Was the Good-Hearted Immortal Lord Fooled Today? - Chapter 6

To test my theory, I didn’t sleep in my doghouse that night.

I carried my little quilt in my mouth, curled my tail around the cold-repelling pearl, and hopped onto Xie Jingci’s bed without so much as asking.

He glanced at me from his meditation, plainly disapproving. He gave me a gentle push. “Go back. It’s cold up here.”

Oh, so he *did* know it was cold.

I laid my pearl-wrapped tail over his legs, pressed myself against him, and sprawled on my little quilt as if I belonged there.

Xie Jingci pressed his lips together. He wanted to move my warm tail away and send me back to my own bed, but after I gave him a light swat with it, he closed his mouth.

Doing his best to ignore that small, steady patch of warmth, he only just managed to recover the calm he needed to cultivate.

Before long, though, I became the restless one in my sleep.

Even with the pearl and quilt, I was sleeping on ice. I’d felt a little chilly when I first lay down.

As I slept, it began to feel as if a small flame were racing around inside me, making my spiritual meridians hot and swollen.

Half asleep and annoyed, I waved a hand to drive away the wretched flame. My palm landed on Xie Jingci.

Not a paw.

A perfectly formed human hand, complete with five fingers.

I woke in an instant.

The slap startled Xie Jingci out of meditation too. He opened his eyes and saw that I’d suddenly taken human form. His face, normally as still as stagnant water, cracked apart like a statue struck by a hammer.

“…You can transform?”

A beast that had only just gained awareness couldn’t do that. Only a powerful demon could take a perfect human form.

I opened my mouth to explain, then felt something move on top of my head.

I touched it.

A pair of pointed fox ears.

I looked behind me. The tail was still there too.

My prepared explanation changed at once.

“I don’t know.” I met Xie Jingci’s eyes with innocent confusion. “After I drank your blood, I felt hot all over. Then I suddenly grew up.”

Spiritual blood was immensely nourishing to demons, but until now, no one had ever obtained any of his. No one could say whether two drops might allow a weak little beast to transform. Xie Jingci couldn’t say either.

And this awkward, half-human, half-demon appearance looked exactly like a clumsy demon’s first transformation.

His momentary suspicion about my true identity quickly faded. He no longer suspected I was a powerful demon who had concealed herself to approach him on purpose.

That didn’t mean he intended to keep me beside him.

“Humans and demons walk different paths. The immortal sect isn’t safe for a demon, either. Since you can take human form now, leave on your own at dawn.”

He wouldn’t look at me as he said it.

So I leaned over and tilted my head, looking up from below and following his eyes. “I don’t want to go. Without you, I’ll die.”

It was true. If I couldn’t drink his blood, the poison would kill me sooner or later.

He started to push me away, but when he met my shining eyes, his hand froze halfway and drew stiffly back. He turned his face away again. “Don’t talk nonsense.”

“It’s true. I’m not making it up.” I counted on my fingers for him. “It’s so cold now, and I’m no good at finding food. I could starve to death.”

He frowned.

I kept counting. “A bad human might catch me and refine me into a pill. Or a bad demon might eat me.”

His frown deepened.

I put on a show of weeping. “My tail’s so pretty. Someone like your junior brother might want to skin me and turn me into a rug.”

Hee. I got a complaint in while I was at it.

Xie Jingci’s expression had grown worse than merely grim. He’d cared for me for so long that even hearing me describe those possibilities was more than he could bear.

While he was distracted, I cupped his face and turned it toward me, forcing our eyes to meet. I made my voice small and pitiful.

“Please don’t send me away. I want to stay beside you forever, snuggle up to you every day, and scare bad people away for you.”

When he said nothing, I took a step back in hopes of gaining ground. My voice became aggrieved but understanding.

“If you really hate the way I look now, you can turn me back into a beast. I don’t mind, as long as you’re happy.”

The skin beneath my hands grew warm. Xie Jingci removed them and held my wrists loosely so I couldn’t keep touching him.

“Now that you’ve had the chance to transform, don’t think of yourself as a beast anymore. And don’t…say things like that.”

I looked up at him in wide-eyed innocence. “What things? Every word I said came from my heart.”

“You’re important to me. More important than anyone else. Of course I want you to be happy.”

If he was happy, I got blood to drink.

Xie Jingci had grown up surrounded by malice. He had no defense against an assault like this. He gave ground and finally abandoned the idea of sending me away.

“If you’re determined to stay,” he said with a quiet sigh, “then promise you won’t deliberately harm anyone.”

I caught his hand in mine, grinning. “Okay. I promise I’ll only bully you.”

He looked at me like an incorrigible child but didn’t correct my wording.

“One more thing.” He cast a spell above my head, hiding my fox ears and tail. “Starting tomorrow, you’ll attend classes at the instruction hall. If you’re staying in the immortal sect, you must restrain your demonic nature and learn to behave like a proper human.”

The instruction hall that started morning study at *chen* hour?

I loved sleeping late. My smile became painfully strained as I searched for an excuse. “I’m still a demon, you know. Wouldn’t it be wrong for me to learn your immortal arts?”

For a moment, I thought the corner of his mouth rose. When I looked properly, the smile had vanished like spring snow.

“As long as you mean no harm, what’s wrong with learning some arts to defend yourself?”

He was determined to send me to school. I secretly pouted, then surrendered.

“Fine. But you can’t talk about sending me away again.”

Xie Jingci agreed.