My Secret Cultivator Spouse Is the Demon Lord - Chapter 3

The young girl behind Ye Jinlan tried to reach out and stop her. “Big Sister, she’s our aunt!”

“She used to be.” Ye Jinlan stood by the bed, looking down at Ye Ming with a cold sneer forming on her face. “Now that she’s useless, the Ye family has no place for trash.”

With a wave of her arm, Ye Jinlan shoved the girl aside.

Ye Jinlan was at the second level of Foundation Establishment, while the younger girl was at the fourth. Yet, despite being higher in cultivation, the girl was born to a concubine while Ye Jinlan was of legitimate descent. Trapped by their disparity in status, the younger girl didn’t dare raise a hand against her.

Pushed aside, she could only watch on, numb and helpless.

Ye Jinlan moved quickly, snatching the Skyfall Flame Core with effortless ease.

“Ah—”

Ye Ming couldn’t dodge in time. The moment her magical artifact was ripped away, her already fragile body looked even more deathly pale.

Just as her cry slipped out, the door to the small room was pushed open, and a figure rushed inside.

Seeing the scene unfold, Xu Xianqing felt a sharp, burning pain in her eyes. She hurried forward to support Ye Ming. “Miss Ye! Are you alright?”

Xu Xianqing immediately pressed her fingers to Ye Ming’s wrist to check her pulse. It was the same as usual only even weaker.

“Little Aunt, get some rest now. Your niece will be taking her leave,” Ye Jinlan held the Skyfall Flame Core, her smile arrogant and unrestrained. “I do hope you’ll come watch the junior trials next month.”

Ye Ming gasped, “Stop right there… cough—”

“The Skyfall Flame Core has already bound itself to its master. Forcing it to submit will do you no good. Why go through the trouble?”

Ye Ming’s words stunned Xu Xianqing even further. She looked at Ye Jinlan in disbelief she had actually stolen Miss Ye’s exotic flame!

Just as Xu Xianqing was about to move, a hand caught her wrist. She turned her head and looked at Ye Ming.

Leaning close, Ye Ming whispered softly, “Let her go.”

“Miss Ye…” Xu Xianqing felt helpless, but knowing full well how powerless she truly was, she suppressed her indignation, letting her eyes fade back into a calm, detached stillness.

Ye Jinlan glanced at the two of them and casually unclipped her storage pouch. “I won’t take it for nothing. Keeping this flame really is useless to you anyway. Compared to an exotic flame, these are much better suited for your current state.”

She held out the pouch. Xu Xianqing stared at her, making no move to take it.

Instead, Ye Ming suddenly let out a soft laugh. “If you had just said so earlier, why would I have made you do it yourself?”

Ye Jinlan looked puzzled. It wasn’t until Ye Ming personally reached out to take the pouch that Ye Ming added, “In that case… my thanks.”

Seeing her accept the trade, Ye Jinlan felt at ease and left with the flame.

The Skyfall Flame Core was a magical artifact Ye Ming had bound years ago. Having spent day and night alongside her, it had already developed a trace of sentience. Though it wasn’t her natal spiritual weapon, taming it anew would be extraordinarily difficult.

Ye Jinlan certainly didn’t lack ambition taking by force what even her own grandfather had coveted yet failed to claim.

As Ye Jinlan departed, the other young members of the Ye family followed her out.

Using a spell, Ye Ming wiped Ye Jinlan’s ownership mark from the storage pouch. She opened it to peek inside it contained quite a few treasures.

“Miss Ye,” Xu Xianqing spoke up. Though she possessed spiritual energy, she lacked a true spiritual root, making her unable to practice magic or use spatial pouches herself. She had no idea what was inside.

Ye Ming explained, “There’s a fair amount in here. I wouldn’t say it’s her entire fortune, but it’s easily more than half of it.”

Having once been the designated heir of the Ye family, Ye Ming knew exactly how much wealth a junior member held.

“But your magical artifact…” Xu Xianqing loathed her own powerlessness. In moments like this, she could only stand by and watch. She couldn’t protect Miss Ye, and now she couldn’t even stop people from robbing her.

Ye Ming let out a light laugh. “She has a point, you know. I really am broken. Since she’s also a member of the Ye family, if she manages to refine and subdue the Skyfall Flame, that’s her own skill. If she can’t, then even if she took it, it will only end up drifting into someone else’s hands eventually.”

Ye Ming was remarkably philosophical about it. If Ye Jinlan hadn’t taken it, others would have been eyeing it like vultures anyway.

Ye Ming reached in and drew out some spirit stones from the pouch. “You’ve spent a great deal on my medicine lately. Take these.”

Xu Xianqing looked at what Ye Ming handed her: two high-grade spirit stones and over a dozen mid-grade ones.

One high-grade spirit stone was worth roughly a hundred mid-grade ones. And a single mid-grade stone was worth about a hundred low-grade ones.

“Miss Ye, I can’t take this.”

Ye Ming took her hand and pressed the stones into her palm. “You’ll be using them on me anyway.”

She urged her to put them away. “If a day comes when I am gone, take these and leave the Ye family. They’ll give you enough capital to make a life for yourself outside.”

