Chapter 1: That Annoying, Bitey Thing
“Immortal, I beg you, save my child!”
A shrill cry pierced the quiet of the second floor of the tavern, drawing all eyes.
A man in simple clothes knelt before a window table, his hands pressed against the floor as he kowtowed repeatedly, the sound of flesh and bone hitting the wood echoing sharply.
“My daughter is just seven years old, innocent, clever, and obedient. But she’s been possessed by an evil spirit and is bedridden. Medicine and exorcism haven’t worked, and now she looks like she’s fading…”
He wiped the tears from his eyes and cried out again, “…I don’t mean to disturb your peace, but please, Immortal, save my child! If she wakes up, I’m willing to be your ox or horse, I’ll even die for you!”
The man looked young, only thirty or forty, but his hair was completely white, likely prematurely aged by worry and grief. Unafraid of the stares, he knelt humbly in public, begging for help; he must have been truly desperate.
Listening to his pleas, it became clear it was for his child. A parent’s love knows no bounds. Such sincere grief, how could it not move one’s heart?
But the patrons of the tavern, looking at the one he was begging, felt that this particular person would not be moved.
The green leaves outside the window cast a shadow on the table. A woman sat by the window, enveloped in the shadow, her head turned towards the spring scenery outside.
The incessant kowtowing and crying were close at hand, unbearable to listen to, yet she seemed oblivious, simply sipping her tea.
In the sunlight, one could see her ice-blue dress, form-fitting and elegant. Looking at her face, her eyes were light, her lips a pale pink, and her features were as cold as frost and snow. In contrast to her pale skin, her long, black hair was lustrous and partially tied up, adorned with a crane flower hairpin crafted from gold and jade. The rest cascaded down, draping over a light blue bow and a slender, ancient sword.
She seemed to be recovering from a serious illness, her complexion pale, her waist too thin, and her face lacking flesh. Her thin eyelids gave her an aloof air, and her indifferent expression added to her cold demeanor.
The man was a mortal, likely unaware of this person’s identity, which was why he dared to approach her. But among the other patrons in the tavern were some rogue cultivators who recognized her.
The crane flower hairpin, the bow and sword, the ice-blue dress, the aloof and unapproachable demeanor—the characteristics were too distinctive. This was the infamous Mu Qiandan, also known as the Yao’e Immortal, the Lord of the Cangqing Hall, renowned throughout the cultivation world for her notoriously bad temper.
She had achieved fame at a young age, single-handedly slaying a small demonic creature, causing a sensation in the immortal world. Despite her relatively limited experience, she was promoted directly to Hall Lord. With her demon-slaying record and her position in Tianyu Gate, one of the five great immortal sects, almost every cultivator had heard of her deeds and her temperament, and most despised and looked down on her, believing her to be completely lacking in immortal qualities.
She was more disliked than some demons who wreaked havoc in the mortal realm.
She clearly possessed demon-slaying techniques, strength, and beauty, and held a high position. Why was her reputation so poor?
There were certainly several past incidents that contributed to this, but for now, let’s just mention the most unacceptable one: her disdain for mortals!
There were other arrogant immortals who, wielding power, considered themselves superior and mortals insignificant.
But even if they felt disdain in their hearts, they would at least maintain a facade. The Yao’e Immortal, however, didn’t even bother pretending. She was famously cold and heartless, aloof and detached.
In the towns and villages under the protection of Tianyu Gate, whenever faced with demonic disturbances, the people would seek help from the sect. For many years, they had petitioned the Sect Leader, the other four Hall Lords, even the disciples, but never her.
This was because, in the early years, all requests for help, regardless of their importance or the offered reward, were rejected by her without explanation. Over time, naturally, no one bothered to disturb her anymore.
So, hoping for this cold-blooded person to offer assistance was akin to dreaming.
The man’s forehead was bleeding from the repeated kowtows. Some onlookers couldn’t bear to watch, but they didn’t dare to intervene, fearing they would be mocked by the Yao’e Immortal.
Even if they were dissatisfied, no one was foolish enough to challenge the legendary demon-slaying bow.
