When the Immortal Venerable Picked-Up the Demon Cub - Chapter 1

“Miss?”

Zhu Ning was half-asleep when she heard the voice. She initially thought she was still dreaming. But then a cold wind swept past, sending a shiver down her spine. She reached for her phone to check the time, but instead of her phone, her hand met icy stone.

Only then did Zhu Ning slowly open her eyes in confusion. Perhaps because she had been been asleep for too long that everything appeared blurry at first. Before she could fully process what was happening, another exclamation rang out beside her.

“Miss! You’re finally awake!”

Miss? The antiquated address startled Zhu Ning fully awake. She rubbed her eyes vigorously and realized she wasn’t in her room at all, but rather lying in the middle of a desolate wilderness.

Darkness enveloped her, broken only by the skeletal branches of bare trees. Apart from the blanket of snow covering the ground, there stood an elderly man before her, his clothes in tatters.

Though an old man, he looked no more than sixty, his weathered face lined with age. Holes in his clothing revealed tufts of snow-white cotton.

The snow had stopped falling, and the moon hung high in the sky, casting his elongated shadow across the ground. Paired with his tattered white robes, the scene took on an eerie quality.

Zhu Ning, unfamiliar with her surroundings, was just about to move away when a flood of strange yet familiar memories suddenly surged into her mind.

These memories rooted her in place, leaving her frozen as she struggled to process them.

Have I… transmigrated into a novel?

Zhu Ning dared to make this bold claim because every event in these memories had unfolded in that trashy xianxia novel she had stayed up all night reading and given it a one-star review in anger.

The irony was bitter: she hadn’t become the protagonist with her overpowered “golden finger,” nor had she become the irredeemably evil female antagonist. Instead, she had somehow ended up in the body of the protagonist’s saintly master.

As the protagonist’s master, she clearly wasn’t some useless character. The saintly original owner wasn’t just the newly appointed Sect Leader of Yun Cang Mountain, a major demon-suppressing sect. Her exceptional talent and ethereal beauty, reminiscent of an exiled immortal, had earned her the reverent title “Immortal Venerable” from many.

Coincidentally, the original owner also shared Zhu Ning’s name.

Perhaps it was this perfect alignment of names and circumstances that had catalyzed this absurd transmigration journey…

Before she could finish recalling everything, the old man spoke first: “Since you’re awake, hurry along. I can tell you’re a Daoist disciple with strong yang energy, so you won’t be possessed by monsters. Just go back where you came from. The world’s not at peace anymore…”

As soon as the old man finished speaking, he tucked his hands into his sleeves and strode deeper into the forest. Zhu Ning blinked, wanting to follow, but the old man vanished in an instant.

“How strange,” Zhu Ning thought. The old man didn’t seem like a bad person, yet his actions and words were so bizarre.

Another cold wind swept through, rustling branches and whistling like the howls of malevolent spirits. Zhu Ning quickly stood up, desperate to leave this eerie place. As she rose, she spotted a narrow path leading to what appeared to be houses at its end—a village or small town, perhaps.

She immediately decided to follow the path, picking up a stick for self-defense. Though the original owner of this body had been exceptionally gifted, she herself knew no magic. Dying before even leaving the forest would be a terrible end.

She trudged through the muddy snow, each step uncertain, for what felt like an eternity. Finally, she looked up and saw signs of human habitation in the distance.

Zhu Ning paused, gazing at the deserted streets. The townsfolk were likely huddled indoors, seeking shelter from the bitter cold. The empty streets, under the pale glow of the snow, took on an eerie, desolate atmosphere.

A shivering puppy curled by the roadside whimpered intermittently, its mournful cries echoing in the stillness. As night fully descended, the snow-covered ground reflected the pale sky, blurring the line between day and night.

Seeing this, Zhu Ning, who wasn’t particularly brave, considered finding a dilapidated temple to spend the night in, planning to return to Yun Cang Mountain the next day. But she had barely walked through the town when she heard a series of faint, scattered sounds.

Zhu Ning decided to hide and observe. Just as she crouched in a corner, she followed the sound and saw a group of burly men, each wielding clubs as thick as their arms, cornering a little girl in a red dress.

“Brother,” a slender man, his voice trembling, suggested, “do you think whose child she is? The world’s not safe these days. Maybe we should just let her go?” It was strange; despite daring to commit such acts, he was as cowardly as a mouse.

