Was the Good-Hearted Immortal Lord Fooled Today? - Chapter 1

During the demon civil war, an old enemy played a nasty trick on me.

He thought I was an illiterate brute, good for nothing but muscle. He agreed to a fair duel, then spat demon poison at me just before he died.

I thought he was spitting at me. I even kindly reminded him to mind his hygiene.

Then I turned around and fell flat on my face.

The poison suppressed my demonic power until I had almost none left. I couldn’t even keep my human form.

The demon physician told me that if I didn’t find the antidote before my power ran out completely, the poison would start devouring my life instead.

But the only cure was even more dangerous than the poison itself—

The spiritual blood of Xie Jingci, the immortal sect’s foremost senior disciple.

Xie Jingci had been born with immortal bones. His talent for cultivation far surpassed everyone else’s, and his flesh and blood were a feast for demons and fiends.

The year he first made a name for himself, demons of every stripe laid traps and ambushed him, one after another, all desperate for a bite of immortal flesh.

Every last one of them, regardless of their cultivation, died by Xie Jingci’s sword.

Back then, I slapped the table and laughed.

“What a pack of fools, lining up to get themselves killed. Can’t they see he’s using himself as bait?”

I laughed so freely. It never crossed my mind that, years later, I’d join that very line of fools.

Ah, the tricks fate plays.

In short, Xie Jingci had a heart of stone. Toward demons who coveted his flesh, he was as merciless as an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

I couldn’t exactly walk up and ask him for some blood.

The more I thought about it, the clearer my only option became…

I sharpened my claws and lay in wait along the route Xie Jingci would take, wearing my most wicked grin.

When the white-robed sword cultivator, pale as frost and snow, passed my hiding place, I launched myself at him before he could react.

Then I sat down neatly, all four paws tucked in. I curled my bushy tail around them and let out the most delicate little whimper I could manage.

Enchanting humans was a fox demon’s natural gift. There was no way he wouldn’t be charmed.

Sure enough, the young man stopped. His cold, phoenix-shaped eyes lowered to the fox wagging her tail at him.

I gazed up at him, full of hope.

In the language of flowers, a stray fox meant *act fast or miss out*. Surely he understood that.

After a moment, Xie Jingci reached out a hand.

Before I could place a paw in it, he caught me by the scruff of my neck, expressionless.

“Where did this little dog come from?”

Me: “?”

*He* was a dog!

Xie Jingci truly lived up to his rank as the immortal sect’s foremost disciple.

He met the world’s most adorable little fox, called her a dog, and walked off without a backward glance.

Such strength of mind. Truly terrifying.

But I wasn’t about to give up.

For the next few days, I followed him everywhere, popping up in front of him at random.

If being cute didn’t work, I’d make him pity me.

I pretended to be injured, weak, cold, starving, and chased by wild beasts.

No matter how pitiful my performance, though, Xie Jingci never spared me another glance. All my hard-won acting might as well have been invisible.

When he finished his training mission and prepared to return to the immortal mountain, I panicked.

I charged forward and rammed my head into his shin.

Without demonic power to protect me, the impact left my skull ringing. So I took the opportunity to collapse and stretch my whole body across his path.

Xie Jingci meant to ignore my little stunt and walk around me, as he had every other day.

But I’d chosen the spot too well. Unless he was willing to step over me, he would have to get me up first.

The upright Immortal Lord Xie couldn’t bring himself to straddle someone and shove his crotch in her face.

At last, he stopped ignoring me. Frowning, he lifted me off the ground.

His warning was cool and flat. “I only held back my sword because your demonic aura is so faint. If you don’t want to end up like those other demons, stop following me.”

His threat went in one ear and out the other.

I wriggled my backside and draped my great fluffy white tail over his wrist.

In the middle of speaking, Xie Jingci felt that warm fur and reflexively closed his fingers around it, giving it a stroke.

The winter air was dry. One sweep of his hand made my already fluffy tail puff up into a feather duster.

Xie Jingci: “…”

I held his gaze in pointed silence.

He released me as if he’d been burned. “I didn’t mean to.”

But after petting my tail, even Xie Jingci had trouble continuing his harsh lecture.

With the demon poison suppressing my power, I looked to him no different from a young beast that had only just gained awareness.

He thought I couldn’t find food in the snow and had latched on to him as my meal ticket out of pure survival instinct.

Even after we entered the immortal sect’s territory, I stubbornly refused to leave his side.

In the end, Immortal Lord Xie relented, unwilling to let me cause more trouble.

“If all you want is somewhere safe to spend the winter, I can shelter you for a while and give you food.”

He pressed his spiritual seal onto my forehead and stressed, “But I’ll be watching you. If you harbor the slightest evil intent, I won’t show you any mercy. Remember that.”