After Marrying the Disabled Demon Lord as a Substitute, I Ran Away with His Child - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Zuo Siqiu and Yan Jiaojiao arrived at the main hall of the Demon Sovereign’s grotto, where Zuo Siqiu saw such a large gathering of Xuanyun Sect members for the first time.

Presumably, everyone had heard of her emergence from seclusion today and had come to find out how the matter of the “substitute bride” would be handled.

Having grown up as an only child, Zuo Siqiu knew that to fight for her rights, she had to bravely stand up and speak for herself. At the very least, she didn’t feel the same stifling pressure she had felt at home before transmigrating—the feeling that “no matter what she said, no one cared.” She believed that as long as she was willing to stand up, the matter could be resolved.

Yan Jiaojiao led her to Xuan Mo’s side. Once she stood firm, she turned back to face the Xuanyun Sect crowd.

“Regarding the substitute marriage, I am innocent. I don’t know why I was put on that bridal sedan to come here, nor did I marry into the Xuanyun Sect for the sake of a dowry.”

Zuo Siqiu had a slender frame and wore a simple ink-colored Daoist robe. Her headpiece was equally modest—just a small ring of white flowers. These were the clothes the Xuanyun Sect had prepared for her after her arrival. Her eyes were clear and steady, bearing no resemblance to a greedy or conniving person.

The Right Protector of the Xuanyun Sect stepped forward and looked at her. “Compared to the Bixia Sect, we are naturally more inclined to believe the Sect Master’s wife. However, words alone carry no weight. I’m afraid this explanation won’t convince the people of the Bixia Sect.”

Feeling nervous, Zuo Siqiu looked at the crowd, unsure if she should truly trust them.

At that moment, Xuan Mo spoke: “Can you produce evidence? If you have proof, your innocence will be established.”

Zuo Siqiu decided to trust her intuition and take a gamble.

She said, “When I refine pills, I place a Memory Stone in the alchemy room to record the process.”

This was a piece of information she had gained from the original body’s memories during her seclusion. The original host wasn’t a particularly gifted alchemist, so she would place a Memory Stone in her room to review her failures and find out why her pills turned into dross. That stone would surely contain the footage of her being drugged and taken away.

Upon hearing this, Yan Jiaojiao grew fired up. “In that case, let’s go to the Bixia Sect right now! We’ll grab that stone before they notice and prove the Lady’s innocence!”

She added with great emotion, “I didn’t expect our Xuanyun Sect to have a day where we could be so righteous. Usually, I’d say we should just charge in with our artifacts and crush them—that’s more our style!”

The crowd fell silent at her words.

In truth, they couldn’t understand why the Sect Master had agreed to marry the Bixia Sect Leader’s daughter in the first place. The Sect Master seemed to have no interest in that woman, and the Bixia Sect Leader’s recent actions suggested he was the one desperate to push the marriage through. Since the Sect Master remained silent, they didn’t dare probe further.

Thus, the group set off for the Bixia Sect in a grand procession, with even Xuan Mo joining them. This made the crowd realize just how important the Lady was to him; this was a Sect Master who hadn’t left his grotto in a hundred years, and now he was not only leaving his quarters but heading out of the mountain gates.

Yan Jiaojiao remarked bluntly, “This is the charm of love and dual cultivation.”

The group arrived at the Bixia Sect with an aggressive swagger, looking as if they intended to level the place. Most Bixia disciples retreated in terror, leaving only the Sect Leader’s personal disciples to brave the front—the most courageous among them being Long Xiaotian.

Standing tall and righteous, he shouted angrily, “Why have you members of the Xuanyun Sect gathered at our gates? Do you intend to forcibly take my Third Junior Sister?”

Yan Jiaojiao spat, “Who do you think wants your ‘Third Junior Sister’? It’s your Master who spends every day dreaming of marrying his daughter into our sect, but we never said we wanted her! We are here today to prove our Lady’s innocence. Move aside!”

Long Xiaotian refused to budge. “I must first report this to my Master. We will open the gates once he gives his consent.”

But the Xuanyun Sect wasn’t willing to wait. If they waited, the Lady’s old quarters might be ransacked, and how would they prove her innocence then?

The two sides couldn’t reach an agreement. Before Zuo Siqiu could even react, the Xuanyun Sect members drew their artifacts and charged, clashing with the Bixia guards. It was a chance for them to vent their frustration over the Bixia Sect previously coming to their doorstep.

The villains here don’t talk much, Zuo Siqiu thought, so our Xuanyun Sect definitely won’t lose.

As she pondered this, Xuan Mo released a surge of energy and took her wrist. “Where was your old residence?”

Zuo Siqiu pointed in a direction, and Xuan Mo’s aura swept her up. They shot through a crack in the Bixia Sect’s defensive barrier that the Xuanyun members had torn open.

