“My lord.”
“Huh?”
Qiu Qi did not dare turn her head carelessly. With extreme caution, she asked:
“Are you dressed?”
The person behind her was silent for a moment.
“Yes.”
Only then did Qiu Qi turn around, and her eyes immediately lit up.
As expected, a beauty looked good in anything. Even an outfit as plain and white as this took on an otherworldly purity when worn by Pei Yuqing, as though she were an immaculate lotus rising from the mud.
Pei Yuqing silently endured the onslaught of Qiu Qi’s excessively fervent stare. Perhaps it was only her imagination, but the person before her seemed strangely unfamiliar now. Most of all, there was a baffling… foolish air about her that had appeared from nowhere.
“Ahem.”
Qiu Qi saw her staring without moving and awkwardly reminded her:
“I told you I’ve lost my memory, so I don’t know the way out.”
Pei Yuqing pointed at the stone door on the left, but still did not move.
Qiu Qi understood. Pei was probably observing some rule of etiquette that required the master herself to lead the way.
Qiu Qi had no choice but to walk up to the heavy stone door. She searched it with her eyes but found nothing resembling a mechanism. Helplessly, she looked back at Pei Yuqing. Pei returned her gaze calmly, yet remained utterly unmoved.
Qiu Qi sighed, raised a hand, and gently patted the enormous stone door blocking her path.
“I don’t know where the switch is…”
Before she could finish, the resistance beneath her palm vanished. A heavy object crashed to the ground beside her.
The stone door had collapsed with a thunderous boom from a single pat, unable to withstand the force.
Dust billowed through the air. Qiu Qi’s mouth fell open, her astonishment plain to see.
She quickly swallowed her nervous spit and gingerly raised the right hand responsible.
“I swear I didn’t do it on purpose. Do you believe me?”
Pei Yuqing nodded.
“Don’t worry. I’ll have someone repair it tomorrow morning.”
From Pei Yuqing’s tone, she sounded almost accustomed to this sort of thing. That only made Qiu Qi feel guiltier.
*Waaah, how could anyone bear to treat such a wonderful beauty so cruelly? Don’t be afraid. Big Sis Qiu will protect you from now on!*
Qiu Qi went ahead, traversed the narrow corridor, and emerged from the bathing chamber, which thick stone walls had sealed off like a secret room.
As soon as she stepped outside, her gaze was drawn to the moon overhead.
The moon tonight was perfectly round. Its light was a deeply saturated red, and the longer Qiu Qi stared at it, the more eerie and chilling it seemed.
“Is the moon always this color in your world?”
Pei Yuqing, behind her, paused before answering.
“My lord, tonight is the full moon. This is when your body is weakest. You shouldn’t remain outside for too long.”
“At its weakest?”
Qiu Qi turned around. They had not gone far; she could still see the stone door she had just broken.
“This is what you call weak?”
Pei Yuqing did not answer.
…
Following Pei Yuqing’s directions, Qiu Qi made her way back to the bedchamber.
The bedchamber was certainly fit for someone addressed as “my lord.” The bed alone took up more room than her living room back home, and it looked large enough for ten people to lie on without any trouble.
“With a bed this huge, changing the sheets must be exhausting.”
Qiu Qi shook her head.
“My lord.”
Pei Yuqing did not answer her remark. Instead, she suddenly bent both knees and knelt directly in front of Qiu Qi, head bowed low.
“Midnight has passed. Do not forget your beast essence orb.”
Qiu Qi could not have cared less about any orb. Pei’s inexplicable sudden kneeling had already startled her badly enough.
She hurriedly reached down and helped her up.
“Why are you kneeling?”
“My lord commanded that no one else may look directly at the beast essence orb.”
“…”
Of course. That was exactly the sort of thing the former host would say.
Qiu Qi sighed, both for the beauty and for herself.
“Then if I give you a new order to stand up, will you obey?”
Pei’s posture did not change, but suspicion and probing flashed in the look she gave Qiu Qi.
Qiu Qi put on a serious expression.
