After Marrying the Disabled Demon Lord as a Substitute, I Ran Away with His Child - Chapter 54

Chapter 54

When choosing materials for her parents’ physical bodies, Zuo Siqiu and Zuo Mudong had racked their brains.

In the cultivation world, there were several well-known materials for body reconstruction, but they were astronomical in price and incredibly rare. To provide bodies for all the soul puppets and to have enough “buffer” for failure while practicing for her parents would have put a crushing financial strain on the sisters for decades.

Zuo Siqiu didn’t want to wait that long. She knew that kind of prolonged pressure would eventually suffocate her parents as well, much like a family in the modern world dealing with a terminal illness that has a slim, expensive chance of a cure.

So, she looked to mythology. Specifically, Nezha.

If Nezha’s master could use lotus roots to rebuild his body, why couldn’t she? The Immortal Lotus Island produced high-quality lotus roots, but most cultivators only cared about the seeds for alchemy. The roots were mostly seen as a specialty snack.

When Zuo Siqiu asked her sister to buy a large quantity, Zuo Mudong was baffled. “Lotus roots for a body? Most people just eat them for the novelty.”

Zuo Siqiu had replied with a shock of her own, “Sister, you’ve been in the cultivation world longer than me. You should know that anything is possible. No one used pills as grenades until I did. Lotus roots have fibers that connect even when broken. Isn’t that just like human meridians?”

Zuo Mudong had laughed, realizing her own perspective was too narrow. “You’re right. It’s worth a try.”

For a long time after that, Zuo Siqiu spent her days tinkering with lotus roots. The big rooster would occasionally try to peck at them until she threatened him: “I’m making a body for you! If you keep pecking it, your future face will be full of pits and you’ll be a pockmarked man!” The rooster had squawked in terror and behaved ever since.

After blowing up hundreds of “lotus bodies” in a separate training space and thanks to the treasures she’d swiped from Bi Mu, Zhu Jiechou, and even a storage ring she’d “borrowed” from Xuan Mo she finally found success.

The result was a basic “vessel” for a soul. It was weak, comparable to an ordinary mortal’s body, and required the soul’s own cultivation and medicine to strengthen it over time. But it was real.

When she showed the prototype to Zuo Mudong, her sister was stunned. “Do you know how many people will beg you for this if they find out?”

…

Back in the Mustard Seed Space, after suppressing the traitors, Zuo Siqiu didn’t waste a second. She forced the rebellious souls to stand still and watch her work.

She began downing pills like candy Qi-replenishing pills for her energy, healing pills for her injuries, and a pregnancy-stabilizing pill for the “little brat.” Then, she set up a massive Spirit-Gathering Array using top-grade spirit stones and did the unthinkable: she threw the lotus roots into an alchemy furnace.

The spectators were horrified. You don’t refine a body in a furnace! That’s for pills!

But Zuo Siqiu’s logic was simple: she was creating a “human-shaped pill” with vitality that could merge with a soul. She had practiced this hundreds of times. Every movement was precise. The celestial fire roared, and sweat poured off her as she funneled her spiritual energy into the furnace.

The traitors prayed for her to fail, hoping the furnace would explode and kill her so they could break free. But Zuo Siqiu was a master of her craft.

Finally, a lotus-colored body emerged. It started small but grew to human size as it floated in the air. Zuo Siqiu was exhausted, her spiritual sea nearly dry. Her mother rushed to support her.

“Qiuqiu, you actually did it?” her mother whispered in awe.

“It’s just a basic body, Mother. It needs work,” Siqiu gasped. “But it’s yours. Try it.”

Under the burning, envious gazes of the traitors and the hopeful eyes of the loyalists, Zuo Siqiu’s mother slowly merged her soul into the lotus vessel. The features previously vague began to take on a soft, feminine curve. Zuo Siqiu quickly draped a robe over her.

The woman opened her eyes. The transformation was complete. She looked like a gentle, living human being. She stood up, her movements slightly wobbly and tearful, but she was alive.

The loyalists looked at Zuo Siqiu with fanatical devotion. They would do anything to be next. The traitors, meanwhile, were drowning in regret. They turned their hateful glares toward the long-bearded elder who had led them astray. If not for him, we could have had bodies today!

…

Exhausted to her limit, Zuo Siqiu brought her mother out of the space and into their house. “Mother, wait for Sister here. I need to sleep to recover.”

Next door, Xuan Mo had been waiting for fifteen days. He was no longer dressed as a “noble young master” and that persona’s yard was abandoned. He was back on the wall, having imagined killing Zuo Siqiu a thousand times.

But when she finally appeared, she wasn’t alone. She was with a middle-aged woman she called “Mother.”

Xuan Mo froze on the wall like a statue. A sister was one thing, but where did a mother come from? And why is she a mortal with a cultivator’s soul? What has Zuo Siqiu been doing for the last half-month?

He watched as the mother doted on the exhausted Siqiu. He saw a look of genuine love in Siqiu’s eyes, a look she had never given him.

He sat on that wall all night. Eventually, he retreated to his yard and picked up the discarded romance novels. He had to get close to her. He had to know every move she made.

But he couldn’t do it as “Xuan Mo.”

As for killing her? That could wait a few more days.