Ex-Wife is a Big Villainess

"But suddenly I want to experience the human love once, starting with this small house. I want to see if you can open a wound in my heart."

Jiang Shouzhong sat opposite the woman, suddenly stunned, his mind momentarily unable to process.

What kind of wrong medicine did this guy take?

Leaving the path of ascension to experience human love?

Jiang Shouzhong suddenly seemed to suspect something, his brows furrowing tightly, he tentatively asked, "Is there trouble on your path to ascension?"

Li Guanshi tapped the rim of the tea cup lightly with her fingertip, producing a crisp sound, as though questioning her own heart.

She said softly, "I seem to gradually understand Jiang Wan's choice back then. If one has never truly dabbled in love, how can they sever emotions? And without severing emotional ties, how can one achieve heartlessness…"

In an instant, the wind through the bamboo forest seemed to freeze.

The frozen breath quietly seeped to the edge of the cup.

A tea droplet, suspended mid-sway just three inches from her skirt, then with a "pop" shattered into vivid broken light.

In that instant, the whole house transformed anew.

The windmill began to slowly turn, emitting a "creak creak" sound, and the rattle next to it also chimed "ding dong".

Behind Li Guanshi, the vague image of a pure and charming little girl appeared.

The little girl beamed, her eyes bent into crescents, and was smiling sweetly at Li Guanshi.

But this beautiful scene only lasted for a moment before gradually dissipating into the air.

As Jiang Shouzhong was dumbfounded, the woman's delicate hands gently caressed his cheek, the fresh scent of bamboo mixed with a fragrance that was somewhat but not quite sandalwood wafted over.

"Jiang Shouzhong, I want to fall in love with you, and I ask you… to try to make me love you."

This woman, always lofty, cool, and aloof, the number one female cultivator in the world, at this moment, for the first time, slowly opened her long-closed heart to the man before her.

Jiang Shouzhong looked at Li Guanshi, his heart a mix of feelings.

He actually knew very well that behind the seemingly absurd behavior of the world-renowned first female cultivator, there was still a hidden obsession with the path of ascension.

She cuts emotion to ascend.

Entering emotion is also to ascend.

Her obsession and struggle with the path of ascension would never disappear and would never be given up for any man.

This clear understanding made Jiang Shouzhong involuntarily feel resistance in his heart.

After all, he had always been nothing more than a tool for her to achieve ascension.

Jiang Shouzhong really wanted to refuse, but looking at this flawlessly beautiful face, feeling the naturally emanating, high yet subduing proud temperament, he couldn't bear to.

A beautiful woman is a vase.

And a woman with both outer beauty and inner transcendence is an artwork.

Like Li Guanshi, possessing not only captivating beauty but also extraordinary inner qualities, she is simply a rare masterpiece.

Who could bear to reject her and not want to cherish her?

"What do you want to do?"

Jiang Shouzhong slightly opened his mouth, his voice unconsciously somewhat dry.

He wanted to try and see if he could embrace this world's most beautiful artwork.

Li Guanshi pondered for a moment, her gaze falling on the windmill spinning in the corner of the house, she slowly said, "I've heard that between mortals, love begins with companionship and flows through the everyday. Let us… live like ordinary people."

Mortals?

Before Jiang Shouzhong could understand, Li Guanshi lightly flicked her fingers.

Jiang Shouzhong only felt as if all the strength in his body was suddenly extracted, the once vibrant dantian full of inner strength, like encountering a drought, quickly withered.

Only a trace of faint inner strength remained.

Not only that, the Power of Dragon Pattern lurking within him was also bound by an invisible shackle.

Even the Yin Yang River Map ceased to operate, falling into dead silence.

"What have you done to me!?"

Perceiving his own strength nearly gone, Jiang Shouzhong's eyes widened in anger.

But upon raising his head, he was stunned.

At this moment, Li Guanshi looked as pale as paper, her whole person exuding a wilting aura, completely different from the spirited, proud, worldly self she usually was.

So frail, as if blown away by a gust of wind.

"You've abolished both our strengths?"

Jiang Shouzhong was startled, suddenly bowing his head to look at the tea in his hand, "This tea…"

"Rest assured."

