helplessly in the air as it dangled from the beast’s jaws.

The beast ran, passing through the secret realm’s gate, and returned directly to the sleeping hall, where it spat the trembling little pup onto the bed.

The tiny pup trembled pitifully… just like he had when he was young.

Back when he was weak, he had often looked just like this.

He despised his original form, neither fully a Heavenly Demon nor a true Charm Demon. People mocked and humiliated him, treating him like a mere dog.

Huai Younong had always believed he was the only one in the world with this strange appearance. But just now, he had seemed to catch a glimpse of his younger self—huddling in a crevice, shivering in fear.

His frail mother used to find him and pull him out, gently smoothing down his messy fur with her hands.

But those days were too short. She died soon after.

Being weak was terrifying.

Standing beside the bed, the beast suddenly bared its teeth, as if it were about to devour the small, helpless creature in one bite.

Yet as it drew closer, he remembered her smugly telling him last time that if he ate her, the parasite inside her would end up in his stomach too.

Ridiculous. If he truly wanted to eat her, he could simply dig that thing out first.

For a long moment, his nose remained close to her, unmoving—until the little creature suddenly kicked him with her short, stubby leg.

Her chubby paw, soft with pads, didn’t hurt at all.

The beast twitched its nose, then nudged her round belly, rolling her over into the corner.

Maintaining his beast form, he jumped onto the bed, curling up and licking his own forelimb.

A deep wound was there, with fur torn back, exposing fresh red flesh that still seeped with blood.

Because of the incident at the Po Yue Sword Sect, the cultivation world had grown wary. A few days ago, when he tried to steal the Shifang Mountain scroll, he had been injured by those old geezers. Even after some time, the wound hadn’t fully healed.

Smelling the familiar scent of Heavenly Demon blood, the little creature, driven purely by instinct, boldly approached and sniffed the blood seeping from his wound.

Huai Younong pushed her over without hesitation, watching as she sprawled on her back, limbs flailing and whimpering.

But when she leaned in again and began to lick the blood, he didn’t push her away this time. Instead, he simply closed his eyes.

A Heavenly Demon’s nature was to devour its kin to grow stronger.

His own Heavenly Demon bloodline undoubtedly dominated over his weaker Charm Demon blood, but…

The little thing licked his blood and finally quieted down.

The beast lifted its head and, somewhat awkwardly, licked the cub’s head twice.

Afterward, it turned away and let out an uncomfortable cough.

Its tongue had scraped off so much fur—after just two licks, the little creature’s head was nearly bald. This stuff was rough on the throat.

Half-asleep, as her fur was being groomed, Qian suddenly thought of Dragon Dad. He used to comfort her like this too, as a sign of affection.

Feeling safe at last, she relaxed completely and let out a long, contented purr.