A Consequence of Opposing the Heroine’s Halo (GL) - Chapter 7

The demonic cultivator was heavily injured and hadn’t fled far before Chu Danxue caught up. This was where Liu Sanye’s role as a hostage came into play.

His ghostly claws clamped directly onto Liu Sanye’s neck. “If you dare chase me further, I’ll kill her!”

Chu Danxue trembled with rage at the despicable demon. “You are truly sinister, taking a child hostage!”

The demon laughed at her attempt to discuss morality. “Since ancient times, the strong have preyed on the weak. It’s this ant’s blessing to be held by me, Old Demon Qiu. Enough nonsense! If you don’t back off right now, I’ll strangle her!”

As he spoke, he actually tightened his grip. Liu Sanye’s eyes rolled back, and the veins on her neck throbbed.

Chu Danxue was forced to retreat. “Stop! I’ll let you leave, but you must let her go!”

Old Demon Qiu grinned. “If I let her go, you’ll just kill me. Do you think I’m stupid?”

“Do you think I am like you people of the demonic path, breaking my word?!”

“The disciples of your Hegui Sect are full of double-dealers. Who knows if you’re one of them?”

“You!” Chu Danxue gritted her teeth, the Snow-Flame Butterfly beside her vibrating with waves of white fire. She glared at him. “Do not slander us! My Hegui Sect acts with honor and integrity!”

“Integrity? Ha! I bet someone could sell you and you’d still help them count the money!”

Old Demon Qiu burst into laughter, intending to mock her further, but his arrogance agitated his injuries, causing him to cough up bloody foam. Realizing he couldn’t stay long, he lowered his demands: “How about this? Once I’ve reached a safe distance, I’ll release the brat and you can come find her yourself.”

Chu Danxue was suspicious, remembering her master’s warning never to trust the demonic path. “How can I believe you?”

Old Demon Qiu held up four fingers without hesitation. “I swear by my Inner Demon: if I do not release this child after escaping, may I die a horrible death!”

Seeing him swear by his Inner Demon, Chu Danxue believed most of it. “Fine. I will let you go. But if you break your promise, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth!” She moved aside to clear his path.

Old Demon Qiu’s eyebrows twitched with a treacherous smile as he bolted away.

Watching the whole scene, Liu Sanye shook her head inwardly. She finally understood why Chu Danxue died so miserably in the later plot. This guy was a demonic cultivator; what use was swearing by an “Inner Demon”? Chu Danxue was far too naive!

Old Demon Qiu’s spiritual energy was depleted; he was running on borrowed time. Liu Sanye only needed to follow the heroine’s original plan from the book to finish him off.

In the original plot, the demon passes through a Miasma Forest. The book explained that a previous Peak Master of Green Wood Peak had created this forest as an experiment while trying to set up the “Poison Wood Abyss”—one of the Twelve Abysses—around the sect.

The Miasma Forest only affected cultivators, leaving mortals unharmed. Liu Sanye didn’t know why such a “bug-like” location existed right here, nor how the original heroine knew about it; she just chalked it up to the Protagonist Aura.

After running for half an hour, Old Demon Qiu decided he was safe from Chu Danxue and prepared to slaughter Liu Sanye. Just then, a characteristic fog enveloped them.

Knowing they had reached the forest, Liu Sanye mimicked the heroine’s frightened tone: “Are… are you really going to let me go?”

Old Demon Qiu’s smile was terrifying. “Of course I’ll let you go.”

Liu Sanye looked ahead and said boldly, “If… if you don’t, my Senior Brother won’t let you off!”

Senior Brother? Old Demon Qiu followed her gaze. He remembered only the girl had chased him, and the boy was nowhere to be seen. Was he lying in ambush? He hesitated, deciding to stay within the miasma to recover.

The moment his feet touched the ground, Liu Sanye knew her chance had come. She jammed two fingers into the demon’s eyes with all her might. As he shrieked in pain, she rolled off him and sprinted away!

“You little brat, you’re dead!” He reacted instantly. He had never been played by an ant. His ghost-claws lunged out to crush her.

Liu Sanye was scared out of her wits, running for her life. Just as the claws were about to reach her, several vines of black liquid erupted from the ground and snared the demon’s arm.

