How to Raise a Scheming Demon Lord - Chapter 3

Three thousand years ago, I was just an insignificant little fox spirit.

I had heard that the Immortal Realm was full of jeweled towers and jade palaces, magnificent beyond belief.

So I wanted to ascend and become an immortal, hoping to pass the examinations for some official post and one day accomplish something great.

I cultivated tirelessly, day and night, until at last I ascended.

And all I got was a job as a servant doing odd chores.

The Immortal Realm was certainly wonderful—but only for royalty and the nobility.

All those storybooks in the mortal world about immortal lovers tended to feature divine lords and princesses who had been born immortal.

Why?

Because when an ordinary little spirit ascended, the only post available was menial labor. Or more menial labor.

What servant had the leisure to fall in love?

Eventually, I was assigned to the Third Princess’s palace.

A look around revealed that I was the most beautiful person there.

The steward immediately ordered me to sweep the entire residence. Not a single fallen leaf was to remain, he made clear. If I failed to finish or left anything dirty, I could sit tight and wait for my punishment.

In my innocence, I assumed they were trying to put the newcomer in her place.

No matter. This girl knew magic.

With a wave, I conjured an exact copy of myself. My real body stayed hidden, legs crossed, enjoying some illicit leisure while the day’s work got done.

Within days, though, the steward began piling on more and more tasks. Besides sweeping, I now had to chop firewood, heat water, scrub chamber pots, and do every other dirty job he could think of.

Question: what did an immortal princess need chamber pots for?

Answer: they were for the servants who hadn’t yet learned to live without food.

I had spent three thousand years cultivating, endured the heavenly lightning of my tribulation, and suffered endless hardships. I had nearly lost a layer of skin before finally ascending.

Yet life up here was less pleasant than the carefree existence I’d had in the mortal world.

Three servants at the princess’s residence put together didn’t have as much work as I did alone.

After three thousand years, I was nobody’s fool. It dawned on me at once.

They were deliberately looking for faults. They wanted an excuse to punish me.

In that case, I quit!

The next day, when the steward told me to chop wood, I refused. When he told me to scrub the buckets, I refused. When he told me to wash clothes at the laundry office, I refused that too.

At last, he lost his temper, drew his whip, and lashed out viciously.

“Wretched wench! I tell you to work and you won’t listen? Have you tired of living?”

I caught the whip, yanked him to the ground, and planted a hard kick on his backside.

“You worthless lackey. Take me to the princess.”

The steward was only a servant himself. Without his mistress’s permission, how would he dare bully someone so openly?

When I met the princess, it proved to be just as I had thought.

Unlike the Seventh Princess, whose beauty was celebrated throughout the mortal world, the Third Princess was painfully thin and decidedly ugly.

I had no prejudice against women’s appearances and didn’t care to comment on them. We received our bodies from our parents; beauty and ugliness alike were gifts from them and from heaven, and deserved equal regard.

But there was something bitter and spiteful about this princess’s ugliness.

Putting that together with all the stories I had heard in the mortal world, I could make a fair guess at what was going on.

There wasn’t a single reasonably attractive maid in her entire palace.

Over thousands of years, the heavenly officials responsible for staffing couldn’t possibly have failed to assign one beautiful maid to the place.

Yet not one remained.

Something she desperately wanted was a gift some lowly servant possessed from birth. How could the exalted Third Princess not go mad with jealousy?

She wouldn’t dare touch immortal ladies of high birth. But tormenting the meek, lowly servants in her own household? As easy as crushing an ant.

As a fox spirit, I was born beautiful and attracted attention wherever I went. Naturally, I had become a thorn in her side.

Really, the princess was simply too well fed—

And had too much damned time on her hands.

If she couldn’t behave like a decent person, I’d teach her how!

I slashed her face.

She had ordered the maids to hold me down, then called several male servants over to string me up and beat me.

Even a cornered rabbit bites. Corner a vicious fox, and she’ll half kill you.

I flung the maids off, flashed to the princess’s side, and brought my blade down. Blood splattered.

An ugly person obsessed with her looks could hardly bear to become uglier still.

That slash was as good as taking half her life.

I hadn’t even used much force, but the Third Princess let out a sudden, piglike squeal. She rolled on the floor, frantic with rage and fear.

“Aaaaah! My face! My face! Someone! Get in here!

“You wretch! You wretched wench! Seize her!

“Cuiniao! Smash her mouth! Cut off her hands!”

I swept a fierce look around the room.

“Let’s see who dares!”

Perhaps I had frightened them. Not one of the servants moved.

Before they could recover, I reverted to my fox form and fled.

From that day on, I was wanted by the Immortal Realm.