Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Delusional Devotion

Shao Heng tucked the freshly made Demon-Contract Spell into her storage ring and counted out 20 pale-purple spirit stones.

Senior Sister Song murmured an incantation. Runes flashed across the iron cage, dimming like breath on glass. She reached in and plucked the dying monkey demon out as if the bars weren’t there at all.

Spiritual power gathered in her palm. The cub hung suspended in the air, limp, barely breathing.

“Junior Sister,” Senior Sister Song asked, “do you have a Beast-Taming Ring to store demon beasts? Otherwise, you’ll have to carry it like this.”

One of the women with them—Jiang Su Zhi—shook her head. “Senior Sister Song, a Beast-Taming Ring is worth hundreds of spirit stones. She’s newly admitted—she probably only has the first-year resources the sect issued.”

She pulled a square cloth from her own storage ring and offered it. “This is woven from jade silkworm silk. Fire and water won’t harm it. Wrap the monkey in this and carry it.”

Shao Heng accepted it with both hands. “Thank you, Senior Sister.”

She handed over the spirit stones, then carefully took the cub—so light it barely seemed real—and wrapped it tight in the cloth. After asking a few quick questions, she bowed and left for the disciples’ compound.

Behind her, as the iron cage was hoisted again, the disciple who’d been complaining earlier said with exaggerated admiration, “What a beautiful and kind-hearted Junior Sister.”

Li Yu Tang snorted. “Kind-hearted? She’s stupid. She’s a newbie who doesn’t know anything. That monkey demon won’t live half a day. What a waste of spirit stones.”

He kept going, louder now that the target was gone. “Senior Sister Song, you’re too soft. Wasting time explaining all that to her—”

Senior Sister Song’s gaze slid to him, cold enough to freeze blood. The gentleness on her face vanished, replaced by a stiff, flat severity.

“Shut up.”

Li Yu Tang’s mouth snapped closed.

Jiang Su Zhi looked him up and down with open scorn. “That Junior Sister barely recognizes demon beasts. She’s probably recruited from the Mortal Realm. And she reached Qi Induction Realm within 10 days.”

She sneered. “Enough, Li Yu Tang. Maybe next year she’ll enter the inner sect, while you—blind fool—are still stuck in the outer sect doing grunt work like this.”

Li Yu Tang’s face turned iron-gray.

—

Shao Heng held the bundle against her chest and felt the monkey’s trembling through the cloth. It was far too weak. Its eyes were half shut. Its body shook like it was already halfway to the underworld.

She wasn’t about to let 20 spirit stones vanish into a grave.

She brought a finger to the monkey’s mouth and let a single emerald droplet seep out.

The cub caught the scent and began to slurp instinctively, desperate even in its weakness.

As she walked, Shao Heng sensed its condition. The monkey’s aura steadied. Its breathing eased, no longer so frantic.

“Qi Induction Realm,” she murmured. “Just entered.”

The Demon-Contract Spell would suppress it completely. Once it healed and regained some strength, she could train it. It didn’t need to be fierce—just competent.

When she reached the disciples’ compound, the people who had fainted earlier were already gone, the ground swept clean as if nothing had happened.

She returned to her room and activated the formation at her doorway.

Then she spread Jiang Su Zhi’s cloth on the floor and set the little monkey down. The smell hit her again—dried blood and fear-sweat. She cast a Dust-Cleansing Technique first, scrubbing filth from fur and skin alike.

Next she condensed a ball of water, then dripped in three drops of the green liquid, turning the water pale as spring leaves.

She eased the cub into it, careful to keep its mouth and nose above the surface.

Based on what she’d tested on the rice seedlings, she didn’t dare add more. She had no interest in “healing” it to death.

As the monkey’s aura strengthened and its injuries slowly began to knit, Shao Heng finally allowed herself to look away.

She pulled out the small booklet of basic spells and read it again from beginning to end, comparing the more than twenty spells inside.

She’d already succeeded in casting several. The rest should be no different.

Hand seals. Incantations. Circulation of spiritual power.

As she compared them, a thread of understanding surfaced—frequency.

The seals and chants weren’t magic in themselves. They were control. They forced her spiritual power to circulate at a specific rhythm, resonating with the spiritual qi of heaven and earth. A small force, leveraged into a great effect. Resonant qi shaped into whatever she intended.

