“Hey.” Shen Ying nudged him and exclaimed, “What happened to you? Chef… Disciple, don’t you scare me!”

　　“Master… Do… not… worry! It’s alright!”

　　How could he be alright, especially since he had vomited blood? Holy shit he’s still vomiting!

　　Shen Ying was flustered. She had just accepted a disciple, but would it only be a one-off episode? She did not how to cure people and in addition to that, she was unsure of how things worked in this world. She pondered for a moment before rushing into the forest, conveniently grabbing hold of a small animal nearby that had just stepped out of the Demon Realm to get it to look for the rabbit.

　　The rabbit was rather quick as it had hopped over and arrived under ten minutes.

　　“Exalted Immortal, were you looking for me?”

　　“Come in to the kitchen… Uh, it’s the disciple.” She beckoned it to come over.

　　The Rabbit Monarch quickly manifested a human form and followed suit. A person who barely had any breath left was lying on the ground with an eerie-looking flag beside them, and what happened could be immediately inferred.

　　“Exalted Immortal, demonic aura has invaded Benefactor’s body and since he has just regulated his meridians, he did not manage to discharge the demonic aura in time. On top of that, he forcefully used Spirit Qi to seal the eerie flag causing the demonic aura to invade and harm his internal organs, thereby resulting in the damage of his Golden Core.”

　　What did that mean? She did not understand a thing.

　　“So how can it be cured?”

　　“This…” The Rabbit Monarch was perplexed as it shook its ears and replied, “Demonic aura has been known to be extremely toxic to cultivators. The aura has been circulating in Benefactor’s body for a long time, so it will be difficult to expel it unless… we use the internal core of a demons to draw it out of his body.”

　　“What’s a demon’s core?”

　　“Before attaining wisdom, every demon will form a demon core within their bodies.” The Rabbit Monarch pointed at its own stomach. “It is the foundation of the demon races’ cultivation. Also, a normal demon core will not work. Only the core of a demon that is eighth-stage or above can be used.”

　　“This…” Shen Ying looked at the rabbit’s stomach, subtly implying something.

　　The Rabbit Monarch shivered and retreated a couple of steps, crying out, “Exalted Immortal, I… I cannot do this! Although I am a tenth-stage Demon Monarch, once the demon core leaves my body… I will be a dead rabbit.”

　　“Oh.” Shen Ying was clearly disappointed.

　　“Master, you need not worry about me,” said Yi Qing hurriedly, vomiting blood at the same time. “I willingly drew out my power to seal the Soul Devouring Gonfalon. It does not concern anyone else. To die after… being accepted under your wing, I… can die with no regrets!”

　　“If you can’t talk, then stop talking.” Shen Ying sighed and squatted beside him, patting his back to help him regulate his breath. She then suddenly thought of something and directed her gaze at the Rabbit Monarch, asking, “Rabbit, how does a demon core look like?”

　　“It may vary.” The Rabbit Monarch shrunk backwards in fear. “There are different kinds of demons among us and our innate natures differ, making it so that our internal cores differ as well. Although they are all round in shape, the colors usually change according to the innate nature and powers of a demon.”

　　“Oh…” She tilted her head as she fell into a momentarily daze. “Do they all grow in the stomach?”

　　The Rabbit Monarch nodded and replied, “Yes, they are usually located in the Dantian region.”

　　“In that case…” An idea seemed to flash across her face. All of a sudden, she turned to the bed beside her and dug beneath it, leaving only two of her feet dangling outside. Rummaging noises were heard for a while until she stumbled out with a huge gunny sack and threw it directly to the rabbit.

　　“Rabbit, look. Do they look like that?”

　　Puzzled, the Rabbit Monarch tried to open the sack but lost its grip and almost half of the contents in the bag fell out. ‘Pearls’ of different sizes and colors of all sorts, including red, black, blue and so on, dropped out and rolled onto the ground.

　　“Demon… demon cores!” The rabbit was utterly shocked. “This… this…” There were so many—such a huge sack should contain thousands of cores.

