Rest in a Demon's Embrace

“I said come here,” Jiang Bai wasn’t known for his patience, and he was rather annoyed when he saw Luo Xiao was frowning at him, but he dared not use his usual means of violence against this beautiful doll-like boy. He knew that he was special to Jiang Yao. Touching him might end up with himself dead instead.

Sighing, Luo Xiao finally stepped forward. This person was clearly related to Jiang Yao, so getting a good relationship with him wasn’t a bad decision.

Seeing Luo Xiao walking towards him, Jiang Bai’s expression turned slightly better, but he was still not pleased.

This child was young and weak, naive and quiet. Since when had his illustrious older brother liked this kind of weakling? Did he have something special that no one else knew about?

The followers of Jiang Bai looked at Luo Xiao with curiosity. Had their highness decided to approach this guy because of his talents and he wanted to recruit him to their side? Or was there some sort of personal reason behind his actions?

Little did Luo Xiao and Jiang Bai know that currently, everyone within the room had taken Jiang Bai to be his backer. Their imaginations were running wild with thoughts like, What was the reason behind this child to be treated specially by Jiang Bai?

Although Jiang Bai was considered neutral and people knew that he wasn’t a big threat for anyone in the royal intrigues, he was after all a direct lineage prince, and his reputation, talents, and might were far above the average noble.

If he took an interest in someone, then that person was likely to soar into the higher ranks of society. But right now, due to Luo Xiao’s otherworldly appearance, everyone had unsavory thoughts of Jiang Bai being bent.

Their reasons were rather reasonable. Luo Xiao was young and weak. Although he might have potential, currently he was weak and not useful to anyone at all.

The only benefit he had currently was his appearance which was so beautiful it could rival the spirits, and thus, everyone thought that the ninth prince was just looking after his lover.

If either Jiang Bai or Luo Xiao knew what these people were thinking, both of them would be swearing to clear their names, but unfortunately, neither of them knew.

Luo Xiao stood in front of Jiang Bai, and both of them looked into the eyes of the other. Both of them had their own prejudice against the other.

Luo Xiao was wary of any brother of Jiang Yao after his family had been killed by the Fourth Prince, and the words that Jin Chuan had said about him earlier.

Jiang Bai was also against Luo Xiao for multiple reasons. First of all, he had been ordered to look after him, and he was very annoyed with this. Secondly, he wasn’t keen on this young man being special to the brother he most looked up to. Jiang Yao was cold and callous. He was merciless, ruthless, and murderous. Now, he suddenly had a weakness. Now, he was suddenly more down to earth. This was something he couldn’t accept.

The two young men were looking at each other’s eyes and invisible sparks of hostility were ignited through their gaze, but to everyone else it looked quite different.

“Luo Xiao, come with me,” Jiang Bai said curtly and turned around ready to leave. Luo Xiao sighed, feeling slightly annoyed, but eventually, he decided to follow the stuck-up prince. For him to have come to him, there was definitely some sort of connection to Jiang Yao. He didn’t want to cause problems for the older demon.

As they walked away, confusion flashed in the eyes of Jin Chuan. She had previously heard Luo Xiao say that he knew the Seventh and Sixth Princes, but he hadn’t mentioned the Ninth Prince.

If they were unfamiliar to one another, why was this esteemed person looking for the poor Luo Xiao?

Jin Chuan didn’t doubt Luo Xiao. He had paid attention to the rumors about the Ninth Prince, but not more than polite interest, and his eyes had been filled with confusion when he saw the man appear in front of him.

As such, she was quite sure that the Ninth Prince wasn’t supporting Luo Xiao. Reaching this conclusion, her eyes widened in surprise. Could it be someone who had the power to order the Ninth Prince around? As soon as the thought appeared in her mind, she shook her head and laughed mockingly at herself. Who would have such esteemed status? That was impossible.

As she was deep in thought, Jiang Bai gestured for his entourage to stay behind while he led Luo Xiao with him to a pavilion a bit away.

“Listen, brat,” he began, “My Seventh Brother told me to look after you, but I am not really inclined to babysit such a small brat like yourself.”

“Unfortunately, Seventh Brother is quite ruthless and cold, so when he told me to do something, I have to at least pretend that I am doing it. As such you will follow my group of friends but you will not be included in the actual group. Also, I will only step out and help you if you are in a deathly crisis, I have absolutely no plan of getting involved in your business.”

Luo Xiao narrowed his eyes when he heard what Jiang Bai said. To think that Jiang Yao had gone to the Ninth Prince just for the sake of looking after him, he felt quite touched, but then he was reminded of whom the older man had requested as his backup, and he was annoyed.

