Demoness, Stop! - Chapter 12 - Chapter 12 – Jiang Li’s Identity

It was night.

Midnight.

At Baiyun Temple, in Li Yu’s room.

Li Yu sat on one side of the table. On the other side sat a young girl.

She looked to be seventeen or eighteen, with delicately arched brows, a refined nose, and skin like polished jade—soft, glowing, and beautiful as if painted by hand. In all of Baiyun Temple, when it came to looks alone, no one could surpass her—not even Senior Sister Zhou, who would have to give up the title of temple belle.

The girl was charming and delicate, but her gaze toward Li Yu was a mix of embarrassment and anger. She huffed, “Didn’t I tell you? No matter what time it is, you have to knock before coming into my room…”

Facing this girl who looked so much like Jiang Li, Li Yu was speechless.

He still couldn’t wrap his head around it. The friend he’d shared meals and beds with, laughed with and fought alongside, gone through thick and thin with for two whole years… was actually a girl?

The original owner of this body must’ve been an idiot.

Living, eating, and training side by side for two years, and he never realized his best bro was a girl?

Or… did he actually figure it out long ago and just pretended not to know?

Li Yu combed through his memories carefully—and found that, no, the guy genuinely had no idea.

Even after transmigrating into this body, Li Yu had never doubted Jiang Li’s gender. Jiang Li had always acted a bit shy and awkward, but Li Yu just chalked that up to his reserved personality. Back then, Jiang Li had looked every bit like a refined and elegant young man.

But the girl sitting across from him now—was clearly, unmistakably, a woman.

Li Yu stared at her for a long while, arms crossed. Finally, he said, “Alright… explain. What the hell is going on here?”

Seeing how serious Li Yu looked, Jiang Li began to feel a little guilty. She shrank her neck back and mumbled, “I didn’t lie to you on purpose. My father and mother were worried I’d get bullied outside, so they told me to disguise myself as a man…”

Li Yu still couldn’t quite believe it. “But… how did you make it so convincing?”

Jiang Li put on a jade pendant around her neck—and in an instant, her entire aura changed.

She transformed into the version of Jiang Li that Li Yu had always known: sword-like brows, starry eyes, and that graceful, noble air of a handsome young man.

Then she took the pendant off—and reverted to the lively and beautiful young girl from before.

A moment later, Li Yu sat there turning the jade pendant over in his hands.

It was truly miraculous. When Jiang Li removed the pendant, she was undeniably a girl. But once she wore it, both her aura and voice would change, making her appear completely male—just slightly on the pretty side.

Li Yu hadn’t expected that the pendant she always wore was actually an artifact that concealed her true identity.

Which meant… Jiang Li wasn’t the Crown Prince of the Jiang Dynasty—she was the Crown Princess.

No wonder she didn’t like Senior Sister Zhou. If Li Yu were in her shoes, he wouldn’t either.

He handed the pendant back without another word. Although the two of them were already as close as siblings, Li Yu still didn’t know how to face her now.

Jiang Li lowered her head and softly said, “Please… don’t tell anyone else about this just yet.”

Li Yu nodded, then added, “I really didn’t do it on purpose earlier.”

“…Fine. Let’s just call it even,” Jiang Li said, her cheeks slightly pink. Then she quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, what did you come to me for this late at night?”

Li Yu went along with the shift and didn’t press the topic further. “I wanted to borrow your cultivation technique and have a look.”

Jiang Li said nothing, simply turned around and left the room. A moment later, she returned with a thin booklet, handed it to Li Yu, and then walked back to her own room as if nothing had ever happened.

Li Yu closed the door and sat by the bed for a while, gradually coming to terms with the fact that his “brother” was actually a girl.

He shook his head, clearing out the messy thoughts, then opened the booklet in his hand.

Jiang Li’s cultivation technique was a basic water-attribute art called Watercloud Technique (Shuiyun Jue). The meridian diagram showed that the water spirit meridian started at the Yufu acupoint and ended at the Yongquan point. The acupoint that had been opened by that spirit lotus earlier was located above the left chest—it was precisely the Yufu point.

In other words, three of his five spirit meridians had already been opened.

Of course, Li Yu couldn’t cultivate all three at once—it would be a waste of time. With equal talent and effort, someone else might already be at the ninth level of Qi Refining, while he’d only be at the third. Even if their actual spiritual power was about the same, once someone at the ninth level broke through to Foundation Establishment, their strength would drastically improve—and most importantly, their lifespan would also significantly increase. Li Yu was well aware of what was at stake.