The flowing vines made a sound like crumpling plastic, startling Old Demon Qiu. They multiplied rapidly, climbing up his entire arm like countless tentacles.

He tried to blast them apart with demonic qi, but the vines seemed excited by it and began devouring his energy directly.

“What is this thing?!” Panicked, he ignored Liu Sanye and drew his demonic blade, hacking wildly. But the more he cut, the more vines appeared. They drained his qi and eventually even corroded his blade into nothing.

In his prime, he might have escaped at the cost of his vitality. In his current state, there was only death.

Liu Sanye heard his piercing screams behind her. She covered her ears and hid behind a large tree. After waiting for the time it takes to burn an incense stick, she figured he was dead and went back to check.

The black vines were gone. Only Old Demon Qiu’s body lay there. The thick fog made the scene look incredibly eerie.

“Hey! Old Demon, you okay?” No sound.

She got closer. His eyes were shut, his face bloodless. She kicked his outstretched hand. No reaction.

“He must be dead…” She crouched and checked for a pulse. Nothing.

Now that he was definitely dead, Liu Sanye eagerly began searching for his storage bag. “I remember Bai Tong found the Silver-Ring Half-Moon Herb in his storage bag. It should be on his waist… why isn’t it here?”

She used all her strength to flip the body over. Nothing on the front, nothing on the back!

What the hell?! She searched his head, shoulders, pockets, and even the soles of his shoes. Nothing.

“Dammit! Where is it? In the book, the heroine didn’t even have to search; the bag just fell at her feet! It should be obvious!”

“Did it fall on the ground?” She began a ten-meter radius search, inch by inch.

Eventually, she collapsed from exhaustion next to the corpse, staring from his head to his toes. She lay back and sighed at the sky.

“Is it because I’m not the protagonist that the ‘cheat code’ vanished…?”

To make matters worse, her stomach growled. She looked up and saw the horizon turning white. She had stayed up all night to steal a treasure and had absolutely nothing to show for it!

She felt a wave of regret. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have tried. Now the herb is gone, I can’t go home, and Bai Tong has lost her chance to fix her spiritual roots. It’s a lose-lose situation!”

Thinking of Bai Tong’s heart-wrenching scream when she was taken, Liu Sanye’s guilt spiked. She rubbed her hair into a messy bird’s nest. “No! I have to find it!” She stood up and started searching again.

However, she found nothing by the time Chu Danxue arrived.

“The demon is dead?”

Liu Sanye nodded. Chu Danxue didn’t dare enter the Miasma Forest; she used her divine sense to check. Confirming he was gone, she looked at Liu Sanye in amazement. “What happened last night?”

Liu Sanye played the part of a traumatized child, babbling incoherently: “I don’t know! He dragged me into the fog and tried to kill me! I was so scared! Just when I thought I was dead, black vines came and killed him!”

“This forest devours a cultivator’s essence. He must have died from exhaustion. Truly, evil has its retribution.” Chu Danxue frowned, then relaxed and gently patted Liu Sanye’s head. “Don’t be afraid, Sanye. You’re safe now. I’ll take you back.”

Chu Danxue picked her up and flew back. She had searched for Liu Sanye all night while injured; her lips were pale and her face was lined with fatigue.

Liu Sanye felt a pang of emotion. “Senior Sister, thank you. Thank you for worrying about me.”

Chu Danxue gave a wry smile. “It was my failure as the Eldest Senior Sister that led to this. How can you thank me? I should have protected everyone, yet my mistake almost cost you your life…”

“Nobody’s perfect,” Liu Sanye replied quickly. “You don’t have six arms; you can’t be everywhere. In my eyes, you’re doing a great job!”

Chu Danxue looked at her. “Really?”

Liu Sanye nodded vigorously. “In my heart, you are the most perfect Eldest Senior Sister!”

Chu Danxue smiled softly and whispered, “Thank you.”

After they left, the “dead” Old Demon Qiu in the forest suddenly opened his eyes.

Although he was awake, his expression was completely different—no longer ferocious, but looking like a different person entirely. He looked around in confusion, then a strange light flashed in his eyes.

“I… have to steal Bai Tong’s luck?”