Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I didn’t wake up until the sun was high in the sky. Seeing two or three feathers scattered beside me, I realized that last night hadn’t been a dream.

“Sister…”

Two timid voices drifted up from below.

I looked down to see Xiong Da and Xiong Er. They were looking up at me with their small faces, staring with wide, expectant eyes.

“What is it?”

“About yesterday… we’re sorry. What Mother and Father did was wrong.”

“Also, Sister, the Peach Banquet… you must be careful.”

Xiong Da hesitated for a moment before speaking again.

“Those Celestial Maidens who offended Father… they were all cast down into the mortal realm…”

While I was still dazed, Xiong Da and Xiong Er fled as if for their lives, seemingly terrified of causing me any more trouble.

I was stunned. I hadn’t realized Immortal Siming’s power was so great that he could dispose of ordinary Celestial Maidens at will. Did I need to go to Immortal Siming and apologize?

My brow furrowed.

“Alternatively, you could just beg this Little Lord. It amounts to the same thing.”

I turned around to see the crow from last night perched on the peach tree, his beak twisted in a schadenfreude-filled smirk.

“It’s you, the little bird from yesterday?” I said, startled.

“Bah! This Lord is named Xuanya, a thousand-year-old Golden Crow!”

“But you clearly look like a little bird.”

“You’re the little bird!” He hopped up and down in a rage.

“Then why can’t you undergo transformation?”

“…” His eyes shifted guiltily to the side, and a drop of sweat appeared on his avian head.

“Actually, you just can’t take human form, right?” It was obvious; Xuanya threw a fit the moment the word ‘transformation’ was mentioned.

“Shut up!” Xuanya snapped, his sore spot having been poked. “I only need to raise my cultivation by one more level and I’ll be able to transform!”

I gave him a look that clearly said, “Really? I don’t believe you.”

“You, you, you!” Xuanya turned his head away in a huff.

“Do you even know who I am?”

“…Who?” He blinked.

“The most famous demoness in the Ninth Heaven.” I rested my chin on my hand, looking at him with ill intent. “Do you still want to be associated with me?”

He stared at me blankly. Seeing my flamboyant red clothes, he seemed to recall certain rumors: that there was a half-demon half-god Peach Blossom Demon in the Ninth Heaven who was charming and seductive, who had first slept with Cangyu, the War God, and then dumped Immortal Sihun.

He hesitated for a moment, but then continued his incessant chatter:

“Hey, then tell me, what does ‘buying a standing-room ticket’ mean?”

“What kind of immortal are you? How do you have so many different faces!”

“Hey, tell me a story too!”

So noisy!

I looked displeased and began to form a hand seal to shut him up, but he forestalled me by pecking at my hand with a wronged expression.

“You actually want to mute me? You’re too much!”

“I’m a demoness. Being ‘too much’ is only natural.”

Bickering with Xuanya to relieve my boredom made the days pass quickly.

Soon, the day of the Peach Banquet arrived. I took great care in dressing myself.

“Do I look good?”

I looked at Xuanya, took two steps back, and did a graceful pirouette.

This red Celestial Dress had been a gift from Sihun. Along with the Golden Bell artifacts on my ankles, he had even carved the name ‘Sihun’ onto them in seal script, further cementing the fact that we were supposedly involved.

“Pret-” Xuanya quickly cut himself off and coughed twice. “It’s… fine, I guess.”

“Yes, yes, yes, whatever you say.”

“Why aren’t you insulting me?” Xuanya felt something was off.

“I’m going to the banquet now. Remember to water the peach tree and prune the branches. Don’t let them block Cangyu’s eyes. Also…”

“Alright, alright, I get it. Just go already.” Xuanya began pecking at my head to shoo me away.

At the Peach Banquet, an assembly of immortals had gathered amidst swirling celestial mist. The rare and exotic beasts raised by various immortals were a dazzling sight. A group of Celestial Maidens, their hair styled in elegant clouds and their water-sleeves trailing behind them, entered gracefully carrying crystal plates with chilong dragon patterns.

Upon the dragon-patterned plates sat fresh, enticing Peaches of Immortality. Only deities with status and reputation were granted one.

I clearly did not belong to that group. It was Sihun who had given his peach to me.

I hadn’t wanted to attend this Peach Banquet at all; I was only here to get a peach for Xuanya.

That tsundere crow was always brooding over his insufficient cultivation, wasn’t he? I would do him this favor.

I took the peach and prepared to leave, but as I reached a corner, my wrist was suddenly grabbed.

I looked up to see Immortal Siming with a gloomy expression on his face.

“Have you forgotten something?”

Looking at this old enemy, the anger from the day I was forced to move my home surged back into my heart. However, I was currently nothing more than a half-god, and I couldn’t afford to offend an Immortal. Who knew what kind of curse he might place on me on a whim?

Thinking this, I immediately forced a smile.

“So it is Immortal Siming. I have been busy these past few days. If I have offended the Immortal in any way, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

“Did you forget what I told you last time?”

“…What was that?” I truly couldn’t remember.

“Naturally… it was to come to my Siming Hall for a chat…”

As he spoke, Siming’s hand slowly moved from my wrist up to my arm, looking very much like he intended to stroke my face.

