The Aloof Immortal Venerable is Pregnant with My Fox Cub - Chapter 21.1

Chapter 21.1

Cang Ran gave a very obedient “Mhm.” Her lips slowly parted, gently landing on the wound, carefully sucking out the demonic energy lingering there.

The hot breath fanning across her pale skin made Tan Qingxuan instantly tense up the moment the cool, soft lips pressed against her.

The redness of her tongue sliding across the wound was incredibly soft, and even the way it drew out the demonic energy was gentle and tender, turning the associated pain into an unbearable, bone-deep itch.

She couldn’t help but recall that night when Cang Ran pressed close to her from behind, and her slightly upturned nose had rested against her neck.

The scorching breath puffed onto her delicate skin, melting it into a faint pink, as if she was pecking at it.

It turned out that wasn’t pecking; only this felt like being touched and kissed.

The electrifying numbness seeped into her bones, lingering and repeating. This was the true feeling of being unrestrainedly intimate.

Tan Qingxuan experienced this sensation for the first time. The snow-white skin of her neck flushed crimson. Her breathing couldn’t help but quicken, and her chest rose and fell more violently.

She tightly bit her lower lip in discomfort, her cool eyes misted over. Lowering her gaze, she saw Cang Ran use her red tongue to entangle the demonic energy, swallowing it all into her stomach.

Demonic energy was different from spiritual energy. Demonic energy could only be temporarily sealed within the dantian and wouldn’t lead to any increase in cultivation. Instead, it would agitate the existing spiritual energy in the body, making it restless and difficult to expel. It could only be refined bit by bit.

Cang Ran had already absorbed a mass of demonic energy from her own body on the way. Now, absorbing more for her would likely be overwhelming.

Not to mention, the demonic energy of a venomous demon snake was even more troublesome than that of a demon cultivator. If Cang Ran absorbed all this demonic energy at once, she definitely wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Tan Qingxuan’s neck was scarlet. She took several deep breaths, raised her hand to push Cang Ran’s slender shoulder, and said with a trembling, low sigh, “That’s enough, that’s enough for now. I feel better. You don’t need to worry about the other wounds yet.”

Cang Ran had only cleaned one spot of demonic energy for Tan Qingxuan. After the demonic energy was absorbed from that wound, the surrounding bruised, purple skin began to return to its normal color.

If they truly ignored it today, who knew what the spreading demonic energy would look like tomorrow.

Cang Ran would no longer believe Tan Qingxuan when she said she was fine. Tan Qingxuan must have been like this when she encountered danger before, only telling others that she could manage.

The actual situation was more severe than it appeared. Tan Qingxuan might not be mortal, but she was still flesh and blood. When a person got injured, they would feel pain and needed proper treatment to recover quickly.

She realized now that Tan Qingxuan wasn’t entirely truthful. Tan Qingxuan was a woman who was very adept at concealing her true condition. What she said might be completely different from what she thought.

Cang Ran gripped Tan Qingxuan’s slender, cold wrist, her soft tone carrying a hint of stubbornness: “No, Qingqing, how could you lie to me?”

She leaned down, pinning Tan Qingxuan to the bed, and her soft, red lips pressed against the wounded area again, burying her head to continue absorbing the demonic energy.

Hearing Cang Ran complain about her lying, the most secret part of Tan Qingxuan’s heart was touched. She was indeed somewhat deceitful and not entirely candid with Cang Ran.

If this little demon found out that she had lied to her for so long, would she still treat her with such sincerity as she did today?

Tan Qingxuan lowered her gaze, reaching out to gently stroke Cang Ran’s hair, and said with suppressed restraint, “If you feel unwell, stop immediately. Don’t force yourself.”

At this moment, Tan Qingxuan’s hair was scattered. Her cool demeanor was even more tragic and fragile than when they first met, yet her expression was so gentle, as if the thousand-year-old ice had finally melted.

Nothing was more captivating than a melting iceberg, especially when that iceberg melted for oneself.

Cang Ran nodded with a blush, then settled on Tan Qingxuan’s long leg, opening her mouth to draw out the demonic energy raging in another spot, right from Tan Qingxuan’s bone and blood.

Her speed in absorbing the demonic energy wasn’t too slow, but the warm, soft lips on Tan Qingxuan’s body were particularly hard to endure. Especially when clearing the deeper demonic energy, the contact of her lips and tongue became more passionate.

