The so-called heart demon is often the fear buried deep within a practitioner’s heart that they dare not face, or the desires in the depths of their soul that they are unwilling to confront. Usually, there are no traces, but when they appear, they pose a deadly threat.

Yang Xi saw a girl in a cloud-patterned dress and golden silk ribbons. The girl, around eight or nine years old, had skin as white as snow and bright, expressive eyes. There was a dot of bright red cinnabar between her brows. On her delicate face, she possessed the enchanting grace cultivated by wealth.

As she moved gracefully, her skirt swayed, resembling a fairy. Yang Xi watched silently.

That was not her; she had never worn such fine clothes, even in her dreams.

A stern old maid pulled a tattered garment with disdain, addressing the girl: “Miss, this person bought from outside is really useless. She has no education, is wild in nature, and lacks the habit of cleanliness. Why does the young lady insist on keeping such a lowly thing when there are proper born servants available?”

“Having a humble background is nothing. If we train her for a few days, it will be fine.” The young lady bent down, brushed aside the girl’s bangs, and with a sincere expression, said, “I like her eyes; they are beautiful, like my older sister’s Western Persian cat.”

The girl, bearing the tattered clothes and a face covered in dust, could not be clearly seen: “…I am not lowly.”

Yang Xi bit her lip; this was her. At six years old, she had just become a servant and did not yet know what a maid or a lowly status meant. That beautiful young lady, the exquisite young lady, the precious young lady, was not actually a harsh mistress. She still harbored innocence and could even reason: “I bought you for two coins, and you signed the contract with your fingerprint; are you denying that?”

On the contract of sale, a fingerprint was as red as blood, the same color as the cinnabar on the young lady’s brow.

“Miss, I can’t read.”

“When it was time to seal the document, both your mother and I were present. Your father is a scholar; does he not know how to read?” The pampered young lady, even when angry, looked charmingly lovely.

The rustic maid found it hard to laugh: “Miss, hasn’t your father ever lied to you?”

The clever housekeeper, seeing the displeasure on the young lady’s face, squatted down to explain to the dull maid: “Girl, let me be honest with you. Even if you truly didn’t sell yourself willingly, you still have to accept it. The three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues dictate that a father is the guiding principle for his child. The three obediences and four virtues state that a daughter should obey her father at home. If your father made the decision to sell you, that is reasonable and legal. Even if you report it to the authorities, you would still be the young lady’s servant. If you keep being stubborn, once the old lady finds out, you will face eighty lashes that could kill you. Moreover, what’s so bad about serving the young lady? You have nice clothes to wear and gold and silver jewelry to adorn yourself with. If you serve well and earn respect, you may even be matched with a handsome young man in the future. Besides, the young lady gave your father two coins; considering your looks, that’s quite a lot!

One tael of silver can be exchanged for two thousand copper coins. Two cash is one-fifth of a tael. Two copper coins can buy a bun.

At the age of six, Yang Xi’s father sold her for two hundred buns. The buyer chose her because her eyes resembled those of a particular cat.

Born in a lowly status, beneath the dust. This was the heart demon of Yang Xi.

A desolate, ancient voice echoed from afar, carrying a compassionate insight into the ways of the world and the vicissitudes of time: “Heaven and earth are unkind, treating all beings as mere fodder…”

Suddenly, a fierce wind swirled within the heart demon’s illusion. Yang Xi was unsteady, as ten translucent threads extended from her long, pale fingers, flying and catching at the edges of the eaves and walls, but it was all in vain.

In the midst of flying sand and running stones, pavilions and towers crumbled inch by inch, the ornate beams and painted pillars instantaneously transforming into hell.

A blood river surged, with bones as boats.

Thousands of beings knelt by the riverbank, silently paying homage to the blood river. It seemed they couldn’t see themselves continuously bleeding, streaming into a creek that ultimately merged with the blood river.

Yang Xi only felt an inexplicable sorrow and anger that was hard to suppress. Unable to control the chaotic energy in her dantian any longer, a sweetness filled her throat, and she spat out a mouthful of hot blood, falling with a “thud” to the ground, creating a rolling river of blood. After a long while, a thin bubble floated up, bursting with a soft sound.

“Snap.”

In the quiet room, a soul lamp flickered dimly like a bean.

