“Dad, I’m back!”

With his Divine Sense covering a thousand miles, Pei Xuan heard the human cub’s milky voice from a thousand meters away.

The moment he arrived at the door, the human cub happily pushed open the wooden door, carrying a chill and snuggling into his father’s arms for warmth. He nuzzled in with a smooth, practiced motion.

Looking closer, the human cub had gone off to do something today, and his little face was a bit dirty.

The Peacock felt a bit disgusted.

Pei Xuan caught him as he lunged. He took out a warm cloth and wiped his precious son’s face, and soon he was a bundle of jade and snow, cute again. Ye Qing clung to him and acted spoiled: “Dad, I picked up a big brother on the street. He looks so pitiful.”

Pei Xuan slowly lowered his head. “Do you like that older brother?”

He was infinitely patient, his gaze fixed on his little son’s shy face. At this moment, anyone who dared to look directly into Pei Xuan’s eyes would have seen a coldness and a depth of meaning so profound it felt like being plunged into a frozen wasteland, a chill silently spreading.

Ye Qing tilted his head, thinking.

The opposite of “like” was “dislike.” As an honest, face-con human cub, he naturally chose “like.”

He nodded without hesitation, his little head bobbing like a pestle.

Wait… Lou Qinian sensed something was wrong.

He turned to look at Yu Jinghan, froze for a few breaths, and then felt a surge of inexplicable anger.

The youth was disheveled, yet his features were breathtakingly beautiful.

The sharp, icy contours of his brows and eyes were perfectly balanced any more would be too harsh, any less too soft.

He was no less stunning than any member of the demon race. Even in his coarse, plain clothes, he exuded a pure, untarnished aura.

Not to mention, the youth was deathly pale, his body wracked with illness. His lips were tinged with a dark blue, making him look as if he would collapse with a single gust of wind.

This frail, sickly beauty was almost enough to trigger one’s innate desire to protect the weak. How could one not feel a sense of wariness?

The human cub brought over bedding and clothes.

He even fetched his piggy bank. He wanted to invite a medical cultivator older brother to come and examine the patient.

The three-foot-tall toddler stood by the bed, his little face crumpled with pity.

Seeing this familiar display, Lou Qinian’s body stiffened, and an inexplicable surge of annoyance flooded his heart.

He narrowed his sharp phoenix eyes, his expression utterly displeased. His gaze descended to Yu Jinghan’s neck, and he thought to himself: A mere Qi Refining Stage cultivator.

Countless methods to kill the young cultivator flashed through his mind.

A drop of demon blood between his brows gleamed with a murderous light.

The entire room brightened as it was bathed in a crimson bloody glow. After all, peacocks were the most temperamental of all birds, and the male peacock was the most volatile of them all.

His feathers transformed into a sharp blade, pressed against the young cultivator’s slender neck.

The Great Demon’s gaze was filled with disdain and arrogance; if he wished, a single strike could slice through the other’s throat.

A parrot flew in, flapping its wings in a flurry, and cried out urgently, “Your Majesty, control your anger! The human cub is still on his way to fetch a medical cultivator. You’ll scare him to death!”

When a powerful cultivator abstained from killing, they did so completely; but when they unleashed their wrath, rivers of blood would flow.

Thinking of how young, fragile, and easily frightened the human cub was, how he would likely faint on the spot if he stumbled upon a floor covered in blood, Lou Qinian fell silent.

“…” He restrained some of his killing intent.

“I will spare him for now.”

He’s just an ordinary human cultivator, Lou Qinian thought. There is no need for me to be so wary.

Yu Jinghan woke to find himself in an unfamiliar wooden cabin.

The bone-deep cold that had once plagued him was gone, replaced by the warmth of a Cold-Dispelling Charm placed on the ceiling. The aura of a Mahayana-stage cultivator or higher emanated from it, leaving him stunned.

He remembered clearly: before losing consciousness, a child’s soft, warm body had hugged him.

