Chapter 153: The Hunt Begins

“Your Excellency the Demon Lord certainly has fine taste, bullying my guests aboard my flying boat?”

Yuan Ge entered gracefully, carrying a white jade plate. She glanced at the tense Gu Chang’an and the obviously pleased Ling Shuangjue, but her gaze finally settled on Shen Zhaoqing, whose face was pale with pain. A flicker of distress passed through her eyes.

The jade plate held several bright red fruits.

“Fire Cloud Fruits,” Yuan Ge said, placing the plate on a small table, a hint of pride in her voice. “A sacred fruit of my Ten Thousand Demon Kingdom that bears fruit only once in a thousand years. A single one can increase an ordinary demon’s cultivation by a hundred years. With your special constitution, eating this will greatly help stabilize your nascent soul.”

As she spoke, she picked one up. Her slender fingers skillfully peeled away the thin skin, revealing the translucent flesh within.

A rich fire-attribute spiritual energy, accompanied by an enticing sweet fragrance, instantly filled the entire cabin.

Instead of eating it herself or putting it down, Yuan Ge pinched the flesh and brought it directly to Shen Zhaoqing’s lips.

“Ahh—open wide.”

Her movements were natural and intimate, but her gaze was full of provocation as she stared directly at Gu Chang’an and Ling Shuangjue.

“Sss!” A streak of white light shot out from her collar like lightning.

“Plop.”

The Fire Cloud Fruit that Yuan Ge had brought to Shen Zhaoqing’s lips was gone.

Ao Mian, now in the form of a small white snake, was coiled on Shen Zhaoqing’s shoulder, cheeks puffed out as it chewed contentedly, making crunching sounds.

It swallowed the priceless Fire Cloud Fruit, then turned its head toward a stunned Yuan Ge, showing off triumphantly.

Yuan Ge’s smile froze on her face. Gu Chang’an’s hand, resting on her sword, paused slightly.

“Aaaaaah!”

Shen Zhaoqing finally snapped.

She flung her hand, breaking free of Ling Shuangjue’s grip and also throwing Ao Mian off her shoulder.

Pushing past Yuan Ge, who stood in her way, she rushed to the corner and grabbed the old, worn-out gourd she had carelessly placed there.

“Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!”

Tilting her head back, caring nothing for her image, she poured the spicy liquor straight down her throat.

The cold liquid cut through her throat, burning her esophagus, temporarily numbing her frayed nerves.

“All of you!! If you keep fighting, get the hell out!!!”

Night deepened.

The flying boat sailed smoothly through the sea of clouds. Inside the cabin, the suffocating standoff seemed to have temporarily subsided.

Gu Chang’an continued to meditate on her cushion, but she had laid her Frostbright Sword across her knees, its sword intent still lingering.

Ling Shuangjue had retreated back into the shadow of the wall, her presence barely perceptible.

Yuan Ge, in a pout, sat by the small table, peeling Fire Cloud Fruits one by one, but no longer offering them. She ate them silently.

As for Shen Zhaoqing, who had fallen asleep long ago, she curled up in the corner, her brows tightly furrowed.

She turned over unconsciously, her cheek rubbing against the cold wall, and let out a very faint, indistinct murmur.

“Old innkeeper…”

Her voice was so soft it was almost drowned out by the wind.

But none present were ordinary mortals.

In the darkness, Ling Shuangjue’s blood-red pupils suddenly lit up.

***

Outside the flying boat, amidst the night sky ten thousand feet high.

A completely black spirit cat was silently clinging to the underside of the Golden Feather Shuttle.

Its form flickered between reality and void, making no sound at all. Even the boat’s protective formation didn’t react to it.

This was Ye Li, the chief of the Void Cat Tribe.

Her heterochromatic cat eyes were fixed intently on the direction of Shen Zhaoqing’s cabin. Her nostrils twitched, and from her throat came an extremely excited, rumbling sound.

So fragrant…

So fragrant…

That faint, almost imperceptible scent seeping out from the cabin was, to her, a hundred times more alluring than the top celestial treasures, more tempting than the legendary dragon liver and phoenix marrow!

It was a fatal temptation originating from the depths of the soul, impossible to resist.

A walking, humanoid divine catnip!

Ye Li licked her lips greedily, her sharp feline fangs glinting coldly in the moonlight.

Catch her.

She absolutely must take this fragrant human back to her cat nest.

Put the prettiest collar on her, make sure she can’t go anywhere, and then… sniff her every day!

***

In the dream, there was endless darkness.

Shen Zhaoqing felt bound by countless cold chains, unable to move.

She struggled to lift her head and look at the source of the chains.

From the darkness, four faces slowly emerged.

One as cold as snow, one as eerie as a demon, one as cunning as a goblin, and one… innocent yet domineering.

On their faces were identical, spine-chilling smiles, their eyes filled with a mad possessive desire.

“You are mine.”

Four voices, overlapping, echoed endlessly in her ears like a curse from hell.

“No… don’t…”

Shen Zhaoqing struggled in terror in her dream, but only made the chains tighten.

At that moment, for the first time, she felt a deep, bone-chilling fear of her own damned, universally adored ‘universally beloved’ constitution.

This was no heavenly blessing.

It was a carefully designed, eternal prison called ‘love’—from which there was no escape.

Shen Zhaoqing woke up in pain. Supporting her groggy head, she sat up from the cold floor. Her first reaction was to touch the Old Brew gourd beside her.

Good, it was still there.

Her second reaction was to look around.

The cabin was eerily quiet, but this silence was even more unsettling than the chaotic battlefield of last night.

Gu Chang’an sat on her cushion, eyes closed, with her life-bound flying sword ‘Frostbright’ lying across her knees. The scabbard was polished to a mirror shine, but the coldness seeping from its seams dropped the room’s temperature by at least ten degrees.

Ling Shuangjue had somehow emerged from the wall again. She lounged leisurely in another corner, one hand on her hip while the other toyed with a lock of frost-white hair. Her blood-colored pupils stared into space.

Yuan Ge sat by the small table, facing a plate of peeled Fire Cloud Fruits. She ate them one by one, expressionless.

As for the culprit, the small white snake Ao Mian, it was now coiled contentedly around Shen Zhaoqing’s neck, treating her like a heated human hot water bottle, drooling in its sleep.

This life really couldn’t go on.

In this suffocating silence, the Golden Feather Shuttle, which had been sailing smoothly, suddenly trembled slightly. Its speed gradually decreased.

They had arrived.

“Boom!!”

A loud noise, accompanied by a rough, arrogant voice, came from outside the flying boat, causing the entire hull to vibrate.

“By order of His Highness the Crown Prince! All flying boats in human territory must stop and be inspected! Strictly prevent human spies from infiltrating our demon kingdom’s territory!”

The voice was full of tyranny and contempt, as if the flying boat beneath them wasn’t the exclusive vehicle of the demon royal family but a smuggler’s wreck.

Yuan Ge’s face instantly darkened. The hand holding the Fire Cloud Fruit turned white from pressure.

Before she could react, the cabin door was roughly forced open from outside by a tremendous force.

A giant ape demon general, nearly ten meters tall and covered in steel needle-like black fur, strode in arrogantly, carrying a huge, bone-white spiked mace. Behind him followed a squad of equally ferocious demon soldiers, crowding the already small space.

The demon general had a hideous face with protruding fangs, a fake eye, and a string of what looked like human skulls hanging from its chest. It exuded a nauseating smell of blood and a wild, primitive aura.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

An Undeniable Pull

ChaebolDominant TopObsessive

Read Now →
Not interested