Sword Sect Little Demon Child, Three and a Half Years Old and Extremely Fierce

My name is Fupin.

It is three years old this year.

The Demon Lord's daughter.

The Demon Princess.

Today, I was... by my cheapskate dad:

Demon Lord Fu Xiao

I've officially returned it.

Right now, I am sitting on the throne in the Demon Palace, which has three cracks.

Trying to reason with this demon king with the intelligence of a three-year-old:

"Dad, I only ate two bowls of porridge, one Nether Fruit, and half a piece of dried meat yesterday!"

A hint of guilt flashed across Fu Xiao's handsome face, which had once caused all the female cultivators in the cultivation world to lose sleep.

He squatted down.

He gazed at me with those deep, affectionate eyes that were said to hold a love that could last a lifetime.

His tone was as gentle as if he were reciting a love poem:

"Pin'er, it's not that your father doesn't want to raise you."

"But we lost our attack on the cultivation world before, and we almost had to sell our underwear to pay the reparations."

"The Demon Realm is really poor right now. It's so poor that even one of the stone lions guarding the Demon Palace ran away last month."

I turned to look at the doorway.

Sure enough, the outline of the stone lion on the left was a bit blurry, clearly drawn hastily with charcoal.

Fu Xiao pointed to the ceiling again: "Look at this Demon Palace. Last time it rained, I was the one who used the throne to catch the water."

I looked up and saw...

Indeed, this demon palace is ridiculously leaky; two-thirds of the luminous pearls on the dome are missing.

Last month, I saw Fu Xiao secretly take one grain to exchange for food.

Fu Xiao continued to play the victim, pointing to the door: "Look at your brother, he's 108 years old and still has to lead a team to mine every day to supplement the family income."

I looked in the direction he was pointing.

There, my unfortunate brother, Fu Yan, was leaning lazily against the door frame.

He is 105 years older than me, but he still looks like a teenager.

He was wearing a patched black outfit, and his boots were almost worn through.

Those who didn't know better might think the demon realm had switched to performance art, with a theme called:

The style of a fallen aristocrat!

Fu Yan leaned against the doorframe and yawned: "Dad, just say we can't afford to raise our little sister anymore and we want to send her to Mom to beg for money. Why all the preamble?"

Fu Xiao glared at him: "Shut up! What do you mean by begging? This is called... a family visit!"

He turned to me, trying to appear kind, though the effect was roughly equivalent to the Big Bad Wolf smiling at Little Red:

"Pin'er, listen to your father."

"Your mother is now the sect leader of Qingyun Sect, a famous wealthy woman in the cultivation world... no, I mean a powerful woman! She has so many spirit stones that she could fill up the lava river in our Demon Realm."

"Go to her place, and you'll have spirit rice to eat every meal, spirit fruit to nibble on every day, wear brocade robes, and sleep on a warm jade bed..."

I blinked. "Then why don't you go?"

Fu Yan chuckled: "He wouldn't dare, he's afraid his mother will beat him."

"Last time, he sneaked off to wander around the foot of Qingyun Sect Mountain, hoping to 'bump into' his mother, but she chased him down for three streets with the mountain-protecting formation."

Fu Xiao coughed tactically: "Nonsense! Your mother loves me to the point of obsession. Hitting me is a sign of affection, scolding me is a sign of love, and chasing me around and hitting me is just another way of expressing her deep affection! What does a child know?"

He patted my head, trying to change the subject: "Pin'er, this... Father has to guard the Demon Realm. The Demon Realm cannot be without a ruler for a day, just like a toilet cannot be without paper for a day..."

I blinked again: "Then why doesn't brother go?"

Fu Yan: "I'd like to go. But if I go, who's going to build the Demon Realm? Your father can't even understand construction blueprints."

Fu Xiao looked a little embarrassed: "Nonsense! I can write your mother's name!"

Fu Yan rolled his eyes dramatically.

I realized: Oh, so my dad is illiterate.

I jumped off the throne, a somewhat dangerous move, because one of the throne's legs was loose.

After regaining my balance, I patted off imaginary dust from my skirt: "Alright, I'll go find Mom, but I have one condition."

Fu Xiao immediately beamed, "Speak! Don't just name one, name a hundred, I'll take them all!"

Me: "You need to think of me three times a day."

Fu Xiao was stunned, and a hint of tears flashed in his captivating eyes.

He knelt down and hugged me: "Pin'er, Daddy will think of you three hundred times a day!"

Fu Yan poured cold water on the idea, saying, "He just wants to know how many spirit stones you can get from your mother."

Fu Xiao glared at him: "You talk too much!"

Then he pulled out a dark token from his pocket: "This is a pass to the Demon Realm. Remember to keep it safe once you leave the Demon Realm, and don't let anyone know you're a demon, even though you only have half the blood."

I took the pass and looked at it; there was a line of small print on the back:

In case of loss, no replacement will be provided. —Announcement from the Finance Department of the Demon Realm.

Then he pulled out a letter with crooked handwriting that read: To my dear wife.

I suspect this letter was dictated by my father and written by my brother, because I know my father's handwriting looks like an earthworm dancing.

Fu Xiao: "Give this to your mother. Tell her... your father misses her, and also, the Demon Realm's harvest wasn't good this year, so he's asking if they can lend us some spirit stones..."

I took the letter, feeling its weight in my hand: "Dad, I understand, you're telling me to go beg for food from Mom."

"How can this be considered begging!" Fu Xiao said seriously, "This is normal economic assistance between relatives! It's a warm transmission of cross-sectoral kinship!"

