It was a strange sight. The Xingzi's eyes had no whites; they were entirely pitch-black.
But one could still see the absolute terror in its gaze.
Su Liyan pinned the Xingzi down by its neck. Her voice trembled with extreme rage, hoarse and strained.
In Su Liyan's grasp, the Xingzi was virtually helpless.
She had its neck in a death grip, and although it wanted to resist, it couldn't break free from her vise-like hold, unable to even make a sound.
Su Liyan showed no mercy to this Xingzi that had repeatedly frightened her man.
After a torrent of furious curses, Su Liyan tightened her grip.
With a final exertion of force, she snapped the Xingzi's neck, severing its head from its body.
Finally, the Xingzi's form dissipated completely.
Even as it vanished, the look of terror remained frozen on its face.
It was as if it never imagined that this breathtakingly beautiful woman possessed a power that matched her looks.
Of course Su Liyan knew how to curse.
And just now, her curses had been utterly foul.
After all...
As a girl who grew up in the village, she had seen far too many scenes of the old village women cussing each other out in the street.
Once Su Liyan had dealt with the Xingzi and her body returned from its state of ancestral regression, she stood stunned for a moment, then suddenly covered her mouth with her delicate hand, a look of shock on her face.
'Oh, dear!'
'What I just said... it was so vulgar...'
'Then again... this ancestral regression... it makes it so hard to control my emotions.'
Su Liyan stood dazed for a while longer before hurrying away.
However, just as she reached the stone bridge on her way home, Su Liyan thought of something else.
She looked back into the pitch-black night, snorted coldly, and said:
"You worthless things, you don't listen to reason."
"You ate the steamed buns and rice from my house, and you still dare to come and scare my man."
"From now on, if any of you dare to scare my man again, it won't be as simple as having your soul scattered to the winds!"
"I'll string you all up on a willow tree and whip your worthless hides day and night!"
It seemed Su Liyan was threatening the Xingzi with something they found truly terrifying.
After Su Liyan finished speaking, the dark night remained silent.
Only a chilling wind gusted past, carrying a shiver with it as if in response.
Su Liyan stood on the stone bridge for another moment, then snorted again and turned for home.
When Su Liyan crept back home, she saw her man still sound asleep in bed, not having even changed his position.
Su Liyan, who had worn a frosty expression just moments before, now had an incredibly gentle look on her face.
She quickly shed her clothes, slipped under the covers, and found a comfortable spot in her man's arms.
Only then, her face full of blissful sweetness, did she hug him and go to sleep.
There was something Lu Yuan didn't know.
Which was...
...that Su Liyan was, in fact, a bona fide Celestial Master.
It wasn't as simple as she had previously claimed, that she had just learned a little from her mother.
Su Liyan's mother was also a bona fide Celestial Master.
In an era where supernatural phenomena ran rampant, being a Celestial Master was actually a very powerful and highly respected profession.
Forget about being a Celestial Master.
Even a mere Little Traveler could join the Guild and live the high life.
Let alone an orthodox Celestial Master like Su Liyan.
And yet... why was it that Su Liyan, a Celestial Master, or rather, her family, with a mother and daughter who were both Grand Celestial Masters, found it difficult just to survive?
The reason, once again, was because of their identity.
There was nothing to be done. That's just how this world was; it valued orthodoxy.
You were either a pure demon, or you were a pure human.
Someone like Su Liyan, a Half-human Half-demon...
...was born to be discriminated against.
Even if you had skills, others wouldn't employ you.
It went even further...
The moment people saw you were a Half-demon, they'd assume your skills were meant for harm and specifically target you.
Su Liyan had heard from her mother that when she was young, during the previous dynasty, there was even a trend of killing Celestial Masters of other races.
It was all because people believed that Celestial Masters from other races would harm them.
Although things were different now, it was still better to hide one's identity if possible.
After all, who could say for sure that such a trend wouldn't happen again?
Unfair, you say?
This world was never fair to begin with.
However, the situation was slowly improving.
This was thanks to the current Empress Ma.
Years ago, while accompanying the Emperor on a southern tour, Empress Ma had seen the extremely miserable lives of many Half-human Half-demons in the south.
The kind-hearted Empress Ma persuaded the Emperor to abandon many of the ugly customs of the previous dynasty.
She had also been continuously working to elevate the status of Half-demons like Su Liyan.
At the very least, according to the laws of the Empire, Su Liyan was a citizen of the Divine Ling Empire.
In recent years, a special law had even been passed forbidding the bullying of the Half-human Half-demon Race.
Now, speaking ill of the Half-human Half-demon Race was considered undermining the unity of the Empire, an offense punishable by imprisonment!
Of course, that was the law on the books.
However, laws passed down from the top often lost their teeth by the time they reached the local level.
In the local regions, not much had actually changed.
Especially for those living in isolated rural villages, things were still pretty much the same as they had always been.
Still, change was a good thing.
She believed that in another ten or twenty years, people's attitudes would slowly shift.
It's just that Su Liyan wouldn't be able to enjoy it now.
But for the Su Liyan of today, it no longer mattered.
Because she now had a man who doted on her completely.
Su Liyan felt she was already the happiest woman in the world.
Snuggled in Lu Yuan's arms, Su Liyan opened her beautiful eyes and couldn't resist leaning in to give her man a couple of smooches.
Only then, satisfied and with a happy, shy smile, did she nestle back into his embrace.
But Su Liyan still hoped people's perspectives would change a little faster.
After all...
'I want to give my man lots and lots of sons~'
Su Liyan didn't want their sons to suffer the same treatment she had.
...
「The next morning.」
Lu Yuan sat up in bed, yawning.
Su Liyan, her face beaming with happiness, was dressing her man.
"Make sure you eat a good lunch at home. I'm going to the Guild today," Lu Yuan said with a yawn.
Su Liyan nodded obediently.
In reality, there was no longer any need to go to the Guild, because there were no more Xingzi around the village.
Su Liyan had chased them all away yesterday.
But Su Liyan thought about it and decided it was better not to tell her man that she was a Celestial Master.
Although Su Liyan didn't think her husband was that kind of person... but... Su Liyan was a little afraid he might stop liking her because of it.
It was just like with her mother.
Once, when their family had absolutely nothing to eat, her mother had been forced to use a Magic Skill to help a family in exchange for some food.
She hadn't even fully displayed her Magic Skill, just used a little trick, but she ended up being targeted.
Whenever someone in the village got a headache or a fever, they would claim her mother was behind it, casting spells to harm them.
It got to the point where, once, during an argument, her father—who had no filter—got carried away and blurted out that he was afraid her mother would use her magic to harm him.
As a result, her mother was so angry she didn't eat for three days and just cried in her room.
'Anyway,' Su Liyan thought, 'I'm not going to follow the path of a Celestial Master in the future.'
'My whole life will be about staying by my man's side, serving him, just like a girl from an ordinary family.'
'So I won't tell him I'm a Celestial Master. It'll save him from having any reservations about me.'
'Once this incident is over, everything will be fine. The two of us will live peacefully in the village from now on.'
At least, that's what Su Liyan thought.
Just as Su Liyan finished dressing Lu Yuan and was crouching down to put on his shoes for him...
Aunt Li walked in, and her face darkened at the sight before her.
'Seriously...'
'Are you treating her like a workhorse?!'
'You can't even put on your own clothes anymore??'