How to Handle a Sickly Yandere Demon God - Chapter 4

Whenever she recalled what happened afterward, she would weep uncontrollably. By the time she woke her grandfather with her cries, Uncle Hei had already collapsed in a pool of blood. Half of his left ear was bitten off, one of his front legs torn away, and a fist-sized wound gushed fresh blood. The vicious dog that had attacked him had a palm-sized chunk of flesh torn from its neck and lay on the ground, barely alive.

She had no idea how Uncle Hei had mustered the strength to fight a dog twice his size. She only knew that if it weren’t for her, Uncle Hei could have lived out his days in peace and passed away naturally.

Now, this black dog lying before her, so reminiscent of Uncle Hei, dragged her back into the nightmare of that night.

Back then, she had covered her head and cowered, the scent of blood filling her nostrils, able to do nothing but cry.

But now, thankfully, she had some knowledge of medicine. Thankfully, she had grown up.

After hastily bandaging its wounds, she lifted the black dog onto her ice sword and flew at top speed toward the Beast Taming Sect.

Arriving in the courtyard, she kicked Fang Zhiming awake from his nap on the recliner and urgently said, “Go fetch Uncle Gu Nuo.”

Fang Zhiming glanced at the black dog in the yard. In just moments, its blood had already stained the ground beneath it crimson. He immediately summoned his longsword and stepped onto it.

“Also, bring over that Beast Taming cultivator at the Core Formation stage.”

Fang Zhiming nodded in acknowledgment and vanished, already a hundred meters away in the blink of an eye.

Xu Qingqing took out the tools she had prepared earlier, carefully disinfected the black dog’s wounds, re-bandaged them, and after finishing, began channeling spiritual energy into the dog.

Although she was an animal medicine student, it was clear this black dog had more than just superficial injuries. The conditions here were too rudimentary, and with only her present and no proper equipment, it was easy to make things worse.

When Gu Nuo arrived, he saw Xu Xing’er kneeling on the ground, covered in blood, channeling spiritual energy into the black dog beside her. Unaware of the bloodstains on her cheeks or her disheveled hairpin, her eyes were red and swollen from crying, looking even more disheveled than the day at her senior brother’s place.

“Uncle, please save it quickly!” Her voice still trembled with tears. Lately, she had cried in front of him numerous times, crying from the pain of acupuncture, crying after arguments with her father, and now crying over this injured black dog. She had cried more in this short period than in all the over twenty years he had known her combined.

At first, he had wondered if Xu Xing’er had been possessed, but after secretly investigating and finding nothing unusual, he had set his mind at ease.

Later, he occasionally recalled her as a child, how she had been like a sticky rice ball, crying and reaching out her little hands for him to hold at the slightest grievance.

Burdened with numerous responsibilities, he couldn’t remember when she had started keeping to herself or when she had become so withdrawn.

Seeing her like this now, it suddenly struck him that this version of Xing’er was truly alive.

Yes, if not for their expectations, Xing’er should have been this vibrant all along.

The burden of saving the world should fall on men like them. Why trouble a young girl like her?

Xu Xing’er watched as Gu Nuo’s steps remained as unhurried as ever, barely suppressing the urge to curse. “Uncle, can’t you walk a little faster? This dog is almost gone!”

“Though I am a healing cultivator, I have not studied the beast path. Why call for me?” Despite his words, Gu Nuo walked over to the black dog, examining it carefully from head to tail before sighing. “It’s beyond saving. Bury it.”

Bury your ass!

She swallowed back the harsh words she had been about to utter. Xu Xingxing pleaded, “Uncle, among all the medical practitioners in Kunlun, none can compare to you. If even you have no solution, I truly don’t know who else to turn to. I’m begging you, Xing’er is begging you, please, think of something, won’t you?”

Gu Nuo placed a hand on the black dog’s head, closed his eyes, and channeled his spiritual energy. After a moment, he withdrew his power, took out a pouch of needles, and began inserting them into the dog’s body as he spoke. “This dog’s veins are completely severed. Healing spells are useless now. All I can do is use these needles to seal its acupoints and stop the bleeding. This will ease its pain and slow the loss of its spiritual energy.”