“Of course,” she murmured, rubbing her cheek with the heel of her hand, “that’s only what I can infer from basic spells.”

Once an immortal art had a grade, it came with an overall outline, a deeper logic. What truly happened inside it couldn’t be glimpsed by poking at the edges.

She sighed and pressed her palms to her face, dragging them down until her skin warmed.

“I really want a scroll of an immortal art to practice.”

“Ying-ying?”

Shao Heng looked up.

The little monkey in the water ball had opened its eyes. It stared at her—alarmed, wary, and yet curious, the way something half-feral watched a hand reaching toward it.

Shao Heng took out the Demon-Contract Spell.

It was only a little over five hundred characters.

She read it once, memorized it, and didn’t hesitate.

Silver light gathered at her fingertips. She chanted, drew one rune after another in the air, and sent them sinking into the monkey’s body.

“Relax,” she said gently. “I’m saving you.”

“I’m using precious spirit liquid to heal you. Don’t resist.”

Even if it wanted to resist, it couldn’t. Its injuries weren’t fully healed; its spiritual power was weak. It could only stay still as the contract settled into flesh and bone.

When the last rune fused, Shao Heng felt the spell take root everywhere at once—like threads woven through the cub’s limbs and organs. With a thought, she could tighten them. With another, she could make them explode.

Only then did she finally study it closely.

Amber eyes. Pale silver pupils.

Its fur clung wetly to its body, but she could still see the color: deeper gold along its back, lighter along its belly. Long, slender limbs. A round head. As a cub, it was agile-looking and almost cute, if not for the old wounds.

Through the contract, she knew its condition clearly. The shoulder wounds had mostly closed, but tendons and bones inside were still damaged. Its internal injuries hadn’t fully recovered.

When the water ball faded clear, she cast Dust-Cleansing Technique again. Droplets scattered across the floor and vanished. The monkey’s fur fluffed clean, fresh as silk.

The golden-furred cub hopped down, scratched its head, then looked up at her. After a cautious pause, it reached out and tugged at her sleeve.

Shao Heng scooped it into her arms. Cleaned and warmed, its fur was unbelievably soft.

She flipped it lightly, checked, and found it was female.

“What should I call you?” she mused. “I’ll keep it simple.”

She smoothed its fur and said, “Duo Bao.”

Duo Bao. Duo Bao—she hoped this little monkey would be hardworking and capable. Grow good spirit rice. Earn her piles of spirit stones. Trade those spirit stones for piles of treasures.

The monkey gave two soft whimpers. Through the contract, Shao Heng felt a ripple of intent.

Acceptance.

If Duo Bao had any say in the matter, it might have introduced itself differently.

Hello, it would have said, my real name is Ma Lou.

But it didn’t have a say.

Not anymore.

—

In the Wondrous Dharma Tower’s lecture hall, after the unconscious disciples finally woke, Zhao Tang didn’t continue the lesson. She spoke a few steadying words, soothed them, and dismissed class early.

Meanwhile, the brothers Lu Shao Jia and Lu Shao Jing walked the road back to the compound, both of them taut with humiliation.

Lu Shao Jing couldn’t hold it in. “Big Brother—did you hear what that filthy old maidservant said?!”

Earlier, to spur them on, Zhao Tang had mentioned that a female disciple named Shao Heng had already entered Qi Induction Realm, telling them to practice harder and reach it soon as well.

Embarrassment flashed across Lu Shao Jia’s face. He covered it with a sneer. “What? Is this the first day you learned your sister is impressive?”

He shot his brother a sharp look. “Lu Shao Heng wasn’t wrong before, either. Which martial art did you learn that she didn’t teach you hand over hand?”

Lu Shao Jing clenched his fist, lips pressed tight.

“Th-then…” He swallowed, the stubbornness rising like a fever. “Then let’s go find Lu Shao Heng and have her teach us how to enter Qi Induction Realm.”

His eyes brightened with the shameless logic of someone who’d never been told no. “We’re both Lower Grade aptitude. She must have some trick. W-we can even forgive her for now.”

Lu Shao Jia stopped dead. He stared at his brother like he’d discovered a new species of idiot.

After a long moment, he said hoarsely, “When Mother gave birth to you two, all your brains grew onto Lu Shao Heng.”