“I’m serious. I don’t like you kneeling to me. I don’t like you calling me ‘my lord’ at every turn, and I like your stiff, formal way of addressing me even less.”
“My lord, that is against the rules.”
“I’ve lost my memory. Can’t you let me be selfish just this once?”
“Then how should I address you from now on?”
Qiu Qi’s eyes shifted. Unable to resist teasing her, she said:
“Just call me Baby Qiqi.”
Pei Yuqing lowered her eyes and calmly refused.
“I think I’ll keep calling you my lord.”
*Perfect! She has a personality. I like it!*
Pei Yuqing’s beast essence orb had been placed on a wooden stand behind the folding screen. A dark-brown, bowl-shaped holder supported a fist-sized round orb radiating a blood-red glow.
Qiu Qi had seen glowing pearls in modern times. They were called night pearls—a fancy name, but artificial ones were dirt cheap. She could smash ten in one hand without feeling the slightest pang.
This orb was different from a night pearl. Its red glow seemed to contract inward: the light at the surface was faintest, growing brighter toward the center, while wisps of black vapor leaked from it.
All in all, one glance was enough to tell her it was nothing good.
*Beast essence orb… From the name alone, Qiu Qi guessed it was probably similar to the inner cores in xianxia dramas—the source of the former host’s power.*
Qiu Qi swallowed nervously.
“Am I supposed to swallow it?”
“Just place your hand on it.”
Qiu Qi let out a relieved breath and raised her hand.
Her pale fingers had not even fully touched the orb’s surface when a powerful suction seized her and dragged her forward. As she struggled to steady herself, the orb suddenly soared into the air, and the black vapor around it thickened violently.
Qiu Qi’s eyes flew open. All the strength in her body seemed to be sucked away. A terrible fear seized her as she felt her life force draining rapidly.
The weaker she became, the brighter the orb shone. Strange glyphs appeared from thin air and began circling it.
They spun faster and faster, faster and faster, until they became impossible to see. Then they shot straight toward Qiu Qi’s chest.
She watched helplessly as the orb sank into her body without the slightest resistance. Warmth spread from her heart, and her strength returned.
Yet the orb did not stop. It continued madly forcing something into her body. The heat coursing through her blood grew hotter and hotter, until she felt as though her entire body were about to burn up.
“It hurts… I feel awful…”
Qiu Qi collapsed to her knees.
*Could I get a simpler script next time? I don’t need magic, immortal qi, or an absurdly high power level. Just let me eat and drink well!*
Pei Yuqing stood to one side, her blue eyes dim. She looked like nothing more than an emotionless spectator.
“My lord, please wait a little longer.”
*Just a little longer. The hour would soon arrive.*
Pei Yuqing had found a human witch to cast the forbidden curse on the beast essence orb, and preparing it had taken three months. Though the price had been steep, material sacrifices meant nothing compared with revenge.
*If I kill this fiend tonight, while the full moon leaves it at its weakest, I—and everyone in this courtyard—will be free again.*
At that thought, a trace of emotion finally returned to Pei Yuqing’s eyes.
She would finally be free.
…
Qiu Qi could not withstand the immense pain. Her head tilted to one side, and she quickly passed out.
Long, fragmented scenes began forcing their way into her mind. Qiu Qi realized that these were the former host’s memories.
Because of them, she soon understood why her consciousness had collapsed, and cold sweat broke out all over her body.
*This scenario is far more difficult than I imagined.*
The former host had been savage. Simply because it enjoyed the smell of blood, it slaughtered innocents without reason. It killed on a whim. People had resisted, of course, but its strength was so overwhelming that no one had been its match.
Qiu Qi counted the blood-chilling scenes one after another. That bastard had made far more than one or two enemies—whole wagonloads of them. It had gotten to the point where a casual walk outside could mean running into a dozen assassins with blades drawn.
No, she did not even need to leave the house. A long line of people was already waiting around her.
Among beastfolk, there was a widely known type of servant contract. The two parties used blood as a medium to seal a contract with their souls. One party swore to serve the other to the death and never betray them.
The servant could not disobey the master’s orders or voluntarily end the contract. If the master died, the servant would die as well.