“Miss Ye, don’t say such disheartening things.” Xu Xianqing didn’t want her to die. Miss Ye was a rare, truly good person someone like her shouldn’t have ended up like this.

Ye Ming wanted to say more, but a violent fit of coughing wracked her chest.

“I’ll go brew your medicine. Hang in there.” Xu Xianqing helped her lie down, grabbed the herbs she had brought back earlier, and hurried off to the small kitchen.

Once Xu Xianqing left, the sheer exhaustion overtook Ye Ming’s body. With what little energy she had drained, she slipped directly into unconsciousness.

It wasn’t until Xu Xianqing returned with the medicine and fed her the dark broth that Ye Ming slowly drifted back to consciousness. But after remaining clear headed for only a short while, body racking pain seized her once more.

Xu Xianqing glanced at the sky outside. After finishing her modest dinner, she tidied up the small room, took off her outer garments, and climbed onto the bed.

The moment she lay down, a freezing body leaned into her arms.

Xu Xianqing pulled up the quilt, wrapping them tightly together. She tried to use her own body heat to warm Ye Ming.

Yet by the middle of the night, her own body began to chill as well. Holding Ye Ming felt like cradling a block of soft, icy jade.

Ye Ming’s body was trembling. Xu Xianqing held her tighter, gently rubbing her back and arms in hopes of bringing a sliver of warmth to her skin.

“Cough… cough…”

“Miss Ye.” Xu Xianqing peeked at the sky outside; it was just beginning to turn a faint, hazy gray. “Miss Ye, I’ll go brew more medicine.”

“My wife…” Ye Ming caught her hand.

Xu Xianqing froze mid-motion. She turned her head, but the room was too dark to see clearly. Reaching out, her fingers brushed against a cold tear rolling down Ye Ming’s cheek.

A sharp, creeping ache bloomed in Xu Xianqing’s chest. It wasn’t love it was the dreadful realization that Miss Ye’s time was running out.

Softening her posture, Xu Xianqing leaned down close to Ye Ming’s ear. “Miss Ye, what is it?”

“My wife… when I die, leave the Ye family immediately. Don’t ever come back,” Ye Ming urged her quietly. “Right now, I am merely dragging out my last remaining days. Go to the Ye family’s Scripture Library. The Library Master was a close friend of my father’s a guest elder hired by the family. He and I share some history. Take my token and ask him for some work. Staying in the library is far better than wasting away by my side. Next month, after the junior trials, his term as a guest elder ends. When that time comes, you can leave the family alongside him.”

Xu Xianqing’s eyes grew cold and still as unshed tears welled up. “Next month?”

“Yes. I’m afraid… I won’t make it to next month.” Ye Ming forced her lips into a faint smile, but it was far too weak and strained. Clutching Xu Xianqing’s hand, she whispered, “I’m just not willing… I really am so unwilling.”

“I’ll go find Senior Brother Zhao again! Maybe… maybe if we switch to a different prescription, it’ll help!” Xu Xianqing made to get up, but Ye Ming held her back.

Ye Ming let out a self-deprecating laugh. “When my father was still alive, he poured the entire power of the Ye family into saving me, and even that couldn’t turn things around. What chance do I have now?”

“The Flame Core!” A thought suddenly struck Xu Xianqing. “The Family Head once said the flame core could suppress the cold poison! I’ll go find Ye Jinlan. I’ll demand it back!”

Ye Ming shook her head. “It could have helped before, but not anymore. The core’s energy has already been drained. Leaving it with me would only mean letting it fade away alongside my death. Even if Ye Jinlan hadn’t come for it, I originally planned to extract it and give it to you. Once you left the Ye family, you could have pawned it at a shop. The spirit stones you got would have been more than enough to live on. Now… cough…”

“Miss Ye, save your breath.”

“It’s fine,” Ye Ming panted softly, forcing the words out. “Now that Ye Jinlan took it and left those spirit stones behind, it’s enough.”

Xu Xianqing held her close. But soon, she noticed something alarming Ye Ming’s body was no longer cold. Instead, a gentle warmth was creeping back into her skin.

“Miss Ye!” Xu Xianqing gasped, a sudden burst of hope surging through her. “You’re not cold anymore! Has the cold poison cleared?”

Ye Ming gave a weak, faint smile. “Perhaps.”

Looking at her fragile state, a chilling realization washed over Xu Xianqing.

The cold poison had seeped into her very marrow and meridians how could it possibly heal overnight without a cure?

Her current warmth wasn’t a recovery. It was exactly as Miss Ye had said: her days were numbered, and this was merely the final, fleeting rally before the end the last spark of a Fire Spiritual Root burning out its remaining life force.

Xu Xianqing tightened her embrace, gathering the dying woman into her arms with all her strength, as if holding her tight enough could somehow anchor her fleeing life force.

“I’m… not dead just yet,” Ye Ming squeezed out from her chest. “If you squeeze any harder, I really won’t make it to sunrise…”

Xu Xianqing’s body went stiff. She slowly released her grip, easing her arms back.

Finally able to catch her breath, Ye Ming’s face remained deathly pale, though her smile was gentle and at peace. “I was a Core Formation cultivator once, after all. For this final stretch… I can still hold on for another ten days or half a month. Just do as I said, and head to the Scripture Library first.”

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