Rest in a Demon's Embrace

Luo Xiao worked at the fields all day and only took a single break when his stomach growled so loudly that he was dragged away from the hard work.

Knowing that he was going to be working all day, Luo Xiao had brought some plain bread with him to eat during the day along with some water to drink.

At first, some people had come to observe him, point fingers at him, and gossip amongst themselves, but after seeing that he paid them no heed, and was fully focused on weeding the gardens, they all slowly vanished once they got bored.

But soon everyone knew that the person who had caused the entire academy to be turned upside down was weeding at the herb gardens. His exquisite clothes were now stained with dirt and his beautiful face covered with sweat.

This was not the behavior of a person who was a high rank in the social strata, he was obviously just a silly country bumpkin. No matter how they looked at him, no matter how attractive he was, he did not behave like nobility.

Now, it was much more likely that he was indeed disliked by Jiang Bai, if he had actually been the ninth prince’s lover, then he would never let him work like this and many were filled with loathing towards him.

Those who had originally been filled with excitement and hoped that they could connect with this young man to abuse the strength or powerful backing of his to gain something all abandoned their thoughts.

More and more of them were uncomfortable about having looked up to this peasant, and now, they were eager to step on him when he was down.

“Do you think he sold himself for the sake of those clothes?”

“He is pretty like a spirit, perhaps he has joined some faction secretly?”

“Why would anyone pay attention to such a weak cultivator, I’m sure that he has inherited the clothes.”

Many theories were spread, but one thing was certain, this young man was not an important figure, so instead, they wanted to use him as a means to get connected with the ninth prince.

Luo Xiao was completely oblivious to what was happening. He was fully focused on his work, and as long as he was in the fields, no one made things difficult for him.

As the sun started to set, Luo Xiao straightened his back and stretched his arms. He went to the house where he had been earlier and picked up the twenty points he had earned.

“I’ll come back tomorrow morning,” he told the clerk, who no longer looked at him with curiosity but with slight disgust.

Luo Xiao frowned. He was unaware of many things in the world, but he could feel when others disliked him or had ulterior motives. He was a soul cultivator,so he was very sensitive to people’s feelings and their moods. It was clear that this person felt some disgust towards him, but Luo Xiao was unaware of why and what might have caused such a thing. He had done nothing today apart from working in the garden?

Realizing that something might have happened while he was working, Luo Xiao didn’t want to stay there much longer. He was curious about what exactly could have happened, and he was feeling very uncomfortable about the way he was being looked at.

As he left the house, he was instantly surrounded by a group of seven young men. These young men were all around sixteen to eighteen years old, older than Luo Xiao.

They were all from the Sky Class, but because they were from the Qi system or had picked another day of the week to go to lectures, Luo Xiao was unaware of who they were.

The same lecture were taught every day for a week before changed to a new lecture. The students could go to the lecture whenever they pleased, and this was why there were so few students when he had gone to the class last time.

Because of this he was unfamiliar with these experts in front of him. One of them was a soul cultivator, while the rest were Qi cultivators.

Within the academy, ninety percent were Qi cultivators while the remaining ten percent were soul cultivators.

“What can I do for you?” Luo Xiao asked when he saw them surrounding him, his eyebrows furrowed as he was wondering what exactly they wanted.

Snickering, they looked at Luo Xiao as if they had seen something amusing. “What do we want?” the soul cultivator was the one to speak. It was clear that he was the leader of the group. “We want you to stay away from his highness the Ninth Demon Prince. You might be beautiful but his highness will never fancy such trash as yourself. He is just keeping you close so that he can destroy your life.”

The furrow between Luo Xiao’s brows deepened and he sighed. “So you are here to cause trouble?” He asked calmly.

Luo Xiao was quiet and quite naive but he was far from dumb. He understood their attitude instantly and couldn’t help but be rather annoyed.

He hadn’t wanted to have any connection with Jiang Bai, but now it had come to cause problems for him. He wrecked his brain trying to come up with a way to escape the current predicament, but he couldn’t think of anything.

He had the Divine Nebula Art but no skills to protect himself with. Annoyed with the trouble that Jiang Bai had caused him, Luo Xiao sighed and pinched the bridge between his nose.

“I don’t want to have anything to do with the Ninth Demon Prince,” Luo Xiao said with an annoyed voice, “I have nothing to do with him, and I will have nothing to do with him in the future. But even if I did, what is it to you?”

