Chapter 52: Demon-Sealing Tower

“Ouch!” the man grunted.

“Ah, s-sorry, sorry!”

Su Xiaotang kept bowing in apology while holding the child, afraid that this might get her beaten again and also implicate the child.

But when she looked up and saw the man, her gaze was drawn to him for a moment, simply because he was so handsome, more beautiful than anyone she had ever seen.

On the other side, Chu Fan looked at her with a hint of confusion and disbelief.

This girl had decent features and wore nice clothes, as if from a wealthy family, but why was she so disheveled?

And so thin.

More importantly, why was she carrying a child?

What puzzled Su Xiaotang was why this man was also accompanied by two girls around her age.

And each of them was so pretty, much prettier than her.

Gurgle….

Suddenly, Su Xiaotang’s stomach made an untimely noise.

She blushed and looked down, as if unwilling to admit the sound came from her.

But everyone present noticed.

Still…

“Master, I’m a bit hungry. Let’s go eat.”

“Yeah, Master, I’m hungry too. Let’s go eat.”

“Alright.”

Chu Fan replied with a smile, then turned to Su Xiaotang: “What about you?”

“I… I’m not hungry…” Su Xiaotang shook her head softly.

But before she could react, Shen Yuying and Chen Qianchi each grabbed one of her hands and dragged her into the nearest restaurant.

“Come on, come on~ Let’s eat together~” Shen Yuying laughed.

“Yeah, yeah! Eat together!”

Chen Qianchi echoed.

At the table, though, Su Xiaotang could only eat while taking care of the child, unable to enjoy her meal properly.

Seeing this, Shen Yuying wolfed down her own food in a few bites and then said with a smile: “That child is so cute. Is she your little sister?”

“Mm.”

Su Xiaotang smiled.

“Can I hold her for a bit?”

“Sure.”

Su Xiaotang handed the child over to Shen Yuying.

Now she could finally eat properly, so she started wolfing down her food ravenously.

“Hey, let me hold her, let me hold her.”

Chen Qianchi seemed to like the child a lot too.

“Hehe~ No way~”

Shen Yuying teased her.

Watching this scene, Chu Fan slightly curled his lips and placed a piece of meat in Su Xiaotang’s bowl.

She turned to look at him, and he chuckled softly: “Kids need to eat more.”

“……Mm.”

Su Xiaotang’s vision began to blur.

Though she was born into a family that everyone envied, her father favored sons over daughters, so she had never had a full meal since childhood.

After her mother fell seriously ill and lost her ability to bear children, her father beat her to death.

From then on, Su Xiaotang could only survive in the margins of her father’s attention.

This was her first time talking back to him, and it was for a stepmother’s child.

She didn’t even know what she was thinking.

“So, what happened? Can you tell me?”

Chu Fan asked with a smile.

“Mm……”

Su Xiaotang nodded slowly.

……

“Heh.”

After listening to Su Xiaotang’s story, Chu Fan gave a faint smile.

But Su Xiaotang didn’t know what he was laughing at and even suspected he might be gloating.

“You… what are you laughing at…”

“Nothing. I just think your father is too foolish.”

As he spoke, Chu Fan took a paper bag from his sleeve and handed it to Su Xiaotang: “This is Yangji Powder. If a husband and wife take it dissolved in water a day before intimacy, they can ensure the child born will be a boy.”

“Th-this… so powerful… but I don’t have any money…”

“No need for money. We’ve met by chance; consider it a gift.”

Su Xiaotang slowly took the bag of Yangji Powder and slightly raised the corners of her mouth.

After the meal, Chu Fan and the others said goodbye to Su Xiaotang.

Watching her retreating figure, Shen Yuying asked worriedly:

“Master, will this really keep them safe?”

“Probably. I imagine the head of the family was just momentarily furious and lost his wits, so he thought of this extreme method of discarding a daughter for a son.”

“As long as she definitively gives birth to a male infant, once the head comes to his senses and realizes it’s his own flesh and blood, he probably won’t resort to killing.”

“Oh……” Shen Yuying said doubtfully.

