Sang Qi’s birth was no different from other half-demons. Abandoned, he wandered, hiding from place to place. It wasn’t until his teenage years, when he encountered the wolf demons of the Celestial Wolf Clan in the wilderness, that he learned the significance of his silver eyes and wolf ears—symbols of the Celestial Wolf lineage.

“It’s a half-demon,” the elders of the Celestial Wolf Clan remarked with cold, critical gazes as they scrutinized him. Suddenly recalling his identity, they wondered, “Could he be the offspring of the Celestial Wolf King and that human female cultivator?”

Later, he learned fragments of his origins from their conversations.

His father, the previous Celestial Wolf King, fell in love with a human female cultivator at the age of eight hundred and had a child with her. The Celestial Wolf Clan, proud of their noble bloodline, refused to accept the Good Demon Certificate from the Demon Inspection Department of the cultivation world and had always been at odds with the Five Sects of the Immortal Alliance.

Later, by chance, the esteemed members of the Five Sects and several major demon clans entered a secret realm in search of an ancient god’s treasure. They used this opportunity to join forces and kill the Celestial Wolf King. The pregnant human female cultivator, now without support, hid in the countryside and gave birth to a half-demon son alone.

This infant was born with silver hair, silver eyes, and a pair of fluffy wolf ears, terrifying the midwife. The villagers, knowing little about the cultivation world, only knew that she had given birth to a monster and wanted to burn both mother and child alive.

Although a cultivator, giving birth to a half-demon severely damaged the mother’s body. Weak and exhausted, she fled with the infant in her arms for an unknown distance. In the end, she chose to abandon him—under a fusang tree growing at a crossroads.

That tree became Sang Qi’s home for years to come.

The Celestial Wolf Clan’s tribe never gave Sang Qi a sense of belonging. Among humans, he was a half-demon; among demons, he was half-human. The Celestial Wolf King had other offspring, all born with silver hair and silver eyes, who could transform between their original ferocious beast forms and human forms. Possessing demon cores, they had lifespans of thousands of years and power far beyond Sang Qi’s reach. He was merely a despised, weak, and unwelcome half-demon.

“Half-demons are born sinful.”

This was the concept instilled in Sang Qi for many years—that dirty blood flowed through his veins.

Both humans and demons believed that half-demons tainted their bloodlines. Born with original sin, they lost the ability to reproduce—this was heaven’s punishment. Even the heavenly dao believed that half-demons shouldn’t exist.

During the new Wolf King’s struggle for power, his elder brother sold him to the Demon Clan in exchange for their support. He became a demon slave of the Demon Clan, possibly even their food at any moment. Although a half-demon’s body was more resilient than a human’s, it couldn’t withstand the constant erosion of demonic energy. While his companions struggled to resist the demonic energy, he didn’t. He relished the bone-chilling pain that permeated his being.

“Dirty blood flows through my veins; it’s only fitting that I sink into a place of filth.”

He embraced the demonic energy, letting it merge with his blood. Inadvertently, he opened a door to evil magic, and from then on, half-demons had their path of cultivation. He became the first half-demon to cultivate demonic arts and the most powerful half-demon in history. He shared the methods of cultivating demonic arts with other half-demon slaves, gaining his followers. The demons, with their low intelligence, easily trusted him, and so half-demons became allies of the Demon Clan. He, once a lowly demon slave, rose to become the esteemed Grand Priest of the Demon Realm.

Sang Qi finally achieved the fear and respect of others, but he still felt unsatisfied. He didn’t know what he was still searching for until he met Su Ningxi. Only then did he understand that what he had been seeking all along was a pair of kind and gentle eyes that would accept his flaws, embrace his impurities, and envelop all that he was.

He first encountered Su Ningxi when he was gravely injured. Surrounded by Fashen, he escaped with severe wounds and stumbled upon a female cultivator on her training journey. Fearing she might reveal his whereabouts, he knocked her unconscious and abducted her. He passed out from blood loss in a mountain cave, but to his surprise, the female cultivator he had knocked out woke up before him. What was even more unexpected was that she didn’t leave.

She had built a fire and sat across from him, her chin resting on her hand. The firelight illuminated her beautiful face, with bright eyes dancing with sparks. Seeing him awake, she smiled brightly and said, “You’re awake!”

The ghastly wound on his chest and abdomen had been carefully bandaged, and even the blood stains on his body had been cleaned. Sang Qi felt dazed, thinking he must be dreaming until the female cultivator across from him offered him a roasted fish and asked with a smile, “Are you hungry? Would you like some fish?”

Sang Qi had expected a sword to come stabbing at him, so he instinctively dodged backward, reopening his wound and causing it to bleed again.

“Why are you dodging?” she pouted. “Is my cooking that bad?”

She put the fish on a rack and walked over to help Sang Qi, but he grabbed her by her slender, fragile throat.

Sang Qi spoke hoarsely, “Who are you? What do you want?”