Zuo Siqiu’s former residence was dilapidated and remote. The spiritual energy there was the weakest among all the Sect Leader’s disciples. Zuo Siqiu was puzzled: if the Bixia Sect Leader thought so little of the original host, why had he taken her as a disciple?

Even Xuan Mo frowned upon seeing the place, his pale, almost translucent face clouding with displeasure.

Zuo Siqiu hurried into her quarters and found the inconspicuous Memory Stone in the alchemy room. Within moments, the fighting at the gate had ceased, and the Bixia Sect Leader arrived at her doorstep with the rest of the disciples and the Xuanyun crowd.

The small, cramped residence could hardly withstand the sudden influx of so many cultivators; it looked as if it might collapse at any moment.

The Xuanyun Sect members darkened their expressions when they saw the dwelling. Our Sect Master’s wife used to practice and refine pills in a place like this? No wonder she was only at the Foundation Establishment stage despite being the Sect Leader’s disciple.

The Bixia Second Senior Brother was furious. He pointed at Zuo Siqiu and cursed, “Junior Sister, we treated you like our most beloved sister, and this is how you repay us? Bringing these people to storm the sect—what are you trying to do?”

As a reader of the original novel, Zuo Siqiu knew that the “substitute marriage” had been orchestrated by this very man. She stepped forward from Xuan Mo’s side and looked directly at him, her gaze like a blade cutting through lies.

“I ask you, Second Senior Brother—if I am your ‘most beloved sister,’ why did you drug me and put me on that bridal sedan to marry into the Xuanyun Sect in place of Third Senior Sister?”

The Bixia disciples were in an uproar. “Junior Sister, what are you saying? Didn’t you sneak onto the sedan because you were greedy for the Third Senior Sister’s dowry?”

Zuo Siqiu glared at them. “What evidence do you have that I coveted her dowry? What evidence do you have that I planned this?”

The crowd immediately turned to the Second Senior Brother; he was the one who had told them that story. Sweat poured down his back, but he knew he couldn’t retreat. He raised his voice to regain momentum. “I heard you say it with my own ears! I am the evidence!”

“And you accuse me of drugging you—where is your evidence?”

Zuo Siqiu held up the Memory Stone. “I often make mistakes while refining pills, so I keep a stone in my room to record the process. I imagine the footage of you drugging me and carrying me away is recorded right here.”

The Second Senior Brother’s face turned deathly pale, and his body began to tremble.

Zuo Siqiu immediately chanted the activation spell. Once she found the right segment, the stone projected the image. The scene showed her refining pills when she suddenly grew dizzy and collapsed. Moments later, the Second Senior Brother appeared, packed up her furnace and herbs, and carried her out of the room.

The witnesses were shocked. They turned to the Second Senior Brother.

“Second Senior Brother, why did you lie to us?” “Was Junior Sister really kidnapped and forced to marry?”

His eyes turned bloodshot with murderous intent as he looked at Zuo Siqiu. Suddenly, a much more powerful aura blocked his gaze; he was forced to his knees by the pressure, blood instantly blooming from his joints.

He instinctively looked back at the Third Senior Sister in the crowd. Seeing her eyes filled with worry for him, he decided he had to protect his beloved sister at all costs.

He looked up at Zuo Siqiu, still refusing to confess. “How does this prove I coerced you? We clearly agreed in private that we would put on a show for everyone. Now you’re biting the hand that fed you. Don’t you remember how you groveled when you begged me?”

Zuo Siqiu felt her blood pressure spike with rage. How could someone be so shamelessly brazen?

The Bixia Sect Leader was about to speak, but Xuan Mo beat him to it. “Do you dare to take a Truth Pill?”

Everyone turned to Xuan Mo. A Truth Pill forces the consumer to speak their honest thoughts, but they are incredibly difficult to refine and extremely rare. No one expected Xuan Mo to produce one for such a matter.

The Second Senior Brother’s face went white again. However, clinging to a sliver of hope, he gritted his teeth and swallowed the pill.

Immediately, he began pouring out the truth of how he had drugged Zuo Siqiu and sent her on the sedan. He even confessed the ugly thoughts in his heart: “Third Senior Sister is so pure and noble—how could she be worthy of a demon like you?”

Before anyone could react, Yan Jiaojiao struck. She drew her weapons and severely wounded the Second Senior Brother, her twin blades slashing at his throat. Although the Bixia Sect Leader saved him from death, it was clear he would find it difficult to ever speak again.

At that moment, Bi Zhi’an stepped forward from the back of the crowd. Ignoring everyone’s objections, she looked at Zuo Siqiu with eyes full of heartache and guilt. “Junior Sister, it’s all my fault. You shouldn’t have had to endure any of this; it should have been me. Now that the truth is out, I won’t let you suffer any more humiliation. You stay here at the sect today, and I will go back to the Xuanyun Sect in your place.”