Despite receiving no response from the woman, the man clung to her as his last hope, refusing to give up.
He thought he wasn’t sincere enough, that he hadn’t moved the Immortal. He didn’t realize she had other considerations.
‘Does it really have to follow this plot?’ Mu Qiandan closed her eyes, asking her heart one last time.
Deep within her chest, on her slowly beating, flesh-colored heart, were several deep, jarring cracks.
Despite these crisscrossing scars, the heart hadn’t shattered, only because a pitch-black hand held it within its grasp, preventing it from falling apart.
‘Following the original story exactly minimizes the chance of error.’ The black hand gripped the broken heart, and a crack appeared on the back of its hand, opening to reveal a rolling eye. ‘Besides, although this body is weak, its spiritual power is sufficient. Don’t worry.’
Mu Qiandan scoffed, ‘I’m the one who has to act and get hurt, of course you’re not worried.’
The black hand chuckled, ‘Trust me, if I could cross over, I would have long ago. But I can’t. Also, if you had listened to me from the beginning, you wouldn’t have been bitten. Hasn’t losing all that blood taught you a lesson? Just focus on the mission.’
Hearing this, Mu Qiandan curled the hand resting on her knee.
On the fair skin of her hand, where the meridians were slightly raised, was a ring of bite marks. The wound was deep, its edges white, revealing the red flesh within, like a freshly cut, dark watermelon.
This was the injury she had sustained when she tried to grab the female protagonist and was bitten by that annoying, dog-like creature.
She was still disgruntled, but she didn’t bother arguing. Suddenly, she set down her teacup, the bottom clinking against the table.
The patrons, already holding their breath, became even more silent at this sound.
The tavern owner had already come upstairs and was squatting behind the railing, observing the situation. Seeing that things weren’t looking good, he hurried forward, smiling apologetically.
“I’m so sorry, Immortal. I was busy downstairs and didn’t notice this old man disturbing your tea. I’ll take him away immediately and send up some small dishes as an apology. Please forgive me, Immortal.”
The man didn’t want to leave, his fingers gripping the floorboards, his cries intensifying. The tavern owner, sweating profusely, kept the smile plastered on his face as he gripped the man’s arm and dragged him downstairs, both stumbling.
Throughout this, the Immortal didn’t even glance at them.
Only when they reached the front door did the tavern owner release his grip. His back drenched in cold sweat, he put his hands on his hips and panted. The man slumped to the ground, his eyes vacant, as if the earlier pleas had drained all his strength.
Recalling the chilling aura of the Immortal, the tavern owner shuddered and said sharply, “I didn’t even dare say a word to her when I served her tea. Liu Da, are you tired of living?”
“What can I do…” Liu Ying fumbled to sit on the doorstep, murmuring, “Xiao Ling is dying, I really don’t know what to do…”
“I understand your anxiety, but… this person can’t be provoked.” The tavern owner sighed and squatted down, his hands tucked in his sleeves. After a moment, he said, “If she had taken offense at your disturbance and decided to attack you, you could have lost your life. Your family is already struggling, if something happened to you, what would your wife do?”
Wiping the blood from his forehead, Liu Ying sat up straight on the threshold. The breeze outside calmed him down somewhat. He thought of the Immortal’s cold face and felt a pang of fear, but he also couldn’t understand. “She’s an Immortal who eliminates evil and upholds justice. I’m just a mortal, not a demon. Even if she’s displeased, she might beat me, but how could she be so cruel as to take my life?”
The tavern owner lowered his voice, “No one ever said that cultivators only kill evil beings. There are plenty of immortals with wicked hearts who abuse their power.”
Liu Ying remained silent.
Fearing that he might lose his mind and go begging again, the tavern owner decided to explain the seriousness of the situation, hoping to scare him into submission. He glanced upwards, making sure they were far enough away that the Yao’e Immortal couldn’t hear, and then began to speak carefully.
“I’m not trying to scare you, you need to listen carefully. This Immortal has committed many evil deeds, countless in number, but there are three that are most widely known. They are: ‘Burning the Infant Spirit Manor, Resentment Filling the Sky’, ‘Standing Idly By in Tongling Town’, and ‘Betraying Kindness at the Demon-Slaying Mandarin Duck River.’”