He paused before adding, “Even so, it will only live for another two hours.”

No sooner had he spoken than Fang Zhiming and a tall man landed swiftly nearby. The man had an upright and righteous demeanor. The moment he touched the ground, he rushed over to examine the black dog carefully. After scrutinizing it for about a quarter of an hour, he straightened up with a sigh, clasped his hands in a salute, and said, “I am powerless.”

Just as Xu Xingxing’s tears threatened to fall again, the man hastily added, “There is, however, one more possibility…”

Noticing Gu Nuo’s peach-blossom eyes drifting lazily toward him, the man shuddered and fell silent.

Xu Xingxing grew frantic. “What is it? Tell me quickly!”

“Do you know there is a beast-taming cultivator living in these mountains?” Gu Nuo interjected before the man could speak.

“But I haven’t seen anyone here…” She trailed off, suddenly recalling the clean stone steps and the house, as well as what Fang Zhiming had said the previous night.

“Fang Zhiming, didn’t you say yesterday that the steamed buns you brought had all disappeared?”

“Yes, yes!” Fang Zhiming exclaimed. “Yesterday, I thought I must have misremembered, but now it seems…”

“Uncle, how can we find him? Will he have a solution?” Xu Xingxing clutched Gu Nuo’s sleeve as if it were a lifeline.

Gu Nuo patted her hand reassuringly. “Even your father would address him as ‘Senior Uncle.’ If even he has no solution, then this dog’s fate is sealed.”

Without waiting for her to respond, he continued, “His whereabouts have always been elusive. The three of us will search the mountains for him. You stay here and guard the dog.”

There was no other choice.

After the three of them left, Xu Xingxing didn’t dare remain idle. She went to the Beast Taming Sect’s study to search through texts, hoping to find a solution. The writing was obscure and difficult to understand, and her anxiety only grew.

She flipped through book after book but found nothing useful.

Suddenly, a thought struck her, she sensed someone had entered the courtyard. She hurried back to the yard where the black dog lay.

From a distance, she saw a figure crouching beside the dog, doing something she couldn’t make out. The silhouette was unmistakably not one of the three who had left!

As she drew closer, she realized the person was pulling out the fine needles one by one from the dog’s body.

“What are you doing?” A barrage of ice blades shot toward the figure, but he raised a hand and effortlessly dissipated them.

The man tossed the needles aside, clapped his hands, and stood up. “Alright, let’s begin.”

His hair was streaked with gray, disheveled, and hastily tied up with a twig. His eyebrows were so thick they nearly obscured his eyes, and his beard was as tangled as dry grass. His clothes were tattered and filthy, and a foul odor wafted from him even from a distance.

Xu Xingxing strongly suspected he had just finished feeding pigs.

“Begin what?”

“Saving the dog.”

The man dug a finger into his nostril, fished out an unidentified object, and flicked it away. Without changing his expression, he raised his chin toward Xu Xingxing, who was on the verge of retching. “Stop dawdling. In another quarter of an hour, it’ll be dead.”

Even if Xu Xingxing didn’t want to admit it, she had to believe that this person was likely the revered ancestor.

She didn’t dare delay and followed the ancestor’s guidance, sitting cross-legged a few meters opposite the black dog.

Suddenly, golden light burst forth beneath her and the dog, and two arrays appeared simultaneously.

“Form hand seals, clear your mind, unify your thoughts, and sink your qi to the dantian.”

Xu Xingxing closed her eyes and complied. The golden light around her grew increasingly intense, and spiritual energy surged like a wind, causing her clothes and hair to flutter wildly.

In an instant, the surrounding sounds, the wind, the cicadas, vanished completely. She sensed that she was now in an unknown cavern realm. She didn’t open her eyes, for she could feel the black dog nearby, sharing the space with her.

It was as if she could see it, sense it, and even hear its faint heartbeat.

This connection grew stronger, and soon she could visualize its broken meridians and dwindling spiritual energy.

“Repeat after me,” the ancestor’s voice descended like a divine command.

“Virtue upholds all things, yielding to the way of heaven. Without striving, completion is found; profound and mysterious, the cosmos endures.”