Li Guanshi lay weakly on the table, slightly panting, "In forty-nine days, our cultivation will be restored. Provided, I have fallen in love with you. By then…"

The woman's mouth spilled a terrifying hint of blood, her smile desolate, "If I still haven't fallen for you, this world… would no longer have Li Guanshi."

The woman closed her beautiful eyes and fainted.

Madwoman!

This woman is simply a madwoman!

Jiang Shouzhong was both angry and annoyed, yet found it somewhat laughable.

Why make it so complicated?

Just engage in a few more rounds of forty-nine days of Dual Cultivation, and even if there's no emotion, it can bring forth some feelings.

After all, a famous person once said, the shortest path to a woman's heart is xx.

He carefully picked up Li Guanshi and placed her on the bamboo bed.

Staring at the strands of hair disheveled at the woman's temples and the pearl hanging from the silver hairpin, Jiang Shouzhong was a bit dazed.

During those days of Dual Cultivation, this pearl also swayed the whole night.

Back then, Li Guanshi resembled a Jade Guanyin, clearly in a romantic setting, yet so pure that no one dared to profane her.

"What is Ascension truly for?"

Jiang Shouzhong gently stroked the woman's hair, sighing softly.

Seeing that it was getting late, he just settled down beside the woman to sleep.

...

Jiang Shouzhong had a dream.

In the dream, he found himself surrounded by a raging fire.

He desperately wanted to escape the sea of fire, but no matter how he struggled, it was as if he was trapped in an invisible cage, unable to find a way out.

He was holding a woman in his arms.

The woman's breath was very weak, seemingly about to die at any moment.

Thick black smoke lingered around, enveloping the woman's face so tightly that he couldn't see clearly.

"In the next life... just forget about me."

The cool fingertips of the person in his arms brushed past his neck, her voice as light as smoke about to dissipate.

Jiang Shouzhong was full of anxiety, wanting to shout, but as soon as he opened his mouth, the thick, acrid smoke rushed in, causing him to cough violently, as if he were going to cough up his innards.

...

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Jiang Shouzhong was choked awake from his dream.

Opening his eyes, he saw the room filled with acrid smoke.

Outside the window, the sound of crackling noise kept coming, and thick smoke was crazily pouring into the room from outside.

Who's setting the house on fire?

Jiang Shouzhong was startled, hurriedly rushing into the thick smoke with bare feet.

Upon a closer look, he saw Li Guanshi holding a fire poker in a daze, sitting blankly in front of the stove.

Half a basket of bamboo sticks was scattered all over the ground beside her.

The woman's current appearance was in utter disarray, her always immaculate light purple long dress now mottled with soot marks, as if she had just crawled out of a chimney.

Even her slender fingertips were stained with dark ash.

"Sis, are you trying to burn the house down?"

Jiang Shouzhong waved away the choking smoke.

The woman came to her senses, instinctively stuffing half a basket of bamboo into the stove.

The flames "whooshed" upward, scorching a strand of hair by her temple.

"Give it to me."

Jiang Shouzhong snatched the fire tongs.

However, his bending motion was too hasty, and since Li Guanshi raised her head abruptly, their foreheads collided hard.

"Hiss——"

Both drew a sharp breath simultaneously.

Damn, forgot I don't have any Inner Strength now.

Jiang Shouzhong grimaced, rubbing his reddening forehead, noticing the faint red mark emerging on the other's snow-white forehead, he suddenly found the scene absurdly funny.

The former world's number one female cultivator who could move mountains and fill seas with a flick of a finger, now in such a pitiful state with him like common married couples.

Seeing the woman move aside, Jiang Shouzhong sat down on the low stool, poked at the firepile, complaining, "It's early morning, what are you starting a fire for?"

"I'm hungry, thought I'd make some rice porridge."

The woman unconsciously rubbed the charred bamboo stick with her fingers, her sleeves stained with unburned leaves.

"You can't even make a fire, and you want to cook?"

Jiang Shouzhong looked at the haphazardly piled firewood in the stove, feeling utterly speechless.

Yet considering her identity as a Fairy and Goddess, it was normal for her not to touch mundane matters.

Li Guanshi lightly rubbed her head, which had turned red from the bump, and chuckled lightly:

"Used to see Master making a fire, always thought it was easy, didn't expect it to be so hard. But I can learn, can't you teach me?"