Although he was a mortal, he ran a tavern, and his patrons came from all over, so naturally he had heard many strange tales. Among them, there were many about this wicked Immortal. He had pieced together a partial picture of the Yao’e Immortal from snippets of conversation he’d overheard.
These three incidents, in short, were as follows:
The first, which took place in Hu City in the north, referred to a time when the Yao’e Immortal was still young and eager to gain merit by slaying demons. Disregarding human life, she burned alive a great demon and hundreds of infants in a sea of fire, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
The second occurred in Tongling Town. While watching a play, her mother, whose family had fallen into ruin, knelt and begged her for help, saying that otherwise the entire family would die. She threw money onto the stage, asking for another song, completely ignoring her own mother’s cries beside her.
The third incident was when, to save herself, she pushed her senior sister, Qin Shuang, a kind and respected member of Tianyu Gate, into the jaws of a demon, causing the virtuous Immortal to perish, body and soul.
Each and every one of these incidents demonstrated her insidiousness, cruelty, and utter lack of conscience. She was truly disloyal, unfilial, inhumane, and unrighteous.
These stories were chilling, painting the Yao’e Immortal as utterly evil. However, she was still active in the immortal world, unpunished and not expelled from Tianyu Gate, suggesting that these rumors likely contained both truth and falsehood and couldn’t be entirely believed.
However, the tavern owner was a mere mortal, incapable of discerning the truth, so he simply recounted everything he knew, hoping to frighten the man and prevent him from doing anything foolish again.
“I used to think of these as just stories, not taking them too seriously. After all, how could such a terrifying person exist? But now, I think anything is possible.” The tavern owner shook his head, slapping his knee and sighing deeply.
He recalled how, not long ago, when the Yao’e Immortal entered the tavern to order food, her ethereal and immortal aura had stunned him, making it impossible to connect this woman with the vicious and cold image from the rumors.
That was why he hadn’t stopped Liu Ying immediately when he saw him begging. He, too, had held onto a sliver of hope, thinking that the rumors might be false, that this beautiful Immortal might actually be willing to help.
But alas, reality had dealt a harsh blow.
Liu Ying clearly wasn’t interested in listening anymore. Seeing his slumped shoulders, he had probably given up completely.
The tavern owner sighed again, took a copper coin from his sleeve, thought for a moment, then added a silver piece, pressing them into Liu Ying’s hand. “Next time you come for roasted fish, it’s on the house. Keep this silver, even if you can’t buy medicine, buy some snacks. Don’t refuse, it’s for Xiao Ling.”
The hand he touched with the silver was rough, the palm covered in scars and calluses from hard labor. The tavern owner knew his hardships and his family’s situation. Even if he wanted to help more, he was powerless.
Liu Ying’s young daughter, Liu Ling, had loved his roasted fish since she was a child, coming once a month, rain or shine. The tavern owner was familiar with the father and daughter, occasionally exchanging greetings, and considered them friends.
After Liu Ling suddenly fell ill, he had watched Liu Ying desperately seek medical treatment, exhausting his time, energy, and savings, all to no avail. Seeing the girl getting sicker and sicker, her father’s anxiety and grief turned his hair white. Unable to bear witnessing this, the tavern owner asked a rogue cultivator patron to take a look, and they accidentally discovered that Liu Ling wasn’t sick, but possessed by an evil spirit.
The rogue cultivator wanted to help, but the ghost was powerful, and ordinary cultivators were no match for it. A more powerful immortal was needed.
There were no immortal sects in the area. Inviting a renowned immortal would be expensive, and Liu Ying couldn’t afford it even if he borrowed money. Tianyu Gate, which offered free treatment, was too far away, the journey too long and costly to undertake.
He saw Liu Ling growing weaker day by day, her father’s heart filled with anxiety and sorrow. Wanting to make her happy, he scraped together his last copper coin to buy roasted fish. The kind-hearted tavern owner accepted the single coin and prepared the fish.
