Jiang Keke suspected her Young Master had fathered a child with some demon race woman behind her back and then brought the daughter along using such a “dignified” reason.
Otherwise, she completely failed to understand the situation before her —
When the sky darkened and a thunderstorm broke: “Yun Heng, scared.”
When the aroma of food wafted from the Liuli Valley canteen: “Yun Heng, hungry.”
When a female cultivator came to greet them: “Yun Heng, mine!”
When Yun Heng set up a formation, the young girl would squat beside him and watch with wide eyes.
When Yun Heng read a book, the girl would curl up on his lap and play. When Yun Heng slept… she actually dared to hug his arm while sleeping.
***
Later on, Jiang Keke even grew too lazy to complain in her heart. She simply lay on the bed and closed her eyes to rest, thinking that ‘what the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.’
But she couldn’t sleep.
This was due to physical reasons from a mix of old and new injuries, as well as psychological reasons from being sent flying two or three times today.
From 9:00 PM to 3:00 AM, Jiang Keke tossed and turned for over 4 hours, yet she still found it difficult to fall asleep.
Sitting up irritably from the bed, Jiang Keke frustratedly grabbed her hair.
She wanted to sit in meditation to cultivate, but then she remembered Yun Heng’s repeated instructions from the evening. Gnashing her teeth, she ultimately gave up.
She took several deep breaths, barely suppressing the anxiety in her heart. Then, she tiptoed away from the bedside and came to the side of the sleeping Yun Heng.
She squatted, resting her hands beside him and propping up her head.
The Young Master had now entered Foundation Establishment, so theoretically, he shouldn’t need rest.
However, based on the familiar frequency of his breathing, Jiang Keke surmised that he had still chosen to sleep tonight.
And he was sleeping exceptionally well.
Jiang Keke sometimes wondered if a person like the Young Master would still choose to sleep even if he reached the Deity Transformation stage, the Tribulation Transcendence stage, or even the Mahayana stage.
Because in Jiang Keke’s eyes, the Young Master was someone who might as well have the word ‘lazy’ carved onto his forehead — he would never stand if he could sit, and never sit if he could lie down.
If sitting by the street begging could earn him a fortune, he would definitely turn himself into a proper vagrant.
Jiang Keke couldn’t even imagine what the Young Master would look like if he cultivated seriously.
But this didn’t stop her from feeling that the Young Master was ‘omnipotent.’
His ‘laziness’ wasn’t malicious slacking off; rather, it felt more like a kind of ‘effortless ease.’
Once something important happened, the Young Master would always instantly display a crushing level of wisdom and ability.
And it was precisely this extreme contrast that formed the Young Master’s unique charm in Jiang Keke’s eyes —
He was powerful, yet he ‘chose’ to live like a mortal.
Of course, on top of that, the Young Master was also tainted by some of the bad habits of mortals, or rather, ‘wicked tastes.’
He was clearly too lazy to move, yet he wasn’t afraid of trouble. Sometimes, because he was ‘too bored,’ he would take the initiative to find something to do.
For example, challenging a dojo while posing as a wicked young master, getting involved in the Mochou village incident, or now, helping the remnant of the demon race.
Thinking of this, Jiang Keke couldn’t help but look at the demon girl on the other side.
However, the moment Jiang Keke looked over, the girl’s amber eyes also happened to open.
The two women’s gazes met in the air.
Neither spoke nor moved, both seemingly worried about disturbing someone’s rest.
After a long while, Jiang Keke sighed softly and made a gesture for ‘I’m going out for some air.’ Then she stood up and left carefully.
The cave dwelling Yan Qingli had chosen for the three of them was near the Sect Master’s residence, surrounded by various pavilions, water features, rockeries, and greenery.
Even though there had been a thunderstorm not long ago, it was now windless and rainless, with a bright moon and sparse stars.
When the flawless white frost fell upon the mossy stone steps, it reflected infinite tranquility.