The former host had used this contract to keep Pei Yuqing, the daughter of the Elf King, trapped at its side.
Unlike beastfolk and humans, elves were proud and composed. They disliked communal living, and their numbers were small. Most lived scattered across Cobalt-Rhodium Mountain, far from the mortal world.
Cobalt-Rhodium Mountain possessed a natural hot spring. Its waters greatly aided the elves’ cultivation of spiritual arts. Nourished by that divine water, the elves’ strength far surpassed that of every other race, making them the undisputed champions of single combat in this otherworld.
Though every one of them appeared slender and graceful, on a battlefield, each was powerful enough to wipe out an entire company with a casual wave of the hand.
That the elves were so powerful explained why the former host had treated Pei Yuqing so cruelly. Even with the servant contract restraining her, it still did not trust her. It had used a ring forged from mystic-ice iron to lock her bones in place, so that even the slightest movement brought the agony of bones grinding and flesh tearing.
Elves were born with cold constitutions, a consequence of the techniques they cultivated. Thus, they often soaked in hot springs to restore both body and mind.
Yet the former host had forced Pei Yuqing to bathe only in ice water. To make matters worse, the mystic-ice ring had been made from thousand-year-old ice. For a race already highly vulnerable to cold, having that vicious chill seep into her body naturally caused Pei Yuqing’s health to deteriorate day by day.
Qiu Qi thought of the beauty’s pale complexion from earlier.
*So she had not naturally been that frail-looking? This fiend had tortured her into looking like this?*
“Fuck, was this thing even human?”
After learning all this, Qiu Qi felt a fury over Pei Yuqing’s suffering as if she herself had experienced it.
If she had been in Pei Yuqing’s place, she would have been a thousand times more ruthless.
*First I’d strip the fiend naked, then flay it alive one cut at a time! I’d make it savor the pain of flesh being carved from bone, and I wouldn’t leave enough of it for a proper corpse!*
At that thought, Qiu Qi realized that she had to wake up quickly. If she really died, wouldn’t Pei Yuqing, who had signed a servant contract with this body, be done for as well?
Everything around her was pitch-black. At the center of her vision was what looked like a black vortex capable of swallowing people whole and pulling them inside. It resembled the deep subconscious spaces described in novels.
Qiu Qi looked down and saw a ring of light beneath her feet. She broke into a run, trying to escape the endless darkness.
She did not want to remain in this fiend’s subconscious for even a moment longer. What if she were assimilated?
“That damned bitch! When I get out, you’ll pay!”
The voice in the distance was thick with hatred and fury, like a terrifying growl rising from the depths of a beast’s throat.
Qiu Qi turned sharply toward the sound. Guided by the light beneath her feet, she approached step by step.
The shouting came from a human-shaped mass of black mist trapped inside a cage.
“Lowborn!”
The black mist reacted violently when it saw Qiu Qi. It rushed toward the bars nearest to her, revealing a terrifying face that was half human and half beast. Its eyes were flooded with blood-red color, and its gaze was suffocatingly oppressive.
“You’ve finally come! Hurry and give me back my beast essence orb and my body. Once I return and kill that bitch, I’ll reward you handsomely!”
“Who’s the bitch?”
Qiu Qi folded her arms and answered coldly.
“Didn’t you just see her? That bitch Pei!”
At the mention of Pei Yuqing, the black mist’s expression twisted hideously, constantly shifting between a human face and a beast’s features.
“I fed her and clothed her, and this is how she repays me? If not for that face of hers, do you think I would have indulged her for so long? Just wait until I torture her to death!”
Qiu Qi could not listen any longer. She raised her hand and smacked it directly on the forehead.
“Shut your mouth. You’re ugly enough without being so damn chatty. I’ll deal with the rest later. Who did you just call lowborn? I’m your damn mother, do you hear me?”
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
The black mist had clearly not expected such a response and froze.
“Give me back the orb! Or you’ll regret it!”
“Huh?”
Qiu Qi clenched her fists and rolled her neck.
“Didn’t you get enough of being cursed out just now? Want to hear some of Big Sis Qiu’s patented trash-talk rap?”
