Buying Dog Food for Ye Qingcheng

Ye Xuan looked at her without a single shred of pity in his eyes. Instead, he frowned slightly, as if earnestly correcting a mistake.

He shook his head, the corners of his mouth curling into an extremely vicious arc, and lightly spat out his final words:

"No, you are not a prostitute."

"Prostitutes only do it to survive. They have a clear price, and once the money is paid, the transaction is settled. At the very least, they live with a clear conscience."

Ye Xuan leaned forward slightly, his eyes filled with absolute contempt. "But you? You want to enjoy the resources brought by the admiration of thousands, yet you still want to erect a monument to your own chastity. You even dare to use the name of love to tie me to a pillar of shame!"

"Even a prostitute... is not as lowly as you."

Crack.

It was as if something inside Ye Qingcheng's mind had completely shattered.

It was her last shred of self-esteem, her final obsession that kept her going, and her very last illusion about the word love.

It all shattered. Crumbled into nothingness.

"Ahhhhhhhh!!!"

Ye Qingcheng suddenly let out a miserable shriek that tore through the night sky!

There was no anger in this scream, only endless despair, agony, and a deep-seated loathing for her own soul!

She had gone mad.

She abruptly scrambled up from the ground, not even daring to look at Ye Xuan again, terrified of meeting that gaze that treated her like a maggot.

She turned around and stumbled, crashing open the door of the Listening Rain Pavilion. Like a vengeful spirit abandoned by the world and burned by the light, she plunged headlong into the pitch-black rainstorm outside.

"I am a slut... I am a prostitute... I am lower than a prostitute..."

Through the wind and rain, her frantic cries could faintly be heard. Her wretched figure fell into the mud, scrambled back up, and continued running, eventually disappearing into the vast night of the Joyous Union Sect.

Inside the Listening Rain Pavilion, a deathly silence returned.

Only the glaring bloodstains scratched out by Ye Qingcheng remained on the floor tiles.

Ye Xuan stood quietly in place, looking at the wide-open door and listening to the furious storm outside.

The expression of fury, brutality, and heartbreak from just moments ago rapidly receded from his face like the ebbing tide.

It was replaced by a spine-chilling calmness and a cold sneer of absolute certainty.

He slowly walked to the table, picked up the top-grade jade slip emitting a faint glow that Ye Qingcheng had brought, and played with it carelessly in his hand.

He was never actually that angry.

Or rather, the Ye Xuan of his past life might have been so furious he lost his mind, but the current him was merely a calm spectator.

For a yandere and paranoid woman like this, physical punishment was completely meaningless.

They would even feel a twisted sense of pleasure from being noticed through your beatings and abuse.

If he wanted to completely control her and squeeze out every last drop of her value, he had to destroy her mentally.

He had to peel away her layers of disguise disguised as hidden difficulties and protection, dig out the ugliest and dirtiest parts of her heart in all their bloody glory, and lay them bare right in front of her.

Only by completely shattering her moral bottom line and making her realize what a despicable, lowly creature she was, would she lose all ability to resist.

"Loathe yourself, Ye Qingcheng."

Ye Xuan looked at the curtain of rain outside the door, the corners of his mouth curling into a chilling arc as he murmured softly.

"The more you feel your past is filthy and unbearable, the more you feel you are unworthy of me, the more you loathe yourself..."

"The more you will desperately try to compensate me, the more you will unscrupulously seek out resources for me, and the more... you will obey me like a truly obedient dog."

After the rain, the air in the Joyous Union Sect was filled with the earthy scent of mud and the faint, sweet fragrance of peach blossoms.

Ye Xuan did not rest immediately, nor did he pay any mind to the woman who had vanished into the rain.

He changed into a dry green robe and calmly called for Ying'er.

"Let's go. Accompany me for a walk."

Ying'er looked worriedly at the pitch-black night outside and whispered, "Master, it's so late... and she just ran out like that..."

"Her?" Ye Xuan adjusted his cuffs, a mocking arc on his lips. "Don't worry about it. When a wild dog gets drenched in the rain and feels the cold, it will naturally tuck its tail between its legs and come crawling back to beg for mercy. We are going to the market."

Ying'er did not dare to disobey. She quickly opened an oiled paper umbrella and followed closely behind Ye Xuan.

The outer sect market of the Joyous Union Sect was brightly lit even late at night. It was a chaotic place where all sorts of people mingled, selling various pills, magical artifacts, as well as slaves and human cauldrons abducted from the mortal realm.