My expression turned cold. With a flick of my hand, I threw a Peach Blossom Dart, which narrowly grazed his hand as it whistled past.
The damage wasn’t great, but the deterrent effect… was slightly there.

“You’re nothing but a demoness who’s been with everyone. Why act so pure and noble now?” Siming pulled his hand back, glaring at me with fury. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you and swap your fate for one in the Animal Realm?”

I nearly laughed out loud. You’re trying to force yourself on me, and you’re saying I’m the one being ungrateful?

“Immortal Siming, if you can’t control the two ounces of meat between your legs, I don’t mind reporting this to the Empress of Heaven.”

I recalled what Xiong Da had told me. Those missing Celestial Maidens had likely been seduced and then disposed of by this dog of a man. He used his authority to coerce them; if they didn’t comply, he took them by force. He picked small immortals with no connections or backing, and after he was done playing with them, he would simply wipe out their immortal status and cast them into the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

“As for killing me and changing my fate…” I laughed from sheer anger. “Does the Immortal Lord know the mortal saying, ‘Man acts, but Heaven watches’? If you think being on the Ninth Heaven allows you to evade the judgment of the Heavenly Dao, then by all means, go ahead.”

“But if you dare to do it, you’d better be prepared for the price.”

I turned on my heel and walked away without looking back.

“Don’t you want to know what happened to Cangyu’s Soul Lamp?”

I froze. Turning back, I saw Siming wearing a triumphant smirk.

“No,” I sneered, turning to leave again.

What a joke. Letting a man like this get close to me was more disgusting than stepping in dog shit.

“That’s not for you to decide.”

Before I could react to what he meant, I felt a surge of heat racing up from the arm he had just touched, snaking through my body.

“What… is this?” This strange sensation flowed through my limbs and bones, draining my strength. I couldn’t even manage to form an Immortal Seal.

“Fengchun.”

Siming easily swept my struggling, weakened form under his long sleeves. In an instant, I was inside Siming Hall.

“What is Fengchun…”

I struggled to prop myself up, but in Siming’s eyes, it was a futile effort.

“The meaning of Fengchun is to make you demonesses feel like ‘withered wood meeting spring.'”

So it’s just an aphrodisiac? I huffed inwardly.

“You’re just a loose demoness, so why put on the act of a chaste woman?” Siming pinched my chin lightly. “Cangyu has slept with you, Sihun has slept with you. Adding one more like me shouldn’t matter, right?”

“Actually, it does. You’re too ugly. You make me lose my appetite.”

Hearing me insult him like that, he didn’t get angry but laughed instead.

“Good, very good. I’ll see how long you can keep that sharp tongue of yours.”

My situation was indeed dire. I didn’t know exactly what this Fengchun did or what state it would leave me in.

“The beauty of Fengchun is that it hits in waves.” Siming sat leisurely by his desk, seemingly reading my confusion. “You can still hold on now, but in a moment, you’ll be crawling to my feet, begging me.”

“Don’t you have any regard for your wife, Choulu…” I endured the burning heat within me, fighting to keep my consciousness clear.

“What is she to think she can control me?” Siming didn’t hide the loathing in his eyes. “She only craves my status as an Immortal.”

“And those two children…” I was stunned.

She had risked her life to give birth to them, after all.

“What do they have to do with her? They carry the bloodline of my Siming clan.”

At this point, everything was clear.

Siming had never seen anyone as anything more than a plaything-not the Celestial Maidens, not the demonesses, and not even his legal wife, Choulu, who had borne his children.

He was an absolute piece of human trash.

When the Fengchun flared up again, it felt like fire. Casting aside my dignity, I pressed my face against the brick floor, desperate for a sliver of coolness.

His gaze wandered greedily over my back.

“Are you truly not afraid I’ll tell the Empress of Heaven…” I hissed through gritted teeth.

“On the Ninth Heaven, everyone beneath the rank of Immortal is but an ant.”

Sihun was right. I was too naive.

“From the Celestial Maidens at the start to a demoness like you, whether they were willing or not… I’ve lost count myself.”

“Just crawl over here like a good girl.”

The smile on his face grew wider, ugly and eyesore.

I forced what little power I could gather into my hand, intending to manifest a dagger.

The spell flickered and shattered. In desperation, I simply manifested a peach branch from my true form and gripped it tightly.

“Something of that level can’t hurt me…” Siming thought I was merely putting up the struggle of a cornered beast, so he didn’t stop me.

Before he could finish his sentence, I plunged the sharp peach branch into my own shoulder.

Siming’s face went slack with shock.

Crimson blood gushed through my fingers, dripping onto the floor and transforming into peach blossoms, carrying away some of the Fengchun’s potency.

The pain dispersed the heat. I found I could focus enough to form an Immortal Seal.

Siming raised his hand, intending to trap me.

But he found me weighing my Inner Core in my hand, looking at him with a mocking glint in my eyes.

“Immortal Siming, do you want to become a pair of Netherworld Mandarin Ducks with me?”

I must have looked hideous right then. In Siming’s eyes, I was probably a madwoman.

“Why? Aren’t you demonesses always loose…”

“We demonesses live as we please, it’s just…” I turned back to sneer at him before walking out of Siming Hall, “you’re too ugly.”

As I exited Siming Hall, I brushed past Choulu.

She looked at the wound on my shoulder with a complicated expression, her mouth opening as if to speak, but no words came out.