The female cultivator blinked and said, “I’m Su Ningxi, a female cultivator from Jinghua Valley. Didn’t you bring me here to help treat your wounds?”

Sang Qi’s handsome face darkened, his silver eyes scrutinizing her expression, trying to discern her intentions. “I’m a half-demon. Why didn’t you kill me or go inform others?”

He believed Su Ningxi must have a greater scheme for not killing him.

Su Ningxi smiled gently and said, “Why would I kill you? You’re strange. Your wound is bleeding again, let me treat it for you.”

Ignoring the hand still gripping her throat, she reached towards the wound on Sang Qi’s waist and abdomen. A cool, life-giving energy covered the wound, and Sang Qi was surprised to find that the pain had significantly lessened, and the wound even showed signs of healing.

He practiced demonic arts, which were incompatible with human spiritual energy. It should have been impossible for a human cultivator to heal him with spiritual energy. This Su Ningxi’s ability was peculiar.

A moment later, the bleeding stopped, and Su Ningxi withdrew her hand, her face a bit pale. She said, “Your injury is too severe. I’ve exhausted my energy for today and need to rest overnight to recover.”

Sang Qi unconsciously loosened his grip on her and asked hoarsely, “Who exactly are you? Why do you have this strange healing power?”

Su Ningxi smiled and said, “Master says I have a Primordial Yin constitution, with boundless vitality within me, most suitable for cultivating the Spring Birth Technique.”

Halfway through her words, she suddenly closed her eyes and fell forward onto Sang Qi’s lap, falling into a deep sleep.

Sang Qi checked her pulse and realized she had merely fallen asleep, probably due to exhausting too much spiritual energy healing him.

When he had abducted her, he certainly didn’t have good intentions. He was worried she might reveal his whereabouts and thought that if his demonic energy dispersed, he could eat her flesh and blood, using her heart demon to replenish his demonic energy. But her strange spiritual energy made Sang Qi change his mind. He wanted to keep her to heal his wounds.

Su Ningxi was a strange female cultivator, unlike any cultivator he had met before. In his understanding, cultivators were all high and mighty hypocrites, but Su Ningxi appeared to be a beautiful and graceful woman who was quite absentminded and carefree.

He first noticed this when she went out to forage for food but got lost and couldn’t find her way back. Sang Qi, already suspicious of her motives for approaching him, had secretly followed her. He watched as she circled the forest over a dozen times before he finally couldn’t bear it anymore and revealed himself to lead her back.

“I’m so glad I found you,” Su Ningxi, on the verge of a breakdown, hugged Sang Qi’s leg and wept with joy. “I suspect there’s a barrier here, otherwise how could I not find my way out?”

Sang Qi tugged at the hem of his robe, thinking to himself: I suspect there’s something wrong with your brain.

Healing him consumed a great deal of her energy, requiring long periods of sleep and large amounts of food to replenish her strength. However, her cooking skills were comparable to poisoning. She seemed to lack normal taste buds, eating with gusto, leaving Sang Qi dumbfounded.

Later, he took over the task of roasting meat.

It was hard to imagine that he, a half-demon wolfman, was roasting rabbits for a woman.

Sang Qi suspected that there might be something wrong with his brain too.

“Today in the forest, I thought you would save that rabbit. I didn’t expect you to want to eat it,” Sang Qi said with a mocking cold laugh.

Su Ningxi, having finished eating the beautifully roasted, fragrant rabbit meat with satisfaction, heard Sang Qi’s words and smiled, saying, “Rabbits are so cute, no wonder they taste so good.”

“Don’t you find it cruel?” Sang Qi asked.

“Huh?” Su Ningxi was taken aback, “But I need to live too.”

“To live, you can eat other lives?” Sang Qi’s silver eyes looked at her coldly, “What if I need to eat you to live?”

Su Ningxi frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and said, “Then be quick about it, I’m afraid of pain.”

Sang Qi was slightly stunned: “Anything else?”

Shouldn’t she beg for mercy? Or angrily curse him?

Su Ningxi said, “Also… add more cumin, it’s more fragrant.”

Sang Qi: “…”

He suddenly felt that he was more human than her.

Unconsciously, he reached out to touch Su Ningxi’s brow. The skin was delicate and warm, beneath it was the unique spiritual fluctuation of humans—she was indeed human.

Su Ningxi felt the roughness of his fingertips and suddenly blushed, mumbling, “What are you doing?”

Sang Qi withdrew his hand and said plainly, telling the truth, “I suspected you weren’t human.”

Su Ningxi furrowed her brows, suddenly reached out, and stroked Sang Qi’s soft wolf ears. The tip of Sang Qi’s ear trembled violently. His most sensitive spot had been rubbed, and he immediately froze. Blood involuntarily rushed to his cheeks, his pale handsome face instantly dyed with a gorgeous crimson. His eyes were moist, but it was hard to tell if it was from embarrassment or anger, pleasure or disgust.

