My Secret Cultivator Spouse Is the Demon Lord - Chapter 14

Song Erjiao was outmatched. Once again, she suffered a crushing defeat.

Only this time, she had no more trump cards left to play.

Just when it seemed her life was forfeit, a mysterious figure at the Nascent Soul realm materialized out of nowhere. The stranger not only snatched her right out from under He Renyuan’s clutches, but also launched a full throttle assault against him.

With the mysterious Nascent Soul cultivator keeping He Renyuan completely tied down, Xu Xianqing seized the moment. In that critical split second, she summoned her own Nascent Soul puppet. Right then, she made a startling discovery: the instant the puppet was released, every single restriction and sealing spell Song Erjiao had placed on her vanished without a trace.

She couldn’t tell if the puppet had actively dispelled them, or if simply using items granted by her system triggered passive bonus perks.

The second Xu Xianqing broke free, the demon cultivator guarding her froze in shock. Realizing the situation had shifted, the guard abandoned her post and sprinted straight into the fray alongside Xu Xianqing to drag the battered Song Erjiao out of the crossfire.

Song Erjiao was critically injured. Lacking any magical pills or high-tier elixirs, Xu Xianqing dug into her inventory and pulled out a handful of medicinal herbs instead.

These were the leftover herbs she had bought from Zhao Xing back when Ye Ming was gravely ill…herbs that ultimately went unused before Ye Ming passed away.

Prying open Song Erjiao’s serpentine jaws, Xu Xianqing crammed the plants straight down her throat. Beasts usually consumed medicinal herbs raw anyway, and it often yielded similar healing effects.

Whether it would actually work, Xu Xianqing had no idea, but she had to try. The alternative was standing by helplessly while Song Erjiao died.

The moment the herbs slid down Song Erjiao’s throat, a system prompt chimed in Xu Xianqing’s mind:

[Congratulations, Host! You have unlocked a primary skill: Healing Touch Level 1: Spirit Rejuvenation Art. Reward: 500 points. Please claim your reward.]

• Host: Xu Xianqing
• Age: 19
• Gender: Female
• Race: Unknown
• Level: 0
• Cultivation: 5
• Primary Skills:
  • Heaven and Earth Chessboard Level 1: Yin-Sinking Array
  • Healing Touch Level 1: Spirit Rejuvenation Art
• Origin Skill: None
• Techniques: None
• Mental Arts: None
• Points: 400 + 500

With nine hundred points now in her balance, Xu Xianqing immediately opened the System Shop. Two recommended items popped up, both currently on sale:

1. High-Grade Pill Recipe

Original Price: 1,500 points

Discount Price: 800 points

1. High-Grade Spirit-Gathering Pill (Restores vitality and spiritual energy…perfect for Song Erjiao’s current state)

Price: 500 points per bottle

Promotion: Buy One, Get One Free

Buying the recipe meant she could learn alchemy herself, but it would leave her without enough points to buy immediate medicine. Right now, she needed a fast-acting, proven remedy.

After a brief second of hesitation, Xu Xianqing bought the pills.

Recipes could wait until she saved up more points; saving Song Erjiao couldn’t. Besides, a buy one get one deal on high grade pills was too good to pass up.

Once the pills appeared in her hand, Xu Xianqing took one out and popped it into Song Erjiao’s mouth.

Almost instantly, Song Erjiao felt the agonizing injuries inside her body begin to knit back together. As she felt the overwhelming potency of the medicine surging through her veins, her gaze toward Xu Xianqing shifted, filled with newfound scrutiny.

The effects of a high-grade pill were nothing short of miraculous. Within moments, Song Erjiao…who had been teetering on the brink of death…regained enough strength to shift back into her human form.

Yet, she didn’t ask Xu Xianqing what kind of medicine she had just been fed. Nor did she ask if the mysterious Nascent Soul powerhouse who saved her was Xu Xianqing’s doing.

Song Erjiao remained silent, but Xu Xianqing spoke up: “Chief, can you order everyone to fall back? I’ve set up an array around the He family’s encampment on Mount Ba’an. As long as every last one of them is inside that perimeter, I can activate it and wipe them out in one fell swoop.”

This time, Song Erjiao didn’t mock her or call it a pipe dream. She went quiet for a moment, then used a secret demon transmission technique to issue a command to all her subordinates.

Before long, the low-tier demon beasts could be seen intentionally shrinking the battlefield. The oblivious He family members fell right into the trap, allowing themselves to be lured step by step back into their camp’s boundary.

“Get your people out of there, now!” Xu Xianqing warned as she readied nine Heavenly Thunder Talismans. Once every He family member was trapped within the boundary, she urged Song Erjiao to recall her forces completely.

The moment the bandits of Mount Ba’an cleared the area, Xu Xianqing cast the nine Heavenly Thunder Talismans into the formation. The array eye bound seamlessly…the Yin-Sinking Array was complete.