Ye Qing was right beside him. Seeing him wake, his eyes lit up, and his voice softened. “Brother, you’re awake! You fainted in the rain.”

“Thank you…” Yu Jinghan’s voice was hoarse and dry. He had fainted in the Yu Mansion many times, yet no one there had ever cared, nor dared to help him. How ironic that a passing child would be the one to heal him.

The next person to enter the room was a young man in a water-green robe.

He was handsome and elegant, his poise as graceful as a willow tree by a spring lake.

Yu Jinghan’s heart churned. He saw through the man’s true form at a glance: a Mahayana-stage Peacock. Behind his tall, slender figure lay a fan of countless, intricately colored tail feathers. His demonic aura was so potent it was breathtaking, nearly filling the entire cabin.

The birds perched around the human child were also demons. With two chickens on his head and a small bird cradled in his arms, the child’s eyes sparkled with lively clarity. His tiny hand occasionally stroked a bird’s head, seemingly unaware he was in a demon’s den.

Yu Jinghan instinctively reached for his sword, but his hand grasped only air. He looked around warily.

The Great Demon let out a soft laugh, his lips curling in a sneer. Without a word, he exuded an air of arrogance.

Only Ye Qing, inside the room, was oblivious to the tension.

He tilted his head and asked, “Big Brother, what’s wrong?”

The Parrot said, “King, his gaze is so sharp. It’s as if he’s seen through all our true forms.”

“If he has, then he has. Half-demon blood is the filthiest of all,” the Great Demon said aloud, his long, narrow phoenix eyes curving slightly. He didn’t use Divine Sense this time, speaking the words directly.

Yu Jinghan naturally heard him.

He lowered his head slightly. From Ye Qing’s perspective, half of his handsome profile was shrouded in frost, his thin lips pressed into a straight line.

This is the second person to say I have half-demon blood in my veins. It seems this must be true. Instead of despair, Yu Jinghan’s calm eyes revealed a detached acceptance: So that’s how it is.

When Pei Xuan appeared, his cold, murderous aura, the hallmark of the Tribulation Period, completely stripped Yu Jinghan of any will to resist.

Thus, he settled into the Ye Family’s residence, ostensibly as a temporary guest recovering from illness. Instead, he was forced into a life of preparing beds and brewing milk for the human cub.

The child was easy to raise, but the household remained a place of constant danger.

The more Ye Qing demeanor resembled the distant, snow-capped mountains majestic and inviolable, the more Lou Qinian wanted to humiliate him and kick him out.

“Go chop the wood, fill the water vat, and sweep the floor.”

The young man said nothing. He turned to chop wood, his movements swift and efficient, without the slightest hesitation.

He knew the demon bird’s cultivation far surpassed his own. He had tried to kill him several times, only held back by certain reasons.

As for this torment, the bird had looked down upon all living beings from his lofty perch for so long that he probably didn’t even realize this was nothing.

Yu Jinghan couldn’t even consider this an insult.

Back at the Yu Mansion, he had cooked, chopped wood, and served tea and water. Aside from his cultivation, he had to do almost everything.

Here, the workload was reduced to a mere one percent of what it had been. Besides, this family wasn’t even human. The only one who needed firewood was the human cub; a few swings of the axe, and he was done.

He found it all easy and even had time to practice his swordplay every day.

The sword he used had been a gift from the human cub.

The cub’s storage bag contained not only mountains of spirit stones, a vast sea of them, but also countless magical artifacts. Any sword he casually pulled out would be a treasure that the young master of the Lu Family, one of the Four Great Families, would have given as a gift, a blade capable of cutting hair with a single breath and slicing through iron like mud.

Yu Jinghan thanked him.

He ate meat three times a day, and after some time of being well-nourished, his appearance had already changed.

The human cub said excitedly, “No need to thank me!”

Tang Xi couldn’t watch any longer. He floated over, his tone one of exasperation at his ward’s lack of ambition: “Cub, why are you so good to him?”