Su Ningxi smiled and said, “I suspect you’re not a werewolf.”

Sang Qi abruptly pulled up his hood to cover his ears and face, hiding his expression. Only his somewhat heavy breathing betrayed him.

“I captured you to eat you,” a low, hoarse voice came from under the hood. “I am Sang Qi, the priest of the Demon Clan, hiding here after being severely injured by Fashen’s siege. I cannot see daylight, otherwise I’ll suffer the pain of demonic energy dissipation. To compensate for this pain, there’s another method – to eat human flesh raw, using the heart demon produced by human fear and resentment at the brink of death to replenish me.”

Su Ningxi looked at him in surprise.

Sang Qi stared at the campfire. A drop of oil fell into the fire, causing the flame to suddenly brighten for a moment. He didn’t know how Su Ningxi would react, but any reaction would probably be within his expectations.

He didn’t raise his head, hearing rustling sounds from across. A warm body leaned against him, and Su Ningxi’s gentle voice came from nearby.

“When I came back yesterday afternoon, I noticed something was off about you. You looked very weak. Is it the pain caused by the dissipation of demonic energy? Why didn’t you eat me then?” Su Ningxi’s shoulder leaned against his, “Wouldn’t that have eased your pain?”

She extended her slender, fair wrist: “If you must eat it raw… could you do it quickly?”

Sang Qi grasped her wrist, his thin lips pressed against her pulse. He slightly opened his mouth, feeling the beat of her life with his teeth.

Just a light bite and her warm blood would flow into his mouth…

But he didn’t bite down. He slightly raised his head, his cold silver eyes like two silver moons, looking at the girl sitting beside him with her eyes tightly shut.

“Aren’t you afraid? Don’t you hate me?” he asked hoarsely.

Su Ningxi’s heart was beating fast. Of course, she was afraid, but hate…

She sighed, opened her clear, warm eyes, and looked at him with a hint of pity: “You’re just trying to survive too…”

“No, I’m a half-demon,” Sang Qi’s voice was low and hoarse, “I was born sinful, bloodthirsty and cruel, filthy and evil.”

Su Ningxi chuckled softly, stroking his back, and said gently, “Under heaven’s way, humans and beasts, demons and monsters, what’s the difference? Plants break through rocks and soil to grow. Rabbits must eat plants to grow. Beasts eat meat, and humans eat beasts. However, even the strongest life in this world will eventually die, be buried underground, and become nourishment for plants to grow. All things are born with meaning. The way of heaven is not about good or evil, strong or weak. The existence of half-demons is a meaning given by heaven’s way, and the disregard for life is not the way of heaven, but the way of the mundane world.”

“We humans also need to eat many lives to survive. The rabbit I ate is the same as me being eaten by you,” Su Ningxi curved her lips slightly. “But I will respect every life I eat. Even if it’s cooked badly, I can’t waste it, can’t betray the sacrifice of each life.”

“So although I’m afraid of being eaten by you, I won’t hate you. Perhaps this is the meaning of our encounter,” Su Ningxi’s hand gently stroked his silver hair. “Sang Qi, I’m happy to have met you. You might not know, but… you’re very gentle.”

Her voice fell softly on his heart, like a small pebble dropping into the center of a pond, stirring up huge waves.

Following his heart, he kissed her soft lips.

Her clear eyes flashed with surprise. Perhaps she thought he was going to start eating from her lips, but in the end, his thin lips tasted her entire body without taking a single bite.

Sang Qi thought he liked solitude, but it turned out he had never met someone like her before, someone who gently embraced all his unsightly past and gave him the only warmth in his life.

Then it was shattered with a sword.

Secluded in meditation for thirteen years, he had been sinking in nightmares, lying to himself that the person who deceived him and hurt him, couldn’t possibly be Su Ningxi. But in his dreams, the scene of the Spring Life Sword falling kept replaying, along with Su Ningxi’s cold face up close.

The empty right arm reminded him that this was reality. He was just a half-demon.

No human would truly like a half-demon.

But he liked her so much, he could still give her a chance. He would take her back to the demon realm, and imprison her for life. Fortunately, a cultivator’s life is long, long enough to accompany him to old age. If he were to go first, he would take her with him. Even if she had deceived him, hurt him, even if he hated her, as long as she stayed by his side, it would be enough.

However, when he came out of seclusion, the news he received was that she had died…

She had married Gao Fengxu, and even bore him a daughter, but died at Mingyue Manor.

Sang Qi didn’t believe it. He dug up all the graves at Mingyue Manor, but none of the bodies looked like her.

At his feet was Gao Fengxu’s shattered head. No one could tell him where Su Ningxi had gone.

But on a small demon servant, he faintly sensed her lingering presence…

He brought her back and gave her a name, Mu Xuanling.

Xuanling is a soul-summoning tree that grows in the demon realm.

All he wanted to do, after going to such lengths, was to find her body, find her soul…