TN: Any parts that I really couldn’t make sense of, I put the original Chinese text next. Enjoy!
Chapter 1: The young devil king
“Third young miss, run, don’t look back!”
When Li Susu gained consciousness, she was suddenly pushed.
She slipped and rolled off a hillside.
It was December and the ground was covered in a thick layer of snow. She was chilled to the bone and her body also hurt.
When Li Susu was about to knock into a tree on the hill, a white jade bracelet appeared out of thin air on her wrist.
The bracelet radiated with multi-coloured rays of light and this force stabilized her body.
Li Susu had a dizzy spell, only after a long time did her soul slowly return.
What entered her eyes was a world of a vast expanse of whiteness. She sat up from the ground, only to discover she really cut a sorry figure.
The pink coat on her body was dirty, her topknot had come undone, and she had also lost one of her embroidered shoes.
Susu, propping herself up with the tree trunk, got up from the ground.
From inside the jade bracelet on her wrist, a young voice was heard, it spoke solemnly: “Master, this is the world five hundred years ago.”
There was still a big heavy snowfall coming down from the sky.
Susu extended her hand, snowflakes fell in the hollow of her palm and melted in the twinkling of an eye due to her body temperature. The air was full of dense spirit energy.
Her small pale face exposed a slight astonishment.
Five hundred years later, there would be a black fog everywhere, demons and monsters would run amuck and spirit energy was sparse to the point it was pathetic.
“Xie Xiwu was willing to let you enter her body.” The jade bracelet paused for a moment and said: “She said she hopes you can save her father and her grandmother in the future from that demon’s hands.”
Susu said: “Tell Xie Xiwu, I promise.”
“Crossing through five hundred years, I have no spirit power, master, I must go dormant. If your life is in danger, call me then.”
“Okay.” She lifted up her slim fingers and stroked over the jade bracelet.
The rays of light on the jade bracelet dimmed and the world sunk into silence.
Susu closed her eyes and the past memories of the original owner Xie Xiwu began to appear in Susu’s mind. It wasn’t her own body after all, so the memories were disjointed and extremely vague.
Xie Xiwu was the Xie general family’s third miss. She was also the Xie family’s only daughter of the first wife.
She had recently fallen in the water, afterwards became seriously ill and didn’t get better for a very long time. Her grandmother was worried about her and brought her to the Tianhua temple to offer incense. Unexpectedly, at the temple, Xie Xiwu and her personal maid Yin Qiao were captured by bandits together.
Xie Xiwu and Yin Qiao, taking advantage of the bandits not paying attention, fled down the mountain.
The two master and servant didn’t manage to run far before they were discovered by the bandits.
Susu had entered Xie Xiwu’s body precisely during this moment, when the maid pushed the original owner to let the original owner run away.
Susu felt a burst of pain in her leg, bowing her head, she saw her ankle was swollen.
Susu, ignoring the pain as much as possible, began to try to search for a way out.
She walked in the snow, limping. As she walked, she concealed her tracks in the snow, and, panting, didn’t stop walking.
Don’t know when the bandits would return, if they discovered her now, her situation would be absolutely miserable. A weak woman, if she fell into the bandits’ hands, she also knew what the result would be.
She hadn’t walked for very long when a flurry of footsteps sounded out in the snow.
Susu promptly hid behind a stone.
Sure enough, not a moment had passed before several huge and coarse men appeared nearby.
“Wastes, it’s just a woman, yet you really let her escape!” The leader, panting, slapped the head of his subordinate.
“Boss.” The underling suffered a beating, yet didn’t dare resist. He anxiously said, “Our intelligence was wrong, that young girl isn’t the daughter of some rich merchant, rather, it’s the Xie general’s daughter.”
The face of the fierce-looking gang leader trembled, his complexion also turned extremely ugly.
Which bandit didn’t fear the imperial military forces?
His eyes hardened and became ruthless: “Since it’s like this, we must find her even more to avoid future misfortune.”
“What are you looking at me, Laozi (your father), for, still not going to look for her separately!”
Susu, hidden behind the stone, heard the footsteps getting closer and closer. She frowned and prepared to be discovered.
Fortunately, the footsteps stopped right beside her and went in another direction.
Susu cautiously waited for a while and didn’t budge. Only after there was no movement from them anymore did she look over. The footsteps in the snow were messy and the bandits had already disappeared.
