Dong Yun’er was thus forced to accept her punishment at the doorway, attracting sidelong glances from passing disciples.
“Hey, what’s Senior Sister Dong doing? Did some bad people catch her out and force her into this?”
“It’s nothing like that. This is just a new cultivation method. I’m running an experiment.”
Dong Yun’er lied with a straight face, showing not a hint of embarrassment or guilt. Thanks to the trust she’d built up over time, the inquiring disciples actually believed her explanation without suspicion. Some even thought this method could speed up cultivation and started to imitate her. When others saw them, they competed to follow suit, and for a while it became a trend—though that was a story for another time.
At this moment, Dong Yun’er was conversing with someone she didn’t like.
“Senior Sister Yun’er, I heard your young miss has woken up. I came to check on her. Is she inside now?”
Ye Jinxi looked at Dong Yun’er with a slightly odd expression, doing her best to sound normal as she asked.
Dong Yun’er wanted to say she wasn’t there, but she couldn’t go against her principles. She could only nod and admit, “That’s right. But I advise you not to go in. The young miss is in a bad mood right now.”
“It’s fine, her mood will improve.”
Ye Jinxi walked straight to the door, knocked, received permission, and entered.
“What do you want?”
Lin Huanhuan glanced at Ye Jinxi with a wary look. She didn’t know what was going on—ever since she helped Ye Jinxi in White Tiger Hall, this person’s favorability toward her seemed to have skyrocketed, to the point where she was now being teased in return. The roles were completely reversed!
‘If this were a dating game, I’d be flamed as a brainless pushover. But maybe Ye Jinxi has some other agenda that I haven’t figured out yet. In any case, it’s best not to give her a pleasant face.’
Thinking this, Lin Huanhuan’s expression grew even fiercer.
Ye Jinxi pretended not to notice. “I just came to check on you, don’t be so fierce. You really do look very different from before.”
‘Let’s see if I can scare Lin Huanhuan a bit. Based on my theory, if she hears this, she’ll panic and try to explain herself. That panicked face must be great to see.’
Seeming to picture such a scene, Ye Jinxi’s lips curled into a mischievous smile. Lin Huanhuan raised an eyebrow and said,
“So what if I look different from before? I’m not some puppet made by design; isn’t it normal for me to grow? Only wooden blocks stay the same forever, right?”
“But the change seems a bit too big.” Ye Jinxi was still probing.
Lin Huanhuan gave nothing away. “It’s good to change a lot. After all, I did it on purpose. If there’s nothing else, you can hurry up and get lost. I still have things to do.”
“You’re not even going to offer me some tea?”
“No tea for you. Get out, quick!”
Hearing this, Ye Jinxi had no choice but to leave for now. Lin Huanhuan let out a pleased “hmph.” “I win again.”
“Now then, it’s about time I look into this Heart Demon of mine. Before, I thought the Heart Demon existed to shackle me, but based on the hints I got later, it doesn’t seem that way.”
“Well, let’s begin.”
Lin Huanhuan lay flat on the bed and called out loudly in her heart, “Heart Demon, come out and answer my questions!”
A crow flew over her head, leaving behind a string of ellipses.
“Why isn’t it working?”
Lin Huanhuan looked puzzled and tried to recall the scenes when her Heart Demon had appeared before. “Hmm, it seems like the Heart Demon always shows up when I’m mentally exhausted or when my emotions are in turmoil.”
“It’s probably because at those times, the Heart Demon can stir up my feelings, pushing me to make decisions I’d never normally make. Of course, if I’m prepared, I won’t fall for it at all.”
“So, how do I get my emotions riled up?”
Lin Huanhuan thought for a while and finally came up with an idea—think of some unpleasant things, things that make her uncomfortable, and her emotions would naturally fluctuate.
So she started recalling how she had somehow transmigrated into this world and become who she was now…
“Hmm, seems like life now is better than my previous one, nothing really worth feeling sad about. No, that’s not the right attitude. For all I know, the male lead might just kick me to death one day and I’ll end up like a stray dog, corpse on the roadside!”
“Damn it, why? Why do I have to be the villain? Damned Heavenly Dao! When my cultivation reaches the heavens, you’ll pay the price!”
The more Lin Huanhuan thought, the angrier she became. Unknowingly, a flush of blood-red spread across her eyes, and the Heart Demon’s whisper sounded in her mind again:
‘Yeah, why listen to that damn Heavenly Dao? Just do the opposite of what it wants. As long as you achieve Nascent Soul and beyond, you can grab that Heavenly Dao and kick it around like a ball, play with it however you like!’
Hearing that voice rising from her heart, Lin Huanhuan let out a sigh of relief—it worked.
But a strange light flashed in her eyes, recalling that the Heart Demon had just given her both good news and bad news.
The good news was, the Heart Demon really did show her a way to win; the Heart Demon really was her cheat.
The bad news was, the Heart Demon was talking nonsense just now—saying that all she needed was to reach Nascent Soul, but not giving a single concrete method on how to do it.
“But at least the method works. Now I can finally get things moving.”
After having the Heart Demon whisper a few more times, Lin Huanhuan had to stop. She found that the more she dwelled on her anger, the less angry she felt—just like getting desensitized to a reward, no matter how good the material, if you look at it too much, it stops affecting you.
With no other choice, Lin Huanhuan ordered Dong Yun’er, who had just finished her punishment, to collect a pile of storybooks, telling her to gather those especially stomach-churning ones.
And so, Lin Huanhuan kept at it until morning, spending the whole night researching her Heart Demon, finally figuring out what help it could offer.
First, the help the Heart Demon could give actually still came from herself, or more precisely, from her understanding. The Heart Demon could push her to do bad things, but at the same time help her make the most reasonable judgments—the choices that benefited her the most.
Second, the Heart Demon had its limits. Within twelve hours, the Heart Demon could tempt her at most ten times. In other words, she could only use the cheat ten times a day. Kinda lame, but barely acceptable.
Also, the Heart Demon’s whispering and temptation didn’t only affect her judgment—whenever her emotions surged, the Heart Demon would butt in, no matter what was going on.
Lin Huanhuan quickly connected this to the battles she’d experienced, and her cultivation. Though she still had to rely on herself, her growth had been greatly boosted.
Those were the basics of how the Heart Demon worked. Now that she understood, Lin Huanhuan’s thoughts shifted to something else—the incident where the cultists had crazily attacked her before.