She had never been handled so intimately before. She felt like a fish on a chopping block. Her abdomen trembled, and her breathing could only become more and more rapid.

The scorching crimson color was initially only on her neck, but now it stained the corners of her eyes and brows with a faint blush, making her cool face look extremely alluring.

Her fingertips trembled. She truly couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to stop Cang Ran, but knowing that Cang Ran needed to focus to seal the demonic energy, her hands, like cold jade, could only tightly grip Cang Ran’s arm that was braced on the bed.

The demonic energy in both legs was finally cleared. Cang Ran’s red lips were stained with blood, looking incredibly vivid and beautiful.

The little fox’s eyes were clear and bright. Although they were currently covered and couldn’t be seen clearly, one could imagine how seductive and captivating they must be.

“Qingqing, let me suck out the demonic energy from your shoulder. Come closer to me.”

Tan Qingxuan’s long fingers clenched into fists. As she leaned forward slightly, the wound on her jade-like shoulder was pulled, and the pain forced her to bite her lower lip.

Her beautiful thin lips were bitten white by her teeth, only showing a hint of light red. She was born exquisitely beautiful, with an aloof, otherworldly air, like shattered beautiful jade, forcing people to handle her with the utmost care.

Cang Ran gathered the soft blanket made of fox fur, tucking it behind Tan Qingxuan and carefully supporting her as she leaned over.

Cang Ran braced her arms, leaning over Tan Qingxuan to actively kiss the wound, saying softly, “Let me do it.”

As the soft lips pressed onto her again, Tan Qingxuan’s peach-blossom eyes involuntarily widened slightly. She inhaled deeply, her sweat-slicked knuckles gripping the bedsheet beneath her.

In this position, it felt as if she were being pressed down by Cang Ran. She hadn’t felt uncomfortable before, but when the other party’s soft, warm body was covering her, she realized that this posture was truly too audacious and provocative.

The cool, soft, and slick tongue, bearing tiny barbs, scraped against the skin of her shoulder, causing an itch. It was wet and soft as it licked inward, thoroughly clearing all the demonic energy.

Demonic energy could only be transferred from one person to another. After absorbing all the demonic energy from Tan Qingxuan’s body, Cang Ran was suddenly and accidentally infected by a wisp of leaking demonic energy.

Cang Ran’s entire body was thrown into turmoil by this wisp of demonic energy. Her hands clenched into fists, the veins on the back of her hands bulging and twisting. It took a great effort to wrestle that wisp of demonic energy back and reseal it.

It was precisely this unexpected incident that caused the spiritual energy that was originally confining the demonic energy in her dantian to also begin to riot.

The raging, agonizing pain in her dantian forced Cang Ran to stop. She was drenched in sweat and was about to faint.

A pair of cool hands suddenly stroked her back. Cang Ran couldn’t help but fall into Tan Qingxuan’s embrace, curling up into a ball.

A faint golden spiritual energy melted inside Cang Ran’s body, circulating through her meridians, guiding her like threads, patiently teaching her how to switch to a more comfortable and smooth method of circulating her power to suppress and seal the chaotic demonic energy.

After an unknown amount of time, guided by the golden spiritual energy, Cang Ran finally managed to completely suppress all the demonic energy deep within her dantian.

She had exhausted an immense amount of physical and spiritual energy today, barely holding on until now. She was already utterly exhausted and immediately transformed into her little fox form to conserve some demonic power.

Her two fuzzy fox paws were out of strength, so she could only clumsily use her mouth to pick up the soft blanket, covering Tan Qingxuan to hide her exposed skin.

Cang Ran’s eyelids felt as heavy as lead. Her sweet voice was tinged with an indescribable exhaustion, and she said softly, “Qingqing, I’m so tired. I’ll sleep for a bit and continue to take care of you when I wake up, okay?”

Seeing her like this, Tan Qingxuan’s eyes were filled with tenderness, and she said warmly, “Sleep, Cang Ran.”

Cang Ran was a little worried. Her round eyes were almost closed, but she still instructed her one last time: “If you encounter danger, remember to call me. I will wake up.”

Tan Qingxuan felt a brief urge to gently touch her fox head and responded softly, “Okay.”