Susu stood up, planning to leave. Suddenly, a bandit came back and shouted: “Boss, come, that woman is here!”
Susu turned around and ran away without the slightest hesitation.
However, the bandits behind her very quickly caught up.
This body was already considerably in poor health. Susu’s eyes were hazy, in the single vast expanse of white snow, she practically couldn’t see the way forward, when she suddenly ran into someone.
Several arrows shot out past her body, the mountain bandits cried out and fell down.
Susu looked up and caught sight of a clear face.
The young man was dressed in white from head to toe, almost blending into the snow. He had slim cheeks, pitch-black eyes, and appeared somewhat cold and detached. His skin was very white, with red lips and black hair. He was beautiful to the point of astonishing people, but because of his tranquil and apathetic eyes, he also didn’t appear feminine.
When Susu knocked against him, he didn’t move the slightest bit. However, when she looked at him, he turned his eyes away with slight panic.
The young man supported her with his hand and spoke in a low voice: “I’m sorry, third miss, I’m late.”
Susu was unclear about the situation, so, without any better option, she shook her head.
With just a few words, the bandits had died or were injured, while those that survived had already run for their lives.
The soldiers behind the young man cupped their fists towards Susu: “Third miss! Your subordinates arrived late.”
Susu recalled that young servant girl who had pushed her and let her escape first, she looked up and said: “Yin Qiao is still in their hands, please help me find her.”
The young man looked at her with his black eyes: “Okay, I will make people go look for her.”
The soldiers dispersed to go look for Yin Qiao.
The young man lowered his eyes and inquired: “Are you hurt?”
Before Susu could answer, he silently picked her up in a princess-carry.
Suddenly being picked up by an unfamiliar young man, Susu had a bit of resistance. However, she couldn’t figure out the situation, so she didn’t dare struggle for a while and instead looked up to size him up.
There was a very big problem.
Although she had a part of Xie Xiwu’s memories, she was unable to recognize this person.
So, who was this person in front of her after all?
His embrace also wasn’t even the slightest bit warm, instead, it had an ice-cold air.
Susu was not comfortable in his embrace at all, she was cold to the point of shivering. She thought for a while and stated: “Just now, I fell down the hillside and hit my head. My memory is somewhat chaotic. I’m sorry, I don’t recognize you…”
As her voice fell, a somewhat strange look appeared in the young man’s eyes.
This mood also didn’t stay for long. He very quickly returned to normal and said: “My name is Tantai Jin. Three months ago, we got married.”
As soon as he said this, Susu’s body stiffened and she raised her eyes in disbelief.
Snow had fallen on the young man’s hair to the point his appearance was also like ice and snow.
The young man hugged her a little tighter and softly asked: “Third miss, are you cold?”
With his dark eyes and black hair, he seemed delicate and harmless.
Seeing Susu sizing him up, he quietly lowered his gaze, appearing respectful and timid.
Susu’s body stiffened even more.
She pursed her lips and concealed the emotions in her eyes.
Susu absolutely didn’t expect this young man before her eyes, who appeared delicate and beautiful, was unexpectedly precisely her target.
That devil king that easily killed and crushed people’s souls in the future.
Leaning against his chest, she felt his tall long body underneath was emaciated, with the bone pressing against her causing discomfort.
In an instant, in her mind, a hundred ways to kill someone flitted across.
This thought was extremely strong, her hands practically subconsciously had already secretly clenched into an assassinating burst.
However, nothing happened at all.
Susu afterwards realized she was a mortal now.
Her body was both cold and hurt. Having changed into the original owner, she already wasn’t able to stay awake earlier. Susu had barely managed to hang in there up until now and had already reached her limit.
She tried to struggle to leave this evil person’s embrace, but she had run out of strength long ago. In the next moment, Susu’s eyes went dark and she lost consciousness.
The young man’s footsteps stopped.
Only after she fainted did he lower his eyes to look at the girl in his embrace.
The girl’s complexion was pale. Her ordinarily flamboyant, domineering, disgusting and evil face, set off in a world of ice and snow, unexpectedly somewhat expressed a gentle, pure and holy air.
He frowned and immediately turned his eyes away, not the least bit concerned, and walked out of the bandits’ lair.
Not long afterwards, the Xie general army’s soldiers brought back Xie Xiwu’s personal maid Yin Qiao.
That servant girl had collapsed in the snow.
Tantai Jin calmly looked at that corpse on the ground.