“You—”
“Do you even know what kind of situation you’re in?”
Qiu Qi leisurely rolled up her sleeves.
Having already received the former host’s memories, she naturally knew why it had become a mass of black mist and ended up trapped there.
Every beastperson possessed a beast essence orb. It was this orb that distinguished them from ordinary animals. It allowed them to transform into human form and granted them strength beyond that of ordinary people.
Cultivating one’s own beast essence orb took at least a hundred years, and sometimes as long as a thousand. The former host had risen to its current power level in a mere ten years—not because of exceptional talent, but because of its brutality. It had forcibly seized other beastfolk’s orbs and swallowed them.
If a beastperson’s own orb was swallowed or destroyed, that beastperson died as well. It was easy to imagine how many lives had been sacrificed to build the former host’s orb to its current level.
That was the consequence of building power on the blood of others. Whenever the moon was full, the beast essence orb began to turn against its owner.
Thus, the former host had no choice but to remove the orb temporarily on every full moon, wait until midnight had passed, and then hurriedly restore it to its body.
The night of the full moon was when it was at its weakest. Losing the beast essence orb not only weakened its beast essence, but also caused its memories and personality to become confused.
To avoid accidents and pursuit by enemies, it would select a consort with a powerful beast essence orb every full moon and summon her to its bed.
It was the kind of summons from which no one ever returned.
If Qiu Qi had not accidentally entered its body today, Pei Yuqing, whose turn had been selected, would probably have been doomed.
Qiu Qi grew angrier and angrier. It was not that she wanted to become some paragon of justice; she simply could not stand the sight of this thing.
She bent her knees slightly and lowered her center of gravity.
She had once taken taekwondo classes for a while to improve her fitness. Although she had learned little beyond flashy moves with no real substance, coupled with the body’s unreasonable brute strength, it was more than enough to deal with this thing.
“Lowborn! What do you think you’re doing?”
Qiu Qi smirked.
She planted her left foot, launched herself into the air, and twisted at the waist and hips. With all her strength wound up, she drove a vicious spinning back kick straight into the black mist’s head.
“Ahhh—!”
The scream of pain was so shrill that it nearly pierced Qiu Qi’s eardrums.
She slowly lowered her raised leg and waved playfully at the former host, which had already scattered into pieces.
“Old beast. Bye-bye.”
Qiu Qi added an especially irritating toothy grin, her expression overflowing with mockery.
“I’ll be using your body from now on, and I’ll pamper your beauty. You can get yourself ready and go peacefully to the afterlife.”
It was a shame that the former host was only a mass of black mist without a physical body. Otherwise, Qiu Qi would certainly have made good on her plan to flay it alive.
After dispersing, the mist slipped through the gaps in the cage, drifted upward, and vanished into the air.
The instant the former host disappeared, the pitch-black space ahead finally tore open into a slit spilling white light.
Qiu Qi hurriedly ran toward it.
*My wife, here I come!*
“Hah—haa—!”
Qiu Qi finally sprang up from the bed.
The moment she woke, her first reaction was to look for Pei Yuqing. When she raised her head, she found Pei standing in front of the bed, staring at her as though she had seen a ghost.
Qiu Qi knew exactly what was going through her mind. Anyone would be frightened if someone they thought was dead suddenly sat up, especially someone who hated the former host as much as Pei did.
But the more Pei Yuqing hated the former host, the more Qiu Qi needed to act weak. One reason was to lower Pei’s guard. The other was…
She had to do her best to win the beauty over.
Someone as unyielding as Pei Yuqing would usually respond to gentleness rather than force—though some people rejected both. Qiu Qi did not know which kind Pei was, but she could only take the gamble.
If this had been a dating game, Qiu Qi might have quit then and there. The odds of triggering a dark route or reaching a bad ending were simply too high.
Unfortunately, she had no choice now.
She finally began to face what had been happening to her. From this point on, none of this was a game or a novel. There would be no resurrection, restart, or save point.
