NOVEL NEXT Ch. 10
Chapter 10: Weak, but Highly Malleable Immortal Fairy
Xia Lianxue should not have been tainted by the Desire Demon.
At first, it had only been a thought—a thought with a trace of jealousy toward Qiu Yuehan.
Such a thought should have been erased by herself after the grand competition.
As the True Disciple of Jade Palace, her cultivation method was not weak; she should not have been so easily tainted by the Desire Demon.
But someone had planted the demon seed in her.
That night, after the grand competition ended, while her mind was filled with complicated thoughts, someone took advantage of the opening to plant a demonic seed within Xia Lianxue.
All it needed was for Xia Lianxue’s mind to once again be shaken, supplemented with the sound of the flute, and she would fall directly into the taint of the Desire Demon.
“Such overused tricks. I didn’t expect someone to dig them up again.”
The method of planting demon seeds had once been in vogue—it was the best choice to take revenge on enemies and to frame fellow cultivators.
When Lu Changyuan had still been Daoist Chang’an, he had already ordered this method to be banned, and all manuals had been destroyed.
He had not expected that in the mere five hundred years of his disappearance, the demon seed method would resurface again.
“Mm!!!”
Lu Changyuan’s hand pierced directly into Xia Lianxue’s stomach, yet it caused no fleshly injury.
Instead, it was as if it entered into an unknown space.
Even so, the immortal fairy’s face no longer retained its soft serenity; instead, her brows furrowed tightly in pain.
“Endure a little, I’ll pull the demon out for you.”
In this world, those who could extract demon seeds were so few they could be counted on one hand.
By chance, Lu Changyuan was one of them.
The Supreme Pure-Spirit Forget-Immortal Technique had been created by Lu Changyuan precisely to avoid being tainted by the Desire Demon.
Using his hand as a conduit, endless black qi was forcibly sucked out from Xia Lianxue’s body into Lu Changyuan’s own. Yet it could not harm him in the slightest.
The Desire Demon could not erode him.
“Mm!”
Lu Changyuan withdrew his hand and pulled out from Xia Lianxue’s abdomen a seed filled with black qi.
Shriek!!!
The seed actually screamed?
Unfazed, Lu Changyuan exerted force and crushed it.
The black qi dispersed into the world.
“Cough! Cough!!”
Xia Lianxue collapsed onto the ground, clutching her throat as she coughed violently, suppressing the nausea.
From the corners of her lips spilled something that could not be distinguished as blood or tears.
Her plain white dress was already stained with scarlet blood and filthy mud, her pitiful and disheveled state enough to stir the desire to pity her.
Before she could recover, she heard a leisurely voice: “Want revenge? For instance, going back to kill that so-called True Person Han Yi?”
Xia Lianxue instinctively lifted her head, but her tears blurred her vision, preventing her from seeing Lu Changyuan clearly.
“The Blood Demon Palace wasn’t summoned by you. You never colluded with them, did you?”
The immortal fairy rasped softly: “Yes.”
“You truly felt jealous of Qiu Yuehan, but at first, it was never to the extent of wanting to kill her, was it?”
After being seeded with a demon, Xia Lianxue’s inner thoughts would be infinitely magnified, always driven toward the evil side of human nature.
Lu Changyuan chuckled lightly: “True Person Han Yi carries a flute at her waist. Tell me, do you think your fall into demonic taint had anything to do with her?”
Xia Lianxue curled into a ball in silence.
She did not dare to think further.
“True Person Han Yi is close to the Sixth Realm, and she was hidden in the dark. How could she possibly have let a Fifth Realm Elder Zhen escape?”
“Stop talking!”
Xia Lianxue had already calmed down.
The pain coursing through her body, the churning sickness in her stomach, and the disorienting despair of losing all her cultivation thoroughly shattered her will.
The immortal fairy’s tearful eyes shimmered, her white clothes stained with blood.
But Lu Changyuan paid no mind to Xia Lianxue’s frailty: “Who exactly summoned the Blood Demon Palace? Why do they relentlessly hunt Qiu Yuehan? And why did Elder Zhen just happen to wait until you met with Qiu Yuehan before launching his attack?”
“Stop talking, stop talking!”
“And why did True Person Han Yi just happen to arrive so quickly!”
Lu Changyuan squatted down with a smile, reached out, and pinched Xia Lianxue’s chin, forcefully tilting her face up, looking down at her from above: “I’ll give you three breaths. I only ask—do you want to kill your way back?”
Lu Changyuan’s tone was stern: “Stop crying. Crying counts as time wasted!”
In her daze, the three breaths slipped by in an instant.
Xia Lianxue was still lost in confusion.
So Lu Changyuan pressed down on her head, forcing her to nod, and then said: “Then that’s agreement. I’ll help you.”
“I’ve already lost all my cultivation.”