Ye Xuan strolled along the bluestone path. The surrounding Joyous Union Sect disciples, dressed revealingly with frivolous gazes, cast peculiar looks at him when they saw him.

There was jealousy, contempt, and disdain.

"Look, that's the pretty boy Senior Sister Ye keeps."

"Tsk tsk, aside from being somewhat good-looking, he's completely useless. I really don't know what Senior Sister Ye sees in him."

"I heard there was a huge commotion at the Listening Rain Pavilion today. Could this piece of trash have been kicked out?"

These whispers were not deliberately hushed and clearly reached Ye Xuan's ears. Ying'er's small face turned pale with anger, and she wanted to step forward to argue, but Ye Xuan reached out and stopped her.

Ye Xuan's expression remained normal, even more leisurely than usual.

He led Ying'er through the bustling main street and turned into a dark, damp corner.

This place was filled with a foul animal stench. Various bizarre low-level demonic beasts were locked in cages, their mournful cries echoing one after another.

This was a shop called the Hundred Beasts Pavilion, specializing in selling spirit beasts and their rations.

"Shopkeeper."

Ye Xuan knocked on the grease-stained counter.

The fat shopkeeper, who had been dozing off, jolted awake. He wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and opened his sleepy eyes to see who had come.

When he clearly saw that although Ye Xuan had no spiritual energy fluctuations, the fabric of his robes was extremely exquisite, his eyes rolled, and he immediately put on a merchant's fake smile.

"Oh, young master, visiting so late at night, are you looking to buy a spirit pet to relieve your boredom? This humble one just got a batch of fox demons, and let me tell you, they are incredibly charming..."

"I'm not buying a pet," Ye Xuan interrupted him. His gaze swept over the dazzling array of bottles and jars in the shop as he said indifferently, "I'm buying food."

"Buying food?"

The fat shopkeeper was taken aback, then enthusiastically took out an exquisite jade bottle from behind him. "Understood! The young master wants to feed a spirit beast, right? This is the top-grade Jade Dew Pill, refined from century-old spirit herbs. Not only will it make a spirit beast's coat shiny, but it will also increase its demonic power. It only costs ten high-grade spirit stones per pill!"

Ye Xuan glanced at the crystal-clear pill, a hint of disgust flashing in his eyes, and shook his head.

"It's too good."

"Ah?" The fat shopkeeper thought he had misheard. "The young master thinks... it's too good?"

He thought for a moment and took out a slightly inferior porcelain bottle. "Then how about this? The Essence Meat Pill. Although it's not as good as the Jade Dew Pill, it's still made from the flesh and blood essence of level-one demonic beasts. Five mid-grade spirit stones."

Ye Xuan still shook his head, frowning slightly as if he was getting impatient. "I said, it's too good. It doesn't deserve to eat this kind of thing."

The fat shopkeeper was completely dumbfounded. In this day and age, there was actually someone who complained about things being too good?

He tentatively brought out several lower-grade feeds, even taking out the chaff and swill mixtures that mortals used to feed pigs, but Ye Xuan's expression only grew colder.

"Shopkeeper, do you not understand human speech?"

Ye Xuan tapped his knuckles lightly against the counter, producing a "thump, thump" sound that felt exceptionally oppressive in the silent night.

He leaned forward slightly, his pitch-black eyes staring at the shopkeeper, a chilling smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

"I asked you, do you have that kind of... lowest-grade, most vile, even moldy and spoiled dog food that even a stray dog would turn its nose up at?"

The fat shopkeeper's hair stood on end under Ye Xuan's eerie gaze. He swallowed hard and said, "This... Young Master, we run a legitimate business here, how could we sell spoiled goods..."

"But I recall you have quite a lot of unwanted waste piled up in your backyard, don't you?" Ye Xuan's gaze was like a torch, having already seen through everything. "Those ruined medicinal dregs mixed with rotting innards, the garbage you're preparing to throw away."

The fat shopkeeper's face changed. "That... that's for feeding the bugs, or it's the last meal for dying fighting beasts. It has almost no spiritual energy, and eating it will cause diarrhea..."

"I want exactly that."

Ye Xuan interrupted him, a gleam of satisfaction flashing in his eyes.

"Why?"

The fat shopkeeper couldn't hold back his curiosity. "Young Master, forgive my loose tongue, but even the lowliest mutt wouldn't live long after eating this stuff. Do you hold a grudge against your pet beast?"