Enjoyment was a luxury for after she was safe. Right now, even staying alive was difficult enough.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
Perhaps she had caught a chill from the water, Pei Yuqing coughed. Using the hand over her mouth as cover, she lowered her lashes, unable to conceal her shock.
*What was going on? The human witch had clearly said that once the curse took effect, it was foolproof. How was this demon awake and unharmed?*
For tonight’s plan, Pei had even prepared herself to die alongside the demon. How could she accept letting everything end in failure?
Pei Yuqing’s complexion was already pale, making her look frail. Now, after those two coughs, Qiu Qi’s heart ached.
“My wife, did you catch a chill? It was all because the water was too cold. I’ll heat some water right now. Take a hot bath and warm yourself before bed.”
Qiu Qi was not merely saying it. As soon as she finished speaking, she really did spring up to heat the water.
Heating water meant going to the woodshed. The woodshed lay in the far western corner of the courtyard, so she had to go outside.
Pei Yuqing naturally did not believe Qiu Qi’s explanation. The beast essence orb had already returned to its place, so her plan must have been exposed. If Qiu Qi went outside now, she was probably going to ferret out everyone involved and slaughter them all.
Thinking of the other people who might be implicated because of her, Pei Yuqing panicked and reached out to grab Qiu Qi by the wrist.
“Hm?”
Qiu Qi turned around.
“Sorry. I’ll put my gloves on right away.”
Pei Yuqing realized that she had overstepped and turned to retrieve the gloves lying on the table.
Qiu Qi knew why. As the daughter of the Elf King, Pei Yuqing possessed the ability to read a person’s current thoughts through physical contact.
The former host detested this ability. If cutting off those beautiful hands would not affect the appearance of its body, it would have done so long ago. Instead, it had ordered Pei Yuqing to wear gloves every day and never remove them while in its presence.
Qiu Qi lowered her eyes and gently stroked Pei Yuqing’s hand. Her knuckles were well-shaped, her ten fingers long and slender, and even her nails gleamed beautifully.
Why should such a lovely pair of hands have to be hidden in gloves every day? If Qiu Qi had been in Pei’s place, she would have become a hand model and started a side business long ago.
“Don’t put them on.”
“If you want to read my mind, go ahead. I won’t hide anything from you anymore. From now on, I’ll have only you, and I won’t ever do anything to hurt you again.”
*That was sincere enough, right? Come on, beauty, praise me already!*
Pei Yuqing frowned—not in anger, but in confusion. Too many strange changes had happened to this person tonight.
Most importantly, even while touching Qiu Qi, Pei could not see through her thoughts.
Her mind-reading ability was actually very limited. She could only read what someone was thinking in the immediate moment. If the other person was skilled at putting on an act, a little practice was enough to fool her. Thus, she could not rule out the possibility that this demon was merely bluffing.
But her plan had already failed, and she still had to keep playing along.
Pei Yuqing lowered her head.
“Yes, my lord.”
…
Pei Yuqing remained uneasy and, in the end, accompanied Qiu Qi to the woodshed.
The cauldron held enough water to reach half a person’s height, and it would take at least one stick of incense to boil.
Qiu Qi was unaccustomed to using such primitive equipment. Unwilling to make the beauty lift a finger, she ended up getting herself into a sorry state.
After fussing around for a long while, she finally saw bubbles rising across the surface of the water and realized that the task was complete.
She excitedly stood up to claim credit.
“My beauty, let’s go. I’ll carry it back. You can take a nice hot bath and warm yourself up.”
Female elves were generally statuesque, so Pei Yuqing was quite tall—more than half a head taller than Qiu Qi.
For Pei to meet Qiu Qi’s eyes, she had to dip her head slightly. When she lowered her gaze, it collided directly with the bright light in Qiu Qi’s eyes.
Qiu Qi’s fair little face was plainly waiting for praise. With the black soot accidentally smeared across the tip of her nose, she looked like a docile human child eager to please.
Pei Yuqing’s fingers twitched. Her first instinct was to wipe away the soot, but she soon seemed to remember something and immediately let her hand fall back to her side.
She gave a slight bow.
“Thank you, my lord.”