The breeze stirred ripples, and the neither-cat-nor-dog girl squatted beside Jiang Keke.
“You aren’t even wearing shoes. Aren’t you afraid of catching a cold?”
Jiang Keke curled her lip, suddenly feeling that the mood had been spoiled.
Hearing this, the girl tilted her head and thought for a moment. She simply sat down on the cold stone steps and patted the space beside her, signaling for Jiang Keke to sit as well.
Her two short legs swung back and forth, just like a little child.
“I don’t want to; it’s filthy.”
Jiang Keke rolled her eyes. “If you can’t sleep, then keep watch outside. I’m going to bed.”
She had already reached the age of 15 this year. According to custom, she was an adult, so naturally, she wouldn’t do such childish, foolish things like the young girl.
After speaking, Jiang Keke headed back toward the cave.
The girl pouted her lips with a bit of loneliness.
But before long, her eyes lit up.
“These are old clothes I wore last year; they’ve been washed. This is a blanket I used when I slept in the stable the year before last. Put it underneath you so you don’t end up staining the Young Master’s clothes tomorrow…”
The girl watched as Jiang Keke nagged while taking out various pieces of new clothes from her storage bag, and she couldn’t help but laugh happily.
Two small white tiger fangs revealed themselves, twinkling under the moonlight.
“What are you looking at me for? Do you want me to help you get dressed too?”
The girl’s smile gave Jiang Keke goosebumps. She simply stuffed the stack of neatly folded items into the girl’s arms. “Fine, I’m going to sleep. Be careful not to wake the Young Master.”
However, before Jiang Keke could take two hurried steps back, her pant leg was pulled by the girl.
“…What now?”
Jiang Keke felt like she was being annoyed to death.
“You, now, also smell good.”
The girl’s pronunciation was still as intermittent as before. “Before, smelly.”
Jiang Keke’s eyelids jumped with anger. She felt she shouldn’t have suddenly shown kindness; wasn’t her good intent being treated like trash?!
“If you don’t want it, give it back. I wasn’t even keen on giving it to you anyway!”
Jiang Keke reached out to take her things back, but the girl was one step ahead of her and hugged the clothes tightly, screaming in a low voice, “Mine!”
The two of them pulled and tugged for quite a while before Jiang Keke finally sighed and let go.
“Don’t be angry, don’t be angry, getting upset over small things. Thinking back, why bother? Others are angry, I am not. If I get sick from anger, no one will take my place…”
Jiang Keke muttered frantically to herself. She finally managed to suppress the frustration in her heart.
Just as she was about to turn around again, she accidentally saw the girl’s pitiful little expression. Her outstretched foot hung in the air for a long time before she finally pulled it back.
She took out another blanket, laid it underneath herself, and sat beside the girl. She hugged her knees, rested her head on them, and began to ponder a question.
‘Is this person out of her mind?’
She clearly bared her teeth when they met this morning, so why did she suddenly start acting obedient tonight?
Jiang Keke turned to look at the girl. The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she changed the question. “How old are you?”
The girl blinked and then slowly shook her head.
“I figured as much. You don’t look like someone who knows how old she is.”
Jiang Keke scanned the dense scars, both old and new, on the girl’s shoulders and back.
There were more than she had accumulated in her entire life.
They were quite terrifying.
“What is your name?”
The girl still shook her head.
“Then where do you live?”
The girl continued to shake her head.
“What about your race? You must know that at least?”
A shake of the head.
“No, you… you’re like a homeless child. The kind without memories, too.”
Jiang Keke didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Then why didn’t you go to the officials… Oh, you’re from the demon race. You can’t.”
Jiang Keke rolled her eyes and thought for a while, suddenly realizing that her knowledge of the demon race was limited to the descriptions in books: “wild and untamable” and “hideous in appearance.”
She had been a servant in the Changsheng Yun family since childhood.
Although she hadn’t read top-tier secret manuals, her education covered the orthodox enlightenment texts of the human race, such as the *Record of Ten Thousand Races*, *Chronicles of Nine Provinces*, and *Song of Cultivating Righteousness*.