Only then did Cang Ran’s fox ears droop, and she collapsed onto the blanket.

The little fox didn’t even have the strength to curl up into a ball. She just slept next to Tan Qingxuan like a soft fox-pancake, with her four little black paw pads facing the sky and her three fluffy tails coiled beneath her.

The hair tie that had covered her eyes earlier came loose, slipping down to the little fox’s neck. The red bow tie rested on her soft, cloud-like white fur, looking like a carefully prepared gift.

Tan Qingxuan’s eyes rippled slightly. Her delicate fingers gently untied the bow tie, folded the hair tie, and placed it beside Cang Ran.

However, the little fox’s ears twitched alertly at that moment. Her sleepy eyelids were about to open again, as if to check if there was any danger.

Tan Qingxuan placed her hand over the little fox’s eyes, shielding her from the light, and gently coaxed her again: “Sleep. There’s no danger.”

The little fox made a small ooh sound, turned over, and then finally settled down completely.

Earlier, when Cang Ran was in human form, her wounds were concealed beneath her red dress and weren’t obvious.

Now that she had transformed into her fox form, Tan Qingxuan realized that the little fox’s body was already covered in wounds.

The little fox’s fiery red, cloud-like fur had turned dusty grey, and red beads of blood slowly seeped out, sticking the fox fur together and making her look pitifully miserable.

The fur on her four legs was scraped, leaving several bald patches. Her paw pads were very red and swollen, and several stubborn clumps of demon-transformed thorns were embedded in the little fox’s body, making her furrow her brow even in her sleep.

Tan Qingxuan gently stroked Cang Ran’s forehead twice, then used her bare hands to gently remove all the clumps of thorns one by one.

The thorns in those clumps were as sharp as needles. After removing them all, with no spiritual energy to protect them, her long, pale, slender hands were already covered in blood, and her thin fingers were full of wounds.

The large and small piles of thorny clumps on the ground were covered in her and Cang Ran’s blood. For mountain spirits and monsters, this was an excellent elixir for nourishment.

These thorny clumps twitched non-stop on the ground, but were quickly incinerated by a sudden burst of strange fire, turning into ashes.

Tan Qingxuan’s eyes flickered with firelight, her expression unchanged, as she drew the strange fire back to its source.

She wiped the blood from her hands, used her finger as a comb, and gently smoothed the little fox’s messy fur bit by bit.

She remembered that Cang Ran liked to sleep snuggled up to people. She lifted her little paw, gently rubbed the paw pad twice, and placed it on her arm.

The little fox was sleeping very soundly. Even after Tan Qingxuan did all this, she remained perfectly settled.

Tan Qingxuan covered Cang Ran with a corner of the blanket, and her body, having lost too much blood, could no longer hold on. She tidied her clothes and fell into a deep, drowsy sleep.

As they slept, the foreheads of the person and the fox eventually touched. The red lotus mark on Tan Qingxuan’s forehead emitted a faint golden light, which quickly disappeared into the dark night.

Cang Ran slept very deeply. In her dream, she felt like she was still running non-stop with Tan Qingxuan, unable to shake off that demon cultivator.

She was running out of strength. Her four paws were all injured, and Tan Qingxuan on her back was getting colder and colder, as if she was about to die.

Cang Ran’s body felt like it was filled with lead. Her head ached, and her body started to feel cold. Suddenly, she felt her body sink into a very warm and soft place.

A rich floral fragrance completely enveloped her. She remembered to check if Tan Qingxuan was still with her, but suddenly discovered that Tan Qingxuan was gone.

Had she lost Tan Qingxuan?

Cang Ran anxiously tried to dig Tan Qingxuan out of the pile of flowers, but the soft mass of flowers wrapped around her even tighter.

She pushed with her little paws for a long time but couldn’t push it open. She tried to call for Tan Qingxuan, but the flowers covered her mouth. She could only whimper, crying sadly.

Cang Ran crouched on the ground and cried for a long time before she realized that Tan Qingxuan had turned into a very large flower and was right beside her the whole time.

It turned out she hadn’t lost Tan Qingxuan. Tan Qingxuan was still alive and well.

She didn’t know how long she slept, but the sky outside seemed to have brightened. A dazzling, intense light filtered through the cracks where she had blocked the entrance to her cave dwelling.

The rays of light were incredibly warm.