At the exact moment the array activated, the Nascent Soul puppet hurled He Renyuan straight into the center of the trap. A split second later, the puppet gathered its energy and positioned itself like an impenetrable shield over Xu Xianqing right beside the array eye.

Xu Xianqing had originally planned to burn through one of her puppets to protect herself from the array’s indiscriminate destruction. She had assumed a Golden Core puppet would be enough to whisk her away from the blast radius in time, but she had vastly underestimated the sheer destruction of the formation.

Powered by high-grade spirit stones and fueled by high-grade Heavenly Thunder Talismans, the array didn’t just double in force…its power amplified nearly tenfold.

Thank goodness for the Nascent Soul puppet. Without it, her life would have ended right there alongside her enemies.

Even the Mount Ba’an demons who had retreated outside the primary blast zone were caught in the shockwaves. Though not fatal, the residual force hit them hard enough to knock many of them down an entire cultivation realm. Some of the weaker, Qi-Refining demon beasts were blasted straight back into their animal forms, completely unable to hold their human disguises.

The battle was finally over.

Song Erjiao ordered her remaining forces to clear the field, then walked over to Xu Xianqing.

“Are you alright?” she asked, her tone surprisingly gentle.

Xu Xianqing nodded, though she reached up to rub her ears, which were ringing incessantly.

“You were standing way too close,” Song Erjiao explained. “When those nine heavenly thunders struck, you were practically right beside them. A Nascent Soul protector can guard your life, but it can’t block out the deafening roar of celestial thunder. You’re lucky you didn’t go completely deaf.”

Song Erjiao’s explanation filled Xu Xianqing with a wave of lingering dread. She knew so little about this world, and her combat experience was practically nonexistent.

“I was reckless earlier,” Xu Xianqing admitted. “Where will you go now? Or… will you stay here on Mount Ba’an?”

Song Erjiao looked at her, a hint of hope in her eyes. She genuinely wanted Xu Xianqing to stay. Though Xu Xianqing’s own raw strength wasn’t impressive, her endless store of hidden trump cards and rare treasures made her a force to be reckoned with.

If Xu Xianqing weren’t the very person her sister had sacrificed her life to protect, Song Erjiao would have robbed her blind long ago.

Xu Xianqing shook her head, politely declining. “I want to go back to the inn first.”

Song Erjiao stared at her, then raised a hand and pointed into the distance. “The inn looks just like this place now…blasted into utter nothingness. And my sister… when I went back for her, the only thing left was her snake gall, hanging on a tree a hundred paces away.”

A bitter ache washed over Xu Xianqing’s heart. Not even the sharp pain from the Heart-Bond Contract could dull the pang of guilt and sorrow weighing her down.

Seeing her expression, Song Erjiao suddenly burst out laughing. “Hey, as long as the snake gall is intact, our Heavenly Scale Python core survives! At worst, it’ll just take another century or two of cultivation to bring my sister back to life.”

“Is that true?!” Xu Xianqing asked, wide-eyed. She had never heard of such a miraculous thing.

Song Erjiao smirked. “Why would I lie to you?”

The suffocating gloom that had hung over Xu Xianqing for days dissolved in an instant. The innkeeper had given her life to save her, leaving Xu Xianqing crushed under a mountain of guilt, unable to fathom how she could ever repay such a debt. Now, learning that the innkeeper could actually be restored, pure joy bloomed across her face.

“Alright, since you’re set on leaving, I won’t force you to stay,” Song Erjiao said. This time, instead of ordering a subordinate to escort her down the mountain, she walked with Xu Xianqing herself.

When the time came to part ways, Xu Xianqing pulled out a small porcelain bottle and pressed it into Song Erjiao’s hands.

“The innkeeper risked her life to save me, and you, Chief, showed incredible honor by protecting me all the way here. I have no grand way to repay you, save for this bottle of pills. Please accept it. I hope the innkeeper recovers and returns to us soon.”

Song Erjiao stared down at the bottle in her palm. She recognized it immediately…it was the very same container Xu Xianqing had pulled the pill from earlier, the one that had pulled her back from the brink of death.

It had to contain medium- or even high-grade spirit elixirs.

Across the vast Tianyan Continent, such pills might not seem priceless, but in a backwater place like Solitary City? Even ancient families that had persisted for a thousand years could barely scrape together a few individual pills…let alone an entire bottle.

“Chief Song… take care. Until we meet again!”

By the time Song Erjiao snapped out of her stupor, looking down at the heavy bottle thrust into her hands, Xu Xianqing had already mounted her spirit steed and spurred it into a gallop.

Looking at the receding figure, Song Erjiao shouted after her: “Hey, Xu! I respect you as a true force to be reckoned with! If you ever achieve the Dao and ascend, Mount Ba’an in Solitary City will always be open…I, Song Erjiao, will be waiting to share a drink with you!”

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