The cool fragrance of the calming incense filled the room, yet it seemed unable to soothe the faint wisp of soul fire within the lamp.

On the only mat in the room, a slender girl lay with her eyes tightly shut, drenched in sweat, breathing heavily as if she were drowning. Suddenly, her right wrist flipped, and she found a sharp blade in her hand, decisively stabbing it into her leg, blood gushing forth like a spring.

The girl shivered all over, her strangely colored eyes suddenly opened wide; after a moment of clarity, a line of blood flowed from all seven orifices.

After a long time, the girl struggled to grab a rough hand-stitched notebook, her snow-white, smooth fingers pinching a short, thick charcoal pencil, writing awkwardly:

“Second level of Qi training, sixty-fourth attempt, failure.”

Reason:

Trapped by inner demons, at six years old, sold into servitude.

Insights:

“Calming incense ineffective, wasted one tael of silver, need to settle accounts with the jade.”

Yang Xi, holding the pen in her mouth, lay on the ground carelessly wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth. With practiced ease, she rolled up her pant leg, her hand performing the “Illusionary Silk Technique,” conjuring a white satin ribbon and tying it around the base of her leg to stop the bleeding.

The hands executing the bandaging were astonishingly beautiful compared to their owner. The backs of the hands were small and delicate, with long fingers, the icy yet jade-like hue flowing from the wrists over nearly wrinkle-free joints, finally dripping into her pale pink nails. They looked soft yet held strength.

However, their owner clearly did not know how to cherish them, as the sides of her ten slender fingers were covered with intersecting cuts.

The wounds were fine yet deep, mottled, much like the brief life of their fourteen-year-old owner.

The dim soul fire illuminated the thin cultivation notebook, the content recorded on the rough pages enough to instill fear in any true cultivator.

“Second layer of Qi training, thirteenth attempt at breaking through, failed.”

Reason: Trapped by heart demons, at ten years old, surrounded by famished people during the famine years, narrowly escaped being roasted.

Insight: Never eat roasted meat again.

“Second layer of Qi training, twenty-fifth attempt at breaking through, failed.”

Reason: Trapped by heart demons, at eight years old, the secret of my left eye was discovered by a hunchbacked man, nearly ended up as a furnace.

Additional note: (⊙o⊙)? = cauldron.”

“Second layer of Qi training, forty-sixth attempt at breaking through, failed.”

Reason: Trapped by heart demons, unable to endure hunger, raw consumption of human corpses.

Insight: The healing speed of wounds inflicted by breaking illusions is astonishing; I have become tougher and more resilient.”

The tough-skinned girl counted her fingers, and finally, in anger, smashed her notebook! The infamous heart demon illusion, a nightmare for golden core practitioners, and here she was at the second layer of

Qi training facing these relentless demons. Could it really be that my character is so poor, leading to these heart demons flourishing?

If this dense cluster were chives, it would be enough for several meals of dumplings!

Attempting to break through once every fifteen days, with sixty-four failures, this was Yang Xi’s third year trapped by heart demons.

The path to greatness is difficult, and for a lone cultivator without guidance from a mentor, the journey of exploration feels like crossing a dark sea without seeing a lighthouse.

With no clear direction and hard to persist.

Yet Yang Xi, who had never attended school and couldn’t read much, found even slightly obscure books incomprehensible, still refused to give up.

She harbored a bold and reckless delusion that she had never shared with anyone. — She wanted to establish her foundation!”

“Foundation building is the watershed between immortals and mortals. Once a cultivator builds their foundation, they transcend the three realms, no longer bound by the five elements, and their lifespan is no longer limited to a mere hundred years. Even when walking in the mortal world, they are free from the constraints of worldly laws. That contract you have is of no use anymore!”

Four years ago, the merciless old Taoist painted a glossy sesame pancake with words for Yang Xi, tempting this stubborn little donkey to dash down the path;

Four years later, Yang Xi lingered outside the second layer of Qi cultivation, gazing at the foundation building beyond the ninth layer of Qi cultivation, as if staring at a horse about to be run to death in the distant mountains…

Everyone says foundation building is great, but who has seen anyone rushing around after building their foundation?