“Brat, you dare to talk back at us?!” The soul cultivator felt that his dignity was being stepped upon by this young man, as he didn’t care at all about what they were doing to him.

Not far away, in the shadows of a tree was Jiang Bai leaning against the tree trunk, his eyes slightly narrowed and his arms crossed across his chest.

He watched how Luo Xiao was surrounded, and he had to admit he was surprised by how calm the young boy was. It was as if he hadn’t realized that he was going to be beaten.

Luo Xiao was casual and annoyed. He knew that he was in a bad position, but he had already determined that this group would at most beat him. Although he had never been beaten before because of his body being weak, he had been in constant pain when he was younger, so he wasn’t scared of pain.

There was no chance that they would kill him. As a student of the academy, it was obvious that they wouldn’t dare to go beyond a certain degree of violence.

It was also because of this, that Luo Xiao just shrugged his shoulders at everything they said to him, his face apathetic and his behavior quite careless.

When Jiang Bai saw him the first time he thought he was an adorable little doll-like boy. A boy that accepted everything done to him, a little pretty boy that only knew how to use his appearance to be protected by others, while Jiang Yao was temporarily smitten by his beauty.

Now it seemed that Jiang Bai was mistaken. Luo Xiao wasn’t as simple as he seemed.

Looking at the people who had surrounded him, Luo Xiao stood still. He was aware that he couldn’t escape them, nor could he beat them up. The only option he had was to accept the beating that was in store for him, and having accepted this fact, he was so calm that it unsettled the others.

“Beat him up!” The soul cultivator grit his teeth and ordered the Qi cultivators by his side. The Qi cultivators hesitated for a moment, but they were the hired thugs by the soul cultivator and thus they did as ordered. They rushed at Luo Xiao and let punches and kicks rain down on him.

Luo Xiao was a soul cultivator so his body was weak compared to the Qi cultivators and it did not take long before his entire body was beaten black and blue. Only when blood leaked down from the corner of his lips did the Qi cultivators stop. Their eyes gleamed with excitement, but Luo Xiao hadn’t uttered a single sound throughout the entire beating, and when they were done, he just looked at them with cold eyes.

“Are you done?” he asked, his voice carrying the same annoyance as before, as if the pain he had experienced wasn’t his own.

Jiang Bai, who was standing at the tree, looked astonished at this scene in front of him. It seemed that he had truly underestimated this doll.

The soul cultivator was also deeply shocked. Had it not been for the bruises that started to show on his body and the trail of blood on his face, then he would have thought that they had actually not hit him at all.

“If you’re done, then I have to go now.” Luo Xiao didn’t wait any longer, instead, he just started walking. Every step was painful, but he was determined to not show his weakness to anyone.

As he started to walk away, the Qi cultivators subconsciously opened a path for him. Everyone was shocked by what they saw and it was so silent that the sound of a pin being dropped would haven been heard.

“Bastard!” Finally, the soul cultivator came back to his senses as he saw the back of Luo Xiao disappearing into the distance. It was too late to actually catch up to him, but as long as the young man was at the academy, it would be possible to beat him and scold him. No one would care if he was beaten or cast aside by the rest of the world.

Little did they know that Luo Xiao didn’t care either. Although he would like friends, the main thing for him was to increase his cultivation so that he could stand by Jiang Yao’s side without being his weakness.

Returning to his house, Luo Xiao took a bath. He then changed his clothes before washing the dirty ones and started to dry them.

He had a lot of clothes that Jiang Yao had prepared for him, all of them were white and from the Royal Cloth shop.

He took another set of white clothes with a light blue-lined edge. His clothes were all very comfortable, and once he was wearing the new set, he made some quick food before he sat down on the bed and started cultivating.

He was now a cultivator. Although he was only at the Low Sky Rank, he now didn’t need as much sleep and food as he had when he was a mere mortal.

It was no problem to skip sleeping for a few days as long as he kept a balanced mental state. Now that Jiang Yao was no longer by his side, he felt no urge to sleep; instead, he was completely motivated to cultivate so that he could enhance his strength.

He needed to gather enough points so that he could buy some soul skills. He wasn’t happy with his inability to fight back, but he was not at a point where he would go to Jiang Yao and complain. He could still manage on his own.

Luo Xiao cleared his mind of all thoughts and focused fully on cultivating. He felt the essence of the heavens and the earth entering his body and slowly become refined into soul energy.