She softly repeated the words in her mind.

“All beings arise together; abandon foolishness and selfishness. The greatest sound is faintly heard; eternal life and lasting vision.”

“Together, life thrives; divided, it withers. Meridians connect, souls intertwine.”

“The pact is sealed.”

Xu Xingxing felt as though her own meridians flowed like water toward the black dog, first in thin threads, then in thicker streams. As the final word faded, her meridians, wrapped in spiritual energy, surged like a rushing river, enveloping the dog and lingering without dispersing.

After an immeasurable time, the cloud-like spiritual energy fully returned to the dog’s body.

When it was over, she opened her eyes to see the ancestor squatting beside the dog again. The dog’s terrifying wounds showed signs of healing, and its breathing had steadied. The ancestor ruffled the dog’s head and said, “From now on, this dog is your life-bound spirit beast.”

Xu Xingxing felt utterly exhausted. Before she lost consciousness, only one thought remained in her mind:

Get your filthy nose-picking hands off it!

When she awoke again, she was lying in her room. Gu Nuo stood by the bed, his brow furrowed deeply, while the ancestor sat on the table by the window, meticulously picking at his feet. Without looking up, the ancestor said, “What’s there to worry about? She’s awake, isn’t she?”

He then blew on the dirt he’d just scraped off.

“Yue Baiyin, do you even know who she is, to put her in such danger? She hasn’t recovered from her severe injuries, and you made her form a beast pact? If anything had happened to her, could you bear the responsibility?” Rare anger filled Gu Nuo’s usually lazy, half-lidded peach-blossom eyes.

Fang Zhiming, standing at the door, sensed the tension and quickly interjected, “Ancestor, Uncle, would you like some tea? I’ll go brew some!”

“No tea. Bring me a bowl of rice soup, with extra rice.” Yue Baiyin patted his foot, slipped on his tattered shoes with several holes, and looked up to add, “And drizzle some scallion oil on it.”

“Ha… haha.” Fang Zhiming’s smile was more awkward than polite. “Silly me, it’s so late and no one has eaten yet. I’ll go cook, I’ll cook!”

As he left, he dragged away the Beast Taming Sect disciple, who had been inconspicuous and was now gazing at Yue Baiyin with admiration.

Yue Baiyin snorted derisively. “Who are you trying to fool, Gu Nuo? Was it really for her health that you didn’t want her to form the beast pact? Or was it for the sake of her cultivation? And pretending to search for me in the forest, was that just to buy time?”

“And what if it was?”

Gu Nuo was already furious. “She possesses a pure ice-water spiritual root and has trained relentlessly for twenty years to reach the Nascent Soul realm! Now that she’s formed a beast compact, she’ll have to start all over again!”

“Nascent Soul realm?” Yue Baiyin glanced at Xu Xingxing, who quickly shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep.

He then waved his hand dismissively. “No need to start from scratch. The daughter of Sect Leader Xu is naturally gifted, and besides, this dog is a superior spirit beast. If it were uninjured, you might not even be able to defeat it.”

Gu Nuo snorted coldly. “What does it matter if it’s a superior spirit beast? To save this so-called spirit beast, she expended half her spiritual power and aggravated her old internal injuries. How can I stand by and let her do something so wasteful?”

The temperature around them suddenly dropped, and outside the door, a fierce wind howled as if thunder rumbled.

“What?” Yue Baiyin’s face was icy cold, his tone dripping with frost. “Is a spirit beast’s life not a life?”

Gu Nuo circulated his spiritual energy, releasing it outward and causing his pure white robes to flutter wildly. Unafraid, he retorted angrily, “What happened back then was a last resort. Only you still can’t let it go after all these years. Look at you now, where is even a trace of the spirited and heroic demeanor you once had?”

“I see it! I see it!” Xu Xingxing knew that if she didn’t step in now, she’d be caught in the eye of the tornado. She leaped out of bed and stood between the two. “Ancestor Master, you are majestic and imposing. Don’t listen to his nonsense. Just from your current appearance, I can glimpse the transcendent elegance and extraordinary aura you once possessed.”

“Foot odor, more like,” Gu Nuo added coldly.