My Secret Cultivator Spouse Is the Demon Lord - Chapter 1

Xu Xianqing wrung out the face towel and gently wiped the cold sweat from the forehead of the frail woman leaning against the bed.

This was her wife, Ye Ming, the eldest young lady of the Ye family. And Xu Xianqing herself was also a woman.

In the mortal realm, such a relationship would be seen as a violation of the natural order.

However, they were in the Spiritual Realm, a place overflowing with spiritual energy and governed by the Heavenly Dao. The people here were fundamentally different from mortals. They were called spirit cultivators what mortals referred to as “immortals.” In truth, they were simply cultivators using spiritual energy combined with their spiritual roots to advance their cultivation, hoping to one day comprehend the Way or achieve godhood.

Once someone ascended to godhood, they could travel via the Heavenly Ladder to the Ancient Realm the Realm of Gods.

Since a cultivator spent their entire life striving to ascend and become an ancient deity, many things here were different from the mortal world.

Gender carried little weight. Whether two people bound themselves as Dao companions mattered not if they were two men or two women; it did not even matter if one was human, demon, or spirit.

The sole exception was the Devil race, due to the deep, unpayable blood debts between devils and all other races.

“Miss Ye,” Xu Xianqing said, picking up the still-warm medicine and bringing a spoonful to the woman’s lips. “Miss, drink it while it’s hot.”

Ye Ming lowered her head slightly, pursing her lips, and took small sips of the medicinal broth.

One fed the medicine with deliberate patience; the other drank it softly. Aside from this, neither made a move, and not a single unnecessary sound broke the silence.

Even the patter of the fine rain outside the window felt a bit too noisy.

When Ye Ming finished the medicine, Xu Xianqing used her handkerchief to dab the corners of her mouth before setting the bowl and spoon aside.

“My wife… these past days have been hard on you.”

The moment Ye Ming spoke those words, a violent fit of coughing overtook her, leaving her barely able to catch her breath.

Xu Xianqing’s brows knit slightly. She took Ye Ming into her arms and reached out to gently stroke her back, soothing her breathing.

“Don’t speak. Rest well,” Xu Xianqing murmured.

Watching Ye Ming grow weaker and thinner by the day cut deeply. Back when her father in law was still alive, Ye Ming had been a cherished, doted-upon young lady of a great family. But to find a rare medicine for Ye Ming, her father had entered a secret realm, where he was tragically ambushed and killed by devils.

Taking advantage of the loss, Ye Ming’s eldest uncle seized the position of Head of the Ye Family.

That position should have belonged to Ye Ming. Using her frail body and damaged spiritual root as an excuse, her uncle, Ye Qinfeng, stripped her of the Family Token and the Ye clan’s guardian treasure.

Then, under the pretense of “allowing her to recover in peace,” he had them cast out to the Ye family’s side courtyard a place that used to be the quarters for basic sweeping disciples.

Not even the lowest branch members or concubine-born children of the Ye family were reduced to such a place, yet the legitimate eldest daughter of the main line had been driven here.

“My wife… do you hold resentment?”

Having calmed her coughing slightly, Ye Ming tightened her grip on Xu Xianqing’s hand. As she asked the question, her eyes searched Xu Xianqing’s face, seemingly watching for any shift in her expression.

Yet Xu Xianqing showed little emotion. Her face remained composed, save for the faint frown from earlier when Ye Ming had been coughing so violently.

Xu Xianqing squeezed her hand in return. Ye Ming’s body grew colder by the day. Once, she had possessed a top-grade, single-attribute Fire Spiritual Root…the pride of the entire Ye clan, a brilliant prodigy who had achieved Core Formation at the mere age of fifteen.

Now, she had fallen to this.

Xu Xianqing couldn’t quite describe what she felt at this moment. Perhaps it was simply pity.

Shaking her head, Xu Xianqing said softly, “I hold no resentment. Rest well.”

And she truly didn’t.

She had no memories of her past. Before the former Master Ye found her, she had been living among a group of beggars. To scavenge a bite of food and survive to the next day had been the greatest grace she could ask for.

She had been gravely ill, starving, dressed in rags, with only a small stray pup for company until a passing evil cultivator slaughtered the pup for food.

She herself had nearly been dragged off to be used as a living ingredient for alchemy when Master Ye saved her.

In exchange for saving her life, Master Ye required her to marry into the Ye family as a matrilocal spouse. Her partner was to be the eldest Miss Ye, who was critically injured, suffered a damaged spiritual root, and was unlikely ever to wake again.

The marriage was meant to ward off ill fortune and bring luck.

When cultivators bound themselves in a Heart Link Oath a covenant of shared life and death the Heavenly Dao would bestow a blessing of spiritual rain. That spiritual rain was the only thing capable of temporarily preserving Miss Ye’s life.

Under the oath of shared life and death, if Miss Ye were to die, Xu Xianqing would not perish alongside her. Instead, she would be forced to endure the agonizing pain of a thousand biting insects tearing at her heart, every moment of every day.