A few rays of warmth shone on Cang Ran’s body. Her fluffy red fox fur was illuminated to a warm golden color, sparkling as if it were glowing and about to bloom.

Cang Ran’s fox head was buried in Tan Qingxuan’s warm skin. Her two paw pads rested on it, and her fox body was firmly encircled in Tan Qingxuan’s arms.

Tan Qingxuan’s eyes were closed, her delicate chin resting on the top of Cang Ran’s head.

In this position, she felt like a little fox-pillow. Fortunately, Tan Qingxuan was still wearing her close-fitting undergarments, or they would be intimately pressed together.

Tan Qingxuan’s black hair was scattered on the jade pillow. Her clothes were partially undone, inadvertently revealing the beautiful lines of her neck and collarbone. Her delicate, pale skin was like piled snow, and one could see the alluring deep cleavage at a glance.

The neckline of the white undergarment was loose and bore two distinct, messy claw prints. It was possible that she had scratched it open with her little paws while asleep.

Cang Ran’s heart thumped rapidly. Her ear tips quickly flushed pink.

If those claw prints were discovered, Qingqing would definitely think she was a little perverted fox.

With a guilty conscience, she raised her paw, carefully and cautiously pulled Tan Qingxuan’s collar up, and gently smoothed out the wrinkles.

After staring at it for a while, she still felt it was too obvious.

Her two little paws pinched the snow-white collar, working hard and carefully rubbing the claw prints.

Her overly-worn paw pads became red and swollen after only a few rubs, with a sharp, piercing pain.

The claw prints still hadn’t rubbed off; they just looked messier.

What should she do?

Cang Ran’s eyes were watering from the pain. The more she thought about it, the more nervous she became, even forgetting her cleaning spell.

Her mind was full of thoughts about where she could find a soapberry tree on the mountain.

She should have kept some soapberries in her storage bag. Now it seemed too late.

Cang Ran whimpered twice, blew a few times on her painful paw pads to soothe them. Doesn’t hurt, doesn’t hurt, it will be better soon.

Yesterday, she had only cleared the demonic energy for Tan Qingxuan. The rampant demonic energy was too painful, and she couldn’t help but fall asleep.

Today, she smelled Tan Qingxuan, and the sweet, bloody scent was not as strong. As expected, after the demonic energy was cleared, Tan Qingxuan would no longer continue to bleed.

Fortunately, her cave dwelling was relatively safe and hidden. The demon cultivator probably wouldn’t find their way here so quickly, but she and Qingqing still needed to be careful.

She needed to concentrate on cultivation in the coming days. Once she broke through the Nascent Soul stage, she would have the strength to fight that demon cultivator.

Before, she thought she was already working very hard, but after experiencing the threat of near-death yesterday, she realized she absolutely had to become stronger—by any means necessary. Only by becoming stronger could she protect the person she loved.

She couldn’t let Qingqing get hurt again. Qingqing was already enduring so much by being with her. She was a demon, and anyone who had read folk tales knew that human-demon romances never had a good ending.

Cang Ran sighed inwardly, preparing to transform into her human form. However, due to physical exhaustion and the depletion of her spiritual energy in the process of suppressing the demonic energy yesterday, she wouldn’t be able to transform for the next two days.

But her beast form was fine. Anyway, before Tan Qingxuan arrived, she was only in human form for a very small amount of time each day. She was even more agile in her beast form.

Just as Cang Ran was about to jump out of Tan Qingxuan’s arms, she noticed Tan Qingxuan’s long eyelashes flutter twice, as if she was about to wake up.

She retracted her paws and obediently nestled into Tan Qingxuan’s arms. Then, she remembered that Tan Qingxuan did not like to be close to a fox and was afraid of being picked up by the back of her neck like last time.

Cang Ran’s soft paw pads moved away from Tan Qingxuan’s arm, and she lightly jumped out, squatting obediently by the jade pillow.

The sudden disappearance of the warm little stove in her arms made a subtle sense of loss flash through Tan Qingxuan’s heart.

She composed herself, her eyes clear and rippling: “Cang Ran, are you feeling better?”

The little fox’s eyes were round, sparkling under the rays of light, returning to the lively appearance she usually saw.

Cang Ran nodded twice: “I’m much better. Do you want to treat your wounds? I can give you some more essence of the moon.”