　　“Oh, I found these when I captured those animal demons and collected them because they glowed.” Shen Ying continued to explain, “I don’t have lights over here, so I thought I could use them to illuminate my house. But these pearls only lasted about one or two days before they lost their glow.” Hence, she had unknowingly hoarded a heap of them.

　　The Rabbit Monarch: “…” How many demons did you actually kill!

　　But after recalling the situation at the day of the demon congregation, it regained its composure again.

　　“So, are these useful?”

　　“Useful, useful!” The Rabbit Monarch immediately nodded. It was way more than just useful. These many demon cores made even the Rabbit Monarch stir with such excitement that its paws trembled. Demons had never exactly lived in peace with each other; killings amongst each other were commonplace, all just so that they could obtain the other’s internal core. Consuming another’s internal core was extremely beneficial to their cultivation, but most demons would much rather self-implode and not leave their demon cores lying around. Moreover, once a demon was dead, its core would be damaged if it was not retrieved from its body within 15 minutes. Yet, the floor here was full of intact demon cores… so many… so many!

　　Σ(°△°|||)

　　The Rabbit Monarch could not help but feel envious. If only it could have one or two, that would be great. It forced itself to bury such a greedy thought, picked up an eighth-stage demon core and walked over. “Exalted Immortal, this will do the trick,” said the rabbit earnestly, even as it could not help but glance out the corner of its eye at the demon cores on the ground. This temptation… was just a little too great.

　　“How should it be done?” Shen Ying asked.

　　“Take off his clothes and place the core on his chest.”

　　Shen Ying quickly did as she was told. The moment the demon core was placed down, Yi Qing’s body emanated some kind of fog which floated into the pearl. Within 15 minutes, the demonic aura in his body had been entirely cleared out.

　　Yi Qing tried to move and realized that the pain had disappeared. The Spirit Qi in his body had also begun to regulate itself and heal his meridians on its own.

　　“Thank you, Master!” He immediately knelt and bowed.

　　Shen Ying heaved a sigh of relief as she pulled him up. “As long as you are alright.” She had been scared to death as she thought she might have had to continue eating pig feed in the future.

　　“Exalted Immortal, since Benefactor is fine, I shall be taking my leave.”

　　“Oh, thank you for your hard work!”

　　“Thank you, Demon Monarch.”

　　Just as the Rabbit Monarch was about to leave the house, it used all its might to hold back from glancing at the floor. Hold it, hold it, thought the rabbit. These were items belonging to the Exalted Immortal—it might live to see them but might not live to enjoy them.

　　“Rabbit, hold on!” Shen Ying shouted suddenly.

　　The Rabbit Monarch quivered as its heart sank. That can’t be, how could she even tell?

　　Shen Ying unexpectedly bent over, grabbed a bunch of those ‘pearls’ on the ground, and dashed over to shove them to the rabbit. “I see that you really like these pearls, so here you go! Just treat it as a thank you gift for sending me food all these days.”

　　Stupefied, the Rabbit Monarch stared blankly at the dozens of demon cores that came from demons of various levels. The rabbit’s heart felt warm and fuzzy, and it almost broke into tears.

　　“Exalted… Exalted Immortal…”

　　“It’s already late, quickly go back and sleep?” She touched its rabbit fur and said, “Aren’t you going to make more rabbit babies? Get back early and have a good rest.”

　　“Exalted Immortal…” The Rabbit Monarch was filled with gratitude. It rubbed its nose as a lump rose in its throat, and then it blurted out, “Exalted Immortal, do you like little rabbits? Those newborns. Why not I give a few of mine to you after they are born?” With no way of expressing gratitude, the rabbit considered pledging its marriage to her.

　　“There’s no need.” She shook her head and continued, “I like to eat rabbits, not raise and take care of rabbits!”

　　“…”

　　-_-|||

　　That moment of gratitude must have been an illusion! It was an illusion!