Meanwhile, Su Xiaotang returned to the mansion with the child.

She had thought that bringing back the Yangji Powder would be enough to save the child’s life.

But her father still insisted on throwing away the newborn who didn’t even have a name yet, and even her stepmother’s desperate pleas were useless.

Until Su Xiaotang said: “Father, I’ll go.”

“You’ll go? Go where?”

Her father seemed not to understand her.

“I am willing to go into the Demon-Sealing Tower… pull out the demon sword… and bring it back to you…”

Su Xiaotang knew this was what her father had always wanted.

Her father was a cultivator who had taken up the path halfway, and also a half-baked one who had returned to secular life halfway.

Undoubtedly, his cultivation was very low, but it was better than nothing, which was how he managed to thrive in this town.

However, whether due to talent issues or something else, his cultivation just couldn’t improve.

Until her father heard from someone, somewhere, that using a newborn male baby as a blood sacrifice could draw out a demon sword left by an ancient powerhouse in the town’s Demon-Sealing Tower, granting the power to destroy heaven and earth.

At first, he naturally didn’t want to use his own child, but that cultivator said that only by using one’s own flesh and blood as a sacrifice could the sword be used by someone of the same bloodline after it emerged.

He even didn’t believe it at first and specially checked ancient texts, which said the same thing.

That cultivator himself also said he was just a blacksmith, not coveting the demon sword, but only hoping it would reappear so he could see it.

So, hardening his heart, the father decided to use his own flesh and blood to obtain the demon sword.

But now, hearing that Su Xiaotang wanted to go pull out the demon sword herself, his eyes lit up.

After all, to him, Su Xiaotang staying home was just a burden, adding another mouth to feed without being useful.

This could be a way to test the waters.

“Fine, then go. If you come back successfully, I won’t throw away the child.”

“Mm… okay…”

Two days later, in front of the Demon-Sealing Tower.

Chu Fan and the others, somehow having heard the news that someone was going into the tower to pull out the sword, came to watch the excitement.

In fact, their initial purpose in coming to this town was also that demon sword inside the tower.

Standing before the tower, looking at the spire faintly emitting dark blue malevolent energy, Chu Fan frowned: “Abandon Life.”

“Master? What did you say?”

“Abandon Life—that’s the name of the demon sword. It is not a weapon belonging to any single person, but an independent combat unit.”

“In ancient times, it destroyed three cities as large as the capital of the Yan Kingdom in a single night, despite thousands of cultivators trying to stop it.”

“That powerful…”

“Mm. Our purpose in coming here this time is also to take that demon sword as Qianchi’s weapon.”

“Ah!?”

Chen Qianchi was greatly shocked.

“M-me? M-me!?”

Chen Qianchi pointed at herself in bewilderment.

She clearly didn’t think she had enough ability to wield that demon sword.

“Yes, you.”

“I… can I do it, Master?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll try to cut away part of its self-awareness, turning it into something like an artificial intelligence that only obeys you.”

“Artificial… intelligence?”

“In short, there won’t be any danger. Don’t you trust me?”

“I trust you~! Of course I trust you~!”

Chen Qianchi hopped over to Chu Fan, wrapped her arms around hers, and started acting spoiled.

“Qianchi trusts the most~ is Master~!”

“Ha!”

Seeing Chen Qianchi’s cheeky look, Shen Yuying hissed, her fangs and tail showing.

“What are you hissing for? So what if you entered earlier by two years!?”

“It’s four years! Four!”

“Isn’t that still just three twos!?”

“Pfft…”

Shen Yuying covered her mouth and laughed.

“What are you laughing at?”

“N-nothing…”

Though a warm daily scene unfolded before them, Chu Fan showed no reaction.

Shen Yuying and the other girl also felt something was off in the atmosphere and looked up at Chu Fan.

They saw his pupils slightly contracted, his mouth agape, his expression clearly not that of a mere bystander.

Until they followed Chu Fan’s gaze….

They saw Su Xiaotang’s petite and fragile figure appear at the entrance of the tower.