Ye Qing’s voice was soft, his tone unable to contain a hint of excitement: “Because Big Brother is a Dragon Proud Heaven!”

Yu Jinghan hesitated several times, wanting to tell the cub that his surname was Yu, not Dragon.

After thinking it over, he decided against it. The human child was innocent and naive; there was no need to shatter his fantasies.

One morning, as the birds chirped, the human cub was eating breakfast. His meal consisted of a bowl of sweet bean curd, three deep-fried and golden-brown youtiao, a bowl of millet porridge, and a small side dish.

Yu Jinghan had food in front of him as well. When he was a dependent at the Yu Mansion, he had suffered from both hunger and cold. But after leaving the Yu Mansion, he was living very well.

Those below the Qi Refining Stage still needed to eat and drink daily. Those above it could go half a month without food or water.

However, Yu Jinghan had experienced a hellish starvation that nearly drove him into qi deviation, turning his relationship with food into a psychological trauma.

“Brother, you eat.” The human cub naturally placed food in his bowl. Before Yu Jinghan could even react, the residual soul named Tang Xi chided, “Qingqing, you can’t be a picky eater!”

The human cub, holding his chopsticks, showed only the back of his head. His small face was pure, childish, and innocent.

In a sweet, honeyed voice, he defended himself, “I’m not being picky! I just saw that Brother is too thin, he should eat more…”

With that, a pile of carrots and green vegetables landed in Yu Jinghan’s bowl.

Yu Jinghan: “…”

He silently ate them all.

Ye Qing sat to his left. The little three-year-old, acting like a miniature adult, tried to pick up a tiny quail egg.

But each time he grasped it, his chopsticks trembled. Just as he lifted the egg, before it could reach Yu Jinghan’s bowl, the slippery egg tumbled back down.

The human cub was relentless.

The chopsticks slipped time and again, the springy egg bouncing back into the bowl.

“Ah, such a disobedient egg…” Ye Qing’s face scrunched up like a steamed bun, yet he stubbornly gripped his chopsticks and kept struggling.

Yu Jinghan thought that he had grown tired of the word “cute.”

The human cub’s actions were like a feather falling without a trace upon the snow, scratching gently at his heart.

After spending these few days together, his heart frozen for a thousand miles had begun to melt, turning into a trickling stream. This stream was still small, not yet a winding brook, but sooner or later, it would surely evolve into a vast ocean.

The young man thought.

He recalled that day of torrential rain, when a child had crouched under an umbrella, looking up to ask him a question.

The child’s cheeks were soft and endearingly lovely, like a handful of pure, white snow, or a green bud sprouting on a branch after spring rain. Every gesture and word seemed to radiate a vibrant vitality.

Finally, he made up his mind.

He would return to the Yu Mansion.

The Yu Mansion was currently hosting guests. The news of Yu Jinghan’s three-day disappearance had thrown the household into chaos, only gradually subsiding after Qin Xun’s visit.

Qin Xun wore a jade crown and a white robe of the Guiyuan Sect. His handsome features drew silent nods of approval from the Yu Mansion’s servants.

Truly a noble of imperial blood, they thought. His every gesture exudes the grace of a dragon and phoenix, making him a perfect match for the Eldest Young Lady so much better than that fallen-nobility Young Master Cousin.

Yu Jinghan was the Young Master Cousin in name, but his status in the mansion was so low that even the servants who poured tea looked down on him. No wonder he had turned  dark side.

“Greetings, Your Highness…” The steward, also at the Foundation Establishment Stage, stepped forward and cupped his hands in salute. But before he could finish, Qin Xun gently raised a hand to stop him.

Qin Xun smiled. “Don’t address me like that. We are all cultivators; we care little for mortal titles, only for our cultivation levels.”

Hearing this, the steward was deeply impressed, adding another virtue to Qin Xun’s list: he was approachable!

By cultivation standards, Qin Xun was even more extraordinary. Not only did he possess the one-in-ten-thousand Single Spirit Root, but he had already reached Foundation Establishment at the age of eighteen.