The leader, the man called Brother, snorted coldly. He first struck the slender man’s leg with his club, then spat, “Ugh, bad luck. This girl just freed all the children we worked so hard to capture. How could we possibly let her go?! Besides, you know the world’s unsafe, yet you’re saying this in the middle of the night? If we attract those things, I’ll kill you first…”

The thin man, having been scolded, dared not say another word. He wrapped his cotton coat tighter as the group’s attention shifted to the little girl.

Dressed in a red jacket and skirt, the girl stood short, her head barely reaching their waists. Her appearance was clearly meticulously arranged, with pearl chains coiling around her twin buns. Her pale face held a faint blush, whether from the cold or something else. Her fingers, soft and delicate, gripped the hem of her jacket, turning white from the strain. Her pouting cheeks were soft and vulnerable, yet showed not a trace of fear.

Zhu Ning burned with anger. How could anyone dare kidnap children in this day and age? And with such brazen audacity? She clenched her fists, desperately recalling how the original owner of this body used her techniques. There seemed to be a mnemonic, but the more urgent the situation became, the more it eluded her.

As the man raised his club, ready to strike, Zhu Ning frantically pieced together the fragmented memories in her mind and shouted. By some stroke of luck, she succeeded. A blinding white light erupted from her fingertips, instantly illuminating the entire street.

As the light gradually dimmed, the men finally looked up in terror, scanning their surroundings for the source of the brilliance. Their eyes landed on Zhu Ning, who had just risen to her feet.

“Immortal Venerable… Immortal Venerable Zhu?” The leader of the group stammered, panic in his voice.

So the original owner’s reputation wasn’t just talk. Even child traffickers know who she is?

There was no time to revel in this realization. Zhu Ning’s gaze fell upon the girl’s crimson dress, and only then did she fully regain her composure.

“Remember, the gods watch from just three feet above your heads,” Zhu Ning said, recalling the original owner’s manner of speaking and wracking her brain to come up with these words. “Don’t you fear retribution for your actions?”

As expected, anything uttered by the “Immortal Venerable” Zhu Ning carried divine authority. The once-arrogant men now knelt trembling, groveling apologies to the little girl.

Watching the night deepen, Zhu Ning frowned deeply. “Correct your mistakes and leave,” she said coldly. “Go.”

The men scattered like pigeons released from a cage, abandoning their clubs in their haste. Within moments, they had vanished, leaving only scattered footprints in the dirt.

Zhu Ning stood still for a moment, then stepped forward and took the girl’s icy hand. “What’s your name?”

The little girl slowly withdrew her hand, shook her head without answering, but when Zhu Ning turned to leave, she followed closely behind, not letting go.

This series of unusual actions left Zhu Ning utterly bewildered.

Have children become this mature so early these days?

Since the girl refused to speak, Zhu Ning had no choice but to lead her by the icy-cold hand, wandering aimlessly until they finally found the dilapidated temple just over a mile outside town.

However, Zhu Ning had underestimated just how dilapidated the temple was. What was once a temple now lacked even a door. Layers of spider webs hung from the rafters, and fragments of broken Buddha statues littered the floor.

The entire structure seemed to have been deprived of sunlight for years, its desolation palpable.

Zhu Ning led the girl inside, scanning the interior. In a corner, they discovered a beggar with disheveled hair, who had also noticed their arrival. Intrigued by the rare sight of two visitors in the usually deserted temple, the beggar tightened his tattered, barely padded clothes and approached with a simple, foolish grin.

“Where are the two young ladies from, and where are you headed?” The beggar spoke with a refined manner, his accent barely betraying his local origins. Zhu Ning found this suspicious. Guided by the principle that speaking too much invites mistakes, she remained silent.

Unexpectedly, the quiet girl who had been silent all this time suddenly spoke up: “My name is Lin Xiayan. My family was killed by ghosts. I must go to the mountain to learn magic and avenge my parents.”

The girl’s clear, crisp voice, though youthful, seemed out of place in the dilapidated temple. Her grimy little hands clutched at Zhu Ning’s pristine white dress, her face radiating an unshakable confidence.

So the girl’s name is Lin Xiayan… Lin… Lin Xiayan?!

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