I nodded, seemingly understanding, then held out my hand: "Where's my travel money?"

Fu Xiao's expression froze for a moment, then he started rummaging in his pocket and pulled out three dusty gray stones.

"Here you go," he said solemnly, placing the three low-grade spirit stones in my palm. "Buy whatever you want! And if it's not enough..."

He paused, then said earnestly, "Just be careful with your money."

I looked at the spirit stone in my hand, then at my father's serious expression, and suddenly understood what it meant to say:

A father's love is like a mountain—it can be so heavy it makes you feel suffocated.

Fu Yan also came over and squatted down, rubbing my head: "Be careful on the road. If anyone bullies you, run fast! Don't fight back, our family can't afford the medical bills right now."

I see."

And so, on a gloomy night when even the moon wasn't bright enough, I set off on my journey to find my mother, carrying my little bundle.

The demon palace guard was a one-eyed old demon who watched me leave with his only good eye, and even wiped away non-existent tears:

"The little princess has grown up and can even go out and beg for food on her own now. I'm so touched..."

I ignored him.

You caught me stealing my Netherworld Fruit yesterday, and now you're pretending to be all lovey-dovey?

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To reach the border between the Demon Realm and the Immortal Realm, one must traverse the Netherworld Rift, Black Wind Valley, and a tributary of the River of Oblivion.

It is said that cultivators below the Nascent Soul stage would suffer greatly if they entered these places.

But I am different. My father is a demon lord, and my mother is a sect leader in the cultivation world. I have blood from both sides flowing in my veins.

Simply put, I can adapt to both types of terrain.

For example, those biting shadows in the Netherworld Rift.

They sniffed me when they came close, then darted away as if they had caught the scent of some troublesome little monster.

I vaguely heard them whispering:

"Is it her?"

"It seems so, that taste... It's definitely the Demon Lord's bloodline."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go! Last time, some fool bit her brother and was captured by the Demon Lord and made a chamber pot for three months."

"What chamber pot?"

—"Literally, it means..."

I didn't listen anymore and continued on my way with my little bundle on my back.

Sometimes, having a powerful family background can indeed solve most of life's problems.

……

The winds of Blackwind Valley can blow a person's bones apart, but my father taught me a simple way to avoid the wind:

crawl.

Because the wind in Blackwind Valley blows horizontally, if you stand and walk, you will be blown away, but if you lie down and crawl, the area exposed to the wind is smaller, and you can slowly move out.

I did as instructed, crawling on all fours like a little turtle through the storm.

As they were climbing, a cultivator suddenly appeared beside them.

He was driving with a gleaming golden protective shield, which was being blown about by the wind.

When he saw me, his eyes widened: "Young friend, how did you get in?"

I answered honestly, "I crawled in."

The monk glanced at me, then at his own crumbling protective shield, gritted his teeth, removed the shield, and lay down like me: "Take me with you!"

We climbed through Black Wind Valley for three whole hours, one in front of the other.

When he climbed out, the monk was already dressed in rags, and his hair was a mess like a bird's nest.

But he was particularly excited, "Young friend! Your method is really useful! It saved me at least fifty spirit stones worth of protective talismans!"

I blinked: "This method can only be used in an emergency. My dad said that using it long-term is bad for your lumbar spine."

The cultivator: "..."

Before the tributary of the River of Oblivion, we parted ways.

……

Crossing the tributary of the River of Oblivion is very troublesome.

Because you have to take a boat, and you have to pay for the boat ride.

The ferryman was a demon with ram's horns on his head, looking fierce and menacing, but his voice was surprisingly gentle: "Where are you going, kid?"

I tried to stand on tiptoe to make my voice sound more mature: "The world of cultivation."

The ferryman glanced down at me, his ram's horns nearly poking my head: "Alone?"

"Um."

"How will you pay for the fare?"

I handed him a piece of ore my brother had mined: "Is this enough?"

The ferryman took the ore and weighed it in his hand: "Netherworld Iron Ore? And it's the lowest grade... not enough."

I hesitated whether to reveal my dazzling title of Demon Princess.

My dad said not to reveal my identity easily.

But if I don't say I'm a princess from the demon realm, I might not be able to cross the river.

If I can't cross the river, I won't be able to reach the world of cultivation.

If I can't reach the world of cultivation, I won't be able to find my mother.

If I can't find my mother, I'll have to go back to the Demon Realm and continue eating porridge.

The thought of Huhu made me immediately clear my mind: "Actually, I am~!"

"Kid," the ferryman suddenly interrupted me, his eyes softening with pity, "you're also an escapee from the Demon Realm, aren't you?"

I paused for a moment, then nodded.

In a sense, I was indeed fleeing, well, fleeing the hardship of poverty.

The ferryman shook his head: "The Demon Realm is truly in decline now; even such young cubs are running away. I heard that even the Demon Lord has started selling the Demon Palace's luminous pearls?"

I:"……"

The news spread really fast.

He eventually accepted the ore and let me board his dilapidated little wooden boat, which looked like it would fall apart at any moment.

The boat swayed gently forward on the murky river.

When we reached the shore, he warned me, "Kid, once you leave the Demon Realm, don't easily reveal your demonic energy, or you might get captured by those immortal cultivation sects and used to refine pills."

I nodded and took out another piece of ore for him: "Thanks, here's a tip."

The ferryman was taken aback, then chuckled, "Quite particular."

--------

Once ashore and through the barrier, the surrounding scenery instantly changed.