Thinking back on everything that had happened these past few days, Li Yu lay down on the bed and fell asleep fully clothed.

It was a dreamless night.

—

The next morning, Li Yu was still fast asleep when a knock on the door woke him.

He quickly threw on a robe and opened the door to find two people standing outside.

One was Chen Ming. The other was Zhou Zixuan.

Yawning, Li Yu asked, “Senior Sister Zhou, what brings you here so early?”

Zhou Zixuan smiled slightly. “Junior Brother Li, I’m planning to head into the mountains to search for spirit herbs. Want to come with me?”

Besides helping mortals exorcise ghosts, herb hunting was another way to earn spirit coins. Some aged herbs could be worth anywhere from a few to over a dozen spirit coins. And if you got lucky and found something like a Vermilion Fruit, you could strike it rich overnight—though the odds were abysmally low, like winning the lottery. In the two years Li Yu had been at Baiyun Temple, he hadn’t heard of anyone actually finding one.

Just as Zhou Zixuan finished, Chen Ming got anxious and jumped in. “Li Yu, I’ve got a ghost-hunting mission in town. It pays forty spirit coins. Interested? If it works out, you take sixty percent, I take forty.”

Zhou Zixuan frowned slightly and said to Chen Ming, “Senior Brother Chen, I invited Junior Brother Li first.”

Chen Ming replied nonchalantly, “What’s this about who asked first? Li Yu can choose whichever task he wants. It’s his call.”

Zhou Zixuan snapped back, “It’s just a minor exorcism task. Why would it need two people?”

Chen Ming shot back, “Then by that logic, you don’t need two people to hunt herbs either. You’re clearly just trying to spend time alone with him—don’t think I can’t tell what you’re really after.”

Zhou Zixuan stamped her foot in frustration. Of course she could handle herb hunting alone—she just wanted a chance to be alone with Li Yu. But now that Chen Ming had exposed her intentions in front of him, it was so embarrassing. She was still a girl, after all—couldn’t he give her some face?

Ugh, this Chen Ming—why is he so annoying!?

Chen Ming looked at Li Yu with hopeful eyes, waiting for his answer.

After what happened last time, he had come to a realization: the path of cultivation was full of danger. A powerful man was far more valuable than a pretty woman.

Rather than sucking up to Sister Zhou, it was better to curry favor with Li Yu.

Zhou Zixuan turned to Li Yu and asked, “Junior Brother Li, who would you rather go with?”

Of course, Li Yu preferred the ghost-hunting mission. Herb gathering relied entirely on luck—there was a high chance of returning empty-handed without earning even a single spirit coin. Ghost-hunting, on the other hand, guaranteed at least twenty or more coins, and it wasn’t particularly dangerous. Even if something unexpected did happen…it’d actually be a good thing for him.

With that mysterious incense burner in his possession, Li Yu was hoping a powerful ghost would show up. One appears, he absorbs one; two show up, he absorbs both. It would be the perfect opportunity to see what the burner was capable of now that it had been repaired.

He barely hesitated before opening his mouth: “I—”

Afraid that Li Yu might be swayed by Zhou Zixuan’s beauty, Chen Ming quickly cut in, “Li Yu, think carefully. If something dangerous happens, Sister Zhou won’t be of any help—she’ll just stand on the side and watch. Last time, it was all you and me doing the work. If we team up again, even ghosts at the Qi Refining level wouldn’t stand a chance!”

Zhou Zixuan’s face flushed bright red in anger. She gritted her teeth and snapped, “Chen Ming, you—!”

Chen Ming refused to back down. “What? I’m just telling the truth. Last time, did you do anything useful?”

Zhou Zixuan fired back, “And you were useful? If you hadn’t recklessly used up all your spiritual power and gotten possessed by that female ghost, would we have had all those problems afterward?”

Being possessed by a female ghost had already made Chen Ming the butt of many jokes. It was a sore spot for him. Hearing Zhou Zixuan bring it up again, he became visibly agitated. “Don’t think I don’t see what you’re really after. You’re just drooling over Li Yu’s looks! Li Yu, you better watch out for Sister Zhou. The road to immortality is long—and women only slow us down!”