Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Archfiend Wants to Devour Humans

“Ning Xianyu, go to hell!”

As the little black cat swiped at her, Ning Xianyu heard the demon lord’s voice explode inside her mind.

“Huh? What?”

She didn’t dodge in time and was scratched squarely by the little black cat.

A burning pain flared on her face, and blood started to seep out.

Clutching her face, Ning Xianyu felt utterly wronged. “You—you’re the Ancestor?”

How did he turn into a cat?

What was going on?

The little black cat meowed furiously, but what sounded in Ning Xianyu’s mind was unmistakably the deep, cold voice of Xuan Yuan Tunhan.

“I am Xuan Yuan Tunhan. What trick are you playing? You said you’d return us to our own bodies, but you secretly tampered and turned me into this?”

“Ning Xianyu, you’re bold indeed. I will kill you for this.”

He didn’t care anymore about the use of the Nine-branch Epiphyllum or any connection to the Blood Origin Stone. All he wanted now was to kill this woman to vent his rage.

Xuan Yuan Tunhan surged his spiritual energy, launching Ning Xianyu into the air.

She was good at little else, but when it came to survival, she was quick. Instantly, she wrapped herself in spiritual energy, rolling several times across the snow before coming to a stop.

She had no idea what was happening, so she hurriedly tried to consult the system, but it was still asleep.

With no other choice, she ran back, knelt, and groveled in the snow, begging for mercy.

“Ancestor, please don’t be angry. I truly don’t know what’s going on. Even if you gave me a hundred times the courage, I’d never dare do anything to you.”

She had thought about it before, but she’d never actually done it.

Heavens above, could merely thinking about something be a crime? Was even a stray thought forbidden?

But Xuan Yuan Tunhan knew she’d entertained such an idea, and was convinced she’d somehow orchestrated all this.

“That thing inside your body—has it tampered with anything? Hurry up and turn me back!”

Ning Xianyu’s face was a picture of misery. “But that thing in my body doesn’t listen to me either. It’s asleep. I’ve been calling for ages and there’s still no response.”

As Xuan Yuan Tunhan’s expression grew darker and darker, she desperately sent her thoughts: [Stupid system, you’re killing me here! Hurry up and turn the demon lord back! Hurry!]

She called and called, but still there was no reply.

Suddenly, she heard a sharp crack, and a pair of black boots appeared before her eyes. She followed the boots upward—calf, thigh, waist, chest, face...

“The demon lord, you’re back!”

Wasn’t the man standing before her now the demon lord himself? Black robes, a golden belt threaded with dark patterns, broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and that handsome, cold face—no matter how you looked at it, it was him.

Xuan Yuan Tunhan found it odd as well. He looked at himself, then at her. “What did you just call me?”

Ning Xianyu shrank back. “I—I called you Ancestor.”

Xuan Yuan Tunhan’s voice was icy. “Don’t think I don’t know what you call me in secret. I won’t hold it against you this time. But how do you explain this transformation?”

How could she explain it?

Kneeling in the snow, Ning Xianyu tried to make herself as small as possible.

“I don’t know either.”

She had a bold guess: perhaps the demon lord’s transformation now followed her wishes. But she dared not be certain.

Cautiously, she stared at the blank snow before her and, after a moment’s thought, whispered, “Change!”

No sooner had she spoken than there was a sharp crack, and the demon lord instantly turned into a little black cat, glaring at her.

“Ning Xianyu, you really—”

The little black cat howled furiously and leapt at her.

Ning Xianyu hurriedly called out, “Change!”

The black cat instantly transformed back into the demon lord, falling on her and pinning her into the snow.

Ning Xianyu covered her head, forgetting to cover her mouth, and he happened to kiss her square on the lips.

Their lips met—this time, man and woman, and Ning Xianyu was sure she’d been taken advantage of.

But she had to admit, the demon lord, now back in human form, smelled rather nice, and his lips were soft, not hard at all.

And his breath was warm, lacking the usual chill he exuded.

Yet the demon lord remained motionless for a long moment. Couldn’t he hurry up? She was about to be crushed to death.

Just as she tried to move, he gripped her head with strong hands, deepening the kiss.

Xuan Yuan Tunhan thought keeping this woman around was a mistake.

Initially, he thought he could slowly purify his inner demon with her presence, but now, she had become the very catalyst for his demonic heart.

Every day spent with her felt like his spiritual core was being set aflame.

Only by sealing her clever, deceitful mouth with a kiss did he feel any cool clarity return, a faint scent of mint passing from her lips into his mind, dousing the raging fire within.

But it still wasn’t enough. Without warning, the memory of refining her body for her flashed through his mind.

Her current pure, translucent body was something he’d paid for with half a month of agony. He couldn’t help but want more.

By the time Ning Xianyu realized something was wrong, she was already locked tightly in his arms, utterly unable to move.

This felt different. Before, when the demon lord had held her and kissed her, it had seemed innocent, nothing more than a fleeting taste, like licking a popsicle.

But this time was different—her lips and teeth ached, her whole body was being crushed, and his hands seemed about to break her. Was the demon lord so enraged that he meant to devour her whole?

She struggled desperately, pushing and hitting, trying to free herself.

It was terrifying—she hadn’t even started her own harem yet; she didn’t want to be eaten alive!

Just then, a loud explosion came from the camp behind them.

Boom!

The demon lord finally released her and looked up in that direction.

Ning Xianyu covered her mouth, scrambling away from him as fast as she could.

She no longer wanted to rely on anyone. To forge iron, one must be strong oneself; she was determined to become the greatest under heaven on her own.

Xuan Yuan Tunhan glanced back at her, reached out, and grabbed her easily.

Ning Xianyu struggled to escape, but he warned her savagely, “Try running again and I’ll turn you into an ornament.”

She burst into tears. “But you want to eat me! You promised not to kill me!”

What nonsense was this?

Xuan Yuan Tunhan snapped, “Do you think I’m that desperate?”

Ning Xianyu let go and, with a gesture, her clothes fell open, exposing a swath of bare skin.

Red marks, left by the demon lord’s grip, were still visible.

A flash of realization struck Xuan Yuan Tunhan—he remembered he was the one who had left those marks.

Seeing her tear-stained face, looking for all the world like a mortal girl who’d been taken advantage of, he understood why she felt so wronged.

He let go of her involuntarily and turned away. “Do you really take me for someone so shameless?”

Ning Xianyu said nothing, sobbing quietly.

He grew inexplicably irritable and snapped, “It’s only because you still have the effects of the Nine-branch Epiphyllum in your body. I can only draw on it to purge my inner demon. It’s not because I have any intentions toward you.”

Did this woman think she was such a rare delicacy?

But Ning Xianyu still didn’t believe him. “But just now it really seemed like you wanted to eat me.”

She didn’t think the demon lord was so desperate as to take advantage of her; she just thought he meant to eat her.

The demon lord had gone without a woman for hundreds of thousands of years, which meant he was basically a block of stone—stones wouldn’t do anything to women.

But he was a demon lord, and for a demon lord to devour someone to purge his inner demon was only natural.

If Xuan Yuan Tunhan knew what she was thinking, he’d probably be speechless before her logic.

What kind of reasoning was that?