Moreover, he was an Inner Sect Disciple of the First Great Sect of Cultivation. With his extraordinary talent and unwavering Dao Heart, he was a true Child of Heaven.

Meanwhile, Yu Feixue was with Yu Jinghan. When Yu Jinghan demanded the jade pendant, she was reluctant to give it up.

“You want to keep it for yourself. Why? Give me a reason.” Yu Jinghan stared directly at her, his deep, still eyes as they always were like two bottomless pools that could easily see through one’s heart.

A sharp pain shot through Yu Feixue’s throat, and she nearly drowned in the icy depths of his gaze. After snapping back to her senses, she shook her head repeatedly, trying to shake off his influence.

She hadn’t expected that after just three days, Yu Jinghan’s cultivation had reached a new level. This filled her with a sense of loneliness and a tiny spark of jealousy.

People were truly, fundamentally different.

To escape a life of starvation and hardship, Yu Jinghan had rapidly advanced to the Qi Condensation stage.

In contrast, she had required the personal tutelage of four Nascent Soul cultivators before she was even ready to take pills to break through to Qi Condensation. This was the sheer gap in their innate talent.

Just then, a maid announced Qin Xun’s arrival. The young woman’s heart skipped a beat, and a flicker of anxiety and concern crossed her face.

Her reaction was plain for all to see.

Yu Jinghan said, “I will not hold your family’s years of mistreatment against you. Just return my mother’s jade pendant, and I will no longer trouble you or hinder your future prospects.”

From this day forward, he would sever all ties with the Yu Mansion.

Hearing his words, Yu Feixue met his gaze. She realized that in just three days, the young man had grown far more handsome. His hair was as black as a raven’s wing, his eyes shone like cold stars, and his bearing was so refined and elegant that he seemed like an immortal descended to the mortal realm.

The maids beside her were already staring in awe.

The young man’s eyes had also changed.

The desperate fire that once burned in them had been replaced by a calm indifference, like a lake whose surface remained undisturbed by the slightest ripple.

He showed not the slightest lingering attachment to the Yu Mansion.

The young woman felt a twinge of unease in her heart.

Only a twinge.

She had long known that the engagement between them was void. Even if Yu Jinghan hadn’t brought it up, she would have broken it off sooner or later.

This was because a few years ago, a renowned fortune teller in Yunzhou City had cast a lot for her. A single prophecy had overturned her life. Originally, the Yu Family had been very dissatisfied with her aptitude, after all, she wasn’t the only Young Lady in the family.

But after the prophecy, her fortunes soared. She became the Yu Family’s cherished pearl, and they spared no expense, drawing countless heavenly treasures from their vaults each year to nurture her.

What kind of prophecy could have so drastically overturned her circumstances?

The prophecy was a grand, sweeping decree: it declared that Yu Feixue was a celestial maiden from the Ninth Heaven, her status and nobility beyond measure. It foretold that she would stand beside a peerless hero, save all living beings, end the war between immortals and demons, and achieve immortal military glory.

After such a prophecy, no one else was deemed worthy of her.

Yet now, Yu Feixue stubbornly insisted on breaking her engagement. Yu Jinghan’s reaction had been too calm, and she couldn’t quite articulate what he should have done.

Perhaps she simply wanted to see him devastated.

I was supposed to be the one to break this engagement. How could you get ahead of me?

Her maid, who had been standing by with her head bowed and lips sealed, whispered a warning: “Young Lady, the Eighth Prince is coming this way. It would be bad if he saw you.”

The words made Yu Feixue tremble.

From the moment she first saw Qin Xun, she knew he was the one, the man from the prophecy who would save all living beings.

Before Qin Xun, all other male cultivators in the world were utterly insignificant. She had first formed a bond with him while slaying the Snake Demon, and after meeting him again, they had already recognized each other as their destined match.

“Fine,” she declared resolutely. “Take the jade pendant. From this moment on, we sever all ties. If I achieve a brilliant future, it will have nothing to do with you.”