Yin Qiao’s had ten stab wounds on her body, her clothing was disarrayed, there was a bloody hole in her abdomen, and her face was already badly mangled and mutilated.
A strong bloody smell filled the air.
A soldier asked: “Hostage prince, how should we handle this?”
He only glanced at it and lightly and indifferently said: “Dead, then just burn it right.”
His tone was light as a feather, just like he was talking about how the snow this winter was very heavy.
*
As the carriage swayed, Li Susu had a dream.
She dreamt of her own childhood.
She was born five hundred years later as the first daughter of the immortal Zhang sect.
It was originally a highly respected and noble status, however, Li Susu was quite unlucky.
This is a long story. In her time, demons were in power.
To put it simply, demons had become the rulers, and cultivators and mortals had on the contrary become existences that were not fit to be seen by the light.
No one knew when this evil creature was born in the end. But, since his birth, the immortal sect was beaten to the point it declined little by little by his ruthless means.
Originally, there were still sects that did not trust in evil, they attempted to encircle and annihilate him. Later, this group was cruelly buried in the ‘tomb of ten thousand immortals’, and their souls were scattered.
Countless immortals had died and the sects that remained were afraid. They could only hide and struggle on whilst at death’s door.
Since then, just the mention of him had aroused fear.
The sky was murky, devil energy covered the spirit energy, and people were unable to cultivate. Plagues devastated the human earth and corpses were everywhere.
Li Susu grew up in such a world.
Now, extremely tired and in this mortal body, Li Susu unexpectedly dreamt of her childhood.
In fact, she hadn’t recalled this nightmare for a long time.
At that time, she had just recently transformed, she was still a young girl, with a fiery red cinnabar dot in the center of her forehead.
Zhang clan’s grandfather spoke: “Susu, you cannot go out, otherwise, you will be captured by a demon, and he will then throw you to the devil king.”
Immortal Qing Shan pointed at the first memorial tablet.
“Look, this is your great master uncle, who was killed by the devil king.”
He once again pointed towards a second memorial tablet.
“This is your fifth master uncle, killed by the devil king, even his soul was scattered.”
His hand moved to a third memorial tablet, the young Li Susu, with a solemn small face, earnestly nodded and answered: “I know, this is the second master uncle, he was also killed by the devil king, when he died, he was crushed together with his natal weapon. When Susu grows up, she will definitely avenge them.”
Looking at the white, jade-like baby girl with great spirit, he nodded his head, gratified.
However, Susu was still young in the end, not too long after, she was unexpectedly deceived to go out of the sect by her traitorous senior brother.
The next second, she was captured by demons.
The demons surrounded her and praised her traitorous senior brother: “Not bad, this young child’s spirit is extraordinarily pure, her spirit stone is bright, the devil is bound to heavily reward us!”
The traitor nodded his head and bowed, extremely happy.
They offered Susu to the devil king.
The devil’s castle was bloody, sinister and dusky. It was the first time Susu experienced this kind of thing. The surrounding monsters played tricks on her, she was also no match for them and she was unable to escape.
In the end, the girl was anxious to the point she changed into her original form, she covered her cheeks with her wings and cried.
That was the first time she saw the devil king, that man who killed a bunch of her teacher uncles.
He was very tall and sat on a throne with his whole body encircled by a dark fog.
A black cloak enveloped his body, only exposing his two eyes that completely lacked emotion.
The devil king’s skin colour was deathly pale, supporting his chin, he looked disdainfully at her out of the corner of his eye.
The devil’s castle lamps burned, making crackling sounds.
The young girl was deceived into entering a nest of devils, she was both repentant and broken-hearted and sobbed to the point she was hiccuping.
“I specially came to rely on help from Venerable Demon, this is the gift I have for Venerable Demon.” The senior brother pointed at Susu with a fawning smile.
However, in the next moment, he widened his eyes, a sound came from his throat and blood zigzagged down from the corner of his mouth.
Her senior brother easily died just like this. Susu quietly removed her wings and widened her eyes.
The devil king stretched out his pale fingers and picked up the young girl.
Susu’s big eyes were holding stubborn tears, but she refused to let them fall: “I am not afraid of you!”
She thought the next second, it would be her turn.
She mustered up the courage and craned her neck to accept death.
The devil king sized her up for a long time before he lifted her up and threw her back to her sect.
No one knew why the devil king didn’t kill Susu, even Susu also didn’t understand.