The light in Xia Lianxue’s eyes had gone dim.
She looked even more defenseless than the gravely injured Qiu Yuehan had been, allowing Lu Changyuan to toy with her soft chin without resistance.
Lu Changyuan raised his brow lightly: “You are indeed more cowardly than your senior sister. Qiu Yuehan is remarkably strong. Even at the brink of life and death, she could still joke with me. Very boring.”
Those words pierced Xia Lianxue.
She bit her lip, desperately trying to suppress her sobbing voice, but Lu Changyuan still heard it: “Senior sister is stronger than me in the first place.”
Lu Changyuan smiled gently, showing his white teeth: “I wasn’t criticizing you. What I meant is—you are more malleable. I’ll help you. Losing your cultivation is nothing. As long as you obediently listen to me, when I bring you back to Jade Palace, you will be able to defeat Qiu Yuehan. Remember, only if you obediently listen to me.”
“Listen… to you?”
“Yes. Whatever I say, you do. In this way, within half a month at most, I’ll take you back to Jade Palace for slaughter. How about it?”
The words on her eyes were wiped away by Lu Changyuan.
【Seven days remain until the emergence of the Heaven-Mending Pill】
There was even a Heaven-Mending Pill next door, waiting to be picked up.
Qiu Yuehan struggled to open her eyes.
The sound of the wind howled past her ears, carrying with it the cold of the rain.
Only then did she realize she was on the back of an enormous celestial crane, with True Person Han Yi at the front guiding it.
“True Person… Han Yi?”
True Person Han Yi did not turn her head, her voice chilling: “Rest well. In two more days, you will return to the palace.”
“What about junior sister? That… Lu Changyuan?”
“All dead.”
“All dead!?” Qiu Yuehan exclaimed in disbelief: “How is that possible!?”
From the depths of her heart, she did not believe True Person Han Yi’s words.
True Person Han Yi said coldly: “Just assume they are all dead. Your junior sister grew jealous of you, fell into Desire Demon taint, and colluded with the Blood Demon Palace to kill you. I have already expelled her from the palace and abolished all her cultivation.”
Qiu Yuehan’s voice rose to a pitch that even she herself could not believe: “Junior sister has always been indifferent to worldly disputes!”
True Person Han Yi turned her head: “The more indifferent one appears, the filthier their inner thoughts. Must I teach you this truth again!?”
“Impossible!”
“Heh. Someone brought up by True Person Hanshui—how could they possibly turn out decent? I’ve already prepared a recording to hand over to the palace. You can see it for yourself then!”
Qiu Yuehan froze in place, carefully scrutinizing True Person Han Yi, as if seeing this elder for the very first time.
“True Person… why did you arrive so quickly?”
True Person Han Yi did not answer Qiu Yuehan’s question, instead continuing coldly: “Before her death, True Person Hanshui’s words put you at the center of the storm. Did she hope to preserve her lineage? Others may have fallen for it, but not I. I had long known Xia Lianxue harbored sinister intentions.”
The two True Persons, Han Yi and Hanshui, had long been at odds.
There had been many rumors within the palace, but Qiu Yuehan had not expected things to escalate to such a degree.
Qiu Yuehan took a deep breath, suppressing the storm of emotions in her heart: “Then, what about that young man who saved my life twice?”
That question seemed to provoke True Person Han Yi.
She shed her lofty demeanor and instead roared: “Qiu Yuehan!? Are you questioning me?”
“Yuehan dares not, only…”
“Then shut your mouth! When we return to the palace, judgment will be made! As for the matter of Daoist Chang’an’s relic pills, you need not concern yourself—others will handle it.”
Qiu Yuehan said nothing further.
The wind on the crane’s back cut to the bone with its chill.
She did not believe True Person Han Yi. But she was clever enough to know what should be said, and what must not be said.
Suddenly, Lu Changyuan’s voice rang in her ears.
“Help me find the Drunken Red Luan. It should be within your palace. In a few days, I’ll come to your palace to retrieve it.”
The demon mark was still there.
Lu Changyuan was still the thief holding her life in his hands. Yet compared to the True Person Han Yi before her, this thief actually felt warmer.
From the demon mark, a warm current slowly flowed into Qiu Yuehan’s heart, thawing her near-frozen body.
A strange comprehension spread forth, finally forming into several large words:
*Supreme Pure-Spirit Forget-Immortal Technique*
Lu Changyuan’s mocking voice followed: “My cultivation method—practice it well. It’s far stronger than what your Jade Palace teaches. Next time we meet, I’ll test your progress.”
Qiu Yuehan could not help but think—
Her junior sister was most likely coerced by that man, while she herself had been planted with the demon mark.
This Jade Palace, in the future, would likely fall into the palm of that young man.
The Jade Palace’s twin lotuses—both destroyed by the same person.