Cang Ran hadn’t transformed into her human form as usual, suggesting her condition was probably no better than hers.

Tan Qingxuan shook her head slightly: “I can recover slowly on my own. You keep it for yourself. You absorbed a lot of demonic energy and need to refine and dispel it bit by bit.”

There was a way to eliminate demonic energy, which was to buy specialized exorcism pills in the city. Taking them for a few months could expel the demonic energy from the body. But going to the city was impossible right now; the demon cultivator was probably still guarding the area.

If her cultivation could recover to above the Soul Severing stage, she could directly crush the low-level demonic energy into dust. But time was not on her side, and Cang Ran would have to endure for a short while.

Tan Qingxuan planned to use another method of cultivation during this period to quickly restore her cultivation, even if there were some side effects, to spare Cang Ran from further suffering.

Seeing that Tan Qingxuan’s complexion was indeed much better than yesterday and some of her wounds had begun to scab over, Cang Ran didn’t insist too much.

She couldn’t keep things bottled up, so she squeezed her little paws and couldn’t help but ask, “Qingqing, you know so much. Are you a cultivator?”

Tan Qingxuan knew that Cang Ran might have witnessed the scene when she fought with the demon cultivator, so she nodded, her voice calm: “Yes.”

Cang Ran sighed inwardly. She had always thought Tan Qingxuan was a mortal, which was why she wanted to keep her by her side.

It wouldn’t matter if Tan Qingxuan couldn’t do anything or didn’t know anything; that way, Tan Qingxuan would entirely belong to her.

But could she keep a cultivator?

Cultivators in this world all had spiritual roots. They could fly on swords, possessed supreme Daoist magic, and practiced Supreme Forgetfulness. Who would be willing to stay for a little demon?

No matter how greedy she was, she couldn’t hinder someone’s cultivation path.

Perhaps one day, the person would realize they needed to slay demons and eliminate evil and might stab her in half, digging out her core to play with.

Tan Qingxuan saw the little fox droop her ears and jump off the bed, feeling a sudden pang in her heart.

Her cool eyes lowered as she looked at her legs. With the little fox’s help yesterday, the demonic energy was gone. Her wounds had already formed pink scabs, and the pain had significantly lessened.

The little fox had saved her life twice, so she was ultimately indebted to her. Since she had planned to conceal the truth from the beginning, she didn’t regret it now.

This was also good. By learning from her example, Cang Ran would also know in the future not to casually take people back to her cave dwelling, and to have some precautions if she encountered a cultivator with malicious intent towards her.

Just as Tan Qingxuan was about to start cultivating, she saw the little fox returning with a soft pillow in her mouth.

The cottony pillow looked large and fluffy, made of floral fabric with pretty ruffled edges and tight stitching.

The clever little fox had even embroidered the character Qing on it and filled it with plenty of soft fox fur.

The little fox placed the large pillow on the bed, pushed it towards her, and gestured for her to swap out the jade pillow.

So, this pillow that Cang Ran had been making for so long was for her.

A warm current seemed to melt in Tan Qingxuan’s heart. She had misunderstood Cang Ran for so long these past few days. Cang Ran cared for her far more than she had imagined.

The little fox’s paws had held a silver needle, constantly weaving, to make this pillow so beautiful. Even buying one outside couldn’t procure something so thoughtful.

Tan Qingxuan placed the pillow on her knees. The pillow, stuffed with fox fur, was fragrant and soft, and made with such care that she was reluctant to actually use it.

The little fox patted the surface of the blanket, seemingly urging her, her round eyes showing a hint of confusion. The tuft of hair on her fox head also trembled twice.

Tan Qingxuan’s brows were gentle. She took out the jade pillow from behind her and, afraid that the fox couldn’t hold it, asked, “Where do you want to put it? I’ll help you.”

Cang Ran’s fox tail swayed, and she said obediently, “No need. I can carry it myself.”

She stretched out her fox paw, hooking the edge of the jade pillow. Flipping her black paw pad upwards, she completely held the cool jade pillow with her paw pads.

The jade pillow was a little heavy, pressing the little fox’s paw pads down slightly. The smooth, muscular lines of her beast arms were prominent, looking quite strong.

Tan Qingxuan recalled the hard muscle she had touched when she held Cang Ran’s arm yesterday as the fox was absorbing her demonic energy.

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