A certain number of years later, the elders divined and decided to choose one person to send five hundred years in the past, to fully understand the devil senior’s origin, prevent his awakening and save the common people.
The divinatory diagram turned and turned before it finally pointed to Li Susu.
Susu: “…” She suddenly had a kind of feeling that she was on the eve of a great mission.
In her dream, a row of memorial tablets surrounded Susu, encouraging her to add oil (cheering her on).
Susu cupped her fist towards them for a moment and woke up.
She already was no longer in that snowy place, instead, she was lying on a warm bed in a room with a faint warm fragrance lingering.
A charcoal fire burned, dyeing her cheeks a shallow crimson.
A fifteen or sixteen year old servant girl in front of her cautious and solemnly saluted her: “Miss, you woke up.”
She helped Susu up and fed Susu a mouthful of water.
Susu’s throat hurt a lot, she choked and coughed several times. The young servant girl’s complexion instantly became deathly pale and she knelt on the ground: “Miss, spare my life, Chun Tao didn’t do it on purpose.”
Having finished speaking, she then started knocking her head against the ground, the sound of her knocking her head sounded out without carelessness.
It was evident that she feared Susu to death.
The original owner Xie Xiwu’s nature was perverse, almost savage. Seeing Susu cough once scared her into such an appearance.
Susu shook her head, and trying not to scare her as much as possible, she said: “You get up okay, I don’t blame you.”
Chun Tao nervously sized her up Susu’s complexion, in the past, when the miss’ body was unwell, she would not let her off lightly.
She cautiously observed the miss’ complexion, seeing that the third miss really didn’t plan on punishing her, Chun Tao exhaled and promptly put the cup away.
“Where is this?” Susu asked.
The young servant girl said: “We aren’t at the temple, we’ve already returned home. Miss, you’ve had a fever for the past two days.”
Susu asked: “Chun Tao, where is Tantai Jin?”
She, along with everyone in the cultivation world, was accustomed to calling him ‘Devil king’ and ‘Demon’, now calling the young demon king’s name, she was very unfamiliar with it.
Chun Tao, observing her complexion, spoke in a low voice: “After the hostage prince returned to his mansion, he immediately knelt on the ice. Chun Tao supervised him for you, he absolutely didn’t get up.”
Susu looked at Chun Tao astonished. What? He knelt?
A few random memory fragments flashed through her mind, Susu was dazed for a moment before she finally recalled what was going on.
These were the previous owner’s instructions before she was caught by the mountain bandits.
Susu had lost consciousness for two days, in other words, Tantai Jin had already knelt in a world of ice and snow for two days.
Susu thought for a moment and asked Chun Tao: “Can you get a mirror for me?”
Chun Tao promptly handed over a copper mirror and secretly looked at the third miss. This was the first time the third miss had used a gentle tone to speak to her!
Susu sized up her own present body. In the mirror, a young and inexperienced face was reflected, about sixteen or seventeen years old. She had upturned, large, round eyes and small and exquisite cherry-red lips. She was good-looking, not to the point of being remarkably beautiful, but more like the girl next door type.
Susu tried to flash a smile, it instantly carried a hint of cheerfulness and happiness.
In fact, Susu’s focus was not at all on the former owner’s appearance.
She faced the mirror to size herself up for a long time.
Long to the point Chun Tao was trembling with fear, she couldn’t help asking: “Miss, what are you looking at.”
She wouldn’t complain again that she wasn’t born as beautiful as the eldest young lady You Fengqing, right?
Susu thought: her master once taught her to look at faces, people with their ninth and tenth heavenly stems in the north and lips with a red vermillion outward appearance would live long. The teeth should be white, thin, identical and dense, and naturally levelled.
(OG text: 苏苏心想：师伯曾教她看面相，口为壬癸北方中，唇若丹朱势要长。齿白细多齐更密，自然平地作公王。)
Now, she didn’t have such an appearance. Looking at this appearance, she was destined to not live past twenty years old and had the fate of dying prematurely.
Susu was very puzzled. Although a mortal’s life span was only a flash, just a hundred years, but this body’s age was still young, unexpectedly she was doomed to have an early demise?
Even though the body’s soul was replaced with Susu, there wasn’t the slightest sign of change.
Then how will she die in the future after all?
For some reason, Susu suddenly thought about the young demon king kneeling outside.
The righteous woman Li Susu suddenly lifted up her eyes.
The river! (OG text: 淦!)
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