The descriptions of the demon race in those books were clear and consistent:
For example, the demon race in the illustrations always had green faces and sharp fangs, beast heads with human bodies, or half-transformed, hideous forms.
The books asserted that the cultivation of the demon race was “stealing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, defying the natural order of the Heavenly Dao.”
They relied on bloodline instincts, eating raw meat and drinking blood, and plundering providence to advance.
Their path was “violent, short-sighted, and full of primitive desires,” which was a world apart from the human race’s path of “sensing heaven and earth, tempering the mind, and pursuing the freedom of the Great Dao.”
In the historical chapters, the demon race was also labeled as the “menace of the borders” and the “source of turmoil.”
The records mostly consisted of cases where the demon race harassed human villages and plundered resources.
The *Song of Cultivating Righteousness* stated: “When seeing a demon, one must slay it to defend the Way and guard the land. A single moment of mercy leaves a disaster for eternity.”
However, looking at the ‘infant’ before her who feared thunder, knew hunger, showed possessiveness over her clothes, and even smiled with tiger fangs, Jiang Keke leaned against the cold stone steps, feeling a bit unsure of how to judge her.
In fact, even at this very moment, Jiang Keke kept a strand of divine sense in her storage bag, ready to pull out the wolf-tooth club at any time.
Because the books said that all members of the demon race were cunning and insidious, and showing weakness was only a way to wait for an opportunity to devour people.
But she looked at the girl beside her, who was clumsily trying to wrap herself in the blanket. There was only unfamiliarity in those movements, without a hint of pretense.
The books also said that humans and demons followed different paths, and their energies conflicted; proximity would bring misfortune.
But when the Young Master entered Foundation Establishment, this girl was right beside him.
Not only was there no harm, but the Young Master succeeded in one go… and was even in exceptionally good condition.
Would the ‘monster’ mentioned in the books… be this ‘idiot’ before her, who didn’t even know her own name or age, and whose eyes lit up with joy just from getting a piece of old clothing?
The core contradiction, however, lay with the Young Master.
Yun Heng was the embodiment of ‘correct’ and ‘wisdom’ in her understanding.
If the books were absolutely correct, then wouldn’t the Young Master’s actions of helping a demon race member and even treating her gently be a grave mistake?
But how could the Young Master be wrong?
This contradictory feeling made Jiang Keke feel like her head was about to explode.
She had always stayed by the Young Master’s side and rarely thought about anything intentionally, because many things could be resolved just by leaving them to him.
Moreover, the Young Master was very knowledgeable; he could answer anything she asked. Over time, Jiang Keke had developed the bad habit of being too lazy to think and leaving everything to the Young Master.
She was now like a traveler hesitating at a crossroads — either the books were wrong, or the Young Master was wrong.
Although she instinctively and almost unquestioningly tried to choose to believe in the Young Master, how could she prove the books were wrong?
It would be fine if it were just one book, but surely they couldn’t all be wrong?
Then what was the point of all those books and storybooks she had read over the years…?
“…If you encounter a differing opinion, you should listen to its voice.”
For no apparent reason, Jiang Keke suddenly recited the inscription written by the Young Master.
‘Think about what the Young Master would do.’
Jiang Keke pursed her lips and closed her eyes, carefully recalling Yun Heng’s style of doing things, trying to catch up with, imitate, and portray even a sliver of his way of thinking.
“Books are written by people. And the people who write books…”
Then, naturally, Jiang Keke murmured softly, “Perhaps they haven’t seen every ‘demon.'”
This thought made her shiver slightly, as if she had violated some deep-seated taboo.
At the same time, a peculiar sense of clarity quietly sprouted in Jiang Keke’s heart.
“Tomorrow, I’ll have the Young Master give you a name,” she said.
The girl looked back at this “big sister,” her nose twitching slightly.
‘How strange… why does it feel like Sister suddenly has Yun Heng’s scent?’