Such was the price of the Heart-Link Oath.

To repay Master Ye’s life saving grace, she had willingly agreed. And Miss Ye, wanting to survive, naturally desired the covenant as well.

Because both entered the vow with pure intent, the Heavenly Dao granted its blessing. Miss Ye gradually woke up, though her body remained utterly frail, requiring constant nourishment from high-grade spiritual herbs.

Master Ye had searched endlessly for a way to restore her. Eventually, he found a record in an ancient text stating that the Red Rock Lotus could nourish a Fire Spiritual Root. He did everything in his power to track down a lead and learned that the lotus might exist inside a hidden secret realm.

Yet under the heavens, fortune is fickle. Master Ye fell to a devil’s ambush in that realm and never returned.

Xu Xianqing helped Ye Ming lie down, tucked the bedcovers neatly around her, and drew the bed curtains closed. She lit a small bundle of common spiritual moxa beside the bed to smoke out any insects.

Once finished, she lifted a corner of the curtain. Seeing that Ye Ming was fast asleep, she finally stepped out of the dim, damp room that reeked of mold.

Standing under the eaves, Xu Xianqing looked out at the fine rain falling over the dilapidated courtyard, her mood turning heavy.

In recent days, the herbs sent from the dispensary had dropped from high-grade to mid-grade. The batch brought today was nothing more than the lowest-grade scrap medicine usually given to errand disciples.

Xu Xianqing lacked a spiritual root and could not cultivate. But because only true cultivators could establish a Heart-Link Oath, Master Ye had once used secret elixirs to cleanse her marrow and reshape her body, forging a chaotic “pseudo-spiritual root” within her.

A pseudo-spiritual root was an artificial root, but it allowed her to store spiritual energy. With spiritual energy in her body, she was technically classified as a cultivator.

Yet, she couldn’t actually use any of that energy. She remained, for all practical purposes, a useless mortal.

In the Ye family, some looked down on the current Miss Ye, but there were still those who remembered and revered the brilliant prodigy Ye Ming once was.

However, no one respected Xu Xianqing. To them, she was a useless waste who couldn’t cultivate not in the past, and not in the future.

She was beneath even the lowest servants in the manor, lower even than beasts that had gained basic intelligence.

Only Miss Ye had never looked at her that way. Miss Ye would address her as “my wife,” and despite her own constant suffering, she still cared for Xu Xianqing’s well-being.

In Miss Ye’s eyes, she was a living, breathing human being not a piece of trash.

Xu Xianqing opened an umbrella and stepped into the rain.

She crossed the side courtyard, passed by the side halls, and made her way toward the back mountain, eventually arriving at the Ye family’s medical hall. The Ye estate was vast, designed for cultivators, and walking this far took her over two hours.

When the disciples at the medical hall saw Xu Xianqing approaching, a few wearing the robes of basic errand-servants nudged each other, exchange knowing grins and snickers.

One of them called out directly, “Isn’t this the free-loading waste? What brings you to the medical hall? Don’t tell me you ate something bad and came running for medicine?”

“Hahaha! If you ask me, this rain is just too heavy our delicate young mistress got herself soaked and sick!”

“Sick, is she? Why don’t I, Niu Er, take a look at the young mistress myself?”

A man so obese he looked swollen waddled out from inside the hall. Unlike the common errand-servants, he had a token hanging from his waist a symbol of higher status.

He was an apothecary apprentice of the medical hall, far above the ordinary servants.

“Senior Brother Niu, show some respect! That’s our Young Mistress you’re talking to,” someone chimed in, pretending to give a warning while chuckling to fan the flames.

Niu Er’s bloated frame made walking difficult, forcing him to sway his hips awkwardly as he ambled forward, though he clearly believed he looked grand and imposing.

Xu Xianqing had no desire to waste words with people like him. They would never give her a decent look anyway.

She disliked every corner of the Ye family, and every person within it. Miss Ye was the sole exception. But Miss Ye’s illness bound her to the family, and for now, it bound her to Xu Xianqing as well.

Apart from Xu Xianqing, Miss Ye had no one left at her side.

“Niu Er, I’m here to pick up medicine from Senior Brother Zhao,” Xu Xianqing said calmly, invoking the name.

“Senior Brother Zhao” was merely a junior pharmacist in the Ye family’s medical hall, but he was the only person in the entire clan willing to offer her a helping hand.

Naturally, Xu Xianqing treated him with respect.

In terms of seniority and standing, Senior Brother Zhao outranked Niu Er. Upon hearing his name, the surrounding servants fell silent, and Niu Er’s face stiffened. A moment later, embarrassment turned into flare-ups of rage.

“In an immortal family, strength and cultivation dictate who speaks!” Niu Er rolled up his sleeves, his face twisting angrily. “You’re just a piece of trash how dare you address me directly by my name? Today, your Senior Brother Niu is going to teach you a lesson!”

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