Just the Cheng family, whom Yang Xi serves in Xianlai Town, was able to branch out from the clan twenty years ago because the head of the family, Cheng Sicheng, successfully built his foundation, allowing them to establish a residence in this relatively abundant spiritual aura area, dominating the region.

With a population of hundreds of thousands in Xianlai Town, there are more than a few hundred with spiritual roots, yet in a century there has only ever been this one foundation-building cultivator.

Spiritual roots are easy to obtain, but opportunities are hard to come by.

And opportunities are often the result accumulated from countless resources and great powers.

But the old Taoist’s pancake looked too delicious, too shiny, and the little donkey had been hungry for too long; there was no turning back and no desire to turn back.

This little donkey, Yang Xi, had no roots, no lineage, no sect, no parents, and even the only old Taoist was harmed. On the path of Great Dao, they were merely a solitary and stubborn little creature. In the pitch-black night, inch by inch chewing on the grass, attempting to find their own opportunity.

Who would have thought that in this desolate patch of the cultivation world, this stubborn donkey would actually chew out a spiritual mushroom!

It was a month ago when she inadvertently overheard a conversation between the Seventh Young Master and the Fourteenth Miss.

“Yao sister, going to Kunlun to apprentice is a fantastic opportunity. People often say, Kunlun has the world’s best sword. If we could enter Kunlun and become an inner disciple after a few years, our aunt and brother could also hold their heads high in the estate! Even father would see you as his most cherished daughter from then on.”

“Seventh Brother speaks so nicely. Even if Kunlun is the number one sword sect, we, the children of aristocratic families, would end up like those rootless loose cultivators, becoming apprentices who are scolded and beaten. If Kunlun is really that good, why don’t you go?”

“You think that older brother doesn’t want to go? To enter the inner gate of Kunlun, one must be a swordsman. Older brother has spent twenty years learning alchemy; can he just give up his cultivation and start over? Kunlun is different from those third- or fourth-rate sects, only opening its mountains once every sixty years. Grandpa’s close friend, Mr. Bai, has some connections with Kunlun, so how could it be your turn to become a disciple?”

“But… wielding swords and other weapons, aren’t those things learned by men who guard their homes and families…”

“Silly sister, do you think they are mere mundane warriors? Sword cultivators excel in battle and prove their path through strength. They can slay gods and demons, and eliminate inner demons. Not to mention, among the guest attendants that Dad values the most, aren’t they all sword cultivators?”

“Then… brother must remember… I go to be someone’s apprentice, all to uphold your and Aunt’s honor…”

When Yang Xi heard this, her heart felt like a drum beating. She even thought, it’s over, isn’t this what they call love at first sight? No matter how great Kunlun’s power or how impressive sword cultivators are,

Yang Xi didn’t absorb any of it. The only thing she truly fell for was the sixteen characters: “Sword cultivators excel in battle, proving their path through strength, slaying gods and demons, and eliminating inner demons.”

But can one really learn the skills of “proving the path through strength” and “eliminating inner demons” just by getting beaten and scolded for a few years? In Yang Xi’s view, there’s nothing so cheap in this world!

Yang Xi squatted on the ground, showing her two little tiger teeth, grinning as she plotted.

When the young lady goes out, it’s naturally impossible for her to venture alone; the family head would definitely choose many attendants for her. There are only about a hundred servants in the Cheng family with spiritual roots, so Yang Xi thought she should have some advantages. However, the disadvantages were also very apparent; being too young made it hard to earn trust.

She drew a circle with her charcoal pencil in her fingers, seriously writing in her notes: “Can try going to

Kunlun to get beaten and scolded.”

Half a month later, a notice was posted at the entrance of the Cheng family’s inner court.

The notice stated:

Cheng family’s three young masters ranked thirteen, sixteen, and twenty-one, along with young ladies fourteen and nineteen, will be traveling to Kunlun Mountain to learn swordsmanship.
They wish to select several servants with spiritual roots from within the household to serve as sword servants.

However, the selection process for sword servants is dangerous, with injuries and deaths at one’s own risk. Those interested can go to the management office in the inner court to sign a life-and-death contract, and regardless of the outcome, they will be given twenty taels of silver as a settlement fee.

Yang Xi couldn’t wait and pressed her second fingerprint in this lifetime. After selling her body for two taels of silver, she sold her life for twenty taels of silver.