She donned a pure white mili veil, concealing most of her face as she prepared to receive guests.

After Yu Jinghan retrieved the pendant, he immediately turned and left.

Guided by a maidservant, Qin Xun strolled leisurely into the back courtyard.

He had long wanted to see Yu Feixue.

The last time he had politely asked her if he could borrow the jade pendant to examine it, the cool and distant young woman had lent it to him.

The moment the Blood Jade Qilin touched his hand, a warm current surged through his entire body.

He immediately realized that a vast amount of spiritual energy was compressed within the small pendant. Just a tentative probe sent a powerful force rushing through his veins, making his fingers tremble uncontrollably.

With his extraordinary insight, he knew instantly: this was a special opportunity left behind from ancient times!

Deep within the pendant lay a hidden grotto left by a Void Refining Stage cultivator, containing numerous rare treasures.

However, since he shared no bloodline with the pendant’s owner, he could not yet open the secret realm’s gate. He would have to reach the Golden Core Stage, using his cultivation to forcibly crush and open the grotto.

This was indeed a fortuitous encounter.

Qin Xun sensed it for a few seconds, his heart pounding with excitement.

The old man with the jade pendant said, “That’s right. This is a Heavenly Dao Opportunity. Once you fully possess it, you will awaken a special Kirin Bloodline, enhancing your aptitude and lifespan.”

The more the old man spoke, the more Qin Xun’s desire grew. Unfortunately, he could not claim it yet. His relationship with Yu Feixue had been a delicate dance of closeness and distance, and they had made no promises to each other. At best, they were just friends. The jade pendant still belonged to the Yu Family.

Cultivation families placed the highest importance on contracts. Unless he officially became the Yu Family’s son-in-law and swore an oath as solemn as a vow of eternal love, the jade pendant would never fall into his hands.

He had come today specifically to swear that oath!

“I, Qin Xun, swear to the Heavenly Dao that I will become the Dao Companion of Young Lady Feixue of the Yu Family. From this day forth, we shall be one in heart and soul. In sickness and health, in adversity and prosperity, I will never forsake her… If I break this oath, may I be tormented by Inner Demons, struck by Heavenly Lightning, abandoned by both gods and men, and annihilated by Heaven and Earth!”

But his words weren’t over yet.

He drew a dagger, sliced his finger, and let a few drops of essence blood fall onto the marriage contract. The silk scroll immediately stirred with life, fluttering in the air without a breeze, rustling loudly.

“Why did you swear such a heavy oath!” The old man with the jade pendant had not expected this. He quickly floated out of the jade, his face grave as he reproached Qin Xun.

Qin Xun saw it all clearly. The Master of Yu Mansion and the four Nascent Soul cultivators looked surprised, but their expressions quickly shifted to satisfied smiles.

He replied, “If the oath wasn’t heavy, these cunning old foxes wouldn’t believe it. Besides, I truly like Miss Yu and will never betray her. Didn’t you say the Heavenly Dao is weak now? That any oath I make to it will have no consequences?”

The old man with the jade pendant’s expression remained solemn. “That’s true, but you shouldn’t rely on such luck.”

Struck by lightning, cursed by heaven and earth. Even if Qin Xun felt no fear of the Heavenly Dao, to spout such an oath so casually was simply too…

Just then, a baby taking a nap in bed, his short legs crossed, suddenly twitched his plump little body as if he had received some unseen message.

“I, Qin Xun, swear to the Heavenly Dao that I will become the Dao Companion of the Yu Family’s Young Lady, Feixue. From this day forth, in sickness and in health, in adversity and in prosperity, I will never abandon her… If I break this oath, may I be struck by lightning, forsaken by gods and men, and cursed by heaven and earth!”

Huh? Why is he dreaming about someone else’s marriage proposal?

The three-year-old human toddler rubbed his eyes in utter confusion, then shakily rolled over and crawled out of bed.