Ye Xuan smiled.

Under the dim yellow light, his smile appeared exceptionally sinister, carrying a twisted sense of pleasure.

"A grudge? No, how could there be a grudge."

He unhurriedly fished out two dull, low-grade spirit stones from his sleeve—the most worthless currency in the cultivation world—and slapped them lightly on the counter.

"It's just that my dog is truly too cheap."

Ye Xuan's voice was very soft, yet every word was like a poisoned shard of ice:

"She's used to eating delicacies and has developed a rich man's disease, forgetting that in her bones, she's just a beast. If I feed her well, she'll think she's a somebody and will bite her master."

"Only by feeding her this mud-like garbage, letting her understand her status, will she obediently wag her tail and beg for mercy."

"Do you understand?"

The fat shopkeeper was utterly baffled, only feeling a chill run down his spine.

Though he didn't understand the deeper meaning, he instinctively felt that this mortal without any cultivation in front of him was far more terrifying than those vicious demonic cultivators.

"Under... understood..."

The fat shopkeeper dared not ask any more questions and hurriedly ran to the backyard. A short while later, he walked out carrying a tattered sack.

As soon as he drew near, a sour, putrid stench assaulted their noses, so overpowering that Ying'er, standing nearby, couldn't help but cover her nose and gag.

Inside the sack were clumps of black, rock-hard things covered in green mold patches, with undigested bone fragments faintly visible.

How was this food? It was simply poison.

"Young Master, it's all here... Two spirit stones, take it away." The fat shopkeeper tossed the sack onto the ground as if it were a hot potato.

Ye Xuan, however, showed no trace of disgust.

He even reached out, using a handkerchief to pinch a piece of the blackened "dog food," and examined it closely before his eyes.

"Hmm, rotten enough, smelly enough."

Ye Xuan nodded in satisfaction. "This decaying smell is an absolute perfect match for the aura on her body."

He lifted the heavy sack with one hand and turned to leave.

"Ying'er, let's go."

Stepping out of the Myriad Beast Pavilion, the wind blew outside, dispersing the foul stench just a bit.

Ying'er followed behind Ye Xuan, looking at the sack radiating the foul smell. She had held it in the whole way, but finally couldn't hold back anymore.

She quickly stepped up to Ye Xuan's side, tilted her head up, her large, clear eyes filled with confusion:

"Master... why did you buy these things?"

"We don't... have a dog in the Listening Rain Pavilion, do we?"

Ying'er tilted her head, trying hard to recall. "Besides, even if we were to raise a spirit beast to guard the house, can this stuff... really be eaten?"

Ye Xuan stopped in his tracks.

The night breeze blew his long hair, covering half of his face and making his expression appear dark and unreadable.

"Ying'er, who said we don't have a dog?"

Ye Xuan chuckled lightly. He reached out and tidied Ying'er's wind-tousled sideburns. His actions were gentle, but the words spilling from his mouth were terrifyingly cold.

"The dog we're raising is right there in the Listening Rain Pavilion, waiting for us."

"But..." Ying'er blinked, even more bewildered. "In the Listening Rain Pavilion, apart from me and Master, there's only..."

Halfway through her sentence, Ying'er's voice came to an abrupt halt.

As if suddenly realizing something, her pupils dilated instantly. Her small hands clamped over her mouth, looking at Ye Xuan in sheer horror.

"Could it be... could it be that you're talking about..."

That name was a taboo in the Joyous Sect. She was an unreachable existence, the divine maiden worshipped by all the disciples.

Even if Ying'er were given a hundred times her courage, she wouldn't dare connect that name with the word "dog."

Watching Ying'er's shocked appearance, the smile on Ye Xuan's lips gradually widened, finally turning into a cruel, manic laugh.

"That's right."

He patted the sack full of rotting dog food, his eyes flashing with the crazed thrill of vengeance:

"Isn't Ye Qingcheng just a dog?"

"A dog that wags her tail begging for pity, willingly degrades herself, and only feels at ease after eating this kind of garbage."

Boom!

Ying'er felt her worldview completely collapse in this very moment.

She looked at her master laughing so recklessly and wildly before her, and a wave of unprecedented awe surged in her heart, along with a trace of secret, indescribable excitement.

Treating an aloof, Tribulation-stage almighty, the Supreme Elder of the Joyous Sect, as a dog to be raised?

This was just... too crazy.