Luo Xiao had a rather bad firsthand impression of Jiang Bai, in fact, he was quite annoyed with him as well and wished that they had nothing to do with one another. But, since it was Jiang Yao’s wish that he followed behind them, then he would do so. After all, Jiang Yao was his world right now, and any wish that he might have was accepted by Luo Xiao.

Sensing the thoughts of Luo Xiao, Jiang Bai nodded his head, “Follow me then,” he said and started walking towards the rest of his friends again.

“This guy will follow us for some time,” Jiang Bai said with annoyance in his voice as he introduced Luo Xiao to the friends. “I promised someone to help to look after him, but you don’t have to worry about him, or take care of him, just let him live his own life while following us around.”

Although Jiang Bai didn’t say it directly, everyone understood that this young prince was not doing it because he wanted to. Although, they couldn’t imagine who had the power to ask such a request of him, Jiang Bai was their friend, and if he disliked someone, then they would also dislike him.

Being forced to be with someone who disliked him, Luo Xiao was rather annoyed, but he also knew that Jiang Yao had planned for him to join their group, so he wouldn’t go against his wishes.

As the group vanished, the people from the class quickly left the classroom to spread the information they had gained at the end of the class, and within hours, the entire academy knew that Luo Xiao was fixed to the name of Jiang Bai.

There were even rumors that this overly beautiful Luo Xiao was the lover of the Ninth Prince.

No one knew if this was the truth, but it was quickly circulated throughout the entire academy, and within moments, the news was also heard by Jiang Bai who instantly felt like smashing a lot of things in anger. Who was so stupid as to think that he would have fallen for a useless little boy?

Luo Xiao was not much better off when he heard it. He noticed that many were pointing fingers at him, looking at him, and gossiping about him. Although he was quite immune to people looking at him and talking about him, he still heard their rumors and his face turned livid in annoyance.

He had good taste okay? He wasn’t going to fall for an arrogant little young master who knew of nothing more than being annoying.

But Luo Xiao couldn’t say anything so his face was black and filled with annoyance as he left the Jiang Bai’s group. He returned to the central square of the academy where he started looking for tasks to do so he could earn more points.

Usually, points could be earned in different ways. One would get hundred points a month when one was at the Sky Rank, two hundred at the Moon Rank, five hundred at the Heaven Rank, and a thousand as an Emperor Rank cultivator.

However, this wasn’t many points considering that everything used them, so there were many who did extra missions to gain points.

Some of these missions were on campus while some were outside of the academy. There were missions made for single people and others aimed at groups of students.

Two hours travel on a flying beast away from the academy was one of the most visited magical forests where less intelligent beasts lived. This was one of the most visited places by the students and there were always many missions that asked for groups of students to go there, either for the sake of killing beasts and bringing back their cores, skin, horns, or other materials, or to pick up herbs which could be found within the forest.

There were also tasks in the academy such as tending to the herb gardens, cleaning, creating pills and medicinal salves, or assisting a medicinal cultivator or alchemist with their tasks.

Luo Xiao wanted to purchase some things. He wanted to purchase food for a longer period of time so that he could avoid visiting the restaurant. He was rather frugal as a person, and he was also rather poor.

He found that there were plenty of different cultivation grounds, and all of them, apart from the martial arts field, cost points to use.

The martial arts field was a place where one could go and train their skills, but skills also cost points purchase, and right now, Luo Xiao had no points to purchase them.

Luo Xiao was quite curious about medicinal plants. He had been astounded when he consumed the spiritual oranges and felt how they turned to energy within his body, and even more so, when he had consumed the Moon Anise.

He was going to earn points, but he had no friends to go hunting with, and he had no skills to hunt on his own either. All he had was the Divine Nebula Art, and although it was amazing for letting him cultivate quickly, it was not able to help him in fighting.

Seeing that he had some points left, Luo Xiao bought groceries for twenty points, groceries which would last him for quite some time. He had a storage pouch which was good at preserving food and other fresh things like herbs within.

The food he had within the storage pouch should last him for a full month, and it would also be fresh for the whole time as time stood still within the pouch.

There were many different kinds of storage pouches, the ones where time stood still were one of the rarest of all, and Luo Xiao obviously had been given the best of the best by Jiang Yao.

Having purchased some things he needed, Luo Xiao only had thirty-one points left on his card. He returned to his house feeling depressed and then started cooking food for himself. He had already attended the needed lesson for the week and wouldn’t have to attend another one before the next.

Since this was the case, he could begin earning points the following day. The feeling of having to earn currency was new to Luo Xiao. Before his father had taken care of him, and after that, Jiang Yao had taken care of him. Now he had to depend on himself and he suddenly felt very fulfilled.