Was the Good-Hearted Immortal Lord Fooled Today? - Chapter 3

By the time he reached the entrance to my doghouse, my heart was jumping wildly. I had to keep my face blank and innocent.

“Whimper?” I managed, trying to stay calm.

I watched tensely as Xie Jingci reached into my bedding.

He felt its temperature, then looked carefully at my rigid little body.

“Cold? Should I add another couple of quilts?”

Huh?

I stared at him stupidly.

Perhaps because he had no need for sleep, there wasn’t a single spare quilt in his lifeless room. At last he awkwardly opened his storage chest and pulled out a beautiful cold-repelling pearl. He placed it in my doghouse.

I pawed at the pearl, which was giving off heat, my feelings mixed. Then I looked at the young man who had returned to cultivating on his bed of ice.

He had something this good and never used it himself? Did he have some peculiar fondness for tormenting himself on a block of ice?

The secret art had failed to uncover any leverage over Xie Jingci. All I’d got out of it was a pearl.

I wasn’t going to risk using the art again soon and reveal my identity. Without it, or access to my demonic power, there was little for me to do.

Whenever Xie Jingci left on sect business, I couldn’t be bothered to think up a new plan. I simply curled up in my quilts with the pearl and slept late.

I was sprawled on my back, belly in the air, when someone kicked the door rudely open. An unpleasant voice, full of curses, woke me up.

“He locked the door? What’s he hiding in here?”

It sounded as if eight hundred ducks were quacking right beside my ears.

Wait. That quacking voice sounded familiar.

Its owner came in and went straight to Xie Jingci’s storage chest, as practiced as a rat finding its way into a grain store.

He rummaged through it without a care, stuffing every magical implement and spiritual treasure he liked into his own storage pouch. All the while, he kept cursing.

“It’s been days. Why hasn’t he got that heavenly-grade cold-repelling pearl yet? Useless bastard. If he makes me lose face in front of the others, he’s dead!”

That word, *bastard*, brought the voice back to me. This was the man from the ice cave in Xie Jingci’s dream, the one who had called his blood filthy.

What was going on?

The man’s spiritual center was muddy, his talent poor, and his cultivation nothing special. He couldn’t begin to compare with Xie Jingci.

To let a man like this climb over his head and take a dump on it…

Xie Jingci really did enjoy being mistreated, didn’t he?

I respected other people’s peculiar tastes, and I didn’t want to interfere in immortal sect affairs. But that heavenly-grade cold-repelling pearl the duck voice mentioned—could it be the one in my bed?

I got my answer quickly.

He too had noticed the lavish doghouse that looked so out of place in Xie Jingci’s bare, simple home.

His cultivation wasn’t much, but his eyesight was fine. He spotted me lounging in the bedding and the conspicuous pearl in my arms at once.

Seeing the treasure he’d coveted for so long being “wasted” on warming an “animal’s” bed, he flew into a rage.

“Being a half-demon bastard wasn’t enough for him? He even dared to hide a demon beast!”

Half-demon.

Now I understood.

No wonder Xie Jingci stood head and shoulders above the others in cultivation yet got no respect.

If he had half-demon blood, that explained it. Given the miserable relations between humans and demons in recent years, those old fossils in the sect had probably spared his life only because of his immortal bones.

I was considering whether there was anything useful in his background when the duck voice launched a dishonorable sneak attack. He reached rudely for my tail.

“So that’s why he locked the door—to hide this demon beast. Ha! I’ll skin it and make a rug for Master.”

“I’d love to see his face when Master walks on it.”

What a vicious man!

I curled my tail around the pearl and swung away from his grabby hand. Then I whipped my head around faster than he could react and sank my teeth into his palm.

Both sharp fangs pierced straight through it.

He screamed in pain and clutched his injured hand, cursing me. “You damned beast! You dare bite me? I’ll tear you to pieces!”

I spat out the filthy blood in my mouth.

He was only at Foundation Establishment. I wouldn’t even need demonic power to deal with him.

What could he do besides threaten me?

…

God damn it.

He went crying to a grown-up.