While waiting, he saw the Yao’e Immortal dining in the tavern. In a moment of desperation, thinking only of his daughter lying in bed, he knelt and begged, leading to the current situation.
The tavern owner sighed again and again, as if sighing was all he could do.
“This damned heaven, why doesn’t it give power to those who truly need it?”
That Immortal, she could have saved a life with a wave of her hand, so why wouldn’t she?
They grew up listening to stories of immortals rescuing the suffering, believing that all immortals were compassionate and upheld justice, only to discover in the end that immortals were just people too.
Liu Ying clutched the silver tightly, his eyes unfocused. “Perhaps it’s just bad luck. My daughter’s luck is bad, my luck is bad. Like this, how can…”
“Don’t say that,” the tavern owner patted his shoulder. “The fish is almost ready, hurry and take it back for Xiao Ling.”
Liu Ying’s eyes reddened, “You’re always helping me, I don’t know what to do.”
The tavern owner said, “Xiao Ling is smart and everyone says she’s lovely. I can’t help with the exorcism, but I can buy her some food. Things being as they are, I just hope you cherish your life and don’t bother that Immortal again.”
Liu Ying’s voice trembled slightly, “Even if that Immortal is truly a murderer, as long as she’s willing to save Xiao Ling, I’m willing to give her my life for her amusement. Stabbed with a sword, shot with an arrow, whatever she wants.”
As soon as he finished speaking, both of them felt a chill down their spines.
The tavern owner turned around and saw the frosty woman walking towards them.
Unsure if she had overheard their conversation, the tavern owner’s legs went weak, and the back of his neck broke out in a cold sweat.
Mu Qiandan walked up to them, lifting her skirt as she crossed the threshold, glancing at them indifferently.
She had a pair of beautiful almond-shaped eyes that should have been full of charm. On her face, however, they held neither tenderness nor emotion, only the coldness of a harsh winter wind.
The tavern owner’s mind went numb with fear, as if he already saw the sharp blades reflected in the woman’s eyes. But the cold Immortal had already looked away, tossing the payment for her meal to him without a word, and turned to leave.
Ignoring the complex emotions of the two men behind her, Mu Qiandan walked away, reaching a small alley.
The sound of shattering pottery could be heard from afar. Turning into the alley, she saw shards of clay scattered all over the ground. Among them lay a young woman tightly bound with ropes.
Her wavy, long hair spread across the ground, black and lustrous like satin, a hallmark of beauty. However, on her face was a jarring, demonic mask. The young woman, seeing the newcomer, glared with such fury that her eyes, not covered by the mask, seemed to spit fire.
Mu Qiandan approached, looking down at her. “Have you thought it over? Do you know what you did wrong?”
“Mmmpphh!” Her mouth was gagged with cloth, so the young woman could only let out muffled shouts.
It was unclear what she was saying, but it certainly wasn’t anything pleasant.
Finding a clean spot to sit, Mu Qiandan rubbed her wrist and chuckled. “You have no manners towards your elders. Were you raised in the wild? No one to discipline you? I’ll take care of that.”
The young woman struggled incessantly, thrashing from side to side like a fish. Written on the forehead of the mask in cinnabar were four large characters: “Greedy for Money.” A copper coin hung from each eyehole, swaying like fish scales with her movements, reflecting the sunlight in two golden gleams.
The wound on her hand was sealed with spiritual energy and no longer bleeding, but the pain hadn’t lessened in the slightest. Mu Qiandan frowned, wondering how that annoying creature’s teeth could be so sharp, the bite so deep. She still vividly remembered the searing pain of teeth slicing through her skin.
If she was uncomfortable, she had to make the other person uncomfortable too. She threatened, “If you bite me again, I’ll pull out all your teeth.”
The young woman thrashed violently, trying to break free from the ropes, her cries growing louder, clearly enraged.
Seeing her struggling and furious, Mu Qiandan felt satisfied and decided to keep her tied up for a while longer before continuing with the plot.
Just then, the black hand on her heart spoke: ‘Stop playing around. You’re enjoying this now, but your relationship with the female lead is getting worse. How are you going to take her as your disciple later?’
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